Hrm Case Study

Case Study-1

Jack Nelson’s Problem

Chapter-1

Introduction to Human Resource Management

Page: 1

* The case is all about the necessity & functions of HR unit in a local bank.
In this bank Jack Nelson is a member of board of director and Ruth Jonson
is an excellent employee. As Mr. Nelson was very much curious about how
Jonson operate her machine, she briefly gave an idea about it. Speaking with
the in-charged supervisor of a branch of this bank Nelson found that
something was wrong inside the branches. But unfortunately it was not
known to Jonson. Jonson found out the main problem and it was high
employee turnover. In this bank selection time of employee is very short and
at the same time the new employer quit their job in a very short time. All
branch supervisors hire their new employees without communicating with the
home office or other branches. During the time of development of opening,
the supervisors tried to find a suitable employee to replace the worker who
had quit.

After visiting the 22 branches, the finding is that problems are similar mostly.
Nelson wondered about the movements that he should take and the home
office steps. The more he thought about the matter, the more perplexed he
became. The problem is as much as complex that he couldn’t put his finger
on that problem and he did not know the actual place whether to report his
findings to the president.

* Most of the experts believe that there are five basic functions that all
managers perform and that are- planning, organizing, staffing, leading and
controlling. These functions represent the management process.

In this chapter we are going to focus on one of this function ̶ the staffing,
personnel management, or Human resource management function. Human
resource management is the process of acquiring, training, appraising, and
compensating employees, and of attending to their labor relations, health
and fairness concerns. Here human resource managers should know about
the

* Equal opportunity and affirmative action

* Employee health and safety and

* Handling grievances and labor relations.

Along with that human resource managers carries out three distinct
functions ̶ the HR manager exerts line authority in his or her unit and implied
authority elsewhere in the organization. He or she ensures that the
organization’s HR objectives and policies are coordinated and implemented.
And he or she provides various staff services to line management, such as
partnering with the CEO in designing the company’s strategy, and assisting
in the hiring, training, evaluating, rewarding, promoting, and disciplining of
employee at all levels.

Here human resource managers play an important role in managing

companies. These changes of trends include globalization, changes in the
nature of the work, and technology.

Globalization is the tendency of firms extend their sales, ownership and

manufacturing to new market abroad. Companies expand abroad for several
reasons. Sales expansion is one. Some manufacturers seek new foreign
products and service to sell, and to cut labor cost. Under Technological
Trends there are some features. For example few people or business do
business today like they did even three or four years ago. We use PDAs to
communicate with the office, and plan trips, manage money and to improve
efficiency. Under the trends in the nature of the work there are some feature
like high tech job, service jobs knowledge work and human capital.
Workforce Demographic Trends are making finding and hiring good
employees more of a challenge.

There are some changing roles of Human Resource Management. Human

resource managers’ job has grown broader and more strategic over a period
of time. They are strategic human resource management, creating high
performance work system, managing with technology and effective HR
practices. The emphasis on strategic human resource management is one
change in what HR managers do: a focus on productivity and performance
is another.

HR managers often use HR scorecards to facilitate the measurement

process. The HR scorecard is a visual and computerized model that enables
managers to demonstrate how HR contributes to the company’s financial
success. It also shows the measurable, cause-and-effect links between three
things: (1) HR activities (such as improving the firm’s incentive plan), (2)
intermediate employee result (such as improved morale), (3) end-result
company metrics (such as improved customer service and higher profits).

The last topic is about the proficiency of the HR manager. Human Resource
managers need four proficiencies included ̶ HR proficiency (represents
traditional knowledge and skills of employee selection, training and
compensation), business proficiency (reflect human resource professionals’
new strategic roles), leadership proficiency (ability to work with the lead
management group), and learning proficiency (ability to stay abreast and
apply all new technologies).

Finally I would like to conclude the chapter summary by giving concluding

information that is HR management is the responsibility of every manager ̶
not just those in the HR department. HR is a strategic partner in the strategy
development process. It works with other top managers to formulate the
company’s strategy as well as to execute it.

Question-1

What do you think is causing some of the problems in the bank’s home office
and branches?

Answer:

Some of the problems that I identified were the part of the responsibilities
listed in the text as the line supervisors’ responsibilities for effective human
resource management. The employee that Jack Nelson questioned clearly
had not been orientated correctly when she started her employment; she
obliviously did not receive proper training for the machine she was operating.
The high turnover of personnel could have been caused by the lack of
personal development. People move from one job to the next more easily
when they feel they are not valued by the company which causes a lack
confidence in their job performance. Each branch supervisor is allowed to
hire personnel without communicating with the home office which probably
leads to a lack of consistency interpreting the company’s policies and
procedures. The branch supervisors were probably able to carry out hiring
and orientation of employees; but as the organization grew they now need
the assistance, specialized knowledge, and advice of a separate human
resource staff.

Question-2

Do you think setting up a HR unit in the main office would help?

Answer:

Yes, setting up a HR unit at the main office would allow the branch supervisor
to spend less time selecting and training new employees. The employees
that the HR unit recruited would already be aware of the job they were
expected to perform. HR could also provide ongoing training. Setting up a
HR unit in the main office would clarify the company’s policies and
procedures. The current policies and procedures from the different branches
could be evaluated by the main office HR unit to form guide lines that would
improve all the branches.

Question-3

What specific functions should it carry out? What HR functions would then
be carried out by supervisors and other line managers? What role should the
Internet play in the new HR organization?

Answer:

The HR Unit should carry out the job analyses, planning labor needs and
recruiting, providing advising and training in the selection process,
orientation of new employees, managing wage and salary administration,
managing incentives and benefits, providing and managing the performance
appraisal process, organization-wide communications, and providing
training & developing services. HR functions would then be carried out by
the Supervisors and Other Line Managers are interviewing and selection of
job candidates, training new employees, appraising performance,
departmental & personal communications, and training & development.
Internet should play an important role in the new HR organization and that is
shifting some activities to specialized online service portals and providers.

Case Study-2

Carter Cleaning Company

Chapter-4

Job Analysis

Page: 129

* The case is about the development of job description and the employee
recruitment of a store. The first message of Jennifer was about developing
job descriptions for her store manager. It was not fully enough to convince
her in her basic management & HR management courses. She believes that
job descriptions plays in the smooth functioning for an enterprise. After
passing few weeks of getting employment she found that her store managers
were violating the company policy and procedures that was stated yet. If the
question raises, the answer may either “I don’t know my job” or “Because I
didn’t know that was the way we are supposed to do that”. But normally
Jennifer knew that the policies & procedures and techniques about doing the
job are mentioned. Along with that some sets of standards should be
specified.

Generally it is the responsibility to the store manager for directing all store
activities as well. But definitely it needs a fantastic place where people are
passionate about their job. Here Trilogy’s manger know that the rapid growth
of they seek depends on their staffing function, quick training, given broad
responsibility and freedom of work. Founder and CEO, Liemandt say that “at
a softer company people are everything”. It’s one kind of inspiring
employees. Trilogy always finds out the right people for the right position and
tries to achieve the company’s mission. Recruiters actively peruse the
freshest and experienced people from the job market. Top managers
conduct the first round of interview and after that they will be well rewarded.
Their main motto is that “a typical day might begin with grueling interviews
but end with mountain biking”.

* An organization consists of jobs that have to be staffed. Job analysis is the

procedures of finding out ̶ (1) what the job entails that is job description and
(2) what kind of people to hire for the job that is job specification. It involves
six steps:

(1) Determine the uses of the job analysis information, (2) collect background
information, (3) select the position to be analyzed, (4) collect job analysis
data, (5) review information with participants, and (6) develop a job
description and job specification.

At first we have to know about the Recruitment in brief. Recruitment is the

organizational activities that provide a pool of applicants for the purpose of
filling job openings. It is a process of searching for prospective employees.
There are some factors for governing Recruitment. These factors are
classified by two types. One is internal and another one is external factor.

Internal factors include-

* Recruitment policy of the organization

* Size of the organization & number of employees employed

* Cost involved in Recruitment and

* Growth & Expansion plans of the organization

External factors include-

* Supply and demand of specific skills in the market

* Political & legal considerations such as reservations of job for reserved

categories

* Company’s image perception by the job seekers.

After completing the job analysis, then comes the recruitment selection
procedure. Job analysis defines the duties and human requirement of the
company’s job. The next step is to recruit and select employees.
Recruitment selection procedures are as follows-

Before going to the recruitment steps we have to know about the personnel
planning and forecasting. That means deciding what position a firm will have
to fill and how to fill them.

There are some techniques used in personnel planning and forecasting.

They are- trend analysis (study of firms past employment needs), ratio
analysis (determining the future staff needs by using the ratio between the
two variable) and scatter plot (graphical method).

There are three types of forecasting system and that are- forecasting the
supply of inside candidates, forecasting the supply of outside candidates and
forecasting the supply of internet based candidates.

With personnel needs projected the next step is to build a pool of qualified
applicants. There are several sources of candidates both internal and
external sources.

Internal sources of candidates:

* Present employees

* Promotions within the organization

* Employee referrals

* Walk-ins

* Job posting

* Rehiring

External sources of candidates:

* Unsolicited applicants

* Educational institution

* Professional institution

* Private employment agency

* Employee referrals

* Help wanted advertising

* Internet

* Applicants service provider (ASP)

* Advertising

* Media

* Add agency

* Employment ad and image

We have to remember one thing that it is unlawful to discriminate against any

individual with respect to employment because of race, color, religion, sex,
national origin, or age. Finally I would like to conclude that the initial selection
screening in most organizations begins with an application form. Most
managers use these just to obtain background data.

Question: 1

Identify some of the established recruiting techniques that underlie Trilogy’s

unconventional approach to attracting talent?

Answer:

There are some established recruiting techniques that inspire Trilogy’s

unconventional approach to attracting talent. Trilogy actively recruits
potential employees early in the hiring cycle. Their techniques include-

a. Reviewing resumes (over 15,000 in one year).

b. Attending job and career fairs.

c. Conducting on campus interviews (over 4,000 in one year).

d. Flying in prospects for interviews.

e. And having more personalized procedures for handling top recruits.

Question: 2

What particular elements of Trilogy’s cultures most likely appeal to the kind
of employees it seeks? How does it convey those elements to job prospects?

Answer:

There are many types of particular elements of Trilogy’s cultures that are
most likely appeal to the prospective candidates. Here is a fantastic working
environment where people who are passionate about what they do can
thrive. The causes of the rapid growth of seeking employees are working
environment, quick training activities, given broad responsibilities and give
them freedom in doing their job.

These elements convey those elements to job prospects and that are shown
on below-

* As the working environment is fantastic for the employees, they can easily
do their job with full satisfaction.

* As the employees get freedom, they do their job with their own and they
will be very productive for that company.

As they are given the broad responsibility, they think that they are getting
priority from the top level and at the same time they dedicate their working
time effectively

Question: 3

Would Trilogy be an appealing employer for you? Why or why not? If not,
what would it take for you to accept a job offer from Trilogy?

Answer:

Yes, Trilogy would be an appealing employer for me. The reasons are given
as below-

* He always makes findings the right person for the right position.

* He always focuses on the staff functioning

* He makes the fantastic environment for the employee that they can easily
perform their best effort

* He always try to do advocacy in favor of the employee convey

* His recruiting policy is very fair to all of the employee

* He always try to focus on the employee’s quality during the time of inspiring

Question: 4

What suggestions would you make to Trilogy for improving its recruiting
processes?

Answer:

The recruiting process of Trilogy is very nice and effective for all prospective
applicants. Here I would like to add one thing that will help Trilogy for
improving its recruiting process. If the company training policy were unbound
for the employees it would be very much helpful for that company and the
employee would try to be more productive

Case Study-3

Finding People Who Are Passionate About What They Do

Chapter: 5

Personnel Planning and Recruiting

Page: 169

* Trilogy Enterprise Inc. situated in Austin, Texas, is a fast-growing software

company, which provides software solutions to giant global firms for
improving sales and performance. This company maintains a unique and
unusual culture, like- there is no dress code, employees make their own
hours, the company sponsors events and trips for the employees etc. But
the employees have high responsibilities and have to work with “just do it
now” attitude. New employees are given few weeks of training in Trilogy
University which is more like a boot camp than business school. Trilogy likes
to recruit freshest, least experienced, people in job market, scouring college
career fair and computer science departments for talented over achievers.
Top managers take the first round of interviews and let the prospect know
that they will be pushed to achieve but will be well rewarded. Top recruits
and significant others are taken to fly in to Austin for standard three day
preliminary visit. A typical day might start with tough interviews but end with
mountain biking, roller blading or laser tag. In a year Trilogy reviewed 15000
resumes, conducted 4000 on- campus interviews, flew 850 prospects in for
interviews, and hired 262 college graduates. The cost was $13000 per hire,
but the company believes that it was worth every penny.

* This chapter focuses on personnel planning and forecasting, recruiting job

candidates, developing and using application forms. After job analysis the
next step is the recruitment and selection process. This process includes
personnel planning and forecasting, recruiting job candidates using
application forms, using selection tools and taking interviews to choose final
candidates.

A personnel planning is the process of deciding what positions the firm will
have to fill and how to fill them. The management builds employment on
basic forecasts. The forecast is done on three things-- personnel needs, the
supply of inside candidates and the supply of outside candidates. In
forecasting personnel needs, managers use some techniques, like- Trend
analysis, Ratio analysis, Scatter plot etc. to know about the employee’s
needs. For forecasting the supply of inside candidates, the managers need
to determine which current employees might be qualified for the projected
openings. For this they need to know current employees skills sets—their
current qualification. So, to do these managers use some tools, like—
qualifications inventories, personnel replacement charts, position
replacement card etc. Managers start forecasting the supply of outside
candidates if there is not enough inside candidates to fill the anticipated
opening.

After personnel planning and forecasting, the next step is recruiting

employees. Employee recruiting means finding and attracting applicants for
the employer’s open position. Recruiting can be done from both internal
(rehiring, job posting, giving promotion etc.) and external (advertising,
employment agencies, college recruiting, internet etc.) sources.
After recruitment the initial selection screening begins with an application
form. Application form is a form that provides information on education, prior
work record, and skills. Most managers use these just to obtain background
data. Application forms can also be used to make predictions about the
applicant’s future performance.

Question- 1:

Identify some of the established recruiting techniques that underlie Trilogy’s

unconventional approach to attracting talent.

Answer:

Employee recruiting means finding and attracting applicants for the

employer’s open position.

Recruitment process has great importance in every organization for finding

the best employee for the open position. Trilogy actively recruits potential
employees early in the hiring cycle.

Their techniques include—

-Reviewing resumes (reviewed over 15000 resumes in a year),

-Attending job and career fairs,

-Conducting on campus interviews (over 4,000),

-Flying in prospects for interviews, and

-Having more personalized procedures for handling top recruits.

1. Reviewing resumes

Every year Trilogy reviews thousands of resumes. In a year Trilogy reviewed

15000 resumes. Because there are lot of choices to select from Trilogy
becomes more selective to pick the best from the pool of candidates. But
one of the disadvantages of this step is that, the company need to spend a
lot for maintaining the large pool of candidates.

2. Attending job and career fairs

Trilogy attends job and career fairs to attract large pool of candidates. They
go to different college career fairs to attract fresh talented college graduates
to their company.

3. Conducting on campus interviews

For conducting campus interviews, the employers send a representative to

college campuses to prescreen applicants and creating an applicant pool
from the graduating class. The company recruitment has two main goals.
One is to determine if the candidate is worthy of future consideration and the
other aim is to attract good candidates. The problem is that on-campus
recruiting is expensive and time consuming if done right. In a year, Trilogy
conducted 4000 on-campus interviews.

4. Having more personalized procedures for handling top recruits

Trilogy arranges special arrangements for the top recruits. Top recruits and
significant others are taken to fly in to Austin for standard three day
preliminary visit. A typical day might start with tough interviews but end with
mountain biking, roller blading or laser tag.

Question-2:

What particular Elements of Trilogy’s culture most likely appeal to the kind of
employees it seeks? How does it convey those elements to job prospects?

Answer:

Trilogy tries to seek freshest, least experienced people in job market who are
talented, ambitious and have entrepreneurial instincts. For appealing these
employees, Trilogy maintains a unique and unusual culture; like- the
company sponsors events and trips for the employees etc.

* No dress code

* No regular work schedule

* Self-directed scheduling

* Company sponsors events and trips for the employees etc.

Many of its approaches to business practices are unusual, but in trilogy’s fast
changing and highly competitive environment they seem to work. Trilogy
gives their employees full freedom. But when it comes to work, the company
believe in “just do it now” attitude. No matter how the employees spend their
time in the office, they finish their work in time.

Question- 3:

Would Trilogy be an appealing employer for you? Why or why not? If not,
what would it take for you to accept a job offer from Trilogy?

Answer:

Yes, Trilogy is indeed an appealing employer for me.

Because, it believes that the people are everything. In trilogy- I can have full
freedom to work, can make my own hours, can spend time to socialize with
people, can go to trips, and a lot.

Question- 4:

What suggestions would you make to Trilogy for improving its recruiting
process?

Answer:

I have some several suggestions for Trilogy to improve their recruiting

process. It seems that trilogy is only interested in recruiting new and fresh
employees, which can cost bad effect to Trilogy’s business condition. New
employees don’t have any experience and they need a lot of training. And
when it comes to training, the company needs to pay a huge amount for it.
But if the company uses experienced employees, the cost may become
less.On the other hand, if the company uses internal recruiting sources, like-
rehiring, job posting, giving promotion and external sources, like- advertising,
employment agencies and internet; they can reduce their recruiting cost and
can have a large pool of candidates to choose from.

Case study-4

Where’s my Czar?
Chapter-4

Job Analysis

Page: 129

* Few years ago, president bush’s white house team made what would seem
to a questionable hiring decision and it was not clear how much screening
they did. White house recommended Nebraska business executive Tony
Raimondo to be the manufacturing czar. But Mr. Raimondo had to withdraw
his name from the consideration because of blistering up criticism from
democratic nominee, John Kerry.

The manufacturing czar was supposed to develop strategy for beefing up

U.S. manufacturing capacity and creating more manufacturing job in the U.S.
but Mr. Raimondo ran a Nebraska manufacturing business in china. Senator
Kerry said that Mr. Raimondo seemed liked the ideal person to champion
keeping the jobs in the United States. The administration said that
Raimondo’s withdrawal was a political issue. For white house team is known
for hard working. Now, Mr. Bush has asked for your advice.

* This chapter focuses on analyzing the job of an employee. Job Analysis is

the procedure for determining the duties and skill requirements of a job and
the kind of person who should be hired for it. Job analysis includes two
things- Job description: A list of jobs duties responsibilities, reporting
relationships, working conditions and supervisory responsibilities-one
product of a job analysis. Job specification: a list of jobs “human
requirements”, that is the requisite education, skills, personality and so on-
another product of a job analysis.

The supervisor or human resource specialist normally collects different types

of information via the job analysis- Work Activities, Human behaviors,
Machines, Tools, Equipment and work aids, Performance standards, Job
context, and Human requirements.

Managers need to use the job analysis information properly. It includes-

* Recruitment and selection: Selection of people to recruit based on job

requirements and human characteristics needed to perform these jobs
* Performance appraisal: Compares employees’ performance with standards
which are derived from job analysis

* Job evaluation / compensation: Here we estimate value of each job and its
appropriate compensation based on job’s required skill, education level,
safety hazard, level of responsibility etc.

* Training requirements: Training requirements based on job and required

skills which are listed in the job description.

Job analysis includes some steps-

* Step 1: Decide how you’ll use the information.

* Step 2: Review relevant background information – organization chart/job

description

* Step 3: Select representative positions.

* Step 4: Actually analyze the job.

* Step 5: Verify the job analysis information.

* Step 6: Develop a job description and job specification.

There are some methods for collecting job analysis information. Those are-
The Interview, Questionnaires, Observation, and Participant Diary.

There is no standard format for writing job description. However most

descriptions contains sections that cover-

* Job identification

* Job summary

* Responsibilities and duties

* Authority of incumbent

* Standards of performance

* Working conditions
* Job specifications

* From Specialized to Enlarged Jobs

* Job enlargement: Assigning workers additional same level activities, thus

increasing the number of activities they perform.

* Job enrichment: Redesigning jobs in a way that increases the opportunities

for the worker to experience feelings of responsibility, achievement, growth,
and recognition.

* Competencies: Demonstrable characteristics of a person that enable

performance of a job.

Question:1

What should this positions job description look like?

Answer:

The job description for this post is to creating more manufacturing jobs in
U.S by developing the strategies to promote manufacturing business, and
enhance their capacity. In short this job refers to a think tank sort of job, to
achieve certain goals.

Question:2

What are the ideal job specifications for the person in this position?

Answer:

Market experienced for more than 10 years in manufacturing sector, should

be Masters in social relations or HR or economics innovative, intellectual,
and a business executive to under economic cycle and its requirement with
an influential status.

Question:3

How should we have gone about recruiting and screening for this position?
What selection tools, specially, would you use?

Answer:
For this position we must have gone in a proper way according to the Human
Resource Management System. We should have recruited the person by
taking the right decision for the right person for this position. Therefore for
this we must run the recruiting process, which includes: Attracting,
Screening, and Selecting qualified people and it must be done purely. The
selection tools I would use for this position are:

* Requesting for an application.

* Carrying out an interview.

* Giving references

Question:4

Where do you think that we went wrong?

Answer:

The HR department of white house hired wrong person for the job, because
conflicts occurred when the bush administration realized that they supposed
to create manufacturing jobs in US not in China or in other countries,
because MR. Raimondo was responsible for losing the job opportunities in
US, which he shifted in China, by outsourcing portion of business.

Case study-5

The Out-of-Control Interview

Chapter-7

Interviewing Candidates

Page: 257

* Maria Fernandez is a bright, popular and well informed mechanical

engineer who graduated with an engineering degree from a renewed
university in June 2003. During forgoing her graduation she applied in many
jobs and attended many job interviews. She thought most of them were
conducted courteously and were reasonably useful in giving both her and
the prospective employer a good impression of where each of them stood on
matters of importance to both of them. Among them she was looking forward
to an interview with great expectation in a firm where she wanted to work
and it was Apex environmental. She had a strong interest in cleaning up the
environment and she believed that its can be the best use of her training and
skills lay in working for a firm like apex, where she can make a successful
career though making the world in a better place.

But her interview was disaster. When she gets into the interviewer room she
faced the panel interview of five members. They throw questions to her.
Those questions were ranged from unnecessarily discourteous to irrelevant
and sexist. After those experiences she thought that later discussion can go
fairly and she became astonished when she got job offer from there.

* Interview: An interview is a procedure designed to obtain information from

a person through oral responses to oral inquiries. Conducting an interview,
managers use several ways in the interview work setting for selection
interviews can be three types-

1. Structure vs. Unstructured interview:

i. Unstructured Interview: In unstructured interview or nondirective

interviews, the manager generally follows no set format.

ii. Structured Interview: In structured interview follows a set of sequence of

questions.

2. Interview Content (Types of Questions): we can classify interviews based

on the content or the types of questions they contain.

i. Situational Interview: Here a series of job related questions is asked that

focused on how the candidates would behave in a given situation.

ii. Behavioral Interviews: In the Behavioral interviews a series of job related

questions is asked that mainly focused on how candidates reacted to actual
situation in the past.

iii. Job related Interview: Here a series of job related question is asked that
focused on relevant past job related behaviors
iv. Stress Interview: In stress interview the interviewer seeks to make the
applicant uncomfortable with occasionally rude questions the aim is
supposedly to spot sensitive applicants and those with low or high stress
tolerance.

3. Administering the Interview: Interview can be administered by many ways.

Those are describing on the bellow-

i. Unstructured sequential Interview: An interview in which each interviewer

focus independent opinion after asking the different questions.

ii. Structure sequential interview: An interview in which the applicant is

interviews sequentially by several persons each rate the applicants or a
slandered form.

iii. Panel Interview: A panel interview also known as a broad interview is

defined as an interview conducted by a team of interviews who together
interview each candidate and then combine their rating into a final panel
score.

iv. Mass Interview: In Mass interview several candidates’ interviews

simultaneously.

Hiring the right people is an essential management job. There are several
factors that can undermine an interview's usefulness, like-First Impressions
(Snap Judgments), Misunderstanding the Job, Candidate-Order (contrast)
Error and Pressure to Hire, Nonverbal Behavior and Impression
Management

For conducting more effective interview we can follow some steps-

1. Structure the Interview

2. Prepare for the interview

1. Establish Rapport

2. Ask Questions

3. Close the interview, and

4. Review the interview

Question- 1

How would you explain the nature of the panel interview Maria had to
endure? Specifically, do you think it reflected a well-thought-out interview
strategy on the part of the firm or carelessness on the part of the firm’s
management? If it was careless, what would you do to improve the interview
process at Apex Environmental?

Answer:

The interview Maria Faced was a panel interview. As it is a panel interview,

there were so many interviewers, who asked Maria several types of
questions. They wanted to see how Maria could stand up under such a lots
of pressure. If we just look at the questions that were asked to them we can
easily see that those questions were irrelevant and sexist. We can define it
also as a stressful interview. Because asking such types of questions were
making Maria so stressful.

In my point of view I would like to say, that interview dos not reflect a well
thought out interviewing strategy. That means it is a careless part of that
firm’s management. Because they were not ready for the interview and they
didn’t have the actual job knowledge.

As I said before that the firm was careless on the part of the firm
management, for this reason I would like to give some necessary things so
that firm can improve their interview process. Those are given on the bellow-

I. Interviewers must have to have training about the job interview.

II. Interviewers have the job knowledge such as what is the post and that is
the responsibility for the job post etc.

III. Interviewers have to set some questions so that they can reduce
irrelevant question.

IV. Questions must be in job related.

Question- 2
Would you take that job offer if you were Maria? If you’re not sure, is there
any additional information that would help you makes your decision, and if
so, what is it?

Answer:

If I were Maria I would took the job. Because though I am a student

engineering, but I also like to clean the area surrounded by me. And doing
this make me feel good. Because when I see the place around me is going
to dirty if makes me worried and bad. I love to see the world in a better place.
That’s why I have the confidence to do that work with a great output.

Question- 2

The job of application engineer for which Maria was applying requires: (a)
excellent technical skills with respect to mechanical engineering; (b) a
commitment to working in the area of pollution control; (c) the ability to deal
well and confidently with customers who have engineering problems; (d) A
willingness to travel worldwide; and (e) a very intelligent and well-balanced
personality. List 10 questions you would ask when interviewing applicants
for the job.

Answer:

The job of applications engineering Maria was applying need excellent

technical skills with respect to mechanical engineering. Here are 10
questions that I would ask when interviewing applicants for the job:

a) What is your basic academic qualification and skills in engineering?

b) Did you work anywhere before applied here?

c) What specialty subject in your engineering?

d) How would you handle when a machine is broken down?

e) Do you have any extra special qualities that can bring any success for our
organization?

f) Can you able to handle lots of work and pressure during the working?
g) Do you have the mentality for working outside of the city?

h) How would you react when your subordinate fails to complete a task?

i) How easily you can make the world in a better place?

j) Do you think this job is useful and important to you?

Case Study-6

Reinventing the Wheel at Apex Door Company

Chapter: 8

Training and Developing Employees

Page: 295

* Jim Delaney is the president of Apex Door, who is facing a problem. His
employees do their works by their own way, no matter how often he tells
them how to do it. The employees of every department- from designing to
processing department make mistakes, which can cost thousands of dollars
to Apex. In Apex training process, none of the job has a training manual and
several have somewhat out-of-date job descriptions. Usually the person
leaving the company trains the new employee during the one or two week
overlap period. But if there is no overlap, the new employee is trained by
other employees. From mechanist to accounting clerks, the training is almost
same for all employees.

* This chapter includes orienting employees, the training process, training

methods, training for special purposes, managerial development and training
techniques, and evaluating the training effort.

Employee orientation is a procedure for providing new employees with basic

background information about the firm. Training begins after the orientation.

Training is the process of teaching new employees the basic skills they need
to perform their jobs. Training process consists of five steps: need analysis,
instructional design, validation, implementation and evaluation.
Every company needs to analyze training need for the new employees and
the current employees. Task analysis is the process of analyzing training
need for the new employees and performance analysis is the process of
analyzing training need for the current employees.

There are various employee training methods, which can be classified under
‘on the job training’ and ‘off the job training. On-the-job training includes-- job
rotation, coaching, special assignments, apprenticeship, lecture method. Off-
the-job training includes-- simulated training, role-playing, case study,
management games etc.

Management and development prepare employees for future jobs by

imparting knowledge, changing attitudes or increasing skills. Managerial on
the job training methods include- job rotation, coaching and action learning.
Basic off-the-job techniques include case studies, management games,
outside seminars, university related programs, role playing, behavior
modeling and in-house development centers.

In evaluating the effectiveness of a training program, there are four

categories of outcomes companies can measure: reaction, learning,
behavior and results. In some cases where training seems to have failed, it
may be because training was not the appropriate solution to the problem.

Ques. 1:

What do you think of Apex training process? Could it help to explain why
employees “do things their way” and if so, how?

Answer:

Training is the process of teaching new employees the basic skills they need
to perform their jobs. The Apex Door does not actually follow any proper
training process. The person assigned to perform training is likely to very low
motivation (a departing employee).

A proper training process or program consists of five steps:

* Need analysis,

* Instructional design,
* Validation,

* Implementation and

* Evaluation.

The reasons for why employees “do things their way” are—

* There is no formal description for the trainer to teach how to the

accomplishing tasks. That is why they teach the new employees in their own
way.

* There is no training documentation for the trainees.

* There are no outcomes measures to determine if the training was

successful.

For the importance of training process we can say that, training improves
one’s capability and performance. As employees are being trained
continuously the company achieves competitive advantage over its rivals.
Training provides motivation for the employees, as they are kept informed
about the work area. This also helps employees to become more efficient.

Ques. 2:

What role should job descriptions play in training at Apex?

Answer:

Job description is a written statement of what the workers actually does, how
he or she does it, and what the jobs working conditions are. Most job
description contains—

* Job identification

* Job summary

* Responsibilities and duties

* Authority of incumbent

* Standards of performance
* Working conditions

* Job specifications.

Job descriptions can play a defined role in training at Apex—

* For job description the new trainee can have the proper knowledge about
the company.

* He/she can know about the duties and responsibilities of the job.

* He/she can understand with whom to consult if he faces any problem

regarding the job.

* Not only the trainee, but also the trainer can define the learning
requirements for new or transitioning employees by understanding the job
description.

So, there won’t be any confusion and the new employee will do the work the
way his/her boss want him/her to do.

Ques. 3:

Explain in detail what you would do to improve the training process at Apex.
Make sure to provide specific suggestions, please.

Answer:

Apex does not actually follow any proper training process . In Apex training
process, none of the job has a training manual and several have somewhat
out-of-date job descriptions. So, to improve the current condition of Apex, I
would take some several steps--

1) Every position would have a formal (written) description

Job description will be must for every position. So that, if any new employee
take place in that position, can have proper information about the job.

2) Training procedures would be documented for each position

For each position, there would be a documented training procedure. So that,
the tariner can have the proper information about the job and can give proper
training to the trainee.

3) Supervisors would be formally accountable for training

There will be a responsible supervisor for giving training to the new

employees. The person leaving the job and the other employees won’t be
responsible for giving training to the employee.

Case study-7

Appraising the Secretaries at Sweetwater U

Chapter-9

Performance Management and Appraisal

Page: 337

* Rob Winchester is a newly appointed vice president for administrative

affairs at Sweetwater State University. The president of the university told
Rob to improve the appraisal system used to evaluate secretarial and clerical
performance at Sweetwater. But the main difficulty was the performance
appraisal which was traditionally tied to salary increases given at the end of
the year. To do this, the administrators used the graphical rating scale, where
most of them where inaccurate. Each administrator rated his/her clerk or
secretary as “excellent.” But the universities current budget is not enough to
fund another annual increase. So, to change the system Rob sent a memo
to all administrators that tells that in future no more than half of the
secretaries could be appraised as excellent, which made the supervisors to
rank their secretaries based on their quality of performance. But the
administrators where afraid that many secretaries may leave the job, and the
secretaries felt that the new system was unfair to them. Rob was confused
weather his decision was right or not, so he consulted with the performance
appraisal experts in the School of Business. Two experts considered the
problem and came with some recommendations. They said that the way to
solve the problem is not to tie the appraisal process with the salary increase.
The salary increase would have to be made on some other basis, so that the
administrators would no longer hesitate to fill rating form honestly. But Rob
was still confused about on what basis the salary increase should be made.

* This chapter focuses on the employee’s carrier and how he/she manages
the career. Carrier is the occupational position a person has had over many
years. After choosing the career a person needs to plan the future of the
carrier, and then he needs to manage it in the right way, after that career
development occurs. Career planning and development is a deliberate
process through which a person becomes aware of personal career- related
attributes and the lifelong series of steps that contribute to a person’s career
fulfillment. The employee, his manager, and his employer- everyone plays
important role in developing an employee’s career. The employees role
includes- accept responsibility for own career; asses own interest, skills, and
values; establish goals and career plans etc. the managers role includes-
providing timely and accurate performance feedback; providing
developmental assignment and support etc. and the employer’s role
includes- communicate mission, policies, and procedures; provide training
and development opportunities, provide career-oriented performance
feedback etc . A person’s career also includes promotion and transfer.
Promotion is advancements to positions of increased responsibilities, and
transfer is reassignments to similar positions in other parts of the firm. In
making promotion decision the employer must decide between seniority and
competence, a formal or informal system, and ways to measure
competence. To enhance diversity through career management some
special preparations should be taken by the employer, like- guarding against
biases and discriminations in promotion decisions. The employer’s career
planning and development process plays an important role in helping
employees develop their career goals and thereby increase their
commitment to the employer. Career development programs and career-
oriented appraisals can facilitate this. After the development of a person’s
career retirement occurs, retirement is the point at which one gives up one’s
work, usually between the age of 60 and 65.With the retirement process a
person’s career comes to an end.

Question- 1
Do you think that the experts' recommendations will be sufficient to get most
of the administrators to fill out the rating forms properly? Why or Why not?
What additional actions (if any) do you think will be necessary?

Answer:

In my opinion the experts’ recommendation will be sufficient to encourage

the administrators to fill the forms out correctly.

The reason is that the administrators only rank their secretary’s because they
think that if they don’t do this the secretaries will leave the job and the
turnover rate will be high. If a more detailed form is used and if the
performance appraisal is not tied with the salary increase the managers
would feel freer about rating the secretaries accurately. The salary increase
can be tied to other things like- job related behavior, punctuality etc.

However some additional actions will necessary here.There would, however,

need to be some strong training sessions for both administrators and
secretaries to help them understand the new system. Since all secretaries
have traditionally received the same salary increases, and have been
pleased with that, it would be advisable to consider lowering the maximum
increase to an amount that could be given to all secretaries while staying
within budget. Then all secretaries with a satisfactory rating or better would
receive that increase.

Question-2

Do you think that Vice President Winchester would be better off dropping
graphic rating forms, substituting instead one of the other techniques we
discussed in this chapter such as a ranking method?

Answer:

In my opinion the Vice President Winchester would be better off dropping

graphic rating forms because this system has some problems.

Limitations of Graphic Rating Scale-

* There is risk of rating errors which result in inaccurate appraisals.

* It has a long standing disadvantage- it may be arbitrary and the rating may
be subjective.

* Each characteristic is equally important in evaluation of the employee's

performance and so on.

Instead of graphic rating scale other methods can be used also, like- ranking
method, Critical incidents method, BARS etc. Mr. Winchester is thinking
about using the Ranking Method, which is ranking employees from best to
worst on a particular trait, choosing highest, then lowest, until all are ranked.
It has some advantage and disadvantages which should be considered.

Advantage-

* The ratings are done on standardized forms.

* It is done to avoid biasness.

Limitations-

* The use of HR experts makes this approach costly and impractical for many
organizations.

* It is very time consuming

Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scale (BARS) might be the best for it. BARS
is an appraisal method that aims at combining the benefits of narrative critical
incidents and quantified ratings by anchoring a quantified scale with special
narrative examples of good and poor performances. An evaluator must
indicate which behavior on each scale best describes an employee's
performance. BARS differ from other rating scales in that scale points are
specifically defined behaviors. It combines the benefits of narratives, critical
incidence, & graphical rating scales.

It has some limitations, like-

* It is very difficult to develop.

* It is also time consuming.

* It is costly.
* Some rating may give errors.

Vice President Winchester needs to decide a method which best suits his
university and its employees.

Question-3

What performance appraisal system would you develop for the secretaries if
you were Rob Winchester? Defend your answer.

Answer:

If I were Rob Winchester I would choose the Behaviorally Anchored Rating

Scale (BARS). If the development costs are not too great, the BARS system
would give the strongest solution to the current situation. As it have some
advantages, like-

* It can produce a accurate measure of job performance

* It a more clear standard

* It is easier to explain the rating to appraise etc.

The behavioral anchors would make it more difficult to just rate everyone at
the top. It would also help to eliminate the different interpretations of what
the rating scales mean.

Case Study-8

The Mentor Relationship Turns Upside Down

Chapter-(10)

Managing Careers

Page: 381

* Walter Lemaire the senior vice president of Larchmont Consulting had been
the boss and mentor of Carol Lee for several years. He had guided her
through the way from writer and editor, to the consultant and eventually
partner of the company. Carol was promoted to take the place of Walter
when he moved on to run a start-up software publishing venture for
Larchmont. But his new venture faltered and the partners gave the
assignment of rescuing the start-up operations to Carol. Carol felt very
discomfort that she has to undo much of the work of Walter. She was unable
to discuss any proposed solution with him as Walter was her boss in the
past.

* This chapter focuses on appraising the performance of the employees after

selecting, training, and developing them. Performance appraisal is basically
evaluating an employee’s current and past performance relative to his/her
performance standard. It involves three things- 1) setting work standard, 2)
assessing the employee’s actual performance relative to those standards, 3)
providing feedback to the employee with the aim of motivating him/her to
eliminate performance deficiencies. Performance management is a process
that consolidates goal setting, performance appraisal, and development into
a single, common system, the aim of which is to ensure that the employee’s
performance is supporting the company’s strategic aims. Performance
management includes practices through which the manager defines the
employee’s goals and work, develops the employee’s capabilities, and
evaluates and rewards the person’s effort. To measure the employees
performance managers use different methodologies, like- graphic rating
scale, alternation ranking method, critical incident method, native forms,
behaviourally anchored rating scales, management by objectives etc. there
are some problems which may occur in the performance appraisal, those
are- unclear standard, halo effect, central tendency, leniency or strictness,
and bias. There are also some solution to these problems, they are- know
the problem, use right tool, train supervisors, control outside influences, and
keep a diary. The performance appraisal can be done by several people,
like- the supervisor, the employee’s peer, rating committees, the
subordinates, and the employee himself. An appraisal typically culminates in
an appraisal interview. Appraisal interview is an interview in which the
supervisor and subordinate review the appraisal and make plans to remedy
deficiencies and reinforce strengths. There for e types of appraisal interview-
satisfactory-promotable, satisfactory-not promotable, unsatisfactory but
correctable, and unsatisfactory and uncorrectable. There are fore things to
keep in mind when actually conducting the interview- 1) talk in terms of
objective work data, 2) Don’t get personal, 3) encourage the person to talk,
and 4) don’t tiptoe around.
Question-1

What is Carol’s role in Walter’s career development now? Should Larchmont

have any such role? Why or why not?

Answer

Although Walter was carols mentor for a long time in the company but now
during to some wrong decision made by Walter on software publishing
venture for Larchmont, the board of directors have assigned carol to rescue
the start-up operation.

Now in case of developing Walter’s career, Carol need to give feedback to

him about his career development. She needs to focus on the mistakes that
Walter has done on the reviewing the history of the new venture, revising the
decision that Walter has made about everything from product design to
marketing, and pricing.

The Larchmont Company should have such roles for developing the
employees’ career, as well as for the expansion of the company. The
reasons can be-

* to have less employee turnover,

* job satisfaction,

* feedback from the job roll,

* Empowerment of the employees’,

* To make the employee more productive,

And moreover for the expansion and the development of the company
Larchmont should have career development plans for their employees.

The roles that Larchmont Company should have are-

* Communicate mission, policies, and procedures

* Provide training and development opportunities

* Provide career-information and career programs

* Offer a variety of career paths

* Provide career-oriented performance feedback

* Provide mentoring opportunities to support growth and self-direction

* Provide employees with individual development plans,

* Provide academic learning assistance programs.

All these roles should be considered by the company to develop the

employees career.

Question-2

What advice would you offer Carol for approaching Walter?

Answer:

As Carol has to take the responsibility of the new software venture on behalf
of Walter and make changes in his work she needs to discuss it with him
thoroughly. Carol will likely feel a debt of gratitude to Walter for his help. I
can advice Carol some role she can play in this situation-

* She can maintain a positive working relationship with Walter.

* She might be able to help Walter process some of his feelings and
frustrations by asking him about difficulties they might encounter in their
working relationship.

* She may wish to ask a general question like, “How do you think you will
respond if I feel I need to undo some of your original decisions?

* Carol has shown skill in the past at helping subordinates get over the initial
awkwardness of the situation by meeting one on one. She can use the
experience here and use those teaching that Walter has thought her in the
past.

Carol may use these advices for approaching to Walter.

Question-3
Assume Carol has heard a rumor that Walter has considered resigning. What
(if anything) should she do about it?

Answer:

Though Walter was not successful in this venture, his position suggests he
has had many other successes in the firm. Most companies would not want
to lose someone with Walter’s experience and expertise. She may wish to
consult with her supervisors and inform them what she has heard and
discuss strategies for retaining Walter. If her personal relationship with him
is strong, she may wish to confront him with the rumor directly, probe his
reasons for leaving and try to identify what it would take to keep Walter and
his expertise with company.

Question-3

If Carol has to dismiss Walter, how specifically would you suggest she
proceed?

Answer:

If carol has to dismiss Walter from the company for his bad performance she
needs to talk to him in a gentle manner as Walter was her boss and mentor
in the past. She has to do this for the sake of the company. She may tell him
that- “It had been my pleasure to work with you for a long time; the company
has made so much prosperity with your help. But I fell very sad to inform you
that the board of directors has decided that your service in the company is
no longer needed at the moment and if the company needs you in the future
we will let you know. We will miss your absence in the company but I think
you will understand it because it’s for the betterment of the company. If the
company needs any help from you in the future we believe we will have you
beside us. Thanks for your service and your loyalty for the company”.

This is how Carol may approach to Walter for his dismiss.

Question-4

Assume Carol has heard a rumor that Walter has considered resigning. What
(if anything) should she do about it?
Answer:

Though Walter was not successful in this venture, his position suggests he
has had many other successes in the firm. Most companies would not want
to lose someone with Walter’s experience and expertise. She may wish to
consult with her supervisors and inform them what she has heard and
discuss strategies for retaining Walter. If her personal relationship with him
is strong, she may wish to confront him with the rumor directly, probe his
reasons for leaving and try to identify what it would take to keep Walter and
his expertise with company.

Case Study-9

Salary Inequities at Acme Manufacturing

Chapter- 11

Establishing Strategic Pay Plans

Page: 421

* After the demise of founder Bill George, Joe Black became the new
president of Acme Manufacturing. The company had approximately 250
employees and was the largest employer in the community. Joe Black never
worked for the company before being president. However, he had an MBA
and law degree, and had worked as a senior vice president in a large
manufacturing company.

After joining Acme, Black noticed that there was considerable inequity in the
pay structure of salaried employees. An examination of the salaried payroll
showed that there were 25 employees ranging in pay with great variance.
Hourly paid factory employees did not have this problem as their payment
was set by collective bargaining. The examination showed that female
supervisors were paid less than many male supervisors. The female HRM
director said she thought the female supervision maybe have been paid less
mainly because they were women. So, Black decided to hire a compensation
consultant and a modified ranking method of job evaluation was used. The
result showed that the HR director and three female supervisors were being
underpaid. Black became worried because if these female supervisors took
the case to the local EEOC office, the company would be found guilty of sex
discrimination and could be given a fine with considerable large amount of
back pay. Black was then informed that the female supervisors never
complained about pay difference. The HR director agreed to take salary
increase with no back pay. Therefore, to solve the rest of the problems, Black
was left with four choices-

1. To do nothing

2. To gradually increase the female supervisors’ salaries.

3. To increase their salary immediately.

4. To call the three supervisors into his office, discuss the situation with them,
and jointly decide what to do.

* There are two bases on which to pay employee compensation- increments

of time and volume of production. The former includes hourly or daily wages
and salaries. Basing pay on volume of production ties compensation directly
to the amount of product ( or number or “pieces”) the worker generates.

Establishing pay rates involves five steps:

Conduct salary surveys- A survey aimed at determining prevailing wage

rates. A good salary survey provides specific wages rates for specific jobs.
Formal written questionnaire surveys are the most comprehensive, but
telephone surveys and newspaper ads are also sources of information.

Job evaluation- A systematic comparison done in order to determine the

worth of one job relative to another.

Develop pay grades- A pay grade is comprise of jobs of approximately equal

difficulty or importance as established by job evaluation. A committee will
group similar jobs into grades for play purposes.

Use wage curves- wage curve shows the relationship between the value of
the job and the average wage paid for this job.

Fine tune pay rates- pay ranges is a series of steps or levels within a pay
grade, usually based upon years of service.
Job evaluation determines the relative worth of a job. It compares jobs to one
anther based on their content, which is usually defined in terms of
compensable factors like skills, effort, responsibility and working conditions.
The five-step ranking method of job evaluation is simple to use, but there is
a tendency to rely too heavily on estimates. The classification (or grading)
method is a second qualitative approach that categorizes jobs based on a
class description or classification rules for each class.

Quantitative method include the pint method, which required indentifying a

number of compensable factors and then determining the degree to which
each of these factors is present in the job. The factor comparison method
entails deciding which jogs have more of certain compensable factors than
others.

Most of managers group similar jobs into wage or pay grades for pay
purposes. These are comprised of jobs of approximately equal difficulty or
importance as determined by job evaluation.

Developing a compensation plan for executive, managerial and professional

personnel is complicated by the fact that factors like performance and
creativity must take precedence over static factors like working confections.
Market rates, performance, and incentives and benefits thus play a much
greater role than does job evaluation for these employees.

Competence, knowledge, or skill based pay means paying for employee’s

range, depth and types of skills and knowledge, rather than for the job title
he or she holds. Competencies are defined as ‘demonstrable characteristics
of the person, including knowledge, skills, and behaviors that enable
performance.’

Three reasons for considering a competency based pay plan are listed- First,
traditional pay plans may actually backfire if a higher performance work
system is our goal. Second, paying for skills, knowledge, and competencies
is more strategic. Third, measurable skills, knowledge, and competencies
are the heart of any company’s performance management process.

Other trends in compensation include broad banding, strategic

compensation and adjustments for comparable worth.
Questions:

Black had five choices for this problem-

I. To do nothing

II. To gradually increase the female supervisors’ salaries.

III. To increase their salary immediately.

IV. To call the three supervisors into his office, discuss the situation with
them, and jointly decide what to do.

1. What would you do if you were Black?

Ans. It’s more normal to choose first option if Black is only concerned about
his own career and intends moving somewhere else shortly and hopes
nothing happens till it ceases to be his problem. This is the normal
management tactic.

I would have preferred to choose second option if I were Black. This is more
logical and appropriate. Black could increase the salary little by little by giving
them small projects and as a result for accomplishing them. This way,
employees would be motivated to keep on doing better and slowly Black
could increase their salary to the level they deserve. If they are promoted as
a result to the success of completing projects efficiently, this would not let
arise suspicion in between other workers or the supervisors themselves.

Third option is financially unaffordable and would create an immediate

backlash from the male supervisors. So, given the women haven't yet
complained they may well see that the company is good to work for as it is
prepared to do something without being asked or threatened.

Last option, I think is a bad idea as that meeting could well get out of hand if
he just tells people they aren't being properly paid and what would they like
to do. Without a definite course of action in mind they could well get
increasingly angry and unreasonable. And also they might take advantage
of the situation and might demand unfair conditions to complete the gap.

2. How do you think the company got into a situation like this in the first
place?
Ans. The company got into this situation because of not following the correct
path of pay rates, negligence in job evaluation, ignoring Equal Pay Act,
undermining female employees, etc.

Establishing pay rates could be done by following these steps.

1) Conduct a salary survey of what other employers are paying for

comparable jobs (to help ensure external equity)

2) Determine the worth of each job in the organization through job evaluation.
(to ensure internal equity).

Job evaluation is a systematic comparison done in order to determine the

worth of one job relative to another. Job evaluation can be done in the
following methods.

Compensable factor- a fundamental, compensable element of a job, such as

skills, effort, responsibility and working conditions.

Ranking method- the simplest method of job evaluation that involves ranking
each job relative to all other jobs, usually based on overall difficulty.

Point method- the job evaluation method in which a number of compensable

factors are identified and then the degree to which each of these factors is
present on the job is determined.

Factor comparison method- a widely used method of ranking jobs according

to a variety of skill and difficulty factors, then adding up these rankings to
arrive at an overall numerical rating for each given job.

3) Group similar jobs into pay grades.

4) Price each pay grade by using wave curves.

5) Fine-tune pay rates.

Equal pay act is an amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act designed to
require equal pay for women doing the same work as men. Previous
president of Acme Manufacturing ignored this Act and assumed that since
the female employees had working husband, they would not need same
amount of salary as their male colleagues.
3. Why would you suggest Black pursue the alternative you suggested?

Ans. Change with time and environment is essential. Ethical practice is must
in the business to boost the business through motivating employees, we all
learn from trial & errors, not taking decision on time can be disastrous for
future of any business. Only following fair rights can the organization grow
and make profit. If Black ignores the problem he might even end up having
warning from the Government for ignoring law and ethics. This is not
beneficial for business. Therefore, Black must be careful and pursue the
alternative which will be good for his company’s wellbeing.

Case Study-10

“Boss, I Think We Have a Problem”

Chapter- 17

Managing Global Human Resources

Page: 693

* Central Steel Door Corporation has been successfully selling line of steel
industrial-grade doors and hardware fitting required for them for about 20
years. The company had been gradually making expansion by following the
basic expansion strategy: Choose an area, open a distribution center, hire a
regional sales manager, then let that regional sales manager help staff the
distribution center and hire local sales representative. In 2002, Mel Fisher,
president of Central Steel Door, decided to expand his company into Europe.
However, the expansion plan didn’t work smoothly here. Even after
advertising in the ‘International Herald Tribune’ for three weeks Fisher
received just 5 candidates. Other aspects of his international HR activities
have been equally problematic. Fisher send two of his U.S. sales manger to
Europe temporarily to run the operations there. He did not however, took
care of the living expense of those employees in the foreign country. Later
he was informed that the sales manager owed thousands of dollars in local
taxes. Also, without full-time local European sales manager, the level of sales
were very low. When Fisher tried to fire half of the distribution center
employees, he came to know that without any written employment
agreement no one could be fired without at least one year’s notice.
* International business is important to almost every business today, and so
firms must increasingly be managed globally. This presents managers with
many new challenges, including coordinating production, sales and financial
operations on a world wide basis. As a result, companies today have
pressing international HR needs with respect to selection, training, paying
and repatriating global employees.

Inter country differences affect a company’s HR management processes.

Cultural factors suggest differences in values, attitudes, and therefore
behaviors and reactions of people from country to country. Economic and
labor costs factors help determine local compensation issues. Industrial
relations and specifically the relationship between the worker, the union, and
the employer influence the nature of a company’s specific HR policies from
country to country.

Countries differ in culture, legal/political systems, and economies, and so HR

practices tend to differ from country to country. For example, “ to determine
pay” is one of the top reasons for appraising performance in Taiwan, the
United States and Canada but not in Mexico. Similarly, training expenditures
for employees range from $241 per employee in Asia to $724 in the United
States. In the People’s Republic of China, pay incentives play a relatively
important role, compared with U.S pay packages.

Research shows that employers engage in three ‘best practices’ to help

make their global HR systems acceptable to their local managers around the
world. These are: Remember that global systems are accepted in truly global
organizations;

investigate pressures to differentiate and determine their legitimacy;

and try to work within the context of a strong corporate culture. To develop
effective worldwide HR systems: form global HR networks; remember that
it’s more important to standardize ends and competencies than specific
methods; remember, “you can’t communicate enough”, and, dedicate
adequate resources for the global HR effort.

A large percentage of expatriate assignments fail, but the average can be

improved through careful selection. There are various sources HR can use
to staff domestic and foreign subsidiaries. Often managerial positions are
filled by locals rather than expatriates, but this is not always the case.

Selecting managers for expatriate assignments means screening them for

traits that predict success in adapting to dramatically new environments.
Such traits include motivation, relational skills, extra cultural openness, and
family situation. Adaptability screening focusing on the family’s probable
success in handling the foreign assignment can be an especially important
step in the selection process.

Training for overseas managers typically focuses on cultural differences, on

how attitudes influence behavior, and on factual knowledge about the target
country. The most common approach to formulating expatriate pay is to
equalize purchasing power across countries, a technique known as the
balance sheet approach. The employer estimates expenses for income
taxes, housing, goods and services and discretionary costs, and pays
supplements to the expatriate in such a way as to maintain the same
standard of living he or she would have had at home.

The expatriate appraisal process can be complicated by the need to have

both local and home-office supervisors provide input into the performance
review. Suggestions for improving the process include stipulation difficulty
level, weighing the on-site manager’s appraisal more heavily, and having the
home site manager get background advice from managers familiar with the
location abroad before completing the expatriate appraisal.

Repatriation problems are common but you can minimize them. They include
the often well-founded fear that the expatriate is “out of sight, out of mind”,
and difficulties in reassimilating the expatriate’s family back into the home-
country culture. Suggestions for avoiding these problems include using
repatriation agreements, assigning a sponsor. Offering career counseling,
keeping the expatriate plugged in to home-office business and offering
reorientation programs to expatriate and his or her family.

Questions:

1. Based on this chapter and the case incident, compile a list of 10

international HR mistakes Mr. Fisher has made so far.
Ans: The international HR mistakes that Mr. Fisher has done are –

I. Recruitment- Mr. Fisher had only gave advertisement in one newspaper

which is read only by the business people and American expatriates living
and working in Europe. He should’ve used various other kind of campaign to
let more people know about the company and that they are open for hiring.

II. He didn’t provide adequate resources in the global branch office.

III. Compensating expatriates- he didn’t provide enough benefits for the

employees working abroad to live their life appropriately. He didn’t look at
the requirements that that employee would’ve needed to be taken care of.

IV. He didn’t keep enough communication with his employees abroad.

Therefore he was not aware of many problems till the end, when already the
matter got serious.

V. He didn’t look carefully at the local rules and regulations while hiring an
employee. Example, European law demands that the employees should be
given notice a year before firing.

VI. He didn’t conduct adaptability screening on the employees to be sent into

foreign countries.

VII. In his global office, performance appraisal was not conducted. Therefore,
there was no way to understand the employee performance on the job,
demand from the job and expectations.

VIII. There was no training and development process. After hiring local
managers, they were not given proper training on their job.

IX. Mr. Fisher didn’t keenly observe the pros and cons of his business when
he tried to expand it in a foreign country.

X. Selection mistake. The selection process was not carefully done and
unqualified people were employed for the job.

2. How would you have gone about hiring a European sales manager? Why?

Ans:
a. Identify the need to hire, determine job responsibilities, determine
candidate selection criteria, and create the job description.

b. Determine the method(s) for advertising the position and recruiting

candidates. It may be print ad in a national journal in addition to electronic
ads.

c. Advertise the position.

d. Review applications received.

e. Select candidates to interview (i.e., the “short list”).

f. Schedule interviews.

g. Interview candidates.

h. Select final candidate.

i. Check references.

j. Negotiate terms of employment (i.e., salary, start date).

3. What would you do now if you were Mr. Fisher?

Ans: First, I would go on a detail discussion with the temporary sales

manager and try to know company’s position. Then I would send more
employees from my company on temporary basis so that they can help
others. I would immediately file notices to those who need to be fired and
also talk to an expert in local laws and regulations about employee rights.
The existing employees would be given a performance appraisal. And those
who are suitable will be given proper training about the job. Meanwhile, will
try to solve the case of money owed by my employee to the foreign
government.

Conclusion

After reviewing all these case study we have found some important
information about the human Resources Management practices in the
organization. During doing this case study we have found how the
organization made mistakes in conducting the interview process, importance
of human resources management in the organization, job analysis,
personnel planning and recruiting is conducting, how the interview is
conducting , how the training is given to the employees, how their
performance is evaluated, the distribute compensation among the
employees, how the organization manage global human resources etc.