Juicy Tomato Company

Unit 1 Individual Project subject to complete problem:

You have just been hired by Juicy Red Tomato Company as a human resources consultant. Juicy Red Tomato Company (JRT), a tomato grower operating in Florida, hired you to investigate (1) the effectiveness and efficiency of its organizational structure, and (2) the selection and maintenance of managerial personnel. The reason why? Internal costs are rising, key personnel are leaving, and the company is considering expanding its operations.

You are not the first consultant; your predecessor had started to develop a proposal, but left suddenly. Review the proposal in progress, then add what is needed to complete this initial stage of problem definition.(Use the first five steps of the Research Process for Basic and Applied Research, Figure 4.1, on the Sekeran, p. 56, for formulating a full research design).

Following is your predecessor's work:

Juicy Red Tomato Company is a tomato grower, operating in Florida. The company has been in operation for 15 years, during which it has grown at a rate of about 5% per year. Costs have remained steady for the first 10 years of the company's existence, but have grown by 2.5 - 4% over the past 3 years. Reasons cited by the company include unexpected temperature drops, pests, and increased labor costs. Management has tended to come from within the company, as long-term employees "rise through the ranks". Over the past year, several long-term, key personnel have left, citing that they had "no future" with JRT. On the bright side, JRT is poised for an increased rate of growth, through possible expansion of the business.

JRT has retained this consultant to investigate (1) the effectiveness and efficiency of its organizational structure, and (2) the selection and maintenance of managerial personnel. We will conduct internal and external research on the causes of the issues and present recommendations.

After preliminary interviews within the organization and research of the produce industry, and business cases with similar challenges, we have formed a hypothesis; that Juicy Red Tomato Company needs to invest in retention not only of its managerial personnel, but also front-line production employees. In addition, JRT needs to improve communication between production and operations, possibly by enhancing technology used by the company as a whole.

Problem to be completed:

You bring your initial proposal work (topic, purpose statement, research questions, and hypothesis) (from your Unit 1 Individual Project) to a stakeholder committee, which is comprised of your manager and other senior-level people. They react and you take notes.

Committee Members' Remarks/Notes:

Juicy Red Tomato Company
Steering Committee Meeting notes
? Discussed research proposal
? HR manager comments - agreed with everything, seemed a little upset
that her suggestions were not followed previously
? Agri director disagrees that wages are not adequate - "after all we're
using migrant workers" Also argued that JRT provides housing for
workers, so that should count as compensation.
? IT manager commented he's been fighting for budget to improve
communications but has been denied funding
? President believes that field personnel will not use "hi tech toys" like
cellphones and pdas
? CFO commented that if JRT starts paying production people more, profit
margin will be destroyed

Questions to Answer:

1. What, if any, biases do you detect in the steering committee members' remarks?

2. At this point, are they using reflective or expedient decision-making methods? What do you need to do to address their concerns?