Academic Session 2016

First Semester

January 2016

TMA 2

BBM207 Human Resource Management

Instructions:
1. TMA 2 contains FOUR (4) questions and you are required to answer ALL
questions.
2. TMA 2 carries 25% of your final total marks.
3. The assignment should be typed using Times New Roman, font size 12 and
double spaced, approximately 2000 words and in essay format.
4. The deadline for the submission of TMA 2 is 22-Apr-2016, 11:59pm. A
softcopy should be submitted via Online Assignment Submission System.
5. Students are highly encouraged to passage their TMAs to the Turnitin system
before submission, to encourage honest academic writing and it is not
mandatory except for Project courses.

Question 1
Setia Maju Sdn Bhd is facing challenges in staying competitive and as the head of the
company you believe that Organisation Development is a viable way to succeed.
However you face a number challenges.
(a)

How would you explain Organisation Development to the internal stakeholders of

your company?
(10 marks)

(b)

Your Human Resource Manager thinks Organisation Development is the same as

Human Resource Development. Clarify the difference between Organisation
Development and Human Resource Development so that she understands.
(5 marks)

(c)

Draw up an outline of the steps that are necessary to implement the changes
effectively.
(10 marks)

Question 2
Your company is experiencing high turnover of sales staff and the reason they are leaving
is because they are dissatisfied with the incentive scheme provided. As the HR manager,
suggest to the management a few incentive schemes that could help to motivate and
retain staff.
(25 marks)
Question 3:
As the new Human Resource Manager you have been informed by the director of the
company that there are usually many problems during the annual performance evaluation.
He did not specifically tell you what the problems were but expects you to resolve the
problems.
(a)
(b)

Identify the common problems that can arise during performance appraisals
(15 marks)
Come up with suggestions how to resolve the problems.
(10 marks)

Read the Case Study below and answer Question 4.

Is flextime the answer to talent retention?
Flexitime allows employees to manage their own schedules by working remotely
(anywhere and anytime) as long as they produce their work or results on deadline.
Companies worldwide recognise that employees' happiness with new workplace methods
and positive reinforcements are critical for outstanding work productivity.
Some corporations are shifting away from the rigid and fixed nine to five at the office
to a more friendly and flexible system for work hours. Flexible working hours (or
flextime) is an example and has been found to vastly improve staff motivation,
performance and productivity. This significantly reduces stress levels and helps
employees focus better on their duties, says a report by Georgetown University in
Washington DC.
Flextime is based on self-scheduling and it can significantly improve the individuals
health and quality of relationships, according to a review of ten studies at Durham
University in the UK. Having this sense of well-being is the main factor that contributes
to the employees increased work performance quality, according to the report which
surveyed more than 16,000 people who worked on a flextime basis.
Flextime is an employers commitment to enhance employee welfare by improving
work/life balance and some companies use it to retain talented and valuable staff. It
comes in various forms such as flexible working hours, compressed work weeks where
staff work longer hours to have one off day during the week as well as working from
home a few days out of the week.
The labour force market survey reported that 12% of the workforce in Malaysia jobhopped annually, where people resigned from their jobs within the first three to six
months of employment. The Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) said that some
companies are too restrictive on their staff, especially the younger ones, when it comes to
the usage of social media and work hours.
When an employee is depressed, he leaves and the company could risk losing talented
employees. To prevent this, the MEF suggests that while companies can offer ompetitive
salary packages, they can also provide other incentives.
Perhaps such companies can take a leaf out of the book from some global corporations in
various industries. One of the employee incentives is flextime and the companies that
adopt this have reported that the quality and value of work output has significantly
improved, together with positive feedback from employees.

These companies include Sun Microsystems, Best Buy Co, PNC Financial Services
Group, KPMG LLP and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Sun Microsystems, for example, found that the employees who work from home attain
the highest marks of all employees when it comes to their performance appraisals. Its
Open Work programme is provided to 40% of its employees where they work flexible
hours and off-site. Employees in the programme had an average growth of 34% in work
productivity.
More than 65% of Best Buy employees participated in its Results-Only-WorkEnvironments. The self-dependence programme allows staff to complete their work at
any location and time frame, as long as they achieve the set results and objectives.
At PNC, nearly 25,000 of its employees work on some type of flexible work arrangement
that includes job sharing, telecommuting and compressed work weeks. For the latter type
of work system, it resulted in faster work output (work that had usually taken two days to
complete, can be done in one day), a big drop in work absenteeism from 60 days to nine
days per year and improved customer service, resulting in the company saving an excess
of US $100,000 (RM301,375) in turnover costs.
Despite these phenomenal returns from work time flexibilities, there are also downfalls
where employees may feel disconnected and question their job security.
Sun Microsystems Open Work programme could be too flexible, which makes some
staff uncomfortable about not showing up to work. Over the years, it slowly began to
create trust and credibility issues between managers and their staff, an employee
explained.
Some employees can also feel estranged from their workplace, and soon lose their
identity and affinity with the company. An international information technology company
reported that the majority of its off-site staff (telecommuters) felt out of the loop as they
experienced a lack of engagement that can prevent the development of good relationships
at the workplace.
While many work flexibilities has indeed become more popular in recent times,
corporations that practice it may soon need to regulate the degree of flexibility to avoid
the manifestation of these unhealthy employee sentiments as well as to prevent
exploitation.
(Source: http://www.themalaysianreserve.com/main/sectorial/talent-a-humancapital/1297-is-flextime-the-answer-to-talent-retention)

Question 4:
(a)

Flexitime may be the answer to talent retention as stated in this news article
[especially to those younger working generations]. Do you agree? Support your
answer.
(13 marks)

(b)

If you are the HR manager of your organisation, do you think flextime will be
workable in your organization?
(12 marks)

End of TMA 2 Questions