University of Petra

Faculty of Administrative & Financial Sciences

Department of Business Administration

Course: Human Resource Management

CASE STUDY #2
CH.3 Continuing Case:
CARTER CLEANING COMPANY
The High-Performance Work System
Submitted By: Homam Al Rifai / Uni. ID#201610397
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ABSTRACT

For the purpose of meeting his new orientations of having the High-Performance Work System, Jack has
actually installed a total quality program of sorts at Carter, and it has been in place for about 5 years. It relies
basically on a meetings held with employees periodically. Jacks point of view revolve around involving his
employees to share the risk of making any mistake that would harm the performance of the stores. He contacts
all the employees in that store and meets with them as soon as the store closes. The meetings have been useful
in helping Jack to identify and rectify several problems.
Jennifer now wonders whether these employee meetings should be expanded to give the employees an even
bigger role in managing the Carter stores quality. We cant be everywhere watching everything all the time,
she said to her father. Yes, but these people only earn about $8 to $15 per hour. Will they really want to act
like mini-managers? He replied.
 Human Resource Management / Case Study Assignment- Week#1: CARTER CLEANING COMPANY
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Questions:
1- Would you recommend that the Carters expand their quality program? If so, specifically what
form should it take?

Answer

My point of view supports the idea of getting the employees involved in the processes that managers take in
managing their companies, especially when we talking about somehow a small company such as Carter
Cleaning Company. By getting the employees involved, we can ensure working under the statement of One
Team One Spirit, everyone would have that sense of feeling that hes valued for the company as the general
manager and this will be reflecting on their performance and sense of responsibility.
I recommend that Carters expand these quality programs in getting their problems solved and finding its root
causes, in order to avoid it in the future. It may takes many forms to apply quality programs, one of them is
working under the approach of MBO (Management by Objectives). This will put the employees under an
evaluation process on periodically basis, to obtain whether the objectives has been met or not. This would save
some time from meeting with each employee in the company.

2- Assume the Carters want to institute a high-performance work system as a test program in one
of their stores. Write a one-page outline summarizing important HR practices you think they
should focus on.

Answer

In order to institute a High-performance work system as a test program, Carters has to put in front of his sight
increasing productivity of the employees, which is considered to be as one of the most critical goals in any
business. Most HR professionals acknowledge that their job entails establishing policy, procedures, and
programs governing people management. Human resource efforts have to be combined to positively influence
the performance capability of the workforce.

There are many HR practices Carters have to focus on during the process of instituting a high-performance
work system, by far the most impactful factor in workforce and team productivity is hiring and retaining
employees with exceptional capabilities and self-motivation. Working together, managers and HR can attract,
hire, develop, and retain individual employees who are agile, high-performing continuous learners and
innovators. Leaders and managers play a critical role in defining the direction, purpose, priorities, goals, and
roles of the workforce. The capability of the manager to develop plans, hire effectively, coach, motivate, and
develop employees is crucial to success.

Every business unit and team needs to understand its role. Managers and leaders need to develop a clear and
communicated purpose that is both compelling and that makes members feel important. Understand that
employees are more likely to be committed to the purpose of the unit or team if they are involved in creating
it. An unclear mission will result in a lack of focus and a low level of engagement and commitment toward
achieving it.

Learning by trial and error slows progress and leads to mass duplication of effort and higher error rates.
Productivity improves dramatically when others who are outside the team freely collaborate and proactively
share best practices and ideas. It is HRs role to develop formal methods to increase cross-function
collaboration and sharing.

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 Human Resource Management / Case Study Assignment- Week#1: CARTER CLEANING COMPANY
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Employee skills and knowledge must be continually updated to maintain productivity global competition
has created a rapid pace of change which means that current skill sets must be continually updated. It is the
managers job to identify employees with less than optimal skills. HRs role is to develop processes to
continually increase employee learning, knowledge, and skill development, while minimizing the amount of
time that employees are away from their work.

Even highly trained, motivated, and engaged employees cant be very productive when they are provided with
insufficient tools and equipment to do their job. In an era where technology dominates almost every function,
a failure to provide the technology, updates, or sufficient training can dramatically slow productivity.

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Page 3 of 3 Done by: Homam Al Rifai / Uni. ID#201610397