Introduction
Kodak began in 1880s as a manufacturer of wooden box cameras. By late 1980s, the company was well established and recognized around the world. However, the company was suffering from both internal and external pressures: low customer satisfaction, stiff competition, as well as declining employee morale (Bolman & Deal, 2008). To address the need for a change, the company embraced a restructuring effort. As a result of the reorganization, six distinct divisions were created; black-and-white division was one of them (Bolman & Deal, 2008). Within two years black-and-white division began to surpass its goals in quality and cost reduction, which addressed the external pressures (Bolman & Deal, 2008). Furthermore, the new human …show more content…
As discussed above, Kodak’s Black-and-White Division case study clearly demonstrates implementation of only one of these strategies - empower them. For optimal success, management of Kodak may need to consider implementing the rest of the strategies.
After Kodak’s reorganization, the change in the human resource management is apparent. However, it is not clear if the company’s executives actually developed a specific approach of people management. Although success of the black-and-white division may be just a result of a randomly chosen approach, now the company could use it as a model for developing an organization-wide human resource management philosophy. Kodak’s management should also be selective when choosing potential employees. It is important that employees fit the company (Bolman & Deal, 2008). To do so, the management will first need to determine what qualities would support the company operations: ability to work well in a team, talent of finding innovative approaches for current processes, or well developed social skills to provide excellent customer service. Furthermore, Kodak should use recruiting practices that encourage diversification of their workforce. This practice would fortify good reputation and open opportunities to learn of new perspectives on any given problem the company may face. Once desirable employees are hired, it is important that Kodak can keep them and invest in them. Kodak can assure low employee turnover if they offer higher pay, share the wealth, offer good benefits, and design effective training and development opportunities that later would lead to promotion and higher job security (Bolman & Deal,
Kodak began in 1880s as a manufacturer of wooden box cameras. By late 1980s, the company was well established and recognized around the world. However, the company was suffering from both internal and external pressures: low customer satisfaction, stiff competition, as well as declining employee morale (Bolman & Deal, 2008). To address the need for a change, the company embraced a restructuring effort. As a result of the reorganization, six distinct divisions were created; black-and-white division was one of them (Bolman & Deal, 2008). Within two years black-and-white division began to surpass its goals in quality and cost reduction, which addressed the external pressures (Bolman & Deal, 2008). Furthermore, the new human …show more content…
As discussed above, Kodak’s Black-and-White Division case study clearly demonstrates implementation of only one of these strategies - empower them. For optimal success, management of Kodak may need to consider implementing the rest of the strategies.
After Kodak’s reorganization, the change in the human resource management is apparent. However, it is not clear if the company’s executives actually developed a specific approach of people management. Although success of the black-and-white division may be just a result of a randomly chosen approach, now the company could use it as a model for developing an organization-wide human resource management philosophy. Kodak’s management should also be selective when choosing potential employees. It is important that employees fit the company (Bolman & Deal, 2008). To do so, the management will first need to determine what qualities would support the company operations: ability to work well in a team, talent of finding innovative approaches for current processes, or well developed social skills to provide excellent customer service. Furthermore, Kodak should use recruiting practices that encourage diversification of their workforce. This practice would fortify good reputation and open opportunities to learn of new perspectives on any given problem the company may face. Once desirable employees are hired, it is important that Kodak can keep them and invest in them. Kodak can assure low employee turnover if they offer higher pay, share the wealth, offer good benefits, and design effective training and development opportunities that later would lead to promotion and higher job security (Bolman & Deal,