Human Resource Management Exam Solution
Buy Latest Exam Distance Learning solution
Section –A
Q1. Attempt any 15 (15X2=30)
1 In an organization initiating career planning, the career path model would essentially form the basis for
a. Placement
b. Transfer
c. Rotation
d. All of the above
2 Performance development plan is set for the employee by his immediate boss.
a. Employer
b. Department Head
c. Immediate boss
d. Any of the above
3. For closure, every worker is to be compensated with ________ average pay for every year of service completed
a. 15 days
b. 20 days
c. 25 days
d. 30 days
4. The basic managerial skill(s) is(are)
a. To supervise
b. To stimulate
c. To motivate
d. All of the above
5. The Basic Manager skill(s) is(are)
a. To supervise
b. To stimulate
c. To motivate
d. All of the above
6. HRM is__________)
a. employee oriented
b. employer oriented
c. legally oriented
d. none of the above
7. The objectives of HRM are categorized as __
a. personal objectives
b. functional objectives
c. organisational and social objectives
d. all of the above
8. The scope of HRM does not include __
a. retirement of employees
b. manpower planning
c. training of employees
d. maintenance of accounts
9. Goals, aims, purposes, missions and target is also known as ____________.
a. objective.
b. strategies.
c. polices.
d. rules.
10. Training information system included
a. Training aids
b. Internal and external faculty
c. Training resources
d. Training needs
11 Assisting managers in HR functions of management, known as
a. line manager
b. First line supervisor
c. staff manager
d. all of above
12. Rules, duties and responsibilities or workers are given in writing in______________.
a. formal organization.
b. informal organization.
c. business or oganisation.
d. strategic organization.
13. The selection of best alternative from many alternatives is known as__________.
a. selection.
b. decision-making.
c. organizing.
d. budgeting
14. Which factor does not involve in communication to employees
a. interviewing
b. disciplining
c. counseling
d. compensating
15. Human capital refers to
a. education of firm’s workers
b. training of firm’s workers
c. skills and expertise of firm’s workers
d. all of above
16. Coordination of personnel activities is a crucial part of
a. Functional authority
b. Line function
c. Staff functions
d. all of above
Section –B
Q2. Attempt any 10 (10X3=30)
1. What are the objectives of HRM?
2. What do you mean by HRD?
3. What are the roles of personnel manager?
4. What Are The Responsibilities Of Hr Generalist?
5. What problems do you face during manpower planning?
6. What Is Succession Planning?
7. What human resource functions need to be planned?
8. Can a personnel area be assigned to many company code?
9. What are the various objects in an organizational plan?. How does any company use an organizational plan?
10. Define Job Instruction Training?
11. What is the purpose of an Exit Interview?
12. What are the types of Grievances in an organisation?
Section –C
Q3. Attempt any 2 (10X2=20)
1. “Effective management of human resources is essential for the profitability and welfare of an organisation, a society and a nation”. In the light of this statement, describe the role of a human resource manager
2. “Various legislations have imposed upon the employer obligations for providing different kinds of employee services and benefits”. Name and explain five such statutory benefits.?
3. Explain Maslow’s theory of Motivation and its suitability for multinational organizations?
Q4. Attempt any 1 (20X1=20)
CASE: 1
Sam Walton established Wal-Mart Store in 1962 on three revolutionary philosophies; respect for the Individual, service to our customers and strive for excellence. Shopper Mart, Inc. is not only the largest discounted retailer in the world, it now also ranks as the largest corporation in the world. The retail giant dwarfs its nearest competition, generating three times the revenues of the world’s number two retailer, France’s Carrefour SA. Domestically, Wal-Mart has more than 1.2 million workers, making it the nation’s largest nongovernmental employer. U.S. operations include 1,478 Wal-Mart discount stores (located in all 50 states. Its international operations commenced in 1991 covering Canada and Puerto Rico; Wal-Mart Supercenters in Argentina, Brazil, China, Germany, Mexico, Puerto Rico, South Korea, and the United Kingdom Shopper Mart Company strives to maintain its competitive advantage through its satellite-based distribution system, and by keeping store location costs to a minimum by placing stores on low-cost land outside small to medium-sized towns, no matter in the US or in its abroad affiliations. Corporate strategy and HR strategy at Wal-Mart Shopper Mart purchased massive quantities of items from its suppliers to form scale economy, and with the efficient stock control system, help in making its operating costs lower than those of its competitors. It also imported many goods from China, “the world factory” for its low cost.
Managers engage in three levels of strategic planning the corporate-level strategy; the business-level strategy and the function-level strategy. The functional strategy should serve the overall company strategy, so the corporate strategy could be implemented more effectively and efficiently. The basic premise that underlying SHRM is that organizations adopting a particular strategy require HR practices that are different from those required by organizations adopting alternative strategies Generally, there are two primary SHRM theoretical models the universalistic best practices and the contingency perspective of “best fit”. The contingency perspective of “best fit elucidates that the individual HR practices will be selected based on the contingency of the specific context of a company. As Wal-Mart has different corporate strategy with those retailers with differentiation strategy, which actually cultivates the primary contingency factor in the SHRM literature. What’s more, we should be reminded that the individual HR practices will interact with firm strategy to result in organizational performance, and this interaction effects make the “universal best practices” may not apply so well in a specific company.
The following part we’ll examine the “fitness” of HR practices in Shopper Mart with this theoretical model, which is obviously also the integration process of HR practices with the contingency variables to some extent. From the recruitment.
From training perspective, through training on behavioral requirement for success and encouragement, Shopper Mart tried to adjust the employee behaviors and competencies to what the company’s strategy requires, that is to low down cost more. This logic is also embodied in its “lock-in” of its nighttime shift in various stores. Through this enforced policy, Shopper Mart tried to prevent “shrinkage” behavior of its employees, to eliminate unauthorized cigarette breaks or quick trips home.
From the performance management perspective, Shopper Mart made very high demanding standards and job designs. The New York Times reported Shopper Mart had extensive violations of state regulations requiring time for breaks and meals. There are so many instances of minors working too late, during school hours, or for too many hours in a day, for the performance appraising just force them to do so. In the Career management, Shopper Mart also goes great lengths to reduce cost, there are many cases that women sued Shopper Mart for its discriminated policy against women by systematically denying them promotions and paying them less than men did. Women are pushed into “female” departments and are demoted if they complain about unequal treatment just for more cost reduction against its competitors.
From the compensation management perspective, Shopper Mart has also showed very aggressive HR policies and activities. Shopper Mart imported $15 billion worth of goods from china, for not only the strategic consideration of supplier chain economy, but also Shopper Mart has some factories in china, whose products are branded with Shopper Mart name. With this method, Shopper Mart pays much less to Chinese labors in this “world-factory” and earn some advantages, so we could just see how the Shopper Mart corporate strategy is just intensely integrated with its HR policy. In 2002, operating costs for Shopper Mart were just 16.6 percent of total sales, compared to a 20.7 average for the retail industry as a whole, which supported greatly the overall strategy. Shopper Mart workers in California earn on average 31 percent less than workers employed in other large retail business. Actually, with other operating and inventory costs set by higher-level management, store managers must turn to wages to increase profits, and Shopper Mart expects the labor costs to be cut by two-tenths of a percentage point each year.
From the employee benefit and safety perspective, workers eligible for benefits such as health insurance must pay over the odds for them. In 1999, employees paid 36 percent of the costs. In 2001, the employee burden rose to 42 percent. While in the US, large-firm employees pay on average 16 percent of the premium for health insurance. Unionized supermarket workers typically pay nothing. Shopper Mart was frequently accused of not providing employees with affordable access to health care, but the top managers and HR managers know their focus was just to try their most to implement Shopper Mart’s corporate strategy.
Finally, from the labor relations perspective, Sam Walton sought to bring great value through aggressive discounting to customers. Because unionized supermarket workers typically pay nothing, Shopper Mart has strong anti-union policy. Allegations of firing workers sympathetic to labor organizations have been made, all new employees are shown a propaganda video tape, which said joining a union, would have bad implication for them, and the employees should never sign a union card. In the UK it was reported in the Guardian that Shopper Mart is facing the prospect of a bruising legal battle with the GMB trade union in a row over collective bargaining rights, for the union would not accepting Shopper Mart withdrew a 10% pay offer to more than 700 workers after they rejected a new package of terms and conditions, which included giving up rights to collective pay bargaining. Here there may be some doubt why Shopper Mart has recently allowed unionization in their stores in China, where unionization is mandatory. But actually, this mandatory rule is made a long time before Shopper Mart walk into china, so why Shopper Mart give up its persistence in not having some unions, and its former reason to China government is that it did not have any unions in its global working. So how do we see Shopper Mart’s compromise if that constitutes a “compromise”?
It has been argued that doing business in China is particularly difficult because of the higher relative importance of personal relationships (guanxi), as opposed to the specification and enforcement of contracts in the West (Davies et al, 1995). Shopper Mart China has tried every effort to develop good relationships with China government and other influence groups. So, Shopper Mart made this exception of have unionizations is just in accordance with its corporate strategy and HR strategy. If it ignores the Chinese government’s firm rule, its cost would just outweigh what it would save by organizing no unions in its labor relations management as Shopper Mart provides little power for Chinese workers as the unions are controlled by the state.
Conclusion:
Therefore, from all those above content we know the human resource management is of strategic importance to Shopper Mart. Both the top managers and HR executives should pay more attention to the everyday employment management. They should play more roles that are positive in training and using their human resources, and maybe cultivating better organization culture, all of which may prove more cost saving, and correspondingly help realize Sam Walton’s simple philosophy of “bringing more value to customers”. Based on the case answer these two questions
Q1. Identify the challenges your business will face and how it will affect your HRM strategies.
Q2. Design HRM strategies to address these business challenge
CASE: 2
Sanjay Nagpal is a new recruit from a reputed management institute, recruited as a sales trainee in a sales office of a large computer hardware firm located in Chennai.
•Raghvan is the zone sales manager responsible for overseeing the work of sales officer, field executives and trainee salesmen numbering over 50 of threeareas namely Chennai, Bangalore, and Trivandrum.
•The sales growth of the products in his area was highly satisfactory owing tothe developmental initiatives taken by respective State Governments inspreading computer education.
•Raghvan had collected several sales reports, catalogues and pamphlets detailing the types of office equipment sold by the company For Sanjay’sreference.
•After short chat with Sanjay, Raghvan assisted him to his assigned desk and provided him with the material collected.
•There after Raghvan excused himself and did not return
•Meanwhile, Sanjay scanned through the material given to him till 5:00pm before leaving office.
Q1. What do you think about Raghavan’s training programme?
Q2. What type of sale training programme would you suggest?
Q3. What method of training would have been best under the circumstances? Would you consider OJT, simulation or experiential methods
