Decision-Making Paradigm in Human Resource Management During Organizational Crisis: A Critique of Leadership Strategy Using Utilitarian Philosophy
Overview
This paper presents a leadership scenario in which a human resource manager must decide between workforce reduction or salary cuts to prevent a tourism company's collapse during the COVID-19 pandemic. The author justifies the decision to lay off half of the staff based on operational necessity, then critiques this decision through the lens of John Stuart Mill's utilitarian philosophy, which emphasizes democratic consultation and employee welfare.
What this reflection paper covers
- Leadership scenario describing the dilemma of protecting a tourism company during financial crisis
- Justification for choosing workforce reduction over salary cuts and selection criteria for layoffs
- Critique of the decision using John Stuart Mill's utilitarian philosophy and emphasis on democratic decision-making
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Competency 3
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Decision-Making Paradigm
Recap of my leadership scenario
Companies are facing tough times and are on the verge of collapsing due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The company’s management needs to take extraordinary measures to ensure the company does not collapse. The actions that I need to take as a leader to protect the company is the biggest problem for me. A tourism company is on the verge of collapsing. As a human resource manager, I will have two options to protect the company: to cut down human resources by half or slash salaries by half and maintain all the human resources in the company. This is a problematic situation considering that the company has grown without a problem with these employees. They all depend on this company to take care of their families.
After lengthy consideration and consultation with other stakeholders, the best step to take as a human resource manager is to lay down half of the human resource because the inflow of clients has drastically reduced. A second problem that comes with this decision is choosing whom to lay off and whom to retain. Hardy (2017) says it is painful to retrench employees who have been loyal to you. Every company always looks for the best employees to work with, and retrenching would leave a gap in the company. Ahmed (2018) argues that it is good to retrench the employees who receive hefty salaries and remain with those who get small pay.