SMU

ASSIGNMENT
SEMESTER – 1
MBO027

HRM

SUBMITTED BY:
MUSHTAQ AHMAD PARA
MBA
ROLL NO.- 520950361
 Master of Business Administration-MBA Semester 1
MB0027 – HRM

(Book ID: B0909)

Assignment Set-1

Q.1 Write a short note on Hawthorne Studies.

Frederick Taylor, who died in 1915, did not live to see the employee motivation studies that were conducted at Western
Electric’s Hawthorne plant, near Chicago, Illinois, from 1927 to 1932. However, the founder of the scientific school of
management would have no doubt been interested in the results. The Hawthorne studies undercut a core pillar of Taylorism--the
notion that workers were motivated purely by economic gain.
Researchers from Western Electric and Harvard University led the Hawthorne studies. (General Electric originally contributed
funding, but they withdrew after the first trial was completed.) The studies were intended to examine the influence of
environmental variables on a group of production workers. The group of workers was divided into two subgroups: a test group,
which would undergo environmental changes, and a control group. The members of the control group would work under normal,
constant environment conditions.
The researchers began by manipulating the lighting of the test group. When lighting for the test group was increased, their
productivity increased--but the productivity of the control group increased, as well. This result was somewhat unexpected, since
the lighting at the workstations of the control group had not been altered.
The researchers then decreased the lighting at the test group’s workstations. Surprisingly, both the test group and the control
group continued to improve their productivity. There were no decreases in productivity until the light was reduced to the point
where the workers could barely see. The researchers concluded that light did not have a significant impact on the motivation of
production workers. This led General Electric, a light bulb manufacturer, to withdraw their funding.
The next experiment utilized a mainstay of scientific management: incentive-based, piecework system. The researchers expected,
according to the conventional wisdom of the day, that this would inspire the employees to dramatically increase their pace.
However, rather than working as fast as they could individually, the workers calibrated themselves as a group. Employees who
worked more slowly than average were derided as “chiselers.” Employees who attempted to work faster than the group were
called “rate busters.” In other words, any significant deviation from the collectively imposed norm was punished.
These results were, of course, a major blow to the position of scientific management, which held that employees were only
motivated by individual economic interest. The Hawthorne studies drew attention to the social needs as an additional source of
motivation. Taylor’s emphasis on economic incentives was not wholly discredited, but economic incentives were now viewed as
one factor--not the sole factor--to which employees responded.

Q2. Trace the growth of trade union movement from factories act 1881 to
Factories act 1948?
According to the act 1881: The workers employed in the factories were allowed a week off
day and provisions were also made for inspection as well as limiting the hours of work for
women workers to eleven per day. The act further provided that the minimum age of children
for employment should be seven year and maximum working hours for them should not
exceed seven hours a day and that too in the day shift.
In 1890 the first labour originations designated as Bombay mill hands association was
established, subsequently in 1905 the printers union at Calcutta and in 1907 the postal union
at Bombay were established. The madras labour union was organized hereafter in 1918.
 In 1922 the indentured labour system involving migration of
Indian labor to other countries on contract basis was abolished as a result of a strong
national movement. In the same year, the central labour board was established to
federate the different unions in the Bombay city and the all India trade union
congress was organized. It may be noted that the reliable statistics of trade union
growth are not available for the period before the formal implementation of the
Indian trade union act 1926. A land mark in the history of industrial relations in this
country the early thirties witnessed a highly weakened trade union movement.
However, the conditions prevailing five years before as well as during the second
world war were conducive to the rapid growth of the trade unionism and between
1939 – 40 and 1944 – 45 the number of registration trade unions increased from 666
to 865 ( 29.7% ) increase and the total membership of union submitting returns
increased from 5,11,134 to 8,89,388 ( 70.4% ) Increase. There was a large scale
expansion of the trade union movement after the Second World War after the
independence. As Subramanian observes there existed four fold reasons for the rapid
growth are as follows:-
The cumulative impact of the acute economic distress stemming from war condition
and the removal of the war time restrictions on striker.
The development of three more central labour originations and the competition
among them
The labor policy of the government based on adjudication rather than collective
bargaining.
During the period from 1947 – 1960 while industrial employment rose by 2.8 times.
The total claimed union membership also went up by 2.3 times. Today membership
is estimated to be around 4.3 million and 28% of the total workforce

According to the provision of section 49 of the factories at 1948, it became obligatory

for the employers to employ a welfare officer in a factory employing 500 or more
workers.

Q3. Elaborate the HR planning system?

The process of human resource planning is one of the most crucial complex and continuing
managerial functions which, according to the TAT electrical locomotive company “embraces
organization development, management development, career planning and succession
planning”.
It may be rightly regarded as a multi step process including various issues such as:-
 Deciding goals or objectives
Estimating future organizational structure and manpower requirements
Auditing human requirements
Planning job requirements and job decryptions
Developing a human resource

a) Deciding goals or objectives:-

Human resource planning fulfils individual organizational and

national goals, but according to “Sikula the ultimate mission or purpose is to rotate future
human resource to future enterprises needs so as to maximize the future return on investment
in human resource. The main purpose is one of the matching or fitting employee abilities to
enterprises requirements with an emphasis on future instead of present arrangements” the
objective may be laid down for a short – term (for one year)
b) Estimating future organizational structure and manpower requirements:-
The management must estimate the structure of the origination at a given point in time for
this estimate the number and type of employees needed have to be determined.
Many environment factors effect this determination they include business forecasts, expansion
and growth, design and structural changes. Forecasting is necessary for various reasons such
as:-
General economic business: Inflation, wages, prices, costs and raw – materials have an
Influence n the short range.
Enlargement and growth of business: use of additional machinery, personnel, and re
allocation of facilities all of which call for advance planning of human resource.
Use of mechanical technology
c) Auditing human requirements:-
Once the future human resource needs are estimated the next step is to determine the
present supply of the man power resource this is done through what is called “Skills
Inventory”, a skills inventory contains data about each employees skills, abilities, work
preferences and other items of information which indicate his overall value to the company.
d) Planning job requirements and job decryptions:-
After having decided how many persons would be needed it is necessary to prepare a job
analysis, which records details of the Training skills, Qualification, Abilities, Experiences and
responsibilities. Which are needed for a job, job analysis include the preparation of job
descriptions and job specifications.
e) Developing a human resource:- This consists in finding out the sources of labor supply
with a view to making an effective use of these sources. Therefore is to decide on the policy
should the personnel be hired from with in though promotional channels or should it be
obtained from an out side source the best policy which is followed be most of the originations
is to fill up higher vacancies by promotion and lower level positions by recruitment from the
labour market.
HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING SYSTEM

Short term
Long Objective Goals, Plans,
and Plans Programs and
Budgets

Overall Workforce
requirements for requirement by
Human occupational
Resources Categories Job,
Skills.

Inventory of Inventory by
present Human occupational
Resources
Procedures for Categories Job,
evaluating Skills.
Net
Action
newprograms
Human
effectiveness of Needed
Plans for
Resources
for recruiting
Human developing,
Replacements
requirements
and selecting
Resources upgrading,
and Additions
needed
Planning transforming
personnel
Q4. Discuss the multiple person evaluation methods?
There are there techniques are used to evaluate employees one at a time that’s comparison
with other employees.
 Ranking
Paired comparison
Forces distribution

a) Ranking: -
In ranking method the evaluator is asked to rate employees from highest to lowest on same
overall criterion, this is very difficult to do if the group of employees being compared number
over 20. it is also easier to rank the best and worst employees than it is to evaluate the
average ones. Simple ranking can be improved by alternative ranking, in this approach the
evaluators pick the top and bottom employees first, then select the next highest and next
lowest and move towards the middle.

b) Paired comparison:-
This approach makes the ranking method easier and more reliable. First the names of the
persons to be evaluated are placed on separate sheets (or Cards) in a pre determined order,
so that each person is compared to all others to be evaluated. The evaluator then checks the
person he fees is the better of the two on a criterion for each comparison.
Typically the criterion is over all ability to do the present job. The number and this develops an
index of the number of preferences compared to the number being evaluated. These scores
can be converted into standard scores by comparing the scores to the standard deviation and
the average of all scores, this method can be used by superiors, peers, subordinates or some
combination of these groups.

c) Forced Distribution:-
The forced distribution system is similar to grading on a curve the evaluator is asked to rate
employees in some fixed distributions of categories, such as 10% in low, 20% in low average,
40% in average, 20% in high average, and 10% in high. One way to do this is to type each
employees name on a card and ask the evaluators to sort the cards into five piles
corresponding to the rating.

This should be done twice for the two key criteria of the job performance and promotability.
One reason forced distribution was developed was to try to evaluate such problems as inflated
ratings and control tendency in the graphic rating scale

Q5.Write not on different theories for managing compensation?

The basic purpose of wage and salary administration is to establish and maintain an equitable
wage and salary structure, its secondary objective is the establishment and maintenance of an
equitable labour cost structure. On optional balancing of conflicting personnel interest so that
the satisfaction of employees and employers is maximized and conflicts are minimized. The
wage and salary administration is concerned with the financial aspects of needs. Motivation
and rewards managers therefore analysis and interpret the needs of their employees so that
reward can be individually designed t satisfy there needs.

The word salary is defined in the “Oxford Dictionary” as fixed periodical payment to a person
doing other than manual or mechanical work

Benham defines wage as a sum of money paid under contract be an employer to a worker
for services rendered.

Certain theories were propounded for determination of wages but these could not stand the
test of time. A few theories are discussed hereunder:-

Subsistence theory:-
The theory also know as IRON LAW OF WAGES was propounded by Mr. David Ricardo (1772
– 1823) according to him wages tend to settle at a level just sufficient to maintain the workers
and his family at minimum subsistence levels. The theory applies only to backward countries
where labourers are extremely poor and are unable to get their share from the employees.

Standard of living theory:-

This theory is a modified form of subsistence theory, according to this theory wages are
determined not by subsistence level but also by the standard of living to which a class of
labourers become habituated.

Residual claimant theory:-

According to Francis A Waker (1840 – 1897) there were four factors of production / business
activities

• Land
• Labor
• Capital
• Entrepreneurship

Wages represent the amount of value created in the production which remains after payment
has been made for all these factors of production, in other wards labour is the residual
claimant.

The wage fund theory:-

According to this theory after rent and law materials are paid for a definite amount remains for
labour the total wage fund and the number of the workers determine the average workers
share in the form of wages

Demand and supply theory:-

According to this theory wages depend upon the demand and supply of labor.

Marginal Productivity theory:-

This is an improved from of demand and supply theory wages are determined by the value of
the net product of the marginal unit of labour employed.

Purchasing power theory:-

Accounting to this theory the prosperity productively and progress of industry depend on there
being sufficient demand to ensure the sale of its products and pocketing demand reasonable
profits. A large pact of the products of industry is consumed by workers and their families and
if wages are high demand will be good, however, if wages and the purchasing power of the
workers are low some of the goods will remain unsold, output will go down, which will result in
unemployment.

The bargaining Theory of wages:-

According to John Davidson Propounded this theory, wages are determined by the relative
bargaining power of workers or trade unions and of employers. When a trade union is involved
basic wages, fringe benefits, job differentials and individual differences tend to be determined
by the relative strength of the organization and the trade union.
Q6. Write the advantages and limitations of job evaluation method?

Advantages and Limitations of job evaluation method are:-

Advantages:-

Job evaluation is a logical and an objective method of ranking jobs relatively to each other it
may thus help in removing inequities in existing wage structures and in maintaining sound and
consistent wage differences in a plant or an industry.

The method replaces accidental factors occurring in less systematic procedures of wage
bargaining by more impersonal and objective standard, thus establishing the clearer basis for
negation.

The method may lead to grater uniformity in wage rates and simplify the process of wage
administration.

Information collected in a process of job description and analysis can be used for improvement
of selection, training, transfer and promotion procedures on the basis of the comparative job
requirement

Limitations:-

Though there are many wages of applying job evaluation in a flexible manner, rapid changes
in technology and in the supply of and demand for particular skills, create problems of
adjustment that may need further study

When job evaluation results in substantial changes in the existing wage structure, the
possibility of implementing these charges in a relatively short period may be restricted by the
financial limits with in which the firm has to operate.

When there are a large proportion of incentive workers. It may be difficult to maintain a
reasonable and acceptable structure of relative earnings.

The process of job rating is to some extent in exact because some of the factors and degrees
can be measured with accuracy.

Job evaluation takes a long time to complete requires specialized technical personnel and is
quite expensive.