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 and
way, thus eliminating wastage. effective by combining materials, tools and
equipment in the right manner.
3. There will be fewer accidents, as training 3. Training enables employees to secure
improves the knowledge of employees promotions easily and 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 on
performance and can turn out better quality the job. They can handle hobs with confidence
goods by putting the materials, tools and and their morale would be high.
equipment to good use.
5. Training makes employees more loyal to an 5. Effective training can enable employees to
organization as they will be less inclined to cope with organizational, social and
leave the unit where there are growth technological change, and serves as an
opportunities. invaluable HR investment.
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 several
Who are the trainers? 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 when
What learning they incorporate the learning principles such as employee motivation,
principles are needed 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 college
conducted?
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
Behavioural skills
Transactional analysis Supervisory; managerial
 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 steps
training (JIT)
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
the most commonly used method especially when proficiency in a job is the result
Apprenticeship 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 critical
Understudy 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 senior
Mentoring 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 the
Job Rotation 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 they
Vestibule are put on the actual job. It offers several advantages: (i) as the training is provided
Training 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 and
principles, and pure and applied knowledge in any particular area. While lecture
Conferences
method emphasizes one-way communication, the conference method provides an
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
done by amassing all the ideas contributed by its members spontaneously. It
Brainstorming
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 following:
Simulation (i) in simulation, essential characteristics of a real-life situation are presented in
Training 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 are
Sensitivity 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 people
Analysis (TA)
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 a
In-basket manager in his typical working day. In this method, the trainee is given certain
Exercise 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 problems
Case Study
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 for skill
Management development, particularly analytical and group processes. Management game is a
Games 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 sending
Shadowing them to any other formal training program. The best way to be trained for a future
Method 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 look
Events (LSIE) down upon trainees as people who are ignorant or unskilled in the topic being
Method 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 competencies and guidance from a senior
and capabilities. person.

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 making
promotion, it ignites employees to show better promotion decisions is the lack of objective
performance continuously, as they feel that criteria. If the organization is not well equipped
their merit would be rewarded suitably. for measuring merit objectively, it will lead to
chaos.
2. If the promotion is based on merit, it helps in 2. It ignores the basic fact that a person matures
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 an
pool of competent people who are a source for 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 on 1. Number of years of experience does not
objectivity and equality. The use of such criteria necessarily correspond with quality of
as performance appraisal, selection tests and experience. The basis logic behind experience
superiors’ opinions leads many employees to is that an experienced person may weed out
feel that promotions are not made fairly, which the undesirable practices over the period and
ultimately result in declining morale and may retain only the desirable practices.
productivity.
2. To grant promotions based on seniority is to 2. If employees are assured of being promoted
reward employees for loyalty. No one would after putting certain years of service, they may
deny that loyalty deserves rewards. become complacent towards better
performance.
3. Experience contributes to ability, if meaningful. 3. Competent people are not attracted by the
Studies show that employees with the longest 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.