Human resource management at ABX-TV

just 1 page for executive summary. i will be upload my document into my account below: CASE STUDY - ABX TELEVISION Organisational Setting and Background ABX Television is an independent television company, holding the franchise for broadcasting to a large section of the population in the south-east of England. It was awarded the franchise in 2010 by the Independent Broadcasting Authority (I.B.A.), after the previous franchise holder had their franchise withdrawn because they were deemed by the I.B.A. to be providing an inadequate level of service. In particular, the I.B.A. was concerned that the previous franchise holder had not been providing the required number of programs ‘of international interest', thereby providing an inadequate service to the multi-ethnic population of this region of the country. In fact, it had largely filled the television screens in people's homes with local news programs, chat shows, game shows, and entertainment ‘spectaculars' with a very English cultural flavour. Under the terms of the new franchise, ABX is required to create more programs likely to appeal to the many different groups that constitute its audience, and thus to provide a more balanced range of viewing material. One particularly important requirement is the provision of a daily in-depth international news program, to enable local residents to keep up-to-date with events around the world and in their countries of origin. Vanessa Joins the Company When Vanessa Smith was appointed to the position of Departmental Secretary in the International News Department, she came equipped with a good reference from her previous employer (a small charity organisation dedicated to reducing the level of smoking in the local population), and also with reasonably good formal secretarial qualifications. She had actually found it quite easy to get hired for the job. All she had to do was to send in her resume, and 'pass 'a short one-to-one informal interview with the Director of International News. After the interview, the Director announced to the department that, due to Vanessa's lively personality, he considered her to be 'exactly the right kind of person for the job.' Vanessa's Early Employment at the Company Vanessa made a reasonably good start to her working life at ABX. As the pace of life in the International News Department was hectic, there was insufficient time for her to be given a structured orientation program. However, the other members of the department, although very busy, were all friendly and helpful, doing their best to answer her questions and to give her - 1 - Contd./……………….. ………………../contd. as much help and support as they could in the circumstances. In her early discussions with her manager (the Director of International News), Vanessa seemed very positive. She said that, although she found the department to be extremely busy and somewhat confusing at first, she felt she was gradually learning the requirements and complexities of her job and starting to enjoy it. On the other hand, though, the Director was not totally happy with her progress – there had been a few mistakes, and her work productivity was not very high – but he felt it was too early to make a judgment, and that it was important to continue being positive and encouraging towards her at this stage. The Problems Begin Time passed, and the International News Department reported on wars, famines, tropical storms, revolutions, and General Elections from a wide variety of countries around the world. Most of the employees were self-motivated and just got on with their jobs, coping with all the highs and lows, routines and complexities, and the interesting and not-so-interesting aspects of their work, without having to be told what to do or how to do it. However, it started to become apparent that Vanessa was not going to fall into this pattern. Although she had now been employed at ABX for several months, she still did not seem to know who was who in her department, and she made frequent errors in recording and delivering messages, sometimes even failing to deliver them at all. Her work output was low, and this may have been due to the fact that she spent large amounts of time making telephone calls to friends and family, and coming back to work late from extended lunch breaks. The Director occasionally joked with Vanessa about the potential size of the department's telephone bill and the length of the queue in the staff restaurant, but these comments were met with a largely blank look from Vanessa. Vanessa's Performance Appraisal Luckily for the department (but unluckily for Vanessa), appraisal time was approaching, and the Director decided to confront Vanessa about the weak aspects of her work during the appraisal interview. Vanessa, however, was devastated when this happened. She claimed that she was working ‘as hard as she could', but it had not been easy for her, and she had had to ‘learn a lot of new things for herself with very little help or support from anyone else.' She also said that she ‘never took more than the allotted amount of time for her lunch.' Owing to ‘severe domestic problems at home', which she said she didn't feel able to discuss at this time, she had been ‘under a lot of pressure and had to use the office telephone occasionally; but, if only the - 2 - Contd./………................ ………………../contd. been ‘under a lot of pressure and had to use the office telephone occasionally; but, if only the Director had told her this before ………' Now, realizing that all this was going to be on her employment record as negative behavior, she broke down and sobbed, saying ‘such a thing had never happened to her before and it was ‘all just grossly unfair!' Vanessa's tearful state made the setting and agreeing of objectives for the next appraisal period almost impossible. The Director, who did not feel competent in relation to the task of objective-setting anyway (having not been required to do this when Vanessa was first appointed), was more than happy to quickly abandon his attempt at this difficult time. After the Appraisal Vanessa developed a worried look, and was often seen having secretive chats with other employees. The atmosphere and morale in the International News Department seemed to be deteriorating. Soon, Vanessa's attendance started to become highly variable. At first, she occasionally took the morning off ‘to deal with her domestic problems', to quote her words; but this developed into one- and two-day absences, with a corresponding downturn in the amount of her work output. Although generally preferring to use a relaxed management style, the Director finally decided the department had suffered enough, and that he should confront Vanessa more forcefully on the issues of attendance, work output, and quality of work. However, before he was able to do this, Vanessa telephoned the office to say she was ill, and followed up by sending in a doctor's certificate for two weeks that stated she was suffering from ‘nervous exhaustion.' The Current Situation With insufficient money in the department's budget to pay for temporary help, Vanessa's colleagues have to deal with her work as well as their own. No wonder that one of these employees is very angry when he arrives at work one morning, and reports to the Director that he saw Vanessa working in a bar in the downtown area last night. He also heard from some of the customers in the bar that she had been there all week. The Human Resources Department When ABX Television first obtained its franchise to provide the television service referred to at the beginning of this document, it did not have its own human resources department. However, during the period of time when the events concerning Vanessa Smith were taking place, the - 3 - Contd./……………….. ………………../contd. company appointed a small team of human resources professionals, requiring them to work with the various departmental managers to develop and improve the management of the company's human resources. One of the new Human Resources Department's first tasks is to help the Director of International News to decide what to do about Vanessa. However, in making its initial enquiries into the background to this situation, the Human Resources team discovers that Vanessa is not the only problem they will have to deal with. It seems that a number of recently hired employees, in several different departments, had similar experiences to those of Vanessa, in terms of how they were hired, their lack of orientation, and a fragmented and inadequate performance appraisal scheme. The company's Chairman now requires the Human Resources Department to undertake the following tasks:- 1. Identify options for dealing with the Vanessa Smith issue, and explain which course of action you would recommend and why. 2. Based on the experiences of Vanessa Smith and other employees, identify and explain the current problems in relation to how ABX Television manages its employees. 3. Develop a set of recommendations, and a related action plan, designed to help the company to improve the management of its employees.