Assignment No.

Programme Name :MBA Semester: III Credit: 4

Course Title : STRATEGIC HRM Course Code: 20ODMBT739

Submitted Date: 2021 Last date of Submission:30th Nov
2021
Max. Marks: 30 Weightage: 15 Marks
Instructions:
 Sec-A is compulsory which consists of Ten Short Answer Questions (1 mark per
question). Answer length should be approximately 100 words.
 Attempt any Five questions from Sec-B out of Seven questions (4 marks per
question). Answer length should be approximately 800 words.

Section –A(10 Marks)

Q1. What is SHRM. Differentiate SHRM and HRM.

Answer. Human resource management (HRM) implies the governance of manpower of the
organization in a thorough and structured manner. SHRM is a managerial function which implies
framing of HR strategies in such a way to direct employees efforts towards the goals of the
organization. It exhibits leniency
Q2. Discuss the various approaches and challenges of SHRM
Answer. Generally, the main approaches to SHRM are divided into three main categories:
universalistic, contingency, and configurational. Universalistic or ‘best practice’ approach to HRM
relates to the viewpoint that there is a set of best HRM practices and their adoption is going to
generate positive results regardless of the circumstances associated with organisations.
Q3. What are the 5 main areas of HR?
Answer. An effective human resources department can help provide organizational structure and the
ability to meet business needs by managing your business’s most valuable asset – your employees.
Several disciplines make up the HR department, but HR practitioners might perform more than one of
the six main duties: talent management, compensation and benefits, training and development,
compliance and workplace safety.
Q4.What are the environmental factors affecting HRM?
Answer. Human resource management is a subsystem of an organization as a system. However,
when a subsystem is taken for analysis, it is treated as a system because it has the features of a
system. A system works in the context of its environment. Environment of a system consists of all those
factors which lie outside the system but affects working of the system.
Q5.Define Performance management
Answer. Performance management is a corporate management tool that helps managers monitor
and evaluate employees' work. Performance management's goal is to create an environment where
people can perform to the best of their abilities and produce the highest-quality work most efficiently
and effectively.
Q6. What should be the strategy of HRM?
Answer. All HR activities should be aligned with the HR strategy. These include recruitment,
selection, performance management, compensation and benefits, organization and function
design, and more. All these activities should be aligned with each other.
Q7.What is Outsourcing
Answer. Outsourcing is the business practice of hiring a party outside a company to perform services
or create goods that were traditionally performed in-house by the company's own employees and staff.
Outsourcing is a practice usually undertaken by companies as a cost-cutting measure. As such, it can
affect a wide range of jobs, ranging from customer support to manufacturing to the back office.
Q8.What is Contract Labour
Answer. contract labour, the labour of workers whose freedom is restricted by the terms of a
contractual relation and by laws that make such arrangements permissible and enforceable. The
essence of the contract labourer's obligation is his surrender for a specified period of the freedom to
quit his work and his employer.
Q9. Explain 3 stage model of M&A
Answer. In the realm of big business, mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are commonly used to
strengthen a company’s position and viability in the marketplace. M&As represent a profound change
for a business and throw up a lot of challenges, which must be tackled before a merger or acquisition
can be successful. These include financial, strategic and legal issues, as well as those relating to HR.
As with most forms of organizational restructuring, M&As incur a human cost, affecting not only the
employees of the companies in question, but also their stakeholders. Failure to address these
challenges can lead to serious difficulties and even prevent a successful M&A altogether. It is therefore
vital to understand the challenges related to M&As in advance. One of the models that help to explain
the M&A process is known as the “Three Stage Model”.
Q10. Explain the objectives of job evaluation.
Answer. The main objective of job evaluation is to determine relative worth of different jobs in an
organization to serve as a basis for developing equitable salary structure. The aim of job evaluation is
to establish, on agreed logical basis, the relative values of different jobs, it aims at determining the
relative worth of a job. The principle upon which all job evaluation schemes are based is that of
describing and assessing the value of all jobs in the firms in terms of a number of factors, the relative
importance of which varies from job to job.

Section –B(20 Marks)

Q1. Define HR strategies. Also discuss its types.

Answer. After the revolution of personnel management into human resources management now we
are open to new concept “human resources strategy”. Today Human beings are the most important
recourse for an organization and the existent of an organization are exclusively dependable on

employees. Today the most of problems and challenges in an organization are all human related. HR
Manger is more concern with employee thoughts, development, set values, expectations, motivation,

and psychology well-being. Repeated and frequent development in global markets and technology
make it more difficult for higher managers to develop HR strategies. To meet the competitive

requirement of market manger should acquire conceptual strategic skills and practices. That why HR
manager should adopt up to date training techniques so that low level employee’s productivity can be

elevate. Implementation of advance technology at workplace enable employee to defeat up rising

complications from upcoming technology. Demographic resemblance is in social context is important in

which individual interacts.

HR Strategy is the strategy adopted by an organization, which aims at integrating an organization's
culture, its employees, and system by coordinating a set of actions to get the required business goals
A Human Resource strategy is a business’s overall plan for managing its human capital to align it with
its organisation goals. The Human Resource strategy sets the direction for all the key areas of HR,
including hiring, performance appraisal, development, and compensation. The HR strategy is thus a
long-term plan that dictates HR practices throughout the organization.HR Strategy is the strategy
adopted by an organization which aims at integrating an organization’s culture, its employees and
system by coordinating a set of actions to get the required business goals.
Types of Human Resource Strategies
The human resources department generally has multiple functional areas. They include recruitment
and talent acquisition; employee relations and labor relations; compensation and benefits; workplace
safety; and employee training and development. Although these operating areas may function
separately, they are interdependent, meaning you cannot have recruitment and talent acquisition
separate from compensation benefits. You also must have employee training and development if you're
thinking of aligning organisational goals with human resources.
Employee relations are required to sustain positive employment relationships among the workforce, but
labor relations may only be required if your workforce is unionized or under the threat of becoming
unionized. Employers are needed to provide a safe work environment for employees, so workplace
safety is another needed operational area.
While it isn't the ideal situation, it is possible to engage in a HR strategy in one operating area and let
strategy take the back burner in another functional region. Overall, however, human resources strategy
should put on the hat of a holistic approach. The HR department supervisor or director should be part
of the executive team if the company's HR approach is, indeed, a strategic one. The types of human
resources strategies may differ based on the functional region.
Q3. . Discuss the basic objective of human resource management effectiveness
Answer. Human resource management is basically the administration of human resources. It primarily
refers to handling employees and acknowledging their requirements for maintaining a positive work
culture. The definition of HRM also includes a set of practices, which helps manage employee data like
attendance, payroll, and ensuring smooth employment.
Other functions of human resource management include expense management and staffing.
The primary objective of resource management is to ensure a seamless experience for the staff and
other people associated to management and organizational goals. Objectives of HRM include ensuring
availability of resources, easy access to data, on-time payroll, ensuring compliances, etc.
Achieve organizational goals- HRM function starts here. One major HRM objective is to fulfill
organizational goals. Utilizing human resources to achieve business requirements and goals is very
important for an effective HRM.
Organizational objectives include workforce handling, staff requirements like hiring and onboarding,
payroll management, and retirement. To succeed at the organizational objectives, HR requires efficient
planning and execution. Without a set parameter for goals and mission and resources, HRM is
incomplete
Work culture- When it comes to handling HRM effectively and following objectives, employee and work
environment are the prior factors. Work culture plays an important role in defining HRM and business
performance.
An HR manager needs to be active while calling for strategies to foster better work culture. Automated
activities like leave approvals, reimbursement request acknowledgment, etc. can help you. Quick
operations and empowerment to employees help in creating positive vibes at the workplace.
Developing and maintaining healthy and transparent relations among team members and teams
contribute to building a good example of a work culture. 

Team integration- One of the prime roles and objectives of HRM is to make sure the team coordinates
efficiently. Easy communication is the need for teams at an enterprise. An HR here must ensure a tool
to assist in making the integration easier and smooth.
Proper connection between individuals is a must to ensure productivity. To make HR management
successful, you need to search for better integration portals to make data availability easier for people.
Functional objectives like team integration are to produce streamlined operations and tasks.

Training and Development- Workforce being effective and performing are two important and basic
elements to work upon for achieving your basic objectives at an organization. With proper training and
providing future opportunities, employees feel safe and organized.
Effective employment is highly dependent upon the training practices. Providing opportunities to
employees is one great step to ensure workforce management.

Employee motivation- The prime objective of HR folk is to keep things on the right path. Keep
distractions and negative vibes away. For this, the employees need to be attended to and kept
motivated throughout. How can HR motivate employees?
Give powers to them. Take their views on things. Involve them in weekly meets or decisions. Even if it
is a fresher, let them join. Keep the morale always high. Employee recognition like yearly appraisal
based on their performance can too help.

Workforce empowerment- Talking about employee motivation, nothing can work better than
empowering them. Empowering them with tools like ESS (employee self-service) portal can help save
HR efforts too.
With the portal, employees can themselves apply for approvals and track them through their mobile
phones. Be it leave request, generating payslip, checking PF account, remaining leaves, upcoming
holidays, manager details, or anything, HR intervention is least required. Now, you no more need to
knock on HR’s desk for small queries.
Retention- Providing leadership qualities and opportunities, a healthy working area, and employee
retention are some prime objectives and deliverables of the HR managers. Keeping employees
retained and motivated needs to be a top priority for HRM.
Other than employee hiring, onboarding, and training cycle, keeping the employees retained for long is
the biggest challenge AKA objective of the HR people. It often occurs that employees leave the
organization within 2 months of onboarding. It can be due to ineffective training management or a
rough hiring process.

Data and compliance- Functional and organizational objectives also include managing company/
employee data and managing compliances. Managing payroll compliances and keeping the company
out of any penalties or fine is a huge challenge for HR people and managers.
Even a small error or miscalculation can owe you huge penalties and even may lose respect. When
committing to tasks like employment and payroll, you need to be careful about laws and regulations

Q4.What do you mean by Human Resource Department?

Answer. Human resources (HR) is the division of a business that is charged with finding, screening,
recruiting, and training job applicants, as well as administering employee-benefit programs. HR plays a
key role in helping companies deal with a fast-changing business environment and a greater demand
for quality employees in the 21st century.
John R. Commons, an American institutional economist, first coined the term "human resource" in his
book "The Distribution of Wealth," published in 1893. However, it was not until the 19th century that HR
departments were formerly developed and tasked with addressing misunderstandings between
employees and their employers.
 Human resources (HR) is the division of a business that is charged with
finding, screening, recruiting, and training job applicants, and
administering employee-benefit programs.
 Additional human resources responsibilities include compensation and
benefits, recruitment, firing, and keeping up to date with any laws that may
affect the company and its employees.
 Many companies have moved away from traditional in-house human
resources (HR) administrative duties and outsourced tasks like payroll and
benefits to outside vendors.
The presence of an HR department is an essential component of any business, regardless of the
organization's size. An HR department is tasked with maximizing employee productivity and protecting
the company from any issues that may arise within the workforce. HR responsibilities include
 compensation and benefits, recruitment, firing, and keeping up to date with any laws that may affect the
company and its employees.
 Managing and using people effectively
 Tying performance appraisal and compensation to competencies
 Developing competencies that enhance individual and organizational performance
 Increasing the innovation, creativity, and flexibility necessary to enhance competitiveness
 Applying new approaches to work process design, succession planning, career development,
and inter-organizational mobility
 Managing the implementation and integration of technology through improved staffing, training,
and communication with employees 1
Beginning in the 1980s, there was a push for strategic initiatives within HR departments. This
movement was based on research related to the impact of employee-related issues on a firm's long-
term business success. Collectively, these strategies are sometimes referred to as human resource
management (HRM) strategies. HRM is a comprehensive approach to managing employees and an
organization's culture and environment. It focuses on the recruitment, management, and general
direction of the people who work in an organization.
Q6. Briefly, explain the nature of career planning?
Answer. Career is viewed as a bunch or collection of jobs or positions. Generally, it describes an
applicable career path within the structure of the organization. Basically, it shows the
principal personnel development paths within the organization. The etymology of the term derived

from the Latin word career, which means race. All the jobs, that are held together during one’s working
life, constitute career. It is also viewed as the sequence of positions held by an individual during the

course of his employment life. Edwin B. Flippo defined a career, as a sequence of separate but related
work activities that provide continuity, order and meaning in a person’s life.

 The property of an occupation or organisation: In this way the career

describes the occupation itself or an employee’s tenure within an organisation.
 Advancement: It denotes the progression and increase in success an individual
receives within an occupation or organisation.
 Status of a profession: In this sense, career is used to distinguish different
profession. Such as engineering, medical profession is different from other
occupation like plumbing carpentry etc. The former is said to have a career where
the latter does not have.
 Involvement in one’s work: Sometimes career is used in a negative sense to
describe being extremely involved in the task or job one is doing.
 Stability of a person’s work pattern: Career describes a sequence of related
jobs. While a sequence of unrelated jobs does not describe career.
As both the individual and the organisation have interests in individual’s career, career planning is a
deliberate process of being aware of self, available opportunities, existing constraints with the

alternative choices and sequences. It also involves, identifying career related goals and undertaking
 work education and related developmental exercises to provide the right direction, proper timing and

sequences to attain a specific career goal. Essentially, Career planning helps the employees to plan for
their careers in terms of their capacities and competencies within the context of organisational needs. It

is concerned with devising an organizational system of career movement and growth. That provides
opportunities for an individual to grow and develop progressively and consistently from the point of

entry of an employment to the point of his or her retirement.

The need to plan for an employee’s career is basically caused by both economic and social forces. In an

ever changing environment, the human resources of an organisation need to and must be in a constant

state of development. A planned programme of internal human resource development pays more than

relying upon outside recruitment to cater to the sudden need. Above all, too many employees retire on
the job when there is no managerial concern for proper career progression. Further, the millennial day

employees insist and expect their work demands to be effectively integrated with human needs for
personal growth, match with family’s expectations and meet ethical requirements of society.

1. A Process: Career planning is an ongoing process of developing human resources. It is neither an event

nor a programme.
2. Upward movement: It involves upward movement in the organisational hierarchy. It could also be
special assignments, completing a project that requires better skills and abilities to handle recurring
problems.
3. Mutuality of Interest: Career planning serves mutuality of interest. It serves individual’s interest by
taking care of his needs and aspirations to the required extent. Simultaneously it serves the
organisation’s interest as the human resources of an organisation are provided with the opportunity to
develop and contribute to the organisation’s goals for fulfillment of its objectives to the best of their
ability and confidence.
4. Dynamic: The dynamic nature of career planning is to cope and adjust with the ever changing
environment.

Q7. What are the functions of HRD?

Answer. Development of human resources is essential for any organisation that would like to
be dynamic and growth-oriented. Unlike other resources, human resources have rather
unlimited potential capabilities. The potential can be used only by creating a climate that can
continuously identify, bring to surface, nurture and use the capabilities of people. Human
Resource Development (HRD) system aims at creating such a climate. A number of HRD
techniques have been developed in recent years to perform the above task based on certain
 principles. This unit provides an understanding of the concept of HRD system, related
mechanisms and the changing boundaries of HRD.

HRD concept was first introduced by Leonard Nadler in 1969 in a conference in US. “He
defined HRD as those learning experience which are organized, for a specific time, and
designed to bring about the possibility of behavioral change”.
Human Resource Development (HRD) is the framework for helping employees develop their
personal and organizational skills, knowledge, and abilities. Human Resource Development
includes such opportunities as employee training, employee career development, performance
management and development, coaching, mentoring, succession planning, key employee
identification, tuition assistance, and organization development. The focus of all aspects of
Human Resource Development is on developing the most superior workforce so that the
organization and individual employees can accomplish their work goals in service to customers.
Human resource development in the organisation context is a process by which the employees
of an organisation are helped, in a continuous and planned way to:

1. Acquire or sharpen capabilities required to perform various functions associated
with their present or expected future roles;
2. Develop their general capabilities as individuals and discover and exploit their
own inner potentials for their own and/or organisational development purposes; and
3. Develop an organisational culture in which supervisor-subordinate relationships,
teamwork and collaboration among sub-units are strong and contribute to the
professional well being, motivation and pride of employees.
The core of the concept of HRS is that of development of human beings, or HRD. The concept
of development should cover not only the individual but also other units in the organisation. In
addition to developing the individual, attention needs to be given to the development of
stronger dyads, i.e., two-person groups of the employee and his boss. Such dyads are the basic
units of working in the organisation. Besides several groups like committees, task groups, etc.
also require attention. Development of such groups should be from the point of view of
increasing collaboration amongst people working in the organisation, thus making for an
effective decision-making. Finally, the entire department and the entire organisation also
should be covered by development. Their development would involve developing a climate
conducive for their effectiveness, developing self-renewing mechanisms in the organisations so
that they are able to adjust and pro-act, and developing relevant processes which contribute to
their effectiveness. Hence, the goals of the HRD systems are to develop:
1. The capabilities of each employee as an individual.
2. The capabilities of each individual in relation to his or her present role.
3. The capabilities of each employee in relation to his or her expected future role(s).
4. The dyadic relationship between each employee and his or her supervisor.
5. The team spirit and functioning in every organisational unit (department, group,
etc.).
6. Collaboration among different units of the organisation.
7. The organisation’s overall health and self-renewing capabilities which, in turn,
increase the enabling capabilities of individuals, dyads, teams, and the entire organisation.