Title of the Project

HR practices & Organizational Strategies in IBM, India

TABLE OF CONTENTS

SL. NO. CHAPTERS PAGE NO.

1 Objectives 3

2 Need for the topic 4

3 Methodology 5

4 Introduction to human resource management 6

5 Introduction to IBM 34

6 Human resource policy at IBM 48

7 Marketing strategy at IBM 51

8 Work culture at IBM 55

9 Questionnaire 59

10 Data analysis, findings & recommendations 63

11 Conclusion 75

OBJECTIVES

In the very high pace of the technological growth in the sector of Information Technology, IBM

is surely one of the pioneering organizations. I have decided to work upon the following

objectives:-
 1) To study the HR practices of IBM. This would include the various aspects of HR

management. This would include the work culture which is being provided to the

employees, human resource policy etc.

2) To study the organizational strategies of IBM. This can be done by the study of the

organizational structure which exists in the company. The study of marketing strategy,

business lines of IBM, achievements and awards and SWOT analysis of the company will

also help us in getting an indepth knowledge of the organizational strategies.

Need for the Topic

As a human resource professional, it is imperative for us to gain an insight on the human

resource practices which are prevalent in the India. IBM being one of the largest IT companies

in India is the best company to study the same. Also, the organizational structure and other
strategies have a far reaching impact on the Human Resource practices of a company. Hence,

the study of all those things is very important for an HR professional.

Methodology

The study is exploratory in nature. All published and unpublished available on the subject

matter was consulted. Interview and discussions were held with the various executive/
Managers/ staff employed in IBM. The HRD functions/ activities being undertaken in IBM was

also studied. Primary and secondary data available with these organizations was also used for

this project study.

In order to measure the employees perceptions of emerging HR trends in IBM, the survey was

undertaken. The survey was based on structured questionnaire. The questionnaire was mainly

based on objective type close-ended question, but few open ended questions were also

included.

The final questionnaire was administered in person to the extent possible and through mail if

needed. The 10 respondents were selected among the executives and staff working in IBM. The

convenient random sampling technique was used for the selection of the respondents.

Finally, the results of the survey has been presented in Tabular form, analyzed and interpreted

to meet the required needs of this project study and presented in Report form.

Introduction

Introduction to Human Resource Management

Human resource (or personnel) management, in the sense of getting things done through

people, is an essential part of every manager's responsibilities, but many organizations find it

advantageous to establish a specialist division to provide an expert service dedicated to

ensuring that the human resource function is performed efficiently.

"People are our most valuable asset" is a cliché which no member of any senior management

team would disagree with. Yet, the reality for many organizations is that their people remain

under valued, under trained and under utilized.

The rate of change facing organizations has never been greater and organizations must absorb

and manage change at a much faster rate than in the past. In order to implement a successful

business strategy to face this challenge, organizations, large or small, must ensure that they

have the right people capable of delivering the strategy.

The market place for talented, skilled people is competitive and expensive. Taking on new staff

can be disruptive to existing employees. Also, it takes time to develop 'cultural awareness',

product/ process/ organization knowledge and experience for new staff members.

As organizations vary in size, aims, functions, complexity, construction, the physical nature of

their product, and appeal as employers, so do the contributions of human resource

management. But, in most the ultimate aim of the function is to: "ensure that at all times the

business is correctly staffed by the right number of people with the skills relevant to the

business needs", that is, neither overstaffed nor understaffed in total or in respect of any one

discipline or work grade.

Managing Employee Resources

Human Resources Management (HRM) is that branch of management that deals with managing

one of the resources of the organization-Human Resources. It is also called as Personnel

Management. However the term Personnel Management is being replaced in most spheres by

the term Human Resource Management or Human Resource Development (HRD) or simply

Human Resources (HR). In our text we shall be using these terms interchangeably.

Most organisations have a full-fledged Human Resource Management department. The

function of Human Resource Management is to acquire, train, develop and retain the human

resources of the organisation so that with the help of these human resources, the organisation

is able to achieve its goal.

Broadly the activities carried out by Human Resource Management are

• Manpower Planning

• Recruitment and Selection

• Induction of the New employees

• Performance Appraisal

• Organisation Development

• Training and Development

• Employee Counseling
• Compensation Planning

• Industrial Relations

• Employee separation

Manpower planning

The penalties for not being correctly staffed are costly. Understaffing loses the business

economies of scale and specialization, orders, customers and profits. Overstaffing is wasteful

and expensive, if sustained, and it is costly to eliminate because of modern legislation in respect

of redundancy payments, consultation, minimum periods of notice, etc.

Very importantly, overstaffing reduces the competitive efficiency of the business. Staffing level

planning requires that an assessment of present and future needs of the organization be

compared with present resources and future predicted resources. Appropriate steps then be

planned to bring demand and supply into balance.

Thus the first step is to take a 'satellite picture' of the existing workforce profile (numbers, skills,

ages, flexibility, sex, experience, forecast capabilities, character, potential, etc. of existing

employees) and then to adjust this for 1, 3 and 10 years ahead by amendments for normal

turnover, planned staff movements, retirements, etc, in line with the business plan for the

corresponding time frames.

The result should be a series of crude supply situations as would be the outcome of present

planning if left unmodified. (This, clearly, requires a great deal of information accretion,

classification and statistical analysis as a subsidiary aspect of personnel management.)

What future demands will be is only influenced in part by the forecast of the personnel

manager, whose main task may well be to scrutinize and modify the crude predictions of other

managers. Future staffing needs will derive from:

• Sales and production forecasts

• The effects of technological change on task needs

• Variations in the efficiency, productivity, flexibility of labor as a result of training, work

study, organizational change, new motivations, etc.

• Changes in employment practices (e.g. use of subcontractors or agency staffs, hiving-off

tasks, buying in, substitution, etc.)

• Variations, which respond to new legislation, e.g. payroll taxes or their abolition, new

health and safety requirements

• Changes in Government policies (investment incentives, regional or trade grants, etc.)

What should emerge from this 'blue sky gazing' is a 'thought out' and logical staffing demand

schedule for varying dates in the future which can then be compared with the crude supply

schedules. The comparisons will then indicate what steps must be taken to achieve a balance.

That, in turn, will involve the further planning of such recruitment, training, retraining, labor

reductions (early retirement/redundancy) or changes in workforce utilization as will bring

supply and demand into equilibrium, not just as a one–off but as a continuing workforce

planning exercise the inputs to which will need constant varying to reflect 'actual' as against
predicted experience on the supply side and changes in production actually achieved as against

forecast on the demand side.

Recruitment and selection of employees

Recruitment of staff should be preceded by:

An analysis of the job to be done (i.e. an analytical study of the tasks to be performed to

determine their essential factors) written into a job description so that the selectors know what

physical and mental characteristics applicants must possess, what qualities and attitudes are

desirable and what characteristics are a decided disadvantage;

• In the case of replacement staff a critical questioning of the need to recruit at all

(replacement should rarely be an automatic process).

• Effectively, selection is 'buying' an employee (the price being the wage or salary

multiplied by probable years of service) hence bad buys can be very expensive. For that reason

some firms (and some firms for particular jobs) use external expert consultants for recruitment

and selection. Equally some small organizations exist to 'head hunt', i.e. to attract staff with

high reputations from existing employers to the recruiting employer. However, the 'cost' of

poor selection is such that, even for the mundane day-to-day jobs, those who recruit and select

should be well trained to judge the suitability of applicants.

The main sources of recruitment are:

• Internal promotion and internal introductions (at times desirable for morale purposes)
• Careers officers (and careers masters at schools)

• University appointment boards

• Agencies for the unemployed

• Advertising (often via agents for specialist posts) or the use of other local media (e.g.

commercial radio)

Where the organization does its own printed advertising it is useful if it has some identifying

logo as its trade mark for rapid attraction and it must take care not to offend the sex, race, etc.

antidiscrimination legislation either directly or indirectly. The form on which the applicant is to

apply (personal appearance, letter of application, completion of a form) will vary according to

the posts vacant and numbers to be recruited.

It is very desirable in many jobs that claim about experience and statements about

qualifications are thoroughly checked and that applicants unfailingly complete a health

questionnaire (the latter is not necessarily injurious to the applicants chance of being appointed

as firms are required to employ a percentage of disabled people).

Before letters of appointment are sent any doubts about medical fitness or capacity (in

employments where hygiene considerations are dominant) should be resolved by requiring

applicants to attend a medical examination. This is especially so where, as for example in the

case of apprentices, the recruitment is for a contractual period or involves the firm in training

costs.
Interviewing can be carried out by individuals (e.g. supervisor or departmental manager), by

panels of interviewers or in the form of sequential interviews by different experts and can vary

from a five minute 'chat' to a process of several days. Ultimately personal skills in judgment are

probably the most important, but techniques to aid judgment include selection testing for:

• Aptitudes (particularly useful for school leavers)

• Attainments

• General intelligence

(All of these need skilled testing and assessment.) In more senior posts other techniques are:

• Leaderless groups

• Command exercises

• Group problem solving

(These are some common techniques - professional selection organizations often use other

techniques to aid in selection.)

Training in interviewing and in appraising candidates is clearly essential to good recruitment.

Largely the former consists of teaching interviewers how to draw out the interviewee and the

latter how to xratex the candidates. For consistency (and as an aid to checking that) rating often

consists of scoring candidates for experience, knowledge, physical/mental capabilities,

intellectual levels, motivation, prospective potential, leadership abilities etc. (according to the
needs of the post). Application of the normal curve of distribution to scoring eliminates freak

judgments.

Employee motivation

To retain good staff and to encourage them to give of their best while at work requires

attention to the financial and psychological and even physiological rewards offered by the

organization as a continuous exercise.

Basic financial rewards and conditions of service (e.g. working hours per week) are determined

externally (by national bargaining or government minimum wage legislation) in many

occupations but as much as 50 per cent of the gross pay of manual workers is often the result of

local negotiations and details (e.g. which particular hours shall be worked) of conditions of

service are often more important than the basics. Hence there is scope for financial and other

motivations to be used at local levels.

As staffing needs will vary with the productivity of the workforce (and the industrial peace

achieved) so good personnel policies are desirable. The latter can depend upon other factors

(like environment, welfare, employee benefits, etc.) but unless the wage packet is accepted as

'fair and just' there will be no motivation.

Hence while the technicalities of payment and other systems may be the concern of others, the

outcome of them is a matter of great concern to human resource management.

Increasingly the influence of behavioral science discoveries are becoming important not merely

because of the widely-acknowledged limitations of money as a motivator, but because of the

changing mix and nature of tasks (e.g. more service and professional jobs and far fewer

unskilled and repetitive production jobs).

The former demand better-educated, mobile and multi-skilled employees much more likely to

be influenced by things like job satisfaction, involvement, participation, etc. than the

economically dependent employees of yesteryear.

Hence human resource management must act as a source of information about and a source of

inspiration for the application of the findings of behavioral science. It may be a matter of

drawing the attention of senior managers to what is being achieved elsewhere and the gradual

education of middle managers to new points of view on job design, work organization and

worker autonomy.

Function 4| Employee evaluation

An organization needs constantly to take stock of its workforce and to assess its performance in

existing jobs for three reasons:

• To improve organizational performance via improving the performance of individual

contributors (should be an automatic process in the case of good managers, but (about

annually) two key questions should be posed:

o what has been done to improve the performance of a person last year?

o and what can be done to improve his or her performance in the year to come?).
• To identify potential, i.e. to recognize existing talent and to use that to fill vacancies

higher in the organization or to transfer individuals into jobs where better use can be made of

their abilities or developing skills.

• To provide an equitable method of linking payment to performance where there are no

numerical criteria (often this salary performance review takes place about three months later

and is kept quite separate from 1. and 2. but is based on the same assessment).

On-the-spot managers and supervisors, not HR staffs, carry out evaluations. The personnel role

is usually that of:

• Advising top management of the principles and objectives of an evaluation system and

designing it for particular organizations and environments.

• Developing systems appropriately in consultation with managers, supervisors and staff

representatives. Securing the involvement and cooperation of appraisers and those to be

appraised.

• Assistance in the setting of objective standards of evaluation / assessment, for example:

o Defining targets for achievement;

o Explaining how to quantify and agree objectives;

o Introducing self-assessment;

o Eliminating complexity and duplication.

• Publicizing the purposes of the exercise and explaining to staff how the system will be

used.

• Organizing and establishing the necessary training of managers and supervisors who will

carry out the actual evaluations/ appraisals. Not only training in principles and procedures but

also in the human relations skills necessary. (Lack of confidence in their own ability to handle

situations of poor performance is the main weakness of assessors.)

• Monitoring the scheme - ensuring it does not fall into disuse, following up on

training/job exchange etc. recommendations, reminding managers of their responsibilities.

Full-scale periodic reviews should be a standard feature of schemes since resistance to

evaluation / appraisal schemes is common and the temptation to water down or render

schemes ineffectual is ever present (managers resent the time taken if nothing else).

Basically an evaluation / appraisal scheme is a formalization of what is done in a more casual

manner anyway (e.g. if there is a vacancy, discussion about internal moves and internal

attempts to put square pegs into 'squarer holes' are both the results of casual evaluation). Most

managers approve merit payment and that too calls for evaluation. Made a standard routine

task, it aids the development of talent, warns the inefficient or uncaring and can be an effective

form of motivation.

Industrial relations
Good industrial relations, while a recognizable and legitimate objective for an organization, are

difficult to define since a good system of industrial relations involves complex relationships

between:

(a) Workers (and their informal and formal groups, i. e. trade union, organizations and their

representatives);

(b) Employers (and their managers and formal organizations like trade and professional

associations);

(c) The government and legislation and government agencies l and 'independent' agencies like

the Advisory Conciliation and Arbitration Service.

Oversimplified, work is a matter of managers giving instructions and workers following them -

but (and even under slavery we recognize that different 'managing' produces very different

results) the variety of 'forms' which have evolved to regulate the conduct of parties (i.e. laws,

custom and practice, observances, agreements) makes the giving and receipt of instructions far

from simple. Two types of 'rule' have evolved:

• 'Substantive', determining basic pay and conditions of service (what rewards workers

should receive);

• 'Procedural,' determining how workers should be treated and methods and procedures.

Determining these rules are many common sense matters like:

Financial, policy and market constraints on the parties (e.g. some unions do not have the

finance to support industrial action, some have policies not to strike, some employers are more

vulnerable than others to industrial action, some will not make changes unless worker

agreement is made first, and rewards always ultimately reflect what the market will bear);

the technology of production (the effect of a strike in newspaper production is immediate -it

may be months before becoming effective in shipbuilding);

the distribution of power within the community - that tends to vary over time and with

economic conditions workers (or unions) dominating in times of full employment and

employers in times of recession.

Broadly in the Western style economies the parties (workers and employers) are free to make

their own agreements and rules. This is called 'voluntarism'. But it does not mean there is total

noninterference by the government. That is necessary to:

• Protect the weak (hence minimum wage);

• Outlaw discrimination (race or sex);

• Determine minimum standards of safety, health, hygiene and even important conditions

of service;

• To try to prevent the abuse of power by either party.

The personnel manager's involvement in the system of industrial relations varies from

organization to organization, but normally he or she is required to provide seven identifiable

functions, thus:

1. To keep abreast of industrial law (legislation and precedents) and to advise managers about

their responsibilities e.g. to observe requirements in respect of employing disabled persons, not

to discriminate, not to disclose 'spent' convictions of employees, to observe codes of practice

etc. in relation to discipline and redundancy, and similarly to determine organizational policies

(in conjunction with other managers) relevant to legal and moral requirements (see also 4.).

2. To conduct (or assist in the conduct) of either local negotiations (within the plant) or similarly

to act as the employer's representative in national negotiations. This could be as a critic or

advisor in respect of trade etc. association policies or as a member of a trade association

negotiating team. Agreements could be in respect of substantive or procedural matters. Even if

not directly involved the personnel manager will advise other managers and administrators of

the outcome of negotiations.

3. To ensure that agreements reached are interpreted so as to make sense to those who must

operate them at the appropriate level within the organization (this can involve a lot of new

learning at supervisory level and new pay procedures and new recording requirements in

administration and even the teaching of new employment concepts – like stagger systems of

work - at management level).

4. To monitor the observance of agreements and to produce policies that ensure that

agreements are followed within the organization. An example would be the policy to be
followed on the appointment of a new but experienced recruit in relation to the offered salary

where there is a choice of increments to be given for experience, ability or qualification.

5. To correct the situations which go wrong. 'Face' is of some importance in most organizations

and operating at a 'remote' staff level personnel managers can correct industrial relations

errors made at local level without occasioning any loss of dignity (face) at the working level.

'Human resource management' and the obscurity of its reasoning can be blamed for matters

which go wrong at plant level and for unwelcome changes, variations of comfortable

'arrangements' and practices and unpopular interpretation of agreements.

6. To provide the impetus (and often devise the machinery) for the introduction of joint

consultation and worker participation in decision-making in the organization. Formal agreement

in respect of working conditions and behavior could never cover every situation likely to arise.

Moreover the more demanding the task (in terms of the mental contribution by the worker to

its completion) the more highly–educated the workers need to be and the more they will want

to be consulted about and involved in the details of work life. Matters like the rules for a

flexitime system or for determining the correction of absenteeism and the contents of jobs are

three examples of the sort of matters that may be solely decided by management in some

organizations but a matter for joint consultation (not negotiation) in others with a more twenty-

first-century outlook and philosophy. Human resource management is very involved in

promoting and originating ideas in this field.

7. To provide statistics and information about workforce numbers, costs, skills etc. as relevant

to negotiations (i.e. the cost of pay rises or compromise proposals, effect on differentials and
possible recruitment/retention consequences of this or whether agreement needs to be known

instantly); to maintain personnel records of training, experience, achievements, qualifications,

awards and possibly pension and other records; to produce data of interest to management in

respect of personnel matters like absentee figures and costs, statistics of sickness absence,

costs of welfare and other employee services, statements about development in policies by

other organizations, ideas for innovations; to advise upon or operate directly, grievance,

redundancy, disciplinary and other procedures.

Provision of employee services

Attention to the mental and physical well-being of employees is normal in many organizations

as a means of keeping good staff and attracting others. The forms this welfare can take are

many and varied, from loans to the needy to counseling in respect of personal problems.

Among the activities regarded as normal are:

• Schemes for occupational sick pay, extended sick leave and access to the firm's medical

adviser;

• Schemes for bereavement or other special leave;

• The rehabilitation of injured/unfit/ disabled employees and temporary or permanent

move to lighter work;

• The maintenance of disablement statistics and registers (there are complicated legal

requirements in respect of quotas of disabled workers and a need for 'certificates' where quota

are not fulfilled and recruitment must take place);

• Provision of financial and other support for sports, social, hobbies, activities of many

kinds which are work related;

• Provision of canteens and other catering facilities;

• Possibly assistance with financial and other aid to employees in difficulty (supervision,

maybe, of an employee managed benevolent fund or scheme);

• Provision of information handbooks,

• Running of pre-retirement courses and similar fringe activities;

• Care for the welfare aspects of health and safety legislation and provision of first-aid

training.

The location of the health and safety function within the organization varies. Commonly a split

of responsibilities exists under which 'production' or 'engineering' management cares for the

provision of safe systems of work and safe places and machines etc., but HRM is responsible for

administration, training and education in awareness and understanding of the law, and for the

alerting of all levels to new requirements.

Employee education, training and development

In general, education is 'mind preparation' and is carried out remote from the actual work area,

training is the systematic development of the attitude, knowledge, skill pattern required by a

person to perform a given task or job adequately and development is 'the growth of the

individual in terms of ability, understanding and awareness'.

Within an organization all three are necessary in order to:

• Develop workers to undertake higher-grade tasks;

• Provide the conventional training of new and young workers (e.g. as apprentices, clerks,

etc.);

• Raise efficiency and standards of performance;

• Meet legislative requirements (e.g. health and safety);

• Inform people (induction training, pre-retirement courses, etc.);

From time to time meet special needs arising from technical, legislative, and knowledge need

changes. Meeting these needs is achieved via the 'training loop'. (Schematic available in PDF

version.)

The diagnosis of other than conventional needs is complex and often depends upon the

intuition or personal experience of managers and needs revealed by deficiencies. Sources of

inspiration include:

• Common sense - it is often obvious that new machines, work systems, task

requirements and changes in job content will require workers to be prepared;

• Shortcomings revealed by statistics of output per head, performance indices, unit costs,

etc. and behavioral failures revealed by absentee figures, lateness, sickness etc. records;

• Recommendations of government and industry training organizations;

• Inspiration and innovations of individual managers and supervisors;

• Forecasts and predictions about staffing needs;

• Inspirations prompted by the technical press, training journals, reports of the

experience of others;

• The suggestions made by specialist (e.g. education and training officers, safety

engineers, work-study staff and management services personnel).

Designing training is far more than devising courses; it can include activities such as:

• Learning from observation of trained workers;

• Receiving coaching from seniors;

• Discovery as the result of working party, project team membership or attendance at

meetings;

• Job swaps within and without the organization;

• Undertaking planned reading, or follow from the use of self–teaching texts and video

tapes;
• Learning via involvement in research, report writing and visiting other works or

organizations.

So far as group training is concerned in addition to formal courses there are:

• Lectures and talks by senior or specialist managers;

• Discussion group (conference and meeting) activities;

• Briefing by senior staffs;

• Role-playing exercises and simulation of actual conditions;

• Video and computer teaching activities;

• Case studies (and discussion) tests, quizzes, panel 'games', group forums, observation

exercises and inspection and reporting techniques.

Evaluation of the effectiveness of training is done to ensure that it is cost effective, to identify

needs to modify or extend what is being provided, to reveal new needs and redefine priorities

and most of all to ensure that the objectives of the training are being met.

The latter may not be easy to ascertain where results cannot be measured mathematically. In

the case of attitude and behavioral changes sought, leadership abilities, drive and ambition

fostered, etc., achievement is a matter of the judgment of senior staffs. Exact validation might

be impossible but unless on the whole the judgments are favorable the cooperation of

managers in identifying needs, releasing personnel and assisting in training ventures will cease.
In making their judgments senior managers will question whether the efforts expended have

produced:

• More effective, efficient, flexible employees;

• Faster results in making newcomers knowledgeable and effective than would follow

from experience;

• More effective or efficient use of machinery, equipment and work procedures;

• Fewer requirements to implement redundancy (by retraining);

• Fewer accidents both personal and to property;

• Improvements in the qualifications of staff and their ability to take on tougher roles;

• Better employee loyalty to the organization with more willingness to innovate and

accept change.

Relation between Human Resources and management:

Human Resource Management is an integral part of management. It helps the management in

taking a strategic view of a very important resource i.e. Human Resource. It helps management

in identifying key skill sets, knowledge, values required in the employee and the rewards that

are needed to be given to the employees so that the organisation goals are fulfilled. Also like

other management functions, it has to ensure that these resources are available at an optimal

cost. It has to look into various training and development activities to ensure this. This is a key

area for Human Resource Management as it shows their contribution in terms of money. The
money here would be the opportunity cost incurred due to appointing of new employees

instead of developing current employees for the task in hand.

The HR manager has a dual role in the organisation. He performs the role of an executive as

well as a consultant. Managing people is not only a HR area but also part of the job of line

managers. These managers are managers heading various activities like accounts, audit,

production, marketing, sales etc. They have people working under them and have to manage

them too. There are times when line managers have problems handling employees and are

unable to resolve the issue. This is where the HR person steps in as a consultant. The HR person

can provide advice to the line manager to tackle the situation. This is in addition to the

executive role he performs. The executive role of the HR person is his role in carrying out the

routine activities of his area. There are occasions when they have to on both the hats of an

executive as well as that of a consultant. A typical example is the role of the HR person when

recruiting people for line functions, where line managers decide as they have the expertise,

they help the line managers with advice while simultaneously carrying out their executive role

of recruiting.

FACTORS INFLUENCING TRENDS

The objectives of managements, the ways in which enterprises are managed to achieve these

objectives and the human resource management (hereinafter referred to as "HRM") and

industrial relations (hereinafter referred to as "IR") initiatives in this regard, are affected by

pressures, many of which are exerted by globalization. Changes in IR practices (rather than in

institutions and systems) such as increased collective bargaining at enterprise level, flexibility in
relation to forms of employment as well as in relation to working time and job functions have

occurred as a result of such factors as heightened competition, rapid changes in products and

processes and the increasing importance of skills, quality and productivity. These factors have

also had an impact on HRM policies and practices. In managing change, the key elements

include employee involvement in effecting change, greater customer orientation, and ensuring

that the skills of employees are appropriate to the production of goods and the provision of

services acceptable to the global market. As such, managing people in a way so as to motivate

them to be productive is one important objective of HRM. The implications and consequences

of globalization include the following:

1. Countries are more economically interdependent than before, particularly in view of

foreign direct investment interlocking economies, as well as increased free trade. The inability

of economies to be 'self-sufficient' or 'self-reliant' or 'self-contained' has been accompanied by

a breakdown of investment and trade barriers.

2. Governments are increasingly less able to control the flow of capital, information and

technology across borders.

3. There has been de-regulation of financial and other markets, and the integration of

markets for goods, services and capital such as the European Community.

4. It has led to the de-nationalization of enterprises and the creation of global companies

and global webs.

5. Production of goods and services acceptable to the global market, and the convergence,

to a great extent, of customer tastes across borders determined by quality.

6. The need to achieve competitiveness and to remain competitive in respect of attracting

investment, goods and services. This means, inter alia, the necessity for high quality skills at all

levels to attract high value-added activities, as distinct from cheap labour low value-added

ones, and improvements in productivity.

Evolution of HRM in India

India’s huge population provides it with a critical competitive advantage during a period of

increasing concerns regarding an aging workforce in the developed world and talent shortages

globally.

In this global context, India can consider itself relatively lucky. Just 7 percent of Indians are

above the age of 60. In 25 years time only 12 percent will be above 60. India will continue to be

young and will see a swelling workforce of scientific, technical, and professional talent.

Despite this seeming competitive advantage, the fact is that due to its late start on the road to

development and a strong history of union activity, India has traditionally lagged in the

systematic development of high-quality talent. There have been a lot of talented professionals

around, but Indian organizations have only in the past few decades engaged in a focused effort

to develop their talent pool.

In the first 40 years after Indian independence, slow economic growth rates, militant unionism,

the protected nature of the Indian economy (and correspondingly limited concern with
employee productivity) as well the dominance of public-sector enterprises in key industrial

sectors meant that companies did not view HRM as a key business imperative. Opportunities in

the private sector for ambitious and talented people were limited and employee mobility was

low.

Starting mid-1991, this all started to change. Faced with an economic crisis due to a fiscal lack

of discipline and negligible foreign exchange reserves, the country started on the path of

economic liberalization. Effectively, this meant the end of the tradition of industrial licenses, a

lowering of trade barriers, an open invitation to multinational and foreign investors to do

business in India, and a gradual opening up of regulated sectors.

The message was clear – the rules of doing business in India were changing. And they were

changing in ways that they had never before. In a nutshell, if one was to draw the major themes

in the Indian economy in the decade of the 1990s, they would be:

• Expansion of markets and brand visibility

• Shakeout of long-dominant domestic industry leaders

• Deregulation of capital and financial markets as well as highly protected industrial

sectors

• Boom in services across a host of industries

The large talent base, proficiency with the English language, expertise in software, a stable

financial and regulatory environment, and a noisy but active democracy are just some of the

factors that are cited as a part of India’s portfolio of advantages. These advantages combined

with the new, more positive economic climate has led to major changes in the landscape for

HRM.

Employee mobility – Gone are the days of lifetime employment and stable careers. While in

certain sectors such as heavy manufacturing or in public-sector organizations this still may not

be a reality, it has fast caught up with the others.

Diminishing employee loyalty – The increasing employee mobility and proliferation of job

opportunities caused the first casualty in the form of eroding employee loyalty. The somewhat

paternalistic style of people management had created an aura about being stable with one job

or organization. The 1990s saw a total reversal with job changes, and even career changes,

becoming acceptable. The longevity of employees started being counted in a few years or even

months, as opposed to decades.

The global Indian manager – A new trend that has emerged is the use of India as a sourcing

ground for global talent. Topping the list of organizations seeking Indian talent are global

consulting majors and investment banks. This trend also validated what had already been

witnessed in software and information technology: the premium value attached to Indian

talent.

Shedding the welfare focus – Given the strong welfare focus and the employee-centric labor

legislation in India, job security had been a thing taken for granted. However, many
organizations, including some from the public sector, recently have gone in for a systematic

process of restructuring and downsizing of their workforces. The accent on employee

productivity and becoming lean has been a fundamental mindset shift among Indian managers.

We can focus on five broad themes that typify the nature of the HRM challenges in India.

1. No longer a recruiter's market

Individuals scouring for job opportunities in the market have many more choices today. The

changed dynamics in the recruitment market impacts on the retention strategies within

organizations as well – the usual tactics of paying above the market or high-impact roles may

not work anymore.

2. Focus on efficiency

Recent trends have shown an increasing tendency to restructure workforces, downsize,

outsource, and automate. This has happened with the enhanced use of outsourcing and

technology solutions to transform the transactional nature of the HRM function. In today’s

changing context, HR professionals are being challenged to show results and deliver tangible

value.

3. A new employee relations environment

In recent years trade unions have been reluctant to call for strikes because they are afraid that

a strike may lead to the closure of the unit. Service sector workers feel they have become

outsiders and are becoming increasingly disinterested in trade union activities. Instead of
demanding higher wages, allowances, or facilities, trade unions now demand job security and

some are even willing to accept wage cuts or wage freezes in return for job protection.

4. The emergence of Global Indian companies

The liberalization process not only opened India to the globe, but also allowed leading Indian

organizations to arrive on the global stage. While Infosys, Wipro, and TCS are prominent names

in the IT industry globally, large multi-business houses such as Reliance, Tata Sons, and the AV

Birla Group are also actively operating overseas.

The challenge of managing diversity on a global scale will be a new one for Indian business

leaders and HRM professionals. The demand for skills that can effectively integrate cultures,

manage diversity, initiate communication mechanisms across time zones, and still maintain a

core of consistent organizational values will be of premium.

5. The search for new paradigms

As a large majority of cutting-edge research and practices in the area of management thinking

(including HRM) has been in the West, more specifically in the United States, what is the level

of “fit” with the realities of different cultures? Local adaptations of global HRM initiatives have

been very successful in some case, but not in others. As far as the “fit” of these concepts and

frameworks to an Indian context is concerned, the jury is still out.

Introduction to IBM

International Business Machines Corporation abbreviated IBM and nicknamed "Big Blue" (for

its official corporate color), is a multinational computer technology and IT consulting

corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. The company is one of the few

information technology companies with a continuous history dating back to the 19th century.

IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software (with a focus on the latter), and

offers infrastructure services, hosting services, and consulting services in areas ranging from

mainframe computers to nanotechnology.

IBM has been well known through most of its recent history as the world's largest computer

company and systems integrator, with over 388,000 employees worldwide, IBM is the largest

and most profitable information technology employer in the world. IBM holds more patents

than any other technology company and has eight research laboratories worldwide. The

company has scientists, engineers, consultants, and sales professionals in over 170 countries.

IBM employees have earned five Nobel Prizes, four Turing Awards, five National Medals of

Technology, and five National Medal Of Science. As a chipmaker, IBM has been among the

Worldwide Top 20 Semiconductor Sales Leader in past years.

COMPANY PROFILE

HISTORY OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES

The company which became IBM was founded in 1896 as the Tabulating Machine

Company by Herman Hollerith, in Broome County, New York (Endicott, New York or
Binghamton, New York), where it still maintains very limited operations. It was incorporated as

Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation (CTR) on June 16, 1911, and was listed on the

New York Stock Exchange in 1916 by George Winthrop Fairchild. CTR's Canadian and later South

American subsidiary was named International Business Machines in 1917, and the whole

company took this name in 1924 when Thomas J. Watson took control.

1875–1925: The origin of IBM

IBM's history dates back decades before the development of electronic computers. Of the

companies merged to form what later became IBM, the oldest was the Tabulating Machine

Company, founded in 1896 by Herman Hollerith, and specialized in the development of

punched card data processing equipment. Hollerith's series of patents on tabulating machine

technology, first applied for in 1884, drew on his work at the U.S. Census Bureau from 1879–82.

Hollerith was initially trying to reduce the time and complexity needed to tabulate the 1890

Census. His transition to the use of punch cards in 1886 laid a foundation for generations of

equipment and a core component of what would become

The company which became IBM was founded in 1896 as the Tabulating Machine Company by

Herman Hollerith, in Broome County, New York (Endicott, New York or Binghamton, New York),

where it still maintains very limited operations. It was incorporated as Computing Tabulating

Recording Corporation on June 16, 1911, and was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in

1916 by George Winthrop Fairchild. CTR's Canadian and later South American subsidiary was

named International Business Machines in 1917, and the whole company took this name in

1924 when Thomas J. Watson took control of it.

International Business Machines Corporation, abbreviated IBM and nicknamed "Big Blue” is a

multinational computer technology and IT consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk,

New York, United States. The company is one of the few information technology companies

with a continuous history dating back to the 19th century. IBM manufactures and sells

computer hardware and software (with a focus on the latter), and offers infrastructure services,

hosting services, and consulting services in areas ranging from mainframe computers to

nanotechnology.

IBM has been well known through most of its recent history as the world's largest computer

company and systems integrator. With over 388,000 employees worldwide, IBM is the largest

and most profitable information technology employer in the world. IBM holds more patents

than any other U.S. based Technology Company and has eight research laboratories worldwide.

The company has scientists, engineers, consultants, and sales professionals in over 170

countries. IBM employees have earned five Nobel Prizes, four Turing Awards, five National

Medals of Technology, and five National Medals of Science. As a chip maker, IBM has been

among the Worldwide Top 20 Semiconductor Sales Leaders in past years.

In 2002, IBM strengthened its business advisory capabilities by acquiring the consulting arm of

professional services firm. The company has increasingly focused on business solution-driven

consulting, services and software, with emphasis also on high-value chips and hardware

technologies; as of 2005 it employs about 195,000 technical professionals. That total includes

about 350 «Distinguished Engineers» and 60 IBM Fellows, its most-senior engineers. It should

be noted, however, that IBM and some other U.S. firms’ use the term 'engineer' in a broad
sense, applying it to technicians from diverse disciplines that may not be graduates from

Engineering Schools of recognized Universities.

In 2002, IBM announced the beginning of a US$10 billion program to research and implement

the infrastructure technology necessary to be able to provide supercomputer-level resources

"on demand" to all businesses as a metered utility. The program has since then been

implemented.

In the same year its hard disk operations was sold to Hitachi.

IBM has steadily increased its patent portfolio since the early 1990s, which is valuable cross

licensing with other companies. In every year from 1993 to 2005, IBM has been granted

significantly more U.S. patents than any other company. The thirteen-year period has resulted

in over 31,000 patents for which IBM is the primary assignee. In 2003, IBM earned 3415

patents, breaking the US record for patents in a single year.

Protection of the company's intellectual property has grown into a business in its own right,

generating over $10 billion dollars to the bottom line for the company during this period. A

2003 Forbes article quotes Paul Horn, head of IBM Research, saying that IBM has generated $1

billion in profit by licensing intellectual property.

In 2004, IBM announced the proposed sale of its PC business to Chinese computer maker

Lenovo Group, which is partially owned by the Chinese government, for US $650 million in cash

and US $600 million in Lenovo stock. The deal was approved by the Committee on Foreign

Investment in the United States in March 2005, and completed in May 2005. IBM acquired a

19% stake in Lenovo, which moved its headquarters to New York State and appointed an IBM
executive, Steve Ward, as its chief executive officer. The company retained the right to use

certain IBM brand names for an initial period of five years. As a result of the purchase, Lenovo

inherited a product line that features the ThinkPad, a line of laptops that had been one of IBM's

most successful products.

As of 2004, IBM had shifted much of its focus to the provision of business consulting & re-

engineering services from its hardware & technology focus. The new IBM has enhanced global

delivery capabilities in consulting, software and technology based process services—and this

change is reflected in its top-line.

On June 20, 2006, IBM and Georgia Institute of Technology jointly announced a new record in

silicon-based chip speed at 500 GHz. This was done by freezing the chip to 4.5 K (−269 °C;

−452 °F) using liquid helium and is not comparable to CPU speed. The chip operated at about

350 GHz at room temperature. IBM acquires SPSS in July 2009 for $1.2 billion.

SWOT ANALYSIS

INTERNAL ENVIRONMENT ANALYSIS

STRENGTH WEAKNESS
Valuable intellectual property, 260,000 expensive employees

Software, patents, ideas. High operating costs

Talented work force

Research & development ($5.7

 Billion)

A multi-national organization

OPPORTUNITY THREATS
Low cost generic competition Outsourcing

(commoditization) New competitors in services market

(e.g., Dell, Accenture)

EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT ANALYSIS

Figure: - SWOT Analysis of IBM

ACHIEVEMENTS & AWARDS

IBM stands 14 in Fortune 500 companies with a revenue scale of $103,630 millions with profits

of $12,334 millions.

 AWARDS:
 Corporate Citizenship: IBM was ranked the no.1 ethical corporation by Covalence, the

Swiss ethical ranking agency, above 581 businesses across 18 sectors, The rating is

based on capture of information from media and the internet, matching corporate

offerings to specific societal expectations.

 Corporate Citizenship: IBM Singapore won seven awards at the Singapore HR Awards

2009 including the category of Corporate Social Responsibility.

 Corporate Citizenship: IBM was named one of the "50 Most Socially Responsible

Corporations" by MacLean's, a Canadian weekly magazine.

 Environment: IBM Canada Ltd. has been selected as one of Canada's Greenest

Employers. This special designation recognizes the employers that lead the nation in

making environmental values part of their organizational culture. Winners of this

competition have developed exception earth-friendly initiatives and are attracting

employees and customers because of their environmental leadership.

 Accessibility: IBM Spain was recognized as the best company for social action in 2008 by

the Randstad Foundation.

 Corporate Citizenship: Stan Litow, Vice President, IBM Corporate Citizenship &

Corporate Affairs, was chosen to ring the opening bell at the NY Stock Exchange on
 February 23, International Corporate Philanthropy Day. He accepted the National

Philanthropy Award from the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy, which

recognized IBM's On Demand Community.

 Corporate Citizenship: In Taiwan, IBM was ranked No. 2 in the Corporate Citizen Survey

of the foreign company group of Commonwealth Magazine's 2009. For the last three

consecutive years, IBM has been selected as one of the top 10 corporate socially

responsible companies.

 Corporate Citizenship: IBM Poland has been awarded the status of 'Best Practice for

Business and Society' by the Responsible Business Forum, the country's largest

corporate organization focused on corporate social responsibility.

 Corporate Citizenship: IBM Romania has been recognized with a 'diploma' award from

the Romanian Donors Forum and the Trust for Civil Society in Central and Eastern

Europe for being one of the top corporate socially responsible companies.

 Accessibility: IBM Spain and Association Semilla's joint Social GNU project has won the

title of best 'Best IT Project' at an awards ceremony hosted at the Ministry of Industry.

 Corporate Citizenship: IBM China was awarded a certificate of appreciation for their

outstanding contribution to education by the China Ministry of Education (CME) at the

Spring Festival Reception for more than 30 multinational companies.

 Corporate Citizenship: For the seven consecutive year, IBM Hong Kong has been

awarded with "The Caring Company Award" by the Hong Kong Council of Social Services.
AWARD ASSOCIATED WITH IBM:

Impact Best of Show Award - Cross View, Inc.

The Impact Best of Show Award recognizes Cross View, one of the IBM sponsors of the

Impact conference, for the solution that best demonstrates the unique power of using IBM

SOA and WebSphere components to solve customer business challenges.

SOA Cost Optimization Award - Miracle Software Systems, Inc.

The SOA Cost Optimization Award recognizes Miracle Software Systems, Inc. and its web

methods to WebSphere Message Broker and WebSphere Process Server migration solution

for exploiting IBM SOA and WebSphere and providing a proven solution that helps

customers achieve cost optimization, agility, and increased ROI (Return on investment).

Business Process Management Award - Ascendant Technology

The Business Process Management Award recognizes Ascendant Technology for its “Invoice

Workflow” for Accounts Payables as the most exceptional solution in helping customers to

improve their efficiency, elasticity, and control of their key business processes across the

enterprise.
 Green Partner Award - Enterprise Information Management

The Green Partner Award recognizes Enterprise Information Management (EIM) for its

GreenCert solution for excellence in helping businesses through use talent, natural

resources, and technology in smarter ways. IBM's GreenCert play an important role in

helping address business challenges, including rising energy costs, regulatory mandates, and

customer demand for eco-friendly products. GreenCert measures the reduction in

greenhouse gases an energy company realizes when it takes steps to reduce emissions.

Distributor Excellence Award

The Distributor Excellence Award recognizes Tech Data Azlan as a high value-add distributor

who is leading the charge in building their Business Partners' ability to leverage IBM SOA

and WebSphere software capabilities in creative, leading edge, and exciting way.

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE IN IBM

Projectized Organization

Any organizational structure in which the project manager has full authority to assign

priorities, apply resources, and direct the work of persons assigned to the project.
A project organization is generally a temporary thing. It will only exist from the projects start

until its end. All the project team members are coming from different organizations of part of

the organization. They will all have a temporary assignment to the project. So, they have not

only a project manager, but also their 'normal' boss, who orders him around when the

employee is not in the project. These 'normal bosses' are an important group of stakeholders.

The projectized organization should be a result from the project strategy; it should be

constructed in such a way that the strategy can be implemented within the environment of the

project. A very obvious example: if the strategy contains an aspect of having independent

reviews, the organization should support its independence, by creating a separate working

group with no ties to the other team members.

The project team that does the work should be as small as possible. Small is beautiful, and

effective. Don't start inviting everyone to the organization. Only people who have an added

value and will spend a significant amount of time to the project can be in the core organization.

Try to avoid going overboard on working groups. Working groups can drown a project in

communication overhead. If there should be that much discussion anyway, postpone the

project and first make up the minds.

Next to the people who do the work, are the people that have some influence on it, but do

nothing; a large part of the stakeholders. The project organization can be used to satisfy some

wishes of stakeholders to create the much needed win-win situations. In its most simple form,

you can create a project trashcan where you put in the people who just want to be involved in

the project (to save their territory), but which you have no use for.
Current members of the board of directors of IBM are:

 Cathleen Black – President, Hearst Magazines

 William R. Brody – President, Johns Hopkins University

 Kenneth Chenault – Chairman and CEO, American Express Company

 Juergen Dormann – Chairman of the Board, ABB Ltd

 Ayan Barua – CEO, PICSimon Shum Siu-hung – CEO, Lenovo Computer Ltd.

 Michael L. Eskew – former Chairman and CEO, United Parcel Service, Inc.

 Shirley Ann Jackson – President, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

 Minoru Makihara – Senior Corporate Advisor and former Chairman, Mitsubishi

Corporation

 Ria Leslie Sanchez – Junior Director International Programming Operations and External

Affairs, IBM

 James W. Owens – Chairman and CEO, Caterpillar Inc.

 Samuel J. Palmisano – Chairman, President and CEO, IBM

 Joan Spero – President, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation

 Sidney Taurel – Chairman, Eli Lilly and Company

 Lorenzo Zambrano – Chairman and CEO, Cemex SAB de CV

MANAGEMENT PRACTICES

IBM BUSINESS LINES

 IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software (with a focus on the

latter)

 Offers infrastructure services:

Helps identify problem areas and determines where further in-depth analysis is

required. It also help to remediate and repair issues that have been identified, including

those related to application infrastructure, services management and identity and

access management.

 Hosting services:

IBM provides one of the most comprehensive application hosting services in the

industry from basic support to global deployments. With IBM Application Hosting

services, you can leverage the leading applications that can help reduce your time to

market or boost customer satisfaction without the usual upfront infrastructure costs or

the ongoing implementation and management headaches.

 Consulting services:

IBM business strategy consultants support clients in the translation of innovative and

core competencies into real business value by formulating strategies, managing change,

and realizing benefits. Working collaboratively with clients, we provide solutions to the
 business needs that your organization is confronted with, such as growing revenues,

streamlining costs and linking strategy to execution.

 Recently entered into an outsourcing business (customer services and technical support)

a unit called IBM DAKSH is specially set up for the out sourcing business. Dealing in

customer service, technical support, billing assistance etc.

 Green sigma:

IBM’s goal with the Green Sigma TM offering is to partner with clients to drive

innovation, achieving economic benefits for the business and reducing impact to the

environment. This focus on ways to develop processes to bring down the carbon

intensity of products and processes and create a lean green business"

HUMAN RESOURCE POLICY at IBM

 The Human Resource (HR) policy must be able to deliver deliberate insights to business

units, enabling the organization to more effectively source, evaluate and motivate employees in

an increasingly turbulent business environment.

At the same time, HR needs to continue to provide administrative services that are reliable,

cost-effective and responsive to the needs of business units around the globe. HR must perform

both roles effectively to contribute to the long-term success of the organization.

This perspective shaped a series of discussions that took place in March 2006 with more than

25 senior HR executives from around the globe. Over four days, HR leaders from various

industries, including utilities, financial services, retail and government - to name a few -

engaged in a dialogue to share insights and best practices on a variety of topics. These included

issues such as changing workforce demographics, the role of workforce analytics in developing

strategic insights, and the structure and competencies of the HR policies of the future.

Across industries, changing business conditions, demographics and globalization have raised

the need to understand and manage the dynamics of talent, from sourcing to resource

management to recognition systems. To allow HR to focus on these more strategic issues, the

next generation HR organization must promote the use of shared services and employee self-

service to move away from its traditional role of answering questions and resolving disputes.
Further, the HR organization needs to work more effectively with other vendors in its extended

enterprise, providing the tighter coordination that is needed to deliver administrative services.

Finally, HR needs to look inward at its own talent model, to help ensure that its employees have

the capabilities, skills and confidence to provide strategic guidance to the business.

The roundtable participants highlighted the clear need for the HR function to focus its limited

time, energy and resources on four critical areas:

• Understanding the impact of both globalization and changing workforce demographics on the

supply of talent.

• Determining the drivers of employee retention and developing strategies for retaining top

performers.

• Engaging with the corporate strategy process to determine the need for critical skills and

capabilities

• Balancing the supply and demand for talent on a dynamic basis within and across business

units.

 Implications for the next generation HR organization

For the HR organization to take on these new responsibilities, it must be able to shed

some of its more routine tasks and restore its internal capability. Many organizations have

moved to using outsourcing vendors to perform routine administrative tasks, while others have

continued to retain these activities in a shared services environment.

The key steps toward achieving this include:

• Getting out of the business of “answering questions, ”shifting to dealing with issues that are

more strategic. Spend less time managing routine transactions and interactions that too often

fill the days of HR professionals. Place the nexus of addressing administrative issues in one

place. Track employee inquiries to determine whether HR policies and procedures are easy to

understand and apply, and whether they need improvement. At the same time, increase the

availability and use of employee and managerial self-service.

• Developing relationships across organizational boundaries: More and more, companies are

looking to outsiders to take over administrative components of the HR function - particularly

non-core tasks such as payroll and benefits administration, as well as employee service center

management, recruiting, compensation administration and HR data management. It is

increasingly important to view these companies as part of a larger extended enterprise.

• Building capability in the HR talent pool: Improve or acquire the skills needed for a greater

strategic orientation in several ways: bringing in professionals from outside the company;

attracting existing employees from outside the HR function to join the HR team; providing

education to existing HR professionals; and fostering opportunities for outside development.

To prosper in a new environment, HR professionals need a more strategic perspective on their

services and capabilities. The window for evolving into a more strategic HR organization is now -

miss it, and more than the power and prestige of the HR function will be at stake.

MARKETING STRATEGY at IBM

Today’s marketplace involves substantial risk and full of surprises.

We can consider a few recent twists and turns in marketing point of view:

• Bricks and Clicks — not “simply clicks”: Despite an early lead by Internet pure plays with their

plentiful brand awareness campaigns, brick-and-click enterprises now-a-days seem to have the

major advantages.

• Private trumps public: Creative marketing tactics could not save the multitude of public

interactions launched over the last few years. With the exception of a few, large industry

stalwarts, enthusiasm surrounding public exchanges has now shifted to private models that

enable true business value to be more readily achieved.

• Inside turns out: Companies are discovering that internal assets, such as online employee

training, can be turned into effective marketing tools.

Business-model experimentation does not always produce expected results. In fact, to many
executives, today’s marketing expenditures can feel more like wagers than investments.

Through IBM works with leading marketers across a variety of industries, IBM has honed in on

five pragmatic tips that can help position a business for solid performance — even in turbulent

times also.

Creation of Global Brand Blueprint

Many leaders establish a central framework for their brand — one that clearly

communicates what elements should remain constant across geographies and what

elements can vary in order to capitalize on local insights.

A blueprint should be “global” — not only in geographic terms, but also in

marketing dimensions. It should address the entire marketing mix — from advertising to

the Web presence. Example — a company’s website might vary in appearance, even

functional area across different geographies.

Architect Consistent Customer Experience

An experience is not simply about the quality of services received during a business

transaction, but also it is the overall feeling a consumer has after each encounter with a
 company. IBM has developed a methodology that can help the companies architect the

exact type of emotional “imprint” they would like to leave with customers at each and

every touch point. This “Experience Architecture” begins with a ornamentation — a

easily understandable set of target emotional outcomes, marketing and operations into

alignment and reinforce the brand blueprint.

Gain a Single View of the Customer

While providing the customer with a single, consistent view of the enterprise is

critical; enterprises must also develop an overall view of each customer. A consolidated

view benefits both the customers and the business. IBM practices on some practical

ways to achieve a unified picture of the customer:

o Look At The Details: Analyzes when, where and how customer data can be

gathered.

o Establish Rules: Create a governance framework with the management policies

and practices that encourage customer centricity.

o Build Common Ground: Set up consistent processes for customer relationship

management across all sales and service organization.

o Take Leadership Seriously: A strong leader, who is accountable for all touch
 points, must be appointed. IBM has established an executive position — Chief

Experience Officer, for this particular matter.

Insist On Robust IT Infrastructure

Marketing in a complex business environment requires sophisticated IT support.

Marketers cannot go far without the right technology platform for implementing

marketing initiatives. To position themselves and retaining their positions most flexibly,

IBM is putting in place a hub-and-spoke architecture. This allows them to build a

“spoke” whenever new application needs to be integrated with a “hub” — a preferable

alternative to constructing point-to-point connections between the new application and

all other systems.

Partner In Innovative Ways

As businesses search for the right relationship to capitalize on future opportunities,

IBM evaluates potential partners from several perspectives:

o Pick an appropriate mix of global and local partners

o Find a spot in someone else’s net value

As one of the world’s most recognized brands, IBM make out the constant challenges of

being on the market frontline.

WORK CULTURE at IBM

Employees are the essence of each and every organization. IBM has one of the largest

professional workforces around the world. IBM is the one of the most admired company in the

world, and is also retaining the position. It is possible only with the support of the quality of the

leaders and managers. IBM brought the expertise of their people, a workforce that is

responsive to market requirements, with the skills and expertise to deliver value to clients, is

resilient to market forces and delivers strong leadership into the market.

There are mainly three-fold initiatives for the employees because of

Which IBM is able to retain its position as one of the World’s top

Employer over the years:

 Capability: Rigorous and ongoing career/skills development programs

 Climate: A challenging, empowering work environment, with world-class infrastructure

 Culture: Sensitive to a global workforce

The attributes that qualify these 3Cs are the Top Reasons that people come to work at IBM.
 CAPABILITY – Molding Global Leaders and Fostering Employee Talent: To be a leading

international company, it is important to develop an organization of global leaders and

dynamic international employees. IBM is committed to the employee well-being and

career growth. IBM offers a wide basket of career opportunities allowing employees to

move to different jobs and career paths within the company. IBM offers employees

international careers, offering immense scope for professional development and career

growth, across technological and functional areas. IBM recognizes talent and offers

global career growth opportunities beyond India with fast track options, offering a

complete career advantage of working for an IT leader and visionary in the On Demand

world. One of IBM’s key strategies and policies is to attract, motivate and retain the best

talent in our industry, and develop them into global leaders. The company makes sure

talented employees are recognized for their achievements and encourages them to seek

fresh challenges and learn new skills through training and mentoring programs. Besides

offering a myriad of technology avenues for employees to work on and innovate on

newer ones, IBM offers employees several programs for employee development, to help

IBMers become more effective in their jobs. Some of these initiatives include Mentoring,

Study assistance plan, Leadership development, Individual Development Plan, and

Certification & IBM Certified Professionals, and well-defined and comprehensive

Training Programs. IBM’s investments in training prepare employees with the skills they

need now and in the future. IBM earned the No 1 ranking in Training Magazine's

"Training Top 100" list, an annual ranking of companies that understand, embrace and

use training to achieve real business results, support corporate values and enhance the
 work lives of employees. IBM has ranked among the top five of the Training Top 100

since the magazine began issuing the awards in 2001.

 CLIMATE: Flexibility At Work and Employee Wellness Programs: IBM believes in

empowering employees as partners to success, offering a global work culture and best

workplace amenities. At IBM, cubicles are out and mobile offices are in. Workforce

flexibility is a competitive advantage for IBM. It helps make the Employer of Choice for

new hires, and enables them to retain their top talent. Some of IBM’s workplace

flexibility programs include individualized daily work schedule, Flexible Work Week,

Regular Part-Time, Leave of Absence, and Remote/Mobile Work Options. IBM strives to

make life more convenient for the employees so they can save their energy and be more

productive at work. The idea is to ensure IBMers work better even when they are home,

or on the move. Most mobile employees are provided with IBM laptops, which function

like their office “cabinet,” containing all their files, presentation materials, and a whole

extent of support services that they need to meet their clients’ and other requirements.

Be it downloading files, checking and replying to mail, or linking to the electronic library,

IBMers can dial into the IBM network, and get connected, through the nearest landline

telephone.

 CULTURE: Workforce Diversity: Diversity in IBM means welcoming all the people to the

workplace regardless of factors unrelated to job performance. The mission of IBM’s

Global Workforce Diversity is to guide in creating a business environment, which

recognizes our individual differences as a competitive strength and a critical

requirement for our success in the global market. This environment enhances the

success of the employees, enhances the ability to satisfy their clients and advance IBM’s

continued growth. IBM's definition of diversity includes all human characteristics that

make us unique as individuals. It includes everyone and excludes no one. Race, gender,

geographic origin, culture, lifestyle, age, disability, economic status, marital status, and

religion are just some of the characteristics that define them as people. IBM has

received numerous awards for workforce diversity. Recently, Jyotindra Mehta, an

employee of IBM, was awarded the Helen Keller Award in 2004, by the National Center

for Promotion of Employment of Disabled People.

 QUESTIONNAIRE

Respected Sir/ Madam

It would be really kind on your part to take out a few minutes from your busy schedule

and fill up this questionnaire which would be analysed for the completion of my

research report.

Q:1) What are the typical HR challenges that your organization faces?

 Recruitment

 Manpower Planning

 Training

 Compensation

 Retention

 Any other (please specify)

Q:2) What is the employee turnover rate in the company?

 Below 5%

 5-10%

 10-15%

 15-20%

 Above 20%

Q:3) What are the methods adopted by the company to find the cause of the turnover?

Exit interview

 Climate Survey

 Employee Satisfaction Survey

 Grapevine

 Any other method (Please specify)

Q:4) What are the methods adopted by the company to retain people?

 Compensation comparable with the best in the industry

  Job satisfaction

 Career growth

 ESOPs

 Performance based rewards

 Flexi-time

 Any other (please describe)

Q.5) Do you think that the industrial relations are being well planned in your organization?

1) Yes

2) No

3) Don’t know

Q. 6) Do you think that the compensation is based on merit? Alternatively, do you think that the

employees are adequately compensated for their services?

1) Yes

2) No

3) Don’t know

Q.7) Is there adequate attention given to the training of the employees?

1) Yes
2) No

3) Don’t know

Q.8) What do you think about the appraisal policy in your company?

1) It is neutral and fair

2) It is unfair

3) No comments

Q.9) Do you think your organization is able to attract the best talent pool available in the

industry?

1) Yes

2) No

3) Don’t know

Q.10 ) Do you think that the employees are motivated enough in the direction of the

organizational goals?

1) Yes

2) No

3) Don’t know
Data analysis, findings & recommendations:

This section deals with the analysis of the primary data which was been collected from the

respondents. Here we will analyze the broad trends and the problems. Also recommendations

will be given to improve those problems. Thus, the complete data crunching and

recommendation activity will happen in this very section.

Q.1) What are the typical HR challenges that your organization faces?

Recruitment
Manpower Planning
Training
Compensation
Retention
Any other

As is clear from the response, recruitment and retention emerges to be the most difficult HRM

problems at IBM. Some people consider compensation as another problem prevalent.

Q.2) What is the employee turnover rate in the company?

0
Below 5% 5-10% 10-15% 15-20% Above 20%

As is clear from the graph, most people believe that 10-15% is the employee turnover rate.
Q.3) What are the methods adopted by the company to find the cause of the turnover?

Exit interview
Climate Survey
Employee Satisfaction Survey
Grapevine
Any other method

Two of the most popular techniques in IBM to find the cause of turnover are: Exit interview &

employee satisfaction survey.

Q.4) What are the methods adopted by the company to retain people?

Compensation comparable with the Job satisfaction

best in the industry
Career growth ESOPs
Performance based rewards Flexi-time
Any other

As regards the retention program of the company is concerned, IBM provides a steady growth

policy for its employees which is always being valued by them and hence is considered as the

major motivator in retaining the best of the talent in the industry.

Q.5) Do you think that the industrial relations are being well planned in your organization?

Yes
No
Don't know
As is seen in the graph, most people said that the industrial relations are being very properly

planned. Thus, the interaction of IBM as an entity with the external environment is pretty much

well planned. We can take this as their proper organizational planning efforts.
Q.6) Do you think that the compensation is based on merit? Alternatively, do you think that the

employees are adequately compensated for their services?

7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
Yes No Don't know

As can be seen from the graph, most people feel that the employees at IBM are adequately

compensated for their services. Some people still believe that they are not adequately

compensated. Thus, it is important for the HR at IBM to address the concerns of such

employees and to fix the problem of attrition and retention.

Q.7) Is there adequate attention given to the training of the employees?

Yes 9
No 1
Don't know 0

As can be seen from the data, almost everyone thinks that the training function of IBM is very

much streamlined. Thus, IBM focuses on training its resources. Also, the training/ induction

given to the newly joined employees is world class.

Q.8) What do you think about the appraisal policy in your company?

It is neutral and fair

It is unfair
No comments
Most of the people at IBM think that the appraisal policy of IBM is quite fair and neutral. But

again there is a section of people who feel that the appraisal policy is biased.

Q.9) Do you think your organization is able to attract the best talent pool available in the

industry?

Don't know

No

Yes

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Most of the people think that IBM is able to attract best talent in the industry. It is majorly

because of the high brand equity which IBM has in industry.

Q.10) Do you think that the employees are motivated enough in the direction of the

organizational goals?

Yes
No
Don't know
As can be seen from the pie chart, most of the employees are motivated towards the goals of

the company. Thus, the HR at IBM is being able to motivate people in best possible manner.

RECOMMENDATIONS

1) To aid in retention, companies must look at valued employees place highly and attempt

to meet these with the core values of the organization.

2) Invest efforts and money in becoming an employer of choice and build company

branding to overcome retention dilemmas.

3) Companies need to continually invest to ensure that they are a step ahead and know

what competition is doing.

4) Provide an environment which assists in work life balance

5) Create an atmosphere where employees perceive the company as being interested in

partnering them in their career.

6) Both employees and employers are equally responsible for employee retention. Senior

executives can make this happen by discussing both company goals as well as

employee’s ambitions.

7) One of the most important tasks for any manager is hiring an employee. Yet, very few

are rained in this skill. Responsibility lies with management in hiring managers. Right

hiring will ensure longer retention cycles.

8) Look at retention linked performance bonuses for managers who are good at retaining

their people.

9) Inculcate right leadership in your supervisor

10) Train and re-train

11) Extrinsic salary benefits, promotions

CONCLUSION

We have studied the information on the various management practices and its’ structures

followed by IBM and we have analyzed their working strategy, business lines, and their

achievements and awards. By analyzing all these subjects, we can conclude that IBM will

surely gain all it’s successes and achievements due to their well trained and maintaining

management team, well prepared HR policies and the working environment for the

employees.
Complex business equations made more difficult y competitors all offering great incentives,

good work environment, and work place satisfaction and career development

opportunities.

Retention problems are like cancer that can hit any company anytime, but there are ways to

combat leaving, most importantly knowing your staff needs and how to provide them.

The biggest challenge employer’s face is the changing nature of workplace with advent of

new technologies and practice.

The buoyant job market is one of the most serious issues facing employers who are

struggling to keep staff.

The number one reason for employees to leave is lack of opportunities for career

development.

Opportunity to work on particular technology leads to employees leaving the company. This

is more so, where the companies are big with more number of employees and it becomes

difficult to assign projects according to skills.

Other areas of difficulty are poaching by competitors, people chasing money and senior

professional positions and the challenge of providing interesting and varied work and global

opportunities

People are becoming increasingly selective about who they work for “Can I be proud of the

company I work for?”

It’s a candidate tight market where there are more jobs than candidates and employees feel

they are better informed about what the market is providing and employment conditions in

competitor companies to make career-shift judgements.

Salary is not the single most important factor. Employees are also looking at poor

management and whether companies have innovative means of rewarding people.

Highly undesirable turnover can cost companies significantly.

“Who is hit?” lower levels are the most vulnerable. Small companies are becoming

increasingly vulnerable and departure of even one person hits hard.

Exit interviews and employee satisfaction survey do help. These are the two most

commonly used methods used to find the cause of turnover.