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Phrm 7601:Advanced Human Resource Management Question Paper
Phrm 7601:Advanced Human Resource Management
Course:Doctor Of Philosophy In Business Management
Institution: Kenya Methodist University question papers
Exam Year:2014
KENYA METHODIST UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS
END OF TRIMESTER EXAMINATION FOR DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION AND MANAGEMENT AUGUST, 2014
UNIT CODE : PHRM 7601
UNIT TITLE : ADVANCED HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
TIME: 3 HOURS
INSTRUCTIONS:
Answer question 1 and any other 3 questions.
Question One
SOUTHWEST AIRLINES: COMPETING THROUGH PEOPLE
For some organizations, the slogan "focus on customers" is merely a slogan. At southwest airlines, however, it is a daily goal. Consider an elderly woman on her way to cancer therapy, alone with no one to care or help. A southwest airlines agent befriends her and spends two weeks driving her around the strange city, helping her through a crisis. Or consider the passenger on an Oklahoma City flight headed to an important business meeting with no necktie. Flight attendant Jenifer Smith manages to find him a tie before the flight has even landed. A southwest airline is an organization that has built its business and corporate culture around the tenets of total quality management and customer service. Focus on the customer, employee involvement and empowerment and continuous improvement are the company’s strategic focus. Frequent fliers are asked to assist personnel managers in interviewing and selecting prospective flight attendants. Focus groups are used to help measure passenger response to new services and to help generate new ideas for improving current services. It’s no surprise that the company won the DOTs Triple Crown for best on-time performance, best baggage handling and fewest customer complaints every year from 1992 through 1996. Then, on April 20, 1998, the airline learned it had won the airline quality rating for the third year in a row. To make the story even more remarkable, the company has continued to make a profit every year since 1973 despite at least two major industry turndowns during the same time. While competitors were laying off over 120,000 employees, southwest was hiring, year after year. From three air planes in 1972, it had grown to over 280 in 1999.
HERB KELLERHER: THE HEART AND SOUL OF SOUTHWEST AIRLINES
FROM ITS BEGINNING, HERB Kelleher has been the guiding force behind southwest airlines phenomenal story. His efforts have paid off, not only in profits for the company, but I 1999 Kelleher was named the "chief executive of the year" by chief executive magazine. His approach has always been different from other major airlines. Although reservations and ticketing are done in advance of a flight, seating occurs on first come first serve basis. Turnaround times are kept to an industry low of 15 minutes with help of pilot and crew who clean and restock the planes. The airplane is famous for its "peanut fares matched by its inflight food services consisting almost entirely of peanuts. The average meal cost for a passenger on other airlines is 5 dollar per person; on southwest it is 20 cents.
CORPORATE PHILOSOPHY, CULTURE AND HUMAN RESOURCE PRACTICES
How does southwest maintain its unique, cost-effective position? In an industry in which antagonistic labor management relations are common, how does southwest build cooperation with a workforce that 85% unionized? Led by Kelleher, the corporation has developed a culture that treats employees in decision making, southwest has developed some of the best employee-management relations in the industry. The company has, after all, never had a labor strike. According to Elizabeth Pedrick Sartain, vice president of people (and the company’s top human resource person), Southwest’s corporate culture makes the airline unique. The company’s philosophy is that people should have fun at work, another one of Kelleher’s influences. According to Sartain the company hires "attitudes" and the builds upon that foundation. The company’s reputation makes selectivity possible. In 1998, southwest received 141,710 applications yet only 4,115 new employees. The large labor pool allows the company to hire employees who most closely fit the company’s culture-in which they are asked to use their own judgment and go beyond the job description. Kelleher’s "fun at work" philosophy can be seen in the way the employees work, dress and act, but Kelleher himself sets the example. He one sent an entire elementary school class on a round trip flight from Dallas to Austin because the children had never had an opportunity to fly. Then, when his mechanics on the late night shift felt left out because they couldn’t attend many of the company’s social functions, Kelleher threw them a private barbeque with himself and several of the pilots as cooks. Then of course there is the company’s tradition of wearing black of herbs birthday. Although safety is never compromised, the "have fun" attitude carries right onto the airplanes and involves passengers as well. Safety instructions might be given with an accompanying country and western tune. Or there might be an occasional greeting from inside one of the overhead cargo bins as the flight attendants prepare the plane for its new leg. It is definitely not coincidental that employees’ births, deaths, marriages and promotions are acknowledged by Herb or that the headquarters is covered with pictures of employees gatherings and celebrations. According to Collin Barret, her position as executive vice president for customers is the second ranking officer in the company. She has been with Kelleher for most of the history of southwest and has helped permeate his philosophy throughout the company. About hiring hew pilots, for example, she says "we don’t care if you are the best pilot in the USAF" if you condescend to a secretary, you won’t get hired." Again the sense of the organization is that it employees and values people, not robots. Letting people be themselves is another key to southwest success. Once you let people be themselves, the next step is to make sure they understand that the company cares. In one way or another, all 27,000 employees at southwest hear from the CEO several times a year. So who do you think the company credits for its string of awards? Yes, that’s right. Its people! Everyone from the pilots, flight attendants, mechanics, ramp workers, agents and so on.
How has Southwest airlines dealt with the competitive challenges in the airline industry?
(6 marks)
What special role has corporate culture played in contributing to Southwest airlines success?
(5 Marks)
What aspects of work life at Southwest do you think you would most enjoy and why?
(4 Marks)
Is Southwest’s success more of a function of good human resource practices or good business practices? Can good business strategy survive without an equally good human resource strategy?
(5 Marks)
Question Two
Identify the human resource challenges with corporate and business units strategies
(10 Marks)
What are the main barriers that prevent an organization from taking a more strategic approach to human resources? Why do they exist and how can they be overcomed?
(10 marks)
Question Three
Identify the steps you might take in consulting with the county government about human resource planning. What factors would you suggest senior managers examine and what obstacles might exist when implementing change?
(10 Marks)
What are the possible outcomes of failure to reach consensus on a collective bargaining agreement?
(5 Marks)
What impact can self-reflective job titles have on performance of contemporary organizations? Clearly bring out the theoretical grounding for your answer.
(5 Marks)
Question Four
What are the critical factors to consider in the design of work systems? What particular role does technology play in the design of work systems?
(10 Marks)
Change resistance can either be behavioral or systemic. Clearly explain each of these categorization and point out the approaches you would take to address each one of them
(10 marks)
Question Five
Explain the relationship between training and organizational development. How might each contribute to strategic human resource management?
(10 marks)
Compare and contrast any four job evaluation methods and give an example of an organization in which each of the four methods might provide an optimal strategic fit
(10 marks)
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