Job Analysis and

UNIT 4 JOB ANALYSIS AND JOB DESIGN Job Design

Objectives
After completion of the unit, you should be able to:
l define Job Analysis (JA);
l understand the process of JA;
l discuss the methods of JA;
l discuss the concept of Job Description and Job Specification;
l identify techniques of collecting information for JA; and
l describe the process of Job Design and effects of work flow on people.

Structure
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Purpose and Definition of Job Analysis
4.3 The Focus of Job Analysis: Positions and Jobs
4.4 The Importance of Job Analysis
4.5 Methods of Job Analysis
4.6 Job Description and Job Specification
4.7 Techniques of Collecting Information for Job Analysis
4.8 Techniques of Writing Job Descriptions
4.9 Job Design
4.10 Effects of Work Flow on People
4.11 Different Work Systems
4.12 The Current Picture
4.13 Summary
4.14 Self Assessment Questions
4.15 Further Readings

4.1 INTRODUCTION
Emerging from years of downsizing and restructuring, and with a new appreciation
for the value of their human resources, many organizations are moving rapidly to
embrace a new approach to the management of human resource (HR) process. Job
analysis helps to understand the qualities needed by employees, defined through
behavioral descriptors, to provide optimum work performance. These qualities range
from personality characteristics and abilities to specific skills and knowledge.
By linking HR activities through a common language and framework, by reflective the
values and mission of the organization and by establishing clear expectations of
performance for employees integrates HR practices, defines business strategy of the
organization and maximizes the delivery of its services to clients.
The critical role of modern job analysis is in guiding, learning and development at
activities of employees. Modern Job analysis address development through the 5
Getting Human provision of tools for employees that address:
Resources
l What it takes to do a job;
l What an individual brings to the job; and
l What the gaps (learning and development needs) are.
The purpose of this input is to clearly define the context and status of Job Analysis as
an HR approach, situate its use within the organization and describe the issues that
need to be addressed with respect to its growing application across departments and
agencies.
It is hoped that this unit will serve as the common platform on the basis of which key
decisions can be taken by departments, agencies to ensure a more collaborative and
focused approach to the implementation.

4.2 PURPOSE AND DEFINITION OF JOB ANALYSIS

Job analysis is the fundamental process that forms the basis of all human resource
activities. The importance of job analysis has been well-established for years, dating
back to at least the First World War. The United States government’s Uniform
Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures (1978) and the American Psychological
Association’s Principles for the Validation and use of Personnel Selection Procedures
stipulate that job analysis is essential to the valediction of any and all major human
resources activities.
In its simplest terms, a job analysis is a systematic process for gathering, documenting
and analyzing date about the work required for a job. The data collected in a job
analysis, and reflected through a job description, includes a description of the context
and principal duties of the job, and information about the skills, responsibilities,
mental models and techniques for job analysis. These include the Position Analysis
Questionnaire, which focuses on generalized human behaviors and interviews, task
inventories, functional job analysis and the job element method.
A job analysis provides an objective picture of the job, not the person performing the
job, and as such, provides fundamental information to support all subsequent and
related HR activities, such as recruitment, training, development, performance
management and succession planning. Job analysis serves two critical functions with
respect to these processes. Job analysis helps ensure that decisions made with respect
to HR processes are good decisions i.e., fair and accurate (e.g., selection of the right
person for the job, appropriate decisions about training, performance management,
development, etc.) and its helps ensure the defensibility of decisions made to employee
(resulting in good HR management) and to the courts (resulting in saving of costs,
time and reputation).

4.3 THE FOCUS OF JOB ANALYSIS :

POSITIONS AND JOBS
The unit of study in job analysis may be position or a job. A “position” is the most
basic structural entity in the organization, representing the collection of duties
assigned to a single person. One or more similar positions, each of which is
interchangeable with the others in terms of work activities, makes up a “job.” In fact,
a “job” has been defined (Henderson, 1979) as “work consisting of responsibilities
and duties that are sufficiently a like to justify being covered by a single job analysis.”
It has also been defined as “a collection of position similar enough to one another in
terms of their work behaviors to share a common job title “(Harvey, 1991). The
linkage positions in an organization provides a roadmap and tool for translating the
6 organization’s mission, values and business priorities into results.
Why is there a need to talk in terms of positions or jobs? It is because it is necessary Job Analysis and
to identify the results individual will be accountable for when they are hired, how their Job Design
work fits in or relates to other work performed in the organization, how their work
should be compensated for in relation to that of others, on what basis recruitment and
training should be carried out, and so on.

4.4 THE IMPORTANCE OF JOB ANALYSIS

According to scientific management, the key to productivity is a precise understanding
of the tasks that constitute a job. If the motions of workers are to become
standardized and machine-like, then it is necessary to be certain about what is to be
accomplished, as well as what abilities and materials are necessary to do the job. For
many years, job analysis was considered the backbone of the scientific clipboards and
stopwatches, was the method used to determine the most efficient way to perform
specific jobs.
As the popularity of scientific management declined after World War II, however, so
did the popularity of job analysis. With the new emphasis on human relations as the
key to productivity job analysis was used primarily to set salary scales. But in the
modern times workers and employers began to take renewed interest in this area
because of concerns about two issues: unfair discrimination and comparable worth.
There are two areas where unfair discrimination in hiring can occur: in the standards
set for being hired; and in the procedures used to assess the applicant’s ability to meet
those standards. Job analysis addresses the question of what tasks, taken together
actually constitute a job. Without this information, standards for hiring may appear to
be arbitrary – or worse, designed to exclude certain individual or groups from the
workplace.
More recently, the issue of comparable worth has also contributed to a new interest in
job analysis. Comparable worth refers to equal pay for individuals who hold different
jobs but perform work that is comparable in terms of knowledge required or level of
responsibility. The major issue of the comparable worth controversy is that women
who are employed in jobs that are comparable to those held by men are paid, on the
average, about 65 percent of what a man would earn. In order to determine the
comparability of job tasks so that salaries can also be compared, a proper job analysis
is necessary. Comparable work is an issue of considerable interest to many people.

4.5 METHODS OF JOB ANALYSIS

Job analysis is the procedure for identifying those duties or behaviors that define a
job. Aside from verifying the fairness of selection procedures, job analysis is the
foundation of virtually every other area of industrial psychology, including
performance appraisal, training and human factors. Additionally, job analysis is the
basis of job evaluation, the procedure for setting salary scales. Figure 1 suggests some
of the many uses of job analysis.
Information about jobs can be collected in a number of ways. McCormick (1976) lists
the following as potential sources: observation, individual interview, group interview,
technical conference, questionnaire, diary, critical incidents, equipment design
information, recording of job activities, or employee records. Possible agents to do the
collecting are professional job analysis, supervisors, job incumbents, or even a camera
in the work-place.
Inspite of both its importance and the availability of data, however, the area of job
analysis has not been studies in details. One reason for the lack of research is the
7
Getting Human nature of the data: Although qualitative information about jobs, collected through
Resources observations, is plentiful, translating this data into a quantitative form amenable to
statistical analysis is often difficult.
Over time, different approaches to dealing with data of job description have been
developed. Some method designed to study jobs include functional job analysis (Fine,
1974), critical incidents (Flanagan, 1954), job elements (Primoff, 1975) the Position
Analysis Questionnaire (McCormick, Jeanneret, & Mecham, 1972), and the physical
abilities requirement approach (Fleishman, 1975).

DESIGNING THE JOB

l Meet production goals
l Promote job mobility / career ladders

s
l Create entry level jobs
l Remove artificial barriers to
employment of special groups

MANAGING PERFORMANCE CLASSIFYING / EVALUATING

l Promote, award, increase salary l Written description of job content,
l Discipline, terminate requirements, and context
l Provide additional training l Identification of critical job
l Restructure job requirements
l Assessment of job in relation to
others to determine pay
s

APPRAISING PERFORMANCE RECRUITING

l Identification of critical job l Clear statement of job content,
elements requirements, and context
l Development of performance l Identification of appropriate
standards recruiting sources
l Identification of performance
indicators
s

TRAINING STAFFING
l Identification of competencies l Identification of minimum
needed for successful job qualifications
performance l Identification of special
l Identification for organization- selection factors.
based competencies l Development of valid selection
l Development of relevant instruments and procedures
curricula for classroom and
on-the-job training
s

Figure 1. Human Resource Management Cycle: Application of Job Analysis Data.

Source: Bemis, S.E. Belenky, A.H, Soder, D.A. (1983). Job Analysis: An effective
8 management tool. Washington, DC: Bureau of National Affairs
a) Functional Job Analysis Job Analysis and
Job Design
The rationale behind functional job analysis (FJA) is that jobs must be defined in
terms of the interaction between the task, the individuals responsible for
accomplishing the task, and the environment in which the task is to be performed. FJA
was developed by Sidney A. Fine during the 1950s as part of the Functional
Occupational Classification Project that resulted in the third edition of the Dictionary
of Occupational Titles. As well as providing a system that identifies job tasks,
functional job analysis also allows for the setting of performance standards and the
identifications of materials for training workers.
FJA relies on trained professionals for its data. These professions use employee
materials, training manuals, workers interviews, and direct observation to learn about
a specific job. According to Fine (1974), these analysis study jobs in terms of five
components. First, the purpose, goals and objectives of a specific job need to be
identified, and second, analysis must identify and describe the tasks necessary to
accomplish a job. In the third component of functional job analysis, the analysts
determine the specific abilities necessary to perform the job successfully. In this stage
of the analysis, jobs are reviewed along seven dimensions:
1) Data (worker’s involvement with information and ideas);
2) People (communication and interaction);
3) Things (use of machines and tools);
4) Amount of autonomy in the tasks;
5) Reasoning (the use of concepts and decision making);
6) Mathematics; and
7) Language (reading, writing, and speaking).
Fourth, from this information, performance standards are set and then, fifth, training
needs are identified in the final stages of functional job analysis.

Example of Functional Job Analysis

Olson et al. (1981) utilized a functional job analysis approach to study the work of
heavy equipment operators that has been described as a model application of this
method. Some workers had complained that the standards necessary to be hired—a
high school diploma, language and mathematics tests, and a four-year
apprenticeship—were to strict, often irrelevant to job performance, and excluded a
disproportionate number of minority candidates. The union representing heavy
equipment operators consequently authorized a job analysis to better understand the
actual work of its members and to assess the relevancy of its selection criteria.
After clarifying the goals and objectives of the job, the analysis developed seven task
statements for successful operation of a piece of heavy equipment. The basic tasks of
heavy equipment operation were identified as follows:
i) Inspects of equipments (prior to operation);
ii) Services the equipment;
iii) Starts the equipment;
iv) Operates the equipment – basic, low difficulty, outputs;
v) Operates the equipment – intermediate difficulty outputs;
vi) Operates the equipments – difficult outputs; and
vii) Shuts down the equipment.
9
Getting Human From the seven basic task statement, performance standards – more specific tasks
Resources within the broader category – were developed by groups of four to six subject matter
experts or “SMEs” (SMEs are typically supervisors, job incumbents, or job analysts).
Performance standards are expressed in terms of specific outputs and operator
behaviors necessary to accomplish those outputs. The number of performance
standards for any specific job can run into the thousands.
At this stage of the analysis, the researchers had enough data to develop a test for
assessing the abilities of heavy equipments operators. The analysts selected a few of
the performance standards and assembled them into a work sample test designed to be
a new standard for selecting operators. Table 1 lists some of the outputs tested. Scores
from the work sample tests developed from the functional job analysis resulted in the
successful prediction of the performance levels of heavy equipment operators. That is,
individuals who had been identified by a committee of supervisors as having a high
level of skill scored high on the work sample test, whereas those having a low level of
skill did not do as well.

Table 1: Outputs Tested for Each Piece of Equipment

Bulldozer (3 hours) Excavate for foundation, backfill

Finish the Slope
Push load scraper, run fill
Cut and fill, build ramp
Backhoe (2 hours) Excavate vertical wall trench
Expose buried pipe
Excavate sloping wall trench
Excavate pier hole
Loader (1 ½ hours) Excavate basement
Form spoil pile
Load haul vehicle from spoil stockpile
Grader (2 ½ hours) Build maintenance road
Cut rough ditches
Level material and crown road
Construct V-ditch to grade
Finish grade to a flat surface
Scraper (varied) Load scraper
Haul material to fill area
Unload scraper
Return to cut area

Source: Olson, H.C., Fine, S.A,. Myers, D.C, & Jennings, M.C. (1981). The use of
functional job analysis in establishing performance standards for heavy
equipment operators. Personal Psychology, 34, 351-364.

10
Evaluating Functional Job Analysis Job Analysis and
Job Design
From the foregoing analysis, it is easy to see that FJA yields an extremely detailed
picture of what tasks constitute a specific job. Such detailed information can be used
to identify erroneous and possibly damaging assumptions about job tasks: In the
example just cited, FJA resulted in a major revision of employee selection procedures.
At the same time FJA also required a major commitment in terms of resources.
Studying jobs, identifying tasks, developing performance standards, and testing
operators involves large numbers of personnel in a major effort. For smaller
organizations in particular, this approach may be too burdensome to be useful.
Another consideration with regard to FJA is its use of “experts” to analyse jobs. Since
some of the experts are individuals who do not actually perform the tasks, it is
possible that they may not have a full understanding of the job in question. On the
other hand, the job incumbents may also introduce error into the analysis if they do
not understand the importance of all, the components of a job.

b) Critical Incidents Technique

In contrast to FJA, where experts make judgments about the content of job, the critical
incidents technique (CIT) utilize actual episodes of on-the-job behaviour. This job
analysis method grew out of experiences with selecting candidates for flight school
during World War II. Standards for acceptance or rejection were lax, and vague
reasons such as “lack of inherent flying ability” were used to disqualify individuals
who might have been good crew members.
In an attempt to avoid relying on the impressions of examiners to assess the suitability
of candidates, the Air Force Aviation Psychology Program developed a series of
standards for performance using examples of behaviour that had occurred in military
situations. These “critical incidents” were defined as “extreme behaviour, either
outstandingly effective or ineffective with respect to attaining the general aims of the
activity” (Flanagan, 1954). In other words, CIT asks employees aims of the activity”
(Flanagan, 1954). In other words, CIT asks employees for specific examples of on-
the-job behaviour that demonstrate both high and low levels of performance.
Sources for critical incidents include workers, co-workers, supervisors, managers, and
others. Typically, the job analyst will ask informant’s to think of the most recent
example of a worker performing at a very high level. Informants will describe what
led to the incident, exactly what the employee did, the perceived consequences of the
behaviour, and whether or not these consequences were within the control of the
employee. (See Box 1).
Box 1
An example of a critical incident for a waiter might be as follows:
When a waiter and a waitress walked off the job during lunchtime, Johan was left
alone to serve a restaurant full of customers. Under incredible pressure, he waited
on tables throughout the room rather than only in his own section. He moved
quickly and efficiently and kept a pleasant smile on his face the entire time. As a
result, customers experienced only minimal delays in getting their food.

One advantage to the critical incident approach is that it can be used to gather large
amounts of data in a short period of time. Workers are assembled in groups and asked
to come up with incidents. According to Flanagan, an analysis of simple jobs would
require from 50 to 100 incidents, skilled and semi-skilled jobs would require from
1000 to 2000 incidents, and supervisory jobs would require from 2000 to 4000.
11
Getting Human After the incidents are collected, they are transferred to index cards, and job
Resources incumbents, supervisors, or analysts independently group similar incidents into
broader categories. (Factor analysis is frequently used in this part of the analysis).
These independent groupings are compared in order to establish categories may
include “promptness of service,” “accuracy of orders,” or ‘interaction with
customers.” Raters discuss any differences in categorization in order to ensure
agreement and the reliability of the ratings. From this procedure, a detailed outline of
the content of a specific job will emerge.

Example of Critical Incidents Techniques

Aamodt and his associates (1981) used the critical incidents techniques to study
successful and unsuccessful performance on the part of dormitory resident assistants
(RAs). The researchers asked 93 RAs, head residents, and assistant head residents the
following question:
Think of the best (worst) Resident Assistant that you have ever known. Now describe
in details one incident that reflects why this person was the best (worst).
Three judges sorted the 312 incidents collected into the following categories:
availability, fairness, discipline, self-confidence, interest in residents, authoritarianism,
social skills, self-control, and self-adherence to the rules. After resorting the incidents
as a check on the reliability of the raters’ judgments, the researchers were able to
identify qualities of good and poor resident assistants. Good RAs were fair in
discipline, concerned about residents, planned additional programs, stayed around the
hall more than was required, and were self-confident and self-controlled. Poor resident
assistants, on the other hand, were seldom around the hall, disciplined residents but
not their friends, broke rules, were not friendly, and had a personality style that was
either excessively timid or authoritarian.

Evaluating Critical Incidents Technique

Some authors have pointed out that one weakness of virtually all approaches to job
analysis is their reliance at some time point on the opinions of a knowledgeable
individual (e.g., Jones et al., 1982). In the critical incidents approach, this reliance of
actual instances is at least focused on events that actually happen in the workspace.
Reports of actual instances of behaviour gathered from a variety of sources may give
the critical incidents analyst a more objective picture of what behaviour constitute a
specific job. Supervisors are likely to be best informed about what levels of
performance are expected, and job incumbents are probably the critical incidents
technique, experts information is replaced by information from the workers.
Another important advantage of critical incident is that the data can be used for a
number of other personnel functions, especially in performance appraisal, job design,
human factors, and others areas.
On the other hand a disadvantage of this approach relates to one of its most attractive
features — the use of employees as the source of data. Asking employees to stop
work in order to meet in groups and record incidents that have accrued in the
workspace is time-consuming expensive, and inefficient. It may have a negative effect
on productivity. In a study comparing various methods of job analysis, Levine, Ash,
and Bennett (1980) found CIT to be the most expensive.
In order for CIT be effective, unfortunately, this process cannot be shortened. If an
insufficient number of incidents is collected, some aspects of jobs may be overlooked,
or only the most important tasks may be identified (Bemis et al., 1983).
Along the same lines, another problem with CIT is the subjective nature of the data.
12 Workers’ perceptions of effective and ineffective behaviour are likely to be influenced
by factors such as their feelings toward co-workers, perceptions about the quality of Job Analysis and
their own performances, an their willingness to participate in the critical incidents Job Design
study. To a certain degree – but not entirely – these subjective factors can be
controlled by collecting large numbers of incidents.

c) Job Elements Approach

This method of job analysis was developed by Ernest Primoff at the Federal Office of
Personnel Management and uses as its focus the elements that a worker uses in
performing a specific job. Job elements include knowledge, skills, and abilities
(KSAs), as well as willingness, interest, and personal characteristics (Primoff, 1975).
Like the critical incidents approach, job elements relies on the knowledge and
experiences of supervisors and job incumbents. In the first stop of a job elements
approach to job analysis, these SMEs participate in a brainstorming session in which
they identify as many of the elements of a particular job as possible.
Next, the identified elements are rated on each of four factors:
1) Barely acceptable: What relative portion of even barely acceptable workers is
good in the element?
2) Superior: How important is the element in picking out the superior worker?
3) Trouble: How much trouble is likely if the element is ignored when choosing
among applicants?
4) Practical: Is the element practical? To what extent can we fill our job openings if
we demand it?
Using a statistical procedure developed by Primoff, ratings on the above four factors
are analyzed to determine what elements are most important in selecting superior
workers. Box illustrates a rating blank for job elements. From this information, a
“Crediting Plan,” describing the KSAs necessary for successful job performance and
used for evaluating applicants, can be developed.

Example of Job Element Approach

Ash (1982) used the job elements approach in a study of the job of condominium
manager in Florida. In the initial part of the study, 159 task statements were collected
from books, job descriptions, and surveys of supervisors and job incumbents. Through
a statistical technique known as cluster analysis, the number of tasks was reduced to
nineteen in the following five categories: administrative, fiscal, physical maintenance,
legal, and social.
In the second part of the study, KSAs for each of the 11 tasks were generated by 18
SMEs. Each of the elements were then rated on Primof’s four scales. From this
analysis, a detailed picture of the job duties and tasks of the condominium manager
emerged. Box 2 illustrates the elements under the broader category of personnel and
general management, of the 11 tasks identified by Ash.

Evaluating Job Elements Approach

The job elements approach is an involved procedure that provides a detailed analysis
of a particular job. A major advantage of job elements is that, in addition to
identifying the tasks that constitute a particular job, it is particularly useful for
developing training programs. On the basis of job elements analysis, curricula have
recently been developed for professional training in engineering pharmacology, and
cosmetology.

13
Getting Human Like the other methods, however, job elements is time-consuming and costly to
Resources operationalise. Additionally, job analysts may have access to computer programs in
order to complete an analysis. Nevertheless, although job elements has the possibility
of becoming a bit unwieldy, it had had an important effect on developing other
methods of job analysis. Primoff had developed a supplemental procedure (Primoff,
Clark & Caplan, 1982) that combines the job elements method with functional job
analysis and the critical incident technique.
Box 2

Elements of Personnel and General Management for the

Job of Condominium Manager
l Maintain 24-hour call service
l Hire employees
l Train employees
l Evaluate employees
l Establish job descriptions
l Develop fringe benefits package for employees
l Provide ongoing educational program for employees
l Monitor architectural control requirements
l Assign qualified property manager to supervise and administer the day-to-
day on-site activities
l Coordinate volume purchasing
l Develop cost savings procedures

d) Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ)

The Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ) was developed by McCormick and
associates (1972) on the assumption that there is an underlying taxonomy to all jobs.
That is, in contract to the other methods, the PAQ approach focuses on broad
categories common to all jobs rather than on individual elements of specific jobs.
Given the thousands of tasks for one job that the other methods may identify, PAQ
attempts to put this data into a more manageable form. PAQ reduces all jobs to 194
elements, which are classified in terms of six broader dimensions. These six
dimensions are information input (35 elements), mental processes (14 elements), work
output (49 elements), interpersonal activities (36 elements), work situation and job
context (19 elements), and miscellaneous aspects (41 elements). Descriptions of these
six divisions are presented in Box 3.
McCormick (1979) has suggested that the analysis of jobs through the PAQ approach
is usually carried out by job analysts, methods analysts, personnel officers, or
supervisors. Although job incumbents may use the PAQ form, this is usually restricted
to managers and white-collar workers.

Example of Position Analysis Questionnaire Approach

Robinson, Wahlstrom, and Mecham (1974) used the Position Analysis Questionnaire
to evaluate 131 clerical, craft, and operative jobs to compare various methods of job
evaluation and to determine salary fairness. Evaluation of these jobs was undertaken
at the request of the workers’ union, and since very limited funds were available for
14 the project, the PAQ was chosen for the job analysis.
 Box 3 Job Analysis and
Job Design
Outline of the Position Analysis Questionnaire
1) Information input. (Where and how does the worker get the information
needed to perform the job?)
Examples: Use of written materials
Near-Visual differentiation
2) Mental processes. (What reasoning, decision-making, planning, and
information-processing activities are involved in performing the job?)
Examples: Level of reasoning in problem solving
Coding/decoding
3) Work output. (What physical activities does the worker perform and what
tools or devices are used?)
Examples: Use of keyboard devices
Assembling/disassembling
4) Relationships with other persons. (What relationships with other people are
required in performing the job?)
Examples: Instructing
Contacts with public, customers
5) Job context (in what physical or social contexts is the work performed?)
Examples: High temperature
Interpersonal conflict situations
6) Other job characteristics. (what activities, conditions, or characteristics other
than those described above are relevant to the job?)

After receiving orientation about the jobs and the use of the PAQ, job analysts,
supervisors, and some job incumbents rated the jobs. Overall, salaries were found to
be fair and all methods of job evaluation had similar results. Interestingly, Robinson
et al. found that the analyses done by the job incumbents were not as thorough as
those done by the supervisors.

Evaluation of Position Analysis Questionnaire

There are several advantages inherent in the Position Analysis Questionnaire. First,
PAQ is structured to allow for easy quantification. The format of the instrument
facilities both data collection and computer analysis and can yield results much faster
than the other methods. Another advantage of quantitative basis of the instrument is
that it has been shown to be extremely reliable. That is, results usually replicate on a
second administration.
Another advantage is that the taxonomic approach of the PAQ makes comparison of
jobs relatively easy. Along the same lines, the taxonomy allows the Position Analysis
Questionnaire to be applied in a wide variety of situations without modifications.
Unlike the other methods discussed, not much time needed for this.
One of the major disadvantages of PAQ, however, is related to its taxonomic
approach. In the previously cited study comparing several methods of job analysis,
Levine and associates (1980) found that the PAQ system was the most disliked,
15
Getting Human probably because its language is not specific to particular jobs. Another criticism of
Resources the language used in PAQ is that its reading level is too difficult. Ash and Edgell
(1975) have pointed out that the readability of the instrument is at college level, which
may explain why the use of job incumbents as informants is limited in the PAQ
approach.

e) Physical Abilities Requirements Approach

One limitation of all the methods discussed is that, with the exception of the PAQ, they
are not very useful for determining the physical requirements for job performance.
Although these job analysis methods will identify those tasks that a worker is expected
to accomplish, information about the physical requirements is usually inferred. For
many jobs, qualities such as reaction time, manual dexterity, or trunk strength may be
critical to successful job performance.
Lack of knowledge about physical requirements can lead to problems in many areas,
but particularly in personnel selection and employee turnover, Employers who might
assume that women are unable to accomplish tasks requiring physical strength and
consequently avoid hiring them may be discriminating unfairly. Unless a thorough job
analysis reveals specifically that most women do not have the physical abilities
necessary for successful performance of the job in question (e.g., jackhammer
operator), employers who hire only men may be violating laws governing fairness in
personnel selection.
Uncertainty about physical requirements can also result in turnover or attrition that
can be quite costly to the employer. When an employer or a job applicant is uncertain
about the levels of strengths or flexibility necessary to perform a job, then the
likelihood of the candidate not performing successfully is much greater. Navy
ordinance disposal divers, for example, face such physically demanding tasks that
only 48 per cent of diver candidates even finish a training course (Quigley & Hogan,
1982). Additionally, poor match between applicant abilities and physical requirements
is likely to lead to a higher accident rate.
Fleishman (1975) & Quaintance (1984) had developed a taxonomy of physical and
cognitive abilities that is designed to describe the performance standards of any job.
According to Fleishman, abilities are the foundation on which skills are built. Whereas
operating heavy equipment is a skill, some of coordination, and rate control
(Theologus, Romashko, & Fleishman, 1970). In contrast to the other methods,
considering jobs from an abilities approach results is much greater generalisability of
information across differently jobs.
Levels of physical ability are obviously important in many occupations in our society,
but the analysis of jobs with regard to this area has not been widely explored in
industrial and organizational psychology. As suggested, a lack of knowledge about
physical requirements can lead to problems with selection or employee turnover.

Example of Physical Abilities Requirements Approach

In an important study of the validity of physical ability tests to predict job
performance, Reilly, Zedeck, and Tenopyr (1979) considered the process by which
telephone line technicians, splicers, and installers, were selected. Specifically, these
researchers were interested in predicting the ability of applicants to perform tasks
relating to pole climbing and ladder handling, two essential aspects of successful job
performance.
Job analysis started with group interviews of outdoor craft supervisors in order to
identify those tasks that demanded gross motor proficiency. From these interviews, a
24-item task list was developed. At the same time, the researcher also asked 58 job
16
incumbents and supervisors to classify tasks in terms of sensory, perceptual, Job Analysis and
cognitive, psychomotor, and physical abilities scales contained in the Abilities Job Design
Analysis Manual developed by Theologues, Romashko, and Fleishman.

4.6 JOB DESCRIPTION AND JOB SPECIFICATION

Job analysis is the examination of a job, its component parts and the circumstances in
which it is performed. It leads to a job description which sets out the purpose, scope,
duties and responsibilities of a job. From the job analysis and job description, a job
specification may be derived, which is a statement of the skills, knowledge and other
personal attributes required to carry out the job. Some of the uses are:
1) Recruitment and selection, where it is provided a basis for a specification of
what the company is looking for.
2) Training, where by means of skills and task analysis it produces training
specifications which set out training needs and are used to prepare training
programmes.
3) Job evaluation, where by means of whole job or factor comparison, job
descriptions can be compared and decisions made on the relative position of a job
in the hierarchy.
4) Performance appraisal, where the job description resulting from job analysis is
used to decide on the objectives and standards the job holder should reach
against which his or her performance will be measured.
5) Organization Planning, as part of the process of activity.

4.7 TECHNIQUES OF COLLECTING INFORMATION

FOR JOB ANALYSIS
Information about jobs can be collected by means of questionnaire and/or interviews.

a) Questionnaires
Questionnaires, to be completed by job-holders and approved by job-holder’s
superiors, are useful when a large number of jobs are to be covered. They can also
save interviewing time by recording purely factual information and by helping the
analyst to structure his or her questions in advance to cover areas which need to be
explored in greater depth.
Questionnaire should provide the following basic information:
l The job title of the job-holder.
l The title of the job-holder’s superior.
l The job titles and numbers of staff reporting to the job-holder (best recorded by
means of an organization chart).
l A brief description (one or two sentences) of the overall role or purpose
of the job.
l A list of the main tasks or duties that the job-holder has to carry out. As
appropriate, these should specify the resources controlled, the equipment used,
the contacts made and the frequency with which the tasks are carried out.

b) Interview
To obtain the full flavour of a job it is usually necessary to interview job-holders and
to check the findings with their superiors. The aim of the interview is to obtain all the 17
Getting Human relevant facts about the job, covering the areas listed above in the section on
Resources questionnaires.
To achieve this aim job analysts should:
1) work to a logical sequence of questions which help the interviewee to order his or
her thoughts about the job;
2) pin people down on what they actually do;
3) ensure that the job-holder is not allowed to get away with vague or inflated
descriptions of his or her work; and
4) obtain a clear statement from the job-holder about his or her authority to make
decisions and the amount of guidance received from his or her superior.

4.8 TECHNIQUES OF WRITING JOB DESCRIPTIONS

Job descriptions are based on the detailed job analysis and should be as brief and as
factual as possible. The headings under which job descriptions are written are set out
below.

Job Title
The existing or proposed job title indicates as clearly as possible the function in which
the job is carried out and the level of the job within that function.

Reporting to
The job title of the manger or superior to whom the job-holder is directly responsible
is given under this heading.

Overall responsibilities
This part describes as concisely as possible the overall purpose of the job. The aim is
to convey in no more than two or three sentences a broad picture of the job which will
clearly distinguish it from other jobs and establish the role of job-holder.

Main tasks
The steps taken to define the main tasks of the job are as follows:
1) Identify and list the tasks that have to be carried out. No attempt is made to
describe in detail how they are carried out, but some indications is given of the
purpose or objectives of each task.
2) Analyze the initial list of tasks and, so far as possible, simplify the list by
grouping related tasks together so that no more than, say, seven or eight main
activity areas remain.
3) Decide on the order in which tasks should be described. The alternatives include :
l Frequency with which they are carried out (continually, hourly, daily,
weekly, monthly, intermittently);
l Chronological order;
l Order of importance; and
l The main process of management that are carried out, for example, setting
objectives, planning, organizing, coordinating, operating, directing and
motivating staff, and controlling.

18
4) Describe each main task separately in short numbered paragraphs. No more Job Analysis and
than one or at most two sentences are used for the description, but, if necessary, Job Design
any separate tasks carried out within the task can be tabulated (a, b, c, etc) under
the overall description of the activity. A typical sentence describing a task
should:
l Start with an active verb to eliminate all unnecessary wording. Active
verbs are used which express the actual responsibility to recommend, to do,
ensure that someone else does something, or to collaborate with someone,
e.g. Prepares, completes, recommends, supervises, ensures that, liaises
with;
l State what is done as succinctly as possible; and
l State why it is done: this indicates the purpose of the job gives a lead to
setting targets or performance standards.

4.9 JOB DESIGN

We can say that the that assembly-line workers are fairly highly involved in the work,
even through they have little autonomy.
Thomas M. Lodah
There are two basics ways in which work is organized. The first related to the flow of
authority and is known as organization structure or merely organization. The second
relates to flow of work itself from one operation to another and is known as
procedure. Synonyms are method, system, and work flow. Alert managers usually
recognize the behavioral aspects of organization structure because of the superior-
subordinate relationship which it establishes, but more often than not they ignore or
overlook the behavioral aspects of work flow. The reason that work flow and the lay
out over which it flows are engineering factors, which are to be distinguished from
human factors. In the usual case however, work flow has many behavioral aspects
because it sent people interaction as they perform their work.
One management’s most fundamental idea is systems and method improvement, by
which it seeks to make optimum use of division of labor, and specialization and to
achieve order and balance in the performance of work. However, as indicated in the
quotation introducing this chapter, workers do not like to be “engineered” in methods
improvement. They perceive that improvement is measure in technical terms and that
the human dissatisfaction caused by the “improvement” are generally overlooked. The
goal of methods improvement is greater productivity, but sometimes it brings human
compilations which reduce effectiveness and offset the technical advantages gained.
This part discusses different aspects of work methods. Emphasis is upon the flow of
work among people, rather than the personal work methods of an isolated individual.
Subjects discussed are flow of work and different work systems.

4.10 EFFECTS OF WORK FLOW ON PEOPLE

a) Initiation of Action. One important aspect of work flow is that it determines who
will “initiate” an activity and who will “receive” it. At each point in the flow of work
one person gives material to the next person who will work on it. Along the way, staff
experts give ideas and instruction. This process of sending work to another is an
initiation of action on another person. When an initiation results from work flow, it is
called a procedural initiation to distinguish it from an authority initiation, which
comes from formal authority of a informal organization. The receiver of any initiation
is psychological secondary, but the receiver of a procedural initiation is especially so
19
Getting Human because he may receive from a worker who is neither his supervisor nor an informal
Resources leader – from someone who “just shouldn’t be pushing him around.”
When procedural initiation comes from someone of distinctly less skill, someone much
younger, or someone inferior by any measure of status, human problems can become
serious. These problems tend to be compounded if any relationship involves pressure
on the receiver, as in the following example from Whyte’s study of restaurants.
Large restaurants sometimes use young boys as runners to communicate the needs of
the serving pantry to the kitchen. This place the runner in the position of “telling” the
cooks to prepare and send particular types of food. The result is that a young boy
imitates action on high-status cooks. In essence, he is telling them what to do. Whyte
found that this relationship was typically a trouble spot in the restaurants he studied.
Cooks resented the control exercised on them by young boys of inferior status.
Practical solutions included,
1) using a mechanical voice system which eliminated face-to-face contact, and
2) changing the initiator to someone of more status.
Further problems tend to arise when a procedural initiation affects “sensitive” areas
such as how much work a man does (e.g., time study) and his conclusion that
procedural initiations which are from low-status to high-status person, place heavy
pressures on the receiver, or affect sensitive parts of the receiver’s work tend to be
trouble spots. Management’s responsibility is to discover these situations in its work
processes and, if they cannot be avoided to plan them carefully.
Procedural, authority, and informal initiation of action come from person however, not
all work imitations are identifiable as coming directly from some wherein people
respond t cues implicit in the operation situation. For example, a ceramic glaze has
finished its baking cycle and the operator acts to remove it from the furnace, or the
cellophane ribbon creases on cellophane machines and men act as a team to correct it.
In this instance, one cannot determine who initiates an event because it arises from the
work itself. This kind of initiation not identifiable with persons is called a situational
interactions. There is some evidence that persons get satisfaction from working in
harmony with situational initiations and that teams have better moral when their
teamwork primarily involves situational initiations instead of personal ones. The
reasons appears to be what workers are less likely to resent and feel subordinate the
impersonal requirements of the work itself.
b) Systems Design for better Teamwork. Another important aspect of work
procedure is that it should permit people to work together as a team whenever the
work flow requires it. Teamwork can be engineered out of a work situation by means
of layouts and job assignments which separate people so that it is impractical for them
to work together, even though the work flow requirement teamwork. In one instance
two operators, functionally interdependent, was unnecessarily on separate shifts,
which prevented the operator fed parts to two spiral lines which were in competition,
and each line regularly claimed that is favored the other. In another situation the
operator of a continuous bottle forming machine was so far separated from the first
inspection station on this line that he could never be sure whether his machine was
producing satisfactory quality. The problem was met by continuously reporting
inspection result from the inspector to an information panel in front of the operator.
One of the best illustrations of teamwork engineered out of a job is Rice’s study of
textile mill in India. (Box 4).

20
 Box 4 Job Analysis and
Job Design
(Illustration of Teamwork Engineered)
The mill was intensively reengineered according to basic industrial engineering
procedures. Each job had carefully assigned work loads based on engineering study.
In one room there were 224 looms operated and maintained by twelve occupational
groups. Each weaver tended twenty-four on thirty two looms, each battery filler
served forty to fifty looms, and each smash had served and average of seventy-five
looms. The other nice occupations were service and maintained, and each worker
had either 112 or 224 looms.
Although the mill appeared to be superbly engineered, it failed to reach satisfactory
output. Research disclosed that close teamwork of all twelve occupations was
required to maintain production, yet work organization prevented this teamwork.
Each battery filler served all looms of one weaver and part of the looms of a second
weaver, which meant a weaver and battery filler were not a team unit even though
the nature of the process required it. In effect, a weaver tending twenty-four looms
and using a battery filler serving forty looms, worked with three-fifth of a battery
filler, while another weaver shared two-fifths of him. The situation was even more
confused with smash hands who tended seventy-five looms.
Eventually work was reorganized so that a certain group of workers had
responsibility for definite number of machines. Workers then were able to set up
interaction and teamwork which causes production to soar.
Work flow can also be setup in such a way that the job puts unreasonable pressure
on a person. In a series of similar offices the secretary of each was required to
prepare technical correspondence for five to seven managers, answer the telephone,
greet visitors, and serve as group leader of a few clerks. The result was high
turnover and more than a normal amount of nervous disorders among the
secretaries. Another example is that of a hotel food checker who inspected food
brought by waitresses on the telephone. Under conditions of this type it is useless to
try to solve the problem by training the participants to understand each other better,
to communicate better, or to apply good human relations. The first requirement is to
reorganize the work flow then human relations training may not even be needed!
It is well known that plant layout and work flow have much to do with the
opportunity which people have to talk to one another during work. In an insurance
office, for example, the layout of desks was such that persons who needed to
coordinate their work were unnecessarily separated by a broad aisle. Employee met
the problem by loudly calling across the aisle, but this eventually had to be stopped
because of the disturbance. The end result was poor communication. In another
company sewing machines were located so that talking was discouraged but
management soon discovered that another layout which permitted talking led to
higher productivity because it relived the monotony of routine work.
Managers often overlook the fact that layout can also affect off-duty interaction of
employees. Some years ago I visited a new factory which was a model of
engineering efficiency. Although the lunchroom was spotless and efficiently
designed, I ate an uneasily meal. I normally have an affinity for the factory
environment, but his time it was too much—the cafeteria was located in the
basement directly beneath stamping and light forging presses! Vibration was so
terrific it stopped conversation. The floor and ceiling shook; the dished settled; there
was no sound-deadening tile on the ceiling. The space beneath the presses
apparently was not needed for another function; so the cafeteria got it, but
employee communication and relaxation were thereby exclude at mealtime. Lunch
hours in the plant were staggered into four periods, which meant that the presses
operated during the time most employees ate. When I asked my host, “Why?” his
answer “ The cafeteria is for eating only, and anyway, the noise shouldn’t bother 21
anyone.”
Getting Human The evidence is clear that work systems and layout have a substantial effect on human
Resources behaviour. They do this by:
1) Determining who initiates procedural action on whom, and some of the
conditions in which the initiations occurs.
2) Influencing the degree to which employees performing interdependent functions
can work together as a team.
3) Affecting the communication patterns of employees.
The general conclusion for management is that relationships among workers in a
system can be just as important as relationships of the work in that system. In the
design of any system it is folly to spend all time planning work relationships but
ignoring worker relationships
c) Control of Red Tape. One aspect of procedure which is universally known as
respected for its effect on people is red tape. It is the unnecessary procedure which
delays and harasses people everywhere. The term originated from real red tape used to
tie official government documents, many of which having long been challenged as
unnecessary by those who prepare them. No doubt some of the work in government
and in business as well is true red tape, but some is in reality “fictions red tape.” It
exists when those who perform the procedure do not know why they are doing it.
They, consequently, think it is red tape, but from a broader viewpoint the work is both
necessary and worthwhile. The remedy for fictitious red tape is improved
communication and development of a broader perspective among those who perform
the work.
Genuine red tape arises primarily because (1) managers are afraid to delegate and
consequently set up all sorts of unnecessary approvals and checks, and (2) procedures,
even through once useful, tend to persist long after their usefulness has passed. The
first reason can be eliminated through good leadership and second reason deserves
further attention at this point.
One cause of the “stickiness” of red tape is normal resistance to change. A procedure
tends to become a habit, and people resist changing it. Since it as, in a sense, set up to
eliminate thinking by giving its followers a routine to use without having to decide
each step, they-seldom think about changing it. They get “stuck in a rut.” Another
cause of useless procedure is that it is often determined by a higher authority who does
not understand work problems, but his personnel hesitate to challenge the procedure
because they did not participate in establishing it. In other cases, people do not know
why they are performing a procedure; consequently they cannot know whether it is
useless or not, and they do not date to expose their “ignorance” by questioning a
procedure with their boss may be able to prove essential beyond a shadow of a doubt.
People do not like to get caught not knowing something about their work.
Another reason for useless procedures is that most of them cross lines of authority,
jumping from one chain of command else worry about. “ they know about this
procedure, too – and it originates with them – so let them change it.” An additional
reason why procedures tend to outlive their usefulness is that the persons who created
them are often supervisors all out of proportion to their real significance. Very often
he focuses extremes attention on one or two of them. They become an obsession with
him and this condition is known as obsessive thinking.
Where conditions permit obsessive thinking and the conditions cannot be changed,
employee effectiveness is increased through the use of activities which occupy the
mind and crowd out obsessive thinking. The more a worker’s mind is kept busy, the
less should be his obsessive thinking. This is one reason management provides music

22
in routine and monotonous situations. For this same reason management permits – Job Analysis and
even encourages – talking across the aisle or workbench. Contests and recreational Job Design
programs are other activities which occupy the mind, drive out obsessive thinking, and
provide additional group solidarity.
In order to escape some of the human effects of poorly designed systems more
companies are insisting that their systems experts and industrial engineers have human
relations training. Where the stakes are high, even more stringent requirements may be
set. One company which employed many persons with advanced degrees in its offices
and in small lot of production established the policy of having all job design and
systems work performed by a team of two men. On each team one person was an
industrial engineer concerned with technical requirements, and the other was a human
relations specialist dealing with human aspects of the work.

4.11 DIFFERENT WORK SYSTEMS

The way in which work is organized leads to different work systems.
The following systems will be discussed because of their significant influence on
employee behaviour: produced and functional work systems, labor pools, and
assembly lines.
From the social point of view, we need to design systems which are as
appropriate for people as possible, considering economic and other factors the
situation. Regardless of what kind of system is developed, workers and their
supervisors will try to adjust to it. In nearly all cases they will adjust reasonable well,
because people have a remarkable sense of adaptability. Following is a example of
employee adaptability.
An air-conditioning manufacturer required his three final assembly departments to
complete a specific daily quota of air conditioners. Supervisors soon learned that the
ordinary uncertainties of production caused them to produce over their quota on some
days and under their quota on other days. However, management was quite insistent
that they must meet the quota every day that shipping schedules could be met. In
response to this system established by management, each of the supervisors began his
own, “system.” Each started keeping a store of ten to fifty “almost-finished” air
conditioners under starpaulin in his department. When he saw that he was running
short for the day, he took from this store a nearly finished air conditioner and ran it
through final assembly steps in order to meet his standard of 7—air conditioners for
each eight hours day. Then, when he produced over the standard on another day, he
worked some of his production back into the store.
If a supervisor had a series of bad days, the other supervisors lent to him from their
stores, if necessary, or they lent him a man from their group to help him catch up. In
this way, management’s needs for a standard output were met and supervisors’ needs
for acceptance by management were met.
a) Product and Functional Work Systems. Two somewhat opposing work systems
are product and functional organization of worm. Manufacturing affords an
interesting example. The product system is organized around a complete product to be
made. The functional system is organized on the basis of specialized work activities
rather than products. The two type of work systems in a pharmaceutical firm are as
follow. (Box 5).

23
Getting Human Box 5
Resources

Work Systems in a Pharmaceutical Firm

The manufacture of pills and tablets is handled differently in one than in the other.
In the product system all work on tablets is done in one department under one
supervisor. He controls the mixing according to formula, pressing of the tablets,
coating-machine operations, and packaging. He controls a varied set of activities
which follow the product from beginning to completion. In the functional system
tablets are mixed according to formula in the first department; then they are
transported to another department for pressing, to another for coating, and finally
to the packaging department.

The two types of work systems create different employee environments.

In the product system the persons who work together are a conglomerate mix of
skills. They lack a mutual occupational interest because their associates
performing similar work are located throughout the plant. There are
persons mixing formulas in all three departments – tablets, liquid and vaccines.
Though product employees lack a mutual occupational interest, they do see a whole
product made in their work area, so their role in the work process becomes more
meaningful to them. Promotion in the product system usually is gained by learning a
different occupation, such as moving from tablet packager to tablet presser to tablet
coater; therefore the route of promotion is less certain and requires more versatility of
skill. As a result, the workers become broader in experience and outlook.
The foreman in the product system cannot master all the skills in his department, so he
is unable to comment respect of the workers through superior’s ability in their
specialty. He maintains leadership by means of skilled management and human
motivation. He tends to be a broader, more versatile supervisor than the supervisor of
a functional system. His supervision tends to be less punitive and directive, because
natural team work develops as each man sees that his contribution is needed to make
this whole product.
Look now at the functional work system. In the mixing department of the
pharmaceutical firm the foreman probably is the senior man or is the
mixed with greatest skill or knowledge of formulas. Emphasis is on
technical skill rather than human skills. Workers in a functional system no
longer are direct involved in the whole product and tend to feel less responsible
for it. Since their work goes to one department and then another, potential
conflict is increased. Bickering develops over whether work is done on time and
with proper quality, because a breakdown in one department slows the work of all
other departments. Disputes arise concerning who caused a mistake and at
what point a department assumed control of a particular batch of work in process.
In the functional system, top management needs to devote extra attention to
maintaining interdepartmental cooperation and developing broad, human-oriented
supervisors. Both tend to be lacking.
b) Labour Pools. Labour pools are also a special way of organizing work.
Depending upon their objectives and manner of organization, different relationships
develop. An example of this is discussed below (Box 6).

24
 Box 6 Job Analysis and
Job Design
Labour Pool in Oil Refeneries
Oil refineries are required to operate twenty-four hours a day because of the
nature of the production process. One refinery established a central labour pool of
skilled, versatile men to be sent to other departments to replace persons absent.
Before the pool was established, engineers and cost experts carefully proved that
the idea was workable and would reduce costs by reducing overtime and/or
regular standby men in each department. However, after a year of Herculean effort
by management the pool had to be abandoned, for two reasons. First, management
could not keep men in the pool. It lowered their status to be in the pool, and they
objected to working for different foremen on different jobs. They disliked being
without a specific work station which they could count as theirs. Some men chose
to quit the company when transferred to the pool.
Second, the pool increased labour costs instead of decreasing them. Since pool
men, lacked interest and motivation, foremen avoided them and started doubling
shifts (working one of their own men sixteen hours) instead of using pool men.
This left pool men idle, further hurting their morale and increasing pool costs. It
also increased department costs by requiring overtime.
If management had introduced the pool properly, perhaps it could have worked;
but it failed because management was unaware of how the work system was
affecting human relations.

c) Assembly Lines . Assembly lines are a type of product work system, because
work is organized and simplified in terms of the product manufactured. An assembly
line is based on the following concepts: (1) standardization (2) interchangeability of
parts, (3) breakdown of jobs into simple motions, (4) an orderly progression of the
product through a series of operations, and (5) mechanical movement of the product to
and from workers.

4.12 THE CURRENT PICTURE

Organization seeking to maximize the value of competency – based management must
apply it to several human recourses functions, most particularly to learning and
development, resourcing and performance management. Some organization have also
applied it to compensation as well. Organization applying a common model use
competencies as the common denominator in selection, developmental and
performance management processes.
The majority of organization defines competencies in terms of knowledge, skills,
abilities, and personal attributes or characteristics, some including values as part of
their competency models. Common to most models is the use of observable and
measurable behavioral descriptors to describe performance requirement for
competencies and the use of scales to differentiate proficiency levels. The grouping of
competencies by job families or generic job roles is also commonly applied.
Frequently used approaches to competency identification include the use of focus
groups of managers and employees as well as individual interviews with “average”
and “superior “ job performers. Behaviour – based interviews are sometimes used to
from those high – performance behaviours that differentiate successful job
performances from other employees. Some competency models emphasize the
“average” vs. “superior“ performance distinction while others focus on identifying the
competencies that result in “successful” performance on the job.
25
Getting Human Among the products that result from competency projects include self-assessment
Resources and 360 degree questionnaires, learning plans and learning resource
information (“learning maps”), behaviour-based interview questions and
other assessment tools.
Competency models vary in terms of the types of competency information they
collect and reflect on “Competency Profiles”, the documents that describe the
particular set of competencies necessary to carry out the work. Some models
focus on technical job – specific knowledge and skills while others emphasize very
generic abilities and personal qualities. More recent models attempt to reflect all the
types of competencies, including knowledge, skills, abilities and personal attributes,
related to job success.

The single-job competency model

Earlier competency models focused on single, critical jobs in an organization, which is
still common. While such models have value – they provide a framework for
describing key job requirements – they are costly to develop and once implemented,
do not allow for comparisons of the requirements of the job profiled with other jobs in
the organization. In addition, they cannot readily be tied in any consistent manner to
existing HR processes that have been re-designed to accommodate a competency
approach, resulting in fragmented HR practices.
For a broad range of jobs, for example, all managerial jobs or front-line jobs. Using
similar techniques as for other competency efforts, a common set of competencies are
developed which can then be used as the basis of HR processes. While cost-effective
and permitting a consistent framework for a large number of employees, this approach
does not clearly describe what is needed in any specific job. This is because seeking
commonalities among different jobs requires that knowledge and skills to be down
played and generic abilities and personal qualities be emphasized. As such, the
competencies have more affinity with organization value than specific job skills or
abilities.
The problem with the one-size-fits-all approach is expressed in the following quote:
“Without the skills component in the model, users say it is often difficult to see the
linkage of the model to Business result and the model doesn’t fully answer the
question, “What do have to know and to do to be considered for that job?”
Additionally, because the model does not differentiate among the requirements of
different jobs, it has limited use in guiding selection, training and other HR processes
for specific jobs and for matching individuals to job assignments. This approach also
shares a problem common to that noted for the single-job approach. That is, the
competencies identified for the particular group of jobs profiled cannot be compared
to other jobs in the organization that were not profiled.

The multiple job approach

What is being seen more frequently as an alternative to the above, is described as the
“Multiple-Job Approach.” This approach uses a common set of “building block”
competencies, including technical competencies, which can be used to build profiles
for any job. The approach allows for a common conceptual framework for an entire
organization while permitting customization for individual jobs.
One of the greatest advantages of using a common language is that by entering
competency information into a database, an organization can being to capture
information about skills gaps, identify training and development needs,
collect qualitative employee data for human resource planning and match
individuals to jobs.
26
This approach is more complex to implement because it covers many different types Job Analysis and
of jobs and therefore requires buy-in and effort from many key players. The Job Design
framework and administrative processes required to implements it is also more
complex. However, the multiple-job approach is more cost effective than the single-job
approach if many competency models must developed.

4.13 SUMMARY
To sum up, this unit provided a clear understanding of the process of job analysis and
the methods involved in it. All the methods discussed have some advantages and
disadvantages. Keeping these in view, an efficient Job Analyst uses the required job
analysis technique. Also, the concept of job design and its associated techniques have
been discussed so as to improve your ability to design jobs more effectively.

4.14 SELF ASSESMENT QUESTIONS

1) What is the relevance of job analysis in the modern times?
2) Discuss the methods used job analysis.
3) Discuss the salient features of job analysis
4) How relevant is the understanding of job design for developing organizational
effectiveness.

4.15 FURTHER READINGS

Ash, R.A. & Levine E.L. (1985) Job applicant training and work experience
evaluation: An empirical comparison of four methods. Tour of Applied Psychology.,
70, 572-576
Bemis, S.E., Belenky, A.H. & Soder, D.A. (1983) Job analysis: An effectiveness
management tool, Washington DC: Bureau of National Affairs.
Denis, D.L. (1984) Are recruitment efforts designed to fail? Personnel Tour, 63, 60-67.
Dunnelte, M.D. (1966) Personal selection and placement. Belmont, C.A. Brooks/Cole.
Fleishman, E.A., & Quaintaner, M.K. (1984) Taxonomics of human performance:
The description of human tasks. New York, Academic Press.

27
Getting Human
Resources UNIT 5 HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING
Objectives
After completion of the unit, you should be able to:
l understand the concept of Human Resource Planning (HRP);
l discuss the need and objectives of HRP;
l describe the process of HRP; and
l discuss the problems of HRP.

Structure
5.1 What is Human Resource Planning?
5.2 Objectives of HRP
5.3 Levels of HRP
5.4 Process of HRP
5.5 Techniques of HR Demand Forecast
5.6 Factors Affecting HR Demand Forecasting
5.7 Problems in HRP Process
5.8 Guidelines for Making HRP Effective
5.9 Summary
5.10 Self Assessment Questions
5.11 Further Readings

5.1 WHAT IS HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING?

Human Resource Planning (HRP) may be defined as strategy for acquisition,
utilization, improvement and preservation of the human resources of an enterprise.
The objective is to provide right personnel for the right work and optimum utilization
of the existing human resources. HRP exists as a part of the planning process of
business. This is the activity of the management which is aimed at co-ordinating
requirements for and the availability of different types of employers. The major
activities of HRP include: forecasting (future requirements), inventorying (present
strength), anticipating (comparison of present and future requirements) and planning
(necessary programme to meet future requirements).

Activity A
Identify and tabulate the present position of human resources and future requirement
in your present organization.
........................................................................................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................................................................................
28
 Human Resource
5.2 OBJECTIVES OF HRP Planning

The objectives of HRP are mainly to:

a) ensure optimum utilization of human resources currently employed;
b) assess or forecast future requirements;
c) cope up with the changing scenario;
d) attaching with business plans of organization;
e) anticipate redundancies;
f) provide basis for human resource development (HRD); and
g) assist in productivity bargaining.
Benefits of HRP
Proper HRP results into a number of benefits. Some of them are:
a) Create reservior of talent.
b) Preparation for future HR needs.
c) Promote employees in a systematic manner.
d) Provide basis for HRD.
e) Help in career and succession planning.

Need for HRP at Macro Level

Major reasons for the emphasis on HRP at macro level include:
Employment-Unemployment Situation: Though in general the number of educated
unemployed is on the rise, there is acute shortage for a variety of skills. This
emphasises the need for more effective recruitment and retaining people.
Technological Changes: The myriad changes in production technologies, marketing
methods and management techniques have been extensive and rapid. Their effect has
been profound on job contents and job contexts. These changes cause problems
relating to redundancies, retraining and redeployment. All these suggest the need to
plan manpower needs intensively and systematically.
Organizational Changes: In the turbulent environment marked by cyclical
fluctuations and discontinuities, the nature and pace of changes in organizational
environment, activities and structures affect manpower requirements and require
strategic considerations.
Demographic Changes: The changing profile of the work force in terms of age, sex,
litercy, technical inputs and social background have implications for HRP.
Skill Shortages: Unemployment does not mean that the labour market is a buyer’s
market. Organizations have generally become more complex and require a wide range
of specialist skills that are rare and scarce. Problems arise when such employees leave.
Governmental Influences: Government control and changes in legislation with regard
to affirmative action for disadvantaged groups, working conditions and hours of work,
restrictions on women and child employment, casual and contract labout, etc. have
stimulated the organizations to become involved in systematic HRP.
Legislative Controls: The days of executive fiat and ‘hire and fire’ policies are gone.
Now legislation makes it difficult to reduce the size of an organization quickly and
cheaply. It is easy to increase but difficult to shed the fat in terms of the numbers
employed because of recent changes in labour law relating to lay-offs and closures.
Those responsible for managing manpower must look far ahead and thus attempt to
foresee manpower problems.
29
Getting Human Impact of Pressure Groups: Pressure groups such as unions, politicians and persons
Resources displaced from land by location of giant enterprises have been raising contradictory
pressures on enterprise management such as internal recruitment and promotions,
preference to employees’ children, displace persons, sons of the soil etc.
Systems Concept: The spread of systems thinking and the advent of the macro-
computer as part of the on-going revolution in information technology which
emphasises planning and newer ways of handling voluminous personnel records.
Lead Time: The long lead time is necessary in the selection process and for training
and deployment of the employee to handle new knowledge and skills successfully.

5.3 LEVELS OF HRP

HRP is carried out at the following levels:
a) National Level: The Central Government plans for human resources at the
national level. It forecasts the demand for and supply of human resources as a
whole. For example, the Government of India specifies the objectives of HRP in
successive five-year plans.
b) Sectoral Levels: Central and State Governments, formulate HRPs for different
sectors. For example, industrial sector, agricultural sector etc.
c) Industry Level: HRP for specific industries are prepared by the particular
industries.
d) Unit Level: HRP for a particular department/sector of an industry is prepared at
this level. It again includes the following levels.
i) Plant level;
ii) Department level; and
iii) Divisional level.

5.4 PROCESS OF HRP

The process of HRP is entirely based on the corporate plans and objectives. HRP is a
continuous process of review, control and assessment. Figure 1 clearly indicates the
HRP process. 1
Corporate Analysis
(a) Objectives and Strategies
s

(b) Company Organization Plans

(c) Market forecasts and Budgets
Manpower Objectives and Policies

(d) Financial Plans

(e) Production Targets
Modify Organizational Plans
2 4 3
Demand Forecast Manpower Gaps Supply Forecast
(a) Numbers (a) Surplus of numbers (a) Manpower
(b) Job Categories and skills inventory
(c) Skill requirements (b) Shortages (b) Losses and
additions
5 (c) Externat Supply
Manpower Plans
(a) Recruitment and Selection
(b) Training and Development
(c) Redeployment/Retrenchmant
s

(d) Redundancy
(e) Retention/internal mobility
(f) Productivity

Monitoring and Control

Figure 1: Human Resource Planning Process

30 Source: Gupta, C.B. (1997). Human Resource Management, Sultan Chand & Co., New Delhi.
The major stages of HRP are as follows: Human Resource
Planning
a) Analysing Operational Plans
It consists of the following substages:
i) Objectives and strategic plans of the company are analyzed.
ii) Plans concerning technological, finance, production are analyzed and HRP is
prepared keeping these in mind.
iii) Future plans, goals, and objectives of the company are also taken into account.

b) Human Resource Demand Forecasting

HR demand forecasting mainly involves three sub functions:
i) Demand Forecast: Process of estimating future quantity and quality of human
resources required.
ii) Manpower Gaps: Depending upon the requirement existing surplus human
resources having desired skills are matched, if not found then shortage is shown.
iii) Supply Forecast: Basing on the existing HR inventory and the demand forecast,
the supply forecast of human resources is carried out in an organization.

5.5 TECHNIQUES OF HR DEMAND FORECAST

Techniques of HR demand forecast are discussed below.
a) Managerial Judgement: In this, experienced managers estimate the human
resource requirements for their respective departments on the basis of their
knowledge of expected future work load and employee efficiency.
b) Work-study Method: In this method time and motion study are used to analyze
and measure the work being done.
c) Ratio-Trend Analysis: Under this method ratios (e.g. total output/no. of
workers, direct workers/indirect workers) are calculated on the basis of past
data. Future ratios are basing on the past trend.
d) Mathematical Models: It expresses the relationship between independent
variable (e.g. investment, production, sales, etc.) and dependent variables (e.g.
no. of employees required).

Activity B
Describe how human resource demand forecast is carried out in your organization or
an organization you are familiar with.
........................................................................................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................................................................................

5.6 FACTORS AFFECTING HR DEMAND FORECASTING

Human Resource Demand Forecasting depends on several factors, some of which are
given below.
a) Employment trends;
b) Replacement needs; 31
Getting Human c) Productivity;
Resources
d) Absenteeism; and
e) Expansion and growth.

5.7 PROBLEMS IN HRP PROCESS

The main problems in the process of HRP are as follows:
a) Inaccuracy: HRP is entirely dependent on the HR forecasting and supply, which
cannot be a cent per cent accurate process.
b) Employee resistance: Employees and their unions feel that by HRP, their
workload increases so they resist the process.
c) Uncertainties: Labour absenteeism, labour turnover, seasonal employment,
technological changes and market fluctuations are the uncertainties which HRP
process might have to face.
d) Inefficient information system: In Indian industries, HRIS is not much strong.
In the absence of reliable data it is not possible to develop effective HRP.
e) Time and expense: HRP is time consuming and expensive exercice, so industries
avoid.

5.8 GUIDELINES FOR MAKING HRP EFFECTIVE

Few guidelines to improve effectiveness of HRP process are discussed below.
a) Tailormade: HRP should be balanced with corporate objectives.
b) Appropriate time: The period of HRP process should be appropriate to the needs
and circumstances of an organization.
c) Adequate organization: HRP process should be adequately/properly organized.
d) Top management support: Before starting the HRP process the support and
commitment of top management should be ensured.
e) Participation: HRP will be successful if all in an organization are participating.
f) Information system: An adequate database should be developed for facilitating
HRP.
g) Balanced focus: The quantity and quality should be stressed in a balanced
manner.

5.9 SUMMARY
To sum up, HRP is the process of determining the number and kind of human
resources required in an organization for a specific time period in future. HRP is
important for an organization because of the changing scenario. HRP is formulated at
various levels. The main steps involved in it are analysis of organizational plans,
demand forecasting, supply forecasting and identifying manpower gaps.

5.10 SELF ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS

1) Explain the objectives of HRP.
2) Describethe process of HRP with illustrations.
3) Discuss the problems in HRP and state measures to overcome them.
32 4) Briefly review the forecasting techniques.
 Human Resource
5.11 FURTHER READINGS Planning

Gupta, C.B. (1997). Human Resource Management, S. Chand & Sons, New Delhi.
Pattanayak, B. (2001). Human Resource Management, PHI, New Delhi.
Aswathappa, K. (1999). Human Resource and Personnel Management,
Tata McGraw Hill, New Delhi.

33
Getting Human
Resources UNIT 6 ATTRACTING THE TALENT:
RECRUITMENT, SELECTION,
OUTSOURCING
Objectives
After completion of the unit, you should be able to:
l explain the need for spelling out job specification as the starting point for the
process of selection;
l name various sources which can be used for attracting the desired types of
manpower;
l state, explain and evaluate various methods of recruitment;
l explain the need for and the process of initial screening;
l describe the process of application scrutiny;
l explain the need for, types of, and the uses of various psychological tests in the
evaluation of candidates;
l explain the purpose and types of interviews, their limitations, and the need for
care in using them;
l explain the purpose of induction and how it is carried out; and
l discuss the function of outsourcing.

Structure
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Some Definitions
6.3 The Process of Recruitment
6.4 Methods of Recruitment
6.5 Selection
6.6 Selection Tests
6.7 Interview
6.8 Physical Examination
6.9 Reference Checks
6.10 Final Decision
6.11 Placement
6.12 Induction
6.13 Outsourcing
6.14 Road Map for Successful Outsourcing
6.15 Summary
6.16 Self Assessment Questions
6.17 Further Readings

6.1 INTRODUCTION
The most valuable asset of any large-scale organization is the high-calibre employees.
Finding right people and putting them at right job is the most important challenge for
34 any organization. At the stage of Human Resource Planning, as we have already
discussed in the previous unit, the human resource requirement is forecasted. Keeping Attracting the Talent:
in mind the forecast the function of attracting the best available talent is carried out by Recruitment, Selection,
Outsourcing
an organization. It involves functions like; recruitment, selection, induction. All these
are discussed in this unit.

6.2 SOME DEFINITIONS

Recruitment
Recruitment is the process of identifying the prospective employees, stimulating and
encouraging them to apply for a particular job or jobs in an organization. It is a
positive action as it involves inviting people to apply. The purpose is to have an
inventory of eligible persons from amongst whom proper selection of the most suitable
person can be made.

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

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

Induction
Induction is introducing an employee to the job and to the organization. The primary
purpose of induction is to ‘sell’ the company to the new employee so that he may feel
proud of his association with the company. This is called ‘orientation’ or
‘indoctrination’.

Their Inter-relationship
The above are the four steps taken in the order given before a person starts his
training for the job to which he is assigned. First he is recruited, that is, his attention is
drawn to the existence of a possible opening for him and he is invited to apply for it.
In the next stage of selection all the applicants are screened to find their suitability for
the job and the best one is selected. The third step of placement follows selection and a
particular job is assigned to the selected person. After that he is introduced to his job
and to his organization so that he may understand the environment in which he has to
work.
Having defined these four processes, we shall describe them in some detail in the
following paragraphs.

6.3 THE PROCESS OF RECRUITMENT

Preparation for Recruitment
Before you think of inviting people to apply for a job you have to decide what types of
persons are to be invited and what their characteristics should be. This calls for fixing
the ‘job specifications’ which may also be called ‘man specifications’.
35
Getting Human Job specifications are based on job description which is dependent upon the nature and
Resources requirements of a job. Thus, job specification will be different for each job.
We shall explain below the various elements of job specification.
Physical Specifications: For certain jobs some special physical features may be
required. For example, for assembly of a TV set or some other electronic equipment
good vision is required, for a typing job you need finger dexterity, for a heavy job you
need a strong, heavy and thick-set body. The particular physical abilities and skills
necessary for a given job have to be specified. These may refer to height, weight,
vision, finger dexterity, voice, poise, hand and foot coordination, motor coordination,
colour discrimination, age-range, etc.
Mental Specifications: These include intelligence, memory, judgement, ability –
plan, ability to estimate, to read, to write, to think and concentrate, scientific faculties,
arithmetical abilities, etc. Different jobs require different degrees of such abilities and
the more important ones should be specified.
Emotional and Social Specifications: These include characteristics which will affect
his working with others, like personal appearance, manners, emotional stability,
aggressiveness, or submissiveness, extroversion or introversion, leadership,
cooperativeness, initiative and drive, skill in dealing with others, socia1 adaptability,
etc.
Behavioral Specifications: Certain management personnel at higher levels of
management are expected to behave in a particular manner. These are not formally
listed but have to be kept in mind during the process of recruitment, selection and
placement.

Activity A
Please describe below your job as carefully and precisely as you can.
.....................................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................................
Please give below the ten most important elements of your job specification. Also
evaluate yourself in respect of each element and write against it whether you meet it
(a) fully, (b) substantially, (c) to some extent, or (d) not at all.

Element Extent of meeting (a), (b), (c), (d)

1) ...................................................... ..........................................................
2) ...................................................... ..........................................................
3) ...................................................... ..........................................................
4) ...................................................... ..........................................................
5) ...................................................... ..........................................................
6) ...................................................... ..........................................................
7) ...................................................... ..........................................................
8) ...................................................... ..........................................................
9) ...................................................... ..........................................................

36
10) ...................................................... ..........................................................
Sources of Manpower Attracting the Talent:
Recruitment, Selection,
There are two categories of sources of supply of manpower— Internal and External. Outsourcing

Internal Sources: These include personnel already on the pay-roll of the organization
as also those who were once on the pay-roll of the company but who plan to return, or
whom the company, would like to rehire. These include those who quit voluntarily or
those on production lay-offs.
External Sources: These sources lie outside the organization, like the new entrants to
the labour force without experience. These include college students, the unemployed
with a wider range of skills and abilities, the retired experienced persons, and others
not in the labour force, like married women.
A policy of preferring people from within is advantageous as it improves the morale of
the employees and promotes loyalty among them towards the organization. This also
helps employers as they are in a better position to evaluate those already with them
and as these people require no induction.
The policy of preferring internal candidates, however, suffers from some
disadvantages. It may lead to inbreeding, discouraging new blood from entering an
organization. If promotion is based on seniority, the real capable hands may be left
out.
Likewise, there are good and bad points about external sources. These sources provide
a wide market and the best selection considering skill, training and education. It also
helps to bring new ideas into the organization. Moreover, this source never ‘dries up’.
In respect of people selected under this system, however, one has to take chances with
the selected persons regarding their loyalty and desire to continue. The organization
has to make larger investments in their training and induction.
You will realize now that dependence on just one of the sources is not in the interest of
an organization. It must depend on both in a ratio to be fixed considering various
factors.
Some of these factors are described below.
1) Effect of the policy on the attitude and actions of all employees: Employees,
no doubt, feel more secure and identify their own long-term interest with that of
the organization when they can anticipate first charge at job opportunities. The
general application of the ‘promotion from within’ policy may encourage
mediocre performance. The point to be considered here by the organization is,
how important is the loyalty of the employees to it, balancing the risk of
mediocre performance.
2) The level of specialization required of employees: The principal source in
many organizations may be the ranks of the present employees who have
received specialized training.
3) The degree of emphasis on participation by employees at all levels: New
employees from outside, with no experience in the firm, may not know enough
about its service or product or processes to participate effectively, for some time
at least.
4) The need for and availability of originality and initiative within the
organization: If the organization feels that it is training its people for these
qualities it may prefer its own people; if not, new people with different ideas may
be taken from outside.
5) Acceptance of seniority principle: The policy or promotion from within will
succeed only if management and employees accept the seniority principle with or
without suitable modifications for promotion. If it is not accepted, selection may
37
better be done on an open basis.
Getting Human
Resources 6.4 METHODS OF RECRUITMENT
All methods of recruitment can be put into three categories: (a) Direct Methods,
(b) Indirect Methods, and (c) Third-Party Methods.
a) Direct Methods include sending recruiters to educational and professional
institutions, employee contacts with public, manned exhibits and waiting lists.
Schools and Colleges: For clerical, labour and apprenticeship help, high schools can
be extensively used. For technical, managerial and professional jobs, colleges,
university departments and specialized institutes, like the IITs and IIMs, are used.
These institutions usually have a placement officer a teacher-in-charge of placement,
who normally provides help in attracting employers arranging interviews, furnishing
space and other facilities and providing student resumes. The companies maintain a
list of such institutions, keep in touch with them, send their brochures indicating job
openings, future prospects, etc. On the basis of these students who want to be
considered for the given job (s) are referred to the company recruiter.
Employees’ Contact with the Public: The employees of the organization are told
about the existence of particular vacancies and they bring this to the notice of their
relatives, friends and acquaintances.
Manned Exhibits: The organizations send recruiters to conventions and seminars,
setting up exhibition at fairs, and using mobile offices to go to the desired centres.
Waiting Lists: Many firms lean heavily on their own application files. These records
list individuals who have indicated their interest in jobs, either after visiting the
organization’s employment office or making enquiries by mail or phone. Such records
prove a very useful source if they are kept up-to-date.
b) Indirect Methods cover advertising in newspapers, on the radio, in. trade and
professional journals, technical journals and brochures.
When qualified and experienced persons are not available through other sources,
advertising in newspapers and professional and technical journals is made. Whereas
all types of advertisements can be made in newspapers and magazines, only particular
types of posts should be advertised in the professional and technical journals; for
example, only engineering jobs should be inserted in journals of engineering. .
A well thought-out and planned advertisement for an appointment reduces the
possibility of unqualified people applying. If the advertisement is clear and to the
point, candidates can assess their abilities and suitability for the position and only
those who possess the requisite qualifications will apply.
c) Third-Party Methods: Various agencies are used for recruitment under these
methods. These include commercial and private employment agencies, state agencies,
placement offices of schools, colleges and professional associations, recruiting firms,
management consulting firms, indoctrination seminars for college professors, friends
and relatives.
Private Employment Agencies specialize in specific occupation like general office
help, salesmen, technical workers, accountants, computer staff, engineers and
executives, etc. These agencies bring together the employers and suitable persons
available for a job. Because of their specialization, they can interpret the needs of their
clients and seek out particular types of persons.
State or Public Employment Agencies, also known as Employment or Labour
Exchanges, are the main agencies for public employment. They also provide a wide
range of services, like counselling, assistance in getting jobs, information about the
labour market, labour and wage rates, etc.
38
Executive Search Agencies maintain complete information records about employed Attracting the Talent:
executives and recommend persons of high calibre for managerial, marketing and Recruitment, Selection,
Outsourcing
production engineers’ posts. These agencies are looked upon as ‘head hunters’,
‘raiders’, and ‘pirates’.
Indoctrination Seminars for College Professors: These are arranged to discuss the
problems of companies to which professors are invited. Visits and banquets are
arranged so that professors may be favourably impressed and later speak well of the
company and help in getting required personnel.
Friends and Relatives of Present Employees constitute a good source from which
employees may be drawn. This, however, is likely to encourage nepotism, i.e. persons
of one’s own community or caste may only be employed. This may create problems
for the organization.
Trade Unions are often called on by the employers to supply whatever additional
employees may be needed. Unions may be asked for recommendations largely as a
matter of courtesy and an evidence of good will and cooperation.
Professional Societies may provide leads and clues in providing promising candidates
for engineering, technical and management positions. Some of these maintain mail
order placement services.
Temporary Help Agencies employ their own labour force, both full-time and part-
time and make them available to their client organizations for temporary needs.
Casual Labour Source is one which presents itself daily at the factory gate or
employment office. Most industrial units rely to some extent on this source. This
source, you will realise, is the most uncertain of all sources.
Deputation: Persons possessing certain abilities useful to another organization are
sometimes deputed to it for a specified duration. Ready expertise is available but, as
you can guess, such employees do not easily become part of the organization.

Activity B
a) Recall your first appointment to the present organization and write below which
of the above mentioned sources of recruitment was used by the organization.
...........................................................................................................................
...........................................................................................................................
...........................................................................................................................
...........................................................................................................................
...........................................................................................................................

b) Think of the various sources tapped by your organization in getting employees for
your Section/Department and write below in order of importance the first five. .
1) ...........................................................................................................................
2) ...........................................................................................................................
3) ...........................................................................................................................
4) ...........................................................................................................................
5) ...........................................................................................................................

39
Getting Human
Resources 6.5 SELECTION
Selection, as you have seen earlier, is the process of securing relevant information
about an applicant to evaluate his qualifications, experience and other qualities with a
view to matching these with the requirements of a job. It is essentially a process of
picking out the man or men best suited for the organization’s requirements.

The Selection Process

You would recall that selection process involves rejection of unsuitable or less suitable
applicants. This may be done at any of the successive hurdles which an applicant must
cross. These hurdles act as screens designed to eliminate an unqualified applicant at
any point in the process. This technique is known as the ‘successive hurdles
technique’. Figure 1 gives these hurdles.
Yoder calls these hurdles ‘go, no-go’ gauges. Those who qualify a hurdle go to the
next one; those who do not qualify.are dropped out. Not all selection processes,
however, include these hurdles. The complexity of the process usually increases with
the level and responsibility of the position to be filled. Moreover, these hurdles need
not necessarily be placed in the same order. Their arrangement may differ from
organisation to organization.

Employment
Interview with
Recommendation

Supervisor
Examination
Physical
References
Work History

Application Þ
Testing
Interview
Second
Application
Prelimmary

Form
Interview

Rejections

Figure 1: Successive Hurdles in the Selection Process

Initial Screening or Preliminary Interview

This is a sorting process in which prospective applicants are given the necessary
information about the nature of the job and also, necessary information is elicited from
the candidates about their education, experience, skill, salary expected, etc. If the
candidate is found to be suitable, he is selected for further process and, if not, he is
eliminated. This is a crude screening and can be done across the counter in the
organization’s employment offices. This is done by a junior executive in the personnel
department. Due care should be taken so that suitable candidates are not turned down
in a hurry. Since this provides personal contact for an individual with the company,
40 the interviewer should be courteous, kind, receptive and informal.
When a candidate is found suitable, an application form is given to him to fill in Attracting the Talent:
and submit. Recruitment, Selection,
Outsourcing

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

6.6 SELECTION TESTS

A test is a sample of an aspect of an individual’s behavior, performance or attitude. It
can also be a systematic procedure for comparing the behavior of two or more
persons.
Purpose of Tests: The basic assumption underlying the use of tests in personnel
selection is that individuals are different in their job-related abilities and skills and that
these skills can be adequately and accurately measured.
Tests seek to eliminate the possibility of prejudice on the part of the interviewer or
supervisor. Potential ability only will govern selection decisions.
The other major advantage is that the tests may uncover qualifications and talents that
would not be detected by interviews or by listing of education and job expenence.
Types of Tests: The various tests used in selection can be put in to four categories:
(a) Achievement or Intelligence Tests, (b) Aptitude or Potential Ability Tests,
(c) Personality Tests, and (d) Interest Tests.
These tests and what they measure are described below.

a) Achievement or Intelligence Tests

These are also called ‘proficiency tests’. These measure the skill or knowledge which
is acquired as a result of a training programme and on the job experience. These
measure what the applicant can do. These are of two types:
Test for Measuring job Knowledge: These are known as ‘Trade Tests’. These are
administered to determine knowledge of typing, shorthand and in operating
calculators, adding machines, dictating and transcribing machines or simple
mechanical equipment. These are primarily oral tests consisting of a series of
questions which are believed to be satisfactorily answered only by those who know
and thoroughly understand the trade or occupation. Oral tests may be supplemented
by written, picture or performance types. 41
Getting Human Work Sample Tests: These measure the proficiency with which equipment can be
Resources handled by the candidate. This is done by giving him a piece of work to judge how
efficiently he does it. For example, a typing test would provide the material to be
typed and note the time taken and mistakes committed.

b) Aptitude or Potential Ability Tests

These tests measure the latent ability of a candidate to learn a new job or skill.
Through these tests you can detect peculiarity or defects in a person’s sensory or
intellectual capacity. These focus attention on particular types of talent such as
learning, reasoning and mechanical or musical aptitude..’Instruments’ used are
variously described as tests of ‘intelligence’, ‘mental ability’, ‘mental alertness’, or
simply as ‘personnel tests’. These are of three types:
i) Mental Tests: These measure the overall intellectual ability or the intelligence
quotient (I.Q.) of a person and enable us to know whether he has the mental
capacity to deal with new problems. These determine an employee’s fluency in
language, memory, interction, reasoning, speed of perception, and spatial
visualisation.
ii) Mechanical Aptitude Tests: These measure the capacity of a person to learn a
particular type of mechanical work. These are useful when apprentices,
machinists, mechanics, maintenance workers, and mechanical technicians are to
be selected.
iii) Psychomotor or Skill Tests: These measure a person’s ability to do a specific
job. These are administered to determine mental dexterity or motor ability and
similar attributes involving muscular movement, control and coordination. These
are primarily used in the selection of workers who have to perform semi-skilled
and repetitive jobs, like assembly work, packing, testing, inspection and so on.

c) Personality Tests
These discover clues to an individual’s value system, his emotional reactions, maturity
and his characteristic mood. The tests help in assessing a person’s motivation, his
ability to adjust himself to the stresses of everyday life and his capacity for inter-
personal relations and for projecting an impressive image of himself. They are
expressed in terms of the relative significance of such traits of a person as self-
confidence, ambition, tact, emotional control, optimism, decisiveness, sociability,
conformity, objectivity, patience, fear, distrust, initiative, judgement, dominance,
impulsiveness, sympathy, integrity, and stability. These tests are given to predict
potential performance and success for supervisory or managerial jobs.
The personality tests are basically of three types:
i) Objective Tests: These measure neurotic tendencies, self-sufficiency, dominance,
submission and self-confidence.
ii) Projective Tests: In these tests, a candidate is asked to project his own
interpretation onto certain standard stimuli. The way in which he responds to
these stimuli depends on his own values, motives and personality.
iii) Situation Tests: These measure an applicant’s reaction when he is placed in a
peculiar situation, his ability to undergo stress and his demonstration of ingenuity
under pressure. These tests usually relate to a leaderless group situation, in
which some problems are posed to a group and its members are asked to reach
some conclusions without the help of a leader.

d) Interest Tests
These tests are designed to discover a person’s areas of interest and to identify the
kind of work that will satisfy him. The interest tests are used for vocational guidance,
42
and are assessed in the form of answers to a well-prepared questionnaire.
Limitations of Selection Tests: From the basic description of tests described above, Attracting the Talent:
one should not conclude that a hundred per cent prediction of an individual’s on-the- Recruitment, Selection,
Outsourcing
job success can be made through these tests. These tests, at best, reveal that
candidates who have scored above the predetermined cut-off points are likely to be
more successful than those who have scored below the cut-off point.
Tests are useful when the number of applicants is large. Moreover, tests will serve no
useful purpose if they are not properly constructed or selected or administered.
Precautions in using Selection Tests: Test results can help in selecting the best
candidates if the following precautions are taken:
i) Norms should be developed as a source of reference on all tests used in selection
and on a representative sample of people on a given job in the same organization.
This is necessary even though ‘standard’ tests are available now under each of
the above categories. Norms developed dsewhere should not be blindly used
because companies differ in their requirements, culture, organization structure
and philosophy.
ii) Some ‘Warm up’ should be provided to candidates either by giving samples of
test, and/or answering queries before the test begins.
iii) Tests should first be validated for a given organization and then administered for
selection of personnel to the organization.
iv) Each test used should be assigned a weightage in the selection.
v) Test scoring, administration and interpretation should be done by persons I
having technical competence and training in testing.

Activity C
a) Was any psychological test administered to you for selection or promotion?
Yes No
b) If yes, can you recall at what stage of your career was it given and what were
you required to do?
.........................................................................................................................
.........................................................................................................................
.........................................................................................................................
.........................................................................................................................
c) Can you fit it into one of the above mentioned categories?
Stage Required to do Category of Test
First Selection as...............................................................................................
..........................................................................................................................
..........................................................................................................................
Later promotion as ............................................................................................
..........................................................................................................................
..........................................................................................................................

6.7 INTERVIEW
We shall now discuss the post application form interview and not the preliminary
interview. Personal interview is the most universally used tool in any selection
process.
43
Getting Human Meaning and Purpose: An interview is a conversation with a purpose between one
Resources person on one side and another person or persons on the other. An employment
interview should serve three purposes, viz., (i) obtaining information, (ii) giving
information, and (iii) motivation. It should provide an appraisal of personality by
obtaining relevant information about the prospective employee’s background, training
work history, education and interests. The candidate should be given information
about the company, the specific job and the personnel policies. It should also help in
establishing a friendly relationship between the employer and the applicant and
motivate the satisfactory applicant to want to work for the company or organization.
In practice, however, it may turn out to be a one-sided affair. It helps only in obtaining
information about the candidate. The other two purposes are generally not served.
Types of Interview
Informal Interview: This is may take place anywhere. The employer or a manager in
the personnal department, may ask a few questions, like name, place of birth, previous
experience, etc. It is not planned and is used widely when the labour market is tight
and you need workers very badly. A friend or a relative of the employer may take a
candidate to the house of the employer or manager where this type of interview may
be conducted.
Formal Interview: This held in a more formal atmosphere in the employment office
by the employment officer with the help of well-structured questions. The time and
place of the interview are stipulated by the employment office.
Planned Interview: This is a formal interview carefully planned. The interviewer has
a plan of action worked out in relation to time to be devoted to each candidate, type of
information to be sought, information to be given, the modality of interview and so on.
He may use the plan with some amount of flexibility.
Patterned Interview: This is also a planned interview but planned to a higher degree
of accuracy, precision and exactitude. A list of questions and areas are carefully
prepared. The interviewer goes down the list of questions, asking them one after
another.
Non-directive Interview: This is designed to let the interviewee speak his mind freely.
The interviewer is a careful and patient listener, prodding whenever the candidate is
silent. The idea is to give the candidate complete freedom to ‘sell’ himself without
encumberances of the interviewer’s questions.
Depth Interview: This is designed to intensively examine the candidate’s background
and thinking and to go into considerable detail on a particular subject to special
interest to the candidate. The theory behind it is that if the candidate is found good in
his area of special interest, the chances are high that if given a job he would take
serious interest in it.
Stress Interview: This is designed to test the candidate and his conduct and behavior
by putting him under conditions of stress and strain. This is very useful to test the
behavior of individuals under disagreeable and trying situations.
Group Interview: This is designed to see how the candidates react to and against each
other. All the candidates may be brought together in the office and they may be
interviewed. The candidates may, alternatively, be given a topic for discussion and be
observed as to who will lead the discussion, how they will participate in the
discussion, how each will make his presentation and how they will react to each
other’s views and presentation.
Panel Interview: This is done by members of the interview board or a selection
committee. This is done usually for supervisory and managerial positions. It pools the
44
collective judgement and wisdom of members of the panel. The candidate may be Attracting the Talent:
asked to meet the panel individually for a fairly lengthy interview. Recruitment, Selection,
Outsourcing
Interview Rating: Important aspects of personality can be categorized under the
following seven main headings:
l Physical Make-up: Health, physique, age, appearance, bearing, speech.
l Attainments: Education, occupational training and experience.
l Intelligence: Basic and ‘effective’.
l Special Aptitudes: Written and oral fluency of expression, numeracy,
organizational ability, administrative skill.
l Interests: Intellectual, practical, physically active, social, artistic
l Disposition: Self-reliance, nature, motivation, acceptability.
l Circumstances: Domestic, social background and experience, future prospects.
This is called ‘The Seven Point Plan’. The importance of each of these points will
vary from organization to organization and from job to job. Hence, these should be
assigned weightage according to their degree of importance for the job.
On the basis of information gathered through an interview, each candidate should be
rated in respect of each point given above as: (i) outstanding, (ii) good, (iii) above
average, (iv) below average or (v) unsatisfactory. Marks should be allotted to each of
these, and the score for each point is arrived at by multiplying it by weights and the
total of all these will determine the final position of a candidate at the interview.
Limitations of Interviews: Interviews have their own limitations in matters of
selection. Some of these are mentioned below:
l Subjective judgement of the interviewer may be based on his prejudices, likes,
dislikes, biases, etc.
l One prominent characteristic of a candidate may be allowed to dominate
appraisal of the entire personality.
l The interviewer’s experience may have created a close association between some
particular trait and a distinctive type of personality.
l Some managers believe that they are good at character analysis based on some
pseudo-scientific methods and are guided by their own abilities at it.
Qualities of ‘Good’ lnterviewers as: A good interviewer should have the following
qualities:
l Knowledge of the job or other things with which interviews are concerned.
l Emotional maturity and a stable personality.
l Sensitivity to the interviewee’s feelings and a sympathetic attitude.
l Extrovert behavior and considerable physical and mental stamina.
Guidelines for Improving Interviews: Not all interviews are effective. Their
effectiveness can be improved if the following points are kept in mind by an
interviewer:
l An interview should have a definite time schedule with ample time for interview.
It should not be hurried.
l The impersonal approach should be avoided.
l Interview should have the necessary element of privacy.
l The interviewer should listen carefully to what the applicant says and the
information collected should be carefully recorded either while the interview is
going on or immediately thereafter. 45
Getting Human l Attention should be paid not just to the words spoken, but also to the facial
Resources expressions and mannerisms of the interviewee.
l The interview should end when sufficient information has been gathered.
l The interviewee should be told where he stands—whether he will be contacted
later, whether he is to visit another person, or it appears that the organization will
not be able to use his abilities.
Pseudo-Scientific Methods of Selection: In the past, and to some extent even now,
stereotyped impressions of personality and characteristics were used as a basis of
selection. These impressions were gathered through pseudo-scientific methods, like
phrenology, physiognomy and graphology.
We shall briefly describe below these methods for your background knowledge only:
Phrenology: Here it is believed that the strength of each faculty is indicated by
prominent bumps on certain parts of the skull.
Physiognomy: Here it is believed that there is a definite correlation between facial
features and psychological functions and behaviour, for example, thin lips indicate
determination, broad jaws signify tenacity and so on.
Graphology: Here it is believed that there is a close relationship between handwriting
and personality.

Activity D
Please find out from your Personel Department which of the above mentioned types of
interviews they use for the purpose of selection. What do they aim to judge through
each of these interviews and for selection of what level of employees are these used?
Write below the information you collect.
Types of interviews Points to be judged Level of employees
1 .......................... .......................... . .......................... .
2 .......................... .......................... . .......................... .
3 .......................... .......................... . .......................... .
4 .......................... .......................... . .......................... .
5 .......................... .......................... . .......................... .

6.8 PHYSICAL EXAMINATION

Applicant who get over one or more of the preliminary hurdles are sent for a physical
examination either to the organization’s physician or to a medical officer approved for
the purpose.
Purposes: A physical examination serves the following purposes:
i) It gives an indication regarding fitness of a candidate for the job concerned.
ii) It discovers existing disabilities and obtains a record thereof, which may be
helpful later in deciding the campany’s responsibility in the event of a workman’s
campensation claim.
iii) It helps in preventing employment of those suffering from some type of
contagious diseases.
iv) It helps in placing those who are otherwise employable but whose physical
handicaps may necessitate assignment only to specified jobs.
46
Contents of Physical Examination: Physical examination covers the following: Attracting the Talent:
Recruitment, Selection,
l The applicant’s medical history. Outsourcing
l His physical measurements—height, weight, etc.
l General examinatian—skin, musculature and joints.
l Specia1 senses—visual and auditory activity.
l Clinical examinatian—eyes, ears, nose, throat and teeth.
l Examinatian of chest and lungs.
l Check-up of blood pressure and heart.
l Pathological tests of urine, blood etc.
l X-ray examinatian of chest and other parts of the body.
l Neuro-psychiatric examinatian, particularly when medical histary or a
physician’s observations indicate an adjustment problem.
You wauld realize that the importance of these characteristics varies from job to job
and, therefore, different weightages have to be given to each far an overall evaluation.

6.9 REFERENCE CHECKS

The applicant is asked to mention in his application the names and addresses of three
such persons who usually know him well. These may be his previous employers,
friends, or professional colleagues. They are approached by mail or telephone and
requested ta furnish their frank opinion, without incurring any liability, about the
candidate either on specified points or in general. They are assured that all
information supplied would be kept confidential. Yet, often either no response is
received or it is generally a favarable response.

6.10 FINAL DECISION

Applicants who cross all the hurdles are finally considered. If there are more persons
than the number required far a job the best ones, i.e., those with the highest scores are
finally selected.

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

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

Meaning
As explained earlier, it is introduction of an employee to the job and the organization.
The primary purpose is to ‘sell’ the company to the new employee so that he may feel
proud of his association with the company. 47
Getting Human Purpose and Need
Resources
An employee has to work with fellow employees and his supervisor. For this he must
know them, the way they work and also the policies and practices of the organization
so that he may integrate himself with the enterprise. Any neglect in the area of
induction and orientation may lead to high labour turnover, confusion, wasted time
and expenditure.

Induction Programme
A good induction programme should cover the following:
l The company, its history and products, process of production and major
operations involved in his job.
l The significance of the job with all necessary information about it including job
training and job hazards.
l Structure of the organization and the functions of various departments.
l Employee’s own department and job, and how he fits into the organization.
l Personnel policy and sources of information.
l Company policies, practices, objectives and regulations.
l Terms and conditions of service, amenities and welfare facilities.
l Rules and regulations governing hours of work and over-time, safety and
accident prevention, holidays and vacations, methods of reporting, tardiness and,
absenteeism.
l Grievances procedure and discipline handling.
l Social benefits and recreation services.
l Opportunities, promotions, transfer, suggestion schemes and job satisfaction.
An induction programme consists primarily of three steps:
General orientation by the staff: It gives necessary general information about the
history and the operations of the firm. The purpose is to help an employee to build up
some pride and interest in the organization.
Specific orientation by the job supervisor: The employee is shown the department
and his place of work; the location of facilities and is told about the organization’s
specific practices and customs. The purpose is to enable the employee to adjust with
his work and environment.
Follow-up orientation by either the personnel department or the supervisor: This
is conducted within one week to six months of the initial induction and by a foreman
or a specialist.
The purpose is to find out whether the employee is reasonably well satisfied with him.
Through personal talks, guidance and counselling efforts are made to remove the
difficulties experienced by the newcomer.

6.13 OUTSOURCING
Companies that see outsourcing as a short-term, cost-cutting opportunity are almost
always disappointed with the results. But companies that approach outsourcing as one
element of an overall business strategy are applying some specific best practices to
reach their goals more quickly and with fewer roadblocks.
Communicating openly from Day 1. Companies that develop candid internal
48 communication plans about sourcing strategies are far less likely to experience
employee backlash as roles begin to move offshore. Eighty-four percent of the buyers Attracting the Talent:
of outsourcing services in Diamond Cluster’s “2004 Global IT Outsourcing Report” Recruitment, Selection,
Outsourcing
said they are concerned about backlash as jobs are lost to offshore outsourcers. But
those same companies have probably underestimated the ripple effect of their
outsourcing decisions.

Why Outsourcing?
An obvious, primary benefit of outsourcing is the significant cost saving and
improvement to the bottom line. Depending upon the work processes outsourced, some
organizations save up to 60 percent in content development costs alone. Cost savings
may also be realized by outsourcing development and maintenance of e-learning
technologies, such as learning management systems (LMSs), content management
systems (CMSs) and authoring platforms.
Saving costs is not the only reason to consider outsourcing, however. Significant
quality improvements, such as consistent instructional design and ongoing content
maintenance, can also be cost-effectively derived through outsourcing. Many
organizations haven’t built the competencies or processes in-house for developing and
delivering e-Iearning, and this provides a way to provide expertly designed e-Iearning
at a reduced cost.
Also, outsourcing is often used to overcome resource shortages. For example,
countries such as Ireland and India have significant English speaking resources that
can be engaged in the design and development of learning content. A robust
educational system in developing countries, such as India, China and the Eastern
European nations, provides access to highly skilled individuals in the areas of
linguistics, IT and engineering, etc. All these factors add up to allow corporations
access to any content expert with proficient English language skills, at less than half
the cost of similar resources elsewhere.
While organizations are primarily driven to outsource training content development
because of cost savings, the trend to outsource this work to specialist vendors is
heightened by two other reasons-increasing need for content and increased pressure to
improve the quality and consistency of training produced to meet these expanding
requirements.
It’s the classic “more for less” story heard everywhere in organizations today.

Specialized Knowledge
In recent months, some training organizations have seen a shift toward centralized
functions. Centralization has put the onus on training management to ensure that
training is not only the best of breed but is also standardized and consistent in quality.
Therefore, training executives are now working closely with the specialist vendors—
the outsourcing partners to control and maintain quality and consistency of training
material, be it e-learning content or classroom courseware. In addition to improving
training effectiveness, education organizations are also under tremendous pressure to
reduce time-to-train or time-to market.
Outsourcing needs to be implemented as a strategic initiative. The organization needs
to be as prepared to outsource as the vendor is prepared to manage the outsourced
operation.

Size Does Matter

Outsourcing can lead to tremendous cost savings. However, organizations must
remember that cost savings actually build up over time. The potential for cost saving
in the early part of the outsourcing initiative is offset by one-time relationship
49
Getting Human establishment costs, initial time lags in development and the possibility of rework until
Resources the relationship between the organization and the vendor matures.
Obviously, the benefit lies in outsourcing medium-to-Iarge contracts. Size matters
because it’s mutually beneficial for the organization and the vendor. The organization
yields a higher buyer bargain, and the vendor gains production efficiencies by reusing
resources, passing the efficiency on to the customer.

Maturity Makes It Easy

Organizations with a clear definition of finished deliverables (the output), well-aligned
resource responsibilities (the process) and requirement acquisition (the input) have
been shown to outsource more effectively than those without a reliable and consistent
work plan that includes elements of all three-the output, the input and the processes.
Organizations can measure the reliability and consistency of their input and output by
using the Outsourcing Maturity Matrix.
In the first wave of e-learning, many organizations bought and invested heavily in e-
learning and training infrastructure. Millions of dollars were invested in the delivery
systems, such as LMS, LCMS and CMS, and in the authoring tools. Just as the
infrastructure was being deployed and the users could be trained, the economy turned
sour. The organizations faced with slashed training budgets were left in a peculiar
situation-they had the vehicle to deliver training, but not enough fuel since they were
left without enough budget to develop significant content. Still other organizations
were slower to adopt e-learning, and when the inevitable budget cutting came, they
were left without the infrastructure or the content.

6.14 ROAD MAP FOR SUCCESSFUL OUTSOURCING

With increasing pressure on training budgets and senior management emphasis on
improved ROI of training infrastructure, outsourcing proves to be the answer for
many organizations. In addition to careful selection of the outsourcing partner,
internal training organizations need to discipline the work plan—the input, the output
and the processes—prior to outsourcing. Even then, this transition from internal
development to outsourced development is fraught with road hazards. Call them
teething pains.
Client organizations can take several steps to minimize, if not completely eliminate,
the road hazards on the path to outsourcing. For first-time offshore outsourcing
clients, reorientation of the internal training organization and selective and/or dual
shore development models are two ways to mitigate the risks.

Reorient, You Must

Success of outsourcing initiatives largely depends upon successful requirements
management and standardization of output. This helps minimize conflict between the
expectation and realization of benefit.
Here, the internal training organization plays an important part in supporting the
outsourcing operations by effectively managing client and vendor processes. In the
absence of outsourcing partners, the role of the internal training organization has been
one of the supplier to the businesses it supports. To ensure a successful outsourcing
relationship, training organizations need to play two roles interchangeably—one of a
supplier to the business users, and another of a customer to the outsourcing partner.
As outsourcing of human resource functions grows; so does the outsourcing industry’s
need for talented HR and benefits experts who can improve how it delivers services to
50
clients. Attracting the Talent:
Recruitment, Selection,
“If even half the projections for growth in HR outsourcing are correct, the industry is Outsourcing
going to need a lot of professionals at all levels of HR experience to help with that
expansion,” says Glenn Davidson, chairman of the HR Outsourcing Association and
Accenture HR Services’ chief of market strategy and corporate development.

Entrepreneurial culture
Part of the appeal for working with an HR outsourcing company is the change in
culture, Davidson says. “You go from being a cost center to being part of the core
business. A whole world of opportunities opens up for you.
“At most companies, the top HR position is senior vice president of human resources,
and there are very few positions out there,” he continues. “In our industry, HR people
have an opportunity to expand their career sphere into marketing, strategy and even be
chief executives at companies because good HR service is our business.”
Rob Ball, chief people officer at Exult, says that certifications and continuing
education are things HR outsourcing companies look for on resumes when hiring.
Also important is “a big-picture sense of how human resources can help large
enterprises.”
To help HR professionals groom themselves for jobs in the industry, Davidson’s
organization is developing a certificate program in HR. “The program is in its early
stage. We are working on a road-show class that we can take companies who are
interested in HR outsourcing, so their employees can learn more about the trends,”
Davidson says. “Pay for HR professionals can be higher at HR outsourcing firms than
in house HR/benefits work, but salaries vary from company to company.”

Davidson says “Rewards can be greater in the HR outsourcing industry for benefit
professionals. It depends on their ability to produce results,” he says. “People who
have great ideas on how to make HR services a better value proposition for large
employers and who can] dramatically improve employee productivity and save money
will be either famous, rich or both.”

6.15 SUMMARY
This unit has helped you to follow the process of selection in an organization right
from the conception of an idea that a susitable person is to be put on a given job to the
point of ultimately selecting the most suitable person for it, putting him at ease and
making him feel at home with his fellow employees, his supervisor and the
organization as a whole. It has helped you to understand the various activities
involved in the process and the order in which these are carried out. It has given you
insight into the various alternatives and methods of various activities and under what
circumstances each is advisable. It has also helped you to realize the various
precautions to be taken so that your efforts under each activity bring desired results.
Also, the importance and function of outsourcing have been discussed.

6.16 SELF ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS

1) What do you understand by recruitment? Explain the process of recruitment.
2) Discuss critically the various sources of recruitments.
3) Explain the various types of tests used in selection process.
4) What are the objectives of interview? Describe the process of interview.
5) Explain the ‘outsourcing’ function in an organization with suitable examples.
51
Getting Human
Resources 6.17 FURTHER READINGS
Fear, Richard A. 1984. ‘The Evaluation Interview’, McGraw-Hill: New York.
Maier, Norman R.F. 1982. ‘Psychology in Industrial Organizations’, Houghton
Mifflin Co.: New York.
Monappa, Arun and Saiyaddain, Mirza S. 1983. ‘Personnel Management’, Tata
McGraw-Hill, Mumbai.
Pigors, P. and Charles, A. Myers. 1981. ‘Personnel Administratio—A Viewpoint and
a Method’, McGraw-Hill: London.
Yoder, Dale and Paul D. Staudohar. 1982. ‘Personnel Management and Industrial
Relations’, Prentice-Hall: Englewood-Cliffs.

52
 Socialisation, Mobility
UNIT 7 SOCIALISATION, MOBILITY AND and Separation

SEPARATION
Objectives
After completion of the unit, you should be able to:
l understand the concept of individual role and organizational socialisation;
l discuss the importance of status and socialistion;
l identify the socialisation factors;
l realise the importance of job socialisation;
l understand the concept of mobility and separation; and
l discuss the types of mobility and seapration.

Structure
7.1 Concept of Organizational Socialisation
7.2 Individual and the Organization: The Process of Integration
7.3 Self-concept and Organizational Socialisation
7.4 Concept of Role and Organizational Socialisation
7.5 Status and Socialisation
7.6 Sociatisation Factors in Organizational Socialisation
7.7 Importance of Initial Job Socialisation
7.8 Improving the Socialisation Process
7.9 Concept of Mobility
7.10 Separations
7.11 Summary
7.12 Self Assessment Questions
7.13 Further Readings

7.1 CONCEPT OF ORGANIZATIONAL SOCIALISATION

“Socialisation refers to the process by which persons acquire the knowledge, skills,
and disposition that make them more or less able members of their society”. We have
all undergone this process many times. Certainly, significant socialisation occurs
during infancy and early childhood. We are born into this world with potential for a
very wide range of behaviour, but we learn from our parents and other close
associates to behave within a narrower range that is customary and acceptable. People
face re-socialisation on entering the first grade, joining and athletic team or the scouts,
matriculating into college, and learning their first job. With all of these early
socialisation experience it might be thought that the adult should easily adapt to new
social situations.
Actual and anticipatory socialisation are vitally important in all our lives. However,
we can look in greater depth at one important segment, organizational socialisation. A
person will be directly involved in this process when he/she leaves college and start
working career. Eventually, as managers and professionals, the person will be
responsible for the socialisation of newcomers and subordinates in his/her
organizations. 53
Getting Human
Resources 7.2 INDIVIDUAL AND THE ORGANIZATION: THE
PROCESS OF INTEGRATION
The individual joining any organization develops new values, attitudes, and behaviour
appropriate for membership. The problems associated with entrance into and
adaptation to work organizations are issues of adult socialisation. In complex societies
with rapid technological and sociological changes, it is imposible to socialise the
young child to all future roles. Every individual must face continuing resocialisation to
new situations throughout his or her life.
One of the most important periods of adult socialisation is when the individual is on
the boundary of a new organization ready to become a member. Figure 1 illustrates the
individual moving through the boundary to become a member. The diagram is simple
but the process is complex. There is a great deal of difference between being an
outsider looking in and being a full-fledged and accepted member. Most organizations
select individuals who can become members - and require newcomers to behave in
appropriate ways.

Organizational
Boundary

INDIVIDUAL
Values, Beliefs, Process of learning
attitudes, and behaviour and adapting to new
patterns obtained Socialisation Process expectation and
through earlier requirements.
socialisation.

Figure 1: The Socialisation Process

Organizational socialisation — the process of becoming an accepted member is a

reciprocal process; the individual adapts, but so does the organization. Every time an
organization takes in a new member too, is subject to new influences increasing
likelihood of change. For example, the opening up of business and others
organizations to greater participation by women and minorities not only results in the
need to socialise these groups, but also require change in the organizations themselves.
Self-image and Membership
Individuals hold a certain image of themselves when entering the organization. This
undergoes changes and they interact with the organization and learn new tasks and
roles. The new lawyer is likely to have a significantly different self-image after she
has been in the law firm for six months than when she started. Organizational life
gives opportunities to test her knowledge and skills and to assess her own strengths
and weakness.
Membership often requires the development of new values appropriate to the position.
To become a successful members, the individual must accommodate, at least to some
degree, the goals, value and practices of the organization. The new CA fresh from
examination in accounting theory and practice, may have to modify his approach
significantly to fit actual organizational practices.
We have stressed here the initial process of integrating into the organization. But, just
54 as in the world at large, the process is never complete. Later on the individual may be
transferred, promoted, move to another organization, or even change careers. Socialisation, Mobility
Technological and structural shifts may occur, task requirements may be modified, and Separation
and social groups may change. All of these changes may require the resocializaton of
the person into a new situation.
Interactions Between Individual and Organization
How many organizations are you member of? How many affect your life in important
ways? These are simple questions but require some though. If you consider all
organizations that have an influence, (direct or oblique) on your life and behavior, the
list would likely be in the hundreds and still probably would not be complete.
For example, in driving to school (an organization of which you are voluntary
member) your behaviour is influenced by the speed limit (a product of
governmental institutions).
Never the Total Person
Although we recognize that we are in constant interaction with organizations, we
should remember that they never encompass the total person. Organizations are
designed to accomplish specific purposes, and they engage only a segment of a person
in accomplishing these objectives. They are most interested in the specific behavior
that affects individual performance in meeting these goals. A person may be a
champion bowler, a great husband and father a member of the church choir, and a
subscriber to Playboy, but these affiliations are likely to be irrelevant to the
organization if his task is to put two bolts on the left front door of the cars
coming down the assembly line. Managers are interested in having individual
adapt their behavior in organizationally relevant matters. Furthermore, the work
situation requires that the individual shape a vast repertoire of potential behaviours
to a narrow range of specific actions. It seeks to utilize only part of a person’s
skills and abilities.
This implies that there is always limited integration or socialisation of the total person
into the organization. “People who perform organizational tasks must be sustained by
factors outside the boundary of the organization. The organization is not the total
world of the individual; it is not a society. People must fulfill other social roles;
besides, society has shaped them in ways which affect their ability to perform
organizational tasks. A man has a marital status, ethnic identification, religious
affiliations, a distinctive personality, friends, to name only a few .... Daily, people
come contaminated into the organization”. (Perrow, 1970).
Never the Total Organization
Just as the Organizational never encompasses the total, the individual does not
comprehend and experience the total organization. The individual’s “organizational
horizon” is limited (Porter, Lawler, & Hackman, 1975). People in organizations have
limited perspectives of the total organization because of differences in hierarchical
level, tasks assigned, departmental affiliations, and interpersonal contacts. Moreover,
different people subject to the same organizational influences may have different
perceptions. It is often starting for professors who receive evaluations of their
courses to find vast differences among individual responses. Some students may
rate their course and instructor as excellent, while others rate it a disaster.
Similarly workers performing the same task and receiving approximately the same
rewards sometimes have significantly different perceptions about the leadership style
and quality of the work environment. It is quite obvious that we perceive and react to
new situations in different ways because of past socialisations to life and our own
personalities.

55
Getting Human
Resources 7.3 SELF-CONCEPT AND ORGANIZATIONAL
SOCIALISATION
When joining an organization you are not just selling your physical and mental
abilities. Like it or not, you are also brining along your psychic self in the bargain.
Your own self-concept plays a major part in the socialisation process.
Self-concepts is the way you perceive and judge yourself. It is your way of thinking
about the kind of person you really are. Do you see yourself as a leader or follower?
Do you have high need for power, achievement, or social affiliations? Are you
aggressive or passive? People have the unique capacity for thinking about their own
behavior and their impact on others.
Self-concept is of vital importance in the process of organizational socialisation.
When the self-concept is compatible with one’s organizational role and requirements,
the person is likely to be motivated, oriented to task performance, and satisfied.
However, when self-concept and organizational role are not compatible, then
integration is difficult and motivation, performance, and satisfaction are likely to be
low.
This does not imply that self-concept is totally fixed. Indeed, one of the important
aspects of organizational socialisation is the potential modification in self-concept.
The MBA graduate who thought of herself in passive terms may be thrust into a
leadership position where she is effective and gratified.
Part of the organizational socialisation process may be learning to develop a self-
concept appropriate for the new situation. “Each of us learns to construct somewhat
different selves for the different kinds of situations in which we are called on to
perform, and for the different kinds or roles we are expected to take” (Schein, 1974).
It is unlikely that we can change our basic personalities and value systems
substantially, but we can develop new social selves in terms of new attitudes,
competencies, behavior patterns and ways of relating to others in different situations.
To some extent, we can redesign ourselves to fit the role requirements of new
situations.

7.4 CONCEPT OF ROLE AND ORGANIZATIONAL

SOCIALISATION
The idea of role comes form sociology and it is the pattern of actions expected of a
person in his activities involving others. It arises as a result of the position one
occupied in the social structure as he/she interacts with other people. In order to be
able to coordinate his work with others in an organization, one needs some way to
anticipate their behaviour as one interacts with them. Role performs this functions in
the social system.
A person functions in roles both on the job and away from it, as shown in Figure 2.
One person performs the occupational role of worker, the family role of father, the
social role of club president, and many others. In his various roles he is both buyer
and seller, boss and subordinate, a father and son, and an advisor and seeker of
advice. Each role calls for different types of behaviour. Within the work environment
alone, a worker has more than one role. He may be a worker in group A, a
subordinate of foreman in B, and machinist, a member of a union, and a representative
on the safety committee. Undoubtedly role is the most complexly organized response
pattern of which a human being is capable. Activities of manager and workers a like
are guided by their role perceptions, that is, how they think they are supposed to act in
56 a given situation. Since mangers perform many different roles, they must be highly
adaptive in order to change from one role to another quickly. The factory foreman’s Socialisation, Mobility
role particularly requires that he be adaptive in working with the extremes of and Separation
subordinate and superior, staff and line, technical and non-technical, and education
and uneducated.

Figure 2: Each Employee performs many roles

A role set is the entire configuration of surrounding roles as they affect a particular
role, such as the foreman’s role just described. That is, all the different persons with
whom the foreman interacts in this role of foreman have role expectations concerning
the way in which he should act, and these expectations collectively make up the role
set for his role as foreman, this role set arises partlyfrom the nature of the job itself,
because managers in equivalent jobs but in different companies tend to perceive and
play their roles in about the same way.
The existence of role expectations means that a manager or other person interacting
with someone else needs to perceive three role values, and shown interacting with
someone else needs to perceive three role values, as shown in Figure 3 First, he needs
to see his own role as required by the function he is performing. Then he needs to see
the role of the person he contacts. Finally, he needs to see his role as seen by the other
person. Obviously he cannot meet the needs of others unless he can perceive what they
expect of him. Research shows that where there is wide variance in a manager’s role
perception of his job and the employee’s role expectations of that job, there tends to be
poor motivation and inefficiency. They may even have difficulty communicating
because they will not be talking about the same things in the same way. For example,
difficulties may arise because a manager sees his role as that of a hard boiled pusher,
but his employees expect the opposite.
When role expectations of a job are materially different or opposite, the incumbent in
the job tends to be in role conflict because he cannot meet one expectation without
rejecting the other. A president in one company faced role conflict, for example, when
he learned that both the controller and the personnel director expected him to allocate 57
Getting Human
Resources Manager Employee
Manager’s perception of Employee’s perception of
his own role his own role

Manager’s perception of Employee’s perception of

employee’s role manager’s role

Manager’s perception of the Employee’s perception of the

manager’s role as seen by employee’s role as seen by
the employee manager

Figure 3: Role Perception of a Manager and an Employee make a

Complex Web as they Interact

the new organizational planning function to their departments. Regarding the existence
of role conflict research suggests that a manager bases his decision primarily on
legitimacy (which expectations he thinks is more “right” and reasonably) and sanction
(how he thinks he will be affected if he follows one expectation in preference to the
other).
In case role expectations are substantially unknown because of poor communication
or are inadequately defined, role ambiguity exists, and it is more difficult to predict
how a person in that role will act.
From a manager’s point of view, a fuller understanding of roles should help him know
what others expect of him and how he should act. Knowing this he should be more
adaptable to each unique role relationship. His decision making should improve
because he will understand why other people are acting the way they are. He will also
recognize the variety of roles each employee plays and will try to provide motivations
and satisfactions for those several job roles.

7.5 STATUS AND SOCIALISATION

The social rank of a person comparison with others in a social system is referred to as
status. Two kinds of status exist: formal and informal. Formal status refers to the rank
of people as designated by the authority structure of an organization. Informal status
refers to the social rank which others accord to a person because of their feelings
toward him. It is the position which one has in an informal social system.
Status relationships need ranking and comparison, so two or more persons are
required to make a status relationship. One must be higher and the other lower.
Individuals are brought together in status systems or status hierarchies, which define
their rank relative to others in the system. The desire for status is one of the strongest
motivation forcing among people at work. The term “lose face” is often used as a
synonym for loss of status in personal interaction, and its seriousness is widely
recognized.
58
Status congruence or consistency reflects the degree of agreement among various Socialisation, Mobility
indicators of status for a person. An employee who lacks status congruence is and Separation
regarded with ambiguity and anxiety by those in this group. Usually he is not as well
accepted as people do not know where to place him in their status system. In one
company, for example, a very skilled young toolmaker was added to a department of
older toolmakers. Though his skill merited the status they had, his age did not, and
they would not accept him. He finally chose a different company having some younger
toolmakers.
Loss of status is more than loss of prestige. It seriously affects personality. People,
therefore, become quite responsible in order to protect and develop their status.
Barnard comments, “the desire for improvement of status and especially the desire to
protect status appears to be the basis of a sense of general responsibility.”
Status is important only in the particular social group where the status is accorded,
rather than being some general characteristic which goes wherever a person goes. One
executive recently told how he worked hard for a promotion and the status it would
bring him with his friends. The promotion finally came, but it required him to move
another city where he was unknown. He said that the promotion was hollow because
in this new location his new friends were his peers and looked on him as “just another
manager.” The importance of status ‘requires management to give attention to how it
arises and whether management actions affect it. Some of the status influences which
arise from organization are organizational level, type of work and skill in it, working
conditions, pay, seniority, education etc.

7.6 SOCIALISATION FACTORS IN ORGANIZATIONAL

SOCIALISATION
People coming into organization are not like raw material inputs possessing rigid
specifications. No amount of quality .control and inspections will ensure that they are
99.99% perfect and uniform. They are individuals influenced by hereditary factors,
previous socialisation processes, and their other life experiences. In the socialisation
process, organizations are working with highly variable, heterogeneous, and somewhat
imperfect human resources. To the extent that individuals have faced significantly
different acculturation processes in their earlier lives, they represent different inputs to
the socialisation process. Many studies have indicated that workers coming from
different communities (rural versus urban), from different social classes, or who are in
other ways differentiated by past socialisation have different expectations,
motivations, behaviors, and satisfactions. These groups represent subcultures that
prepare people differently for functioning in work organizations. Looking at these
subcultures may help us understand some of the problem that result from variations in
social learning among societies or among subgroups within a society (Nord, 1976).
Influence of Subcultures Relevance for Gender and Minority Issues
The phenomenon of socio-cultural divergence can be illustrated by looking at two
groups in the work force: women and minorities. We are born into two broad
subcultures based on gender—male or female. These are obvious physiological
differences, but how much these contribute to later differences in the behavior men
and women is the subject of much controversy. A good deal of evidence suggests that
much dissimilarity occurs because of different socialisation process for girls and boys.
There appear to be rather clearly defined sex role stereotypes of men and women
(Broverman et al., 1972). The young girl or boy is socialised to match these
stereotypes. Some of the major components of personality characteristics, interests,
and behaviors as appropriate for one sex or the other; (2) sex roles are systematically
inculcated in individuals, beginning at birth, by parents, the educational system, peers, 59
Getting Human the media, religious institutions, and other informational sources; (3) individuals learn
Resources appropriate sex roles through role models and differential reinforcement; (4) sex roles
form the core of an individual’s identity or self image; and (5) in many societies the
male role enjoys the higher status.
Stereotypical masculine traits (more logical, objective, aggressive, and ambitious as
well as less sensitive, warm, and expressive) are often perceived to be more desirable
for mature adults than stereotypical feminine characteristics (more emotional,
sensitive, and expressive as well as less aggressive, objective, and standards exist for
women than for adults. If women adopt the behaviors specified as desirable for
adults, they risk censure for their failure to be appropriately feminine; but if they
adopt the behaviors that are designated as feminine, they are necessarily
deficient with respect to the general standards for adult behaviour”
(Broverman et aI., 1972, p. 75).
It also leads to additional problems for women seeking to rise in the organizational
hierarchy to managerial positions. The effective manager is seen to have those traits
most closely associated with the masculine (and adult) sex role. The aspiring women
generally must assume some of these traits if she is to be successful in a managerial
position. However, the more aggressive women is often described as pushy, ruthless,
and domineering. An aggressive man, behaving in essentially the same way, is called a
“go-getter” or a “take-charge guy.” If a women behaves in the stereotypical feminine
manner, she is likely to be considered overcautious, incapability of decisive action,
and too emotional.
There are further indications that other factors in organizations contribute to the
problem, such as differential recruitment of women to lower-level jobs that require
dependence and passivity and excessive control that give women less power
(Acker & Van Houten, 1974). Taken together, past socialisation into differentiated
sex roles and conditions within organization that reinforce these differences create
unique problems of socialisation—both for the woman and the organization. It takes
much more than just saying, “We are opening the doors” to reach a successful
accommodation.
It is very important for the organization and the manager not to fall into habits of
stereotyping different subcultures. Many people associate certain personality traits
with different groups in our society. Sometimes this is useful, but more likely we find
that it blinds us to really understanding the individual as the unique human being.
Often, with better information we find that there are not as many differences as we
expected.
There is an additional key factors when considering the socialisation process for
women and minorities entering into new, higher-level positions in organizations.
This is not only process of change for the newcomer, but something requiring
significant resocialisation of existing members. Not only are we modifying the
values, attitudes, and behavior of the new employee, we are also asking for
substantial change on the part of others in the organization. This makes the
process even more difficult.
Cross-cultural Comparisons
Early socialisation processes deeply affect the expectations and behaviour of a
particular people. For example, in Japan the Nenko system of lifetime commitment to
and organization is often associated with centuries old behavior pattern and value
orientations. This system is based on traditional Japanese values of respect for elders,
the importance of family and group social systems, and mutual responsibility, loyalty
and collaboration. However, the Nenko system is not universal in Japan. It is used
only in the larger enterprise and does not cover temporary employees and outside
60 contract workers.
This system does appear to work well within the culture, but there are major questions Socialisation, Mobility
about its appropriateness in other societies, such as the United States. The reverse of and Separation
this is also true: many modern U.S. Corporate practices are not easily transferred to
other countries. This becomes particularly evident in multinational corporations
operating in a foreign country. In the organizational socialisation process abroad, we
may find that we are requiring people to develop attitudes, values, and behavior
patterns that are in conflict for the individual.
As we develop more varied and complex organizations and recruit people from
different subcultures, we can anticipate that the socialisation process will become
even more complex. Not only must individuals adjust, but the organization will have
to adapt to the attitudes, beliefs, and behavior patterns that different people bring into
the organization. We see an increasing possibility of having more diverse values,
views, and even life styles among different participants and groups within
organizations.

7.7 IMPORTANCE OF INITIAL JOB SOCIALISATION

Some people believe that the period of early organizational socialisation is not
particularly important. The newcomer is there to get acquired with the organization, to
learn about the task requirements, and to size up the situation without too much
involvement. The organization should look the newcomer over and really not expect
much. The newcomer should play it cool and not make too many commitments to the
organization.
There is very strong evidence that this approach is inappropriate for the individual and
the organization. The first year is one of the most significant periods in the work
career of the individual. The development of values, attitudes, and behavior patterns
during this period strongly influences future career development.
Why is this so? There is a low of primacy which holds that the earlier an experience,
the more important its effect because it influences how later experiences will be
interpreted. The newcomer entering the organization is uniquely subject to new
influences. When he enters the organization he is uncertain about the role that he will
play and his concept of himself is thrown into question. Finding himself in a stressful
and “unfrozen” situation, “he is motivated to reduce this stress by becoming
incorporated into the ‘interior’ of the company. Being thus motivated to be accepted
by this new social system and to make sense of the ambiguity surrounding him, he is
more receptive to cues from his environment than he will ever be again, and what he
learns at the beginning will becomes the core of his organizational identity” (Berlew &
hall, 1966). This is the very period when recruits can best test their own self-concepts
and expectations of organizational life. It is during this time when the most important
components of the psychological contract will be negotiated, thus determining the new
recruit’s organizational commitment. The researches have shown that very early in his
organizational career an individual will develop enduring attitudes and aspirations
which will have development opment of performance standards and job attitudes.
From the moment he enters the organization, a new manager is given cues about the
quality of performance that this expected and rewarded A few studies have confirmed
that managers given challenging initial jobs with high expectations jobs. They were
socialised to have higher aspirations and performance standards. The moral seems to
be that “success breeds success”; numerous other studies seem to confirm the findings
(Buchanan, 1974). Newcomers should thus be given challenging but obtainable goals
rather than “snap assignments.” They should be involved in the establishment of these
goals and be given honest feedback on performance.

61
Getting Human The Organization Sizing up the Individual
Resources
We have emphasised the importance of the initial socialisation process in establishing
the individual’s values, expectations, behavior patterns, and achievement orientation.
The other side of the coin is also apparent. It is during this period that other members
of the organization are making key judgment about the personal characters, behavior,
and performance of the new individual. Initial impressions (which may be based in
limited evidence) are long lasting. Just as in Hollywood, there is a danger that the
individual may become type-cast and it is often difficult to break out of this role in the
future. The new instructor will often be judged by faculty colleagues as to classroom
effectiveness early in her career. Quite often these perceptions are based on limited
information, but they are enduring and difficult to change. The first day and the first
few months really do count in the individual’s organization career.
Matching of Individual and Organization
In view of the large variations in individual personality characteristics and almost
equally wide different in organizational climates, it is understandable that there are
many problems in appropriately matching and integrating the individual and the
organization.
Frequently both the individual and the organization have some influence in the
selection process. The corporation recruits, interviews, tests, and selects from a
number of candidates. The individual investigation has the most say in the matching
process, the individual investigates and evaluates various job opportunities. In some
situations, the organization has the most say in the matching process, the individual,
little.
In most cases, however there is a potential opportunity for selection and matching on
the part of both the individual and the organization to increase the probability of more
effective socialisation and integration.
People Do Change Organizations
Socialisation is a two-way process. It is fairly obvious to new parents, for example,
that their lives have been changed significantly when they bring the first baby home
from the hospital. And they continually modify their behaviour as the infant passes
through various stages of childhood. The teacher makes certain attitudinal and
behavior adjustments for each new class. The manager adapts to the new employee.
All agents of socialisation are therefore themselves subject to change as a result of this
process.
The degree of change effected in organization and in their agents of socialisation is
directly related to the novelty to the situation with which they are presented. The first
child is much more likely to change the parents than the tenth. The young teacher is
more likely to be changed than the veteran. However, even the long-established
organization member may face a period of significant re-socialisation when presented
with new circumstances. Examples of the introduction of women and minorities into
higher position in work organizations illustrate that the established managers also
undergo major readjustments. The first women in the military academies were not only
called upon to change themselves but occasioned substantial change that affected other
recruits and the entire organization.
Agents of socialisation (parents, peers, teachers, mangers, etc.) faced with different
types of human inputs into the organization will themselves have anxieties and
apprehensions about the process; they may behave much like the newcomer. They are
facing a new social situation and to an extent are unfrozen from their past attitudes
and behavior patterns. They, too, are more receptive at this time to information inputs
and cues about how they should perform their role as socialiser.
62
Individualization is the reciprocal of socialisation. While the organization is Socialisation, Mobility
attempting to modify the individual to its requirements, “he in turn is striving to and Separation
influence the organization so that it can better satisfy this own needs and his own ideas
about how it can best be operated” (Porter, Lawler, & Hackman, 1975). This
individualization process is of vital importance to the long-term survival of
organizations: particularly those facing rapidly changing environments and internal
circumstances. It is one of the primary sources of organizational change and
adaptation.

7.8 IMPROVING THE SOCIALISATION PROCESS

There seem to be some broad generalisation coming out studies of organizational
socialisation process (Van Maanen & Schein, 1979). First, there is strong evidence
that anticipatory socialisation leads to higher expectations on the part of individuals
about their organizational roles than can be fulfilled. There seems to be a downward
adjustment of expectations and aspirations on the part of new members in the
organization during their first year. This appears to be true for college graduates
entering management training programs, for police trainees, and for many professional
(Van Maanen, 1975). High initial expectations leading to some disillusionment is the
typical pattern.
This may be caused by many factors. The graduate business school that prepares its
MBA graduates to fill high managerial positions later in their career may install
expectations that cannot be met until the individual has earned this position by
performing basic tasks. Unrealistic expectations may also be created in many
industrial jobs. For example, one large organization established a magnificent training
facility for workers just joining the organization. The learning environment was ideal,
the instructors, capable and the training program highly effective. Unfortunately, when
the trainees were assigned to the gritty realities of the shoproom floor, many became
disillusioned and quit.
With the opening of new positions to women and minorities we see many examples of
unrealistic expectations on the part of both the individual and the organization. For
example, when a university department hired its first black assistant professor it
painted a rosy picture of academic life. The professor also put his best foot forward.
However the department failed to specify clearly all of the expectations for teaching
and research of a new assistant professor. Even more critical, it did not fully recognize
the potential role conflicts that the new professor would face.
The Individual Perspective—Realistic Career Planning
The individual should be realistic in recognizing that entering any organizations
entering any organization entails some personal gains and some loses. Every adult
re-socialisation process requires the abandonment of certain past values, attitudes, and
behaviour patterns that may have been part of the self-image cultivated by the
individual. We should not expect the process to be easy.
During the selection process, the individual should obtain as much information as
possible about the organizational climate and its effect on the definition or roles.
Recruiters, in their zeal to attract best new members, are not always the best source
for this kind of information. A more objective appraisal may come from those who
have recently joined the organization. This is not always easy to obtain (it is even
more difficult to get information from those who were dissatisfied and left). But it is
important to investigate longer-range career opportunities as well as immediate
rewards, such as salary and fringe benefits.

63
Getting Human Organizational Perspective—Initial Socialisation
Resources
Certainly, more balanced recruitment and selection techniques can ease the
socialisation process. Some organizations have attempted to provide the prospective
employee with more realistic job previews in the form of booklets, films, visits, to the
work site, and informal discussion that convey not only the positive side of
organizational life, but some of the potential problems and frustrations as well (Hall &
Hall, 1976; Wanous, 1980; Feldman, 1976). The recruiters fear that this might put of
the better candidates have proven unjustified, and research indicates that turnover and
dissatisfaction are significantly lower for people who have received realistic
information and expectations.
Organizational socialisation can be underdone, appropriately done, or overdone
(Schein, 1968). If it is underdone, appropriately done, rebellion and alienation on the
part of the individual who rejects all the norms and values of the organization. The
rebellious individual is dissatisfied with both himself and the organization: where the
individual totally conforms to the organization, unquestioningly perpetuating and
demanding acceptance of existing goals, values, and practices. The goal of
appropriate socialisation should develop creative individualism where the person
generally accepts the key goals, values, and norms of the organization but also retains
the desire to seek changes and improvement.
Fortunately, there is growing attention to organizational socialisation process, both by
researches and practicing managers (Van Maanen, 1978). The importance of these
processes is becoming more evident in term of both organizational performance and
human satisfaction.
Figure 4 provides a summary diagram of the organizational socialisation process. It
starts with the past life experiences of the individual and the past experiences and
practces of the organization. Clearly, these have a major influence on the process. The
diagram suggests that both the individual and the organization bring a number of
requirements, constraints, and expectations into the process. The socialisation process
requires significant adaptations on the part of both and results in the negotiation of a
psychological contract. The outcome of the process may lead to two failures-
alienation/rebellion or ultraconformity. Neither of these is desirable from either the
individual’s or the organization’s standpoint. Creative individualism is the desired
mean: the achievement of which has great importance for the career development of
the individual and for the continued growth, change, and development of the
organization.

7.9 CONCEPT OF MOBILITY

Mobility is an organizational activity to cope with the changing organizational
requirements like change in organizational structure, fluctuation in requirement of
organizational product, introduction of new method of work etc. Mobility in an
organizational context includes mainly ‘promotion’ and ‘transfer’. Sometimes,
‘demotion’ also comes under mobility.

Purposes of Mobility
Mobility serve the following purposes:
a) To improve organizational effectiveness;
b) To maximise employee efficiency;
c) To cope with changes in operation; and
64 d) To ensure discipline.
Past life Self-concept values,
experience attitudes, behaviour
patterns, and
expectations
Rebellion (Counter dependency)
Search and
Expectations selection
Needs and
abilities about
organizations Creative
Socialisation Process individuals
Learning mutual expectations and in (Interdepen-
making adjustments dency) Future
Ascribing and taking roles Outcomes individual
Organization Negotiating the psychological career and
system contract organization
Developing expectations about the Ultra development
effort-performance-rewards-satisfaction conformity
Past relationship
(dependency)
experiences Techno- Goals and Task and Providing feedback on performance
logy values Expectations Developing new self-concepts
and practice other about Search and
requirement Individual selection
Managerial
system

Structure Psychological
reasoning

Figure 4: Diagram of the Organizational Process

65
and Separation
Socialisation, Mobility
Getting Human Promotion
Resources
In simpler terms, promotion refers to upward movement in present job leading to
greater responsibilities, higher status and better salary. Promotion may be temporary
or permanent depending upon the organizational requirement. According to Clothier
and Spriegel, “promotion is the transfer of an employee to a job which pays more
money or one that carries some preffered status.”

Purpose and Advantages of Promotion

Promotion stimulates self-development and creates interest in the job. According to
Yoder, “promotion provides incentive to initiative, enterprise and ambition; minimises
discontent and unrest; attracts capable individuals; necessitates logical training for
advancement and forms an effective reward for loyalty and cooperation, long service
etc.” The purposes and advantages of promotions are to:
a) recognize employee’s performance and commitment and motivate him towards
better performance;
b) develop competitive spirit among employees for acquiring knowledge and skills
for higher level jobs;
c) retain skilled and talented employees;
d) reduce discontent and unrest;
e) utilise more effectively the knowledge and skills of employees; and
f) attract suitable and competent employees.

Types of Promotions
Different types of promotions are discussed below.
a) Multiple Chain Promotion: It provides a systematic linkage of each position to
several others. It provides multi-promotional opportunities through clearly
defined avenues of approach to and exit from each position in the organization.
b) Up or Out Promotion: In this case, an employee either earns a promotion or
seeks employment elsewhere. Out promotion usually leads to termination of
employee and joining some other organization in a better position.
c) Dry Promotion: In this type, promotion is given in lieu of increase in salary. For
example, when an university professor is made Head of the Department, there is
no increase in salary.

Promotion Programme and Procedure

Every organization should make advance plans for promotion programme. A carefully
planned promotion programme has four elements: a) formulation of promotion policy,
b) identification of promotion channels, c) promotion appraisal, and d) centralised
records.
We shall discuss each element in detail.
a) Formulation of Promotion Policy: Each organization needs to maintain a
balance between the internal sources of personnel promotion and external
sources by means of recruitment. Hence, promotion must be based on consistent,
fair and clear cut policy. The National Institute of Personnel Management
(NIPM) has suggested a promotion policy on the following lines:
1) Encouragement of promotion within the organization instead of looking
outside to fill vacancies in higher places.
66
 2) An understanding that ability as well as seniority will be taken into account Socialisation, Mobility
in making promotions. Ability, efficiency, attitude, job performance, and Separation
physical fitness, leadership, experience, and length of service are some of
the factors considered in making promotions.
3) Drawing up an organization chart to make clear to all the ladder of
promotion. Where there is a job analysis and a planned wage policy, such
chart is quite easy to prepare.
4) Making the promotion system clear to all concerned who may initiate and
handle cases of promotion. Though departmental heads may initiate
promotion, the final approval must lie with the top management, after
the personnel department has been asked to check from its knowledge
whether any repercussion is likely to result from the proposed
promotion.
5) All promotions should be for a trial period to ascertain whether the
promoted person is found capable of handling the job or not.
Normally, during this trial period, he draws the pay of the higher
post, but it should be clearly understood that if “he does not make the
grade” he will be reverted to his former post and former pay scale.
b) Promotion Channels: Promotion channels should be identified and recorded on
paper. This process is related with job analysis and career planning of an
organization.
c) Promotion Appraisals: The promotion of an employee is entirely dependent
upon his/her performance appraisal outcome.
d) Centralised Records: The education, experience, skills, abilities and evaluation
of all employees should be recorded and maintained in a centralised manner by
the department of the organization, because basing on these attributes, promotion
is given to an employee.

Bases of Promotion
Promotion is given on the basis of seniority or merit or a combination of both. Let us
discuss each one as a basis of promotion.
Seniority as a basis: It implies relative length of service in the same organization. The
advantages of this are: relatively easy to measure, simple to understand and operate,
reduces labout turnover and provides sense of satisfaction to senior employees. It has
also certain disadvantages: beyond a certain age a person may not learn, performance
and potential of an employee is not recognized, it kills ambition and zeal to improve
performance.
Merit as a basis: Merit implies the knowledge, skills and performance record of an
employee. The advantages are: motivates competent employees to work hard, helps to
maintain efficiency by recognizing talent and performance. It also suffers from certain
disadvantages like: difficulty in judging merit, merit indicates past achievement, may
not denote future potential and old employees feel insecure.
Seniority-cum-Merit as basis: As both seniority and merit as basis suffer from
certain limitations, therefore, a sound promotion policy should be based on a
combination of both seniority and merit. A proper balance between the two can be
maintained by different ways: minimum length of service may be prescribed, relative
weightage may be assigned to seniority and merit and employees with a minimum
performance record and qualifications are treated eligible for promotion, seniority is
used to choose from the eligible candidates.

67
Getting Human Activity A
Resources
a) Note down the promotion policy of a Government organization, a Public Sector
Undertaking and Private organization with which you are familiar.

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

.....................................................................................................................................
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b) Make a comparison of the above mentioned three.
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.....................................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................................

Promotion Practice in India

In India, seniority is generally used for promotion in Government offices. In public
sectors, both seniority and seniority-cum-merit promotion system is carried based on
their policy. In private sectors, the policy by and large is ‘promote the best man
available’.

Demotion
Demotion refers to the lowering down of the status, salary and responsibilites of an
employee. Demotion is used as a disciplinary measure in an organization. The habitual
patterns of behaviour such as violation of the rules and conduct, poor attendance
record, insubordination where the individuals are demoted. Beach (1975) defines
demotion as “the assignment of an individual to a job of lower rank and pay usually
involving lower level of difficulty and responsibility”.

Causes of Demotion
Demotion may be caused by any of these factors:
a) Adverse business conditions: Employees may be demoted because of recession
faced by company.
b) Incompetency of the employee: It happens when an employee finds it difficult to
meet the required standard.
c) Technological changes: When employee is unable to adjust with any
technological change made by the company.
d) Disciplinary measure.
Demotion Policy
Yoder, Heneman, Turnbull and Stone (1958) have suggested a five fold policy with
regard to demotion practice.
i) A clear and reasonable list of rules should be framed, violations of which would
subject an employee to demotion;
ii) This information should be clearly communicated to employees;
iii) There should be a competent investigation of any alleged violation;
iv) If violations are discovered, there should be a consistent and equitable
68 application of the penalty, preferably by the immediate supervisor;
v) There should be a provision for review. (In a unionised case, this will be Socialisation, Mobility
automatic via the grievance procedure; in a non-unionised case, the employer and Separation
will need to make other provisions for review).
Activity B
Take on account of the demotion policy of your organization and give a brief note on
that.
............................................................................................................................................................................

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

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

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

Transfer
A transfer is a horizontal or lateral movement of an employee from one job, section,
department, shift, plant or position to another at the same or another place where his
salary, status and responsibility are the same. Yoder and others (1958) define transfer
as “a lateral shift causing movement of individuals from one position to another
usually without involving marked change in duties, responsibilities, skills needed or
compensation”. Transfer may be initiated either by the company or the employee. It
also can be temporary or permanent.
Purposes of Transfer
Transfers are generally affected to build up a more satisfactory work team and to
achieve the following purposes;
i) To increase the effectiveness of the organization
ii) To increase versatility and competence of key positions
iii) To deal with fluctuations in work requirements
iv) To correct incompatibilties in employee relations
v) To correct erroneous placement
vi) To relieve monotony
vii) To adjust workforce
viii) To punish employees

Types of Transfers
Employee transfers may be classified as below.
a) Production transfers: Such transfers are made to meet the company
requirements. The surplus employees in one department/section who are efficient
might be absorbed in other place where there is a requirement. Such transfers
help to stabilise employment.
b) Replacement transfers: This takes place to replace a new employee who has
been in the organization for a long time and thereby giving some relief to an old
employee from the heavy pressure of work.
c) Versality transfers: It is also know as rotation. It is made to develop all round
employees by moving them from one job to another. It also helps to reduce
boredom and monotony.
d) Personnel or remedial transfers: Such a transfer is made to rectify mistakes in
selection and placement. As a follow up, the wrongly placed employee is
transferred to a more suitable job. 69
Getting Human e) Shift transfers: This is pretty common where there is more than one shift and
Resources when there is regularised rotation.

Transfer Policy
Every organization should have a fair and impartial transfer policy which should be
known to each employee. The responsibility for effecting transfers is usually entrusted
to an executive with power to prescribe the conditions under which requests for
transfers are approved. Care should be taken to ensure that frequent or large-scale
transfers are avoided by laying down adequate selection and placement procedures for
the purpose. A good transfer policy should:
i) Specifically clarify the types of transfers and the conditions under which these
will be made;
ii) Locate the authority in some officer who may initiate and implement transfers;
iii) Indicate whether transfers can be made only within a sub-unit or also between
departments, divisions/plants;
iv) Indicate the basis for transfer, i.e., whether it will be based on seniority or on
skill and competence or any other factor;
v) Decide the rate of pay to be given to the transferee;
vi) Intimate the fact of transfer to the person concerned well in advance;
vii) Be in writing and duly communicated to all concerned;
viii) Not be made frequently and not for the sake of transfer only.

Activity C
Present a brief not on the transfer policy of your organization along with citing the
total number of transfer cases of last few years.
............................................................................................................................................................................

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7.10 SEPARATIONS
Separation means cessation of service with the organization for one or other reason. It
may occur due to resignation, retirement, dismissal, suspension, layoff or death.

a) Resignation
Resignation or quit is a voluntary separation initiated by the employee. It may be on
grounds of health, marriage, better opportunities elsewhere or may be compulsory
when an employee is asked to resign to avoid termination. Some resignations may
enable the organization to rectify mistakes in hiring of employees and to bring in fresh
talent from outside. However, excess turnover is costly for the organization. Hence, to
find out the real causes of resignation so that appropriate actions may be taken to
prevent avoidable resignations, HR department conduct ‘Exit Interview’ with the
employee who is leaving the organization. The main requirements of a successful exit
interview are as following:
i) Win the employee’s confidence by assuring him that whatever he says will be
70 kept strictly confidential.
ii) Explain to the employee that the purpose of the interview is to improve the Socialisation, Mobility
organization’s climate. and Separation

iii) The interview should be conducted by a responsible officer from the personnel
department.
iv) The interview should show a great deal of patience and listen sympathetically.
v) Try to find out the real cause of resignation and ensure that the employee has
fully handed over the charge to somebody else.
vi) Assure the employee of the company’s continuing interest in his welfare.

b) Retirement
Retirement is a significant milestone in the life of an employee. It is the main cause of
separation of employees from the organization. Retirement is of three kinds:
i) Compulsory Retirement: An employee must retire after attaining the specified
age. In Government office the retirement age is 58 years whereas in the private
sector the age is generally 60 years.
ii) Premature Retirement: An employee may retire before attaining the specified
age due to bad health, physical disability, family problem, etc. He gets the full
benefit of retirement provided the management allows premature retirement.
iii) Voluntary Retirement: When an organization wants to cut down its operations
or to close forever, it may give an option to its employees with a certain
minimum service for voluntary retirement in return for a lumpsum payment. This
type of retirement is called Golden Hand Shake.

c) Dismissal
Dismissal is the termination of services of an employee by way of punishment for
misconduct or unsatisfactory performance. It is a drastic step taken by employer. The
principle of natural justice is followed for this. Before dismissal, an employee is given
an opportunity to explain his conduct and to show cause why he should not be
dismissed.

d) Suspension
Suspension is a serious punishment and is generally awarded only after a proper
enquiry has been conducted. For reasons of discipline, a workman may be suspended
without prejudice during the course of an enquiry. During suspension, the employee
receives a subsistence allowance.

e) Retrenchment
Retrenchment means permanent termination of service of an employee for economic
reasons in a going concern. The Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 defines retrenchment as
the “termination by the employer of the services of workman for any reason other than
termination of services as punishment given by way of disciplinary action, or
retirement either voluntary or reaching age of superannuation, or continued ill-health
or the closure and winding up of a business”. The Act lays down the following
conditions for retrenchment.
i) The employee must be given one month’s notice in writing indicating the reasons
for retrenchment or wages in lieu of such notice.
ii) The employee must be paid compensation equal to 15 days for every completed
year of service.
71
Getting Human iii) Notice in the prescribed manner must be served on the appropriate Government
Resources authority.
iv) In the absence of any agreement to the contrary, the worker employed last must
be terminated first.
v) Retrenched workers must be given preference in future employment.

f) Layoff
Layoff implies temporary removal of an employee from the payroll of the organization
due to circumstances beyond the control of the employer. It may last for an indefinite
period. But the employee is not terminated and is expected to be called back in future.
The employer employee relationship does not come to an end but is merely suspended
during the period of layoff. It is temporary denial of employment. The purpose of
layoff is to reduce the financial burden on the organization when the human resources
cannot be utilized profitabily. Under Section 2(KKK) of the Industrial Disputes Act,
1947, layoff is defined as “the failure, refusal or inability of an employer, on account
of shortage of coal, power or raw materials or accumulation of stocks or breakdown
of machinery or by any other reason, to give employment to a workman whose name
appears on the muster rolls of his industrial establishment and who has not been
retrenched”. Layoff is restored in cyclical and seasonal industries. In mines workers
are laid off due to excess of inflammable gas, flood, fire and explosion.
According to Section 25(c) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, a laidoff worker is
entitled to compensation equal to 50 per cent of the basic wages and dearness
allowance that would have been payable to him had he not been laidoff. However, in
order to claim this compensation, the laidoff workman must satisfy the following
conditions:
a) he should not be a badli or a casual worker,
b) his name must appear on the muster rolls of the industrial establishment,
c) he must have completed not less than one year of continuous service, and
d) he must present himself for work at the appointed time during normal working
hours at least once a day.
The right to compensation is lost if the worker refuses to accept alternative
employment at a place within 5 miles of the establishment from which he has been laid
off. No compensation is payable when the layoff in due to strike or slowing down of
production on the part of workers in another part of the establishment. An industrial
establishment of a seasonal character or in which work is performed only
intermittently or which employs less than 20 workers is not required to pay the
compensation.

7.11 SUMMARY
To sum up, in this unit we have discussed three important functions of an
organisation: Socialisation, Mobility and Separation. We have touched upon the
individual role and job concept of socialisation. Mobility is the transfer of employees
to cope up with changing organisational requirements. Mobility takes place in
different forms like promotion, transfer and demotion. Separation means cessation of
service for organisational or personal or some other reason. It may occur due to
resignation, retirement, dismissal, suspension, lay off or death.

72
 Socialisation, Mobility
7.12 SELF ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS and Separation

1) What does one gain by perceiving organizations as social systems?

2) Discuss how motivation patterns, role, and status have influenced your
interactions with others today. What is your primary motivation pattern?
3) Discuss the statement: A manager cannot satisfy a worker only as an “employee”
because each worker has many work roles.
4) From your experience cite examples of poor status congruence.
5) Compare the ideas of system equilibrium and employee adjustment.
6) Define distributive justice and its relation to lay off.

7.13 FURTHER READINGS

Adams, J.S. (1965). Inequity in Social Exchange, In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in
Experimental Social Psychology (Vol. 2, pp. 267-299).
Bies, R.J. & Shapiro, D.L. (1987). Interactional fairness judgments: The influence of
casual accounts. Social Justice Research, 1, 199-218.
Beach, D.S. (1979). Personnel: The Management of People at Work, McMillan
Publishing Co., New York.
Brockner, J., Davy, J. & Carter, C. (1985). Layoffs, self-esteem, and survivor guilt:
Motivational, affective, and attitudinal consequences. Organizational Behaviour and
Human Decision Process, 36, 229-224.
Brockner, J., Grover, S., Reed, T., De Witt, R., & O’Malley, M. (1987). Survivors
reactions, to layoffs; We get by with a little help for our friends. Administrative
Science Quarterly, 32, 526-541.
Clothier, S.W. and Spriegel, W. (1977). Personnel Management: Principles, Practices
and Point of View, Tata McGraw Hill, New Delhi.
Deutsch, M. (1985). Distributive justice: A social-psychological perspective. New
Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Feldman, Danier C. “A Practical Program for Employee Socialisation,”
Organizational Dynamics 5/2 (Autumn 1976): 64:80.
Greenberg, J. (1982). Approaching equity and avoiding inequity in groups and
organizations. In J. Greenberg & R.L. Cohen (Eds), Equity and justice in social
behaviour (pp. 389-435). New York: Academic Press.
Greenberg, J. (1986a). Determinants of perceived fairness of performance evaluations.
Journal of Applied Psychology, 71, 340-342.
Greenberg, J. (1987a). Using diaries to promote procedural justice in performance
appraisals. Social Justice Research, 1, 219-234.
Levinson, Harry. The Exceptional Executive: A Psychological Conception.
Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1968.
Nord, Walter R. “Culture and Organization Behaviour,” In Concepts and Controversy
in Organizational Behaviour. 2nd ed., pp. 197-221, Santa Monica, California:
Goodyear, 1976.
NIPM, Personnel Management in India, pp. 212-13.
Schien, Edgar H. “Organizational Socialisation and the Profession of Management.”
Industrial Management Review 9/2 (Winter 1968): 1-16. 73
Getting Human Van Maanen, John and Edgar H. Schein, “Toward a Theory of Organizational
Resources Socialisation.” In Barry M. Staw (ed.), Research in Organizational Behaviour,
pp. 209-264. Greenwich, Conn: JAI Press, 1979.
Wanous, John P. Organizational Entry: Recruitment, Selection and Socialisation of
New Comers. Reading Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1979.
Yoder, Dale (1977). Personnel Management and Industrial Relations, Prentice Hall of
India, New Delhi.
Yoder, D.; Heneman, H.G.; Turnbull, H.G. and Stone, C.H. (1958). Handbook of
Personnel Management and Labour Relations, McGraw Hill, New York.
Sarma, A.M., Personnel and Human Resource Management, Himalaya Publishing
House, 1998.
Gupta, C.B., Human Resource Management, Sultan Chand, New Delhi, 1997.
Mamoria, C.B. & S.V. Gankar, Personnel Management, Himalaya Publishing House,
2004.

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