An oil and fats manufacturing company: Assessing human resource needs for corporate success

Abstract

Nikolai Asia Pacific in Johor Bahru Malaysia is a leading manufacturer of vegetable oils and fats. The Senior Manager of Human Resource and Organization Development (HROD) had concerns about employees at managerial levels. He felt that they were not playing their role in championing organizational changes being made for improvement in performance. He expected the managers should be able to foresee the struggles the organization will face in the coming years and initiate changes even when everything seemed to be going well. This case presents an opportunity for first-year undergraduate students to understand needs assessment for training and non-training interventions for managers of an organization. The case discusses issues of performance discrepancies among managers despite the various initiatives taken by the HROD department. In order to emulate reality, the event that led the HROD to take action has been recorded in the case study. The identified gaps will prompt learners to identify tools and approaches necessary in such a situation.