To what extent do you think there is a partnership between Tagit management and the workforce?

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Case Philippa Bott and Ed Crossland formed Tagit in 2003 as an entrepreneurial venture. Each invested £25,000 in the idea of selling personalized sports clothing and memorabilia to anyone wanting to purchase it. After exploring a number of markets, they finally struck a deep vein of successful contracts with schools and fitness centers, at which point Tagit took off. The company had a turnover of £2.75 million in 2014; now employing 80 people, it has a diverse and successful product portfolio and a database of over 21,000 customers. The production process is simple. A team of designers creates computer programs capable of translating logos and emblems into transferable designs. The final programs are loaded onto machines that either embroider or print the designs onto sweatshirts, school bags, baseball caps, sports equipment, and so on. These items, many of which are bespoke, are then sold. The employee relations’ philosophy behind the company was articulated by Ed as one that was predominantly ‘selfish’. He wanted to establish somewhere where he could enjoy going to work in the morning and staying happy all day. Intrinsic to this was his vision of an enjoyable non-hierarchical workplace where everyone was valued. This meant creating a workplace community based on ‘shared interests while fostering an ethic of innovation and individual achievement – where Tagit employees have the capacity to affect and influence their own livelihoods’. Philippa echoes this view: she talks enthusiastically about how she is ‘deeply driven by a need to see people within the company succeed… I get a kick out of nurturing it [the company], seeing it grow and develop its people.’ One of the interesting developments within the company linked to this philosophy has been its unique formulation of partnership practices and policies. Evolving as the company grew, this philosophy is epitomized by the slogan ‘Tagit is ours’. This came to unique fruition when, unfortunately, Ed died and his widow sold 38% of her 45% stake in the company. Not one to miss an opportunity, Philippa ensured that the shares were offered to all of the staff. In 2009, curious to evaluate their employee relations’ philosophy and perhaps put it on a stronger footing, Philippa arranged for the entire company to hold a weekend workshop, creating a Tagit mission statement. The intention was to further examine the culture and formalize what each employee personified. However, the numbers who could attend were so small that the process was postponed. Later a series of one-day workshops, held during working hours and led by an external facilitator, looked at how everyone behaved and produced a model of what the participants believed their workplace activities and values involved. Starting with the question ‘Why are we here?’, the workshops tracked the history of the company and, almost as an aside, debated the philosophical nature of democracy. The discussion led to how a democratic work organization might be established within Tagit. Overall themes evolved and mini statements, encapsulating the ways in which the company operated – like ‘friendly atmosphere’, ‘listening to one another’, ‘flexibility’, ‘our duties to one another’ – were all recorded. Deriving from all of this talk, the twin aspiration It is the mission of Tagit to offer people with shared goals and values the opportunity for continued personal and professional development, by cultivating a caring and rewarding environment where people feel inspired, respected and appreciated. These core beliefs were incorporated into a number of formal employee relations statements and policies. These policies were honed by a further workshop a year later. Again, everyone was involved. The core beliefs were elaborated on, and a model comprising five pillars was produced. This model epitomized the Tagit philosophy and became the rationale behind all of the company policies. Each pillar is, in Philippa’s words, ‘assigned a classic mutual exchange of rights with corresponding responsibilities.’ Each pairing is intended to articulate the mutual obligations between the company and its employees in a balanced way to ‘ensure that the company and the individual employee do not intrude too much on each other.’ Table 1 shows the pillars: Table 1 The Tagit philosophy. Pillar Rights Responsibilities 1. Information and involvement Access to information Involvement in decision- making Open and honest participation 2. Fair reward with no indecent salary differentials Honest endeavor and commitment 3. Shared prosperity Shared prosperity through profit-sharing and share ownership Persistence and full contribution to the Tagit effort 4. Application of organizational values to be treated with fairness, consistency, respect and support Protection and enhancement of the workplace community by showing fairness, consistency, respect and support 5. Development opportunities Training opportunities for development Commitment to meeting training objectives and to developing in harmony with the needs of Tagit These pillars are now enshrined in the constitution of the company and any changes have to be agreed by 76% of the shareholders. Additionally, at an individual level, the model is incorporated into the employment contract. As Philippa said, ‘in a way, it is an “emotional contract” that we are asking people to sign, and we need them to think very carefully before they sign it.’ Over the last few years, workshops have discussed the pillars, added to the background documents, and the pages of explanatory notes have grown to more than 70. Re-drafting has become imperative, perhaps all the more so because the company is now facing fierce competition (globally not just nationally), redundancies are a possibility, and employees are questioning why security of employment has not been given a pillar of its SAGE © SAGE Publications Ltd 2016 SAGE Business Cases Page 4 of 5 Tagit own. As the company has grown the employees have been carefully chosen to fit in with the ethos espoused by the two founders. In the last nine months, however, particularly since the impact of austerity measures, there has been the talk of job losses, and not everything has appeared quite so mutual. The last workshop called to reformulate the pillars was marked not by agreement but by dissent. Several employees claimed that the company obligations were, even if not obviously favoring the employer, ambiguous and that the reciprocity was wearing thin. A recent recruit to the company, who had been working in Germany, suggested that formalizing the workshops in the style of a works council with union representatives speaking up for all of the employees might be useful. Philippa was horrified and bemused. She felt that everyone had a duty to pull in the same direction, particularly when there was a problem, and that a works council would be an unnecessarily bureaucratic way of communicating with staff – something that she felt was already taken care of. Discussion Questions
1. Evaluate the philosophy behind the company’s way of working and analyze how it impacted upon perceptions of organizational justice both when the company was formed and later when redundancies were threatening.
2. To what extent do you think there is a partnership between Tagit management and the workforce?
3. Where does the power lie?
4. Evaluate whether the possibilities of redundancies will strengthen or weaken the employee involvement activities at Tagit.
5. How would you advise the company to move forward from its present predicament?

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