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SBMF20








Programme Cohort
Master of Business Administration General MBAG/10/PT
MBA-Human Resources & Knowledge
Management
MBAHR/10/PT
Examinations for 2010 2011 Semester I
/ 2010 Semester II
MODULE: HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

MODULE CODE: MBA 1409

DURATION: 3 HOURS


Instructions to Candidates:

1. This question paper consists of Section A and Section B.
2. Section A is compulsory.
3. Answer any two questions from Section B.
4. Always start a new question on a fresh page.
5. Total Marks: 100

This question paper contains 4 questions and 4 pages.




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SECTION A: COMPULSORY

QUESTION 1: (40 MARKS)

Jeffrey Travers, a Human Resource Manager who had served for many years as
Head of the Recruitment and Selection section for a large Municipality was
subsequently appointed to the post of Director of the citys human resource
operations. In this capacity he assumed responsibility for a wide range of activities
including recruitment and selection. He also found himself working much more
closely with elected municipal councilors and officials at the policy-making level.

Invited as a guest Speaker at an annual meeting of international Human resource
Vice-Presidents, Directors and Managers, Jeffrey Travers recalled his experiences
as Head of recruitment and selection and had this to say:

I have arrived at the conclusion that selection and the activities of selection
specialists represent a relatively low priority in the viewpoint of elected
municipal councillors. Selection is not even the subject of discussion and
dispute or controversy at the Finance Committees or council meetings unless
the municipality has to make huge out-of-court cash settlements for unfair
dismissals or the government withholds revenues from us. Here, the political
leaders will undoubtedly be concerned, but not with the system and value of
recruitment and selection based on merit or with employment tests , but with
the size of financial settlements resulting from damages and severance
payments, which they will perceive as mismanagement on our part.

The issues that do receive attention are employee relations, wage and salary
administration and benefits management. It is not hard to see why. All these
personnel issues are cost-related items, and all involve huge sums of money.
For example, health-related benefits, like sick pay, maternity and paternity
benefits and allowances alone amount to Rs 30 million per year and keep
increasing.
(Cont.)
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A 12% pay raise for members of one union will cost the municipality
approximately Rs 20 million over two years, and we have over nine unions with
which to negotiate. Clearly financial constraints at all levels of government
have made economic concerns paramount to policy-making officials and
elected councillors. It is therefore understandable that the areas within human
resources that receive the greatest attention are the areas which the elected
officials see as being most directly related to productivity, cost containment
and cost control.


QUESTION 1: (40 MARKS)

a. If you were Jeffery Travers, and were convinced that good selection was a
major factor in productivity, cost containment and cost control, how would
you go about demonstrating that fact to the elected councillors and officials
who hold the purse strings? (25 marks)

b. How would you maintain an employee promotion procedure based on
consistently satisfactory work performance when the unions insist that it
should be solely based on seniority ? (15 marks)









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SECTION B: ANSWER ANY TWO QUESTIONS

QUESTION 2: (30 MARKS)

a. Why do individual monetary incentives tend to have greater motivational
effects than group incentive systems? (15 marks)

b. How does goal setting operate as a motivational process, and what factors do
and do not influence its success? (15 marks)

QUESTION 3: (30 MARKS)

As a Human Resources Consultant, you have been assigned the task of producing a
Human Resource Plan (HRP) for a client organisation:

a. What types of information would you need before you produce the HRP?
(15 marks)

b. Outline what kinds of measures you would need to incorporate into the HRP
to cope with any surplus of staff in the next twelve months. (15 marks)

QUESTION 4: (30 MARKS)

There seems to be an unquestioning assumption that training is the solution to
performance problems amongst all categories of employees. Critically assess the
validity of this common belief in some organizations.



***END OF QUESTION PAPER***