It is the prerogative of the HR department in a company to put in place new employee oriented systems which will be for the ultimate good of everyone. This includes changes in systems as well as procedures, and bringing in new formats of various documents which will do the job better than the earlier ones. However, sometimes these can go off the rails and set off a chain of unintended consequences. The incidents narrated in the case are drawn from real life and actually occurred in a multinational bank in Bombay. The HR department at the all India level was invariably headed by a manager from Head Office based in Taiwan. At the time of the incidents narrated the position was headed by John Humphreys, who was in fact a career banker with around 18 years’ experience working in the bank. He in turn reported to the Chief Executive Officer, David Selby, also from Head Office. Selby and Humphreys were International Managers which meant that they would be posted to a country for a period of 2 to 3 years after which they would move on to another country and assignment. Both of them had been posted to India almost simultaneously which was unusual in the bank; normally one of them stayed on for a few months after the other had left so that the element of continuity was established. This fact had an impact on the incidents narrated.
All executives in the bank in India were under the performance appraisal discipline for around three years and the system was working well. The term executive included entry level officers to branch managers. Below the executives, there was a cadre called Staff Officers who were in fact promoted from the clerical cadre. Their job was mainly supervisory in nature and they looked after the routine operations of the bank. If they performed well, they could be promoted as executives.
Humphreys was under pressure to bring in a new performance appraisal system for the Staff Officer cadre. In fact, that was one of the main reasons he had been sent to India as he had experience of launching a similar system in Singapore, which he had done in three months’ time. Humphreys however had no experience in working in a unionized setup and his HR experience was also fairly limited. In fact, this was his second posting in a non-banking function if the Singapore attachment was included. The case describes how Humphreys went about the process of putting in place the new appraisal system in India and the reactions which followed, with all-India repercussions.
Solutions for problems of this nature depend on the circumstances and the personalities who are involved. What is important is that International Managers are made well aware of the problems of working in particular environments, especially when they are new to the place. What can work well in Dubai need not work well in Calcutta.