Managing Human Resources in Purchasing and Supply:
Free Resources
Solutions to the May 2003 examination
You can download the May 2003 examination paper from the CIPS website. The solutions below
have been prepared by Profex Publishing for the private use of individual students. They may not
be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without
the prior permission of Profex Publishing. From the optional questions we have selected Questions 15
and 17.
Some general observations
It is worth reading the ‘Instructions to Candidates’ section on the front page of the exam paper
in detail: it contains useful guidance for the exam.
For example, the examiners have now made explicit their requirements for Section C: ‘This is an
extended writing section and candidates should not use bullet points’. Previously, this was
merely advice given in Examiners’ Reports (as discussed in the ‘Exam Technique’ section on
pages xvii–xviii of your Study Text).
Note also that the examiner gives instructions as to how much time you need to spend on each
section of the exam. This is a clear indicator of how much material you need to write in order to
earn the marks available – bearing in mind that it also includes time for reading the questions
(carefully) and for planning your answers.
Suggested solutions
SECTION A
1
360-degree appraisal is an approach to multi-source performance feedback. It involves
gathering performance reports on an appraisee from a wide range of sources, including
not only his or her superior but also subordinates, peers and colleagues and (where
possible) customer/client or supplier contacts.
(For more, see page 201 of the Study Text.)
2
Job analysis may be carried out by:

Observing work-in-progress and work outputs (including communications) to
ascertain the tasks, reporting relationships and conditions involved in the job.

Researching documentary evidence of work, and documentary descriptions of the job
(such as plans, schedules, employment contracts, training manuals and job
advertisements).

Using interviews, questionnaires, diaries or logs to gather more qualitative
information from the job holders themselves.
(For more, see page 9 of the Study Text. Make sure you can distinguish job analysis from
related tools such as job descriptions, job evaluation and so on.)
3
Assessment centres (group selection methods) may be beneficial to an organisation in:



Giving selectors a longer, broader and more real-world focussed assessment of
candidates than (for example) interviews or paper-based selection tests.
They allow selectors to assess interpersonal factors, such as communication,
leadership, conflict resolution and teamworking skills.
They allow direct comparison between potential candidates.
These three benefits improve selectors’ ability to predict candidates’ likely performance
in the job, which may be particularly important eg for managerial roles.
(For more, see page 31 of the Study Text.)
4
Two difficulties that can result from staff empowerment include:


Some loss of control over workers and their outputs: discretion is being given to
individuals or teams who may be unaccustomed to taking business decisions.
Dis-integration or lack of co-ordination, as individuals and units focus on their own
objectives.
(For more, see page 276 of the Study Text.)
5
One specific model of the types of competences used in analysing training needs (cited in
the examiner’s report) refers to the ‘stage’ of development of the competence: emerging,
maturing, transitional and stable.
An equally valid answer might be to cite areas of competence to be focused on when
analysing training needs: eg technical, interpersonal and managerial competences.
(For more, see page 211 of the Study Text.)
6
The ‘Hawthorne Effect’ was identified by Elton Mayo from his research at the Western
Electric Company (the Hawthorne Studies). It refers to the way that work teams’
productivity improved on routine tasks – not in response to changes in working
conditions (as the experimenters originally hypothesised) but in response to
communication, consultation and consideration from management, representing the
satisfaction of their personal and social needs.
(For more, see page 65 of the Study Text.)
7
In order to be valid, any contract (including a contract of employment) must satisfy
certain criteria, such as offer and acceptance, consideration (exchange of promised
benefits), and the intention/capacity of both parties to enter into legal relations.
(For more, see page 45 of the Study Text.)
8
The role of the monitor-evaluator is to consider a wide range of options (monitoring) and
give accurate critical judgements about proposals and decisions (evaluating). This helps
the team to avoid groupthink and poor decision-making: a tendency to be overly critical
is the role’s allowable weakness.
(For more, see page 62 of the Study Text.)
9
The ‘induction crisis’ refers to a decision point faced by new recruits as a result of
difficulties of integration or induction. Things are still new and perhaps difficult, and
loyalty is still insufficient to outweigh the frustrations: this is a point of high labour
turnover in many organisations.
(For more, see page 209 of the Study Text.)
10
Formal work teams may be established for several purposes: creative ideas generation
and problem-solving; conflict management or resolution; communication and coordination; shared decision-making.
Another way to answer the question would be to note that formal work teams may be
established for several reasons: to improve communication and co-ordination; to pool
expertise and resources; to motivate workers through their social needs; and so on.
(For more, see page 57 of the Study Text.)
SECTION B
11
(Note that you were requested to identify health and safety problems ‘at the organisation’
– ie those mentioned in the Case Study: you did not have to come up with another five
examples of your own! A useful reminder to read the questions carefully and take ‘easy’
marks where available...)
Judging from the on-going preventative measures taken by the organisation, health and
safety problems include:




Lack of nutritional awareness among staff
Smoking
Stress
General unfitness (as evidenced by potential heart problems) and lack of health
awareness (as evidenced by the need for health checks and promotions)

The introduction of new machinery which may pose safety risks for staff not yet fully
trained in its use.
In addition, there are some remaining procedural problems, including: on-going union
resistance to health and safety promotion; and problems training supervisors to work with
safety representatives.
12
Steps taken by the organisation to overcome these problems include:






13
Attention given at a structural and cultural level to health and safety issues
The use of positive health promotion initiatives and campaigns (eg heart health)
Provision of healthy food options, and nutritional labelling on all options
The provision of medical facilities: including health checks, stress counselling and
‘quit smoking’ programmes.
Improvement of health and safety checking mechanisms: consultation, regularity,
thoroughness, involvement.
Compiling of a constantly updated health and safety manual.
The new health and safety policy is likely to affect the business in a variety of ways.
(a)
Improved staff health and well-being should result in greater productivity, through
factors such as fewer absences for ill-health; fewer accidents (which can cause
machinery shut down and task disruption, as well as the absence of the injured
worker); improved work capacity (eg through better nutrition and general fitness).
(b)
The policy is a statement of a highly positive, people-centred HRM orientation
which (according to writers such as Guest) may result in greater staff commitment
and loyalty, leading in turn (potentially) to greater productivity, lower costs of
staff turnover and absenteeism and so on.
(c)
The policy’s effect on the working environment, in terms of presentation and
facilities, may also have a positive effect on staff morale. It is also likely to
enhance the organisation’s image to visiting clients/customers/suppliers and to
potential employees (the health and safety award is a powerful boost to the firm’s
employer brand), enabling it to attract and maintain value-adding relationships.
(d)
The policy has already begun to affect industrial and employee relations in the
business. On the one hand, there is closer involvement of and collaboration
between line management, staff and HR specialists, aimed at fostering a more
flexible, committed workforce: this may over time facilitate further structural and
cultural changes. On the other hand, there may be on-going industrial relations
problems, unless the trade unions can be integrated more fully into the new
procedures: these might over time affect the cost of labour, productivity (eg in the
event of industrial action) and corporate image.
(e)
14
There are major costs associated with the new policy: the building renovations;
the new facilities (and their staffing); the various promotions (eg celebrity
appearances); productive time ‘lost’ as staff undergo medical checks, counselling
and health and safety training; line management time spent in consultations;
administrative time spent in compiling and updating the manual and so on.
Five problems already being faced, or likely to be faced, by the organisation include the
following.
(a)
The change is, so far, being driven ‘from the top down’, based on senior
management’s belief in a healthier workforce’s greater productivity. There is
likely to be resistance to such change, particularly as it addresses personal choices
and habits (such as smoking and diet), despite its benefits. There may be some
perception that management is intruding on the personal life of its employees in
order to push through productivity gains. Since the policy is attitude-driven, such
resistance may undermine its effectiveness.
(b)
There may also be resistance from management, who do not wish workplace
status barriers to be broken down eg by the private health counselling provisions.
The policy may be perceived as a measure imposed by the HR specialists, creating
conflict between line and functional departments which might show itself in
resistance, the proliferation of rules and procedures, and other dysfunctional
behaviours.
(c)
There has, so far, been no mention of the role of remuneration in relation to the
policy. Management is expecting gains in productivity, and is expecting line
managers and workers to take on more tasks and responsibility in relation to
health and safety: they will expect to be rewarded financially for these things.
Management may perceive the subsidised health checks and facilities as
‘rewards’, but this may not be the perception of staff. Moreover, as Herzberg
recognised in his motivational theory, such benefits become taken for granted
over time and become a source of dissatisfaction. This issue may create
motivational and industrial relations problems if not addressed.
(d)
There is an industrial relations problem looming with the unions. The attempt of
senior management to involve line management, and to include safety committee
procedures within the policy, has been perceived as an attempt to ‘by-pass’ union
representatives in relation to health and safety issues. Moreover, the general
policy of staff involvement and ‘enlightened’ HRM may be perceived to be an
attempt to undermine the need for (and therefore the membership retention power
of) unions. If this problem is not resolved, there is likely to be unionised
resistance to implementing the policy, and possibly wider resistance to
management initiatives.
(e)
There are considerable costs and difficulties involved in implementing and
maintaining the policy (as discussed in answer 13 above). On-going attention will
have to be given to consultation mechanisms (and staff time spent on them); coordination of training (both for health and safety supervisors and staff required to
comply with the new policies); co-ordination of audit procedures; related
disciplinary measures (in the event of policy breaches); the updating of the health
and safety manual and so on.
SECTION C
(Note that you are only required to attempt two questions. We have given full suggested solutions
to the two least straightforward.)
15
Leadership
There are many definitions of what leadership is, and what distinguishes it from
‘management’. Kotler has suggested that leadership involves creating a sense of direction
(or ‘vision’), communicating vision to others, and energising, inspiring and motivation
others to fulfil the vision. It is primarily focused on coping with change, through visioncreation and interpersonal influence.
‘Leaders are born, not made’
It has been suggested that leaders are born, in the sense that leadership requires certain
personality traits or qualities which are inherited and innate, rather than acquired through
experience or training. This approach was taken by early ‘trait’ theorists, who attempted
to illustrate that successful people can be observed to share common traits, including
(Ghiselli) supervisory ability, occupational achievement, intelligence, self-actualisation
need, self-assurance need and decisiveness.
However, trait theory has been largely discredited. There was little consistency as to
which traits were thought to be essential in effective leaders. It was also a matter of
debate whether traits were the result of ‘nature’ (born, innate) or ‘nurture’ (developed
through experience, environment, training and so on).
Subsequent models of leadership highlighted various ways in which leaders could, on the
other hand, be ‘made’.
(a)
Leadership styles, or patterns of behaviour, could be adopted – whatever a
person’s innate personality traits. This was the focus of a range of ‘style’ and
contingency theories of leadership. Style models (such as Tannenbaum and
Schmidt, the Ashridge studies and Hersey & Blanchard) suggest that managers
can select from a repertoire of behaviours according to their desired outcomes and
the demands of the particular situation.
(b)
Leadership skills, in a range of functions, could be developed through education
and training. Adair’s action-centred leadership model, for example, sets out a
scheme of leadership training based on precept and practice in each of eight
leadership ‘activities’. Blake and Mouton’s Managerial Grid likewise addresses
the leader’s balance between task and team concerns.
(c)
Traits traditionally associated with leadership – such as ‘charisma’ or ‘inspiration’
– have also been shown to be composed of particular skills and behaviours which
can be learned. House, for example, showed that charisma actually involves
behaviours such as goal articulation and motivation arousal, in which managers
can learn and develop skills.
While there may, arguably, be people with a greater ‘preference’ or ‘predisposition’ to
the attitudes and behaviours associated with leadership, the popularity and success of a
wide range of ‘management development’ and ‘leadership training’ programmes suggests
that leadership itself is not an innate quality.
Moreover, in today’s business environment, with its continuous change, high employee
expectations and interpersonal/informational focus, the need to ‘make’ leaders is likely to
be increasingly important for business success.
(Note that the instruction keyword ‘evaluate’ means that you are required to critically
examine the stated view, giving arguments both for and against, before stating your own
judgement. All the above material can be reviewed in Chapter 5 of the Study Text.)
16
Sources of conflict in an organisation
(This was a popular question, since it was straightforward bookwork on a clearly defined
topic. For material for a full solution, see page 121–122 of the Study Text.)
17
Practical difficulties of job design
(This is a difficult question, and was unpopular with candidates. For more, see Chapter
10 of the Study Text.)
Job design (or redesign) may be defined as the way in which tasks are grouped and
structured within a ‘job’. It has two key aims:


Efficient task performance. From Taylor’s scientific management theories involving
the ‘micro design’ of jobs to major modern trends such as flexibility, multi-skilling
and networking, the aim of job design is to optimise the flow of work and
information.
Worker job satisfaction. Frederick Herzberg was the first to focus on job design
(including job rotation, enlargement and enrichment) as a source of satisfaction in the
job itself. This was argued to be the only lasting source of worker morale, motivation
and loyalty – which in turn supported task performance.
The main difficulty with job design in practice is that it is difficult to get an optimal ‘fit’
between task efficiency and worker satisfaction.
Studies have shown that monotonous, high-workload, low-discretion jobs (such as those
designed according to scientific management techniques) correlate strongly with
industrial fatigue and worker stress. Despite advances in technology and productivity, the
de-personalising, programming and hyper-specialisation of jobs has been shown to create
inattention (with attendant errors and accidents) and to give power to the informal
organisation, with its social interactions, unreliable grapevine and potentially adversarial
industrial relations.
On the other hand, the core job dimensions said to contribute to job satisfaction – skill
variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy and feedback – may hamper short-term
efficiency of task performance. Examples might include the attempt to introduce shared
problem-solving and consensus decision-making, which is lengthier and less controllable.
In addition, there is likely to be resistance to proposed job design (or redesign), whether
its effects be aimed at:
(a)
increasing efficiency: eg by adding controls, increasing specialisation or removing
opportunities for interaction – which are likely to be regarded as an erosion of
quality of working life by workers; or
(b)
increasing worker satisfaction: eg by removing controls, increasing access to
information or increasing autonomy/discretion – which are likely to be regarded
as an erosion of control by management.
The exercise of job analysis, design and design implementation is time-consuming and
costly (in terms of management time, consultation time, training or retraining,
supervision and performance management and so on). Handy also notes that job
enrichment is not a cheap way to greater productivity (‘even those who want their jobs
enriched will expect to be rewarded with more than job satisfaction’) and that many of its
benefits are difficult to measure (‘morale, climate and working relationships’).
Particularly job design tools have their own problems. It has been argued, for example,
that the value of job rotation and job enlargement are limited in practice. (Herzberg
himself noted that asking a worker to complete three separate tedious, unchallenging
tasks is unlikely to motivate him more than asking him to fulfil one single tedious,
unchallenging task!) Flexible job design techniques pose practical difficulties such as
demarcation conflicts (when multi-skilling), loss of job security (when introducing
flexible work contracts), difficulties of task allocation and specification (with horizontal
structures and flexible working hours) and so on.
18
Justification of training expenditure
(This is essentially about the benefits – and therefore cost-effectiveness – of training
activities to the organisation. If you discussed benefits to trainees, you should also have
argued why they might be considered worthwhile by management: for example, in raising
work competence and productivity, lowering accidents and errors, improving morale and
aiding staff retention. For material for a full solution, see page 206–207 of the Study
Text.)