NOGO Railroad Case Analysys Form Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

NOGO Railroad Case Analysys Form - Essay Example Dave is wary of Allen’s intentions and is torn between making the required changes and not making those changes. However, the situation is not new to NOGO Railways as it has struggled with the same issues (highlighted later) since its inception. It is only that Dave has now been promoted to such a position where he must address the problems encountered. 2. Problem NOGO Railways faces a myriad of problems which can best be separated as surface-level problems and deeper or micro problems. At the macro level, the company faces an outdated and ill designed system of organizational policies and practices, thereby reflecting a poor HR system. This is the backbone of all other problems such as high debt and resistance to change. Owing to faulty (and biased) recruitment practices, productivity has been low and unnecessary positions have been created for the sake of compensating family and relatives. One such example is that of Fireman’s position whose only task was to take char ge of the engine in the event of assistance required by the engineer (Brown). The major problems facing Dave (and the company) are that employee expenses have been on a rise and that there was friction amongst NOGO’s employees with respect to change management. Next, it is important to analyze the micro level issues that NOGO is faced with. One of these is featherbedding which is defined as the practice of restricting output of work so as to create more jobs and reduce the chances of unemployment. Another problem pertained to the absence of a formal, structured recruitment process that objectively selected candidates with the right ‘fit’ for the job. These faulty hiring procedures gave way to favoritism. This meant that employees whom Dave worked with were related to each other in some way as spouses, children, brothers or cousins. This practice tends to create a disconnected workforce with ties based on their relations and not work. 3. Causes The presence of a u nionized workforce meant that the union acted as a resistance to any changes implemented by the management. This was clearly causing resistance to change which was one of the macro-level problems confronting NOGO. The union terms were guaranteeing complacency and minimizing worker efficiency owing to a contract that workers would get pay for 40 hours of work even if there was no availability of such work (Brown). These contract terms (as settled by the unions) meant that NOGO was covering the living expenses of their away-from-home, overtime employees as well as duplication of tasks such that clerks would have no task to carry out in the presence of telegraph operators. Furthermore, the union as well as improperly crafted contracts provided workers unnecessary cushion of refusing to do a task just because it wasn’t part of their job description. This was directly contributing to the high employee expenses which, again, was one of the major problems facing NOGO. Furthermore, t he lack of HR planning and strategy was at the backbone of a host of problems encountered by the company. For one thing, the lack of HR planning led to overstaffing leading to greater number of employees being hired than was necessary. This bred â€Å"featherbedding†. The employee contract was not designed appropriately with conditions such as prohibition of women clerks to work directly with train and radio communication personnel reducing the