1.

Human Resource Management (HRM) is the term used to describe formal

systems devised for the management of people within an organization. The responsibilities of a human
resource manager fall into three major areas: staffing, employee compensation and benefits, and
defining/designing work. Essentially, the purpose of HRM is to maximize the productivity of an organization by
optimizing the effectiveness of its employees. HRM, then, is engaged not only in securing and developing the
talents of individual workers, but also in implementing programs that enhance communication and cooperation
between those individual workers in order to nurture organizational development.

Political Perspective of HRM:

The political-legal environment covers the impact of political institutions on the HRM department. All activities
of HRM are in one way or the other affected by these factors. To be specific, HR planning, recruitment and
selection, placement, training, remuneration, employee relations and terminations are governed by the
constitutional provisions.

Political factors include areas such as:

i. Tax policy

ii. Labour law

iii. Environmental law

iv. Regional blocks

v. Trade restrictions & Tariffs

vi. Political stability

The HRM cannot manage the personnel unilaterally because it has to abide by the rules and regulations
imposed by the Government from time to time. HR managers have to be aware about the legislations enacted
by the governments at the centre and the states.

The HR imperatives as a result of the changed political climate and the business imperatives necessitated by
the same are as follows:

a. Managing Cultural Change:

Since now organizations have a diverse workforce it’s necessary for businesses to manage the cultural change
happening.

Recruitment – Also now that businesses are spread across the globe it is necessary that care be taken while
recruiting a diverse workforce and accepts the culture with an open mind.

b. Talent Management:

Due to the dynamic nature of workforce it is necessary that organizations have an appropriate talent
management strategy to acquire, develop, retain and replenish the workforce.
Personal Development – Now that there is a shift from collectivism to individualism it is necessary
organizations focus on an individual’s career development, develop future leaders etc.

Cross-cultural Training – It is necessary to provide training to individuals on the various cultures they are going
to work when businesses are going global.

c. Structural Change in Organization:

With reduced political barriers it is an imperative that businesses have:

(a) A flat hierarchy

(b) The power distance be reduced

(c) Empowerment of employees

(d) Communication barriers be reduced

Communication should be Instant (decisions be made quickly and also feedback be provided instantaneously)
and transparent.

d. Training and Development:

With changing business context it is necessary that employees be trained to sustain in the market with the
changing technology. Also they are provided cross functional training, so that they can be employed with the
changing business needs.

e. Employee Engagement:

For the success of a business it is necessary that the workforce be highly engaged and therefore it is the need
of every business to keep its employees engaged.

Employee engagement is necessary to make the employees aware of various business activities, manages
employee turnover and boost business growth.

f. Increase in Use of Temporary Employment Practices:

Businesses are moving towards a temporary workforce due to various reasons. They are easy to hire, flexible
to any work timings, though they have high pay rates and they are low cost to the company in the long run.

g. Focus on Key Players:

This is a part of the talent management strategy where the businesses target the key players rather than the
not so important players and their focus is on retaining them. This will help the organisation in succession
planning.

h. Increasing Use of Technology and Business Intelligence:

Organisations are increasingly looking to technology to enhance performance and fill skills gaps. As a result
HR is also using technology for organisation’s advantage. This can provide the organisation a competitive
edge and lowers the cost of HR operations.

Environmental Perspective of HRM:

Environment comprises all those forces which have their bearing on the functioning of various activities
including human resource activities. Environment scanning helps HR manger become proactive to the
environment which is characterised by change and intense competition. Human resource management is
performed in two types of environments- internal and external.

Internal Environment:

These are the forces internal to an organisation. Internal forces have profound influence on HR functions. The
internal environment of HRM consists of unions, organizational culture and conflict, professional bodies,
organisational objectives, polices, etc. A brief mention of these follows.

1.Unions:

Trade unions are formed to safeguard the interest of its members/workers. HR activities like recruitment,
selection, training, compensation, industrial relations and separations are carried out in consultation with trade
union leaders.

2.Organisational Culture and Conflict:

As individuals have personality, organizations have cultures. Each organisation has its own culture that
distinguishes one organisation from another. Culture may be understood as sharing of some core values or
beliefs by the members of the organisation “Value for time” are the culture of Reliance Industries Limited. HR
practices need to be implemented that best fit the organisation’s culture. There is often conflict between
organizational culture and employee’s attitude. Conflict usually surfaces because of dualities such as personal
goal vs. organisational goal, discipline vs. autonomy, rights vs. duties, etc. Such conflicts have their bearings
on HR activities in an organisation.

3.Professional Bodies:

Like other professional bodies, the NIPM as the HR professional body regulates the functions of HR
practitioners in India. Thus, professional bodies also influence HR functions of an organization.

External Environment:

External environment includes forces like economic, political, technological, demographic etc. these exert
considerable influence on HRM. Each of these external forces is examined here.

1.Economic:

Economic forces include growth rate and strategy, industrial production, national and per capita incomes,
money and capital markets, competitions, industrial labour and globalisation. All these forces have significant
influence on wage and salary levels. Growing unemployment and reservation in employment also affect the
choice for recruitment and selection of employees in organisations.

2.Political:

Political environment covers the impact of political institutions on HRM practices. For example, democratic
political system increases the expectations of workers for their well being.

Social Envirnoment
Social change refers to an alteration in the social order of a society. This change is facilitated by the interaction
between various other macro environment factors.
Now-days the society at large has become more demanding. Firms cannot operate in isolation; they are stuck
with the society. Social impacts have to be evaluated before taking any action programme. Society therefore
includes the firm’s own employees, their friends, relatives and neighbours also.

A firm has to operate by public consent to satisfy society’s needs. Considerable pressure can be exerted on
the firm to alter its practices, if the public believes that it is not operating in the best interests of the society. HR
managers have to understand the relevance of conducting their business in a socially relevant and responsible
manner.

Importance in Changing Social Environment:

a. Social Recruiting:

The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) reports that the number of companies using social
networking sites, including Linked in, Facebook and Twitter, to recruit increased from 34% in 2008 to 56% in
2011. In addition, the number of companies who don’t plan to use social recruiting dropped from 45% to 21 %
during the same time period.

b. Creative Jobs:

The organizations in order to extract maximum from the dynamic ideas of the GEN Y and are coming up with
very creative jobs and job profiles. The jobs that are pretty unconventional in nature are slowly but steadily
catching the attention.

c. Creative Work Culture:

Attitude towards work is now changing as the Gen Y is looking for more challenging options and have
alternatives because of the vast market for skilled and knowledge workers.

d. Train the Graduate Student:

To make sure that the talent is not drained, the companies now believe in imbibing the skills in the prospective
employees even before they join the company.

e. Outsource Talent and Technology:

To make sure the companies use the resource effectively and efficiently, the companies believe in
specialization using core competencies. Thus the companies work on their respective core competencies and
outsource the rest from the companies having the respective core competency.

g. Participative Management:

The power distance is slowly reducing thus the employees are being involved in the process of decision
making. It’s about taking inclusive and collective decisions.

A few examples of societal pressures are as follows:

i. When the firm is operating in an area where large scale unemployment is there, it cannot afford to hire only
qualified employees. The firm has to compromise by hiring people who are capable of being trained.

ii. If the expectations or the tall claims made by the firm are not met, the fate of the firm is automatically sealed.

iii. Before cutting jobs in a big way, HR managers have to assess the societal reactions beforehand and come
out with proactive steps etc.
Outsourcing recruitment came as an alternative solution for the companies with a
large volume of employees and the revolving door problem. Indeed, the outsourced HRs know what they are
doing in terms of where to find candidates, how to screen them, which questions to ask. All of these based off
of the hiring science and psychology. The main benefits associated with Outsourcing recruitment then in-
house recruitment process are:

1. Stronger Quality of hires

This is the main purpose and advantage of an RPO provider. They invest their time, energy and resources into
sourcing, screening and presenting the cream of the crop in terms of available talent to the client. The
aggregated talent stream offers a cultivated pool from which to search. Referral activation is often a unique
feature of RPO.

2. Cost Reduction

Obviously one of the prime advantages of RPO is its cost effectiveness. The bottom line is that RPO saves
companies money in the long run. RPO providers can scale up and scale down their recruitment activity to
match the fluctuating hiring needs of the client. In business, to use the old adage, time is money. Every day
that a position remains unfilled costs a company. Filling vacancies fast is better for productivity and reduces
the amount of HR resources spent on sourcing candidates. RPO providers are ultimately measured on time to
hire, cost of hire and quality of hire.

3. Scalable Model

As companies experience peaks and troughs to staffing an RPO model is calibrated to flex accordingly. If a
company is expanding or opening a new department it will need more staff, while if it is downsizing or it has to
implement a hiring freeze, it will not. RPO providers have structures in place to adapt to any situation.
They can scale their recruitment team up and down as needed. At the end of the day the client pays for what
they get; successfully filled vacancies, nothing more, nothing less. RPO providers are flexible and can
accommodate every situation. Prices are based on closed positions.

4. Reduced Time to Hire

Internal RPO resource models scale to overcome the challenge of tight time to hire deadlines. Most RPO
providers will have established time to hire models.

5. Talent Pooling

The RPO provider will present the client with the best people for the job. All strong candidates are pooled and
actively engaged with, creating a community for future hiring.

6. Recruitment Process and Assessment Design

RPO providers may re-engineer a company’s entire recruiting process so that it is consistent across all
departments. This makes it easier for management to follow progress and understand how the procedure is
developing at any given time.

7. Analytics and Reporting

RPO providers track and trace every stage of the recruitment process allowing for real-time reporting and
detailed insights for prompt decision making. This also makes it a lot easier for future audits of recruitment
activity.

8. Enhanced Stakeholder Engagement

RPO enhances hiring manager and senior leadership engagement through fulfilling pre-agreed SLAs. The
quality of hires and the efficiency of the recruitment procedure lead to high levels of HR satisfaction which can
only be good for productivity. Essentially RPO allows the client get on with the business of being a business.

9. Excellent compliance regulations

RPO firms are experts on labour laws and standards. Detailed records are kept, mapping every stage of the
recruitment process. They are guaranteed to implement fully complaint, auditable processes and methods.

10. Reduces the Need for Direct Advertising

Advertising is expensive. When a company engages with an RPO provider they drastically cut back on those
costs. The need to advertise in all the regular, costly outlets is eliminated. The RPO firm assumes
responsibility for finding the candidates. They go to them, instead of having them come to you. They have all
the necessary resources for tracking the strongest available people.

Small-and-medium-sized businesses (this includes start-ups and companies just starting out) should not shy
away from hiring an outside firm for a number of reasons. The first being the obvious saved labor costs which
are crucial for small organizations that are already stretched thin with expenses.

The networks that an outside firm can provide are also priceless for new companies that don’t yet have the
name recognition to attract certain candidates. This is especially important when searching for C-suite level
executives that are hard to attract. A firm that specializes in recruiting higher-level executives would be able to
do some heavy lifting in areas most others can’t.
Job analysis process helps in establishing effective hiring practices and guides managers in
identifying the selection criteria required to deliver the expected output.

The data collected during the process helps managers in identifying the risks and challenges involved in a
specific job and kind of person suitable for delivering the desired duties perfectly. An employer’s recruitment
and selection process purely depends on job analysis. Until the recruiting managers do not know about job to
be performed, expectations from prospective candidate and the right individual profile required for performing a
specific job, it is almost impossible to source or target talent or human resource in order to fill the vacancy.

Effective in Recruitment process:-

 Identifying KRAs: Job Analysis process helps in identifying Key Result Areas/Key Responsibilities
Areas (KRAs) such as knowledge, technical, communication and personal skills, mental, aptitude,
physical and emotional abilities to perform a particular task.

Different jobs have different requirements. Therefore, the process needs to be performed every time when
there is a requirement to fill the job opening. This is a basis for developing questionnaires, devising interview
questions and setting selection test papers. The information in the form of scores or grades can then be used
for hiring process.

 Setting Selection Standards: Job Analysis also helps managers in setting certain standards for
selection process in terms of educational qualifications, work experience, expertise, special skill sets,
unusual sensory abilities, specific career track, certifications and licenses and other legal requirements.
This helps in identifying the basic requirements that make a candidate eligible for a particular post.
 Identifying KSAs: The process also helps managers in determining Key Success Areas or Key
Performance Areas. These are performance measurement tools that are used by companies around
the world to measure those aspects that determine success of a job such as organizational goals,
 individual goals and the actions required to achieve these goals. This is about comparing the actual
results delivered by an individual with pre-set success factors and analyzing the performance. Once
through, the whole process may require few changes if achieved results are around the set standards.
They may require a complete change if there is a huge gap between the expected and delivered
results.

Therefore, a thorough and unbiased job analysis process can help organizations source right candidates, hire
the most suitable individual and set appropriate selection standards.

3. HR audit can qualify its effectiveness within an organization. HR audits may accomplish a variety of
objectives, such as ensuring legal compliance; helping maintain or improve a competitive advantage;
establishing efficient documentation and technology practices; and identifying strengths and weaknesses in
training, communications and other employment practices.
Objectives of the Human Resource Audit

 To review the performance of the Human Resource Department and its relative activities in order to
assess the effectiveness on the implementation of the various policies to realize the Organizational
goals.
 To identify the gaps, lapses, irregularities, short-comings, in the implementation of the Policies,
procedures, practices, directives, of the Human Resource Department and to suggest remedial actions.
 To know the factors which are detrimental to the non-implementation or wrong implementation of the
planned Programmes and activities.
 To suggest measures and corrective steps to rectify the mistakes, shortcomings if any, for future
guidance, and advise for effective performance of the work of the Human Resource Department.
 To evaluate the Personnel staff and employees with reference to the Performance Appraisal Reports
and suggest suitable recommendations for improving the efficiency of the employees.
 To evaluate the job chart of the Human Resource Managers, Executives, Administrative Officers,
Executive Officers, Recruitment Officers, whether they have implemented the directives and guidelines
for effective Management of the Human resources in their respective Departments.

Essential steps in Human Resource Auditing

Though the process would vary from organization to organization, generally it involves the following
steps:
1) Briefing and orientation:
This is a preparatory meeting of key staff members to:

 discuss particular issues considered to be significant,

 chart out audit procedures, and
 develop plans and programme of audit.

2) Scanning material information:

This involves scrutiny of all available information pertaining to the personnel, personnel handbooks
and manuals, guides, appraisal forms, material on recruitment, computer capabilities and all such
other information considered material.

3) Surveying employees:
Surveying employees involves interview with key managers, functional executives, top functionaries
in the organisation, and even employees’ representatives, if necessary. The purpose is to pinpoint
issues of concern, present strengths, anticipated needs and managerial philosophies on human
resources.

4) Conducting interviews:
What questions to ask? The direction which audit must follow is based on issues developed through
the scanning of information gathered for the purpose. However, the audit efforts will get impetus if
clarity is obtained as to the key factors of human resource management selected for audit and the
related questions that need to be examined.

The following model depicts the various key factors on which information needs during human
resource audit need to be focussed. It is developed from the interview guide used in an electronics
company. It covers a wide range of topics of profound interest relating to human resource
management practices in the organisation.

The questions to be asked on these topics need to be framed very carefully. These questions may be
developed by the interviewer/audit team on the following aspects as indicated against each topic.
The process of the interview and the sequence of questions is often as important as their content.
Another effective method is the ‘focus interview’. A focus interview involves meetings between a
trained interviewer and selected members of the organisation. Here the interviewer asks a variety of
questions planned and prepared in the same fashion as the interview questionnaire explained earlier.

5) Synthesizing:
The data thus gathered is synthesized to present the

 current situation
 priorities
 staff pattern, and
 issues identified.

Similarly, future needs are identified and appropriate criteria developed for spotlighting the human
resource priorities and specific recommendations made.

6) Reporting:
Just as the planning meetings of briefing and orientation, the results of the audit are discussed within
several rounds with the managers and staff specialists. In the process, the issues that get crystallized
are brought to the notice of the management in a formal report. Follow-ups are necessary after an
audit to see if the action plan used to solve problems found this the audit worked or not.

7)Audit Report:
The specialists who handle employment, training, compensation, and other activities also need
feedback. The audit report they receive isolates areas of good and poor performance within their
functions. For example, one audit team observed that many jobs did not have qualified replacements.
This information was given to the manager of training and development along with the
recommendation for more programs to develop promising supervisors and managers. The report may
also provide other feedback such as attitudes of operating managers about the HR specialists’
efforts.
The HR manager’s report contains all the information given to both operating mangers and staff
specialists. In addition, the manager gets feedback about:

 Attitudes of operating managers and employees about the department’s benefits and services.
 A review of the departments’ objectives and plans to achieve them.
 HR problems and their implications.
 Recommendations for needed changes and the priority for their implementation.

CONCLUSION
In conclusion, human resource audit is an important approach to human resource planning. It is
practical because if correctly conducted, it should increase the effectiveness of the design and
implementation of human resource policies, planning and programmes. A periodic and systematic
audit helps human resource planners develop and update employment and programme plans.
4.Learning Organization
In a competitive world, organizations need to transform the workplace into a dynamic and effective place to
optimize the talent of the people and to align them with the organizational business goals. However, the
process is not simple. Organizations are the configuration of complex systems and strategies; hence, the
learning imperatives for different domains are different.

However, the objective is the same, that is, to maximize performance by using the learning principles. Hence,
organizational emphasis should be on supporting and maximizing long-term effective and sustainable learning.
We cannot, however, make redundant the technical or task-related skills.

Those are essential but not the absolutes in the new-age economy. To sustain itself in a competitive global
market, an organization has to adapt to the changing environments and make their people capable of
undertaking new tasks and responsibilities. Continuous capacity building of the people in organizations would
only be possible when organizations follow the learning management principles.

Thus, in the true sense, a learning organization should support the development process skills and attitudes to
improve performance in a competitive business situation. Learning develops organizational intellectual capital,
which is the only sustainable competitive strength for any organization.

Training and Development:

Training and development is the field which is concerned with organizational activity aimed at bettering the
performance of Individuals and groups in organizational setting. It is a combined role often called human
resources development (HRD) meaning the development of “Human” resources to remain competitive in the
marketplace. Training focuses on doing activities today to develop employees for their current jobs and
development is preparing employees for future roles and responsibilities. It carry out an analysis that the
objective of training and development is to creative learning organizations which ensure that employees
through value addition can effectively perform their jobs, gains competitive advantage and seek self growth:
this measurable performance resulting from good training and development, shall enhance organization
development. It is a process transferring information and knowledge to employers. It is equipping employers to
translate that information and knowledge into practice with a view to enhancing organization effectiveness and
productivity, and the quality of a management of people. It should be considered along with education policies
and systems which are crucial to the development of human resources.

Importance of Training and Development in an Organizational Development

Training and career development are very vital in any company or organization that aims at progressing. This
includes decision making, thinking creatively and managing people. Training and development is so important
because-

 Help in addressing employee weaknesses

 Improvement in worker performance
 Consistency in duty performance
 Ensuring worker satisfaction
 Increased productivity
 Improved quality of service and products
 Reduced cost
 Reduction in supervision

Conclusion

In particular it is recognised that an effective training and development policy can be a crucial factor in
addressing inequalities in employment in relation to race, gender and disabilities. It is recommended that
organization produce a training and development plan, the aim of which shall be to empower all employees to
carry out their roles to the highest standards, and deliver high quality services to customer. In these guidelines,
training and development are broadly defined as those activities aimed at raising the standards of employee
practice and thus lifting the quality of the employees, and customers learning and organization experiences.

BENEFITS OF COACHING AND MENTORING

Organizations implement Mentoring and Coaching programs to align the goals of the company with the
professional development of its employee. For example, the mentoring program can target new employees in
product development when the goal of the organization is to bring new products to the market. Developing
employees in weak areas of the company can also benefit the business’s organizational goals.

Companies can benefit enormously when they deploy all or any of the following methods to mentor and coach
its employees:

 Companies can assign a mentor or coach to new employees during the initial period of settling down in
an organization to help them get used to the culture of the company as well as bring them up-to speed
on company procedures and policies. Mentoring also provides the worker with a leader he can turn to
with questions. The coach can provide the new employee with information on the corporate culture,
organizational structure and procedures that will help the younger professional settle into his role in the
business.
 Employee Growth and Development is achieved by providing the individual who is mentored or
coached with practical knowledge that bridge the gap between educational theory and actual business
practices.
 Mentoring generally helps boost employee morale and engagement, experts say. “From increased
morale to increased organizational productivity and career development, the benefits of an organization
that actively supports mentoring are numerous,” according to a report by U.S. Office of Personnel
Management.
  Reduced employee turnover boosts productivity in an organization. High employee turnover costs
organizations money in the form of recruitment hiring and training of replacements. Companies should
weigh the costs of implementing a Mentoring/Coaching program against the inflated cost of employee
turnover to determine the benefits of coaching and mentoring.
 Team efficiency can be developed by Coaching and mentoring. The process enables managers to
identify the strengths and weaknesses of each employee. This allows the organization to capitalize on
the resources at hand to keep the whole team working smoothly

Coaching and mentoring can provide an array of benefits for organizations of all sizes, especially small
businesses. When conducted in an efficient and productive manner, coaching and mentoring provides
employees a way to connect, learn and grow within the company and along their own career paths. Coaching
and mentoring serve as learning tools in the workplace that can lead to empowering your employees. The
employees who are coached and mentored often receive the greatest benefit, but the coach or mentor also
benefits and may feel a sense of empowerment from the relationship.

5. A grievance is any dissatisfaction or feeling of injustice having connection with one’s employment
situation which is brought to the attention of management. Speaking broadly, a grievance is any dissatisfaction
that adversely affects organizational relations and productivity. To understand what a grievance is, it
is necessary to distinguish between dissatisfaction, complaint, and grievance.
1. Dissatisfaction is anything that disturbs an employee, whether or not the unrest is expressed in
words.
2. Complaint is a spoken or written dissatisfaction brought to the attention of the supervisor or the
shop steward.
3. Grievance is a complaint that has been formally presented to a management representative or to a
union official.
Causes of Grievances:
Grievances may occur due to a number of reasons:
1. Economic:
Employees may demand for individual wage adjustments. They may feel that they are paid less when
compared to others. For example, late bonus, payments, adjustments to overtime pay, perceived
inequalities in treatment, claims for equal pay, and appeals against performance- related pay awards.
2. Work environment:
It may be undesirable or unsatisfactory conditions of work. For example, light, space, heat, or poor
physical conditions of workplace, defective tools and equipment, poor quality of material, unfair rules,
and lack of recognition.
3. Supervision:
It may be objections to the general methods of supervision related to the attitudes of the supervisor
towards the employee such as perceived notions of bias, favouritism, nepotism, caste affiliations and
regional feelings.
4. Organizational change:
Any change in the organizational policies can result in grievances. For example, the implementation
of revised company policies or new working practices.
5. Employee relations:
Employees are unable to adjust with their colleagues, suffer from feelings of neglect and victimization
and become an object of ridicule and humiliation, or other inter- employee disputes.
6. Miscellaneous:
These may be issues relating to certain violations in respect of promotions, safety methods, transfer,
disciplinary rules, fines, granting leaves, medical facilities, etc.
Discipline is the regulation and modulation of human activities to produce a controlled performance. The
real purpose of discipline is quite simple. It is to encourage employees to confirm to established standards of
job performance and to behave sensibly and safely at work. Discipline is essential to all organised group
action.
Those employees who observe the rules and standards are rewarded by praise, by security and often by
advancement. Those who cannot stay in line or measure up to performance standards are penalised in such a
way that they can clearly learn what acceptable performance and behaviour are. Most employees recognise
this system as a legitimate way to preserve order and safety and to keep everyone working towards the same
organisational goals and standards. For most employees, self discipline is the best discipline. As often as not,
the need to impose penalties is a fault of the management as well as of the individual worker. For that reason
alone, a supervisor should resort to disciplinary action only after all else fails. Discipline should never be used
as a show of authority or power on the supervisor’s part.
The major aspects of discipline.
1.Negative Discipline: Negative discipline involves force or an outward influence. It is the traditional aspect of
discipline and is identified with ensuring that subordinates adhere strictly to rules, and punishment is meted out
in the event of disobedience or indiscipline. As you can see, in this perspective strict penalties are levied for
the violation of rules. It is, in fact, the fear of punishment that works as a deterrent in the mind of the
subordinate. Approaching discipline from this kind of a perspective has been proving increasingly ineffective for
various reasons.
2.Positive Discipline: In this type of discipline subordinates comply with the rules not from fear of punishment,
but from the desire to cooperate in achieving the common goal of the organisation. In positive discipline
willingness to comply is most important. The emphasis here is on cooperative efforts to secure compliance to
organisational norms. It promotes emotional satisfaction instead of emotional conflict, and the increased
cooperation and coordination reduces the need for formal authority. This approach to discipline will help you to
achieve both individual needs of the subordinates and organisational goals for you. It would therefore motivate
your subordinates to work with zeal and fulfil their needs. Positive discipline, in other words, calls for
internalisation by your subordinates of the objectives and expected norms of behaviour in your organisation.
The positive concept of discipline assumes a certain degree of self-discipline.
3. Discipline as Self-control: Discipline at one level means training that corrects, moulds, strengthens, or
perfects the behaviour. Discipline, in this sense, refers to the development of an individual, i.e., one’s efforts at
self-control for the purpose of adjusting oneself to certain needs and demands. This is nothing but what you
would call self-discipline. You will agree with us that it is extremely important to have this kind of self-discipline
both in you and in your subordinates for effectively and efficiently achieving your organisational objectives.
Here again the emphasis is on establishing and ensuring a minimum degree of orderliness. This orderliness is
obtained in the modern work context by increasing the degree and extent of compliance by subordinates. Let
us examine it a little more closely.
Four main ways of discovering grievances:
(i) Suggestion Boxes:
Employees are encouraged to bring to the mind of management, their complaints and suggestions. They are
directed to do so without signing their complaints in order to reduce their insecurity or fear of being ridiculed or
punished.
(ii) Open Door Policy:
Mostly practical only in case of small organization this policy encourages the employees to approach the
management directly in case they have a grievance. Due to lack of time for such hearings, this method is not
very practical for the large organizations.
(iii) Exit Interviews:
The employees quitting the organization due to better prospects elsewhere or any grievance are interviewed in
order to gain information about their reasons for leaving the organization.
(iv) Opinion Surveys:
Through periodical interviews and group discussions, vital information can be gathered about employee
dissatisfaction.