Smu Assignment Semester – 1

SMUASSIGNMENT

SEMESTER – 1MB0027

Human Resource Management

SUBMITTED BY:

ANIL KUMAR JOSHIMBA

ROLL NO.- 520949950

ASSIGNMENTS- MBA Sem-I MB0027 – Human Resource Management

SET-1

Q.1 Write a short note on Hawthorne Studies.

Frederick Taylor, who died in 1915, did not live to see the employee motivation studies that were conducted at Western Electric’s Hawthorne plant, near Chicago, Illinois, from 1927 to 1932. However, the founder of the scientific school of management would have no doubt been interested in the results. The Hawthorne studies undercut a core pillar of Taylorism--the notion that workers were motivated purely by economic gain.

Researchers from Western Electric and Harvard University led the Hawthorne studies. (General Electric originally contributed funding, but they withdrew after the first trial was completed.) The studies were intended to examine the influence of environmental variables on a group of production workers. The group of workers was divided into two subgroups: a test group, which would undergo environmental changes, and a control group. The members of the control group would work under normal, constant environment conditions.

The researchers began by manipulating the lighting of the test group. When lighting for the test group was increased, their productivity increased--but the productivity of the control group increased, as well. This result was somewhat unexpected, since the lighting at the workstations of the control group had not been altered.

The researchers then decreased the lighting at the test group’s workstations. Surprisingly, both the test group and the control group continued to improve their productivity. There were no decreases in productivity until the light was reduced to the point where the workers could barely see. The researchers concluded that light did not have a significant impact on the motivation of production workers. This led General Electric, a light bulb manufacturer, to withdraw their funding.

The next experiment utilized a mainstay of scientific management: incentive-based, piecework system. The researchers expected, according to the conventional wisdom of the day, that this would inspire the employees to dramatically increase their pace. However, rather than working as fast as they could individually, the workers calibrated themselves as a group. Employees who worked more slowly than average were derided as “chiselers.” Employees who attempted to work faster than the group were called “rate busters.” In other words, any significant deviation from the collectively imposed norm was punished.

These results were, of course, a major blow to the position of scientific management, which held that employees were only motivated by individual economic interest. The Hawthorne studies drew attention to the social needs as an additional source of motivation. Taylor’s emphasis on economic incentives was not wholly discredited, but economic incentives were now viewed as one factor--not the sole factor--to which employees responded.


Q.2 Trace the growth of Trade Union Movement from Factories Act 1881 to Factories Act 1948.

The growth of trade unions in India started way back in 1850 when the economic conditions of labor was poor, The industry was dominated by the Capitalism, and the industrialists were more concerned about the productivity. Long working hours, Low wedges, poor living conditions and exploitation by the management was common in the industry. Slowly in many parts of the country the workforces united and Factories Act 1881 was incorporated with a ban on Child labor, and conditions in working hours and improved working conditions.

In next phase many trade unions were incorporated in the country under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi in other parts of the country like West Bangal, Ahamdabad, Punjab and others. All India trade union federation was formed. After independence this took the shape of Indian Factory Act 1948 with regulation on working conditions, working hours, and other facilities at workplace.

Q.3 Elaborate the HR planning System

Human Resource planning can be defined as a process by which an organization ensures that it has the right number and kinds of people, at the right place, at the right time, capable of effectively and efficiently completing those tasks that will help the organization achieve its overall objectives or in other words HRP can be defined as planning for the future personnel needs of an organization, taking into account both internal activities and factors in the external environment.

Need and Importance of HRP

Human resource Planning translates the organization objectives and plans into the number of workers needed to meet these objectives. The need and importance of HRP is as follows:

HRP helps in determining the future manpower requirements and avoids problems like over staffing or understaffing in the organization.

HRP helps in tackling with the factors like competition, technology, government policies etc. that generates changes in the job content, skill requirements and number and types of personnel required.

Now a days there is a demand of exceptional intellectual skills while the existing staff becomes redundant, the HR manager has to attract and retain qualified and skilled personnel and also required to deal with issues like career development, succession planning for which he takes the help of HRP.

A proper and realistic human resource plan is needed to ensure equal employment and promotional appointments to the candidates fro weaker sections, physically handicapped and socially and politically oppressed citizens.

HRP provides valuable and timely information for various designing and execution of personnel functions like recruitment, selection, transfers, promotions, layoffs, training and development and performance appraisal.


It helps the organization to anticipate imbalance in human resources, which in turn will facilitate reduction in personal costs.

HRP facilitates planning for future needs which will help in better planning of assignments to develop managers and to ensure the organization has a steady supply of experienced and skilled employees.

Factors affecting Human Resource Planning

HRP is a dynamic and on going process. The process of updating is not very simple, since HRP is influenced by many factors, which are as follows:

The type of organization determines the production process and number and type of staff needed.

The human resource needs of an organization depend on the strategic plan adopted by it. For e.g. the growth of a business calls for hiring of additional labour, while mergers will need a plan for layoffs.

Organization operates under different political, social environment and has to carefully formulate the HR policies and so the HR manager has to evolve suitable mechanism to deal with uncertainties through career developments, succession planning, retirement schemes etc.

HRP also depends on the time periods and accordingly the short and long-term plans are adopted. And this time span is based on the degree of environmental uncertainties.

The type and quality of information used in making forecasting is an important factor influencing HRP. Accurate and timely human resource information system helps in getting better quality personnel.

HRP is required to ensure that suitable candidates should be appointed at the right kind of job.

So these are some of the factors that affect the human resource planning.

Limitations of Human Resource Planning

It is very difficult to ascertain future manpower requirements of an organization, as future is always uncertain.

It is more relevant to the countries that face the problem of scarcity of human resources.

It is a time consuming and costlier process.

It is beneficial in the organizations that adopt a professional approach and at the same time are conscious about the changing environment.

HRP is beneficial where adequate skilled manpower is available.

HRP is also made difficult in the organizations that have a very high labour turnover.


Q.4 Discuss the Multiple Person Evaluation Methods.

The above-discussed methods are used to evaluate employees one at a time. In this section let us discuss some techniques of evaluating one employee in comparison to another. Three such frequently used methods in organization are – ranking, paired comparison and forced distribution.

Ranking method

This is a relatively easy method of performance evaluation. Under this method, the ranking of an employee in a work group is done against that of another employee. The relative position of each employee is tested in terms of his numerical rank. It may also be done by ranking a person on his job performance against another member of the competitive group. The quintessence of this method is that employees are ranked according to their levels of performance. While using this method, the evaluator is asked to rate employees from highest to lowest on some overall criterion. Though it is relatively easier to rank the best and the worst employees, it is very difficult to rank the average employees. Generally, evaluators pick the top and bottom employees first and then select the next highest and next lowest and move towards the average (middle) employees. The longstanding limitations of this method are:

The ‘whole man’ is compared with another ‘whole man’ in this method. In practice, it is very difficult to compare individuals possessing varied behavioural traits.

This method speaks only of the position where an employee stands in his group. It does not tell anything about how much better or how much worse an employee is when compared to another employee.

When a large number of employees are working, ranking of individuals becomes a tosticating issue.

There is no systematic procedure for ranking individuals in the organization. The ranking system does not eliminate the possibility of snap judgments.

In order to overcome the above limitations a paired comparison technique has been advanced by organizational scholars.

Paired comparison method

Ranking becomes more reliable and easier under the paired comparison method. Each worker is compared with all other employees in the group; for every trait the worker is compared with all other employees. For instance, when there are five employees to be compared, then A’s performance is compared with that of B’s and decision is arrived at as to whose is the better or worse. Next, B is also compared with all others. Since A is already compared with B, this time B is to be compared with only C, D and E. By this method when there are five employees, fifteen decisions are made (comparisons). The number of decisions to be made can be determined with the help of the formulae n (n-2). Ranking the employees by the paired comparison method may be illustrated as shown in the Table

For several individual traits, paired comparisons are made, tabulated and then rank is assigned to each worker. Though this method seems to be logical, it is not applicable when a group is large. When the group becomes too large, the number of comparisons to be made may become frighteningly excessive. For instance, when n=100, comparisons to be made are 100 (100-2) = 100 (98) = 9800.

http://www.openlearningworld.com/olw/courses/books/Performance%20and%20Potential%20Appraisal/Performance%20and%20Potential%20Appraisal/Multiple%20person%20Evaluation%20Techniques.html




Trait: ‘Quantity of work’

Table: Employee Rated

As compared to A B C D E A + – + – B – + – + C + – + – D – + – – E + – + +

Forced distribution method

Under this system, the rater is asked to appraise the employee according to a predetermined distribution scale. The rater’s bias is sought to be eliminated here because workers are not placed at a higher or lower end of the scale. Normally, the two criteria used here for rating are the job performance and promotability. Further, a five point performance scale is used without any mention of descriptive statements. Workers are placed between the two extremes of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ performances. For instance, the workers of outstanding merit may be placed at the top 10% of the scale. The rest may be placed as – 20% —good, 40% —outstanding, 20% —fair and 10% —fair. To be specific, the forced distribution method assumes that all top grade workers should go to the highest 10% grade; 20% employees should go to the next highest grade and so on.

Job performance as the criterion apart, another equally important factor in this method is promotability. Employees may be classified according to their promotional merits. The scale for this purpose may consist of three points – namely, quite likely promotional material, may/may not be promotional material and quite unlikely promotional material.

One strong positive point in favour of the forced distribution method is that by forcing the distribution according to predetermined percentages, the problem of making use of different raters with different scales is avoided. Further, this method is appreciated on the ground that it tends to eliminate rater bias. The limitation of using this method in salary administration however, is that it may result in low morale, low productivity and high absenteeism. Employees who feel that they are productive, but find themselves placed in a lower grade (than expected) feel frustrated and exhibit, over a period of time, reluctance to work.

Other methods of appraising performance include: Group Appraisal, Human Resource Accounting, Assessment Centre, Field Review, etc. These are discussed in the following sections:

Group appraisal

In this method, an employee is appraised by a group of appraisers. This group consists of the immediate supervisor of the employee, other supervisors who have close contact with the employee’s work, manager or head of the department and consultants. The head of the department or manager may be the Chairman of the group and the immediate supervisor may act as the Coordinator for the group activities. This group uses any one of multiple techniques discussed earlier. The immediate supervisor enlightens other members about the job characteristics, demands, standards or performance, etc. Then the group appraises the performance of the employee, compares the actual performance with standards, finds out the



deviations, discusses the reasons therefore, suggests ways for improvement of performance, prepares an action plan, studies the need for change in the job analysis and standards and recommends changes, if necessary.

This method eliminates ‘personal bias’ to a large extent, as performance is evaluated by multiple rates. But it is a very time consuming process.

Human resource accounting

HRA is a sophisticated way to measure (in financial terms) the effectiveness of personnel management activities and the use of people in an organization. It is the process of accounting for people as an organizational resource. It tries to place a value on organizational human resources as assets and not as expenses. The HRA process shows the investment the organization makes in its people and how the value of these people changes over time. The acquisition cost of employees is compared to the replacement cost from time to time. The value of employees is increased by investments made by the company to improve the quality of its human resources such as training, development skills acquired by employees over a period of time through experience, etc. When qualified, competent people leave an organization; the value of human assets goes down. In this method, employee performance is evaluated in terms of costs and contributions of employees. Human resource costs include expenditure incurred by the company in hiring, training, compensating and developing people. The contributions of human resources is the money value of labour productivity. The cost of human resources may be taken as the standard. Employee performance can be measured in terms of employee contribution to the organization. Employee performance can be taken as positive when contribution is more than the cost and performance can be viewed as negative if cost is more than contribution. Positive performance can be measured in terms of percentage of excess of employee contribution over the cost of employee. Similarly negative performance can be calculated in terms of percentage of deficit in employee contribution compared to the cost of employee. These percentages can be ranked to ‘Zero Level’ as shown in the Table below.

Rank Rating Percentage of surplus/Deficit of contribution to cost of employee

1. Extremely good performance Over 2002. Good performance 150 – 2003. Slightly good performance 100 – 1504. Neither poor nor good 0 – 1005. Slightly poor performance 06. Poor performance 0 to (— 50)7. Extremely poor performance (—50) to (—100)

This technique has not developed fully and is still in the transitionary stage.

Assessment centre

This method of appraising was first applied in German Army in 1930. Later business and industrial houses started using this method. This is not a technique of performance appraisal by itself. In fact it is a system or organization, where assessment of several individuals is done by various experts using various techniques. These techniques include the methods




discussed before in addition to in-basket, role playing, case studies, simulation exercises, structured in sight, transactional analysis, etc.

In this approach individuals from various departments are brought together to spend two or three days working on an individual or group assignment similar to the ones they would be handling when promoted. Observers rank the performance of each and every participant in order of merit. Since assessment centres are basically meant for evaluating the potential of candidates to be considered for promotion, training or development, they offer an excellent means for conducting evaluation processes in an objective way. All assessees get an equal opportunity to show their talents and capabilities and secure promotion based on merit. Since evaluators know the position requirements intimately and are trained to perform the evaluation process in an objective manner, the performance ratings may find favour with majority of the employees. A considerable amount of research evidence is available to support the contention that people chosen by this method prove better than those chosen by other methods. The centre enables individuals working in low status departments to compete with people from well-known departments and enlarge their promotion chances. Such opportunities, when created on a regular basis, will go a long way in improving the morale of promising candidates working in less important positions.

Field Review Method

Where subjective performance measures are used, there is scope for rater’s biases influencing the evaluation process. To avoid this, some employees use the field review method. In this method a trained, skilled representative of the HR department goes into the ‘field’ and assists line supervisors with their ratings of their respective subordinates. The HR specialist requests from the immediate supervisor specific information about the employees performance. Based on this information, the expert prepares a report which is sent to the supervisor for review, changes, approval and discussion with the employee who is being rated. The ratings are done on standardized forms.

Since an expert is handling the appraisal process, in consultation with the supervisor, the ratings are more reliable. However, the use of HR experts makes this approach costly and impractical for many organizations.


Q.5 Write a note on different theories for Managing Compensation

Managing compensation throughout the different levels of the organization. Workplace views of compensation are often tied to perceptions of quality of life, security, status, workplace value, and fairness. Compensation is among the most complex and heated topics in business settings. It is important, therefore, that students examine methods by which compensation is managed, or sometimes mismanaged, using workplace examples. This perspective will be our classroom focus, as it will provide students with tools and experiences that can be directly applied to the workplace. Managing a compensation program initially requires an understanding of technical skills used by HR professionals: Job Analysis, Job Evaluation, assessing pay grades, salary surveys, et al. These skills will be developed over the term of this course. However, far more than a quantitative study or a major expense to a bottom line, compensation management also requires that professionals make difficult strategic-level choices that can have tremendous impact on the livelihood of employees, a company’s culture or its financial future.

Professionals who design and implement comprehensive direct and indirect pay programs are often required to balance conflicting variables. These variables include internal pressures for cost containment, the financial interests of employees, external competition for talented employees, executives’ roles in shaping organizational cultures, ethical considerations, the role of government, and the influence of long-range business plans. During the term of this course, the effects of these variables on compensation management will be discussed and debated. While this course provides an overview of employee benefits programs (indirect compensation), the main focus will be forms of direct pay.


Q.6 Write the advantages and limitations of Job Evaluation Method.

Answer:

Job Evaluation Methods There are three basic methods of job evaluation:

1. Ranking2. Classification3. Factor comparison.

While many variations of these methods exist in practice, the three basic approaches are described here.

Ranking Method

Perhaps the simplest method of job evaluation is the ranking method. According to this method, jobs are arranged from highest to lowest, in order of their value or merit to the organization. Jobs also can be arranged according to the relative difficulty in performing them. The jobs are examined as a whole rather than on the basis of important factors in the job; and the job at the top of the list has the highest value and obviously the job at the bottom of the list will have the lowest value.

Jobs are usually ranked in each department and then the department rankings are combined to develop an organizational ranking. The following table is a hypothetical illustration of ranking of jobs.

Table: Array of Jobs according to the Ranking Method

Rank Monthly salaries

a. Accountant Rs 3,000 b. Accounts clerk Rs 1,800 c. Purchase assistant Rs 1,700 d. Machine-operator Rs 1,400 e. Typist Rs 900 f. Office boy Rs 600

The variation in payment of salaries depends on the variation of the nature of the job performed by the employees. The ranking method is simple to understand and practice and it is best suited for a small organization. Its simplicity, however, works to its disadvantage in big organizations because rankings are difficult to develop in a large, complex organization. Moreover, this kind of ranking is highly subjective in nature and may offend many employees. Therefore, a more scientific and fruitful way of job evaluation is called for.

Classification Method

(i) According to this method, a predetermined number of job groups or job classes are established and jobs are assigned to these classifications. This method places groups of jobs into job classes or job grades. Separate


classes may include office, clerical, managerial, personnel, etc. Following is a brief description of such a classification in an office.

(ii) Class I - Executives: Further classification under this category may be Office manager, Deputy office manager, Office superintendent, Departmental supervisor, etc.

(iii) Class II - Skilled workers: Under this category may come the Purchasing assistant, Cashier, Receipts clerk, etc.

(iv) Class III - Semiskilled workers: Under this category may come Steno-typists, Machine-operators, Switchboard operators, etc.

(v) Class IV - Semiskilled workers: This category comprises Daftaris, File clerks, Office boys, etc.

The job classification method is less subjective when compared to the earlier ranking method. The system is very easy to understand and acceptable to almost all employees without hesitation. One strong point in favor of the method is that it takes into account all the factors that a job comprises. This system can be effectively used for a variety of jobs.

The weaknesses of the job classification method are:

Even when the requirements of different jobs differ, they may be combined into a single category, depending on the status a job carries.

It is difficult to write all-inclusive descriptions of a grade.

The method oversimplifies sharp differences between different jobs and different grades.

When individual job descriptions and grade descriptions do not match well, the evaluators have the tendency to classify the job using their subjective judgments.

Factor Comparison Method

A more systematic and scientific method of job evaluation is the factor comparison method. Though it is the most complex method of all, it is consistent and appreciable. Under this method, instead of ranking complete jobs, each job is ranked according to a series of factors. These factors include mental effort, physical effort, skill needed, supervisory responsibility, working conditions and other relevant factors (for instance, know-how, problem solving abilities, accountability, etc.). Pay will be assigned in this method by comparing the weights of the factors required for each job, i.e., the present wages paid for key jobs may be divided among the factors weighed by importance (the most important factor, for instance, mental effort, receives the highest weight). In other words, wages are assigned to the job in comparison to its ranking on each job factor.

The steps involved in factor comparison method may be briefly stated thus:

Select key jobs (say 15 to 20), representing wage/salary levels across the organization. The selected jobs must represent as many departments as possible.

Find the factors in terms of which the jobs are evaluated (such as skill, mental effort, responsibility, physical effort, working conditions, etc.).


Rank the selected jobs under each factor (by each and every member of the job evaluation committee) independently.

Assign money value to each factor and determine the wage rates for each key job. The wage rate for a job is apportioned along the identified factors. All other jobs are compared with the list of key jobs and wage rates are determined.

An example of how the factor comparison method works is given below:

Merits and Demerits of Factor Comparison Method

Merits & Demerits

Analytical and objective. Reliable and valid as each job is compared with all other jobs in terms of key factors. Money values are assigned in a fair way based on an agreed rank order fixed by the

job evaluation committee. Flexible as there is no upper limitation on the rating of a factor. Difficult to understand, explain and operate. Its use of the same criteria to assess all jobs is questionable as jobs differ across and

within organizations. Time consuming and costly.

Point method

This method is widely used currently. Here, jobs are expressed in terms of key factors. Points are assigned to each factor after prioritizing each factor in the order of importance. The points are summed up to determine the wage rate for the job. Jobs with similar point totals are placed in similar pay grades. The procedure involved may be explained thus:

(a) Select key jobs. Identify the factors common to all the identified jobs such as skill, effort, responsibility, etc.

(b) Divide each major factor into a number of sub factors. Each sub factor is defined and expressed clearly in the order of importance, preferably along a scale.

The most frequent factors employed in point systems are:

I. Skill (key factor): Education and training required, Breadth/depth of experience required, Social skills required, Problem-solving skills, Degree of discretion/use of judgment, Creative thinking;

II. Responsibility/Accountability: Breadth of responsibility, Specialized responsibility, Complexity of the work, Degree of freedom to act, Number and nature of subordinate staff, Extent of accountability for equipment/plant, Extent of accountability for product/materials;

III. Effort: Mental demands of a job, Physical demands of a job, Degree of potential stress. The educational requirements (sub factor) under the skill (key factor) may be expressed thus in the order of importance.

Degree Define o Able to carry out simple calculations; High School educated


o Does all the clerical operations; computer literate; graduate o Handles mail, develops contacts, takes initiative and does work independently; post

graduate

Assign point values to degrees after fixing a relative value for each key factor. Point Values to Factors along a Scale

Point values for Degrees Total

Factor 1 2 3 4 5 Skill 10 20 30 40 50 150 Physical effort 8 16 24 32 40 120 Mental effort 5 10 15 20 25 75 Responsibility 7 14 21 28 35 105 Working conditions 6 12 18 24 30 90 Maximum total points of all factors depending on their importance to job = 540

(Bank Officer)

4 Find the maximum number of points assigned to each job (after adding up the point values of all sub-factors of such a job). This would help in finding the relative worth of a job. For instance, the maximum points assigned to an officer's job in a bank come to 540. The manager's job, after adding up key factors + sub factors' points, may be getting a point value of, say 650 from the job evaluation committee. This job is now priced at a higher level. 5 Once the worth of a job in terms of total points is expressed, the points are converted into money values keeping in view the hourly/daily wage rates. A wage survey, usually, is undertaken to collect wage rates of certain key jobs in the organization. Let's explain this:

Conversion of Job Grade Points into Money Value

Point range Daily wage rate (Rs) Job grades of key bank officials

500-600 300-400 1 Officer

600-700 400-500 2 Accountant

700-800 500-600 3 Manager I Scale

800-900 600-700 4 Manager II Scale

900-1,000 700-800 5 Manager III Scale

Merits and Demerits

The point method is a superior and widely used method of evaluating jobs. It forces raters to look into all keys factors and sub-factors of a job. Point values are assigned to all factors in a systematic way, eliminating bias at every stage. It is reliable because raters using similar criteria would get more or less similar answers. "The methodology underlying the approach


contributes to a minimum of rating error" (Robbins, p.361). It accounts for differences in wage rates for various jobs on the strength of job factors. Jobs may change over time, but the rating scales established under the point method remain unaffected.

On the negative side, the point method is complex. Preparing a manual for various jobs, fixing values for key and sub-factors, establishing wage rates for different grades, etc., is a time consuming process. According to Decenzo and Robbins, "the key criteria must be carefully and clearly identified, degrees of factors have to be agreed upon in terms that mean the same to all rates, the weight of each criterion has to be established and point values must be assigned to degrees". This may be too taxing, especially while evaluating managerial jobs where the nature of work (varied, complex, novel) is such that it cannot be expressed in quantifiable numbers.


SET-2

1. Mention and briefly explain different sources of recruitment.

The sources of employee’s recruitment can be classified into two types, internal and external. Filing a job opening from within the firm has advantages of stimulating preparation for possible transfer of promotion, increasing the general level of morale, and providing more information about job candidates through analysis of work histories within the organisation. A job posting has number of advantages. From the view point of employee, it provides flexibility and greater control over career progress. The jobs posted on notice boards, group emails and publishing in internal news papers. Internal applications often restricted to certain employees, the guidelines for companies include:

- Good or better in most recent performance review- Dependable attendance record- Not under probationary sanction- Having been in present position for at least one year

The personnel department acts as a clearing house in screening applications that are unrealistic, preventing an excess number of bids by a single employee and counselling unsuccessful employees in their constant attempt to change their jobs.

Similarly the firm may go to external sources for recruitment of lower entry jobs, for expansion, and positions whose specifications cannot be met by the present personnel. The following external resources are available for firms:

a) Advertising: There is a trend toward more selective recruitment in advertising. This can be affected in at least two ways. First advertisements can be placed in media read only by particular groups. Secondly, more information about the company, the job, and the job specification can be included in the ad to permit some self-screening.

b) Employment Agencies: Additional screening can be affected through the utilization of employment agencies, both public and private. Today, in contrast to their former unsavoury reputation, the public employment agencies in several states are well-regarded, particularly in the fields of unskilled semi-skilled and skilled operative jobs. In the technical and professional areas, however, the private agencies tend to specialize in a particular engineer.

c) Employee Referrals: Friends and relatives of present employees are also a good source from which employees may be drawn. When the labour market is very tight, large employers frequently offer their employees bonus or prizes for any referrals that are hired and stay with the company for a specific length of time. Some companies maintain a register of former employees whose record was good to contact them when there are new job openings for which they are qualified. This method of recruitment, however, suffers from a serious defect that it encourages nepotism, i.e. Persons of one’s community or caste are employed, who may or may not be fit for the job.

d) Schools, colleges and professional institutions: These offer opportunities for recruiting their students. They will also have separate placement cell where the bio data and other particulars of the students are available. The prospective employers can review credentials and interview candidates for management trainees or probationers. This is an excellent source of potential employees for entry-level positions in the organisations.


e) Labour Unions: Firms which closed or union shops must look to the union in their recruitment efforts. This has disadvantage of monopolistic workforce.

f) Casual applicants: Unsolicited applications, both at the gate and through the mail, constitute a much-used source of personnel. These can be developed through attractive employment office facilities, prompt and courteous reply to unsolicited letters.

g) Professional organisations or recruiting firms or executive recruiters: Maintain complete records about employed executives. These firms are looked upon as head hunters, raiders and pirates by organizations may employ “executive search firms” to help them find talent. These consulting firms recommend persons of high calibre for managerial, marketing and production engineers’ posts.

h) Indoctrination seminars for colleges are arranged to discuss the problem of companies and employees. Professors are invited to take part of these seminars. Visits to plants are arranged so that professors may be favourably impressed. They may speak well of a company and help it in getting the required personnel.

i) Unconsolidated applications: for positions in which large numbers of candidates are not available from other sources, the companies may gain keeping files of applications received from candidates who make direct enquiries about the possible vacancies on their own, or may send unsolicited applications. This would be helpful to firms for future vacancies.

j) Nepotism: the hiring of relatives will be an inevitable component of recruitment programmes in family-owned firms, such a policy does not necessarily coincide with hiring on the basis of merit, but interest and loyalty to the enterprise are offsetting advantages.

k) Leasing: to adjust to short term fluctuations in personnel needs, the possibility of leasing personnel by the hour or day should be considered. This principle has been particularly well developed in the office administration field because they can avoid any obligation in pensions, insurance and any other fringe benefits.

l) Voluntary Organisations: Such as private clubs, social organisations might also provide employees – handicaps, widowed or married women, old persons, retired hands etc. In response to advertisements.

m) Computer Data Banks: when a company desires a particular type of employees, job specifications and requirements are fed to computers, where they are matched against data stored in. This method is very useful in identifying candidates for hard-t-fit positions which calls for unusual combinations of skills.


2. Write a note on guided and unguided interview.

Hitchcock (1989:79) lists nine types: structured interview, survey interview, counselling interview, diary interview, life history interview, ethnographic interview, informal/unstructured interview, and conversations. Cohen & Manion (1994:273), however, prefers to group interviews into four kinds, including the structured or guided interview, the unstructured or unguided interview, the non-directive interview, and the focused interview.

In-depth interviewing, also known as unstructured interviewing, is a type of interview which researchers use to elicit information in order to achieve a holistic understanding of the interviewee’s point of view or situation; it can also be used to explore interesting areas for further investigation. This type of interview involves asking informants open-ended questions, and probing wherever necessary to obtain data deemed useful by the researcher. As in-depth interviewing often involves qualitative data, it is also called qualitative interviewing. Patton (1987:113) suggests three basic approaches to conducting interviewing:

One essential element of all interviews is the verbal interaction between the interviewer/s and the interviewee/s. Hitchcock (1989:79) stresses that ‘central to the interview is the issue of asking questions and this is often achieved in qualitative research through conversational encounters.’ Consequently, it is important for the researchers to familiarise themselves with questioning techniques before conducting interviews.

(i) The informal conversational interviewThis type of interview resembles a chat, during which the informants may sometimes forget that they are being interviewed. Most of the questions asked will flow from the immediate context. Informal conversational interviews are useful for exploring interesting topic/s for investigation and are typical of ‘ongoing’ participant observation fieldwork.

(ii) The general interview guide approach (commonly called guided interview)When employing this approach for interviewing, a basic checklist is prepared to make sure that all relevant topics are covered. The interviewer is still free to explore, probe and ask questions deemed interesting to the researcher. This type of interview approach is useful for eliciting information about specific topics. For this reason, Wenden (1982) formulated a checklist as a basis to interview her informants in a piece of research leading towards her PhD studies. She (1982:39) considers that the general interview guide approach is useful as it ‘allows for in-depth probing while permitting the interviewer to keep the interview within the parameters traced out by the aim of the study.’

(iii) The standardised open-ended interview (Unguided interview)Researchers using this approach prepare a set of open-ended questions which are carefully worded and arranged for the purpose of minimising variation in the questions posed to the interviewees. In view of this, this method is often preferred for collecting interviewing data when two or more researchers are involved in the data collecting process. Although this method provides less flexibility for questions than the other two mentioned previously, probing is still possible, depending on the nature of the interview and the skills of the interviewers.


3. Discuss the techniques to motivate employees.

The motivation techniques may be divided into two parts

[a] that is to be done; and

[b] how and why what is done. The former are steps in motivation and the later are rules governing the steps. Both are performed simultaneously. These are listed below:

a) Size up situation requiring motivation: The first step of motivation is to make sure of motivational needs. Every employee needs motivation; however, all people do not react exactly as the same way to the same stimuli. Keeping this in mind executive shall size up how much and what kind of motivation is needed.

b) Prepare a set of motivational tools: An executive from his personnel experience should prepare a list of what devices are likely towork with what type of people and under what circumstances.

c) Selecting and applying motivator: Proper application of motivational plan is important. This involves selection of the appropriate technique, method of application and the timing and location of applications.

d) Follow up the results of applications: The last stage of motivation is to follow-up the results of the application of the plan. The primary objective is to ascertain if an employee has been motivated or not. If not some other technique should be tried.

Rules of motivating:The motivation manager must be guided with some fundamental rules which should be based on the following principles.

a. Self interest and motivation: Motivation is mainly built on selfishness. Psychologically speaking, selfishness is a part and parcel of life. To deny this is to build the theory on unrealistic foundation. To seek some other basis of motivation would be to ignore the real nature of man. The aim should be to learn more about selfishness.

b. Attainability: Motivation must be establish attainable goals. This does not mean that the goal is realised at once. This may take years to attain. But it must be within reach.

Eight ways to motivate plant employees: The following recommendations are for improving the motivation of employees in the routine jobs.

a. Provide assembly line employees with more than minimum training. This would result in greater personnel involvement in the job.

b. Crate sub goals to measure accomplishment. A sense of completion is important for motivation. They are likely to be more interested in the work which will reduce monotony and mental fatigue.

c. Provide regular feedback on performance. Studies show that people work better when they receive positive feedback.

d. Maintain a neat and orderly work area. If the foreman does not care about housekeeping then employees may feel that they also need not care about it and this attitude may affect quality of work.


e. Arrange work situations so that conversation between employees is either easy or possible. Experience workers may to their job with little attention to the task. Conversation my reduce monotony and thus fatigue.

f. Increase the number of operations performed by one employee. This can be done by simplification of manual operations. It offers several advantages:

The risk of errors reduced; Management can hire employees at lower wages; Training costs are minimised.

g. Structure jobs, so that workers can at least occasionally move about the work area. Besides job rotation, there are other ways to provide for physical movement like stetting employees secure their own tools etc.

h. Explore ways to assign greater personnel responsibility. Increased responsibility means greater self esteem and greater job meaningfulness. One way to enlarge responsibility is to let the employee inspect his own work.


4. Explain in detail the Disciplinary –Action Penalties.

Disciplinary-Action Penalties

There are varying penalties for first, second, and third offences of the same rule. Among the penalties available in business are:

1. Oral reprimand2. Written reprimand3. Loss of privileges4. Fines5. Lay off6. Demotion7. Discharge

The penalties are listed in the general order of severity, from mild to severe for most cases, an oral reprimand is sufficient to achieve the desired result. The supervisor must know his or her personnel in determining how to give a reprimand. For one person, a severe “chewing out” may be necessary in order to get attention and co-operation; another person may require only a casual mention of a deficiency. If the offence is more serious, the reprimand may be put in written form.

Since a written reprimand is more permanent than an oral one, it is considered a more severe penalty.

For such offences as tardiness or leaving work without permission, fines or loss of various privileges can be used. The loss of privileges includes such items as good job assignments, right to select machine or other equipment, and freedom of movement about the workplace or company.

The more severe penalties of layoff, demotion, and discharge are usually outside the grant of authority to the immediate supervisor. Disciplinary layoffs can vary in severity from one to several days’ loss of work without pay. The use of demotions as a penalty is highly questionable. If the employee is properly qualified for the present assignment, he or she will be improperly placed on a lower job. Discharge is the most severe penalty that a business organization can give and constitutes “industrial capital punishment”.


5. Explain the importance of Grievance Handling.Importance if Grievance Handling

At one or the other stage of grievance procedure, the dispute must be handled by some member of management. In the solution of a problem, the greater burdens rest on management. The clearest opportunity for settlement is found at the first stage, before the grievance has left the jurisdiction of the supervisor. For this reason, many firms have specifically trained their supervisors as to how to handle a grievance or a complaint properly. The following directions help in handling grievances properly.

a. Receive and define the nature of the dissatisfaction: The manner and the attitude with which the supervisor receives the compliant of grievance is important. The supervisor should assume that employee is fair in presenting the compliant or grievance. Statements should not be prejudged on the basis of past experience with this or other employees. The supervisors who are task oriented, as contrasted with people oriented, tended to experience a significantly greater number of complaints being filed in their units.

b. Get the facts: In gathering facts, one quickly becomes are of the importance of keeping proper records such as performance ratings, attendance records and suggestions. The supervisor is wise to keep records on each particular grievance. The supervisor posses and exercise some skill in interview conference, and discussion.

c. Analyse and Divide: With the problem defined and the facts in hand, the manager must now analyse and evaluate them, and then come to some decision. There is usually more than one possible solution. The manager must also be aware that the decision may constitute a precedent within the department as well as the company.

d. Apply the Answer: through the solution decided upon by the supervisor is adverse to the employees, some answer is better than none. Employees dislike supervisors who will take no stand, good or bad. In the event of an appeal beyond this stage of procedure, the manager must have the decision and the reasons for his decisions should be properly recorded.

e. Follow up: The objective of the grievance handling procedure is to resolve a disagreement between an employee and organisation. Discussion and conference are important to this process. The purpose is to determine whether the clash of interest has been resolved. If the follow up reveals that the case has been handled unsatisfactorily or that the wrong grievance has been processed, then redefinition of the problem, further fact finding, analysis, solution and follow up are required.

Among the common errors of management encountered in the processing of grievances are:o Stopping too soon in the search of facts;o Expressing management opinion prior to the time when all pertinent facts have

been discovered;o Failing to maintain proper records;o Resorting to execute orders instead of discussion and conference to change

minds; ando Setting the wrong grievance- a mistake which may in turn produce a second

new grievance. Follow up is the step in the procedure that tells us when a mistake in handling has been made.


6. Explain Managerial Grid in detail.

Robert Blake, an eminent behavioural scientist differentiated the leaders on the basis of their concern to people and concern to task. He conducted study on 500 managers. He puts it on a grid called Managerial Grid, as follows:

HIGH

Con

cern

ed f

or P

eop

le

91,9

9,9

8

7

6

5,5

5

4

3

21,1

9,1

1 LOW 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 HIGH

Concerned for Results

The Managerial Grid Model [1964] is a behavioural leadership model developed by Mr. R Blake. This model identifies 5 different leadership styles based on the concern for people and the concern for task. The optimal leadership in this model is based on theory Y.

As shown in the figure, the model is represented as a grid with concern for work on X axis and the concern for people on Y axis; each axis ranges from 1 [low] to 9 [high]. The five resulting leadership styles are as follows:

i. The impoverished style [1, 1]. The indifferent Leader (Evade and Elude)

In this style, managers have low concern for both people and work. Managers use this style to avoid getting into trouble. The main concern for the manager is not to be held responsible for any mistakes, which results in less innovative decisions. A leader uses the delegate and disappear style. They essentially allow their team to do whatever it wishes and prefer to detach themselves from the team process by allowing the team to suffer from a series of power struggles.

Features:- Does only enough to preserve job and job seniority.- Give little and enjoys little.- Protects himself by not being noticed by others.


Implications:- Tries to stay in the same post for a long time.

Examples of leader speak:“I distance myself from taking active responsibility for results to avoid getting entangled into problems.”

“If forced, I take a passive or supportive position”

ii. The country club style [1, 9]. The accommodating leader (Yield and Comply)

This style has a high concern for people and a low concern for work. Managers using this style pay much attention to the security and comfort of the employees, in the hopes that this would increase performance. The resulting atmosphere is usually friendly, but not necessarily that productive.

This person uses predominantly reward power to maintain discipline to encourage team to accomplish its goals. Conversely, they are almost incapable of employing the more punitive coercive and legitimate powers. This inability results from fear that using such power could jeopardise relationships with the other team members.Examples of Leader speak:

“I support results that establish and reinforce harmony”“I generate enthusiasm by focussing on positive and pleasing aspects of work”

iii. The produce or perish style. The controlling leader (Direct & Dominate)

Another Aspect

Managerial grid model The Managerial Grid Model (1964) is a behavioral leadership model developed by Robert Blake and Jane Mouton. This model identifies five different leadership styles based on the concern for people and the concern for production. The optimal leadership style in this model is based on Theory Y. A graphical representation of the Managerial Grid As shown In the figure, the model is represented as a grid with concern for production as the X-axis and concern for people as the Y-axis; each axis ranges from 1 (Low) to 9 (High). The five resulting leadership styles are as follows:

The impoverished style (1,1)In this style, managers have low concern for both people and production. Managers use this style to avoid getting into trouble. The main concern for the manager is not to be held responsible for any mistakes, which results in less innovative decisions.

The country club style (1,9)This style has a high concern for people and a low concern for production. Managers using this style pay much attention to the security and comfort of the employees, in hopes that this would increase performance. The resulting atmosphere is usually friendly, but not necessarily productive.

The produce or perish style (9,1)


With a high concern for production, and a low concern for people, managers using this style find employee needs unimportant; they provide their employees with money and expect performance back. Managers using this style also pressure their employees through rules and punishments to achieve the company goals. This style is based on Theory X, and is commonly applied by companies on the edge of failure.

The middle-of-the-road style (5,5)Managers using this style try to balance between company goals and workers' needs. By giving some concern to both people and production, managers who use this style hope to achieve acceptable peformance.

The team style (9,9)In this style, high concern is paid both to people and production. As suggested by the propositions of Theory Y, managers choosing to use this style encourage teamwork and commitment among employees. This method relies heavily on making employees feel as a constructive part of the company.

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Smu Assignment Semester – 1