PRAYAG UNION1

Satyendra Pandey and Sushanta Sarma wrote this case solely to provide material for student assignment and
class discussion. The authors do not intend to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of a managerial
situation. The authors have disguised certain names and other identifying information to protect confidentiality

To find the replacement of vacant position of Procurement Supervisor, Prayag

District Coop Milk Producers Union Limited (Prayag Union), identified the following
requirement:

- Applicant should be a graduate in Veterinary Science/Agriculture

- Minimum Five years of experience, out of which two years of experience in
the relevant field of sourcing and direct exchange with the village level
producers.
- Less than 30 years of age.

With this Job Specification, Prayag Union attracted hundreds of applications in a

quick span of 2 weeks. The head of the personnel department, with the help of an
academic, also worked out the revised job description based on the interview with
the Assistant Manager (Procurement) and Manager (Procurement). The Prayag
Union conducted interviews and offered the position to one Sushma Jha. Sushma
was already working with a small dairy in a nearby district. She had obtained her
Veterinary degree from a reputed university in Uttarakhand with distinction.
Sushma took the job very diligently. Her visit to the DCSs were indeed helping in
increasing the procurement. She used to interact with the farmers and tried to
understand their concerns on quality parameters, payments, and livestock input
services. Wherever she found a requirement, she used to contact Sr. Vet. Officer
(Field - DCS) (See Exhibit 3 of Part 1 of Prayag Union) to get the issues resolved on
the input services front such as veterinary medicines, vaccination, etc. Her
knowledge of animals, being a veterinarian, helped her establish a great rapport
with the farmers.
Although Sushma joined in the middle of the year, Prayag union followed an FY
end cycle for performance appraisal for all the employees. Sushma’s performance
though felt by all as excellent on to the procurement, was to be rated on a
Performance Appraisal template (see Exhibit 1).

The year-end performance rating got Sushma worried. As she settled on her chair
in the office, she verbalized the rating “3.5 on Behavioral rating and 2.37 on Skill.”
“The organization surely does not understand much about evaluating performance
on aspects of skill,” she added.

Talking to her friend later in the evening, Sushma also expressed her
dissatisfaction with the Performance Appraisal template. “How can you have one
template for all the Managers, Assistant Managers, and Supervisors. Is there a
thing called customization” she said in a firm voice.

Later that month, Sushma received her Training Need Identification Form (see
Exhibit 2) filled by the personnel department based on her performance appraisal.
Sushma thought MDP at a management institute might have little to offer to her,

1
Part 2 of Continuing Case for PRM 41 – HRM Class Assignment
and perhaps learning on the field, working with the Assistant Manager and
Manager in her own (Procurement) department would serve her well. But little
could she do, she thought, “I am new to Prayag Union.”

Now there is an urgent need to fill up the position of procurement supervisor.

 How do you evaluate Sushma’s remark, “The organization surely does not
understand much about evaluating performance on aspects of skill?” What
changes the appraisal form requires to make it more robust in capturing the
performance of the employee? [Propose a new template]
 How do you evaluate the Training Need Identification Form? What are the
shortcomings of such form? Propose a system if this is not the best way to
assess the training need.
 Evaluate Sushma’s situation from a Career Management aspect. Her thought
on being new to the system.
 Make a deck (maximum four slides) covering the three above-mentioned
points.
Exhibit 1: Performance Appraisal form for Managers, Assistant Managers, and
Supervisors at Prayag Union

A. SKILL ASPECTS

Skil Skill Description Rating No Rating

l Description
No.
1 Technical Know-how
2 Maintenance of Records
3 Ability to meet organizational
requirements
4 Managerial/Supervisory
Skills
4a Planning
4b Assigning work to
subordinates
4c Communicating/up
flow/down flow
(formal/informal)
4d Reporting
5 Ability to share responsibility
Sum of A
Rating on A. Sum of A /8

B. Behavioral Aspects

Skil Behavioral Description Rating No Rating

l Description
No.
1 Commitment towards
entrusted work
2 Innovativeness/creativity
3 Timeliness
4 Respect towards co-
workers/supervisors
5 Ability to work in Teams
6 Leadership qualities
7 Dissemination of Technical
information/know how
8 Attitude towards
organizational practices
Sum of B
Rating of B Sum of B/8

Overall Performance Rating = [Rating of A + Rating of B] / 2

Rating No. Rating Description
5 Excellent (consistently exceeds
standards)
4 Outstanding (frequently exceeds
standards)
3 Satisfactory (generally meets
standards)
2 Needs improvement (frequently fails to
meet standards)
1 Unacceptable (fails to meet standards)
 Exhibit 2: Training Need Identification Form of Sushma

Personnel TRAINING NEED IDENTIFICATION FOR PROCUREMENT Document PRAYAG/PD/04

AND INPUTS No.
Date of 23/04/2019
Issue
Version 1
Page No. 1 of 1
Employee Employee Name Designation Skill Rating Behavioral Rating
No.
1 2 3 4a 4b 4c 4d 5 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
444 Sushma Jha Procurement 3 3 3 2 1 3 3 1 3 3 4 4 2 4 4 4
Supervisor
Field

Comment: Require supervisory skill training and improve Skill Rating to 3 for the next Performance Appraisal cycle. May be sent
for an MDP on General Management and Planning at a Management Institute.
Skill No. Skill Description Self- Manager Rating Description
Rating Rating No.
No.
1 Technical Know-how    
2 Computer Knowledge    
3 Quantity and Growth ( in number of DCS)    

4 Managerial/Supervisory Skills    
4a Milk collection(meeting monthly targets)    
4b Milk quality and testing (meeting standards)    
4c Communicating/up flow/down flow (formal/informal)(local    
language)
4d Reporting(preparing receipts, vouchers, P&L and BL    
statements)
4e Capability of conflict management (in numbers)    
  Behavioural Aspects    
5 Innovativeness/creativity - The ability to plan work and to
proceed with a task without being told every detail and the
ability to make constructive suggestions.
 6 Cooperation- Willingness to work harmoniously with others  
in getting a job done. Readiness to respond positively to
instructions and procedures.

7 Attendance - Consistency in coming to work daily and

conforming to scheduled work hours.