Packing Strawberry Plants

[Gregorio Billikopf]

Case 1, Part I

This is the first case that I will share with you. We are inviting the participants of the second international agricultural labor management seminar to comment on the case (as well as anyone from the general public who wants to participate). Furthermore, if you are a grower or producer and would be willing to share a situation or case you are dealing with at the moment (ideally) or have dealt with in the past, we would love to have you post it here. Or, feel free to introduce yourself.

For those who want to know more about the international seminar, check out this page:
http://www.cnr.berkeley.edu/ucce50/ag-labor/7manual/AgLaborSeminar.htm

A grower, who also has a packing shed, has invited you to come and observe the work related to his packing operation. His desire is to improve some management issues revolving around quality control and pay issues. This is a real case, and the grower / packer has permitted me to post this case and share the details of the situation (but not the location of his operation). This producer grows and sells strawberry plants.

When you walk into his shed you notice that the strawberry plants are brought in from the field and sorted by packers who retain the good plants but discard the defective ones. You are told that there are two levels of quality control after the plants are sorted. Nevertheless, the grower is concerned because of quality issues. So much so that he includes up to 10% extra plants to cover for possible defective ones that are packed, so the buyer will be satisfied. Quality is an important issue as plants are exported internationally.

Packers receive a reasonable wage but as this is seasonal work, the grower is worried about being able to retain the workers through the season. Neighboring farm employers tend to cultivate crops that require longer periods of work from employees. Workers are paid on a piece-rate basis, not an hourly one. In order to keep up the quality, packers who get sloppy are punished by being asked to sit out an hour (i.e., they are not permitted to work for an hour).

As you walk about you notice that packers have much respect for the grower, and that the grower is a kindly person who treats everyone with respect and is never short tempered despite the multiple demands upon him. The grower wants your help in a sort of general way, and is not clear as to where he wants to get started. What would you recommend, given the small amount of information that has been shared, as a possible direction in helping this grower with his human resource management?

After several people have shared their opinions and suggestions, I will share the second part (what happened next) and we will all continue this conversation together.

[Jim Basch]

Hi All, I’m Jim from San Jose, enrolled in the seminar and dropping in with comment on the case.

The grower seems very knowledgeable and experienced-focused on customer satisfaction, quality, and worker attrition. If the grower hasn't already, I recommend looking into "high performance work systems" and "gain sharing programs" as a means of mining ideas on possible operational adjustments. I've experimented with these tools with some limited success in another industry and am happy to share stories-will spare this thread for now :)

Also, the grower may want to measure and compare the financial impact of different operational choices/adjustments/innovations against the current system. For this I like to use net present value (NPV) and internal rate of return (IRR) as metrics. NPV and IRR consider the timing and magnitude of cash flows and are available functions in ms excel.

Hope this helps a bit, and looking forward to more discussion and the follow-up to this case. Take care all, Jim

[Gregorio Billikopf]

Jim,

I am very interested in hearing more about these success stories. Please tell us more about the high performance work systems as well as the gain sharing programs. The whole issue of financial impact is also key. One of the reasons why human resource management (HRM) is often looked down on is that little is done to quantify financial impacts. I realize that you cannot do all of that in one post, but over the next days it would be great to hear more about these. May I suggest you begin new threads on the separate issues? Thanks so much for posting and introducing yourself. Also, tell us a little more about your present position, if you can.

Best,

[Vera Bitsch]

My name is Vera Bitsch & I am a professor at Michigan State University. I teach an undergraduate course on labor and personnel management in the agri-food system, each fall. I also do research on human resource management issues in agriculture and work with growers, farmers, and educators on labor management questions as an extension/outreach specialist.

The strawberry plant packing case shows many issues that growers who want to use an incentive system struggle with. To me, the main question seems, what do we want our incentives to achieve. Do we want workers to pack as many plants as possible in any given time? Do we want workers to adhere to the quality system as closely as possible?
I am surprised to see a piece rate pay system used, if quality is the most important objective. Typically piece rate systems work best when the focus is on quantity and quality can be controlled well at the time the quantity is measured. Bonuses are much more flexible and can be more easily adapted to different situations and goals.
Therefore, my next questions would be, what are the most important objectives of the grower and how does the pay system work exactly, in particularly, when and how quality is measured.

I am also be very concerned about the "sitting out" punishment system and would like to see what others think about that.
Best, VB

[Jim Basch]

Thanks for the reply Gregorio. I'll be glad to start some new threads on separate issues over the next few days. Also, concerning my current position, I am a buyer/planner in the semiconductor industry with interests in ag labor and private equity. Don't ask me how I connect those dots though-I'm working on it myself :) Thanks again. -Jim

[Jim Basch]

Hi Vera, nice to make your acquaintance on this thread. I see your concern on the sitting out punishment. Relying on some very rusty behavioral psych, it seems too that outcomes from punishments are more difficult to predict compared to reinforcements. That might be a reason to use caution there as well. -Jim

[Gregorio Billikopf]

Case I, Part II

I want to thank Jim and Vera for their respective posts. Vera asks some interesting questions, such as “what do we want our incentives to achieve?” This certainly is a critical question to ask. Vera also questions the type of disciplinary consequence, in terms of “sitting out.” What are your feelings? How about balancing work speed and quality through pay for performance? Can it be done? Do you have a specific case where it worked? Or failed terribly? Jim makes some very interesting contributions about “high performance work systems” and “gain sharing programs,” which I invite you to read in the two separate threads. Over the next few weeks we hope to get more guests such as Professor Bitsch, growers, and class participants joining us and making comments. Those of you who read Spanish may also want to see the discussion there.

What happened next? What is interesting in labor management interventions, is that sometimes it appears that we have multiple options of where to begin. Eventually, we end up dealing with the key issues. In other cases, almost every possible step takes us back to a preliminary one that must be accomplished first. Which approach seems to fit this case better? The next step that was taken was to decide to study if the grower and his top people agreed on what it meant to pack good quality, before checking how well the packers understood the concept of good quality. What steps might you suggest to accomplish this goal?

[María Lis Molina]

Hi, my name is María Lis Molina. I live in Argentina and I think this is a great opportunity to learn a lot about Agricultural Labor Management. I have a degree in Human Resources Management and I love it, but in my country is very difficult to deal with people because of our laws.
So, I want to thank Gregorio and all of you for sharing all this valuable experiences.
Have a nice day!!!
María

[María Lis Molina]

I think, that in order to obtain quality from the employees it is very important to determine different levels of it, and then teach them how to recognize that quality.
The company should make manuals with photos and instructions.
They might give the employees some lessons about the standars they want to reach and all the process is involved in order to grow the plants.

[ShaunJudgeDuvall]

Hi all,
I am Shaun Duvall. I am a former Spanish teacher who now works primarily in the dairy industry as an interpreter/trainer/helper with dairy prpducers and their latino employees. I am neither a dairy expert nor an HRM expert. But the work I do does throw me into lots of situations where hrm skills are needed. That is why I decided to participate in this course.
I direct a program called Puentes/Bridges. We take dairy producers to Mexico for intensive Spanish, and visits to families and communities of their employees. We also have a parallel program for Ag. students at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, which does include an HRM course focusing on working with latino employees.
My comments on the strawberry plant employer: he/she seems like a nice person. I wonder what kind of relationship this employer has with his/her employees. What level of trust is there? I was unclear on the reasoning behind "sitting out". My initial reaction is that it is so punitive. I would be mortified if that had happened to me. If this person does this to discipline his employees, what are their true feelings for him? Or is this outside of the scope of the discussion?
Just my thoughts.
Shaun

[Gregorio Billikopf]

I want to thank María Lis Molina and Jim Basch for cross-posting in the English and Spanish bulletin board. This will greatly enrich our conversation. I want to invite all of those who can read Spanish or wish to contribute to the conversation there to visit http://nature.berkeley.edu/ucce50/7forum/forumdisplay.php?f=3 (http://nature.berkeley.edu/ucce50/7forum/forumdisplay.php?f=3)

María Lis Molina has given us a great suggestion, that the farm enterprise provide “manuals with photos and instructions.” I believe this would be very helpful. Shaun Duvall found the disciplinary process somewhat punitive and wonders how employees really feel about the grower-packer. This is certainly a very valid question which we need to discuss as we attempt to find more positive ways to deal with the quality issues. Because I know this grower very well, I wanted to comment a bit about this issue. As I follow this grower around the packing shed I am amassed at the low power distance that exists between himself and those he works with. Kimsey et. al. (leaning on the work of Hofstede in his book, Culture and Organizations) speak about power distance as being reflected in people’s willingness to openly disagree with the boss. (Mediator Communication Competencies: Problem Solving and Transformative Practices, 5th Edition, Pearson Custom Publishing, pp. 128-129). My original comment about the kindly nature of the grower was based on two factors, 1) the willingness of those he works with to disagree with him; and 2) the tone of voice he uses when speaking with employees. Having said this, Shaun has a very good point, and that is that despite what else we might do right, something such as this “sitting out punishment” may mean that employees may have pent up resentment toward this grower.

Returning to the concern I have about quality issues, I wanted to share some reasons for this worry. One farm manager in Chile felt his seven supervisors knew exactly what to look for in pruning a young orchard. After a little prodding, the manager agreed to a trial. The seven supervisors and a couple of managers discussed—and later set forth to judge—pruning quality. Four trees, each in a different row, were designated for evaluation. Supervisors who thought the tree in the first row was the best pruned were asked to raise their hands. Two went up. Others thought it was the worst. The same procedure was followed with subsequent trees, with similar results. In California, four well established grape growers and two viticulture farm advisors participated in a pruning quality study. As in the preceding situation, quality factors were first discussed. Raters then went out and scored ten marked vines, each pruned by a different worker. As soon as a rater finished and turned in his results, to his surprise he was quietly asked to go right back and rate the identical vines again. The raters’ ability to evaluate the vines consistently varied considerably. It is clearly difficult for each rater to be consistent in his own ratings, when compared to what they had rated minutes earlier, and it is even more difficult to achieve consistency or high reliability among different raters. (Chapter 3, Agricultural Labor Management: Cultivating Personnel Productivity.)

[BarbDartt]

Greetings from Michigan! My name is Barbara Dartt. I am a family business consultant that works primarily with agricultural firms. We assist businesses with financial management and in transitioning management and ownership between generations. The "people part" of businesses - including both the relationships between family members and among management and employees - is something we work with customers on nearly every day.

I am a former large animal veterinarian and Extension agent. Besides my DVM, I have a Masters in Ag Economics. As you can see, my formal training on the people part is pretty thin. I am excited about this class and learning from a group of peers, as well as an expert.

As for our strawberry packing plant owner, my first thought was that I didn't fully understand what he was hoping to accomplish. Now that he's given me the tour of the operation, I would find a quiet spot and ask him the following questions:
1. What does the ideal situation in your packing shed look like? Both from an employee satisfaction standpoint and from a measurable quality outcome standpoint.
2. What do you feel are the 3 biggest things that prevent you from getting to this ideal situation?

Based on his answers, we would explore his desired outcomes in more detail - this is both to get to know the grower and so that I fully understand what role he would like me to fill.

Now I am looking forward to reading Part II - I held off until I'd answered Part I!

[Gregorio Billikopf]

Hi Barb,

I enjoyed reading about your background. Welcome to the forum and to the International Agricultural Labor Management Educators seminar. I really like your approach of asking questions from the client, and making sure we have a good idea as to what they hope to accomplish. Very sound advice!

To the rest of the persons reading this thread, I am going to give anyone interested the opportunity to make further comments before I rush to tell you more regarding what we did at the operation. I have enjoyed everyone's comments very much!

Gregorio

[Salvador Zamudio]

I am late coming into the course. So please excuse me if this is a long gone issue.
I operate a consulting firm for the Agriculture Horticulture Industry. In my work I deal frequently with quality issues. I would suggest the following:
1. Develop acceptable Quality Standards or grade sizes.
2. Develop simple pictorial representation of the the acceptable quality range.
3. Train employees on the Quality Range.
4. Develop follow up procedures for Quality Standards.;)

[Gregorio Billikopf]

Thanks to all of you who have posted to this question. We are far from finished in terms of studying labor management approaches in this operation, but we do have a very thorough report for you in the area of quality control. The bottom line is that some people have a better eye than others for making quick decisions about keep vs. discard, treat vs. no treatment needed, and so on. What was very interesting in this packing shed, was that there were packers that we tested—individuals who had never been involved in quality control—who did better than some of the employees responsible for quality control. The potential economic impact of this study is huge. It can be found at http://www.cnr.berkeley.edu/ucce50/ag-labor/7research/CalAG11.pdf (http://www.cnr.berkeley.edu/ucce50/ag-labor/7research/CalAG11.pdf)