Beyond doubt, the primary goal of business and industry is to create wealth – to achieve better returns on investment so that larger economic gains can be shared by employers, employees, and consumers. However, creation of wealth is not spontaneous. The goals of human organization are to be met in order to achieve the economic objectives. Organizations normally provide large number of material rewards, such as attractive salary and other benefits and comfortable working conditions. The implicit assumption underlying this approach is that the contented work force is better producing. This assumption has been seriously questioned in a number of studies1. Thus, organizations should evolve more ambitious schemes helpful for the realization of employee potential and morale.
In order to achieve this, an understanding of the conditions in an organization having bearing on employee morale and their motivation (desire) to work is necessary. Keeping this in view, this paper discusses some of the conditions in organizations under the headings: Organizational Climate; Socio-Cultural System of Employee Needs; Work Motivation; Organizational Climate Factors and Opportunities for Need Satisfaction and Need Dissatisfaction; Organizational Typologies and Work Motivation; and Indian Industrial and Business Organizations.
Organizational Climate
Any business and industrial organization is a techno-socio-psychological system. Technology is a broad term used to include means and procedures instrumental in discharging the functions of an organization. The “means and procedures” depend upon the goals of the organization. Let us consider, for instance, a company manufacturing pharmaceuticals. Machines and other automatic and semi-automatic devices are used in preparing pharmaceutical products. Apart from these, other means and procedures necessary for achieving the goals of a pharmaceutical company are also adopted. The pharmaceutical company purchases chemicals and other raw materials, keeps inventory of items, checks the quality, meets the needs of the consumer, develops new processes and techniques, expands and diversifies, etc. These functions are discharged appropriately by adopting the so-called modern management practices. Use of Techniques such as quality control, research and development, work or output measurement, operations research are some of the technological tools used by industry.
The management practices which a company adopts are interdependent in nature. This means that a company which adopts one management practice (called modern) will generally be predisposed favourably towards a number of other practices. For instance, the management which undertakes a systematic analysis of its product market will equally be concerned with controlling the quality of production. Baumgartel2 in a study on penetration of modern management practices in Indian business organizations found that the companies which are innovative adopt a number of modern management practices.
As opposed to technological practices, there are practices related to management of personnel. Personnel practices ail proper administration of labour resources just as technological practices help rationalizing methods and procedures. Some of the personnel practices are proper hiring practices, employee development programmes, use of job evaluation in developing job descriptions, salary administration, and so on.
Just as the technological practices reflect part of the larger organizational culture, the personnel management practices also reflect the larger organizational culture. This part of the organizational culture is referred to as organizational climate.
Organizational Climate Defined.
In production organizations, there is the task (mechanical)-individual interaction. The person deals with machines, materials, or data and behaves in prescribed ways, as per the dictates of the organization. The organization builds up certain expectations, provides certain need fulfillment opportunities, and controls certain actual and potential behaviours. These socio-personal interaction processes constitute organizational climate.
Baumgartel3 defines organizational climate along the following lines. “Organizational climate is a product of leadership practices, communication patterns, enduring and systematic characteristics of the working relationships among persons and divisions of any particular organization.” He considers the following characteristics observable in organizational life as determining the developmental organizational climate. They are :
1. Growth-orientation
2. Providing opportunity to executives to use new knowledge
3. Willingness to train the executives
4. Stimulate and approve of innovations, and experimentation
5. Higher management being considerate of lower management
6. Giving freedom to set own performance goals
7. Involving various hierarchical levels in decision-making
8. Showing confidence in competence and judgement of top management
9. Having free and open communication within management
10. Using performance as major criteria for promotions
11. Existence of interpersonal trust among executives
12. Not having restrictions through rules and procedures
13. Arranging conferences and group discussions
14. Absence of interpersonal conflict and rivalry
15. Planning new products.
Technological Practices and Organizational Climate
Both technological practices and organizational climate reflect in organizational structure, administrative practices, and management control systems. Although one may find certain technological practices co-existing with certain organizational climate factors, such associations are not universal. This fact has come out in a number of Indian studies4. Baumgartel5 correlated items on modern management practices with items on Organizational climate and found them yielding low correlations. This implies that the technological practices and organizational climate are mutually independent or orthogonal in nature.
Technological practices contribute to mechanical aspects of organizational production, whereas favourable organizational climate contributes to work efficiency vis-à-vis employee motivation. This view is attested by Basu6 when he says that “investment and technology are by themselves insufficient for the growth of the economy, it is only when competent management is brought to bear on enterprises that the latter can achieve the objectives for which they were created”.
Organizational climate can be described in terms of some of the following characteristics7 :
1. Risk-Taking versus Complacent
2. Compromising versus Unilateral
3. Unstructuring versus Structuring
4. Warmth and Support versus Lack of Warmth and Support
5. Decentralization versus Centralization
6. Expert Persuasion versus Coercion
7. Problem Solving Approach versus Status Approach to Authority
8. Co-operative versus Competitive Approach
9. Employee-Task Fit versus Lack of Employee-Task Fit
10. Performance-based Reward versus Expediency Reward
11. High Performance Goals versus Low Performance Goals
Some of the organizational actions which the above aspects characterize may be indicated.
Risk-Taking Versus Complacent
In running business and production, the organizations need take risks (acting under conditions of relative uncertainty). Risks might be of varied kinds, such as those taken in the event of technological decisions, which have bearing on employees and those which are related to personnel matters per se. Any issue throws us many courses (many a times mutually conflicting) of actions. No single approach is normally apparent in the solution of a problem. This is much more so in the complex world of business. Apart from the uncertainty of the situation, top managements might differ in the extent to which they encourage the employees to take risk. Some top managements may restrict the chance of their lower-level managers and workers taking risk by designing authoritarian set-up and practices; while others might encourage risk-taking at all levels by setting up decentralized structures.
Compromising Versus Unilateral
Certain top managements are unilateral in their approach. They resist compromise. They are more rigid than flexible. Dayal8 refers to such orientation of managements as “…absence of the ethics of collaboration”. He holds that in such organizations management-union and inter-departmental relationships breed suspicion and distrust. Unilateral organizations permit only low levels of conflict and confrontation. On the contrary, the compromising organizations think that the conflicts in interests and purposeful confrontations between different groups (like management and the workers or trade unions) are inevitable and healthy signs of openness in organizational communication. Critical attitudes are viewed by the management as helpful in receiving useful suggestion and feedback for its improvement.
Unstructuring Versus Structuring
Organizations may differ in the degree of clarity in roles at various hierarchical levels. In some cases, role ambiguity (opposite of role clarity) might be substantial. The role ambiguity is substantial when the job duties are extremely unstructured and unspecified. In a situation of high ambiguity, the job holders lack clear understanding of their duties, responsibilities, and positions in the authority structure. The deleterious effects of role ambiguity and role conflict (the situation in which a subordinate is under conflicting demands from more than one superior) in terms of tension and anxiety and poor efficiency have been brought out by Kahn et al.9 The study by Menon10 brings out certain interesting findings regarding clarity in tasks and in reporting relationships. More is the subordinate expectation that his superior should be specific in assigning work, and less the tendency of the superior to be specific, more is the former’s dissatisfaction with his superior’s leadership and less his feeling that his superior and colleagues support him. In such a situation, he hardly experiences learning and work responsibility. Even employees who want to do their best (achievement-oriented) look for role clarity.
Lack of role clarity encourages arbitrariness in decision making and management practices. In an ambiguous organizational situation, the manager’s action is determined by expediency of the situation and his personal skill and competence and individual personality. There is too much reliance on the individual executive. A study by Roy11 reveals that one of the dysfunctional elements in the working of private sector industry in India is the arbitrariness and nepotism on the part of management. There are hardly any work rules and procedures defining the authority and responsibility of the employees at different levels. Singh12, discussing the management practices in private organizations in India, says that “organizational structures of many of the largest Indian enterprises are haphazard; organizational charts are rate and even where they exist they are a secret. Managerial jobs are seldom defined or described.”
Although the above discussion points out the dysfunctional nature of role ambiguity, it is to be borne in mind that the other extreme, viz., high structure (role clarity), is also dysfunctional. High structuring delimits the freedom on the part of individual employees and even depersonalizes the work (this feature is commonly referred to as rule-orientation in bureaucratic settings). High-structure situation has the following characteristics of organizational behaviour. Interpersonal interaction, horizontal and vertical, is minimum. The work activities are hardly coordinated. Group goals are not visible for the individual employees. The opportunity for self-determination and participation is minimum. A number of investigators13 have found that job satisfaction, mental health, and level of performance are all directly related to opportunities for self-expression, self-control, participation, and individual freedom and responsibility. Menon14 found that the personal work efficiency of supervisors is high when their superiors provide them with personal support and encourage them by involving them in organizational decision-making.
Warmth and Support Versus Lack Of Warmth And Support
Organizations differ in the extent to which they provide personal and work-related support, and warmth and friendliness in interpersonal relationships. The members in the organization at various levels need know what is expected of them in relation to others. Those who are higher in the hierarchy and who have the role of coordinating activities at the lower levels communicate to those who are below them. The subordinates also look for friendly relationships with their superiors. Menon15 has pointed out the following important aspects of warmth and support in interpersonal relationships. He found that supervisors felt responsible and committed when they experienced satisfaction due to opportunities in the job for learning experience and due to opportunities in the job for learning experience and due to its challenging nature in interpersonal atmosphere characterized by support from superiors. The support from the supervisors seems to be instrumental to the development of responsibility and work commitment especially on the part of employees who do not look for detailed work instructions. Apart from the support facilitating goal achievement it also seems to lead to the feeling of prestige in the group particularly on the part of those who desire social relationships.
Decentralization Versus Centralization
In certain organizations, persons at different levels of hierarchy possess authority according to their levels of decision-making and task execution. Such organizations have a decentralized structure. In a decentralized set-up persons at lower levels interact with those in the parallel and interrelated levels as well as with those immediately higher. They have sufficient freedom in their areas of functioning and also in contributing to the overall objectives.16 The increased interaction helps build better coordination. Again, in such a participatory set-up, the persons are clear about their goals and their commitment is strengthened through group pressure. Participation in decision-making calls for better abilities than participation in executive functions. In a decentralized set-up, the superiors have confidence in the competence of their subordinates. There is mutual trust among persons. The organization grants adequate responsibility and commensurate authority.
In contrast, in centralized organizations, the authority rests in the hands of a few top echelons. The subordinates receive specific instructions. The freedom and the conditions for the expression of the individual’s talents are limited. The centralization of authority might take two forms: (i) formation of bureaucratic set-up (emphasis on rules and procedures), and (ii) an unstable and ill-defined organizational structures. The first condition is seen in the management system of Public enterprises in India17 and the second in the management of Private enterprises in India18.
Under Bureaucratic set-up, the individual goes by rules. In such rule-oriented structures, the individual hardly takes any risk. With everyone following the fixed path, co-ordination of functions is hardly achieved. The persons in a Bureaucratic structure work for their individual goals rather than for the overall organizational goals. Lacking awareness of real goals, the employees derive satisfaction of goal achievement by ardently following the rules. In the context of increasing complexity of functions and specialization, persons who lack individual goal orientation and appreciation of common goals work for cross-purposes.
Unstable and ill-defined organizational climate is characterized by the following organizational actions. The subordinates are given specific instructions and are closely supervised. As many control checks as possible and are permitted by technology are instituted. This type of organization follows no line of command. The higher echelons have direct access to all levels and hardly any question of bypassing the authority arises.
Expert Persuasion Versus Coercive Approach
Persuasive approach in an organization is characterized by a number of following kinds of behaviours. Superior guides the subordinate towards larger organizational goals without unduly restricting freedom on the part of the latter. He makes available to him the facilities. He is friendly and accepting. He is consistent and fair in practices. He works towards the well-being of his subordinate. He lends adequate support and help.
In contrast, the superior who adopts a coercive approach exhibits certain other behaviours. His main concern is to see that his subordinate submits to him. He uses punishment to control his subordinate. His predominant set is to point out the mistakes of his subordinate rather than correcting him and making him learn new experience. He is, more often than not, inconsistent in administering punishments. Such a superior is hardly rated as fair by subordinates. Superior develops in the minds of subordinate feelings of failure and thus coerces compliance to his ways, which are right by virtue of his being a superior. Different kinds of punishments such as criticism, disapproval, withholding relevant task-related and personal information, withholding positive feedback, providing false feedback in the form of criticism, etc., are administered.
Problem-Solving Approach Versus Status Approach To Authority
In both types of structures, viz., decentralization and bureaucratic, there is a certain amount of authority at all levels either for making decisions or in the execution of tasks.
The employees might take to a status approach if the organization projects hierarchical distinctions more as reflection of status than as reflection of differential competence. Employees feel that the hierarchical levels reflect differential competence only when they share the feeling that the organization is fair in its hiring and promotion practices. Both bureaucratic and ill-defined organizations cannot convince the members that hierarchical distinctions are reflections of the differential competence of the members, because in neither set-up, persons are selected or placed on positions because they fit those positions well.
In the case of status approach, superiors see their ability to control their subordinates as source of their status rather than as a means to direct their work towards solving the problems. Status-conscious superiors will protect their status in the eyes of their subordinates by coercing them to submit to them. They will be less concerned about their subordinates’ contributions and more concerned about their subordinates’ recognition of their superiority. They are touchy and ego-defensive. One of the dysfunctions of centralization of authority is the operation of the status approach to authority at lower levels of the organization.
Problem-solving approach is a contrast to status approach. In problem-solving approach, the persons use their authority in helping subordinates to solve the problems.
Co-Operative Versus Individual Competitive Approach
Under co-operative approach, the employees are encouraged to work for common goals and no employee is put in competition with another as in the case of competitive approach. The rewards are linked with the performance of the group members rather than with the achievement of individual members. In the cooperative approach, an atmosphere of mutual understanding and trust prevails. The members are aware of each other’s strengths and weaknesses and capitalize on their knowledge. The co-operative approach develops an atmosphere where the functions are coordinated. In the group climate the mutual acceptance contributes to status and recognition. The ability of the group members to be mutually helpful also leads to the satisfaction of their need for power.
Employee-Task Fit Versus Lack Of Employee-Task Fit
In certain organizations, the tasks are assigned according to the ability and competence of the persons. For example, from among those having the same technical background the company might select some for the job of sales executives while it might emphasize interpersonal relations for the positions of technical supervisors in charge of sub-assemblies. The persons experience meaningfulness and challenge in their work when it calls for the best of their abilities and when the task is of moderate difficulty. He also learns the better way of doing the work. The person-task fit activates the higher-order needs.
Performance-Based Reward Versus Expediency Reward
Some organizations make conscious attempts to effectively link reward with the effort of the employees through the use of techniques such as Job Evaluation, Objective Performance Appraisal, Suggestion Scheme, and so on. According to theory of motivation to be discussed later, the management can expect the employee to work in a particular way only if the employee sees that he will be rewarded in terms of his various need satisfactions. This particular aspect of linking rewards with employee efforts and its bearing on their work motivation has been dealt with in detail by Porter and Lawler19. The employees will perceive that their effort is rewarded only if they feel (Vroom20 has pointed out that subjective feeling is more potent than reality in eliciting behaviour) that they have been assigned work which calls for their ability and that management rewards their efforts when warranted, through such measures as recognition of work (praise), giving promotions and merit increases, and assigning more responsibility. In a performance-based climate, the individual receives self-generating task-related feedback conducive for work motivation. The employees also feel that organization is objective in its approach21 and encourages employees initiative and growth.
Another aspect of performance-based reward is the question of individual versus group reward. The organization might be orienting towards individual approach in the sense it may reward individual’s behaviours such as the competitive output, or it might have group orientation, in the sense that it may reward behaviours which contribute to the goals of production in a section or Department such as the promptness with which people meet the demands of other sections, coordinative efforts, etc. In certain kinds of work such as those of supervisors in textile mills,22 pursuit towards the group goals weighs heavier than pursuits towards individual achievements.
In contrast, in the expediency-reward context, the employees do not feel that the organization rewards its employees either financially or otherwise according to their effort. They might feel that they should satisfy the membership requirements of an organization in order to justify the acceptance of the rewards.
High Performance Goals Versus Low Performance Goals
Certain organizations may set high goals of employee performance while others may rest content with the average level of employee performance which keeps the business going.
Likert23 points out the need for setting high performance goals. He says that the management system 4, which he advocates as successful and effective, “should have high performance aspirations, but this is not enough. Every member should have high performance aspirations as well. Since these high performance goals should not be imposed upon employees, there must be a mechanism through which employees can help set the high-level goals which the satisfaction of their own needs requires.”
Socio – Cultural System Of Employee Needs
Persons work in organizations for material and other gains. Studies on job satisfaction have shown that they try to satisfy monetary and non-monetary needs. Although doing something and that again well is itself encouraging to prompt action again, working calls for a number of physical and social conditions. The person enters the organization with certain dispositions and expectations rooted in the family, social, and cultural milieu. Organizations meet certain of their expectations and suppress others. The person undergoes a process of adaptation to organizational processes. Such individual adaptation is a constant and dynamic process. The persons as employees voluntarily submit to the organization by observing rules and codes of conduct. The persons accordingly behave in a formal organization in a more organized way than they do in their informal organizational life. The general outcome of the influence processes is winning of the organization over the employees. Such influence of the organization over the employees has direct bearing on their work performance, although the problems as to what kind of work performance is the consequence of what precise nature of influence, is not yet understood clearly.
Employee works or is prompted to work for the organization because, the organization fulfils certain of his needs or because the employee can expect in the organization opportunities for satisfaction of certain other needs. Conglomeration of needs is developed in the process of socio-cultural propensity for need satisfaction. The desire on the part of the employee to work in order to achieve certain things which he wants and which he can obtain in the process of work is referred to as motivation to work and the effort he actually puts in reflects in work performance.24
The needs which the employees seek to satisfy can be conveniently understood in terms of the Maslowian25 systems of needs, viz., (i) Physiological, (ii) Security, (iii) Social, (iv) Ego, and (v) Self-actualization. Each of the above classes of needs subsumes many specific needs. However, certain salient and specific needs which can be realized through certain conditions of specific organizational climate can be discussed. Physiological needs relate to food, shelter, and sex. Security needs include the need for continuous economic support, in the form of the job security, and steady income, the need for structure and the need to perceive consistency, and the related need of being able to predict a situation. In economic security, the concern is with economic gains. In emotional security, the concern is for structure and consistency in situations. The need for structure and consistency is reflected in the subordinate’s desire to anticipate the reaction of his boss. The subordinate wants his superior to be consistent. The need for security in the work setting reflects in the employee’s need for role clarity or the need to know about his tasks and procedures. Social needs involve the desire to maintain social relationships and involve acts instrumental to satisfaction of these. The need for nurturance, the need for succourance, seeking and granting approval, communicating (proper communication of work-related and personal issues by superiors to subordinates helps building up subordinates’ trust towards superiors), desire to subordinate individual interest to group interest, and so on are the reflections of the social needs. Ego needs include desires to dominate, to be powerful, to look respectful in the eyes of others (status), to control others, to keep others under surveillance, and so on. The need for power has been found to be negatively related to social need or the need for maintaining group relations26. The subordinate’s expectation that his superior allows him substantial freedom for action is a reflection of his need for power or the need to control the work situation by himself the work situation. There are studies showing that the needs for status and power do not contribute to task achievement. For instance, Menon27 found that high achievement-oriented supervisors in their task pursuits do not aspire for much freedom vis-à-vis satisfaction of their need for autonomy; they on the other hand, expect their superiors to provide them with support, involve them in organizational matters, share responsibility and power with them, and encourage their initiative. The need for self-actualization is referred to as the need for achievement28. Achievement need express itself in the desire to do a job well, using once knowledge and skills to be rewarded for accomplishment, to be recognized for good performance through feedback,29 to be able to control one’s situation for accomplishment of a task at hand through participation rather than through freedom per se, to be responsible for the job well done, to undertake work which is challenging and which involves moderate degree of risk or taking risk in relatively structured and predictive situations.30
Work Motivation
Labour efficiency is optimum when the labour costs per unit of production is lowest. Employees should put in their best effort as well as they should utilize their full time if labour cost per unit is to be kept lowest. The labour cost in the production cost per unit will increase if the employees work below the level of their optimum efficiency, or when they absent or fall sick. Although the employees do not have control over certain conditions such as falling sick which is due to factors outside their work life, they have control over their efficiency. Many of the studies such as reported by Roethlisberger and Dickson,31 and Whyte32 have shown that employees restrict their output voluntarily. Such voluntary restriction of output under wage incentive situations has also been found operating in the Indian business conditions.33 Apart from conscious restriction of efficiency, the employees withdraw their production effort through such mechanisms as absenting from work34 and involving in accidents35. Studies of job attitudes36 and motivation37 have brought out two main trends in the area of work motivation, viz., (i) Motivation versus Maintenance approach (also called Intrinsic Motivation versus Extrinsic Motivation), and (ii) Interaction of Multiple Need Satisfaction and Dissatisfaction.
Motivation versus Maintenance View
According to the motivation view, the individual put in their best and willing effort only when certain higher-order (task-related) needs as creative opportunity and challenge, and needs adjunct to these like responsibility and control over the task situation, are fulfilled. The permissible levels of output or work standard set in a work organization through techniques such as work study and collective bargaining are a step below the level which the employees can voluntarily make if they work assiduously and constructively. The sudden spurt in production when the employees respond to wage incentives illustrates the extra capacity of the employees. On the other hand, the employees meet the average levels according to maintenance view when the organizational conditions related to lower-order needs such as high wages, more fringe benefits, attractive and comfortable working conditions are met with. Failure to provide conditions related to lower-order needs makes the employees inefficient at work, through voluntary absenteeism, sickness and accidents, conflicts and rivalry, strikes and so on. Maintenance factors should be present before the motivational factors can operate. The need for the co-existence of conditions satisfying lower-order needs and those satisfying higher-order needs is shown in Menon’s study.38 He found that the high achievement-oriented supervisors are less efficient and lack satisfaction due to lack of chance for using their skill, for having learning experience, when their superiors do not lend support and do not encourage their initiative by means of their leadership style.
Interaction Of Multiple Need Satisfaction and Dissatisfaction
According to this approach, employees’ drive to work is determined by the net outcome of satisfactions and dissatisfactions of multiple needs at different hierarchical levels. The employees strive towards the achievement of organizational goals if (i) the needs satisfied predominate over those dissatisfied, and (ii) if the satisfaction follows the hierarchical order in ascending fashion.
The second condition means that it is not appropriate to bring into play the needs at the higher levels before sufficient opportunity is given for the satisfaction of need systems at the lower levels. An example of this condition may be cited. The individual employees should not be put in competition such as in a piece rate wage incentive system when the group is heterogeneous in ability and when there is strong unionism; otherwise it will lead to interpersonal conflict and rivalry leading to restriction of production.
Organizational Climate Factors and Opportunities for Need Satisfaction and Need Dissatisfaction
Organizational climate characteristics provide opportunity for the satisfaction of certain needs, while they restrict the chance for the satisfaction of others. At the present stage of knowledge, the exact relationship is not known. However, there are studies which provide direct or indirect support to the relationships discussed here relating to one or more factors. A pattern of relationships has been conceived and presented in Exhibit 1. Although the proposed relationships call for statistical testing, their discussion should be helpful in understanding human behaviour. Exhibit 1 brings out the following findings. High structuring provides opportunity for the satisfaction security need and curtails the satisfaction of the needs for status and power, and the need for achievement. Low structuring (reflecting role ambiguity) provides opportunity for the dissatisfaction of the need for security, social need, the need for status and power, and the need for achievement. Moderate structuring provides opportunity for the satisfaction of the need for security and the need for social relationships. Compromising approach provides opportunity for the satisfaction of the need for status and power whereas the unilateral approach deprives the need for status and power.
Exhibit 1. Relationship between climate factors and satisfaction-dissatisfaction of employee need systems
Climate factors Physi-ological Safety & Security Social Status & Power Achie-vement
1a High Structuring N S N D D
1b Low Structuring N D D D D
1c Moderate Structuring N S S N N
2a Compromising N N N S N
2b Unilateral N N N D N
3a Warmth and Support N S S N N
3b Lack of Warmth and Support N D D N N
4a Expert Persuasion N N N S S
4b Coercion N D D D N
5a Co-operation N S S N N
5b Competitiveness in Group Situation N D D S N
6a Problem Solving Approach to Authority N N N S S
6b Status Approach to Authority N D D S N
7a Employee-Task Fit N N N S S
7b Lack of Employee-Task Fit N D N N N
8a Performance Based Reward N N N S S
8b Expediency Based Reward N D D D N
9a Setting High Performance Goals N N N S S
9b Setting Low Performance Goals N S S N N
10a High Risk Taking N D N S N
10b Complacency N S N N N
10c Moderate Risk Taking N S N S S
11a Decentralization N D D S S
11b Centralization N D D D N
S stands for “the opportunity provided for the satisfaction of the need”
D stands for “the situation leading to dissatisfaction or deprivation of the need”.
N stands for “need satisfaction unaffected”.
Providing warmth and support allows the employees to satisfy their need for security and the need for social relationships. Lack of warmth and support deprives them of opportunity to satisfy their need for security and the need for social relationships. Expert persuasion provides room for the satisfaction of the need for status and power, and the need for achievement. The coercive approach restricts chance for the satisfaction of the need for security, the need for social relationships, and the need for status and power. Cooperation provides opportunity to satisfy the need for security and the need for social relationships. Competitiveness in a group situation, on the other hand, restricts the chance for the satisfaction of the need for security and the need for social relationships. It, however, provides opportunity for the satisfaction of the need for status and power. Problem-solving approach to authority offers chance for the satisfaction of the need for status and power, and the need for achievement. On the other hand, status approach to authority while offering chance for the satisfaction of the need for status and power, curtails the need for security, and the need for social relationships.
Employee-task fit creates situations helpful for the satisfaction of the need for status and power, and the need for achievement. Lack of employee-task fit thwarts the employees’ need for security. Performance-based reward creates conditions for the satisfaction of the need for status and power, and the need for achievement. Expediency-based reward creates conditions detrimental to the satisfaction of the need for security, the need for social relationships, and the need for status and power. Setting up high-performance goals creates conditions for the realization of the need for status and power, and the need for achievement. Setting up low performance goals contributes to the satisfaction of the need for security and the need for social relationships. Encouraging high risks thwarts the need for security, although it invokes the employee need for status and power. Encouraging complacency on the contrary, contributes only to the satisfaction of security needs. When the employee is encouraged to take moderate risk it contributes to the satisfaction of the need for security, the need for status and power, and the need for achievement. Decentralization opens up chances for the satisfaction of the need for status and power and the need for achievement, while centralization thwarts the needs for security, social relationships status and power, and achievement.
Organizational Typologies and Work Motivation
At least five kinds of organizations can be distinguished in terms of the technological practices as well as the eleven organizational climate factors discussed earlier. They are :
1. Technologically Backward and Punitive
2. Technologically Progressive and Punitive
3. Technologically Backward and Maintenance-oriented
4. Technologically Progressive and Maintenance-oriented
5. Developmental
Technologically backward and Punitive, and Technologically Progressive and Punitive
In technologically backward and punitive organizations, the top management hardly introduces technological improvements and innovations. They are insensitive to the requirements of the changing market conditions. They tolerate profitability at a level lower than the maximum possible under efficient conditions. Such organizations are low on structure, unilateral, low on providing warmth and support, and enforce compliance. They encourage competition in the group through individual wage incentives, favouritism, etc. The members in such organizations, view authority as a source of status. The organization never makes conscious attempts to fit the employees to the jobs through proper selection procedure. The members do not perceive any relation between their work and the credit they get. The organization rewards its employees as a matter of expediency. If it finds that it can capitalize on certain abilities of an individual to serve its short-term goals, it puts him ahead of other employees who are generally assets to the organization. In other words, the Personnel Policy decisions are determined by the situational contingencies. The organization might set too high production goals to the individuals without creating the pre-conditions. It might encourage its employees to take high risks and once in a way reward such behaviour too. The authority and power for making all the decisions and even for administrative action is invested in the hands of the top few.
Technologically progressive and punitive organizations may create all the above conditions of organizational climate, except that it constantly watches for opportunities of technological improvements. It adopts a kind of Taylorian philosophy in the management of business.
Technologically Backward and Maintenance-Oriented versus Technologically Progressive and Maintenance-Oriented
In “technologically backward and maintenance-oriented” organizations, top managements are not competitive in running business. Technological changes are hardly introduced as a way to increase productivity of the plant. Rigidity in production planning is usually present, but not product innovation. Corresponding to the above technological practices, such organizations may be low on structuring, unilateral, enforce compliance, encourage competition, and relatively high on status approach to authority. It may hardly place the employees according to merit and establish link between effort and reward. Goals within easy reach of the individual are set. No particular incentive is provided for taking risk. Only persons at the top are involved in decision-making. The superiors are encouraged to provide warmth and support to their subordinates. The members are given economic security.
In the case of “technologically progressive and maintenance-oriented” organizations, the top management tries to innovate plants technologically as a way to productivity, while at the same time maintains a happy and contented work force by providing a welfare-oriented climate. It introduces the organizational climate conditions of maintenance discussed in the preceding paragraph. Top managements in such organizations believe in achieving production through mechanization. They also perceive that the employees are inevitable aids to production at a particular stage of technological development and so the need to keep them happy.
Developmental Organizations
Developmental organizations are aware of the potentialities of technology and their obligation for creating employment. Their decisions reflect not only economic considerations but also their socio-economic concerns. Such organizations develop managers who are not only masters of technology but those who have ability to make economic decisions in a particular socio-cultural context. They adapt technological innovations to the management of human organizations. Such organizations are technologically more innovative. Parallel to the technical system, they create the following conditions of organizational climate conducive for optimizing employee work motivation. The top management structures the tasks moderately and develops clarity of rules. It is compromising and flexible, and weighs the merit of the situation in making decisions. The employees are mutually helpful and supportive. They attempt to influence others by making them see the merits of the case rather than by coercion.
Such organizations prefer to encourage co-operative behaviour rather than making employees individually competitive. They do not make employees individually competitive especially if the situation is such that the social equity is thwarted. They adopt the problem-solving approach more often. Attempts are made to match the employees and their job requirements and reward them according to their efforts. They may use scientific selection procedures and techniques such as Job Analysis, Job Evaluation, Objective Performance Appraisal, and so on. They set high performance goals and encourage the employees to take good risks. The employees at all levels of the hierarchy share authority, power, and responsibility matched with their respective roles. Employees develop orientation towards the overall goals of the organization and towards coordination of functions.
Indian Industrial and Business Organizations
In the previous section, it was pointed out that the industrial organizations can be classified under one of the five types. In this section, let us attempt classification of Indian industrial organizations. Indian industrial organizations are too large and heterogeneous a universe that makes generalization difficult. However, as a first step in the direction, Indian industrial organizations may be classified into four types, viz., (i) small, privately-owned Indian family concerns, (ii) large companies having private Indian ownership, (iii) companies owned by state (the so-called public sector), and (iv) Indian Private enterprises having foreign collaboration
Small Privately-Owned Indian Companies
These companies may be said to reflect the features of “technologically backward and punitive” type of organizations. Certain conditions of organizational culture and climate as revealed in studies of these organizations may be discussed.
Organizational Climate
Most of these organizations have no organizational charts indicating the roles and the role relationships. They hardly induct the employees. The employees hardly know their duties, authority, accountability, and responsibility at the time of joining the organization. Their superiors and colleagues usually serve as sources of such information. Ambiguity in responsibility leads to conflict in organizational communication. For instance, it has been found that the bypassing of the lines of command is common. The chief executive will entrust the responsibility to the General Manager for the duties of Departmental Heads and at the same time allow the Departmental Heads to bypass the General Manager and report to him undermining the authority of the General Manager. There is hardly any job structuring. This creates a situation in which the job designations rarely reflect the duties, salary and authority (financial and personnel discretionary powers). Such ambiguity leads to lack of coordination. Lack of coordination is reflected in a situation in which one subordinate reports to two or more superiors in the line of command. Lack of coordination of roles also leads to interpersonal conflict and employee strains. There are hardly attempts to select and place the employees according to their merit. The Top Executive who is invariably an owner-manager is too possessive of his organization. He has no trust in his subordinates. This develops into a situation in which the people at different levels lack mutual trust. The Top Executive reserves to himself the authority in decision-making. He develops a trusted group of people in vital management functions. These people are related to the chief executive through family ties, social origin, etc. Trustworthiness and loyalty are emphasized as qualities required rather than merit. Top management selects persons for new jobs based on such ascriptive criteria as belonging to the community or caste to which the chief executive belongs. The organization is hardly interested in training and developing employees. It does not institute any systematic personnel appraisal programmes. Thus, a condition is created in which the employees do not perceive clearly the relationship between their efforts and the financial rewards administered by the organization. In controlling the employees, the organization uses coercive approach. The employees are criticized or punished for their faults. Competitive rather than cooperative approach is employed. The organization does not train the employees, with the result that wide variations in abilities among the employees exist. Yet it uses individual wage incentive. Punitive methods are used in dealing with the disciplinary problems emerging from the individual incentive situation. The organization does not set high goals of performance and output and is satisfied with the levels of output which are often below the optimum. The organization adopts a unilateral approach in the sense that it does not admit of any confrontations, with the result that it does not recognize and deal with unions.
Large Companies Having Private Indian Ownership
These companies are offshoots of the small privately-owned organizations. They thus show many of the climatic and cultural conditions witnessed in small organizations. They can be referred to as “Technologically Progressive and Maintenance-Oriented”. They are technologically more progressive than small organizations. They are low on structure in the sense that roles and role relationships lack clarity and line of command is violated by bypassing the positions. Rewards are not tied up with efforts and no scientific appraisal is followed. The employees are mot encouraged to take good risks. At times they are encouraged to take risks without providing the necessary support. Employee skills and abilities are not utilized properly. However, these large organizations are more favourably predisposed to hiring trained professionals. They employ specialists such as industrial engineers, marketing economists, personnel researchers and so on, although all of them are only in the advisory capacity. The authority for making decisions on policy matters and to a large extent on administrative matters rests with the top few individuals. There is one-way communication downward. Submission to and dependence upon authority is encouraged at all levels.
These large organizations differ from the small organizations in terms of (i) welfare orientation, and (ii) relative flexibility. They provide better wages, fringe benefits, social security measures and more security of jobs compared to small organizations. These organizations in fact provide much opportunity outside the work for the expression of certain higher-order needs of the employees such as the need for creative expression, need for responsibility, need for power, etc. The opportunities for the satisfaction of these needs within the plants are not encouraged.
These large organizations are more compromising in the sense that they permit opposing forces to co-exist. They do not view union growth and movement as a necessary evil. They deal with the problems of employment through unions, perhaps without bothering much about the canons of the bargaining process. They however attempt to live in peace with the unions.
The Indian Private companies having foreign collaboration retail most of the characteristic described above. Plum salaries and excellent employee well fare facilities are provided which are often much above those provided by large Indian companies are provided. More mechanization and computerization are introduced. Though some attempts are maid to introduce progressive and best HRM practices, not much success is achieved. The traditional Indian socio-cultural ethos seem to have strong hold with very little penetration of Global and universalistic work culture and technological practices.
State-Owned Companies (Public Enterprises)
Public Enterprises can be referred to as “Technologically Progressive and Maintenance-Oriented” organizations. The organizational culture and behaviour are comparable to those of large private-owned organizations in many respects. The roles are too structured. There is clarity in duties, reporting relationships, and authority and responsibility in the vertical structure of the organization (because of the emphasis on rules and procedures). This high structure provides emotional security to the employees. Due to rigidity in the structure, there is no horizontal coordination. Each channel in the hierarchical structure is relatively independent of other. As such, the employees in each function do not see their contribution to an overall goal. Rigidity in structure also restricts individual freedom. Adherence to procedures is emphasized as an end in itself. Employees are not selected to meet the requirements of the jobs. Often those making selections hardly know what a particular job requires in terms of human skills.39 This has its negative effects on employee appraisal. Skills and progress are not evaluated objectively. The rewards are not administered according to performance. Rewards such as promotions are given to employees based on criteria such as seniority, conformity to rules, conduct, etc. In all such reward procedures, the link between employee effort and reward is missing. The employees are not encouraged to take risks. Lack of employee freedom, absence of functional coordination, and the reward structure induce employee complacency. Correspondingly, the organization does not set up high performance goals. Public sector organizations are progressive technologically. They make heavy investments and use employee specialists. They are more progressive than other types of Indian industries in using specialists. They institute research and development programmes. They, however, do not involve these specialists in the mainstream of organizational activities. In employee control, the approach used differs from that prevalent in privately-owned organizations. In public enterprises, the superiors hardly use coercive approach. The approach used is one of status approach. The hierarchical levels reflect different levels of status. The subordinates submit to the superiors by virtue of their positional status. Thus, conformity is inbuilt in the structure, and the conformity pattern is predictable. The organization provides economic security and provides welfare and social insurance benefits. As the scope for interpersonal interaction is limited under Rule-orientation, the employees hardly derive any social satisfaction in their formal role relationships. However, as the organization does not restrict the cohesiveness of the group through Personnel And Technological Practices, an informal organization of employees develops for social satisfaction. Lack of ownership motivation at almost all the levels and lack of involvement in organizational decision-making encourage the development of groups and associations including members at higher levels.
Summary
Brief reviews given about Indian Business and Industry clearly show to change all of them into a Developmental type of Organization, a typology developed by the author. This typology can be used for bringing about the desired changes in the Indian Organizations for all round benefits.
References
1.D.Katz, N.Maccoby, G.Gurin and L.C.Floor, Productivity, Supervision and Morale Among Railroad Workers, Ann Arbor, Institute for Social Science Research, 1951; and A.Chatterjee, “Satisfaction and Productivity : A Study of Morale and Teamwork in Industry with Respect to Productivity”, unpublished doctoral thesis, Bangalore, Indian Institute of Science, 1961.
2.H.Baumgartel, “The Penetration of Modern Management Technology and Organizational Practices in Indian Business Organizations”, Indian Administrative and Management Review, 1971, 3,2.
3. Ibid
4. H.Baumgartel, op. cit.; and K.Chowdhry and A.K.Pal, “Production Planning and Organizational Morale : A Case from India”, Human Organizations, 1957, 15, 4, 11-16.
5.Baumgartel, op. cit.
6.K.S.Basu, “Management Gap in Indian Industry”, Commerce, Annual Number, 1968, 117, 40-42.
7. See, for example, G.H.Litwin and R.A.Stringer, Motivation and Organizational Climate, Harvard University, Division of Research, Graduate School of Business Administration, 1968.
8. I.Dayal, “Management”, Seminar, Annual 149, January 1972, 64-69.
9. R.L.Kahn, R.P.Wolf, T.P.Quinn, J.P.Snoek and R.A.Rosenthal, Organizational Stress; Studies in Role Conflict, New York, McGraw-Hill, 1967.
10. A.Sreekumar Menon, “Performance Effects”, New Delhi, Shri Ram Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources, 1971, unpublished manuscript.
11. S.K.Roy, Corporate Image in India, new Delhi, Shri Ram Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources, 1974.
12. J.Singh, “Management Practices in India Today : A Critique”, Indian Management, 1970, 9, 9, 3-9.
13. W.F.White, Money and Motivation : An Analysis of Incentives in Industry, New York, Harper, 1955; V.H.Vroom, Work and Motivation, New York, John Wiley, 1964; and A.W.Kornhauser, Mental health of the Industrial Worker : A Detroit Study, New York, John Wiley, 1965.
14. A.Sreekumar Menon, 1971, op. cit.
15. Ibid.
16. R.Likert, Human Organization : Its Management and Value, New York, McGraw-Hill, 1967.
17. I.Dayal, “Management”, op. cit.
18. J.Singh, op. cit.
19. L.W.Porter nd E.E.Lawler, III Managerial Attitudes and Performance, New York, Irwin Dorsey, 1968.
20. V.H.Vroom, Some Personality Determinants of the Effects of Participation, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, Prentice-Hall, 1960.
21. P.Chattopadhay, “Managerial Revolution in India”, Indian Manager, July 1969, 8
22. V.K.Pathak, “Wage Incentive, Productive Efforts and Perception Change”, Indian Journal of Industrial Relations, 1969, 4, 4.
23. R.Likert, op.cit.
24. A.Sreekumar Menon, “Effectiveness of Wage Incentives: Analysis of Behavioural Processes”, in G.K.Suri (ed.), Wage Incentives: Theory and Practice, New Delhi, Shri Ram Centre for Industrial Relations and human Resources, 1973.
25. A.H.Maslow, Motivation and Personality, New York, Harper and Row, 1954.
26. G.h.Litwin and r.a. Striner, op.cit.
27. A.Sreekumar Menon, 1971, op. cit.
28. F.Herberg, B,Mausner and B.B.Snyderman, The Motivation to work, New York, John Wiley, Second Edn. 1966; D.C. Mc-Clelland and S.K.Winter, Motivating Economic Achievement, New York, Collier-MacMillan, 1971; and G.H.Litwin and R.A.Stringer, op.cit.
29. E.E.Lawler, Pay and Organizational Effectiveness. New York, McGRaw-Hill, 1971.
30. J.W.Atkinson, “Motivational Determinants of Risk-Taking Behavior”, in J.W.Atkinson and N.T.Feather (eds.), A Theory of Achievement Motivation, New York, John Wiley, 1966.
31. F.J.Roethlisberger and W.J.Dickson, Management and the Worker, Masschusetts, Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1964.
32. W.F.Whyte, op. cit.
33. G.K.Suri, “Continuing Effectiveness of an Incentive Application; A Quantitative Evaluation”, New Delhi, Shri Ram Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources, 1972, mimeo.
34. A.Sreekumar Menon and H.Hanumanthiah, “Productive Drive and Absenteeism”, Business Herald, April, 1969, 4, 10-12.
35. A.Sreekumar Menon, “Interpersonal Relations and Industrial Safety”, Kerala Productivity Journal, October-December, 1969, 4, 4.
36. F.Herzberg et al., op. cit.
37. L.W.Porter and E.E.Lawler, op. cit.; and v.h.vroom, op. cit.
38. A Sreekumar Menon, 1971, op. cit.
39. K.Chowdhry, Change-in Organizations, Bombay, Lalvani Publishing House, 1970.
Here one can find a large collection of useful articles.These articles can be very useful to people of all walks of life,especially THE YOUTH! HAPPY READING & ALL THE BEST.Some of the Articles Contributed by Dr.A.Sreekumar Menon,Psychologist, Author of Award Winning Management Brooks and Management Consultant.
24 June 2006
Human Resource Development-State Administrative Training Some Key Issues
The role of today’s public administration personnel in our country is no longer confined to the old administration concerned with collection of revenue and maintenance of law and order existed in pre-independent India. After independence, we have moved from this type of passive administration to more dynamic and people-centred administration, even to Development Administration, charged with the responsibility of promoting socio-economic development of the people, by playing different roles such as provider, motivator, catalyst or facilitator, custodian, co-ordinator, developer, counselor, expert and so on.
After independence, our country has witnessed tremendous planned change in economic, social and political life of the people, although much is to be achieved in eradicating evils of poverty, disease and illiteracy. The waves of modern science and technology and their application, our national policy of promoting economic growth with equitable distribution and promotion of democratic values such as freedom of expression and people’s participation in development activities have created complex socio-economic and political systems.
Correspondingly, the Public Administrators of today face a more complex, challenging and dynamic administrative environments having economic, social, political, legal, technological, psychological and cultural interfaces, which their predecessors would not have even dreamt off. Thus, they have to share much heavier responsibilities in improving the conditions of majority of our people, who live below the poverty line.
Administrators of today cannot rest contented with laurels of their rank, status and authority and cannot expect to earn respect from the people by virtue of these. They should on the other hand, work through people and mobilize their strength and personal resources for the people and common good.
They should display such personal qualities as dynamism as opposed to bureaucratic apathy; efficiency consciousness, goal orientation as opposed to rigid activity orientation, result- orientation rather than orientation towards using rules to impede action; flexibility, time sense, innovativeness rather than being routine; planning rather than being ad-hoc, being accountable for results; moderate risk-taking as opposed to following the path of least resistance; integrity or tendency to follow certain norms and act in good faith and welfare-orientation or the love to work for the well-being of the masses, particularly those who are under-privileged.
The stability of the popularly elected Government stands on the pillars of efficiency of public administration system. That is the reason why a newly elected Government shows eagerness to provide a clean and efficient administrative system. Cheenuru Anjaneya Reddy in his interesting article states that in a plural political culture with political authority shifting between contending groups, the importance of a neutral professional civil service was forseen by the country’s first statesmen and two premier All India Services-I.A.S. and I.P.S.-were organized immediately after independence. Their place was later secured in the constitution, which also provided for the creation of more such services.
The civil service is expected to tender impartial advice in the context of declared policy of the political party in power, but keeping public interest always at heart. After a decision is made by the political executive, the civil service is required to put it into practice without subjecting to its own prejudices, as long as it does not contravene the basic law of the land or offend the public interest”.
Training of Civil Servants
Public Administration is not an abstract entity. It is the collective action of the public personnel or the so called civil servants and thus, its quality can be augmented by imparting systematic education, training and development of its personnel and to make them capable and responsible officers.
This necessitates to plan different phases of training such as defining clearly the goals/objectives, the outcomes expected to accrue from training, designing course contents, choosing appropriate pedagogical methods, selection of faculty, arranging infra-structural facilities and attending to other logistics, preparing background Reading materials or Hand-outs and evaluating training effectiveness during and after training, including follow up of the trainee performance on the job. An annual conference of Trainers in Public Administration held in Delhi brought out several expected outcomes from administrative training. The following are some of the most important objectives identified.
1. Training must create in participants a liking or interest in work. Only when one has interest in work, one would do his work better. The zest for work should be created.
Training should keep away civil servants from cynicism, bureaucratic apathy and a tendency to maintain status-quo and follow path of least resistance. It should enable the trainees to develop right work ethics and culture. Work ethics is not mercenary and work culture is not treating the work casually and taking things easy, on the other hand, it is taking work seriously and with sustaining interest
2. Apart from equipping trainees to do regular routine work in the field, training should develop and encourage them to develop in themselves and others problem solving-orientation and innovative capacity. The public personnel should develop and encourage their subordinates to develop an inquiring mind, receptivity to new ideas, openness to change and a restless spirit which constantly urge them to find ways of doing their tasks better and more efficiently (zest for the pursuit of excellence)
They should discover and correct defects, not to ignore or avoid them and not to be defensive. They should learn how to give and receive feedback for improving performance. They should show willingness and encourage others, in trying out (or experimenting with) new ideas and to learn from past successes and failures and perhaps, the most important is the recognition of common stake of the entire community in better administration.
3. Should bring out attitudes of precision and exactness in work.
4. Should enable the participants to develop in themselves and others planning orientation instead of conforming to other’s plan; self direction, minimizing dependence on others; shift from discipline-orientation to life experience-orientation, from narrow activity-orientation to view overall success of the project or functions at the group/department levels and a sense of interdependence, highest standards of integrity-intellectual, moral and financial and a attitude of service, sensitivity and concern for the public (understanding beneficiaries, perception of administrative needs) etc., instead of regulation and control.
5. Appreciation of the value of time dimension in work and keeping time spent on tasks under control (proper management of time). Time is money. It needs to be saved and efficiently utilized. Delays not only add to the cost of execution of any work, but, they also have snowballing effect on the work of others, with the result that delays at one place produce a chain reaction, and ill-effects are multiplied many times over. Understanding the beneficiaries’ perception of administrative needs and action with social sensitivity demands objectivity, responsiveness and time-bound performance.
6. Improving competence through imparting knowledge, management and other specialized skills.
7. Developing appropriate leadership styles and behaviours among the trainees to work as superiors, subordinates and colleagues (peers).
The leadership behaviour to be displayed by the superiors are :
1. Increased willingness to develop subordinates
2. Allowing their participation in work management.
3. Motivating subordinates for (a) self learning, taking initiative and assuming responsibility for work (including planning work, setting performance targets and review), rather than passively carrying out orders from above coupled with close supervision, (b) turning out quality work, (c) Collaborating as members of teams.
4. Encouraging and appreciating merit.
5. Showing integrity and fairness in personnel and public dealings.
6. Developing positive self-image towards the organization and the public.
From the above discussions, it is clear that in addition to imparting knowledge regarding system of work, rules and procedures and techniques of project management, the development of several behavioural skills has been emphasized by all training experts unanimously.
Training Objectives
Keeping the above training outcomes in view, the following objectives may be set for courses in State Administrative Training :
1. To develop in participants the skill in the art of public administration by exposing them to the basic principles and practices and latest theoretical developments in the field of administrative sciences and allied areas.
2. To help them appreciate the various roles of an administrator functioning in a democratic set up such as, the information role, planner and decision making role, entrepreneurial role, human relations role, catalyst’s role etc., both within the administrative organization, where one works and with the public interface.
3. To give the trainees who are undergoing in-service training an opportunity to share the experiences of eminent administrators and share the experiences among themselves to enable them to reflect on their achievements and weakness and to promote self-discovery and learning in a relaxed and supportive (or non-threatening) inter-personal environment. Such an opportunity for spontaneous and relaxed reflection is not available, while people are at work due to hierarchical and other job pressures and bureaucratic controls.
4. To provide information and knowledge relevant to the implementation of projects in a particular economic or social sector, regarding administrative responsibilities associated with different positions, rules and regulations, official procedures, personnel policies and practices, employee welfare, public administration set-up and functions at different levels in the State etc.
5. To familiarize the participants with the socio-cultural environments of the state and the country as a whole and the administrative systems and functions at the secretarial and field levels.
6. To develop behavioural skills in such administrative processes as :
- planning (action goal –orientation)
- effective, decision making (participative decision making or decision making by consensus and use of data and information and Computerised management of information,
- management of motivation in initiating, directing, monitoring, and reviewing work with the help of appropriate leadership skills.
- Managing team work (process of collaboration, the skills to work through people as boss, subordinate and colleagues and ability to work together)
- Facilitating creative group problem-solving or encouraging innovative behaviors and capacities at subordinate levels
- Organizational and inter-personal communication; dealing with people effectively and gaining their support or also called Extension Motivation or Public Relations Skills
- Ethical – moral dimension of human behaviour as related to administration.
Knowledge and Understanding should be developed in trainees in new fields as History, Culture, Language, Socio-Economic, Political and Geographical conditions (agro – climate, forests, minerals and other natural resources), growth of industries, special development schemes, organization and functioning of planning machinery, constitutional and legislative frame work, state Administrative functions at different levels etc. both within the frame work of the state and the country.
Training Methodology
The instructions on these aspects covered under the objectives I to 5 may be largely imparted by using the technique of ‘concept learning’ or through ‘lecture methods’. The oral presentations should be supplemented by the use of audio-visual presentations (in the form of slides, charts, movie projections, writing on the black board etc) to derive added effects of learning. Learning by seeing is three times more effective than learning by hearing and that is the very reason for supplementing lectures with the use of audio-visual aids.
To facilitate the development of behavioural skills that contribute to administrative efficiency ‘Lecture-cum-experiential’ or group-teaching-learning techniques may be used. Various experiential techniques that can be used, along with the lecture methods to reinforce learning are Case studies, practical exercises, inventories, seminars, Book Reviews and so on. Some of the behavioural skills that can be developed through experiential methods are :
- ability to think innovatively and to do penetrating analysis of the problems,
- development of a goal or sense of purpose, and working towards the goal (or planning-orientaion),
- ability to participate in group discussions,
- self-responsibility for seeking information and knowledge and for learning,
- openness :- mutual trust and support,
- ability for reading comprehension,
- ability to give feed-back without being offensive and receive it without being defensive and ability for self-correction and growth.
- Ability to resolve inter-personnel and inter-group conflicts
- Ability to perceive unfamiliar situations and respond to them promptly and appropriately,
- Ability to take initiative and mop up personal drive and enthusiasm,
- Ability to work as members of a team (team spirit),
These experiential techniques stimulate trainees’ interest and participation in learning, promote acceptance of ideas and tendency for their application in real life situations. They also convince the trainees about the value of team work.
These techniques which are helpful in developing certain behavioural skills should be used only by trainers who are well trained in Behavoural sciences. Again these tools should not be selected indiscriminately. A judicious combination of conceptual learning techniques and Experiential learning techniques should be selected depending upon the training situation.
Lecture Method
The conventional lecture methods is considered as ineffective from the point of view of trainee receptivity, because it is very formal, and impersonal. It keeps the trainee as passive spectators rather than making them active participants. However, the lecture methods has certain advantages over others. It makes possible organized and systematic presentation of materials, which helps systematic learning and provides the trainees with a strong theoretical base, which is essential for them to attempt improved behaviour as a result of training. The weakness of the conventional types of lecture sessions (such a lack of trainee motivation and interest in learning) can be minimized by adopting some of the following strategies.
The speaker should use clear and precise language which he trainees can comprehend, and avoid being verbose and using jargons. Language is the vehicle of thought and it is not to be used for ornamental or cosmetic purposes.
He should introduce the topic indicating its general importance and the value of learning to argument the trainee competence, build up the self-esteem of the trainees and morale of the group, by acknowledging their special strengths and capabilities, merits and the confidence that is transposed in them and the correspondingly higher expectations from them in terms of performance. This initial step helps to lay down the foundation of trainee interest and motivation upon which superstructure of continuing motivation, listening with understanding, acceptance and retention and the desire for possible application of learning, should be built up throughout the lecture sessions.
The speaker should prepare the topics thoroughly, develop and present an outline of the talk before the development of individual points. The trainees receive an overall idea of the scope of presentation which in turn develops a sense of purpose or direction and interest in learning.
After the introduction, he should pick up each point and develop it logically and summarise the discussions on each point before moving to the next, thus linking it with the overall framework. The development and analysis of the different points constitute the body of the lecture.
The lecture should conclude with an over all summary of the main points dealt with in the lecture.
Interesting and familiar narrations and anecdotes and practical examples should be provided while developing ideas. Sometimes, the narrations, anecdotes and examples are cited first immediately followed by discussions of the underlying theoretical principles. This approach is called ‘flash back’ approach and it is often very effective. The only caution to be exercised is that the narrations should not consume too much of the speaker’s time, lest the participants lose track of the main purpose of the lecture.
The speaker should keep a free and relaxed classroom atmosphere in which all the trainees feel free to interact and ask questions. No trainee should have the fear of losing his face or looking naïve if he commits mistakes. He should appreciate comments from the floor, if they deserve. The trainer should not cut short or ridicule (deflate ego of) any trainee even if he makes silliest of the silly remarks. On the other hand while he is guided to learn, he should be accepted with understanding and sympathy. All the trainees should be encouraged to practice such behaviours towards each other and to build up on each other’s strengths. No room for the trainees to belittle their colleagues, unwittingly or otherwise, should be given, by setting a positive tone by the speaker.
The Trainer should encourage the trainees to speak and give feed back. He can ask the trainees some questions and seek some information related to the points under discussion or can ask them to summarise a part of his presentation. In either case, the trainees are motivated to follow the lecture closely.
The speaker should also appreciate the trainees if they are able to reproduce faithfully what the trainer has said. The ability of the trainees to echo what the speaker said shows that they are attentive, serious in learning and not immersed in their personal thoughts and fantasies. When the speaker rewards the trainees on giving correct feed back, through public acknowledgement, it motivates and reinforces the trainee learning.
The speaker should try to build up his ideas on the ideas thrown up by the trainees or atleast relate his ideas with those expressed by them, so that, the trainees are able to integrate the new knowledge with their background information and to be motivated and purposeful in their learning. Thus, learning of ideas does not appear to be an isolated process. On the other hand, they fit into a definite pattern (Gestalt).
The lecture delivery should be appealing not only to the ‘head’ but also to the ‘heart’ of the trainees. The level at which a subject is treated and the logical organization of ideas contribute to the intellectual satisfaction, the trainees derive from the lectures and to the development of their capacities and skills. A lecture may be ‘superb’ from the academic point of view, but it may fall flat in regard to trainees’ reception, unless it is also emotionally appealing. Balancing between ‘Intellectual’ and ‘emotional’ acceptability is a tough act for most trainers. More often trainers resolve this dilemma by being n either extremes, either presenting the picture of a person with academic bulldozer’) or of a person playing in the hands of trainees, catering to their lighter moods, sacrificing the academic sanctity of the subject and throwing one’s professionalism overboard. Both the extremes are far from being desirable.
The lecture can be made ‘spicy’ and entertaining to the trainees by sprinkling wit and humor on appropriate occasions in the course of the talk. When the audience reach the peak of heir mental effort through their acts of concentration and assimilation, the resultant muscular and mental tension that gets built up should be relieved, if they are to be kept alert during subsequent spells. Humour and wit should not be used either to entertain the trainees who in spite of all other attempts lack minimum motivation as a learner or to win the acceptance of disinterested band of trainees. A trainer who does this is said to be giving a ‘sales talk’. Any trainer who indulges in this game is guilty of throwing his professionalism over board.
Training Environment
There are many aspects, which the Training Administrators should be concerned with for the successful achievement of the objectives of administrative training. Among the factors, the aspect of ‘initial trainee motivation and receptivity’, which being one of the elusive aspects of training, may often escape the attention of Training Managers, while being preoccupied with other phases such as, identification of training needs, designing course contents, faculty selection, choice of methodology, physical arrangements and other logistics, evaluation of training by trainees and looking after the comforts of the trainees. Trainee receptivity is often left to the skillful manipulation of the training faculty. This in turn tends to be the main obsessions of atleast some of the training faculty who are wordly wise and try to impress upon the trainees, through ways other than those which contribute to learning such as keeping the audience in good humour, delivering a spicy lecture without much meat and other unprofessional ways.
Trainee receptivity relates to the intentions with which the trainees attend the training or their initial interest and motivation. On the criteria of initial interest and motivation, the trainees may be classified into 3 proto-types. Some of the trainees may consider training period as an unpleasant phase they have to pass through before occupying the chair of power and position, a necessary evil, so to say put up with. These people belong to the first category of ‘Fatalists’. Others may view training as a period of relaxation, recreation and recuperation, after passing through the ordeals of academic life and preparations for examinations of cut-throat competition which almost puts any one in an inescapable rat race. These people belong to the second category of ‘Tired Travelers’ who take rest on the way. There are others who have the right notion of training as an opportunity for self development and professional preparation. They may be called as ‘Knowledge Seekers’.
The attitudes of the trainees towards the training situation depend upon categories to which they belong to. The first category of trainees (or Fatalists) would consider training as a necessary evil. They would want the training to be over soon. They may join the course late, may avail leave in between and during the course period they may attend personal matters. They take their stay in the training center as a convenient time to attend to their personal work, as there is no interference with their job or family duties. What they expect from the training faculty is to be soft with them, appreciate their needs and accommodate them. The trainers can easily win their good will if they can be lenient in their approach. The second group of ‘Tired Travelers’ tend to be pleasure seekers, being obviously tired, they seek rest, relaxation and comforts. They expect the best possible accommodation and excellent service which make their stay comfortable. They also expect them to be entertained during training sessions. They want to leave the class room with a pleasant feeling of entertainment, as experienced after seeing an interesting ‘movie’. When the trainees develop these kinds of expectations, the possibility of their showing initial motivation and interest in learning and for assuming self-responsibility for learning is remote.
The last category of ‘Knowledge Seekers’ are concerned with the benefits they derive from the training programmes for their professional development. They show diligence. They are hard working and realize their responsibility as trainees.
The first two proto-types of trainees should be changed into the third type, atleast to some extent by training institutions before the commencement of the training programmes through a planned programme of initiation and induction. Certain amount of self-discipline on their part and self-induced motivation and receptivity for training should be developed.
The self-induced responsibility for learning can also be encouraged by asking the trainees to indicate what they have learned from each session and by asking them to prepare brief notes of the lectures for submission. These notes should be evaluated to find out the extent to which trainees have applied their minds, have grasped the ideas and retained them. In contrast to this type of course evaluation, when the trainees are asked about their opinions regarding the lectures, usefulness of the information etc., they may express their opinions without assuming personal responsibility or without owning up their comments.
REFERENCES
1. Cheenuru Anjaneya Reddy, Whither Professional Civil servants The Hindu, Sep, 11th 1983 p. 17.
For further Reading
Saxena, A.P.(ed) Training in Government – objectives and opportunities, New Delhi, Indian Institute of Public Administration, 1985.
After independence, our country has witnessed tremendous planned change in economic, social and political life of the people, although much is to be achieved in eradicating evils of poverty, disease and illiteracy. The waves of modern science and technology and their application, our national policy of promoting economic growth with equitable distribution and promotion of democratic values such as freedom of expression and people’s participation in development activities have created complex socio-economic and political systems.
Correspondingly, the Public Administrators of today face a more complex, challenging and dynamic administrative environments having economic, social, political, legal, technological, psychological and cultural interfaces, which their predecessors would not have even dreamt off. Thus, they have to share much heavier responsibilities in improving the conditions of majority of our people, who live below the poverty line.
Administrators of today cannot rest contented with laurels of their rank, status and authority and cannot expect to earn respect from the people by virtue of these. They should on the other hand, work through people and mobilize their strength and personal resources for the people and common good.
They should display such personal qualities as dynamism as opposed to bureaucratic apathy; efficiency consciousness, goal orientation as opposed to rigid activity orientation, result- orientation rather than orientation towards using rules to impede action; flexibility, time sense, innovativeness rather than being routine; planning rather than being ad-hoc, being accountable for results; moderate risk-taking as opposed to following the path of least resistance; integrity or tendency to follow certain norms and act in good faith and welfare-orientation or the love to work for the well-being of the masses, particularly those who are under-privileged.
The stability of the popularly elected Government stands on the pillars of efficiency of public administration system. That is the reason why a newly elected Government shows eagerness to provide a clean and efficient administrative system. Cheenuru Anjaneya Reddy in his interesting article states that in a plural political culture with political authority shifting between contending groups, the importance of a neutral professional civil service was forseen by the country’s first statesmen and two premier All India Services-I.A.S. and I.P.S.-were organized immediately after independence. Their place was later secured in the constitution, which also provided for the creation of more such services.
The civil service is expected to tender impartial advice in the context of declared policy of the political party in power, but keeping public interest always at heart. After a decision is made by the political executive, the civil service is required to put it into practice without subjecting to its own prejudices, as long as it does not contravene the basic law of the land or offend the public interest”.
Training of Civil Servants
Public Administration is not an abstract entity. It is the collective action of the public personnel or the so called civil servants and thus, its quality can be augmented by imparting systematic education, training and development of its personnel and to make them capable and responsible officers.
This necessitates to plan different phases of training such as defining clearly the goals/objectives, the outcomes expected to accrue from training, designing course contents, choosing appropriate pedagogical methods, selection of faculty, arranging infra-structural facilities and attending to other logistics, preparing background Reading materials or Hand-outs and evaluating training effectiveness during and after training, including follow up of the trainee performance on the job. An annual conference of Trainers in Public Administration held in Delhi brought out several expected outcomes from administrative training. The following are some of the most important objectives identified.
1. Training must create in participants a liking or interest in work. Only when one has interest in work, one would do his work better. The zest for work should be created.
Training should keep away civil servants from cynicism, bureaucratic apathy and a tendency to maintain status-quo and follow path of least resistance. It should enable the trainees to develop right work ethics and culture. Work ethics is not mercenary and work culture is not treating the work casually and taking things easy, on the other hand, it is taking work seriously and with sustaining interest
2. Apart from equipping trainees to do regular routine work in the field, training should develop and encourage them to develop in themselves and others problem solving-orientation and innovative capacity. The public personnel should develop and encourage their subordinates to develop an inquiring mind, receptivity to new ideas, openness to change and a restless spirit which constantly urge them to find ways of doing their tasks better and more efficiently (zest for the pursuit of excellence)
They should discover and correct defects, not to ignore or avoid them and not to be defensive. They should learn how to give and receive feedback for improving performance. They should show willingness and encourage others, in trying out (or experimenting with) new ideas and to learn from past successes and failures and perhaps, the most important is the recognition of common stake of the entire community in better administration.
3. Should bring out attitudes of precision and exactness in work.
4. Should enable the participants to develop in themselves and others planning orientation instead of conforming to other’s plan; self direction, minimizing dependence on others; shift from discipline-orientation to life experience-orientation, from narrow activity-orientation to view overall success of the project or functions at the group/department levels and a sense of interdependence, highest standards of integrity-intellectual, moral and financial and a attitude of service, sensitivity and concern for the public (understanding beneficiaries, perception of administrative needs) etc., instead of regulation and control.
5. Appreciation of the value of time dimension in work and keeping time spent on tasks under control (proper management of time). Time is money. It needs to be saved and efficiently utilized. Delays not only add to the cost of execution of any work, but, they also have snowballing effect on the work of others, with the result that delays at one place produce a chain reaction, and ill-effects are multiplied many times over. Understanding the beneficiaries’ perception of administrative needs and action with social sensitivity demands objectivity, responsiveness and time-bound performance.
6. Improving competence through imparting knowledge, management and other specialized skills.
7. Developing appropriate leadership styles and behaviours among the trainees to work as superiors, subordinates and colleagues (peers).
The leadership behaviour to be displayed by the superiors are :
1. Increased willingness to develop subordinates
2. Allowing their participation in work management.
3. Motivating subordinates for (a) self learning, taking initiative and assuming responsibility for work (including planning work, setting performance targets and review), rather than passively carrying out orders from above coupled with close supervision, (b) turning out quality work, (c) Collaborating as members of teams.
4. Encouraging and appreciating merit.
5. Showing integrity and fairness in personnel and public dealings.
6. Developing positive self-image towards the organization and the public.
From the above discussions, it is clear that in addition to imparting knowledge regarding system of work, rules and procedures and techniques of project management, the development of several behavioural skills has been emphasized by all training experts unanimously.
Training Objectives
Keeping the above training outcomes in view, the following objectives may be set for courses in State Administrative Training :
1. To develop in participants the skill in the art of public administration by exposing them to the basic principles and practices and latest theoretical developments in the field of administrative sciences and allied areas.
2. To help them appreciate the various roles of an administrator functioning in a democratic set up such as, the information role, planner and decision making role, entrepreneurial role, human relations role, catalyst’s role etc., both within the administrative organization, where one works and with the public interface.
3. To give the trainees who are undergoing in-service training an opportunity to share the experiences of eminent administrators and share the experiences among themselves to enable them to reflect on their achievements and weakness and to promote self-discovery and learning in a relaxed and supportive (or non-threatening) inter-personal environment. Such an opportunity for spontaneous and relaxed reflection is not available, while people are at work due to hierarchical and other job pressures and bureaucratic controls.
4. To provide information and knowledge relevant to the implementation of projects in a particular economic or social sector, regarding administrative responsibilities associated with different positions, rules and regulations, official procedures, personnel policies and practices, employee welfare, public administration set-up and functions at different levels in the State etc.
5. To familiarize the participants with the socio-cultural environments of the state and the country as a whole and the administrative systems and functions at the secretarial and field levels.
6. To develop behavioural skills in such administrative processes as :
- planning (action goal –orientation)
- effective, decision making (participative decision making or decision making by consensus and use of data and information and Computerised management of information,
- management of motivation in initiating, directing, monitoring, and reviewing work with the help of appropriate leadership skills.
- Managing team work (process of collaboration, the skills to work through people as boss, subordinate and colleagues and ability to work together)
- Facilitating creative group problem-solving or encouraging innovative behaviors and capacities at subordinate levels
- Organizational and inter-personal communication; dealing with people effectively and gaining their support or also called Extension Motivation or Public Relations Skills
- Ethical – moral dimension of human behaviour as related to administration.
Knowledge and Understanding should be developed in trainees in new fields as History, Culture, Language, Socio-Economic, Political and Geographical conditions (agro – climate, forests, minerals and other natural resources), growth of industries, special development schemes, organization and functioning of planning machinery, constitutional and legislative frame work, state Administrative functions at different levels etc. both within the frame work of the state and the country.
Training Methodology
The instructions on these aspects covered under the objectives I to 5 may be largely imparted by using the technique of ‘concept learning’ or through ‘lecture methods’. The oral presentations should be supplemented by the use of audio-visual presentations (in the form of slides, charts, movie projections, writing on the black board etc) to derive added effects of learning. Learning by seeing is three times more effective than learning by hearing and that is the very reason for supplementing lectures with the use of audio-visual aids.
To facilitate the development of behavioural skills that contribute to administrative efficiency ‘Lecture-cum-experiential’ or group-teaching-learning techniques may be used. Various experiential techniques that can be used, along with the lecture methods to reinforce learning are Case studies, practical exercises, inventories, seminars, Book Reviews and so on. Some of the behavioural skills that can be developed through experiential methods are :
- ability to think innovatively and to do penetrating analysis of the problems,
- development of a goal or sense of purpose, and working towards the goal (or planning-orientaion),
- ability to participate in group discussions,
- self-responsibility for seeking information and knowledge and for learning,
- openness :- mutual trust and support,
- ability for reading comprehension,
- ability to give feed-back without being offensive and receive it without being defensive and ability for self-correction and growth.
- Ability to resolve inter-personnel and inter-group conflicts
- Ability to perceive unfamiliar situations and respond to them promptly and appropriately,
- Ability to take initiative and mop up personal drive and enthusiasm,
- Ability to work as members of a team (team spirit),
These experiential techniques stimulate trainees’ interest and participation in learning, promote acceptance of ideas and tendency for their application in real life situations. They also convince the trainees about the value of team work.
These techniques which are helpful in developing certain behavioural skills should be used only by trainers who are well trained in Behavoural sciences. Again these tools should not be selected indiscriminately. A judicious combination of conceptual learning techniques and Experiential learning techniques should be selected depending upon the training situation.
Lecture Method
The conventional lecture methods is considered as ineffective from the point of view of trainee receptivity, because it is very formal, and impersonal. It keeps the trainee as passive spectators rather than making them active participants. However, the lecture methods has certain advantages over others. It makes possible organized and systematic presentation of materials, which helps systematic learning and provides the trainees with a strong theoretical base, which is essential for them to attempt improved behaviour as a result of training. The weakness of the conventional types of lecture sessions (such a lack of trainee motivation and interest in learning) can be minimized by adopting some of the following strategies.
The speaker should use clear and precise language which he trainees can comprehend, and avoid being verbose and using jargons. Language is the vehicle of thought and it is not to be used for ornamental or cosmetic purposes.
He should introduce the topic indicating its general importance and the value of learning to argument the trainee competence, build up the self-esteem of the trainees and morale of the group, by acknowledging their special strengths and capabilities, merits and the confidence that is transposed in them and the correspondingly higher expectations from them in terms of performance. This initial step helps to lay down the foundation of trainee interest and motivation upon which superstructure of continuing motivation, listening with understanding, acceptance and retention and the desire for possible application of learning, should be built up throughout the lecture sessions.
The speaker should prepare the topics thoroughly, develop and present an outline of the talk before the development of individual points. The trainees receive an overall idea of the scope of presentation which in turn develops a sense of purpose or direction and interest in learning.
After the introduction, he should pick up each point and develop it logically and summarise the discussions on each point before moving to the next, thus linking it with the overall framework. The development and analysis of the different points constitute the body of the lecture.
The lecture should conclude with an over all summary of the main points dealt with in the lecture.
Interesting and familiar narrations and anecdotes and practical examples should be provided while developing ideas. Sometimes, the narrations, anecdotes and examples are cited first immediately followed by discussions of the underlying theoretical principles. This approach is called ‘flash back’ approach and it is often very effective. The only caution to be exercised is that the narrations should not consume too much of the speaker’s time, lest the participants lose track of the main purpose of the lecture.
The speaker should keep a free and relaxed classroom atmosphere in which all the trainees feel free to interact and ask questions. No trainee should have the fear of losing his face or looking naïve if he commits mistakes. He should appreciate comments from the floor, if they deserve. The trainer should not cut short or ridicule (deflate ego of) any trainee even if he makes silliest of the silly remarks. On the other hand while he is guided to learn, he should be accepted with understanding and sympathy. All the trainees should be encouraged to practice such behaviours towards each other and to build up on each other’s strengths. No room for the trainees to belittle their colleagues, unwittingly or otherwise, should be given, by setting a positive tone by the speaker.
The Trainer should encourage the trainees to speak and give feed back. He can ask the trainees some questions and seek some information related to the points under discussion or can ask them to summarise a part of his presentation. In either case, the trainees are motivated to follow the lecture closely.
The speaker should also appreciate the trainees if they are able to reproduce faithfully what the trainer has said. The ability of the trainees to echo what the speaker said shows that they are attentive, serious in learning and not immersed in their personal thoughts and fantasies. When the speaker rewards the trainees on giving correct feed back, through public acknowledgement, it motivates and reinforces the trainee learning.
The speaker should try to build up his ideas on the ideas thrown up by the trainees or atleast relate his ideas with those expressed by them, so that, the trainees are able to integrate the new knowledge with their background information and to be motivated and purposeful in their learning. Thus, learning of ideas does not appear to be an isolated process. On the other hand, they fit into a definite pattern (Gestalt).
The lecture delivery should be appealing not only to the ‘head’ but also to the ‘heart’ of the trainees. The level at which a subject is treated and the logical organization of ideas contribute to the intellectual satisfaction, the trainees derive from the lectures and to the development of their capacities and skills. A lecture may be ‘superb’ from the academic point of view, but it may fall flat in regard to trainees’ reception, unless it is also emotionally appealing. Balancing between ‘Intellectual’ and ‘emotional’ acceptability is a tough act for most trainers. More often trainers resolve this dilemma by being n either extremes, either presenting the picture of a person with academic bulldozer’) or of a person playing in the hands of trainees, catering to their lighter moods, sacrificing the academic sanctity of the subject and throwing one’s professionalism overboard. Both the extremes are far from being desirable.
The lecture can be made ‘spicy’ and entertaining to the trainees by sprinkling wit and humor on appropriate occasions in the course of the talk. When the audience reach the peak of heir mental effort through their acts of concentration and assimilation, the resultant muscular and mental tension that gets built up should be relieved, if they are to be kept alert during subsequent spells. Humour and wit should not be used either to entertain the trainees who in spite of all other attempts lack minimum motivation as a learner or to win the acceptance of disinterested band of trainees. A trainer who does this is said to be giving a ‘sales talk’. Any trainer who indulges in this game is guilty of throwing his professionalism over board.
Training Environment
There are many aspects, which the Training Administrators should be concerned with for the successful achievement of the objectives of administrative training. Among the factors, the aspect of ‘initial trainee motivation and receptivity’, which being one of the elusive aspects of training, may often escape the attention of Training Managers, while being preoccupied with other phases such as, identification of training needs, designing course contents, faculty selection, choice of methodology, physical arrangements and other logistics, evaluation of training by trainees and looking after the comforts of the trainees. Trainee receptivity is often left to the skillful manipulation of the training faculty. This in turn tends to be the main obsessions of atleast some of the training faculty who are wordly wise and try to impress upon the trainees, through ways other than those which contribute to learning such as keeping the audience in good humour, delivering a spicy lecture without much meat and other unprofessional ways.
Trainee receptivity relates to the intentions with which the trainees attend the training or their initial interest and motivation. On the criteria of initial interest and motivation, the trainees may be classified into 3 proto-types. Some of the trainees may consider training period as an unpleasant phase they have to pass through before occupying the chair of power and position, a necessary evil, so to say put up with. These people belong to the first category of ‘Fatalists’. Others may view training as a period of relaxation, recreation and recuperation, after passing through the ordeals of academic life and preparations for examinations of cut-throat competition which almost puts any one in an inescapable rat race. These people belong to the second category of ‘Tired Travelers’ who take rest on the way. There are others who have the right notion of training as an opportunity for self development and professional preparation. They may be called as ‘Knowledge Seekers’.
The attitudes of the trainees towards the training situation depend upon categories to which they belong to. The first category of trainees (or Fatalists) would consider training as a necessary evil. They would want the training to be over soon. They may join the course late, may avail leave in between and during the course period they may attend personal matters. They take their stay in the training center as a convenient time to attend to their personal work, as there is no interference with their job or family duties. What they expect from the training faculty is to be soft with them, appreciate their needs and accommodate them. The trainers can easily win their good will if they can be lenient in their approach. The second group of ‘Tired Travelers’ tend to be pleasure seekers, being obviously tired, they seek rest, relaxation and comforts. They expect the best possible accommodation and excellent service which make their stay comfortable. They also expect them to be entertained during training sessions. They want to leave the class room with a pleasant feeling of entertainment, as experienced after seeing an interesting ‘movie’. When the trainees develop these kinds of expectations, the possibility of their showing initial motivation and interest in learning and for assuming self-responsibility for learning is remote.
The last category of ‘Knowledge Seekers’ are concerned with the benefits they derive from the training programmes for their professional development. They show diligence. They are hard working and realize their responsibility as trainees.
The first two proto-types of trainees should be changed into the third type, atleast to some extent by training institutions before the commencement of the training programmes through a planned programme of initiation and induction. Certain amount of self-discipline on their part and self-induced motivation and receptivity for training should be developed.
The self-induced responsibility for learning can also be encouraged by asking the trainees to indicate what they have learned from each session and by asking them to prepare brief notes of the lectures for submission. These notes should be evaluated to find out the extent to which trainees have applied their minds, have grasped the ideas and retained them. In contrast to this type of course evaluation, when the trainees are asked about their opinions regarding the lectures, usefulness of the information etc., they may express their opinions without assuming personal responsibility or without owning up their comments.
REFERENCES
1. Cheenuru Anjaneya Reddy, Whither Professional Civil servants The Hindu, Sep, 11th 1983 p. 17.
For further Reading
Saxena, A.P.(ed) Training in Government – objectives and opportunities, New Delhi, Indian Institute of Public Administration, 1985.
19 May 2006
Emerging challenges in Human Resource Management
If we want to understand the emerging challenges in the human resources management, it is perhaps necessary to develop a perspective of the new situation which organizations might have to face in future. Some of these changes are clearly discernible, while others show clear evidence of their probable occurrence.
Approaches to Human Resources Management are not static, in the sense that they are made one time and hold good forever, on the other hand, they are dynamic. They undergo systematic changes to meet the requirements that crop up in the future. The techniques that worked well in the past may not work well in the present and those which are operationally effective currently may need realignment to cope with future needs.
Anticipating possible changes and new requirements of the future and making prior preparations are always better strategy than waiting for the changes to catch us unaware, or remaining in complacency or involving in what is termed as ‘fire fighting’. Thus in the area of human resources management the practitioners should have futuristic-orientation as in the case of other functional areas, such as technology forecast, investment decisions, market analysis etc.
The fact that future may pose totally new problems due to different kind of changes and pressures in the business environment and that the current strategies may prove inadequate, bring us to the awareness of so called ‘Emerging challenges in Human Resource Management’.
Emerging challenges assume the form of the need to deal with emerging problems in the area of Personal Management and Industrial Relations in the coming decade. In order to understand the emerging challenges in the management of Human Resources, it is perhaps necessary to survey, understand and predict changes in the following sub-environments of the total environment within which Business and Industry operate, adopting ‘Systems Approach’
Technological Developments (Technological Revolution)
This includes growth in size and complexities of organizations and automation, including computerization. It is necessary to examine (a) how technological developments affects the design of jobs in terms of changing pattern of educational skill requirements, organizational structure performance control, etc, and the implication of these on techniques like personnel recruitment, selection, job analysis, job evaluation, developing compensation plans, developing appraisal systems and task structuring and (b) the strategies in the introduction and management of technological changes to secure the vital employee acceptance of the programme and productivity of the enterprise.
Changes in the Economic Environment
This includes examination of the impact of a number of factors on production. Some of the key factors are the scarcity of raw materials and other inputs including power and electricity, encouragement of the culture of consumerism, increasing consumer awareness and demand for quality products, continuing upward trend in the inflationary pressures with decrease in the purchasing power of rupee and its spiraling effects in the ever increasing aspirations of workers for higher wages and other material benefits and mounting costs on the employee welfare and other benefits.
In an inflationary economy, the resources tend to become scarce and the costs of machine, materials and labour multiply. These push up the capital and running costs.
The import of foreign technology experiences heavy constrains due to adverse balance of payments and this generates further pressure in developing indigenous technology.
The escalation in the cost of production per unit which is expected to continue at much faster rate in the coming decade than it is today may keep the managers under tremendous pressure to utilize the human resources in judicious combination with other physical resources, particularly when the human factor is singularly potent in making the other inputs work. It is known that at the end of all the technological innovations, the factors that make or mar productivity are the human factors and hence in any productivity programme it assumes greater importance.
Changes in the Legal Environment
It includes Industrial Relations and Employee Welfare Polices of our Government, which are enforced through a plethora of legislative measures.
Changes in the Socio-Cultural expectations of the work force
These include changes in the compositions of work force in terms of their education, social background, roots in urban setting and exposure to larger democratic culture of our country, all of which bring about changes in their expectations, attitudes and value-orientations which have bearing on the approaches to Human Resources Management.
Technological Revolution :
Strong winds of changing technology in several fields are clearly noticeable with the advent of the so called ‘Electronic Revolution’. The electronic wonder-the ‘microchip’ is indeed creating quiet but sweeping changes. Computers have become smaller and smaller. The personnel computers have started invading executive desks Micro Processor-based controls are increasingly being introduced in industry in regulating processes for ensuing quality and productivity.
Numerically controlled precision machine tools are fast replacing the traditional type of human operations and the conventional machine tools. Computers are introduced in offices and industrial organizations for several purposes, like production planning, control, marketing, financial analysis and so on. Robots are entering industry in a big way due to Japanese lead. The use of communication satellites have opened up a new international communication order. One of the latest developments in communication technology which is now available to our executives is ‘Tele Conference’. With the help of this facility executives in different organizations from far away can convene conference and exchange ideas without having to move from their personal executive environs and without wasting time and energy in jet travel. Office systems, like word processors are fast replacing the conventional equipments and styles of work. This view is also, shared by another Management Expert Thomas W.Gill. He says machines will soon take over all the routine clerical work, acting as clerical steam shovels…, keeping records will be done once. Personnel information will be recorded and stored in machines and print-outs from the machines will satisfy all the reporting needs.
What are the impact of these changes on the organization, its structure and jobs and in turn the patern of skill requirements, style of management and new conduct and discipline on the part of employees? Some of tose are;
Upgrading of the Skills at Lower Levels :
The technology brings in its wake the need for correspondingly higher human skills to handle them. For instance, there is need for higher skills and intelligence to operate a numerically controlled machine than is required to man a conventional one.
The need for increasing degree of mental application :
Developing a sense of urgency and sense of reciprocal understanding or roles and the need for increased team spirit and technical-orientation becomes a necessity.
Referring to the consequences of technological changes in the form of computerization ‘Peter Ducker comments, “Old fears that automation would result in large scale unemployment have universally been disproved. Few companies that installed computer to reduce employment of clerks have realized their false expectations. Most computer users have now found that they need more and more expensive clerks, though they call them operator or programmers. All automation might do is to shift employment from fairly low paid manual jobs to much paid or professional work”. With increase in technological complexities due to anticipated technological revolution, the number of specialized jobs or staff positions may increase as opposed to line positions. The traditional pyramidal type of organization design (fraternal or centralized type) may increase as flatten at its base. In cases of R&D organizations, it may even turn into a matrix structure. In the new structure, there will be more positions, at the junior and middle level requiring specialist skills than positions, requiring standardized routine work. Again, more self responsibility, originality, innovativeness, better appreciation of time, more personal dynamism, better imagination, zest for excellence etc., will be on demand. Because of increasing number of the so-called (to use Peter Ducker’s terminology)’ ‘Knowledge workers’ and the need to operate the systems at high speed, accuracy and in unison, coordinative or collaborative efforts could also assume additional importance.
At every level, more time and energy will have to be devoted for communication with people at next lower level, involving them, showing a sense of mutual trust, confidence and respect, providing challenge and partnership and developing perceptions of common goals of organization.
Are the current personnel systems and practices adequate to meet some of the emerging demands in the management of Human Resources, as a result of the technological changes? What are the emerging challenges?
It is possible to conceive some of the new challenges. These are:
1. Identifying more precisely, than is done now, the duties, responsibilities, skills, aptitudes and work ethics that make up new jobs, by applying scientific job analysis techniques.2
Currently, jobs are not analyzed scientifically and job descriptions are not systematically developed. Many management scholars2 who studied Indian organizations have come to this conclusion. Thus, there is lot of ambiguity and conflict which are personally frustrating to employees and also organizationally unhealthy. In the new technological environment, the job incumbents will look for much more job clarity than is made available now.
2. The need to rationalize selection and recruitment procedures and employee training.
The organization will be under greater pressure to locate people with required aptitudes and skills. This is so because in a complex technology, human error is more costly than in the case of traditional technological set up. The axiom of ‘fixing the round peg in the round hole rather than ‘fixing the square peg in the round hole’ should assume added significance. Once the persons are selected carefully they also should be placed properly and should be given continuing training to update their knowledge and skills and to save them from obsolescence. Thus, proper identification of training needs and selection and development of training methodologies assume added importance. Gaps in training will immediately reflect in production, as knowledge and skills are more critical factors underlying performance.
3. The need to establish a more clear-cut link between employee performance and administration of rewards by instituting objective performance appraisal system :
The knowledge workers would expect a clearly perceivable link between their efforts (performance) and administration of rewards (salary and other monetary and non-monetary ones). In other words, they look for recognition of their efforts, in addition to clarity of goals and performance standards and operational freedom. This can be achieved through the use of scientifically developed system of Performance Appraisal. Currently, the Practice of Appraisal used in many Indian organizations require improvement. In many organizations, the discredited system of C.R. (Confidential Records) is still in vogue. As the information from systematic appraisal is not use in salary administration, the salary differentials do not generally reflect differentials in responsibilities, skills etc., with the result that salary administration, which is one of the potent tools in the hands of management for motivating employees, does not serve its motivating function. It will be a new challenge for the personnel people to develop objective criteria of performance, particularly in the case of supervisory and executive jobs and, devise appropriate methodology for assessment, and orient all line Managers to appraise the performance of their subordinates in such a way that they are willing to improve their performance.3
4. Assisting the organization to introduce new technological changes:
To choose a new technology may be much easier than its introduction in an organization, because of possible employee-resistance. We know the cases of many industrial and business organizations in our country which met stiff opposition from the employees, when they tried to introduce computers. The resistance, top management can expect not only from the side of workers and their trade unions, but also from supervisors and executives.
The personnel functionary might have to shoulder this new responsibility of assisting the organizations in the introduction of technological changes by helping the organization in instituting a decentralized and participative set up. In such a set up, the employees should be involved in planning and introduction of technological changes, which ensures their commitment. An all India study of Personnel functions by Joseph4 reveals that legal and administrative duties of labour administration constitute larger part of personnel functions in Indian organizations today. Of course, the administrative and legal duties may demand considerable part of the time and efforts of Personnel functionaries. In addition, the future will make demand on them for exercising their professional skills in other areas most relevant from the point of Human Resource utilization. They will have to help different Management levels o shift their value- orientations from “Authoritarianism” and “Bureaucracy”, which are rather deep rooted in our Industrial culture to “Equalitarianism” and train middle and lower level employees to take full advantage of permissiveness with achievement – orientation, efficiency consciousness and accountability. They will have to plan new strategies for keeping employee ‘morale’ and ‘motivation’ relatively high, continuously monitor their levels and do systematic human asset accounting. In future, share holders and even the enlightened general public might expect statements from the Top Managements what they did to appreciate the value of human capital not only in terms of upgrading technical skills but also in terms of fostering supportive and motivational climate, as a part of their Annual Budget Statements.
With the complexities in technology, the human will and potential assume more importance. Realization of this spirit is found in the so called ‘Japanese Style” of Management. Organizations rely heavily on the potentialities of their employees and give them the highest place in production. They do not consider them as just factors in production. They provide them with an environment conducive for production. They provide them with an environment conducive for productivity and enriching quality of work experience. Many of their personnel practices such as ‘Team Approach to work’, ‘Informal Task-related Interaction’, ‘Emphasis on Productivity goals’, ‘organisation’s extended interest in the family of employees’ are and reflections of psychological and sociological principles of effective group functioning .In others words Japanese have developed a social technology matching with scientific technology.
Thus, Personnel functions are going to be all pervasive and touch upon all levels of human interaction such as at the shop floor level, union management level and within and between groups. Wherever people work together for a common goal, the personnel people will have to play a role in cementing human relationships. The personnel people in discharging their functions may have to do a ‘tight rope walking’, because they have to convince their top bosses about the need for changeover of the organizational culture from pyramidal to one of participation. This in the short run appear to erode their privilege to manage, and hence they may not be hostile to the idea. Sometimes, the Personnel Managers may have to incur their wrath unless the situations are handled wisely.
Again, democratizing the work culture is not a ‘panacea’ for all organizational evils. De-centralisation of the internal structure in response to external pressure for democratization may not be economically productive. It can even be counter productive. Thus, along with democratization, there is need to develop a sense of accountability, and productivity and quality consciousness by introducing appropriate practices such as goal setting, work planning, review, etc., These can often pose additional challenges.
Changes in the Economic and Legal Environments:
The cost of production goes up due to increase in the cost of inputs and wage bills, both of which are due to inflationary pressures in the economy. The expenditure on wages and other welfare benefits have been going up over the last several years, due to new concessions granted by the Government to the workmen and also due to increase in the bargaining power of the unions supported by labour-oriented polices of Government.
Jagadeesh, former N.I.P.M. President in his address at Mysore pointed out that “unions are getting more and more benefits like employment security, employment to their family members, wage increases, free lunch, free shoes, free polish, more and more number of holidays etc. with no proportionate return in the form of increased productivity.” He joked “Unions are always worried as to what to ask?” It is true. To check this money culture, the supervisors can perhaps involve the shop floor workers for better understanding and handling of the situations, in the sense that many of the external forces working in the minds of the workers such as shortages, inflation, etc., will have to be emphasized so that the workers start appreciating the realities and make healthy compromise. Again, the employees have absolute security of employment. The Management cannot take the workers into task easily when they neglect their work, Mr. Jagadesh in this address referred to above, quoted the case of an employee in one of the leading South Indian Banks in Calcutta who stood stark naked before his officers when he was interrogated for his misconduct. Assaulting superior officers by their subordinate staff for initiating action against gross indiscipline is not uncommon. Even the disciplinary procedures at the officer’s level are so legally involved that these officers enjoy absolute security of their positions. The senior author knows a situation in which a middle level executive gheraoed his immediate superior. The Managing Director had to intervene as a peacemaker and well wisher of both parties and patch up the differences. It may be true that it is easier for a manager to get rid of ‘his wife’ than to get of ‘his problem employee’.
The above trends may continue in future, perhaps with added momentum. These changes may have the following implications :
The Management cannot easily take punitive disciplinary action against workers for misconduct or to get from them a fair day’s work.
Because of mounting costs of production, the Managers will be under pressure to realize employee productivity.
The Management cannot expect much support from the Government either in conciliation or in arbitration to settle the disputes in their favour, because of its pro-labour oriented polices. These conditions will force the Management to re-orient itself in regard to industrial relations. They may have to avoid confrontational and legalistic approach to Industrial relations, accept and practice an approach characterized by ethics of collaboration, openness and trust between the two parties. Collective bargaining would no longer be looked upon as an arena to test the strength of the parties. Again, Industrial relations and personnel functions should not be narrowed down to the process of distributing monitory concessions across the bargaining table via union leaders. Thus, it will be one of future challenges for the personnel people to enable the organization to take a more comprehensive view (the so called ‘process view’) of Industrial Relations. Industrial Relations setting will have to be considered as opportunity no longer to be looked upon as an arena for testing the bargaining strength of the two parites. It should be viewed as an occasion for resolving conflicts and developing a sense of collaboration, mutual trust and reciprocity between the two parties. The relationships should be developed at every focal point of interaction such as shop floor participation, Participatory Forums like ‘Work Committees’, and J.M.Cs, Grievance Machinery’, collective bargaining, Disciplinary Procedures, etc. When the Management cannot relay on the external agencies for support in conflict resolution, they have to depend upon their own internal resources to resolve the conflicts constructively. The managements will be under greater pressure to run joint councils including collective bargaining effectively and solve the disputes internally without referring to a third party and also to use those forums for developing a sense of employee commitment to organizational goals. If the mechanism of collective bargaining fails, government’s intervention either in the form of conciliation or arbitration will assume greater importance, detrimental to the interests of the Management. Developing new knowledge and skills regarding the group processes necessary to run joint forums and training non-personnel people and line executives in those skills are going to be new challenges in future. There is enough documentary evidence to show that the past history of the functioning of those joint forums has been far from satisfactory.
Changes in Socio-Cultural Environment:
Since independence, there has been gradual but steady changes in the Socio-cultural background of the work force. These changes have affected people both at operative and executive levels. The gap between the Socio-cultural expectations of employees and organizational opportunities for fulfillment has resulted in mounting frustrations among them. A manifestation of this frustration at the junior and middle Management levels, which we find today, is their tendency to organize for collective action. Recent years have been witnessing the growth and proliferation of ‘Unions’ among Managers. Due to certain legal constraints and also for want of legal protection under Industrial Relations legislation, these organizations exist under the cover as Guilds, Associations, Federations etc., otherwise as ‘Karnik’ points out ‘they are new unions’. These Associations have assumed the feature of conventional unions such as their bargaining character, allegiance to other sub-groups than to their total organization, seeking environmental and political support, confronting attitudes towards their top managements, lack of cooperation among organizational members, lack of commitment to work and so on. The contesting behaviour between Top Management and the Managerial Associations have precipitated several problems in many public undertakings in India. In certain undertakings the relationships between Top Management and Associations have assumed the form of open conflict. The Top Managements in public undertakings are now faced with the problem of evolving a policy in dealing with Managerial Associations. Examination of certain current practices reveal that ‘adhocism’ prevails in dealing with Managerial Associations.6
The discontent among the employees is expressed in their work behaviour characterized by apathy, lack of result-orientation, lack of responsibility, sense of alienation, rigidity, excessive rule-orientation, resistance to change and unreasonable demands.
One could expect that the tendency on the part of higher level staff for collective action will gain momentum in times to come. It will be a new challenge on the part of the management to deal with this problem. The personnel functionaries may have to share larger responsibility in the management of managerial unions as also to revitalize the internal organizational environment in such a way that it provides a kind of satisfaction the executives are looking for and are currently lacking.
In conclusions, as one could see from the previous discussions, the new challenges in the area of personnel functions will largely be of two types: (1) Expansion of Role Boundaries of Personnel Functions and (2) Enriched professionalism.
Expansion of Role Boundaries
Pre-occupation with the administrative and legalistic duties of Personnel function will progressively give way to more in-depth professional work, intervention and application in such areas as scientific selection, placement, training, job analysis and work design, institutionalization of participatory forums and compensation plans with special reference to linking rewards to productivity. Other productivity oriented techniques in demand would be those like M.B.O., Zero defect, Quality circles, introduction of Scientific Performance Appraisal System, revitalization of internal structure and processes, new strategies of Conflict Resolution and other organizational development efforts.
In other words, Personnel Management will have a role in influencing the total organizational behaviour, taking into consideration the needs of both organization and human system.
Enriched Professionalism:
In order to meet the emerging challenges, the personnel People have to equip themselves better with skills in dealing with the human side of the enterprise. Instead of taking decisions based on manifest issues, they should be able to delve into the process level. Once they are equipped with the above skills and orientation, they will be able to develop a professional identity of their own and they would be able to go in for management applications based on Behavioural Science and Technology, which requires greater professional preparedness and attitudes conducive for continuous acquisition of new knowledge and techniques available in the field.
*************
References
1. Peter Drucker, Management in Turbulent Times – His New Guide for Managers Today. Pan Business Management Books – 1982.
2. See A.Sreekumar Menon, Job Analysis and its application, Management in Government, Vol IV No.2, July-Sept.1972; Mc Cormick, E.J., Jeanneret, R .P. and Macham, R.C.Position Analysis Questionnaire, Purdue Research Foundation, U.S.A.1969; A. Sreekumar Menon, “Organisational Climate and work Motivation” in Motivation and Organisational Effectiveness, ed.S.K.Roy and A.Sreekumar Menon, New Delhi, Shri Ram Centre for Industrial Relations, 1973, p.173-203.; Kahn, Katz and Rosenthal, Study of Organisational Ambiguity and Conflict.; Mayer, H.H.Making supervision Humane and productive in Meltzer, H.Nord, W.dD.(Eds) Making organizations Humane and productive, John Wiley, 1981,p.121; Roy, S.K., Bhargav.K, Sreekumar Menon A, Communication and Industrial Relations, unpublished consultancy Report, New Delhi, Shri Ram Centre for Industrial Relations: A.Sreekumar Menon. Leadership and Effective Performance. New Delhi, Shri Centre for Industrial Relations, 1975.
3. To get more comprehensive view of how performance appraisal affects human resource utilization, see the article Performance
Appraisal by A.Sree Kumar Menon published in the Souvenir of the Mysore Chapter of N.I.P.M.1982.
4. K.K.Joseph. Personnel Management in Indian-A survey.
5. Karnik, V.B.-Unions of salaried and professional employees”, in “Indian Labour Problems and prospects. New Delhi, March, 1974.
6. For more detailed discussions of ‘Managerial Unions’, see A.Sreekumar Menon Managerial Unions in Indian Business and Industry, and its Management, Lok Udyog, Mar.1975. A.Sreekumar Menon. Managerial Unionism in Indian Industry, A case In Suri G.K. & Bhargav, K. Case problems in Industrial Relations, New Delhi, Shri Ram Centre for Industrial Relations, 1975; Sharu S. Ranganekar, Middle management in search of an identity-paper published in the proceedings of the conference-cum-seminar of Officers Organisation. Bombay, June, 1973. Dayal Ishwar and Sharma, Baldev. Strike of supervisory staff in State Bank of India. Progressive corporation, 1971. Roy, S.K. and Sreekumar Menon, A. (eds) Motivation and Organisational Effectiveness, New Delhi, Shri Ram Centre for Industrial Relations. 1974.
7. For a detailed discussion of O.D. Techniques see: Wendell L.French and Cecil H; Bell J.R. organizational Development – Behavioral science intervensions for organization improvement. Prentice Hall, 1978,; (2) Dayal, Ishwar, Bennis Warren and De, Nitish. Readings in Group Development.
-----------------------
Approaches to Human Resources Management are not static, in the sense that they are made one time and hold good forever, on the other hand, they are dynamic. They undergo systematic changes to meet the requirements that crop up in the future. The techniques that worked well in the past may not work well in the present and those which are operationally effective currently may need realignment to cope with future needs.
Anticipating possible changes and new requirements of the future and making prior preparations are always better strategy than waiting for the changes to catch us unaware, or remaining in complacency or involving in what is termed as ‘fire fighting’. Thus in the area of human resources management the practitioners should have futuristic-orientation as in the case of other functional areas, such as technology forecast, investment decisions, market analysis etc.
The fact that future may pose totally new problems due to different kind of changes and pressures in the business environment and that the current strategies may prove inadequate, bring us to the awareness of so called ‘Emerging challenges in Human Resource Management’.
Emerging challenges assume the form of the need to deal with emerging problems in the area of Personal Management and Industrial Relations in the coming decade. In order to understand the emerging challenges in the management of Human Resources, it is perhaps necessary to survey, understand and predict changes in the following sub-environments of the total environment within which Business and Industry operate, adopting ‘Systems Approach’
Technological Developments (Technological Revolution)
This includes growth in size and complexities of organizations and automation, including computerization. It is necessary to examine (a) how technological developments affects the design of jobs in terms of changing pattern of educational skill requirements, organizational structure performance control, etc, and the implication of these on techniques like personnel recruitment, selection, job analysis, job evaluation, developing compensation plans, developing appraisal systems and task structuring and (b) the strategies in the introduction and management of technological changes to secure the vital employee acceptance of the programme and productivity of the enterprise.
Changes in the Economic Environment
This includes examination of the impact of a number of factors on production. Some of the key factors are the scarcity of raw materials and other inputs including power and electricity, encouragement of the culture of consumerism, increasing consumer awareness and demand for quality products, continuing upward trend in the inflationary pressures with decrease in the purchasing power of rupee and its spiraling effects in the ever increasing aspirations of workers for higher wages and other material benefits and mounting costs on the employee welfare and other benefits.
In an inflationary economy, the resources tend to become scarce and the costs of machine, materials and labour multiply. These push up the capital and running costs.
The import of foreign technology experiences heavy constrains due to adverse balance of payments and this generates further pressure in developing indigenous technology.
The escalation in the cost of production per unit which is expected to continue at much faster rate in the coming decade than it is today may keep the managers under tremendous pressure to utilize the human resources in judicious combination with other physical resources, particularly when the human factor is singularly potent in making the other inputs work. It is known that at the end of all the technological innovations, the factors that make or mar productivity are the human factors and hence in any productivity programme it assumes greater importance.
Changes in the Legal Environment
It includes Industrial Relations and Employee Welfare Polices of our Government, which are enforced through a plethora of legislative measures.
Changes in the Socio-Cultural expectations of the work force
These include changes in the compositions of work force in terms of their education, social background, roots in urban setting and exposure to larger democratic culture of our country, all of which bring about changes in their expectations, attitudes and value-orientations which have bearing on the approaches to Human Resources Management.
Technological Revolution :
Strong winds of changing technology in several fields are clearly noticeable with the advent of the so called ‘Electronic Revolution’. The electronic wonder-the ‘microchip’ is indeed creating quiet but sweeping changes. Computers have become smaller and smaller. The personnel computers have started invading executive desks Micro Processor-based controls are increasingly being introduced in industry in regulating processes for ensuing quality and productivity.
Numerically controlled precision machine tools are fast replacing the traditional type of human operations and the conventional machine tools. Computers are introduced in offices and industrial organizations for several purposes, like production planning, control, marketing, financial analysis and so on. Robots are entering industry in a big way due to Japanese lead. The use of communication satellites have opened up a new international communication order. One of the latest developments in communication technology which is now available to our executives is ‘Tele Conference’. With the help of this facility executives in different organizations from far away can convene conference and exchange ideas without having to move from their personal executive environs and without wasting time and energy in jet travel. Office systems, like word processors are fast replacing the conventional equipments and styles of work. This view is also, shared by another Management Expert Thomas W.Gill. He says machines will soon take over all the routine clerical work, acting as clerical steam shovels…, keeping records will be done once. Personnel information will be recorded and stored in machines and print-outs from the machines will satisfy all the reporting needs.
What are the impact of these changes on the organization, its structure and jobs and in turn the patern of skill requirements, style of management and new conduct and discipline on the part of employees? Some of tose are;
Upgrading of the Skills at Lower Levels :
The technology brings in its wake the need for correspondingly higher human skills to handle them. For instance, there is need for higher skills and intelligence to operate a numerically controlled machine than is required to man a conventional one.
The need for increasing degree of mental application :
Developing a sense of urgency and sense of reciprocal understanding or roles and the need for increased team spirit and technical-orientation becomes a necessity.
Referring to the consequences of technological changes in the form of computerization ‘Peter Ducker comments, “Old fears that automation would result in large scale unemployment have universally been disproved. Few companies that installed computer to reduce employment of clerks have realized their false expectations. Most computer users have now found that they need more and more expensive clerks, though they call them operator or programmers. All automation might do is to shift employment from fairly low paid manual jobs to much paid or professional work”. With increase in technological complexities due to anticipated technological revolution, the number of specialized jobs or staff positions may increase as opposed to line positions. The traditional pyramidal type of organization design (fraternal or centralized type) may increase as flatten at its base. In cases of R&D organizations, it may even turn into a matrix structure. In the new structure, there will be more positions, at the junior and middle level requiring specialist skills than positions, requiring standardized routine work. Again, more self responsibility, originality, innovativeness, better appreciation of time, more personal dynamism, better imagination, zest for excellence etc., will be on demand. Because of increasing number of the so-called (to use Peter Ducker’s terminology)’ ‘Knowledge workers’ and the need to operate the systems at high speed, accuracy and in unison, coordinative or collaborative efforts could also assume additional importance.
At every level, more time and energy will have to be devoted for communication with people at next lower level, involving them, showing a sense of mutual trust, confidence and respect, providing challenge and partnership and developing perceptions of common goals of organization.
Are the current personnel systems and practices adequate to meet some of the emerging demands in the management of Human Resources, as a result of the technological changes? What are the emerging challenges?
It is possible to conceive some of the new challenges. These are:
1. Identifying more precisely, than is done now, the duties, responsibilities, skills, aptitudes and work ethics that make up new jobs, by applying scientific job analysis techniques.2
Currently, jobs are not analyzed scientifically and job descriptions are not systematically developed. Many management scholars2 who studied Indian organizations have come to this conclusion. Thus, there is lot of ambiguity and conflict which are personally frustrating to employees and also organizationally unhealthy. In the new technological environment, the job incumbents will look for much more job clarity than is made available now.
2. The need to rationalize selection and recruitment procedures and employee training.
The organization will be under greater pressure to locate people with required aptitudes and skills. This is so because in a complex technology, human error is more costly than in the case of traditional technological set up. The axiom of ‘fixing the round peg in the round hole rather than ‘fixing the square peg in the round hole’ should assume added significance. Once the persons are selected carefully they also should be placed properly and should be given continuing training to update their knowledge and skills and to save them from obsolescence. Thus, proper identification of training needs and selection and development of training methodologies assume added importance. Gaps in training will immediately reflect in production, as knowledge and skills are more critical factors underlying performance.
3. The need to establish a more clear-cut link between employee performance and administration of rewards by instituting objective performance appraisal system :
The knowledge workers would expect a clearly perceivable link between their efforts (performance) and administration of rewards (salary and other monetary and non-monetary ones). In other words, they look for recognition of their efforts, in addition to clarity of goals and performance standards and operational freedom. This can be achieved through the use of scientifically developed system of Performance Appraisal. Currently, the Practice of Appraisal used in many Indian organizations require improvement. In many organizations, the discredited system of C.R. (Confidential Records) is still in vogue. As the information from systematic appraisal is not use in salary administration, the salary differentials do not generally reflect differentials in responsibilities, skills etc., with the result that salary administration, which is one of the potent tools in the hands of management for motivating employees, does not serve its motivating function. It will be a new challenge for the personnel people to develop objective criteria of performance, particularly in the case of supervisory and executive jobs and, devise appropriate methodology for assessment, and orient all line Managers to appraise the performance of their subordinates in such a way that they are willing to improve their performance.3
4. Assisting the organization to introduce new technological changes:
To choose a new technology may be much easier than its introduction in an organization, because of possible employee-resistance. We know the cases of many industrial and business organizations in our country which met stiff opposition from the employees, when they tried to introduce computers. The resistance, top management can expect not only from the side of workers and their trade unions, but also from supervisors and executives.
The personnel functionary might have to shoulder this new responsibility of assisting the organizations in the introduction of technological changes by helping the organization in instituting a decentralized and participative set up. In such a set up, the employees should be involved in planning and introduction of technological changes, which ensures their commitment. An all India study of Personnel functions by Joseph4 reveals that legal and administrative duties of labour administration constitute larger part of personnel functions in Indian organizations today. Of course, the administrative and legal duties may demand considerable part of the time and efforts of Personnel functionaries. In addition, the future will make demand on them for exercising their professional skills in other areas most relevant from the point of Human Resource utilization. They will have to help different Management levels o shift their value- orientations from “Authoritarianism” and “Bureaucracy”, which are rather deep rooted in our Industrial culture to “Equalitarianism” and train middle and lower level employees to take full advantage of permissiveness with achievement – orientation, efficiency consciousness and accountability. They will have to plan new strategies for keeping employee ‘morale’ and ‘motivation’ relatively high, continuously monitor their levels and do systematic human asset accounting. In future, share holders and even the enlightened general public might expect statements from the Top Managements what they did to appreciate the value of human capital not only in terms of upgrading technical skills but also in terms of fostering supportive and motivational climate, as a part of their Annual Budget Statements.
With the complexities in technology, the human will and potential assume more importance. Realization of this spirit is found in the so called ‘Japanese Style” of Management. Organizations rely heavily on the potentialities of their employees and give them the highest place in production. They do not consider them as just factors in production. They provide them with an environment conducive for production. They provide them with an environment conducive for productivity and enriching quality of work experience. Many of their personnel practices such as ‘Team Approach to work’, ‘Informal Task-related Interaction’, ‘Emphasis on Productivity goals’, ‘organisation’s extended interest in the family of employees’ are and reflections of psychological and sociological principles of effective group functioning .In others words Japanese have developed a social technology matching with scientific technology.
Thus, Personnel functions are going to be all pervasive and touch upon all levels of human interaction such as at the shop floor level, union management level and within and between groups. Wherever people work together for a common goal, the personnel people will have to play a role in cementing human relationships. The personnel people in discharging their functions may have to do a ‘tight rope walking’, because they have to convince their top bosses about the need for changeover of the organizational culture from pyramidal to one of participation. This in the short run appear to erode their privilege to manage, and hence they may not be hostile to the idea. Sometimes, the Personnel Managers may have to incur their wrath unless the situations are handled wisely.
Again, democratizing the work culture is not a ‘panacea’ for all organizational evils. De-centralisation of the internal structure in response to external pressure for democratization may not be economically productive. It can even be counter productive. Thus, along with democratization, there is need to develop a sense of accountability, and productivity and quality consciousness by introducing appropriate practices such as goal setting, work planning, review, etc., These can often pose additional challenges.
Changes in the Economic and Legal Environments:
The cost of production goes up due to increase in the cost of inputs and wage bills, both of which are due to inflationary pressures in the economy. The expenditure on wages and other welfare benefits have been going up over the last several years, due to new concessions granted by the Government to the workmen and also due to increase in the bargaining power of the unions supported by labour-oriented polices of Government.
Jagadeesh, former N.I.P.M. President in his address at Mysore pointed out that “unions are getting more and more benefits like employment security, employment to their family members, wage increases, free lunch, free shoes, free polish, more and more number of holidays etc. with no proportionate return in the form of increased productivity.” He joked “Unions are always worried as to what to ask?” It is true. To check this money culture, the supervisors can perhaps involve the shop floor workers for better understanding and handling of the situations, in the sense that many of the external forces working in the minds of the workers such as shortages, inflation, etc., will have to be emphasized so that the workers start appreciating the realities and make healthy compromise. Again, the employees have absolute security of employment. The Management cannot take the workers into task easily when they neglect their work, Mr. Jagadesh in this address referred to above, quoted the case of an employee in one of the leading South Indian Banks in Calcutta who stood stark naked before his officers when he was interrogated for his misconduct. Assaulting superior officers by their subordinate staff for initiating action against gross indiscipline is not uncommon. Even the disciplinary procedures at the officer’s level are so legally involved that these officers enjoy absolute security of their positions. The senior author knows a situation in which a middle level executive gheraoed his immediate superior. The Managing Director had to intervene as a peacemaker and well wisher of both parties and patch up the differences. It may be true that it is easier for a manager to get rid of ‘his wife’ than to get of ‘his problem employee’.
The above trends may continue in future, perhaps with added momentum. These changes may have the following implications :
The Management cannot easily take punitive disciplinary action against workers for misconduct or to get from them a fair day’s work.
Because of mounting costs of production, the Managers will be under pressure to realize employee productivity.
The Management cannot expect much support from the Government either in conciliation or in arbitration to settle the disputes in their favour, because of its pro-labour oriented polices. These conditions will force the Management to re-orient itself in regard to industrial relations. They may have to avoid confrontational and legalistic approach to Industrial relations, accept and practice an approach characterized by ethics of collaboration, openness and trust between the two parties. Collective bargaining would no longer be looked upon as an arena to test the strength of the parties. Again, Industrial relations and personnel functions should not be narrowed down to the process of distributing monitory concessions across the bargaining table via union leaders. Thus, it will be one of future challenges for the personnel people to enable the organization to take a more comprehensive view (the so called ‘process view’) of Industrial Relations. Industrial Relations setting will have to be considered as opportunity no longer to be looked upon as an arena for testing the bargaining strength of the two parites. It should be viewed as an occasion for resolving conflicts and developing a sense of collaboration, mutual trust and reciprocity between the two parties. The relationships should be developed at every focal point of interaction such as shop floor participation, Participatory Forums like ‘Work Committees’, and J.M.Cs, Grievance Machinery’, collective bargaining, Disciplinary Procedures, etc. When the Management cannot relay on the external agencies for support in conflict resolution, they have to depend upon their own internal resources to resolve the conflicts constructively. The managements will be under greater pressure to run joint councils including collective bargaining effectively and solve the disputes internally without referring to a third party and also to use those forums for developing a sense of employee commitment to organizational goals. If the mechanism of collective bargaining fails, government’s intervention either in the form of conciliation or arbitration will assume greater importance, detrimental to the interests of the Management. Developing new knowledge and skills regarding the group processes necessary to run joint forums and training non-personnel people and line executives in those skills are going to be new challenges in future. There is enough documentary evidence to show that the past history of the functioning of those joint forums has been far from satisfactory.
Changes in Socio-Cultural Environment:
Since independence, there has been gradual but steady changes in the Socio-cultural background of the work force. These changes have affected people both at operative and executive levels. The gap between the Socio-cultural expectations of employees and organizational opportunities for fulfillment has resulted in mounting frustrations among them. A manifestation of this frustration at the junior and middle Management levels, which we find today, is their tendency to organize for collective action. Recent years have been witnessing the growth and proliferation of ‘Unions’ among Managers. Due to certain legal constraints and also for want of legal protection under Industrial Relations legislation, these organizations exist under the cover as Guilds, Associations, Federations etc., otherwise as ‘Karnik’ points out ‘they are new unions’. These Associations have assumed the feature of conventional unions such as their bargaining character, allegiance to other sub-groups than to their total organization, seeking environmental and political support, confronting attitudes towards their top managements, lack of cooperation among organizational members, lack of commitment to work and so on. The contesting behaviour between Top Management and the Managerial Associations have precipitated several problems in many public undertakings in India. In certain undertakings the relationships between Top Management and Associations have assumed the form of open conflict. The Top Managements in public undertakings are now faced with the problem of evolving a policy in dealing with Managerial Associations. Examination of certain current practices reveal that ‘adhocism’ prevails in dealing with Managerial Associations.6
The discontent among the employees is expressed in their work behaviour characterized by apathy, lack of result-orientation, lack of responsibility, sense of alienation, rigidity, excessive rule-orientation, resistance to change and unreasonable demands.
One could expect that the tendency on the part of higher level staff for collective action will gain momentum in times to come. It will be a new challenge on the part of the management to deal with this problem. The personnel functionaries may have to share larger responsibility in the management of managerial unions as also to revitalize the internal organizational environment in such a way that it provides a kind of satisfaction the executives are looking for and are currently lacking.
In conclusions, as one could see from the previous discussions, the new challenges in the area of personnel functions will largely be of two types: (1) Expansion of Role Boundaries of Personnel Functions and (2) Enriched professionalism.
Expansion of Role Boundaries
Pre-occupation with the administrative and legalistic duties of Personnel function will progressively give way to more in-depth professional work, intervention and application in such areas as scientific selection, placement, training, job analysis and work design, institutionalization of participatory forums and compensation plans with special reference to linking rewards to productivity. Other productivity oriented techniques in demand would be those like M.B.O., Zero defect, Quality circles, introduction of Scientific Performance Appraisal System, revitalization of internal structure and processes, new strategies of Conflict Resolution and other organizational development efforts.
In other words, Personnel Management will have a role in influencing the total organizational behaviour, taking into consideration the needs of both organization and human system.
Enriched Professionalism:
In order to meet the emerging challenges, the personnel People have to equip themselves better with skills in dealing with the human side of the enterprise. Instead of taking decisions based on manifest issues, they should be able to delve into the process level. Once they are equipped with the above skills and orientation, they will be able to develop a professional identity of their own and they would be able to go in for management applications based on Behavioural Science and Technology, which requires greater professional preparedness and attitudes conducive for continuous acquisition of new knowledge and techniques available in the field.
*************
References
1. Peter Drucker, Management in Turbulent Times – His New Guide for Managers Today. Pan Business Management Books – 1982.
2. See A.Sreekumar Menon, Job Analysis and its application, Management in Government, Vol IV No.2, July-Sept.1972; Mc Cormick, E.J., Jeanneret, R .P. and Macham, R.C.Position Analysis Questionnaire, Purdue Research Foundation, U.S.A.1969; A. Sreekumar Menon, “Organisational Climate and work Motivation” in Motivation and Organisational Effectiveness, ed.S.K.Roy and A.Sreekumar Menon, New Delhi, Shri Ram Centre for Industrial Relations, 1973, p.173-203.; Kahn, Katz and Rosenthal, Study of Organisational Ambiguity and Conflict.; Mayer, H.H.Making supervision Humane and productive in Meltzer, H.Nord, W.dD.(Eds) Making organizations Humane and productive, John Wiley, 1981,p.121; Roy, S.K., Bhargav.K, Sreekumar Menon A, Communication and Industrial Relations, unpublished consultancy Report, New Delhi, Shri Ram Centre for Industrial Relations: A.Sreekumar Menon. Leadership and Effective Performance. New Delhi, Shri Centre for Industrial Relations, 1975.
3. To get more comprehensive view of how performance appraisal affects human resource utilization, see the article Performance
Appraisal by A.Sree Kumar Menon published in the Souvenir of the Mysore Chapter of N.I.P.M.1982.
4. K.K.Joseph. Personnel Management in Indian-A survey.
5. Karnik, V.B.-Unions of salaried and professional employees”, in “Indian Labour Problems and prospects. New Delhi, March, 1974.
6. For more detailed discussions of ‘Managerial Unions’, see A.Sreekumar Menon Managerial Unions in Indian Business and Industry, and its Management, Lok Udyog, Mar.1975. A.Sreekumar Menon. Managerial Unionism in Indian Industry, A case In Suri G.K. & Bhargav, K. Case problems in Industrial Relations, New Delhi, Shri Ram Centre for Industrial Relations, 1975; Sharu S. Ranganekar, Middle management in search of an identity-paper published in the proceedings of the conference-cum-seminar of Officers Organisation. Bombay, June, 1973. Dayal Ishwar and Sharma, Baldev. Strike of supervisory staff in State Bank of India. Progressive corporation, 1971. Roy, S.K. and Sreekumar Menon, A. (eds) Motivation and Organisational Effectiveness, New Delhi, Shri Ram Centre for Industrial Relations. 1974.
7. For a detailed discussion of O.D. Techniques see: Wendell L.French and Cecil H; Bell J.R. organizational Development – Behavioral science intervensions for organization improvement. Prentice Hall, 1978,; (2) Dayal, Ishwar, Bennis Warren and De, Nitish. Readings in Group Development.
-----------------------
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)