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MMBA-606 Human Resource Management
MMBA-606 Human Resource Management
CREATIVE TECHNOLOGY
Department of Apparel Manufacturing Management Technology
Module Specifications
0
Program
Module Title
Module Code
: MMBA-606
Pre-requisite
Year of study
: 2nd Semester
Course Level
: Core Course
Total Credit
: 3 Credits
Total Week
: 18 Weeks
No. of Lectures
: 18 Lectures
Total Hours
: 45 Hours
Contact Hour
Course Objectives:
With fast changing economic environment, pressure on company profit
margins is growing. In an overcrowded market, competitive advantage is fast
moving away from physical and trade-able assets to intangible and nontrade-able assets. Human resource competency stock of a company is one of
the most valued non-trade-able assets which could be used for creating a
competitive advantage that is sustainable. However, unlike other resources,
human resource acquisition, deployment and development are a long drawn
and time consuming process and require advance planning and concerted
action by many managers including the line managers. Sustainable
competitive advantage based on human resources would require a pro-active
and joint approach by both the line and the staff functions not only to design
human resource policies but also to implement them. The objective of the
course is to discuss and understand a few of the above issues.
Lecture Topic
2
01
02
Satisfaction
Need Theory
Maslows Hierarchy of Needs Theory
The Two-Factor (Motivation-Hygiene) Theory
Maslows needs approach
Herzbergs study
The Satisfaction-Dissatisfaction Continum under the Traditional View and
the Two-Factor Model
03
04
05
06
07
08
Management Development
Theories of Learning
Principle of Learning
09
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
Safety Programs
Definition of Industrial Relation
Definition of Trade Union
Specific Goals
Maintenance of Membership
18
Basic Textbook:
8
Reference books:
Raymond A. Noe, John R. Hollenbeck, Barry Gerhart & Patrick
M. Wright (2003) Human Resources Management, fourth edition,
McGraw Hill Irwin: London.
Rao, T V (1996) Human Resources Development, Sage Publications:
New Delhi/Thousand Oaks/London.
George T. Milkovich & John W. Boudreau (1998) Personnel: Human
Resources Management, Fifth edition, Irwin: New Delhi.
Lecture Schedule
Week Lecture Hours
Lecture/Assessment Schedule
Page
9
No.
01
01
02
02
03
03
04
04
05
05
06
06
07
07
08
09
15
20
2.00
2.00
2.00
2.00
2.00
2.00
25
32
37
42
45
48
53
58
65
69
72
78
81
86
Off-the-Job Training
89
93
2.00
08
09
2.00
Mid-term Examination
10
10
11
11
12
12
13
13
14
14
2.00
2.00
2.00
2.00
2.00
Career Development
Internal and External Events and Career Stages
Steps in Managing your Career
95
101
104
108
Performance Appraisal
111
115
120
124
Compensation Administration
127
132
10
15
15
16
16
17
17
18
18
2.00
2.00
2.00
2.00
19
20
Benefit
135
138
Leave of Absence
141
145
Reducing Burnout
149
Industrial relation
152
Assessment Method:
Up to Mid Term Examination:
40
Attendance
05
Assignment
05
10
60
05
11
15
Assessment
Description
Weeks
Assignment
on:
Theoretical
Framework
Assignment
on:
A Practical
Problem of
Bangladesh
:
:
:
:
:
Mid
Term
20%
Written
Exam
5%
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
Final
Exam
40%
Written
Exam
10%
12
Group
Power Point
Presentation
on:
A practical
Case Study
15%
All the above assignments/class tests must be carried out in class unless otherwise stated on the
written assignment brief.
Module Leder
NB
:
:
Last Updated on
01/08/2015
Lecture Topic:
Introduction to Human Resource Management
What is Human Resource Management?
HRM is an approach consisting of four basic functions
Several other functions
13
According to Dale Yoder, "HRM is the provision of leadership and direction of people in their
working or employment relationship."
According to Mathis and Jackson, "HRM is the effective use of Human resources in and
organization through the management of people related activities."
Every organization is comprised of people Acquiring their services, developing their skills,
motivating them to high levels of performance, and ensuring that they continue to maintain their
commitment to the organization are essential to achieving organization objectives. This is true
regardless of the type of organization Government, business, education, health, recreation or
social action. Getting and keeping good people is critical to the success of every organization.
Acquisition-Getting people
Training and development- Preparing them
Motivation- Stimulating them
Maintenance- Keeping them
Functions of HRM:
14
Human resource function refers to those tasks and duties performed in both large and small
organization to provide for and co-ordinate human resources. Human resource function are
concerned with a variety of activities that significantly influence all areas of an organization, and
include followings:
The Four basic Function of HRM are:
(1). Acquisition of human resources (Getting people)
(2) Development of human resources (Preparing people)
(3) Motivation of human resources (Stimulating people)
(4) Maintenance of human resources (Keeping them)
(1) Acquisition of human resources: There are two steps involved in acquisition process:
a) Recruitment: Recruitment is a process by which organizations locate and attract
individuals to fill job vacancies.
b) Selection: Selection is a process of measurement, decision making and
evaluation.
(2) Development of human resources: After selecting and recruiting individuals in the right
position of the organization the next function is to train and develop them, so that they can
become efficient employees and work toward the achievement of the organization goal.
(3) Motivation of human resources: The motivation function is one of the most important
functions. After training and developing the employees the HR manager should stimulate
them to work well. For motivation purpose the H.R manager have to give the employees
some compensation and benefit package.
(4) Maintenance of human resources: The last phase of the H.R.M. function is called the
Maintenance function. For maintaining the people H.R.M should go for some method of
providing a safe and healthy work place. Labour relation & collective Bargaining.
Several other functions are performed by H.R.M. These functions are stated below:
1) Formulation of H.R. Policies: H.R manager should plan appropriate human resource policy
in the organization and try to formulate it.
15
4) Training and development: After recruiting and placing the employees in the right place the
next step is to train and develop the Human Resources collected recently. There are different
method of training and development. "Training and Development means changing what
employees know, how they work, their attitudes toward their work, or their interaction with
their co-workers or supervisors.
5) Promotion and Transfer: It is an incentive for the employees & necessary for the
organizational improvement.
6) Job Analysis: Job Analysis is a systematic exploration of the activities within a job. it is a
technical procedure used to define the duties, responsibilities and accountabilities; of a job.
this analysis involves the identification and description of what is happening on the job.
8) Protection of Employees: Employees should be well protected. Without safety measure the
human resources of the organization will not perform well/properly. Although safety is
everyone's responsibility, it should be part of the organizations culture; Top Mgt. must show
its commitments to safety by providing resources to purchase safety devices and maintaining
equipment.
16
9) Remuneration: Workers come to work in the organization for getting remuneration. Without
remuneration Human resources cannot work. The human resources should be given provided
reasonable remuneration to work properly.
10) Employee services: They will be given service 'packages to work properly.
11) Job and Merit evaluation: Without job evaluation efficiency cannot be judged.
12) Labor management relation: There is a need for good and harmonious employer-employee
relation. Historically the relationship between labor and Mgt. was built on conflict. There
are various reasons for bad human relations and number of ways to increase it. We should
try to decrease the bad human relation and increase good human relation.
13) Workers Participation: Present age is democratic. Workers participation is an essential
condition for taking decision and formulating rules and regulations. Because workers are
the only source of energy for implementing organizational policies and operating machines
and equipment and achieve organizational goal.
14) Agreement with Trade Unions: T.U. is very powerful in the industrial context. Without
satisfying the T.U. leaders the H.R. managers cannot run the org. properly. That is why
acceptable agreement with the T.U. leaders is needed.
15) Leadership and co-operation: Without good leader an org. cannot run properly. It should
be guided for ensuring co-operation. Without co-operation a leader cannot proper utilize the
resources easily.
16) Providing benefits and rewards':For getting cooperation from the Human resources the
H.R. managers should provide them benefit packages and benefits.
17) Maintaining discipline: Discipline is essential for and organization to work properly.
H.R.M. manager .should take proper disciplinary action indiscriminately when indiscipline
arises.
17
18) Career Planning and Development: H.R. Manager should try to plan for the development
of career of its H.R's. Career means the pattern of work related experiences than span the
course of a personal life. Career development looks at the long-term career effectiveness
and success of organizational personnel.
19) Handling Grievances: HR managers should handle all source of grievance placed before
them fact fully and carefully. Indiscipline and unrest may be corrected.
20) Reviewing employee needs: HR managers must monitor the employee needs time to time
and try to satisfy the needs of employees.
IMPORTANCE OF HRM
There are some points of importance of HRM in an organization, which is stated below:
1) Formulation of HR policies
2) Implementation of HR Policies
3) Review of employee needs
4) Development of social welfare
5) Utilization of Human Resources
6) Development of Labor Management Relation.
7) Overall development of organization
HRM Model:
In recent years there has been relative agreement among HRM specialists as to what consitutes
the fiels of HRM. The model that provided the focus was developed by the American Society for
Training and Development (ASTD). In its study, ASTD indentified nine human resource areas:
18
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
These nine areas have been termed spokes of the wheel in that each area implacts on the human
resource outputs: quality of work life, productivity, and readiness for change. Figure 2 is a
representation of this model, and the focus of each spoke.
The outputs of this model-quality of work like, productivity, and readiness for change-warrant
further exploration. Let us now take a closer look at each.
Autonomy deals with the amount of freedom that employees can exercise in their job. For
example, if employees must get permission to purchase $2 in postage stamps to mail job-related
material, the freedom to act is significantly reduced. However, in a position where employees
can set their own hours, more autonomy esists. Recognition invloves being valued by others in
the company. An individuals contribution to the organization is noticed and appreciated.
Belonging refers to being part of the organization is one who shares the organizations values and
is regarded as being a valuable part of the firm. Progress and development refer to the internal
rewards available from the organization; challenge, and accomplishment. And, finally, external
rewards, which are usually in the form of salary and benefits but also include promotion, rank,
and status.
19
Taken together, these componets provide for the quality of work life for the individual. If the
quality of work life is lacking, then worker productivity may suffer.
Productivity
Productivity is the quantity or volume of the major product or service that an organization
provides. In other words, it is the amount of work that is being produced in the organization, in
terms of how much and how well. High productivity is what makes an organization thrive.
Without a good product or service to sell, problems in an organization are sure to arise.
Accordingly, productivity improvement programs are becoming more popular with
organizations. Many components constitute the productivity factor; we can condense these
components into four categories-capital investment, innovation, learning, and motivation.
Capital investment includes having the best possible machinery available that will help improve
the efficiency of the workers. This machinery, or equipment, can be in many forms-from robots
to word processors. The concept behind capital investment is to provide the latest technologically
advanced equipment that will help the workers to work smarter, not harder.
Following objectives are important which can be discussed in short. With the fulfillments of
these objectives HRM can become successful:
1) To develop efficiency and skills of employees: First objective of HRM is to develop
efficiency and skills of employees working in the organization. If these objectives are
achieved organization can reach at its target.
5) To Increase Job Satisfaction: Job satisfaction is essential for proper performance and
goods LMR, therefore HRM tries to achieve Job Satisfaction level.
6) To Attract good people: Without attracting good people organization cannot run smoothly
or organization can"t cope with the competition. Therefore HRM wants to attract good
people for the organization.
8) With a view to procure good veople: HRM determines its objectives, because without
good people organization cannot run.
21
9) For proper use of Human Resources: The organization can best try to give them proper
assignment and make sure that everything has been done timely.
22
Week: 02
Lecture No. : 02
Employee motivation is of crucial concern to management, mainly because of the role that
employee motivation plays in performance. Basically, performance is determined by (i) ability,
(ii) environment and (iii) motivation. If any of these three factors is missing or deficient,
effective performance is impossible. A manager may have the most highly qualified employees
under him and provide them with the best possible environment, but effective performance will
not result unless the subrodinates are motivated to perform.
Inner Drives,
Needs or Motives
Reinforcement
Behaviour or
Action
Goals
Satisfaction
24
Motivators
Motivators are things that induce an individual to perform. While motivation reflects wants,
motivators are the indentified rewards or incentives that sharpen the drive to satisfy these wants.
Motivating
Motivation is the management process of influencing peoples behaviour based on the
knowledge of what cause and channel sustain human behaviour in a particular committed
direction.
Simply, the term motivation indicates a noun whereas motivating a verb. Motivation refers to
some relevant factors that influence human behaviour, whereas motivating is the process of
influencing behaviour.
Satisfaction
Satisfaction is the end result of the need-want-satisfaction chain, which can be represented in the
following diagram.
Motivation and Satisfaction are related to each other, although there is a fine difference
between these two terms. Motivation refers to the drive and effort to satisfy a want or goal. But
25
satisfaction refers to the contentment experienced when a want is satisfied. In other words,
motivation implies a drive toward an outcome, and satisfaction is the outcome already
experienced.
From the management point of view, then, a person might have high job satisfaction but a low
level of motivation for the job, or the reserve mitht be true.
Needs
give rise
to
wants
which
cause
tensions
which give
rise to
actions
which
result
satisfaction
in
Need-Want-Satisfaction Chain
Need Theory
It may be stated that as the theory of motivation that addresses what people need or require to
live a life of fulfilment, particularly with regard to work. Need theory has a long-standing
tradition is motivation research. It deals with the part work plays in meeting the needs of those
employed.
According to need theory, a person is motivated when he or she has not yet attained certain levels
of satisfaction with his or her wife. A satisfied need is not a motivator.
There are various need theories of motivation. All of them focus on the importance of analysing
the psychological factors within individuals (i.e. needs) that cause people to behave in certain
ways. Behaviour is the result of attempts to satisfy those needs, and specific acts are based on the
particular need driving the individual at any time.
The most popular need theories of motivation are (i) Maslows Hierarchy of Needs Theory; (ii)
McClellands Needs Theory of Motivation and (iii) Herzbergs Two-factor Theory of Motivation.
26
27
Need
for self
actualization
Esteem needs
Affiliation, acceptance or
Divid C. McClelland has indentified three types of basic motivating needs as (a) need for power,
(b) need or affiliation, and (c) need for achievement. They are all relevant to management and
must be recognised to make an organised enterprise work well.
Physiological needs
Need for power: It deals with the degree of control a person desires over his or her situation.
This need can be related to how people deal with failure and success. Fear of failure and an
erosion of ones power can be a strong motivator for some people. Individuals with the need for
power usually seek positions of leadership in organisations, are outspoken, often argumentative,
forceful, hardheaded and demanding, and they enjoy being in positions that require persuasive
speaking or travelling and seek positions in organisations that control the means of influencing
others. Research studies indicate that top managers are highly motivated by the need for power.
Need for affiliation: Many people spend much of their time thinking about developing warm,
friendly, personal relationships with others in the organisation. They have a high need for
affiliation and usually are more sensitive to others feelings, seek for jobs with a pleasant social
environment that is conductive to personal interaction. Research studies indicate that concern for
28
the feelings of subordinates is essential for outstanding management success and executive
expertise.
Need for achievement: David C. McClellands research indicated that a strong need for
achievement the drive to succed or excel is related to how well individuals are motivated to
perform their tasks. People with a high need for achievement like to take responsibility for
solving problems. They tend to set moderately difficult goals for themselves and take calculated
risks to meet those goals. They greatly value feedback on how well they are doing. Thus those
with high achievement needs tend to be highly motivated by challanging and competitive work
situations; people with low achievement needs tend to perform poorly in the same sort of
situations.
There is ample evidence of the correlation between high achievement needs and high
performance. McClelland finds, for example, that people who succeed in competitive
occupations are well above average in achievement motivation. Successful managers who
presumably operate in one of the most competitive of all environments have a higher
achievement need than other professionals.
29
30
Second, the manager should give employees the opportunity to experience motivation factors
such as achievement and recognition, and result is predicted to be a high level of satisfaction and
motivation. Herzberg also demonstrated the way of using the two-factor theory. He recommends
that jobs be redesigned to provide higher levels of the motivation factors.
The Traditional View
Satisfaction
Dissatisfaction
Means of Motivation
Experience suggests that some specialised teachniques to motivate can be used as follows:
(1) Management by Objective (MBO) and goal setting: MBO is a process of
collaborative goal-setting between a manager and a subordinate with the understanding
that the degree of goal attainment by the subordinate will be a major factor in evaluating
and rewarding the subordinates performance. When the manager sits with the
subordinates, jointly establishes goal for them and agree that the future rewards will be
Satisfaction
No Satisfaction
based
on goal attainment then he or she is expected
to be more motivated to work toward
the goals that merit them.
(2) Participation in management: Subordinates are likely to be motivated the most when
they are not only consulted but are also allowed to participate in decision-making. In fact
the right kind of participation yield both motivation and knowledge valuable for
enterprise
success.
Dissatisfaction
No Dissatisfaction
Participation appeals to the need for affiliation and acceptance. It is a means of
recognition and thus enhances subordinates eagerness to work harder.
31
(3) Monetary incentives: Money can never be overlooked as a motivator. Whether in the
form of bonuses, piecework, or any other incentive pay, money is important. And, as
some writers have pointed out, money is often more than monetary value. It can also
mean power or status.
In order to use money as a motivator, a manager has to remember the following:
(i) Money is an urgent means of achieving a minimum standard of living, although this
minimum has a way of getting higher as people become more affuent.
(ii) An enterprise can make its wages and salaries competitive within their industry and their
geographic area to attract and hold people.
(iii)
People usually evaluate their compensation in the light of what their equals are
receiving.
(iv)Unless bonuses for managers are based to a major extent on individual perforamnce, an
enterprise is not buying much motivation with them. It so fas as possible,
compensation has to be based on performance.
(v) Money can motivate only when the prospective payment is large relative to a persons
income.
(1) Modified work week/flexible working hours: There is considerable interest among
employees in altering the workweek to suit their convenience better. The primary
motivational implications of the modified workweek are that modification in their
routtive helps them satisfy their higher-level needs and provides them with an
opportunity to fulfil several of their needs simultaneouslys.
By allowing employees more independence in terms of when they come to work and
when they leave, managers acknowledge and show esteem for the employees ability
to exercise self-control. It is hoped that employees will respond with higher levels of
motivation. Modified workweeks give employees the opportunity to fulfil a variety of
needs. Using flexible working hours, a person can contribute to the organization and still
have time, for example, to study for the MBA programme of BOU or to carry on
business as a part-time occupation.
(2) Quality of working life (QWL): This is an important motivational technique, used by
managers in western societies. QWL is not only a very broad approach to job enrichment
but also an interdisciplinary field of enquiry and action combining industrial relations,
industrial engineering, industrial psychology and sociology, organisation theory and
development, leadership theory and motivation, etc.
32
(3) Effective criticism: This can be a springboard for improving an employees behaviour
and performance. Adopting a positive approach makes criticism less difficult as well as
more effective. The manager should examine his or her own motives before criticising.
The manager should plan the presentation of his criticism in the best possible form with
a view to motivating rather than rebuking him or her. Criticism should apply to the use
of personal efforts for improvement now, not next week or next month. Specific time
schedules for improvements are also to be set up.
(4) Job enrichment: Making jobs challenging and meaningful is an accepted way of
motivating employees greatly. In job enrighment, the attempt is to build into jobs a
higher sense of challenge and achievement. Job may be enriched by variety. But they
also may be enriched by (a) giving workers more freedom at workplace; (b) giving
subordinates a feeling of personal responsibility for their tasks; (c) encouraging
participation of workers and interaction between them; (d) giving subordinates feedback
on their job performance; and (e) involving workers in the analysis and hange of
physical aspects of the work environment, such as cleanliness, layout, temperature,
lighting, etc.
Conclusion:
There is no denying the fact that individuals involved in an organization have needs and
objective that are specially important to them. By leading them, managers help threre see
that they can satisfy their own needs, utilise their potential at the same time contribute to
the aims of an enterprise. Managers should thus have an understanding of the roles
assured by people, the individualy of people and the personality of people. However the
aspects of human factor are important and deserves a managers careful attention.
Week: 03
33
Lecture No. : 03
Introduction:
To start with I like to quote, the major force behind world investment is ........ human
resources (Drucker 1995: 39). It is generally accepted that manpower constitutes the most
effective and economical way of fulfilling resources to achieve the desired goal. It is also seen
that induction of technology and mechanization have not replaced human beings, rather it has
put greater demand on their quality, skill and dedication.
The manpower resource is the most vital factor for the survival and prosperity of a firm.
Though all the firms buy the same material and machines, the people in a firm make the
difference in the final product. So the success of any organization depends mainly upon
the quality of its manpower and their performance. Any forward looking management
will be concerned with the problem of procuring or developing adequate talent for
manning various positions in the organization. The success of a manpower planning
process not only help the organization itself, but also helps the societys prosperity. The
losses of a firm suffers from inadequate manpower planning and its utilization, is a loss to
the nation. When these individual losses are added up the total losses may be very
significant to the economy of a nation.
02.
In order to understand Humn Resource Planning, let us study the two terms, Manpower
and Planning independently and then in relation to each other.
(a)
Human Resource:
Now a days the term Human Resource is presently used in place of manpower
was a very popular term during World War II, then apparently passed out of
widespread usage, and reappeared about 1960. The term has many different
meanings today and has once again become quite popular.
Generally speaking, Manpower is a macro-concept referring to an aggregate
of categories of skilled personnel; distinct and separate categories of manpower
and identifiable on the basis of the level and type of their skills; and these skills
are generated by means of education and training, both within the formal
education system and outside it.
In current popular usage, the terms manpower, labour, labour force, work
force and human resources are all being employed though they are
conceptually identical or as mere variants in expression; however, no harm could
possibly be done by indiscriminate use of these terms to theory and analysis,
provided their specific, distinct and separate meaning are identified and kept in
mind constantly.
Sometimes the word manpower is equivalent to the term labour when labour is
understood to be a factor of production in the basic framework of analysis used by
economists. In this very broad sense manpower can also be understood to mean
generically personnel or employees. Actually these usages of the term are
virtually identical; the differences are less in substance than in point of view, one
being that of the labour economist and the other that of the personnel.
Looked at in still another manner, manpower can mean the total quantitative and
qualitative human assets or people in a society. In this sense we are literally
interpreting the word to mean the power of man, both in terms of the size of the
population and the talents and educational levels in that population. Population
can be said to determine the quantity, and education combined with experience,
35
the quality, of manpower. During World War II, when there was a War Manpower
Commission, manpower seemed to have the latter connotations.
However, it is conceptually invalid to equate labour with Manpower.
Similarly the term human resources is also not identical with Manpower since
it is more generic including both skilled and unskilled categories of workers.
Further manpower is also different from the term labour force used in surveys
of employment and unemployment. Because labour force constitutes workers
and unemployed. Finally the term work Force denotes but component of labour
force that is engaged in gainful activity.
Manpower thus denotes definite and specific categories which are in theory:
(1) non-homogeneous and are therefore,
(2) non-substitutable.
To take a typical example: A doctor (from the category of medical manpower) is
non-substitutable from an engineer (from the category of engineering manpower).
However, within each category it is possible to substitute one unit for another,
provided the second has skills identical with those of the first.
(b)
Planning:
(b)
36
(c)
(ii)
Human Resource Planning may be regarded as the quantitative and
qualitative measurement of labour force required in an organization and planning in relation
to manpower. It may be regarded as establishing objectives to develop human resources in
line with broad objectives of the organization.
(iii)
37
(iv)
(2)
(3)
According to Gordon McBeath, manpower planning involves two stages. The first stage is
concerned with the detailed planning of manpower requirements for all types and levels of
employees throughout the period of the plan, and the second state is concerned with
planning of manpower supplies to provide the organization with the right types of people
from all sources to meet the planned requirements.
38
(b)
environmental uncertainties
(c)
time horizons
(d)
(e)
(f)
39
(c)
Time Horizons:
Yet another major factor affecting personnel planning is the time horizon. On the
one hand there are short-term plans spanning six months to one year. On the other,
there are long-term plans spread over three to twenty years. The exact time span,
however, depends on the degree of uncertainty prevailing in an organizations
environment. For companies operating in an unstable environment, computers for
example, plans must be for a short period. For others where environment is fairly
stable, for example a university plan may be. In general, the greater the
uncertainty, the shorter the plans time horizon and vice versa.
Closely related to the type of information is the quality of data used. The quality
and accuracy of information depend upon the clarity with which the
organizational decision makers have defined their strategy, organization
structure, budgets, production schedules and so forth. In addition, the HR
department must maintain well-developed job-analysis information and human
resource information systems that provide accurate and timely data. Generally
speaking, organizations operating in stable environments are in a better position to
obtain higher-quality (comprehensive, timely and accurate) information because
of longer planning horizons, clearer definition of strategy and objectives, and
fewer disruptions.
40
(f)
Several organizations off-load part of their work to outside parties either in the form
of sub-contracting or ancillarisation. Off-loading is a regular feature both in the public sector as
well as in the private sector. Most organizations have surplus labor and they do not want to
worsen the problem by hiring more people. Hence, the need for off-loading. Some organizations
are known to carry the concept of off-loading to ridiculous lengths and in the process, the regular
employees sit idle. Kickbacks from owners of ancillary units are the cause for such
ancillarisation HRP is rarely required in such circumstances.
Week: 04
41
Lecture No. : 04
(ii)
(iii)
(v)
Annually the top management team and the directors must examine their organization
structure and its adequacy for the assigned functions as well as its adaptability for
changes anticipated in the near future. This analysis or audit includes a review of the
current vacancies and probable future changes in the organizations personnel.
For example, adequate forecasts of organizational changes can indicate the number of
executive positions, which will have to be filled as well as the duties and responsibilities
for such positions. From this can be ascertained the nature of training and development
required for the existing staff to fit these positions adequately. A crystallization of the job
requirements can help selection of persons who should participate in the management
development programme. In this way, manpower planning is helpful in both the selection
and developmental activities. It ensures that adequate persons are selected well in
42
advance so that they may be developed for the anticipated position openings to ensure a
smooth growth for the organization.
Manpower planning can basically be done by observing the following three steps:
(a)
(b)
(c)
(a)
(b)
If surpluses are anticipated, decide how these surpluses will be dealt with
like through early retirements, discharges, or lay offs.
Manpower planning thus seeks to ensure that the required personnel possessing the
necessary skills are available at the right time. As Dr. Ram Tarneja emphasizes,
Management can ensure control of labour costs by avoiding both shortages and
surpluses of manpower through proper manpower planning. He stresses that underestimation either regarding quality or quantity of manpower requirements would lead to
shortfalls of performance, whilst over-estimation would result in avoidable costs to the
organization. Whilst agreeing that it is necessary to project deep into the future for skills
which would require longer periods of training, he warns that if the periods selected are
too long, manpower forecasts are likely to be less accurate in view of the inability to
predict effectively the likely changes in the economic, social and technological spheres.
With this caution in mind, forecasts can be made for a short-term upto two years, mediumterm for periods of 3-5 years and long term for periods longer than 5 years. However, a
reasonable degree of accuracy can only be expected in case of short-term forecasts upto 2
years. Even such forecast should be periodically reviewed and readjusted.
44
(a)
(b)
(c)
death, ill health and turnover, based on past experience and future outlook in
relation to companys expansion and future growth patterns.
Whilst in the above planning process a time span of five years has been suggested, it
must be remembered that this planning exercise must be repeated annually for the next
five years. This is because uncertain factors can affect the growth patterns of business
houses and annual reviews can help incorporate the modifications found desirable.
In the final analysis, the overall responsibility for manpower planning must lie squarely
on the Board of Directors. This is because Board members are in a position to direct the
future course of business, set appropriate goals for management concerned in the formulation
of personnel policy. Besides, senior management and management at other levels are also
involved in this process as they supply adequate data regarding their manpower requirements.
The personnel departments function is to recommend relevant personnel policies in respect
of manpower planning, devise methods and procedures for determination of quantitative
aspects of manpower planning.
46
2.
3.
4.
5.
b.
Internal Supply
b.
External Supply
b.
c.
b.
47
Conclusion:
As Human Resource Planning is concerned with the optimum use of human resources, it
can be of great benefit at both the national and the company unit levels. At the national level,
it would be concerned with factors such as the population, economic development provision
of facilities for education and geographical mobility and would be the governments
responsibility. Human Resource Planning studies can even be undertaken at the trade
associations level for particular industry.
Human Resource Planning is a neglected area in our context. Only a handful of companies
indulge in this practice. Such companies however do report that it helps them in many ways.
Firstly, forecasting of long-term manpower requirements helps them also to forecast the
compensation costs involved. Besides, by anticipating manpower needs, they have an
opportunity for developing existing manpower to fill the future openings through promotion.
They report that this attitude of encouraging existing employees creates a very favorable
psychological climate for their motivation. Manpower planning also enables, through
performance appraisals in the manpower management cycle, determination of the
weaknesses of the existing manpower so that corrective training could be incorporated. Thus
their training program becomes more effective. Better developed manpower results are a
relative reduction in manpower costs. Particularly in the area of management succession,
manpower planning makes a very useful contribution. Although there is unemployment in
our country, persons with the requisite skills and particularly managerial skills is still in
short supply. It is thus the job of management of good companies to develop such skills in
their employees showing potential. This can be only done through adequate manpower
planning which makes it possible to plan the career of employees having the necessary
potential.
Week: 05
Lecture No. : 05
48
JOB ANALYSIS
Job Analysis:
Job Analysis is a systematic exploration of the activities within a job. It is a technical procedure
used to define the duties, responsibilities, and accountabilities of a job. This analysis involves
the identification and description of what is happening on the job . . . accurately and precisely
identifying the required tasks, the knowledge, and the skills necessary for performing them, and
the conditions under which they must be performed.
In fewer words, we can say that a job analysis indicates what activities and accountabilities the
job entails. There is no mystery to a job analysis; it is just an accurate recording of the activities
involved.
In recording these activities, we are simply gathering information. And while every job is
multifaceted, we must confine our information gathering to specific job attributes. What are these
attributes? Figure 1.1 depicts the hierarchy of information that the job analysis seeks. Let us take
a moment to define our terms. We begin with the smallest segment of information, which we call
an element. A job element is the smallest unit into which work can be divided. Putting the tomato
on a hamburger is an example of an element in the job of a fry cook at McDonalds.
Elements: Elements are the factor or components to be selected for analyzing jobs.
49
Task
A task is a distinct work activity carried out for a distinct purpose. Examples would
include typing a letter, preparing a lecture, or unloading a mail truck.
Duty
A duty is a number of tasks. Counseling students is a duty of a college instructor. A
general accounting clerks duties might include preparing the monthly income statement and
distributing the weekly payroll checks.
Position
A position refers to one or more duties performed by one person in an organization. There
are at least as many positions as there are workers in the organization; vacancies may create
more positions than employees. Examples of positions include Supervisor Grade IV; Accounts
Payable Clerk I; and Assistant Professor, Level 2.
Job
A job is a type of position within the organization. If a large insurance company employs
sixty life insurance actuary job.
Job family
A job family is a group of two or more jobs that either call for similar worker
characteristics or contain parallel work tasks as determined by job analysis. At the previously
mentioned insurance company, service clerks and policy correspondents represent two jobs that
frequently are placed in a common job family because they have many similar worker
characteristics.
Occupation
An occupation is a group of similar jobs found across organizations. Electrician,
accountant, and service maintenance engineer are examples of occupations.
50
Career
A career represents a sequence of positions, jobs, or occupations that a person has over
his or her working life.
Why is it important to know the terms defined above? As we will show, job analysis begins at the
level of the element and attempts to build understanding of jobs, occupations, and careers as
components are combined. In other words, the previous definitions should help you to see how
jobs evolve and develop.
Armed with this conceptual framework, let us now look at how to conduct the job analysis. The
next section will explore the more widely used job analysis techniques.
Career
Occupation
Job
Family
Job
Position
Duty
Task
51
Element
Observation Method. Using the observation method, a job analyst watches employees directly
or reviews films of workers on the job. Although the observation method provides firsthand
information, workers often do not function most efficiently when they are being watched, and
thus distortions in the job analysis can occur. This method also requires that the entire range of
activities be observable. This is possible with some jobs, but impossible for many-for example,
most managerial jobs.
Individual Interview Method. Using the individual interview method, a team of job incumbents
is selected and extensively interviewed. The result of these interviews are combined into a single
job analysis. This method is effective for assessing what a job entails, and involving employees
in the job analysis in essential.
Group Interview Method. The group interview method is similar to the individual interview
method except that a number of job incumbents are interviewed simultaneously. Accuracy is
increased in assessing jobs, but group dynamics may hinder its effectiveness.
Structured Questionnaire Method. Under the structured questionnaire method, workers are
sent a specifically designed questionnaire on which they check or rate items they perform on
their job form a long list of possible task items. This technique is excellent for gathering
52
information about jobs. However, exceptions to a job may be overlooked, and there is often no
opportunity to ask follow-up questions or to clarify the information received.
Technical Conference Method. The technical conference method uses supervisors with
extensive knowledge of the job. Here, specific job characteristics are obtained from the
experts. Although a good data-gathering method, it often overlooks the incumbent workers
perceptions about what they do on their job.
Diary Method. The diary method requires job incumbents to record their daily activities. The
diary method is the most time consuming of the job analysis methods and may have to extend
over long periods of time-all adding to its cost.
These six methods are not meant to be viewed as mutually exclusive; no one method is
universally superior. Even obtaining job information from the incumbents can be create a
problem, especially if these individuals describe what they think they should be doing rather
than what they actually do. The best results, then, are usually achieved with some
combination of methods-with information provided by individual employees, their
immediate supervisors, a professional analyst or an unobtrusive source such as filmed
observations. In the next section, well explore a means of conducting the job analysis.
Understand the purpose of Conducting the job Analysis: Before embarking on a job analysis.
One must understand the nature and purpose of conducting the investigation. Recognize that job
analysis serve a vital purpose in such HRM activities as recruiting, training, setting performance
standards, evaluating performance, and compensation. In fact, nearly every activity in HRM
revolves around the job analysis.
Understand the Role of Jobs and Values in the Organization: Every job in the organization should
have a purpose. Before conducting the job analysis, one must understand the linkage that the job
has to the strategic direction of the organization. In essence, one must answer why the job is
needed, If an answer cannot be determined, then may be the job is not needed.
Determine How You Want to Collect he Job Analysis Information: Proper planning at this
stage permits one to collect the data desired in the most effective and efficient manner. This
means developing a process for collecting the data. Several combined methods like structured
questionnaires, group interviews, and technical conferences should be used. Select the ones,
however, the best meet your job analysis goals and timetables.
Seek Clarification, Wherever Necessary : Some of the information collected may be entirely
understood by the job analyst. Accordingly, when this occurs, one must seek clarification from
those who possess the critical information. This may include the employee and the supervisor.
Failure to understand ad comprehend the information will make the next step in the job analysis
process writing the job description more difficult.
Develop the First Draft of the Job Description : Although there is no specific format that all
job descriptions follow, most include certain elements. Specifically, a job description contains the
job title, a summary sentence of the jobs main activities, the level of authority and
accountability of the position, performance requirements, and working conditions. The last
54
paragraph of the job description typically includes the job specifications, or those personal
characteristics the job incumbent should possess to be successful on the job.
Review Draft with the Job Supervisor : Ultimately, the supervisor of the position being
analyzed should approve the job description. Review comments from the supervisor can assist in
determining a final job description document. When the description is an accurate reflection, the
supervisor should sign off, or approve the document.
Understand the
purpose of the job
analysis
Review
draft with
supervisor
Understand the
role of job in the
organization
Develop
draft
Benchmark
position
Seek
clarification
Determine how to
collect job
analysis
55
Job Descriptions: A job description is a written statement of what the jobholder does, how it
is done, under what conditions it is done, and why it is done. It should accurately portray job
content, environment, and conditions of employment. A common format for a job description
includes the job title, the duties to be performed, the distinguishing characteristics of the job,
environmental conditions, and the authority and responsibilities of the jobholder. An example of
a job description for a faculty member in a college of Business is provided in Exhibit 1.3.
When we discuss employee recruitment, selection, and performance appraisal, we will find that
the description acts as an important resource for: (1) describing the job (either verbally by
recruiters and interviewers or in written advertisements) to potential candidates; (2) guiding
newly hired employees in what they are specifically expected to do; and (3) providing a point of
comparison in appraising whether the actual activities of a job incumbent align with the stated
duties. Furthermore, under the Americans with Disabilities Act, job descriptions have taken on an
added emphasis in identifying essential job functions.
Job Specifications : The job specification states the minimum acceptable qualifications that
the incumbent must possess to perform the job successfully. Based on the information acquired
through job analysis, the job specification identifies the knowledge, skills, education, experience,
certification, and abilities needed to do the job effectively. Individuals possessing the personal
characteristics identified in the job specification should perform the job more effectively than
those lacking these personal characteristics. The job specification, therefore, is a important tool
in the selection process, for it keeps the selectors attention on the list of qualifications necessary
for an incumbent to perform the job and assists in determining whether candidates are essentially
qualified.
56
Job Evaluations: In addition to providing data for job descriptions and specifications, job
analysis is also valuable in providing the information that makes comparison of jobs possible. If
an organization is to have an equitable compensation program, jobs that have similar demands in
terms of skills, knowledge, and abilities should be placed in common compensation groups. Job
evaluation contributes towards that end by specifying the relative value of each job in the
organization. Job evaluation, therefore, is an important part of compensation administration, as
will be discussed in detail in Chapter 11. In the meantime, you should keep in mind that job
evaluation is made possible by the data generated from job analysis.
57
Job Description
Supervises: None
Date: 4/14/98
Job Specifications
Recruiting
Labor relations
Selection
job analysis
Safety and
Strategic human
job description
health
Compensation
resource planning
Employee training
Performance
Employee
appraisal
development
Career
Development
Fig: Exhibit 1.4
59
60
Week: 06
Lecture No. : 06
RECRUITMENT
Definition of Recruitment:
Recruiting is the process of discovering potential candidates for actual or anticipated
organizational vacancies. Or from another perspective, it is a linking activity bringing together
those with jobs to fill and those seeking jobs.
Sources of Recruiting:
Certain recruiting sources are more effective than others for filling certain types of jobs. As we
review each source in the following sections the strengths and weaknesses in attempting to
attract lower-level and managerial level personnel will be emphasized.
The Internal Search : Many large organizations will attempt to develop their own employees
for positions beyond the lowest level. These can occur through an Internal search of current
employees, who have either bid for the job, been identified through the organizations human
resource management system, or even been referred by a fellow employee. The advantages of
such searches a promote from within wherever possible policy are that
(1) It is good public relations.
(2) It builds morale.
61
A number of factors influence the response rate to advertisements. There are three important
variables; identification of the organization, labor market conditions, and the degree to which
specific requirements are included in the advertisement. Some organizations place what is
referred to as a blind-box ad, one in which there is no specific identification of the organization.
Respondents are asked to reply to a post office box number or to an employment firm that is
acting as an agent between the applicant and the organization. Large organizations with a
national reputation seldom use blind advertisements to fill lower-level positions; however, when
the organization does not wish to publicize the fact that it is seeing to fill an internal position, or
when it seeks to recruit for a position where there is a soon-to-be removed incumbent, a blindbox advertisement may be appropriate.
62
Employment Agencies: We will describe three forms of employment agencies: public or state
agencies, private employment agencies and management consulting firms. The major difference
between these three sources is the type of client served. All states provide a pubic employment
service. The main function of these agencies is closely tied to unemployment benefits, since
benefits in some states are given only to individuals who are registered with their state
employment agency. Accordingly, most public agencies tend to attract and list individuals who
are unskilled or have, had minimum training. This, of course, does not reflect on the agencys
competence, but rather, on the image of public agencies. State agencys are perceived by
prospective applicants as having few high-skilled jobs, and employers tend to see such agencies
as having few high-skilled workers. The agencies tend to attract and place predominantly lowskilled workers. The agencies image as perceived by both applicants and employers thus tends
to result in a self-fulfilling prophecy; that is, few high-skilled individuals place their names with
public agencies, and, similarly, few employers seeking individuals with high skills list their
vacancies or inquire about applicants at state agencies.
Schools, Colleges, and Universities: Educational institutions at all levels offer opportunities for
recruiting recent graduates. Most educational institutions operate placement services where
prospective employers can review credentials and interview graduates. Most also provide
employers and opportunity to witness a Prospective employees performance through
cooperative arrangements and internships.
Whether the educational level required for the job for the job involves a high-school diploma,
specific vocational training, or a college background with a bachelors masters, or doctoral
degree, educational institutions are an excellent source of potential employees.
Cyberspace Recruiting: One of the newer arenas for locating resumes of qualified employees is
looking on the Internet. Companies like Eli Lilly, bdjobs.com, Grolier Electronic Publishing,
Wells Fargo Bank, Fidelity Investments, General Electric, Levi Strauss, Bristol Technology, and
63
Cisco Systems have found the use of the World-Wide-Web advantageous in filling their
positions.
Unsolicited Applicants: Unsolicited applications, whether they reach the employer by letter,
telephone, or in person, constitute a source of prospective applicants. Although the number of
unsolicited applicants depends on economic conditions, the organizations image, and the job
seekers perception of the types of jobs that might be available, this source does provide an
excellent supply of stockpiled applicants. Even if there are no particular openings when the
applicant contacts the organization, the application can be kept on file for later needs.
Unsolicited applications made by unemployed individuals, however, generally have short life.
Those individuals who have adequate skills and who would be prime candidates for a position in
the organization if a position were currently available usually find employment with some other
organization that does have an opening. However, in times of economic stagnation, excellent
prospects are often unable to locate the type of job they desire and may stay actively looking in
the job market for many months.
64
Applicant
Received Education and
Acquire Employment
Experience
65
Make Offer
Accept or Reject Job Offers
In the recruitment and selection process, the organizations and the individuals objectives may
conflict. The organization is trying to evaluate the candidates strengths and weaknesses, but the
candidate is trying to present only strengths. Conversely, although the candidate is trying to ferret
out both the good and the bad aspects of the prospective job and employer, the organization may
prefer to reveal only positive aspects. In addition, each partys own objectives may conflict. The
organization wants to treat the candidate well to increase the probability or job-offer acceptance,
yet the need to evaluate the candidate may dictate the use of methods that alienate the prospect,
such as background investigations or stress interviews. Analogously, the applicant wants to
appear polite and enthusiastic about the organization to improve the probability of receiving an
offer, but he or she may also want to ask penetrating questions about compensation,
advancement, and the companys financial health and future.
66
Week: 07
Lecture No. : 07
67
Selection is a process of measurement, decision making, and evaluation. The goal of a personnel
selection system is to bring into an organization individuals who will perform well on the job. A
good selection system must also be fair to minorities and other protected classes.
To have an accurate and fair selection system, an organization 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 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 organization.
Passed
Failed to complete application or failed job specifications
Completed application
Passed
Failed test
68
Employment test
Passed
Failed to impress interviewer and/or meet job expectations
Passed
Comprehensive interview
Conditional job offer
Problems encountered
Background examination
if required
Passed
Reject applicant
Medical/physical examination
if required (conditional
job offer made)
Able to perform
essential elements
of job
69
Each step represents a decision point requiring some affirmative feedback for the process to
continue. Each steps in the process seeks to expand the organizations knowledge about the
applicants background, abilities, and motivation, and it increases the information from which
decision makers will make their predictions and final choice. However, some steps may be
omitted if they do not yield data that will aid in predicting success, or if the cost of the step is not
warranted. Applicants should also be advised what specific screening will be done, such as credit
checks, reference checking, and drug tests. The flow of these activities is depicted in Exhibit 1.1.
Let us take a closer look at each.
Another important point during the initial screening phase is to identify a salary range. Most
workers are concerned about their salaries, and while a job opening may sound exciting, a low
70
salary may preclude an organization from obtaining excellent talent. During this phase, if proper
HRM activities have been conducted, there should be no need to mask salary data.
Completion of the Application Form: Once the initial screening has been completed,
applicants are asked to complete the organizations application form. The amount of information
required may e only the applicants name, address and telephone number. Some organizations, on
the other hand, may request the completion of a more comprehensive employment profile. In
general terms, the applicants have been doing during their adult life, their skills, and their
accomplishments.
Applications are also useful in that they obtain information the company wants. Additionally,
completing the application serves as another hurdle; that is, if the job requires one to follow
directions and the individual fails to do so on the application, that is a job-related reason for
rejection. Lastly, applications require a signature attesting to the truthfulness of the information
given, and to give permission to check references. If at a later point the company finds out the
information is false, it can result in the immediate dismissal of the individual.
Interviews:
Whether were discussing initial screening interviews or comprehensive interviews, a common
question arises: Are interviews effective for gathering accurate information from which selection
decision can be made? The interview has proven to be an almost universal selection tool one
that can take a number of forms. They can revolve around a one-on-one encounter between the
interviewer and the applicant (the traditional interview) or involve several individuals who
interview an applicant at once (the panel interview). Interviews can follow some predetermined
pattern wherein both the questions and the expected responses are identified (a situational
interview). Interviews can also be designed to create a difficult environment in which the
applicant is put to the test to assess his or her confidence levels. These are frequently referred
to as the stress interview.
71
Irrespective of how the interview is conducted, it is understood that few people get jobs without
one or more interviews. This is extremely interesting given that the validity of the interview as a
selection tool has been the subject of considerable debate. Lets look at the research findings
regarding interviews.
generally low. Despite its popularity, the interview is expensive, inefficient, and often not job
related.
More specifically, a review of he research has generated the following conclusions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Prior knowledge about the applicant can bias the interviewers evaluation.
The interviewer often holds a stereotype of what represents a good applicant.
The interviewer often tends to favor applicants who share his or her own attitudes.
The order in which applicants interviewed often influences evaluations.
The order in which information is elicited influences evaluations.
Negative information is given unduly high weight.
The interviewer may make a decision as to the applicants suitability in the first few
minutes of the interview.
8. The interviewer may forget much of the interviews content within minutes after its
conclusion.
9. Structured and well-organized interviews are more reliable.
10. The interview is most valid in determining an applicants organizational fit, level of
motivation, and interpersonal skills.
For anyone who interviews prospective job candidates, whether as a recruiter in HRM or in any
other capacity, there are several suggestions we can offer for improving the effectiveness of
interviews.
Obtain Detailed Information About the Job for Which Applicants Are Being Interviewed:
When such information unavailable, you may tend to rely more on factors less relevant to the
job, allowing bias to enter into the assessment. You should therefore, at a minimum, have a copy
of the recent position description as an information source. you are now ready to structure the
interview.
Structure the Interview So That the Interview Follows a Set Procedure: Reliability is
increased when the interview is designed around a constant structure. A fixed set of questions
should be presented to every applicant. In the trade-off between structure and consistency versus
73
nanostructure and flexibility, structure and consistency have proved to be of greater value for
selection purposes. The structured interview also aids you in comparing all candidates answers
to a like question.
Review the Candidates Application Form and/or Resume: This step helps you to create a
more complete picture of the applicant in terms of what is represented on the resume/application,
and what the job requires. This will help you to identify specific areas that need to be explored in
the interview. For example, areas not clearly defined on the resume but essential for job success
become a focal point for interview discussion.
Put the Applicant at Ease: Assume the applicant will be nervous. For you to obtain the kind of
information you will need, the applicant will have to be put at ease. Introduce yourself, and open
with some small talk like the weather, the traffic coming to the interview, etc. But be careful;
dont venture into illegal areas with small talk about the applicants family. Keep it impersonal!
Ask Your Questions: The questions you are asking should be behaviorally based. Such
questions are designed to require applicants to provide detailed descriptions of their actual job
behaviors. You want to elicit concrete examples of how the applicant demonstrates certain
behaviors, The same behaviors that are necessary for successful performance on the job for
which the interview is being held. If you are unsatisfied with the applicants response, probe
deeper to seek elaboration. The key here is to let the applicant talk. A big mistake is to do most of
the talking yourself. During this part of the interview, take notes. Given the propensity to forget
what was actually said during the interview, notes should be taken. This will lead to increased
accuracy in evaluation.
Conclude the Interview: Let the applicant know that all of your questioning is finished.
Summarize what you have heard from the applicant, and give the applicant an opportunity to
correct something that is unclear; or discuss anything that you may have not addressed in the
interview. Inform the applicant what will happen next in the process, and when he or she can
expect to hear from you.
74
interviewee has departed while the information and your notes are still fresh in your mind.
The information on this evaluation can then be
summarized into an overall rating, or impression, for the candidate. This approach increases the
likelihood that the same frame of reference is applied to each applicant.
Week: 08
Lecture No. : 15
Lecture Topic:
Training & Management Development
75
For our purposes, we will differentiate between employee training and employee development
for one particular reason. Although both are similar in the methods used to affect learning, their
time frames differ. Training is more present-day oriented; its focus is on individuals current jobs,
enhancing those specific skills and abilities to immediately perform their jobs. For example,
suppose you enter the job market during your senior year of college, pursuing a job as a
marketing representative. Although you have a degree in Marketing, when you are hired, some
training is in order. Specifically, youll need to learn the companys policies and practices,
product information, and other pertinent selling practices. This, by definition, is job-specific
training, or training that is designed to make you more effective in your current job.
Employee development:
76
On the other hand, generally focuses on future jobs in the organization. As example, if you
become a sales territory manager, the skills needed to perform that job are quite different from
those required for selling the products. Now you will be required to supervise a number of sales
representatives; requiring a broad-based knowledge of marketing and very specific management
competencies like communication skills, evaluation employee performance, and disciplining
problem individuals. As you are groomed for positions of greater responsibility, employee
development efforts will help prepare you for that day.
Management Development:
Management development is more future oriented, and more concerned with education, than is
employee training, or assisting a person to become a better performance. By education, we mean
that management development activities attempt to instill sound reasoning processes to
enhance ones ability to understand and interpret knowledge rather than imparting a body of
serial facts or teaching a specific set of motor skills. Development, therefore focuses more on the
employees personal growth.
Successful managers have analytical, human, conceptual, and specialized skills. They are able to
think and understand. Training per se cannot overcome a managers or potential managers
inability to understand cause-and-effect relationships, to synthesize from experience, to visualize
relationships, or to think logically. As a result, we suggest that management development be
predominantly an education process rather than a training process.
The words predominantly an education process should be noted. In contrast to what we have said
above, certain activities that managers engage in are programmable, and training can be helpful.
Managers need good listening skills, interviewing competence, and the ability to read, analyze,
and classify types of employee behavior. Training can improve these types of skills.
Unfortunately, effective management requires considerably more than the acquisition of any
specific or specialized skills. For the most part, therefore, the methods for developing executives
that we will consider are educational and are intended to foster the managers analytical and
conceptual abilities.
Theories of Learning:
Learning is concerned with bringing about relatively permanent change as a result of experience.
This can be done through direct experience by doing or indirectly, through observation.
77
Regardless of the means by which learning takes place, we cannot measure learning per se. We
can only measure the changes in attitudes and behavior that occur as a result of learning. For our
discussion, we will emphasize how we learn rather than what we learn.
Two major theories have dominated learning research over the years. One position is the
cognitive view. Its proponents argue that an individuals purposes or intentions direct his or her
actions. The other position is the environmental perspective, whose proponents believe the
individual is acted upon and his or her behavior is a function of its external consequences.
More recently an approach has been offered that blends both of these theories learning is a
continuous interaction between the individual and the particular social environment in which he
or she functions. This is called social-learning theory. This theory acknowledges that he can learn
by observing what happens to other people and just being told about something, as well as by
direct experiences. Since much of training is observational in nature, this theory would appear to
have considerable application potential.
The influence of models is central to the social-learning view-point. Research indicates that
much of what we have learned comes from watching models-parents, teachers, peers, motion
picture and television performers, bosses, and so forth. Four processes have been found to
determine the influence a model will have on an individual:
Attentional processes: People only learn from a model when they recognize and pay attention to
its critical features. We tend to be most influenced by models that are attractive, repeatedly
available, that we think are important, or that we see as similar to us.
Retention processes: A models influence will depend on how well the individual remembers the
models action, even after the model is no longer readily available.
Motor reproduction processes: After a person has seen a new behavior by observing the model,
the watching must be converted to doing. This process then demonstrates that the individual can
perform the modeled activities.
78
Principle of Learning:
Learning is enhanced when the learner is motivated: An individual must want to learn. When
that desire exists, the learner will exert a high level of effort. There appears to be valid evidence
to support the adage, You can lead a horse to water, but you cant make him drink.
Practice increases a learners performance: When learners actually practice what they have
read or seen, they gain confidence and are less likely to make errors or to forget what they have
learned.
Learning begins rapidly, then plateaus: Learning rates can be expressed as a curve that usually
begins with a sharp rise, then increases at a decreasing rate until a plateau is reached. Learning is
very fast at the beginning, but then plateaus as opportunities for improvement are reduced.
Learning must be transferable to the job: It doesnt make much sense to perfect a skill in the
classroom and then find that you cant successfully transfer it to the job. Therefore, training
should be designed for transferability.
79
Week: 08
Lecture No. : 16
Lecture Topic:
Determining Training Needs and Priorities
Whether there is a need for training?
Apprenticeship Programs
Job Instruction Training
80
Apprenticeship Programs: People seeking to enter skilled trades to become, for example,
plumbers, electricians, or ironworkers-are often required to undergo apprenticeship training
before they are accepted to journeyman status.
Job Instruction Training: During World War II, a systematic approach to on-the-job training
was developed to prepare supervisors to train operatives. This approach, called job instruction
training (JIT), was part of the Training within Industry program. JIT consists of four basic steps:
(1) Preparing the trainees by telling them about the job and over-coming their uncertainties; (2)
presenting the instruction, giving essential information in a clear manner; (3) having the trainees
try out the job to demonstrate their understanding; and (4) placing the workers into the job, at
their own, with a designated resource person to call upon should they need assistance. The
sequence of these activities is shown in Figure 1.1.
81
BASICS OF INSTRUCTION
PREPARE
UNDERSTANDING
Tell
Show
Demonstrate
Explain
TRY OUT
FOLLOW UP
MOTIVATION
PRESENT
ESSENTIALS OF LEARNING
PARTICIPATION
APPLICATION
Week: 09
Lecture No. : 17
Programmed Instruction
Employee Development Methods
OFF-THE-JOB TRAINING
Off-the-job training covers a number of techniques classroom lecture, films, demonstrations,
case studies and other simulation exercises, and programmed instruction. The facilities needed
for each technique vary from a small, makeshift classroom to an elaborate development center
with large lecture halls, supplemented by small, conference rooms with sophisticated
instructional technology equipment. We have summarized the majority of these methods in
Exhibit 1.2. Because of its growing popularity in todays technology-oriented organizations,
however, programmed instruction warrants a closer look.
Classroom Lectures:
specific
interpersonal,
Simulation Exercises:
Vestibule Training:
84
Programmed Instruction:
Job Rotation: Job rotation involves moving employees to various positions in the organization
in an effort to expand their skills, knowledge, and abilities. Job rotation can be either horizontal
or vertical. Vertical rotation is nothing more than promoting a worker into a new position. In this
chapter, we will emphasize the horizontal dimension of job rotation, or what may be better
understood as a short-term lateral transfer.
Job rotation represents an excellent method for broadening an individuals exposure to company
operations and for turning a specialist into a generalist. In addition to increasing the individuals
experience and allowing him or her to absorb new information, it can reduce boredom and
stimulate the development of new ideas. It can also provide opportunities for a more
comprehensive and reliable evaluation of the employee by his or her supervisors.
Assistant-To Position: Employees with demonstrated potential are sometimes given the
opportunity to work under a seasoned and successful manager, often in different areas of the
organization. Working as staff assistants or, in some cases serving on special boards, these
individuals perform many duties under the watchful eye of a supportive coach. In doing so, these
employees get exposure to a wide variety of management activities and are groomed for
assuming the duties of the next higher level.
Committee Assignment: Committee assignments can provide an opportunity for the employee
to share in decision making, to learn by watching others, and to investigate specific
organizational problems. When committees are of a temporary nature, they often take on taskforce activities designed to delve into a particular problem, ascertain alternative solutions, and
85
make a recommendation for implementing a solution. These temporary assignments can be both
interesting and rewarding to the employees growth.
Appointment to permanent committees increases the employees exposure to other members of
the organization, broadens his of her understanding, and provides an opportunity grow and make
recommendations under the scrutiny of other committee members. In addition to the on-the-job
techniques described above, we will briefly discuss three of the more popular ones: lecture
courses and seminars, simulations, and outdoor training.
Lecture Courses and Seminars: Traditional forms of instruction revolved around formal
lecture courses and seminars. These offered an opportunity for individuals to acquire knowledge
and develop their conceptual and analytical abilities. For many organizations, they were offeredin-house by the organization itself, through outside vendors, or both.
Simulations: Simulations were previously cited in Exhibit 1.2 as a training technique. While
critical in training employees on actual work experiences, simulations are probably even more
popular for employee development. The more widely used simulation exercises include case
studies, decision games, and role plays.
Outdoor Training: A 1990s trend in employee development has been the use of outdoor
(sometimes referred to as wilderness or survival) training. The primary focus of such training is
to teach trainees the importance of working together; gelling as a team. Outdoor training
typically involves some major emotional and physical challenge. This could be white-water
rafting, mountain climbing, paint-ball games, or surviving a week in the jungle. The purpose of
such training is to see how employees react to the difficulties that nature presents to them. Do
they face these dangers alone? Do they freak? Or are they controlled and successful in
achieving their goal? The reality is that todays business environment does not permit employees
to stand alone. This has reinforced the importance of working closely with one another
building trusting relationships, and succeeding as a member of a group.
86
Week: 09
Lecture No. : 18
Lecture Topic:
Evaluation the effectiveness of training program
Post-Training Performance Method:
Pre-Post-Training Performance Method
Pre-Post-Training Performance with Control Group Method
87
88
Although a number of methods for evaluation training and development programs may exist,
these three appear to be the most widely recognized. Furthermore, the latter two methods are
preferred, because they provide a stronger measure of behavioral change directly attributable to
the training effort.
Week: 10
Lecture No. : 19
89
CAREER DEVELOPMENT
Introduction:
Career development is important to us all. We know that people sometimes have difficulties
achieving their career goals. This reflects the new and unexpected complexities that managers
must now confront in their efforts to mobilize and manage their employees. The historical beliefs
that every employee would jump at the chance for a promotion, that competent people will
somehow emerge within the organization to fill arising vacancies, and that a valuable employee
will always be a valuable employee are no longer true. Lifestyles, too, are changing. We are
becoming increasingly aware o the different needs and aspirations of employees. If HRM
representatives are to be assured that they will have competent and motivated people to fill the
organizations future needs, they should be increasingly concerned with matching the career
needs of employees with the requirements of the organization.
The term career has a number of meanings. In popular usage it can mean advancement (Hes
moving up in his career), a profession (She has chosen a career in medicine), or stability over
time (career military). For our purposes, we will define career as the pattern of work-related
experiences that span the course of a persons life. Using this definition, it is apparent that we all
have or will have careers. The concept is as relevant to transient, unskilled laborers as it is to
engineers and physicians. For our purposes therefore, any work, paid or unpaid, pursued over an
extended period of time, can constitute a career. In addition to formal job work, careers can
include schoolwork, homemaking, or volunteer work. Furthermore, career success is defined not
only objectively in terms of promotion, but also subjectively, in terms of satisfaction.
in the latter case the focus is entirely on the individual and includes his or her life outside the
organization, as well as inside. So while organizational career development looks at individuals
filling the needs of the organization, individual career development address each individuals
personal work career and other lifestyle issues. For instance, an excellent employee, when
assisted in better understanding his or her needs and aspirations through interest inventories, lifeplanning analysis, and counseling, may even decide to leave the organization if it becomes
apparent that career aspirations can be best achieve outside the employing organization.
Ensures Needed Talent Will Be Available: Career development efforts are consistent with, and
are a natural extension of, strategic and employment planning. Changing staff requirements over
the intermediate and long term should be identified when the company sets long-term goals and
objectives. Working with individual employees to help them align their needs and aspirations
with those of the organization will increase the probability that the right people will be available
to meet the organizations changing staffing requirements.
91
Ensures that Minorities and Women Get Opportunities for Growth and Development: As
discussed in previous chapters, equal employment opportunity legislation and affirmative-action
programs have demanded that minority groups and women receive opportunities for growth and
development that will prepare them for greater responsibilities within the organization. The fair
employment movement has served as a catalyst to career development programs targeted for
these special groups. Recent legislation, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act, offers and
even greater organizational career challenge. Furthermore, courts frequently look at an
organizations career development efforts with these groups when ruling on discrimination suits.
Reduces Employee Frustration: Although the educational level of the work force has risen, so
too, have their occupational aspirations. However, periods of economic stagnation and increased
concern by organizations to reduce costs have also reduced opportunities. This has increased
frustration in employees who often see a significant disparity between their aspirations and
actual opportunities. When organizations cut costs by downsizing, career paths, career tracks,
and career ladders often collapse. Career counseling can result in more realistic, rather than
raised, employee expectations.
Enhances Cultural Diversity: The work force in the next decade will witness a more varied
combination of race, nationality, sex, and values in the organization. Effective organizational
career development provides access to all levels of the organization for more varied types of
employees. Extended career opportunities make cultural diversity, and the appreciation of it, an
organizational reality.
Promotes Organizational Goodwill: If employees think their employing organizations are
concerned about their long-term well-being, they respond in kind by projecting positive images
of the organization into other areas of their loves (e.g., volunteer work in the community). For
instance, Walt works for a long-distance phone career. He also coaches Little League baseball
with other parents in the community. When he expresses his trust of the phone company, because
of their expressed career interest, his friends might consider proposed rate hikes in a tolerant
light.
hierarchical level in an organization. Career success may now include using ones skills and
abilities to face expanded challenges, or having greater responsibilities and increased autonomy
in ones chosen profession. Intrinsic career development, or psychic income, is desired by
contemporary workers seek interesting and meaningful work; such interest and meaning are
often derived from a sense of being the architect of ones own career.
Stage
Exploration
External Event
Internal Event
new
tasks
of
Leveling off,
promotion
transfer,
Explicit signs from boss and coworkers that ones progress has Working through mid-life crisis
toward greater acceptance of oneself
plateaued
and others
It is time to give up on my dreams?
Should I settle for what I have?
Late Career
preparation
for
94
on maturity on judgment
retirement
Deceleration in momentum
Finding new sources of selfimprovement off the job, new sources
of job satisfaction through teaching
others
Decline
Retirement rituals
Week: 10
Lecture No. : 20
Lecture Topic:
Internal and External Events and Career Stages
Suggestions for More Effective Organizational Career Development
Challenging Initial Jobs
Dissemination of Career Option Information
Job Postings
Assessment Centers
95
We will now consider the methods or tools that managers can utilize to better match the career
needs of their subordinates with the requirements of their organization. While these suggestions
are not proposed to be all-encompassing, they are a solid representation of the better-known
career development methods.
As we noted in Part 2 of this book in our discussion of human resource planning, job analysis
recruitment, and selection, there are definite benefits for managers who correctly fill positions
with individuals who have the appropriate abilities and interests to satisfy the jobs demands.
Given the prior evidence, managers should be even more concerned with the match for new
employees and those just beginning their employment careers. Successful placement at this stage
should provide significant advantages to both the organization and the individual
As managers identify career paths that successful employees follow within the organization, they
should make this information available. If, for example, the organization prefers candidates for
middle-management positions to have had some job exposure in the manufacturing side of the
business as well as experience dealing with budgets and financial issues, this information should
be disseminated.
96
Such valid and reliable data will be of more help to the young, upwardly ambitions employee
than, say, some co-workers offhand comment that this company favors well-rounded people for
promotions.
Will the dissemination of career option information turn off the ambitious employee who finds
that the organization desires skills that he or she lacks? There is the risk that it might. It may
frighten you, if you aspire to a top-management position in your firm, to learn that your
organization expects its senior executives to show outstanding abilities in meeting with the
media, giving interviews, responding to questions without preparation, and testifying in front of
congressional committees. However, it may be just the stimulus to direct you to take courses in
public speaking and debate, to get involved in community affairs, or to seek out a one-year
special assignment within the company to work on a public relations project. Just as the openness
and truthfulness in realistic job previews help increase the job tenure of new employees,
managers increase the probability of keeping good employees by making available to them
realistic information about the successful career paths that past employees have followed and
that future employees should consider.
Job Postings:
Posting jobs: To provide information to all employees about job openings, managers can use job
posting. Organizations that post jobs typically use bulletin board displays, but they may also use
company publications and similar vehicles. The posting lists the abilities, experience, and
seniority requirements to qualify for vacancies.
Consistent with the idea that full information on vacancies is a good human resource practice,
job posting provides a channel by which the organization lets employees know what jobs are
available and, for future reference, what requirements they will have to fulfill to achieve the
promotions to which they may aspire. Additionally, a job-posting system is tangible evidence
that the organization is notifying women and minorities of the availability of more desirable jobs.
Assessment Centers:
97
Assessing personnel: We have discussed the assessment center both as a selection device and as
management development. It also has relevance as a career development tool.
By putting people through assessment centers we obtain observable evidence of their ability to
do a certain job. Additionally, and often overlooked, is the fact that this technique almost always
uses internal assessor, individuals learn how to observe behavior carefully, to make inferences
from observations, and to give feedback to the assesses.
Therefore the process helps to build the important managerial skills necessary for performance
appraisal. Even more important, it makes assessors more aware of what is involved in the
process of development and this awareness can provide valuable insights into their own career
development.
Week: 11
Lecture No. : 21
success. Of course, we all know that such a guarantee could never be given. But thats not to
imply that achieving your career goals are left simply to change. Instead, there are suggestions
on how to service in most organizations, as well as ways that you might use to make inroads
toward building a successful career (see Exhibit 1.1).
Select Your First Job Judiciously: All first jobs are not alike. Where you begin in the organization
has an important effect on your subsequent career progress. Specifically, evidence suggests that
if you have a choice, you should select a powerful department as the place to start your career. A
power department is one where crucial and important decisions are made. If you start out in
departments that are high in power within the organizations, youre more likely to advance in the
organization and ultimately throughout your career.
Do Good Work: Good work performance is a necessary (but not sufficient) condition for career
success. The marginal performer may be rewarded in the short term, but his or her weaknesses
are bound to surface eventually and cut off career advancement. Your good work performance is
no guarantee of success, but without it, the probability of a success career is low.
Present the Right Image: Assuming that your work performance is in line with other successful
employees, the ability to align your image with that sought by the organization is certain to be
interpreted positively. You should assess the organizations culture so that you can determine
what the organization wants and values. Then you need to project that image in terms of style of
dress; organizational relationships that you should and shouldnt cultivate; whether you should
project a risk-taking or risk-averse stance; whether you should avoid, tolerate, or encourage
conflict; the importance of getting along well with others; ad so forth.
Learn the Power Structure: The authority relationships defined by the organizations formal
structure, as shown by an organizational chart, explain only part of the influence patterns within
an organization. Its of equal or greater importance to know and understand the organizations
power structure. You need to learn whos really in charge, who has the goods on whom, what
are the major debts and dependencies all things that wont be reflected in neat boxes on the
organization chart. Once you have this knowledge, you can work within the power structure with
more skill and ease.
Gain Control of Organizational Resources: The control of scarce and important organizational
resource is a source power. Knowledge and expertise are particularly effective resources to
99
control. They make you more valuable to the organization and therefore more likely to gain job
security and advancement.
Stay Visible: Because the evaluation of performance effectiveness can be very subjective, its
important that your boss and those in power in the organization be made aware of your
contributions. If youre fortunate enough to have a job that brings your accomplishments to the
attention of others (or have mentor whos ensuring that this information is made known), taking
direct measures to increase your visibility might not be needed. But your job may require you to
handle activities that are low in visibility, or your specific contribution may be indistinguishable
because youre part of a group endeavor. In such cases, without creating image of a braggart,
youll want to call attention to yourself by giving progress reports to your boss and others.
Others tactics include being seen at social functions, being active in your professional
associations, and developing powerful allies who speck positively of you.
Dont Stay Too Long in Your First Job: The evidence indicates that, given a choice between
staying in your first job until youve really made a difference, or accepting going onto another
job (either in your current organization or for another one), you should opt for making the
change. By moving quickly through different jobs, you signal to others that youre on the fast
track. This, then, often becomes a self-fulling prophecy. The message for you is to start fast be
seeking early transfers or promotions from your first job.
Find a Mentor: This item is so important it needs to be singled out. Remember a mentor is
someone from whom you can learn and who can encourage and help you (see Ethical Decisions
in HRM). The evidence indicates that finding s sponsor who is part of the organizations power
core is essential for you to make it to grow in your career.
Support Your Boss: Your immediate future is in the hands of your current boss. He or she
evaluates your performance, and youre unlikely to have enough power to successfully challenge
this supervisor. Therefore, you should make the effort to help your boss succeed, be supportive if
your boss is under siege from other organizational members, and find out what he or she will be
using to assess your work effectiveness. Dont undermine your boss. Dont speak negatively of
your boss to others. If your boss is competent, visible, and possesses a power base, he or she is
likely to be on the way up in the organization. Being perceived as supportive, you might find
yourself pulled along too. If your bosss performance is poor and his of her power is low, you
need to more to another job. A mentor may be able to help you arrange this. Its hard to have
100
your competence recognized or your positive performance evaluation taken seriously if your
boss is perceived as incompetent.
Stay Mobile: Youre like to move upward more rapidly if you indicate your willingness to move
to different geographical locations and across functional lines within the organization. Career
advancement may also be facilitated by your willingness to change organizations. Working in a
slow-growth, stagnant, or declining organization should make mobility even more important to
you.
Think Laterally: The suggestion to think laterally acknowledges the changing world of work.
Because or organizational restructuring and downsizing there are fewer rungs on the promotion
ladder in many large organizations. To survive in this environment, its a good idea to think in
terms of lateral career moves. Its important to recognize that lateral movers in the 1960s and
1970s were presumed to be mediocre performers the plateaued worker. That presumption
doesnt hold in many cases today. Lateral shifts are now a viable career consideration. They give
you a wider range or experiences, which enhances your long-term mobility. In addition, these
moves can help energize you by making your work more interesting and satisfying. So if youre
not moving ahead in your organization, consider a lateral move internally or a lateral shift to
another organization.
101
Week: 11
Lecture No. : 22
102
Work Harder Than Ever at Developing a Network: Our final suggestion is based on the
recognition that having a network of friends, colleagues, neighbors, customers, suppliers, etc. can
be a useful tool for career development. If you spend some time cultivating relationships and
contacts throughout your industry ad community, youll be prepared if worse comes to worse
and your current job is eliminated. Even if your job is in no danger of being cut, having a
network can prove beneficial in getting things done.
103
Career
Success
Develop a network
Think laterally
Stay mobile
Find mentor
Stay visible
Gain control of
organizational resources
Learn the power
structure
Present the right image
Do good work
As we pointed out at the beginning of this chapter, career development can be viewed from the
perspective of the organization or of the individual. Our emphasis has been on the former. We
can now focus briefly on individual career development. In this section, we want to identify what
employees can do to better manage their own careers.
Career development suggestions: It is probably correct to state that once most individuals leave
school and enter the world of work, they spend more time planning a two-week vacation than
they spend planning a career that will span four decades. Yet the evidence demonstrates that
those individuals who are most successful in their careers report more extensive career planning.
Assuming someone wants to take personal career development seriously, what should he or she
do? The answer is to engage in self-assessment.
Individual career development requires people to become knowledgeable of their own needs,
values, and personal goals. This can be achieved through a three-step, self-assessment process.
1. Identify and organize your skills, interests, work-related needs, and values.
2. Convert these inventories into general career fields and specific job goals.
3. Test these possibilities against the realities of the organization or the job market.
Week: 12
Lecture No. : 23
105
PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL
A. The Performance Appraisal:
Performance appraisal is the process by which an employees contribution to the organization
during a specified period of time is assessed. Performance feedback then lets employees know
how well they have performed in comparison with the standards of the organization.
Performance appraisal and feedback can be an emotionally laden process that dramatically
affects employees attitudes toward the organization and themselves. If used effectively,
performance appraisal can improve employee motivation and performance. If used
inappropriately, the appraisal process can have disastrous effects.
Appraisal and feedback can occur informally, as when a supervisor notices and comments on a
good or poor performance incident. A more formal method is the structured annual performance
review, in which a supervisor assesses each employees performance using some official
appraisal procedure. Larger organizations tend to use both formal and informal methods, whereas
many smaller organizations use only informal supervisory feedback.
in terms of work performance by her subordinates must be clear enough in her mind so that she
will be able to, at some later date, communicate these expectations to her subordinates and
appraise their performance against these established standards.
107
Appraising performance touches on one of the most emotionally charged activities the
assessment of another individuals contribution and ability. The impression that subordinates
receive about their assessment has a strong impact on their self-esteem and, very important, on
their subsequent performance. Of course, conveying good news is considerably less difficult for
both the manager and the subordinates than conveying the bad news that performance has been
below expectations. In this context, the discussion of the appraisal can have negative as well as
positive motivational consequences. This is reinforced, for example, when we recognize that
statistically speaking, half of all employees are below average.
Week: 12
Lecture No. : 24
Absolute Standards
Essay Appraisal
Critical Incident Appraisal
Checklist
Graphic Rating Scale
Forced Choice
Absolute Standards: Our first group of appraisal methods use absolute standards. This
means that subjects are not compared with any other person. Included in this group are the
following methods: the essay appraisal, the critical incident appraisal, the checklist, the graphic
rating scale, forced choice and behaviorally anchored rating scales (BARS).
Essay Appraisal: Probably the simplest method of appraisal is to have the rater write a
narrative describing an employees strengths, weaknesses, past performance, potential, and
suggestions for improvement.
The strength of the essay appraisal lies in its simplicity. It requires no complex forms or
extensive training to complete. But its weaknesses are many. Because the essays are
unstructured, they are likely to vary widely in terms of length and content. This makes it difficult
to compare individuals across the organization. And, or course, some raters are better writers
110
than others. So a good or bad evaluation, may be determined as much by the raters writing
skill as by the employees actual level of performance.
However, the essay appraisal can provide considerable information, much of which can easily be
fed back and assimilated by the employee. But this method provides only qualitative data, and
HRM decisions improve when useful quantitative data are generated. The latter can be compared
and ranked more objectively. However, the essay appraisal is a good start and is beneficial if
used in conjunction with other appraisal methods.
Critical Incident Appraisal: Critical incident appraisal focuses the raters attention on
those critical or key behaviors that make the difference between doing a job effectively and
doing it ineffectively. What the appraiser does is write down little anecdotes that describe what
the employee did hat was especially effective or ineffective. For example, the college dean might
write the following critical incident about one of her instructors: Outlined the days lecture on
the chalkboard at the beginning of class. Note that with this approach to appraisal, specific
behaviors are cited, not vaguely defined personality traits. A behaviorally based appraisal such as
this should be more valid than trait-based appraisals because it is clearly more job related. It is
one thing to say that an employee is aggressive or imaginative or being done. Critical
incidents, with their focus on behaviors, judge performance rather than personalities.
The strength of the critical incident method is that it looks at behaviors. Additionally, a list of
critical incidents on a given employee provides a rich set of examples from which the employee
can be shown which of his or her behaviors are desirable and which ones call for improvement.
Its drawbacks are basically that (1) appraisers are required to regularly write these incidents
down, but doing this on a daily or even weekly basis for all of their subordinates is time
consuming and burdensome for managers; and (2) critical incidents suffer from the same
comparison problem found in essays; mainly, they do not lend themselves to quantification.
Therefore the comparison and ranking of subordinates is difficult.
Checklist: In the checklist, the evaluator uses a list of behavioral descriptions and checks off
those behaviors that apply to the employee. As figure 1.1 illustrates, the evaluator merely goes
down the list an gives yes or no responses.
111
Once the checklist is complete it is usually evaluated by the staff personnel department, not the
manager doing the checklist. Therefore the rater does not actually evaluate the employees
performance; he or she merely records it. An analyst in the personnel department then scores the
checklist, often weighting the factors in relationship to their importance. The final evaluation can
then be returned to the rating manager for discussion with the subordinate, or someone from the
personnel department can provide the feedback to the subordinate.
The checklist reduces some bias, since the rater and the scorer are different, but the rater can
usually pick up the positive and negative implications in each item so bias can still be
introduced. From a cost standpoint this appraisal method may be inefficient if there are a number
of job categories, because a checklist of items must be prepared for each category.
Graphic Rating Scale: One of the oldest and most popular methods of appraisal is the
graphic rating scale. An example of some graphic rating scale items is shown in Figure 1.2.
PERFORMANCE FACTOR
PERFORMANCE RATING
Quality of work is
the accuracy, skill
and completeness
of work.
Consistently
Occasionally Consistently
unsatisfactory unsatisfactory satisfactory
Sometimes
Superior
Consistently
Quantity of work
is the volume of
work done in a
normal workday
Consistently
Consistently
Consistently
unsatisfactory unsatisfactory satisfactory
Sometimes
Superior
Consistently
Superior
Superior
112
Job knowledge is
information
pertinent to the
job that an
individual should
have for
satisfactory job
performance
Poorly
informed
about work
duties
Dependability
following
directions and
company policies
without
supervision
Requires
constant
supervision
Requires
occasional
follow-up
Usually can
be counted on
Understands
all phases of
the job
Requires
very little
supervision
Has
complete
mastery
of all
phases of
the job
Requires
absolute
minimum
of
supervision
Graphic rating scales can be used to assess factors such as quantity and quality of work, job
knowledge, cooperation, loyalty, dependability, attendance, honesty, integrity, attitudes and
initiative. However, this method is most valid when abstract traits like loyalty or integrity are
avoided unless they can be defined in more specific behavioral terms. The assessor goes down
the list of factors and notes that point along the scale or continuum that best describes the
employee. There are typically five to ten points on the continuum. In the design of the graphic
scale, the challenge is to ensure that both the factors evaluated and the scale points are clearly
understood and unambiguous to the rater. Should ambiguity occur bias is introduced.
Why are graphic rating scales popular? Though they do not provide the depth of information that
essays or critical incidents do, they are less time-consuming to develop and administer, they
permit quantitative analysis and comparison, and, in contrast to the checklist, there is greater
standardization of items so comparability with other individuals in diverse job categories is
possible.
113
Forced Choice: When you were in elementary or secondary school, did you ever complete
one of those tests that presumably was to give you insights into what kind of career you should
pursue? They had questions like: Would you rather go to a football game with a group of your
friends or stay home and read a nonfiction book in your room? If so, then you are familiar with
the forced choice format.
Week: 13
Lecture No. : 25
114
a.
b.
c.
d.
All the above statements are favorable. However, the choices might all be unfavorable. As with
the checklist method, to reduce bias, the right answers are not known to the rater. Someone in the
personnel department scores the answers based on the key. This key should be validated so
management is in a position to say that individuals with higher scores are better-performing
employees.
The major advantage to the forced choice method is that since the appraiser does not know the
right answers, it reduces bias and distortion. The appraiser may, for example, like a certain
employee and intentionally want to give her a favorable evaluation, but this becomes difficult if
one is not sure which response is most preferred. On the negative side, this method tends to be
disliked by appraisers. Many do not like being forced to make distinctions between statements
that are difficult to differentiate between. Raters also may become frustrated with a system where
they do not know what represents a good or bad answer; hence they may be relegated to
trying to second-guess they key in order to get the formal appraisal to align with their intuitive
appraisal.
Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scales: An approach that has received considerable attention by
academics in recent years involves behaviorally anchored rating scales. These scales combine
major elements from the critical incident and graphic rating scale approaches. The appraiser rates
the employees based on items along a continuum, but the points are examples of actual behavior
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on the given job rather than general descriptions or traits. The enthusiasm surrounding BARS
grew from the belief that the use of specific behaviors, derived for each job, should produce
relatively error-free and reliable ratings. Though this promise has not been fulfilled, it has been
argued that this may be partly due to departures from careful methodology in the development of
the specific scales themselves rather than to inadequacies in the concept.
Behaviorally anchored rating scales specify definite, observable, and measurable job behavior.
Examples of job-related behavior and performance dimensions are generated by asking
participants to give specific illustrations of effective and ineffective behavior regarding each
performance dimension. These behavioral examples are then retranslated into appropriate
performance dimensions. Those that are sorted into the dimension for which they were generated
are retained. The final group of behavior incidents are then numerically scaled to a level of
performance that each is perceived to represent. The incidents that are retranslated and have high
rater agreement on performance dimension. The results of the above processes are behavioral
descriptions, such as anticipates, plans, executes, solves immediate problems, carries out orders,
and handles emergency situations.
The research on BARS indicates that while it is far from perfect, it does tend to reduce rating
errors. But possibly its major advantage stems from the dimensions generated rather than from
any particular superiority of behavior over trait anchors. The process of developing the
behavioral scales is valuable in and of itself for clarifying to both the employee and the rater
which behaviors connote good performance and which connote bad. Unfortunately, it too suffers
from the distortions inherent in most rating methods. These distortions will be discussed later in
this chapter.
How does one properly conduct the performance appraisal process? We offer the following steps
that can assist in this endeavor.
(1) Prepare for, and Schedule, the Appraisal in Advance: Before meeting with
employees, some preliminary activities should be performed. You should at a minimum
review employee job descriptions, period goals that may have been set, and performance
116
data on employees you may have. Furthermore, you should schedule the appraisal well
in advance to give employees the opportunity to prepare their data, too, for the meeting.
(8) Ensure Employees Understand What Was Discussed in the Appraisal: At the end of
the appraisal, especially where some improvement is warranted, you should ask
employees to summarize what was discussed in the meeting. This will help you to ensure
that you have gotten your information through to the employee.
Week: 13
Lecture No. : 26
It would be native to assume, however, that all evaluators impartially interpret and standardize
the criteria upon which their employees will be appraised. This is particularly true of those jobs
that are not easily programmable and for which developing hard performance standards is most
difficult if not impossible. These would include, but are certainly not limited, to such jobs as
researcher, teacher, engineer, and consultant. In the place of such standards, we can expect
appraisers to use nonperformance or subjective criteria against which to evaluate individuals.
A completely error-free performance appraisal is only an ideal we can aim for. In reality, most
appraisals fall short of this ideal. This is often due to one or more actions that can significantly
impede objective evaluation. Weve briefly described them below.
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Leniency Error:
Every evaluator has his or her own value system that acts as a standard against which appraisals
are made. Relative to the true or actual performance an individual exhibits, some evaluators mark
high, while others mark low. The former is referred to as positive leniency error, and the latter as
negative leniency error. When evaluators are positively lenient in their appraisal, an individuals
performance becomes overstated. In doing so, the performance is rated higher than it actually
should be. Similarly, a negative leniency error understates performance, giving the individual a
lower appraisal.
If all individuals in an organization were appraised by the same person, there would be no
problem. Although there would be an error factor, it would be applied equally to everyone.
The difficulty arises when we have different raters with different leniency errors making
judgments. For example, assume a situation where both Jones and Smith are performing the
same job for a different supervisor, with absolutely identical job performance. If Joness
supervisor tends to err toward positive leniency while Smiths supervisor errs towards negative
leniency, we might be confronted with two dramatically different evaluations.
Halo Error
The halo error or effect is a tendency to rate high or low on all factors due to the impression of a
high or low rating on some specific factor. For example, if an employee tends to be conscientious
and dependable, we might become biased toward that individual to the extent that we will rate
him or her positively on many desirable attributes.
People who design teaching appraisal forms for college students to fill out in evaluating the
effectiveness of their instructor each semester must confront the halo effect. Students tend to rate
a faculty member as outstanding on all criteria when they are particularly appreciative of a few
things he or she does in the classroom. Similarly, a few bad habits like showing up late for
lectures, being slow in returning papers, or assigning an extremely demanding reading
requirement might result in students evaluating the instructor as lousy across the board.
One method frequently used to deal with the halo error is reserve working the evaluation
questions so that a favorable answer for, say, question 17 might be 5 on a scale of 1 to 5, while a
120
favorable answer for question number 18 might be 1 on a scale of 1 through 5. Structuring the
questions in this manner seeks to reduce the halo error by requiring the evaluator to consider
each question independently. Another method, which can be used where there is more than one
person to be evaluated, is to have the evaluator appraise all rates on each dimension before going
on the next dimension.
Similarity Error:
When evaluators rate other people in the same way that the evaluators perceive themselves, they
are making a similarity error. Based on the perception that evaluators have of themselves, they
project those perceptions onto others. For example, the evaluator who perceives himself or
herself as aggressive may evaluate others by looking for aggressiveness. Those who demonstrate
this characteristic tend to benefit, while others who lack it may be penalized.
Central Tendency:
It is possible that regardless of who the appraiser evaluates and what traits are used, the pattern
of evaluation remains the same. It is also possible that the evaluators ability to appraise
objectively and accurately has been impeded by a failure to use the extremes of the scale. When
this happens, we call the action central tendency. Central tendency is the reluctance to make
extreme ratings (in either direction) the inability to distinguish between and among ratees; a form
of range restriction. Rates who are prone to the central tendency error are those who continually
rate all employees as average. For example, if a supervisor rates all employees as 3, on a scale of
1 to 5, then no differentiation among the employees exists. Failure to rate employees as 5, for
those who deserve that rating, and as 1, if the case warrants it, will only create problems,
especially if this information is used for pay increases.
Week: 14
Lecture No. : 27
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COMPENSATION ADMINISTRATION
Compensation Administration:
Employees exchange work for rewards. Probably the most important reward, and certainly the
most obvious, is money. In this section we want to answer the question. How much should an
employee be paid? The search for this answer throws us directly into the topic of compensation
administration.
The goals of compensation administration are to design the lowest-cost pay structure that will
attract, motivate, and retain competent employees, and that also will be perceived as fair by these
employees. Fairness is a term that frequently arises in the administration of an organizations
compensation program. Organizations generally seek to pay the least that they have to in order to
minimize costs. So fairness means a wage or salary that is adequate for the demands and
requirements of the job. But, of course, fairness is a two-way street. Employees also want fair
compensation. If employees perceive an imbalance in the discussion of their input-outcome ratio
to some comparative standard, they will act to correct the inequity. So the search for fairness in
pursued by both employers and employees.
The types of employee rewards:
There are several ways to classify rewards. We have selected three of the most typical
dichotomies: intrinsic versus extrinsic rewards, financial versus non-financial rewards, and
performance-based versus membership-based rewards. As you will see, these categories are far
from being mutually exclusive, yet all share one common thread they assist in maintaining
employee commitment.
122
123
Rewards
Intrinsic
Extrinsic
Participate in
decision making
Financial
Nonfinancial
Greater job
Preferred
freedom and
office
discretion
Implied
Performanced-based membership-based
Explicit
membership-based
furnishings
Preferred
More
Protection
Responsibility
Cost of living
Piecework
lunch
programs
hours
increases
More
Assigned
interesting
parking
Labor
work
market
Commission
spaces
adjustment
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Opportunities
Preferred
for personal
not worked
work
growth
Incentive
assignments
Time-in-rank
plans
increase
Diversity
Services
of
and
activities
cards
Performance
bonuses
Profit
Business
perquisites
sharing
Merit pay
Own
plans
secretary
Impressive
titles
Exhibit 1.1: Structure of rewards
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Nonfinancial rewards cover a smorgasbord of desirable extras that are potentially at the
disposal of the organization. Their common link is that they do not increase the employees
financial position. Instead of enhancing the employees finances, nonfinancial rewards
emphasize making life on the job more attractive. The nonfinancial rewards emphasize that we
will identify represent a few of the more obvious; however, the creation of these rewards is
limited only by HRMs ingenuity and ability to use them to motivate desirable behavior.
The saying, One persons food is another persons poison, applies to the entire subject of
rewards, but specifically to the area of nonfinancial rewards. What one employee views as
something Ive always wanted, another might find relatively useless. Therefore, HRM must
take great care in providing the properly, the benefits by way of increased performance to the
organization should be significant.
Some, workers, for example, are very status conscious. A plush office, a carpeted floor, a large
cherry desk, or signed artwork may be just the office furnishing that simulates an employee
toward top performance. Similarly, status-oriented employees may value an impressive job title,
their own business cards, their own administrative assistant, or a well-located parking space with
their name clearly pained underneath the Reserved sign. In another case, the employee may
value the opportunity to dress casually while at work, or even do a portion of ones job at home.
Irrespective of the incentive, these are within the organizations discretion. And when carefully
used, they may provide a stimulus for enhanced performance.
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Week: 14
Lecture No. : 28
Job Evaluation:
Job analysis as the process of describing the duties of a job, authority relationships, skills
required, conditions of work, and additional relationships, skills required, conditions of work,
and additional relevant information. We stated that the data generated from job analysis could be
used to develop job descriptions and specifications, as well as to do job evaluation. By job
127
evaluation, we mean using the information in job analysis to systematically determine the value
of each job in relation to all jobs within the organization. In short, job evaluation seeks to rank all
the jobs in the organization and place them in a hierarchy that will reflect the relative worth of
each. Importantly, this is a ranking of jobs, not people. Job evaluation assumes normal
performance of the job by a typical worker. So, in effect, the process ignores individual abilities
or the performance of the jobholder.
The ranking that results from job evaluation is the means to an end, not an end in itself. It should
be used to determine the organizations pay structure. Note that we say should. In practice, we
will find that this is not always the case. External labor market conditions, collective bargaining,
and individual differences may require a compromise between the job evaluation ranking and the
actual pay structure. Yet even when such compromises are necessary, job evaluation can provide
an objective standard from which modifications can be made.
Ranking method:
The ranking method requires a committee typically composed of both management and
employee representatives to arrange jobs in a simple rank order, from highest to lowest. No
attempt is made to break the jobs down by specific weighted criteria. The committee members
merely compare two Jobs and judge which one is more important or difficult. Then they
compare another job with the first two, and so on until all the jobs have been evaluated and
ranked.
The most obvious limitation to the ranking method is its sheer unmanageability when there are a
large number of jobs. Imagine the difficulty of trying to rank hundreds or thousands of jobs.
Other drawbacks to be considered are the subjectivity of the method there are no definite or
consistent standards by which to justify the rankings and because jobs are only ranked in terms
of order, we have no knowledge of the distance between the ranks.
Classification Method:
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The classification method was made popular by the U.S. Civil Service Commission. The
commission requires that classification grades be established. These classifications are created by
identifying some common denominator skills, knowledge, responsibilities-with the desired
goal being the creation of a number of distinct classes or grades of jobs. Examples might include
shop jobs, clerical jobs, sales jobs, and so on, depending, of course, on the type of jobs the
organization requires.
Once the classifications are established, they are ranked in an overall order of importance
according to the criteria chosen, and each job is placed in its appropriate classification. This latter
action is generally done by comparing each positions job description against the classification
description. In the civil service, for example, evaluators have classified both Accounting Clerk I
and Typists II positions as GS 3 grades, while Engineer VI and Attorney IV Jobs have both been
graded as GS-13.
The classification method shares most of the disadvantages of the ranking approach, plus the
difficulty of writing classification descriptions, judging which jobs go where, and dealing with
jobs that appear to fall into more than one classification. On the plus side is the fact that the
classification method has proved itself successful and viable in classifying millions of kinds and
levels of jobs in the civil service.
Week: 15
Lecture No. : 29
129
BENEFIT
Definition of Benefit:
When an organization is designing its overall compensation program, one of the critical areas of
concern is what benefits should be provided. Todays workers expect more than just an hourly
wage or a salary from their employer; they want additional considerations that will enrich their
lives. These considerations in an employment setting are called employee benefits. Employee
benefits have grown in importance and variety over the past several decades. Once perceived as
an added feature for an organization to provide its employees, employee benefits administration
has transformed itself into a well-thought-out, well organized package. Employers realize that
the benefits provided to employees have an effect on whether applicants accept their employment
offers or, once employed, whether workers will continue to stay with the organization. Benefits,
therefore, are necessary components of an effectively functioning compensation program.
The irony, however, is that while benefits must be offered to attract and retain good workers,
benefits as a whole do not directly affect a workers performance. Benefits are generally
membership-based, offered to employees regardless of their performance levels. While this does
not appear to be a logical business practice, there is evidence that the absence of adequate
benefits and services for employees contributes to employee dissatisfaction and increased
absenteeism and turnover. Accordingly, because the negative effect of failing to provide adequate
benefits is so great, organizations spend tens of billions of dollars annually to ensure that
valuable benefits are available for each worker.
Societal, organizational, and employee objectives are sought through the use of indirect
compensation.
Societal Objectives:
Within the last century, Europe, Japan, and North America have changed from rural nations of
independent farmers and ranchers to urban nations of interdependent wage earners. This
interdependence was illustrated forcefully by massive unemployment during the Great
Depression of the 1930s and the recession of the early 1990s. To help provide security,
governments rely on the support of employers. Through favorable tax treatment, employees can
receive most benefits tax-free, while employers can deduct the cost of benefits as a business
expense. Although tax breaks reduce government receipts, health-care, disability, life insurance,
and retirement benefits lower the burden on society when ill health, retirement, or death occurs.
Even if these tax breaks are eliminated, benefits are so widely used that they are almost certain to
continue.
The great struggle for the American society during the 1990s will be the continued assault on
rising medical costs. As fortune noted, An aging population with nearly unlimited access to
high-priced doctors and technology is pushing medical costs skyward.
Organizational Objectives:
Time-off benefits such as vacations, holidays, and rest breaks help employees reduce fatigue,
enhancing productivity during the hours when the employees do work. Similarly, retirement,
health-care, and disability benefits may allow workers to be more productive by freeing them of
concern about medical and retirement costs. If these benefits were not available, employees
might elect to form a union and collectively bargain with the employer. (Although collective
action is legal, employers such as Intel prefer to remain nonunion).
Reduce Fatigue
Aid recruitment
131
Reduce turnover
Employee Objectives:
The real advantages to employees of employer-provided benefits are lower costs and availability.
For example, insurance benefits are usually less expensive because the employer may pay some
or all of the costs, as Intel does. Group plans save the cost of administering and selling many
individual policies. The insurer also can reduce the risk of adverse selection, which occurs when
individuals sign up for insurance because they are heavy users. Actuaries the specialists who
compute insurance rates can pass on these savings in the form of smaller premiums even if
workers pay the entire premium.
Inflation protection: Inflation protection also results when the employer pays for a benefit.
For example, a two-week paid vacation is not reduced in value by inflation.
Preexisting conditions often prevent people from obtaining insurance because it is unavailable
or unaffordable although health-care reform in the United States is likely to reduce the incidence
of unavailability. In the European Union, Canada, Sweden, and other developed nations, healthcare insurance may be of less importance because of government-provided health insurance or
care.
Coverage for domestic partners: Domestic partnership coverage is emerging as a new
benefit for employees, especially with the growing diversity of workers and their relationships.
Usually benefit coverage is extended to the employee, spouse, and children, depriving nonfamily
members of coverage regardless of their relationship with the employee. Some employers extend
benefit coverage to domestic partners regardless of whether they are married.
The objectives of society, organizations, and employees have encouraged the rapid growth of
benefits and services. This growth has affected all areas of fringe benefits and services. This
growth has affected all areas of fringe benefits and services, including insurance, security, timeoff, and work scheduling benefits.
Week: 15
Lecture No. : 30
Required/Mandatory Security
Voluntary security
Retirement
Time-off related benefits
Holiday Pay
Vacation
2.
Voluntary security
3.
4.
Time-off security
5.
Health insurance
6.
Financial service
7.
Required/Mandatory Security:
Federal & state government requires that employers provide a certain limit of protection or a
security floor for each employee. There are three primary area of compulsory security:
133
Workers compensation
Unemployment compensation
Social security benefit
Voluntary security:
Two of the major security benefit programs used by employers are voluntary severance pay and
supplemental unemployment benefits. Severance pay is pay given to the employee at
termination. Its purpose is to provide funds to tide the employee over until he or she finds
another job. The amount varies from several weeks of pay for hourly workers to several workers
to several year worth of salary for executive.
Golden parachutes, a form of severance pay, are paid to execute as a form of compensation if
they are terminated during a hostile takeover. Executives who fears hostile takeover often are
able to obtain a golden parachute clause in their contact.
The second form of voluntary security is supplemental unemployment benefits. These are
payments made by the employer to employees who are temporarily laid off. They are made in
addition to unemployment compensation received from the state.
Retirement:
Over 90 percent of full-time workers at companies with more than 100 employees are covered by
retirement plans, according to the employee benefits Research institute. Pension plan are
considered rewards for long service and are not incentives to work more efficiently of effectively
unless the premium is tied to a stock option plan , as scars is . Pension plans are used primarily to
retain a loyal workforce.
134
Leave of absence
Holiday Pay:
Most employers provide pay for all established holidays such as New Year's. Day, Memorial
Day, and Fourth of July. Other firm also provides holiday pay for Christmas.
Vacation:
Most employers offer paid vacations that range from one to six weeks per year. Depending on
length of time with the company. in one poll, employees rated paid vacations and holidays as the
third most important benefit behind medical insurance and pension.
Week: 16
Lecture No. : 31
Health Benefit
Non medical insurance benefit
Financial, Social, and Recreational benefits
Non-financial benefits
Stock benefit
ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan)
LEAVE OF ABSENCE
Leaves are given for military service, jury duty, election, disability, sickness and maternity.
Longer leaves called sabbaticals are also given for renewal or special service.
Health Benefit:
Employee co-payment
Wellness program
136
Stock benefit:
137
Employee thrift, saving, or stock purchase investment plan are also popular. For example in a
stock option plan an employee is often guaranteed the right to buy share of company stock at a
discount or a certain price.
Educational Benefit:
Many firms offer. a tuition reimbursement plan for employees who attend a school, college or
university. Usually the firm requires that the employee take a course related to work.
Elder care:
A study of benefit directors in 1988 indicated that 77 percent of them believed that elder care
-care of the elderly-will is a major growth benefit in the 1900s.
Cafeteria plan:
Because of the variety of options in the benefit area many employers have shifted to or are
considering cafeteria plan. As noted earlier cafeteria plan allows employees to pick and choose
from a variety of benefit options much as a person choose food at a cafeteria.
138
Benefits have become something other than the once thought of fringe. Employees expect
certain extras to be the norm rather than the exception. Cognizant of these requirements and
competition from other business, management has had to develop cost-effective methods to offer
and service these benefits. The most widely used prescription has been the cafeteria style of
benefits. The cafeteria approach allows employees to pick and choose those benefits that are
desirable. The use of the cafeteria style approach to benefits will undoubtedly continue, with the
most popular offering being some core benefits to be are required for all employees, and the
remainder of the monies to be spent on benefits left to the decision of each employee. The
advantages of the cafeteria approach to benefits has been supported by many research studies, as
we can show that people do have different needs according to their age, financial and family
position, attitudes, and life style. Younger employees tend to favor benefits that can be of
frequent or immediate use, such as vacation days, holidays, and flexible working hours. Older
employees are usually security conscious, preferring life insurance and retirement related
benefits.
As for the other trends we can expect the burden of paying for these benefits to shift to one that
is more equitably shared between the employee and the employer. Health care is a primary
example. While it may cost more to subscribe to health coverage, the cost is still minimal
compared with the costs of a disastrous illness.
Finally, we must realize that employees may be paying more for or getting less of the benefits
that employees may be paying more for or getting less of the benefits that employers offer.
Economic hardships are a reality, and cost-cutting measures are mandated. Employees must be
willing to accept less if they are to progress in the future. The paternalistic perception of an
organization must be changed, and employees must be willing to share more responsibility for
their well-being.
Week: 16
Lecture No. : 32
Symptoms of Stress
Physiological Symptoms
Psychological Symptoms
Behavioral Symptoms
Burnout
Causes of stress:
Stress can be caused by a number of factors called stressors. These stressors can be grouped into
two major categories-personal factors and organizational factors. Both of these areas directly
affect the person and, ultimately, the job. For that reason, we will postpone our discussion of
organizational factors and cover them in the "burnout" section of this chapter. However, because
personal factors affect and are affected by organizational factors, we will address them now.
Almost anything can cause stress for an individual. We all have our levels of resistance, but once
the stressors become too great, we exhibit some different behavior. The main fact to remember
about stress from, personal factors is that the good can cause as much stress as the bad. Certainly
we all know that the death of a family member, a divorce, or being fired from work can cause
undue stress, but so can the birth of a child, getting married, or landing that new job. For ex140
ample, remember the time you finally got that date with the person of your dreams? A happy
time? Yes. But what did you go through to get ready for it? You debated over what clothes to
wear, where to go, whether you looked good, and so on. You were nervous when you finally
arrived to get your date, or when the doorbell rang and your date arrived. At the end it was such a
good time, but this good time caused you a lot of stress.
If we are under stress, we can exhibit one or more of three symptoms: physiological,
psychological, or behavioral.
Symptoms of Stress:
Because stress can show itself in many ways, it is important for us to recognize how stress can,
be identified.
Physiological Symptoms: This type of stress is difficult to detect with the naked eye. It relates
to the medical changes that can occur internally in the individual. Such changes as increased
heart and breath rates, higher blood pressure, headaches, and heart attacks can be brought on by
stress but are not easy for us to spot early. Accordingly, they become less important for us with
respect to helping individuals change their actions.
Psychological Symptoms: This type of stress can cause harm in an organization because it leads
to significant dissatisfaction with the job. This symptom manifests itself as tension, anxiety,
irritability,
boredom, and procrastination.
Behavioral Symptoms: This type of stress has the greatest impact on the organization. It
produces productivity changes, absenteeism, turnover-and increased smoking and alcohol
consumption.
If you are in an oirganizati6n where these symptoms are evident, there may be some action you
can take to help reduce these levels. For personal factors, we can try to get people to recognize
the need for assistance and provide that assistance for them. This may include special programs
such as stress management or sponsoring physical activities. Whatever is chosen, the emphasis
on the result should be the same-try to keep the employees healthy.
141
Burnout:
Between 1974 and 1982, forty-eight attempts were made to define burnout. While each of these
attempts focused on a specific aspect of burnout, it was not until 1982 that a coalesced definition
appeared. This definition views burnout as a function of three concerns: Chronic emotional
stress with
Emotional and/or physical exhaustion is an inner condition caused by various personal and
organizational factors. Personal factors. such as marital, legal, or financial problems, may
become so paramount in a worker's life that he or she tends to give up. As these problems
become manifest, the worker begins to feel even more helpless and loses sight of reality,
resulting in a change of behavior. Emotional exhaustion can also manifest itself when workers
who are in the business of dealing with other people lose their ability to, be at peak performance
in dealing with others. When this results, they begin to feel inadequate in handling various
situations and ultimately change their behavior. Physical exhaustion, on the other hand, speaks
for itself. When high-energy is needed but lacking, performance will be affected. Think of the
professional boxer who in order to get a title shot, schedules one fight after another. This
physical torture, whether the fighter wins or not, may take its toll and affect the final goal.
Lowered job productivity can be a cause and a result. As a cause, it becomes demeaning.
Workers generally like to produce. When workers keep busy, they find they can achieve positive
results-salary increases, recognition, advancement-and the time spent at work seems shorter. The
adage that productive workers are happy workers has an impact, as workers are motivated by the
challenge. However, as constraints and demands emerge and lower this productivity, problems
occur. These constraints and demands impinge on the workers' welfare, making them less,
productive, less happy, and, ultimately, less motivated.
The final concern is over depersonalization. After years of technological advancements, we are
finding that by dehumanizing jobs we are causing an undue hardship on the remaining workers.
142
This automation, coupled with many rules and regulations and lack of interpersonal
relationships, has led to the early burnout of workers.
Week: 17
Lecture No. : 33
143
REDUCING BURNOUT
Realizing that stress is a fact of life and must be channeled properly, organizations must establish
procedures for reducing these stress levels before workers burnout. Although no clear-cut
remedies are available, four techniques have been proposed:
1. Identification: Identification techniques for the analysis of the incidence, prevalence, and
characteristics of burnout in individuals, work groups, subunits, or organizations.
2. Prevention: Attempts to prevent the burnout process before it begins.
3. Mediation: Procedures for slowing, halting, or reversing the burnout process.
4. Remediation: Techniques for individuals who already burned out or are rapidly
approaching the end stages of this process.
From the turn of the century through the late 1960s, remarkable progress was made in reducing
the rate and severity of job-related accidents and diseases. Yet the most significant piece of
federal legislation in the area of employee health and safety was not enacted until 1970.
Any discussion of employee health and safety is clearly different today from what it would have
been thirty years ago. The passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) in 1970
dramatically changed the role that management must play in ensuring that the physical working
conditions meet adequate standards. What the Civil Rights Act did to alter the organizations
commitment to affirmative action OSHA has done to alter organizations health and safety
programs.
Safety Programs:
Managers are not exempt from acting within the law. As a result, they must ensure that the
physical working conditions in their organizations meet the minimum standards of the law.
Specifically, this includes OSHAs standards, plus all state and community requirements that may
exist. On close examination we find that a vast number of organizations go considerably beyond
the minimum standards of the law.
If businesses are concerned with efficiency and profits, you may ask, why would they spend
money to create conditions that exceed those required by law? The answer is the profit motive
itself. The cost of accidents can be, and for many organizations is, a substantial additional cost of
doing business.
The direct cost of an accident to an employer shows itself in the organizations workers
compensation premium. This cost, as noted in the preceding chapter, is determined by the
insureds accident history. Indirect costs, which generally far exceed direct costs, must also be
borne by the employer. These include wages paid for time lost due to injury, damage to
equipment and materials, personnel to investigate and report on accidents, and lost production
due to work stoppages and personnel changeover. The impact of these indirect costs can be seen
from statistics that describe the costs of accidents for American industry as a whole. In 1983,
workers compensation cost employers approximately $ 18 billion. Accidents additionally cost
employers billions in wages and lost production. The significance of this latter figure is
emphasized when we note that this cost is approximately ten times greater than losses caused by
strikes, an issue that has historically receive much more public attention.
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Week: 17
Lecture No. : 34
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INDUSTRIAL RELATION
Definition of Industrial Relation:
The term Industrial relations has been variously defined by different writers. Industrial
relations means the nature of relationship between the employer and employee in an industrial
organization.
According to Prof. Dunlop, Industrial relations defined as the complex of interrelations among
workers, managers and Government.
According to V.B Singh, IR is a set of functional interdependence involving historical, economic
,social, psychological, demographic, technological, occupational, political and legal variables.
According to Encyclopedia Britannica, Industrial relations include individual relations and
joint consultation between employers and work people at the place of work, collective relations
between employers and the organizations and the trade unions and the part played by the state in
regulating these relations.
According to Biswanath Ghosh Industrial relations is an art, the art of living together for
purposes of production.
It may be seen that the basic feature of the various definitions of IRs mentioned above, in spite of
the differences in words, remain the same. Thus industrial relations includes-
the relations between employers or their organizations and trade unions at various level
(Level of plant, region or industry and national level)
Specific Goals:
We began this chapter by describing unions as organizations that seek to protect and promote
their members interests. Union protection and promotion basically revolve around four specific
goals. We can say that any labor union will seek to
Employment security: The ideal agreement, from a union standpoint, would be a situation
where workers could not be hired by an employer unless, at the time of hiring, they were already
members of the union. In such a case, the union is the only source of labor for the employer.
Complete monopoly power ca be exerted, since the employers alternatives have been reduced to
one. This type of arrangement is referred to as a closed shop and was declared illegal by the TaftHartley Act in 1947. Yet, in many construction and printing jobs, and arrangement exists that
closely resembles the closed shop; in those cases, it is called a hiring hall.
The most powerful relationship legally available to a union is a union shop, which stipulates that
employers, while free to hire whomever they choose, may retain only union members. That is all
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employees must, after a specified probationary period usually thirty to sixty days join the
union or give up their positions. However, in right-to-work states, compulsory union membership
is forbidden. At present, this legislation exists in twenty states, though right-to-work laws are
most heavily concentrated in the South, the farm block, and the Mountain States.
If a union shop does not exist, then there can be no requirement that the employee join the union.
All other types of security, therefore, are clearly inferior from a unions standpoint. These other
types of security arrangements include maintenance of membership and preferential, agency, and
open shops.
Preferential Shop: When a union member is given preference over a nonunion member, we
have a preferential shop. This type of agreement must be carefully monitored to ensure that
preferential treatment is not interpreted to mean union members exclusively. When preference
results in decisions that consistently exclude nonunion members, we do not have a preferential
shop, but rather a closed shop.
Agency Shop: An agreement that requires nonunion employees to pay the union a sum equal to
union fees and dues as a condition of continuing employment is referred to as an agency shop. It
was designed as a compromise between the unions desire to eliminate the free rider and
managements desire to make union membership voluntary.
Open Shop: The least desirable form of security, again from the union standpoint, is the open
shop. This is where there is, technically, no union, but it is sometimes applied to places of work
in which there is a union but membership is not a condition of employment.
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Guaranteed Annual Income: In addition to the unions desire to develop a security agreement
with an employer, unions have recently begun also to press for job and income security for their
members. Ideally, a union would like to be able to provide its members with complete job
security. While union officials may use the phrase guaranteed lifetime security to describe their
goal, what they actually want is the same kind of job security most managers have. This is not
lifetime security, but rather significant reductions in the practice of instant layoffs during even
minor economic slumps or cutting workers adrift when a plant or office is closed down. Unions
in recent years have sought to have management vest jobs rights to union members. After a
stipulated number of years of service, a worker would have earned the right to be kept on the job.
Workers with high seniority could be guaranteed work even during slumps or at least be
guaranteed a certain number of hours of work or pay in lieu of work per year.
As indicated above, security can include such arrangements as a guaranteed annual income.
Probably the best-known guarantee is that between the members of Longshoremens Union and
their employers. The dockworkers in New York are guaranteed 2,080 hours of work a year so
long as they meet one stipulation, that is, being available to work. With current wages
approximately $ 15 per hour, this guaranteed annual income amounts to $ 31,200 per worker. In
other ports, the number of hours guaranteed is less, 1,900 in Baltimore for a worker with ten
years seniority, but the impact is the same. The guaranteed annual income provision costs
millions of dollars.
Rules: Where a union exists, workers are provided with an opportunity to participate in
determining the conditions under which they work, and an effective channel whereby they can
protest conditions they believe are unfair. Therefore a union not only is a representative of the
worker but also provides rules that define channels in which complaints and concerns of workers
can be registered.
Union Power: A final objective of a union is to obtain political power in the state and over the
economy. The union movement has not been reluctant to exert political muscle to gain through
legislation what it has been unable to win at the bargaining table.
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The AFL-CIO, for example, is a potent lobbying group. No national politician can ignore the
needs of the union movement as articulated by the AFL-CIO. Those who seek election to public
office, or who want to maintain the positions they already hold, find that labors interests must be
heard. The winning of labor support can be a valuable aid, often a necessary requirement, in
attaining important positions at the local, state and national levels.
Collective Bargaining Process: Figure 1.1 summarizes the collective bargaining process.
Preparation for contract negotiations is often an ongoing activity in sophisticated companies such
as AT&T. In other organizations, serious preparations begin three to six months before the
expiration of the old contract or as soon as it looks like a union will successfully organize a
previously nonunionized employer. The HR department starts by studying recent trends in the
economy and other labor negotiations. A plan is developed that outlines the companys position
on wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment. The companys bargaining team
may be supplemented by outsiders, most often a labor attorney. Once top management has
approved the plan and strike preparations are under way, negotiations begin several weeks or
months before the expiration date of the labor agreement.
PREPARATION
ADMINISTRATION
BARGAINING
Monitor the
environment
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Assemble
bargaining plan and
team
Secure topmanagement
approval
Negotiate with
union
Approve the
agreement by
Administer the
labor agreement
Explain through
training
Adjust
compensation and
policies
Ensure union
and management
compliance
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Negotiations with the union bargaining committee continue until a mutually satisfactory
agreement is reached. Figure 1.2 identifies some of the traditional guidelines for negotiating a
labor contract. If the old contract expires, the union may elect to strike in an attempt to increase
the pressure for its position. Once he contract is approved by top management and by a vote of
the union members, the contract administration phase begins.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Do seek more (or offer less) than you plan to receive (or give).
Do negotiate in private, not through the media.
Do let both sides win; otherwise the other side may retaliate.
Do start with easy issues.
Do remember that negotiations are seldom over when the agreement is concluded;
eventually the contract will be renegotiated.
6. do resolve deadlocks by stressing past progress, another point, or counterproposals.
7. Do enlist the support of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service if a strike seems
likely.
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1. Do not make your best offer first; that is so uncommon that the other side will expect
more.
2. Do not seek unwanted changes; you may get them.
3. Do not say no absolutely unless your organization will back you up absolutely.
4. Do not violate a confidence.
5. Do not settle too quickly; union members may think a quick settlement is not a good one.
6. Do not let the other side bypass your team and go directly to top management.
7. Do not let top management actually participate in face-to-face negotiations; they are often
inexperienced and poorly informed.
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