Get premium membership and access revision papers, questions with answers as well as video lessons.
Bmit 411: Managing People August 2010 Question Paper
Bmit 411: Managing People August 2010
Course:Bachelor Of Business Management And Information Technology
Institution: Kabarak University question papers
Exam Year:2010
KABARAK UNIVERSITY
UNIVERSITY EXAMINATIONS
2009/2010 ACADEMIC YEAR
FOR THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF BUSINESS
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
COURSE CODE: BMIT 411
INSTRUCTIONS:
Answer question ONE and any other THREE questions.
1. Read the case study provided and answer the questions that follow-:
A DILLEMMA
I am a supervisor at a modern soap factory built about ten years ago at Ghaziabad, which is a fast
developing town in Uttar Pradesh and lies about 18 miles away from Delhi, the capital city. The
factory is situated in beautiful and what one might call rural surroundings. The factory is itself
surrounded by cultivable land and many of the factory workers own ancestral property here. The
pattern of living of the workers, in most cases, conforms to the joint family system.
I feel that production at our factory has never come up to managements expectations for several
reasons. One of these is heavy absenteeism, for during the agricultural season the factory
workers stay at home to cultivate their own land. Since the worker is also a farmer, there is no
dearth of food and his factory job only provides him with liquid cash. Because he does not
depend upon factory wages alone, the factory worker takes things easy which results in a
situation of chronic absenteeism in the factory.
About six years ago within the same factory compound, a fruit processing unit was also added by
added by the company. The jobs in this unit are seasonal; that is, only during the fruit-growing
season it does work to its full capacity. The unit employs 22 workers. All of them are given
semi-skilled grade E jobs. During the season, besides the bottling of fruit products, fruit juices
are also filled in wooden casks and stored up, so that in lean periods, they could be bottled. Some
of the jobs done in the unit are peeling fruit, extracting juice, boiling juice and other ingredients
into syrups or jams, bottling, capping, labeling, storing, and keeping the premises clean.
During the lean period the major portion of all these jobs come to an end and therefore part of
the work-force is transferred to the soap plant an allied sections, to make good labour shortages
which occur there. However, a small portion of workers who remain in the fruit-processing plant
are given light jobs, such as keeping the premises clean, rolling the barrels, and son on. The only
exceptions are the tow workers who are engaged in filling and capping bottles. They have an
obvious job title: bottle filler and capper. All workers in the fruit-processing unit are permanent
employees. When these two workers-bottle filler and capper- see others having an easy time they
become disgruntled and demand higher wages, or that others do the filling and capping jobs as
well. They cannot be given higher grades because in the soap factory people doing almost similar
jobs are in E grade and they too would then claim higher grades. The other workers cannot be
made to do these jobs because production would suffer. The bottle filler and capper have done
the job for years and have attained great speed in doing it. Others cannot match that speed.
I first cajoled those two workers and also counseled them but without success. Finally, I
threatened them with punitive action. This has only resulted in a ‘go slow’ response from them. I
am faced with a dilemma. I am convinced that so far as my unit is concerned these two
workmen’s demands are just and fair since the workload on them is definitely more that on the Page 3 of 3
Others in the unit, and also their jobs are more skilled than that of the rest of the workers there.
However, in the context of the entire factory, their demands cannot be conceded.
i. What is the main problem in the case? (4mks)
ii. What are your views about the problem as supervisor? (5mks)
iii. How would you have handled the problem as the supervisor and as part of
management? (5mks)
iv. Explain the possible consequence of the action taken to restore productivity in
The food processing unit. (5mks)
v. Suggest possible measures to resolve the major problem faced by the organization
(5mks)
vi. Discuss various ways the management can use to win the cooperation of
employees for better industrial relations and higher employee productivity.
(7mks)
vii. If you are appointed a human resource manager of a well established
organization how would you identify the training needs of your employee. (5mks)
viii. Discuss span of control for effective management of employees. (4mks)
2. Discuss in detail the role of human resource manager in the modern
organization. (15mks)
3. (i) Distinguish training from education and advice those organizations which invest
very little in employee training programes. (8mks)
(ii) Explain staff and line relationships and line and staff departments in an
organization and identify possible sources of conflicts between staff and line
managers. (7mks)
4. (i) Discuss the two major sources of employees recruitment and identify merits and
demerits associated with each. (10mks)
(ii) Explain industrial relations and point out various ways of ensuring good industrial
relations for higher productivity. (5mks)
5. (i) Differentiate job analysis from job evaluation and identify various factors that
influence salary determination in an organization. (8mks)
(ii) “Best employee means organizational success in the current competitive market”
give a detailed account on how you would identify and select the best employees
for your organization. (7mks)
More Question Papers
Popular Exams
Return to Question Papers