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Module 1. Introduction It is not very easy to define precisely Management, but it is essential to know what Management means before we study Human Resource Management. Management has been defined by Mary Parker Follett as, "the art of getting things done through people." But Management is much more than what is said in this definition. It is further defined as ...... That field of human behaviour in which Managers plan, organise, staff, direct and control human, physical and financial resources in an organised effort, in order to achieve desired individual and group objectives with optimum efficiency and effectiveness." [Quoted in Chandan J.S., Fundamentals of Modern Management] It is therefore clear that management is charged with the responsibility of achieving planned individual and group goals by a balanced utilisation of physical and financial resources through the efforts of human resources. Human resource, therefore, becomes a crucial subsystem in the process of Management. But most of us are not clear what exactly Human Resource means. According to Leon C. Megginson, Human Resources means "the total knowledge, skills, creative abilities, talents and aptitudes of an organisation's workforce, as well as the value, attitudes and beliefs of the individuals involved." Therefore, Management can procure and use the skill, knowledge and ability, through the development of skills, using them again and again. Therefore, it is a long term perspective whereas personnel is a short term perspective. Personnel Vs Human Resources at Various levels Human Resources denotes the total sum of all the components - skills, creative ability etc. - with all the people (employed, self-employed, unemployed, employers, owners etc.) whereas personnel is limited to employees of organisations only. Human Resources, even at the organisation level, includes all resources of all the people who contribute their services to the achievement of organisational goals and also others who contribute their services to create hurdles in the achievement of the said goals.

PERSONNEL VS HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT Personnel Management 1. Personnel means persons employed. Personnel management is the management of people, skills employed. 2. Employee in personnel management is mostly treated as an economic man as his services are exchanged for wage / salary. 3. Employee is viewed as a commodity or tool or equipment which can be purchased. 4. Employees are treated as cost centres and therefore management controls the cost of labour. 5. Employees are used mostly for the organisational benefit. 6. Personnel function is treated as only an Auxiliary function. Human Resources Management 1. Human Resources management is the management of employees knowledge, abilities, talents, aptitudes, creative abilities etc. 2. Employee in human resource management is treated not only as economic man but also as social and psychological man. Thus, the complete man is viewed under this approach. 3. Employee is treated as a resource. 4. Employees are treated as profit centres and therefore, invests capital for human resource development and future utility. 5. Employees are used for the multiple benefits of the organisation, employees and their family members. 6. Human resources management is a Strategic Management function.

[P. V. Subba Rao Essentials of Human Resources Management and Industrial Relations] Figure .1. Meaning and Significance of Human Resources Management Human resources means different things to different people. They are: Labour Management, Labour Administration, Labour Management Relations, EmployeeEmployer relations, Industrial relations, Personnel Administration, Personnel management, Human capital management, Human asset management, Human resources management etc. Human Resources Management means employing people, developing their resources, utilising, maintaining and compensating their services in consonance with the job and organisational requirements. Personnel management as defined by the Indian Institute of Personnel Management Personnel management is a responsibility of all those who manage people as well as being a description of the work of those who are employed as specialists. It is that part of management which is concerned with people at work and with their relationships within an enterprise. It applies not only to industry and commerce but to all fields of employment.

Human resources has a very definite role in the development of modem economics. Arthur Lewis says there are great differences in development between countries which seem to have roughly equal resources, so it is necessary to enquire into the difference in human behaviour. Hence all development comes from committed manpower. Abundance of resources has no meaning unless we make proper use of them. Myrdal Gunnar, [Asian Drama, Penguin Books Ltd.] says that lack of organisation of human resources is largely responsible for the backwardness of the nation. Countries are under developed because their people are under developed. In essence, the difference in the level of economic development of the country is largely a reflection of the differences in quality of their human resources Hence what determines a countrys economic development are the values, attitudes, general orientation and quality of its people. Also, the shifts from manufacturing to services and technological upgradations make the human resources the vital element to the nations growth and progress. And in any service industry like banks, railways etc., the quality and the methods of utilisation of human resources become significant. Peter F. Drucker rightly pointed out the significance of personnel as; managers are fond of repeating the truism, that the only real difference between one organisation and the other is the performance of people. Human Resources system in any organisation is an unique subsystem operating upon and controlling all other subsystems.

MATERIAL SUBSYSTEM

FINANCIAL SUBSYSTEM

HUMAN RESOURCES SUBSYSTEM

MARKETING SUBSYSTEM

TECHNOLOGY SUBSYSTEM [ Organisation System] Figure .2. Functions of Human Resources Management: . There are two broad functions of H R M. They are 1. Managerial Functions 2. Operational Functions

Managerial Functions: Managerial functions of Personnel management include planning, organising, directing, co-ordinating and controlling. Planning:

It is the charting out of programmes and changes in advance in the achievement of organisational goals. Hence, it involves planning of human resources requirements, recruitment, selection, training etc. It also involves forecasting of personnel needs, changing values, attitudes and behaviour of their employees and their impact on the organisation. Organising: In the words of J.C. Massie, an organisation is a "structure and process by which cooperative groups of human beings allocated its tasks among its members, identifies relationships and integrates its activities towards a common objective." Given the complex relationships that exist between specialised departments and the general departments, many top managers seek the advice of personnel manager. In this manner, the organisation establishes relationships among the employees so that they can together contribute to the achievement of organisational goals. Directing: After planning and organising comes the execution of the plan. The willing and effective co-operation of employees towards the achievement of organisation's goal has to be brought about by proper direction. Identifying and utilising maximum potentials of people is possible through motivation and command. Direction, therefore, is an important managerial function in ensuring optimum employee contribution. Co-ordinating: It is the task of matrixing various employees efforts to ensure successful goal achievement. The Personnel manager co-ordinates various managers at different levels as far as the personnel functions are concerned. Controlling: After planning, organising, directing and co-ordinating, the various activities, the performance is to be verified in order to know, at various points of time, whether the activities are performed as per plans and directions. It involves checking, verifying and comparing actual with the plans, identification of deviations if any and correcting the deviations. Auditing training programmes, analysing labour turnover, overseeing morale surveys, conducting exit interviews are some of the controlling functions of personnel management. Operative Functions: The operative functions of H R M relate to employment, development, compensation and relations. All these are interacted by managerial functions. Also, they are to be performed in conjunction with management functions. Human Resources Planning Recruitment Selection Induction Placement Performance Appraisal Training Management Development Career Planning & Development Organisation Change & Organisation Development Job Evaluation Wage & Salary Administration Fringe Benefits

EMPLOYMENT

HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT

COMPENSATION MANAGEMENT

HUMAN RELATIONS

Motivation Morale Job Satisfaction Communication Grievance & Disciplinary Procedures Quality of Work Life & Quality Circles

ORGANISATIONAL DESIGN ---- JOB DESIGN ---- JOB ANALYSIS Functions of H R M Figure .3. Employment: Employment function is securing and employing the people having required level of human resources essential for achieving the organisational objectives. It involves job analysis, human resources planning, recruitment, selection, placement, induction and handling internal mobility. Job Analysis: It is the study and collection of data relating to the operations and responsibilities of a specific job. It includes: a. Collection of data and information and facts relating to the various aspects of jobs including men, machines and materials. b. Drawing up of job description, job specification, job requirements and employee specification with which nature, levels and quantum human resources can be finalised. c. Providing the guidelines, plans and the basis for job design and for all operative functions of H R M. Human Resources Planning: This is the process which assures the organisation that it will have adequate number of qualified persons, at requisite times, performing in a way to satisfy the needs of the organisation and also provide satisfaction to the individual employee, so employed. The process involves: a. Estimating the present and future requirements of human resources based on objectives and long range plans of the organisation. b. Calculation of net human resource requirements based on the present availability of human resources. c. Taking suitable steps to identify, mould, change and develop the strength of existing employees so as to meet the future requirements. d. Preparation of action plans to acquire the balance human resources from outside the organisation and to develop the existing employees. Recruitment: It is the process of searching for future employees (requirement) and ensuring they apply for jobs in the organisation. It involves: a. Identification of existing sources of candidates and developing them. b. Seeking out and identifying new sources of applicants. c. Motivating the right type of candidates to apply for jobs in the organisation. d. Ensuring a healthy balance between internal and external sources Selection: It is the process of ascertaining the qualifications, experience, skill, knowledge etc. of an applicant to ascertain his / her suitability for the job applied for.

This includes: a. Developing application blanks. b. Creating and developing valid and reliable testing techniques. c. Formulating interviewing techniques. d. Checking of references. e. Setting up for medical examination policy and procedure. f. Line Managers to be involved in the decision making. g. Sending letters of appointment. h. Employing the selected candidates, when he reports for duty Placement: It is the process of allotting to the selected candidate the most suitable job, as per the job requirements and employee specifications. This function includes: a. Counselling the concerned managers regarding the placement b. Overseeing the follow-up studies, employee performance appraisal to monitor employee adjustment to the job, in the coming days. c. Correcting wrong / misjudged placements, if any. Induction and Orientation: These are procedures by which a new employee is rehabilitated in the new surroundings and introduced to the practices, procedures, policies, people etc. of the organisation. It includes: a. Familiarising the employee with company philosophy, objectives, policies, career planning and development, company product, market share, history, culture, etc. b. Introduce the new employee to the people - his colleagues, supervisors and subordinates. c. Mould the employee by orientation methods to the new working conditions. Human Resources Development: This process involves improving, moulding, and developing the skills, knowledge, creativity, attitude, aptitude, values, commitment etc. based on the present and future job and company requirements. Performance Appraisal: It is the continuous and systematic evaluation of individual employees with respect to their performance and their potential for future development. It includes: a. Enunciating policies, procedures and techniques. b. Assisting functional managers. c. Reviewing and summarising reports. d. Evaluating the effectiveness of various programmes. Training: It is the process of transmitting the employees the technical and operating skills and knowledge. It includes: a. Identification of training needs of the individuals and for the organisation. b. Developing appropriate training programmes. c. Assisting and advising the management in the conduct of training programmes. d. Transmitting requisite job skills and job knowledge to the employees. e. Assess the effectiveness of training programmes. Management Development:

It is the process of designing and conducting appropriate executive development programmes so as to develop the managerial and human relations of skills of the employees. It includes: a. Identification of the areas in which management development is needed. b. Conducting development programmes. c. Motivating executives / managers. d. Designing special development programmes / assessment procedures for promotions. e. Utilising the services of specialists - both internal and external for development and / or Institutional (external) development programmes. f. Evaluating the effectiveness of executive development programmes. Career Planning and Development: It is the planning of one's career and implementation of career plans by means of education, training, job search and acquiring of work experience. It includes: a. Internal mobility - vertical and horizontal transfers, promotion and demotion. b. Transfer - process of placing employees in the same level jobs where they can be utilised more effectively as per the needs of the organisation. This also means - developing transfer policies, offering assistance and guidance to employees under transfer orders and evaluating transfer policy periodically. c. Promotion - it deals with the upward assignment of employees to occupy higher positions (with better status and pay) in consonance with resources of employees and job requirement. The Department must ensure that: i. equitable, fair and consistent promotions are formulated and administered. ii. managers and employees are given assistance and guidance on the subject of promotion. iii. execution of promotional policies are as per policies and procedures. d. Demotion - is the downward assignment of, an employee in an organisation. The Department must ensure that: i. equitable, fair and consistent demotion policies are drawn up. ii. assisting and advising employees regarding demotions. iii. ensure fair implementation of demotion policies and procedures. Organisation Development: The planned process drawn up to improve organisational effectiveness through changes in individual and group behaviour, culture and systems of the organisation drawing models from applied behavioural science. Compensation Management: The process of providing equitable, fair and adequate remuneration to the employees. This per se involves - Job evaluation, wage and salary administration, incentives, bonus, fringe benefits, social security measures and so on. a. Job Evaluation - the process of determining the relative worth of jobs: i. Select suitable job evaluation techniques. ii. Classify jobs in to various categories. iii. Determining relative worth of jobs in various categories. b. Wage and Salary Administration - developing and operating an appropriate wage and salary programme. It will necessitate: i. Initiate a wage and salary survey. ii. Determining wage / salary rates based on various factors. iii. Proper administration of Wage and Salary Programmes. iv. The periodical evaluation of its effectiveness.

c. Incentives - formulation administration and reviewing the schemes of payment of financial incentives in addition to regular wages and i. Formulation of incentive schemes. ii. Assisting managers on its operation. iii. Periodical review to evaluate effectiveness and relevance. d. Bonus - payment of statutory bonus according to the Payment of Bonus Act, 1965, and its latest amendments. e. Fringe Benefits - various benefits at the peripheral area of the wage. Organisation provides these primarily to motivate the employees and to meet their contingencies. Benefits include: i. Disablement benefit. ii. Housing facilities. iii. Educational facilities to employees children. iv. Canteen facilities. v. Conveyance facilities. vi. Credit facilities. vii. Legal assistance. viii. Medical, maternity and welfare facilities. ix. Company stores. f. Social security measures -These measures are in addition to fringe benefits, which include : i. Workmen's compensation to those workers (or their dependants) who are involved in accidents. ii. Disablement benefits and allowance. iii. Dependent benefits. iv. Retirement benefits like Provident Fund, Pension, Gratuity etc. Human Relations: Administering various human resources policies like employment development and compensation and interactions among the employees on one hand and employees and the, management on the other, create a sense of working relationship between workers and management and trade unions. Basically they are all interactions between human beings. Human relations, is therefore, is an important area in management which integrates people into work situations in a way that motivates people to work together with economic, psychological and social satisfaction thereby increasing their productivity. Hence Human Resources Management functions will centre around: a. Understanding perception, personality, learning, intra and inter personal relations, inter and intra group relations. b. Motivating all employees. c. Promoting employee morale. d. Developing communication skills. e. Developing leadership skills. f. Redressing satisfactorily through a well defined grievance procedure. g. Handling disciplinary cases by established disciplinary procedures and in all fairness. h. Providing adequate counselling to solve employees' personal, work and family problems, thereby releasing their stress and strain. Objectives of Human Resource Management Objectives of Personnel Management are determined by organisational objectives and individual and social goals. Institutions are established to achieve certain specific objectives. The objectives of commercial institutions are mostly to earn profits and of educational institutions are mostly to impart education and conduct research etc. But the fundamental objective of any institution is survival. However,

institutions are not satisfied with this goal. They definitely have a further goal of growth and profits. Institutions acquire and manage resources including human resource to achieve their objectives. The prime tool employed and utilised for this purpose is human resource. Hence the main objectives of Human Resources Management are drawn from the organisational objectives. The other objectives of HRM are to take care of the needs, aspirations, dignity of individual employees and at the same time keeping in mind the socio-economic problems of the community and the country. The objectives of HRM may therefore be something as below: 1. Create and utilise capable and motivated workforce, to achieve the basic organisational goals. 2. To establish and maintain proper and sound organisational structure and healthy working relationships among all its employees. 3. To ensure the integration of individual group's goals with those of the organisation. 4. To create facilities for individuals and groups to develop so as to be in tune with the growth of the organisation. 5. Proper and optimum utilisation of human resources. 6. Ensuring adequate and equitable wages, incentives and other benefits so that satisfied individuals and groups are motivated to take on challenges. 7. Maintain high employee morale. 8. Continuously upgrading the skill and knowledge levels of employees, by training and development programmes. 9. Ensure opportunity for participation in management to the extent possible. 10.Provide acceptable and effective leadership. The above objectives will remain pious and perhaps lofty ideals unless sufficient preparations and precautions are not undertaken at various stages. The prerequisites for achieving the above objectives are: 1. Recruitment of right persons with requisite skills, knowledge and competence. 2. Every employee should be informed of the objectives of the organisation and their individual goals and be explained how achievement of their individual goals contribute to the achievement of organisational goals and objectives. 3. Maintenance of sound human and industrial relations. 4. Formulation and circulation of sound organisational policies defining authority, responsibility and accountability in unambiguous terms. Evolution and Development of Human Resources Management Human Resources Management involves all management decisions and practices that directly affect or influence people or human resources, who work for the organisation. In recent years, increased attention has been devoted to how organisations manage human resources. This increased attention comes from the realisation that an organisation's employees enable an organisation to achieve its goals, and the management of these human resources is critical to the success of the organisation. The term "world class" or ranking among the foremost in the world, is used frequently as the aspirations of organisations. In the context of HRM, world class is indicated by an HR group with a shared vision as to its constituents and how best to serve them. Excellence in HRM is characterised by a service orientation and a willingness to be in partnership with constituents. Specific earmarks of world class HRM include:

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having an HR vision oriented to strategic needs of the organisation. having a philosophy and values consistent with those of the organisations. being seen as a business unit within the firm and operating the same way as other units - having customers and quality management etc. being organised in a way that brings maximum service to the customer and maximum motivation to the HR staff. having the best HR products available for the customers. championing HR programmes that fulfil the agenda of HR group and the customer. having an HR vision that is actively shared by the entire group. being a proactive and not a reactive group. being involved in key business issue discussions. being seen as successfully treating a great place to work.

The number of activities involved in HRM is potentially large, depending on the size of the organisation and its needs. The utilisation of people, in a rudimentary form, can be traced to ancient times. Efforts to use talents, even though informal in nature, were undertaken whenever people came together in a community. The change has been that during the course of the past century efforts to best manage humus resources have become more formal and specialised.

The history of HRM can be characterised as moving through our broad phases: the craft system scientific management the human relations approach the current organisational science - human-resource approach.

The Craft System: From the earliest times in Egypt and Babylon, training in craft skills was organised to maintain an adequate supply of craft workers. By 13"' century craft training became popular in Western Europe. Craft guilds supervised quality and methods of production and regulated conditions of employment for each occupation. The craft guilds were controlled by master crafts worker, and the recruit entered after a period of training as an apprentice. The crafts system was best suited to domestic industry, the master operated in his own premises with his assistants residing and working in the same house. Scientific Management: The Industrial Revolution and mass production emerged in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and led to the deterioration of the craft guilds. The development of mass production transformed the organisation of work in two important ways. First, tasks were subdivided in to very simple parts which could he performed by unskilled workers. Second, manufacturing grew to such an extent that a large hierarchy of supervisors and managers became necessary. Along with mass production came the assembly line and a scientific approach to an analysis of work in terms of its constituent parts. The basis of scientific management is that there is one best way to do a job. The best way will be the most efficient and therefore the fastest and least expensive. The founder of this new field of scientific management was an American mechanical engineer, Frederick W. Taylor (1856 - 1915). Two of Taylor's contemporaries, Frank

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Gilbreth (1868 - 1924) and his wife Lillian Moeller Gilbreth (1878 - 1972), joined in becoming the proponents of scientific management or industrial engineering. 1

_ Edwin A. Locke, The Ideas of Frederick W. Taylor: An Evaluation. Academy of Management Review, January 1982, pp.14 - 24. In the decade after 1910, the principles of scientific management were applied on a wholesale basis in the United States. Taylor and his disciples assumed that workers wanted to be used efficiently and were motivated by money. This philosophy proved to be incorrect because it ignored the feelings and actual motivations. Workers were left dissatisfied with their work. Union opposition grew as union leaders condemned Taylorism for depriving workers of a voice in the conditions and functions of their work. One result was the emergence of welfare secretaries as organisational employees to oversee programmes for the welfare of employees. This programme included recreational facilities, employee assistance programmes and medical programmes. The welfare secretary position was the beginning of the professional personnel (now human resource) function. Human Relations: The first important discovery in the social context of mass production resulted from the famous experiments undertaken by U.S. social scientists Elton Mayo (1840 - 1949) and Fritz Roethlisberger (1898 - 1974) between 1924 and 1932 at Western Electric's Hawthorne plant in Chicago. Mayo and his colleagues sought to study the effects that changes in illumination would have on productivity. The investigators chose two groups of employees working under similar conditions. The level of illumination was varied for the test group but kept constant for the control group. To Mayo's surprise, the output of both groups rose. Even when the researchers told the workers in one group that the light was going to be changed but then did not change it, the workers expressed satisfaction and productivity continued to increase. Mayo saw that the significant variable was not physical but psychological. The reason for the increase in productivity was the workers' attitude towards their jobs and Western Electric. Because their co-operation had been requested, the workers now felt themselves part of an important group whose help and advice were being sought by the company.2 The discovery of the Hawthorne effect led to further research on the social factors associated with work. Results of these studies led to the human relations movement with its emphasis on the fact that employees need to be understood in order to be satisfied and productive. However, the idea that good human relations in and of
2

- Fritz J. Roethlisberger and William J. Dickenson, Management and the Worker (Cambridge, Mass.) : Havard University Press, 1939. themselves will increase productively failed to be consistently supported, and many of the movement's idea were abandoned. Organisational Science: Following the realisation of the limitations of the human relations approach, academic researchers from various disciplines, such as psychology, political science, economics and sociology, began studying organisations. The organisational science approach focuses more on the total organisation and less on the individual. HRM, as we currently

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know, grew out of organisational science trend and combined learning from the previous movements with current research in the behavioural science.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1. Describe, in brief, the nature and scope for personnel function in an organisation. What are the indicators of its working in an organisation? 2. Differentiate the functions of personnel management and human resources management. 3. Identify and discuss, in detail, the managerial and operative functions of personnel management. 4. Personnel management is a basic management pertaining to all levels and types of management. Discuss. 5. The objective of personnel management in an organisation is to obtain maximum individual development, desirable working relationship between employers and employees and effective utilisation of human resources. Elucidate. 6. Visit a (1) a manufacturing organisation (2) a service organisation- like a bank or a hospital (3) a small scale enterprise 7. Examine how personnel activities are carried out. Suggest at least three areas where the personnel activities can be improved.

Module 2. Integrated Strategic Planning & Human Resource Planning: An organisation would not build a new plant, inaugurate it and then begin to worry about how to staff the facility. A firm cannot hire several hundred engineers and get them join the organisation overnight. Nor can management talent can be developed in just a few weeks. Foresight is necessary to ensure that appropriate number of people will be available for an organisation's future plans. Also in a declining economy, planning ahead is critical to prevent over staffing and the subsequent layoffs and retrenchments. Human Resource Planning is concerned with the flow of people into, through and out of an organisation. HR planning involves forecasting the need for labour and the supply of labour, then planning the programmes necessary to ensure that the organisation will have the right mix of employees and skills when and where they are needed. Strategic Human Resource Planning: The above description of HR planning takes the organisational plans and goals as given, and then commences the planning processes needed for carrying out those plans. In most organisations, HR planning (if it is undertaken at all) follows this traditional approach and still is called manpower planning. However, more recent concepts of strategic human resource planning emphasise a proactive role for HR function in formulating strategic organisational plans, as well as providing integrated programmes to ensure effective implementation of those plans. 3 Many organisations that take on some human resource forecasting do not have a system for strategic human resource planning. There is some evidence that a firm's environment may affect the degree to which HR planning activities are integrated with strategic planning. Organisations that exists in unstable environments, face stiff competition, and have experienced staffing difficulties are more likely to involve HR planners in corporate strategic planning process. Involvement also seems to be greater when the top HR person reports directly to the CEO, has past line experience to provide credibility and a broad view of the business, and is backed up by an excellent human resource information system (HRIS) that produces the type of information needed in the strategic planning process. 4
3

- Randall S. Schuler and James W. Walker, "Human Resources Strategy: Focusing on Issues and Actions." 4 - David Ulrick, Strategic and Human Resource planning: Linking Customers and Employees," Human Resource Planning, 1992, Vol. 15, No. 2, pp. 47-62.

Integration: Strategic integration of HR requires: 1. that a strategic planning process occurs in the organisation. 2. that HR managers play an important role in that process. The strategic planning process should establish, with significant HR input, an identifiable strategic direction for the organisation, along with appropriate goals and objectives. In addition, this planning process should identify a set of organisational cultural principles and values that enhance and contribute to the achievement of strategic goals and objectives. Integration does not mean that HR managers are allowed to provide HR-related information to those making strategic decisions. To achieve full integration, HR managers must have both process control - that is the ability to influence the development and selection of information used in making a decision - as well as decision control, which is the ability to make or strongly influence the decision itself. 5 When AT&T Global Business Communications Systems (GBCS) began its transformation from traditional to strategic HR, this process was part of an overall realignment of the organisation's business strategy. 6 A period of declining sales and low employee morale had required a major rethinking of the organisation's direction. In 1991, Jerre Stead became president and went about developing a new set of strategic business principles for the organisation. The principles that resulted from this process were: Make people a key priority. Win customers for life. Use total quality management approach to run the business. Profitably grow by being the leader in customer-led applications of technology. Rapidly and profitably globalise the business. Be the best value supplier. These principles provided overall directions for the business and focused the nature of daily operations. Once these general strategic principles had been established, the development of a more strategic and integrated HR function became possible. The process of integrating HR in to the strategic decision making process can occur through a variety of actions.
5

- J. Thibault and L. Walker, Procedural Justice: A psychological Analysis and "A Theory of Procedure," California Law review, Vol. 66, 1978, pp 541 - 566. 6 - Information about AT&T's Global Business Communications Systems obtained from an article by Pelvel, et al., "AT&T Global Business Communications."

For example, Australian Global Insurance (AGI) began the process of HR integration by changing hierarchical position of some of the senior HR manager so that it was equivalent to that of a Chief General Manager. This automatically made the top HR person a member of the senior executive committee of AGI. Once in this committee, the top HR person was in a position to make sure that HR issues were incorporated in to the strategic decision- making process. 7 Human Resource Planning at different levels: Different organisations make Human Resources Planning at different levels to suit their own purposes, of which, national, industry, unit departmental, job and aggregate level are important. a. National level: Usually Government plans for human resources requirement at the national level i.e. it forecasts the requirement and supply of human resources for the entire nation. b. Industry level: Man power requirements of a particular industry like steel, textiles, cement are forecast taking in to account the output / operational level of that particular industry. c. Unit level: This will cover the estimated requirement of human resource of an organisation or a firm based on its corporate business plans. d. Departmental level: This will address itself to the requirement of a particular department in a firm. e. Job level or aggregate level: In designing a human resources planning system, there are several choices regarding whom to plan for. One choice is to plan for the aggregate level, for jobs or job families. This type of planning is typically used for jobs with multiple incumbents and for jobs at or below the middle management level. An organisation may forecast that 35 electrical engineers will be needed at Mumbai development laboratory or that a total of 540 unskilled assemblers will be needed in the whole organisation. The focus on the number of persons needed for a particular job, not on specific individuals who will fill the vacancies. Many large organisations plan for each job, but this may not always be necessary. The alternative is to plan for only those jobs that logic or experiences indicate are problematic. For instance, a large manufacturer may need to plan carefully for scientists and engineers if there is a chronic shortage of these professionals. But the manufacturer may find that it does not need to engage in longrange planning for messengers or assembly personnel if they can be hired and trained quickly when demand increases.
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- Peter Howes and Pat Fley, "Strategic Human Resource Management: An Australian Case study," Human Resource Planning, 1993 Vol. 16, No.3, p. 64. In addition to aggregate planning - or instead of it - many organisations plan at the individual level. For important jobs, particularly upper - management positions, these organisations identify specific employees who are likely successors when a position becomes vacant due to promotion or retirement. A succession plan for a top managerial position might identify one to three possible replacements and specify the additional training each needs to become fully qualified for that position at sonic point in the future. Process, Control and Review mechanism of Human Resource Planning Process of Human Resource Planning: The process of Human Planning essentially consists of the following steps: Analysing Organisational plans. Demand Forecasting. Supply Forecasting. Estimating the net human resource requirements.

If the net is surplus, plan for redeployment, retrenchment and lay-off. If the net is deficit. Estimating the future supply of human resources from various sources. Planning for recruitment, development and internal mobility if future supply is more than or equal to net human resource requirement. Planning for modification or alteration of the organisational plan if future supply will be inadequate to meet the future net requirements.

The above steps are depicted in figure below. The same order may not necessarily be followed in the actual planning processes the steps are interdependent many times. In some cases any two steps may also be processed simultaneously. In some other cases some steps may not be needed. Human Resources Planning Model Analysing Organisational Plans Objectives Plans and Programmes Adjust or Modify the Organisational Control and Review Mechanisms Net Human Resources Forecast the

Present Programmes

Demand Forecast Resource Requirements future Skillwise, Knowledge wise etc. Human

Supply Forecast Present Inventory

of Human Resources(+) Requirements supply of Additions (-) Losses for future skill Skillwise Knowledge, Values etc.. Resources in all sources if supply is inadequate

Surplus of Future Available Human Resources within the Organisation

Shortage of Future Available Human Resources within the Organisation

Redeployment Retrenchment / Redundancy

Employment Training

Deployment Internal Mobility

[P.V. Subba Rao: Essentials of Human Resources Management & Industrial Relations.]

The process has gained importance in India with the increase in the size of business enterprises, complex production technology and the adoption of professional management techniques. It may be rightly regarded as a multi-step process, including various issues such as: Deciding goals or objectives. Estimating future organisational structure and manpower requirements. Auditing human resources Planning job requirements and job descriptions and Developing human resource plan. Objectives of Human Resources Planning: Human resources planning fulfils individual, organisational and national goals, but the ultimate mission or purpose is to relate future human resources to future enterprise needs so as to maximise the future return on investment in human resources. In effect, the main purpose is one of matching or fitting employee abilities to enterprise requirements For example, the short term objective may be to hire 25 persons from Scheduled Tribes or Backward Class for purposes of training. The long range objective may be to start a new industry, to expand the market, to produce a new product, to develop its own sales force rather than depend on distributors, or to have minority group members eventually in position of middle and upper management cadres. Estimating the Future Organisational Structure of Forecasting the Manpower Requirements: The management must estimate the structure of the organisation at a given point of time. For this estimate, the number and type of employees needed have to be determined. Many environmental factors affect this determination. They include business forecasts, expansion and growth, design and structural changes, management philosophy, govt .policy, product and human skills mix, and competition. Forecasting provides the basic premises on which the manpower planning is built. Forecasting is necessary for various reasons, such as: a. The eventualities and contingencies of general economic business cycles (such as inflation, wages, prices, costs, and raw material supplies) have an influence on the short-range and long-run plans of all organisations. b. An expansion following enlargement and growth in business involves the use of additional machinery and personnel and a reallocation of facilities, all of which call for advance planning of human resources. c. Changes in management philosophies and leadership styles. d. The use of mechanical technology (such as the introduction of automatic controls, or mechanisation of materials handling functions) necessitates changes in skills of workers as well as a change in the number of employees needed. e. Very often, changes in the quantity or quality of products or services require a change in the Organisation structure. Plans have to be made for this as well. After estimating what the future organisation structure should be, the next step is to draw up the requirements of human resources, both for the existing departments and for new vacancies. For this purpose, a forecast of labour force is needed, and requisitions should be obtained from different departments i.e. forecast has to be made in returns of functional category. The members needed, and the levels at which they are required.

Vacancies, occurring in any department, should be notified in writing by different department heads to the personnel dept., stating clearly the number of vacancies to be filled, job or category-wise types of personnel needed, their technical qualifications and experience, and the reasons for requisition (i.e. whether for replacement or addition), a statement of duties, types of jobs, pay scales, age, and previous experience required should also be made.) Requisitions should be based on accurate job specifications by first line supervisors. They should as far as possible be clear-cut about the exact demands of a job. In determining the requirements of human resources, the expected losses which are likely to occur through labour turnover quits, retirements, death, transfers, promotions, demotions, dismissals, disability, resignations, lay-off, and other separations -- should be taken into account. Changes in the human quality resulting from experience gained in the jobs during the period and the training achieved also need to be considered. The addition of new lines of production and new projects also influence the demand estimates of human resources. The basic fact to remember is that the human resources in an organisation constantly changes in terms of its present and future size. Additional human resources are gained through new employment of personnel promotions, through transfers and demotions: but personnel is lost through voluntary quits, death, dismissals, termination and retirements. After making adjustments for wastage, anticipated and exposed losses and separations, the real shortage or surplus may be found out. Demand Forecasting: Demand forecasting refers to the process estimating the future need of human resources in the context of corporate and functional plans and forecasts of future activity levels of the organisation. Demand for human resources in an organisation should be based on the annual budget and corporate plan, translated in to activity levels of each function and department. In a manufacturing concern, the starting point is the sales forecast and targets. Based on these production plans are prepared, specifying the numbers and types of products to be made over a specified period. Then the number of people, skill levels, etc. to accomplish the sales and production targets are estimated. The human resource requirements for a given level of operations vary in the same organisation over different points of time or among organisations depending upon the production technologies, processes, make or buy decisions, etc. The plans refer to expected changes in production or manpower levels arising from changes in working methods or procedures, automation or mechanisation. These can be mentioned as a crude percentage increase in productivity which could be used to adjust the required man hours for a given level of output. Job Analysis and work study provide the major inputs for demand forecasting. Job Analysis: Before carrying out the human resource planning exercise, management should decide what is to be performed and how. The several tasks that are required to be carried out will have to be divided and allocated into manageable work units called jobs. Assigning tasks to jobs is commonly known as job design. The human resource requirements for a given volume of operations in an organisation depend upon the content of the jobs and the behaviour pattern and operation of control systems in an organisation. Where multi-skilling is introduced, as in fabrication, idle time in each of the operations is eliminated so that with less number of people more output could be obtained. Work Study:

Work study techniques are appropriate for those jobs where it is possible to measure work, set standard norms and calculate the number of persons required for various jobs with reference to these norms and planned output.

A simplified example is given below: Planned output for the year 10,000 units Standard hours per unit 3 hours Planned hours required 30,000 hours Productive hours per person per year 1,500 hours (Allowing for absenteeism, idle time, etc.) Number of workers required 20 workers If the span of control is 10, two supervisors will be required to supervise the work of 20 workers. Since work study techniques are more appropriate for direct production workers than for any other category of employees, usually these are used in conjunction with other techniques. There are three methods for demand forecasting: a. Managerial judgement b. Simple statistical models c. Mathematical models d. Probabilistic models e. Regression models f. Optimisation models a. Managerial Judgement: Under this method, experienced managers prepare guidelines for departmental managers. Such guidelines which have the approval of top management, indicate broad assumptions about future activity levels which will affect their departments. Targets are set and desirable changes in flow of work and job design are also indicated where considered necessary. Taking a cue from these, the departmental managers prepare forecasts with the help from personnel, O&M, or work study specialists. Meanwhile, the personnel department may also, in conjunction with other departments in the organisation, prepare a forecast of the company-wide demand for human resources. Later the two sets could be reconciled and reviewed by a committee consisting of functional heads to arrive at a final forecast. The subjective element of this method is its weakness as also its strength. The weakness can be overcome to a certain extent by checking subjective assumptions with data from O & M, work study exercises, etc. The value of the information about intangible factors like informal group norms and their effects on estimates and output cannot be measures so well by employing any other method. b. Simple Statistical Models: The most common method is the ratio trend analysis. In its simplest form, it refers to the ratios between say, the number of direct and indirect workers or the number of workers and supervisors and so on. Future ratios are forecast based on time series extrapolation, after making some allowances for the changes that are likely to occur in future. Then the number of employees required for different groups / skill levels etc. are calculated. For use of mathematical models for Human Resources Planning, time series statistical data is necessary. Besides, it becomes necessary to identify and describe a number of variables affecting human resource requirements in a mathematical

formula. These variables could be investment, sales, etc. The process is complex and suitable only to large organisations. c. Mathematical Models: A model is a standard or a representation, generally in miniature, to show the structure or serve as a copy etc. Models may be descriptive, representing past or present patterns or they may be normative, representing possible future patterns. Descriptive models help understanding complex data on personnel flow / movements. This is attempted through mathematical techniques that present a simplified and abstract view of complex and often contradictory empirical data on personnel flows, surpluses and shortages relative to needs. Future needs may be forecast through application of past patterns in projections by use of probabilities and correlation as also by making appropriate assumptions. The normative models of proper or adequate staffing are usually influenced by such subjective elements as experience, assumptions and philosophy guiding managerial decision making. Models are used mainly to generate a series of alternative scenarios so that managers may select the forecast they consider most apt for their needs. Based on certain assumptions covering possible changes in the future, models may be developed to show how an organisation looks like in terms of its staffing pattern. The modelling techniques which seek to project organisation change include succession analysis, probabilistic analysis (referred to also as Markov analysis of personnel flows based on probability theory) and regression analysis. Simulations analysis is another variant of modelling change in organisation where alternative patterns are generated by modifying the assumptions and variables. d. Probabilistic Models: In succession planning the unit of analysis is the data concerning the individual. In probabilistic model the unit of analysis is data concerning groups of employees, classified according to organisational units, job categories, locations, levels, grades etc. Here the probability of employees moving from one classification to another or out of the organisation is considered. A matrix or table of personnel flows is determined at specified intervals of future time. While personnel policies, practices and past trends concerning promotions, transfers, separations, etc. provide a useful basis in the forecast exercise, the projections are influenced more by the assumptions that managers make. The most popular technique in this category is called the Markov analysis. Here simple arithmetical calculations are made to indicate possible movements from job category A to B to C and so on from one point of time to another. Such calculations are repeated for all jobs / categories / levels for successive periods. The sequences of transitions shown in the matrix are called Markov Chains. The process involves certain mathematical properties such as the strict independence of the job categories, constant transition probabilities and a number of forecasting cycles. Considering the uncertainties in ever-changing business context and the inevitable influence of subjective elements in the decision making processes, the forecasts are to be treated as merely probabilistic. Computerised simulation models based on stochastic processes have also been developed. Among them, the Minnesota Manpower Management Simulation model which seeks to represent the role of important personnel decisions, the consequences of personnel performance measures and accomplishment of corporate goals merit special mention. The implications of normal attrition and personnel policies concerning internal promotions, transfers, career development etc. would also be gauged by building these variables in to the models. 8 e. Regression Models: Regression analysis is used to measure the relationship between one or more independent variables to explain a dependent variable. In HRP regression analysis can

be used to correlate personnel requirements with output, revenue, etc. as in trend-ratio and time series analyses, the analysis is based more on historical patterns. The real value of regression analysis in HRP is in generating alternatives scenarios in personnel needs. It is important to bear in mind hat the relationships are not always linear and the purpose of the analysis is not to present the management with precise quantitative forecasts. f. Optimisation Models: Some models seek to present optimal or the best or minimal costs, minimal Mathematical techniques such as linear, non linear and dynamic programming are among the optimisation modes used in HRP also. Goal programming which is refinement of linear programme, can also be used in HRP if the purpose is to examine the discrepancies between forecasted results and identified targets and suggest optimum goals that are attainable in given circumstances and time perspective.
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- Walker J. W. 1980, Human Resources Planning, McGraw-Hill, New York, pp 99 122. Supply Forecasting: Every organisation will have two major sources of supply of human resources: internal and external. In unionised firms, agreements up to certain level jobs may determine the ratio of internal and external sources of supply. Also as shown below, manpower flows in and out of an organisation due to a variety of reasons. Policies affecting each of these aspects need to be reviewed regularly to assess their possible effects on human resource planning.

MANPOWER FLOWS IN AN ORGANISATION Promotions Out

Transfers in

Recruits in

Transfers Out Retirement Voluntary Retirement Discharge / Dismissal Terminations Resignations Redundancy / Retrenchment

Promotions in

Internal Sources: Proper HRP and information systems enable the organisation to know the profile of the employee in terms of age, sex, education, training, experience, job level, performance and potential. Manpower requirements arise out of organisational growth or diversification or because of movement of the employees on account of transfer, promotion, job rotation, voluntary retirement, resignation, retirement, dismissal, discharge or death. In either case, as and when the vacancies arise, organisations can match the skill and level requirements with the profile of the employees and meet the

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requirements. While some of the internal changes and external supply could be predicted (such as growth opportunities, transfer and promotions, retirements etc.), others are not so easy to predict. But past experience and historical data may be of some help. The companies which have systematised personnel records and information systems and which have well-established career and succession plans find it easier to project internal sources of supply relatively accurately. External Sources: When the company grows rapidly, diversifies into newer areas of operations or when it is not able to find the people internally to fill the vacancies, it has to resort to outside recruitment. To the extent a firm is able to anticipate its outside recruitment needs and scans the possible sources of supply with a feel of the labour market, its problems in recruiting the right number with appropriate skills at the required time would become easier. Determining Human Resource Requirement: Human resource requirements are determined by relating the supply to the demand forecasts and identifying deficits or surpluses of human resources that will exist in future. The table (next page) shows how demand and supply forecasts can be scheduled over a period of five years. The reconciliation of demand and supply forecasts gives us the number of people to be recruited or made redundant as the case may be. This forms the basis of the action programmes in HRP. Action Planning: The human resource requirements identified along the procedure mentioned above has to be considered within a strategic framework. Organisations operate in a changing environment, so manpower structures also do not remain static. Review of activities and roles of persons at different levels and O & M studies will provide opportunity to review and modify assumptions made. DETERMINING HUMAN RESOURCES REQUIREMENTS Y E A R S 1 2 3 4 D E M A N D 1. Numbers required at the beginning of the year 2. Changes to requirements forecast during the year 3. Total requirements at the end of year (1 + 2) 4. Numbers available at the Beginning of year 5. Accession from transfers and promotions in 6. Separations through: a) retirements b) wastage c) separations and promotions out d) total losses 7. Total available at the end of year (4+5+6) 8. Deficit OR Surplus: (3 - 7) 9. Losses of those recruited during the year

S U P P L Y

R E Q

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U I 10. Additional numbers required R during the year E (8 + 9) MENTS. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Once the human resources requirements are studied and analysed vis--vis strategic options, an action plan can be drawn up. a. Recruitment Plan: Number and kind of people required and when they are required Identify any problem in recruiting the right people and how to solve them The recruitment schedules b. The Redeployment Plan: for transferring or retraining existing employees for new jobs c. The Redundancy Plan: who is redundant, where and when? the plans for retraining, if possible and programmes for voluntary separation, retrenchment, lay-off, etc. d. The Training Plan : the number of employees required and the programme for recruiting them or training them number of exiting staff who need training or retraining and the training programme e. The Productivity Plan : work simplification through O & M studies mechanisation and automation productivity bargaining ( with union ) incentives job redesign training and refresher training f. The Retention Plan: To reduce wastage by review of reasons for employee turnover. Information can be obtained through exit interviews and necessary changes initiated in: Compensation policies Induction and training Changes in work requirement Improvement in working conditions In the above areas it is essential to undertake cost benefit analysis. Control and Review Mechanism: While assessing future requirements, the estimates also depend upon the human resource policy in the organisation. Corporate strategy can influence manpower strategy and vice versa. We therefore consider three approaches. a. Zero Budgeting: is an approach in which one forces unit / division managers to justify their total operation from zero. The objective is to encourage managers to seriously think about their current activities. However, with the restrictions by law and pressures from the unions, this approach may not be practical, especially for established organisations. b. Ideal Approach: new units can think of Ideal approach. Any decision on subcontracting, off-loading functions like maintenance, production technology, etc. may depend on what is considered ideal for the organisation. But a note of caution, what might be considered ideal by the management (from the short term point of view) may attract ethical considerations.

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c. Realistic Approach: A firm operating a three year planning cycle may plan manpower in sub-units or divisions in such a way that it is easy to monitor and hold managers responsible. Organisations which plan to supplement human resource plans with other business parameters and manpower ratios ( turnover per employee, capital employed per employee etc.) should note that they might have to make adjustments in the future for variations. JOB ANALYSIS:

It was after the Industrial Revolution around 1900 that approaches to scientific analysis of jobs were developed by Frederick W. Taylor and Gilbert, which have been widely used since then. Job analysis involves formal study of jobs. It provides information regarding the requirements of a job in terms of time for completion, necessary activities and the expected performance standards on the one hand and also the specific technical and behavioural knowledge, skill and attitudes needed in a person to meet those job requirements. Uses of Job Analysis: Job analysis through clearly defined and written down job description and job specification, provides the basic information for all personnel functions. USES OF JOB ANALYSIS Organisation structure Manpower planning Responsibility Authority Accountability Labour relation Deviation from agreed job standards Future job requirement Skill requirement JOB ANALYSIS Job description Factual Statt of tasks, duties & responsibiliti es of a job. Job specification Statement of human attributes. Abilities required to perform job.

Recruitment / Selection, Placement Matching job requirement & skill Orientation What is expected?

Counselling Vocational guidance Rehabilitation Counselling Engineering design & methods of improvement Job design and matching of social and psychological requirements of employees technical system

Performance Appraisal Performance Standards Performance review Career path planning Future prospects for movement along career paths

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requirements Job evaluation and rating classification of jobs Guiding decisions on salary structures Training and development updating of skills changing job requirements

[Courtesy: Mr .S. V. Venkataratnam, Personnel Management] It provides a fuller understanding of the jobs and personal attributes needed and thus helps in taking job-related decisions. Hence it is needed to be carried out periodically. In Organisation Structure and Design job analysis helps in classifying job requirements and interrelationships among jobs. Decisions on hierarchical positions and functional integration as also integration is possible on the basis of information made available through job analysis. In Manpower Planning , it helps by providing useful information for forecasting and in planning for transfers and promotions. In Recruitment, it provides information regarding the job in question. In Selection process, useful information regarding what the prospective candidate is expected to do on the job is available. In Placement, it helps to make correct decision regarding placing the right man at the right job. In Orientation, a clear idea of what is required on a job function is provided by Job Analysis. In Performance Appraisal, it helps in the understanding of critical parts of a job and hence a critical evaluation is made possible. In Career Path Planning , job analysis provides a clear idea of the various opportunities in terms of career path. In Training & Development, Job Analysis provides useful information for identifying training needs, design and evaluation of the effectiveness of training programmes. In Job Evaluation, Job Analysis is essential for ranking jobs in respect of their relative worth. Job Design - Information about employee requirements and individual capabilities obtained from Job Analysis form the basic data on which decisions about job design / redesign can be taken. Steps in Job Analysis Process: 1. Organisation Analysis: One must obtain an overall view of the various jobs in the firm with a view to examining the interrelationships between jobs and the organisational objectives and the contribution of various jobs to the organisations

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effectiveness and efficiency. The organisation chart is an important source for this data. 2. Decision regarding the usage of Job Analysis information: Depending on organisation, it is desirable to decide before hand, the possible uses the organisation would like to make on the information that might be made available from Job Analysis information. 3. Selection of Jobs for Analysis: It is desirable to select a representative sample of jobs for Job Analysis, to save cost and time. 4. Collection of Data: Data is to be collected on the characteristics of the job, the personal attributes and behaviour to do the job effectively. Care also should be taken to employ only reliable and acceptable - to the specific organisational environment - techniques from among the various techniques available. 5. Preparation of Job Description: The data collected is used in preparing a job description for the job highlighting major tasks, duties and responsibilities. 6. Preparation of Job Specification: Also, the data collected is used to prepare job specification for a job, highlighting the personal requirements like education, training, aptitude, experience, attitude etc. Job Analysis: Methods of Collecting Data: There are many sources and methods for collection of data. The organisation chart provides a basic understanding of the relationship between departments and units, between line and staff functions, channels of communication and information flow. The chart will give out the formal arrangements in the organisation, but not about the informal arrangements that do develop when people work together. Another source of information is the process chart or work flow chart specifying the interconnections of various jobs in specific terms, as it spells out the flow of activities pertaining to a job from the input to the output stage. These and other sources need to be consulted before beginning the use of other job analysis methods. A questionnaire, called the Job Analysis Information Format (JAIF) 9 can also be used. The JAIF can provide basic information for use of any job analysis method. Job incumbents are asked to complete the JAIF and on the information obtained, decision regarding the use of various methods of data collection and further investigation can be taken. The JAIF has 17 items covering purposes of the job, supervisory duties, work output, duties, educational qualifications, experience, skill, equipment, physical and emotional demands, environmental conditions, health and safety requirements of the job. The commonly used methods of data collection are discussed below: Job Performance: This involves the analyst actually doing the job under consideration to get first hand information about actual tasks, physical, environmental, and social demands of the job. This method can be employed where skill requirements are not high and therefore jobs can be learned quickly and easily. This method is not useful for jobs requiring extensive training. Observation: The analyst observes, without getting directly involved in the job, the worker or a group of workers during their actual performance in job. Observations are made on

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tasks, activities, the way the different activities are performed. This method is useful for jobs that involve manual, standardised and observation is difficult. The workers are interviewed to collect data on various requirements of the job. It is advisable to use a standard questionnaire. Data thus collected from a number of workers can be analysed to find out the common and important aspects of the job. [ Interview: This is a widely used method particularly with those jobs that cannot be observed or actual performance analysed by the analyst. The workers are therefore, interviewed to collect data on various requirements of the job. It is necessary to use a standard format. Standardised interview schedule with job related questions need to be prepared carefully.

- Henderson, R/L., 1979. Compensation Management, Reston: Virginia, pp 16 - 152.

One major problem with the interviewing is that incorrect information may be given. If the purpose of the interview is not explained to the worker, he may give wrong information to protect his interest. Also establishing rapport between the worker and the interviewer is critical. Critical Incidents: Another way to obtain data on job requirements is to differentiate between effective and ineffective behaviours of the workers in their jobs. The workers narrate, from their past, their experiences in particular job(s). The incidents are collected and analysed. The result of the analysis will indicate a clear picture of job requirements. However, the method is time consuming and requires special expertise on the part of the analyser to sieve the data collected. Questionnaire: Structured questionnaire are developed on the different aspects of the job and the behavioural patterns (co-ordinating, mental processes etc.). The questionnaires are administered to employees and they are asked to respond. The data obtained is analysed and a profile of job profile is constructed. Some of the standard questionnaires are the Comprehensive Occupational Data Analysis Programmes (CODAP), Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ) and Functional Job Analysis (FJA). The Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ)* is a behavioural oriented job analysis questionnaire. It has 194 attributes that may be broadly classified in to: 1. Information Input 2. Mental Process 3. Work output 4. Relationship with others 5. Job Context 6.Other job characteristics Each of items above is rated in terms of its importance to the job and analysed under a 5 point scale: DNA -- Does not apply 1. -- Very minor 2. -- Low 3. -- Average 4. -- High 5. -- Extreme For analysing managerial jobs also, the following two questionnaires are available.

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Management Position Description Questionnaire (MPDQ)

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It has 208 behavioural instruments for comparing, classifying and evaluating executive positions in terms of their job content. The latest version of the MPDQ is classified in to 10 parts: a. General information b. Decision making c. Planning and organising d. Supervising & controlling e. Consulting & innovating f. Contact g. Monitoring business indicators h. Overall ratings i. Know-how j. Organisation chart. Supervisory Task Description Questionnaire (STDQ)
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This questionnaire has 100 instruments for the front-line supervisors in seven categories: Working with subordinates Organising work of subordinates Work Planning schedule Maintaining efficient quality and production Maintaining safe and clean work areas Maintaining equipment and machinery Compiling records and reports Job Design: The purpose of carrying out job analysis is to develop appropriate design for improved efficiency and productivity. Job analysis provides details of the tasks and activities to be carried out on a particular job as also the human characteristics required of inter-relatedness of the activities, combining them in manageable work units, using input-output analysis and matching them with required human skills and motivation in such way as to maximise productivity and human satisfaction.

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- Rornow, W. W. and P. R. Pinto, 1976. The Development of a Managerial Job Taxonomy: A System for Describing, Classifying and Evaluating Executive Positions, Journal of Applied Psychology, vol. 61, pp. 410 - 418. 11 - Dowell B. E. and Wexley K. N., 1978. Development of a Work Behaviour Taxonomy for First Line Supervisors, Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 63, pp. 563 - 572. Classical Approach: It was in 1900s that Frederick W. Taylor developed the Principles of Scientific Management, which forms the basis for designing jobs in organisations. The emphasis of scientific management is on planning, standardisation and improving quality of human effort at the operative level so as to maximise output with minimum input. The principles on which job design is based can be explained as below: Task Fragmentation: To achieve technical efficiency, a task is to be broken down to smaller operations. Technology Optimisation:

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On the basis of scientific analysis of the job it is advisable to develop the best way to do the job. The best method can be changed without any change in efficiency. Standardisation of the Method: The standardisation is achieved through time and motion studies. Specialisation: Workers are to be selected to perform specific tasks leading to specialisation. Training: Selected workers be trained efficiently for the task. Training costs and time are reduced due to fragmentation of tasks in to simple operations requiring low skill-level. Individual Responsibility: Individual worker is made responsible for a single operation (fragmented task). Economic Incentive: After assigning responsibility of specialised and standardised operations, incentives as reward for performance is developed. The design of job based on the above principles has its impact on organisational efficiency, human motivation etc: 1. Narrow Specialisation: Workers will perform only one or two operations or duties. Full worker potential may not be exploited. 2. Routine Job Functions: The same operation is or duty is repeated again and again, resulting in boredom and dissatisfaction. 3. Reduction in Work Cycle: The intervals between repetitions of operations becomes less and less, leading to monotony and boredom. 4. Techno-Economic Criteria of Evaluation: As the design is based on technical efficiency alone and not on human satisfaction and well being. 5. The rational and task centred approach to job design will have serious impact as the social and personal needs of human beings in work are not taken in to account. Adam Smith notes The man whose whole life is spent in performing a few simple operations becomes as stupid and ignorant as it is possible for a human creature to become. 12 Jobs designed on classical principles to maximise efficiency and to minimise costs will result in very high hidden psychological costs, particularly with the present generation of workers with high awareness and a better education and high aspirations, leading to them becoming frustrated and alienated. This alienation and frustration will translate itself into, in job context, loss of interest, lack of attention, absenteeism, resistance to change and even sabotage. At the individual level, it might cause illness, depression, maladjustment in family and social life. Thus the psychological costs of monotonous, non-challenging jobs well exceed their economic benefits. Job Description: The data collected for job analysis provide the basis for preparing job description for each job. This functional description describes what the job entails. Although there is no standard format for a job description, it usually includes: 1. Job Title: --- a title of the job. 2. Job Summary: --- a brief statement of what the job entails. 3. Job Activities: --- a description of the tasks performed, resources

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used and the extent of supervision given or received. 4. Working Conditions and Physical Environment: --- heat, light, noise level, hazards are described. 5. Social Environment: --- Information on size of work group and interpersonal interactions required to perform on the job.

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-- Smith, Adam. An Inquiry in to the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1976) quoted in R. H. Campbell, et al. (Eds), 1976. Oxford University Press: London. Job Specification: The job specification details the attributes of a person in terms of education, training, experience, skills, abilities and aptitude required for performing a particular job, which have been enunciated in Job description. For every job description it is essential to have a job specification so that one can determine what kind of a person is required to perform a particular job. The attributes can be categorised as under: 1. Essential Attributes: abilities, skills, and knowledge. 2. Desirable Attributes: those one must possess. 3. Contra-indicators: attributes that will come in the way of successful performance. To specify minimum human requirements for a job is difficult and it will involve a high degree of subjectivity. Generally organisations enunciate high requirements for formal education and training, thereby highly qualified people end up doing routine jobs. Particularly, in India, highly qualified persons are recruited for jobs where their abilities, skills and knowledge are under-utilised, leading to job-dissatisfaction and frustration. Despite these problems, minimum acceptable human requirements require to be specified for various jobs and categories of jobs. The usual format for job specification is given below: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Position Title Education / Training Experience Knowledge Abilities Skills Aptitude Desirable attributes Contra-indicators, if any.

Recruitment, Selection, Placement and Induction: Recruitment: It refers to the process of bringing together prospective employers and employees. The purpose of recruitment is to prepare an inventory of people who meet the criteria in job specifications so that the organisation may choose those who are found most suitable for the vacant positions. Process of Recruitment:

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The process begins by specifying the human resource requirements, initiating activities and actions to identify the possible sources from where they can be met, communicating the information about the jobs, terms and conditions and the prospects hey offer and encourage people who meet the requirements to respond to the invitation by applying for the job(s). Then the selection process begins with the initial screening of applications and applicants. Job analysis would have already provided the job specifications i.e. qualities, qualifications, experience and abilities. Human Resource Planning provides the basis to arrive at the numbers, levels, and timing of recruitment. Sources of Recruitment: The requirement can be met from internal or external sources. Internal Sources: They include those who are employed in the organisation or those who were in the past employ (but quit voluntarily or due to retrenchment) and would return if the organisation likes to re-employ. The advantage in looking for internal resources is that they provide opportunities for better deployment and utilisation of existing human resources through planned placements and transfers. It will also motivate people through planned promotions and career development when vacancies exist in higher grades. The law provides preferences to retrenched employees when vacancies arise in future. External Sources: Organisations may look for people outside it. Entry level jobs are usually filled by new entrants from outside. Also in the following circumstances organisations may resort to outside sources: a. when suitably qualified people are not available. b. when the organisation feels it necessary to impart new blood for fresh ideas. c. when it is diversifying into new avenues and d. when it is merging with another organisation. Internal Method: This is filling up of vacancies from within through transfers and promotions. Transfer decisions are usually taken by the management and communicated to those concerned. In case of promotions, however, information about vacancies is communicated through internal advertisement or circulation and application are invited from eligible candidates who wish to be considered for the positions. Or the organisation may prepare seniority o seniority-cum-merit lists and consider the eligible candidates for internal promotions. Some organisations keep a central pool of persons from which vacancies can be filled for manual jobs. Any person who remains on such rolls for 240 days or more is treated, in the eyes of law, as a permanent employee, and is therefore, entitled to all benefits including Provident Fund, Gratuity and retrenchment compensation under section 25F of the Industrial Disputes Act. Though the system appears to be costly, it has its own benefits, viz. (a) continuous supply of labour is assured (b) work is not affected due to absenteeism (c) there is no problem of fresh induction and (d) it is possible to train people in multi-skills. Methods of Recruitment:

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The methods of recruitment might include one or more of the following: a. Direct b. Indirect c. Third-party. Direct Method: These include campus interviews and keeping a live register of job seekers. Usually used for jobs requiring technical or professional skills, organisations may visit IITs, IIMs and colleges and universities and recruit persons for various jobs. Usually under this method, information about jobs and profile of persons available for jobs is exchanged and preliminary screening done. The short-listed candidates are then subjected to the remainder of the selection process. Some organisations maintain live registers / records of job applicants and refer to them as and when the need arises. Usually in all such cases, preliminary screening is completed by examining the application form filled by the candidate and / or preliminary interviews. Indirect Method: These include advertisement in the print media, radio, T.V., trade, technical and professional magazines, etc. It is advisable to state in the advertisement the responsibilities and requirements along with definite hint about compensation, prospects etc. This method is appropriate where there is plentiful supply of talent which is geographically or otherwise spread out and when the purpose of the organisation is to reach out to a larger group. However, it is not always possible to get key professionals or those with rare skills through this method. Third-party Method: They include reference to Employment Exchange, which is a statutory requirement for the jobs / organisations to which the Employment Exchanges (Compulsory Notification) Act applies. Special Employment Exchanges have been set up in different places for displaced persons, ex-military personnel, physically handicapped, professionals etc. For highly skilled technical jobs University Employment Bureaux and the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research have also been set up. There are many problems in developing such services efficiently and organisations successfully contested such rulings by filing cases in courts when they were asked to select only from among those sponsored by the employment exchanges. Head Hunting services, consultancy firms, professional societies and temporary help agencies are among other sources of third-party recruitment. Traditionally, in India the following methods are used: Casual labour presenting itself at the factory gates on a day-to-day basis and offering themselves for employment Hiring through labour contractors, maistries etc. Spreading information about jobs through word of mouth including friends and relatives, present employees etc. In recent times, new form of sub-contracting, franchising, home-work and contractual norms of work are emerging. Some of the legal and political restraints limiting the sources of recruitment are mentioned briefly below:

21

1. Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation ) Act, 1986: This Act replaces the Employment of Children Act, 138, and seeks to prohibit the engagement of children below 14 years of age in certain employment and to regulate the conditions of work of children in certain other employment. Penalties for contravening the provisions are fine and imprisonment. 2. The Employment Exchanges (Compulsory Notification of Vacancies) Act, 1959: The Act requires all employers to notify vacancies (with certain exemptions) occurring in their establishments to the prescribed employment exchanges before they are filled. The Act covers al establishments in public sector and nonagricultural establishments employing 25 or more workers in the private sector. Employers are also required to furnish quarterly return in respect of their staff strength, vacancies and shortages and a biennial return showing occupational distribution of their employees. While notification of vacancies is compulsory, selection need not be confined only to those who are forwarded by the concerned Employment Exchanges. 3. The Apprentices Act, 1961: The Act seeks to provide for the regulation and control of training apprentices and for matters connected therewith. The Act provides for a machinery to lay down syllabi and prescribe period of training, reciprocal obligations for apprentices and employers etc. The responsibility for engagement of apprentices lies solely with the employer. An apprentice is not a workman. 4. The Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970: This Act seeks to regulate the employment of contract labour in certain establishments and to provide for the abolition in certain circumstances. The Act applies to every establishment / contractor employing 20 or more persons. 5. Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976: This Act seeks to provide for the abolition of bonded labour system with a view to preventing the economic and physical exploitation of the weaker sections of society. 6. The Inter-state Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979: This Act safeguards the interests of the workmen who are recruited by contractors from one state for service in an establishment situated in another state and to guard against the exploitation of such workmen by the contractors. 7. The Factories Act, 1948, the Mines Act, 1952, etc. : Certain legislation, like the Factories Act and the Mines Act prohibit employment of women (in night work, underground work etc.) and children (below 14 years of age) in certain types of jobs. 8. Reservations for Special Groups: In pursuance of the constitutional provisions, statutory reservations and relaxed norms have been provided in education and employment to candidates belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in central and state services including departmental undertakings, government corporations, local bodies and other quasi government organisations. Most state governments have issued policy directives extending the reservations to notified backward communities also. Over the years, the concept of reservations in education and employment has been extended to other categories as measures to tackle social problems or to pursue socio-political objectives. Such categories include: physically handicapped and disabled persons, women, ex-servicemen, sportspersons etc.

22

9. Sons -of -the-Soil: The question of preference to local population in the matter of employment has become more complex toady than ever before. The National Commission on Labour suggested that the solution to the problem has to be sought in terms of the primacy of common citizenship, geographic and economic feasibility of locating industrial units on the one hand and the local aspirants on the other. The Govt. of India has recognised the main elements of the arguments on behalf of the sons of the soil and laid down certain principles in the matter of recruitment to its public sector projects, whose implementation, however, is left to the undertakings themselves. 10.Displaced Persons: Whenever major projects are set up, large tracts of land are acquired for the purpose, displacing several hundred households in each case. Payment of compensation for land was at one time considered a sufficient discharge of obligation towards persons who are dispossessed of land. This alone did not solve the question of earning livelihood. Therefore, it is argued that young persons from families whose lands are acquired should be provided opportunity for training and for employment likely to be created in new units set up on these lands. The National Commission on Labour made certain recommendations.

a. Young persons from families whose lands are acquired for industrial use
should be provided training programmes for employment likely to be created in new units set up on these lands. b. To remove unjustified apprehension among local candidates, the following steps should be taken to supervise implementation of the Govt. of India directive on recruitment in public sector projects: i. While recruiting unskilled employees, first preference should be given to persons displaced from the areas acquired for the project; and the next preference given to those who have been living in the vicinity. ii. Selection of persons to posts in lower scales should not be left entirely to the head of the units. It should be through a recruitment committee with a nominee of the Govt. of the State within which the unit is located as a member of the committee. iii. In the case of middle-level technicians where the recruitment has to be on an all-India basis, a member of the State Govt. should officiate on the Board of the Directors. iv. Apart from the report sent to the concerned ministry at the Centre, the undertaking should send a statement to the State Govt. at regular intervals, preferably every quarter, about the latest employment and recruitment position. Although the Commission has suggested these steps for employment in the public sector, they feel that the above should apply equally to recruitment in the private sector, though the mechanism to regulate recruitment in private sector will necessarily differ from that in public sector. Selection: Selection is a process of measurement, decision making and evaluation. The goal of a selection system is to bring in to the organisation individuals who will perform well on the job. A good selection system must also be fair to the minorities and other protected categories. To have an accurate and fair selection system, an organisation must use reliable and valid measures of job applicant characteristics. In addition, a good selection system must include a means of combining information about applicant characteristics

23

in a rational way and producing correct hire and no-hire decisions. A good personnel selection system should add to the overall effectiveness of the organisation. 13 Organisations vary in the complexity of their selection system. Some merely skim applications blanks and conduct brief, informal interviews, whereas others take to resting, repeated interviewing, background checks and so on. Although the latter system is more costly per applicant, many benefits are realised from careful, thorough selection. An organisation needs to have members who are both skilled and motivated to perform their roles. Either such members can be identified by careful selection or attempts can be made to develop them after hire by extensive training. Thus cursory selection may greatly increase training and monitoring costs, whereas spending more on the selection process will reduce these post-hire expenses. 14 Selecting the right people is also critical to the successful strategy implementation. The organisations strategy may affect job duties and design, and the job should drive election. For instance, if a company plans to compete on the basis of prompt, polite, personalised service, then service and communication skills should be featured in the job specification of the job analysts, and selection devices that can identify these skills in front-line applicants should be chosen. This argument is based on the assumption that the organisations strategy is clear, well known, and fairly stable so that people who fit the strategy can be selected. Companies are beginning to realise that the foundation of their competitive strategy is the quality of their human capital. Having a top-notch, flexible, innovative staff may be a competitive advantage that is more sustainable than technical or marketing advantages. Such people will be able to generate and implement a wide range of new strategies in order to respond to quickly to a changing environment. This suggests hiring the best individual one can find, rather than hiring those who fit a specific job or strategy that exists today but may be gone tomorrow. Best in this new context means best in intelligence and best in interpersonal skills, as many jobs in rapidly changing organisations involve teamwork, negotiation, and relationship management.[Charles C. Snow and Scott A. Snell, Staffing as Strategy, in Personnel Selection in Organisations (San Fransisco: Jossey-Bass, 1993), pp. 448 - 478 ].

13

-- R. M. Gurion, Recruiting, Selection, and Job Placement, in Handbook of Industrial and Organisational Psychology, ed. M.D.Dunnette (Chicago: Rand McNally 1976), pp.778 828 14 A. Etzioni, A Comparative Analysis of Complex Organisationbs (New : Free Press,1975) Sociology and Social Research, vol. 53, 1968, pp. 68-77. The Process of Selection: Most organisations use more than one selection device to gather information about applicants. Often these devices are used sequentially, in a multiple-hurdle decision-making scheme (candidates must do well on an earlier selection device to remain in the running and to be assessed by later devices).

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Application Blank Screening Interview Tests More Interviews Reference Checks Conditional Offers Physical Examination Hire

Reject Some Candidates Reject Some Candidates Reject Some Candidates Reject Some Candidates Reject Some Candidates Reject Some Candidates

Often HR department takes the responsibility for the first few hurdles of assessing application blanks, conducting brief screening interviews, and administering ability tests. Then one or more managers / supervisors interview the survivors of these hurdles. Finally pending satisfactory reference checks, offers are made, medical examinations are completed and hiring is finalised. Application Blanks and BIODATA: Application blank and / or resume is the first selection hurdle for most jobs. Application blanks request information about education, history and skills, as well as names and addressees of the applicant and several references. Most of the information requested is factual and can be verified, such as degrees earned or dates of employment. Application blank or resume fraud is not uncommon. Some studies indicate that 20 to 50 percent of the candidates falsify or slightly inflate some of their credentials.15 Thus seeking confirmation of important credentials is a wise practice.
15

Recruiters Beware: Lying Is Common Among Applicants, H R Focus, October 1992, p.5, Irwin L. Goldstein, The Application Balnk: How Honest Are the Responses? Journal of Applied Psychology, October 1971, pp. 491-492. Thomas E. Becker and Alam L. Colquitt, Potential Versus Actual Faking of a Biodata Gform: An Analysis Along Several Dimensions of Item Type, Personnel Psychology, 1992, vol.45, pp.389-408. Most organisations use application blanks or resumes to screen out candidates who do not meet the minimum job specifications on education or experience. Beyond these basics, a manager or HR officer may informally evaluate the application to find the candidates who look most promising. The criteria applied in making this judgement may not be explicit, job-related or consistent from one screener to the next. A second way that organisation can use an application blank data is to apply a weighing scheme, in which only items known to relate to job success are scored and utilised in decision making. Weighted application blank (WAB) procedures have been shown to produce scores that predict performance, tenure and employee theft. Because the weights are valid and are applied consistently to all applicants, this method of using application blank data is more reliable than the informal evaluation. Using Biodata, Experience, and Accomplishment Records for Selection: Biodata is a term used to refer to any type of personal history, experience, or education information. Some organisations use a biographical -information questionnaire instead of or in addition to, the usual application blank. These biodata questionnaires may be much more detailed than application blanks, and may be scored

25

with keys based on very sophisticated statistical analyses. 16. Sample questions might include Do you repair mechanical things in your home, such as appliances? As a child, did you collect stamps? Or How many times did your family move while you were growing up? One such biodata question Did you ever build a model aeroplane that flew? -- was almost as powerful a predictor of success in flight training during World War II as the entire U.S. Air Force battery of selection tests. 17 Experience an Accomplishments Records: Rather than relying on informal methods of evaluating candidates training, jobexperience, and accomplishments, some organisations use content-valid- jobexperience questionnaires to screen candidates for technical and professional jobs. The usual procedure is to conduct a job analysis by the task inventory method, in order to identify the most the most important or time-consuming tasks. The results of this job analysis are turned in to questions about the past work experience with each task or with each type of equipment used. 16 - M.D.Mumford and Garnet S. Stokes, Developmental Determinants of Individual Action: Theory and Practice in Applying Background Measures. In Handbook of Industrial and Organisational Psychology, 2nd edn. Vol.3. 17 - James J. Asher, The Biographical Item: Can It BE Improved? Personnel Psychology, Summer 1972, pp. 251 - 269. Applicants answer each task question by selecting one of the following responses: I have never done this task I have done it under supervision I have done it on my own I have supervised and / or taught this task To discourage inflated self-ratings, the questionnaire may ask the applicants to list the names and addresses of people who can verify their experience with each task. In addition, some job-experience questionnaires contain a few plausible sounding but non-existent task statements (such as typing from audio-FORTRAN reports, operating matriculation machines). Applicants who claim to have performed these non-existent tasks may be exaggerating their experience with real tasks. 18 Tests: A test is a means of obtaining a standardised sample of behaviour. Tests are standardised in content, scoring, and administration. That is every time a test is given, its questions are identical or, in the case of tests with more than one form, equivalent. The scoring rules are constant. The administration is also the same all test takers get the same instructions, have the same length of time to work, and take the test under similar conditions of lighting, noise and temperature. Because the tests are standardised, they provide information about candidates that is comparable for all applicants. Intelligence Tests: These are tests to measure ones intellect or qualities of understanding. They are referred to as tests of mental ability. The traits of intelligence measured include: reasoning, verbal and non-verbal fluency, comprehension, numerical, memory and spatial relations ability. Binet-Simon, Stanford-Binet and Weshler-Bellevue are some of the intelligence tests. Such tests are used for admission to MBA programmes, recruitment in Banks and other applications. The major criticism against these tests are that they to discriminate against rural people and minorities. Also, since most of these tests are administered in English the results may be influenced by ones command over language rather than ones intelligence.

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18

- Cathy D. Anderson, Jack Werner, and Cassie C. Spenner Inflation Bias in Self Assessment Examinations : Implications for Valid Employee Selection, Journal of Applied Psychology, Nov.1984, pp.574-580. Aptitude Tests: Aptitude refers to ones natural propensity or talent or ability to acquire a particular skill. While intelligence is a general trait, aptitude refers to a more specific capacity or potential. It could relate to mechanical dexterity, clerical, linguistic, musical academic etc. Most aptitude tests are standardised that they are not specific to any particular job. But they are general enough to be used in different job situations. OTIS Employment Test, Wesman Personal Classification Test are examples of general aptitude tests. Certain types of aptitude tests called psychomotor tests measure hand and eye co-ordination and manipulative skills. The MacQuarrie Test for Mechanical Ability and the Oconnor Finger and Tweezer Dexterity Tests are examples of psychomotor tests. There are other types of aptitude tests to measure personal (how to decide for themselves appropriately in time) and interpersonal (social relations) competence. Achievement Tests: These are proficiency tests to measure ones skill or acquired knowledge. The paper and pencil tests seek to test a persons knowledge about a particular subject. But there is no guarantee that a person who knows most also performs the best. Work sample tests or performance tests using actual task and working conditions (than simulated ones) provide standardised measures of behaviour to assess the ability to know. Work sample tests are most appropriate for testing abilities in such skills as typing, stenography and technical trades. Work sample tests bear relationship between test content and job content and job performance. PIP Tests: PIP tests are those which measure ones personality, interests and preferences. These tests are designed to understand the relationship between any one of these and certain jobs. Tests of ones personality traits or characteristics are sometimes referred to as personality inventories. These tests help to measure characteristics such as maturity, sociability, objectivity etc. Unlike tests, inventories do not have right or wrong answers. Personality inventories help in selection decisions and are used for associating certain traits with sales persons and certain others with R&D personnel. Minnesota Multiphase Personality Inventory and California Psychological Inventory are examples of Personality Inventories. Interest tests are inventories of likes and dislikes of people towards occupations, hobbies etc. These tests help indicate which occupations are more in tune with a persons interests. Strong Vocational Blank and Kuder Preference Records are examples of interest tests. These tests do not help in predicting on the job performance Preference Tests try to match employee preferences with job and organisational characteristics. Hackman and Oldhams Job Diagnostic Survey is an example of a preference test. Projective Tests: These expect the candidates to interpret problems or situations. Response to stimuli will be based on the individuals values, beliefs and motives. Thematic Apperception Test and Rorschach Ink Blot Test are examples of projective tests. In thematic Apperception Test a photograph is shown to the candidate who is

27

then asked to interpret it. The test administrator will draw inferences about the candidates values, beliefs and motives from an analysis of such interpretation. The main criticisms against such tests are that they could be unscientific and reveal the personality of the test designer / administrator more than the applicant. Other Tests: A wide variety of other tests are also used. They are polygraph, graphology (handwriting analysis), non-verbal communication tests (gestures, body movement, eye contact etc.) and lie-detector tests. In conclusion one should remember: a. tests are to be used as a screening device. b. tests scores are not precise measures. Tests can be used as supplements. c. Norms have to be developed for each test, their validity and reliability for a given purpose is to be established before they are used. d. Tests are better at predicting failure than success. e. Tests should be designed, administered, assessed and interpreted only by trained and competent persons. INTERVIEW: Virtually all organisations use interviews as a selection device for most jobs. Generally candidates are interviewed by at least two people before being offered a job. HR specialist and the person who will be the candidates immediate supervisor conduct these interviews. For managerial and professional jobs, it is common for the candidate to have a third interview with a higher level manager, such as a division head. 19 Because the interview is so popular, one might think it is a highly useful election device. But this is not always the case. We shall consider the reliability and validity of the interview. Reliability of the Interview: In the interview context, reliability is consensus, or agreement, between two interviewers on their assessment of the same candidates. This is called Interrater Reliability. Research shows that it is rather weak. Validity of the Interview: The predictive validity of the interview is very low. Research in 1970s and 1980s suggested that the average validity of the interview for predicting job performance was as low as 0.14. 20 However, recent research has suggested that some individual interviewers may be valid, whereas many others are not. Past research has also lumped various types of interview procedures together, but very recent research suggests that some interview procedures can be quite valid. 21 What can go wrong in the typical interview to cause many interviewers to make inaccurate predictions? It seems that interviewers often commit judgmental and perceptual errors that can compromise the validity of their assessments. Similarity Error : Interviewers are positively predisposed to candidates who are similar to them (in hobbies, interests, personal background). They are negatively disposed to candidates who are unlike them. Contrast Error: When several candidates are interviewed in succession, raters tend to compare each candidate with the preceding candidates instead of an absolute standard. Thus an average candidate can be rated as higher than average if he or she

19

- Recruiting and Selection Procedures - University of Houston, CBA Working Paper Series, 19994 - 278.

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20

- Tom Janz, Lowell Hellervikand David C. Gillmore, Behaviour Description Interviewing (Boston: Allyn and Bacon) 21 - Thomas W. Dougherty et al. Policy Capturing in the Employment Interview, Journal of Applied Psychology, vol.71, 1986 pp. 9-15. comes after one or two poor candidates and lower than average if he or she follows an excellent candidate. First Impression Error: Some interviewers tend to form a first impression of candidates rather quickly, based on a review of the application blank or on the first few moments of the interview. Thus, this impression is based on relatively little information about the candidate. Nevertheless the initial judgement is resistant t change as more information or contradictory information is acquired. In addition, the interviewer may choose subsequent questions based on the first impression, in an attempt to confirm the positive or negative impression. 22 Traits Rated and Halo Error: Halo error occurs when either the interviewers overall impression or strong impression of a single dimension spreads to influence his or her rating of other characteristics. For instance, if a candidate impresses the interviewer as being very enthusiastic, the interviewer might tend to rate he candidate high on other characteristics, such as job knowledge, loyalty and dependability. This is especially likely to happen when the interviewer is asked to rate many traits Types of Interviews: Interviews can be classified by their degree of structure, or the extent to which interviewer plan the questions in advance and ask the same questions of all the candidates for the job. Three types of interviews, based on three degrees of structure, can be defined: Unstructured Semistructured Structured (interviews)

Unstructured Interviews: Here questions are not planned in advance, and interviews with different candidates may cover quite different areas of past history, attitudes, or future plans. They have low interrator reliability and lowest validity. Because questions are not planned, important job related areas may remain unexplored, and illegal questions may be asked on the spur of the moment. Semistructured Interviews: Involves some planning on the part of the interviewer but also allows flexibility in precisely what the interviewer asks the candidates. Semistructured interviews are likely to be more

22

- John F. Binnin, Mel A. Goldstein et al., Effects of Pre-Interview Impressions on Questioning Strategies in Same and Opposite Sex Employment, Journal Of Applied Psychology, vol. 73, 1998, pp. 30-37. valid than unstructured ones, but not as valid as highly structured interviews. Structured Interviews: Research shows conclusively that the highest reliability and validity are realised in the structured interview. In a structured interview, questions are planned in advance and are asked of each candidate in the same way. The only difference between interviews with different candidates might be in the probes, or follow-up questions, if a given candidate has not answered the question fully. Interviews that feature structured questions usually also provide structured rating scales on which to evaluate the applicants after the interview. Stress Interview:

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Sometimes where the job requires the jobholder to remain calm and composed under pressure, the candidates are intentionally subjected to stresses and strains in the interview by asking some annoying or embarrassing questions. This type of interview is called stress interview. Placement: Placement refers to assigning rank and responsibility to an individual, identifying him with a particular job. If the person adjusts to the job and continues to perform per expectations, it means that the candidate is properly placed. However, if the candidate is seen to have problems in adjusting himself to the job, the supervisor must find out whether the person is properly placed as per the latters aptitude and potential. Usually, placement problems arise out of wrong selection or improper placement or both. Therefore, organisations need to constantly review cases of employees below expectations / potential and employee related problems such as turnover, absenteeism, accidents etc., and assess how far they are related to inappropriate placement decisions and remedy the situation without delay. Induction: Induction refers to the introduction of a person to the job and the organisation. The purpose is to make the employee feel at home and develop a sense of pride in the organisation and commitment to the job. The induction process is also envisaged to indoctrinate, orient, acclimatise, acculture the person to the job and the organisation. The basic thrust of Induction training during the first one or few weeks after a person joins service in the organisation is to: introduce the person to the people with whom he works, make him aware of the general company policies that apply to him as also the specific work situation and requirements, answer any questions and clarify any doubts that the person may have about the job and the organisation and provide on-the-job instructions, check back periodically how the person is doing and offer help, if required. While The HR staff may provide general orientation relating to the organisation, the immediate supervisor should take the responsibility for specific orientation relating to the job and work-unit members. The follow-up of orientation is to be co-ordinated by both the HR department and the supervisor with a view mainly to obtain feedback and provide guidance and counselling as required. Proper induction would enable the employee to get off to a good start and to develop his overall effectiveness on the job and enhance his potential.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1. 2. 3. 4.

If human resources planning is important, why is it not done more extensively and better? What are the techniques for human resources planning? What do you understand by human resources planning? How would you draw up a manpower plan for an organisation? What are the objectives and benefits of human resource planning?

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5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

How do you draw up an action plan for the manpower planning for a newly established firm? What are the problems that one would encounter while human resources planning? Compare and contrast the different sources of job candidates. What types of information can an application form provide? Review the ads placed over the last fortnight by local placement agencies. Do some of the agencies specialise in some types of jobs? If you are an HR manager and want to recruit the following personnel, a) engineers b) secretaries c) accountants d) factory workers Which agency would you select? Give reasons for your choice.

10.

Interview an HR manager to determine the specific actions his company is taking to recruit a more diverse workforce. Discuss the methodology critically.

Module 3. Motivating Employees, Performance Appraisal Systems: Motivation and Motivational Strategies: Vrooms expectancy theory suggests that a pay performance link is essential for motivating performance. 23 Among other aspects to understanding work motivation, the expectancy theory is widely accepted and has fairly strong support in applied and theoretical setting.24 As shown below the Expectancy model has three major components.

1. Expectancy: the individuals perception of the probability that effort will lead 2. Instrumentality: perceptions of the probability that performance will result 3. Valence: the subjective value or the desirability that the employee places on
the attainment of a certain reward. The expectancy model can be summarised as: M = E (I V) Where M = motivation, E = expectancy, I = instrumentality and V = valence. As an example of how expectancy theory works, consider the case of an organisation announcing a contest to motivate its sales people. A trip to USA will be awarded to the salesperson with the highest sales volume in the financial year. According to expectancy theory, the motivational impact of this contest would depend on individual salespeoples expectancy (perceived chance of being the top salesperson), instrumentality (belief that the company will actually award the prize), and valence (desirability of the trip to USA). A salesperson who thinks that he has a decent chance to win, believes that the trip will be awarded, and has a strong desire to travel to USA, should be highly motivated by this contest. A second sales person who believes that he has absolutely no chance of being the top seller, (zero expectancy) will perhaps make little efforts to win, even if he would very much enjoy going to USA. A third sales person may have a very low instrumentality, believing that the company will not really award such an expensive prize. Not believing in the contest, he will not be motivated. Also unresponsive will be a sales person who feels that the reward is not positively valent (e.g., if he is afraid of travel by aeroplanes).
23 24

to task accomplishment or performance.

in receiving rewards (such as pay or recognition).

- V.H. Vroom, Work Motivation, Wiley & Sons, New York, 1964) - T.R. Mitchell et al. Expectancy Theory in Work Motivation: Some Logical and Methodological Issues, Human Relations, 1974, vol. 27, No.2, pp. 121-147. To produce maximum motivation all the three components of the expectancy model must be high. Incentive compensation systems are designed to raise two of the three components. Instrumentality beliefs should be strengthened by making rewards contingent on good performance, and valence should be high because more money is a reward that most people find highly attractive. Expectancy theory offers useful guidelines to diagnose possible problems in incentive schemes. First one must ask whether the employees believe that they can be good performers if they try. Are they properly selected, trained and equipped to do he job? Do they get feedback so that they know where they stand and can take corrective action as necessary? Second, one must be sure that employees perceive a link between their performance and their rewards (instrumentality) Do they truly believe that better performance will make more money, or does a higher salary seem to be more a function of luck or politics? Finally, the offered reward must be of value (valence) to the employees. They must be able to earn something they strongly desire, such as promotion or a sizeable raise. The prospect of a small merit raise may not be enough to motivate superior performance over an extended period of time.

Retention: Linking pay to performance is likely to improve work force composition. High performers will gain a larger share of the compensation and thus be motivated to stay in the organisation. Below average performers will become discouraged and will tend to leave the organisation. Reward systems that are not linked to performance will have the opposite effect and thus result in the worst of both possibilities. Well-paid poor performers may stay with the organisation as they are well rewarded and may not be sought by other organisations. By contrast, top performers feel under-rewarded and are likely to be sought by organisations that appropriately value their contributions. Productivity: When performance is linked to rewards, those capable of doing what will lead to top productivity are motivated to do so. Cost Savings: The benefit of pay for performance is the capability to link compensation costs with productivity results. By basing payment on performance, employers can ensure that compensation costs, a major cost in business, will be tied to organisation results directly. Individual Incentives: When individual productivity is measurable, individual incentives are most successful in boosting performance through a fairly direct link between performance and rewards. The adoption of individual incentives has increased in recent years. Popular individual incentives are piece-rate incentive, commissions, and bonuses. Skilled based pay - a highly acclaimed recent innovation in individual incentives - and merit rates can also be explored. Piece - rate Incentive: It is the most common form of individual enticement for production workers. Employees are paid a fixed rate for each unit of output produced. The amount to pay per unit of output is determined as follows: a. First, the typical pay rate for the job is determined, perhaps by wage survey. b. Then, the typical output per day is measured. A time and motion study by industrial engineer may also provide information on the number of units that an employee should be able to make per day. c. The average daily wage is divided by average units per day to produce the price paid per piece. For example, if the average daily rate is Rs. 48 and each employee ought to be able to produce 96 units per day, the rate paid for each piece is 50 paise. Some piece rate system pay only on the basis of units produced, so an employee who made only 70 units will receive Rs. 35 for the day. Many piece rate systems, however, guarantee a base wage equal to the standard output level, so that all employees making 96 units or lower will receive Rs. 48. The incentive is paid for all units in excess of the standards. The major shortcoming of the typical piece-rate incentive is in the signal it sends. Instead of suggesting a partnership between the goals of the individual and those of the organisation, it implies that the organisation actually distrusts the individual. The Taylor Plan: A variation of the piece rate system was developed by Frederick W. Taylor. The Taylor Plan offers differential piece-work rates. In the example above, the Taylor Plan might specify 50 paise per unit up to 96 units per day, but reward workers producing

125 % of standard or more (120 units) with the higher rate of 65 paise for each unit over 96. Standard Hour Plan: This is similar to the straight piece work plan except that the standard is set in time units. Automobile repair workshops use such system. Commissions: Commission reward systems, which are usually found in sales jobs, allow the salesperson to receive a percentage of his gross receipts (e.g., 5% of all sales). About 70% of all salespeople are paid on commission basis either straight commission or a base salary plus commission. Commission payments offer a clear link between pay and worker performance and therefore are an effective financial incentive. Bonuses: One of the most popular trends in compensation is the use of bonuses one time lump sum payment given for meeting a performance goal. Bonuses can be based on objective goal attainment or a subjective rating. In some organisations, all employees share in the bonus awards if organisational goals are met, while in others the size of the bonus is tied to individuals performance. Skill-based Pay: Skill-based pay (or pay for knowledge) is a reward system that pays employees on the bass of the work-related skills they possess rather than associating rewards with performance levels or seniority. Under a skill-based plan; an employee is hired and receives initial training on the job. He then joins a work group at the entry level rate of pay and has the opportunity to learn new job-related skills through on-the-job experience and further training. As the employee demonstrates mastery of different jobs performed by other group members, his pay is increased. A minimum of four to five years is required for employees to top out - that is master all the skills. Skill based pay is frequently used in conjunction with autonomous work groups or other job enrichment programmes. Merit Pay: Merit pay, because it is the standard procedure for attempting to tie pay increases to individual performance, is a major motivational device for employees at all levels - managerial, professional etc. Merit pay is an annual increment tied to the employees performance during the previous year. Even though merit pay continues to be widely used, in the last few years it has come under major criticism. Merit raises represent a permanent commitment to an increased salary (salary is virtually never reduced if the performance falls), thereby creating an annuity that can be expensive fixed cost to an organisation. Group Incentives: Group incentives are designed to accomplish the same objectives as the individual incentives - that is to link rewards to performance. The difference is that performance is measured on the level of an organisational unit and is viewed as resulting from the combined efforts of a group rather than from individual effort. Group incentives, like those for the individuals, have possible negative aspects. If the group is too large, employees may feel that their efforts will have little effects on total performance. Group members may also become concerned about overproduction and thus restrict output. Profit Sharing: It is an incentive system in which designated employees share the business profits. Profit sharing plans differ from gain sharing in two respects: 1. They are often implemented corporation-wide, whereas gain sharing is often at the unit level.

2. They use a formula based on profit rather than on productivity improvement.

The usual profit sharing programme establishes a base-level profit target. After this target is achieved, a percentage of additional profits is set aside in a bonus pool to be distributed to participants. Sometimes the bonus pool is distributed in equal rupee shares to all employees. At other times the distribution is made according to organisational level or salary / wages. There are three broad based types of profit sharing plans: 1. Current distribution plans (or cash plans), which pay a share of the companys profits in cash or company shares. 2. Deferred payout plans, in which an employees share of the companys profits is placed in a trust fund to be distributed at a later date. These payoffs are usually distributed on retirement, disability, death or termination. 3. Combination plans, which provide both cash payments and deferred payments. Gain Sharing Plan: Gain sharing is a type of group incentive in which a portion of the gains of the organisation from group effort is shared with the group. The concept also implies that an organisational philosophy that engenders the kind of cooperativeness and trust needed to facilitate group efforts. Scanlon Plan: One very popular and widely used form of gain sharing is the Scanlon Plan, which was first implemented in late 1920s. Its developer, Joseph Scanlon, was a union leader who was trained in cost accounting and had a strong concern for managementlabour co-operation. Scanlon believed that the average worker was a great reservoir of untapped information concerning labour-saving methods. Workers needed a mechanism permitting them to work smarter, not harder. Scanlon Plan involves employee participation in reducing labour costs. The two main features are a system of departmental and plantwide screening committees to evaluate and implement employee cost-saving suggestions and the sharing of labour costs savings with the employees as an incentive. Savings are determined as the ratio of payroll to sales value of production and are usually calculated monthly and compared with baseline months to determine the bonus to be shared. 25 A typical distribution of savings would be 50% to employees, 25% to the employer, and 25% retained for an emergency fund to reimburse the company for any months when the actual wage bill is larger than the baseline. Remaining emergency funds are distributed to the workers at the end of each year. Rucker Plan: The Rucker Plan is similar to the Scanlon Plan, but the bonus formula includes the rupee value of all materials, supplies, and services used to make the product. The resulting formula is: Rs. Value of personnel costs Rs. value of production (-) value of materials etc. The resulting bonus formula is the value added to a product per labour rupee. The Rucker Plan provides an incentive to save on all inputs, both human and material. Job Enrichment: A popular technique that is sometimes applied to productivity and quality problems is redesigning a job in order to increase its motivating potential. This technique is known as Job enrichment or job redesign. It is based on the premise that altering certain aspects of the job to satisfy employees psychological needs will

motivate workers to try harder to do a good job. Job enrichment is often found as part of a high involvement organisations approach. Job enrichment attempts to correct the mistakes of the previous job-design methods. In the past jobs were designed with the principles of simplification, standardisation and specialisation. This led to the removal of many sources of satisfaction and motivation from the job. Contemporary theory attempts to expand the scope of the job to increase its variety, significance, identity, autonomy and feedback

25

A. J. Geare, Productivity from Scanlon Type Plans, Academy of Management Review, 1976, vol. 1, No.3, pp. 99-108.

Core Job Dimension Skill Variety Task Identity26 Task Significance. Autonomy

Critical Psychological States Experienced Meaningfulne ss of the work Experienced Responsibility for Outcomes of the Work Knowledge of the Actual Results of Work Activities

Personal and Work Outcomes High Internal Work Motivation

High Quality Work Performance

Feedback

High Satisfaction with the Work

Low Absenteeism and Turnover Employee Growth Need Strength Job Characteristics Theory [Source:From J. R. Hackman & G. R. Oldham, Motivation through the Design of Work : Test of a Theory, Organisational Behaviour and Human Performance, vol. 16, 1976, pp. 250279.]
26

- Task Identity means doing a whole identifiable piece of work, such as assembling an entire television set. These dimensions satisfy the individuals psychological needs for personal control, knowledge of results, and meaningfulness of work. Because the job satisfies the individuals psychological needs, the employee enjoys the job more and may strive to do higher quality work of which he can be proud. Redesigning a job to be more interesting and satisfying, however, does not guarantee that productivity will improve. The interesting way to do a job is not always the most streamlined and efficient way. The research results are mixed, with some job redesign efforts resulting in increased

performance and others not having this effect. Nevertheless, under the right conditions, job enrichment can pay off. 27 Motivation & Job Satisfaction: One of the most widely discussed theory of motivation is that of Maslow which looks at motivation in terms of a series of relatively separate and distinct drives. Maslow identified five basic needs: 1. The psychological needs such as hunger, thirst, sex, etc. 2. The safety needs for protection against danger, threat and deprivation. 3. The needs for love, belonging to groups, friendship and affection. 4. The esteem needs for self respect and respect of others (ego or status needs). 5. The self actualisation or self-fulfilment needs to achieve maximum inner potential, for maximum self-development and for creativity. Maslow proposed that these needs are arranged in a hierarchy. Once a basic need is satisfied, another higher level need is likely to be activated. And that a need is never satisfied completely except for a short time. Therefore, people are in a continuous motivational state but the nature of motivation is complex and keeps fluctuating. As experiences show, no need is completely satisfied and they recur periodically. If the satisfaction of the need is denied for any duration, they become more important. But they do not assume significance until lower needs are well satisfied. When people feel deprived of lower level needs all their energies get diverted towards the satisfaction of that need and the need for self-actualisation remains dormant. Hence: a. Higher level needs are a later evolutionary development. b. The higher the need and less it is essential for sheer survival, the gratification can be postponed longer and it is easier fir the need, then, to disappear permanently. c. Living at higher need level means that the lower level needs are satisfied that is greater biological efficiency, better sleep, better health etc. d. Higher level needs are less urgent. e. Higher level needs satisfaction produce as happiness, serenity etc. f. Pursuit and gratification of higher needs indicate good health. g. Higher needs require better environmental conditions (education, better economy etc.) to achieve them. h. Satisfaction of higher needs is means getting closer to self actualisation. Though subsequent theorists questioned the clear differentiation between need levels (i.e. lower level need has to be satisfied before the higher need), the theory enunciated by Maslow contributes significantly to the insight in to the complexity of human emotion.
27

- Robert Rodgers and John E. Hunter, Impact of Management by Objectives on Organisational Productivity, Journal of Applied Psychology, vol.76, 1991, pp.322-336. Motivation-hygiene Concept: Herzberg and his colleagues attempted, successfully, to operationalise the platform provided by Maslow in work situations. This has been postulated as two-factor theory of motivation and satisfaction. The theory proposes that the primary determinants of employees satisfaction are intrinsic to the work that employees do i.e. recognition, achievement, responsibility, advancement, personal growth in competence. These factors are called motivators as they encourage employees to derive satisfaction of these needs

through better job performance. The motivators are also called job-content factors. Absence of these needs in ones job will not lead to dissatisfaction but to lesser degree of satisfaction or even to apathy and indifference. Dissatisfaction is seen as being determined by a separate set of factors which are extrinsic to the work itself. These aspects of the work environment are called hygiene factors and they include: company policies, supervisory practices, working conditions, salaries and wages and interpersonal relationships on the job. The hygiene factors are also called job-context factors. Herzberg theory suggests that a job should enhance positive work motivation and employees satisfaction to the extent that it provides opportunities for employees to achieve, gain recognition and responsibility, advance in the organisation, and growth in competence. The presence of hygiene factors will lead to less dissatisfaction among employees but will not provide sufficient conditions for them to experience satisfaction on the job. Therefore employees, in the absence of motivators will not be able to give their best to their organisation. The theory has gained acceptance universally and has been used in many organisations to enrich the job contents by incorporating motivators in work situations. However, experimental evidence do not support Herzbergs two-factors all the time. Both intrinsic and extrinsic factors have been found to be related to both satisfaction and dissatisfaction. There is certain similarity between the two theoretical postulates discussed above. Let us attempt to establish relationship between the two sets of motives and their effect on harnessing human resource potential in organisations.

___________________________________________________________________ Relationship of Motivation to Individual Performance Systems Psychological Needhierarchy Selfactualisation Esteem social Hygiene Dissatisfiers Motivaor Dissatisfiers Achievement Recognition Work itself Responsibility Advancement (Job-content factors) Capacity Latent human capacity

Physical

Safety and Security

Company policy and administratio n Supervision Salary & wages Interpersonal relations (Job-context factors)

Normal Output

[ B.K. Srivatsava : Personnel Management Human Resources. ] _____________________________________________________________________ In the table above, two basic systems are involved: physical system, which include physiological and anatomical functions and psychosocial systems, which include the individual in organisational context and social context. If we apply the need hierarchy to these systems, we find that physiological and safety needs are related to physical system while higher level needs to psychosocial system. Safety need partly relates to psychosocial system. Hygiene and motivator factors also relate to the need hierarchy. The two systems overlap some. The dissatisfiers include love, safety and physiological needs, while satisfiers reflect self-actualisation, esteem and love needs. In applying these to individual performance we see that both satisfiers and dissatisfiers are involved in motivating the individual to normal performance. In tapping human capability and moving beyond the normal range of output, the satisfiers become relatively more important. Motivational Strategies: With the complexities of human behaviour, existence of multiple needs and gals among employees, differences in the priorities of individual goals and different expectations, it is necessary that multipronged strategies are to be adopted for motivating employees. 1. Performance-based Reward System : The reward system must be equitable. Employees always compare themselves with others both in the organisation and outside it and if he perceives that his colleagues with identical / similar qualification and experience are receiving more rewards then he perceives the reward as inequitable. If the contribution is perceived to be more than the inducement, the principle of equity is disturbed and an imbalance is created in his mind. In order to return to a balanced state, wither the employee will reduce his contribution or will pressurise the management to increase the inducement. And maintaining the balance is a necessary condition for achieving the purpose for which reward system is developed. Such a balance can be perceived (by the employees) and equity can be maintained if the reward system is based on predetermined, open and transparent performance criteria.

2. Enriching job content :

Herzbergs two-factor theory (discussed above) provides the basis for enrichment and this is another strategy of motivating employees. Recently, organisations have moved away from job context factors to enriching the job content by providing higher responsibility, enough challenge, advancement and learning (development) opportunities, etc. Performance Appraisal: M.B.O. Approach: A very popular individualised method of evaluating the performance of managers is management by objectives (MBO). In several surveys of performance appraisal techniques, more than half the organisations responding used some kind of MBO procedure to evaluate managers performance28. The MBO process involves three stages.

1. The employee meets with his superior and agrees on a set of goals to achieve
during a specified period of time. Goals should be quantifiable and should include an agreed - on target. Thus, instead of a vague goal of improving customer satisfaction, the goal might be to reduce customer return to no

more than 3% of the rupee amount of sales, i.e. not more than Rs. 300 in returns for every Rs. 10,000 in sales. 2. Throughout this period, progress toward the goal is monitored, though the employee is left generally free to determine how to go about meeting them. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------28 - George S. Odiorne, Management by Objectives II (Belmont, Calif.: David S. Lake, 1979).

3. At the end of the period, the employee and the superior again meet to
evaluate whether the goals were achieved and to decide together on a new set of goals. MBO has several advantages. Observable, result oriented goals replace the difficult to observe, subjective traits that are sometimes used in other measures of performance. MBO can encourage innovation and creativity, since employees are free to determine how they will meet their goals. This approach can also lead to performance improvement, particularly if goals are specific, moderately difficult, and accepted by the employees. A considerable advantage can also result - top managers set goals with those immediately below them in the hierarchy, who in turn help set the goals of those below them. This cascading effect may help co-ordinate the activities of the entire organisation, with all employees engaged in activities related to the organisations overall objectives and strategy. No all MBO programmes are successful. Some major reasons for failure are presented below:

Lack of management support Inadequate training of managers in how to use MBO Easy goals Setting unrealistically difficult goals Lack of flexibility in setting goals for different units Not altering goals to meet changes in circumstances Pseudo-participation Overemphasising goal attainment Excessive paperwork

MBO is a difficult activity, requiring training and a large commitment of time and effort by top management and all other parts of the organisation. A recent summary of studies of MBO results showed considerable differences in productivity gains as a function of top management.29 When top management commitment was high the average gain productivity was 56%. When commitment was low, the average gain in -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------29

- Robert Rodgers and John E. Hunter, Impact of Management by Objectives on Organisational Productivity, Journal of Applied Psychology, vol. 76, 1991, pp. 322 -336. productivity was only 6%.30.Even when the method is used successfully, it is difficult to compare performance of employees, since each has different goals and levels of goal accomplishment. Employees who have easy goals may seem to be better employees

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than those who have more difficult goals, since the first group is more likely to achieve its goals. Another problem could occur when managers, in an attempt to please their superiors, persuade employees to take on goals that are virtually impossible to achieve. Similarly, top management may set unrealistically high goals for a particular department. Management must set goals that are consistent with a units particular abilities and its importance to overall organisational success. Managers also need to guard against viewing agreed-upon goals as set-in-stone. Circumstances in any organisation can change, and a certain amount of adaptability and flexibility in MBO is both legitimate and necessary. Employees participation in the goal setting process is generally seen as an advantage of MBO. Sometimes, however, employees are accepting the goals desired by their supervisor, who simply goes through the motion of letting employees help set goals.31 This problem is especially likely to occur when an organisation has traditionally had an authoritarian managerial culture, and supervisors have not been adequately trained to adopt a more participative management style. Problems also arise when MBO goal attainment becomes the sole criterion on which merit pay and other reward decisions are made. Finally, many managers resent the extra paperwork generated by MBO programmes, a reaction that might reduce their commitment to ensuring the success of the effort. Raters of Employee Performance: In most organisations, subjective ratings of employee performance are provided by superiors. However, there are several other potential sources for performance ratings, including employees themselves, peers and subordinates. Each of these sources has its own advantages and disadvantages.

30

- Robert Rodgers and John E. Hunter, Impact of Management by Objectives on Organisational Productivity, Journal of Applied Psychology, vol. 76, 1991, pp. 322 336. 31 - J. S. Kane and K. A. Freeman, MBO and Performance Appraisal: A Mixture Thats Not a Solution, Part Two, Personnel, February 1987, pp. 26 - 32. Self-Evaluation: Employees are sometimes asked to evaluate themselves. It seems logical that individuals would be the best judges of their own performance, particularly if supervisors cannot observe them on a regular basis. If employees are asked to evaluate themselves, they may respond by becoming more motivated and involved in the evaluation process. Self-ratings tend to show more leniency error than supervisor ratings, although halo errors are lower. 32 Self-evaluation have become popular as a part of the management by objective process, when the superior and the subordinate jointly evaluate goal attainment. Self-evaluation seems most appropriate when it is used as an employee development tool rather than to make administrative decisions. 32 It may also serve as an important input into a supervisory appraisal. An employees selfappraisal may provide important of which the superior was not aware. The supervisor can then factor this information into his performance ratings of the employee Peer Evaluation: Peer or co-worker evaluations are more stable over time, are better able to distinguish effort from performance, and focus more on task-relevant abilities. One study has concluded that peer ratings may be the most accurate evaluations of employee performance.32 Peer evaluations can be particularly useful when supervisors do not have the opportunity to observe an individuals performance, but fellow employees do.

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Peers sometimes resist evaluating one another. An individual may not want to give a fellow employee a favourable evaluation for fear of looking inferior in comparison. On the other hand, an individual may not want to jeopardise a good working relationship by giving an unfavourable rating to a colleague. Friendship bias may lead an employee to rate his friends higher than other employees. A survey of 218 industrial employees which had used a peer evaluation system for more than a year found a high degree of user acceptance. 33 However, peer evaluations, like self-evaluations, are best used for employee development rather than for administrative decisions. The same survey found that users were more favourable in their attitudes toward peer appraisals that were used for developmental rather than evaluative processes.

32

- Kenneth N. Wexley and Richmond Klimoski, Performance Appraisal: An Update, in Research in Personnel and Human Resources Management, ed. Kendrith M. Rowland and Gerald R. Ferris (Greenwich, Conn. : JAI Press, 1984, II,35-80 33 - Companies where employees Rate Executives, Fortune, December 17, 1993,p. 128. Joyce E. Santora, Rating the Boss at Chrysler, Personnel Journal, May 1992, pp. 41-45. When teamwork, participation, and cohesiveness are part of the organisations culture, peer evaluation can work well. In organisations that are competitive and have a low level of trust among the employees, peer evaluations may be little more than a way for employees to enhance themselves by belittling their fellow employees. Subordinate Evaluation: Evaluation by subordinates may provide valuable information. They know how well a supervisor performs with respect to leading, organising, planning, delegating, and communicating. In fact, evaluating the boss has become a popular mechanism in many organisations. 34 Subordinates may, however, inflate their ratings of a supervisor, especially if they think that the supervisor will be able to make out who has given a particular rating. Complete anonymity is essential if this technique is to provide valid ratings. 35 Like self-and peer evaluations, subordinate evaluation is useful for development but has historically not been widely used for making administrative decisions. Customer Evaluation: Another source of appraisal information comes from customers or clients. Such appraisals are popular in the context of service, delivery, where there is a high degree of client involvement and when the service employee is relatively removed from other employees or supervisors. 34 360-Degree Appraisals: Many companies have implemented 360-degree appraisals, where performance ratings are collected simultaneously from subordinates, peers, supervisors and employees themselves. Typically 360-degree appraisals are used for development and feedback purposes.36 The focus is on evaluation of competencies that are relevant for job performance in useful behavioural terms. Although 360-degree appraisals are being used

34

- David Antonioni, The Effects of Feedback Accountability on Upward Appraisal Ratings, Personnel Psychology, vol. 47, pp. 349 -356. 35 - Joan S. Lubin, Turning the Tables : Underlings Evaluate Bosses, Wall Street Journal, October 4, 1994, pp. B1,B14. & Oren Harai, How Am I Doing? Management Review November 1992, pp. 55-57.

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36

- Brian OReilly, 360 Feedback Can Change Your Life, Fortune, October 17, 1994, pp. 93 - 100. many firms, they are most successful in organisations that offer open and participative climates, along with active career development systems. 37 Performance Counselling: Counselling is a professional form of interpersonal communication whose purpose is to assist the employee with which eventually to question the knowledge store. It is a planned systematic intervention in the life of an individual who is capable of choosing the goal and the direction of his own development. Counselling is therefore, aimed at maximising human freedom by increasing ones long term control over his environment and responses which are evoked by it. It develops responsible independence, increases autonomy and assists an individual to help himself. The capacity of an individual to adapt to different situations depends on his behaviour repertoire which is made up of three elements experience, perceptions and generalisations. If the behaviour repertoire of an individual is broad and rich, he has within himself to access a variety of response patterns and depending on the demands of the situation he can choose a response which is appropriate, realistic and adaptive for that situation. He has the flexibility to respond to varying situational demands. The behaviour repertoire is said to be broad based when an individual has had access to variety of experiences, his perceptions are in tune with existing realities and the generalisations that he had made or conclusions that he has arrived at regarding himself, the other people around him and the situation are based on validated information and interpretations. In case a person does not have the opportunity to get exposed to varied experiences, his response pattern will be limited and his behaviour repertoire will be inadequate. Such a person with inadequate behavioural repertoire will not have the flexibility to choose appropriate response to meet the demand of the situation. As a matter of fact, his responses are likely to be repetitive, routine and rigid regardless of the situation (demands). The behaviour repertoire may be inadequate for any of the following three reasons: a) lack of experience b) distortion in perception OR c) erroneous generalisations Then his adaptive ability will be considerably reduced. The objective of counselling is to discover and correct inadequacies in behaviour repertoire . These discoveries can be made by the person himself, the organisation or the counsellor. The counselling methods can be grouped, therefore, in to two types: 37 - Bob Cardy and Greg Dobbins, The Changing Face of Performance Appraisal : Customer Evaluation and 360 Appraisals, Human Resources Division News, Spring 1993, vol.16, pp. 17-18

1. Directive Counselling in which the counsellor discovers and provides

interpretations of the inadequacies &

2. Non-directive counselling in which the client discovers his own

inadequacies and develops a plan of action to deal with them. The counsellor only facilitates the self-discovery on the part of the client. Choice of a particular method of counselling depends on the nature of the problem. If lack of experience can be most effectively handled by directive counselling; distortions in perceptions or erroneous generalisation is most effectively handled by non-directive counselling, or client self discovery. Nature of Counselling:

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Non-directive counselling is being more widely used in dealing with problem employees who exhibit maladaptive behaviour in organisations. Counselling has been described as a helping relationship between the person seeking help (client) and the person providing help (counsellor). It uses a positive approach. Underlying assumptions of counselling are: 1. People can grow, they can improve. The counsellor must believe in the worth of the individual and in that persons ability to do better. 2. Counselling is an investment in the individual which will result in future payoffs for both the parties. 3. Counselling is learning process. The client is encouraged to diagnose his own shortcomings and to become aware of the need for corrective steps. The change achieved thus is more lasting than any change that is imposed. 4. Counselling involves confrontation. The client must learn to confront his own inadequacies and problems. The problems therefore will have to be brought out. Confrontation can cause stress, which is a necessary condition for change. 5. Acceptance of an individual as he is by the counsellor is important. The client must be accepted as a worthy human being capable of growth and development. 6. Counselling is a continuous and time consuming process that is likely to involve several sessions. 7. The effectiveness of counselling is determined by specific change in behaviour taking place in the client. Career Planning: Top management candidates are not the only employees in need of career planning attention from the organisation. Lower managers, professionals and other employees also desire satisfying careers and may leave the organisation that are not seen as offering appropriate opportunities. Having defined career goals and being aware of other job opportunities within the firm may also motivate employees to work harder at developing their skills because they understand how effort now will pay off later. Realising this, many organisations engage in formal career planning activities with their employees. Career planning involves several steps. The first is self assessment by the employee i.e. understand who one is, what one values, what one is good at and enjoys, and what one wants to accomplish over the long term. The second step is gathering information about different job opportunities and potential career paths either inside or outside the present organisation. The third step is formulating career goals and a plan for achieving them. Plans may include on or off the job training, special assignment, changes in job, occupation or employer. Individuals can, and traditionally have, engaged in career planning on their own, with little assistance from their employer. However, employer involvement is desirable because better information on internal career paths can be made available, a large percentage of employees can be induced to plan, and plans can be more realistic in view of future organisational needs and development opportunities. Given below is the many tools that organisation may utilise to facilitate employee career planning:

A. Self assessment tools 1. Career planning workshops 2. Career workbooks 3. Preretirement workshops B. Individual counselling

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1. Personnel staff 2. Professional counsellor a) Internal b) External 3. Outplacement 4. Supervisor or line manager C. Internal labour market information / placement exchanges 1. Job posting 2. Skills inventories 3. Career ladders / career path planning 4. Career resource centre 5. Other career communication formats D. Organisational potential assessment processes 1. Assessment centres 2. Promotability forecasts 3. Replacement / succession planning 4. Psychological testing E. Developmental Programmes 1. Job rotation 2. In-house human resource development programmes 3. External seminars / workshops 4. Tuition reimbursement / educational assistance 5. Supervisor training in career counselling 6. Dual career programmes 7. Mentoring systems
Dual-Career and Family Issues in Career Planning: Career planning has historically targeted one employee at a time. Now however, an increasing number of employees have spouses who are active in the work force and whose career and employment prospects must also be considered in career decisions. Each partner has a strong commitment to building a continuous and challenging career and the needs of each must be carefully balanced in career planning activities. The need to consider a spouses employment prospects has made many employees less willing to accept relocation offers from their employers and it is affecting the way the organisations deploy and develop human resources. Organisations are paying more attention to the career needs of spouses employed by other firms when geographic transfers are necessary, and they are becoming more open to employing both partners in a dual career marriage. Attempts are made to transfer both the parties to the same location at the same time whenever possible. Paying attention to spousal career issues is one way to retain valued professionals. QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 1. Management by objectives is not a technique of performance appraisal but it denotes a systematic process of performance appraisal. Explain critically the statement.

2. Describe in detail the process of performance appraisal. 3. Distinguish performance appraisal from potential appraisal. 4. Discuss the pros and cons of appraisal tools.

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5. Explain the problems to be avoided in appraising performance. 6. Explain how to conduct an appraisal interview. 7. How would you get the interviewee to talk during an appraisal interview? 8. What are the major concerns and errors of the raters? How hey can be overcome?

Module 4. Training and Development: Introduction: The effectiveness of career planning in an organisation system will largely depend on the extent to which training and development opportunities are made available to employees to enable them to realise their growth potential and to make contributions towards achievement of organisational objectives. Training and development activities are the main mechanisms through which individuals goals and aspirations can be integrated with organisational goals and requirements. Such an integration can be achieved only when training and development efforts are linked with the organisational requirements and carried out in a systematic manner throughout the organisation. Learning and Teaching: The training programme will not be effective if the trainer is poorly qualified or not thorough with the technical aspects of the content or if he lacks aptitude for teaching and teaching skills. Training comprises mainly of learning and teaching Principles of Learning: Models of human learning were studied to find out the reasons for fast and accurate learning. The principles of learning were developed by Sikula 38 as below: 1. All human beings can learn. 2. An individual must be motivated to learn. 3. Learning is active but not passive. 4. Learners may acquire knowledge more rapidly with guidance. Feedback ensures improvement in speed and accuracy of learning. 5. Appropriate material (like case studies, problems solving, reading etc.) should be provided. 6. Time must be provided to practice learning. 7. Learning methods should be verified. Varied methods should be introduced to off-set fatigue and boredom. 8. The learner must secure satisfaction from learning. Education must fulfil human needs, desires and expectations.
38

Andrew F. Silkula, Personnel Administration and Human Resource Management, John Wiley &Sons, New York, 1977.

9. Learners need reinforcement of correct behaviour. 10. Standards of performance should be set for the learner. 11. Different levels of learning exits. 12. Learning is an adjustment on the part of an individual. 13. Individual differences play a large part in effectiveness of the learning
process. Learning is a cumulative process. Ego involvement is widely regarded as a major factor in learning. The rate of learning decreases when complex skills are involved. Learning is closely related to attention and concentration. Learning involves long-run retention and immediate acquisition of knowledge. 19. Accuracy deserves generally more emphasis than speed. 20. Learning should be relatively based. 21. Learning should be goal oriented.

14. 15. 16. 17. 18.

The employee is likely to be clumsy during the early stages of learning. This can be called as discouraging stage. After that the employee adjusts himself to the environment and learns fast. A Plateau develops after the lapse more training time due o loss of motivation and lack of break in training schedule and time. The trainee reaches the next stage when he is motivated by the trainer and / or some break or pause in time and training process is given. The trainee at this stage learns at a faster rate39. Special repetition of the course leads the trainee to reach the stage of overlearning. Discouraging Proficiency Period Learners Job Proficiency Increasing False First stage Peak Returns Over-Learning Plateau

39

______________________________________________ Training Time - [ Source : George Srauss and Leonard R. Sayles ] learning rarely takes place at a constant rate. It varies according to the difficulty of the task, ability of the individual and other physical factors. Also the rate of leaning varies from one individual to another. Process of learning: Learning is a continuous process. People learn through actual personal experience, simulated experiences, and from others experiences. People also learn step by step from known to unknown and from simple to complex. Basic knowledge skills --------- Simple knowledge skills -------- Complex Problems ------More complex Problems. To learn perfectly repetition in teaching is necessary. Practice makes any one perfect. Hence, trainees must be encouraged to use, transfer the skills and abilities acquired in to practical situations. The possible problems in learning are either lack of knowledge or the knowledge and skill not being applied. Psychological problems like apprehension and shyness will hamper the learning process. An attitude of refusing to change, heavy dependence on repetition and demonstration as also lack of knowledge of ensuing results can also affect training. Teaching: In addition to learning principles, teaching principles should also be taken care for effective training. The trainee must be taught to practice only the correct methods. Training under actual working conditions is preferable to class room training. Emphasis should be on accuracy rather than on speed and teaching should be at different time intervals (i.e. not at a single stretch). It is easier to train younger rather than older workers. Principles of Teaching Basic Skills: The worker must be taught and must practice only correct methods of work.

First establish the best way of doing a job - use job analysis and / or time motion study techniques. Job training under actual working conditions is superior to classroom and formal training. Emphasis on accuracy - rather than speed. Training is more efficient when distributed over short periods of time. Remember the practice aims - efficiency increases with repetition of the task. You should also expect learning plateau when no apparent progress is made followed by additional spurts of improvement. Therefore, one should carry out distributed practice over longer period than is commonly believed (otherwise workers will settle down at production speeds lower than their real abilities). When a plateau is reached, use incentives and other devices to get more improvement. Age and Learning: You can train older workers as well as younger ones. Learning ability does not deteriorate rapidly with age - instead, older workers have already leant work habits (good or bad) and therefore need retraining.

[ Source : Morris Viteles, Training in United States, International Labour Review, vol. 54, Nos. 3-4, p. 161.] Assessment of Training Needs: Successful training begins with a thorough needs assessment to determine which employees need to be trained and what they need to be trained to do. Allison Rossett and Joseph W. Arwady state The question is not whether you will solicit this kind of information through needs assessment. Its how much of it you will do and using which tools. 40 The culmination of the assessment phase is a set of objectives specifying the purpose of the training and the competencies desired in trainees after they complete their training. Needs assessment takes time and money. Unfortunately many organisations undertake training without the necessary preliminary investment. Inappropriate training can also sour the attitudes of trainees toward all organisationally sponsored training and reduce their motivation to attend future and perhaps more useful programmes. Purposes and Methods of Needs Assessment: An organisation may use many methods of gathering information and several sources of information for needs assessment. The choice of methods and sources depends partly on the purpose of training. If the purpose is to improve employees performance in the present job, then clearly the trainer must begin by looking at present performance deficiencies or Areas where there seems to be room for improvement. Sources of information on performance deficiencies include supervisors and customer complaints, performance appraisal data, objective measures of output or quality or even performance tests given to determine the current knowledge and skill level of employees. In addition, HRD specialists might collect critical incidents of poor job performance and look at accident reports to locate possible skill or knowledge problems. Individual or group interviews with superiors, target individuals, or even clients are other means of gathering information on performance discrepancies and perceived training needs.

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40

- Allison Rossett and Joseph W. Arwardy, Training Needs Assessment (Englewood Cliffs, N.J. : Educational Technology Publications, 1987. P68. Once the organisation has identified performance deficiency, the next step is to determine whether the deficiency should be corrected by training. In some cases, motivation, constraints, poor task designs may cause the deficiency. In such situations, training in job skills would not solve the performance problems. If training is being planned for current employees for promotion or transfer, need assessment is more complex. The training specialist must measure the demands of the future jobs and then attempt to assess the ability of the employees to meet those demands. Because the employees being assessed do not yet hold the future job, their current level of performance may or may not indicate their ability to do the future job. Therefore, training specialists must use special techniques to assess the employees level of skill and knowledge relative to the demands of the future job. Such techniques include assessment centres (for candidates under consideration for management jobs) and tests or supervisory ratings of relevant abilities. When training is being deigned for new entrants, the methods used must be slightly different. Training is designed on the basis of a careful analysis of job content and the assumed characteristics of the trainees. If the trainees are not yet hired, it is difficult to assess their current level of knowledge. Thus, the training specialist must co-ordinate closely with the personnel manager as he sets hiring criteria and evaluates candidates. Levels of Needs Assessment: Regardless of any methods used to evaluate the needs, any thorough assessment effort must address three key areas: The organisation, the job and the task and the individual. Organisational Analysis: It looks at the proposed training within the context of the rest of the organisation. The following table provides a list of issues that must be explored in the organisational analysis portion of the needs assessment. ________________________________________________________ Issues in Organisational Analysis What are the training implications of the organisations strategy? How does this training programme fit in with the organisations future plans and goals? Where in the Organisation is the training needed? How are various units performing compared with expectations or goals? In which unit is training most likely to succeed? Which units should be trained first? Can the organisation afford this training? Which training programme should have priority? Will this training adversely affect untrained people or units? Is this training consistent with the organisations culture? Will this training be accepted and reinforced by others in the organisation such as trainees, superiors and subordinates. A prime consideration will be whether or not the proposed training will be compatible with the organisations strategy, goals, and culture, and whether employees will be likely to transfer the skills they learn in training to their actual job. Corporate culture compatibility is especially important for management training and executive development. Efforts to train managers to lead, make decisions, or

communicate in ways that are not valued or expected by powerful others in the work environment are doomed to failure. The impact that the training of one unit has on the other units must also be considered in an organisational analysis. If training is to be provided to a large number of employees throughout the organisation, the organisational analysis may indicate which unit should receive the training first. The organisations future plans must also be considered. For instance, a training specialist would not want to plan a massive training effort for a product or process that top management plans to discontinue in a year or two. Finally the availability of trainers, facilities, financial resources, and the priorities of competing training programmes must be considered as part of organisational analysis. Task Analysis: The duties and responsibilities of the job, together with the knowledge, skills and abilities needed to perform them, are the focus of the second stage of needs analysis, called task analysis. Several approaches to for analysing jobs are available. Although any of these methods could be used as inputs into training needs assessment, the task inventory and critical incident methods are helpful. Task inventories can pinpoint specific tasks performed on the Job, and the critical incidents method helps identify tasks that are not being performed correctly. Once the above methods have identified the duties or tasks for which training may be needed, the next step is to develop a detailed analysis of each task. The purpose of this step is to verify that the task is important and should be trained, and to develop in-depth information about the task knowledge and procedures that should be taught. The trainer will need to call on subject matter experts such as superiors and high performing employees to generate this information. Some of the questions to ask the experts are listed below: ___________________________________________________________________________ Some task Analysis Questions

How hard is this task? Can it be learned on the job, or should it be taught in training? How important is it that incumbents be able to do this task from the very first day on the job? What are the consequences of performing this task incorrectly? What knowledge, skills, information, equipment, materials and work aids are needed to do this task? What signals the need to perform this task? Exactly what are the steps in performing this task? How can the incumbent tell if the task has been performed correctly?

Individual Analysis: The final level of analysis looks at the individuals to be trained. The individual analysis attempts to determine which employees should be trained and what their current levels of skill and knowledge are. The trainer may single out individuals on the basis of their past performance or select the entire work group or all incumbents with a specific job title. Then the trainer assesses, or estimates, the skill and knowledge levels of the chosen trainee, so that the training is neither too simple nor too complex. If the individual analysis indicates a wide range of trainee skills and knowledge, trainers may wish to group employees into remedial and advanced groups. Alternatively, trainers could choose a training method that allows for self-paced learning or individualised instructions. Whenever possible, this kind of variance should be recognised and planned before the training begins, so that all trainees can have an appropriate and satisfying learning experience. Training Methods:

With the training objectives defined and the learning principles in mind, the trainer must choose an appropriate training method. Perhaps the first decision to be made is whether to conduct the training on the job or away from the job. On-the-Job Training: On-the-job training (OJT) is conducted at the work site and in the context of the actual job. The vast majority of all industrial training is conducted on the job. On-thejob training has several advantages:

1. Because the training setting is also the performance setting, the transfer of training
to the job is maximised. 2. The costs of a separate training facility and a full-time trainer is avoided. 3. Trainee motivation remains high because it is obvious to the trainees that what they are learning is relevant to the job. A good OJT programme should be constructed as carefully as a formal classroom training programme. Ideally, the supervisor or peer who acts as a trainer will be taught how to introduce and explain each task. The trainer should consider carefully the order in which to introduce new tasks and should prepare a written list of objectives for each stage of the training process. 41 Periodically, the trainer should give the trainee performance tests to ensure that the material is being mastered and to maintain trainee motivation through feedback. 42. Job Instruction Training , a procedure developed to train new defence-plant workers during World War II, is given below: Job Instruction Training Procedure How to Get Ready to Instruct: 1. Have a timetable. -How much skill do you expect and when? 2. Break down the job. -List the important steps. -Pick out the key points. 3. Have everything ready. -The right equipment, material and supplies. 4. Have the workplace properly arranged. -As would expect the worker to maintain it. How to Instruct Step 1: Prepare the worker Step 3: Try out Performance a) Put the worker at ease a) Have the worker perform the operation. b) Find out what he knows. b) Have the worker explain the key points. c) Arouse interest. c) Correct errors. d) Place the worker carefully. d) Reinstruct as needed. Step 2: Present the Operation Step 4: Follow-up a) Tell. a) Put the worker on his own. b) Show. b) Encourage questioning. c) Explain. c) Check frequently. d) Demonstrate. d) Taper off assistance. [Source : From Developing and Training Human Resources in Organisations, 2nd Edition by Kenneth N. Wexley and Gary P. Latham.]

41

- Alice Bird McCord, Job Training, in Training and Development Handbook, ed. Robert L.Craig, 3rd edn. (New York : McGraw-Hill, 1987) pp. 363 - 382.

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42

- J. J. Connor, On-the Job Training (Boston : International Human Resource Development, 1983). This is a proven and systematic way to teach a new task. On the negative side, OJT may suffer from frequent interruptions as the trainer or trainee is called away to perform other organisational duties. Moreover, what many organisations call OJT is really no training at all. Employees are abandoned on the job and expected to pick up necessary skills as best as they can. Often these employees are not informed about important but infrequent events (such as emergency procedures or annual maintenance) and may learn bad habits and unsafe procedures from co-workers. On-the-job training is taking on increased importance as more and more organisations move towards multi-skilling or cross-training . In these systems, workers on a team first learn their own jobs, then learn one or more of the other jobs performed by members of their team. This provides more interesting work variety, allows for more flexibility of getting work done when team members are absent, and enables workers to better understand the entire work process all of which is beneficial for continuous improvement and quality efforts. The majority of such cross training is accomplished on the job, using peer coaching and prepared self-paced learning materials (manuals, audiotapes, self-tests etc.). 43 Apprenticeship Training: Apprenticeship training is a combination of on- and off- the-job training. The Department of Labour regulates apprenticeship programmes, and often the management and the Union jointly sponsor apprenticeship training. The rate of participation in formal apprenticeship training is still very low. Off-the-Job Training: Off-late job training is conducted in a location specifically designed for training. It may be near the workplace or away from work, at a special training centre or a resort. Conducting the training away from the workplace minimises distractions and allows trainees to devote their full attention to the material being taught. However, off-the-job training programmes often do not provide as much transfer of training to the actual job as do the on-the-job programmes.
43

- Margaret Kaeter, Cross Training : The Tactical View, Training, March 1993, pp. 3539, & Bob Filipczak, Frick Teaches Frack, Training, June 1993, pp. 30-34. Some of the methods and materials used for off-the-job training are lectures, group discussions, role playing, assigned reading, case studies and video tapes. Another method is vestibule training. Much like on-the-job training, vestibule training requires trainees to do the whole job, using the same tools and machines that are used on the job. However, the training takes place in a vestibule, or separate workshop used just for training. A trainer is present at all times, and trainees are protected from the hustle and pressure that occur on the job itself. Vestibule training provides a very high rate of transfer of training. Increasingly, off-the-job training is utilising high-tech methods for training delivery. Computer-Assisted Instruction: Computer-assisted instruction (CAI) is an outgrowth of programmed learning methods offered by mechanical teaching machines and programmed learning texts (1960s).

In these applications, the computer simply presents a block of information and then asks the trainee questions to assess his or her mastery. If the trainees answer is correct, the computer proceeds to the next block of information. If the trainees answer is wrong, the programme may repeat the same material or may branch to a different remedial exercise, depending on which wrong answer the trainee gave. Computer-Managed Instruction: (CMI) This is much more complex. In this type of programme, the computer assesses the trainees initial level of competence and then provides a customised set of learning modules and exercises. The trainees performance is assessed frequently, and the training content modified continuously to best suit the learner. 44 Computer-Based Training: (CBT) This includes both CAI and CMI. According to a Training magazine survey, 46 % of firms (in USA) are currently using CBT. CBT is most commonly used to deliver training about computers, but a wide range of other topics can also be addressed. Training Procedure: One of the Personnel programme to emerge out of World War II was the Training Within Industry (TWI), from the War Commission. This was a supervisory training programme to make up for the shortage of
44

- S. Schwade, Is It Time to Consider Computer-Based Training? Personnel Administrator, Feb. 1985, pp. 5 - 35. civilian supervisory skills during the war. One of the parts of this programme was the job instruction course, which was concerned with how to teach? The detailed training procedure is given next page. The important steps in the training procedure are as below: 1. Preparing the Trainer: The trainer must know both the job to be Taught and how to teach it. The job must be divided into logical parts so that each can be taught at a proper time without the trainee losing the plan. For each part one should have in mind the required technique (for instruction) i.e. whether a particular topic is best dealt by illustration, demonstration or explanation. A committed trainer must: know the job or the subject he is about to teach. have the abilities and the aptitude to teach. be committed to the profession. have leadership capacities and a genial personality. be well aware of the teaching principles and methods. be willing to learn continuously and update himself with the latest concepts and technologies.

2. Preparing the Trainee: The first step in training is to attempt to pace the trainee at
ease. Most people are nervous when approaching an unfamiliar task. Though the trainer may have executed the training procedure, they forget that the training content is new to the trainees. Trainers must possess empathy. ____________________________________________________________________ TRAINING PROCEDURE Job and Evaluate the Design training organisational Trainee(s) content, teaching analysis needs Identify the training needs Design the training Prepare cost budget and foresee benefits

Have cost benefit methods analysis media

Prepare the Gain the trainer acceptance

Prepare the trainee

Get ready to teach programme

Implement the training

Present the operations

of the programme

Try out the Trainees performance

Evaluate the results

Update the programme

_______________________________________________________________

3. Getting Ready to Teach: This stage of the programme is class room training which
involves the following activities: planning the programme. Preparing the trainers outline. not have too much material. move the sessions logically. Discuss each item in depth. Repeat, if one has to, bur in different words. Take the material from standard texts when they are available. When standard text is not available, develop the programme and course content based on group approach. Group consist of employer, skilled employees, supervisors, trade union leaders and others familiar with job requirements. Group prepares teaching material. Teach about the standard for the trainee like quality, quantity, ability to work without supervision, knowledge or procedure, safety rules, human relations etc. Remember your standard before you teach. check periodical progress of the trainees, and take in to account the Planning Training Sessions checklist given below: ________________________________________________________ Planning Training Sessions

1. Every lesson should be planned. 2. Know how many trainees you are training. 3. Lay out the subject matter. 4. Select the best method of instruction. 5. Decide what the trainees need in the way of preparation. 6. Make plans to capture and maintain trainees interest. 7. Plan a summary of points to be emphasised. 8. Plan for using of training aids, if any. 9. Have a rehearsal, it will help. 10. Plan for examination questions.
________________________________________________________

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4. Presenting the Operation: There are various ways of presenting the operation, viz.,
explanation, demonstration etc. A trainer invariably uses these methods. One may also use charts, diagrams and other exhibits to illustrate points. When the job is physical in nature, demonstration is an excellent device.

5. Try out the Trainees Previous Performance: Trainees should be asked to start the
job or operative procedure. It is also good idea that the trainee explains each step before doing it, particularly if the operation involves any danger. The trainee with practice will acquire more skill.

6. Follow-up: The final step in any training procedure is follow-up. When people are
involved in any problem or procedure, things may not be constant. Follow-up can be adopted as reinforcement, as suggested in learning principles. The follow-up system should include a feedback on training effectiveness and on total value of training system. Advantages of Training: The major advantages of imparting training will be visible after some passage of time. They are: a) Enhanced Productivity: An increase in skill brings about enhancement of both quality and quantity output. With increasing technical demands of modern jobs, systematic and continuous training will be necessary to achieve even minimum levels of achievement. b) Increased Morale: Learning better skills help meet such basic human needs as security and ego satisfaction. Collaborate personnel and human relations programmes can contribute to improve morale, but they require supplementation with meaningful work done with knowledge, skill and pride. c) Reduced Supervision: The trained employee needs limited supervision. Both the employee and the supervisor want this but unless the employee is adequately trained it may not be possible. d) Reduced Accidents: Accidents are caused by ill- trained workmen than by deficiencies in machines and working conditions. Hence proper training in both skills and safety norms will minimise the chances of accidents. e) Increased Organisational Stability: The strength of any organisation is to sustain its effectiveness even in the event of loss of key personnel. Hence, it is imperative that a reserve of well trained, confident employees. Flexibility, ability to adjust to variations in the volume of work requires employees with multiple skills so that job transfers could be effected as when the demand arises. Evaluation of Training Programmes: Evaluation is the determination of the extent to which the training activities have met their goals. Unfortunately the evaluation is often poorly done or ignored altogether. One reason for this that managers simply assume that training will work. Another is that a manager who champions a training programme may feel threatened by the prospect of an objective evaluation of its effectiveness. The basic approach to evaluation should be to determine the extent to which the training programme has met the objectives identified prior to the training. Planning for the evaluation should start at the same time that planning for the training programme begins. If the goals of the programme are clearly stated as specific objectives, the appropriate evaluation method can be implemented at the same time as the programme. Evaluation Levels and Progress:

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Donald L. Kirkpatrick developed the best known and most widely used framework for the evaluation of training programmes. 45 Kirkpatrick identified the four levels of evaluation. Reach level answers a very important but very different question about the effectiveness of the programme. If possible, a good evaluation should include measurement at all four of these levels. FOUR LEVELS OF TRAINING EVALUATION Levels Questions Being Asked Is the organisation Accidents organisation or unit better because of Turnover Results the training Morale Profits Costs Profits Are trainees behaving Performance differently on the job after appraisal by training? Are they using the superior, Skills and knowledge they peer, client, learned in training ? subordinate. To what extent do trainees Written tests have greater knowledge or Performance Measures Quality Productivity

Behaviour

Tests skill after the training Graded programme than they did simulations before ? Did the trainees like the programme, the trainers, Reaction the facilities ? Do they Questionnaires think the course was useful ? What improvements can they suggest ? - Kirkpatrick, Four Steps to Measuring Training Effectiveness, pp. 19-25. Reaction: The first is called reaction, or the participants feelings about the programme. That the trainees enjoyed a programme does not mean that the programme was useful to the organisation. However, unpopular programmes attract few trainees and are likely to be cancelled, and therefore trainers must be concerned with reaction. Reaction information is usually gathered by questionnaire during or immediately after the programme. Learning: The second level of evaluation has to do with learning. Learning measures assess to what degree trainees have mastered the concepts, information, and skills that the training tried to impart. Learning is assessed during and / or at the end of the programme with written tests, performance tests and graded simulation exercises. Behaviour: On-the-job behaviour is the third level of evaluation in Kirkpatricks approach. Behaviour measures ask whether employees are doing things differently on the job training, whether they are visibly using what they have been taught. On the job behaviour can be assessed by any of the performance evaluation techniques discussed Learning

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earlier. Behaviour ratings can be collected from the superior, peers, subordinates or clients of the trained employees. Results: The final level of evaluation is results. At this level, the impact of the training programme on the work group or organisation as a whole is assessed objectively. The appropriate objective measures to use depend on the content and the objectives of the training. Simple measures of results include cost savings, profit, productivity, quality, accidents, turnover, and employee attitudes. Kirkpatrick suggests that these four levels of evaluation may form a hierarchy. Accordingly, change farther up the hierarchy of outcomes is unlikely unless change has occurred lower in the hierarchy. That is, if no learning has occurred, it is unlikely that on-the-job behaviour will change. If behaviour does not change, it is unlikely that measurable improvements in results will be observed. Evaluative Designs: Designing a good evaluation effort involves knowing when to collect evaluation measures and which groups to collect them from. Together, these factors define the experimental design used to assess the impact of training. Because reaction measures simply assess whether or not participants like the training and think it will be useful, these measures are collected during or immediately after the training. Ideally, an additional reaction questionnaire should be sent to participants several months after the training, to see if they still believe that the training has been of use in their jobs. The purpose of learning, behaviour, and trying results measures is quite different from that of reaction measures, in that the trainer is to discover whether or not a change has occurred in the variable being measured - that is, are trained employees behaving differently now than they were before training ? If there has been a change, the trainer will want to know whether or not it can be attributed to the training programme. that is, did the training programme bring about the change? There are two basic strategies for determining whether a change has occurred. The first is to compare the trainees after the training to the way they were before the training. This comparison involves the collection of evaluation measures at two points in time. The second strategy is to compare the learning, behaviour, or results of the trained group to the learning, or results of a group that has not been trained - but is otherwise identical to the trained group. The strongest evaluation designs draw on both the strategies. There are many complex and highly effective designs for evaluating training. However, we shall discuss only a few of the more straight forward ones. One-shot Posttest-Only Design: Training evaluation measures are collected only from the trained group, after the training has been conducted. Because there is no pretraining measure and no untrained group for purposes of comparison, there is no way to determine whether a change has occurred, or whether any change has been caused by training. However, if the aim is to determine whether a desired standard of performance has been reached, this simple design might produce some useful data. For instance, one might be able to verify that 90% of the trainees passed the learning test at the end of the training, or that after the training programme, customer complaints averaged only one per thousand. One-Group Pretest-Posttest Design: Another very simple design, in which the training group is assessed both before and after the training. For instance the productivity of the trained group might be found to be 5% higher after the training than it was before training. Although this design does

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allow a trainer to determine if there has been a change in learning, behaviour, or results, it does not enable the trainer to conclude with absolute certainty that the training brought about the change. A change from one time period to another can be caused by anything that occurs between measurements, not just by the training. For instance, there might be a new supervisor, revised work methods, a change in the quality of raw materials, an increase in work load, employee turnover, a change in the pay system, or union activity. Any of these or similar factors could affect behaviour or results measures and cause the training evaluation to be misleading. If non-training concurrent events seem unlikely to account for a change from pre- to post-training, then the trainer can gain some useful information about the effectiveness of the training from this simple design. Multiple-Baseline Design: This is an improved design that avoids some of the above mentioned problems. In this design, the trainer measures the group several times both before and after the training. The trainer probably should not use conspicuous measure, such as a questionnaire or learning test. Trainees could improve over time just because they are gaining practice with the measure. Objective measures of behaviour or results are less conspicuous, and they are easy to collect repeatedly. The multiple-baseline design allows the trainer to observe trends in performance and to see if there is a change in trend immediately after the training. For instance, a trainer may find that employees are slowly improving with experience over time but that a big jump in performance occurs after training. The average results of a training group on a series of evaluations might be 10, 11, and 12 on pre-tests and then 15, 17, and 18 after the training. This design enables the trainer to detect training effects over and above the simple experience effects and also helps to rule out coincidental factors as explanations for any changes occurring immediately after training. It would be a extreme coincidence if another event occurred exactly and only at the same time as the training. Thus, if this design is used, the trainer can be more certain that the training caused the observed change. This design is the best one to use if all employees are to be trained simultaneously. Leaving none to serve a control group. Pretest-Posttest Control-Group Design: As even better design uses a control group of employees who are very similar to the training group except that they do not receive the training (at last not yet). In the pretest-posttest control-group design, both the group to receive training and the control group are measured at least once before and once after the training. This design allows the trainer to draw quite firm conclusions about: 1. whether any change has occurred & 2. it has, whether the change has resulted from the training. The trainer might normally expect to find that the trained group improves from pre-test to post-test. Whereas the control group stays the same. However, other patterns of results can also be interpreted under this design. For instance, if the training group is the same after the training as before, but the control group is worse on the post-test than on the pre-test, then the training was probably effective in prevention a decline in performance that would have otherwise occurred. Managerial Development Programmes: Because managerial work is important, complex and challenging many organisations provide regular management training. The results of all these programmes are not always clear because management development programmes are rarely evaluated vigorously, a comprehensive review of the evaluation that have been done concluded that many types of management development programmes do have a beneficial effect on the job behaviour. 46Among the programmes, those that provide carefully designed training linked to a thorough needs assessment should be More effective than faddish programmes purchased from vendors of canned, one-size-fits-all management development packages.

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Development of supervisors and junior managers is often done by in-house trainers or by training consultants. Development of senior managers and executives often takes place at Universities, in programmes of one to four weeks duration. Some of the largest and most successful organisations have their university, such as General Electrics Crotonville Management Development Institute in New York state. On-the job Methods: Although most formal management development takes place off them job, the majority of the learning occurs on the job. There have been several recent studies of managerial learning and skill development as a result of on-the-job experience. This research suggests that managers learn the most from assignments that are very difficult and challenging, such as building a new start-up operation or increase in responsibility, such as moving from a staff to line position, moving to a different functional area, or moving to a job with greatly increased responsibilities for people, or units. and from hardships such as personal or business failures or dealing with very difficult individual. Thus, a complete programme of management should include a job assignment and succession system that stretches people to their

46

- M> J. Burke and R. R. Day, A Cumulative Study of the Effectiveness of managerial Training, Journal of Applied Psychology, May 1986, pp. 232-245. Also.. Tomothy T. Baldwin and Margaret Y. Padgett, Management Development : A Review and Commentary, in International Review of Industrial and Organisational Psychology, ed. C. L. Cooper and T. Robinson, vol. 8, 1993 pp. 35-85. limits.47 in addition to major full-time assignments, organisations use several other onthe-job management development programmes. Coaching OR Mentoring: One of the most popular on-the-job methods, in which experienced managers guide the actions of less experienced managers. Most mentor-protg relationships occur spontaneously, when a more senior person voluntarily decides to become involved in developing the career of a promising junior. However, some organisations have a formal programme that assigns mentors to new managers. Mentors usually assist their protgs in developing important job skills and also serve as advocates to the protgs higher in the organisation, assuring that the juniors are not overlooked when developmental opportunities or promotions become available. 48 Job Rotation: It means moving from one job assignment to another within the same organisation. Each assignment usually lasts for four to six months. Job rotation provides an inexperienced manager with a broad understating of the organisation -- its purpose and its goals. Another effect of job rotation is to turn specialists into generalists. A person whose entire career is spent in one functional area becomes specialist but may not develop a general, overall perspective of the organisation. Upper level managers, in particular need such a general outlook as they spend more and more of their time managing the total organisation and less and less time managing a specialised functional area. Job rotation is a management development technique that provides this outlook. Off-the job Methods: Many formal management development programmes occur off the job and away from the normal place of work. One reason for this is that a programme is considered more of a perk if it is conducted in an exotic off-site location, rather than the in-house, at the everyday workplace. Another reason for the off-site locale is to remove the manager from the daily environment of the organisation and thereby minimise interruptions and distractions. Organisations can conduct their own management

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development programmes or send managers to generic management-skills programmes offered by consulting firms and universities. A number of training methods are used in off-the-job management development programmes.
47

- Gail S. Robinson and Calhoun W. Wick, Executive Development That Makes a Business Difference, Human Resource Planning, vol. 15, 1992, pp. 63-75. 48 - Georgia T. Chao, Pat M. Walz and Philip D. Gardner, Formal and Informal Mentorships : A Comparison Mentoring Functions and Contrast with Nonmentored Counterparts, Personnel Psychology, vol. 45, 1992, pp. 619 - 636. However, caution must be exercised in planning and selecting these methods, as few may be offensive or threatening to participants. Team Building: Many organisations have turned to this method to develop the capacity of work groups to interact more effectively. Team building often starts with a data collecting phase, utilising individual interviews with team members or questionnaires. The trainer seeks information about how the group works together, what problems exist, and what norms are followed. This information is fed back to the group so that they can take an objective look at their functioning and decide how they wish to change it. The facilitator helps the team understand the feedback and develop action plans for improving group processes. These plans may include training in specific skills, such as active listening, problem analysis and group decision making, consensus seeking, conflict resolution, and so on. 49 Behaviour Modelling Training: It is based on social learning theory, which hold that most human behaviour is learned by observing others and then modelling their behaviour when appropriate. Learning from others reduces the need for trial-and-error learning. Research has shown that behaviour modelling training is an effective way to teach the interpersonal skills required of supervisors. Organisations do not need to develop their own videotapes, as several vendors offer behaviour modelling programmes that feature the generic skills needed by most supervisors. Case Study: This method was developed by Harvard Business School in the 1920s. This method presents the trainee with a written description of an actual or hypothetical problem in an organisational setting. The trainee is required to read the case, identify the problem, and recommend solutions. Simulation Techniques: It creates a facsimile of portions of work setting, in which trainees try out different behaviours or strategies. The objective is to have trainees learn from various from their own actions, as well as from the group discussion that follows the simulation in a debriefing

49

- Steven L. Phillips and Robin L. Elledge, The Team Building Source Book (San Diego University Associates, 1989). session. 50 Simulations can be as simple as two person role-playing or as complex as a sophisticated computer simulation of business processes. An increased level of complexity is represented by large-scale behavioural simulations. These involve simulated organisations of up to twenty people in different roles lasting from six to several days. Simulations at this level of complexity are typically used with executives rather than lower-level supervisors. Another simulation technique is the computerised business decision-making game. Since 1957, when the first business game appeared, more than 1,000 business

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simulations have become commercially available. A business simulation or game is a sequential decision-making exercise structured on a model of a business operation, in which the trainee assumes the role of managing the simulated operation. Business simulation games provide two advantages in training managers. First, they allow managers to experience real-world problems without having to suffer the consequences of poor decisions. Second, they allow time to be compressed. With one of these games, trainees can experience several years of organisational performance in just a few hours. The major disadvantage of these games is that sometimes trainees focus on beating the system rather than on learning the management principles being presented by the simulation. Action Learning: An increasingly common method of middle and upper management development combines on- and off-the-job learning in innovative ways. The term action learning was coined by Reg Revans in Great Britain over twenty years ago, and his approach has been gradually making its way into USA. The underlying idea is teaching that formal training is good at conveying programmed knowledge (facts) but poor teaching questioning insight (the ability to seek out and use knowledge and solve real problems in innovative ways)- yet it is the latter that is most crucial for managerial success. It usually features some classroom instruction together with an applied project tackled by a tam of trainees (or occasionally by individual trainees). Trainees are assigned to investigate and solve a real organisational problem that is outside the area of expertise and very complex. They struggle to analyse the problem, learning from fellow trainees and tutors, collecting data and reading from the literature as necessary, to discover a solution. In the process, they develop specific managerial competencies alongwith learning how to learn.
50

- Peter F. McAteer, Simulations: Learning Tools for the 1990s, Training and Development, October 1991 pp.19-22 & Kim Slack, Training for the Real Thing, Training & Development, May 1993, pp. 79-89. New Employee Orientation: A very common type of training for all employees, managerial or nonmanagerial, that is provided when they join the organisation. New comers have to learn about their supervisors and co-workers, the demands of their job, company rules and procedures, and the Organisations culture and assumptions. Employees usually say that their best source of information about the organisations co-workers. Thus new comers should be assigned a buddy or be given a position in which they have plenty of access to friendly co-workers. In addition, the organisation should provide one or more orientation sessions. A relevant employee orientation might feature two parts: 1. an introduction to the specific job and department provided by the supervisor. & 2. several sessions of general orientation to the company, provided by the HRM department. Supervisors should be trained to orient new employees and should use a checklist to ensure that they cover all important points. QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSIONS

1. How do you identify the training needs of an enterprise? 2. What is job rotation? How does it help in acquiring new skills and knowledge?

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3. What are the major steps in the development of a training programme? Describe
the steps in detail.

4. Define learning. Explain the principles of learning. 5. What purposes does training serve? Explain the ingredients of a good training
programme for the employees at various levels.

6. What are the objectives of training? 7. What is training evaluation? Explain the steps and methods of training evaluation. 8. What factors should be evaluated when deciding whether to train employees on the
job or in a class room?

9. Distinguish between Training and Management Development. 10. 11.

Explain in detail the objectives of Management Development Programmes. Pick out some task that you are familiar - tuning your vehicle, preparing for an examination in five days - and develop a job instruction training sheet.

Module 5. Organisational Change and Development: Managing Change: Organisations are vehicles of socio economic change and development in any society. As a vehicle of development they are affected by the changes that take place in the environment. Changes may also be possible in the internal environment of an organisation due to changing aspirations of its members and / or induction of new technology ( the simple and recent example of which is the computers).Change is the phenomenon of the day and any change in any part of the environment, either internal and external, will affect every aspect of organisational life. Management of change, therefore, is assuming far greater significance today in view of the rapid pace and unpredictability of its direction both in the internal and external environment of any organisation. As organisations are a complex network interdependent individuals and groups, change in any one aspect of the organisation will have repercussions on every other aspect in the organisation. Change, therefore, even seemingly insignificant ones, must be carefully planned so as to anticipate its negative impact on other subsystems of the organisation and corrective action plan kept ready to be implemented on time. At the same time we must be ware of the factors in the internal and external environment of the organisation that will bring about changes and these changes are sometimes inevitable and may be for the future good health of the organisation. Some of these factors are: 1. need for improvement in productivity and quality. 2. uncertainties in social, political and economic environments. 3. rapid changes in technology and knowledge. 4. globalisation of business and standards of goods and servicesas customers will compare the indigenous goods and services with multinational standards. 5. increase in the number of stake-holders and pressure groups both within and without the organisation. 6. increased competition at national and international levels. 7. pace of obsolescence is likely to increase demanding continuous learning by organisational members. 8. Reduction of time availability for decision-response. 9. adaptations through search, creating newer option and adjustments thereto. 10. increasing need for value based training to develop culture of work commitment. Resistance to Change: The factors mentioned above will bring about inevitable change, and the organisation even though well aware of the same, will still find it an uphill task to introduce changes in the existing systems. All contemplated changes will fundamentally involve transformation and modification of peoples attitudes. Knowledge, skills and practices they had acquired over the time while coping up with the existing contingencies. Any change in belief and habit are bound to be resisted as it requires new - untried - coping mechanisms. Specifically from the employees point of view, changes are resisted for the following reasons:

1. Evaluation of outcome:
Employees perception of the change and assessment of its impact on goal achievement is likely to be different depending on hierarchical levels to which they belong I.e. the same change proposal may be perceived differently by managers and workers in terms of its impact on their individual goals and on the organisation.

2. Adaptability to change:

Psychologically individuals differ in characteristics especially risk taking ability, threshold levels for anxiety, ambiguity and flexibility etc. Those employees with low thresholds levels will react negatively and resist changes.

3. Personal Goals:
Many employees may see changes as a threat to their personal goals like power, competence, money, prestige and security and react the only way they can safeguard themselves resist changes.

4. Misunderstanding of Purpose and Lack of Trust:

Low levels of trust amongst the various sections of the employees and with the management as also a lack of real understanding of the real purpose of the change will result in their resisting the change. Resistance can be contained to a minimum by adoption of the following measures:

a) nature of change be made clear to all, especially to those who will be b) c) d) e) f) g)

affected by it. through education and proper communication employees can be made to accept changes in the larger interests of the Organisation and their own. by identifying, interest and pressure groups ( who are likely to resist change) and involving them at some stage of decision making process. employees must be encouraged to actively participate and get involved in deciding about the nature and direction of change. by ensuring that changes are not effected on personal grounds or for personal benefits of a few individuals but only for objective requirements of the organisation . by incorporating already existent customs, social relations and institutions to the extent possible - in the new order. providing for counselling, individual and group therapy for developing facilitative and supportive skills for the management of change.

Planning and Implementing Change: Management is often called a Change agent and any change this change agent desires, employees support is essential as they are at the helm of affairs. Change is essentially of three steps: Unfreezing, change and re-freezing. Unfreezing means, old practices and ideas are to be set aside so that new ones can be brought in place. Change is the step in which new practices and ideas are learnt so that employees can think and perform in new, changed ways. Refreezing means that what is now learnt (new) is integrated in to actual practice. When the change that has been brought about, after it has been accepted and has been decided to make it a part of the on-going activity, is to be blended in to all ongoing activities of the organisation, it requires total commitment to absorb them in its vitals. This process comes about by positive implementation of the change process. Implementation is a multidimensional process. When the change(s) are made a permanent part of the organisation, we have achieved Institutionalisation. When changes thus institutionalised become a permanent part of the organisation, we have achieved Internalisation. The Implementation process commences with planning. The three stages in this planning process are, Monitoring Change, Taking action in relation to the change and Making necessary adjustments, if necessary, in the programme made for implementation.

Planning Cases Processes Strategies

Monitoring * Implementation Team * Minimum Control Feedback Communication

Action

Adaptation * General & Local * Coping with Consequences

Institutionalisation

Stabilisation

Planning: The objective is to have an understanding of implementation. It means determining in advance the various steps in implementation. It may be focused on phasing, which may be temporal ( in time dimension) or spatial ( in terms of various units or locations of the organisation). Processes: The processes involved in planning should be finalised in advance, which include: initiation, motivation, diagnosis, data collection, analysis of data, proposed action, implementation and stabilisation. Strategies: Management should enunciate various strategies for implementation, focusing on taking outsiders help, change agent, designing structures, unit / location of organisation to be selected for initial phase, openness with the environment etc. Monitoring: It is the periodic measurement of programme inputs, activities and outputs undertaken during implementation. Monitoring is necessary to make implementation effective and to ensure that plans proceed as per the originally envisaged. An independent with no undue interest may be entrusted with this task and preferably should have continuity. Implementation Team: HRD department of the organisation or a broad based task group of implementation should look after the change programme. Minimum Control: Since it is a delicate issue, control should be minimum in order to ensure that the monitoring is effective. Though it is a control function, at the same time it attempts to develop new standards of creativity, diversity and experimentation. Review and Feedback: The task force must review the data obtained and experiences collected and provide feedback to people concerned how they are implementing compared to the plans. Dissemination of Information: All data, information, experiences collected from various units/ processes to be provided to all parties of change implementation for motivation and renewed commitment. Action:

It covers all the minute details of what is to be implemented at different stages. This process involves various phases and steps for people and various group tasks in relation to change programme. Adaptation: Adaptation is the blending of two criteria - effectiveness and implementation. Some modifications may be made in the original plan and some may be developed at a alter stage. Support: Support in various forms and from various quarters will be required for the implementation of change. Main agencies which will be called in for support are: Human Resources Development: Effective implementation of change requires new and varied technical, managerial and behavioural skills and knowledge. HRD can contribute to the development of these skills through training, executive / organisational development programmes. Resources: Implementation requires resource support: financial, human, technology etc. Linkages: Support is also essential in building linkages with external experts, external agencies and internal departments, as also linkages between departments, implementation teams, line management and top management. Management Commitment: Top management should fully involve itself in the process encourage the implementation teams and provide all required resources. In addition to the above management has to get the support of employees through the following means: a) Encouraging and using group force. b) Development of leadership for change. c) Encouraging participation and free exchange of views. d) Maintaining employee security. e) Effective communication. f) Participation and working with the unions. g) Working with the total system, which is undergoing change by adopting useful and necessary changes. h) Changing by evolution and ensuring no abrupt changes takes place. i) Adopting the change with adequate attention to human relations. j) Identifying and taking care of post-change problems. Organisation Development: Organisation Development (OD) is by far the most widely used strategy of planned change in organisations. Based on the analysis derived from researches n behavioural sciences in the last four to five decades, OD provides a normative framework within which changes in climate and culture of the organisation for harnessing the human potential for the realisation of organisational objectives and goals is brought about. Organisation Development, therefore, aims at developing and revitalising the adaptive capacities of organisations so as to enable them to respond to their internal and external environment in a proactive manner. Objectives of Organisation Development: Some of the major objectives of OD are:

1. Create an open problem-solving climate throughout the organisation, so 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

that employees develop a high degree of problem solving orientation. Develop relationships based on trust and collaboration among individuals and groups - vertically, horizontally and diagonally. Inculcate team spirit amongst employees and to develop a culture of consensual decision-making. Make competition positive where it exists, and so contribute to excellence in meeting the work goals as opposed to win / lose competition. Locate decision-making and problem-solving responsibilities as close to the information source as possible. Increase the sense of affiliation with the organisation objectives among the employees throughout the organisation by adopting strategies geared to integrating the individual needs with organisational requirements.

Characteristics of OD: The main characteristics of OD are as follows: 1. Planned Change: A great deal of effort is directed toward planning for change in a systematic manner as it is focused on people. Interdependence amongst individuals as also other constituent elements of the organisation is recognised and planning is attempted so as to deal with unintended consequences of change efforts. 2. Systematic Change: The OD efforts usually involve the organisation as a whole or an identifiable unit within it. The emphasis is on total system change. 3. Relational Thrust: The OD programmes have a relational thrust - they seek to relate individual needs with the organisation goals by activating work groups and teams and using them as medium and target of change. 4. Long-range Change: Since OD aims at bringing about a culture change, the time span for such a change is much larger, sometimes two to three years or more. 5. Catalyst for Change: The catalyst for change is often called the Change Agent, with professional expertise in applied behavioural sciences, must be involved while introducing OD programmes. Though an external change agent needs to be involved, however, a major thrust of OD effort is to prepare a cadre of internal change agents from within the organisation who sustain, maintain and strengthen the change efforts. Intervention and Action Research: The OD approach places emphasis on making appropriate intervention in the ongoing activities of the organisation. In action research, the change agent establishes collaborative relationship with the clients and works jointly with them in diagnosing problems, setting change goals, making intervention and evaluating the outcome. The process is continuous and cyclical and, therefore, requires active involvement and commitment of both change agent (external or internal) and the clients for a longer time duration. Interventions: A wide variety of interventions have been developed to assist the organisation to move towards its change gals. The choice of an intervention, however, depends on the target group, that is, the level at which the change is desired. The levels could be individual, dyads / triads. Teams / groups, inter group and organisation as a whole.

At the level of the individual, interventions like life and career planning counselling, sensitivity training (T-Group) for heightened self-awareness are used. For dyads (superior-subordinate), process consultation and third party peace-making are considered to be more appropriate. At the level of group, team-building workshops, family, T-group and survey feedback are some of the interventions which have proved effective. The most widely used interventions are sensitivity training, process consultation and survey feedback. These three taken together can be used for any target group. In OD, while one may begin at any one level (individual, interpersonal, group, inter-group, organisation) because of the interdependence of these levels, interventions must be directed at all subsequent levels. MANAGEMENT-BY-OBJECTIVES (M B O) Management-by-objectives (MBO) is another approach which has been widely used to integrate individual and group goals with the overall organisational goals. The emphasis on MBO is on involvement of employees in goal setting process. The overall goals of the organisation are broken down to into unit or departmental objectives. Each unit and department in turn assigns individualised objectives to its own members. Individualised objectives are set in consultation with the departmental or unit head and mechanisms for monitoring and review of these objectives are also specified. Thus, every employee, as a part of the MBO process, has a set of agreed objectives, concrete plans of action for achieving these objectives and mechanism for continuous monitoring, periodic and final review.

The MBO Process Review - Performance Appraisal

Management development Strategic Plans Tactical Plans UNIT OBJECTIVES Improvement Plan

Selection succession Training rewards

KEY RESULT AREAS OR KEY TASKS Performance Standards Control Data Job Improvement Plan STATUS OF OBJECTIVES General objective SpecificStandards Control Results results of performdata to be -ance achieved Action Related planned new objectives

MBO programmes effectively implemented tend to improve communication within departments and increase mutual understanding between superior and subordinate. Managers tend to develop a more positive attitude towards performance evaluation and feedback systems and learn to monitor their own progress towards predetermined objectives. The performance appraisal system based on MBO tends to be more objective and provides useful data which can be used for career planning, reward distribution, job allocation and management development plans and programmes. Quality of Work Life: One of the major problems facing the developing and the developed world is the quality of work life of a vast majority of employees engaged in productive pursuits. The issue is not just one of achieving greater human satisfaction but it also aims at improving productivity, adaptability and overall effectiveness of the organisations. The quality of work life movement seeks to achieve integration among the technological, human, organisational and social demands which are often conflicting and contradictory. The quality of work life is not based on any one particular theory. It does not advocate any particular technique for application. It is more concerned with the overall climate of work and the impact that the work has on people as well as on organisation effectiveness. Direct participation of employees in problem-solving and decisionmaking- particularly in areas related to their work - is considered to be a necessary condition for providing greater autonomy and opportunity for self-direction and self control. The ultimate objective is of upgrading the quality of life at work. The recognised purpose is to change the climate at work so that the human-technologicalorganisational interface leads to a better quality of work life and eventually to an improved quality of life in community and society. Approaches to Quality of Work Life: The quality of work life movement traditionally has been closely identified with the job redesign efforts based on socio-technical systems approach. However, during the 1980s the concept of quality of work life has broadened to include a number of approaches aimed at joint decision-making, collaboration and mutual respect between management and employees, increased autonomy at work place and self management. Thus the quality of circles adopted by the Japanese and Indian Industries as well as democratisation of work process through self-regulating autonomous groups in the Scandinavian countries and the USA are all considered part of this movement. Quality of Work Life in the Indian Context: There are several pertinent aspects of the movement for quality work life in the context of India and other developing countries that merit consideration. ELEMENTS OF QUALITY OF WORK LIFE INDIVIDUAL QUALITY OF WORK LIFE WORKER Job satisfaction Personal development GROUPS Teams Quality

Work redesign Career development

Training & Multiskilling PROCESS Profit sharing scanlon plan, flexitime and promotion pln

reduced stress self control and self-discipline EMPLOYER

circles self management and participation STRUCTURE Flexible structure reduced bureaucracy and expanded goals

Productivity commitment adaptability reduced absenteeism and turnover SOCIETY Increased value of human resources, life satisfaction, active involvement in social affairs.

1. The quality of work life of people depends on the extent to which people-work
environment relationship forms an integral whole and where the level of interaction among the three is very high resulting in a state of dynamic equilibrium. It is on in a state of dynamic equilibrium that the status quo orientation of people in organisation can be replaced by adaptive action orientation. 2. The design of work systems in developing countries, therefore, will have to be such as to take into account the mutuality of relationship between work organisation and the socio-cultural realities. There will, inevitably, be the need to initiate action research in a variety of settings and on a large scale which alone can provide an insight in to the nature and dynamics of inter-linkages between the work system and the socio-cultural system. 3. Inmost developing countries, work design can become a powerful instrument of cultural and attitudinal change. Certain values, attitudes and cultural attributes in the new work system can manifest themselves in the socio-cultural and political system as well. Thus, while in the case of India, the bureaucratic form of work organisation reinforces authoritarianism of traditional society, the redesigned work system based on participative principles will tend to foster democratic values in he society at large. 4. While it will be necessary to inculcate new values and attitudes in the work place, it will also be equally desirable to redesign such systems which will sustain and strengthen the predominant patterns of behaviour that already exist in a given culture. Thus, in case of India, proposed alternative form of work organisation with semi-autonomous group as unit is more geared towards incorporating the main orientations of people as also some of the characteristics of socio-cultural conditions prevailing today. The movement for the quality of work life aims at integrating the sociopsychological needs of human beings, the unique requirements and constraints of a particular technology, the structure and processes of the organisation and the existing socio-culture milieu. The purpose of the movement is to create a culture of work commitment in organisations and society to ensure higher productivity, greater job satisfaction and active involvement in community and social life. Work plays a central role in the life of people engaged in productive pursuits. The nature of work one is involved with has a profound impact on shaping not only his personality or determining his performance level in the organisation but also on his commitment to his fellow beings in the society. Thus, it is imperative to bring about improvement in the quality of life at work which can and even does lead to qualitative

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improvement in other facets of ones life. The prevailing socio-cultural conditions in India leave no option but to bring about such a change. Various approaches have been adopted in different socio-cultural contexts to improve the quality of work life such as quality circles, team work, autonomous group working, flexitime and self management. Central to all these approaches has been the direct participation employees in affairs relating to their work leading to increased autonomy, self-control and self-direction. In developing countries such as India only superficial attention has been paid to such a vital area of concern. The quality of work life movement provides a value framework and a philosophy which has a long-term implication for the human resources development. HRM and Boosting Productivity: Productivity improvement is crucial in todays globally competitive environment and HRM plays a pivotal role in lowering labour costs. Researchers found that using a personnel screening to select high potential compute programmers could produce a savings of at least 30% per year. For many firms, taking recourse to reducing the numbers is the first line of attack on lowering labour costs. The HR department generally plays the central role in planning and implementing corporate downsizing and then taking steps to maintain the morale of the remaining employees. HR helps employees adapt to increased pressures in their downsized departments by helping them to learn prioritise tasks and reduce job stress.51 HR and Business Process Reengineering: What is reengineering? Michael Hammer and James Champy, the fathers of reengineering, define it as The fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in critical, contemporary measures of performance, such as cost, quality, service and speed. 52 One of business process reengineerings (BPR) basic assumption is that the traditional way of organising departments and processes around very specialise tasks is inherently duplicative, wasteful and unresponsive to the organisations customers. In reengineering a company and it departments and processes, the reengineers, therefore, need to ask themselves Why do we do what we do? and Why do it the way we do?
51

- Charlene Marmer Solomon, Working Smarter: How HR Can Help? Personnel Journal (June 1993) pp. 54-64. 52 - Michael Hammer and James Champy, Reengineering the Corporation, (New York: Harper Business, 1994), p.32. In business process reengineering, several jobs are combined in to one so that an assembly line process is replaced by generalists who carry out all the tasks themselves. Another reengineering characteristic is, therefore, that workers make more decisions. Related to this, checks and controls are reduced, and instead there is more emphasis on carefully selecting and training the new generalist. Reengineered processes also tend to take a case manager to dealing with customers, so that each customer ends up with a single point of contact when checking on the status of an order or request. HRs Role in Reengineering Processes:

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Two years after the concepts and techniques of reengineering were introduced, it was obvious that something was lacking. In their attempt to focus on reorganising the work and eliminating unneeded, duplicative operations, many companies bent on reengineering had neglected to simultaneously institute new HR practices - the firms had failed to win the commitment of their managers and employees to their new reengineered jobs. We now understand that HR plays a crucial role in successfully implementing a reengineering. We briefly discuss below some of the HRs role:

1. Building commitment to Reengineering:

Implementing reengineering successfully means winning employee commitment. As one expert says [Reengineering is] about an ongoing, never ending commitment to doing things better. Even the most brilliant reorganisations and organisational changes can be undermined by reluctant employees. Therefore, one key to reengineering is to win peoples commitment to the changes and what those changes mean. HR, as we have seen, plays a big role in winning such commitment through HR practices like value-based hiring, building a sense of community and installing effective two-way communication practices. 2. HR and Team Building: Business process reengineering generally results in reorganising the work force from functional departments to process oriented teams, such as teams of employees working together to process credit requests. HR plays a central role in making selfdirected teams more effective. For instance, HR provides the required training and ensures that communication between top management and the teams remain open and freely flowing.

3. HRs Role in changing the Nature of the Work:

With reengineering, jobs generally change from specialised tasks to multidimensional generalist work. Not only is each worker generally responsible for a broader, more enriched job but process team members share joint responsibility with their team members for performing the whole process, not just a small piece of it. What this means is that each worker needs to be capable of using a much broader range of skills from day to day. HR is crucial here for recruiting high-potential employees and providing them with the training and development they require.

4. HRs Role in Moving from Controlled to Empowered Jobs:

People working in a reengineered process are of necessity empowered to perform a broader set of tasks with relatively little supervision. This means that companies that reengineer must use value-based recruiting. As one expert puts it: It is no longer enough merely to look at prospective employees education, training and skills - their character becomes an issue as well. Are they selfstarting? Do they have self-discipline? Are they motivated to do what it takes to please a customer? 53

5. HRs Role in Moving from Training to Education:

Hammer and Champy point out that in companies that reengineer, the emphasis necessarily shifts from training to education. In other words, it is no longer enough to just give employees training that shows them how to do the job. Instead the new generalist team members need education - they need to increase their insight and understanding of how to analyse and solve problems and to understand nit just the how of the job, but the why of it.

6. HRs Role in Shifting Focus from Activities to Results:

Reengineering creates work hat is measured in terms of its results, rather than in terms of completing an activity. This means that HR needs to re-evaluate the compensation system in the reengineered organisation if the reengineering is to be successful. In particular, the reward system should not pay people based just on seniority or . Because another year has passed. Instead contribution, performance and results should be the primary basis for determining compensation.

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53

- Michael Hammer and James Champy, Reengineering Management. P.71.

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QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSIONS

1. What is organisation change? Explain the types and reasons for change.
2. Why do employees resist change? Give a detailed account of resistance to change. 3. What is organisational development? Explain the various characteristics of OD. 4. Explain the values OD movement and OD process. 5. Compare and contrast the various methods of organisation development methods. 6. Define reengineering. Clarify the role of HR in Business Process Reengineering.

APPENDIX 1. HUMAN RESOURCES INFORMATION SYSTEMS A true human resource information system (HRIS) combines in one system all the information that organisations typically keep on employee and on positions. Ordinarily an HRIS evolves gradually from previously separate and somewhat redundant systems. For instance, an organisation may have a computerised skills inventory, a computerised compensation and benefit system, a computerised job / position database used for recruiting and perhaps manual files of performance appraisal information. These independent systems probably use the computer as a high-speed clerk and nothing more. An HRIS can be formed by combining all these types of employee data in to a single database. All job and position information may go into a second, interacting database. The software can then produce regular reports on equal employment opportunity (EEO) and affirmative action (AA), staffing levels and turnover statistics, monthly compensation cost predictions, and the like. HR staff can also make specific inquiries - for instance, how many employees would qualify for an enhanced retirement program? Predicting the Internal Supply of Labour: Given the necessary data in staffing tables, a skills inventory, or a more complex HRIS, HR professionals can predict the internal supply and distribution of labour in the future. Markov Analysis is a fairly simple method of predicting the internal supply of labour at some future time. The heart of Markov analysis is the transition probability matrix, which describes the probabilities of an incumbents staying in his or her present job for the forecast time period (usually one year), moving to another job in the organisation, or leaving the organisation. When this matrix is multiplied by the number of people beginning the year in each job, the results show how many people are expected to be in each job by the end of the year. To develop the transition probability matrix, planners take the following steps:

Specify a mutually exclusive and exhaustive set of states that include all jobs
between which people can move and an exit state for those who quit, die, retire or are fired.

Gather data from each of the last several years on what transition rates
actually occurred between each state. Such data could follow, for instance, that during the past year 15% of the people who began the year in Job A left the organisation. 10% were transferred to Job B, and 5% were promoted to Job C.

Attempt to develop stable, reliable estimates of expected future transition

rates. Some judgement is required at this step. Many organisations use the previous years transition rates. However, if the previous year was atypical (with unusually high or low rate of movement), planners may find it better to average the rates over the last several years. This third step is very important because the accuracy of prediction depends on using correct transition rates. If movement rates vary widely from year to year, planners may not be able to use Markov analysis to forecast internal supply. Once the transition probability matrix is developed, applying it is a simple matter (see table next page). To produce predictions, the matrix is multiplied by the vector of the number of incumbents in each state. For instance, Job A began the year with 62

incumbents. Fifteen % of those incumbents (0.15 x 62 = 9 ) left the organisation ; 10% (0.10 x 62 = 6 ) moved to Job B and 5% (0.05 x 62 = 3 ) moved to Job C. That leaves 44 of the original incumbents in Job A. However 15% of the 75 people (0.15x75 = 11 ) in Job B transferred to JOB A ; so the total number of employees in Job A at the end of the year is 55 (44 + 11 ). Markov Analysis Transition Probability (Time 2) Job A Job B 0.70 0.10 0.15 0.60 0 0 0 0 Matrix Job C 0.05 0.05 0.80 0.05 Job D 0 0.10 0.05 0.85 Exit 0.15 0.10 0.15 0.10

(Time 1) Job A Job B Job C Job D

Matrix Applied to Incumbents(*) Initial Staffing Level 62 75 50 45

Job A Job B Job C Job D Predicted end-ofyear staffing level

JOB A 44 11 0 0

Job B 6 45 0 0

Job C 3 4 40 2

Job D 0 8 2 38

Exit 9 7 8 5

55

51

49

48

29

(*) Numbers have been rounded to whole digits because fractions of employees are not meaningful (These numbers have been rounded to whole digits because fractions of employment are not meaningful.) Markov analysis describes what is expected to happen if existing transition rates remain the same. This type of analysis can also be used speculatively to assess the impact of possible modifications in transition rates. For instance, suppose that job D is going to be understaffed because of an unusually large number of retirements. In the past, this job has been filled largely by promotions from Job B. Planners might use the Markov model to determine what would happen if the rate of lateral transfers from Job C to Job D was increased or if the rate of promotion from Job B was increased. Planners could experiment with different probabilities until they found a workable solution. Markov analysis is widely used and easy to apply. However, it has been criticised for certain weaknesses and limitations. Transition probabilities must be relatively stable or estimable for Markov analysis to be accurate. Also, the probabilities will not be reliable if there are only a few incumbents in each job. Generally, Markov analysis works best if there are at least fifty people in each job state. A second weakness is conceptual rather than statistical. Markov analysis assumes that the probability of movement is determined solely by the employees initial job state. The probability of moving to Job B depends entirely on where the employee began the year, in Job A, C or D. In actual practice, however, people move within organisations because of the pull of vacancies rather than the push of their current assignments. Thus the true probability of moving to Job B also depends on the number of vacancies in Job B.

A more sophisticated approach to predicting internal movement and supply that takes this dynamic in to account is called renewal, or replacement, analysis. This method is driven by destination demand - the number of vacancies anticipated in higher - level jobs. Transition matrices help identify how the demand can be filled by internal movements from lower-level positions. These movements create additional vacancies and in turn drive further movement at even lower job levels. More complex methods of forecasting internal supply are available in goal programming, network analysis, and computer simulations. Simulations may use both replacement and Markov analyses, utilise the age and promotability information stored on each of thousands of employees, and allow a variety of different HR policies and assumptions to be tried out and evaluated. Computer and HRIS uses in HRM In recent years there has been an explosion in the use of computers and computer programmes of many types in HRM. We will now discuss some of the ways that computers and HRIS are being used by HR professionals in the 90s. Strategic HRM and HR Planning: One of the primary reasons for the existence of an HRIS is to improve human resources planning and decision making. The often vast amount of data on employees and jobs in the organisation provides the opportunity for the management to use this information in many new ways in making plans. An HRIS can be used to analyse hiring, transfer, and exit trends. Projections of future HR needs can be created and used to develop recruiting plans; to restructure promotion paths; or to assist in planning organisational restructuring, mergers, and acquisitions. Complex simulation models can be used to forecast outcomes under a number of alternate scenarios or HR policies. Job Analysis: Another area in which HRIS can be used is job analysis. Once a job analysis is completed, the information can be placed in the HRIS. As the job undergoes incremental changes, the ability requirements and task descriptions can be updated easily. Some commercially available modules for managing job descriptions allow for sorting of job descriptions on different bases. For instance, one might want to identify or print all job descriptions for people reporting to a particular manager, or all employees at a single plant, or all in a single salary range. Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action Planning: Equal employment opportunity (EEO) and affirmative action (AA) reporting has been one of the driving factors in the rapid growth of HRISs. Requirements to monitor and report the proportion of the work force of a given age, race and sex have led to the creation of large databases. As people enter and leave the organisation, these proportions change. The characteristics of job applicants who are rejected must also be monitored to ensure compliance with EEO legislation. Tracking and reporting this information without an HRIS is very difficult and time consuming. Recruitment: Clearly an organisations HRIS would be very useful for internal recruiting. Some HRIS modules control the internal job posting and bidding process, generate the posting notices and then match internal applicant qualifications with job specifications.

For jobs that are not posted, the automated skills inventory component of an HRIS can be used to generate a list of qualified internal candidates. This capability is especially useful in large organisations with multiple locations, where the identification of internal candidates across sites is sometimes very difficult. An additional function is applicant tracking and correspondence. An accurate system is needed to record applicant source, EEO category, and hiring decisions and to generate routine correspondence related to recruiting. Often the computerised applicant tracking system is not part of the HRIS per se, as a very large number of applicants are handled and only a small number of them eventually wind up being hired. After hire the records of these individuals would be transferred to the employees database in the HRIS. Selection: Computers can assist in employee selection in several ways. For instance, the administration and scoring of ability tests can be handled by the computer. The system can evaluate test performance and provide management with recommendations about the qualifications of the applicant. Adaptive testing can also be used. This type of testing varies in length of the test and the content of the questions on the basis of response from the job candidate. Computer aided interviewing can assist in the selection process by providing a structured interview directly with the applicant, even when a human interviewer is not present. These intreviews often involve specific questions about the applicants background, education, experience, skills, interests and genearla knowledge and are used to screen out less qualified candidates. For successful candidates Time Savings from HRIS Task Salary planning Business Unit Compensation Standing Equal Employment Opportunity Status Report Retirement Forecast Pension Enquiry Headcount Report Demographic Report Attrition Analysis Compensation Summary Salary Range Penetration Report

Time Savings 5% 50% 98% 94% 64% 94% 94% 94% 94% 94%

[Source: Adapted from B.G. Clayton, A helping Hand Named HURBIE, Human Resources Planning, 1990, Vol. 13, No. 3, p.184] 2. 360-DEGREE FEEDBACK Introduction 360-degree feedback is a full circle, multi-source and multi-rater system of obtaining information from peers, subordinates, and internal and external customers, about the employee's performance. 360-degree assessment is based on the assessment of an individual's management styles, competencies and behaviour by colleagues horizontally and vertically by involving his boss, peers arid direct reports in the organisation. This is supplemented with self-rating and customer ratings. 360feedbacks can, therefore, be a powerful mechanism through which information regarding an individual's personal development and his training needs, can be obtained. The advantage of this process is that it enables one to obtain information from multiple sources and from people who routinely work with and are affected by the

employee's behaviour. Diagrammatic presentation of 360-degree feedback Definition "The 360 degree feedback process involves collecting perceptions about a person's behaviour and the impact of that behaviour from the person's boss or bosses, direct reports, colleagues, fellow members in the project team, internal and external customers and suppliers."-Lepsinger, 1997 Evolution of 360-Degree Feedback The concept of 360-degree feedback has its roots in industrial and organisational psychology when Nadler (1977) conducted an employee attitude survey in which he asked employees to rate their level of satisfaction with their immediate supervisor and top executives. It was branded as the '360 degree appraisal' in 1998 in the US. There are various opinions about the origin of this method. According to Forbes (1996), upward feedback was developed by Peter Farey of the British Airways in 1973. Other viewpoints were offered by Harris and Schaubroeck (1988), who quoted studies conducted as far back as in 1953 and Bracken (1996) quoted a 1978 review of 24 commercial feedback instruments that existed at the time. Recent studies and surveys, however, present a different picture. A study of Fortune 500 companies by the Wyatt Company conducted in 1993, had reported that 26 per cent companies have been employing 360-feedback method (Vinson, 1996). The finding of 'recent surveys' reported by Edwards and Ewen (1996) estimate that 90 per cent of the Fortune 1000 firms have been using some form of multi-source assessments. According to a 1997 survey 8 per cent of the companies used this approach and 69 per cent planned to introduce it in the next three years. In India, it was initiated in the mid-1980s and is emerging as a prominent HR tool being used for developmental purposes by companies like Wipro, the Indian Tobacco Company (lTC), Motorola, Smith Kline Beecham, Nokia, Seagram, Shell (India), Philips, Aditya Birla group, NUT and Star TV, among other progressive companies. The process of 360-degree feedback has undergone considerable change in design and approach over the years. Initially it included executives and individuals at all levels in the organisation but in recent years it has become more focused on superiors, subordinates, peers, customers and self. Even the process is gradually changing from the manual to the electronic method. In the West, the paper or scan forms of feedback are being replaced by computer-based electronic, paperless e-mail feedback. The rigid design of survey is giving way to customised surveys being undertaken by the company. The feedback has moved from numeric to qualitative comments. Instead of being fixed the report formats are becoming more customised. Review of Researches A study by Schmidt and Hunter (1998), (summarising research findings of the last 85 years) has reported that on comparison of 18 different selection procedures, peer ratings have been found to be better than most other selection methods, viz. unstructured interviews, job try-outs, job knowledge tests and assessment centres. However, a research by Gaugler and Thornton (1987), revealed that the validity of results from assessment centres increases if they include peer evaluations. Research undertaken by McLean, Sytsma and Kerwin-Ryberg reveals the highest correlation (+0.40) when subordinates rate their superior and is the lowest when subordinates rate a peer (-0.23). The other shortcomings reported by them in 360 degree feedback are: halo effect, bias or prejudice, lack of information, errors of strictness, central tendency,

leniency, recency effect, cognitive dissonance and fear. McLean suggests that 360degree feedback seems well established when used for voluntary individual developmental purposes. A survey conducted by Lepsinger and Lucia (1997), regarding how 360-degree (multi-rater) feedback was being used by companies, revealed that 58 per cent of the companies were using it for management and organisational development, 25 per cent for performance appraisal, 20 per cent to support strategy implementation and culture change, and 19 per cent for team development. Although 25 per cent of the respondents have been using it for performance appraisal, a majority of the respondents were against this and favoured the use of 360-degree feedback for linking employee development to focused organisational development. Anderson Consulting (2000), administers two 360 degree feedback instruments for populations (i) 360 degree Written Survey method, and (ii) 360 degree Anonymous Interview Transcript method, which can provide both individual feedback and feedback in organisational setting. These are undertaken through registered centres called Skill Scope and Prospecto, which are centres for written 360-degree feedback. For individual feedback studies, eight feedback providers complete their survey by giving their ratings independently for an individual or a group on 15 dimensions of leadership. The 15 key dimensions of leadership assessed by CCL are classified into the following five groups: (a) information skills, (b) decision making, (c) interpretation, (d) personal resources, and (e) effective use of self. They send these directly to the Centre for Creative Leadership (CCL). The CCL is an organisational educational institution recognised by the US that is devoted to behavioural science research in leadership education, which compares the self-ratings of the individual on these dimensions with the group ratings. The group ratings become the base. These ratings are processed at CCL and the feedback is sent to the concerned individual or the group. Skill Scope is being used by several organisations, the important among them being Marriott Corporation, General Mills and General Electric, among others. Prospecto, on the other hand, gives feedback from a group of 11 comprising current supervisors, peers, direct reports, friends and/or family members to organisations in low supervisory level positions and in case of those with an opportunity to get into senior level positions. The focus of feedback is on leadership related aspects and the individual's attitude to learn new things, i.e. (1) engaging in opportunities (seeking opportunities, risk taking ability, understanding of business in different cultural contexts), and (2) creating a context of; learning (openness to criticism, insightfulness, soliciting feedback and using it, influencing others, and learning from mistakes). In the case of Prospecto, the feedback given by the 11 group members is compared not with self-rating, but with a norm already decided for the group. According to Metcalfe of the Centre for Leadership Studies, University of Leeds, 360-degree feedback increases the staff's organisational commitment by two years following the assessment provided it is linked to a specific development plan. Quorum Psychologists (2000) have reported that nearly 30 per cent of the organisations are making Use of 360-degree appraisal feedback in UK and the number is continuing to grow. According to them, in the case of a manager, the

feedback is taken through a confidential questionnaire from approximately 10 colleagues. In addition to the questionnaire, verbatim comments are also sought and recorded and are included in the feedback confidentially. The questionnaires are collated and processed by a bureau on a computer and a 30 page report is made, highlighting the strengths and development needs of the manager. The facilitator's help is sought in identifying the most important areas of development for 'high leverage'. A question frequently asked is "Do raters respond differently if feedback is used for assessment, i.e. promotions or salary decisions rather than for developmental purposes?" An analysis of researches conducted over 40 years by Jawahar and Williams (1997), clearly indicates that feedback is more lenient when the raters think it is to be utilised for assessment than for development. As regards gender differences in rating, Fletcher (1997) has found some evidence to suggest that selfratings of female managers are closer to the ratings given 'to them by their colleagues than are the self-ratings of male managers which are much higher than their colleagues' ratings for them. Some studies have been undertaken to assess the influence of culture on the ratings given by the individuals. Although there is no conclusive evidence, the findings suggest that culture does influence ratings. It has been observed that in Asian countries, employees hesitate to offer honest feedback to their superiors and often under-rate themselves as a mark of modesty. However, more research is needed in this area for reaching any definite conclusions. Why Organisations Need 360-Degree Feedback? One of the major considerations for organisations, which have gone for 360degree feedback, has been strategic integration and alignment of performance management with business goals in the increasingly competitive environment. It has helped them create a mechanism for integrating inputs, creating an appropriate work culture, and under-bidding the company's leadership assessment and development programme. Although it would be desirable to have a 360-degree feedback system in the entire organisation, the experience in India shows that it has so far been largely introduced at the top and in a few cases at the middle levels in progressive companies. Application of 360-Degree Feedback Personal Development of Employees A. Improving perception of the individual about oneself by understanding how others perceive him/her; B. Helping an individual manage one's performance better; and C. Facilitating learning process for the employee. Team Development A. Increase in inter-personal communication among team members; and B. Improved customer service as customer feedback is included in the 360 degree feedback. Human Resource Management A. Personnel selection and employee coaching; B. General personnel decisions-promotions, pay Increases, probationary status or termination; C. Training and Development-employee training, management development, and organisational development; D. Planning for development centres, identification of development needs like the

potential for leadership, development and honing of competencies, career planning and development. How 360-Degree Feedback System Adds Value "Being the best way to produce an accurate picture of how people are perceived by the people with whom they work, be it their manager, co-workers, direct reports, clients or customers," 360 degree feedback enables an organisation to focus on developmental efforts, at the individual and group levels, in the present business environment where the success of the company depends on continuous revolution, which is possible through organisational development interventions involving changes in the culture of an organisational system. Once introduced, 360-degree feedback facilitates the alignment of individual capabilities and behaviours with organisational strategies. How it adds value to the organisation has been summarised below: The multi-rater feedback gives a comprehensive view of an individual's performance; It captures unique information, which other methods usually cannot; It serves to complement supervisory feedback as the only source for performance standards; It promotes a new psychological contract and increases the understanding about one's role expectations; It focuses on competency framework in various roles; For top level executives, it can serve as a useful source of feedback; It promotes self-directed learning and provides a road map for employees' development planning; It builds in action-orientation around the self-monitoring of gaps in performance between others' expectations and a person's perceived performance; It helps everyone to work for a common standard and institutionalises performance management; It promotes commitment to good work among people; It acts as a key relationship-building tool to enhance team processes and work relationships; It is an important monitoring and regulatory device; It empowers individuals to obtain a realistic assessment of their strengths and areas of improvement; It helps in the strategic integration and alignment of performance management, keeping in view the new organisational complexities; It creates mechanisms for integrating multiple constituencies and inputs and facilitates the development of an appropriate culture for competitive advantage; and It facilitates organisational transformation. Why Should An Organisation Use 360 Degree Feedback? If an organisation is not clear about the benefits of 360 degree feedback, it needs to ask itself the following questions: Is the company in a position to meet the new challenges and the increasing competition with the existing competencies of its employees? Are the people in the organisation aware of the organisation's future behavioural needs to ensure its success? Does the changing environment call for a change in people's behaviour? Does the training and development system reflect and is it equipped to cater to current and future requirements of jobs/positions/roles? Is there an alignment in the behaviour of people with the organisation's vision, mission and values? Do people in the organisation receive feedback on their behaviour and performance from more than one source?

Assessing Readiness of the Organisation for Implementing 360-Degree Feedback The most significant aspect of the introduction of the 360-degree feedback system is assessing the readiness of the organization. 3. ASSESSMENT AND DEVELOPMENT CENTRES There is often some confusion over the difference between development centre and assessment centre, leading to concern about the use of the former. This is understandable since some of the assessment techniques are common, to both activities. One of the popular concepts in the management development field is the assessment centre method of identifying and developing the management potential. This method is available to all sizes of organizations and can be used at all levels of management, from the first level of supervision to top corporate management. In a typical centre, six first level manager participants are nominated by their immediate supervisors as having potential for middle level management positions based on their current job performances. For two days, the participants take part in exercises developed to explore behaviours deemed important in the particular organization. A participant may play a business role and complete an in-basket exercise or may participate in two group discussions and in an individual exercise, and be interviewed. Three line managers - two organizational levels above the participants-act as assessors, observe the participants' behaviour and take notes on special observation forms. On completion of the exercise, participants go back to their jobs, and assessors spend two more days compiling their observations and making a final evaluation of each participant. A summary report is prepared on each participant, outlining his or her potential and defining the development action appropriate for both the organization and individual. The levels of candidates to be assessed usually dictate the duration of the centre. Centres for identifying potential in non-management areas can last as long as two half days, including evenings. Origin of the Assessment Centre Method There is nothing new about assessment centres; their history in the United Kingdom dates back to the War Office Selection Boards (WOSB) which were introduced in 1942 to select officers. Anstey (1989) recounts that the system the boards replaced had clearly broken down: a high percentage of people it passed, had to be returned to 'UNIT' because of their lack of ability. In the United States, the pioneering work was undertaken by the Office of Strategic Studies, which used the method to select spies during the World War II (Mac Kinnon, 1977). This United States assessment centre was also derived from the War Office Selection Boards, but after the war, the approaches of United Kingdom and the United States approaches diverged somewhat (Felthan, 1988). In the United Kingdom, assessment centres were developed in peacetime in which the civil service and other parts of the public sector were included. They followed the model of the WOSB and were sometimes labelled extended interviews. In the United States, the post-war development moved to the private sector. The pioneer was the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T), which used assessment centres in its management progress study, which began in 1956 (Bray, 1964). Standard Oil of Ohio took up the method in 1962 and then by IBM, Sears, General Electric and J.C. Penney (Finkle, 1976). Since 1990, the concept of assessment centres has been getting high popularity in Indian organizations. The process of designing assessment centres can be understood better through Fig. Below:

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Designing and running an assessment centre is a complex project. It consists of a series of interlinked stages and sub-stages. It has to be ensured that the external features of the centre are included in the design. The figure, below, is a general process of designing a centre.

Preliminary Study Plan Project Choose Participants Job Analysis Choose Assessors

Brief Participants Exercise Design

Freeze Dimensions

Train Assessors

Validation of Exercise Implementation Post Assessment Centre Evaluation [Process of Design for Assessment Centre] Essential Features of an Assessment Centre While the specific objectives for which the assessment centre is set up may vary in making a promotion decision, diagnosing training needs, developing managerial skills, placement, etc., there are some essential steps that are common in all assessment centres. The essential features of an assessment centre are: a. Job analysis: The aim of conducting job analysis is to reveal the details of the target job its illustrative tasks, problems, and situations that a jobholder is likely to face in a given situation. Through job analysis, the dimensions like the skills, qualities, attributes, knowledge, motivation, tasks required for effective performance of a target job are systematically identified. These dimensions provide the framework for developing the instruments to evaluate or assess the participants and for giving the feedback. b. Multiple assessment techniques: The assessment centre aims at providing multiple opportunities to observe the complex behaviour of the participants and assess it against the dimensions identified in the job analysis. A variety of assessment techniques can be used, ensuring that these are the appropriate ways of observing one or more of the dimensions. These can include - interviews, psychological tests, questionnaires, situational exercises, etc. c. Situational exercises: These exercises are simulations that portray the most

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important aspects of target jobs. Typically, a situational exercise tries to present the participant with a complex set of stimuli that he is likely to deal with on the job. For example, an in-basket exercise that captures the typical sample of tasks one is likely to encounter in a job. d. Behavioural responses: Situational exercises provide a lot of opportunity to oversee the behaviour of participants, which are indicators of complex competences. e. Behavioural observations: The assessors are trained to focus on the behaviour of the participants. These observations give a specific statement of observable actions and even actual words. f. Multiple assessors: The basis for using multiple assessors is that this helps in ironing out individual biases. Different backgrounds and experiences of a group help to provide a rich perspective to the centre. It is recommended that a line manager, an HR manager, an outside consultant and others, familiar with the target job, may be included in the assessor panel. There should be at least three assessors to make observations on each participant's performance. g. Trained assessors: It is important that the assessors have thorough training in assessment skills and also have a common frame of reference regarding the objectives, design and implementation programme of the centre. Specifically, training should be imparted on observing and recording behaviours, classifying behaviour into directions, making judgements about the performance levels, communicating individual judgements and understanding to others, integrating behavioural observations from different sources, etc. If required, make evaluation an overall success and give suggestions for future development. h. Integration of observations: Regarding integration of observations, there are two schools of thought on its methodology. Traditionally, the judgemental method has been used in which the assessors use their pre-knowledge, wisdom and discretion in noting, classifying and integrating observations to derive an overall rating. The alternative method is found to be especially appropriate for some assessment situations, for instance, while screening a large number of candidates, for low level jobs. This is the statistical method. Here predetermined weights are assigned to dimensions and scores on exercises. These are then combined using a formula. Accuracy of Assessment Centres Assessment centres are more accurate than supervisionary judgement in predicting the potentiality because the exercise used provides a niche for observing the behaviour needed at higher levels before a person is put on the job. The selection of a sales manager is a good example to prove the superiority of the assessment centre's method. A supervisor, asked to nominate a sales person for supervision, can judge his people only by their sales performance. Usually, the best sales person is nominated, however, because many other skills are needed in management, and if the person so nominated fails, the company loses both a manager and an excellent salesperson. If an assessment centre was used, the unique abilities needed for management would-have been determined, and their presence or absence observed through simulation before an individual is promoted. Assessment centres are more accurate than personal tastes in predicting potential because they sample actual behaviours, not what the applicant says he would do or he has done. For years, managers have observed that the applicants could often tell a story better than they could perform. The assessment centre checks the actual performance. The greater accuracy of assessment centres compared with management

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appraisals and tastes has been proved in a number of well-controlled studies in organizations such as the International Business Machines Corporation, American Telephone and Telegraph, General Electric, Sears, or Reebok and the US Internal Revenue Service. However, assessment centres are not intended to replace methods, rather to supplement them by enabling an organization to have a more unbiased look at its employees. The accuracy of assessment centres results from a number of factors: 1. Candidates are observed by line managers who have been specially trained to perform more tasks of observing behaviours. They give their full attention to the candidates' functions rather than trying to observe behaviour while subjected to other on-the-job pressures which often prevent them from observing accurately. 2. The managers usually come from above the level of the candidates' immediate supervisors and have a broader perspective of the skills and abilities needed than what an immediate supervisor does while nominating people for his own level. 3. Line management assessors bring to the task a thorough knowledge of the whole company, its mores and its idiosyncrasies. They know the skills needed in future currently and those that will be needed based on projected changes. 4. Group decisions about individuals are constantly being shown to be more accurate than individual decisions. Perceptions can be compared, biases can be challenged. The use of exercises exactly consistent for all candidates means that a comparative judgement can be made on large numbers of candidates working for different bases in vastly different circumstances. . Use of Assessment Centres by Small Organizations The assessment centre method may not be appropriate for many companies, even where the cost of operation is manageable. Particularly in higher-level positions, most companies do not have enough candidates to warrant the operation of an assessment centre or cannot staff a centre internally. For these companies, a possibility may be the participation in multicompany centres where a number of companies send one or two individuals rather than to a centre operated by - a consultant. How Can Centres Be Used As A Developmental Tool? A centre can be an end in itself - for assessment of need, potential and appointability -- or it can be a means to an end. These means can be diagnostic tools by which appropriate action can be taken to help an individual and or group of individuals to upgrade their managerial performance against an agreed set of criteria. If the criteria have been drawn from the job through job analysis and the current level of performance assessed against them in job-relevant but unfamiliar situations, good quality information can be gathered from which one can draw up developmental plans. Developmental applications of assessment centres represent an emerging exciting area for practitioners interested in maximizing the benefits of assessment centres. . If the centre has been well designed and closely related to the needs of the jobs and the organizations, it should generate a follow-up action, which is acceptable to the individuals and organizations and readily applicable. While these may seem to be obvious conclusions, they are not necessarily followed. Follow-up actions do not have to be restricted to traditional training solutions. The environment of line managers enables them to act as coaches and mentors. The whole process can be used to contribute to the development of the organization in addition to the intended individual and management development. Most researches seem to be focused on the validity or the predictability of the

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technique as a selection device, rather than on the usefulness of the information gathered for development. Development Centres Development centres often depart from the traditional assessment centre design and practice in several ways; as they often take a more collaborative approach to assessment and decision making, feedback may be given after each exercise, rather than at the end of the centre. They also involve much more self - and peer assessment than is usually used in selection-oriented assessment centres. Development centres are workshops, which measure the abilities of participants against the agreed success criteria for a job or a role. The key characteristics of a development centre are as follows: 1. Observations in the centre are based on key dimensions or competences, which differentiate between successful and less successful performances. 2. Development centres measure the abilities of participants by simulating a job or role situation, which requires them to demonstrate abilities in the relevant competence in them. 3. Rating of performances is undertaken by trained assessors, who have undergone a course of familiarization and skill training. 4. They involve one-to-one feedback interviews with participants, during which the strengths and development that have been highlighted by performances are discussed. Subordinates and line managers may also pool data that have been collected by the trained assessors with those produced prior to the press. 5. Assessors' assessments are collected and distilled into a written report before the one-to-one feedback interview. This often involves a plenary discussion in which assessors who have assessed the same individual in different exercises discuss the overall performance of that individual. There is often some confusion over the difference between development centres and assessment centres, leading to concern about the use of the former. This is understandable since some of the assessment techniques are common to both activities. The main similarities are seen in the principles of assessment. Both activities, designed to measure the abilities of those who, take part, use trained people for the assessment. HR Focus: Assessment and Development Centre (ADC) in Indian Industries: Assessment and development centre is a panel of senior people from within a company which identifies and develops skills in the organization at the nine thousand nine hundred crores TATA MOTORS, which has 34,500 employees. An ADC comprises 6 people - the chief of corporate human resources, the chief of regional HR, and the chiefs of the various plants involved. The ADC, christened within the auto-giant as an employee selection centre has already catapulted junior managers below 30 to higher responsibilities. Every year 180 - 200 managers apply to the ADCs. After a series of elimination tests, 25 - 30 are taken into the ADC. Of these, only 7-8 is sent for higherlevel training to occupy responsible positions. Promising employees at TATA MOTORS kicked their heels for years before rising to

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their level of competence. ADCs have helped to identify outstanding employees and expand their responsibilities beyond what they would have otherwise done following a normal performance appraisal. At TATA MOTORS, each successful assessee, has to move through four functions different from what he or she performed earlier for three months each. The assessors are also trained through an external organization's help. The three thousand crores RPG group chose the ADC route as it realized that it was only recruiting from outside because the senior management did not know what managerial talent was available within. After successful implementation of ADC, RPG was able to select most of their senior managers, from within the group. The twelve hundred crores BlLT has introduced ADC, which was started basically from the business strategy. Earlier they had a captive market, but as the focus was shifted to more market driven and customer focussed, they identified and built competencies to change with the time. Through ADC, they identified the people within the organization, who had competencies to take the business strategy further. In BILT, ADC is an intensive three-day affair, where panelists or assessors remain holed up with the assessees. The test included fact-finding, presentations, role-plays, analysis, group tests and in-basket tests. The seven thousand crores A V Birla group has two ADCs. One was that, which tracked down the successes for the 300 odd senior managers, who retired. The other one was for the newly inducted general management trainees. . HLL has developed ADC as part of project millennium, which has divided the company into smaller profit centres, and given promising employees more responsibilities. The Indian companies like TATA MOTORS, BILT to name a few, have implemented ADCs for various reasons to identify first rank performers. RPG identified potential general managers within the group; A.V.Birla identified high potential general trainees and successors for senior management. 4. REENGINEERING One of the most popular management concepts sweeping corporate America is reengineering. Sometimes called business process reengineering, this approach involves a complete rethinking and transformation of key business processes, leading to strong horizontal coordination and greater flexibility in responding to changes in the environment. Because work is organized around process rather than function, reengineering often involves a shift to a horizontal structure based on teams. For example, BellSouth Telecommunications cast aside the traditional, functional hierarchy in favour of teams of employees focused on serving customers in specific geographic regions. One survey found that 21 percent of companies of all sizes reported being involved in corporate wide reengineering. Union Carbide, Pacific Bell, Chemical Bank, and J. E Morgan all have achieved breakthroughs in speed, flexibility, innovation, and quality through reengineering. Reengineering basically means starting over, throwing out all the notions of how work was done and deciding how it can best be done now. It requires identifying customer needs and then designing processes and aligning people to meet those needs.

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Liquid Carbonic Industries, an Oak Brook, Illinois, industrial gas company, reengineered to improve customer service. The two-year effort dramatically changed the company, transforming it into an enterprise operating along process lines instead of the traditional business units. Operations are mapped around long-term customer relationships; sales employees, who once competed with one other, now cooperate to sell a range of products rather than specialize in one product. Reengineering also can squeeze out the dead space and time lags in workflows. Organizing around key business processes also may lead-to redesigning information systems to cut across departmental lines. Managers are finding ways to share information throughout the organisation to make their companies more competitive and more responsive to customers. To speed up order cycle time and improve service to giant customers such as Wal-Mart, the Gillette Company of Boston changed from a mainframe computer to a client-server system that can draw information from around the company and be accessed by any team member who needs it. Bow Valley Energy redesigned its computer information system so that geologists, geophycists, production engineers and contract managers can now consolidate information and share data worldwide. Reengineering can lead to stunning results, but, like all business ideas, it has its drawbacks. Simply defining the organisations key business processes can be mindboggling. AT&Ts Network System division started with a list of 130 processes and then began working to pare them down to 13 core ones. According to some estimates, 70% of reengineering efforts failed to reach their intended goals. Because reengineering is expensive, time consuming and usually painful, it seems best suited to companies that are facing serious competitive threats. Process Redesign The process redesign method, also called reengineering, focuses on creating new ways to get work done. It often involves the redesign of processes related to logistics, manufacturing, and distribution. The goal is to design the most effective process for making and delivering a product. Effective processes are those that cost the least while at the same time rapidly producing goods and providing services of excellent quality. Thus the starting point is to assess current processes from the customer's point of view. Often, reengineering is interrelated with other key activities. Many organizations are structured by function and those employees' reactions to change typically are based on its effect on their departments. However, reengineering requires employees to think across functions. Reengineering can reduce the amount of "hand-offs" between departments by increasing the amount of resources that are brought together simultaneously to meet customers' needs.

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Benefits may include faster delivery time, more accurate billing, and fewer defective products that must be returned. At some companies, restructuring around processes involves improving the flow of work that cuts across multiple businesses, not just departments. Changes in the health-care industry led Smith Kline Beecham to reevaluate the way its SBUs were structured. Before restructuring, it had four separate SBUs pharmaceuticals, consumer health care, animal health, and clinical labs - each of which operated independently. When management evaluated customer demand, however, it concluded that the company should be restructured around three broad processescare delivery, care management, and care coverage. Task-Based Method The task-based method concentrates on changing specific employee job responsibilities and tasks. Whenever a job is changed - whether because of new technology or a redesign efforttasks also change. Two dramatically different ways of changing a task are job simplification and job enrichment. a. Job Simplification: The oldest task approach to change is job simplification . Job simplification involves the scientific analysis of tasks performed by employees in order to discover procedures that produce the maximum output for the minimum input. The job specification states the tasks to be performed, the work methods to be used, and the workflow to be obtained. Like reengineering, job simplification is founded on engineering concepts. The scientific management techniques developed by Frederick Taylor defined jobs and designed tasks on the basis of time-and-motion studies. But there is a big difference between these two approaches to change. Reengineering focuses on an entire process, which may involve many employees working in many parts of the organization. In contrast, the focus of job simplification is the work done by employees in a particular job. The downside of job simplification is that it leads to low employee commitment and high turnover. Most current competitive challenges require a committed and involved workforce that is able to make decisions and experiment with new ways of doing things. Many people seek jobs that allow greater discretion and offer more of a challenge. Thus designing jobs with employee needs in mind requires a different approach. b. Job Enrichment: Changing job specifications to broaden and add challenge to the tasks required and to increase productivity is called job enrichment . Job enrichment has four unique aspects. First, it changes the basic relationships between employees and their work. Job enrichment is based on the assumption that interesting and challenging work can be a source of employee satisfaction and involvement. Second, job enrichment directly changes employee behaviors in ways that gradually lead to more positive attitudes about the organization and a better self-image.

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Because enriched jobs usually increase feelings of autonomy and personal freedom, employees are likely to develop attitudes that support the new jobrelated behaviors. Third, job enrichment offers numerous opportunities for initiating other types of organizational change. Technical problems are likely to develop when jobs are changed, which offers management an opportunity to refine the technology used. Interpersonal problems almost inevitably arise between managers and subordinates and sometimes among coworkers who have to relate to one another in different ways. These situations offer opportunities for developing teamwork and communication competencies. Finally, job enrichment can humanize an organization. Individuals can experience the psychological lift that comes from developing new competencies and doing a job well. Individuals are encouraged to grow and push themselves. People-Oriented Method The people-oriented method includes a wide range of activities intended to improve individual competencies, attitudes, and performance levels. Technology, design, and task methods are used to improve organizational performance by changing the way work is done. The assumption is that employees will change as required by the changes made in their work settings' In contrast, people-oriented approaches are used to create organizational change by focusing on changing employee perceptions, attitudes, competencies, and expectations. As these factors change, employees may then seek changes in the organization's technology, design, or tasks. According to this view, employees are the captains of change, not just the vessels for carrying it out. Many people-oriented methods for changing organizations are commonly grouped under the broad label of organization development. Organization development (OD) is a planned, long-range behavioural science strategy for understanding, changing, and developing an organization's workforce in order to improve its effectiveness. Although OD methods frequently include design, technological, and task changes, their primary focus is on changing people. Three core sets of values define the OD approach to organisational change. People values: People have a natural desire to grow and develop. Organization development aims to overcome obstacles to individual growth and enable employees to give more to the organization. It stresses treating people with dignity and respect, behaving genuinely rather than playing games, and communicating openly. Group values: Acceptance, collaboration, and involvement in a group lead to expressions of feelings and perceptions. Hiding feelings or not being accepted by the group diminishes the individual's willingness to work constructively toward solutions to problems. Openness can be risky, but it can usually help people effectively plan solutions to problems and carry them out. Organization values: The way groups are linked strongly influences their effectiveness. Organization development recognizes the importance of starting

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the change process at the top and gradually introducing it throughout the rest of the organization. Top-level managers shouldn't attempt to introduce change at lower levels of the organization until they have begun to change themselves. Of the many OD methods available, one of the most commonly used is survey feed- back. Survey feedback allows managers and employees to provide feedback about the organization and receive feedback about their own behaviours. Such information becomes the basis for group discussion and the stimulus for change. Accurate feedback from others about behaviours and job performance is one of the primary bases of OD. Feedback is obtained by means of a questionnaire developed and distributed to all employees, who complete it and turn it in anonymously. The content of the questionnaire depends on the areas of most concern to the organization. Typically, however, employee surveys tap into employees' feelings of commitment and satisfaction, their assessments of the climate for innovation, the degree to which they feel that the organization is customer oriented, and their attitudes toward supervision and management practices. Survey questionnaires used for obtaining feedback may be custom designed for the organization or standardized. The advantage of custom-designed questionnaires is that they focus on the topics of special interest to the organization. A disadvantage is that they can be difficult to interpret unless the same questions have been asked over a period of a few years. When information is available for a period of several years, a custom-designed questionnaire can be used to assess whether the organization is or isn't generally improving, An alternative to a custom-designed questionnaire is a standardized questionnaire. A standardized questionnaire is one that has been developed for use in a wide variety of organizations. Often a standardized questionnaire has been developed according to scientific principles, so its users can be confident that the assessments it yields are valid reflections of the organization. Because standardized questionnaires often have been used by several organizations in the past, they allow an organization to compare its employees' responses to those of employees in other organizations. Benchmarking permits management to assess the degree to which employee attitudes match or diverge from the attitudes of employees in other organizations. When employee surveys are designed to address issues of strategic importance, they can be used to enhance the organization's competitive advantage. For example, if the organization's strategy requires innovation and creativity, managers could use a survey to monitor whether employees feel that innovation and creativity are truly valued. If employees are cynical about management's latest attempts to stimulate innovation and creativity, the survey results should reveal this attitude. Thus survey feedback can be a useful tool that helps managers develop a better understanding of their organization. Table describes one standardized questionnaire,

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called KEYS, that is often used for survey feedback. It's a survey that organizations can use to assess the extent to which employees perceive their workplace to be supportive of creativity and innovation. Table Keys for Understanding the Organisation KEYS include 78 statements designed to assess perceptions of organisational creativity, autonomy and freedom, availability of resources, pressures and impediments to creativity. Employees use a four-point scale to indicate the extent to which they agree with the statements. Examples of statements included in KEYS: People are encouraged to solve problems creatively in this organisation. My supervisor serves as a good work model. There is free and open communication within my workgroup. Generally I can get resources I need for my work. I have too much work to do in too little time. There are many political problems in the organisation.

During the past 15 years more than 25,000 employees from dozens of organisations have completed the KEYS survey. Research conducted on employees who work on creative projects has shown that scores on the keys questionnaire are higher in work units that produce creative results and lower in work units that produce less creative results. To learn more about KEYS, visit the web site of the Centre for Creative Leadership at http://www.ccl.org/products/keys.

Based on the diagnosis that KEYS provides, management can determine whether changes are needed to improve the existing organizational climate. If improvements are needed, the results of the survey also provide information about which specific aspects of an organization's culture require change in order to be more supportive of creativity and innovation.