Case Study for Usa Motors

Master of Science In Organizational Leadership Program 1- Will the incentive plan to reduce absenteeism succeed? In my opinion, the incentive plan to reduce absenteeism will probably succeed because it brings some new implementations. For example, if a chronically absent employee exceeds the standard, then vacation, holiday and sickness/accident pay will be cut by ten percent through the next six months.

Additionally, In case worker absence continues to exceed the allowable limits, then vocation, holiday and sickness ay will be cut during the next six months by the actual percentage of six days incurred by the chronic absentee.

So, when an employee will miss fifteen percent of scheduled workdays through the first six months period, vacation pay for the following six month period will be decreased by ten percent. Moreover, if the employee will continue to be absent at the fifteen percent rate, then vacation pay will be reduced by fifteen percent during the next six months (Jackson, S. E. & Schuler, R, S. , 2005).

From my point of view, these are all important incentives and have the opacity to affect the behavior of employees seriously. However, it’s also stated in the case study that the agreement was negotiated ten years ago between the national union and USA Motors. According to my thoughts, this can cause a great deal of resistance from the employees because they will need some time to get used to the new program. It’s a well-known fact that, In any large organization, change takes time. (Bridgewater Today_, 2002).

Moreover, Jack Parks Is trying to make Incentives a small piece of the great gear which we call as the organizational culture.

However, organizational culture changes very slowly. (Schaefer, A. C. , 2001).

As a result, I believe that the incentive plan will be successful to reduce absenteeism, but some problems may occur in the beginning and initial phases. 2- How much absenteeism is really under the employee’s control? Firstly, having frequent or excessive absences Is called Is called absenteeism. (egg Tourism HER Society, 2006). It’s my personal thought that, to an extent, absenteeism is definitely under the employee’s control. My outside researches also support my ideas ND point out that a good proportion of absenteeism from work is potentially avoidable. Wendy, P.

M. , 2005). On the other hand, there are some other factors which are definitely out of employee’s control such as Illnesses, injuries and accidents. Plus, absenteeism Is not always the fault of employees, It can also be business related. For instance, when an employee will be dissatisfied from his/her workplace, missing shifts will be observed as well as arriving late on a regular basis.

Additionally, if employees will be less motivated or if they will have a high workload, again absenteeism will be experienced.

By the way, the organization can even sometimes be responsible from the illnesses, injuries and accidents of the employees which I had mentioned to be out of an employee’s control. For example, a company can arrest tense Issues Day ensuring a inanely work environment. Besides tense, let’s say an employee was not selected accurately and does not fit to his/her position; again this will be out of employee’s control. After that, inequity in the Job place and not treating all employees fairly will again create absenteeism since it will result in coordination.

Next, underpayment and low wages can also be the reason of absenteeism. This problem will be out of employee’s control too. Following that, communication problems, not addressing the problems in a timely manner, conducting n performance evaluations and not assigning adequate resources for the tasks may also cause absenteeism. In other words, what I am trying to say is that, the management and leadership styles can also seriously affect absenteeism. We can never say that all the absenteeism is under the employee’s control. 3- Why didn’t the “paid absence” plan work?

Before answering this question, let’s define paid absence in the beginning.

Originally, the paid absence is meant to insure that employees’ pay will continue when they are ill. (Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission, 2001). Now, in regards to our question, the “paid absence” plan did not work because of several reasons. At first, it did not run the way it had to because workers discovered that by not charging off any “paid absences”, they could receive a full weeks pay in June when the company paid off the balance of unused paid absences for the previous ear Jackson, S. E. & Schuler, R, S.

2005). Moreover, the thoughts of the employees were really accurate and this cash bonus did usually coincide with the summer holidays taken by several of the eight thousand hourly workers when USA Motors did shut down for inventory. In addition to this, the benefits and services manager of USA Motors, Jack Parks had learned another thing. Employees having chronic absentee records had found out how to charge off absences using the regular categories such as sick days, excused and unexcused absences. Related with this, the employees ere collecting the money for the week of paid absences.

Overall, as you can easily understand by analyzing the mentioned information, USA Motors did not have an incentive system in place to discourage absenteeism.

In my opinion, the company had to discover this weakness much earlier. Unfortunately, the organization did never focus on this issue and was unaware of its negative effect on the division’s staffing costs. Finally, chronic absentees were never examined and paid absence was never limited or standardized. 4- What plan would you suggest to USA Motors? I think Jack Parks new plan is a good one, but I definitely have some suggestions in mind.

For example, USA Motors can also do a market research to gain a better idea about how things are done in the industry. I mean, they can look at other organizations and try to identify their implementations regarding absenteeism.

What Incentive plans are ten competitive companies using Tort example, to reduce absenteeism? Also, perhaps USA Motors can also gather some ideas from companies providing external consultancy. After that, the company can even conduct interviews ND surveys to provide better incentives. I believe that USA Motors can even take advantage of contest incentive programs.

According to my outside research, contests can be designed to help reach the company’s objectives (Sales Creators Inc. , 2006).

Because the contest incentive program can even have benefits such as involving and departments and teams for solving common problems like absenteeism. Following that, USA Motors can also give awards to its employees for addressing absenteeism. This can also be an important part of the incentive plan. For example, giving plaques ND certificates of appreciation to the most attending employees can be a strong motivation tool.