ZORRO ENGINEERING WORKS

In December 1972 Mr. Ashok Dayal, Factory manager of Zorro Engineering works, Faridabad,
was reviewing the performance of Mr. Aseem Bose , Personnel officer, in his factory. Mr. Bose joined
Zorro in January 1972, and was completing his one year probationary period on January 1, 1973

Zorro Engg works was set up in 1964 for the manufacture, sale and services of diesel pump-sets
for agriculture use. In spite of a promising start, the growth of the company had been slow and in
recent years, the unit had been besieged by acute financial and labour problems. This had resulted
losses during the period of 1966-1970. As a result, in April 1971 the previous factory manager has
resigned, and Mr. Ashok Dayal a qualified Mechanical engineer with ten years line experience in shop
floor production management has been recruited as a new factory manager.

On joining, Mr. Dayal set the reorganizing the internal working of the unit and introduced new
reporting and control procedures. The production, commercial and administrative functions were placed
under the charge of three experienced officers , all reporting to Mr. Dayal, so that each could be given
full responsibility for the department under his control. As a result to these and other similar efforts, the
company had begun to turn out the corner by middle of 1970, and was now showing signs of recovery
both in profits and working environment.

During the process of reorganization, Mr. Dayal had noticed that a number of changes were
required in administration and personnel work. The factory did not have a personnel officer at all, and
most of the personnel work of recruitment, promotions, transfers, salary, administration etc., of workers
and staff was being shared between office superintendents in the production and commercial
departments, the administrative officer.

Since Mr.Dayal wanted to introduce a more scientific and centralized system of personnel
management, a new post of personnel officer was created and Mr. Bose, a young diploma-holder in
personnel management was recruited. Mr. Rajesh Kumar, Senior Administrative Officer, was elevated to
the position of Administration manager, with personnel and administrative officers reporting to him.

During the course of one year that Mr. Bose had been working in zorro, he had been in very
close touch with administration manager. However, since Mr. Dayal had been a very busy looking after
the production and financial problems, he had not been able to give his full attention to personnel,
administration and industrial relations matters. His contact with Mr. Bose has been in frequent.

By the end of 1972, however, production problems had been overcome and Mr. Dayal began
giving more attention to the commercial and administrative functions. The previous wage agreement
with over 1500 workers and 450 staff was due to expire by March 1973, there was already signs of
growing unrest. The number of complaints and grievances, regarding partiality, injustice, nepotism etc.,
in the recruitment, promotions, transfers, incentive payments, pay scales, etc., was again increasing. Mr.
Dayal expected inter union rivalries and the resultant pressures on management would increase. He was
therefore, anxious that the internal functioning of the personnel, industrial relations and administrative
sections be geared up immediately to take care of the expected increase in workload.
 In order to help in the review and streamlining of work being handled by the Administration
Manager, Mr. Dayal requested that the personal files of officers working under. Mr. Kumar is sent to him
along with their duty lists. The first officer whose case came up for review was Mr. Aseem Bose,
personnel officer. Along with other papers, Mr. Bose’s file contained his performance evaluation report
of 1972. Mr. Dayal was surprised to find disparities between the self-appraisal report submitted by Mr.
Bose, and the detailed assessment done by Mr. Kumar.

It appeared to Mr. Dayal that the appraisal system and form used did not help him to make an
independent assessment of Bose’s work. He, therefore, sought the informal opinion of the
Administrative Officer and Mr. Bose’s subordinate officers to get a clearer picture.

Mr. Dayal was keen on improving appraisal system being used in Zorro. He was also wondering
what action should be taken on Mr. Bose’s performance evaluation report of 1972.

Questions:

1. What in your view is the single most important issue in the performance appraisal system?
2. How would you rate the performance of Mr. Bose and why?
3. What important issues of performance appraisal emerge from the case?
 Exhibit 1

Factory Manager

(Mr. Ashok Dayal)

Production Manager Commercial Manager Administration Manager

(Mr. Rajesh Kumar)

Production Office
superintende superintend
Personnel Officer Administrative
nts, Foreman ents,
and Workers Assistants (Mr. Bose) Officer
and Clerks

Staff

Enquiry Officer Labour Officer Medical Officer Office clerk

Enquiry Clerk Assistant Labour officer