Manav Rachna International Institute of Research and

Studies
Faculty of Management Studies
End Semester Examination, July 2021
MBA –Second Semester
HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT (MBA-DS-203)

Time: 2 hrs 30 mins. (+30 minutes to scan and upload the answer sheets on ERP or MS Teams)

Max Marks: 100
No. of pages: 2

Note: From Part A, Q 1 is compulsory; Attempt any 3 questions from the remaining. Part
B is compulsory. Marks are mentioned against each question.
Clear images/ pictures of answer scripts with hand written answers should be uploaded (as
notified through date sheet). Please write your name, roll no. and section on the
answer script and sign. on all sheets. Please put page numbers. Save the PDF with
your name, roll. no and section.

PART-A (SECTION A)
Q1 Write short notes on the following (any 5)
1. Job Evaluation [CO1,L3]

2. Talent Management [CO2,L2]

3. Employee Compensation [CO1,L2]
4. HR Analytics [CO3,L3]
5. Sensitivity Training [CO2,L2]
6. Knowledge Management [CO2,L2]
7. BARS method of performance appraisal [CO1,L3]
4 marks each

PART-A (SECTION B)
Q2. Why is it important for companies today to make their HR into competitive
advantage? Explain how HR can contribute doing this.
[CO1, L2][20 Marks]
Q3. Compare and contrast various methods of collecting job analysis data listing pros
and cons of each method?
 [CO3, L4][20 Marks]
Q4. Discuss the various forecasting techniques that are used by the organizations to
estimate the future demand for employees?
[CO1, L3][20 Marks]
Q5. Differentiate between recruitment and selection? What steps are followed by an HR
manager to select the most suitable candidate?
[CO1, L1][20 Marks]

PART-B
CASE STUDY: Mahindra & Mahindra

In 1945, two enterprising brothers named Mahindra and K.C. Mahindra joined forces
with Ghulam Mohammed and started Mahindra & Mohammed as a steel company in
Mumbai. Two years later, India won its independence. Ghulam Mohammed left the
company to become Pakistan’s first finance minister, and the Mahindra brothers ignited
the company's enduring growth with their decision to manufacture Willys jeeps in
Mumbai. The company's new name? Mahindra & Mahindra of course'— this is how the
M&M Web site talks about the beginning of the company.
The company grew steadily getting listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) in
1956. Years of operating in the protected economy had made most Indian companies
complacent and M&M was no exception. By the 1990s, the organization was plagued by
a series of troubles. The plants were suffering from manufacturing inefficiencies, poor
productivity, long production cycle and sub-optimal output. The reason: highly under-
productive, militantly unionized and bloated workforces. The company had over the
years been rather lenient towards running the plants and had frequently crumbled
under the pressure of union demands. The work culture was also reportedly very
unhealthy and corruption was widespread in various departments. After a few corrective
measures which proved ineffective, Anand Mahindra's leadership saw M&M going
through what was the first Business Process Restructuring (BPR) exercise in India. The
group started becoming more adept at handling the post-liberalized marketplace. Yet its
performance failed to pick up and stock price kept falling. The lowest point came when
M&M was dropped from the Bombay Stock Exchange 30-share Bellwether Index. In
2002, Anand Mahindra collected 50 of the top people to brainstorm the need to
transform and also the way to drive it. (Now that session has morphed into an annual
retreat called the Blue chip. The last one was held in Kuala Lumpur and was attended
by 500 people). They realized that financial discipline and developing a global outlook is
what would take them ahead. Since 2002, a lot has happened over the last nine years.

This company, having its roots in the utility vehicle and tractors, has today diversified in
the last 10 years into multiple businesses spanning finance, software, infrastructure,
hospitality and auto components. It has grown through a string of domestic and
international acquisitions: Punjab Tractors, Kinetic Engineering, Satyam Computers,
Reva Car Company, two tractor companies in China, three forging units and a two-
wheeler designer unit in Europe and now Ssang Yong in Korea. The group has onshore
presence in 79 countries (China, the EU countries, the USA, South Africa and Australia)
besides exporting products to many more. Of the 113,000 people working for the 11
businesses with 120 subsidiaries at Mahindra, 5,000 are of foreign origin and 8,500
Indian expats. In 2008, there was an employee survey done to find out the values of
Mahindra which were a part of their DNA and in the survey they found that the long
entrenched core values of `Integrity' were still there but new ones such as `Dynamism'
had also crept its way in. They then undertook a research to find out whether the same
values resonated across the diverse people of the company. In response to the
changing profile of the company in terms of businesses as well as people, they felt the
need for a corporate branding exercise under the name 'Rise' which would include a
comprehensive set of values which would give the company and its people distinct
identity.
This is how M&M of today introduces itself on its corporate Web site `Mahindra builds
three things: products, services and possibilities. Mahindra is many companies bound
together by one purpose: to enable people to RISE. We build utility vehicles and
schools. Our IT solutions help some of the world's largest companies to be more
productive. We give farmers tools to help them prosper, and we give communities hope
for a better tomorrow. We want to lift skylines, and the human spirit. In everything we
do and in everything we are: we seek to inspire creativity and power change.
Rise means three things for the Mahindra employees—first, to 'accept no limits' and
challenge the status quo; second, to engage in `alternate thinking' to solve problems
through innovation; and third, to 'drive positive change' to improve the customer's life
and the community around them.
While most organizations have marketing corporate branding, at M&M the stress is on
how the employees imbibe the message. The stress is on getting the internal audience
aligned because the belief is that once the employees live the brand promise, the
external audience is bound to see the difference. Mahindra Group -IR and After Market
President and member of the Group Executive Board Rajeev Dubey says, ‘The Rise’
culture will have to permeate our communication, performance and talent management,
rewards and recognition and work design’.
The HR team and the different businesses have worked out a calendar for the next
three years to reach this destination. The first year will concentrate on communication
to attune Mahindra employees to the change in attitude. The next stage shall be a
relook at the leadership competency framework and rework it around the new 'Rise'
philosophy and then design policies to engender and then enhance philosophy
propounded in 'Rise'. So while the recruitment shall look at the external audience to
communicate, the Rise mantra looks for the newly identified competencies when it
brings people on board. The internal change shall be facilitated by people chosen from
the middle management called ‘risators’.
HR’s role as a strategic partner to business should ideally result in an enhanced
employee engagement. The company is busy putting in place an instrument called the
employee as promoter (EAP) score. The EAP score shall ask Mahindra employees how
strongly they would recommend Mahindra to others on the scale of 1-10. Subtracting
the '1-5' scores of 'don't recommend’ from the '9-10' scores of 'strongly recommend' will
tell how good an EAP score the business has.

That is what we called HR linked business strategy. The times will tell whether
Mahindra's HR strategy will work or not but then who can be sure about any strategy?

Questions:

1. What connection do you see between Mahindra's corporate strategy and HR

strategy?

2. What values is Mahindra's HR strategy aiming to inculcate and institutionalize?

[CO2, L4][20 Marks]