netrashetty
Netra Shetty
Midway Games, Inc. (formerly Midway Manufacturing) is an American corporation. Following a bankruptcy filing in 2009, it is currently liquidating all of its assets. Founded in 1958 as an amusement game manufacturer, it became a video game publisher and developer in 1973. Midway published and developed titles such as Mortal Kombat, Ms.Pac-Man, Spy Hunter, Tron, Rampage and NBA Jam. Midway also acquired the rights to video games that were originally developed by Williams Electronics and Atari Games, such as Defender, Joust, Robotron 2084, Gauntlet and the Rush series.
Midway was purchased and re-incorporated in 1988 by WMS Industries Inc. In 1998, it became an independent public company. The company began in the arcade game business, scoring its first hit with the U.S. distribution of Space Invaders in 1978. After many years as a leader in the arcade segment, Midway moved into the growing home video game market beginning in 1996, the same year that it made its initial public offering of stock. Midway was listed as the #19 video game publisher in September 2005 and the #20 in September 2006 by the magazine
Strategic planning allows agencies to put down on paper where they are, where they want to go,
and how they plan to get there. But the best planning in the world does nothing for an agency if it
does not act on those plans. Strategic implementation of human resources management means
performing activities that support agency mission accomplishment and measuring how well those
activities contribute to achieving agency strategic goals.
Strategic HRM Activities
When we talk about HRM activities, we tend to focus on what the HR office, itself, is doing even
though we recognize that supervisors would bear the responsibility of HR decisions in an ideal
world. After all, NPR advocated deregulation and delegation and the downsizing and out-
sourcing of HR office activities so that human resources management could take place at the line
level, making it more responsive to mission-related needs. Additionally, the HR staff would be
able to devote more time to broader organizational issues, thereby improving its contribution to
mission accomplishment.
Unfortunately, deregulation and delegation, as reported in OPM’s 1997 special study, Deregu-
lation and Delegation of Human Resources Management Authority in the Federal Government,
have not taken hold as quickly or thoroughly as was hoped. HR is still doing most of the HR-
related work and is the nerve center for HRM activities. That is why the focus of this section is
on the HR office and what it does to support mission accomplishment.
So what are HR’s contributions toward mission accomplishment? Although most line managers
we interviewed cannot describe precisely which HR activities support specific agency strategic
goals, they recognize that they could not accomplish their mission without HR’s help. Ironically,
the areas most often mentioned by managers as HR’s most valued contributions are also the areas
they feel need the most improvement: recruitment and staffing, employee development, and
employee relations. They would like to see HR become more involved and innovative in these
areas, but they also admit that it would be extremely difficult for them to get their jobs done
without the help HR already provides. An interesting example of innovative staffing is the Federal
Emergency Management Agency’s Automated Disaster Deployment System
Clearly, staffing, development, and employee relations are important HR activities that make a
difference to agency goal accomplishment. However, there are other areas in which HR offices
contribute to and align with mission accomplishment, such as the few described below.
Agency Reorganizations: Because of all of the downsizing, streamlining, and budget cuts
that have been occurring in recent years, many agencies and sub-components have had to
redefine their missions and restructure the program areas that support those missions.
Human resources staffs play key roles in some of these redesign efforts. Managers at the
Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Labor’s Occupational
Safety and Health Administration were particularly complimentary of all of the work the HR
staffs did to redeploy and retrain the workforce, provide guidance on organizational
development issues, and redesign performance standards.
Workforce Planning: In this time of budget cuts, downsizing, and an aging Federal
workforce, workforce planning becomes extremely important to increasing agencies’ overall
ability to achieve their missions. Although few agencies have strong workforce planning
systems in place, some are beginning to take steps in this direction. The Department of the
Army has an automated civilian forecasting system that uses 15-year workforce data trends
to project future employment patterns, up to 7 years. This is part of a developing workforce
planning initiative. SSA has developed a methodology to predict the number of actual
retirements and is developing a workforce transition plan that will identify current and future
required skill sets, determine how the workforce can obtain these skills, and set action plan
milestones. Additionally, OPM is in the process of developing a workforce planning model
that will assist agencies in this area.
Midway was purchased and re-incorporated in 1988 by WMS Industries Inc. In 1998, it became an independent public company. The company began in the arcade game business, scoring its first hit with the U.S. distribution of Space Invaders in 1978. After many years as a leader in the arcade segment, Midway moved into the growing home video game market beginning in 1996, the same year that it made its initial public offering of stock. Midway was listed as the #19 video game publisher in September 2005 and the #20 in September 2006 by the magazine
Strategic planning allows agencies to put down on paper where they are, where they want to go,
and how they plan to get there. But the best planning in the world does nothing for an agency if it
does not act on those plans. Strategic implementation of human resources management means
performing activities that support agency mission accomplishment and measuring how well those
activities contribute to achieving agency strategic goals.
Strategic HRM Activities
When we talk about HRM activities, we tend to focus on what the HR office, itself, is doing even
though we recognize that supervisors would bear the responsibility of HR decisions in an ideal
world. After all, NPR advocated deregulation and delegation and the downsizing and out-
sourcing of HR office activities so that human resources management could take place at the line
level, making it more responsive to mission-related needs. Additionally, the HR staff would be
able to devote more time to broader organizational issues, thereby improving its contribution to
mission accomplishment.
Unfortunately, deregulation and delegation, as reported in OPM’s 1997 special study, Deregu-
lation and Delegation of Human Resources Management Authority in the Federal Government,
have not taken hold as quickly or thoroughly as was hoped. HR is still doing most of the HR-
related work and is the nerve center for HRM activities. That is why the focus of this section is
on the HR office and what it does to support mission accomplishment.
So what are HR’s contributions toward mission accomplishment? Although most line managers
we interviewed cannot describe precisely which HR activities support specific agency strategic
goals, they recognize that they could not accomplish their mission without HR’s help. Ironically,
the areas most often mentioned by managers as HR’s most valued contributions are also the areas
they feel need the most improvement: recruitment and staffing, employee development, and
employee relations. They would like to see HR become more involved and innovative in these
areas, but they also admit that it would be extremely difficult for them to get their jobs done
without the help HR already provides. An interesting example of innovative staffing is the Federal
Emergency Management Agency’s Automated Disaster Deployment System
Clearly, staffing, development, and employee relations are important HR activities that make a
difference to agency goal accomplishment. However, there are other areas in which HR offices
contribute to and align with mission accomplishment, such as the few described below.
Agency Reorganizations: Because of all of the downsizing, streamlining, and budget cuts
that have been occurring in recent years, many agencies and sub-components have had to
redefine their missions and restructure the program areas that support those missions.
Human resources staffs play key roles in some of these redesign efforts. Managers at the
Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Labor’s Occupational
Safety and Health Administration were particularly complimentary of all of the work the HR
staffs did to redeploy and retrain the workforce, provide guidance on organizational
development issues, and redesign performance standards.
Workforce Planning: In this time of budget cuts, downsizing, and an aging Federal
workforce, workforce planning becomes extremely important to increasing agencies’ overall
ability to achieve their missions. Although few agencies have strong workforce planning
systems in place, some are beginning to take steps in this direction. The Department of the
Army has an automated civilian forecasting system that uses 15-year workforce data trends
to project future employment patterns, up to 7 years. This is part of a developing workforce
planning initiative. SSA has developed a methodology to predict the number of actual
retirements and is developing a workforce transition plan that will identify current and future
required skill sets, determine how the workforce can obtain these skills, and set action plan
milestones. Additionally, OPM is in the process of developing a workforce planning model
that will assist agencies in this area.
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