Case Study 2 on BONNE BELL FACTORY EMPLOYEES AVERAGE AGE 70

Prepared for Lt Col Md Mahmud Hassan, psc Instructor Analysis of Human and Organizational Behavior (J 501) Faculty of Business Studies

Prepared by M1213001 | Mohammad Monirul Islam M1213006 | G.M. Emrul Hasan M1213008 | Sheik Shaeen Sarwar M1213029 | Lalin Balo M1213031 | Md. Abu Bakar Siddique

Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP) Mirpur Cantonment, Dhaka - 1216

J501 Analysis of Human and Organizational Behavior

January 30, 2012

Bonne Bell Factory Employees Average Age 70

(The given case study consists of four questions, of which we are required to answer all the questions. The following questions are analyzed and answered one by one aligned with original case.) 1. How do the facts in this case align with research on age in the chapter? Answer: Age is a biographical characteristic, which is described in respective chapter in our textbook. A lot of researches have been done to study the relationship between age and job performance. The facts in this given case are aligned with these researches on age in the following way:

Older workers bring positive qualities to their jobs, such as experience, judgment, a strong work ethic, and commitment to quality (Greene, 2003). Here, senior employees meet the goals, perform well and keep cost down. Older people are less likely to quit jobs (Davies, Matthews & Wong, 1991). In this company, turnover is almost nil. Over-50 employees are significantly more productive in terms of sales generated against cost than younger employees (Labich, 1993). Moreover, job performance does not decline with age (McEvoy & Cascio, 1989). Here, productivity is higher than the set goals. Performance of senior employees generates more gains due to their experience (Landy, 1992). Most studies indicate a positive association between age and satisfaction, at least up to age 60 (Lee & Wilbur, 1985). In this factory, senior workers seem more than happy for working here.

2. Is this factory engaging in reverse age-discrimination? Answer: This factory seems making discrimination, but actually NOT engaging in reverse agediscrimination because of following matters: Bonne Bell Factory needed employees when labor markets were tight. At that time, seniors were available. The factory has only one production department, which consists of senior employees. They have other departments, where many younger employees are working. Moreover, senior employees are minimizing costs. For instance, they have saved more than $1 million outsourcing cost of the company in the first four years of working.

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J501 Analysis of Human and Organizational Behavior

Besides, senior employees are happy to accept $7.50 per hour payment and they do not need any health benefits. Thus, they are keeping costs low.

3. Do you think these older workers would perform as well if they were integrated into a department with younger workers? Support your position. Answer: Homogeneous people tend to do better than heterogeneous people. Hence, performance of older workers might decrease, if they are integrated into a department with younger workers for the following reasons:

Senior employees skills particularly speed, agility, strength, and coordination differ from younger employees skills. Younger people are more active and vigorous at work than older people. So, working with younger people, older people may slow down operational activities. For example, our MBA-13 batch consists of students who have come from diversified backgrounds. When Accounting (A 501) class goes on, BBA background students can easily understand the course matters, but students from other backgrounds, i.e. social science or geography, find difficulty to understand. Here, course instructor cannot deliver her topics to specific group of students. If students were homogeneously aligned, course could be modified according to students needs. Similarly, in this factory, skills and abilities of older workers differ from younger workers. Some studies have found a U-shaped relationship between age and job satisfaction (Kacmar & Ferris, 1989). Job satisfaction decreases with the increases of age. Therefore, senior employees may find some difficulties to work with younger employees.

4. Do you think the success that Bonne Bell has had with hiring older workers is transferable to other companies? Why or why not? Answer: After analyzing the given case, studying our textbook and searching over internet, we have found some mixed results whether success of Bonne Bell is transferable to other companies. The possible reasons of transferring success to other companies are:

This case shows that seniors have proven to be an ideal source for new employees. Not only seniors have proven to be productive and loyal, but also they help keep costs down. They do not need any health benefits and are happy to accept lower payment. Stereotypes such as older people are too slow or misfits in a high tech world are proved as wrong. Senior employees can perform well, if they are properly utilized as Bonne Bell. Moreover, a sizable group of senior employees are there in the market. Hence, they can be hired at low cost.

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J501 Analysis of Human and Organizational Behavior

This factory has almost zero turnover rates of senior workers, which shows that they can become more efficient by working job tasks over and over again in their tenure. They have lower rates of avoidable absence than do younger employees (Hackett, 1990). If there is any decay on their physical abilities, it is offset by gains due to experience (Landy, 1992).

However, following reasons shows the difficulties of transferring success to other companies:

Every company is different from one another and each has its own plans for human resources. Thus, hiring older employees might not work for them. Though older workers have lower rates of avoidable absence, but they have higher rates of unavoidable absence, probably due to poorer health associated with aging and the longer recovery period that older workers need when injured (Hackett, 1990). This absence might hamper the operation of the company.

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J501 Analysis of Human and Organizational Behavior

References Journals: Davis, D. R., Matthews, G., and Wong, C. S. K., Aging and Work, in Cooper, C. L., and Robertson, I. T. (eds.), International Review of Industrial and Organizational Psychology, vol.6 (Chichester, UK: Wiley, 1991), pp. 183-187. Greene, K, Older Workers Can Get a Raw Deal Some Employers Admit to Promoting, Challenging Their Workers Less, Wall Street Journal (April 10, 2003), p. D2. Hackett, R. D., Age, Tenure, and Employee Absenteeism, Human Relations (July 1990), pp. 601-619. Hochwarter, W. A., Ferris, G. R., Perrewe, P. L., Witt, L. A., and Kiewitz, C., A Note on the Nonlinearity of the AgeJob Satisfaction Relationship, Journal of Applied Social Psychology (June 2001), pp. 1223-1237. Kacmar, R. M., and Ferris, G. R., Theoretical and Methodological Considerations in the Age Job Satisfaction Relationship, Journal of Applied Psychology (April 1989), pp. 201-207. Labich, K., The New Unemployed, Fortune (March 8, 1993), p. 43. Lee, R., and Wilbur, E. R., Age, Education, Job Tenure, Salary, Job Characteristics, and Job Satisfaction: A Multivariate Analysis, Human Relations (August 1985), pp. 781-791. McEvoy, G. M., and Cascio, W. F., Cumulative Evidence of the Relationship Between Employee Age and Job Performance, Journal of Applied Psychology (February 1989), pp. 11-17. Schmidt, F. L., and Hunter, J. E., The Validity and Utility of Selection Methods in Personnel Psychology: Practical and Theoretical Implications of 85 Years of Research Findings, Psychological Bulletin 124 (1998), pp. 262-274. Wrenn, K. A., and Maurer, T. J., Beliefs About Older Workers Learning and Development Behavior in Relation to Beliefs About Malleability of Skills, AgeRelated Decline, and Control, Journal of Applied Social Psychology 34, no. 2 (2004), pp. 223-242 Books: Landy, F. J., et al., (1992) Alternatives to Chronological Age in Determining Standards of Suitability for Public Safety Jobs (University Park, PA: Center for Applied Behavioral Sciences, Pennsylvania State University).

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Robbins, S. P., and Judge, T. A. (2009). Organizational Behavior (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall), pp. 82-83.

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