Tread Tire Company Causation

This case study mainly talks about the high turnover rate and job dissatisfaction from the line foremen in Lima Tire Plant, one of the manufacturing units of Treadway Tires.

Over 43% of the 23 line foremen had left the position due to three main reasons,

* Couldn't control workers

* Couldn't meet forecast

* Counterproductive interactions with upper management

There are many reasons causing the problems. Firstly, as the lowest ranked management position in the company, they hold great amount of responsibilities but little respect from hourly staff, upper management team and unions. As a line foreman, the top priority was to start the production everyday and make sure everything goes smoothly. They also have to mange union and administrative procedures, documenting employee disciplinary actions. At the end of the shift, they have to complete various administrative duties such as scheduling, approving vacation request, checking time sheets, and solving payroll issues. The lack of respect resulted in low authority to effectively manage their team. In line foremen's 12-hour shift, they are responsible for hourly stuff and unionized workers but have little disciplinary power. The helplessness led to low morale and high turnover rate. There are also a lot of variations and uncertainties in production, which is not under foramen's control but the evaluation was really strict on meeting performance goals. A lot of the dissatisfaction comes from the lack of support, understanding from management and the lack of ability to enforce performance due to union interference.

Secondly, most of the line foremen lack formal training and don't have formal, college educations. This caused the line foremen to have problems meet the forecast. The company just doesn't provide necessary support in formal training to ensure line foreman's ability to navigate the job. This causes key problems in losing production time and high turn over rate as some of the line foremen don't even know what industrial engineering is or how to track hours, how to manage dispute. Although the HR department has acknowledged the problem, however, due to the cost cutting mandate in late 2007, the training plan for the line foremen was never funded.

Thirdly, the mix of problems that line foremen encounters caused a bad attitude and it spreads among workers, which made it worse. For example, the relationship between the line foreman and their superiors is really bad. Supervisors did not provide the tools and help for the line foremen needed rather than demanding results. According to the survey, line foremen felt dissatisfied with their bosses as they often threatened by them. The lack of leadership from above caused the system to fail. The working condition