The Treadway Tire Company

The Issue

The Treadway Tire Company, a major supplier of tires to the large OEM manufacturers, has eight manufacturing plants and the Lima tire plant was one them. Ashley Wall, the Director of Human Resources at the Lima plant was on a mission to complete a thorough analysis of why the Lima Tire plant had a turnover rate for foreman which was higher than any other plant in the division - of a total of 50 foremen there were 23 turnovers in a year.

The issue is to determine what factors are contributing to the high turnover rate for foreman at the Lima Plant and to find a way to develop effective practices to retain their foremen.

Analysis

To understand why the turnover was high we should look at what factors are contributing to turnover. Job satisfaction, or in this case job dissatisfaction is one of the large factors.

The following exhibit from the text, shows some of the factors that determine job satisfaction, and the relationship between these factors and the foremen is explained in detail below.

The plant was experiencing differing generational values. An example of such is how the general supervisor and area manager felt that foreman should not be “hand-held” and that “you have to take control to survive on the plant floor”, “let them know who is the boss”. This management style was outdated and did not reflect the leadership style preferences of the millennials who made up the majority of the foreman and the hourly employees [I am assuming here that the foreman and hourly employees are generally under 40 years of age placing them in the millennial generation].

When the foreman fail to meet the production targets - they are chastised, but even when they do meet their targets, there is no reward or praise. According to discrepancy theory not performing well causes anxiety and regret, as does, the lack of praise upon doing well. It is what seems as a lose-lose scenario for the foremen, causing feelings of dejection and disappointment, disengagement and dissatisfaction. The foremen’s tasks were to ensure there were no technical issues that would stop production during their shift. Additionally, the foremen carried out many administrative tasks, such as payroll, hiring and dealing with union issues. With all the demands and responsibilities they handled, it is evident that productivity could not be the main focus. The management team wanted to see results but the foreman were too busy trying to stay on top of the admin tasks, and the equipment problems and dealing with the hourly staff to focus on increasing production.

Additionally, the foremen were facing “severe tongue lashings” for not meeting forecast level of performance and the negative moods and heightened emotions brought on by these actions toward the foremen were spreading as they were then lashing out at the hourly workers and were not being reasonable with them. This emotional contagion was contributing to job dissatisfaction.

Procedural fairness was lacking at the Lima plant, the general supervisor performed annual performance reviews for the foreman and judged the foreman on two factors, “ability to meet or exceed forecasts, and how they manage and train their hourly workers”. Conversely, it was also indicated that “as long as you meet targets without aggravating the union or management too much, you’re fine”. This somewhat inconsistent and subjective criteria for a performance review process and can not be perceived as fair, and appears biased. The unfair reviews were contributing to the turnover and it was estimated that 13 of the 23 that left did not do so voluntarily i.e. were let go do to poor reviews or other disciplinary issues. Furthermore, promotions were not done in a consistent manner and the foreman were growing frustrated by a major slowdown in the ability to move up the ranks. New college graduates were being selected for supervisor roles over foremen, even though the most successful general supervisors and area managers had risen from the foreman ranks..

In addition to job satisfaction, employee commitment to an organization plays a role in turnover.

If all forms of commitment reduce turnover , you want to foster the link between an employee and the organization. The foreman are lacking in organizational commitment to the Lima Plant and Treadway Tire.

A sense of obligation to Treadway Tire was in low supply at the Lima Plant. The benefits to foster and build normative commitment such as training to enhance skills was cut due to cost cutting measures and the attempt at creating socialization to enhance loyalty were falling short of the mark. [It would not be surprising if many of the foreman didn’t buy Treadway Tires].

The cost cutting measures were causing other issues. When a company goes through changes in a workplace, it can shift an employee’s commitment to the company. Additionally, changes that are made in the organization’s best interest but that are detrimental to employees’ wellbeing are most likely to damage affective commitment (text pg.151), the type of commitment that is based on your identification and involvement with an organization. Unsurprisingly, changes are rampant at the Lima Plant. The plant was changed to be operational 24hrs a day and the foremen as well as the hourly staff work 12 hour shifts for 3 days on, 3 days off. The 24 hour operation allows for increased production and the 12 hour shifts keep the number of employees down which is great for the Lima Plant’s bottom line, but it puts more pressure on the foremen and staff. The changes were proving to be detrimental to the foremen who are trying to keep the production going while dealing with operational issues from the previous