UNIT 1 MEANING, NATURE, SCOPE AND

SIGNIFICANCE OF HUMAN RESOURCE

MANAGEMENT
Structure
1.0 Learning Outcome
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Understanding HRM
1.3 Role of the HR Manager
1.4 Future Challenges to HRM
1.5 Conclusion
1.6 Key Concepts
1.7 References and Further Reading
1.8 Activities
1.0 LEARNING OUTCOME
After studying this Unit, you should be able to:
• Discuss human resource management particularly highlighting its
significance to public and private management;
• Bring out its implications; and
• Distinguish related concepts like human resource development, personnel
management and industrial relations.
1.1 INTRODUCTION
Organisations in their functional aspect are treated comprehensively under the
wide, architectonic rubric / discipline of Human Resource Management. Simply
put, human resource management is a ‘management function’ that focuses on the
‘people’ dimension to/ of organisations.
As organisations get larger and sophisticated and processes more complex, it gets
increasingly difficult to coordinate specialisations at various policy and operating
levels. The HR department performs the vital task of weaving sectional and
individual interests and practices into the matrix of group functioning, that is the
‘organisation’. Organisations had hitherto looked at the "Personnel Department,"
for management of paperwork involving hiring and paying people. More recently,
organisations consider the human resource department better suited for the task.
HRM plays a significant part in both regulatory and policy planning functions.
Though in-charge, theoretically, of the traditional POSDCORB functions, HRM
today ventures beyond theoretical postulates. The coverage of HRM has
expanded to more enveloping domains in the discipline and profession, throwing
open possibilities in the art, science and craft of management theory and practice
respectively.

1
HRM covers myriad functions such as the specific and defined areas of planning
and control, resource allocation, conflict resolution and settlement of legal claims,
to recount a few. HRM function has evolved so much so that the HRM tag could
eve be held misleading (Mahoney, 1994), as HRM is not limited anymore to
securing 'person power'. Human resource management entails advising,
implementing and organising change, which are identified as the three important
requisites of sound HRM practice.
HRM is at the forefront of management strategy in the contemporary times. It is
expected to be proactive rather than a reactive management function. It plays a
vanguard role and imparts direction to an organisation. The personnel department
does not merely "hand out gift certificates for thanksgiving turkeys" (Mazarres,
1994). It’s a pervasive management function actively involved in managing and
administering organisation wide processes, initiating policy with regard to HR
specifically, and also other sections, collaterally involving the human resource
management function. It is more than a cosmetic or a fringe activity or function.
HR management today involves more than just the management of the HR
function. It extends into areas such as compensation benefits, staffing, HR
forecasting, succession planning, management and executive development,
performance management, employee relations, organisation development, total
quality management, needs analysis, instructional design and development
training programme evaluation, return on investment (ROI), impact studies to
name a few”(Mazarrese, 1994).
Human resource management is therefore understood as the all significant art and
science of managing people in an organisation. It’s significance lies in the fact
that physical and monetary resources cannot and do not sustain increased rates of
return on investments, unless complemented and supplemented effectively by
good human resource practices which reflect in best standards of productivity and
service delivery. Increasing research output in behavioral sciences, new trends in
managing ‘knowledge workers’ and advances in training methodology and
practices have led to substantial expansion of the scope of human resource
management function in recent years, besides adding to its understanding as a
theoretical area of enquiry.
Use of the word ‘management’ is significant here. It is new public management
informing management ethic today. Consequently, ‘administration’ is used to
denote more routine coordination functions while ‘management’ is perceived as
the active or the potent functional aspect of an enterprise; more pertinently, the art
and science of “getting things done” (Simon, 1957). Significantly, management
function is universal in public and private organisations (Fayol, 1959).
HRM is not just an arena of personnel administration anymore but rather a central
and pervasive general management function involving specialised staff as
assistants to main line managers.

2
Evolution of HRM
Historically, the beginning of HRM is traced to Robert Owen and his large
spinning mills in Scotland. Charles Babbage and Henry Towde are the other two
names associated with HRM’s early beginnings. Its growth was particularly
marked in the inter-war era which was also the heyday of the human relations and
its subsequent branching into the diagnostic, behavioural movement. The latter
being more applied and scientific in nature, has since then developed along highly
specialised lines. It has branched out specifically along the domains of applied
psychology and sociology. The latter in turn has evolved around the concept of
the ‘welfare state’ while the former has proceeded as the behavioural science
movement. The art and science of personnel management is inclusive and
incorporates the two trends. The diagram beneath illustrates the development or
evolution of personnel management through recorded time (the figure is self-
illustrative).

The theory and practice of human resource management is based primarily in

sociology and economics. For Keeney (1990), human resource management is the
conceptual euphemism to describe all the apparently transformative changes in
the management of employee relations in the 1980s. Blunt (1990) suggests that
in the late 1970s and even into the early 1980s, the discipline concerned with the
human side of the enterprise was largely regarded as covering moribund
housekeeping operational activities. Consequently, there was no status and
influence of the discipline. Guest (1990) attributes the concern with status to the
origins of personnel management “as an extension of scientific management or a
form of welfare management. Hegg (1995) points it out as the contrast between
the high aspirations of the normative model and of the failure to deliver as
reflected in the behaviourist model.” It later developed in stages through
consistent research in the area so much so that at present; it is a pioneering area in
management. New dimensions continue to be added to it, lending it a unique

3
dynamic character. It now covers diverse areas, as, mutual understanding at the
work place between employers and employees and the socio technical school of
thought emphasising restructuring of work to match social and technical systems
(Schein 1988). Organisation Development (OD), Human Resources Accounting
(HRA) and Quality of work life (QWL) are the most recent precursors of HRM.
HRA was popularised by Flamholitz (1985) which represented the ultimate quest
for legitimacy through quantification. HRM’s financial implications are studied
under ‘organisational imperatives’ (Kamoche, 1994).

1.2 UNDERSTANDING HRM

We may now attempt to elucidate the subject under study. Before attempting the
same, let us explain the essentials that require finding place in any definition. The
core issues are pointed out as:
- Human resource strategies are derived from the overall business strategy
in the same way as investment or marketing strategies. Decisions relating
to employees need to be integrated and made consistent with other
decisions.

- Organisations are not mere structural entities but ‘social units’ comprising
not just bricks, mortars, machineries or inventories, but, people. It has
been observed by scholars that an organisation is not a complex of matter
but rather a complex of humanity. Personnel management deals with the
effective control and use of manpower as distinguished from other sources
of power.
HRM differs from Personnel Management in treating people as ‘resource’.
People are human capital and are treated as resource, in that tangible and
intangible benefits flow from their utilisation. Organisations have to
effectively harness this resource in order to be productive.

- An organisation must make appropriate use of ‘human capital’ for

achievement of both collective organisational and individual goals,
mutually as well as in tandem. Coincidence and compatibility of the two is
specially stressed for the sake of ‘organisational equilibrium’ in that the
individual and the organisation represent two ‘opposing poles’ of
organisational effort. Though their interests come across as competing
forces, they are not always mutually contradictory and can be reconciled in
the interest of ‘organisational purpose.’ The aim of human resource
management is to balance the equation and bring about required synergy to
reinforce mutuality of effort towards the ‘common purpose.’
Organisational Equilibrium is achieved by matching ‘inducements’
(positive balance’) to ‘contributions’ (negative balance on the part of
workers (Barnard, 1938).

4
- The final ‘value’ or ‘end’ in this case is ‘organisational effectiveness’
understood as increasing ‘organisational capacity’ in the face of
environmental dynamics with attendant impacts on organisational and
‘structuring’ and ‘functioning’ (Simon, 1957). There is an unmistakable
reference here to the ‘contingency paradigm’ of administrative theory.
Specific environmental variables could be identified as technology,
available knowledge, physical and material resource, government policy,
etc. Maintaining ‘relevance’ of organisational functioning in the context of
shifting ecological variables is always a challenge and has to be addressed
for the sake of ‘efficiency,’ understood as favourable cost- benefit ratio
(Simon, 1957).Together the two make for ‘effectiveness’ of the
organisation.
Defining HRM
The following four definitions encompass the aforesaid core issues in human
resource management. HRM could thus be referred to as;
1. …..a series of integrated decisions that govern employer-employee
relations. Their quality contributes to the ability of organisations and
employees to achieve their objectives (Milkovich & Boudreau, 1997).
2. … Concerned with the people dimension to management. Since every
organisation comprises people, acquiring their services, developing their
skills, motivating them to higher levels of performance and ensuring that
they continue at the same level of commitment to the organisation are
essential to achieving organisational goal. This is true, regardless of the
type of organisation: viz. government, business, education, health,
recreation, or social action. (Decenzo & Robbins, 1989).
3. … the planning, organising directing and controlling of the procurement,
development, compensation, integration, and maintenance of human
resource to the end those individual, organisational, and social objectives are
accomplished. (Flippo, 1984).
4. “….. The organisation function that focuses on the effective management,
direction, and utilisation of people; both the people who manage produce
and market and sell the products and services of an organisation and those
who support organisational activities. It deals with the human element in
the organisation, people as individuals and groups, their recruitment,
selection, assignment, motivation, empowerment, compensation,
utilisation, services, training, development, promotion, termination and
retirement.”(Tracey,1994 )
From the above definitions, certain new and some of the most important ones
HRM aspects emerge could be stated as:
1. There is an explicit link between managing human resource and
success of administrative or management strategy. Competition forces
management to alter the latter with implications for the former.
2. Sector strategies cannot be appreciated in isolation (mean in Simon’s
terms) but only as parts of the integral whole.

5
 3. Senior line managers are required to assume more responsibility with
regard to managing human resource. There is a stress on inter-
personal relations as a determinant of performance.
Versions of HRM
Hard Version
“Human resource management reflects a long-standing capitalist tradition in
which workers are regarded as commodity.” (Guest: 1999). Hard approach to
human resource management is a pragmatic perspective to human resource
management which looks upon people as ‘resource’ and measures the tangible
benefits accruing from their deployment. Human resources have to be acquired,
developed and deployed in ways that maximise their utility. The focus is on
calculative and strategic aspect of managing human resource and the approach is
“rational” (fact- based) with regard to factors of production. The objective is
‘efficiency’ (maximising benefit and minimising cost) and the philosophy is
business-orientation (specifically human resource accounting) with emphasis on
tangible and quantifiable value addition to the organisation. It has been stated that
the drive to adopt human resource management is based on the business need to
respond to the external threat arising from increasing competition. It is a
philosophy that appeals to management’s striving hard at achieving and sustaining
competitive edge and appreciate that to do it they must invest in human resource
as well as they do for other practices or for other areas (for example, procuring
technology).

The emphasis is on:

• drive for economy and efficiency;
• interest of management as opposed to workers;
• adoption of a strategic approach that is in line with business strategy;
• obtaining value-adding services from people through targeted human
resource development practices;
• emphasis on strong people centric organisational culture, expressed or
articulated in the mission or value statement and reinforced by
communications, training and performance management processes; and ;
• the need to obtain agreed commitment of employees towards goals and
purpose (s) of the organisation.
Soft Version
The ‘soft’ model of human resource management traces its origin to the human
relations school of administrative thought and emphasises development of healthy
organisational culture by use of effective communication, motivation and
leadership as primary sources of maximising performance. It looks upon
employees as ‘co-contributors’ rather than adjuncts in organisational culture,
‘objects’ or pieces of automation. It stresses on the need to gain sustained
commitment of employees through democratic means such as participative

6
management, meaningful involvement in policy formulation and other methods of
developing ‘high-commitment-high-trust’ culture in the organisation. Attention is
therefore drawn to the key role of organisational behaviour.
Employees are treated as valued assets and a source of competitive advantage
which needs to be optimised by evincing ethical virtues such as commitment,
adaptability and high quality performance in consonance with the ‘collective will’
of the organisation articulated as organisational purpose. Ethics lies in reciprocity
between individual member and the management.
The emphasis is on the belief that the interests of management and employees are
congruent. This approach is also termed as the ‘unitary’ approach’ to human
resource management.
Reconciling the Two
It has been observed that even if the rhetoric of human resource management is soft the
reality is often harsh, with the interests of the organisation prevailing, more often than not,
over that of the individuals’. Practically, we find a mix of hard and soft versions informing
organisational practice. This implies that the distinction between hard and soft HRM is not
as specific or obvious as it is tacit and implied.

Features of HRM
By now we have been able to understand the meaning of HRM. Some of the
main features of HRM include (Keith sis son):
1. There is stress on the integration of HR polices with overall planning and
underpinning latter with the former;
2. Responsibility for personnel management no longer resides with specialist
managers but is increasingly assumed by the senior line management;
3. The focus consequently shifts from management-trade union relations to
management-employee relations; from collectivizing to individuation;
macro to micro; and;
4. To reiterate, with the manager donning the role of “enabler”, or ‘facilitator’,
there is stress on commitment and initiative on the part of the employees.
HRM is based on the following four fundamental principles (Armstrong,
1988:90).
a. Human Resource is the organisation’s most important asset;
b. Personnel policies should be directed towards achievement of
corporate goals and strategic plans;
c. Corporate culture exerts a major influence on achievement of
excellence and must therefore be tempered with consideration of
employee welfare.
d. Whilst integration of corporate resources is an important aim of
HRM, it must also be recognised that all organisations are
‘pluralist societies’ in which people have differing interests and

7
 concerns, which they defend and at the same time function
collectively as a cohesive group.
Besides the features mentioned earlier, certain more characteristics of HRM could
be summarised as follows:
1. HRM is a pervasive function. It permeates all levels of decision making in
an organisation. All sections perform human resource management in
some way. Academically, the nature of the subject is inter-disciplinary. It
draws inputs from other social sciences, particularly, sociology,
psychology, political science, anthropology, economics, etc. HRM has a
suggestion of the contingency paradigm here. Chief among contingent
variables is pressure from the government articulated through policy
interventions through directives or orders. The three main areas of
potential pressure are identified as: affirmative action in pursuance of
social justice objectives; concern for occupational safety and health in a
welfare state; and pension regulation for well being of workers
2. HRM is also a comprehensive function, in that it is concerned directly or
indirectly with every decision that in any way relates, even collaterally to
human resource management, irrespective of the section it emanates from
or the level at which it is made.
3. Cost effectiveness is a must to attract, induce and mobilise resources for its
policies, draw the attention of main line management to its policies and
proposals.
4. There is a need to spot trends and tailor personnel requirements
accordingly towards perceived direction or end, to make optimum
utilisation of available human capital.
5. Human resource management department provides for an integrating
mechanism. It attempts to build and maintain coordination between all
operative levels in an organisation. It is indispensable as a clearing house.
Its added significance is due to its being an auxiliary service which is an
indispensable maintenance activity. HR department aids ‘line’ officials
perform their respective allotted tasks, with direct or incidental bearing on
human resource. Policy- making does not proceed piecemeal and
organisational functioning is imparted a coherence that might otherwise be
hard to achieve. Human resource manager is therefore a specialist advisor
and performs vital staff function.
6. HRM is an imperative function for all complex organisations where inter
section interests are inextricably linked. It is action oriented as in it the
focus is on action, rather than record keeping, written procedures or rules.
The problems of employees at work are solved through rational, standard
policies.
7. HRM seeks to maximise employee motivation to make them contribute to
their maximum potential. The same is done through a systematic process
of recruitment, selection, training and development together with worker-
friendly policies like fair wage, bonus and reward system, effective
grievance redressal, etc.

8
8. HRM is people oriented. Peoples’ existence is defined or perceived in two
ways, that is, as individuals working for personal satisfaction and members
of a group or collectivity, contributing towards a common objective.
Together they constitute the pillars of organisation or organisation wide
effort. ‘Organisational equilibrium’ is contingent on matching or balancing
personal need satisfaction (inducements offered) with organisational goal
fulfillment (contributions elicited/negative balance). Right man in the right
place at the right time maximises benefit of collective endeavour both in
the interest of the organisation and the individual employee. HRM is
development oriented; it aids institution of employee-friendly activities
like career planning and development which help develop their full
potential. Job enlargement and job rotation practices are facilitated;
employees are assigned a variety of tasks, which helps them to gain
maturity, experience and exposure.
9. Tangible quantifiable benefits result to the organisation as also
externalities, intangibles or unquantifiable gains (improved organisational
culture, management-worker relations, etc.) which optimise organisational
performance. Enhanced productivity is then used to reward employees
monetarily and motivate them further towards better and improved
performance.
10. HRM is continuous activity, consistent function and not a short-term
measure. It requires constant alertness and awareness of human relations
on the part of managers to maintain healthy organisational climate.
Sustenance of ‘organisational ‘rationality’ (with respect to decision
making) and securing ‘organisational effectiveness’ are other pressing
concerns. Organisational survival is the prime concern. Concerns of
efficiency arise only later. Organisations face the challenge or imperative
of arriving at an L.C.M. (least common denominator) of opposing pulls or
conflicting interests within as well outside to ensure and secure compliance
with exogenous directives and compatibility between internal (in-house)
and external (laws, guidelines, implementation regulations) policies.
External pressures need to be adapted to or co-opted for the sake of
‘relevance’ and ‘efficiency’ (Simon, 1957) of organisational functioning.
11. Human resource management function is of importance to Public as well
as private organisations. Fayol’s advocacy of management as a universal
science endorses this idea.
Objectives of HRM
The primary objective of human resource management is to ensure a continuous
flow of competent workforce to an organisation. But this is only a broad view.
Exploring further, we can categorise objectives into four, which are analysed as
follows for a better understanding:
Societal Objectives
The society may constrain rationality with regard to human resource decisions
through laws for example, reservation and other laws that address social

9
discrimination, health and safety of workers, morale, ideological bias and other
such issues of societal concern.
Organisational Objectives
The organisational objective is at the forefront of organisational strategy,
coordinating and harmonising organisation wide efforts and stressing on the role
of human resource management in contributing towards organisational
effectiveness.
Human resource management is not an end in itself. It is a means to the end of
increasing organisational capability. It assists the organisation in attaining its
primary objectives. Simply stated, the department serves the rest of the
organisation.

Functional Objectives
On the functional side it sets the department’s contribution at the level most apt
suited in the organisational setting.
Resources are wasted when human resource is either in excess or too scarce. The
department function is to gain ‘organisational fit’ with respect to human resource
requirements.
Empowerment is a core concept of the new management model. In an adaptive
organisation, empowerment is preferred to delegation; ownership to responsibility.
It is contended that authority and responsibility are formal aspects of organising.
They are based on organisational properties and not individual capabilities.
Empowerment and ownership are social aspects of organising. They are based on
efficacy and initiative, and not just on roles and requirements. (Business E. Coach,
2005)

Clear articulation of policy following wider philosophy is imminent for success of

any organisational and that success of the free market. Philosophy binds an
organisation internally, provides a focus to collective effort and helps competitors
anticipate future moves of a company. According to theorists, two main concerns
regarding competitive philosophy are (a) people- centered philosophy, and (b)
unity and focus.
Sound human resource management determines the level of innovation or
creativity in organisational processes. Organisational capability is a dynamic
concept. To what extent it is promoted depends on the premium attached to the
HR function by the management. Bob Garratt (1990) proposes a theory of
organisations as "learning systems" in which success depends on the ability of
managers to become "direction-givers" and on the organisation's capacity for
learning continuously.

10
Personal Objectives
It implies assistance rendered to employees in achieving their personal goals in so
far as these goals enhance individuals’ contribution to the organisation.
Personal objectives of employees must be met if workers are to be retained and
motivated towards better performance. If otherwise be the case, employee
performance and satisfaction are likely to decline and employees could even
contemplate leaving the organisation. Managing approach to employee benefits
and compensation, employee records and personnel policies is an important aspect
of human resource management (McNamara, 2005)
There has to be a correlation between objectives and functions. William Werther
Jr. and Keith Davis (1972) have attempted to link the two. This is summarised in
the following table:

HRM Objectives Supporting Functions

1. Legal compliance
Societal Objectives 2. Benefits
3. Union-management relations

1. Human resource planning

2. Employee relations
3. Selection
Organisational Objectives 4. Training and development
5. Appraisal
6. Placement
7. Assessment

1. Appraisal
Functional Objectives 2. Placement
3. Assessment

1. Training and development

2. Appraisal
Personal Objectives 3. Placement
4. Compensation
5. Assessment

Like other issues in public administration, objectives of human resource

management attract divergent views. In fact, due to changing environment and

11
 dynamics of relationship among management, employees and trade unions,
human resource management objectives have had new vistas added to its
defining purpose. V.S.P. Rao (2000) recognises some of these changes and
places forth a set of emerging objectives:

1. Research and development is a new facet to human resource

management. HR practices need constant updating in view of changing
legal, political, and social environment. Forethought and fore
planning are vital to keep strategy targeted;
2. The primary purpose of HRM is to realise people’s strengths, turn
them into productive assets and benefit customers, stockholders and
employees at the same time, in an equally effectively manner;
3. HRM requires that employees be motivated to make them exert their
maximum efforts, that their performance be evaluated/ preferably
measured properly and that they be remunerated on the basis of their
contributions to the organisation;
4. HRM helps employees grow to their fullest potential, with reference to
job satisfaction and self-actualisation. To this end, suitable
programmes have to be designed aiming at improving the quality of
work life (QWL);
5. To develop and maintain quality of work life, good working conditions
and good standard of life for the worker makes employment in the
organisation a desirable personal and social condition. Without
improvement in the quality of work life, it might be difficult to elicit
desired level of motivation;
6. It is the responsibility of HRM to establish and maintain
communication well, to tap ideas, opinions and feelings of customers,
non-customers, regulators and other external public as well as in
understanding the views of internal human resources; and
7. HR function helps maintain ethical policies and behaviour in the
organisation. The chief personnel officer of a large American
corporation puts it thus: “personnel’s purpose is to practice morality in
management by preparing people for change, dealing with dissent and
conflict, holding high standards of productivity, building acceptance of
standards that determine progression and adhering to the spirit and
letter of high professional conduct”.
Scope of HRM
The Indian Institute of Personnel Management encapsulates the scope of HRM in
the following three aspects: -
1. Personnel aspect: concerned with manpower planning, recruitment,
selection, placement, transfer, promotion, training and development, lay off
and retrenchment, remuneration, incentives, productivity, etc.;

12
 2. Welfare aspect; dealing with working conditions and provision of amenities
such as canteens, crèches, rest and lunch rooms, housing, transport, medical
assistance, education, health, safety, recreation facilities, etc.; and
3. Industrial Relations aspect: the legal part which covers union-management
relations, joint consultation, collective bargaining, grievance redress and
disciplinary procedures, settlement of disputes, etc.
HR function may be categorised into the following sub- sections:
• Employee Hiring
• Employee and Executive Remuneration
• Employee Motivation
• Employee Maintenance
• Industrial Relations
• Prospects of Human Resource Management
Carter McNamara (2005) has outlined the following activities of the HR section:
-deciding what staffing needs an organisation has, and, whether it should use
independent contractors or hire its own employees. Cost considerations matter in
these decisions. Also, in-house promotions and placements are encouraged as part
of organisational policy. Present environment demands more flexibility in policy
formulation and implementation processes for which the HR department is most
suited; and;
- recruiting and training the best employees, ensuring they are high
performers through apprenticeship and training programmes dealing with
performance issues and ensuring personnel and management practices
conform to all formal regulations, managing approach to employee benefit
and motivation and group morale.
Functions of the personnel section encompass the following activity areas:
(Tracey, 1994)
- Total quality management (TQM) applying system’s model or perspective
to organisation theory. For enhancing overall productivity, output levels
and standards. Investing more time in value- adding activities as opposed
to non- value adding is emphasised;
- Organisational structuring and design; suggesting mergers, overseeing
diversification/ expansion schemes, managing implications of
globalisation, cost cutting measures such as downsizing, contract
employment, restructuring, controlling implications thereof, etc.;
- Productivity control, R&D, improved service delivery, customer focus,
quality control, organisational effectiveness;
- Financial control and budgeting;
-- Human Resource Planning and specifics thereof HR; department plays a
vital role in integrating the strategic plan or business plan and also take the
lead in devising and implementing it.

13
- Personnel processes viz. recruitment, selection, training, management
development;
- Strategising or planning for overall organisational growth;
- Managing informal work group;
-- Organisational culture ramifications of managing knowledge workers;
articulation of culture in terms of objectified, practicable targets; ensure
meeting of specific targets and objectives; imparting direction to
organisational functioning;
- Managing Diversity; (organisational culture reference and internal
sociology implication);
- Dissemination/internalisation of organisational philosophy among inmates,
controlling culture thereby. Phenomenon of ‘organisational
identification’… (Simon, 1957)
- People management’ referring to policy initiatives regarding, employee
benefit and welfare schemes, retrenchment policy, executive succession,
etc; and
- Spreading awareness and mobilising support to ensure minimum resistance
to change processes and policies; marketing to recover or amortize the
costs of producing products, programs and services.
Functional obligations of personnel department outlined above could be
catalogued under the following general headings: (Tracey, 1994)
- Managing house keeping for its own section-performing all customary
management functions (POSDCoRB) with regard to internal
administration;
- Organisational Development understood as planned, educative effort
towards organisation wide change reflecting concept of organisations as
constantly evolving and developing entities (Keith Davis, 1992) and
- Performance Development, problem sensing, solving, and trouble-
shooting as and when need arises.
Specific functional activities and responsibilities of HR department as outlined by
Tracey include:
• Recruitment, selection, and task assignment;
• Orientation and induction programmes imparting relevant information;
• Compensation; including all compensable factors;
• Employee benefits; monetary and non- monetary; and
• Succession planning (upward mobility of personnel via promotions);

14
Addressing Semantics: Related Concepts
Since 1980 the term personnel management has been gradually replaced by a
more suitable term, that is, human resource management to delineate the whole
gamut of activities undertaken towards or with the purpose of maximising human
capital utilisation in an enterprise. Problem of semantics is apparent. It would
serve our purpose to clarify the two related concepts.
Similarities between Personnel Management (PM) & HRM
Similarities between personnel management and human resource management are
recounted as follows:
• Personnel management strategies, like HRM evolves from business strategy.
• Personnel management, like HRM, recognises that line managers are primarily
or in the first measure, responsible for managing people. The personnel section
provides necessary advice/ support service to line managers aiding them carry
out their responsibilities in a better/ more effective manner;
• Values of personnel management and the ‘soft’ version of HRM are identical.
Both stress on self-development of workers, helping them achieve maximum
level of competence both for realisation of individual and collective will and
thereby, achievement of individual and organisational aspirations and
objectives;
• Both personnel management and HRM recognise the need for placing and
developing right people for the right jobs;
• The same range of selection, competence analysis, performance management,
training management development and reward management techniques are
applied in both human resource and personnel management; and
• The ‘soft’ version of HRM, like personnel management, attaches importance
to the process of communication and participative spirit informing employer-
employee or management- worker relations.
Differences between PM and HRM
Differences could be articulated and recounted as:
i) Personnel management is more bureaucratic and directive than
participative and team. It is administered by managers rather than
‘developed’ by management and workers or ‘co-contributors’ in joint
organisational endeavour. Apparently, it may be a set of rules and
procedures that might even constrain senior echelons in managing their
subordinates as they deem fit as per the requirements of the situation. On
the other hand, HRM not only pays attention to employee
development, but focuses on the dynamism of the entire management
function. This shift of emphasis appears related to three specific
differences;
a) While both personnel management and human resource management
highlight the role of line management, the focus in each case is different.
In human resource management, HR function is vested in the line

15
 management and business managers are considered responsible for
coordinating and directing all resources towards achievement of
organisational objectives;
b) Objectives are specified more precisely and co-relation drawn more
clearly and objectively, between results and strategy for proactive use of
human resources for their furtherance and achievement. Personnel policies
are not passively integrated with business strategy but perceived as
integral to and active components thereof in the pursuit of the desired
value or end; and
c) Most human resource management models emphasise organisational
culture as an important variable. Although ‘organisation development’
models of the 1970s proclaimed a similar aim, they were not fully
integrated with normative personnel management models. Organisational
development’ was always seen as a distinct and separate activity standing
apart from mainstream personnel management. Internal structuring also
exhibited this separateness in that it was generally assigned a separate role
in a formal institutional sense in that separate OD consultants were located
within the personnel department, not always with a back ground in the
subject. It was considered/ treated as, only a fringe activity, an initiative
that was nice to have but could be dispensed with at the first indication of
financial stringency. Aswathappa (2002) draws a table and recounts the
differences between personnel management and human resource
management along twenty-three dimensions. The same are outlined
below:
Differences between PM and HRM

Dimension Personnel Management Human Resource

Management

Employment contract Careful delineation of Aim to go beyond contract

written Contracts

Rules Importance of devising Can do outlook,

clear rules impatience with rule

Guide to management Procedures Business need

Action

Behaviour referent Norms/customs and Values/mission

practices

Managerial task Monitoring Nurturing

vis-à-vis labour

Key relations Labour Management Customer

16
Initiatives Piecemeal Integrated

Speed of decision Slow Fast

Management role Transactional Transformational

Communication Indirect Direct

Prized management Negotiation Facilitation

skills

Selection Separate, marginal task Integrated, key task

Pay Job evaluation (fixed Performance related

grades)

Conditions Separately negotiated Harmonisation

Labour Management Collective-bargaining Individual contracts

contracts

Job categories and Many Few

grades

Job design Division of Labour Team work

Conflict handling Reach temporary truce Manage climate and

culture

Training and Controlled access to Learning Companies

development courses

Focus of attention for Personnel procedures Wide-ranging cultural,

Interventions structural
and Personnel strategies

Respect for employees Labour is treated as a tool
which is expendable and
replaceable
People are treated as assets
to be used for the benefit
of an organisation, its
employees and the society
as a whole

Shared interests Interests of the Mutuality of interests

organisation are
Uppermost

Evolution Precedes HRM Latest in the evolution of

the subject

17
For a better understanding of HRM, it shall be worthwhile to know of two more
related terms, that is, Human Resource Development and Industrial Relations.

Industrial Relations (IR) & HRM

Industrial Relations (IR) is a term adding to the problem of semantics. “Industrial
Relations” as the term implies, deals with sociological and legal issues concerning
organisational climate, interpersonal relations, physical and social working
conditions, settlement of disputes, unionisation and other issues dealing with
grievances and their resolution. Use of term industrial relations or human
resource management has more to do with the historical context within which
they arose than with the scope of the two. Human resource management is used
more in the modern context of globalisation and multiculturalism where HR is at
the forefront of management strategy. IR rose in the specific context of the
industrial revolution and the socialist ideology where just and humane conditions
of work were emphasised. Hence, Industrial relations is not different from human
relations or other major school of administrative theory. With many different
labels in use, industrial relations is now used to refer to the legal aspect of
organisations governing employee employer relationship viz. trade unions,
collective bargaining, etc.

The legal aspect has now emerged as a significant facet of HRM which
organisations neglect only to their peril. Organisations get sued for alleged
discrimination in their recruitment, selection, hiring, training and development,
promotion, pay and compensation procedures by outside players as also their own
employees, present and prospective. Posers about administrative procedure have
to be addressed unequivocally to obviate conflicts or possible impediments in
organisational functioning. Technically, it falls within the domain of Industrial
Relations though responsibility for the function is aggregated under the HR label,
which today is an enveloping and architectonic field or area of enquiry, practice
and specialisation. Small businesses (for-profit or nonprofit) usually have to carry
out these activities themselves as they can't afford part- or full-time assistance.
Even they need to ensure that employees are aware of personnel policies
conforming to current regulations. These policies are often in the form of
employee manuals, which all employees possess. Procedural simplicity is an
important requirement. Non-compliance can generate unnecessary confusions,
which could easily be dispensed with.
Industrial Relations’ implications for organisational structure would differ. While
some structure it as a specialisation others prefer merging or grouping more
practicable. (Collective bargaining involves administration of formal contract
governing union management relations, laying down of grievance procedure, third
party arbitration, labour unions, etc.) Some companies have separate industrial
relations department responsible for negotiating and administering collective
bargaining agreements with unions. Most often size and complexity of an
organisation are the deciding factors. What is important however is that legal

18
aspect of human resource management is a specific and distinct function,
structural differentiation or specification notwithstanding.
HRM and HRD
Some people distinguish between HRM (a major management activity) and HRD
(Human Resource Development, a profession). However, it should not lead to any
confusion.
Distinction between HRD and other human resource practices is necessary to
avoid undervaluing of the concept both theoretically and in the workplace. HRD
has come to be used in many different contexts. Hence, it is important to clear the
maze and highlight the unique contribution it makes to organisations

ABOUT HRD
HRD is:
-A profession; a specialised activity. HRD vendors are employed by organisations
to plan and administer training programs though now HRD has ventured into other
broader, more significant areas of organisational practice viz. organisational
design, change, planning and development. Latter function has gained increasing
prominence of late,
- HRD vendors are external consultants, though HRD manager is preferably
an insider; and
- Its scope has progressed and moved from micro to macro concerns. In the
present times, it is an important field within the area of human
relations or organisational behaviour.
HRD has now been developed in universities as a postgraduate discipline.
Washington University took the lead in this regard in 1965. However, some
universities have introduced courses in specific HRD methodology such as
communications or human services and labeled them as human resource
development. Confusion can be cleared by looking at the form rather than the
label.
HRD incorporates applied behavioural science. Works of Gordon Lippit, Warren
Schmidt and Robert Blake are noted particularly in the development of the
paradigm .There is increased emphasis on a systems approach to HRD notably
through the work of Leonard Silven and Hughes and contribution of Robert Mager
particularly in pushing for adoption of specific behavioural objectives in framing
objective HRD modules.
It is specialised and technical field with is increasing use of modern technology.
Inventory control is an important feature as there is need for recording and safe
maintaining data. Its working is essentially centralised. There is stress on
individualised instruction. The learning specialist guides trainee like a coach or a
resource person. In it the definitions and understanding of selection, training,
performance evaluation are likely to be revised. They are being seen as
continuously evolving and developing processes that aid individuals and
organisations reach the summit of their potential. In HRD there is shared

19
responsibility between management and individual employees for organisational
effectiveness-diffused rather than focused, permeates through the organisation and
is not restricted to the individual manager or specific levels.
Characteristics of HRD
Characteristics of HRD could be recounted as follows. It is:
- idealistic;
- utilitarian in purpose;
- evolutionary;
The wider objective is integration with the school system through educational
administration and training institutes. HRD cannot make up for lack of basic
skills. It would be highly impractical if it were suggested so.
Gerratt defines learning organisations as “a group of people continually enhancing
their capacity to create what they want to create”. The idea sums up the essence of
human resource development.
Implications of HRM
a. With respect to Organisation Design
There is a long-standing argument on whether HR-related functions should be
organised in the Organisation Development department or elsewhere or
independently?
Reference may be made here to Simon’s concept of ‘mean’, ‘end’ and ’fact’ and
‘value’ as giving the chain of causation of “purposive behaviour”. Decisions are
taken at all levels within an organisation and are ‘mean’ to the extent that they
comprise of ‘fact’ more than the value component and end conversely. Each
decision, in fact, is both mean (more fact) and end (more value) in that every
‘mean’ is an intermediate ‘end’ which is ‘mean’ to a further end and so on. The
chain culminates in pure ‘end’ or final ‘value’ (hypothetical idea since ‘pure
value’ does not exist in practice), which is often the ‘organisational goal’ (could
be social or national goal depending on the level of integration)
The ‘mean’- ‘end’ chain or formulation has implications for organisational
structure. If human resource management is ‘means’ to the ‘end’ of
‘organisational development’, it functions as a section under organisation
development. The question of location is pertinent in the interest of coherence of
organisational functioning.
b. With respect to Personnel Administration
The HR section articulates organisational philosophy and underpins it to practical
strategy. Organisational culture is both a dependent and an independent variable.
It is both impacted upon and in turn impacts organisational functioning and
practice.

20
 At the enterprise level, good human resource practices help attract and retain the
best people in the organisation. Planning alerts management to manpower needs in
the short run ahead.
At the level of the individual, effective management of human resources helps
employees, work with ‘esprit-de corps’ and experience personal growth.
Society, as a whole, is the beneficiary of good human resource policy.
Employment opportunities multiply and scarce talents are employed to the best
use/uses.
Extending the same argument, sound HRM is imperative for nation building.
Human resource planning is integral to socio-economic planning of the State. It is
a vital and an imperative component thereof, more so for developing countries
where human capital waste accrues due to underutilisation of capacity and other
wasteful HR practices.
c. With respect to Policy
The HR section or department is actively involved in business strategy and wider
policy formation so much so that there is not a question of should it or should it
not anymore. Its involvement is accepted as a fact or a ‘given’ of organisational
life. The focus is directed instead to utilising it to the maximum. The objective of
HR thought and practice is geared to this end. This is expected to be more so as
the office evolves towards a more dynamic future role with expansion and or
diversification of business and increasing knowledge resource.
1.3. ROLE OF THE HR MANAGER

Designations of HR Managers are found differently in different organisations. To

quote Frank Lloyd Wright, “form follows function”. HR function therefore draws
content from and follows the strategic plan. The HR manager functions as a
catalyst and a change agent to the extent that he helps the line achieve its
objectives. Job description of the office differs from organisation to organisation.
Form or content of human resource functions have been found to be determined
by the organisation’s history, work culture and the level of differentiation attained
in processes and product. (Tracey, 1994)
The HR manager has to be both a process and a policy specialist. The job
descriptions and specifications entail and demand both policy advice and
implementation specialties.
She / he hyphenates the relationship between the organisation on the one hand and
external players and stimulators of policy (primarily government, strategic
partners) on the other. She / he has to ensure compliance of internal policy and
practice with external regulations via legislations (for example, government
directives) as also attempt to preempt the field in the organisation’s favour by
minimising instances of unnecessary interface.
Academically, the HR person needs to be proficient in related specialties or
disciplines in that HR is a growing interdisciplinary academic field and a vocation,
with cross currents from management science, humanities and even physical

21
sciences. HR manager functions as a consultant to all sections and is a prime
mover or initiator of policy inputs and recommendations.

HR officers can be both generalist (with wide experience in personnel matters to

recommend them) and specialist with technical training or educational
background; either from inside/outside the organisation. Actual practice in this
regard differs from organisation to organisation.

1.4 FUTURE CHALLENGES TO HRM

The question how HRM would change in the post- modern globalised world needs
to be understood in the light of challenges to HRM.
Emphasis on human resource management will be still greater in the coming
years. Companies/organisations are expected to invest more in health/welfare of
workers.
Emergence of transnational/multinational corporations is bringing cross-cultural
work force and the consequent need to ‘manage diversity’ (cultural, ethnic
linguistic, religious, etc.) properly.
Cost constraint and the resultant emphasis on the necessity of output maximising
strategies viz. total quality management, flexible management systems, etc.
Participative management for ‘knowledge workers’; need an active policy to
retain good workers is expected to be increasingly felt in the coming years.
Flexible structuring in organisational design in response to changing requirements
would be needed. Warren Bennis’s futuristic observation (prediction) about linear
organisations giving way to diverse and unconventional matrix is almost a truism
today. Organisations now are less linear, more complex, environment more
uncertain than predictable, traditional Weberian construct more a utopia than a
reality, more cross functional/ networked than vertical/linear; providing more
scope for freewheeling for its knowledge workers rather than insisting and
stressing on a commanding or directive work pattern and culture. Precisely, its
participative management, innovation and self managed work teams that are
desired for a total quality management with emphasise on productive process,
particularly technology. Organisational fluidity and dynamism may no longer be
an exception or feature to be chafed at and resisted but an enduring quality to be
desired which is almost a necessity for organisations’ survival in this environment
of constant change. Organisations are perceived as organic entities constantly and
continuously vitalized and growing, meeting new/emerging challenges and
answering critics in their attempt to avoid being moribund/ redundant in their
operations.
Tackling demographic changes in the work force will be a challenge as more
old/young/women/backward castes are expected to force changes in HR policies.
Vigorous interest articulation will be suggested for business at the policy stage to
minimise incident and / or unsavoury pressures during implementation.

22
In the face of increasing cost constraints, training is expected to get more targeted
than generalised. It would need to be tailored according to changing requirements
viz. customer preferences, specific need of a strategic plan in a given time frame,
etc. Training is only one of the options to learning and development.

1.5 CONCLUSION
The focus in the Unit has been on HRM’s meaning, nature, scope, versions,
clarifications regarding semantics, differences and similarities between HRM and
PM, and its significance. Rather briefly, it could be summed up as;
• HRM is at the forefront of management function;
• HR manager plays a vanguard role in policy making and implementation
functions;
• Semantic differences between HRM and PM and IR and HRD are not of
much practical consequence. Content matters more than form; and
• Scope of HRM differs from organisation to organisation.

1.6 KEY CONCEPTS

Human Resource Development: Human Resource Development is a term

employed for education and training
activities undertaken at micro (in a
department or an organisation) and macro
levels( national, state) for development of
‘human capital’. It involves both short term
and long term planning and has significance
for development administration in that it is
the ‘people resource’ that puts plans into
actions. Refurbishing of education and
training at regular intervals is a must for
replenishing capabilities for planned
development of human resource capability.

Human Resource Management: Human Resource Management differs from

personnel management, in treating people as
‘resource,’ whose effective utilisation leads
to tangible value addition to organisational
productivity. Distinguished from human
resource development, human resource
management is more an administrative
activity while the latter involves more
planning, built integrally into nation- wide,
socio economic planning.

23
Organisational Culture: The culture of an organisation could be
directive, authoritarian, feudal or democratic.
Among determining factors are; principles of
organisational functioning, involving
structuring of an organisation, specialisation
and work division, span of control, unity of
command, leadership, work orientation of
the manager, organisational culture, “legal
rational authority” system, as against,
“traditional” or “charismatic authority”
systems.

Organisation Design: Organisation Design is a primary

management activity involving work
division among constituent units and
structuring an organisation into sections and
sub sections. It is the first step in
specialisation of tasks and responsibilities in
organisations leading to further sophisticated
specifications. On proper design depends the
coherence of organisational functioning.
Organisation Design is also a determinant of
organisational culture in that an organisation
could be structured in a hierarchic
bureaucratic way or imparted a team ethos
by means of lateral coordination and team
work orientation.

Social Capital: The term social capital is an economic

analogy, to determine the economic potential
of social ties. Just as there are physical
capital and human capital, there is social
capital which denotes the advantage or the
utility derived out of filial and other human
ties. Such social ties have ‘utilitarian value’
in that they result in tangible and intangible
value addition to societal development.
Meaningful peoples’ participation in
administration is an attempt at utilising
positive social capital inherent in
‘communities’ for furtherance of
developmental tasks by way of better policy
formulation and cost- effective
implementation processes. Departmentalism
and ‘empire building’ tendency on the part
of bureaucrats is an example of negative
social capital.

24
Organisational Climate: It refers to the extent to which supportive
environment prevails in an organisation. Sound
workings of the informal Organisation, participatory
culture, etc., are indicators of healthy organisational
climate
1.7 REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING

Aswathappa, K, 2002, Human Resource Personnel Management: Text and Cases,

Tata McGraw-Hill, New Delhi.
Bach, Stephen and Keith Sisson, 2000, Personnel Management: A Comprehensive
Guide to Theory and Practice, Third Edition, See Contributions in Part 1
Personnel Management in Context.
Bennis, Warren, 1969, Organisation Development: Its Nature Origin and
Prospects, Addison Wesley Publishing House Co. Readings Mass.
Blunt, P, 1990, “Strategies for Enhancing Organisational Effectiveness in the
Third World”, Public Administration and Development, Vol. 10
Carr, Nicholas, 2004, Does IT Matter? Information Technology and the
Corrosion of Competitive Advantage, Harvard Business School Press.
Cohen, Stephen L, 1994, “The Future and HRD,” William R. Tracey (Ed),
Handbook on Management and Development, Vol. II, AMACOM.
Davis, Keith, 1972, Human Behaviour at Work, Mc Graw Hill, New York.
Decenzo, David A. & Stephens P. Robbins, 1989, Personnel/HRM, Third
Edition, Prentice Hall, New Delhi.
Dickens, Linda, 1994, “Wasted Resources? Equal Opportunities in Employment,”
Keith Sissons (Ed), Personnel Management: A Comprehensive Guide to Theory
and Practice in Britain.
Duncan, Daniel M, 1994, “Organisational Design”, William R. Tracey (Ed),
Handbook on Management and Development, Vol 11, AMACOM.
Flamholitz, Eric G, 1971, “A Model for Human Resource Valuation: A
Schochastic Process with Service Rewards”, The Accounting Review.
Flamholitz, Eric G, 1972, “Towards a Theory of Human Resource Value in
Formal Organisations”, Journal of the Accounting Review, October Issue.
Flippo, Edwin B, 1984, Personnel Management, Fourth Edition, Mc Graw-Hill,
New York.
Garratt, Bob, 1990, “Creating a Learning Organisation: A Guide to Leadership,
Learning and Development” read online at,
www.changezone.co.uk.publications/dynamicspubs.html
Guest, D.E, 1987, “Human Resource Management and Industrial Relations”,
Journal of Management Studies.

25
Guest, David E, 1989, “HRM: Its Implications for Industrial Relations and
Industrial Organisation”, J. Storey (Ed), New Perspectives on HRM, Routledge,
London.
Guest, D. E, 1990, “Human Resource Management and the American Dream,”
Journal of Management Studies, 27(4)
Guest, D.E., 1997, “Human Resource Management and Performance: A Review
and Research Agenda”, The International Journal of Human Resource
Management.
Gupta, R.K, 1988, Human Resource Accounting, Anmol Publications.
Invancevich, J.M. & W.F. Glueck, 1990, Foundations of Personnel/HRM,
Business Publication, Texas.
Kamoche, K, “SHRM within a Resource Capability View of the Firm”, Working
Paper, Birmingham Union Business School.
Keeney, Ralph L, Detlof von Winterfeldt and Thomas Eppel, 1990, “Eliciting
Public Values for Complex Policy Decisions,” Management Science, Vol. 36, No.
9.
Keeney, 1992, “Creating Alternatives for Single and Multiple Decision Centers”,
Sloan Management Review.
Keeney, R, 1992, Value Focused Thinking, Harvard University Press, Cambridge.
Keeney, R.L, 1994, “Creativity in Decision Making with Values Focused
Thinking”, Sloan Management Review.
Leonard, Nadler and Zeace Nadler, 1994, “HRD in Perspective”, William R.
Tracey, (Ed) Handbook on Management and Development, Vol II.
Mahoney, Francis X, 1994, The Future and HRM, William R. Tracey, (Ed.)
Handbook on Management and Development, Vol. II.
Mazzarres, Michael, Z, 1994, “The HRM Manager”, William R. Tracey, (Ed)
Handbook on Management and Development, Vol II. AMACOM.
Milkovich, G.T, B. Gerhart & J. Hannon, 1991, “The Effects of Research and
Development Intensity on Managerial Compensation in Large Organisations”,
High Technological Management Resources.
Milkovich, George T. & W. J. Boudreau, 1997, Human Resource Management,
Irwin, Chicago.
Odiorne, G.S, Personnel Administration by Objectives, Richard D Irwin Inc,
Homewood Illinois.
Rao, V.S.P, 2000, Human Resource Management, Text and Cases, Excel Books,
New Delhi.
Robbins, Stephens, P, 1985, Organisational Behaviour, Prentice-Hall, New Delhi.
Schein, E.H, Process Consultation: It’s Role in Organisational Development,
Addison, Wesley Publishing Company Readings Mass.

26
Schein, E.H, The Art of Managing Human Resources, Oxford University Press,
New York.
Schein, Edgar H, 1969, Process Consultation; Its Role in Organisation
Development, Addison-Wesley, Massachusetts.
Schein, Edgar H, 1983, Organisational Psychology, Third Edition, Prentice-Hall
of India, New Delhi.
Schein, E.H, 1988, “How Career Anchors Hold Executives to Their Career Paths,
R.Katz, (Ed), Managing Professional in Innovative Organizations: A Collection
of Readings, Cambridge, MA: Harper and Row Publishers, Inc.
Stahl and Grisby, 1991, Strategic Management for Decision Making, PWS, Kent.
Story, John & Keith Sisson ,1993, Managing Human Resources and Industrial
Relations, Open University Press, London.
Tracey, William R, 1994, “HRM in Perspective”, Handbook on Management and
Development, Vol. II, AMACOM.
Ulrich, Dave, 1994, “Human Resource Planning” William R. Tracey (Ed),
Handbook on Management and Development, Vol II, AMACOM.
Werther, William B, Jr. and Keith Davis, Human Resource and Personnel
Management.

1.8 ACTIVITIES
1. Discuss the significance of HRM in the context of Globalisation.

2. What is human resource development? How is it an integral aspect

of human resource management?

3. Discuss the scope and significance of HRM.

27
UNIT 2 RECRUITMENT, SELECTION AND
INDUCTION
Structure
Objectives
Introduction
Definitions
Recruitment and Selection
The Recruitment Process
Selection
Selection Tests
Interview
Physical Examination
Reference Checks and Final Decision
Placement
Induction, Orientation or Indoctrination
Let Us Sum Up
Self-assessment Test
Further Readings

2.0 OBJECTIVES
After going through this unit, you should be able to:
spell out the importance of job specifications in the selection process;
explain various processes of recruitment;
explain the importance and need of each of the stages of recruitment and
selection processes;
comprehend the need for various psychological tests in the process;
evaluate the purpose of induction and the processes involved therein; and
identify the care and caution warranted in the whole process.

2.1 INTRODUCTION
People in the organisation who are not selected on merit but on other considerations
would be misfit and create all sorts of problems for the organisation and the other
employees. Recruitment forms the first stage in the process which continues with
selection and ceases with the placement of the candidate. Recruitment is the next step
in the procurement function, the first being the manpower planning. Recruitment makes
it possible to acquire the number and types of people required for the organisation.
Recruiting involves discovering potential applicants for actual or anticipated
organisational vacancies.
As Yoder and others point out, "Recruitment is a process to discover the sources of
manpower to meet the requirements of the staffing schedule and to employ efffective
measures for attracting that manpower in adequate numbers to facilitate effective
selection of an efficient working force." Accordingly, the purpose of recruitment is to
locate sources of manpower to meet job requirements and job specifications.
 Recruitment
Recruitment is the process of identifying the prospective employees, stimulating and
encouraging them to apply for a job or jobs in anAor&nisation.It is
- - - to apply. The purpose is to tlave
positive action as it involves inviting people
inventory of eligible persons ffom amongst w h ~ r & - ~ r oselection
~er of the most suitable
person can be made.

Selection
Selection is the process of examining the applicants with regard to their suitability for
the given job or-jobs, and choosing the beit-from the suitable candidates and rejecting
the others. Thus, you will notice that this process is negative in nature in the sense that
rejection of candidates is involved.

I Placement

I
Placement is the determination of the job for which a selected candidate is best suited
and assigning that job to him. The ideal situation is 'the right man for the rigbt job'. A
proper placement of a worker reduces employee turnover, absenteeism, accident rates,
etc., and improves morale, motivation, work etc.

I Induction
Induction is introducing an employee to the job and to the organisation. The primaty
purpose of induction is to 'sell' the company to the new employee so that he ma,y feel
proud of his association with the company. This is called 'orientation' or
'indoctrination'.

Their Inter-relationship

I
The above are the four steps taken in the order given before a person starts his training
for the job to which hdshe is assigned. First he is recruited, that is, his attention is
drawn to the existence of a possible opening for him and he is invited to apply for it.
In the next stage of selection all the applicants are screened to find their suitability for
the job and the best one is selected. The third step of placement follows selection and a
particular job is assigned to the selected person. After that he is introduced to his job
and to his organisation so that he may understand the environment in which he has to
work.
Job Analysis
It is the process of studying and collecting information relating to the operations and
responsibilities of the specific job. Job analysis is based on job description, job
specification and job classification.
Job Description
A description will contain:
The job title
A job summary which gives a short definition or picture of the job
Comprehensive and concise list of duties to be performed
Supervision received and given
Working conditions
Relating to other jobs
Qualities required i.e. education, technical knowledge, experience if any, degree of
responsibility etc.
Job Specification
Job specification is a "statement of the minimum acceptable human qualities necessary
18
to perform a job properly." Job specification tells what education is required or what Recruitment, Selection
special machines or equipment shall be needed for the purpose. and Induction

.Job Classification
It is the grouping of positions having a sufficient number of common characteristics to
enable them to be grouped into a unit, e.g. laboratory aid, nursing aid, pharmacy aid,
clerical group etc. 'The job classification helps in evolving different job grades and
fitting them into the main organisational structure.

2.3 RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION

Recruitment has been regarded as the most important function of personnel
administration, because unless the right type of people are hired, even the best plans,
organisation charts and control systems would not do much good. Flippo views
recruitment both as 'positive' and 'negative' activity. He says: "It is a process of
searching for prospective employees and stimulating and encouraging them to apply for
jobs in an organisation. It is often termed positive in that it stimulates people to apply
for jobs to increase the 'hiring ratios', i.e. the number of applicants for a job. Selection,
on the other hand tends to be negative because it rejects a good number of those who
apply, leaving only the best to be hired."
Recruitment policy should takq into account that high calibre personnel are essential to
have but hard to find. Recruitment and selection are not synonymous. Recruitment
means announcing job opportujlities to the public in such a way that maximum number
of suitable people may come $cross. Selection means choosing from that number, those
applicants who are most likely to succeed in the jobs. An interview is the most widely
used technique for selection.
Selection is a process of weeding out the unsuitable candidates and finally arriving at
the most suitable one. In this sense, recruitment is a positive process while selection is
a negative process of rejecting most of the candidates, leaving only a few who are
considered suitable;
In India the organisational practices in selection vary widely. The private and public
sector organisations differ in their selection practices. Selection for public sector
undertakings is done through Public Service Commission, Banking Service Commission,
Subordinate Services Commission etc.
Despite tremendous unemployment, it is not easy to find the right type of personnel. In
the expanding industrial economy of India, the demand for top management, technical
and scientific personnel is expanding at a fast rate with the result that an all-round
shortage of such personnel is .being felt. Many organisations indulge in attracting
executives from similar organisations on higher salaries. But this does not, in any way.
expand the supply of such personnel. Therefore, a sound recruitment policy has to be
based on a comprehensive programme of management development.
Recruitment needs can be classified into three broad categories-planned, anticipated
and unexpected. The planned needs arise out of changes in organisational decisions and
superannuation policies, unexpected needs arise from individuals' decisions to leave
organisation and from accidents or deaths. The anticipated category comprises those
jobs which the organisation, by studying the trends within and outside the organisation
can predict.
In India careful recruitment of employees is particularly important for basically two
reasons: first, under the existing legal conditions, when an industrial worker is
discharged, an industrial dispute can be made by the employee in regard to such
discharge and the Tribunal would determine whether the termination of service was
justified and to order reinstatement if the order was not appropriate. Secondly, the
chances of mismatching the job and the person are much higher in India. Matching the
job with the suitable applicant is naturally a two-way process i.e. the employee's choice
and suitability matching with employer'$requirements.
2.4 THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS

The Recruitment Process

There are two dimensions of the recruitment process. One is that in all cases
recruitment involves locating and attracting adequate human resources to fill existing
vacancies and the other is that recruitment is a critical management activity. The right
peoplc are the future of the organisation. No organisation can survive in the absence of
human resources. I

Vacancies in an organisation occur through someone leaving or as a result of expansion.

Recruiting a new employee though may be the most obvious step when a vacancy
occurs but some other options may also be appropriate depending on the situational
needs. Jobs may be rearranged so that the total amount of work in a section is done by
the remaining employees. Extra output can be achieved by using ovcrtime. The work of
the employee can be mechanised, though it is not easily feasible to mechanise a single
vacancy-replacing full-time jobs with part-time jobs. Sub-contract the work and using
another strategy is to use an agency is to provide temporary personnel, who is not a
permanent liability to the organisation.

Preparation for Recruitment

Before you think of inviting people to apply for a job you have to decide what types of
persons are to be invited and what their characteristics should be. This calls for fixing
thc 'job specifications' which may also be called 'man specifications'.
Job specifications are based on job description which is desndent upon the nature and
requirements of a job. Thus, job specification will be different$r each job.
We shall explain below the various elements of job specification:
Physical Specifications: For certain jobs, some special physical features may be
required. For example, for assembly of a TV set or some other electronic equipment
good vision is required, for a typing job you need finger dexterity, for a heavy job you
need a strong, heavy and thick-set body. The particular physical abilities and skills
necessary for a given job have to be specified. These may refer to height, weight,
vision, finger dexterity, voice, poise, hand and foot coordination, motor coordination,
colour discrimination, age-range, etc.
Mental Specifications: These include intelligence, memory, judgement, ability to plan,
ability to estimate, to read, to write, to think and concentrate, scientific faculties,
arithmetical abilities, etc. Different jobs require different degrees of such abilities and
the more important ones should be specified.
Emotional and Social Specifications: These include characteristics which will affect
his working with others, like personal appearance, manners, emotional stability,
aggressiveness or submissiveness, extroversion or introversion, leadership
cooperativeness, initiative and drive, skill in dealing with others, social adaptability, etc.
Behavioural Specifications: Certain management personnel at higher levels of
management are expected to behave in a particular manner. These are not formally
listed but have to be kept in mind during the process of recruitment, selection and
placement.
Activity 1
Please describe below your job as carefully and precisely as you can
Please give below the ten most important elements of your job specification. Also
evaluate yourself in respect of each element and write against it whether you meet it
(a) fully, (b) substantially, (c) to some extent, or (d) not at all.
Element Extent of meeting
(a), (b), (c), ( 4

.....................................................................................................................................................
Sources of Manpower
There are two categories of sources of supply of manpower-Internal and External.
Internal Sources: These include personnel already on the pay-roll of the organisation
as also those who were once on the pay-roll of the company but who plan to return, or
whom the company would like to rehire. These include those would quit voluntarily or
those on production lay-offs.
External Sources: These sources lie outside the organisation, like the new entrant to
the labour force without experience. These include college students, the unemployed
with a wider range of skills and abilities, the retired experienced persons, and others
not in the labour force, like married women.
A policy of preferring people from within is advantageous as it improves the morale of
the employees and promotes loyalty among them towards the organisation. This also
helps employers as they are in a better position to evaluate those already with them and
as these people require no induction.
The policy of preferring internal candidates, however, suffers from some disadvantages.
It may lead to inbreeding, discouraging new blood from entering an organisation. If
promotion is based on seniority, the real capable hands may be left out.
Likewise, there are good and bad points about external sources. These sources provide
a wide market and the best selection considering skill, training and education. It also
helps to bring new ideas into the organisation. Moreover, this source never 'dries up'.
In respect of people selected under this system, however, one has to take chances with
the selected persons regarding their loyalty and desire to continue. The organisation has
to make larger investments in thcir training and induction.
You will realise now that dependence on just one of the sources is not in the interest of
an organisation. It must depend on both in a ratio to be fixed considering various
factors.
Some of these factors are described below:

1) Effect of the policy on the attitude and actions of all employees

Employees no doubt, feel more secure and identify their own long-term interest with
that of the organisation when they can anticipate first charge at job opportunities. The
general application of the 'promotion from within' policy may encourage mediocre
performance. The point to be considered here by the organisation is, how important is
the loyalty of the employees to it, balancing the risk of mediocre performance.
Human Resource Planning 2) The level of specialisation required of employees
The principal source in many organisations may be the ranks of the present employees
who have received specialised training.

3) The degree of emphasis on participation by employees at all levels

New employees from outside, with no experience in the firm, may not know enough
about its service or product or processes to participate effectively, for some time at
least.

4) The need for and availability of origieality and initiative within the
organisation
If the organisation feels that it is training its people for these qualities it may prefer its
own people; if not, new people with different ideas may be taken from outside.

5) Acceptance of seniority principle

The policy or promotion from within will succeed only if management and employees
accept the seniority principle with or without suitable modifications for promotion. If it
is not accepted, selection may better be done on an open basis.

Methods of Recruitment
All methods of recruitment can be put into three categories: (a) Direct Methods,
(b) Indirect Methods, and (c) Third-Party Methods.
a) Direct Methods: Direct methods include sending recruiters to educational and
professional institutions, employee contacts'with public, manned exhibits and waiting
lists.
Schools and Colleges: For clerical, labour and apprenticeship help, high schools can be
extensively used. For technical, manigerial and professional jobs, colleges, university
departments and specialised institutes, like the IITs and IIMs, are used. These
institutions usually have a placement officer or a teacher-in-charge of placement, who
normally provides help in attracting employers arranging interviews, furnishing space
and other facilities and providing student resumes. The companies maintain a list of
such institutions,,keep in touch with them, send their brochures indicating job openings,
future prospects, et?. On the basis of these students who want to be considered for the
given job(s) are referred to the company recruiter.
Employees' Contact with the Public: The employees of the organisation are told about
the existence af particular vacancies and they bring this to the notice of their relatives,
friends and acquaintances.
*.
Manned Exhibits: The organisations send recruiters to conventions and seminars, setting
up exhibits at fairs; and using mobile offices to go to the desired centres.
Waiting Lists: Many firms lean heavily on their own application files. These record list
individuals who have indicated their interest in jobs, either after, visiting the
organisation's employment office or making enquiries by mail or phone. Such records
prove a very useful source if they are kept up-to-date.
b) Indirect Methods: Indirect methods cover advertising in newspapers, on the radio,
in trade and professional journals, technical journals and brochures.
When qualified and experienced persons are not available through other sources,
advertising in newspapers and professional and technical journals is made. 'Whereas all
types of 'advertisements can be made in newspapers and magazines, only particular
types of posts should be advertised in the professional and technical journals, e.g. only
engineering jobs should be inserted in journals of engineering.
A well thought-out and planned advertisement for an appointment reduces the
possibility of unqualified people applying. If the advertisement is clear and to the point,
candidates can assess their abilities and suitability for the position and only those who
possess the requisite qualifications will apply.
22 c) Third-Party Methods: Various agencies are used for recruitment under these
methods. These include commercial and private employment agencies, 'state agencies, Recruitment, Selection
andInduction
placement offices of schools, colleges and professional associations, recruiting firms,
management consulting firms, indoctrination seminars for college professors, friends
and relatives.
Privute Employment Agencies: These agencies specialise in specific occupation like
general office help, salesmen, technical workers, accountants, computer staff, engineers
and executives, etc. These agencies bring together the employers and suitable persons
available for a job. Because of their specialisation, they can interpret the needs of their
clients and seek out pPticular types of persons.
State or Public Employment Agencies: These agencies also known as Employment or
Labour Exchanges, are the main agencies for public employment. They also provide a
wide range of services, like counselling, assistance in getting jobs, information about
the labour market, labour and wage rates, etc.
Executive Seurch Agencies: These agencies maintain complete information records about
employed executives and recommend persons of high calibre for managerial, marketing
and production engineers' posts. These agencies are looked upon as 'head hunters',
'raiders', and 'pirates'.
Indoctrination Seminars for College Professors: These are arranged to discuss the
problems of companies to which professors' are invited. Visits and banquets are
arranged so that professors may be favourably impressed and later speak well of the
company and help in getting required personnel.
Friends and Relatives of Present Employees: These constitute a good source from
which employees may be drawn. This, however, is likely to encourage nepotism, i.e.
persons of one's own community or caste may only be employed. This may create
problems for the organisation.
Trade Unions: Trade Unions are often called on by the employers to supply whatever
additional employees may be needed. Unions may be asked for recommendations
largely as a matter of courtesy and an evidence of goodwill and cooperation.
Professional Societies: Professional Societies may provide leads and clues in providing
promising candidates for engineering, technical and management positions. Some of
these maintain mail order placement services.
Temporary Help Agencies: Employ their own labour force, both full-time and part-time
and make them available to their client organisations for temporary needs.
Casuul Labour Source is one which presents itself daily at the factory gate or
employment office. Most industrial units rely to some extent on this source. This
source, you will realise, is the most uncertain of all sources.
Deputation: Persons possessing certain abilities useful to another organisation are
sometimes deputed for a specified duration. Ready expertise is available but, you can
guess, such employees do not easily become part of the organisation.
Activity 2
a) Recall your first appointment to the present organisation and write below which of
the above mentioned sources of recruitment was used by the organisation.
Human Resource Planning

b) Think of the various sources tapped by your organisation in getting employees for
your SectionDepartment and write below in order of importance ihc first five.

RECRUITMENT
THE EMERGING CHALLENGES
Attract people with multi-dimensional .experiences and skills
Induct outsiders with a new perspective to lead the company
Infuse fresh blood at every level of the organisation
Develop a culture that attracts people to the company
Locate people whose personalities fit the company's values
Devise methodologies for assessing psychological traits
Seek out unconventional development grounds of talent
I
Search for talent globally, and not just within the country
Design entry pay that competes on quality, and not quantum
Anticipate and find people for positions that do not exist yet
Source: Business Epduy, January 7-21, p. 55, 1996. 1

2.5 SELECTION
Selection, as you have seen earlier, is the process of securing relevant information
about an applicant to evaluate his qualifications, experience and other qualities with a
view to matching these with the requirements of a job. It is essentially a process
(picking out the man or men best suited for the organisation's requirements).
The Selection Process, you would recall that selection process involves rejection of
unsuitable or less suitable applicants. This may he done at any of the successive
hurdles which an applicant must cross. These hurdles act as screens designed to
eliminate an unqualified applicant at any point in the process. This technique is known
as the 'successive hurdles technique'. Fig. 2.1 gives these hurdles.
Yoder calls these hurdles 'go, no-go' gauges. Those who qualify a hurdle go to the next
one, those who do not qualify are dropped out. Not all selection processes, however,
include these hurdles. The complexity of the process usually increases the level and
responsibility of the position to be filled. Moreover, these hurdles need not necessarily
be placed in the same order. Their arrangement may differ from organisation to
organisation.

Initial Screening or Preliminary Interview

This is a sorting process in which prospective applicants are given the necessary
information about the nature of the job and also, necessary information is elicited from
the candidates about their education, experience, skill, salary expected, etc. If the
candidate is found to be suitable, he is selected for further process and, if not, he is
eliminated: This is a crude screening and can be done across the counter in the
 Rwrnihmt, Selection
- anad Ind~rction

Fig. 2.1: Successive Hurdles in the Selection Process

organisation's employment offices. This is done by a junior executive in the personnel

department. Due care should be taken so that suitable candidates are not turned down
in a hurry. Since this provides personal contact for an individual with the company, the
interviewer should be courteous, kind, receptive and informal.
When a candidate is found suitable, an application form is given to him to fill in and
submit.

Application Scrutiny
You might have seen that sometimes applications are asked on a plain sheet. This is
done where no application forms are designed. The applicant is asked to give details
about age, marital status, educational qualifications, work experience and references.
Different types of application forms may be used by the same organisation for different
types of employees, e.g., one for managers, the other for supmvisors and a third for
other employees. Some forms are simple, general and easily answerable, while others '
may require elaborate, complex and detailed information. Reference to nationality, race,
caste, religion and place of birth has been regarded as evidence of discriminatory
attitudes and should be avoided. An application form should be designed to serve as a
highly effective preliminary screening device, particularly, when applications are
received in direct response to an advertisement and without any preliminary interview.
The application can be used in two ways: (i) to find out on the basis of information
contained therein as to the chances of success of the candidate in the job for which he
is applying, and (ii) to provide a starting point for the interview.
It is often possible to reject candidates on the basis of scrutiny of the application as
they are found to be lacking in educational standards, experience or some other relevant
eligibility and traits.
Human Resource Planning Selection Strategy
Consideration of selection strategy emphasizes (i) vacancy ratio (number of candidates
available for the vacancy) and (ii) the probable cost of appointing an unsuitable
candidate as the two most relevant parameters. These may be regarded as independent
issues and can therefore be represented as the vertical and horizontal axis of a diagram
as follows:

Low High

Fig. 2.2 :Selection Strategy

Probable cost of selecting unsuitable candidates: Four situations -A, B, C, D are

represented in Fig. 2.2 given above. Now we consider probable solutions for each.
Situation A: In this situation there are many applicants and the'cost of wrong selection
is low, e.g., little investment is needed to train the recruits. The obvious strategy here
would be to apply screening devices, such as applikation blank, short interview etc.
which involve minimum cost.
Sitwtion B: In this situation there are many applicants and the cost of wrong selection
is very high. The right selection strategy would be tests, medical examination and series
of interviews to prevent wrong selection.
Situation C: Here we find very few candidates but the cost of wrong selection is low;
the strategy here would be, take of them (if there are so many vacancies) and see how
they turn out.
Situation D: Here we find few candidates but the cost of wrong choice is very high.
There is no obvious strategy. The management has to depend upon experience for
guidance.

2.6 SELECTION TESTS

A test is a sample of an aspect of an individual's behaviour, performance or attitude. It
can also be a systematic procedure for comparing the behaviour of two or more
persons.
Purpose of Tests: The basic assumption underlying the use of tests in personnel
selection is that individuals are different in their job-related abilities and skills and that
these skills can be adequately and accurately measured.
Tests seek to eliminate the possibility of prejudice on the part of the interviewer or
supervisor. Potential ability only will govern selection decisions.
The other major advantage is that the tests may uncover qualifications and talents that
would not be detected by interviews or by listing of education and job experience.
Qpes of Tests: The various tests used in selection can be put into four categories:
(a) Achievement or Intelligence Tests, (b) Aptitude or Potential Ability Tests,
(c) Personality Tests, and (d) Interest Tests.
These tests and what they measure are described below.
a) Achievement or Intelligence Tests
These are also called 'proficiency tests'. These measure the skill or knowledge which is
acquired as a result of a training programme and on the job experience. These measure
what the applicant can do. These are of two types:
 Test for Measuring Job Knowledge: These are known as 'Trade Tests'. These are Recruitment, Selection
and Induction
administered to determine knowledge of typing, shorthand and in operating calculaLors,
adding machines, dictating and transcribing machines or simple mechanical equipment.
These are primarily ord tests consisting of a series of questions which are believed to
be satisfactorily answered only by those who know and thoroughly understand the trade
or occupation. Oral tests may be supplemented by written, picture or performance types.
Work Sample Tests: These measure the proficiency with which equipment can be
handled hy the candidate. This is done by giving him a piece of work to judge how
efficiently he does it. For example, a typing test would provide the material to be typed
, and note the time taken and mistakes committed.
1 b) Aptitude or Potential Ability Tests

i
These tests measure the talent or ability of a candidate to learn a new job or skill.
Through these tests you can detect peculiarity or defects in a person's sensory or
intellectual capacity. These focus attention on particular types of talent such as learning,
reasoning and mechanical or musical aptitude. 'Instruments' used are variously
described as tests of 'intelligence', 'mental ability','mental alertness', or simply as
'personnel tests'. These are of three types:
Mental Tests: These measure the overall intellectual ability or the intelligence quotient
(I.Q.) of a person and enable us to know whether he has the mental capacity to deal
with new problems. These determine an employee's fluency in language, memory,
induction, reasoning, speed of perception; and spatial visualisation.
Mechanical Aptitude Tests: These measure the capacity of a person to learn a particular
type of mechanical work. These are useful when apprentices, machinists, mechanics,
maintenance workers, and mechanical technicians are to be selected.
Psychomotor or Skill Tests: These measure a person's ability to do a specific job. These
are administered to determine mental dexterity or motor ability and similar attributes
involving muscular movemen!, control and coordination. These are primarily used in the
selection of workers who have to perform semi-skilled and repetitive jobs, like
assembly work, packing, testine, inspection and so on.
c) Personality Tests
These discover clues to an individual's value system, his emotional reactions, maturity
and his characteristic mood. The tests help in assessing a person's motivation, his
ability to adjust himself to the stresses of everyday life and his capacity for inter-
personal relations and for projecting an impressive image of himself. They are
expressed in terms of the relative significance of such traits of a person as self-
confidence, ambition, tact, emotional control, optimism, decisiveness, sociability,
conformity, objectivity, patience, fear, distrust, initiative, judgement, dominance,
impulsiveness, sympathy, integrity, and stability. These tests are given to predict
potential performance and success for supervisory or managerial jobs.
The personality tests are basically of three types:
Objective Tests: These measure neurotic tendencies, self-sufficiency, dominance,
submission and self-confidence.
Projective Tests: In these tests, a candidate is asked to project his own interpretation
onto certain standard stimuli. The way in which he responds to these stimuli depends
on his own values, motives and personality.
Situation Tests: These measure an applicant's reaction when he is placed in a peculiar
situation, his ability to undergo stress and his demonstration of ingenuity under
pressure. These tests usually relate to a leaderless group situation, in which some
problems are posed to a group and its members are asked to reach some conclusions
without the help of a leader.
d) Interest Tests
These tests are designed to discover a person's areas of interest and to identify the kind
of work that will satisfy him. The interest tests are used for vocational guidance, and
are assessed in the form of answers to a well-prepared questionnaire. '
 I Human Resource Planning Limitations of Selection Tests: Frcl:n the basic description of tests described above,
one should not conclude that a hundred per cent prediction of an individual's on-the-job
success can be made through these tests. These tests, at best, revekl that candidates who
.

have scored above the predetermined cut-off points are likely to be more successful
than those who have scored below the cut-off point.
Tests are useful when the number of applicants is large. Moreover, tests will serve no
useful purpose if they are not properly constructed or selected or administered.
Precautions in using Selection Tests: Test results can help in selecting the best
candidates if the following precautions are taken:
i Norms should be develo~edas a source of reference on all tests used in selection
1 and on a representative sample of people on a given job in the same organisation.
This is necessary even though 'standkd' tests are available now under each of the
above categories. Nonns developed elsewhere should not be blindly used because
companies differ in their requirements, culture, organisation structure and
philosophy.
ii) Some'Warm up' should be provided to candidates either by giving samples of test,
andlor answering queries before the test begins.
iii) Tests should first be validated for a given organisation and then administered for
selection of personnel to the organisation.
iv) ~ a c htest used should be assigned a weightage in the selection.
v) Test scoring, administration and interpretation should be done by persons having
technical competence and training in testing.
Activity 3
a) Was any psychological test administered to you for selection or promotion?
Yes No
b) If yes, can you recall at what stage of your career was it given and what were
you required to do? I

c) Can you fit it into one of the above mentioned categories? I

Stage Required to do
First Selection as.........................................................
....................................................................................
Category of Test
.......................................
....................................... 1
Later promotion to.....................................................
....................................................................................
.......................................
....................................... 1
2.7 INTERVIEW

I
We shall now discuss the post application form interview and not the preliminary
interview.
Personal interview is the most universally used tool in any selection process.
Meaning and Purpose
An interview is a conversation with a purpose between one person on one side and
II
another person or persons on the other. An employment interview should serve three
purposes,
- viz., (i) obtaining
- information, (ii) giving information, and (iii) motivation. It
should provide an appraisal of personality by obtaining relevant information about the
prospective employee's background, training work history, education and interests. The
candidate should be given information about the company, the specific job and the Recruitment, Selection
personnel policies. It should also help in establishing a Eriendly relationship between the and Induction
enlployer and the applicant and motivate the satisfactory applicant to want to work for
the company or organisation.
In practice, however, it may turn out to be a one-sided affair. It helps only in obtaining
information about the candidate. The other two purposes are generally not served.
Types of Interviews
Infortnal Interview: This may take place anywhere. The employer or a manager in the
personnel department, may ask a few questions, like name, place of birth, previous
experience, etc. It is not planned and is used widely when the labour market is tight
and you need workers very badly. A friend or a relative of the employer may take a
candidate to the house of the employer or manager where this type of interview may be
conducted.
Formal Interview: This is held in a more formal atmosphere in the employment.office
by the employment officer with the help of well-structured questions. The time and
place of the interview are stipulated by the employment office.
Planned Interview: This is a formal interview carefully planned. The interviewer has a
plan of action worked out in relation to time to be devoted to each candidate, type of
information to be sought, information to be given, the modality of interview and so on.
He may use the plan with some amount of flexibility.
Patterned Interview: This is also a planned interview but planned to a higher degree of
accuracy, precision and exactitude. A list of questions and areas is carefully prepared.
The interviewer goes down the list of questions, asking them one after another.
Nun-directive Interview: This is designed to let the interviewee speak his mind freely.
The interviewer is a careful and patient listener, prodding whenever the candidate is
silent. The idea is to give the candidate complete freedom to 'sell' himself without
encumberances of the interviewer's questions.
Depth Interview: This is designed to intensively examine the candidate's background
and thinking and to go into considerable detail on a particular subject of special interest
to the candidate. The theory behind it is that if the candidate is found good in his area
of special interest, the chances are high that if given a job he would take serious
interest in it.
Stress Interview: This is designed to test the candidate and his conduct and b&aviour
by putting him under conditions of stress and strain. This is very useful to. test the
behaviour of individuals under disagreeable and trying situations.
.Group Interview: This is designed to see how .the candidates react to and against each
other. All the candidates may be brought together in the office and they may be
interviewed. The candidates may, alternatively, be given a topic for discussion.and be
observed as to who will lead the discussion, how they will participate in the'discussion,
how each will make his presentation and how they will react to each other's views and
presentation.
Panel Interview: This is done by members of the interview board or a selection
committee. This is done usually for supervisory and managerial positions. It pools the
collective judgement and wisdom of members of the panel. The candidate may be
asked to meet the panel individually for a fairly lengthy interview.
Interview Rating
Important aspects of personality can be categorised under the following seven main
headings:
Physical Make-up: Health, physique, age, appearance, bearing, speech.
e Attainments: Education, occupational training and experience.
e Intelligence: Basic and 'effective'.
Special Aptitudes: Written and oral fluency of expression, numerary, organisational
ability, administrative skill.
Human Resource Planning a Interests: Intellectual, practical, physically active, social, artistic
a Disposition: Self-reliance, nature, motivation, acceptability.
Circumstances: Domestic, social background and experience, future prospect.
This is called 'The Seven Point Plan'. The importance of each of these points will vary
from organisation to organisation and from job to job. Hence, these should be assigned
weightage according to their degree of importance for the job.
On the basis of information gathered through an interview, each candidate should be
rated in respect of each point given above as (i) outstanding, (ii) good, (iii) above
average, (iv) below average, or (v) unsatisfactory. Marks should be allotted to each of
thess, and the score for each point is arrived at by multiplying it by weights and the
total of all these will determine the final position of a candidate at the interview.
Limitations of Interviews
Interviews have their own limitations in matters of selection. Some of these are
mentioned below:
a Subjective judgement of the interviewer may be based on his prejudices, likes,
dislikes, biases, etc.
a One prominent characteristic of a candidate may be allowed to dominate appraisal
of the entire personality.
a The interviewer's experience may have created a close association between some
particular trait and a distinctive type of personality.
a Some managers believe that they are good at character analysis based on some
pseudo scientific methods and are guided by their own abilities at it.
Qualities of 'Good' Interviewers
A good interviewer should have the following qualities:
a Knowledge of the job or other things with which interviews are concerned.
a Emotional maturity and a stable personality.
a Sensitivity to the interviewee's feelings and a sympathetic attitude.
a Extrovert behaviour and considerable physical and mental stamina.
Guidelines for Improving Interviews
Not all interviews are effective. Their effectiveness can be improved if the following
points are kept in mind by an interviewer:
a An interview should have a definite time schedule with ample time for interview.
It should not be hurried,
a The impersonal approach should be avoided.
a Interview should have the necessary element of privacy.
a The interviewer should listen carefully to what the applicant says and the
information collected should be carefully recorded either while the interview is
, going on or immediately thereafter.
a Attention should be paid not just to the words spoken, but also to the facial .
expressions and mannerisms of the interviewee.
a The interview should end when sufficient information has been gathered.
a The interviewee should be told where he stands-whether he will be contacted
later, whether he is to visit another person, or it appears that the organisation will
not he able to use his abilities.
Pseudo-Scientific Methods of Selection
In the past, and to some extent even now, stereotyped impressions of personality and
characteristics were used as a basis of selection. These impressions were gathered
through pseudo-scientific methods, like phrenology, physiognomy and graphology.
We shall briefly describe below these methods for your background knowledge only:
 Phrenology: Here it is believed that the strength of each faculty is indicated by
prominent bumps on certain parts of the skull.
Physiognomy: Here it is believed that there is a definite correlation between facial
features and psychological functions and behaviour, e.g., thin lips indicate
determination, broad jaws signify tenacity and so on.
Graphology: Here it is believed that there is a close relationship between handwriting
and personality.

Activity 4
Please find out from your Personnel Department which of the above mentioned t:
of interviews they use for the purpose of selection. What do they aim to judge
through each of these interviews and for selection of what level of employees are
these used'? Write below the information you collect.
Types of interviews Points to be judged Level of employees

2.7 PHYSICAL EXAMINATION

Applicants who get over one or more of the preliminary hurdles, are sent for a physical
examination either to the organisation's physician or to a medical officer approved for
the purpose.
Purposes: A physical examination serves the following purposes:
i) It gives an indication regarding fitness of a candidate for the job concerned.
ii) It discovers existing disabilities and obtains a record thereof, which may be helpful
later in deciding the company's responsibility in the event of a workman's
compensation claim.
iii) It helps in preventing employment of those suffering from some type of contagious'
I diseases.
iv) It helps in placing those who are otherwise employable but whose physical
handicaps may necessitate assignment only to specified jobs.
Contents of Physical Examination: Physical examination covers the following:
The applicant's medical history.
His physical measurements-beight, weight, etc.
General examination-skin, musculature and joints.
Special senses-visual and auditory activity.
Clinical examination-yes, ears, nose, throat and teeth.
Examination of chest and lungs.
Check-up of blood pressure and heart.
Pathological t$sts of urine, blood etc.
X-ray examination of chest and other parts of the body.
Neuro-psychiatric examination, particularly when medical history or a physician's
I observations indicate an adjustment problem.
You would realise that the importance of these characteristics varies from job to job
and, therefore, different weightages have to be given to each for an overall evaluation.
2.9 REFERENCE CHECKS AND FINAL DECISION
The applicant is asked to mention in his application the names and addresses of,
usually, three such persons who know him well. These may be his previous employers,
friends, or professional colleagues. They are approached by mail or telephone and
requested to furnish their frank opinion, without incurring any liability, about the
candidate either on specified points or in general. They are assured that all information
supplied would be kept confidential. Yet, often either no response is, received or it is
generally a favourable response. Applicants who cross all the hurdles are tinally
considered. If there are more persons than the number required for a job the best ones,
i.e., those with the highest scores are finally selected.

2.10 PLACEMENT
Sonletimes a particular person is selected for a given job. Often more than one person
may be selected for the jobs of similar nature. In the second case, individual employees
have to be put under individual siupervisors with the approval of the latter. In the first
case also his approval is also necessary but it should be done early in the selection
process.
A proper placement reduces employee turnover, absenteeism and accident rates and
improves morale.

2.11 INDUCTION, ORIENTATION OR

INDOCTRINATION
This is the last activity in relation to a newly employed person before he is trained for
his job.

Meaning
As explained earlier, it is introduction of an employee to 'he job and the organisation.
The primary purpose is to 'sell' the company to the new employee so that he may feel
proud of h s association with the company.

Purpose and Need

An enlployee has to work with fellow employees and his silpervisor. For this he must
know them, the way they work and also the policies and practices of the organisation
so that he may integrate himself with the enterprise. Any neglect in the area o f ,
induction and orientation may lead to high labour turnover, confusion, wasted time and
expenditure.

Induction Programme
A good induction programme should cover the following:
The company, its history and products, process of production and major operations
involved in his job.
The significance of the job with all necessary information about it including job
training and job hazards.
Structure of the organisation and the functiolis of various d e ~ ~ ~ r t m e n t s .
Employee's own department and job, and how he fits into the organisation.
Personnel policy and sources of information.
Company policies, practices, objectives and regulations.
Terms and conditions of service, amenities and welfare facilities.
Rules and regulations governing hours of work and over-time, safety and accident
prevention, holidays and vacations, methods of reporting, tardiness and absenteeism.
Grievances procedure and discipline handling.
 Recruitment, Selection
Social benefits and recreation services. and Induction
Oppomnities, promotions, transfer, suggestion schemes and job satisfaction.
An induction programme consists primarily of three steps:
General orientation by the staff: It gives necessary general information about the
history and the operations of the firm.The purpose is to help an employee to build up
some pride and interest in the organisation.
Specific orientation by the job supervisor: The employee is shown the department
and his place of work; the location of facilities and is told about the organisation's
specific practices and customs. The purpose is to enable the employee to adjust with
his work and environment.
Follow-up orientation by either the personnel department or the supervisor: This is
conducted within one week to six months of the initial induction and by a foreman or a
specialist.
The purpose is to find out whether the employee is reasonably well satisfied with him.
Through personal talks, guidance and counselling efforts are made to remove the
difficulties experienced by the newcomer.

2.12 LET US SUM UP

This unit has helped you to follow the process of selection in an organisation right
from the conception of an idea that a suitable person is to be put on a given job to the
point of ultimateiy selecting the most suitable person for it, putting him at ease and
making him feel at home with his fellow employees, his supervisor and the organisation
as a whole. It has helped you to understand the various activities involved in the
process and the order in which these are carried out. It has given you insight into the
various alternatives and methods of v a r i o i activities and under what circumstances
each is advisable. It has also helped you to realise the various precautions to be taken
so that your efforts under each activity bring desired results.

2.13 SELF-ASSESSMENT TEST

Take each of the objectives stated at the beginning of the Unit and regard it as a
question. Working from memory, write not more than half a page on each so that you
may assess whether you can recall the main points contained in the unit.

2.14 FURTHER READINGS

Fear, Richard A. (1984), The Evaluation Interview, McGraw-Hill: New York.
Maier, Norman R.F. (1982). Psychology in Industrial Organisation, Houghton Mifflin
Co.: New York.
Monappa, Arun and Saiyaddain, Mirza S. (1983), Personnel Management, Tata
McGraw-Hill: Bombay.
Pigors, P. and Charles A. Myers (1981), Personnel Administration-A Viewpoint and a
Method, McGraw-Hill: London.
Yoder, Dale and Paul D. Staudohar. (1982), Personnel Management a'nd Industrial
Relations, Prentice-Hall: Englewood-Cliffs.
 Job Analysis
UNIT 6 JOB ANALYSIS
Objectives
After going through this unit, you should be able to understand:
l the concept of job analysis and its significance to the organisations,
l the different methods of collecting information for job analysis, and
l job-anlaysis and its relationship vis-a-vis job description and job specification.

Structure
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Job Analysis
6.3 Some Considerations
6.4 Method of Collecting Information
6.5 Job Analysis: Process
6.6 Steps in the Job Analysis Process
6.7 Job Description
6.8 Design of Job Description
6.9 Uses of Job Description
6.10 Job Specification
6.11 Summary
6.12 Self-Assessment Questions
6.13 Further Readings

6.1 INTRODUCTION
Organisation is described as a rational coordination of the activities of employees
through division of labour, responsibility, authority and accountability. Built in this
description is the realisation that organisations perform a series of activities and that
to perform these activities different kinds of skills are required. Each activity carries
its own set of responsibilities and the employees are given appropriate authority to
perform these activities. Not only this, they are also accountable to the organisation
through their immediate supervisors for accomplishing these activities according to
specifications. Hence, a clear understanding of what they are supposed to do becomes
a pre- requisite for effective utilisation of organisational resources. Job analysis helps
us to achieve this objective.

6.2 JOB ANALYSIS

There exists a wide range of job evaluation methods. The choice of an evaluation
method is dependent on the number and kind of jobs to be evaluated, the cost of the
operation, available resources, the degree of precision required and the organisations’
environments- both internal and external. However, whatever be the chosen method,
systematic gathering and analysis of information about jobs is a prerequisite. The job
analysis process involves gathering of such information.

5
Approaches to Job analysis is the process by which data, with regard to each job, is systematically
Analysing Job observed and noted. It provides information about the nature of the job and the
characteristics or qualifications that are desirable in the jobholder. The data from job
analysis could be used for a variety of purposes. The job analysis study attempts to
provide information in seven basic areas:
1. Job Identification or its title, including the code number, if any.
2. Distinctive or significant characteristics of the job, its location setting, supervi-
sion, union jurisdiction, and hazards and discomforts, if any.
3. What the typical worker does: Specific operations and tasks that make up the
assignment, and their relative timing and importance; the simplicity, the routine,
or complexity of tasks, responsibility for others, for property, or for funds.
4. What materials and equipment the worker uses: Metals, plastics, grain, yarns;
and lathes, milling machines, electronic ignition testers, corn huskers, punch
presses, and micrometers are illustrative.
5. How the job is performed: The emphasis here is on the nature of operations, and
may specify such operations as handling, feeding, removing, drilling, driving,
setting up, and many others.
6. Required personnel attributes: Experience, training apprenticeship, physical
strength, coordination or dexterity, physical demands, mental capabilities,
aptitudes, and social skills are some attributes.
7. The conditions under which the work is performed: Working conditions and
work environments is a major contributing factor in the performance of the job,
and the satisfaction of the employee. A dimly highlighted, poorly ventilated and
crowded place of work hampers efficiency. The workers are forced to spend
more energy to accomplish tasks, which they can do, in much lesser efforts in
otherwise conditions. Poor working conditions have been found to cause greater
fatigue, negligence, absenteeism, indiscipline and insubordination among the
employees.
Each of these piece of information is essential; it is not sufficient to merely list a
series of tasks or duties, because each piece of information is used in determining the
level of work and responsibility and the knowledge, skill and abilities needed to
perform them to an acceptable level of proficiency.
The process of assembling and recording information on such essential
characteristics of jobs is known as job analysis. In other words, jobs are subjected to
analysis to find out precisely what the duties, responsibilities, working environment
and other requirements of a job are and to present these in a clear, concise and
systematic way. Job analysis should be undertaken by trained job analyst working in
close collaboration with managers and jobholders.
Before proceeding further, certain terms used in job analysis and related stages in the
job evaluation process need to be clarified.
Element: The smallest unit into which work can be divided.
Task: A distinct identifiable work activity, which comprises a logical, and
necessary step in the performance of a job.
Duty: A significant segment of the work performed in a job, usually
comprising several tasks.
Post (or): One or more duties, which require the services or activities of one
worker for their performance;
Job: A group of posts that are identical or involve substantially similar tasks.
Occupation: A group of jobs similar in terms of the knowledge, skills, abilities,
training and work experience required by workers for their successful
6
performance.
 Job Analysis
6.3 SOME CONSIDERATIONS
Job analysis might give the impression that while identifying components of job, we
are looking at everything that concerns the job. However, in analysing the job,
following considerations must be kept in mind:
1. Job analysis is not a one-time activity. Jobs are changing continuously. What
was a job yesterday is not the same job today and would not remain the same in
future. These changes are caused by changing technology, competition, chang-
ing profile of the workforce, changing expectations of end users and a host of
other factors. Hence, analysis must be continuously done to update the nature of
job.
2. The Job and not the person—an important consideration in job analysis is
conducted of the job and not of the person. While job analysis data may be
collect from incumbents through interviews or questionnaires, the product of the
analysis is a description or specifications of the job, not a description of the
person doing the job.
3. All activities relating to job analysis give us only the minimum requirements of
the job. No analysis can identify either the ultimate or full and complete require-
ments. What it does is simply highlights what are minimum activities that are
entailed in a job. The reason is simple. No one can foresee the final outcome
because of changes taking place in the nature of job.

6.4 METHOD OF COLLECTING INFORMATION

There are several ways in which information about a job can be collected. In order to
have a full understanding of the job contents, a number of sources should be
explored. By and large, the following sources are generally used.In all the following
three methods, verification of the information collected from the holder of the job is
necessary. Very often, while collecting information people tend to describe those
aspects of the job that they are not doing or would like to do. Hence, after the
information has been collected from the employee, an interview with immediate
supervisor must be conducted to verify the authenticity of the information.

1. Job Questionnaire
To make a start, a job questionnaire could be administered to all concerned
employees asking them about the job, its various components, time spent on each of
them, and so forth. The completed questionnaire could be given to the supervisors for
their comments. In some cases, job-reviewing committees are formed, consisting of
union representatives and specialists from the personnel, work-study, or industrial
engineering department.The questionnaire has the following advantages:
1. First of all, it is the most cost effective method, since it can elicit information
from a wide number of workers and their immediate superiors in a relatively
short period of time. The main task of the analyst becomes one of planning the
questionnaire well and checking the responses provided.
2. Secondly, workers take an active part in completing the questionnaire providing
intimate detailed knowledge of their jobs, which is not available elsewhere.
3. Thirdly, the questionnaire has to be structured in advance, and this facilitates the
processing of the results.
4. In some cases, once the responses to the questionnaire have been verified, they
can conveniently be used with little further processing to prepare a job
description. 7
Approaches to The questionnaire method however has the following disadvantages:
Analysing Job
1. To start with, the people required to complete it must have a certain level of
education; and even then, questions may be interpreted in different ways so that
the answers may be beside the point.
2. Furthermore, not everyone is able to describe fully and exactly the task that
constitute their job. One may, for example, over-emphasise some features of it
and completely ignore others when they are important.
3. There is less risk of this with a detailed questionnaire that includes a checklist of
points, questionnaire suited to all jobs is not easily drawn up and may be unduly
long.
In practice, while a well-structured questionnaire can get essential information
quickly, it is virtually impossible to get complete comparable information solely by
questionnaire, and this method is generally used in combination with interviews and
direct observation.

2. Interview
In practice, an interview is almost always necessary in order to obtain precise,
complete and comparable information. The interview conducted by the analyst is an
effective way of checking on the information already available on job. The analyst
asks the jobholders questions on the duties and main tasks of their job, generally
working from a previously prepared list of questions as with a questionnaire. After
the interview, the analyst draws up a report, which is shown, to the jobholder and his
immediate superior for their approval. The analyst usually drafts the report in the
form of a job description, which effectively speeds up the preparatory work of job
evaluation.
Following are some of the disadvantages of this method:
1. Interviews are time consuming. At least an hour or two may be necessary for
each case, plus the time spent by the analyst in drawing up his report and by the
jobholder and his immediate superior in checking it. In a large enterprise a team
of analysts would be necessary.
2. The main difficulty of the interview lies in finding high quality analysts who
can win the jobholder’s confidence. As has been noted, “ too many imagine
interviewing to be relatively simple whereas nothing could be farther from the
truth.” Obtaining information from a jobholder about his job is difficult.
3. Many workers show a natural distrust of the analyst who comes to examine their
work, while others will give a lot of information, much of it useless. It is
accordingly essential to have a well trained and experienced team of analysts if
the interview is to be the only method used.
However interview has some advantages:
1. Interview does provide in- depth information, which cannot be achieved through
any other method.
2. It also helps in collecting data about tasks that are not part of the job and yet the
jobholder has to do it.
3. At the same time it can also help in finding ways and means to simplify some of
the operations involved in the job.

3. Observation
For jobs of a simple and repetitive nature, the observation technique could provide
adequate information on the job being performed. A clear picture may be obtained
8 regarding the working conditions, equipment used, and skills required. Although all
jobs could be usefully observed, this technique alone is not enough for more complex Job Analysis
jobs, especially those that have many components or interactions.
Some advantages of this method are:
1. It is most suitable for simple and repetitive jobs.
2. Direct observation by the analyst can clear up points left unclear by other
methods.
At the same time, some of the disadvantages of this method are:
1. The presence of analyst causes stress. The workers may dislike being observed.
2. The jobholders may purposely reduce the pace of activity to justify overtime.
3. Observation cannot be a suitable method where the job calls for considerable
personal judgment and intellectual ability.
4. It may not take into account all the tasks in a work cycle stretched over a week
or a month.

4. Independent observers
In addition to the employees themselves providing information about the jobs they
are doing, trained observers could also be used to supplement the employees’ data
and to discover inadequate performance in “ crucial tasks”, which would lead to job
failure.
In addition there are some not so often used method of job analysis. Some of them
are presented here:
1. Diary: One or more incumbents are asked to keep a diary of duties noting the
frequency of the tasks performed. These diaries then become the basis for doing
job analysis.
2. Critical incidents: Ask one or more incumbents to brainstorm (if there is only
one person you will have to participate in the brain storming) about critical
incidents that happen routinely and infrequently while working. Separate these
into two lists. Generate one list of incidents indicating good or excellent perfor-
mance and one, which indicates poor performance. This approach is excellent
for determining training and selection strategies. The results lend themself to
meeting discrimination complaints concerning selection choices where the
person chosen clearly possesses the skill and knowledge to perform the most
critical duties indicating success on the job. The analyst will have to extrapolate
a list of duties to be performed from the incidents.
3. Photo tape recording of job performance: This is a good approach because it
can be watched over and over again to perform analysis and because it can be
pulled out later to re-evaluate. Having such a tape is excellent source for
undertaking job analysis.
4. Review of records: Records of work such as maintenance requests is reviewed
and a list of requested repairs is made. In this situation it is important to take
representative samples so that seasonal variations in work requests do not
mislead. This is a good approach for such jobs as mechanic or electrician. The
kinds of repairs being performed and, thus, the duties being performed most
often can be itemized. However, this approach could also be used for computer
programming and computer trouble-shooting jobs in which incumbents have
records of work requests or work competed.
The data to be gathered by all these methods is dependent in large part on the purpose
the analysis is to be put to. Information about training needs requires information
about the transaction of the work so that the trainer can determine the critical skills
and knowledge that must be improved. Selection decisions require the same
information usually on a broader scale. A lot of information can be inferred from 9
well-written task statements.
Approaches to Some of the examples of the kind of data, which can be gathered for job analysis, are
Analysing Job given below.
l List of tasks
l List of decisions made
l Indication of results if decisions are not made properly
l Amount of supervision received
l Supervision exercised
l Kind of personnel supervised
l Diversity of functions performed by supervised staff
l Interactions with other staff (description of the staff interacted with)
l Physical conditions
l Physical requirements (For instance how heavy are the objects that are lifted.
How much stooping and bending is conducted and under what conditions)
l Software used
l Programming language used
l Computer platform used
l Interpersonal contacts with outsiders (customers)
l Interpersonal persuasive skills or sales skills
l Amounts of mental or psychical stress
l Necessity to work as a team member
l Needed contributions to a work group
l Authority or judgment exercised
l Customer service skills
Generally, it is preferable to use a combination of several methods to get information
about the job. One method could well supplement the other, where the objective is to
gain as much information as possible about the job, the crucial tasks, and the
essential qualifications required to perform them satisfactorily. An objective data
gatherer would avoid introducing his own ideas, and also avoid describing the
employees performing the job, rather than the “job” itself, for many of the
employee’s personal traits may have little or no relevance to the job.

6.5 JOB ANALYSIS: PROCESS

To be meaningful and useful for personnel related decision-making, job analysis must
be carried more at frequent intervals. Jobs in the past were considered to be static and
were designed on the basis that they would not change. While people working on
these jobs were different, the jobs remained unchanged. It is now realised, that for
higher efficiency and productivity, jobs must change according to the employees who
carry them out. Some of the major reasons leading such change are:
Technological Change: The pace of change in technology necessitates changes in the
nature of job as well as the skills required. Word processing has drastically changed
the nature of secretarial jobs. Computerization and automation likewise give rise to
new requirements of certain jobs while older requirements become redundant.
Union- Management Agreements: The agreements entered between management and
the union can bring about change in the nature of job, duties and responsibilities. For
example, under employees participation scheme, the workers are encouraged to
10 accept wider responsibilities.
People: Human beings are not robots; each employee brings with him his own Job Analysis
strengths and weaknesses, his own style of handling a job and his own aptitude.
There is a saying that the job is what the incumbent makes of it.
Thus, the job analysis process must take into account the changing nature of job on
account of the factors listed above. Often, role analysis techniques are used in dealing
with the dynamic nature of job requirements.

6.6 STEPS IN THE JOB ANALYSIS PROCESS

The major steps to be followed in carrying out job analysis in an on-going
organization are given below:
1. Organization Analysis: The first step is to get an overall view of various jobs in
the organisation with a view to examine the linkages between jobs and the
organisational objectives, interrelationships among the jobs, and the contribu-
tion of various jobs towards achieving organisational efficiency and effective-
ness. The organisation chart and the work flow or process charts constitute an
important source of information for the purpose.
2. Uses of Job Analysis Information: Depending on organisational priorities and
constraints, it is desirable to develop clarity regarding the possible uses of the
information pertaining to job analysis. In the previous pages it has been already
indicated that such information could be utilised practically for all personnel
functions. Nevertheless, it is important to focus on a few priority activities in
which the job analysis information could be used.
3. Selection of Jobs for Analysis: Carrying out job- analysis is a time- consuming
and costly process. It is, therefore, desirable to select a representative sample of
jobs for purposes of analysis.
4. Collection of Data: Data will have to be collected on the characteristics of job,
the required behaviour and personal attributes needed to do the job effectively.
Several techniques for job analysis are available. Care needs to be taken to use
only such techniques, which are acceptable and reliable in the existing situation
within the organisation.
5. Preparation of Job Description: The information collected in the previous step
is used in preparing a job description for the job highlighting major tasks,
duties, and responsibilities for effective job performance.
6. Preparation of Job Specification: Likewise, the information gathered in step (4)
is also used to prepare the job specification for a job highlighting the personal
attributes required in terms of education, training, aptitude and experience to
fulfil the job description.
Job Analysis thus carried out provides basic inputs to the design of jobs so that it is
able to meet the requirements of both the organization (in terms of efficiency and
productivity) as well as the employees (in terms of job satisfaction and need
fulfilment). Developing appropriate job design is then the outcome of the job analysis
process.
The most important use of job analysis is to produce a basic job description of what
the job is to facilitate basic human resource problem solving. The second is to
provide employees and supervisors with a basic description of jobs describing duties
and characteristics in common with and different from other positions or jobs. When
pay is closely associated with levels of difficulty these descriptions will help foster a
feeling of organisational fairness related to pay issues. Other important uses of job
analysis are given below:
l Indicate training needs
l Put together work groups or teams 11
Approaches to l Provide information to conduct salary surveys
Analysing Job
l Provide a basis for determining a selection plan
l Provide a basis for putting together recruitment
l Describe the physical needs of various positions to determine the validity of
discrimination complaints
l As part of an organisational analysis
l As part of strategic planning
l As a part of any human relations needs assessment
l As a basis for coordinating safety concerns
Job analysis is indeed an essential part of any modern human resource management
system. The kind of information gathered through job analysis varies considerably
depending upon the specific uses to be made of it. Accordingly, job analysis
programmes are usually tailor-made for the specific purpose.

Activity A
“Smaller organisations do not need job analysis for their jobs because most of their
employees conduct a myriad of activities, too far-reaching for a standard job
analysis”. Give your view point.
.............................................................................................................................................
.............................................................................................................................................
.............................................................................................................................................

Activity B
Discuss the sources of errors in your own organisation or any organisation you are
familiar with, that can distort or render job analysis information inaccurate.
.............................................................................................................................................
.............................................................................................................................................
.............................................................................................................................................

6.7 JOB DESCRIPTION

Data collected for job analysis provides the basis for preparing job description. It
refers to the job contents and the expectations that an organisation has from its
employees. Job descriptions usually outline the minimum requirements of jobs for
many reasons:
1. First, despite all the attempts, a perfect and fully inclusive job description is not
possible. In fact, as one moves up in the hierarchy of an organisation, a detailed
job description becomes very difficult.
2. Secondly, most organisations would prefer not to describe the job fully, if it is
possible, because employees would then stick to what has been described and
would not do anything beyond it.
3. Thirdly, if a job were fully described, supervision would automatically be taken
care of by the duties performed, making some of the duties of the supervisory
staff redundant.
4. Fourthly, technology is changing fast and hence the nature of job is also chang-
ing. Unless an organisation continuously updates the job description, it would
12 be difficult to monitor the performance of the employees.
 Job Analysis
6.8 DESIGN OF JOB DESCRIPTION
A primary output or result of job analysis is job description. Information obtained by
job analysis is shifted and recorded concisely, clearly and fully in the job description.
The job description must assemble all the important elements of a job, such as
essential tasks, responsibilities, qualifications required and the functional relation of
the job to other jobs.
There is no universally accepted standard format for job descriptions for the reason
that the form and structure of the job descriptions must depend on the kind of work
being analysed and the job evaluation plan being used. For example, if the job
evaluation form comprises factors such as physical and intellectual effort,
knowledge, skills, responsibilities and working conditions, it follows that job
description should be structured to reflect these factors so as to facilitate factor by
factor comparison and evaluation of the jobs. With non- analytical methods, job
description may be more flexible and simpler but most specify the title of the job and
its position in the organisation, summarises the tasks performed and list the skills and
abilities required.
It is helpful to follow the following guidelines when writing a job description:
1. Always be accurate about what is expressed.
2. Omit expressions which are attributes— such as uninteresting, distasteful, etc.
3. Personal pronouns should be avoided— if it is necessary to refer to the worker,
the word “ operator” may be used.
4. Do not describe only one phase of the job and give the impression that all
phases are covered.
5. Generalized or ambiguous expressions, such as ‘prepare’, ‘assist’, ‘handle’ etc.
should be omitted unless supported by data that will clarify them.
6. All statements should be clearly defined and simply set down- promiscuous use
of adjectives only reflects one’s own opinion.
7. Describe the job as is being done, by the majority of workers holding the
designation.
8. Write in simple language— explain unusual technical terms.
9. Description of a job, which is part of teamwork, should establish the team
relationship.
10. The length of description is immaterial; it is not expected even with printed
forms that all job descriptions should be of equal length but write concisely.
11. When the job analyst finds that the data he has to work with is insufficient, s/he
should stop until sufficient data is available.
12. Put the date of completion of each description and revise it as often as changes
in jobs and occupation require.
13. Job description should have the concurrence of the concerned supervisor.
14. Description should contain the initials of the persons who compile them.

6.9 USES OF JOB DESCRIPTION

Apart from being a basis for job evaluation, the job descriptions can be put to many
uses. They are as under:
1. Supervisor- Employee Communication: The information contained in the job
description outlines the work, which the incumbent is expected to perform.
13
Approaches to Hence, it is an extremely useful document for both the supervisor and the
Analysing Job subordinate for purposes of communication. Furthermore, it helps employees to
understand just what work their associates are expected to perform, thus,
facilitating integration of efforts at the work site by the employees themselves.
2. Recruitment, Selection, Promotion, Transfer: Information pertaining to the
knowledge, skills and abilities required to perform the work to an acceptable
standard, can be used as a sound basis on which to base standards are
procedures for recruitment, selection, promotion and transfer.
3. Work Performance Appraisal: To be sound and objective, a performance
appraisal system must be rooted in the work performed by the employee; such
work is indicated by the duties in the job description. In such an approach, using
each duty as the basis for discussion, the employee and the supervisor agree on
work performance goals for the period to be covered by the subsequent
evaluation report; they also agree on the criteria to be used to determine the
extent to which the goals have been attained. The reports resulting from this
methodology minimize subjectivity by focusing attention on the job, as distinct
from the personality traits, habits or practices of the employee. As a conse-
quence, the results are more factual; valid and defensible than is the case in
other types of systems.
4. Manpower Planning, Training and Development: These three processes are
closely interrelated. The job description showing, in specific terms, the
knowledge, skill and ability requirements for effective performance of the
duties, is a sound and rational basis for each of these processes. Analysis of
various types of jobs at progressively more senior levels will indicate logical
sources of supply for more senior posts, as part of manpower planning. It will
also indicate the gap to be bridged in terms of knowledge, skill and ability, thus
providing a sound basis for preparing job- related training and development
programmes.
5. Industrial Relations: Frequently, issues arise in the industrial relations field,
which have their origin in the work to be undertaken. In these instances the job
description may be used to form a factual basis for discussion and problem
resolution.
6. Organization and Procedure Analysis-The duties and responsibilities outlined in
the job description may be used to a great advantage by management in
analysing organisation and procedures, because they reveal how the work is
organised, how the procedure operate and how authority and responsibility are
appointed.
A Job Description should include a:
1. Job Title: It represents a summary statement of what the job entails.
2. Job Objective or Overall Purpose Statement: This statement is generally a
summary designed to orient the reader to the general nature, level, purpose and
objective of the job. The summary should describe the broad function and scope
of the position and be no longer than three to four sentences.
3. List of Duties or Tasks Performed: The list contains an item-by-item list of
principal duties, continuing responsibilities and accountability of the occupant
of the position. The list should contain each and every essential job duty or
responsibility that is critical to the successful performance of the job. The list
should begin with the most important functional and relational responsibilities
and continue down in order of significance. Each duty or responsibility that
comprises at least five percent of the incumbent’s time should be included in the
list.
14
4. Description of the Relationships and Roles: the occupant of the position holds
 within the company, including any supervisory positions, subordinating roles Job Analysis
and/or other working relationships.

6.10 JOB SPECIFICATION

Workload analysis helps in identifying the minimum qualification needed to perform
a particular job. These may include academic qualifications, professional
qualifications, age, years of experience, relevance and nature of previous experience,
and other skills and attitudes. They form the minimum eligibility requirements, which
the candidate must have, for the appointment to a job. A clear indication of
specifications helps in generating eligible applications, because of self-selection. The
candidates who do not possess those qualifications do not apply. On the other hand,
lack of clear- cut specifications may generate a large number of applications, leading
to high costs, in terms of man-hours, in processing them.
There is a great deal of disagreement with regard to developing complete and correct
job specification unlike the job description, which provides more objective
assessment of job requirements. The decision to specify minimum human
requirements for a job is a difficult one as it involves considerable degree of
subjectivity. There is a general feeling that organisations generally tend to establish
relatively high requirements for formal education and training, resulting in a situation
where highly qualified people end up doing jobs of routine nature. Particularly, in
India, highly qualified personnel are recruited for jobs where their abilities, skills and
knowledge are under- utilized.
Despite these problems, however, minimally acceptable human requirements need to
be specified for various jobs and category of jobs. The format for job specification
should include the following items:
l Position Title
l Education/ Training
l Experience
l Knowledge
l Abilities
l Skills
l Aptitude
l Desirable Attributes
l Contra-indicators, if any.
From job analysis to jobless world
Job enrichment means redfining in a way that increases the opportunities for workers
to experience building of responsibility, achievement, growth and recognition by
doing job well.
l Analysing together the job
l Establishing client recognition
l Vertical loading
l Job-Sharing
l Flexible job doing pattern etc.
l Open feedback channels.
Whether specialised, enlarged or enriched, workers skill generally like to have
15
Approaches to specific job to do and the job require job descriptions. But in the emerging
Analysing Job organisation today jobs are becoming more amorphous and more difficult to define.
In other words the trend is towards “do-jobbing in many modern organisation.

6.11 SUMMARY
Job Analysis is the process of job-related data. The data collected will be useful for
preparing job description and job specification. Job description lists job title, duties,
machines and equipment involved, working conditions surrounding a job and the
like. Job specification lists the human qualifications and qualities necessary to do the
job.
Job analysis is useful for HRP, recruitment and selection, training and development,
job evaluation, remuneration, performance appraisal, personnel information and
safety and health programmes. It also aides analysis of the organisation structures and
the work systems/procedures and contribute towards improving the productivity of
the organisation.
A logical sequence to job analysis is job design which is nothing but organisation of
tasks, duties and responsibilities into a unit of work.

6.12 SELF-ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS

1. What do you mean by job analysis? Explain the process of job analysis.
2. Explain various methods of collecting information for job analysis.
3. Define job description. Explain the uses of job description.

6.13 FURTHER READINGS

Aswathappa, A. (2002) Human Resource and Personnel Management: New Delhi:
Tata McGraw.
Beddoe Robin Forbes (1988). How to prepare a job evaluation: Job Description,
Working Time Analysts.
Burns, M (1978). Understanding Job Evaluation, Institute of Personnel Management,
London, IPM.
ILO (1986), Job Evaluation, ILO, Geneva.
Morris, J. Walker (1973). Principles and Practice of Job Evaluation, London,
Heinemann Halley Court, Jordan Hill, Oxford.
Peterson T.T(1972). Job Evaluation: A manual for Peterson Method. Vol 2, London,
Business Books.
Saiyadain, M.S(2003) Human Resource Management (3rd ed), New Delhi: Tata
McGraw
US Civil Service Commission (1976): Job Analysis. Washington D.C: U.S.
Government Printing Press.

16
UNIT-10 TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT

Structure

10.0 Learning Outcome

10.1 Introduction
10.2 Meaning of Training
10.3 Training, Development and Education
10.4 Importance of Training
10.5 Assessment of Training Needs
10.6 Learning & Teaching
10.7 Steps in Training Programme
10.8 Training Methods
10.9 Causes for Failure of Training
10.10 Evaluation of Training
10.11 Conclusion
10.12 Key Concepts
10.13 References and Further Reading
10.14 Activities

10.0 LEARNING OUTCOME

After reading this Unit, the learner will come to know:

• The meaning and importance of Training and Development;

• The significance of assessment of Training needs;
• The relevance of Training Methods; and
• The causes of failure of Training.

10.1 INTRODUCTION

Every organisation needs to have well trained and experienced people to perform the activities
required to be undertaken. It is necessary to raise the skill levels and increase the versatilities and
adaptability of employees to the requirements of an organisation in the changing world. Inadequate
job performance results in a decline in productivity of changes. Job redesigning or a technological
break-through require some type of training and development effort. In a rapidly changing society,

1
training and development is not only an activity that is desirable but also an activity that an
organisation must commit resources for maintaining a viable and knowledgeable workforce.

All types of jobs require some sort of training for efficient performance. Therefore, all the
employees, new and old, should be trained or retained. Every new employee regardless of his
previous training and experience needs to be introduced to the work-environment of his new Job and
taught how to perform specific tasks. Moreover, specific occasions for retraining arise when an
employee is transferred or promoted or when jobs change. Training is valuable to the new comer in
terms of better job security and greater opportunity for advancement. A skill thus, acquired by the
new entrant through training is an asset to the organisation.

10.2 MEANING OF TRAINING

Training is the process through which employees are made capable of doing the jobs prescribed to
them. According to Flippo, “Training is the act of increasing the knowledge and skills of an
employer for doing a particular job”.

According to Dale Yoder, “Training is the process by which man-power is filled for the particular
jobs it is to perform”. Beach says, “Training is the organised procedure by which people learn
knowledge and skills for a definite purpose”.

The trainee will acquire new manipulative skills, technical knowledge, problem-solving ability and
or attitudes, etc. Training is not one-step process but it is a continuous or never-ending process.
Training makes newly recruited workers fully productive in the minimum of time. Even for old
workers training is necessary to refresh them and to be conversant with required techniques. In
short, training is the act of improving or updating the knowledge and skills of an employee for
performing a particular job.

10.3 TRAINING, DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION

“Training”, “education”, and “development” are the three terms frequently used. On the face of it,
there might not be much difference between them, but when a deep thought is given, there appear
some differences between them. In all “training” there is some “education” and in all “education”
there is some “training”. And the two processes cannot be separated from “development”. Precise
definition is not possible and can be misleading but different persons have used these activities in
different ways.

Training: It is a process of training, a sequence of programmed behaviour. It is application of

knowledge. It gives people an awareness of the rules and procedures to guide their behaviour. It
attempts to improve their performance on the current job or prepare them for an intended job.

Development: It is a related process. It covers not only those activities which improve job
performance but also those that bring about growth of the personality, help individuals in the

2
progress towards maturity and actualisation of their potential capacities so that they become not only
good employees but better men or women.

In organisational terms, it is intended to equip persons to earn promotions and hold greater
responsibility. Training a person for a higher job is development. It may well not only include
imparting specific skills and knowledge but also inculcating certain personality and mental attitudes.
In this sense, development is not much different from “education”.

Education: It is the understanding and interpretation of knowledge. It does not provide definite
answers, but rather, it develops a logical and rational mind that can determine relationships among
pertinent variables and thereby understand phenomena. Education must impart qualities of mind and
character, understanding of basic principles, synthesis and objectivity. Usually, education involves a
range of skills and expertise, which can be provided only by educational institutions. An organisation
can and does make use of such institutions in order to support and supplement its internal training
and development efforts.

Distinction between Training and Development

Training
It is a short-term process utilising a systematic and organised procedure by which non-managerial
personnel have technical knowledge and skills for a definite purpose.

Development
It is a long-term educational process utilising a systematic and organised procedure by which
managerial personnel learn conceptual and the theoretical knowledge for general purpose.

Training refers only to instruction in technical and mechanical operations while development refers
to philosophical and theoretical educational concepts. It designed for non-managers, while
development involves managerial personnel. Campbell has observed that training courses are
typically designed for a short-term, while development involves a broader education for long-term
purposes.

Training and development differ on account of “what”, “who”, “why”, and “when”.

Learning Training Development

Dimensions
Who? Non-Managerial Personnel Managerial Personnel
What ? Technical and mechanical operations Theoretical Concepts or ideas
Why? Specific job-related purpose General Knowledge
When? Short-term Long-term

3
Training and Development
Employee training is distinct from management development or executive development. While the
former refers to training given to employees in the areas of operations, technical and allied, the latter
refers to developing an employee in the areas of principles and techniques of management,
administration, organisation and allied areas. It could be more appropriately understood through the
following:

- Training is meant for all individuals, that meant for operators or non-managers is often
called learning: Training and all other developmental activities meant for executive are
considered as executive development activities;
- The aim of training is to develop specific abilities in an individual. The aim of
development is to enhance the total personality of the individual;
- Training is a specific activity or one-shot affair aimed to imparting specific job-related
information and skills. Development is a continuous process;
- Training is mostly a preparation to meet an individual’s present needs. It can thus, be
seen as a reactive process. Development is a preparation to meet his future process
having long-run objectives; and
- the initiative for training largely comes from management, the initiative for
development comes from the individual himself, and it is a result of internal motivation.
Various activities, planned and unplanned, formal and informal, initiated and carried
out by individual and the organisation, come under development.

10.4 IMPORTANCE OF TRAINING

Training enables the employees to get acquainted with jobs and increase their aptitudes, skills and
knowledge. It helps the newly recruited to be productive in minimum amount of time. Even for the
experienced workers, it is necessary to refresh them an enable them to keep up with new methods,
techniques, new machines and equipments for doing the work. According to Dale S. Beach
“Training is vital and necessary to activity in all organisational and of plays a large part in
determining the effectiveness and efficiency of the establishment”. Training is advantageous not
only to the organisation but also the employees.

Advantages to the Organisation

The major advantages of training to organisation could be referred to as:

1) Follow up of selection procedure: Training is a follow up of selection procedure. It

helps in choosing the most appropriate individuals for different jobs. Training can be
used in spotting out promising persons and in removing defects in selection process;
2) Better Performance: Training is about improvement of the quality of output by
increasing the skill of the employee. This makes the fresh and old employee acquire
more skills and thus, be accurate in performance of their work;
3) Reduction in Cost Production: Training personnel is to make better and economical
use of materials and equipments besides decreasing wastage. In addition, the rate of
accidents and damage to machinery and equipment is at the minimum by the well
trained employees amounting to lesser cost of production per unit,
4
 4) Reduced Supervision: If the employees are given proper training, the need of
supervision gets lessened. A well trained employee is self-reliant in his work as he
comes to know what is to be and how. Under such situations, close supervision is not
much required. Leaving the scope for the management focus its attention on other basic
and important functions;
5) Increased morale: The morale of the employee gets boosted, if they are given proper
training. As a common objective of the organisation, training programme moulds its
employees’ attitude to achieve support for organisational activities and obtain better
cooperation and greater loyalty. With the help of tiny dissatisfaction, complaints,
absenteeism and turnover can also be reduced among the executives. Thus, training
helps in building an efficient and cooperative work force; and
6) Organisational Stability and Flexibility: Training increases the stability and flexibility
of the organisation. Creation of a reservoir of trained replacements increases the
stability of the organisation that is; the organisation is able to sustain its effectiveness
despite the loss of key personnel.

Advantages to the Executive

The incumbents on executive position have advantages to their credit through training. It could be
reflected as follows:

1) Increase in wage earning capacity: Training helps the executive in acquiring new
knowledge and job skills. In this way, it increases their market value and wage earning
power leading to increase in their pay and status.
2) Job Security: Training can help an executive to develop his ability to earn make the
official adaptive to new work methods, besides learning to use new kinds of equipment
and adjusting to major changes in job contents as well a work relationship; and
3) Chances of Promotion: Training also qualifies the executives for promotion to more
responsible jobs.

Limitations of Training

Every coin has two sides. The other side of training, that is, its limitations are as such:

1. Training is a costly affair and expensive process making organisations to spend

substantive amount, taken out of other organisational commitments.
2. Training may result in dislocation of work and loss of output because regular office work
is likely to be interrupted or delayed because of the time of trainees spent in training;
3. Sometimes, it is difficult to obtain good training instructors and leaders; and
4. Self-reliance and capacity for new ideas might be stiffed.

10.5 ASSESSMENT OF TRAINING NEEDS

5
Training needs are identified on the basis of organisational analysis, job analysis and man-power
analysis. Training programmes, training methods and course contents have to be planned in keeping
with the training needs. Training needs are those aspects necessary to perform the job in an
organisation in which executive is lacking attitude/aptitude of knowledge and skills.

The following methods are used to assess the training needs:

1) Organisational requirements and weaknesses;

2) Departmental requirements/weaknesses;
3) Job specifications and employee specifications;
4) Identifying specific problems;
5) Anticipating future problems;
6) Management’s request;
7) Observation;
8) Interviews;
9) Group conferences;
10) Questionnaire Surveys;
11) Tests or examinations;
12) Check lists; and
13) Performance appraisal

10.6 LEARNING AND TEACHING

The training programme will not be effective if the trainer is not properly equipped with the technical
aspects of the content or if he lacks aptitude for teaching and teaching skills. Training comprises of
mainly learning and teaching. Training principles can be studied through the principles of learning
and teaching.

Some of the significant principles and assumptions of learning include:

1) All human beings can learn

2) An individual must be motivated to learn
3) Learning is active and not passive
4) Learners may acquire knowledge more rapidly with guidance. Feedback ensures
improvement in speed and accuracy of learning
5) Appropriate material (like case studies, tools, problems, readings, etc) should be provided
6) Time must be provided to practice learning
7) Learning methods should be varied. Variety of methods should be introduced to off-set
fatigue and boredom

6
 8) Learners need reinforcement of correct behaviour
9) Standards of performance should be set for the learner
10) Different levels of learning exists
11) Learning is an adjustment on the part of an individual
12) Individual differences play a large part in effectiveness of the learning process
13) Learning is a cumulative process
14) Ego factor is widely regarded as a major factor in learning
15) The rate of learning decreases when complex skills are involved.
16) Learning is closely related to attention and concentration
17) Learning involves long-run retention and immediate acquisition of knowledge
18) Accuracy deserves generally more emphasis than speed.
19) Learning should be relatively based
20) Learning should be a goal-oriented

Learning Patterns

Trainees need some understanding of the patterns in which new skills are adopted. The
executive is likely to find himself unusually clumsy during the early stages of learning. This can
be called discouraging stage. After the executive adjusts himself to the environment, he learns at
a faster rate. A “fatigue” develops after the lapse of more training time due to loss of motivation
and lack of break in training schedule. The trainee reaches the next stage when he is motivated
by the trainer and the training process restarts after some break. The trainee at this stage learns at
a fast rate. Special repetition of the course leads the trainee to reach the stage of over-learning.

Learning Curve
-Learners Job Proficiency
-Discouraging first stage
-Increasing Returns
-Fast fatigue
-Peak Proficiency
-Over-learning period

Thus, it is clear that learning partly takes place at a constant rate. It varies according to the
difficulty of the task, ability of the individual and physical factors. However, the rate of learning
varies from one individual to another.

Characteristics of Learning Process

Learning Process has the following characteristics

7
1) Learning is a continuous process
2) People learn through their actual personal experience, simulated experience and from others’
experience
3) People learn step by step, from known to unknown and simple to complex
4) There is a need for repetition in teaching to inculcate skill and to learn perfectly
5) Practice makes man perfect. Hence, opportunity should be erected to use and transfer skills,
knowledge and abilities acquired through learning. It gives satisfaction to the learner
6) Conflict in learning arises when the trainer knows or has developed some habits which are
incorrect in terms of the method being learned.

Learning Problems
The trainer has to be familiar with the subject and its applied area. He should have the knowledge of the
possible learning problems like:

1) Lack of knowledge, skill and favourable attitude

2) Knowledge and skill not being applied
3) Existence of anti-learning factors: Most operational situations contain a number of
elements which will restrict the development of elements regardless the methods
employed of learning
4) Psychological problems like fear end shyness
5) Durability to transfer of learning to operational situation
6) Heavy dependence on repetition, demonstration and practice
7) Unwilling to change
8) Lack of interest about the knowledge of results
9) Absence of self-motivation

Teaching Principles
In addition to learning principles, teaching principles should also be taken care for effective training.

1) The executive must be taught to practice only the correct method of work
2) Job analysis and motion study techniques should be used
3) Job training under actual working conditions should be preferred to class room training
4) Emphasis should be given more on accuracy than speed
5) Teaching should be at different time intervals
6) It should be recognised that it is easier to train young workers than old workers due to
their decreasing adaptability with the increase in age.

Principles of Training
A sound training programme should be based on the following principles

8
 1) Designed to achieve pre-determined objectives
2) Less-expensive
3) Developed for all
4) Pre-planned and well organised
5) According to size, nature and financial position of the concern
6) Flexible
7) Conducted by an experienced supervisor
8) Coverage of theoretical as well as practical aspects
9) Interests of executives and employees
10) More than one method
11) Training followed by reward
12) Sufficient time for practice

Area of Training
Organisations provide training to their personnel in the following areas:
- Company policies and procedures
- Specific skills
- Human relations
- Problem solving
- Managerial and supervisory skills and
- Apprentice training

10.7 STEPS IN TRAINING PROGRAMME

Training programmes are costly affair, and time consuming process. Therefore, they need to be
drafted very carefully. Usually, in the organisation of training programmes, the following steps are
considered necessary:

1) Discovering (or) Identifying the training needs

2) Getting ready for the job
3) Preparation of the learner
4) Presentation of operation and knowledge
5) Performance try-out
6) Follow-up and evaluation of the programme

9
10.8 TRAINING METHODS

There are a number of methods through which the trainees are trained. The methods normally used
for training of operative and supervisory personnel are classified into “on the job” and “off-the-job”
training methods.

A. On the Job Training Methods

The worker by these methods learns to master the operations involved, on the actual job situation,
under the supervision of his immediate boss who undertakes the responsibility of conducting
training. On-the-job training has the advantage of giving first hand knowledge and experience under
the actual working conditions. The emphasis is placed on rendering services in the most effective
manner rather than learning how to perform the job.

1) On Specific Job: The most common or formal on-the-job training programme is training for
a specific job. Current practice in job training was first designed to improve the job
performance through job instruction. On-the-job training is conducted through:

a) Experience: This is the oldest method of on-the-job training. But as an exclusive

approach, it is wasteful, time consuming and inefficient. It has been observed that
it should be followed by other training methods to make it more effective. On-
the-job problem-solving and colleague interactions were prompted as most
important for professional growth.

b) Coaching: On-the-job coaching by a superior is an important and potentially

effective approach, if superior is properly trained and oriented. The supervisor
provides feed-back to the trainee on his performance and offers him some
suggestions for improvement. Often the trainee shares his thoughts, views and
apprehensions about the duties and responsibilities with the boss and thus gets
relief and relieves him of his burden. A limitation of this method of training is
that the trainee may not have the freedom of opportunity to express his own ideas
because the trainer happens to be his immediate boss.

c) Understudy: The understudy method is considered a somewhat different approach

from those described above, that a certain person is specifically designated as the
heir-apparent. The understudy method makes the trainee an assistant to the
current job holder. The trainee learns by experience, observation and imitation of
the style of the person he asked to work with. The trainee is informed about the
policies, methods, techniques etc. The advantage of this method is that training is
conducted in a practical and realistic situation.

2) Position Rotation: The major objective of job rotation is the broadening of the background
of trainee in the organisations. This type of training involves the movement of the trainee
from one job to another. The trainee receives the job knowledge and gains experience from
10
 his supervisor or trainer in each of the different job assignments. This method gives an
opportunity to the trainee to understand the operational dynamics of a variety of jobs. There
are certain disadvantages of this method. The productive work can suffer because of the
obvious disruption caused by such changes. Rotations become less useful as specialisation
proceeds, for few people have the breadth of technical knowledge and skills to move from
one functional area to another.

3) Special Projects: This is a very flexible training device. Such special project assignments
grow ordinarily out of an individual analysis of weaknesses. The trainee may be asked to
perform special assignment; thereby he learns the work procedure. Trainees not only acquire
knowledge about the assignment activities, but also learn how to work with others.

4) Selective Readings: Individuals in the organisation can gather and advance their knowledge
and background through selective reading. The readings may include professional journals
and books. Various business organisations maintain libraries for their staff. Many executives
become members of professional associations and they exchange their ideas with others. This
is a good method of assimilating knowledge. However, some executives claim that it is very
difficult to find time to do much reading other than absolutely required in the performance of
their jobs.

5) Apprenticeship: Apprentice training can be traced back to medieval times when those
intended of learning trade skill bound themselves to a master craftsman to learn by doing the
work under his guidance. In earlier periods, apprenticeship was not restricted to ascertains,
but was used in training for the professions including medicine, law, dentistry, teaching, etc.
Today’s industrial organisations require large number of skilled craftsmen who can be trained
by this system. Such training is either provided by the organisation or it is imparted by
governmental agencies. Most states now have apprenticeship laws with supervised plans.
Such training arrangements usually provide a mixed programme of classroom and job
experience.

6) Vestibule Schools: Large organisations are frequently provided with what is described as
vestibule schools, a preliminary to actual shop experience. As far as possible, shop
conditions are duplicated, under the close watch of the instructors. Vestibule schools are
widely used in training for clerical and office jobs as well as for factory production jobs.
Such training is through shorter and less complex but is relatively expensive. However, the
costs are justified if the volume of training is large and high-standard results are achieved.

B. Off-the-job Training Methods

In these methods, trainees have to leave their work-place and devote their entire time to the
development objective. In these methods development of trainees is primarily and any usable work
produced during training is secondary. Since the trainee is not instructed by job requirements, he can
place his entire concentration on learning the job rather than spending his time in performing it.
There is an opportunity for freedom of expression for the trainees. Off-the-job training methods are
as follows:

11
 1) Special Course and Lectures: Lecturing is the most traditional form of formal training
method. Special courses and lecturers can be organised by organisations in numerous
ways as part of their development programmes. First, there are courses which the
organisations themselves establish to be taught by members of the organisations. Some
organisations have regular instructors assigned to their training and development
departments. A second approach to special courses and lecturers is for organisations to
work with universities or institutes in establishing a course or series of courses to be
taught by instructors of these institutions. A third approach is for the organisations to
send personnel to programmes organised by the universities, institutes and other bodies.
Such courses are organised for a short period ranging from 2-3 days to a few weeks.

2) Conferences: This is an old but still a favourite training method. In order to escape the
limitations of straight lecturing many organisations have adopted guided-discussion type
of conferences in their training programmes. In this method, the participants pool their
ideas and experiences in attempting to arrive at improved methods of dealing with the
problems, which are common subject of discussion. Conferences may include buzz
sessions that divide conferences into small groups of four or five for intensive discussion.
These small groups then report back to the whole conference with their conclusions or
questions.
3) Case Studies: This technique, which has been developed and popularised by the Harvard
Business School, USA is one of the most common forms of training. A case is written
account of trained reporter or analyst seeking to describe an actual situation. Cases are
widely used in a variety of programmes. This method increases the trainee’s power of
observation, helping him to ask better questions and to look for a broader range of
problems. A well chosen case may promote objective discussion, but the lack of
emotional involvement may make it difficult to effect any basic change in the behaviour
and attitude of trainees.
4) Brainstorming: This is the method of stimulating trainees to creative thinking: this
approach developed by Alex Osborn seeks to reduce inhibiting forces by providing for a
maximum of group participation and a minimum of criticism. A problem is posed and
ideas are sought. Quantity rather than quality is the primary objective. Ideas are
encouraged and criticism of any idea is discouraged. Chain reaction from idea to idea is
often developed. Later, these ideas are critically examined. There is no trainer in
brainstorming. Brainstorming frankly favours divergence, and this fact may be sufficient
to explain why brainstorming is so little used yet in developing countries where new
solutions ought to carry the highest premium. It is virtually untried even though its
immediate use is limited to new ideas only, not change in behaviour.
5) Laboratory Training: Laboratory training adds to conventional training by providing
situations, which the trainees themselves experience through their own interaction. In this
way, they more or less experiment the conditions on themselves. Laboratory training is
more concerned about changing individual behaviour and attitude. It is generally more
successful in changing job performance than conventional training methods. There are
two methods of laboratory training namely simulation and sensitivity training as
explained under:

a) Simulation: An increasingly popular technique of management development is

simulation of performance. In this method, instead of taking participants into the field
there can be simulated in the training session itself. Simulation is the presentation of
real situation of organisations in the training session. It covers situations of varying
complexities and roles for the participants. It creates a whole field organisation,
12
 relates participants through key roles in it, and asks them deal with specific situations
of a kind they encounter in real life. There are two common simulation methods of
training: role-playing is one and business game is the other.

i) Role-playing: Role-playing is a laboratory method, which can be used rather

easily as a supplement to conventional training methods. Its purpose is to increase
the trainees’ skill in dealing with other people. One of its greatest uses is in
connection with human relations training but it is also used in sales training as
well. It is spontaneous acting of realistic situation involving two or more persons
under classroom situations. Dialogue spontaneously grows out of the situation, as
it is developed by the trainees as singed to it. Other trainees in the group serve as
observers or critics. Since people take role everyday, they are somewhat
experienced in the art, and with a certain amount of imagination, they can project
themselves into roles other than their own. By this method, a trainee can broaden
his experience by trying different approaches. Role-playing also has weaknesses
which partly offset its values. It is time consuming and expensive. It requires
experienced trainers because it can easily turn sour without effective direction.
Nevertheless, these weaknesses do not undermine the strengths of this method.

ii) Gaming: Gaming has been devised to simulate the problems of running a
company or even a particular department. It has been used for a variety of
training objectives, from investment strategy, collective bargaining techniques, to
the morale of clerical personnel. It has been used at all levels from the top
executives to the production supervisors. Gaming is a laboratory method in which
role-playing exists but its difference is that it forces attention on administrative
problems, while role-playing tends to emphasise mostly on interaction. Gaming
involves several teams each of which is given a firm to operate for a specified
period. Usually, the period is a short one, say one year or so. In each period, each
team makes decisions on various matters such as fixation of price, level of
production, inventory level, and so forth. Since each team is competing with
others, each firm’s decisions will affect the results of all others. All the firm
decisions are fed into a computer, which is programmed to behave somewhat like
a real market. The computer provides the results and the winner is the team which
has accumulated largest profit. In the light of such results, strengths and
weaknesses of decisions are analysed.

b) Sensitivity Training: It is the most controversial laboratory training method. Many

of its advocates have an almost religious zeal in their enhancement with the training
group experience. Some of its critics match this fervour in their attacks on the
technique. As a result of criticism and experience, a somewhat revised approach,
often described as “team development” training, has appeared. It was first used by
National Training Laboratories at Bethal, USA. The training groups are called T-
Group. Sensitivity training is a small-group interaction under stress in an
unstructured encounter group which requires people to become sensitive to one
another’s feeling in order to develop reasonable group activity. T-Group has several
characteristic features: (i) T-group is generally, small, from ten to twenty members;
(ii) the group begins its activity with no formal agenda; (iii) the role of trainer is
primarily to call attention from time to time to the on-going process within the group;
and (iv) the procedure tends to develop introspection and self-examination, with
emotional levels of involvement. The objectives of such training are concern for

13
 others, increased tolerance for individual differences, less ethnic prejudice,
understanding of a group process, enhanced listening skills, increased trust and
support.

10.9 CAUSES FOR FAILURE OF TRAINING

Training effort in most cases in many organisations becomes a failure due to weaknesses in policies,
procedures, practices concerning training activities. Some such important causes for the failure of
training, in general, are:

1) Top management does not have complete faith basically in HRD philosophy and has little
confidence in training as an important method for ensuring development of human
resources.
2) The training objectives or not clear, specific and not understood by all.
3) Training policy is not clear, lacks comprehensiveness and does not have proper linkage
with other HRD policies.
4) Organisational arrangements, budgetary allocations, staff resources, aids, etc. are not
adequate and properly placed
5) Training staff lacks coordination with other staff and personnel
6) In various aspects relating to training, such as identification of needs, selection of
trainees, sponsoring candidates for training, using trainees on the job etc., there is not
adequate seriousness to ensure effectiveness of training. It is felt that procedures are
adopted as a mere formality
7) In conducting training activity, absence seriousness to involve the trainees in learning
affects the training outcome. Besides, lack of expertise in using the methods, aids,
resources, etc. hampers the expected results.
8) Lack of efforts to make better utilisation of the trainees and unfavourable environment to
the trainees in applying their enhanced abilities and in rewarding their improved
performance.
9) Lack of evaluation of training at various stages. The outcomes of training programmes
are not monitored.

Efforts to overcome the weaknesses mentioned may help the organisation in improving the
effectiveness of training.

10.10 EVALUATION OF TRAINING

A desirable characteristic of all training programmes is built-in-provision for its evaluation to find
out whether the objectives of training activity or programmes are achieved or not.

14
Notable dimensions of training evaluation are:

1) Evaluation of Contextual factors: Training effectiveness depends on not only what

happens during the training, but also on what happens before the actual training and
what happens after the training has formally ended. Thus, there is need for both pre-
training and post-training evaluation of contextual factors.
2) Evaluation of training inputs: This involves the evaluation of training curriculum,
its sequencing, trainers abilities, facilities, aids and resources used.
3) Evaluation of training process: The climate of training organisation, the relationship
and interaction between participants and trainees, attitudes and approaches of the
trainers, training methods used, and involvement of the trainers in learning are some of
the important elements of the training process, which need to be evaluated.
4) Evolution of training outcomes: It involves measuring the results of the training in
terms of what has been achieved on account of training programme. Pay-offs from
training is intangible, slow and not clearly identifiable with the specific activity.

In evaluation of outcomes, four categories of outcomes can be measured:

i) Reaction: Evaluation of trainee’s reaction to the programme

ii) Learning: Evaluation of what trainees have learnt
iii) Behaviour: Evaluation of change in the behaviour of trainee due to training
iv) Results: Evaluation of results achieved due to training in various areas such as production,
human resource utilisation, performance tests, general job and organisation environment and
cost-value relationship.

Principles of Training Evaluation

If evaluation in any form is to be effective, it must be done in accordance with some of the following
principles:

1) Evaluation must be planned, which is to be evaluated, when, why, by what means and by
whom must be determined in advance
2) Evaluation must be objective. It should not be a mere formality or eyewash or for name-
sake
3) Evaluation must be verifiable. Results can be compared by the same or different means
4) Evaluation must be cooperative. It must involve all those part of or affected by the
training programme. It is not a contest between the evaluator and the subject of
evaluation.
5) Evaluation must be continuous to ensure effectiveness at every step.
6) Evaluation must be specific. It should specify the strengths and weaknesses for further
improvement but should not make out vague statements or generalisations
7) Evaluation must be quantitative. All measurements should aim at quantifying the
changes in different performance variables.
15
 8) Evaluation must be feasible. It must be administratively manageable
9) Evaluation must be cost effective. The results must be commensurate with the costs
incurred.

10.11 CONCLUSION

Every organisation needs to have well-trained and experienced people to perform the activities that
have to be done. Training is the process through which employees are made capable of doing the job
prescribed to them. In a rapidly changing society, employee training and development is a desirable
activity. All types of jobs require some type of training for their efficient performance and therefore
all employees new and old should be trained or retrained.

The basic needs and objective of training programme for a particular level differ from that of other
level. Thus, a particular training programme would be more suitable to a particular group of people.
Moreover, within a particular group, an individual may use a particular training while others may
need some other programme. The determining factor would then be the level of individual in
organisation and his personality characteristics.

10.12 KEY CONCEPTS

Education: Knowledge attainment which develops or progresses, both as an inadvertent virtue

and as part of deliberate policy is understood as education. Education is more than
information sharing and imparting. It implies approximation to truth in the specific
area of learning.

Learning: Learning is the process of knowledge attainment or the tool with which knowledge is
attained. Learning and development proceed in tandem and as complementary
processes as each refurbishes the other. Learning leads to development of cognitive
processes.

Peak Proficiency: Proficiency is understood as the ability, talent, aptitude, adeptness, or expertise in
a given subject area. Peak proficiency implies operating at optimum capacity.
Maximum capacity may not be possible due to physical and cognitive limitations to
human capacity.

10.13 REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING

Flippo, Edwin B, 1984, Principles of Personnel Management, McGraw-Hill, New York.

Luthans, Fred, 1985, Organisational Behaviour, McGraw-Hill, New York.
Memoria, C.B, 1999, Personnel Management, Himalaya Publishing Hosue, Bombay.
Verma, M.M. and R.K.Agarwal, 2000, Personnel Management and Industrial Relations, King’s
Books.
Yoder, Dale, 1969, Personnel Management and Industrial Relations, Prentice Hall.
16
10.14 ACTIVITIES

1. Explain the meaning and importance of Training with suitable illustrations.

2. Write an essay on Methods of Training.
3. List out the shortcomings and the limitations of Training.

17
UNIT 1 THEORIES OF MOTIVATION
(Need theories, goal setting theory, attribution theory, drive theory and socio-
cultural perspective on motivation)
Structure
1.0 Introduction
1.1 Objectives
1.2 Definition and Introduction to Theories of Motivation
1.3 Theories of Motivation
1.3.1 Need Theories
1.3.2 Goal Setting Theories
1.3.3 Attribution Theory
1.3.4 Drive Theory

1.4 Let Us Sum Up

1.5 Unit End Questions
1.6 Suggested Readings

1.0 INTRODUCTION
This unit deals with theories of motivation. It discusses the need theories under which
theories of Maslow, Alderfer’s ERG theory, Herzberg’s Motivation theory and
McClelland ‘s Need for achievement, power and affiliation theories are discussed.
This is followed by Goal setting theories in which the characteristics of goal setting are
discussed, and the goals should be so that the individuals are motivated to reach the
goal etc. Following this is the attribution theory and Hull’s Drive theory.

1.1 OBJECTIVES
After going through this unit, you will be able to:
 Define motivation;
 Describe need theories;
 Explain the goal setting theories and the related factors;
 Elucidate attribution theory and indicate the importance of it; and
 Describe drive theory of Hull and the characteristic features of the same.

1.2 DEFINITION AND INTRODUCTION TO

THEORIES OF MOTIVATION
The word motivation is coined from the Latin word “movere” which means to move.
Motivation is defined as an internal drive that activates behaviour and gives it direction.
Motivation can be broadly defined as the forces acting on or within a person that cause
the arousal, direction and persistence of goal-directed, voluntary effort. The term
motivation theory is concerned with the processes that describe why and how human
behaviour is activated and directed. It is regarded as one of the most important areas of 5
Theories of Motivation study in the field of organisational behaviour. There are two different categories of
motivational theories such as content theories, and process theories. Motivation theory
is thus concerned with the processes that explain why and how human behaviour is
activated.
The content theory of motivation, also known as need theory mainly focuses on the
internal factors that energise and direct human behaviour. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.,
Alderfer’s ERG theory, Herzeberg’s motivator-hygiene theory (Herzeberg’s dual factors
theory), and Mc Clelland’s learned needs or three-needs theory are some of the major
content theories.
Of the different types of content theories, the most famous content theory is Abraham
Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs. Maslow introduced five levels of basic needs
through his theory. Basic needs are categorised as physiological needs, safety and security
needs, needs of love, needs for self esteem and need for self actualisation.
Just like Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, ERG theory explains existence, relatedness and
growth needs. Through dual factors theory, Herzeberg describes certain factors in the
workplace which result in job satisfaction. McClelland’s learned needs or three-need
theory uses projective techniques called Thematic Aptitude Test (TAT) so as to evaluate
people based on three needs: power, achievement and affiliation. People with high
need of power take action in a way that influences the other’s behaviour.
Another type of motivation theory is process theory. Process theories of motivation
provide an opportunity to understand the thought processes that influence behaviour.
The major process theories of motivation include Adam’s Equity theory, Vroom’s
expectation theory, goal setting theory and reinforcement theory. Expectancy,
instrumentality and valence are the key concepts explained in the expectancy theory.
Goal setting theory suggests that the individuals are motivated to reach set goals. It also
requires that the set goals should be specific. Reinforcement theory is concerned with
controlling behaviour by manipulating its consequences.

1.3 THEORIES OF MOTIVATION

1.3.1 Need Theories
Content (need) theories of motivation focus on factors internal to the individual that
energise and direct behaviour. In general, such theories regard motivation as the product
of internal drives that compel an individual to act or move (hence, “motivate”) toward
the satisfaction of individual needs. The content theories of motivation are based in
large part on early theories of motivation that traced the paths of action backward to
their perceived origin in internal drives. Major content theories of motivation are Maslow’s
hierarchy of needs, Alderfer’s ERG theory, Herzberg’s motivator-hygiene theory, and
McClelland’s learned needs or three-need theory.
Needs are deficiencies that energise or trigger behaviours to satisfy those needs. At
some point in your life, you might have a strong need for food and shelter. At other
tomes, your social needs may be unfulfilled. Unfulfilled needs create a tension that
makes you want to find ways to reduce or satisfy those needs. The stronger your
needs, the more motivated you are to satisfy them. Conversely, a satisfied need does
not motivate. In this section, we will look at the four content theories of motivation that
dominate organisational thinking today.

6
A) Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory Theories of Motivation

Abraham Maslow developed the theory of hierarchy of needs, which suggests that
individual needs exist in a hierarchy consisting of physiological needs, security needs,
belongingness needs, esteem needs, and self-actualisation needs. Physiological needs
are the most basic needs for food, water, and other factors necessary for survival.
Security needs include needs for safety in one’s physical environment, stability, and
freedom from emotional distress. Belongingness needs relate to desires for friendship,
love, and acceptance within a given community of individuals. Esteem needs are those
associated with obtaining the respect of one’s self and others. Finally, self-actualisation
needs are those corresponding to the achievement one’s own potential, the exercising
and testing of one’s creative capacities, and, in general, to becoming the best person
one can possibly be. Unsatisfied needs motivate behaviour; thus, lower-level needs
such as the physiological and security needs must be met before upper-level needs
such as belongingness, esteem, and self-actualisation can be motivational.
This theory condenses the numerous needs that scholars have identified into a hierarchy
of five basic categories. At the bottom are physiological needs, which include the need
to satisfy biological requirements for food, air, water, and shelter. Next come safety
needs – the need for a secure and stable environment and the absence of pain, threat,
or illness. Belongingness includes the need for love, affection, and interaction with
other people. Esteem includes self-esteem through personal achievement as well as
social esteem through recognition and respect from others. At the top of the hierarchy
is self-actualisation, which represents the need for self-fulfillment – a sense that the
person’s potential has been realised.
Maslow recognised that an employee’s behaviour is motivated simultaneously by several
need levels, but behaviour is motivated mostly by the lowest unsatisfied need at the
time. As the person satisfies a lower-level need, the next higher need in the hierarchy
becomes the primary motivator. This concept is known as the satisfaction-progression
process. Even if a person is unable to satisfy a higher need, he or she will be motivated
by it until it is eventually satisfied. Physiological needs are initially the most important,
and people are motivated to satisfy them first. As they become gratified, safety needs
emerge as the strongest motivator. As safety needs are satisfied, belongingness needs
become most important, and so forth. The exception to the satisfaction-progression
process is self-actualisation; as people experience self-actualisation, they desire more
rather than less of this need.
Although Maslow’s needs hierarchy is one of the best-known organisational behaviour
theories, the model is much too rigid to explain the dynamic and unstable characteristics
of employee needs. Researchers have found that individual needs do not cluster neatly
around the five categories described in the model. Moreover, gratification of one need
level does not necessarily led to increased motivation to satisfy the next higher need
level. Although Maslow’s model may not predict employee needs as well as scholars
initially expected, it provides an important introduction to employee needs and has laid
the foundation for Alderfer’s ERG theory, which has better research support.
Applications of the hierarchy of needs to management and the workplace are obvious.
According to the implications of the hierarchy, individuals must have their lower level
needs met by, for example, safe working conditions, adequate pay to take care of
one’s self and one’s family, and job security before they will be motivated by increased
job responsibilities, status, and challenging work assignments. Despite the ease of
application of this theory to a work setting, this theory has received little research support
and therefore is not very useful in practice. 7
Theories of Motivation Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is most often displayed as a pyramid. The lowest levels of
the pyramid are made up of the most basic needs, while the more complex needs are
located at the top of the pyramid. Needs at the bottom of the pyramid are basic physical
requirements including the need for food, water, sleep and warmth. Once these lower-
level needs have been met, people can move on to the next level of needs, which are for
safety and security.
As people progress up the pyramid, needs become increasingly psychological and
social. Soon, the need for love, friendship and intimacy become important. Further up
the pyramid, the need for personal esteem and feelings of accomplishment take priority.
Like Carl Rogers, Maslow emphasised the importance of self-actualisation, which is a
process of growing and developing as a person to achieve individual potential.
Types of Needs
Maslow believed that these needs are similar to instincts and play a major role in
motivating behaviour. Physiological, security, social, and esteem needs are deficiency
needs (also known as D-needs), meaning that these needs arise due to deprivation.
Satisfying these lower-level needs is important in order to avoid unpleasant feelings or
consequences.
Maslow termed the highest-level of the pyramid as growth needs (also known as being
needs or B-needs). Growth needs do not stem from a lack of something, but rather
from a desire to grow as a person.
Five Levels of the Hierarchy of Needs
There are five different levels in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs:
i) Physiological Needs: These include the most basic needs that are vital to survival,
such as the need for water, air, food and sleep. Maslow believed that these needs
are the most basic and instinctive needs in the hierarchy because all needs become
secondary until these physiological needs are met.
ii) Security Needs: These include needs for safety and security. Security needs are
important for survival, but they are not as demanding as the physiological needs.
Examples of security needs include a desire for steady employment, health insurance,
safe neighbourhoods and shelter from the environment.
iii) Social Needs: These include needs for belonging, love and affection. Maslow
considered these needs to be less basic than physiological and security needs.
Relationships such as friendships, romantic attachments and families help fulfill this
need for companionship and acceptance, as does involvement in social, community
or religious groups.
iv) Esteem Needs: After the first three needs have been satisfied, esteem needs
becomes increasingly important. These include the need for things that reflect on
self-esteem, personal worth, social recognition and accomplishment.
v) Self-actualising Needs: This is the highest level of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
Self-actualising people are self-aware, concerned with personal growth, less
concerned with the opinions of others and interested fulfilling their potential.
B) Alderfer’s ERG needs theory
In 1969, Clayton Alderfer’s revision of Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, called
the ERG Theory. Alderfer’s contribution to organisational behaviour was dubbed the
8
ERG theory (Existence, Relatedness, and Growth), and was created to align Maslow’s Theories of Motivation
motivation theory more closely with empirical research.
Clayton Alderfer’s ERG Theory

Existence Needs Relatedness Needs Growth Needs

Satisfaction Progression
Frustration Regression
ERG Theory is similar to the famous Maslow‘s Hierarch of Needs. Existence, or
physiological, needs are at the base. These include the needs for things such as food,
drink, shelter, and safety. Next come relatedness needs, the need to feel connected to
other individuals or a group. These needs are fulfilled by establishing and maintaining
relationships.
Similarities include reducing Maslow to three needs since some overlap. Thus ERG is
the three.
The differences include allowing different levels of needs to be pursued simultaneously.
Also, it allows for the order to be different for different people. The theory acknowledges
that if higher levels remain unfulfilled, there may be a regression to lower level needs in
what is known as frustration-regression principle.
At the top of the hierarchy are Growth needs, the needs for personal achievement and
self-actualisation. If a person is continually frustrated in trying to satisfy growth needs,
relatedness needs will remerge. This phenomenon is known as the frustration-regression
process.
The ERG categories of human needs are:
Existence Needs: physiological and safety needs (such as hunger, thirst and sex).
Relatedness Needs: social and external esteem (involvement with family, friends, co-
workers and employers).
Growth Needs: internal esteem and self actualisation (the desire to be creative,
productive and to complete meaningful tasks).
 The ERG theory allows for different levels of needs to be pursued simultaneously.
 The ERG theory allows the order of the needs be different for different people.
 The ERG theory acknowledges that if a higher level need remains unfulfilled, the
person may regress to lower level needs that appear easier to satisfy. This is
known as the frustration-regression principle.
Thus, while the ERG theory presents a model of progressive needs, the hierarchical
aspect is not rigid. This flexibility allows the ERG theory to account for a wider range of
observed behaviours. For example, it can explain the “starving artist” who may place
growth needs above existence ones.
Implications of ERG Theory for Management
If the ERG theory holds, then, managers must recognise that an employee has multiple
needs to satisfy simultaneously. Furthermore, if growth opportunities are not provided
9
Theories of Motivation to employees, they may regress to relatedness needs. If the manager is able to recognise
this situation, then steps can be taken to concentrate on relatedness needs until the
subordinate is able to pursue growth again.
C) Herzberg’s Motivator-Hygiene Theory
Herzberg felt that job satisfaction and dissatisfaction do not exist on the same continuum,
but on dual scales. In other words, certain things, which Herzberg called hygiene factors,
could cause a person to become unhappy with their job. These things, including pay,
job security, and physical work environment, could never bring about job satisfaction.
Motivating factors, on the other hand, can increase job satisfaction. Giving employees
things such as a sense of recognition, responsibility, or achievement can bring satisfaction
about.
Frederick Herzberg explored the question “What do people want from their jobs”. He
did this through asking various people about situations and events at work, when they
felt exceptionally good or bad about their jobs.
Herzberg’s collection of information revealed that intrinsic factors are related to job
satisfaction, whilst extrinsic factors created job dissatisfaction. In other words when
people felt satisfied and happy at work the conditions present were directly affecting
their inner feelings and self esteem. Yet dissatisfaction was created by the job environment
people worked in and the interactions within that environment. This distinction is clearly
illustrated in the table below.
Motivation creating job Hygiene factors creating
satisfaction job dissatisfaction
Achievement Supervision
Recognition Company policy
Work itself Relationship with supervisor
Responsibility Working conditions
Advancement Salary
Growth Relationship with peers
Relationship with subordinates
Status
Security
As job satisfaction and job dissatisfaction are controlled by different factors Herzberg
concluded that job satisfaction was not the opposite of job dissatisfaction. In contrast
to the accepted theories at the time, Herzberg believed that job satisfaction was a
distinct and separate entity from job dissatisfaction.
In other words the complete removal of job dissatisfaction will not cause an employee
to feel job satisfaction. Similarly job satisfaction does not necessarily eradicate all
elements of job dissatisfaction. Herzberg therefore decided that the opposite of job
dissatisfaction was simply a work environment containing “no dissatisfaction” and the
opposite of job satisfaction was an employee feeling “no satisfaction”.
As extrinsic factors do not motivate employees Herzberg referred to these as Hygiene
factors and intrinsic factors were called motivators for obvious reasons. From the 1960s
10
to the 1980’s Herzberg’s theory of motivators and hygiene factors was widely popular.
After that other studies labelled it as simplistic but its principles can still be found within Theories of Motivation
other motivation theories.
D) Mc Clelland’s Theory of Need
David McClelland proposed that an individual’s specific needs are acquired over time
and are shaped by one’s life experiences. Most of these needs can be classed as
achievement, affiliation, or power. A person’s motivation and effectiveness in certain
job functions are influenced by these three needs. McClelland’s theory sometimes is
referred to as the three need theory or as the learned needs theory.
McClelland used projective technique called the Thematic Aptitude Test (TAT) to
measure people in three dimensions: the need for power, achievement, and affiliation.
Individuals with a high need for power take actions that affect other peoples‘ behaviour
and arouse strong emotions in them. The need for power can be revealed in socially
acceptable ways (demonstrating a socialised power orientation) or in selfish,
inconsiderate ways (a personalised power orientation.)
Those with strong need for achievement enjoy competition against some standard and
unique accomplishment. High achievers like tasks that are neither simple (which anyone
could do) or extremely difficult (where the chance of success has more to do with luck
than ability), but that challenge them to do their best.
People with a strong need for affiliation are particularly concerned with being liked and
accepted. These individuals tend to establish, maintain, and restore closer personal
relationships with others.
Need for Achievement
People with a high need for achievement (nAch) seek to excel and thus tend to avoid
both low-risk and high-risk situations. Achievers avoid low-risk situations because the
easily attained success is not a genuine achievement. In high-risk projects, achievers
see the outcome as one of chance rather than one’s own effort. High nAch individuals
prefer work that has a moderate probability of success, ideally a 50% chance. Achievers
need regular feedback in order to monitor the progress of their acheivements. They
prefer either to work alone or with other high achievers.
Need for Affiliation
Those with a high need for affiliation (nAff) need harmonious relationships with other
people and need to feel accepted by other people. They tend to conform to the norms
of their work group. High nAff individuals prefer work that provides significant personal
interaction. They perform well in customer service and client interaction situations.
Need for Power
A person’s need for power (nPow) can be one of two types - personal and institutional.
Those who need personal power want to direct others, and this need often is perceived
as undesirable. Persons who need institutional power (also known as social power)
want to organise the efforts of others to further the goals of the organisation. Managers
with a high need for institutional power tend to be more effective than those with a high
need for personal power.
Assessment of Needs: Thematic Apperception Test
McClelland used the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) as a tool to measure the
individual needs of different people. The TAT is a test of imagination that presents the
11
subject with a series of ambiguous pictures, and the subject is asked to develop a
Theories of Motivation spontaneous story for each picture. The assumption is that the subject will project his
or her own needs into the story.
Psychologists have developed fairly reliable scoring techniques for the Thematic
Apperception Test. The test determines the individual’s score for each of the needs of
achievement, affiliation, and power. This score can be used to suggest the types of jobs
for which the person might be well suited.
Implications for Management
People with different needs are motivated differently.
High need for achievement – High achievers should be given challenging projects
with reachable goals. They should be provided frequent feedback. While money is not
an important motivator, it is an effective form of feedback.
High need for affiliation – Employees with a high affiliation need perform best in a
cooperative environment.
High need for power – Management should provide power seekers the opportunity
to manage others.
Self Assessment Questions
1) Fill in the blanks:
a) _______________ needs include the need to satisfy biological requirement.
b) The need for a secure and stable environment is called _____________
needs.
c) The need for self fulfillment was called ___________________________.
d) The ERG theory allows the order of the ______________ be different for
different people.
e) Giving employees things such as sense of recognition, responsibility or
achievement can bring ___________________ about.
2) Answer the following statements with True (T) or False (F):
a) The ERG theory allows for different levels of needs to be pursued
simultaneously.
b) Herzeberg felt that job satisfaction and dissatisfaction exist on the same
continuum.
c) McClelland used projective test, TAT.
d) Social needs include the need for safety.
e) People with a strong need for affiliation are particularly concerned with
being liked and accepted.

1.3.2 Goal Setting Theories

Goal setting theory of motivation is a theory which states that there is an inseparable
link between goal setting and task performance. It states that specific, measurable and
attainable goals motivate an employee to achieve the goal, while lousy vague targets
suck off enthusiasm.
12
Principles of Goal Setting Theories of Motivation

To prepare a delicious meal, you need to put in the right ingredients. In the same way,
setting the right goals, there needs to be the right combination of certain factors. Let’s
have a look at these important factors of goal setting theory in management.
Clarity
Vague, unambiguous goal spun in thin air will only build a house on the sand. Such
random goals leaves lots of room for misconceptions and will never give desired results.
When the manager says, ‘Do how much you can’, the employee gets a vague idea of
what is expected of him and does not strive to perform better. The result is at the time
of evaluation, there is a lot of confusion. The manager is not happy with the employees
low performance, while the employee cannot understand why the manager is pouting.
Crisp, clear, measurable, specific goals have to be set and communicated to the employee
in the simplest way possible. No room for assumptions in goal setting.
Challenging goals
Besides being clear and specific, the goal set should be challenging. Easy to achieve
goals fail to keep the employee excited, however, since people are often motivated by
the feeling of achievement, setting challenging goals helps motivate the employee to do
his best. Another factor that has to be noted here is the fact of recognition. When an
employee knows his efforts will not go unnoticed, he will want to stretch himself. Financial
or any other kind of remunerations will help motivate the employee to reach his goal. As
the intensity of rewards increase with the difficulty of the task, employees are willing to
take up more challenging tasks to achieve that high compensation.
Achievable goals
We just saw how important it is for an employee to know what his manager expects out
of him to perform better. However, if the goal by his manager is something really steep,
it will do more damage instead of good. Blowing a balloon to its fullest capacity brings
about beauty, however, blowing a little more bursts the balloon. There is only a hairline
difference between the fullest capacity and the amount that can burst it. Same is the
case with an employee. Easy goals don’t seem to challenge an employee, however, in
the eagerness to set challenging goals, if the goal is tad on the unattainable side, the
employee can get demotivated, instead of motivated. The idea is to challenge the
employee to give his best performance without frustrating him.
Commitment to goals
If goals are to see fruition, they need to be comprehended and agreed upon by both the
management and the employees. The theory of participative management rests on the
basis of allowing employees to have a role in setting goals and making decisions. If
employees feel they were part of creating the goal, they are more likely to try their level
best to achieve the goal. Simply barging into the meeting room and dictating the set of
goals the employee has to attain, without considering whether he can or cannot attain it,
will not lead to frustration and suffocation at work.

1.3.3 Attribution Theory

Attribution theory is probably the most influential contemporary theory with implications
for academic motivation. It incorporates behaviour modification in the sense that it
emphasises the idea that learners are strongly motivated by the pleasant outcome of
being able to feel good about themselves. It incorporates cognitive theory and self-
13
Theories of Motivation efficacy theory in the sense that it emphasises that learners’ current self-perceptions will
strongly influence the ways in which they will interpret the success or failure of their
current efforts and hence their future tendency to perform these same behaviours.
According to attribution theory, the explanations that people tend to make to explain
success or failure can be analysed in terms of three sets of characteristics:
First, the cause of the success or failure may be internal or external. That is, we may
succeed or fail because of factors that we believe have their origin within us or because
of factors that originate in our environment.
Second, the cause of the success or failure may be either stable or unstable. If the we
believe cause is stable, and then the outcome is likely to be the same if we perform the
same behaviour on another occasion. If it is unstable, the outcome is likely to be different
on another occasion.
Third, the cause of the success or failure may be either controllable or uncontrollable.
A controllable factor is one which we believe we ourselves can alter if we wish to do
so. An uncontrollable factor is one that we do not believe we can easily alter.
An important assumption of attribution theory is that people will interpret their
environment in such a way as to maintain a positive self-image. That is, they will
attribute their successes or failures to factors that will enable them to feel as good as
possible about themselves. In general, this means that when learners succeed at an
academic task, they are likely to want to attribute this success to their own efforts or
abilities; but when they fail, they will want to attribute their failure to factors over which
they have no control, such as bad teaching or bad luck.
The basic principle of attribution theory as it applies to motivation is that a person’s
own perceptions or attributions for success or failure determine the amount of effort the
person will expend on that activity in the future.
There are four factors related to attribution theory that influence motivation in education:
ability, task difficulty, effort, and luck. In terms of the characteristics discussed previously,
these four factors can be analysed in the following way:
Ability is a relatively internal and stable factor over which the learner does not exercise
much direct control.
Task difficulty is an external and stable factor that is largely beyond the learner’s
control.
Effort is an internal and unstable factor over which the learner can exercise a great
deal of control.
Luck is an external and unstable factor over which the learner exercises very little
control.
Students will be most persistent at academic tasks under the following circumstances:
1) If they attribute their academic successes to either:
i) internal, unstable, factors over which they have control (e.g., effort) or
ii) internal, stable, factors over which they have little control but which may
sometimes be disrupted by other factors (e.g., ability disrupted by occasional
bad luck);
14
If they attribute their failures to internal, unstable factors over which they have control Theories of Motivation
(e.g., effort).
The following guidelines can be derived from the preceding statement:
If we want students to persist at academic tasks, we should help them establish a
sincere belief that they are competent and that occasional imperfections or failures are
the result of some other factor (such as bad luck or a lack of sufficient effort) that need
not be present on future occasions.
It is not beneficial for students to attribute their successes entirely to ability. If they
think they already have all the ability they need, they may feel that additional effort is
superfluous. The ideal attribution for success is, “I succeeded because I am a competent
person and worked hard.”
When students fail, they are most likely to persist and eventually succeed if they attribute
their failure to a lack of appropriate effort.
It is extremely hazardous to motivational health for students to fail repeatedly after
making a serious effort at academic tasks. When this happens, they will either (a) stop
believing they are competent, or (b) stop attributing their failure to lack of effort.
It is important to define effort correctly and for the learners to internalise an accurate
concept of effort. In practical terms effort is most usefully defined as devoting effective
academic learning time to the task. Just trying harder or spending more time doing
ineffective activities does not constitute effort. It is extremely important to make this
distinction. This will reduce motivation.
Excessively competitive grading and evaluation systems are likely to impair the learning
of many students. Competition will encourage students to persist only to the extent that
they believe additional effort will enable them to succeed within the competitive
atmosphere.
It is useful to evaluate students at least partly (but not exclusively) on the basis of their
effort. This does not mean that the weakest students in a class should receive the highest
grades simply because they may spend more time trying to master the subject matter.
In general, it is best for students to believe that it is their own behaviour rather than
external circumstances that leads to success or failure. Researchers refer to this as
having an internal locus of control.
When students reject the value of effort, it is important to change their perception. This
can be done by clarifying the meaning of effort and by seeing to it that effort does
actually pay off.
Attribution theory is an evolving field, and it is likely that further research will lead to
additional practical insights regarding motivation. It is important to note that this discussion
of attribution theory has barely scratched the surface. The following are some additional
concepts related to attribution theory:
Learning goals are set by individuals who seek to increase their competence. People
who emphasise learning goals are likely to seek challenges, if they believe the challenges
will lead to greater competence; and they tend to respond to failure by increasing their
effort. It is good to encourage students to set and pursue learning goals rather than
performance goals.
Performance goals, on the other hand, are set by individuals who seek to gain favourable
15
Theories of Motivation judgments or to avoid unfavourable judgments in the eyes of others. It is often undesirable
to emphasise performance goals; but schools, parents, and society often overemphasise
them to the detriment of learners.
Learned helplessness refers to the expectation, based on previous experience that
one’s actions cannot possibly lead to success. Performance goals are much more likely
than learning goals to lead to ability rather than effort attributions and to result in feelings
of learned helplessness.
Self-handicapping occurs when learners create impediments that make good
performance less likely. Self-handicapping is likely to become prominent during
adolescence. Since it occurs most often among persons with an overriding concern
with their competence image, this problem can best be minimised by focusing on effort
attributions and by helping learners develop secure feelings of self-efficacy.
Expectancy-valence models state that a person’s motivation to achieve a goal depends
on a combination of the value of that goal (its valence) and the person’s estimation of
the likelihood of success. The combination of expectancy and valence interacts with
attribution theory in complex ways.
Self-worth theory Covington combines ideas related to self-efficacy, attribution theory,
and learned helplessness. It focuses on the notion that people are largely motivated to
do what it takes to enhance their reputation in various areas.

1.3.4 Drive Theory

Hull developed a version of behaviourism in which the stimulus (S) affects the organism
(O) and the resulting response (R) depends upon characteristics of both O and S. In
other words, Hull was interested in studying intervening variables that affected behaviour
such as initial drive, incentives, inhibitors, and prior training (habit strength). Like other
forms of behaviour theory, reinforcement is the primary factor that determines learning.
However, in Hull’s theory, drive reduction or need satisfaction plays a much more
important role in behaviour than in other frameworks (i.e., Thorndike, Skinner).
Hull’s theoretical framework consisted of many postulates stated in mathematical form;
They include: (1) organisms possess a hierarchy of needs which are aroused under
conditions of stimulation and drive, (2) habit strength increases with activities that are
associated with primary or secondary reinforcement, (3) habit strength aroused by a
stimulus other than the one originally conditioned depends upon the closeness of the
second stimulus in terms of discrimination thresholds, (4) stimuli associated with the
cessation of a response become conditioned inhibitors, (5) the more the effective reaction
potential exceeds the reaction theshold, the shorter the latency of response. As these
postulates indicate, Hull proposed many types of variables that accounted for
generalisation, motivation, and variability (oscillation) in learning.
One of the most important concepts in Hull’s theory was the habit strength hierarchy:
for a given stimulus, an organism can respond in a number of ways. The likelihood of a
specific response has a probability which can be changed by reward and is affected by
various other variables (e.g. inhibition). In some respects, habit strength hierarchies
resemble components of cognitive theories such as schema and production systems.
Principles
1) Drive is essential in order for responses to occur (i.e., the student must want to
learn).
16
2) Stimuli and responses must be detected by the organism in order for conditioning Theories of Motivation
to occur (i.e., the student must be attentive).
3) Response must be made in order for conditioning to occur (i.e., the student must
be active).
4) Conditioning only occurs if the reinforcement satisfied a need (i.e., the learning
must satisfy the learner’s wants).
Self Assessment Questions
1) Define the following terms:
a) Goal setting
..............................................................................................................
..............................................................................................................
b) Ability
..............................................................................................................
..............................................................................................................
c) Effort
..............................................................................................................
..............................................................................................................
d) Luck
..............................................................................................................
..............................................................................................................
e) Self handicapping
..............................................................................................................
..............................................................................................................

1.4 LET US SUM UP

COMPARISON OF CONTENT THEORIES OF MOTIVATION

Maslow Social-esteem
Self-Actualisation – Need for respect, recognition,
– Highest need level. attention, and appreciation of others
– Involves an individual’s desire to Social
realise full potential. – Need for love, affection, sense of
– Can be satisfied without this level. belonging in one’s relationship
– Dealings with friends, family, and
Esteem colleagues falls in here.
Self-esteem Safety and Security
– Need for personal sense of
accomplishment, mastery. Relationships
– need for security in relationships
17
Theories of Motivation Physical Hygiene Factors
– need for security, protection from – Improving factors prevents
future threats, and stability. dissatisfaction.
– Related to job environment
Physiological more than nature of work
– Basic needs: food, water, etc. itself.
– Factors:
ERG 1) policies and procedures
Growth 2) supervision
– Desire for continued 3) relations with supervisor
personal growth and 4) work conditions
development 5) salary
Relatedness 6) relations with peers
– Desire to satisfy 7) personal life
interpersonal relationships 8) relations with subordinates
Existence 9) status
– Desire for physiological and 10) security
material well-being
McClelland
Herzberg Need for Achievement
Motivation Factors – a drive to pursue and attain goals
– Improving factors leads to – accomplishment is important for its
satisfaction, effort, and own sake
performance. Need for Competence
– Related to job content; what – a desire to do quality work
employees actually do. – want to develop skills
– Factors: Need for Power
1) achievement – desire to influence others
2) recognition – desire recognition of others
3) work itself Need for Affiliation
4) responsibility – a drive to relate to people effectively
5) advancement – desire for close relationships
6) growth
Attribution theory is probably the most influential contemporary theory with implications
for academic motivation. It incorporates behaviour modification in the sense that it
emphasises the idea that learners are strongly motivated by the pleasant outcome of
being able to feel good about themselves. It incorporates cognitive theory and self-
efficacy theory in the sense that it emphasises that learners’ current self-perceptions will
strongly influence the ways in which they will interpret the success or failure of their
current efforts and hence their future tendency to perform these same behaviours.
Hull’s theoretical framework consisted of many postulates stated in mathematical form;
They include:
1) organisms possess a hierarchy of needs which are aroused under conditions of
stimulation and drive,
2) habit strength increases with activities that are associated with primary or secondary
reinforcement,
3) habit strength aroused by a stimulus other than the one originally conditioned
depends upon the closeness of the second stimulus in terms of discrimination
18
thresholds,
4) stimuli associated with the cessation of a response become conditioned inhibitors, Theories of Motivation

5) the more the effective reaction potential exceeds the reaction theshold, the shorter
the latency of response. As these postulates indicate, Hull proposed many types
of variables that accounted for generalisation, motivation, and variability (oscillation)
in learning.
Goal setting theory of motivation is a theory which states that there is an inseparable
link between goal setting and task performance. It states that specific, measurable and
attainable goals motivate an employee to achieve the goal, while lousy vague targets
suck off enthusiasm.

1.5 UNIT END QUESTIONS

1) Discuss content or need theory?
2) Explain and highlight the differences between Maslows and Alderfer’s theories.
3) Discuss goal setting theory.
4) Explain the principles of Attribution theory.
5) Discuss Herzeberg’s and McClellands theory.

1.6 SUGGESTED READINGS

Morgan, C.T. and King, R.A. (2010).(11th edition) Introduction to Psychology.
McGraw Hill, New Delhi
Baron, R.A. (2010). Introduction to Psychology, Wadsworth publishing Co., NJ
O’Neil, Harold F. (ed) (1994). Motivation Theory and Research, Lawrence Elbaum
Associates Publishers, Hillsdale, NJ
Morgan, C.T. and King, R.A. (2010).(11th edition) Introduction to Psychology,
McGraw Hill, New Delhi
Baron, R.A. (2010). Introduction to Psychology, Wadsworth publishing Co., NJ

19
UNIT 6 EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION AND JOB
ENRICHMENT
Structure
6.0 Objectives
6.1 Introduction
6.2 What is Motivation?
6.3 Some Common Assumptions About Motivation
6.4 Types of Motivation
6.5 Theories of Motivation
6.6 Motivation and Morale
6.7 Motivation of Employees in Actual Practice
6.8 Job Enrichment – Meaning, Nature and Objectives
6.9 How to Enrich Jobs?
6.10 Let Us Sum Up
6.11 Clues to Answers

6.0 OBJECTIVES
After going through this Unit, you should be able to:

• appreciate the concepts related to employee motivation and job satisfaction,

• understand the techniques that can be used for motivating employees, and
• comprehend alternative methods by which jobs can be made more interesting.

6.1 INTRODUCTION
Employee motivation and job enrichment are described as two management techniques used to
improve human behaviour and attitude towards work, with a view to utilise available human
resources more efficiently and thus make human management more effective. Just as the
employee has certain wants that the organisation is expected to satisfy, the organisation too
expects certain types of behaviour usually termed as “Direction” or “Motivation”. Obviously this
managerial function is not so easy as it involves many problems. These problems and their
possible solutions are the concerns in this Unit.

Job enrichment is also a motivational problem created by the alienation of employees from their
work, or by lack of their interest in their work. Here the problem is how to make the work more
interesting, purposeful and acceptable to employees so that they may perform it more
enthusiastically and with a greater sense of responsibility. Like motivation this is also a problem
of human behaviour and work attitude. In fact both employee motivation and job enrichment are
the problems which every supervisor and manager has to face while managing and making their
subordinates work.

6.2 WHAT IS MOTIVATION?

Literally motivation means incitement or inducement to act or move. In an industrial setting it
means to make a subordinate act in a desired manner so as to achieve certain aims. Obviously
“desired” implies as desired in the interests of the organisation or employer. It implies not only
that the subordinate should act in a disciplined manner, but also that he or she should act in an
efficient and productive manner. To motivate, therefore, is to induce, persuade, stimulate, even
compel (as when fear becomes the motivator) an employee to act consciously or subconsciously
62
in a manner which may help in attaining an organisational objective. This may be a limited view.
Motivation really comprises all the internal urges which are described as desires, wishes, drives,
etc. which make a person strive for doing a thing. Motivation is what makes people do things. In
the US it is commonly described as “making John run”. Webster defines the term “Motivate” as
meaning to provide with a motivation to impel or incite one to action. It may be a need, idea,
emotion or organic state that may prompt one to action or work. It is not a matter or manipulation
but it is an act of making employees work better and effectively by understanding their
desires/needs.

Motivation and Incentives

Motivation is usually not the same as incentive. Regarding incentives we generally expect greater
output with the same inputs, while motivation usually involves some more inputs considered
necessary for changing the work, attitude and behaviour of the employee. Motives or motivation
is considered as the expression of a person’s inner needs, as they are personal but incentives are
external in nature and are provided by someone to the person concerned. Again, financial
incentives may not motivate all, particularly those employees whose physical needs are already
satisfied. Persons with higher earnings may remain dissatisfied and frustrated because their
employment and working conditions may not be conducive to make a person work
wholeheartedly and give his or her best. To motivate means really to produce a goal-oriented
behaviour, which may not be made possible by mere provision of incentives with the object of
higher earnings and higher output.

Need and Importance

Need and importance of motivation are too obvious to have a detailed discussion. Survival and
growth of an undertaking depends considerably on the performance of its employees and the
performance of an employee depends on two factors, that is (i) his or her ability to work and
(ii) his or her will to work. The first is determined by the quality of education, training and
experience that he or she has acquired. Even if there is any deficiency in the same, it can be made
good by arranging further training, retraining and developing facilities for the employee. The
second factor i.e. willingness to work, is more difficult to manage as it involves bringing change
in the behaviour and attitude of a person towards work, or motivating him or her to work in a
desired manner and give an overall better performance. Motivated workforce is essential for
efficient working and optimum motivation in personnel management can hardly be better seen
than from the fact that after planning and organising, motivation is the third important function of
a personnel manager. In order to make any managerial decision really meaningful, it is necessary
to convert it into an effective action which the manager can accomplish by motivating his or her
subordinates. Almost every human problem the manager faces throughout the organisation has
motivational elements. The manager, therefore, should incorporate the principles and concept of
motivation into his or her own philosophy of management. By understanding and applying them,
he or she can influence others in attaining a better or positive motivation.

6.3 SOME COMMON ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT MOTIVATION

Both, the academics and the manager have been trying to understand the motivational factors
since long. The theories that have been put forward regarding motivation are still tentative and
cannot give any definite conclusion. Some common assumptions about motivation are:

i) It is commonly stated that, it is the subordinates or rank and file among the workers or non-
supervisory staff in an organisation who need to be motivated and not the supervisory and
managerial staff. The fact is that the latter need to be motivated first and it is then that they
will be able to motivate their subordinates and other workers at the shopfloor level. How can
a demotivated manager or supervisor motivate persons working under him or her?

63
ii) Motivation and higher productivity go together. This may be true by and large, but individual
motivation at the workplace or group motivation, as in the case of trade unions, may not have
such a correlation with productivity.
iii) All motivational techniques are designed and applied by the personnel managers and other
line executives, who directly control and take work from those under them. In fact, the latter
are more concerned as it is their primary function to see the persons under them work most
efficiently. As they are in closer touch with their workers they can understand their problems
better and also know their needs. If necessary they can take the advice of the personnel man
or industrial psychologist or any consultant.
iv) Standard theories of motivation developed by psychologists may also apply to industrial
situations. Most of these concepts and theories have been developed by the study of human
material other than industrial personnel, and so their application to the latter may not be
fruitful or provide dependable results.

6.4 TYPES OF MOTIVATION

In the industrial set-up motivation may be intrinsic as well as extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation is
related to the job one is doing. When a skilled operative performs a job well, he or she derives a
sense of satisfaction. This is intrinsic motivation which satisfies the creative instinct in a person
and gives an inner satisfaction due to some sort of achievement.

Extrinsic motivation is external to the job or task. For example, financial incentives for doing a
job well or giving higher production may motivate the workers. Other external motivators are
praise from the superior for good work, recognition of good performance by the company in the
form of public citation and award, admiration of fellow workers, and improved working
conditions, more power and authority and other facilities.

Determinants of Motivation

The traditional approach that man could be made to work by monetary rewards has been
gradually giving place to a more complete pluralistic explanation which recognises that man
works to fulfil a variety of needs. It is recognised that motivation is the result of the following
three groups of factors:

i) Individuals: To know what can motivate employees we must know their aims, objectives and
values. Human needs are both numerous and complex, and often it is difficult to identify and
categorise them. Motivation is not an easily observed phenomenon. We have first to observe
individual action and behaviour at work and interpret the same in terms of some underlying
motivation. Our interpretation may not necessarily reveal the individual’s true motivation, as
some of the human needs may be difficult to describe and identify.

ii) Organisational Components: Organisation structure, technological system, physical

facilities etc. which constitute internal environment of an organisation affect employee
motivation. Some machines are more interesting to work with than others; or certain kinds of
work may be boring to many persons.
iii) External or Exogenous Variables: A worker’s life outside the organisation i.e. employee’s
social life is also an important factor affecting the employee’s motivation or willingness to
work in the organisation. Life at work and life outside the work are bound together. Troubles
and joys of off-job life cannot be totally put aside when reporting for work, nor can the
organisation matters be completely dropped when returning home after work. A strong
motivational role is also played by culture, customs and norms, images and attributes
conferred by society on particular jobs. An individual for example may find that his or her
work commands a substantial degree of respect and social acceptance quite apart from

64
 holding a position in a particular organisation, and so he or she may be more willing or
motivated to perform such a work.

Characteristics of Motivation

Motivation is viewed as a complex process with many factors which vary from time to time and
person to person. Some important characteristics of motivation which may be noticed from the
above discussion of its determinants are:

i) Individuals differ in their motivation: As the desires and goals of individuals differ, so do
their motivations. One may do a job because it is remunerative, the second may do it because
it gives a sense of achievement, and a third may do it because it enables him to serve a cause
which is dear to him.
ii) Motivation is highly situational: A person may work very well in one organisation and
poorly in another in the same position or type of the job. The performance may vary with
working conditions, work environment and type of supervision.
iii) Motivation change: Motivation of each individual changes from time to time even if he or
she may continue to behave in the same way. For example, a temporary worker may produce
more in the beginning to become permanent. After he or she has been made permanent, he or
she may continue to produce more to gain promotion and so on.
iv) Motivation is expressed differently: Needs and the way in which they are translated into
action may vary considerably between one individual and another. Different persons may
also react differently to successful or unsuccessful fulfilment of their needs. One may feel
frustrated if the need has not been met, but the other may be motivated by failure and
redouble the effort to get the need met. Again one individual with strong security need may
avoid accepting responsibility for fear of failure and dismissal and the other with a similar
need may seek out responsibility for fear of being fired for low performance.
v) Sometimes the individual himself is not aware of his or her motivation: This can be better
explained by an example drawn from the famous Hawthorne experiment. One girl worker
complained to her counsellor about her foreman. Later on, it was found that the reason why
she disliked her foreman was that she had a step-father whom she feared and whose physical
appearance was very much like her foreman. The result was that she had unconsciously
transferred to her foreman the unfavourable characteristics of her step-father. The above
shows that the motivation can be both conscious and subconscious.
vi) Motivation is complex: It is difficult to explain and predict the behaviour of the employee.
Use of one motivational device may not always produce the desired result as sometimes it
brings an opposing motive into play. For example, in a factory when a blue-green device was
introduced to reduce eye strain, the output of men workers increased while that of female
workers decreased. It was found that the latter disliked this change as the new type of light
falling on them made them look simply ghastly in appearance. So we can say different
individuals will react differently to the same motivational factor. Yet there are certain
indications through which you may decide who can be considered a motivated worker, like:

a) One who wants to come to work and works willingly.

b) When at work one gives ones best.
c) One has a definite sense of belonging and pride in the organisation and in the improvement of
management effectiveness.

Similarly some common indications of demotivation are:

a) Increasing absenteeism among employees and excessive labour turn-over.

b) Low output and productivity.
c) An increasing rate of accidents and wastage of raw material.
65
d) Rank indiscipline.
e) Frustration and unrest in the workforce.
f) Defiant and violent behaviour of employees at or outside the workplace, and frequent
confrontation or argument with supervisors and managers.
g) Non-cooperation, strikes, gheraos, abusive and violent demonstration.

Frustration, which is the most common manifestation of demotivation may be caused by erosion
of real wages due to rising prices and unsatisfactory personnel administration. But whenever it
develops, an employee will either seek a better job elsewhere if he or she can or will develop a
sense of apathy towards the organisation and work so that he or she would do as little as possible.
Other demotivation consequences of frustration may be as illustrated in Figure I.

Fight Internal Withdrawal Aggression

(Change of Employment (Apathy, Alienation etc.)
Resignation etc.)

External (Individual Group or Unionised)

Towards the management Towards innocent Internalised (Resentment,

(protests & strikes etc.) other persons and objects Hostility)

Figure I: Frustration at the Work Place

6.5 THEORIES OF MOTIVATION

Although no area of personnel management has been more debated than motivation, the latter has
been and still is an important area, where considerable research is being conducted by
psychologists, behavioural scientists and management writers. Based on this research many
theories of motivation have been formulated. Some of the important theories which try to provide
explanations of the behaviour outcome are as below:

i) B.F. Skinner’s Theory of Operant Conditioning or Behaviour Modification Theory:

According to this theory people behave the way they do because in past circumstances they
learned that certain behaviour was associated with pleasant outcomes, while certain other
behaviour was associated with unpleasant outcomes. In other words behaviour of a person
depends upon its consequences. In simple language this is a theory of learning, i.e. how to
make an animal or human being learn what is positive or desirable behaviour. This feeling
can be induced by introducing some favour at the end of some positive behaviour, thus
strengthening the urge to repeat the behaviour. Skinner did not make any research in the field
of industries, but he conducted his researches to study learning process among rats, and also
experimented with school children and found that stimulus for desirable behaviour could be
strengthened by rewarding it at the earliest. In the industrial situation, the relevance of this
theory may be found in the installation of some type of incentives. More immediate is the
reward, and the stimulation or the motivation it creates. Withdrawal of reward in case of

66
 substandard work may also produce the desired result. However, researches show that it is
generally more effective to reward desired behaviour than to punish undesired behaviour.

ii) McClelland’s Need for Achievement Theory: This theory has particular reference to
industrial enterprises, as the achievement motive naturally has much to do with the success
and failure of an enterprise. In the US maximum research has been conducted on the
achievement motive. According to McClelland the three human needs are need for
affiliation, need for power and need for achievement. His theory postulates that some
people are much more achievement minded than others and they attain job satisfaction, and
derive a special kind of joy in attaining an objective successfully or accomplish a challenging
job or completing a job of great responsibility rather than receiving a monetary or other
reward. According to him need for achievement or self-actualisation is the strongest and
lasting motivating factor, particularly in case of persons whose power needs are satisfied.
McClelland stated that the motivational pattern and factors are influenced by the family,
friends, culture, social attitudes and other similar factors. And achievement motivated people
are usually not as much money hungry as they are for achievement and accomplishment.
This type of motivation may be seen more among people with higher technical skill and
professional knowledge, than in labour intensive traditional organisations.

iii) Abraham H. Maslow’s Need Hierarchy or Deficient Theory of Motivation: You have
read in Unit 5 about Maslow’s theory. Here we discuss something more on it. The intellectual
basis for most of the motivation thinking has been provided by the behavioural scientists, like
A.H. Maslow and Frederick Herzberg. Although Maslow himself did not apply his theory to
industrial situation, it has a wide impact far beyond academic circles. Douglous MacGregor
has used Maslow’s theory to interpret specific problems in personnel administration and
industrial relations.

The crux of Maslow’s theory is that human needs are arranged in a hierarchy composed of
five categories. The lowest level needs are physiological and the highest level are the self-
actualisation needs. Maslow starts with the formulation that man is a wanting animal with a
hierarchy of needs, of which some are lower in scale and some are in a higher scale or system
of values. As the lower needs are satisfied, higher needs emerge. Higher needs cannot be
satisfied unless lower needs are fulfilled. A satisfied need is no longer a motivator. The
hierarchy of needs at work in the individual, is today a routine tool of the personnel trade, and
when these needs are active they act as powerful conditioners of behaviour – as motivators.

Hierarchy of Needs: The main needs of a person are five i.e. physiological needs, safety
needs, social needs, ego needs and self-realisation or self-actualisation needs, as shown in
order of their importance and working in the following two Models.

Self-Actualisation
Esteem
Belonging
Safety
Physiological

Model-I

Self-
realisation Needs

67
 Ego Needs

Social Needs

Safety Needs

Physiological Needs

Model II

The above five basic needs are regarded as striving needs which make a person do things.
The first model indicates the ranking of the different needs. The second is more helpful in
indicating how the satisfaction of the higher needs is based on the satisfaction of the lower
needs. It also shows how the number of persons who have experienced the fulfilment of
higher needs gradually tapers off.

Physiological or Body Needs: The individual moves up the ladder responding first to the
physiological needs for nourishment, clothing and shelter. These physical needs must be
equated with pay rate, pay practices and to an extent with the physical conditions of the job.

Safety/Security: The next in order of needs is safety/security need, the need to be free from
danger, either from other people or from environment. The individual wants to be assured,
once his or her bodily needs are satisfied, that they are secure and will continue to be satisfied
for the foreseeable future. The safety needs may take the form of job security, security against
disease, misfortune, old age, etc. as also against industrial injury. Such needs are generally
met by safety laws, measures of social security, protective labour laws and collective
agreements.

Social Needs: Going up the scale of needs, the individual feels the desire to work in a
cohesive group and develop a sense of belonging and identification with a group. He or she
feels the need to love and be loved and the need to belong and be identified with a group both
within the organisation and in the society. In a large organisation it is not easy to build up
social relations. However close relations can be built up with at least some fellow workers.
Every employee wants to feel that he or she is wanted or accepted by the society where he or
she belong or want to belong.

Ego or Esteem Needs: These needs are reflected in our desire for status and recognition,
respect and prestige in the workgroup or workplace, such as is conferred by the recognition of
one’s merit by promotion, by participation in management and by the fulfilment of a
worker’s urge for selt-expression. Some of the needs relate to one’s self-esteem, e.g. need for
achievement, self-confidence, knowledge, competence, etc. On the job, this means praise for
a job well done. But more important, it means a feeling by the employee that at all times he or
she has the respect of his or her supervisor as a person and as a contributor to the
organisation’s goal.

Self-realisation or Self-actualisation Needs: This upper level need is one which when
satisfied makes the employee give up dependence on others on the environment. The person
becomes growth-oriented, self-directed, detached and creative. This need reflects a state
68
 defined in terms of the extent to which an individual attains his or her personal goal. This is
the need, which totally lies within oneself and there is no demand from any external situation
or person. To quote Maslow, “A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet
must write, if he is to be ultimately happy. What a man can be he must be. This need we
may call self-actualisation”. The person has “the desire to be more and more what one is, to
become everything what one is capable of becoming”. In practical terms, in an organisation
one seldom achieves self-realisation. However, the creativity of a person in producing new
and practical ideas, in bringing about productivity, innovation and reducing costs might
satisfy some of these needs.

By and large Maslow’s analysis is significant, and he may also be correct in saying that
saturated basic needs act as disincentives, but his reasoning is not free from flaws. For the
majority of industrial workers or executives even basic needs are never satisfied fully. These
needs are recurrent and some of them are fairly constant. They may vary, say from a small
flat to a bigger flat, or from a small car to a bigger car, but all the same they are there.
Moreover, as observed earlier, the industrial scene is hardly conducive to satisfying higher
needs, particularly the one of self-actualisation. A highly dedicated and committed executive
may have a highly developed sense of responsibility, but may not have the need for self-
actualisation.

iv) Herzberg’s Two Factor or Hygiene or Maintenance Theory of Motivation: According to

Herzberg, one has two different categories of needs which are essentially independent of each
other and affect ones behaviour in different ways. When people are dissatisfied about their
jobs, they are concerned about the environment i.e. the job conditions in which they are
working. On the other hand, when people feel good about their job, this has to do with the
work itself. Herzberg calls the first category of needs hygiene/maintenance factors because
they describe one’s environment and serve the primary purpose of maintaining a reasonable
level of job satisfaction. He calls the second category of needs as motivators since they seem
to be effective in motivating people to superior performance. Hygiene factors include
company policies, administration, supervision, working conditions, interpersonal relations,
wages and allowances, status and security. Motivators or job content factors include
achievement, recognition, increased responsibility, challenging work, growth and
development. According to Herzberg both the sets of factors work in one direction only.
Absence of hygiene factors may dissatisfy the workers but will not demotivate them.
Similarly, in the presence of motivators, workers may be motivated, but their absence does
not make them dissatisfied.

Herzberg’s theory and observations are based on the information collected by him and his
colleagues by interviewing 200 engineers and accountants in the late fifties at Pittsburg in
order to assess what motivated them in their work. Obviously this was a group of employees
whose lower needs, i.e. physiological, safety and even social needs by and large were
satisfied and so they could be motivated by the remaining two higher needs, i.e. esteem and
self-actualisation. Herzberg’s theory may, therefore, be relevant for better paid executives.
Moreover, it has to be understood that some maintenance factors for one person can be
motivational factors for another and vice versa. Hardly any organisation can offer unbounded
opportunities for personal growth to its executives. So a middle way has to be found.

v) Alderfer’s ERG Theory of Motivation: Taking Maslow’s theory as the starting point,
Clayton Alderfer has built up a theory which he claims has realistic application to a work
organisation. According to him, Maslow’s five levels of needs can be amalgamated into
three, i.e. “existence relatedness and growth” resulting in his approach being termed ERG
Theory. His Existence Needs include all forms of physiological and safety needs or
Maslow’s first two level needs. Related Needs include relationship with other people (Social
Needs of Maslow’s third level) and that part of Maslow’s fourth level (Esteem Needs) which

69
 are derived from other people. Growth Needs, like Maslow’s notion of self-actualisation, are
concerned with the desire to be creative and to achieve full potential in the existing
environment.

Alderfer’s theory conceives of ERG needs along a continuum thus avoiding the implication
that the higher up an individual is in the hierarchy the better it is. According to him different
types of needs can operate simultaneously, and if a particular path towards the satisfaction is
blocked, the individual will both persist along that path and at the same time regress towards
more easily satisfied needs. In this way, he distinguishes between chronic needs which persist
over a period and the episode needs which are situational and can change according to the
environment.

vi) J.S. Adam’s Equity Theory: The essence of this theory is that employees make comparison
of their efforts and rewards with those of others in similar work situations. In other words, the
employees try to assess their own worth in comparison to their colleagues. Inequity exists
when these ratios are not equivalent. The existence of perceived inequity creates tension, and
greater the inequity greater the tension is. Such a tension may motivate the worker to increase
or decrease their output or input to attain equity. The importance of this theory to
management lies in the area of determining appropriate levels of rewards.

vii) V.H. Varoom’s Expectancy Theory: According to Varoom, an individual’s level of

performance is determined by one’s preference for particular goals. He calls level of
performance as the first level outcome and preference for a goal as second level outcome. An
individual’s preference for a particular goal which Varoom calls Valence can be positive or
negative, or zero, depending on whether the individual prefers to attain the goal, or not, or it
can be zero, if he is indifferent towards the outcome.

The degree to which the individual believes that his first level outcome (performance) leads
to the second level outcome (preferred goal) is a subjective probability estimate which
Varoom calls Instrumentality. The combination of Valence of the Goal and the
Instrumentality determines the importance of level of performance. Another major variable in
the Varoom’s motivational scheme is Expectancy which like Instrumentality is also a
probability estimate, in other words an individual will relate whether an effort in a particular
job will give the desired performance. The former relates efforts to the level of performance.
And the latter relates performance to the preferred goal i.e. relate a particular level of
performance to some reward. Expectancy will depend on the requisite skill and abilities of the
individual, as also on his perception of the most appropriate way of obtaining his objectives.

Thus, what the individual does will depend on a three step thought process (i) How
important are the various second level outcomes (preferred goal)? (ii) Will the first level
outcome (level of performance) lead to second level outcome or preferred goal
(instrumentality)? (iii) Will existing effort in fact achieve high performance (Expectancy)?
Although Varoom’s theory does not directly contribute to the techniques of motivating
personnel in an organisation, it is of value in analysing organisational behaviour.

It also points out that people can differ greatly in how they size up their chances for success
in different jobs. Therefore, to motivate people, it is just not enough to offer them some
rewards. They must also feel reasonably convinced that they have the ability to obtain the
reward.

Check Your Progress-1

1) Discuss the different types of motivation.

..................................................................................................................................................
..................................................................................................................................................
70
 ..................................................................................................................................................
..................................................................................................................................................
..................................................................................................................................................

2) Describe Maslow’s need hierarchy.

..................................................................................................................................................
..................................................................................................................................................
..................................................................................................................................................
..................................................................................................................................................
..................................................................................................................................................

6.6 MOTIVATION AND MORALE

These two expressions are not synonymous or interchangeable as may be clear from the definition
and nature of motivation explained earlier in this Unit. But the fact remains that a motivated
group of workers generally has a high degree of morale. Morale is a composite attitude of various
individuals employed by a company. It is generated by the group and may be considered as a by-
product of the group. It is not an average of individual attitudes. M.S. Viteles defines morale as
“an attitude of satisfaction, with a desire to continue in, and willingness to strive for, the
goals of a particular group or orgnisation”. Milton Blum describes morale as “the possession
of feeling of being accepted by and the belonging to a group of employees through
adherence to a common goal and confidence in the desirability of these goals”. Put simply,
morale is a group concept, while motivation is largely an individual concept. Morale is the
summation of feeling of employees as a group towards various aspects of their work job, the
company, working conditions, fellow workers, supervisors and so on. If the attitude of employees
towards all these aspects is more positive than negative, the morale of the group can be said to be
high, otherwise it is low.

Important components and determinants of morale are (a) a feeling of togetherness, (b) need
for a clear goal or objective to be achieved, (c) expectation of success towards the attainment of
the goal, (d) feeling of each member within the group that each individual has a meaningful task
to perform for achieving the goal and whatever may be the job assigned to the individual it
matters and (e) supportive and stimulative leadership. All these determinants of morale are
equivalent to that of job satisfaction which is a precursor of morale. However, the two differ as
the term job satisfaction is used for individual and morale for groups.

An enlightened management should be conscious of the need for assessing the morale of its
employees by opinion poll or attitude survey from time to time. Low morale can be caused by
factors beyond the control of the organisation. However, employee morale can be boosted up by
(a) better methods of working in which employees or their representatives may have a bigger say,
(b) utilisation of incentive schemes with the widest possible coverage, and (c) consultative and
participative style of management.

What Demotivates or Demoralises the Employees? Well, there are some management practices
which affect the morale and motivation or willingness of employees to give their best or work in
the desired manner. Some of these practices are:

a) Under assignment: If a skilled person is assigned an unskilled or routine job, it may cause
frustration or job dissatisfaction and thus demotivation.

b) Over assignment: If a good worker is overloaded to the point where he or she feels being
exploited, this may make him or her lose interest in work. In big organisations, it is rather a
common practice to pick up good workers as others cannot be trusted or depended upon.

71
c) Buckmastership: Superiors or leaders avoiding hard work themselves and passing on the
same to their subordinates, and then finding fault with them is a common management
practice which may erode employee motivation.

d) Coercive types of control or supervision which may give the employee a feeling that he or
she is not being trusted may also demotivate or erode his or her interest in the work. Some
control no doubt is essential but if it is too coercive resulting in frequent warnings or
punishments, or withdrawal of facilities to chasten the employee, morale and motivation of
the employee may go down.

e) Manipulative behaviour of the management which may take the form of divide and rule
policy or tactics, making promises which are not fulfilled, encouraging groupism and so on
may also have a demotivating effect. When employees perceive such behaviour, they
naturally cease to work and lose interest in the same.

6.7 MOTIVATION OF EMPLOYEES IN ACTUAL PRACTICE

There is no single magic wand to motivate employees as their needs and priorities of satisfaction
differ. What may motivate one may not motivate the other. However, as Taylor has observed, it
is for the employer to find out the right way that could make employees more productive.
According to him an employee is a bundle of untapped energy, ready to work if, properly trained
and fairly treated. In managing an organisation, some of the important factors which could
improve motivation and morale of its employees are as follows:

i) A well-defined humanistic personnel policy wherein the workforce is regarded as the

valuable asset of the organisation, and sufficient care is taken to maintain and develop it, not
only to attain organisational objectives but also to satisfy the normal needs and aspirations
of employees.
ii) A long-term employment policy projecting image of fairness in recruitment and selection,
placement of the right person in the right job, sound and fair promotion and transfer policies,
well-planned need-based training and development programmes for grooming employees for
higher jobs or building their career in the organisation, and suitable manpower planning.
iii) Fair wages and salary administration ensuring equitable wage structure free from internal
and external inequalities.
iv) Good performance should be rewarded adequately at the earliest and also be given deserving
publicity. A constructive and objective system of performance appraisal and merit rating of
employees aiming at improving them and not so much for punishing them.
v) Prompt handling of workers’ grievances by having a short time-bound procedure well-
known to employees. In handling grievances, the attitude of persons managing grievances
should be cooperative and positive and not negative, and the worker should have the feeling
that he or she will be properly heard and justice will be done.
vi) In handling disciplinary cases the management should not only be fair but also seem to be
fair. Disciplinary procedure should conform to the principles of natural justice. A corrective
and not punitive approach in this respect may be more motivating.
vii) Participative and consultative style of management and supervision and increasing
autonomy in work may create necessary conditions for motivating workers to give their best.
viii) Job enrichment and enlargement, or making the job more challenging are also essential for
making the workers give their best, as these will not only reduce job boredom and
frustration, but also increase job satisfaction. This will satisfy the esteem or ego and self-
actualisation needs of employees, which are perpetual motivators.

72
ix) Self-motivation by top management, senior and middle managers and supervisors is
essential if the persons working under them are to be motivated. The dictum “before you
motivate others, you must first motivate yourself” should not be lost sight of. Seniors are
expected to provide their juniors effective leadership and set an example of dedication and
superior skill.

6.8 JOB ENRICHMENT – MEANING, NATURE AND

OBJECTIVES
Job enrichment is a term used often for the process of achieving and improving the “quality of
work life”. Herzberg describes job enrichment as that type of improvement in the context of
the job which may give a worker more of a challenge, more of a complete task, more
responsibility, more opportunity for growth, and more chance to contribute his or her ideas.
The need for such an improvement in the job content is being stressed by the social and
behavioural scientists. This is because excessive job specialisation introduced by scientific
management and advancing modern technology has been dehumanising the work by making the
workers job meaningless, routine repetitive, removing all challenges from it and making the
worker a part of the machine culture. As human capabilities are not being fully utilised under
such conditions, it is creating frustration among the workers and alienating them from their jobs.
The increasing alienation of workers from their jobs is creating a serious human relations
problem. Some organisations have been trying to solve the problem of excessive job
specialisation by periodic job rotation to provide variety, but this has not proved adequate to
reduce work boredom and monotony.

In recent years, considerable research has been undertaken with respect to more unusual and
seemingly risky changes in job content. Among these are job enlargement, job enrichment and
semi-autonomous groups.

Job Enrichment and Job Enlargement: Both these changes involve redesigning of the job and
have the objective of humanising work by introducing more variety in work, increasing
responsibilities, and making work more interesting, challenging and motivating. Job
enlargement implies additions of more functions and increasing the variety of tasks and
duties to reduce monotony. But the additional responsibilities involved are of a horizontal
nature. Job enrichment implies an improvement in the quality and variety of work, and the
additional responsibilities are of a critical nature encompassing self-growth by introducing
motivators. Again the job enlargement merely makes a job structurally bigger, while job
enrichment provides the opportunity for the employees’ psychological growth. The job
enrichment approach to job designing is, therefore, more often recommended by the
behaviourists.

According to Hackman and Oldham, the following are the important job characteristics
underlying job enrichment:

a) Skill Variety: This provides variety in the job creating opportunities for employees to
perform a wide range of operations in their work and use a wide variety of equipment and
procedures.
b) Task Identity: This allows employees to do an entire or whole piece of work so that
employees can clearly identify the result of their effort.
c) Task Significance: This makes employees feel that the job has a substantial impact on others.
The impact can be on others in the organisation, as when the employees perform a key step in
the work process, or it may be on others outside the organisation, as when the worker helps to
make a life-saving instrument.

73
d) Autonomy: This gives employees a certain control over their work and make them feel that
the work is their own and they are responsible for whatever success or failure ensuing from
their work. Autonomy measures the extent to which employees have a say in scheduling their
work and work time, selecting the equipment they will use, and deciding on the procedure to
be followed and so on. The autonomy is created through a process of “vertical loading” that
is, the worker is given self-management rights in multiple areas.
e) Feedback: The worker must receive useful and believable information regarding the job
performance. Feedback may come from the job itself or from the supervisor or from other
persons.

6.9 HOW TO ENRICH JOBS?

Usually job enrichment is undertaken at the management initiative, often with the assistance of
behavioural scientists as consultants for analysing the content of the job and designing a new job-
structure. The management’s initiative is aroused by its perception of workers’ apathy and
indifferent performance, high rate of absenteeism, and other symptoms which indicate that
workers do not like the jobs they are doing.

There is no one way of enriching a job. The technology and the circumstances dictate which
techniques or combination of techniques could be appropriate. According to Tripathi, some of
the important techniques followed are:

i) Rotation of tasks, broadening of qualifications of skills and responsibilities, enhancement of

the intrinsic interest of the job and removing or lessening supervision.
ii) Increasing responsibilities of individuals for their own work.
iii) Giving employees more scope to vary the methods, sequence and pace of their work.
iv) Giving a person or a work group a complete natural unit of work i.e. reducing task
specialisation.
v) Removing some controls form above while ensuring the individual or groups are clearly
accountable for achieving targets or standards.
vi) Allowing more say or influence in setting targets and the standard of performance.
vii) Giving employees the control information that they need to monitor their own performance.
viii) Encouraging the participation of employees in planning work, innovating new techniques
and reviewing results.
ix) Introducing new and more difficult tasks not previously handled.
x) Assigning individuals or groups specific projects which give them more responsibility and
help them to increase their expertise.
xi) Making crisis decision in problem situations rather than relying on the boss.

As observed by Edwin B. Flippo the most critical core dimension of job enrichment is that of job
autonomy. It is certainly the critical difference between job enrichment and job enlargement. The
autonomy is created through a process of “vertical loading” that is, the worker is given self-
management rights in multiple areas. In various programmes such additional responsibilities
include setting one’s own work schedule and work break, in establishing work methods, making
one’s own quality checks, varying the work break, in establishing work methods, changing duties
with others, setting priorities as to work performed, making crisis decision in problem situations
rather than relying on the boss and training less experienced workers.

Flippo outlines the theory of job enrichment in the following model prepared by J. Richard
Hackman and Greg R. Oldham.

Model of Job Enrichment

74
 Core Job Critical Personal and work
Dimensions Psychological States outcomes
Skill Variety Experienced Meaningfulness of work High interest work performance
Task Identity
Task Significance
Autonomy Experienced High quality
Responsibility for outcomes of the work Work performance

Feedback Knowledge of the actual work activities High motivation with the work
Employee Growth Low absenteeism and turnover.
Need strength

Some Experiments of Job Enrichment and their Success

Redesigning of jobs which job enrichment involves is a complete process and needs expert advice
and guidance and a detailed study of the existing socio-technical system, even a long period of
trial with new forms of operations. However, numerous job enrichment experimental programmes
have been reported in the literature on this subject. At the Olivetti plant in Italy, where assembly
method has been given up, each worker is now given the responsibility for a large job like an
entire key board, the final assembly of an electronic calculator, a print system etc. At the
Kremafactory in Reims in France, workers are specially trained so that they can operate without
supervisors. The workers prefer this system and now the plant requires 20% fewer employees and
so the workers can earn more in the process. A dye casting plant near Stockholm was suffering
from high labour turn-over and poor productivity. In 1971 the management decided, on the basis
of expert advice, to take major steps: (i) to transfer part of the responsibility from the supervisors
to groups of workers and (ii) to introduce a flexible wage system based on group achievements.
The results were: (i) productivity rose by 40% over a two-year period, (ii) labour turnover
dropped from 60% to 18% and spoilage dropped from 4.3% to 3%. The experiments of the
Institute of Human Relations, London, in British Coal Mines proved that a small self-managed
team doing a variety of jobs was more productive than each man working alone even when semi-
automatic equipment had been introduced.

A more famous experiment was that carried out in a new plant at Poes-Grunn by the Norsk Hydro
Co., producing chemicals and fertilisers. Work in the plant had been organised in five teams of
twelve workers each. Each team comprised three workgroups of four workers each, who were
trained to carry out all the operations in one particular area of work, including maintenance and
clearing of work areas as well as quality control. A special action committee consisting of an
outside researcher, the plant manager, the representatives of the local union, of supervisors and of
the personnel department, met weekly to watch and guide and experiment in the early stages.
Later on this work was taken over by the ‘Department Committee’ which had been set up in a
Norwegian industry under a collective agreement with the union in 1967. The findings in quite a
few establishments where such experiments were conducted, were that productivity increased
20% or more with less supervision and the workers had high job satisfaction. This attracted the
attention of industrialists all over Europe.

In the Traveller’s Insurance Company, the job of a key operator was enriched to include: (a)
working for one particular department; (b) communicating directly with user-clients; (c) checking
one’s own quality; (d) establishing a personal work schedule; and (e) correcting one’s
errors. This resulted in an increase in the quantity of output by 31% decrease in the error rate by
8.5%, and a decrease of 3% in the rate of absenteeism.

A recent survey of 58 companies with job enrichment programmes has revealed that two-thirds
felt that product quality had improved and half said that employee turn-over was down to an
average of 18%. Over one-third reported decrease in absenteeism by 16%, and one-third indicated
that employee satisfaction had improved with grievances dropping by 16%.

75
Despite the well-developed theories and many reports of programme success, one can say that job
enrichment is not a panacea. When a large insurance company attempted to introduce job
enrichment, 82% of the affected employees reported liking the jobs, but almost as many as 68%
stated that the employees’ morale was lower because they were not being paid in proportion to
increased duties. Success of job enrichment process is influenced by employees’ growth need.
Those high in the need for achievement are more likely to respond to job enrichment
opportunities, and employees with low achievement needs are often unaffected by these changes.
A person with high achievement needs is one who feels a need to accomplish something
important, to compete against a challenging standard of excellence and prefers to receive a clear
feedback of results. Again, employees who are younger and more educated are more responsive
to job enrichment. The fact that all employees are not alike in their growth needs is further
indicated by another survey of some 1500 employees which reveals that collar employees ranked
“interesting work” as most important. On the other hand, blue collar employees ranked
“interesting work” in the seventh position, after such items as security, pay, helpful co-workers,
and clearly defined responsibilities. Hence management should not assume that job enrichment
will be a success with all employees.

Check Your Progress-2

1) Mention the factors that improve motivation and morale.

..................................................................................................................................................
..................................................................................................................................................
..................................................................................................................................................
..................................................................................................................................................
..................................................................................................................................................

2) How can jobs be enriched?

..................................................................................................................................................
..................................................................................................................................................
..................................................................................................................................................
..................................................................................................................................................
..................................................................................................................................................

6.10 LET US SUM UP

Willingness to work is as important a component of one’s performance as his or her ability to
work, if not more. Motivation means not only willingness to work but also willingness to work in
a desired manner which may help to attain organisational objective. The incentive can be meant
to motivate employees to better performance. Importance of motivation as management function
is obvious from the fact that it is an essential pre-requisite for the survival and growth of an
organisation, which largely depends on the effective utilisation of the workforce. And it is not
possible unless the workforce is motivated adequately. Every human problem has a motivational
element. Apart from other characteristics, motivation is a situational and complex problem as it
relates to human behaviour and attitude towards work, which is subject to change and so difficult
to predict.

76
Employee motivation is intrinsic as well as extrinsic because it is affected by elements present
both within and outside the job. This is confirmed by motivation theories formulated by social
and behavioural scientists. Some of these theories indicate the factors including human needs,
which influence employee motivation, particularly Maslow’s and Herzberg’s theories of
motivation which have been discussed in this Unit. However, in practice employees attitude and
behaviour at work are influenced considerably by organisational structure and its working and
quality of work life. They are also influenced by personnel problems like recruitment, selection,
promotion and transfers, wage and salary administration, handling of conflicts, grievances and
disciplinary cases, and employee welfare.

The need for job enlargement and job enrichment has arisen from the increasing alienation or
workers from their job monotony and boredom created by advancing modern technology and
specialisation. The management tries to improve the jobs horizontally (job enlargement) or
vertically (job enrichment) on perceiving workers’ apathy or indifferent performance, high rate of
absenteeism, and other symptoms indicating that the workers do not like their jobs even when
they are rewarded adequately for the same. Important job enlargement and enrichment techniques
used are: additional job functions, rotation of job tasks, broadening of qualifications or skills and
responsibilities, increasing job autonomy by lessening or removing supervision, enhancement of
the intrinsic interest of the job, etc. Experiments have been made to improve the quality of work
life by enriching or enlarging the jobs with such good results as increased output, decreased
absenteeism, dropping grievances, and increased employee satisfaction. However, the response of
blue-collar employees and employees with low growth needs was not encouraging. Yet, both are
used extensively in tourism industry for a variety of reasons like: lack of availability of trained
manpower in destination zones, to provide better customer care, seasonal nature of employment,
small size of tourism firms, etc.

6.11 CLUES TO ANSWERS

Check Your Progress-1

1) Read Sec. 6.4.
2) See Sec.6.5.

Check Your Progress-2

1) Base your answer on Sec. 6.7.

2) Read Sec. 6.8.

Some Activities

1) Identify your own motivators in order of priority.

2) Visit any tourism firm and assess the motivating or demotivating
factors among the employees.

77
Content Digitized by eGyanKosh, IGNOU
 sending and receiving messages. Communication is effective only when the message Introduction to '
Communication
is understood and when it stimulates action or encourages the receiver to think in new
ways. In this Unit, you will learn about the importance of organizational
communication, its flow and objectives. You will further learn about the
communication process, media of communication available and the bamers to
effective communication.

8.2 IMPORTANCE OF ORGANIZATIONAL

COMMUNICATLON
Business organizations need to focus on effective communication. The success of any
organization in the present dynamic era depends mostly on the ability of managers and
employees to communicate effectively with each other and with out side people and
organizations. Effectwe communication increases productivity. It provides quick
problem solving, strong business relationships, effective decision making, enhanced
professional image, coordinated work flow, organization control and promotion of
products and services, besides many other benefits.
Communication is an integral process of management function. As one manages, one
is also simultaneously communicating. In a retail organization, managers have to
communicate with suppliers, transport organizations, government officials, support
service organizations, employees within the organization, customers, superiors,
subordinates, and host of other persons. The success in operations depends upon how
effectively managers communicate with the parties concerned on various managerial
issues. /J

8.3 TYPES OF COMIIIUNICATION FLOWS

Communication within the organization needs to be systernised to ensure the effective
C flow amongst,employees. The communication flow can be classified into three types.
They are: upward communication, downward communication and horizontal
B
communioation: Let us learn about them.
Upward Communication : It requires design of a communication flow from front line
employees to the upward managerial levels. It is the flow of information from bottom
to top. The subordinates communicate with superiors freely and frequently under this
system. Upward communication provides feedback from subordinates to superiors. It
,
provides an opportunity for the employee to contribute for organizational development
by giving appropriate suggestion. Since the employees are involved in the organization
process in their type of communication, there will be no resistance to change or even
there is some resistance the management can handle it effectively. This type of
communication creates greater harmony and cohesiveness between employees and
management.
Downward Communication: It is a system that facilitates the flow of information
from superiors to subordinates. The communication flows through hierarchy. The top
management communicates with departmental heads. The managers give directions to
assistant managers or supervisors. They in turn pass on the information to the
employees down the ladder. This type of communication is used mostly to give
b directions relating to job performance, to explain policies and procedures and so on.
Downward communication may lead to under communication or over communication
as it focuses on one way flow of communication. Generally, in this type of
communication, delay, loss of information, distortion of information occur. Subordinate
b
staff generally do not like downward communication and therefore it is the less
effective system of communication. 93

Content Digitized by eGyanKosh, IGNOU

 7
Retail Management Horizontal Communication : It takes place between departments or people of the
Perspectives and
Communication same or similar cadre. This system is useful to promote understanding and cooperation
I
between and among various departments. In a retail organization the purchases '
department may be purchasing products from suppliers that might not be needed or can
be stored adequately. In some categories there may be short of supplies and in some
other categories, excess stocks may be existing. Such situations can be avoided if
horizontal communication system is adopted efficiently.
1

The dynamic changes in the business environment, poses many communication

challenges to the business organizations. Effective communication is emerging as one
of the core competencies of the organization. We are in the era of rapid changes and
the world is highly demanding. The unexpected pace of change in technology,
globalization, increased cultural diversity of employees, the emergence of Busifless
Process Outsourcing (BPO's), excessive dependency on others, and so on are
creating more and more business opportunities and communication challenges as well.
The organizations, those handle all the changes effectively can survive and grow in the
compgtitive world.

8.4 COMMUNICATIONOBJECTIVES
4
The following are the major objectives of communication in an organization:
Information: Every organization needs information from external sources as well as
internal sources. A retailer needs information on consumer behavior, their buying 1

habits and motives, changing trends in fashion, supplier's information, changes in the
business environment which include: economic demand, legal and political,
technological and demographic changes, competition, natural environment and other
factors.
Information from within the organization is essential to achieve operational efficiency.
The right, adequate, timely and accurate information helps in solving many problems
and also useful in preventing problems. It is necessary to provide information to the
employees on job assignments and procedures of such assignments, the job status in .
the hierarchy and the process of decision making, general policies, activities of the
organization, etc., to make them to clearly know what they have to do and what is
expected from them.
Business organizations need information on business environment, competition and its
strategies and internal information for organizational planning and business strategy 4
development. .- 4

Order: It is a directive to somebody. It is an authoritative communication. Orders can

be classified in several ways.
W e n Orders: Written orders will be given when the order is highly responsible in
nature, repetitive, a legal requirement or when it is not possible to issue oral orders.
--
Oral Orders: On operational issues oral orders are preferred. This order is simple,
saves time and also does not damage relationship.
General Orders: When something is common to all, general orders are given.
Specific Orders: when an issue is specific to a person or department or an activity 4
specific orders are given.
Mandatory Orders: These orders have to be obeyed by all the persons on whom the
orders are issued. I

94 Discretionary Orders: These orders are in the nature of recommendations. There is

no compulsion that a person has to follow such orders.
Content Digitized by eGyanKosh, IGNOU
Content Digitized by eGyanKosh, IGNOU
Content Digitized by eGyanKosh, IGNOU
Phase 5: Receiver decodes the message. The receiver assigns meanings to the
codes given by the sender. Once the codes are translated, the receiver arranges it in
a meaningful form for understanding.
Phase 6: The receiver responds to the message in the way that he or she wanted.
The feedback of the response helps the sender to evaluate the'effectiveness of the
message. Based on the feedback, the sender can refine the communication process.

In the communication process noise may occur at any phase. Noise may be in the
form of disturbance or insufficiency of information or in any other form. It is
something that affects the effectiveness of communication. Noise may occur at the
selection of information, encoding process, organization of message, transmission of
message, selection of channel and medium, decoding process of the receiver, or at
feedback process. It may present at any one phase or a few phases or in all phases.
Communicators shall be aware and beware of noise in communication. They should
work for reducing the noise factor or if possible, eliminating it.
Check Your Progress 1
1. Imagine that you are.speaking to your friend over phone on your first experience
and apply the commnnication process model and explain.
......................................................................................................................
......................................................................................................................
............. ........................................................................................................
C

2. Identify noise in conversation with your friend.

......................................................................................................................
......................................................................................................................
......................................................................................................................
......................................................................................................................
8.6 MEDIA OF COMMUNICATION
Retailers can use different media of communication to interact with different types of
people. They may use oral and face to face communication with consumers who visit
their malls. With the suppliers, they may communicate though letter or e-mails or
telephone. Television and print media may be used to persuade the consumers. The
choice of communication media depends upon several factors like the urgency of the
message, the availability of time, the expenditure, the legal requirements,
confidentiality etc. The media available can be broadly classified into four groups.
1. Written Communication.
2. Oral Communication.
3. Visual and audio visual communication.

Let us learn about them.

Content Digitized by eGyanKosh, IGNOU

Retail Management
Perspectives and
8.6.1 Written Communication
Communication
Written form of communication is a widely used and well accepted media. It provides
exactness and longevity for reference of a message. There are five myths about
writing. They are 1. writing is unnecessary to work, 2. writing requires special talent,

There are five stages in writing

I. Exploring: The first stage of writing is exploring the ideas. This stage consumes
1
generally 20 per cent of the total time of writing. Before attempting to write
something, it is necessary to involve in thought process to find out relevant points
to communicate.

I
2. Planning: In this stage, the writer arranges the ideas in the order of preference
to convey meanings to the reader effectively. The time required to complete this
stage is 10 per cent of the total time of writing.
3. W n g : The actual act of writing takes 30 per cent of the total time. I

1
4. Rewriting: Many of us do not care much about this stage. ,We believe that the
writing is completed once the third stage is over. But many good writers rewrite.
This stage improves a lot, the content of the message. This stage infact takes
more time (35 per cent of the total time) than any other stage.
5. Proof reading: It is the last stage in writing, but a very important stage. One
should not give up this stage. The spelling mistakes, punctuation, propositions,
and grammar should be checked to ensure correctness. Some times, the
mistakes look like minor ones and may do major damage.
Principles of w d e n communication
The following are the six principles of written communication. I

1
1

I. Clarity: Written communication requires clarity of thought and clarity of

expression like using simple words, active construction, avoiding ambiguity and
Jargon, using simple sentences, etc.
2. Completeness: The writer needs to check the completeness of the message. He
should verify whether all questions are answered in the message or not.
3. Conciseness: Brevity is very important for effective writing. The writer should
include only relevant facts and avoid repetitions.
4. Consideration: This principle advocates that the writer should convey respect to
the reader in his writing. It is always better to emphasize positive and pleasant
facts. The writings should reflect the integrity of the writer.
5. Courtesy: According to this principle, courtesy will be observed through
promptness in writing and giving replies, avoidance of imtating expressions,
sincere apology for an omission and generous thanks for a favour.
6. Correctness: According to this principle, the writer should give correct facts in
the message. The message should be sent to the reader at the right time and in
the correct style.
Written communication is accurate and serves as a permanent record. One can reach
I
a large number of people through this media simultaneously. You can also fix
98 responsibility to the people though this communication. However, written

Content Digitized by eGyanKosh, IGNOU

 communication is much time consuming and more expensive when compared to oral Introduction t.0
communication. Communication

8.6.2 Oral Communication

b When two persons communicate either fase to face or with the help of some
mechanical devices like telephone, wireless radio, etc. it is called 'oral
communication.' This communicatidn has many special advantages. It saves time
r
and money. Direct speech is considered more powerful communication. While
communicating, you can take the feedback also. Most importaqtly the receiver has an
advantage of clarifying the doubts in understanding the message. Oral communication
promotes friendly relations. This type of communication is extremely useful for
communicating groups.
However, oral communication suffers from certain limitations. This communication
may not be suitable to convey lengthy messages. Receivers cannot retain orally heard
message for a long time. It is also not possible to fix responsibility of some body for
t
the mistakes.
Oral communication is mostly used media in spite of a few limitations. The
P advantages of this media outsmsut the limitations. ~etailersfind this media very useful
and also effktive. Oral communication contributes significantly in generating
customer perceived quality in interactions.
Essentials of or& communication: The following are the essential factors that one
should follow to be effective in oral communication.
1. Clear pronunciation: The message should'be pronounced clearly, otherwise the
receiver cannot grasp the words of the sender.
2. Brevity: Brief message has always been considered the most effective factor
since receivers' retention capacity is limited in oral communication. The sender
should be as brief as possible.
3. Precision: The message should ensure exactness. Only relevant issues should
be included in the message and that too with accuracy. b

4. Conviction: The sender should believe in the facts that are being communicated
to others. The oral presentation should communicate the confidence of the
P sender.
5. Logical seqtlence: The sender should present the message logically. The points
to be spoken first and what should follow to convey the meaning and motives of
the sender effectively to the receiver need to be looked into.
6. Appropriate word choice: Words are symbols. T%ey have no fixed or universal
meanings. The meanings of words are in the mind of the user. Therefore, the
communicator should select the words which are suitable to the other party and
those which convey exactly the same meanings as the sender wanted.
7. Use natural voice: Natural voice conveys integrity and conviction. It is advised
to use natural voice in oral communication.

t 8. Communicate with right person: It is essential to know whom to communicate.

If you communicate a right message to a wrong person, it may lead to lots of
problems. Be sure .in recognizing the correct person to communicate.
?
9. Do not get guided by assumptions: Never assume @at your listener has
knowledge already on the subject matter, You may be wrong many times in sueh 99
P
Content Digitized by eGyanKosh, IGNOU
Retail Management assumptions. You can be go,od only when you are total in your message without
Perspectives and
Communication any omissions.
10. Look for feedback: Whcd communicating, if you are smart in collecting
feedback verbally or nohverbally, you can quickly alter the message, if necessary.
11. Allow to ask questions: It is important to give freedom to the receiver to rise
questions whenever he feels ambiguity or confusion. In a way, the
communicator shodld encourage the receiver to ask questions. Such questions
are opportunities lo clarify doubts.

8.6.3 Visual and Audio Visual Communication

Visual communication is nothing but transmitting message though visuals. The
receiver is expected to understand the message by looking at the visuals. Visuals
include facial expressions and gestures, pictures, posters, film strips, slides, etc. Mime
is an art through which facial expressions and gestures are used to convey message
emotionally and effectively. Visuals are very good support for written as well as oral
communication. Visuals enhance the effectiveness in Audio-Visuals and 'Silent'
media.
Audio-visual communication is widely used to reach message very effectively. This
media is considered most effective, because it uses a combination of visuals and
voices. The scope of expression is very high in this media. Television, Cinema, Video
tapes, Internet, etc., are used to in this media. The developments in Communication
Technology day-by-day enhance the scope and application of audio-visual
communication. .

8.6.4 Silence
We can communicate through silence. Sometimes it serves as the most powerful
media. It happens sometimes we may not find words to convey a message. Our
silence sends the message. People may stop talking each other when they observe
the p;esence of somebody not known to them. The silence conveys to the person that
he is an obstruction in their privacy. When a senior official enter the-office, all the
employees become silent. Such silence may convey either respect or fear. The
students in the classroom become silent when the teacher enters the room. When a
student was asked a question, if he does not know the answer, he prefers to be silent.
Like that there are so many occasions in which silence is used as a media of
communication. Silence before the beginning of a speech, silence between words,
silence between sentences, and silence before communicating an important point
convey different meanings. Timing of silence is very crucial. It should not be too
short or too long. Both convey meanings dangerously to the others.

8.7 COMMUNICATION BARRIERS

Barriers are hurdles in the communication process. They stand in the way between
the sender and receiver to reduce the effectiveness of communication. In order to
achieve effectiveness in communication, one has to identify the barriers and try to
eliminate them. The knowledge of communication barriers is useful to the sender as
, - well as the receiver. They can fight together against the barriers to facilitate smooth
and effective flow of c k u n i c a t i o n . The barriers of communication can be
classified in to seven types. They are:
1. Physical Barriers: The physical barriers of communication includes noise, time
and distance. Noise has several meanings. It may be sound of disturbance or
100 illegible hand writing or an ambiguous message, etc. Quite often noise becomes
-

Content Digitized by eGyanKosh, IGNOU

 a barrier to communication. The comrEiunicators shall try to be either away from Introduction to
Communication
the noise or to minimize the effects ofnoise. Time and distance also effect the
smooth flow of communication. If $message is not transmitted to the receiver at
the right time, the message loses its value and the purpose of communication get
defeated. The sender will not get the desired response in such a case.
Therefore, the time taken for the transmission of the message is very important
in communicatibn. If a telegram reaches the destination late due to some
F physical obstructions, the urgency of the need of the communication will not be
satisfied. Some times the distance between the sender and receiver can also
become a bamer. In face to face communication, if the distance is long between
P two messages they may not be audible to each other. They cannot understand
the message properly. Then will have to struggle to catch words and interpret
gestures and finally may fail partially in receiving the message.
2. Semantic Barriers: These barriers refer to interpretation of words, by-passed
instructions, and language differences. Language is an arbitrary code that
depends on shared definitions in societies and also within &e society among
different persons. The interpretation of words depends ilpon several factors
such as the credibility of the sender, the context, the pitch and so on. When
sender and receiver interpret the words of the message similarly, the
communication will be effective. Therefore, one must be careful of the choice of
words. By-passing occurs when the sender and the receiver attribute different
P meanings t a e same word or use different words for the same meaning.
People belong to different language groups struggle to understand each others'
I message. There is no effective remedy for language barrier other than learning
the language of the other party to communicate effectively.
3. Socio-Psychological Barriers: Human beings depict different behaviours as far I
as sending and receiving messages are concerned. Their social and
psychological factors influence such behaviours significantly. The following are
the important barriers:
a. Attitudes and Beliefs: Personal attitudes and beliefs are important
influencers. When a message agrees to the attitudes and beliefs of the
receiver, he tends to receive it favourably and vice-versa. If a change in
promotiog p k y - i@-s&ta an employee, he welcomes it as good.
Otherwise he rejects it.
P
b. Emotions: Emotions have the potential for positive and negative effects in
communication. If the sender is fearful, worried and nervous, his thinking
' will be unclear and he may not be in a position to develop an effective
message.
c. Closed Mind: It is very difficult to communicate to the persons who have
closed mind. Such persons have prejudices and they are not willing to
reconsider their opinions. They will not accept any message that is devient
. \

? - to their already formed opinions.

d. Status Consciousness: Perceived status in the society or positional status

in an organization that js often associated with esteem. People who are
P
conscious of the, status tend to be in a discomfort position when they deal
with persons of different status. For example, subordinates generally
-
E

become afraid of in communicating with their superiors. Similatly, the status

1
I
conscious superior may think that consulting his juniors would be a
compromise of his dignity.
I 101

r
Content Digitized by eGyanKosh, IGNOU
Content Digitized by eGyanKosh, IGNOU
 11. Observe physical barriers and try to minimize or avoid them Introduction to
Communication
12. Do not jump intd'conclusions. Study the message totally
13. Interpret the motives of the sender properly and make sure they are right by
I
asking questions for clarification.

1
14. Be positive to receive the message.

Check Your Progress 2

I
I
F
1. Write a complaint letter on your bad experience in a retail shopping.mal1when
the salesmen refused for excharlge of an item taking into consideration the
essentials of written communication. I

I
- ,

......................................................................................................................
......................................................................................................................
......................................................................................................................
......................................................................................................................
P
2. Identify your problems in oral communication when you are interacting with a
customer.

It ......................................................................................................................
8.8 TEN COMMANDMENTS OF EFFlECTIVE I
Lr COMMUNICATION
The American Management Association has identified essentials of effective
, .

I
communication. They are popularly called as the ten commandments of effective
communication.
1, Clarify ideas before communicating
2. Examine the true purpose of communication
3. Take the entirk environment
L
4. When valuable, obtain advice from others in planning communication

t 5. Beware of the overtones as well as the basic content of the message

6. When possible, convey useful information
7. Follow up communication
8. Communicate with future as well as present in mind
9. Support words with deeds
8 *
10. Be a good listene;.
One should be conscious of these Ten Commandments while communicating others, to
be effective and succ~ssful.A good communicator is a yinner. Receiver orientation
is the basic principle of effective communication. .
103

Content Digitized by eGyanKosh, IGNOU

 4

Retail Management
Perspectives and 8.9 LET US SUM UP 4
Communication
We are living in the age of information revolution. The importance of communication
in the organizational management is increasing day by day. The support of adequate,
qualitative, accurate and timely information is necessary to make quality decisions.
Communication, thus is a major support to managers. The media available to the
retailers, as in other organizations consists of four types of communications namely
written communication, oral communication, visual and audio visual communication
and silence. Organizations consists of human beings. Interpersonal communication
promotes not only goal relations among all employees across the levels but also
promotes interpersonal @st. One must be aware of the dimensions of the
4
comqunication process and work for the importance of communication skills. There
are some barriers in the communication process and knowledge of these barriers is I
useful in achieving effectiveness in communication. There are ten commandments of
effective communication. Improvement in communication ability is a continuous
process. It is necessary to realize or identify the business of communication and work 4
for minimization of noise or elimination of noise. A good and effective communicator
emerges.as winner in interactions.

8.10 KEYWORDS
Coding : Using words, symbols, signs, sounds, etc., in the development of a message.
I

Downward Communication : The flow of communication from top to bottom in an

organization.
Horizontal Communication : The flow of communication from among equal cadre
employees or departments in an organization.
Noise : The disturbance in communication process.
~ e c e i i e :r The person who receives the message from the sender.
Sender : The person who initiates the communication process.
4
Upward Communication : The flow of communication from bottom to top in an 4
organization.

8.11 TEMINAL QUESTIONS

1. Explain the importance of communication in retailing organizations.
1
2. What are upward, downwards and horizontal communications?
3. Discuss communication objectives. a

4. Explain the communication process and the affects of noise.

5. How can you be effective in written communication?
6 . #Howcan you be effective in oral communication?
7. What are the communication behaviors? How can you overcome barriers?

8.12 FURTHER READINGS

Bovee, Thil and Schatzman. (2003) Business Communication Today, New Delhi
New Delhi: Pearson Education.

Content Digitized by eGyanKosh, IGNOU

Chaturvedi P.D. and Mukesh Chaturvedi (2004) Business Communication, New Introduction to
Commnnication
Delhi Pearson Education.
Guffey, Mary Ellen (2001) Essentials of Business Communication, Ohio: South-
Western College Publishing.
Raman, Meenakshi and Singh, Raman. (2006) Business Communication, New Delhi:
Oxford University Press.

105

Content Digitized by eGyanKosh, IGNOU

 UNIT 3 NEEDS, DRIVE AND MOTIVES
Structure 
3.0 Introduction
3.1 Objectives
3.2 Needs, Drives and Motives
3.3 Needs
3.3.1 Need Model
3.3.2 Murray’s Needs
3.3.3 Psychogenic Needs
3.3.4 Kano’s Needs
3.3.5 Glasser’s Five Needs

3.4 Drives
3.4.1 Drive Reduction Theory
3.4.2 Drive Theory: Behavioural Approaches to Drive

3.5 Motives
3.5.1 Definition and Meaning of Motives
3.5.2 Motivation and Feedback Control System
3.5.3 Motivation and Ethnology
3.5.4 Motivation and Learning Theory
3.5.5 Intrinsic Motivation
3.5.6 Motivation Methods

3.6 Theories of Motivation

3.6.1 Maslow’s Theory of Need Hierarchy
3.6.2 Alderfer’s Model
3.6.3 Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory
3.6.4 Process Theories
3.6.5 Equity Theory

3.7 Stimulus Motives

3.7.1 Social Motives

3.8 Let Us Sum Up

3.9 Unit End Questions
3.10 Suggested Readings

3.0 INTRODUCTION
In this unit we will be dealing with Needs, Drives and motives. We start with defining
needs, and present the various models related to needs. The importance of needs
in the beahviour of the individual is discussed in detail. Murray’s concept of needs
and the psychogenic needs as against the physiological needs are discussed. Kano’s
and Glasser’s needs are also presented and how these incite behaviours. Then we
define drives, and the theories related to drives such as the drive reduction theory
and the behavioural approach to drive reduction. We discuss Hull’s concept of drive
and drive reduction in detail. Then we deal with Motives, we define motives and
34
elucidate the characteristics of motives. Then we present the various theories of Needs, Drive and Motives

motivation and how important these are in motivating behaviours. Then we present
the methods of motivation and give a number of examples from organisational and
work settings as to what methods are used in motivating the employees to perform
at their best level. Then we present the theories of motivation followed by a discussion
on stimulus motives and social motives in which we present McCleland’s components
of motivation.

3.1 OBJECTIVES  
After completing this unit, you will be able to:
 Define needs, drives and motives;
 Elucidate their characteristic features;
 Elucidate the theories of needs;
 Define drives and bring out the characteristic features;
 Elucidate the theories of drives and drive reduction theory;
 Define motives and bring out the characteristic features of motives;
 Delineate the theories of motivation;
 Explain stimulus motives; and
 Describe the achievement motivation of and its various components.

3.2 NEEDS, DRIVES AND MOTIVES

A need is something that is necessary for organisms to live a healthy life. Needs are
distinguished from wants because a deficiency would cause a clear negative outcome,
such as dysfunction or death. Needs can be objective and physical, such as food and
water, or they can be subjective and psychological, such as the need for self-esteem.
Drive is the force that goads the organism to satisfy the needs. A drive has a direction
and a valence. The Drive is not always that clear or simple. It sustains motivation.
Motivation is the reason we do something that we do. Motive is an impulse that
acts as an incitement to action. In this unit, we will discuss the definition, characteristics,
theories and role of needs, drives, and motives. Needs are something you fulfill
because you have to. They are basic and quite often instinctive. Drive is something
that makes you keep going. It is more individual in the sense that some people are
more driven than others. Motives however are indicative of why you do what you
do. Motives are factors within a human being or animal that arouses and direct goal
oriented behaviour. Motivation has long been a central subject of study in psychology.
Early researchers, influenced by Charles Darwin, ascribed much of animal and
human behaviour to instinct. Sigmund Freud believed that much of human behaviour
was also based on irrational instinctive urges or unconscious motives. Walter B.
Cannon proposed that basic human drives served homeostatic functions by directing
energies toward the reduction of physiological tensions. Behavioural psychologists, in
contrast, stress the importance of external goals in prompting action, while humanistic
psychologists examine the role of felt needs. Cognitive psychologists have found that
a motive sensitizes a person to information relating to that motive, as for instance, a
hungry subject, will perceive food stimuli as larger than other stimuli.
35
Introduction
3.3 NEEDS
What are needs? Needs are a kind of natural mental programming that make us want
things. They essentially motivate us into action as a stimulated need leads to the inner
tension that drives us into action.
A need is something that is necessary for organisms to live a healthy life. Needs are
distinguished from wants because a deficiency of a need would cause a clear negative
outcome, such as dysfunction or death. Needs can be objective and physical, such
as food and water, or they can be subjective and psychological, such as the need
for self-esteem.
To most psychologists, need is a psychological feature that arouses an organism to
action toward a goal and the reason for that action, giving purpose and direction to
behaviour. Abraham Maslow in his hierarchical model of needs proposed that people
have a hierarchy of psychological needs, which range from security to self-actualisation.
One of the problems with a psychological theory of needs is that conceptions of
“need” may vary radically between different cultures or different parts of the same
society. One person’s view of need may easily be seen as paternalistic by another.
According to Ian Gough and Len Doyal, an individual’s needs are representative of
the costs of being human within society. A person, who does not have his or her
needs fulfilled, will function poorly in society.
In their view, each person has an objective interest in avoiding serious harm that
prevents the endeavor to attain his or her vision of what’s good, no matter what that
is exactly. This attempt requires the ability to participate in the societal setting in
which an individual lives.
More specifically, each person needs to have both physical health and personal
autonomy. The latter refers to the capacity to make informed choices about what
should be done and how to implement that. This requires mental health, cognitive
skills, and chances to participate in society’s activities and collective decision making.
How are such needs satisfied? Doyal and Gough point to eleven broad categories
of “intermediate needs” that define how the need for physical health and personal
autonomy are fulfilled:
 Adequate nutritional food and water
 Adequate protective housing
 A safe environment for working
 A safe physical environment
 Appropriate health care
 Security in childhood,
 Significant primary relationships with others
 Physical security
 Economic security
 Safe birth control and child-bearing

36  Appropriate basic and cross-cultural education.

The satisfaction of human needs cannot be imposed “from above”. Those with more Needs, Drive and Motives

internal “assets” or “capacities” (e.g., education, sanity, physical strength, etc.) have
more capabilities (i.e., more available choices, more positive freedom) to fulfill the
needs. They are thus more able to escape or avoid poverty and many other
deprivations. Those with more capabilities fulfill more of their needs.

3.3.1 Need Model

There are a number of theories and models of needs that have been proposed,
including:
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a theory in psychology, proposed by Abraham
Maslow. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is often portrayed in the shape of a pyramid,
with the largest and lowest levels of needs at the bottom, and the need for self-
actualisation at the top.
A key aspect of the model is the hierarchical nature of the needs. The lower the
needs in the hierarchy, the more fundamental they are and the more a person will
tend to abandon the higher needs in order to pay attention to sufficiently meeting the
lower needs. For example, when we are ill, we care little for what others think about
us: all we want is to get better.
The five needs
i) Physiological needs are to do with the maintenance of the human body. If we
are unwell, then little else matters until we recover.
ii) Safety needs are about putting a roof over our heads and keeping us from harm.
If we are rich, strong and powerful, or have good friends, we can make
ourselves safe.
iii) Belonging needs introduce our tribal nature. If we are helpful and kind to others
they will want us as friends.
iv) Esteem needs are for a higher position within a group. If people respect us, we
have greater power.
v) Self-actualisation needs are to ‘become what we are capable of becoming’,
which would be our greatest achievement.
Three more needs
These are the needs that are most commonly discussed and used. In fact Maslow
later added three more needs by splitting two of the above five needs.
 Between esteem and self-actualisation needs was added:
 Need to know and understand, which explains the cognitive need of the
academic.
 The need for aesthestic beauty, which is the emotional need of the artist.
 Self-actualisation was divided into:
 Self-actualisation, which is realising one’s own potential, as above.
 Transcendence, which is helping others to achieve their potential.
Using it: It is used to distract people from higher needs, threaten their lower needs. 37
Introduction It is no surprise that poison has been effectively used to bring down kings and
princes without necessarily killing them.
Perceive and help people to meet the needs on which they are currently focussed.
Their attention is here and they will thank you for assistance in meeting their present
needs. Encourage them reach up to higher needs. Create a tension which you can
use for your purpose.
Defending: Seek only needs at your current level. Neither retreat too rapidly to
lower needs nor reach too quickly for higher needs. When you are ready, only then
reach in your own time for higher needs. If other people seek to help you, you may
accept their help but are not obliged to repay in any way they demand.

3.3.2 Murray’s Need

Henry Murray, a psychologist was active in developing a theory of motivation. He
believed that a need is a potentiality or readiness to respond in a certain way under
certain given circumstances. It is a noun which stands for the fact that a certain trend
is apt to recur.
Murray identified needs as primary and secondary needs. Primary needs refer to the
needs that are based upon biological demands, such as the need for oxygen, food,
and water. Secondary needs are generally psychological, such as the need for
nurturing, independence, and achievement.
Murray and his colleagues identified 24 needs and called them as psychogenic needs.

3.3.3 Psychogenic Needs

The following is a partial list of 24 needs identified by Murray and his colleagues.
According to Murray, all people have these needs, but each individual tends to have
a certain dominant level of each need.
1) Ambition Needs
Achievement: Success, accomplishment, and overcoming obstacles.
Exhibition: Shocking or thrilling other people.
Recognition: Displaying achievements and gaining social status.
2) Materialistic Needs
Acquisition: Obtaining things.
Construction: Creating things.
Order: Making things neat and organised.
Retention: Keeping things.
3) Power Needs
Abasement: Confessing and apologising.
Autonomy: Independence and resistance.
Aggression: Attacking or ridiculing others.
Blame Avoidance: Following the rules and avoiding blame.
38
 Deference: Obeying and cooperating with others. Needs, Drive and Motives

Dominance: Controlling others.

4) Affection Needs
Affiliation: Spending time with other people.
Nurturance: Taking care of another person.
Play: Having fun with others.
Rejection: Rejecting other people.
Succorance: Being helped or protected by others.
5) Information Needs
Cognizance: Seeking knowledge and asking questions.
Exposition: Education others.
Influences of Psychogenic Needs: Each need is important in and of itself, but
Murray also believed that needs can be interrelated, can support other needs, and
can conflict with other needs. For example, the need for dominance may conflict with
the need for affiliation when overly controlling behaviour drives away friends, family,
and romantic partners. Murray also believed that environmental factors play a role
in how these psychogenic needs are displayed in behaviour. Murray called these
environmental forces “presses.”

3.3.4 Kano’s Needs

Japanese consultant Noriaki Kano has produced a simple diagram that was intended
for use in understanding business customer needs, but also is applicable to general
psychological situations.
1) Basic needs: They are the things that we expect to get without having to ask
for them. When they are being met, we hardly notice them. When we buy a
second hand car, we expect it to have five fully inflated tyres with good amount
of tread on them. If we got home and found the spare was bald and punctured,
we would not be happy.
2) Performance needs: Performance needs are those things which are at the top
of our consciousness and which we will deliberately seek. If these are well met
we are happy; if they are not well met, we become dissatisfied. To take the
above example of buying a second hand car, these are the things that we will
ask about, such as traction control and modern styling.
Performance needs come from two sources. When basic needs have not been
met before, they may escalate next time to performance needs. More commonly,
they come from expectations that have been set, either from such as magazines
and friends or by the persuader. Thus the car salesperson may point out that
the new safety protection system is something that every family is asking about
these days.
3) Excitement needs: Beyond basic and performance needs, excitement needs
are those things that we did not expect, those little extras that make us gasp with
delight. Thus you may be amazed by new hands—free radio system or even
something as simple as a soft-hold padded steering wheel. 39
Introduction A simple equation that has been put forward fits here:
Delight = Expectation + 1.
This equates to doing small things beyond performance needs. The essence of
excitement is surprise, and the essence of surprise is unexpectedness. You can surprise
by revealing carefully or sudden appearance.

3.3.5 Glasser’s Five Needs

William Glasser, in his ‘Control Theory’ (later renamed as ‘Choice Theory’) detailed
five needs that are quite close to Maslow’s Hierarchy, but with some interesting
twists.
1) Survival: This is similar to Maslow’s Physiological and Safety level. They are
basic needs which are of little interest unless they are threatened.
2) Love and belonging: This is the same as Maslow’s Belonging need and
recognises how important it is for us as a tribal species to be accepted by our
peers.
3) Power or recognition: This maps to some extent to Maslow’s Esteem need,
although the Power element focuses on our ability to achieve our goals (which
is perhaps a lower-level control need).
4) Freedom: This is the ability to do what we want, to have free choice. It is
connected with procedural justice where we seek fair play.
5) Fun: An interesting ultimate goal. When all else is satisfied, we just ‘want to
have fun’.
You can leverage needs in two ways, stimulating or satisfying them.
Stimulate needs: The simplest way of stimulating needs is to make them visible.
Show people what they have not got. Show them the future, and how their needs
might be met. If you have the power, you can even take things away from them.
Satisfy needs: When people have needs (perhaps those which you have stimulated),
you can promise to satisfy them. It puts you in a position of being able to negotiate.
Self Assessment Questions
1) Discuss the relationship between needs, drives and motives.
.....................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................
2) Define needs and bring out its characteristic features.
.....................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................
40
 Needs, Drive and Motives
3) What is Needs Model? Explain it.
.....................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................
4) What needs did Murra’s model put across?
.....................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................
5) What are psychogenic needs?
.....................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................
6) Discuss Kano’s and Glasser’s models of needs.
.....................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................

3.4 DRIVES
A drive is a psychological state of arousal that compels humans to take action to
restore their homeostatic balance. When balance is restored, the drive is reduced.
Examples are primary and secondary drives.
Hull viewed the drive as a stimulus, arising from a tissue need, which in turn stimulates
behaviour. The strength of the drive is determined upon the length of the deprivation,
or the intensity / strength of the resulting behaviour. He believed the drive to be non-
specific, which means that the drive does not direct behaviour rather it functions to
energise it. In addition this drive reduction is the reinforcement. Hull recognised that
organisms were motivated by other forces, secondary reinforcements. This means
that previously neutral stimuli may assume drive characteristics because they are
capable of eliciting responses that are similar to those aroused by the original need
state or primary drive (Schultz & Schultz, 1987, p 240). So learning must be taking
place within the organism.
Hull’s learning theory focuses mainly on the principle of reinforcement. When a
Stimulus (S) – Response (R) that is a S-R relationship is followed by a reduction of
the need, the probability increases that in future similar situations the same stimulus 41
Introduction will create the same prior response. Reinforcement can be defined in terms of
reduction of a primary need. Just as Hull believed that there were secondary drives,
he also felt that there were secondary reinforcements. He stated that if the intensity
of the stimulus is reduced as the result of a secondary or learned drive, it will act
as a secondary reinforcement. The way to strengthen the S-R response is to increase
the number of reinforcements, habit strength.
Clark Hull’s Mathematical Deductive Theory of Behaviour relied on the belief that
the link between the S-R relationship could be anything that might effect how an
organism responds. Learning, fatigue, disease, injury, motivation, etc are sonme of
the ways in which an organism responds. He labeled this relationship as “E”, a
reaction potential, or as sEr. Clark goal was to make a science out of all of these
intervening factors. He classified his formula
sEr = (sHr x D x K x V) - (sIr + Ir) +/- sOr
as the Global Theory of Behaviour. Habit strength, sHr, is determined by the number
of reinforces. Drive strength, D, is measured by the hours of deprivation of a need.
K, is the incentive value of a stimulus, and V is a measure of the connectiveness.
Inhibitory strength, sIr, is the number of non reinforces. Reactive inhibition, Ir, is
when the organism has to work hard for a reward and becomes fatigued. The last
variable in his formula is sOr, which accounts for random error. Hull believed that
this formula could account for all behaviour, and that it would generate more accurate
empirical data, which would eliminate all ineffective introspective methods within the
laboratory.
Although Hull was a great contributor to psychology, his theory was criticized for the
lack of generalisability due to the way he defined his variables in such precise
quantitative terms.

3.4.1 Drive Reduction Theory

The Drive Reduction Theory grows out of the concept that we have certain biological
drives, such as hunger. As time passes the strength of the drive increases if it is not
satisfied (in this case by eating). Upon satisfying a drive the drive’s strength is
reduced.
Drive theory has some intuitive or folk validity. For instance when preparing food,
the drive model appears to be compatible with sensations of rising hunger as the food
is prepared, and, after the food has been consumed, a decrease in subjective hunger.
There are several problems, however, that leave the validity of drive reduction open
for debate. The first problem is that it does not explain how secondary reinforcers
reduce drive. For example, money satisfies no biological or psychological needs, but
a pay cheque appears to reduce drive through second order conditioning. Secondly,
a drive, such as hunger, is viewed as having a “desire” to eat, making the drive a
homancular (a diminutive human) being. This idea is criticized as simply moving the
fundamental problem behind this “small man” and his desires.
In addition, it is clear that drive reduction theory cannot be a complete theory of
behaviour, or a hungry human could not prepare a meal without eating the food
before he finished cooking it. The ability of drive theory to cope with all kinds of
behaviour, from not satisfying a drive (by adding on other traits such as restraint), or
adding additional drives for “tasty” food, which combine with drives for “food” in
order to explain cooking render it hard to test.
42
Drive theory states that biological needs, which are created by imbalances in Needs, Drive and Motives

homeostasis, produce drives. (Example: Rana has not had anything to drink for
hours. He has a need for fluids, which has caused a drive to find something to drink.
i) Primary drives are drives that arise from biological needs.(Example: Rana
has primary drives for obtaining food, water, and warmth. These are basic
biological needs.
ii) Secondary drives are learned through operant or classical conditioning. Humans
learn drives that prompt them to obtain objects that are associated with the
reduction of a primary drive. (Example: Rana lives in Shimla. He has learned
that it is necessary to pay his power bill on time (secondary drive) in order to
stay warm (primary drive) during the winter.

3.4.2 Drive Theory: Behavioural Approaches to Drive

The behavioural approach to understanding motivation deals with drives, both learned
and unlearned, and with incentives.
By early 1950s drive theory had replaced instinct theory as the major model of
human motivation. Its foremost proponent was Clark Hull who believed that humans
have biological needs such as the need for food, water and sex that demand satisfaction.
A need is a state of deprivation or deficiency. A drive is a state of bodily tension
such as hunger or thirst that arises from an unmet needs. The satisfaction of a drive
is called drive reduction.
Drive theory is based on the principle of homeostasis, the tendency of the body to
maintain a steady internal state. According to drive theory when homeostasis is
disturbed, drives activate the behaviour needed to restore a steady balance.
Though needs and drives are related, they are distinct from each other.
We may have a bodily need for a certain vitamin but not become aware of it until
we develop vitamin deficiency disorder. In other words, the need may exist in the
absence of a corresponding drive. Also the strength of a need and the drive to
satisfy may differ. Unlike instinct theory, drive theory posits an important role for
learning, especially operant conditioning. We learn responses like ordering food
when we are hungry. These responses are reinforced by drive reduction.
A behaviour that results in drive reduction is more likely to be repeated the next time
the need arises.
Drives may also be acquired through experience. Biological drives such as hunger,
thirst and sexual desire are called primary drives because they are considered inborn.
Drives that are the result of experience are called secondary drives. For example,
a drive to achieve monetary wealth is not something we are born with. We acquire
it as a secondary drive because we learn that money can be used to satisfy primary
and other secondary drives.
Woodworth took the concept of drive from the field of mechanics and viewed it as
the source of motive power or force in organismic functioning. Thereafter until the
1960’s this concept was extensively used in human or anuimal behaviour by
psychologists. Often distinctions were made between the following:
 Innate and Acquired drives
 Primary and Secondary drives
 Viscerogenic and psychogenic drives 43
Introduction Miller and Dollard emphasised the role of learned secondary drives in human behaviour.
For example, anxiety was viewed as a secondary drive based on the primary drive
of pain. The anxiety drive is important because it can be learned quickly, become
a strong motivating force and klead to a variety of behaviours relevant to normal and
abnormal beahviours.
Drive theory thus involves the concepts of unlearned (or primary) drives, drive
reduction, and learned (secondary) drives. It is based on the fact that all living
organisms have physiological needs that must be satisfied for survival (for example,
the need for food, water, sleep, and so forth) to maintain a state of homeostasis,
that is, a steady internal state.
Disruption of an organism’s homeostatic state causes a state of tension (arousal)
called an unlearned, or primary, drive. If the aroused state has been created by
hunger, it is called a hunger drive, and the drive can be reduced by food. Drive
reduction moves toward the re-establishment of homeostasis. Drives, then, may be
thought of as the consequence of a physiological need, which an organism is impelled
to reduce or eliminate.
Drives may also be learned, or secondary. Fear (or anxiety), for example, is often
considered a secondary drive that can be learned through either classical or operant
conditioning. In Neal Miller’s well known operant conditioning experiment, a rat was
placed in a black box and then given a mild electrical shock. Eventually, the rat
learned to react to the experience of being put in a black box (with no shock given)
with the response of turning a wheel to escape. In this case, the black box is said
to have elicited the learned drive of fear.
Self Assessment Questions
1) Define drives and bring out the characteristic features of drives.
.....................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................
2) Discuss Hull’s concept of drives and how he made it mathematical in approach.
.....................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................
3) Elucidate drive reduction theory.
.....................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................

44
 Needs, Drive and Motives
4) Discuss the behavioural approach to drive theory.
.....................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................
5) Differentiate between primary and secondary drives.
.....................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................

3.5 MOTIVES
The intentions, desires, goals, and needs that determine human and animal behaviour.
An inquiry is made into a person’s motives in order to explain that person’s actions.

3.5.1 Definition and Meaning of Motives

Motives are hypothetical state that activates behaviour and propels one towards
goals.
Meaning of motive is the reason for doing something or behaving in a specific way.
Different roles have been assigned to motivational factors in the causation of behaviour.
Some have defined motivation as a nonspecific energising of all behaviour. Others
define it as recruiting and directing behaviour, selecting which of many possible
actions the organism will perform. The likely answer is that both aspects exist. More
specific determinants of action may be superimposed on a dimension of activation
or arousal that affects a variety of actions non selectively. The situation determines
what the organism does, arousal level affects the vigor, promptness, or persistence
with which the organism does it.
Early drive theorists saw motivated behaviour as adjunct to physiological mechanisms
of homeostasis, that is, the mechanisms by which the body regulates internal variables
such as temperature, blood sugar level, and the volume and concentration of body
fluids.
However, the homeostatic model was not satisfactory. This was so because of the
following reasons:
1) Not all “basic biological drives” work this way.
2) Motivated behaviour can be influenced by external as well as internal factors.
3) Since these external influences are not coupled with the animal’s internal state,
they can lead to behaviour that does not promote homeostasis and may even
threaten it.
4) Internal and external factors are not independent and additive; rather they interact
with each other. In such cases, internal influences affect behaviour by setting the
organism’s responsiveness to certain external signals. 45
Introduction 5) The interaction occurs in the opposite direction as well that is, external signals
can affect internal state.
6) In humans, vigorous and persistent goal directed behaviour can occur in the
absence of any physiological need.
7) Even relatively simple motives such as hunger and thirst can be influenced by
much more than the existing internal and external situation. They respond to
potential or expected factors, as registered by cognitive apparatus.
To a hungry rat, food becomes a goal. The rat will make various responses, including
arbitrarily learned ones or operants, that lead to contact with food. A rat can be
trained to do whatever else is necessary (within its capabilities) to attain its goal. It
is this flexibility of goal directed behaviour that justifies the concept of motivation. If
an animal will do whatever is necessary to obtain food, it must first of all want food.
Internal factors then may act by setting the goal status of environmental commodities.
That is, the effect of hunger is to make food a goal.

3.5.2 Motivation and Feedback Control System

Motivated behaviour can be thought of as guided by a feedback control system with
a set point. A set point establishes a goal state which the control system seeks to
bring about. Behaviour is controlled, not by present external or internal stimuli alone,
but by a comparison between the existing state of affairs and a desired state of
affairs, that is, the set point or goal, registered or specified within the brain. The
organism then acts to reduce the difference between the existing and the desired state
of affairs.
This way of looking at motivation helps bridge the gap between simple motives in
animals and complex ones in humans. If to be motivated is to do whatever is
necessary to bring about an imagined state of affairs, then human motives can literally
be as complex, and be projected as far into the future, as human imaginations permit.

3.5.3 Motivation and Ethnology

Another approach to motivation comes from ethnology, which has formed links with
cognitive psychology. Motivation and emotion are closely related. Indeed, it has been
argued that emotions are the true motivators and that other factors internal, situational,
and cognitive take hold of behaviour by way of the emotions they evoke.
In the simplest case, pleasure and displeasure have been recognised for centuries as
having motivational force. In more complex cases, the role of cognitive operations,
such as how an individual feels about an event, as well as what is done about it, can
depend heavily on how an individual thinks about it.
The culture in which an individual is raised has a powerful effect on how the individual
behaves. It has been argued that culture teaches its members what to believe are the
consequences of a specific action (cognitive), and how the individuals should feel
about those consequences or about the actions themselves (emotional/ motivational).

3.5.4 Motivation and Learning Theory

Motivation is a pivotal concept in most theories of learning. It is closely related to
arousal, attention, anxiety, and feedback/reinforcement. For example, a person needs
to be motivated enough to pay attention while learning; anxiety can decrease our
motivation to learn. Receiving a reward or feedback for an action usually increases
46
the likelihood that the action will be repeated. Weiner (1990) points out that behavioural Needs, Drive and Motives

theories tended to focus on extrinsic motivation (i.e., rewards) while cognitive theories
deal with intrinsic motivation (i.e., goals).
In most forms of behavioural theory, motivation was strictly a function of primary
drives such as hunger, sex, sleep, or comfort. According to Hull’ Drive Reduction
theory, learning reduces drives and therefore motivation is essential to learning. The
degree of the learning achieved can be manipulated by the strength of the drive and
its underlying motivation.
In cognitive theory, motivation serves to create intentions and goal seeking acts.
One well developed area of research highly relevant to learning is achievement
motivation. Motivation to achieve is a function of the individual’s desire for success,
the expectancy of success, and the incentives provided. Studies show that in general
people prefer tasks of intermediate difficulty. In addition, students with a high need
to achieve, obtain better grades in courses which they perceive as highly relevant to
their career goals. On the other hand, according to Carl Rogers, the humanist theorist,
all individuals have a drive to self actualise and this motivates learning.

3.5.5 Intrinsic Motivation

Malone (1981) presented a theoretical framework for instrinsic motivation and is of
the view that intrinsic motivation is created by three qualities: challenge, fantasy, and
curosity.
Challenge depends upon activities that involve uncertain outcomes due to variable
levels, hidden information or randomness.
Fantasy depends upon skills required for the instruction.
Curiosity can be aroused when learners believe their knowledge structures are
incomplete, inconsistent, or unparsimonious.
According to Malone, intrinsically motivating activities provide learners with a broad
range of challenge, concrete feedback, and clear cut criteria for performance.
Keller (1983) presents an instructional design model for motivation that is based
upon a number of other theories. His model suggests a design strategy that
encompasses four components of motivation:
 arousing interest,
 creating relevance,
 developing an expectancy of success, and
 producing satisfaction through intrinsic/extrinsic rewards.
One approach to employee motivation has been to view “add-ins” to an individual’s
job as the primary factors in improving performance. Endless mixes of employee
benefits such as health care, life insurance, profit sharing, employee stock ownership
plans, exercise facilities, subsidized meal plans, child care availability, company cars,
and more have been used by companies in their efforts to maintain happy employees
in the belief that happy employees are motivated employees.
Many modern theorists, however, propose that the motivation an employee feels
toward his or her job has less to do with material rewards than with the design of
the job itself. On the academic front, Turner and Lawrence suggested that there are 47
Introduction three basic characteristics of a “motivating” job:
1) It must allow a worker to feel personally responsible for a meaningful portion
of the work accomplished. An employee must feel ownership of and connection
with the work he or she performs.
2) It must provide outcomes which have intrinsic meaning to the individual. Effective
work that does not lead a worker to feel that his or her efforts matter will not
be maintained. The outcome of an employee’s work must have value to himself
or herself and to others in the organisation.
3) It must provide the employee with feedback about his or her accomplishments.
A constructive, believable critique of the work performed is crucial to a worker’s
motivation to improve.

3.5.6 Motivation Methods

There are as many different methods of motivating employees today as there are
companies operating in the global business environment.
Empowerment: Giving employees more responsibility and decision making authority
increases their realm of control over the tasks for which they are held responsible
and better equips them to carry out those tasks. As a result, feelings of frustration
arising from being held accountable for something one does not have the resources
to carry out are diminished. Energy is diverted from self-preservation to improved
task accomplishment.
Creativity and innovation: In many companies, employees with creative ideas do
not express them to management for fear that their input will be ignored or ridiculed.
When the power to create in the organisation is pushed down from the top to line
personnel, employees who know a job, product, or service best are given the
opportunity to use their ideas to improve it. The power to create motivates employees
and benefits the organisation in having a more flexible work force, using more wisely
the experience of its employees, and increasing the exchange of ideas and information
among employees and departments.
Learning: If employees are given the tools and the opportunities to accomplish
more, most will take on the challenge. Companies can motivate employees to achieve
more by committing to perpetual enhancement of employee skills. Accreditation and
licensing programs for employees are an increasingly popular and effective way to
bring about growth in employee knowledge and motivation. Often, these programs
improve employees’ attitudes toward the client and the company, while bolstering
self-confidence.
Quality of life: The number of hours worked each week by American workers is
on the rise, and many families have two adults working those increased hours. Under
these circumstances, many workers are left wondering how to meet the demands of
their lives beyond the workplace. Often, this concern occurs while at work and may
reduce an employee’s productivity and morale. Companies that have instituted flexible
employee arrangements have gained motivated employees whose productivity has
increased.
Programs incorporating flextime, condensed workweeks, or job sharing, for example,
have been successful in focusing overwhelmed employees toward the work to be
done and away from the demands of their private lives.
48
Monetary incentive: For all the championing of alternative motivators, money still Needs, Drive and Motives

occupies a major place in the mix of motivators. The sharing of a company’s profits
gives incentive to employees to produce a quality product, perform a quality service,
or improve the quality of a process within the company. What benefits the company
directly benefits the employee. Monetary and other rewards are being given to
employees for generating cost savings or process improving ideas, to boost productivity
and reduce absenteeism. Money is effective when it is directly tied to an employee’s
ideas or accomplishments.
Other incentives: Monetary systems are insufficient motivators, in part because
expectations often exceed results and because disparity between salaried individuals
may divide rather than unite employees. Proven nonmonetary positive motivators
foster team spirit and include recognition, responsibility, and advancement. Managers
who recognise the “small wins” of employees, promote participatory environments,
and treat employees with fairness and respect will find their employees to be more
highly motivated.
High motivation is the key to success in any endeavour. It may come from within a
person (intrinsic motivation) or from external influences (extrinsic motivation). For
example, intrinsic motivation is derived from engaging in exercise for its own sake,
for the satisfaction and the sheer enjoyment it brings, and for no external reason.
Those who are intrinsically motivated give up less easily and generally achieve higher
levels of fitness than those who are solely motivated by external rewards such as
praise, money, and trophies.
Motivational strategies include providing competition; giving pep talks, praise and
constructive criticism; and setting appropriate short term goals. In order to train
successfully, exercisers must have sufficient motivation to expend time and energy on
their training and be able to endure a certain amount of fatigue, boredom, and
discomfort. Many coaches adopt the attitude encapsulated in the phrase ‘No pain,
no gain!’, but this should not be taken as an exhortation to overtrain and become
injured or ill.
Self Assessment Questions
1) Define motives and bring out the meaning of motives.
.....................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................
2) Discuss motivation and feedback control system.
.....................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................
3) Discuss the relationship between motivation and learning theory.
.....................................................................................................................
49
Introduction
.....................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................
4) What is intrinsic motivation and how does Malone conceptualise the same?
.....................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................
4) What are the various methods of motivating persons? Give examples from
workplace situations.
.....................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................

3.6 THEORIES OF MOTIVATION

3.6.1 Maslow’s Theory of Need Hierarchy
This is one of the most widely discussed theories of motivation.
The theory can be summarized as follows:
 Human beings have wants and desires which influence their behaviour. Only
unsatisfied needs influence behaviour, satisfied needs do not.
 Since needs are many, they are arranged in order of importance, from the basic
to the complex.
 The person advances to the next level of needs only after the lower level need
is at least minimally satisfied.
 The further the progress up the hierarchy, the more individuality, humanness and
psychological health a person will show.
The needs, listed from basic (lowest-earliest) to most complex (highest-latest) are as
follows:
 Physiology (hunger, thrist etc.)
 Safety / security / shelter / health
 Belongingness / love/ friendship
 Self esteem / recognition / achievement
 Self actualisation

50
 Needs, Drive and Motives
3.6.2 Alderfer’s Model
Alderfer identified three groups of core needs.
1) Existence, 2) Relatedness and 3) Growth
The existence needs are concerned with survival (physiological well-being).
The relatedness needs stress the importance of interpersonal, social relationships.
The growth needs concerned with the individual’s intrinsic desire for personal
development.

3.6.3 Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory

Hygiene factors
 Company policy and administration
 Supervision, technical
 Salary
 Interpersonal relations, supervisor behaviour
 Working conditions
Motivators
 Achievement
 Recognition
 Work itself
 Responsibility
 Advancement
Luthans has commented that although such a content approach has surface logic, is
easy to understand and can be readily translated into practice, the research evidence
points out some definite limitations. There is very little research support for these
models’ theoretical basis and predictability. The trade-off for simplicity sacrifices true
understanding of the complexity of work motivation. On the positive side, however,
the content models have given emphasis to important content factors. In addition,
the Alderfer model allows more flexibility, and the Herzberg model is useful as an
explanation for job satisfaction and as a point of departure for practical application
to enrich jobs.

3.6.4 Process Theories

The process theories provide a much sounder theoretical explanation of work
motivation. The expectancy model of Vroom and the extensions and refinements
provided by Porter and Lawler help explain the important cognitive variables and
how they relate to one another in the complex process of work motivation. The
Porter-Lawler model also gives specific attention to the important relationship between
performance and satisfaction. Porter and Lawler propose that performance leads to
satisfaction, instead of the human relations assumption of the reverse.
A growing research literature is somewhat supportive of these expectancy models,
but conceptual and methodological problems remain. Unlike the content models, 51
Introduction these expectancy models are relatively complex and difficult to translate into actual
practice, and, consequently, they have made a contribution but are not the final
answer for motivation in the field of organisational behaviour and human resource
performance.

3.6.5 Equity Theory

More recently, in academic circles, equity theory has received increased attention.
Equity theory, which is based on perceived input-outcome ratios of oneself compared
to relevant other(s), can lead to increased understanding of the complex cognitive
process of work motivation but has the same limitation as the expectancy models for
prediction and control in the practice of human resource management. More recently,
this equity theory has been applied to the analysis of organisational justice in the
workplace.
Control and agency theories, coming from other disciplines, are representative of
other approaches receiving recent research attention in organisational behaviour.
Self Assessment Questions
1) Discuss Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory in terms of motivation.
.....................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................
2) Elucidate Alderfer’s model of motivation.
.....................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................
3) Discuss Herzberg’s two factor theory of motivation.
.....................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................
4) What are process theories?
.....................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................
5) Explain Equity theory of motivation.
.....................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................
52 .....................................................................................................................
 Needs, Drive and Motives
3.7 STIMULUS MOTIVES
These motives increase the stimulus on an object, as for example Sensory Stimulation
and Activity
i) Sensory Deprivation: Research method that systematically decreases the
amount of stimulation on sensory receptors; sensory deprivation is intolerable;
people seek different levels of stimulation.
ii) Exploration and Manipulation: Novel Stimulation – Unusual source of arousal
or excitement; people are motivated to seek it. People explore and manipulate
their environment f3.7.1. or reduction of primary drives or for their own sake
The Search for Optimal Arousal
 Arousal – General level of activity or motivation in an organism.
 Optimal Arousal – The level of arousal at which we function best.
 Fiske and Maddi – Theorized that people behave in ways to increase their
arousal when their levels are too low and ways to decrease their arousal when
their levels are too high.
 Yerkes-Dodson Law – A high level of motivation increases efficiency in the
performance of simple tasks, whereas a low level of motivation increases the
efficiency in the performance of complex tasks.

3.7.1 Social Motives

These are learned or acquired motives.
Henry Murray developed Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
David McClelland helped pioneer assessment of need for achievement; found that
motives measured by the TAT permit the production of long-term behaviour patterns
McClelland identified three key motivating drives that work for everyone. He named
these key drives as:
 The Need for Achievement
 The Need for Affiliation
 The Need for Power
He also identified how these needs each vary in strength between different people.
Everyone, says McClelland, is motivated by all of these, but to motivate individuals,
the manager needs to consider what the primary drivers in each case are.
Achievement
 How to recognise the Achievement Motive in a person
 They like working by themselves and making their own decisions
 They like realistic challenges and getting things done
 They do not work well under close supervision
 How to deal with them and arouse their Motivation
53
Introduction  Be factual, to the point and straightforward, minimise discussions
 Use a business-like approach, no unproductive encounters or ‘passing the
time of day’
 Offer ideas and suggestions and avoid telling them precisely what to do
 Let them play a significant role in making the decision as this will commit
them to it.
Affiliation
 How to recognise the Affiliation Motive in a person
 They seek the company of others and seek to make friends
 They are eager to interact and need to be liked as a person
 They are warm and can appear non-assertive
 They may talk at length about family, friends and outside interests and engage
in social ritual
 How to deal with them and arouse their motivation
 They respond to warm human qualities, a smile and interest in family,
social activities
 Be prepared to spend time developing a warm relationship with them as
they will do things for people they like
 They are motivated by friendship and relationships and do things for people
they relate to on a personal basis.
Power
 How to recognise the power motive in a person
 They tend to be firm, direct and competitive, and they try to be persuasive in
their dealings
 Thy like to impress and may express their status needs by displaying objects,
such as trophies, medals and works of art
 Like to act as a representative and spokesman for other people and to give
advice
 How to deal with them and arouse their motivation
 Treat them as important people and recognise and refer to their status
objects
 They are impressed by manner of dress, the size of the office, club
membership, salary, type of car and status achievements of the people they
associate with
 Ask their advice and opinion on matters, and listen to their point of view.
 They pay particular attention to the manner of presentation of reports of
discussions, they like things to ‘look good’ as well as be good.
54
 Needs, Drive and Motives
3.8 LET US SUM UP
In this unit we have studied needs, drives and motives. Motivation can be defined
as the driving force behind all the actions of an individual. The influence of an
individual’s needs and desires both have a strong impact on the direction of their
behaviour. Motivation is based on your emotions and achievement-related goals.
Motivation is the basic drive for all of our actions. Motivation refers to the dynamics
of our behaviour, which involves our needs, desires, drives, motives and ambitions
in life. Achievement motivation is based on reaching success and achieving all of our
aspirations in life.
A need is something that is necessary for organisms to live a healthy life. Needs are
distinguished from wants because a deficiency would cause a clear negative outcome,
such as dysfunction or death. Needs can be objective and physical, such as food and
water, or they can be subjective and psychological, such as the need for self-esteem.
A Drive is an internal state of tension that motivates an organism to engage in
activities that should (hopefully) reduce this tension. Motives are based on needs:
States of tension within a person, and as need is satisfied, tension is reduced. It
propels people to perceive, think, and act in ways that serve to satisfy a need.
Needs are created or come into existence whenever there is a physiological or
psychological imbalance. A need exists when cells in the body are experiencing a
shortage of food or water. A drive is a deficiency with a direction. Drives denote
actions and intention to act by individuals and they are exhibited to alleviate needs.
Drives and motives are terms used interchangeably. Drives provide an energising
thrust toward reaching an incentive or goal. The drives, or motives, may be classified
into primary (and general), and secondary categories. Anything that will alleviate
a need is an incentive or goal in the motivation cycle. Attaining an incentive or goal
will tend to restore physiological or psychological balance and will reduce the drive
up to zero level. The primary motives are unlearned and physiologically based, such
as, hunger, thirst, sleep, avoidance of pain, sex, and maternal concern. Secondary
motives are learned motives. The needs for power, achievement, affiliation, security,
and status are major motivating forces in the behaviour of organisational participants.
Motivator can be a general term that can describe a need, a motive, incentive or a
person.   

3.9 UNIT END QUESTIONS

1) What are needs? Explain in terms of the various theories of needs.
2) What are drives? Discuss Hull’s contribution to drives and relate it to motivation.
3) Define motives and bring out its characteristic features in terms of different
aspects.
4) Discuss Herzberg’s two factor theory and process theories from motivation
point of view.
5) Put forward Maslow’s theory of need hierarchy and discuss its importance for
motivation.
6) What are stimulus motives? Explain
7) What are social Motives?
55
Introduction 9) Discuss the needs for achievement, affiliation and power and indicate how these
can be used to motivate persons to perform at the highest level?

3.10 SUGGESTED READINGS

Ames, C. & Ames, R. (1989). Research in Motivation in Education, Vol 3. San
Diego: Academic Press.
Atkinson, J. & Raynor, O. (1974). Motivation and Achievement. Washington:
Winston.
Dennis Coon and John Mitterer (2010). Introduction to psychology. Gateway to
mind and behaviour. Wadsworth Belmont, USA.
Keller, J. (1983). Motivational design of instruction. In C. Riegeluth (ed.), Instructional
Design Theories and Models. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Reiss, Steven (2000), Who am I: The 16 basic desires that motivate our actions
and define our personalities, New York: Tarcher/Putnam. References:

56
UNIT 3 INDUCTION AND PLACEMENT
Structure
3.0 Objectives
3.1 Introduction
3.2 The Importance of Proper Induction
3.3 Induction Process
3.4 Induction Programme
3.5 Placement
3.6 Induction as an Integrated Part of Training
3.7 Let Us Sum Up
3.8 Clues to Answers

3.0 OBJECTIVES
After going through this Unit, you should be able to:

• create a favourable impression on a new employee for the organisation,

• promote right kind of attitude towards the organisation in other employees,
• facilitate learning of right methods for performing the job,
• develop a sense of belonging to the organisation,
• appreciate a spirit of team work, and
• clarify terms and conditions of employment to a new employee.

3.1 INTRODUCTION
As soon as an employee is recruited the first step relates to induction or orientation programmes.
Attempts are made to introduce him or her to the job, other fellow workers and surroundings.

Induction or orientation may be defined as a process of guiding and counselling the employee
to familiarise him or her with the organisation and the job situation. This exerts a marked
influence on the job tenure and effectiveness.

The induction process accomplishes several objectives including formation of a favourable

impression of the organisation, attitude development, the feeling of belonging, facilitation of
learning and team work with other employees. It minimises employee grievances, frustration and
turnover as also helps in the attainment of numerous training objectives.

The induction programme clarifies the terms and conditions of employment, communicates
specific job requirements to the employees and provides confidence in the company as well as in
their own ability to accomplish the work assigned to them effectively.

As regards the contents of the induction programme, it embraces a wide range of items usually
embodied in the employee handbook or manual. The contents of the induction programme should
be determined in the form of checklist specifying the topics to be covered. Attempts should be
made to follow-up and assess the programme by interviewing the new employees as a measure to
correct the gaps in the knowledge and attitude of the employees.

Explicitly, induction is a line responsibility supported with staff advice and guidance. The
Supervisor, foreman or manager should be trained in the induction process, and care has to be
30
taken that he or she does not entirely delegate this crucial responsibility to fellow workers. The
Personnel Department should be made responsible for training the managers, supervisors, or
foremen in this respect, and evaluating the programme periodically. Several induction methods
can be used depending upon the needs of the organisation. It may, however be noted that specific
methods are effective for specific category of employees which should be determined through
intensive research programmes. Several methods of training can be effectively employed for
inducting new employees. These are the issued discussed in this Unit.

3.2 THE IMPORTANCE OF PROPER INDUCTION

The term “induction’’ means installation or initiation. The new recruit is installed into a position
or job, and initiated into the team that makes up the work-force of the organisation.

Induction is the process of introducing new recruits to an organisation and explaining their role
within it. Induction process are mainly followed keeping in mind the following points :

• Induction to the firm, its system and its people, and

• Introduction to the department and actual job/work and its requirements.
It usually begins with a guided tour of the building etc. Induction is important because
impressions gained by new employees during this period can influence their perception of the
organisation for many years to come. Also, good induction procedures help employees fit into
strange and initially uncomfortable environment quickly and without fuss. Newcomers invariably
join the organisation wanting to succeed. They wish to do a good job, to be accepted by their
colleagues, and generally to become part of the organisation. Induction procedures should help
recruits achieve these objectives.

It may be regarded as a positive step, as distinguished from the negative weeding out unsuitable
candidates during selection. Placement means the assignment of specific jobs to individuals, and
their adoption or assimilation in the working team or family. As a matter of fact, induction is the
process by which effective placement is accomplished.

The process of initiation may be informal, as it generally is in smaller organisations; while in

larger organisations it includes a series of steps by which a new recruit is aided in fitting into the
organisation, becoming acquainted with supervisors and fellow employees, and achieving a
personal adjustment to working relationships. The first week/months involve extensive and
difficult problems of personal adjustment, especially for new employees. The whole situation
with its time-keeping schedules, new supervisors, informal social systems, hostile group
behaviours, social structures, work-load, internal cliques and possible favouritism and vested
interests is likely to be very different from earlier experience; and therefore it is a difficult one.

Policy on induction and placement simply proposes that new recruits shall be made to feel and
develop themselves as a part of the organisation as early as possible. It may involve several steps:

a) Apart from a guided tour of the premises, it would need formal/informal introduction to
supervisors, fellow workers, adopting right methods of performing the job assigned, etc.
b) It may require vocational guidance; for the particular job or trade, or skill or profession, due
to either change of job or technology, or environment, to facilitate his absorption into the
organisation.
c) The guidance process requires carefull balancing of interests and aptitudes of individuals
against long-term prospective job-requirements. Those who are made responsible for
providing such guidance need the same skills in assessing aptitudes, interests, and related
traits that make up human personalities required for effective selection.

31
3.3 INDUCTION PROCESS
New employees need certain information to help them settle down and become effective quickly.
Induction should be started from the personnel department, where new employees should be
received on their first day at work. Department managers have a responsibility to ensure that their
initial training is continued in the workplace. Since a new recruit cannot be expected to absorb all
the information he or she needs in one day, the induction process may take place over a period of
two or three days and should be completed by the end of the first week. The extent of induction
will depend on the skill, experience or seniority of the new recruit.

Initial induction is best undertaken by the manager or supervisor. The recruit should be
introduced to the people whom he or she is to work with (write their names down on a piece of
paper and give it to the recruit; names are quickly forgotten on the first meeting) and to the person
to whom the recruit is responsible. This latter individual should be instructed to help the recruit in
every way possible and to be a friend and adviser during the newcomer’s first couple of
week/months. The recruit should feel free to approach this person at any time in order to seek
guidance on any problem. Arrange to see the recruit at the end of his or her first day, and again at
the end of the first week to discuss progress achieved during induction.

A good induction procedure causes the recruit to feel part of and committed to the organisation
and to be partly socialised into its working methods, norms and interpersonal relations. The
newcomer should understand the internal communication system and be able to find things out
independently. Often, new jobs are associated with new and unfamiliar travel and work routines,
new relationships and possibly a change of home and this might create high levels of anxiety.
Recruits can easily feel bewildered and unwanted by the existing staff and much sympathy is
needed during this potentially harrowing experience. Adapting to new circumstances and rational
decisions can only be taken after a reasonable setting-in period has elapsed.

The new employees ought to know where they should go for help if they experience problems. A
new entrant should be told what to do if he or she :

• Has a problem with money or understanding the wage/salary system,

• Has a medical problem,
• Feels that working conditions are unsafe or unwelcome,
• Does not get on with other people in the department,
• Has difficulty with the work,
• Is bullied or harassed,
• Has a complaint, and
• Does not receive adequate training.
Mostly a few points have to be kept in mind by the manager :

• The problems arise due to lack of time for transmitting information and the unsuitability of
the environments in which induction sometimes take place.
• No one is capable of absorbing large amounts of (perhaps uninteresting) information in one
go, so induction should be staggered.
• Try to make the recruit feel welcome.
• Do not repeat points already made at the interview or in the written job-description circulated
to candidates at the time of application; expand on the information the newcomer already
possesses :

32
• Explain the organisation-structure, the recruit’s duties and responsibilities, training and
promotion opportunities and so on.
• At some point you will have to explain expected performance and quality standards and the
norms of behaviour and protocol already established within the organisation.
• Some safety matters, security arrangements, performance appraisal systems, formal grievance
procedures, etc. These manuals are particularly suitable for mundance and infrequently
encountered problems such as leave, salary sales, gratuity, etc. but not for other more urgent
issues such as discipline, overtime requirements and (importantly) the whereabouts of fire
exists, fire fighting equipment, first-aid facilities protective clothing, etc.

Check Your Progress-1

1) What do you understand by Induction? Describe the importance of Proper Induction

Process.
……………………………………………………………………………………………...…
……………………………………………………………………………………………...…
……………………………………………………………………………………………...…
……………………………………………………………………………………………...…
………………………………………………………………………………………………..

2) What do you understand by Induction Process?

……………………………………………………………………………………………..…
……………………………………………………………………………………………...…
……………………………………………………………………………………………...…
……………………………………………………………………………………………...…
………………………………………………………………………………………………..

3.4 INDUCTION PROGRAMME

The following activities should be undertaken by the personnel department and the department in
which the new recruit is placed in :
In the Personnel Department
1) Welcome to the organisation.
2) Receive any other necessary documents and informations (e.g. details).
3) Explain what the company does, its history, and his own place in the group.
4) Describe the work of the new employee’s department, and its relationship to other
departments.
5) Give the new recruit a company employee’s handbook (if one exists).
6) Drawn his or her attention to the rules that need particular emphasis.
7) Where appropriate or necessary explain the trade union position in the organisation.
8) Employee welfare refer to the retirement benefits, pension and life assurance scheme and
any other scheme that he or she should know about (e.g. sickness benefit; suggestion
scheme).
9) Ensure that he or she knows the correct hours of work, rate of pay when payment can be
expected and sickness and holiday entitlement.
10) Explain the importance of regular attendance.

33
11) Indicate the sort of training that the new employee will receive and his or her career
prospects.
12) Answer questions, that an employee may have.
13) Take the employee on a brief tour to give an impression of the work of the organisation
ending in his or her department. Hand him or her over to the manager.
14) N.B.A. prepared flip-chart showing the sections of the organisation etc., is useful to
induction.

In the Department

1) Welcome to the department.

2) Explain the work of the department.
3) Explain what the employee will be doing.
4) Ensure that he or she knows :
a) The relevance of his or her and the department’s work to the organisation etc.
b) The organisations’ goals and policy.
c) The procedures.
5) Explain the importance of safety, go through any safety rules that apply, explain what to do
in the event of an accident and if there is a fire.
6) Introduce the new recruit to the person with whom he or she will be having training.
7) Introduce the trade union representative, where appropriate.
8) Introduce other members of the department.
9) Start the employee’s job-training as appropriate.
10) During the first day, check that the employee is progressing satisfactorily.
11) At the end of the second day, sit down with the trainee, new employee discuss progress, ask
for and answer questions.
12) On subsequent days, check progress at least once, and at the end of the first week have a
thorough discussion to ascertain whether he or she is grasping the job, and is satisfied with
the organisation.

The induction should be appreciated as a complex process. It cannot be properly concluded with a
short orientation programme. Perhaps rapid-fire injections of a concentrated dose of information
may not be effective. The manner while introducing the new employee to their colleagues and
immediate supervisor should see to it that the new entrant is comfortable with them. This will
help in the future, as when the employee picks up on a new job, he or she may have many
questions which he or she might hesitate to ask. But if new entrant is comfortable with his or her
colleagues and supervisor then he or she won’t have any trouble asking questions or discussing
any problem he or she might encounter while doing the job assigned. As the employee picks up
on new job, he or she may have many questions which he or she may hesitate to ask in the
beginning. Hence, the process of induction has to be continued for several weeks or months. The
follow-ups is a continuing procedure of great importance.

Starting with preliminary counselling interview, many large organisations provide a number of
formal orientation sessions, lectures, which may also be supplemented with literature and also
audio-visual programmes such as charts, pictures, slides and films etc.

34
The induction procedure and orientation problems are more complicated when new employees
are to be posted to other offices or branches throughout the country, as the case may be in sales
etc.

Induction is not complete without a follow-up which is essentially an audit of the entire
procedure, and an appraisal of the success with which a new employee becomes adjusted to the
organisation.

An induction programme, therefore, primarily consists of three steps :

General Orientation by the Staff : It gives necessary general information about the history and
orientation of the firm. The purpose is to help an employee to build up some pride and interest in
the organisation.

Specific Orientation by the job supervisor : The employee is shown the department and has
place of work, the location of facilities and is told about the organisation’s specific practices and
customs. The purpose is to enable the employee to adjust with his or her work and work
environment.

Follow up orientation by either the personnel department or the supervisor : This is

conducted within one week to six months of the initial induction and by a foreman or a specialist.
The purpose is to find out whether the employee is reasonably well satisfied with the organisation
and his or her work. Through personal talks, guidance and counselling, efforts are made to
remove the difficulties experienced by the newcomer.

3.5 PLACEMENT
Placement or actual posting of an employee to a specific job has an experimental element in it, for
most employees it is a decisive step. The department head/supervisor should be able to accept
him or her as there is sufficient reason to think that the new recruit can do what the job demands,
(job requirements) imposes (in working conditions, strain etc.), and offers (in the form of pay,
job-satisfaction status, companionship with fellow workers, and promotion prospects) etc.
Though it is very difficult to match all these factors, yet both the personnel department, and the
line-staff have to co-operate to achieve it.

For reasons of the new employees’ compatibility and his or her acceptance by the line, he or she
is usually put on probation for a specified period during which he or she is on trial. It may vary
from few weeks or months, and sometimes a year or two as in government.

However, in case during this trial period he or she is not found acceptable to the line department,
he or she may again be interviewed by the personnel department to explore the possibilities of
fitting him or her into another job, which may be more suited to his or her qualifications,
aptitudes, or previous experience. Such a second placement is sometimes known as “differential
placement’’, which is becoming more relevant in this country also due to rising costs of
recruitment and selection, changing employee’s attitudes, with the spread of higher and better
education, and fast developing higher standards of living.

3.6 INDUCTION AS AN INTEGRATED PART OF TRAINING

It appears that barring a few multinational companies/institutions who follow their parent
company practices, scientific methods of regular induction and proper and careful placement of
new employees is virtually unknown in most organisations.
The government, semi-government and public sector and other autonomous organisations spend
large sums of money on advertisements, and selection, but after recruitment, new employees are

35
just left on their own to grope their way into the dark and long alley’s of huge monolithic
organisations, where they are at the mercy of often ill equipped, nonqualified and mostly
prejudiced old supervisors and managers.

In private organisations, barring a few companies, which may be exceptions, nobody has the time
to devote to such unproductive (in their view) activities. The personnel department cannot do
much in the absence of cooperation form the line managers and staff.

Through there is acute death of properly trained people, who can deliver the goods, most
organisations are either unaware of the need for organising proper induction and placement
programmes, or think it is an unnecessary expenditure.

Without proper induction and training an employee can be only partially productive in his or her
assigned job.

Apart from all these, more important in the Indian conditions are the legal regulations, which
require that after usually the probation period which is 15 days in employment in factories, and 3
to 6 months in other establishments, an employee shall be automatically permanent. In initial
employment, within the probation period, which is not more than 3 to 6 months, if a new
employee is not found suitable he or she can be discharged. But after the completion of the
probation period he/she becomes a confirmed employee, and if turns out to be unproductive,
becomes a liability to the organisation.

The discharge of an employee after his or her completion of probationary period, is an extremely
difficult task, and involves all the steps of disciplinary action.

As a matter of fact, a properly planned and executed induction programme, forms an integral part
of training. The test of follow-up of the new employee lies in the assurance of his or her
adjustment into the new surroundings and environment. If the line department/supervisor has
taken proper and constructive interest in the new employee, his or her fitness and acceptability to
be a member of the working group/team in which he or she has to work, is assured.

If this task is viewed by the Industrial psychologist or the sociologist it is likely to be described as
a problem in assimilation, which a supervisor may call “team work’’. The management and
supervision should have sensible concern for proper induction of the new worker to produce
desirable results in the attitude of the new employee, which is the ultimate aim of training. The
management should always remember that induction process does not start and end with an
introduction of the new employee to his or her new environment, but proper follow up should be
done to check whether the right person has been placed in the right job.

Check Your Progress-2

1) Describe the induction Programme in an organisation.

……………………………………………………………………………………………..…
……………………………………………………………………………………………...…
……………………………………………………………………………………………...…
……………………………………………………………………………………………...…
………………………………………………………………………………………………..
2) What is Placement? How is it different from Induction?
……………………………………………………………………………………………..…
……………………………………………………………………………………………...…
……………………………………………………………………………………………...…
……………………………………………………………………………………………...…
………………………………………………………………………………………………..
36
3.7 LET US SUM UP
This Unit explained the importance and need for proper and systematic induction of a new
employee in the organisation. It also outlined the process and the need for methodical induction
programmes, since they are in a way preliminary to “training’’. It pointed out that the escalating
employee costs, and legal regulations in India make it imperative to exercise due care in the first
few weeks or months, since after the probationary period an employee becomes a permanent
member of the organisation.

3.8 CLUES TO ANSWERS

Check Your Progress-1

1) Base your answer on Secs. 3.1 and 3.2.

2) Read 3.3 for your answer.

Check Your Progress-2

1) Compare your answer with the contents of Sec. 3.4.

2) Write your answer after reading Sec. 3.5 and comparing placement with induction.

Activity

As a manager prepare an induction programme for the following new recruits :

1) Driver for a tourist coach
2) Hotel receptionist
3) EPBX operator
4) Tour escort
The following words may be of some help in preparing the programme.
Star category, types of coaches, tourist profiles, airport services, bed occupancy
rate, number of restraunts, air-pollution, reporting officer, office timings, duty
hours, VIP phone numbers, emergency numbers, customer care, destination
profile, etc.

37