Question

Actions that damage a company and its employees should be stamped out, everyone would agree. But should the people responsible be stamped out, too? HBR CASE STUDY The Reign of Zero Tolerance by Ben Gerson "Mr. Pemberton?" manager. The guards had radioed her that the "Yes, that's me," Simon replied distractedly, his back turned. target wasn't putting up much resistance. "Your personal belongings will be messen The two burly gentlemen who had suddenly gered to your home later today," Sallie told Si- entered Simon's work pod did not have to ide mon. "All work-related materials stay here. You tify themselves; the tan uniforms of Applied will receive a letter from HR listing the policies Devices' security detail would soon do that well you violated and the terms of your severance" enough The three waited for Simon to slip behind "Come with us, please" Within seconds the wheel and start the engine of his green Simon discovered he really had no choice, as Focus hatchback before grimly nodding their the two guards, now standing behind his chair, good-byes under the beating sun. each placed a hand under one of his elbows andAs Simon would be reminded by registered swiftly brought him to his feet. mail the next day, unauthorized e-mailing and "What is going on here?" Simon cried, more Internet use warranted termination at Applied than once. But the materials chemist was a Devices. A year earlier, the company had ready being quickstepped out of his work area adopted a zero-tolerance program, which by and down the long white corridor leading to this point covered a wide range of conduct. The the employee parking lot. Greeting Simon as letter would explain that every element of the the small group reached his car was someone policy could be found on AD's intranet, consti- he'd never laid eyes on before-a woman who tuting"constructive notification." introduced herself as Sallie Tillotson, an HR Sudden unemployment was only one of Si mon's worries; he could also expect his work routes, crampons and other gear, the weather, permit to be revoked, requiring him to return the local vegetation. He'd often remained in to England. How well his adjustment had his cubicle into the evening-until the air. seemed to be going until this happened, he conditioning was shut off-to make up for thought as he drove home. Yes, some of his workday and after-hours time spent on non fears about living among Coloradans had been company matters. Maybe AD wasn't inter confirmed-their tendency to take his words ested in that. literally when he was being ironic; his own ten- dency to experience as prying what proved to From Zero Prohibitions to a Dozen be their innocent curiosity about a foreigner's Although most of his colleagues in R&D consid- background-but by and large, he had bee ered Applied Devices' treatment of Simon touched by their friendliness and impressed by harsh, the company's zero tolerance program his colleagues' work ethic. enjoyed strong support among the staff overall, Most of all, Simon had been grateful to owing to an incident just before Simon's ar- AD's chief scientist, Gottfried Harberg, for rival. A clearly disturbed middle-aged man had taking a chance on him. The Englishman had entered the lobby one afternoon waving a pis- obtained his doctorate from the University of tol and loudly demanding to see Doris Klemm East Anglia n laser spectroscopy, which his wife, who worked in the cafeteria. The seemed to some people at Applied Devices to guard on duty was checking an emergency-exit relate only tangentially to the technology o door upstairs that someone had breached to which Don Hardee, ADs CEO, had pinned gain access to the roof for a smoke. The fright the company's future: semiconductors for cell ened receptionist transmitted the man's de- phones that could double as payment devices mands to the head of security, who summoned offering greater security than credit cards. But the city of Pueblo's SWAT team, which 20 min Gottfried saw value in Simon's background utes later found the perpetrator sitting on the and Simon had won an enthusiastic recom floor with his head between his knees, looking mendation from Gottfried's acquaintance exhausted and contrite. The gun lying next to Martin Ledecky, then an assistant professor of him turned out to be unloaded chemistry at East Anglia. Martin had lost his bid for tenure an was now teaching a the station house was that Doris had told her Amman University, in Jordan. Simon and husband the night before that she wanted a di Martin, who'd become good friends, re vorce and planned to take their three children mained in almost daily e-mail contact. Besides with her. Although no one at AD had been comparing impressions of their respective hurt, everyone who worked there, naturally "desert kingdoms" they helped each other was upset. Shortly thereafter, Shirlee North with their overlapping investigations of sili the head of HR, started looking into how to con's molecular properties. The story the police pieced together back at avoid this sort of incident in the future. Dor Over the next several days, Simon thought husband was not an employee, but he could back to their keystroked conversatios and e have been. Soon Shirlee was examining couldn't quite remember whether he had other companies' zero-tolerance policies. She asked AD's Office of Internal Security to cer discovered that they had strong executive sup- tify Martin as a correspondent on scientific port. With assistance from general counsel, she matters. AD was understandably eager to predrafted such a policy for AD vent its trade secrets from reaching compe Initially, it covered only weapon and drug tors. Simon knew he wasn't guilty of allowing possession. But then, at the midyear all-staff that. The scientific questions he raised with meeting, a young woman stood up to say that Martin were too fundamental to be product if it hadn't been for that smoker, security related, and Martin had no industry connec would have been on hand to tackle Doris's hus- tions Simon was aware of other than Got band the second he entered the lobby. Unmis- tfried, who had left a research post in Tübin- takable murmurs of agreement throughout gen, Germany, to join AD. Maybe, Simn the auditorium quickly made clear to Shirlee thought, he'd been dismissed for spending and Don that illicit smokers should be added time online researching the climb up the Mat o the list of wrongdoers who would not be to terhorn he'd been planning-the choice of crated at Applied Devices. It came to scem wise to include anyone possessing alcohol or ployees' health, safety, and morale not to showing signs of intoxication on-site; misap mention to the company's productivity and propriating company property, regardless of reputation-were too great. When the conduct value, incurring unauthorized expenses above specified was so clearly harmful, and the line $100; or engaging in unauthorized e-mailing that must not be crossed so sharp, why and Internet use. Additions came every few shouldn't employees who did cross it face sum- months or so, and each was announced in a mary dismissal? global e-mail Here was an idea inspired by Democratic senators Dianne Feinstein and Byron Dorgan, who had drafted the Gun-Free Schools Act and The Quality of Mercy Don, who had been CEO of Applied Devices the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communi- for almost three years, was a Six Sigma master ties Act back in the mid-19908 laws that now black belt, a churchgoing Southern Baptist, permitted Don's neighbors' kids in the Pueblo and, as it happened, a pretty good shot. It was public schools to concentrate on their studies on the strength of the job he'd done as AD's instead of facing the temptation of getting ice president for manufacturing that Do high or the worry they might get stabbed or had ascended to the company's top position. shot. According to the Pueblo policy, students When he became vice president, AD was suf- carrying weapons or any drug not medically fering from a ratio of scrap to outputs that was authorized faced immediate expulsion. Ninth 57% higher than the industry average. Cycle grade math scores. Don had read in the news- and delivery times had been slipping, machine paper, were climbing. Surely there was a con- parts were wearing out faster than supplier nection. ecifications had promised, and no one couldOne of Don's neighbors had passed along an figure out why there was so much variation in article by the late senator Daniel Patrick the amount of copper that went into AD's mi- Moynihan, a former Harvard professor, en croprocessors. Don hired some black belts and tled "Defining Deviancy Down." Moynihan as- saw to the training of a couple of dozen green serted that just as very law-abiding societies belts. Within 18 months, AD's productivity tended to treat minor crimes as grave infrac growth rate tripled tions, societies that experienced far too much Emboldened by this triumph, Don de bad behavior often indulged it, explained it cided, after he became CEO, to extend Six away, and eventually judged it harmless. Sigma principles-under which there must be Moynihan thought the late 198os and early no more than a few defects per million oppor 1990s, with their high crime rates, had been tunities-to finance and accounting. The c one such society; might the increasing indiffer- lection rate shrank by 12 days within just à ence of employees to company rules mean that few months, the uncollected-receivables rate Don was living in another? plummeted soon thereafter, and it now took only four days to close the account books fol drove with his wife to Mt. Hebron Baptist, a lowing the end of a quarter. Since Don was red-brick Victorian church downtown, where thoroughly sold on Six Sigma, he extended the Reverend Steve McCracken delivered a ser- that discipline to human resources as well. Al- mon entitled "Lines Drawn in the Sand: ill though warned by Shirlee that not all HR pro the Lord's Tears Wash Them Away?" Many of cesses were quite so susceptible to quantifica Don's coreligionists in Pueblo were teetotal tion, Don soon saw a sizable reduction iners, and some still frowned on dancing. But overpayments to employees on medical leave Don's religion, though strict in its ways, also and in the time it took to fill vacant positions. preached forgiveness when sinners acknow That Sunday, as he did most Sundays, Don So when, in the aftermath of the pisto edged their lapses and repented. As CEO, how waving incident, a clamor erupted in favor of a ever, Don thought his first duty was to the we zero-tolerance policy forbidding weapons any fare of the institution he ran, not to the where on campus, and Shirlee produced lan handful of errant souls within it. guage that passed legal muster, Don was recep tive. He believed that deviations from aAnother Kind of Process? defined standard of behavior shouldn't be tol- Melissa Dresser was Shirlee North's second in erated at Applied Devices. The dangers to em command. She had seen Simon's dismissal coming and had fretted about it. Unautho terorist-but she came around because she rized Interne use was fundamentally differ nderstood the stakes involved, like everybody ent from, say, gun possession, which had to be who works at AD. stopped in its tracks or everyone would be in danger. Goofing off online was a substantial voice softened. "But when health and safety cumulative drain on the company's productiv- aren't at stake, it's hard to justify summary ity, in Don's view; but Shirlee had advised hi dismissal. that the first instance of it that IT detected and referred to HR could not, realistically, serve as Shirlee replied evenly. "After all, we could grounds for firing. So, working with a retired have terminated Simon long before we did. FBI agent who now ran a security consulting As you've seen, though, we've made sure that business in Pueblo, Shirlee had developed zero tolerance for nonsafety violations in- some protocols. Melissa looked directly at Shirlee, and her "I feel we've evolved to meet your concern volves a lot of managerial discretion," she More than eight hours online per week, an added, sounding rather proud of the protocols amount that was 20% higher than the com- she'd worked out. pany average, identified an employee as sus pect and precipitated spot monitoring of Web greater urgency, "even people engaging in be- sites visited. If 25% or more were found to be havior we know is wrong might have some- clearly unrelated to the employee's duties, thing meaningful to say in their own defense. then e-mail would be monitored, too. The pro They're not schoolchildren. But zero tolerance tocol for that was, first, the auditing of all e mcans they can't" mails sent to employees of competitor compaShirlee responded, this time a bit stiffly, that nies and, second, the auditing of all e-mails the company intervened only when the action with destinations carrying a foreign suffix, was clearly prohibited, the harm actual or im- such as "de, for Germany, or "nz, for New minent, and the evidence unambiguous. Zealand. The consultant was particularly con cerned about Simon's frequent contact with a plunging ahead. "Don't you think Simon resident of a Middle Eastern country who was would have stopped spending so much time not on the approved list, and with their ex online if only we'd said something? We still change of indecipherable equations. The com don't know what he was up to with that Le- bination of the two violations called into ques decky fellow. He may have been in technical tion Simon's loyalty and dedication to the violation without hurting the company in any company, which the consultant and Shirlee way. Sometimes I think that the zero-tolerance deemed to be suitable grounds for firing. "But the fact is, Melissa continued with "But what is accomplished?" Melissa asked, policy, when you get right down to it, is de As Shirlee was getting ready to leave the of iged to punish people rather than to fix fice one evening shortly after Simon's expul- sion, Melissa asked if she could stop for a quick problems. It's not supposed to do either," Shirlee said by now feeling somewhat affronted. "The "I'm sorry to hold you up, but I'm worried point is to prevent problems from occurring." about where zero tolerance is leading us," Me "I don't know," Melissa replied. "The depart lissa began. "You know 1 was completely be ment's been talking about making romance be hind the policy on guns. I felt we had to ignore tween a manager and a subordinate -or even the hunters on staff who groaned about the the appearance of hanky panky a reason for ban on rifles in the trunks of their cars. I also automatic dismissal. But that kind of thing is think it's good that we don't pay any attention almost impossible to prevent." Besides, she to pill takers who don't like showing us their added, reassigning one party or the other, and suing both a stern reprimand, would solve Melissa paused, and her eyes lit up."Hey, re- the problem in most cases. "Yet Sallie and member how upset Don's wife was when a Myra and I worry we'll look like we're condon- drug prescriptions. port security grabbed her Hermès manicure kit? You told me she pestered Don for weeks to buy a fractional share in a Gulfstream so she wouldn't have to go through that again. She had a point -she doesn't make for a very scary ing really evil behavior unless we pounce." "I would hope that a of you would 'pounce; as you put it, if there were a power imbalance and a manager engaged in conduct that was demeaning and inherently exploit ative," Shirlee said. "You would have no lead to the solution of difficult research prob- choice but to totally dissociate yourself and lems. Simon's background in spectroscopy had the company from it. Aside from all the harm turned out to be as valuable as he'd hoped, to morale these kinds of abuses cause, you making Simon's firing especially painful for seem to ignore the damage a single incident Gottfried, who, with Don's blessing, had re- can do to AD's reputation. Have you already cruited Simon and a few other especially forgotten the trouble we had recruiting peo promising scientists directly, bypassing ple after word got out about Doris Klemm's Shirlee's department, which handled only the husband? My philosophy is, 'Dire threats re- paperwork. quire drastic solutions. When the Tetragram deal was announced, "I'm tired of all this back and forth," she fin Applied Devices' remaining R&D team mem- ished."I'll see you tomorrow, 8 AM sharp." bers found themselves under such pressure that they took to downloading various propri- etary databases to their laptops so that they Letting the Chips Fall AD was making steady but slow progress to could continue their calculations at home. And ward fabricating Don's pet microprocessor then the bulletin came: "The policy of Applied Meanwhile, an innovative French cell phone Devices, Inc., is one of zero tolerance for the manufacturer had signed a contract with Tet downloading and removal from Applied De- ragram, AD's toughest competitor, known to vices' premises of all databases that are the in be working on a similar device. The research tellectual property of Applied Devices." ers' work had not been helped by Simon's dis- missal, which shocked Gottfried, their chief, above all. The academic milieu Gottfried came Should Applied Devices modify any part of from was relaxed about things like Internet ts zero-tolerance program?. Four use-and certainly it had little reason to be commentators offer expert advice. worried about gunplay. He knew as well that See only the most open exchange of ideas could Case Commentary 31% 4:15 Individual-Assignment-MSM-533-Advance-Human-Resources-S.. Individual Assignment MSM 533 Advance Human Resources Strategy Case Study Analysis The Reign of Zero Tolerance by Ben Gerson, Harvard Business Review, November 2006 This goal of this assignment is to give the student an opportunity to demonstrate how the information in this course would apply in a real work place situation. To successfully complete this assignment the student will need to demonstrate the following: 1. Knowledge of the concepts and theories that have been presented in this course 2. Problem solving skills 3. Critical thinking skills 4. Decision making within complex situations 5. The ability to apply concepts and theories to a given situation 5. Writing skills at the Graduate level The requirements of the assignment are: 1. A minimum of 3 pages and a maximum of 5 pages 2. A minimum of 3 credible/scholarly references beyond the course material 3. APA format for references and the formatting of the paper. 4. The paper should include: 1. A short summary of the situation 2. Who are the central characters? 3. What is/are the primary issue(s)? 4. What if any, 5. What, if any, are the possible unintended consequences? 6. What is your evaluation of the steps taken to resolve the situation? 7. What would have done differently? 8. What is your POV, conclusion and any general ideas for the primary issue? are the legal implications? IMPORTANT NOTE As in all HBR cases, there are commentaries from professional experts at the end of the case. You should not consider these comments as part of the case. You do not have to read these commentaries; however, you can consider them to inform your own analysis. Be careful not to adopt one of the commentaries for your own POV, as this would not be original work nor would it demonstrate your ability to analyze the study GET MORE GREAT APPS!M mobisystems

Answer 1

Yes , every responsible person must be punished as per the employment law and organizational policies. It gives a sound message to the stakeholders associated with the organization. The agenda of zero tolerance against malpractices, corruption, illegal activities, fraudulent, misbehavior and unethical approach must be promoted and protected by the top executives of the organization.

None should be given a right to damages the image and reputation of the company, a legal team must be appointed which will be responsible to provide legal penalties and recoveries in case of false propoganda and mis advertising by any individual or organization. It is most important for the corporate health and fairness across the marketplace. Investors protection programs and developing an image of philanthropic business must be safeguard against the intelligence of immediate competitors in the industry.