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CHAROTAR UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGYMaster of Business Administration (MBA)

Semester - III University Examination 2010 - 11MB 820 Strategic Human Resource Management

Date: 20/1212010, Monday Time: 10.30AM to 01.30PM Maximum Marks: 70Instructions:1. This paper contains six questions. of which the last one is case analysis.2. All questions are compulsory.3. Each of the first questions will carry l0 marks and the iast case analysis willcarry 20 marks.l. Liberalization has not only triggered changes in the rvhole economy, including thebanking space, but has also thown up challeng_es for banks, in.general, and publicsector banks. in particular. Wh'ether Ffuman Resource Managemeni (HRM), animponant element in the business process evolutiorn post-liberalization, has been givena Slrategic telescopic focusis subjeCtio debrte.Q. Discuss.2. The economic downtum during the recent past caused serious problems to mostorganizations. especially in the Il field. Horizon Technologies, a five-year old firmrvas laced with the most common problem - surplus manpower in their Fiaryana basedunit. On the other hand they are pl:::',n:ng to open r nelv unit in NCR for a related,ll,.,rrsifie..t_ nrnrtrcr The ron manasement called for a meeting to discuss ii?atelie,s tohelp the organization survive during turbulent times at their Haryana based unit and forlraming Human Resource Planning (HRP) strategies for the diversified unit at NCR.Q. What do you think might be the strategies that lvill help Horizon deal with issues atHaryana and Gurgaon units?3. In 1995, global networking major. Cisco, found that despite hiring an average of1.000 people every three months during the year, thi: company still Ead nundreds of' openings. The recruitment pressue !u{he4Ig94se4 !b9&Jl_qying_y.e3! rylren Clcohired more than 1,000 employ6es iviq;quarter - arouna -i0X -o?-melotal joUsgileratea through the Intemet in Silicon Valley. When Cisco's sales soared to $ 6.4billion in fiscal 1997 and profits to $ 1.4 billion, (a 5370 increase over the previousyear), the company had to double its r.vorkfbrce and at the same time hire the bestpeople. The Cisco management realized that it had to adopt innovative measues to getthe best people and remain the leader in the lntemet era.a.Q. Explain the different innovative recruitment methods that Cisco '"vould haveadopted to meet its requirements.4. Paradise Bank is a nationalized bank and has operations spread over India. Theemployees are satisfied as they feel that the management is.. -fair in terms ofcompensation. On the other hand. PLN Bank had a high turnover of employees. Even

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--though its compensation packages r'vere similar to those at Paradise Banl..employees lvere not happy.The HR manager Paresh at PLN bank found that the emplolee aporaisal at PLN was anannual affair as it was in Paradise. However, the perfbrmance aflp-raisal xertise atParadise Bank was an occasion to map out future profitable strategies to be collectivelypursued by e4ployees, while taking into consideration the organizational objectives ofthe firm. The Chief HR manager of Paradise Bank always made it a point to see thatthe appraisal system being implemented enjoyed the contidence and support of theemployees.Q, List in detail, what could have been the main features of the performance appraisalsystem at Paradise Bank that made its employee satisfied and committed. .5, General Motors Corporation, the world's largest automaker was founded in 1908 inFlint, Michigan of US. In 2006 GM was in a horrible tangle as the company lost $10.6billion in the previous year (2005). To counter this GM had initially planned fororganizational restructuring. As a part ol the organizational re$tructwing the companyplanned 30;000 job cuts and closing down of 12 plants by 2007. GM managementdeclared af=fie beginning of 2006lts plan to reduce 30,0O0 blue-collar jobs by Jan.1,2007. On Mondgy,4tb.IungllQ6 GM's management ann6unced that 35,000 workershad a$gqy opt* to leave the com luntarilyl' surpassing initial targets andallowing the automaker to increase its targeted savings to US $8 billion annually by theend of 2006. The overwhelming response of the employ'ees for the acceleratedseparation plan surprised manv people, including GM's management.

6 Q. What could be the emp_loyee separation strategy used by GM that got overwhelmingresponse from the employees? ! f r6. Ultimo Efficacy was doing pretty well and making good amount of money even inreceHb- ,- 9ui rejessiort prt-rvirieci a great anci vaild excuse to many companiesincluding Ultimo Efficacy to cut out even on the otherwise normal expenses of thecorporation and get the emplolEes at various levels to work in highly constrainedconditions. The idea \vas that they would easily accept such a thing under the hoax ofrecession.So, the top management of the company issued a circular to each and every employee.The measures contained therein were addendum to the cost control that was alreadybeing exercised by the company through the customary layoff of employees practicedas a part of recession time rinral. A .:articular junior officer Simple Simpson in thecompany's purchase department got hyper after reading the circular. He decided tocont.ibr,t. his might to the laudabl! cffii-wide cosr control efforts.It was summer time and the summer could be very severe in region lvhere UltimoElficacy Inc's offices and factory were located. The company used to ppy-ide many_l;'.water coolers at diffr:rent locations in the offices and factory premises. Every yearcompiny Gia to replace the worn-"out rvater coolers with the new ones. The purchaserequisitions lor replacement water coolers rvere made by the user departments and sentto purchase department. Simple Simpson in purchase department used to process thepr.rchase reqr-risitions ol lvater coolers, contact the rvater cooler manufacturers and buythem. Horvever. in vielv of the cost control measures, Simple Simpson suggested to theuser depafiments that instead of water coolers they could buy earthen pots. 2

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User departments were too happy to go along with this proposal of Simple Simpson. Ifprice of a water cooler r,vas equi,,alent of $350 to $400, price of an eafihen pot wouldbe mere $1 or so. The proposal had tremendous potential of cost reduction. As per thelormal authority delegation chart ofthe company, a junior officer at Simple Simpson'slevel was not authorized to negotiate with the suppliers. Only his boss was authorizedto do so. But Simple Simpson wanted to respond to the call of cost reduction of topmanagement all by himself. After all it rvas his suggestion to buy eanhen pots in placeof water coolers and save for company thousands of equivalent dollars. So, he decidedto stick his neck out and decided to negotiate with the short listed supplier of earthenpots to get a still beuer deal from him.The maker ofthe earthen pots did not reduce the price further out agreed to give away20 earthen pots over and above the 100 on the purchase order. The 120 earthen potswere received by Simple Simpson and he got them positioned inside Ultimo EfficacyInc's premises. People liked the cool water of these earthen pots and employees atgrass root levels appreciated the creative brains and elforts of Simple Simpson and theresultant enormous savings. Simple Simpson became a hero for the time being.But his glory did not last long. The period during which these 120 earthen pots werepurchased was the physical inventory checking period of the company as per its laiddorvn systems. A sharp young auditor did an audit on the earthen pots. He had thenumbers on the earthen pots on the material requisition slip reading at 100 and thesame 100 number was found on the purchase order. But despite physically counting anumber of times the physical inventory ofeafihen pots came to 12il on every count. Hecounted them over and over again. F-inally he decided that the physical count did givehim a figure of 120 earthen pots and he was not nrzrking any mistake in counting. Asper him it was a serious ar:ilii discreoar':i.:.,'- irow the colnoan\/ could have more materialthan what vras oldered?'i'hat sirowed slack intemai controls. Therr after cloing adetailed research on the,:auses of this discrepancy, he ultimately stumbled on the factthat the discrepancy was the outcome of the negotiations carried out by SimpleSimpson. And that was another serious violation of intemal controls since SimpleSimpson had no business to negotiate with the suppiiers as per company's policies.The audit observations were forwarded to the top management of the company. Topmanagement was not used to getting such solt ofaudit reports. Top management ofthecompany felt terribly offended by such inrgularities committed by its employee andordered an enquiry against Simple Simpson. He was wondering as to whal wrong didhe do in saving such a lot of money for the conrpany- he did not commit a fraud, he didnot commit a crime, he did not squander company's money, he did not take bribe- allhe did was to take initiative and save money. And for this was he being pushed in ftontofthe firing squad?Q. Analyze the above case lrom SHRM perspective.

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