People-Management Fiasco at

HMSI

Presented By: Group 8

J. Satheesh Kannan(23NMP 40)
Naveen Kumar (23NMP 42)
Saugata S. Sarkar(23NMP 44)
Tanweer Alam(23NMP 47)
Q11. NEW IR ISSUES THAT HMSI MUST FOCUS ON SO AS
TO PURSUE IT’S PEOPLE MANAGEMENT STRATEGY IN
POST JULY’2005 SCENERIO.

 Building of trust, transparency and fairness in

organizational working.
 Enhance employees commitment to the organization.
 Creating sense of belongingness among employees.
 Creating a transparent, effective & fast grievance redressal
system.
 Providing platform to employees to express their views,
suggestions & job related issues.
 Sensitizing of Managers towards IR issues.
Q12. PRINCIPAL CAUSES OF TROUBLE HMSI FACED

 Workers felt a sense of betrayal on comparing themselves

with their neighbouring company Hero Honda.
 Wide gulf between its projected HR policies and actual
practices.
 Due to cross cultural differences Japanese Management
did not understand Indian Worker’s psyche.
 Reluctance of HMSI management for formation of union.
 Q13. Key Challenges Post July 25 Scenerio

 Creating congenial atmosphere between management &

employees & promote interpersonal sensitivities.
 Building of trust, transparency and fairness in
organizational working.
 Upgrade skills of employees by identifying their training
needs.
 Promote open channel of communication to build trust &
commitment, & allay the fear from the mind of workers.
 Train managers to transform them into enablers,
empowerers & facilitators rather than enforcers of rules &
regulations.
 Q14. HRM Strategy followed at HMSI & Reason for
differences from it’s global HR strategy
HMSI:
Hard HRM Strategy followed at HMSI:-
 Views employee as an commodity/resource to be used/deployed for
production

Honda Global:
Global HR strategy of Honda is Soft HRM:-
emphasizes on employee being “resourceful (as against just being a
resource) and a major source of competitive advantage .
 Employees called as Associates
Honda Global HR philosophy consists of two fundamental beliefs:
1.Respect for the individual
2.Three joys- joy of buying, joy of selling and joy of manufacturing
Difference in pursuit of Global and local strategy : may be due to cross
cultural misunderstanding of Indian workers’ psyche by Japanese top
mgmt.
 Q15. Failure of Strategy and causal roots of
breakdown of IR in HMSI
 Management wanted to pursue a non union model but failed to
devise and implement an appropriate HRM strategy.
 Wide gulf between its projected HR policies and actual practices.
 Cross cultural differences along with highhandedness of Japanese
top management complicated situation more.
 Workers noticed a high incentive difference between HMSI and Hero
Honda which led to heartburn among workers.
 Managers conducted themselves like autocrats and abused their
authority which aggravated the situation more.
 Non availability of suitable grievance readressal forum led to piling
of grievances.
 Management caught unawares when accumulated grievances made
workers hostile and they tried to form a union which was also
vehemently opposed by mgmt.
 Lack of transparency and trust
Q16. People management strategy that HMSI
should adopt to come out as market leader in two
wheeler segments.

HMSI should adopt Empowerment /Soft HR strategy to

promote harmonious working and cooperation with employees:
 Keep employees informed about business issues and performance.
 Encourage employees to contribute ideas and involve them in
decision making.
 Give employees autonomy and meaningful work experiences.
 Make them feel valued and personally recognized.
 Create an atmosphere of trust, transparency and fairness in
organizational working.
 Introduce PRP related incentive scheme to encourage superior
performance from the employees and reduce the idle time.
 Q17. Lessons from the case

 Not to neglect the slightest sign of discontentment among

employees & address their grievances on priority.
 Understand cross cultural differences of foreign country
& modify it’s HR policies accordingly.
 Management to follow a proactive welfare measures
commensurate with the existing standards in the
industry.
 Training needs of employees and managers should be
identified and appropriate measures to be taken to
address the same.
 Treat the employees as treasure & not as commodities.