Master of Business Administration- Semester I Subject Code – MB0043 Subject Name – Human Resource Management 4 Credits (Book ID: B0909) Assignment Set- 1 (60 Marks) Note: Each question carries 10 Marks. Answer all the questions. Q.1 What are the functions that HR attempts to fulfill in any organization.[10 Marks] Ans;- The Functions that HR attempts to fulfill in any organization are as follows: 1. Human resource planning: Estimating the need for resources in order achieve the desired business results. HR plans can be both short term/immediate as well as long term/strategic. The HR team partners with the line managers to understand the business goals and targets for the year and together plan the HR needs in order to meet the goals. 2. Acquisition of Human Resources: Staffing the organization with the right mix of skills and competencies at the right time. It also includes HR initiatives like promotions and internal job posting to fulfill this requirement for human resources. Staffing teams in organization are usually
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Master of Business Administration- Semester I
Subject Code – MB0043
Subject Name – Human Resource Management
4 Credits
(Book ID: B0909)
Assignment Set- 1 (60 Marks)
Note: Each question carries 10 Marks. Answer all the questions.
Q.1 What are the functions that HR attempts to fulfill in any organization.[10 Marks]
Ans;- The Functions that HR attempts to fulfill in any organization are as follows:
1. Human resource planning: Estimating the need for resources in order achieve the
desired business results. HR plans can be both short term/immediate as well as long
term/strategic. The HR team partners with the line managers to understand the business
goals and targets for the year and together plan the HR needs in order to meet the goals.
2. Acquisition of Human Resources: Staffing the organization with the right mix of skills
and competencies at the right time. It also includes HR initiatives like promotions and
internal job posting to fulfill this requirement for human resources. Staffing teams in
organization are usually separate group of specialists who work closely with the line
managers to understand the skills and competencies needed for the job and engage
together to elect the best talent for the open position.
3. Training and employee development : Focuses in managing training activities to
upgrade skills and knowledge as well as soft skills like the ream building and leadership.
The training team is again a group of HR specialist who proposes the training program
and consults with the line managers to ensure that the program achieves the desired
outcomes.
4. Building performance management systems : Focuses on the right processes to set
goals for performance as individual / teams and related measurement methods. This is
core HR activity and is supported by the Hr generalist.
5. Rewards systems : Establishing appropriate compensation systems and reward
mechanism that would reward the desired outcome and results in accordance with the
cooperate values. The again forms a part of HR generalist’s tasks. Hoe employees
progress in a organization how they are paid w.r.t internal and external market factors,
what employee benefits are offered are some aspects that this function redresses.
6. Human resources information systems : That would that would take care of operational
transactions form the time an employee exits, like personal files, compensation
administration, payroll, benefits administration and issuing letters and testimonials. That
task is supported by as separate HR operation team who acts as an Hr helpdesk and
provides information to the employee/managers.
Q.2 Discuss the cultural dimensions of Indian Work force. [10 Marks]
Ans:- Cultural Dimension of Indian Work Force:
The foundation for understanding the unique work practices at a country level can be best is
understood by first understanding the culture aspects of the country’s workforce. The pioneering
work done by Dutch Scientist, Geert Hofstede is a useful tool in understanding the cultural
differences used to differentiate countries. He identified five cultural dimensions around which
counties have been clustered. The dimensions are: power distance, uncertainly avoidance,
individualism, masculinity and long term orientation. Geert Hofstede dimension are based on
research conducted among over 1000 IBM employees working globally. While their continued to
be other studies like the GLOBE (Global leadership and organizational behavior Effectiveness)
project and trompenaar’s framework, hofstede’s model is most popular.
Power Distance
Power distance is the extent to which less powerful members of institutions and organizations
accept that power is distributed unequally. Countries in which people blindly obey of superior
have high power distance.
High power distance countries have norms, values and beliefs that support:
In equally is good; everyone has a place; some are high, some are low.
Most people should be dependent on a leader,
The powerful are entitled to privileges, and
The powerful should yield the power
India score 77 on power distance , indicating high power distance as a result of the inequalities
both at the level of society as well as the at the workplace. Indian organization typically have
hierarchical structures, policies yield power and subordination is acceptable.
The dimension of high power distance at the workplace can be best understood as:
People dislike work and try to avoid it
Managers believe that they must adopt theory X leadership style, that is, they must be
authoritarian, and force workers to perform and need to supervise their subordinated
closely.
Organizational structure and systems tend to match the assumption regarding leadership
and motivation
Decision making is centralized.
Those at the top make most of the decision. Organization tends to have tall structures.
They will have a large proportion of supervisory personal and
The people at the lower level often will have low job qualifications
Such structures encourages and promotes inequality between people at different levels.
Uncertainty Avoidance
Uncertainty avoidance is the extent to which people feel threatened by ambiguous situation, and
have created beliefs and institutions that try to avoid these
India scores 40 indicating low to average uncertainly avoidance characterizes. Countries with
low to average uncertainly avoidance have people who are more willing to accept that risks are
associated with the unknown, and that life must go on in spite of this
Specifically, high uncertainly avoidance countries are characterized by norms, values and beliefs
which accept that:
Conflict should not be avoided
Deviant people and ideas should be tolerated ,
Laws are not very important and need not necessarily be followed,
Experts and authorities are not always correct and consensus is not important.
Low uncertainty avoidance society such as ours have organization setting with less structuring of
activities, fewer written rules, more risk – taking by managers, higher labor turnover and more
ambitious employees. Such an organization encourages employees to use their initiative and
assume responsibility for their actions. Denmark and Great Britain are good examples of low
uncertainty avoidance cultures. Germany, Japan and Spain typify high uncertainty avoidance
societies.
Individualism
Individualism is the tendency of people to look after themselves and their family only. The
opposite of this collectivism which refers to the tendency of people to belong to group and to
look after other in exchange for loyalty India score 48 on individualism, indicating somewhat
low scores, therefore tending towards a more collectistic society.
Collectivist countries believe that:
One’s identity is based on one’s group membership,
Group decision making is best and
Group protect individuals in exchange for their loyalty to the group
Organizations are collectivist societies tend to promote nepotism in selecting managers. In
contrast, in individualism societies, favoritism shown to friends and relatives is considered to be
unfair and even illegal. Further organizations in collectivist culture base promotions mostly on
seniority and age, where as in individualist societies; they are based on one’s performance.
Finally in collectivist cultures, important decision are made by older and senior managers as
opposed to individualist cultures, where decision making is an individual’s responsibility.
Individualism is common in the US, Canada, Australia, Denmark and Sweden. The people of
India, Indonesia, and Pakistan & Number of South American countries exhibit collectivism.
Masculinity
Masculinity refers to a situation in which the dominant values in a society are success, money
and other material things. Hofstede measured this dimension on a continuum ranging from
masculinity to femininity. India scores 56 tending to be closed to masculinity than femininity.
In higher masculine society’s, jobs are clearly defined by gender. There are men’s jobs and
women’s jobs. Men usually choose jobs that are associated with short term employment before
marriage.
Q.3 Explain the need for Human Resource Planning system .[10 Marks]
Ans:- Human resource planning system is a mandatory part of every organization’s annual
planning process. Every organization that plans for its business goals for the year also plan how
it will go about achieving them, and therein the planning for the human resources:
1. To carry on its work, each organization needs competent staff with the necessary
qualification, skills, knowledge, work experience and aptitude of work.
2. Since employees exit and organization both naturally (as a result of superannuation) and
unnaturally (as a result of resignation), there is an on-going need for hiring replacement
staff to augment employee exit. Otherwise work would be impacted.
3. In order to meet for the more employees due to organizational growth and expansion, this
is turn call for large quantities of the same goods and services as well as new goods. This
growth could be rapid or gradual depending on the nature of the business, its competitors,
its position in the market and the general economy.
4. Often organization might need to replace the nature of the present workforce as a result
of its changing needs, therefore the need to hire new set of employees. To meet the
challenges of the changed needs of technology/product/service innovation the existing
employees need to be trained or new skills sets induced into the organization.
5. Manpower planning is also needed in order to identify an organizations need to reduce its
workforce. In situation where the organization is faced with severe revenue and growth
limitation it might need to plan well to manage how it will workforce. Options such as
redeployment and outplacement can be planned for and executed properly
Q.4 Elucidate the classification of wages in the Indian System.[10 Marks]
Ans:- In India wages system is classified as follows:
Minimum wages
Fair wages
Living wages
Minimum wages
A minimum wages has been defined by the committee as “ the wages which must provide not
only for the bare substance of life, but for the preservation of the efficacy of the worker. For this
purpose minimum wages must provide for some measure of education, medical requirement and
amenities”. In other words, minimum wages should provide for sustenance for the worker’s
family, for his efficiency, for the education of his family members, for their medical care, for
their amenities. It is very difficult to determine the minimum wages because condition varies
from place to place, industry to industry and from worker to worker. However, the principles for
determining minimum wages were evolved by the government and have been incorporated in the
minimum wages act,1948, the important principles being that minimum wages should provide
not only for the bare sustenance of life but also for the preservation of the efficiency of the
workers by the way of education, medical care and other amenities.
Fair wage
It is the wage which is above the minimum wage but below the living wage. The lower limit of
the fair is obviously the minimum wage; the upper limit is set by the capacity of industry to pay.
Between these two limits, the actual wages should depend on consideration of such factor as:
The productivity of labor
The prevailing rates of wages in the same or neighboring localities;
The level of the national income and its distribution; and
The place of industry in the economy
Living wages
One which should enable the earner to provide for himself and his family not only there’re
essentials of food, clothing and shelter but a measure of frugal comfort, including education for
his children, protection against ill-health, requirement of essential social needs and a measure of
insurance against the more important misfortunes including old age” in other words, a living
wage was to provide for a standard of living that would ensure good health for the worker and
his family as well as a measure of decency, comfort, education for his children and protection
against misfortunate.
Generally ascertaining wages and deciding who to pay what is a activity undertaken in the
beginning when a organization is set up. There on it are annual reviews to make correction per
the country’s economic and market/industry trends. The management considers the state of the
labor market and takes into account of what he can afford to pay and the value of the worker to
him. The worker’s willingness for employment at the rate offered implies that they agree to work
at that rate; through they have had no part in fixing it.
1. Collective bargaining: it is still in the initial stage in India. Although it is a desirable
development in the relation between management and labor, it cannot be imposed upon
either side by compulsion and should evaluate naturally from within.
2. Voluntary arbitration : In voluntary arbitration, both parties agree to refer their dispute
agreed arbitrator and his award becomes binding on the parties.
3. Wage Legislation : Wages are fixed according to the law in some industries. The central
government and state government may fix minimum wages under the minimum wages
act 1948 for the industries In which workers are exploited or too unorganized to protect
their own interest. In order to advise them in the matter of fixing minimum wages, the
government appoints minimum wages committees and the advisory boards. The
committees and the advisory boards consist of equal number of workers and employers
representative and also independent members whose number should not exceed one- third
of the total number of members.
4. Conciliation : The industrial dispute act 1947, provide for consideration in case of
dispute between employee and worker. If an agreement is reached in the course of
conciliation proceeding, it becomes binding on the parties and takes effects from the date
agreed upon or from the date on which it is signed by the two parties. In case no
agreement is reached, the conciliation officer sends a full report o the proceeding. On the
receipt of the report, the govt. may decide to refer the case to industrial tribunal for
award.
5. Adjudication : Labor courts and industrial tribunal are set up under the industrial
disputes act 1947. On studying the awards one gets the impression that the adjudication
are attempting to justify their decision in social and ethical terms. At the same time, there
is desire to satisfy both parties to dispute, and therefore. Economics factors such as
capacity to pay, unemployment, profit, condition of the economy or welfare of the
industry concerned, are given due prominence.
6. Wages Board : The board is appointed by govt. and consist 7 members.
2 – Management
2- Labor
2 – Independent member
1 – Chairmen
The board is expected to take into account the needs of the specific industry in a
developing economy, the special feature of industry, the requirement of social justice and
the necessity for adjusting wage differential in such a manner as to provide incentives to
workers for advancing their skill. Its recommendation may be accepted by the govt. either
completely or partly and may be statutorily imposed on the industry in question, or may
be rejected.
Q.5 Ms. S. Sharma is the General manager HR of a private educational group. She is
planning for the promotion policy for the faculty members. The norms are also ruled by
the government policy and criteria. Moreover the options to promote are limited. Suggest
Ms Sharma the alternative way to vertical promotion. What are the challenges in
implementing that option? [10 Marks]
Ans:- Individually perceived sequences of a attitude and behavior work related activities and
experience over the span of a person’s life. I normal parlance the term career has both an internal
and external focus. An internal focus refers to the way an individual views his/her career and the
external or objective focus and refers to the series of job position held by the individual. The
dynamics of career development in an organizational context has two dimensions:
How individuals plan and implement their own career goals , &
How organizations design and implement their career implement their career
development programs.
Career planning is a deliberate attempt by an individual to become more aware of their skills,
interest, values, opportunities and constraints. It require an individual thinking to identify career-
related goals and establishing plans towards achieving those goals.often it is self driven process,
which every professional appends some time to dwell on and discuss it with peers or superiors
and frame it. It is also viewed from time to tiem that the individual looks for possible new carrier
option. Having a career plan builds a commitment towards achieving it and is viewed as an
excellent personal goal setting exercise for self motivation.
Career management is considered to be an organizational process that involves preparing,
implementing & monitoring career plans undertaken by n individual alone or within the
organizational career system. Organizational establishing polices that provide for multiple career
path options that an employee can choose from and pursue. This is supported with a lot of
training and development activities that are agreed to with the managers and planned carefully
and executed.
A variety of career development activities and tools exists for use in organizations. HR managers
should be familiar with these components bemuse the managers often serve as internal
consultants responsible for designing the career development system. Some of the activities
described are individuals career planning tools and other are commonly used for organizational
career management. I general the most effective career development program will use both type
of activities
Career development program are as follows:
1. Self assessment tools : these are usually technology enabled on line tools that form
part of the performance appraisal system and allow the individual to identify areas of
strength the best e.g career planning workbooks, career workshop etc
2. Individual counseling: formally the process allows for individuals to discuss this as
part of the performance management process with their immediate managers and
share and take feedback with their immediate managers and share and take feedback
on the appropriateness of the choices and how to go about pursuing it. Often
managers recommend relevant other managers and leaders who the employee can link
with to seek advice and support. Organizations also provide for formal “mentoring
programs” to which an employee can enroll and sign up a mentor who can then
provide the support and counseling on the best career option and how to go about it
achieving it.
3. Information services: organization has establishing policies on what skills and
experience that each job in the organization requires. Jobs with similar skills and
experience are clubbed together to create parallel career paths.
These are typically called career ladders or career paths and they help an employee to
identify what his options are for future growth and identify the appropriate one based
on his personal skills and capabilities/limitation. These career path would be
supplemented with additional information on skills and experience that one must have
for each role/job in there career path. It would also specify the particular qualification
or special certification that the position demands. An employee aspiring to purpose a
career option would need to dedicate time and efforts and the expenses towards
acquiring the same. Large MNC’s also encourage the reimbursement of these
expenses as an annual fixed amount on successfully the exam / certification. The
employee however needs to find the time and expend the efforts away from work.
The actual move of the employee to the new role would however depend on the
existence of the job vacancy in the role. Employee can also approach career resource /
talent management centers supported by HR team for more information on how to
plan careers and apply for new roles and job.
4. Initial employment programmed organization also run internship and apprenticeship
programs wherein the individual aspiring to do a particular job can spend some time
as a temporary employee to explore interest and skill fitment for the job/role
5. Organization assessment programme: it can proactively establish formal process
wherein an employee can volunteer to participate and understand himself/herself and
his/her strengths. Through the use of assessment center organizations can help an
employee identify areas for improvement and means of building those skills. So he
can achieve his career plans. Certain organizations offer psychological testing
instrument which profile the employee’s strengths and roles and responsibility he/she
will best fit into.
6. Development programs focus the efforts of the employee towards helping the
employee to achieve his career goals. The assessment centers, job rotations program,
in housing training, tuition refund plans, all prove effective tools to help the
individual along.
Q.6 ABC is an organization that wants to revise the HR policies. Before doing that it want
to have some details about the following:
What the emplyees think about the company?
What do they think ,in the company is going well?
What practices in the company they think are not doing well?
Get the feedback on managerial effectiveness.
Suggest the suitable method to collect the employee opinion and explain the method. [10
Marks]
Ans:- The Survey Questionnaire Method method is generally used to collect employee
opinions about the factors which affect morale and their opinion about the leadership. Morale or
employee satisfaction surveys are generally conducted with a view to:
1. Finding out what employees really think;
2. Finding out what, in the company, they think is working well and what is not;
3. Solicit feedback on managerial effectiveness;
4. Determining the clarity of company vision/objectives and the top management
commitment to it; and
5. Finding out what employee is most unhappy about.
This questionnaire is usually a scientifically developed instrument and well tested for validity
and reliability. These include multiple choice, dichotomous (yes or no)" and open-ended
questions.
Conducting the Survey: Organizations often engage outside consultants to conduct the entire
survey. There are a lot of reasons to do this:
Make the survey credible wherein employees share correct feedback
As they are experts, they help determine the type of questions to be used depending on
the objectives of the survey.
The survey itself is carried out anonymously, the employee is not required to divulge
his/her name and personal information
Analysis and generation of survey report is a specialised activity
In some cases the company’s representatives may give the employees the questionnaires in a
stamped envelope, planning them on a table and permitting the employees to get them if they
wish to, or having a fellow employee distributed them. The stamped envelopes are frequently
addressed to some management consultant or college professor who tabulates the results. The
consultant then analyses the data to generate a number of reports. The reports can be generate for
each department, for manager with more than 20 team members, for the company, etc.. The
management usually shares the findings with all the employees, highlighting the strengths and
the areas for improvement. Action plans for improvement are also shared so employees are
aware of the management’s commitment towards improving workplace morale and employee
engagement.
The survey is usually conducted once a year. The important part of this initiative is the action
that is taken after the survey results come on. Each department head meets with his team of
managers and they together analyse the report and the data for the department and identify areas
of low scores. Brainstorming exercises then help identify what actions can improve employee
morale in these areas. Sometime action-planning teams are formed from among the employees
and they drive the action areas. For example if the report identifies that ‘rewards and recognition’
is a concern area for the team, then the taskforce focuses on establishing ways and means to
improve reward systems and recognition methods. The taskforce would recommend a rhythm for
quarterly or monthly rewards and identify categories for the reward (like quality, productivity,
highest sales, customer appreciation). More and more reward systems encourage employee to
nominate their peers rather than the managers identifying and giving awards away. All
nominations are reviewed finally by a panel and the most deserving nominee is awarded.
Organizations track Survey scores year on year. Most organizations tie the scores to managerial
effectiveness and use it as a measure to assess managers for promotions, potential for future
senior roles etc.
Master of Business Administration-MBA Semester I
Subject Code – MB0043
Subject Name – Human Resource Management
4 Credits
(Book ID: B0909)
Assignment Set- 2 (60 Marks)
Note: Each question carries 10 Marks. Answer all the questions.
Q.1 Discuss the factors affecting recruitment? [10 Marks]
Ans;- Factors Affecting Recruitment
All organizations, whether large or small, do engage in recruiting activity, though not to the same
intensity. Few factors that impact the nature of recruitment:
1. The size of the organization- the smaller the organization the more the need to carefully
scrutinize the candidate for a job and the fitment to the organizational culture. The risk in
case of job-candidate mismatch can prove equally expensive for a smaller organization as
compared to the larger one.
2. The employment conditions in the country where the organization is located- critically
impacts the recruiting strategy. The methods for recruiting, the selection tools that are
most suited and the legal framework that bear on the employer are some aspects that need
to be considered.
3. The affects of past recruiting efforts which show the organization’s ability to locate and
keep good performing people- constantly reviewing the effectiveness of the recruiting
methods and the selection tools used, evaluating the success at-work of the new recruits
are some methods used by organizations to ensure that quality hiring practices are in-
place.
4. working conditions and salary and benefit packages offered by the organization – this
may influence turnover and necessitate future recruiting; (v) The rate of growth of
organization- the phase in the life-cycle of the firm is a measure of the recruiting effort
5. The level of seasonality of operations and future expansion and production programmes –
ensuring that the recruitment numbers come form a well-planned Human Resource Plan
is critical to ensure that there is no over-hiring or under-hiring of the required talent to
achieve the organizational objectives.
6. Cultural, economic and legal factors – these too affect the recruiting and selection
methods that are used.
Q.2 Right Time is a watch manufacturing company. It has hired 20 people recently for the
company. They will be involved in manufacturing, assembling of watches. They will be
using different machines and tools for this. What type of training is best for them. What
may be the advantages and limitations of the training method? [10 Marks]
Ans:- The term, ‘training’ indicates any process by which the aptitudes, skills and abilities of
employees to perform specific jobs are increased. Usually training and development initiative in
organizations have the following intentions:
To improve skills,
To add to the existing knowledge so that the employee is better equipped to do his
present job, to innovate,
To prepare him/her for a higher position, growth within the organization.
Help organization cope with / adapt itself to a changing environment.
Training refers to the teaching/learning activities carried on for the primary purpose of helping
employees in an organization to acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, abilities and attitudes
needed by that organization. Broadly speaking, training is the act of increasing the knowledge
and skill of an employee for the benefit of both the employee as well as the firm.
Types and Techniques of Training
Training methods have a number of overlapping objectives. They have to be chosen carefully
and in relation to the programme design objectives. The main objectives of individual training
methods could be: demonstration of value, developing interest and finally appeal to senses.
Demonstration of Value: Complete demonstration of job requirements enables the trainee to
grasp the meaning of ideas, concepts, or procedures visually. Such a method can be used
effectively as an aid to overcome the "breakdown of communication". Trainees remember things
that they see and hear, much longer than they do information they receive through talks or
reading alone.
Engaging trainee Interest: One of the important factors to be kept in mind in choosing a
method is its ability to hold and arouse the interest of the trainee in the learning situation. A
trainee has to consider alternative methods of presenting training material to participants in order
to stimulate their interest and facilitate retention of the matter. For instance, if traditionally the
matter has been presented through lectures, perhaps audio visual methods could be used, or
instead project work be assigned which would mean learning by doing or researching the subject
oneself.
Appeal to multiple senses: From the trainer’s point of view, it would be beneficial to utilize as
many of the trainer’s senses as possible, in order to improve retention of learning. The trainer has
to understand and identify the problem area i.e., he has to examine whether there is a problem
with the manner in which the task is done. Secondly, selecting the appropriate method would be
dependent on the level of the trainee in an organization’s hierarchy. Finally, before selecting a
training method, the trainer should keep in mind about cost effectiveness.
Depending on the learning outcome, and the process by which it is attained, it is possible to
categorize the various methods into several groups.
On-the-job trainings: Since most jobs in a organization can be learned in a relatively short
period of time, this method is the most widely used. It has the advantage of strongly motivating
the trainee to learn since it is located in the artificial situation of a classroom. The fact that the
success of the system depends almost entirely upon the immediate supervisor, the trainer, means
that the personnel unit has a major responsibility for making a good, effective teacher out of
every supervisor. The supervisor typically follows a set procedure (as illustrated in the table) in
training an employee to perform a particular task. The suggestions accompanying each step are
general guides evolved from both experience and research.
Advantages: The main advantage of on-the-job training is that the trainee learns on the actual
equipment in use and in the true environment of his job. Secondly, it is highly economical since
no additional personnel or facilities are required for training. Thirdly, the trainee learns the rules,
regulations and procedures by observing their day-to-day applications. Fourthly, this type of
training is a suitable alternative for a company in which there are almost as many jobs as there
are employees. Finally, it is most appropriate for teaching the knowledge and skills which can be
acquired in a relatively short period i.e., a few days or weeks.
Disadvantages: The principal disadvantage of on-the-job training is that instruction is often
highly disorganized and haphazard and not properly supervised. This is due to such reasons as
the inability of the experienced employee to impart skills to the trainee, the breakdown of the job
for the purpose of instructions, and the back of motivation on the part of the trainee to receive
training. Further, the other drawback is the low productivity, especially when the employee is
unable to fully develop his skills.
Vestibule / Classroom Training: This method attempts to duplicate on-the-job situations in a
company classroom. It is a classroom training which is often imparted with the help of the
equipment and machines which are identical with those in use in the place of work. This
technique enables the trainee to concentrate on learning the new skill rather than performing an
actual job. In other words, it is geared to job duties. Theoretical training is given in the
classroom, while the practical work is conducted on the production line.
The advantages of using the vestibule-training system are the disadvantages of specialization.
The instructor, a specialist, should be more skilled at teaching. The student avoids the confusion
and pressure of the work situation and thus is able to concentrate on learning. One can also often
attain a given level of skill more quickly in the specialized learning situation. We have more
assurance that adequate time and attention will be given to training and that it will not slighted in
favour of other problems. More individualized instruction can be given, and training activities do
not interfere with the regular processes of production. Among the disadvantages are the splitting
of responsibilities leads to organizational problems. Second, an additional investment in
equipment is necessary, though the cost may be reduced by getting some productive work done
by trainees while in the school. Third, this method is of limited value for the jobs which utilize
equipment which can be duplicated and finally the training situation is somewhat artificial.
Apprenticeship programme: Apart from the requirements under Apprenticeship Act, various
industries have their own apprenticeship programme where in the employees are employed on a
small stipend to learn the job first and after satisfactorily completing the training they are
absorbed in the industry.
The advantages of this method are:
A skilled work force is maintained;
Immediate returns can be expected from training;
The workmanship is good;
The hiring cost is lower because of reduced turnover and lower production costs; and
The loyalty of employees is increased and opportunities for growth are frequent.
Work Simulation Methods: Simulation is a technique which duplicates, as nearly as possible,
the actual conditions encountered on a job. Generally, simulation techniques have been most
widely used in the aeronautical industry.
Knowledge-based Methods: In this method of training, an effort is made to expose participants
to concepts and theories, basic principles, and pure and applied knowledge in any subject area.
Basically, it is aimed at creating an awareness of the knowledge of fundamentals. The focus is
essentially on transmission of knowledge which has been imbibed by the participants. This
knowledge is the base, the foundation, on which further understanding can be built. The
categories of this method are lectures, seminars, workshops, films and training, group
discussions etc.
Experiential Methods: The emphasis in this category is on achieving through group processes
and dynamics, a better understanding of oneself and others. It has been asserted that attitudinal
training helps and individual to improve his comprehension of self, others, group behaviour and
personal interaction. Such knowledge and understanding helps an individual to understand the
problems of human relationships in a work situation, including at times his managerial style.
Such training is imparted on the job by the employees’ immediate Managers. It provides to the
trainees opportunities for getting acquainted with their managers. The managers, too, have an
opportunity to judge the abilities and possibilities of trainees from the point of view of their job
performance.
The success of this method depends upon the fact that:
The experienced Managers must be good teachers;
They should have incentives and sufficient time for carrying out the training
programmes; and
They should be provided with an accurate account of the training needs of the trainees
they are to teach.
Q.3 Write a note on 360 degree appraisal method.[10 Marks]
Ans:- 360 Degree Appraisal
Typically, performance appraisal has been limited to a feedback process between employees and
Managers. However, with the increased focus on teamwork, employee development, and
customer service, the emphasis has shifted to employee feedback from the full circle of sources
depicted in the diagram below. This multiple-input approach to performance feedback is
sometimes called "360-degree assessment" to connote that full circle.
The 360 degree matrix
There are no prohibitions in law or regulation against using a variety of rating sources, in
addition to the employee’s Manager, for assessing performance. Research has shown assessment
approaches with multiple rating sources provide more accurate, reliable, and credible
information. For this reason, HR Management supports the use of multiple rating sources as an
effective method of assessing performance for formal appraisal and other evaluative and
developmental purposes.
The circle, or perhaps more accurately the sphere, of feedback sources consists of Managers,
peers, subordinates, customers, and one’s self. It is not necessary, or always appropriate, to
include all of the feedback sources in a particular appraisal program. The organizational culture
and mission must be considered, and the purpose of feedback will differ with each source. For
example, subordinate assessments of a Manager’s performance can provide valuable
developmental guidance, peer feedback can be the heart of excellence in teamwork, and
customer service feedback focuses on the quality of the team’s or agency’s results. The
objectives of performance appraisal and the particular aspects of performance that are to be
assessed must be established before determining which sources are appropriate.
We shall discuss the contributions of each source of ratings and feedback. In addition,
precautions are listed to consider when designing a performance management program that
includes 360-degree assessment.
Superiors: Evaluations by superiors are the most traditional source of employee feedback. This