Marginal productivity
Another very scary problem is a stalemate within our hotel. If there is a strike, then more damage than good will come out of it. Although statistics from some corners show that the marginal productivity effect of a strike is small, we cannot risk this in this time (Dickerson, Geroski, Knight, 1997). We need to be able to sponge up any business we can find in order to stay afloat. This kind productivity loss in this time is something we can do without. A fired up strike will put us in bad light with both the customers and stakeholders.
The bad publicity will damage our image as good and sensible employers and thus discourage highly qualified personnel from joining our ranks. This is harmful to our human resource management as we will lose out on gaining the best due to a bad past record. This will make us lose out on the competitive edge we could have raised in the future because of our decisions in the present. The other potential loss is loss of clientele. The consumer of today is highly conscious of the ethical questions of business and would prefer choosing an ethically approved business as opposed to one that has issues.
The loss would be transferred to our shareholders who would lose out due to the decreased value of the business. This is not healthy especially now when we need more investors to help us through this financially difficult time. The next problem is on a prediction level. The association with future employees will not be good. The economic situation, being temporary, will eventually disintegrate and afterwards business will pick up. The management will eventually have to add more staff to replace the ones dropped earlier.
With a background of the other employees in mind, the ones still in staff will direct their resentment toward the management to the new employees. The new employees will be viewed in bad light as having taken over the jobs that were originally for their dismissed work mates. There is also the training aspect. Every job takes time to get used to and handle. This takes both time and training, mostly of which is gained on the job. The trainers are the employees themselves. Having come from a season of lay offs and general despair, they will not view the training well.
They will consider it a bother and waste of time and in the end be rash and finicky about it. The feeling of resentment among employees is not good as it will cause conflict and the unity of the organization will have been compromised. This is not very healthy for a smooth work place environment. A bad working environment kills morale fast and can even interfere with the customer service delivery process (Aquinas, 2006, 544). This is how I think the strategy should be, from an ethical point of view. Do not lay off the workers, this will not help improve business.
The option is to retain them and weather the financial crisis storm with them. Strategically take advantage of your ethical decision by clearly communicating the decision to the workers and showing them that the reason they were retained was due to their importance. Establish through this period a cordial management-workers relationship. The workers will all realize the attention being given is not mere lip service. This is good for long-term planning. As shown by Robert (2008), lip service may work in the short run.
However, the employees need to have concrete proof of the managements’ commitment to their welfare in order for them to continue to work passionately. This is what you will be delivering by making them aware of your sacrifice for their benefit. In turn, the employee service standards have been shown to improve dramatically. This will be very good for the company when the economy revives. The effect will be further compounded by the good service delivery that the customer will receive from the ever dedicated work force. This is indeed what they need in order to market the hotel by word of mouth.
Indeed, you can take the cost of keeping the work force as advertising expense. It can also be viewed as a morale expense to increase the motivation of the employees, both of which are highly justified in a business strategy (Robert, 2008). In the end, putting the employee ahead of the temporary business goals pays off. The management should therefore address its issues from a moral and ethical perspective. This is because the main propellers of the vision, the employees, are better assets to the company when treated ethically.
They not only work harder, they contribute more in terms of creativity and innovation (Aquinas, 2006, 85). These are key in these highly competitive times when the need for being dominant in the market arises. The increased output and morale improves the service delivery of the consumer. This results in increased sales and a happier business stakeholder. In the end, everyone is improved by ethical handling of the employee. REFERENCES Aquinas P. G. Principles of Management (2006) Anmol Publications PVT. LTD. Auer P. , Berg J. and Coulibaly I.
Insights into the Tenure-Productivity-Employment Relationship (August 2004). Sourced from http://74. 125. 95. 132/search? q=cache:U-Fsjzk2RbEJ:www. ilo. org/public/english/employment/strat/download/esp15. pdf+case+studies:+stability+of+job+employment+tenure&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=4&gl=ke&client=firefox-a on 10th December, 2008 Dickerson A P, Geroski P A, Knight K G, Productivity, Efficiency and Strike Activity (1997) International Review of Applied Economics Vol 11 Issue 1 Taylor and Francis Journals Open2 The Ethical Marketeer (2008). Sourced from http://www. open2.net/historyandthearts/philosophy_ethics/ethics_marketing2. html on 10th December, 2008 Robert Heller Employee Motivation: Giving Power to the People (4th August, 2008).
Sourced from http://www. thinkingmanagers. com/management/employee-motivation. php on 10th December, 2008 The Times 100 Ethical Business (2008). Sourced from http://www. thetimes100. co. uk/case-study–the-role-stakeholders–11-329-5. php on 10th December, 2008 Wilber K. Charles Economics and Ethics (1998). Sourced from http://www. nd. edu/~cwilber/pub/recent/ethichbk. html on 10th December, 2008
