Labor Problem

Engineer Felicidad Lazaro, a mechanical engineering graduate of Adamson University, has been operating in the past five years an auto supply in Ilaya, Batangas City. It is a lucrative business she inherited from her father.

Four years ago, she started teaching on a part-time basis at the Batangas Polytechnic College. After a year, she became a full-time faculty member of the college of engineering. She attended to her auto parts business after her official hours at the school.

Miss Lazaro's dedication to her studies earned her the chairmanship of the Mechanical Engineering Department. When her boss, the dean, was offered a good paying job abroad, he resigned. Miss Lazaro was named the new dean of the College of Engineering.

Miss Lazaro feels that even if she is offered a job anywhere, she cannot accept it because of her concern for her business. This made her also to think that she must take her new job as dean, seriously.

Miss Lazaro's concern is to recruit well-qualified engineers to fill up the slots left by five faculty members who resigned. An advertisement for the vacancies was made. After a week of waiting, only ten applicants were forwarded to her. Nine of the applicants were new graduates and have no job experience of any kind. The tenth applicant is a newly retired government employee with no teaching experience.

Miss Lazaro slowly realized that there are good engineers in the area but they are not attracted by the prospect of teaching engineering subjects. Miss Lazaro is also aware that even those that are currently employed by the school are only waiting for a good job offer from other institutions.

Miss Lazaro was mildly shocked when her assistant showed her the enrollment statistics of the College of Engineering. In the past five years, a steady 10% increase in the number of students was noted last year there was a 16% increase.

Just recently, Engineer Lazaro was approached by two engineering professors, one a department chairman, and the other, a senior faculty member. They were requesting for a year's leave of absence. Because nobody at the moment could take their place, engineer Lazaro disapproved their requests. Engineer Lazaro was given information that the two will take jobs in another company on a one-year trial basis. If prospects are good, they will resign from school.

After having been informed of the disapproval of their request for leave, the two professors filed her irrevocable resignations the next morning.

Engineer Lazaro is now faced with two serious problems:

1. formulating an immediate solution to the shortage of teachers in her area of concern; and

2. keeping the incumbent ones satisfied with their jobs

Engineer