ABSTRACT
In the fall of 991, Marian Kavols, top personnel officer at Slovakia Steel, was beginning to believe that his time had finally arrived. As a fifty-year-old business manager in Czechoslovakia, he had been troubled nearly all his life with the thought that he was a man cursed with unfortunate timing. Slovakia Steel is the largest producer of steel plate and sheet products in the former Czechoslovakia. In 1991, it had a total work force of close to 25,000 employees; approximately 15,000 of them were in the steel-making division. The low wages relative to Western Europe and the United States provided Slovakia Steel with a potential competitive advantage in world markets. Slovakia Steel was well below its global competitors in employment costs per hour. Kavols was scheduled to make a presentation to the board of directors of Slovakia Steel concerning the planned layoffs and their implementation.
