Welcome to MoldMaking, Inc., (MMI), a 5 year old employee-owned manufacturing company which makes molds for pharmaceutical devices such as respirators. MMI employs 150 people, 47 of which are salaried while 103 are hourly-paid. You are an employee in the marketing and sales department. Because you work in marketing, you know how very competitive the moldmaking industry is. Profit margins are tight. MMI must make high quality molds at the lowest possible prices to stay competitive. The work of designing and building molds involves both sophisticated engineering and precision craftsmanship.
Like the other MMI employees, you earn shares of company stock in addition to your salary or hourly wage. You are a staff employees rather than a line employee which means that you earn a salary rather than an hourly wage. Salary workers such as you tend to be college-educated while line employees who work in the manufacturing department are not. Line employees tend to be graduates of technical high school with added moldmaking apprenticeship training. They are unionized in a local chapter of the International Union of Electrical Workers.
You have recently joined the company’s Communications Committee, which is responsible for recommending company-wide improvements in employee education and training. You’ve been asked by the Committee to help address the problem of improving employee understanding of basic business principles, a common problem in young employee-owned firms.
Many MMI employees seem uninterested in learning basic business principles crucial to being responsible owners. Some seem afraid to learn about business finance; some other employees think the effort to teach business principles to everyone is a waste of time and company money.
Research has shown that well-informed employee participation is crucial to the long-term success of employee-owned firms.
Employee-owners who understand how their work relates to the bigger financial challenges of the company are in a better position to figure out ways to improve productivity and increase profit.
MMI has an open-book management system, (meaning it shares financial information with all employees at regular company-wide budget meetings) though some managers are uncomfortable about sharing controversial information.
Williams students: log on to Blackboard to submit your answers to the following questions:
Your challenge is to propose way(s) to address this problem. Prepare a presentation for the Communications Committee which answers the following:
- What are the key barriers to educating employees about how MMI’s business works?
- What should the company do to improve employee understanding of basic business principles?
- What steps should the effort consist of? Who should be involved in working on this problem?
- How should the company assess the effectiveness of its effort(s)?
