MBA Semester III
MB0050 MB0050 – Research Methodology Assignment Set – I
Q 1. Why should a manger know about research when the job entails managing people, products, events, environments, and the like? The manager, while managing people, products, events, and environments will invariably face problems, big and small, and will have to seek ways to find long lasting effective solutions. This can be achieved only through knowledge of research even if consultants are engaged to solve problems. The primary purpose for applied research (as opposed to basic research) is discovering, interpreting, and the development of methods and systems for the advancement of human knowledge on a wide variety of scientific matters of our world and the universe. Research can use the scientific method, but need not do so. The goal of the research process is to produce new knowledge, which takes three main forms (although, the boundaries between them may be fuzzy): Exploratory research, which structures and identifies new problems Constructive research, which develops solutions to a problem Empirical research, which tests the feasibility of a solution using empirical evidence. The research room at the New York Public Library, an example of secondary research in progress. Research can also fall into two distinct types: Primary research Secondary research In social sciences and later in other disciplines, the following two research methods can be applied, depending on the properties of the subject matter and on the objective of the research: Qualitative research Quantitative research Research is often conducted using the hourglass model Structure of Research. The hourglass model starts with a broad spectrum for research, focusing in on the required information through the methodology of the project (like the neck of the hourglass), then expands the research in the form of discussion and results. Research and development is nowadays of great importance in business as the level of competition, production processes and methods are rapidly increasing. It is of special importance in the field of marketing where companies keep an eagle eye on competitors and customers in order to keep pace with modern trends and analyze the needs, demands and desires of their customers.
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Unfortunately, research and development are very difficult to manage, since the defining feature of research is that the researchers do not know in advance exactly how to accomplish the desired result. As a result, higher R&D spending does not guarantee “more creativity, higher profit or a greater market share.
Q2. a. How do you evolve research design for exploratory research? Briefly analyze. b. Briefly explain Independent dependent and extraneous variables in a research design. Answer: a. Research design in case of exploratory research studies Exploratory research studies are also termed as formulative research studies. The main purpose of such studies is that of formulating a problem for more precise investigation or of developing the working hypothesis from an operational point of view. The major emphasis in such studies is on the discovery of ideas and insights. As such the research design appropriate for such studies must be flexible enough to provide opportunity for considering different aspects of a problem under study. Inbuilt flexibility in research design is needed because the research problem, broadly defined initially, is transformed into one with more precise meaning in exploratory studies, which fact may necessitate changes in the research procedure for gathering relevant data. Generally, the following three methods in the context of research design for such studies are talked about: 1. The survey of concerning literature happens to be the most simple and fruitful method of formulating precisely the research problem or developing hypothesis. Hypothesis stated by earlier workers may be reviewed and their usefulness be evaluated as a basis for further research. It may also be considered whether the already stated hypothesis suggests new hypothesis. In this way the researcher should review and build upon the work already done by others, but in cases where hypothesis have not yet been formulated, his task is to review the available material for deriving the relevant hypothesis from it. Besides, the bibliographical survey of studies, already made in one‟s area of interest may as well as made by the researcher for precisely formulating the problem. He should also make an attempt to apply concepts and theories developed in different research contexts to the area in which he is himself working. Sometimes the works of creative writers also provide a fertile ground for hypothesis formulation as such may be looked into by the researcher. 2. Experience survey means the survey of people who have had practical experience with the problem to be studied. The object of such a survey is to obtain insight into the relationships between variables and new ideas relating to the research problem. For such a survey, people who are competent and can contribute new ideas may be carefully selected as respondents to ensure a representation of different types of experience. The respondents so selected may then be interviewed by the investigator. The researcher must prepare an interview schedule for the systematic questioning of informants. But the interview must ensure flexibility in the sense that the respondents should be allowed to raise issues and questions which the investigator has not previously considered. Generally, the experience of
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collecting interview is likely to be long and may last for few hours. Hence, it is often considered desirable to send a copy of the questions to be discussed to the respondents well in advance. This will also give an opportunity to the respondents for doing some advance thinking over the various issues involved so that, at the time of interview, they may be able to contribute effectively. Thus, an experience survey may enable the researcher to define the problem more concisely and help in the formulation of the research hypothesis. This, survey may as well provide information about the practical possibilities for doing different types of research. 3. Analyses of ‘insight-stimulating’ examples are also a fruitful method for suggesting hypothesis for research. It is particularly suitable in areas where there is little experience to serve as a guide. This method consists of the intensive study of selected instance of the phenomenon in which one is interested. For this purpose the existing records, if nay, may be examined, the unstructured interviewing may take place, or some other approach may be adopted. Attitude of the investigator, the intensity of the study and the ability of the researcher to draw together diverse information into a unified interpretation are the main features which make this method an appropriate procedure for evoking insights. Now, what sorts of examples are to be selected and studied? There is no clear cut answer to it. Experience indicates that for particular problems certain types of instances are more appropriate than others. One can mention few examples of „insight-stimulating‟ cases such as the reactions of strangers, the reactions of marginal individuals, the study of individuals who are in transition from one stage to another, the reactions of individuals from different social strata and the like. In general, cases that provide sharp contrasts or have striking features are considered relatively more useful while adopting this method of hypothesis formulation. Thus, in an exploratory of formulative research study which merely leads to insights or hypothesis, whatever method or research design outlined above is adopted, the only thing essential is that it must continue to remain flexible so that many different facets of a problem may be considered as and when they arise and come to the notice of the researcher.
b. Dependent and Independent variables: A magnitude that varies is known as a variable. The concept may assume different quantitative values, like height, weight, income, etc. Qualitative variables are not quantifiable in the strictest sense of objectivity. However, the qualitative phenomena may also be quantified in terms of the presence or absence of the attribute considered. Phenomena that assume different values quantitatively even in decimal points are known as „continuous variables‟. But, all variables need not be continuous. Values that can be expressed only in integer values are called „non-continuous variables‟. In statistical term, they are also known as „discrete variable‟. For example, age is a continuous variable; where as the number of children is a non-continuous variable. When changes in one variable depends upon the changes in one or more other variables, it is known as a dependent or endogenous variable, and the variables that cause the changes in the dependent variable are known as the independent or explanatory or exogenous variables. For example, if demand depends upon price, then demand is a dependent variable, while price is the independent variable.
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And if, more variables determine demand, like income and prices of substitute commodity, then demand also depends upon them in addition to the own price. Then, demand is a dependent variable which is determined by the independent variables like own price, income and price of substitute. 2. Extraneous variable: The independent variables which are not directly related to the purpose of the study but affect the dependent variable are known as extraneous variables. For instance, assume that a researcher wants to test the hypothesis that there is relationship between children‟s school performance and their self-concepts, in which case the latter is an independent variable and the former, the dependent variable. In this context, intelligence may also influence the school performance. However, since it is not directly related to the purpose of the study undertaken by the researcher, it would be known as an extraneous variable. The influence caused by the extraneous variable on the dependent variable is technically called as an „experimental error‟. Therefore, a research study should always be framed in such a manner that the dependent variable completely influences the change in the independent variable and any other extraneous variable or variables.
Q3. A. Differentiate between ‘Census survey’ and ‘ Sample Survey’. b. Analyze multi-stage and sequential sampling. Answer: Surveys are done all over the world to collect information from the populace to arrive at conclusions that help in improving the products or services of a company. There are many techniques of survey out of which sample survey and census survey are very popular. Though there are many similarities between these two methods, there are many differences in features and also the results obtained. It depends upon time available and other circumstances to engage in either of the two types of surveys. This article will discuss the features of two types of surveys to clear the doubts in the minds of the readers. Before we begin to differentiate, it is pertinent to note that sample is a portion of the population whereas census takes into consideration everyone in the population. This obviously means that a census survey is a much bigger exercise in nature and procedures than a sample survey. Census survey also is a very time consuming exercise as information needs to be collected from each and every individual from the population. On the other hand, sample survey is easier as a representative sample is taken from the population and the results obtained are extrapolated to fit the entire population. There are times and requirements where governments have to indulge in census survey even if it is time consuming and very expensive as it needs to formulate policies and welfare programs for the population. For example, when a government has to count heads of the population, it cannot conduct a sample survey to count the number of people in the country. But when government is planning on a welfare program for cancer patients, it can conduct a sample survey of some of the cancer patients and then extrapolate the results on the section of the population that is undergoing treatment for cancer.
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There are errors in sampling in case of sample survey which can be minimized but never eliminated. Therefore the results of a sample survey always have a margin for error whereas census survey is always accurate. However, many times, it is not possible to carry out census survey which is when sample survey is undertaken.
b. In multi-stage sampling method, sampling is carried out in two or more stages. The population is regarded as being composed of a number of second stage units and so forth. That is, at each stage, a sampling unit is a cluster of the sampling units of the subsequent stage. First, a sample of the first stage sampling units is drawn, then from each of the selected first stage sampling unit, a sample of the second stage sampling units is drawn. The procedure continues down to the final sampling units or population elements. Appropriate random sampling method is adopted at each stage. It is appropriate where the population is scattered over a wider geographical area and no frame or list is available for sampling. It is also useful when a survey has to be made within a limited time and cost budget. The major disadvantage is that the procedure of estimating sampling error and cost advantage is complicated. Double sampling refers to the subsection of the final sample form a pre-selected larger sample that provided information for improving the final selection. When the procedure is extended to more than two phases of selection, it is then, called multi-phase sampling. This is also known as sequential sampling, as sub-sampling is done from a main sample in phases. Double sampling or multiphase sampling is a compromise solution for a dilemma posed by undesirable extremes. “The statistics based on the sample of ‘n’ can be improved by using ancillary information from a wide base: but this is too costly to obtain from the entire population of N elements. Instead, information is obtained from a larger preliminary sample nil which includes the final sample n.
Q 4. List down various measures of central tendency and explain the difference between them? Answer: Measures of Central Tendency Analysis of data involves understanding of the characteristics of the data. The following are the important characteristics of a statistical data: Central tendency Dispersion Skew ness Kurtosis In a data distribution, the individual items may have a tendency to come to a central position or an average value. For instance, in a mark distribution, the individual students may score marks between zero and hundred. In this distribution, many students may score marks, which are near to the average marks, i.e. 50. Such a tendency of the data to concentrate to
MBA Semester III
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the central position of the distribution is called central tendency. Central tendency of the data is measured by statistical averages. Averages are classified into two groups. 1. Mathematical averages 2. Positional averages
Arithmetic mean, geometric mean and harmonic mean are mathematical averages. Median and mode are positional averages. These statistical measures try to understand how individual values in a distribution concentrate to a central value like average. If the values of distribution approximately come near to the average value, we conclude that the distribution has central tendency. Arithmetic Mean Arithmetic mean is the most commonly used statistical average. It is the value obtained by dividing the sum of the item by the number of items in a series. Symbolically we say Arithmetic mean = ∑X/n Where ∑X = the sum of the item N = the number of items in the series. If x1 x2 x3… xn are the values of a series, then arithmetic mean of the series obtained by (x1 + x2 + x3… +xn) / n. If put (x1 + x2 + x3… +xn) = ∑X, then arithmetic mean = ∑X/n When frequencies are also given with the values, to calculate arithmetic mean, the values are first multiplied with the corresponding frequency. Then their sum is divided by the number of frequency. Thus in a discrete series, arithmetic mean is calculated by the following formula. Arithmetic mean = ∑fx/ ∑f Where,∑fx = sum the values multiplied by the corresponding frequency. ∑f = sum of the frequency If x1 x2 x3… xn are the values of a series, and f1 f2 f3… fn are their corresponding frequencies,
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Arithmetic mean is calculated by (f1 x1 + f2 x2 + f3x3… + fn xn) / (f1 + f2 + f3… + fn) or Arithmetic mean = ∑fx / ∑f Geometric Mean Geometric mean is defined as the nth root of the product of N items of a series. If there are two items in the data, we take the square root; if there are three items we take the cube root, and so on. Symbolically,
Where x1, x2. ..xn are the items of the given series. To simplify calculations, logarithms are used. Accordingly, GM = Anti log of (∑log x /n) In discrete series GM = Anti log of ∑ f . log x / ∑ f
Harmonic Mean In individual series HM = N / ∑ (1/x) In discrete series HM = N / ∑f (1/m) N = Total frequency M = Mi values of the class Median Median is the middlemost item of a given series. In individual series, we arrange the given data according to ascending or descending order and take the middlemost item as the median. When two values occur in the middle, we take the average of these two values as median. Since median is the central value of an ordered distribution, there occur equal number of values to the left and right of the median.
Individual series Median = (N+ 1 / 2) th item Median for Discrete Series
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To find the median of a grouped series, we first of all, cumulate the frequencies. Locate median at the size of (N+ 1) / 2 th cumulative frequency. N is the cumulative frequency taken. Steps 1. Arrange the values of the data in ascending order of magnitude. 2. Find out cumulative frequencies 3. Apply the formula (N+ 1) / 2 th item 4. Look at the cumulative frequency column and find the value of the variable corresponding to the above. Median for Continuous Series To find the median of a grouped series, with class interval, we first of all, cumulate the frequencies. Locate median at the size of (N) / 2 th cumulative frequency. Apply the interpolation formula to obtain the median Median = L1 + (N/2 – m) / f X C L1 = Lower limit of the median Class N/2 = Cumulative frequency/ 2 m = Cumulative frequency of the class preceding the median class f = frequency of the median class C = Class interval Merits of Median 1. Median is easy to calculate and simple to understand. 2. When the data is very large median is the most convenient measure of central tendency. 3. Median is useful finding average for data with open-ended classes. 4. The median distributes the values of the data equally to either side of the median. 5. Median is not influenced by the extreme values present in the data. 6. Value of the median can be graphically determined. Demerits of Median To calculate median, data should be arranged according to ascending order. This is tedious when the number of items in a series is numerous. Since the value of median is determined by observation, it is not a true representative of all the values. Median is not amenable to further algebraic treatment. The value of median is affected by sampling fluctuation. Mode
MBA Semester III
MB0050
Mode is the most repeating value of a distribution. When one item repeats more number of times than other or when two items repeat equal number of times, mode is ill defined. Under such case, mode is calculated by the formula (3 median – 2 mean). Mode is a widely used measure of central tendency in business. We speak of model wage which is the wage earned by most of the workers. Model shoe size is the mostly demanded shoe. Merits of Mode
Mode is the most typical and frequented value of the distribution. It is not affected by extreme values. Mode can be determined even for series with open-ended classes. Mode can be graphically determined.
Demerits of Mode 1. It is difficult to calculate mode when one item repeats more number of times than others. 2. Mode is not capable of further algebraic treatment. 3. Mode is not based on all the items of the series.
Q.5. Select any topic for research and explain how you will use both secondary and primary sources to gather the required information. Answer: Primary sources are original sources from which the researcher directly collects data that have not been previously collected e.g., collection of data directly by the researcher on brand awareness, brand preference, brand loyalty and other aspects of consumer behaviour from a sample of consumers by interviewing them. Primary data are first hand information collected through various methods such as observation, interviewing, mailing etc. Advantage of Primary Data
It is original source of data It is possible to capture the changes occurring in the course of time. It flexible to the advantage of researcher. Extensive research study is based of primary data
Disadvantage of Primary Data 1. Primary data is expensive to obtain 2. It is time consuming 3. It requires extensive research personnel who are skilled. 4. It is difficult to administer.
MBA Semester III
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Methods of Collecting Primary Data Primary data are directly collected by the researcher from their original sources. In this case, the researcher can collect the required date precisely according to his research needs, he can collect them when he wants them and in the form he needs them. But the collection of primary data is costly and time consuming. Yet, for several types of social science research required data are not available from secondary sources and they have to be directly gathered from the primary sources. In such cases where the available data are inappropriate, inadequate or obsolete, primary data have to be gathered. They include: socio economic surveys, social anthropological studies of rural communities and tribal communities, sociological studies of social problems and social institutions. Marketing research, leadership studies, opinion polls, attitudinal surveys, readership, radio listening and T.V. viewing surveys, knowledge-awareness practice (KAP) studies, farm managements studies, business management studies etc. There are various methods of data collection. A ‘Method’ is different from a ‘Tool’ while a method refers to the way or mode of gathering data, a tool is an instruments used for the method. For example, a schedule is used for interviewing. The important methods are (a) observation, (b) interviewing, (c) mail survey, (d) experimentation, (e) simulation and (f) projective technique. These are sources containing data which have been collected and compiled for another purpose. The secondary sources consists of readily compendia and already compiled statistical statements and reports whose data may be used by researchers for their studies e.g., census reports , annual reports and financial statements of companies, Statistical statement, Reports of Government Departments, Annual reports of currency and finance published by the Reserve Bank of India, Statistical statements relating to Co-operatives and Regional Banks, published by the NABARD, Reports of the National sample survey Organization, Reports of trade associations, publications of international organizations such as UNO, IMF, World Bank, ILO, WHO, etc., Trade and Financial journals newspapers etc. Secondary sources consist of not only published records and reports, but also unpublished records. The latter category includes various records and registers maintained by the firms and organizations, e.g., accounting and financial records, personnel records, register of members, minutes of meetings, inventory records etc. Features of Secondary Sources Though secondary sources are diverse and consist of all sorts of materials, they have certain common characteristics. First, they are readymade and readily available, and do not require the trouble of constructing tools and administering them. Second, they consist of data which a researcher has no original control over collection and classification. Both the form and the content of secondary sources are shaped by others. Clearly, this is a feature which can limit the research value of secondary sources.
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Finally, secondary sources are not limited in time and space. That is, the researcher using them need not have been present when and where they were gathered. Use of Secondary Data The second data may be used in three ways by a researcher. First, some specific information from secondary sources may be used for reference purpose. For example, the general statistical information in the number of co-operative credit societies in the country, their coverage of villages, their capital structure, volume of business etc., may be taken from published reports and quoted as background information in a study on the evaluation of performance of cooperative credit societies in a selected district/state. Second, secondary data may be used as bench marks against which the findings of research may be tested, e.g., the findings of a local or regional survey may be compared with the national averages; the performance indicators of a particular bank may be tested against the corresponding indicators of the banking industry as a whole; and so on. Finally, secondary data may be used as the sole source of information for a research project. Such studies as securities Market Behaviour, Financial Analysis of companies, Trade in credit allocation in commercial banks, sociological studies on crimes, historical studies, and the like, depend primarily on secondary data. Year books, statistical reports of government departments, report of public organizations of Bureau of Public Enterprises, Censes Reports etc, serve as major data sources for such research studies.
Q 6. a. Explain the role of Graphs and Diagrams? b. What are the Types and General rules for graphical representation of data? Answer: In presenting the data of frequency distributions and statistical computations, it is often desirable to use appropriate forms of graphic presentations. In additions to tabular forms, graphic presentation involves use of graphics, charts and other pictorial devices such as diagrams. These forms and devices reduce large masses of statistical data to a form that can be quickly understood at the glance. The meaning of figures in tabular form may be difficult for the mind to grasp or retain. “Properly constructed graphs and charts relieve the mind of burdensome details by portraying facts concisely, logically and simply.” They, by emphasizing new and significant relationship, are also useful in discovering new facts and in developing hypothesis. The device of graphic presentation is particularly useful when the prospective readers are non-technical people or general public. It is useful to even technical people for dramatizing certain points about data; for important points can be more effectively captured in pictures than in tables. However, graphic forms are not substitutes for tables, but are additional tools for the researcher to emphasize the research findings.
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Graphic presentation must be planned with utmost care and diligence. Graphic forms used should be simple, clear and accurate and also be appropriate to the data. In planning this work, the following questions must be considered. (a) What is the purpose of the diagram? (b) What facts are to be emphasized? (c) What is the educational level of the audience? (d) How much time is available for the preparation of the diagram? (e) What kind of chart will portray the data most clearly and accurately? b. Types of Graphs and General Rules The most commonly used graphic forms may be grouped into the following categories: a) Line Graphs or Charts b) Bar Charts c) Segmental presentations. d) Scatter plots e) Bubble charts f) Stock plots g) Pictographs h) Chesnokov Faces The general rules to be followed in graphic representations are: 1. The chart should have a title placed directly above the chart. 2. The title should be clear, concise and simple and should describe the nature of the data presented. 3. Numerical data upon which the chart is based should be presented in an accompanying table. 4. The horizontal line measures time or independent variable and the vertical line the measured variable. 5. Measurements proceed from left to right on the horizontal line and from bottom to top on the vertical. 6. Each curve or bar on the chart should be labelled. 7. If there are more than one curves or bar, they should be clearly differentiated from one another by distinct patterns or colours. 8. The zero point should always be represented and the scale intervals should be equal. 9. Graphic forms should be used sparingly. Too many forms detract rather than illuminating the presentation. 10. Graphic forms should follow and not precede the related textual discussion. ******
MBA Semester III
MB0050 MB0050 – Research Methodology Assignment Set- 2
Q 1. What is questionnaire? Discuss the main points that you will take into account while drafting a questionnaire? Answer: Understanding how to phrase questions. Being sensitive to questionnaire length. There are some basic differences in how the questionnaire should be constructed if it is to be filled out personally by the respondent or if an interviewer is going to administer it. These are: Self-administered questionnaires should be simple, straightforward and logical It has been estimated that as many as 50% of respondents who start a self-administered questionnaire will not complete it because they become irritated and annoyed at the way it is constructed. When writing a self-administered questionnaire, then, every care must be taken to ensure that it is easy to complete In that it almost answers itself. Self-administered questionnaires should be written with an eighth grade mentality in mind while interviewer-administered questionnaire can be quite complex. Because inter viewers are trained in the flow of the questionnaires they administer and will conduct a number of practice interviews prior to confronting a respondent, developing a complex questionnaire that is interviewer-administered does not present a problem for the respondent. Keep the respondent in one mind-set at a time. If at all possible, complete all your questions about on e topic before moving on to the next. For example, don’t ask about favorite place to shop, then about brands used and then go back to additional questioning on favorite place to shop. Save sensitive questions for the end. Again, this might not always be possible, but when it doesn’t matter, be aware that sensitive questions such as race or income can alienate respondents and turn them off to the entire interview process. If asked at the end, respondents are more likely to answer as they are wholly invested in the questionnaire. Biased question: What do you like about the last airline flight you took? Assumption here is that respondent liked something and the question tends to push for a positive response. Unbiased question. What, if anything, do you like the last airline flight you took? By simply using if anything as part of the question phrasing, the respondent is not put on the spot to find something to like When conducting telephone interviews, it’s relatively easy to keep respondents on the phone and Answering questions for 15, 20 or 25 minutes if the questionnaire has a good flow and is
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thoughtfully written. But try keeping a respondent on the phone for 3 minutes with a questionnaire that is the least bit confusing, seems redundant or is insensitive to sensitive issues.
Q 2. What do you mean by primary data? What are the various methods of collecting primary data? Answer: Primary sources are original sources from which the researcher directly collects data that have not been previously collected e.g., collection of data directly by the researcher on brand awareness, brand preference, brand loyalty and other aspects of consumer behaviour from a sample of consumers by interviewing them. Primary data are first hand information collected through various methods such as observation, interviewing, mailing etc. Advantage of Primary Data
It is original source of data It is possible to capture the changes occurring in the course of time. It flexible to the advantage of researcher. Extensive research study is based of primary data
Disadvantage of Primary Data 1. Primary data is expensive to obtain 2. It is time consuming 3. It requires extensive research personnel who are skilled. 4. It is difficult to administer. Methods of Collecting Primary Data Primary data are directly collected by the researcher from their original sources. In this case, the researcher can collect the required date precisely according to his research needs, he can collect them when he wants them and in the form he needs them. But the collection of primary data is costly and time consuming. Yet, for several types of social science research required data are not available from secondary sources and they have to be directly gathered from the primary sources. In such cases where the available data are inappropriate, inadequate or obsolete, primary data have to be gathered. They include: socio economic surveys, social anthropological studies of rural communities and tribal communities, sociological studies of social problems and social institutions. Marketing research, leadership studies, opinion polls, attitudinal surveys, readership, radio listening and T.V. viewing surveys, knowledge-awareness practice (KAP) studies, farm managements studies, business management studies etc.
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There are various methods of data collection. A ‘Method’ is different from a ‘Tool’ while a method refers to the way or mode of gathering data, a tool is an instruments used for the method. For example, a schedule is used for interviewing. The important methods are (a) observation, (b) interviewing, (c) mail survey, (d) experimentation, (e) simulation and (f) projective technique.
Q 3.a. Analyze the case study and descriptive approach to research. [5 marks]. b. Distinguish between research methods & research Methodology Answer: Case study is a method of exploring and analyzing the life of a social unit or entity, be it a person, a family, an institution or a community. The aim of case study method is to locate or identify the factors that account for the behaviour patterns of a given unit, and its relationship with the environment. The case data are always gathered with a view to attracting the natural history of the social unit, and its relationship with the social factors and forces operative and involved in this surrounding milieu. In short, the social researcher tries, by means of the case study method, to understand the complex of factors that are working within a social unit as an integrated totality. Looked at from another angle, the case study serves the purpose similar to the clue-providing function of expert opinion. It is most appropriate when one is trying to find clues and ideas for further research. The major credit for introducing case study method into social investigation goes to Frederick Leplay. Herbert Spencer was the first social philosopher who used case study in comparative studies of different cultures. William Healey used case study in his study of juvenile delinquency. Anthropologists and ethnologists have liberally utilized cast study in the systematic description of primitive cultures. Historians have used this method for portraying some historical character or particular historical period and describing the developments within a national community. Research design in case of descriptive research studies : Descriptive research studies are those studies which are concerned with describing the characteristics of a particular individual, or of a group, where as diagnostic research studies determine the frequency with which something occurs or its association with something else. The studies concerning whether certain variables are associated are the example of diagnostic research studies. As against this, studies concerned with specific predictions, with narration of facts and characteristics concerning individual group of situation are all examples of descriptive research studies. Most of the social research comes under this category. From the point of view of the research design, the descriptive as well as diagnostic studies share common requirements and as such we may group together these two types of research studies. In descriptive as well as in diagnostic studies, the researcher must be able to define clearly, what he wants to measure and must find adequate methods for measuring it along with a clear cut definition of population he wants to study. Since the aim is to obtain complete and accurate information in the said studies, the procedure to be used must be carefully planned. The research design must make enough provision for protection against
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bias and must maximize reliability. With due concern for the economical completion of the research study, the design in such studies must be rigid and not flexible and must focus attention on the following: 1. Formulating the objective of the study 2. Designing the methods of data collection 3. Selecting the sample 4. Collecting the data 5. Processing and analyzing the data 6. Reporting the findings.
b. Distinguish between research methods & research Methodology Research Methods and Research Methodology are two terms that are often confused as one and the same. Strictly speaking they are not so and they show differences between them. One of the primary differences between them is that research methods are the methods by which you conduct research into a subject or a topic. On the other hand research methodology explains the methods by which you may proceed with your research. Research methods involve conduct of experiments, tests, surveys and the like. On the other hand research methodology involves the learning of the various techniques that can be used in the conduct of research and in the conduct of tests, experiments, surveys and critical studies. This is the technical difference between the two terms, namely, research methods and research methodology. In short it can be said that research methods aim at finding solutions to research problems. On the other hand research methodology aims at the employment of the correct procedures to find out solutions. It is thus interesting to note that research methodology paves the way for research methods to be conducted properly. Research methodology is the beginning whereas research methods are the end of any scientific or non-scientific research. Let us take for example a subject or a topic, namely, ‘employment of figures of speech in English literature’. In this topic if we are to conduct research, then the research methods that are involved are study of various works of the different poets and the understanding of the employment of figures of speech in their works. On the other hand research methodology pertaining to the topic mentioned above involves the study about the tools of research, collation of various manuscripts related to the topic, techniques involved in the critical edition of these manuscripts and the like. If the subject into which you conduct a research is a scientific subject or topic then the research methods include experiments, tests, study of various other results of different experiments performed earlier in relation to the topic or the subject and the like.
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On the other hand research methodology pertaining to the scientific topic involves the techniques regarding how to go about conducting the research, the tools of research, advanced techniques that can be used in the conduct of the experiments and the like. Any student or research candidate is supposed to be good at both research methods and research methodology if he or she is to succeed in his or her attempt at conducting research into a subject.
Q 4. Explain the important concepts in Research design? Answer: Meaning of Research Design The research designer understandably cannot hold all his decisions in his head. Even if he could, he would have difficulty in understanding how these are inter-related. Therefore, he records his decisions on paper or record disc by using relevant symbols or concepts. Such a symbolic construction may be called the research design or model. A research design is a logical and systematic plan prepared for directing a research study. It specifies the objectives of the study, the methodology and techniques to be adopted for achieving the objectives. It constitutes the blue print for the collection, measurement and analysis of data. It is the plan, structure and strategy of investigation conceived so as to obtain answers to research questions. The plan is the overall scheme or program of research. A research design is the program that guides the investigator in the process of collecting, analyzing and interpreting observations. It provides a systematic plan of procedure for the researcher to follow elltiz, Jahoda and Destsch and Cook describe, “A research design is the arrangement of conditions for collection and analysis of data in a manner that aims to combine relevance to the research purpose with economy in procedure.”
It is important to be familiar with the important concepts relating to research design. They are: 1. Dependent and Independent variables: A magnitude that varies is known as a variable. The concept may assume different quantitative values, like height, weight, income, etc. Qualitative variables are not quantifiable in the strictest sense of objectivity. However, the qualitative phenomena may also be quantified in terms of the presence or absence of the attribute considered. Phenomena that assume different values quantitatively even in decimal points are known as „continuous variables‟. But, all variables need not be continuous. Values that can be expressed only in integer values are called „non-continuous variables‟. In statistical term, they are also known as „discrete variable‟. For example, age is a continuous variable; where as the number of children is a non-continuous variable. When changes in one variable depends upon the changes in one or more other variables, it is known as a dependent or endogenous variable,
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and the variables that cause the changes in the dependent variable are known as the independent or explanatory or exogenous variables. For example, if demand depends upon price, then demand is a dependent variable, while price is the independent variable. And if, more variables determine demand, like income and prices of substitute commodity, then demand also depends upon them in addition to the own price. Then, demand is a dependent variable which is determined by the independent variables like own price, income and price of substitute. 2. Extraneous variable: The independent variables which are not directly related to the purpose of the study but affect the dependent variable are known as extraneous variables. For instance, assume that a researcher wants to test the hypothesis that there is relationship between children‟s school performance and their self-concepts, in which case the latter is an independent variable and the former, the dependent variable. In this context, intelligence may also influence the school performance. However, since it is not directly related to the purpose of the study undertaken by the researcher, it would be known as an extraneous variable. The influence caused by the extraneous variable on the dependent variable is technically called as an „experimental error‟. Therefore, a research study should always be framed in such a manner that the dependent variable completely influences the change in the independent variable and any other extraneous variable or variables. 3. Control: One of the most important features of a good research design is to minimize the effect of extraneous variable. Technically, the term control is used when a researcher designs the study in such a manner that it minimizes the effects of extraneous independent variables. The term control is used in experimental research to reflect the restrain in experimental conditions.
4. Confounded relationship: The relationship between dependent and independent variables is said to be confounded by an extraneous variable, when the dependent variable is not free from its effects. Research hypothesis: When a prediction or a hypothesized relationship is tested by adopting scientific methods, it is known as research hypothesis. The research hypothesis is a predictive statement which relates a dependent variable and an independent variable. Generally, a research hypothesis must consist of at least one dependent variable and one independent variable. Whereas, the relationships that are assumed but not be tested are predictive statements that are not to be objectively verified are not classified as research hypothesis. Experimental and control groups:
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When a group is exposed to usual conditions in an experimental hypothesis-testing research, it is known as „control group‟. On the other hand, when the group is exposed to certain new or special condition, it is known as an „experimental group‟. In the aforementioned example, the Group A can be called a control group and the Group B an experimental one. If both the groups A and B are exposed to some special feature, then both the groups may be called as „experimental groups‟. A research design may include only the experimental group or the both experimental and control groups together. Treatments: Treatments are referred to the different conditions to which the experimental and control groups are subject to. In the example considered, the two treatments are the parents with regular earnings and those with no regular earnings. Likewise, if a research study attempts to examine through an experiment regarding the comparative impacts of three different types of fertilizers on the yield of rice crop, then the three types of fertilizers would be treated as the three treatments. Experiment: An experiment refers to the process of verifying the truth of a statistical hypothesis relating to a given research problem. For instance, experiment may be conducted to examine the yield of a certain new variety of rice crop developed. Further, Experiments may be categorized into two types namely, absolute experiment and comparative experiment. If a researcher wishes to determine the impact of a chemical fertilizer on the yield of a particular variety of rice crop, then it is known as absolute experiment. Meanwhile, if the researcher wishes to determine the impact of chemical fertilizer as compared to the impact of bio-fertilizer, then the experiment is known as a comparative experiment. Experiment unit: Experimental units refer to the predetermined plots, characteristics or the blocks, to which the different treatments are applied. It is worth mentioning here that such experimental units must be selected with great caution.
Q 5. What are the differences between observation and interviewing as methods of data collection? Give two specific examples of situations where either observation or interviewing would be more appropriate Answer: Collection of data is the most crucial part of any research project as the success or failure of the project is dependent upon the accuracy of the data. Use of wrong methods of data collection or any inaccuracy in collecting data can have significant impact on the results of a study and may lead to results that are not valid. There are many techniques of data collection along a continuum and observation and interviewing are two of the popular methods on this continuum that has quantitative methods at one end while qualitative methods at the other end. Though there are many similarities in these two methods and they serve the same basic purpose, there are differences that will be highlighted in this article.
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Observation Observation, as the name implies refers to situations where participants are observed from a safe distance and their activities are recorded minutely. It is a time consuming method of data collection as you may not get the desired conditions that are required for your research and you may have to wait till participants are in the situation you want them to be in. Classic examples of observation are wild life researchers who wait for the animals of birds to be in a natural habitat and behave in situations that they want to focus upon. As a method of data collection, observation has limitations but produces accurate results as participants are unaware of being closely inspected and behave naturally. Interviewing Interviewing is another great technique of data collection and it involves asking questions to get direct answers. These interviews could be either one to one, in the form of questionnaires, or the more recent form of asking opinions through internet. However, there are limitations of interviewing as participants may not come up with true or honest answers depending upon privacy level of the questions. Though they try to be honest, there is an element of lie in answers that can distort results of the project. Though both observation and interviewing are great techniques of data collection, they have their own strengths and weaknesses. It is important to keep in mind which one of the two will produce desired results before finalizing.
Q 6.Strictly speaking, would case studies be considered as scientific research? Why or why not? Answer: The case study is the most flexible of all research designs, allowing the researcher to retain the holistic characteristics of real-life events while investigating empirical events. In general, a case study is an empirical inquiry which: Investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context: when the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident; and in which multiple sources of evidence are used. Case studies are only one of many ways of doing social science research, with experimentation, observation, surveys and archival information (as mentioned above) each suited to a certain type of research problem, degree of experimenter control over events and historical/contemporary perspective and focus. What are case studies? By design, case studies usually take as their principal subject selected examples of a social entity within its normal context. At the simplest level, the case study provides descriptive accounts of one or more cases, yet can also be used in an intellectually rigorous manner to achieve experimental isolation of one or more selected social factors within a real-life context. Robert Yin tried to define a case study, as part of his defense of the method, as an attempt to examine: (a) a contemporary phenomenon in its real life context, especially when; (b) the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident.
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Despite the popular misconception that case studies are limited to qualitative analysis they can use both qualitative and/or quantitative information. In this section we will compare the use of case studies and other research methods, look at the different types of case studies, and the different types of case information used. Earlier (in the early to mid 20th century) research"with an n of one" (meaning one subject in the test) was common. Then social science got into numbers and percentages and such, and the case study fell away as not useful enough to learn from. However, especially in the "soft" sciences (psychology, sociology, anthropology, ethology, etc.) that have to do with people rather than formulas or numbers or the like, case studies can be helpful and important, especially if they are well-constructed, or longitudinal, or are in depth on their topic. A carefully controlled case study would generally be considered research, even careful research, but not generally scientific research. One of the reasons is that the subjects are not randomly assigned to conditions. Many case studies are post hoc. Many case studies are dependent on subject reporting of experiences. It is very difficult to do statistical analysis on case studies, which usually do not have many subjects involved.
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MB0051: Legal Aspects of Business Assignment Set – I Q.1 Distinguish between fraud and misrepresentation. Answer: Fraud : A false representation of a matter of fact - whether by words or by conduct, by false or misleading allegations, or by concealment of what should have been disclosed - that deceives and is intended to deceive another so that the individual will act upon it to her or his legal injury. Fraud is commonly understood as dishonesty calculated for advantage. A person who is dishonest may be called a fraud. In the U.S. legal system, fraud is a specific offense with certain features. In criminal law, a fraud is an intentional deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual; the related adjective is fraudulent. The specific legal definition varies by legal jurisdiction. Fraud is a crime, and also a civil law violation. Defrauding people or entities of money or valuables is a common purpose of fraud, but there have also been fraudulent "discoveries", e.g., in science, to gain prestige rather than immediate monetary gain. Fraud means and includes any of the following acts committed by a party to a contract with intent to deceive the other party thereto or to induce him to enter into a contract: (i) The suggestion as a fact of that which is not true by one who does not believe it to be true; (ii) Active concealment of a fact by one having knowledge or belief of the fact; (iii) Promise made without any intention of performing it; (iv) Any other act fitted to deceive; (v) Any such act or omission as the law specifically declares to be fraudulent. Misrepresentation Misrepresentation is also known as simple misrepresentation whereas fraud is known as fraudulent misrepresentation. Like fraud, misrepresentation is an incorrect or false statement but the falsity or inaccuracy is not due to any desire to deceive or defraud the other party. Such a statement is made innocently. The party making it believes it to be true. In this way, fraud is different from misrepresentation. In the broadest sense, a fraud is an intentional deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual. The specific legal definition varies by legal jurisdiction. Fraud is a crime, and is also a civil law violation. Fraud for profit involves industry professionals. There are generally multiple loan transactions with several financial institutions involved. These frauds include numerous gross misrepresentations including: income is overstated, assets are overstated, collateral is
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overstated, the length of employment is overstated or fictitious employment is reported, and employment is backstopped by conspirators. The borrower's debts are not fully disclosed, nor is the borrower's credit history, which is often altered. Often, the borrower assumes the identity of another person (straw buyer). The borrower states he intends to use the property for occupancy when he/she intends to use the property for rental income, or is purchasing the property for another party (nominee). Appraisals almost always list the property as owner-occupied. Down payments do not exist or are borrowed and disguised with a fraudulent gift letter. The property value is inflated (faulty appraisal) to increase the sales value to make up for no down payment and to generate cash proceeds in fraud for profit. Misrepresentation is a contract law concept. It means a false statement of fact made by one party to another party, which has the effect of inducing that party into the contract. For example, under certain circumstances, false statements or promises made by a seller of goods regarding the quality or nature of the product that the seller has may constitute misrepresentation. A finding of misrepresentation allows for a remedy of rescission and sometimes damages depending on the type of misrepresentation.
Q.2 What are the remedies for breach of contract. Answer: When someone breaches a contract, the other party is no longer obligated to keep its end of the bargain. From there, that party may proceed in several ways: (i) The other party may urge the breaching party to reconsider the breach; (ii) If it is a contract with a merchant, the other party may get help from consumers’ associations; (iii) The other party may bring the breaching party to an agency for alternative dispute resolution; (iv) The other party may sue for damages; or (v) The other party may sue for other remedies. Rescission of the contract: When a breach of contract is committed by one party, the other party may treat the contract as rescinded. In such a case the aggrieved party is freed from all his obligations under the contract. Damages: Another relief or remedy available to the promisee in the event of a breach of promise by the promisor is to claim damages or loss arising to him there from. Damages under Sec.75 are awarded according to certain rules as laid down in Secs.73-74. Sec.73 contains three important rules: (i) Compensation as general damages will be awarded only for those losses that directly and naturally result from the breach of the contract. (ii) Compensation for losses indirectly caused by breach may be paid as special damages if the party in breach had knowledge that such losses would also follow from such act of breach. (iii) The aggrieved party is required to take reasonable steps to keep his losses to the minimum.
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The most common remedy for breach of contracts: The usual remedy for breach of contracts is suit for damages. The main kind of damages awarded in a contract suit are ordinary damages. This is the amount of money it would take to put the aggrieved party in as good a position as if there had not been a breach of contract. The idea is to compensate the aggrieved party for the loss he has suffered as a result of the breach of the contract. In addition to the rights of a seller against goods provided in Secs.47 to 54, the seller has the following remedies against the buyer personally. (i) suit for price (Sec.55); (ii) damages for non-acceptance of goods (Sec.56); (iii) suit for interest (Sec.56). Suit for price Where under a contract of sale the property in the goods has passed to the buyer and the buyer wrongfully neglects or refuses to pay the price, the seller can sue the buyer for the price of the goods. Where the property in goods has not passed to the buyer, as a rule, the seller cannot file a suit for the price; his only remedy is to claim damages. Suit for damages for non-acceptance Where the buyer wrongfully neglects or refuses to accept and pay for the goods, the seller may sue him for damages for non-acceptance. Where the property in the goods has not passed to the buyer and the price was not payable without passing of property, the seller can only sue for damages and not for the price. The amount of damages is to be determined in accordance with the provisions laid down in Sec.73 of the Indian Contract Act, 1872. Thus, where there is an available market for the goods prima facie, the difference between the market price and the contract price can be recovered. Suit for interest When under a contract of sale, the seller tenders the goods to the buyer and the buyer wrongfully refuses or neglects to accept and pay the price, the seller has a further right to claim interest on the amount of the price. In the absence of a contract to the contrary, the court may award interest at such rate as it thinks fit on the amount of the price. The interest may be calculated from the date of the tender of the goods or from the date on which the price was payable. It is obvious that the unpaid seller can claim interest only when he can recover the price, i.e., if the seller’s remedy is to claim damages only, then he cannot claim interest. Buyer’s remedies against seller The buyer has the following rights against the seller for breach of contract: (i) damages for non-delivery (Sec.57); (ii) right of recovery of the price; (iii) specific performance (Sec.58); (iv) suit for breach of condition; (v) suit for breach of warranty (Sec.59); (vi) anticipatory breach (Sec.60);
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recovery of interest (Sec.61).
Q.3 Distinguish between indemnity and guarantee. Answer: Indemnity and guarantee are two important ways to safeguard ones interests when entering into a contract. There are many similarities between the two concepts though they differ a lot also. Distinction between a contract of guarantee and a contract of indemnity: L.C. Mather in his book ‘Securities Acceptable to the Lending Banker’ has brought out the distinction between indemnity and guarantee by the following illustration. A contract in which A says to B, “If you lend Rs. 1 Lac to C, I will see that your money comes back” is an indemnity. On the other hand undertaking in these words, “If you lend 1 Lac to C and he does not pay you, I will pay” is a guarantee. Thus, in a contract of indemnity, there are only two parties, indemnifier and indemnified. In case of a guarantee, on the other hand, there are three parties, the ‘principal debtor’, the ‘creditor’ and the ‘surety’. A guarantee is a promise to someone that a third party will meet its obligation to them. “If they do not pay you, I will pay you”. An indemnity is a promise to be responsible for another person’s loss and to agree to compensate them for any loss or damage on mutually agreed terms. For example, one agrees to pay the difference of repairs if they exceed a certain limit. Other points of difference are: Indemnity Comprise only two parties- the indemnifier and the indemnity holder.
Liability of the indemnifier is primary.
The indemnifier need not necessarily act at the request of the indemnified. The possibility of any loss happening is the only contingency against which the indemnifier undertakes to indemnify. The indemnifier cannot proceed against third parties in his own name, unless there is an assignment in his favour.
Guarantee There are three parties namely the surety, principal debtor and the creditor. The liability of the surety is secondary. The surety is liable only if the principal debtor makes a default. The primary liability being that of the principal debtor. The surety give guarantee only at the request of the principal debtor There is an existing debt or duty’ the performance of which is guarantee by the surety. After discharging the debt, the surety is entitled to proceed against the principal debtor in his own name.
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Q.4 What is the distinction between cheque and bill of exchange. Answer: Bill of exchange A ‘bill of exchange’ is defined by Sec.5 as ‘an instrument in writing, containing an unconditional order, signed by the maker, directing a certain person to pay a certain sum of money only to or to the order of, a certain person, or to the bearer of the instrument’. Cheques A cheque is the usual method of withdrawing money from a current account with a banker. Savings bank accounts are also permitted to be operated by cheques provided certain minimum balance is maintained. A cheque, in essence, is an order by the customer of the bank directing his banker to pay on demand, the specified amount, to or to the order of the person named therein or to the bearer. Sec.6 defines a cheque. The Amendment Act 2002 has substituted new section for Sec.6. It provides that a ‘cheque’ is a bill of exchange drawn on a specified banker and not expressed to be payable otherwise than on demand and it includes the electronic image of a truncated cheque and a cheque in the electronic from. Check It is drawn on a banker It has three parties - the drawer, the drawee, and payee. It is seldom drawn in sets It does not require acceptance by the drawee. Days of grace are not allowed to a banker No stamp duty is payable on checks It is usually drawn on the printed
Bill of Exchange It may be drawn on any party or individual. There are three parties - the drawer, the drawee, and the payee. Foreign bills are drawn in sets It must be accepted by the drawee before he can be made liable to pay the bill Three days of grace are always allowed to the drawee. Stamp duty has to be paid on bill of exchange. It may be drawn in any paper and need not necessarily be printed.
Q.5 Distinguish between companies limited by shares and companies limited by guarantee. Answer: Companies Limited by Shares: When the liability of the members of a company is limited up to the unpaid value of their shares, it is called a limited liability company or a company limited by shares. This liability or unpaid amount may be called up at any time during the life time of the company or at the time of its winding up. Such a company must have share capital since the extent of liability is determined on the basis of the face value of shares. This company may be a public company or a private company.
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Companies Limited by Guarantee: The liability of a member in these companies is limited to the amount undertaken to be contributed by him at the time of winding up of the company. The amount of guarantee is mentioned in the memorandum of association. Such companies are formed for non-trading purposes such as charity, promotion of sports, science, art, culture etc. These companies may or may not have any share capital. If these companies do not have any share capital, the members can be required to pay the amount of guarantee undertaken by them and that too in the event of liquidation. But if these companies have any share capital, the members are liable to pay the amount which remains unpaid on their shares together with the amount payable under the guarantee. A company limited by guarantee and having a share capital may be a public company or a private company.
Q.6 What is the definition of cyber crime. Answer: Cyber crime refers to all the activities done with criminal intent in cyberspace or using the medium of Internet. These could be either the criminal activities in the conventional sense or activities, newly evolved with the growth of the new medium. Any activity, which basically offends human sensibilities, can be included in the ambit of Cyber crimes. Because of the anonymous nature of Internet, it is possible to engage in a variety of criminal activities with impunity, and people with intelligence, have been grossly misusing this aspect of the Internet to commit criminal activities in cyberspace. The field of cyber crime is just emerging and new forms of criminal activities in cyberspace are coming to the forefront each day. For example, child pornography on Internet constitutes one serious cyber crime. Similarly, online pedophiles, using Internet to induce minor children into sex, are as much cyber crimes as any others. Categories of cyber crimes: Cyber crimes can be basically divided in to three major categories: 1. Cyber crimes against persons; 2. Cyber crimes against property; and 3. Cyber crimes against government. 1. Cyber crimes against persons: Cyber crimes committed against persons include various crimes like transmission of childpornography, harassment of any one with the use of a computer and cyber stalking. The trafficking, distribution, posting, and dissemination of obscene material including pornography, indecent exposure, and child pornography constitute the most important cyber crimes known today. These threaten to undermine the growth of the younger generation and also leave irreparable scars on the minds of the younger generation, if not controlled. Similarly, cyber harassment is a distinct cyber crime. Various kinds of harassments can and do occur in cyberspace, or through the use of cyberspace. Harassment can be sexual,
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racial, religious, or of any other nature. Cyber harassment as a crime also brings us to another related area of violation of privacy of citizens. Violation of privacy of online citizens is a cyber crime of a grave nature. Cyber stalking: The Internet is a wonderful place to work, play and study. The net is merely a mirror of the real world, and that means it also contains electronic versions of real life problems. Stalking and harassment are problems that many persons especially women, are familiar within real life. These problems also occur on the Internet, in the form of “cyber stalking” or “online harassment”. 2. Cyber crimes against property: The second category of Cyber crimes is Cyber crimes against all forms of property. These crimes include unauthorized computer trespassing through cyberspace, computer vandalism, and transmission of harmful programs and unauthorized possession of computerized information. 3. Cyber crimes against Government: The third category of Cyber crimes is Cyber crimes against Government. Cyber Terrorism is one distinct kind of crime in this category. The growth of Internet has shown that the medium of cyberspace is being used by individuals and groups to threaten international governments as also to terrorize the citizens of a country. This crime manifests itself into Cyber Terrorism when an individual “cracks” into a government or military maintained website, for the purpose of perpetuating terror. Since Cyber crime is a newly emerging field, a great deal of development as to take place in terms of putting into place the relevant legal mechanism for controlling and preventing cyber crime. The courts in United States of America have already begun taking cognizance of various kinds of fraud and cyber crimes being perpetrated in cyberspace. However, much work has to be done in this field. Just as the human mind is ingenious enough to devise new ways for perpetrating crime, similarly, human ingenuity needs to be canalized into developing effective legal and regulatory mechanisms to control and prevent cyber crimes. A criminal mind can assume very powerful manifestations if it is used on a network, given the reachability and size of the network. Legal recognition granted to Electronic Records and Digital Signatures would certainly boost E – Commerce in the country. It will help in conclusion of contracts and creation of rights and obligations through electronic medium. In order to guard against the misuse and fraudulent activities over the electronic medium, punitive measures are provided in the Act. The Act has recognized certain offences, which are punishable. They are: Tampering with computer source documents (Sec 65) Any person, who knowingly or intentionally conceals, destroys or alters or intentionally or knowingly causes another person to conceal, destroy or alter any a. Computer source code when the computer source code is required to be kept by law for
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The time being in force, b. Computer programme, c. Computer system and d. Computer network. - is punishable with imprisonment up to three years, or with fine which may extend up to two lakh rupees or with both. Hacking with computer system (Sec 66): Hacking with computer system is a punishable offence under the Act. It means any person intentionally or knowingly causes wrongful loss or damage to the public or destroys or deletes or alters any information residing in the computer resources or diminishes its value or utility or affects it injuriously by any means, commits hacking. Such offenses will be punished with three years imprisonment or with fine of two lakh rupees or with both. Publishing of information which is obscene in electronic form (Sec 67): Whoever publishes or transmits or causes to be published in the electronic form, any material which is lascivious or appeals to prurient interest or if its effect is such as to tend to deprave and corrupt persons who are likely, having regard to all relevant circumstances, to read, see or hear the matter contained or embodied in it shall be punished on first conviction with imprisonment for a term extending up to 5 years and with fine which may extend to one lakh rupees. In case of second and subsequent conviction imprisonment may extend to ten years and also with fine which may extend up to two lakh rupees. Failure to comply with orders of the controller by a Certifying Authority or any employee of such authority (Sec 68): Failure to comply with orders of the Controller by any Certifying Authority or by any employees of Certifying Authority is a punishable offence. Such persons are liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years or to a fine not exceeding two lakh rupees or to both. Fails to assist any agency of the Government to decrypt the information (Sec 69): If any subscriber or any person-in-charge of the computer fails to assist or to extend any facilities and technical assistance to any Government agency to decrypt the information on the orders of the Controller in the interest of the sovereignty and integrity of India etc. is a punishable offence under the Act. Such persons are liable for imprisonment for a term, which may extend to seven years. Unauthorized access to a protected system (Sec 70): Any person who secures access or attempts to secure access to a protected system in contravention of the provisions is punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to ten years and also liable to fine.
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Misrepresentation before authorities (Sec 71): Any person who obtains Digital Signature Certificate by misrepresentation or suppressing any material fact from the Controller or Certifying Authority as the case may be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend two years or with fine up to one lakh rupees or with both. Breach of confidentiality and privacy (Sec 72): Any person in pursuant of the powers conferred under the act, unauthorisedly secures access, to any electronic record, books, register, correspondence, information, document or other material without the consent of the person concerned discloses such materials to any other person shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine up to one lakh rupees or with both. Publishing false particulars in Digital Signature Certificate (Sec 73): No person can publish a Digital Signature Certificate or otherwise make it available to any other person with the knowledge that: a. the Certifying Authority listed in the certificate has not issued it; or b. the subscriber listed in the certificate has not accepted it; or c. the certificate has been revoked or suspended unless such publication is for the purpose of verifying a digital signature created prior to such suspension or revocation. Any person who contravenes the provisions shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term, which may extend to two years or with fine up to rupees one lakh or with both. Publication of Digital Signature Certificate for fraudulent purpose (Sec 74): Any person knowingly creates, publishes or otherwise makes available a Digital Signature Certificate for any fraudulent or unlawful purpose shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years or with fine up to one lakh rupees or with both. ******
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MB0051 MB0051: Legal Aspects of Business Assignment Set – II
Q.1 What are the situations which cannot be referred to arbitration. Answer: Matters that cannot be referred to arbitration.
A claim for custody of wife, petition for restitution of conjugal rights,
divorce, etc;
Insolvency proceedings;
Claims arising out of illegal transactions;
Questions relating to public charities and charitable trusts;
Cases relating to public nuisance;
Execution proceedings;
Proceedings relating to the appointment of a guardian to a minor;
Questions relating to offences affecting public at large;
Lunacy proceedings;
Questions relating to the genuineness of a will;
Matters of a criminal nature.
Q2. What is the role of a Conciliator. Answer: In conciliation proceedings, there is no agreement for arbitration. In fact, conciliation can be done even if there is arbitration agreement. The conciliator only brings parties together and tries to solve the dispute using his good offices. The conciliator has no authority to give any award. He only helps parties in arriving at a mutually accepted settlement. After such agreement they may draw and sign a written settlement agreement. It will be signed by the conciliator. However after the settlement agreement is signed by both the parties and the conciliator, it has the same status and effect as if it is an arbitral award. Conciliation is the amicable settlement of disputes between the parties, with the help of a conciliator. Conciliation is a less frequently used form of ADR, and can be described as similar to mediation. The Conciliator's role is to guide the parties to a settlement. The parties must decide in advance whether they will be bound by the Conciliator's recommendations for settlement. The parties generally share equally in the cost of the conciliation. Offer for Conciliation: The conciliation proceedings can start when one of the parties makes a written request to other to conciliate, briefly identifying the dispute. The conciliation
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can start only if other party accepts in writing the invitation to conciliate. Unless there is written acceptance, conciliation cannot commence. If the other party does not reply within 30 days, the offer for conciliation can be treated as rejected [Section 62]. All matters of a civil nature or breach of contract or disputes of movable or immovable property can be referred to conciliation. However, matters of criminal nature, illegal transactions, matrimonial matters like divorce suit etc. cannot be referred to conciliation. The new Act has added new Chapter containing sections from 61 to 81 which deal with Conciliation proceedings to resolve the disputes. The New Act provides a detailed statutory framework for the conduct of independent conciliation proceedings outside the court. It also encourages the arbitral tribunals to use mediation, conciliation or other Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) procedure during the arbitral proceedings to encourage settlement of disputes. It is based on the Conciliation Rules adopted by the UNCITRAL in 1980, which were conceived primarily in the context of dispute resolution in international commercial relations. Conciliation is an informal process in which the conciliator (the third party) tries to bring the disputants to agreement. He does this by lowering tensions, improving communications, exploring potential solutions and bringing about a negotiated settlement. Conciliation is a philanthropic concept of resolving disputes through mediation and cannot be reduced to any specific definition. The dispute should arise within legal relationship whether contractual or not and to all proceedings relating thereto, but excludes all those disputes which are not required to be submitted to conciliation by virtue of any other law for the time being in enforce. The difference between conciliation and arbitration is that in conciliation the attitude is “winwin” as against the attitude of “win-lose” in case of arbitration. Conciliator tries to bring the parties together so that they can discuss their disputes and resolve and hence there is no award as such from the conciliator, whereas in the case of arbitrator, parties are required to give their own logic and arguments and after hearing both the parties the arbitrator gives the award. Role of the conciliator is difficult than that of arbitrators and hence the conciliator should be a man of integrity, trust, confidence and above board so that parties should have total confidence in his impartiality. Conciliation is optional at present in the Act. But incase parties have agreed to resolve the disputes through Conciliation, they have to follow the mandatory provisions contained in sections 61 to 81. These sections provide application and scope, commencement of conciliation proceedings, number of conciliators and their appointment, procedures for conducting the conciliation proceedings, roles of the conciliators, etc
Q3. What are the unfair trade practices under the MRTP Act. Unfair Trade Practices The Consumer Protection Act has adopted the definition of ‘Unfair Trade Practices’ as given in the MRTP Act. Section 36-A of the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act, 1969, amended in 1993 explains what ‘unfair trade practice’ means. Unfair trade practice methods
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are listed in section 36-A. Where the methods listed in section 36-A are adopted for the purpose of promoting the sale, use or supply of any goods, or for the provision of any services and thereby some loss or injury is caused to the consumers of such goods or services, it is an unfair trade practice. The practices mentioned in section 36-A are grouped into the following five categories. 1. Misleading Advertisement and False Representation: These include: (a) Falsely representing that the goods are of a particular standard, quality, quantity, grade, composition, style or model. (b) Falsely representing that the services are of a particular standard, quality or grade (c) Falsely representing that the re-built, second-hand, renovated, reconditioned or old goods as new goods. (d) Representing that the goods or services have sponsorship, approval, performance, characteristic, accessories, uses or benefits which such goods or services do not have. (e) Representing that the seller or the supplier has a sponsorship or approval or affiliation which he does not have. (f) Making a false or misleading representation concerning the need, for, or the usefulness of any goods or services. (g) Giving to the public any warranty or guarantee of the performance or length of life of a product which is not based on adequate test. (h) Making a materially misleading representation to the public concerning the price at which a product or like products of goods have been or are ordinarily sold. (i) Giving false or misleading facts disparaging the goods, services or trade of another person. The mode of representation or statement to the public may be by any method. It will be enough if the statement comes to the knowledge of the buyer of those goods etc. The representation may appear on the article or on its wrapper or container or on anything on which the article is mounted. 2. Sale offer of bargain price: This includes advertising for supply, at a bargain price, goods or services that are not intended to be offered for supply at the price for a reasonable period or reasonable quantities. 3. Schemes offering Gifts or Prizes: This category includes: (a) offering gifts or prizes or other items with the intention of not providing them and conducting promotional contests; (b) the conduct of any contest, lottery or game of chances, etc. 4. Non-compliance of prescribed Standards: This category includes cases where goods are sold for use by consumers knowing or having reason to believe that they do not comply with the standards prescribed by some competent authority. The prescribed standard may relate to performance, composition, contents, design, construction, finishing or packing as are necessary to prevent or reduce the risk of injury to the person using the goods. 5. Hoarding, destruction or refusal: The fifty and last category of unfair trade practices includes cases of hoarding, destruction of goods or refusal to sell goods or services so as to raise the cost of those or similar goods. Ingredients of Unfair Trade practices:
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(a) The trade practices must consist of any of the practices listed as above. (b) The purpose of such trade practice must be to promote the sale, use or supply of any goods or provision of any services. (c) The trade practices must have caused loss or injury to the consumer whether by Eliminating or restricting competition.
Q4. What are essentials of a valid offer. Answer: Essentials of a Valid Offer: a) An offer may be general or specific: According to Sec. 2 (a) an offer must be made to a specific person. An offer may be made to the world at large. But the contract is made only with the person who accepts and fulfills the conditions of the proposal. In the words of Anson, ‘An offer need not be made to an ascertained person, but no contract can arise until it has been accepted by an ascertained person’. In Carlill Vs Carbolic Smoke Ball Co. (1893), a Company offered by advertisement to pay £100 to anyone who contacts the increasing epidemic influenza, cold or any disease caused by taking cold after having used the ball as per printed directions. It was added that ‘£1000 is deposited with the Alliance Bank showing our sincerity in the matter’. The plaintiff used the smoke mokeball as per the directions but subsequently suffered from influenza. She was held entitled to recover the promised reward. b) An offer should be made with an intention of creating legal obligation: This principle of English law though not incorporated specifically under Section 10, is generally accepted as vital to form a legal agreement. Social, moral or religious agreements are not legally enforceable. For example, Mr. A invites Mr. B to dinner. Mr. B fails to attend. Mr. A cannot sue Mr. B for unconsumed food. Whether the offeror intended to enter into legal obligations or not could be known from the nature of the agreement and the surrounding circumstances. The court has to ascertain the intention of the parties. The test of contractual intention is objective and not subjective. What is considered is not what the parties had in mind but what a reasonable person would think in the circumstances their intentions to be. c) An offer must be definite and certain: The terms of an offer should not be uncertain and ambiguous. Anson expressed ‘The law requires the parties to make their own contract, it will not make a contract for them out of terms which are indefinite or illusory ’. This is so because the courts cannot say what the parties to the contract are to do and whether there is violation of the contract. However, all the terms of an offer need not be expressed. If some of the essential terms of a bargain may
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not be specified but are capable of being determined by some method other than by a future agreement there will be a good contract between the parties. d) A statement of intention and an invitation to offer are not offers: Preliminary negotiations are likely to take place before entering into an agreement. In the course of such negotiations one party may make some declarations regarding his intention of doing something. Such a declaration by itself does not become an offer. e.g., A tells B ‘I want to sell my car’. This is not an offer. An invitation to offer is not an offer. An advertisement for tenders for sale of goods by auction, an announcement about the stock of goods for sale, display of goods in shop windows, prospectus of a company, catalogue, price-lists, loudspeaker announcements etc. are merely invitations to offer or offers. e) An offer must be communicated to the offeree: An offer becomes operative only when it has been communicated to the person to whom the offer is made. Communication is necessary whether the offer is specific or general. Under Section 4 ‘the communication of a proposal is complete when it comes to the knowledge of the person to whom it is made’. However, mere knowledge of a proposal does not amount to communication unless the offeree acquires it with express or implied intention of the offeror. f) The terms and conditions of offer should also be communicated: An agreement is a two-sided bargain based on freedom of contract. However, in modern times the buyer of an article is in an unfavourable position. Freedom of contract becomes one-sided in the case of agreements with common carriers, dry cleaners, tailors, insurance companies, landlords, public utilities etc. It is also difficult to draw up a separate agreement with each individual. Therefore, printed forms of agreements known as ‘standard form contracts’ are used. Such forms contain large number of terms and conditions very often small in print absolving the dominant party of all liability. The economically weaker party has to accept all such terms and conditions irrespective of whether he likes them or not. The Court too finds it difficult at times to protect the interest of the weaker party. Therefore the courts have evolved certain methods. When the offer contains special terms and conditions the offeror must communicate all the terms and conditions either before or at the time of contracting in order to bind the acceptor. On the other hand if the acceptor knew that there was writing and knew or believed that the writing contained conditions he is then bound by the conditions even though he did not read them. It is enough if the offeror has done all that can be considered necessary to give notice to the acceptor. g) Two identical offers do not make a contract: An offer made by a person may cross a similar one made by another person of course in the course of transit. They are just two identical or cross offers, though there seems to be identity of mind. h) An offer should not contain any term the non-compliance of which amounts to acceptance: There may be any number of terms and conditions in an offer. The acceptor can accept or reject them. While the offeror can prescribe mode of acceptance, he can’t prescribe the form or time of refusal so as to fix a contract upon the acceptor. He can’t say,
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for example, that if the offeree does not communicate before a given time, he is deemed to have accepted the offer.
Q5. Find out a case where a person appealed under the Consumer protection Act and won. Answer: Consumer, not only means merely one who hires services for consideration, but also includes a person who is a beneficiary of such services. For example, the user of a telephone, even though he is not himself the subscriber is a consumer under the Act. Services include all kinds of professional services, be it the routine services of a barber or the technical services of a highly qualified person. For example, supply of electricity has been held to be a service and not sale of goods. The services must be of commercial nature in the sense that they must be on payment. The payments may be in cash or kind. It may be made either at once, or partly at once, or partly on credit. The services may be rendered wholly or partly on credit. However, free services or personal service under a contract have been excluded from the protective spell of the Consumer Protection Act. Union of India Vs. Mrs. S. Prakash: It was held that the subscriber of telephone is a consumer as the rental charges paid to the Central Government is the consideration for the services rendered by the Tele- Communication Department, District Manager, Telephones, Patna Vs. Lalith Kumar Bajla (1989). Few other cases: Mumbai Grahak Panchayat, Vs. Andhra Pradesh Scooters Ltd. The complainant made an advance deposit of Rs.500 with the A.P. Scooters Ltd., booking a scooter. The complaint was not given the refund of the deposit when he demanded the same as per his contract with the opposite party. It was held that the complainant was a consumer, and was entitled to relief asked by him. Ganapathi Vs. Postmaster, Karnataka State: In this case, the remitter of T.M.O.,was held to be a consumer and was awarded a compensation. Cosmopolitan Hospitals Vs. Smt. V.P. Nair’s: The National Commission held, that a patient is a consumer and the medical assistance was a service. The Medical Officer’s service was not a personal service so as to constitute an exception to the application of the Consumer Protection Act.
Q6. What does the Information Technology Act enable. Answer: Information Technology Act enables: Enables Legal recognition to Electronic Transaction / Record Facilitates Electronic Communication by means of reliable electronic record Provides for acceptance of contract expressed by electronic means
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Facilitates Electronic Commerce and Electronic Data interchange. Facilitates Electronic Governance. Facilitates electronic filing of documents. Enables retention of documents in electronic form. Where the law requires the signature, digital signature satisfies the requirement. Ensures uniformity of rules, regulations and standards regarding the authentication and integrity of electronic records or documents. Facilitates Publication of Official Gazette in the electronic form. Enables interception of any message transmitted in the electronic or encrypted form. Prevents Computer Crime, forged electronic records, international alteration of electronic records fraud, forgery or falsification in Electronic Commerce and electronic transaction. Digital Signature: Any subscriber may authenticate an electronic record by affixing his digital signature. [section 3(1)]. “Subscriber" means a person in whose name the Digital Signature Certificate is issued. [section 2(1)(zg)]. "Digital Signature Certificate" means a Digital Signature Certificate issued under section 35(4) [section 2(1)(q)]. "Digital signature" means authentication of any electronic record by a subscriber by means of an electronic method or procedure in accordance with the provisions of section 3. [section 2(1)(p)]. "Affixing digital signature" with its grammatical variations and cognate expressions means adoption of any methodology or procedure by a person for the purpose of authenticating an electronic record by means of digital signature. [section 2(1)(d)]. Authentication of records: The authentication of the electronic record shall be effected by the use of asymmetric crypto system and hash function which envelop and transform the initial electronic record into another electronic record. [section 3(2)]. Verification of digital signature: Any person by the use of a public key of the subscriber can verify the electronic record. [section 3(3)]. The private key and the public key are unique to the subscriber and constitute a functioning key pair. [section 3(4)]. The idea is similar to locker key in a bank. You have your ‘private key’ while bank manager has ‘public key’. The locker does not open unless both the keys come together match. Electronic records are acceptable unless specific provision to the contrary: Where any law provides that information or any other matter shall be in writing or in the typewritten or printed form, then, notwithstanding anything contained in such law, such requirement shall be deemed to have been satisfied if such information or matter is - (a) rendered or made available in an electronic form; and (b) accessible so as to be usable for a subsequent reference. [section 4]. - - Unless there is specific provision in law to contrary, electric record or electronic return is acceptable. - - Soon, it will be possible to submit applications, income tax returns and other returns through internet. Department or Ministry cannot be Compelled to Accept Electronic Record - Section 8 makes it clear that no department or ministry can be compelled to accept application, return or any communication in electronic form.
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Legal recognition of digital signatures: Where any law provides that information or any other matter shall be authenticated by affixing the signature or any document shall be signed or bear the signature of any person then, notwithstanding anything contained in such law, such requirement shall be deemed to have been satisfied, if such information or matter is authenticated by means of digital signature affixed in such manner as may be prescribed by the Central Government. - - "Signed", with its grammatical variations and cognate expressions, shall, with reference to a person, mean affixing of his hand written signature or any mark on any document and the expression "signature" shall be construed accordingly. [section 5]. Secure digital signature: If, by application of a security procedure agreed to by the parties concerned, it can be verified that a digital signature, at the time it was affixed, was - (a) unique to the subscriber affixing it (b) capable of identifying such subscriber (c) created in a manner or using a means under the exclusive control of the subscriber and is linked to the electronic record to which it relates in such a manner that if the electronic record was altered the digital signature would be invalidated, - - then such digital signature shall be deemed to be a secure digital signature. [section 15]. Certifying digital signature: The digital signature will be certified by ‘Certifying Authority’. The ‘certified authority’ will be licensed, supervised and controlled by ‘Controller of Certifying Authorities’.
MBA Semester III
MU0010 MU0010 –Manpower Planning and Resourcing Assignment Set- 1
Q1. What are the benefits of manpower demand forecasting? Benefits of Forecasting Answer: Forecasting is valuable for two reasons: • The end-result if accurate is very valuable. An accurate forecast may improve likely hood of achieving all organizational goals for the year. It can help identify risks, clarify what needs to be done and sets fair expectations. • The process of forecasting makes managers sensitive to change and helps them to curtail their flamboyant decision making on the manpower expenditure side is and helps focus on achieving the business goals. It also enables them to understand the impact of their actions on the organizations and their own future and helps build consensus. Sometimes consensus is critical. The fact that everybody has agreed on a forecast may be more essential than its accuracy, particularly if the consensus involves many firms and organizations crossing organizational and cultural barriers. Consensus works both ways. An agreed forecast can be self-fulfilling. Some of the other benefits of forecasting are: 1. It does not put stress on the system. 2. Lower stress on the system means lower manpower turnover. 3. Lower stress on the system means lower costs, and no need to do any unplanned expenditure. 4. Lower stress on the system means work gets delivered on time every time to the client. 5. Lower stress on the system means work gets delivery as per the quality standards every time to the client. 6. Lower stress on the system means that client does not make any escalations against employees and does not threaten to withdraw the business on concerns of quality or timeliness. 7. Lower stress on the system means lesser procedures and interference from the quality team or the management team. 8. Lower stress on the system means more freedom of control to resolve issues in the budding stages, than letting them reach a point where escalations arise. 9. Lower stress on the system means the employees have a stress free life and greater work-life balance. 10. Lower stress means the employees get enough time to spend with family and their presence can help resolve concerns or issues which if unresolved can grow exponentially and cause life changing events to occur. 11. Lower stress means the employees are able to learn more and add more value to the business and contribute more in terms of productivity. 12. Lower stress can be extrapolated to mean world peace (though some may not agree). Hence better demand forecasting, means happiness for all concerned. 13. Lower stress levels do not kill employees through massive heart attacks. But poor
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demand forecasting leading to higher stress levels can be harmful to the employee’s individual health.
Q2. Distinguish between internal and external sources of recruitment. Answer: Many organizations use a combination of both internal and external sourcing alternatives to deliver business support services. Sourcing the candidate from within the organization is known as internal source of recruitment and sourcing candidates from other sources is known as external source of recruitment. Internal Sourcing External Sourcing Proficient planning and execution of these “multi-sourcing” strategies requires efficient control and change management. The sourcing strategy must accomplish a proper balance between business drivers such as cost, quality of services, transformation, business agility and control. Organizations should focus on aligning these solutions with short-term and longterm business goal, as well as the strategic and planned initiatives across their business units. The success of sourcing alternatives depends on the strategic alignment of sourcing internally. 1. Internal Sourcing When you hire staff or contract staff who is working or was working with your organization earlier, then it is called as internal sourcing. An internal source is considered for: Promotions Availability of competent resources within the organization are given first preference and considered for filling the vacancies at higher levels by way of promotions. Transfers In case of excess hiring or businesses slowing due to various reasons in one branch of an organization and shortage of employees in another branch, organizations consider transferring surplus employees to meet the shortage of staff in the other branch rather than sourcing externally. Temporary Staff Many organizations appoint temporary staff for short projects. At the end of such projects organization often try to retain efficient resources by deploying them to available positions in other roles. Retired Employees Sometimes organizations prefer to re-employ their retired employees due their immense experience and knowledge and lack of suitably skilled and efficient candidate matching their requirement for the job opening.
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Advantages of Internal Sourcing The advantages of internal sourcing are: Reduces cost of recruitment. Reduces cost of training, induction and orientation. The time to transfer to the new role may be shorter. The past performance track record of the employee is known. Motivates employees and provides experienced competent people for the job role. Stability of employment can be ensured for the candidate. Disadvantages of Internal Sourcing Limits the options for selection. Lack of new ideas and approaches from outside the business. Creates another vacancy by moving the candidate from current job. May discourage the candidates not appointed. 2. External Sourcing When you hire staff or contract staff who has never worked with your organization earlier, then it is called as external recruitment. Examples are: Advertisements in Media Advertisements of the job openings in newspaper and journals magazines are generally used as a source of external recruitment. Campus Selections in Institutions Various colleges and institutions are a good source of recruiting well qualified executives, engineers, medical staff etc. Employee Referrals Organizations encourage internal employees by providing benefits for referring friends and relatives for some position in their organization. Consultants They identify candidates matching the job profile and charge a fee for providing candidates till you find the right candidate who accepts the offer. Data Banks Organizations collect CVs of candidates from different sources like employment exchange, training institutes etc. and screen and shortlist the candidates. When the business grows and if the business is manpower intensive, then additional resources are required. Therefore external recruitment is done. This is the only way to scale up the business. Also it brings in a freshness of thought and perspective. Capable people from the world’s best organizations bring best practices with them. They bring the culture of performance and meritocracy. External recruitment has many advantages. If the job role requires tremendous experience (e.g. 15 years), it is better to hire someone externally than to wait for people in your own organization with 4 years experience to gain 11 more years of experience.
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Q3. Explain the different levels of talent engagement. Answer: Talent engagement is the concept which explains the degree to which a talent (employee) is emotionally bonded to his/her organization and passionate about his work. Talent engagement is the level of commitment and involvement a person has towards his organization and its values. An engaged talent (employee) is well aware of the organizations business context, and how to work with colleagues to improve performance in his/her job and hence benefit the organization. Talent engagement forms a critical ingredient for an individual as well as the organizations success. Talent engagement is strongly influenced by the depth of the leadership and its qualities, and organizations culture. Talent engagement is creating an atmosphere for employees to go beyond job responsibilities to delight customers and promote business. Talent engagement is a powerful retention strategy. The definition of a fully engaged talent might be any of the following: One who is intellectually & emotionally bonded with an organization One who gives hundred percent One who feels passionately about achieving organizations goals One who lives the values of the organization Engagement Levels Studies revealed that there are 3 levels of engagement: 1. Engaged Talent Engaged talent performs consistently at high levels. Engaged talent is always ready to find out expectations from them or their role so that, they can meet and exceed them. They are more curious about their company and their position in it. They work whole heartedly using their talent and strengths at workplace every day for the betterment of their organization. They work towards driving innovation in the organization and for moving it forward. 2. Not Engaged Talent This is a kind of talent that tends to concentrate more on the tasks allotted to them rather than the goals and outcomes expected. They have to be told their responsibilities, so that they can complete their work. Consequently the focus shifts from accomplishing tasks rather than achieving an outcome. Employees who are not engaged tend to feel their contributions are being overlooked, and their potential is not being tapped. The reason behind them feeling like this is that they do not have productive relationships with their managers or colleagues. And they do not produce any positive results for the organization also. 3. Actively Disengaged Employee These employees are consistently against almost everything. Apart from being unhappy at work they are far busier demonstrating their unhappiness. Actively disengaged employees undermine what their engaged colleagues accomplish. Actively disengaged workers cause great damage to the organization in general. It is better to retrench such employees.
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Q4. How does Human Resource Accounting help the organization in its effort for development of employees? Answer: According to, The American Accounting Association’s committee (1973), human resource accounting is “the process of identifying and measuring data about human resources and communicating this information to interested parties”. So apart from calculating the costs and investments in processes like recruitment, hiring, placement and training, HRA also quantifies the value of employees in an organization. According to Flamholtz (1971) HRA is defined as “the measurement and reporting of the cost and value of people in organizational resources”. Featuring HRA related information is not a statutory requirement as per the Companies Act (1956). The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India has not defined any standard or measurement to report HRA. This does not make HRA a superficial analysis. There are a few organizations like BHEL and SAIL which understand the importance of HRA and emphasize on furnishing related information in their annual reports. 1. Need for HRA The need for Human Resource accounting comes from a simple belief that anything that needs to be improved needs to be measured first. Once organizations realized the value of Human Resource and its contribution to the effectiveness of the business, they felt the need of sustaining and increasing this value. In order to identify whether or not they are moving in this direction, it was imperative to measure value of people in the organization. In order to measure this a few methods were developed and employed. These methods or processes form Human Resource Accounting. 2. Significance of HRA In any organization, management takes decisions on various business aspects. These decisions have both long term and short term implications. Human Resource Accounting helps the management take well informed decisions for the betterment of the organization. In absence of HRA there could be decisions which are seemingly profitable in the short term but may have adverse effects in the long run. For instance an organization hiked the sales incentives to spruce up sales for a particular month. The desired targets were achieved for that month. However, in the next few months the performance deteriorated drastically as the organization could not offer the same hiked incentives due to pressures on the bottom line. HRA provides vital information to the management and assists in effective human resource management. It also adds value to critical HR processes – Hiring, Training, Developing, Retaining, Rewarding etc.
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Q5. Describe knowledge management. Answer: Knowledge Management In knowledge management an enterprise consciously and comprehensively gathers, organizes, shares, and analyzes its knowledge in terms of resources, documents, and people skills. Advances in technology and the way we access and share information has changed how knowledge management is done. Organizations today have some kind of knowledge management framework in place. Knowledge is intangible, dynamic, and difficult to measure, but without it no organization can survive. There are two types of knowledge. They are: · Tacit: or unarticulated knowledge is more personal, experiential, context specific, and hard to formalize; is difficult to communicate or share with others; and is generally in the heads of individuals and teams. · Explicit: explicit knowledge can easily be written down and codified. How can we transfer tacit knowledge? We can transfer tacit knowledge through mechanisms of socialization, mentorships, apprenticeships and face-to-face communication. Since knowledge may be an organization’s only sustainable competitive advantage, it is very important to capture tacit knowledge. Intranets and e-mail help knowledge flow through an organization. Tacit knowledge often moves laterally through informal channels of communication (communities of practice). For example, those groups that hang around the coffee machine – they are exchanging knowledge, just as the smokers huddled near the entrance to the building at break time. The information that is passed in this way is very important because it is useful for helping people to get their work done more effectively, in part, because nobody is willing to question or think about it very much. Communities of practice must have their place in a comprehensive knowledge management effort. Keep in mind that flows of knowledge are an organization’s capacity to learn. They are all you really have. The move from an industrially-based economy to knowledge or information-based one in the 21st Century demands a top-notch knowledge management system to secure a competitive edge and a capacity for learning. Knowledge Management (KM) Facts & Predictions The KM context Fortune 500 companies will lose US$31.5bn by 2003 through KM inefficiency (IDC). Employees spend 6 weeks p.a. searching for experts to complete work (Northrop Grumman). 7-20% of time is spent duplicating the work of others (Delphi Group) Information professionals spend 15 hours+ searching for information on the Internet. Their searches are only 44% effective (IRN Services). The new source of wealth is knowledge, and not labor, land, or financial capital. It is the intangible, intellectual assets that must be managed. The knowledge economy rests on three pillars: The role that knowledge plays in transactions: it is what is being bought and sold; both the raw materials and the finished goods The concurrent rise in importance of knowledge assets, which transform and add
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value to knowledge products The emergence of ways to manage these materials and assets, or KM An accepted definition of knowledge management does not yet exist, although perspectives on knowledge abound, but there are three important points to keep in mind: Knowledge today is a necessary and sustainable source of competitive advantage. In an era characterized by rapid change and uncertainty, it is claimed that successful organizations are those that consistently create new knowledge, disseminate it through the organization, and embody it in technologies, products, and services. Indeed, several sectors - for example, the financial services, consulting, and software industries — depend on knowledge as their principal way to create value. Thus knowledge is displacing capital, natural resources, and labor as the basic economic resource. Governments know this all too well. There is general recognition that companies are not good at managing knowledge. They may undervalue the creation and capture of knowledge, they may lose or give away what they possess, they may deter or inhibit knowledge sharing, and they may under-invest in both using and reusing the knowledge they have. Above all, they often do not know what they know. This is probably true of explicit or articulated knowledge: that which can be expressed in words and numbers and can be easily communicated and shared in hard form, as scientific formulas, codified procedures, or universal principles. It is undoubtedly true of tacit or unarticulated knowledge: that which is more personal, experiential, context specific, and hard to formalize; is difficult to communicate or share with others; and is generally in the heads of individuals and teams. Recognizing the potential of knowledge in value creation and the failure to fully exploit it, some corporations have embarked on knowledge management programs. Organizations are making explicit attempts to manage knowledge as a resource, in particular: Designing and installing techniques and processes to create, protect, and use known knowledge. Designing and creating environments and activities to discover and release knowledge that is not known. Articulating the purpose and nature of managing knowledge as a resource and embodying it in other initiatives and programs.
Importance of Organizational Knowledge Knowledge can be embedded in processes, products, systems, and controls Knowledge can be accessed as it is needed from sources inside or outside the firm It is versatile and can be transferred formally, through training, or informally, by way of workplace socialization It is the essence of the competitive edge! For successful knowledge management focus on five tasks: Generating knowledge Accessing knowledge Representing and embedding knowledge
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Facilitating knowledge Transferring knowledge
It is a process of instilling the culture and helping people find ways to share and utilize their collective knowledge. In summary, knowledge management is enabling an organization to harness its knowledge and competencies and transferring them to others. There are three key process steps. First step is converting tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge. Second step is harness the knowledge of organizations/ departments present in decisions taken in a given context, process changes made, documenting learning from projects, process improvement initiatives, inputs during client feedback/ interaction and how not to repeat mistakes ever again. The third and last step is developing the ability to share knowledge with employees/partners of the organization. Knowledge Transfer The key part of knowledge management is transferring knowledge. A company intranet may be a way of transferring knowledge. Presentations made by employees to other colleagues could be part of the knowledge transfer process. An end of project report can be part of a knowledge transfer process. If knowledge transfer fails the entire effort is wasted. Making information accessible helps knowledge transfer. Indexing information, making a bibliography makes knowledge transfer easy.
Q6. Ms. Lalita Singh has joined Triumphant India Private Limited. As an HR Manager, how would you prepare an induction programme for her? Answer: Company Induction We will prepare an induction programme for Ms. Lalita as follows : HR Department The Human Resource department handles all the details of recruitment and gives the official start date as a new employee of staff. The HR Department also issues the staff identification card, keeps your record and will issue you with some information when you collect your staff ID card/number. Department The department where new employees will work and the management team will welcome new employee and ensure that he/she becomes familiar with the work area, colleagues, important policies and procedures, health and safety issues and most importantly a new employees’ immediate work needs. Finance Department This will take care of the new employees’ salary and pension arrangement plans.
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Employee Training and Development HR department co-ordinate the welcome, induction and orientation process information and formal induction events. Employee training and development will provide details of training courses, dates and financial assistance for training and development for all new employees. Information is generally available in hardcopy format or on the company website. Information Technology This will provide new employees with IT support, online access login details and e-mail account etc. As a new employee joining this large organisation it will take time to settle in and fit in, find out what you need to know. In all cases the HR manager or other experienced employees should help new employees with any immediate questions you may have. Other key staff contacts are ready to help and welcome new colleagues. Formal Induction Informal Induction 1. Informal Induction In this the new employees are instructed to report to the HR department for an explanation of organization policies before being referred to the manager for on the job briefing on specific work process. In informal orientation, new employees are put directly on the job and are expected to adjust themselves on the new job and organization. Informal orientation tends to be brief; may last for an hour or may be less than an hour. Example: A sales person is asked to go along with a tenured high performing sales person or his manager to make sales calls and learn about the product and the selling skills during the calls. 2. Formal Induction Here the management has a structured programme which is executed when new employees join the firm. Formal induction is more elaborate and is spread over a couple of weeks or months. Most formal induction programmes consist of three stages: General introduction to the organization often given by the HR department. Specific orientation to the job and the department, typically given by the supervisor or manager. Follow up meeting to verify that the important issues have been addressed and employee questions have been answered. This follow up meeting usually takes place after a week of joining between the new employee and the manager. A formal induction programme is shared by the HR specialists and managers. The HR manager covers areas as: Introduction: to supervisors, trainers and colleagues. Organization issues: organization history, history of the employer, names and titles of important executives, departments, layout of physical facilities, probationary period, product line, production procedure, organization policies and procedures, disciplinary regulations, safety procedures. Employee benefits: pay scale, pay days, vacation and holidays, rest breaks, training and education benefits, counselling, insurance benefits, retirement programme etc.
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Supervisors outline the main job duties: job location, task and overview of job, safety requirements and relationship to other jobs.
The choice between formal and informal induction will depend mainly on the goals and objectives of the organization. The more formal the programme the more the new employee will acquire a set of standards. Many organizations prepare certain induction manual and induction powerpoint presentations which they keep on the intranet . These can be aceesed only by the company employees. It is helpful when employees join in small numbers at different point of time, when a separate induction programme cannot be held. This is also helpful to clarify any doubts an employee may have regarding certain organizational practices. In an informal programme individual differences are maintained.
MBA Semester III
MU0010 MU0010 –Manpower Planning and Resourcing Assignment Set- 2
Q1. What are the steps involved in manpower planning? Answer: Steps in Manpower Planning Manpower planning requires that an estimate of the present and future needs of the organization should be compared with the available manpower and future predicted manpower. Appropriate steps are then taken to bring demand and supply into balance. The outcome of this planning is a well ‘thought out’ and logical manpower demand plan for varying dates in the future which can then be compared with the crude manpower supply schedules. The comparisons will then indicate what steps should be taken to achieve a balance. The 5 steps in the manpower planning process are: Evaluate present manpower inventory Manpower forecasting Develop a manpower sourcing plan or retrenchment plan Manpower allocation Building requisite competencies 1. Evaluate Present Manpower Inventory It is very important to evaluate the present manpower status before making a forecast for future manpower planning. To evaluate the present manpower status a department by department analysis and a job-role by job-role analysis is conducted to arrive at the required manpower versus the available manpower. This is accumulated across the organization at different levels and departments. The final report will consolidate and state the required manpower versus the available manpower in terms of the quantitative analysis. Another analysis on the qualitative side conducted similarly shows the competencies required versus competencies available for each of the job roles. This provides the present manpower inventory. There may be excess or deficit or in extremely few cases just the right number quantitatively. The report on the qualitative front may rarely have a 100% match between required competencies versus available competencies. 2. Manpower Forecasting Manpower planning is done based on the manpower forecasts. The common manpower forecasting techniques are: (i) Expert Forecasts: This includes formal expert surveys, informal decisions and the Delphi technique. (ii) Trend Analysis: Manpower needs can be seen through the past practice of the firm or organization keeping the principle year as a basis and a central tendency of measure (iii) Work Load Evaluation: This depends on the nature of the work load in a branch, department, or a division in a firm or organization. (iv) Work Force Evaluation: As production and the time duration are to be kept in mind, allotments have to be made for getting the total manpower requirements. (v) Other Methods: A few mathematical models with the help of computers are also used to
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forecast manpower needs. 3. Develop a Manpower Sourcing Plan or Retrenchment Plan Once the current inventory is compared with the future manpower forecasts then the manpower sourcing or retrenchment plan is drawn. The sourcing plan includes recruitment, selection, placement, hiring temporary staff and outsourcing. You will learn more about the sourcing plan in unit 6. The retrenchment plan involves sending show-cause notices to bottom performers called bottom scraping, asking people to leave the organization by providing the requisite severance allowance, allowing employees to go on a sabbatical and finally out-placing employees in other organizations to reduce the manpower. It is harder to retrench manpower. The need for retrenchment could also be minimized by very objectively approving any additional manpower. 4. Manpower Allocation & Retention Manpower allocation helps in managing the impact of deficits and excess in manpower supply through promotions, transfers and job-rotations. Enhancing manpower utilization requires managing the dynamics of leadership and motivation. Manpower retention would mean taking necessary steps to ensure that the organization provides a conducive-atmosphere to the employees to perform and keeps each employee engaged. 5. Building Requisite Competencies Once the future manpower forecasts are compared to the current inventory, there may be some gaps in competencies amongst the available internal resources for them to qualify for the future manpower forecasts. In such cases organizations may choose to develop resources through training programs. A training calendar is designed to ensure competencies of existing staff are enhanced to meet the future manpower forecasts. Additional training programs may be designed when organizations are diversifying or expanding. Training programs may be designed to train existing resources on the latest improvements and advancements in technology or the related business subject. Training is provided to improve the knowledge, skill and capability of the employee.
Q2. What are the major hindrances that one encounters while carrying out manpower planning? Answer: Hindrances in Manpower Planning The major hindrances in manpower planning are as follows: Non Optimal Utilization of Manpower The biggest obstacle for manpower planning is the fact that organizations cannot optimally use their manpower once manpower planning begins. During manpower planning, the number of resources required for a job is decided based on the total work load, the process to be followed and the criticality of the job. Once the analysis is done, it is decided that one
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person can only handle a certain portion of the workload and hence for any additional workload, additional resources need to be hired proportionately. Over a period of time, the total workload may change, the processes may change, the criticality of the job may change and new technological innovations may make the job far easier to accomplish. However when the same employees are asked to step up the productivity, they resist accepting any additional workload and resist even deployment of new technology, hence making it hard for the management to maximize the use of their manpower. This makes the organizational processes ineffective or inefficient and hence the organization as a whole becomes ineffective or inefficient and loses out to competition which may be able to remain lean in terms of number of resources and highly effective and efficient. Absenteeism Every organization has witnessed an increase in absenteeism. This has lead to errors creeping in the manpower planning exercise. If the plan stated that 4 employees are required to manage the total workload, increased degree of absenteeism leads to the partial failure of the manpower planning exercise. Lack of Employable Labor People are not employable. The slow pace of acquiring business required competencies by people at large also result in low employee productivity. All manpower planning is done basis a certain productivity level considered as a benchmark. And low productivity has negative implications for manpower planning. Modern Manpower Control and Review Processes Any increase in manpower is to be approved by the top most levels of the management today. Manpower budgets created on the basis of manpower planning act as control mechanisms to keep the manpower cost and headcount under certain defined limits. Usually the productivity of any organization is calculated using the formula: Productivity = Output / Input. Example: 5 products are sold during the day/ 8 hours of effort put in during the day. i.e., the sales productivity of the employee is 5 products per day. But a rough guide of employee productivity used today is: Employee Productivity = Total Production / Total no. of employees Example: 50 products are sold during the day/12 employees were responsible for selling 50 products during the day. i.e., the sales productivity of each employee is 4.17 products per day. The rate of manpower turnover, exit interviews and absenteeism are sources of measuring dissatisfaction level of manpower. To eliminate employee dissatisfaction and to ensure better utilization of resources a study of the reasons causing the dissatisfaction level is required. Overtime is paid to employees due to real shortage of manpower, inefficient management or improper utilization of manpower. Manpower planning requires a study of the overtime statistics. The current pace at which business is done today is very fast. Many organizations
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either do not have data or are overwhelmed with data. Non availability and non utilization of the data are also reasons for complicating the situation. In some organization even the existing technologies available for manpower planning are not optimally used. This also creates obstacles in manpower planning. Example: Business Scenario for Obstacles in Manpower Planning (Lack of employable labor) The entire BPO industry is suffering with this scenario of lack of employable labor. In a dynamic business scenario, manpower planning is critical to organizational growth and stability. It is integral to recruiting, retaining, retraining and redeployment of talent. Linked to business needs of the organization, the process of manpower planning is much more complicated than it seems. Manpower planning involves developing skills and competencies of existing employees to meet market demands which can change with time. Manpower planning also requires having a contingent plan in place in case of any eventuality (talent shortage). Out of every 100 candidates interviewed only 10 of them are employable. Majority of them are unemployable by the BPO industry. It’s a known fact in the BPO industry. The manpower planning exercise requires BPO companies to budget for travel to the interiors of the state, travel to other states. It also needs to budget for providing new joiners with relocation allowance. It has to make provision for some joining bonuses as well when the hiring by all companies was at its peak. It decided to lower the level of hiring and spend additional time on training candidates. It needed to engage external organizations to evaluate the voice and accent capability or the potential of the candidate in order to validate its own findings with that of an independent agency, so that no potential candidate was rejected and no candidate who was not trainable was hired. The manpower planning required inclusion of non standard practices to ensure that the hiring targets were met so as to ensure that migration of client business processes from other countries to India was as per committed timelines. In fact some of the BPO’s in India also have operations in countries like Philippines. Due to the inability of the India BPOs to hire in some cases, work is split up between India and Philippines.
Q3. Describe the different types of selection interviews. Answer: Selection Interviews An interview is an interaction between the candidate, the hiring manager and the HR representative. This interaction is for the sole purpose of evaluating the job knowledge, skills, talent, motivation-level, attitude, competencies and experience of the candidate. There are different kinds of interviews that are conducted to evaluate the candidate.
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1. Unstructured Interviews In unstructured interviews, the interviewer may not have a standard list of questions to ask or evaluate the candidate. The interviewer may ask questions based on his or her experience and on the areas that he or she finds appropriate to ask. In this process different questions may be asked to different applicants. 2. Situational Interview In this type of interviews, candidates are asked what actions they would take in different jobrelated situations. The job-related situations are usually identified using the job analysis technique. The interviews are then scored using a scoring guideline prepared by job experts. In this type of interview we ask the candidate what action they would take in the future. 3. Behavior Description Interviews This type of interview is focused on asking candidates questions about their past behavior in different situations that they might have encountered. These situations may be similar to the situations that they might experience in the new role for which they are being evaluated. Again the interviews are then scored using a scoring guideline prepared by job experts. The logic here is that no person has two different personalities. The behaviors they have demonstrated in the past are the behaviors they are likely to demonstrate in the future. 4. Comprehensive Structured Interviews Questions are asked on how the candidate would handle job-related situations, what the level of job knowledge the candidate possesses is and how the candidate would perform in different job situations, sometimes in a simulated environment. These are standard questions, if there are 2 interviewers, the areas on which they will ask questions are planned earlier. The focus is to evaluate the tacit knowledge apart from the explicit knowledge. The focus is also to evaluate the practical intelligence the person is able to demonstrate with respect to the job or the situation. 5. Structured Behavioral Interview In this interview type, all interviewees are asked standardized questions on how they handled past situations that were similar to situations they may encounter on the job in future. Probing questions may be asked by the interviewer for further details. The interviewer carefully assesses the interviewee’s behavior in the situation and the outcome of the situation. Scoring is based on a predefined rating scales based on behaviors. 6. Chronological Interviews In these interviews all the time is accounted for from your childhood to date. This type of interview is conducted on the basis of the CV or bio-data. The benefit is that if a candidate has not accounted for sometime on their CV or bio-data then questions are asked to explain what the candidate did during such a period and why was the time period not reflected in the CV or bio-data. Sometimes it reveals a side of the individual that the interviewer may not usually find. 7. Competency Based Interviews Competencies are the abilities that a person has based on his/her knowledge levels, skill
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levels, behavior and attitude. The competencies required are listed on the job description in detail. Assessments may be conducted to identify the true competency level and interviews are conducted to identify the true competency level of the candidate. For example, a company may require a data entry operator with a proficiency level 5 on Microsoft word. This may be evaluated initially by conducting a competency based test followed by an interview to truly assess the competency level on Microsoft word. 8. Technical Interviews In IT jobs or other technical jobs, the interview process involves a technical interview round. In this subject matter expert on the technical subject interviews the candidate to evaluate his/her technical abilities to perform the job.
Q4. What benefits does an organization get out by setting up an academy? Setting up an Academy Answer: Organizations set up training academies where they provide a training course with/without certification in the area of their specialization to fresher candidates. Sometimes candidates with lesser experience are also considered. The candidates are charged fees for this course and are hired on successful completion of the course. The setting up of the academy involves answering the below mentioned questions: Why set up an academy? Who will do the training? Where will the training be conducted? How will it be conducted? Benefits of setting up a Training Academy By setting up an academy, an organization can get following benefits: Reduced Hiring Costs – As lesser number of employees will be hired by using consultants and more number of students will be hired from the training academy, the hiring cost is reduced. Also the organization generates revenue on every candidate trained. Reduced Training Cost – During the training period the candidates are not paid salary, so the cost of salaries paid during the training period is saved. The cost of salaries is a big component of training costs. For a BPO offering an average salary of INR 10,000 per month and a training duration of 2 months. Salary costs are INR 20,000 per employee during training. It may have hired 1000 employees last year and trained them and borne the cost of 2 Crores towards salaries during training. But by setting up an academy it saves on 2 crores in terms of salary costs. Reduced Training Period – Train to Hire process completely concentrates on training the new candidates, only the selected candidates are paid at the end of the training. As a large chunk of the training is conducted by the academy, the training period of the company reduces substantially. Their go-live time is the shortest. Improved Bench Strength – The organization has ready replacements available in case of employee turnover or any additional manpower required for expansion. The
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academy always has excess people than what the organization requires. This gives the organization the flexibility to backfill at short notice and expands the business in the shortest possible time. The candidates ready in waiting to join the organization is called the bench strength. Now let us discuss the ‘Who’ and ‘Where’ part of the questions asked earlier. ‘Academy’ is the centre where the training would take place. The organization has to first decide whether the training will be conducted by the in-house trainers or it will be outsourced to vendors who have expertise in the required training subject. Once this is decided, the organization identifies a place for the Training Academy where the training would take place. Training Academy is either situated in the existing part of the organization’s premises or a low cost area where the cost of land is relatively cheap. Organizations set up the Training Academy in the existing premises because it saves them any additional cost and makes it easier to make resources available to the candidates. Sometimes, the organization is reluctant to use its office space to avoid any administrative issues, maintain safety, and avoid information leakage about their products or schemes etc. These issues may arise due to having candidates inside the premise, who are yet not the organization’s employees. Therefore, the Training Academy is set up outside the company premises. Other reasons for different premises are: Not enough space in the company premises Organization reluctant to have the Academy in their premises Training outsourced to a vendor When the academy is to be set up in another location, then a low cost area is identified where the cost of land is relatively cheap. When the Train to Hire process is outsourced – fully or partly to a vendor, the centre could be provided or arranged for by the vendor. This saves the organization any administrative burdens. The other reason could be that the organization is looking at the academy as a separate business venture.
Q5. Describe the major approaches of talent development. Answer: Approaches to Talent Development If we take a closer look at the practice of leadership development and the importance which global companies attach to it, we’ll find that there is a huge array of effective approaches and programs that are taken by the globally renowned companies. Over five hundred companies have taken part in this research. Every company completed an exhaustive questionnaire, which was analyzed and compared to other companies by the researchers. Research reveals that the approaches can be jotted down as bellow: Strategy – What successful organizations do is a close examination of the programs and interventions needed to realize their company’s strategies, since there is a clear link between the strategy of the company and the strategy of leadership development. Involvement – Talent development is paramount importance to the organization, and top
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management is also actively involved in the development of future management. The managers also engage themselves frequently in active mentoring, coaching or training, and also share their own experiences with workers. Often the CEO plays a prominent, active role in training or action learning. Ongoing Processes – The companies always give a thought about the ongoing, and recurring developmental processes instead of one-time initiatives. Undoubtedly talent management has a high priority in these organizations. A lot of attention is given towards identifying high potentials in the organization, determination of specific career paths for these high potentials, and coaching them. Behavior – The behavior expected from workers in these organizations is a significant thing. This is true in all aspects of the organization: performance management, promotion decisions, recruitment and selection and communication from the top of the organization. Talent Pipeline – Talent development is the most critical mission in a company among other company processes. The best performing companies always see that the talent pipeline of the organization is always full. Critical Objective – High potential talent present in any organization can prove as a strategic advantage and hence much stress is given on the development of this talent. The development of a robust talent pipeline is a critical objective for the organization’s top management. Implementation – What most of the companies do for distinguishing themselves from others is making talent management a regular part of operational management. Managing talent is a task for which all the leaders of the company are responsible within the organization. This infrastructure is embedded in the daily leadership culture and Also, they are responsible for continuing the implementation of talent management in the organization managers develop the necessary competencies to be able execute talent management effectively. Leadership Programs – Leadership programs which have high added value for talent development are organized. Programs whose content is linked with organizational needs are chosen. These programs are fully integrated with other human resources processes namely, performance management, promotion policy, training and development, reward, succession and career planning. Model for Achieving Excellence in Talent Development Structure – Functional profiles, competency models, and describing paths for growth are the things companies should implement. Other than these a yearly performance management cycle with some achievable targets should be set and incentive structures, career- and succession planning are some things which form an integral part of the talent management system. Selective Development – Most of the successful organizations carry on a close examination of which are the talent programs and interventions that will be necessary to
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realize the company strategy. Process – The total infrastructure for talent development should be such that it is a part of the day-to-day leadership culture. Coaching and training skills are to be developed by the managers who have an experience to execute talent management effectively.
Q6. Mr. Aravind works at K&D Company. Recently two fellow team members were shifted to another team and their work was handed over to him. This affected his performance and also left him dissatisfied. Finally, he forwarded his resignation letter to the HR Department. The HR Manager decided to conduct an exit interview with Mr. Aravind. What questions do you think that the HR manager would want to ask Mr.Aravind? Answer: Possible Exit Interview Questions Tell me about how you decided to leave the organization? What could have been done early on to prevent this situation developing or lend a basis for you to stay with us? How do you feel about this organization? What extra responsibility or position would you have welcomed that you were not given? How could the organization have enabled you to make fuller use of your competency and potential? What training would you have liked or required that you did not get, and what effect did this have? How well do think your training and development requirements were evaluated and met? What do you say about communications within the organization and your department? What changes would you make towards the environment or “feel” of the organization? What changes or improvement could be made to the way that you were inducted for your role? What will you say about the way your performance was measured, and the feedback given for your performance results? What will you say about how you were motivated, and how that can be improved? Can you provide any unreasonable examples of policy, rules or instructions you have encountered here? What particularly is it about the other organization that makes you want to join them? What are they offering that we are not? (If appropriate) Can you be persuaded to renegotiate or discuss the possibility of staying? A proper closure in the exit interview, for both the organization and departing employee encourages positive and professional ties between the two.
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MU0011 –Management and Organizational Development Assignment Set- 1 Q1. State the characteristics of organizational culture. There are seven primary characteristics that every organization should cultivate in it. Let us look at each of them in detail. 1. Outcome Orientation There are some organizations which pay more importance to results rather than processes. The business model of any business is one which decides whether thrust should be on the outcome or on the processes. This defines the outcome orientation of the business. 2. Innovation and Risk Taking Risk and returns are two things which always go hand in hand. It often happens that when you calculated risk somewhere, the chances of returns are higher. Same goes for innovation. You could either be a follower or a pioneer. Though pioneering brings risk with it, but at times it can also have a breakthrough outcome for the organization. Therefore innovation and risk taking are one of the main characteristics of organizational culture. 3. People Orientation How much should the management focus on the people? Some organizations are famous for being employee oriented as they focus more on creating a better work environment for the employees while others treat employees no better than work machines. 4. Aggressiveness When there is a fierce competition, only then aggressiveness is visible among the employees of an organization. For example, companies like Apple are known for their aggression and market dominating strategies. 5. Attention to Detail The degree of attention of the employees to work is the key to the success of any business. Attention to detail defines the amount of importance a company allots to accuracy and details in the workplace. The management defines the degree of attention to be given to details. 6. Stability Organizations that have to deal with stabilizing operations and other needs are more focused on making themselves and their operations stable. The managements of these organizations are more inclined to ensuring stability of the company rather than looking at indiscriminate growth. 7. Team Orientation Quite often, the nature of business also requires an organization to be team oriented. Synergistic teams help give better results as compared to individual efforts. So, they lay more emphasis on synergy between different teams and in forming a well balanced team for
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producing effective output.
Q2. Explain the life cycle of resistance to organizational change in detail. Answer: Resistance to Change Adopting new innovations or new ideas and techniques involves altering human behavior, and the acceptance of change. There is a natural resistance to change for several reasons. The reasons are as follows: People Resist change: When the change threatens to modify established patterns of working relationships between people. When communication about the change–timetables, personnel, monies, etc. – has not been sufficient. When the benefits and rewards for making the change are not seen as adequate for the trouble involved. When the change threatens jobs, power or status in an organization. When the reason for the change is unclear. When there is ambiguity, whether it is about costs, equipment, jobs, it can trigger negative reactions among users. When the proposed users have not been consulted about the change, and it is offered to them as an accomplished fact. People like to know what’s going on, especially if their jobs may be affected. Informed workers tend to have higher levels of job satisfaction than uninformed workers. On the other hand, if the innovation is introduced gradually so that people can adjust to the resulting then decision makers are more responsive to changes: If the innovation requires marginal rather than major changes in their views or lives. If they have a demonstrated need for the innovation. If the information presented coincides with their current values, beliefs, and attitudes If they perceive that the change will benefit them more than it will cost them. 1. Factors in Resistance to Change People tend to evaluate the effect of change individually but they express it through group in collective form. Therefore, the reasons underlying resistance to change may be identified at these two levels: Individual Resistance There are many factors operating at the individual level which are responsible for resistance. Degree of force in resistance depends on how people feel about change. These feeling may be based either on reality or there may be emotional feeling towards the change. These feelings, either real or emotional, may be seen in the context of three types of factors: economic, psychological and social. Economic Factors People feel attached to the organization for satisfying their needs and economic needs-
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physiological, job security etc. precede over other needs. People may perceive that they will be adversely affected by the change in terms of their needs satisfaction in the following ways: 1. Skill Obsolescence: A change is generally meant for better methods of working which may involve new techniques, technology, etc., whenever people sense that new machinery (change) poses a threat of replacing or degrading them, they simply resist such a change. When computer was introduced in the business sector in India, it attracted a lot of resistance because of this reason. 2. Fear of Economic Loss: A change may create fear of economic loss in the sense that it may affect economic compensation adversely, reduce job options, and turn into technological unemployment. This feeling is created because people feel that those who can match the new requirements will be better off than those who cannot match. 3. Reduced Opportunities for Incentives: Employees are generally offered incentives linked to their output in the form of incentive schemes, bonus, etc. All these are wellestablished in the old system. Whenever there is change, people may feel that in the new system, they will have lower opportunity to earn incentives and bonus as the new system requires additional skills. Psychological Factors Psychological factors are based on people’s emotions, sentiments and attitudes towards change. These are qualitative and, therefore, may be logical from people’s point of view but may be illogical from the change agent’s point of view. Major psychological factors responsible for resistance are: ego defensiveness, status quo, lack of trust in change agent, low tolerance for change, and fear of unknown. Ego Defensiveness: A change may affect the ego of the people affected by the change and in order to defend their ego, people resist change. A change in itself suggests that everything is not right at a particular level. Thus, the change may be perceived as an instrument for exposing the weakness of the people. Status Quo: People want status quo i.e. they do not want any disturbance in their existing equilibrium of life and work pattern. The change initiated by the organization disturbs such equilibrium and people have to obtain another equilibrium which is a painful exercise. Therefore, everyone tries to avoid it. Low Tolerance for Change: In the context of maintaining status quo, people may differ. Some people have very low level of tolerance for change and ambiguity as compared to others. Therefore, these people resist any new idea. Lack of Trust in Change Agent: The effect of change is perceived in the context of change agent, that is, the person who initiates change. If people have low degree of confidence in the change agent, they show resistance to change efforts. This is the reason why labor union resists changes initiated by management because of the feeling that labor and management are two different interest groups in the organization.
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Fear of Unknown: A change may be perceived as entering into unchartered area which is unknown. The change will bring results in future, which is always uncertain. This lack of certainty creates anxiety and stress in the minds of people and they want to avoid it. The lack of adequate information about the likely impact of change further complicates the problems. Social Factors People derive need satisfaction, particularly social needs, through their mutual compatible interactions. They form their own social groups at the work place for the satisfaction of their social needs. To the extent the satisfaction of these needs is affected by a change, people resist it. The major factors causing resistance to change are: desire to retain existing social interaction and feeling of outside interference. Desire to Maintain Existing Social Interaction: People desire to maintain existing social interaction since it is a satisfying one. When there is any change, their existing social interactions are likely to be changed, which people do not want. Therefore, they resist change. Feeling of Outside Interference: A change brought about by the change agent is considered to be interference in the working of people. This phenomenon is heightened if the change agent belongs to another social class, e.g., change initiated by managers affecting workers. The latter my feel that managers try to make workers an instrument for higher productivity but the outcome of this productivity will be retained by them. 2. Organizational Resistance to Change Not only individuals and groups within an organization resist change, even the organization itself resists many changes because of certain reasons. Many organizations are designed to be innovation-resisting. Many powerful organizations of the past have failed to change and they have developed into routines This statement suggests that organizations tend to stabilize at a particular level and if the change efforts are not brought, these organizations start falling. The major reasons for organizational failure to change are: counting past successes, stability of systems, resource limitations, sunk cost, and inter-organizational agreement. Some of these reasons are basic while others are by-products of those. For example, first two reasons are basic and others are by-products of the first two. Counting Past Successes: A major problem before the organizations which have past success stories is how to face challenges of the changing environment. Since these organizations have achieved success by following a particular set of management practices, they become too rigid to change and they hide their failure to change in the guise of past successes. This is the reason why many old industrial houses are languishing far behind and their places are being taken away by newer organizations. · Stability of Systems: The organization may design a system through which it may derive many benefits. The system is stabilized and any change may be perceived as a threat by the organization itself. For example, a bureaucratic organization has certain fixed rules, prescribes rigid authority relationships, and institutes reward and punishment system. All
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these work in some circumstances. It a change is required in these aspects, the organization may not bring it easily because it is accustomed to a particular system. · Resource Limitations: No doubt, an organization has to adapt to its environment but the adaptation has its own cost. If the organization is not fully equipped for meeting such demands, it may not be possible for the organization to bring necessary change. For example, if new technology is adopted, it will require resources to procure machine, building and training for its personnel, and commensurate expenses on other items also. · Sunk Cost: Most of the organizations have sunk cost involved in various assets. Once the assets are acquired, these can be used for specific period. Now, if the change is required, what will happen to these assets? Naturally, the organization will like to make a comparison between the outcomes of changed program and continuing with old program in the light of this sunk cost. Sunk cost cannot be only in terms of various physical things. This can be in the form of people also. It an individual is not making commensurate contribution, it is not necessary that his services are done away with. In such a case, organization has to pay for his services though these may not be as useful. 3. Causes for Resistance to Change Resistance to change doesn’t necessarily surface in standardized ways. Resistance can be overt, implicit, immediate, or deferred. It is easiest for management to deal with resistance when it is overt and immediate. For instance, a change is proposed and employees quickly respond by voicing complaints, engaging in a work showdown, threatening to go on strike, or the like. Let’s look at the sources of resistance. For analytical purpose, we’ve categorized them by individual and organizational sources. Habit: As human beings, we’re creatures of habit. Life is complex enough; we don’t need to consider the full range of options for the hundreds of decisions we have to make every day. To cope with this complexity, we all rely on habits, or programmed responses. When we are confronted with change, this tendency to respond in our accustomed ways becomes a source of resistance. So when your department is moved to a new office building across town, it means you’re likely to have to change many habits: waking up 10 minutes earlier, taking a new set of streets to work, finding a new parking place, adjusting to the new office layout, developing a new lunchtime routine, and so on. Security: People who have a high need for security are likely to resist change because it threatens their feeling of safety. When Boeing announces its laying off 10,000 people or Ford introduces new robotic equipment, many employees at these firms may fear that their jobs are in jeopardy. Economic Factors: Another source of individual resistance is concern that changes will lower one’s income. Changes in job tasks or established work routines also can arouse economic fear if people are concerned they won’t be able to perform the new tasks or routines to their previous standards, especially when pay is closely tied to productivity. Fear of the Unknown: Change substitute ambiguity and uncertainty for the known. And people in general don’t like the unknown. The same applies to employee. If for example, the introduction of a quality management program requires that production workers learn statistical process control techniques, some may fear they’ll be unable to do so. They may, therefore, develop a negative attitude towards quality management or behave dysfunctional
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if required to use statistical techniques.
Q3. What are the three levels of work groups? Answer: Three Levels of Work Groups These levels are defined based on functionality. They are: Level 1: Dependent-Level Work Groups Dependent-level work groups are considered as the most traditional work unit. It has a supervisor who plays the role of a boss. Almost everyone has experience with this work group, especially in their first job. In this work group each person is assigned a job and is closely supervised by a boss. The boss is in charge and tells the do’s and don’ts in their jobs. The boss approves if one can help another. Boss or supervisor does most of the problem solving, work assignment and decision making. This work group performs well only in short term. It is uncommon to see the work group creating improvements, increasing productivity or leveraging resources to support one another. Level 2: Independent-Level Work Groups Most businesses use this type of work group. Each person is responsible for their own main area. The manager here does not function like a controlling boss. Staff members work on assigned jobs with minimal supervision. Examples: Sales representatives, research scientists, accountants, lawyers, police officers, librarians, and teachers. People come together in one department because they serve a common overall function but almost everyone in the group works fairly independently. Level 3: Interdependent-Level Work Groups In this work group people need to rely on each other to get the work done. At times members of this work group have their own roles and at other times they share other responsibilities. But in either of the cases, they have to coordinate with one another in order to produce a final product or outcome. We can only expect to have a team if this interdependence exists.
Q4. What are the goals of sensitivity training? Answer: Goals of Sensitivity Training i) Teaching effective work practices Sensitivity training was designed as a method to teach more effective work practices within groups. Three important elements of sensitivity training are providing immediate feedback, here-and-now orientation and focusing on the group process. It is believed that the number of fixed reactions that occur toward others can be decreased and greater social sensitivity can be achieved. Therefore people stop taking die-hard positions with regards to situations and people. Sensitivity training focuses on being sensitive and aware of feelings of others.
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This enables one to be supportive of the individual instead of being provocative or offensive. ii) Putting emphasis on personal relationships A branch of sensitivity training places emphasis on personal relationships and remarks. Before training commences participants decide whether the training will focus on group relationships or personal growth. Most individuals who volunteer to participate seek more personal growth and interpersonal effectiveness. Those who represent a company, community service program, or some other organization are more likely ready to improve their functioning within a group and/or the organization sponsoring the activity. iii) Revealing information about oneself and others Sharing ones’ perceptions of everyone else present by each member of the group is a part of sensitivity training. Therefore everyone gets to know other perceptions about them individually. The facilitator attempts to clarify the group processes using incidents as examples to clarify general points or provide feedback. The group action, overall, is the goal as well as the process.
Q5. Suppose a cement industry wants to form a Quality Circle. What would be the criteria that you would set to form it? What are the benefits that you see in forming a quality circle? Answer: Quality Circles Quality Circle is a small volunteer group of six to twelve employees doing similar kind of work. They voluntarily meet together on a regular basis to carry out frequent checks in their respective work areas for improvements. They use certain proven techniques for analyzing and solving work related problems coming in the way of achieving and sustaining excellence so that they can bring about a mutual upliftment of employees as well as the organization. So basically a volunteer group is composed of workers, under the leadership of their supervisor who are trained to identify, analyze and solve work-related problems are collectively called Quality circle. They present their solutions to management for the improvement of organizational performance. Tue quality circles become self-managing after gaining management confidence. If anything could battle the dehumanizing concept of division of labor, it is Quality circle. It has brought back the concept of craftsmanship, which doesn’t work well on an individual basis because it is uneconomic, but it proves a boon when used in group form. The prime motto of QC is improving occupational safety and health, improving product design, and improvement in the workplace and manufacturing processes. 1. Key Features of Quality Circle: · They are formal groups. · They hold meetings at least once a week on company time and are trained by competent persons who may be personnel and industrial relations specialists. · Quality circles are generally free to select any topic they wish, but they cannot select salary related topics or other topics related to terms and conditions of work, because these issues
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are dealt with via other channels. 2. The Concept The concept of Quality Circle primarily focuses on a worker’s value recognition as a human being, as someone who willingly takes on his job, his wisdom, intelligence, experience, attitude and feelings. It is just another part of human resource management considered as one of the key factors in the improvement of product quality & productivity. Quality Circle concept has three major attributes:
Quality Circle is a human resource development technique. Quality Circle is a problem solving technique. Quality Circle is a form of participation management.
3. Objective of QC There multi-faced objectives of Quality Circles: · Change in Attitude. · Self Development · Development of Team Spirit · Improved Organizational Culture Benefits of Quality Circles The quality control concept did not get an easy acceptance in India. It took two decades to get acceptance in India, after its introduction in Japan. The reason might be differences in the industrial context in the two countries. Japan needed it for its survival in a competitive market. India had a reasonably protected, sellers market, with consequent lethargy towards efforts to improve quality and productivity. However, with the policy of liberalization of economy and privatization of infrastructure development, contexts changed. The concept now needs to be looked upon as a necessity because it benefits in the following ways: Team Work: It helps to eradicate inter-team conflicts and clashes and enhance the concept of team spirit. • Positive Attitude: Employees start working with a positive attitude towards work, assuming it as their own work. They develop a “Can Do” and “I care” attitude. • Personality advancement: Quality circle practice helps to learn new skills and also brings out the hidden potential of employees. • Positive working environment: It improves the organizational working environment and involves employees in every process, right from a small decision to a big deal. • Increased productivity: It helps in increasing overall productivity of organization by improvement of work processes and reduction of excessive costs. They increase operational efficiency, improve quality, and promote innovation.
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Q6. What is the role of power and politics in the practice of OD? Answer: Role of Power and Politics in the practice of OD Virtually, all OD interventions promote problem-solving, not politics, as a preferred way to get things accomplished. OD interventions increase problem-solving, collaboration, cooperation, fact-finding, and effective pursuit of goals while decreasing reliance on the negative faces of power and politics. We know of no OD interventions designed to increase coercion or unilateral power. For example, OD interventions typically generate valid, public data about the organization’s culture, processes, strengths, and weaknesses. Valid, public data are indispensable-for problem solving but anathema for organizational politics. OD interventions do not deny or attempt to abolish the reality of power in organizations; rather, they enhance the positive face of power, thereby making the negative face of power less prevalent and/or necessary. Not only is organization development not a power/political intervention strategy, it is instead a rational problem-solving approach that is incompatible with extreme power-oriented situations. The values of Organizational Development are consistent with the positive face of power, but not with the negative face of power. Values such as trust, openness, collaboration, individual dignity, and promoting individual and organizational competence are part of the foundation of organization development. These values are congruent with rational problem solving and incongruent with extremely political modes of operating. "Power equalization" has long been described as one of the values of organization development. Emphasis on power equalization stems from two beliefs: first, problem solving is usually superior to power coercion as a way to find solutions to problematic situations; second, power equalization, being one aspect of the positive face of power, increases the amount of power available to organization members, and by so doing adds power to the organization. An OD practitioner’s role is limited to that of a facilitator, catalyst, problem solver, and educator. The practitioner is not a political activist or power broker. The practitioner works to strengthen skills and knowledge in the organization. But organization members are free to accept or reject the practitioner, his or her program, and his or her values, methods, and expertise. The OD consultant, like all consultants, provides a service that the organization is free to "buy" or "not buy." The facilitator or educator role is incompatible with a political activist role because cooperation requires one set of behaviors and competition requires a different set of behaviors. Cobb and Margulies caution that OD practitioners can get into trouble if they move from a facilitator role to a political role. OD values are consistent with the positive face of power, but not with the negative face of power. Values such as trust, openness, collaboration, individual dignity, and promoting individual and organizational competence are part of the foundation of organization development. These values are congruent with rational problem solving and incongruent with extremely political modes of operating. "Power equalization" has long been described as one of the values of organization development. Emphasis on power equalization stems from two beliefs: first, problem solving is usually superior to power coercion as a way to find solutions to problematic situations; second, power equalization, being one aspect of the positive face of power, increases the amount of power available to organization members, and by so doing adds power to the organization.
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MU0011 –Management and Organizational Development Assignment Set- 2 Q1. Distinguish between management and administration. Answer: Administration and Management According to Theo Haimann, “Administration means overall determination of policies, setting of major objectives, the identification of general purposes and laying down of broad programs and projects”. It refers to the activities of higher level. Administration lays down the basic principles of the organization. According to Newman, “Administration means guidance, leadership & control of the efforts of the groups towards some common goals”. Management involves conceiving, initiating and bringing together the various elements; coordinating, actuating, integrating the diverse organizational components while sustaining the viability of the organization towards some pre-determined goals. In other words, it is an art of getting things done through & with people assigned to formally organized teams. Management and administration differences can be categorized on the basis of functions and on the basis of usage / applicability. On the Basis of Functions: Table 1.
On the Basis of Usage:
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Basically there is no difference between management & administration. Every manager is concerned with both administrative management function and operative management function as shown in the figure below. However, managers higher up in the hierarchy spend more time on administrative function & the lower level spend more time on directing and controlling worker’s performance i.e. management.
Fig. : Degree of Administration and Management
Q2. What are the characteristics of organizational development? Answer: Characteristics of Organization Development There are seven characteristics of organization development. They are: Humanistic Values: Positive beliefs about the potential of employees (according to McGregor’s Theory Y). Systems Orientation: All parts of the organization i.e., the organization structure, technology deployed, and people employed must be able to work together as a system to create a valuable organization. Experiential Learning: Learning best happens when the learner experiences. In the training environment focus should be on simulating the human problems encountered in real life work scenarios. Training should NOT be all theory and lecture. Problem Solving: Problems are identified, data is gathered, corrective action is taken, progress is assessed, and adjustments in the problem solving process are made as needed. This process is known as Action Research. Contingency Orientation: Actions are selected and adapted to fit the need. Always have a few more back up plans because if something may go wrong. Change Agent: Stimulate, facilitate, and coordinate change. OD motivates everyone to see
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the benefits of change. Levels of Interventions: Problems can occur at one or more level in the organization so the strategy will require one or more interventions. There is no quick fix standard solution to any problem. Each situation is different and hence the treatment needs to be customized.
Q3. Explain team building interventions. Answer: Team Building Interventions Let us understand what Team building interventions imply. It can be defined as a process of getting either a new or poor performing group on track. Let us have a look at the possible examples of a team building intervention. There are lots and they can be well categorized within two extremes of ‘fun’ and ‘developmental’. At the ‘fun’ end, there are the icebreakers, ropes courses, camping trips, etc which are generally used to bond together new teams or revive an already established team. At the "developmental" end, there are workshops and intensive team-building exercises that are all goal-specific and typically suited to a group of professionals already focused on addressing certain issues. 1. Stages of Team Development What can be expected out of team building is an evident question and for that it is prudent to explore a few team building models. Though the models vary from each other, they usually agree on two basic pretexts. First, that there are quite a number of predictable stages that every team has to go through for becoming a highly productive and efficient team, and second is that leaders and team members who are already aware of these stages can work towards improving the quality of their team’s interactions during each stage. Bruce Tiuckman proposed an easy to remember model which designates four stages of team development. I) Stage 1 – Forming The members of a team are quite uncertain when the team first gets together. So people try to explore and dabble something. During the forming period everyone tries their best to look ahead and think about all the things that need to be done. Leader must set the focus. II) Stage 2 – Storming Under the pressures of work and other conflicting perspectives, the process inevitable begins to heat up. Even patient and impatient people clash. Trust is tested, and confusions around goals and roles begin to surface. Under heavy deadlines, this stage can be quite tense. III) Stage 3 – Norming As people slowly get comfortable and get to know each other better, they reconcile and agree on certain things like decision-making processes, resources, timing, and quality standards. A "norm" is usually defined as something which everyone understands. Norms are the formal and informal rules that make up the operating system of productive work.
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IV) Stage 4 – Performing This is the final stage of team development and it involves using all the experience and understanding with each other to get results for each other and the organization. 2.Goals of Team Building Interventions Goals of team building interventions are listed as below: · Effectiveness of a group should be increased by allowing the members of the group to work together to achieve any result. · The work unit should be engaged in a continuous process of self-examination · Providing an opportunity to the group to analyze its functioning, performance, strengths, and weaknesses · Identifying the areas of problem for team members and taking corrective measures for the same. · Developing a model of team effectiveness specifically designed to help the work unit.
Q4. What are the major types of changes in an organization? Answer: Types of Change Types of organization changes vary from planned versus unplanned to organization-wide versus change primarily to one part of the organization to incremental versus transformational, etc. Knowing which types of change you are doing helps all participants to retain scope and perspective during the many complexities and frequent frustrations during change.
The major types of changes in an organization are listed below: I) Organization-wide Versus Subsystem Change Organization-wide change includes major restructuring, collaboration or rightsizing. When organization need to evolve to a different level in their life cycle, for example, going from a highly reactive, entrepreneurial organization to one that has a more stable and planned development, then is the time when they should switch to organization-wide changes. Experts assert that successful organizational change requires a change in culture – cultural change is another example of organization-wide change. Addition or removal of a product or service, reorganization of a certain department, or implementation of a new process to deliver products or services is examples of these kinds of changes. II) Transformational Versus Incremental Change Changing an Organization’s structure and culture from the traditional top-down, hierarchical structure to a large amount of self-directing teams are examples that form transformational changes. Examples of incremental change might include continuous improvement as a quality management process or implementation of new computer system to increase efficiencies. Many times, organizations experience incremental change and its leaders do not recognize
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the change as such. III) Unplanned Versus Planned Change A sudden, major surprise to the organization, which causes its members to respond in a highly reactive and disorganized fashion usually, causes an unplanned change. As the name suggests, in an unplanned change nothing happens in a planned way or in order. Examples of such change are when the Chief Executive Officer suddenly leaves the organization, significant public relations problems occur, poor product performance quickly results in loss of customers, or other disruptive situations arise. Planned change occurs when leaders in the organization recognize the need for a major change and proactively organize a plan to accomplish the change. Planned change occurs with successful implementation of a Strategic Plan, plan for reorganization, or other implementation of a change of this magnitude. Note that planned change, even though based on a proactive and well-done plan, often does not occur in a highly organized fashion. Instead, planned change tends to occur in more of a chaotic and disruptive fashion than expected by participants. IV) Remedial Versus Developmental Change Remedial changes are changes that can bring remedy to current organizational situations. Improving the poor performance of a product or the entire organization, reduce burnout in the workplace, help the organization to become much more proactive and less reactive, or address large budget deficits. So these form examples of remedial changes. More focus of these projects is to solve a problem on an urgent basis because they are addressing a current, major problem. Change can also be developmental – to make a successful situation even more successful, for example, expand the amount of customers served, or duplicate successful products or services. Developmental projects can seem more general and vague than remedial, depending on how specific goals are and how important it is for members of the organization to achieve those goals. Some people might have different perceptions of what is a remedial change versus a developmental change. They might see that if developmental changes are not made soon, there will be need for remedial changes.
Q5. What are the five different types of OD practitioner styles? Answer: OD Practitioner Styles Change begins with the intervention of practitioner in the system to be changed. Intervention refers to the practitioner’s entry into the client system and includes several different roles and activities. The degree of styles is based on two dimensions: Effectiveness: Degree of emphasis on Goal accomplishment. Morale: Degree of emphasis on relationships and participant satisfaction.
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There are five different types of practitioner styles or roles. They are as follows: 1. The Stabilizer style. 2. The Cheerleader Style 3. The Analyzer style. 4. The persuader style. 5. The Pathfinder style. Let’s see learn about each style in a little detail: 1. The Stabilizer Style: The Goal of the Stabilizer style is neither effectiveness nor participant satisfaction. The practitioner is trying to keep from rocking the boat and maintain a low profile. The style is usually forced upon the practitioner by organizational pressure. So the practitioner usually has to learn to suppress and conform any other situation. 2. The Cheerleader style: This style places emphasis on the satisfaction of the organization members and is chiefly concerned with motivation and morale. The cheerleader style strongly minimizes differences and maintains harmony. 3. The Analyzer style: The Analyzer style places great emphasis on efficiency and gives little emphasis to member satisfaction. The analyzer feels most comfortable with a rational assessment of problems and assumes that the facts will lead to a solution. The practitioner may be more confrontational relying on the authority to resolve conflicts and on rational problem solving process. 4. The Persuader style: It focuses on dimensions, effectiveness and morale, yet optimizes neither. Such a style provides a relatively low risk strategy and avoids direct confrontation with others. 5. The Pathfinder Style: This style seeks a high degree of member satisfaction believing that greater effectiveness is possible when all members are involved and problem solving is done through team work.
Q6. Suppose you are an OD practitioner. What are the challenges that you have be prepared for while carrying out organization development? Answer: The following are Challenges of OD for which I would be prepared while carrying out organizational development : Meeting goals and objectives of an organization by the support and execution of defined strategies. Maintaining and addressing organizational culture during implementation of the change management efforts. Applying change management concepts to organization and well as products or services provided. Enhancing productivity and profitability of an organization by effective change management.
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Aligning performance of individuals and teams with organizational goals and objectives. Communicating change management objectives and processes to participants. Motivate the workforce to implement and accept the organizational changes Attracting and retaining employees and their talent while implementing change management efforts. Effective usage of IT to attain organizational goals while managing change effectively. Using IT for KM, innovation, competitive advantage, and business strategies. Ensuring business objectives are attained by following organizational values and ethics. Building leadership and capable management workforce for today and future. Improving the problem solving process by managing change. During and after implementation of change efforts, maintaining same relationship with the business partners, customers, and vendors. Reducing the six gaps – communication gap, cultural gap, confidence gap, skills gap, information gap, and timing gap.
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MU0012 MU0012 –Employee Relations Management Assignment Set- 1
Q1. What are the different leadership styles that are adopted by managers as per the Managerial Grid Model? Answer: Managerial Grid Model Robert Blake, an eminent behavioural scientist differentiated the leaders on the basis of their concern to people and concern to task. He along with Jane Mouton conducted study on 5000 managers. He puts it on a grid called Managerial Grid as follows:
Figure : Managerial Grid: Blake and Mouton Source: Debra L Nelson and James C Quick, Organizational Behaviour Pg 397 The Managerial Grid Model (1964) is a behavioural leadership model developed by Robert Blake and Jane Mouton. This model identifies five different leadership styles based on the concern for people and the concern for production. As shown in the figure, the model is represented as a grid with concern for production as the X-axis and concern for people as the Y-axis; each axis ranges from 1 (Low) to 9 (High). The five resulting leadership styles are as follows: 1. The impoverished style (1, 1). The indifferent Leader (Evade & Elude) In this style, managers have low concern for both people and production. Managers use this style to avoid getting into trouble. The main concern for the manager is not to be held responsible for any mistakes, which results in less innovative decisions. A leader uses a "delegate and disappear" management style. Since they are not committed to either task accomplishment or maintenance; they essentially allow their team to do whatever they consider important and appropriate and prefer to detach themselves from the team process by allowing the team to suffer from a series of power struggles. Features 1. Does only enough to preserve job and job seniority. 2. Gives little and enjoys little.
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3. Protects himself by not being noticed by others. Implications 1. Tries to stay in the same post for a long time. Examples of Leader speak: “I distance myself from taking active responsibility for results to avoid getting entangled in problems.” “If forced, I take a passive or supportive position.” 2. The country club style (1, 9). The accommodating Leader (Yield & Comply) This style has a high concern for people and a low concern for production. Managers using this style pay more attention to the security and comfort of the employees, in hopes that this would increase performance. The resulting atmosphere is usually friendly, but not necessarily that productive. This person uses predominantly reward power to maintain discipline and to encourage the team to accomplish its goals. Conversely, they are almost incapable of employing the more punitive coercive and legitimate powers. This inability results from fear that using such powers could jeopardize relationships with the other team members. Examples of Leader speak: “I support results that establish and reinforce harmony.” “I generate enthusiasm by focusing on positive and pleasing aspects of work.” 3. The produce or perish style (9, 1). The Controlling Leader (Direct & Dominate) With a high concern for production, and a low concern for people, managers using this style find employee needs unimportant; they provide their employees with money and expect performance back. Managers using this style also pressure their employees through rules and punishments to achieve the company goals. This dictatorial style is based on Theory X of Douglas McGregor, and is commonly applied by companies on the edge of real or perceived failure. This is used in case of crisis management. People who get this rating are very much task-oriented and are hard on their workers (autocratic). There is little or no allowance for co-operation or collaboration. Heavily taskoriented people display these characteristics: they are very strong on schedules; they expect people to do what they are told without question or debate; when something goes wrong they tend to focus on who is to blame rather than concentrate on exactly what is wrong and how to prevent it; they are intolerant of what they see as dissent (it may just be someone’s creativity), so it is difficult for their subordinates to contribute or develop. Examples of Leader speak: “I expect results and take control by clearly stating a course of action.” “I enforce rules that sustain high results and do not permit deviation.” 4. The middle-of-the-road style (5, 5). The Status –Quo Leader. (Balance & Compromise) Managers using this style try to balance between company goals and workers’ needs. By giving some concern to both people and production, managers who use this style hope to achieve acceptable performance. Examples of Leader speak:
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“I endorse results that are popular but caution against taking unnecessary risk.” “I test my opinions with others involved to assure ongoing acceptability.” 5. The team style (9, 9). The Sound / Team Leader (Contribute & Commit) In this style, high concern is paid both to people and production. As suggested by the propositions of Theory Y, managers choosing to use this style encourage teamwork and commitment among employees. This method relies heavily on making employees feel as a constructive part of the company. This type of person leads by positive example and endeavours to foster a team environment in which all team members can reach their highest potential, both as team members and as people. They encourage the team to reach team goals as effectively as possible, while also working tirelessly to strengthen the bonds among the various members. They normally form and lead some of the most productive teams. Examples of Leader speak: “I initiate team action in a way that invites involvement and commitment.” “I explore all facts and alternative views to reach a shared understanding of the best solution.” Grid Relationship Skills The Grid theory translates into practical use through Grid style relationship skills that people experience day in and day out when they work together. These relationship skills depict the typical and vital behaviours for each style that make relationships effective or ineffective. Some behaviour strengthens and motivates teams while others obstruct progress. · Critique – Learning from experience by anticipating and examining how behaviour and actions affect results. · Initiative – Taking action to exercise shared effort, drive, and support for specific activities. · Inquiry – Questioning, seeking information, and testing for understanding. · Advocacy – Expressing attitudes, opinions, ideas, and convictions. · Decision-making – Evaluating resources, criteria, and consequences to reach a decision. · Conflict Resolution – Confronting and working through disagreements with others toward resolution. · Resilience – Reacting to problems, setbacks, and failure, and understanding how these factors influence the ability to move forward. Grid theory makes behaviours as tangible and objective as any other corporate commodity. By studying each of the seven Leadership Grid styles and the resulting relationship skill behaviours, teams can examine, in objective terms, how behaviours help or hurt them. They can explore types of critique that work best for them and why. They can openly discuss how to improve decision-making and conflict resolution skills. These and other subjects usually considered "off limits" in terms of productivity are the very subjects that usually impede productivity. The Grid approach makes these subjects not only "discussable" but measurable in objective terms that generate empathy, motivation to improve, and creativity. The most desirable place for a leader to be along the two axes at most times would be a 9 on task and a 9 on people – the Team Leader. However, do not entirely dismiss the other three. Certain situations might call for one of the other three to be used at times. For example, by playing the Impoverished Leader, you allow your team to gain self-reliance. Be an Authoritarian Leader to instil a sense of discipline in an unmotivated worker. By carefully studying the situation and the forces affecting it, you will know at what points along the axis you need to be in order to achieve the desired result.
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Q2. Every organisation faces disciplinary problems from employees. Explain the major types of disciplinary problems faced in organisations. Types of Disciplinary Problems Answer: Discipline is essential for organisations to regulate employee behaviour and to channel employee efforts in realising organisational goals. Management deals with all acts of indiscipline or misconduct according to the organisational rules and policies and the nature of the indiscipline. Indiscipline can be classified as minor or major on the basis of the impact they have on the functioning of the organisation. Minor acts of indiscipline include absenteeism, late coming, negligence at work, failure to be present when required, inefficiency and acts of omission. Management correct minor indiscipline with written or oral warnings. Major acts of indiscipline have to be dealt seriously and they include theft, fraud, breach of contract, accepting or giving bribes or gifts, drunkenness, violent or disorderly behaviour, insubordination, sleeping while on duty, disclosing confidential information, sabotage or misuse of company equipment, inciting other employees to act against the interests of the company, absence without leave for a period of more than a month, and committing any offence punishable by the law of the land Let us now analyse these disciplinary problems that managers have to deal with in their line of work. The main types of disciplinary problems are explained as follows: · Excessive Absenteeism: Absenteeism occurs when an employee does not report to work due to time off, illness or any other reason. Excessive absenteeism results in loss of productivity. Absenteeism is corrected by employing progressive discipline. Employees need to be aware of the absenteeism policy of the company. They also have to be aware of the fact that the company monitors employee absence. Employees need to take responsibility for their absenteeism and substantiate their absenteeism with valid records like medical certificates in case of health related absences. · Poor Timekeeping: Reporting late to work, leaving early, indulging in extended tea or lunch breaks, doing personal work during office hours, and other time-wasting practices reduce the time spent doing productive work. Poor timekeeping disrupts business and creates a bad atmosphere. These habits have to be curbed and employees need to know that it is mandatory for them to spend certain fixed hours at their workstations or premises doing productive tasks. · Improper Personal Appearance: Dress codes are enforced in organisations to project a professional appearance or for safety reasons. Employees are to be made aware of the consequences of their inappropriate attire. For example, synthetic clothes can catch fire easily. Company policy also needs to describe situations where the employee has to dress formally. · Substance Abuse: Alcohol and drug abuse can lower employee concentration and decrease performance. Substance abuse also results in absenteeism, accidents at workplace and inappropriate behaviour. Organisational policies on substance abuse need to be communicated with the staff. Employees who are addicted to alcohol or drugs have to be counselled or helped in other ways like therapy and detoxification programmes. · Defective Performance: Defective performance results when a task is not completed on time, or is of sub-standard quality, or the task is not done according to requirements. An
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employee may perform poorly either due to lack of interest or due to lack of capability. Managers need to assess poor performances individually, determine the constraints and take corrective actions. · Poor Attitudes: Sleeping on the job, being careless while working, fighting with coworkers, gambling in the work place, insulting supervisors, being rude to customers and colleagues, and such practices reflect poor attitudes. These actions can adversely affect other employees. Thus, these attitudes have to be corrected to maintain a good and productive work atmosphere. · Violation of Health and Safety Rules: Smoking in unauthorised places, failure to use safety devices, not following safety rules regarding fire safety, dealing with hazardous chemicals, electrical and mechanical equipment and radiation protection are serious violations and have to be dealt with immediately and effectively. · Insubordination: Insubordination can take the form of refusing to perform a legitimate task that has been assigned, ignoring the instructions of managers, criticising or challenging the orders of a superior, using abusive language or making disrespectful gestures like rolling the eyes. Insubordination can affect the morale of the entire team. Organisations need to spell out their policies on insubordination. Managers have to be equipped with proper procedures to deal with insubordination. · Workplace Violence: Companies need to have training programmes to its security personnel so that they recognise warning signs and know how to deal with violent behaviour of employees. Employee handbooks need to clearly state that violent behaviour will not be tolerated and will result in termination. · Harassment: This behaviour causes discomfort to the co-workers and reduces employee morale. Making crude and sexual remarks or forcing another co-worker to do certain nonlegitimate tasks constitutes harassment. For example, a manager may repeatedly ask an unwilling subordinate for a date. Companies need to have in place a clear sexual harassment policy and employees have to be trained on what constitutes harassment. · Theft and Sabotage: Sometimes employees steal money, equipment, supplies or confidential information belonging to the company. Some aggressive employees may damage or destroy organisational equipment and facilities. Some employees may falsify records and accept bribes and indulge in actions that are detrimental to the organisation. Organisations have to strictly deal with such problems.
Q3. How are trade unions classified? Answer: Types of Trade Unions Purpose of a trade union is to represent people at work. Trade unions are differentiated based on the type of people they represent. There are four types of trade union as given below: Craft of Skills Union: These unions represent skilled workers like Musicians Union (MU)
Industrial Unions: These unions represent members of one particular industry such
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as Fire Brigades Union (FBU)
General Unions: These unions represent workers from all types of industries and with any level or range of skills. For example, Amicus – the Manufacturing Science and Finance Union (MSF)
White-Collar Unions: These unions represent office workers, such as National Union of Teachers (NUT)
Craft of Skills Union Craft union is an arrangement of labour unions that joins workers within the same part of a craft or a skill. Some examples are typographical unions, unions for carpenters, stoneworkers, iron molders, boilermakers, railway engineers and so on. These craft unions have substantial power in the workplace and generally resist others controlling their work processes and standards of training as their members have essential knowledge and physical and theoretical skills. Industrial Unions Industrial unionism is a labour union organising method through which all workers in the same industry are grouped into the same union, regardless of skill or trade. This gives workers in all industries more leverage in bargaining or when workers go on strikes. Advocates of industrial unionism value its contributions in promoting unity. They describe the solidarity of these unions with slogans like, ‘an injury to one is an injury to all’ and ’the longer the picket line, the shorter the strike’. An example for an industrial union is a union for oil workers. Members of such an industrial union would include people who are involved in exploration, extraction, refining, transport and all the other areas associated with the oil and gas industry. General Unions A general union is a type of trade union that represents workers from all industries. Unlike craft unions or industrial unions where just a particular sector forms a union, general union, as its name suggests, is for any worker irrespective of organisation or sector. General unions declare that their broader variety of members allows more opportunities for harmony action and better management in general strikes. Detractors claim that the broader dispatch means they tend to be more technical and respond less effectively to events in a single industry. An example of a general union in Australia is the Australian Workers Union. White-Collar Unions White-collar worker refers to a salaried person, who either works as an educated worker who performs semi-professional office, administrative or sales coordination tasks, or works in any service industry like a teacher, a software engineer or a customer care executive. Whitecollar workers, as opposed to blue-collar workers, perform no manual labour. White-collar union is a type of union that represents white-collar workers.
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Q4. What are the provisions of the Factories Act 1948 that ensure social security measures of workmen in a factory? Answer: Factories Act – 1948 :- Provisions that ensure social security measures of workmen in a factory The Factories Act regulates labour employed in factories. It applies to the whole of India. This act applies to all factories which use power and employ 10 or more workers, and applies to factories not using power and employing 20 or more workers, on any day of the preceding 12 months. According to this act, every factory has to be registered and needs to obtain a licence for working which has to be renewed at periodical intervals. The plans, designs and specifications of any proposed construction or extensions to the factory have to receive the prior approval of the state government. The main provisions of this act are as follows: o Facilities: It specifies the minimum requirements regarding health (cleanliness, ventilation and temperature, lighting and control of glare, etc.) safety (protection of eyes, handling of explosive and inflammable materials, etc.), and general welfare of workers (first-aid, canteens, shelter rooms, crèches, urinals, drinking water etc.). o
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Safety: Fencing of machinery needs to be done. Adequate fire-fighting facilities must be provided. Hoist and lifts have to be in good working condition. Stairs and passages have to be free from obstruction. Safety appliances to protect the eyes from dangerous dusts, gases, and fumes have to be provided. Pressure plants have to be regularly checked. Working Hours: The working hours cannot be greater than 48 hours in a week. Weekly holiday is mandatory. Compensatory holidays have to be given if the worker works on weekly holidays. A worker cannot be made to work for more than nine hours in a day. Half an hour rest is to be provided after five hours of work. Overlapping of shifts is not allowed. Overtime Wages: A worker has to be paid overtime wages at double the rate of regular wages if the worker works beyond 9 hours a day or 48 hours a week. Leave: A worker is permitted a leave of one day for every 20 days of work performed in the previous calendar year provided that the worker had worked for 240 days or more in the previous calendar year. Child Employment: Children below age of 14 cannot be employed. Children between 14 and 15 years of age can be employed only for 4.5 hours per day or during the night. Adolescents cannot work between 7 pm and 6 am. Obligation regarding Hazardous Processes and Substances: Provide Information about hazardous substances and processes and the dangers and health hazards involved. Ensure safety measures and make emergency plans. Appoint safety committees.
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Q5. Describe the different systems in an organisation that use Employee Relation Management tools. Answer: Employee Relationship Management Tools Technology can be used to help manage employee relationships. Automated employee relationship management tools help employees to do their tasks in a better way. The following are the different applications existing in organisations which use tools based on different technologies: HR Systems: Human Resource Information System (HRIS) is used to manage all employee information, all leave details and to administer benefits. HRIS handles payroll and other company financial software and accounting systems. These are used by companies for the following reasons: · Employees receive timely and correct wages. · Employees apply for leave on their own. · Training programs for employees can be automated and streamlined. Performance Management Systems: These help to monitor the performance of employees and link it with their salary increments and bonus payments. Managers keep track of training activities and deadlines. Employee activity logs are used for evaluation and planning. There are many software tools which aid performance appraisals like those from HRdirect, Halogen software, Cornerstone Performance and so on. Work Flow Systems (WFM): These help in scheduling, organising and co-ordinating the work of the employees. Teleopti CCC and SAP HR are WFM software that include tools to manage, involve and improve the workforce. Knowledge Management Systems: These help employees identify, create, and share their knowledge. Search and retrieval tools enable easy access of content. According to their role in the organisation, employees view content that is relevant to their work. A single software solution cannot be used for these systems. Knowledge management systems use document management tools, e-learning software, knowledge repositories (databases), collaborative technologies (groupware) and social software (wikis). Project Management Systems: These help in managing and monitoring project activities and in scheduling resources. Project management systems facilitate creation and approval of project estimates. They define resources and tasks. They also create project milestones and enable easy execution of projects. Project reports are generated easily. Gantt charts help in scheduling projects. Critical path analysis (CPA) and Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) charts help in project planning. Log frames can be used for project monitoring. Software tools like Microsoft Project and SourceForge help in project management. Employee Feedback Systems: Surveys enable employees to voice their opinion about routine tasks, management attitudes, current procedures, and ethics. Many software tools
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are available to help in employee surveys like those from HR-Survey, and Benchpoint. Employee Self-Service Systems: These systems enable employees to update their personal details. Employees file their expenses, billing and time reports. Employees raise purchase requests and keep track of their project related activities. Employees retrieve human resource related documents, update their tax related information and view their salary details. They can also update their bank information to enable direct salary deposits and reimbursements. Employees can apply for leave and view leave balances. An open forum is provided for employees to present their views. Employees exchange ideas through e-mails and bulletin boards. Employees create and share calendars for better functioning. Tools are provided to employees to perform routine tasks easily and thus focus on other important tasks. Oracle’s PeopleSoft Enterprise Employee Self-Service is an example of an employee self-service tool. These technologies are beneficial only if they address the needs of the employees. Clear guidelines need to be provided to use these technologies. The benefits of ERM tools are as follows: It strengthens corporate culture. It enhances communication through the use of e-mails, blogs, bulletin boards, shared folders, and e-calendars. It educates employees about the products, customers and services of the company through enterprise portals. It facilitates project management. It reduces training costs as employees can be provided on-line and needs-based training. It makes HR management work easier. It facilitates work-flow management and increases productivity. It enhances performance management. It manages resources efficiently. It helps retain and provide career growth to talented employees. It enables easy retrieval of information. It obtains feedback from employees and enables organisations to make appropriate corrections. It assures job satisfaction and helps in retaining employees. It ensures compliance with government requirements. Wipro is one of India’s leading software service companies. It has developed some models to deal with the processes of employee management. Wipro offers flexible Employee Performance Management (EPM) solutions which are delivered either in Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) or Software as Service (SaaS) Model. They make employee assessments easier and more accurate. The EPM model offers the following benefits: · Goal management · Performance appraisals · Workflow and succession planning · Employee development planning · Employee training
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Q6. Suppose you are the HR Manager of a software company that is facing severe financial loss due to recession. What action would you take to keep your employees positive and motivated? Answer: As a HR manager I would take the following actions for motivating employees. 1. Recognition of individual differences: Employees are not homogenous. They differ in terms of attitudes, personalities, needs, etc. The management should therefore recognize these differences and motivate workers. 2. Matching the people to jobs: People with high growth needs perform better on challenging jobs. An organization will benefit if the right job is given to the right person. Achievers do their best when the job provides opportunities to participate in setting goals and when there is autonomy and feedback. 3. Goals: Provision of specific goals makes employees know what he is doing and what the management expects from him. Making people understand that they can achieve the goals in a smooth way is very important. If the management expects resistance to goals, they can invite people to participate in the goal setting process. 4. Individualistic rewards: The management must use rewards selectively, keeping in mind the individual needs of employees. What acts as a motivator for one may or may not motivate another employee. Therefore rewards like pay, promotion, autonomy must be used keeping the mental state of employees. 5. Linking rewards to performance: Employees should be rewarded immediately after attaining the goals. Managers should publicize openly the award of performance bonus, lump sum payments to employees for showing excellence and this will go a long way in increasing the awareness of people regarding the reward-performance link. 6. Checking the system for equity: The inputs for each job in the form of experience, abilities, effort, special skills must be weighed carefully before arriving at the compensation package for employees. Employees must see equity between the rewards/recognition obtained from the organization and the efforts put by them. Non-financial incentives: Incentives which cannot be offered in terms of money are known as non-monetary incentives. Very often, money alone is not the motivator. Higher level needs, like, status, recognition, etc of employees are also to be satisfied. People working at a higher level do not always work for money. They expect a challenging job that allows them to use their talents fully. Organizations have developed a variety of incentives to meet higher order needs of people. These can be classified as follows: Individual incentives: Under this we have the following: 1. Status is the ranking of positions, rights and duties in an organization. Middle and higher
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level employees prefer escalations in status to increment in pay. 2. Promotion is the vertical movement of a person in an organization. Promotions are accompanies by higher responsibilities, higher prestige and power. Promotions are generally dependent on good performance. 3. Responsibility: People want to handle responsible and challenging jobs. If the job is responsible, it satisfies people in more than one way. 4. Recognition of work: Managers can motivate people by showing appreciation when an individual does an outstanding job. Recognition and appreciation will have a tonic effect on the psychology of employees. 5. Job security: People want secure jobs. They want to be sure about their future income and job continuation. Group incentives 1. Social importance of work: People want jobs with high social status. High status jobs enhance the social status of an individual in the society. Some people may even be willing to accept such jobs even if the pay is less. 2. Team spirit: People prefer to work in well-knit groups. Organizations encouraging employees to work in a team attract people automatically. 3. Healthy competition: Promoting healthy competition among employees through carefully chosen reward schemes motivates people to work harder. Organizational incentives 1. Participation: People prefer organizations that offer good opportunities to participate in decision making process. Participation enables people to offer valuable suggestions and they feel proud when these are actually translated into action. 2. Good human relations: A positive work climate where people are treated with respect is an important reward. It makes people to work with enthusiasm and spirit and contribute their best. 3. Morale: Morale refers to the atmosphere created by the attitudes of the members of the organization. Poor morale is not in the interest of the organization. The warning signals like absenteeism, strikes, high attrition, etc are to be viewed seriously in the initial stages itself by the management. 4. Communication and discipline: Proper communication and good disciplinary procedures enable people to work with confidence and along the prescribed routes. The behaviour of the employees is consistent with goals and the chances of meeting the goals are high.
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Motivational techniques in practice Organizations continue to experiment to evolve different kinds of techniques to motivate people at work. The techniques are developed by behavioural scientists giving equal importance to intrinsic and extrinsic factors of job at work. The following are some of the best motivational techniques in force in different organizations: MBO: Management by Objectives encompasses specific goals particularly set for an explicit time period with feedback on goal progress. Employee involvement: A participative process that is designed to encourage increased commitments of the employees. Participative management: A process where subordinates share a s significant degree of decision making power with their immediate supervisors. Board of representatives: A form of participation in which representatives of employees sit with the company’s Boards of Directors and present the employees interests. Quality circle: A work group of employees who meet regularly to discuss their quality problems, investigate causes, recommend solutions and take corrective actions. Profit sharing plans: Organizations may have programs that distribute compensation based on some established formula designed around the company’s profitability. Gain sharing: An incentive plan where improvements in group productivity determine the total amount of money that is allocated. Flexible benefits: Employees tailor their benefit program to meet their personal needs by choosing and picking from a menu of benefit options. Comparable growth: A doctrine which holds that jobs equal in value to an organization should be equally compensated, whether or not the work content of these jobs are similar.
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Q1. What are the four strategy levels in an organization? Answer: Different Strategy Levels in an Organisation Organisations have different levels of strategic decision making. Although these levels are inter-related, each one of them has its own scope and reach. The different levels of strategy in an organisation are corporate level, business-unit level, functional level and people level. Let us now examine each level of strategy that exists in an organisation in detail. 1. Corporate Level Strategy Corporate level strategy is usually devised at the board level. It defines the following for an organisation: The overall mission. The game-plan. The management of the business portfolio. The priorities of each business unit regarding resource allocation. The structuring of the business. The methods of financing the business. The alliances to be made. The acquisitions/ mergers to be performed. Figure : depicts the factors which influence corporate strategy.
Figure : Factors Influencing Corporate Strategy From Figure you can see that the corporate strategy is influenced by the external environment, the people and systems within the organisation, the organisation structure, resources within the organisation, the current values of the organisation and the expectations and objectives of the organisation. Corporate strategy examines internal (within the company) and external factors (competitors, clients, customers), frames a new vision for the organisation and aligns policies, practices and resources to achieve that vision. It provides an overall direction to the organisation. The corporate visions of some organisations are listed below
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GE (General Electric): “We bring good things to Life”. Microsoft: “To enable people and businesses throughout the world to realise their full potential”. The corporate vision influences the business mission. A good business mission should be: Clear: It should be stated in a language that is easily understood by most of the employees. Achievable: The employees must feel that the organisation can achieve the specified objectives. Challenging: Each employee should exert as much effort as possible to contribute to the overall success of the mission. According to Johnson and Scholes, corporate strategy can be evaluated by the following criteria: Suitability: Is the strategy economically viable? Is it suitable to the current corporate capabilities and environment? Feasibility: Are the resources (finance, people, time, knowledge etc.) available to implement the strategy? Acceptability: Will the stakeholders (shareholders, employees, customers) react favourably to the strategy?
For example, Dell Computers is a leading PC supplier. The corporate strategy adopted by it is to deliver innovative and cost-effective solutions which address customer needs. Dell Computers tries to deliver this through its in-house Research and Development division and by forming strategic partnerships with top industry suppliers and original development manufacturers. 2. Business-Unit Level Strategy Business-unit level strategy is mainly concerned with how the organisation gains advantage over its competitors. It deals with the following: The methods the organisation uses to compete in particular markets The new opportunities that the organisation identifies or creates The products or services to develop The customers that the organisation targets For example, the business strategy of a furniture manufacturer is decided by the following factors: The type of furniture the furniture manufacturer wants to market (home furniture, office furniture etc.) The competitors who market similar furniture The quality of furniture the furniture manufacturer wants to market (solid wood, plywood) The customers the furniture manufacturer targets (individual customer, corporate, educational institutions) According to Porter (1985), the three basic factors that influence the decisions making process are: Cost leadership: It aims to offer lower costs than the competitors without lowering quality.
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Product differentiation: It tries to achieve industry-wide recognition that the different products and services of the company are superior in quality when compared to that of the competitors. Specialisation by focus: It tries to establish a niche market.
3. Functional Level Strategy Functional level strategy is concerned with how different units of the business (marketing, finance, manufacturing, personnel) transform corporate and business level strategies into operational goals. According to Johnson and Scholes, functional strategy describes “how the component parts of an organisation in terms of resources, processes, people and their skills are pulled together to form a strategic architecture which will effectively define the avenue”. [2] Functional units help in framing the business and corporate strategies by providing input on resources and capabilities. Once the higher level strategies are framed, action-plans are framed for each department, in order to accomplish the higher level strategies. For example, when the corporate strategy of a business is being the lead player in a specific market, the functional strategies of each division would be as follows: Manufacturing division: to produce good quality goods. Human resource division: to train staff in order to have a highly skilled workforce. Marketing division: to increase sales by increasing advertising. The different kinds of functional strategies are Marketing strategy: It deals with pricing, selling and distributing a product. Production strategy: It deals with what products to produce (issues like new products for existing markets or products for new markets), the production chain, etc. Finance Strategy: It aims to align the financial management of the organisations with its mission and goals. The decisions to be made are regarding budgets, liquidity issues, credits, cash flows, loans, capital investments etc. Human Resource Management (HRM) strategy: It deals with managing an important asset of the organisation – its work force. R & D strategy: It deals with issues like innovation and development of new products, and the addition of new features in existing products. It is essential that various functional units organise themselves with care in order to achieve their aims and synergise with the rest of the business. Let us now analyse the concepts of people strategy. 4. People Strategy People strategy aims to match the activities of an organisation with its human resources. An effective strategy for people management is vital to the success of an organisation. Research carried out by the Institute of Work Psychology and the Centre for Economic Performance shows a clear link between the adoption of good human resource business practices and improved performance. The research proves that focussing on key people management issues will improve productivity and profitability. People strategy aims to: Ensure that the employees are satisfied with their jobs, working environment, rewards and career prospects. Develop employee commitment by motivating them to move beyond contractual obligations to emotional commitment. This develops a strong sense of loyalty to the
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organisation and its customers. Manage organisation culture by concentrating on the important cultural aspects of the organisation. The culture of an organisation is defined by: The artefacts and symbols of the organisation. The stories and myths within the organisation about its various successes or failures. The rites and rituals that define employee behaviour. The rules and procedures that set parameters for employee behaviour and action. The role models within the organisation. The beliefs, values and attitudes reflected in the daily activities. The ethical standards which set the boundaries of acceptable behaviour. The five main features of people management are: Developing a strategic view of managing employees. Involving employees in the business. Investing in communication. Managing employee performance. Viewing employees as individuals.
Developing a Strategic View of Managing People An organisation must ensure that its people are at the centre of any strategic business planning. The key issues that an organisation must address while planning its business strategy are: · Are the right knowledge, skills and competencies available within the organisation? · Should people be recruited from outside? · Can the knowledge, skills and competencies of the people be developed to explore new business opportunities? Involving People in the Business Emphasis on team work will involve employees in the business. Teams need: · More autonomy and freedom for self-management. · Clear objectives and targets. · The freedom to plan and undertake work, acquire resources and improve the processes, products and services. Investing in Communication To be successful, an organisation must invest heavily in communications. Businesses that show a high growth have implemented the following in enhancing communication within the organisation: · Communicate their business strategy to all employees · Give feedback on performance to all employees regularly · Use a wide range of communication methods Managing Employee Performance Employees perform well if they · Know what they have to do · Get feedback on their performance
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· Know the areas in which they have to improve · Know how they can improve themselves If employee expectations are not well defined, it can lead to low morale, dissatisfaction, absenteeism and high turnover. Viewing Employees as Individuals High performing organisations view people as individuals and use techniques of involvement which encourage satisfaction and commitment.
Q2. What are the reasons for maintaining good industrial relations in an organization? Importance of Industrial Relations Answer: Industrial Relations is the process of managing individual and collective relationship between the workers and the management in organisations so that, the needs of both the parties are met. Healthy Industrial Relations ensure harmony and progress. Good Industrial Relations is important not only for the employers and employees but also for the entire society. Unhealthy Industrial Relations are harmful to the industry and the nation. It results in wastage of resources, reduction of productive working days, and reduction of the national output. The creation and maintenance of Industrial Relations promotes industrial peace. It is important to ensure good Industrial Relations for the following reasons:
Uninterrupted Production: Good Industrial Relations ensures continuity of production. Resources are fully utilised and production is maximised. All employees of the organisation are assured continuous work. Uninterrupted production is very important for organisations as some products act as inputs for other organisations; some products are exported, and some products are very essential for consumers.
Reduction in Industrial Disputes: Good Industrial Relations help in reduction of industrial disputes. Resolution of disputes promotes harmony and co-operation within the organisation.
Enhancement of Morale: Good Industrial Relations improve the morale of the employees. It increases employee involvement and commitment. Workers display more interest in achieving the organisational goals.
Transformation of Attitudes: Good Industrial Relations enable employers and employees to view themselves as partners in the industry. Employees and employers recognise the rights and interests of the other.
Reduces Wastage: Good Industrial Relations enhances co-operation. Wastages of time, resources, and materials are minimised. This in turn increases production.
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Increases Profit: Good Industrial Relations maintains competitive labour costs, increases production and thus increases profits.
Q3. What are the benefits that an organization enjoys by implementing employee participation? Answer: Advantages of Employee Participation Employee Participation implies that management of an organisation advocates employee involvement in execution and improvement of various business processes. It is beneficial for the organisation in several ways. Companies like IBM, General Foods, Texas Instruments, Procter & Gamble, Ford, Motorola, Honeywell, 3M, and Hewlett-Packard have employee participation programmes. Employee participation benefits both the employees and the employers. The advantages of employee participation are as follows: o
Enhanced Employee Performance and Productivity: Employees clearly understand their tasks as there is no ambiguity in their communications with the managers. This helps employees to perform in a better way. Employees are better informed and are able to identify and overcome the hurdles to productivity.
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Enhanced Organisational Excellence and Efficiency: Employee participation reduces the number of inconsistencies. Knowledge of the tasks enables employees to make intelligent decisions and this increases the overall efficiency.
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Enhanced Employee Commitment: Employees become more dedicated and work toward achieving the objectives of the organisation.
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Reduced Absenteeism and Employee Turnover: When employee suggestions are valued and rewarded, the job satisfaction level increases. This helps in retention of employees and reduces absenteeism. Reduced Labour Conflicts: Employee participation builds trust and mutual support. Employees align their goals with that of the organisation, and conflicts within the organisation reduce. Improved Communication within the Organisation: Effective communication is essential for building employee participation. Managers develop their communication skills in order to inform their subordinates of their intentions and perceptions. Employees too communicate better with their superiors through suggestions and joint-meetings.
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Reduced Resistance to Changes: Employee participation enables them to quickly adapt to organisational changes as there is a clear understanding of employee expectations.
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Enhanced Morale: Employees desire to be actively involved in their work and make significant contribution to their organisations. Employee participation satisfies many of
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the psychological needs of the employee and thus increases their morale. o
Increased Innovation and Creativity: Employee participation enables employees to suggest and implement novel ideas which help in decision making and problem solving.
Q4. Explain the challenges that international employees encounter. Problems Associated with International Employees Answer: The specific problems faced by international employees are: · Employee Working Overseas Problem One of the major problems associated with employees working in overseas branches is, which law has to be followed by the employee. The two choices are the laws of the homecountry law or the laws of the host-country in which the employee is working. For example, when an employee of an Indian company works in an American branch, there are chances of confusion for the employee as to follow the Indian laws or the American laws. Solution Judicial courts normally follow the legislation of its own country and so do organisations. There are a few organisations that follow the laws of the home-country. The overseas branches of this company are forced to follow the same law irrespective of the country in which they work. However, few companies are flexible. They follow the laws of the country in which the branch is located. · International Personal Information Flow, Privacy, and Security Problem Employers have to consider the International Privacy laws while transferring the details of employees across national borders. These laws are applicable even if the transfer of information happens within the same company. Governments across the globe have imposed laws and regulations to maintain privacy of employee information. Solution The Data Privacy Directive is a solution to the above problem. It states that the personal information of employees has to be any one of the following: · Collected for specific, legitimate reasons · Held only if it is relevant to the reasons · Precise and up to date · Legally processed · Stored only until required Employee details can be transferred across nations only if the company is authorised to do so.
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· International Employee Assistance Programme Problem Often employees often hesitate when assigned to work overseas,. The major reason is separation from their families. Difference in culture, tradition, legal system, and language adds to the stress of the employee. The consequences of these factors are: complicated health problems, interrupted careers, worries concerning dependent elderly parents and so on. Solution Research has suggested that support and adjustment from family members helps solve this problem to a great extent. Besides, an organisation called Federal Occupational Health (FOH) is working towards solving this problem. FOH provides round the clock service. The services provided are counselling, stress management programmes, and health and welfare seminars for the benefit of the international employees. Apart from the aforementioned issues, there are few other issues that affect international employees. They are as follows: The first problem that an employer faces is deciding which employee to select for a foreign project. The selection depends on the skills of the employee. Employees who can adjust and adapt to different cultures, who know about different cultures and who have the desire to work in foreign projects are best suited. Few organisations expect employees to analyse and achieve things on their own. Newly relocated employees may find it difficult to start off without guidance. In the beginning, they usually require guidance to adapt to the new organisational as well as country culture. The salary package to be offered to the international employees can be an issue of uncertainty. The currency values of countries differ from each other. For example, consider employees from the European branch working in the Indian branch of the same company. In Europe, the employees will be paid in Euro. The currency values of Euro and Rupee are definitely not the same, so the questions arises whether to pay the employees working in the Indian branch in Euro or Rupee? If the employees are paid in Rupees, the salary would seem less. If the employees are paid in Euro, the other employees will think the company is playing unfair by paying the European employees more and paying less to those local employees. The overseas branch and the home company have to establish mentoring programmes for employees to avoid possible pitfalls. Usually, a foreign mentor helps the employee in adjusting to the new regime. Apart from this, a mentor keeps the employee informed all the events in the home company like the organisation’s progress, issues and procedures. The assignments given to employees have to be based on their individual skills. An employee learns new tools and techniques while working in overseas assignments. Once the employee returns from the overseas assignment, organisations hesitate to provide opportunities to the employees which utilises the newly developed skills. Organisations have to entrust these employees with better opportunities and allow them to develop these new skills.
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Q5. What are the components of a Human Resource Information System? Human Resource Information Systems is a software application that caters to the human resource information needs of the organisation like monitoring employee attendance, payroll and benefits administration, career development, employee information, performance management, and training. HRIS is a collection of components which work together to gather, process and store information that the HR department can use to make decisions, to coordinate and to plan its activities. HRIS facilitates easy access and management of employee related information. For example, Terasen Pipelines, a Canadian company was using a manual system to maintain its records. But when its workforce increased, it began to use an HRIS to maintain accurate employee records. Initially, mainframe computers were used by organisations to manage human resource management functions. A large amount of capital was needed to operate these systems. The advent of client-server architectures and Software as a Service (SaaS) models has lowered the maintenance costs of HRIS. HRIS Components: HRIS comprises of the following modules: · Payroll: This module of HRIS keeps track of the pay grades and positions of the employees. Pay raise details are also recorded. This module gathers information on employee time and attendance. It calculates the deductions and taxes and generates pay slips and tax reports. Cheques get automatically deposited in the employee bank accounts. Inputs for this module are obtained from HR and time keeping modules. This module integrates with the current financial systems of the organisation. · Benefits Administration: This module tracks and administers employee benefits programmes. The benefits programmes include insurance, reimbursements, profit sharing and pension programmes. · HR Management: This module covers many HR aspects which range from employee recruitment to retirement. It records employee details like addresses, training programmes undergone, skills, position and so on. The functions addressed by this module are recruitment, placement, evaluation and career development of the employees. Job sites on the Internet are increasingly being used for recruitment. This module tracks job applications. Interviews and selection details are also maintained. · Training: This module administers and tracks employee training and development programmes. Records of employee education, qualification, and skills are maintained. It also outlines the training courses and training materials (CDs, books, web based learning programmes) which help employees develop their skills. Courses can be planned and scheduled using the data stored. Managers can approve training and budgets. · Performance Appraisal: This module evaluates the job performance of employees in terms of quality, time and cost. This helps in analysis of employee strengths and weaknesses and suitability for promotions. It gives feedback to employees on performances
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and identifies employee training needs. It also documents criteria which can be used for organisational rewards. · Work Time: This module helps to track the work done by the employees. This module merges the functions of work management and time management across a wide range of activities that include project, tasks, requests and deployment. This module maintains attendance and leave details of employees which are exported in various formats for further processing. · Employee Self-Service: This module permits employees to update their personal details, query HR databases and perform HR transactions. Employees are allowed to apply for leave, raise purchase requests, file expenses, view their salary details and keep track of their project related activities. Employees use this to update their tax savings details and bank related information.
Q6. Imagine yourself as the HR Manager of a steel company and you find that for members of the production team in your organisation are in conflict and this has affected the productivity of the team. What steps will you take to resolve the conflict and improve the team productivity? Answer: 1. I will try to identify the reasons of conflict. What is the reason of conflict among the following reasons · Territorial perceptions: People involved in the conflict may feel that the other party has violated agreed or implied operating territorial boundaries. · Personality differences: Rivalries, jealousies, personality clashes, and power struggles can cause conflicts between individuals. We have to keep the following factors in mind while assessing the potential for conflicts in workplaces: · Nature of work · Structure and division of work · Personality and objectives of individuals · Organisational ethics, beliefs, values and expectations · Organisational culture · Past attitudes and approaches towards management or staff · Present attitudes and approaches to employee relations · Future plans for employee relations 2. Indentifying the Different Aspects of Organisational Conflict You now know some of the causes of conflicts in an organisation. Let us look into the different aspects of organisational conflict. There are four aspects of organisational conflict and they are as follows: · The parties: The conflict may involve two or more parties. The parties to the conflict and the reasons for the conflict are clearly identified. This becomes a difficult task if there are many
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sub-groups involved each of which has its own agenda. · The issues: The issues of the conflict are any of the following: · Disputed topics or subjects · Different perceptions of the topics · The interests of the parties involved · The acceptability of the proposed resolutions · The hierarchy and priority of contentious issues · The dynamics: The following factors are considered to understand the dynamics of the conflict: · The factors that reveal the conflict · The factors that fuel the conflict · The changes in the situation of the conflict · The length of time of the conflict · The attitudes and changes in the attitude of the people involved · The position and influence of vested interests · The possibility of resolution of the conflicting interests · The power and influence of key players · The accuracy of the predictability of outcomes and developments · The range of outcomes · The hurdles which block progress · Management of the conflict: Conflicts are dealt with in the following ways: · Institutionalise the conflict: Have set rules, precedents, and procedures to resolve conflicts. · Contain and control the conflict: Isolate and tackle severe conflicts. · Remove the causes of conflict: This can be done by improving channels of communication and using conciliation and arbitration techniques. 3. Early Warnings of Conflict Now that you are familiar with the factors in a conflict, you must know that it is important to identify conflicts in its early stages. Every manager and employee needs to be able to identify the signs of conflicts and respond to them as soon as they occur. All staff members have to raise issues of concern immediately. This contributes to the well-being of the organisation. The early signs of the presence of conflict are as follows: · Declining performance: Declining performance trends of a department indicate the presence of conflict. · Declining morale: Conflicts lower morale and increase turnover, absence and rate of accidents. To identify a conflict, you have to know the different types of conflicts that can arise in an organisation. 4. Identifying the types of Organisational Conflict The different forms of conflict in an organisation are as follows: · Personal conflict: This conflict arises due to differences in the perceptions and personality of individuals. Professional counsellors may be required to resolve such conflicts but managers try to understand and resolve them. · Role conflict: People have formally defined roles in an organisation. Apart from this they have roles outside the organisation as a parent, child, spouse all of which affect their
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organisational role. Conflicts arise when these different roles interfere with each other. Role conflicts also arise when an individual gets inconsistent demands. For example, an employer demands an employee to produce superior quality work while the team makes demands to increase the production. Such role conflicts sometimes motivate the employee to perform better, and sometimes it causes frustration and reduces efficiency. · Inter-Group conflicts: Conflicts arise in groups when there is a scarcity of resources or a struggle for power and status within the group. Inter-group conflicts also arise when rewards and recognitions are not properly awarded. The two kinds of intergroup conflict are the following: · Horizontal strain: This occurs when different functions like sales and production compete with each other. · Vertical strain: This occurs when there is competition between different hierarchical levels like foremen and shop workers. 5. Conflict resolution Once you know the aspects and types of conflicts, you have to understand the steps that can be taken to resolve the dispute. Conflicts are resolved by adopting the following methods: · Counselling: If the organisations cannot have professional counsellors on their staff, then managers can be trained to counsel employees. Just by employing non-directive counselling (listening and understanding), managers can help their frustrated subordinates. · Avoidance: One strategy that is employed is not paying attention to the parties involved in the conflict. Another strategy used is isolating partially or fully the parties involved in the conflict in order to limit interaction. · Smoothing: This technique tries to achieve harmony between the parties involved in the conflict. · Dominance or Power Intervention: A higher authority tries to impose a solution to resolve the conflicts of the subordinates. · Compromise: Conflicts can be resolved by meeting at least part of the demands of the parties involved in the conflict. · Confrontation: The parties involved in the conflict are brought face to face and a solution is arrived by having frank discussions
MBA Semester III
MU0013 MU0013 –HR Audit Assignment Set- 1
Q1. What are the components of human resource development audit? Answer: Components of Human Resource Development Audit The HRD audit is divided into three components: · Organisation and Administration of Human Resource · Information Management through Documentation · Computerized HRIS 1. Organisation and administration of human resource In this you should consider following points: · The way in which the organization’s HR office is organized · The operating standards and internal controls followed in the business unit. · The ways of administrating retention rights, including notices, matrix, use of separation incentives, and outplacement practices. · The procedure of making HR staff up to date with the HR field. · The techniques used for communicating with employees and appointing authorities in department. 2. Information management through documentation You must be aware that information is managed in the business unit through documentation of various records of the employees and factors concerned to them. So following are some important considerations in this: · The person with whom the personnel files currently held. · The documents are held in personnel files. · The ways to document following in your organization : -Hiring: Application, interviewing, and reference checks -Compensation and benefits -Leave and overtime information -Transitions -Training -Discipline -Work history -Work Assignments -Significant accomplishments -Emergency contact information -Performance evaluation and performance management Termination · The duration of holding the files. · The place at which they are stored after employees leave. · It should be seen that whether there is training of managers and employees about personnel files.
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· The policies and procedures for accessing files. · The person responsible for filling the requests for information when they are made to your organization. · The content of employee, payroll, medical, and position files. · The various internal controls to ensure accuracy of information and control access. · The process for purging records. · The way of maintaining employee timesheets. · The place at which various notices are posted. · The methods to ensure timely and accurate reporting of information to the top management. 3. Computerized Human Resource Information System In this you need to check the System requirements, features and capabilities. Consider the following: · Whether HRIS system is being used in the organisation or not. · The type of HRIS system used. · To judge that system is based on same platform as rest of the organization. · The formal training program for employees and managers to access the HR information through the system. · Whether the HRIS system is comprehensive or not. · Are discreet pieces of information captured about employees and their jobs: -Personnel data -Recruitment/selection data -Training and development data -Compensation data -Performance appraisal/promo ability data -Benefit Plan data -Health/safety/accident data · The ways of translating the information into usable forms. · The data security issues. · The individuals who are able to update and change information controlled to enhance accuracy. · The hardware is used to operate the system. · The local area networks that is fully compatible with the system. · The estimated processing time to generate a standard 10-field employee roster listing, including age, annual salary, and years of service, for 500 employee records.
Q2. Explain the audit of human resource function. Answer: The HR audit includes areas of evaluation like what is needed before a company hires any employees all the way through the process of recruiting new employees, bringing them aboard, enrolling them in benefits programs, safeguarding their confidential information, managing and supporting them, and participating in their exit from the company, if
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necessary, either voluntarily or otherwise. HR Audit is the tool by which you can measure the effectiveness of various HR functions in any organization. It comprises of systematic verification of following: Job analysis and design Recruitment and selection Orientation and placement Training and development Performance appraisal and job evaluation Employee and executive remuneration Motivation and morale Participative management Communication Welfare and social security Safety and health Industrial relations Trade unionism Disputes and their resolution Scope of human resource audit HR Audit is very wide term and covers all the functions and aspects of Human Resource Management. It covers the following areas: Audit of all the HR function. Audit of managerial compliance of personnel policies, procedures and legal provisions. Audit of corporate strategy regarding HR planning, staffing, Industrial Relations, remuneration and other HR activities. Audit of the HR climate on employee motivation, morale and job satisfaction. Benefits of human resource audit To find out how the HR audit helps the organization, read the following: It helps to find out what is the proper contribution of the HR department in the organization. It helps to develop the professional image of the HR department of the organization. It helps to reduce the HR cost by preventing various activities which are not necessary. It helps to motivate the HR personnel of the organization towards better performance by checking the work done by them. It helps to find out different problems and solve them smoothly. It helps timely legal requirement fulfillment. It improves Performance Appraisal Systems. It helps to pursue systematic job analysis.
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Q3. Explain the linkages between HR Audit and business functions. Answer: Human Resource Audit and Business Linkages The HRD audit also examines the linkages between HRD and other systems like total quality management, personnel policies, strategic planning etc. Suggestions are made on the basis of evaluation on the future HRD strategies required by the company, the structure the company needs to have for developing new competencies and the systems that need to be strengthened, the styles and culture that has compatibility with HRD processes in the company particularly the styles of the top management, etc. Business linkages of Human Resource Development It indicates the extent to which HRD efforts (tools, processes, culture etc.) are driven to achieve business goals. The business goals include: Business excellence including profitability and other outcomes the organization is expected to achieve; Internal operational efficiencies; Internal customer satisfaction; External customer satisfaction; Employee motivation and commitment; Cost effectiveness and cost consciousness among employees; Quality orientation. Role of HRD Audit in Business Improvements HRD audit is cost effective It can give many insights into a company’s affairs. It could get the top management to think in terms of strategic and long term business plans. Changes in the styles of top management Role clarity of HRD Department and the role of line managers in HRD Improvements in HRD systems Increased focus on human resources and human competencies Better recruitment policies and more professional staff More planning and more cost effective training Strengthening accountabilities through appraisal systems and other mechanisms Streamlining of other management practices
Q4. What are the main objectives of Human Resource Planning? Human Resource Planning Answer: Human resource planning is the term used to describe how companies ensure that their staff comprise of “Right person for doing the job”. It includes planning for staff retention, planning for candidate search, training and skills analysis and much more.
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It is process of acquiring and utilizing Human Resource in the organization. The main objective is to ensure that organization has right number of employees in the right place at the right time. The main objectives of Human Resource Planning are as follows: 1. To determine the number of employees to be employed: If organization has more number of employees than actually required, then the workforce will consist of underutilized staff. In contrast, if the opposite management is made, staff may be overstretched, making it hard or impossible to meet production or service deadlines at the quality level expected. You should ask following questions for planning right number of employees: (a) How can output be improved through your understanding about the interrelation between productivity, work organization and technological development? What does this mean for staff numbers? (b) What techniques can be used to establish workforce requirements? (c) Have more flexible work arrangements been considered? (d) How is the staff you need to be acquired? The principles can be applied to any exercise to define workforce requirements, whether it be a business start-up, a relocation, or the opening of new factory or office. 2. To retain highly skilled staff: In this competitive world it is very important for the organization to retain its skilled staff. Thus organizations should do following: (a) Monitor the extent of resignation (b) Discover the reasons for it (c) Establish what it is costing the organization (d) Compare loss rates with other similar organizations. Without understanding of above points, management may be unaware of how many good quality workers are being lost. This will cost the organization directly through the bill for separation, recruitment and induction, but also through a loss of long-term capability. 3. To manage an effective downsizing programme: This is a very common issue for managers but yet the most difficult one. A downsizing strategy reduces the workforce for improving profitability or reducing costs. For this you need to answer following question: How is the workforce to be cut painlessly, while at the same time protecting the long-term interests of the organization? This is difficult for every manager because of business necessities and at the same time employee anxieties. Such an analysis can be presented to senior managers so that the cost benefit of various methods of reduction can be assessed, and the time taken to meet targets established. Why do Firms Downsize? · Reduce layers of management to increase decision making speed and get closer to the customer. · Sharpen focus on core competencies of the firm, and outsource peripheral activities. · Generate positive reactions from shareholders in order to improve valuation of stock price. · Increase productivity. But before downsizing effects of it should also be taken into consideration. It has mixed
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effects on firm performance that is there may be some short-term costs savings, but longterm profitability and valuation not strongly affected. Firm’s reputation as a good employer suffers. Forexample, Apple Computer’s reputation as good employer declined after several layoffs in 1990s. Downsizing forces re-thinking of Employment Strategy i.e. Lifelong employment policies may not be credible after a downsizing. For example, IBM abandoned lifelong policy after several layoffs in early 1990s. 4. To find out the procedure for recruiting the upcoming managers: Many senior managers are troubled by this issue. They have seen traditional career paths disappear. They have had to bring in senior staff from elsewhere. But they recognise that while this may have dealt with a short-term skills shortage, it has not solved the longer term question of managerial supply: what sort, how many, and where will they come from? To address these questions you need to understand: (a) The present career system (including patterns of promotion and movement, of recruitment and wastage) (b) The characteristics of those who currently occupy senior positions (c) The organization’s future supply of talent. Now see Figure 1.1 which summarizes the various objectives of Human Resource Planning (HRP).
Summary of Objectives of HRP
Q5. Write a short note on employee orientation programme. Answer: Employee orientation programs are given to new employees at a place of business. When a new employee is hired, the employee orientation program offers a business its best chance at shaping an employee's work practices and imprinting its corporate business philosophy onto the new employee's mind, because a new hire is eager to make a good impression. The programs can last from several hours to several days.
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The process of new employee orientation strengthens the new employee’s relationship with your organisation. It fuels their enthusiasm and guides their steps into a long term positive relationship with the organisation. Effective orientation programs – where new employees are introduced to a company's mission and begin to feel they are a vital part of the team – are key to sparking early productivity and improving employee retention. "In today's labor market, new employees know they can quit and start somewhere else tomorrow," says Mel Kleiman, author of Hire Tough, Manage Easy – How to Find and Hire the Best Hourly Employees. Done poorly, their new employee orientation will leave your new employees wondering why on earth they walked through your door. "Orientation should be geared toward reinforcing new employees' 'buying decisions.' The focus must be on convincing them they made the right choice when they signed on." Good employee orientation programs: Make a good first impression. Make new employees feel welcome and valued as key players on the team. Explain the mission/purpose of the company and the job so employees can see the big picture. Assure them they will be carefully and patiently trained — not thrown in to "sink or swim." Familiarize employees with rules, policies and procedures. Help employees adapt to their new surroundings, as well as learn who all the players are and how they work together. Establish friendly relationships among co-workers and managers. Ensure new employees have all the information and tools they need to do their jobs. Motivate employees to succeed as an integral part of the team. Develop the long-term commitment you want from every member of your workforce. Tell them what's in it for them — in sum, reinforce their "buying decision." Without a well-planned orientation, new employees end up confused. The employer's lack of direction and disorganized approach rapidly diminishes the employee's commitment to the company. Many new hires question their decision to change companies by the end of their first day. Their anxieties are fueled by mistakes that companies often make during that firstday new employee orientation program. The common mistakes include: overwhelming the new hire with facts, figures, names and faces packed into one eight hour day; showing boring orientation videos; providing lengthy front-of-the-room lectures; and failing to prepare for the new hire; providing no phone, no e-mail, no computer, and no work. Before you completely revamp your present new employee orientation process, ask yourself the following question: "What do we want to achieve during new employee orientation? What first impression do we want to make?" There is no doubt that a company’s positive first impressions can cement the deal for a newly recruited employee.
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Q6. What are the reasons for implementing the human resource scorecard? Answer: Understanding the Reason for Implementing the Human Resource Scorecard In this era of tough competition it is very important for the firms to have more effective HR management systems. It is a challenge for managers to make HR a strategic asset. The HR scorecard is an instrument that enables them to improve the HR function in the organization. It helps to periodically assess effectiveness of HR functions in a wide range of areas, from recruiting to terminations, and including training and development, communications, and legislative compliance. But implementing effective audit systems for human resource is a difficult task and demands the existence of a unified framework to guide the HR managers. Sometimes firms under-invest in their people and at times invest in the wrong ways. Another difficulty is, managers cannot prepare the projected cash flows for considering the future productivity of present inputs as in case of financial assets but at the same time they are not willing to take the risk. So the best way is to prepare the Balanced Scorecard with sound measurement strategies which are able to link HR functions, activity and investment with the overall business strategy. The HR scorecard framework was specifically designed for following reasons:
It reinforces the distinction between HR doables and deliverables: The good audit system must clearly differentiate between the deliverables that influence strategy implementation and do-ables that do not. Policy implementation is not a deliverable until it has a positive effect on the HR architecture and creates the right employee behaviours that drive strategy implementation. An appropriate HR measurement system will encourage HR professionals to think both strategically as well as operationally.
It helps in controlling cost control and value creation: It is the responsibility of HR to minimize the cost of the firm but at the same time, HR has to fulfill its strategic goal, which is to create value. The HR scorecard helps HR professionals balance the two and find the optimal solution. It allows HR professionals to drive out costs where appropriate, but at the same time it helps to create value for the firm by retaining good human resources.
It measures leading indicators: There are drivers and outcomes in the HR value chain along with leading and lagging indicators in the overall balanced performance measurement system. It is thus important to monitor the alignment of the HR decisions and systems that drive the HR deliverables. Assessing this alignment provides feedback on HR’s progress towards these deliverables and lays the foundation for effective HR strategies.
It assesses HR’s contribution to strategy implementation: The cumulative effect of the HR Scorecard’s deliverable measures provides the answer to the question regarding HR’s contribution to firm performance. All measures have a credible and strategic rationale. Managers can use these measures as solutions to business problems.
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It lets HR managers to manage their strategic responsibilities: The scorecard motivates the HR managers to focus on exactly how their decisions affect the successful implementation of the firm’s strategy. This is due to the systemic nature of the scorecard that is it works on all the aspects. Therefore it provides a clear framework.
It encourages flexibility and change: In this era of ever changing business environment, standardized patterns in any aspects do not work well. The changes are required even in the HR policies with the change in business environment. The basic nature of the scorecard with its causal emphasis and feedback loops helps fight against measurement systems getting too standardized. Every decision needs to be taken based on the past and future scenarios. One of the common problems of measurement systems is that managers tend to get skilled to obtain the right numbers once they get used to a particular measurement system. The HR scorecard provides the flexibility and change because it focuses on the firm’s strategy implementation, which constantly demands change.
MBA Semester III
MU0013 MU0013 –HR Audit Assignment Set- 2
Q1. Write a short note on focus groups. Answer: Focus groups: A focus group is a form of qualitative research in which a group of employees are asked about their perceptions, opinions, beliefs and attitudes towards the culture and policies of the organization. Focus groups are interviews, but of 6-10 people at the same time in the same group. Questions are asked in an interactive group setting where participants are free to talk with other group members. Focus groups are a powerful means to evaluate services or test new ideas. One can get a great deal of information during a focus group session. Preparing for the session Identification of the major objective of the meeting. Carefully developing five to six questions. Planning the session. Calling potential members to invite them to the meeting. About 2-3 days before the session, call each member to remind them to attend. Planning the session Scheduling: Plan meetings to be one to 1-1.5 hours long. Over lunch tends to be a very good time for others to find time to attend. Ground Rules: It’s critical that all members participate as much as possible, yet the session move along while generating useful information. Because the session is often a one-time occurrence, it’s useful to have a few, short ground rules that sustain participation, yet do so with focus. Consider the following three ground rules: a) keep focused, b) maintain momentum and c) get closure on questions. Membership: Focus groups are usually conducted with 6-10 members who have some similar nature, e.g., similar age group, status in a program, etc. Select members who are likely to be participative and reflective. Attempt to select members who don’t know each other. Plan to record the session with either an audio or audio-video recorder. Don’t count on your memory. If this isn’t practical, involve a co-facilitator who is there to take notes. Facilitating the session Major goal of facilitation is collecting useful information to meet goal of meeting. Introduce yourself and the co-facilitator, if used. Explain the means to record the session. Carry out the agenda
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Carefully word each question before that question is addressed by the group. Allow the group a few minutes for each member to carefully record their answers. Then, facilitate discussion around the answers to each question, one at a time. After each question is answered, carefully reflect back a summary of what you heard. Ensure even participation. While closing the session, tell members that they will receive a copy of the report generated from their answers, thank them for coming, and adjourn the meeting. Immediately after session Verify if the tape recorder, if used, worked throughout the session. Make any notes on your written notes, e.g., to clarify any scratching, ensure pages are numbered, fill out any notes that don’t make senses, etc. Write down any observations made during the session. For example, where did the session occur and when, what was the nature of participation in the group? Were there any surprises during the session?
Q2. Explain the different types of competencies with examples. Answer: 1. Communication Skills: This does not necessarily refer to the English speaking skill. There are various factors leading to effective communication. For details refer to Table 1. Table 1: Communication skill as a core competency
2. Interpersonal Relationship Building Ability: This deals with how well a person is able to socialize and make a close bond with others around him. The behavioural aspects and elements related to interpersonal relationship building ability re discussed in Table 2
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Table 2: Interpersonal Relationship Building Ability as a core competency
3. Negotiating Ability: The need for this skill arises when two or more parties argue on a common issue and each party want a conclusion on it prefers. The behavioural aspects and elements related to negotiating ability are discussed in Table 3. Table 3: Negotiating Ability as a core competency
4. Critical Thinking Ability: The business environment is full of uncertainties and surprises. One must have the ability to think and act under unforeseen and critical situations. The behavioural aspects and elements related to critical thinking ability are discussed in Table 4. Table 4: Critical Thinking Ability as a core competency
5. Data Management Ability: The documents and files possessed by a company are of great importance. The information has to be managed effectively. The behavioural aspects and elements related to data management ability are discussed in Table 5.
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Table 5: Data Management Ability as a core competency
6. Forecasting Ability: As already said, the business environment is highly uncertain. One has to possess the ability to foresee future changes and competitions. The behavioural aspects and elements related to forecasting ability are discussed in Table 6. Table 6: Forecasting Ability as a core competency
7. Creativity: It is not only the quality of the product that plays a role in the market. It is also how different our products are compared to that of our competitors, which attracts our customers. This requires creativity. This will also bring about a huge difference in the way regular day-to-day activities are carried out. The behavioural aspects and elements related to creativity are discussed in Table 7. Table 7: Creativity as a core competency Competency Creativity
Behavioral aspect Ability to think differently A keen sense of colors Ability to present differently Courage to accept and
Elements Accepting creativity Practicing creativity Encouraging creativity
present the ideas
8. Business Environment Understanding: Success is possible in business only if proper understanding and analyses of the happenings of the business environment is made. The behavioural aspects and elements related to business environment understanding are discussed in Table 8.
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Table 8: Business environment understanding as a core competency
9. Coordination/Partnership Skill: Any business cannot survive if people were to work as individuals. It requires people of one department to coordinate and work with people of other department. Also people of the same department must be able to coordinate among themselves and also with external environment. The behavioural aspects and elements related to coordination/partnership skill are discussed in Table 9. Table 9: Coordination/Partnership Skill as a core competency
10. Instruction Following Ability: However flat today’s organizations have become; there still exists a certain amount of hierarchy. Employees must be able to receive orders from their superior and execute the instructions correctly. The behavioural aspects and elements related to instruction following ability are discussed in Table 10. Table 10: Instruction Following Ability as a core competency
11. Knowledge Updating: Any employee must be in a position to update his/her knowledge with regard to the happenings of the outside world. This is absolutely necessary for servicing in today’s business environment. The behavioural aspects and elements related to knowledge updating are discussed in Table 11.
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Table 11: Knowledge Updating as a core competency
12. Presentation Skill: Employees in any organization will have to present their reports or analyses to people within the organization and also the others outside. The behavioural aspects and elements related to presentation skill are discussed in Table 12. Table 12: Presentation skill as a core competency
13. Analyzing/Problem Solving Ability: When faced with unexpected situations, the employee must be able to tackle it. In case any problem arises; the employee must be able to solve it. The behavioural aspects and elements related to analyzing/ problem solving ability are discussed in Table 13. Table 13: Analyzing/ Problem solving ability as a core competency
14. Counseling Ability: When employees have some problem, naturally their performance in the organization goes done. The problem could be in their personal life or in the organization. Whatever be the case, the employees require a good counselor who can lend their support to the employees with problems. The behavioural aspects and elements related to counseling ability are discussed in Table 14.
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Table 14: Counseling ability as a core competency
15. Other Competencies: Apart from these competencies, there are others that are specific to the job done. The requirements of those competencies vary depending upon the time and situation. Those skills are: - Financial forecasting ability - Customs handling ability - Computer knowledge - Customer handling ability, etc. While preparing the report of HR audit, you must always analyse first if all the above discussed core competencies have been taken an account of or not. The elements related to each of the competency should have been duly adhered to and the behavioural aspects should have been properly marked.
Q3. What are the trends in HR audit seen in Indian scenario? Answer: An HR audit is like an annual health check. It plays a vital role in instilling a sense of confidence in the management and the HR functions of an organisation. – E J Sarma The same way as a doctor would first diagnose the ailment and then suggest an appropriate customised medication for all his patients, an HRD auditor should first diagnose the opportunities and problems, identify deficiencies in the strategy, structure, staff and systems of the HRD process in an organisation and then recommend steps for improvement. He should base his recommendations on the future responsibilities of the HRD department as derived from the business plans of the company he is working for. In India, the prevalence of HR Audit has been quite popular since 1970s. It first promulgated by BHEL (Bharat Heavy Electrical Ltd), a leading public enterprise, during the financial year 1972-73. Later it was also adopted by other leading public and private sector organisations in the subsequent years. Some of them are Hindustan Machine Tools Ltd. (HMTL). Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd.(ONGC), NTPC, Cochin Refineries Ltd. (CRL), Madras Refineries Ltd.,(MRL), Associated Cement Company Ltd.(ACC) and Infosys Technologies Ltd.(ITL). Adaptability of various models, especially Lev and Schwartz model and Flamholtz model and discount rate fixation and disclosure pattern i.e. either age wise, skill wise etc., in BHEL,
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SAIL, MMTC (Minerals & Metals Trading Corporation Of India Ltd.) HMTL, NTP, etc., made HR auditing even more popular in the country. All said and done though, let us mark the fact here despite this all, there has been no uniformity among Indian enterprises regarding HRA disclosure. HRD audits of different organisations have revealed different things. Let is make it clear at this point only that the names of the organisations have been changed because the audit process reveals the strengths and weaknesses of the organisation are brought to the fore and the organisations may not like it to get their weaknesses published. It is a point to mark that, in most of the organisations, great support was given to all HRD activities by the top management of the organisations. Thus we can for sure make out the success of an HRD intervention. It may be concluded that human resource auditing clearly encompasses such elements as the: Composition of employees grades; Productivity of human resources; Programmes for employee development; Personnel payments to the employees and expenses on social welfare per employee; Human asset valuation; Human assets vis-a-vis total assets; Value of human assets in an organization.
Q4. Elaborate on the need for Human Resource Audit. Answer: Human Resource Audit is a systematic assessment of the strengths, limitations, and developmental needs of its existing human resources in the context of organizational performance. (Flamholtz, 1987). Human Resource Audits give an account of the skills, abilities and limitation of its employees. The audit of non-managers are called skills inventory while the audit of managers are called management inventories. Basically, the audit is an inventory that catalogues each employee’s skills and abilities which enables the planners to have an understanding of the organisation’s work force. (William B. Werther, Jr. and Keith Davies). o o o o o
To make the HR function business-driven. Change of leadership. To take stock of things & to improve HRD for expanding, diversifying, & entering into a fast growth phase. For growth & diversification. For promoting professionalism among employees & to switch over to professional Management.
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To find out the reasons for low productivity & improve HRD strategies. Dissatisfaction with a particular component. To become employer of choice. To ensure effective utilization of human resources. To review compliance with tons of laws and regulations. To instill a sense of confidence in the human resource department that it is wellmanaged and prepared to meet potential challenges and opportunities. To maintain or enhance the organization’s reputation in a community.
For example, while many other PSUs stood losing on the profitability grounds, HR auditing at Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) ensured that the company remained a profit making heavy engineering public sector company, and thus maintained its reliability among the stakeholders.
Q5. Explain how audit of training is conducted. Answer: Audit of Training: Training is a subsystem of an organization. It ensures that randomness is reduced and learning or behavioral change takes place in structured format. The main objective of training and development division is to make sure the availability of a skilled and willing workforce to an organization. It improves the productivity of employees and thereby increases the performance of the organisation. Audit of Training suggests future improvements based on past activities measurement. The training indicators are:
the procedures followed and the frequency with which personnel training needs are analyzed;
the criteria followed to list the content of the training programs;
the evaluation criteria of the efficacy of the training programs;
The procedure by which training needs are analyzed
the percentage of the HR budget dedicated to training;
The situation at which training is being conducted like Employee orientation, Skills & technical training, Coaching and Counseling
the training conducted at the orientation of the employees
the average number of hours of training per employee;
the percentage of employees that participate in training programs by work place categories.
MBA Semester III
MU0013
Q6. Elaborate on the different aspects work place policies and practices to be considered by the employers. Answer: Workplace Policies and Practices Many smaller companies do not like writing certain aspects of ways of conducting business. For such companies, it is mere formality and they do not appreciate “people-oriented culture.” Though it should be avoided because it is patently illegal because laws require that companies should mention very clearly the policies about guaranteeing specific protections to employees 1. Safeguarding employee information Employees’ personal information should be safeguarded. Separate files should be maintained for personal information as contrasted with employment related information. Main objective behind it to ensure that while deciding the employee’s career with the company his personal information should not be considered. For example while deciding whether to promote employee or not, instead of his personal information like his religion, his work experience and capabilities should be considered. The employment decision needs to be made on work/performance-related information, not the personal information. Relevant materials in the work file include information on the employee’s education, related work experience, and performance evaluations in other positions within the company. An audit can clarify what information must be segregated and the laws that govern employees’ access to and copying of their files. Other employee information that must be safeguarded includes any materials that contain medical information. 2. Employee performance management An audit can review company’s job descriptions for compliance (i.e., to determine whether the descriptions list the essential functions of the job). Various legal issues can arise due to performance related problems of employees. Audit will help in following improvements and reviews: · A 90-day written standard performance evaluation form, · An annual written standard performance evaluation form, · A performance management/performance improvement plan, · A description of the company’s policy for both voluntary resignation and company-initiated termination, · Wage and salary administration program, · Bonus/stock option criteria. 3. Safe work environment Audit practices may also help the companies to know about factors that contribute to a safe work environment. A company may choose to develop an audit sheet tailored to a particular issue, such as the company’s zero-tolerance policy for harassment. For example, a company may wish to review and evaluate its practices of dealing with inappropriate harassing behaviour in its workplace.
MBA Semester III
MU0013
4 Auditing workplace behaviors that support legal compliance A safe, dignified, and respectful work environment is not only mandated by the law, but also increases motivation and productivity of the employees. An example of review of business practices used to deal with allegations of harassment safe working environments should be considered especially for the females in the offices so as to make them feel confident and concentrate on work is shown as under:
Tailored Reviews can be added to the General Audit Review of Business Practices used to deal with Allegations of Harassment Method of Review Area of Review Walk-through referring to the HR audit report: Are there posters visible throughout the company specifically prohibiting such behaviors? Review of new employee: Does each employee receive a copy of the policy upon package hire? Review of HR files Does the company redistribute a copy of the policy with a cover memo from a senior manager clearly stating the company‟s expectation of appropriate and respectful behaviors? Does the memo contain information regarding to whom/where to report violations of the policy? Review of policy manual: Does the company have a clearly published and posted employee handbook (both) non-retaliation policy? Review of HR files: Are reports of harassment or other inappropriate interviews behaviors investigated promptly by HR and handled discreetly? Review of HR files: Is there documentation representing such investigations with the results? Review of HR files: Is there documentation indicating various forms of sanction up to and including termination if an investigation indicates that inappropriate behaviors occurred? Review of files/interviews: Are managers trained on how to handle reports of harassment? Review of files/interviews: Are employees advised of their rights and informed on how and where to make a report of inappropriate behaviors? Review of files/interviews: Do employees indicate a thorough understanding of the company‟s beliefs regarding safe and respectful workplace behaviors?
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