Soft and Hard Hrm Models
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“Investing in Africa’s Future”
FACULTY OF MANAGEMENT AND ADMINISTRATION
COURSE TITLE: MMS505 HRM & INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS
SEMESTER II: EMBA ASSIGNMENT - JANUARY 2012
LECTURER: MUSHONGA A D
1. Case Study: Paula was a secretary who had returned to work for her former employers. She was reckoned to be one of the best: a fast, accurate typist, intelligent, and willing. On her return, she acquired a word processing system, and was sent on a course. She was enthusiastic and reckoned she could do things just as quickly on her typewriter. It was assumed that she would come around to it gradually. To encourage this, she was occasionally sent on other courses to learn about additional features, such as mail merge, that would save time. But somehow, Paula never had the time to create the necessary files, and the equipment was only used when someone specifically, and firmly, asked for a document to be put on the machine (which did not happen very often). Even when it was obvious that a document would be revised, or used again in the future, she preferred not to use the word-processing system. When the word-processing software was updated, Paula went on another course, and ‘learned’ the new version…..But still, she did not use it. When Pretty, a former secretary, became the manager of Paula’s section, she discovered that Paula had no idea of how to keep track of documents on the machine, knew only the simplest editing commands, never used standard formats, or ‘boiler-plate paragraphs’, and was still typing out the address labels for regular mailings individually. Paula was booked on an expensive, four-day course on desktop publishing. Pretty’s view was that Paula could be doing 10% – 20% more work, if she was using the system properly, and that the documents would look better. Pretty also discovered that, after the original decision to purchase the system, the previous manager had never taken the time to discuss Paula’s difficulties, or
“Investing in Africa’s Future”
FACULTY OF MANAGEMENT AND ADMINISTRATION
COURSE TITLE: MMS505 HRM & INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS
SEMESTER II: EMBA ASSIGNMENT - JANUARY 2012
LECTURER: MUSHONGA A D
1. Case Study: Paula was a secretary who had returned to work for her former employers. She was reckoned to be one of the best: a fast, accurate typist, intelligent, and willing. On her return, she acquired a word processing system, and was sent on a course. She was enthusiastic and reckoned she could do things just as quickly on her typewriter. It was assumed that she would come around to it gradually. To encourage this, she was occasionally sent on other courses to learn about additional features, such as mail merge, that would save time. But somehow, Paula never had the time to create the necessary files, and the equipment was only used when someone specifically, and firmly, asked for a document to be put on the machine (which did not happen very often). Even when it was obvious that a document would be revised, or used again in the future, she preferred not to use the word-processing system. When the word-processing software was updated, Paula went on another course, and ‘learned’ the new version…..But still, she did not use it. When Pretty, a former secretary, became the manager of Paula’s section, she discovered that Paula had no idea of how to keep track of documents on the machine, knew only the simplest editing commands, never used standard formats, or ‘boiler-plate paragraphs’, and was still typing out the address labels for regular mailings individually. Paula was booked on an expensive, four-day course on desktop publishing. Pretty’s view was that Paula could be doing 10% – 20% more work, if she was using the system properly, and that the documents would look better. Pretty also discovered that, after the original decision to purchase the system, the previous manager had never taken the time to discuss Paula’s difficulties, or