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Human Resource Management And Organizational Development 2009 Question Paper
Human Resource Management And Organizational Development 2009
Course:Higher Diploma In Business Management (Business Management)
Institution: question papers
Exam Year:2009
HIGHER DIPLOMA IN BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
MODULE II
HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
SECTION A (marks)
Answer questions 1 and 2 which are compulsory
1. Read the case below and then answer the questions that follow.
REBRANDING OF KAMWO LIMITED
KAMWO LTD was established in 1964 as a government parastatal involved in the provision of one of the strategic services in the country. It was established as a monopoly wholly owned by the government. As such the top management were the appointees of the government, wholly accountable to the government through the minister in charge of the parent ministry. It was envisaged that in time the parastatal would become self-sustaining, and contribute financially to government revenue through payment of dividends.
For quite a number of years, the parastatal operated profitably and efficiently, and was seen as model of effective government appointees, were to a great extent appointed on the basis of merit and credentials. Even employees were mainly competitively sourced and properly deployed in line with their skills and aptitude inclinations.
However, over time, the political class started to certain "opportunities" for political capital in the entity. They realised that the parastatal could be used as a basis of generating not only financial resources for political manoeuvring, but employment opportunities for enhancing loyalty from individuals and ethnic communities.
Meritocracy and credentials were soon abandoned as the basis for appointing senior managers of the organization. Instead, managers were appointed on the basis of their political inclinations, as well as their homes of origin. They in turn were impressed upon to hire all manner of staff for the various departments, based on the same criteria on which they were hired. By this time, the parastatal had grown into a huge bureaucratic monolith tittering along by virtue of its monopoly status and the government patronage that it enjoyed. It was characterized by bureaucratic inefficiencies with the top management totally divorced from the activities at the operational levels, theirs being mainly political and ceremonial occupations. Most of the departments were overstaffed by more than three times their optimal capacities. The bulk of the staff were unskilled and operationally illiterate. Consequently the level of service delivery deteriorated to an all time low.
Customer service lead time became too long even by bureaucracy's standards.
There were too many incidents of misplacement of vital customer services. After sales service and routine maintenance works became too shoddy. On top of all these, misappropriation of company funds became the order of the day, thus draining the parastatal of essential operating capital. As a result, salary payment of the bloated staff complement became a problem with frequent delays. The staff had to devise ways of making ends meet as they waited for their monthly stipends.
It is mainly because of this that the staff eventually devised a way of having customers 'pay' for services provided.
A few years ago, the government realized that it could no longer be able to continue maintaining the parastal. Instead of the parastatal being a contributor to the revenue kitty of the government, it had become a main gobbler of government finances. There was also increasing clamour from the international donor community as well as the more enlightened citizenry, that the government leaves commercial business activities to private enterprise, and concentrate on its core mandate of serving wananchi.
Subsequently, the government now intends to divest fully from the parastatal activities through the sale of its shares. However, to do so, the parastatal must first of all be turned around to become a commercially viable enterprise embracing universally acceptable management practices. It is with this in mind that the management board was recently overhauled and replaced with qualified, competent and competitively sourced professionals who have been mandated to oversee the turn-around of the company in the shortest time possible. The new board has been given a free hand to achieve their mandate.
The board has decided that the company requires a complete re-branding and overhaul. To effect the desired turn-around, the board therefore feels that the company needs to rebrand itself in terms of:
- a new company logo
- new company colours
- new company processes
- quality customer-service delivery
The board has decided that they have to hire the services of an external change agent (consultancy) to spearhead the rebranding exercise.
(a) Identify the employee policy and procedure deficiencies in KAMWO Ltd prior to the hiring of the new board.(10 marks)
(b) Should the board decide to retrench the excess employees, outline the criteria that it should use in deciding the employees to retrench.(10 marks)
(c) Describe the appropriate qualities that the successful change agent should posses.(10 marks)
(d) Identify the problems that the change agent selected should address in order to effect meaningful change for the turn-around of the company.(10 marks)
2. (a) Explain the reasons for the increasing adoption of computerized personnel information systems by many organizations.(10 marks)
(b) Some organizations choose to invest in their own change agents rather than hiring external ones.
Suggest the reasons that may account for this choice.(10 marks)
SECTION B (20 marks)
Answer ONE of the TWO questions.
3. (a) Describe the types of media that an organization may use to communicate with its employees.(10 marks)
(b) Outline the circumstances under which a worker may be declared redundant by its employees.(10 marks)
4. (a) Riaf Ltd, a newly established firm, would like to determine the remuneration packages for the different categories of its workers.
Explain to the management of Riaf Ltd the factors that they should consider in doing so.(12 marks)
(b) Highlight the advantages of predetermined time standards as used in work measurement.(8 marks)
SECTION C (20 marks)
Answer ONE of the TWO questions.
4. (a) Describe the features that should be incorporated in a job during job design to enhance the satisfaction of the worker.(12 marks)
(b) Explain the initiatives that are associated with successful change classification for purpose of initiating the transaction process.(8 marks)
6. (a) Explain the reasons why many organizations are increasingly embracing the implementation of organizational development initiatives.(10 marks)
(b) Cosu Limited is in the process of signing a formulization contract for an organizational development intervention with an external change agent.
Outline the issues that should be considered in this contact.(10 marks)
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