Nature of Personnel Management

1. Personnel management includes the function of employment, development and compensation- These functions are performed primarily by the personnel management in consultation with other departments. 2. Personnel management is an extension to general management. It is concerned with promoting and stimulating competent work force to make their fullest contribution to the concern. 3. Personnel management exist to advice and assist the line managers in personnel matters. Therefore, personnel department is a staff department of an organization. 4. Personnel management lays emphasize on action rather than making lengthy schedules, plans, work methods. The problems and grievances of people at work can be solved more effectively through rationale personnel policies. 5. It is based on human orientation. It tries to help the workers to develop their potential fully to the concern. 6. It also motivates the employees through its effective incentive plans so that the employees provide fullest co-operation. 7. Personnel management deals with human resources of a concern. In context to human resources, it manages both individual as well as blue- collar workers.
Role of Personnel Manager

Personnel manager is the head of personnel department. He performs both managerial and operative functions of management. His role can be summarized as :
1. Personnel manager provides assistance to top management- The top management are the

2. 3. 4. 5.

people who decide and frame the primary policies of the concern. All kinds of policies related to personnel or workforce can be framed out effectively by the personnel manager. He advices the line manager as a staff specialist- Personnel manager acts like a staff advisor and assists the line managers in dealing with various personnel matters. As a counsellor,- As a counsellor, personnel manager attends problems and grievances of employees and guides them. He tries to solve them in best of his capacity. Personnel manager acts as a mediator- He is a linking pin between management and workers. He acts as a spokesman- Since he is in direct contact with the employees, he is required to act as representative of organization in committees appointed by government. He represents company in training programmes.

Functions of Personnel Management

Follwoing are the four functions of Personnel Management:

1. 2. 3. 4.

Manpower Planning Recruitment Selection Training and Development

In India, the Companies Act, 1956, is the most important piece of legislation that empowers the Central Government to regulate the formation, financing, functioning and winding up of companies. The Act contains the mechanism regarding organisational, financial, managerial and all the relevant aspects of a company. It provides for the powers and responsibilities of the directors and managers, raising of capital, holding of company meetings, maintenance and audit of company accounts, powers of inspection, etc. The Act applies to whole of India and to all types of companies, whether registered under this Act or an earlier Act. But it does not apply to universities, co-operative societies, unincorporated trading, scientific and other societies. In India, the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 is the main legislation for investigation and settlement of all industrial disputes. The Act enumerates the contingencies when a strike or lock-out can be lawfully resorted to, when they can be declared illegal or unlawful, conditions for laying off, retrenching, discharging or dismissing a workman, circumstances under which an industrial unit can be closed down and several other matters related to industrial employees and employers. n order to provide the Central Government with the means to implement its industrial policies, several legislations have been enacted and amended in response to the changing environment. The most important being the Industries (Development and Regulation) Act, 1951 (IDRA) which was enacted in pursuance of the Industrial Policy Resolution, 1948. The Act was formulated for the purpose of development and regulation of industries in India by the Central Government. n India, the first organised trade union was formed in 1918 and since then they have spread in almost all the industrial centres of the country. The legislation regulating these trade unions is the Indian Trade Unions Act, 1926. The Act deals with the registration of trade unions, their rights, their liabilities and responsibilities as well as ensures that their funds are utilised properly. It gives legal and corporate status to the registered trade unions. It also seeks to protect them from civil or criminal prosecution so that they could carry on their legitimate activities for the benefit of the working class. The Act is applicable not only to the union of workers but also to the association of employers. It extends to whole of India. Also, certain Acts, namely, the Societies Registration Act, 1860; the Co-operative Societies Act, 1912; and the Companies Act, 1956 shall not apply to any registered trade union, and that the registration of any such trade union under any such Act shall be void. A contract is defined as 'an agreement in which one party offers to do something for a consideration and the other party accepts that offer'. The bulk of the transactions in trade, commerce and industry are based on these contracts. In India, the Indian Contract Act,1872 is the governing legislation for contracts, which lays down the general principles relating to formation, performance and enforceability of contracts and the rules relating to certain special types of contracts like Indemnity and Guarantee; Bailment and Pledge, and Agency.

. INTRODUCTION TO INDUSTRIAL PSYCHOLOGY AND ITS BASIC CONCEPTS It began as a branch of psychology in December 1901,when Dr. Walter Dill Scott in the U.S.A spoke on the possibilities of the application of psychological principles to the field of advertising Industrial Psychology is the third or fourth of the most popular branches of psychology in India. It tries to understand the human problems that have arisen as a result of tremendous expansion of industry in the last few decades People are the essential ingredients in all organizations. Industrial psychology has the potentiality to contribute to the productivity of industry and business on one hand and achieving greater effectiveness and fulfillment of working on hand on the other Psychologys Roots Pre scientific Psychology Empiricism knowledge comes from experience via the senses science flourishes through observation and experiment Psychologys Roots Wilhelm Wundt opened the first psychology laboratory at the University of Leipzig(c. 1879) Psychologys Roots Functionalism focused on how behavioral processes functionhow they enable organism to adapt, survive, and flourish Definition and Nature of Industrial Psychology It is defined as the study of man and his behavior with the aid of scientific methodology. Definition and Nature of Industrial Psychology The science of behavior (what we do) and mental processes (sensations, perceptions, dreams, thoughts, beliefs, and feelings) Scope of Industrial Psychology is an extremely broad field, encompassing many different approaches to the study of mental processes and behavior. The Personnel Selection, Personnel development, Human Engineering, Productivity Study, Management, Accident prevention and safety measures and Labor Relations are the scope of the Industrial Psychology. The omnipresent tendency to resist changes of any ort and maintain a status quo has been a great hurdle in the acceptance of industrial psychology by employees and managements allover the world because practice of industrial psychology often demands radical changes in the outlooks and attitudes of both employees and the employers are also averse to changes because often they are not sure about the efficacy of the new ideas and are least inclined to take risks. Industrial Psychology is the application of psychological principles and facts to the behavior of the people at work in industry and business. One important thing of this psychological principle is that basically they govern the behavior of all the human beings in any situation in life whether in school, home or in business and industry Causation of Behavior The first principle of psychology is that all the activities of human beings are not random but are always brought about by some stimulating factors or conditions that make a person to behave in a certain fashion. In industrial situations, many such behaviors like absenteeism among workers, low figures of production, or a poorly running sales department or industrial tensions which often erupt in strikes or lockouts; are investigated with a view to determining the underlying stimulating conditions or causes or antecedent conditions By understanding the causation of behavior we can predict, change or control their behavior or shape it in a desirable direction. Industrial Psychology aims at understanding the causation of events so that it may help us to have a better control over the situation. Individual differences both in physical and psychological characteristics of the individuals from the very basis of industrial psychology. The basic aspects in which individuals may vary broadly are: Differences in Physical Characteristics

The basic aspects in which individuals may vary broadly are: Differences in intelligence Differences in Interest The basic aspects in which individuals may vary broadly are: Differences in Personality Characteristics If all adults in the state of Colorado were given a general intelligence test, the frequency distribution of the scores would resemble the following bell- shaped curve. The normal distribution has an important characteristic. The mean, median and mode are the same score (a score of 100 in Example 6) because a normal distribution is symmetrical. The score with the highest frequency occurs in the middle of the distribution and exactly half of the scores occur above the middle and half of the scores occur below. Most of the scores occur around the middle of the distribution or the mean. Very high and very low scores occur infrequently and are therefore considered rare. Learning has been defined in psychology a relatively permanent change in behavior which occurs as a result of experience or practice The characteristic of learning are:1.It is a change in behavior for better or worse. If there is no change in behavior there is no learning.2.Learning is the effect of experience or practice.3.The change brought about by learning may last for sometime and may not betransitory as in the case of changes brought about by fatigue or drugs Classical conditional learning Operant learning Discrimination learning Motor or skill learning Verbal learningLearning is a key concept in psychology because humans are constantly learning. Perception plays an important role in our daily life and is a complex phenomenon What we see also depends on the frame of reference in which we see it. People may again differ in the rapidity with which they perceive In many industries tasks the larger size of visual field is a very crucial factor and obviously persons with a narrow visual field are ill equipped for such jobs. What you perceive or how you perceive is largely a matter of learning or training, but often such differences are inherent and difficult to improve by training, beyond a certain limit Attitude is a very important concept in psychology andmust be clearly understood by industrial psychologistsand students. Attitude may be best defined as learned orientation or disposition towards favorable or unfavorable manner.It is often used to explain various form of industrial behavior Opinion can be distinguishedfrom attitude in two ways- first,an opinion is verbalized orexpressed in language or insome other way while anattitude may not be. Opinionsare a public affair, whileattitudes are private affairs.Opinion is there for everyoneto see and infer Prejudice is used to implynegative or unfavorable attitudetowards a person or group ofpersons. Even production ofcompany is influenced byunfavorable attitude of theworkers. Changing and improvingthe attitude is the part of anindustrial psychologists functionin industry It is a basic psychologicalconcept . It may bedefined as a behaviorarising out of varioushuman needs and whichis directed towardscertain goals that maybring satisfaction of theneed. There are primary,general and acquired orlearned motives or socialmotives. An individual whose primary motives fyingare not fully satisfied will strive hard tis an n. ato satisfy them. Frustration may be of s um atiodefined as state resulting from the ay in h ustr w ethwarting of the behavior that is t he reat of fr s in t c ate adirected towards some goals. It is ier s th a st r l ralmost an inevitable experience of r ba goa n asevery living human being. An le s o ired now t ac des is kindustrial psychologist must be able to bs es hat O on wpinpoint the sources of frustration in s inghis organization and suggest remedies beto eliminate or reduce them. It maybring down production, createsituations that may lead to strikes,tensions. Personality is the some total of all the physical and mental characteristics, capacities and abilities of a person. It describes what a person is. Behavior on the other hand, is what a person does. It is

fairly flexible in individual. It is based on personality, but depends generally on environment. The phenomenon can be described with a simple equation: B = f (P,E) where B= behavior, f= function, P= personality and E=Environment. rBehavio We generally start off our lives with roleswhich are determined by providence andnot by any choice of ours. These roles are imposed on us by our fate or providence or what we call circumstances. Roles, thus patterns behavior A human group has been defined by Hegrath as a system of roles and social organization as a system of human groups. The organizational roles are primarily based on the tasks to be performed at various levels and functions within the organization and form the formal organizational structure. Role performance is a continuous, dynamic process whichnecessarily takes place in conjunction with performance of peoplein the roles, and role relationship is vital for the work to be done. In industries several small and large groups areoften at work in terms or department. Three such group phenomena are: An organization is a dynamic entity and the organizational structure and environment develops through the interaction of individualsperforming various operating roles in work groups. It rests on three elements namely the structure, process and attitude of people Managerial ApproachesEffectiveness of an organization depends on the environment it has developedand the quality of its people and the opportunity they get to utilize their talents. The different approaches used are the Benevolent approach( It makes the employer, or the boss to look after his employees and decide what is good or bad for them and it is often described as authoritarian, autocratic andpaternalistic or coercive), the Human Relations approach( It aims at producingmaximum employee satisfaction and is based on a series of studies by industrial psychologists) and The Human Resources approach( In this the subordinate is all important). One offshoot of concern for human factor in industry is theconcept of industrial morale. Both personal or social featuresinvolved in mental condition which we call group morale or teamspirit or esprit de corps. It is a complex phenomenon resultingfrom working of several factorsIt is of utmost importance in industry because at every level it hastremendous impact on the working of an organization. Industrialpsychologists are well-versed in the various styles and aspects ofleadership India has a long tradition in industrial psychological training and research. A section of Applied Psychology within the department of Psychology inCalcutta University was first established in 1993 andsome first papers on industrial psychology were read at the Indian Science Congress held in Bombay in 1934. Nearly 380 papers have been published on the subject between 19502 and 1970. Industry psychology seems to be of the few sub-fields of psychology managing the industries are increasingfelt with the terrific tempo of industrial growth in our country in the last 2 or 3 decades.