IMT-100: Software Project Management-2014
IMT-100: Software Project Management-2014
PART - A
Q1. What are the benefits of using a project management approach to develop software?
Q2. Describe the relationship among scope, schedule and budget.
Q3. Describe "Software project life cycle".
Q4. Describe the prototyping approach to systems development. When is prototyping appropriate?
Q5. Define, compare and contrast project management processes and project-oriented processes.
PART - B
Q1. Define an IT project methodology and describe its phases.
Q2. Describe Technical Performance parameters for a Software product.
Q3. What is Project Scope and how should it be managed
Q4. What is the purpose of a scope statement? Give an example of a scope statement that might address the needs of an organization that is looking to establish their first Internet web site.
Q5. Compare and contrast top-down and bottom-up estimating? Why would you choose one method over the other?
PART - C
Q1. What is COCOMO? Under the COCOMO model, describe the organic, semi-detached, and embedded models.
Q2. What is a WBS? How does the WBS link the project's scope to the schedule and budget?
Q3. In what ways are project network diagrams similar to Gantt charts and what additional strengths do they have? Explain with an example.
Q4. Describe some of the tools and techniques that can be used to identify IT project risks.
Q5. Capacity Maturity Model (CMM) posits five levels of organizational maturity that are a function of the nature of their processes. Describe how processes mature from the lowest to the highest level.
CASE STUDY-2
Note: read the case carefully and answer the questions given at the end. (M.M: 14)
Tom Walters recently accepted a new position at his college as the Director of Information Technology. Tom had been a respected faculty member at the college for the last fifteen years. The college- a small, private college in the Southwest-offered a variety of programs in the liberal arts and professional areas. Enrollment included 1500 full-time traditional students and about 1000 working-adult students attending an evening program. Many instructors supplemented their courses with information on the Internet and course Web sites, but they did not offer any distance-learning programs. The College's niche was serving students in that region who liked the setting of a small liberal arts college. Like most colleges, its use of information technology had grown tremendously in the past five years. There were a few classrooms in the campus with computers for the instructors and students, and a few more with just instructor stations and projections systems. Tom knew that several colleges throughout the country required that all students lease laptops and these colleges incorporated technology components in to most courses. This idea fascinated him. He and two other members of the Information Technology department visited a local college that had required all students to lease laptop for the past three years, and they were very impressed with what they saw and heard. Tom and his staff developed plans to start requiring students to lease laptops at their college the next year.
Tom sent an email to all faculty and staff in September, which briefly described this and other plans. He did not get much response, however, until the February faculty meeting when, as he described some of the details of his plan, the chairs of the History, English, Philosophy, and Economics departments all voiced their opposition to the idea. They eloquently stated that the college was not a technical training school, and that they thought the idea was ludicrous. Members of the Computer Science Department voiced their concern that all of their students already had state-of-the art desktop computers and would not want to pay a mandatory fee to lease less-powerful laptops. The director of the adult education program expressed her concern that many adulteducation students would balk at an increase in fees. Tom was in shock to hear his colleagues' responses, especially after he and his staff had spent a lot of time planning details of how to implement laptops at their campus. Now what should he do?
After several people voiced concerns about the laptop idea at the faculty meeting, the president of the college directed that a committee be formed to formally review the concept of requiring students to have laptops in the near future. Because the college was dealing with several other important enrollment-related issues, the president named the vice president of enrollment to head the committee. Other people soon volunteered or were assigned to the committee, including Tom Walters as head of Information Technology, the director of the adult education program, the chair of the Computer Science department, and the chair of the History department. The president also insisted that the committee include at least two members of the student body.
The president knew everyone was busy, and he questioned whether the laptop idea was a high-priority issue for the college. He directed the committee to preset a proposal at the next's month's faculty meeting, either to recommend the creation of a formal project team ( of which these committee members would commit to be a part) to fully investigate requiring laptops, or to recommend terminating the concept. At the next faculty meeting, few people were surprised to hear the recommendation to terminate the concept. Tom Walters learned that he had to pay much more attention to the needs of the entire college before proceeding with detailed information technology plans.
Question:
Q1. What is the socio-technical approach to systems development? Based on the above description explain the approach.
Q2. How do sharing experiences in the form of lessons learned lead to best practices in managing and developing systems?
Q3. What should be the best approach of the above project to be initiated and completed successfully?
CASE STUDY-2
Juan Gonzales was a systems analyst and network specialist for a major city's waterworks departments in Mexico. He enjoyed helping the city develop its infrastructure. His next career objective was to become a project manager so he could have been more influence. One of his colleagues invited him to attend an important project review meeting for large government projects, including the Surveyor Pro project, in which Juan was most interested. The Surveyor Pro project was a concept for developing a sophisticated information system that included expert systems, object-oriented databases, and wireless communications. The system would provide instant, graphical information to government surveyors to help them do their jobs. For example after the surveyor touch a map on the screen of a handheld device the system would prompt him or her for the type of information needed for that area this system would help in planning and implementing many projects from laying fiber optic cable to laying water lines. Juan was very surprised however in the majority of the meeting was spend discussing past related issues. The government officials were reviewing many existing projects to evaluate their performance to date and the potential impact on their budgets before discussing the funding for any new projects. Juan didn't understand many of the terms and charts and the charts presenter's wear showing. What was this earned value term they kept referring to. How were they estimating what it would cost to complete projects or who long it would take? Juan thought he would learn more about the new technologies the surveyor Pro-project would use but he discovered that the cost estimate and projected benefits where of most interest to government officials at the meeting it also seemed as if a lot of efforts would go towards detail financial studies before any technical work could even start. Juan wish he had taken some accounting and finance courses so he could understand the acronyms and concepts people wear discussing, Although Juan had degree in electrical engineering. He had no formal education in finance if Juan could understand information systems and networks he was confident that he could understand financial issues on projects too. He jotted down questions to discuss with his colleges after the meeting.
Question:
Q1. Discuss why IT professional should learn cost management and its impact on Projects.
Q2. Suggest few costing models Juan should learn to understand the financial aspects of a project.
Q3. What was Juan's problem? What kind of action plan you will suggest to him.
IMT-13: Management Union Relation-2014
IMT-13: Management Union Relation-2014
SECTION - A
Question 1: Explain the provisions under the Factories Act,1948 with respect to employee health, safety and welfare.
Question 2: What are the essential factors for the success of industrial relations?
Question 3: Discuss the obligations of a registered Trade Union.
Question 4: Which Act introduces a three tier system for industrial relations and how would you determine a justified or unjustified strike?
Question 5: Discuss the meaning and scope of misconduct.
SECTION - B
Question 1: How does ID Act, 1947 distinguish between public and non public utility services.
Question 2: Which are the non statutory machinery set up in ID Act for preservation of industrial peace.
Question 3: Differentiate between adjudication and arbitration.
Question 4: What is IESOA? Discuss the main objectives and provisions of the Act.
Question 5: Discuss three conditions necessary for the Parliament to make laws on any matter of the State List.
SECTION - C
Question 1: How do Certified and Model Standing Orders compare?
Question 2: What are the steps involved in the procedure of disciplinary action.
Question 3: Write short notes on any two:
a. ILO
b. Lay off
Question 4: State the conditions in which the employee is eligible and the circumstances when gratuity is forfeited. Include if any amendments have been made. Mention the formula to calculate gratuity.
Question 5: Discuss the process of collective bargaining in resolving industrial disputes in India with a recent example.
CASE STUDY - 1
Workers versus Volvo: Wheeling in Industrial Dispute
The workers at the only factory of the Swedish bus manufacturing firm Volvo, have struck work for around 60 days now (starting August 2, 2011). So for the last 60 days, every regular employee of Volvo has been protesting outside the factory premises against the oppressive management practices adopted by the company.
Located just 30 kilometres from Bangalore, the strike proceeds even as the management continues to push forward production using a combination of less experienced trainees, probationers and other assorted contract workers hired from staffing agencies. The quantity of production has been strongly impacted and the clients that placed orders with Volvo would need to be doubly concerned about the quality of buses delivered during this period of time.Each Volvo bus is sold between Rs 70 lakh to Rs 1.2 crore.
The genesis of the conflict lies in the low wages at the factory, right from the time the Volvo buses division was set up in 2001. The share of Azad Builders, who had a 30 per cent minority stake in Volvo India, was bought out by Volvo in 2008, making it a fully-owned subsidiary of the Swedish giant. At this point of time, workers were being paid monthly wage of Rs 5,500. After continuous demands from the workers for higher wages – the management consented to give a salary hike of a measly Rs 650 in July 2009. When the workers asked for a higher wage uptick, the management of Volvo insisted that they would only negotiate with a recognised union. This requirement led to the creation of the Volvo Bus Workers Union (VBWU) and was registered in October 2009. The VBWU presented its official charter of demands to the management in January 2010. The VBWU is affiliated to the national union Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU).
The management then entered into negotiations with the elected heads of the union on Friday, April 23, 2010. The negotiations went on for a long time and came to a conclusion only at 17:30 hrs on that day. Since the negotiations were to result in the long anticipated wage increases, there was a lot of curiosity among a section of the workers who waited near the meeting room to know what had happened. It was precisely between the conclusion of the meeting and the usual bus-departure time of 17:40 hrs, that Raghuram who was a manager in the administration asked the buses to leave at 17:35 hrs, five minutes before their usual time. Some other workers who were peacefully sitting in the bus, disembarked to protest this decision to send the buses early. The buses were sent out all the same. Being 10 kilometres from nearest town, Hoskote, these buses are the workers sole mode of transport after work.
Upon discovering that the buses had already left, all the workers then went to the management asking for the buses to be recalled, but the management refused. It is during this argument that there was a surge in the crowd which resulted in some people being pushed – both among the workers and the management. This was given a negative spin in the subsequent public relations campaign by Volvo as an assault by the workers on a foreigner, Mr Schwartz. The workers surrounded the management asking for transportation and this brouhaha went on till the early hours of the next day which was a Saturday, a holiday. On the same day the management suspended the representatives of the Union and two others. With no progress in sight, in August 2010, the workers went on a full-strike demanding the required wage hike that had never materialised and the reinstatement of their union representatives.
The strike led to tripartite negotiations and successfully ended with the long awaited wage settlement (valid for three years) with salaries increasing in the range of Rs 3,500-5,000 for the employees. However the workers, to their dismay, started to find themselves being increasingly harassed on the factory floor. All the probation periods were increased by one year, the managers started accusing employees of product sabotage and dragging them to the police, trainees were not regularised and there was an increase in the number of contract workers used (who are paid around half the salary of a regular employee). Apart from this, the management started to resort to other petty actions like denying workers any kind of leaves (whether for exams or personal problems), reducing the quality of transportation (without changing the salary contribution under the transportation head), harassment about breaks and so on.
What should be noted is that the three managers who were involved in the incidents of April 23, have since been moved out of the company or the division. Despite discovering errors on the side of the management during their domestic enquiries, the management did not reinstate the union representatives. While publicly taking a stand supporting dialogue with unions, Volvo internally kept its elected union members under suspension for over a year. With no other legitimate representation and facing increased harassment at the workplace, the workers saw no other option but to go on strike again on August 2, 2011. Their demands were primarily to reinstate the elected representatives of the union and against the harassment of probationers/trainees and regular employees. Subsequently, the union representatives were dismissed and now the strike soldiers on into its 55th day (as on September 25, 2011).
There are some external considerations that need to be factored in to understand the strike in the right perspective.
There has been double-digit inflation in the Indian economy since 2008 and it is through this period that automotive companies have refused to raise wages while trying to increase productivity. Their 'innovative' solution to compensate for rising input costs and market volatility was to increase the pressure on the workers. This not only depicts a profound lack of creative problem solving but has also led to increased industrial disputes from the north to the south of the country in 2011. The clinching aspect is that most of the unrest is limited to the automotive sector which has recently been facing various other market-related problems. It then becomes obvious that the market problems are being transmitted onto the ordinary employees thus reflecting the incompetency of the management.
There has been an increasing usage and exploitation of contract workers by Indian companies. The reaction of firms to local competition and globalisation has been the creative use (and abuse) of contractors and contract workers. The frustration against these rampant practices was recently shown in a trite Supreme Court judgement admonishing a private company for taking advantage of contract workers and summarily dismissing its petition. Labour reforms, while simplifying the laws, should ensure that the workers are protected and allows them to work in a decent work environment. Those in policy-making capacities must keep in mind that Western free-market type relaxed labour practices, were implemented only after enforcing rigorous social security mechanisms and stringent health and safety laws – none of which exist in India.
It is the inability of the managements across India to maturely handle the market and workers that reflects in the high number of industrial disputes across the country. Harassing the workers and increasing their work-loads to intolerable levels is not a solution to market problems. This is understood by the best companies that have survived over long periods of time. While harassing workers may give some short-term marginal benefits in the balance sheets - it will only ruin the enterprise, its image and its products in the longer run. As for the employees of Volvo, small but determined, their struggle for a decent livelihood moves onto another day.
Question 1: Discuss the external plausible considerations that could have factored the strike.
Question 2: What were the workers concerns?
Question 3: How did the management address them?
CASE STUDY - 2
Damodar Electric Supply Corporation
The main business of Damodar Electric Supply Corporation is to supply electric energy to the entire district. General Manager is the Chief Executive, having full authority on all matters of administration. During the last two years, the Corporation has come into financial problems due to economic recession. As such, to bring control on the expenses the General Manager, has issued an unconditional order forbidding supervisory foremen to authorise over-time work under any circumstances. One day, a cable-laying workman was working inside a wet manhole, in the marshy area near a river. About an hour before closing time he realised that he could not finish the job within the regular working hours. He estimated, that the work would be over within four hours more. The foreman having no authority to grant over-time telephoned the Section Officer at the Head Office. Section Officer, unwilling to breach the rule, contacted the Superintendent who in turn asked the Section Officer, to use his discretion. Section Officer conveyed the same message to the foreman. The Foreman, however, was still afraid of the consequences of over-time order. He therefore told the cable lay-man to wrap the cable securely and leave the work, to be finished the next day. During the night, the river went on flood. Water entered the man-hole by the river-side and the ‘cabling’ was damaged. The damage to the cable was corrected after many days, involving a great expenditure.
Question 1: Was the Corporation’s over-time policy wrong?
Question 2: Does the ‘Management-by-rule’ restrict the initiative of the staff and suppress innovativeness?
Question 3: Under such rules, can there be a sense of achievement and job satisfaction for the subordinates?
Question 4: Do you feel ‘No Rules Situation’ can be advisable for a company?
Question 5: Recommend an over-time Policy to the Damodar Electric Supply Corporation.
IMT-12: Human Resource Management-2014
IMT-12: Human Resource Management-2014
SECTION - A
Q1: Bring out the paradoxes in HRM.
Q2: Discuss the role of HRM in strategy evaluation.
Q3: Define Job Analysis. What are its uses?
Q4: Discuss the common interview problems.
Q5: Explain the career development initiatives.
SECTION - B
Q1: Bring out the salient features of the incentive schemes followed in Indian Industries.
Q2: Describe the components of Executive Remuneration.
Q3: Explain the various steps in the benefits administration.
Q4: How is safety performance assessed?
Q5: Bring out the principles of transfers.
SECTION - C
Q1: Explain the different approaches to Industrial Relations.
Q2: Explain the strategies and techniques adopted by the management to keep their plants union-free.
Q3: What is arbitration? How does it help resolve industrial conflict?
Q4: Explain the typical e-recruiting model.
Q5: What is reverse culture shock? How do MNCs cope with it?
CASE STUDY - 1
Rita and Manoj are post graduates in Management under different streams from the same B-School. Both of them are close friends from the college days itself and the same friendship is continuing in the organisation too as they are placed in the same company, Hi-tech Solutions. Rita placed in HR department as employee counselor and Manoj in Finance department as key finance executive. As per the grade is concerned both are at same level but when responsibility is concerned Manoj is holding more responsibility being in core finance.
By nature Rita is friendly in nature and ready to help the people who are in need. Manoj is an introvert, ready to help if approached personally and is a bit egoistic in nature. They have successfully completed 5 years in the organization. The Management is very much satisfied with both of them as they are equally talented and constant performers.
Rita started noticing some behavioral changes in Manoj and he is not like as he use to be in past. During general conversations she feels that Manoj is taunting her that she is popular among the employees in the organisation on the other hand he is not even recognised by fellow employees.
One morning Mr. Sharma General Manager Hi-tech Solutions received a shocking mail from Manoj about his resignation. Mr. Sharma called Rita immediately and discussed about the same as she is close friend of Manoj. By hearing the news Rita got stunned and said that she do not know this before she also revealed her current experience with him. Mr. Sharma who does not want to lose both of them promised her that he will handle this and he won’t allow Manoj to resign.
In the afternoon Mr. Sharma took Manoj to Canteen to make him comfortable after some general discussion he started on the issue. Manoj, after some hesitations opened his thinking in front of Mr. Sharma. The problem of Manoj is 1) He don’t even get recognized by the people if he comes alone to the canteen but if he is accompanied by Rita he gets well treated by others. 2) one day both of them entered the company together the security in the gate wished them but the next day when he came alone the same security did not do so. 3) Even in meetings held in the office the points raised by Rita will get more value so many a times he keeps silent in the meeting.
This to him is quite degrading on each day of work and this is totally disturbing him. Manoj also questioned that both of them have same qualification and experience in this organisation. More over the responsibilities over him are more valuable than that of Rita. After all these things if he is being ignored or unrecognized by the fellow employees his ego does not allow him to continue here.
By listening to him Mr. Sharma felt that it is not going to be very difficult to stop his resignation. Mr. Sharma explained Manoj the reasons for such partial behavior of the employees.
After listening to Mr. Sharma, Manoj felt sorry for his reaction and ready to take back his resignation.
Question 1: Find the reason that Mr. Sharma would have given to Manoj.
CASE STUDY - 2
The department of Social Services represents a large portion of a county’s budget and total number of employees. The job of eligibility technician is responsible for all client contact, policy interpretation, and financial decisions related to several forms of public aid (e.g., food stamps, aid to families with dependent children). Eligibility technicians must read a large number of memos and announcements of new and revised policies and procedures. Eligibility technicians were complaining they had difficulty reading and responding to this correspondence. The county decided to send the employees to a speed reading program costing $250 per person. The county has 200 eligibility technicians.
Preliminary evaluation of the speed reading program was that trainees liked it. Two months after the training was conducted, the technicians told their managers that they were not using the speed reading course in their jobs, but were using it in leisure reading at home. When their managers asked why they weren’t using it on the job, the typical response was, "I never read those memos and policy announcements anyway."
Questions:
a. Evaluate the needs assessment process used to determine that speed reading was necessary. What was good about it? Where was it faulty?
b. How would you have conducted the needs assessment?
IMT-100: Software Project Management-2014
PART - A
Q1. What are the benefits of using a project management approach to develop software?
Q2. Describe the relationship among scope, schedule and budget.
Q3. Describe "Software project life cycle".
Q4. Describe the prototyping approach to systems development. When is prototyping appropriate?
Q5. Define, compare and contrast project management processes and project-oriented processes.
PART - B
Q1. Define an IT project methodology and describe its phases.
Q2. Describe Technical Performance parameters for a Software product.
Q3. What is Project Scope and how should it be managed
Q4. What is the purpose of a scope statement? Give an example of a scope statement that might address the needs of an organization that is looking to establish their first Internet web site.
Q5. Compare and contrast top-down and bottom-up estimating? Why would you choose one method over the other?
PART - C
Q1. What is COCOMO? Under the COCOMO model, describe the organic, semi-detached, and embedded models.
Q2. What is a WBS? How does the WBS link the project's scope to the schedule and budget?
Q3. In what ways are project network diagrams similar to Gantt charts and what additional strengths do they have? Explain with an example.
Q4. Describe some of the tools and techniques that can be used to identify IT project risks.
Q5. Capacity Maturity Model (CMM) posits five levels of organizational maturity that are a function of the nature of their processes. Describe how processes mature from the lowest to the highest level.
CASE STUDY-2
Note: read the case carefully and answer the questions given at the end. (M.M: 14)
Tom Walters recently accepted a new position at his college as the Director of Information Technology. Tom had been a respected faculty member at the college for the last fifteen years. The college- a small, private college in the Southwest-offered a variety of programs in the liberal arts and professional areas. Enrollment included 1500 full-time traditional students and about 1000 working-adult students attending an evening program. Many instructors supplemented their courses with information on the Internet and course Web sites, but they did not offer any distance-learning programs. The College's niche was serving students in that region who liked the setting of a small liberal arts college. Like most colleges, its use of information technology had grown tremendously in the past five years. There were a few classrooms in the campus with computers for the instructors and students, and a few more with just instructor stations and projections systems. Tom knew that several colleges throughout the country required that all students lease laptops and these colleges incorporated technology components in to most courses. This idea fascinated him. He and two other members of the Information Technology department visited a local college that had required all students to lease laptop for the past three years, and they were very impressed with what they saw and heard. Tom and his staff developed plans to start requiring students to lease laptops at their college the next year.
Tom sent an email to all faculty and staff in September, which briefly described this and other plans. He did not get much response, however, until the February faculty meeting when, as he described some of the details of his plan, the chairs of the History, English, Philosophy, and Economics departments all voiced their opposition to the idea. They eloquently stated that the college was not a technical training school, and that they thought the idea was ludicrous. Members of the Computer Science Department voiced their concern that all of their students already had state-of-the art desktop computers and would not want to pay a mandatory fee to lease less-powerful laptops. The director of the adult education program expressed her concern that many adulteducation students would balk at an increase in fees. Tom was in shock to hear his colleagues' responses, especially after he and his staff had spent a lot of time planning details of how to implement laptops at their campus. Now what should he do?
After several people voiced concerns about the laptop idea at the faculty meeting, the president of the college directed that a committee be formed to formally review the concept of requiring students to have laptops in the near future. Because the college was dealing with several other important enrollment-related issues, the president named the vice president of enrollment to head the committee. Other people soon volunteered or were assigned to the committee, including Tom Walters as head of Information Technology, the director of the adult education program, the chair of the Computer Science department, and the chair of the History department. The president also insisted that the committee include at least two members of the student body.
The president knew everyone was busy, and he questioned whether the laptop idea was a high-priority issue for the college. He directed the committee to preset a proposal at the next's month's faculty meeting, either to recommend the creation of a formal project team ( of which these committee members would commit to be a part) to fully investigate requiring laptops, or to recommend terminating the concept. At the next faculty meeting, few people were surprised to hear the recommendation to terminate the concept. Tom Walters learned that he had to pay much more attention to the needs of the entire college before proceeding with detailed information technology plans.
Question:
Q1. What is the socio-technical approach to systems development? Based on the above description explain the approach.
Q2. How do sharing experiences in the form of lessons learned lead to best practices in managing and developing systems?
Q3. What should be the best approach of the above project to be initiated and completed successfully?
CASE STUDY-2
Juan Gonzales was a systems analyst and network specialist for a major city's waterworks departments in Mexico. He enjoyed helping the city develop its infrastructure. His next career objective was to become a project manager so he could have been more influence. One of his colleagues invited him to attend an important project review meeting for large government projects, including the Surveyor Pro project, in which Juan was most interested. The Surveyor Pro project was a concept for developing a sophisticated information system that included expert systems, object-oriented databases, and wireless communications. The system would provide instant, graphical information to government surveyors to help them do their jobs. For example after the surveyor touch a map on the screen of a handheld device the system would prompt him or her for the type of information needed for that area this system would help in planning and implementing many projects from laying fiber optic cable to laying water lines. Juan was very surprised however in the majority of the meeting was spend discussing past related issues. The government officials were reviewing many existing projects to evaluate their performance to date and the potential impact on their budgets before discussing the funding for any new projects. Juan didn't understand many of the terms and charts and the charts presenter's wear showing. What was this earned value term they kept referring to. How were they estimating what it would cost to complete projects or who long it would take? Juan thought he would learn more about the new technologies the surveyor Pro-project would use but he discovered that the cost estimate and projected benefits where of most interest to government officials at the meeting it also seemed as if a lot of efforts would go towards detail financial studies before any technical work could even start. Juan wish he had taken some accounting and finance courses so he could understand the acronyms and concepts people wear discussing, Although Juan had degree in electrical engineering. He had no formal education in finance if Juan could understand information systems and networks he was confident that he could understand financial issues on projects too. He jotted down questions to discuss with his colleges after the meeting.
Question:
Q1. Discuss why IT professional should learn cost management and its impact on Projects.
Q2. Suggest few costing models Juan should learn to understand the financial aspects of a project.
Q3. What was Juan's problem? What kind of action plan you will suggest to him.
IMT-13: Management Union Relation-2014
IMT-13: Management Union Relation-2014
SECTION - A
Question 1: Explain the provisions under the Factories Act,1948 with respect to employee health, safety and welfare.
Question 2: What are the essential factors for the success of industrial relations?
Question 3: Discuss the obligations of a registered Trade Union.
Question 4: Which Act introduces a three tier system for industrial relations and how would you determine a justified or unjustified strike?
Question 5: Discuss the meaning and scope of misconduct.
SECTION - B
Question 1: How does ID Act, 1947 distinguish between public and non public utility services.
Question 2: Which are the non statutory machinery set up in ID Act for preservation of industrial peace.
Question 3: Differentiate between adjudication and arbitration.
Question 4: What is IESOA? Discuss the main objectives and provisions of the Act.
Question 5: Discuss three conditions necessary for the Parliament to make laws on any matter of the State List.
SECTION - C
Question 1: How do Certified and Model Standing Orders compare?
Question 2: What are the steps involved in the procedure of disciplinary action.
Question 3: Write short notes on any two:
a. ILO
b. Lay off
Question 4: State the conditions in which the employee is eligible and the circumstances when gratuity is forfeited. Include if any amendments have been made. Mention the formula to calculate gratuity.
Question 5: Discuss the process of collective bargaining in resolving industrial disputes in India with a recent example.
CASE STUDY - 1
Workers versus Volvo: Wheeling in Industrial Dispute
The workers at the only factory of the Swedish bus manufacturing firm Volvo, have struck work for around 60 days now (starting August 2, 2011). So for the last 60 days, every regular employee of Volvo has been protesting outside the factory premises against the oppressive management practices adopted by the company.
Located just 30 kilometres from Bangalore, the strike proceeds even as the management continues to push forward production using a combination of less experienced trainees, probationers and other assorted contract workers hired from staffing agencies. The quantity of production has been strongly impacted and the clients that placed orders with Volvo would need to be doubly concerned about the quality of buses delivered during this period of time.Each Volvo bus is sold between Rs 70 lakh to Rs 1.2 crore.
The genesis of the conflict lies in the low wages at the factory, right from the time the Volvo buses division was set up in 2001. The share of Azad Builders, who had a 30 per cent minority stake in Volvo India, was bought out by Volvo in 2008, making it a fully-owned subsidiary of the Swedish giant. At this point of time, workers were being paid monthly wage of Rs 5,500. After continuous demands from the workers for higher wages – the management consented to give a salary hike of a measly Rs 650 in July 2009. When the workers asked for a higher wage uptick, the management of Volvo insisted that they would only negotiate with a recognised union. This requirement led to the creation of the Volvo Bus Workers Union (VBWU) and was registered in October 2009. The VBWU presented its official charter of demands to the management in January 2010. The VBWU is affiliated to the national union Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU).
The management then entered into negotiations with the elected heads of the union on Friday, April 23, 2010. The negotiations went on for a long time and came to a conclusion only at 17:30 hrs on that day. Since the negotiations were to result in the long anticipated wage increases, there was a lot of curiosity among a section of the workers who waited near the meeting room to know what had happened. It was precisely between the conclusion of the meeting and the usual bus-departure time of 17:40 hrs, that Raghuram who was a manager in the administration asked the buses to leave at 17:35 hrs, five minutes before their usual time. Some other workers who were peacefully sitting in the bus, disembarked to protest this decision to send the buses early. The buses were sent out all the same. Being 10 kilometres from nearest town, Hoskote, these buses are the workers sole mode of transport after work.
Upon discovering that the buses had already left, all the workers then went to the management asking for the buses to be recalled, but the management refused. It is during this argument that there was a surge in the crowd which resulted in some people being pushed – both among the workers and the management. This was given a negative spin in the subsequent public relations campaign by Volvo as an assault by the workers on a foreigner, Mr Schwartz. The workers surrounded the management asking for transportation and this brouhaha went on till the early hours of the next day which was a Saturday, a holiday. On the same day the management suspended the representatives of the Union and two others. With no progress in sight, in August 2010, the workers went on a full-strike demanding the required wage hike that had never materialised and the reinstatement of their union representatives.
The strike led to tripartite negotiations and successfully ended with the long awaited wage settlement (valid for three years) with salaries increasing in the range of Rs 3,500-5,000 for the employees. However the workers, to their dismay, started to find themselves being increasingly harassed on the factory floor. All the probation periods were increased by one year, the managers started accusing employees of product sabotage and dragging them to the police, trainees were not regularised and there was an increase in the number of contract workers used (who are paid around half the salary of a regular employee). Apart from this, the management started to resort to other petty actions like denying workers any kind of leaves (whether for exams or personal problems), reducing the quality of transportation (without changing the salary contribution under the transportation head), harassment about breaks and so on.
What should be noted is that the three managers who were involved in the incidents of April 23, have since been moved out of the company or the division. Despite discovering errors on the side of the management during their domestic enquiries, the management did not reinstate the union representatives. While publicly taking a stand supporting dialogue with unions, Volvo internally kept its elected union members under suspension for over a year. With no other legitimate representation and facing increased harassment at the workplace, the workers saw no other option but to go on strike again on August 2, 2011. Their demands were primarily to reinstate the elected representatives of the union and against the harassment of probationers/trainees and regular employees. Subsequently, the union representatives were dismissed and now the strike soldiers on into its 55th day (as on September 25, 2011).
There are some external considerations that need to be factored in to understand the strike in the right perspective.
There has been double-digit inflation in the Indian economy since 2008 and it is through this period that automotive companies have refused to raise wages while trying to increase productivity. Their 'innovative' solution to compensate for rising input costs and market volatility was to increase the pressure on the workers. This not only depicts a profound lack of creative problem solving but has also led to increased industrial disputes from the north to the south of the country in 2011. The clinching aspect is that most of the unrest is limited to the automotive sector which has recently been facing various other market-related problems. It then becomes obvious that the market problems are being transmitted onto the ordinary employees thus reflecting the incompetency of the management.
There has been an increasing usage and exploitation of contract workers by Indian companies. The reaction of firms to local competition and globalisation has been the creative use (and abuse) of contractors and contract workers. The frustration against these rampant practices was recently shown in a trite Supreme Court judgement admonishing a private company for taking advantage of contract workers and summarily dismissing its petition. Labour reforms, while simplifying the laws, should ensure that the workers are protected and allows them to work in a decent work environment. Those in policy-making capacities must keep in mind that Western free-market type relaxed labour practices, were implemented only after enforcing rigorous social security mechanisms and stringent health and safety laws – none of which exist in India.
It is the inability of the managements across India to maturely handle the market and workers that reflects in the high number of industrial disputes across the country. Harassing the workers and increasing their work-loads to intolerable levels is not a solution to market problems. This is understood by the best companies that have survived over long periods of time. While harassing workers may give some short-term marginal benefits in the balance sheets - it will only ruin the enterprise, its image and its products in the longer run. As for the employees of Volvo, small but determined, their struggle for a decent livelihood moves onto another day.
Question 1: Discuss the external plausible considerations that could have factored the strike.
Question 2: What were the workers concerns?
Question 3: How did the management address them?
CASE STUDY - 2
Damodar Electric Supply Corporation
The main business of Damodar Electric Supply Corporation is to supply electric energy to the entire district. General Manager is the Chief Executive, having full authority on all matters of administration. During the last two years, the Corporation has come into financial problems due to economic recession. As such, to bring control on the expenses the General Manager, has issued an unconditional order forbidding supervisory foremen to authorise over-time work under any circumstances. One day, a cable-laying workman was working inside a wet manhole, in the marshy area near a river. About an hour before closing time he realised that he could not finish the job within the regular working hours. He estimated, that the work would be over within four hours more. The foreman having no authority to grant over-time telephoned the Section Officer at the Head Office. Section Officer, unwilling to breach the rule, contacted the Superintendent who in turn asked the Section Officer, to use his discretion. Section Officer conveyed the same message to the foreman. The Foreman, however, was still afraid of the consequences of over-time order. He therefore told the cable lay-man to wrap the cable securely and leave the work, to be finished the next day. During the night, the river went on flood. Water entered the man-hole by the river-side and the ‘cabling’ was damaged. The damage to the cable was corrected after many days, involving a great expenditure.
Question 1: Was the Corporation’s over-time policy wrong?
Question 2: Does the ‘Management-by-rule’ restrict the initiative of the staff and suppress innovativeness?
Question 3: Under such rules, can there be a sense of achievement and job satisfaction for the subordinates?
Question 4: Do you feel ‘No Rules Situation’ can be advisable for a company?
Question 5: Recommend an over-time Policy to the Damodar Electric Supply Corporation.
IMT-12: Human Resource Management-2014
IMT-12: Human Resource Management-2014
SECTION - A
Q1: Bring out the paradoxes in HRM.
Q2: Discuss the role of HRM in strategy evaluation.
Q3: Define Job Analysis. What are its uses?
Q4: Discuss the common interview problems.
Q5: Explain the career development initiatives.
SECTION - B
Q1: Bring out the salient features of the incentive schemes followed in Indian Industries.
Q2: Describe the components of Executive Remuneration.
Q3: Explain the various steps in the benefits administration.
Q4: How is safety performance assessed?
Q5: Bring out the principles of transfers.
SECTION - C
Q1: Explain the different approaches to Industrial Relations.
Q2: Explain the strategies and techniques adopted by the management to keep their plants union-free.
Q3: What is arbitration? How does it help resolve industrial conflict?
Q4: Explain the typical e-recruiting model.
Q5: What is reverse culture shock? How do MNCs cope with it?
CASE STUDY - 1
Rita and Manoj are post graduates in Management under different streams from the same B-School. Both of them are close friends from the college days itself and the same friendship is continuing in the organisation too as they are placed in the same company, Hi-tech Solutions. Rita placed in HR department as employee counselor and Manoj in Finance department as key finance executive. As per the grade is concerned both are at same level but when responsibility is concerned Manoj is holding more responsibility being in core finance.
By nature Rita is friendly in nature and ready to help the people who are in need. Manoj is an introvert, ready to help if approached personally and is a bit egoistic in nature. They have successfully completed 5 years in the organization. The Management is very much satisfied with both of them as they are equally talented and constant performers.
Rita started noticing some behavioral changes in Manoj and he is not like as he use to be in past. During general conversations she feels that Manoj is taunting her that she is popular among the employees in the organisation on the other hand he is not even recognised by fellow employees.
One morning Mr. Sharma General Manager Hi-tech Solutions received a shocking mail from Manoj about his resignation. Mr. Sharma called Rita immediately and discussed about the same as she is close friend of Manoj. By hearing the news Rita got stunned and said that she do not know this before she also revealed her current experience with him. Mr. Sharma who does not want to lose both of them promised her that he will handle this and he won’t allow Manoj to resign.
In the afternoon Mr. Sharma took Manoj to Canteen to make him comfortable after some general discussion he started on the issue. Manoj, after some hesitations opened his thinking in front of Mr. Sharma. The problem of Manoj is 1) He don’t even get recognized by the people if he comes alone to the canteen but if he is accompanied by Rita he gets well treated by others. 2) one day both of them entered the company together the security in the gate wished them but the next day when he came alone the same security did not do so. 3) Even in meetings held in the office the points raised by Rita will get more value so many a times he keeps silent in the meeting.
This to him is quite degrading on each day of work and this is totally disturbing him. Manoj also questioned that both of them have same qualification and experience in this organisation. More over the responsibilities over him are more valuable than that of Rita. After all these things if he is being ignored or unrecognized by the fellow employees his ego does not allow him to continue here.
By listening to him Mr. Sharma felt that it is not going to be very difficult to stop his resignation. Mr. Sharma explained Manoj the reasons for such partial behavior of the employees.
After listening to Mr. Sharma, Manoj felt sorry for his reaction and ready to take back his resignation.
Question 1: Find the reason that Mr. Sharma would have given to Manoj.
CASE STUDY - 2
The department of Social Services represents a large portion of a county’s budget and total number of employees. The job of eligibility technician is responsible for all client contact, policy interpretation, and financial decisions related to several forms of public aid (e.g., food stamps, aid to families with dependent children). Eligibility technicians must read a large number of memos and announcements of new and revised policies and procedures. Eligibility technicians were complaining they had difficulty reading and responding to this correspondence. The county decided to send the employees to a speed reading program costing $250 per person. The county has 200 eligibility technicians.
Preliminary evaluation of the speed reading program was that trainees liked it. Two months after the training was conducted, the technicians told their managers that they were not using the speed reading course in their jobs, but were using it in leisure reading at home. When their managers asked why they weren’t using it on the job, the typical response was, "I never read those memos and policy announcements anyway."
Questions:
a. Evaluate the needs assessment process used to determine that speed reading was necessary. What was good about it? Where was it faulty?
b. How would you have conducted the needs assessment?
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