Human Resource Management Case Study Questions with Solutions
Section 1:-
HRM Case studies play a vital role in management education especially in subjects like Human Resource Management (HRM), Personnel Management and related subjects. It gives a clear picture of the concepts when you practice them through case studies.
Here we have given some live HRM case studies that are short, useful & interesting. This will allow you to think beyond the theoretical part and make you capable to apply the concepts in real-time situations.
Asian Motors Case Study (1)
Technology in Asian motors a need for the hour which is about Asian Motors ltd. This Human Resource Management Case Study deals with the external factors affecting the organisation specially challenging HR department. This case study can be categorised under Organisational development, organisational Change, External Factors affecting HR etc.
HRM Case Study 1
Technology in Asian motors a need for the hour
Asian motor Ltd is an automobile spare part company which is there in the market from 6 decades. It was serving to the needs of the customers (majorly focused on 3 companies) by giving product delivery time to time and goods with good quality. To achieve the above said things Asian motors had to walk a long history. The work force is the main reason because of which Asian motors is well known for its timely delivery and good quality goods.
Most of the employees in Asian motors are associated with the organisation for more than 3 to 4 decade. It is said that the one who join the organisation as a fresher will leave the organisation as a retired person only. The turnover ratio is very low in Asian motor ltd due to the feel of satisfaction and job security provided by Asian motor ltd management.
Till last year everything was fine with Asian motors. During the last year the scenario has changed. Number of competitors enters in the market and each one of them was well equipped with all modern technologies. 2 among the major 3 customers who applied for Standards like TQM ISO started pressurizing Asian motors to go for modern technology as a part of their Standards process. They want the goods that are manufactured through modern machineries.
The management is also ready to go for an organisational development by accruing new machines and adopt all required modern technologies and allocated a big amount of fund towards this plan. The management was fully aware that to sustain the business they have to go for Organisational change and development. The management hired an OD consultant who will work out a plan for the change and find out the hurdles in implementing the plan.
The OD consultant stated in his report that, the employees are the major hurdles in achieving the target of modern plant in Asian Motors. The reasons stated by him are:-
- a) Very old employee who are not much comfortable in adopting the new system.
- b) Chances of employees to show less interest towards Training in the new machineries as their employment period will be very less due to their age.
- C) Major reason is it is not advisable and won’t be fruitful to invest the training and development amount on those employees ( 40% ) who are going to retire in less than 5 years.
This started a pressure in the minds of the employees about the job security. The union leader quoted in front of management that “The place which we felt it is our own organisation which will never leave us aside or where we want to serve for our life time becomes a question mark in front of us”.
The management assured him that “we will never commit such things which will put the employees in loss. There will be no question of job security here. And we all together will create a modern plant equipped with latest technology at Asian motors. Our plan is ready for that.”
He presented the plan in front of all the employees after listening to which the employees felt so happy and they confirmed that it is their own organisation and they will serve for the company till their life time.
Questions
1) Discuss the state of mind of employees of Asian Motors before the plan is discussed with them.
2) Locate and discuss the external factors which are determinates of this case in detail.
3) What would be the possible plan drafted and discussed by the management to solve the issue through which both the employees and management would be benefited.
4) Discuss the pros and cons of the plan that is been framed in question no.3.
HRM Case Study 2
Staropol District Health Office Looks at the Human Resource Implications of its New Responsibilities
Igor Ivanovich Stratonov, District Health Officer, Staropol District Health Office, and his management team-Maria Stepanovna Kopchuk, Chief of Family Planning Services; Galina Victorovna Zarivskaja, Chief of Maternal and Child Health Services; Roman Petrovich Malarenko, Immunization Officer; Andrei Andrejevich Larchenko, Training Coordinator; and Irina Dmitrijevna Gorlova, Chief Accountant, sat around a long table in the staff conference room. District Officer Stratonov started the meeting. “Welcome, colleagues,” said Igor Ivanovich. “As you know, rumors have been flying for months about changes in the management structure of health services in our region. In meetings last week at the Regional Office, we were officially informed of two major changes for management of our district health program:
All staff working at the district level will become district employees and will no longer be employees of the Regional Office. They will be managed through the District Health Office, which will be responsible for determining staffing levels, hiring and firing, skill development, and performance management.
The Regional Office will provide each District Health Office with a set amount of annual funding. We will have to prepare an annual budget, submit it to the Regional Office for approval, and be accountable for managing our finances.”
The room began to buzz as the team reacted to this news. Galina Victorovna responded first. “It seems to me that it is the human resource implications that we should be concerned with. If we are going to be responsible for managing all the staff in our district, then we better know who those workers are, their job titles, responsibilities, skills, and salaries. Does the Regional Office have that data?”
“You have made a good point,” said Igor Ivanovich. “We should focus today on the human resource implications of these changes. Unfortunately, the Regional Office doesn’t have good data on district-level staff. We will have to gather that ourselves. These data will help us assess our staffing, skill, and funding needs.”
“Facility managers have already been telling us that we have too many skilled staff in some service delivery sites and not enough in others,” said Roman Petrovich. “We will have to transfer some staff will from one facility to another.”
“Staff morale and productivity are already at an all-time low, with the rumors that have been going around about these changes,” said Irina Dmitrijevna. “Some managers have been having trouble providing consistent coverage, because people aren’t coming to work.”
“Once we have identified our staff and their skill levels and location, we will have to manage them, too,” commented Maria Stepanovna. “The Regional Office’s performance management system does not have clear policies and guidelines for performance review. Many of our staff have been grumbling for years about the random nature of promotions and salary raises. Maybe we should look at this as an opportunity to develop a better performance management system. But who should take on that responsibility?”
“I am the only person in the district who has been handling our human resource responsibilities to date,” said Andrei Andrejevich. “I have been responsible for documenting our in-service training needs and coordinating with regional staff to make sure that training is done. And I have other responsibilities. I think we will need to have a full-time Human Resource Coordinator. He or she will have to act as a liaison with the Regional Office and civil service representatives at all government levels. This person will also have to work with others to write job descriptions, train supervisors and staff in the new system, and manage the hiring and firing process.”
“We will have to hire someone new or identify someone on our staff already who would like to take on these responsibilities,” said Igor Ivanovich. “This will have to be a senior position.”
“What about salary levels? Will we be able to set them at the district level?” asked Galina Victorovna.
“No,” answered Igor Ivanovich. “The civil service, advised by the Regional Office, will still be in charge of salary policy and levels.”
“What about the human resource implications of the financial management side of these changes?” said Irina Dmitrijevna. “We will have to create new positions, with new skills, to handle our increased responsibilities. Is the Regional Office going to help us determine our needs? Will any Regional Office staff be transferred to our level?”
“Several District Officers brought up this concern during our meetings last week,” said Igor Ivanovich. “Nothing has been decided yet. Staff who are working in the capital will probably resist any efforts to transfer them to the districts. But there was talk of the Regional Office providing training for district-level staff in preparing budgets. We will have to work with them to determine our financial management skill requirements.”
“I suggest that we form a Human Resource Advisory Committee,” Galina Victorovna said. “I would like to be on it. I think we should be sure to include a union representative, too, who can be our liaison with the workers’ union. The team could be charged with assessing our human resource system needs, gathering human resource data, and developing a transition plan.”
“Yes, establishing a committee is an excellent idea, as is including a union representative,” Igor Ivanovich said. “I expect all of you to serve on this committee. We must take a leadership role in ensuring that the transition goes smoothly, with little or no disruption in services. And we must think of ways to make facility-level staff part of this transition process. Let’s meet again next week. I would like you to have ready some suggestions of facility managers to invite to join us. And Galina Victorovna, I would like you to prepare the draft of an announcement about the Regional Office proposals and the actions that we are taking, that we can send to all district staff.”
Case Questions:-
- What are the changes proposed by the Regional Office? What are the human resource implications of these changes?
- What kinds of actions might the District Health Office take in order to handle its new responsibilities?
- What are first steps that the team plans to take in preparing to take on their new responsibilities?
HRM Case Study 3
Watson Public Ltd Company is well known for its welfare activities and employee-oriented schemes in the manufacturing industry for more than ten decades. The company employs more than 800 workers and 150 administrative staff and 80 management-level employees. The Top-level management views all the employees at the same level. This can be clearly understood by seeing the uniform of the company which is the Same for all starting from MD to floor level workers. The company has 2 different cafeterias at different places one near the plant for workers and others near the Administration building. Though the place is different the amenities, infrastructure and the food provided are of the same quality. In short, the company stands by the rule of Employee Equality.
The company has one registered trade union. The relationship between the union and the management is very cordial. The company has not lost a single man day due to strike. The company is not a paymaster in that industry. The compensation policy of that company, when compared to other similar companies, is very less still the employees don’t have many grievances due to the other benefits provided by the company. But the company is facing a countable number of problems in supplying the materials in the recent past days. Problems like quality issues, mismatch in packing materials (placing material A in the box of material B) incorrect labelling of material, not dispatching the material on time, etc…
The management views the case as there are loopholes in the system of various departments and hand over the responsibility to the HR department to solve the issue. When the HR manager goes through the issues he realized that the issues are not relating to the system but it relates to the employees. When investigated he come to know that the reason behind the casual approach by employees in work is
- The company hired new employees for a higher-level post without considering the potential internal candidates.
- The newly hired employees are placed with higher packages than that of existing employees in the same cadre.
Questions:
1. Narrate the case with a suitable title for the case. Justify your title.
Employee recognition VS employee equality
Watson Public Ltd Company is considering the employee equality in everything in the company starting from the Uniform of all the employees is the same and provision of the two different cafeterias to the employees providing the same quality of food and shows how the top management looks at all the employees from the same level.
The company has 1 registered Union and the relation between the union and the management is very friendly. The employees are satisfied by working in the organization because it provides all its facilities to employees at each grade although their salaries is not like the other in the industry.
The company faced many problems in packaging like putting sample A in box of sample B and the opposite and the quality of the materials is not good and wrong labelling of the materials. After Investigation, they found that All this problems because of the employees not the system. And the main reasons are:
- The company hired new employees for a higher-level post without considering the potential internal candidates.
- The newly hired employees are placed with higher packages than that of existing employees in the same cadre.
2. Illustrate the different concepts that might impact the organization due to the above mentioned case.
The HR concepts
Employee recognition:
The normal case that the employee are motivated for the facilities provided to them but in this case it was not the same. May be because they felt that they are not recognized because the new employees in the same cadre took better packages than them.
Slow down production:
The employees didn’t make a strike but when they slow down the production and not dispatching the material on time. The Industrial Relations sates that when the employee wants to show their dissatisfaction to the management but don’t want to go for strike they follow slow down strike. The impact of which will be understood after a particular time period.
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