Topic: Overview of Human Resource Management

Module 1: Overview of Human Resource Management Page 1

Title: Overview of Human Resource Management

INTRODUCTION:

Resource means, a source, which can be used when needed. Each and every
resource has a last point of finish. But, while about human resources i.e. human
skills, techniques, ideas, aptitudes, etc., it may not have a last point of finish.
Compared to other resources it depreciates, while human resources appreciate with
the passage of time. Amongst all resources required for an organization Human
Resource is the most important resource. From the ages of kings and politicians
have ruled, but only those who have succeeded are the persons, who have tactfully,
used their available human resources. Appropriate human resources assure an
organization that the right number and kind of people are available at the right time
and place so that organizational needs can be met. Therefore, success of any
organization depends on the management of human resources. In generic terms,
Human Resource means, “The total knowledge, skills, creative abilities, talents,
aptitudes, values, attitudes, approaches” in a personnel. Generally, some resources
are developed, while some are obtained through heredity. When these resources are
used in a way such that maximum benefits can be taken out of it, then it is called
“Human Resource Management”.

This module covers the following aspects:

o Meaning and Definition

o Nature of HRM

o Functions of HRM

o The challenge to HRM

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 INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOMES

1. Explain the importance of human resources and their effective management

in organizations

2. Analyze the key issues related to administering the human elements such as

motivation, compensation, appraisal, career planning, diversity, ethics, and

training

3. Demonstrate a basic understanding of different tools used in forecasting and

planning human resource needs.

4. Describe the importance of succession planning.

5. Describe why job analysis is a basic human resource tool.

6. Explain the reasons for conducting job analysis.

7. Describe the types of information required for job analysis.

INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS

1. Lecture Notes

MEANING & DEFINITIONS

Human resource management can be defined as that part of management process which
develops and manages the human elements of enterprise considering the resourcefulness of
the organization’s own people in terms of total knowledge, skills, creative abilities, talents,
aptitudes and potentialities. It refers to the qualitative and quantitative aspects of employees

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working in an organization. It is a process of making the efficient and effective use of human
resources so that the set goals are achieved.

In simple sense, “Human Resource Management means employing people, developing their
resources, utilizing, maintaining and compensating their services in tune with the job and
organizational requirements with a view to contribute to the goals of the organization,
individual and society.

According to Leon C. Megginson, the term human resources can be thought of as “the total
knowledge, skills, creative abilities, talents and aptitudes of an organization’s workforce, as
well as the values, attitudes and beliefs of the individuals’ involved.

1. According to Dale Yoder, “The management of human resource is viewed as a system in

which participants seeks to attain both individual and group goals.

2. Michael J. Jucius defines human resources as “A whole consisting of interrelated,

interpedently and interacting physiological, psychological, sociological and ethical
components.

3. According to Flippo, “Human Resource Management is planning, organizing, directing and

controlling of the procurement, development, compensation, integration, maintenance and
separation of human resources to the end that individual, organizational and social
objectives are accomplished.

French defined, “Personnel Management is the recruitment, selection, development,

utilization of accommodation to human resource of an organization consists of all individuals
regardless of their role, who are engaged in any of the organization activities.

According to National Institute of Personnel Management of India, “Human Resource

Management is that part of management which is concerned with people at work and with
their relationships within the organization. It seeks to bring men and women who make up an
enterprise, enabling each to make their own best contribution to its success both as an
individual and as a member of a working group.

Human Resource Management is the term increasingly used to refer the philosophy,
policies, procedures and practices relating to the management of people within

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organizations. It is the qualitative improvement of human beings who are considered the
most valuable asset of an organization- the sources, resources, and end-users of all
products and services.

Dun & Stephens defined, “Personnel Management is the process of attracting, holding and
motivating people, innovating all managers-line & staff’.

Paul Pigors & Charles Myres defined, “It is a method of developing potentialities of
employees so that they get maximum satisfaction out of their work and give their best efforts
to the organization.

Prof. Thomas G. Spates defined, “Personnel administration is a code of the ways of

organizing and treating individuals at work so that they each will get the greatest possible
realization of their intrinsic abilities, thus attaining maximum efficiency for themselves and
their group, and thereby giving to the enterprise of which they are a part its determining
competitive advantage and its optimum results.

According to Decenzo and Robbins, “Human Resource Management is concerned with the
people dimension management. Since every organization is made of people, acquiring, their
services, developing their skills, motivating them to higher levels of performance and
ensuring that they continue to maintain their commitment to the organization, essential for
achieving organizational objectives. This is true, regardless of the type of organization-
government, business, education, health, recreation or social action.

Prof. Cynthia D. Fisher, Lyle F. Schoenfeldt and James B. Shaw stated that, “Human
Resource Management involves all management decisions and practices that directly affect
or influence the people or human resources who work for the organization. In recent years,
increasing attention has been devoted to how the organizations manage human resources. It
is important to examine as to how organization’s employees enable as organization to
achieve its goals.

Guest defined, “Human Resource Management comprises a set of policies designed to

maximize organizational integration, employee commitment, flexibility and quality of work.

It is clear from the above definitions that human resources refer to the qualitative and
quantitative aspects of employee working in an organization. Human Resource Management

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as a process of making the efficient and effective use of human resources so that the set
goals are achieved.

In short, HRM can be defined as a process of procuring, developing and maintaining

competent human resources in the organization so that the goals of an organization are
achieved in an effective and efficient manner. It also an art of managing people at work in
such a manner that they give their best to the organization.
NATURE OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

In every phase of life, man learns new things and makes use of those in his daily routines.
This nature builds a person to develop and change from time to time. When this change is
well utilized by a person to coincide the organizational and individual goal, it becomes an
effective human resources management.

It has following features:

1) Pervasive Force: HRM is pervasive in nature. It is present in all enterprises. HRM is the
central sub function of an organization and it permeates all types of functional management
viz., production management, marketing management and financial management. Each and
every manager is involved with human resource function.

2) Action Oriented: HRM focuses attention on action, rather than on record keeping, written
procedures or rules. The problems of employees at work are solved through rational policies.

3) Individually Oriented: It tries to help employees develop their potential fully. It encourages
them to give their best to the organization. Under HRM, every employee is considered as an
individual so as to provide services and programs to facilitate employees’ satisfaction and
growth. In other words, it is concerned with the development of human resources, i.e.,
knowledge, capability, skill, potentialities and attaining and achieving employee goals.

4) People Oriented: HRM is all about people at work, both as individual and groups. It tries to
put people on assigned jobs in order to produce good results. The resultant gains are used
to reward people and motivate them toward further improvements in productivity. It is the
process of bringing people and organization together so that the goals of each are met.

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5) Future Oriented: Effective HRM helps an organization meet its goals in the future by
providing for competent and well-motivated employees.

6) Development Oriented: HRM intends to develop the full potential of employees. The
reward structure is tuned to the needs of employees. Training is offered to sharpen and
improve their skills. Employees are rotated on various jobs so that they gain experience and
exposure. Every attempt is made to use their talents fully in the service of organizational
goals. Individual employee-goals consist of job satisfaction, job security, high salary,
attractive fringe benefits, challenging work, pride, status, recognition, opportunity for
development etc. HRM is concerned with developing the potential of employees, so that they
derive maximum satisfaction from their work and give their best efforts to the organization.

7) Integrating Mechanism: HRM tries to build and maintain cordial relations between people
working at various levels in the organization. In short, it tries to integrate human assets in the
best possible manner in the service of an organization.

8) Comprehensive Function: HRM is, to some extent, concerned with any organizational
decision which has an impact on the workforce or the potential workforce. The term
‘workforce’ signifies people working at various levels, including workers, supervisors, middle
and top managers. It is concerned with managing people at work.

9) Auxiliary Service: HR departments exist to assist and advise the line or operating
managers to do their personnel work more effectively. HR manager is a specialist advisor.
HR managers do not manufacture or sell goods but they do contribute to the success and
growth of an organization by advising the operating departments on personnel matters.

10) Inter-disciplinary Functions: HRM is a multi-disciplinary activity, utilizing knowledge and

inputs drawn from psychology, sociology, anthropology, economics, etc. to unravel the
mystery surrounding the human brain, managers, need to understand and appreciate the
contributions of all such ‘soft’ disciplines.

11) Continuous Functions: HRM is a continuous and never ending process. According to
George R.Terry, “it cannot be turned on and off like water from a faucet; it cannot be
practiced only one horn each day or one day each week. Personnel management requires a
constant alertness and awareness of human relations and their importance in everyday
operations.

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12) Challenging Functions: Managing of human resources are challenging job due to the
dynamic nature of people. HRM aims at securing unreserved co-operation from all
employees in order to attain pre-determined goals. Therefore, HRM is the management of
human resources in the organization and is concerned with the creation of harmonious
working relationships among its participants and bringing about their utmost individual
development. It is about developing people and enabling them to make the best use of their
abilities in their own interests, as well as those of the organization. It furthermore matches
human resources to the strategies and operational needs of the organization, and ensuring
the full utilization of those resources.

FUNCTIONS OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

HRM has been described as a process of development of human resource through

guidance, integration, motivation of personnel to achieve the organizational goals along with
individual goals. This is a social process involving responsibility for economic planning and
supervising activities of an enterprise keeping the ‘human factor’ in forefront of all activities.
Whilst it is not easy to ensure that all the functions of HRM are interdependent, interrelated
and depend upon the specific situation. Most functions are carried out as one single activity
of management.

Functions of HRM can mainly be divided into two:

A. Managerial Functions
B. Operative Functions

A. Managerial Functions: Managerial functions involve planning, organizing, staffing,

directing, coordinating, controlling, reporting and budgeting, the work of those who are
entrusted with the performing of operative functions. All these functions influence the
operative functions and also they are interdependent. In other word, managers procure
process and peddle, find and employ resources, develop services and find markets for their
output.

1) Planning: Planning is a hard job, for it involves the ability to think, to predict, to analyze
and to come to decisions, to control the actions of its personnel and to cope with a complex,
dynamic fluid environment. It is a pre-determined course of action. According to Allen, “It is a
trap laid to capture the future”. In fact, “Planning today avoids crises tomorrow”. Thus,

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planning is future oriented concerned with clearly charting out the desired direction of
business activities in future.

2) Organizing: Organizing involves giving each subordinates a specific task, establishing

departments, delegating authority to subordinates, establishing channels of authority and
communication, coordinating the work of subordinates, and so on. In the words of Drucker,
“The right organizational structure is the necessary foundation, without it the best
performance in all other areas of management will be inefficient and frustrated”. So an
organization is the combination of authority and responsibility because, in its essentials, it
consists of the assignment of specific functions to designate to have them carried out, and
their accountability to management for the results obtained.

3) Directing: Directing includes guiding, overseeing, inspiring and influencing the

subordinates to work in a way that is beneficial to the enterprise as well as the community.
The effective directing is an appreciation of human nature and it is involved with getting
persons together and asking them to work willingly and effectively for the achievement of
designated goals. So direction is an important managerial function to build sound industrial
and human relations besides securing employee contributions. It is the process of activating
group efforts to achieve the desired goals.

4) Controlling: Controlling is the process of setting standards for performance, checking to

see how actual performance compares with these set standards, and taking corrective
actions as needed. It is through control that action and operation are adjusted to pre-
determined standards, and its basis is information in the hands of the managers. By check,
analysis and review the personnel department assists in realizing the personnel objectives.

B. Operative Functions: The operative functions of personnel management are concerned

with the activities specially dealing with procuring, developing, compensating, integrating and
maintaining an efficient workforce. These functions are also known as service functions. It
varies from department to department depending on the nature of the department. The
operative functions of HRM relate to ensuring right people for right jobs at right times.

1) Procurement: The first operative function of personnel management is procurement. The

procurement function is concerned with the obtaining of a proper kind and number of
personnel necessary to accomplish organizations goals. It deals specifically with such

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subjects as the determination of manpower requirements, selection and placement,
induction, follow-up, transfers, lay-offs, discharge and separation etc.

2) Development: The development function deals with the personal development of

employees by increasing their skills, through training so that job performance is properly
achieved. It is the process of improving, molding, changing and developing the skills,
knowledge, creative ability, aptitudes, attitude, values and commitment based on present
and future requirements both at the individual’s and organization’s level.
3) Compensation: Compensation function involves determination of wages and salaries
matching with contribution made by employees to organizational goals. To frame a suitable
compensation policy, management has to take into consideration various factors, viz., job
evaluation, existing remuneration policy, incentive plans, bonus policy etc. It also helps in
building a suitable salary and wage structure.

4) Maintenance: The maintenance function deals with sustaining and improving the
conditions that have been established. It aims at protecting and preserving the physical and
psychological health of employees through various welfare measures. So maintenance
function ensures that employees’ needs are well taken care of by the management by
providing benefits and services.

5) Integration: HRM tries to integrate the management and the workers to have mutual
respect for each other and bring in a new sense of industrial relations in the enterprise for
economic progress and industrial harmony. It is mainly focus on employees to understand
that they are part and partial of the enterprise and inculcate a feeling of belonging to the
enterprise. In short, the key role of HRM function is to play a part in the creation of an
environment which enables people to make the best use of their capabilities and to realize
their potential to the benefits of both the organization and themselves. It is also essentially a
business-oriented philosophy concerning the management of people in order to obtain
added value from them and thus achieve competitive advantage. Today HRM function is not
only more integrated but is holistic as well. HR practitioners of today are not narrowly
specialist in his/her personnel area. It is important to note that the managerial and operative
functions of HRM are performed in conjunction with each other in an organization, be large
or small organizations.

CHALLENGES OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

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As Ulrich (1998) points out, environmental and contextual changes present a number of
competitive challenges to organizations, which mean that HR has to be involved in helping to
build new capabilities. Globalization requires organizations to move people, ideas, products
and information around the world to meet local needs.

Some of the important challenges are as follow:

1) Vision Penetration: Vision not only provides the fuel and directions to business strategy,
but also helps managers evaluate management practices and make decisions. Penetration
of vision shall therefore, become an important integral part of man management in future.

2) Internal Environment: Creating an environment, which is responsive to external changes,

providing satisfaction to the members of the organization, and sustaining it through culture,
useful traditions, practices, and even systems, will become other important dimension of
managing managerial personnel.

3) Change in Industrial Relations: The practice of industrial relations has undergone sea
change. Development of workers may need simpler and appropriate inputs, but both the
workers and managers must be managed and developed by the same set of assumptions
and HRM philosophy of the company.

4) Building Organizational Capabilities: The paradigm of managing managers would include

not only assisting them to acquire new skills and knowledge and to evaluate environmental
changes, to evolve business strategies, but also to live in a psychological state of readiness
to continuous change.

5) Job Design & Organizational Structure: In designing organizations, soon give up uncritical
acceptance of foreign concepts and fads like quality circles, TQM, etc. Instead of these,
organizational structure and design will primarily base on task approach and people
approach.

6) Increasing size of workforce: The management of an increased workforce poses serious

problems and challenges especially since the workers are becoming more conscious of their
rights.

7) Changing Psycho-social system: In the traditional bureaucratic mode, the organizations

were designed to perform technical functions with strict compartmentalization of work

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functions. But in future, human participation will be required not only in technical functions
but also in establishing the democratic humanistic system.

8) Satisfaction of higher level needs: The workers are becoming much aware of their higher
level needs. This awareness is likely to intensify further in the future workforce. Therefore,
managers would be required to evolve appropriate techniques of motivating the workers and
getting work for them.

9) Equalitarian Social System: Contemporary organizations are putting lesser emphasis on

the hierarchical structures and thus moving towards a more equalitarian social system. This
is going to be more common in days to come.

10) Technological Advance: In the wake of technological advances new jobs will be created
and may old jobs will become redundant. Unemployment resulting from modernization could
be liquidated by properly assessing manpower needs and training of redundant employees
in alternate skills.

11) Computerized Information Systems: It will pay a revolutionary role in managerial

decision-making. It will also have an increasing impact in co-ordination and at strategic
levels.

12) Changes in legal Environment: To meet with the increasing changes in the legal
environment, necessary adjustments will have to be made so that greater utilization of
human resources can be achieved.

13) Management of Human Relations: The new generation workforce comprising educated
and conscious workers will ask for higher degree of participation and avenues for self-
fulfillment. It is rather difficult to motivate many of the new generation workers than their
predecessors. This is partly due to change in their value system and higher levels of
professional competency. Therefore, today personnel managers may find themselves
obsolete because of the rapidly changing business environment, and they should also
constantly update their knowledge and skills by looking at the organization’s needs and
objectives.

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Succession Planning

Process of ensuring that qualified persons are available to assume key positions, managerial
positions, once positions are vacant.

Definitions
Job - Consists of a group of tasks that must be performed for an organization to achieve its
goals.
Position - Collection of tasks and responsibilities performed by one person; there is a
position for every individual in an organization.
Job analysis - Systematic process of determining the skills, duties, and knowledge required
for performing jobs in an organization.
Job description – it is a document providing information regarding tasks, duties, and
responsibilities of job.
Job specification – it is a minimum qualification to perform a particular job.

Reasons for Conducting Job Analysis

Staffing – would be haphazard if recruiter did not know qualifications needed for job.
Training and Development – it is a specification lists of a particular knowledge, skill, or
ability, and the person filling the position does not possess all the necessary qualifications,
training and/or development is needed.
Compensation and Benefits – value of job must be known before dollar value can be placed
on it.
Safety and Health – helps identify safety and health considerations.
Employee and Labor Relations – lead to more objective human resource decisions.
Legal Considerations – having done job analysis important for supporting legality of
employment practices.
Job Analysis for Teams – today, individuals does what has to be done to complete the task.

Types of Job Analysis Information

Considerable information is needed, such as:
 Worker-oriented activities
 Machines, tools, equipment, and work aids used
 Job-related tangibles and intangibles
 Work performance
 Job content

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  Personal requirements for the job

Summary of Types of Data Collected Through Job Analysis

 Work Activities – work activities and processes; activity records (in film form, for
example); procedures used; personal responsibility.
 Worker-oriented activities – human behaviors, such as physical actions and
communicating on the job; elemental motions for methods analysis; personal job
demands, such as energy expenditure.
 Machines, tools, equipment, and work aids used.
 Job-related tangibles and intangibles – knowledge dealt with or applied (as in
accounting); materials processed; products made or services performed.
 Work performance – error analysis; work standards; work measurements, such as
time taken for a task.
 Job context – work schedule; financial and nonfinancial incentives; physical working
conditions; organizational and social contexts.
 Personal requirements for the job – personal attributes such as personality and
interests; education and training required; work experience.

Job Analysis Methods

 Questionnaires
 Observation
 Interviews
 Employee recording
 Combination of methods

Job Description
 Job Identification – job title, department, reporting relationship, and job number or
code.
 Job Analysis Date – aids in identifying job changes that would make description
obsolete.
 Job Summary – concise overview of job.
 Duties Performed – major duties.
 Job Specification – minimum qualifications person should possess to perform a
particular job.
 Expanded Job Description – last duty shown, ―And any other duty that may be
assigned,‖ is becoming THE job description.

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 Other Job Analysis Methods
 U.S. Department of Labor Job Analysis Schedule – major component of job
analysis schedule is Work Performed Ratings, which evaluates what workers do
with regard to data, people, and things.
 Functional Job Analysis – concentrates on interactions among work, worker and
organization.
 Position Analysis Questionnaire – structured questionnaire that uses checklist to
identify job elements.
 Management Position Description Questionnaire – designed for management
positions using checklist method to analyze jobs.
 Guidelines Oriented Job Analysis – step-by-step procedure for describing work of
a particular job classification.

Job Analysis and the Law

 Fair Labor Standards Act – employees categorized as exempt or nonexempt.
 Equal Pay Act – similar pay must be provided if jobs are not substantially different as
shown in job descriptions.
 Civil Rights Act – basis for adequate defenses against unfair discriminations charges
in selection, promotion, and other areas of HR administration.
 Occupational Safety and Health Act – specify job elements that endanger health or
are considered unsatisfactory or distasteful by most people.

Strategic Planning
The process by which top management determines overall organizational purposes and
objectives and how they are to be achieved.

Human Resource Planning

The process of systematically reviewing HR requirements to ensure that the required
number of employees with the required skills are available when they are needed.

HR Forecasting Techniques
Zero-based forecasting – uses current level as starting point for determining future staffing
needs.
Bottom-up approach – each level of organization, starting with lowest, forecasts its
requirements to provide aggregate of employment needs.

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Mathematical models –Assist in forecasting. Relationship between sales demand and
number of employees needed is positive one.
Simulation – technique with experimenting with real-world situation through a mathematical
model.

Forecasting HR Requirements
 Estimate of numbers and kinds of employees the organization will need at future
dates.
 Demand for firm’s goods or services must be forecast.
 Forecast is then converted into people requirements.

Forecasting HR Availability
 Determining whether the firm will be able to secure employees with the necessary
skills, and from what sources these individuals may be obtained.
 Show whether the needed employees may be obtained from within the company,
from outside the organization, or from a combination of the two sources.

Surplus of Employees
 Restricted hiring – employees who leave are not replaced
 Reduced hours
 Early retirement
 Layoffs

Shortage of Workers Forecasted

 Creative recruiting
 Compensation incentives – premium pay is one method
 Training programs – prepare previously unemployable people for positions
 Different selection standards – alter current criteria

Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS)

Virtually all HR management functions can be enhanced through the use of an HRIS – any
organized approach for obtaining relevant and time information on which to base HR
decisions.

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Job Design
Process of determining the specific tasks to be performed, the methods used in performing
these tasks, and how the job relates to other work in the organization
 Job enrichment - Basic changes in the content and level of responsibility of a job, so
as to provide greater challenge to the worker.
 Job enlargement - Changes in the scope of a job to provide greater variety to the
worker.
 Reengineering – Fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes
to achieve dramatic improvements in critical, contemporary measures of
performance, such as cost, quality, service and speed.

Sources:
https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/75865/10/10_chapter%201.pdf
file:///C:/Users/JulyBuniel/Desktop/INSTRUCTION/Syllabus%20for%201st%20semester%20
2020-2021/HRM%20References/job_analysis_and_human_resource_planning.pdf

2. Case Analysis

CASE1

Changes, Changes

Jennifer, the owner and manager of a company with ten employees, has hired you to
take over the HRM function so she can focus on other areas of her business. During
your first two weeks, you find out that the company has been greatly affected by the
up economy and is expected to experience overall revenue growth by 10 percent
over the next three years, with some quarters seeing growth as high as 30 percent.
However, five of the ten workers are expected to retire within three years. These
workers have been with the organization since the beginning and provide a unique
historical perspective of the company. The other five workers are of diverse ages.

In addition to these changes, Jennifer believes they may be able to save costs by
allowing employees to telecommute one to two days per week. She has some
concerns about productivity if she allows employees to work from home. Despite

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these concerns, Jennifer has even considered closing down the physical office and
making her company a virtual organization, but she wonders how such a major
change will affect the ability to communicate and worker motivation.

Jennifer shares with you her thoughts about the costs of health care on the
organization. She has considered cutting benefits entirely and having her employees
work for her on a contract basis, instead of being full-time employees. She isn’t sure
if this would be a good choice.

Jennifer schedules a meeting with you to discuss some of her thoughts. To prepare
for the meeting, you perform research so you can impress your new boss with
recommendations on the challenges presented.

CASE 2

Red Lobster operates over 670 casual-dining seafood restaurants in the US and
Canada, employing more than 63,000 people. When Red Lobster developed a new
business strategy to focus on value and improve its image, it established a new
vision, mission, and goals for the company. The restaurant chain simplified its menu
with the highest-quality seafood it could offer at mid-range prices, traded its
restaurants’ tropical themes for a crisp, clean look with white-shirt-and-black-pants
uniforms for its employees, and added Northeastern coastal imagery to its menu and
Web-site. Executing the new mission and differentiation strategy required hiring fun,
hospitality-minded people who shared its values.

Although Red Lobster had not had any problem with hiring restaurant managers,
the company felt that the managers it hired did not always reflect Red Lobster’s
strategy, vision and values. The company also realized that their old job descriptions
did not reflect the passion its new strategy needed from its employees.

Red Lobster ask your opinion of what it should do in writing its job descriptions to
improve the fit between its new management hires and its new business strategy.

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CASE 3

APOLLO HOSPITAL

Apollo Hospital has been growing in size as it offers quality, prompt-caring services
to the patients. Dr. Chandrashekar the Administrator is a person with good medical
knowledge but lacks knowledge and skills involved in human resources
management. The hospital has large quantities of medicine, equipment, spare parts
of important machines installed in the hospital. As usual, the Hospital has employed
a “storekeeper” with no previous experience of Hospital Stores. Mr. Ramakant the
storekeeper was working earlier in an engineering firm and had sufficient knowledge
of such stores. Ramakant reports to the purchase Executive whose job is to order
requisite materials for requirements of the entire Hospital, Dr. Chandrashekhar has
been receiving various complaints from the staff and doctors of non-availability of
medicines, drugs, spares of equipment and other consumables required in the
Hospital having 500 beds. Since the hospital so far did not employ a qualified
Personnel Manager, the administrators are not aware of the job analysis procedures,
nor do they have job description and job specification of any of the jobs being
performed.

CASE 4

Harsha and Franklin both of them are postgraduates in management under different
streams from the same B-School. Both of them are close to each other from the
college days itself and the same friendship is continuing in the organization too as
they are placed in the same company, Hy-tech technology solutions. Harsha placed
in the HR department as employee counsellor and Franklin in the finance
department as a key finance executive. As per the grade is concerned both are at
the same level but when responsibility is concerned Franklin is holding more
responsibility being in core finance.

By nature, Harsha is friendly in nature and ready to help the needy. Franklin is silent
in nature ready to help if approached personally and always a bit egoistic in nature.
They have successfully completed 4 years in the organization. And management is

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very much satisfied with both of them as they are equally talented and constant
performers.

Harsha felt that now a day’s Franklin is not like as he uses to be in the past. She
noticed some behavioural changes with him. During general conversations, she feels
that Franklin is taunting her that she is famous among the employees in the
organization, on the other hand, he is not even recognized by fellow employees.

One morning Mr. Mehta General Manager Hy-tech technology solutions shocked
while going through the mail received from Franklin about his resignation. Mr. Mehta
called Harsha immediately and discussed the same as she is close to Franklin. By
hearing the news Harsha got stunned and said that she does not know this before
she also revealed here current experience with him. Mr. Mehta who does not want to
lose both of them promised her that he will handle this and he won’t allow Franklin to
resign.

In the afternoon Mr. Metha took Franklin to Canteen to make him comfortable after
some general discussion he starts on the issue. Franklin, after some hesitation,
opened his thinking in front of Mr. Mehta. The problem of Franklin is

1) when he comes alone to canteen the people from others don’t even recognize him
but if he accompanied by Harsha he gets well treated by others.

2) one day Both of them entered the company together the security in the gate
wished them but the next day when he came alone the same security did not do so.

3) Even in meetings held in the office, the points raised by Harsha will get more
value so many times he keeps silent in the meeting.

It happens to Franklin that he has to face such degradation in each day of work
which totally disturbs him. Franklin also questioned that ” Harsha and myself have
the same qualification, from the same institute, passed out in the same year both
with first class. We have the same number of experiences in this organization.
Moreover, the responsibilities with me are more valuable than those of Harsha. After

Module 1: Overview of Human Resource Management Page 20

all these things if I am been ignored or unrecognized by the fellow employees my
ego does not allow me to continue here”.

By listening to this statement Mr.Metha felt that it is not going to be very difficult to
stop his resignation. Mr. Mehta explained Franklin the reasons for such partial
behavior of the employees.
After listening to Mr. Mehta Franklin said sorry for his reaction and ready to take
back his resignation. And he called Harsha and spoke with like before.

CASE 5

Watson Public Ltd Company is well known for its welfare activities and employee
oriented schemes in the manufacturing industry for more than ten decades. The
company employs more than 800 workers and 150 administrative staff and 80
management-level employees. The Top-level management views all the employees
at the same level. This can be clearly understood by seeing the uniform of the
company which is the Same for all starting from MD to floor level workers. The
company has 2 different cafeterias at different places one near the plant for workers
and others near the Administration building. Though the place is different the
amenities, infrastructure and the food provided are of the same quality. In short, the
company stands by the rule of Employee Equality.

The company has one registered trade union and the relationship between the union
and the management is very cordial. The company has not lost a single man day
due to strike. The company is not a paymaster in that industry. The compensation
policy of that company, when compared to other similar companies, is very less still
the employees don’t have many grievances due to the other benefits provided by the
company. But the company is facing a countable number of problems in supplying
the materials in the recent past days. Problems like quality issues, mismatch in
packing materials (placing material A in the box of material B) incorrect labelling of
material, not dispatching the material on time, etc…

The management views the case as there are loopholes in the system of various
departments and hand over the responsibility to the HR department to solve the
issue. When the HR manager goes through the issues he realized that the issues

Module 1: Overview of Human Resource Management Page 21

are not relating to the system but it relates to the employees. When investigated he
come to know that the reason behind the casual approach by employees in work is

 The company hired new employees for a higher-level post without considering
the potential internal candidates.
 The newly hired employees are placed with higher packages than that of
existing employees in the same cadre.

3. Case Analysis Contents

1. Introduction
a. Identify the key problems and issues in the case study.
b. Formulate and include a thesis statement, summarizing the outcome of
your analysis in 1–2 sentences.
2. Background
a. Set the scene: background information, relevant facts, and the most
important issues.
b. Demonstrate that you have researched the problems in this case study.
3. Evaluation of the Case
a. Outline the various pieces of the case study that you are focusing on.
b. Evaluate these pieces by discussing what is working and what is not
working.
c. State why these parts of the case study are or are not working well.
4. Proposed Solution/Changes
a. Provide specific and realistic solution(s) or changes needed.
b. Explain why this solution was chosen.
c. Support this solution with solid evidence, such as:
i. Concepts from class (text readings, discussions, lectures)
ii. Outside research
iii. Personal experience (anecdotes)
5. Recommendations
a. Determine and discuss specific strategies for accomplishing the
proposed solution.
b. If applicable, recommend further action to resolve some of the issues.

Module 1: Overview of Human Resource Management Page 22

 c. What should be done and who should do it?

4. Case Analysis Rubric

1. Introduction

a. Identify the key problems and

issues in the case study.
15%
b. Formulate and include a thesis
statement, summarizing the outcome
of your analysis in 1–2 sentences.
2. Background

a. Set the scene: background

information, relevant facts, and the
15%
most important issues.

b. Demonstrate that you have

researched the problems in this case
study.
3. Evaluation of the Case

a. Outline the various pieces of the

case study that you are focusing on.
20 %
b. Evaluate these pieces by
discussing what is working and what is
not working.

c. State why these parts of the

case study are or are not working well.
4. Proposed Solution/Changes

a. Provide specific and realistic

Module 1: Overview of Human Resource Management Page 23

 solution(s) or changes needed.

b. Explain why this solution was

chosen.
25%
c. Support this solution with solid
evidence, such as:

i. Concepts from class (text

readings, discussions, lectures)

ii. Outside research

iii. Personal experience

(anecdotes)
5. Recommendations

a. Determine and discuss specific

strategies for accomplishing the
25%
proposed solution.

b. If applicable, recommend further

action to resolve some of the issues.
TOTAL 100%

Module 1: Overview of Human Resource Management Page 24

Source: https://usm.maine.edu/sites/default/files/assessment/Rubric-CaseAnalysis_0.pdf

5. Oral Discussion Rubric

6. Activity Output Rubric

Module 1: Overview of Human Resource Management Page 25

https://www.gallaudet.edu/accreditation-certification-and-licensure/assessment/assessment-of-
student-learning/instructions-and-examples/developing-a-scoring-criteria-(rubrics)

7. Exercises

A. Discussion questions
1. Why study human resource management?
2. Define human resource management.
3. Explain the need for human resource development?
4. Discuss the importance of Human Resource Planning.
5. Management of men is a challenging job. Explain
6. What do you understand by industrial relation?
7. Briefly explain the importance of discipline.
8. Discuss the basic objectives of human resource management effectiveness.
9. Briefly describe the importance of motivation.
10. What are the different objectives of HRM?

PROCEDURES/LESSON DEVELOPMENT

1. Communicate to the students the topics, learning objectives, activities and its
rubrics and the time allotted for this module.

2. Introduce the lecture notes to the students.

Run a small group discussion of the topics to ensure understanding of the
topic.
-Stress the fact that the lecture notes are guide for further readings/research.
Ask the students to take note important concepts and its implication for oral
discussion with graphic organizer as assessment to ensure understanding of
the topic.

Module 1: Overview of Human Resource Management Page 26

 3. Introduce the rationale of case analysis, the format that has to be followed
and how the student’s output are to be rated.
-Highlight the applicability of this tool in solving business issues and concerns.
-Ask the students to critically analyze the case and relate any problem or
success in the actual setting as observed.
-Lead students into seeing the implications of putting into practice the
theories/concepts discussed through solving cases and integrating current
issues and trends that challenge businesses.

4. Give the chapter test to assess learning of the students.

EVALUATION/ASSESSMENT

The performance of the students will be assessed using the following:

1. Graded Oral Discussion

2. Exercises

3. Case analysis output

SUMMARY

Human resource management refers to the process of recruiting and developing a

company’s workforce. The HR department is concerned with identifying talent gaps

in a company, advertising for positions, evaluating potential candidates, and hiring

top talent.

Module 1: Overview of Human Resource Management Page 27

Human resource management does not just handle the recruitment of new

employees; it also oversees redundancy for companies that want to downsize. HR

management also oversees orientation programs to introduce new employees to the

company’s goals, objectives, and policies. Overall, human resource management

guarantees the smooth running of employees within a company.

Thank you ….

Module 1: Overview of Human Resource Management Page 28