Zafar, the manager of a systems development department, saw many of his trained managers leave the company after obtaining advanced degrees through the company's educational reimbursement program. Ms. Sridhar, an electrical engineer, informed Zafar she was leaving for a competitor despite getting an MBA through the program, saying she saw no opportunities for advancement. Zafar was furious as this had happened several times, and wanted to meet with the VP of operations to complain about the policy and lack of planning for staff retention.

1. HRM INTERNAL
JULY 2012 BATCH
CASE STUDY-1
Zafar was the manager of the systems development department of Aero Space Inc. During his 15
years with the company, he trained many managers and encouraged their development, only to
see many of them leave the firm after they got their advanced degrees. The company had a
liberal policy of educational reimbursement (75 per cent of tuition costs and books) and many
engineers (about 50 per cent of them had a Master’s Degree in a technical field) took advantage
of the educational opportunities. Ms Sridhar, an electrical engineer, came to see her boss Zafar,
who congratulated her on getting a Master’s Degree in Business Administration, which she
received through the assistance of the firm’s educational programme. Ms.Sridhar, to the surprise
of Zafar, said that she was leaving the company to go to a competitor because she did not see any
opportunities for advancement in the firm.
Zafar was furious because this had happened several times before. He wanted to see the Vice
President of operations immediately and complain about the educational reimbursement policy
and the lack of a systematic approach to staffing
Questions for Discussion:
1. What might be the reasons that employees left after receiving their degrees through
educational reimbursement? (8)
2. If you were the Vice President, what would you do? (9)
3. How can such labour turnover be prevented? (8)
CASE STUDY-2
Mr.Krishnan attended a behavior modification programme in the Indian Institute of
Management, and was impressed with the programme. He started using it on the workrs in his
department. He identified several critical behaviours, measured and analysed them, and used a
positive reinforcement / extension intervention strategy .His evaluation showed a significant
improvement in the performance of his department and he got stuck to the programme. Infact, he
was seen commenting to another supervisor. “This contingent reinforcement method really
works better than the human relation difficult to understand anybody. I am nice to people only
contingent upon their good performance. That makes a lot of sense than just being good to
everybody. The other supervisor commented “you are being reinforced for using the
reinforcement technique on your people. Krishnan said, “yes, surely, behaviour that is reinforced
will strength and repeat itself. A few weeks later, the Plant Manager, Mr. Bose, called Mr .
Krishnan and told him “your department has shown substantial increase in performance since
you completed the behaviour modification programme. I have sent our industrial engineer to
your department to analyse your standards. It looks like, from the report that we will have to
adjust your rates upward by ten percent. Otherwise we have topay too much incentive pay. I
hope you will use the behaviour modification technique to break the news to your people. Good
luck, and keep up the good work.
Questions:
1 .What do you think will be Mr. Krishnan’s reaction to Mr . Bose, now and in the future? How
do you think his subordinates will react to this? (7)
2 .How can behaviour modification be used in the new situation with revised rates? (7)
3 .Consider this situation in the context of different approaches to modification and leadership.
(7)
4 .In this situation results in conflict and low morale, how are you to handle it? (4)