University of Wales Institute, Cardiff Assignment Cover Sheet

Student Details ( Student should fill the content) Name Student ID Scheduled unit details Unit code Unit title Unit enrolment details Lecturer Mode of delivery Assignment Details Nature of the Assessment Topic of the Case Study Learning Outcomes covered Word count Due date / Time Extension granted? Is this a resubmission? Declaration I certify that the attached material is my original work. No other persons work or ideas have been used without acknowledgement. Except where I have clearly stated that I have used some of this material elsewhere, I have not presented it for examination / assessment in any other course or unit at this or any other institution Name/Signature Submission Return to: Result Marks by 1st Assessor Marks by IV: Name & Signature of the 1st Assessor Agreed Mark S.H.M.Rishan Date 4/03/2012 REPORT GIVEN YES Individual report of 2500 words 4/03/2012 Yes Yes No No Extension Date Resubmission Date MBA 400 People and Organization assignment 2 Year Study period 2011/2012 S.H.M. Rishan UWIC/MBA/MT/10/26

Mr.Patternot

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STUDENT NAME: S.H.M Rishan Module Number & Title: MBA 400 People and Organization

STUDENT NUMBER: UWIC/MBA/MT/10/26 Semester: One

Assignment Type & Title: Individual assignment 2 Essay report For student use: Critical feedback on the individual progression towards achieving the assignment outcomes

For 1st Assessor use: Assessment feedback Strengths

Weaknesses

Areas for future improvement

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People and Organization (MBA400) First semester, 2012 Assignment -2-Essay Report (Individual work)

Marks: 50% of total marks Word limit: 2500 words

Motivation Individual personality/attitudes Inter-cultural differences in leadership styles Conflict resolution Performance evaluation

TASK Critically examine the personnel management process of your own organization and the organizational policies on Motivation, Management of change,

Inter-cultural differences in leadership, performance evaluation and conflict resolution.

SOURCES Student can source material for this assignment from company websites, newspaper articles, company information/reports from the web or library data bases, text book or journal articles. All sources must be properly referenced and cited. Do not use unverifiable non-academic sources such as Wikipedia and other Google sources Students are required to be constructively critical and analytical. In addition students have the opportunity to demonstrate their understanding of management through a practical and realistic approach to their basic research

methods, discussion of relevant real life applications and demonstrations of strong essay writing and referencing techniques. Assessment Criteria Find information appropriate to the task (10%) Evaluate and organize information in a logical and coherent way (10%) Application of theoretical models for appropriate argument (15%) Use of practical and realistic approaches for findings (15 %) Critically analyze and synthesis the information gathered (35 %) Communicate information clearly and accurately (5 %) Refer to information sources accurately (10 %)

REPORT STRUCTURE Paper Size Words Printing Margins Binding Margin Header and Footer Printing Basic Font Size Line Spacing Font Style Presentation : A4 : 2500 words : LHS; RHS: 1 Inch 25 mm : Inch 12 mm : 1 Inch : Single Sided : 12 : 1.5 : Arial/Times New Roman : Bound Document

Important Information for Students The assignment should be submitted as a SOFT COPY in a word format ONLY (CD ONLY) as well as HARD COPY on or before the due date. The soft copy should be saved directly to a CD as one file. Documents saved in different files and/or in subfolders will be rejected. Softy copy should be named as MBA/(subject number)/(assignment number)/(followed by the student registration number) E.g. For people and organization assignment 2 MBA-400-02-UWIC-MBA-MT-00-00

Students are also expected to keep a backup of all the assignments. ICBT and UWIC have the right to call for soft copy of any assignment at any time during the course.

Student should sign a register upon submitting assignment which will be kept in the administration department of relevant campus. This record on the register will be considered as the official record for submission. Please note that no acknowledgement for receipt of assignment send via e mail.

Please note that plagiarism is treated as a serious offence and therefore the work you produce must be individual and original although may work in groups in some instances (Please refer to Student Handbook on Plagiarism & Cheating). All sources of information must be referenced using Harvard referencing where a reference listing should be included at the end of the assignment.

Please note that the submission date given for this assignment is the final date that you can hand over the assignment. No late submissions are allowed. (Please refer to the Student Handbook on Assessments - Late Submissions). Please refer to Student Handbook circumstances Re-submission. on Assignments/mitigating

Table of Content Executive summary Introduction Motivation Two factor Theory of Motivation Herzberg Theory Management of Change John Kotters 8 steps of Leading to Change Resistance to Change Intercultural differences in Leadership Style Performance Appraisal Methods used for performance appraisal Advantages of Performance Appraisal Conflict Resolution Types of conflicts References

Executive Summary This report critically examine the personnel management process of PC House PLC by specially focusing on the areas of organizational policies on Motivation, Management of change, Inter-cultural differences in leadership, performance evaluation and conflict resolution. Introduction PCH Holdings (PCHH) is a leading ICT provider in Sri Lanka with 15 years of experience. Its a success story of a business which started as a small IT product selling shop which became a highly diversified business entity spreading wings into IT, Pharmacuiticals, Apperal, BPO, KPO, Exports and Activated Carbon. The main objective of this report is to examine the personal management process of PC House and company policies on Motivation, Management of change, Intercultural differences in leadership, Performance evaluation and Conflict Resolution. An in-depth evaluation will be carried on the above elements which help in achieving corporate goals. Motivation Motivation in simple terms may be understood as the set of forces that cause people to behave in certain ways. A motivated employee generally is more quality oriented. Highly motivated workers are more productive than a pathetic worker. Employees join organizations with different needs and expectations. Their values, beliefs, background, life styles, perceptions and attitudes are different.

The Two Factor Theory holds that, motivators and hygiene factors relate to employee satisfaction a more complex relationship than the traditional view that employers are either satisfied or dissatisfied. If hygiene factors are not taken care of or are deficient then will be dissatisfaction. There may be no dissatisfaction if hygiene factors are taken care of there may be no satisfaction also. Only when motivators are present will there be satisfaction. Motivators tend to be more important to job satisfaction than hygiene factors. Hygiene Factors help to prevent dissatisfaction thus the hygiene as it is used in the health field. Only motivators lead to satisfaction. Efforts to motivate Human Resources must provide Recognition A chance to achieve and grow Advancement Interesting Work

To investigate to what extent positive motivational factors exists in the context of PCHH HR Function, I have investigated several indirect parameters of staff motivation, causal factors and possible human resources interventions that management has taken .

Causal Factors for Lack of Motivation a] Salary Anomalies As discussed PCHH is a highly diversified conglomerate. It staff vary by the industry, nature of work, pay, and various other factors. Staff is recruited based on the market salaries. A salary survey was carried out in view of restructuring the remuneration of the staff members and it was revealed that the existing salary scales of the PCHH was less competitive with the market salary scale. The salary discrepancies among new recruits and the existing staff have been adjusted in stages.

b] Career Prospects Initially PCHH has only limited business scope- computer hardware sales at retail markets. Due to this factor the staff career prospects were restricted to those who initially joined to PCHH. However with the expansion on new business and markets new people joined and old employees had to acquire new skills. c] Culture Conflicts PCHH has a vibrant and dynamic culture. The subcultures in few pockets in the company runs its own phase with lack of business prospects. Those who are unable to cope with the change develop dissatisfaction d] Inconsistent HR practices PCHH focuses on many priorities at the same time and those who are in SBUs face challenges in handling thing every day. As a result of the business complexity HR activities such as Recruitment, Selection and application of other HR procedures were made somewhat flexible and some staff may see this flexibility from a negative view point. Indicators of Lack of Motivation e] Productivity It has been seen that certain business segments, individuals and SBUU with PCHH has room for improvement. Among many other factors demotivation of some staff could be a causal factor. f ] High Staff Turnover Generally IT sector has a high turn over and PCHH IT SBUs are no different from this trend. It is also seen in the apparel sector companies belongs to PCHH. However in my analysis it has been seen that the staff at senior levels have longer periods of services and the LTO mostly occur at lower levels of the hierarchy.

g] Grievances Few incidences of staff grievances were reported to the Human Resources Department with regard to salaries, promotions, transfers and job. Grievances reported basically revolved around the perceived inequity and differential treatment of such human resources functions. It has seen that PCHH has developed some mechanisms such as Grievance Settlement Procedure (GSP), Counseling Division and an Open Door Policy. h] Absenteeism Higher incidence of absenteeism is also a one phenomenon that indicates the level of staff motivation. Late attendance is also observed to be high specially in BPOs, apparel factories and among the laborers of activated carbon factory. HRD and the management has identified some motivational schemes like attendance bonus, incentives, etc. Management of Change This mainly speaks about organization-wide change, as opposed to smaller changes such as adding a new person. It includes the management of changes to the organizational culture, business processes, physical environment, job design / responsibilities, staff skills / knowledge and policies / procedures. John Kotters 8 steps of Leading to Change Here we discuss how John kotters 8 steps of change used for PCHH change Management. Increase urgency- This includes creating the need for changes by providing evidence from the outside environment to let them know change is necessary at this time and identifying the major opportunities. Build the Guiding Team This includes identifying the change agents within PCHH and giving them authority to lead while encourage the group to work as a team.

Get the Vision Right - This means setting a vision to achieve and developing the strategies to achieve that vision.

Communicate for Buy-in a simple and clear communication campaign is designed to create awareness among the employees of PCHH on the corporate vision and strategies to achieving it.

Empowering Action As we know that there will be plenty of resistance for change while implanting it this included removing those challenges and obstacles. Here PCHH modify their System and structures to support in achieve the vision.

Create short term wins This steps plays as kind of encouragement, where at this phase company will recognize and reward the employees who made their part.

Do Not Let Up - at this stage company look at encouraging the top performers and the employees to proceed with the continuous change.

Make Change Stick This being the final step includes making the change constant within PC House and do not let any force to go back to the earlier situation.

Resistance to Change Below mentioned are the few factors which will act as a resistance to change, where PCHH had strategies to minimize these factors Lack of info about changes Protect vested interest and for convenience If no participation Time is too short Too complex If reminded of past failure

Losing group affiliation Feel inadequate with the requirements of change

Intercultural differences in Leadership Style Culture of an Organization is formed and complemented by its past achievements, present objectives and goals & future plans. Furthermore it is also supplemented by the style of Management, attitude of Staff and their Client Relations. Hence a culture of organizations exhibits togetherness and commitment which contributes towards momentous achievements and growth of this organization. Its globally accepted that leaders need to clearly understand the importance of cultural practices and values, and by adhering to different cultural expectations in order to be perceived as acceptable and effective. Apart from this, leaders must be educated and aware of the different requirements associated with low and high level leadership and need to adjust their leadership style to suit the different roles. According to the research conducted by International Journal of Cross Cultural Management," it says that leadership traits are resulted mainly from two parts which are cultural norms and needs of the leadership job. Cultures mainly differ from the use of power.

Combining direction-goal model of Robert House and dividing cultural dimensions in studies done by Geert Hofstede, according to this model, leadership is classified into 4 main categories Guiding and directing the staff on what they should do and how to perform it, work planning, and functional standards.

Supportive leadership Mainly focusing on the welfare and benefits of the staff and their requirements. Apart from this maintaining a friendly relationship and equally treating all the staff.

Participatory leadership Mainly in a decision making process consult the staff for their feedback and attitudes

Success oriented leadership Backing and encouraging the staff to perform their duties to the best of their ability to reach great heights. Also having a great trusts on the ability of the fellow staff and help them to overcome challenges.

According to the above mentioned 4 leadership styles Participatory leadership styles is being recognized globally as the best leadership style in the inter cultural management. The traits mentioned above will be directly linked to the firms strategic leadership where a leader will create a vision which involves risk taking and insight and to inspire others also to take risk.

Performance Evaluation Performance Appraisal is defined as a process of periodic and systematic assessment of an employees standard of output, conduct, potential capabilities in doing a job entrusted with as well as their contribution to achievement of organizational goals. Performance Feedback / Appraisal is a key human Resources process in an organization which has good Human Resources Practices and it has many connections to the other processes such as staff promotions, salary, training, job rotation, etc

PCHH has its own performance management system, which was formulated during latter part of 2007. Performance Feedback form which is the key tool or guide to the performance measurement is consist with two major parts such as 'Key Results Areas' or 'Performance Objectives' and 'Soft Skill' measurements. Performance Objectives are assigned to the employee in the beginning of the year as per the business plan. Soft Skills are fixed set of variables, which indicate the desired conduct of the employee within the organization. There are three parties involved in perfecting the form such as Appraisee, Appraiser and the Reviewer. As per the procedure established Appraiser and the Reviewer will get together and discuss about the performance of the Appraisee and fill the format. Then Appraiser discusses with the appraisee and tries to negotiate on the rankings given to Appraisee with the Reviewer. Any disagreements are reported to the Reviewer and they will subsequently come to consensus. On the face of the appraisal it is a quite comprehensive and fully objective tool of measuring the performance of the individual. However the experience of the author is that there are certain problems with regard to the Democracy, Objectivity, Consistency, Comprehension and translating performance in to rewards.

a] Democracy Gone are the days where superiors sent annual confidential reports on the each and every staff member. Now the employee is relatively stronger with more bargaining power as she or he has expertise and knowledge which is very costly for the employer to replace. Thus now a day's both organizations and employees prefer maintenance of equal states and fair play. However by looking at the procedure established it indicates that the Appraiser should first discuss with the Reviewer, come to an agreement and then discuss with the Appraisee. Since the Appraiser and Reviewer are superior to the Appraiser he or she may loose the faith in fair play. Instead this should have been done the other way such as Appraiser and Appraiser will first discuss and to refer the matter to Reviewer if consensus is not reached.

b] Objectivity The major argument with regard to the current performance management system is that whether using the existing tool could PCHH capture the real performance of the employee. In the Key Results area number of performance indicators are limited to five. Although the argument is valid to certain extent since it is expected to measure only the key important areas of performance it is a reasonable assumption that the criteria will measure the real performance with greater degree of confidence. c] Consistency and Equity Another crucial point is that does PCHH have consistent and standard measurement criteria across the board. It was observed that some Appraisers are too lenient and others are too tough while some others are everywhere on average. Inconsistency in appraisal leads to a puzzle of equity as rewards and recognition mainly based on the marks of the appraisal. Performance Feedback as a Tool of Motivation Since the Performance Feedback is considered as the input for Salary Increments, Promotion, Transfers, Succession, Training, etc, eventually the management and the staff place much greater importance on that. Those who desire to obtain better conditions of the above aspects listed would try to succeed their appraisal as it act as a "passport" to betterment. Remuneration Management There are about 9 grades in the PCHH and the salaries and other benefits vary with the grade. For a particular salary band variance between the lowest figure and the highest figure comes around 50%. One band may overlap with some portion of the below and upper bands. The rational here is that to allow the staff members to achieve better financial position even though promotions are restricted.

Conflict Resolution Workplace conflict resolution is a process of facilitating and mediating in soling workplace disputes between staff, management and other parties. Organizations are systematic and disciplined institutions and those who live within it show compliance with the norms and the culture of the system. As people are always involved in organization space conflicts can arise within organizations and organizations shall have mechanisms to mitigate the potential damages from conflicts between parties. There can be many reasons those are contributory to conflicts such as employment conditions, individual or group differences, resource distribution, communication failures , etc. Conflict resolution in PCHH context is in their value system and is applied to situations, people, groups and to the organization as a whole. The PCH conflict resolution is largely a preventive mechanism; Managerial Interventions-Conflicts related to individual/ group - As the very first step to resolve conflicts PCHH practices open door policy where any staff member can walk in to the most senior corporate managers cabin and find redress to his or her grievances. Also each manager of the divisions is empowered to exercise certain level of authority and responsibility to manage conflicts.

Norming- Discipline- At PCHH each staff member is expected a certain behavior and a discipline. These expectations are taught to the staff by induction, Job Descriptions, training, etc. Ombudsman/ Independent most process (performance appraisals , Interviews, Domestic inquiries, exit interviews) an independent party will act as an observer or mediator at PCHH Apart from this PCHH has a grievance settlement procedure that is in full operation as follows

A grievance connotes any discontent or dissatisfaction arising out of anything connected with the employee, that an employee believes unfair unjust or inequitable. Attending to such matters is the responsibility of the Manager/Executive concerned. This is most desirable because firstly, it is he/she who best knows the employee involved and the circumstances related to the matter and, secondly, it is in their interest to resolve the matter and thereby re-in force his/her relationship with the employee. The following stages describes this procedure:1. Employees must in the first instance make representations to his/her immediate Supervisor with regard to any grievance/request. 2. If the Supervisor was not able to find a satisfactory solution to the employees' grievance/request within a reasonable time the employee may make written submissions to the Head of his/her Department through his/her Supervisor. The Supervisor on receipt of such submission shall forward same to the Head of the Department indicating his views on the employees grievance/request. 3. The Head of the Department is required to convey his/her decision to the employee concerned within three days (3) from the date of receipt of such grievance. 4. If the Department Head has still not been able to resolve his (the employees) grievance/request, he/she may make written submissions to the Head Human Resources through his/her Head of the Department who will be required to indicate to the Head Human Resources the decision conveyed by him to the employee. The Head Human Resources will address the problem and interview the employee either confidentially or with the Head of the Department

Responsibility of Managers/Executives in Grievance Handling It is the primary responsibility of each and every Manager and Executive to objectively assess the grievance and determine whether a genuine problem exists. Thereafter if in the opinion of the Manager/Executive a problem does exist, then he should discuss with his superior his analysis of the problem and what measures are recommended to resolve the problem. Grievance Settlement Procedure Objective 1. To resolve the staff grievances at earliest possible level . 2. To make the Management more responsible in decision-making related to employees. 3. Employees are free of discontent arising from job-related problems and productivity and morale will improve

Recommendations. My recommendations are to develop and improve HR functions on the following lines. 1. HR Policy 2. Value of Human Resources 3. Equity 4. Diversity in opinion, culture, gender, race, language, age, religion, locality 5. Staff Involvement and Participation in decision making. 6. Communication: Open and two way approach which is transparent and disclose relevant information and which will help all its staff members to understand the business and position of the staff. 7. Management Style: How managers are encouraged to be democratic decision-makers for the matters pertaining to staff and how managers are made accountable for their decisions. 8. Teamwork and Cooperation: How teamwork is encouraged and to what level team and individual recognition is appreciated. 9. Quality of Work Life: To what extent the PCHH will endeavour to provide healthy, hygienic and safe work environment with higher job satisfaction and betterment opportunities. 10. Staff Training and Development: How PCHH considers and plans the staff training and individual development? 11. Performance: How PCHH expects a level of performance, commitment and result orientation from its staff members and how the PCHH will recognize performance?

References PC House annual report 2011 www.pch.lk PC House Human Resource procedure manual John F Kotter, Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail - Volume: 73, Issue: 2, Publisher: Harvard Business School Publication Corp. Casimir, G. & Waldman, D. A. (2007). A Cross Cultural Comparison of the Importance of Leadership Traits for Effective Low-level and High-level Leaders: Australia and China. International Journal of Cross Cultural Management, 7, 47-60. Survey of leadership styles in different cultures - Gholamreza Taleghani1, Davood Salmani , Ali Taatian , Iranian Journal of Management Studies (IJMS) Vol 3. No.3 January 2010 pp: 91- 111

"Cambridge Handbook of Culture, Organizations, and Work"; Rabi S. Bhagat, et al., 2009