Chapter 1

Application Case: Jack Nelson's Problem

1. What do you think was causing some of the problems in the bank home office and branches? There is clearly a
problem with communication, and the effects are felt in the area of employee commitment. Additional contributing
factors include the lack of consistency in the policies and procedures of various locations. There is no cohesiveness to
the staffing activities of this organization.

2. Do you think setting up a HR unit in the main office would help? Of course we think it would! Since there are HR-
related problems both in the home office and in the branches, it is clear that if a personnel office were set up, it would
need to help to coordinate the HR activities in the branches.

3. What specific functions should it carry out? What HR functions would then be carried out by supervisors and
other line managers? What role should the Internet play in the new HR organization? There is room for quite a
bit of variation in the answers to this question. Our suggested organization would include: HR Unit: job analyses,
planning labor needs and recruiting, providing advising and training in the selection process, orientation of new
employees, managing wage and salary administration, managing incentives and benefits, providing and managing the
performance appraisal process, organization-wide communications, and providing training & developing services.
Supervisors and Other Line Managers: interviewing and selection of job candidates, training new employees,
appraising performance, departmental & personal communications, and training & development. Internet and HR: shift
some activities to specialized online service portals and/or providers.

Continuing Case: Carter Cleaning Company

1. Make a list of 5 specific HR problems you think Carter Cleaning will have to grapple with?

Potential answers could include the following:

1) Staffing the company with the right human capital by identifying the skills and competencies that are
required to perform the jobs and the type of people that should be hired. Sourcing candidates and
establishing an efficient and effective recruiting and selection process will be an important first step.

2) Planning and establishing operational goals and standards and developing rules and procedures to
support business goals and strategies. Failure to do so will result in a lack of clarity around performance
expectations down the line as each store becomes operational.

3) Implementing effective Performance Management through setting performance standards, high

quality appraisal of performance, and providing ongoing performance coaching and feedback to develop
the abilities of each person and support positive employee relations.

4) Designing an effective compensation system that will give the company the ability to attract, retain
and motivate a high quality workforce, providing appropriate wages, salaries, incentives and benefits. A
poorly designed system will result in difficulty in attracting candidates, turnover and low employee
morale.

5) Training and developing employees both at the management and employee level to be able to
perform the job to meet the performance expectations. This should include a new hire orientation
program as well as a program for ongoing training and development. Lack of attention to this
component may result in errors, increase in operational costs, turnover, and morale problems.
2. What would you do first if you were Jennifer?

Answers will vary; however, probably the most important first step is to ensure that the
staffing process is well designed and targeting the right mix of skills and abilities needed
among candidates. A thorough job should be done in analyzing the requirements of each
job, developing a complete job description for each role, and sourcing candidates that
meet those requirements. Significant time should be invested in the hiring process to
ensure that the candidates hired meet the requirements and possess the skills and
abilities to do the job.

Chapter 3

Application Case: Siemens Builds a StrateUntitled 1gy – Oriented HR System

1. Based on the information in this case, provide examples, for Siemens, of at least four strategically required
organizational outcomes, and four required workforce competencies and behaviors. Strategically required
organizational outcomes would be the following: 1) An employee selection and compensation system that attracts and
retains the human talent necessary to support global diversification into high tech products and services 2) A “learning
company” in which employees are able to learn on a continuing basis; 3) A culture of global teamwork which will
develop and use all the potential of the firm’s human resources; 4) A climate of mutual respect in a global organization.
Workforce competencies and behaviors could include 1) Openness to learning; 2) teamwork skills; 3) cross-cultural
experience; 4) openness, respect and appreciation for workforce diversity.

2. Identify at least four of the strategically relevant HR system policies and activites that Siemens has
instituted in order to help HR contribute to achieving Siemens’ strategic goals.
1) Training and development activities to support continuous learning through a system of combined
classroom and hands-on apprenticeship training to support technical learning; 2) Continuing education and
management development to as developing skills necessary for global teamwork and appreciation for
cultural diversity; 3) Enhanced internal selection process which includes pre-requisites of cross-border and
cross cultural experiences for career advancement; 4) Organizational development activities aimed at
building openness, transparency, fairness, and supporting diversity

3. Provide a brief illustrative outline of an HR scorecard for Siemens.

Metrics could include things such as:

1. Level of organizational learning:
a. Number of hours of technical training per employee (class room and hands-on)
b. Number of hours of education management development
2. Level of cross cultural team work
a. Number of employees assigned to roles including cross-border and cross-cultural experiences
b. Survey results measuring employee climate on dimensions of teamwork, openness,
transparency, fairness, diversity
3. Extent to which the employees can describe the company’s core values
4. Effectiveness of selection process for identifying high quality candidates – number of qualified
candidates per position, turnover and retention statistics.

Continuing Case: the Carter Cleaning Company

1. Would you recommend that the Carters expand their quality program? If so,
specifically what form should it take? Most students will agree that there are
opportunities to expand the quality program. The employee meeting approach is a good
 start in terms of utilizing high involvement organizational practices. There are opportunities
to maximize the overall quality of their human capital. For example, training seems to be
an obvious area to focus in terms of educating and building awareness about basic
standards and procedures.
2. Assume the Carters want to institute a high performance work system as a test
program in one of their stores. Write a one page outline summarizing what such a
program would consist of. Students should include some of the following ideas in their
outline: Identify the types of HR practices they would implement to improve quality,
productivity, financial performance; methods for job enrichment; strategies for implement
and leverage a team-based organization; ways to implement and facilitate high
commitment work practices; employee development and skill building to foster increased
competency and capability in the workforce; a compensation program which provides
incentives (for example profit sharing; pay for performance) for achieving major goals and
financial targets.

Chapter 4

Continuing Case: Carter Cleaning Company The Job Description

1. What should be the format and final form of the store manager’s job description?
The format noted in figure 4-7 could be a reasonable format to use. Students may
recommend that Jennifer include standards of performance section in the job description.
This lists the standards the employee is expected to achieve under each of the job
description’s main duties and responsibilities, and would address the problem of
employees not understanding company policies, procedures, and expectations. In
addition, students may recommend that Jennifer instead take a competency-based
approach which describes the job in terms of the measurable, observable, behavioral
competencies that an employee doing that job must exhibit. Because competency
analysis focuses more on “how” the worker meets the job’s objectives or actually
accomplishes the work, it is more worker focused.

2. Was it practical to specify standards and procedures in the body of the job
description, or should these be kept separately? They do not need to be kept
separately, and in fact both Jennifer and the employees would be better served by
incorporating standards and procedures into the body of the description. The exception to
this would be if the standards and procedures are so complex or involved that it becomes
more pragmatic to maintain a separate procedures manual.

3. How should Jennifer go about collecting the information required for the standards,
procedures, and job description? She should first go about conducting the job
analysis, collecting information about the work activities, human behaviors, machines,
tools, equipment, and work aids, performance standards, job context, and human
requirements. The best methods for collecting this information in this case are through
interview, questionnaires, observation, diaries/logs maintained by employees, In addition,
she should ensure that she is identifying the essential functions of the job, and that the
descriptions are ADA compliant.