Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Frameworks
Consider frameworks as only a tool. They will help you structure your thoughts more than anything
and help you to speak more sense. Which means that even if you can’t seem to think of
any framework which ‘fits’ its okay! The objective is to break down the topic and give
structure to it in the best way possible.
Here are some frameworks which can help you bring a structure to the GD:
PESTEL:
Political Economical / Environmental Social Technological Ethical Legal
What you are basically trying to do is looking at various factors in the ‘Environment’ which may
affect the problem at hand. Where can this be used? This is quite a broad framework and can be
used for topics which have implications for the greater societal sense‐ such as Legalisation of
Marijuana usage or AI and its applications. It could also be used in Case Based topics where you first
break down the topic into External vs Internal and then when you are looking at the External
Environment you can consider the various aspects.
STAR:
Situation Task Action Result
It’s a very basic structure that can be used for case based GDs to give a flow of how you can
approach a problem. Situation is what has happened, Task is the expectations from you as to how
you can approach it, action is what you do and the result is what you believe will be the outcome.
SWOT
Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats
Remember that Strengths and Weaknesses are for the internal environment while O/T are the
external environment. Can be used in a number of situations if used wisely. It can be used primarily
as a means for evaluating options out of many available.
Stakeholder approach
Internal and external stakeholders. This is a very simple yet very powerful means to look at multiple
perspectives and can be used for HR related topics. For example, recruitment of a certain candidate
at higher compensation, dealing with a union based problem, etc. It can be useful to identify how
certain stakeholders may be affected and some may be crucial.
HR Systems/ Employee Life Cycle Model
A very effective way to break down an HR case would be to look at the relevant HR systems which
maybe impacting the particular case. These HR systems are:
Training/ Performance
Succession Termination/
Recruitment Onboarding Learning and Appraisal/
Planning Seperation
Development Compensation
Interrelated with Recruitment is Employer Branding and with termination you have Exit Interviews,
etc. You could evaluate, given a problem, as to which HR systems would be relevant and figure out
how issues maybe cropping up in them.
STAR Model
This is different from STAR framework of course and I am sure you would have heard it being
mentioned more than once in OB‐3.
Think about how any of this 5 dimensions can be impacted by the problem you face and changes
maybe required at one or more of the 5 elements.
Value Chain Analysis
Another powerful tool which you could use to Breakdown a Business operations is to look at the Value Chain:
Useful for core Business cases where multiple stages may have to be considered to identify the problem area.
Other Frameworks
If it’s any case related to bringing about a change in the organisation you could use Kotter’s model
of the 8 steps of Change.
If its related to Performance Management follow the process of Strategy Objectives Critical
success factorsKey performance indicators.
If its related to Compensation look at the following factors: Internal Equity (which includes the Job
Hierarchy and Job Relationships as well as linkage to Organisation Design), External Competitiveness,
Pay Structure and Design and the Management and Communication of Pay Systems.
I think these frameworks are enough to know. Apart from these, as I said, you can break down the
problem any other way which helps you drawing from your HR and MBA knowledge. The objective
is just to structure your content better.
General Gyan
1. A good view to structure each point before you speak in a GD is to follow: Why? What?
How? This basically talks about why you have to do something, what you plan to do and
how you want to do it. For example‐ “I believe that we must move away from a team based
compensation system to an individual system since the interrelationship between jobs is low.
We could start doing it by performing a thorough job analysis”. You have delivered a
powerful point here covering everything.
2. Please pay attention to your body language. Pay attention to a speaker when they are
talking in the GD. If you have to jot down notes simultaneously, possibly look at the person
speaking for the first 10 seconds, jot down a note quickly and look back at the speaker
before they end speaking.
3. When do I start the GD if the moderators don’t mention it? Either keep a tab on your watch
to keep a check on the 1 minute or 45 seconds. Another simple trick is to keep noticing if
people’s pens. If most of the people in the GD have stopped scribbling or it seems their
speed is reducing you should start.
4. Each point in the GD should be unique. If you are repeating a point ensure that you are
bringing a new perspective or adding something significant.
5. Avoid one‐on‐one’s. If you are disagreeing please be courteous with your language while
doing so and address the complete group.
6. Remember ultimately that you are to have a discussion as Managers and hence please do
maintain the utmost sense of respect for each other and conduct the GD as a discussion
which is building towards an outcome for a real organisation rather than a debate with no
resolution.
All the best everyone!