THINKING LIKE A MANAGER WITH A SUSTAINABLE OPERATIONS PERSPECTIVE

In 2030, you are now the Head of Operations of a Fast Moving Consumer Good (FMCG) hair and skin care manufacturing company that is becoming aggressive due to stiff local competition. This is aggravated by the influx of popular global manufacturers in the country trying to capture a bigger market share.

One day, your CEO approached you and discussed that your company is having losses in the past few months. This is why there are many employees who did not receive their salary for more than 3 months. As a result, there were employees who are secretly planning to protest and leave their work for an indefinite period of time. She requested you to identify the employee's leaders and terminate them immediately to prevent any consequence. The idea puzzled you as you thought that this is not the ethical way to engage with the employees. "Please allow me to give it some thought. I'll give you a recommended course of action within the week." The CEO insisted that you follow her orders.

That same day, you were informed by site facility manager that there was a chemical spillage in one of your facilities in Laguna that happened a day ago. The facility is located at a nearby lake, wherein there is a thriving community there whose main livelihood is fishing. There is a significant volume of spillage that affected the community, and it was confirmed that aquaculture industry was in bad shape. As Head of Operations, one of your responsibilities is to ensure that your stakeholders will not have a problem related to your operations. However, given this situation, you also need to report to your CEO about it and also think about action plans to manage the impacts.

Guide Questions

1. Is terminating employee leaders an ethical way to address the situation? Why or why not?

2. What are your recommendations to your CEO in order to avoid possible termination of some employees allegedly planning to protest?

3. Given that the spillage happened a day ago, how can you ensure that the environmental and social impacts are resolved for future generation?

4. Which of the issues would you prioritize to resolve and why?