Name : Benoy

Johnson Kurien.

Subject : Human
Resource Management

Date of Submission : 14th August 2007.

Assignment no. : MB0027.

 Human Resource Management-MB0027

1.Discuss the difference between Personnel

Management and Human Resource Management.
The genesis of Human Resource management
traces its roots to the erstwhile Personnel management that was
prevalent in the companies of a few decades ago. Though the two
terms ‘Personnel Management’ and ‘Human Resource
Management’ are interchangeably used in many authors, there
are some deference between them. Management of Human
Resources is a new field of study embodying behavioral science
knowledge relating to the working of line and staff officials and
union leaders to motivate organizational goals. On the other hand,
Personnel management is the phase of management which deals
with the effective control and use of manpower. Yoder, Henemen
and others agrees that the HRM is a broad concept which covers
many personnel aspects and includes social, professional and
individual enterprise aspects, whereas Personnel Management
focuses only on personnel aspects such as leadership, justice
determination, task specialization, staffing, performance
appraisal, etc. HRM is more growth-oriented whereas personnel
management is slightly narrow. Human Resource Planning is a
very vital HRM. This is because it leads to the maximum utilization
of human resources, reduces excessive labour turnover and high
absenteeism; improves productivity and aids in achieving the
objectives of an organization. In, addition to the above function,
HRM emphasizes on training, an important area of personnel,
which covers the following aspects:
 1. Increasing productivity;

2. Improving quality;

3. Improving organizational climate;

4. Ensuring personnel growth etc.

While in practice both pertained to people management

philosophically the approach is vastly different. The expectation
from personnel management approach is to ‘take care’ of the
people working in an organization, addressing grievances and
complaints formed a large part of the Personnel Management
function. The focus is largely reactive and followed the Theory X
approach that believed that people do not naturally like to work
and no need to be coerced to work and often need to be driven to
work. The philosophy is more the ‘stick’ approach rather than
‘carrot’ approach. Employee welfare is of paramount importance
and managing industrial relations as a result of heightened trade
union activity formed the highlights of the Personnel Management
functions.

Human Resource Management on the other hand adopts a

proactive approach to managing people and the focus is on the
employee development and the delight. Hiring the right talent,
providing for ample opportunities for career growth and job
satisfaction are the highlights of this management style. The basic
philosophy is driven by the Theory Y approach where the belief is
that people like to work and do not prefer to be supervised and
made to perform.

2. Explain the Human Resource Planning System.

A. Objectives of Human resource planning: Human Resource
Planning fulfils individual, organizational and national goals; but,
according to Sikula, “the ultimate mission or purpose is to relate
future human resources to future enterprise needs, so as to
maximize the future return or investment in human resources. In
effect, the main purpose is one of matching or fitting employee
abilities to enterprise requirements, with an emphasis on future
instead of present arrangements.” The objectives may be laid
down for a short term (i.e. for one year).

B. Estimating the Future Organizational Structure or Forecasting

the Manpower Requirements: The management must estimate
the structure of the organization at a given point in time. For this
estimate, the number and type of employees needed have to be
determined. Many environmental factors affect this
determination. They include business forecasts, expansion and
growth, design and structural changes, management philosophy,
government policy, product and human skills mix, and
competition.

Forecasting provides the basic premises on which the manpower

planning is built. Forecasting is necessary for various reasons,
such as:

a. The eventualities and contingencies of general economic

business cycles (such as inflation, wages, prices, costs and raw
materials supplies) have an influence on the short-range and long-
run plans of all organizations.

b. An expansion following enlargement and growth in business

involves the use of additional machinery and personnel, and a
reallocation of facilities, all of which call for advance planning of
human resources.

c. Changes in management philosophies and leadership styles.

 d. The use of mechanical technology (such as introduction of
automatic controls, or the mechanization of materials handling
functions) necessitates changes in the skills of workers, as well as
a change in the number of employees needed.

e. Very often, changes in the quantity or quality of products or

services require a change in the organization structure. Plans
have to be made for this purpose as well.

C. Auditing Human Resources: Once the future human resource

needs are estimated, the next step is to determine the present
supply of manpower resources. This is done through what is called
“Skills Inventory”. A skills inventory contains data about each
employee’s skills, abilities, work, preferences and other items of
information which indicates his overall value to the company.

D. Job Analysis: After having decided how many persons would be

needed, it is necessary to prepare a job analysis, which records
details of training, skills, qualification, abilities, experience, and
responsibilities, etc., which are needed for a job. Job analysis
includes the preparation of job description and job specifications.

E. Developing a Human Resource Plan: This step refers to the

development and implementation of the human resource plan,
which consist in finding out the sources of labour supply with a
view to making an effective use of these resources. The first
thing, therefore, is to decide on the policy- should the, personnel
should be hired from within through promotional channels or
should it be obtained from an outside source. The best policy
followed by most organization is to fill up higher vacancies by
promotion and lower level positions by recruitment from the
labour market

3 Write a detailed note on training needs

identification.
 Training could be useful aid in improving the
transformation process that takes place in an organization in
terms of the processing of inputs to outputs. Training needs have
to be related both in terms of the organization’s demands and
that of the individual’s. Diversification of product lines, new
technology, and hence a new kind of job demands the individual’s
growth and development through induction, training, or training
necessities by job rotation due to an organization’s internal
mobility policies.

A survey conducted by A.D. sinha, listed in rank order the

following methods of identifying training needs.

1. Views of the line manager.

2. Performance appraisal.

3. Company and departmental plans.

4. Views of training manager.

5. Analysis of job difficulties.

The model we shall examine here is the Thayer and McGhee

model. It is based on the following three factors:

1. Organization analysis.

2. Task analysis.

Total Organizational Analysis:

Total organizational analysis is the systematic effort to understand

exactly where training effort needs to be emphasized in an
organization. It involves a detailed analysis of the organization
structure, objectives, human resources and future plan, and an
understanding of its culture, milieu.
The first step in organizational analysis is achieving a clear
understanding of both short-run and long-run goals. Long-term
objectives are the broad directions in which the organizations
would move over long duration. These long term objectives are
then broken down into specific strategies and short-term goals for
each of the units/departments. In an organization, the cumulative
effective of all these would ultimately lead to ling-term goals.
Short-term goals are constantly in need of adaptation to the
changing environment, both external and internal.

For an organization analysis, there are three essential

requirements: (1) an adequate number of personnel available to
ensure fulfillment of the business operation; (2) that personnel
performance is up to the required standard; (3)that the working
environment in their units/departments is conducive to fulfillment
of tasks.

In order to ensure the first two requirements a human resource

inventory needs to be made. Data regarding positions,
qualifications, vacancies, replacements and training time required
for replacements have to be worked out. Job standards also
should be worked out.

Various efficiencies and productivity indexes, or ratios such as

productivity ratios, cost per unit etc, can be worked out to
determine not only efficiency but also adequacy, in terms of
under-manning or over-manning, of the workforce.

Diagnosing the state of organization “climate” is a less precise

exercise than the two indicators suggested above. While rules,
procedures, systems and methods all contribute to the making of
the environment, much of it is also determined by the attitude
that the “people” have in the organization- for instance, the
attitude that the top management has towards his subordinates
staff and the attitude that the members have towards the work,
supervisors and company procedures. These attitude are learnt,
they result from the person’s experience both within and outside
the organization, and training inputs could be used to effect
changes of attitude and consequently of the organizational
climate.

Task Analysis

This activity entails a detailed examination of a job, its

components, its various operations and the conditions under
which It has to be performed. The focus here is on the “task”
itself, rather than on the individual and the training required to
perform it. Analysis of the job and its various components will
indicate the skills and training to perform the job at the required
standard.

Standard of performance: Every job has an expected standard

of performance. Unless such standards are attained, not only will
inter-related jobs suffer, but organizational viability will be
affected, and so will be the expected that have been set for that
particular job itself. If the standards set for the performance of a
job are known, then it is possible to know whether the job is being
performed at the desired level of output or not. Knowledge of the
“task” will help in understanding what skills, knowledge and
attitudes an employee should have.

Methods: If an employee is asked to perform a job, the exact

components of a job and the standard of performance must be
known. Task analysis entails not merely q simple listing of the
various job components, but also of the relatively critical nature of
the various sub-tasks. Conventional methods of job analysis are
usually suitable for task analysis. They are:

1. Literature reviewing regarding the job.

2. Job performance.
3. Job observation.

4. Data collection regarding the job interviews.

For blue-collar workers, more precise industrial-engineering

techniques, like time and motion studies, could be used, and foe
white-collar workers, work sampling observation, interviews, and
jobs performance data analysis could be employed. The object of
this exercise is to get as much information as possible about the
nature of the task and its various components, leading to the
performance standard to be set. This information would be useful
in establishing the training programme for an employee.

Analysis of the job is but one part of the task analysis. Other areas
are the skill required, either in terms of education or training, to
perform the job, knowledge, and finally attitudinal pre-dispositions
such as the attitudes, towards safety, or interpersonal
competence.

Man Analysis:

Man analysis is the third component in identifying training needs.

The focus of man analysis is on the individual employee, his
abilities, and the inputs required for job performance, or individual
growth and development in terms of career planning.

Man analysis is still less precise than the other two analyses,
primarily because the available measures are much less objective
and there are many individual variations. Yet, through observation
and unobtrusive measures it is possible to get an indication of the
training requirements of an individual.

Man analysis helps to indentify whether the individual employee

requires training and if so, what kind of training. Clues to training
needs can come from analysis of an individuals or a group’s
typical behavior. The primary sources of such information are:
(1) Observation at place of work, examination of job schedules,
quantum of spoilage, wastage, and clues, about interpersonal
relations of the employees; (2) interviews with superiors and
employees; (3) comparative study of good vs. poor employees to
identify differences, skills and training gaps; (4) personal records;
(5) production reports; and (6) review of literature regarding the
job and machines used. Job-knowledge tests, work sampling and
diagnostic psychological tests also provide information about
employees. Thus it must be stated that variety of sources need to
be studied.

4 Explain different types of appraisal methods.

When it has been decided who will evaluate, when, and on what
basis, the technique to be used will be selected. A number of
approaches will be described here. There are several ways to
classify these tools. The three categories used here will be;
individual evaluation methods; multiple person evaluation
methods; and other methods.

Individual Evaluation Methods

There are five ways to evaluate an employee individually. In these

systems, employees are evaluated one at a time without directly
comparing them with other employees.

Graphic rating scale: The most widely used performance

evaluation technique is a graphic rating scale. In this technique,
the evaluator is presented with a graph and asked to rate
employees on each of the characteristics listed. The number of
characteristics rated varies from a few to several dozen. A factor
analysis of the result indicates that only two traits were being
rated: quality of performance and ability to do the present job.
The rating can be in a series of boxes, or they can be on a
continuous scale (0-9) or so. In the latter case, the evaluator
places a check above descriptive words ranging from none to
maximum. Typically, these ratings are then assigned points. For
example, outstanding may be assigned a score of 4 and
unsatisfactory a score of 0. Total scores are then computed. In
some plans, greater weights may be assigned to more important
traits. Evaluators are often asked to explain each rating with a
sentence of two.

Forced choice: The forces-choice method of evaluation was

developed because other methods used at the time led to a
preponderance of higher ratings, which made promotion decisions
difficult. In forced-choice, the evaluator must choose from a set of
descriptive statements about the employee. The two-, three-, or
four-statements items are grouped in a way that the evaluator
cannot easily judge which statements apply to the most effective
employee.

Typically, personnel specialist prepare the items for the form, and
supervisors or the other personnel specialist rate the items for
applicability; that is, they determine which statement describe
effective and ineffective behaviour. The supervisor then evaluates
the employee. The Personnel Department adds up the number of
statements in each category (for example, effective behaviour ),
and they are summed into effectiveness index. Forced choice can
be used by supervisors, peers subordinates, or a combination of
these in evaluating employees.

Essay evaluation: In essay technique of evaluation, the

evaluator is asked to describe the strong and weak aspects of the
employee’s behavior. In some enterprises, the essay technique is
the only one used; in other, the essay is combined with other
form, such as graphic rating scale. In this case, the essay
summarizes the scale, elaborates on some of the ratings, or
discusses added dimensions not on the scale. In both of these
approaches the essay can be open ended, but in most cases there
are guidelines on the topics to be covered, the purpose of the
essay, and so on. The essay method can be used by evaluators
who are superiors, peers or subordinates of the employees to be
evaluated.

Management by objectives: Another individual evaluation

method in use today is Management by Objectives (MBO). In this
system the supervisor and employee to be evaluated jointly set
objectives in advance for the employee to try to achieve during a
specified period. The method encourages, if not required, them to
phrase these objectives primarily in quantitative terms. The
evaluation consists of joint review of the degree of achievement of
the objectives. This approach combines the superior and self
evaluation.

Critical incident technique: I this technique, personnel

specialist and operating managers prepare lists of statements of
very effective and very in effective behavior for an employee.
These are critical incidents. The personnel specialists combine
these statements into categories, which vary with the job. Once
the categories are developed and statements of effective and
ineffective behavior are provided, the evaluator prepares a log for
each employee. During the evaluation period, the evaluator
“records examples of critical (outstandingly good or bad)
behaviours in each of the categories, and the log is used to
evaluate the employee at the end of the period. It is also very
useful for the evaluation interview, since the evaluator can be
specific in making positive and negative comments, and it avoids
“recency” bias. The critically incident technique is more likely to
be used by superiors than in peer or subordinate.

Checklist and weighted checklist: Another type of individual

evaluation method is the checklist. In its simplest form, the
checklist is a set of objectives or descriptive statements. If the
Rater believes that the employee possesses a trait listed, the
Rater checks the items; if not, the Rater leaves it blank. A rating
score from the checklist equals the number of checks.

A more recent variation is the weighted checklist. Supervisors

or personnel specialist familiar with the job to be evaluated
prepare a large list of descriptive statements about effective and
ineffective behaviour on jobs, similar to the critical incident
process. Judges who have observed behavior on the job sort the
statements into piles describing behavior that is scaled from
excellent to poor (usually on a 7-11 scale). When there is
reasonable agreement in an item (for example, when the standard
deviation is small), it is included in the weighted checklist. The
weight is the average of the Raters to the checklist’s use.

The supervisor or other Raters receive the checklist without the

scores, and they check the items that apply, as with an un-
weighted checklist. The employee’s evaluation is the sum of the
scores (weights) on the items checked. Checklist and weighted
checklist can be used by evaluators who are superior, peers, or
subordinates, by a combination.

Behaviourally anchored rating system: Another technique

which essentially is based on the critical incident approach is the
behaviourally anchored rating scale (BARS). This technique is also
called the behavioural expectation scale (BES). This is a new,
relatively infrequently used technique.

Supervisors give descriptions of actually good and bad

performance, and personnel specialists group these into
categories (five to ten typical). As with weighted checklist, the
items are evaluated by supervisors (often other than those who
submitted the items). A procedure similar to that for weighted
checklist is used to verify the evaluations (outstandingly good, for
example) with the smallest standard deviation, hopefully around
1.5 on a 7- point scale. These items are then used to construct the
BARS.
 5 Write a note on Motivation Techniques.
Following Michael jaucius, let us see how management may
proceed to motivate employees. This activity may be divided into
two parts: (a) what is to be done and (b) how and why what is
done. The former are steps in motivation and the latter are the
rules governing the steps. Botha re performed simultaneously. The
steps of motivation are listed below:

1. Size up situation requiring motivation:

The first stage of motivation is to make sure of motivational needs

every employee needs motivation. However, all people do not
react in exactly the same way to the stimuli. Keeping this in mind
the executive shall size up how much and what kind of motivation
is need and when and by which individuals.

2. Prepare a set of motivating tools:

Having determined the motivational needs of a particular person

or group an executive must have a list from which he should
select and apply specific tools of motivation. An executive from
his personal experience should prepare a list of what devices are
likely to work with what type of people and under what
circumstances.

3. Selecting and applying the appropriate motivator:

Proper application of motivational plan is very important. This

involves selection of the appropriate technique, the method of
application and the timing and locations. Having selected
appropriate techniques thought must be given to its application

4. Follow-up the results of the application:

The last stage of motivation is to follow-up the results of the

application of the plan. The primary objective is to ascertain if an
employee has been motivated or not. If not some other technique
should be tried. A secondary purpose of follow-up is to evaluate
motivation plans for future guidance.

Rules of motivating: In following the steps of motivation a

manager should be guided by some fundamental rules which
should be based upon the following principles:

1. Self-interest and motivation: Undoubtly, motivation is

mainly built on selfishness. Psychologically speaking, selfishness
is a part and parcel of life. To deny this is to build the theory on
unrealistic foundation. To seek some other bases of motivation
would be to ignore the real nature of man. The aim should be to
learn more about selfishness.

2. Attainability: Motivation must establish attainable goals.

What is prescribed for a particular person must be attainable by
him. This does not mean that the goal is realized at once. Such
goals are promotion or desirable transfer may take years to
attain. But it must be within reach.

Eight Ways to Motivate Plant Employees: Based on a fact-finding

study conducted at several manufacturing plants of the General
Electric Company, scorcher and Mayer have made the following
recommendations for improving the motivation of employees in
routine jobs.

1. Provide assembly line employees with more than minimum

training. Providing some sort of formal training for a factory
employee beyond the required minimum should result in greater
personal involvement in the job.

2. Create sub-goals to measure accomplishment. A sense of

competition is important to good motivation. When people work
towards clearly defined goals they perform better. Moreover, they
are likely to be more interested in the work which will reduce
monotony and mental fatigue.

3. Provide regular feedback on performance. Psychological

studies show that people perform better than when they to be
more interested in the work which will reduce monotony and
mental fatigue.

3. Provide regular feedback on performance. Psychological

studies show that people perform better than when they receive
positive as well as negative feedback about their performance on
a regular basis.

4. Maintain a neat and orderly work area. If the foreman does not
care about neatness, employees may feel that they need not care
about it and this attitude may also affect the quality of their work.

5. Arrange work situations so that conversation between

employees is either easy or impossible. Experienced workers can
do routine jobs with little attention to the task. Conversation
while working my reduce monotony and fatigue and thus have a
favourable effect on output.

6. If possible, increase the number of operations performed by

one employee. This can be done by the simplification of manual
operations. It offers several advantages, viz.,

i) The risk of errors is reduced;

ii) Training cost are minimized;

iii) Management can hire employees at lower wages.

iv) Structure jobs, so that workers can, at least occasionally

move about the work area. Besides job rotation, there are other
ways to provide for physical movement such as setting employees
secure their own tools or by adding operations which require
some physical activity.
 v) Explore ways to assign personal responsibility. Increased
responsibility means greater self-esteem and greater job
meaningfulness. One way to enlarge responsibility is to let an
employee inspect his own work.

6 Elaborate the importance of grievance handling.

At one or other stage of the grievance procedure, the dispute
must be handled by some member of management. In solution of
a problem, the greater burden rests on management. The clearest
opportunity for settlement is found at the first stage, before the
grievance has left the jurisdiction of the supervisor. For this
reason, many firms have specifically trained their supervisors as
to how to handle a grievance or complaint properly. The dispute or
grievance constitutes a managerial problem and the specific
method is usually most productive in arriving at a satisfactory
solution. The following directions help in handling a grievance:

1. Receive and define the nature of the dissatisfaction:

The manner and attitude with which the supervisor receives
the complaint of grievance is important. As a principle
applicable to this step, the supervisor should assume that
the employee is fair in prejudged on the basis of past
experience with this or other employees. The supervisor
should not be too busy to listen and should not give an
impression of condescension in doing so. Thus supervisors
who were nearly task-oriented, as contrasted with people-
oriented, tended to experience a significantly greater
number of grievances being filed in their units.

2. Get the facts: In gathering facts, one quickly becomes aware

of the importance of keeping proper records such as
performance ratings, job ratings, attending records, and
suggestions. In addition, with the increasingly legalistic bent
 that is characteristic of modern labour-management
relations, the supervisor is wise to keep records on each
particular grievance. It is also important that the supervisor
possesses and exercise some skills in interview conference,
and discussion.

3. Analyze and divide: with the problem defined and the facts
in hand, the manager must now analyze and evaluate them,
and then come to some decision. There is usually more than
one possible solution. The manager must also be aware that
the decision may constitute a precedent within the
department as well as the company.

4. Apply the answer: Though the solution decided upon by the

superior is adverse to the employee, some answer is better
than none. Employees dislike supervisors who will take no
stand, good or bad. In this event of an appeal beyond this
stage of the procedure, the manager must have the decision
and the reasons for his decision should be properly recorded.

5. Follow up: The objective of the grievance procedure is to

resolve a disagreement between an employee and the
organization. Discussion and conference are important to this
process. The purpose of its follow-up phase is to determine
whether the clash of interest has been resolved. If follow up
reveals that the case has been handled unsatisfactory or that the
wrong grievance has been processed, then redefinition of the
problem, further fact-finding, analysis, solution and follow up are
required.