(1) Define "human resource management."
(2) List the functions of a human resource/personnel department in an MNC.
(3) Most European managers look at the United States as the human resource manager's paradise. They are especially impressed with the freedom managers have to hire and fire as they please. Yet U.S. managers complain that they are terribly constrained by the restrictions imposed on them by the government and the unions. Write an essay comparing personnel management in the United States and Europe. On balance, who has an easier job, in your opinion-European managers or U.S. ones?
(4) Zukunft Manufacturing of Hamburg, West Germany, has recently taken over the only textile mill in your home city. Most of your friends and relatives work in this mill, and you yourself have spent some summers working there. Everyone knows that takeovers are often followed by "rationalization," and if there is something that characterizes Germans, it is that they are extremely rational. So there is a groundswell of suspicion in town that something big-and not good-is going to happen at the mill. One day the mayor of the city calls you up and says, "I guess you've heard about the mill. Some folks around here are extremely nervous. Would it be possible for you to give me and the city council an inkling of what we might expect and what we can do to minimize the negative impact on our folks who make a living working at the mill?" Prepare a short presentation in which you summarize the kinds of assistance that might be made available to people who lose their jobs as a result of the restructuring/rationalization of the mill. (Look in the indexes of major newspapers for stories about similar incidents that have occurred over the last two or three years. )
(5) The president of Zukunft was very impressed with the local newspaper's coverage of your talk to the city council. Over dinner he explains to you that he is going to do some rationalization. But he thinks that if the employees will accept some job reassignments and reclassifications, he might not have to fire a single person. He too wants to minimize the negative impact of rationalization. He would like you to advise him on how best to approach the unions. Prepare a preliminary list of concessions the president might request and guarantees he might offer in return.
(6) Jack Jackson is furious. He has just returned from picking up his new boss, Pierre Perriou, at the airport. The MNC that bought his company sent over a "kid," he tells his friends at a dinner. "Heck, 1 don't even think he is old enough to drink. And his English-by gosh, they could at least send somebody who can speak English." Over the next few days Jack goes around the offices and the shops complaining. Your professor meets Mr. Perriou at a social and tells him that he must find a way to get to know Jack and the other employees better. "Any suggestions?" asks Perriou. Excited about the opportunity to apply some of her ideas, your professor forms a new consulting firm whose first project is to advise Mr. Perriou on "coping with the American corporate culture." Develop a plan for Mr. Perriou.
(7) Greg Greenko has just been chosen to go to Brussels, Belgium, to work on the installation of a new computerized logistics system which his company developed for its plant in Montgomery, Alabama. The system is a money saver; its installation in Alabama and at other affiliates in the United States has been a cinch. Although the computer system takes certain responsibilities away from managers, it saves them a great deal of time. Write a report on the problems Greg may encounter in installing such a system at a plant in a foreign country whose language Greg does not speak. Suggest ways to address these problems.
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