Human Resource Management
CASE STUDY: 1
A policy is a plan of action. It is a statement of intention committing the management to a general course of action. When the management drafts a policy statement to cover some features of its personnel programmes, the statement may often contain an expression of philosophy and principle as well. Although it is perfectly legitimate for an organization to include its philosophy, principles and policy in one policy expression.
Q1) Why organizations adopt personnel policies explain the benefits?
Q2) What are the sources and content of personnel policies?
Q3: Explain few personnel policies?
Q4: Explain principles of personnel policies?
CASE STUDY: 2
Recruitment is understood as the process of searching for and obtaining applicants for jobs, from among whom the rights people can be selected. Theoretically, recruitment process is said to end with the receipt of applications, in practice the activity extends to the screening of applications so as to eliminate those who are not qualified for the job.
Recruitment refers to the process of receipt of applications from job seekers. In reality, the term is used to describe the entire process of employee hiring. These are recruitment boards for railways, banks and other organization.
Q1: Explain in detail the general purpose of recruitment?
Q2) Explain factors governing Recruitment?
Q3) Explain the Recruitment process with diagram?
Q4) Explain Recruitment planning?
CASE STUDY: 3
Navin AGM materials, is fuming and fretting. He bumped into Kiran, GM Materials, threw the resignation letter on his table, shouted and walked out of the room swiftly.
Navin has reason for his sudden outburst. He has been driven to the wall. Perhaps details of the story will tell the reasons for Navin’s bile and why he put in his papers, barely four months after he took up his assignment.
The year was 2005 when Navin quit the prestigious Sail plant at Mumbai. As a manager material Navin enjoyed the power. He could even place an order for materials worth Rs 25 lakh. He needed nobody’s prior approval.
Navin joined a pulp making plant located at Pune as AGM Materials. The plant is owned by a prestigious business house in India. Obviously perks, designation and reputation of the conglomerate lured Navin away from the public sector.
When he joined the pulp making company, little did Navin realize that he needed prior approval to place an order for materials worth Rs 12 lakhs. He had presumed that he had the authority to place an order by himself worth half the amount of what he used to do at the mega steel maker. He placed the order material arrived, were recived, accepted and used up in the plant.
Trouble started when the bill for Rs 12 lakh came from vendor. The accounts department withheld payment for the reason that the bill was not endorsed by Kiran. Kiran rused to sign the bill as his approval was not taken by Navin before placing the order.
Navin felt fumigated and cheated. A brief encounter with Kiran only aggrarated the problem. Navin was curtly told that he should have known company rules before venturing. Navin decided to quit the company.
Q1: Does the company have an orientation programme?
Q2: If yes how effective is it?
Q3: How is formal Orientation programme conducted?
Q4) If you were Navin what would have you done?
CASE STUDY: 4
Bitter it may taste, shrill it may sound, and sleepless nights it may cause, but it is true. In a major shake up Airbus. The European aircraft manufacturers has thrown a big shock to its employees. Before coming to the details of the shock, a peep into the company’s resume.
Name Airbus
Created 1970
President CEO: Vijay M.
Employees 57000
Turnover 26 Bn (Euro)
Total Aircraft sold (Feb 2007) 7187
Delivered 4598
Headquarters Paris (France)
Facilities 16
Rival Boeing
Airbus announced on February 27, 2007 that it would shed 10,000 jobs across four European contries and sell six of its unit. N the same day the helpless workers did what was expected of them – downed tools and staged protests. The protesting workers at Airbus’s factory at Meaulte, northern France, were seen picketing outside the factory gate after holding up production a day earlier. To be fair to Airbus, its management entered talks with unions before the job loss and sale was formally announced. But the talks did not mollify the agitated workers.
Job sheating and hiring of units are a part of Power and restructuring plan unleashed by Airbus to save itself from increasing loss of its ground to the arch rival, Boeing Co.
Airbus Power & Strategy was first mooted in October 2006 but sparkled a split between France & Germany over the distribution of job losses and the placement of future ones. Later the two countries agreed to share both job losses and new technology.
The power and plan, if finalized, would mean a 3 per cent reduction to Airbus’s 55000 employee strength.
Q1) Why should Power and focus on shedding jobs to save on cost?
Q2) Are there no alternative strategies?
Q3) Will the proposed shedding of jobs and scale of six units help airbus survive the intense competition from Boeing?
Q4: Comment on the whole issue?
International Business-ISBM
UBJECT : INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Case 1 (20 Marks)
Kodak started selling photographic equipment on Japan 1889 and by the 1930s it had a dominant position in the Japanese market. But after World War II, U.S occupation forces persuaded most U.S companies including Kodak to leave Japan to give the war torn local industry a chance to recover. Kodak was effectively priced out of the market by tariff barriers; over the next 35 years Fuji gained 70% share of the market while Kodak saw its share slip to miserable 5%. During this period Kodak limited much of its activities in Japan.
This situation persisted until early 1980s when Fuji launched an aggressive export drive, attacking Kodak in the north American and European markets. Deciding that a good offence is the best defense, in 1984 and the next six year, Kodak outspent Fuji in Japan by a ratio of more than 3 to 1. It erected mammoth $ 1 million near signs as land marks in many of the Japan’s big cities and also sponsored Sumo wrestling, Judo, and tennis tournaments and even the Japanese team at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Thus Kodak has put Fuji on defensive, forcing it to divert resources from overseas to defend itself at home. By 1990’s, some of Fuji’s best executives had been pulled back to Tokyo.
All this success, however , was apparently not enough for Kodak. In may 1995, Kodak filed a petition with the US trade office, that accured the Japanese government and Fuji of “Unfair trading practices”. According to the petition, the Japanese government helped to create a ‘ profile sanctuary’ for Fuji in Japan by systematically denying Kodak access to Japanese distribution channels for consumer film and paper. Kodak claims Fuji has effectively shut Kodak products out of four distributors that have a 70% share of the photo distribution market. Fuji has an equity position in two of the distributors, gives large year –end relates and cash payments to all four distributors as a reward for their loyalty to Fuji, and owns stakes in the banks that finance them. Kodak also claims that Fuji uses similar tactics to control 430 wholesale photo furnishing labs in Japan to which it is the exclusive supplier. Moreover Kodak’s petition claims that the Japanese government has actively encourages these practices.
But Fuji a similar counter arguments relating to Kodak in U.S. and states bluntly that Kodak’s charges are a clear case of the pot calling the kettle back.
(a) What was the critical catalyst that led Kodak to start taking the Japanese market seriously?
(b) From the evidence given in the case do you think Kodak’s charges of unfair trading practices against Fuji are valid? Support your answer.
Case 2 (20 Marks)
Two Senior executives of world’s largest firms with extensive holdings outside the home country speak.
Company A : “We are a multinational firm. We distribute our products in about 100 countries. We manufacture in over 17 countries and do research and development in three countries. We look at all new investment projects both domestic and overseas using exactly the same criteria”.
The execution from company A continues, “ of course the most of the key ports in our subsidiaries are held by home country nationals. Whenever replacements for these men are sought, it is the practice, if not the policy, to look next to you at the lead office and pick some one (usually a home country national) you know and trust”.
Company B : “ We are multinational firm. Our product division executives have worldwide profit responsibility. As our organisational chart shows, the united states is just one region on a par with Europe, Latin America, Africa etc, in each division”.
The executive from Company B goes on to explain, “the worldwide Product division concept is rather difficult to implement. The senior executives incharge of this divisions have little overseas experience. They have been promoted from domestic ports and tend to view foreign consumers needs as really basically the same as ours. Also, product division executives tend to focus on domestic market, because it generates more revenue than foreign market. The rewards are for global performance, but strategy is to focus on domestic. Most of the senior executives simply do not understand what happens overseas and really do not trust foreign executives, even those in key portions?
Questions :
1 Which company is truly Multinational ? Why?
2 List three differences between Company , Multi National company and Trans Multi National Company ?
Case - 3 (20 Marks)
Strategic R & D by TNCs in Developing Countries
TNCs have had long units in developing host countries for adapting products and processes to the local conditions, and in a few cases, to products for local markets. Since the min-1980s, however, they have also started locating strategic R & D centres in some developing countries, for developing generic technologies and products for regional or global markets. The main incentives for this are : (a) access to highly qualified scientists as shortages of research personnel emerge in certain fields in industrialised countries, (b) Cost differentials in research salaries between developing and industrialised countries, and (c) rationalisation of operations, assigning particular affiliates the responsibility for developing, manufacturing, and marketing particular products worldwide. Th new trends are more visible in industries dealing with new technologies, such as microelectronics, biotechnology, and new materials. In these technologies, the location of R & D can be geographically de-linked more easily from the location of manufacturing. It is also possible to separate R & D in core activities from that in non-core activities. Consequently, countries like India, Israel, Singapore, Malaysia or Brazil serve TNCs as good locations for strategic R & D.
For instance, Sony Corporation of Japan has around nine R & D units in Asian developing countries. It has three units in Singapore conducting R & D on core components such as optical data shortage devices, integrated chip design for audio products and CD-ROM drives, and multimedia and microchip software. It has three units in Malaysia working on video design, derivative models and circuit blocks for new TV chases, radio cassettes, discman and hi-fi receiver designs. It has one unit in Republic of Korea focusing on the design of compact discs, radio cassettes, tape recorders, and car stereos. It has one in Taiwan designing and developing video tape-recorders, minidisk players, video CDs, and duplicators. Finally, it has one unit in Indonesia focusing on the design of audio products.
Such units often work in collaboration with science and technology institutes in the host country. For instance, Daimler Benz has established such a unit in Bangalore, India, in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Science to work on projects related to its vehicles and avionics business. Current work includes interface design of avionics landing systems and smart GPS sensors for use by the group’s business worldwide.
Source: World Investment Report 1999.
Questions:
(a) Explain why MNCs have located R & D centres in developing countries?
(b) Mention the areas where R & D activities can easily be decentralised.
Case -4 (20 Marks)
VK Ltd a multi-product Company, furnishes you the following data relating to the year 2000.
First Half of the year Second Half of the year
Sales Rs. 45,000 Rs. 50,000
Total Cost Rs. 40,000 Rs. 43,000
Assuming that there is no change in prices and variable costs and that the fixed expenses are incurred equally in the two half years periods calculate for the year 2000.
1. The Profit Volume ration
2. Fixed Expenses
3. Break-Even Sales
4. Percentage of margin of safety.
5 marks each
CASE STUDY: 1
A policy is a plan of action. It is a statement of intention committing the management to a general course of action. When the management drafts a policy statement to cover some features of its personnel programmes, the statement may often contain an expression of philosophy and principle as well. Although it is perfectly legitimate for an organization to include its philosophy, principles and policy in one policy expression.
Q1) Why organizations adopt personnel policies explain the benefits?
Q2) What are the sources and content of personnel policies?
Q3: Explain few personnel policies?
Q4: Explain principles of personnel policies?
CASE STUDY: 2
Recruitment is understood as the process of searching for and obtaining applicants for jobs, from among whom the rights people can be selected. Theoretically, recruitment process is said to end with the receipt of applications, in practice the activity extends to the screening of applications so as to eliminate those who are not qualified for the job.
Recruitment refers to the process of receipt of applications from job seekers. In reality, the term is used to describe the entire process of employee hiring. These are recruitment boards for railways, banks and other organization.
Q1: Explain in detail the general purpose of recruitment?
Q2) Explain factors governing Recruitment?
Q3) Explain the Recruitment process with diagram?
Q4) Explain Recruitment planning?
CASE STUDY: 3
Navin AGM materials, is fuming and fretting. He bumped into Kiran, GM Materials, threw the resignation letter on his table, shouted and walked out of the room swiftly.
Navin has reason for his sudden outburst. He has been driven to the wall. Perhaps details of the story will tell the reasons for Navin’s bile and why he put in his papers, barely four months after he took up his assignment.
The year was 2005 when Navin quit the prestigious Sail plant at Mumbai. As a manager material Navin enjoyed the power. He could even place an order for materials worth Rs 25 lakh. He needed nobody’s prior approval.
Navin joined a pulp making plant located at Pune as AGM Materials. The plant is owned by a prestigious business house in India. Obviously perks, designation and reputation of the conglomerate lured Navin away from the public sector.
When he joined the pulp making company, little did Navin realize that he needed prior approval to place an order for materials worth Rs 12 lakhs. He had presumed that he had the authority to place an order by himself worth half the amount of what he used to do at the mega steel maker. He placed the order material arrived, were recived, accepted and used up in the plant.
Trouble started when the bill for Rs 12 lakh came from vendor. The accounts department withheld payment for the reason that the bill was not endorsed by Kiran. Kiran rused to sign the bill as his approval was not taken by Navin before placing the order.
Navin felt fumigated and cheated. A brief encounter with Kiran only aggrarated the problem. Navin was curtly told that he should have known company rules before venturing. Navin decided to quit the company.
Q1: Does the company have an orientation programme?
Q2: If yes how effective is it?
Q3: How is formal Orientation programme conducted?
Q4) If you were Navin what would have you done?
CASE STUDY: 4
Bitter it may taste, shrill it may sound, and sleepless nights it may cause, but it is true. In a major shake up Airbus. The European aircraft manufacturers has thrown a big shock to its employees. Before coming to the details of the shock, a peep into the company’s resume.
Name Airbus
Created 1970
President CEO: Vijay M.
Employees 57000
Turnover 26 Bn (Euro)
Total Aircraft sold (Feb 2007) 7187
Delivered 4598
Headquarters Paris (France)
Facilities 16
Rival Boeing
Airbus announced on February 27, 2007 that it would shed 10,000 jobs across four European contries and sell six of its unit. N the same day the helpless workers did what was expected of them – downed tools and staged protests. The protesting workers at Airbus’s factory at Meaulte, northern France, were seen picketing outside the factory gate after holding up production a day earlier. To be fair to Airbus, its management entered talks with unions before the job loss and sale was formally announced. But the talks did not mollify the agitated workers.
Job sheating and hiring of units are a part of Power and restructuring plan unleashed by Airbus to save itself from increasing loss of its ground to the arch rival, Boeing Co.
Airbus Power & Strategy was first mooted in October 2006 but sparkled a split between France & Germany over the distribution of job losses and the placement of future ones. Later the two countries agreed to share both job losses and new technology.
The power and plan, if finalized, would mean a 3 per cent reduction to Airbus’s 55000 employee strength.
Q1) Why should Power and focus on shedding jobs to save on cost?
Q2) Are there no alternative strategies?
Q3) Will the proposed shedding of jobs and scale of six units help airbus survive the intense competition from Boeing?
Q4: Comment on the whole issue?
International Business-ISBM
UBJECT : INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Case 1 (20 Marks)
Kodak started selling photographic equipment on Japan 1889 and by the 1930s it had a dominant position in the Japanese market. But after World War II, U.S occupation forces persuaded most U.S companies including Kodak to leave Japan to give the war torn local industry a chance to recover. Kodak was effectively priced out of the market by tariff barriers; over the next 35 years Fuji gained 70% share of the market while Kodak saw its share slip to miserable 5%. During this period Kodak limited much of its activities in Japan.
This situation persisted until early 1980s when Fuji launched an aggressive export drive, attacking Kodak in the north American and European markets. Deciding that a good offence is the best defense, in 1984 and the next six year, Kodak outspent Fuji in Japan by a ratio of more than 3 to 1. It erected mammoth $ 1 million near signs as land marks in many of the Japan’s big cities and also sponsored Sumo wrestling, Judo, and tennis tournaments and even the Japanese team at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Thus Kodak has put Fuji on defensive, forcing it to divert resources from overseas to defend itself at home. By 1990’s, some of Fuji’s best executives had been pulled back to Tokyo.
All this success, however , was apparently not enough for Kodak. In may 1995, Kodak filed a petition with the US trade office, that accured the Japanese government and Fuji of “Unfair trading practices”. According to the petition, the Japanese government helped to create a ‘ profile sanctuary’ for Fuji in Japan by systematically denying Kodak access to Japanese distribution channels for consumer film and paper. Kodak claims Fuji has effectively shut Kodak products out of four distributors that have a 70% share of the photo distribution market. Fuji has an equity position in two of the distributors, gives large year –end relates and cash payments to all four distributors as a reward for their loyalty to Fuji, and owns stakes in the banks that finance them. Kodak also claims that Fuji uses similar tactics to control 430 wholesale photo furnishing labs in Japan to which it is the exclusive supplier. Moreover Kodak’s petition claims that the Japanese government has actively encourages these practices.
But Fuji a similar counter arguments relating to Kodak in U.S. and states bluntly that Kodak’s charges are a clear case of the pot calling the kettle back.
(a) What was the critical catalyst that led Kodak to start taking the Japanese market seriously?
(b) From the evidence given in the case do you think Kodak’s charges of unfair trading practices against Fuji are valid? Support your answer.
Case 2 (20 Marks)
Two Senior executives of world’s largest firms with extensive holdings outside the home country speak.
Company A : “We are a multinational firm. We distribute our products in about 100 countries. We manufacture in over 17 countries and do research and development in three countries. We look at all new investment projects both domestic and overseas using exactly the same criteria”.
The execution from company A continues, “ of course the most of the key ports in our subsidiaries are held by home country nationals. Whenever replacements for these men are sought, it is the practice, if not the policy, to look next to you at the lead office and pick some one (usually a home country national) you know and trust”.
Company B : “ We are multinational firm. Our product division executives have worldwide profit responsibility. As our organisational chart shows, the united states is just one region on a par with Europe, Latin America, Africa etc, in each division”.
The executive from Company B goes on to explain, “the worldwide Product division concept is rather difficult to implement. The senior executives incharge of this divisions have little overseas experience. They have been promoted from domestic ports and tend to view foreign consumers needs as really basically the same as ours. Also, product division executives tend to focus on domestic market, because it generates more revenue than foreign market. The rewards are for global performance, but strategy is to focus on domestic. Most of the senior executives simply do not understand what happens overseas and really do not trust foreign executives, even those in key portions?
Questions :
1 Which company is truly Multinational ? Why?
2 List three differences between Company , Multi National company and Trans Multi National Company ?
Case - 3 (20 Marks)
Strategic R & D by TNCs in Developing Countries
TNCs have had long units in developing host countries for adapting products and processes to the local conditions, and in a few cases, to products for local markets. Since the min-1980s, however, they have also started locating strategic R & D centres in some developing countries, for developing generic technologies and products for regional or global markets. The main incentives for this are : (a) access to highly qualified scientists as shortages of research personnel emerge in certain fields in industrialised countries, (b) Cost differentials in research salaries between developing and industrialised countries, and (c) rationalisation of operations, assigning particular affiliates the responsibility for developing, manufacturing, and marketing particular products worldwide. Th new trends are more visible in industries dealing with new technologies, such as microelectronics, biotechnology, and new materials. In these technologies, the location of R & D can be geographically de-linked more easily from the location of manufacturing. It is also possible to separate R & D in core activities from that in non-core activities. Consequently, countries like India, Israel, Singapore, Malaysia or Brazil serve TNCs as good locations for strategic R & D.
For instance, Sony Corporation of Japan has around nine R & D units in Asian developing countries. It has three units in Singapore conducting R & D on core components such as optical data shortage devices, integrated chip design for audio products and CD-ROM drives, and multimedia and microchip software. It has three units in Malaysia working on video design, derivative models and circuit blocks for new TV chases, radio cassettes, discman and hi-fi receiver designs. It has one unit in Republic of Korea focusing on the design of compact discs, radio cassettes, tape recorders, and car stereos. It has one in Taiwan designing and developing video tape-recorders, minidisk players, video CDs, and duplicators. Finally, it has one unit in Indonesia focusing on the design of audio products.
Such units often work in collaboration with science and technology institutes in the host country. For instance, Daimler Benz has established such a unit in Bangalore, India, in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Science to work on projects related to its vehicles and avionics business. Current work includes interface design of avionics landing systems and smart GPS sensors for use by the group’s business worldwide.
Source: World Investment Report 1999.
Questions:
(a) Explain why MNCs have located R & D centres in developing countries?
(b) Mention the areas where R & D activities can easily be decentralised.
Case -4 (20 Marks)
VK Ltd a multi-product Company, furnishes you the following data relating to the year 2000.
First Half of the year Second Half of the year
Sales Rs. 45,000 Rs. 50,000
Total Cost Rs. 40,000 Rs. 43,000
Assuming that there is no change in prices and variable costs and that the fixed expenses are incurred equally in the two half years periods calculate for the year 2000.
1. The Profit Volume ration
2. Fixed Expenses
3. Break-Even Sales
4. Percentage of margin of safety.
5 marks each
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