A STUDY ON EVALUATION OF EMPLOYEES CAREER PATH WITH

SPECIAL REFERENCE TO DHANVANTHRI TRADERS, KARUR

ABSTRACT

Employees are major assets of any organization. The active role they play towards a
company’s success cannot be underestimated. As a result, equipping these unique
assets through effective training becomes imperative in order to maximize the job
performance. Also position them to take on the challenges of the today’s competitive
business climate. Although extensive research has been conducted in the area of
Human Research Management, the same cannot be said on employee carrier path.
Employee performance evaluation is designed to assess each individual’s
contribution to the organization. The performance of individuals against
organizational goals determines whether the organization meets its goals. The basic
objectives of performance evaluations are two-fold: firstly to reward employees for
meeting organizational objectives and secondly to identify which objectives are not
met and to develop action plans to ensure they are achieved in future. The study uses
Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to evaluate employees performances based
upon the criteria: quantity/quality of the work, planning/organization,
initiative/commitment, teamwork/cooperation, communication and external factors.
Each of these criteria has been divided into 3 subcriteria. Employees of Dhanvanthri
Traders are evaluated on these subcriteria. Overall ranking of the employees has
been obtained using the absolute measurement procedure of AHP.
 CHAPTER – I

INTRODUCTION AND DESIGN OF THE STUDY

1.1 OVERVIEW

Career paths and career ladders are two traditional methods by which an
employee can develop and progress within an organization. Career ladders are the
progression of jobs in an organization's specific occupational fields ranked from
highest to lowest based on level of responsibility and pay. Career paths encompass
varied forms of career progression, including the traditional vertical career ladders,
dual career ladders, horizontal career lattices, career progression outside the
organization and encore careers.

Employees usually feel more engaged when they believe that their employer is
concerned about their growth and provides avenues to reach individual career goals
while fulfilling the company's mission. A career development path provides
employees with an ongoing mechanism to enhance their skills and knowledge that
can lead to mastery of their current jobs, promotions and transfers to new or
different positions. Implementing career paths may also have a direct impact on the
entire organization by improving morale, career satisfaction, motivation,
productivity, and responsiveness in meeting departmental and organizational
objectives.

BACKGROUND

In the early part of the 20th century, career choice and career progression were
dictated by tradition, socio-economic status, family and gender. For most men,
career choice—and status within those careers—was determined by what their
fathers and other male family members had done before them. For women, the
career choice options were even more limited by convention and social mores.
Career progression and career ladders were almost nonexistent.

In the immediate post-WWII world, the corporate organization became the

driving force in U.S. business. Both employers and employees operated under an
implied contract: Employees would be loyal, and in turn, employers would provide
employment until retirement.
 In the latter part of the 20th century, however, this traditional trajectory of a
person's career at one employer became a thing of the past. From the late 1970s
onward, the U.S. economy experienced several boom-and-bust cycles, causing many
organizations to undergo massive layoffs and restructuring, and to be reticent to re-
staff at pre-bust levels even when times were good. Also during this period, the shift
away from a manufacturing to a knowledge economy caused a decline in union
membership, further diminishing the once-implied contract of employee loyalty for
lifetime employment. The organizational structure became much flatter, reducing or
eliminating middle management layers. To get ahead or to make more money,
employees often had to look elsewhere.

Thus, a new paradigm emerged in which individuals are in charge of their

ladder, where they place it, how long they leave it in place and how high they want
to go on it. Traditional career ladders still exist in the 21st century, but they operate
in an environment where:

 The labor force sees continuous, dramatic changes.

 The way work is organized and performed continuously evolves and changes.

 Traditional career paths will continue to wane.

 Jobs are broken down into elements, which are then outsourced.

 Employees are working alongside a nonemployee workforce that does not

have career paths or logical career progressions and may be harder to motivate.

 Workers value job enrichment, flexibility and career development more than
job security and stability.

 Work is redesigned to accommodate increased demands for flexibility, such as

telecommuting hubs, online technologies for connecting with global
colleagues and virtual worlds.

BUSINESS CASE

Many factors influence the need for an organization to embrace formal career
paths and career ladders, including:
  Inability to find, recruit and place the right people in the right jobs.

 Employee disengagement.

 Employee demands for greater workplace flexibility.

 Lack of diversity at the top.

 A multigenerational workforce.

 Limited opportunity for advancement in flatter or smaller organizations.

 Organizational culture change.

Making employee development a priority

Although most CEOs understand the importance of employee development,

most admit that they do not devote the necessary time and resources to this activity.
In a study by global staffing firm Randstad, 73 percent of employers said fostering
employee development is important, but only 49 percent of employees said
leadership is adhering to this practice.

Similarly, another study revealed that 85 percent of CEOs said that talent
management is as important as or more important than other business priorities. But
only two in 10 leaders surveyed said they often spend time managing talent, and
only one in 10 often review talent management with the company's board of
directors.

Most organizations could benefit by increasing efforts to establish clear

strategies for how talent will be grown from within. Career paths and ladders can be
effective strategic tools for achieving positive organizational outcomes. They can be
a means to ensure an organization's continuing growth and productivity.

Benefits to the organization

Aligning the employee's career goals with the strategic goals of the
organization not only helps the organization achieve its goals but also helps the
organization in the following ways:
Differentiate itself from labor market competitors. Research by WorldatWork
shows that organizations that do not invest in training and development of their
human capital lose valuable employees to their competition. Employers can easily
differentiate themselves from competitors by investing in their employees' career
development. Even a relatively small employer investment has a positive impact on
loyalty.

Retain key workers. Managing employee perceptions of career development

opportunities is a key to enhancing engagement and loyalty among employees.
Organizations should identify workers who are central to the execution of business
strategy and then develop or update retention plans to meet the needs and
expectations of these employees. Critical workers include those who drive a
disproportionate share of key business outcomes, significantly influence an
organization's value chain or are in short supply in the labor market. Providing
identifiable career paths is an important aspect of retention plans, along with
coaching and mentoring employees with high potential and moving proven
performers into new roles that fit skills developed over time.

Keep younger workers. Employees' views of work and growth opportunities vary
by generation. For example, Generation Y workers (those born between 1980 and
1987) are the least likely to be interested in pay increases and most likely to be
interested in learning new skills. They are also more likely to value a career path
than any other generation. Randstad also found that high percentages of Generations
Y and X (those born between 1965 and 1979) want pathways to personal growth.

Decrease turnover after an economic downturn. Employers in the United States

are facing a "talent paradox." Despite relatively high national unemployment since
2008, many organizations confront shortages in areas where they most need to
attract and retain experienced workers. As the economy recovers from a downturn,
employers should be concerned about losing critical and high-potential talent. A
spike in voluntary turnover typically occurs after a recession. The cost of voluntary
turnover can be significant, and it includes loss of productivity, lost institutional
knowledge and relationships, and added burdens on employees who must pick up
the slack.
HR's Role

HR professionals have new and varied roles to play in developing and

implementing career paths.

HR professionals no longer have a captive base of employees with control

over their climb up the ladder. Additionally, HR is no longer able to promise a
position on the ladder, or a climb to the top. Recognizing that there is a new
paradigm for career progression in the 21st century, HR should encourage
employees to take control of their own ladders. Though an organization can provide
resources and tools to assist employees in developing their skills and abilities, the
organization is no longer the sole option that employees have.

The challenge to HR is not only to continue to provide career opportunities to

employees but also to provide job enhancement and job enlargement opportunities.
Training and development should be focused on preparing the employee for a
lifetime of employability versus a lifetime of company employment.

The ambition and drive to follow that path belongs to each individual, but the
guidance and support needed to navigate the way comes from managers. Managers
are responsible for incorporating the organization's definition of success into
employee feedback, evaluations and development plans. Helping managers develop
career paths for their employees is another area in which HR professionals can take
the lead. HR professionals should help managers view employees not as their
exclusive resources but as organizational resources. When managers think this way,
they are more apt to encourage employees to develop themselves in areas outside
their existing departments to the benefit of the entire organization. When employees
move up internal career ladders through internal promotions, HR can contribute to
the process of moving an employee up the career ladder by:

 Establishing fair, workable and consistently administered promotion policies

and procedures. This includes establishing policies for posting—or not
posting—available positions and the content and timing of promotion
announcements.
  Facilitating promotions within their organizations by providing employees
with career coaching, helping managers develop clear selection criteria and
cushioning the blow for those not selected for promotion.

 Helping newly promoted employees make a smooth transition.

 Helping nonselected candidates continue to strengthen their skills in

expectation of future opportunities within the organization.

Although HR professionals have many responsibilities related to designing

and implementing career paths and methods for employees to grow and advance,
they must also receive guidance themselves in navigating and advancing their own
careers.

Developing Traditional Career Paths and Ladders

Corporate-wide initiatives around career planning can be as simple as role-

playing with managers on how to discuss career interests or use career mapping with
their employees. More complex initiatives involve developing formal career paths
for all positions within the organization. Traditional career ladders are based on the
assumption that the individual wishes to continue to climb the ladder as long as he or
she is able to and that the employer continues to provide opportunities.

Career mapping

A tool that managers and HR professionals can use during career planning
discussions with employees is career mapping. Career maps help employees think
strategically about their career paths and how to meet their career goals within the
organization rather than leave it to move ahead.

Career mapping involves three steps:

1. Self-assessment. A manager engages with the employee to explore his or her

knowledge, skills and abilities, as well as past experiences, accomplishments
and interests.

2. Individualized career map. Creating an individualized career map involves

identifying other positions within the organization that meet the employee's
interests. The position may be a lateral move into a different job family or a
 promotion. In either case, the position should capitalize on the employee's past
experiences, interests and motivation while at the same time requiring the
employee to develop a certain degree of new knowledge, skills and abilities
(KSAs) to give him or her something to work toward and stay engaged.

3. Exploring other opportunities. The final step in career mapping is to explore

other job opportunities within the organization as they become available.

For managers and employees to successfully practice career mapping,

HR must develop the necessary resources to facilitate the process.

1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

Employees are major assets to any organization. They play an active role
towards the organisation’s success that cannot be underestimated. Equipping these
unique assets through effective training becomes imperative in order to maximize
the job performance and expected future performance. The prevailing situation at the
work place has been one of low work performance and poor service delivery. The
poor work performance has led to the decline in service delivery.

Career path often used to close the gap between current performances and
expected future performance. There is a level from which employees find it difficult
to move upwards or get promoted.Lack of career advancement after training is a
problem. However, how lack of career advancement affects the motivation of
employees remains not well understood in Dhanvanthri Traders, Karur. In addition,
the hindrances to career development are not known and the solutions to these
hindrances are not known either. If this problem continues and motivation gets
seriously affected, the performance of the employees is likely to decrease and this
could seriously affect the achievement of the goals and objectives of the
Dhanvanthri Traders. Karur.

1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The general objective of this study was to establish the effects of career
development on employee performance in the organization, with special focus on
Sun Engineering Industries, Karur.

The specific objectives were:

  To determine the effects of training on employee performance in
Dhanvanthri traders, Karur.
 To establish the effects of career mentoring on employee performance in
Dhanvanthri traders, Karur.

1.4 SCOPE OF STUDY

The scope of the study lies in examining the significance of career

development in the present era of globalizing economies, and its relationship with
individual career planning. However the study is merely encircled in the
Dhanvanthri traders, Karur.

1.5 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

1. To identify the impact of individual career planning on the career

development of employee.
2. To study the effect of self-assessment on employee career development.
3. To study the impact of career mapping on employee career development.
4. To identify the significance of self-development on career development of
employees.

1.6 LIMITATIONS

This study has identified a few limitations which are acknowledged as

follows:

 In order to examine the pace of career development adequately this study

was limited to Dhanvanthri traders, Karur.As Human Resource Development
is considered as an active domain of the organization.
 The most significant constraint for this study was time since it is an academic
research. A particular time frame was prescribed.
 The sample size of the research was small and limited to employee working
in the organization only due to limited span of time.
 Due to limited span of time organizational cultures were not merely focused.
 Organizational and individual career planning both incurs an impact over
career development. But this study is specifically encircled around individual
career planning. The study emphasizes on individuals who chose their
 respective careers themselves whereas the individuals pursuing career which
are not of their choice are somehow neglected.

1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The trading industry of Karur District has eventually proved itself to be

an asset for the economy despite of the social and economic challenges. Human
resource development is identified as an active practice in trading industry presently.
Persistent efforts have been made in order to develop human capital and ensure
organization success. This study provides an insight regarding the effectiveness of
individual career planning on career development. For growth of any organization it
is essential to ensure the career development of employees of an organization.
Therefore through this study, individuals and organizations may evaluate factors that
may incur an impact over their future growth opportunities in order to maintain a
competitive edge by developing high potential human capital and ensuring
organizational success. Whereas this study may result as a pre-requisite for
understanding organizational career planning and career management as well.

1.7 METHODOLOGY

The approach followed while executing this research was preliminarily based
upon primary data collection. Questionnaire was the tool used for capturing
responses. Probability sampling technique was adopted in order to derive the results.
The sample size was made up of 100 respondents. Trading sector of Karur was
considered as the target market amongst which the participants were from
Dhanvanthri Traders. Participants aging from 18 onwards extending their services in
Trading sector of Karur district were brought under consideration. The study has
been carried out in Dhanvanthri Traders. Percentage method, tables and charts are
used to present the data.
 CHAPTER - II

LITERATURE REVIEW

A career refers to the set of activities an individual performs in congruence

with an occupation throughout a lifetime. Cohesively a career includes experiences,
responsibilities and knowledge an individual possess and contributes while
performing respective employment. Careers are considered to be subjective and
objective both. With reference to the career theory subjective careers are intrinsic in
nature whereas objective careers are extrinsic. An insight of an individual regarding
his accomplishments and the level of satisfaction acquired in light of his experiences
on the job, over the span of time is known as the career success. The contemporary
researches have proven that the paradigm shifts have encouraged the concept of
boundary less careers that indicates the independence of the employer at a whole
(ARTHUR, KHAPOVA, and, & WILDEROM, 2005).

A sense of observation, judgement or one’s own reaction regarding the

achievements and goals acquired with respect to the efforts made by an individual is
merely known as the self-assessment.(Ross, 2006) Have discussed self-assessment
in the context of students and teachers. In which, self-assessment is considered as a
reliable source of examining the performance of an individual, while the validity of
self-assessments varies as per the prescribed criteria. Yet self-assessments are
considered to be initiators of self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation.

Career programs are initiated as an effort by organizations to align employee

interests and capabilities with organizational opportunities. Career programs provide
employees with clear career paths in order to achieve successful careers. (Osman &
Ismail, 2014) Proposed that career planning and career management are two salient
features of career programs. Career planning deals with the activities identifying
available opportunities for employees in organizations and includes tools enhancing
employee performances, whereas career management involves the alignment of
organizational changes with career program activities. This crosssectional research
was carried out in a military based university in Malaysia. The survey was done
amongst a population of 200 amongst which 30 participants were part of the pilot
study.
 Cronbach’s Alpha and Pearson Correlation Analysis helped to conclude that
career management is an encouraging predictor of job satisfaction and career
commitment unlike career planning. The paper also outlined that adequate training,
effective communication and participative decision making may contribute in
enhanced employee performance and retention at a whole.

(Rande, Rahawarin, Jamaluddin, & Zacharias) Studied the impact of

individual career planning and organizational career planning on career
development. Career development refers to the cumulative efforts by individuals and
organizations in persuasion of a successful career. Career development requires
adequate alignment of individuals and organizations goals at particular. This
empirical study was carried out amongst the employees of regional secretariat of
Samarinda. A population of 241 employees was assessed and SPSS was used to
evaluate the results of the survey. Career counseling, career mapping and
performance appraisal were identified as the factors affecting career development at
a whole. Emphasis was made on career counseling in order to enhance the
performance of civil servants.

Successful careers are an outcome of persistent hard work and immense

motivation. (Sosyal, 2013) Analyzed the impact of personal development trainings
on motivation amongst employees. Trainings help develop organizations raw human
potential into valuable human resource potential. Trainings encourage increased
competence and motivation which serves as a catalyst for quality performance
amongst employees. The study was carried out in Turkish pharmaceuticals industry,
a population of 81 employees was encountered. SPSS was used as the tool for
evaluating the results of prescribed questionnaire. The conclusion derived a
significant relationship between personal development and level of motivation
amongst employees.

In the present era of globalization it is concretely significant for any

organization to be agile towards learning. Indeed a successful organization is the one
which is competitive in nature and this edge can only attained by developing
employees over the span in order to make successful careers and ensure profitability.
The proactive planning of activities in persuasion of career goals is known as career
development. The contemporary practices prescribe individuals as well as
organizations to ensure career development and career planning.

(Kaya & Ceylan, 2014) Studied career development programs and

organizational commitment in context of job satisfaction. A population of 204
employees from different sectors was addressed. SPSS was used as the evaluation
tool. Organizational commitment was identified as an essential factor for job
satisfaction. Employees prefers an environment where their preferences and interests
are met, this encourages the level of motivation is them to be committed and
satisfied. Whereas the mismatch amongst the employer and employee career goals
and plans may be considered as a factor discouraging trend between job satisfaction
and career development programs.

Developing competence is mandatory in order to sustain stability and strive to

towards attaining a competitive edge. Continuous self-development enables an
employee to perform effectively. Efficacy beliefs regulate human functioning and
emotional well-being through cognitive, motivational, affective and selective
processes

(Hameed & Waheed, 2011). Employees are the most significant asset for any
organization. Skill growth, learning, attitude, self-direction and performance are
main variables of employee development. Employee development incurs a direct
impact over employee performance Top management of an organization is
responsible for aligning an organizational vision, mission and values. Top managers
are mostly the executives which indeed are considered as the strategists of the
organization. Executives acts as leaders for the rest of the organization that increases
the liabilities upon them, therefore it becomes an utmost need for an organization to
maintain a pool of highly developed executives.

(Grobler & van,2013) Conducted an empirical cross sectional study which

examined impact of executive development programme on individual level. A
parliamentarian organization of South Africa was the target market. The study was
carried out amongst 95 working personnel. A stratified sample was selected from the
provinces of Limpopo, Northern Cape and Eastern Cape. The participants were both
individual who had undergone this programme successfully and those who haven’t
experienced it yet. Two different questionnaires were set accordingly. Principle
factor extraction and Varimax rotation were used for analysis, which yielded that
executive development programmes have direct impact upon individual level.
Personal development plan was recommended as an essential part of EDP.

(Firkola, 2005) Identified an emerging trend in employee career planning.

Japanese are well known for their unique and effective style of management across
the globe. This research was based on in depth interviews. This research declared
organization and employees as partners in career development. Less encouragement
by organization in carrying out career planning, inadequate feedback and limited
access to information appeared some reasons for ineffective career planning.
Whereas role played by the supervisor appeared to be one of the most significant
factor behind ineffective career planning. This change experienced in employee
career planning will apparently maintain a pool of relatively responsible employees
within the organizations.

(Sri, Herald, & Monis, 2011) Carried out an empirical study amongst five
Indian and five foreign MNC BPO firms operating in India, this research was
analyzed by applying both qualitative and quantitative techniques. 243 participants
were made the part of the research. Career path remained the most significant
variable of the research. Hypothesis of the research highly relied on examining the
association amongst satisfaction of employees and career developmental practices.
SPSS was used as the statistical tool, multiple regression analysis was used to
interpret and analyze the responses. The results elaborated that efforts are being
made in extending the career development practices but the satisfaction level of
employees in these BPO firms isn’t that encouraging the results indicated the
satisfaction level of employees of Indian MNC as 69.71 percent whereas satisfaction
of Foreign MNC was recorded as 69.82 percent.

Contemporary surveys have concluded that organizational goals attainment

depends highly upon employee retention of some valuable human resource capital.
(Kwenin, 2013) Studied the working environment and career development
opportunities available at Vodafone Ghana. The study also examined the level of
employee retention in the organization. A sample size of 142 was selected amongst
the population of 1420. SPSS was considered as the statistical tool used for analysis
of the recorded responses whereas Descriptive tests and Pearson correlation was
used to interpret the results. The results indicated a positive relationship amongst the
working environment, employee retention and career developmental opportunities at
Vodafone Ghana.

Nurturing working environment encourages the decision of employees in

being part of the organization for a longer span whereas the career developmental
opportunities trigger the growth of employees. Future study upon organizational
commitment, recognition and rewards were emphasized in order to encourage
employee retention in Vodafone Ghana Limited. Self-efficacy refers to the
capability of an individual to produce desired outcomes in the best means of
performance and efforts. It also governs behaviors influencing the social
environment.

(OkurameDavid, 2014) Examined the influence of individual factors as

demographic variables, self-efficacy and personal growth initiatives over career
growth within the context of radical organizational changes. South western Nigerian
banking sector was considered as the target market. The research tool included a
well-designed and structured questionnaire; a sample size of 199 respondents was
used. Simple regression was used to test the outcomes of the recorded data which
highlighted a significant influence of self-efficacy over employee career growth,
whereas all the other factors remained to be of less significance.

(Adekola, 2011) Proposed that empowerment of human capital relies heavily in

developing creatively the careers of employees. This research examined career
management and career planning as antecedents of career development and indicated
career commitment and job satisfaction as its outcome. Nigerian banking sector was
selected as the target market which included a sample size of 505 employees at a
whole. Regression, correlation and descriptive analysis of SPSS were used in order
to interpret the results. The analysis concluded a relatively stronger relationship
between career planning and career development as compared to the relationship on
career management and career development. Moreover the results interpreted an
influence of career development over career commitment and job satisfaction.

The context of organizational growth varies as per the priorities of organizations.

However in business environment growth is considered in profitability domain. The
contemporary concepts of human resource management emphasizes upon talent
management in order to ensure organizational growth. This helps the employees to
develop competence over the span of time and incur efforts in growth of
organization. Career development fosters employee performance by aligning
individuals and organizational needs (Osibanjo, Oyewunmi, & Ojo, 2014). A sample
was drawn from 265 respondents from First city monument bank Nigeria.

The study encircled around career development as a determinant of organizational

growth. Career development was further classified into various divisions which
included skills, experiences, promotions, recognition and rewards. They impact of
all the mentioned factors were studied in context of organizational growth. SPSS and
AMOS were used for concluding that other than experience all the discussed factors
have a positive impact on organizational growth. This negative impact of experience
may be considered as a result of unrelated career, counselling may encourage the
organization to overcome such gaps.