Recently in Knoxville the clothing company Goody’s has laid off five percent of its thousand person workforce. They call it a reorganization to deal with the drooping economy. Goody’s has recently not been seeing the past profit margins that it once did, and the company felt the only way for it to stay alive was to take action now. Goody’s is getting rid of many of its low performing brands and is brining in more popular brands. With this change in store structure and recent shift in management it leaves many wondering about the future of this company.
In this article we get a small insight into the area of Knoxville. Goody’s is described as one of the areas leading employers, employing just over a thousand people. The company is expected to lay off over five percent of its employees. Through this we can see that Knoxville seems like a smaller city whose economy might be having a difficult time.
A field worker might look at the further impact that this loss of jobs might have on the community of Knoxville. They might look to see if there is any hope for the people that have lost their jobs to find new ones. It should be helpful to see if there are any new company openings in Knoxville, to asses how detrimental to the Knoxville economy this lay off actually is.
There would be many ways that a fieldworkers questions would differ from a journalist. The journalist might want to relate the whole issue back to the national economy where the fieldworker would want to focus on the impact that this issue would have on the economy and culture of Knoxville. The also might want to focus on how this issue is going to further impact the corporation of Goody’s.
In order for the fieldworker to get a better understanding they would want to ask for more of history of the company of Goody’s. There was some information presented in the article about change in management, and that might be part of the cause for the problem. Goody’s is blaming this problem on the fall in the economy, but it should be questioned why isn’t every other company laying off if the economy is so bad.
To get a truly inside source the fieldworker should try to observe at the actual company of Goody’s for a couple of days. This will help the fieldworker uncover some of the more hidden problems of the company. There is also the option of interview, but it should not be from someone who has been recently laid off, because that would be a very biased opinion. The person being interviewed should be someone with insider perspective, but also a realistic view. If Goody’s is willing to cooperate with a field worker they would of course be the best source, but also perspective from the community must be taken into account.
Link
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/jan/31/goodys-to-reorganize-cut-work-force-by-5/
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2 comments:
You raise good questions here, especially with your focus on what happens to the people let go? What is a company's responsibility towards its employees?
You asked really good questions reguarding the issue. The questions you asked would definitely answer some questions that the public may have. I liked your point that the economy was low, but what does this have to do with letting people from their company go?
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