Maple Leaf Shoes Ltd

Maple Leaf Shoes Ltd

Selection of a Human Resource Manager*

*Case prepared by Professor Hari Das of Department of Management, Saint Mary's University, Halifax. All rights reserved by the author © 2003.

Robert Clark, president and key shareholder of Maple Leaf Shoes, knew that he had a tough situation on his hands. In less than a month, Maple Leaf Shoes will have to negotiate a contract with a newly formed union in its plant, covering approximately 23 percent of the nonmanagerial workforce. A second and a more militant union is due for contract negotiations a few months later. Recently, the firm's human resource manager, John McAllister, left the firm for a better position in Toronto. Despite its best recruitment efforts, Maple Leaf Shoes has not been able to fill the vacancy. The firm ran want ads in the Globe and Mail, National Post, Vancouver Sun, and Halifax Herald. The ads yielded only 34 potential candidates, out of which a preliminary screening had reduced the number to nine (including a current employee of Maple Leaf Shoes). All nine were interviewed by Clark and five were eliminated from further consideration after this preliminary interview. The remaining four were interviewed a second time by Clark and three senior officers. Summaries of the résumés submitted by the four candidates are given in Exhibits 1 through 4.

Based on their résumés and on his impressions of the interviews with the four candidates, Robert Clark made the following mental evaluations of the applicants: Michael Anderson, Arthur Dougherty, Jane Reynolds, and Steven Robinson. Clark felt that each applicant had several strong points, but also possessed weaknesses.