Part One:
Multiple choices:
1) It is the cultural attitude marked by tendency to regard one’s own culture as superior to others
a. Geocentrism
b. Polycentrism
c. Ethnocentrism
d. Egocentrism
2) This is the systemic study of job needs & those factors which influence the performance of those job needs
a. Job analysis
b. Job rotation
c. Job circulation
d. Job description
3) This Act gives an help for minimum statutory wages for scheduled employment
a. Payment of Wages Act, 1936
b. Minimum Wages Act, 1948
c. Factories Act, 1948
d. Payment of Gratuity act, 1972
4) __________ is real posting of the employee to a specific job
a. Induction
b. Placement
c. Attrition
d. None
5) Broadening individual’s knowledge, skills & abilities for future responsibilities is called
a. Training
b. Development
c. Education
d. Mentoring
6) Change which is designed and executed in an orderly and timely fashion in anticipation of future events
a. Planned change
b. Technology change
c. Structural change
d. None
7) It is the procedure for setting aims and monitoring progress towards attaining those objectives
a. Performance appraisal
b. Performance gap
c. Performance factor
d. Performance management system
8) A method that needs rates to give a subjective performance evaluation along a scale from low to high
a. Assessment centre
b. Checklist
c. Rating scale
d. Monitoring
9) It is a sum of attitudes, knowledge, commitment, values, skills and liking of people in the organization
a. Human resources
b. Personal management
c. Human resource management
d. Productivity
10) A learning exercise representing a real-life situation where trainees compete with each other to attain specific goals
a. Executive development
b. Management game
c. Programmed learning
d. Understudy
Part Two:
1. Describe the significance of Career Planning in industry.
2. Write the features of HRM.
3. Describe the concept of Performance Appraisal.
4. Describe On-Job and Off Job Training.
Section B: Case lets
• Answer all the questions.
• Detailed information must form the part of your answer (Word limit 150-200 words).
Case let 1
Trust them with knee-jerk reactions," said Vikram Koshy, CEO, Delta Software India, as he looked at quarterly report of Top Line Securities, a well-known equity research firm. The firm had announced a downgrade of Delta, a company listed both on Indian bourses and the NASDAQ. The reason? "One out of every six development engineers in the company is likely to be benched during remaining part of the year." Three analysts from Top Line had spent some time at Delta three weeks ago. Koshy and his team had described how benching was no different from the problems of excess inventory, idle time, and surplus capacity which firms in the manufacturing sector face on a regular basis, "Delta has witnessed a scorching pace of 30 per cent growth during the last five years in a row," Koshy had said, "What is happening is a corrective phase." But, evidently, the analysts were unconvinced.
Why Bench?
Clients rapidly decide to cut back on IT spends Project mix gets skewed, affecting work allocationEmployee productivity is set to fall, creating slack working conditions. High degree of job specialization leads to redundancy.
What are the options?
Quickly cut costs in areas that are non-core look for learning’s from the manufacturing sector Focus on alternative markets like Europe and Japan Move into products, where margins are better. Of course, Top Line report went on to cite various other "signals," as it said: the rate of annual hike in salaries at Delta will come down to 5 per cent (from between 20 and 30 per cent last year); the entry-level intake of engineers from campuses in June 2001, will decline to 5 per cent (unlike the traditional 30 per cent addition to manpower every year); and earnings for the next two years can dip by between 10 and 12 per cent. And the loftiest of them all: "The meltdown at Nasdaq is unlikely to reverse in the near future." "Some of the signals are no doubt valid. And ominous," said Koshy, addressing his A-Team, that had assembled for the routine morning meeting. "But, clearly, everyone is reading too much into this business of benching. In fact, benching is one of the many options that our principals in the US have been pursuing as part of cutting costs right since September, 2000. They are also expanding the share of off-shore jobs. Five of our principals have confirmed that they will outsource more from Delta in India-which is probably to hike their billings by about 30 per cent. At one level, this is an opportunity for us. At another, of course, I am not sure if we must be jubilant, as they have asked for a 25-30 per cent cut in billing rates. Our margins would take a hit, unless we cut costs and improve productivity." "Productivity is clearly a matter of priority now," said Vivek Varadan, Vice-President (Operations). "If you consider benching as a non-earning mode, we do have large patches of it at Delta. Since you know, it has not been easy to achieve 70 per cent utilization of our manpower, even in normal times. I think we required to look at why we have 30 per cent bench before examining how to turn it into an asset." "There are various reasons," remarked Achyut Patwardhan, Vice-President (HR). "And a lot of it has to do with the nature of our business, that is more project-driven than product-driven. When you are managing the number of overseas and domestic projects simultaneously, since we do at Delta, people tend to go on the bench. They wait, as they finish one project, and are assigned the next. There are problems of coordination between projects, related to the logistics of moving people and resources from one customer to another. In fact, I am fine-tuning our monthly manpower utilization report to give a breakup of bench costs into specifics-leave period, training programmes, travel time, buffers, acclimatization period et al." "It will be worthwhile following the business model used by US principal Techno Inc," said Aveek Mohanty, Director (Finance). "The company has a pipeline of projects, but it doesn't manage project by project. What it does is to slice each project into what it calls 'activities'. Such as, communication networking; user interface development; scheduling of processes are activities common to all projects. People move from one project to another. It is somewhat like the Activity Based Costing. It throws up bench time straightaway, that helps us control costs and revenue better." "I also think we must ld decrease our dependence on projects and move into products," said Praveen Kumar, Director (Marketing). "That is where the opportunity for brand building lies. In fact, now is the time to get our technology guys involved in marketing. Multiskilling helps decrease the bench time." "Benching has an analogy in the manufacturing sector," said Girish Shahane, Vice-President (Services). "We can look for learning's there. Many firms have adopted Just-In-Time (JIT) inventory as part of eliminating idle time. It will be worthwhile exploring the possibility of JIT. But the real learning lies in standardization of work. It is linked to what Mohanty said about managing by activities." "At a broader level, I see several other opportunities," said Koshy, "We could fill in the space vacated by US firms and move up the value chain. But before we do so, Delta must consolidate its position as the premier outsourcing centre. As there are only two ways in which we could generate revenue-sell expertise or sell products-we must move towards a mix of both. Tie-ups with global majors would help. Now is the time to look beyond the US and strike alliances with firms in Europe- and also Japan-as part of developing new products for global markets."
Questions
1. Must benching be a matter of concern at Delta?
2. What are the risks involved in moving from the project-centric mode to the mix of projects and products?
Case let 2
The contexts in which human resources are managed in today's organizations are constantly, changing. No longer do firms utilize one set of manufacturing processes, employ a homogeneous group of loyal employees for long periods of time or develop one set way of structuring how work is done and supervisory responsibility is assigned. Continuous modifiction in who organizations employ and what these employees do need HR practices and systems which are well conceived and effectively implemented to make sure high performance and continued success.
1. Automated technologies nowadays need more technically trained employees possessing multifarious skills to repair, adjust or improve existing processes. The firms could not expect these employees (Gen X employees, possessing superior technical knowledge and skills, whose attitudes and perceptions toward work are significantly different from those of their predecessor organizations: such as greater self control, less interest in job security; no expectations of long term employment; greater participation urge in work activities, demanding opportunities for personal growth and creativity) to stay on without attractive compensation packages and novel reward schemes.
2. Technology driven companies are led by project teams, possessing diverse skills, experience and expertise. Flexible and dynamic organizational structures are required to take care of expectations of analysts, managers and technicians who combine their skills, expertise and experience to meet modifying customer requirements and competitive pressures.
3. Cost cutting efforts have led to the decimation of unwanted layers in organizational hierarchy in recent times. This, has brought in the problem of managing plateau employees whose careers seem to have been hit by delivering process. Organizations are, hence, made to determine alternative career paths for such employees.
4. Both young and old workers, these days, have values and attitudes which stress less loyalty to the company and more loyalty to oneself and one's career than those shown by employees in the past, Organizations, hence, have to devise suitable HR policies and strategies to prevent flight of talented employees
Question
1. Discuss that technological breakthrough has brought the radical changes in HRM.
Section C: Applied Theory
• This section contains applied theory Questions.
• Answer all the questions.
• Detailed information must form the part of your answer (Word limit 150-200 words).
1. Various types of interviews are commonly used depending on the nature & importance of the position to be filled within an organization. Describe the different types of Interviews.
2. Describe the legal provisions regarding safety of workers.