Assignment-3

Given on case study

Submitted to
Mr. Md. Anamul Haque
Lecturer
Department of Management Studies
Comilla University

Submitted by
Sabru Hossain
ID-11605019
Course code : HRM 521
Session : 2019-2020

Date of submission-10/08/2021
Company overview
Name of the company: The Eastman Kodak Company
Industry: Graphic arts Imaging technology Consumer products.
Type: public.
Founded: May 23, 1892.
Headquarters: Rochester, New York, and is incorporated in New Jersey
Area served: worldwide.
Products: Analogue photography.
Founder: George Eastman and Henry A. Strong

In summary, the strategic HR framework aims to leverage and align HR practices to build
critical organizational capabilities that enable Eastman Kodak to win in the marketplace. How
can HR practices truly contribute to the critical business success factors as outlined in the
balanced scorecard framework? What are the most viable and effective HR measures which can
demonstrate the value-added of the HR function? To think through the impact of HR practices on
business, Eastman Kodak has connected its strategic HR framework to the business framework.
Eastman has used a strategic investment approach to plan and evaluate incentive compensation
plans. The firm has taken a similar approach to evaluate the effectiveness of various wellness
program initiatives. Data is collected from both participants and non-participants in the wellness
programs on a variety of healthcare experiences. Based on this data, Eastman Kodak has
assessed the financial return it is realizing from these wellness programs.
Q:1: Based on the principles of Balanced Scorecard illustrate how Eastman Kodak
refocused its HR practices and used people to drive business performance.
Ans - While several reasons may have contributed to Eastman Kodak's poor performance
between 1990 and 1993, George Fisher decided to make employee pleasure the primary driver of
business success. “We will never attain absolute customer happiness without a considerably
better level of employee satisfaction,” he stated emphatically. My primary obligation is to ensure
that our company is robust and that the folks who work here have a terrific place to work. As a
result, he established a new paradigm in which staff pleasure drives consumer satisfaction, which
leads to shareholder satisfaction.

Employee Customer Shareholder

satisfaction satisfaction satisfaction

The new paradigm appears to be operating in conjunction with other ongoing initiatives.
Employee satisfaction improved by nearly 80% between 1993 and 1995, while market value
climbed by about 90% during the same period. However, it would be foolish to suggest that the
increase in Kodak's market value is entirely due to increased employee happiness. It's also
difficult to demonstrate a causal association without extensive statistical analysis and control.
Nonetheless, Eastman Kodak's narrative is compelling in two ways:

 It demonstrates how CEO Fisher rethinks the connection between employees, customers,
and shareholders to propel the company forward; and
 It offers some empirical evidence of how such a paradigm change might affect business
performance. Another narrative based on the balanced scorecard notion of how firms
employ people to drive company performance comes from Eastman Kodak.
Q:2: Given the Balanced Scorecard framework, how can the HR function add value to
business success?
Ans- The Kodak framework outlines three distinct methods for HR to contribute to corporate
success: strengthening organizational capabilities, improving employee satisfaction, and shaping
consumer satisfaction.
a. HR–organizational capability linkage: Schuler & Jackson (1987) and Ulrich & Lake
(1988) proposed that HR practices should be coordinated to enhance organizational
capabilities (1990). The case for this link is straightforward: if companies want to
compete on specific organizational capabilities (for example, customer service for
Nordstrom, innovation for 3M, and quality for Motorola), they need a consistent set of
 HR practices to influence the mindset and behaviors of their leaders and employees at all
levels.
b. Enhancing employee satisfaction: HR practices also affect employee satisfaction.
c. Shaping customer satisfaction: Customer satisfaction is improved through the use of
human resource practices. Eastman Kodak's HR planning process is aligned with its
business planning process thanks to the convergence of its strategic HR framework and
its business framework. The business framework identifies the areas where the company
must concentrate to succeed. The strategic HR framework gives specific tools for
determining how to successfully exploit HR practices and organizational strengths. The
model also demonstrates Kodak's significant value-added contribution from HR
practices.

Q:3: Based on the integration framework of Eastman Kodak, discuss how HR practices
affect and contribute to the key result of business.
Ans-The strategic HR framework, like the business framework (shareholder satisfaction,
customer satisfaction, and employee satisfaction), comprises three components (business
strategy, organizational capabilities, and HR practices). Along the linking chains, these six
components are interconnected.

 Human resource practices have an important role in strengthening organizational

capabilities, increasing employee satisfaction, and shaping consumer satisfaction. As a
result, customer satisfaction is impacted by both organizational capabilities and personnel
contentment.

Business strategy Organizational HR practices

strategy

Shareholder Customer Employee

satisfaction satisfaction satisfaction

 Organizational competencies are the primary drivers of company plan implementation,

affecting customer satisfaction and, ultimately, shareholder pleasure. Furthermore, if
correctly managed, both business strategy and customer satisfaction promote shareholder
contentment.

Business strategy Organizational HR practices

strategy

Shareholder Customer Employee

satisfaction satisfaction satisfaction
Q:4: Examine the contribution of HR measures that can be used to enhance the satisfaction
of the employees, customers, and shareholders. What are the most effective HR measures
that can demonstrate the value-added of the HR function?
Ans- The HR department hopes to increase customer satisfaction and commitment to Kodak
products by engaging manufacturing personnel with customers and assisting customers in
developing their capabilities in those areas. In addition, the training helps personnel better grasp
client needs. The program's straightforward metrics are:

 Increased sales and earnings as a result of developing these client relationships; and
 Changes in customer happiness and commitment. Leveraging the executive education
process is another HR initiative that boosts customer satisfaction.
Eastman Kodak achieves two aims by asking senior executives from significant customers to
attend and share an executive education experience with Kodak executives:

 Building a stronger shared perspective with key customers; and

 Enabling Eastman Kodak to better address customer needs. The degree of change in
customer satisfaction and commitment as a result of the shared executive education
experience is the performance metric.
New HR measurements should be established to improve company performance if HR practices
may affect business success by strengthening organizational capabilities, boosting employee
satisfaction, and shaping consumer satisfaction. HR practices are unlikely to have any impact on
the bottom line unless HR measures are realigned to drive the activities and behaviors of HR
professionals and line managers.
Dramatic changes in HR measures are urgently required to refocus the priorities and re-
adding Value through HR.

 The next generation of HR measurements must be business-driven rather than HR-driven

(which makes sense to HR practitioners) (how HR can impact business success).
 New HR measurements should be impact-oriented rather than activity-oriented (what and
how much we do) (how much we improve business results).
 Instead of looking back (at what has already occurred), innovative HR measures should
focus on the future, allowing managers to assess and diagnose the processes and people
capabilities that might anticipate a company's future performance.
 Finally, rather than focusing on specific HR practices (staffing performance, training and
development performance, and so on), future HR measurement should consider the entire
HR system, taking into consideration the synergy that exists among all HR practices.
Eastman Kodak has developed three clusters of HR measures:

 Internal operational measures: How well do we design and deliver our HR practices?
 Internal strategic measures: How effectively do our HR practices build desired
organizational capabilities? How effectively do our HR practices increase employee
satisfaction?
 External strategic measures: How well do our HR practices increase customer and
shareholder satisfaction?
Cluster 1: Internal Operational Measures: Traditional HR metrics for which the HR function
and HR practitioners (and have been) held liable are included in this cluster of HR measures. It
focuses on the effectiveness, quality, and speed with which HR practices are delivered and the
HR function as a whole is managed. Process metrics (such as cycle time, quality, and cost of HR
processes/practices) and result measures (such as offer/accept ratios; various levels of training
evaluation such as reaction, knowledge, on-the-job behaviors, and business impact) are common
measures for HR practices. In a nutshell, these internal operational measures track HR service
activity, cost, and quality. These methods make perfect sense when the HR function is viewed as
a cost center by businesses. Traditional HR measures will no longer be acceptable or reliable
ways of assessing the performance of new HR roles and activities as the HR function transforms
to become more business-oriented.
Cluster 2: Internal Strategic Measures: Internal strategic HR measurements evaluate the
efficacy of HR activities in developing organizational capabilities and increasing employee
satisfaction. At Eastman Kodak, for example, three essential organizational skills have been
recognized, and particular HR measurements have been devised to track their growth. The
following are some of the organizational capabilities that have been targeted:

 Effectiveness of leadership (both competency and diversity).

 Competencies of the workforce (in terms of customer commitment and market focus,
working across boundaries, financial excellence, and operational excellence).
 A culture built on results.

While Eastman Kodak uses 360-degree assessment to measure leadership competency, it also
tracks leadership diversity through the race, gender, and nationality composition of its senior and
middle managers.

 The percentage of employees with documented development plans to develop required

abilities; the number of hours allocated to development; and the number of hours devoted
to development are three characteristics of the development process that are used to
quantify workforce competencies.
  The impact of developmental programs on four levels: reaction and planned action,
learning, on-the-job behavior, and business outcomes.
Cluster 3: External Strategic Measures: External strategic measurements evaluate how
effective HR practices are at satisfying consumers and shareholders. The goal is to improve
customer and shareholder satisfaction through HR practices.
Eastman Kodak has experimented with several HR programs to achieve this goal. The first,
a program called Champions for Customer Success, is a customer-oriented program that serves
two goals: (1) to create a learning situation that directly connects manufacturing employees with
customers and (2) to share best practices and expertise with customers in areas in which they
need help, such as reducing paper waste, deploying total quality management (TQM),
establishing self-managed teams, etc.

Q:5: Is the Balanced Scorecard approach the most effective approach for linking HR with
business performance? Based on the information provided in the chapter, suggest some
other approaches that Kodak could adopt to ensure that HR contributes to the business
performance.

Ans- The balanced scorecard, on the other hand, is well suited to the kind of organization many
companies are trying to become.

 The scorecard prioritizes strategy and vision over control.

 It establishes objectives but expects that people will adopt whatever attitudes and actions
are required to achieve those objectives.

 It assesses investor, customer, and employee satisfaction because these three factors are
critical to the company's performance.

 It assesses the company's entire performance and ensures that all activities are directed
toward achieving the organization's objectives.

 This new method of performance evaluation aligns with many firms' current ambitions,
such as cross-functional integration, customer-supplier alliances, global scale, continuous
improvement, and team accountability rather than individual accountability.

 The balanced scorecard helps managers grasp various interrelationships by combining the
financial, customer, internal process and innovation, and organizational learning
perspectives.
  This knowledge can help managers see through traditional concepts of functional barriers,
resulting in better decision-making and problem-solving. The balanced scorecard keeps
businesses focused on the future and moving forward.

The goals of the measures are to entice people to follow the overarching vision. Senior managers
may know what the ultimate result should be, but they can't tell people how to get there because
the conditions in which they work are continuously changing. A balanced scorecard is a diagnostic
tool that helps businesses use the correct process and people to optimize customer and business
performance.

There are several other approaches that kodak could adopt to ensure that HR contributes to the
business performance .7 best approaches that kodak could adopt are in the following

Providing security to employees

Selective hiring: hiring the right amount

of people

Self-managed and effective teams

Fair and performance-based

compensation

Training in relevant skills

Creating a flat and well-structured

organization

Making information easily accessible to

those who need it
Conclusion :
Eastman Kodak has been a technology-driven company. The firm has capitalized on its brand
name, focused on customer satisfaction through technical innovation, and sought to achieve
shareholder satisfaction through customer satisfaction. the implicit assumption was that
employee satisfaction could be achieved when the company was financially successful;
employees’ satisfaction was the result, not a driver, of the business, and shareholder satisfaction
was the result of customer satisfaction.