Human Resources Management: Two Scenarios

The following case scenarios concern a medium sized organisation, the Big Kitchen Company Ltd., which employs 240 workers. The company manufactures and sells kitchen units and operates from a main site in Camborough and a number of small showrooms throughout the country. The Sales department is split into two divisions – one is ‘Retail’ sales where individual customers can purchase kitchen units direct from the company via the showrooms and the website; the other division is ‘Commercial’ sales where builders and other organisations purchase the units mostly in bulk. You were appointed as HR Manager three months ago when you replaced the previous ‘office manager’ who recently retired. 

When you arrived in your new job you discovered that there were few up to date policies and procedures for the management of human resources, and many decisions have been made by line managers with no clear guidance from the previous office manager who had concentrated on the line management of the small team of general staff. There is a formal disciplinary procedure and a formal grievance procedure in place, both of which appear to have been copied from an out-dated Government website without modification. There appears to have been no formal training on handling the difficult issues for line management.

You need to give your advice on what needs to be done in the following two scenarios.

The sales director, David Kale, has informed you of a problem with two members of staff at the Ringwood showroom, which is a small retail sales operation with six members of staff. Diana Bross has worked at the Ringwood showroom for several years as a sales representative and John Rogan has worked in a similar position at the same site for eight months. Diana has an unblemished record and good appraisal reports, but John has yet to have his first-year appraisal report. They share an office behind the display area at the showroom. A week ago, David heard from his deputy that a two-month old, very expensive, laptop used by John and Diana to design kitchen layouts had ‘gone missing.’ David telephoned the Ringwood manager who said he had asked the other three members of staff if they knew anything about the disappearance of the laptop and they said they did not. The manager told him that the laptop was normally left overnight in the office which Diana and John had shared and neither could explain where it had gone.

Findings

David asked both Diana and John to come into his office on Tuesday morning to try to establish what had happened to the laptop. When confronted by David they insisted that it was on the desk in their office when they left on Saturday and that it had been missing when they returned on Monday. John had locked the door when they left together at 5.30pm on Saturday and they had unlocked the door when they arrived together at 9.00am on Monday morning. Only John and Diana currently have keys to the internal door to their office although John’s predecessor had an additional key before he was dismissed nine months earlier.

When David held the meeting with the two on Tuesday morning, he was very annoyed as he found it hard to justify buying new computing equipment at management meetings, which he knew he would have to do if the laptop was not found. David insisted that one of them must know “where it was” and “must have stolen it.” As neither of them would admit to it he decided to dismiss them both immediately for suspected theft. Both insisted on their innocence and Diana said she “would not take this lying down.” Despite this he asked them to return to Ringwood, collect their belongings and leave immediately.

David has come to you because he has received a letter from the local law centre saying that Diana would like a meeting with someone from the company, accompanied by the legal advisor from the centre. He wonders if you would give him some advice.

The Manager in the Commercial sales office at the main Camborough site, Paul Kerry, has called to tell you about a problem. He has four members of staff who help builders draw up plans for kitchens and work out what materials they may need before ordering. Most of these builders then use Big Kitchen to obtain the materials and it has proved a profitable exercise for the company. One of these members of staff is Pete Hobson, who has worked for Big Kitchen since May 2012. Pete’s job is to visit sites with customers (the builders) and draw up plans and quantify the materials they may need for their work and supply estimates of the costs.

In April this year Pete was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome, but prior to this he was diagnosed with a recurring psychiatric condition (currently in remission) but which particularly affected him during early 2013 when he was absent for 2 months. His chronic fatigue syndrome is making him extremely tired and so he enquired at a meeting with Paul last month if someone else could do part of his job by visiting the buildings and sites with customers, although he felt he could still do part of the job and draw up the plans and work out the estimates for the customers. Pete felt this would ease the extreme tiredness that he suffered from. Paul told you that he immediately refused this request because he thought Big Kitchen may not have the resources to do this.

Last week Paul asked Pete to come into his office and told him that because he was absent for two months from work earlier in the year, he could not be allowed any holiday entitlement beyond the statutory 4 weeks permitted. The draftsmen are normally allowed 7 extra days holiday a year, although this is not stated in their contract of employment.

Paul says that because Pete is very slow at carrying out his work, he continually has to give him “ticking-offs” and “talking-tos” and lately Pete has made some errors on a new customer’s plans. Pete told him he had heard there is an opening in the accounts department upstairs and he said he really wants to apply for the job because he feels this would not be as tiring. Pete asked Paul if he could be considered for the position. Paul says he laughed at this suggestion and told Pete he would not even recommend that he be given an interview because his performance levels were so pathetic.

Paul feels that Big Kitchen should commence disciplinary actions against Pete because he is so slow.

The company would like your advice on the matter.

Each case scenario question carries marks as indicated.

You are advised to divide the word limit equally between the two scenario questions.

You must use appropriate case law in order to support your answers.

The advice should be in report format, with clear headings, paragraphs, sub-sections and numbering where appropriate. The reports should as a minimum have at least the following sections: 

Introduction: A very brief outline of the key issues, background/situation in scenario etc. You do not need to repeat the facts of the scenario

Findings: An analysis/explanation of the legal position should be included, using legislation and case law to define the issues involved on both sides.

Conclusions: What the legal position is believed to be.

Recommendations: What the company needs to do, in both the short and long term.

1. Please make sure all cases are given a citation, preferably in the text or, as a minimum, in the list of references /bibliography. For example, 'Ali v Baba (2015) 1 WLR 239'. The list of references should include a list of the legal cases and legislation mentioned in the answer. The legal cases and legislation are theprimary sources of information in a law essay – you do not have to cite the secondary source where they viewed a case. You should only give the legal citation, not the website or book where they accessed details of the case. For example, this is the correct reference for this case - London Borough of Tower Hamlets v Mr J Wooster [2009] All ER (D) 160 - not London Borough of Tower Hamlets v Mr J Wooster, Turner, C (2013) Unlocking Employment Law, 383.
2. Please make sure all direct and indirect quotations from textbooks, journals or electronic resources are properly referenced (using an 'in text citation' or footnote reference in the main body of your answer) and any resources used must be listed in the bibliography.
3. Do not use abbreviations such as 'eq', 'ie' or simplify words such as 'because' to 'cos' or 'for' to '4'. It is important to observe and use good academic English in answering assignment questions, be it an essay or a problem question.
4. Please use proper paragraphs and paraphrasing. A paragraph should not consist of one sentence. There are excellent Guides to writing essays at http://anglia.libguides.com/writing/structure 
5. As a recommendation, use either 'Times New Roman' or 'Arial' with a minimum font size of 10, and maximum of 12, with 1.5 spacing.
6. The answer must not be purely descriptive and efforts must be taken to relate the answer to the question throughout the discussion. However, if you make an assertion you mustsupport it with an academic reference or legal authority.
7. Do not use bullet points (it is a law essay).