Question No. 5 - MMPC 002 - Human Resources Management - MBA and MBA (Banking & Finance)

Solutions to Assignments

                            MBA and MBA (Banking & Finance)

MMPC 002 - Human Resources Management

MMPC-002/TMA/JULY/2022

Question No. 5. What is career development? Explain the process of career development citing examples.

Career is viewed as a sequence of position occupied by a person during the course of his lifetime. Career may also be viewed as amalgam of changes in value, attitude and motivation that occur, as a person grows older. The implicit assumption is that an invididual can make a different in his career over time and can adjust in ways that would help him to enhance and optimize the potential for his own career development. Career development is important because it would help the individual to explore, choose and strive to derive satisfaction with one‟s career object. Through career development, a person evaluates his or her own abilities and interests, considers alternative career opportunities, establishes career goals, and plans practical developmental activities.

On the part of employees, they should manage their own careers like entrepreneurs managing a small business. They should think of themselves as self-employed. They should freely participate in career planning activities and must try to get as much as possible out of the opportunities provided. The successful career will be built on maintaining flexibility and keeping skills and knowledge up to date. Career development essentially involves the functions of career planning and succession planning. Both these functions are carried out by HR department. Keeping in view the organisational goals and capabilities of individual employees subsequent sections would cover the functions of career planning and succession planning in detail.

CAREER DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

There are two components of career planning and development: 

A) Career Development Programme, and 

B) Career Planning Process and Activities

A) Career Development Programme This involves three activities: 

a) Assisting employees in assessing their own internal career needs. 

Internal Career Assessment: Since a person's career is extremely important element of life, each person is to make his or her decision in this regard. However, the HR manager may assist an employee's decision-making process by providing as much information as possible to the employee showing what type of work would suit him or her most, considering his or her other interest, skill, aptitude, and performance in the work that he or she is already doing. For rendering such help some big organisations provide formal assessment centre/workshops where small groups of employees are subjected to psychological testing, simulation exercises and depth interviewing. The objective of such programmes is not that of selecting future promotees, but rather to help indivuduals to do their own planning. 

b) Developing and publicising available career opportunities in the organisation. 

Career Opportunities: Knowing that employees have definite career needs, there naturally follows the obligation of specifically charting career paths through the organisation and informing the employees. For identifying the career paths the technique of job analysis may help in discovering multiple lines of advancement to several jobs in different areas. 

c) Aligning employee needs and abilities with career opportunities. 

Employee's Needs and Opportunities: When employees have assessed their needs and have become aware of organisational career opportunities the remaining problem is one of alignment. For aligning or matching the career needs of employees to opportunities offered by the organisation, special training and development techniques such as special assignment, planned position rotation, and supervisory coaching, are used. The HR department of some organisations have also some system of recording and tracking moves through the organisation, and maintain an organisation chart that highlights age, seniority and promotion status.

 B) Career Planning Process and Activities 

The process of career planning involves a number of activities or steps to be undertaken as mentioned below: 

a) Preparation of HR inventory of the organisation, 

Organisation's HR Inventory: Such an inventory is an essential prerequisite for any successful career planning within the organisation. This inventory should be so prepared as to provide the following information: 

• Organisational set up and its different levels. 

• The existing number of persons employed in the organisation. For this, manning tables are prepared showing the nature of positions at different levels of the organisation and the number of persons manning those jobs. Sometimes the age of persons holding the jobs are also mentioned in the table to show when they are likely to retire and when the vacancy thus caused may be required to be filled. 

• Types of existing employees, their status, duties, qualifications, age, aptitude, ability to shoulder added responsibility and their acceptability to their colleagues. 

• Whether the existing manpower is short or in surplus to requirements. If there is a shortage, how many more persons are required, and for what positions. 

Number of persons required in the near future, say in the next one to five years, to meet the needs arising from expansion or diversification of work or natural wastage of manpower. The latter includes death, permanent disability, superannuation and retirement, discharge, dismissal, voluntary resignation, or abandonment of the jobs. Collection of all the above information may amount to manpower planning, and involve preparation of manpower budget showing present and immediate future needs. 

b) Building career paths or ladders for various categories of employees, 

Employee's Potential for Career Planning: After determining the career path, the next logical step is to find out the suitable employees who may have the necessary ability and potential for climbing up the ladder and are willing to be promoted and to take up higher responsibilities. For this the management control technique of Performance Appraisal and Merit Rating is utilised. Periodical evaluation and merit rating of employees is also necessary for proper planning of manpower and career of employees in the organisation. This can be possible only by knowing how much and what types of human resources are available, and the potential of employees whose career is to be planned.

c) Locating or identifying employees with necessary potential for career planning, 

Formulation and Implementation of Training and Development Plans and Programmes: For making the career planning a success it is essential that the training and development programmes should be so planned and designed that they meet the needs of both the management and employees. The participants of these programmes should be the employees who are willing to be trained and developed further to make their career in the organisation. Methods of training and nature of skill and knowledge to be imparted may be different for different types of employees. The emphasis may be on improving technical skills of skilled workers and on acquiring and improving leadership qualities, human and conceptual skills for senior supervisors, executives and managers. 

d) Formulation and implementation of suitable plans for training and development of 

Age Balance and Career Paths: One widespread difficulty in career planning may arise from the need to accommodate people in the same level of supervisory and managerial hierarchy, some of whom are young direct recruits and others are promotees who are almost always considerably older. The latter, because of their limited education or formal professional qualification, cannot expect to move up very high; the former as they are better educated and trained have aspirations for rapid vertical mobility. Promotion and direct recruitment at every level must, therefore, be so planned as to ensure a fair share to either group. Intense jealousies, rivalries or groupism may develop if this aspect of personnel administration is neglected. Very quick promotions which create promotion blocks should also be avoided if the employees are not to feel stagnated or demotivated at early stages of their careers, and think of leaving the organisation for better prospects. Such a situation can be avoided if promotions are properly spaced. 

e) persons for different steps of the career ladder or paths, and 

Review of Career Development Plans in Action: Career planning is a continuous activity. In fact it is a process. For effective career planning, a periodical review process should be followed so that the employee may know in which direction the organisation is moving, what changes are likely to take place and what resources and skills he or she needs to adapt to the changing organisational requirements. Even for the organisation, annual evaluation is desirable to know an employee's performance, limitations, goals and aspirations, and to know whether the career plan in action is serving the corporate objective i.e. effective utilisation of human resources by matching employee abilities to the demands of the job and his or her needs to the rewards of the job. Some of the questions that could be asked while evaluating the career plan might be:

• Was the classification of the existing employees correct? 

• Are the job descriptions proper? 

• Is there any employee unsuited to his or her job? 

• Are the future manpower projections still valid? 

• Is the team pulling on well as a whole? 

• Are the training and development programmes adequately devised to enable the employee to climb up the career ladder and fit into higher positions?  

Answers to all these and other questions can be found either by holding brainstorming sessions or by undertaking a survey of career planning activities and their impact on the working of the organisation.

f) Maintaining age balance while taking employees up the career path and review of career development plan in action, etc.

Career Counselling: Career planning may also involve counselling individuals on their possible career paths, and what they must do to achieve promotions. The need for such counselling arises when employees plan their own careers, and develop or train themselves for career progression in the organisation. This does not mean revealing the number of determined steps in a long range plan of the organisation. Even if it were possible, it would be inappropriate to raise expectations which might not be fulfilled or induce complacency about the future. In counselling, the wisest approach is to provide a scenario of the opportunities that might become available. The main aim should be to help the individual concerned to develop oneself by giving him or her some idea of the direction in which he or she ought to be heading. Some other objectives of career counselling are as follows:

• Enabling individuals to study the immediate and personal world in which they live. 

• Providing a normal mature person with guidelines to help him or her understand oneself more clearly and develop his or her thinking and outlook. 

• Achieving and enjoying greater personal satisfaction, pleasure and happiness. 

• Understanding the forces and dynamics operating in a system. 

Question No. 4 - MMPC 002 - Human Resources Management - MBA and MBA (Banking & Finance)

Solutions to Assignments

                            MBA and MBA (Banking & Finance)

MMPC 002 - Human Resources Management

MMPC-002/TMA/JULY/2022

Question No. 4. Why training, mentoring, compensation and reward management of an organization ensures effective human resource development? Explain with the help of recent trends in the corporate world. 

TRAINING AS AN EFFECTIVE HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT

Training is essential because technology is developing continuously and at a fast rate. Systems and practices get outdated soon due to new discoveries in technology, including technical, managerial and behavioural aspects. Organisations that do not develop mechanisms to catch up with and use the growing technology soon become stale. However, developing individuals in the organisation can contribute to its effectiveness of the organisation.

There are some other reasons also for which this training becomes necessary. Explained below are various factors, giving rise to the need for training. 

 Employment of inexperienced and new labour requires detailed instructions for effective performance on the job. 

 People have not to work, but work effectively with the minimum of supervision, minimum of cost, waste and spoilage, and to produce quality goods and services. 

 Increasing use of fast changing techniques in production and other operations requires training into newer methods for the operatives. 

 Old employees need refresher training to enable them to keep abreast of changing techniques and the use of sophisticated tools and equipment. 

 Training is necessary when a person has to move from one job to another be3cause of transfer, promotion or demotion. 

Such development, however, should be monitored so as to be purposeful. Without proper monitoring, development is likely to increase the frustration of employees if when, once their skills are developed, and expectations raised, they are not given opportunities for the application of such skills. A good training sub-system would help greatly in monitoring the directions in which employees should develop in the best interest of the organisation. A good training system also ensures that employees develop in directions congruent with their career plans.

Hence, a well-planned and well-executed training programme should result in: 

• reduction in wastes and spoilage;
• improvement in methods of work; 
• reduction in learning time; 
• reduction in supervisory burden; 
• reduction in machine breakage and maintenance cost; 
• reduction in accident rate; 
• improvement in quality of products; 
• improvement in production rate; 
• improvement of morale and reduction in grievances; 
• improvement of efficiency and productivity; 
• reduction in manpower obsolescence; 
• enabling the organization to provide increased financial incentives, opportunity for internal promotion and raising of pay rates; 
• wider awareness among participants, enlarges skill; and 
• personal growth. 

MENTORING IN EFFECTIVE HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT

Mentoring can either be the result of a 3rd party program instituted by your company or organization, or it can develop organically. Both types are beneficial, but organic mentor/mentee relationships tend to be somewhat less formal. There's likely to be a level of informality in every mentor/mentee relationship, and that's completely fine.
A mentee should be able to let their guard down, confide in their mentor, and not have to worry about office politics. In fact, office politics could easily be a topic of conversation. That being said, mentor/mentee confidentiality can be a little tricky. There's no law saying a mentor has to keep everything their mentee says confidential, but it's extremely bad practice to betray trust within the relationship. A good mentee should be aware of what information is appropriate to share, and a good mentor should remain professional with the information they're given. 

Today's workforce is very focused on career growth and professional development. From interns to senior executives, the majority see networking and learning opportunities as a huge benefit - often more important than social events and traditional office perks. This is especially true as we move to a much more virtual workforce where building relationships in the office is getting a lot harder. By implementing a mentoring program you can attract more skilled talent, and stand out from the competition. Not only is it a benefit in itself, it shows your company cares about its people and is focused on improving and providing value as they grow in their career. On the flip side, mentoring your current employees helps to ensure they're happy, stay with you longer, and gain the skills/knowledge that will allow them to be transferred within the company in order to meet your organization's needs.
Mentoring is beneficial to practically any industry, and any level of employee. For recruiting new talent, it can even be a great selling feature - especially with a younger workforce who is eager to learn, grow, and build their network. Mentoring is a great tool that can strengthen your workforce, and your company.

COMPENSATION IN EFFECTIVE HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT

The compensation function contributes to the organisational effectiveness in four basic ways: 

1) Compensation can serve to attract qualified applicants to the organisation. Other things being equal, an organisation offering a higher level of pay can attract a larger number of qualified applicants than its competing units. 

2) Compensation helps to retain competent employees in the organisation. Although retaining competent workers is contingent on many factors, compensation policies help by maintaining a fair internal pay structure and by providing attractive benefits. Turnover is thus reduced, along with costs associated with recruiting, selecting, and training replacements. 

3) Compensation serves as an incentive to motivate employees to put forth their best efforts. Manufacturing and sales organizations, for example, use monetary incentives to attain higher levels of production or sales without hiring additional employees. When employees put forth their best efforts, average productivity of labour increases. With increased productivity, fewer employees are needed to achieve the same level of output. Thus, labour costs are reduced and organisational profitability is increased. 

4) Minimising the costs of compensation can also contribute to organisational effectiveness since compensation is a significant cost for most employers. In brief, compensation is provided for two reasons, namely; as a reward for past service to the enterprise, and as stimulus to increased performance in the future.

In modern business, executives hold the most pivotal place in an organisation. They play a major part in looking after the economic health of the company. As they are important for the success, growth and profitability of an organisation, they have to be compensated properly. To make the executives happy to the extent possible, companies have been giving in recent years, bigger and more frequent rises in salaries. The cumulative effect is that executive compensation cost is today a sizeable cost and rising cost. Companies have started looking at executive compensation more systematically and more proactively so that they can expect better performance from the executives.

REWARD MANAGEMENT IN EFFECTIVE HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT

One of the important attributes of work organisation is its ability to give rewards to their members. Pay, promotions, fringe benefits, and status symbols are perhaps the most important rewards. Because these rewards are important, the way they are distributed have a profound effect on the quality of work life as well as on the effectiveness of organisations.

There are several principles for setting up an effective reward system in an organisation: 

• Give value to the reward system. Employees must have a preference for the types of rewards being offered. Many employees prefer cash awards and plaques. 
• Some employees like to see their name in the company newsletter. Others like the public recognition surrounding award ceremonies. 
• Make the reward system simple to understand. Elaborate procedures for evaluating performance, filling out forms, and review by several levels of management lead to confusion. The system must be easy to understand if it is to be used effectively. 
• Lay down performance standards within the control of the team. 
• Make the reward system fair and effective. 
• Ensure participation in the reward system. 
• Involve people in the reward process and empower them to do the needful. 

Most organisations use different types of rewards. Examples of recognition and rewards include money, plaques, trophies, certificates or citations, public recognition, official perquisites, special assignments, parties or celebrations or other meaningful considerations. The most common are wages or salary, incentive systems, benefits and perquisites, and awards. For majority of people, the most important reward for work is the pay they receive. For one thing, an effectively planned and administered pay system can improve motivation and performance.

Money may not actually motivate people. Surprisingly, there is no clear evidence that increased earnings will necessarily lead to higher performance. A great deal of research has been done on what determines whether an individual will be satisfied with the rewards he or she receives from a situation. The following five conclusions can be reached about what determines satisfaction with rewards:

1) Satisfaction with reward is a function of both how much is received and how much the individual feels should be received. When individuals receive less than they feel they should receive, they are dissatisfied. When they receive more than they feel they should, they tend to feel guilty and uncomfortable. 

2) People‟s feelings of satisfaction are influenced by comparisons with what happens to others. These comparisons are made both inside and outside the organisations they work in, and are usually made with similar people. Individuals tend to rate their inputs higher than others. 

3) In addition to obvious extrinsic rewards individuals receive (e.g., pay, promotion, status symbols), they also may experience internal feelings that are rewarding to them. These include feelings of competence, achievement, personal growth, and self-esteem. The overall job satisfaction of most people is determined both by how they feel about their intrinsic rewards and how they feel about their extrinsic rewards. 

4) People differ widely in the rewards they desire and how much important the different rewards are to them. One group feels money is the most important, while another group feels interesting work and job content is. Both groups, of course, are able to find examples to support their point of view. 

5) Many extrinsic rewards are important and satisfying only because they lead to other rewards, or because of their symbolic value. 

An effective reward system should link reward to performance. Workers who work hard and produce more or give better quality results should receive greater rewards than poor performers. Also, criteria for receiving rewards should be clear and employees should know whether they are going to receive rewards for quality performance, innovation, effort or attendance. Management must ensure that workers perceive distribution of rewards as equitable. Furthermore, for organisations to attract, motivate and retain qualified and competent employees, they must offer rewards comparable to their competitors. 

Question No. 3 - MMPC 002 - Human Resources Management - MBA and MBA (Banking & Finance)

Solutions to Assignments

                            MBA and MBA (Banking & Finance)

MMPC 002 - Human Resources Management

MMPC-002/TMA/JULY/2022

Question No. 3. Explain the importance of job analysis, job design, socialization and mobility in Human resource planning citing relevant examples. 

IMPORTANCE OF JOB ANALYSIS

According to scientific management, the key to productivity is a precise understanding of the tasks that constitute a job. If the motions of workers are to become standardized and machine-like, then it is necessary to be certain about what is to be accomplished, as well as what abilities and materials are necessary to do the job. For many years, job analysis was considered the backbone of the scientific clipboards and stopwatches, was the method used to determine the most efficient way to perform specific jobs. As the popularity of scientific management declined after World War II, however, so did the popularity of job analysis. With the new emphasis on human relations as the key to productivity job analysis was used primarily to set salary scales. But in the modern times workers and employers began to take renewed interest in this area because of concerns about two issues: unfair discrimination and comparable worth.

There are two areas where unfair discrimination in hiring can occur: in the standards set for being hired; and in the procedures used to assess the applicant‟s ability to meet those standards. Job analysis addresses the question of what tasks, taken together actually constitute a job. Without this information, standards for hiring may appear to be arbitrary – or worse, designed to exclude certain individual or groups from the workplace. More recently, the issue of comparable worth has also contributed to a new interest in job analysis. Comparable worth refers to equal pay for individuals who hold different jobs but perform work that is comparable in terms of knowledge required or level of responsibility. The major issue of the comparable worth controversy is that women who are employed in jobs that are comparable to those held by men are paid, on the average, about 65 percent of what a man would earn. In order to determine the comparability of job tasks so that salaries can also be compared, a proper job analysis is necessary. Comparable work is an issue of considerable interest to many people.

IMPORTANCE OF JOB DESIGN 

Job design has emerged as an important area of work analysis. It is based on growing conceptual and empirical base and has commanded research attention and is being widely applied to actual practice of management. Job design concern and approaches are considered to have begun with the scientific management movement. Pioneering scientific managers like Taylor and Gilbreth examined jobs with techniques such as time and motion analysis. Their goal was to maximize human efficiency on the job. Taylor suggested that task design might be the most important single element in scientific management.

Job designing evolved into what is popularly known as job engineering. The industrial engineering approach is basically concerned with products, process, tool design, plant layout, operating procedures, work measurement, standards, and human-machine interactions. It has also been closely associated with sophisticated computer applications involving Computer Assisted Design (CAD). These computer systems had a positive impact by reducing task and workflow uncertainty. Top management could readily perceive the immediate cost savings form job engineering, but certain behavioural aspects like quality absenteeism, and turnover were generally ignored.

In the 1950s, different methods were being adopted by practicing managers. For example, IBM job rotation and job enlargement programmes were introduced. Job enlargement programmes essentially loaded the jobs horizontally, and expanded the number of operations performed by the worker and made the job less specialized. Job rotation programmes reduced boredom by switching people around to various jobs. Although boredom at work is still a significant problem in the last several years, attention has shifted to new demanding challenges facing employees on the job. For example, because of downsizing of organizations and increasingly advanced technology, jobs have suddenly become much more demanding and employees must differently adapt to unpredictable changes. For example, in manufacturing assembly line methods are being replaced by flexible, customized production and computer-integrated manufacturing. This new manufacturing approach requires workers to deal with an ever-increasing line of product and sophisticated technology.

In this context, job design takes on special importance in today‟s human resource management. It is essential to design jobs so that stress can be reduced, motivation can be enhanced, and satisfaction of employees and their performance can be improved so that organizations can effectively compete in the global market place.

Job Rotation: An alternative to boredom in work place is job rotation. Job rotation implies moving of employees form one job to another without any fundamental change in the nature of the job. The employee may be performing different jobs that are of similar nature. The advantages of job rotation may be reduced boredom, broadening of employees‟ knowledge and skills, and making them competent in several jobs rather than only one. However, caution needs to be exercised while shifting people frequently form one job to another, as it may cause interruption or the employee may feel alienated in a new job. Another factor is job rotation does not provide the employee any challenge on the job and, hence, those employees who are seeking challenge may feel frustrated.

Job Enlargement: Job enlargement involves adding more tasks to a job. It is a horizontal expansion and increases jobs scope and gives a variety of tasks to the jobholder. It is essentially adding more tasks to a single job. It definitely reduces boredom and monotony by providing the employee more variety of tasks in the job. Thus, it helps to increase interest in work and efficiency. In one study it was found that by expanding the scope of job, workers got more satisfaction, committed less errors, and customer service improved. However, research has provided contrary evidence also in that enlargement sometimes may not motivate an individual in the desired direction. Job Enrichment. 

Job Enrichment: Another approach to designing jobs in job enrichment. In the earlier two methods, human capabilities are not being utilized to a maximum and employees are feeling frustrated. Job enrichment involves a vertical expansion of a job by adding more responsibilities and freedom to it. According to Herzberg, job enrichment is the type of expansion of a job that gives employees more challenge, more responsibility, more opportunity to grow and contribute his or her ideas to the organization‟s success. In other words, job enrichment increases job depth that refers to the degree of control employees have over their work. Job enrichment basically provides autonomy while retaining accountability. It generates feeling of personal responsibility and achievement. Job enrichment certainly improves the quality of work output, employee motivation, and satisfaction. 

IMPORTANCE OF SOCIALIZATION

The idea of role comes form sociology and it is the pattern of actions expected of a person in his activities involving others. It arises as a result of the position one occupied in the social structure as he/she interacts with other people. In order to be able to coordinate his work with others in an organization, one needs some way to anticipate their behaviour as one interacts with them. Role performs this functions in the social system. A person functions in roles both on the job and away from it, as shown in Figure 2. One person performs the occupational role of worker, the family role of father, the social role of club president, and many others. In his various roles he is both buyer and seller, boss and subordinate, a father and son, and an advisor and seeker of advice. Each role calls for different types of behaviour. Within the work environment alone, a worker has more than one role. He may be a worker in group A, a subordinate of foreman in B, and machinist, a member of a union, and a representative on the safety committee. Undoubtedly role is the most complexly organized response pattern of which a human being is capable. Activities of manager and workers a like are guided by their role perceptions, that is, how they think they are supposed to act in a given situation. Since mangers perform many different roles, they must be highly adaptive in order to change from one role to another quickly. The factory foreman‟s role particularly requires that he be adaptive in working with the extremes of subordinate and superior, staff and line, technical and non-technical, and education and uneducated.

A role set is the entire configuration of surrounding roles as they affect a particular role, such as the foreman‟s role just described. That is, all the different persons with whom the foreman interacts in this role of foreman have role expectations concerning the way in which he should act, and these expectations collectively make up the role set for his role as foreman, this role set arises partlyfrom the nature of the job itself, because managers in equivalent jobs but in different companies tend to perceive and play their roles in about the same way. The existence of role expectations means that a manager or other person interacting with someone else needs to perceive three role values, and shown interacting with someone else needs to perceive three role values, as shown in Figure 3. First, he needs to see his own role as required by the function he is performing. Then he needs to see the role of the person he contacts. Finally, he needs to see his role as seen by the other person. Obviously he cannot meet the needs of others unless he can perceive what they expect of him. Research shows that where there is wide variance in a manager‟s role perception of his job and the employee‟s role expectations of that job, there tends to be poor motivation and inefficiency. They may even have difficulty communicating because they will not be talking about the same things in the same way. For example, difficulties may arise because a manager sees his role as that of a hard boiled pusher, but his employees expect the opposite.

When role expectations of a job are materially different or opposite, the incumbent in the job tends to be in role conflict because he cannot meet one expectation without rejecting the other. A president in one company faced role conflict, for example, when he learned that both the controller and the personnel director expected him to allocate

Complex Web as they interact:The new organizational planning function to their departments. Regarding the existence of role conflict research suggests that a manager bases his decision primarily on legitimacy (which expectations he thinks is more “right” and reasonably) and sanction (how he thinks he will be affected if he follows one expectation in preference to the other). In case role expectations are substantially unknown because of poor communication or are inadequately defined, role ambiguity exists, and it is more difficult to predict how a person in that role will act.

From a manager‟s point of view, a fuller understanding of roles should help him know what others expect of him and how he should act. Knowing this he should be more adaptable to each unique role relationship. His decision making should improve because he will understand why other people are acting the way they are. He will also recognize the variety of roles each employee plays and will try to provide motivations and satisfactions for those several job roles. 

 

IMPORTANCE OF MOBILITY

Mobility is an organizational activity to cope with the changing organizational requirements like change in organizational structure, fluctuation in requirement of organizational product, introduction of new method of work etc. Mobility in an organizational context includes mainly „promotion‟and „transfer‟. Sometimes, „demotion‟also comes under mobility.

Purposes of Mobility 

Mobility serve the following purposes: 

a) To improve organizational effectiveness; 

b) To maximise employee efficiency; 

c) To cope with changes in operation; and 

d) To ensure discipline.

A. Promotion 

In simpler terms, promotion refers to upward movement in present job leading to greater responsibilities, higher status and better salary. Promotion may be temporary or permanent depending upon the organizational requirement. According to Clothier and Spriegel, “promotion is the transfer of an employee to a job which pays more money or one that carries some preffered status.”

B. Demotion 

Demotion refers to the lowering down of the status, salary and responsibilites of an employee. Demotion is used as a disciplinary measure in an organization. The habitual patterns of behaviour such as violation of the rules and conduct, poor attendance record, insubordination where the individuals are demoted. Beach (1975) defines demotion as “the assignment of an individual to a job of lower rank and pay usually involving lower level of difficulty and responsibility”.

 

C. Transfer 

A transfer is a horizontal or lateral movement of an employee from one job, section, department, shift, plant or position to another at the same or another place where his salary, status and responsibility are the same. Yoder and others (1958) define transfer as “a lateral shift causing movement of individuals from one position to another usually without involving marked change in duties, responsibilities, skills needed or compensation”. Transfer may be initiated either by the company or the employee. It also can be temporary or permanent. 

Question No. 2 - MMPC 002 - Human Resources Management - MBA and MBA (Banking & Finance)

Solutions to Assignments

                            MBA and MBA (Banking & Finance)

MMPC 002 - Human Resources Management

MMPC-002/TMA/JULY/2022

Question No. 2. How do job analysis and job design address the problems of the HR planning process? Is Outsourcing an effective method of recruitment and selection? Briefly explain your views.    

Job analysis is the fundamental process that forms the basis of all human resource activities. The importance of job analysis has been well-established for years, dating back to at least the First World War. The United States government‟s Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures (1978) and the American Psychological Association‟s Principles for the Validation and use of Personnel Selection Procedures stipulate that job analysis is essential to the valediction of any and all major human resources activities. In its simplest terms, a job analysis is a systematic process for gathering, documenting and analyzing date about the work required for a job. 

The data collected in a job analysis, and reflected through a job description, includes a description of the context and principal duties of the job, and information about the skills, responsibilities, mental models and techniques for job analysis. These include the Position Analysis Questionnaire, which focuses on generalized human behaviors and interviews, task inventories, functional job analysis and the job element method. 

A job analysis provides an objective picture of the job, not the person performing the job, and as such, provides fundamental information to support all subsequent and related HR activities, such as recruitment, training, development, performance management and succession planning. Job analysis serves two critical functions with respect to these processes. Job analysis helps ensure that decisions made with respect to HR processes are good decisions i.e., fair and accurate (e.g., selection of the right person for the job, appropriate decisions about training, performance management, development, etc.) and its helps ensure the defensibility of decisions made to employee (resulting in good HR management) and to the courts (resulting in saving of costs, time and reputation). 

According to scientific management, the key to productivity is a precise understanding of the tasks that constitute a job. If the motions of workers are to become standardized and machine-like, then it is necessary to be certain about what is to be accomplished, as well as what abilities and materials are necessary to do the job. For many years, job analysis was considered the backbone of the scientific clipboards and stopwatches, was the method used to determine the most efficient way to perform specific jobs. As the popularity of scientific management declined after World War II, however, so did the popularity of job analysis. With the new emphasis on human relations as the key to productivity job analysis was used primarily to set salary scales. But in the modern times workers and employers began to take renewed interest in this area because of concerns about two issues: unfair discrimination and comparable worth. There are two areas where unfair discrimination in hiring can occur: in the standards set for being hired; and in the procedures used to assess the applicant‟s ability to meet those standards. Job analysis addresses the question of what tasks, taken together actually constitute a job. Without this information, standards for hiring may appear to be arbitrary – or worse, designed to exclude certain individual or groups from the workplace.

More recently, the issue of comparable worth has also contributed to a new interest in job analysis. Comparable worth refers to equal pay for individuals who hold different jobs but perform work that is comparable in terms of knowledge required or level of responsibility. The major issue of the comparable worth controversy is that women who are employed in jobs that are comparable to those held by men are paid, on the average, about 65 percent of what a man would earn. In order to determine the comparability of job tasks so that salaries can also be compared, a proper job analysis is necessary. Comparable work is an issue of considerable interest to many people.

Job design has emerged as an important area of work analysis. It is based on growing conceptual and empirical base and has commanded research attention and is being widely applied to actual practice of management. Job design concern and approaches are considered to have begun with the scientific management movement. Pioneering scientific managers like Taylor and Gilbreth examined jobs with techniques such as time and motion analysis. Their goal was to maximize human efficiency on the job. Taylor suggested that task design might be the most important single element in scientific management. Job designing evolved into what is popularly known as job engineering. The industrial engineering approach is basically concerned with products, process, tool design, plant layout, operating procedures, work measurement, standards, and human-machine interactions. It has also been closely associated with sophisticated computer applications involving Computer Assisted Design (CAD). These computer systems had a positive impact by reducing task and workflow uncertainty. Top management could readily perceive the immediate cost savings form job engineering, but certain behavioural aspects like quality absenteeism, and turnover were generally ignored.

In the 1950s, different methods were being adopted by practicing managers. For example, IBM job rotation and job enlargement programmes were introduced. Job enlargement programmes essentially loaded the jobs horizontally, and expanded the number of operations performed by the worker and made the job less specialized. Job rotation programmes reduced boredom by switching people around to various jobs. Although boredom at work is still a significant problem in the last several years, attention has shifted to new demanding challenges facing employees on the job. For example, because of downsizing of organizations and increasingly advanced technology, jobs have suddenly become much more demanding and employees must differently adapt to unpredictable changes. For example, in manufacturing assembly line methods are being replaced by flexible, customized production and computer-integrated manufacturing. This new manufacturing approach requires workers to deal with an ever-increasing line of product and sophisticated technology. In this context, job design takes on special importance in today‟s human resource management. It is essential to design jobs so that stress can be reduced, motivation can be enhanced, and satisfaction of employees and their performance can be improved so that organizations can effectively compete in the global market place.

Recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) is a workforce solution in which a business transfers all or part of its permanent recruitment to an external provider. An RPO provider is responsible for the management of the permanent recruitment within a business, and typically has outsourced recruiters based onsite — embedded within the HR or people function of the business. An effective RPO program installs a talent acquisition team, the latest recruitment technology, and flexible recruitment processes within an organisation.

Recruitment process outsourcing is a solution that has enormous potential. The growth in the RPO market in recent years is a testament to this. As with many new ideas, there is some buzz that cloaks RPO, but there are also a number of clear benefits for businesses who embed RPO within their workforce planning strategies.

1. Higher quality talent

An RPO provider’s main purpose is to ensure that your business gets the best permanent hires, even in markets which are notoriously difficult. With an RPO, the time, energy and expertise in sourcing, screening and onboarding new permanent staff ensure that a business gets the best talent. They can also create talent pools to ensure that if a new position becomes vacant, there’s a ready-made line of talent ready to join a client’s business.

With the race for talent becoming more competitive than ever before, businesses also need to look to passive and underutilised talent pools to attract the best people. RPO providers have databases of talent throughout the globe, as well as schemes to attract previously ignored talent.

Another important consideration is the value of diverse teams. Research from the Harvard Business Review indicates that companies who focus on diversity perform better: 45% reported market share growth from the previous year. RPO providers who engage diverse talent pools offer big boosts to businesses.

2. Cost efficiency

Not only does an RPO provider ensure that you hire and retain the best talent, but it’s also more cost-effective than traditional recruitment. As RPO providers are most often measured on time-to-hire, cost-of-hire and quality-of-hire, their role is to ensure that permanent vacancies do not remain open for months at a time. Every day that a vacancy remains open leads to increased costs and decreased productivity. A fully optimised RPO ensures that these negative factors remain at a minimum.

3. Agile, scalable permanent recruitment

In any business, hiring is rarely consistent. If your business is opening up a new department, it may need hundreds of permanent staff as quickly as possible. Likewise, there can also be months that pass without a single hire. RPO providers build structures within a business that’s adaptable to any situation, scaling teams up or down whenever necessary.

This gives businesses the certainty they need when a sudden burst of hiring activity comes to the fore.

4. Global compliance

Though compliance is not the most interesting benefit of RPO, it’s critical. Employment laws change all of the time, staying on top of what is and isn’t compliant can be a tough order and an RPO ensures that all hires are compliant with local laws. As business becomes global, this is particularly important. Hiring permanent staff in a compliant way in India requires a very different approach to hiring in the US. A global RPO provider’s expertise ensures that businesses don’t get their fingers burnt when hiring new talent.

By choosing an RPO solution, businesses can utilise the provider’s global expertise to ensure that every single permanent employee is compliant with local laws

5. Reduction in advertising expenditure

Job ads are expensive, especially when trying to attract the most competent permanent staff. Buying an RPO solution hands the pressure of finding this talent to the service provider, and spending money on advertising is eliminated.

6. Reduction in talent acquisition spend

Outsourcing recruitment through an RPO solution is one of the most effective ways for businesses to reduce their talent acquisition spend. Finding talent is a time-consuming process, even for the best talent acquisition and HR professionals. This is especially the case when recruiting for hard-to-fill roles.

As every business knows, time is money. According to Glassdoor, unfilled jobs in the US tech market add up to a total value of $20.1 billion, and that’s just the tech market. For every position that remains vacant within an organisation, a business is losing money. RPO providers, however, are able to quickly fill even the most difficult roles thanks to their dedicated expertise and their ready-made talent pools.

7. Benefit from the latest technology

Keeping up with industry innovation is difficult for HR professionals. With budgets tightening, investing hundreds of thousands or even millions of pounds or dollars in talent acquisition tech can make even the most ambitious companies wince.

RPO providers regularly invest in the latest technology to ensure that clients acquire the talent they need to succeed – from high-tech VMS platforms to data analysis tools.

8. Enhanced candidate engagement

HR professionals understand the significance of candidate engagement (CX). Getting the candidate experience right, however, is no easy feat. Though significant, it’s time-consuming and often takes HR departments away from their primary objectives. An RPO provider offers the experience and in-house expertise to fully optimise the candidate experience for a business. Not only does this increase the chances of attracting top talent, but it also impacts a business’s ability to grow its market share within its industry.

9. Expert employer branding

Employer branding is key to attracting the best talent in the market. 72% of recruitment leaders worldwide agree that employer branding has a significant impact on hiring.

Though hugely important, not all businesses have the in-house expertise to create an engaging employer value proposition (EVP), never mind build a truly impactful employer brand strategy.

The best RPO providers help businesses really define their value to potential candidates. With experts solely devoted to EVP creation and employer brand strategists within their ranks, they are able to market a business to candidates – even in difficult, traditionally challenging industries.

10. Better strategic insight

Data science is the foundation of any strategic decision. While HR and internal recruitment teams are often aware of this, a number of things continue to hold businesses back.

For one, technology is expensive, and HR tech often finds itself low down the priority list. Secondly, HR professionals don’t always have the technical expertise necessary to adequately analyse data. Finally, the data a company holds is only related to the company itself and doesn’t take the wider outlook into account.

A recruitment process outsourcing solution helps in all these respects. With the latest technology and data analysis expertise, an RPO provider can assess historical industry and company data to strategically predict future talent needs. With talent being the most important aspect of any business, these insights provide highly valuable business intelligence.

11. Efficient recruitment processes

Within large organisations, recruitment is often approached independently in different parts of the business. While an IT division may rely on expensive, ad hoc recruitment agencies, another may choose to use their internal HR function. Both of these approaches are inefficient, with one producing excessive spend and the other laying burden on HR departments that are increasingly under pressure to deliver results.

Under a full, end-to-end RPO solution, hiring processes are more efficient – with all permanent hiring centralised. Because RPO providers work with businesses across the globe, they also have the knowledge, experience and best practices required to deliver the best results for a client. Rather than relying on disparate internal approaches, an RPO ensures exceptional delivery of talent throughout a business.

12. HR is freed up to focus on strategic goals

The role of an HR professional is tough. There are more expectations and responsibilities than ever, and yet still, few people get a seat at important board meetings. Add an overcooked talent market into the mix, and it’s clear that the job of attracting permanent staff is becoming the most difficult and time-consuming task within HR teams. With this in mind, choosing an RPO solution has clear and obvious advantages.

As RPO providers take care of all permanent recruitment and provide an end-to-end service, they take a big chunk of responsibility outside of the HR sphere. This gives HR professionals the added time and space necessary not only to keep on top of other parts of their job, but also to develop their skills, adapt to technological change, and perhaps even get a seat at the top table.

Question No. 2 - MMPC-008 - Information System for Managers - MBA and MBA (Banking & Finance)

Solutions to Assignments

                            MBA and MBA (Banking & Finance)

MMPC-008 - Information System for Managers

MMPC-008/TMA/JAN/2022

Question No. 2. What are the technology related challenges that are invisible to your organization? Highlight the pitfalls? How integrated software applications can help in this?  

Maintaining records for use, as and when, has been in practice right from the ancient times. Initially people were required to keep record of their possession so that governing body could take tax from them. Government and traders kept records to plan their activities better. With the industrialization, it became necessary for industry owners and managers to keep records of inventory and accounts. Management needed more information for internal decisions. Investors, on the other hand, needed information about the organizations, its soundness, and health. In spite of the technological developments, there is an ever-increasing demand for more and more information. 

Information and Information Technology have become a strategic necessity. The business environment has become much more competitive. It has become mandatory on the part of the organizations to make full use of information with the help of technology to service. In an organization, information and technology exist in the form of an information system. Whenever, an external or internal demand is anticipated or felt by the organization, information system (IS) helps the organization to plan critical response activities. The individuals are supported by IS to fulfill their roles. The organizations use IS to track consumer behavior. With the availability of technology, even in the form of hand held smart devices, it has become possible to disseminate information at any time in case organization has IS in place. The organization may take proactive measures rather than firefighting measures based on the information provided.

Typical scenario in an organization is closer to what is shown below in Figure 6.1

At Level I is the owner i.e. Chief of the organization or top level management, Level II has middle management, Level III is lower level management and at level IV are the workers. With increased size of organization, the volume of data generated within the organization also increased and IS became a necessity for rational decisionmaking by providing information at all levels by extracting from the pile of data. 

An Information System is developed to assist management in problem specific decision-making. IS development and deployment project may succeed or it may fail. A project is a success if it is completed within time and budget and delivers all as decided in beginning. It must meet needs of its users and organization. Over a period of time, the following main success and failure factors have been identified. These days integrated software modules are available which are required to be customized to have the software in place. The software, so customized, may be either installed in inhouse serves or on cloud servers. In cloud servers and storage, organization does not need to have servers and storage in its premises. Access to the IS is through internet hence only computer/laptop/smart devices are required to use the IS. There are many factors that contribute to the success of a project. They are detailed below.

1. The project scope should be stable and well understood. If the scope of the project changes during the development or customization of the software, the project is likely to suffer in terms of quality, schedule and budget overrun. 

2. An MIS project that aims at re-engineering the business processes of an organization faces major challenge. Such projects are high-risk but at the same time have high potential for major benefits. 

3. The technology development platform and development language exposure are other critical factors. Sometimes, the technology may be new and the team may have difficulty using the technology. The platform and language newness may also create trouble for the team. 

4. Support from the management is vital for the success of the project. If management looses interest in the project, budget may be cut, key people may be moved to another project or the moral support required by the team may become non-existent. 

5. The objective of MIS must be in tune with the objective of the organization. For instance, objective of an organization is to cut cost. An MIS that aims to handle financial transactions of the company is not in tune with the company’s objective. 

6. The system should be user friendly and the response time should be reasonable so that the user feels good to work on the system. User should never be over-powered by the system. 

7. MIS should be developed with a clear objective that must be documented before the development commences. The objective must be identified with the help of all stakeholders. The system analyst must interview concerned people to establish their needs. Inputs should be consolidated and presentation should be made in front of stakeholders and the development team. This should go till the user requirements are fully covered and understood i.e. till the objective becomes clear. 

8. An important aspect of an MIS is data. Data policy such as what data will be included, who will provide the data, who will validate the data, who will integrate the data and how will the data retire should be clearly stated. These seemingly trivial issues can turn a success into a failure. 

9. A quality control plan must be in place to ensure quality of specification and quality of conformance. If required, a third party may be engaged for this purpose. 

10. The concerned people should be adequately trained on the new system. This skill development process should go on periodically to overcome gaps due to shifting of human resources or because of changes made in IS. 

11. The system should be properly and explicitly documented so that attrition does not affect the project or MIS adversely.

Integrated software packages help in real business growth. Seeing the wide spread availability of such solutions from IT solution providers, companies today put on priority to integrate their diverse business processes to simplify operations for faster decision-making. Companies realise that if they have to survive and grow, they have to use tools that can provide quicker and useful information and cut costs to increase efficiency. IT has given businesses a chance to generate information in real-time and thus grab opportunities that were non-existent or unseen earlier. With the development of cuttingedge technology, we have seen evolution of many systems that has adapted market demands. IT is readily providing business solutions now. Even complete project undertaken by a company can be very well managed and monitored today using Project Management Systems (PMS). They are designed to assist project managers and their teams organize the step-bystep process of a project, identify priorities, and monitor project tasks, costs, contacts, deadlines and staff. Complex projects that require staff, team coordination, budgets and so on can be difficult to manage without the use of project management software. Similarly, Business Intelligence (BI) tools are also available for analytical study for making the business more and more successful.

The integrated software solutions provide a platform to integrate all processes in an organization enabling it to plan, trace and see its 4-m resources (materials, machines, men and money) in the best possible ways to service customers and reduce costs. If you want that your Business should survive with low overheads and still run efficiently then you have no choice Integrated Applications but to opt for IT solutions.

Today, a typical business solution is an integration of ERP, BPR, SCM, CRM, BI, and PMS. While ERP can take care of functions like accounts production planning, payroll and marketing etc., BPR can be used simultaneously to cut-down on all non-value added business processes and paperwork. These systems are the enablers of change in the business for better. With the help of these systems your business can compete better. These systems, combined with the web, help you to reach your customers most cost-effectively. There would be no cost incurred on travel and communication and no cost incurred on setting up offices and employees. The Cloud services available with almost all big players in the market have made the task of maintaining integrated system much more simpler as compared to yesteryears.

E-Business generations are well explained with a pictorial representation in the Figure 8.1 . By this you would be able to appreciate why we are talking about integrations and business solutions and what place it has in the present world. It can be seen that 4th generations business solutions are using web to integrate all systems. ERP is used in a broader term here. In fact the term ERP is the synonym for integration of all the software catering to various business processes in organizations. Worldwide this term i.e. ERP is used now for the total integration of business processes. The software modules, BPR for reengineering the business processes and PMS for project monitoring are used too for the respective tasks. Similarly BI is used as the analytical tool for estimating and forecasting supports for the business based on primary data (at the organization location) and secondary data available through web for the analysis and inferences.

Here you should be clear that e-business is similar to e-commerce but it is more than just a simple act of buying and selling services or goods online. In fact, it is the method of utilizing digital information and advanced communication technologies to streamline different business processes – from the initial to implementation phase. E-commerce is just a part of e-business.