Case “Who to lay off”

Use the attached case to discuss ethical decision making. Remember our discussion is not really centered on who you might lay off but instead on what criteria you would use to make an ethical decision.

Who to Lay-off? Ethics and Decision Making

you are the owner of a small business. You have five employees and of course, yourself, for a total of a six person workforce. Two are sales people like yourself. The other three handle customer service from the office and the necessary paperwork to make your business go and are considered “office staff”.

The last six months have been very slow for business. Sales are down for all three of the sales people and ultimately the affect on profit has been significant. If this continues, you will go in the red for the year. Remember as an owner, being in the red means you won’t make any salary for yourself at all! Most owners are looking to make money, not work for free!

Currently, you are working on a new marketing plan that you hope will work but you have to consider other options. One alternative is that you may have to face is to lay-off one of the office staff.

One person has been with you for over 10 years, is reliable, and works well with others. However, she continues to have problems adjusting to the new software that was installed last year. The result is that either you or the other office staff frequently has to stop and help her to redo her work. Most of your customers know her from all the years she has been with you and they like her.

A second person has been with you a little over 2 years. He is very computer literate and has learned the new software well. He too has great customer service skills. One problem you have noticed is that he is frequently a little late for work. Not significant but usually 10 or 15 minutes late once or twice a week. Additionally, your company provides for 10 days of vacation and 10 days of sick leave every year and he has not been able to save any days. As soon as he earns a day of leave, he takes off. It is sometimes difficult to ensure that all the work gets completed in a timely manner given these unscheduled days off.

The third person is a computer whiz. She was responsible for the conversion to the new system and really stepped up to the plate and did a great job. She has only been with the company a year. She has good customer service skills and is very reliable. While she has done an excellent job and has great potential, she is still learning the business and needs some additional training and mentoring.
Remember, if the business fails then everyone will lose their job and you will have lost your entire investment.

So you know you have to take action before that occurs.
• You will act as a management consultant to Ana and present a series of recommendations to her in response to the concerns like, fails to develop or share a mission statement, fails to determine the best way to organize resources, including personnel, underestimates the importance of recruitment, job design and descriptions, and training, assumes that motivation will occur naturally, fails to define standards and other measurable outcomes, ignores negative information, delays actions to improve organizational outcomes, based on what you observe in the case attached.
• Show Ana as to the importance of the four functions of management, and therefore should include each of the four functions in your paper.
• Recommendations to Ana on how to improve the management of her small business should be succinct but should still persuade Amanda that the recommendations will have positive outcomes for her company.