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Seat No.: Enrolment
GUJARAT TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY
MBA SEMESTER EXAMINATION WINTER 2018
Subject Code: 2840302 Date:07/12/2018
Subject Name: Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM)
Time: 02:30pm To 05:30pm Total Marks: 70
Instructions:
1. Attempt all questions.
2. Make suitable assumptions wherever necessary.
3. Figures to the right indicate full marks.
Q. No. Marks
Q.1 6
1. Procedure which is based on analysis of present and past data to determine system
effectiveness is classified as
A. Human resource audit B. Human resource research
C. Human resource assessment D. Human staff rating
2. In an organization, research efforts that are made to evaluate current structure of
human resource management are classified as
A. Human resource assessment B. Human staff rating
C. Human resource audit D Human resource research
3.
In strategic human resource management, HR strategies are generally aligned with
A. Business strategy B. Marketing strategies
C. Finance strategy D. Economic strategy
4.
Which of the following is closely associated with strategic human resource
management?
A. Efficient utilization of human
resources
B. Attracting the best human resources
C. Providing the best Possible
training
D. All of the above
5.
Strategic human resource management aims to achieve competitive advantage in the
market through
A. Price B. Product
C. People D. Process
6.
One of the components of corporate level strategy is
A. Growth strategy B. Portfolio strategy
C. Parenting strategy D. All of the above
Q.1 1. 360 Degree Performance Appraisal
2. TQM
3. Micro Aspects of HR
4. Human Resource Inventory
04
Q.1 What do you mean by Collective Bargaining 04
Q.2 "Company performance required assessment of its performance at many level".
Explain.
07
Discuss in brief some of the most commonly used HR Services of Business
organizations.
07
OR
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Discuss Replacement chart, Succession planning and Markov Method as a
Technique of HR planning.
07
Q.3 Discuss business and HR concerns of outsourcing. 07
Explain blank application forms and interviews as a commonly used
Selection instruments.
07
OR
Q.3 Explain factors affecting organizational macro HR policy. 07
Explain importance of organizational structure in terms of strategic HR
management.
07
Q.4 Which are the external sources of strategic recruitment? 07
Differentiate between job evaluation based compensation policy and
performance based compensation.
07
OR
Q.4 Explain in detail the Company's Internal Value Chain. How HRM affects on all
other value chain activities?
07
What is succession planning? What are the pros cons of disclosing succession
planning?
07
Q.5 Megastores is one of the country's largest and most successful high street
retailers. It has a very powerful overriding commercial objective to increase
shareholders' value and to do this by providing value-for-money products and
delivering consistently high levels of customer service. Business strategy The
Managing Director made the following observations about strategic
management: Strategy is developing a route to better the business in the medium
to long term. You cannot fully maximize the business opportunities unless
you've got the proper management structure to create them. In business you have
to look at the options available, make a decision and then drive that way.
The approach to strategy formulation was described by the Director of Finance
as follows: Our strategy tends to be based on the resolution of issues. There is a
base strategy and we continue to question whether that is the right thing to be
going forward with. We have a strategic planning framework throughout the
group. It's called value-based management the fundamentals of which
are to make sure that whatever you do, you must maximize shareholder value...
It provides us with a basis for looking at what we are doing and the resources we
require we've never had before. He also commented, however, that: We're
highly profitable, but in turn we invest an awful lot in our people. We spend a
lot of money on the training and development of people throughout the
organization. It's probably one of our key differentiators.
The Director of Stores gave these perspectives on the strategic planning process:
We have in place a formal business planning process in which we divide the
planning into three levels. One is at business level, where we identify issues that
we deal with as a company; the second level is product-market planning; and the
third level is local market planning. Our business strategy is formed through
value-based management, which is a discipline for pulling everything together
and ensures that decisions are made on the basis of their real value to the
business rather than someone's strength of personality or hunch. This in itself
required the involvement of all the directors in a more formal business planning
process. Three or four years ago we worked more individually and now we work
more as a team.
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There are elements of our business that are incredibly value-creating. There are
others that are incredibly value-destroying. The trick is to identify the ones that
are value creating and funnel resources to them. There are a number of blocks
that make up our business strategy. The first is our overall objective. Against
this we spin off a number of elements we call major initiatives. These are
coordinated by our Director of Corporate Planning, but it is the functional
directors who are really charged with taking ownership of these objectives. HR
strategy The comments made by the Managing Director on the formulation of
HR strategy are given below: The biggest challenge will be to maintain
competitive advantage and to do that we need to maintain and continue to attract
very high calibre people.
All we do in terms of training and human resource planning is directly linked to
business improvement. The key differentiator on anything any company does is
fundamentally the people, and I think that people tend to forget that they are the
most important asset. Money is easy to get hold of; good people are not. The
influence in terms of strategic direction must always be based on the key areas
of marketing and operations. When questioned on his approach to the
development of HR strategies the HR
Director replied: I start with the top line, the four or five things which are the
strategic platform for the company. I get my managers together to look at the
implications. We then pull it together so that it is all derived from the original
strategic platforms and then work top-down and bottom-up to get the amalgam
of what we can achieve. This then feeds into the final operating plan so we can
agree budgets.
1. What do the quotes given in the case study tell us about the process of
developing and integrating HR strategy in general and the achievement of fit
between the business and HR strategy?
OR
Q.5 The case is about the employee experience initiatives at Pandora Media Inc.
(Pandora) that aimed at creating a positive work environment at the company.
The HR system at Pandora was designed in designed in such a way that every
employee could contribute to it as their unique experience with the company.
Employee experience at Pandora revolved around its music business, which the
company felt was a great way to make employees relax and to motivate them to
work in a more productive way. Pandora initiated a number of innovative
programs to boost the morale of its employees through better work place
management and manager-employee relationship. Its internship program for
self-motivated college students laid the foundation for shaping its recruitment
system. However, it remained to be seen whether the company could go on to
make a profit with its employee experience initiatives at a time when it was
confronted with consecutive annual losses.
In 2016, Pandora Media Inc. (Pandora) was ranked 47th in the list of 'Best
Places to Work' by the Advertising Age and Best Companies Group for its
unique employee experience initiatives. Promoted as an internet-based music
radio company, Pandora considered music to be an individual's choice and
adopted a similar personalized approach to employee experience. The employee
experience
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at Pandora ranged from the employees working out their own agreements with
their managers on how they preferred to work and what they expected, to
decisions related to the different Pandora employee resource groups and the
voluntary hours they worked.
Founded by Tim Westergren (Westergren), Will Glaser, and Jon Kraft in 2000,
Pandora was one of the first music streaming and internet-based music radios in
the world. Started with a mission "To enrich people's lives by enabling them to
enjoy music they know discover music they'll love, anytime, anywhere,"
Pandora aimed to create a separate, individualized radio station for each of its
customers. The idea behind the company's launching music radios was that
customers would be able to listen to the music they preferred without any
advertising breaks. The company employed a team of 25 trained musicologists
who analyzed the attributes of each song and delivered hours of personalized
music as per the varied tastes and preferences of consumers. Pandora's Music
Genome Project consisted of 450 distinct musical attributes that covered the
qualities of melody, rhythm, lyrics, and harmony. The company shared with the
music artists various data like how many songs had been played? how many
listeners heard the song over time. This data helped artists to understand the fans
they were connecting with. Pandora provided a platform where fans could
purchase tickets to the music concerts. The company gave artists a digital dais to
connect with their fans, and the artists could also send an audio message to their
fans For the fourth quarter of 2016, Pandora reported revenue of US$392.6
million.
Understand the employee experience initiatives undertaken by Pandora..
Analyze how the employee experience initiatives help Pandora to create a
positive work culture.
Identify the challenges faced by Pandora to continue with its employee
focused programs.
Explore ways to overcome those challenges.
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