Case No.

Indian industries Limited OIL), a large public limited company, recently

embarked on technology up gradation through foreign collaboration, is
keen on developing human resources, and in pursuance of-this. objective,
had r. to enroll for adopted a policy to financially support executives and
supervisorsrecognizedpost-graduate professional course in engineering,
technology only The financial support is towards reinforernent of tuition and
examination fees.

IIL has about 1,000 executives and supervisors and of these 650 belongs
to engineering discipline. It has a computer and data processing unit which
employs 25 professionals.

The IIL professionals have welcomed the HRD policy and even the non-
engineering professionals feel that the future benefits of progressive policy
would be made available to them also.

The IIL Executives are required to take admission test for enrolment to the
post graduate courses, and it so lap pens that most of the IIL engineering
executives selected for enrolment belong to thecomputer division (an
average of 5 computer executives out of totally selected in the year). This
was perhaps due to the relatively younger age of the computer personnel
and also perhaps their continued association with mathematical exercises
which cc institute an important part of admission test. The situation has
contributed to inter-departmental Hi will and organizational disharmony.

Mr. Ram Lal's good performance as the brilliant computer Professional who
is a recipient of the financial benefit under the IlL scheme, got admission to
master degree in computer application and he is a promising e-executive of
the organization. Vie his been entrusted a responsible and prestigious
assignments on computer programming.

His good performance at the University has attracted other employers and
he has been offered a job with 25 percent increase in the emoluments. lIL
does not wish to let Ram leave the organization particularly because he
was associated with an activity so important for the organization. But this
would displease other executives of IIL who insist that an up-gradation in
status and salary be on performance and seniority only. Some executives
suggest that lIL be required to sign a bond to serve the organization for 5
years if they avail of the FIRD scheme. They also suggest that the scheme
be available to executives of all disciplines for all recognized. Professional
courses even at the graduation level(for undergraduate employees) to
motivate them.

Analyze the case and give appropriate suggestions to solve the problems.

Case No. 2

Mr. Raman Kumar joined as office manager, to Industrial Products Ltd.

New Delhi after coming back from Oxford University where he got MBA
degree with specialization in personnel management he was young and
energetic and believed in results. Before proceeding to Oxford he had
several years of experience in India in different capacities when Mr. Raman
joined Industrial Products Limited, its office time was 10.30 am. To 5.30
pm. He felt that the timing should be changed to 10.00 am to 5.00 pm
because he knew that office personnel in US did not Work after 5:00 pm.He
thought this to be true for India also and to ensure more ore availability of
effective time for office; he changed it to 10 am to 5 pm. He announced the
change officially.

No one reacted initially but after two days, Mr. Raman received a written
memorandum by all office personnel that old office timing be restored. Mr.
Raman did not yield to this demand However; he was convinced that the
first step was to build cooperative spirit among his employees through
informal get-together. Therefore, he prepared a scheme of having monthly
dinner party of all members of the office. In the party, all members were to
bring their home made dishes. Their wives and children were to be
encouraged to attend the monthly scheme of dinner party. The scheme
was announced through placing on the information bulletin of the company.
The notice also invited suggestions from the members for making the
scheme successful. Two weeks elapsed and no suggestion came. On one
occasion when the day was nearing for the first dinner meeting, he
overhear lie following conversation between two of his office members.
First employee: "so what are you bringing for the party? As for myself I will
bring Bheipuri". ,

Second employee: "I will bring Chang", (Both laughed) Mr. Raman feet Tat
Nobody seemed to be concerned in his scheme.

Questions

What were the reasons for not supporting the action of Mr. Raman Kumar
by his employees?

ii) Analyze the problem and advice Mr. Raman kumar how he should
proceed in the matter.

Case No. 3

Mr. Joga Ram, 28 years old joined Loyola College, Bina a small town in
Madhya Pradesh, as an attender in 2008. He is married and has three
children; His salary inclusive of all allowances is just Rs. 3,500 per mensum
as he is posted in a non-gravil-in-aid job. His salary is than the statutory
minimum wage and it is not sufficient even to meet the bare necessities. He
does not have any other source of income. Mr. Joga Ram's self-
actualization need is to be respected as the best actor in the town. Fit
spends nights in practicing the action. He also spends major part of his
salary for organizing dramas. He mobilizes funds from the lecturers of the
college and the elite of the town to organize functions. These functions
include inauguration of his cultural organization and his own felicitation by
the Prominent Public Servants. But his wife complains to the principal of
the college about his activities and inadequacy of the salary even to meet
the bare necessities of their family.
Questions:

i) What is the peculiar situation in the case?

ii) To what extent Maslow's Theory is applicable to Mr. Joga Ram.

Case No. 4

Capable but Hesitant Employee

Prakash is an engineer in a large design engineer office. He hails from a

poor but disciplined family. The 'family has a rural background. For
Prakash, it was 'earn while you learn' although till he graduated in
architecture. Prakash is intelligent, capable and hard working. But his main
fault is that he does not want to take risks. He hesitates to make decisions
himself and often brings petty and routine problems' to his boss or to peers
for decisions. Whenever he does a design job, he brings it in rough draft to
his boss for approval before finalizing it. Since Prakash is a capable
person, his boss wants to motivate him to be more independent in his work.
The boss believes that this approach will improve Prakash's performance,
relieve the boss from extra routine, and give Prakash more self-confidence.
However, the boss is not sure how to go about motivating Prakash to take
initiative in his work. In the rote of the boss, how you will motivate Prakash
analyses the case.

Case No.5

Bombay Printers

Bombay Printers is a large printing fin-9 located in Bombay. It has

specialized in printing calendars and greeting cards. Right from inception,
this concentration brought rich dividends and over the years sales have
increased considerably, mutt to the envy of competitors. Slowly but
steadily, it has captured a major share of the market. Since Bombay
Printers is a family held company, exact figures are not readily available.
Despite this statistical deficiency, competitors knew very well that
Ramakant Path and his children who own the company are extremely
wealthy. The fact that the Path Foundation grants several lakhs of rupee
every year to charitable institutions speaks volume. Over the years the
company has been investing its surplus funds in real estate and equity
capital in a calculated manner. Supported by a vast reservoir of funds, it is
small wonder; the company has achieved a stupendous growth rate leaving
everyone behind in the race.

Currently, Bombay Printers is the dominant employer in the printing

industry. Though there is no union, employees are well-paid. The demand
for calendars and greetings has increased considerably, in the recent past,
and most of the employees receive a fat overtime allowance. In an
interview, given to a local magazine, Ramakant Patil proudly declared,
“Workers in Bombay Printers are highly motivated'', They're currently the
highest paid employees in the Country. The future is rosy. Within a few
days we are going to introduce a new productivity incentive plan under
which employees are likely to get annual bonus based on a novel
productivity formula devised by our Accounting staff. We always want our
employees to grow along with us."

To his surprise and dismay, Ramakant Patil received a nasty letter,

containing a long list of demand, from a group of anonymous employees
after the publication of the interview in the magazine. Among 1 their
complaints

Were the following:

"We're sick of ail this overtime. You and Other officer’s n the company may
like working day and night. We prefer the company of our families and
friends to machines and toots during holidays."

"The new bonus plan is i hoax. None of us can understand how 'it
operates. As usual, it will be those people who lick the boots of
management that will benefit. Stop playing these dirty tricks. We hate
working harder for something we don't have any chance of getting.”
 "You are-talking as if we're one big happy family, and yet trying to throw us
all on the roads at the same time. Stop manipulating us. We know pretty
well that the company has bought land in Delhi and you're going to settle
there only throwing us all out of work. Why should we care for a company
that is abandoning us on streets?"

From the standpoint of employee perceptions, what is going on here?

Analyses the Case.

Case No.6

Difficult to change people indeed

Raghu Ram’s new job as safety and welfare manager with Maruti
Construction Ltd (MCL), a large construction outfit from South India, was
extremely challenging. Construction industry in India had one of the worst
accident records of all industries in recent times, thanks to the pressure on
construction companies to complete projects at an unbelievable pace to
meet con the deadlines set by highly demanding customers. MCL's safety
record was better than its counterparts but it was still a matter of great
concern.

Raghu's understanding of the situation made him believe that when it

comes to safety, workers generally resort to short cuts. For example, when
it was mandatory to use protective goggles, gloves and face masks while
employing power cutter, workers ignored the same completely and felt it
was an inconvenient and time wasting tactic. Since site managers and
supervisors were under great pressure to meet predetermined targets, they
also turned a blind eye to such unsafe practices. They were more
interested in getting the work done on time. Raghu examined the situation
carefully and felt that changing workers' attitude toward safety practices
through an education campaign might not work. He knew that to have any
impact, their behavior need to change. He also knew that various previous
attempts to improve safety, initiated by his predecessor, had failed. These
included poster campaigns and lectures from safety experts and
sometimes even from medical staff.

Raghu, without wasting much time, came to the conclusion that he should
come down very heavily on those who indulge in unsafe acts. Site
managers were also strictly instructed to this effect and were asked to
reprimand people severely and cut the salaries of those not observing
safety rules. Most of their reprimands were given to accident victims or
(when it was not the victim's fault) others involved in causing the accident.

The policy seemed to work initially. The first few weeks of the campaign
went off peacefully, with a perceptible decrease in accidents. When he
discussed the issue with site managers in an excited mood, they did not
share his pleasure. Immediately after the meeting, one of the site
managers took. Raghu to a nearby coffee shop and explained why the
policy seemed to work the other way round. The operatives simply were not
reporting normal accidents (unless they were really serious) to avoid
punishment. As a result of this, the relationships between site managers
and operatives had also deteriorated. Site workers did not like site
managers reprimanding their unfortunate colleagues who were still shaken
and in pain after an accident.

Analyze the Case

Case No.7

Tushar had been hearing the rumor doing the rounds since the past ten
days. However, as per his nature, he had ignored it and concentrated on
doing his job even better. But today, Tushar had seen his name along with
other names recommended and officially told to start attending the three
month’s computer course to gain knowledge on the usage of computers to
textile industry.

Tushar, after completing a polytechnic (diploma) in Textile engineering had

joined the J.P. Mills as a junior assistant in the design development
department, some twenty years ago. At the time of joining, the textile
industry was booming. J.P. Mills was also doing well in terms of volume
and profitability during the boom period. However, with the opening of the
economy and the entry of many multinational readymade brands, there was
seen a visible change in the customer’s buying behavior. The past seven to
eight years has seen a shift in the customers' mindset towards purchase of
ready-to-use wear. Unlike the earner trend when people preferred to
purchase well known textile company's cloth material (in this market J.R
Mills was doing very well and had almost 27% market share), and pet their
clothes stitched by any well-known tailor. So as to keep in pace with the
new market requirement J.P. Mills Owner and Managing Director Nitin
Kapasi, decided to enter into a tie up with a MNC Sandy wear store which
wanted to enter into a joint venture with J.R Mills to get a manufacturing
base in India.

It was in this connection that the rumors started circulating about the new
management planning to remove the existing employees of J.P, Mills by
introducing programmers for them under the guise of upgrading their
knowledge in computers. When the rumors, started initially, many
executives and employees had put in their papers. But many others, like
Tushar, continued to put in their hours but one could always sense their
uneasiness. Hence, seeing his name on the notice board, made Tushar
uneasy and he was expecting the worst, when he received a call from
Nancy, the PA, to the personnel manager Viresh, asking him to meet the
latter after the lunch break.

Tushar, when he met Viresh, was pleasantly surprised to hear that in the
new organization setup, would be required to do a lot of the work on the
computer (packages). This would eventually result in a lot of cost saving for
the company, because the available new computer packages in the market
will help in reducing the time (spent) between receipt of order, selection of
the various designs (optimized selection can be one with the help of the
new software packages) and execution of the orders in time. Viresh ended
the talk by saying that the new management expected all this responsibility
to be entrusted to Tushar and hence his name had been put up on the fist
of those required to attend various computer courses,
Questions:

1. What factors had caused resistance in change among JR Mills

employees?

2. Do you agree with the strategy adopted by Viresh in communicating

'about the changes to Tushar? Or could you suggest any other way of
handling the above situation? Why?

Case No.8

Manish a young man with a M.Sc. degree in Chemistry was happy to as a

Chemist in the R&D department of a leading pharmaceutical firm. Although
Manish had only been an above average student, his interest in Chemistry
had made him a superb technical expert. This technical Knowles Age made
him a 'star performer' very early in his career, His personal& also made rum
approachable, whenever anyone in the firm needed help. Seeing his ability,
and knowledge, the management of his firm decided to promote him as the
chief chemist. Manish happy with his new job and went about performance,
the job with his usual enthusiasm. Being happy with Manish's continued
performance, the management now promoted him as the Head of the team
evolved in developing a new product within a stipulated time, the other
team members were also research scholars and equally competent and
self motivated as Manish. So as a project leader, Manish tried project
himself as a model on how to do first-class scientific work, give one's best
and also be able to complete the work under tremendous deadline
pressure. Accordingly, Manish completed the said assignment even before
the scheduled time.

The management of Manish's firm felt that he could easily be groomed to

be a leader as he not only sets extremely high performance standards for
himself but also exemplifies them. So a new assignment was handed over
to Manish. He was put in charge of R&D for his entire division. Manish was
extremely happy with his new job and displayed a keenness to do things
better and faster and also expected the same of everyone around him his
new role and as his tasks expanded, Manish realized he had to create a
vision for his team, work out strategies to co-ordinate projects, delegate
authority and groom his subordinates. All these tasks started telling on
Manish's performance and he began to slip. He was quick to identify poor
performers and demand more from them. When they railed to rise to the
occasion(s), Manish started distrusting his subordinates to be as capable
as himself. He started becoming almost a micro manager obsessed with
details and taking over from others when their performance was
dissatisfactory instead of becoming a true leader and adopting a coaching
style and trying to counsel subordinates so, as to enable them to improve
with guidance and development, Manish started stretching himself and
working nights and weekends so as to cover up other employees' lapses.
All these started affecting Manish's mental and physical health, Manish's
subordinates also started feeling that Manish didn't trust them to work in
their own way and all their initial initiative and enthusiasm started
evaporating. Since Manish rarely gave any feedback to them, they started
feeling the task was too focused and routinized and boring. Finally, they all
decided to meet the Human Resource leader and put forward their case to
him.

Questions :

1.) Do you feel that the pace setting leadership style adopted by Manish
was wrong? Why?
2.) What remedy do you suggest to stop Manish from faltering and also
motivate Manish's subordinates?

Case No.9

Akash was the son of a village school master, His upbringing had been in a
home environment where it was instilled in his mind about the two aspects
of values (1) Always display reverence respect to senior people (2) There is
no substitute for hard work. Being a highly intelligent Akash was able to
obtain the AME degree with flying colors.
Very soon he was appointed as an engineer in the R & D department of
Abcos Technology Ltd. Abcos designed, developed and manufactured
Televisions for commercial purposes. At the time of interview, Akash was
told that Abcos had a flat organizational structure and all the employees
were encouraged to mingle freely with each other, which was also in line to
its nature of business. Muralidhar, an engineer with around 10 years of
experience working in a Government undertaking, was appointed to head
the R & D department at Abcos. Muralidhar joined Abcos a month-after
Akash, In the first month itself, Akash was able to grasp the type of work
desired of him, rein control and had also modified the design to bring down
the number of rejected pieces. Within a few days after joining Abcos,
Muralidhar introduced a few changes. He saw no value in encouraging
employees to mingle freely with each other. He also insisted that any
modifications or suggestion have to be brought to him rather than
discussing it with co-workers. Akash being new to the job continued
working very hard. He also suggested-few more changes in the design.
Muralidhar out rightly rejected the suggestions and used strong language to
tell Akash to work hard and not waste time in bringing in new ideas.
Akashkept quiet and went back to work in the R & D department. Once
Akash fell sick and remained absent for two days. On reporting for duty
after his sick leave, Akash was once again made the target of Muralidhar's
anger. Akash also found him wrongly accusing and not prepared to listen to
his explanation for the absence. The employees very soon found out that
Muralidhar could not accept any of his sub-ordinates to be more intelligent
or knowledgeable than him. And if found to be so, he would behave
similarly with them. It was a year since Akash joined Abcos, when one day
the General Manager (HRD) overheard a conversation between Akash and
Dev (another co-worker) in the Cafeteria. "I joined Athan a year ago with a
lot of enthusiasm and determination to learn and grow here. But after Mr.
Muralidhar's joining our department, inspire of my best efforts I feel that my
job involvement is decreasing and I am unhappy with my job. Why can't
Abcos have a framework of desirable ethical attitudes, and impart training
programmes to focus and develop such attitudes among employees?" The
GM (HRD) decides to call for a meeting with Akash.
Questions:

1.) Do you find anything wrong in the approach adopted by Muralidhar

?Why?

2). If you were in Akash's place what would you do and why?

Case No.10

Upon obtaining his degree in accounting and finance, Ramesh Diwan went
to work as an accountant for Krishna Cosmetics Ltd. He brought with him
an excellent record from his five years at the University. Not only was
Ramesh an excellent student, he was also extremely involved in all forms
of campus Activities. He has also held the positions of Secretary and
President of the Students' Union. People felt comfortable around Ramesh,
and his opinions were well-respected by the students and the faculty.

Mr. Kaushik Gupta, the Head of the Department of Accounting, took great
pride in having appointed Ramesh as his subordinate. He boasted before
his superiors about how he was able to attract Ramesh to Krishna
Cosmetics. As expected, when Ramesh joined the company, he started
working with the same intensity that earned him due respect in the
University. He learned the job quickly, and within a very short period of
time, was identifying and initiating changes mat could improve operations,
Ramesh followed the chain of command and was instrumental in
introducing May useful modifications in the departmental activities with Mr.
Gupta's approval. This pleased Mr. Kaushik Gupta for he was able to take
the credit for the changes from his superiors. In the Department, there were
ten other accountants, who reported to Mr. Gupta. However,' as the
employees came to recognize Ramesh's expertise, they began to go to him
with their peculiar problems. Ramesh's personality was the type that made
it easy for others to talk to him. Even though he was junior in age, the
members regarded him as a full professional. As time went on the
employees would even go to him with their personal problems.
A strange situation ultimately developed. Although not in the formal
structure, another layer in the organization had developed. If any employee
had a problem, he or she would first go to Ramesh. If Ramesh could not
solve it, the person would go to Mr. Gupta. Upward communication tended
to go entirely through Ramesh. Although Mr. Gupta did not have the
reputation of being extremely fast-moving, it did not take him long to see
what had evolved. Although the Department had gained in efficiency since
Ramesh joined the firm, Mr. Gupta did not &e the loss of the power that, he
envisioned, was occurring. He even felt that his career was in jeopardy. Mr.
Gupta reasoned that the only way to eliminate this "bad" situation was to
ensure that Ramesh was either transferred or terminated.

Mr. Gupta immediately began his harassment campaign. He would

reprimand Ramesh in front of his peers. Anything that Ramesh
recommended would be immediately disapproved. It did not take long for
the other employees to recognize that if they associated with Ramesh, they
would be in trouble. Various instances of harassment were noticed for
those who even spoke to Ramesh. Ultimately, Mr. Gupta's strategy worked,
Ramesh quit. But an unanticipated situation also occurred. Six of his best
accountants also resigned and the Department was thrown into complete
confusion.

Read the above case carefully and answer the following questions:

1.) Why could Ramesh Diwan become the informal leader?

2.) To what extent was Ramesh a "threat' to his boss., Mr. Kaushik Gupta?
How important are the issues of status and power?

3.) How can a strong informal group influence operations of a department

such as the Department of Accounting?

4.) if you were Mr. Gupta, how would you have dealt with the situation?
Case No. 11

Suruchi Bose, the sales, executive was looking really pale and stressed
out. Every second day her boss fired her. She was highly under stress and
was not able to finish her task on time. She worked late hours and could
not reach home on time.

This was also due to, the reason that she had no personal vehicle for to
and fro.as commuting becomes hectic because of the distance All this
together was Just increasing her stress level and her peace of mind. Was
lost

Suruchi chose this company which been around for 7 years because of its
reputation as a good place to work. In the beginning of her job in this
company she reputation as the work but gradally she lost the interest of
working here and the repercussion was absenteeism due to health,
tardiness, task, avoidance, etc.

Bhakti was the first company to launch private telephone service and
solutions in India. It is a world of innovations in the fields of technoloay,
service and customer care. It has a world-class network of Fixed Line
services, Data and Broadband services, catering to the unique needs of
customers starting from corporate With high-end solutions to home users.

Mrs. Arpita, the HR Manager was observing Suruchi and called her into
her office one day. She asked her "Why are you looking so low
nowadays"? Suruchi told her the problem and also mentioned that many
other employees due to the work timings and work pressure faced the
same problem.

This made Arpita realize the fact that employees have less focus while at
work because they are worried about issues at home and they are also
more distracted at home because work matters weigh on their minds. The
end result is that neither situations is healthy or productive; in short, it's a
lose/lose situation for employees, their families and their employer's. When
employees were asked about work, the major two concerns that emerge
most frequently are long hours aid work intensity in the organization and for
all of this, something had to be immediately done to improve the situation.

So, this was the immediate assignment that was to be undertaken and Arita
didn't know how to do it since she had many other tasks in hand. Thus, this
was a good opportunity for a summer trainee who had just joined under
her. The objective of this assignment was clear to initiate activities or
policies which would bring about work change and development and will
help employees to balance their work and personal life.

Question

1. Advice suruchi what steps she should take to reduce her stree at
work place and enjoy the work environment?
2. As a HR head how would you handle this situation?

Case No. 12

Major Mohanty a retired man from army, joined as MD in Sunrise Limited,

when the company was passing through a very bad period with declining
production and productivity, heavy tosses and low morale of the
employees. Major Mohanty, after having in-depth, logical and strategic
studies of the situation, immediately flagged on ne called ‘operation
rejuvenation', with exclusive thrust on productivity and Production related
issues. People related matters are of no consequence for him, for one
believed that people, by and large, are dull, lazy, shirkers and non-starters
and as such, work should be extracted from them only through constant
watch, close supervision, complete and rigorous command and control. His
style of functioning did yield some results, but before any impact could be
seen he abruptly left the organization, having got a better assignment in
United States of America.

Major Mohanty was immediately succeeded by Mr. Soni, a man who made
a name for his balanced approach to people and production thought
participative style of management in his immediate position as the Deputy
MD of a large organization in a similar product line. He was, in fact,
commanded for his maximum concern for both people and production, and
for bringing about an ideal integration and harmony between the needs of
the employees and those of production.

In the present company also, Mr. Soni continued his policies of participative
management with equal concern for both production and people. With a
view to reviving the company back to health, he effected some major
changes. First of all he decentralized the organization so that the
subordinates could exercise their Discretion and imitative in decision-
making, as also their imagination and creativity in performing other
managerial functions. Further, he empowered the junior managers to incur
expenditure up to an approved limit without seeking prior approval of the
higher management. Communication system was also improved to
facilitate free flow of upward and downward communication.

Mr. Soni also adopted several measures to reduce costs and wasteful
expenditure. He banned donations to charitable institutions, but increased
the amount being spent on the welfare activities of the employees. Will Mr.
Soni's managerial style prove effective in ensuring bright future of the
company? Some employees are of the view that a lot of things are being
done, but they might not be effective in the long run. Others disagreed with
them, and said, 'Okay, we will give it a fair trial'.

Read the above case carefully and answer the following questions:

1.) Was Major Mohanty a theory 'X' or a theory 'Y' Manager? Explain with
reasons, How do you fit his style of functioning in the 'Managerial Grid' of
Blake and Mouton?

2.) Is Mr. Soni a theory 'X' or a theory 'Y' Manager? Discuss Will you advise
Mr. Soni to change his presumptions about the nature of people at work?
Give reasons In support of your advice.

3.) How do you describe Mr. Soni's managerial style in the light of
'Managerial Grid' of Blake and Mouton? Can it be regarded as the best
style of management?