ST.

PAUL UNIVERSITY DUMAGUETE | SPUD Graduate School | Doctor of Business Administration

CASELET
JOB REMODELLING
AT TATA MOTORS

MARIA CORAZON E. MRECADO, DBA

AVERY JAN M. SILOS, MBA-HTM

AVERY JAN M. SILOS, MBA-HTM | DBA 305 Strategic Human Resource Management | St. Paul University Dumaguete 1
ST. PAUL UNIVERSITY DUMAGUETE | SPUD Graduate School | Doctor of Business Administration

CASE Summary
TATA MOTORS

Tata Motors is India's largest automaker and a global leader in bus and truck manufacturing. Tata Motors
has subsidiaries and associate companies in the UK, South Korea, Thailand, Spain, South Africa, and Indonesia.
One is Jaguar Land Rover, which owns two iconic British brands. Commençant in 1954, Tata Engineering and
Locomotive Company began producing commercial vehicles with Daimler Benz. Rising competition and
changing customer expectations are among Tata Motors' future goals. Tata Motors developed a human capital
strategy in late 2010 to guide future HR initiatives. The HR agenda had goals. The near-term HR challenges were
cost, productivity, and talent. Aligning HR culture with new strategic imperatives was one long-term goal. This
plan was supposed to be the company's change mantra. Tata Motors restructured. Everyone could see the link
between their work and the company's goals. Reexamined many HR processes and systems. The company
reframed its vision and mission to meet new challenges. To build that culture, all HR sub-systems had to be
reoriented. The ‘Aces' path's large change management component was seen as an HR priority (accountability,
customer focus, excellence, and speed).
It started with comparing HR processes to global best practices. Managing talent and leadership was a
major theme. It started with the idea that a company's success depends on diverse talent with the right skills. Tata
Motors' greatest asset is its people. The company mistook HR asset management for HR agenda. Leadership and
management at all levels own the human capital strategy, according to the new strategy. Thus, the HR-line
manager gap was closed. Suddenly, HR became strategic human capital. Jobs were redesigned at Tata Motors as
part of the new HR agenda. The HR strategy adapted to the changing environment. So the company rewrote job
descriptions. It formed a small team of HR professionals to work on the dealer HR agenda, as well as the entire
HR life cycle of customer service representatives. Dealer and client relationships were improved. The company
decided to focus on providing diverse assignments, fostering competency-building and behavioral training, and
challenging people. It also identifies potential leaders through education, coaching, and mentoring. The goal was
to improve worker skills. This initiative included a ‘Fast Track Selection Scheme'. The company's "Talent
Management Scheme" assigned challenging assignments to high performers and high potentials to accelerate their
development. The company's 'Pact' (performance and coaching tool) initiative believes managers must become
coaches rather than bosses. A soft cultural transition was supported by changes in performance, talent, and
assessment management.
Performance-based salary reviews and quality-linked variable pay were also introduced to boost
competency-building. Skills shortages were obvious issues. In order to position the company as a preferred sector,
it had to be positioned as such. An industry that relied on consumers had to reinvent itself to compete with newer
industries that offered dynamic jobs and career growth. The company experienced low-single-digit attrition.
During the first five years, employees are eager to switch jobs and try new things. Younger workers despise
hierarchies and job titles. On hoped that the new competency-based job design framework would provide a more
vibrant career environment than organizational hierarchy.
Tata Motors undertook its largest HR overhaul in 72 years in 2017. The company downsized from 140 to 5. The
levels were rearranged. Ahead of each function, the plant or office is referred to as 'head', followed by the
function. Previously, it was hierarchical. It was now flat. Part of an effort to make the company leaner and flatter.
Tata Motors adopted a no-designation policy to eliminate hierarchy, job descriptions, and titles. A global mindset
was fostered through operational excellence and multi-skilling. Removing titles and replacing them with specific
employee functions aimed to improve competency-building. Removing hierarchical barriers was also thought to
improve performance and encourage employees to develop skills in multiple areas. Employees were given clear
accountability, functional leadership, better decision-making, and a stronger customer focus. That flat structure
plan quickly went flat. Some people struggled socially to represent their roles. Government, customers, and
vendors communication was difficult. The sudden reduction was disheartening for a senior employee who wore
his title on his sleeve. In India, as in the West, hierarchy is important. Long-time employees were suddenly
relegated to newcomers' status. Clearly, they felt cheated. So much change was difficult to accept. A new salary
structure from Tata Motors promised to reward top performers handsomely. Retiring from another company
means giving up superior status and accepting a lower band.
So the firm had to restore names. The company's five-level nonhierarchical structure remains, but it has
standardized some designations. We realized that cultural change takes time, as does educating the workforce on
such a massive job change. Despite some setbacks, the above initiatives helped the company rethink HR. Today's
HR policies are superb. TATA MOTORS IS CREATING ONE TATA MOTORS WAY. HR has been
streamlined. The Tata group has adopted many of Tata Motors' HR initiatives. In 2017, the company won the Asia
Pacific Excellence Award for HR Innovation. Tata claims that despite tough times, attrition is low. • Create a
more contemporary organization that attracts employees from any country, culture, or industry. The ‘best place to
work' in the auto and manufacturing industries recently. The issue is maintaining it.

∞ QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION ∞ ∞ ∞

AVERY JAN M. SILOS, MBA-HTM | DBA 305 Strategic Human Resource Management | St. Paul University Dumaguete 2
ST. PAUL UNIVERSITY DUMAGUETE | SPUD Graduate School | Doctor of Business Administration

Tata motors clearly seen as one of the most powerful company in terms of operations. Changes
in job design willed the Strategic Human Resources to initiate changes in its human capital. It was even
observed that employees of the company clearly showed as the most significant asset. The firm desires
to has its global competitive edge where customers’ expectations will differ from the latter years.
The changes made of its jo design were the human capital strategy (HCS). This sets a future
roadmap for the company’s HR agenda. Thus, the HCS would develop a great impact in various ways. I
was also vividly presented that the HR agenda had a long-term managed goal. This goal develops
certain perspectives how to manage cost, efficiency, and workforce. The long-term agenda that were
emphasized in the case was to develop Human Resource concomitant with the new strategic
imperatives of sorts for the company. The organizational transformation will also comprehensively be
considered to the changes made as far as job design in concerned. This transformation in the
organization allows people to see clarity among vision and mission statement of the firm. What the
people doing and what the company aimed to achieved will testify the precision of the organizational
transformation shift. Another consideration to make in the job changes will be the building precise
culture that in all means all HR sub-systems has to be reoriented to eb in line with the new culture. This
matter leads to culture reinvention. Looking into HR greatest priority for Tata Motors was the
accountability, customer focus, excellence, and speed (ACES) which substantially encompassed a huge
change in the management indicators. Other significant changes for job changes made was to bridge
the gap between the line managers and human resource. It was highly regarded that the company had
mistakenly thought human asset management is part of the HR function as agenda to look for.
Aligning to strategic mandate crafted by the Tata Motors management will depends across all
areas or department in the company. Governing the right mindset, right skills, right engagement and
right diversity will enable to realize strategic mandate. Linking to it’s mandate, It was decided in order
to carry out the job redesign initiative that the company would concentrate on offering different
assignments that would allow people to develop their competencies and gain new behavioral habits.
This would be done in tandem with the leadership development project, which involves providing
education coaching and mentoring to assist potential leaders at every level. Most of the focus was on
increasing the skill and capability of the workforce. This project involved the implementation of a “Fast
Track Selection Scheme”, which helps the organization to identify potential talent and provide them
with career opportunities. Additionally, the company's "Talent Management Scheme" aimed to provide
its top performers and up-and-coming stars with more demanding assignments, giving them greater
opportunity for advancement. Management was moving away from thinking of themselves as bosses
and approaching themselves as coaches with the firm's 'Pact' (performance and coaching tool)
initiative. Most of the recent changes have been focused on using hardwired HR processes to support
the process of cultural transformation. Performance rating based salary review and variable payment
linked to competence building were other initiatives introduced to encourage greater competency
building.

2. What challenges did the company face in its effort to create a flat, hierarchy-less job structure? Is
cultural change a gradual journey? Discuss.
On the other hand, there were some issues, such as a lack of skills. Many potential employees
don't see the auto industry as the first option; finding a different way to position the company as a
career option was a challenge. The industry had a challenge—it needed to rebrand itself as a
consumer-oriented sector comparable to up-and-coming industries that offered dynamic job
opportunities and career growth. Attrition (i.e. losing customers) is at a rate of single digits, which is
fairly unnoticeable. It was generally believed that the majority of employee turnover happens during
the first five years, when employees are eager to explore different occupations and jobs. Hierarchies
and static job descriptions are not favorable for younger employees. The anticipated impact of the new
job design competency framework was expected to be felt both in terms of a higher quality of work life
and a growth in skills that is predicated on competencies, rather than positions within the hierarchy of
an organization.
All various types of organizational changes have its advantages and disadvantages. Thus, tata
motors used flat organization to lessen lengthy hierarchical structure. Flat organizations are
characterized by having little or no managerial power between managers and the employees who do
the work. The flat organization is less strict about the supervision of employees but encourages greater
employee involvement in decision-making where in a hierarchical organization, an organizational

AVERY JAN M. SILOS, MBA-HTM | DBA 305 Strategic Human Resource Management | St. Paul University Dumaguete 3
ST. PAUL UNIVERSITY DUMAGUETE | SPUD Graduate School | Doctor of Business Administration

pyramid follows the layout of a pyramid. In most cases, every employee in the organization, apart from
the CEO, is in a subordinate position to someone else in the company. The layout features multiple
entities that climb the pyramid starting at the bottom of the staff level and ending at the apex.
In the early days, the organization was made up of a tall hierarchy. While it was designed to
flatten, it no longer has this characteristic. The restructuring exercise was meant to reshape the
organization from a less complex and top-heavy company to a leaner, more streamlined and more
egalitarian company. Tata Motors launched a no-designation policy in an effort to undermine any
notions of designations and job descriptions that were no longer relevant. This was done to increase
global awareness by maintaining a focus on operational excellence and constantly adapting to new
needs.
To strengthen competency-building, the decision to take away designations and replace them
with the specific functions of employees was made. It was also widely believed that removing
hierarchical barriers would result in enhanced performance and employees would be motivated to
develop a variety of new skills. The company's goal was to be a lean and agile enterprise that enabled
its employees with clear accountability, functional leadership, faster and more effective decision-
making, and a greater focus on the needs of customers. However, in a short period of time, the
company's strategy to utilize a flat organizational structure changed. Some people felt that people
were having trouble communicating their jobs in public settings. Difficulties in communicating
externally prevented us from speaking to the government, customers, and vendors. It was quickly
apparent that not everyone was happy with the decision and, as a senior employee, I was disappointed
to see my rank and position taken away from me. The concept of hierarchy is an extremely significant
aspect of Indian society, even though it may not be significant in the West. At-par workers have just
joined the workforce, but people who have been working for more than 25 years have been
performing at the same level as someone who just joined. To be frank, they had reason to feel angry.
This level of a radical transformation proved to be exceedingly difficult for the public to accept. Tata
Motors had a new pay structure that promised to reward the company's top performers handsomely.
This new structure proved no match for the problem, however. In addition, the assignment came with
an additional challenge for those who wanted to work for Tata Motors from other organizations: this
meant foregoing the higher designation currently available, as well as accepting a lower designation
band.
Since designations had to be brought back, the company had to bring them back. The corporate
organization retained the same nonhierarchical, simple five-level structure, but some simple and
standardized designations were reintroduced. It was determined that it might take some time for the
workforce to be made more receptive to a massive cultural change, such as a job restructuring.
The above initiatives have enabled the company to bring in new thinking to HR in a manner that
has thus far been unprecedented. The new HR policies that have been implemented today are
benchmarked with the world's best practices. Tata Motors has in the past utilized various practices but
is now creating a single way for the company. In this company, HR has harmonized and expanded on
an upward trajectory. Tata Motors' many HR initiatives have also been adopted by other Tata
companies. In 2017, the Asia Pacific Excellence Award gave the company a “HR Innovation of the Year”
award. Despite the tough moments, attrition is virtually non-existent at Tata Motors. On the company
website, we are saying that we want to create a more contemporary workforce that draws from
different backgrounds, cultures, and industries, a globally sought-after place of outstanding work.
Through these changes Tata motors became one of the BEST companies to WORK for.

AVERY JAN M. SILOS, MBA-HTM | DBA 305 Strategic Human Resource Management | St. Paul University Dumaguete 4