Comparing Davis Manufacturing And Bartlund Technology

For this assignment students were asked to review a scenario involving a recent merger of two equally thriving manufacturers, Davis Manufacturing and Bartlund Technology. The two companies joined forces as D-Bart to establish a stronger market presence amidst a slowing economy. While both companies were well established in the industry each one had different organizational structures. Davis Manufacturing followed a highly hierarchical structure while Bartlund Technology maintained a relatively flat one. Another major difference was that Davis employees were unionized while Bartlund’s were not. In the scenario we learned that as a consequence of the merger and the reallocation of resources, D-Bart’s San Jose location is closing. While most …show more content…
Firms use performance information during downsizing as a means to preserve the most favorable employees (Gomez-Mejia et al., 2016). A recent study exploring key trends in U.S. formal performance appraisals found that appraisal reports and the criteria against which firm’s measure employee performance vary widely from firm to firm (Longenecker, Fink, & Caldwell, 2014). In fact, 85.2% of the appraisal forms reviewed in the study evaluated employees based on specific employee characteristics or behaviors which are otherwise considered as compliance with organizational processes (Longenecker et al., 2014). Meanwhile 57.4% of appraisals were found to rate employees relative to their performance in meeting goals, which are otherwise viewed as an employee’s contribution to organizational outcomes and thus their contribution to the bottom-line (Longenecker et al., 2014). Longenecker et al (2014) also reported that 84% of appraisal’s summarized employee performance into a single overall rating. While they found that some firms use a weighted point system to determine an employee’s performance most overall ratings were based on the rater’s subjective opinion (Longenecker et al., 2014). Furthermore, lack of distinction between overall performance ratings such as acceptable, excellent, superior further potentiates the perception of subjectivity (Longenecker et al., …show more content…
A preliminary step in this process would be for D-Bart to clarify performance expectations for each staff member role. Performance expectations need to be measurable and should align with the organization’s mission and goals. When performance elements are quantifiable, managers are better able to identify employees that are off target and implement strategies to redirect substandard performance (Longenecker et al.,