Case Study: 1

Harsha and Franklin both of them are post graduates in management under different stream
from same B-School. Both of them are close to each other from the college days itself and the
same friendship is continuing in the organisation too as they are placed in the same company,
Hy-tech technology solutions. Harsha placed in HR department as employee counsellor and
Franklin in finance department as key finance executive. As per the grade is concerned both
are at same level but when responsibility is concerned Franklin is holding more
responsibility. Being in core fnance. By nature Harsha is friendly in nature and ready to help
the needy. Franklin is silent in nature ready to help if approached personally and always a bit
egoistic in nature. They have successfully completed 4 years in the organization. And
management is very much satisfied with both of them as they are equally talented and
constant performers.

Harsha felt that now a day’s Franklin is not like as he use to be in past. She noticed Some
behavioral changes with him. During general conversations she feels that Franklin is
Taunting her that she is famous among the employees in the organisation in the other hand he
is not even recognised by fellow employees.

One morning Mr. Mehta General Manager Hy-tech technology solutions shocked while Go
through the mail received from Franklin about his resignation. Mr. Mehta called Harsha
immediately and discussed about the same as she is close to Franklin. By hearing the News
Harsha got stunned and said that she do not know this before she also revealed here Current
experience with him. Mr. Mehta who do not want to loose both of them promised her that he
will handle this and he won’t allow Franklin to resign.

In the afternoon Mr. Metha took Franklin to Canteen to make him comfortable after some
General discussion he starts on the issue. Franklin, after some hesitations opened his thinking
in front of Mr. Mehta. The problem of Franklin is 1) when he comes alone to canteen the
people from other don’t even recognize him but if he accompanied by Harsha he get well
treated by others. 2) one day Both of them entered the company together the security in the
gate wished them but the next day when he came alone the same security did not do so. 3)
Even in meetings held in the once the points raised by Harsha will get more value so many a
times he keeps silent in the meeting.

It happens to Franklin that he has to face such degradation in each day of work which Totally
disturbs him. Franklin also questioned that “Harsha and myself have same qualification, from
same institute, passed out in the same year both with first class. We have same number of
experience in this organisation. More over the responsibilities with me are more valuable
than that of Harsha. After all this things if I am been ignored or unrecognized by the fellow
employees my ego does not allow me to continue here”.
By listening this statement Mr.Metha felt that it is not going to be very difficult to stop His
resignation. Mr. Mehta explained Franklin the reasons for such partial behavior of the
employees.

After listening to Mr. Mehta Franklin said sorry for his reaction and ready to take back His
resignation. And he called Harsha and spoke with like before.

Question
Find the reason that Mr. Mehta would have given to Franklin.
Case Study : 2
Watson Public Ltd Company is well known for its welfare activities and employee oriented
schemes in manufacturing industry from more than ten decade. The company employs more
than 800 workers and 150 administrative staff and 80 management level employees. The Top
level management views all the employees at same level. This can be clearly understood by
seeing the uniform of the company which is same for all starting from MD to lower level
workers.

The company have 2 different cafeterias at different places one near the plant for workers and
other near the Administration building. Though the place is different the amenities,
infrastructure and the food provided are of same quality. In short the company stands by the
rule Employee Equality.

The company has one registered trade union and the relationship between the union and the
management is very cordial. The company has not lost a single man day due to strike. The
company is not a pay master in that industry. The compensation policy of that company,
when compared to other similar companies, is very less still the employees don’t have many
grievances due to the other benefits provided by the company. But the company is facing
Countable number of problems in supplying the materials in recent past days. Problems like
quality issues, mismatch in packing materials (placing material A in box of material B)
incorrect labeling of material, not dispatching the material on time etc.

The management views the case as there are loop holes in the system of various departments
and hand over the responsibility to HR department to solve the issue. When the HR manager
goes through the issues he realized that the issues are not relating to system but it relates to
the employees. When investigated he come to know that the reason behind the casual
approach by employees in work is the company hired new employees for higher level post
without considering the potential internal candidates.

The newly hired employees are placed with higher packages than that of existing employees
in the same cadre.

Questions:-

1. Narrate the case with suitable Title for the case. Justify your title.
2. Help the organization to come out from this critical issue. If you are in the role of HR
manager, what will be your immediate step to solve this case.
Case Study : 3
Kalyani Electronics Corporation Ltd., recently diversified its activities and started producing
computers. It employed personnel at the lower level and middle level. It has received several
applications for the post of commercial manager – computer division. It could not decide
upon the suitability of the candidate to the position, but did find that Mr.Prakash is more
qualified for the position than other candidates. The Corporation had created a new post
below the cadre of General Manager i.e Joint General Manager and asked Mr.Prakash to join
the Corporation as Joint General Manager. Mr.Praksh agreed to it viewing that he will be
considered for General Manager’s position based on his performance. Mr.Anand, the Deputy
General Manager of the Corporation and one of the candidate for General Manager’s position
was angry with the management’s practice. But, he wanted to show his performance record to
the management at the next appraisal meeting. The management of the Corporation asked
Mr.Sastry, General Manager of Televisions Division to be the General Manager in-charge of
Computer Division for some time, until a new General Manager is appointed. Mr. Sastry
wanted to switch over to computer division in view of the prospectus, prestige and
recognition of the position among the top management of the corporation. He viewed this
assignment as a chance to prove his performance.
The Corporation has the system of appraisal of the superiors’ performance by the
subordinates. The performance of the Deputy General Manager, Joint General Manager and
General Manager has to be appraised by the same group of the subordinates. Mr.Anand and
Mr.Sastry know very well about the system and its operation, where as Mr.Prakash is a
stranger to the system as well as its mode of operation. Mr.Sastry and Mr.Anand were
competing with each other in convincing their subordinates about their performance and used
all sorts of techniques for pleasing them like promising their subordinates about their
performance, a wage hike, transfers to the job of their interest, promotions etc., However,
these two officers functioned in collocation with a view to pull down Mr.Prakash. They
openly told their subordinates that a stranger should not occupy the “chair”. They created
several groups among employees like pro-Anad’s group, pro-Sastry group and Anti-Prakash
group and Saastry group, anti Anand group and Prakash group.
Mr.Prakash has been watching the proceedings calmly and keeping the top management in
touch with all these developments. However, Mr.Prakash has been quite work-conscious and
top management found his performance under such a political atmosphere to be satisfactory.
Prakahs’s pleasing manners and way of maintaining human relations with different levels of
employees did, however, prevent the emergence of an anti Prakash wave in the company. But
in view of the political atmosphere within the company, there is no strong pro-Prakash’s
group either.
Management administered the performance appraisal technique and the subordinates
appraised the performance of all these three managers. In the end, surprisingly, the workers
assigned the following overall scores. Praksh : 560 Points, Sastry : 430 points and Anad : 260
points.

QUESTIONS
1. How would you evaluate the workers appraisal in this case?
 2. Do you suggest any technique to avert politics creeping into the process of
performance appraisal by subordinates?

Case Study – 4

Sagar Private Limited is a small company, which manufactures plastic products such as
mugs, buckets, and other household utility products. This company which is situated in an
industrial belt in New Mumbai has typical labor needs. Since quite a few operations including
packing of products are done manually, the company employs 80 workers on the shop floor.
The company supplies its products to retailers in and around Mumbai. It has a long
production run and longer product life-cycles and therefore the management believes that the
company is making fewer profits because of this. As a result, the top-management, which
comprises of the members of Maheshwari family, since this is a family managed business,
decided to invest resources on automation to have shorter production runs and shorter product
life-cycles. It has decided to introduce packaging machines to reduce semi-skilled and
unskilled labour.

The company has a bad record in industrial relations since workers in the past have had
several problems pertaining to wages and working conditions. Rajnath Dube, a worker who is
often pampered by management to get their way, dominates the company union. Rajnath is a
man who ranks very low in personal & professional ethics but has a way with people and is
good at politics. He has an influence with the workers who trust him and would act on his
advice. But the management is fully aware that Rajnath may not be able to help much if the
company thinks of retrenching workers. However the management decided to speak to
Rajnath regarding their decision to introduce automatic machines and subsequent lay off of
workers. Rajnath immediately sensed a good opportunity to make a big sum so he pretended
that convincing the workers was a herculean task and he would need at least six months time
to do this. The management was however impatient to introduce automation and told Rajnath
to convince workers within three months to help them implement the decision. Of course
Rajnath played his game and asked for a huge sum in reciprocation of his effort. The
Maheshwari brothers were shocked at the price that Rajnath wanted. They however knew that
things would only get worse if they refused Rajnath’s proposal.

CASE QUESTIONS

1. Was the Maheshwari family’s method of introducing change in Sagar Private Limited
appropriate?

2. What tactic would you have used to overcome workers’ resistance to change if you were in
the top management’s position?

3. How would you handle Rajnath if you were in place of the Maheshwari’s?
Case Study – 5
Dinesh, a machine operator, worked as a mechanist for Ganesh, the supervisor. Ganesh told
Dinesh to pick up some trash that had fallen from Dinesh’s work area, and Dinesh replied, “ I
wont do the janitor’s work. Ganesh replied, “when you drop it, you pick it up”. Dinesh
became angry and abusive, calling Ganesh a number of names in a loud voice and refusing to
pic up the trash. All employees in the department heard Disnesh’s comments.
Ganesh had been trying two weeks to get his employees to pickup trash in order to have clean
workplace and prevent accidents. He talked to all employees in a weekly departmental
meeting and to each employee individually at least once. He stated that he was following the
instructions of the general manager. The only objection cam e from Dinesh.
Dinesh has been with the company for five years, and in this department for six months.
Ganesh had spoken to him twice about excessive alcoholism, but otherwise his record was
good. He was known to quick temper.
This outburst by Dinesh hurt Ganesh badly. Ganesh told Dinesh to come to the officer and
suspended him for one day for insubordination and abusive language to a supervisor. The
decision was within company policy, and similar behaviours had been punished in other
departments.
After Dinesh left Ganesh’s office, Ganesh phoned the HR manager, reported what he had
done and said he was sending a copy of the suspension for Dinesh’s file.
Questions:
1. How would you rate Disnesh’s behaviour? What appraisal Method would you use?
2. How you change behaviour of the Dinesh and likeminded employees in the
organisation?