Introduction
The Treadway Tire Company found itself in a difficult position as it was thrown into cusp of inefficiency, high cost of production and high employee turnover. It can be suggested that companies such as this continue to struggle the “happy medium” between production and staff morale.
Key Background Issues
Staff morale can make or break a working environment. The viral effect of low morale amongst the employees impacted the entire operations of the company. Beckham and Skinner (June, 2008) suggest that the overall results of the Employee surveys conducted in August 2007 revealed solid discontent for the work environment. The working environment fostered by the line foreman created a hostile and unfavorable working environment. Employees feeling violated had options to pursue the grievance process, but this process provided little to no feedback to the line foreman leaving them feeling powerless (p.4). The workers were not evaluated on their skills or abilities to perform their jobs effectively, but instead were gauged on outcomes and their production rates.
The plants inability to produce and develop new managers created another key issue for the Treadway Tire Company. Working relationships between management and union workers were threatened and created a very uncompromising position for the company. Ashley Wall, the Director of Human Resources, had a number of directions in which she could have gone, but she decided to error on the side of the company which increased the physical and mental