Assignment

Subject: Human Resource Management & Analytics

Q.1 Case study

Jennifer, the owner and manager of a company with ten employees, has
hired you to take over the HRM function so she can focus on other areas of
her business. During your first two weeks, you find out that the company
has been greatly affected by the up economy and is expected to experience
overall revenue growth by 10 percent over the next three years, with some
quarters seeing growth as high as 30 percent. However, five of the ten
workers are expected to retire within three years. These workers have been
with the organization since the beginning and provide a unique historical
perspective of the company. The other five workers are of diverse ages.

In addition to these changes, Jennifer believes they may be able to save

costs by allowing employees to telecommute one to two days per week. She
has some concerns about productivity if she allows employees to work from
home. Despite these concerns, Jennifer has even considered closing down
the physical office and making her company a virtual organization, but she
wonders how such a major change will affect the ability to communicate and
worker motivation.

Jennifer shares with you her thoughts about the costs of health care on the
organization. She has considered cutting benefits entirely and having her
employees work for her on a contract basis, instead of being full-time
employees. She isn’t sure if this would be a good choice. Jennifer schedules
a meeting with you to discuss some of her thoughts. To prepare for the
meeting, you perform research so you can impress your new boss with
recommendations on the challenges presented.

Questions:

(4 × 5 = 20)

1. Point out which changes are occurring in the business that affects HRM.

2. What are some considerations the company and HR should be aware of?

When making changes related to this case study?

3. What would the initial steps be to start planning for these changes?

4. What would your role be in implementing these changes? What would

Jennifer’s role be?

 Assignment
Subject: Human Resource Management & Analytics

Q.2 Case study

Satish was a Sales Manager for Industrial Products Company in City

branch. A week ago, he was promoted and shifted to Head Office as Deputy
Manager - Product Management for a division of products which he was not
very familiar with. Three days ago, the company VP - Mr. George, convened
a meeting of all Product Managers. Satish's new boss (Product Manager
Ketan) was not able to attend due to some other preoccupation. Hence, the
Marketing Director, Preet - asked Satish to attend the meeting as this would
give him an exposure into his new role. At the beginning of the meeting,
Preet introduced Satish very briefly to the VP. The meeting started with an
address from the VP and soon it got into a series of questions from him to
every Product Manager. George, of course, was pretty thorough with every
single product of the company and he was known to be pushy and a blunt
veteran in the field. Most of the Product Managers were very clear of
George's ways of working and had thoroughly prepared for the meeting and
were giving to the point answers. George then started with Satish. Satish
being new to the product, was quite confused and fared miserably. Preet
immediately understood that George had possibly failed to remember that
Satish was new to the job. He thought of interrupting George's questioning
and giving a discrete reminder that Satish was new. But by that time,
George who was pretty upset with the lack of preparation by Satish made a
public statement "Gentlemen, you are witnessing here an example of sloppy
work and this can't be excused". Now Preet was in two minds - should he
interrupt George and tell him that Satish is new in that position OR should
he wait till the end of the meeting and tell George privately. Preet chose the
second option. Satish was visibly angry at the treatment meted out by
George but he also chose to keep mum. George quickly closed the meeting
saying that he found in general, lack of planning in the department and
asked Preet to stay back in the room for further discussions. Before Preet
could give any explanation on Satish, George asked him "Tell me openly,
Preet, was I too rough with that boy?" Preet said "Yes, you were. In fact, I
was about to remind you that Satish is new to the job". George explained
that the fact that Satish was new to the job didn't quite register with him
during the meeting. George admitted that he had made a mistake and asked
his secretary to get Satish report to the room immediately. A perplexed and
uneasy Satish reported to George's room after few minutes. George looking
Satish straight into his eyes said "I have done something which I should
have never even thought of and I want to apologise to you. It is my mistake
that I did not recollect that you were new to the job when I was questioning
you". Satish was left speechless. George continued "I would like to state few
things clearly to you. Your job is to make sure that people like me and your
bosses do not make stupid decisions. We have good confidence in your
abilities and that is why we have brought you to the Head Office. For
everybody, time is required for learning. I will expect you to know all the
nuances of your product in three months time. Until then you have my
complete confidence". George closed the conversation with a big reassuring
handshake with Satish.

Questions:

(5 × 4 = 20)

1. Was it at all necessary for George to apologise to such a junior employee

like Satish?

2. If you were in Satish's place, how would you to respond to George's

apology?

3. Was George correct in saying that Satish is there to correct the "stupid
mistake" of his boss and George?

4. Did Preet make a mistake by not intervening during the meeting and
correct George's misconception about Satish?

5. As an HR man, how would you define the character of George – bullying

but later regretting? Does his attitude need to be corrected?
 Assignment
Subject: Human Resource Management & Analytics

Q.3 Case study

Adam, fresh from school was a newly recruited HR practitioner. During his
one month into the job, he was asked to be in-charge of the orientation
programme for the entire organisation. Being new, he followed closely to the
processes. Recently, Roy joined the organisation and Adam was required to
orientate him. On Roy's first day of work, Adam brought him around the
organisation for introduction to the rest of the staffs. Unfortunately, Roy's
assigned mentor was not around hence, Adam was unable to make an
official introduction for Roy to meet up with his mentor. In the afternoon,
during the HR briefing, Adam mentioned to Roy that there is a buddy
system in place but it is only on an opt-in basis. Roy requested to opt for a
buddy. Adam was rather surprised by Roy's request as according to Adam's
manager-Jean, no one in the organisation has requested for a buddy. Hence,
Adam checked with Jean on the criteria in getting a buddy for Roy and
according to her, Adam found out that it needed to be someone preferably
from Roy's department. Having clarified on the criteria, Adam was supposed
to get a buddy for Roy, unfortunately, this issue was clearly forgotten by
Adam due to his busy schedule as he was involved in other HR matters as
well and he did not follow up with Roy's request promptly.

One week later, Adam met Roy in a lunch gathering and Adam greeted Roy
and asked him casually how is he doing and if he has adapted well to his
job. Roy, asked Adam blatantly and angrily where is his buddy that he had
requested. At that moment, Adam recalled on the existence of this request
and unwittingly told Roy that he thought Roy was joking with him on the
request for a buddy as he did not want to admit to Roy that he had clearly
forgotten about the whole issue. Roy was very angered by Adam's response
and told him off that he was very serious in getting a buddy and that its
Adam's responsibility to do so. Adam, clearly embarrassed and guilty about
his mistake, apologised immediately and promised to get him a buddy. On
the very day, a buddy- Sam, was found for Roy. Roy was very unhappy with
Adam and confronted Adam and his buddy when he was able to have an
official meet up session with his mentor. Adam explained to Roy that the
organisation has no current practice in place for meet up sessions to be
arranged between mentors and mentees and its a practice for mentees to
take self-initiative to do so in arranging for meetings with their mentors and
also that his mentor is currently out of town and will only be back the next
day. Adam, himself being a new staff also was at that moment in time
speaking on personal experience and also based on what Jean had told him.
Sam, who was present agreed and helped to explain to Roy on the practice.
Roy kept quiet and Adam unknowingly thought that Roy has understood the
organisation practice. Hence, Adam did not continue to check with Roy on
this aspect. The following day, Roy had a feedback session with his manager
and Adam was called upon to sit in as a part of the orientation programme.
Roy brought up the issue on Adam's failure to get him a buddy promptly
and that he was not introduced to his mentor at all. He complained about
the poor management of the HR mentor and buddy system and that it was
not effective at all and that he expressed that he is very unhappy with Adam
as he felt that he was not doing his job at all.

Adam tried to explain to Roy and his manager about what happened and
also reassured Roy that he will take his suggestions of improving on the
system and was apologetic about the issue. He told Roy's manager that he
will bring Roy to see his mentor after the session as his mentor is back in
the office after being on leave for the past week. Roy was still very unhappy
with Adam and continued telling Adam off in front of his manager.

Questions:

(4 × 5 = 20)

1. On an HR practitioner point of view, what should Adam do to resolve the

issue?

2. Roy is very unhappy with Adam and holds it against him even though all
has been done and followed up. What should Adam as HR do to resolve this
and should Jean, as Adam's manager do something?

3. What role does Roy's manager play in this issue and should he be
implicated?

4. What will you do if you were the HR of the company?

 Assignment
Subject: Human Resource Management & Analytics

Q.4 Case study

Watson Public Ltd Company is well known for its welfare activities and
employee-oriented schemes in the manufacturing industry for more than ten
decades. The company employs more than 800 workers and 150
administrative staff and 80 management-level employees. The Top-level
management views all the employees at the same level. This can be clearly
understood by seeing the uniform of the company which is the Same for all
starting from MD to floor level workers. The company has 2 different
cafeterias at different places one near the plant for workers and others near
the Administration building. Though the place is different the amenities,
infrastructure and the food provided are of the same quality. In short, the
company stands by the rule of Employee Equality.

The company has one registered trade union. The relationship between the
union and the management is very cordial. The company has not lost a
single man day due to strike. The company is not a paymaster in that
industry. The compensation policy of that company, when compared to
other similar companies, is very less still the employees don’t have many
grievances due to the other benefits provided by the company. But the
company is facing a countable number of problems in supplying the
materials in the recent past days. Problems like quality issues, mismatch in
packing materials (placing material A in the box of material B) incorrect
labelling of material, not dispatching the material on time, etc…

The management views the case as there are loopholes in the system of
various departments and hand over the responsibility to the HR department
to solve the issue. When the HR manager goes through the issues he
realized that the issues are not relating to the system but it relates to the
employees. When investigated he come to know that the reason behind the
casual approach by employees in work. The company hired new employees
for a higher-level post without considering the potential internal candidates.
The newly hired employees are placed with higher packages than that of
existing employees in the same cadre.

Questions:

(20 × 1 = 20)

1. Narrate the case with a suitable title for the case. Justify your title.
 Assignment
Subject: Human Resource Management & Analytics

Q.5 Case study

Mr. Jerry the Human resource management of Welcon automotive Ltd a

well-known automobile multinational company. Mr. Jerry is very friendly,
approachable, people-oriented leader. In the other hand he is a strict leader
when it comes to work, he doesn’t tolerate mistakes with regards to ethics
and values. One of the top management person once said to him that “ Mr.
Jerry you are a Task Master”. Jerry replied “Why do you say this”. He said,
“Jerry, you know who is good at what and how to get work done from them”.
Mr. Jerry said with a smile, “Yes sir I agree with you and that’s why my
team always completes tasks on time.”

Majority of the employees in Welcon were very happy to work with Jerry due
to his friendly nature. The employees always put extra efforts for anything
which benefits the organisation. The things were going well till the
organisation witness a transformation. As a part of organisational
development there were many structural and policy changes in the
organisation.

As a part of structural change, the top management has witnessed a major

change. The new top management unlike old management, was very keen in
reducing the expenses of the organisation in all terms. Slowly the employees
were facing many obstacles in performing their duties due to this cost
cutting strategies, as the management fails to suggest any alternatives in
those areas where they have implemented the cost cutting strategies.

This has created a negative impact on employees. For many employees for
completing some crucial task also they need to wait for sanctioning of
amount which took lot of time and energy of the employees. The employees
were not aware about the reason behind the cost cutting strategy as the
turnover, profit, sales etc. everything was in upward trend. Mr. Jerry was
also very disappointed with the ongoing instability in the organisation. Many
a times he tried to highlight the issues faced by employees in completing
their task. Once in personal meeting Mr. Shah (VP HR) he said ” Mr. Shah, I
think it is high time to solve employees issues before it gets out of control.
Also We need to bring this issue in front of our MD, CEO etc.” Mr. Shah
said, “Jerry It is the decision of top management. You handle the employees
at your level. That is what we can do now”.

During the top level meeting his also Mr. Jerry’s words were, most of the
time, unnoticed and many a times he was discouraged to discuss those
issues. The employees and the union have tried to discuss the issue with top
management but they had failed fatefully. Hence, they have jointly decided
to show their disregards by way of stopping oneself from putting their extra
efforts for the organisation. They also know that this is not going to stop the
basic profit of the organisation but surely this will make the management
realize that they have to revisit the cost cutting policy. They successfully
started implementing the things.

Mr. Jerry who observed the change in employees’ activities he said to the
employees “I have noticed the change in you all. I can’t support this change
nor going to tolerate this”. He added, “Our way of working is not this you all
have to give up this idea and work as usual and put those extra efforts
where ever required.” The employees also tried to make him understand
that, “Sir, we never want to do these things but it is the last option with us
to meet the management and be able to put up the issue. What else we can
do”.

The employees also argued that, “Sir, try to understand us. This is just a
way to make the management realize that the employees’ issue is getting
worse and that needs to be solved.” They added Sir, Further we are left out
with any other options.” Mr. Jerry who was dissatisfied with the reply of
employees, he said “those who don’t give-up the idea will have to face the
consequences in the upcoming appraisal process”.

Questions:

(4 × 5 = 20)

1. If you were Mr. Jerry what could be your reaction towards the employees.
Which leadership style does Jerry follows.

2. What could Jerry do to solve the issue as a HR Manager?

3. Do you think that the employees are handling the issue properly.

4. Can you suggest any other mode to show their disregards to

management?