1.1 Ask to appear before the executive committee to argue that the year-end bonus plan for workers be honoured. Executives could defer their bonuses until the problem in the structure of the compensation plan is resolved. When Suzanne Lebeau, human resources manager, received a call from Bert Wilkes, financial controller of Farley Glass Works, she expected to receive good news to share with the Wage and Bonus Committee. She had already seen numbers to indicate that the yearend bonus plan, which was instituted by her committee in lieu of the traditional guaranteed rises of the past, was going to exceed expectations. It was a relief to her, because the plan, devised by a committee representing all levels of the workforce, had taken 11 months to complete. It had also been a boost to morale at a low point in the company’s history. Workers at the glass shower production plant were bringing new effort and energy to their jobs, and Lebeau wanted to see them rewarded.

She was shocked to see Wilkes’ face so grim when she arrived for her meeting. ‘We have a serious problem, Suzanne,’ Wilkes said to open the meeting. ‘We ran the numbers from our third quarter to project our endof-

year figures and discovered that the executive bonus objectives, which are based on net operating profit, would not be met if we paid out the employee bonuses first. The executive bonuses are a major source of their income. We can’t ask them to do without their salary to ensure a bonus for the workers.’