Rabia Waqar BTECH Level 3 Semester 1

Human Resource management in Business

Task 1
Overview-
Bata Shoe Company is a family owned business, which began its operation on the 24th of August 1894, in
a town known as Zlin, within present day Czech Republic. It is a company that has had a long turbulent
history, surviving through a revolution, two Great wars, and rebuilding itself in a post-war economy.
Regardless of the hardships Bata continued to persevere, moving there service headquarters of the Bata
shoe organization to England in 1945. While slowly rebuilding the organization, they expanded their
operations throughout Asia, The Middle East, Europe, and Latin America. By 1964, they again moved
there organization headquarters to Toronto, Canada. By the end of the 40 years that the Bata
headquarters remained in Canada, they closed multiple factories in developed countries, due to the
global economic shifts in the 90’s. In 2004, the Bata headquarters were moved for the last time to
Lausanne, Switzerland and control of the organization was transferred to Thomas G. Bata. Presently,
Bata has over 5,300 retail stores in over 70 countries worldwide, as well as production facilities in 18
countries.

The footwear market in Pakistan is one of the multiple markets that Bata broke into worldwide. Bata has
been providing its services within Pakistan since 1942, providing a wide variety of high quality and
affordable shoes to its valued customers of multiple demographics in accordance to the ever changing
trend. It was incorporated in Pakistan as Bata Shoe Company Limited in 1951, but later in the year 1979
went public to Bata Pakistan Limited.

Human Resource management (HRM):

M1- Human resource management (HRM), is the function within an organization that concentrates on
the management of the workforce, recruitment of staff, and providing direction to the employees within
the organization. HRM can be seen as a strategic and comprehensive method of managing people, as
well as the organization culture, and environment. Workforce planning is one of the many functions of
HRM, that involves future planning as well as identifying the number of employees required and the
types of skills they must possess. Having employees with a diverse range of skills, and knowledge, helps
improve productivity and efficiency in an organization like Bata. A powerful workforce in Bata can have
many benefits as a retail business, such as better customer service, more satisfied agents, higher
profitability, and even lower cost due to better problem solving skills.

P1- Multiple internal and external factors are considered before meeting human resource requirements,
as it is a multinational organization in Pakistan, providing direct and indirect employment to 10,000
individuals. External Factors such as demand of products, employment laws, and government pressure,
can be seen as a few factors that can affect the direction of Bata. Footwear is a highly lucrative market,
however the success of a product mainly depends on the current trend, or its need. If it doesn’t meet

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the demand of consumers, the product will not sell. Thus Bata will meet the demand of the people by
employing the staff to produce those goods or outsource them. Employment laws are also big factors
that can affect the direction of Bata, as it can decide the working conditions the employees reside in,
along with the compensation they receive. Employment laws can include laws such as minimum wage,
quality working environment, and professional work culture, a greater emphasis on health and safety,
repercussions when dealing with discrimination, and general maternity leave laws. Government
pressure can very much decide the direction of a multinational organization as well, as it essentially
decides the success or failure of the organization in a country.

The productivity level of the workforce, objectives of the business, skills of the workforce, predicted
labor turnover, and absenteeism rates, are a few of the internal factors to consider when planning the
Human Resource Requirements of Bata. With this information Bata is able to analyze and identify
various strategies to adopt in order to increase productivity, reduce the labor turnover, lowers the
absenteeism rate, and most importantly encourage employees to work toward a common objective that
they too believe in.

P2- The skills required by an employee to carry out jobs in an organization are identified by employers
carrying out a job analysis. A job analysis can be carried out by direct observation of current employees
at work, or by interviewing current job holders. Employers also refer to documents such as training
manuals or other job descriptions and specifications of other similar organizations. Further information
can directly be extracted by the person carrying out the task or from their supervising staff. Bata is a
retail organization, thus they will look for employees who have knowledge of the service sector and the
required skills. Such as, being hospitable, being a problem solver, multitasking, team working, and etc.

Task 2
P3- Motivation consists of multiple psychological factors which stimulate an individual to work towards
a common goal. Motivation is the drive to why employees work hard and effectively for their
organization. Motivation can lead to benefits such as fully utilizing the available human resources to the
best of the organizations ability, improving level of efficiency of employees, achieving organizational
goals, building friendly relationships as it provides a certain level of satisfaction to employees and
stability of workforce as they remain loyal to the organization.

Bata is an organization that thrives within the retail sector and has multiple employees throughout
Pakistan, many of these employees may be motivated through financial and non-financial rewards such
as bonuses, company discounts to a few of their products, fringe benefits, employee recognition,
upgraded work environment, promotions, and more.

M2- Let us analyze a few financial and non-financial motivation theories and which theories best suit
Bata as an organization. The E. W Taylor theory, is a financial theory in regards to pay and training.
Essentially it asks managers to break down the production process into small task and select workers
accordingly. After which the manager observers the workers performance and sets the best work
performance as a standard. The employees are then given the training and tools to as efficiently as

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possible carry out one task. After which they carry out the task and are paid according to the number of
units produced. As result workers are motivated to work harder and maximize profitability. This can be
useful for Bata as an organization and its employees, as this theory has proven for other similar
organizations to increase productivity levels and lower unit cost. It also gives employees the flexibility of
getting paid higher wages as opposed to the standard wage. However, there remains a risk of
employees finding the tasks to repetitive and losing interest.

The Elton Mayo theory is a non-financial theory that focuses on working conditions. Bata can apply this
theory in its production facilities, to motivate their workers by meeting their social needs. This can be
done through better communication between the supervisors and workers, greater management
involvement in employees working lives and working in teams. As well as addressing some of their other
social needs.

Another non-financial theory which targets employee’s psychological needs is Maslows hierarchy of
needs. The theory states there are five levels of needs that employees need to have fulfilled at work.
The five needs include self-actualization; this requires providing challenging work to employees, Esteem
needs; gaining respect from others, Social needs; having team working that creates a friendly work
environment, safety needs; maintaining sense of job security through employment contracts, and
Physical needs; which is the fulfillment of basic needs. This in turn encourages an organization like Bata
to offer different incentive too employees to fulfill each need in order to progress up each hierarchy, as
a method of motivation.

Herzebergs two factor theory is another non-financial motivation theory that shares close links with
Maslows . However, he argued that their were certain factors that a business could introduce that could
directly motivate employees to work harder, and also factors that could significantly demotivate them
such working conditions. Essentially he states that organizations like Bata should introduces a
democratic form of a leadership style among managers, and improve the nature and content of the job
through particular methods like job enlargement, job enrichment, and empowerment.

The following were a few of the financial and non-financial theories that could be employed in Bata that
could improve the motivation of their workers.

D1- Bata motivates it employees by offering them fringe benefits such as providing work shoes, and
providing company discounts to Bata stores. Bata can further motivate its employees by offering
financial rewards such as bonuses and paid vacations to exceptionally hard working employees and
using them as a set standard to motivate other employees to work harder. Motivation can also be
improved by praising employees for their hard work so they know that their work is being recognized
and they are valued. There are many ways Bata can improve the morale of their employees through
motivation, bust most importantly by meeting their needs, providing suitable working conditions & work
culture, and most importantly encouraging each employee to try their best.

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Task 3
P4- The cooperation of employees is essential to maintain efficiency and productivity in an organization.
Lack of cooperation among supervisors and employees can lead to a negative impact in the employee’s
productivity. That is why it is essential for an organization like Bata to maintain a healthy work culture.

Bata can improve the cooperation of their employees by maintaining a positive work attitude. This in
turn will make employees more willing to contribute their ideas and creative solutions to problems, as
well as gain recognition for their input.

Avoiding conflicts between the employees and managers of Bata is an essential part of maintaining
cooperation, employee morale, and utilizing time efficiently. Lack of cooperation can have devastating
effects on productivity. This is why Bata should instill proper training and rules for employees and
managers, in regards to employee interaction, and making cooperation imperative.

A contract of employment is a form of a written agreement between employer and employee, it

contains the rights and responsibilities of both parties under the labour law. It must be understood that
it is essentially a legally binding contract, which Batas employees voluntarily accept the terms of. An
employment contract contains a large variety of terms and procedure’s that the employee must agree
to, as a condition of gaining employment. The contract should clearly stipulate the nature of the
employment relationship. As well as include the terms of employment, employee responsibilities,
benefits, and absence. The contract must also include terms for dispute resolution, employment
opportunity limitations, and grounds for termination.

Bata likely requires employees to sign employment contracts as a means to protect its own interests.
Perhaps the contract may require that the employee may not work for Bata’s competitors or even in the
same industry, for a certain duration of time.

Bata can maintain adherence to a contract in many ways. For starters by ensuring that Bata writes a
contract in such a way that both the policies and procedures are feasible. This can be done by involving
the department heads of each section of the organization, and having an in depth understanding of the
daily task of each department. By doing this Bata can ensure that the contract policies include the
correct terminologies, are not misunderstood, and are clear to the employee. The next step of ensuring
compliance is by making sure the procedures and policies of Bata are accessible to employees in a
platform they are comfortable with. This can be through email, notice boards, pamphlets, and
department meetings. It is critical that employees are able to get ahold of the procedures within three
clicks, as it makes sure that employees do not get frustrated and abandon their effort at being
compliant. After the terms and procedures are made accessible, it is crucial that the department heads
of Bata are gathered to ensure a successful plan is put into place that employees comply with
understanding. After employees have thorough knowledge of the policies and procedures of Bata,
managers should narrow down the best way to measure the level of understanding among employees.
This can be tested depending on the tasks given, or through quizzes, and practice runs.

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Task 4
P5- Employee performance is the work related tasks that are delegated to employees, and how well
they are able to execute them. The directors of each department in an organization will assess the
performance of every employee, on an annual basis in order to suggest areas of improvement, this is
also known as performance appraisal. When Bata carries out performance appraisal it is crucial they
take in account the past, present, and future performance of each individual employee. After which they
must deduce whether the employee is above par or below par in the performance of their tasks. It is the
responsibility of the organization in this case Bata, to employ various strategies to improve the
performance of their below the par employees.

Bata can measure employee performance through past oriented or future oriented methods of
appraisal. There are a number ways of measuring past oriented methods of appraisal, such as rating
scales, checklist, performance test & observation, essay method, cost accounting method, and
comparative evaluation method, to a name a few.

Rating scales consists of several numerical scales representing job related performance criterions. Each
scale ranges from poor to excellent performance. At the end of the evaluation, the scores are totaled
and a conclusion is derived. For an organization like Bata this method of performance appraisal allows a
large number of employees to be evaluated at a low cost, and it’s easy to use. Checklists are also used as
a performance evaluation method. For example, Bata HQ creates a statement of questions that are
distributed among individual raters who tick off either yes or no when rating Bata’s employees. After
which the actual evaluation is done by Bata’s HR department. This method of evaluation is easy to
administer, is standardized, and a limited amount of training is required. However, there is a risk of their
being bias when it comes to raters. Bata could also carry out a performance test & observation, where
office department employees take a test evaluating their knowledge and skill. This can distinguish
exceptionally talented employees who can contribute a lot more, however, it may be time consuming to
create and administer the test. Other modes of performance appraisal such as the essay methods also
employ the services of a rater to write a performance review essay about the individual’s performance.
Bata can use this form of evaluation for their high level supervisors and managers, as the evaluation is
likely to be very in depth and may fill in some information gaps that weren’t available earlier. The cost
accounting method can be used to evaluate employees in the production and service department of
Bata as it evaluates the productivity of the employees in terms of the units produced, or the amount of
goods sold. The comparative evaluation method compares employees among their coworkers and sets a
standard for others to follow.

Future oriented methods of appraisal include management by object or MBO, where managers of Bata
will be evaluated by the number objectives they achieve. Psychological appraisal is another method of
evaluation where Batas employees will take part in an in depth interview or psychological test to predict
their future performance. Most organization would carry out this form of an evaluation when hiring
employees. Lastly, the 360 feedback method of evaluation that takes into account the input of multiple
stakeholders in order to create a broader perspective that evaluates the performance of the
organization as a whole. This can help Bata indicate which areas need to be greatly improved in the
organization.

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Bata can maintain good performance management by gaining regular feedback from managers and
employees by sustaining healthy communication inside the organization. Keeping good records of the
achievements and struggles of each employee and the organization as a whole may help Bata in
motivating employees in the future and tackling present issues. Encouraging participation amongst
Batas employees will also maintain performance as the employees will feel more motivated and
involved in the organization.

M3- Through evaluating a employees performance employees are reminded of what is expected of
them in a work place. It gives organization like Bata the information they need to make employment
decisions, it helps managers and employees come up with a way to improve their individual
performance and be motivated at the same time. The feedback employees receive from their
supervisor’s coaches the worker how to get better at their work. Bata can use performance indicators
such as customer satisfaction, number of units produced, or even amount of sales made as a way to
evaluate performance. Bata can encourage workers to maintain a certain level of sales and units
produced as a means to carry out performance management.

D2- Managing and maintain performance management is very crucial as without it organization goals
and work culture can be tainted. If employees are constantly evaluated they tend to become lazy and
demotivated and this can have tragic effect on an organization like Bata. The value of maintaining
performance in Bata ensures that both employees and customers are loyal to the organization in the
long run and both sides are satisfied. Failure of not maintaining performance management in Bata can
lead to catastrophic consequences like lack of communication, employee alienation and demotivation.
This can destroy a company’s morale and halt the growth of the organization.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employment_contract

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https://www.bata.com.pk/about-us

https://www.scribd.com/doc/21040194/Production-and-Operations-Management-at-Bata

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Performance_indicator

https://www.thebalancecareers.com/employee-evaluation-1918117

http://www.talentevo.

https://corehr.wordpress.com/performance-management/

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