Mr Ravi Kumar was born and brought up in a tier-II city in Tamil Nadu. He completed all his studies from there. At the age of 21, he secured a placement as assistant administrative officer (AAO) in one of the leading general insurance companies of India. After selecting him through an exhaustive hiring process, the company sent him to Faridabad in Haryana for two years' training at different organizational positions. His performance in the training was commendable and was appreciated by the competent authorities in the company. Once the training was over, the HR department graded the trainees on the basis of their overall performance during the training period and prepared a merit list accordingly. This list is normally used by the company to determine the posting for its trainees on an all-India basis. Since the recruitment and training are done at all-India levels, the AAO trainees must be prepared to be posted anywhere in the country.
After successfully completing his training, Mr Ravi Kumar was posted to one of the divisional offices of this company located at a tier-III city of Orissa. The company, as per its rules, allowed a week"s time for the newly posted officers to report for duty. Subsequently, he reported at the designated office after a week. However, he found to his dismay that the divisional manager had already left the office to accompany the regional manager, who was on an inspection visit to the different offices located in that region. To add to his woes, the other staff in the office were neither aware of his joining that day nor interested in knowing about it. So he had to idle away his time all through the day till the divisional manager returned to the office. As soon as the divisional manager returned to the office in the evening, he immediately called Ravi Kumar to his cabin. He spoke nicely to Ravi Kumar and apologized for making him wait for long on the first day of his office. He completed all the formalities and asked Ravi to join the duty on the following day.
Ravi was assigned the claims department and provided with ten subordinates. As days passed, he slowly realized that his lack of familiarity with the regional language was hampering his work. He also found his style of functioning was grossly incompatible with the prevailing work culture. His subordinates were mostly nonchalant and rather slow in their responses to his orders and requests. The divisional manager could not do much in his case and simply maintained that all was well in his office. He also advised Ravi to change himself suitably. Ravi began to feel alienated as all his efforts to reach out to his subordinates failed. Even the day-to-day functioning became tough and miserable for him. Sadly, the rules of the company did not permit him to get an immediate transfer to some other place. Bereft, he resigned from a promising job at 23 and, in the process, the company lost an able officer with a remarkable performance record in the orientation and training programmes.
Questions for Discussion
- How do you assess the problems of Ravi Kumar? Do you agree with his decision?
- What do you think about the efficacy of the HR policies of the company, especially the orientation, placement and socialization policies?
- How would you have handled the situation if you were in Ravi Kumar"s position?