Human Resource Management – MB0027

February 15, 2010

1. Mention and briefly explain the different sources of recruitment
The sources of recruitment can be briefly classified into two types, internal and external.

Some of them are listed as follows:

I. Advertising

There is a trend towards more selective recruitment in advertising. This can be

affected in at least two ways. Advertisements can be either placed in media only by
particular groups or more information about the company; the job and the job
responsibilities can be included in the ad to permit some self screening.

II. Employment agencies

Employment agencies can be utilized for additional screening. Nowadays most

agencies specialize in a particular sector of job such as sales, executive level etc.

III. Employee referrals

Friends and relatives of present employees are also a good source to recruit from.
When the labour market is very tight, large employers frequently offer the
employees bonus in terms of cash or gifts for any referrals that are hired and stay
with the company for a long period of time. This may have a setback when the
organization gets filled with people from a particular place, caste, religion favoring
groups.

IV. Campus recruitments

Many educational institutions invite companies to recruit their students. This form of
recruitment is generally offered to professional degree holders.

V. Casual applicants

Many applications can be collected from emails received randomly, or applications

dropped by the company offices by job seekers.

VI. Executive recruiters

There are organizations that maintain a complete information records about

employed executives. These organizations are also known as “head hunters”. These
agencies are generally used for executives in higher levels. They may pose as a
threat to organizations that lose their talented employees.

VII. Voluntary organizations

These include the clubs, social organizations etc.

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VIII. Outsourcing

This is a recent trend that is observed, where in firms employ other firms to cater to
their needs. Many companies in the US outsource their customer support to firms in
India or other Asian countries to save on labour costs.

IX. Leasing

Leased employees are individuals who are hired by one firm and sent to work in
another firm for a specific duration of time. When an organization has a requirement
for an employee with particular skills they approach the leasing firms. Leased
employees are generally well trained individuals.

X. Online job sites

Many online job portals are available in recent times that have changed the
recruitment cycles a lot.

They have stored information of various candidates who register with them. Some
of the famous examples are www.monster.com; www.naukri.com; www.bayt.com
and many more.

2. Write a note on guided and unguided interview

Guided Interview:

A guided interview is a process where the candidates answer to specific questions that will
reveal their behavioral traits. The questions selected are presumed to reveal the true self
of an individual. These questions are also known as “Psychometric Assessments”. This is
generally done to reveal the moral of a candidate.

There are many factors that can be measured by these assessments. Some of them are

a. The thinking style of a person

b. The behavioral traits of a person

c. The occupational interests of a person

Unguided Interview:

In this scenario, role plays are generally used where in candidates are exposed to a
sample life at work.

They are given role plays to enact and interviewers observe them closely on how they will
react at different situations. Interviewers believe that when candidates are exposed to the
real scenario they expose their true selves.

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Generally a combination of both the guided interview and the unguided interview is best
advised. Man6y companies are facing an issue with employees leaving the organizations
in a short period of time.

3. Discuss the techniques to motivate employees

By nature man is constantly motivated. When motivated rightly a employee can generate
optimum results.

Some generally used motivation techniques are as follows:

i. Size up situation requiring motivation

The first stage of motivation is to make sure of motivational needs. Every employee
needs motivation. However all people do not react to the same type of motivation
provided. Keeping this in mind the human resource department should research on
what type of motivation is suitable for different individuals.

ii. Prepare a set of motivation tools

After the determining the motivational needs of all employees, the HR department
should apply the different drafted tools on the employees. The HR department
should have information on what type of motivation works for different people.

iii. Selecting and applying the appropriate motivator

Proper application and execution of motivational plan is required. This involves the
selection of the appropriate technique, the method of application and the timing
and location to apply the technique.

iv. Follow up the results of application

The last of motivation is to follow up the results of application of the plan. We need
to check if the employee has been motivated or not. If not, another technique
should be used.

The follow up will also serve as a method our motivational plans.

4. Explain in detail the disciplinary – Action Penalties

There are varying penalties for the different offences. Among them some are listed as
below:

a. Oral reprimand
b. Written reprimand
c. Loss of privileges
d. Fines
e. Lay off
f. Demotion
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g. Discharge

The penalties are listed in the order of severity, from mild to severe. For most cases, an
oral reprimand or first warning is sufficient to achieve the desired result. The
supervisor or manager must know his employees very well in order to determine how
to give the reprimand.
If the offence is severe generally a written warning is given.
For offences which include tardiness, leaving work without permission, fines or loss of
privileges are sufficient.
Penalties like layoff, demotion are generally given in cases of severe offences where
the company is at stake.
This is generally done under the supervision of the senior management.

Every company in general has a list of penalties to be issued and when.

This document is circulated among the employees when they join the organization, so
that they are well aware of the rules and regulations of the company they are to join.

5. Explain the importance of grievance handling

There is hardly any organization where the employees do not have some or the other sort
of grievance. Perhaps, human nature is such that wherever he works, he has grievance
about something or the other. In some cases the employees have complaints against the
employers and vice versa. These grievances may be real or imaginary, valid or invalid,
genuine or false.
The most important thing is that these grievance causes unhappiness, frustration,
indifference and lowers the morale of the employees. This results in lowering the
productivity of an employee.

It is the responsibility of the management in an organization to find a solution to the

grievances caused to the employees. The best settlement can be done at the earlier
stages when the grievance is still under control.
Generally the human resource department in every organization guides the managers who
have employees working under them to handle these grievances in a scientific way.

The following directions help in handling a grievance:

I. Receive and define the nature of the dissatisfaction
As a principle, the supervisor or manager should assume that the employee is fair in
presenting the complaint or grievance. Statements should not be prejudged on the
basis of past experience and evry case should be handled as a new issue.

II. Get the facts

In gathering facts, one quickly becomes aware of the importance of keeping proper
records such as performance ratings, job ratings, attending records and suggestions.

III. Analyze and divide

With the problem defined and the facts in hand, the manager must now analyze and
evaluate them, and then come to a decision. There is generally more than one solution
to a problem.

IV. Apply the answer

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The supervisor should justify his moves to the management and employee. All the
proceedings should be witnessed by another member of the organization and recorded
duly.

V. Follow up
The objective of following the grievance procedure is to come to an agreement and
resolve the rift between the management and the employee. Hence follow up is very
important. If follow up indicates that the grievance is not resolved then alternative
solutions or a backup plan should be applied.

6. Explain managerial grid in detail

Robert Blake, an eminent behavioral scientist conducted a study on 5000 managers in
order to differentiate them on the basis of their concern to people and concern to task. He
put it on a grid and named it “Managerial Grid”.

HIGH

Concern
8 1,9 9,9
for people 7

5 5,
4
5
3

1 1,1 9,1 HIGH

LOW
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Concern for task

This model was developed in the year 1964. it is a behavioral leadership model
developed by Robert Blake and Jane Mouton. This model identifies five different
leadership styles based on the concern for people and the concern for production. The
optimal leadership style in this model is based on Theory Y.

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In the above figure, the X axis is represented by “Concern for task” or for results and the Y
axis is denoted by “Concern for people”. Each axis ranges from low of 1 to high of 9.

The five leadership styles resulting from the above are as follows:

a. The Impoverished style (1,1) – The Indifferent Leader (Evade & Result)

Here managers have low concern for both people and production.

b. The country club style (1,9) – the accommodating leader (Yield & Comply)

Here the manager has a high concern for people and a low concern for production

c. The produce or perish style (9,1) – The controlling leader (Direct & Dominate)

Here the manager has high concern for production and a very low concern for people.

d. The middle of the road style (5,5,) – The status Quo leader (Balance & Compromise)

Managers using this style try to balance between company goals and workers needs.

e. The team style (9,9) – The sound /team leader (Contribute & Commit)

Here the managers have a high concern is paid both to people and production.

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