Cases using the serial number from the magazine, select the appropriate case for yourself. Solve it, answer the questions. Link the answers together and form them into a summary

CASE 4
CONFLICT
The multinational corporation began its operations in Russia with the creation of three joint ventures: JV East, Center and West. At one of the first meetings to determine the management strategy for these enterprises, led by the regional vice president, it was decided that all managers of new enterprises needed to be trained in the basics of financial management. The development of the program and organization of training was entrusted to the regional director of human resources.
After three months of intense collaboration between financiers from Saturn headquarters and teachers from the local management school, a 5-day program was created that reveals the basics of financial management in a modern corporation, explains the specifics of the company, and also compares the American accounting system with the domestic one. The Director of Human Resources was very pleased with the program and sent a letter to each of the joint ventures with a proposal to allocate 5 managers for the first training program.
To his great surprise, the next day he saw a letter from one of the directors of the joint ventures, refusing to send his employees to “training unknown to him.” The director of human resources wrote to him in response, demanding that he implement the vice president's decision, and also describing the objectives of the training program and its content. Three days later, a response was received in which the director of the joint venture reported that its leaders “have not yet matured for this program.” As a result, the first program enrolled 10 rather than 15 people, and the corporation suffered financial losses.
Questions
1.What are the reasons for the conflict that has arisen? Comment on the positions of the parties.
2. How do you evaluate the actions of the human resources director? How do you evaluate the actions of the director of the joint venture?
3. How could the conflict be avoided?
4. What should the human resources director do in this situation?
CASE 5
The regional director for the CIS of a multinational pharmaceutical company invited teachers from one of the Moscow business schools to prepare a training program for managers of regional offices. According to his plan, at the end of the program, managers should gain a clear understanding of their tasks, functions and responsibilities, develop skills in managing a representative office that sells products in the regions and employs three to five people, and understand the culture of the parent company.
According to the regional director, of the twenty heads of representative offices, only two participated in the vocational training program in Western Europe, the rest were content with “on-the-job training.” Most have been with the company for less than one year, with careers ranging from mechanical engineers to surgeons.
Questions
1. Where should business school staff start preparing a program?
2. Recommend a sequence of actions for preparing and implementing a training program?
3. How to evaluate the effectiveness of this training program?
4. What teaching methods will be most appropriate for this program?


CASE 6
Alexey Kabanov, HR director of the Saturn trading company, returned from a seminar on human resource management with a whole set of new ideas and the enthusiasm to bring them to life. The topic of career planning and development seemed most interesting to him. Alexey told about it to the General Director of Saturn, a company that unites three large stores in different areas of Moscow.
The CEO became interested in Alexey's story and asked him to prepare a special lesson for Saturn's top managers. Two weeks later, Alexey held a one-day seminar with 12 senior executives of the company (the CEO decided at the last minute not to participate in the seminar so as not to “embarrass his subordinates”). The seminar was a great success, the managers were active, asked a lot of questions and showed great interest in career development.
The next day, the General Director issued an order instructing all Saturn managers to prepare career development plans within a week and submit them to the HR director. At the appointed time, Alexey received only two plans. Four more over the next two weeks. The rest of the leaders promised that they would “bring it tomorrow,” but they didn’t bring anything. However, what upset Alexey most of all was the content of the plans: they were written as if as a carbon copy and contained one point: “I want to improve in my position.” 24 Questions
1. What is the reason for the result obtained by Alexey?
2. What should he have done?
3. What to do in this situation?
CASE 7
The human resources department at the European headquarters of a multinational corporation conducted an anonymous survey of employees to determine their attitudes towards the procedures: annual performance appraisal interview with the manager, special assessment forms and development plans, and base salary increases in accordance with the performance appraisal. Gathering the opinions of employees was quite difficult, since most of them spend the lion's share of their time in regional branches and only occasionally appear in their office.
A total of 70 of the 154 questionnaires sent out were collected. The survey results showed:  What
- 65% of employees are not satisfied with certification as a method of assessing their work;
 50% of employees believe that their managers cannot objectively evaluate their work because they do not have the necessary information for this;
 45% of employees consider the appraisal interview to be a formal announcement of a previously made decision;
- 12% claim that their managers do not conduct interviews at all, but ask them to sign a form filled out in advance;
 68% of employees do not feel that the results of certification are used for anything other than a salary increase;
 75% of managers who conducted the certification complained about the lack of time to prepare and conduct it;
 25% of managers admitted that they experience difficulties in cases where it is necessary to criticize those being certified and regularly inflate certification scores.
Questions 1. What do the survey results indicate? 2. What are the reasons for this situation? 3. What measures would you suggest to the headquarters human resources department to improve the appraisal system?


CASE 8
John Smith is the director of the Kyiv branch of a multinational pharmaceutical company. The branch was formed on the basis of a local plant acquired by the company. One of John's priorities is creating a personnel management system. His company is known in the world as one of the leaders in the application of new methods of human resource management, psychological testing, payment for knowledge, 360-degree certification.
Working for two weeks from eight in the morning to nine in the evening, John Smith tried to study the personnel management system that existed at the plant. However, his titanic efforts led to a very modest result. It turned out that the plant actually had formal (enshrined in procedures) methods of human resource management, and the few that existed were radically different from Smith’s ideas about modern personnel management.
John found out that the selection of new employees was carried out exclusively through acquaintances; the plant had no idea about career planning, certification, or training a reserve of managers. Professional training was not planned, but was organized as needed by department heads. Factory workers receive piecework wages, and administration employees receive official salaries and monthly bonuses amounting to up to 40% of the salary. The actual size of the bonus is determined by the plant director and for 95% of employees it is 40% of the salary.
Wage indexation is carried out by the director’s decision at the moment when, in his words, “you can’t wait any longer.” During discussions with the managers of a plant suffering significant losses, John tried to raise the topic of changes in the area of human resources management, but did not receive support. His interlocutors preferred to discuss technology transfer, proposing to “leave everything as is until better times” in the field of personnel management, putting forward “special local conditions” as the main argument. Discussing the situation at the plant with a French colleague from another company, who had been working in Kyiv for two years, Smith received similar advice “not to get involved in a hopeless business.”
Questions
1. Is there a need in this situation to change personnel management systems? If yes, then why?
2. What explains the position of the plant managers?
3. What can John Smith do in this situation?
4. Propose a personnel management system for this organization and a plan for its implementation.


CASE 9
Rumors at New Home
New Home has 180 employees. The company specializes in the production of household electrical appliances: bread makers, juicers, mixers, coffee makers. The company's headquarters is located in Bautzen, a small town in Saxony. In 1992, the founder and current director of the company, certified engineer Hans
Mayer, drew attention to the increased interest in natural food products that do not contain additives, and designed a new bread machine. He gave an order for its production to one small enterprise in Thuringia, and then bought this enterprise and equipped it with a small assembly line. It assembled parts made in the Czech Republic.
Every six months he put into production a new modification of his bread machine. Mayer opened his own business in 1992, then the company employed eight people. After this, the company developed very dynamically. This rapid growth is explained by two reasons: the excellent quality and reliability of the equipment produced and taking into account timely trends in the market. But the main reason for such stunning success was the sales system. Mayer sells its products directly to households.
The sales force currently operates in six regions of Germany, employing a total of 120 people, and is generally managed by Mr. Thomas, who was once Mayer's first sales representative. The sales system is based on strict organization, employees receive only commissions, all employees are very well trained; for each unit of goods sold they receive 50%.
In addition, New Home provides a 5-year warranty on all products sold; During this period, faulty equipment is not repaired, but replaced with a new one. The customer simply sends the faulty device to the company along with a warranty card and receives a new one in return. That is, marketers do not deal with complaints. The return rate of faulty equipment has been 1.5% in the last two years.
Recently, rumors have spread that Mayer is going to sell the company to his Swedish competitor. He allegedly made him a very lucrative offer. Thomas, who spends almost all his time traveling and leading in the regions, heard about this from one of his employees in southern Germany during a dinner together. The employee, in turn, heard about this from his wife, who works at Mayer's company in quality control.
Employees in this region immediately said: if this is true, then they will look for a new job. They will not work under Swedish leadership, and besides, the Swedes will probably buy the enterprise only to then sell it. This is exactly what usually happens when a company buys its competitor. Therefore, it is better to immediately start looking for a new job. Thomas is worried. He goes to the authorities. The next morning he learns from the secretary that Mayer apparently had a fight with his wife and is going to get a divorce. Rumor has it that he simply threw her out into the street at night.
As for the story of the sale of the enterprise to Swedish competitors, in her opinion, it is all chatter. She is Mayer's secretary and would probably know if he 5 was conducting such negotiations. By the way, no one has been able to contact the boss for a whole week. The company's commercial director, Mr. Holtz, tells Thomas that Mayer is currently in Basel, this is the only thing he knows.
A week after this conversation, Mayer returned to his company. On the same day - for the first time in the history of the company - the director appoints a deputy. His name is Urban, he studied economics and production organization. For the last two years he has worked in Denmark for a wholesale company selling electrical goods. When rumors reach Mayer, he issues a circular to the company's employees, in which he states that he is not going to sell anything. These are all baseless rumors. On the contrary, he plans further expansion: in the near future the company will include sports and fitness equipment in its product range. Therefore, he hopes that all employees will continue to take their work as seriously as before. In addition, in the circular, Mayer schedules a production meeting for the last working day of the current month. Throughout the month, the most incredible rumors have been circulating: allegedly Mr. Holtz is going to Hamburg to conduct secret negotiations with the Japanese. The sales system will supposedly be disbanded and completely restructured exclusively for wholesale trade.
All sales people remaining in the company will receive the status of employees. Their salary will consist of a fixed and bonus part depending on sales volume. Thomas is very concerned about these rumors and in the middle of the month he starts a frank conversation with the boss. As expected, Mayer reacts very strongly. He always believed that the company's policy, in particular its sales policy, was his personal business.
Workers - both in production and in the sales system - should rejoice and be grateful to him, Mr. Mayer, for the fact that he, an engineer from God, designed the ideal equipment, which, thanks to its excellent quality and reliability, became a real bestseller. He is still not going to ask anyone for permission if he decides to change anything. At the meeting, Mayer states the following: He doesn't understand where these stupid rumors come from.
Everything at the company remains unchanged, with one exception: instead of its own new development, New Home is launching a multifunctional device for monitoring the functions of the human body for pre-Christmas sales. We will assemble this device under a Japanese license from integrated circuits manufactured in Japan. We will not repair this device, like all the equipment we produce. In case of malfunction, it will also be exchanged for a new one. The commission has been reduced to 25% of the sales price, but the device is very easy to sell, because does not go into trade. Mayer finished his speech and the staff remained silent; they expressed neither approval nor displeasure. Nobody wanted to speak, including managers. Mayer shook his head with displeasure and left the workshop without saying goodbye.
Exercise:
Since the situation has escalated, and Mayer does not want to deal with it himself, he instructs a certain consulting firm to deal with it. Imagine that you are an employee of this consulting firm and give your recommendations!