knowledge, but also a comprehensive understanding of the business environment. These cases test the student’s reasoning and comprehension skills.
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Caselet 1
Sushma Sharma was excited about her first job at Aarohan, an established software development firm. Having completed her masters degree in computer applications, Sharma attended the initial selection process at Aarohan. She was quite impressed with the way she was treated all through the selection procedure. She was therefore glad to have received the offer letter for the position of junior programmer in the firm.
She was to report at the regional office to attend the Welcome to Aarohan program by 9am the following Monday.
Sharma was among the ten new members recruited by Aarohan for the positions of junior and senior programmers. Once she reached the premises of the office, Sharma was pleased to be welcomed by the HR manager himself, who directed her to the conference room. The Welcome to Aarohan program started as scheduled. It began with a brief introduction of the company by the HR manager, Sreekanth Reddy.
Reddy introduced the team to the history of the company, its founders, the values and culture it upheld, the expectations of the organization, the basic norms to be followed, the key personnel in the organization, and gave a brief insight into its various procedures and processes. Reddy also talked about the company’s vision, mission, and objectives and the way it intended to achieve them. He also briefed them about the role each one of them had to play in order to accomplish the objectives of the organization. This helped the team members along with Sharma, understand the organization and their responsibilities and roles in it.
Sharma, along with the rest of the team was trained in soft skills, basic system skills of the company and other technical aspects of her job as well. Reddy also spoke about the intranet at Aarohan which was meant to be used by the organizational members to interact with each other. They were given their e-mail ids. Each of them was provided with all the necessary office equipment like the PC, telephone, internet, and other accessories required to perform their jobs, once they reached their workstations.
Reddy then introduced the incumbents to their respective supervisors and other team members. Each incumbent was given a mentor who was supposed to help him/her during his/her association with the organization. Sharma found her mentor to be an extremely approachable and friendly person from whom she could take help and support.
After this, Sharma, like the rest of the group had to complete a project that was very helpful in understanding the job procedures and systems. This project required co-ordination and cooperation among all the members of the team. At the end of the project, Sharma and other incumbents were asked to make a power point presentation of their projects and their understanding of the organization as a whole. They were also encouraged to discuss their experiences while working on the project, with the rest of the team. These presentations and the discussions that followed helped the incumbents understand the culture of the organization better.
At the end of the 15-day Welcome to Aarohan program, a feedback was taken from the incumbents about their perceptions of the organization, its systems, procedures, culture, etc. The feedback was also intended to elicit information from the new employees about their personal goals and objectives and how they would contribute to the growth of the organization. The incumbents were given complimentary gifts on the last day of the program.
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The program left a pleasant feeling among the incumbents as they were made to feel important during the initial days itself. Sharma could now evaluate her ‘fit’ into the organizational culture and the work processes. She could now judge her skills and abilities that would help her perform well and identify the areas for her improvement.
Thus, Aarohan conducted an effective socialization process called the Welcome to Aarohan program that aimed at familiarizing the incumbents with the culture, values, norms and procedures of the organization. This in turn, helped Aarohan in developing a workforce that understood the organizational objectives and their role in achieving them.
Questions for Discussion:
1. Discuss the significance of Welcome to Aarohan program in the present case, in developing a knowledgeable and committed workforce that worked towards the accomplishment of organizational goals and objectives.
2. Citing the example of Welcome to Aarohan, describe a model for an effective socialization process in an organization.
Caselet 2
Ecstatic Automobiles (Ecstatic) is a large manufacturer of two-wheelers, known for its innovation in designing vehicles that never failed to attract customers. This led the company to become the market leader within 10 years of its inception. However, a recent change in the top management saw the value of its stocks dipping, and its sales reached an all-time low. This was a serious cause for concern to the management, which probed into the reasons for such a dismal performance. The study revealed that two consecutive ventures in new model introduction had failed miserably in the market.
The chief engineer, Rakesh Iyer, was called for, to attend a meeting with the CEO and the Managing Director, Ravi Ganesh. When asked for an explanation, Iyer explained that the decreasing morale and motivation of design engineers was the main reason for the low quality performance of the department. “Why don’t we motivate them by doling out more incentives and bonuses for better performance?” asked Ganesh. In reply, Iyer said that no amount of incentives or bonuses succeeded in enhancing their morale and motivation. “Nothing seems to boost their motivation and productivity levels,” said Iyer with a concerned voice. To this, Ganesh offered, “Then let me first talk to your team and then we shall decide the plan of action.” After discussing a few other issues, Ganesh informed Iyer that he would have a meeting with all the members of the engineering department the following Monday. Iyer then left the room.
It was Monday morning, and every member of the design & engineering department assembled in the conference room. Ganesh had a free and open interaction with the entire department and emphasized the role they played in bringing the company to the top position. He then talked about the deteriorating performance of the design engineers in the recent past. “It has been observed that the design team, which has been instrumental in bringing the company so many laurels and unparalleled success, is now not contributing its mite towards the company’s profitability,” said Ganesh with a concerned voice. He then discussed with the team, the problems being faced by the members in their day-to-day activities.
This discussion led to the conclusion that it was the monotonous nature of the job that demotivated the design engineers. They wanted more autonomy and freedom in their jobs. Lack of freedom in their jobs led to a demotivated group of design engineers in the organization, which in turn, affected the productivity and profitability of the firm.
It was therefore decided that the design engineers would be given more autonomy in
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their jobs in terms of running their projects, selecting outside consultants, etc. The management also decided that representatives from the design team would be present during the selection process for new employees in the department. As a result, the design team now had the autonomy to decide the projects they would work on, how they would go about it, and the composition of the team. After these changes were implemented in the department, the design team showed substantial improvement in their performance.
The next two models of the sports bike launched by the company were a hit in the market and the company registered a record profit, which was around 40% more than the previous year’s. The job enrichment effort thus resulted in increased productivity among its employees. This initiative also enhanced the morale and motivation levels of the engineering department. It was evident from the fact that within a short span of 8 months, three other models were also ready for production. Iyer too, was extremely satisfied with the performance of his team members.
Having experienced this unprecedented rate of success of the organization through the process of job enrichment, the management decided to extend this concept to the rest of the departments as well. As expected, the other departments also produced similar results and recorded huge profits for the organization. Thus, Ecstatic is an organizational example for the success of job enrichment method of job re-design.
Question for Discussion:
1. Ecstatic Automobiles had benefitted immensely by introducing the concept of job enrichment, not only in terms of increased productivity levels but also in the form of enhanced employee morale and motivation. Discuss the ways in which modern organizations like Ecstatic are being benefitted by enriching the jobs of their employees.
2. Discuss the variety of ways in which organizations can enrich the jobs of their employees.
Caselet 3
Esteem Enterprises (Esteem), is a leading producer of computer hardware equipment in the industry. In an interview with a national daily, the company’s CEO stated that the secret behind the success of Esteem was its ability to adapt to changes in the environment. This adaptability was possible due to an ongoing succession planning process that takes place through out the year. Named “Leadership Development Program,”(LDP), the succession planning at Esteem aims at creating and developing strong leadership, that is capable of addressing all the skills and competencies required to face the challenges posed by today’s dynamic business environment. The LDP strives towards attaining organizational excellence through its talented workforce.
The LDP was the brainchild of the CEO of Esteem, Shivraj Dixit, who felt that the organization must be ready to face any eventuality or crisis at any point of time. Dixit strongly believed that the organization must not be dependent on a single individual or a group of individuals for its development. On the other hand, it must nurture a number of leaders who will lead the firm towards the accomplishment of organizational goals and objectives.
The LDP followed a simple but continuous process that aimed at developing necessary skills and competencies among its employees that would help the organization meet the present and future demands of the ever-changing external environment. The LDP is headed by a group of experienced employees from the top management. They first identify the existing competencies of the employees and key
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personnel in the company and compare them with the requirements of the industry it competes in. Through a series of evaluation processes, the team assesses the training needs of the existing employees, which help in achieving the organizational goals.
The team then plans for the implementation of the necessary training, mentoring or coaching sessions to enhance the skills and competencies of employees to meet the organizational objectives. The team at this stage also considers the probability of having to recruit people from outside the company, in order to meet the future needs of the organization. The LDP then drafts a plan of action for the next three months. It uses succession planning applications like the human resource information systems (HRIS) that provide the firm with an insight into its future requirements. Since Esteem is a large organization, the use of such applications proves to be very beneficial to the organization.
Esteem also took the support and assistance of an external recruiting consultant to provide the right personnel to the firm at the right time. This became necessary when there was a dearth of internal talent among the existing employees. It provided Esteem the additional benefit of focussing on strategic issues in human resource management.
Thus, with the top management investing sufficient time and resources on succession planning, Esteem’s LDP was successful in being able to provide just the right kind of people not just for the present, but for the future as well. The succession planning program at Esteem is thus a constant and ongoing process that prepares the company to handle even unforeseen challenges and eventualities.
Questions for Discussion:
1. Discuss in brief, the various phases in the succession planning process at Esteem, that helped it to become one of the top manufacturing companies in an industry that was sensitive and adaptive to the dynamic business environment.
2. Discuss the elements of an effective succession planning program that helps an organization prepare itself to meet its goals and objectives, through constant availability of talented human resources.
Caselet 4
Integrated Solutions was a growing organization in the telecom industry. Its phenomenal growth in the recent past led to a huge manpower requirement in the company. Recruiting the required resources was a challenging task for the HR department as there was a dearth of talent in human resources in the market with too many companies vying for the same talent. The CEO of the company called for a meeting of all the heads of departments to discuss ways in which the manpower requirement could be met. The CEO invited suggestions about innovative ways of recruiting top talent in the industry.
Anupama Roy, the HR manager had a point to make. She said, “This is a difficult task for us, as most of the openings in the company are in the middle and top managerial positions, for which we require experienced personnel. Unfortunately, most of them will be already employed and busy in their jobs. So, our job now is to attract this group of passive job-seekers.” At this point, one of the project leaders raised a doubt,
“In such a competitive business scenario, how successful will we be in attracting the attention of skilled employees?” The CEO agreed and so did Roy. “Perhaps, we could conduct a study to identify ways of capturing this potential group of candidates,”
suggested Roy. It was then decided that a team of members from the HR department will study the way employees in organizations sought for new opportunities in the job market.
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Accordingly, a team of three members headed by Amit Bajaj set out to study ways in which passive job-seekers could be attracted. The survey conducted by Bajaj and his team dealt with issues like how the potential job seekers in the industry spent their free time, the web-sites they visited, their intentions of seeking a new job, their satisfaction levels in their present jobs, their expectations about an ideal work environment, etc. After a week, Bajaj was ready with the report and presented it in a meeting, which was also attended by the CEO, the HR manager and the Systems manager. The report found that a person already possessing a job would approach another organization if invited by a friend or associate working for the same organization. The report also brought to light, the fact that people desist seeking new opportunities elsewhere because of the long time wasted during the entire hiring cycle.
Based on the above report, Roy, in consultation with the CEO, Systems manager and Bajaj, drafted the following plan of action:
• Integrated Solutions initiated a new scheme called, ‘Invite a friend,’ based on the finding that people approach organizations when advised by acquaintances already working for those firms. Accordingly, the Invite a friend scheme was introduced to encourage employees to bring in potential candidates from among friends and acquaintances for the various positions available in the organization.
In case the candidate got selected, the employee who referred him/her would be rewarded. Within a year of its introduction, it was found that around 40%-50% of the new employees were recruited through this scheme.
• The company also hired in-house head hunters who were completely devoted to the process of hiring talented people. This reduced the cycle time involved during the entire hiring procedure, which in turn attracted potential candidates.
• Integrated solutions linked their corporate web-site to the sites that are more likely to be visited by a maximum number of potential candidates. This increased the number of hits by job-seekers to their web-site. This in turn, helped attract passive job-seekers.
• The organizational members mingled with people belonging to other companies at various social gatherings and festivals and talked positively about Integrated Solutions.
Thus, the innovative ways of recruitment at Integrated Solutions helped the firm attract nearly 10% of the top talent in the industry. They also helped reduce the costs involved in the hiring process to a substantial extent. Soon, the company gained a strong competitive edge over its rivals in the industry through the strength of its human capital. This reinforced the belief that if an organization can manage to get the best talent present in the industry and succeed in retaining it, then it would remain the leader in the industry, merely on the strength of its human resources.
Questions for Discussion:
1. Integrated Solutions initiated a number of steps to attract the top talent in the industry as discussed in the case. Briefly describe the factors that are to be considered by the company before framing its recruitment policy.
2. Evaluate the success of the recruitment process initiated by Integrated Solutions.
Caselet 5
Digital Electronics (Digital) was established twenty years ago by Ramprasad Goud.
The mission of this manufacturer of consumer electronic goods was to produce high quality, innovative products at the lowest possible costs, that catered to the ever changing needs of its customers. The organizational structure at Digital was
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characterized by a tall hierarchy with a number of managerial levels between the shop floor executives and the CEO. The leadership style that prevailed in the company was the autocratic form, wherein employees were seldom involved in the organization’s decision-making process. All crucial decisions were made by the top management and merely conveyed to employees at the lower rung of the organizational structure.
Though Digital had been performing well in the industry, its profitability levels and market share were gradually dwindling. This was a serious cause for concern to the CEO, Goud, who invited top level managers to give their suggestions, to tackle this problem. A discussion that followed during the meeting identified the deteriorating quality of their products coupled with lack of innovation (especially during the recent past) as the main reason for the low demand for their products in the market.
Though Digital had been performing well in the industry, its profitability levels and market share were gradually dwindling. This was a serious cause for concern to the CEO, Goud, who invited top level managers to give their suggestions, to tackle this problem. A discussion that followed during the meeting identified the deteriorating quality of their products coupled with lack of innovation (especially during the recent past) as the main reason for the low demand for their products in the market.