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Job Satisfaction Of Employees
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INTRODUCATION TO HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Meaning of H.R.
Human Resource Management (HRM) is a relatively new approach to managing people in any organization. People are considered the key resource in this approach. it is concerned with the people dimension in management of an organization. Since an organization is a body of people, their acquisition, development of skills, motivation for higher levels of attainments, as well as ensuring maintenance of their level of commitment are all significant activities. These activities fall in the domain of HRM.
Human Resource Management is a process, which consists of four main activities, namely, acquisition, development, motivation, as well as maintenance of human resources.Scott, Clothier and Spriegel have defined Human Resource Management as that branch of management which is responsible on a staff basis for concentrating on those aspects of operations which are primarily concerned with the relationship of management to employees and employees to employees and with the development of the individual and the group.
HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Human Resource Management is responsible for maintaining good human relations in the organization. It is also concerned with development of individuals and achieving integration of goals of the organization and those of the individuals.
Northcott considers human resource management as an extension of general management, that of prompting and stimulating every employee to make his fullest contribution to the purpose of a business. Human resource management is not something that could be separated from the basic managerial function. It is a major component of the broader managerial function. French Wendell, defines ―Human resource management as the recruitment, selection, development, utilization, compensation and motivation of human resources by the organization‖.
According to Edwin B. Flippo, ―Human resource management is the planning, organizing, directing and controlling of the procurement, development, resources to the end that individual and societal objectives are accomplished‖. This definition reveals that human resource (HR) management is that aspect of management, which deals with the planning, organizing, directing and controlling the personnel functions of the enterprise.
NATURE OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
The emergence of human resource management can be attributed to the writings of the human relationists who attached great significance to the human factor. Lawrence Appley remarked, Management is personnel administration‖. This view is partially true as management is concerned with the efficient and effective use of both human as well as non-human resources. Thus human resource management is only a part of the management process. At the same time, it must be recognised that human resource management is inherent in the process of management.
This function is performed by all the managers. A manager to get the best of his people, must undertake the basic responsibility of selecting people who will work under him and to help develop, motivate and guide them. However, he can take the help of the specialized services of the personnel department in discharging this responsibility. The nature of the human resource management has been highlighted in its following features:
OBJECTIVES OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
According to Scott, Clothier and Spriegal, ―The objectives of Human Resource Management, in an organisation, is to obtain maximum individual development, desirable working relationships between employers and employees and employees and employees, and to affect the moulding of human resources as contrasted with physical resources‖. The basic objective of human resource management is to contribute to the realisation of the organisational goals. However, the specific objectives of human resource management are as follows :
(i) To ensure effective utilisation of human resources, all other organisational resources will be efficiently utilised by the human resources. (ii) To establish and maintain an adequate organisational structure of relationship among all the members of an organisation by dividing of organisation tasks into functions, positions and jobs, and by defining clearly the responsibility, accountability, authority for each job and its relation with other jobs in the organisation. (iii) To generate maximum development of human resources within the organisation by offering opportunities for advancement to employees through training and education. (iv) To ensure respect for human beings by providing various services and welfare facilities to the personnel. (v) To ensure reconciliation of individual/group goals with those of the organisation in such a manner that the personnel feel a sense of commitment and loyalty towards it. (vi) To identify and satisfy the needs of individuals by offering various monetary and non-monetary rewards. In order to achieve the above objectives, human resource management undertakes the following activities : (i) Human Resource Planning, i.e., determining the number and kinds of personnel required to fill various positions in the organisation. (ii) Recruitment, selection and placement of personnel, i.e., employment function. (iii) Training and development of employees for their efficient performance and growth. (iv) Appraisal of performance of employees and taking corrective steps such as transfer from one job to another. (v) Motivation of workforce by providing financial incentives and avenues of promotion. (vi) Remuneration of employees. The employees must be given sufficient wages and fringe benefits to achieve higher standard of living and to motivate them to show higher productivity. (vii) Social security and welfare of employees.
[b]FUNCTIONS OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT.[/b]
The main functions of human resource management are classified into two categories: (a) Managerial Functions and (b) Operative Functions (a) Managerial Functions Following are the managerial functions of Human Resources Management.
1. Planning :The planning function of human resource department pertains to the steps taken in determining in advance personnel requirements, personnel programmes, policies etc. After determining how many and what type of people are required, a personnel manager has to devise ways and means to motivate them.
2. Organisation :Under organisation, the human resource manager has to organise the operative functions by designing structure of relationship among jobs, personnel and physical factors in such a way so as to have maximum contribution towards organisational objectives. In this way a personnel manager performs following functions : (a) preparation of task force; (b) allocation of work to individuals; © integration of the efforts of the task force; (d) coordination of work of individual with that of the department.
3. Directing irecting is concerned with initiation of organised action and stimulating the people to work. The personnel manager directs the activities of people of the organisation to get its function performed properly. A personnel manager guides and motivates the staff of the organisation to follow the path laid down in advance.
4. Controlling :It provides basic data for establishing standards, makes job analysis and performance appraisal, etc. All these techniques assist in effective control of the qualities, time and efforts of workers.
(b) Operative Functions :The following are the Operative Functions of Human Resource Management .
1. Procurement of Personnel :It is concerned with the obtaining of the proper kind and number of personnel necessary to accomplish organisation goals. It deals specifically with such subjects as the determination of manpower requirements, their recruitment, selecting, placement and orientation, etc.
2. Development of Personnel evelopment has to do with the increase through training, skill that is necessary for proper job performance. In this process various techniques of training are used to develop the employees. Framing a sound promotion policy, determination of the basis of promotion and making performance appraisal are the elements of personnel development function.
3. Compensation to Personnel :Compensation means determination of adequate and equitable remuneration of personnel for their contribution to organisation objectives. To determine the monetary compensation for various jobs is one of the most difficult and important function of the personnel management. A number of decisions are taken into the function, viz., job-evaluation, remuneration, policy, inventive and premium plans, bonus policy and co-partnership, etc. It also assists the organisation for adopting the suitable wages and salaries, policy and payment of wages and salaries in right time.
4. Maintaining Good Industrial Relation :Human Resource Management covers a wide field. It is intended to reduce strifies, promote industrial peace, provide fair deal to workers and establish industrial democracy. It the personnel manager is unable to make harmonious relations between management and labour industrial unrest will take place and millions of man-days will be lost. If labour management relations are not good the moral and physical condition of the employee will suffer, and it will be a loss to an organisationvis-a-visa nation. Hence, the personnel manager must create harmonious relations with the help of sufficient communication system and co-partnership.
5. Record Keeping :In record-keeping the personnel manager collects and maintains information concerned with the staff of the organisation. It is essential for every organisation because it assists the management in decision making such as in promotions.
6. Personnel Planning and Evaluation : Under this system different type of activities are evaluated such as evaluation of performance, personnel policy of an organisation and its practices, personnel audit, morale, survey and performance appraisal, etc.
IMPORTANCE OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Human Resource Management has a place of great importance. According to Peter F. Drucker, ―The proper or improper use of the different factors of production depend on the wishes of the human resources. Hence, besides other resources human resources need more development. Human resources can increase cooperation but it needs proper and efficient management to guide it‖.
Importance of personnel management is in reality the importance of labour functions of personnel department which are indispensable to the management activity itself. Because of the following reasons human resource management holds a place of importance.
1. It helps management in the preparation adoption and continuing evolution of personnel programmes and policies.
2. It supplies skilled workers through scientific selection process.
3. It ensures maximum benefit out of the expenditure on training and development and appreciates the human assets.
4. It prepares workers according to the changing needs of industry and environment.
5. It motivates workers and upgrades them so as to enable them to accomplish the organisation goals.
6. Through innovation and experimentation in the fields of personnel, it helps in reducing casts and helps in increasing productivity.
7. It contributes a lot in restoring the industrial harmony and healthy employer-employee relations.
8. It establishes mechanism for the administration of personnel services that are delegated to the personnel department. Thus, the role of human resource management is very important in an organisation and it should not be undermined especially in large scale enterprises. It is the key to the whole organisation and related to all other activities of the management i.e., marketing, production, finance etc. Human Resource Management is concerned with the managing people as an organizational resources rather than as factors of production. It involves a system to be followed in business firm to recruit, select, hire, train and develop human assets. It is concerned with the people dimension of an organization. The attainment of organizational objectives depends, to a great extent, on the way in which people are recruited, developed and utilized by the management. Therefore, proper co-ordination of human efforts and effective utilisation of human and others material resources is necessary.
FACTORS THAT CAN DISTORT APPRAISALS
The performance appraisal process and techniques discussed above indicate that the evaluator is free from personal biases, prejudices and idiosyncrasies. This is defended on the basis that objectivity minimizes the potential capricious and dysfunctional behavior of the evaluator, which may be detrimental to the achievement of the organizational goals. It would be naïve to assume that all practicing managers impartially interpret and standardize the criteria upon which their subordinates will be appraised.
However, we can isolate a number of factors that significantly impede objective evaluation. The significant factors are mentioned below:
Leniency Error:
Every evaluator has his own value system which acts as a standard against which appraisals are made. Relative to the true or actual performance an individual exhibits, some evaluators mark high and others low. The former is referred to as positive leniency error and the later as negative leniency error. When evaluators are positively lenient in their appraisals, an individual’s performance becomes over-stated. Similarly, a negative leniency error understates performance, giving the individual a lower appraisal.
Halo error:
The halo effect or error is a “tendency to rate high or low on all factors due to the impression of a high or low rating on some specific factor”. For example, if an employee tends to be conscientious and dependable, we might become biased toward that individual to the extent that we will rate him high on many desirable attributes.
Similarity error:
When evaluators rate other people in the same way that the evaluators perceive themselves, they are making a similarity error. Based on the perception that evaluators have of them selves, they project those perceptions onto others. For example, the evaluator who perceives himself as an aggressive may evaluate other by looking for aggressiveness. Those who demonstrate this characteristic tend to benefit, while others are penalized.
Low appraiser motivation:
If the evaluators know that a poor appraisal could significantly hurt the employee’s future – particularly opportunities for promotion or a salary increase, the evaluator may be reluctant to give a realistic appraisal. There is evidence that it is more difficult to obtain accurate appraisals when important awards depend on the results.
Central tendency:
It is possible that regardless of whom the appraiser evaluates and what traits are used, the pattern of evaluation remains same. It is also possible that the evaluator’s ability to appraise objectively and accurately has been impeded by a failure to use the extremes of the scale, that is, central tendency. Central tendency is “the reluctance to make extreme ratings; the inability to distinguish between and among rates; a form of range restriction. Raters who are prone to the central tendency effort or those who continually rate all employees’ average.
Forcing information to match non-performance criteria:
While rarely advocated, it is not a totally infrequent practice to find the formal appraisal taking place following the decision as to how the individual has been performing. This may sound illogical, but it merely recognizes that subjective, yet formal, decisions are often arrived at prior to the gathering of objective information to support that decision. For example, if evaluators believe that the evaluation should be based on performance, but rather seniority, they may be unknowingly adjusting each. “Performance” evaluation so as to bring it into line with the employee’s seniority rank.
Inappropriate substitutes for performance:
It is the unusual job where the definition of performance is absolutely clear and direct measures are available for appraising the incumbent. In many jobs, it is difficult to get consensus on which is a ‘a good job’ and I is even more difficult to get agreement on what criteria will determine performance. For a sales man the criterion may be the dollar sales in her territory, but even this criterion is affected by factors such as economic condition and actions of competitors – factors outside the sales man’s control.
As a result, the appraisal is frequently made by using substitutes for performance; criteria that, it is hoped, closely approximate performance and act in its place. Many of these substitutes are well chosen and give a good approximation of actual performance. However, the substitutes chosen are not always appropriate. It is not unusual, for example, to find organizations using criteria such as enthusiasm, neatness, positive attitudes, conscientiousness, promptness, and congeniality as substitutes for performance. In some jobs, one or more of the criteria mentioned above are part of performance.
Attribution theory:
A newer field of study surrounding performance evaluations has been called attribution theory. In attribution theory, it is suggested that “employee evaluations are directly mediated by managers’ attributions as to who is perceived to be in the control of the employee’s performance – the employer or the manager” Much of the attribution theory is consistent with McGregor’s Theory X, Theory Y. That is, if a manager has more of a Theory Y orientation and uses a more democratic and participative approach, there is a tendency for that manager to rate the subordinates high.
This higher rating appears to be attributed to the Manager’s perception of worker initiative, conversely, a more Theory X orientation manager, one who is more autocratic and makes unilateral decisions, is likely to rate his subordinates. In this sequence, such manager feel that they controlled the work and accordingly performance is poorer.
One research study mentioned that the two generalizations regarding attribution theory were supported:
1) When managers attribute an employee’s poor performance to the employee’s own motivations, the judgments are harsher than when the same poor performance is attributed to external factors.
2) When an employee is performing satisfactorily, managers will evaluate the employee favorably if the performance is attributed to the employee’s own efforts than if the performance is attributed to outside factors.
Conclusion:
We have discussed the use of quantifiable, objective performance measures above. These provide direction for the employees and act as goals for which they strive.
Performance evaluations are an integral part of every organization. Properly developed and implemented, the performance evaluation can help an organization achieve its goals by developing productive employees. While there are many types of performance evaluation systems, each having its own advantages and disadvantages, it has to be kept in mind that employees are to be evaluated on behaviorally desired measures, to use multiple raters, include peer assessments and self-assessments, and above all communicate the results of the evaluation to the employees.
INDUSTRY PROFILE
Performance Appraisal is an objective system to judge the ability of an individual employee to perform his tasks. A good performance appraisal system should focus on the individual and his development, besides helping him to achieve the desired performance. This means that while the results are important the organization should also examine and prepare its human capital to achieve this result. This holds true even for new inductees.
There is a strong linkage between induction, training and appraisal. In a large number of firms worldwide, a new recruit is expected to discuss his schedule of work in achieving his induction objective. This schedule of work becomes a part of his job for the next few months.
Objectives of Appraisal
Almost all organizations practice performance appraisal in one form or another to achieve certain objectives. These objectives may vary from organization to organization or even within the same organization from time to time. It has been found that there are two primary objectives behind the use of this methodology. One is to use it as an evaluation system and second, to use it as a feedback system.
The aim of the evaluation system is to identify the performance gap. This means that it helps determine the gap between the actual performance of the employee and that required or desired by the organization.
The aim of the feedback system is to inform the employee about the quality of his work or performance. This is an interactive process by which the employee can also speak about his problems to his superior.
An effective performance appraisal system should emphasis individual objectives, organizational objectives and also mutual objectives. From the viewpoint of individual objective the performance appraisal should talk about
a) What task the individual is expected to do?
b) How well the individual has done the task?
c) How can his performance be further improved?
d) His reward for doing well.
From the organizational view point a performance appraisal should generate manpower information, improve efficiency and effectiveness serve as a mechanism of control and provide a rational compensation structure. In short the appraisal system establishes and upholds the principle of accountability in the absence of which organization failure is the only possible outcome.
Finally, talking about mutual goals, the emphasis is on growth and development, harmony, effectiveness and profitability.
Methods of Performance Appraisal
In order to achieve the objectives, a variety of performance appraisal methods have been developed. The choice of method depends on organizational ethos, its objectives, size, product and technology.
The most traditional method is the Confidential Report method where the supervisor makes an evaluation of his subordinate on the basis of certain characteristics like loyalty, intelligence, conduct, character etc. In some other methods like Graphic Rating scale and the Ranking Methods though the process is simple it is plagued with subjectivity. In the Critical Incidents method a balance sheet of on-job-behavior for each employee is generated which can then be used at the end of the year to see how well the employee has performed.
In 1961 Peter Drucker popularized the Management by Objectives (MbO) method. In this method the subordinate in consultation with the supervisor chalks out short term objectives followed by specific actions that he has to carry out. The goals are finally set and are action oriented. The goals set should be specific, measurable, achievable, review able and time bound and most importantly it should be aligned with the goal of the organization. At the end of a specified time period, the activities are jointly reviewed by both the subordinate and his supervisor. Depending on the performance of the subordinate, the goals are modified or redesigned for the next period of time.
The MbO is thus a performance oriented system. A well thought out MbO system provides multiple benefits. It establishes a link between the performance of the individual and the organization. It is easy to implement because those who carry out the plan also participates in setting it up.
Each employee becomes aware of the task he has to perform. This leads to better utilization of capacity and talent. It promotes better communication and information sharing. It provides guidelines for self evaluation as well as evaluation by the superior against set tasks and goals. It facilitates guidance and counseling.
But most organizations engage in a retrospective performance appraisal. In this process some objectives that were agreed upon in the beginning of the year are dragged out and the appraisee and the manager discuss and debate about how well each of these objectives was achieved.
This procedure has many flaws. It does not address the basic human needs in the motivation process. Feedback should be as immediate as possible, it should focus on actual things and the individual involved should be given the opportunity to correct his behavior. But the traditional procedure is too late. It is difficult to remember events a month old let alone events that had occurred over ten months ago.
CONCLUSION:
Organisations need some means of ensuring performance standards are being achieved and objectives are being met. They also need to plan for the future by setting organisational objectives. These should be achieved through personal objectives agreed at the appraisal. This is vital for all employees in order to maintain a competitive position, and it is important that the method for doing this is successful. All the material in the ‘Skills of Appraisal and Performance Review’ resource is dedicated to that end. However, underlying the methods, practices and techniques there must be crucial managerial thoughts, attitudes and activities.
As an introduction to the training activity, the participants work in groups to discuss what an effective performance review scheme needs. Their suggestions for a successful scheme are discussed and they are then given a list of requirements for comparison and discussion. Next, the participants review what an appraiser should do to make sure a performance review scheme is successful. The training activity closes with a review of key learning points and a final observation of performance review appraisal.
Who is it for: This training resource is intended for use by trainers to emphasise the essential management elements of a successful performance review appraisal scheme.