Becton Dickinson Case Memo
Becton Dickinson Case Memo
1. Summary of the key issues
Becton Dickinson (BD) is a large family-owned corporation with headquarters in New Jersey that emphasizes healthcare and diagnostic devices. Founding in 1897, BD has established its reputation based on a paternalistic human resource philosophy, e.g. never fires anyone, and rewards loyalty. Things had changed when Roger Kern was appointed as the vice president of human resources in 1981. He created a first-class traditional HR function at BD that focused on education, compensation, benefit and other key HR functions. In the late 1980s, despite these substantial changes, problems began to surface. More and more employees complained most HR programs and functions were “less than effective”, “not realistic enough” or “unresponsive to particular needs’, and many managers began to sense that Kern had failed to assemble a strong business-oriented staff of corporate HR professionals.
At the same time, economy recession, declined sales and troubles encountered in BD’s business had led to a dramatic corporate strategy change. Besides cost control and head count reductions, giving up its ambitious acquisition and over-extended policy, BD has become more focus on its core and basic strengths-healthcare business. Meanwhile, BD’s top management realized that Kern had not put in place an HR infrastructure that adequately supported new business strategies- “the role of human resources changed.” In 1987, BD introduced the concept of strategic human resource management (SHRM) and defined it as a way of thinking about business and people and how to bring about organizational changes to improve performance. In October 1988, Kern left BD and Jim Wessel had been appointed as the new head of HR because the top management knew that he understood business strategy and had ample experience.
Soon after Wessel assumed his position, he fell into two broad categories:...
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