Foxconn Technology Group (A) Case Solution And Analysis, HBR Case Study Solution & Analysis of Harvard Case Studies

Question 4

What is the cause of the suicides? How do you evaluate the company’s response?

The low workers’ wages, long working hours for the workers and the tough working conditions are the causes that propels employees to resort to end their lives, as they are not able to deal with the immense pressure in the working environment of the company. In addition to this, the main essential cause of the worker's suicide is related to the safety of the workers that are employed by the Foxconn Technology Company. Also the few workers died after falling off from the buildings of their dormitory due to no availability of safety and security. In the dormitories at the Foxconn, the workers often felt suffocated during the hot summer as only fans were fixed there. Secondly, a poor smell continued to spread in the dormitories and nobody cared about the scrubbing of the shared place and were referred by the workers as the garbage dorm. The mistreatment of the employees and too much work pressure are also other secondary reasons for the suicide of the employees at the Foxconn Technology Company as the unequal treatment for the employees plays a significant role in the series of suicide attempts.

Some workers committed suicide because the work that was assigned to them was too noisy and also unbearably exhaustive. In addition to this, because of too much work pressure, workers were unable to control their emotions which forced them to commit suicide. Secondly, the reduction in the incentive of the workers, which was associated with the employee performance might also a cause of the suicides.

Few other reasons are as follows:

The strict procedures and principles of the company
The military style management,
Labor abuse and mistreatment
Long working hours

In response to the continuous suicide attempts the company indicated to do everything that was possible in order to stop the suicide attempts by the company's workers. The company developed strategies to improve the working conditions for the workers in the factories of Foxconn Technology. The company in order to prevent the suicide attempts also requested its employees to sign a no suicide pledge and also decided to increase the salaries of their workers.

Besides increasing the wages of the employees, the founder of the company offered the team members from the media and its suppliers an open visit to the Foxconn factory and allow them to openly scrutinize the working situations. In order to counsel their managers and assembly line workers, the company also hired sociologists and psychiatrists to avoid any suicide attempts in the future. The overall efforts of the company were good as these measures taken by the company to discourage the suicide cases were decent, but these measures need to be continually adopted as per the needs of the workers.

Question 5

As an HR professional in Foxconn, what role do you think the function should play in embedding sustainability into the core strategy of the firm?

The HR function of the company should help in formulating and achieving environmental and social goals as well as also matching these goals with the traditional financial performance metric of the Foxconn Technology Company. In addition to this, the HR function should also assist in identifying what is required and what is desirable in formulating the business values and sustainability strategy in order to maintain the core competitive advantage. Furthermore, the HR function should also require to make sure that the workers of the company are implementing the strategies consistently.

The HR function can develop the strategies in order to create the workforce that include the trust, values, skills and motivation across the company that help in achieving a sustainable profitability and productivity. Another role that the HR function can play is that it should encourage the employees of the company through the training of personal skill development and compensation plan programs for the workers. The HR function can also help in identifying the environmental and social problems that may impact the performance and productivity of the workers across the company. By focusing on the long term security of all the employees of the company in order to avoid distraction for employees and their families. The HR function must identify the new sustainability framework for the business and align its practices consequently with the strategies. Moreover, the HR function can play an important role by supporting the improvement and execution of corporate sustainability strategy as the HR contribution is also critical in order to achieve sustainable success for the business.

The above discussed roles, the HR function......................................

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