CASE-1 (20 Marks)
1. Please read the case and answer the questions given at the end.
Ms. Renu had graduated with a degree in foreign languages. As the child of a military family, she had visited many parts of the world and had travelled extensively in Europe. Depsite these broadening exeriences, she had never given much thought to a career until her recent divorce.
Needing to provide her own income, Ms. Renu began to look for work. After a faily intense but unsuccessful search for a job related to her foreign language degree, she began to evaluate her other skills. She had become a proficient typist in college and decided to look into secretarial work. Although she still wanted a career utilizing her foreign language skills, she felt that the immediate financial pressures woudld be eased in a temporary secretarial position.
Within a short period fo time, she was hired as a clerk/typist in a typical pool at Life Insurance Company. Six months later, she became the top typist in the pool and and was assigned as secretary to Mrs. Khan’ manager of marketing research. She was pleased to get out of the pool and to get a job that had more variety in the tasks to perform. Besides, she also got a nice raise in pay.
Everything seemed to proceed well for the next nine months. Mrs. Khan was pleased with Renu’s work, and she seemed happy with her work. Renu applied for a few other more professional jobs in other areas during this time. However, each time her application was reiected for lack of related education and/or experi ence in the area.
Over the next few months, Khan noticed changes in Renu. She did not always dress as neatly as she had in the past, she was occasionally late for work, some of her lunches extended to two hours, and most of her productive work was done in the morning hours. Khan did not wish to say anything because Renu had been doing an excellent job and her job tasks still were being accomplished on time. How ever, Renu’s job behaviour continued to worsen. She began to be absent frequently on Mondays or Fridays. The two-hour lunch periods became standard, and her work performance began to
deteriorate. In addition, Khan began to suspect that Renu was drinking heavily, due to her apearance some mornings and behavior after two-hour lunches.
Khan decided that she must confront Renu with the problem. However, she wanted to find a way to held her without losing a valuable employee. Before she could set up a meeting, Renu burst through her fdoor after lunch one day and said:
“I want to talk to you Mrs. Khan”
“That’s fine,” Khan replied. “Shall we set a convenient time?”
“No! I want to talk now.”
“OK, why don’t you sit down and let’s talk?”
Khan noticed that Renu was slurring her words slightly and she was not too steady.
“Mrs. Khan, I need some vacation time.”
“I’m sure we can work that out. You’ve been with company for over a year and have two weeks vacation coming.”
“No, you don’t understand. I want to start it tomorrow.”
“But, Renu, we need to plan to get a temporary replacement. We can’t just let your job go for two weeks”.
“Why not ? Anyway anyone with an IQ above 50 can do my job. Besides,I need the time off. ”
“Renu , are you sure you are all right ?”
“Yes, I just need some time away from the job.”
Khan decided to let Renu have the vacation, which would allow her some time to decide what to do about the situation.
Khan thought about the situation the next couple of days. It was possible that Renu was an alcoholic.
However, she also seemed to have a negative reaction to her job. Maybe Renu was bored with her job. She did not have the experi ence or job skills to move to a different type of job at present. Khan decided to meet with the Personnel Manager and get some help developing her options to deal with Renu’s problem.
Questions :
(a) What is the problem in your opinion ? Elaborate.
(b) How would you explain the behaviour of Renu and Mrs. Khan? Did Mrs. Khan handle the
situation timely and properly?
(c) Assume that you are the Personnel Manager. What are the alternatives available with Mrs.Khan?
(d) What do you consider the best alternative? Why?
CASE – 2 (20 Marks)
One afternoon in June 1972, Seth, the industrial engineer of ABC Company, was called to the office of his immediate superior Kapil, the production manager. Kapil said, “Seth. I want to discuss a situation in the production department. A lot of people feel that Joshi is not the right man for the Assistant Superintendent’s position. The President and others have decided that I have got to fire Joshi or at least move him out of production. Everyone wants to fire Joshi, but I won’t do it to him. I was talking with Bhai this morning and we decided that you might be able to make use of Joshi in your department.
Seth was surprised by both the information, and the proposal.
Kapil concluded his comments with “Seth I am asking you to take Joshi. You can say ‘No’. But then he gets fired. I have told Joshi this. Also, Joshi knows that if he goes with you he will take a pay cut. However, I think you can make use of him both to your own and his satisfaction. You are anyway, carrying our an in-process quality control, and you might be able to make good use of Joshi in view of his long technical experience of production work. Think it over, and let me know by tomorrow.
Seth thought over the matter. ABC Company had been a successful enterprise until March 1972 at which time it suffered a sharp decline of profits: sales had fallen off, and production costs had risen. The President adopted three measures, which he hoped would improve the condition. First, by creating an Industrial Engineering department for establishing work standards on all production operations, to determine which manufacturing costs were out of line and where remedial action should be taken. Seth, 28 years old, who had been with the company for two years in the Purchasing department, was selected Seth had B.E and M.B.A. degrees to his credit. What he lacked in his business experience he made up by his eagerness to learn. He was ambitious and liked by his associates. He wanted a transfer from Purchasing to Production for better opportunities for advancement.
Secondly, he consulted a Management Consultation firm to make a study of the Production Department. They pointed out that the chain of command was too long from Production Manager through Plant Superintendent through Assistant Superintendent to Foremen. They recommended the elimination of the position of Assistant Superintendent.
Thirdly, he engaged an Industrial Psychologist to appraise all the Supervisory Personnel.
Joshi had been with the Company for 20 years since its founding, and during this period had worked on every production operation, and his last 11 years had been in supervisory capacity. His manners were rough and aggressive, and he had little formal education. The Industrial Psychologist’s report about Joshi contained the following points:
(i) Evaluation for the position of Assistant Superintendent, Not good enough.
(ii) Capacity for good human relations in supervision: Will have friction frequently.
(iii) Need for development counseling: Counseling greatly needed.
(iv) General evaluation: Joshi had a good ability profile. He suffers from a sense of inferiority.
He does not like the responsibility of making decisions. His supervision is that of autocratic
type. Though he has the ability, as far as his personality makes–up is concerned, he is out of
place in the present position.
Questions:
(a) What is the core problem in the case? Explain.
(b) Explain Joshi’s behaviour and works experience vis–a–vis the psychologist report.
(c) How do you see Kapil’s suggestion to Seth? Give reasons.
(d) What are Seth’s considerations in taking a decision? What should he do? Explain
CASE NO – 3
Health or Work
(20 Marks)
Mr.Victor is the marketing manager, looking after two sensitive products-Max and Priya (both are luxury soaps) – produced by Hindustan Trading Company. After a service of fifteen years, Mr. Victor now enjoys the second position in the marketing department of his company.
Recently the company introduced a new soap for the elite class of customers. It was launched in all the big cities of India, under the overall supervision of Mr. Victor.
Mr. Victor now travels twenty days a month and works for fourteen hours a day. His work is well appreciated by the chairman of the company. And was also rewarded with three direct increments.
As an obvious result of this new development, Mr. Victor now looks after all the three sensitive soaps. Looking at his dashing approach to marketing, the company’s chairman now wants to give him the additional responsibility of an ‘international launch’ of these products.
Unfortunately, Mr. Victor is now suffering from high blood pressure and has gone for medical treatment. Although he is on leave now, he has to resume his duties within a week. As per the doctor’s advice, Mr. Victor was supposed to take one month’s rest.
Mr. Victor’s wife works in the government department and they are blessed with two school going sons.
Required
What is your advice for Mr. Victor?
CASE – 4 (20 Marks)
PLANNING PROCESS
INTRODUCTION:
Planning is a comprehensive policy in any government or non- government organization .It implies a policy or set of guidelines which is to be followed by any organization to meet its targets. Planning is a key element in the functioning of any organization. Actually planning is an outcome of the decision making process in any organization. Any organizationhas to run its activities with a fixed financial, technical and human resources . Therefore, it has to set a target for the organization for any period. To achieve the set target or the minimum target goal, a comprehensive set of guidelines or framework is needed which is called Planning.
TYPES:In a big organization having a multi dimensional & multi-locations setup, there are twotypes of planning:1) corporate planning :The planning, which is taken at the corporate level which covers the organization as a whole is called corporate Planning. Corporate planning is alike the strategic, operational Planning and Long- termPlanning due to the same objectives of all these. However, they differ with each other.The planning process initiated by the company for the long-term objectives is called long term Planning whereas the planning process aimed towards strategic changes in the organization viz. Expansion plan, Restructuring of business processes within the organization etc. is called Strategic planning. Operational planning is a short term planning process aimed towards sustained production and worker’s efficiency at the shop floor level in the organization. But corporate planning is aimed towards one or all of the objectives of these planning processes.
LIMITATION OF PLANNING:There are several limitations of a planning process, which are enumerated below:1) CAPITAL INVESTMENT:In many instances, when capital is injected into any fixed assets, it becomes difficult for the organization to invest in other areas. This situation arises due to financial constraintsof the management board, lack of consolidation in the competitive market , emergence of new players in the market etc. This situation prevails until the company either grab the market share and enhance its profitability or restructure its business by liquidating some of its fixed assets viz. unused land or the land used for non-core activity etc.2) TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGES AND PEOPLES’ PREFERENCES:The organization has to continuously change its plans according to the technological changes taking place in the goods and services. Many times, organization fails to adapt the new technological setup due to its improper planning. Also people’s tastes and preferences also changes according to their needs, technological changes etc. This also may results the failure of the planning process due to non-fulfillment of company’s objectives.3) INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS:History of the industrial movements revealed that a cordial relationship between the employer and employees is a must for the organization to progress and strive forward.If relations between the worker’s and management group is strained, production will Get hampered due to strike, gherao, and procession etc. by the worker’s union and the company may not achieve its overall plan targets.
Questions
1 Why has been the operational management called as short term planning?
2 Give the Conclusion of the case , in minimum 100 words ?
