PRACTICAL CASE PROCESSES OF DIRECTION AND MANAGEMENT OF THE COMPANY

THE PROVINCIAL NEWSPAPER

The company El Diario Provincial, was founded on March 12, 1921 in the province of Huesca, in

northern Spain, by two young journalists who saw the opportunity and the need to

cover this important northern part of the country with a good newspaper. Although the business

main was the publication of a daily newspaper, a few years later they also undertook

a commercial printing business.

At the beginning of the 90s, the Diario Provincial, belongs to a group of partners with

interests also in other media and marked liberal ideology. The newspaper

can boast of having a market share of around 26% in the province and 19% in

the region (where it competes with other national newspapers). The total number of workers

It is 81 without counting the special collaborators, mainly columnists.

The organization chart of the company is configured by a Board of Directors, formed

by the people who currently hold the shares of the company and three

departments (Editorial, Administration and Operations-Workshops), quite autonomous

among themselves although well coordinated by the director of the newspaper.

The Administration department also manages the sales department and

distribution. There is no HR department, being the head of personnel,

dependent on this Department of Administration, the one that exercises the functions

legal-labour, payroll and personnel contracts.

The writing staff comes mainly from schools of journalism and

circles linked to the contacts of company managers. The staff of

Administration and Operations-workshops is nourished to a large extent by relatives of the

same employees, although they are always open to hiring independent professionals.

The average age in the company is 42 years, with high seniority, especially

between Administration and Operations-Workshop employees.

The company has always been adapting to the new changes that have been taking place in the

sector of the daily press and commercial printing (a business that has been giving very good

benefits to the group apart from the synergies achieved with the consequent cost savings in

press business), prioritizing the introduction of new communication systems,

new machinery and printing presses. Innovation in the field of business management

it has been, instead, much lower.

But it is at the time of the great technological and business changes that occur

in the sector and, in general, in the entire Spanish economy at the beginning of the 1990s and that

It lasts until today, when a strong upheaval will take place in the company. Is

has to face a situation of renewal and restructuring, largely fostered by

the changes that had already occurred in previous years, mainly with the innovations

in communication systems, and also due to the new times in the world economy such as

globalization, and national characterized by a strong competitiveness motivated by the

digital transformation, which means a reduction in expenses, which generally have an impact on a

reduction in the size of company staff, as has occurred in other media and

national rotaries.

These changes that the sector is imposing are also accompanied by changes that want

and they see it necessary to continue competing, by the group of majority shareholders residing in

Madrid. They intend to clean up the company to make it more competitive or even if it were

necessary, to be able to sell it in good economic conditions.

This situation coincides with the presence of a new director, Mr. lvarez, with a personality

less communicative and empathetic than the previous one, who will lead this process of change in the

business. In this situation, there is no formal and detailed communication about the process of

change and restructuring that is intended to be carried out, limiting itself to presenting it in a

informal and general, underlining its fundamental philosophy, as a necessary sanitation plan

for the survival of the company.

This change process is perceived by the workers as a reduction of the workforce in

all departments, which will trigger a double group process. On the one hand, the

Departments compete with each other so that each of them is the least affected by the

reduction, on the other hand, within each department, there is a competition to avoid

be the worker affected by the possible reduction.

In this situation, the company avoids giving information about future plans and more taking into account

note that the last decision depends mainly on the business group based in Madrid,

who owns the majority of the company's capital. In this climate, at first

a growing series of rumors about the company's plans. Almost at the same time they leave

carry out an accumulation of comings and goings by some workers to the offices of the

director, department heads and other intermediate positions that are considered as

people who may have some kind of participation in decision-making.

People outside the company, considered important, are also beginning to be contacted

for his ability to influence people with decision-making power in the newspaper. The approach to these people are not simply looking for information, but also and mainly for self-promotion

and discredit of the colleagues themselves, who have come to be perceived as competitors of the potentially threatened job. In this sense, some workers resort to

strategies of using political ideology, whether true or invented, as a throwing weapon to

Eliminate potential competitors.

This rarefied and tense climate causes workers a feeling of anxiety and

dissatisfaction that translates into a lack of concentration at work, mistrust towards

colleagues and superiors and generalized dissatisfaction, except in those individuals who

They consider that they have some control of the situation because they often find themselves hypocritically,

standard-bearers of the prevailing ideology. In short, in a lack of satisfaction, which until the

moment had been quite high, which has an impact on interpersonal relationships and

interdepartmental, at work and in a drop in production.

The work environment is pernicious for some workers who, due to their own personality or

family circumstances, are more susceptible to conflictive situations and are

often the most efficient at their job. An example of this situation is the case of Marta,

management secretary, efficient person and exquisite treatment with her colleagues from the

Editorial department and with the other departments.

As the time for decision-making about changes in the company approaches,

Lists of those possibly affected by the restructuring begin to circulate. Martha's name

appears in the first lists. This produces a great emotional impact on him, a problem that

it worsens because the rumors change, sometimes including it and excluding others. Before this

uncertain and disappointing situation, Marta begins to consider her professional future outside the

company and so, finally when the process is closed, the decision-making process and despite

that Marta is not affected by the restructuring and she is expressly invited to remain

at the company, she declines this invitation because her professional career expectations are already

oriented and formalized with another company in the sector, where they have also offered an improvement

of her working conditions.

Questions to answer the case:

Do you think it is necessary to make changes in this company? why?

What mistakes have been made?

How would you carry out this process of change? Make a

action plan