This case study is about job dissatisfaction and its high turnover rate.

Many individuals were highly

dissatisfied with how they were treated at a Treadway Tire Company. The system is definitely broken and we

see that played out here from the very first sentence, “We have a serious problem.”

The line foreman lack the proper training needed to excel and they have a horrible relationship with their

direct superior. There are two reasons why many line foreman ended up leaving the company: 1) they didn’t

have the proper training to do their job right, 2) there was tension between the line foreman and their

superiors. Instead of handing the foreman the tools and skills needed to perform the job the bosses just

demanded results. The bosses often threatened the foreman in hopes of getting the job done. The lack of

leadership and a high Mach approach ultimately caused the system to fail.

One positive aspect was how the foreman were compensated with a high level of pay. The men were being

paid $30/hr and had the opportunity for overtime. This furthermore proves pay isn’t the factor that will

make you stay at your job. The percentage of foreman who continued working at Treadway may have just

need the money to survive and therefore were stuck in the job.

Earlier this semester we discussed the idea of having the ability to leave your job and not be imprisoned.

It appears the percentage of individuals who left did so because they could and the individuals who continue

to work the foreman position are doing so because they didn’t have an alternative solution. They may have a

family, house, and kids and can’t just up and quit. I am glad I haven’t had to experience a job like this!

CRUX: Empower your employees, treat them with respect, and be someone your employees would follow.

I just read a case study from Harvard Business Publishing called “The Treadway Tire Company: Job
Dissatisfaction and High Turnover at the Lima Tire Plant.” It was a look at the factors affecting this
specific attitude (job dissatisfaction) and this specific behavior (high turnover) amongst foremen at
this major plant for this pseudonym tire company.
The plant had many problems, chiefly:

• Morale and productivity were imperiled.

• The plant was not satisfactorily developing new managers.
• Relations between management and the union were threatened.

The newly-transferred director of HR at this plant had her job cut out for her. She made it her top
priority to reversing this trend and had to have an actionable plan in to her boss after the the
annual Christmas break (within a month’s time). She knew that by solving these problems, she
could make the plant the number one plant in the company for productivity and lowest cost.
And contrary to what a lot of managers believer, high turnover does cost companies a lot (and not
just money)!

Even though the aspect of the company presented in the case study was limited, I still think
significant observations can be drawn of the the environment at play in this case.

1. The foremen’s supervisors (the general supervisors and area supervisors) seem to be
making the fundamental attribution error. That is, they seem to be attributing poor
performance amongst foremen to the foremen themselves, instead of looking at systemic
factors outside the control of the foremen that could be contributing more to the poor
performance.
2. This is echoed by comments made by some of the foremen, such as: “a lot of it is
beyond my control, and management doesn’t seem to understand that.”
3. There seems to be a system in place that doesn’t give foremen the proper training they
need to conduct their jobs.
4. The foremen state specifically that the lack of training is their main concern.
5. Other concerns the foremen have are no respect from their subordinates, and lack of
authority and respect for the foremen position from all.
6. There seems to be a culture in play that seem to keep this perpetuating these
problems. A major question I had is that if the general managers were almost always
promoted from the foremen positions, why didn’t they take steps to make life easier for
the foremen under them since they were also once in that position and knew what it was
like?
7. The training program for the foremen that the HR director was proposing should not
have been cut, even with the current economic situation. It was a good way to at least
start to solve this problem. It could have been restructured or more limited, but should
not have been cut completely.
8. Even though the HR director lets us know above why she wants to solve this problem,
it’s not clear if these benefits were communicated to everyone at the plant. All employees
should know that solving this problem will benefit them as well. Good communication and
getting buy-in from the employees to to find the root causes of this issue is important.
Finding the solutions to this mess will not be easy. I agree that more training for the foremen is the
first step. It’s admirable that the HR director wants to find the root causes instead of treating just
the symptoms. That’s the only way to ensure that this will not keep repeating itself