HRM ASSIGNMENT - 1

PRERNA ARORA

09612303920

MBA – 2B

MCQ

1) How has technology changed HRM practices?

a. Recruiting using the web generates smaller, more focused applicant pools.
b. Employee training is offered through scheduled classes rather than on demand.
c. Electronic resumes take less time to evaluate than paper resumes.
d. None of the given options.
Ans- A Recruiting using the web generates smaller, more focused applicant pools.

2) The scope of human resource management includes

a. Procurement
b. Development
c. Compensation
d. All of the above
Ans- D. – All of the above

3) When effort to earn additional income through a second job does not bear fruit, such type
of Efforts & the consequent results may be called as
a. Red moon lighting
b. Blue moon lighting
c. Yellow moon lighting
d. Silver moon lighting
Ans- B.- Blue Moon Lighting

4) This model of HRM was developed by two researchers, Hendry & Pettigrew. It centers
around 5 elements:
a. Warwick model
b. Fombrum’s model
c. Harvard model
d. Guest model
 Ans- A.- Warwick Model

5) The basic idea of human relations movement was that:

a. E have to be intimidated to be motivated
b. Technology was in decline
c. Satisfied employees would work harder for the company
d. Unions were a waste of time
Ans- C.- Satisfied employees would work harder for the company

SHORT ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS:

Q1.Personnel management is reactive whereas Human resource Management is proactive.
Comment.

Personnel management can be regarded as reactive, as it provides as presented concerns and demands
instead, the Human Resource management is proactive as it relates to the ongoing development of
policies and functions for the improvement of an employee and taking steps that can be implemented for
future requirement.

Example In Human Resource management attendance will be taken via thumb and managing
performance of employees. In Personnel Management When performance measured at the end of the
month Hr will ask the reason for high absenteeism.
Personnel Management Human Resources Management
Sub-system of larger system
1.Independent

2. Several functions Organic whole

3. Coping role Proactive role
4. Responsible for personnel department Shared responsibilities with line managers
5. Achieve efficiency Shared values and reduced human wastage
6. Maintenance function Developmental function
7. Motivation by salary Motivation by challenges

Q2. “HRM seeks to achieve personal and social goals”. Explain. Define HRM and outline
the major functions of HRM.

Ans2. PERSONAL GOALS - It consist of to assist employees in achieving their personal goals,
such as, higher wages and salaries, job satisfaction, better working conditions, standard working
hours, promotion, motivation, welfare facilities, social security and so on. These objectives of
employees must be met if workers are to be maintained, retained and motivated. Otherwise
employees may leave the organization and join some other organization.

SOCIAL GOALS - HRM is socially responsible for the needs, demands and challenges of the
society. All the resources must be utilized for the benefit and in the interest of the society. HRM
should follow the rules and laws or legal restrictions imposed by the society. It has to develop
and maintain healthy relations between union and management.

Function of HRM: -

1. Human Resource Planning - In this function of HRM, the number and type of employees
needed to accomplish organizational goals is determined.

2. Recruitment and Selection - Recruitment of candidates is the function preceding the

selection, which brings the pool of prospective candidates for the organization so that the
management can select the right candidate from this pool.

3. Job Analysis and Design -Job analysis is the process of describing the nature of a job and
specifying the human requirements like qualification, skills, and work experience to perform that
job. Job design aims at outlining and organizing tasks, duties, and responsibilities into a single
unit of work for the achievement of certain objectives.

4. Performance Appraisal - Human resource professionals are required to perform this function
to ensure that the performance of employee is at acceptable level.
5. Training and Development - This function of human resource management helps the
employees to acquire skills and knowledge to perform their jobs effectively.

6. Wage and Salary Administration - Human resource management decides employees

compensation which includes - wage administration, salary administration, incentives, bonuses,
fringe benefits, and etc,.

7. Employee Welfare - This function refers to various services, benefits, and facilities that are
provided to employees for their well being.

8. Maintenance - Human resource is considered as asset for the organization. Employee

turnover is not considered good for the organization. Human resource management always try to
keep their best performing employees with the organization.

9. Labour Relations - This function refers to the interaction of human resource management
with employees who are represented by a trade union.

Q3. What are various steps can HR professionals take to ensure mergers and acquisitions are
successful?

ANS Various steps can HR professionals take to ensure mergers and acquisitions are successful?
include:

1. Know what and who you’re acquiring

In these vast sums of money, time and resources are spent assessing the financial performance
and potential of the organization. Less focus is often placed on the human side of the equation
and what it will take to successfully bring people from different workplace cultures together.
Understanding the organization’s leadership strengths and development needs is fundamental.
Identify key influencers, for example, who have the power to enable or derail the sense of
confidence and therefore engagement people feel.

2. Know what success looks like

Creating a unified culture, and ultimately team, begins by understanding what success looks like.
Take deliberate steps to create a clear and compelling vision of the cultural environment that will
enable the newly formed team to thrive. Identify what aspects of each organization’s culture
remain important to collective success and which need to change. Be honest and yet sensitive
about aspects of culture that have enabled success to date, and those that need to change in order
for the new organisation to achieve its full potential.

3. Plan to succeed

HR plays an essential role in not only determining whether or not a particular transaction is a
wise investment, but also in understanding the transition steps that will be essential to enabling
success. Take the time needed to understand not only the scope of the change ahead, but also the
implications for individuals and teams. Understand the ways in which the merger or acquisition
will impact upon career paths, reporting lines and the makeup of teams,

4. Listen and respond

No matter how well considered your integration plans, people are likely to respond in
unexpected ways. At every step along the integration journey, listen to understand. All too often
organisations are focussed on telling people how things will be, rather than listening to what
people on the team believe will make the biggest difference. Be careful to listen to all of the
voices on your new team.

5.  Coach leaders to coach

Take a hands-on approach to supporting leaders to in turn coach their people through change.
Among the most important ingredients of success is clarity and accountability.  Help leaders to
set clear expectations and hold people accountable to the standards of behaviour and
performance the new organisation needs. Guide leaders to be respectful of people’s insecurities
and fears of the unknown while at the same time expecting that they work through their concerns
and “get on the bus”.  
LONG ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS

Q1.HRM involves all management decisions and practices that directly affect or influence
the people who work for the organization.” Discuss.

Human Resource Management involves management functions like planning, organizing,

directing and controlling

 It involves procurement, development, maintenance of human resource

 It helps to achieve individual, organizational and social objectives
 Human Resource Management is a multidisciplinary subject. It includes the study of
management, psychology, communication, economics and sociology.
 It involves team spirit and team work.
 It is a continuous process.

Human resource management as a department in an organisation handles all aspects of

employees and has various functions like human resource planning, Conducting Job analysis,
recruitment and conducting job interviews, selection of human resources, Orienting , training,
compensating, Providing benefits and incentives, appraising, retaining, Career planning, Quality
of Work Life, Employee Discipline, black out Sexual Harassments, human resource auditing,
maintenance of industrial relationship, looking after welfare of employees and safety issues ,
communicating with all employees at all levels and maintaining awareness of and compliance
with local, state and federal labor laws.

Nature of HRM

1. HRM Involves the Application of Management Functions and Principles. The functions and
principles are applied to acquiring, developing, maintaining and providing remuneration to
employees in organization.

2. Decision Relating to Employees must be Integrated. Decisions on different aspects of

employees must be consistent with other human resource (HR) decisions.

3. Decisions Made Influence the Effectiveness of an Organization. Effectiveness of an

organization will result in betterment of services to customers in the form of high quality
products supplied at reasonable costs.

4. HRM Functions are not Confined to Business Establishments Only but applicable to
nonbusiness organizations such as education, health care, recreation and like.
Objectives of HRM

1) Societal Objectives: seek to ensure that the organization becomes socially responsible to the
needs and challenges of the society while minimizing the negative impact of such demands upon
the organization. The failure of the organizations to use their resources for the society’s benefit
in ethical ways may lead to restriction.

2) Organizational Objectives: it recognizes the role of HRM in bringing about organizational

effectiveness. It makes sure that HRM is not a standalone department, but rather a means to
assist the organization with its primary objectives. The HR department exists to serve the rest of
the organization.

3) Functional Objectives: is to maintain the department’s contribution at a level appropriate to

the organization’s needs. Human resources are to be adjusted to suit the organization’s demands.
The department’s value should not become too expensive at the cost of the organization it serves.

4) Personnel Objectives: it is to assist employees in achieving their personal goals, at least as far
as these goals enhance the individual’s contribution to the organization. Personal objectives of
employees must be met if they are to be maintained, retainedand motivated. Otherwise employee
performance and satisfaction may decline giving rise to employee turnover.

Role of HRM

The role of HRM is to plan, develop and administer policies and programs designed to make
optimum use of an organizations human resources. It is that part of management which is
concerned with the people at work and with their relationship within enterprises. Its objectives
are:

(a) effective utilization of human resources,

(b) desirable working relationships among all members of the organizations, and

(c) maximum individual development. Human resources function as primarily administrative

and professional.

HR staff focused on administering benefits and other payroll and operational functions and
didn’t think of themselves as playing a part in the firm’s overall strategy. HR professionals have
an all encompassing role. They are required to have a thorough knowledge of the organization
and its intricacies and complexities. The ultimate goal of every HR person should be to develop a
linkage between the employee and organization because employee’s commitment to the
organization is crucial.
 CHALLENGES OF HRM

challenges can be studied under three dimensions as follows;

1. Environmental Challenges.
2. Organizational Challenges.
3. Individual Challenges.

Q2.Discuss the change in the role of HRM in context of following Competitive channels:

a. Psychological Contracts

b. Employee Engagement

c.Protean careers

d. Workforce Diversity

e. Moonlighting
Ans A. Psychological Contracts

Unwritten understandings about mutual needs, goals , expectations and goals. The psychological
Contract is a term given by Chris Agryisin 1960. Denise Rousseauis the one who developed it.
The understandings, beliefs and commitments that exist between an employee and employer For
Example: Using office system for the personal use is allowed. This is not mentioned in the
appointment letter, or any other contract.

The Psychological Contract is quite different to a physical contract or document-it represents the
notion of 'relationship' or 'trust' or' understanding' which can exist for one or a number of
employees, instead of a tangible piece of paper or legal document which might be different from
one employee to another.

Features

 Unspoken Expectations
 Mutuality
 Develops Eventually

Characterstics :

 It is Job and organisation Dependant

 It is Implicit and Unspoken
 Helps employees to know their obligations and adjust their behaviour accordingly
 It fill the gaps in employment relationships that can’t be addressed by Formal Contract
 The psychological contract is a dynamic concept that can be applied to understand
varying employer-worker relationships

B. Employee Engagement

Employee engagement is defined as the emotional investment employees make in their

organizations. It is the passion, involvement, and motivation they bring to work, which they use
to guide their work. Engaged employees identify with the goals of the organization and align
their own goals with the organization’s goals.

HR practitioners believe that the engagement challenge has a lot to do with how employee feels
about the about work experience and how he or she is treated in the organization. It has a lot to
do with emotions which are fundamentally related to drive bottom line success in a company.
There will always be people who never give their best efforts no matter how hard HR and line
managers try to engage them. “But for the most part employees want to commit to companies
because doing so satisfies a powerful and a basic need in connect with and contribute to
something significant”.
The most important types of employee engagement are as follows:

1. Cognitive Engagement:

This involves the extent to which employees focus on their work tasks. An actively engaged
employee is rarely distracted by small interruptions at work.

2. Emotional Engagement:

This consists of the here and now experience that the employees have while doing work. This
involves their own feeling of the degree of involvement in the job.

3. Physical Engagement:

The extent to which employee takes steps for his own development. A voluntary nomination for
a training program can be one of the means of identifying physical engagement.

C. Protean Careers

People with a protean career attitude use their personal identity as a guide for career decisions.
Protean is a synonym for being flexible, adaptive, and changeable. One who is protean—is
thought to put itself fulfillment and psychological success above concerns and norms that would
have their source outside of the individual. Psychological success is considered to be subjective
success on the person’s “own terms” in contrast to “objective” success that might be measured or
defined externally (e.g.by salary or promotions).

The protean career is defined “as a career in which the person is

  1) values-driven in the sense that the person's internal values provide the guidance and measure
of success for individual's career; and

2) self- directed in personal career management – having the ability to be adaptive in terms of
performance and learning demands”

The protean career is a name given to describe a career hat is driven by the individual and not by
the organization.

Dimensions of Protean Careers

a. values-driven career orientation

b. Self- directed career management.

Reasons for Protean Careers:

• Because of downsizing, rapidly changing economic conditions, globalization, advances in

technology (that allowed things such as telecommuting),

• Increased emphasis upon contingent workers, and changing societal values around the
importance of work and non work priorities,

• Career Proactivity

• Boundary less careers.

D. Workforce Diversity

According to Moorhead and Griffin – “Workforce diversity is concerned with the similarities
and differences in such characteristics as age, gender, ethnic heritage, physical abilities and
disabilities, race, and sexual orientation, among the employees of organisations.”

Workforce diversity represents both a challenge and an opportunity for business. A growing
number of progressive organisations are realizing the need for valuing diversity in the workforce,
so as to ensure strategic utilisation of human resources for the accomplishment of strategic goals.

Dimensions of Workforce Diversity:

• Primary Dimensions

• Secondary Dimensions

1. Primary Dimensions- It mainly includes inborn differences such as age, race, ethnicity,
gender, physical ability, and sexual orientation.
2. Secondary Dimensions- It mainly includes education, believes, religion, marital status, family
background, and work culture.

E Moonlighting

Work “conducted ‘under the light of the moon’’ In its most simple definition, moonlighting
refers to a second job in addition to an individual’s regular employment. It can come in many
forms, but usually becomes an issue if your employee has not disclosed their additional
employment or it becomes a conflict of interest for your business.Moonlighting isn’t illegal.
Many of those who choose to take on a second job do so in order to supplement their income or
make ends meet.For example, a person might be a teacher at a school during the day but run a
boutique in the evening.

Reasons For Moonlighting:

 More income /Extra Income

 Test a job in different profile/ Proving their capabilities in different job profiles
 Lack of motivation and recognition by the employer,
 Spare time for newly start-up business/ Utilizing spare time
 Employees feel exploited by the employer and believe that employer enjoys the increased
profits / Dissatisfaction among Employees.

Types of Moonlighting

1.Blue Moonlighting - The performance assessment gives management a positive response to

employee demand and wages and benefits rises, while someemployees are not satisfied with
wages and benefits level and want to go to the second job for additional income. The Blue
Moonlighting is a type of failure in efforts.

2. Quarter Moonlighting - If an employee is not satisfied with the current salary and searches
for part-time employment, which is known as the quarter moonlighting after a regular job for
extra earnings.

3. Half Moonlighting - Many employees tend to spend more than what they earn, they like
luxury, save enough money in the future and spend 50% of their time on part-time work. Half
Moonlighting is the name.

4. Full Moonlighting - when employees in certain occupations find time or when their revenue
is insignificant compared to their expectations, or when friends earn huge sums of money than
they do and friends in society who are less qualified. But they are known as Full Moonlighting,
their social status determined by second occupation.

Effects of Moonlighting in two way effect

Moonlighting has positive and negative effects on employee as well as the employer.
Moonlighting improves the skills of employee who is working in two different companies at a
time. Thus, on one hand , moonlighting has a progressive aspect that the employer can utilize
and such employees have increased percentage of retention. But it can be harmful as well
because employee tends to exploit resources for their secondary jobs.