Case 14-Company Men

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Submit your answers to these questions as a file (DOC) attachment below:

  • What justification does Salinger give for the layoffs at GTX? 
  • What does McClary suggest GTX could do besides downsize? 
  • Do you agree more with Salinger or McClary regarding these layoffs? Why? 
  • How might McClary have benefitted from these layoffs? 
  • What are some of the potential long-term costs to GTX of these layoffs? 
  • What impact are these layoffs having on surviving employees? 
  • Were you surprised that McClary was fired? Why or why not? 
  • What would you want GTX to do if you were a shareholder, not an employee?

Click here to watch clips from “The Company Men”  (Links to an external site.)

Cast: 

Plot: 

When the publicly held shipbuilding (Links to an external site.) corporation Global Transportation Systems, or GTX, is downsized many employees are fired. Chief Financial Officer Gene McClary (Tommy Lee Jones (Links to an external site.)) challenges GTX CEO James Salinger (Craig T. Nelson (Links to an external site.))’s strategy of employee cutbacks and questions the ethics of spending money to build new corporate headquarters while laying off employees. Salinger asserts that the deep cuts are necessary to increase profits, to increase the stock price and discourage a rumored hostile takeover of the company. 

Later, it is determined that an additional round of lay-offs is necessary. Senior manager Phil Woodward (Chris Cooper (Links to an external site.)), who, over the course of 30 years, had risen from the factory floor to the corporate offices) is also fired. When McClary demands that senior HR (Links to an external site.) manager Sally Wilcox (Maria Bello (Links to an external site.)) rehire Woodward immediately, she tells him that he, too, is being fired. 

Scenes in this clip: 

  • McClary finds out about the downsizing 
  • McClary confronts Salinger 
  • McClary meets with his staff to discuss their increased workload 
  • The Board discusses the stock and the future of the company 
  • McClary confronts Salinger again 
  • HR decides whom to fire 
  • McClary is downsized