Case Federated Industries Patricia Paterson is the new vice president for human

Question

Case Federated Industries

Patricia Paterson is the new vice president for human resources at Federated Industries, a conglomerate with several diverse subsidiaries. Her primary responsibility is to provide support and advice to each subsidiary and monitor their personnel practices to ensure they are consistent with corporate policy and strategy. She reports directly to the CEO of Federated. The CEO is concerned that not enough capable leaders are coming up through the ranks. The subsidiaries have complete responsibility for their own internal management development, but the CEO wonders whether it is time for a more uniform approach. The CEO asked Patricia to find out what each subsidiary is doing to develop leadership skills, then report back with recommendations for improving leadership development overall at Federated Industries. Patricia arranged to meet with the personnel directors of the three major subsidiaries and asked each director to prepare a short briefing. The first director to speak was Peter Proskin, from an engineering company. He explained that his company provides only technical training, because they lack the staff to provide management training. All management training is done outside the company. A manager (or an employee who wants to become a manager) can look at the listing on available training and request any seminar or workshop that appears relevant. If the employee’s boss approves the request, the manager is sent to the training at company expense. Some employees are enrolled in the evening MBA degree program at the local university, and they are reimbursed for half of the tuition cost. Peter said they do not pay complete tuition for degree programs, because it is too costly. After some employees finish their MBA, they leave for higherpaying jobs at other companies eager to get people who have managerial as well as technical skills. The second director to report was Alice Alston, from a company that makes consumer products. She explained that the company provides a program to develop leadership skills in highpotential managers. Managers at each level are encouraged to identify a promising subordinate to mentor. The protégé gets lots of personal coaching and is given special, developmental assignments. For example, a couple of junior managers are put on each executive committee to learn about strategic issues and observe how the senior managers work. Other assignments include serving on crossfunctional project teams and carrying out improvement projects such as studying work processes and recommending ways to make them more efficient. Alice said that most of the mentors and protégés like the program. However, people not in the program (roughly twothirds of the employees) sometimes complain about the lack of developmental opportunity in the company. The last director to speak was Hal Harwick, from an electronics company. Hal explained that they concentrate their training on managers who previously demonstrated their executive capacity. The six most promising managers below the top executive level are selected to participate in a series of seminars held once a month. Each seminar is conducted by one of the top executives, who talks about company activities in his or her area of expertise. Three or four times a year, Hal arranges for an outside consultant to conduct a training workshop on a specific topic such as project management, budgeting, or delegation. The participating managers know they are fasttrackers in line for promotion to top management. They like the program and have told him it is very worthwhile. When one of them is promoted, another promising manager is selected for the program by the top management team. The only drawback is the political infighting that sometimes occurs when executives try to get their protégés selected for the program.

1. Identify strengths and weaknesses in leadership development at Federated.

2. What types of changes are most likely to improve the leadership development?

3. What additional information is needed to make a good report to the CEO?

Explanation / Answer

1. The strengths include the managerial and technical skills acquired by the employees through training given by the company and the external agencies. Another advantage is the developmental assignments and personal coaching given to the promising subordinate identified which help them to become an efficient leader. Another strength includes the seminars and coaching given to promising managers which are conducted by top executives in the field of their area of expertise and outside consultants are also arranged to conduct specific workshops on specific topic such as project management, delegations or budgeting. All these are found to be worthwhile for the identified managers and help them to develop leadership skills.

Some of the companies can provide only technical training and the management program is given outside the company which depends on manager approval. Leadership program weakness also includes the inability of some of the companies to pay tuition cost for degree programs. Other companies are eager to grab the people who have both managerial and technical skills and the employees leave the job for high payment. Another weakness of leadership program is the lack of development opportunity for people not in the program. Some companies identify a promising subordinate to mentor and is provided with all the necessary training for leadership development. Political infighting is also a weakness that occurs as the executives try to select their best protégés for the program.

2. For improving leadership development, the company should be able to solve the issues raised by different subsidiaries. A common leadership development program should be designed that provide training to all the employees in different subsidiaries. The program should address the concerns of all subsidiaries. The company should provide the full tuition costs and provide pay hike to the employees who successfully complete the education program to retain them and build loyalty. Extending training to all the employees ensure equal treatment of employees and developmental opportunity for all. This will help to build new leaders in the organization. The political in fight also would not exist when the employees are given equal opportunities.

3. The report should include the importance of methods to measure the impact of training programs on the employees to analyze the success of those programs. The report should also contain the benefits of making adequate changes in the leadership development program and an analysis of the cost involved in implementing those changes. The approximate time period required to implement the changes also should be mentioned in the report.

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse C
• Subjects

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.