hrm at affluent advertising

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DOI: 10.1177/097282011000700206

2010 7: 177Asian Journal of Management CasesFaiza Muhammad and Farzad Rafi Khan

HRM at Affluent Advertising (Pvt.) Ltd

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ASIAN JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT CASES, 7(2), 2010: 177–198SAGE PUBLICATIONS LOS ANGELES/LONDON/NEW DELHI/SINGAPORE/WASHINGTON DCDOI: 10.1177/097282011000700206

HRM AT AFFLUENT ADVERTISING (PVT.) LTD

Faiza MuhammadFarzad Rafi Khan

Affl uent Advertising establishes a Human Resource (HR) department in response to increasing external competition and internal turnover. The department’s prerogative, however, is primarily limited to the espousal of administrative dis-cipline and communication of top managements’ decisions to employees, after anchoring them in rhetoric of management knowledge and organizational effi ciency. An early and unexpected failure of this department raises several ques-tions regarding its need and signifi cance as well as its future in the organization. At a more broad level, the case highlights the use or abuse of HR department as a tool for reinforcing systems of dominance and legitimizing the self-interested decisions of top management and fi rm owners. In doing so, it not only challenges the unitarist theories of management that treat workplace as an integrated and harmonious entity, wherein employees and employers share common interests, but also contests the self-alleged neutrality, objectivity and impartiality of main-stream management practices by bringing to light its dark, biased and (value and) power-laden aspects. It thus sheds light on the real agenda behind the HRM develop-ment, and elucidates how the recommendations (structural, strategic, cultural and procedural) forwarded by so-called impartial HR departments are actually em-bedded with patterns of organizational power distribution. Lastly, the case also elaborates how various structural arrangements, traditionally known for their effectiveness (that is, Matrix and Product Team confi gurations), can adversely impact work environment, if employed without need, for bureaucratic purposes solely.Keywords: Critical management studies, bureaucracy, power, Human Resource Management, symbolic interactionalism, scientifi c management

This case study was written by Faiza Muhammad under the supervision of Assistant Professor Farzad Rafi Khan to serve as a basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of an administrative situation. Names of individuals and locations have been disguised on the request of Affl uent Advertising (Pvt.) Ltd to maintain confi dentiality.



178 FAIZA MUHAMMAD AND FARZAD RAFI KHAN

ASIAN JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT CASES, 7(2), 2010: 177–198

On a quiet morning of August 2007, Intisar Arshad, the Chief Executive of Affl uent Advertising (Pvt.) Ltd, looked distressed in his Karachi offi ce. He had spent a sleepless night pondering fruitlessly over how to conduct the emergency meeting that he had summoned. All of the different department heads had also been asked to attend this meeting. The agenda was to decide the future of the Human Resource (HR) department at Affl uent, and despite the options in his mind, Intisar was unsure and perplexed about which option to exercise.

The HR department was established, about a year back, to alleviate concerns regarding declining market share and soaring rate of absenteeism as well as high em-ployee turnover within the organization. To Intisar’s surprise, however, grievances and turnover within the HR department soon surpassed that for the rest of the organ-ization. Topping it off was the mutual aversion among employees and top management towards this newly established entity. This was followed by the resignation of the Head of the HR department. Besides the discomforting tone of the resignation letter (see Exhibit 1), Intisar’s generous investment and high expectations from the depart-ment in fi xing the continually declining performance fi gures, fi nally prompted him to call for an urgent meeting.

COMPANY BACKGROUND

Established in 1981, Affl uent came into existence as a much needed entity for meeting the growing demand of the country’s business circle for print and electronic media advertising. In addition, it also served as an entrepreneurial milestone in the career of Iftikhar Arshad, a renowned journalist of the country.

Affl uent was initially based in Karachi but with the passage of time, offi ces were opened in Lahore, Peshawar, Quetta and the capital city of Islamabad. Each of these branches was not only registered independently but also run autonomously by a dif-ferent family member. Thus, all fi nancial matters of each branch were independently handled and individual annual reports were published. Clients were divided on the basis of location, that is, a company based in Lahore was served by the corresponding branch, and so forth. If the clients were geographically dispersed, the location of its headquarter determined the serving branch. The profi t generated by each branch belonged to the family member heading that branch.

Structurally, each branch was designed identically, that is, around functional areas such as client services, creative and copywriting services, graphic designing and printing, media buying, event management services, business development, ac-counts and administration (see Exhibit 2). The founding culture of the organization



HRM AT AFFLUENT ADVERTISING (PVT.) LTD 179


was rigid and encouraged centralization, effi ciency, high productivity and individual responsibility. All company policies were strictly written in black and white and a man-ual containing standard operating procedures was given to each new employee.

Affl uent usually hired fresh graduates with 10–15 years of education, who willingly offered their services at much lower wages than the industry norms. These employees learned through trial and error, and eventually replaced the more experienced lot, thus rendering a high retention rate. Those who did not show any improvement were tested in other departments and only rarely terminated.

With these design attributes, Affl uent enjoyed the fastest growth rate for about a decade. Its clientele became the second biggest in the industry. It also gained a mono-poly in the government sector, with names of almost all the ministries on its list of permanent clients (see Exhibit 3). In addition, the low advertising budgets of most local fi rms also contributed in enhancing the market share of its modestly priced ser-vices. As a result of Affl uent’s success in Pakistan’s advertisement industry, as well as the familial ties of all the branch heads with the founding member, all subsequent branches of the company inherited the same basic design elements.

In 2000, Iftikhar Arshad transferred the leadership of his personally managed Karachi branch to his son, Intisar Arshad, who had just completed his postgraduate studies in the West. Intisar had recently earned his second masters degree in business. The Karachi branch thrived under its new leadership with revenues reaching their record highest in 2002. Its number of employees almost doubled from 100 to 197 within the span of these two years. Soon after, however, the downfall began and the lowest revenues in Affl uent’s history were reached within a span of three years. This was largely due to more intense competitive pressure from new entrants (that is, international advertising agencies) who were aggressively expanding their operations in Pakistan by luring talent away from Pakistani advertising agencies with offers of more rewarding and professional work environments.

AFFLUENT KARACHI: RESPONSES TO ENVIRONMENTAL CONTINGENCIES

To operate more effectively against the new players, Intisar decided to bring about three major changes within his branch design. First, to effectively cater for market share loss, he established a production department and held it responsible for audio and video recordings of electronic advertisements. Second, Intisar set in place a Web designing department to take care of both, demands for Web advertisements and complete website designing. Together, these changes were to cater to and build on





the electronic media market. Finally, the in-house failure to alleviate turnover and employee satisfaction concerns led Intisar to hire human resource management professionals along with a Senior Director, Zaheer Ahmad, to head the Human Resource Management (HRM) department. Zaheer had twelve years of experience in the fi eld, and was credited for introducing some cutting-edge HR systems in his earlier work experiences. However, neither he nor his assistant mangers had any prior experience in the advertising industry.

HRM SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT AT AFFLUENT

Immediately after joining Affl uent, Zaheer along with his two assistant managers, spent a great amount of time in studying the prevalent organizational systems and trying to understand the internal causes of employee dissatisfaction and turnover. Several issues discovered by them are included in the following.

Departmental Intolerance

Affl uent Karachi was faced with an implicit tussle and intolerance between three of its principal or line departments, that is, client services (CS), creative and graphic designing.

Following are some comments by several members of these departments:

The CS people bring incomplete and sometimes misleading information regarding customer demands. Not surprisingly, then, the advertisement copy that the team prepares tends to come back for revisions and then the department is blamed for delay in delivery and cost increase.

(Creative Department Head)

We are hardly ever told about the preferred shapes, colors or expected theme of print ads required by the customers. This is of course the duty of the CS department. But they aren’t the only culprits. The creative people also revise their copies twice or thrice. Obviously then our designs need corresponding changes and new ads require reprinting and re-pasting. But it is not our fault that the costs are rising up. Why should we then take the blame for somebody else?

(Senior IT Manager, Graphic Design Department)

Customers are never sure initially about what exactly they require. Asking a lot of questions offends them, sometimes to an extent where they directly tell us that





it’s our job to decide and come up with appropriate ideas. Another problem is that we aren’t assigned customers on permanent basis and our previous knowledge regarding client preferences ends up lost or forgotten.

(Client Services Manager)

On the basis of these interviews, the newly established department forwarded a pro-posal of structural change within the organization. According to the proposed struc-ture, each member of the CS, creative and graphic designing department was assigned the long-term responsibility of dealing with a particular client. Thus, within each department there was a member responsible for meeting the requirements of, say, the Ministry of Health. This structural arrangement implicitly tied members of the three departments into various teams. Each team was to include two members from the creative department and one from the other two. Furthermore, one member of the creative department was also going to accompany the CS executive in the initial stages of the new campaigns.

Absence of Job Descriptions and Training Opportunities

Interviews with several employees throughout the branch exhibited an overall dis-satisfaction with the absence of job descriptions. According to a junior CS executive:

I hardly know what my job is. When I joined I was given a thick manual of SOPs. It had everything except my job outline. This void grants managers and executives to use us at their convenience. Sometimes I have even been asked to pick up lunch from a restaurant.

To overcome this issue, the HR department, under the leadership of Zaheer, set out to prepare specifi c job descriptions and thus, eradicate any confusion about what one was required to do. These job descriptions were designed idiosyncratically for each hierarchical level of each department after conducting interviews and an organization-wide survey. Multiple people were interviewed for each job description.

On the basis of these job descriptions, several in-house training sessions were also designed to develop soft skills, for example, team building, time management, confl ict management and resolution and stress management. Some externally offered courses on core organizational issues such as CS orientation, effective presentation making and computer programming were also recommended. Each department was required to attend quarterly arranged in-house sessions. Additionally, members of any one department were to be selected, according to their turn, for external trainings every month.





Compensation-based Concerns

At Affl uent Advertising, salary distribution was generally unpredictably delayed for 10–20 days. This was a major source of dissatisfaction and complaints, especially for those individuals who were low in hierarchy and whose salary amount did not grant them the leverage to extend expenditure. Particular concerns for these employees were frequent embarrassments related to the payment of house rent and children’s school fee, which even made them willing to switch jobs for the same salary level, only if they could be paid on time.

At the middle level of employee hierarchy, there also existed a dominant feeling of internal and external compensation inequity. The star performers believed their efforts were not being rewarded and that they were consistently being paid less than the average performers on account of joining the organization later than them. When Intisar was approached by Zaheer, in this regard, his response was the following:

That’s not the real issue. Actually our competitors approach these inexperienced lads and offer jobs at exactly twice their present salaries. Naturally, they leave. But why should we disappoint our loyal and committed workers for this lot of uncom-mitted opportunists? We should not.

To resolve this dilemma, the HR department designed appraisal systems that built on corresponding job descriptions. These appraisals included a mix of traits, goals and competencies required for each job cadre. The exact percentage mix varied a little based on the exact nature of job. For example, business development and media buying departments had a greater percentage allocated to goal achievement than the administrative or accounts departments, where a greater percentage was allocated to competencies. The average percentage allocated to each section was 15 per cent for traits, 35 per cent for goals and 50 per cent for competencies.

Appraisals were to be held on a quarterly basis by the department heads, after which employees were sent a copy of their evaluations. This was followed by self-evaluations and counter arguments. Finally, each employee was to meet with the department head, in person, and have a personalized discussion regarding performance gaps and improvements. Goals for the next quarter were also mutually decided during this meeting. The appraisals for the top management team and department heads were to be carried out by Intisar, while HR managers also collected informal or anonymous feedback through their respective subordinates.





On the basis of individual rankings, a merit-based bonus plan was designed, which was to replace the existing annual increment system. According to the plan, those reaching a mark of excellence, in the quarterly appraisal, were to be eligible for a bonus amount equal to 80 per cent of their monthly salaries. The amount for those making it to good and above average categories of performance was 50 per cent and 25 per cent of monthly salaries, respectively.

Finally, in light of the newly carved job descriptions and compensation plan, a credential-based rigorous selection criterion was also devised to replace the earlier patronage-based selection and informal recruitment through internal sources. The can-didates were fi rst interviewed on telephone to check presence of mind and sharpness. This was a sort of quick elimination round. Those who passed were called for a written test in which they were given short cases based on an advertising agency. Here, the candidates were to narrate what they would do if they were in the shoes of the case character. Towards the end of the test, candidates for the core departments were also asked to design a campaign comprising a logo, slogan and radio or print advertisements for given client requirements. Those who passed the test were asked to prepare a 10-minute presentation, within 24 hours, on the campaign they had designed. The selected candidates were fi nally called in to discuss their salary package and how they could earn above industry standards on the basis of their performance.

After fi nalizing these structural changes, a report was sent to the CEO for approval. It took the HR department about ten months to prepare the fi rst draft of the proposed report.

GRIEVANCE-VOICING MECHANISM

A lack of grievance mechanism was a largely held gripe in Affl uent. Employees ex-pressed a need to voice their opinions anonymously. When asked for the reason behind this anonymous grievance registration, a female graphic designer replied:

Several of my colleagues made the mistake of publically raising their concerns, in the past. They were all terminated within a span of two months on trivial grounds; one simply because she was often seen with a male colleague at the lunch table. The guy is still here because he hadn’t voiced any public grievance.

To overcome this issue, the HR department arranged several complaint boxes. One was hung in the lunch room and others at the entrance of each fl oor.





Alteration in Administrative Policies

The newly established HR department extended its list of policy recommendations to include policy statements for frequent absenteeism and leave, late arrival, deliberate prolonging of clients’ visiting time, demand of unreasonably high fuel charges for client visits, unacceptably high mobile usage in the name of CS, recurrent loan applications, etc. These policy statements are illustrated in Exhibit 4.

The suggested leave, absenteeism and late arrival policy did not accommodate any absences without salary deduction. However, it did allow two paid leaves, at maximum, per month. The leave application earned consideration only if it was submitted twenty-four hours in advance. All unavailed leaves could be encashed at the end of the year. Finally, any late arrival after 9:15 a.m. was counted as absenteeism.

According to the transport and fuel policy, CS executives were allocated a weekly fuel expenditure of Rs 700. This was regardless of the number of visits made to dif-ferent clients or the nature of relationships shared with them. The executives were to maintain a record and minutes of their client visits and justify the time expended if so desired by the administrative department.

Akin to the transportation disbursements, a fi xed chargeable amount of Rs 500 per month was authorized for the CS executives on account of mobile usage. For employees of all other departments, the fi gure was reduced to Rs 200. Any bill amount exceeding this limit was deductible from the salary of the concerned employee.

Further, a loan policy was introduced which prohibited any loan grant above 200 per cent of the salary amount. The loan had to be returned, through salary deduc-tions, within a maximum period of 4–6 months. Lastly, a second loan could not be applied for before the previous one was cleared.

In addition to the above mentioned recommendations, HR department also drafted a policy statement for overtime, which recommended monthly payments for all hours spent on the job after 6:00 p.m., if approved by the employee’s department head. Finally, a printing policy was also forwarded that restricted the printing facility to the graphic design, creative, HR and accounts departments only. While the latter two were granted unlimited access, the creative copywriters were allowed only four text pages of black and white prints per copy. Similarly, the graphic designers had to suf-fi ce with two black and white image printouts during intermediary stages of adver-tisement development. A third one was tolerable, but worth high discouragement from supervisors. Colour printouts were allowed for fi nal versions of print advertise-ments only.





RESPONSE TO HR DEPARTMENT’S INITIATIVES

Chief Executive’s Response

After going through the HR department’s proposal, Intisar opted to make many things simpler. The structural change was rejected on grounds of inappropriateness of pro-posed confi guration. Instead, a different structural arrangement was proposed, after joint consultation with an external consultant and department heads of CS, creative services and graphic design. This structure is shown in Exhibit 5A. It necessitated the division of clients into three sets and hiring a new incharge for each set. Departmental employees were allocated to different teams on temporary or short-term basis. This arrangement was however soon replaced by a new structural form, which is shown in Exhibit 5B. In this structure, the client heads were made subordinate to the de-partment heads, who assigned, on a more long-term basis, particular members of their department to the client teams. Moreover, the client heads were instructed to elicit participation from the team members designated to them, in designing advertisements. Yet, the structure caused confusion and restlessness among employees regarding their reporting channels, and failed to solve not only the cost issue but also the increasing confl ict and anxiety levels.

In parallel to these changes, Intisar asked each department head to ensure a common job description for all hierarchical levels of a given department. Additionally, he also recommended a uniform appraisal form for the entire organization (see Exhibit 6). This form was to be fi lled by the assistant HR managers, instead of the department heads. The employees were to be kept in the dark about their evaluations. Only the bonuses and promotions, distributed by Intisar, were to be announced, if any. A lunch or tea ceremony of two hours and thirty minutes was to be arranged for this purpose, by the administrative department, in a specially booked banquet hall of good reputation. When such arrangements were not possible, catering services could be employed in the executive meeting hall. In either case, choice of hotel or caterers was subject to voting between the options presented by the administrative department. Attendance was a must for all white-collar employees, though exceptions could be granted to the top management team. Blue-collar employees were excluded from the event.

The selection mechanism was also altered. At the present time, most of the new-comers came through acquaintance with Intisar’s family. They were neither interviewed nor tested, rather called only for a meeting with the HR managers. This meeting was more often ceremonial, in which their salary was decided and introduction to their department head made. Further, the recommendation for external training sessions





was rejected, on account of lack of budget. In-house training was approved, which the HR managers were to design without any raise in base salary or bonus earning. Finally, it was left to the department heads to shape the on-the-job training track of their employees, observe their progress and assign clients and goals accordingly.

In terms of the administrative policies, the overtime recommendation was overruled straight away, while the transportation, printout, leave, absenteeism and late arrival policies were assumed without any delay. The loan policy was accepted but with an added condition of signing a legal document before approval of the loan, stating the date of return (see Exhibit 7). The mobile usage policy was altered from monetary to free-minute allocation (see Exhibit 8). These newly decided policies were communicated to the administrative department for implementation.

Intisar and his top management team, that is, the department heads (other than the HR director), also kept the leverage to terminate any of the employees at any time. The decision, however, was to be communicated by the HR managers, who had to frame it in the previous performance appraisal held by them. Often the HR managers were also directed to ask the employee to submit his resignation rather than directly terminat-ing him. The remaining dues of the leaving employees were not immediately cleared and a couple of months could pass before fi nal clearance from Affl uent. This ensured that they could not blow whistles or exhibit explicit resistance against the decision.

Lastly, Intisar announced several one-day outdoor trips and dinner ceremonies such as Iftar, Eid Millan, etc., to control employee turnover and dissatisfaction.

Departmental Heads’ Response

The overall reaction of the department heads to the HR department in itself as well as its initiatives was disapproving and discouraging. The exact expression varied from person to person, though the heads of the three departments that needed the most team spirit, that is, CS, creative services and graphic designing comprised the explicit adversaries.

Commenting on the response of these directors, an assistant manager HR stated, ‘Simi-lar to their intolerance for each other, they were also intolerant of our department, and treated it as an unwanted outsider intruding into their private circle. They made sure to convey their mockery of our work and its irrelevance to the advertising industry.’

Response of Director Client Services

Client services (CS) was headed by Noman Raza. He was known for his strictness, punctuality, regularity, high work standards and straightforwardness. The general





impression was that anything less than perfection was unacceptable. When discussing his personality, a subordinate commented: ‘There is a fl ipside to his outer rigid persona, i.e., he is extremely paternal and caring when it comes to his subordinates. He covers our unintentional mistakes, defends our position, and fi ghts for our promotions and salary increments before the chief executive.’

In terms of the initiatives proposed by the HR department, Noman showed in-difference towards the training and job description–related proposals. There was, however, loud and clear opposition with respect to all structural changes, whether or not recommended by the HR department. This was particularly true for the dual reporting lines. In addition, appraisal-based pay system was also a bone of contention for him. As a consequence, he refused to fi ll the appraisal forms of his subordinates.

Response of Director Creative Services

Naqvi Ameen, the Director of Creative Services, was a thin and middle-aged man, who also taught part-time at the National University of Modern Languages (NUML). At Affl uent, his reputation was of a talented intellectual, reserved but abstruse by nature. Another attribute generally associated to him was clever-witted satire and sarcasm.

When elaborating his reaction to the HR department, an assistant HR manager narrated the following:

Very often, though indirectly and between the lines, he would pass statements re-garding the impulsiveness of Mr Intisar and his habit of making hasty decisions without expending necessary consideration and thinking. The bottom line of all such statements would more or less revolve around bad endings of such decisions. Also he would tactfully call us the most important people at Affl uent, while his body language and gestures said the exact opposite. It was because of him that our ex-boss often excused himself from the monthly executive committee meetings.

Response of Director Graphic Designing

Graphic Designing department was headed by Shams Niaz who was a young man of thirty-fi ve years. He was not highly educated but was very skilled in terms of aesthetic and schematic design. Belonging from a poor background, he took pride in his achievements.

According to an assistant HR manager, Mr Niaz’s response to the HR department and its initiatives was the following:





Extremely personal, for he deemed us born with golden spoons and abundant resources to spend on unnecessary fads and study areas. For him, HRM was experi-ential in terms of learning and anybody could do it, but because Mr Intisar also had abundant resources he afforded such superfl uous pursuits.

Employees’ Response

In addition to aversive responses from department heads, employees also demonstrated a non-cooperative, unacknowledging and rather abandoning attitude towards both the HR department’s team and their initiatives. The fi rst and primary source of contention was seeded from the pay levels of the department managers, which made both the administrative counterparts as well as non-managerial position holders in the branch, dissatisfi ed and hostile.

Coupled with this perceived inequity, the newly proposed appraisal-based pay system and confusion emerging from repeated structural changes led to the usage of fowl language in anonymous complaint letters. More so, the resignation letters of most of the employees hinted at the introduction of the HR department as the root cause of their departure.

The newly established administrative policies also triggered panic and agitation. First, the CS executives showed resistance to the late arrival policy on account of reaching offi ce directly from client visits that could vary in length, from time to time. Their job, according to them, required fl exibility to clients’ preferences of visit times and a strict enforcement of 9:00 a.m. policy inhibited it. Other departments also expressed reservations to the policy, especially if long hours of frequent overtime were a usual part of their jobs. This was particularly true for creative copywriters and graphic designers. One of the copywriters said the following:

The intensity of our work varies with respect to the number of client orders or ap-proaching deadlines. During such times we even spend up to 18 hrs in the offi ce, but that’s of no consequence to the HR people, who never stay after 6 p.m. They are just concerned with whether or not we reach at 9 a.m. because they simply do not understand the nature of our work.

Similarly, the mobile usage policies also met with resistance. One CS executive complained:

Several of our clients are located out of the city. With free minutes as few as 60 to 120 how do they expect us to understand our clients’ needs. Whenever we are on





the phone, our minds are busy counting the minutes, lest our salary be deducted. It’s a nightmare.

According to another executive from the same department, ‘Its nonsense that we pay for the offi cial calls we make to their clients.’

Topping this disapproval was the response from the administration managers who started shirking their work by calling it HRM’s responsibility to justify their pay scale. These additional work duties included catering for overtime management and payment, payroll administration and attendance record keeping. When this matter was discussed with Intisar, he expressed his approval and considered the HR department to be in a better position to handle these issues. Administration, for him, was basically taking care of housekeeping and lunch, services-related supervision, pick and drop service management, mobile bills grant and taking care of transport fares of client executives.

MORALE WITHIN THE HR DEPARTMENT

As a result of the negative employee reactions and lack of cooperation from the top management, morale within the HR department declined sharply. That was, however, not all.

In the words of an HR manager:

The worst part of it was the manipulation of our department to justify others’ decisions. For example, we were often forwarded requests to consider someone particular for incentive grant or a job opening, which essentially meant we had no say of our own.

An accounts manager who shared her room with an HR manager stated the following:

My HRM colleagues felt blamed for the poor decisions and policy designs that were actually taken by other. They would be often asked to demand resignations from unwanted employees, in the name of poor performance on yearly goals. The real underlying reason would be the desire of any one of the top executives to recruit their acquaintances. The subsequent music was of course to be faced by the HR department. You see, they were actually only a cover-up conduit for the mess created by everybody else.





Further, despite having been the inventors of the incentive system, the HR managers were hardly ever granted one, because existing employees already had a problem with their pay scale. I often overheard their expressions of discontentment and dejection for the way their department was manipulated by different heads. Some of them were even planning on resigning simultaneously. I didn’t know the resignation chain would start from their head.

THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING

Intisar glanced at the resignation letter one last time before asking his personal secretary to send in all the department heads and abstain from any disturbances for the next one hour. He had decided to open the meeting by eliciting available options along with their respective pros and cons. The options in his mind were to (a) hire a new HRM head and proceed accordingly; (b) exterminate the HR department by merging it with the administrative wing; (c) reinforce the need of the HR department and pass clear and loud dictations regarding requirements imposed by its practices; (d) hire a team of consultants for re-devising HR systems at Affl uent; and (e) effectively combine two or more of the above options, or think of any other feasible ones. The devised action plan was also to determine the new structural confi guration of the company.

Exhibit 1Resignation Letter from Head, HR Department

4th August, 2007Zaheer Ahmad

Head HR DepartmentAffl uent Advertising (Pvt.) Ltd

KarachiIntisar ArshadChief Executive Offi cerAffl uent Advertising (Pvt.) LtdKarachi

Dear Mr Intisar Arshad,

This is to provide a formal notifi cation of my resignation from the position of Head HR Department at Affl uent, effective immediately.

My journey at Affl uent started with the challenging task of establishing a cutting edge HR department. However, fi fteen months of untiring but unappreciative struggle, render it a more appropriate career move to uproot for better opportunities.





Affl uent, in my experience, is not yet ready for the commitment required by a thriving and delivering HR department. It will be some time before the cultural barriers hindering this change are overcome, the much needed support by top management team is elicited, and a shared and institutionalized vision is developed in the company. Since these prerequisites primarily ensue and get reinforced directly from the chief executive offi ce, I fi nd my role passive and rather limited.

For these reasons I have accepted a position elsewhere. My joining is from next week and till then I am available for any assistance towards this transition. I wish Affl uent good fortune and sincere team.

Best Regards,Zaheer Ahmad

Source: Company documents.

Exhibit 2Original Structural Confi guration at Affl uent Advertising (Pvt.) Ltd




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Exhibit 4Suggested Policy Statement for Loan Grant, Absenteeism and Mobile Usage

To: Chief Executive Offi cerSubject: Suggested New Loan Policy

Dear Mr Intisar,

Based on our earlier exchange of ideas, I hereby propose that the following conditions be included in the new loan policy being introduced at Affl uent:

The loan amount requested must be in accordance to the salary structure of the employee and recoverable within 6 months, through deduction from salaries.

No loan amount greater than the sum of two months’ salary will be approved. The employees have to present documented evidences of the genuineness of their request. A second loan cannot be applied for if any previous loan is unsettled. No more than two loans can be applied for, per year. The loan amount does NOT ensure job security. If an employee resigns/quits or gets terminated

after taking a loan, the remaining sum will have to be returned within a period of one month, failing which he will be subjugated to legal action.

In addition, our department also suggests the following stances to appropriately manage the soaring rate of absenteeism and leave at Affl uent:

No absenteeism should be allowed without salary deduction. A 45-minute delay, beyond offi cial arrival time of 8:30 a.m. should be counted as an

absenteeism deserving of salary deduction. No more than two leaves should be granted, per employee, per month. Any unavailed leave should be compensated monetarily equal to one day’s salary, at year’s end. The leave application must be submitted 24 hrs beforehand, for being eligible of grant.

Finally, it is also suggested that a fi xed sum of money be allotted to individuals, on account of mobile usage based on departmental needs. Thus, a sum of Rs 500 seems suffi cient for the CS department, while Rs 200 should suffi ce for members of all other departments.

Zaheer Ahmad, Director HRM






Exhibit 5Structural Changes at Affl uent






Exhibit 6Individual Evaluation Form

Part A: Personality Traits (15%)

InstructionsPlease use the below mentioned rating scale to evaluate the individual’s behavioral traits. All traits are from organizational perspective, especially trustworthiness.

Rating Scale

0 Poor1 Bare minimum level2 Above average3 Good4 Excellent

Performance Competencies Weightage (W %) Rating (R) Net Result (W%∗R)

1. Professional Integrity and Honesty 22. Commitment and Loyalty 53. Resourceful/Helpful/Cooperative 34. Charisma/Personal Aura/Source of

Inspiration and Motivation3

5. Neatness/Hygiene/Workplace Condition 2

Part B: Goal Attainment Evaluation Form (35%)

InstructionsRate the evaluatee’s performance based on the actual achievement of goals assigned. Multiply this rating with the weightage and calculate the weighted score for each goal.

Rating Scale

0 Poor1 Bare minimum level2 Above average3 Good4 Excellent

Key Goals Weightage % Target Actual

Achievement RatingWeighted Rating

Applicable for CSD Increase revenue from existing

customers15

Decrease cost of service 5 Number of visits to clients· 5

(Exhibit 6 continued)





Key Goals Weightage % Target Actual

Achievement RatingWeighted Rating

Recovery targets for accounts receivable

10

Applicable for Creative

Increase revenue from existing customers

15

Decrease cost of service 5 Numbers of ads approved 10

Applicable for Media

Decrease cost of service 20 Number of jobs handled 10 Credit period from creditors 5

Applicable for Admin & Finance

Decrease cost of service 15 Time taken to generate reports 10 Time taken to update records for

accuracy10

Part C: Performance Behaviors (50%)

Performance Competencies Weightage (W%) Rating Net Results (W%*R)

1- Communication and Presentation Skills

Oral and written comprehension Language structuring and vocabulary Convincing power to sell an idea

through articulate, sell and defend concepts ‘You Attitude’ Adapting presentation style according to

requirements15%

Level of being respectful/considerate/mannerly/enduring

Restrains emotional impulses Responds calmly Listening actively and responding sensibly Effective use of empathy Effectively planning, prioritizing and

sequencing events to meet deadlines

(Exhibit 6 continued)





Performance Competencies Weightage (W%) Rating Net Results (W%*R)

2- Relationship Building and Networking

Client insight and intuition; the ability to intuit/anticipate the clients needs, read between the lines and design/create value added solutions and relationships

15%

Research-based knowledge of own and client business

Clearly narrating requirements to (internal/external) individuals

Keeping status checks and maintaining coordination till projects assigned are completed

3- Personal and Corporate Effectiveness

Professional confi dence Result orientation Commitment to learning Organizational awareness 10% Knowledge of skills relevant to job Active participation in brainstorming sessions

4- Punctuality/Observance of Work Hours 10%

Total Rating Points (b) = ________Overall Rating

0–99 100–199 200–299 300–399

Below Average Above Average Good Excellent

Remarks_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Signature HR Manager: _________ Signature Supervisor: _________






Exhibit 7 New Loan Policy

To: All Organizational MembersFrom: Chief Executive Offi cer

Subject: New Loan Policy

Dear all!This is to inform you that a new loan policy has been devised by The Company and states as under:

The loan amount requested must be in accordance to the salary structure of the employee and recoverable within 6 months through deduction from salaries.

No loan amount greater than the sum of two months’ salary will be approved. The employees have to present documented evidences of the genuineness of their request. The employees must sign a contract stating the promised period of return. A second loan cannot be applied for if any previous loan is unsettled. No more than two loans can be applied for, per year. The loan amount does NOT ensure job security. If an employee resigns/quits or gets terminated after taking a loan, the remaining sum will have

to be returned within a period of one month, failing which he will be subjugated to legal action.


Exhibit 8New Mobile Usage Policy

To: All Organizational MembersFrom: Chief Executive Offi cer

Subject: Revised mobile usage policy

Dear all!This is to inform you that company has restructured the cell-phone packages and allowed and assigned certain free minutes to each organizational member, according to their anticipated mobile usage. According to the new policy:

1. The company will only pay for the line rent and tax charges for each employee’s mobile usage cost.

2. Within the free minutes allocated to each employee, he/she will NOT be charged additionally and NO deductions will be made from salaries.

3. If an employee exceeds his/her mobile usage limit, s(he) will be responsible for the payment of additional charges, failing to do so will result in disciplinary action.

PS: Mr Shabbir of Accounts Department has a list of free minutes allocated to members of different departments.




hrm at affluent advertising

Documents

human resource management

critical management

stream management practices

affluent advertising

human resource hr department

abuse of hr department

farzad rafi khanhrm

lahore university of