Assignment (HRM)

QUESTIONS TO BE DONE
Q1- what is the role, process and guidelines of negotiation?
Ans- Negotiation means is a method by which people settle differences.
It is a process by which compromise or agreement is reached while
avoiding argument and dispute.
Process of negotiation
The process of negotiation includes the following stages:
 Preparation
 Discussion
 Clarification of goals
 Negotiate towards a Win-Win outcome
 Agreement
 Implementation of a course of action
1. Preparation
Before any negotiation takes place, a decision needs to be taken as to
when and where a meeting will take place to discuss the problem and
who will attend. Setting a limited time-scale can also be helpful to
prevent the disagreement continuing.
This stage involves ensuring all the pertinent facts of the situation are
known in order to clarify your own position. In the work example
above, this would include knowing the ‘rules’ of your organization, to
whom help is given, when help is not felt appropriate and the grounds
for such refusals.
2. Discussion
During this stage, individuals or members of each side put forward the
case as they see it, i.e. their understanding of the situation. Key skills
during this stage include questioning, listening and clarifying.
Sometimes it is helpful to take notes during the discussion stage to
record all points put forward in case there is need for further
clarification. It is extremely important to listen, as when disagreement
takes place it is easy to make the mistake of saying too much and
listening too little. Each side should have an equal opportunity to
present their case.
3. Clarifying Goals
From the discussion, the goals, interests and viewpoints of both sides of
the disagreement need to be clarified.
It is helpful to list these factors in order of priority. Through this
clarification it is often possible to identify or establish some common
ground. Clarification is an essential part of the negotiation process,
without it misunderstandings are likely to occur which may cause
problems and barriers to reaching a beneficial outcome.
4. Negotiate Towards a Win-Win Outcome
This stage focuses on what is termed a 'win-win' outcome where both
sides feel they have gained something positive through the process of
negotiation and both sides feel their point of view has been taken into
consideration.
A win-win outcome is usually the best result. Although this may not
always be possible, through negotiation, it should be the ultimate goal.
5. Agreement
Agreement can be achieved once understanding of both sides’
viewpoints and interests have been considered.
It is essential to for everybody involved to keep an open mind in order
to achieve an acceptable solution. Any agreement needs to be made
perfectly clear so that both sides know what has been decided.

6. Implementing a Course of Action

From the agreement, a course of action has to be implemented to carry
through the decision parathion for the negotiation.
Guidelines of negotiation
1. Know what are you trying to accomplish.
What would success look like? If you don’t know where you want to go,
you will never get there.
What are the minimum outcomes you must achieve? If you cannot
achieve them, are you prepared to walk away from the table? If not,
perhaps you have not yet properly defined your minimum outcomes.
2. Develop a game plan before negotiations start.
Every negotiation requires compromise and trade-offs. You are not
going to win on every issue. Therefore, it is important to determine the
issues that are deal-breakers for you. Try to determine which issues are
deal-breakers for the other side, and can you live with agreeing to
them?
3. Study and understand your counterpart.
Understand the negotiating style of the lead negotiator on the other
side of the table. What is their reputation and track record in past
negotiations with you and with others? Can they be trusted to meet
their negotiating table commitments?
Listen to the other party and ask questions to further understand what
they want to accomplish. Communicate what you want to accomplish.
Identify where your goals overlap and where they don’t so you can
work to close the gaps.
4. Work towards a win-win.
If you have an ongoing relationship, it’s important for a win-win result.
If one party feels they were treated unfairly in a negotiation, the
relationship between the parties could be damaged and may affect
future negotiations. Maintaining a good relationship in the long run is
more important than a win-lose result.One of the objectives of a
negotiation, through the process of give-and-take, is to find more
overall value for both sides, perhaps not apparent before negotiations
start.
5. Avoid negotiating with yourself.

Once you make an offer, wait until the other side responds with a
counteroffer. If you put another offer on the table before a
counteroffer is made, the other side will view this as a weakness and try
to exploit it to their advantage.
To avoid not receiving a counteroffer, ensure that your offer is credible.
If it isn’t, the other side may just ignore it and not make a counteroffer,
prematurely ending negotiations.
Role of negotiation
For each particular negotiation in a company their principal is a
manager at higher level of hierarchy or an employee to whom
responsibility for supervising negotiations has been delegated. Such a
person is also responsible for performing negotiations, and ac-
complishing their goals. It is either a member of functional department
or project team (usually in intra-organizational negotiations) or
company representative (individual or member of negotiating team),
which occurs within inter-organizational negotiations. Therefore
managerial functions in negotiations must be seen in the context of
typical roles and competencies of executives. In particular the classic
concept of such roles by H. Mintzberg may be considered. He
distinguished ten roles of that kind, divided into three categories, i.e.
informational, interpersonal and decisional (Mintzberg 1973). One of
the last ones is the role of “negotiator”. Playing that role manager
represents the organizations in different negotiations, either intra- or
inter-organizational ones. Focuses on searching for necessary
agreements with trade unions, stakeholders, clients, suppliers,
subcontractors and so on, which affect his (her) area of responsibility
and utilizing the information at his (her) disposal.
Q2 .Describe problems and measures of trade union in India?
Ans- Problems of trade union are:-

 Small Size:
According to the veteran trade union leader V.V. Giri, “the trade union
movement in India is plagued by the predominance of small sized
unions”. To quote there were 9,023 trade unions submitting returns
during the year 1992. The total membership of these unions was 57.4
lakhs, with an average membership of 632 per union. Nearly three-
fourths of the unions have a membership of less than 500. Smallness in
size of the union implies, among other things, weakness in bargaining
power.
 Poor Finance:
 Small size of unions has its direct bearing on its financial health.
Total income and total expenditure of 9,073 trade unions with a
membership of 57.4 lakhs were Rs. 3,238 lakhs and Rs. 2,532 lakhs
respectively in 1992. The per member income and expenditure, thus,
come to Rs. 56.4 and Rs. 44.1 respectively”. These are, by all means,
very low. It is the small size of trade unions accompanied by small
subscriptions; the trade unions cannot undertake welfare activities.
 Politicisation:
A serious defect of the trade union movement in India is that the
leadership has been provided by outsiders’ especially professional
politicians. Leaders being affiliated to one or the other party, the
unions were more engrossed in toeing the lines of their political
leaders than protecting workers’ interests.Ironically, in many
cases, the political leaders possess little knowledge of the
background of labour problems, fundamentals of trade unionism,
the techniques of industry, and even little general education
 Multiplicity of Unions:
Of late, trade unionism in India is also characterised by multiplicity
of unions based on craft, creed and religion. This is well indicated
by the socio-political realities after the mandalisation of polity and
heightened sectarian consciousness after the demolition of the
disputed structure of Ayodhya.
 Lack of Enlightened Labour Force
The lack of an enlightened labour force capable of manning and
conducting the movement efficiently, purposefully and effectively
has been a major problem in the development of trade unions in
the country. Lack of education, division by race religion, language
and caste, migratory nature, lack of self-consciousness, and non-
permanent class of workers have been attributed as the causes
for the lack of enlightened labour force in India.
Q1. Write 12 Strategies for successful participative management?
Ans. The strategies are some of them:-
 It is important to initiate a participative structure through
communications with all levels of employees. A bottom-up
approach to installation works better than a top-down unilateral
dictated policy change.
For example, instead of a company indicating to employees that a
quarterly meeting will be held to discuss the results of that quarter,
each employee group would be allowed to decide how often they
should meet to discuss what is important to them.
 Participation is non-judgmental. This means that whether or not
an employee decides to participate is an individual decision. Each
employee must understand that through participation he or she is
accepting the responsibility to improve the value of the company
and, therefore, his or her own wealth creation.
 Employees should understand that it is not enough to follow the
rule book; rather the rule book should be expanded, so that if
there are better ways of achieving results, they should be
implemented.
 Each company has a different corporate culture and
communication model. Therefore, a participation plan must be
tailored to meet each company’s needs. For example, in a high-
tech company where many of the employees are working on
Internet and intranet applications, communication should
probably be through that source.
 One ESOP client in a multi-media setting set up an Internet site
just for communicating what’s going on in the ESOP and to ask for
feedback and suggestions to improve the ESOP. The site is
 updated monthly with summaries of employees’ questions and
sent out to all ESOP participants.
 Decision-making must be encouraged at all levels, and difficult or
positive decisions should also be rewarded and acknowledged.
There must be some type of system in place to measure when a
decision has been profitable and some reward for that
profitability.
For example, if a company unit has had turnover problems and
substantially cut its turnover due to specific decisions or actions, that
unit should be rewarded depending on the compensation policies of
the company.
 An active role must be taken by employees. An engaged
employee actively searches for, finds, and solves problems within
the company to increase the profitability of the company.
 Once a participative culture is implemented, communicated, and
accepted by a work force, it is then a required expectation of all
the employees. The longer a participative program such as an
ESOP is in place, the more the employees get involved, and the
impact on the workplace can be substantial. First, employees who
are not comfortable in a participative environment tend to leave
the company, and people attracted to a participative,
entrepreneurial company apply for the positions. So the nature of
the work force actually changes to one that is more engaged.
 Management must be aware that new skills may be required by
employees in areas such as leadership, problem-solving, coaching,
public speaking to groups, and so on. Many companies will
institute training programs to improve the skill sets of their
employees, not only in the area in which they are directly
involved. Having employees participate in speaking groups, for
 example, will allow them to expand their expertise and be more
confident talking about the company in various scenarios.
 As with any HR initiative, participation must be continually
renewed with innovative ideas from the employee themselves.
 There must be a clear understanding of the role and
responsibilities of middle-management staff and supervisors
For example, a detailed organization chart showing the roles and
responsibilities will allow each employee to assess his or her
position within the corporate structure.
 There can be no system of responsibility without a system of
accountability, including measuring results and their
consequences. Reward systems can take many forms; they can be
based on profitability, or increased revenues, depending upon the
key performance indicators of value within the company.
 Participation means that employees must have access to the
resources, such as time and mentoring, which lead to
accountability.
 Employees must become business literate within the context of
their company and their interests. Many companies, once they
have established an ESOP, implement open-book management
policies, which increase their employees’ financial understanding
of how their company works, how the company can increase
value, and how the employee can affect that value.
Q3. Write essentials and problems of collective bargaining in India?
Ans. Essentials of collective bargaining in India are :-
I. Existence of a strong representative trade union in the industry
that believes in constitutional means for settling the disputes.
II. Existence of a fact-finding approach and willingness to use new
methods and tools for the solution of industrial problems. The
negotiation should be based on facts and figures and both the
parties should adopt constructive approach.

III. Existence of strong and enlightened management which can

integrate the different parties, i.e., employees, owners,
consumers and society or Government.
IV. Agreement on basic objectives of the organisation between the
employer and the employees and on mutual rights and liabilities
should be there.
V. In order that collective bargaining functions properly, unfair
labour practices must be avoided by both the parties.
VI. Proper records for the problem should be maintained.
Q5. Explain Grievance handling process (procedure) in India Industry?
Ans. The handling procedures are in India is directed by the 15th
session of Indian Labor Conference held in 1957 emphasized the need
of an established grievance procedure for the country which would be
acceptable to unions as well as to management. In the 16th session of
Indian Labor Conference, a model for grievance procedure was drawn
up. This model helps in creation of grievance machinery.
According to it, workers’ representatives are to be elected for a
department or their union is to nominate them. Management has to
specify the persons in each department who are to be approached first
and the departmental heads who are supposed to be approached in the
second step. The Model Grievance Procedure specifies the details of all
the steps that are to be followed while redressing grievances
These steps are:
STEP 1: In the first step the grievance is to be submitted to
departmental representative, who is a representative of management.
He has to give his answer within 48 hours.
STEP 2: If the departmental representative fails to provide a solution,
the aggrieved employee can take his grievance to head of the
department, who has to give his decision within 3 days.
STEP 3: If the aggrieved employee is not satisfied with the decision of
departmental head, he can take the grievance to Grievance Committee.
The Grievance Committee makes its recommendations to the manager
within 7 days in the form of a report. The final decision of the
management on the report of Grievance Committee must be
communicated to the aggrieved employee within three days of the
receipt of report. An appeal for revision of final decision can be made
by the worker if he is not satisfied with it. The management must
communicate its decision to the worker within 7 days.
STEP 4: If the grievance still remains unsettled, the case may be
referred to voluntary arbitration.