HYPOTHETICAL QUESTION: For MBA students and otherwise
If Congress wants to get 300 seats in the next Election,
What role will the HR department of Congress have to play in the next 4 years?
Write your inputs to us.
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HYPOTHETICAL QUESTION for MBA students and other interested professionals
If BCCI (Board of Cricket Control in India)wanted to expand 10 times by 2020, what would be the role of
their HR department?
Please give your thoughts and suggestions here.
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Prof. Manoj Onkar has joined IIPM, Ahmedabad as a visiting Professor for conducting the HRS (Human Resource System).
Keep in touch for further updates.
MANAGEMENT INNOVATIONS
VISION MISSION WORKSHOP - facilitated by Shri Manoj Onkar,Management Innovations.
CORE VALUES :
1. SECULAR
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4. ACCOUNTABILITY
5. BEING SYSTEM ORIENTED
6. INNOVATIVE
PURPOSE
GROOMING CHILDREN
TO BE CITIZENS ROOTED IN ONE'S OWN CULTURE
VISION
Our Institutes – Centers Of Excellence.
Transforming Education into an Art that Educate the Whole Child.
Children Scaling heights in all Works of Life.
Developed & Empowered 'PRANTIJ'
Facilitated by MANAGEMENT INNOVATIONS
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Whenever managers implement changes, they should be concerned about the stress they may be creating.
If the stress is significant enough, it may well cancel out the improvement that was anticipated from the change.
In fact, stress could result in the organization being less effective than it was before the change was attempted.
STRESS:
The bodily strain that an individual experiences as a result of coping wit some environmental factor is stress.
Hans Selye, an expert on this subject, said that Stress constitutes the factors affecting wear and tear on the body.
In organizations, this wear and tear is caused primarily by the body’s unconscious mobilization of energy when an individual is confronted with organizational or work demands.
Why Study Stress?
MANAGING STRESS IN ORGANIZATIONS:
Since stress is felt by all employees in the organizations, managers must do the following:
Understand how Stress Influences Worker Performance:
To deal with stress among employees, managers must understand the relationship between the amount of stress felt by a worker and the impact on the worker’s performance.
Extremely high and extremely low levels of stress tend to have negative effects on production. While increasing stress tends to bolster performance up to some point, when the level of stress increases beyond that point, performance levels begin to deteriorate.
Certain amount of stress among employees is generally considered to be advantageous for the organization because it tends to increase productivity, however when the employees experience too much or too little stress, it is generally disadvantageous for the organization because it tends to decrease productivity.
SYMPTOMS OF UNHEALTHY STRESS IN ORGANIZATION:
Symptoms are as follows:
1. Constant Fatigue
2. Low Energy
3. Moodiness
4. Increased Aggression
5. Excessive use of Alcohol
6. Temper outbursts
7. Compulsive Eating
8. High Levels of Anxiety
9. Chronic Worrying
A manager who observes one or more of these symptoms in employees should investigate to determine if those exhibiting the symptoms are indeed under too much stress. If so, the manager should try to help those employees handle their stress and/or should attempt to reduce stressors in the organization.
Helping Employees Handle Stress:
FACTORS TO CONSIDER WHEN CHANGING AN ORGANIZATION
The following factors should be considered whenever change is being contemplated:
THE CHANGE AGENT:
The change agent might be a self designated manager within the organization or an outside consultant hired because of a special expertise in a particular area.
This individual might be responsible for making very broad changes, like altering the culture of the whole organization; or more narrow ones, like designing and implementing a new safety program or a new quality program.
Special skills are necessary for success as a change agent. Among them are the ability to determine how a change should be made, the skill to solve change related problems, and facility in using behavioural science tools to influence people appropriately during the change process.
Perhaps the most overlooked skill of successful change agents, however, is the ability to determine how much change employees can withstand.
Managers should choose agents who have the most expertise in all these areas. A potentially beneficial change might not result in any advantages for the organization if a person without expertise in these areas is designated as a change agent.
DETERMINING WHAT SHOULD BE CHANGED:
Organizational effectiveness depends on 3 classes of factors:
People Factors are attitudes, leadership skills, communication skills, and all other characteristics of the human resources within the organization; Structural Factors are organizational controls, such as policies and procedures; and Technological Factors are any type of equipment or processes that assist organization members in the performance of their jobs.
For an organization to maximize its effectiveness, appropriate people must be matched with appropriate technology and appropriate structure.
THE KIND OF CHANGE TO MAKE:
Most changes can be categorized into one of the 3 kinds:
These 3 kinds of change correspond to the 3 main determinants of the organizational effectiveness – each change is named for the determinant it emphasizes.
STRUCTURAL CHANGE:
Structural change emphasizes increasing organizational effectiveness by changing controls that influence organization members during the performance of their jobs.
Structural change is aimed at increasing the organizational effectiveness through modifications to the existing organizational structure like:
Although structural change must take account of people and technology to be successful, its primary focus is obviously on changing organization structure.
Managers choose to make structural changes within an organization if information they have gathered indicates that the present structure is the main cause of organizational ineffectiveness.
The precise structural changes they choose to make will vary from situation to situation, of course. After changes to organizational structure have been made, management should conduct periodic reviews to make sure the changes are accomplishing their intended purposes.
Matrix Organization:
Matrix Organizations is a traditional organization that is modified primarily for the purpose of completing some kind of special project.
Essentially, a matrix organization is one in which individuals from various functional departments are assigned to a project manager responsible for accomplishing some specific task.
The project itself may be either long term or short term, and the employees needed to complete it are borrowed from various organizational segments.
PEOPLE CHANGE:
Although successfully changing people factors necessarily involves some consideration of structure and technology, the primary emphasis is on people.
Organization Development (OD): People Change emphasizes increasing organizational effectiveness by changing certain aspects of organization members.
The focus of this kind of change is on such factors as employee’s attitudes and leadership skills.
The process of people change can be referred to as organization development (OD). Although OD focuses mainly on changing certain aspects of people, these changes are based on an overview of structure, technology, and all other organizational ingredients.
GRID OD:
One traditional used OD techniques for changing people in organizations is called Grid Organizational Development, or Grid OD.
The managerial grid, a basic model describing various managerial styles, is used as the foundation for grid OD. The managerial grid is based on the premise that various managerial styles can be described by means of two primary attitudes of the manager: concern for people and concern for production.
INDIVIDUAL AFFECTED BY THE CHANGE:
To increase the chances of employee support, one should be aware of the following factors:
Resistance to Change:
Resistance to change within an organization is as common as the need for change.
After managers decide to make some organizational change, they typically meet with employee resistance aimed at preventing that change from occurring.
Behind this resistance by organization members lies the fear of some personal loss, such as a reduction in personal prestige, a disturbance of established social and working relationships, and personal failure because of inability to carry out new job responsibilities.
Reducing Resistance to Change:
1. Avoid Surprises
2. Promote Real Understanding
3. Set the Stage for Change
4. Make tentative Change
EVALUATION OF THE CHANGE:
One must evaluate the change one makes. The purpose of this evaluation is not only to gain insight into how the change itself might be modified to further increase its organizational effectiveness, but to determine whether the steps taken to make the change should be modified to increase organizational effectiveness, next time around.
Evaluation of change often involves watching for symptoms that indicate that further change is necessary. But the decision to change must not be made only based on the symptoms. Additional Change is justified if it will accomplish any of the following goals:
1. Further improve the means for satisfying someone’s economic wants
2. Increase Profitability
3. Promote human work for human beings
4. Contribute to individual satisfaction and social well being.
FUNDAMENTALS OF CHANGING AN ORGANIZATION
Changing an Organization is the process of modifying an existing organization to increase the overall organizational effectiveness.
These modifications can involve any organizational aspect, but typically it affects the lines of authority, the levels of responsibility held by various organization members, and the established lines of organizational communication.
IMPORTANCE OF CHANGE:
Most managers agree that if the organization is to thrive, it must change continually in response to significant developments in the environment, such as changing customer needs, technical breakthroughs, and new regulations.
Managers who can determine appropriate changes and then implement such changes successfully enable their organizations to be more flexible and innovative. Because change is such a fundamental part of the organizational existence, such managers are very valuable to organizations of all kinds.
Many managers consider change to be so critical to organizational success that they encourage employees to continually search for areas in which beneficial changes can be made.
CHANGE Vs. STABILITY:
Along with Change, some amount of stability is a prerequisite for long term organizational success.
The organization without enough stability to complement change is a definite challenge. When stability is low, the probability of organization survival and growth declines.
Change after Change without regard for the essential role of stability typically results in confusion and employee stress.
PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL
Performance Appraisal is the process of reviewing individual’s past productive activity to evaluate the contribution they have made towards attaining the organization’s objectives.
Performance Appraisal is a continuous review that focuses on both established human resources within the organization and new comers.
Its main purpose is to furnish feedback to organization members about how they can become more productive and useful to the organization in its ambitions and growth plans.
Advantages of Appraisal Systems:
Several Methods used for Performance Appraisals are:
Guidelines for Handling Performance Appraisals:
Pitfalls in Performance Appraisals:
TRAINING
After recruitment and selection, the next step in providing appropriate human resources to the organization is Training.
Training is the process of developing qualities in human resources that will enable them to be more productive and thus to contribute more to organizational goal attainment.
The purpose of training is to increase the productivity of employees by influencing their behaviour.
The training of individuals in an organization is essentially a 4 step process:
DETERMINING THE TRAINING NEEDS:
The 1st step of the training process is determining the organization’s training needs.
Training Needs are the information or skill areas of an individual or group that require further development to increase the productivity of that individual or group.
Only if the training focuses on these needs, it can be productive for the organization.
Training is a continuous activity. Even employees who have been with the organization for some time and who have undergone initial orientation and skills training need continued training to improve their skills.
Determining the Needed Skills:
There are several methods of determining which skills to focus on with established human resources. One method calls for evaluating the production process within the organization. Factors like excessive rejections, missed deadlines, high labour costs are clues to deficiencies in the production related expertise. Similar activities for various departments can be carried out.
Another method for determining training needs includes getting direct feedback from employees on what they believe are the training needs of the organization. Organization members are often able to verbalize clearly and accurately exactly what types of training they require to do a better job.
A third way of determining training needs involves looking into the future. Future company plans and industry trends also provide inputs on likely training requirements.
DESIGNING OF THE TRAINING PROGRAM:
Designing a training program entails assembling various types of facts and activities designed to meet the identified training needs.
ADMINISTERING THE TRAINING PROGRAM:
Various techniques exist for both transmitting necessary information and developing needed skills in training programs like:
EVALUATING THE TRAINING PROGRAMS:
Training programs have various costs including materials, trainer time and production loss while employees are being trained rather than doing their jobs – a ROI is essential.
Management should evaluate the training program to determine if it meets with the needs for which it is developed.
E.g.: Has the sales increased, Has the customer complaints reduced, Has production gone up etc.
SELECTION
The 2nd major step in providing human resource for the organization is SELECTION.
Selection is choosing an individual to hire from all those who have been recruited (short listed).
Selection is obviously dependent on the 1st step which is recruitment.
Selection is a series of stages through which job applications must pass in order to be hired. Each stage reduces the total group of prospective employees until, finally, the required no. of individuals are hired.
Stages of the Selection Process:
Two tools often used in the selection process are Testing and Assessment Centres.
TESTING:
Testing is examining human resources for qualities relevant to performing available jobs. 4 categories of testing include:
Testing Guidelines:
ASSESSMENT CENTERS:
Assessment Centres are used both for the purpose of selection and also for continued training and development over time.
An assessment centre is a program (not a place) in which participants engage in a no. of individual and group exercises constructed to stimulate important activities at the organizational levels to which they aspire.
These exercises can include activities like Participating in groups, giving presentations, team work in problem solving. The participants are observed by mangers and/or trained observers who will evaluate both the ability and the potential.
Generally, participants are assessed according to the following criteria:
Appropriate Human Resource refers to individuals within the organization who make a valuable contribution to management system goal attainment. This contribution results from their productivity in the positions they hold.
Inappropriate Human Resource refers to organization members who do not make valuable contribution to the attainment of management system objectives.
For one reason or the other, they are ineffective in their jobs.
Productivity in all organizations is determined by how human resources interact and combine to use all other management system resources. Such factors as background, age, job related experience, and the level of formal education all play a role in determining how appropriate the individual is for the organization.
STEPS IN PROVIDING HUMAN RESOURCES:
To provide appropriate human resources to fill both managerial and non managerial openings, managers follow 4 sequential steps:
RECRUITMENT:
Recruitment is the initial attraction and screening of the supply of prospective human resources available to fill a position.
Its purpose is to narrow a large field of prospective employees to a relatively small group of individuals from which someone eventually will be hired.
To be effective, recruiters must know the following:
KNOWING THE JOB:
Recruitment activities must begin with a thorough understanding of the position to be filled so the broad range of potential employees can be narrowed intelligently.
The technique commonly used to gain the understanding of the job is Job Analysis.
Job Analysis is aimed at determining a Job Description ( the activities a job entails) and a Job Specification (the characteristics of the individual who should be hired for the job).
KNOWING SOURCES OF HUMAN RESOURCES:
Besides a thorough knowledge of the position the organization is trying to fill, recruiters must be able to pinpoint sources of human resources.
Since the supply of individuals from which to recruit is continually changing, there will be times when finding appropriate human resources will be tougher than some other times.
Human resource specialists in organizations continually monitor the labour market so they will know where to recruit suitable people and what kind of strategies and tactics to use to attract job applicants in a competitive marketplace.
Sources inside the Organization:
The pool of employees within the organization is one source of human resources. Some individuals who already work for the organization may be well qualified for an open position.
Some lateral movements do happen, but most of the times, internal movements are promotions.
Advantages of Promotion:
- Building Employee Moral
- Encouraging employee to work order
- Inspiring Employees to stay longer
Human Resource Inventory:
Human Resource Inventory consists of information about the characteristics of organization members. This focuses on the past performance and future potential and the objective is to keep management up to date about the possibilities for filling a position from within.
This inventory should indicate which individuals in the organization would be appropriate for filling a position if it becomes available.
Walter S. Wikstrom proposed that organizations keep 3 types of records that can be combined to maintain a useful human resources inventory.
Management Inventory Card
It includes both an organizational history of the employee and cues on how she might be used in the future. It can include details like :
Position Replacement Form
This record focuses on position centred information rather than people centred information. The position information form is helpful in determining what would happen to a present position, if the current incumbent is moved to some other post or leaves the organization.
Management Manpower Replacement Chart
This Chart presents a composite view of the individual’s management considers significant for human resource planning.
The current incumbent’s performance rating and promotion potential can be easily compared with those of the other employees when a company is trying to determine which individual would most appropriately fill a particular position
All these 3 forms together help the management answer the questions:
SUCCESSION PLANNING:
Succession planning is the process of outlining who will follow whom in various organizational positions.
Sources outside the Organization
Various Sources include:
Competitors:
There are several advantages to luring human resources away from competitors including:
· The individual knows the business
· The competitor will have paid for the individual’s training up to the time of hire.
· The competing organization will probably be weakened somewhat by the loss of the individual.
Once hired, the individual will be a valuable source of information about how to best compete with the other organization.The terms Centralization and Decentralization describe the general degree to which delegation exists in the company.
Decentralizing an Organization:
The appropriate degree of decentralization for an organization depends on the unique situation of that organization.
Relevant Questions will be:
SIZE:
The larger the organization, the more the chance that decentralization will be advantageous. Delegation is an effective means for helping managers manage their increasing workload in big organizations.
But in some cases, the Organization may be too large and decentralized.
If the proportionate manpower costs are very high, then that organization may actually benefited by centralization of some of the aspects of the organization.
CUSTOMER LOCATIONS:
The more physically separated the organization’s customers are, the more viable a significant amount of decentralization is. This is less valid in the ecommerce business but most other cases, it makes complete sense.
HOMOGENEOUS PRODUCT LINE:
Generally, as the product line becomes more heterogeneous, or diversified, the appropriateness of decentralization increases.
SUPPLIER LOCATION:
Decentralization of some functions becomes a requirement, in case of high geographic diversity in the suppliers.
QUICK DECISION MAKING:
If speedy decision making is essential, then decentralization of the relevant functions can be critical.
CREATIVITY:
Decentralization generally fosters creativity.
Obstacles that can make delegation within an organization difficult or even impossible can be classified into 3 general categories:
Obstacles related to the Supervisor:
A supervisor who resists delegating his authority to subordinates because he cannot bear to part with any authority.
Two other supervisor related obstacles are the fear that the subordinates will not do a job well and the suspicion that surrendering some authority may be seen as a sign of weakness.
If supervisors are insecure in their jobs or believe certain activities are extremely important to their personal success, they may find it hard to put the performance of these activities into the hands of the others.
Obstacles related to Subordinates:
Subordinates may be reluctant to accept delegated authority because they are afraid of failing, lack self confidence, or feel the supervisor doesn’t have the confidence in them.
These obstacles will be especially apparent in subordinates who have never before used delegated authority.
Other subordinate related obstacles are the fear that the supervisor will be unavailable for guidance when needed and the reluctance to exercise authority that may complicate comfortable working relationships.
Obstacles related to the Delegation Process:
In organizations, where few job activities and little authority have been delegated in the past, an attempt to initiate the delegation process may make employees reluctant and apprehensive, for the supervisor would be introducing a significant change in procedure and change is often strongly resisted.
ELIMINATING OBSTACLES IN THE DELEGATION PROCESS:
Advantages of Delegation are:
What can managers do to eliminate obstacles to the delegation process?
Firstly uncover the obstacles to delegation.
Then taking actions to eliminate these obstacles with the understanding that they may be deeply ingrained and therefore required much time and effort to overcome.
Among the most effective management actions that can be taken to eliminates obstacles to delegation are building subordinate confidence in the use of delegated authority on established working relationships, and helping delegates cope with problems whenever necessary.
MANAGERIAL CHARCTERISITICS REQUIRED:
Accountability refers to the management philosophy whereby individuals are held liable, or accountable, for how well they use their authority and live up to their responsibility of performing predetermined activities.
The concept of accountability implies that if an individual does not perform predetermined activities, some type of penalty, or punishment is justifiable.
The punishment theme of accountability has been summed by one company executive " Individuals who do not perform well simply will not be around too long.
The accountability concept also implies that some kind of reward will follow if predetermined activities are performed well.
DELEGATION:
Delegation is the actual process of assigning job activities and corresponding authority to specific individuals within the organization.
Important Dimensions of Delegation include:
STEPS IN THE DELEGATION PROCESS:
According to Neman and
GUIDELINES FOR MAKING DELEGATION EFFECTIVE:
Authority is the right to perform or command. It allows its holder to act in certain designated ways and to directly influence the actions of others through orders.
It also allows its holder to allocate the organization's resources to achieve organizational objectives.
AUTHORITY ON THE JOB :
Barnard defines authority as the character of communication by which an order is accepted by an individual as governing the actions that individual takes within the system.
Barnard maintains that authority will be accepted only under the following conditions:
The fewer of these 4 conditions that are present, the lower the probability that authority will be accepted and obedience be exacted.
Barnad offers some guidance on what managers can do to raise the odds that their commands will be accepted and obeyed. He maintains that more and more of a manager's commands will be accepted over the long term if:
TYPES OF AUTHORITY:
3 main types of authority can exist within an organization:
Each type exists only to enable individuals to carry out the different types of responsibilities with which they have been charged.
LINE AUTHORITY:
The most fundamental authority within an organization, reflects existing superior-subordinate relationships. It consists of the right o make decisions and to give order concerning the production,sales or finance related behaviour of subordinates.
In general, line authority pertains to matters directly involving management system production, sales, finance etc., and as a result with the attainment of objectives.
People directly responsible for these areas within the organization are delegated line authority to assist them in performing their obligatory activities.
STAFF AUTHORITY:
Staff authority consists of the right to advise or assist those who possess line authority as well as other staff personnel.
Staff authority enables those responsible for improving the effectiveness of line personnel to perform their required tasks.
Line and Staff personnel must work together closely to maintain the efficiency and effectiveness of the organization. To ensure that line and staff personnel do work together productively, management must make sure both groups understand the organizational mission, have specific objectives, and realize that they are partners in helping the organization reach its objectives.
Size is perhaps the most significant factor in determining whether or not an organization will have staff personnel. The larger the organization, the greater the need and ability to employ staff personnel.
As an organization expands, it usually needs employees with expertise in diversified areas. Although small organizations may also require this kind of diverse expertise, they often find it more practical to hire part time consultants to provide it is as needed rather than to hire full time staff personnel, who may not always be kept busy.
LINE - STAFF RELATIONSHIPS :
e.g. A plant manager has line authority over each immediate subordinate, human resource manager, the production manager and the sales manager.
However, the human resource manager has staff authority in relation to the plant manger, meaning the human resource manager has staff authority in relation to the plant manager, meaning the human resource manager possesses the right to advise the plant manager on human resource matters.
Still final decisions concerning human resource matters are in the hands of the plant manager, the person holding the line authority.
ROLE OF STAFF PERSONNEL:
Harold Stieglitz has pinpointed 3 roles that staff personnel typically perform to assist line personnel:
The role of staff in any organization should be specifically designed to best meet the needs of that organization.
CONFLICT IN LINE - STAFF RELATIONSHIP:
From the view point of line personnel, conflict is created because staff personnel tend to
From the view point of Staff Personnel, conflict is created because line personnel do not make proper use of staff personnel, resist new ideas and refuse to give staff personnel enough authority to do their jobs.
Staff Personnel can often avert line-staff conflicts if they strive to emphasize the objectives of the organization as a whole, encourage and educate line personnel in the appropriate use of staff personnel, obtain any necessary skills they do not already possess, and deal intelligently with the resistance to change rather than view it as an immovable barrier.
Line personnel can do their part to minimize line staff conflict by sing staff personnel wherever possible, making proper use of the staff abilities, and keeping staff personnel appropriately informed.
*****
FUNCTIONAL AUTHORITY:
Functional authority consists of the right to give orders within a segment of the organization in which this right is normally non existent.
This authority is usually assigned to individuals to complement the line or staff authority they already possess.
Functional Authority generally covers only specific task areas and is operational only for designated amounts of time. It is given to individuals who, in order to meet responsibilities in their own areas, must be able to exercise some control over organization members in other areas.
7 Responsibility Relationships among Managers, as used in the Management Responsibility Guide:
RESPONSIBLE MANAGERS:
Managers can be described as responsible if they perform the activities they are obligated to perform.
Since managers have more impact on an organization than non managers, responsible managers are a pre requisite for management system success.
The degree of responsibility that a manager possesses can be determined by appraising the manager on the following 4 dimensions:
4 Key Dimensions of Responsible Management Behaviour
Attitude toward and conduct with subordinates.
Behaviour with Upper Management:
Behaviour with Other Groups :
Personal Attitudes & Values:
Responsibility is the obligation to perform assigned activities. It is the self assumed commitment to handle a job to the best of one's ability.
The source of responsibility lies within the individual.
A person who accepts a job agrees to carry out a series of duties or activities or to see that someone else carries them out.
The act of accepting the job means that the person is obligated to a superior (relationship management) to see that job activities are successfully completed.
THE JOB DESCRIPTION:
An individual's job activities within an organization are usually summarized in a formal statement called a job description - a list of specific activities that must be performed by whoever holds the position.
Unclear job descriptions Can confuse employees and may cause them to lose interest in their jobs. On the other hand, a clear job description can help employees to become successful by focusing their efforts on the issues that are important for their position.
When properly designed, job descriptions communicate job content to employees, establish performance levels that employees must maintain, and act as a guide that employees should follow to help the organization reach its objectives.
Job activities are delegated by management to enhance the accomplishment of management system objectives.
Management analyzes its objectives and assigns specific duties that will lead to reaching those objectives. A sound organizing strategy delineates specific job activities for every individual in the organization.
The following 3 areas are related to responsibility:
DIVIDING JOB ACTIVITIES:
One person cannot be responsible for performing all of the activities that take place within an organization. Since so many people work in a given management system, organizing necessarily involves dividing job activities among a no. of individuals.
Some method of distributing these job activities is essential.
THE FUNCTIONAL SIMILARITY METHOD:
The functional similarity method is the most basic method of dividing job activities.
Management should take 4 basic interrelated steps to divide job activities in the following sequence:
FUNCTIONAL SIMILARITY & RESPONSIBILITY:
3 additional guides can be used to supplement the functional similarity method.
