HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT (UNIT 3: DEVELOPMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES)

Concept of Orientation (Induction)

Orientation is the process of introducing a new employee to the organization, and the organization to
the employee by providing him relevant information. A formal orientation is preferable because it
tries to bridge the information gap of the new employee. It may contain the following information:
(a) About the Organization (mission and philosophy, objectives, product lines etc.)
(b) HR Policies and Rules (training and development, promotional avenues, pay scale, vacations, leave
rules etc.)
(c) Employment Benefits (provident funds, insurance benefits, gratuity benefits, retirement benefits
etc.)
(d) Introduction to supervisors, co-workers/ officials, subordinates etc.
(e) Job Duties (job objectives, relationship to other jobs, office timings, breaks etc.)

Importance of Orientation (Induction)

1. Overcoming Employee Anxiety: New employees experience lot of anxiety in an organization,

which is a natural phenomenon for human beings; they experience anxiety in a new environment,
which may interfere with the training process.
2. Overcoming Reality Shock: An employee joins an organization with certain assumptions
and expectations (such as lucrative salary and perquisites, social status, prestige etc.). When
these expectations are incompatible with the reality of the situation, he experiences a ‘reality
shock’.
3. Accommodating Employees: Proper employee orientation helps to accommodate new employees
with existing employees by developing acquaintances and understanding of the various aspects
of the job, which the newcomer is expected to confront.

Concept of Training

Dale S. Beach has defined training as the organized procedure by which people learn knowledge and/or
skill for a definite purpose. Training refers to the teaching and learning activities carried on for the
primary purpose of helping members of an organization acquire and apply the knowledge, skills,
abilities, and attitudes needed by a particular job and organization. According to Edwin Flippo,
training is the act of increasing the skills of an employee for doing a particular job.

Importance of Training

Benefits to the Business Benefits to the Employees

1. Trained workers can work more efficiently. 1. Training makes an employee more useful to a
firm.
2. They use machines, tools, materials in a proper 2. Training makes employees more efficient
way, thus eliminating wastage. and effective by combining materials,
tools and equipment in the right manner.
3. There will be fewer accidents, as training 3. Training enables employees to
improves the knowledge of secure promotions easily and
employees they can realize their
regarding the use of machines and equipment. career goals comfortably
4. Trained workers can show superior 4. Employees can avoid mistakes, accidents
performance and can turn out better on the job. They can handle hobs with
quality goods by putting the materials, confidence and their morale would be high.
tools and
equipment to good use.
5. Training makes employees more loyal to 5. Effective training can enable employees to
an organization as they will be less cope with organizational, social and
inclined to leave the unit where there technological change, and serves as an
are growth invaluable HR investment.
opportunities.
Training vs Development
Although the terms are used synonymously, training is quite different from that of development. The
differences are noted as follows:
Training Development
 Training is skills focused  Development is creating learning abilities
 Training is presumed to have a formal  Development is not education dependent
education
 Training needs depend upon lack or  Development depends on personal drive and
deficiency in skills ambition
 Trainings are generally need based  Development is voluntary
 Training is a narrower concept focused on job  Development is a broader concept focused
related skills on personality development
 Training may not include development  Development includes training wherever
necessary
 Training is aimed at improving job related  Development aims at overall personal
efficiency and performance effectiveness including job efficiencies

Training and development may be seen in the context of a continuum in which training content
proceeds in continuity rather than in discrete form because an individual proceeds in his job hierarchy
and what he has learned at a particular job is transferred to another job because of transfer of learning.
The training and development continuum has been presented below:

Identifying Training and Development Needs

Identification of training and development needs arises on continuous basis. Need for training
and development arises to maintain the match between employees’ capability and their job
requirements in terms of knowledge, skills and attitudes. Knowledge refers to the possession of
information, facts, and techniques of a particular field. Skills refer to the proficiency required to use the
knowledge to do a work. Attitudes refer to the persistent tendency to feel and behave in a favourable or
unfavourable way towards some persons, objects and ideas. The key issues at assessing training
and development needs are as follows:

1. Are all the gaps between employees and job requirements to be filled through training and
development programmes? It may be mentioned that training and development is a costly affair, and
it should not be viewed as a cure for all ills in the organization.
2. Should training and development needs assessment cover all employees at all levels or should it be
restricted to few groups of employees?
3. Should training and development needs assessment take only present requirements or
future requirements too?
4. What model of training and development needs assessment be applied?
5. From where and how will relevant information be collected?
6. Who will be responsible for collecting information, analysing it, and reporting its results?

Analysis for Assessing Training and Development Needs

There are three types of analysis, which are required for identifying training and development needs.
They are:
1. Organization Analysis: It is a systematic effort to understand where training effort needs to be
emphasized in the organization. It involves a detailed analysis of the organization structure, objectives,
human resources and plans. The starting point in organizational analysis is the identification of its long-
term objectives and defining its operational objectives.
2. Task Analysis: It entails a detailed examination of the job, its various operations, and the
conditions under which it has to be performed. In task analysis, the following guidelines may be
adopted:
a. Listing the duties and responsibilities of the task under consideration using job description as
a guide
b. Listing the standards of job performance
c. Comparing actual performance against standards
d. If there is a gap, identifying the parts of the job which are giving troubles in effective
job performance
e. Defining training needed to overcome such troubles
3. Person Analysis: The focus of person analysis is on the individual employee, his abilities, his skills,
and the inputs required for job performance, or individual growth and development in terms of
career planning. It helps to identify whether the individual employee requires training and, if so,
what kind of training.

Designing Training Programmes

Every training and development programme must address certain vital issues:
Trainees should be selected based on self-nomination, recommendations of
Who are the trainees? supervisors or by the HR department itself. Whatever is the basis, it is
available to have two or more target audiences.
Training and development programmes may be conducted by
Who are the trainers? several people, including immediate supervisors, co-workers, members of
the HR staff, outside consultants etc.
What are the methods
and techniques of Discussed later
training?
The inputs passed on to the trainees in training and development
programmes are education, skills etc. There are three basic levels at which
What should be the
such inputs can be taught. At the lowest level, the employee must acquire
level of training?
fundamental knowledge. The goal of the next level is skills
development. The highest level aims at increased operational
proficiency.
Training and development programmes are more likely to be effective
What learning when they incorporate the learning principles such as employee
principles are needed motivation, recognition of individual differences, reinforcement, goals,
schedules of
learning etc.
The decision of where to conduct the training programs comes down to the
Where is the
following choices: (i) at the job itself (ii) on site but not the job, for example,
programme
in a training room in the company (iii) off the site, such as in a
conducted?
college classroom or conference centre.

Methods and Techniques of Training

Training and development methods are means of attaining the desired objectives in a learning situation.
The following table presents information about skills and knowledge required by personnel, training and
development methods relevant for these, and target trainees.
Skills Training & Development Methods Target Trainees
Job instruction training Operative
Technical skills Vestibule training Operative
Apprenticeship Operative
Sensitivity training Supervisory; managerial
 Transactional analysis Supervisory; managerial
Behavioural skills
Role playing Supervisory; managerial
Case study Managerial
In-basket exercise Managerial
Decision-making skills Management games Managerial
Brainstorming Managerial
Syndicate Managerial
Job rotation Managerial
Multi-skills Coaching/ understudy Managerial
Mentoring Managerial
Deliberation Supervisory; managerial
Knowledge
Lecture/ conference Supervisory; managerial

Some of these training and development methods can be used on the job, while others can be used off
the job.

On-the-job Training and Development: In this method, the trainee learns while he is actually
engaged in doing a job. This engagement may be on a specific job or there may be job rotation.
This technique involves ‘learning by doing itself’. It involves the following types:

It is also known as ‘training through step-by-step’. It involves listing of all necessary

steps involved in the job performance with a sequential arrangement of all steps.
It involves the following steps:
1. Providing job information to the trainees by emphasising its importance,
general description of the job and duties, and responsibilities involved
Job instruction
2. Positioning the trainees at the workplace and explaining them the various
training (JIT)
steps involved in job performance and the reasons for these steps
3. Allowing the trainees to try out work performance on the basis of the
steps involved and correcting the errors committed by them
4. Encouraging the trainees to ask questions about the job performance
and satisfying them with further explanation.
It is a method of training in crafts, trades and technical areas is one of the oldest
and
Apprenticeship the most commonly used method especially when proficiency in a job is the result
of a relatively long period of training. The areas in which apprenticeship training is
offered are numerous ranging from the job of a draughtsman, machinist, printer,
tool-maker, electrician etc.
It is a learning through on-the-job experience. Ait involves direct personal
Coaching/ instructions and guidance usually with demonstration and continuous
Understudy critical evaluation and correction. In the understudy method, the trainee works
normally as
assistant under the direction and supervision of a person.
It is a technique for human resource development, which has entered the business
field quite recently, but it has been in practice for long. In mentoring, a
Mentoring senior manager acts as a friend, philosopher, and guide to a new recruit and
provides him the support that the latter needs. The mentor provides such support
to develop the
overall personality of his mentee.
Job rotation, or channel method of development, involves movement of a manager
from one job to another job, from one plan to another plan on a planned basis. In
this case, the movement is not meant for transfer but is meant for learning
Job Rotation the interdependence of various jobs so that the trainee can look at his job in
broader perspective. It may be restricted to different jobs within a broad functional
area like sales or marketing research, or to sales promotion, or may extend
beyond the
functional area like movement from marketing to production or vice-versa.
 Managerial personnel may be developed through their participation in
deliberations and decision-making in group form such as committees, task forces,
Participation in
project assignments etc. These groups are created by taking managers across a
Deliberations
number of functional areas to solve particular problems being faced by
the organization.
Off-the-job Training and Development: In a dynamic environment where things change at a fast
pace, new ways of doing things are required which cannot be generated by on-the-job training
and development. Therefore, personnel are required to learn something away from their workplace.
The concept of vestibule school/ training centre is that people will learn
and develop skills while working in the situations similar to what they will face after
Vestibule they are put on the actual job. It offers several advantages: (i) as the training is
Training provided in a different place, there is lesser distraction of trainees’ attention (ii)
since the
training is away from the actual production process, it is not affected by the
training process
They are knowledge-based management development methods. In these
methods, an effort is made to expose participants to concepts and theories, basic
Lectures
principles, and pure and applied knowledge in any particular area. While lecture
and
method emphasizes one-way communication, the conference method provides an
Conferences
opportunity for two-way communication.
As a method of management development, syndicate refers to a group of trainees
and involves the analysis of a problem by different groups with each group
Syndicate
consisting of 8-10 members. The syndicate method is quite helpful in developing
analytical skills in the participants and their approach for understanding others.
It is a technique to stimulate idea generation for decision-making. It is a conference
technique, by which a group attempts to find a solution for a specific problem. It is
Brainstorming done by amassing all the ideas contributed by its members spontaneously.
It provides an opportunity to remove various social and psychological blocks,
which come in the way of idea-generation, and creates favourable
atmosphere for imaginative power to generate ideas for problem solving.
It involves the duplication of organizational situations in a learning environment.
Though there are different methods of training under simulated situations and
each of these involves a particular procedure, simulated learning involves the
Simulation following:
Training (i) in simulation, essential characteristics of a real-life situation are presented in
abstracted form (ii) participants in the training program are required to do
according to the situation prescribed and to see the problem from the viewpoint of
various roles given in the situations (iii) the role of instructor is quite restricted to
allow the trainees to participate fully.
Also known as laboratory or T-group, it is a small-group interaction process in the
unstructured form, which requires people to become sensitive to others’ feelings
in order to develop reasonable groups activity. The positive consequences
of sensitivity training are: (i) it results in more supportive behaviour, people that
Sensitivity are more sensitive and more considerable managers (ii) participants to the
Training training programme become more open and self-understanding. The
negative consequences are: (i) many participants of sensitivity training have
reported a feeling of humiliation, manipulation, and decline in self-
confidence and psychological damage (ii) it incites anxiety with many negative
impacts like causing
the people to be highly frustrated, unsettled and upset.
It offers a model of personality and dynamics of self and its relationship to others
that makes possible a clear and meaningful discussion of behaviour. TA refers to a
Transactional
method of analysing and understanding interpersonal behaviour. When
Analysis (TA)
people interact, there is a social transaction in which one person responds to
another. The
study of these interactions between people is called transactional analysis.
It generally focusses on emotional issues rather than actual ones. The essence of
Role Playing role playing is to create a realistic situation, and then have the trainees assume the
parts of specific personalities in the situation.
It is a simulation technique designed around the ‘incoming mail’ of a manager, A
variety of situations is presented in this exercise, which would usually be dealt by
In-basket a manager in his typical working day. In this method, the trainee is given
Exercise certain incidents and his reactions are not down. Through the feedback of his
behaviour,
the trainee comes to know his behavioural pattern and tries to overcome the one,
 which is not productive or functional.
A case is a description of a situation involving problems to be solved. It is
a description of an actual situation in business, which provokes, in the reader,
the need to decide what is going on, what the situation really is or what the
Case Study
problems are, and what can and should be done. Case study can provide
stimulating discussions among participants, as well as excellent opportunities for
individuals to
defend their analytical and judgement abilities.
Also known as business games, it is a popular technique, which is used at
the management development level. It is an involvement-oriented process
Managemen for skill development, particularly analytical and group processes. Management
t Games game is a form of simulation which involves a sequential decision making exercise
structured around a hypothetical model of an organization’s operations in which
participants
assume roles in managing the operations.
This training method is chosen while preparing a second-line leader to take up the
Work role of the headship, in which case, the candidate could not benefit by
Shadowing sending them to any other formal training program. The best way to be trained
Method for a future executive position would be through direct participant observation of
the crucial
events that take place in the present incumbent’s work life.
Large Scale This method stresses upon the sharing of expertise by all the participants, unlike
Interactive other methods where the instructor supplies most of the inputs and might even
Events (LSIE) look
Method down upon trainees as people who are ignorant or unskilled in the topic
being covered.

Difference between Coaching and Mentoring

Basis of Difference Coaching Mentoring

Coaching is a method in which an Mentoring is an advisory process

individual is supervised by a superior in which a fresher gets support
Definition
person to improve his and guidance from a senior
competencies person.
and capabilities.

Orientation Task Relationship

Period Short-term Long-term

Relationship Type Formal Informal

A coach who imparts coaching has A mentor is a person having good

Specializes in
expertise in the concerned field. knowledge and experience.

Concept of Management Development

According to Yoder, Management Development is “a programme of training and planned

personal development purporting to prepare and aid managers in their present and future jobs.”
Management development is a systematic process of training and growth by which managerial
personnel gain and supply skills, knowledge, attitudes and insights to manage the work in their
organisations effectively and efficiently. Management development programme includes the activities
— short courses, leadership courses, management education and training programmes, coaching,
guiding and mentoring. These programmes can be conducted in-house or outside by consultants or
experts.

Characteristics of Management Development

 According It is an organised process of learning rather than a haphazard or trial and error approach.
 It is a long-term process as managerial skills cannot be developed overnight.
 It is an ongoing exercise rather than a “one-shot” affair. It continues throughout an executive’s entire
professional career because there is no end to learning.
 Management development aims at preparing managers for better performance and helping them to
realise their full potential.
 Executive development is guided self-development. An executive can provide opportunities
for development of its present and potential managers. Bill the image for learning has to come from
the executive itself. Executive development is possible only when the individual has the desire to
learn and practice what he learns.

Objectives/ Purpose of Management Development

 To sustain better performance of managers throughout their careers.

 To improve the existing performance of managers at all levels.
 To encourage existing managers to increase their capacity to assume and handle
greater responsibility.
 To enable the organisation to have the availability of required number of managers with the required
skills to meet the present and anticipated (future) needs of the organisation.
 To replace elderly executives who have risen from the ranks by highly competent and academically
qualified professionals.

Career Development

Career is progress or general course of action of a person in some profession or in an organization. Career
planning is a process whereby an individual sets career goals and identifies the means to achieve
them. Where the organization intervenes in planning, it becomes organizational career planning.
Career development refers to a formal approach used by the firm to ensure that people
with proper qualifications and experiences are available when needed. Career management is
the process of enabling employees to better understand and develop their skills and interests and
use them for the benefit of the organization and self.

Stages in Career Development

A career includes many positions, stages and transitions just as a person’s life does. It can be
easily
understood if we think of a career
consisting of several stages. There are
typically five stages in career
development:

1. Exploration: This is the

career stage, which usually ends in
one’s mid- twenties as one makes
the transition from college to work.
From an organizational standpoint,
this stage has least relevance as it
takes place prior to employment.
For the individual, this is the stage
of self- exploration seeking answers to
various puzzling questions about
careers.
2. Establishment: This is the
career stage where one begins the
search for work and picks up the first
job. It includes the first experiences on
 the job, peer group evaluations, personal tensions and anxieties that confront a person trying to
make his mark. This period is characterized by committing mistakes, learning from those
mistakes and assuming increased responsibilities.
3. Mid-Career: It is a stage that is typically reached between the age of 35 and 50. At this point, one may
continue to show improved performance, level off or begin to decline. Mistakes committed by the
individual would be viewed seriously and may invite penalties as well.
4. Late Career: This is the stage where one relaxes a bit and plays the part of an elder statesperson.
For those who continue to grow through the mid-career stage, this is the time to command respect
from younger employees. An individual’s varied experiences and judgement are greatly valued and
they can teach others and share their experiences with others.
5. Decline: During this period, a person’s attention may turn to retirement. The achievements of a long
career and the frustrations and anxieties that go along with that phase are left behind.

Managing Transfers
Transfer is a form of internal mobility of human resources, which involves movement of an employee
from one section to another section of the same department, one department to another department,
one unit to another unit, one place to another place, or one function to another function, in the form of
job rotation without any change in the employee’s status, responsibilities and pay.

Types of Transfer (Reasons for Transfer)

There are different types of transfer:

1. Production Transfer: It is also known as flexibility or organizational transfer. The basic purpose of such
transfer is to stabilize employment in an organization. The occasion for such transfers arises because
of uneven change in quantity of production in different departments/ units, surplus or shortage of
workers in different departments at the initial level of placement.
2. Plant Transfer: It aims at stabilization of employment of personnel as in production transfer,
except with one difference that employees are transferred from one plant to another plant. The need
for such transfers arises if two plants have different stage of stabilization.
3. Shift Transfer: Where the production runs into shifts, most of the continuous production processes
run based on three shifts and employees and transferred from one shift to another over the period.
4. Remedial Transfer: It is effected by transferring an employee from a section/ department in which he
cannot adjust himself with either his boss or his co-workers. This may be because of initial
faulty placement of the employee without matching his profile with that of the group.
5. Versatility Transfer: It is in the form of job rotation of an employee with a view to acquire multiple
skills required for different jobs and to understand the relationship of one job with others, and how a
job affects and is affected by others.
6. Tenure Transfer: It is more common in government administration and is based on the principle
that an official should not stay more than the prescribed period, usually three years, at a particular
place to ensure that he does not get involved in politicking informal groups.
7. Penal Transfer: It is effected to penalize an employee whose behaviour does not match with
the officially required behaviour. In business organizations, such type of transfer is made to get rid of
a difficult trade union activist, an intriguer etc.

Principles of Transfer

1. The policy should be fair, impartial and practicable so that there is no unnecessary conflicts between
the employees and the organization
2. Objectives of different types of transfer should be spelled out clearly to avoid misgivings
3. The policy should lay down the bases on which transfers are to be effected, whether it would be
based on seniority, skills and competence or any other factors

Promotion Decisions
It is an advancement in the organization, which involves a change from one job/ position to another that
is better in terms of status and responsibility. Ordinarily, the change to better job is accompanied with
increased monetary compensation and privileges.

Types of Promotion

1. Horizontal Promotion: This type of promotion involves an increase in responsibility and pay with
the change in the designation. However, the job classification remains the same.
2. Vertical Promotion: Here, there is a change in the status, responsibilities, job classification and
pay. Sometimes, this type of promotion changes the nature of job completely.
3. Dry Promotion: It refers to an increase in responsibilities and status without any increase in pay or
other financial benefits.

Need for Promotion

It is desirable to analyse how a promotion serves the needs of the organization and the
individual. Promotion serves the organizational and individual needs in the following manner:
1. Promotion is used as a reward for better work performance and organizationally approved form
of behaviour. People will work harder if they feel that this will lead to promotion.
2. Promotion provides need satisfaction to personnel, which enhances their morale, productivity
and loyalty to the organization.
3. Because of increased loyalty, which is developed among personnel through promotion, the
organization is able to retain its talented personnel that is the utmost need of any organization in
this era of high competition.
4. Promotion provides avenues for continuous learning and developing of personnel as it depends
on promotability, which is a result of continuous learning and development. This process
increases individual and hence organizational effectiveness.

Demerits of Promotion

1. Employees may feel that once they are promoted, they will lose more benefits, which they enjoy in
the form of overtime payment, statutory bonus, incentive bonus etc. than what they derive
out of promotion.
2. For some employees, settling at a particular level of position is more satisfying than attempting for
promotion, which requires continuous standing on one’s toes.
3. Some employees do not want promotion because it may involve transfer from one place to another
place. For such employees, affiliation to a particular place is more important than the
benefits associated with promotion.

Promotion Decisions: Seniority vs Merit Considerations

Merits of Promotion on Merit Basis Demerits of Promotion on Merit Basis

1. When merit is adopted as a basis for 1. The main difficulty in weighing merit in
promotion, it ignites employees to show making promotion decisions is the lack of
better performance continuously, as they objective criteria. If the organization is not well
feel that their merit would be rewarded equipped
suitably. for measuring merit objectively, it will lead to
chaos.
2. If the promotion is based on merit, it helps 2. It ignores the basic fact that a person matures
in attracting and retaining competent with age and many of the emotional
employees. intelligence-related competencies
increase with age.
3. By adopting a merit-based policy of 3. Differentiating one employee from another on
promotions, an organization can build up a merit basis shows weakness in
pool of competent people who are a source for an
organization’s HR system.
 creating and sustaining competitive advantage
for the organization.

Merits of Promotion on Seniority Basis Demerits of Promotion on Seniority Basis

1. Seniority as the basis for promotion is based 1. Number of years of experience does not
on objectivity and equality. The use of such necessarily correspond with quality of
criteria as performance appraisal, selection experience. The basis logic behind experience
tests and superiors’ opinions leads many is that an experienced person may weed
employees to feel that promotions are not out the undesirable practices over the
made fairly, which ultimately result in period and may retain only the desirable
declining morale and practices.
productivity.
2. To grant promotions based on seniority is 2. If employees are assured of being
to reward employees for loyalty. No one promoted after putting certain years of
would deny that loyalty deserves rewards. service, they may become complacent
towards better performance.
3. Experience contributes to ability, if meaningful. 3. Competent people are not attracted by
Studies show that employees with the longest the seniority promotional policy; hence,
service often are better prepared for organizations following this policy fail to attract
promotion than management is initially willing talented people. Even if some talented people
to admit. join such an organization, they tend to leave it
at the earliest.

Promotion on Merit-cum-Seniority Basis

Taking the advantages of both seniority and merit, many organizations adopt the policy of promotion on
merit-cum-seniority basis with varying emphasis on merit and seniority. From the above discussion, it is
clear that neither seniority nor merit can be sound criterion for promotion. In the interest of efficiency,
justice and for satisfaction of employees, a compromise between seniority and merit should be worked
out. Seniority should be given due weightage but fitness i.e., merit should not be forgotten. Promotion
should, therefore, be given
based on merit-cum-seniority.
This will afford the employees
due recognition for their
length of service while at
the same time provide
built- in- incentive for
better performance.
According to Pigors and
Myers (1981), seniority
should be considered, but
only when the qualifications
of two candidates for a better
job are, for practical
purposes, equal.

Sources:

 Ashwathappa, K. Human Resource Management:L Text and Cases, McGraw Hill Education, New Delhi.
 VSP Rao, Human Resource Management: Text and cases, First edition, Excel Books, New Delhi.
 Gary Dessler, “Human Resource Management”, Seventh edition, Prentice-Hall of India P. Ltd., Pearson.