You are on page 1of 6

Master of Business Administration- Semester I Subject Code MB0043 Subject Name Human Resource Management 4 Credits (Book ID:

D: B0909) Assignment Set- 1 (60 Marks) Note: Each question carries 10 Marks. Answer all the questions. Q.1 What are the functions that HR attempts to fulfill in any organization.[10 Marks] Ans;- The Functions that HR attempts to fulfill in any organization are as follows: 1. Human resource planning: Estimating the need for resources in order achieve the desired business results. HR plans can be both short term/immediate as well as long term/strategic. The HR team partners with the line managers to understand the business goals and targets for the year and together plan the HR needs in order to meet the goals. 2. Acquisition of Human Resources: Staffing the organization with the right mix of skills and competencies at the right time. It also includes HR initiatives like promotions and internal job posting to fulfill this requirement for human resources. Staffing teams in organization are usually separate group of specialists who work closely with the line managers to understand the skills and competencies needed for the job and engage together to elect the best talent for the open position. 3. Training and employee development : Focuses in managing training activities to upgrade skills and knowledge as well as soft skills like the ream building and leadership. The training team is again a group of HR specialist who proposes the training program and consults with the line managers to ensure that the program achieves the desired outcomes. 4. Building performance management systems : Focuses on the right processes to set goals for performance as individual / teams and related measurement methods. This is core HR activity and is supported by the Hr generalist. 5. Rewards systems : Establishing appropriate compensation systems and reward mechanism that would reward the desired outcome and results in accordance with the cooperate values. The again forms a part of HR generalists tasks. Hoe employees progress in a organization how they are paid w.r.t internal and external market factors, what employee benefits are offered are some aspects that this function redresses. 6. Human resources information systems : That would that would take care of operational transactions form the time an employee exits, like personal files, compensation administration, payroll, benefits administration and issuing letters and testimonials. That task is supported by as separate HR operation team who acts as an Hr helpdesk and provides information to the employee/managers.

Q.2 Discuss the cultural dimensions of Indian Work force. [10 Marks] Ans:- Cultural Dimension of Indian Work Force: The foundation for understanding the unique work practices at a country level can be best is understood by first understanding the culture aspects of the countrys workforce. The pioneering work done by Dutch Scientist, Geert Hofstede is a useful tool in understanding the cultural differences used to differentiate countries. He identified five cultural dimensions around which counties have been clustered. The dimensions are: power distance, uncertainly avoidance, individualism, masculinity and long term orientation. Geert Hofstede dimension are based on research conducted among over 1000 IBM employees working globally. While their continued to be other studies like the GLOBE (Global leadership and organizational behavior Effectiveness) project and trompenaars framework, hofstedes model is most popular. Power Distance Power distance is the extent to which less powerful members of institutions and organizations accept that power is distributed unequally. Countries in which people blindly obey of superior have high power distance. High power distance countries have norms, values and beliefs that support: In equally is good; everyone has a place; some are high, some are low. Most people should be dependent on a leader, The powerful are entitled to privileges, and The powerful should yield the power India score 77 on power distance , indicating high power distance as a result of the inequalities both at the level of society as well as the at the workplace. Indian organization typically have hierarchical structures, policies yield power and subordination is acceptable. The dimension of high power distance at the workplace can be best understood as: People dislike work and try to avoid it Managers believe that they must adopt theory X leadership style, that is, they must be authoritarian, and force workers to perform and need to supervise their subordinated closely. Organizational structure and systems tend to match the assumption regarding leadership and motivation Decision making is centralized. Those at the top make most of the decision. Organization tends to have tall structures. They will have a large proportion of supervisory personal and The people at the lower level often will have low job qualifications Such structures encourages and promotes inequality between people at different levels. Uncertainty Avoidance Uncertainty avoidance is the extent to which people feel threatened by ambiguous situation, and have created beliefs and institutions that try to avoid these India scores 40 indicating low to average uncertainly avoidance characterizes. Countries with low to

average uncertainly avoidance have people who are more willing to accept that risks are associated with the unknown, and that life must go on in spite of this Specifically, high uncertainly avoidance countries are characterized by norms, values and beliefs which accept that: Conflict should not be avoided Deviant people and ideas should be tolerated , Laws are not very important and need not necessarily be followed, Experts and authorities are not always correct and consensus is not important. Low uncertainty avoidance society such as ours have organization setting with less structuring of activities, fewer written rules, more risk taking by managers, higher labor turnover and more ambitious employees. Such an organization encourages employees to use their initiative and assume responsibility for their actions. Denmark and Great Britain are good examples of low uncertainty avoidance cultures. Germany, Japan and Spain typify high uncertainty avoidance societies. Individualism Individualism is the tendency of people to look after themselves and their family only. The opposite of this collectivism which refers to the tendency of people to belong to group and to look after other in exchange for loyalty India score 48 on individualism, indicating somewhat low scores, therefore tending towards a more collectistic society. Collectivist countries believe that: Ones identity is based on ones group membership, Group decision making is best and Group protect individuals in exchange for their loyalty to the group Organizations are collectivist societies tend to promote nepotism in selecting managers. In contrast, in individualism societies, favoritism shown to friends and relatives is considered to be unfair and even illegal. Further organizations in collectivist culture base promotions mostly on seniority and age, where as in individualist societies; they are based on ones performance. Finally in collectivist cultures, important decision are made by older and senior managers as opposed to individualist cultures, where decision making is an individuals responsibility. Individualism is common in the US, Canada, Australia, Denmark and Sweden. The people of India, Indonesia, and Pakistan & Number of South American countries exhibit collectivism. Masculinity Masculinity refers to a situation in which the dominant values in a society are success, money and other material things. Hofstede measured this dimension on a continuum ranging from masculinity to femininity.

Q.3 Explain the need for Human Resource Planning system .[10 Marks]

In simple words Human Resource Planning is understood as the process of forecasting an organization's future human resource demand for, and supply to meet the objectives such as the right type of people in the right number. After this process only the HRM department can initiate recruitment and selection process. HRP is a sub-system in the total organizational planning. Human resource planning is important for helping both organizations and employees to prepare for the future but you might be thinking "Are not things always changing?" Human resource planning is the process by which an organization ensures that it has the right number and kind of people, at the right place, at the right time, capable of effectively and efficiently completing tasks that will help the organization achieve its overall objective. Human Resource Planning System. A. Objectives of Human Resource Planning:Human Resource Planning fulfils individual, organizational and national goals but, according to Sikula, "the ultimate mission or purpose is to relate future human resources to future enterprise needs, so as to maximize the future return on investment in human resources. In effect, the main purpose is one of matching or fitting employee abilities to enterprise requirements, with an emphasis on future instead of present arrangements." The objectives may be laid down for a short term (i.e. for one year). B. Estimating the Future Organizational Structure or Forecasting the Manpower Requirements:The management must estimate the structure of the organization at a given point in time. For this estimate, the number and type of employees needed have to be determined. Many environmental factors affect this determination. They include business forecasts, expansion and growth, design and structural changes, management philosophy, government policy, product and human skills mix, and competition. Forecasting provides the basic premises on which the manpower planning is built. Forecasting is necessary for various reasons, such as: a) The eventualities and contingencies of general economic business cycles (such as inflation, wages, prices, costs and raw material supplies) have an influence on the short range and long run plans of all organizations. An expansion following enlargement and growth in business involves the use of additional machinery and personnel, and a reallocation of facilities, all of which call for advance planning of human resources. Changes in management philosophies and leadership styles.

The use of mechanical technology (such as the introduction of automatic controls, or the mechanization of materials handling functions) necessitates changes in the skills of workers, as well as a change in the number of employees needed. Very often, changes in the quantity or quality of products or services require a change in the organization structure. Plans have to be made for this purpose as well. C. Auditing Human Resources: Once the future human resource needs are estimated, the next step is to determine the present supply of manpower resources. This is done through what is called "Skills Inventory". A skills inventory contains data about each employee's skills, abilities, work preferences and other items of information which indicate his overall value to the company. D. Job Analysis: After having decided how many persons would be needed, it is necessary to prepare a job analysis, which records details of training, skills, qualification, abilities, experience and responsibilities, etc., which are needed for a job. Job analysis includes the preparation of job descriptions and job specifications. E. Developing a Human Resource Plan: This step refers to the development and implementation of the human resource plan, which consists in finding out the sources of labour supply with a view to making an effective use of these sources. The first thing, therefore, is to decide on the policy should the, personnel be hired from within through promotional channels or should it be obtained from an outside source. The best policy which is followed by most organizations is to fill up higher vacancies by promotion and lower level positions by recruitment from the labour market. Currently Human Resource Management Systems encompass: The payroll module automates the pay process by gathering data on employee time and attendance, calculating various deductions and taxes, and generating periodic pay cheques and employee tax reports. Data is generally fed from the human resources and time keeping modules to calculate automatic deposit and manual cheque writing capabilities. This module can encompass all employee-related transactions as well as integrate with existing financial management systems. The work time gathers standardized time and work related efforts. The most advanced modules provide broad flexibility in data collection methods, labour distribution capabilities and data analysis features. Cost analysis and efficiency metrics are the primary functions. The benefits administration module provides a system for organizations to administer and track employee participation in benefits programs. These typically encompass insurance, compensation, profit sharing and retirement. The HR management module is a component covering many other HR aspects from application to retirement. The system records basic demographic and address data, selection, training and development, capabilities and skills management, compensation planning records and other

related activities. Leading edge systems provide the ability to "read" applications and enter relevant data to applicable database fields, notify employers and provide position management and position control. Human resource management function involves the recruitment, placement, evaluation, compensation and development of the employees of an organization. Initially, businesses used computer based information system to:

Produce pay checks and payroll reports; Maintain personnel records; Pursue Talent Management.

Online recruiting has become one of the primary methods employed by HR departments to garner potential candidates for available positions within an organization. Talent Management systems typically encompass:

Analyzing personnel usage within an organization; Identifying potential applicants; Recruiting through company-facing listings; Recruiting through online recruiting sites or publications that market to both recruiters and applicants.

The significant cost incurred in maintaining an organized recruitment effort, cross-posting within and across general or industry-specific job boards and maintaining a competitive exposure of availabilities has given rise to the development of a dedicated Applicant Tracking System, or 'ATS', module.

You might also like