IMT-62: STRATEGIC HRD

PART A
Q1. Describe environmental analysis. Enlist the steps involved in the process of environmental analysis.

Ans. Environmental analysis comprises scanning, monitoring, analyzing, and forecasting the business situation. Thus, scanning is to get the relevant information from the information overload, which is to focus on the most relevant information, while monitoring is to check the nature of the environmental factors. Analyzing, on the other hand, requires data collection and use of different required tools and techniques, while forecasting is to find the future possibilities based on the past results and present scenario. Environmental analysis process is not static but a dynamic process, which may differ depending on the situation. However, a general process with few common steps can be identified as the process of environmental analysis these are: a) b) c) d) e) f) g) Monitoring or identifying environmental factors Scanning and selecting the relevant factors and grouping them Defining variables for analysis Using different methods, tools, and techniques for analysis Analyzing environmental factors and forecasting Designing profiles Strategic positioning and writing a report

Selected environmental factors are to be further specified into the variables, such as instability, reliability, and long-term effect. As such, variables are the basis of measurement in environmental analysis process, which can be compared, grouped, correlated, and predicted to find the clearer picture of the broader concept. Therefore, it is necessary to define the variables first in any kind of analysis including the environmental analysis using different methods, techniques, and tools, and some of the major methods of analysis can be Scenario Building, Benchmarking, and Network methods. Analysis tools can be statistical such general descriptive tools as mean, median, mode, frequency, which can be inferential as ANOVA, correlation, regression, factor, cluster, and multiple regression analysis.

Q2.

How can OD organization.

intervention

techniques

be

implemented

in

an

Ans. Organization Development (OD) interventions techniques are the methods created by OD professionals and others. However, single organization or consultant cannot use all the interventions, and they use these interventions depending upon the need or requirement. The most important interventions are: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Survey feedback Process Consultation sensitivity Training The Managerial grid Goal setting and Planning Team Building and management by objectives Job enrichment, changes in organizational structure and participative management and Quality circles, ISO, TQM

Survey feedback is when the intervention provides data and information to the managers, analyze the data, find out the problem, evaluate the results and develop the means to correct the problems identified. While process consultation is meeting the members of the department and work teams observes the interaction, problem identification skills, solving procedures etc., feeds back the team with the information collected through observations, coaches and counsels individuals and groups in molding their behavior. Goal setting and planning is done in each division in an organization, wherein it sets the goals or formulates the plans for profitability, which are sent to the top management which in turn sends them back to the divisions after modification. Subsequently, managerial grid identifies a range of management behavior based on the different ways that how production/service oriented and employee oriented states interact with each other. These emergent perspectives of OD see the organization as the holistic interplay of a number of systems that impact the process and outputs of the entire organization, and assists in planning, strategizing and makes wide effort to increase organization's effectiveness and viability, as well as bringing in a particular kind of change process designed to bring about particular kind of end result.

Q3.

List the constraints the organization may come across during strategic implementation.

Ans. Once strategies have been agreed on, the next step is implementation, and this is where most failures occur, which is not uncommon for strategic plans to be drawn up annually, and to have no impact on the organization as a whole. A common method of strategic implementation is hoopla-a total communication effort, which can involve slogans, posters, events, memos, videos, Web sites, etc., and almost always involves the introduction of change to an organization. And when a strategic change is poorly introduced, managers may actually spend more time implementing changes resulting from the new strategy than was spent in selecting it. Strategy implementation involves both macro-organizational constraints (e.g., technology, reward systems, decision processes, and structure), and microorganizational constraints (e.g., organization culture and resistance to change). Macro-organizational constraints involve large-scale, system-wide issues that affect many people within the organization, and there are several major internal subsystems of the organization that must be coordinated to successfully implement a new organization strategy that include technology, reward systems, decision processes, and structure. And as with any system, the subsystems are interrelated, and changing one may impact others. While micro-organizational issues pertain to the behavior of individuals within the organization and how individual actors in the larger organization will view strategy implementation, and can be studied by looking at the impact organization culture and resistance to change has on employee acceptance and motivation to implement the new strategy. What many managers fail to realize is that the information that may make one strategic alternative an obvious choice is not readily available to the individual employees who will be involved in the day-to-day implementation of the chosen strategy, and these employees are often comfortable with the old way of doing things and see no need to change.

Q4.

Elucidate how organization.

managers

can

facilitate

cultural

change

in

an

Ans. Most organizations seek to change and adapt new culture and leadership style according to their business environment with the objective of gaining an increased competitive advantage. The study of leadership, culture and employee motivation determining organization performance has become more complex in recent years as the understanding of the nature of organizations has advanced towards globalization. Many organizational corporate cultures are now viewed as being central component in the organizations, which gives rise to the question as how does one try to define and apply such a subjective term as culture and leadership and what implications does it have for management practitioners. Managers can facilitate cultural change in an organization by adapting to the challenges that an integrated global communication and information system are bringing to the international business environment. Properly initiated cultural change, a manager should have to have a full understanding of the nature of an organization, and gaining this understanding has sparked much debate as how an organization actually operates, and without this knowledge then decisions are made using false assumptions rather than informed judgment. Culture can fundamentally be interpreted from two different perspectives; the objectivist or interpretive perspective. Thus, the former perceives culture as a variable that can be changed or manipulated to aid organizational performance. While the interpretive perspective used culture as something that an organization actually is, as opposed to something that it has. Culture from this perspective is highly complex and un-quantifiable and thus impossible to change or manipulate. Therefore, an organizations resistance to change in the face of environmental pressures and uncertainty is the organizations culture that causes resistance and needs changing.

Q5.

An organizational design is intimately concerned with the way in which decision making is centralized, shared or delegated and with the way the enterprise is governed. What are determinants of organizational design?

Ans. The determinants of an organizational design according to Mintzberg, follows two basic approaches to the formation of organizational structure, the contingency approach and the configuration approach. According to the contingency approach, the structure of an organization will depend on factors like the nature of its business and its strategy, its size, the geographical span of its activities, its age and history and the nature of its environment. Relatively, as per Mintzberg, rather than adopting a contingency approach, it is sometimes better to base structure on a configuration approach, and factors like spans of control, the need for formalization, centralization or decentralization, and planning systems should be logically configured into internally consistent groupings. Excellent organizational performance depends on strategy, systems, culture (shared values), skills, leadership, staff and structure (drawing on what has become known as the McKinsey 7S framework). As these organizational features are interdependent, each was thought to play an important part in determining the others, so that structure will be affected by strategy, systems, culture, etc. Equally, structure will help to shape strategy, culture and systems, which is therefore evident that there are many complex factors shaping the structure of organizations. The design that an organization adopts (which may be a domestic internationalized business) will depend on several determining factors: The nature of the business; The environment of the organization; The global strategy of the business; The age and history of the organization; The size of business and limitations of span of control; or

The level of technology in the organization; The geographical span of activities; The culture of the organization; Leadership and leadership style.

PART B Q1. Differentiate between Mintzbergs and Mckinseyss framework of

strategy. Ans. Management expert, Henry Mintzberg, developed his 5 Ps of Strategy five different definitions of (or approaches to) developing strategy, and each of the 5 Ps is a different approach to strategy. They are: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Plan. Ploy. Pattern. Position. Perspective.

By understanding each P, one can develop a robust business strategy that takes full advantage of the organization's strengths and capabilities, and planning is something that many managers are happy with, and it is something that comes naturally to us. According to Mintzberg, getting the better of competitors, by plotting to disrupt, dissuade, discourage, or otherwise influence them, can be part of a strategy, and this is where strategy can be a ploy, as well as a plan. On the other hand, the 7S McKinsey model is essentially a Value Based Management (VBM) model that is intended to provide a company with a framework with the intent generate value within its overall organization, which is more general and holistically conceptualized when compared to the previous model and closer to the generic view of the model of Porter. However, with respect to the P5F model it takes into account both the internal and external environments. The model considers the organization of a company as a mix of 6 dimensions, which are Strategy, Structure, Systems, Style, Staff and Skills, that function around a seventh one, i.e. the Shared Values of a Company. The Strategy is the only dimension that takes into consideration the external environment like competition and customers, and provides a mix between the helicopter and battleground views. While the other 5 dimensions focus on the internal organization of the company and especially how the units are structured and which systems and processes they adopt. Q2. How can HR professionals contribute towards making resources an organizations competitive advantage? human

Ans. The human resources function is at a crossroads, as new technologies create opportunities for more strategic leadership in the management of human capital and corporate culture, while commoditizing some of HRs traditional administrative functions. Talent planning and development programs as key strategic leverage points in gaining competitive advantage for HR, describing an HR-driven program to identify and develop internal management talent. Developing a broader leadership pipeline to replace its traditional succession planning process of using an outside vendor to conduct management assessments, and of technology-enabling the HR process so leadership development could be mapped to a database of development activities and competencies within an organization. An elaborate, highly technology-enabled HR development processes enables the company to assess and track talent on both a bottom up and top down basis, and it is a combination of performance appraisal and individual development plans, as well as the degree of execution against those plans. However, HR needs to make sure the resource management tools do not become the process, and as a prerequisite to building a performance culture, companies should weed out the weakest performers through so-called opt-out programs so they do not siphon off management bandwidth. HR cannot treat [people] all the same because they will wind-up not being able to target enough of what they can do for the resources that are important. Thus, there is a need to upgrade the workforce, and HR should have a culture based on accountability and giving honest feedback. It is in the discipline of creating incentive programs linked to personal performance commitments, and auditing on those commitments looking for quality and stretch which are the results, also added behaviors, those that had the biggest gaps in. Q3. Briefly explain the steps in organizational development.

Ans. The following is a six-step model (The Weisbord Model) in Organizational Development (OD) which professionals utilize in understanding organizations: 1. Purposes:

The organizations members are clear about the organizations mission and purpose and goal agreements. 2. Structure: This answers the question whether there is an adequate fit between the purpose and the internal structure.
3. Relationship: Relationship must be defined between individuals, between units or departments that perform different tasks, and between the people and requirements of their job.
4. Rewards: The OD professional should diagnose the similarities between what the organization formally rewards or punishes its members for doing.
5. Leadership: Leadership means watch for blips among the other boxes and maintain balance among them, and how effective is the organization in providing leadership for its members.
6. Helpful Mechanism: These are the tools that organizations must attend to in order to survive such as planning, control, budgeting, and other information systems that help organization member accomplish the organizations mission.
This six step model enables the OD professional to clearly understand and define the organization as it truly exists today, before any Action Research or OD interventions are performed on the organization. Another process of Organizational Development comprises the following steps: a) b) c) d) e) f) g) h) i) Initial Diagnosis Data Collection Data Feedback Selection of Interventions Implementation of Interventions Action Planning and Problem Solving Team Building Inter-group Development Evaluation and follow up

Q4.

Is there difference between value and culture? How can values be developed amongst employees?

Ans. Culture is the personality of the organization and can be defined as the core beliefs, traditions, shared feelings and values, which is a key to achieving organizational excellence in that it not only shapes managers and employees behavior, but also determines the manner in which people interpret and respond to any given organizational situation. Subsequently, values are important building blocks of culture and are deep-seated and enduring, which motivate behavior and emotional responses that underpin the very way people approach their work, make choices and decisions, and deal with each other. The leadership of an organization is responsible for the creation and management of its culture and should aim to achieve alignment between managers and employees individual values and the organizational values. Setting an organizational value and culture allows managers and employees to: Learn more about each other as persons and enable closer and more successful working partnerships; Understand and respect diversity and individual differences; Hire new staff who fit into the organization; Create and function better in teams; Align their actions towards organizational goals with motivation and commitment. The primary reason for an organizations lack of success is a neglect of their organizational culture. Implementation of performance management systems in a wide range of organizations and are highly skilled in undertaking and advising on design, administration, implementation, integration and manager and employee usertraining and feedback. Understanding and assessing the organizations culture can mean the difference between success and failure in todays fast changing business environment, and integrating HRs objective cultural assessment tools can provide measurable data about real organizational values and norms.

Q5.

Discuss the issues related to performance appraisal methods. How can they be addressed?

Ans. Typically, performance appraisal schemes/methods serve multiple objectives, which is centrally linked to the motivation of employees, and provides some of the essential components of effective motivational strategies; feedback that permits an employee to learn how well he or she is performing; goal or objective-setting that specifies what the person should be doing; team building that allows the employee to participate along with peers and his superiors in solving problems that impede his productivity; and monetary incentives that reward good performance. Performance appraisal leads to the identification of the training and development needs of the employees, which also has close links with other important areas of human resource management, in particular with selection, motivation, and succession planning. Performance data provides relevant information required for validating selection methods, in assessing whether selection methods are bringing high performers into the organization, in which the organization must not get trapped into the various pitfalls that come along with administration of appraisal system. A necessary condition for the effective management of performance appraisal system in any organization is the need to clarify and communicate to all concerned, the objectives that the system intends to achieve. The culture of the organization clearly affects appraisal relationships, and the only possible way for organizations, to minimize the possible conflict among appraisal objectives, is to emphasize on climate setting that will facilitate achieving the objectives that an appraisal system intends to achieve. Thus what needs to be done is to encourage managerial styles that will lead to openness and frankness in relationships as a condition for establishing an effective performance appraisal system. The companies need to realize that the relationship between organization culture and performance appraisal system is a two way process implying that they can successfully use their performance appraisal system to bring about cultural change.

PART C Q1. Explain in brief the influence of economic and technological changes

in HR management. Ans. Organizations are increasingly looking at human resources as a unique asset that can provide sustained competitive advantage, and the changes in the business environment with increasing globalization, changing demographics of the workforce, increased focus on profitability through growth, technological changes, intellectual capital and the never-ending changes that organizations are undergoing have led to increased influence and importance of managing human resources. Recent studies of HR management and business performances have found that HRs adopted high involvement on economic and technological practices have resulted in significantly positively associated improvement on market value, rate of return on capital employed, revenue growth, revenue-per-employee rate, productivity, product/service quality, and even organizational survival. There is lack of high involvement on technology for businesses which does not adopt an HR philosophy, and does not understand that todays customers and clients are used to a technological experience. Thus, the mission of the HR department ought to synchronize the employment brand with the customer brand. However, in order for this to happen, HR should bring the customers voice to inside an organization, and accomplishing that, upper management will empower HR to reflect the customers value proposition. HR is part of the knowledge-based economy of today, and the knowledge management within an organization, and because of this, it has to play a role in concurrence with the IT department, and others responsible for generating and manipulating knowledge. The demise of post World War II-based assumptions of long-term attachment between employers and employees requires a new model of workforce development that recognizes employee mobility, competitive pressures, globalization, and the pace of change in valuable technologies and skills. Therefore, there is a fundamental need in HR to continue developing a transition to technology-focused knowledge management, but with a people-centered approach, which is important because of the intellectual resources of an organization.

Q2.

Explain the role of economic and technological change in HR management?

Ans. Traditionally HRM has had a people-oriented approach, but when the competitive demands of the marketplace require a reorientation of strategic human resource philosophies and practices, an emphasis are being given to a knowledgebased administration using technology as a tool. Accordingly, todays HR tasks cover an ample variety of activities requiring very different skill sets, from compensation and benefit administration (highly quantitative) to employee relations (highly qualitative). As a consequence, there are legitimate questions about whether these tasks need to be together on organizational plans in light of new realities and technologies. Thus, to be considered successful, HR technology must achieve several goals: a) Strategic alignment, which must support the goals of a business by helping users; b) Business intelligence, which should inspire new insights and learning, by providing users with relevant information and data, and by answering questions; c) Efficiency and effectiveness, which must change the work performed by HR personnel, by dramatically improving their level of service, allowing more time for work of higher value, and reducing their costs. Technological change in HR management can help organizations meet their business goals and objectives today and in the future by: Helping managers deploy their workers more efficiently. Ensuring that workers receive proper training and development. Offering new insights on how to increase productivity. Enabling employees and managers to receive needed information faster. Reducing HR administrative costs. Assisting with better employee assessment and selection. One can assume that the use of technology by HR has proven to assist on the improvement of business performances. Thus, the realization that the economic and technological changes in HR management plays a central role in ensuring competitiveness of the company rests on the perception that in todays business

world the only truly unique resource of a company is the intellectual and human capital. Q3. Discuss the complexities associated with international HRM.

Ans. The field of international HRM has been characterized by three broad approaches. As such, early work in this field emphasized a cross-cultural management approach and examines human behavior within organizations from an international perspective. A second approach developed from the comparative industrial relations and HRM seeks to describe, compare and analyze HRM systems in various countries, while a third approach seeks to focus on aspects of HRM in multinational firms. Each approach takes a somewhat different view of IHRM, and it is essential to identify which approach is taken because it influences what is defined as IHRM. Thus, one only has to look at the diversity in the program at the various International HRM conferences to see that there are multiple definitions of what constitutes international HRM. The complexities of operating in different countries and employing different national categories of workers is a key variable that differentiates domestic and international HRM, rather than any major differences between the HRM activities performed. Many firms underestimate the complexities involved in international operations, and there is some evidence to suggest that business failures in the international arena may often be linked to poor management of human resources. Increasingly, domestic HRM is taking on some of the flavor of international HRM as it deals more and more with a multicultural workforce. Thus, some of the current focus of domestic HRM on issues of managing workforce diversity may prove to be beneficial to the practice of international HRM. However, it must be remembered that management of diversity within a single national context may not necessarily transfer to a multinational context without some modification. Q4. Explain the relationship competitive advantage. between strategic leadership and

Ans. The aspect of Strategic Leadership is that of Strategic Influencing, which is the formation and nurturing of strategic relationships over the long term, taking the time to learn what is important to other people, as well as the ability to put oneself in another persons shoes and see things from their perspective requires that one has knowledge of that other person. On the other hand, the inability to put oneself

in other peoples shoes suggests that one might not know their stakeholders well enough. Strategic leadership means spending time learning about the needs, perspectives and desires for the organization of key stakeholders, and should be in a better position to influence because it can accommodate these needs, hopes and aspirations in the organizations direction. Strategic leadership becomes a competitive advantage because leaders are able to use language in a powerful way, communicating via stories, metaphors and images to create a compelling message. Thus, if management learns to share their plans and strategies using vivid images and stories, then they are able to create a culture that really touches people both inside and outside the organization. Just as strategic leaders are influential, so too are they open to influence from others. As such, strategic leadership is not about having the last word, but it is about ongoing, collaborative learning, which would require creating an environment in which the stakeholders have the opportunity to influence the organization. Strategic leadership is the need to communicate the organizations openness to influence and follow this up with responses that are trustworthy and authentic, which in this way, they are able to continually improve the strategy by incorporating the thinking of the key stakeholders. For successful implementation of a strategy the history of an organization and the dominant values of the culture that exists must be taken into account. Describe the critical elements of corporate culture in light of the above statement. Ans. Establishing a corporate ethical culture has less to do with weeding out potential bad actors within an organization, rather than with establishing a clear set of values and promoting a culture to reflect those standards. The culture of the organization is very important to the employees success, as is the culture of the industry as a whole. Corporate culture is important enough to warrant two ways of approaching it, one is by doing culture matching, which is assessing where one falls along four critical elements of corporate culture, and to make any relevant observations of things needed to keep in mind: Cooperation and Harmony Q5.

Openness and Imagination Social Assertiveness Structure and Attention to Detail

The seven, universal dimensions/elements of cultures are: 1) UNIVERSALISM versus PLURALISM: This is the degree of importance a culture assigns to either the law or to personal relationships. 2) INDIVIDUALISM versus COMMUNITARISNISM: This is the degree to which people see themselves function more as a community or more as individuals. 3) SPECIFIC versus DIFFUSE: This is the degree to which responsibility is specifically assigned or is diffusely accepted. 4) AFFECTIVITY versus NEUTRALITY: This is the degree to which individuals display their emotions. 5) INNER DIRECTED versus OUTER DIRECTED: This is the degree to which individuals believe the environment can be controlled versus believing that the environment controls them. 6) ACHIEVED STATUS versus ASCRIBED STATUS: This is the degree to which individuals must prove themselves to receive status versus status simply given to them. 7) SEQUENTIAL TIME versus SYNCHRONIC TIME: This is the degree to which individuals do things one at a time versus several things at once.

CASE STUDY I Vetements Ltee is a chain of mens retail clothing stores located throughout the province of Quebec, Canada. Two years ago, the company introduced new incentive systems for both store managers and sales employees. Store managers receive a salary with annual merit increases based on sales above targeted goals, store appearance, store inventory management, customer complaints and several other performance measures. Some of this information (e.g., store appearance) is gathered during visits by senior management, while other information is based on company records (e.g., sales volume). Sales employees are paid a fixed salary plus a commission based on the percentage of sales credited to that employee over the pay period. The commission represents about 30 percent of a typical pay cheque and is intended to encourage employees to actively serve customers and to increase sales volume. Since returned merchandise is discounted from commission, sales staff is discouraged from selling products that customers do not really want. Soon after the new incentive systems were introduced, senior management began to receive complaints from store mangers regarding the performance of their sales staff. They observed that sales employees stood near the entrance waiting for customers and would occasionally argue over ownership of the customer. Managers were concerned that this aggressive behavior intimidated some customers. It also left some parts of the store unattended by staff. Many managers are also concerned about inventory duties. Previously, sales staff would share responsibility for restocking inventory and completing inventory recorder forms. Under the new compensation system, however few employees were willing to do these essential tasks. On several occasions, stores experienced stock shortages because merchandise was not stocked or recorder forms were not completed in a timely manner. Potential sales suffered from empty shelves when plenty of merchandise was available in the back storeroom or at the warehouse. The companys new automatic inventory system could reduce some of these problems, but employees must still stock shelves and assist in other aspects of inventory management. Store managers tried to correct the inventory problem by assigning employees to inventory duty but this created resentment among the employees selected. Other managers threatened sales staff with dismissals if they did not do their share of inventory management. This strategy has been somewhat effective when the manager is in the store, but staff members sneak back onto the floor when the

manager is away. It has also hurt staff morale, particularly relations with the store manager. To reduce the tendency of sales staff to hoard customers at the store entrance, some managers assigned employees to specific areas of the store. This also created some resentment among employees stationed in areas with less traffic or lower priced merchandise. Some staff openly complained of lower pay cheques because they were assigned to a slow area of the store or were given more than their share of inventory duties. Questions: 1. What symptom(s) exist at Vetements Ltee which suggests that something has gone wrong?

Ans. The symptoms, which suggests that something has gone wrong in Vetements Ltee is the fact that when these new incentive systems were introduced, senior management began to receive complaints from store managers regarding the performance of their sales staff. Consequently, sales staff would argue over "ownership" of the customer, which got managers concerned that this aggressive behavior intimidated some customers that also tended to leave some parts of the store unattended by staff. Store managers have begun to threaten sales staff with dismissal in order to make staff perform their duties correctly. Thus, the trust between employees and managers has also suffered in which employees do not correctly do their jobs once the manager leaves. Accordingly, many managers were also alarmed about inventory duties, since previously, sales staff would share responsibility for restocking inventory and completing inventory reorder forms. However, under the new compensation system, however, few employees were willing to do these essential tasks. Thus, on several occasions, stores have faced stock shortages because merchandise was not stocked or reorder forms were not completed in a timely manner. As a result, potential sales have suffered from empty shelves when plenty of merchandise was available in the back storeroom or at the warehouse. The company's new automatic inventory system could have reduced some of these problems, but employees must still stock shelves and assist in other aspects of inventory management. However, this has created resentment among the

employees selected, and other managers have threatened sales staff with dismissals if they do not do their share of inventory management. 2. What are the causes that led to these symptoms? Ans. Causes that led to these symptoms are when sales employees were paid a fixed salary plus a commission based on the percentage of sales credited to that employee over the pay period, wherein the commission represents about 30percent of a typical paycheck and is intended to encourage employees to actively serve customers and to increase sales volume. Thus, because returned merchandise is discounted from commissions, sales employees are discouraged from selling products that customers do not really want. Store managers have tried to correct the inventory problem by assigning employees to inventory duty, and this strategy has been somewhat effective when the manager is in the store, but staff members sneak back onto the floor when the manager is away, which has also hurt staff morale, particularly relations with the store manager. To reduce the tendency of sales staff to hoard customers at the store entrance, some managers have assigned employees to specific areas of the store, which has also created some resentment among employees stationed in areas with less traffic or lower-priced merchandise. Subsequently, some staff has openly complained of lower paychecks because they have been placed in a slow area of the store or have been given more than their share of inventory duties. In this case Vetements Ltee was using money as a motivator for the managers and staff, and the employees altered their behavior in order to maximize positive consequences or minimize adverse consequences. The staff was being positively reinforced with money when they made sales. Thus, the employees continued to try to make sales (at the cost of not fulfilling other duties) in order to continue making money. 3. Suggest actions the organization should take to correct these problems.

Ans. An important prerequisite to recommending a solution to the problems in this case is to understand the organization's goals with respect to sales employee performance, which appears that the performance criteria assigned to store

managers , such as sales volume, inventory management, store appearance, etc., should be applied to all of these employees. Based on both expectancy theory and behavior modification, the organization should redesign its incentive system for sales employees so that they also receive financial compensation for these organizational goals. As an example, in addition to a sales commission, sales employees could share a quarterly reward for the store with the best appearance, in which this goal would receive more positive valence (or be positively reinforced) for employees in the winning store. Thus, a similar arrangement could be implemented to reward inventory management duties. By redesigning the commission system to motivate group rather than individual performance, the problems of customer ownership and intimidation would be reduced, and this redesigned incentive would motivate team performance (i.e., performance of employees together at a particular time) by dividing the work teams reward equally among its members. Team incentives tend to have somewhat lower motivation effect because some employees could slack off and still receive the reward, but group pressures tend to correct some of this problem and the trade off may be worth the slightly lower motivational effect. The use of punishment in organizations is difficult, but sometimes necessary, but in this case, punishment dealt mainly with the symptoms rather than the underlying root causes of the inappropriate behavior. Therefore, with the new reward system, punishment should not be required very often, therefore reducing its negative consequences in this case. Hence, punishment should be used sparingly and should follow other managerial actions, including extinction and clarifying role requirements, and managers should be advised as well to follow the features of applying punishment effectively.

CASE STUDY II Visit the website of two organizations representing different sectors (e.g. insurance, medical, software, manufacturing, automotive, telecom, information technology etc.). Examine these sites and identify their family friendly programs. Visit/Contact these organizations and compare their work-life balance practices. Conduct interview with HR manager and some employees of the firms to obtain the following information and enlist:

The firms work-life programs and the reason for their adoption these programs Ans. A number of changes in workforce demographics have brought work-life balance issues to the attention of some firms. And although the trend toward worklife balance practices began with demands from mothers in the workforce, the push now is coming from all employees, in which fathers and mothers, single parents, and employees with responsibilities for caring for aged relatives, and even employees who just want more flexibility in their daily lives. Nine out of ten workers live in households with family members, and nearly half of all employees have care-giving responsibilities. Thus, by recognizing these changes, companies are creating work environments that make it possible for employees to be both good workers and good caregivers. However, the corporate motive for work-life balance policies is more than altruism and a desire to help and support employees. Firms have realized that it makes good business sense to provide such benefits, which helps with recruitment and retention of employees by creating an atmosphere of loyalty to the corporation. Firms adopt such programs and benefits because it directly address work-life balance issues that include: o o o dependent care (child-care and elder-care programs) flexible or alternative work schedules (flex-time, compressed work weeks, telecommuting, job sharing, and part time employment) leaves (paid and unpaid family care leaves, maternity phase-back, and so on)

Flexible work programs accommodate employees by allowing variations on when and where they do their work, which consist of flextime, compressed work-weeks, telecommuting, job sharing, paid time off, and other leave programs. Thus, this is

one of the most frequently provided work/life balance benefit, and is well-liked by many different employees. The reasons for adoption of the work-life programs Ans. Adopting work-life practices and programs may serve as a source of competitive advantage in a context in which their provision is limited, and offering voluntary reduced hours has been associated with increased recruitment and retention. The provision of work-life programs has been associated with lower turnover intentions among employees, and predicted retention among employed new mothers, as well as reduced turnover among working mothers, and turnover intentions are raised. Levels of work-life conflict and family responsibilities had no impact on the link between work-life practices and attraction to the organization, but this relationship was fully mediated by perceptions of anticipated organizational support, wherein job candidates expects that an organization would provide them with support were they to become employed by the organization. During the recruitment process, job candidates may therefore use the presence of work-life balance practices as signals for work-related supports that are important to them in choosing an organization (e.g., fair treatment, understanding supervision, and adequate provision of resources). On the other hand, there is also empirical support for the notion that work-life balance practices are attractive only to individuals in need of assistance with balancing their work and non-work responsibilities. Studies have shown that users of the work-life programs had been with the organization longer and held more positive attitudes regarding the centres influence on recruitment and retention than did employees who were on the waiting list. While in some studies, work-life programs indicated that it had a positive effect on job-related attitudes only for current users, past users, and future users of the childcare centre. How well these programs are being utilized in each of these firms Ans. Work-life programs are being utilized in firms because these will assist employees in balancing their work and family demands, which can in turn lead to enhanced employee productivity and significant business improvements. Thus, by

enabling employees to schedule their time in order to better balance competing demands from work and from home, and by helping employees to procure thirdparty assistance with caregiving responsibilities, such practices are intended to reduce or eliminate levels of work-life conflict, and thereby augment employee performance and organizational effectiveness. Providing work-life practices does not necessarily entail a reduction in levels of staff work-life conflict, then, and even where this is the case, there is a dearth of research investigating the mediating role of work-life conflict in the link between work-life practice provision and organizational effectiveness. Furthermore, a number of work-life programs together when relating provision or use to attitudinal or behavioral outcomes, which only clouds the issue of whether such a variety of work-life practices can be expected to produce similar effects. Since employees have different preferences for integration versus segmentation of work and family roles, certain work-life practices may be ineffective in reducing inter-role conflict if they do not cater to a workers particular values, needs, or preferences for managing multiple roles. The availability of work-life practices is often measured, as opposed to actual use of such practices, and this, however, brings another potential explanation for the link between work-life practices and organizational performance. Yet, even when the practices are not used and therefore no reduction in work-life conflict is achieved, the mere presence of such practices can affect the number of beneficial outcomes to the organization in the form of positive job-related attitudes. Is there a gap between the design of work-life programs in these organizations, their actual implementation and utilization? Ans. Provision of work-life balance programs in organizations, independent of actual use, appears to produce similarly positive results in terms of work-related attitudes, in which the availability of organizational resources, including flexible work hours, has been linked to job satisfaction and organizational commitment for women and for all employees with family responsibilities, regardless of whether or not these resources are being used. Actual implementation and utilization of work-life programs has also been related to increased affective commitment and decreased turnover intentions, which both increased affective commitment to the organization and decreased turnover intentions among all employees, not just users of the practices.

The impact of work-life programs on organizational commitment was moderated by gender and by practice use, and had a positive relationship with commitment, mediated by perceived organizational support. Utilization of work-life programs was also associated with higher organizational commitment only when perceived organizational support was high, and there was a positive link between practices and commitment regardless of levels of perceived organizational support. When treated favorably by the organization, employees will feel obliged to respond in kind, through positive attitudes or behaviors toward the source of the treatment, and using the provision of work-life programs as an indicator of favorable treatment, employees will reciprocate in ways beneficial to the organization, such as increased commitment, satisfaction with ones job, and citizenship behaviors. The implementation of work-life programs designed to assist employees with managing their responsibilities at home may also increase employee perceptions of organizational support, particularly if these work-life balance practices are seen as being useful. Are the employees satisfied with organizational support for their personal needs? Ans. The perception that using work-life programs will have a negative impact on an employees career prospects appears to be a powerful demotivator, reinforced by organizational cultures unsupportive of work-life balance issues. Accordingly, implementation attributes including supervisor support for use and universality of practice availability will affect the degree to which work-life programs are seen by employees as fulfilling their work-life needs and signaling support from the organization. Organizations featuring an entrenched long-hours culture and unaccommodating attitudes among managers and co-workers tend to discourage employees from making use of the work-life programs ostensibly available to them. Putting in time, like being visibly at work, often for long hours, is seen as a sign of commitment, of loyalty, of competence and high potential, and of productive output.

Relatively, employees who do not give the maximum amount of time possible to the organization are often defined as less productive and less committed, thus less valued than employees working longer hours. Employees are often demonstrably concerned that using work-life programs will damage their promotion prospects and perhaps their relationships with co-workers and managers, and these concerns are not always unfounded. Some work-life programs, such as voluntary reduced hours, are frequently unavailable in upper-level professional and managerial work. However, when they are available to professionals and managers, their use is often associated with career derailment. Time spent at the workplace is often used as an indicator of employees contributions and commitment to the organization, participation in work-life practices that make employees less visible has been associated with lower performance evaluations, smaller salary increases, and fewer promotions. Moreover, it is also possible that employees may not feel obliged to repay their organizations provision of work-life programs with an increase in positive, workrelated behaviors or attitudes, and they may perceive that access to such practices is an entitlement, rather than favorable treatment.