HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT

Task 2: Case Study

1. Identify and analyse the main issues/problems in the case.

Case 4: Appraisal of Office Staff

Marimuthu joined Kimi electronics Sdn Bhd as human resource manager last month and this morning had a meeting with Kadir Yusof, the managing director. Kadir told him, we will be starting our next round of performance appraisals next month and I want you to take a look at the appraisal of office staff and make improvements to the system. As you know, we have about 200 non-executive office staff who are mainly clerks and administrative assistants. Last year, all the office staff were rated as outstanding by the various heads of departments and as a result, they were given the highest percentage increments. The problem is we have a budget for increment and when the office staff receive higher increments, it means that the factory and warehouse staff will have to get less. You have my full support on anything that you want to change, so long as I dont see 100 per cent outstanding ratings.

Marimuthu went and talked to some of the manager to get their views on the problem. Richard, the sales manager, told him, I have 25 people and they all very hardworking and I think they deserve the big inrements.

Nordin, the logistics manager, said, if you look at the appraisal form for office staff, it is such a simple one-page form and everything is so vague. There are no clear standards, and that is why when we appraise the staff, we give them the benefits of the doubt. Anyway, all my staff are fantastic people who are willing to go the extra mile for the company. Similar views were expresses by other managers.

Marimuthu then look at the appraisal form and decided that is was too simple and vague and he began to design the new form, based largely on the form used by his previous company. Then, he issued the memo to all managers enclosing a copy of the new form and also a new directive that not more than 25 per cent of the staff from each department can rated as outstanding, with another 25 per cent maximum to be rated exceed requirements. The rest were to be rated as meet requirements need improvement, or poor.

The next day, Marimuthu faced a hostile group manager in his office. You cannot just join our company and do changes without understanding our company culture and way of doing things, one of them said.

Another said, this new form you designed is just like the old form we used ten years ago. We threw it anyway because is was too time consuming and we wanted a simple form, other managers nodded in agreement.

Finally, Lucy, the finance manager said, look, we want you to understand our problems. You cannot just put a quota because in some department all the office staff are doing excellence jobs. If all my people put long hours and work hard for the company, shouldnt all of them be rated outstanding? Why dont you withdraw the memo and re-think through the whole thing before you make any changes? We know the managing director give you a task of reviewing the system but if you insist on going ahead like this, we will have no choice but to go and see him complain.

Can refer this note: https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/18505222.pdf