ASSIGNMENT

Course Code : MS - 2
Course Title : Management of Human Resources
Assignement Code : MS-2 /TMA/SEM - II/2016
Coverage : All Blocks
Note: Attempt all the questions and submit this assignment on or before 31st October, 2016
to the coordinator of your study centre.
1. Explain the process of human resource planning. Describe how HR forecast is carried out
in the organisation you are working with or an organisation you are familiar with.
2. Discuss the concept of ‘competency mapping’. Explain any two methods of competency
mapping that you are familiar with citing suitable organisational examples.
3. Define training and distinguish it from learning. Assume you are responsible for training of
employees in a large organisation. Discuss how you will make training a strategic function.
Illustrate.
4. Discuss the motivational aspects of reward system in an organisation. Analyse the recent
trends in reward system in Indian organisations and suggest measures to improve.

Answer
1. Explain the process of human resource planning. Describe how HR forecast is carried out
in the organisation you are working with or an organisation you are familiar with.
Ans.: Human Resources Planning have been a function of management since the origins of
the modern industrial organization.
Human Resources planning mean different means to different organizations. To some
companies, human resources planning mean management development. It involve helping
executives to make better decisions, communicate more effectively, and know more about the
firm. The purpose to make men and women better managers. The emphasis is having current
managers who are sucked in there function and reasonably qualified for promotions. Too
frequently the acquisition and development of the skills and knowledge needed for the future
are lacking. The goal is often only to make the manager a better manager today.
Human Resources planning is a process by which management determine how the
organization should move from its current manpower position to its desired manpower
position. Through planning, management strives to have the right number and the right kinds
of people, at the right place, at the right time, doing things, which result in both organization
and the individual receiving maximum long-run benefits. It is four-phased process. The first
phase involves the gathering and analysis of data through manpower inventories and
forecasts, the second phase consist of establishing manpower objectives and policies and
gaining top management approval of these. The third phase involves designing and
implementing plans promotions to enable the organization to achieve its manpower

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objectives. The fourth phase in consumed with control and evaluation of manpower plans
sent programs to facilitate progress to benefits both the organization and the individual. The
long run view means that gains may be sacrificed in the short run for the future grounds. The
planning process enables the organization to identify what its manpower needs is and what
potential manpower problems required current action. This leads too more effectively and
efficient performance.
Objectives of the Human Resources Planning:
1. To ensure optimum use of human resources current employees.
2. To assess or forecast future skill requirement.
3. To provide control measures to ensure that necessary resources are available as when
required.
A number of specified reasons for attaching importance to manpower planning and
forecasting exercises are:
 To link manpower planning with the organizational planning
 To determine recruitment levels.
 To anticipate redundancies.
 To determine optimum training levels.
 To provide a basis for management development programs.
 To cost the manpower.
 To assist productivity bargaining.
 To assess future accommodation requirement.
 To study the cost of overheads and value of service functions.
 To decide whether certain activity needs to be subcontracted, etc.
The HR forecasts in responsible for estimating number of people and the jobs needed by an
organization to achieve its objectives and realize its plans are time in the most efficient and
effective manner possible in the simplest sources, HR needs are computed by subtracting HR
supplies or numbers of the people available from expected HR demands or number of people
required to produce at a desired level. It is a strategy for acquisition, utilization, improvement
and preservation of the human resources of an enterprise. The objective is to provide right
personnel for the right work and optimum utilization of the existing human resources. HRP
exists as the part of planning process of business. This is the activity aims to coordinating
requirements for the availability of the different types of employers. The major activities are
include the forecasting, (future requirements), inventorying (present strength), anticipating
(comparison of present and future requirements) and planning (necessary program to meet the
requirements).
The objectives of human resource planning may be summarized as below:
 Forecasting Human Resources Requirements: HRP is essential to determine the
future needs of HR in an organization. In the absence of this plan it is very difficult to
provide the right kind of people at the right time.

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  Effective Management of Change: Proper planning is required to cope with changes
in the different aspects which affect the organization. These change needs
continuation of allocation/ reallocation and effective utilization of HR in organization.
 Realizing the Organizational Goals: In order to meet the expansion and other
organizational activities the organizational HR planning is essential.
 Promoting Employees: HRP gives the feedback in the form of employee data which
can be used in decision-making in promotional opportunities to be made available for
the organization.
 Effective Utilization of HR: The data base will provide the useful information in
identifying surplus and deficiency in human resources.
2. Discuss the concept of ‘competency mapping’. Explain any two methods of competency
mapping that you are familiar with citing suitable organisational examples.
Ans.: Competency mapping identifies an individual's strengths and weaknesses. The aim is to
enable the person to better understand himself or herself and to point out where career
development efforts need to be directed.
Competencies are derived from specific job families within the organization and are often
grouped around categories such as strategy, relationships, innovation, leadership, risk-taking,
decision-making, emotional intelligence, etc.
So far as the way to go about for competency mapping is concerned, the first step is job
analysis, where the company needs to list core competency requirements for the job
concerned. The next step should be development of a competency scale for the job on the
parameters previously identified.
The actual mapping of employees can be a self-done exercise or done by others like
superiors. It can also be done by using the 360-degree method where peers, first reports and
customers also rate the employee.
Competency mapping operates on the underlying principle that behavioral and knowledge
attributes can be learned, and that the behaviors and knowledge sets people outwardly exhibit
are only a small portion of the behaviors and knowledge sets that people are capable of
showing. Those who use competency mapping believe that if a person knows what
characteristics are critical to performing well in a given role or situation at work, he can work
at developing those characteristics and bringing them to the surface.
Productivity, Competition and Revenue: If a person is able to develop or exhibit more
readily desired behaviors and knowledge for a given context, in theory he can reach a higher
level of performance for that context. From the business perspective, this has an enormous,
positive implication for productivity. If productivity increases because people develop the
competencies necessary in order to succeed, a company may gain a competitive edge over
other businesses and earn more revenue.
Hiring, Fit and Retention: Competency mapping identifies the behaviors or knowledge a
person needs to develop or already have in a given job or work situation. Employers thus can
develop competency maps for each job they have in the business. During the hiring process,

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members of management can try to determine whether a specific candidate has the potential
to exhibit the behaviors and knowledge desired for the available job. This may enable the
employer to find the employee who is truly the best fit for the work. With a good fit,
employee turnover rates may go down. This means the company saves money because they
do not have to recruit and train new employees.
3. Define training and distinguish it from learning. Assume you are responsible for training of
employees in a large organisation. Discuss how you will make training a strategic function.
Illustrate.
Ans.: It's important to understand the difference between learning and training. Of course
they are inextricably linked, but they are unique aspects of any educational process. Training
is the giving of information and knowledge, through speech, the written word or other
methods of demonstration in a manner that instructs the trainee. Learning is the process of
absorbing that information in order to increase skills and abilities and make use of it under a
variety of contexts. Whatever the goals, the quality of the learning will rely largely on the
quality of the training, and so the role of trainer is very important as it can have a huge effect
on the outcome of a course for the learner.
Let's look at the characteristics of each, and see what makes an e-learning environment work.
The characteristics of learning: As mentioned above, learning is the process of absorbing
information and retaining it with the goal of increasing skills and abilities in order to achieve
goals - but it's more than that. Learning is what we go through when we want to be equipped
for non-specific and unexpected situations and the two are not mutually exclusive. While you
do learn to do something specific, you are also inadvertently equipped with the knowledge
and/or skills to face future challenges. In essence, learning is all about equipping a person to
tackle not just today's issues, but preparing him/her to creatively come up with ways to tackle
tomorrow's issues.
The characteristics of training: Training on the other hand focuses more on the
development of new skills or skill sets that will be used. Training is the process each new
employee goes through when joining a company to learn how to carry out the day-to-day
operations, know how their department works and how job-specific tools operate in order to
carry out their responsibilities. In essence, through training, we are not looking to reshape the
behavior of an individual rather the point is to teach the employee or learner how things are
done so that they can then carry out a process on their own.
Ideally, an e-learning environment will utilize both learning and training principles
throughout its curriculum. This allows instructors/trainers to provide their learners with the
tools to tackle current issues, develop life-long skills, improve on their problem-solving skills
and utilize resources to the best of their ability.
The role of corporate training is to ensure an employee has the knowledge and skills to
undertake a specific operation to enable an organization to continue to operate.
Fundamentally, corporate training is centered on knowledge transfer. For example,
conferences and workshops are an essential yet expensive part of business and e-learning
makes it affordable and efficient - sales people, for instance, can receive their training on new

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products and sales strategies online. E-learning can be translated to lower costs to deliver
training in a shorter period of time, especially when employees are spread worldwide.
Corporate education however adds another dimension and depth to training by involving
learners as participants in generating new knowledge that assists an organization to develop
and evolve.
The main characteristics of corporate learning are:
 Fast-paced: Enterprise learning is mostly "fast paced" because "time is money" in the
corporate world. Training needs to be delivered in as short a time frame as possible
with maximum results.
 Career-related: Enterprise learning helps employees gain new skills to advance their
careers inside the company. Corporate Learning Management Systems have
additional modules to facilitate that process.
 Benefits organization: Enterprise learning focuses mainly on pragmatic issues with
immediate benefits for the organization rather than just individual benefit. Ultimately
training is required for the organization to function correctly, and corporate education
in order for it to evolve and develop.
 Training vs. Education: Enterprise is mostly focused on training, while education is
mostly about learning though "igniting curiosity" (check out this related post on
‘Learning through Curiosity’). Training usually means the act of being prepared for
something, of being taught or learning a particular skill and practicing it until the
required standard is reached. This has obvious practical implications for the
workplace.
 Return on investment: An enterprise needs to be able to calculate the ROI of its
learning investment. In an educational context this ROI is difficult to calculate and
usually the effects of learning take years to show.
In comparison with corporate e-learning, learning in the education sector focuses primarily
on knowledge transfer and not on training i.e. in education we mainly strive to learn things
with global scope (e.g. a subject such as mathematics) whilst corporate e-learning is more
focused on business needs (e.g. new recruit induction). The word education means to gain
general theoretical knowledge and this may or may not involve learning how to do any
specific practical work, tasks or skills. Please note that there is some overlap and that the
word ‘education’ can also refer to a process of training or receiving tuition. For example,
basic training in a field such as health services is usually a combination of theoretical,
educational and practical learning skills.
4. Discuss the motivational aspects of reward system in an organisation. Analyse the recent
trends in reward system in Indian organisations and suggest measures to improve.
Ans.: Reward system is an important tool that management can use to channel employee motivation
in desired ways. In other words, reward systems seek to attract people to joint the organization to keep
them coming to work, and motivate them to perform to high levels.The reward system consists of all
organization components – including people processes rules and decision making activities involved
in the allocate of compensation and benefits to employees in exchange for their contribution to the
organization.

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In order for an organization to meet its obligations to shareholders, employees and society, its top
management must develop a relationship between the organization and employees that will fulfill the
continually changing needs of both parties. At a minimum the organization expects employees to
perform reliably the tasks assigned to them and at the standards set for them, and to follow the rules
that have been established to govern the workplace. Management often expects more: that employees
take initiative, supervise themselves, continue to learn new skills, and be responsive to business
needs. At a minimum, employees expect their organization to provide fair pay, safe working
conditions, and fair treatment. Like management, employees often expect more, depending on the
strength of their needs for security, status, involvement, challenge, power, and responsibility. Just
how ambitious the expectations of each party are, vary from organization to organization. For
organizations to address these expectations an understanding of employee motivation is required
(Beer, Spector, Lawrence, Mills, & Walton, 1984). Baron (1983) defines motivation as “a set of
processes concerned with the force that energizes behavior and directs it towards attaining some
goal.” Kreitner and Kinicki (1992) 1 postulate that motivation represents “those psychological
processes that cause the arousal, direction and persistence of voluntary actions that are goal directed.”
If it is the role of managers to successfully guide employees toward accomplishing organizational
objectives, it is imperative that they understand these psychological processes.
Schermerhorn, Hunt and Osborn (1991) conceptualizes motivation as based on content and process
approaches. The content theories of motivation emphasize the reasons for motivated behavior and/or
what causes it. These theories specify the correlates of motivated behavior that is states, feelings or
attitudes associated with motivated behavior, and help to represent physiological or psychological
deficiencies that an individual feels some compulsion to eliminate. Establishing this balance and
meeting this need is one of the first reasons, according to Deeprose (1994) to reward and recognize
employees. Formal reward programme which denote financial rewards such as salary, fringe benefits,
bonuses, promotions or share options play a significant role, but employees accept these as intrinsic
factors to the job.
An important aspect of human resource management which needs special attention in extension
organizations is the development of a reward system which will attract, retain, and motivate extension
personnel, as well as provide training and promotional opportunities. Extension organizations in
Asian and African countries have a poor reward system (Vijayaragavan, 1994; Swanson, Farmer, &
Bahal. 1990). The extension agents are not only poorly paid but are paid late and after reminders or
visits to head-quarters (Wiggins, 1986). Most of the extension services are run by government
agencies and operate under rules and regulations of public administration. These rules do not have
provisions for rewarding superior performance or for a wage system based on merit. Promotion
criteria are based on seniority and length of service. Thus the bureaucratic structure of extension
services is a basic hindrance to designing a better reward system. Among many of the government
departments, the agricultural department and extension service have a low public esteem and poor pay
structure (Vijayaragavan & Singh, 1992).
The rewards and incentive system can be improved in several ways.
 Rewarding Superior Performance: Extension organizations have to develop a reward
system which encourages superior performance so that pay and wage administration will be
an effective tool to promote performance, motivation, and satisfaction. A clear job
description, performance standards, and performance appraisal will help in evaluating
extension work and rewarding people for meritorious service. Ways and means have to be
found within the existing framework of public administration for basing pay on performance.
For example, extension workers on the basis of their performance can be sent for higher

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 education. Nonmonetary rewards such as recognizing the good ideas of field workers or
awarding honourable titles will also help in improving performance. Extension personnel may
also be encouraged to form professional societies to develop and communicate high
standards, as well as to recognize superior performance. A professional monthly journal or
newsletter can help extension agents to communicate innovative ideas and reinforce superior
performance.
 Improved Working Conditions at the Field Level: The reward system must also be
internally equitable. The relative importance of field-level extension functionaries has to be
realized in terms of pay compensation and other amenities. Lower level extension workers
often have to work under unpleasant and isolated conditions. A carefully planned system of
field allowance will compensate this (Baxter, 1990). The living conditions of field extension
workers must be improved by providing adequate facilities for housing, transport, and
medical and educational allowances for children.
 Career Planning and Development for Extension Personnel: A career refers to all of the
jobs that people hold during their working lives. Career planning is the process by which
employees plan their career goals and paths. Career development refers to all of the technical
and managerial skills employees acquire to achieve their career plans. Career advancement,
which gives a picture of future opportunities in terms of promotion, is a motivating factor for
performance and development of skills. Unfortunately, no career structure exists for extension
personnel in many organizations. In developing countries like India, there are many cases
where one joins as a village extension worker and retires in the same position after serving
thirty to thirty-five years. As part of improving the rewards and incentives system, extension
organizations have to develop suitable career paths and advancement for different categories
of extension personnel on a systematic basis.
As part of career development, extension personnel should be provided with opportunities to develop
their technical and managerial skills to enable them to occupy higher positions. Extension personnel
should have a salary structure as well as promotion opportunities comparable to other professions like
health or engineering.