Month: March 2010

One of the most significant factors in the efficiency of an organization is the human resources management which is the relationship it forms from the treatment of employees in their lifecycle at work. Failure in this aspect would result in employees to have high levels of job stress and dissatisfaction. This can lead to higher absenteeism and turnover of employees. In the case of Electronic Arts, the failure in human resources management led to even more extreme measures as the employees launched a class action lawsuit in July, 2004 for unpaid overtime. EA creates very long overtime hours for their employees at work which brings up their stress levels and brings down their performance. The company’s brutal fixed hours include 13 hours/day (9 a.m. – 10 p.m.) for 7 days a week. Plus, during the ‘crunch times’ of producing games, the employees were forced to work extra hours. The case of lawsuit ended up with settlements of more than $31 million US in total.

Work Cited:

Electronic Arts faces overtime lawsuit by Ed Frauenheim (Web) (http://news.cnet.com/Electronic-Arts-faces-overtime-lawsuit/2100-1043_3-5450316.html)

Revenge of the gamers: Suing for ‘crunch time’; [National Edition] by Danny Bradbury (Web) (http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=0&did=1106460531&SrchMode=2&sid=12&Fmt=3&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1256855842&clientId=6993&cfc=1)

Marketers and operators, a tension that is familiar in all businesses, both of these sides only consider their functions the most significant in running a business. However, when it comes down to it, they cannot function effectively without the help of each other.

In one of the lectures of Commerce 486G, a situation of contradicting point of views from each side was taught by the speaker. Marketers try to push the business towards in producing more variety of products for the customers to choose from. However, in operators’ point of view, they demand to keep the variety less in order to create more efficient supply chain by preventing more days of inventory.

The article by Shellye, Marketing vs. Operations – Can’t We All Just Get Along? , suggests that without a firm operation of business in creating an effective product and service quality, the greatest marketing campaign would never turn out to be a success. Both marketers and operators need to collaborate by communicating their side and situation, and then they need to understand and learn the other side and adjust their work accordingly. This is the way that marketers and operators can both exist and function effectively with peace in the same company.