MS-22 Human Resource Development Exam Paper

MBA - Master of Business Administration

Note: This paper consists of two sections A and B. Attempt any three questions from Section A. Section B is compulsory. All questions carry equal marks.

1. Explain the concept of career in the context of career development perspective. Discuss various individual and organisational strategies for career development.

2. Define and describe the objectives and psychological basis of reward system. Briefly discuss various aspects which reinforce desirable behaviour, high performance, and values.

3. Define HRD Audit. How can HRD Audit be used as an OD intervention in an organisation? Briefly describe the significance of HRD score-card of a firm.

4. Explain the concept of knowledge Management. Briefly discuss various approaches to knowledge management with suitable examples.

5. Write short notes on any three of the following :

(a) Re-organisation of work
(b) Value-anchored HRD processes
(c) Need for competency mapping
(d) Systems Theory and Human performance
(e) Vertical re-skilling

SECTION B

Read the case given below and answer the questions given at the end of the case.

Training for Whom?

Microelectronics, a California-based electronics defense contractor, has enjoyed a smooth growth curve over the past five years, primarily because of favourable defense funding during the Reagan administration's build-up of U.S. military defenses. Microelectronics has had numerous contacts to design and develop guidance and radar systems for military weaponry.

Although the favourable funding cycle has enabled. Microelectronics to grow at a steady rate, the company is finding it increasingly difficult to keep its really good engineers, Based on extensive turnover analyses conducted by Ned Jackson, the human resources planning manager. Microelectronics' problem seems to be its inability to keep engineers beyond the "critical" five-year point. Apparently, the probability of turnover drops dramatically after five - years of service. Ned's conclusion is that Microelectronics has been essentially serving as an industry college. Their staffing strategy has always been to hire the best and brightest engineers from the best engineering schools in the United States.

Ned believes that these engineers often get lost in the shuffle at the time they join the firm. For example, most (if not all) of the new hires must work on non-classified projects until cleared by security to join a designated major project. Security clearance usually takes anywhere from six to ten months. In the meantime the major project has started, and these young engineers frequently miss out on its design phase, considered the most creative and challenging segment of the program. Because of the nature of project work, new engineering often have difficulty learning the organizational culture - such as who to ask when you have a problem, what the general dos and don'ts are, and why the organization does things in a certain way.

After heading a task force of human resource professionals within Microelectronics, Ned has been designated to present to top management a proposal designed to reduce turnover among young engineering recruits. The essence of his plan is to create a mentor program, except that in this plan the mentors will not be the seasoned graybeards of Microelectronics, but rather those engineers in the critical three-to-five-year service window the period of highest turnover, These engineers will be paired with new engineering recruits before the recruits actually report to Microelectronics for work.

According to the task force, the programme is twofold (1) it benefits the newcomer by easing the transition into the company, and (2) it helps the three-to-five-year service engineers by enabling them to serve an important role for the company. By performing the mentor role, these engineers will become more committed and hence less likely to leave. As Ned prepared his fifteen minute presentation for top management, he wondered it be had adequately anticipated the possible objections to the program in order to make an intelligent defense of it. Only time would tell.

Questions:

(a) Identify the salient issues from HR point of view for this case.
(b) If you were to study this turnover problem, how would you conduct a need analysis or evolve a counseling programme?
(c) What are the causes of dissatisfaction and turnover in Microelectronics?
(d) Do you find the mentoring programme suitable to reduce turnover? Justify your answer.