DHR06
INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Assignment – I
Assignment Code: 2014DHR06A1 Last Date of Submission: 15th
May 2014
Maximum Marks: 100
Section – A (Each question is of 25 marks)
1. In addition to having good technical skills, what other
skills should an expatriate have in order to
be successful in an international assignment?
2. What types of information should be included in a cross‐cultural
training for expatriates? Should
spouses and family members be included in the training?
Section – B Case Study (50 Marks)
Bubbly and still in Dubai
The salary landscape of Dubai’s expatriate workforce display
stark contrasts. When Gulf News
recently conducted a sport survey, they ranged from Dh6, 000
to over Dh1 million a year. In
Dubai, the cost of living bugbear has become an irritant
making expatriates fidgety.
With the city witnessing record growth on all fronts, pay
packages for top company directors,
especially in the financial services industry, are soaring
higher and higher. According to Hassan
Yousaf, a manager at Bayt.com, a leading recruitment
consultancy, a chief executive or a
managing director at an investment back can take home an
annual salary anywhere between
Dh 917,500 ($250,000) to Dh 1.83 million ($500,000). Add to
that a handsome year‐end bonus
and a package of performance‐attached stock options, which are
often, thrown in and you have
young expatriates roaring around town in sportscars and SUVs
and living it up around the city’s
nightlife.
At the other end of the spectrum, there are thousands of
expatriates like Sanjay, a 25 year‐old
single man from India who washes clothes for a laundry
company and ekes out a living on
Dh500 a month. Riding his bicycle, he also collects and
delivers washing to customers. On top
of his salary, he is given free food and lodging in a villa
shared by scores of washers. He is not
sure how much the company spends on the food and rent. Yet,
he says by living a tightly
restricted lifestyle he saves almost the entire Dh500.
Of course, there is a broad arc of stories in between the
two extremes, and these mostly point
the same way.
In these days of construction boom, a project director earn
about Dh45,000 to Dh50,000 a
month. Middle‐level managers in multinationals
and big national companies earn Dh 15,000 to
Dh 25,000 a month. But for well‐paid
executives, Dubai’s rising prices and soaring rents are
beginning to take chunks out of the good life. Stanley
Fernandes, 41, from India, works as an
accountant and purchase officer at a private firm in Dubai.
He makes about Dh 9,000 a month
and lives with his wife and child. Inflation in Dubai, he
says, is a major source of worry. “It’s
getting tighter by the day,” he says. Rent and petrol are
Stanleys major expenses, and they are
going up every year. He has had to cut down on holidays and
unnecessary expenses. But he
takes the situation in his stride, saying one has to either
“shape up or ship out”, that is, adjust
to the changing circumstances or go to either “shape up or
ship out”, that is, adjust to the
changing circumstances or go back home.
According to Bayt.com a person educated abroad and with
about one to two years of
experience in the banking sector could earn Dh4,000 to
Dh5,000; the going rate for
receptionists in private firms is about the same; personal
assistants, with considerable
experience and fluency in both English and Arabic can
command a salary of Dh 12,000 to Dh
15,000. Salaries of teachers very, with the nationality
factor very prominent. On the other
hand, there is Naafi Azzawi, a 26 – year old Syrian bachelor
who works as a coordinator
manager for a car services company and earns a monthly
salary of Dh 7,000. He has been living
in Dubai for six years. Five years ago, when he started out
as a sales representative, he was
earning Dh 3,500. He has seen how living expenses have
spiraled and his savings have dropped
to almost zero.
But for someone who has recently arrived in Dubai to work as
a medical secretary at a private
hospital, a salary of Dh 7,000 evokes a mixed feeling.
Mayssa Orfali, a 28 year old single woman
from Saudi Arabia, working as a medical secretary at a
private hospital, takes home Dh5,000 a
month. She is relieved that the company deducts just Dh2,000
towards accommodation and
transportation. She has heard stories of how rents have been
rising and how difficult it is to get
proper accommodation.
Mukhtar Hussain, a 28 year –old Pakistani security guard at
Deira City Centre, lives on a
monthly salary of Dh 2,800. He has been working in Dubai for
four years. Like Sanjay, his
company provides free accommodation but not food, and he
complains that everyday life food,
transportation is getting more expensive. He does not go out
to eat or watch movies as often
as he used to.
Case Questions:
a. Discuss the approach to compensation followed.
b. What factors have accounted for the differential
packages?
c. Despite the picture stated in the case, why are Indians
still lured to employment in the
Gulf?
DHR06
INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Assignment – II
Assignment Code: 2014DHR06A2 Last Date of Submission: 15th
May 2014
Maximum Marks: 100
Section – A (Each question is of 25 marks)
1. You are the president of a small business. What are some
of the ways you expect “going
international” will require changes in HR activities in your
business?
2. Write Short notes on any two of the following:
a) Approaches to International Staffing
b) Problems and issues in appraising international employee
c) Approaches to International compensation
Section – B Case Study (50 Marks)
Decorative Tiles Ltd.
In early 1989, Mr. L.Tabir, the owner manager of Decorative
Tiles Ltd. of Hyderabad, India, faced the
decision of whether or not to continue export operations.
Over the last 18 months, three of his fie
export orders were rejected because of late delivery. The
two remaining orders were discounted from
the invoiced price by the importer because of irregularities
in the glazing of tiles. It seemed that before
entering the international market, his business transactions
had been much simpler. All decisions used
to be made by him; he did not have to delegate
responsibility to others. Before entering the export
market, total employment at his company amounted to 17; this
had now risen to 51 employees. His
foreign business operations had also forced him to hire a production
and purchase manager to deal with
increased business volumes. His part‐time
accountant was now working full‐time; he was completely
absorbed by the firm’s additional accounts (receivable and
payable). To meet his weekly payroll, it had
been necessary to take out a line of credit at his local
bank. He feared that his company’s sales in the
domestic market might decline; his non‐exporting
competitors had been successful in taking away some
of his local customers.
Company Background
Decorative Tiles was incorporated in Hyderabad in November
1981 as a public limited company. The
firm was set‐up as a factory to make ceramic
tiles with special glazing which gave the tile the image of
high quality. Controlling the quality of the special glazing
process turned out to be a bigger problem for
the company than had originally been anticipated. The firm
planned at some future time to expand its
product line to include other ceramic products such as
sanitary items and tableware.
The company started manufacturing and concentrated
originally on the manufacturing of 8 x 8 ceramic
tiles, which were at that time uncommon in the local market.
The company’s maximum production
capacity was 50,000 square metres per annum.
The company’s authorized capital was Rs.50 million of which
Rs.29.9 million had been subscribed and
paid up. The company had earned a net profit of Rs.9.99
million in 1986, and Rs.5.62 million in 1987. it
anticipated a loss for 1988.
During 1986, 420,111 square metres of tiles were produced,
compared to 480,063 squares metres in
1987. Thus the company had attained 96 percent of production
capacity in its sixth year of operation.
The recent growth in production and sales has come primarily
from export orders. The 1988 ratio
between domestic and foreign sales was one to four. In 1985
the reverse situation existed when 75
percent of the business was domestic and 25 percent was
exported. That year, the factory’s capacity
utilization was 62 percent.
The domestic market perceived tiles as too costly,
particularly because of the `luxury’ image associated
with special glazing. In fact, if the costs were spread over
the full life of building, tiles became highly
competitive with other construction materials. The long life
of ceramics comes form mechanical
strength (in spite of its brightness): its chemical
durability against the deteriorating effects of oxidants
(acids and salts), and its hardness against erosion. An
additional attraction was the fact that the tile lent
itself to decoration in a wide range of colours, textures
and designs. The full appreciation of the tiles’
qualities seemed to be more highly appreciated in the United
States and EEC markets than in the
domestic one. Increased generic production of the value of
tiles by foreign competitors in the United
States and EEC markets have been given Decorative Tiles the
advantages of cashing in one a trend
without having been involved in costly product and company‐related
advertising. Besides saving in
promotional costs, other financial advantages of export
business were related to the higher profit
margin the company was realizing due to the gradual
elimination of taxes on profits earned through
exporting. The 1988 government budget underscored this trend
by announcing zero taxes on export
earnings.
Organization
In 1983, before the company’s export drive, Mr. Tabir wore
`many hats’ while managing the company.
He managed all functions, the purchasing of raw materials,
the manufacturing process, marketing and
personnel. His communication with all his subordinates was
direct on a one to one basis, and any
employee could take advantage of Mr. Tahir’s `open‐door’
policy when a problem occurred. `Spotchecking’
used to be his tactics when a production problem would
arise. Due to the absence of any
hierarchy in the organization, employee’s inter‐relationship
was excellent. Under Mr. Tabir’s leadership,
the organization benefited from unity in command, direction
and objectives. Besides being the boss, he
had also become a father figure to his employees, which in
turn had led to be invited to wedding and
other social functions. Due to his closeness to his
employees, reporting of mishaps were always
immediate and many ideas to improve the production process
originated from his workers. Deliveries
got out on time and quality rejects were only sporadic. The
old organization chart, before the export
drive took off, appears in Chart 1.
CHART 1
Organization Chart before International Business Expansion
Personnel …………………………………………………………………)
Finance …………………………………………………………………)
Production …………………………………………………………………)
Control …………………………………………………………………) ……Mr. L.Tabir
Purchasing…………………………………………………………………)
Glazing …………………………………………………………………)
Marketing …………………………………………………………………)
With the increasing export business and almost 100 percent
factory utilization, his direct communication
with his employees became increasingly complicated. He start
to feel like a medical doctor as people
started to queue up outside his office to see him. He
decided to promote one of his trusted employees
to production manager and hired an outside consultant to
assist in glazing. Material management
became an issue when one day, the company ran out of
critical raw materials and the factory had to be
closed down for two days. The manufacturing lead‐time
slowly increased from one month to three
months, depending on the availability of raw materials.
During the shut‐down, Mr. Tabir decided to hire
a purchasing manager to avoid future work stoppages. At
about the same time the accountant
complained of not being able to do his job at Decorative
Tiles in addition to his other work. Mr. Tabir
felt that enough work was available to retain him as a full
time employee.
Mr. Tabir maintained the responsibility for finance,
personnel, and marketing. He had attended to three
trade fairs over the last three years and had frequently met
international clients in his office. In
addition, he had to engage more and more in market research
in order to come up with acceptable
designs which would enhance customer satisfaction.
Initially organizational changes had inspired goodwill among
his personnel. People were motivated and
the newly won independence from the `boss’ had resulted in
higher productivity. An abrupt turning
point in employee relations came about when one customer
complained that over 25 percent of the
tiles were broken on arrival. Chemical analysis in the
customer’s laboratory showed a higher than
permitted amount of brittleness in the tiles. Since that
incident, Mr. Tabir started to meddle more and
more in production and procurement decisions. When he
overruled his purchasing manager’s decision
to diversity suppliers, the purchasing manager decided to
quit. From that day on, timely delivery and
quality standards seemed to go down hills. Workers wondered
who their real boss was, of them
queuing up in front of his office again. Objectives and
direction in the company became crisis‐crossed
with different orders being passed on to the workers. Unity in
command was broken down. Shipping
schedules of bi‐weekly calls by an international
ocean carrier were missed which led to order and
cancellations by overseas clients. His latest crisis was a
telephone call from a Swiss Construction
company complaining that the entire shipment of tiles
suffered from incomplete‐glazing.
CHART 2
Organization Chart after International Business Expansion
Mr. L.Tabir
Marketing Personnel Finance
Glazing
Production Purchasing Control
At the moment Mr. Tabir wondered if international business
was as attractive as lie originally thought it
was going to be.
Case Questions:
a) What are the symptoms and causes of Mr. Tabir’s problems?
Are these problems typical of an
entrepreneur?
b) Does international business aggravate organizational
problems of this kind?
c) Would you describe Mr. Tabir as an entrepreneur, a
manager, a leader, or a combination of
these? Which of these roles is more responsive to training?
d) What should Mr. Tabir consider in order to improve his
international business performance?
e) Should Decorative Tiles continue with the export
business? Why?
No comments:
Post a Comment