1

Lesson - 1

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Functions, Scope, Models, HRM Environment
and Environment Scanning

STRUCTURE
1.0 Objectives
1.1 Introduction, Meaning and Definitions of HRM
1.2 Scope and functions of HRM
1.3 Models of HRM
1.4 HRM Environment and environment scanning.
1.5 Summary
1.6 Glossary
1.7 References
1.8 Further Readings
1.9 Model Questions
1.0 OBJECTIVES
After going through the lesson you should be able to
 understand the meaning and definitions of HRM, it‟s nature and scope
 outline the functions of HRM
 appreciate the Importance of HRM
 make a Comparative analysis HRM and HRD
 have an insight into the HRM practices in India
1.1 INTRODUCTION, MEANING AND DEFINITIONS OF HRM
For any organization to function effectively, it must have resource of men (Human Resource),
money, materials and machinery. The resources by themselves cannot fulfill the objectives of
an organization, they need to be collected, co-ordinate and utilized through human
resources.
Human being is the fundamental resource for making or constructing anything. Today many
experts claim that machines and technology are replacing human resource and minimizing
their role or effort. But even machines and technology have been build by the human aid and
besides companies have been continuously in search for talented, skilled and qualified
professionals to further develop latest machines and technology, which again have to be
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controlled or used by humans to bring out products. Of all the factors of production, human
beings are by far most important resource of the organization. The products manufactured
would not be enough to win the customers. It is the service, support and personal interaction
with the customer that can provide a winning edge to the organization.
Every organization‟s desire is to have skilled and competent people to make their
organization more effective than their competitors. Humans are very important assets for the
organization rather than land and buildings, without employees no activity in the
organization can be done. Machines are meant to produce more goods with good quality but
they should get operated by the human only.
"you must treat your employees with respect and dignity because in the most automated
factory in the world, you need the power of human mind. That is what brings in innovation. If
you want high quality minds to work for you, then you must protect the respect and dignity. "
N.R. Narayana Murthy,
Thus, the effective management of human resources is also vital. Hence, Human Resource
Management (HRM) has emerged as a major function in organisations. Human Resource
Management is the organizational function that deals with issues related to people such
as compensation, hiring, performance management, organization development, safety,
wellness, benefits, employee motivation, communication, administration, and training.
Meaning of HRM
Human Resource Management is the process of recruitment, selection of employee,
providing proper orientation and induction, providing proper training and the developing
skills, assessment of employee (performance of appraisal), providing proper compensation
and benefits, motivating, maintaining proper relations with labour and with trade unions,
maintaining employee‟s safety, welfare and health by complying with labour laws of concern
state or country.
Human: refer to the skilled workforce in the organization.
Resource: refer to limited availability or scarce.
Management: refer to maximize or proper utilization and make best use of limited and a
scarce resource.
Altogether, human resource management is the process of proper and maximize utilization
of available limited skilled workforce. The core purpose of the human resource management
is to make efficient use of existing human resource in the organization.
The scope of Human Resource management encompasses the following activities.
1. Conducting job analyses,
2. Planning personnel needs, and recruitment,
3. Selecting the right people for the job,
4. Orienting and training,
5. Determining and managing wages and salaries,
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6. Providing benefits and incentives,

7. Appraising performance,
8. Resolving disputes,
9. Communicating with all employees at all levels. Formerly called personnel management.
10. Maintaining awareness of and compliance with local, state and federal labor laws.
11.These are also called as functions of human resource management for the purpose of
effect you utilization of human resource.
Defining HRM
Many scholars had defined human resource management in different ways and with different
words, but the core meaning of the human resource management deals with how to manage
people or employees in the organization.
Edwin Flippo defines- HRM as “planning, organizing, directing, controlling of procurement,
development, compensation, integration, maintenance and separation of human resources to
the end that individual, organizational and social objectives are achieved.”
The National Institute of Personal Management (NIPM) of India has defined human
resources – personal management as “that part of management which is concerned with
people at work and with their relationship within an enterprise. Its aim is to bring together
and develop into an effective organization of the men and women who make up enterprise
and having regard for the well – being of the individuals and of working groups, to enable
them to make their best contribution to its success”.
Boxall and Purcell's HRM refers to:"... all those activities associated with the management of
the employment relationship in the firm. The term 'employee relations' will be used as an
equivalent terms as will the term 'labour management'."
1.2 SCOPE AND FUNCTIONS OF HRM
In order to realize above outlined objectives HRM must perform certain functions. These
functions were stated while outlining the scope of HRM. Following paragraphs provide a brief
description of these functions:
1. Manpower planning: Man power planning is concerned with dealing with shortage and
surpluses of manpower in the organization keeping in view present goals of the organization
and future plans of the organizations - it covers:
a) Assessment of manpower needs including forecasting such needs based on the analysis
of the policies of the company, trends of its development, plans for expansion and
diversification etc.
b) Manpower audit is to evaluate whether the skills and competences of existing manpower
linked to the organization‟s goals and strategies or if there is under or over staffing in the
organization.
The Manpower requirements must be assessed objectively keeping in future plans, existing
labour turnover, retirements spin offs, transfer etc.
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2. Planned recruitment and selection: Recruitment is the process of exploring or searching

for prospective employees and providing them stimulus to apply for specific job in an
organization through various sources. Recruitment helps in the creation of a pool of available
labour force to meet additional needs of manpower of an organization in the requisite number
as and when they require it.
Selection on the other hand is a screening procedure to select most appropriate employee for
the job. Different organizations use different methods of screening depending upon job
description available. Selection helps an organization appoint best employee for the
organization.
3. Performance appraisal and feedback – Performance appraisal and providing timely and
continuous feedback to the employee about their effectiveness is an important HRM function.
This mechanism helps an employee identify his growth needs and redefine his future goals.
HRM should ensure a participative mode of performance appraisal. Such an open objective
and participative appraisal and feedback mechanism will help develop better superior-
subordinate relations, will help in the award of promotions, incentives and trainings to the
employees.
4. Training and Development: One of the important functions of HRM is to provide training
and development to its employees to effect -
(a) Improved performance of the employee on his present job.
(b) Preparation of the employee for related jobs and future prospects
(c) General growth of the employee to assume greater responsibility in future.
Training and development is provided to the employees in three basic areas: -
(a) Technical (Skill enhancement)
(b) Behavioral and (Behaviour modification)
(c) Conceptual (Knowledge area)
All these three areas help an employee become useful for the organization, family and the
society at large.
5. Potential appraisal and promotion: Another important function of HRM is potential
appraisal which is concerned with identifying the potential of an employee for future
development and promotion in the organization. Performance appraisal on the present job of
an employee in no guarantee of success or failure of the employee on next job. So potential
appraisal focuses on finding out those critical attributes in a employee which are needed for
higher job positions and based on these attributes an employee is promoted. Hence
promotion under HRM is based on possession of critical attributes and not performance on
the present job.
6. Career management: Today‟s employee is more aware and concerned about his future
prospects he believes in career planning and development to achieve his career goals. It may
therefore, be useful to help new employees become aware of their specific career path.
Necessary help may also be given to the employees through training and development to
make them ready for future job positions. Such career management initiatives by the
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organization help retain employees in the organization for longer time duration at the same
time fulfilling their career aspirations.
7. Employee compensation and reward- HRM should ensure that employee compensation
is based on job analysis. Job description or job specification should assess the worth of job
and accordingly. The salary structure should be based upon those characteristic features of
a job. Salary structure should assess an employee upon those characteristic features of the
job. However, the reward system should be fair, equitable and based on the performance of
an employee on the job and not his attributes like educational qualification, past experience
and closeness to his superior. Employee remuneration structure should be such that it
motivates employees to achieve the goals.
8. Quality of work life and employee – A good remuneration system is not enough to
attract motivate and retain employees in the organization. A congenial working environment,
good physical conditions and motivating work are equally essential for employee welfare.
Though several laws have been enacted by the government for ensuring a quality of work life
and employee welfare, yet HRM function should go a step further to enhance the moral of its
employees by providing conducive work environment to the employees.
9. Worker‟s participation in strategies decision making - One of the important functions
of HRM is ensure that worker are given adequate opportunity of representation in all matters
affecting them and the organization. Issues like employee welfare, employee training,
absenteeism, high labour turnover, wage and salary settlement and employee grievances etc.
must be settled through participatory mode. Worker participation in such issues ensure
better understanding among employer – employee and higher productivity for the
organization.
10. Communication- Free flow of desired information at all levels ensure good governance
and transparent management. Similarly, suggestions and new ides of the employee should
reach top level for evaluation, acceptance and implementation. Communication is
necessary
(a) to provide the information and understanding necessary for group effort i.e. skill to
work and
(b) to provide the attitude necessary for motivation, cooperation and job satisfaction i.e.
will to work.
Communication is needed to build linkages of the organization with the outside world
compressing government, clients, customers etc.
11. Counseling and Mentoring- HRM also aims at providing timely guidance to workers on
problems relating to hand and heart. Many organizations employ trained counselors for the
employee‟s guidance. Senior employees can also act as mentors to the employees to help
them decided their career growth path.
12. Role analysis and role development - This is an extremely important function of HRM.
Under this the job of an individual in the organization is analyzed and enriched in terms of
his role and not in terms of his job. It is ensured that a role is sufficiently challenging for the
employee so that he is able to explore his potential. He should be given adequate autonomy
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for taking imitative. His role should be integrated with other organizational role to give him a
feeling of importance and association. Job enrichment signifies efforts to make a job more
motivating for the employees.
13. Industrial relations- Good and healthy industrial relations based on mutual trust helps
in the effective implementation of polices and plans of HRM. Industrial relations are a
catalytic force that plays vital role in facilitating or inhibiting the impact of all other functions
of HRM.
14. Data storage and research- Data storage and research in an essential function of HRM.
It is required to
(a) Preserve systematic information about every individual employee on various topics
like personal characteristics, performance potential, promotions, salary, leave
records etc.
(b) To serve as a basis for research on employee problems.
(c) To identify appropriate interventions for improving the utilization of human
resources.
(d) To use the data for employee counseling, career planning, training, promotion etc.
The date needed by HRM is collected in four stages.
(a) Choosing the type of data to be collected.
(b) Deciding how to edit data to make it useful for HRM
(c) Deciding the method of data collection.
(d) Holding workshops/ seminars for employees to discuss the results and
identifying the areas where actions is needed.
In large organizations, such data is computerized for easy and quick retrieval and continued
updating.
1.3 MODELS OF HRM
The debate about HRM could be regarded as an outcome of the current interest in corporate
and business strategy. Strategic management has assumed an overwhelming significance
among practitioners partly as a result of being heavily promoted in the management
literature (Peters, 1988; Peters and Waterman, 1982). Mintzberg (1978) and Porter (1985)
have also contributed to the populism of the concept of strategy in the HR lexicon.
The following 4 models of HRM have been discussed below in order to understand the
importance of HRM in the strategy formulation of the organization.
1. The Harvard model of HRM.
2. The Michigan model of HRM.
3. The guest model of HRM
4. The John storey model of HRM.
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1. THE HARVARD MODEL (BEER ET AL., 1985)

Arguments given in related research are that a firm‟s current and potential human resources
are important considerations in the development and execution of its strategic business plan.
This literature, although largely conceptual, concludes that HRD practices can help create a
source of sustained competitive advantage.
The Harvard model is The Harvard model is conceived as an analytical framework which is
conceived as an analytical
framework which is premised on the view that if general managers develop a viewpoint of
premised on the view that how they wish to see employees involved in and developed by the
if general managers
develop a viewpoint of enterprise, they would solve most of the problems of HR. See figure 1
how they wish to see below.
employees involved in
and developed by the Compared to the matching model, this model is termed as the „soft
enterprise, they would
solve most of the variant.‟
problems of HR.
It stresses on the human aspect of HR and is more concerned with
employer-employee relationship.
It also highlights the interests of different stakeholders in the
organization,
This model allows for multi-level analysis of these outcomes. It can
provide a useful basis for comparative analysis of HRM (Poole,
1990). Such an approach is completely missing in the matching
model. The main criticism of this model is that it does not explain
the extensive relationship between strategic management and
HRM (Guest, 1991).
The Harvard model acknowledges the existence of multiple
stakeholders within the organization.
These multiple stakeholders include shareholders various groups of
employees, government and the community at large.
The recognition of the legitimacy of these multiple stakeholders
renders this model a neo - pluralist model.
This model emphasizes more on the human/soft side of HRM.
Basically, this is because this model emphasizes more on the fact that
employees like any other shareholder are equally important in
influencing organizational outcomes.
In fact, the interest of the various groups must be fused and factored
in the creation of HRM strategies and ultimately the creation of
business strategies.
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The Harvard Framework for HRM

Stakeholder interests
Shareholders
Management HRM policies HRM outcomes Long-term
Employee group Employee consequences
Government Commitment
influence Competence Individual well-
Community being
Human Congruence
resource flow Cost- Organizational
Reward effectiveness effectiveness
system Societal well-
Situational factors Work systems being
Workforce
characteristics
Business strategy
and conditions
Management
philosophy
Labour market
Unions
Tasks technology
Law & societal
values

Figure 1: The Harvard Model

A critical analysis of the model shows that it is deeply rooted in
the human relations tradition.
Employee influence is recognised through people motivation
and the development of an organization culture based on
mutual trust and team work.
The factors above must be factored into the HR strategy which
is premised on employee influences, HR flows, reward system
etc.
The outcomes from such a set up are soft in nature as they
include high congruence, commitment, competencies etc.
The achievement of the crucial HR outcomes has got an impact
on long term consequences, increased productivity,
organizational effectiveness which will in turn influence
shareholder interests and situational factors hence making it a
cycle.
It is thus important to note that the Harvard model is premised on the belief that it is
the organization‟s human resources that give competitive advantage through treating
them as assets and not costs.
Michigan model is based
on the “product market The Michigan model was propounded by Fombrun Tichy and
logic” which demands that Devanna (1984) at the Michigan Business School. (Evans and Lorange,
to gain high profits labour
must be obtained cheaply, 1989) argue that the Michigan model is based on the “product market
used sparingly, developed logic” which demands that to gain high profits labour must be obtained
and exploited fully.
cheaply, used sparingly, developed and exploited fully. (figure 2 )
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This model is based on the paradigms developed by Chandler (1962)

and Galbraith and Nathanson (1978). It is argued that an organization‟s
structure is an outcome of its strategy (Chandler, 1962). This argument
was extended by linking different personnel functions such as career
paths, rewards, and leadership styles to the organization‟s mission
(Galbraith and Nathanson, 1978).
They also named this model a matching model of HRM.
Precisely, the matching aspect of this model demonstrates that the
model is inclined towards the harder side of HRM.
This is because the matching model emphaizes more on “tight fit”
between the HR strategy and the buisness strategy.
It demands that available human resources must be matched with
jobs in the organization.
The HR strategy must be highly calculative in terms of the
quantity of the human resources required to achieve the objectives
enshrined in the business strategy.
Business strategy takes the central stage in this model hence human
resources are taken like any other resource which must be fully
utilised together with the other resoruces to achieve organizational
objectives.
The Matching model has been criticized as being too prescriptive
by nature mainly due to the fact that its assumptions are too unitarist
(Boxall, 1992).
It emphasizes a „tight fit‟ between organizational strategy and HR
strategies and, while doing so, completely ignores the interest of
employees and hence considers HR as a totally passive, reactive,
and implementationist function.
The model‟s emphasis on tight fit makes the organization inflexible
and incapable of adapting to the required changes and hence is a
„misfit‟ in today‟s dynamic business environment. The very idea of
the model to consider and use human resources like any other
resources in an organization seems unpragmatic as it misses the
human aspect.
Despite many criticisms, the matching model provides a good
framework to theory development in the field of HRM. It also
provides a promising schema to look at the HR practices in
universal and generic term.
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Political Forces

Economic Forces Cultural Forces

Business
Strategy

Organizational HR Strategy
structure

Figure :2 The Matching Model of HRM

The point of departure in the Michigan Model is the pre-eminence and
pre-dominance of a business strategy, which must strictly be achieved by
the available resources regardless of whether, they are able to do so or
not.
In fact the business strategy must be achieved through minimum
labour costs enhanced by structural re-organization, Performance
Related Pay and staff reduction.
The Harvard model (Beer et al., 1985) stresses on the developmental aspects of HR and the
Michigan model or the „matching model‟ (Fombrun, Tichy and Devanna, 1984) emphasizes its
utilitarian/instrumental functions in the achievement of managerial objectives.
3. THE GUEST MODEL

Guest proposes 4 crucial The Guest model was propounded by David Guest in 1987.This model
components that under- is a fusion of aspects that resemble both a hard and a soft approach of
pin organizational effect-
tiveness. HRM. Guest proposes 4 crucial components that underpin organizational
1. Strategic Integration effectiveness. (Figure 3 )
2. Flexibility
3. High Commitment These 4 crucial components are:
4. Quality
1. Strategic Integration: This model calls for the ability of
organizations to maintain a fit between the HRM strategy and the
business strategy to enable it to achieve its goals. Strategic integration
shows the harder side of the Guest Model. This is precisely because
human resources are treated in a similar manner like any other resource
with the prime goal of achieving business objectives. Hence this runs the
risk of the labor being exploited due to excessive usage as they are
treated as any other source of production only.
2. Flexibility: It is basically concerned with the ability of the
organization and its people to adapt to the changing business and work
environment and to the capacity to manage innovation. Flexibility can be
numeric, functional, pay, distancing Flexibility carries both connotations
of hard and soft HRM. Hard HRM for example can be seen through
numeric flexibility where employees are employed only when their
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production is required and when their labor is not required, they are
discharged. This can be exemplified through seasoned work. Flexibility
can also show the soft side of HRM through the same example given
above.
Flexibility in this case is not only concerned with the need to achieve
business objectives but also the need to treat its employees as fairly as
possible.
3. High Commitment: This is concerned with the need to have both
behavioral commitment, which is the ability to go an extra mile, and
attitudinal commitment, which is reflected through a strong
identification with the organization.
4. Quality: This is based on the assumption that provision of high-
quality goods and services results from a quality way of managing people.

Organization Effectiveness

Strategic Integration High Commitment Quality Flexibility

Figure 3: Guest model of HR

4. JOHN STOREY MODEL
John Storey (1989) emerged to be one of the strongest proponents of
HRM as a completely different discipline from the preceding disciplines
embraced by the TPM approach. He believed that HRM is a holistic
approach with a set of interrelated policies with an ideological and
philosophical underpinning.
Because of these ideological and philosophical aspects, HRM does not
only stand distinctively outstanding from TPM but also emerges to be a
much more humane approach to employment management.
The model by John Storey is based on four aspects.
The model by John Storey
is based on four aspects. 1. Beliefs and Assumptions
1. Beliefs and Assump-
tions The model is premised on the notion that HRM is based on a set of
2. Strategic Qualities beliefs and assumptions, which makes it a distinctive approach.
3. Role of Line Managers
4. Key Levers Fundamentally it is believed that it is the human resource among all
the other factors of production, which gives the difference.
Successful organizations are distinguished from the rest by the
capabilities and commitment of the people who work for them.
It is therefore imperative that the human resource ought to be treated
with great care and nurtured as valuable assets.
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Finally, it is believed that the employment relationship is based on

commitment and not compliance.
2. Strategic Qualities
HRM is further distinguished by the fact that it is strategic in nature
and therefore requires the attention of senior management and top
executives.
The above-mentioned assumption stems from the first belief that the
human resource is the most important source of competitive advantage.
HR Policies are too important to be a product of prescribed best
professional practice only. In fact, they must be sensitive to the demands
of the competitive business environment, business strategy and the HR
strategy.
3. Role of Line Managers
Line managers have a very important role to play in people
management.
It is clear from the HRM philosophy that people management is too
important to be left to operational personnel specialists.
Fundamentally, the importance of line managers is seen through the
strong link that exists between them and their respective subordinates or
employees.
4. Key Levers
There is a strong belief that culture management is important than
managing Procedures and systems as it brings consensus on overall
organizational values, beliefs and assumptions. Culture management is
also believed to be essential in flexibility and commitment. It also
requires integrated action on all HRM policies restructuring and job
redesign to allow developed responsibility and empowerment.
1.4 HRM ENVIRONMENT AND ENVIRONMENT SCANNING
The environment in which HR profession functions is very difficult from past. Today‟s
environment is characterized by change and intense competition. Under such a dynamic
environment HRM should be proactive and not remain reactive to the environment
forces. Those forces are political, legal, economies, technological, cultural, union-
management relations, organizational culture, professional bodies etc.
1. Political legal environment: In a democratic setup, the legislative, executives and
the judiciary constitute total political setup. The interface between political environment
and labour takes place through enactment of various laws. Various activities of HRM
resolve around these laws. For example, recruitment selection compensation etc are all
conditioned by constitutionals provisions. But extra constitutional powers and pressures
restrict the way the employees are hired, placed and trained in an organization.
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2. Economic Environment: All the factors that affect the supply of human resources
to an organization are covered under economic environment. Employment exchanges,
Schools, Colleges, Universities, ITI‟s, Consulting firms are all suppliers of human
resources to an organization. The type and quality of human resources received by an
organization depends upon these suppliers. The education system, skill development
initiations in these institutes will in turn decide the quality of human resources available
for recruitment. The extent of competition in attracting, selecting and retaining human
resources is yet another challenge for an organization. The organization offering most
attractive terms & conditions of employment will get the talent. Rest all organizations will
have to groom their own employees to fit the position of skill and responsibility. The
degree of economic growth in an economy affects the quality of labour/human resources.
In a developed economy, considerable allocation is made in health and education sector.
As such the quality of labour in terms of skill and productivity is much more in
developed countries as compared to developing or underdeveloped countries. Recruiting
skilled labour in the face of technological changes in a challenge before HR department.
3. Technological environment: Technology is changing every day. Technology has
changed the way the business is conducted. Technology has helped to discover new
materials to substitute existing ones, introduce machines to do work for humans,
substitute mental work with computers etc. In the light of such changes, supply of
skilled labour, dislocation of workers is staring at the face of organizations. Changed
labour management relations in such a scenario is inevitable. Technological changes
force an organization to replace old machine with new, latest and updated machines
which in turn demands training old labour for new technology. All this can happen with
increased cost.
4. Cultural environment.: Culture refers to the complex whole including knowledge,
belief, art, laws, customs and other capabilities and habits acquired by an individual as a
member of a society.
The culture is different is for different societies. The culture influences HR function as
follows-
- Culture trains people along a particular line which puts a personality stamp upon
them.
- The attitude of workers towards work is the result of their culture background.
- Work ethics, achievement needs and effort reward expectations of an
individual are also theresult of culture.
- Culture makes people confined to certain occupations and regions.
Bringing about a personality change in people with diverse backgrounds and align them all
withorganizational goals is a big challenge for HRM.
5. Global business environment.: The world around us has changed. The economic,
business, social and cultural environment has changed organization are no longer governed
by the business legal and political environment of their nation only. Any environmental
change in one country affects business decisions and performance of other firms in other
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countries. The global wave has brought about a transformation in the HR function and the
roles and responsibilities of HR professionals. This change can be classified broadly into
four categories:
(1) Change in business environment – Three major changes in business environment
includes:
(a) Globalization and intense international and national competition. As the
organizations are becoming global it requires employees who can adapt to
different cultures, customs, social practices, values and systems and who can
work with other employees from different back grounds. HR executives here
face the challenge of developing systems that will help employees to adjust well
in globally diverse environment also. The HR executive has to ensure that
employees with required knowledge, skill, competencies are available to handle
international assignments.
(b) Mergers and acquisitions- Mergers and acquisitions is the latest tool used by
business houses to makes their presence felt in other parts of the world.
However, such processes create problems of retrenchment of staff due to
rationalization of operations, so when an organization is negotiating a deal of
merger or of acquisition the employees are subjected to the fear of
retrenchment. This results in law morale and productivity among the
employees. Employees start looking for alternative jobs and may leave the
organization voluntarily. There may be chances of organizational conflict as
each employee tries to protect his/ her own job.
(c) Downsizing- Technology and IT has made certain processes obsolete. The new
cost- efficient structures and processes are likely to make some employees
redundant. HR executive has to play a very important role during
organizational downsizings. The main challenge resulting from downsizing is to
manage the organizational relationship with the survivors. The morale and
productivity is generally low among employees during this period
. Employees are anxious about their job security. Here HR executive need to re-
establish morale and motivation following the layoff. The organization may
provide the services of HR consultancy firms to help relocate the employees.
(2) Change in the nature/ timings of work- During industrialization and machine
age, most jobs were related in the manufacturing sector. However, during 1991-2010 the
order has revered. Service sector is growing at a much faster rate as compared to a
manufacturing. As much the skill requirements of work force have changed. As the job
are created in service sector, more and more employees have joined the race to acquire
IT and ITES related skills. As such, the availability of skilled manpower in other sectors
in adversely affected.
The technological advancements have further altered the way organizations and
people work. E- business, virtual organizations, 24x7 work culture has put lot of
pressure on people. People work at work place and also take work home to do
extra work. Emails, mobile, video- conferencing ensure that everyone is in the
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loop always. Employees think that if they do not work extra, they might lose
their jobs. This competitive business environment has increased competitive
pressure on employees.HR manager is therefore faced with the challenge of
providing less stressful environment to its employees to help him balance work-
life demands and enhance employee‟s productivity and creativity.
Flexibility in working hours, work from home, tele working or distance working
have all changed the concept of fixed work timings. The line between work and
non-work time has blurred. More workers complain of personal conflicts and
stress. HR manager has to develop an environment where employees acquire
necessary skills to meet technological advancements and work in a stress-free
environment.
(3) Change in demography of workers – As the organizations have become global,
there is a revolutionary change in the composition of employees w.r.t. age, education,
gender, back ground, culture, race etc. This diverse work force differs in their attitude
towards works.HR manager, therefore must understand the expectations and
aspirations of all these employees and customize strategies for hiring, retaining and
motivating employees belonging to different back grounds. HR has in fact become more
complex today.
As the fertility rate declines across the world, there will be shortage of working
population in the long term. But India has higher fertility rate as compared to other
countries, so India will be a part of a group of emerging markets that will have a surplus
working population by 2020. In such a scenario, more jobs must be created to negate
the ill effects of unemployment and low per capita income.
Even though there is an increase in the working population in Indian, demand for
skill labour is higher than its supply. There are not enough skilled people to fill all the
position available because of the poor education index. If this index continues to be poor,
India will continue to be short of skilled workers and will not be able to capitalize on
her demography dividend. It is therefore, a challenge forthe HR manager to ensure the
availability of skilled talent to fulfill the needs of the firms. Many firms are adopting
innovative and proactive measures to tackle skill deficit problems by establishing
industry- institute interaction cells.
During the last decade the world‟s ageing population has increased because of a
rise in life expectancy and of improvement in health care. This has in turn increased the
number of older workers in the labour force. This has affected the retirement policies of
organizations.
Yet another problem relates to skill-based immigration in countries like India and
China. Developed countries have large ageing population and may not have the skills
required when the nature of job changes due to technological advancements. These
economies require workers from countries which are growing economics. So growing
economies became the supplier of skilled manpower. For example, 40% of IIT graduates
move abroad every year resulting in skill-based immigration.
Growing number of women workers and increase in the number of nuclear
 16

families has posed a challenge to HR executives to develop strategies to attract, retain

and train women workers in an organization.
Changing nature of employee- employer relationship- In the traditional employment
relationship, job security, career advancement within the firm and pay increases were used
to build employee commitment. However, new employment relationships require several new
characteristics to build employee commitment, like two way communication, participative
decision making, fair treatment meaningful and challenging work etc. These approaches for
generating employee commitment require sustained efforts on the part of HR managers to
consider mutual investment employment relationship as a competitive tool and design. HR
practices to realize competitive advantages.
Self-Assessment Questions

Discuss the HR practices in your organization

………………………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………..………………………………………………………………………………
Which ones do you think needs improvement? Outline.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Delineate the best HR practices of your organization.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Which of the 4 models of HRM do you think is practiced in your organization?
Explain.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………………………

1.5 SUMMARY
HRM is an integral function of any organization encompassing planning organizing directing
and controlling of the procurement, development, compensation integration, maintenance
and separation of human resources to the end that individual, organizational and social
objectives are accomplished.
HRM is a management function that helps managers recruit select train and develop
members of an organization. It is a process of acquiring, training, apprising and
compensation of employees, and of attending to their labour relating, health, safety and
fairness concerns. It includes policies and practices involved in carrying out the „people‟ or
human resource aspects of a management position including recruiting screening, training,
rewarding and appraising.
 17

Four significant models of HRM have been discussed ; The Harvard model is conceived as an
analytical framework which is premised on the view that if general managers develop a
viewpoint of how they wish to see employees involved in and developed by the enterprise,
they would solve most of the problems of HR., the Michigan model is based on the “product
market logic” which demands that to gain high profits labour must be obtained cheaply, used
sparingly, developed and exploited fully.,Guest model of HRM proposes 4 crucial components
that under-pin organizational effectiveness as 1. Strategic Integration 2. Flexibility 3. High
Commitment and 4. Quality. John storey model of HRM is based on four aspects.1. Beliefs
and Assump-tions2. Strategic Qualities3. Role of Line Manager 4. Key Levers
With change in technology and globalization, the HR managers are facing newer challenges.
Now they need to devise HR policies keeping in view the requirements of the business,
competition, work force and technology.
1.6 GLOSSARY
Human Resource Management: it is an integral function of any organization encompassing
planning organizing directing and controlling of the procurement, development,
compensation integration, maintenance and separation of human resources to the end that
individual, organizational and social objectives are accomplished.
Harvard model of HRM.: The Harvard model is conceived as an analytical framework which
is premised on the view that if general managers develop a viewpoint of how they wish to see
employees involved in and developed by the enterprise, they would solve most of the
problems of HR.
Michigan model of HRM.: Michigan model is based on the “product market logic” which
demands that to gain high profits labour must be obtained cheaply, used sparingly,
developed and exploited fully.
Guest model of HRM : Guest proposes 4 crucial components that under-pin organizational
effect-tiveness.
1. Strategic Integration
2. Flexibility
3. High Commitment
4. Quality
John storey model of HRM. The model by John Storey is based on four aspects.
1. Beliefs and Assumptions
2. Strategic Qualities
3. Role of Line Managers
4. Key Levers
1.7 REFERENCES
1. David A. Decenzo and Stephen P. Robbins, ”Personnel/Human Resource
Management”,Prentice hall of India, 1989
 18

2. William B Werther and Keith Davis, “Human Resources and Personnel Management”,
The TataMcGraw Hill, 1993
3. Virmani, B R and Seth Premila,” Evaluating Management Training and
Development”, VisionBooks, New Delhi 1985
4. Greer Charles R.,” Strategic Human Resource management” Pearson, 2002
5. Chopra, Rakesh K, “Management of Human Resources”, V K Publishing House 1989
6. Flippo, Edwin B,” Personnel Management” , McGraw Hill, New York 1984
1.8 FURTHER READINGS
1. Chhabra, T.N, “Human Resource Management-concepts and issues”, Dhan Patrai & Co
2012
2. AswathAppa, K,” Human Resource Management”, The Tata McGraw Hill companies
2008
1.9 MODEL QUESTIONS
1. Define HRM, outlining its scope and functions.
2. Compare and contrast the Harvard model with the Michigan model of HRM. Which one
do you think is best applicable in today‟s time and why? Explain.
3. Critically evaluate and discuss the various models of HRM. How far do you think they
are relevant in today‟s times? Give your viewpoint.
4. What is the impact of business environment on human resource management
practices for an organization? Discuss.
 19

Lesson - 2

HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING

STRUCTURE
2.0 Objectives
2.1 Introduction, Meaning, Definition of Human Resource Planning
2.2 Need and importance for HR Planning
2.3 Process of Human Resource Planning
2.3.1 Forecasting Demand for Employees, Methods of human resource planning
2.3.2 Forecasting Supply for Employees and
2.3.3 Balancing Supply and Demand
2.4 Functions of HR planning
2.5 Types and Levels of Human Resource Planning
2.6 Benefits, Problems and Suggestions for Making HR Planning Effective
2.7 Summary
2.8 Glossary
2.9 References
2.10 Further Readings
2.11 Model Questions
2.0 OBJECTIVES
After going through the lesson, you should be able to;
 comprehend the meaning and definition of Human Resource Planning,
 gain insight into the need and importance of HRP
 understand the process of HRP,
 explain the demand, supply forecasting and balancing the demand and supply
considerations
 find out the benefits, problems engulfing HRP and suggestions for making HR
planning effective,
 appreciate the process of succession planning for an organization
2.1 INTRODUCTION, MEANING, DEFINITION OF HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING
Human resources planning is a process that identifies current and future human resources
needs for an organization to achieve its goals. Human resources planning should serve as a
 20

link between human resources management and the overall strategic plan of an organization.
Aging worker populations in most western countries and growing demands for qualified
workers in developing economies have underscored the importance of effective Human
Resources Planning.
As defined by Bulla and Scott, human resource planning is ‘the process for ensuring that
the human resource requirements of an organization are identified and plans are made for
satisfying those requirements.
Reilly defined workforce planning as: ‘A process in which an organization attempts to
estimate the demand for labour and evaluate the size, nature and sources of supply which
will be required to meet the demand.
Human resource planning includes creating an employer brand, retention strategy, absence
management strategy, flexibility strategy, talent management strategy, and recruitment and
selection strategy.
2.2 NEED AND IMPORTANCE FOR HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING
The need for manpower planning is necessitated due to following reasons
To meet up requirements of the organisation: To do work in the organisation, every
organisation needs personnel of desired skill, knowledge and experience. These human
resources requirement of organisation can be effectively fulfilled through proper human
resource planning. It helps in defining the number of personnel as well as kind of personnel
required to satisfy its needs. It ensures the reservoir of desired human resources as and
when required.
1. Counterbalance insecurity and change: There must be proper utilisation of human and
non-human resources in the organisation. Sometimes the organisation may have
adequate non-human resources e.g., machines, materials and money but inadequate
human resources as a result, manufacturing process/production cannot be started.
Human resource planning helps to offset uncertainties and changes as far as possible
and enables to ensure availability of human resources of the right kind, at right time and
at right place.
2. It helps in checking labour imbalance: Human resource planning helps to anticipate
shortages and/or surpluses of manpower in the organisation. The shortage of manpower
as well as surplus of manpower is not good for the organisation. It proves very expensive
for the organisation. In case of shortage of human resources, physical resources of the
organisation cannot be properly utilized. In case of surplus of human resources, this
resource may remain under-utilized It helps in counter balancing the problem of
shortage and surplus employees very comfortably. Human resource planning helps in
correcting this imbalance before it become unmanageable and expensive.
3. Right-sizing the human resource requirements of the organisation: In an existing
organisation, there is a constant need for right-sizing the organisation. In the
organisation, some posts may fall vacant as a result of retirement, accidents,
resignations, promotions or death of employees. Consequently, there is constant need of
replacing people. Human resource planning estimates future requirements of the
 21

organisation and helps to ensure that human resources of right kind, right number, in
right time and right place.
4. To meet expansion and diversification needs of the organisation: It helps to execute
future plans of the organisation regarding expansion, diversification and modernization.
Through human resource planning it is ensured that employees in right number and of
right kind are available when required to meet these needs of the organisation. It ensures
that people of desired skills and knowledge are available to handle the challenging job
requirements.
5. Training and Development of Employees: There is constant need of training and
development of employees as a result of changing requirements of the organisation. It
provides scope for advancement and development of employees through training and
development etc. Thus, it helps in meeting the future needs of the organisation of highly
skilled employees.
6. Fulfil Individual Needs of the Employees: It helps to satisfy the individual needs of the
employees for promotions, transfer, salary encashment, better benefits etc.
7. Helps Formulation of Budgets: It helps in anticipating the cost of human resources e.g.,
salary and other benefits etc. It facilitates the formulation of human resource budget for
various departments/divisions of the organisation. So, it may also help in, the
formulation of suitable budgets in an organisation.
8. To Check Joblessness: In the exercise of right-sizing of employees by the organisation,
some of the employees may become surplus. It means their services are no more required
in the organisation. It tries to foresee the need for redundancy. It plans to check job loss
or to provide for alternative employment in consultation with various concerned parties
and authorities.
Human resource planning aims at fulfilling the objectives of manpower requirement. It helps
to mobilize the recruited resources for the productive activities. The human resource
planning is an important process aiming to link business strategy and its operation.
The importance of human resource planning is as follows:
1. Future Manpower Needs
Human resource planning ensures that people are available to provide the continued smooth
operation of an organization. It means, human resource planning is regarded as a tool to
assure the future availability of manpower to carry on the organizational activities. It
determines the future needs of manpower in terms of number and kind.
2. Coping with Change
Human resource planning is important to cope with the change associated with the external
environmental factors. It helps assess the current human resources through HR inventory
and adapts it to changing technological, political, socio-cultural, and economic forces.
 22

3. Recruitment of Talented Personnel

Another purpose of HR planning is to recruit and select the most capable personnel to fill job
vacancies. It determines human resource needs, assesses the available HR inventory level
and finally recruit the personnel needed to perform the job.
4. Development of Human Resources
Human resource planning identifies the skill requirements for various levels of jobs. Then it
organizes various training and development campaigns to impart the required skill and
ability in employees to perform the task efficiently and effectively.
5. Proper Utilization of Human Resources
Human resource planning measures that the organization acquires and utilizes the
manpower effectively to achieve objectives. Human resource planning helps in assessing and
recruiting skilled human resource. It focuses on the optimum utilization of human resource
to minimize the overall cost of production.
6. Uncertainty Reduction
This is associated with reducing the impact of uncertainty which are brought by un-sudden
changes in processes and procedures of human resource management in the organization
2.3 THE PROCESS OF HRP
Human resource planning is a process through which the company anticipates future
business and environmental forces. Human resources planning assesses the manpower
requirement for future period of time. It attempts to provide sufficient manpower required to
perform organizational activities. HR planning is a continuous process which starts with
identification of HR objectives, move through analysis of manpower resources and ends at
appraisal of HR planning. Following are the major steps involved in human resource
planning:
1. Assessing Human Resources
The assessment of HR begins with environmental analysis, under which the external (PEST)
and internal (objectives, resources and structure) are analyzed to assess the currently
available HR inventory level. After the analysis of external and internal forces of the
organization, it will be easier for HR manager to find out the internal strengths as well as
weakness of the organization in one hand and opportunities and threats on the other.
Moreover, it includes an inventory of the workers and skills already available within the
organization and a comprehensive job analysis.
2. Demand Forecasting
HR forecasting is the process of estimating demand for and supply of HR in an organization.
Demand forecasting is a process of determining future needs for HR in terms of quantity and
quality. It is done to meet the future personnel requirements of the organization to achieve
the desired level of output. Future human resource need can be estimated with the help of
the organization's current human resource situation and analysis of organizational plans and
procedures. It will be necessary to perform a year-by-year analysis for every significant level
and type.
 23

3. Supply Forecasting
Supply is another side of human resource assessment. It is concerned with the estimation of
supply of manpower given the analysis of current resource and future availability of human
resource in the organization. It estimates the future sources of HR that are likely to be
available from within an outside the organization. Internal source includes promotion,
transfer, job enlargement and enrichment, whereas external source includes recruitment of
fresh candidates who are capable of performing well in the organization.
4. Matching Demand and Supply
It is another step of human resource planning. It is concerned with bringing the forecast of
future demand and supply of HR. The matching process refers to bring demand and supply
in an equilibrium position so that shortages and over staffing position will be solved. In case
of shortages an organization has to hire more required number of employees. Conversely, in
the case of over staffing it has to reduce the level of existing employment. Hence, it is
concluded that this matching process gives knowledge about requirements and sources of
HR.
5. Action Plan
It is the last phase of human resource planning which is concerned with surplus and
shortages of human resource. Under it, the HR plan is executed through the designation of
different HR activities. The major activities which are required to execute the HR plan are
recruitment, selection, placement, training and development, socialization etc. Finally, this
step is followed by control and evaluation of performance of HR to check whether the HR
planning matches the HR objectives and policies. This action plan should be updated
according to change in time and conditions.
2.3.1 Forecasting human resource demand
Forecasting human resource demand is the process of estimating the future human resource
requirement of right quality and right number. As discussed earlier, potential human
resource requirement is to be estimated keeping in view the organization’s plans over a given
period of time. Analysis of employment trends; replacement needs of employees due to death,
resignations, retirement termination; productivity of employees; growth and expansion of
organization; absenteeism and labour turnover are the relevant factors for human resourced
forecasting. Demand forecasting is affected by a number of external and internal factors.
Job analysis and forecasting about the quality of potential human resource facilitates
demand forecasting. So, existing job design must be thoroughly evaluated taking into
consideration the future capabilities of the present employees.
Factors affecting HR Demand Forecasting
Human Resource Demand Forecasting depends on several factors, some of which are given
below.
- Employment trends;
- Replacement needs;
- Productivity;
 24

- Absenteeism; and
- Expansion and growth.
Methods of human resource planning
There are number of techniques or methods of estimating/forecasting human resources
demand:
(a) Managerial Judgment: Managerial judgment technique is very common technique of
demand forecasting. This approach is applied by small as well as large scale organizations.
This technique involves two types of approaches i.e. 'bottom-up approach' and 'top-down
approach'. Under the 'bottom-up approach', line mangers send their departmental
requirement of human resources to top management. Top management ultimately forecasts
the human resource requirement for the overall organization on the basis of proposals of
departmental heads. Under the Top-down approach', top management forecasts the human
resource requirement for the entire organization and various departments. This information
is supplied to various departmental heads for their review and approval. However, a
combination of both the approaches i.e. 'Participative Approach' should be applied for
demand forecasting. Under this approach, top management and departmental heads meet
and decide about the future human resource requirement. So, demand of human resources
can be forecasted with unanimity under this approach.
(b) Work-Study Technique: This technique is also known as 'work-load analysis'. This
technique is suitable where the estimated work-load is easily measurable. Under this
method, estimated total production and activities for a specific future period are predicted.
This information is translated into number of man-hours required to produce per units
taking into consideration the capability of the workforce. Past-experience of the management
can help in translating the work-loads into number of man-hours required. Thus, demand of
human resources is forecasted on the basis of estimated total production and contribution of
each employee in producing each unit items. Further, absenteeism rate, rate of labour
turnover, resignations, deaths, machine break-down, strikes, power-failure etc. should also
be taken into consideration while estimating future demand of human resources/ manpower.
(c) Ratio-Trend Analysis: Demand for manpower/human resources is also estimated on the
basis of ratio of production level and number of workers available. This ratio will be used to
estimate demand of human resources. The following example will help in clearly
understanding this technique.
(d) Econometrics Models: These models are based on mathematical and statistical
techniques for estimating future demand. Under these models’ relationship is established
between the dependent variable to be predicted (e.g., manpower/human resources) and the
independent variables (e.g., sales, total production, work-load, etc.). Using these models,
estimated demand of human resources can be predicted.
(e) Delphi Technique: Delphi technique is also very important technique used for estimating
demand of human resources. This technique takes into consideration human resources
requirements given by a group of experts i.e., mangers. The human resource experts collect
the manpower needs, summarizes the various responses and prepare a report. This process
is continued until all experts agree on estimated human resources requirement.
 25

(f) Other Techniques: The other techniques of Human Resources demand forecasting are
specified as under:
(a) Following the techniques of demand forecasting of human resources used by other
similar organizations
(b) Organization-cum-succession-charts
(c) Estimation based on techniques of production
(d) Estimates based on historical records
(e) Statistical techniques e.g., co-relation and regression analysis.
2.3.2 Human Resource supply forecasting
Human Resource supply forecasting is the process of estimating availability of human
resource followed after demand for testing of human resource. For forecasting supply of
human resource, we need to consider internal and external supply. Internal supply of human
resource available by way of transfers, promotions, retired employees & recall of laid-off
employees, etc. Source of external supply of human resource is availability of labour force in
the market and new recruitment.
External supply of human resource depends on some factors mentioned below.
 Supply and demand of jobs.
 Literacy rate of nation.
 Rate of population
 Industry and expected growth rate and levels
 Technological development.
 Compensation system based on education, experience, skill and age.
The most important techniques for forecasting of human resource supply are Succession
analysis and Markov analysis.
Succession analysis
Once a company has forecast the demand for labour, it needs an indication of the firm's
labour supply. Determining the internal labour supply calls for a detailed analysis of how
many people are currently in various job categories or have specific skills within the
organization. The planner then modifies this analysis to reflect changes expected in the near
future as a result of retirements, promotions, transfers, voluntary turnover, and
terminations.
Demand forecasting helps in determining the number and type of personnel/human
resources required in future. The next step in human resource planning is forecasting supply
of human resources. The purpose of supply forecasting is to determine the size and quality of
present and potential human resources available from within and outside the organization to
meet the future demand of human resources. Supply forecast is the estimate of the number
and kind of potential personnel that could be available to the organization. See figure 1
 26

Figure 1: Process of Human Resource Planning

SOURCE: Google images on human resource planning
The above figure illustrates that internal supply forecasting can be estimated based on the
following:
(a) Current Staffing Level
(b) Projected Outflows This Year
(c) Projected Inflows This Year
Markov Analysis—transition probability matrix is developed to determine the probabilities of
job incumbents remaining in their jobs for the forecasting period. The technique is named
after Russian mathematician Andrei Andreyev ich Markov. A transition matrix, or Markov
matrix, can be used to model the internal flow of human resources. These matrices simply
show as probabilities the average rate of historical movement from one job to another.
2.3.3 Balancing supply and demand considerations
The final element of the human resources planning model is to determine how you are going
to balance the demand you have for employees with the supply of employees available. If you
have a shortage of employees, this will determine what type of recruiting efforts your
business will participate in to attract the employees it needs to fill needs within the company.
It also requires you to balance your full-time and part-time needs. If you have a surplus of
employees, this requires you to consider employee layoffs, retirements and situations where
employees may need to be demoted or moved into a lateral position (rather than receiving a
promotion).
1. Layoffs, Alternative Work Schedules, and Recruitment Policies: Layoff, retirement policies,
and the use of alternative work schedules all represent potential means of reconciling
 27

personnel supply and demand. Layoff and retirement policies are typically used to reduce
the number of employees.
Alternative work schedules (flextime, a 4-day, 40-hour week, part time work, overtime,
shortened workweeks) can increase the flexibility of the organization to meet temporary
shifts in personnel needs. Overtime can help the company avoid hiring additional
employees, shortened workweek’s part time work, and other work schedules can help the
company avoid layoffs.
2. Skill Training Programs: Human demand and supply can be balanced by using skill
training programs to prepare employees to perform certain tasks or jobs. The use of it
may partially or totally eliminate the need to recruit new employees from outside.
Possible advantages of training current employees to fill new and more rewarding
vacancies include improved morale, reduced uncertainty regarding employee reliability
and performance, reduced turnover, and lower recruitment cost.
3. Temporary Workers, Contract Workers, and Employee Leasing: The methods discussed
previously all deal with individuals holding more or less permanent positions with the
company. There are alternative methods of reconciling personnel supply and demand
using individuals with only a temporary relationship with the firm. During periods of high
product or service demand, some organizations use temporary employees.
4. Contract workers are used when special skills are needed on a limited basis or limited
amount of time.
5. Employee leasing is a relatively new human resource planning activity. Rather than hire
workers itself, a firm leases employee from a leasing company. The leasing company is
responsible for hiring, record keeping, disciplining, paying and terminating the
employees. The company signs a lease for a specific period of time, requiring the leasing
firm to provide workers and perform most personnel support activities for them. This
allows the firm to reduce its personnel support staff and avoid the many reporting
responsibilities that accompany the hiring or termination.
Self-assessment Questions
Fill in the blanks
1. Human resources planning is a process that identifies……………………… needs for an
organization to achieve its goals.
2. Human demand and supply can be balanced by using ……………………….to prepare
employees to perform certain tasks or jobs.
3. If you have a surplus of employees, this requires you to consider ………………….
4. …………. helps in determining the number and type of personnel/human resources
required in future.
5. For forecasting supply of human resource we need to consider ……………………….
 28

2.4 FUNCTIONS OF HR PLANNING

A company succeeds in large measure because of the skill, creativity and dedication of its
managers and employees. Human resource planning is the process of making sure the
company has the right people in the right positions -- those who possess the skills,
experience and spirit of teamwork required for the company to grow and effectively compete.
Planning staff levels requires that an assessment of present and future needs of the
organization be compared with present resources and future predicted resources.
Assuring Adequate Staff Levels
A primary function of human resources planning is making certain that various company
departments have sufficient staff to complete all the work required to meet the organization’s
goals. The business owner also must make sure that the workload is balanced -- no
individual or department should be so overburdened with work that it is impossible to
complete all assigned tasks on time. The results of this type of poor human resource
planning include heightened stress levels for employees, burnout, missing deadlines and
mistakes and errors. All of these outcomes negatively affect productivity and may result in
higher employee turnover.
Matching Skills to Current Organizational Needs
As the company grows, the management function becomes more complex. Instead of
everyone reporting to the owner, layers are added to the organization structure. The
management team must supervise additional employees. Addressing these changing needs
requires the business owner to determine if the current management team has the necessary
experience and skills to succeed in a larger, more structured, more complex organization. If
he identifies gaps, he creates new positions and hires new people.
Building an Ethical Business Culture
A business owner often creates a code of conduct for employees to follow which defines what
is considered ethical -- good -- conduct in dealing with customers, suppliers and co-workers.
The aim of building an ethical culture can be furthered by bringing on new hires who have a
track record of high ethical behavior. This may require a more in-depth interviewing process
in which the hiring manager asks candidates how they have dealt with ethical dilemmas on
the job. Just because a sales manager has a track record of meeting or exceeding quotas in
past positions, he may not live up to the ethical standards the owner wants to set for his
organization.
Finding Team Players
A critical but difficult aspect of human resource planning is determining whether prospective
new hires will fit in with existing members of the team. The owner wants to foster a
harmonious work environment characterized by open and honest communication, so the
more specifically he can articulate the corporate culture he seeks to create, the better the
chances that candidates for new positions can articulate why they believe they would fit in.
Identifying Employees Ready for Advancement
Human resource planning should include creating a path for advancement for each
employee. The business owner must assess which employees are ready to move up in the
 29

organization and which might need more seasoning in their current positions. He wants to
make sure his organization is developing its own in-house managerial talent, and he may
provide education and training opportunities to move the employees down the path toward
taking on additional responsibilities.
2.5 LEVELS OF HR PLANNING IN HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT ARE AS
FOLLOWS:
HRP may be made at different levels and for different purposes. National planners may make
a HR plan at the national level were as a company may make a HR plan at the unit level.
1. HRP at National Level:
HRP at the national level helps to plan for educational facilities, health care facilities,
agricultural and industrial development, and employment plans etc. The government of the
country plans for human resources at the national level. National plans for HR forecast the
demand and supply of human resources at the national level. It also plans for occupational
distribution, sectoral and regional allocation of human resources.
2. HRP at the Sectoral Level:
HRP at the sectoral level helps to plan for a particular sector like agriculture, industry etc. It
helps the government to allocate its resources to the various sectors depending upon the
priority accorded to the particular sector.
3. HRP at the Industry Level:
HRP at the industry level takes into account the output/ operational level of that particular
industry when manpower needs are considered.
4. HRP at the Unit Level:
HR Planning at the company level is based on the estimation of human resource needs of the
particular company in question. It is based on the business plan of the company. A
manpower plan helps to avoid the sudden disruption of the company’s production since it
indicates shortages of particular types of personnel, if any, in advance, thus enabling
management to adopt suitable strategies to cope with the situation.
5. HRP at the Departmental Level:
HRP at the departmental level looks at the manpower needs of a particular department in an
organization.
2.6 BENEFITS, PROBLEMS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR MAKING HR PLANNING
EFFECTIVE.
2.6.1 Benefits for making HRP effective
Human resource planning entails the following benefits to the organizations
1. At the outset, HRP helps to meet up all kinds of the requirements of the
organisation: To do work in the organisation, every organisation needs personnel of
desired skill, knowledge and experience. These human resources requirement of
organisation can be effectively fulfilled through proper human resource planning. It
 30

helps in defining the number of personnel as well as kind of personnel required to

satisfy its needs. It ensures the reservoir of desired human resources as and when
required.
2. Enables the organizations to Counterbalance insecurity and change: There must
be proper utilisation of human and non-human resources in the organisation.
Sometimes the organisation may have adequate non-human resources e.g. machines,
materials and money but inadequate human resources as a result, manufacturing
process/production cannot be started. Human resource planning helps to offset
uncertainties and changes as far as possible and enables to ensure availability of
human resources of the right kind, at right time and at right place.
3. Helps in checking labour imbalance in the organization: Human resource planning
helps to anticipate shortages and/or surpluses of manpower in the organisation. The
shortage of manpower as well as surplus of manpower is not good for the organisation.
It proves very expensive for the organisation. In case of shortage of human resources,
physical resources of the organisation cannot be properly utilized. In case of surplus of
human resources, this resource may remain under-utilized It helps in counter
balancing the problem of shortage and surplus employees very comfortably. Human
resource planning helps in correcting this imbalance before it become unmanageable
and expensive.
4. Enables Right-sizing the human resource requirements of the organisation: In an
existing organisation, there is a constant need for right-sizing the organisation. In the
organisation, some posts may fall vacant as a result of retirement, accidents,
resignations, promotions or death of employees. Consequently, there is constant need
of replacing people. Human resource planning estimates future requirements of the
organisation and helps to ensure that human resources of right kind, right number, in
right time and right place.
5. Enables to meet expansion and diversification needs of the organisation: It helps
to execute future plans of the organisation regarding expansion, diversification and
modernization. Through human resource planning it is ensured that employees in
right number and of right kind are available when required to meet these needs of the
organisation. It ensures that people of desired skills and knowledge are available to
handle the challenging job requirements.
6. Contributes towards Training and Development of Employees: There is constant
need of training and development of employees as a result of changing requirements of
the organisation. It provides scope for advancement and development of employees
through training and development etc. Thus, it helps in meeting the future needs of
the organisation of highly skilled employees.
7. Fulfils Individual Needs of the Employees: It helps to satisfy the individual needs of
the employees for promotions, transfer, salary encashment, better benefits etc.
8. Helps Formulation of Budgets: It helps in anticipating the cost of human resources
e.g. salary and other benefits etc. It facilitates the formulation of human resource
 31

budget for various departments/divisions of the organisation. So, it may also help in,
the formulation of suitable budgets in an organisation.
9. To Check Joblessness: In the exercise of right-sizing of employees by the
organisation, some of the employees may become surplus. It means their services are
no more required in the organisation. It tries to foresee the need for redundancy. It
plans to check job loss or to provide for alternative employment in consultation with
various concerned parties and authorities.
2.6.2 Problems involved in making Human Resource planning effective
Human resource planning is about ensuring that the organization has the employees it will
need in the future, in the right jobs, with the right skills, and it's one of the most challenging
types of planning we cover on this site. In fact, it may be the most complex kind of planning a
company can undertake. Why?
Consider the following points:
 Human resource planning can only be as good as the ability of the company to predict
what will happen OUTSIDE the company, economic trends, upturns, downturns, what
competitors are doing, and a raft of other things the company has no control over. Often
HR staff don't have the skills and background to predict these events with any success.
 The pace of change is so quick in the workplace that it's hard to predict what skills (and
therefore, what employees, will be needed in even the near future.
 People make decisions about their own careers, whether to stay or go, and these days,
there's much more movement of employees from company to company. No longer do
employees expect to stay at the same company for decades, and often their "moves" occur
without warning, and even with two weeks’ notice. When people are involved, prediction
becomes much harder.
 Company growth (or for that matter, contraction) is difficult to predict in today's world.
Successful companies can crash and burn quickly, or lose revenue, resulting in a need to
lay off staff in an uncontrolled and unplanned way. The flip side is that as companies
succeed and expand, not only do they need more employees, but the skills they require
will change.
 Human resources planning needs to be linked to the overall strategic direction of the
company, and HR needs to have a seat at the strategic table to both define that strategic
direction, and to have information about corporate strategy. Unfortunately, HR is still
seen as a nuts-and-bolts part of the organization rather than a strategic lever to make
things happen. Not only is HR left "unheard", but the skills of HR staff are often not
strategic in nature, but oriented towards the completion of short-term tasks, like getting
people hired, or more tactical functions.
2.6.3 Suggestions for effective Human Resource Planning
 Companies need to shift HR's focus from nuts-and-bolts administration, to seeing HR as a
strategic function that can have profound benefits on into the future. Having the right
people at the right time, and the ability to create workforce stability (few layoffs) may
 32

eventually be a critical success factor. That's not the case yet, but HR has never been
considered strategic.
 HR staff need to have different skills and abilities to succeed in a dynamic and strategic
HR world. No longer can we afford HR staff who are "administrators of programs", who
have no ability to think strategically.
 HR needs a seat at the executive table. CEO's need to both listen to, and include HR in
the decision-making process, and that includes the strategic planning process.
Succession Planning
Succession planning is a process whereby an organization ensures that employees are
recruited and developed to fill each key role within the company. Through your succession
planning process, you recruit superior employees, develop their knowledge, skills, and
abilities, and prepare them for advancement or employee promotion into ever more
challenging roles. Actively pursuing succession planning ensures that employees are
constantly developed to fill each needed role. As your organization expands, loses key
employees, provides promotional opportunities, and increases sales, your succession
planning guarantees that you have employees on hand ready and waiting to fill new roles.
Effective, proactive succession planning leaves your organization well prepared for
expansion, the loss of a key employee, filling a new, needed job, employee promotions, and
organizational redesign for opportunities. Successful succession planning builds bench
strength.
Simply put, it is five step formulae
Step 1: Identify critical positions
Critical positions are the focus of succession planning efforts. Without these roles, the
department or agency would be unable to effectively meet its business objectives. Workforce
projection data or demographic analysis is essential in identifying risk areas. A risk
assessment may also be conducted and compared to current and future vacancies to identify
critical positions within your organization.
Step 2: Identify competencies
A clear understanding of capabilities needed for successful performance in key areas and
critical positions is essential for guiding learning and development plans, setting clear
performance expectations, and for assessing performance. By completing the process of
competency or position profiling within your organization, current and future employees gain
an understanding of the key responsibilities of the position including the qualifications and
behavioural and technical competencies required to perform them successfully.
Step 3: Identify succession management strategies
Now that critical positions have been identified and have been profiled for competencies, the
next step is to choose from a menu of several human resource strategies, including
developing internal talent pools, on boarding and recruitment to address succession
planning.
 33

Step 4: Document and implement succession plans

Once strategies have been identified, the next step is to document the strategies in an action
plan. The Succession Planning: Action Plan provides a mechanism for clearly defining
timelines and roles and responsibilities.
Step 5: Evaluate Effectiveness
To ensure that the department or agency’s succession planning efforts are successful, it is
important to systematically monitor workforce data, evaluate activities and make necessary
adjustments.
Self Assessment Question
Critically evaluate the existing HR planning process in your organization. Do you
think it is achieving the desired objectives of your organization? Explain.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Self assessment questions. (State whether true or false )
1. Planning staff levels requires that an assessment of present and future needs of the
organization be compared with present resources and future predicted resources.
2. OD does not promote the collaborative spirit and self renewing skills of its employees.
3. To succeed in today’s dynamic and strategic HR world, we CAN’T afford HR staff who
are "administrators of programs", who have no ability to think strategically.
4. Succession planning is a process whereby an organization ensures that employees are
recruited and developed to fill each key role within and outside the company.
5. Human resource information systems (HRIS) are a method by which an organization
collects, maintains and reports information on people and jobs and the information is
generally stored in hard files.

2.7 SUMMARY
Human resource planning explicitly considers the levels and types of human resources
necessary to ensure the success of the company’s strategic plan. It includes the estimation of
how many qualified people are necessary to carry out the assigned activities (personnel
demand). How many people will be available (internal supply). And what, if anything, must be
done to ensure that personnel supply equals personnel demand at the appropriate point in
the future (reconciliation process).
2.8 GLOSSARY
Human resources planning: it is a process that identifies current and future human
resources needs for an organization to achieve its goals
 34

HR demand forecasting: HR forecasting is the process of estimating demand for and supply
of HR in an organization. Demand forecasting is a process of determining future needs for
HR in terms of quantity and quality.
HR supply forecasting: Supply is another side of human resource assessment. It is
concerned with the estimation of supply of manpower given the analysis of current resource
and future availability of human resource in the organization. It estimates the future sources
of HR that are likely to be available from within an outside the organization.
Succession planning: Succession planning is a process whereby an organization ensures
that employees are recruited and developed to fill each key role within the company
Forecasting demand and supply , Recruitment, selection, Internet recruitment, Head
Hunters, Poaching, Job fairs, campus interviews, social media, search engines, policies,
Outsourcing, referrals.
2.9 REFERENCES
1. David A Decenzo & Stephen P Robbins, Personnel / Human Resource Management,
Prentice hall, India
2. Deshpande, S. (1992). Compensation Legislation in India. What US investors need to
know. Compensation & Benefits Review, 24(5), 57-60.
3. K. Ashwathapa, Human Resource and personnel Management- Text and Cases, TMH
4. Wayne F Cascio, Managing human resources, TMH
2.10 FURTHER READINGS
1. VSP Rao, Human Resource Management- Text and Cases, Excel Books
2. John M Ivancevich, Human Resource Management, TMH
3. Gary Dessler, Human Resource Management, Prentice hall, India
4. Machael R Camell, Nobert F Elbert & Robert D Hattfield, Human Resource
Management, Prentice hall, India
2.11 MODEL QUESTIONS
1. What do you understand by human resource planning? Discuss the objectives of
HRP.
2. Outline the steps involved in HRP.
3. Explain the meaning and importance of human resource planning in today’s uncertain
and volatile business environment.
4. Discuss the importance of human resource planning in a large organization viz a viz a
small organization.
5. What are the various methods used in forecasting the demand and supply for
employees in an organization?
6. HRP is a prerequisite for effective management of human resources of an organization.
Analyze the significance of HRP in the light of this statement.
 35

7. Why do you think that the HRIS is playing an important role in human resource
planning these days.
ANSWERS TO self assessment questions
(Fill in the blanks.)
1. Current and future human resources
2. Skill training programs
3. Employee layoffs, retirements
4. Demand forecasting
5. Internal and external supply.
Answers to self assessment questions.
(True or false)
1. True
2. False (it does)
3. True
4. False (only within)
5. False (in central human resource data bank)
 36

Lesson - 3

JOB ANALYSIS JOB DESIGN AND JOB EVALUATION

STRUCTURE
3.0 Objectives
3.1 Introduction, Definition of Job Analysis
3.2 Objectives, benefits, process of Job Analysis
3.2.1 Uses of Job Analysis
3.2.2 Competency Mapping Approach to job analysis
3.3 Outcomes of job analysis: job description and job specification
3.4 Techniques and problems in Job Analysis.
3.5 Job design : Meaning and Methods of job designing.
-Job Rotation
-Job Enlargement
-Job Enrichment
3.6 Job Evaluation
3.6.1 Process of Job Evaluation
3.6.2 Advantages of Job Evaluation
3.6.2 Features of Job Evaluation
3.7 Methods of job evaluation
3.7.1 Quantitative Methods of Job Evaluation
3.7.2 Qualitative Methods of Job Evaluation
3.7.3 Difference between job evaluation and performance evaluation
3.8 Alternative to job evaluation
3.9 Summary
3.10 Glossary
3.11 References
3.12 Further readings
3.13 Model Questions
 37

3.0 OBJECTIVES
After going through the lesson you should be able to ;
 understand the meaning and concept of job analysis , job description and job
specification and Job evaluation
 describe various methods of Job analysis
 outline the meaning and methods of job designing; job rotation, job enlargement, and
job enrichment.
 explain modern management techniques of job evaluation
3.1 INTRODUCTION
One of the most significant activities undertaken by an HR manager is to conduct a job
analysis which encompasses job description and job specification.
Job analysis is a procedure which helps the organization to : see figure 1
 Outline the duties and responsibilities entailing a particular job which is also called
job description
 Delineate the key skills knowledge and abilities which are required from the person
Outline the meaning and methods of job designing.

Figure 1 : Components Of Job Analysis

 38

Job analysis is thus an examination of

(1) The duties and responsibilities that would be required to be performed which would
be manifested I the employee’s role
(2) The working Conditions provided to the employee for the completion of his job
(3) And last but not the least ,what Exactly is the requirement of the job In Terms Of
employees Aptitudes comprising of his Potential For Achievement, his Attitudes
towards work i.e. his Behavioral Characteristics, the Knowledge, Skills, abilities and
Educational Qualifications of the employees.
3.2 OBJECTIVES OF JOB ANALYSIS
Any job analysis activity has the following objectives to be achieved whereby it aims to
(a) Find out most effective and efficient ways of performing the jobs and simplifying the
duties and responsibilities by removing the overlapping one’s.
(b) Increase employee’s job satisfaction and the resultant morale and motivation at the
workplace.
(c) Identify the most relevant and significant core areas which might need training and
retaining from time to time and finding out best and of course the newer techniques of
training.
(d) Develop suitable performance measurement systems for the organization, and
(e) Ensure person job fit by matching job-specifications with employee specifications while
selecting the right candidate.
One of the main purposes of conducting job analysis is to prepare job descriptions and
job specifications which in turn help to hire the right quality of workforce into an
organization.
3.2.1 Uses of Job Analysis
In today’s highly competitive business environment, it is very important for both the
employees and the employers to have clear understanding of the job, the duties and
responsibilities involved and of course the type of persons required to perform the jobs with
specific knowledge skills and abilities and other personality traits which would help in the
achievement of the desired goals of the organization. Apart from this conducting a job
analysis would be quite useful for the organization in the following terms;
It will be the most useful, when the organization is doing human resource planning
(ensuring the right man at the right job doing the right things at the right place and right
time)
Secondly, when it come to recruiting the right people, it is useful by clearly outlining the
indicators and contra indicators for the job in the advertisement itself so that only the most
eligible candidates a are attracted and apply in the organization.
Thirdly, when it comes to selecting the right candidates, the job analysis would aid in finding
and selecting the right person job fit for the organization.
 39

Fourthly, It is useful when the employees are placed and their orientation is conducted,
where they are adequately apprised and informed about the job descriptions in clear and
unambiguous terms, their duties and responsibilities, their reporting relationships etc.
Finally, this is the only activity which helps in outlining the job descriptions and job
specifications which is the backbone of any human resource department.
3.2.2 Competency Mapping Approach to job analysis
Adopting Competency Mapping Approach to job analysis entails striking a tradeoff
between business strategy and individual performance efforts. In the highly competitive
business environment of today , the employees are encouraged to take up multiple tasks
responsibilities and duties requiring different degrees of skills abilities and knowledge sets
and of course their decision making abilities ,this is actually the scenario of the DE jobbed
organizations , where the employees are encouraged to do away with ‘this is not my job
mentality’ and indulge into multitasking which is considered to be beneficial for both the
organizations and its employees in the long run, unlike the emphasis on specialized
organizations.
Thus competency method of job analysis encourages the employees to develop role
based competencies instead of being boxed in particular jobs only in different work settings
and situations. These competencies tend to be developed in line with organizations culture
and strategy and might include abilities like communication skills, interpersonal skills,
leadership qualities, decision making abilities, conflict resolution techniques and strategies,
flexibility, adaptability and self direction and motivation. It also encourages the employees to
develop their conceptual and cognitive abilities and intelligence, there moral values and
abilities, their behavioral skills, reasoning and rational thinking and above all their spiritual
intelligence to name a few. These multiple intelligences play a significant role in determining
the employees performance on the job and goes a long way in determining their success on
the job
3.3 OUTCOMES OF JOB ANALYSIS: JOB DESCRIPTION AND JOB SPECIFICATION
Job description and job specification are two indispensible components of job analysis.
They define a job completely and guide both the employer and the employee on how to go
about the whole process of recruiting and selecting the right candidate for the right job who
would be doing the right things at the right time.
Both data sets are quite relevant for creating a right fit between job and the talent,
for evaluating employee’s performance and analyzing their training needs and measuring
the worth of a particular job for determining its worth and thereby its compensation level for
both maintaining both its internal and external equity.
 40

3.3.1 Job Description

A job description is developed by undertaking a proper job analysis, which includes
examining the tasks and sequences of tasks necessary to perform the job. The analysis
outlines the areas of knowledge and skills needed for the job. A job usually includes several
roles. A job description need not be limited to explaining the current situation, or work that
is currently expected; it may also set out goals for what might be achieved in the future.
Purpose of Job Description
Why is it important to write a job description at all would be answered by the following
purposes it serves for both the organization as well as the employee. Some of the purposes
are
1. To cull out the whole information with regard to the job requirements as is to be
advertised for attracting the right people to apply for the job.
2. It helps in briefing the employees with regard to their job profile encompassing what
they are supposed to perform on the job.
3. It helps the organization in zeroing in on the job person fit for a particular job.
4. It establishes in clear terms the reporting relationships within the organization to
avoid any overlapping and ambiguity.
3.3.2 Job Specification
A job specification defines and identifies the key knowledge, skills and abilities that are
required in a person to perform a job in an organization. These can be determined by
performing a detailed job analysis and its corresponding description.
 41

Purpose of Job Specification

 It helps in providing a brief summary of the essential qualifications required in a job
incumbent.
 It clearly outlines the responsibilities and skills required on the job.
 Finally this activity is the important as it helps the organization in finding out the
best man for the job.
3.4 METHODS OF JOB ANALYSIS
There are two different approaches or methods of job analysis namely:
1. The Task-oriented method
2. The Worker-oriented method
1. The Task-oriented method of job analysis entails the following steps;
As is evident from the name itself, this method concentrates on the actual tasks to be
performed at the first place , along with its corresponding duties and responsibilities.
The next step deals with outlining the task statements which gives out details of the tasks to
be performed with precision and great detailing.
Then comes ranking of the tasks on the basis of their importance in the job hierarchy, the
difficulty if any involved in its execution and performance etc. rating the jobs would
invariably help in deepening the understanding of the jobs and the requisite behaviors and
skills required to accomplish it.
One of the most commonly used technique for collecting information regarding the job is to
actually observing the workers on the site, helping the analyst to jot down the actual
requirements for the successful completion of the job. This method is called cognitively
oriented task analysis (COTA).
2. The worker oriented method of job analysis entails the following steps;
This method of collecting information aims at finding out in detail the personal attributes
which would be required to perform particular activities in terms of KSA’s, i.e. The
knowledge , skills and abilities which are also called indicators , it also mentions some of
the contra indicators i.e. what the prospective employees should not have. E.g. sometimes it
is mentioned in the advertisement that candidates above a certain age need not apply ,
with a certain physical personality attribute like height , vision, medical history etc are also
dissuaded from applying to a particular job .
Methods
Once the appropriate KSAOs are identified, tests and other assessment techniques can be
chosen to measure those KSAOs.
There are several ways or techniques to conduct a job analysis, including:
 Direct Observation,
 Interviews with incumbents and supervisors,
 42

 Critical incident investigations,

 Questionnaires and surveys
 Position Analysis Questionnaire
 Checklists
All of these methods can be used to gather information for job analysis. The DACUM process
developed in the late 1960s has been found out to be the fastest method which can still take
two or three days to obtain a validated task list.
1. Observation: The process involves simply watching the employees or the incumbents
perform their jobs and taking notes thereof to use the information later on .
2. Interviews: this involves using a standard format for interviewing both the workers and
the supervisors with regard the job requirements to supplement the information collected
through observation.
3. Critical incidents and work diaries: this again is qualitative data collection technique
aiming at collecting behaviorally focused descriptions of work and other related activities.
4. Questionnaires and surveys: one of the most commonly used methods is preparing
questionnaires and conducting survey’s to collect job related information.
5. Position Analysis Questionnaire: these are us usually designed to elicit quantitative
information with regard to job elements. T typical PAQ consists of 194 items divided into six
major areas namely; the information inputs or manuals for workers, the mental processes
required, the physical activities involved, relationships with other people , the job context and
other essential job characteristics .
Self Assessment Questions
State whether you agree or disagree with the following statements
1. Job description defines the knowledge, skills and abilities that are required to
perform a job in an organization
2. The traditional methods of job analysis are one-on-one interviewing; Behavioral
event interviews; phone interviews; surveys;
3. Job Scan is a measurement instrument which defines the personality dynamics
within all types of jobs .
4. The Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ) is a well-known job analysis instrument.

3.5 JOB DESIGNING MEANING AND METHODS

Job designing can be understood as a process of establishing employee’s roles and
responsibilities and the system and procedures that they should use or follow. The main
purpose of job design or redesign is to coordinate and optimize work processes to create
value and maximize employee’s performance in the organizations.
The benefits of job design can be;
 43

It leads to
 increased job satisfaction,
 reduces the job fatigue,
 improves the quality of work,
 provides more meaning to the work,
 provides challenging work.
 Leads to increased output and decreased cost and.
 Can lead to decreased attrition rate of the employees.
Some of the methods of job design can be job specialization, creating autonomous work
teams, compressed work week, flexi timing, job sharing part or fractional time, or
telecommunication.
However, the most common methods of job design are job rotation, job enlargement and job
enrichment which are discussed below.
Methods Of Job Designing
1. Job Rotation
2. Jobs Enrichment
3. Job Enlargement
1. Job rotation is a management technique that assigns trainees to various jobs and
departments over a period of a few years.
A job design technique in which employees are moved between two or more jobs in a
planned manner. The objective is to expose the employees to different experiences and wider
variety of skills to enhance job satisfaction and to cross-train them. (Business
Dictionary.com)
Job rotation implies systematic movement of employees from one job to the other. Job
remains unchanged but employees performing them shift from one job to the other. With job
rotation, an employee is given an opportunity to perform different jobs, which enriches his
skills, experience and ability to perform different jobs
features of Job Rotation
• In some businesses, the object of job rotation is to educate employees, giving
them information about other operations in the company. Not only does this
peak the interest of many on the payroll, but it can also allow employees to ask
questions and suggest improvements in areas they wouldn’t normally see.
• At another level of a larger company, managers and supervisors are sometimes
moved, in a series of planned job rotations. Business owners and operating
officers might use a rotation plan so that management personnel are familiar
with various sections of the business. Then, when the time comes to fill a
 44

vacant position due to retirement, for example, there may be more than one
candidate familiar with the duties of that slot.
• In certain industries and with work that involves physical labour, job rotation
may be used to avoid over-stressing some workers. The constant, repetitive use
of the same muscles can be one of the hazards of the workplace. Wise use of
rotation may help workers stay healthy, and maintain a good work atmosphere
as well. Safety is often a key consideration in this situation.
• Job rotation involves shifting a person from one job to another, so that he is
able to understand and learn what each job involves. The company tracks his
performance on every job and decides whether he can perform the job in an
ideal manner. Based on this he is finally given a particular posting.
Hence, Job rotation is done to decide the final posting for the employee e.g. Mr. A is
assigned to the marketing department whole he learns all the jobs to be performed for
marketing at his level in the organization .after this he is shifted to the sales department and
to the finance department and so on. He is finally placed in the department in which he
shows the best performance. Job rotation gives an idea about the jobs to be performed at
every level. Once a person is able to understand this he is in a better understanding of the
working of organization.
LG Electronics, IBM, TATA STEEL, McDonald's are a few companies which practice Job
Rotation.
There are a few Drawbacks of Job Rotation -
1. Rigid employees who are not ready for it may quits the company.
2. It results in adjustment problem in new job scenario with increased challenges
and difficulties.
3. It also results in adjustment problem with the timings if the company works in
shifts.
4. Job rotation also causes increased stress and peer pressure.
5. If job rotation involves moving from one place to another, it may result in
disturbances in employees family life.
6. Job rotation results in frequent interruption of work .A person who is doing a
particular job and get it comfortable suddenly finds himself shifted to another
job or department .this interrupts the work in both the departments.
7. Quality of work done by a trained worker is different from that of a new worker
when a new worker I shifted or rotated in the department, he takes time to
learn the new job, makes mistakes in the process and affects the quality of the
job.
8. Sometimes job rotation may lead to misunderstanding with members of the
union. The union might think that employees are being harassed and more
work is being taken from them. In reality this is not the case.
 45

Advantages of job rotation

1. Avoids monopoly :- Job rotation helps to avoid monopoly of job and enable the
employee to learn new things and therefore enjoy his job
2. Provides an opportunity to broaden one’s knowledge: - due to job rotation the
person is able to learn different job in the organization this broadens his
knowledge.
3. Avoiding fraudulent practice: - In an organization like bank jobs rotation is
undertaken to prevent employees from doing any kind of fraud i.e. if a person is
handling a particular job for a very long time he will be able to find loopholes in
the system and use them for his benefit and indulge ( participate ) in fraudulent
practices job rotation avoids this.
Activity-1
1. McDonald is an MNC which you must have visited at some point of time in life.
Check how it practices job rotation in their organisation? Also check how
frequently they do it?

2. Job Enrichment
Job enrichment is an attempt to motivate employees by giving them the opportunity to
use the range of their abilities. It is an idea that was developed by the American psychologist
Frederick Hertzberg in the 1950s. An enriched job should ideally contain:
• A range of tasks and challenges of varying difficulties (Physical or Mental)
• A complete unit of work - a meaningful task
• Feedback, encouragement and communication
Job enrichment is a type of job redesign intended to reverse the effects of tasks that
are repetitive requiring little autonomy. Some of these effects are boredom, lack of flexibility,
and employee dissatisfaction (Leach & Wall, 2004). The underlying principle is to expand the
scope of the job with a greater variety of tasks, vertical in nature, that require self-
sufficiency. Since the goal is to give the individual exposure to tasks normally reserved for
differently focused or higher positions, merely adding more of the same responsibilities
related to an employee's current position is not considered job enrichment. Job enrichment
adds new sources of job satisfaction by increasing the level of responsibility of the employee
in organization.
 46

Definition: Job Enrichment is the addition to a job of tasks that increase the amount
of employee control or responsibility. It is a vertical expansion of the job as opposed to the
horizontal expansion of a job, which is called job enlargement.
Job enrichment is a way to motivate employees by giving them increased responsibility
and variety in their jobs. Many employers traditionally believed that money was the only true
motivating factor for employees and that if you wanted to get more work out of employees,
offering them more money was the only way to do it. While that may be true for a small group
of people, the majority of workers today like to work and to be appreciated for the work they
do. Job enrichment— allowing the employees to have more control in planning their work
and deciding how the work should be accomplished—is one way to tap into the natural
desire most employees have to do a good job, to be appreciated for their contributions to the
company, and to feel more a part of the company team.
Job enrichment has its roots in Frederick Herzberg's two-factor theory, according to
which two separate dimensions contribute to an employee's behaviour at work.
• The first dimension, known as hygiene factors, involves the presence or absence
of job dissatisfactors, such as wages, working environment, rules and
regulations, and supervisors. When these factors are poor, work is dissatisfying
and employees are not motivated. However, having positive hygiene factors does
not cause employees to be motivated; it simply keeps them from being
dissatisfied.
• The second dimension of Herzberg's theory refers to motivators, which are
factors that satisfy higher-level needs such as recognition for doing a good job,
achievement, and the opportunity for growth and responsibility. These
motivators are what actually increase job satisfaction and performance. Job
enrichment becomes an important strategy at this point because enriching
employees' jobs can help meet some of their motivational needs. There are
basically five areas that are believed to affect an individual employee's
motivation and job performance: skill variety, task identity, task significance,
autonomy, and feedback. Job enrichment seeks to find positive ways to address
each of these areas and therefore improve employee motivation and personal
satisfaction.
Skill variety involves the number of different types of skills that are used to do a job.
This area is important because using only one skill to do the same task repeatedly can be
quite boring, typically causing the employee's productivity to decrease after a period of time.
However, using a variety of skills in a job will tend to keep the employee more interested in
the job and more motivated.
A type of job enrichment that restructures work to best match the employee to the job
is job redesign. Job redesign can focus on combining existing jobs, forming work groups,
and/or allowing closer contact between employees and individual suppliers or customers.
The idea behind job redesign is to match employees with a job they like and are best qualified
to perform. Self-managed teams are a type of job design whereby employees are grouped into
teams and given certain guidelines to follow as well as goals to accomplish—and then left
 47

alone to accomplish those goals. Self-managed teams demonstrate the company's faith in the
employees and give employees a feeling of power and pride in the work they accomplish.
Strategies to enrich jobs at workplace:
• Rotate Jobs – It gives people the opportunity to use a variety of skills, and
perform different kinds of work. It involves moving the workers through a
variety of jobs that allow them to see different parts of the organization, learn
different skills and acquire different experiences. This can be very motivating,
especially for people in jobs that are very repetitive or that focus on only one or
two skills.
• Combine Tasks – Combine work activities to provide a more challenging and
complex work assignment. This can significantly increase "task identity"
because people see a job through from start to finish. This allows workers to
use a wide variety of skills, which can make the work seem more meaningful
and important. For example, you can convert an assembly line process, in
which each person does one task, into a process in which one person assembles
a whole unit. You can apply this model wherever you have people or groups
that typically perform only one part of an overall process. Consider expanding
their roles to give them responsibility for the entire process, or for a bigger part
of that process.
• Identify Project-Focused Work Units – Break your typical functional lines and
form project-focused units. For example, rather than having all of your
marketing people in one department, with supervisors directing who works on
which project, you could split the department into specialized project units -
specific storyboard creators, copywriters, and designers could all work together
for one client or one campaign. Allowing employees to build client relationships
is an excellent way to increase autonomy, task identity, and feedback.
• Create Autonomous Work Teams – This is job enrichment at the group level. Set
a goal for a team, and make team members free to determine work
assignments, schedules, rest breaks, evaluation parameters, and the like. You
may even give them influence over choosing their own team members. With this
method, you'll significantly cut back on supervisory positions, and people will
gain leadership and management skills.
• Implement Participative Management – Allow team members to participate in
decision making and get involved in strategic planning. This is an excellent way
to communicate to members of your team that their input is important. It can
work in any organization - from a very small company, with an owner/boss
who's used to dictating everything, to a large company with a huge hierarchy.
When people realize that what they say is valued and makes a difference, they'll
likely be motivated.
• Redistribute Power and Authority – Redistribute control and grant more
authority to workers for making job-related decisions. As supervisors delegate
 48

more authority and responsibility, team members' autonomy, accountability,

and task identity will increase.
• Increase Employee-Directed Feedback – Make sure that people know how well,
or poorly, they're performing their jobs. The more control you can give them for
evaluating and monitoring their own performance, the more enriched their jobs
will be. Rather than have your quality control department go around and point
out mistakes, consider giving each team responsibility for their own quality
control. Workers will receive immediate feedback, and they'll learn to solve
problems, take initiative, and make decisions.
Job enrichment provides many opportunities for people's development. It gives them
lots of opportunity to participate in how their work gets done, and they'll most-likely enjoy an
increased sense of personal responsibility for their tasks.
Implementing a Job Enrichment Program
• Step One – Find out where people are dissatisfied with their current work
assignments. There's little point to enriching jobs and changing the work environment if
you're enriching the wrong jobs and making the wrong changes. Like any motivation
initiative, determine what your people want before you begin.
• Surveys are a good means of doing this. Don't make the mistake of presuming
that you know what people want: Go to the source - and use that information to
build your enrichment options.
• Step Two – Consider which job enrichment options you can provide. You don't
need to drastically redesign your entire work process. The way that you design
the enriched jobs must strike a balance between operational need and job
satisfaction. If significant changes are needed, consider establishing a "job
enrichment task force" - perhaps use a cross-section of employees, and give
them responsibility for deciding which enrichment options make the most
sense.
• Step Three – Design and communicate your program. If you're making
significant changes, let people know what you're doing and why. Work with
your managers to create an enriching work environment that includes lots of
employee participation and recognition. Remember to monitor your efforts, and
regularly evaluate the effectiveness of what you're providing.
Advantages of job enrichment
1. Interesting and challenging job:- When a certain amount of power is given to
employees it makes the job more challenging for them, we can say that job
enrichment is a method of employee empowerment.
2. Improves decision making:- Through job enrichment we can improve the
decision making ability of the employee by asking him to decide
3. Higher order needs e.g. Ego and esteemed needs, self-actualization etc can be
achieved through job enrichment.
 49

4. Reduces work load of superiors:- Job enrichment reduces the work load of
senior staff. When decisions are taken by juniors the seniors work load is
reduced.
Disadvantages of job enrichment
1. Job enrichment is based on the assumptions that workers have complete
knowledge to take decisions and they have the right attitude. In reality this
might not be the case due to which there can be problems in working.
2. Job enrichment has negative implications i.e. Along with usual work decision
making work is also given to the employees and not many may be comfortable
with this.
3. Superiors may feel that power is being taken away from them and given to the
junior’s. This might lead to ego problems.
4. This method will only work in certain situations. Some jobs already give a lot of
freedom and responsibility; this method will not work for such jobs.
5. Some people are internally dissatisfied with the organization. For such people
no amount of job enrichment can solve the problem.
Self Assessment Questions - I
1. Task oriented procedures of job analysis focus on the actual involved in
performing work.
2. Worker oriented procedures aim to examine the needed to perform the
job.
3. A job specification defines the and that are required to
perform a job in an organization.
4. Job rotation implies of employees from one job to the other.
5. Job enrichment is of the job while job enlargement is
of a job.

3. Job Enlargement
Job Enlargement, a job design technique in which the number of tasks associated
with a job is increased (and appropriate training provided) to add greater variety to activities,
thus reducing monotony. Job enlargement is considered a horizontal restructuring method in
that the job is enlarged by adding related tasks. Job enlargement may also result in greater
workforce flexibility.
Job enlargement is another method of job design when any organization wishes to
adopt proper job design it can opt for job enlargement. Job enlargement involves combining
various activities at the same level in the organization and adding them to the existing job. It
increases the scope of the job. It is also called the horizontal expansion of job activities.
 50

Definition: Job Enlargement is the horizontal expansion of a job. It involves the

addition of tasks at the same level of skill and responsibility. It is done to keep workers from
getting bored. It is different than job enrichment.
Examples: Small companies may not have as many opportunities for promotions, so they try
to motivate employees through job enlargement.
Job enlargement can be explained with the help of the following example - If Mr. A is
working as an executive with a company and is currently performing 3 activities on his job
after job enlargement or through job enlargement we add 4 more activities to the existing job
so now Mr. A performs 7 activities on the job.
It must be noted that the new activities which have been added should belong to the
same hierarchy level in the organization. By job enlargement we provide a greater variety of
activities to the individual so that we are in a position to increase the interest of the job and
make maximum use of employee’s skill. Job enlargement is also essential when policies like
VRS are implemented in the company.
Job enlargement is doing different tasks and not just the same thing all the time. It
may involve taking on more duties and adds variety to a person's job. Horizontal loading is
often used which is giving people more jobs to do that require the same level of skill.
Job enlargement contradicts the principles of specialisation and the division of labour
whereby work is divided into small units, each of which is performed repetitively by an
individual worker. Some motivational theories suggest that the boredom and alienation
caused by the division of labour can actually cause efficiency to fall. Thus, job enlargement
seeks to motivate workers through reversing the process of specialisation. A typical approach
might be to replace assembly lines with modular work; instead of an employee repeating the
same step on each product, they perform several tasks on a single item. In order for
employees to be provided with Job Enlargement they will need to be retrained in new fields
which can prove to be a lengthy process. However results have shown that this process can
see its effects diminish after a period of time, as even the enlarged job role become the
mundane, this in turn can lead to similar levels of demotivation and job dissatisfaction at the
expense of increased training levels and costs. The continual enlargement of a job over time
is also known as 'job creep,' which can lead to an unmanageable workload.
Advantages of job enlargement
• Variety of skills :- Job enlargement helps the organization to improve and
increase the skills of the employee due to organization as well as the individual
benefit.
• Improves earning capacity :- Due to job enlargement the person learns many
new activities. When such people apply for jobs to other companies they can
bargain for more salary.
• Wide range of activities :- Job enlargement provides wide range of activities for
employees. Since a single employee handles multiple activities the company can
try and reduce the number of employee’s. This reduces the salary bill for the
company.
 51

Disadvantages of job enlargement

• Increases work burden :- Job enlargement increases the work of the employee
and not every company provides incentives and extra salary for extra work.
Therefore the efforts of the individual may remain unrecognized.
• Increasing frustration of the employee :- In many cases employees end up being
frustrated because increased activities do not result in increased salaries.
• Problem with union members :- Many union members may misunderstand job
enlargement as exploitation of worker and may take objection to it.
Difference between Job Enlargement and Job Enrichment

S. No. Job Enlargement Job Enrichment

1 Job enlargement refers to having Job Enrichment is the addition

additional duties and to a job of tasks that increase
responsibilities in a current job the amount of employee control
description. or responsibility.

2 Job enlargement is a vehicle Through job enrichment, an

employers use to put additional employee finds satisfaction in
workload on employees, probably respect to their position and
in economical downtime. personal growth potential.

3 Job enlargement is horizontal Job enrichment is vertical

expansion. expansion.

4 Job enlargement has no such Job enrichment is largely

dependency on job enrichment. dependent on job enlargement.

The difference between job enrichment and job enlargement is quality and quantity.
Job enrichment means improvement, or an increase with the help of upgrading and
development, whereas job enlargement means to add more duties, and an increased
workload. By job enrichment, an employee finds satisfaction in respect to their position and
personal growth potential, whereas job enlargement refers to having additional duties and
responsibilities in a current job description.
Job enlargement is a vehicle employers use to put additional workload on employees,
perhaps in economical downtime. Due to downsizing, an employee might feel lucky to have a
job at all, despite the fact that his duties and responsibilities have increased. Another
approach is that by adding more variety and enlarging the responsibilities will provide the
chance of enhancement and more productivity. Job enrichment involves organizing and
planning in order to gain more control over their duties and work as a manager. The
execution of plans and evaluation of results motivates workers and relieves boredom. Job
 52

enlargement and job enrichment are both useful for motivating workers to perform their
tasks enthusiastically.
Although job enlargement and enrichment have a relationship with each other, they
also possess some distinct features that differentiate them, such as area of expansion,
mutual reliance, allocation of duties and responsibilities, motivation and profundity. Job
enrichment is largely dependent on job enlargement, whereas job enlargement has no such
dependency. Job enlargement expands horizontally when compared to job enrichment, which
expands vertically. Vertical growth of job or augmentation is helpful to obtain managerial
rights.
In spite of mutual dependency, managerial duties are sanctioned, as in the case of
enhancement. The employee focuses more on job depth, which does not happen in job
enlargement. Job enrichment has a greater motivational impact than job enlargement.
The job enlargement theory involving horizontal expansion to increase job satisfaction
and productivity is relatively simple, and applied in numerous situations. Job enrichment,
when compared to job enlargement, not only includes more duties and responsibilities, but
also gives the right of decision making and control.
3.6 JOB EVALUATION
Job evaluation is the process of analyzing and assessing various jobs systematically to
ascertain their relative worth in an organization. The objective of job evaluation is to
determine which jobs should get more pay than others.
Definitions of Job Evaluation
In the words of Edwin B. Flippo. "Job evaluation is a systematic and orderly process of
determining the worth of a job in relation to other jobs."
In the words of Dale Yoder, "Job evaluation is a practice which seeks to provide a degree of
objectivity in measuring the comparative value of jobs within an organization and among
similar organizations."
3.6.1 THE PROCESS OF JOB EVALUATION
Job analysis describes a job. Job evaluation develops a plan for comparing jobs in terms of
those things the organization considers important determinants of job worth. This process
involves a number of steps that will be briefly stated here and then discussed more fully. See
figure 2.
 53

Figure 2 : Steps In Job Evaluation

3.6.2 Advantages of Job Evaluation

1. An ideal job evaluation would help in benchmarking and comparing the job
complexities
2. It helps in designing career planning programs for its employees by properly layering
down the jobs in a designated hierarchy according the organizational structure,
whether a tall or a flat one.
3. Aids in streamlining the responsibility levels in the organization across various levels.
4. Helps in organizational restructuring from to time by doing away with repetitive and
non functional activities.
5. To top at all it aims at placing the right men at the right place.
 54

6. It helps in deciding the compensation and salary structures across all the levels and
positions according to the duties and responsibilities of the jobs and the incumbents
qualifications etc.
A word of caution however before conducting job evaluation is that it should not be
viewed as a performance measurement technique , neither is it concerned with fitting the
round pegs into round holes i.e. finding an ideal person job fit.
3.6.2 Features of Job Evaluation
Job evaluation is characterized by following features
 It is the outcome of conducting a job analysis.
 It helps in deciding the compensation patterns and structures for the organization.
 It aids in rationalizing the pay structures on the basis of the job analysis and job
descriptions.
 An expert panel is responsible for conducting job evaluation programs to avoid any
kind of anomalies in the organizational job structures.
 It aims at determining the actual worth and the value of the job in terms of its cost
benefit analysis for the organization.
An ideal job evaluation would always keep the employees satisfied and motivated in
terms of their contribution to the organization according to their skills knowledge and
abilities and also pays them equitably and adequately.
3.6.3 The Objectives of Job Evaluation
Job evaluation, on the other hand, is a method of determining the worth of the job in
comparison to other jobs in the organization.
Another prime objective is to establish an orderly, rational, systematic structure of jobs
based on their worth to the organization.
The secondary objectives could be :
 To develop compensation and rewards systems based on the concept of total rewards
philosophy encompassing pay, benefits, opportunities for growth and helps in
maintaining work life balance.
 Aims at ensuring that the employees are adequately rewarded on both internal as well
as external equity front.
 Aims at justifying the pay structures within the organizations and are able to pacify
the unions when it comes to pay structures
 To ensure that the employees are compensated in fair and equitable manner justifying
their duties and responsibilities.
It is also viewed that job evaluation is done basically to see that the objective of
internal equity and external equity are well taken care of besides,
 55

 Establishing and designing pay structures for the jobs and positions arising in the
organizations due to change in business strategies and policies of expansion and
diversification etc.
 Outlining the career planning for the employees, clearly showing them the path of
their progression through fast track programs to higher levels more quickly than
through normal course of routine, who are interested in improving their financial
security (better compensation and benefits) faster through faster promotions.
 Complying with the legal and statutory regulations with regard to pay fixation.
 Developing compensation programs based on performance and competencies
 Redesigning and rejuvenating the pay structures from time to time with changing
measures of performance and matching them to cost of living indices.
3.7 JOB EVALUATION METHODS
After job analysis preparations of job descriptions comes the essential stage of job evaluation,
namely, the systematic comparison of jobs in order to establish a job hierarchy. The
techniques which have been commonly used tend to fall into one of the two main categories:
see figure 3

Figure 3 : Methods Of Job Evaluation

 56

3.7.1 Quantitative Methods of Job Evaluation

The Job Ranking Method
This method of job evaluation is perhaps the most sought after simple and inexpensive
method as it aims at evaluating the worth of each job on the basis of its title and contents in
terms of its duties and responsibilities. Each job is compared with others and its place in the
job hierarchy is determined thereafter.
The major drawback of the method is in terms of its being subjective in nature while
comparing the jobs as it does not break down the job into factors thus rendering it difficult to
measure the whole job as such.
However its advantages lie in its being simple and ease of administration which makes it
more acceptable and suitable for smaller organizations.
2. Job Grading method
Unlike the ranking method, the job grading methods does not call for a detailed quantitative
analysis of the job factors; it considers the job as a whole. On the other hand it has specific
yardsticks in the form of job classes or grades for grading the jobs while the ranking method
does not have any yardsticks for evaluating jobs. In this method first of all grades are decided
and then the factors corresponding to these grades are determined. Then eventually the
factual information and data with regard to the jobs is collected and is matched with the
grades which have been established so far
One of the most important prerequisite of job grading method is to outline grade
descriptions to cover discernible differences in the job features ranging from the skills
abilities and other discernible job characteristics. Then comes arranging the jobs in
accordance with their importance in the form of a schedule, specifying the amount of
responsibility and supervision required for each job. Like the jobs at the lowest rung are the
one’s requiring the highest degree of physical activity and lowest degree of responsibility and
involvement under close supervisory actions. Subsequently the jobs will be placed depending
upon the degree of physical activity and responsibility and supervision involved in the order.
However the disadvantages of the method are that, it is not possible to quantify the job grade
descriptions, besides difficulty in convincing the employees for placing the jobs in particular
grades due to ambiguity in grade descriptions itself.
Again it s advantages lie in its simplicity and being inexpensive in administration plus this
method is quite useful in organizations where the number of jobs is small.
3.7.2 Qualitative Methods of Job Evaluation
1. The Factor Comparison Method
This qualitative method of job evaluation starts with the selection of five important factors or
requirements of the job in terms of ; mental abilities, skills , stamina both physical and
emotional, responsibility involved and the working conditions under which the job is to be
performed. These factors are considered to be constant for all jobs , then each factor is
ranked individually with other jobs, like first of all the jobs may be put through comparison
with regard to the mental abilities required , then with other factors one by one. This may
 57

result in ranking the job higher in skills requirement and lower in physical exertion. Then the
total point values are assigned to each factor, making it easier to determine the worth of the
job by adding all the point values.
The disadvantage of this method lies in its complexity and expenditure involved. But the
advantage of this method is that all the jobs in spite of being dissimilar in nature are
evaluated with the same set of factors. See figure 4

Figure 4 : Steps in The Factor Comparison Method

2. Point Rating Method

This method of job evaluation commences with the picking up of the job related factors,
constructing degrees for each factor and then assigning points to each degree. The method
chooses to select different factors for different jobs with corresponding differences in degrees
and points. E.g.
The different factors would be as following which would be then assigned degrees and points
 Skills (academic background , work experience , initiative and creative skills)
 Efforts (physical requirements and stamina, mental alertness and agility required on
the job, visual capacity)
 Responsibility (for the equipment to be handled ,materials to be used, safety of self
and others, work of others)
 Job related conditions (working conditions and hazards involved, workplace safety
requirements). See figure 5
 58

The disadvantages of the system arises due to two reasons, firstly there are chances
that the employees disagree with factors selected, their degrees allotted and the points
assigned to them. Secondly there are apprehensions in the minds of the employees
with regard to the range of points allotted matching them with the job grades.
However the advantages of the method are that here the job is divided into a number
of factors and the job‘s worth is determined on the basis of the factors and not the job
as a whole. the methodology is simple to be understood and implemented by the
employees

Figure 5 : Steps in point ranking method

3.7.3 Difference between job evaluation and performance evaluation
At this juncture it would be interesting to find out the differences between job evaluation
and performance evaluation which are delineated below;
1. In job evaluation, the jobs are rated keeping in view such factors as responsibility,
qualification, experience working conditions etc required for the successful
performance of the job.
 59

While in performance appraisal, the employee is rated on the basis of his performance
on the job.
2. The job is evaluated before the appointment of the employee.
While the employee is rated only after he has been hired and has performed on the
job.
3. The purpose of job evaluation is to establish pay structures and satisfactory wage and
salary differentials.
While the purpose of performance appraisal is to effect promotions, offer rewards and
take corrective action in the gaps of employees performance, impart them adequate
training and so on.
4. Carrying out job evaluation in not compulsory, the organizations may choose to
conduct it or refrain from it. Wherever it is followed, it is generally for the lower level
jobs.
It is absolutely compulsory to have regular performance appraisals and that too a mix
of traditional and modern methods, which is carried on for all the levels in the
organization.
5. The organization usually sets up job evaluation committees comprising of internal and
external consultants to conduct job analysis.
Performance appraisals are generally conducted by the superiors in traditional
methods and by peers , subordinates , employees themselves and customers and other
stakeholders in some of the modern methods .
3.8 Alternative to job evaluation
Why do you think employees are being paid for their jobs apart from putting in their physical
efforts on it. It is obviously their decision making abilities which leads to the successful
completion of jobs. This is exactly what Thomas Paterson and Ernst and young have
proposed way back in 1970’s. They propounded a method called decision bank method
(DBM). It is based on the premise that the value of the job should be determined by the
decision making requirements of the job. The degree and quality of decisions required on a
particular job should be the basis for comparing all the jobs. Higher the degree of decision
making, higher should be the value of the job and vice versa. After all the employees at the
higher level are paid for using their grey cells only, that is their decision-making abilities
only.
Thus making this method as a logical choice for job evaluation as everybody irrespective of
his level in the organizational hierarchy is supposed to make a decision to perform his task
in the assigned manner.
This method is thus different in terms of criteria used for job evaluation by traditional
methods as it aims at concentrating on using the decision-making capabilities of the
individuals while performing on the jobs to determine its worth.
However the success rate of this method has not been reported very enthusiastically so far.
 60

Self Assessment Questions.

1. Fill in the Blanks
1. This method of job evaluation is a combination of the ranking and point system.
…,………………….
2. This is the most widely used method for job evaluation. It along with factor
comparison method, involves a more detailed, quantitative and analytical approach to
the measurement of job worth, what is this method …………….
3. Each job is reviewed, evaluated and placed into a class or grade. It is …………….
4. This method of ............................ is generally used in smaller units where the job raters
know all the jobs quite well. In this method no effort is made to break a job down into
its elements or factors,
5. The objective of ……………. is to determine which jobs should get more pay than
others.
2. Write down a detailed note on the job analysis, job designing, and job evaluation of your
organization…………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

3.8 SUMMARY
Job analysis is a procedure through which you determine the duties and responsibilities,
nature of the jobs and finally to decide qualifications, skills and knowledge to be required for
an employee to perform particular job. A job description is usually developed by conducting
a job analysis, which includes examining the tasks and sequences of tasks necessary to
perform the job. The analysis considers the areas of knowledge and skills needed for the job.
A job usually includes several roles. A job specification defines the knowledge, skills and
abilities that are required to perform a job in an organization. These can be determined by
performing a detailed job analysis and its corresponding description. Job specification helps
in the recruitment process and the performance management process in the organization.
Job specifications are actually derived from job analysis. Job evaluation is an assessment of
the relative worth of various jobs on the basis of a consistent set of job and personal factors,
such as qualifications and skills required. There is another method of job analysis called
competency method of job analysis which encourages the employees to develop role based
competencies instead of being boxed in particular jobs only in different work settings and
situations. Job designing has also been discussed with states that it is a process of
establishing employees, roles and responsibilities, and the system and procedures that they
should follow. The main purpose of job design or redesigning is to coordinate and optimize
the work processes to create value and maximizing employees performance. The different
methods of job designing can be job rotation, job enlargement and job enrichment. Job
evaluation on the other hand, is a method of determining the worth of the job in comparison
to other jobs in the organization. There are various methods of job evaluation, qualitative as
 61

well as quantitative which are primarily used for designing the pay structures in the
organization.
3.9 GLOSSARY
Job analysis: Job analysis is a procedure through which you determine the duties and
responsibilities encompassing the job (called job description) and the nature of the jobs and
finally to decide qualifications, skills and knowledge to be required for an employee to
perform particular job ( called job specification )
Job description: A job description is usually developed by conducting a job analysis, which
includes examining the tasks and sequences of tasks necessary to perform the job.
Job specification: A statement of employee characteristics and qualifications required for
satisfactory performance of defined duties and tasks comprising a specific job or function.
Job specification is derived from job analysis.
Job designing : it is a process of establishing employees, roles and responsibilities, and the
system and procedures that they should follow. The main purpose of job design or
redesigning is to coordinate and optimize the work processes to create value and maximizing
employees performance.
Job evaluation: Job evaluation is an assessment of the relative worth of various jobs on the
basis of a consistent set of job and personal factors, such as qualifications and skills
required.
3.10 REFERENCES
1. David A Decenzo & Stephen P Robbins, Personnel / Human Resource Management,
Prentice hall, India
2. K. Ashwathapa, Human Resource and personnel Management- Text and Cases, TMH
3. Wayne F Cascio, Managing human resources, TMH
4. Gary Dessler, Human Resource Management, Prentice hall, India
5. VSP Rao, Human Resource Management- Text and Cases, Excel Books
3.11 FURTHER READINGS
1. Jyothi, P. and Venkatesh, D.N., Human Resource Management, Oxford University
Press
2. Bohlander & Snell, Managing human resources, Thomson
3. John M Ivancevich, Human Resource Management, TMH
4. Machael R Camell, Nobert F Elbert & Robert D Hattfield, Human Resource
Management, Prentice hall, India
3.13 MODEL QUESTIONS
1. Introduce the concept of Job Analysis by defining it and outlining its significance in
today’s dynamic HR environment.
2. discuss the Objectives, benefits and process of Job Analysis
 62

3. What do you think are the outcomes of job analysis? Explain.

4. Are job descriptions really necessary? What would happen if the company decides not
to have job descriptions at all?
5. Explain the various Techniques and problems involved in Job Analysis.
6. What is Job Evaluation? Discuss its importance for both the employees as well as
employers point of view.
7. Critically evaluate the various Methods of job evaluation.
8. Which methods of job evaluation are better and why? The quantitative or the
qualitative. Discuss with reference to the advantages and disadvantages of both.
ANSWERS TO SELF ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS
Answers to Self-assessment Questions. (Fill in the Blanks 1)
1. Disagree (job specification)
2. Agree
3. Disagree ( only specific type of job)
4. Agree
Answers to Self-assessment Questions. (Fill in the Blanks 2)

1. Factor comparison method

2. Point rating method
3. Job grading method
4. Job ranking
 63

Lesson - 4

RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION

STRUCTURE
4.0 Objectives
4.1 Introduction: Meaning and concept of recruitment
4.1.1 Challenges for HR personnel for recruiting the right fit
4.1.2 Why recruitment is important?
4.1.3 Factors governing recruitment policy
4.1.4 Sources of recruitment
4.1.5 Pros and Cons of Internal and External Sources Of Recruitment
4.2 The Process of Recruitment
4.3 Selection- meaning and definitions
4.3.1 Selection process
4.4 Summary
4.5 Glossary
4.6 References
4.7 Further readings
4.8 Model Questions
4.0 OBJECTIVES
After going through the lesson, you should be able to;
 understand the Meaning and Process of Recruitment and Selection
 gain Insight into the Various Steps in the Recruitment and Selection Process
4.1 INTRODUCTION: MEANING AND CONCEPT OF RECRUITMENT
The international competitive pressures, the increasing size and complexity of the
organizations, the ever-changing values, career concerns and demography of workforce
combined together and a host of other factors have rendered the traditional approach to
human resource management obsolete and redundant. In this changed scenario attracting
retaining and motivating the right people and ensuring that the stars or the exceptional
performers board the bus is posing an altogether a new challenge for the HR personnel.
 64

The ongoing current global trends which will sway us into the opportunities and
threats of the new millennium demands a more comprehensive, more strategic perspective to
recruit utilize and conserve the most valuable assets i.e. the human resources.
Therefore, the HRM strategy of the organization must fit into this dynamic and ever so
competitive business environment where the companies are outdoing each other in hiring the
best people where money is no bar for the best.
It has become all the more significant to ensure that the corporate strategy and the
HRM strategy are enmeshed together to get the best results as far as recruitment and
selection is concerned as it has long term implications and repercussions on the
organization.
The function of scientific selection of personnel is one of the most important functions
of HRM, comprising the following sub functions, like
 Determining the nature of the job to be filled,
 The type of personnel required,
 The sources of recruitment
 And finally, selection of the right people
According to Flippo, Recruitment is a dynamic process which attracts the right candidates
and stimulate them to apply for a right post in the organization .
On the other hand, Dale Yoder, says that it is a process which encompasses discovering
the sources of manpower to meet the staffing requirements and thereby employing effective
measures for attracting that manpower in adequate number to facilitate effective selection of
an efficient workforce for the organization who should aim at achieving the organizational
objectives.
Thus, any recruitment process of the organization aims at hiring the best fit for the
job, people with the winners’ attitude and not just a traditional blend of expertise and
experience any more. Companies are looking for people with multidimensional skill sets and
a vast and varied experiences behind them to their organizations.
This has invariably led to a recruitment revolution that has engulfed the India Inc today.
All this has led the organizations to look beyond campuses to find the right person for
the job and develop innovative techniques to beat the competition at recruitment hotspots
like prestigious institutes. They are now forced to look beyond their conventional hunting
grounds, for this is the place from where people with unorthodox winning ideas will come
from. This is the need of the hour as people already in the sector will offer tired ideas.
The organizations are today searching for knowledge workers, for that they will have to
raid research labs, non-government organizations, college staff rooms and even sports fields.
And the quest for manager’s abilities to lead mage projects will have to be global and not just
limited within the borders.
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Another essential requisite is that the companies must tailor their manpower
requirements to meet the overall organizational objectives, hunting for people not just with
academically sound backgrounds but who fit into the organization culture as well.
4.1.1 Challenges for HR personnel for recruiting the right fit
Keeping in view the objective of recruitment ie to attract retain and motivate the right
personnel, the following are more discreet challenges which should be taken care of ;
 Attracting candidates with multidimensional knowledge, skills and abilities, with all-
rounder personalities
 Encouraging promotions or hiring from outside to bring in fresh perspectives and
thinking into the organization
 Injecting and infusing fresh and young blood at levels in the organizational hierarchy,
no wonder the age of the top CEO’s is decreasing every day with no grey set of hair
sitting on the other side of the table staring through his glasses and giving a stern look
…
 Showcasing an attractive work culture to the world and becoming one of the best
places to work by meeting the needs and aspirations of today ‘s millennial executives
who are willing to work hard, but at the same time want work life balance.
 Locating people whose personalities fit into the organizations value system.
 Devising newer techniques for finding out the psychological traits in the candidate
which will suit the organization
 Carrying out a global manhunt for talent and not restricting to local grounds alone.
 Incorporating and designing internationally competitive compensation packages to
hire the best brains around the globe.
 Last but not the least forecasting future manpower requirements for the positions
which may be there in the near future
4.1.2 Why recruitment is important?
By now we have clearly understood that the most important purpose of recruitment is
to make available a pool of potentially qualified workforce to fill in the current and the future
manpower requirements of the organization.
The purpose can be better understood by dwelling into the following points;
 A well laid down recruitment policy would help in determining the present and the
future requirements in consonance with the personnel planning and job analysis
activities.
 Increase the pool of job candidates at a minimum cost.
 Helps in churning out the under qualified or overqualified applicants
 Helps in evaluating the effectiveness of various recruiting techniques and sources for
all types of job applicants
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4.1.3 Factors governing recruitment policy

There are certain internal and external factors that a govern a recruitment policy as
exhibited below in figure 1.

Figure 1 : Internal and external factors governing recruitment

4.1.4 Sources of recruitment
Every organization today has a plethora of options at its disposal to ensure that it has
the right quantity and quality of people on board. It would be interesting to acknowledge the
fact that the recruitment policies vary with the nature of the organization, that is a public
sector, a private sector, a multinational and a transnational company would follow different
methodologies for recruitment. Unlike the government organizations the private sector is
quite experimental with its recruitment and selection policies by resorting to unconventional
 67

and newer methodologies for recruiting the right person. They are leaving no stone unturned
today. There has been an increasing trend worldwide to hire people from India especially in
the software domain, companies like Microsoft, Google, Apple are on a hiring spree
southward. Thanks to the vast reservoir of English-speaking people in India who are also the
most adaptable in the world, which makes them the favorite choice amongst both the good as
well as the great organizations across the globe.
The various sources can be either from within the organization or from outside the
organization. See Figure 2

Figure 2 : Sources Of Recruitment

4.1.5 Pros and Cons of Internal And External Sources Of Recruitment
Let’s now find out the pros and cons of both internal and external sources of
recruitment. Needless to mention that both sources are important though in varying degrees.
It would of course depend upon the requirements of the organization as to whether they
would like to utilize the internal sources and available pool of human resources or they want
to hire people from outside. Again, the decision would be contingent upon the corporate
strategy and the top leader’s philosophy and vision, which may keep on changing with the
changing mosaic of the business environment.
Advantages of Internal Recruitment
 Apart from being less costly and time consuming it has various advantages in the form
of increased commitment, morale and motivation of the employees.
 It will present an image of the organization which believes in developing its human
resources and does not believe in hiring from outside until absolutely required.
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 It will be less cumbersome as they would not have to undergo the whole process of
recruitment all over again.
 As the organizations are better aware of their current manpower, it will be easier for
both of them to settle down as they are aware of the company’s culture.
 It will also enable the organization to chart out its career planning strategies for the
employees well in advance as they are aware of their chances of growth and
development within the organization.
 It will increase the people stability in the long run as there would a feel of job security
amongst the employees and they would not be hunting outside
Disadvantages of Internal Recruitment
 However, there would be certain disadvantages of recruiting from within, as it would
endanger the organization of becoming obsolete and short of fresh ideas and creative
pursuits.
 Since there would be no competition, the internal employees might become
overconfident and lackadaisical in their approach towards their contribution to the
organization.
 Another hazard could be breeding in of the internal politics in promoting the
employees which can spread discontentment and frustration amongst the deserving
candidates who might then be forced to look out for better opportunities outside.
Advantages of External Recruitment
The disadvantages of internal recruitment would turn out to be the advantages of
External Recruitment
 In the form of out of the box hiring which will of course infuse fresh blood into the
organization along with the introduction of creative ideas and innovative thinking,
plus people with diverse experiences from other organizations will bring their previous
experience which will benefit the new organization in number of ways.
 The organization will be able to fulfill its obligation towards government policy of
employing people from reserved categories.
 People in the organization will not consider it to be their prerogative to be promoted all
the time, they will be always on their toes to prove themselves and will discourage
them from being lackadaisical towards their work.
Disadvantages of External Recruitment
 Besides being expensive, time consuming and a cumbersome process, recruiting from
outside will invariably lead to resentment, heartburn jealousies etc. on the part of
internal employees.
 The level of morale and motivation of the internal employees will also receive a set
back
 Sometimes faulty hiring can prove to be quite expensive for the organization.
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4.2 THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS

The process of recruitment is quite expensive and time consuming besides requiring a lot of
caution as one wrong recruitment can prove to be very expensive for the organization. An
ideal process would have five steps or stages as exhibited below in figure 3

Figure 3: Steps in The Recruitment Process

An ideal recruitment policy should start with attracting a relatively larger number of
applicants. Following points be however taken into consideration:
1. How many and what type of employees are required (manpower planning)
2. Where and how to look for candidates with the requisite qualifications and interest
3. What inducements can be used for various applicant groups?
4. How to churn out the desirable candidates
5. And finally, how to evaluate their work
1. Planning: this stage would involve translation of likely job vacancies and job information
into a set of objectives specifying:
 The number of employees required
 The type of applicants to be contacted
2. Strategy development: this stage would involve considering the following points:
 Where to look; national international, regional or local job markets
 How to look; surfing internal and external sources of recruitment
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 When to look; the right timing of recruitment for the company, which would again
depend upon a number of internal strengths and weaknesses and external threats
and opportunities.
3. Searching: after the planning and strategy development has taken place , the next step
is searching , which would involve;
 Source activation: a good recruitment plan or an advertisement would result in a
flood of applicants, which must be screened to call the desirable candidates for
interviews
 Selling: would involve attention to both the advertisement placed (message) and
the media for advertising chosen. However, the organizations should be cautious
of not overselling themselves in the job markets which might garner negative
reviews at times.
4. Screening: this is the most important and significant stage of a recruitment process.
 The purpose is to choose desirable candidates for the job at an early stage and
calling them for job interviews.
 Different techniques of screening can be used at this stage like interviews and
application blanks are used for conducting walk in interviews, campus recruiters
and agency representatives also use interviews and resumes.
 Sometimes reference checks are also useful in screening out the unfit candidates.
5. Evaluation and control: this stage involves two main aspects
Monitoring: it involves tracking down various indicators of performance on an ongoing
basis like quantity of vacancies, quality of recruits, efficiency of recruits and the recruits
themselves.
Feedback: the evaluation data can be used to make improvements in the recruiting
plans and strategies.
Self Assessment Questions
(State whether true or false)
1. A well laid down recruitment policy would help in determining the present and the
future requirements in consonance with the personnel planning and job analysis
activities.
2. Decrease the pool of job candidates at a minimum cost.
3. Helps in churning out the under qualified or overqualified applicants
4. Helps in controlling the effectiveness of various recruiting techniques and sources for
all types of job applicants

4.3 SELECTION: MEANING AND DEFINITIONS

Selection means a process by which the qualified personnel can be chosen from the
applicants who have offered their services to the organization for employment. The process of
 71

interviewing and evaluating candidates for a specific job and selecting an individual for
employment based on certain criteria is selection. Employee selection can range from a very
simple process to a very complicated process depending on the firm hiring and the position.
The Selection process divides the candidates for employment into two classes:
1) Those that are offered employment;
2) Those that are rejected.
Thus, the selection process is a Negative Function because it attempts to eliminate
applicants, leaving only the best to be placed in organization.
In the words of Dale Yoder, “Selection is the process in which candidates for
employment are divided into two classes- those who are to be offered employment and those
who are not”.
Employee selection can range from a very simple process to a very complicated process
depending on the firm hiring and the position. Certain employment laws such as anti-
discrimination laws must be obeyed during employee selection.
4.3.1 SELECTION PROCESS
Selection is a process of choosing right person for the right job. The selection process
consists of a series of steps or techniques as follows:
1. Job Analysis: The first step in selection process is job analysis which has been
discussed in detail in the previous chapter.
2. Advertising the Job: The next step is to advertise the job. The job can be advertised
through various media. The right details about the job and the candidate must be given
in the advertisement.
A job advertisement is a paid announcement in a newspaper or other medium about a
job vacancy. The advertisement is part of a wider recruitment process designed to attract
suitable qualified candidates for a job. Job advertisements are created by human resource
professionals or external recruitment agencies working with the managers of departments
who need to recruit staff.
Purpose:
The main purpose of a job advertisement is to attract suitable candidates for the
position. An effective ad reduces the time companies spend interviewing unsuitable
candidates by providing a precise statement of job requirements. A job advertisement also
plays a secondary role by helping to position the company as a growing organization staffed
by quality people. This can help create awareness and interest from qualified people who
might be attracted to the company for future vacancies.
Types of Advertisement:
Job advertisements typically take two forms: display and classified advertisements.

Display advertisements include bold headlines, copy and photographs or illustrations. They
 72

come in various sizes, from small boxes to full-page or even double-page advertisements.
Through size and creativity, ad designers aim to create impact with display advertisements.
Classified advertisements are much simpler. They feature a subject headline and text and
appear under a job category heading with other advertisements of similar appearance.
Classified ads offer little opportunity for creative treatment or impact.
A job advertisement has five main elements;
1. Information on the job opening describes the duties and responsibilities of the
position.
2. A candidate profile outlines the experience, education and other attributes required for
the job.
3. Company information provides insight into the working environment and the
opportunities for the right candidate.
4. The advertisement should also describe the salary range and benefits for the
successful candidate.
5. Finally, the advertisement should explain the application process, including how and
where to apply.
Media
Job advertisements appear in different media, including local and national
newspapers, industry magazines and job websites. In newspapers and magazines, job ads
typically appear in a recruitment section, although advertisements for prestige senior
positions might be placed in another section, such as business or finance, for additional
impact. Companies also use social media such as Facebook and LinkedIn to communicate
with potential candidates for current and future vacancies.
3. Initial Screening: The initial screening can be done of the applications and of the
applicant. Usually, a junior executive does the screening work. At this stage, the executive
may check on the general personality, age, qualifications, family background of the
candidate. The candidate may also be informed of salary, working conditions, etc.
At this point, a few straight forward questions are asked. An applicant may obviously
be unqualified to fill the advertised position, but be well qualified to work in other open
positions. The purpose of screening is to reduce the number of applicants at this very stage.
Sources utilized in the screening effort
Personal Resume presented with the job application is considered as source of informa
tion, that can be used for the initial screening process. It mainly includes information in the
following areas:
· Employment & education history
· Evaluation of character
· Evaluation of job performance
 73

Screening Interviews:
Screening interviews are used to:
· To verify information provided on resume or application blank.
· They are usually very short (approximately 30 minutes or so).
4. Application Blank: It is a prescribed form of the company which helps to obtain
information about candidate in respect of social, biographic, academic, work experience,
references, etc.
The application blank helps to –
 It provides input for the interview.
 It provides basis to reject candidates if they do not meet eligibility criteria, such as
experience, qualifications, etc.
The successful candidates in preliminary interview are supplied the Application
Blanks to get a written record of the following information.
(a) Identifying Information of selection procedure: Such as family background, date and
place of birth, age, sex, height, citizenship, marital status etc.
(b) Information regarding Education of selection procedure: It includes information about
his academic career, subjects taken at various school certificate and degree level, grade
received in school and college, technical qualification etc.
(c) Information regarding Experience of selection procedure: Giving full details of past
jobs such as nature of work, job responsibilities, periods involved, destinations, salaries with
allowances, reasons for leaving the services etc.
(d) Expected salaries an allowances and other fringe benefits:
(e) Information regarding Community activities: consisting of details regarding
extracurricular activities, hobbies, position held in social organization such as clubs,
management associations etc.
(f) Other information: may be collected by the management such as reference etc.
Such information help the management in screening out the out desirable applicants and in
maintaining the record for the future. Form of Application Blank may differ from organization
to organization.
5. Tests: Various tests are conducted to judge the ability and efficiency of the candidates.
The type of tests depends upon the nature of job. An important advantage of testing is that it
can be administered to a large group of candidates at the same time and saves time and cost.
The various tests are: (a) Personality test, (b) Intelligence test, (c) Performance test, (d)
Stress test, etc.
The need of tests
⚫ Objectivity – good psychological tests are standardized on a large sample and provide
normative data across a wide range of demographics and age cohorts. Well selected
tests will allow you to demonstrate talents that may otherwise not be evident.
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⚫ Validity – psychometric tests are a more valid method of assessment than interviews,
academic achievement & reference checks, and when utilized in combination (for
example in an assessment centre) is highly predictive of future job performance.
⚫ Cost – the cost of selection errors is large for both the employer and the employee.
Psychometric tests help to minimize costs while maximizing potential fit between the
candidate and the job.
6. Interview: It is face to face exchange of views, ideas and opinions between the
candidate and interviewer(s). Interviews are of two types –preliminary and selection interview.
Preliminary Interview:
Such an interview is generally planned by large organizations for short listing the
potential candidates in order to cut the costs of selection by allowing only eligible candidates
to go through the further stages in selection.
Selection interview:
Having drawn up your shortlist of candidates next is to interview them. Actually, it
has least three purposes:
1. To enable you to discover which of the candidates live up to expectations and which
one of them best meet the job’s requirements?
2. To enable them to find out about the job and the organization and to decide whether
they really want to work with you.
3. To leave them (whether successful or rejected) with favorable impression of the
organization and feeling none the worse about themselves as a result of the interview.
Interviews continue to be the most common method of selecting new staff. So it is
worth thinking about how to avoid the major pitfalls. The following check lists indicates steps
to hold an effective interview:
1. Preparing for the interview
2. Conducting the interview and
3. Evaluating the interview.
7. Reference Check: A candidate may be asked to provide references from those who are
willing to supply or confirm about the applicant’s past life, character and experience.
 Reference check helps to know the personal character and family background of the
candidate.
 It helps to guard against possible false information supplied by candidate.
Reference checks are a critical step in the hiring process. Every hiring expert will agree
that you should always check a candidate's references before making a hiring decision or
extending an offer of employment.
 75

Standard References
Standard references encompass the major elements regarding employment, including
dates, occupation, hard and soft skills, interpersonal skills, behaviour, and reason for
leaving.
Investigative References
An in-depth investigative reference includes all standard reference questions as well as
additional specific details to the most appropriate skill sets based on the position applied for.
This report is recommended when promoting or hiring at a senior level and provides
indications on how to best manage, coach, or supervise an employee. References are checked
nationally or internationally.
8. Medical Check: Medical examination of the candidates is undertaken before they join
the firm in order to –
 Find out whether the candidate is physically fit to carry out duties and responsibilities
effectively,
 Ensure the health and safety of other employees,
 Find out whether the candidate is sensitive to certain work place such as in a chemical
factory.
Healthy and Fit Workforce
A medical exam enables employers to recruit workers with qualifications that should
increase efficiency. Physical fitness and health are requirements you need to join strenuous
fields such as firefighting. As an applicant, you must go through a medical test that will
determine whether your heart, lungs, eyes, ears and limbs are healthy.
Workplace Safety
A drug- and alcohol-free workplace helps reduce carelessness that may result in
injuries or death, especially in businesses that involve the use of machinery. Pre-employment
medical examination procedures used in screening the use of illegal drugs and alcohol can
help you avoid these problems.
9. Final Interview: Before making a job offer, the candidates may be subjected to one
more oral interview to find out their interest in the job and their expectations. At this stage,
salary and other perks may be negotiated.
10. Job Offer: This is the most crucial and final step in selection process. A wrong
selection of a candidate may make the company to suffer for a good number of years and the
loss is incalculable. Company should make a very important decision to offer right job to the
right person.
Self Assessment Questions
Fill in the blanks
1. A carefully structured plan that maps out the strategy for attracting and hiring the
best qualified candidates for the organization. It is a…………………………….
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2. An ………………………. is a system where existing employees recommend

prospective candidates for the job offered.
3. Use of social media for recruiting including sites like Facebook, Twitter, and
LinkedIn is called……………………
4. References encompassing the major elements regarding employment, including
dates, occupation, hard and soft skills, interpersonal skills, behaviour, and reason
for leaving are called ……………………..
5. References including An in-depth investigative reference including all standard
reference questions as well as additional specific details to the most appropriate
skill sets based on the position applied for are called ………………………..
Critically evaluate the existing recruitment and selection process in your
organization
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
How far do you think it is able to attract the right talent for your organization?
..................................................................................................................................
..................................................................................................................................
...............................................................................................................................

4.4 SUMMARY
Recruitment is appositive process of inviting prospective applicants for the vacancies
in the organization and to build a pool of job seekers from which selection of suitable
candidates can be made. This is the organization’s first contact with the potential employees.
Thus, a well laid out policy will bring long term benefits for the organization by helping in
selecting the right candidates. The organization can follow either internal or external sources
of recruitment depending upon its size, structure, strategy, mission, vision, top leadership
philosophy etc. it is a five-step process starting with planning, strategy development,
searching screening and evaluation and control. The whole process of recruitment aims at
hiring the best fit for the organization.
Selection is a screening process. It is the process of picking individuals who have
relevant qualification to fill jobs in an organization. The basic purpose is to choose the
individuals who can most successfully perform the job from the pool of qualified candidates.
Selection starts after the recruitment process is over and job applications have been received.
Various steps are involved in selecting right candidate ranging from simple process of
interview to multiple processes of advertising and form filing, holding basic interview, holding
tests, final interview, checking references and medical examinations. After that the employee
is placed and inducted on a job for which he is best suited.
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4.5 GLOSSARY
Recruitment: Recruitment is a process of identifying and preparing potential candidates to fill
the application form.
Recruitment Plan: A carefully structured recruitment plan maps out the strategy for
attracting and hiring the best qualified candidate and helps to ensure an applicant pool
which includes women and underrepresented groups including veterans and individuals with
disabilities.
Social recruiting: It is the use of social media for recruiting including sites like Facebook,
Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Standard References: It encompass the major elements regarding employment, including
dates, occupation, hard and soft skills, interpersonal skills, behaviour, and reason for
leaving.
Investigative References: An in-depth investigative reference includes all standard
reference questions as well as additional specific details to the most appropriate skill sets
based on the position applied for.
Application Blank: It is a prescribed form of the company which helps to obtain information
about candidate in respect of social, biographic, academic, work experience, references, etc.
Selection: it is a process of choosing right person for the right job using job analysis, job
description and job specification.
4.6 REFERENCES
1. David A Decenzo & Stephen P Robbins, Personnel / Human Resource Management,
Prentice Hall, India
2. K.Ashwathapa, Human Resource and personnel Management- Text and Cases, TMH
3. Wayne F Cascio, Managing human resources, TMH
4. Gary Dessler, Human Resource Management, Prentice Hall, India
5. VSP Rao, Human Resource Management- Text and Cases, Excel Books
4.7 FURTHER READINGS
1. Jyothi, P. and Venkatesh, D.N., Human Resource Management, Oxford University
Press
2. Bohlander & Snell, Managing human resources, Thomson
3. John M Ivancevich, Human Resource Management, TMH
4. Machael R Camell, Nobert F Elbert & Robert D Hattfield, Human Resource
Management, Prentice Hall, India
4.8 MODEL QUESTIONS
1. Discuss the concept of recruitment and factors affecting recruitment of personnel in
an organization?
 78

2. Outline the process of recruitment in detail.

3. What are the constraints and challenges in recruitment today? Discuss.
4. What are the various sources of recruitment? Discuss each one of them?
5. What are the latest trends in recruitment? What is the impact of IT on recruitment
policies?
6. What is meant by selection? Why is selection known as a negative process?
7. Discuss various steps involved in selecting right candidate for the right job?
ANSWERS TO SELF ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS 1
1. true
2. false, Increase
3. true
4. false , evaluating
ANSWERS TO SELF ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS 2
1. Recruitment Plan
2. employee referral program
3. Social recruiting
4. Standard References
5. Investigative References
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Lesson - 5

PLACEMENT AND INDUCTION

STRUCTURE
5.0 Objectives
5.1 Introduction and Meaning of placement
5.2 Significance and benefits of placement
5.3 Principles and problems in placement
5.4 Introduction and Meaning of induction
5.5 Objectives, contents, elements of induction
5.6 Procedure and problems in induction
5.7 The significance of induction and socialization in understanding organizational culture
5.8 Summary
5.9 Glossary
5.10 References
5.11 Further readings
5.12 Model Questions
5.0 OBJECTIVES
After going through the lesson, you should be able to
 understand the meaning of placements and its importance in the organizations
 draw the principles and problems involved with placement.
 view the role of induction, its benefits, objectives, procedures and elements involved.
 appreciate the significance of induction and socialization in understanding and
adapting to the organizational culture
5.1 INTRODUCTION AND MEANING OF PLACEMENT
Placement is a process of assigning a specific job to each of the selected candidates. It
involves assigning a specific rank and responsibility to an individual. It implies matching the
requirements of a job with the qualifications of the candidate.
Placement refers to assigning rank and responsibility to an individual,
identifying him with a particular job. If the person adjusts to the job and continues to
perform per expectations, it means that the candidate is properly placed. However, if the
candidate is seen to have problems in adjusting himself to the job, the supervisor must find
 80

out whether the person is properly placed as per the latter’s aptitude and potential. Usually,
placement problems arise out of wrong selection or improper placement or both.
Therefore, organizations need to constantly review cases of employees below
expectations / potential and employee related problems such as turnover, absenteeism,
accidents etc., and assesses how far they are related to inappropriate placement decisions
and remedy the situation without delay.
5.2 THE SIGNIFICANCE AND BENEFITS OF PLACEMENT

The significances of placement entail the following:

1. It improves employee morale.
2. It helps in reducing employee turnover.
3. It helps in reducing absenteeism.
4. It helps in reducing accident rates.
5. It avoids misfit between the candidate and the job.
6. It helps the candidate to work as per the predetermined objectives of the
organization.
7. It helps in reducing Conflict rates.
A good and effective placement of the employees in the organization would invariably
result in the following benefits:
o First of all, it will show in good results by the employees on the Job
o It would help the new employees in Getting along with their peers and superiors easily
and eventually help them in proving themselves.
o Placement helps in keeping the employees in high spirits and report for the duty
regularly.
o It enables the employees in learning the work quickly and excelling in the job.
o This also enables the new recruits in avoiding mistakes and errors.
Understanding placement better……
After the employee is hired and oriented, he/she must be placed in his/her right job.
Placement is understood as the allocation of people to the job. It is assignment or re-
assignment of an employee to a new or different job. Placement includes initial assignment of
new employees and promotion, transfer or demotion of present employees. The placement is
arising out of promotion, transfer, demotion. Assignment of new employee to a job apparently
seems to be simple task. The employer advertises inviting applications from candidates for a
specific post. The advertisement contains job description and job specifications in detail.
When a candidate has been selected, it is logical that individual is placed in a position that
was advertised earlier. But the task of placement is not that simple it appears.
 81

Times are changing. Changes in the work ethics reflecting the demand for meaningful
work. All these factors are causing organizations and individuals to determine the placement
process more closely. We are entering the age when applicants must be considered for several
jobs rather than one. From the managerial perspective, the task is to understand and
capitalize on each person individually. Since, human attributes vary along many relatively
independent ability, interest, biographical sketch and the personality dimensions, a person’s
individuality is best viewed as his/her unique profile of scores on a variety of individual
measures. Once we establish the unique profile for each individual, people and jobs can be
matched optimally within the constraints set by available jobs and available people. If the
number of individuals is large in relation to the available jobs, only the best qualified persons
can be selected and placed. On the other hand, when more jobs are available, optimal
placement is possible. Thus the number of people and the number of jobs determine the
placement process in any organization.
5.3 PRINCIPLES OF PLACEMENT
A few basic principles should be followed at the time of placement of a worker on
the job. This is elaborated below:
1. Man 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 man. Job
first, man next, should be the principle of the placement.
2. The job should be offered to the person according to his qualification. This should
neither the higher nor the lower than the qualification.
3. The employee should be made conversant with the working conditions prevailing in the
organization and all things relating to the job. He should also be made aware of the
penalties if he commits the wrong.
4. While introducing the job to the new employees, an effort should be made to develop a
sense of loyalty and cooperation in him so that he may realize his responsibility better
towards the job and the organization.
5. The placement should be ready before the joining date of the newly selected person.
6. The placement in the initial period may be temporary as changes are likely after the
completion of training. The employee may be later transferred to the job where he can do
better.
Proper placement helps to improve the employees’ morale. The capacity of the employees can
be utilized fully. The right placement also reduces labour turnover, absenteeism and also the
accident rate. Then the employee can adjust to the required environment of the organization
effectively and the performance of the employee will not be hampered.
Problems of the Placement
The main problem of placement arises when the recruiters look at the individuals but not the
job. Often the individual does not work independent of the others. Jobs in this context are
classified into the three categories:
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1. Independent Jobs are where the activities of one worker have little bearing on the
activities of the other workers; here the placement is simple to conduct.
In the independent jobs the non-overlapping territories are allocated to each employee e.g.,
in the sales. In such situations, the activities of the one employee have little bearing on the
activities of the other workers. The independent jobs do not pose great problems in
placement. Each employee has to be evaluated between his capabilities and the interests and
those required on the job. The objective of the placement will be:
To fill the job with people who have at least the minimum required qualifications. People
should be placed on the job that will make the best possible use of their talents, given
available job or HR constraints.
2. Sequential Jobs are where the activities of the workers are dependent on activities of a
fellow worker. For example, assembly line sequential jobs.
3. In the pooled jobs, there is a high interdependence among the jobs. The final output is
the result of the contribution of all the workers.
Self Assessment Questions
State whether true or false
1. Job first, man next, should be the principle of the placement.
2. The job may or may not be offered to the person according to his qualification
3. The employee should be made conversant with the working conditions prevailing in
the organization and all things relating to the job.
4. Placement is understood as the allocation of jobs to the people.
5. Placement enables the new recruits in avoiding mistakes and errors.

5.4 INTRODUCTION AND MEANING OF INDUCTION

Once an employee is selected and placed on an appropriate job, the process of
familiarizing him with the job and the organization is known as induction and socialization. .
Induction is the process of receiving and welcoming an employee when he first joins the
company and giving him basic information, he needs to settle down Induction refers to the
introduction of a person to the job and the organisation. The purpose is to make the
employee feel at home and develop a sense of pride in the organisation and commitment to
the job.
The induction process is also envisaged to indoctrinate, orient, acclimatise,
acculturate the person to the job and the organisation.
The company will most likely have a higher retention rate from properly inducting
employees since the process is your new employees' first impression of what their jobs and
corporate atmosphere will be like. Proper induction acts as reinforcement to new hires that
they made the right choice by coming to work for you. Depending on the nature of your
business, individual inductions may work better than group inductions, so you can more
quickly bring hires up-to-date on the rules and expectations within the departments they will
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be working in. Equipping your hires with this knowledge will also make them more
independent as workers.
Apart from the above advantages, a well-planned induction plan has the following
advantages;
o Induction helps to build up a two-way channel of communication between management
and workers.
o Proper induction facilitates informal relation and team work among employee.
o Effective induction helps to integrate the new employee into the organization and to
develop a sense of belonging.
o Induction helps to develop good relation.
o A formal induction programme proves that the company is taking interest in getting him
off to good start.
o Proper induction reduces employee grievances, absenteeism and labor turnover.
o Induction is helpful in supplying information concerning the organization, the job and
employee welfare facilities.
Disadvantages of induction
Improper induction can cost your organization by resulting in poor employee
retention. For example, if an employee feels confused or lost after her induction process, she
may or may not ask for help depending on her personality. In this situation, she may either
make mistakes until she gets protocol right, or may take coworkers away from their work to
train her with each problem versus being trained before beginning work. This creates a
disadvantage in terms of employee efficiency, which may translate into poor company
productivity.
5.5 OBJECTIVES, CONTENTS AND ELEMENTS OF INDUCTION
Induction is designed to achieve following objectives
1. To help the new comer to overcome his shyness and over-nervousness in meeting new
people in a new environment.
2. To give new comer necessary information such as location of a café, rest period etc.
3. To build new employee confidence in the organization. It helps in reducing labour
turnover and absenteeism.
4. It reduces confusion and develops healthy relations in the organization.
5. To ensure that the new comer do not form false impression and negative attitude towards
the organization.
6. To develop among the new comer a sense of belonging and loyalty to the organization.
7. Introduce the person to the people with whom he works,
8. Make him aware of the general company policies that apply to him as also the specific
work situation and requirements,
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9. Answer any questions and clarify any doubts that the person may have about the job
and the organisation ……and
10. Provide on-the-job instructions, check back periodically how the person is doing and
offer help, if required.
While The HR staff may provide general orientation relating to the organisation, the
immediate supervisor should take the responsibility for specific orientation relating to the job
and work-unit members. The follow-up of orientation is to be co-ordinated by both the HR
department and the supervisor with a view mainly to obtain feedback and provide guidance
and counselling as required.
Proper induction would enable the employee to get off to a good start and to develop his
overall effectiveness on the job and enhance his potential.
Contents of Induction
The Four C’s Induction of new employees has four distinct levels:
• Compliance is the lowest level and includes teaching employees basic legal and policy
related rules and regulations.
• Clarification refers to ensuring that employees understand their new jobs and all related
expectations.
• Culture is a broad category that includes providing employees with a sense of
organizational norms—both formal and informal.
• Connection refers to the vital interpersonal relationships and information networks that
new employees must establish.
• The purpose of orientation is to expedite the socialization process through which the
employees absorb the values, beliefs and traditions of the organization. Once the
selection process is completed, new employees must be oriented in order to become
productive contributors to the organization.
Elements of Induction
A formal induction programme should provide following information: -
 Brief history and operations of the company.
 The company’s organization structure.
 Policies and procedure of the company.
 Products and services of the company.
 Location of department and employee facilities.
 Safety measures.
 Grievances procedures.
 Benefits and services of employee.
 Standing orders and disciplinary procedures.
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 Opportunities for training, promotions, transfer etc.

 Suggestion schemes.
 Rules and regulations.
A typical induction programme will include at least some of the following:
 Any legal requirements (for example in the, some Health and Safety training is obligatory)
 Any regulatory requirements (for example in the banking sector certain forms need to be
completed)
 Introduction to terms and conditions (for example, holiday entitlement, how to make
expense claims, etc.)
 A basic introduction to the company, and how the particular department fits in
 A guided tour of the building
 Completion of government requirements set-up of payroll details
 Introductions to key members of staff
 Specific job-role training
In order to fully benefit the company and employee, the induction programme should
be planned in advance. A timetable should be prepared, detailing the induction activities for
a set period of time (ideally at least a week) for the new employee, including a named member
of staff who will be responsible for each activity. This plan should be circulated to everyone
involved in the induction process, including the new starter. If possible it should be sent to
the new starter in advance, if not co-created with the new starter
It is also considered best practise to assign a buddy to every new starter. If possible, this
should be a person who the new starter will not be working with directly, but who can
undertake some of the tasks on the induction programme, as well as generally make the new
employee feel welcome. (For example, by ensuring they are included in any lunchtime social
activities.)
Thus, the induction program should include:
a) An employee handbook that covers all of the organisation’s policies and procedures
b) Organisational chart, and face-to-face introduction to key staff
c) Tour of the building, pointing out key items such as exits, bathrooms, meeting rooms,
boardrooms, and useful offices such as IT, and personnel
d) Health and safety training if necessary
e) Guidance on how to complete day-to-day tasks and projects should take place over a
number of days and can include on-the-job training from another co-worker who has
been previously trained. Each task should be explained, and then the trainee should be
left for a short to practise, later the trainer should come back to check on the progress,
see if the information has been learnt and if they can proceed to the next
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5.6 PRODEDURE OF INDUCTION

A new staff member with a continuing or fixed term contract will be advised in a letter
of offer that they will be required to participate in a Corporate Induction. The letter of offer
will specify the staff members commencement date and the first Corporate Induction date
available following commencement.
The letter of offer will also advise the new staff member that they are required to
undertake training on workplace behavior as part of their induction. The staff member
acknowledges their acceptance of these requirements by signing and returning the Employee
Acceptance document to Human Resources.
A copy of the letter of offer is sent to the manager and/or supervisor.
Upon commencement of a continuing or fixed term contract, the manager/supervisor
will receive a memo from Human Resources outlining the probation and induction
requirements for the new staff member.
Stage 1 - Local Induction
On commencement of employment the new staff member will complete a Local
Induction with their immediate supervisor.
The supervisor will:
 Introduce the new staff member to their colleagues;
 Show them their work space;
 Ensure the new staff member has been given access and passwords to the
Organization’s IT system;
 Show them any facilities within the work area – i.e. lunch room etc;
 Advise them of any specific work and break times;
 Discuss the probation requirements and processes with the new staff member; and
 Any other relevant information to assist the new staff member.
The Local Induction will vary within each department and Portfolio, A checklist is
available from the Human Resources website to ensure the most significant points of the
Local Induction are covered.
Any other matters may be discussed at this time and the new staff member given an
opportunity to ask questions.
The completed Local Induction Checklist must be signed by the new staff member and
their supervisor and forwarded to Human Resources with ten (10) days of commencement.
Stage 2 - Occupational Health & Safety Induction
Following the completion of the Local Induction, the new staff member and their
immediate supervisor will complete the Occupational Health and Safety Induction.
The supervisor will:
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 Introduce the new staff member to the Health and Safety Representative and local area
First Aid officer;
 Show the new staff member the local area emergency assembly points;
 Advise the new staff member on any specific emergency procedures related to the specific
unit or Portfolio;
 Advise the new staff member on how to report injuries or hazards and where forms can be
found etc.;
 Discuss the new staff members workstation set up and, if required, arrange for an
ergonomic assessment to be undertaken with the Risk, Health and Safety Portfolio.
The Occupational Health and Safety Induction will vary within each department and
Portfolio, A checklist is available from the Human Resources website to ensure the most
significant points of the Occupational Health and Safety Induction are covered. Any other
matters may be discussed at this time and the new staff member given an opportunity to ask
questions.
The completed Occupational Health and Safety Induction Checklist must be signed by
the new staff member and their supervisor and forwarded to Human Resources with ten (10)
days of commencement.
Stage 3 - Corporate Induction
The new staff member is advised of their Corporate Induction time and venue in their letter of
offer.
In the week of their Corporate Induction the new staff member will receive and email from
Human Resources advising them of their Corporate Induction date and time.
From time-to-time Human Resources may also call the new staff member to confirm their
attendance at the Corporate Induction. An appointment may also be put in their electronic
diary.
A representative of the Human Resources Portfolio, nominated by the Director, Human
Resources (or nominee) will undertake the Corporate Induction with new staff members.
The representative will:
 outline the purpose of the induction;
 provide information on the University’s current Charter, Values and commitments;
 provide information on specific legislation, policies and procedures all staff members are
required to be aware of;
 provide information on general Occupational Health and Safety processes and the Injury
Management process;
 provide information on services and resources available to staff;
 provide information on Human Resources matters and general working arrangements;
and
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 provide information on any other resources or facilities.

New staff members will be given the opportunity to:
 ask questions relating to the information provided; and
 ask questions about matters relating directly to their employment;
The new staff member will be provided with a checklist that they will be required to
complete and sign. The checklist will detail the items covered in the Corporate Induction
presentation and an acknowledgement by the new staff member that they are responsible for
ensuring they familiarize themselves with the policies and procedures of the University.
The completed checklist must be returned to the Human Resources representative at
the conclusion of the Corporate Induction.
From time-to-time Human Resources may have speakers involved in the Corporate
Induction to provide specific information on sections of the presentation.
Finalization of the Induction
At the conclusion of the induction, the Human Resources Representative will sign the
Corporate Induction Checklist and file it on the staff member’s personnel file. A notation will
be made on the induction spreadsheet to indicate the staff member has attended induction.
Human Resources will email each attending staff member who attended the induction
and provide them with a PDF copy of the induction presentation and a link to the Human
Resources Corporate Induction webpage.
Non-Attendance
Staff members who do not attend their scheduled induction will receive an email
and/or telephone call from Human Resources.
Should a new staff member not attend their initial Corporate Induction, they will be
scheduled for the next available induction time and advised of this by email.
Should a new staff member fail to attend three (3) successive Corporate Induction
sessions, in addition to an email and/or telephone call, the staff members immediate
supervisor will be notified of their non-attendance and asked to ensure the staff member is
available for the next session.
Casual and Sessional Staff
Casual and sessional staff members are required to complete Stage 1 and 2 of the
Induction process.
It is the responsibility of the casual/sessional staff members’ supervisor to ensure that
the inductions have been completed and checklists signed.
The completed checklists should be kept in a secure location within the School or
Portfolio.
Sessional Academic staff should be provided with a link to the Human Resources
Induction webpage and the Sessional Academic Induction link.
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Casual and sessional staff will be required to undertake the University’s workplace
behavior training as part of their induction.
Self Assessment Questions
Fill in the blanks recalling the Contents of Induction comprising of the four C‟
1. …………………. is the lowest level and includes teaching employees basic legal and
policy related rules and regulations.
2.refers to ensuring that employees understand their new jobs and all
related expectations.
3. …………….. is a broad category that includes providing employees with a sense of
organizational norms—both formal and informal.
4.refers to the vital interpersonal relationships and information networks
that new employees must establish.

5.7 SIGNIFICANCE OF INDUCTION AND SOCIALIZATION IN INTRODUCING THE NEW

EMPLLOYEES TO THE ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE
Organization Culture
Organizational culture means organizational traditions, customs, policies and method
of working. Organizational culture has an impact on employee performance, learning and
productivity. The organizations which expose their employees to new experiences and try to
capitalize on employee strengths are creating a human resource asset which will benefit the
entire society. Such organizations and their management deserve recognition from society
and incentive from government.
A good organizational culture creates an inner urge in employee to be productive,
committed, involved, responsible, creative, and innovative and work for the satisfaction of
individual, organizational and societal goals.
Culture defined: A system of shared values and beliefs that interact with an organization’s
people, organizational structures, and control systems to produce behavioral norms.
 Culture is amplified by the behavior of its leaders,
 It is embedded in the network of organizational practices,
 It is a set of shared beliefs, values and assumptions held by the members of an
organization,
 It is clearly visible in the ‘way that work gets done, on a day today basis,
 It is evident in the behaviors of individuals and groups operating in the
organization. See figure 1.
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Figure 1: Organization Culture decoded

SOCIALIZATION HELPS INADAPTING TO THE ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE
Functions of Organizational Culture
The functions of organizational culture are outlined as following;
1. Culture is the social glue that helps to hold an organization together by providing
standards for what employees say or do.
2. It provides boundary-defining roles.
3. It conveys a sense of identity for organization members.
4. It serves as a "sense-making" and control mechanism that guides and shapes the
attitudes and behaviors of the employees.
5. Give member an organizational identity or sense of belonging
6. Promote social system stability
7. Facilitate collective commitment
8. Shape behavior by helping members make sense of their surroundings.
Socialization: Socialization is the process that adapts employees to the
organization's culture. Organization wants to help new employees adapt to its
culture. The adaptation is done through the process of "socialization".
Socialization is made up of three stages;
The Pre-arrival Stage: This stage encompasses all the learning that occurs before a new
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member joins the organization. The socialization process covers both the work to be done
and the organization. The pre-arrival stage is the period of learning in the socialization
process that occurs before a new employee joins the organization. For example, when
students join a business school to pursue their MBA degree, they are socialized to have
attitudes and behaviors that business firms want. This is so because the success depends
on the degree to which the student has correctly anticipated the expectations and desires
of those in the business school.
Encounter Stage: In this stage of the socialization process, the new employee sees what
the organization is really like and confronts the possibility that expectations and reality
may diverge. In expectations prove to have been more or less accurate, the encounter
stage merely provides a reaffirmation of the perceptions gained during the pre-arrival
stage. Those employees who fail to learn the essential or pivotal role behaviors risk being
labeled as "rebels" and face the risk of expulsion. This further contributes to sustaining
the culture.
Metamorphosis Stage: Metamorphosis stage is the stage in the socialization process in
which a new employee changes and adjusts to the job, work group and organization. In
this stage relatively long, lasting changes take place. The employee masters the skill
required for his or her job, successfully performs his or her new roles, and makes the
adjustments to his or her work group's values and norms. The metamorphosis stage
completes the socialization process. The new employee internalizes the norms of the
organization and his work groups and understands and accepts the norms of the
organization and his work group. The success of this stage has a positive impact on the
new employee's productivity and his commitment to the organization. See figure 4.

Figure 5: The Socialization Model

HOW EMPLOYEES LEARN THE CULTURE OF THE

Figure 4: The Socialization Process

How Employees Learn The Culture Of The Organization
The employees get to know about the culture of the organization from the various
behavioural patterns exhibited by their coworkers, by the top leaders and by observing as to
how to do a particular task . They also understand the culture through the various stories,
rituals material symbols and the language used in the office.
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Stories: These are the Narratives of significant events or actions of people that convey
the spirit of the organization. The stories which circulate through most organizations
typically contain the following: See Figure 5.
 A Narrative of Events about the Organization’s Founders,
 Rule Breaking,
 Rags-To-Riches Successes,
 Reductions in the Work Force,
 Relocation of Employees,
 Reactions to Past Mistakes,
 Organizational Coping.
These stories anchor the present to the past and explain and legitimize current practices.
Rituals: Repetitive sequences of activities that express and reinforce the values of the
organization. These reinforce the goals that are most important, and identify the people
who are either important or expendable.
Material Symbols: Physical assets distinguishing the organization. The material symbols
like;
 An Organization’s Facilities,
 Types of Executive Vehicles,
 The Size of Offices,
 The Elegance of Furnishings,
 Executive Perks,
 Employee Lounges,
 On-Site Dining Facilities,
 Reserved Parking Spaces.
Language: Acronyms and jargon of terms, phrases, and word meanings specific to an
organization. Organizational units use language as a way to identify members of a culture
or a subculture. Organizations, over time, develop jargon, unique terms to describe
equipment, offices, key personnel, suppliers, customers, or products related to their
business. By learning this language, members attest to their acceptance of the culture
and, in so doing, help to preserve it.
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Figure 5: How the Employees Learn the Culture

Self Assessment Question

Explain the placement and induction process in your organization
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

5.8 SUMMARY
Recruiting and induction go hand-in-hand within most businesses and organizations.
Recruiting is the first step many businesses use to find qualified employees. Your human
resources department may recruit job candidates on their own, or hire a recruiting firm to
investigate candidates for them. After selections are made from the recruiting pool and job
offers are extended, the induction process begins.
The induction process is the introductory or initiation process a new employee
undergoes when he begins work. This process can include a new job hire receiving a welcome
packet outlining company rules and procedures, attending introductory training seminars
and sexual harassment courses, getting acquainted with the layout of the office and learning
about office processes such as when employees take lunches and other breaks. Most
organizations also need to familiarize new hires with how email and communication systems
work during the induction process.
Thus, the placement & induction process is an important tool for a company to be
effective. Proper functioning of both can result in "establishing clear foundations and
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expectations" between a business and its new hire, according to learning resource Business
Balls. These expectations include corporate values, ethics, expected office etiquette and
decorum and an understanding of what is expected in terms of work output. By instilling
these expectations in the beginning, your new hires will have clear-cut rules and training
prior to starting their jobs.
5.9 GLOSSARY
Placement: Placement refers to assigning rank and responsibility to an individual,
identifying him with a particular job
Organizational culture: means organizational traditions, customs, policies and method of
working. Organizational culture has an impact on employee performance, learning and
productivity.
Culture: A system of shared values and beliefs that interact with an organization’s people,
organizational structures, and control systems to produce behavioral norms.
Socialization: Socialization is the process that adapts employees to the organization's
culture. Organization wants to help new employees adapt to its culture.
Induction: Once an employee is selected and placed on an appropriate job, the process of
familiarizing him with the job and the organization is known as induction and socialization.
5.10 REFERENCES
1. David A Decenzo & Stephen P Robbins, Personnel / Human Resource Management,
Prentice Hall, India
2. Deshpande, S. (1992). Compensation Legislation in India. What US investors need to
know. Compensation & Benefits Review, 24(5), 57-60.
3. K.Ashwathapa, Human Resource and personnel Management- Text and Cases, TMH
4. Wayne F Cascio, Managing human resources, TMH
5.11 FURTHER READINGS
1. John M Ivancevich, Human Resource Management, TMH
2. Machael R Camell, Nobert F Elbert & Robert D Hattfield, Human Resource
Management, Prentice Hall, India
3. VSP Rao, Human Resource Management- Text and Cases, Excel Books
4. Gary Dessler, Human Resource Management, Prentice Hall, India
5.12 MODEL QUESTIONS
1. What do you mean by placement? And how is it different from induction?
2. Critically analyze the importance of placement & induction?
3. What are the steps of induction? Describe its advantages & disadvantages?
4. Induction is meant for achieving certain objectives? Explain.
 95

ANSWERS TO SELF ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS

Answers to self-assessment questions 1
1. True
2. False (should be)
3. True
4. False (people to the job)
5. True

Answers to Self-assessment questions 2

1. Compliance
2. Clarification
3. Culture
4. Connection
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Lesson - 6

TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT

STRUCTURE
6.0 Objectives
6.1 Meaning of training and development
6.2 Importance and objectives of training and development
6.3 Distinction between training and development
6.4 Methods of training and development
6.5 Aligning training to business needs
6.6 Summary
6.7 Glossary
6.8 References
6.9 Further readings
6.10 Model Questions
6.0 OBJECTIVES
After going through the lesson, you should be able to;
 understand the need of training and development
 define training and development and understand its objectives and importance
 be able to distinguish between training and development and education
 acquire an insight into training need analysis
 understand different types of trainings
 understand competency-based approaches to training and development
6.1 INTRODUCTION TO TRAINING
In order to perform the activities in the most systematic way, the organization needs
the services of trained persons. In this fast-changing era, the knowledge of the employees is
becoming obsolete. So, in order to remain competitive, the organizations require its
employees to cope up with the job by providing them training. Now days, it has become the
most important task of the organization to provide training to their employees.
The employees who require training may be classified into two categories …
(i) those who have some precious knowledge of the job and
(ii) those who don't or are new to it.
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Both categories of workers are required to be trained to acquaint themselves with the
job, though it is more essential for the employees who are new to the job or who do not
possess any precious knowledge. So in order to cope up with the latest technological
advancements, every organization has to provide training to its employees.
Training is a systematic and planned process which has its organizational purposes to
impart and provide training experiences that will bring about improvement in an employee
and thus enabling him to make contribution in greater measure in meeting the goals and
objectives of an organization. In fact, it is a process that attempts to improve to employee
performance on a currently held job by providing the employee with the necessary skills and
knowledge needed for their present job. In fact, an ideal training would be one that meets
the goals of the organization and also that of employees.
From the above definition it may be concluded that
 Training should be well planned and should have predetermined objectives to be
achieved through training.
 Training emphasizes learning. Training process must specify what is to be learnt?
 Training should focus on evaluation. It means training process must be evaluated to
see how for the training has been effective and successful in the improvement of the
performance of the employee, thus enabling him to make his enhanced contribution to
the achievement of goals of the organization.
Definitions of Training
 According to Tucius, “Training is a process of acquiring specific skills to perform a
job better”.
 According to Van Deisal, “Training is the process of teaching, informing or educating
people so that they may become well qualified as possible to do their job, and they
become qualified to perform in positions of greater difficulty and responsibility”.
 According to Edward B Flippo, “Training is an act of increasing the knowledge and
skill of an employee for doing a particular job in an organization”.
Development refers to learning opportunities directed towards helping the employees grow.
Development is not a skill oriented and not restricted to improving employee‟s performance
on current job. In fact, it provides the opportunity to all the employees to upgrade
knowledge, change attitudes, and increase skill to show improved performance on present
and future job positions. Development prepares an employee to adjust himself in new roles,
responsibilities and functions. Such employee improves the strategic competence of the
organization to face dynamic and competitive world. It also affords an opportunity for career
growth of the employee. Because of its nature, the word development is usually associated
with managerial position and hence it is also called as management development.
6.2 AIMS OBJECTIVES AND IMPORTANCE OF TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT
Training benefits both the employee and the organization resulting in win-win
situation. Training includes every effort made within the organization to teach, coach,
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develop employees (old and new both) in technical skill, knowledge, principles and
techniques and to provide insight into and attitudes towards the organization.
Its aim and objective include
1. To develop the capacities and the capabilities of the employees through enhancement
in their skills and knowledge so that they make meaningful contribution towards
achievement of organization goals.
2. To help existing employees improve their performance on existing jobs. For example, a
technically qualified employee may be lacking in interpersonal skills. Imparting
training in interpersonal skills would make him more effective on his existing job.
3. To help newly recruited or promoted employees to perform specific tasks as per
organization standards sooner than they would otherwise.
4. Technological advancements are making fast changes in the nature of jobs and as
such demand for new skills to perform the job successfully is always felt. Training
helps to upgrade employee skills to meet challenges of technological advancements
and prevents managerial /employee obsolescence on the job.
5. To act as a means of solving problems relating to scheduling inventory shortages,
absenteeism, union management disputes etc.
6. To facilitate employee movement from his present job to job with higher
responsibilities and functions. Organizations‟ design their training and development
programs in a way to prepare and enable its existing employees to acquire necessary
skill needed for a promotion.
7. To help employees in their quest for personal growth this will directly benefit the
employee and indirectly increase employee‟s effectiveness on the job.
Benefits /Importance of training and development: - Training and development offer
competitive advantages to a company. It helps to remove employee‟s performance deficiency,
reduce voluntary level turnover, making employee stay longer in the organization, reduce
employee obsolescence, ensures efficient and economical use of both equipment and
machinery and material, reduce chances of wastage, improve job satisfaction and help
employee develop capabilities to meet challenges of the dynamic environment. The training
and development program of an organization pays dividend to both the employees and
organization in the long run.
6.3 TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT DISTINGUISHED
Training is designed to help an employee learn the most appropriate solution to a given
situation. It refers to activities designed to improve the job performance of non-supervisory
employees of an organization. Training is enhancing technical skill of an employee. Training
aims at improving employee performance on the present job. Training is not future oriented `.
Training is sometimes organization specific and if the employee leaves that organization, the
training becomes obsolete.
Development on the other hand is future oriented and aims at achieving long run goals of
the employee and his organization. Development is generally associated with managerial
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personnel and the focus of development is to improve knowledge, change attitudes and
enhance other broad skills which will help the employee to assume greater responsibility in
future.
Self Assessment Questions
State whether you agree or disagree with the following statements
1. Training should be well planned but it may or may not have predetermined
objectives to be achieved through training.
2. Training emphasizes unlearning the old things
3. Training should focus on evaluation of training in the end
4. Training is designed to help an employee learn the most appropriate solution to a
given situation
5. Development on the other hand is past and present oriented and aims at achieving
long run goals of the employee and his organization

6.4 METHODS AND TECHNIQUES OF TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT

Training can be done in various situations on the job or off the job, in the company or
outside the company. Details of various method and techniques of training are below: -
(1) On- the- Job training :-
The most common form of employee training is the on the job training (OJT) also
known as Shop Floor Training . This is a traditional method of imparting skill training
to an employee. Here the employee is placed in real life situation and he learns
through actual practice. He is however, under the supervision and guidance of a
trained instructor who provides/ demonstrates the job and teaches the trainee the
tricks of trade. Employee learns while doing. This is designed to help an employee
learn the best method to perform his job. It is the most useful method of learning for
unskilled, semi-skilled and technical jobs. However, the number of employees that can
be trained under this method is very limited.
Advantages of the OJT: -
(i) The training is based on “Learning by Doing “which is the best method to
impart skill training.
(ii) Since OJT do not require any employee to move out of the organization, it
saves times of the employees, manager and the supervisor.
(iii) OJT strongly motivates the trainee because the trainee learns on actual
equipment in the real environment which gives him a feeling of
achievement.
(iv) OJT are specific and focus trainings which aim at producing tangible
results.
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(v) OJT are economical as the employee carries out production along with
learning.
(vi) OJT is also instilling the quality consciousness and minimum wastage
concept in the trainees.
(vii) OJTs take care of the specific needs of the trainee in terms of his
background, attitudes, needs, goals and future assignments.
Disadvantages: -
(i) In OJTs, the trainee is working on actual machines, there is possibility of
disregard to finer details of theory in favor of immediate production.
(ii) During the training, the trainee may produce goods of inferior quality, causes
excessive wastage and are prone to accidents.
(iii) Trainees causes excessive depreciation to machines due to wrong handling of the
equipment.
Long period of time working on the job and under the direct supervision of experts.
Apprenticeship training covers extensively varied trades, crafts and other technical fields like
draftsman, a machinist, a construction worker, a painter, a tool maker, a pattern designer, a
carpenter, a weaver, an engineer and an electrician.
This system of training is old form of training and was developed in the middle age by
trade guilds. Apprenticeship training is a combination of theory learning and actual learning
experiences as related to a job. This training is used to prepare a worker who require a wide
range of job skills, knowledge, long periods of practice and seasoned experience. The ITI in
India is engaged in apprenticeship training. The period of apprenticeship training varies from
3 to 6 years including curriculum of class room and shop experience.
Advantages: -
1. It ensures a supply of skilled workforce.
2. It is a productive form of training.
3. It improves workmanship greatly.
4. It reduces the employment cost as a result of reduced turnover and lower production
cost, and
5. It creates a sense of belongingness and loyalty in the minds of employees and opens up
opportunities for their growth and development.
(2) Job Rotations :- Job rotations is known as position rotation involves horizontal
movements of employees from job to job and from plant to plant on some planned basis for
the purposes of wider exposure and increasing the span of experience . This method provides
an opportunity to young employees or management trainees to familiarize themselves with
company in general and thus gain experience. Job rotation is designed to give trainee,
knowledge and experience of operation in various parts of the organization. The trainee while
moving through various training positions receives instructions, gain knowledge and
experience in different situations and is provided with feedback from his superior in each
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department. This helps the trainee to gain on –the-job experience, while shouldering greater
responsibilities in varied business situations, develop his talent and help him discover his
own special interest and performance. For example, Godrej consumer products limited uses
job rotations for helping the employees build multiple skill like, project management, IT,
Skills and HR skills.
Job rotation has both advantages and disadvantages. Some trainee considered it a
challenging and exciting offer while other find it a source of tension.
Advantages: -
I. It helps in developing generalists rather than a specialist. It is broadened to
horizon of specialist, so that they become adapt in finding solution to various
management problems in social or others situations. In the absence of such
rotation, they remain confined within the technical aspect of a particular functional
field.
II. Job rotation brings a change in the monotonous and stereo type working of a
department. Such a change results in improved efficiency in the working of the
department.
III. Job rotation promotes the inter department cooperation and improved
communication between the various departments within the organization.
IV. It fosters organizational flexibility through generating flexible human resource,
which help the organization build up management strength. If there is sudden
expansion in a particular line, management can obliviously depend upon its
employees with varied experience to take up newly created positions.
V. Job rotation tests the individual executive‟s ability and an all round capability and
competency as demonstrated in progressive assignments that indicates individual‟s
suitability for promotions to higher level positions and thus using them at their
maximum effectiveness.
VI. It helps accomplishing the comparative performance appraisal of individuals more
objectively which will thus afford every one an equal chance of promotions to
higher level jobs.
Disadvantages
1) The job rotation discourages executive to go deep in their assignment. These
executives concentrate on short range projects only as they are not likely to stay for
long at one job.
2) It becomes difficult for the trainees to adjust themselves to their new bosses on
account of job rotation.
3) Job rotation proves to be expensive for training and development purposes.
4) Job rotation upsets the family life of the trainee. With every rotation he has to move
and adjust to new surroundings. His children have to readapt themselves to new
school and new friends.
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3. Internship training
Internship training is a joint program me of training between a technical or
professional school / College and the business house to enable the students gain a good
balance between theory and practice. The theory learnt in the class rooms can be better
understood against the practical ground in a factory. Under this method the students are
offered an opportunity to get real world experience by an organization and students are paid
a stipend during the internship period. For example, Infosys periods internship training to B-
Tech students, such a training helps the origination get project done at low cost and also get
new ideas from student interns. Interns are also benefitted as they get course credits.
(4) On - The-job Coaching-
On the job coaching method of providing training is also known as understudy or
Assistant to position training method. For coaching to be effective, there should be healthy
relationship between the superior / instructor and the trainee based upon mutual trust and
confidence. Under this method, the superior or trainer or instructor acts as guide and
explains various tasks that the trainee must perform to execute a job. He also provides
necessary assistance to facilitate them in job learning process and provides necessary
feedback in terms of the progress the trainees have made.
The objective of coaching is not only to teach and guide a subordinate in performance
of his immediate job but also provides him an opportunity to prepare him for senior job
positions with greater responsibilities. This method has been used with good results in
managerial training and development. The essence of on-the-job coaching is learning by
doing”. When this method is applied to managerial development, it must cover:
1 Delegation – In this process of coaching, the superior should delegate some added
responsibility to the trainee so that he performs several duties under the coach. Such
delegation will provide the trainee an opportunity to participate in the decision-
making process and will learn the tricks of new assignment.
2 Counseling- counseling include a healthy discussion between the superior and the
trainee on matters relating to trainee‟s fears, emotions and aspirations. Here, the
superior performs a passive & non directive role. The aim here in to help the
subordinate, learn the techniques of administration. This may cover job related
knowledge, skill, competencies and personality modification.
3 Mentoring / Role Modeling- subordinates learn best through examples. So, under
coaching, the superior must present his best face forward so that the subordinate is
encouraged to grow and develop as seniors.
Some companies like Procter & Gamble use coaching method for their management
development programmes.
5. Committee Assignments: -
This method is an indirect way of managerial development. Companies formulates
regular or temporary committees to solve a complex problem. The trainees are assigned to
these committees. The trainees come face to face with their seniors during regular staff
meetings / committee meetings. The committee diagnoses the problem, generates alternative
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solutions, evaluates these alternatives and finally recommends the best solution. The trainee
learns the decision making by being a part of decision-making process and watching others
or job. The trainees are allowed to participate and contribute their ideas in the decision
making. This provides them an opportunity to learn, develop and grow. Such participation
enables the trainees to gain a firsthand knowledge of the issues, processes and
considerations involved in decision making.
6. Critical Incident Method: -
This method resolves around a particular “Incident” which normally relates to some
real life like work or business situations (s) and is critical to the success of the organization.
In some cases, the instructor may develop his own incidents to provide managerial training
in a specific field. The main aim of this method is to stimulate self-development. It helps
trainees learn to extract relevant factual data and other information relating to a specific
critical incident and to use that data in identifying and determining the key issues and
ultimately finding its solutions.
Under this method, the instructor presents a brief incident before the group to provoke
discussion in the group. The trainees while trying to analyze the situation, puts questions to
the instructor for obtaining more factual information about the case. These questions
generally relate to “what”,” when”, “where” and “How” of the situation. Based upon this data
and information, the trainee identifies and determines key issues relevant for solving the
problem. At this stage, the instructor tells trainees about the pertinent questions that they
would have elicited from him and would have helped them in solving the problem. Then the
solution proposed by the trainees and as adduced by the instructor is compared, evaluated
and thereby appropriate learning principles are made known. The main drawback of this
method is that the trainees instead at focusing their attention on the principles of learning
,pay greater attention to finding out the correct solution of the problem.
7. Conference Leadership-
This method finds its useful in supervisory and executive development programmes. It
aims at developing analytical thinking to foster decision –making capabilities in the
supervisors and executives of the organization. This method promotes inter-department
communication, cooperation and learning by exchange of ideas between participant, from
different departments. Conference leadership method works best when the leader ensures
that every participant is provided adequate opportunities to put forth his ideas, view point
and experiences. Such training can be held in a conference room where participants sit face
to face and participants discuss topics such as labor management relations, productivity and
other subjects.
Advantages
1. It is ideally suited for analyzing problems from deferent view points .
2. It is a good method for development of conceptual knowledge and skills.
3. This method teaches the trainees the spirit of cooperation .
4. The trainees learn the power of expression and healthy discussion.
The trainee comes to know of his strengths and weaknesses in various areas.
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Disadvantages
1 This method is suitable for learning in small groups only.
2 Since every participant is given an opportunity to speak and express his view point, the
discussion sometimes may deviate from the main issue to include some irrelevant
matters and learning is slow under-this method.
3 Sometimes when the discussion is not focused, the participants may lose interest and
this method is not likely to meet much success.
(II) Off –the- job Training Techniques
Off-the-job training means, that training which is not a part of everyday job activity. It
takes place at some external selected site which has no connection with the company. Such
off the job training may be conducted by professional training institutes or by management
colleges. off-the-job training is also known as classroom training and aims at imparting the
knowledge or special type of information to the participant. This type of training provides for
the development of large number of people in a short time by the best instructor using the
best planned material. This method is particularly useful for presentation of information
through lectures, demonstrations, films, audiotapes, videotapes or computers.
1 THE lecture Method- The lecture method is a conventional training technique that
involves one-way presentation of knowledge. It is a formal organized talk which aims at
imparting substantial knowledge/concepts to a large group in a relatively short time. This
method is best used in many types of training including orientation programs, problem
solving activities, and dissemination of information which is theoretical in nature
(philosophy, safety, supervisory etc.…)
In order to make lecture method of training more effective following guidelines may
serve useful purpose –
1 The instructor/speaker should be a competent man with excellent study material, good
communication skills, pleasing personality and should use audio-video aids, practical
examples and seeks to involve the participants in his presentation.
2. The lecture should be well planned revolving around the central idea of training. It must
contain information suitable both for the advanced learners as well as slow learners.
3. The participants must be provided with notes to serve effective learning.
4. In order to keep the participants involved in the lecture, the instructor should include
some relevant case studies and practical incidents in his lecture.
The main disadvantage of lecture method includes -
(I) This is a one-way communication where learners are passive participates.
(II) This method is not applicable is skill training where hands- on expensive is
essential.
(III) Lecture method is not suitable for in experienced and untrained instructor/
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(IV) The presentation and contents of lecture are generally not up to the required level
of knowledge of the participant as a result the participate lose interest and
motivation in the learning.
(V) The lecture method is into flexible to meet individual‟s differences of the
participates.
(VI) This method lays shores on the memorization of facts and figures involved in a
lecture which is of less relevance to the participants
(2) Conference Method- A conference is a small group meeting conducted according to an
organized plan is which the leader whether single or multiple seeks to develop knowledge and
understanding by obtaining considerable amount of oral participation from trained
employees.
With the development of new methods and techniques like case study, role playing
and sensitivity training, the conference method is becoming very popular in imparting
training relevant to marginal and administrative experience.
The conference method is also used within the organization to familiarize the
managerial trainees with the company‟s polices, staff service and knowledge useful for a
successful manager. Certain trade and professional associations also conduct seminar and
conferences to widen then contacts, increase networking and to gain administrative
experience. The academic staff college Hyderabad, IIM‟s, National Protectively Council, XLRI
etc. are a few institutes to organize conferences either at their own premises or Selected
venues in different parts of the country.
(3) The Group discussion Method- Group discussion means a purposeful conversation
about a topic of mutual interest among a group of say 10-20 participants under the expert
guidance of a trained leader. The leader introduces the topic to the group, he guides the
discussions and deliberations, binds the participants through their active participation in the
group discussion. It is a group – centered approach which offers maximum opportunity to
individual participants to informally associate and share their ideas, experiences and
improve their knowledge, skills and abilities through interactions and pooled experiences.
(4) Vestibule training- This method of training takes place away from the job. The trainees
work on plant, machinery and equipment which closely resemble the actual ones used on the
job. Under this method, because the training takes place way from the work environment,
the normal production does not suffer. The number of trainees can be larger under vestibule
training.
Managerial training and development-
An executive has to play multifaceted roes in an organization due globalization. An
executive to be effective must be a good decision-maker, must possess inter- personal skills
and international attitude and necessary etiquettes. These competencies can be acquired
through different training and development methods. These methods can be classified under
three categories-
(1) Techniques for Improving Decision- making skills of the executives.
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These techniques include:

(a) Case study Method
(b) Management Games
(c) Lesson in ethical values
(d) IN- basket Method
(e) Incident method.
(a) Case Study Method- It is a class- room learning method wherein the trainees are given a
written account of an organizational problem. This method was first developed at Harvard
Law School, USA. This approach is most useful for imparting analytical, problem solving and
critical – thinking skills. Case study method provides a medium through which trainees can
study the application of managerial or behavioral concepts. The thrust is on application and
analysis instead of memorization of concepts. This method helps to sharpen the thinking of
the group members and improving their power of situation / problem analysis and thus
enhancing the ability to reach better decisions.
The methodology generally adopted by the trainees for solving case study problem involves.
(i) Identification of the problem based on facts and figures given in the case description.
(ii) Developing alternative feasible solutions to the problem.
(iii) Evaluation each solution in terms of the resources / situation of an organization and
finding out best possible solution. This solution is presented before the group where it
is discussed and defended.
Advantages:
(i) It helps trainees improve their decision – making skills.
(ii) It encourages open – mindedness and serves as a good source of pooling the
knowledge from people of different backgrounds and disciplines.
(iii) Case study method motivates trainees to participate in the discussion relating to real
life problem.
(iv) This method enhances analytical skill of the trainees.
(v) The trainees understand the knack of solving the problem and become prepared for
complexities of business.
(vi) The method can best be used in teaching law, Personnel Management, Human
Relations, Marketing, Production Management and Business policy.
Disadvantages: -
1. One of the major drawbacks of this method is using inappropriate case study material
to train the executives.
2. The cases become permanent precedent which gets printed in the minds of the trainee
and they use that solution indiscriminately.
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3. An overly artificial case study diminishes learning experience instead of improving

decision making skills.
4. An inexperienced and untrained trainer may allow the discussion to deviate from main
context and trainees accordingly develop wrong solutions to a given problem.
(b) Management Games- Also known as business games, it is dynamic training exercise
requiring the trainees to take a series of discussion in hypothetical organization. In these
games participants are divided into various teams which compete with each other in
resolving the problems associated with that business situation. Several environmental and
business factors are built into the game so that the trainees get real-life problem-solving
experience. A Management games ensure high degree of trainee participation in problem
solving. There are variety of business games available, commercially some of which are
manual while others are computer aided. Most of these business games are expressed in the
form of a mathematical model controlled and manipulated by an electronic device i.e
computer, but some can be played manually. There is no difference in these two types of
games so far as learning objective is concerned. However, the feedback mechanism is faster
is computer-controlled games as compared to games played manually. The aims and
objectives of computer games/ manual games is same as in of case study method. In
addition, business games aim at illustrating the existence of various group processes
including communication, the resolution of conflicts, the emergence of relationships and
fostering cooperation and development of ties friendship.
Advantages:
(i) Business games are motivating in nature and create substantial and active
involvement of participants and maintain their interest in the training.
(ii) This method helps in developing the awareness of the numerous matters that
are affected by broad policy decisions.
(iii) The trainees learn how to interact effectively and participate in the decision-
making process.
(iv) This serves as a good tool of assessment.
(v) Under this method, decision is quick, feedback is prompt and objective.
(vi) Business games foster team cooperation. The players learn to organize
themselves into smooth functioning teams.
Disadvantages:
(i) Business games are simpler when compared with real life, these games may not
contain all the elements that are present in real life and hence do not offer
effective learning.
(ii) It is a time consuming and expensive method.
(iii) Competition among different participating groups may lead to decreased/
reduced training experience.
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(iv) Business games alone are not sufficient for executive training. It must be
supplemented by other techniques like lectures, seminars or conferences to
provide comprehensive training to the executives.
(v) Some management experts believe that business game discourage initiative,
creativity and originality of the team members as they have to adapt themselves
to rigid situations as described in the business games.
(C) Training in Ethical Values- Ethics in business as a concept is gaining popularity due to
incased corporate sandals. The executives are now being trained to remain true to their
conviction whether in organized set up or personal front. They are being trained on how to
take decisions amid the conflicting demands and temptations they encountering in everyday
life. Training in ethical values may be imparted through lecture method or using
autobiographies of successful executives / entrepreneurs.
(d) In- basket –method: - The in-basket -method of training aims at providing training to the
trainees in issues like
(i) Fixing priorities of work/jobs
(ii) Decision making and implementation of such decisions in limited time period
(iii) Inter personal relationships and
(iv) Time management.
This method of training and appraisal is gaining popularity all over the world. In fact,
the international labour Organization has developed a manual of these exercises. These
exercises relate to a variety of situations which the trainee might face when promoted to the
higher post.
Under, this technique the trainee is given materials in the simulated organizations
including mail, email, customer feedback, demand for a report from the senior, filling of a
sudden supervisory vacancy, difficult industrial relations etc. All this material is placed in a
basket or a tray, hence the name in-Basket method. The trainee is required to schedule his
time, determine priorities, take decisions and implement them within the given time frame.
This method helps to bring to the surface the trainee‟s latent abilities in different
dimensions. It also helps to test the trainee‟s decisions-making capacity rather than
knowledge alone.
Crompton Greaves Ltd uses this tool for employee appraisal as well as for
executive development.
(e) Critical /Incident Method-(It has already been discussed in the earlier part of the
chapter).
II Methods which help in improving the task and inter-personal processes- There are
five methods which aim at improving the task and inter-personal processes namely
(a) Sensitivity Analysis
(b) Role playing
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(c) Transactional Analysis

(d) Johari windows
(e) Emotional Intelligence
(a) Sensitivity Analysis- This training methods is known as T group training and aims at
making people understand themselves and others realistically. This is achieved through
social sensitivity and behavior flexibility.
Sensitivity training uses small number of trainees to develop inters personal
relationship among them. This small group interacts with a trainer who acts remotely
and comments occasionally. Such interactive meetings have no fixed agenda and are
usually held at a place away from the work lace. Discussions are held on issues like
- Why participants behave as they do
- How they perceive one another
- How to resolve conflicts
- How to be flexible in dealing with others
- How to deal with feelings and emotions generated in the interaction process.
The objectives of sensitivity analysis are:
(i) To provide the participants with increase awareness of their own
behavior and how others perceive them,
(ii) To provide insight into increased understanding of group processes
(iii) To improve listening skills, increased tolerance of individual differences
(iv) To improve conflict resolution skills
Sensitivity training to be more effective may be supplemented with short lectures
group exercises, case studies and audio-visual aided courses. Trainee, themselves
are the objects of study in sensitivity training. So each trainee becomes the main
sources of understanding himself, the co-trainees and inter-personal group and
organizational processes.
The main drawback of this method is that whatever changes occur in the trainees
as a result of this exercise have a tendency to vanish when they come back to their
same routine work. Moreover, this type of training is suitable for a small group of
workers at one time.
b) Role Playing Method- Role playing is a simulation technique which has both the
features- corrective as well as instructive. Role playing is defined as an educational or
therapeutic technique in which some problem –solving human interaction real or imaginary
is presented and then spontaneously acted out. The enactment is usually followed by a
discussion and/or analysis to determine what happened and why and if necessary, how the
problem could be better handled in the future.” This method of training is based on the
following principles
1 learning by doing
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2 learning through imitation

3 learning through observation and feedback and
4 learning through analysis and conceptualization.
Under this method, the trainer assigns parts taken from case studies to group
members. The trainees try to act their part as they would behave in real life situation. Role
playing helps promote interpersonal relations, change in attitudes and behavior. Role playing
is a commonly used method in MDPs.
The main drawback of this method is that it is time consuming, expensive, applicable
to small groups and the cases as formulated by the trainer may not depict real life situation
to provide effective learning experience to the trainees.
c) Transactional analysis – It is a useful and practical method for analyzing and und
understanding human behavior based on three states of ego in a human being.
d) Emotional Intelligence- Emotion is defined as a state of human beings which evokes
physical change like increased breathing or pulse or mental state of excitement or depression
marked by strong feeling leading towards a definite behavior or action. People experience
both positive and negative emotions at work place. These emotions are satisfaction, pride,
anger, frustration, fear etc. These emotions result in an action. Here, comes the role of
emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence is defined as an individual‟s acknowledgement
of his instinctive emotional response but he doesn‟t act on it rather he steps back from the
situation and let his rational thoughts influence his actions at all times.
Emotional intelligence develops over time and as managers/executives mature, they
become more effective in handling emotional issues. But an organization cannot wait for
managers to grow old to take decisions, hence the role of training in emotional intelligence is
accepted. Training in emotional intelligence cover self-awareness, self-management, self-
motivation, empathy and social skills. These areas train the managers to keep themselves
under control even in adversity in order to have good relationship with their colleagues.
e) Johari window- The Johari window is a graphical model for improving personal
effectiveness . It was developed by Joseph luft and Harry Ingham. The Johari window divides
an individual‟s personality into four parts namely-

Known to self Not know to self

Known to others Arena Blind

Not know to Closed Dard

others

1. That part of the personality which is known to self and other is called as arena like
name , age, family, job profile and physical appearance etc.
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2. That part of the personality which is known to others but not known to self is called
as blind like certain mannerism about which the individual himself doesn‟t know but
others are aware like empathy.
3. A part of our personality which is known to self but is not known to other is closed
part of our personality like our emotions of anger at work place but not reflected by
our expression/words.
4. The dark part of the personality is unknown to self and others both.
In order to improve interpersonal skills, an individual should try to expand arena and
decease blind, and closed part through feedback from subordinates and self-discourse.
However, nothing much can be done about the dark part of the personality except psycho-
analysis techniques.
III) Methods that aim at improving a manager’s knowledge and Etiquette These methods
aim at conscious and systematic improvement of Managerial effectiveness within an
organization to face international competition, sustain global presence and at the same time
achieve organizational goals and strategies.
With the rapid expansion and advancement of technology coupled with socio-economic
changes, increased size and complexity of business, specialization is coming in the forefront
which demands high qualification among managers, good caliber and international etiquettes
to handle business. Various methods aimed at improving a manager‟s knowledge and
etiquettes are:
a) Conferences /seminars
b) Assistant to position / Committee assignments
c) Training in computers
d) Short term courses in advanced management techniques, and
e) Training in international attitude and Etiquettes.
6.5 ALIGNING TRAINING TO BUSINESS NEEDS
The training and development plans of an organization should be oriented and aligned
with organizational goals, objectives and strategies. It is therefore important to first identify
and define the organizational goals categorically. A misdirected training program will result
in drainage of organization resources and will not bring much needed benefits to the
organizations. A training and development program should essentially have 7 steps namely:
(1) Determining training and development needs.
(2) Establishing training and development policies.
(3) Setting goals and objectives to be achieved through this program.
(4) Preparing and finalizing training and development budget.
(5) Deciding about the place where training and development plan will be executed.
(6) Deciding about method and techniques of training, and
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(7) Evaluating training and development effectiveness.

Following paragraphs provide a detailed account of these steps: -
(1) Determining training and development needs: - It includes
(a) Organizational analysis: It means identifying specific areas within the organization
where training and development emphasis should be placed.
(b) Operation analysis: It includes deciding the type of training that should be given to
the employees to enable them perform their job effectively, and
(c) Man/Individual analysis: It aims at identifying who needs trainings and also the
kind of skill training required.
The above three analysis involves in depth examination and review of the present and
expected future manpower situation both in terms of number and skills required to meet
future market expectations and identify the gap if any between the two. In order to assess the
existing manpower inventory, the management relies upon: -
(a) Existing employee personnel records which contain detailed personnel educational
and technical skills information.
(b) Data generated through employee performance appraisal process which provides a
detailed account of individual performance and progress on a job, his suitability for
others jobs and potential for growth.
(c) Data collected by observing employees working on a job directly.
(d) Record showing information on interpersonal conflicts, wastage, spoilages
accidents, grievance records etc.
(e) Use of assessment center method to identify training and development need
through game playing.
An analysis above would provide adequate information to the management to take a
stock of its existing manpower situation both quantitatively and qualitatively. In order to
access its future manpower requirements an organization will depend upon:
(a) Its future policies relating to diversification and expansion.
(b) Up gradation of jobs in future and the vacancies likely to fall vacant on account of
retirements. However, nothing can be predicted about uncertain incidental
vacancies due to death, sickness, resignation or permanent disablement due to
accident etc.
(c) Changes in the technology affecting mechanization of the existing process and
(d) Changing profile of competitive environment.
Such as comparative analysis would help on organization identify new areas of skills,
knowledge and abilities, attitudes and behavior required to remain viable in the light of
changing condition in its environment may be in the structure or in the relationship of the
people or its processes, introduction of new operative equipment or procedures. It may be
added here that assessing the training & development requirement is not an easy task. It
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requires a high degree of personal judgment and capabilities to foresee future besides having
an awareness of organization goals, objective and strategies. Training and development
efforts of an organization must be directed towards satisfaction of the defined needs of the
company as whole, for specific development and for individuals.
Consequences of inadequate need assessment:- Any failure to conduct training &
development need assessment would result in: -
(i) Loss of business.
(ii) High labour turnover.
(iii) High wages, more overtime, premiums and poor quality of applicants.
(iv) High recruitment cost (advertising, time cost and incentives)
(v) Still higher training cost.
(vi) Mounting pressure and stress on management and staff to complete the task in
time.
(vii) Need for job redesign and revision of job specifications.
(2) Establishing training & development policies: - Every company should have a well-
defined and established policy relating to training & development of its employee. Though
there is no set of general policies when companies can follow, different companies follow
different policies to suit its requirement. A well-established training & development policy
would represent the top managements responsibility for training and development of its
employees. It will also include rules and procedures governing the standard and scope of
training & development in the organization.
Some employers believe in providing training to all its employees to improve their
performance on the present job while others want training & development to be given to all
employee so that they develop themselves and get prepared to greater responsibility and roles
in future. There are some employers who are selective in their approach and would prefer
providing training to such employees who have the potential for next level higher jobs. Still
other prefers to use training & development as a continuous learning process and would
therefore frame a policy which aim at all round development of the organization and the
employees.
(3) Establishing goals and objectives of training & development plan: - Organizations
usually conduct training programmes without deciding in advance what training objective
are and what the organizations wants to achieve through their training programmes. Without
a well-defined objective of training program, the T&D program turn out to be ineffective.
When the goals and objective of the training are established, it helps in :-
a) Evaluating the effectiveness of the training program based on those objectives.
b) Deciding the contents of the training program.
c) Ensuring that training is provide in the right area to the right people for the right
issues.
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d) Gaining support for training activities in the organization. The employee also feel
motivated and encouraged to gain training once they are aware of the goals and
objectives of the training program.
It is important that the goal and objectives of T&D program are measurable so that the
accomplishments of the training program me can be well evaluated. Broadly, the short run
objectives of training and development is to help the employee to improve their performance
in the present job. However, long run goals are to develop and guide qualified and capable
employees in their preparation for position and greater responsibilities. A well-planned T&D
program should include following objectives.
(i) Operational objectives which focus on improving the efficiency in organization
like, reducing wastage, reducing cost, reducing idle time, improved productivity,
explaining new market etc.
(ii) Performance objective relate to individual and group performance of the job in
such a way that organizational objectives are met. It aims at achieving quality
output with limited resources at the disposal of the organization.
(iii) Instructional objective are important instruction and directions that are issued
during the training process.
(iv) Personal growth objective aim at enhancing self-confidence, self-competence,
self-image, and motivation towards effective performance.
Self Assessment Questions
Match the following with the correct option
1. It means identifying specific areas within the organization where training and
development emphasis should be placed.
2. It includes deciding the type of training that should be given to the employees to
enable them perform their job effectively, and
3. It aims at identifying who needs trainings and also the kind of skill training required.
a) Operation analysis
b) Individual analysis
c) Organizational analysis
Do you think that the training and development practices in your organizations are
meeting the needs of today‟s times? Discuss.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Outline the best practices of training and development in your organization.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
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6.6 SUMMARY
Training is a process that attempts to improve to employee performance on a currently
held job by providing the employee with the necessary skills and knowledge needed for their
present job, whereas Development prepares an employee to adjust himself in new roles,
responsibilities and functions .There are different methods and techniques to impart effective
training to the employees based on organizational goals and individual goals .Different
organizations use different methods depending upon its requirements, past customs and
budget allocations.
6.7 GLOSSARY
Training: It is an act of increasing the knowledge and skill of an employee for doing a
particular job in an organization.
Development refers to learning opportunities directed towards helping the employees grow.
Development is not a skill oriented and not restricted to improving employee‟s performance
on current job.
Organizational analysis: It means identifying specific areas within the organization where
training and development emphasis should be placed.
Operation analysis: It includes deciding the type of training that should be given to the
employees to enable them perform their job effectively, and
Man/Individual analysis: It aims at identifying who needs trainings and also the kind of
skill training required.
Role Playing Method- Role playing is a simulation technique which has both the features-
corrective as well as instructive. Role playing is defined as an educational or therapeutic
technique in which some problem –solving human interaction real or imaginary is presented
and then spontaneously acted out
Sensitivity Analysis- This training methods is known as T group training and aims at
making people understand themselves and others realistically. This is achieved through
social sensitivity and behavior flexibility.
Transactional analysis – It is a useful and practical method for analyzing and und
understanding human behavior based on three states of ego in a human being
6.8 REFERENCES
1. K. Ashwathapa, Human Resource and personnel Management- Text and Cases, TMH
2. Wayne F Cascio, Managing human resources, TMH
3. David A Decenzo & Stephen P Robbins, Personnel / Human Resource Management,
Prentice Hall, India
4. Deshpande, S. (1992). Compensation Legislation in India. What US investors need to
know. Compensation & Benefits Review, 24(5), 57-60.
6.9 FURTHER READINGS
1. John M Ivancevich, Human Resource Management, TMH
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2. Machael R Camell, Nobert F Elbert & Robert D Hattfield, Human Resource

Management, Prentice Hall, India
3. VSP Rao, Human Resource Management- Text and Cases, Excel Books
4. Gary Dessler, Human Resource Management, Prentice Hall.
6.10 MODEL QUESTIONS
1. Define training and Development? What is the difference between training,
development and education?
2. Why is training a critical /strategic issue for the organizations? What purposes are
served by training & development programmers?
3. Discuss various method of on-the-job training? For what type of trainings, is on-the-
job training most appropriate?
4. Explain training need analysis methods?
5. Describe systematic approach to training and development planning and
implementation process?
6. How can the training process be evaluated in an organization?
ANSWERS TO SELF ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS.1
1. false (should have)
2. false (learning)
3. True
4. True
5. False (future oriented)
ANSWERS TO SELF ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS 2
1. (c ) Organizational analysis
2. (a) Operation analysis
3. (b) Individual analysis