Human Resource Development in India

Project submitted to
Department of Economics
Aul College, Aul
Kendrapara

Submitted by
Priyadarsini Das

Roll/Regd.no: 2001010440070005

Under the Supervision of

Subhashree Lenka
Lecturer in Economics
Department of Economics
Aul College, Aul
Kendrapara

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 Department of Economics
Aul college, Aul
Kendrapara

Date _____________

DECLARATION

I declare that the project entitled “Human Resource Development in India”

submitted by me in fulfillment of the requirement for the DSE- IV (HONS.), 6 th
SEMESTER UNDERGRADUATE CBCS EXAMINATIONS is my own work
and has not been previously submitted for any other degree.

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 ________________

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the project entitled “Human Resource Development in

India” submitted by Priyadarsini Das (Roll No. 2001010440070005) to the
Department of Economics, Aul College, Aul, Kendrapara for fulfillment of the
requirement for the DSE- IV (HONS.), 6th SEMESTER UNDERGRADUATE
CBCS EXAMINATIONS. To the best of my belief, the work has not been
submitted for the award of any degree elsewhere.

Project Supervisor

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 Content

Titles Page
Chapter 1 5

Chapter 2 7

Chapter 3 9

Chapter 4 12

Chapter 5 19

Chapter 6 23

Conclusion 33

References 34

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 Chapter One

Introduction

Development of human resources is essential for any organisation that would like
to be dynamic and growth-oriented. Human Resrouce Development (HRD) system
aims at creating such a climate. A number of HRD techniques have been
developed in recent years to perform the above task based on certain principles.
This unit provides an understanding of the concept of HRD system, related
mechanisms and the changing boundaries of HRD.
HRD concept was first introduced by Leonard Nadler in 1969 in a conference in
US. “He defined HRD as those learning experience which are organized, for a
specific time, and designed to bring about the possibility of behavioral change”.
Human Resource Development (HRD) is the framework for helping employees
develop their personal and organizational skills, knowledge, and abilities. Human
Resource Development includes such opportunities as employee training,
employee career development, performance management and development,
coaching, mentoring, succession planning, key employee identification, tuition
assistance, and organization development.

The focus of all aspects of Human Resource Development is on developing the

most superior workforce so that the organization and individual employees can
accomplish their work goals in service to customers. Human Resource
Development can be formal such as in classroom training, a college course, or an
organizational planned change effort. Or, Human Resource Development can be
informal as in employee coaching by a manager. Healthy organizations believe in
Human Resource Development and cover all of these bases.

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HRD is needed by any organisation that wants to be dynamic and growth-oriented
or to succeed in a fast-changing environment. Organisations can become dynamic
and grow only through the efforts and competencies of their human resources.
Personnel policies can keep the morale and motivation of employees high, but
these efforts are not enough to make the organisation dynamic and take it in new
directions. Employee capabilities must continuously be acquired, sharpened, and
used. For this purpose, an “enabling” organisational culture is essential. When
employees use their initiative, take risks, experiment, innovate, and make things
happen, the organisation may be said to have an “enabling” culture.

Even an organisation that has reached its limit of growth, needs to adapt to the
changing environment. No organisation is immune to the need for processes that
help to acquire and increase its capabilities for stability and renewal.

Statement of the Problem

Our central national concern is to accelerate development so that there is a match

between supply and demand for human resources.

Objective

To analyze, the purposeful action to increase the aggregate levels of skills in the
workforce so that we can maximize opportunities for individuals, thereby
benefiting society as a whole.

Hypothesis

Unlike other resources, human resources have rather unlimited potential

capabilities. The potential can be used only by creating a climate that can
continuously identify, bring to surface, nurture and use the capabilities of people.

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 Chapter Two

Review of Literature

HRD (Human Resources Development) has been defined by various scholars in

various ways. Some of the important definitions of HRD (Human Resources
Development) are as follows:

The literature on human capital formation is abound with partial equilibrium

analyses of production and cost functions of education (see Shri Prakash and
Chowdhury (1994), Tilak (1985) and Tilak (1988), as well as of determinants of
household expenditure on education (see Tilak (2001a), Tilak (2001b)), Tilak
(2001c) , Tilak (2002), and Shri Prakash and Chowdhury (1994) ). The studies
dealing with the production function of education (say, for example, Shri Prakash
and Chowdhury (1994)) measure output in terms of ‗enrolments‘ and inputs in
terms of ‗number of teachers employed‘ and ‗value of non-teaching inputs‘. Such
production functions are obviously useful in determining whether the
―production‖ of education is subject to increasing, constant or diminishing returns
and the relationships between the marginal productivities of the teaching and non-
teaching inputs. (The cost functions of education are essentially a ‗dual‘ of the
production function and serve the purpose of merely confirming the results
obtained from the production functions). However, from these essentially technical
descriptions of the ‗production‘ of education no policy conclusion of consequence
is derivable. In other words, in so far as these studies determine neither the private
nor social returns to education, their policy significance is limited. The studies
concerned with the determinants of household expenditure on education (for
example, Tilak (2002) also treat education as an end in itself and fall short of
explaining expenditure on education in terms of the expected private returns on
education.
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According to Leonard Nadler,"Human resource development is a series of
organised activities, conducted within a specialised time and designed to
produce behavioural changes."

In the words of Prof. T.V. Rao, "HRD is a process by which the employees of
an organisation are helped in a continuous and planned way to (i) acquire or
sharpen capabilities required to perform various functions associated with their
present or expected future roles; (ii) develop their journal capabilities as
individual and discover and exploit their own inner potential for their own
and /or organisational development purposes; (iii) develop an organisational
culture in which superior-subordinate relationship, team work and collaboration
among sub-units are strong and contribute to the professional well being,
motivation and pride of employees." .

According to M.M. Khan, "Human resource development is the across of

increasing knowledge, capabilities and positive work attitudes of all people
working at all levels in a business undertaking."

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 Chapter Three

HRD functions

Human resource development is a newly emerging field of study. Although

development of human beings has been in existence in some form or the other
since the beginning of civilization, a planned and systemic approach to HRD in the
corporate sector emerged in the later half of the 20 th century. In the past, training
was the only planned way of developing human resources. But now HRD has
emerged as an interdisciplinary and integrated approach to the development of
human resources.

The core of the concept of HRS is that of development of human beings, or HRD.
The concept of development should cover not only the individual but also other
units in the organisation. In addition to developing the individual, attention needs
to be given to the development of stronger dyads, i.e., two-person groups of the
employee and his boss. Such dyads are the basic units of working in the
organisation. Besides several groups like committees, task groups, etc. also require
attention. Development of such groups should be from the point of view of
increasing collaboration amongst people working in the organisation, thus making
for an effective decision-making. Finally, the entire department and the entire
organisation also should be covered by development. Their development would
involve developing a climate conducive for their effectiveness, developing self-
renewing mechanisms in the organisations so that they are able to adjust and pro-
act, and developing relevant processes which contribute to their effectiveness.

Hence, the goals of the HRD systems are to develop:

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 1. The capabilities of each employee as an individual.
2. The capabilities of each individual in relation to his or her present role.
3. The capabilities of each employee in relation to his or her expected future
role(s).
4. The dyadic relationship between each employee and his or her supervisor.
5. The team spirit and functioning in every organisational unit (department,
group, etc.).
6. Collaboration among different units of the organisation.
7. The organisation’s overall health and self-renewing capabilities which, in
turn, increase the enabling capabilities of individuals, dyads, teams, and the
entire organisation.

In a nutshell, it seems worthwhile to suggest that the PA systems must be linked

with the achievement of organisational objective and the possible contribution
existing manpower can make towards this end.
Once an organisation adopts PA (Performance Appraisal) systems, it may easily
underline the specific areas in which its man power needs to be trained. It may be
still better if the organisation draws up a proper training policy so that the
competences of the workforce match the challenges of the environment. Absence
of a well-directed training policy may not bring in the desired results. Apart from
having a relevant training policy, it is equally important to tap the maximum
contribution from the employee.
Therefore, organisational culture must encourage initiative, creativity and
entrepreneurship. That is, such encouragement is an important part of the work
system. The important point to understand is that an employee must be encouraged
to take initiative or think creatively.

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This is much different from the present practice of simply watching (often
critically) the job behaviour an employee. Implicitly, waiting for the time till an
employee takes an initiative on his own for which he may be praised or rewarded.
But if he does not take initiative on his own, he is simply perceived (adjudge) to be
one of the ordinary folk.
Therefore, it is important for all organisations to concentrate on development of a
relevant organisational culture that facilitates the achievement of organisational
objectives through maximum contribution of the employees.
There are a few other areas of personnel policy that may need revamping. These
are policies with regard to job-mobility within the organisation; and, retaining of
the trained and experienced workforce particularly in the wake of tempting offers
from the competing companies.
From the above discussion above, one would conclude; it is important for an
organisation to have a realistic business policy, it is equally important to have a
well-drawn-up personnel policy, which may need radical changes.
The important point is that these policies must be linked with each other, not
worked out in isolation, particularly in the areas of performance appraisal and
management of creativity/innovation. At the same time, the personnel policy must
meet the challenges of retaining the trained manpower, which is the scarcest
resource in the making.

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 Chapter Four

Features of Human Resource development

The essential features of human resource development can be listed as follows:

 Human resource development is a process in which employees of the

organisations are recognized as its human resource. It believes that human
resource is most valuable asset of the organisation.

 It stresses on development of human resources of the organisation. It helps

the employees of the organisation to develop their general capabilities in
relation to their present jobs and expected future role.

 It emphasise on the development and best utilization of the capabilities of

individuals in the interest of the employees and organisation.

 It helps is establishing/developing better inter-personal relations. It stresses

on developing relationship based on help, trust and confidence.

 It promotes team spirit among employees.

 It tries to develop competencies at the organisation level. It stresses on

providing healthy climate for development in the organisation.

 HRD is a system. It has several sub-systems. All these sub-systems are inter-
related and interwoven. It stresses on collaboration among all the sub-
systems.

 It aims to develop an organisational culture in which there is good senior-

subordinate relations, motivation, quality and sense of belonging.

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  It tries to develop competence at individual, inter-personal, group and
organisational level to meet organisational goal.

 It is an inter-disciplinary concept. It is based on the concepts, ideas and

principles of sociology, psychology, economics etc.

 It form on employee welfare and quality of work life. It tries to

examine/identify employee needs and meeting them to the best possible
extent.

 It is a continuous and systematic learning process. Development is a life

long process, which never ends.
 A sound HRD system is perhaps the most important element in
organizational effectiveness, which not only ensures smooth performance
but also long-term survival and growth of the organization.
HRD can play an effective role in:
 (a) Optimizing the use of employees for the growth of the organization.
 (b) Enabling employees to grow within the organization.
 (c) Helping in the congruence of individual aspirations and organizational
expectations.
 (d) Promoting collaboration and team spirit.
 (e) Maximizing managerial effectiveness by having an involved, committed
and highly motivated team of managers.
 (f) Building the skills necessary to meet existing and long-term
organizational needs.
 (g) Achieving good employer-employee relations with regards for basic
human values.

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A sound HRD system is perhaps the most important element in organizational
effectiveness, which not only ensures smooth performance but also long-term
survival and growth of the organization. Hence, human resources can become
excellent performers by developing and motivating them.
Human Resource Development in India:
 Human Resource Development is based on the concept that every human
being has some potential to do remarkable things. If an organisation has to
be effective then the task of an executive is to multiply performance capacity
of the staff by putting available natural resources, like strength, health,
aspirations, etc.
Human resource development is a process by which the employees of an
organisation are continuously helped in a planned way to:
 (i) Acquire capabilities (knowledge, perspectives, attitude, values and skills)
required to perform various tasks or functions associated with their present
or future expected roles,
 (ii) Develop capabilities and utilize their potential for their own or
organisation development process, and
 (iii) Develop an organisational culture where superior-subordinate
relationship, teamwork and collaborations among different sub-units are
strong and can contribute to the organisational health dynamism and pride of
employee.
 Technological advancement and changes are taking place very rapidly. To
meet effectively, these requirements of the changing environment, human
resources need to be refreshed, to be imparted training from time to time.
The other reasons, which weigh in favour of human resource development are
as follows:

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 (i) Human resource development is a crucial factor in determining the
growth and prosperity of business enterprises.
 (ii) Industrial development on modern lines has created a problem of
inadequately trained personnel at all levels of management in business
undertaking.
 (iii) It promises to fulfil the career aspirations of the working force and to
meet the future requirement of the working force in the light of
organisational goals.
 (iv) To ensure control of labour costs by avoiding both shortages and
surpluses of manpower in the establishments.
 (v) To avoid all kinds of distortions, low-sided developments, shortfalls of
performance and waste of national resources.
 Human resource development is a continuous process and can be achieved
by arranging the organisational process in a scientific method, which can
create healthy climate for development. They adopt different methods at
different levels for different people to get their involvement in the
achievement of the organisational objective. The Japanese experiment and
technique can also be termed as teamwork.
 The members of organisation feel themselves as a member of a team and
therefore co-operate in achieving the organisational goal. Whereas the
managers try to develop the subordinates for increasing their effectiveness.
Therefore, the strategy of human resource development should include the
following points systematically in order to make it purposeful, meaningful
and effective for our human resource development.
 At the first stage, team development is one of the key elements in achieving
organisational effectiveness and individual effectiveness. Team development
is a complex educational strategy intended to change the beliefs, attitudes
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 and values of individuals and structure of organisations so that the
organisation and individuals can better adopt to new technology, new
markets, new process of production and meet new challenges and changes in
India. Thus, work is the essential for achieving corporate excellence and for
the developing human resource.
At the second stage, the ability to develop the leadership of others three things
are essential:
 (i) A teachable point of view.
 (ii) A story for organisation and
 (iii) A well-defined teaching methodology. A leader must win the support of
employees, partners, investors and regulators for all types of matters. The
most effective partners usually have a strong position, power, vast
experiences, high credibility and real leadership coordinating needs a
diversity of views.
 At the third stage, in resources planning, the efforts to develop human
resources should be put into effect after making a through consideration or
investigation of probable growth and changes in various functions of the
enterprises. It should be regarded as much an integral part of personal
functions as any other activity in the human resource development.
 At the fourth stage, proper decision in respect of developmental approaches
should be taken on the basis of results obtained under different
developmental approaches. Generally, 85% of the development occurs as a
result of on the job experience – the way he works, the way he is allowed to
work, the way his superior works and the impact of his style on the
subordinates.
 Formal training outside the company and developmental programmes affect
15% of his development. Therefore, the formal training should be regarded
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 as a supporting function as it cannot take care of the whole range of
development of persons at all levels.
 At the fifth stage, for utilising trained personnel properly at all levels, the
policy decision of the company should be such as may provide with proper
opportunities to the trained personnel and create such an organisational
climate where their new knowledge skills or techniques and concepts can be
utilised immediately for the benefit of the company’s as well as the
individual’s growth.
 At the sixth stage, to build up an infrastructure of technology on modern
lines, stress should be laid on overall transformation of traditional attitudes,
norms and values. For this purpose, individuals should be guided and
educated properly by the universally acceptable rational norms with clear-
cut ideas about the technological changes.
 At the seventh and final stage, impact of development efforts should be
assessed and evaluated.
The evaluation of impact of developmental efforts or training can be done at three
levels:
 (i) Appreciation or endorsement level – did he like the programme and its
content?
 (ii) Learning or acquiring level – what did he learn or acquire and
 (iii) Productivity or result level – has his new learning contributed to certain
positive results such a cutting costs, reducing waste, increasing productivity
sale, etc.
 The above steps in the strategy of human resource development also need
suitable theoretical as well as practical training of personnel along with
change of attitudes at all levels. But the existing systems of organisation and
methods of training are incoherent with the industrial needs and problems
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 and also not tailored to the requirement of the modern technological
changes. Human resource development has a very bright future in India
provided its philosophy is honestly implemented.
 The seminar concludes with suggested procedures and action-guides for
effective human resources development in India. India is popular for its
traditional honesty, philosophy and unselfishness. All planning, procedure
policies, rules and regulations must be implemented with honesty to achieve
effective results.
Human Resource Development and Business Policy in India:
 The fast changing environment necessitates an organisation to have a sound
business policy. Absence of such a policy sometimes threatens the very
survival of the organisation, let alone the problem of maintaining its position
in the industry/economy.
 However, the need to have a strong workforce (in terms of quality of input
and job performance) in the organisation may not be over-emphasised, since
the mere presence of a sound policy would not do any wonders. The policy
has to be implemented realistically and whenever necessary, it needs to be
modified to make it more relevant and objective.
Therefore, the competence of the workforce is a critical factor in determining both:
 (a) The quality of business policy, the organisation settles for; and
 (b) The degree to which the policy shall be successfully implemented.

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 Chapter Five

Benefits of Human Resource Development

Human resource development now a days is considered as the key to higher

productivity, better relations and greater profitability for any organisation.
Appropriate HRD provides unlimited benefits to the concerned organisation. Some
of the important benefits are being given here:

 HRD (Human Resource Development) makes people more competent. HRD

develops new skill, knowledge and attitude of the people in the concern
organisations.

 With appropriate HRD programme, people become more committed to their

jobs. People are assessed on the basis of their performance by having a
acceptable performance appraisal system.

 An environment of trust and respect can be created with the help of human
resource development.

 Acceptability toward change can be created with the help of HRD.

Employees found themselves better equipped with problem-solving
capabilities.

 It improves the all round growth of the employees. HRD also improves team
spirit in the organisation. They become more open in their behaviour. Thus,
new values can be generated.

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 It also helps to create the efficiency culture In the organisation. It leads to
greater organisational effectiveness. Resources are properly utilised and
goals are achieved in a better way.

 It improves the participation of worker in the organisation. This improve the

role of worker and workers feel a sense of pride and achievement while
performing their jobs.

 It also helps to collect useful and objective data on employees programmes

and policies which further facilitate better human resource planning.

 Hence, it can be concluded that HRD provides a lot of benefits in every

organisation. So, the importance of concept of HRD should be recognised
and given a place of eminence, to face the present and future challenges in
the organisation.

HRD professionals can provide adequate training and development for

developing women leaders, fostering employment through skill development
across all sectors including agriculture sectors, and raising awareness and
subsequent actions towards gender equity. Regarding the changing status of
women leaders, the panel observed that Indian women underrepresented at the
leadership level as patriarchy still dictate the Indian society and unfair practices
and gender-bias against women leaders prevail. The panel proposed for hiring
and retaining more women talent and introduction of progressive HRD
practices for enhanced women leadership in India. The skill development
programme deliberated on sectorial industry requirement, replacing short-term
skill courses with long-term vocational courses, and implementation of the
Standard Training Assessment and Reward programme has been suggested for

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Skill development programme. Finally, HRD in agricultural sector has advised
the stakeholders to focus on merging indigenous knowledge of farmers with the
latest scientific innovations to improve productivity, working conditions, and
safety.

In other words, the PA system ought to focus on assessing the potential

contribution of the workforce in achieving the organisational objectives; and on
evaluating the degree of adaptability in relation to the changes, both internal as
well external to the organisation.
In practice, the PA system being suggested would be different from the ones
usually in vogue. The present practice of appraising performance in relation to
the tasks assigned to an employee gives information about his job performance
only. On the behavioural dimension, the present practice fails to indicate as to
what degree an employee is applying himself in performing his job; conversely,
it does not tell as to what degree he is withholding himself in his job
performance.
That is, it fails to indicate the potential contribution an employee can/may make
towards achieving the organisational objectives. This is most likely the case
where organisations use PA as a method to control behaviour, or when the PA
system has become a matter of routine.
In the PA instruments normally available, the potential of a person cannot be
judged/assessed because the performance is being judged against the pre-
defined and already assigned tasks and not against the possible tasks a person
may have to perform in near future, as implied in the organisational objectives.
It is not necessary that the potential be assessed only with a view to know
whether a person is fit for promotion or not. Because even working at the same
hierarchical level, a person may have to perform tasks requiring better skills or

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demanding more responsible behaviour. One may say, therefore, that the PA
system may be made more futuristic by relating the parameters of assessment to
the planned objectives/goals of the organisation.
Where such an assessment seems a must for appraisal to the top managements
(including the chief-executives of organisations who may carry out this exercise
through self-appraisal and, for a more objective assessment with the help of
their peers and may be immediate subordinates), it would be advantageous to
assess ordinary workers/employees of the organisation from this angle as well.
One good method of involving employees at various levels is the ‘suggestion
scheme’ practised in many good organisations. However, it is ironical to see
that the suggestion schemes often get restricted to the improvement of
immediate work environment. Employees in the lower ranks of the organisation
are normally not encouraged expected to think in terms of the larger goals of
the organisation.
One could argue by saying that personnel in the lower ranks may not be
interested in knowing the overall organisational objectives as spelled out in
business policy. But such may not be the case. In fact, it is more understandable
why all levels of workforce may be interested in the overall organisational
objectives and their achievement.
Because so long they think that the achieving of organisational objectives is
necessary for the very survival of the organisation or even maintaining the
status quo (which ensures them job-security, and compensation at the existing
levels) a fair degree of contribution may be forthcoming. However, involving
the workforce at all levels may imply breaking the overall organisational
objectives into manageable goals and then providing adequate information
about the relation of these goals to the organisational objectives.

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 Chapter Six

Continuous and planned process

In the organizational context, human resource development may be described as a
continuous and planned process by which employees of an organization are helped
to:
(a) Acquire or sharpen capabilities required to perform various functions
associated with their present or expected future roles.
(b) Develop their general capabilities as individuals and discover and exploit their
own inner potential for their own and/or organizational development purpose.
(c) Develop an organizational culture in which superior-subordinate relationships,
teamwork and collaboration among sub-units are strong and contribute to the
professional well-being, motivation and pride of employees. Put simply, HRD also
man’s competence building, commitment building and culture building.
In the organization context, scope of HRD is not limited to the development of the
organizational role of the employees but extends to the individuals inner feelings,
genius and latent potentialities of those working in the organization. Individuals in
an organization have unlimited potential for growth and development and this can
be multiplied and channelised through systematic efforts. Megginson viewed
human resources as the total knowledge, skills, creative, abilities, talents and
aptitudes of an organization’s workforce as well as the values, attitudes and beliefs
of the individual involved.
HRD is an effort to develop capabilities and competence among employees as well
as to create an organizational environment conducive to the employee’s
development. A.D. Moddie has observed that, “Good organization-building has to
create around it a bracing atmosphere, a prideful tradition of integrity, excellence

23
and fellowship. Human beings breathe this ethos around them almost
unconsciously and these traditions make for that ethos”.
According to Ishwar Dayal, three things are important in HRD – “Ways to better
adjust the individual to his job and the environment; the greatest involvement of
the employee in various aspects of his work, the greatest concern for enhancing the
capabilities of the individual.”
HRD in brief is transformation of potential human resources into kinetic human
resources for optimisation of the potential capacity of employees. “Human rather
than capital is the key to development.”
HRD is needed by any organization that wants to grow continuously. No
organisation can grow and survive in the present-day environment without the
growth and development of its people. People need competencies to perform tasks.
Higher degree and quality of performance of tasks require higher level skills.
Without continuous development of competencies in people, an organization is not
likely to achieve its goals. It has been observed by M.N. Kulkarni that, HRD is an
aid to the efficient running of an enterprise. It is now a firm belief that
organizations can improve their effectiveness and performance only through the
development of human beings.
Rao and Abraham in their paper entitled “Human Resource Development Climate
in Indian Organizations” have referred to the existence of an optimal level of
development climate as a pre-requisite for- facilitating HRD systems in the
organization.
Development climate constitutes three variables viz.:
1. General Climate
2. HRD mechanisms
3. The OCTAPACE culture

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1. General Climate:
The general climate deals with the importance being given to human resource
development in general by the top management in line managers. Such supportive
climate consists of not only top management and line management’s commitment
but good personnel policies and positive attitude towards development. HRD
mechanisms include performance and potential feedback.
Counseling, career planning, employee welfare, job rotation etc. These
mechanisms are the methods initiated to develop employee’s competencies.
OCTAPACE culture refers to the values of openness, conform, trust, authenticity
pro-activity, autonomy, collaboration and experimentation. Such a culture is
essential for facilitating human resource development. Well-known economist
Alfred Marshall stated that, “The most valuable of all capital is that invested in
human beings.”
HRD aims at the integrated growth of the employees by enabling them to know
their strengths and weaknesses to improve their performance. It provides guidance
through the bosses to the employees for better performance. Organizations’ HRM
practices have been found to have a significant impact on organizational
performance. Improving an organization’s HRM practices could increase its
market value. The term used to describe these practices that lead to such results is
high-performance work practices.
High-performance work practices can lead to both individual and high
organizational performance. An organization is set up for the achievement of
certain objectives. These objectives can be achieved only when various resources
are brought together and managed in such a way that they contribute their best.
Those resources are both human and non-human. Of all the resources the ‘human
recourse’ is the most signification and only active factor of production. The
utilization of all other resources directly depends on the efficient utilization of
25
human resources. In fact, people are the living force of an organization and
constitute its core resources as distinct from physical and financial resources.
“Our people are our most important asset.” Many organizations are using this
phrase to acknowledge the important role that employees play in organizational
success. These organizations also stress that all managers must engage in some
human resource management activities, even in large organizations that have a
specialized HRM department. Can HRM be an important strategic tool? Can it help
Examples of high-performance work practices
i. Self-directed work teams
ii. Job rotation
iii. High levels of skills training
iv. Problem solving groups
v. Total quality management procedures and processes
vi. Encouragement of innovative and creative behaviour
vii. Extensive employee involvement and training
viii. Implementing employee suggestions
ix. Contingent pay based on performance
x. Coaching and mentoring
xi. Significant amount of information sharing
xii. Use of employee attitude surveys
xiii. Cross functional integration
xiv. Comprehensive employee recruitment and selection procedures.
The common thing in these practices think to be a commitment to improving the
knowledge, skills and abilities of an organization’s employees increasing their
motivation, enhancing the retention of quality employees while encouraging non-
performers to leave. Organizations thrive when human resources are motivated to
perform.
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To ensure employee motivation organization need to use to a structured approach
using a structured approach, there are three aspects of motivation that need to be
explored in order to identified and evaluate motivational issues:
i. The alignment between employee and organizational motivations and coals,
ii. The structures and processes within which motivational issues are negotiated
between employees and the organizations,
iii. What employees want to avoid, as these can undermine efforts to create
motivating environment.
2. Human Resource Development Mechanisms:
The following HRD mechanisms can help in enabling human resources for
excellence performance:
Performance Appraisal:
The process of performance appraisal determines how well an employee is
performing his job. It provides a mechanism for identification of qualities and
deficiencies observed in an employee in relation to his job performance. The
objective of performance appraisal is to determine the present state of efficiency of
a worker in order to establish the actual need for training.
This process consists of:
(a) Setting standards for performance
(b) Communicating the standards to the employees
(c) Measuring the performance
(d) Comparing the actual performance with the standards set.
Potential Appraisal:
Potential appraisal provides necessary data which helps in preparing career plans
for individuals. It aims at development of latent abilities of individuals. When an
organization is diversifying its operations or introducing changes, capacities to

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perform new roles and responsibilities must continually be developed among
employees.
Feedback Counselling:
Feedback of performance data can be used to monitor individual development and
for identifying training needs. Career counselling and verbal rewards are integral
parts of review discussions between the subordinate and the superior.
Counselling helps the executives to understand the limitations of his seniors and
problems of his juniors, improves communication thereby facilitating quality
decisions, helps employees in recognizing their strengths and weaknesses and also
help evaluate the impact of their decisions and so on. This would help the
employees in acquiring greater competencies.
Training:
The success of any development programme depends on the quality of training
faculties. Training is a process that involves the acquisition of skills, concepts and
attitudes in order to increase the effectiveness of employees in doing particular
jobs. Training is expected to provide the needful stimulus to initiate impulses of
change in management and to improve efficiency, productivity and administrative
effectiveness.
Role Analysis:
Role analysis is a participatory process which aims at defining the work content of
a role in relation to all those with whom the role occupant has significant
interaction in the performance of his job. Jobs have to be analyzed for proper
planning of work which is necessary for improving efficiency and performance.
This is known as job analysis.
Career Planning:
Career planning means helping the employees to plan their career in terms of their
capacities within the context of organizational needs. It is the planning of one’s
28
career and implementation of career plans by means of education, training, job
search and acquisition of work experiences. It aims at generating among
employees an awareness of their strengths and weaknesses and helping them to
match their abilities to the needs of the organization.
Job Rotation:
The work tasks should be related among the employees so as to broaden their field
of specialization, as well as their knowledge about the organization’s operations as
a whole. The work tasks therefore, should be rotated once a year among the
various employees depending upon their qualifications and suitability to perform
new roles.
Quality Circles:
A quality circle is a small group of employees doing similar or related work who
meet regularly to identify, analyze and solve product quality problems and to
improve general operation. The quality circles are relatively autonomous units
usually led by a supervisor or a senior worker and organized as work units.
The objectives of quality circles are:
(a) To develop, enhance and utilize human resources effectively;
(b) To satisfy the workers’ psychological needs to motivate them;
(c) To improve supervisory skills of employees like leadership, inter-personal and
conflict resolution;
(d) To utilize the skills through participation, creating work interest and inculcating
problem solving techniques.
Reward System:
Rewarding employee’s performance over and above their normal wages and
salaries is considered to be an important task of HRD. In any organization, the
managers and workers have similar motivations, although the manager controls the

29
means of achieving need satisfaction at work and each employee seeks self-
development to go as far as possible on his own ability.
But frustration, slow work and depression come in the way of need satisfaction.
One way of overcoming such frustration is rewarding the efficient workers for
their work which may be termed as incentive. It will lead to better utilization of
human resources at all levels, which is the quickest and surest means of increasing
productivity.
Organization Development:
Organization development is an organizational wide, planned effort managed from
the top, placing emphasis on making appropriate interventions in the ongoing
activities of the organization. It provides a normative framework within which
changes in the climate and culture of the organization towards harnessing the
human potential for realization of organizational objectives is brought out. It is a
planned change strategy aimed at developing and revitalizing the adaptive
capacities of organizations and individuals so as to enable them to respond to their
internal and external environments in a pro-active manner.
Quality of Work Life:
For an employee to be able to work at his best, it is necessary to understand that
inadequate working and living conditions produce adverse mental and physical
effects on the employee, ultimately causing decline in the efficiency. The HRD
system takes care of employees’ health and well-being of their families by
providing them with better working conditions, which promote a healthy
atmosphere of development and motivation among employees.
Human Resource Planning:
This process aims at ensuring that the organization will have adequate number of
qualified persons, available at the proper time, performing jobs which would meet
the needs of the organization and also provide satisfaction to the individuals
30
involved. It is an endeavour to match demand and supply for various types of
human skills in the organization.
3. OCTAPACE Culture:
The term OCTAPACE has been coined to denote the characteristics of HRD
climate which includes openness, confrontation, trust, autonomy, proactivity,
authenticity, collaboration and experimentation.
Openness:
i. Express freely and frankly
ii. No reprisals for constructive upward communication
iii. Relevant disclosure.
Confrontation:
i. Not afraid to face problems, both own and forced
ii. Voluntarily seek to handle problems (nip in the bud)
iii. Problems not carpeted
iv. Solve problems in a win-win style.
Trust:
i. Trust in the organization context
ii. Sense of assurance of other’s timely help
iii. Shared information not misused
iv. Higher empathy.
Authenticity:
i. Genuine interaction
ii. Transparency.
Proaction:
i. Anticipate
ii. Initiate action without prompting
iii. No passing the buck
31
iv. Reduce surprises.
Autonomy:
i. Empowered
ii. Accountable
iii. Bonafide
iv. Observe role boundary.
Collaboration:
i. Mutual dependence
ii. Cross functional working
iii. “We” feeling
iv. Team working
v. Sharing resources for synergy.
Experimentation:
i. Encourage to try within parameters
ii. Tolerate bonafide mistakes
iii. Encourage “Newness”
iv. Share learning through experimentation.

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 Conclusion

Various studies have concluded that an organization’s human resources can

significant source of competitive advantage; it involves working with and through
people and seeing them as partners, not just as costs to be minimized or avoided.
That is what organizations are doing. In addition to their potential importance as
part of organizational strategy and contribution to competitive advantage,
organizations’ HRM practices have been found to have a significant impact on
organizational performance.
Improving an organization’s HRM practices could increase its market value. The
term used to describe these practices that lead to such results is high performance
work practices. High performance work practices can lead to both individual and
organizational performance.

HRD is a process, not merely a set of mechanisms and techniques. The

mechanisms and techniques such as performance appraisal, counselling, training,
and organization development interventions are used to initiate, facilitate, and
promote this process in a continuous way. Because the process has no limit, the
mechanisms may need to be examined periodically to see whether they are
promoting or hindering the process. Organisations can facilitate this process of
development by planning for it, by allocating organisational resources for the
purpose, and by exemplifying an HRD philosophy that values human beings and
promotes their development.

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