Overview of HRM

For the successful and effective functioning of an organization; management of the organization
must have a committed and motivated workforce. It is the people who can use other resources of
the organization to achieve company goals. Therefore, managers need to set up systems, policies
and procedures that attract and retain quality human resources.
In order to attract and retain human resources, managers must satisfy various social-
psychological and economic factors about people. Most people prefer to work in groups to
satisfy their social-psychological needs. Individuals need to be recognized and appreciated for
their contribution to the company for a period.
Human resource ensures that company jobs are designed and the organization is structured to
meet the company goals. This calls for appropriate jobs with an efficient and effective
organization structure. The designed jobs must match with the required skills and needs of
employees. The study of HRM deals with the staffing function of an organization. It also seeks to
determine and satisfy employee needs including the use of practical rules and procedures in the
employer-employee relations.
HRM refers to a system of management that emphasizes employee commitment and motivation
so that the organization can achieve its strategic plan. HRM is the use of concepts and techniques
necessary for carrying out the management of human resources. Generally, HRM refers to the
process of identifying, deploying, appraising, training and rewarding human resources in an
organization.

Roots of HRM

During pre-historic times, there existed consistent methods for selection of tribal leaders. The
practice of safety and health while hunting was passed on from generation to generation.

From 1500BC to2000BC, the Chinese used employee screening techniques and while Greeks
used an apprentice system. These actions recognized the need to select and train individuals for
jobs.

Early employee specialists were called personnel managers (or personnel administrators), and
this term is still in use in various discourses. ‘Personnel management’ refers to a set of
functions or activities (e.g. recruitment, selection, training, salary administration, industrial

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relations) often performed effectively but with little relationship between the various activities or
with overall organizational objectives.

The concentration of workers in European factories served to focus public attention upon
conditions of employment, and forced workers to act collectively to achieve better conditions.
The Humanitarian, Cooperative and Marxist theories of the early 1900s highlighted the potential
conflicts between employee and employer interests in modern industry – situations that laid the
foundations for the growth of trade unionism and industrial relations systems which are
important elements of contemporary HRM.

Governments in both the United Kingdom and the United States became involved in these issues
and passed a series of laws to regulate the hours of work for women and children, to establish
minimum wages for male labour and to protect workers from unhealthy or hazardous working
conditions.

During this period, management theorists in the United States and United Kingdom began to
examine the nature of work and work systems, and to develop models based upon emerging
psychological and sociological research.

Characteristics of HRM
 It is diverse
 Strategic with emphasis on integration
 Commitment oriented
 Based on assumption that people should be treated as assets (human capital)
 Unitarist rather than pluralist, individualist rather than collective in its approach to industrial
relations.
 A management driven activity, the delivery of HRM is the responsibility of line managers.
 Focused on business values

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HRM in Modern Organizations
Personnel management refers to a set of functions or activities (e.g. recruitment, selection,
training, salary administration, industrial relations) often performed effectively but with little
relationship between the various activities or with overall organizational objectives.

The primary functions of the personnel management are divided into two categories:

 Operative Functions: The activities that are concerned with procurement, development,
compensation, job evaluation, employee welfare, utilization, maintenance and collective
bargaining.
 Managerial Function: Planning, Organizing, Directing, Motivation, Control and
Coordination are the basic managerial activities performed by Personnel Management.

From the last two decades, as the development of technology has taken place and the humans are
replaced by machines. Similarly, this branch of management has also been superseded by Human
Resource Management.

Key Differences between Personnel Management and Human Resource Management

The following are the major differences between Personnel Management and Human Resource
Management:

1. Personnel Management treats workers as tools or machines whereas Human Resource

Management treats it as an important asset of the organization.
2. Decision Making is slow in Personnel Management, but the same is comparatively fast in
Human Resource Management.
3. In Personnel Management there is a piecemeal distribution of initiatives. However, integrated
distribution of initiatives is there in Human Resource Management.
4. In Personnel Management, the basis of job design is the division of work while, in the case of
Human Resource Management, employees are divided into groups or teams for performing
any task.

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5. In PM, the negotiations are based on collective bargaining with the union leader. Conversely,
in HRM, there is no need for collective bargaining as individual contracts exists with each
employee.
6. In PM, the pay is based on job evaluation. Unlike HRM, where the basis of pay is
performance evaluation.

Factor Personnel Management Human Resource

Management
Time and planning Short term, reactive, ad hoc , Long term, proactive,
perspective marginal strategic, Integrated
Psychological contract Compliance Commitment
Employee relations Pluralist, collective, low Unitarist, individual, high
perspective trust trust

Preferred structure/system Bureaucratic/mechanistic, Organic, devolved, flexible

centralized, formal/defined roles
roles
Roles Specialized/professional Largely integrated into line
Management
Evaluation Cost minimization utilization (human asset
Maximum accounting)

Conclusion

Human Resource Management has come up as an extension over Personnel Management, which
eradicated the shortcomings of the Personnel Management. It is quite essential in this era of
intense competition where every organization have to put their manpower and their needs first.

Nowadays, it is very challenging to retain and maintain good employees for a long time as they
are fully aware of their rights and any organization cannot treat them like machines. So, HRM
has been evolved to unite the organization with their employees for the attainment of a common
goal.

Functions of HRM

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 Recruitment and Selection
 Training and Development
 Reward and compensation
 Performance management
 Occupational safety and health
 HR Planning
 Industrial Relations

Roles of HR Practitioners
The role of HR specialist is increasingly becoming important as more significance is more
attached to the management of HR in the organization. The specialists working with line
management can make a major contribution and maintaining a human resource system in the
following ways.
1. The human resource manager contributes to the process of restructuring the organization
specifically in designing the job for the proposed changes in the organization.
2. Culture management. This is where the specialist will influence the employee behavior and
attitudes in performance management. The human resource specialist formulates strategies
and helps to get the values of the organization defined, understood and accepted by workers.
The specialist also influences the changing of employees’ attitudes towards accepting
organizational change. ie the specialists use his or her skills to manage resistance to change.
3. Managing employee commitments. Managers can build employee commitment through open
communication systems, participatory performance systems and implementing programs
designed to increase the company’s mission and values
4. Team working HR specialists must enhance the ability of people to work together that is
making the best use of advantages resulting from the best use of team work whereby there is
increased motivation achieved from an autonomous work group
5. Quality management. This is where the specialists will assist the organization to introduce
total quality management approaches through education and training processes and involving
people in quality improvement programs.

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6. Human resource development. This involves training and developing employees at all levels
while relating the development programs to the needs of the organization and individuals so
as to improve company performance.
7. Performance management. This involves introducing systems that clarify objectives at all
levels in an organization as well as setting systems of measuring performance at all levels in
the organization. This organizational performance management leads to improvement and
development of performance plans.
8. Reward development. This involves using the reward management system to define
performance expectations for rewarding people according to their contributions. Reward
management should be in line with performance based pay.

Challenges of modern human resource management

o The work force is not committed or loyal to the organization, which is people want to get rich
quick, and their aim therefore may not be to contribute to the organization but to gain from it.
The challenge therefore is how to harmonize the individual interests with the overall
organizational objectives.
o Variations in the workers expectations, Managers are faced with the challenges of how to
meet these expectations. For example, once you are a manager you are expected to have a
house, car etc.
o Composition of the workforce i.e. an increasing number of women, disadvantaged and
minors joining the workforce
o Wide spread unemployment and under employment. There are less white collar jobs
considering the number of people that qualify for them.
o Influence of trade unions e.g. there is increasing pressure of trade unions on the management
concerning the various interests of workers.
o Rights of privacy e.g. someone with AIDS should not be discriminated on those grounds,
even questions asked on interviews should be non-discriminatory.
o Globalization, many countries have opened there boarders and therefore organizations
continue to face challenges of expatriate labour, cultural shock, e-workers etc.
o Changes in technology which necessitates management to ensure their employees are abreast
with the recent trends.

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7
 HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING

Introduction
Human resource planning is such an essential part of the success of any company. Under past
conditions of relative environmental certainty and stability, human resource planning focused on
the short term and was dictated largely by line management concerns. Increasing environmental
instability, demographic shifts, changes in technology, and heightened international competition
are changing the need for and the nature of human resource planning in leading organizations. As
human resource planners involve themselves in more programs to serve the needs of the
business, and even influence the direction of the business, they face new and increased
responsibilities and challenges.
Human Resource Planning refers to a range of tasks designed to ensure the organization has the
appropriate number of Human Resources, having the right skills, doing the right activities in the
right place at the right time. The activities should be planned to benefit both the employee and
the company. It is a dynamic process through which managers monitor and manage the flow of
HRs into, through and out of the organization in order to achieve HR equilibrium, i.e. making
sure that HR exits are equal to HR entries – filling all vacancies on time in order to avoid
interruptions in production.
The emphasis is on the need for the organization to have the right size of the workforce i.e.
having neither too many nor too few people at any one time.
From the definition the kind of people employed is determined by the skills (quality) of such
Human Resources. This requires an analysis of the jobs that need to be undertaken by the
organization before recruitment is done. People should be employed to do tasks in jobs they best
qualified. Therefore Human Resources should be scientifically selected and developed
Human Resource Planning is a continuous process because the demand and supply of Human
Resource is subject to environmental changes.
Human Resource Planning is a complementary process to overall organizational planning i.e.
Human Resource Planning fits in the corporate plan.
Human Resource Planning involves projection/forecasting of the future human resources needs
so that an adequate and timely provision of human resources can be made.

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The basic purpose of Human Resource Planning is to determine the right number of people
required to do organizational activities.
Human Resource Planning involves making an inventory in order to determine the Human
Resource status i.e. the current size and kind of human resources as well as work scope. The
inventory involves examining the available employee skills and number of employees, the
experience, age structure, span of controls.
The Human Resource Planning results into the development of programs for the acquisition and
utilization of the organization human assets e.g. recruitment, selection, training, performance
appraisal etc
Planning for Human Resources is the prime responsibility of management to ensure effective
utilization of present and future utilization of human resources.

Rationale for Human Resource Planning (HRP)

The main purpose of HRP is to enable the organisation know in advance the significant point in
labour force where shortages are most likely to develop or where there is insufficient use of
labour (surplus).
There are specific reasons why Human Resource Managers should do Human Resource
Planning, these are;
o Determining Recruitment needs. It is important that the organisation do Human Resource
Planning so as to identify HR shortages. The organisation can fill up these shortages at the
right time, using well-planned selection techniques.
o Training needs identification. In the process of HRP, the planner can identify certain training
needs, which can be based upon to improve employee skills. Training is necessary for
maintaining the current workforce i.e. when there is no need for hiring new Human
Resources.
o Anticipate Human Resource redundancies. HRP helps the organisation to predict whether at
a certain time in future there will be need for redundancy schemes due to labour surplus.
o Determining Human Resource costs. Through Human Resource Planning, the organisation
can forecast the budget or Hr costs in form of salaries, housing, transport, medical etc.

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o Accessing future premises requirements; HRP helps managers to establish the need for
premises like office space and other buildings so as to enable employees carry out their tasks
in the right place.
o Determining and planning retirement; The Company can plan for whom, and when to retire
specific HRs, especially planning for early retirement.
o Means of good industrial relations. HRP aims at improving productivity. Through improved
productivity the organisation can make profits that are fairly distributed among the managers
and workers. This is likely to reduce industrial unrests and promote industrial democracy
o It is necessary and important to cope with pressures of competition within a given industry.

Prerequisites for Human Resource Planning

For an organization to be able to have and make accurate predictions of the future Human
Resource needs certain conditions must be satisfied. These include the following;
o Clarification/specification of the company’s objectives. Before HRP is done, the organization
needs to define its objectives; the overall objective is established by the overall corporate
plan from which the Human Resource plan is derived.
o Job analysis. Planners for HRs should determine the level of skills required before forecast is
made. There is need to concentrate on critical skills of particular jobs i.e. those whose
shortage are likely to affect the organizational program and those where labour cost have
been rising sharply.
o For HRP to make to make real contribution to the efficiency of the organization, top
management must ensure that it is fully integrated with other parts of the organization long
term strategies. It is therefore vital for every manager to participate in HRP. It is also
necessary to have someone to coordinate HRP activities over the whole organization. In large
organization you can find functional departments whose managers play a vital role in
determining future Human Resource needs. Such functional departments may include finance
sales and marketing administration and Human Resources etc. the managers in these
departments should be involved in HRP and should have a personal responsibility for HRP
aspects of their departments.
o Adequate Human Resource records/statistics; the quality of HRP depends on personnel
records and statistics. Planners need adequate accurate, relevant and timely data in decision

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 making. Managers have realized the importance of records and statistics due to the increasing
size and complexity of the organization. Although the need for records and statistics vary
from organization to organization, most of them need to set up Human Resource
Management Information System. Such management systems can provide the following;
 Detail about individual employee age
 Sex
 Skills required
 Formal education
 Place of birth
Also the system provides data of statistical nature of trends in labor force like death, turnover,
occupational changes, change in salaries and wages etc.
The procedure set up by the organization to maintain its human resource records is as important
as the type of information received from it. The setting up, updating and maintaining Human
Resource records is difficult, and yet critical to Human Resource Planning process. Unless
adequate attention is given to this task, Human Resource Planning will be based on inaccurate
and misleading information. This kind of information should be readily available to the human
resource planning division.

Challenges of Human Resource Planning

o Lack of top management support which a times frustrate those in charge of manpower
planning
o Limited Human Resource data due to failure by most organizations to set up Human
Resource Management Information System
o Inadequate skilled personnel to carry out the planning process
o Changes in economic conditions, technology, marketing conditions and labourforce
condition which tend to make long forecasts unreliable
o Trade unions agitation to spearhead their position especially in the face of structural
adjustments
o Limited resources especially funds and time to finance and carry out the activities of HRP

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o Unfavorable government policies especially on labour legislation, population composition,
education etc
o Conflict within and between departments due to limited coordination
o Unpredictable human resource wastage especially natural wastage

In conclusion, Human Resource Planning is a process whereby an organization predicts its future
Human Resource needs by looking at the future supply of labour and future demand of labour
and reconciling the differences between the two through action plans. Furthermore, HRP
considers the corporate plan, and environmental factors which are both internal and external.
External factors include; market forces, technology, available skills in the labour market,
labourlaws etc. While internal factors include; age structure of the workforce, productivity,
labour mobility etc

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 JOB ANALYSIS

Job Analysis is a process used to identify and determine in detail the particular job duties and
requirements and the relative importance of these duties for a given job. It is a systematic
exploration of activities within the job. Job Analysis is a process where judgments are made
about data collected on a job.
An important concept of Job Analysis is that the analysis is conducted on the Job, not the person.
While Job Analysis data may be collected from incumbents through interviews or questionnaires,
the product of the analysis is a description or specifications of the job, not a description of the
person.

What Aspects of a Job Are Analyzed?

Job Analysis should collect information on the following areas:

o Duties and Tasks, Environment, Tools and Equipment,Relationshipsand

RequirementsMethods of job analysis

The method that you may use in Job Analysis will depend on practical concerns such as type of
job, number of jobs, number of incumbents, and location of jobs. Some of the methods are;
Observation, Job Analysis Interview method, Questionnaire method and Work dairy
method.

NB. Normally these methods are used in combination to enhance effectiveness of job analysis.

Products of Job Analysis

Job analysis results into job description and specification.

Job description: This is a broad statement listing elements of a particular job .It is a document
which is basically descriptive in nature and it contains record of existing and vital job facts
which are organized in an orderly manner. The components may include;

o Job title
o Location of the job
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o Main duties and responsibilities of the jobholder
o Supervision given
o The relationship of the job to other position
o The limit of jobholders authority
o Any equipment for which the job holder is responsible
o Some terms and conditions of employment
o Training and advancement opportunities
o Job circumstances i.e. whether pleasant/unpleasant, demanding/undemanding
o Any other duties or task that may be assigned.

Job specification: This indicates the minimum acceptable qualification and personal attributes
that a worker must possess for him or her to be able to perform on the job. It establishes the basic
minimum requirement requirements for performance of a particular job. This is to avoid overly
or under qualified person from being placed on the job in question. Some of the components
include;

o Education level
o Knowledge
o skills
o Working experience,
o Personal characteristics
o Physical requirement,
o Age range
o Health and appearance( not commonly captured)

Purpose of Job Analysis

o Determining Training Needs: Job Analysis can be used in training "needs assessment" to
identify or develop; training content, assessment tests to measure effectiveness of training,
equipment to be used in delivering the training, methods of training (i.e., small group,
computer-based, video, classroom...)

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o Reward and compensation: Job Analysis can be used in compensation to identify or
determine; skill levels, compensable job factors, work environment (e.g., hazards; attention;
physical effort), responsibilities (e.g., fiscal; supervisory), required level of education
(indirectly related to salary level)
o Selection procedures: Job Analysis can be used in selection procedures to identify or
develop: job duties that should be included in advertisements of vacant positions, appropriate
salary level for the position to help determine what salary should be offered to a candidate,
minimum requirements (education and/or experience) for screening applicants, interview
questions, selection tests/instruments (e.g., written tests; oral tests; job simulations), applicant
appraisal/evaluation forms etc.
o Performance Review: Job Analysis can be used in performance review to identify or
develop: goals and objectives, performance standards, evaluation criteria, length of
probationary periods, duties to be evaluated.
o Career development: job information helps firms to chart channel of promotion, and
provides employees with that concerning opportunities and requirements for career within
the organization.
o Job design and reengineering; if employers with to adapt to any special group e.g. the
physically handicapped, they must usually alter the content of certain jobs. Job analysis will
always provide information that will facilitate changing of jobs to suit the needs of
employees with special characteristics.
o Induction and orientation; for new employees, a job description is vital for orientation
purposes

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 RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION

RECRUITMENT
Recruitment is a process of searching for and encouraging individuals (prospective employees)
with the right skills to apply for a job or employment in an organization.
It is regarded as the first step in the employment process aiming at developing and maintaining
adequate manpower resources upon whom the organization can depend on when additional
manpower is needed.
Recruitment is concerned with accumulation of a pool of potential candidates in line with the
human resource plan.
While all organization will at one time or another engage in recruiting, some do it more often
than others .An organization with a large number of employees will find it recruiting on a regular
basis. Organizations which are declining will find little need to recruit
Employment conditions in an organization will influence the rate of recruitment.
The success of a recruitment exercise will depend on the ability of the organization to establish
the correct requirements for a given job and to be able to identify individuals with the right
attributes to fill within those jobs. This can be achieved through job analysis.

Sources of recruitment

The finding out where suitable candidates are available and informing them about the openings
in the organization is the most vital aspect of recruitment. Organizations generally recruit from
within or outside it.

a) Internal sources

The workers already working in the organization may be more suitable for higher jobs than those
recruited from outside. Internal sourcing tends to promote employee development.

Advantages

 Employees are motivated, this is because existing employees are given preferences in
promotion

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 It ensures stability of employees since organization provides better opportunity to suitable
employees; they will likely stay with the enterprise.
 Management is in a better position to evaluate the performance of existing employee before
considering them for higher position.
 It is a cheap means of recruitment because the organization will not spend on advertising
expenses, and training of new staff.

Disadvantages

 Better skilled individuals with experience may be left outside the organization and this may
limit the organization from enjoying the skills of new staff.
 Organization may promote people who are weak but already employed.

b) External sources of recruitment

Every organization has to use external sources for recruitment in higher positions when existing
employees are not suitable. Besides positions at entry level normally require external sourcing.
The external sources are;

o Advertisements: This is the best source for higher jobs. The advertisements are run in local
press, magazines journals etc. The requirements of the jobs are indicated in the advertisement
and the prospective candidates are to evaluate themselves against the requirements of the job
before sending their application. You can reach a large audience in specific area. The
content of the advertisement will impact on the number of applicants
o Competing organizations: Other organization within the same industry can be a good
source of manpower especially when looking for high qualities in term of expertise and
experience. These individuals are usually poached by offering better terms and conditions of
service.
o Educational institutions: Universities and other tertiary institutions have a profile of all
students. Organizations can maintain close contact with these institutions and students are
targeted in the course of their studies. Junior level, middle or managerial trainees can be
recruited in this way.

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o Unsolicited applicants: These are causal applicants who usually contact employers through
telephone, posts or in person even without an advertisement being run by an organization.
Generally employers with good reputation get unsolicited applications .If an opening is there,
or is likely to be their then these people are considered for such jobs if they qualify.
o Employee referrals or recommendations: This can be done by employees who retired from
the organization and other persons who matter. When such people are requested to
recommend some people such recommendations are given due respect and consideration.
The problem with this source is that the referee may fail to establish the requirements of the
job. It may also lead to nepotism.
o Employment agencies: These are specialized firms that are involved in placing people into
jobs. Unemployed persons get themselves registered with these agencies. The vacancies may
be modified with the agencies whenever there is need. The agencies supply a list of
candidates fulfilling the required qualification to the organization.
o Trade unions: These are organized force that can recommend a person for a job.

SELECTION

This is the process of choosing the most suitable person for employment from a pool of
applicants. It is a process of differentiating between applicants in order to identify and hire those
with greater likelihood of success in the job. It is a mutual process which involves evaluating and
choosing among the different candidates who applied for a job. Selection is a decision making
process i.e. the organization decides whether to make a job offer or not and the applicants
decides whether to take up the job offer or not.

The appointment of suitable persons on various jobs is very sensitive. The selection of a wrong
person will mean loss of time and money which has been incurred in the process. It may also
lead to organizational counterproductive behaviors by the appointed person.

Selection techniques

The process of personnel selection involves collecting information about individuals for the
purpose of determining suitability for employment in a particular job. This information is
collected using one or more selection devices or methods. Different kinds of positions require
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different kinds of selection techniques. Choosing the right techniques will help you to recruit the
best person for the position. The selection techniques you choose depend on the particular skills,
attributes and knowledge required for the position. You must be able to match the selection
method with the selection criteria that are most critical to the position. Some of the techniques
are;

o Assessment centers: This involves subjecting applicants in a simulated work situation so

that behaviors and performance on the job can be observed and evaluated. Normally
applicants are invited to the organization premises and put into doing a series of activities
related to the actual job e.g. role playing, focus group discussion, and problem solving. A
typical assessment may run over the course of one or two days and involve trained assessors
evaluating a number of candidates. They can be expensive and complex to administer and
are usually more cost effective when recruiting large numbers of people.
o Bio-data: This is a collection of personal information about the job applicants. They are
asked to fill and application bank for describing their personal details .This technique is
based on the assumption that our past experiences and behaviors can be used to predict future
performance. This method however ignores the fact that our behaviours, values and attitudes
are not constant and consistent overtime, they change depending on the circumstances in the
environment and it is not automatic that our future behaviour will be predicted by our past
behaviour. Information regarding individual biota can be collected using; standard
application blank, weighted application blank and biographical inventories..
o Letter of recommendation and reference checks: This is where information about the
applicant is sought from people who know him or her say former employers, co-workers, and
teachers or lecturers from schools where the candidate studied from. Reference checks are a
last opportunity to verify information the candidate has provided, validate their personal
suitability and explore any areas of concern. This technique however is prone to over
exaggeration of information by the referees.
o Interview: This involves an interaction between a candidate and a panel of interviewers. It is
a selection method designed to predict future job performance on the basis of applicants' oral
responses to oral inquiries. It is the most widely used technique of selection. Managers’ are
extremely reluctant to hire any person without opportunity for face to face interaction.

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 Interviews are used to make quick evaluation of the applicant’s suitability for the job, to give
candidate information about the organization to enable him or her make up his mind and to
reflect fairness in the selection process. The interviews can be structured, unstructured or
situational.

 Structured interviews: Here the questions that are asked are preset or standardized which
are posed to all interviewees. The candidates are asked the same questions in the same order
to achieve consistency in the assessment.
 Unstructured interviews: In this form of interview candidates are asked question in
different format. The interviewee does much of the taking and questions may be derived
from what he or she says and the feelings and perceptions of the interviewer.
 Situational interviews: In this case the questions that are asked are consistent with the
requirements of the job. The questions are job performance based. Candidates are
interviewed about what actions they would take in various job-related situations.

o Psychological tests: a test is a yardstick for making employment decision. Tests are used to
acquire numerical scores that can be used to draw conclusion about an individual. The
purpose of this technique is to give an objective means of measuring individuals on merit.
Common tests that are administered are; Intelligence, Personality, Aptitude and Performance

 Placement

After an employee has been hired, he or she must be placed on the right job. Placement therefore
can be understood as the allocation of people to their rightful jobs. Proper placement improves
employee morale. The capacity of the employee can be utilized if she or he is placed in the job
for which he is most suitable.

Principles of placement

o Individuals should be placed on the job according to the requirements of the job. The job
should not be adjusted according to the qualifications or requirements of the person.
o The employee should be made well aware of the working conditions prevailing in the
industry and all things related to the job.

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o The job should be offered to a person according to his qualifications. Placement should
neither be higher nor lower than the qualification.
o The placement should be ready before the reporting date of the newly selected person.

Induction/ orientation
This is the provision to a new employee the information he needs to perform his job comfortably
and effectively. The objective of orientation is to provide for a smooth transition into the new
environment in a way that maintains motivation and gets the employee into production as soon
as possible.
The orientation process may involve several phases depending on the circumstances; new
employees, promotional employees or, employee needs. Each employee should be oriented
according to their position as well as amass orientation that includes general information that
pertains to everyone.
When an orientation process is designed, several factors must be considered such as employees
job skills; maturity level; and professional needs; as well as the ways they learn most effectively.
Some learn by hearing, some when they listen to a lecture or a demonstration, some by doing,
and others when they see it in writing.
There are several orientation processes implemented by different firms depending on the
particular situation, but generally during orientation period, new employees are given relevant
and accurate information about the organization and introduced to the work environment and its
social settings. Some of the issues which may be highlighted include the following;

 Introduction to the company/Outlining goals and objectives of the organization/ Review of

the organizational history, products/services
 Outlining organizational rules, policies, procedures
 Communicating employee benefits
 Completion of employment documents
 Review of employers expectations
 Setting of employee expectations
 Introduction to fellow workers
 Explaining employee recognition program

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 Introduction to the job and daily work routine
 How the employee job contributes to success of the organization
 Meeting with key persons within the organization
 Tour of the organizational facilities

It is worth noting that a well-defined and conducted programme can allay much of the
apprehension new employees have when beginning a new job or career. A co-operative effort
involving the employee relations department and the new employee’s department is crucial in
getting the new employee off to a good start.
Whether an organisation is large or small, it must have an effective orientation system. It can
help instill in those who join any company a sense of purpose and a feeling that they are part of a
professional and caring organisation.

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 HUMAN RESOURCE TRAINING
Training and development have become increasingly vital to the success of modern
organizations. Organizations often compete on people competencies, which is the integrated
core set of knowledge, skills and experience that gives them an edge over their competitors.
Training and development play a central role in nurturing and enhancing employee knowledge,
skill and abilities hence becoming a backbone for strategic implementation.
The trends in the workplace today require employees to continuously hone their Knowledge,
skills and abilities to cope with new processes, systems and technologies so as to be able to
develop the skills that will enable them handle new and more demanding assignments. In other
words, employers depend on the quality of their employee’s performance to achieve
organizational goals and objectives. Employees must therefore be helped to become effective
and efficient in their jobs so that they can have quality work. Quality employees can be
maintained through training, education and development.

Employee Training
Employee training is the process through which planned programs are undertaken to improve
employee knowledge, skills, attitudes and social behavior. It is can be defined as the systematic
modification of employee’s behaviors to foster learning among organizational members so that
they perform organizational duties better. It aims at improving an employee's knowledge, skills,
and attitudes so that he or she can do the job better. It may involve changing what employees
know, how they do their jobs, their attitudes towards work and how they interact with their co-
workers and customers. Training is an organized activity designed to create a change in the
thinking and behavior of employees so as to enable them to do their jobs efficiently in terms of
increased productivity, morale, reduced costs and absenteeism.

Development
Development is a career bound organizational arrangement for its employees to acquire
generalized managerial and technical skills and knowledge so as to achieve organizational goals.
Employees are developed in a way that maximizes their potential for personal growth and
promotion. In short employee development entails both training and education.

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Education
Education is wider in scope and purpose than employee training. It refers to formal instructions
in a school or college directed towards long term development of an individual.

Importance of training to organizations

Generally employee training and development are part of good management practices. Training
and Development is important to both the individual employees and organization. Some of the
benefits of training and development include:

1. Improving employees’ skills, knowledge and attitudes so that they can perform better.
2. Increasing customer satisfaction in products provided
3. Helping people to develop within an organization so to meet the future human resource needs
of the organization from within
4. Reducing learning time for employees who are starting new jobs so that they can be
competent as quickly as possible
5. Creating management by exception where trained human resources has the ability and
capacity to diagnose and analyze the day to day task requirements without constant
consultations from supervisors. He or she intervenes in their operations only at critical task
requirements.
6. Coping with rapid scientific and technological developments
7. Reducing the costs of supervision that is if the employees are given proper training, the
responsibility of supervision is lessened. A well-trained employee is self reliant in his work
because he knows what to do and how to do it. Though, training does not eliminate the need
for supervision, it reduces the need for detailed and constant supervision.
8. Need for production of new products or services by a firm, may also call for enhancement
of employee skills, knowledge and attitudes.
9. Creating and maintenance of a motivated workforce within an organization
10. Increasing employee awareness on matters concerning the organization such as values,
beliefs, policies, rules and procedures.

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Process of designing a training program:
Training programs should be developed with the perspective of contributing to the overall goals.
Failure to orient training to the strategic objectives and goals of the organizations leads to a
waste organizations investments.
Training programs are often misdirected, poorly designed, inadequately evaluated and these
problems directly affect organizational performance.
To ensure that the investment in training and development have an impact, on individual and
organizational performance, a systems approach to training should be used.
Although organizations do invest in their human resources in terms of training, the training
program is very expensive because it has an element of an explicit cost. This therefore means
that if an organization is to benefit from any training program it should be well planned
following systematic steps.
The process of designing an effective Training program should include the following:
1. Identifying training needs (Training needs assessment)
2. Determining the training objectives
3. Determining the training Methods to be used
4. Implementing the training
5. Evaluating the training;

a) Training needs assessment

Training needs identification or assessment is a primary requirement of a cost-effective training.

It must be the actual rather than the imagined needs of the job. The following are some of the
indicators of the need for employee training and development in an organization.

• Performance deficiencies
• Individual development plans
• Need to develop new leaders
• Employees in new positions
• Introduction of new technology, programs or projects
• Development of new policies, systems, procedures

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Assessment of training needs refers to finding the differences between what employees know
and can do and what they should know and be able to do. Training needs assessment is the
process of assessing employee competences that should be developed. Competences are
behaviors required by an individual to meet superior performance expectations of the job.

Methods of Needs Assessment:

Methods for analyzing training needs depend on the scope of the assessment and on available
resources. However, some of the following methods may be used:

 Documentation review: For example, written statements of safe working practices, legal
requirements, company policies and procedures, accident statistics and workplace inspection
reports can be examined to determine their bearing on training needs.
 Interviews and observation: Interviews with representative samples of supervisors,
workers and others may be used to assess attitudes and perceived problem areas;
observations can be made of representative jobs to assess compliance with approved working
practices.
 Surveys: A survey using self-administered questionnaires can be used for relatively large
groups to gain information about current skills and knowledge levels and about perceived
training needs and problem areas as well.
 Job Analysis: Job analysis for training purposes means examining in detail the content of
jobs, the performance standards required in terms of quality and output and the knowledge,
skills and competence’s needed to perform the job competently and thus meet the
performance standards.
 Performance Appraisal: This is prime source of information about individual training and
development needs. It is a continuous process of assessing an individual performance against
the set standards using a critical incident technique. The report from the exercise therefore
will reveal whether the individual has achieved his/her targets and the required action to be
taken. However it has shortfalls as it reveals who is not meeting performance expectations
and not why e.g. if deficiencies are due to poor motivation then training may not be a likely
intervention.

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 Competence profiling: Is the process of assessing employee’s knowledge and skills in
terms of what they should know and be able to do in certain KRA so as to achieve a critical
output.
b) Determining the training objectives

Once training needs have been clearly identified, the next step is to set priorities and objectives.
Consideration must be given to the relative urgency of various training needs, taking into
account factors such as the relative severity of consequences should accidents occur, the
frequency with which problems are likely to occur, the number of people affected and
compliance with the defined policy. It is necessary to specify as clearly as possible the skills
and knowledge that should be learnt, what competencies need to be developed and what attitudes
need to be changed.

Training or learning objectives should be set to define what should be learnt and what learners
will be able to do after completing the training program. For example, on completing the course,
the trainees will be able to operate a word processor at 80 words per minute.

Training objectives should be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time bound
(SMART). Training objectives must be ‘SMART’ to enable the trainer and trainees to evaluate
whether the training has been successful. In order for the objectives to be specific, measurable,
attainable, realistic, and time bound, they should answer the following questions:
1. What is the organization trying to achieve by running a training program?
2. What do participants expect to acquire?
3. How should the content of the training be structured to achieve its objectives?
4. What training methods should be employed to achieve the desired objectives?
5. Who should conduct the training?
6. How will the participants and trainers know that the training has been successfully?

c) Training Methods
The trainer must determine the type of training to be undertaken that is the environment with in
which training takes place determines the type of training. It can be internal on the job, external
on the job or external off the job training

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i) On the job training
This is the mostly widely used method in companies. Since most jobs can be learned within a
short period of time (supervisors have the responsibility of training their subordinates. There are
various forms of training internally on the job.
o Induction training: - This is meant for new employees and its sole purpose is to acquaint
them with job requirements and work methods. (The employee is given a job description
with a set of policies, rules and procedures which govern performance.
o Apprenticeship training; this is a method for semi-skilled trades and craftsmen. The
worker is appointed as an apprentice. During training the worker is placed under the charge
of a qualified senior. The apprentice learns the method of work by observing and assisting
his/her senior e.g. plumbers, machine men, crafts men, artisans.
o On job coaching; Managers can coach employees by assigning them specific challenging
tasks. They monitor employee’s performance, correct their behaviors and provide immediate
and frequent feedback e.g. job rotations and assistant –to- positions.
o Though that times the person might be hesitant to due to fear of creating a potential rival or
future replacement.
o Teamwork: A team is defined as a group of two or more people with different but
complementary skills who continuously interact and influence each other towards a common
purpose, thus during the process of accomplishing their task(s) the different individuals
constituting a particular team can either pass on or receive knowledge skills and attitude
amongst themselves.
o Delegation: Through provision of clear authority, their bosses assign responsibilities to
subordinates, this can easily enable them acquire the skills and knowledge required for more
complex tasks or higher responsibilities as time goes on.
o Internship: It is a kind of on the job training where practicalskills are provided to fresh
graduates of certain professions. Trainees in this case are normally termed as interns and
they get skills from experienced practioners. For example medical students or lawyers etc
o Mentoring: In this case, one’s immediate supervisor provides to him or her challenging
tasks, followed by constructive feedback over a reasonable period. This is done to enable the
subordinate have career mobility. I.e.to be able to assume higher responsibilities.

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ii) Off the job training
This training takes place at company training centers that are specifically equipped for training
purposes. Training covers employees with similar identified training needs.Some methods used
in training centers are;
o Lectures;the purpose of lectures is to pass knowledge to the trainees so that they get more
specialized skills. For empowering trainees cognitively through provision of general
knowledge so as to enhance their analytical abilities.
o Case studies; This is a written account of an organization that simulates its historical,
environmental, financial, managerial and human aspects
The facilitator use well written notes of actual organizational problems to conduct the
training. The trainees are expected to learn by identifying the causes of such problems and
providing possible solutions to them with the facilitators’ guidance.
o Role playing: A role is set of actions performed by an individual, thus the trainees learn by
observing and doing what the trainer is doing through demonstration. It can also be termed as
experiential learning.
The role refers to a pattern of actions expected of a person during his/her interaction with
others
o Brain storming/group discussion:
Facilitators may use brainstorming to impart the required skills and knowledge to the trainees
through identifying and solving practical problems of a typical organization.
This is a problem solving, technique which consists of evaluation of ideas
iii) External off the job training
This training is required to provide theory and practice which can be translated easily to address
specific needs of a job. It is done away from organizations premises. It is useful for the
development of managerial, technical and social skills.
This kind of training enables employees to acquire highly specialized knowledge and advanced
skills i.e. the trainee gets exposed to people with extensive knowledge, experience and skill. This
training is mainly provided by institutions of higher learning Trainees are expected to leave the
organization premises and go for training possibly from training institutions. Therefore the
methods commonly used include;
2 Seminars

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3 Workshops.
4 Conferences
Most of the methods that fall under both internal and external on the job methods

d) Implementation of Training
On the job training for example can be provided by managers, team leaders, colleagues or
mentors (fellow employees who are given a particular responsibility to guide, advice and
generally look after trainees).
Off the job training may be provided by members of the training department, external education
and training establishments, guest speakers, training consultants etc.

The role of a specialized training function/department is generally to provide advice and

guidance to managers on their training responsibilities. In many organizations they are involved
much less if at all in training delivery.
Training functions are relying more and more on external providers to provide actual training.
This means that the huge training departments that used to exist in many organizations have now
been slimmed down considerably.

e) Evaluation of training
A trainer should obtain feedback on the effects of training programs. These effects are assessed
in view of the training objectives that were set earlier before the training. Evaluation is a
comparison of objectives with effects to answer the question of how much the training has
achieved. It enables the organisation to decide where or not training was worthwhile. This
decision is arrived at through a cost-benefit analysis of the training program
In assessing the value of training we seek to answer questions such as the following:
1. Have trainees acquired a specific level of knowledge or skills or performance?
2. Is the change due to training?
3. Is the change positively related to the achievement of organizational goals?
4. Whether similar acquisition of knowledge and skills change will take place in the
subsequent training programs.

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The training officer can use four levels of evaluation
o Reaction - How do participants feel the training program?
This is where assessing the value of the training program is carried out during its course, with
an aim of establishing how participants or trainees are feeling about the program
o Learning - To what extent have the trainees learnt what was taught? :
It is a more vigorous evaluation of the training outcomes aimed at establishing the extent to
which participants have mastered the skills and knowledge passed onto them.
o Behavior - What job related changes behavior has occurred because of training?
This is more concerned with determining what job related behavioral changes have occurred
because of the training
o Results- To what extent has training produced profit related outcomes?
Productivity improvement, reductions in labor turnover, accidents and absenteeism.
It is aimed at establishing the extent to which training has produced profit related out comers,
such as productivity improvement, sufficient customer care reductions in labour turnover
rates and prevention.

Challenges of training
o Getting the right trainers
o Appropriate training place
o Appropriate training approach/ method
o Regulating training and the organization's routine activities.
o Employee’s attitude towards training.
o Identify the right staff to be trained.
o Performance gap is not the only solution for training; e.g. low salary may contribute to poor
performance too.

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 PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL
Introduction:
Having talented employees in the organisation is not enough; successful organisations are those
that engage their workforce in achieving goals that benefit both organisations and individuals.
Performance appraisal is very helpful tool that organisations can use to maintain and enhance
productivity as well as facilitate progress towards strategic goals.
All managers monitor how employees work and assess how this matches organisational needs.
This forms impressions about the relative value of employees to the organisations and seek to
maximise the contribution of every individual.
Performance appraisal can be formal or informal. The success or failure of performance
appraisal program depends on:
 Philosophy underlying it
 Its connection with the business goals.
 Attitudes and skills of those responsible for its administration.
Many different methods can be used to gather information about employee’s performance.
However its only one step in the appraisal progress this information should be evaluated in
context of the organisational needs and be communicated to employees so that it will result in
high performance levels.

Performance appraisal is a process of measuring and evaluating behaviours and assessing how
well it matches expectations. Performance appraisal is a systematic description of employees’
relevant strengths and weaknesses. Appraisal aims at evaluating the extent to which the
individual is achieving the objectives of the given job, in relation to the objectives set by the
departments they work in. Appraisal therefore is done to assess how well the individual
performs on allocated tasks in order to identify their shortcomings and correct them. It also
enables managers to report on employee potential for advancement to higher positions within the
organization.
In developing effective performance appraisal system, employees should be actively involved in
establishing performance standards and objectives. Specific and measurable performance /job
standards help remove vagueness and subjectivity from performance appraisals.

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Performance appraisal should be an ongoing exercise, not something done once in a while. The
process should be open involving both the appraiser and the appraisee.

Purpose of Performance Appraisal

The overall purpose of performance appraisal is to improve the efficiency of the organization by
trying to get the best out of the individuals working for it. It also aims at improving the work
performance of employees, by helping them realize and use their full potential in doing work for
the organization. Performance appraisal provides information to employees and managers to use
in the decision making process e.g. training, layoffs, transfers, promotions etc.

The specific purpose:

o Provide a continuous record of performance by which an employee’s progress or lack of
it can be judged
o They indicate an employee’s capacity /incapacity to perform their jobs.
o They indicate the employees suitability for other jobs in the same or other departments
o Used as an aid in making internal staff adjustments (lay offs, transfers, promotions)
o Provides feedback to employees and thereby serves as a means of personal or career
development.
o When the development needs of employees have been identified, Performance Appraisal
results can help establish specific training needs and objectives
o Performance levels are used as a basis for making reward and compensation decisions.
o Provides feedback for discussing employee strength and weaknesses.

Methods of Performance Appraisal

1. Graphic Rating Scales: this is the simplest and most common technique for appraising
performance. The Manager designs a rating scale that lists a number of traits and factors that
are relevant to performance.The employees are rated by identifying a score that best
describes his/her level of performance. There’s a space on the form for the supervisor’s
comments.

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2. Forced distribution: This is where the rater establishes performance standards or
percentages, so that the ratees are placed according to their performance levels.
3. Critical Incident Method: The supervisor keeps a record of uncommonly good or bad
work-related behaviours which may be discussed with employee at pre-determined times.
This is useful for identifying specific examples of good and poor performance. The
supervisor can then plan how to correct the deficiencies.
4. Narrative forms: Here the raters describes in writing an employee’s strengths and
weaknesses and potential. The rater also makes suggestions for improvement. This method
assumes that the rater is very knowledgeable about the employee’s performance.
5. Paired comparison method: A comparison regarding how well each performance trait is
performed to all other employees until a comparison of how well one employee performance
as relative to each of the other employee.
6. 360 method

Challenges to Performance Appraisal

1. Supervisors are often reluctant to prepare periodic appraisals of each of their

subordinates. This is especially true, in case of the results of the appraisal have to be
discussed with their subordinates.
2. In practice, performance appraisal is often made recorded filed and never used.
Decisions on individual cases are made without referring to them, e.g. training, salary
increase, promotion etc., yet performance appraisal is related to employee performance
and rewards.
3. Performance Appraisal is based on comparisons, between expected performance and
actual performance. Expected performances however are sometimes based on job
descriptions that are out of date.
4. Supervisors’ hesitation to judge fellow workers and commit their views in writing.
5. The problem of lack of skills on how to handle the exercise, especially appraisal
interview sessions.

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6. Stereotyping; Judgments are affected when supervisors carry along them, a collection of
mental pictures of what they imagine people to be like. These pictures are used to
classify employees.
7. Because most performance appraisal reports are linked to salary increments, promotion
and training, there is a tendency for raters to inflate appraisals for fear of damaging the
relationship with their subordinates.
8. Role conflict; the supervisor is expected to be both a judge and a counselor. This dual
role conflict makes it difficult for the appraiser to be impartial.
9. There is often lack of feedback; whereby subordinates are not given results of
performance appraisal if they are given they come as a surprise.
10. Sometimes there is lack of objectivity and consistency, for example, if appraisal is done
once a year and therefore lacks continuity. This may make managers place
11. Greater importance on more recent performance, thereby ignoring incidents that may
have occurred earlier.

Strategies for Effective Performance Appraisal

1. It is important to have the support, understanding and cooperation of those who participate in
performance appraisal system, in order to avoid suspicion and failure, for example there is a
need to secure confidence of the appraisees that the supervisor’s judgment will be fair and
just. Supervisors too, need to accept their role as supervisors and evaluators and play it
willing rather than as an administrative routine. When there is mutual trust and respect
between the subordinates and the supervisor, communication becomes easy.
2. Aspects to be appraised should be clearly defined and communicated to both the appraiser
and the appraisee.
3. The appraisal should be a continuous process, whereby supervisors continuously assess, how
their staff get on with their job by motivating them and taking corrective action throughout
the year, rather than once a year.
4. More people should be involved in the process so that the people being assessed do not feel
that they are at the mercy of their immediate supervisor.
5. Reporting officers need training on how to appraise and to conduct appraisal interviews.

35
6. The appraisal system should be simple to administer. For example, performance appraisal
forms should be kept short and precise, or managers should consider using numbers rather
than words
7. Appraisals should be supported by follow-up action if they are to be of any use. Objectives
agreed upon by the appraiser and appraisee needs to be monitored to ensure that they actually
take place, and recommendations acted upon.
8. Managers should have counseling skills (acquired through training) and these should include:
problem identification; open questioning; listening; sensitivity; reflecting empathy;
impartiality, un conditional positive regard.

INTERNAL STAFF ADJUSTMENT

Introduction:
Internal structural adjustments are characterized by changes made within an organization mainly
to maintain the right number of human resources. It should be noted that internal staff
adjustments are good for organizations, because they help organizations to have effective and
efficient employees, which leads to effective overall organization performance. However it
should be noted internal staff adjustments can only yield good results if only proper guidelines
are followed while implementing them otherwise they cause more harm than good.

a) Employee Promotion
Employee promotion involves an appointment to a position requiring higher qualifications in
form of better skills or longer experience and involving a higher level of responsibility, and a
title change is considered a promotion and will be classified as such in all human resource
documents. In order to avoid conflicts and other costs, promotions should be made without
regard to the race, color, sex, religion, age, ethnic origin, or disability of the employee.
Employee promotion can also be looked at as advancement in rank or position in an
organizational hierarchy system. It may be an employee's reward for good performance reflected
by positive appraisal. Before management promotes an employee to a particular position it
ensures that the person is trained to handle the added responsibilities. This is marked by job
enrichment and various training activities.

36
Promotion is at times used as an internal recruitment source for higher positions This could
encourage the existing employees, provide them with motivation and at the same time creating
room for recruitment at the lower end of the hierarchy for outsiders.
Employee promotion can be categorized into formal and informal types

Formal promotion: As opposed to the informal system, management with the help of the
Human resource Management specialist usesobjective evaluations of the responsibilities of
position and an appraisal of the individual’s capabilities in terms of potential performance.

Informal promotion: Itshould however be noted that not all organizations have a systematic
approach to promotion or that it is organized. Many organizations still depend upon informal
promotion systems, where managers would request certain individuals in whom they have
confidence or with whom they have had previous working experience, to be assigned to projects
involving more responsibility

Open and closed promotion system:

A company is said to have an open promotion system where it is willing to consider all
individuals within its organisaton as potential candidates and also takes time to announce
internally such position openings. Where an organisaton does not announce vacancies, or where
the candidacy is restricted and is not open for all individuals within the organisation for
promotion openings, the company is said to have a closed promotion system .Very often, a
company has a combination of these two systems. For example, openings below a certain
managerial level, such a company would adopt an open promotion system and give every
interested employee a chance .However for levels above that particular managerial level, the
selection would be done in a more secret manner.

Guidelines for effective employee promotion

 Ensuring that an extensive search for potential candidates has been carried out.
 Availability of standard and clearly understandable data about all potential candidates.
 Involving affected parties in the actual process i.e. those that get promoted and those that are
by passed to minimize grievances and dissatisfaction.

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b) Employee Demotion
Demotion is just the opposite of promotion. It involves reduction in an employee’s pay, status,
privileges or opportunity. They are also part of the disciplinary action; sometimes demotions
give employment to employees displaced from highly rated jobs other than being laid off.
Demotions tend to be accompanied by problems of employee depression and inefficiency, which
can undermine the moral of a worker. Because of this it may be better to terminate the
employee’s services rather than demote them unless mutually agreed upon between the employee
and the organization.
Employee demotion can be brought about by poor employee performance, bad fit, or as acost-
cutting alternative to layoffs. If you're faced with demoting a staff member, know that there's a
right way and a wrong way to handle it.
Guidelines for effective employee demotion
o Justification; Your reasons for demoting an employee must be clear, objective, and
completely justifiable in order to avoid claims of discrimination. Is the business downsizing?
Is there a performance or attitude problem on the part of the employee? Is the person simply
a bad match for his or her current position? Be sure in order to reduce the risk. If the
demotion you're considering is performance related, ask yourself the following questions:

 Did the employee understand the job, its duties, and expectations?
 Did the organization give the employee appropriate time, resources, and supervision to allow
him/her to do the job well?
 Was the employee given adequate feedback and opportunity to improve? Is this feedback
documented?
 Did management promote the employee inappropriately or prematurely?
 Can the employee contribute value to the company in a different role?

o Empathy; A demotion can damage a person's self-esteem and sense of self-worth. In many
ways, demotion is more traumatic than firing since the employee must face his or her co-
workers - some of whom may have been former direct reports - if he or she chooses to stay
on. If the demotion is due to poor performance, it should come as no surprise. If it's due to

38
 business circumstances beyond the employee's control, make this clear. Regardless, be
empathetic.
o Preparation of new Job description ; Have a formal and complete description of the new
position drawn up, including duties, level of responsibility, reporting chain of command,
compensation, and so on. If the new position offers new opportunities not available in the
former position, spell them out. Be prepared to answer any and all questions.
o Softer Financial challenge; In most cases, demotion is accompanied by a cut in pay. There
are several ways you can soften the sting:
Offer a transitional salary that gives the employee an opportunity to get his/her finances in
order.
If the demotion is due to a bad job fit, consider keeping the employee at the same pay level,
with the expectation that future pay increases will be less than he/she would have received in
the former position.
Give the employee the option to resign on good terms with a severance package.
o Preparation for resignation: Being demoted can be a humiliating experience, regardless of
the reason. No matter how sensitively it's handled, most employees find it too upsetting to
stick around. Assume the demoted employee will quit and make sure you have a contingency
plan at-the-ready.

Demotion versus firing

Don't Demote When Firing Is Called For. Demotion is not a substitute for firing - demotion
rarely corrects performance or attitude problems unless a serious commitment is made on both
sides. Use demotion sparingly. If the staff member in question needs to be fired, then fire
him/her. If demotion is truly the best option, and the employee won't accept the demotion, then
you have to let that staff member go.

c) Employee Transfers

A transfer is a lateral move to a position in the same classified pay range (classified position)
or to a position with comparable duties and responsibilities (non-classified positions).

Production, Remedial, and versatility Transfers

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Production transfers are made from one department where the human resource needs or
requirements are generally minimal to departments where human resource needs are increasing
or vacant positions have occurred through separations. Such production transfers are made to
prevent lay-offs, simply because it is meaningless to have in the same organization layoffs in one
department and employees being needed in another department for similar type of work. Thus
production Transfers, at about the same occupational group, help to stabilize employment in an
organization.
Remedial transfers are made to save the situation. For example, if the initial placement has been
imperfect, or the worker cannot get along with his supervisor, a transfer to a more appropriate
job or more agreeable supervisor might result in better performance .In this way a good
organization treats its employees as individuals, but of course, within the broad policy frame
work.
The objective of versatility transfers is to increase the flexibility of the employee by shifting him
from one job to another so as to provide him with a wide-ranging and broader job experience.
This helps the employee through job enrichment and job enlargement. It can also help him get
prepared for future promotions

Benefits of Transfers

The following are some of the benefits of a good transfer policy.

 It increases the productivity and effectiveness of the organization.

 It improves the skills of the existing employees
 It provides greater job satisfaction to the existing employees
 It helps stabilize fluctuating work requirements.
 It increases motivation and productivity through avoidance of monotony
 It develops the employee for future promotion.

d) Employee layoff

A layoff is the termination of employment of an employee or (more commonly) a group of

employees for business reasons, such as the decision that certain positions are no longer

40
necessary. Originally the term "layoff" referred specifically to a temporary interruption in work,
as when factory work cyclically falls off. However, the term has long been applied also to the
permanent elimination of positions as a cost-cutting measure (or for other reasons).

This term has and is most widely used in the management alternatively with downsize and right
size, workforce reduction and reduction in force. Mass layoff implies laying off a large number
of workers.

Most times, layoffs are a result of two forces. In the first instance, the objective is to decrease a
company's labor cost. Typically the thinking is that the company will be able to generate the
same gross revenues in the future with a smaller number of workers

In the second case, la is driven layoff macroeconomic forces. A company determines that its
workers can no longer profitably produce products at current market prices. A company will only
employ workers when the per-hour value of their output exceeds the cost to employ those
workers.

Lay off also means the refusal of the employer to assign the job to an employee because of
certain factors beyond his/her control like displacement caused by technology, shortage of raw
materials etc. Some layoffs are temporary and others are permanent

Examples of layoff actions due to lack of work may include, but are not limited to:
 Termination of a project or special employment.
 Availability of fewer positions than there are employees entitled to such positions.
 Employee’s ineligibility to continue in a position following its reallocation to a class with a
higher salary range maximum; or
 Employee’s ineligibility to continue or choice not to continue, in a position following its
reallocation to a class with a lower salary range maximum.
Most unions place for seniority rules, when there is any lay off it is the junior and new
employees that are laid off. Announcing layoffs is a sensitive task that requires preplanning and
integrating numerous complex variables to offset the possible negative employee reactions.

Guidelines for effective employee lay off.

41
 Evaluate legal issues. Legal concerns cannot be ignored. Although seemingly obvious, legal
ratification is at times bypassed when developing a layoff announcement.
 Recognize the importance of grapevine information and monitor it. Rumors have an impact
on culture, climate and timing.
 Search for the right person to announce the layoff to employees. Top management needs to
consider whether managers and supervisors support the layoff and whether they will be the
best people to announce the layoff to employees.
 Make sure employees hear about a lay off from management before learning about it from
the media. It is crucial to keep in mind that the more time it takes to plan and announce a
layoff, the greater the potential may be for rumors and leaks to the media, loss of
management’s credibility and employees trust tend to be common when employees hear
about layoffs through other sources first.
 Evaluate the message content carefully .The kind and amount of information management
communicates to employee about lay off needs to be carefully considered for legal and
controversial reasons .if management is compelled to announce a layoff before all the details
are not ascertained, its best to limit the information presented to what is known for certain.
 Tell the employee that it’s not his fault, that if you had a choice you could be keeping
him/her.
 Do not rush the employee to pack up and leave. Give him or her reasonable amount of time;
don’t show that you’re standing over waiting for him to get out.
 Tell the employee that if the economic situation changes you could be happy to rehire him,
and back it up by making sure that the termination agreement had no clause preventing him
or her from reapplying to.
 Give the employee a beautiful letter of recommendation, which can help him land next job.
 During the period when that employee is still unemployed, keep in contact with him.

a) Retirement

Retirement is the point where a person stops employment completely. A person may also semi-
retire and keep some sort of job, although usually out of choice rather than necessity. This
usually happens upon reaching a determined age, when physical conditions don't allow the

42
person to work anymore (by illness or accident), or even for personal choice (usually in the
presence of an adequate pension or personal savings). The retirement with a pension is
considered a right of the worker in many societies, and hard ideological, social, cultural and
political battles have been fought over whether this is a right or not. In many western countries
this right is mentioned in national constitutions, including in Uganda.

The retirement age varies from country to country but it is generally between 55 and 70. In some
countries this age is different for male and females. Sometimes certain jobs, the most dangerous
or fatiguing ones in particular, have an earlier retirement age.

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 EMPLOYEE HEALTH AND SAFETY
Introduction
Organizations are concerned about employees’ health and safety while they are at work.
Employee health and safety boosts employees’ morale and loyalty. Managers realize that a
healthy employee is a productive one.
Employee health refers to the physical, social and psychological wellbeing of employees.
Safety refers to activities undertaken to safeguard employees from dangerous work practices that
may be faced at work. Therefore, safe practices can lead to a state of health among employees.

Rationale for employee Health and Safety

An organisation whose management has managed to put in place and maintain desirable
physical, social and psychological conditions can be assured of a number of benefits. They
include the following;
1. Safety and health practices and programs help to maintain an environment that facilitates
efficient employee productivity
2. Creation of morale among employees of an organization which in turn affects the quantity
and quality of a firm’s products and services positively, besides creation of favourable
occupational attitudes amongst such employees
3. The public image of a firm will also be improved for the better if systematic employee health
and safety programs have established and modified over time. E.g. highly qualified personnel
will be willing to work for such a firm or maintenance of a reasonable market share
4. The employee will as well be considered to be operating with in law if the working
environment facilitates employee health and safety during their day to day activities that are
aimed at achieving the goals and objectives of a firm
5. An organisation will also be assured of less work stoppage if any, that are normally caused
by accidents and illness among employees. This implies that activities will be accomplished
in time there by maintaining the profitability base of such a firm among other advantages
6. Unnecessary costs that may negatively affect the budget of a firm are also minimized in case
of systematic employee health and safety measures at the work place. Such costs may be in
terms of replacement of injured employees, compensation, ,investigations, replacement of
damaged equipments and legal suits among others

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7. Good employee safety and health measures can as well be useful tool towards better
employer-employee relations with in an organisation. A mutual employer-employee
relationship is advantageous to firms in a number of ways such as effective flow of
information, timely grievance and conflict handling etc.
8. Well established health and safety measures help to reduce the rate at which employees enter
and leave the organisation. I e a stable work force is established implying that several
programs of the organisation can be carried out with less or no interruptions.

Employee Health
Employee health can be understood by examining conditions of the work in the organization.
Conditions of work can be categorized as; physical, chemical, biological, temporal and
psychological.

1. Physical conditions
The physical working environment includes location and design of the building, parking features,
amount of light and noise coming into the work place.
a) The design and size of the office
The design and size of the office(s) affects employees’ job satisfaction and productivity. For
example the layout of offices can affect the behavior of managers who rely on spontaneous
meetings with other managers as a way of obtaining information or solving problems.

b) Noise
Noise in the work environment makes employees irritable and nervous. It interferes with sleep
and produces physiological defects like deafness. Certain loudness levels can be threatening to
hearing. Hearing loss is a recognized job hazard for workers like airport personnel. People who
work in extremely noisy environments are aggressive, destructive and irritable compared to those
who work in quieter environments.
c) Illumination
Continued exposure to inadequate light while reading or performing detailed operations can be
harmful to one’s sight. Research shows that inadequate lighting is a source of stress and constant

45
exposure to dim light can have a negative impact on job performance. A suitable arrangement for
light is to uniformly be distributed throughout the entire work area.
d) Temperature and Humidity
Some people are happier and more hardworking in cold weather whereas others prefer hot
weather. Studies have shown that uncomfortable temperature and humidity levels can influence
the quality and quantity of work performed. Production can slow down under extremely hot
conditions.
e) Colour
In industry, colour can provide a pleasant working environment and can aid with safety e.g.
colour can be used in factories as a coding device that is fire equipment can be yellow while
danger areas can be red. This allows for such equipments and areas to be quickly identified.

2. Biological conditions
Biological agents that may be found in the working environment include bacteria, parasites,
viruses and other parasites. These may thrive in the working environment if the conditions
prevailing in that environment are conducive for their survival. Some workers may be exposed to
certain diseases through foods taken at the place of work.

3. Chemical conditions
In many organizations, workers handle potentially dangerous, toxic substances in the course of
doing their work i.e. the degree of risk of handling any substance will normally depend on the
magnitude of the exposure to that substance.

4. Temporal conditions
These can be described in terms of hours of work and rest pauses.
a) Hours of work
The number of hours worked daily or weekly and the amount of rest allowed during working
hours are potential sources of improved satisfaction and productivity of employees. Studies have
demonstrated that the longer the workday, the lower the actual production per hour. Employees
adjust longer hours by working at a slower rate.
Work schedules that can be adopted by managers;

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 The four day work week
One way to alter the workload significantly is to reduce it to only four days. This usually
involves 4 days at 10 hours a day. Reports from companies that have adopted a 4 day workweek
have indicated improved job satisfaction, productivity as well as reduced absenteeism.
 Flexible working hours
A more radical change in work scheduling is to let employees decide for themselves when they
will be available for work on a particular day. Industrial psychologists have found out that
workers may not change their habits so much under flex-time. However, employees feel that
having choices of when to arrive and leave enhances their sense of personal freedom.
Flexible working hours seem to be appropriate for jobs like research. In assembly line work flex-
time may be difficult to implement because of a high degree of interdependence among the
workers (long linked technology).
Flex time can also be described in terms of shift work. Shift work is also a temporal condition
that affects many employees in terms of work period i.e. day and night. Many companies are in
operation more than 8 hours a day (some operate around the clock e.g. petrol companies,
hospitals, mass media firms, police, fire fighting departments).
Employees must work in any of the 3 shifts e.g. 7.30am-3 pm, 3pm-11pm and 11 pm-7.00am.
Some companies assign individuals one shift as a permanent basis, while others rotate workers to
different shifts or between shifts.
Research has indicated that some workers are less productive on the night shift than on the day
shift. In addition, workers in the night are prone to make more errors, which may cause serious
accidents. Night shifts also produce physical and psychological defects like fatigue and
emotional exhaustion. Studies have indicated that permanent part time employees may
accomplish as much as much or more than their full time colleagues.
b) Rest pauses
The most urgent reason for companies to provide rest pauses or breaks is that employees take
rests whether or not they are offered. When breaks are authorized, unauthorized breaks decline
although they do not disappear altogether like tardiness. The potential benefits of formal rest
pauses include increased morale, reduced fatigue and boredom, improved attitudes of workers

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towards the employer. When a rest program is introduced, workers may feel that it is an
expression that management has concern for employees.
5. Psychological conditions
These include factors that relate to the nature of the job itself and the impact it has on the
workers’ performance. Jobs designed to be simple that they make no demands on the workers’
intelligence or need for achievement result in boredom, monotony, fatigue and less efficient
production. Employees holding such jobs normally report a higher level of anxiety and
irritability.
Simplified and repetitive jobs or work can lead to a deterioration of the mental function e.g. such
workers are prone to absent mindedness and forgetfulness. In assembly line work, personal value
and meaningfulness of work are destroyed.

Causes of accidents
The human element seems to be responsible for most accidents that occur in organizations.
Factors like the emotional state and attitudes play a big part in causing accidents. However,
conditions of work like the physical environment and the nature of the industry can also
contribute to the occurrence of accidents as explained below;

Conditions in the work environment

These include the physical work environment, hours of work, lighting, temperature, equipment
design etc.
1. The physical environment, this may have modern technology which makes fresh demands on
the workers’ ability or potential. The process of empowering workers to take on new
technology can be a source of accidents.
2. Hours of work, the longer the work day, the more employees are vulnerable to accidents.
Accidents occur because workers are likely to be tired.
3. Lighting, good lighting can lead to reduced accident rates. Accidents are higher in plants
which continue production in poorly lit work rooms.
4. Temperature, accidents increase when temperature varies and particularly when it is very
cold or very hot. Research suggests that older workers are affected by temperature extremes
than their young counterparts.

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5. Equipment design, the design of equipment used on the job has been found to contribute to
accidents. Poor placement of switches and other contacts can lead to accidents e.g. locating a
top button where it is difficult to reach can have grave consequences if a machine must shut
down immediately that is to say if the operator is short yet the switch is at a far distance.
6. Lack of maintenance of machines, where the organization does not carry out regular
maintenance checks on machines, they are likely to be faulty and thus making workers
vulnerable to accidents that these machines may cause.
7. Work overload or work under load, work overload is where employees are given work that is
beyond their stipulated work. They work over and above their designation that is they are
given too many tasks to handle. This causes a lot of fatigue to employees as they become
more tired thus becoming susceptible to accidents. Work under load is vice versa where by
employees have less tasks to handle and in so doing their work becomes monotonous and
they find themselves causing accidents because they do not require a lot of thinking on the
job.

Personal or Human factors

1. Drug abuse, employees with a drinking of alcohol or drug problem are more likely to be
involved in accidents than employees without that problem. This is so because they are
carried away by the drugs end up doing things carelessly thus causing accidents.
2. Health status / state of health, research evidence has shown that employees with poor health
tend to be highly susceptible to accidents. One physical defect relating to accidents is poor
vision; tests have shown that people who have fewer accidents generally have better vision.
Also disease s like epilepsy where an employee gets an attack, they may end up causing
accidents.
3. Fatigue, this comes as a result of being very tired. It causes a decline in production and an
increase in accidents. In a 10 hour workday a sharp rise in accidents in the last 2 hours has
been reported presumably because of fatigue e.g. in heavy industries.
4. Cognitive ability, studies suggest that intelligence is related to accident free behavior.
However, intelligence is related to certain kinds of work for example those requiring a high
degree of judgment as opposed to repetitive manual jobs. Cognitive activities like judgment,

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 information processing and perception are involved in the performance of many types of
jobs. Failure in cognitive function can lead to hazardous eventualities.
5. Work experience, this comes with the years one has spent on the job. A lower level of
employee on-the job experience tends to result in high accident rates. Studies have indicated
a decrease in accidents from the beginning of a new job to two years later.
Health and Safety Management
1. Organizations should start up health and safety committees in places of work to handle
health and safety matters especially in industries which are very prone to accidents. The
committees act as coordinators of safety and health activities.
2. Management should encourage an open door policy which encourages workers to report
Incidencesthat is likely to lead to occupational accidents and diseases. This will encourage
safety representatives to consult with employees on matters affecting their health and safety.
3. There is need for regular maintenance tests to check on the conditions of equipment and also
the premises. This involves work place inspections where inspectors point out conditions or
practices that appear to be hazardous.
4. Recognizing outstanding achievement of employees who have engaged in safe work
practices. This can be done by rewarding them thus motivating them to promote safety and
health.
5. Reporting and analyzing accident trends; this involves keeping records and compiling a
summary of work related injuries and illnesses. This will determine the factors contributing
to the accidents and may reveal what corrections are needed to prevent them from happening
again. The best way to develop preventative and protective measures in future is to find out
what went wrong in the past such that it can be avoided thereafter.
6. Provide protective wears and make sure that employees use protective gears/gadgets when
necessary.
7. Management should communicate to employees. They should tell employees the specific
rules and regulations concerning safe work practices and it can be done through the
supervisors, bulletins, notice boards and employee handbooks i.e. safety rules should be
emphasized in regular meetings and manuals of standard operating procedures.

50
8. There is need for comprehensive safety training for new entrants/recruits. Employers must
engage in safety training through new employee orientations and therefore discipline
employees for failing to comply with safety rules.
9. Encourage employee participation in all aspects of the organization’s safety programs. That
is to say in jointly setting safety standards with management, involvement in designing and
implementing special safety training programs, inclusion in accident investigation and
involvement in establishing safety incentives and rewards.
10. Potentially dangerous areas should be marked and measures taken such that workers know
what could happen or what they must do before they enter such areas.
11. Food at the work place should only be provided in consideration of hygiene and safety.
12. It is important to avoid stress causing work situations because a stressed person is likely to
cause accidents.

WORK STRESS
Stress – the responses our bodies and minds have to the demands placed on them – is a normal
part of life and a normal part of any job. It is generally believed that some stress is okay
(sometimes referred to as "challenge” or "positive stress") but when stress occurs in amounts that
you cannot handle, both mental and physical changes may occur.
Without stress, we wouldn’t meet deadlines, strive to hit sales or production targets, or line up
new clients. Meeting the demands and challenges of a job is part of what makes work interesting
and satisfying, and it’s often what allows people to develop new skills and advance in their
careers. In the workplace, we regularly experience stress-causing situations, react to them with
heightened tension, and then return to a more relaxed state when the crisis, big or small, is
resolved. However, problems occur when stress is so overwhelming or constant that the tension
never abates and we never get to relax. When stress crosses the line from normal to excessive, it
can trigger physical and emotional responses that are harmful to employees and businesses alike.
And unfortunately, for many people “stress” has become synonymous with “work.”

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Signs and symptoms of stress
There are many different signs and symptoms that can indicate when someone is having
difficulty coping with the amount of stress they are experiencing:
Physical: headaches, grinding teeth, clenched jaws, chest pain, shortness of breath, pounding
heart, high blood pressure, muscle aches, indigestion, constipation or diarrhea, increased
perspiration, fatigue, insomnia, frequent illness
Psychosocial: anxiety, irritability, sadness, defensiveness, anger, mood swings, hypersensitivity,
apathy, depression, slowed thinking or racing thoughts; feelings of helplessness, hopelessness, or
of being trapped
Behavioral: overeating or loss of appetite, impatience, quickness to argue, procrastination,
increased use of alcohol or drugs, increased smoking, withdrawal or isolation from others,
neglect of responsibility, poor job performance, poor personal hygiene, change in religious
practices, change in close family relationships

Causes of Stress
In general, the combination of high demands in a job and a low amount of control over the
situation can lead to stress. Stress in the workplace can have many origins or come from one
single event. It can impact on both employees and employers alike.
1. Role in the organization; role conflict (a disparity exists between job requirements or job
demands and employee’s values and expectations, multiple supervisors/managers), role
ambiguity (lack of clarity about responsibilities, expectations, etc)
2. Career development; problems of career development such as when an employee fails to
receive an anticipated promotion may lead to stress. Also if careers aspirations are not
satisfied the resulting frustration can lead to stress. Other factors are under/over-promotion
(consideration for level of competence), job security (fear of redundancy either from
economy, or a lack of tasks or work to do), career development opportunities, overall job
satisfaction, etc.
3. Level of responsibility; taking responsibility for subordinates may be a source of stress for
some managers/supervisors. Responsibilities like evaluating employees for salary, promotion
or termination decisions or managing their outputs on a daily basis can lead to stress.

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4. Individual characteristics; according to scholars, differences in personality and coping style
of the worker are most important factors in predicting job stress although what is stressful for
one person may not be a problem for another.
5. Working conditions; these constitute the physical environment in which one is required to
work and include poor lighting, noise and overcrowding, poor air quality, health and safety
risks (heavy equipment, toxic chemicals).
6. Interpersonal relationships; distant, uncommunicative supervisors, poor performance from
subordinates, office politics, competition, and other conflicts among staff, bullying or
harassment, problems caused by excessive time away from family.
7. Nature of the job; work overload or under load, tedious or meaningless tasks, long hours and
low pay, infrequent rest breaks, unreasonable performance demands. Some jobs are stressful
by definition because they’re physically dangerous (such as firefighting or criminal justice),
involve matters of life and death (emergency functions), or are psychologically demanding
(social work, teaching).
8. Organizational practices; unclear responsibilities or expectations, conflicting job demands,
multiple supervisors, lack of autonomy or participation in decision-making, inefficient
communication patterns, lack of family-friendly policies.
9. Workplace change; fear of layoff, frequent personnel turnover, lack of preparation for
technological changes, poor chances for advancement or promotion, tensions brought about
by greater workplace diversity.

Stress Management
Stress can be managed at 2 levels i.e. individual and organizational levels
1. Organizational Level/ Work specific strategies
a) During selection, management must ensure that an employee’s abilities match the
requirements of the job
b) Improved organizational communication
c) Make use of a goal setting program to clarify job responsibilities and provide clear
performance objectives.
d) Job redesign to increase challenge or reduce the work load and give employees opportunity
to participate in decisions

53
e) Restrict meetings; some meetings are difficult to avoid because they are essential to work
performance but others are wasteful so time spent in such meetings should be reduced.
f) Delegation; management should allow subordinates more autonomy to decide on matters
directly affecting them and their work.
g) Introduce free counseling services
h) Make use of alternative work arrangements for example working in shifts, part time work,
the four day work week, telecommuting, etc.

2. Individual level
a) Social support (accepting support from others); having someone (a friend, workmate or
family) to talk to provides an outlet when stress levels become excessive.
b) Keep a journal; this puts things into perspective. It should help you identify your concerns
and establish a plan for moving forward. You may;
 List the situations that produce stress in your life
 Describe how you cope with each type of stress
 Evaluate your responses i.e. are they productive, appropriate, healthy?
c) Take a break; take some time off your work to calm down. In this time you could read a
magazine, pray, play with a pet, listen to music or develop a hobby for this time like reading
a novel.
d) Nurturing yourself; taking care of your body, mind and spirit can help reduce feelings of
anxiety and frustration that are often related to stress. Practice relaxation techniques, get
enough sleep, exercise, avoid/reduce alcohol intake, etc.
e) Time management; get organized and simplify your life so that work does not overwhelm
you.
f) Massage Therapy; it can have soothing effects, deep relaxation and can improve processes
such as blood circulation.
g) Identify the sources of your stress; knowing what causes your stress can help you cope with it
better.

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 THE NATURE OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS
Introduction
Industrial relations are concerned with the study of all those institutions, processes and principles
that have emerged to regulate the relationship between workers and employers.
Therefore, certain processes must be adopted; principles followed and certain institutions must
be put in place to regulate the labor-management relations.
Institutions that emerge in industrial relations include Trade Unions, Employers Association,
Industrial courts and other international bodies such as the International Labor Organization.
The concept of industrial relations can also be broadened to include the role played by the state.
Processes in industrial relations include Collective Bargaining and Joint Consultation.
Principles include; trust, fairness, power/ authority, influence and collectivism/individualism.
The mutual relationship between labor and management depends on the economic, social and
psychological satisfaction of the two parties.

Perspectives of industrial relations

These attempt to explain the nature, purpose and processes of industrial relations Industrial
relations can be analyzed following certain theoretical perspectives i.e. conflict, unitary, Marxist,
social action and system perspectives, But for the purpose of this lecture focus is put on two
perspectives.
Conflict perspective;
This is the dominant theory in industrial relations. It states that, the organization consists of a
variety of individuals and social groups each having their own social values and pursuing own
interest and objectives. Therefore conflict which is likely to be inevitable occurs in
organizations.
According to this theory, those controlling and managing the enterprise have to accommodate
different values and competing interest within the workers. The theory concludes by stating that
employers and employees are always in conflict, which is an expression of power differences
and struggle between managers and labor.

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Unitary perspective
This perspective emphasizes the cooperative nature between management and workers. It rejects
the view that there is conflict between the managers and employees. The basis of this theory is
that every worker in an organization is an integral and harmonious system existing for a common
purpose. The theory assumes that each employee identifies completely with the aims and
objectives of the organization. The employees are also committed to organizations goal
achievement methods and operations and for this reason there is no conflict of interest between
employers who supply capital and employees who supply labor.
This theory assumes that capital owners and those of labor are joint partners to the common aim
of efficient production, high output and good pay.

The role of industrial relations in organizations

1. Sound industrial relations result in increased productivity through reduced absenteeism.
2. Good industrial relations result in easier collective bargaining on the parts of labor and
management and thus lesser number of disputes and grievances.
3. Management can improve employees working conditions depending on improved industrial
relations.
4. They help government in implementing various laws pertaining to labor i.e. easier
implementation of labor laws.
5. Good industrial relations lead to employee commitment.
6. Sound industrial relations reduce government and international bodies’ interventions in the
affairs of the organization.
7. Organizations with good industrial relations are able to attract and retain quality human
resources.
8. Organizations where management and workers co-exist amicable enjoy the benefits of
improved corporate image.
Causes of poor industrial relations
Sound Industrial relations can only be based on human relations which dictate that human beings
should be treated humanely which includes respect for human dignity, fair dealing and concern
for the human beings physical and social needs. It is also concerned with determination of wages
and conditions of employment.

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Management in many organizations are not sufficiently concerned to ascertain the causes of
inefficiency and unrest because of the Laissez – approach until it is faced with industrial unrests
such as strikes. Causes of poor industrial relations therefore include;
1. Lack of job satisfaction.
This is one of the important causes of poor industrial relations. Modern workers will not work
just for the sake of living or earning money. They are more interested in job satisfaction. Lack of
job satisfaction results in increased absenteeism and high rate of labor turn over.

2. Low level of wages and salaries.

When the wage rate is very low, workers lack motivation to work and this results in poor
industrial relations. High discrimination in wages and incentives may also create a feeling of
inequity in the minds of workers and they become inefficient and ineffective at work.

3. Job insecurity
Refers to lack of long-term employment opportunity in the organization, Workers may not
welcome any change in the structure and composition of jobs however good it may be to increase
productivity. This resistance in change is related to job insecurity.

4. Poor working conditions.

Poor organizational climate often results in poor industrial relations, when members or
employees perceived the organizations as having poor working conditions. Poor conditions
include poor lighting system, poor working facilities and inadequate equipment and tools.

5. Practices of unfair employment termination

When the management is fond of unfairly terminating the employment contract, poor industrial
relations will result. Management is expected to follow laid own procedures in terminating
employee contracts.

6. Lack of managerial human relations

Managers who lack social skills in relating with others can be a source of poor industrial
relations. Workers perceive such managers as unsocial, with poor interpersonal skills, hence poor
human relations.

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Conditions for good/ Successful industrial relations
1. Recognition by employers that employees are part of a team working for a common
objective.
2. Fair redress of employee grievances, such as regarding to working conditions
3. Payment of fair wages and salary as reflected by pay structure.
4. Sufficient communication to keep employees informed about the decisions that affect them.
5. Establishment of an atmosphere of employee participation e.g. through joint committees.
6. Training in industrial relations and human relations to workers, technical staff etc.
7. Avoidance by workers of being influenced unduly by political leaders, staging strikes as a
protest or a publicity for political gain.
8. Proper management of organizational change and development e.g. introduction of
automation.
9. Adequate welfare, health and safety facilities.
10. Empathy; both management and trade unions should develop constructive attitudes towards
each other and work towards organizational objectives. If managers do not fully accept the
union and it also does not have confidence in management, harmonious industrial relations
cannot be expected. Management should recognize the fact that the trade union represents the
interests of workers and the trade union should recognize management expects workers to
add economic value to the organization.
11. Building trust; Human resource managers should remove any kind of distrust by convincing
the trade union about the company’s integrity in dealing with employee issues amicably.
12. Leadership; the management should not discourage the existence of trade unions rather it
should encourage strong union leadership. This is because the union can exert pressure on
workers in improving production and contributing to the success of the enterprise.
Management can make the trade union as a platform for increasing efficiency and
effectiveness of labor.
Conclusion

Sound industrial relations result in increased productivity through reduced absenteeism and labor
turnover, smooth collective bargaining, implementation of labor laws and lesser number of
disputes and grievances.

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Every organization should as a result strive to create /promote good industrial relations in order
to ensure industrial peace. This peace can reduce labor unrest e.g. strikes, work stoppages and
demonstrations. The welfare of the workers is therefore one of the key issues for every employer.
Any betterment of the workers’ conditions must ideally come from the employers down ward s
rather than being forced up by demands from below.

Revision questions
1. Human resource planning is considered as very critical for the success of any company and yet
very difficult to undertake, in line with this statement;
a) Present a case for undertaking HRP in organizations (12 marks)
b) Highlight the likely challenges to be faced by managers when carrying out Human resource
planning (13 marks).
2. a) Examine the different methods of job analysis. (12 marks)
b) What is the rationale for carrying out job analysis? (13 marks)
3. Katwe Metal Workers is one of the fastest growing manufacturing companies in Uganda.
Because of the recent downsizing in most public sector undertakings, each job opening in the
company attracts five times more applications than it did just a few years ago. You would think
that under such circumstances finding employees would be easy, but the wide spread layoffs
made during the downsizing and the need for people to seek new paths have created a glut of less
than qualified applicants.

a) Advise management on different sources of recruitment they can use to handle the recruitment
exercise successfully in such a fragile environment.
b) What selection tools can Katwe Metal Workers use to get the most qualified employees from
the pool of applicants?
4. a) Discuss the common errors in performance appraisal. (10 marks)

b) What are the necessary conditions required in order to have a successful performance
appraisal in an organization? (15 marks)

5. a) Give reasons why organizations should promote employee health and safety in the work
place. (12 marks)

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b) Examine the causes of accidents in an organization. (13 marks)

6. a) What are the causes of poor industrial relations? (12 marks)

b) How can management enhance good industrial relations in the work place? (13 marks)

7. Discuss the external sources of recruitment

8. a) Examine the process of human resource planning in an organization. (12 marks)

b) Discuss the strategies that can be adopted by an organization to address human resource
surplus and shortages. (13 marks)
9. a)Explain the external sources of recruitment (12 marks)
b) Analyze the selection techniques that an organization can use to get the best candidate out of
the many. (13 marks)
10. The human resource manager of MISD is planning to carry out internal training for the
institute, but she is not well conversant with designing the training program.
a) Advice the human resource manager about the various on job training methods that she can
use to have a successful training in the institute. (12 marks)
b) Explain to her, how the institute will benefit from the training. (13 marks)

11. Performance appraisal is a systematic description of employees’ relevant strengths and

weaknesses in line with the set targets. In line with this statement;

a) Examine the methods of performance appraisal. (13 marks)

b) What are the limitations of carrying out performance appraisal? (12 marks)

12. a) Discuss the rationale for employee health and safety in an organization (13 marks)

b) Analyze various ways for enhancing health and safety management (12 marks)
13.a) Examine the causes of poor industrial relations in organization. (12 marks)
b) How can management enhance sound industrial relations in an organization? (13 marks)
14. Describe the role of human resource management in any organization
15. Discuss the challenges of human Resource Management
16. Distinguish between HRM and personnel management
17. Outline the key issues considered when undertaking human resource forecasts.

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18. Explain the strategies that can be adopted by an organization to address human resource
supply and demand discrepancy
19. ‘Accidents at the workplace have a lot to do with the individual on the job. Either it is
because of a mistake made by an individual like forgetting to do a critical aspect of the job or
other factors that are specific to the individual. As such, there is little that an organization can do
to stop accidents and ensure safety at the workplace.’ Comment on the above statement.
20. Discuss the view that a stressed employee is more likely to cause accidents than an employee
who is not stressed. In your discussion, recommend ways of managing stress both at individual
and organizational level.
21. The individuals, groups or institutions are bound together in a social relationship in a
working environment, with social economic objectives and values that often contrast, or even
contradict in the midst of constantly changing social political and economic phenomena thus
leading to industrial unrest.
a) Discuss the possible causes of these conflicts and unrests in organizations.
b) As an industrial relations manager what measures would you put in place to improve
industrial relations?
22. ABC is considering demotion of non-performing senior members of staff, promoting
excellent performers, laying off some security personnel and also transferring some academic
staff from Kampala to the affiliated upcountry centers.
Required:
Provide guidelines to ABC management on how they can effectively conduct the demotions,
promotions, layoffs and transfers of staff.
23. Explain the various forms of internal staff adjustments.
24. a) Using clear examples, differentiate between Salary and wage as used in reward and
compensation.

c) Explain the objectives of remunerating employees in an organization (17 marks)

25. Using clear examples, explain various factors that determine wage and salary establishment
in organizations.

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