HRD outcomes influence the organisational effectiveness:

Dimensions of Organisational Effectiveness can be measured under the

following heads:
 High productivity.
 Growth and Diversification of Units
 Cost Reduction
 More Profit
 Better Public Image of the organisation.
The linkage between HRD outcomes and organisational effectiveness
are not easily demonstrable due to the influence of several other variables in
determining productivity.13

2.10 HRD MECHANISMS:

Many HRD mechanisms are available to develop the competencies of
employees and improve the overall organisational climate. The major ones are
discussed below:
1. Performance Appraisal:
Performance Appraisal has become increasingly important tool for
organisations to use in managing and improving the performance of employees,
in making timely and accurate staffing decisions and improving the overall
quality of the firm’s products and services. The appraisal process is the formal
way of evaluating the employee’s performance. Its purpose is to provide an
accurate picture of post and future employee’s performance, to meet this
performance appraisal is set. The targets are based on job related criteria that
best determine successful job performance. The possible actual performance is
measured directly and objectively. Using a wide variety of techniques,
specialists select an appropriate method to measure an employee’s actual

13
Santosh Gupta and Sachin Gupta, “Human Resources Development”, Deepand Deep Publications Pvt
Ltd. Rajuri Gorden New Delhi, 2005. Pp 4-5.

41
performance against the previously set targets. The process is used to
strengthen the effort of performance linkage.

Appraisals help an organisation to communicate its expectations

regarding performance and connection between performance and reward to
employees. They increase employees’ confidence and employees’ feedback and
their efforts are being adequately rewarded. The feedback is offered through an
evaluation interview. Here, the rater tries to give both positive and negative
sides of the employee performance. To be useful, raters or supervisors use
HRD orientated appraisals as a mechanism to:
 Uncover difficulties faced by the subordinate while handling assigned
task and try to remove these hurdles.
 Understand the strengths and weaknesses of subordinates and help the
subordinates overcome the obstacles in the way.
 Encourage subordinates to meet problems head-on, accept
responsibilities and face challenges with confidence and courage.
 Plan for effective utilization of the talents of subordinates.

Instruments or devices used for collecting data on behavioral aspects to

help derive tentative generalizations like other instruments, HRD instruments
have deferent types of (what is to be measured, or diagnosed) units that have
some internal consistency and uses on index of some kind of express the result
of the analysis / diagnosis.

Objectives of Performance Appraisal

Performance appraisal has been expected to achieve various objectives
in an organisational setting. Appraisal serve to monitor the efforts of
individual, to integrate and co-ordinate individual efforts into a co-operative
endeavour to provide protection and feedback to the individual, to provide a
means of correcting or commending the efforts of individuals, and to provide
an equitable and consistent basis of distributing reward and penalties. It is

42
obvious, therefore, that there has been a very wide range conception of the
objectives to be achieved by an appraisal system. It has also been seen in a
narrower context by many who feel that its predominant use has been for
evaluation of past and current performance of employees. 14

A good performance appraisal system should have the following

objectives.
A) Administrative: Decision for promotion, salary increase, placement,
transfer, discharge etc., and organisation planning.
B) Motivation: Appraisal interviews, counselling, participation in goal setting
and work planning, self appraisal etc., are the part of motivation.
C) Development: Counselling, training and development and communication
of the employees.
d) Performance Development: Through MBO and other goal setting and
work planning processes.

Both behaviour and performance outcomes are appraised through

performance appraisal. “Behaviours emanate from the performed and
transformed performance from abstraction to action. Behaviours are the
product of mental and physical effort applied to tasks. Every appraisal system
is stressed on assessment of personality traits and constructive way to the job
itself. Now-a-days there has been a swing from appraising. Job related
behaviour and abilities to assessment of outcome or results achieved.

Need and Importance of Performance Appraisal

The performance appraisal has been considered as the most significant
and indispensable tool for an organisation for the information it provides is
highly useful in market decisions regarding various personal aspects such as
promotions. Performance also measures information gathering and decision –
14
Brij Mohan A “Performance Appraisal” Training Manual for Non-Academic Staff in Distance
Education 1993 pp224-225

43
making process which provides a basis for judging the effectiveness of
personnel, sub-divisions such as recruitment, selection, training and
compensation. An accurate information plays a vital role in the organisation. It
helps in pinpointing weak to see which of the employees need training or
counseling, because jobs are grouped by categories. These categories can be
broken into smaller and smaller groups, if necessary. If valid performance data
are timely available the management can maintain consistent promotion and
compensation policies throughout the total system.15

Functions of performance appraisal

Levinson has mentioned three functions of performance appraisals.
1) It seeks to provide an adequate feedback to each individual for his/her
performance.
2) It purports to serve as a basis for improving or changing behaviour
towards some more effective working habits.
3) It aims at providing data to managers / supervisors with which they may
judge future job assignments and compensation.16

Factors affecting performance

The following are the factors which affect the performance of an
individual and are, therefore, of relevance to performance appraisal.
 The quality of performance is greatly influenced by the quality of
superior. Subordinate relationship, particularly in non-mechanical
tasks.
 Superior – subordinate relationship which are supportive and
facilitative in nature are more productive and satisfying than control
based relationship.
 Tasks requiring innovation and growth require greater superior
support than those where only maintenance is needed.
15
Fred Luthans “Organisational Behaviour” McGraw Hill Publishing House New Yark 1981 pp-266-
270
16
H.Levinson “Appraisal of work performance” Harverd Business Review, july –August 1976 pp30

44
  Clarity of goals in terms of quality, cost and time limit exert a major
influence on performance.
 Performance is high where goals are dynamic. Growing task
requirement involving increased help in building sub-ordinates.
 Performance is better if the task-requirement (goals) is fixed in
collaboration with the subordinate concerned.
 Performance is low where feed-back is lower or where the
psychological consequences of failure are adverse, e.g. loss of status
or self-esteem.
 Performance is high where the employee has a high degree of
awareness of his capacity and of the potential of his task.
 Counseling for improvement in performance is more acceptable to a
subordinate where the advice is backed by objective factors and
he/she can perceive an intention on the part of the superior to help
him in the effort to improve.17

Performance appraisal concerns mainly three purposes – They are:

a. Administrative decision: Promotion, transfers and allocation of
financial rewards.
b. Employee development: Identification of training and
development needs and performance feedback.
c. Personnel research: Generation of manpower information.

Besides, salary and wage determination, performance appraisal is also

used for training and development, career planning, man-job matching,
promotion, helping supervisors to know their subordinates, helping the
employees to know their achievements and failures etc.18

17
Brij Mohan A “Performance Appraisal” Training Manual for Non-Academic Staff in Distance
Education 1993 pp224-225
18
Dr.M.L..anga “Management of Performance Appraisal” First Edition Himalaya Publishing House
Bombay 1983 pp1-2

45
Uses of Performance Appraisal
Some of the common uses of appraisals include
 Determining appropriate salary increases and bonuses for workers
based on performance measure.
 Determining promotions or transfers depending on the demonstration
of employee strengths and weakness.
 Determining training needs and evaluation techniques by identifying
areas of weaknesses.
 Promoting effective communication within organisations through the
interchange of dialogue between supervisors and subordinates.
 Motivating employees by showing them where they stand and
establishing a data on appraisal for rendering assistance in personnel
decisions.

Organisations use performance appraisals for three purposes – i)

Administrative, ii) Employee development, and iii) Programme assessment.
Programme appraisals commonly serve for administrative purpose by
providing employers with a rationale for making personnel decisions, such as
decisions relating to pay increases, promotions, demotions, terminations and
transfers.19

2. Potential Appraisal:
The term ‘potential’ refers to the abilities possessed by an employee but
not put to use currently or the abilities to assume challenging responsibilities in
future assignments. The term ‘performance’ refers to one’s skills, abilities in
meeting the requirements of the job which one is holding currently. Potential
appraisal is different from performance appraisal which shows the employee’s
current performance in his existing role. If the employee is required to play a

19
A.M.Sharma “Personnel and HRM” Himalaya publishing House New Delhi 2003, pp117-118

46
completely different set of roles at the higher levels, potential appraisal needs
to be carried out at regular intervals.

The potential appraisal refers to the appraisal i.e., identification of the

hidden talents and skills of a person. The person might or might not be aware
of them. Potential appraisal is a future – oriented appraisal whose main
objective is to identify and evaluate the potential of the employees to assume
higher positions and responsibilities in the organisational hierarchy. Many
organisations consider and use potential appraisal as part of the performance
appraisal processes.

“The objective of potential appraisal is to identify the potential of a

given employee to occupy higher positions in the organisational hierarchy and
undertake higher technologies.” The appraisal is carried out on the basis of (i)
supervisor’s observations; (ii) performance data relating to various previous
roles played by an employee; (iii) performance on roles in simulating to a new
position. A good potential appraisal system helps management to pick up a
suitable candidate for a given job and offer additional training facilities, if
necessary.

The purposes of a potential review are:

1. To inform employees of their future prospects;
2. To enable the organisation to draft a management succession
programme;
3. To update training and recruitment activities;
4. To advise employees about the work to be done to enhance .their career
opportunities.

47
Techniques of potential appraisal:
1) Self – Appraisals. 2.) Peer appraisals. 3) Superior appraisals. 4). MBO’
5). Psychological and psychometric tests. 6) Management games like role
playing
7) Leadership exercises etc.

Potential appraisal helps to identify what can happen in future so that it

can be guided and directed towards the achievement of individual and
organisational growth and goals. Therefore, potential should be included as a
part of the Performance appraisal in organisations.

The Potential for Improving Performance, or PIP, measures the

performance of the average worker versus the best person performing a
particular task. Large differences suggest that performance can be improved by
bringing average performance closer to the best performance. Small differences
suggest little potential for improvement.

The following are some of the requirements and steps to be followed when
introducing a potential appraisal system:
Role Description: A good potential appraisal system would be based on clarity
of roles and functions associated with the different roles in an organisation.
This requires extensive job descriptions to be made available for each job.
These job descriptions should spell out the various functions involved in
performing the job.

Qualities Required: Besides job descriptions, it is necessary to have a detailed

list of qualities required to perform each of these functions. These qualities
may be broadly divided into four categories – (1) Technical knowledge and
skills, (2) Managerial capabilities and qualities, (3) Behavioral capabilities, and
(4) Conceptual capabilities.

48
Indicators of Qualities: A good potential appraisal system besides listing
down the functions and qualities would also have various mechanisms for
judging these qualities in a given individual. Some of the mechanisms for
judging these qualities are – (a) Rating by others, (b) Psychological tests, (c)
Simulation games and exercises, (d) Performance appraisal records.

Organising the System: Once the qualities required to perform these functions
are indicated the qualities and mechanisms for generating these indicators are
clear, the organisation is in a sound position to establish and operate the
potential appraisal system. Such establishment requires clarity in organisational
policies and systematisation of its efforts.

Feedback: If the organisation believes in the development of human resources

it should attempt to generate a climate of openness. Such a climate is required
for helping the employees to understand their strengths and weaknesses and to
create opportunities for development. A good potential appraisal system should
provide an opportunity for every employee to know the results of assessment.
Employee should be helped to understand the qualities actually required for
performing the role for which he thinks he has the potential, the mechanisms
used by the organisation to appraise his potential, and the results of such an
appraisal.

A good potential appraisal system provides opportunities continuously

for the employee to know his strengths and weaknesses. These are done
through periodic counseling and guidance sessions by either the personnel
department or the managers concerned. This should enable the employee to
develop realistic self-perceptions and plan his own career and development.20

20
Neelankavil, Nora and Ivek Sthalkar “Mid-Career Coursing: A Participative HRD Option” IJTD
May-Jun 1991, pp 33-34

49
Career Planning and Career Development:
Individual career planning assumed greater significance with the growth
and speed of knowledge, phenomenal increase in educational and training
facilities and widespread increase in job opportunities. Similarly, organisational
career planning also gaining importance with the change in technology, human
needs, value and aspirations, increase in organisational size, complexity and
various systems are operating at different levels.21 At this juncture, HRD
system is creating this facilitative culture through its subsystems that would
ensure individual growth and a long term commitment to the organisation.
Career planning is one of the important subsystems which contribute towards
better HRD.22

“A career is a sequence of positions occupied by a person during the

course of a life time “Career development means the development of the
general and technical and managerial career in the organisation, career paths of
the employee is the foreseeable future in the organisation with the help of the
reporting manpower planning and potential appraisal. Career planning gets
closely linked with these components of the human resource system.23Career
Planning is a participative process. Organisation does not have unilateral
control over employee’s career. Both organisation and individual are
responsible for career planning.24

Career planning is a process of integrating the employees’ needs and

aspirations with organisational needs. Career programmes and HR programmes
are linked to the degree that they help each individual meet individual and
oragnisation requirements.

21
C.B.Mamoria, S.V.Gankar “Human Resources Management”, Himalaya Publising House, Seventh
Edition 2008, pp159-169.
22
Philip.J, “HRD:Concept and Practices”, In Modern Management Associations Led, 1987 pp 57-67
23
Donal E, Super and Doughlas, T Hall “Career Development, Exploration and Planning” in a Annual
Review of psychology, Mark R Rosenzweing and Lyman W Porter (Plo Alto: Annual Review Inc
1978) XXIX 334.
24
Bhatia S.K. Career Management:A Two-Way Process”, Indian Management, Nove 1985 pp25-27.

50
 In the HRD system, the long term growth plans of a company are not
kept secret. They are made known to the employees. The subordinates should
be assisted in planning their careers within the company. It is, however, not
necessary that each one of them would scale new heights every year but at least
they are aware of the opportunities and get ready for greater challenges ahead.
Career planning doesn’t guarantee success. But without it, employees are rarely
prepared to encash the opportunities that come on their way.

Important Elements of Career:

Career has following important elements:
 It is properly sequenced job related activity. Such job related activity
vis-à-vis experience include role experiences at different hierarchical
levels of an individual, which lead to an increasing level of
responsibilities, power, achievement and rewards.
 It may be individual-centered or organisational centered. Individual-
centered (internal) career is an individually perceived sequenced of
career progession within an occupation.25
The process of career management can be classified into two parts
1. Career planning
2. Career development
1. Career planning:
A career is the job that is held during ones working life. Edwin B Flippo
defined a career as a sequence of separate but related work, objectives that
provide continuity, order and meaning in a person’s life. Douglas T. Hall
defined a career as “an individually perceived sequence of attitudes and
behaviours associated with work related experience and activities over time
span of persons life”.

25
D.K.Bhattachary, “Human Resoource Development”, Himalaya Publishing House , Mumbai, First
Edition 2009, pp98-99.

51
 A career path is sequential pattern of jobs that form a career. Career
goals are the future positions one strive as part of a career. Career planning is
the process by which one selects career development. They are personal
improvement which one undertakes to achieve a personal career plan. Career
management is the process of designing and implementing goals and strategies
enable the organisation to satisfy employee needs while allowing individuals to
achieve their career goals.26

In the HRD system the long term growth planning of a company are
kept secret. They are made known to the employees; major changes are
discussed at all levels to promote understanding and commitment among
employees. The immediate concern of employees would be to find out where
they stand in such a road map. Since managers have information about the
growth plans of the company they should be assisted in planning their careers
within the company. It is however, not necessary that each of them would scale
new heights every year but at least they are aware of the opportunities and get
ready for greater challenging ahead. But without it, employees are rarely
prepared to encash the opportunities that come on their way.27

2. Career Development :
Career development programmes are not of recent index. There are four
steps in establishing a career development system they are;
 Needs : define the present system
 Vision: determining new directions and possibilities
 Action plan: deciding on practical first step and so on
 Results: maintaining the change.28

26
P.Subbarao “Essentials of Human Resource management and Industrial Relations” ”, Himalaya
Publishing House Mumbai, 2004 pp 225-226
27
Santosh Gupta and sachin Gupta “Human Resource Development” Deep & Deep Publications Pvt.
Ltd 2005 pp 67-68
28
Ibid 72-73

52
3. Training and Employee Development:
Training has gained importance in present day environment where jobs
change rapidly. Training is a learning experience designed to achieve a
relatively permanent change in an individual that will improve the ability to
perform on the job. Employee development on the other hand is a future
oriented training process, focusing on the personal growth of the employee.
Both training and development focus on learning.29 Training programmes
should not be designed as quick fixes for organisational problems, nor should
they depend on faddish techniques just because they are popular now and are
followed by our next door neighbor. Instead, training should be planned to
meet the specific needs of the organisation and its employees. To survive and
grow in a competitive environment, organisations have to motivate their
employees to get ready for all kinds of future challenges.

Training is the acquisition of knowledge, skills, and competencies as a

result of the teaching of vocational or practical skills and knowledge that relate
to specific useful competencies. Training has specific goals of improving one's,
capacity, and performance. It forms the core of apprenticeships and provides
the backbone of content. In addition to the basic training required for a trade,
occupation or profession, observers of the labor-market] recognized the need to
continue training beyond initial qualifications: to maintain, upgrade and update
skills throughout working life. People within many professions and occupations
may refer to this sort of training as professional development.30Training and
development is a subsystem of an organisation. It ensures that randomness is
reduced and learning or behavioral change takes place in structured format.

29
R.K. Sahu, “ Training for Development all You need to Know” , Anurag Jain for Excel Books, New
Delhi, 2005,
30
M.T.Uva, “Human Resource Management” McGraw Hill Publishing House, August 31-2013, pp 31-
35

53
Traditional and Modern Approach of Training and Development
Traditional Approach – Most of the organisations before never used to
believe in. They were holding the traditional view that managers are born and
not made. There were also some views that training is a very costly affair and
not worth. Organisations used to believe more in executive pinching. But now
the scenario seems to be changing.

The modern approach: The Indian Organisations have realized the

importance of corporate training. Training is now considered as more of
retention tool than a cost. The training system in Indian Industry has been
changed to create a smarter workforce and yield the best results.31

Training and Development Objectives:

The principal objective of training and development division is to make
sure the availability of a skilled and willing workforce. In addition to that, there
are four other objectives: Individual, Organisational, Functional, and Societal.

Individual Objectives – help employees in achieving their personal goals,

which in turn, enhances the individual contribution to an organisation.

Organisational Objectives – assist the organisation with its primary objective

by bringing individual effectiveness.

Functional Objectives – maintain the department’s contribution at a level

suitable to the organisation’s needs.

Societal Objectives – ensure that an organisation is ethically and socially

responsible to the needs and challenges of the society.32

31
MG Jomon “ Human Resource Development in Real Time” 2003, pp 91-95
32
Ibid 95-96

54
Identifying Training Needs
There is a great scope for improvement of working personnel in their job
satisfaction. The problem faced by individuals, groups, departments, divisions,
and organisations as a whole may be identified through structured discussion
and opinion surveys.

Defining Training Objectives

Generally, the training programmes are organised to import knowledge,
skills, attitudes and competencies of people to perform the assigned job
effectively. The objectives must be measured. The trained personnel should be
able to utilize their knowledge and competencies to solve identified problem in
the organisation. In order to achieve this objective the programmes should
have an application orientation.

Structure of Training Programme

The content of the programme should be derived by analysis and
activities should be performed by the trained manpower and their present
competencies. The programme should be flexible, modular, credit based, and
application oriented. The programme should optimize learning by utilizing on
the job learning experience and class-room teaching.33

Objectives of Training
Objectives of training methods can be determined generally as below.
a) Increase job satisfaction and morals among employees
b) Increase employee motivation
c) Increase efficiency in processes, resulting in financial gain
d) Increase capacity to adopt new technologies and methods
e) Increase innovation in strategies and products
f) Reduce employee turnover
g) Enhance company image, e.g., conducting ethics training
33
B.S.Rathod, L.N.Mittal and D.D.Sharma, “Current Tends in HRD”, Deep and Deep Publications
New Delhi, 1995, pp 364-365.

55
 h) Risk management, e.g., training about sexual harassment, diversity
training etc.

Objectives of orientations are different from other methods, because

they are given for the new employees of the organisation in the beginning of
their career at organisation. Orientation should emphasize the following topics:

(i) The company's history and mission.

(ii) The key members in the organisation.
(iii) The key members in the department, and how the department helps to
fulfill the mission of the company.
(iv) Personnel rules and regulations.

Objectives of the telling methods give an idea about the training area.
Sometimes written parts also can be seen in this method, but generally this
method gives an understanding about the learning area.

Showing methods create a picture among trainees mind and it helps to

bring the trainee to real situations and that helps to practice decision making
and general understanding in wide area, than telling method. This method also
helps to increase the creativity of the trainee.

Role playing generate leaders and decision makers. Such kind of things
help the trainee to get a deep understanding about the learning and working
area. Such training can be used for junior management levels and finally can
make a competence, skillful employees. Job rotation reduces the individuals
stress. By this training method, employer or management can assign the trained
employee to fill an internal vacancy, without giving training again. This will
help the smooth flow of work at the organisation. Such trainings help to reduce
absenteeism of an employee.

56
 Technical training is unique for a job. Most of technicians are
specialized in their field. So these technical trainings reduce wastage and
accidents while maximizing the profit of a firm or the line. These kind of
trainings create efficiency in the organisational production.

Discussion technique involves the participation of the trainees in actual

work. Trainee is allowed to ask any related questions. Sometimes cases are also
used for actual situations. These methods generate discussions between the
trainee and the trainer. This can be used in several of organisations relating to
their works.

Some methods cannot be determined as a part of above mentioned

training types, because they have some specific characters or a combination of
above types. Those various specific training methods are discussed below.

a) Orientations - Orientations are conduct for new employees. The beginning

days on the job are crucial for the success of new employees. This point is
illustrated by the fact that 60 percent of all employees who quit do so in the
first ten days.

Some companies use verbal presentations while others have written

presentations. Many small businesses convey these topics one-by-one in
orientations. No matter what method is used, it is important that the newcomer
understand his or her new place of employment.

b) Internship and assistantship – These are usually a combination of

classroom and on - the -job training. They are often used to train prospective
managers or marketing personnel.

c) Programmed learning - Programmed learning, computer-aided instruction

and interactive video all have one thing in common: they allow the trainee to
learn at his or her own pace. Also, they allow material already learned to be

57
bypassed in favor of material with which a trainee has a difficulty. After the
introductory period, the instructor need not be present, and the trainee can learn
at his or her own time. These methods sound good, but may be beyond the
resources of some small businesses.

d) Laboratory training – This is conducted for groups by skilled trainers. It is

usually is conducted at a neutral site and is used by upper- and middle
management trainees to develop a spirit of teamwork and an increased ability
to deal with management and peers. It can be costly and usually is offered by
larger and small businesses. Most of the research and development institutes
are used this method and this will be the most effective training type to such
kind of institutes.

e) Technical training – There are numerous fields in which technical training

are offered which cover the jobs such as that of draughtsman, mechanics,
toolmaker, designers, mechanics, electrician, technical officers and technical
assistants etc. For training in crafts, trades and in technical areas,
apprenticeship training is the oldest and the most commonly used method.
Apprenticeship develop employees who can do many different tasks. They
usually involve in several groups of skills that allow the apprentice to practice a
particular trade, and they take place over a long period of time in which the
apprentice works for, and with, the senior skilled worker. Apprenticeship
training is especially appropriate for jobs requiring production skills.

Role playing training:

Role playing and simulation are training techniques that attempt to bring
realistic decision making situations to the trainees. Likely problems and
alternative solutions are presented for discussion. There is no better trainer than
experience is exemplified with this type of training. Experienced employees
can describe real world experiences, and can help in and learn from developing
the solutions to these simulations. This method is cost effective and is used in

58
marketing and management training. Sometimes role playing activities can be
categorized under the discussion methods too.

Job rotation also can be mentioned as a role playing method. Job

rotation involves moving an employee through a series of jobs so he or she can
get a good exposure to the tasks that are associated with different jobs. It is
usually used in training for supervisory positions. The employee learns a little
about everything. This is a good strategy for small businesses because of this
an employee may be asked to do, many jobs and this strategy is used to manage
individual stress at organisations.

Training Methods:
 On-the-job training:
Training in an organisation can be divided into two broad types. They
are on-the-job training and off-the-job training. On-the-job training is given to
the employees while they are conducting their regular works at the same place.
In this way they do not lose time while they are getting training. After a plan is
developed for what should be taught, employees should be informed about the
details. A time table should be established with periodic evaluations to inform
employees about their progress. On-the-job training techniques include
orientation, job instruction training, apprenticeship, internship, assistantship,
job rotation and coaching.

 Off-the-job training
Off-the-job techniques include lectures, special study, audio visual
conferences or discussions, case studies, role playing, simulation, programmed
instructions, and laboratory training. Most of these techniques are too costly.

59
Methods of training can be basically divided into four types, namely,
A) The telling method. B) The showing method
C) The role playing method. D) The discussion technique.34

Training objective should be specific for the particular segment of the

event of an organisation. As mentioned above, the training objectives may be
different from one organisation to another; but the objective to be specific for
that organisation or to specific to a part of that organisation. The above
objective is specific and the employees should be trained for achieving that
objective. Even the above objective can be different from a testing services
division. R and D is trial and error method or product development basis and
testing services is based on evaluation methods or quality assurance of
developed product basis. It definitely may be definitely different from
marketing and sales division of an organisation.

Another important thing of the establishing training objectives is that it

should be measurable. From a specific method or a process or generally, the
objective can be measured. If the objectives cannot be measured, the evaluation
of the training is difficult. Therefore, a good training objective should be
measurable. The training objective should be made achievable by trainees. If
the training objectives cannot be achievable by trainees, it is also an error of
setting training objectives. The training programmes should motive employees
of an organisation; and not frustrate them. For motivating people and training
them in a correct way, there should be achievable objectives. So Implementing
ISO 9000:2001 quality system among R and D Division should be achievable.
If the R and D Divisions cannot implement the quality system anyhow, that
objective is not achievable for R and D institutes rather than production
oriented organisation. While setting non achievable training objectives, trainees
may feel that training will not affect them; and it may be only time consuming

34
Sahu. R.K. “ Training for Development all You need to Know” , Anurag Jain for Excel Books, New
Delhi, 2005,

60
process. In an organisational level, time consuming for non profitable activity
is not good. It may become a reason for profit losses and destroy skillful
employees’ and skills too. Competent employees may not like to spend their
valuable time for non achievable activity and it may create stress in their minds
too. The absenteeism, accidents, and less concentration in work may then
increase in the organisation. So there must be set achievable training objectives
when the training programmes are designed for employees.

The training programme should be relevant to an organisation or to the

employee. Sometimes employees may receive some e-training programmes
which are not directly relevant to their current fields; but it may have a good
opportunity to adapt to new potential to the employee. Some kind of general
training also have to be involved making employees as “Generalists” not
specify to a particular field, which is suitable for most firms. The generalist
concept is most suitable to most organisations because the employer can rotate
employees among the organisation in to several types of job responsibilities to
them. The job rotation is a suitable process to reduce individual stress in
organisation. Employees must have general knowledge and abilities to do
assigned tasks well. Training and development programmes can bring the
employees up to that standard. In the case of specialised jobs there have to be a
direct relationship between training and the job responsibilities.

In both on-the-job and off-the-job training methods, training objectives

should be time bound, because the trainee takes time to develop skills in him.
When considering off-the-job type trainings, during the training period, the
organisation may not have a maximum contribution for the production
function. Even in on-the-job type training, there is low contribution from the
employee’s to organisation during the training periods. Therefore, to minimize
this additional time consumption, the training should be time bound. Training
programmes and training objectives should be co-ordinated effectively. For that

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purpose, there should be a specific time period to end up the training and
develop the trainee.

Organisation Development and Rewards:

OD may be defined as a change effort that is planned, focused on an
entire organisation or a large subsystem, managed from the top, aimed at
enhancing organisational health and effectiveness and based on planned
interventions made with the help of change agent or third party who is well
versed in the behavioral science.

Organisation development is an ongoing, systematic process of

implementing effective organisational change. OD is known as both a field of
science focused on understanding and managing organisational change and as a
field of scientific study and inquiry. It is interdisciplinary in nature and draws
on sociology, psychology, and theories of motivation, learning, and personality.
Although, behavioral science has provided the basic foundation for the study
and practice of OD, new and emerging fields of study have made their presence
felt. Experts in systems thinking and organisational learning, structure of
intuition in decision making and coaching whose perspective is not steeped in
just the behavioral sciences but much more multi-disciplinary and inter-
disciplinary approach, have emerged as OD catalysts or tools. Organisation
development is a growing field and is responsive to many new approaches.

Kurt Lewin (1898–1947) a widely recognised as the founding father of

OD, and the concept became popular in the mid-1950s.35 From Lewin, came
the ideas of group dynamics and action research which underpin the basic OD
process as well as providing its collaborative consultant/client ethos.

35
Argyris C and Schon D, Organisational Learning; A theory of action prospective, 1978Reading MA;
Addison Weslys, ISBN 0-201-001748

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 These procedures became important parts of OD as developments in this
field continued at the National Training Laboratories and in growing numbers
of universities and private consulting firms across the country.36

The failure of off-site laboratory training is to be live up to its early

promise was one of the important forces stimulating the development of OD.
Laboratory training is learning from a person's "here and now" experience as a
member of an ongoing training group. Such groups usually meet without a
specific agenda. Their purpose is for the members to learn about themselves
from their spontaneous "here and now" responses to an ambiguous hypothetical
situation. Problems of structure, status, communication, and self-serving
behavior typically arise in such a group. The members have an opportunity to
learn something about them and to practice such skills as listening, observing
others, and functioning as effective group members.37

As formerly practiced (and occasionally still practiced for special

purposes), laboratory training was conducted in "stranger groups," or groups
composed of individuals from different organisations, situations, and
backgrounds. A major difficulty developed, however, in transferring
knowledge gained from these "stranger labs" to the actual situation "back
home". This required a transfer between two different cultures, the relatively
safe and protected environment of the T-group (or training group) and the give-
and-take of the organisational environment with its traditional values. This led
the early pioneers in this type of learning to begin to apply it to "family groups"
— that is, groups located within the organisation. From this shift in the locale
of the training site and the realization that culture was an important factor in

36
Carter, Louis L, “Best practices in Leadership in Development and organisation Change, jossey Bass.
ISBN 0-7879-7635-3. 2004.
37
Sullivan Ronald, “Practicing Organisational development; A Guide for Leaders Change”, Jossey
Boss, ISBN 0-470-40544-9.2010.

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influencing group members (along with some other developments in the
behavioral sciences) emerged the concept of organisation development.38

Hence, it is a highly erroneous impression to think that the OD function

is the extension of a personnel management function. On the other hand,
professional social work, defined as the function of enabling human beings,
especially the vulnerable and the weak human beings, is nearest to the HRD
functions if not an inseparable part of it.

2. Rewards:
People do what they can do to satisfy their needs. They choose to
behave in way which will maximize their rewards. The most obvious reward is
pay but there are many others. Intrinsic rewards come from their job itself such
as feelings of achievement, pride in doing a job etc. Extrinsic rewards come
from a source outside the job including pay, promotion and benefits offered by
management. Reward could be linked to performance as well to motivate high
achievers to do well. If rewards are allocated completely on non-performance
factors such as seniority, job titles etc. then employees are likely to reduce their
efforts.39 Now a day’s organisations also use team based rewards to motivate
empowered work teams to exceed established targets.

3. Employee Welfare and Quality of Work Life (QWL):

The term employee welfare means “the efforts to make life worth living
for workmen”. It includes various services, facilities and benefits offered to
employees by the employers, unions and govt. The purpose is to improve the
living standards of workers and thereby improve the quality of work life.
Employees voluntarily extend a number of benefits to employees in the hope
that these indirect compensation plans motivate employees to perform better.
Over the years, the types of benefits offered have been expanding in line with

38
Western.S, “What do mean by Organisational development” Krakow; Krakow Adviso Press, 2010.
39
P.P.Arya B.B. Tandon, “Human Resource Development” Third Edition, Deep and Deep Publication,
New Delhi, 1997- pp, 40-46

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competitive pressures, changing job market trends, employee expectations,
union demands and legislative requirements.

Quality of Work Life (QWL)

The term Quality of Work Life means different things to different
persons for example- to floar level employee who is on an assembly line it may
just mean a fair days pay, safe working conditions and a supervisor who treats
him with dignity. To an young recruit, it may mean opportunities for
advancement, creative tasks and a successful career.

The factors contributing to Quality of Work Life are:

1. Adequate and fair compensation.
2. A safe and healthy environment.
3. Jobs aimed at developing and using employee’s skills and abilities.
4. Jobs which can allow employees to grow in the organisation, jobs aimed
at expanding employee’s capabilities, rather than leading to their
obsolescency.
5. An environment in which employees develop self esteem and sense of
identity.
6. Protection and respect for employees rights to privacy, dissent equity
etc.
7. A sensible integration of job career and family life and leaser time.

Quality of Work Life covers all aspects of workers life with reference to
his/her interaction with his/her work and the environment. The conditions that
contribute to motivation (equitable salaries, financial incentives and effective
employee selection) will also contribute to the Quality of Work Life. Some of
these activities like job enrichment contribute indirectly to the Quality of Work
Life by tapping the workers higher order needs and motivating them with other

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activities may contribute directly to the Quality of Work Life providing for a
safer work place, less discrimination on the job, and so forth40.

Systematic efforts are made by organisations to give workers a greater

opportunity to affect the way they do their jobs and the contributions they make
to the organisation’s overall effectiveness. It is a way of empowering
employees by giving them a greater ‘say’ in the decision making process. QWL
means having good working conditions, good wages and benefits, good
leadership, interesting and challenging jobs. QWL efforts include the
following:
 Employee involvement: Here employees are given the opportunity to
participate in the decisions that affect them and their relationship in the
company.
 Quality circles: These are small group of employees who meet
regularly to find, analyse and solve quality and other work-related
problems of a particular department/section/area.
 Socio-technical systems: These are interventions in the work situation
that redesign the work, the workgroups and the relationship between
workers and the technologies they use to perform their jobs.
 Co-determination: In this method, representatives of workers meet
management in a formal way to discuss and vote important decisions
that affect the lives of workers.
 Self-managed work teams: These are employee groups (also called
autonomous workgroups) with a high degree of decision-making,
responsibility and behavioural control for completing their work. The
team is usually given the responsibility for producing an entire product
or service.
 Suggestion programmes: It is a formal method for generating,
evaluating and implementing employee ideas.

40
Ashwathappa K “Organisational Behaviour” Himalaya Publishing House – 9th Edition, pp 313-14.

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  Open door policies: Where open door policies exist, employees are free
to walk into any manager’s office with their problems and seek solutions
to such problems.HRD system focuses on employee welfare and QWL
by continually examining employee needs and meeting them to the best
possible extent.

Human Resource Information System:

Human resource information system (HRIS) is a method by which an
organisation collects, maintains and reports information on people and jobs, the
information is generally stored in a central human resource data bank,
preferably in a computer containing the following details:
 Personal data: Identification, education, reserved category, place of
origin, etc.;
 Recruitment data: Entry date, grade in aptitude tests, grade in
leadership tests;
 Experience data: Placement history, promotions, tasks performed grade
wise;
 Appraisal data: Appraisal on each job, ratings of behaviours in a group,
commitment to overall goals, etc.;
 Training data: Nature of training received at each level, current training
assignment, etc.;
 Miscellaneous: Health status, personal problems, security needs, record
of incentives received, absence & sickness data, etc.;

This information is put to use whenever there is a need to identify

employees for certain special assignments. Each of the subsystems described
contribute to the achievement of overall HRD goals. Performance and potential
appraisal helps an employee develop his role capabilities and prepare himself
for future changes. Training improves his learning abilities. Feedback and
performance coaching helps him correct mistakes and improve interpersonal
relationships. OD promotes the collaborative spirit and self-renewing skills.

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