Find a real case related to HR management. The case can be based on your professional experience or you can interview a professional to gain a case to solve. Analyze a problematic area of a Human resources management and propose a solution based on the 6 steps described below.

Step 1: Problem Definition: A case seldom involves one clear-cut problem. Your task is to: • determine the symptoms, which require immediate attention; • identify the fundamental issues and causal factors giving rise to these symptoms. It is important to separate the immediate problems from their more basic causes. How you define a problem determines how you go about solving it. A short-term solution for absenteeism is likely to be different from solutions that attempt to deal with motivational climate. Identify both the symptom and, more importantly, its underlying cause.

Step 2: Justification for Problem Definition: Review the information you have about the problem. Make some inferences to fill in gaps. Clearly label what is inference and what is factual. Clearly state the assumptions you are making. Make assumptions on the basis of your knowledge of typical managerial practices, and they should be consistent with the facts about the case, even though your facts may be somewhat limited. Managerial decisions are often based on limited information. In fact, practicing managers find that many of their decisions have to be made quickly on the basis of limited information.

Step 3: List Alternative Courses of Action: Be creative. Jot down ideas as they come to you. List many ideas as you can without evaluating them or censoring anything. You can always cross them out later. The point is to let your imagination take over.

Step 4: Evaluate Alternatives: Look critically at the alternatives you came up with in Step 3. Write advantages and disadvantages of each alternative in terms of criteria that seem appropriate.

Step 5: Draw Conclusions, Make Recommendations/Decisions: Select the alternative you would recommend and justify your choice. Include specifics about the implementation of your recommendation: who should do what, when, and how.

Step 6: Follow Up and Evaluate: Describe how you would set up an evaluation procedure. Suggest a timetable and methods for the evaluation process.

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