Assessment Front Sheet

IMPORTANT: Your assignment will not be accepted without the FRONT SHEET.
Campus: Stream:
Level: PCL-1 Year/Semester
Module Name: Training and Development Assignment Type:
Module Assignment
Student’s Name: Assessor’s Name:
Reqd. Submission
Issued on:
Date:
Actual Submission
Submitted to :
Date:
Higher Level Skills
Students are expected to develop the following skills in this assignment:
• Cognitive skills of critical thinking, analysis and synthesis.
• Effective use of communication and information technology for business applications.
• Effective self-management in terms of planning, motivation, initiative and enterprise.

Certificate by the Student:

Plagiarism is a serious College offence.
I certify that this is my own work. I have referenced all relevant materials.
________________________
(Student’s Name/Signatures)
EXPECTED OUTCOMES Assessment Criteria – To achieve each Achieved (Y/N)
outcome a student must demonstrate the
ability to :
Employees Empowerment. Demonstration of the ability to analyze and
identify the role of employees in the
development of the organization.
Training traits of Wipro. How the training and liberties to the workers
could be helpful.
Assignment Grading Summary (To be filled by the Assessor)
Grades Grade Descriptors Achieved Yes/No (Y / N)
P A Pass grade is achieved by meeting all the requirements defined.
M1 Identify and apply strategies to find appropriate solutions.
M2 Select/design and apply appropriate methods/techniques.
M3 Present and communicate appropriate findings.
Use critical reflection to evaluate own work and justify valid
D1
conclusions.
Ability to anticipate and solve complex tasks in relation to the
D2
assignment.
D3 Demonstrate convergent, lateral and creative thinking.

OVERALL ASSESSMENT GRADE:

TUTOR’S COMMENTS ON
ASSIGNMENT:
SUGGESTED MAKE UP PLAN
(applicable in case the student is
asked to re-do the assignment)
REVISED ASSESSMENT GRADE
TUTOR’S COMMENT ON
REVISEDWORK (IF ANY)
Date: Assessor’s Name / Signatures:
ACTIVITY-1: Compare the training trends for the good working condition

ACTIVITY-2: How to acquired skills through training?

CASE STUDY

Empowerment of employees

In May 1993, the Swedish automobile major, Volvo AB (Volvo) announced the closure of its car manufacturing
facility at Uddevalla, Sweden, barely five years since its launch in 1989. A year later, the company had to
shutdown yet another world famous facility, the car assembly plant at Kalmar, also in Sweden.

Reacting to the two closures within a year's gap, analysts said Volvo's human centric approach towards
automobile manufacturing was no longer feasible in the fiercely competitive scenario of the 1990s, with most
companies striving hard to improve production efficiency. Volvo was well recognized in the industry for its
employee-friendly policies ever since its inception.

Guided by the 'Volvo Way,' the company had made conscious efforts to implement job enrichment concepts
such as job rotation, job enlargement and employee work groups in its manufacturing facilities In the late 1960s
and early 1970s, when the company faced the problem of increasing employee turnover and absenteeism, it
introduced these concepts and obtained positive results.

Volvo was inspired to build a new facility keeping this work design as a basis. This reiterated the company's
belief that industry needed to adapt itself to the people's requirements and not vice-versa. This concept was
implemented successfully in other plants of the company too in the 1970s. The best practices in Human
Relations (HR) tried and tested in these plants were passed on to new plants established in the 1980s. While
investing heavily in developing new plants like Kalmar and Uddevalla, where new work design concepts were
implemented, Volvo was conscious of the risks involved and the possible effect on the company's financial
performance if the experiments failed.

Acknowledging this, Gyllenhammar, in Harvard Business Review wrote, "Volvo's Kalmar plant, for example, is
designed for a specific purpose: car assembly in working groups of about 20 people. If it didn't work, it would be
a costly and visible failure, in both financial and social terms. We would lose credibility with our people and
those who are watching from outside."

Gyllenhammar's apprehensions proved correct when Volvo closed down Kalmar plant in 1994. However,
Volvo's efforts in bringing changes in work design offered valuable lessons to both the academic and corporate
community. Analysts appreciated Volvo for its constant emphasis on learning from experiences and
implementing the lessons so learnt in its new initiatives. This contributed significantly to the development of
human-centric production systems. These systems brought to life several theories and concepts, which had
earlier only been enunciated in textbooks but rarely practiced with the kind of seriousness with which Volvo did.

The company's automobile engines were known for their reliability and were used in cars, buses, boats, fire
tenders and military tanks. The changes in the organization structure facilitated easier implementation of job
enrichment concepts. Volvo's efforts involved both employees and the management. The management decided to
experiment with five job enrichment measures - job rotation, management-employee councils, small work
groups, change implementation and employee-oriented facilities - at its manufacturing facilities.
Job rotation involved shifting around of jobs among workers according to a pre-determined plan. Each employee
within a group was offered a job, which was different both physically and psychologically from his/her previous
job. Volvo introduced three new HR programs in the late 1970s and early 1980s. These were Match Project, Full
Rulle (Full Speed Ahead) and Dialog.

The first was introduced in 1983. It aimed at achieving five HR objectives, which were:
• Training new recruits intensively.
•Disseminating organizational objectives to all employees in the company.
• Framing rules and regulations for employees to establish discipline.

Uddevalla offered the best work environment for employees. Developing staff competence was deemed vital by
Volvo to build quality cars as well as to achieve the organizational objectives of improving productivity,
flexibility and efficiency. Also, operations had to be scaled up as Kalmar could accommodate only 600
employees, which was not sufficient. Employee representatives were involved in the plant's planning group,
which had a team of researchers with diverse backgrounds ranging from engineering to psychology.
While Volvo was going ahead with its human-centric approach, the external market forces in the automotive
industry were changing. This forced the company to take serious measures, which stopped the progress of its job
enrichment initiatives. In the early 1990s, with the declining demand for cars in the global market, it was no
longer feasible for Volvo to continue operating in relatively smaller facilities like Kalmar and Uddevalla.
QUESTIONS:
Q1.What was the major decision of the Management in continuing its existence?

Q2.Describe the working environment.

Q3.What is human-centric approach?

CASE STUDY
TRAINING TRAITS OF WIPRO
Wipro, one of India's most admired companies had grown from a small producer of cooking oil founded in 1945,
to a large diversified corporation by Indian standards: 23,300 employees, $1,349.8 million in revenues, and
$230.8 million in profits for the fiscal year ended March, 2004. Sales had increased by an average of 25% a year
and earnings by 52% annually during the period, 1999-2004.
As 2004 got under way, Wipro's senior managers looked back with satisfaction at the company's recent financial
performance. The software division had spent the last three years restructuring itself completely so that it could
start selling end-to-end solutions to customers, instead of bidding for piecemeal projects. In quick time, Wipro
had built three new businesses - enterprise solutions, infrastructure management and business process
outsourcing that together accounted for 30% of total software revenues. These businesses were expected to be
the company's major growth drivers in the future. The main challenge which Wipro faced was to develop the
necessary human resources.
Premji had gone to Stanford University, where he studied engineering in anticipation of taking over the family
business, Western India Vegetable Products Ltd., or Wipro. In 1966, while Premji was still a student, his father
died. So the 21-year-old Premji returned home to take over the cooking oil business. Premji immediately began
to professionalize the company, hiring MBAs and giving them sufficient operational autonomy. Gradually,
Premji diversified into toilet soaps, competing with giants such as Hindustan Lever. Later, he decided to move
into hydraulic power systems.
Even as Wipro made good money, Premji continued to look for new opportunities. In 1977, India's socialist
government asked IBM to leave the country. Premji decided to get into computer hardware. In 1979, Wipro
began developing its own computers and in 1981 started selling them.
The company licensed technology from Sentinel Computers in the United States and began building India's first
mini-computers. Premji hired managers who were computer literate, and strong on business experience. They
learnt quickly about technology and made hardware an extremely profitable venture.
It was only a matter of time before Wipro engineers started developing software packages, which were not then
readily available off-the-shelf, for hardware customers.
After a failed effort at developing branded software packages, Wipro purchased an IBM mainframe and began
working on software projects for IBM clients in 1987. During this period, the hardware business prospered in a
market that grew at 70-80% annually between 1988 and 1995. Wipro's reputation for quality and customer
service made it the first choice for many customers in India. In the mid-1990s, however, India's branded
hardware business shrank dramatically.
Competition from unbranded PCs which were priced substantially lower ate into Wipro's sales and margins. Bad
debts also rose.

Meanwhile, Wipro's software services business was taking off. After 1995, there was no turning back for this
business. In 1998, the company united the software and hardware divisions. As the IT business was taking shape
during the 1980s and early 1990s, Wipro also expanded its cooking oil and hydraulics businesses and diversified
into other areas-baby care products, medical electronics, lighting, and finance. By the late 1990s, Wipro had
become one of the most sought after stocks in India.

After starting off as a small producer of cooking oil in 1945, Wipro, one of India’s most admired companies, is
today a large diversified corporation by Indian standards. In quick time, Wipro has built three new businesses -
enterprise solutions, infrastructure management and business process outsourcing that together account for 30%
of total software revenues. These businesses are expected to be the company’s major growth drivers in the
future. The main challenge which Wipro faces is to develop the necessary human resources. Over the years,
Wipro has built a strong and powerful top-management team of professionals. CEO Azim Premji’s value-based
leadership has held these high performers together. Premji has articulated a set of beliefs that have shaped
Wipro’s strong and distinctive organisational culture.
QUESTIONS:
Q1. What are the HR practices of Wipro in relation to recruitment?
Q2. Mention the factors of performance appraisal and leadership development adopted by Wipro.
Q3. What is the future of Wipro’s’ Training traits?