You are a senior member of a national law firm in New York City. The managing pa

Question

You are a senior member of a national law firm in New York City. The managing partner of the firm has asked you to head up the southern branch in Raleigh, North Carolina. This branch is 1 of 10 under the main office. On the whole, the firm has been successful since its estab- lishment in the mid-1920s, but in the last five years, many of the younger staff have elected to leave the organization. The managing partner is convinced the problem is not salary, be- cause a recent survey indicated that the firm’s salary structure is competitive with that of other major firms. However, he requests that you study this matter firsthand in your new assign- ment.

After getting settled in Raleigh, one of your first projects is to meet with the four senior managers to determine why the branch has had such a high attrition rate among the younger staff. Harding Smith, age 45, states that the younger staff lacks dedication and fails to appre- ciate the career opportunities provided by the firm. Wilma Thompson, age 50, says the younger staff members are always complaining about the lack of meaningful feedback on their performance, and many have mentioned that they would like to have a sponsor in the or- ganization to assist with their development. Thompson further explains that the firm does pro- vide performance ratings to staff and the previous manager had always maintained an open- door policy. Brian Scott, age 40, says he has received complaints that training is not relevant and is generally dull. He explains that various persons in the firm who worked with training from time to time acted mainly on guidance from New York. Denise Rutherford, age 38, says she believes the root of the problem is the lack of a human resource department. However, she says that when the idea was mentioned to the managing partner in New York, it was totally rejected.

1. What do you think about the idea of a human resource department in a professional office?

2. How would you sell the idea of a human resource department to the managing partner?

3. What type of organizational structure would you propose?

Explanation / Answer

Ans:-1

Human resources are the most important asset in an organization and they can make or break an organization. Hence, a Human Resource (HR) department is very much essential in an organization and more so in a professional office where human resource management has to be done very professionally to handle the professionals working there.

Here in this case of the New York City-based national law firm, a Human Resource (HR) department will be able to solve many of the problems of HR that had cropped up in the southern branch office in Raleigh, North Carolina. There was a very high attrition rate among the younger employees in the last five years due to various HR issues. One of the first issues was absence of proper feedback about the performance of the younger employees. Presence of HR department would have easily solved this issue. Secondly the younger employees had requested to have a sponsor in the organization to assist with their development. This showed that there was no proper career development plan in the organization and the younger employees were not able to understand what their career path would be in the organization over the years. Here again the HR department can easily formulate a well-defined career development plan. The third issue was lack of proper training program in the organization. The younger employees found the current training program to be irrelevant and boring. Here again HR department can design relevant training program and also make it an interesting one.

Thus presence of a Human Resource (HR) department could have solved the above HR issues and prevented the high attrition rate existing in the southern branch office for the last five years.

Ans:-2

I would tell the managing partner that the younger employees are crucial to the organization as they can pave the way to future leadership of the organization. Also they would be able to come out with new ideas and give new insights if they feel motivated to work. Moreover, I would explain that a Human Resource (HR) department would be able to solve the current HR issues prevailing in the southern branch office of Raleigh, North Carolina for the last five years. Further, recruiting new employees is always more costly than retaining the existing employees. HR department can play a major role in reducing the current attrition rate and save significant money for the company.

Ans:-3

I would propose a Geographic Divisional Structure to the organization. This is because the organization is having 10 branch offices in various geographic areas of USA. This type of structure would enable the organization to cater to the needs of the local markets and also make better use of talent available locally, thus reducing the cost of recruitment (since local talent will usually come at a lower cost, especially in smaller cities). Also it would help in better coordination between the branch offices and the headquarters.            

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