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Human resource management.

It is appropriate for graduate students majoring in human resource or business management. Students who are interested in studying Asian economies in the world, as they are the most growing economies in the world and at the same time have a shocking number of people employed in the informal sector.

This case study talks about women workers who face a glass ceiling at the management level and deplorable working conditions at the informal level. This case involves women in the paper bag-making business, a part of the urban informal sector. The paper bag-making business provides employment and income generation for the urban poor. The focus in this study is on women production workers, rather than entrepreneurs or professional managers. Focus of the study will be on the change in the pattern of income distribution within the family-based household, the degree of bargaining power derived from productive work and income and impact of technology on the plight of unskilled women force and how technology and vocational training can lead to utilization of manpower being wasted because of lack of synergy between technology and the informal sector in India. Expected learning outcomes Four key points of selection, training, assessment and leadership all have been addressed in this case study, and the relevance of these points is important from the point of view of management students who have to understand the linkages and the hidden costs these informal sector occupations come with and then to device an appropriate strategy to bring and use these human resources to their full capacity by utilizing the existing resources instead of adding new ones, which in development economics is known as Solow residual.

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The learning outcomes of this study are as follows: ■ understand organizational turnaround and its sustainability;■ applying the understanding of turnarounds to distinguish between operational and strategic levers of a turnaround strategy; ■ analyze and evaluate past and present turnarounds from a sustainability perspective; and ■ formulate managerial actions to make turnaround sustainable.

Braithwaite Company Ltd. (Braithwaite) was a specialized engineering firm headquartered in Kolkatta, India. It primarily undertook structural steel fabrication to make railway wagons and bridge structures. It was incorporated as a private enterprise almost a century back. However, since its nationalization five decades ago, it has been operating as a public sector undertaking (PSU) under the aegis of Indian Railways, a department of the Government of India. The case documents the past three decades of the firm’s journey, during which it experienced three episodic turnarounds. Details of the first two turnarounds are presented as the background, in light of which sustainability of the third turnaround is to be examined. The case explores the sustainability of organizational turnarounds from the perspective of the current Chairman and Managing Director (CMD), the case protagonist. Braithwaite underwent financial and operational distress in 1992, 2005 and 2015 and negotiated them under different leaders. These leaders from diverse backgrounds used distinct tactics and strategies to bring about organizational turnarounds. The case provides data and information to assess the sustainability of the third turnaround. Hence, it allows a class to explore the paradoxical observation that while “turnaround” inherently implies sustenance of good performance over time, turnaround sustainability is not spontaneous in the real world. The case deals with the performance issues of PSUs, which make significant contributions to the national economy in the case of emerging economies (for example, 5%–8% of the Indian National gross domestic product is contributed by PSUs; https://swarajyamag.com/ideas/psus-are-crucial-for-indias-growth-but-only-if-they-play-a-strategic-role). Under government ownership and management, the poor performance of PSUs is often attributed to bad decision-making by its top management. In contrast, Braithwaite’s top management’s sound contextual decision-making resulted in a jump in its performance during each turnaround phase, but unsound fundamentals resulted in the unsustainability of the turnarounds. Hence, the case enables an exploration of the unique challenges faced by PSU that emanate from legacy roles, monopolistic markets and dual purpose – the concurrent pursuit of profits and social welfare. Consequently, the case allows an examination of the reasons for the distress of PSUs and the viability of turnaround strategies in the context of the broader Business–Government–Society landscape in emerging economies.

The case is written for use in the MBA elective course covering “Strategic Revival and Turnaround Strategies.” It can be used at the beginning of the course to identify reasons for organizational failure/distress or in the later part of the course to discuss the implementation of operational and strategic turnaround strategies.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 10: Public Sector Management.

Governance challenges in reverse value chain.

Women employment system in textile and clothing industry.

The textile and clothing firms, often frustrated by frequent labor issues, used an innovative employment scheme – Sumangali scheme – to employ young female workers from poor families in rural areas, aged between 18 and 25 years, as apprentices for three years who would stay in dormitories located in the vicinity of the factories, draw low wages with minimum benefits. But the scheme was criticized by labor unions and Europe- and US-based non-governmental organization (NGOs) on the grounds of alleged violation of labor rights such as freedom of association, freedom of movement, exploitative working conditions, low wages with minimum or no benefits, long working hours and abusive supervisors. Their public campaign against the alleged employment practices has put tremendous pressure on the global buyers to take steps to ameliorate the situation. In the wake of campaign by NGOs, few buyers have even terminated the relationship with the manufacturers. Others have warned action against those erring manufacturers. The actions by global buyers, NGOs against some of the women employment practices raised several questions in the minds of manufacturers. They were wondering why US- and Europe-based NGOs were up in arms to dump an employment scheme unmindful of socio-economic realities in India? Is it a clever ploy that developed nations use some private, voluntary, corporate social responsibility norms to stop companies purchasing textile and clothing products from a developing country like India on the grounds of violation of labor rights? As per the International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention No. 81, it is the responsibility of central/state governments to inspect and monitor labor employment practices in an industry. Then why NGOs and other private groups volunteer to become watch dogs of labor practices and launch campaigns against mills? Would it not undermine the role of government in ensuring industrial harmony? Even if NGOs' actions are justified on the grounds of moral and ethical principles, what role should they play when it comes to management–worker relationship? In the Indian context, only the government can interfere if the relationship turns sour? Should NGOs need to use a different set of ethical standards which are more relevant and contextual to the socio-economic environment in India?

To understand evolution of apparel global value chain and workforce development challenges in India; to explore the link between consumer activism and corporate social responsibility; to explore the challenge of addressing issues such as alleged human rights violation and labor exploitation by independent suppliers located in India; to explore the challenges faced by global buyers in contextualizing, operationalizing and realizing certain human rights along the supply chain located in India; and to explore sustainability challenges of women employment in textile and clothing mills in India.

Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

Sustenance of women employment system in India's textile and clothing industry and its associated challenges.

Macro-Economics.

Undergraduate and MBA.

The COVID 19 pandemic-related restrictions devastated South Africa’s economy in 2020 and although the restrictions were generally less damaging than in 2020, the government had to budget for vaccinations and rebuild the economy. Public service unions had just announced that they were demanding an increase of 4% above inflation for their members and that they were preparing for a strike. They were bitter about the fact that the South African Government had withdrawn from the last year of a three-year wage agreement in February 2020 and their members had not received an increase for the two years. These demands and Finance Minister Mboweni’s response to them had to consider the structural and cyclical impact on the fiscus and economy.

The learning outcomes are as follows: understand the general objectives of fiscal policy and stakeholders’ interests; understand the tradeoffs in fiscal policy and the implications of taking a position; and make recommendations based on reasoned judgements about those recommendations.

Undergraduate and MBA level courses on Macro Economics.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 10: Public Sector Management.

Labour relations management, business management, HRM, focusing on the labour relations of Chinese enterprises.

This case is designed for students in schools of business or management, undergraduate MBA or executive MBA classes. Students should already have a basic knowledge about Chinese labour relations, HRM, and organizational development.

In 2004, a deal transformed Anhui Xuanjiu Group from a state-owned enterprise (SOE) to a private company. Li Jian, the Chairman of Xuanjiu Group, focused on creating happiness for employees. Thanks to Li Jian's efforts, Xuanjiu emrged from its crisis which was formed in the planned economy system. After several years of development, the labour relations management of Anhui Xuanjiu Group became a model among private enterprises in China.

Students can gain new insights into labour relations in China. The case provides an example of building friendly labour relations to avoid labour disputes. It provides a set of measures for retaining and motivating workers.

Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

For discussion of social entrepreneurship in middle-income economies, emerging markets generally and Africa, specifically, Quali Health presents interesting questions about entrepreneurial funding, scaling and the interplay between social entrepreneurial activities and the informal sector.

South Africa’s primary health outcomes do not correspond to the country’s spending on public health, with South Africa ranking among the worst globally in the incidence of tuberculosis, HIV prevalence, infant mortality and life expectancy. In part, this poor outcome can be explained by high inequality in access to healthcare, which reflects South Africa’s grossly skewed income and wealth distributions, with the bulk of the country’s population reliant upon an underfunded, inefficient and poorly managed public health system. This substandard service for the working poor in South Africa’s townships with high population densities offered a profitable entrepreneurial opportunity to provide affordable and effective primary care with vast gains in quality and outcomes improved dignity for patients. After receiving her MBA, physician and entrepreneur Dr Nthabiseng Legoete self-funded the launch of Quali Health in 2017. The business model set out to disrupt healthcare delivery for South Africa’s poorest citizens. Drawing patients from the working poor in Diepsloot, Quali Health’s inaugural site was cash flow positive within five months when the facility hit only 30% of installed service capacity. With quick success, Dr Legoete faced the strategic question of how fast to scale and finance the expansion. She also considered a new micro-insurance product for her clientele.

For discussion of social entrepreneurship in middle-income economies, emerging markets generally and Africa, specifically, Quali Health presents interesting questions about entrepreneurial funding, scaling and the interplay between social entrepreneurial activities and the informal sector.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS: 3 Entrepreneurship.

This case is suitable for undergraduates, MBA students and students from business administration departments in the teaching of human resources management and performance management.

Luodian Electric Power Construction Corporation Group (LEPCC Group) is a state owned enterprise transformed from a construction unit of Luopu Power Supply Bureau (LPSB), a governmental organization in charge of all the electricity supply in Luopu City. The general manager of LEPCC, Gu Ming tried to set up a modern market-oriented management system for LEPCC. Unfortunately the problems that had accumulated in the past two decades during which LEPCC was a governmental organization made his reforms very difficult. The first headache for Gu Ming was the performance appraisal reform in LEPCC. The existing performance appraisal system seemed to have at least three problems in practice: unclear appraisal objectives, an improper assessment system, a different appraisal standard for similar positions. What should Gu Ming do to build a proper performance appraisal system to help the fast-growing LEPCC Group to make LEPCC a competitive market-oriented player?

The first objective of this case is to enable students to understand that the issues of working performance are issues of people first, rather than issues of the management system. If the management focuses on the system instead of on the staff of the company to design the performance management system, the system will be fruitless and inefficient. The second objective is to cultivate students' capability to apply the basic theories of human resource management and the knowledge of performance appraisal in case analysis and practical management. This case, seemingly about performance appraisal, is in fact about the organizational structure and processes of the organization. Reform should start with organizational analysis, job analysis and job descriptions. Only when all these have been done correctly, can the performance management system be designed more reasonably, scientifically and efficiently.

Teaching notes are available; please consult your librarian for access.

Human Resource Management and Public Sector Management.

The target audiences for the case study are BSc, MSc and MBA students and management trainees and executives who are interested in learning the human resource (HR) practices, policies and strategies adopted by the world’s largest commercial employer to ensure complete satisfaction and contentment of their employees and their employee’s family which, in turn, motivates them to contribute more efficiently and effectively for the organisation. Even senior management teams could be targeted in executive education programmes as this case discusses time-tested HR practices, policies and strategies which have been sparsely discussed so far and hence can be expected to provide insights to senior corporate managers.

India has and is undergoing sweeping economic changes lately. There are several organisations that have supported this positive change. Of these, one such organisation, which shouldered the infrastructural burden of the transportation sector in India’s growth story, was the 160-year-old Indian Railways (IR), the world’s largest commercial employer. IR’s profit over the past few years was a far cry from its loss-making days, which tempted the government of India to consider privatisation in 2001. The transformational turnaround would not have been possible but for IR’s employees. After celebrating IR’s 160th anniversary in 2013, the case organisation wished to revisit its HR practices to understand its recent economic transformations and to strategise how they can improve and sustain maximum efficiency in future. The objective of this case study is to understand the “people side” of IR by explaining its current HR practices and to investigate and identify changes over the years so that changes then can be implemented in the context of HR practices for the future. Hence, the case attempts to explain the role of HR management in IR’s turnaround strategies. Resistance exhibited by IR staff towards its recent initiative of enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementation across India due to fear of job losses and insecurity is also discussed in the case. Teaching note for this case study explains existing people management frameworks published in the research literature to class participants by applying it to the case company. In addition, the teaching note also discusses how chief personnel officers (CPOs) of IR can pursue the change initiatives among the employees with least resistance. Changes/initiatives that can be imbibed by the CPOs in the existing HR practices to overcome the resistance exerted by the employees and to improve the existing system are also discussed.

This case study’s primary objective is to provide a comprehensive understanding of the HR practices being followed in IR, the world’s largest commercial employer. The case also attempts to assess the ERP system initiative by IR and analyse how it can be imbibed into the existing IR’s HR system. In short, the case study attempts to answer the following assignment questions which form the learning objectives of this case study: What are the HR practices that are being followed in the world’s largest commercial employer? How are the HR practices followed helpful in the retention of employees? How can IR pursue the change initiatives, especially ERP implementation, among the employees without any resistance? What are the changes/initiatives that can be imbibed in the HR practices to improve the existing system?

Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

CSS 6: Human Resource Management.

Supply chain management.

The case is suitable for post graduates in management, and for those managing small sector supply and manufacturing systems.

ACPL is an organisation which moved from trading to manufacturing a technology product instrument transformers (ITs) for power utility companies for 11 years, competing with the best in industry, reducing internal costs, and modernising the supply chain. ACPL was started as a trading organisation in electrical items in Delhi by Munish Kumar, an engineer by profession in 2001. In 2004 he ventured into manufacturing, which expanded in two locations in Ghaziabad, NCR Delhi. Later his two sons, engineer and management graduate, respectively, joined the organisation. In less than a decade, by 2007, ACPL had grown to be a private limited organisation. ACPL manufactures ITs required by power boards and companies for conversion and usage of high voltage (11 kV/33 kV) transmitted power into 220 V single phase/440 V three phase power. From tender/enquiry through manufacturing to inspection and despatch takes a long supply chain cycle time holding space as well as inventory. An interview with the chairman of ACPL in the case highlights issues affecting its margins and growth. The long process to delivery time may be in vogue in this type of industry but this holds up a huge inventory. The company management has been working to resolve this crisis along with an urgent need to grow in a competitive environment. The problem is being addressed.

This case study should help students to understand the concept of the supply chain and supply cycle, in a manufacturing company in particular. It has been found that students understand the supply chain as part of the marketing function dealing with finished stocks, warehousing and delivery to end customers as per agreements, and arranging payments from customers. The supply chain also deals with in bound materials management. Raw materials planning, purchasing, inventory management are crucial for effective business operations management in any organisation.

Teaching notes are available; please contact your librarian for access.

Human Resource Management & Social Entrepreneurship.

The target audiences for the case study are undergraduate and postgraduate (e.g. BSc, MSc as well as MBA) students and also management trainees and executives who are interested in understanding the social capital enhancing practices, policies and strategies adopted by the world’s largest commercial employer to ensure complete satisfaction and contentment of 1.7 million employees and their family. Even senior management teams could be targeted in executive education programs, as this case discusses time tested practices, policies and strategies which have been sparsely discussed so far and hence can be expected to provide insights to senior corporate managers. The case also demonstrates the application of different frameworks on social capital and corporate social responsibility which can be used by the participants in their firms to assess the social capital.

Indian Railways (IR) remains the world’s largest commercial employer, with approximately 1.7 million employees, which conveys the huge magnitude of social capital inventory accrued. This social capital, especially people side of IR, played a very crucial role in running the organization successfully for more than a century. As an organization, IR has guaranteed heavy importance for its employees while making decisions on strategic level. But recently, IR was moving towards automation and was cutting on cost incurred for its employees. IR was already exhibiting decreasing trend in the number of employees employed in the organization. These initiatives were resisted by IR employees due to fear of job losses and insecurity. In 2013, Chief Personnel Officer’s (CPO) of different zones have to rethink about their HR practices to assure confidence for employees on the security of their jobs and sustain the social capital accrued by IR over years. The objective of this case study is to describe the social capital accrued by IR over the years by offering livelihoods for nearly 1.7 million families across the country. Teaching note applies the frameworks on social capital in literature in the context of IR. Teaching note also discusses how CPOs of IR can pursue the change initiatives among the employees without affecting the social capital accrued so far.

Case study’s primary objective is to apply frameworks available in literature on social capital and corporate social responsibility to understand the social capital accrued by IR over decades. The case study attempts to answer the following assignment questions which forms the learning objectives of this case study: How do the existing frameworks on social capital measurement explain the social capital accrued by IR over decades? How can a firm assess its accrued social capital? How can one demonstrate the same using the case of IR? How can IR pursue change initiatives when it comes to its employees without affecting the social capital accrued over time?

Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

CSS:10 Public sector management.