The company is facing financial difficulties and must lay off some employees. Senior management has created a list of workers to terminate in two weeks. The manager calls a meeting with department leaders to inform them of the layoffs, assure them their jobs are safe, get their feedback on employee reactions, and plan how to support staff during the transition. The manager will share how many positions will be cut in each department and discuss questions around the reasons for layoffs and how to maintain confidentiality until the termination date.

1. SAMPLE CASE STUDY: MANAGEMENT ANALYSIS & DECISION MAKING
CASE STUDY SITUATION
Times are slow for your company right now and with the rising costs of materials and wages, your profits
are at an all-time low. Because of this unfortunate situation, you will need to let some employees go. The
senior management team has already compiled the list of people whose employment will be terminated
two weeks from today. However, the people on the list will not know until the day of the termination.
You have called a meeting of your department managers and supervisors (judges). The managers and
supervisors do not know that a list has been created, so you will need to let them know this at some point
in the conversation. Also, they will not be able to see the list until the day of the terminations. Obviously,
this is a very confidential topic and should not be shared with anybody outside of this meeting.
The purpose of your meeting today is to confide in this group and assure them that none of them are on
the list. You also want to get their feedback on how the general employee base will react to the news and
event in two weeks. Next, you’d like to understand and anticipate any questions that they believe will
arise so that appropriate answers can be prepared. Finally, you would like to devise an action
plan/transition plan for the day after the event.
What you can tell the managers is the number of people they will each be losing, if you find that
information important to share. Here is the breakdown:
 Order Processing will lose four of its 12 people
 Human Resources will lose two of its five people
 Production will lose eight of its 40 people
After introductions, you should begin discussing this upcoming event with your managers (judges). Spend
as much time on each of the following questions as your group feels is necessary.
 Why is this happening?
 How will this impact the areas?
 How will the department managers plan for this without breaking confidentiality?
 How will the departments transition after the event?
 Anything else you feel your managers and supervisors would want to know or need to know.
Each member of your team (individual) should deliver some piece of the conversation to the employees
(judges).

3. © Copyright of Future Business Leaders of America – Phi Beta Lambda (FBLA-PBL) – This document is
property of Future Business Leaders of America – Phi Beta Lambda (FBLA-PBL) and its contents may
not be copied, uploaded to the internet or posted to a listserve without the copyright holder’s express
written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.
A full version of this document can be purchased at http://www.fblamarketplace.com/ under the
competitive events section.