HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT

ASSIGNMENT
HRD IN CONTEXT OF INDIA

Name : Vandana Babu

Class : MHRM
Roll Number : h2229
 HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT IN INDIAN CONTEXT

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
20th 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.
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. Human resources is 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.“Good organization-
building has to create around it a bracing atmosphere, a prideful tradition of integrity, excellence
and fellowship. Human beings breathe this ethos around them almost unconsciously and these
traditions make for that ethos”.
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. 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.
“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
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.
ADVERTISEMENTS:

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 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?

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.

Examples of high-performance work practices

 Self-directed work teams
 Job rotation
 High levels of skills training
 Problem solving groups
 Total quality management procedures and processes
 Encouragement of innovative and creative behaviour
 Extensive employee involvement and training
 Implementing employee suggestions
 Contingent pay based on performance
 Coaching and mentoring
 Significant amount of information sharing
 Use of employee attitude surveys
 Cross functional integration
 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.
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:
Performance appraisal, career advancement, career planning and training is considered as
dimensions of HRD.
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:
 Setting standards for performance
 Communicating the standards to the employees
 Measuring the performance
 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 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 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:
 To develop, enhance and utilize human resources effectively;
 To satisfy the workers’ psychological needs to motivate them;
 To improve supervisory skills of employees like leadership, inter-personal and conflict
resolution;
  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 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 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
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.
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:
o Optimizing the use of employees for the growth of the organization.
o Enabling employees to grow within the organization.
o Helping in the congruence of individual aspirations and organizational expectations.
o Promoting collaboration and team spirit.
o Maximizing managerial effectiveness by having an involved, committed and highly
motivated team of managers.
o Building the skills necessary to meet existing and long-term organizational needs.
o Achieving good employer-employee relations with regards for basic human values.
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:
a. Acquire capabilities (knowledge, perspectives, attitude, values and skills) required to
perform various tasks or functions associated with their present or future expected roles,
b. Develop capabilities and utilize their potential for their own or organisation development
process, and
c. 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 employeeTechnological 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:
(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 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 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 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.
It becomes almost imperative for all organisations to periodically carry out a kind of SWOT
analysis in relation to the competences of human resources. The objective of such an analysis
would be to know whether the organisation is exploiting the opportunities in the environment to
the maximum advantage, as also whether it has the essay capability to make us of the
opportunities which crop up from time to time.
On the other hand, the assessment should also indicate whether the workforce is competent
enough to withstand the threats suddenly thrown up by the environment. An analysis of this
nature would probably indicate the degree of human dynamism present in the organisation.
There are a few important implications of the above discussion for an organisation’s personnel
department. If the organisation does not have a well-spelt out personnel policy, it is necessary for
it to lay down one, when the business policy is in the making. On the other hand, where a
personnel policy already drawn up, the organisation may have to continually modifyit to make it
more relevant to the business objectives laid down in policy.
A few of the components of personnel policy, which would need careful attention are being
discussed in the following:
One of the most important areas is the ‘training and development’ of the workforce in an
organisation. This is necessary to meet the challenges of the rapidly changes in the environment.
However, to identify the areas for ‘training and development’ and make training and
development activities more effective, a concerted effort is warranted in order to have a sound
performance appraisal (PA) system.
In the context of the business policy, it would mean enlarging the scope of routine PA system for
– assessing competencies in relation to the organisational objectives; as well as the response-
competence (dynamism) of the workforce in relation to the favourable and unfavourable
environmental changes.
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 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.
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.
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.