Santos Timber Company Case Study

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Rationale:

Firing an employee is not easy and this is not always the proper solution to the human resources problems. We arrive with this decision because it showed fairness to both sides, which is a very important factor in dealing human resources issues

Santos Timber Company for years has been managed and operated by Mr. Alfredo Santos out of a forest concession under his name. He has a plan to remarry and will reside in Manila to manage the properties owned by his fiancée. Mr. Vince cannot downplay the authority of Mr. Santos over the company, aside from the fact that he is a part owner, the concession is still owned by Mr. Santos. Taking a cue from his attitude to his past feelings against Mr. Cruz, Mr. Vinces should be wary about the possible conflict that may arise between them.

Mr. Carlos Vinces on the other hand has proven his capability to be an effective manager of the company. For a short period of time he was able to purchase two reconditioned truck. He was able to maintained harmonious relationship with the employees. This was developed through the help of Mr. Felix Cruz. Mr. Cruz has been the spokesperson of the trucking group and have earned the respect and cooperation of his co-truckers thereby they look up at him as their leader. Mr. Vince recognized the importance of Mr. Cruz that is why he disagreed with Mr. Santos on the first place. The skills and experiences of Mr. Cruz that he can share to the company cannot be simply ignored. We opted to try the mediation process of retaining Felix Cruz since we recognized the importance of both personalities in the case. Since Mr. Felix Cruz has a bad track record to Mr. Santos. Showing the improvements in the Trucking group made by Mr. Cruz could lessen his enthusiasm of Mr. Santos to dismiss Cruz. After all, Mr. Vinces takes responsibility of all logging operation and lives among the employees and might endanger himself from the revenge of the Cruz friends and families if ever Cruz is dismissed.

Implementation

Though we admit the difficulty of implementation we see that it is still feasible. Mr. Carlos Vinces should make use of his family relationship with Mr. Alfredo Santos.

Foremost Mr. Carlos Vinces must be able to convince his mother in law to persuade Mr. Santos to retain Felix Cruz. Mr. Vinces mother in law should also be able to orient Mr. Santos on the contribution made by Mr. Felix Cruz of increasing the productivity of the employees of the company.

On the other hand, Mr. Vince should also talk to Mr. Felix Cruz. It should be explain to Mr. Cruz thoroughly that Mr. Santos is still part owner of the business and his opinion still counts. Mr. Vince must be able to influence Mr. Cruz to be apologetic one to Mr. Santos.

The most important factor, Mr. Carlos Vinces should be able choose a mediator who is respected and admired by both parties since his life is at stake so as the business.

Contingency plan

When the mediation process fails, our contingency plan is to set up a mediation meeting with Mr. Santos and Felix Cruz and solve the issue between the two. In this alternative, parties may be able to confront or fix any misunderstanding in the past.