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CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Planning is the first and most crucial function of management; “Well plan is half done”, it

means looking ahead and designing future courses of action to be followed which tells

where we should begin and how things will be in an organization. Therefore planning

makes possible effective co-ordination & perfect adjustment between present and future

developmental needs of the organization. It is easy for human beings to learn from the

past experiences and make the plan for the future. In this context, a review is made of the

existing relevant literature available on the topic of research.

2.1 RECENT STUDIES IN HR PRACTICES IN GLOBAL CONTEXT

Plessis & Huntley (2009) there has been a move from personnel management PM to

human resource management HRM; more recently to international human resource

management IHRM. Challenges in IHRM involve the same activities as domestic HRM;

the main difference is that domestic HRM is involved with employees within only one

national boundary. IHRM assists organizations to best utilize their HR in the international

context. Since multinational activities are involved in HRM, it is believed that IHRM is

more complex than domestic HRM. In the South African context, employees come from

different backgrounds and experiences; it is more difficult to manage them in a

multinational corporation MNC than if they were all in the same country.

Internationalization impose a movement in the direction of standardization of pay,

working conditions and management systems in MNCs, including HRM, the influence of

local culture, institutional arrangements and labour market practices. A model was

developed by the authors and is recommended for use by South African HR practitioners.

Bowra, Sharif (2012)The main endeavor of this study is to examine the relationship and

nature of relationship between the employee perceived performance and human resource

(HR) practices (compensation, performance evaluation, and promotion practices) in the

banking sector of Pakistan. Survey of 235 banking personnel was conducted through

personally administrated questionnaire to investigate the impact of HR practices on

employees’ perceived performance. The relationship and nature of relationship is

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calculated by applying the Spearman’s correlation matrix and multiple regression

analysis. The Spearman’s correlation results demonstrate that, the employee perceived

performance and HR practices has the positive and significant relationship. The

regression results indicate that the two HR practices: performance evaluation and

promotion practices are significant but the compensation practices are not significant.

Moreover, this study provides help for top-management of banking sector to design or

revise their HR policies and make practices to attain high employee performance.

Roche & Teague (2011) The research conducted in this study reveals the advent of HR

functions that have commonly avoided radical reconfiguration or depletion of resources

and that have gained new influence as ‘business partners’, mainly on foot of a ‘hard’ HR

agenda dictated by primarily short-term responses to acute commercial challenges. The

basis of HR’s new-found centrality to business is manifestly the increased dependency of

firms on HR expertise and knowledge in successfully introducing controls or reductions

in areas like pay and headcount and related changes in working-time regimes and work

practices.

This new centrality however, does not appear to have commonly translated into

leadership with respect to HR strategy over the medium to long-term, nor into strong

advocacy regarding the pivotal role of many ‘soft’ HR practices in harnessing

commitment and engagement for sustainable business success.

Few instances were reported in the focus groups or case studies (Ericsson was an

exception) where HR managers were active in positioning HR practices, systems or

processes to support business revival over the medium or long-term. Where such an

instance was identifiable, for example in the Ericsson case study, the strategic focus of

the HR function preceded the recession. Where HR managers have become influential as

a result of the recession, it cannot be inferred with any confidence that they will remain

influential when more normal business conditions return.

Boedker et. al.(2011) This research report aims to open up the ‘black box’ of

management and provides insights into the leadership, culture and management practices

that higher performing workplaces deploy and benefit from. It also illustrates the

productivity and profitability benefits that accrue to higher performing workplaces. It is

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part of a 2.5 year project funded by the Department of Education, Employment and

Workplace Relations to the Society for Knowledge Economics in December, 2009. It

shows that HPWs consistently outperform the rest both in regards to managing their

intangible assets and their productivity and profitability.

Thite & Wilkinson (2011) The rapid rise of multinational Corporations (MNCs) from

emerging economies has led to greater interest and urgency in developing a better

understanding of the deployment and diffusion of managerial strategies from their

perspective and without assuming the prevailing Western ethnocentric orthodoxy. This

paper develops a conceptual framework of global HR strategies and practices in MNCs

from emerging economies across their subsidiaries in both developed and developing

markets. Using data from a pilot study of an Indian MNC, it provides insights and

guidance into the motives, strategic opportunities and constraints in cross national

transfer of HR policies and practices in a multi-polar world.

The year 2008 has been a year of transition, with the global economic recession affecting

businesses across the globe.” The pharmaceutical industry, although comparatively less

affected, has metamorphosed in terms of bifurcating business units, rationalizing

operations, restructuring certain jobs, etc. Earlier, the role of HR personnel mainly

involved recruiting talent, but today, it is more about retaining it,” says, Saloni Vora.

Hanif Khaki (2006) is of the view that, today human resources management is opening

up new avenues around the world. Thus the demand for experienced human resource has

increased. Today businessmen have understood the value of hiring professionals with

experience working in HR. The companies have learned the importance of good relations

with their workforce. The fact is that Human Resource Management exists just for this

purpose –to bridge the gap between employee and employer. The company which does

not realizes the importance of its human resource cannot progress. The employee also

likes an organization which cares for them and rewards their services accordingly.

Examples of this begin at the most basic level of appreciation. Certificates of recognition

awarded on a monthly, bi-yearly, or even yearly basis, for instance, are all that many

employees wish. Likewise, health benefits are probably the second most important factor,

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besides financial benefits which is always welcomed by the employee. The HR

department is generally very open for such aspects in the workspace.

Rosenberg, Marc J. (2006) discusses that training organizations, will have to focus far

more on the workplace rather than just the theoretical knowledge, and learning should be

such to help people on the job. Training organizations will have to become more

diversified in their approach. They will need to find new technologies and approaches for

training organizations formal and informally. It is essential to focus on how the processes

and tools of work can be made easier, from the start. He says, “Only these things will

help in sustaining good performance of the employees. While traditional e-learning and

associated technologies are important, practitioners have often been too quick to embrace

them, especially to solve current problems—a "cure all" mentality—without considering

what future challenges and consequences might be. We should think of e-learning and

learning technology as enablers, not as a strategy. It’s the highway, not the destination;

the means rather than the ends.”

Sheth Hiral (2005) did a global IBM study on human capital that provided a deep insight

into the issues related to HR practices. A surprising trend that emerged demonstrated a

disparity in HR practices between upcoming and developing markets. He observed that

the human resource team is more active and takes care of employee needs in an emerging

or upcoming market than in a maturing or developing market. In a maturing market, the

HR function became more institutionalized i.e. more tilted towards the organizational

needs and less focused on the individual employee. According to the study, the build

strategy is a better option in the long term, than buy talent strategy. However a balance

between the two is the best approach. It was found in the study that companies that

invested in building talent, has higher profits per employee as compared to organizations

who buy talent. Moreover, the study also pointed out that organizations, which buy talent

tend to face many problems. Thus it may be concluded that the build talent strategy is

better for the long term.

John Simmons (2003) laid emphasis on the need for balancing performance,

accountability and equity in stakeholder relationships by pursuing socially responsible

HR practice. The paper uses stakeholder analysis to examine issues of performance,

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accountability and equity in organizations; and to analyze the relationship with more

socially responsible HR practice. Its theme is that effective governance can be reconciled

with social responsibility, and that incorporating stakeholder views in HR systems

enhances organization performance and commitment.

Bowen et al (2002) conducted a study of various countries on the role and importance

assigned to human resource management in an organization. The study was conducted on

different dimensions such as firstly how the status of HRM departments varies (e.g.,

perceptions of its importance and involvement). Second, on whether there is cross-

country strategic HRM (SHRM) in terms of the conventional contingency approach

(linking HRM practices to strategy), as well as a resource-based view of the firm (e.g.,

developing organizational capability as competitive advantage). The results of the study

showed significant differences in HRM status across countries, significant correlations

between status and organizational capability, and in Asian countries, a slight tendency for

HRM practices to be linked more to a differentiation strategy, whereas, in Anglo

countries, a strong linkage between HRM practices and organizational capability.

Hiltrop (2002) evaluated the HRM practices of Multinational organizations i.e. those

organizations which operates in more than one country. This article differentiates

between multinational and domestic companies and also compared and contrasted the

HRM practices of multinational companies. The conclusions drawn from the study help

to understand what strategies multinational companies adopt to attract talent, its retention

and how to motivate people and how this varies between industries and nationalities of

the corporate parent.

Sheppeck and Militello (2000) were of the view that over a period of time organizations

from stable operating configurations (patterns) which has a bearing on their

organizational effectiveness. These configurations are affected by factors like operating

environment, business strategy, HRM practices, and senior manager’s values and

behaviour regarding employees. However, once established, the configurations or

patterns guide employee behavior, there resistant to change, and are associated with

different levels of organization effectiveness.

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Gravett Linda (2004), in her view, “strategic planning is not a one-time event, but rather

it’s an ongoing process that must be fluid to address the changing environment in which

the organization exists.” Strategic planning is future oriented, with a vision for a period of

about three or five years so that there is enough time to set goals, carry them out and

analysis the results. The purpose, then, for establishing a strategic plan is to: decide

where the department will continue over the specified timeframe, prepare an action plan-

specifying where the organization wants to go, help the staff focus on the truly important

activities, access the requirements of required resources needed to accomplish the

objectives followed by a plan to acquire unavailable resource for ensure that the

objectives defined achieved.

Lou Adler (2005) diagnosed that ‘root because analysis’ method should be used to hire

efficient employees. Root cause analysis is a method of going deep into the real cause of

the problem rather than relying on superficial information. Generally Companies want to

employ efficient and more proactive candidates. For this, these companies offer good

compensation packages and other benefits to attract and retain these employees. But

when root cause analysis was used it was found that problem is not compensation, in

order to employ good candidates, the scope of job should be increased, in other words his

job should be enriched i.e. it should provide more challenges and opportunities.

Therefore, root cause analysis tries to understand the problem in depth & then find

solution accordingly.

Scott Weston (2003) studied use six sigma in Recruiting. A sigma is a mathematical

symbol for what is known as standard deviation. In this case it is used as a statistical term

that measures how much a process varies from perfection based on the number of defects

per million units. It provides a clear design or framework to help an organization a

process of improvement fully right from start till the end. He opined that some areas of

recruiting are more art than science; therefore, it can definitely be applied to the sourcing

and selection processes in recruiting. If these areas can be measured, so can improvement

to them. It is based on training of its participants and these are referred as green belt,

black belt, and master belt to indicate a level of training, capability and their respective

roles in implementing the six sigma methodology. It is almost similar to TQM

improvement method. The resources include both financial and manpower commitments

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and will often entail an additional budget investment to reap the rewards in the future.

Therefore six sigma involves a lot of time and manpower cost but does gives very good

results.

Pearse Robert F (2003) analyzed that knowing and understanding organizational culture

is very important for succeeding in a career. For reaching the top position in the

organization this knowledge of culture is very important. But this is easier said than done.

For the success of the career it is important to have information about the organization

culture. Especially those managers who wants frequent promotions knows what kind of

behavior is most appreciated in each culture. After understanding the important role of

organizational culture helps personals to maximize their potential. He suggested that we

should know our culture and manage it accordingly. The tough guy organizational

culture, the work hard/play hard organizational culture model, the bet-the –company

model, organizational culture and the bureaucratic organizational culture model were

recommended by him in his study.

Jacobson Ralph (2006) in his research paper he has emphasized that the most widely

used and an effective tool for performance appraisal as perceived by human resource

professional is 360-degree competency assessment process. The issues involved with the

360-degree assessment include the determination of competencies, interpretation of

results and subsequent efforts to use the data to create development plans. These are

simpler, most cost effective and more powerful methods for providing feedback that are

more likely to improve individual and organizational performance. The 360-degree

involves giving a list of competencies and a set of behavioral anchors to co-workers and

managers to use in evaluating performance. They are then asked to check their level of

agreement. Two clear issues emerge with this method of assessment since 5-8 people are

involved, one or two answers have a significant impact on the averaged score for that

item. Secondly, it is difficult to specify the context in which they expect particular

competencies to be exhibited. He stated that the purpose of competency assessment

should be to pinpoint and develop those few critical competencies that yield

extraordinary and disproportionate performance. He mentioned about some feedback

alternatives: providing direct feedback and using leadership tools. According to him the

direct feedback approach actively involves the employee and all critical stakeholders in

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the improvement process. The leader’s toolbox approach skips the diagnostic assessment

completely and instead provides a common language for leadership at all levels, as well

as many management and leadership tools to more directly achieve bottom line

improvement.

Masthan et al (2005) in their research on performance management concluded that any

economy requires more performance-based organizations for its development. Better

performance means, achieving higher productivity with limited resources- a fewer

people, lesser costs and time. In a dynamic environment, the organizations, for their

survival and growth, need to focus attention in scaling up in performance. For which,

they need to understand the key factors that influence performance. These factors are

quality innovation, productivity with quality, low cost and quality, better people

practices, collaborative leadership and learning culture.

Beatty et al. (2005) in their book that is based on research from 1850 individuals

organized in 265 teams from industry and academic in both public and private sectors,

recommend building smart teams for high performance. According to their book, there

are three critical processes and skill sets that a team needs. Teams must devote sufficient

time and energy to developing effective team management practices, problem solving

abilities and conflict- handling processes to work effectively together. Team management

practices refer to task processes, social processes and commitment of members to

complete the task on schedule in their study. According to them, good team practices

should include explanation of purpose and goals followed by roles and responsibilities

and then norms and protocols. Teams with strong problem solving skills should have

effective inter personal skills. Team members should work hard and understand each

other for effective communication and better decision-making. In conflict handling, team

members should not avoid thorny issues but have a strategy in place to deal with the

problems. They should work to identify and understand the underlying issues and to deal

with them effectively. The team effectiveness gap analyzer in their study would provide

an overall assessment to both what is in good shape and where the gaps need to be

bridged so that high performance can be practices in organizations.

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Ashton Chris (2004) studied transforming strategic performance through the balanced

scorecard and observed that it provides senior management with a high level depiction of

what needs to be done, if the organization is to deliver to its strategy. CEO conviction to

champion scorecard deployment and senior management team buy-in-to derive the

process. Using the scorecard as a strategy map to link vision, strategic themes, strategic

objectives and operational measures through cause-effect relationships. The vision is the

roof, strategic themes are the pillars and the foundation comprises the people and

technology dimensions.

Brown Chris (2003) studied the systems that aim to improve workforce performance. He

opines that an appraisal system should have the full support of senior management.

Without this, the system will eventually collapse. The appraisal system should first have

been piloted and then reviewed and the intentions of the appraisal system should be

clearly communicated to all staff. All staff should have training in appraisal techniques.

Interviewing skills, giving feedback and objective setting are all elements that require

training to be carried out effectively. The system should enable all staff to have clearly

established aims and objectives that are linked with the business strategy. The appraisal

system should follow a cycle of defining the performance that is required, measuring and

evaluating it, giving feedback and sharing information with other parts of the

organization. The system should have simple and easily understood documentation

supporting it. It should not be a part of the standard disciplinary procedures of the

company, be adaptable and encompass all levels of staff in the organization, must be

subject to ongoing monitoring, review, evaluation and updating.

Hal Richman & Wiggenhorn William (2006) are of the view that emerging markets,

which have a strong economic growth trajectory and market opportunity, are of great

interest to large multinational corporations and other organizations with an international

presence. But there is a lot of leadership talent waiting to be developed in these markets,

and a lot of risk if this development doesn’t occur.

Abraham Samuel (2002) observed in his study that new employment philosophy calls

for career resilience, with a view to merge individual interest and company needs. While

presenting a new paradigm for career management in his study he examined that one of

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the most difficult jobs HR managers have in any industry is the idea of how to provide a

blueprint for career progression for the employees. He found out that organizations that

will thrive in the new reality are those that are filled with employees who have the option

to leave, but choose to stay; those that fail will be populated by employees who are only

there because they are afraid to go elsewhere.

Hyde and Pethe (2005) opine that, in management, the current era is the era of Human

Resource Development and Employee Involvement. The modern approach to

management ensures employee involvement and empowerment. Employees and

management admit that many obstacles to achieve organizational goals can be overcome

by employees themselves if they are provided the necessary tools and authority to do so.

There is a direct relationship between the concept of employee involvement and

employee empowerment and organizational growth and development. The present study

seems to be an attempt to explore the impact and relationship between the HRD climate,

empowerment and organizational citizenship behavior in private and government

organizations.

Daniels Aubrey (2003) in his study on how do you appease your employees after you

fire their favorite co-worker explains that it is always difficult to terminate employees

under any condition, but it is especially difficult when the person has good peer relations

with the remaining employees. For that reason, such terminations are usually done

poorly. That is to say that employers take way too long to make the decision or they wait

until the problem is so severe that everyone is in agreement that the person must go. Not

only is this devastating to the employee who is terminated, but it also usually results in

less confidence in leadership with the remaining employees. The most common

complaint of unfair treatment in the workplace comes from management's failure to deal

with poor work behavior and poor performance. Good performers, in particular, don't like

when management tolerates this type of behavior. Good performers are often called on to

take on tasks that poor performers don't get done or do poorly. Be vigilant for

opportunities to positively reinforce good work habits and good performance, but don't

hesitate to apply negative sanctions when the behavior warrants it.

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2.2 RECENT STUDIES IN HR PRACTICES IN INDIAN CONTEXT

Saleena Khan, Bhawna Chahar (2010) in the contemporary context, the Indian

management mindscape continues to be influenced by the residual traces of ancient

wisdom as it faces the complexities of global realities. One stream of holistic wisdom,

identified as the Vedantic philosophy, pervades managerial behavior at all levels of work

organizations. This philosophical tradition has its roots in sacred texts from 2000 B.C.

and it holds that human nature has a capacity for self transformation and attaining

spiritual high ground while facing realities of day to day challenges (Lannoy

1971).Human Resource Management has evolved considerably over the past century, and

experienced a major transformation in form and function primarily within the past two

decades. Driven by a number of significant internal and external environmental forces,

HRM has progressed from a largely maintenance unction, to what many scholars and

practitioners today regard as the source of sustained competitive advantage for

organizations operating in a global economy. Some of the factors that contribute to the

evolvement of human resources management are technology, globalization, diversity,

immigration and an aging workforce. In this article, we would be discussing the various

Issues that HR is facing in today’s corporate scenario. A few challenges they have been

able to overcome successfully but a lot of issues still need to be dealt with. We would be

discussing issues HR is facing in the present and some strategies which, if adopted, can

help the HRM to sustain better in the challenging and dynamic scenario.

Ayanda, Sani (2011) This study examines empirically, the influence of ownership-type

and age on the adoption of Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) practices

that have been shown to contribute to organizational effectiveness. The study also

hypothesized that there is no significant difference between the level of strategic HRM

practices adopted by government-owned universities and private universities in Nigeria.

A multi-respondent survey of 29 government-owned universities and 15 private

universities in Nigeria was undertaken and data collected was subjected to regression

analysis and one way analysis of variance as well as descriptive statistics in pursuance of

the stated objectives of determining whether ownership-type and age influence the

adoption of strategic HRM practices in Nigerian universities and if any significant

difference exist between the level of strategic HRM practices adopted by government-

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owned universities and private universities. Results indicate an impressive moderate

adoption of strategic HRM practices in the Nigerian university system and that the extent

of this adoption is mostly a function of whether the university is government-owned or

run by private investors. Results also show that there is indeed a significant difference

between the level of strategic HRM alignment, training and development, career planning

system and employee participation of government-owned universities and private

universities in Nigeria. The study, therefore, recommends amongst others that

universities should improve its integration of HRM practices into their overall operations

and strategies and that private universities should be encouraged to adequately plan for

the career development of its employees as well as giving them adequate opportunities to

participate in taking strategic as well as tactical decisions affecting their work

environment.

Baral1, Bhargava (2011) Work-life balance has become a subject of concern for both

research scholars and business leaders in view of the contemporary demographic,

technological, market, and organizational changes associated with it. However, there has

been little academic attempt to provide a holistic picture of work-life balance benefits and

programmes (WLBPs) offered by various organizations in India. With the basis of extant

literature, primary and secondary data, the present paper has made an effort to understand

the current status of WLBPs in Indian organizations and to identify its future prospects.

The paper has discussed the challenges for effective implementation of such policies,

which can help HR managers to be cautious before introducing WLBPs in their

respective organizations. Analysis of literature and available data suggests that family-

friendliness of employers in India have been reflected in various welfare provisions

which has been a matter of concern for employers since industrialization. With time, the

scope and coverage of such initiatives have broadened and have become more individual

growth and family well-being oriented. However, these policies and practices are more

prominent in new economy organizations such as software and services organizations.

Moreover, the range of WLBPs varies across organizations and there is still a long way to

go when WLBPs will become strategic HR initiatives in most organizations. The paper

suggests that organizations need to incorporate WLBPs and encourage a culture that

support utilizing them to ensure employee commitment and productivity. While

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introducing WLBPs, congruence between employee needs and organizational values also

should be considered.

Khans (2012) in recent years, emerging market economies (EMEs) are increasingly

becoming a source of foreign investment for rest of the world. It is not only a sign of their

increasing participation in the global economy but also of their increasing competence.

More importantly, a growing impetus for change today is coming from developing

countries and economies in transition, where a number of private as well as state-owned

enterprises are increasingly undertaking outward expansion through foreign direct

investments (FDI). Companies are expanding their business operations by investing

overseas with a view to acquiring a regional and global reach.

SHARMA (2010) This study has tested empirically the differences of significant

importance of e-recruitment practices associates responses for organization type,

organizational size and respondent category; impact of e-recruitment on quality, wider

choice, time and cost in hospitality and healthcare sector, large and small size, and HR

Managers and employees; and differences of significant importance of quality, wider

choice, time and cost between HR Managers and employees. The results as presented for

the differences of significant importance of e-recruitment practices associate’s responses

for organization type, organizational size and respondent category imply that e-

recruitment practices have significant differences across organizational size and

respondent’s category. In contrast, Organization type pays equal importance to e-

recruitment.

Suman Shikha (2006) studied the knowledge athletes in organizations. She observed that

technical specialists become the backbone of new technology in the enterprise.

Successful companies create competitive advantage in the marketplace through

innovation and creativity. They effectively manage their human resources to create and

market new products and services. Human resource management strategies have the

potential to fuel innovation and creativity in the organization. The four dimensions in

which the HRM strategies that can push innovation and creativity are: human resource

planning – it involves multidisciplinary approach to new product development that help

in finding right people and overshadowing the cost incurred in the lengthy recruitment

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process. Performance appraisal- it includes not just rewarding the good employees and

punishing the bad ones but also helping the marginal performers. Self-policing and peer

control mechanisms are encouraged in favor of superior subordinate evaluations. Reward

system – the companies provide their employees with freedom to conduct R&D, freedom

to fail, and to run their own new ventures. The motive is to maximize productivity and

minimize turnover. The challenge lies in balancing team rewards with individual rewards.

Managing employee’s careers – employees are continually educated and trained in

different skills to provide them a well-rounded professional experience. When the

companies review these four principles there is little that’s new or earth shaking but that

is the nature of HRM. Finally work is the primary motivator. It recognizes how important

HRP is and performance management for R&D personnel, it recognizes that the

professional and institutional recognition should go hand in hand and that the laboratory

head’s role is much more than simply to inspect the work of his or her researchers.

Innovation has as much to do with the environment that is created as the creative types

that are employed.

Ramesh T (2005) studied the changes occurring in the field of human resource

management in today’s era. He observed that today’s competitive business climate

presents the HRM function with a number of important challenges and opportunities –

dramatic advances in technology, in recruiting, selection, training, appraisals, rewards

and other human resource practices. In his study, he observed that HR functions are

concerned with a variety of activities that significantly influence almost all areas of an

organization and aim at the organization fulfilling its employment, carrying out job

analysis, planning to meet their requirement, providing training facilities and

implementing organizational development programmes. The success of HRD in an

organization depends to a large extent on the existence of a favorable HRD climate a

combination of various factors such as openness, team spirit, trust, autonomy,

cooperation, integrity, recognition, participation, fair compensation, counseling, problem

solving, valuing the assets, and respect for the individual. There are two main ways of

human capital management practice that might enhance performance. Firstly, through

raising the skill base of employees– appropriate recruitment and retention,

comprehensive training and broad– based departmental activity. Secondly, through

enhancing employee motivation and ability to use their skills through measures such as

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design of reward systems, participative problem solving and team work. Having capital,

an asset of any organization, is a function of people management and is all about having

an objective view on the deliverables that professionals can create. And in no case can we

replace it with figures and logarithms. It is the human intellect, human energy and human

inventiveness, which accomplish excellence for the firm. If a company wishes to make

purposeful trade– off, it must create radical decentralization and give autonomy to the

employees. A good HR leader can always turn the worst to the best because he/she can

really get the employees to work and motivate them to perform better. Getting the

employees to work and to give their best requires an EI quotient assessment. This would

result in better conflict resolution skills, better understanding of others and more pro–

social strategies in inter– personal solving.

Padhi Nayantara (2005) reviewed strategic human resource management and studied

that it bridges the gap between business strategy and HRM. It focuses on the integration

of HR with business and its environment. According to her, SHRM has become topical in

recent years but the definitions, reason of integrating business strategy and HRM, and the

process of integration widely vary. Organizations are changing and adopting new ways

along with new intensities. Parallel to these changes, and inspiring or legitimating them is

a body of ideas of a various and complex nature known as SHRM. Managers need to

realize its importance and try to link HRM with organizational strategy and performance.

The key functions associated with this concept are- integration of HRM with business

policies and plans, HR deployments, exploring people’s capabilities and matching them

with business strategies, capacity building, organizational learning and commitment.

Reddy Sumati (2005) opines that businesses are faced with intense competitive

pressures. Hence, this requires them to continually develop their competencies to respond

to the ever-changing market forces. One solution is to develop collaborative work system

built around teams. Teams are an innovative way of resolving business-related

challenges. Organizations can choose to formulate a team, which best suits, its

requirement. Teamwork brings astounding results. The business imperative to deploy

teams in response to the need to retain competitiveness has led organizations to evaluate

team productivity vis-à-vis individual productivity. Teamwork brings several advantages

to organizations. It can “ensure survival, amidst business uncertainties and intense

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competition”. Teamwork is also ideal for “product innovation” in an environment, which

can render a product obsolete in shorter time frame with respect to product innovation,

however the process itself is time- consuming and expensive in terms of resource

involved. Teams can, nevertheless, be effectively employed to achieve “efficient and

cost-effective product design processes”. Wars have been won through effectively

coordinated teamwork and singular focus on team goals. Teams work in animal kingdom

as well. Not only do human beings practice teamwork, but also so do different species of

animals, which rely on teamwork to ensure their survival. Hence, teams have been tested

and found to be successful in several businesses. Organizations which invest the time and

effort to built team– based systems as a parallel structure to the existing structure are the

ones who will benefit in the long– run.

Pal Som (2005) studied HRD in larger context that how we can develop the emerging

workforce. His study focuses on how corporate, educational institutions, research bodies,

training and development organization and the government, can co-ordinate and co-

operate to train and develop a graduate in this phase for taking on work roles effectively

in the corporate world. It discusses what the corporate world looks for in fresh graduates,

and the type and quality of training needed for fitting well into the corporate world. It

provides a framework of developing a talented pool of human capital and looks at how

constructivist psychology can help in the development and implementation of the

framework.

Shantaram M.R. (2005) examined a case on human resources issues in information

technology (IT). His case describes the problems of the IT industry in general. It covers

issues of redundancy and retraining due to changing technologies, issues of different sets

of employees gaining and loosing relative importance. It highlights challenges created

when a set of people are in short supply due to many companies chasing them. Issues

arising out of rapid fire hiring by different departments, like parity dissatisfaction, HR

costs are also highlighted. Further the case touches upon how a negative culture is created

by certain functions especially for training and development. Finally the case raises

questions about the approaches to monitoring.

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Sharma Devinder, (2003), Human Resource Development, have explained the

successful implementation of a suitable HRD programme is crucial to the success of

many organizations and to the self development of its managers and employees. The

book highlight; the role of managers in HRD; the variety of approach to HRD; ways of

building learning into the management process; how to deal with the team conflict and

the notion of virtual team situations; how to manage change.

Nivedita Kothiyal (2005) developed a model investigating human resource management

(HRM) practices as antecedents of perceived organizational support (POS) and tested

with the help of responses received from a sample of 277 executives from an Indian

Pharmaceutical Organization. The results of the study suggest that fairness of

performance appraisal and career development are highly significant predictors of POS.

Realistic job preview, and satisfaction with benefits are also significant predictors of

POS. The findings are not surprising as these practices are more a part of the

discretionary action taken by the supervisors as agents of the organization. Training has

no significant explanatory influence on POS. A reason for this finding could be that

training conducted in the organization, particularly in the manufacturing unit was more a

part of good manufacturing practices (GMP) as required by external accreditation

agencies. Therefore, employees may not have perceived it as a discretionary action taken

up the organization. The perceptions on realistic job preview, fairness of performance

appraisal, career development, training, and satisfaction with benefits were measured.

Results suggest that perceptions of these practices have significant correlations in the

positive direction with POS. Also, except for perceptions on training, all the other

variables contributed significantly to the development of POS. Tenure with the

organization was the only demographic variable that contributed significantly to the

development of POS. The statistical method used was regression.

Srivastava V N and Ghosh K (2005) hold the opinion that even after more than a

decade of the changed economic environment, a large number of high performing

enterprises have become low performing; many of them have been struggling to survive

and some have faced closure also. The arrival of many world class organizations with

higher order experience levels has severely threatened many of the so-called high

performing Indian organizations with lower order experience levels and has put their total

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survival at stake. The state of affairs in state government departments also has not been

very sound. Widespread frustrations and demoralizations have been found among the

state employees. Today, the organizations are looking towards HR to make them more

competitive and come out of the red by successfully meeting the challenge. State

government departments also undertook HRD planning and implementations at the

instance of the World Bank in the World Bank funded projects in the health, forestry and

other social development sectors. The paper discusses the HR needs in the present

context, the HR perspective, some experiences of developing HRD plan in the forest

departments in two states in India, the critical business areas and a few HR challenges

that can really help achieving transformations.

Palekar Padmaja (2006) in his study emphasized that outsourcing of recruitment and

selection has picked up pace, essentially in IT industry. But outsourcing all the activities

involved in the recruitment process does not provide a competitive advantage because of

inherent problems associated with it i.e. inefficiencies because contractors lack firm

specific knowledge and engage in opportunistic behavior. But there are advantages too,

such as, reduction of cost by provision of economies of scale and increase in incentives

and accountability. Hence, he observed that effective recruitment processes ensure that

the right people are matched with right roles in the organization. He also observed in his

study that the two most commonly outsourced activities in organizations were

transactional and administrative HR functions.

Rajan Susy (2005) opines that mentoring is a one to one non-judgmental relationship in

which an individual voluntarily gives time, support and courage to one another.

Mentoring represents a powerful form of management. It is a process to increase

visibility of skill and talent in ones organization. It is a process of learning from the

senior persons within the company who are actual “ropes of organizational life”.

Objectives of mentoring include improvement in study skills such as instructing specific

skills and knowledge that are very critically linked with job performance, building self-

confidence, time management, communication skills and providing important insights

into the corporate affairs. There is a wholesome benefit to almost all the parties involved

in the process. For the mentee, mentoring can improve self-confidence, self-esteem,

increase motivation, broaden horizons and experience, and raise achievements along with

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aspiration levels. For mentors, there is the opportunity to develop skills & understanding

as part of their personal development, to feel valued and to contribute something back to

the community. For mentoring to be effective, each organization has to draw up a

mentoring camp or programme that fits its company’s culture and answers the needs of

its employees. A well planned and managed mentoring programme will definitely

provide the opportunity needed for any person to learn, develop and work to his or her

potential. At the individual level, it allows them to discuss confusing, perplexing or

ambiguous situations and their innermost feelings and emotions with someone they can

trust and respect. The mentor needs to be competent. He should have good

communication, genuine interest in the mentee, commitment, clarity of goals and good

sense of humor.

Muralidharan T (2005) examined corporate ethics that could be extended to the process

of recruitment. There must be some set of rules to be followed and more importantly the

recruiting company should abide by these rules to ensure that there is no malpractice at

any side. The author says that behind every attrition, there is recruitment. i.e. whenever

an employee leaves an organization in hurry, he is sure to join any other organization.

Corporate sector has clear guidelines on corruption, sexual harassment and even

competition spying. But when it comes to framing policies for recruitment they turn a

blind eye to patently unfair and unethical trade practices. The author suggests that to

avoid such instances, the top 10 IT and BPO corporate should get together and follow the

following set of rules while hiring: No recruitments without retrieving letter or providing

proof of serving the notice period, corporates should not hire anyone who has spent less

than one year in his current organization. The logic is formed as the basis of recovering

recruitment costs and obviously the doubtful loyalty to the hiring organization, no

headhunting should be encouraged, corporates should not bail out the prospective

employee commitments such as employment bonds etc.

Sreekanth (2004), His study explains about the employees’ engagement and retention in

an organization. According to him, the employees can be retained for a longer time by

sensitizing them with relative value of the employment offer. It depends upon the ability

of manager to understand, predict and control the attrition in the organization, as

compensation and other social intervention are not enough to retain talented employees.

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In order to make effective retention plan three factors are really necessary i.e. challenging

work environment, learning opportunities, career growth. He examined that different

folks require different strokes and same folks require different stocks at different point of

time. The challenge for HR organization is the ability to understand these factors and

design dynamic programs/intervention, which have maximum return on investment. His

study gave some interesting recommendations for high attrition rate. If permanent

attrition is to be avoided then the organization should undergo proper planning, it should

focus on lead time reduction, multi- skill/ cross skill development and move from people

dependency to process focus.

Kalyani (2004) studied the benefits of online recruitment. He says that clerical work has

significantly reduced, information is obtained in a pre- determined and uniform manner,

data can be categorized on various basis, instant feedback such as registration and

acknowledgement can be done, data created can be used for voluminous reports, quicker

communication due to email, progressive impression of company in front of candidates

who apply for jobs and online advertisements have a wider reach and are available all the

time.

Singh P N (2002) examined that good training leads to better organizational results.

Organizations should put their best managers in the training department and should

consider the following points while selecting trainers. Does the candidate understand the

business well? If yes, the trainer is more successful. Does the candidate practice what he

preaches? The effective trainer must be good role model. They should design training

process powerful enough to produce result, target training at key result area, adopt a

training process approach, training must use a process approach to build and maintain

performance improvement, get trainees to complete end of course action plans, use

“Multiphase” training, follow up after training. There are six things that trainer can do to

increase his or her effectiveness: Recognize the type of learning difficulties, identify the

student with learning difficulties, show empathy for student with learning difficulties,

create a learning environment, make accommodation for student with learning difficulties

and provide support for student with learning difficulties.

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Sudhaker. V. S. (2005) refers to training and coaching as emerging HR interventions and

lists the benefits of it as follows: higher return on investment, less stress in the workplace,

removal of fear and lack of confidence, improved personal performance and personal

contribution, increased knowledge and highly developed skills, improved team working,

working relationships with peers, increased job satisfaction and staff retention.

Kumar Ramesh (2005) in his study on the need of training employees in the present-

day scenario focuses on planned development of these programmes. He says that training

is needed when the factors such as potential triggers, negative indicators and external

indicators are in routine. Therefore, training is required- as top-level managers, senior

managers of various functional areas and supervisors of other grades would otherwise be

seriously affected. Hence there is a need to explore new ways and methods to determine

the exact training needs to provide the right training to the right person. Planned

development programmes will return values to the organization in shape of increased

productivity, heightened morale, reduced cost, greater organizational stability and

flexibility to adapt to changing external requirements.

Chaudhuri Manodip Ray (2004) his study focuses on employee training and its

importance in the future. The essentials in training are to match employee specification

with the job requirement and organizational need. It is also for coping with technological

advances and to improve human relations. He examined some priority areas in today’s

training agenda; leadership management training, technical training, custom- designed

training for specific needs, teamwork and problem solving training, workplace security/

safety training, sexual harassment prevention training, conflict resolution training and

quality control/ quality management training. No matter where, when, why, how and

from whom the training program is conducted, an effective training exercise must be a

teaching method that advocates principles and practices of learning as its core focus.

Srikanth K. (2004), in his research emphasized on the fact that the productivity of an

organization is dependent on occupational health and employee well being. In turn, the

well being of an employee is a function of various factors like organizational psychology,

job security, work hours, control at work, and managerial style. His study analyzes the

various factors that affect the employee’s state of being. It has looked at the

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consequences of workplace changes, particularly their impact at both the individual

employee level and the organizational level. The focus was on four major areas in

organizational psychology. Job security: Organizations are increasingly utilizing

contingent workers as an alternative to conventional full-time employees. His research

clearly suggests that perceived job insecurity is bad for employee well being. This, in

turn, can impact organizations through increased sickness absence. Given the reported

increase in perceived job insecurity, organizations need to consider the financial costs

associated with those employees who are reluctant to be working in jobs, which they

perceive to be insecure. Work hours: There has been an increase in the use of workdays

or work shifts longer than 8 hours. Some schedules compress the workweek so that 36-48

hours is completed in 3-4 days instead of five. In terms of actual weekly work hours,

some countries have reduced work time whilst in others it has been extended. The

increase in work hours in some countries is in part due to the trend for restructuring and

downsizing in many organizations. There exists a relationship between prolonged work

hours and employees mental and physical ill health. Changes in work time schedules

shows that prolonged work hours and work shifts have detrimental effects on employee

well being. Where extended work shift schedules are to be implemented, these must be

carefully evaluated and appropriate precautions made to reduce work overload and

environmental exposure to chemicals and other hazards. Control at work: many

employees have perceived a gradual loss of control over their work lives and careers over

these years. The concept of perceived autonomy or control has been extensively

investigated in his research. Managerial style: increased managerial pressure can also

impact employee well being. In an investigation of organizational management style,

there are greater levels of perceived stressors (underutilization of skills and job overload)

for employees in a traditional organization compared to those working under a more

democratic management style. A negative management style can exacerbate stress levels

for managers if their behavior results in deterioration in an employee’s work performance

or attitude towards them. Organizations should raise awareness amongst their managers

of the importance of providing support for their employees.

Sumalata B (2004) examined outsourcing of training and development in various

organizations. She observed that as the outsourcing market matures, it is expected that

firms will gain considerable competitive advantage. Training BPO has proven a powerful

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strategy that can help companies create this competitive advantage. Advantages of out

sourcing training are that it allows a company to focus on its core business or core

competencies, it benefits the company in accessing the world class solutions, a good BPO

has many cost effective characteristics the basis of which are efficiency and cost

management and the ability to vary service level with customer demand. She studied the

following two approaches to outsource the HR functions: One is for external resources

known as replacement strategy and the second is for internal resources.

Kodwani Amitabh (2004) in his study on training and return on investment thereof

focuses that constant up- gradation of new skill; knowledge and technology are essential

weapons in the competitive struggle. New technology cannot be acquired and

implemented successfully without training. The value-added by giving proper training

and the losses incurred due to inadequate training are too high, which cannot be ignored.

The net value of training increases with wider dissemination throughout the organization.

Evaluation of T & D has mainly two basic objectives i.e. assessing training effectiveness

and using it as a training aid. He studied that the primary objective of evaluation is to

improve training processes in order to achieve stated objectives (to sort out the good

training from the bad). Since ‘evaluation’ affects ‘learning’, it could also be used as a

training aid. He emphasized that one of the basic reasons for evaluating training activities

is because top management people who are funding the training programs are asking for

such evaluation data. Such data not only include indicators of management support, such

as total training investment and the number of man hours spent in training, but also

tangible evidence of the effectiveness of training like successful learning, improved on-

the-job performance, changes in key business measures, and ROI in terms of profitability.

Seth Meera (2003), in her research on training the top brass examined that leadership is

not just about vision and strategy formulated by top management, but something that

needs to be woven into the very fabric of the organization through realism and rigors in

execution. An attitude of continuous learning and open-mindedness needs to be infused at

all levels. Today, a number of so-called sophisticated analytical decision tools have

become available which mirror real-life that is full of uncertainty and risk. Probabilistic

models with the capacity for numerous simulations of ‘what if’ and ‘what can go wrong’

must take their place alongside time-tested analytical techniques – he emphasized that we

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should not forget that they, too, were considered too sophisticated when they were

introduced, but were gradually accepted through practice.

Sanghi Seema (2003), studied some aspects of training needs and skill requirements of

Indian workforce in the next fifteen years. She observed that workforce has to be multi

skilled. The environmental pressures would increase and people should be prepared both

mentally and with multi skills for a quick shift. She recommended, while educating our

workforce for the global challenges it needs to be trained for: (i) behavioral skills to

change mindset, (ii) Vocational skills related to agriculture and on farm activities, and

off farm activities, (iii) Tourism, films, information and communication, medical

services, construction, fine arts, cottage & small scale, (iv) IT and IT enabled services

and (v) Various languages.

Rao T S R Krishna (2003) examined the learning perspective in training.

According to him, to survive for a long time organizations, big or small have to undergo

learning. The need of the hour is that the learning organizations continually expand the

capacity to be creative and innovative. Learning is the key in being able to both identify

opportunities that others might not see and to exploit these opportunities regularly and

fully. People are more receptive if they are involved in a learning experience, which is

interactive and fun. The players in the learning game soon become stimulated and start

developing ideas. This results in new skills and concepts getting absorbed quite fast. A

trainer must excite and direct the learner’s self motivation. People learn best through self-

discovery, so they should be put in situations where they are actively involved in the

training sessions. Experience is the best teacher but unfortunately, a private tutor. He

studied that we have to develop a tested tool to solve the conundrum of collective

learning. The training system can play a pivotal role here by being a conduit for sharing

experiences. The method encompasses the belief that learning is most effective when it

involves active participation. This method goes beyond the conceptual framework and

departs from imbibing skills and values. On the other hand, it offers the trainees or the

users an opportunity to absorb and embrace ideas and ideals because they have

themselves experienced them.

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Rao P.L. (2003) suggested training to youngsters while playing games in his study. He

conducted a workshop to bring out professionalism, creativity, group behavior and

adjustment in adults. Games such as the alchemy, group buildup, bomb the city, throwing

the ball and different roles were used for training and development and it was found out

that some adults are only good as heads but their contribution is minimal, some are

selfish and try to corner resources as much as possible, there are some who spoil the

environment like mud and there are quite a few who add value to the group.

Majumdar Shyamal (2005) observed that every year, employees and their immediate

bosses enter into an elaborate gaming exercise called the performance appraisal. Most of

it is just empty form– filling. But every company still goes through the ritual. A good

performance appraisal scheme is the manager’s ability or willingness to give people not

just good news but the news about their weakness that they don’t know. While managers

are focusing on how much money this is going to mean in their pocket. Also, managers

are often forced to be dishonest on appraisals in order to ensure that the employee get

something. They would like to avoid the inevitable confrontation associated with telling

an employee that he merited no increase. He has discussed the ‘Bell curve’ in his study.

His Bell curve theory explains that most employees are in the middle as far as

performance is concerned. There is bunching of excellent performers at the top and the

worst cases at the other end. Managers have to keep this broad picture in mind when they

rate their team members. These kind of artificial structural rigidities often lead to a huge

number of de- motivated people in an organization. Apart from deciding increments,

nothing gets done with the data that HR gets out of it. Companies are unable to take a call

on how many of its people can be posted for new business assignments, what are the

common sets of weaknesses on which employees have to be trained, how to improve the

performance of under performers and so on. Everyone wants to be in the top-performing

bracket, which just cannot happen. Most employees in these companies want a

performance driven culture but are not willing to accept lower performance. If the

management does not have the skill to manage such expectations, the company can only

except to see an ever-growing number of long faces and a rising attrition graph. One

problem is that companies assess people in a certain way at the time of hiring but

differently at appraisal time. This makes process very uncertain.

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Adivarahan (2005) studied that employees performance was measured on certain

parameters by the employee’s supervisor in earlier days. Based on this appraisal system,

employee’s growth was determined and most of the time, employee was not even aware

of his appraisal. In current situation, many organizations have introduced new methods

that are transparent and effective. First is the Balanced Scorecard, where the employee

fixes his own targets and appraises himself. His supervisor approves his high

performance. After this the organizational objectives are set. He also suggested some

methods in current practices. The employees should be educated about job responsibility

and accountability and then the targets levels should be fixed as month by month to

achieve organizational objectives. Another method is 360-degree appraisal where an

employee is appraised by his friends, official people and family. Official environment

includes immediate supervisors, co- workers, customers, suppliers etc. Friends’

environment includes school/ college friends, friends in same department, other friends.

Family environment includes family members, relatives etc. All these environments are

in contact with each other to get the true picture of employee’s performance by these

groups. Friends’ environment reveals the fair picture of employee’s nature and true

performance, as they know him better. Feedback from family also improves the

productivity, as they are able to point out weaknesses better than others. All these are the

methods being adopted by organizations nowadays to measure and evaluate the

performance of employees. This gives motivation and encouragement to them but if not

practiced in smooth way can lead to problems also. Performance appraisal is the indicator

that may be communicated to the employee and based on this employee growth for a

particular period is determined. Growth includes increment, promotions, feedback etc.

The parameters related to 360 degree vary from organization to organization, individual

to individual, department to department and position to position. Similar is the case with

BSC. It is more important that HR people constantly look for any good procedure or

process for the improvement of the organization or individual.

Kumar and Sinha (2005) According to their research business performance may be used

for a variety of purposes including decision-making, financial control and executive

remuneration. Companies have been measuring costs, quality, quantity, cycle time,

efficiency, productivity, etc of products, services and processes. They studied that

performance measurement systems play a key role in developing strategy, evaluating the

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achievement of organizational objectives and compensating managers. Their research

emphasizes on the emerging trends in corporate performance management and highlights

some of the best practices. Companies are focusing on stakeholders to ensure they pay

attention to all the important facets of performance, more recently; the concept of the

multiple stakeholders has come to the force. Companies can no longer be satisfied with

only considering shareholders and customers. Employees are also seen as important

stakeholders; as are suppliers, government and the community at large and these

stakeholders need to be incorporated into the performance measurement system.

Srinivasan Vasanthi (2005) reviewed William’s book titled “Performance Management”

that gives account of three PM model:

� A system for managing organizational performance

� A system for managing employee performance

� A system for integrating management, organization and employee performance.

She observed that the critical drivers of performance culture are the performance

philosophy of the organization and a robust method to drive the planning and goal setting

process in alignment with the organizational performance indicators. There is a great

need for setting goals, process improvements goals and strategic goals. While setting the

goals at the beginning of the year, there is an exception that individual will require

periodic feedback on their performance. The last part of Performance management is

Appraisal. Appraisal provides an opportunity to consolidate the evaluation pertaining to

an individual performance.

Sivaram Y.G. (2004) studied the HR competency model developed by Confederation of

Indian Industry (CII), which mentions about nine behavioral competencies. They are

communication, initiative, drive, creativity, self-confidence, teamwork, influence,

problem-solving and interpersonal skills, these play a key role in any organization. He

studied the objectives of banks and classified them broadly as: earning profits, enhancing

the market share, gaining recognition in providing good customer service, providing

returns to the shareholders, maintaining adequate risk management practices, ensuring

that compliance standards are maintained, ensuring employee development through

training, giving adequate reward to the employees and achieving employee satisfaction.

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Communication helps in generating sustained team excellence and satisfaction that are

crucial ingredients in a working environment. Hence, there is every need to master

proven interpersonal and self-communication techniques. The advantage of strategic

communication is that it not only improves the performance of banks but also facilitates

strengthening of the systems. Banks can use communication for meticulously building

ongoing relationships with all the stakeholders, ranging from customers and staff, to the

general public. He studied that the policy initiatives that are to be taken with regard to

streamlining of banking operations should involve taking steps for reducing transaction

costs, and build flexibility in operations. Banks should take new initiatives in building the

entrepreneurship class and finance such activities that contribute to economic growth.

Policy initiatives should look at up gradation of risk management systems and ensure

higher compliance standards.

Prasad Mohan (2004), while giving his viewpoint about Performance Management said

that it is a strong leverage tool for achieving the business results as every employee’s

focus is going through paradigm shift to Key Result Areas (KRA’s). He says that every

employee should focus on his deliverables. The basic fear, according to him, could be the

strong probabilities of some promises, which we would have made, meant to impress

somebody. He adds the “Honesty to admittance of mistakes pay rich dividends especially

when we show this quality not when our chips are down but when there is scope to make

amends.”

Sharma Shambhavi (2004) in her study on the impact of strategic human resource

management on firm performance observed that Achieving organizational

excellence in today’s competitive era is a continuous process and is a result of

high performance throughout the organization. Effective corporates and processes

are the bedrock of successful organizations, human resource management (HRM)

being the most vital corporate initiative dealing with the ‘Live brand’ of the

organization- its people. Hence, HRM function can no longer be treated as a mere

support function. In most of the leading organizations worldwide, the HRM

function is now being treated as a strategic partner of the organization through,

‘Strategic Human Resource Management Interventions.’ Her study observed the

following approaches to evaluate the HR function and its impact:

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The strategic HR framework: It offers specific tools and paths to identify how a

firm can leverage its HR practices

a) The integrative framework: This framework identifies three paths through,

which HR practices can contribute to business performance: By building

organizational capabilities, by improving employee satisfaction, by shaping

customer and shareholder satisfaction.

b) HRD Scorecard: The HRD scorecard matches business strategy HR

deliverables and objectives to provide a statistical basis by which HR efficiency

and contribution to strategy implementation can be measured.

c) HRD Audit: HRD audit is a process of examining policies, procedure,

documentation system and practices with respect to an organization’s HR

function.

d) Program Evaluation: Program is a systematic process for determining the

merit of alternative activities that have been or are being implemented for the

purpose of selecting a preferred option for future implementation.

e) People Capability Maturity Model: The People Capability Maturity Model

is a road map for implementing workforce practices that continuously improve

the capability of the organization

f) People Process Model: The people process model links individual and team

objectives to business goals.

g) HR Accounting: HR accounting method evaluates sum total of the worth of

the organization to use it in strategic planning as the other assets.

Singh Kuldeep (2003) studied the effect of human resource management practices on the

firm performance in India. He examined that the aim of the human resources in the

organization context is to ensure the availability of competent, motivated and learning

employees to the organization to facilitate the achievement of its business objectives. The

broad objective of his study was to arrive at an understanding of the extent of the

relationship between the HR practices and organizational performance. He explained

about the shift which is taking place in the role of HR function and managers, and this

new role is an active partner along with other functionaries like production, finance,

marketing, etc, which have two implications i.e. it will require HR function and persons

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dealing with it to provide more inputs related to HR and will require HR to demonstrate

those investments in to contribute in business results. Empirically most of the work has

been undertaken to study the relationship HRM practices and firm level outcomes like

productivity, employee turnover and market value which have concluded that employee

participation and empowerment, job redesigning, employee training, etc are widely

believed to improve the performance of the organization. And it has been also found that

the organization effectiveness was associated with capabilities and attributes of HR staff,

and further explained that the relationships between HR management effectiveness and

productivity, cash flow and market value were positive. The results were according to the

HR Practice Index, Profit-Cost Margin, Productivity, Turnover, Return on Capital

Employed and Return on Net Worth. The combined impact of measures of HR practices

was studied by computing coefficient of determinants between index of measures of

HRPI and measures of organizational performance and which indicates an increase in the

use of HR practices is likely to result in the reduction of the employee turnover and also

the increase in the organizational productivity. Organizations can adopt various practices

to develop and enhance employee’s physical capacity, ability, knowledge and skills,

which focus on improving quality of individuals. Indeed, investments in training produce

beneficial organizational outcomes. Further organizations can monitor the development

of desired attitudes and behaviors in employees through the use of the appraisal

mechanisms. The study indicates that Indian organizations are still not convinced of the

fact that investments in human resources can result in higher performance. It has been

also observed that there is variation even in the usage of HR practices among the

organizations. Further HRPI explained a variation in all the measures of objective

organizational performance, which is not higher than the variation accounted for

individual practices which are due to the high degree of relationship among the HR

practices as indicated by the coefficients of correlation. Thus it also implies that

evaluation of HR practices on organizational performance needs to be made at the system

level, i.e. HR practices a system and not the evaluation of individual HR practices

because it is likely to show biased results.

Murty G R K (2003), According to his study, performance management is a systematic

and data oriented approach to managing people at work. It relies on positive

reinforcement as the major way to maximize performance. His research talks about

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different constituents of PM in detail. Job description is the important constituent of PM.

The defined performance standards offer a benchmark to evaluate the actual work

performance. When standards are developed in collaboration with the employees for

whose position they are being developed, it is more likely that the standards will be

appropriate to the requirements of the job & reflect the realities of the work context and

conditions. The next important constituent is observing employee performance. He

suggested some options that can be exercised such as evaluating the output and products

of the employees work, periodically reviewing and discussing with employees their

standard of performance at the job vis-à-vis management expectations and obtaining

feedback from customers. It is a strategic and integrated approach to delivering sustained

success to organizations by improving the performance of the people who work in them

by developing the capabilities of the teams and individual performers.

Jain Pankaj (2006) studied the concept of additional income tax on fringe benefits. He

described fringe benefits as consideration for employment provided by way of: a) any

privilege, service, benefit, facility or amenity, directly or indirectly, provided by an

employer, whether by way of reimbursement or otherwise to his employees including

former employee or employees. b) Any free or concessional ticket provided by the

employer for private journeys of his employees or their family members. c) Any

contribution made by the employer to the superannuating fund for employees. He is of

the opinion that many perquisites are disguised as fringe benefits; neither the employer

nor the employee pays any tax on these benefits.

Chabria Vishal (2006) observed in his study that the fringe benefit tax (FBT) has been a

bone of contention ever since it was included in 2005- 2006 fiscal year’s budget. His

study affirms that FBT is here to stay. The reason is that tax had made the exchequer

richer by few thousands crore in the very first year of imposition. Today FBT has been

softened in the following areas, superannuating fund, airlines and shipping industries,

transport expenses under sales and promotion publicity head.

Aarti (2001) has opinion, that stress can adversely affect organizations in a plethora of

ways ranging from increased customer complaints and high levels of staff burnout. The

thrust of good stress management initiatives should be not only on identifying the sources

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of stress, but also troubleshooting solutions based on the input, interaction and needs of

all concerned. Efforts should be made to help employees realize that managing stress is

nothing but managing oneself and one's life more effectively. It does require dedication

and commitment, but the rewards are great, long lasting and extensive. Workplace

wellness impacts not only the individual, but also those he comes in contact with in

simple terms, mental health is a state of successful performance of mental function,

resulting in productive activities and fulfilling relationships with other people; the thrust

of all efforts must begin with providing an enabling environment at the workplace by

setting clearly measurable goals and defined objectives for the employees, ensuring the

individuals are well matched to their jobs, training retraining employees particularly in

interpersonal skills, providing necessary guidance and support for those experiencing

high stress levels, soliciting ideas from employees to combat stress and encouraging

flexible or shorter hours.

Saxena S.K. (2005) gave his perspectives on occupational safety, health & environment

of workers at national level. According to him one of the most important impact of

globalization and liberalization of international trade on occupational safety, health and

environment is that of harmonization of standards. The harmonization of standards in the

global economy will be a powerful tool for self-regulation in safety, health and

environment by the industries. The existing scenario of occupational health and safety is

not very appealing so far as the effectiveness of existing infrastructure is concerned.

Apart from the statutory compliance, the infrastructure has to be improved further and

that requires proper funding and political will. The solutions for the current problem are

the four new paradigm shift namely resource, academic, cooperative & R & D. Providing

“decent conditions of work” to the workers in all occupations for ensuring health

protection at work is the recommendation of ILO in current times. This could be achieved

only through knowledge of safety and health and its appropriate application. It is also

necessary that the applied knowledge be pushed to the politicians, bureaucrats,

journalists, employers and trade union leaders for better and effective results. A total

change in the attitude towards occupational safety and health is needed at all levels, from

government down to the shop floor workers. The fact that investments in OSH can yield

returns with rich dividend in the form if increased productivity and economic

development needs to be appreciated by each and every individual of an industrial

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community. This can be facilitated by promotional activities and advocacy backed by

authentic management information system available to all. Empowering the workforce to

decide what they need and how that could be worked out best for them may provide the

required solutions for many of their OSH problems.

Rao K Raghvendra (2003) opines that HR works best when the top leadership in a

company partners with the HR department to create a people- oriented performance

culture. Companies where people are the only source of value-addition have been quicker

off the mark in understanding the new realities of HR and the metrics they need to

evaluate themselves. The challenges are different for manufacturing and services

companies. The challenge before an HR manager in a manufacturing unit that is being

restructured is in handing out pink slips, managing sagging morale, bargaining with

employees in wage and benefits settlements, and looking after litigation. Further, they are

trying to manage costs, boost productivity and yet try to hold onto critical talent. What

are tested are their crisis management skills, communication and people management

skills, and the ability to lead from the front. On the other hand, he observed that, services,

which are either at the start-up or growth stages in India, are in a constant need to be fast

and agile. Here the challenge is in establishing base level HR practices, recruiting quality

workforces and managing exceptions, dealing with competitive employees and pressures,

managing employee expectations. HR managers, dream sellers and decisiveness.

Indiana University (2004), According to the HR policies of Indiana University factors

used in determining promotions and transfers should be made by examining all factors

necessary to determine the best qualifications and capabilities to fill the position. These

factors may include, but not be limited to: experience, past performance, job-related

educational background, ability and qualifications to perform the work, attendance record

over the last twelve (12) months (not including extended periods of sick leave of two

weeks or more due to serious illness or injury or approved leaves of absence). When

qualifications and capabilities are found relatively equal, employees should then be

ranked in order of occupational unit seniority date (in the occupational unit of promotion)

first and university seniority date second. Unless otherwise mutually agreed to by

management, employee, and local union and except for openings occurring in jobs of a

unique nature requiring unusual skills and abilities, an employee must work on a job for

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at least the following times: three (3) months before requesting a promotion to another

job and six (6) months before requesting a transfer to another job.

Raina Anupama D (2006) in her study explains that the growth of attrition rates has

been a major concern for the last couple of decades. According to her, many experts

believe that attrition rates can be lowered through effective hiring systems, while others

believe that the problem lies with the nature of the organization's system. The main

objective of her research was being to know the problems and effects of attrition on call

centers. Another objective of the research was to study the retention measures adopted by

the call centers to retain employees, and in the end, develop a module for the call center,

which can help in curbing the existing problems faced by them. The research analysis

shows a gradual increase in the attrition rate. It was also found that attrition was more

common between the age group of 20-25 years and within three months of joining the

organization. Qualification-wise, the employees leave the organization for career growth

and higher studies. Further analyses show that attritions in call centers occur because of

lack of social interaction, personal problems, slow growth prospects, odd shifts and

monotony of work. Keeping in mind the causes of attrition, various employee retention

strategies were recommended.

Ekka Pradeep Kumar (2005) examined how to manage employee attrition. He observed

Attrition tends to be high in the initial months of an employee’s induction. It is lowest for

employees with two to four years of tenure in an organization. No company can avoid

attrition therefore the focus should be on increasing the average retention period. Career

growth has a relatively high impact on average tenures. He critically analyzed employee

satisfaction surveys and exit interviews apart from direct feedback from employees.

According to him, the problems causing employee attrition can be grouped as under:

Dissatisfaction with the compensation package, Insecurity over career growth , Lack of

recognition, Technological preference, Dissatisfaction with the work culture, Unfulfilled

promises, Conflicts with superior, Regional preferences, Personal and family reasons. To

manage attrition in the short run, an immediate thrust has to be given to the first three

factors by revamping the performance management system (PMS). A good PMS takes

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care of issues relating to the articulation of expectations, periodic reviews for correction,

counseling and support, and overall performance assessment for rewards and recognition.

Chandrasekhar S. (2005) recommended how the professionals should make EXIT or

leave the companies. In brief it talks about- what should be the dos and don’ts dos for a

professional before leaving the organizations. According to the author, proper interviews

should be conducted for all the leaving employees, to know the reasons for their EXIT.

As everyone has got a different style of working, a good professional should try to coach

his/her colleagues so that they can adapt themselves with their working style and take

over the work smoothly. There are various reasons for which an employee leaves the

organization. All the good professionals plan their EXIT well before time and don’t leave

the organization in hurry. EXIT should be planned and discussed with immediate boss

and at least one or two key players of top management, so that they can get ample time to

fill in the vacuum of the leaving employee. If somebody is holding a key position in the

organization, he/she should avoid signing off undue favors and those matters which have

long term implications and should handover the long-term projects as it is without trying

to complete them in huff. One should try to complete all the pending transactions or

should simply close all those transactions which could not be completed by him/her and

accordingly make the data of all unfinished work which they were pursuing. Another

very important thing is, one should leave the organization with dignity and should avoid

speaking ill about the company and its employees. Company’s assets should be handed

over to company. So it becomes important for companies to have structured way of EXIT

and should make every departure as helpful as exit.

Murty GRK (2004) did an in-depth study of exit interviews. He observed that these

interviews provide great insights into how employees perceive their organizations and the

levels of employee satisfaction. These interviews provide an elicit and honest feedback

from the outgoing employee which is sure to bring into notice a wide range of

organizational and operational issues. His study reveals that employees mainly quit

because of the following reasons: better career opportunities elsewhere, job

dissatisfaction, autocratic corporate leadership, minimum or no training support and

inadequate compensation.

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2.3 HR PRACTICES AND JOB SATISFACTION – RECENT STUDIES

Savaneviciene, Stankeviciute (2011) The Author is of the view that HRM does

influence performance and there appears to be no consensus on the nature of HRM

practices and categorization of performance outcomes, also little attention is paid to

exploring the processes through which the impact takes place. There paper reveals the

nature of HRM practices and the content of organizational commitment and job

satisfaction. The paper proposes an answer to the question - how HRM practices can

influence organizational performance. The approach of impact is based on AMO

framework, which discloses the importance of employee’s abilities, motivation and

opportunity to participate. Besides, the paper presents empirical research showing that

skill-enhancing, motivation-enhancing and engagement-enhancing HRM practices have

positive relations with affective human resource reactions: organizational commitment

and job satisfaction.

Arumugam, Mojtahedzadeh (2011) this article purpose a model to conduct an

empirical study in Malaysian Industries in order to improve their financial performance.

There are many factors which are effective factors in improving performance of

Malaysian Industries namely, employee participation, and training, and job description,

career planning system, compensation system, selection system, and performance

appraisal system. The Job satisfaction plays a fundamental role in determining the

performance in Malaysian industries. In this research, a model has been developed that

includes Human Resource Management Practices and job satisfaction to study their

influence on the performance of Malaysian industries. It is hoped that this paper can

provide an academic source for both academicians and managers due to investigate the

relationship between Human Resource Management Practices, Job Satisfaction, and

Financial Performance in a systematic manner to increase successful rate of Human

Resource

Martin(2011) The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of human resource

(HR) practices on the job satisfaction and organizational commitment of new Extension

agents as they relate to intent to quit. This study focused on Extension Agents with less

than six years of employment and included four objectives: 1) to describe Extension

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agents’ experience with HR practices during the first six years of employment, 2) to

describe newly hired Extension agents’ job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and

intention to quit, 3) to identify the relationship between HR practices, job satisfaction,

organizational commitment, and intent to quit, and 4) to explain newly hired Extension

agent’s intent to quit based upon HR practices. Based upon the findings and conclusions

of this study, the researcher recommends the following to Extension organizations

wishing to limit occurrences of unwanted voluntary turnover of Extension Agents.

Findings indicate a significant relationship between perceptions of human resource

practices and intention to quit, mediated by organizational commitment and job

satisfaction. Accordingly, the research has important implications for the management of

Cooperative Extension and anyone working in or preparing to work in related fields.

Rehman (2011) it reveals a diverse aspect of a practical operation of human resource

management practices and performance linkage in Pakistan. It shows that human resource

planning; the most critical element of personnel function is emerging. The task of

acquiring sound and credible employees belongs to the Human Resources Management

(HRM). The challenge of identifying the right man for the right job, individuals to fill

public sector positions is to be met. A large number of potential opportunities are

available in the employment market but the challenge for organizations is to identify and

select those candidates who could perform effectively and efficiently. Selection and the

assessments chosen for the selection process should be done on the basis of the

requirements of the job. Knowledge is essential on part of the organization in terms of

what constitutes good job performance; what kind of knowledge, skills and abilities are

required and what measures would be effective in assessing these. The results of this

article move about the field of human resource management forward by empirically

viewing a link between HR practices like job analysis, job design, job evaluation, job

security, and job succession planning and job performance. The implications of the

distinctive consequence of the human resource practices on organizational performance

measures were found remarkable. Altogether this paper makes an effort signifying a

substantial positive contribution by HRM to organizational performance.

Shamsudin et. al. (2012) recently the phenomenon of cyber deviance has become a major

concern of employers, as its represent outgoing challenge for the contemporary scholar

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and practitioners, these challenges related to the significant costs in organizations, in both

human and financial terms. The purpose of this paper is to revisit the management

literature and establish a link between HR practices, leadership style and cyber deviance.

Within this context this paper will also conceptually propose the possibility of

organizational commitment to mediate this relationship. In this manner the paper will

propose a research model and develop propositions to be later tested empirically.

It has shown the role of HR practices, leadership style in influencing cyber deviance. In

addition this study suggest that organizational commitment as mediating variable can

play important role in the relationship between HR practices, leadership style on cyber

deviance. This paper has postulated that HR practices and leadership style and

organizational commitment have negative effect on cyber deviance. The phenomenon of

cyber deviance still very much at their infancy despite the growing literature, employer

should give more attention to their employee.

Nunes Joseph C. and Xavier Drèze (2006) are of the opinion that employee loyalty

programs, when designed and executed well, are ingenious marketing tools. In a wide

variety of industry settings, they’ve proven their ability to reduce churn, increase sales

and profitability, and yield the kind of insight that allows a company to provide more

valued services to its customers. Making sure that a company’s loyalty program will

carry its weight and begins with clarifying what the program is expected to do. This

requires careful attention to the details of program design, from the value and nature of

the rewards to the ways in which they are bestowed and redeemed. Perhaps more than

anything, a successful program depends on competent and consistent execution. Even

with all of this, true loyalty might be too much to expect, but companies will likely have

longer-term relationships with happier customers. And that, sounds like the best kind of

competitive advantage.

Berry Mike (2005) studied that average levels of job satisfaction among women workers

has been falling for 15 years, despite greater equality in the workplace and flexible

working laws. Research based on about 25,000 British women employees examined that

women workers used to have significantly higher levels of job satisfaction than men in

the UK, but now they have almost the same level as male workers. The results seem to be

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a sign of growing pressures on women in the workplace, as women compete increasingly

with men for better jobs. The study shows satisfaction among women, who work part-

time, has fallen more dramatically than among the full-timers.

Garcez Claudia (2005) did her study on “Job Satisfaction: The Challenges Transformed

Organizations Face”. According to her, transformed organizations face tremendous

challenges in the need to attract and retain a productive workforce. Organizations must

create new ways to keep their employees satisfied. Surveys should be conducted as a way

to find out what is causing workers to be dissatisfied and action taken when the root is

discovered. A powerful tool for organizational psychologists to use in advising their

clients on ways to keep their employees satisfied is to consider following Frederick

Herzberg’s theory. By following this theory, transformed organizations will have the best

opportunity to create and retain a motivated productive workforce.

Faragher E B et al (2005) did a meta-analysis to study the relationship between job

satisfaction and health. A systematic review and meta-analysis of 485 studies with a

combined sample size of 267 995 individuals was conducted, evaluating the research

evidence linking self-report measures of job satisfaction to measures of physical and

mental well-being. The overall correlation combined across all health measures was r =

0.312 (0.370 after Schmidt-Hunter adjustment). Job satisfaction was most strongly

associated with mental/psychological problems; strongest relationships were found for

burnout (corrected r = 0.478), self-esteem(r = 0.429), depression (r = 0.428), and

anxiety(r = 0.420). The correlation with subjective physical illness was more modest (r =

0.287). Correlations in excess of 0.3 were rare in this context. The relationships found

suggested that job satisfaction level was an important factor influencing the health of

workers. Organizations should include the development of stress management policies to

identify and eradicate work practices that cause most job dissatisfaction as part of any

exercise aimed at improving employee health. Occupational health clinicians should

consider counseling employees diagnosed as having psychological problems to critically

evaluate their work—and help them to explore ways of gaining greater satisfaction.

Srivastav Deepak (2005) opines that public sector reforms have brought changes in the

managerial function. Managements have been given more power and autonomy for

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conducting various activities and in decision making for critical issues. Accountability of

management has also been increased. Subsequently, professional leadership has

developed a work-oriented environment by shifting importance to employee

performance. This means that the best performance is being rewarded and vice- versa. In

a competitive environment, jobs and growth have been linked to individual performance.

Competitiveness leads to the cultivation of a competitive spirit in individual employees.

In such an environment, the less competitive employees are rejected. This situation forces

employees to make work the central part of life. Employees want better pay and

promotion policies.

Bradley, Don E et al (2004) did a survey on Self-employment and job satisfaction:

investigating the role of self-efficacy, depression, and seniority. They are of the opinion

that first of all, self-employed persons should enjoy higher job satisfaction than others.

Second, a portion of the association between job satisfaction and self-employment should

be explained by higher levels of self-efficacy and by lower levels of depression among

the self- employed compared to others. Third, self-employment veterans are a select

group and should be different systematically from self-employment newcomers with

respect to reported job satisfaction. Findings offer support for the first and second

arguments above but not the third. Post-hoc analysis suggests that among the newly self-

employed, the association between job satisfaction and self-employment depends on both

the quantity and quality of time invested in the business.

HP Technology (2004) is of the viewpoint that with an increasing number of workers

eager to find a greater work/life balance, one has to find out what one can do now to keep

the employees happy. Improve your employees’ job satisfaction by providing workers

with responsibility—and then let them use it, show respect, recognize the whole person

and mark out a clear path to growth. Trends toward increasing job dissatisfaction can be

reversed, and even employees with low morale can become motivated and enthusiastic

again. But it takes work—and creativity—on the employer’s part. According to Jill

Casner-Lotto, vice president of the Work in America Institute, for work/life programs to

succeed, there must be both bottom-up and top-down support. “[Support from the top] is

critical—senior-level management sets the tone, creates the environment in which these

initiatives can happen, and then provides the resources, but this top-level commitment

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must be combined with mid-level and front-line managerial support and grassroots

employee involvement if it is to be truly successful.”

Staff WorkZ (2004), in his job satisfaction and retention survey found out that salary has

become the top issue as to why people “stay,” or “leave” their organization for another.

Retention programs are more effective and less expensive than recruitment programs

according to their study. Reduced turnover gives more stability, which pleases both

employees and customers alike. The average cost to recruit and train one employee is

estimated at 2.5 times an employee’s salary. The study observed that only half of the

workforce put effort into their job over and beyond what is required. Three out of four

people said they had the ability to become more effective than they were. A satisfied

workforce reflects a positive attitude toward others. They in turn reflect a positive attitude

toward customers and patients thus generating higher satisfaction scores, which help in

growing the profits of your organization.

2.4 HR PRACTICES AND ORGANISTIONAL COMMITMENT – RECENT

STUDIES

Sial (2011) the purpose of this research is to probe into the effects of HRM practices

namely promotion, performance evaluation and compensation on organizational

commitment of faculty members of Universities in Pakistan. 206 teachers of various

Pakistani universities were selected randomly, irrespective of gender, race and

designation and dispensed with a questionnaire. The results show that organizational

commitment is strongly, positively influenced by compensation practices adopted by the

universities. However performance evaluation and promotion practices were found to

have no significant relationship with Organizational commitment.

Chaudhuri (2012) the human resource practice of training outsourcing is emerging as

one of the fastest –growing segments of the broader business process outsourcing

industry. In spite of its growing popularity in both academic literature and professional

practice, training outsourcing is continuously subjected to critical reviews and on-going

debates regarding the decision to ‘outsource’ or ‘not to outsource’. There exists, however,

a paucity of research on training outsourcing as a human resource development (HRD)

practice on different organizational outcomes. This conceptual paper attempted to build

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on and extend previous research that examined the relationship between training and

organizational commitment by focusing on outsourced training. This study also fills an

important gap in the training outsourcing literature by taking into consideration employee

perceptions and preferences towards outsourced training. The study is framed by social

exchange theory to explore possible relationships between training outsourcing and

organizational commitment.

Abbas (2010) the study provides an insight account into the phenomenon of human

resource management practices and leadership styles carried out in public and private

sector universities. These practices are considered very effective in retaining the valuable

human capital. The study investigates the effects of human resource management

practices (also termed as HR practices) and leadership styles on organizational

commitment and citizenship behaviors (critical determinants of organizational

effectiveness by Katz, 1964) among university teachers. The results reveal that both

human resource practices and leadership styles positively predicted organizational

commitment of faculty members however they did not predict citizenship behaviors.

Regression results further revealed that HR practices were more important than

leadership styles in predicting organizational commitment of valued human capital.

Khan et. al. (2011) the study comprehensively evaluates the relationship between HPWS

and organization commitment and the level of organizational commitment among gender

(male and female), nature of tenure (regular and contract employees) and job experience.

Results based on academic faculty sample of 616 from 22 public sector universities of

Pakistan show that HPWS is positively and significantly associated with organizational

commitment. Kruskal- Wallis test reveals that there is no significant difference in

organization commitment of male and female academic faculty. Academic faculty with

regular tenure is more committed than academic faculty with contract tenure. High

experience academic faculty is more committed than less experience academic faculty.

The results also indicate that gender moderate the relationship between HPWS and

organizational commitment. However moderate effect of tenure and experience are not

confirmed.

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Ardts et. al. (2011) the study went beyond previous research on leader-member

exchange (LMX) by examining employees who are supervised by more than one boss.

Using data from 122 PhDs from a Dutch university, the current study had three research

objectives. First, to examine the effects of PhDs' LMX with both their promoter and their

assistant promoter on affective organizational commitment (AOC). Second, to examine

the mediating role of satisfaction with HR practices in the two LMX - AOC relationships.

Since the promoter as the higher level boss has more influence on different HR practices

the third objective was to examine whether the LMX - AOC relationship is stronger for

the promoter than for the assistant promoter. The results showed that both promoter LMX

and LMX assistant promoter were positively related to PhDs’ AOC, and both

relationships were fully mediated by PhDs’ satisfaction with HR practices. As expected,

these effects were significantly stronger for the promoter than for the assistant promoter.

Vanitha, V, et al. (2006) analyzes the organizational commitment and stress among the

information technology (IT) professionals. Some of the demographic variables and sex

differences between the male and female IT professionals on organizational commitment

and stress were also examined. An Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) test was used to

analyze the data, which consisted of 76 IT professionals. Results, based on the study of

various variables, revealed that there was no significant difference between the male and

female IT professionals.

Kassahun Tilaye (2005) as per his findings, there is a significant difference in

perceptions of Indian employees towards the level of their commitment to their

organization. The difference is reflected in such a way that an overwhelming majority of

employees had moderately high level of commitment, the second majority of them had a

high level of commitment, while a very small number of them believed that they had only

low level of commitment to their organizations goal or objectives. His study also

attempted to examine the extent of association between organizational commitment, and

both personal characteristics and organizational practices as viewed by the subjects of his

study. The results of the data analyses revealed that out of ten independent variables

considered for his study, nine of them established direct association while one of them

(viz. education) established an inverse relationship with organizational commitment. His

study asserted that the contribution of personal characteristics to a total variation in

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organizational commitment is very minimal (almost negligible). This gives an interesting

clue to managers and personnel officers that commitment can be engendered through pro-

employee management practices, such as providing a great deal of liberty (freedom) to

employees to decide on their work, a high level of managerial support accorded to

employees even to the extent of going out of its way to share personal problems of

employees, ensuring fairness of work-related outcomes both content-wise and

procedurally, and so forth.

Park Sungmin, Henkin Alan B., Egley Robert (2005) in their study teamwork was

found to be a significant predictor of teacher team commitment. Respondents showing

higher levels of teamwork skills perceived higher levels of team commitment. Results,

while not entirely confirmatory, suggested the importance of trust in the commitment

equation. Prior researches had confirmed the value-added effects of organizational

commitment in terms of job performance, organizational effectiveness, and employee

retention. Therefore, their study focused on teacher teams as the unit of analysis, and

posited associations between teamwork, viewed as team skills, trust and teacher team

commitment. Data were derived from responses of elementary school teachers to an

instrument including established measures of teamwork component skills, affective- and

cognition-based trust, and team commitment.

McKenna Steve (2005) in his study used qualitative data from 20 managers in four small

Singaporean businesses in the services sector and explored the issue of organizational

commitment. The findings generally supported those in the positivistic literature on

organizational commitment. It also argued that continuance commitment, largely seen as

negative for organizations and performance, can be both positive and negative in certain

circumstances. His study further suggests that owner/manager style in the businesses may

have an important impact on manager commitment and that the future growth and

development of these businesses may be stunted as a consequence of negative aspects of

the entrepreneurial management style.

Sikorska-Simmons Elzbieta (2005) this study examines the role of organizational

culture, job satisfaction, and socio- demographic characteristics as predictors of

organizational commitment among staff in assisted living. She is of the view that it is

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particularly important to examine organizational commitment, because of its close links

to staff turnover. In her study, organizational culture, job satisfaction, and education were

strong predictors of commitment, together explaining 58% of the total variance in the

dependent variable. Higher levels of organizational commitment were associated with

more favorable staff perceptions of organizational culture and greater job satisfaction. In

addition, more educated staff members tended to report higher levels of organizational

commitment. Other than education, socio- demographic characteristics failed to account

for a significant amount of variance in organizational commitment. Because job

satisfaction and organizational culture were strong predictors of commitment,

interventions aimed at increasing job satisfaction and creating an organizational culture

that values and respects staff members could be most effective in producing higher levels

of organizational commitment. Data were collected from 317 staff members in 61

facilities, using self-administered questionnaires. The facilities were selected from

licensed assisted living programs and were stratified into small, traditional, and new-

model homes. A researcher distributed staff questionnaires during 1-day visits to each

facility. Organizational commitment was measured by the extent of staff identification,

involvement, and loyalty to the organization.

Sanne G.A. et al (2005) their paper examined the effects of Human Resource

Management (HRM) practices and antecedents (personal variables, job and role

characteristics, and work experiences) on organizational commitment among Dutch

university employees. Analyses of the web survey data revealed that decentralization,

participation, social interactions, and laissez-faire management are important HRM

practices for affecting academics' organizational commitment. Likewise, the antecedent’s

age, educational level, organizational tenure, household size, career mobility, job

challenge, job level, working hours, organizational climate, and social involvement all

have significant influences on either affective, continuance or normative organizational

commitment of university employees. Some of the findings contradict the existing

literature, whereas others confirm contemporary theories.

Ulrich and Brockbank (2005) in their book ‘The HR Value Proposition’ discuss an HR

perspective that is both unique and powerful and is one that establishes the linkages

between employee commitment, customer attitudes, and investor returns. Changing any

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single HR practice (staffing, training, appraisal, teamwork, and upward communication)

does not create a transformation. Unless the entire array of HR practices collectively adds

value for key stakeholders, transformation has not occurred. Transformation requires

integrating the various HR practices and focusing them jointly on value-added agendas

such as intangibles, customer connection, organization capabilities, and individual

abilities. Moving toward service centers, centers of expertise, or outsourcing does not

mean that HR has been transformed. If new delivery mechanisms provide basically the

same old HR services, the function has changed but not transformed itself. HR

transformation changes both behavior and outputs. The changes must improve life for

key stakeholders in ways that they are willing to pay for. We believe that a fundamental

transformation of HR starts with a definition of HR value—which the receivers are and a

clear statement of what they will receive from HR services. It also requires a complete

picture of all the elements of HR transformation, so that piecemeal attempts do not

become isolated events.

Swailes Stephen (2004) is of the opinion that organizational commitment is a desired

outcome of human resource management (HRM) strategies given its links to positive

attitudes and behavior in the pursuit of change. The organization, however, is just one of

several foci for employee commitment. His study explored the links between multiple

commitments and employee behavior. Cluster analysis of data from public accountants

identified four main commitment profiles. Private sector accountants also showed

profiles 1 and 4 together with a cluster showing commitment to the work group only and

a cluster showing commitment to the supervisor only. Profiles explained variation in

behavior aimed at task achievement and innovation for public but not private

accountants. Behavior was highest for profile 1. He views that HRM strategies need to

look beyond organizational commitment and engender commitment to other foci in order

to win the behavior required to support successful change programmes.

Wheatley et. al. (2004) studied "Social Exchanges within Organizations and Work

Outcomes". Their research focused primarily on employee relationships with supervisors

and with the organization to explain employee in-role and extra-role behaviors. It extends

the understanding of social exchange by exploring two additional exchanges (employee

relationships with top management and with employees in other work areas) and

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examines all four social exchanges’ effect on work behaviors. It also extends notions of

employee performance to include employee involvement in organizational improvement

efforts. Data collected in a field study of 129 supervisor-subordinate dyads suggested that

local (interpersonal exchanges with supervisors and colleagues in other work areas) and

global (exchanges with top management and the organization) foci have different effects

on work performance and that local social exchanges have a greater influence on work

outcomes than global social exchanges.

Awasthy Richa, Gupta Rajen K. (2004) the paper aimed at conceptualizing

organizational effectiveness from perspective of executives working in MNCs.

Underlying assumption seems to be that if employees are taken care of, they are likely to

feel accountable to other stakeholder’s objectives. Executives today would like to

consider them business partners in an organization. Therefore, a learning oriented

workforce is considered one of the key competencies of any organization. Thus, present

day organization should aim at developing an organizational culture more conducive to

adapting to changes & developing employees. This seems to be important for

organizational effectiveness.

Bennett Jason et al (2003) in their paper presented and tested a conceptual model

linking perceptions of the internal work environment and external markets to information

technology (IT) worker turnover. The model focused on organizational commitment

(OC) as the primary predictor of turnover intention. They suggested that OC mediates

perceptions of the workplace and external environment on turnover intention.

Specifically, they hypothesized that OC mediates the influence of (1) job satisfaction, (2)

perceived job characteristics, (3) perceived competitiveness of pay, and (4) perceived job

alternatives on turnover intention. Also, perceived job alternatives are modeled as having

a direct effect on turnover intention. Analysis provided moderate empirical support for

the research model. OC and perceived job alternatives demonstrated distinct effects on

turnover intention. In addition, OC mediated the influence of job satisfaction, perceived

job characteristics, and perceived competitiveness of pay on turnover intention. Findings

suggested that through cultivating positive beliefs about the job and attitudes toward the

employer, managers might counter the influence of external markets on IT workers’

turnover intention.

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Sharma Radha R. & Sharma Baldev R. (2003) According to them organizational

Commitment (OC) is an intense positive orientation towards an organization, one’s

identification with it, viewing the organization’s goal as one’s own and overstretching

oneself to achieve the same. Motivation, a driving force for goal directed activity and

OC, exerts considerable influence on various aspects of work performance and

withdrawal behavior. Their study reveals that job content and scope for advancement are

critical determinants of organizational commitment and work motivation. It has clearly

brought out that job content is the most significant determinant of organizational

commitment and motivation. Organizations striving for performance improvement and

productivity enhancement need to focus on not only enriching the job but also finding the

right person for the right job. It is often observed that employees are assigned jobs that do

not match their ability and background. Consequently neither is they able to contribute

nor are they able to guide their subordinates, causing low motivation and commitment

among them as well. Competency mapping and matching of person-position profiles can

take care of this problem, and should go hand in hand with job enrichment. Another

implication of the findings was that for developing organizational commitment among

managerial staff, organizations need to create more opportunities for their vertical

movement and scope for professional development and career enhancement.

Turan, M.S. and Gupta Pradeep, (2003) Human Resource Function : The new Profit

center , have very well highlighted that changing business conditions and changes in

organizational structures have compelled human resources departments to increasingly

alter their perspectives on their role and function. According to authors for organizational

acceptance and effectiveness, human resource function must increasingly become partner

of overall business goals and objectives and its present and future needs and justify itself

as a value function. In this article an attempt has been made to establish a result based

approach when implementing human resource programmes. It also explores the paradigm

shifts from traditional approach to result based approach.

Howard Larry W. (2002) studied managers and executives from 257 organizations and

completed mailed surveys investigating relationships among reward strategies, task

interdependence, team performance, and firm productivity. All measures attained at the

firm level. As expected, firms that based employee rewards on either personal or

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collective output tended to demonstrate higher levels of productivity. Output-based

reward strategies had no direct relationships, however, with team performance. Also as

expected, task interdependence moderated the relationship between rewards based on

human capital and team performance. Team performance was highest when firms with

complex task interdependence used human capital strategies to reward employees. He

observed that one of the more perplexing challenges facing human resource professionals

today involves finding ways to compensate teams and team members fairly and

efficiently, while providing incentives to enhance productivity and performance. He

recommended that first; he identified alternative reward strategies that characterize an

organization’s strategic compensation system. Then he identified the structural impact of

designing work for teams rather than individuals. Next he proposed relationships among

alternative reward strategies and performance outcomes. Finally, he presented the results

of a nationwide survey of human resource managers in the U.S., asking them about some

of these relationships. He analyzed the data at the organization level. According to him

this is the only study of reward strategies, teams, and performance measured at the level

of the firm.

Cooper Amy Rachelle (2002) her dissertation meta-analytically examined the expansive

material associated with work commitment. According to her, work commitment, a

multidimensional construct, encompasses the level of involvement an employee has with

his or her work, organization, job, career, and union. The primary purpose of her study

was to (1) cumulate the correlations found among each of the dimensions of work

commitment to see which, if any, were inter correlated, and to (2) determine the impact

of work commitment dimensions and sub dimensions on specific outcome variables (job

satisfaction, job performance, and turnover). A number of interesting results stemmed

from the 213 separate meta-analyses that were conducted by her. First, the evidence did

not indicate that all of the sub dimensions for each respective dimension were positively

correlated. Specifically, there was not enough evidence to indicate that continuance

organizational commitment was positively correlated with its other organizational

commitment sub dimensions. She opined that future research might consider revamping

the work commitment taxonomy so that all sub dimensions that fall within a particular

dimension are interrelated. It might be appropriate, therefore, to drop continuance

organizational commitment from the work commitment taxonomy. Second, while most of

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the respective dimensions were interrelated, this was not the case across the board. For

instance, there was no evidence of a significant positive relationship between

organizational commitment and union commitment. In fact, the only significant

relationship was negative between organizational commitment and belief in unionism.

Further, there was no evidence of a positive relationship between union commitment and

either work ethic endorsement or job involvement, respectively. These findings supported

Morrow's (1993) rationale for excluding union commitment from the work commitment

taxonomy.

Michael Riketta and Angela Landerer (2002) the authors postulated that attitudinal

organizational commitment (AOC) and accountability to an external audience mutually

moderate their relationships with work behavior. These hypotheses were tested for two

types of work behavior (in-role performance and organizational citizenship behavior),

using self-report data from 63 employees of a German health service organization. As

expected, the correlation between AOC and in-role performance was higher for low as

opposed to high accountability, and the correlation between accountability and in-role

performance was higher for low as opposed to high AOC. Contrary to expectations, no

moderator effects occurred for organizational citizenship behavior.

Jacqueline et al (2002) inferred that the ability of profit sharing to increase

organizational performance via positive changes in employee attitudes has yielded mixed

results. Drawing on principal agent, expectancy, and organizational justice theories, they

assessed how perception of profit sharing (capacity for individual contribution and

organizational reciprocity) alter organizational commitment and trust in management

using longitudinal data provided by 141 engineering employees. Favorable perceptions of

profit sharing served to increase organizational commitment while only organizational

reciprocity predicted trust in management.

Tansky and Cohen (2001) undertook an empirical study on the relationship between

organizational support, employee development, and organizational commitment. This

study conducted in a major Midwestern hospital found that organizational commitment

and perceived organizational support were significantly correlated with satisfaction with

career development. Results suggested that when organizations make efforts to develop

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their managers, the managers become more committed to the organization and also more

likely to develop their employees.

King Stephen & Harcourt Mark (2001) their study examined the relationships between

organizational commitment and three constituency-specific commitments for firefighters

and station officers employed by the New Zealand Fire Service. The subjects were

firefighters employed by the New Zealand Fire Service. Commitment to firefighters,

station officers, senior management, and the Fire Service were measured using the Cook

and Wall (1980) scale. They found that constituency-specific commitments explained

approximately 30 percent of the variance in organizational commitment, four-fifths of

which was explained by commitment to operational staff and the remaining fifth by

commitment to senior management. The degree to which the results were a reflection of

the industrial relations climate remains to be seen.

Ensher et. al. (2001) examined the effects of perceived discrimination on job

satisfaction, organizational commitment, organizational citizenship behaviour, and

grievances. In this study of 366 ethnically diverse operating-level employees, it was

examined how their perceptions of discrimination from a variety of sources-including

supervisors, coworkers, and the organization itself-affect their work-related attitudes and

behaviors. The results suggest that all three types of perceived discrimination have an

effect on organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and organizational citizenship

behavior. Contrary to predictions, however, there was no relationship with grievances.

Sharma Baldev R. and Joshi Rama J. (2001) the study conducted by them was

designed to focus on organizational characteristics as predictors of organizational

commitment among managerial employees. The findings revealed that executives are, by

and large, quite satisfied being members of this organization. Out of the organizational

characteristics examined only two, i.e. performance appraisal and job content, have

emerged as the best predictors of organizational commitment. Out of the large number of

organizational characteristics studied, only two emerged as critical determinants of

organizational commitment: job content and performance appraisal. The findings of this

study are also significant from an academic point of view. The two determinants of

organizational commitment are not related to any tangible extrinsic rewards such as

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monetary benefits or welfare facilities. The findings of this study call into question the

theory of need hierarchy as the higher order needs of the respondents happen to influence

their motivation even when their lower order needs are relatively neglected. On the other

hand, the findings of this study tend to support the two-factor theory of Herzberg et al

(1959), which maintains that while the absence of extrinsic rewards (e.g., monetary

benefits, working conditions, safety and security, etc.) prompts the person to feel

dissatisfied, it is the ego-satisfying intrinsic rewards (e.g., job content, recognition, sense

of achievement, advancement, etc.) that contribute to employee motivation.

Ackfeldt Anna L. (2000) studied that the recent marketing literature reflects a growing

interest in organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs). She is of the opinion that in

particular, several recent studies have drawn attention to administrative mechanisms

including leadership support to examine how OCBs are managed. The general premise is

that explicit administrative mechanisms can be deployed by an organization to influence

employees’ OCBs. She examined that previous research has shown that OCBs can be

influenced by different mechanisms and employee responses. However, the tendency has

been to examine OCBs as a one-dimensional construct and to examine employee

responses in isolation. She developed hypotheses about interdependences between

administrative mechanisms, employee responses and OCBs and examined the effects of

administrative mechanisms and employees responses on separate dimensions of OCBs.

The results of her study generally support the premise that OCBs can be influenced by

selectively deploying administrative mechanisms. However, the effect of administrative

mechanisms on OCBs is mediated by employee responses including organizational

commitment. She suggested that these results have significant implications for managing

customer-contract employees and further research in this field.

Meyer and Allen (1990) in their study provide a description of each of these

commitment forms as follows:

i) Affective commitment involves the employee's emotional attachment to, identification

with, and involvement in the organization. Employees with a strong affective

commitment continue employment with the organization because they want to do so.

ii) Continuance commitment involves commitment based on the costs that 'employee

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associates with leaving the organization. Employees who perceive the costs of leaving the

organization are greater than the costs of staying remain because they need to do so.

iii) Normative commitment involves the employee's feelings of obligation to stay with the

organization. Employees with a high level of normative commitment stay in the

organization because they feel ought to.

Allen and Meyer (1990) they found in their study, "Organizational Socialization Tactics:

A Longitudinal Analysis of Links to Newcomer's Commitment and Role Orientation",

that institutionalized tactics are associated with a custodial orientation and individualized

tactics with an innovative orientation. Each socialization tactic correlated with

commitment. Institutional tactics tend to associate with higher levels of commitment.

Their results fit with Van Maanen & Schein's 6 socialization tactics except fixed-variable

and investiture-divestiture. The best predictor or role orientation was serial-disjunctive.

Maybe some other factor (degree of certainty) underlies all the co-variation between

dimensions. They mentioned that another study showed a negative correlation between

role ambiguity and commitment (Morris & Sherman, 1981).It seems that other factors not

measured also impact commitment. The negative correlation between role orientation and

commitment was gone in 1 year. It appears that to foster both innovativeness and

commitment one should use investiture tactics but keep the "old timers" away from the

impressionable newcomers. They emphasized that it's a tough balance because the best

people to teach newcomers about the role also may teach the undesirable "old ways" as

well. Maybe job descriptions performance appraisals can help accomplish the right

balance (give newcomers belief they can affect their role descriptions).

2.5 SUMMING UP

The review of literature emanates the fact that HR practices have undergone a

tremendous change over a period of time. Having gone through various studies, it is

evident that HR practices have strong bearing upon the workforce in textile industry.

These HR practices vary in range from HR Planning to Recruitment and Selection,

Training and Development, Welfare Activities, Exit Interviews and so on. In this

competitive age, these HR practices can help in building core competence in the

employees, which enables them to give efficient and effective output. To cater to the

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challenging day-to-day demands of the organizations and the employees, these HR

practices are made accustomed for given situations. The textile units are exploring

various alternative HR Practices for efficiency and flexibility of the employees at their

workplace. Based upon the resource based view, there exists a serious gap which

suggests that human resources are valuable where they enable an industry to enact

strategies that improve efficiencies and effectiveness, exploit market opportunities and/or

neutralize potential traits. The researcher analyzed all the facts through review of

literature. Thus, the present study will help us to identify and fill these gaps existing in

present literature.