SECTION - A

1. Differentiate between Strategy and tactics? Describe McKinsey's 7-S Framework?

2. Describe In details the tools that can be used for analyzing and Diagnosing Corporate capabilities?

3. Define Environmental Analysis and write-up the steps involved in the process of environmental analysis?

4. Explain various corporate-level and Business-level Strategies?

5. Write the steps involved in strategy control and assessment?

SECTION - B

1. Explain in detail the role of Strategic HRM in formulation of strategy and implementation?

2. What is strategic HRM and how has the primary function of HR changed over time period?

3. Differentiate between Strategic HRM and traditional HRM?

4. How can HR Professionals contribute towards making human recourses of organization competitive?

5. Explain in detail the Four-Task Model and managing Employee's competencies?

SECTION - C

1. Distinguish between OD and management development? Describe the limitations and benefits of OD?

2. Describe various OD Intervention techniques and write In detail about (a) Sensitivity training and (b) Role Playing?

3. Describe in detail the types of Organizations on the basis of strategy they follow?

4. What are the guidelines for setting up a potential Appraisal System and also describe the importance of setting-up such system?

5. What is Organizational Design? Describe in detail and list the determinants of an organizational design?

Case Study - 1

Domestic Partner Benefits

Baptist Hospital is a 360-bed facility in a large facility in the southeastern United States. Recently, the human resource management director, Joan Collins, has noted a higher than average employee turnover among nurses and other clinical professionals such as occupational therapist, physical therapist, and laboratory technologist. She is concerned that Baptist Hospital is losing good employees to other hospitals in the metropolitan region that offer more liberal domestic partner benefits. In fact, the hospital does not recognize such partners and provides no health benefits to them.

Most large companies in the region do offer such domestic partner benefits. For their purposes, they typically define a “domestic partner” as a person over 18 who shares living quarters with another adult in an exclusive committed relationship in which the partners are responsible for each other’s common welfare. A standard definition typically includes requirements concerning a minimum age, a requirement that the couples live together, financial interdependence, a committed relationship, and a non-blood relative. Before such benefits can be provided, these companies typically require a signed and notarized affidavit specifying these requirements must be signed by both domestic partners and witnessed by a notary.

Collins has also done some research that indicates that those companies providing domestic partner benefits experience lower health benefit costs. The reason is that many unmarried heterosexual partners or homosexual partners do not have children and therefore such unions utilize fewer health services. Her research also showed that as a result of ongoing lawsuits in this area, many more employers may be forced to offer domestic partner benefits in the future.

While Collins is convinced that such a change in health benefits would be advantageous to the company, particularly in terms of recruiting and retaining employees, she is concerned that the hospital’s culture is socially conservative. Consequently, she feels that the CEO, the executive team, and the board of directors may be less enthusiastic about implementing such a change than she is. Collins is therefore uncertain as to how to proceed and has asked your instructor for advice. Your instructor has presented the case to the class but has changed the name of the institution so that students will not know the identity of the facility.

Questions:

1. Would you recommend that Joan Collins bring this issue before the CEO and the board of directors and recommend implementation? Why or why not?

2. If you believe that Collins should recommend implementation of domestic partner health benefits, what are the potential benefits to Baptist Hospital, and how would she document these?

3. What are the potential disadvantages to the hospital, and what steps should she recommend to address these potential disadvantages?

CASE STUDY - 2

Incident

Too Much Diversity?

 Bill Baldwin, president and founder of Baldwin Scientific Instruments, had just finished meeting with Tran, a Baldwin assembler of Vietnamese descent. Tran was very upset about the treatment that he and his Vietnamese co-workers had been receiving from their first-line Latino supervisors, a brother and sister who were originally from Peru. Tran had reported that the two supervisors did not respect any of the 10 Vietnamese assemblers, that they were intentionally mean and rude to them, and that they spoke negatively about them in Spanish behind their back. He pointed out that the assemblers are the key to the firm’s success, and asked the president to take immediate action to restore the respect they deserved.

Baldwin was aware that distrust and friction existed between the Latinos and Vietnamese. Fortunately, there had never been any fights or even loud arguments. However, he noticed that during lunch both groups sat apart and spoke in their native languages. At the annual company summer picnic and Christmas party, both groups also sat separately, and, while cordial, were never very friendly toward one another. Baldwin realized that part of the problem might be that the Latinos were often in supervisory positions whereas the Vietnamese were mostly assemblers. This structure reflected the fact that the Latino supervisors had far more experience and length of service than the new Vietnamese employees did. Bill also realized that another part of the problem might be that the head of the assembly department, a non-immigrant Californian who supervised the brother and sister, was not an effective leader because he refused to address employee relations problems. He knew a lot about assembling instruments, but allowed problems to fester among the diverse workforce rather than solve them.

As Baldwin was pondering what should be done, the sales manager walked into the office and gleefully announced that another large order had just come in. Baldwin knew this would necessitate the hiring of five more skilled assemblers, and that advertisements in the southern California area newspapers would result in mostly Latino and Vietnamese applicants. He wondered what the firm’s hiring policy should be, given that he did not want to create more problems.

Questions

1. If you were Bill Baldwin, what actions would you take in response to Tran’s request?

2. What hiring policy should the firm follow?

3. Does the firm have too diverse a workforce?