Lockdown lessons in management studies

VADODARA: Lessons learnt during the lockdown will now be part of the academic syllabus. A book covering 30 case studies on how human resources professionals responded during the Covid-19 induced nation-wide lockdown is set to become part of management studies.
The book — ‘Case studies of HR interventions during lockdown 2020’ — covers 30 case studies of 23 small and big firms. Vice-chancellor of Gujarat Technological University (GTU) Navin Sheth said that the book will act as a reference for all teachers who teach human resources to budding managers at management colleges under it.
“We have received queries from IIT Mumbai, Gulf University and GSFC University. They want to teach these case studies to train HR students,” said Sunita Sharma, association professor of HR-Organisation Behaviour at M S University’s Faculty of Management Studies who academically edited all the case studies.
“This book is best example of industry-institute partnership as envisaged by National Educational Policy 2020,” she said. The case studies were compiled after a nation-wide competition, an initiative of Vadodara HR Forum. “The case studies throw light on efforts made by HR professionals in restarting their industries/ offices during and post lockdown,” said forum’s president Sudhir Sethi.
MG Motor for instance was not manufacturing vehicles during the lockdown. Instead, it had started manufacturing ventilators that were supplied to hospitals.
“For this, they gave training to their employees. They empowered 21 women of nearby communities by providing sewing machines to make masks,” said Bharat Sharma, forum’s vice president.
“It is now new normal but initially employees had to be trained and motivated to work from home,” said Sharma.
Gujarat Gas helped authorities to manage migrant workers that were on the streets and provided them food. “There were firms like BigBasket that collaborated with local shops and rickshaw drivers to deliver goods that were falling under essential items,” said Sethi.
“Our HR heroes did their best to check insecurities, hunger, stress, loneliness and created an the environment of hope and resilience in the industries,” he said.
A case study of a hotel that closed despite all the efforts has also been included. Ironically, the HR professional who had submitted the study got terminated on the same day.