Balancing The Work Life - National HRD Network

| HRD News Letter | June 2007, Vol.23, Issue:3 2|

Vol - 23 June 2007 Issue - 3
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DWARAKANATH P, National President
SANTRUPT MISRA Dr., Immediate Past President
ANAND NAYAK, Regional President (East)
GOPAL KRISHNA M., Regional President(South)
SATISH PRADHAN, Regional President (West)
RAO G P, Regional President (North)
VARADARAJAN S. (Raja), National Secretary
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Features
4 ........................... President’s Message
4 ......................................... Editorial
5 ............ Mr. Aquil Busrai, Our New National
President
46 ................................. Chapter News
50 ............................... Cartoon Corner
Column
7 .................. Spare a Thought for Thinking
–– Madan Srinivasan
8 .............................. Supply Side Of HR
–– A.Thothathri Raman
Interview
10 ............. Dr. Udai Pareek and Dr. T V Rao
Lead Feature
14 ....... Attrition and Retention - The Way Out
–– Hari Nair, Abhishek Gavane
Case Study
45 ........ Performance Appraisal and feedback
–– R. Dharmarao
Articles
16 ............. Changing Attitude Of Employees
–– Prof. Shyam Shukla
17 ... Employee Engagement - Key to Retention
–– Vikas Chawla and Sandeep Banerjee
18 .................. Hrd - Lessons From Cricket
–– S.Balachandran
19 .......... Work Life And Stress Management
–– C Lalitha and Dr. Sapna Singh
20 ... Organizational Climate through Leadership
–– J Arpan Kumar·
22 ........................................... Trust
–– Sumathi Annamalai
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23 ... Stress And Strain: Balancing The Work Life
–– P.R.Naidu and Dr. P D.Raju
24 .................... Organisational Intelligence
–– Ms. Shikha Bhardwaj
25 ............ Hewitt Best Employers India 2007
–– Sanjeev Nayyar
27 ......................... Women At Workplace
–– Angelin Michael
29 ...... "Living with sharks, yet growing joyfully"
–– Pramod Jain
30 ....... Mapping And Retaining Talent Human
Resource -- A Study
–– Dr. B. Prakash, B. Madhavi, J. Madhavi
31 ...... Knowledge Sharing And Empowerment
–– S. Preetham Sridhar
33 ............................ Workplace Bullying
–– Pranati Raheja
35 .... Emerging Business Scenario In The New
Millennium And Challenges
–– Dr.G.Ramanaiah
36 ... Attrition - A Challenge and an Opportunity
for HR Professionsals.
–– P. Soma Raju
37 ............................ Time Management
–– N. Santhi, J. Jasinth Salome And R.Ramya
38 ....... Performance Appraisal - A Case Study
–– R.A.SHARMA
39 ............... Corporate Stress Management
–– S.Prabakar
40 ............... Importance Of Human Relations
–– By A. Madan Gopal
41 .... The thinking human or the behavioural man?
–– Hirak Bhattacharya
43 ............. Key Steps To Six Sigma Success
–– M. Sreenivas
44 ........................ Life is like that - C S R
–– Mohan M. Prasad
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| HRD News Letter | June 2007, Vol.23, Issue:3 3|

From
All of us at some point in our lives have
been inspired by people who by sharing
their knowledge or experience with us, have
earned our respect and followership. In
today's environment, organizations are
witnessing a shift from 'Learning
Organisations' to 'Teaching Organisations'.
A 'Teaching Organisation' comprises
leaders who willingly share their knowledge
with others Just as a leader needs
constantly to learn, to upgrade skills, and
to add to his or her knowledge base, a leader
also has to be a constant teacher. Too many
leaders make the assumption that there is
an unbridgeable gulf between themselves
and their followers. The best course of action
for a leader is to make every effort to keep
followers informed and then to teach them
new skills whenever possible so that the
organisation can benefit as a whole. This
will allow it to reduce costs and, perhaps,
become more profitable. In today's limited
resource environment, it is essential for
organisations to explore it as an option.
One of the challenges of knowledge
management is that of getting people to
share their knowledge. In some
Editorial
This editorial is long. It is a narrative. I
am about share something about
'certificates'. What I share could significantly
alter how we relate to 'certificates' and the
enormous impact that alteration could have.
In the Symphony Services' corporate
university (Symphony University), we
decided to institute the practice of giving
certificates to the participants of all our
learning programs. I asked my team to come
up with samples of certificates from which
we could choose. One of them came up with
a few samples that we decided to review in
the next weekly team meeting.
She showed us the samples. Each one had
different graphics, but essentially conveyed
that this was a "Certificate of Participation"
and "This is to certify that…" Even as I was
eyeing these samples, something within me
wanted something different from this kind
of a certificate. (Later I realized that this
'something within me' was an element of
my identity of having to do something
different.) So, I asked the team, "What is it
that we really want to convey through the
certificate?" Before I asked this question, I
had no answers, but even as I asked this
question, something very exciting (to me)
came up. The team members looked baffled
National President's Desk
organizations, sharing is natural. In others
the old dictum "knowledge is power" reigns.
Barriers cited include functional silos,
individualism, poor means of knowledge
capture, inadequate technology, internal
competition and top-down decision making.
How can we overcome such barriers?
Understanding these barriers and individual
motivations is the first step towards
implementing cultural changes in the work
setting.
Create Involvement - some of the best
knowledge sharing cultures are where
everybody believes that their knowledge is
respected, valued and used to inform
decisions. Use Role models - identify those
people whose behaviours are an example
to others. Celebrate and publicize them.
Involve them with other groups. Align
rewards and recognition to support
appropriate behaviours - too many schemes
are based on seniority or individual
expertise, rather than team effectiveness.
Compete, not against other people or teams,
but set goals vs. challenging targets or
external competitors.
Several organizations have used methods
to promote Knowledge Sharers and
Knowledge Sharing.
l At GSK Consumer Healthcare a
by this question - what else should a
certificate convey other than that the one
whose name was written on it participated
in such and such program that was
conducted on such and such date/s!
The discussion that followed produced
amazing results, and I want to narrate that
discussion in gist.
I asked, "What does the University exist for?"
"To train employees," said one. Another
noted, "To develop competencies in our
employees." Nothing wrong in these. "Ok," I
said, "and who are the participants for us?"
Employees, customers, clients - these came
without any hesitation from the team. Nothing
wrong in these either, they were facts.
I wanted them to focus on 'for us' in the
above question, and so I reworded the
question, stressing on these words: Who are
the participants for you? Nothing more than
what they said earlier came up. But after a
bit of prodding, the participants had become
'employees interested in their development';
'those who are keen on their career growth';
and of course 'reluctant participants who
were nominated by their managers'. Now we
seem to be getting somewhere…
I continued, "So, if people did not participate
in our programs, what will happen to the
University?" That was simple! "We won't be
l
l
competency called 'Develop Self and
Others' was instilled through various OD
interventions. Moreover it was also
incorporated in the Company's Reward
& Recognition scheme.
The World Bank uses electronic bulletin
boards focused around relevant topics,
but which cut across organizational
boundaries
AT NASA Knowledge Sharing initiative
focuses on promoting Leadership
Development by capturing and
communicating Knowledge and
Wisdom from the best program/project
engineering leaders and through
building and supporting NASA
Communities of Practice.
l A reputed US Business School calls
Business Leaders to become
"Professors for the Day" in an initiative
to gain experiential learning from
reputed business professionals.
You can change organizational culture and
individual behaviours such that knowledge
sharing, rather than knowledge hoarding,
is the norm. Culture change is never easy
and takes time. But cultures can be
changed. Particularly, when these changes
are made by leaders.
P. Dwarakanath
doing what we
were supposed to
be doing." "And, if
we don't do what
we are supposed to
be doing?" "We
won't exist." These
bunch of questions
and answers were
all from the brains,
and it does require
a lot of brains for this exchange to take
place! presented the team the following view
- the view that had me all fired up with
excitement: So, here we are as a part of the
company with the purpose of developing
competencies in our employees, and if we
don't serve that purpose, we don't have a
life. If you see the participants from
Symphony University's life, what do you see
them as?" That as it…five jaws dropped, but
still managed to chorus, "They give us life!"
"Yup, and what will you want to convey to
those who give you life? Will you tell them,
'This is to certify that…'?" "Not at all! We
will thank them," said one. "From the depths
of my heart," said another. "I will convey my
deep gratitude," said the third.
"How about conveying that, then?" I asked,
"our gratitude to the participant for giving
us life?"
| HRD News Letter | June 2007, Vol.23, Issue:3 4|

Our New National President
Dear colleagues
It gives me a great pleasure to
introduce you to the next National
President of National HRD Network,
Mr.Aquil Busrai (Currently Executive
Director-HR, IBM India).
Aquil has been a very vibrant
member of the HR fraternity and a
very active contributor to the cause
of HRD Network. Aquil has a rich
experience working with some of
the Global organizations like
Unilevers, Motorola & Shell prior to
IBM, wherein he was instrumental
in setting up great HR Practices.
Aquil is acknowledged for his
contribution to HR recent being
Pathfinders Award for Year 2006. His
ability to relate well with fellow HR
professionals, accessibility and
responsiveness, especially to
Aquil Busrai graduated in Commerce with
a Distinction. He obtained his MBA from
Xavier Labour Relations Institute where
he was awarded the J M Kumarappa
Gold Medal for ranking First. He later
passed LL. B and an Advanced Diploma
in Training and Development. A University
rank holder, he was awarded the
Bharucha Gold Medal for academic
excellence.
Mr Busrai has had 34 years' experience
in Industry. He has worked in various HR
roles with Unilever in India and Kenya
and was responsible for HR for Motorola
Profile of Mr. Aquil Busrai
operations in South Asia and Software
Group in Asia Pacific. He joined Shell
Malaysia in 2002 as Director Human
Resources, Shell Malaysia and Managing
Director of Shell People Services Asia Sdn
Bhd. He has recently returned from Kuala
Lumpur and joined IBM India Limited as
Executive Director Human Resources.
Mr Busrai has been actively associated with
Management movement in India having
been the President of Delhi Management
Association; Vice Chairman for All India
Management Association's Northern
Region and Northern Region President for
younger managers, has endeared
him to the HR community and has
made him a role model for many
aspiring HR professionals.
Aquil is a Gold Medalist from XLRI
Jamshedpur.
I am personally very happy to handover
this responsibility to a dear
friend and a trusted colleague. With
his active participation and
dynamism, Aquil will take this cause
further and strengthen the legacy
with focus on the Road Ahead.
Your sincerely
P. Dwarkanath
National President, NHRDN
Director, Group Human Capital,
Max India Ltd
Director (Non Executive)
GlaxoSmithkline
National HRD Network. He is on the
advisory Board of several education
institutes. At the November 2006
Convention of National HRD Network,
he was awarded the "Pathfinder Award"
for being selected as Outstanding
seasoned HR Professional. This month,
he has been appointed President of
National HRD Network.
Mr Busrai is a keen student of non-verbal
communication and is authoring a book
on 'Body Language'. He is an ardent wild
life enthusiast and a serious wild life
photographer.
(Editorial Contd... from previous page)
They were so visibly excited by this new view
of a certificate, a view that none of us had
at the beginning of this conversation.
At the same time, I sensed that something
was jarring for them; something like, "How
can we convey gratitude in a certificate?"
'Certificate' and 'gratitude' didn't seem to jell,
didn't seem to synch up. One of the team
members said, "Why don't we give the
'regular' certificates, and then convey our
gratitude in speaking?" I wanted to handle
this 'jar' - bringing about authenticity was
important.
I said to myself, "May be, these people have
some meaning about certificates which is
leading to this discomfort. All of us have to
have the same understanding of the word
certificate." So I invited, "Let's google to find
what the dictionary meaning of certificate
is." So one of them googled . And opened the link
to "the free dictionary". There were, at http:/
/www.thefreedictionary.com/certificate, four
meanings of 'certificate'. One of them was
"1. A document testifying to the truth of
something: a certificate of birth." Wow!
There it was - a document testifying to the
truth of something. I also want to draw all of
your attention to the numerical that's there
before the stated meaning - "1" - that was
the first meaning!
Then how to handle this 'jar' became
obvious and simple. I asked my team
members, "Isn't it true that we experience
enormous and deep gratitude when through
participating in the University's learning
events the participants are giving us our life?
Isn't it true that we are thankful to them? Don't
we want to express what is true for us?"
In one voice, "Yes, of course."
That was it! We now have ready certificates
from Symphony University that express our
gratitude to every participant for giving us
our life: Dear

| HRD News Letter | June 2007, Vol.23, Issue:3 6|

Spare a Thought for Thinking
The human brain has been a constant
source of awe and wonder for
generations. The organ with grey matter and
reins for the human body is like the sea or
the universe, in that each time one unravels
a small aspect of its mystery, it gets even
more fascinating. Of the multiple amazing
functions performed by the brain, few have
generated so much excitement and intensive
research in both the scientific and
management community alike as the faculty
of thinking.
Needless to say, the thinking process is a
vital part of any organization and builds up
to the nerve centre with its complex crisscross
of interactions and workplace action
and behaviors that in turn form the
organizational personality and culture.
Today, we'll explore to some degree the
interplay of the individual and organizational
thinking processes.
Let's first scan around us for the various
thinking types that we believe exist today.
There are several that would be familiar to
us e.g. logical, analytical, creative, linear,
lateral, strategic, convergent, divergent, etc.
There are also relatively less known types
e.g. radial thinking pioneered by Tony Buzan
who developed Mind Maps - an effective
method of note-taking and useful for the
generation of ideas by association. Then
there's Matrix Thinking, a term coined by
Roger Le Salle known as 'Australia's
Innovation Guru' to describe thinking that
tries to look at a situation from multiple
points as a complex but not necessarily
analyzable Matrix and where there will be
no starting point or clearly laid logical path.
At a fundamental level, the above describe
thinking processes; the categorizations are
largely based on which part of the brain (left
or right) is being used, for what purpose and
in which situation. An organization needs
all these thinking types at some stage or
the other. If a company wants to chalk out a
Blue Ocean Strategy, it will need divergent
and lateral thinking to begin with, and
convergent and analytical thinking towards
the end. For simple trouble shooting,
analytical thinking will be needed
predominantly, and so on.
Organizations make the thinking process
Column
more meaningful and relevant to the
individual employee by defining it in their
competency models, e.g. in the Leadership
Competency Model used till recently by a
reputed global organization, Thinking Skills
was one of the three Competency
Dimensions under 'Planning'. Thinking Skills
was defined by three behaviors such as
"Sees connections in data, trends…",
"Quickly analyzes complex problems…" and
"Makes the right decisions…". These
descriptors are helpful in setting
expectations with the employee, such that
if the person needs to demonstrate Thinking
Skills at work, she will know that she'd need
to exhibit these articulated behaviors. (A
word of caution here is that one must keep
in mind that there may be descriptors for
other competencies that can also be related
to thinking processes).
Now, if the organization has set such
expectations, how does it go about the
difficult task of harnessing the thinking skills
of its employees? For this, one needs to
understand the important fact that the
thinking process is a product of natural and
environmental forces. Our thinking styles are
influenced not only by who we are (our
genetic constitution or DNA), but also our
experiences as we grew up. By the early
20's when we begin our careers, we'd have
evolved a preferred thinking style that we
would find difficult to break away from.
Let's illustrate this through an example.
Breathing is one of the first bodily functions
a baby performs when it is born. How does
it know how to breathe? Through the intrinsic
genetic code that has been accumulating
this knowledge in human cells since man
first came to earth. Breathing as a process
is so intuitive and inborn in us that we
seldom take notice of it unless we have been
subjecting ourselves to physical exertions.
The next time we begin to notice it is several
years later when we enroll ourselves for
yoga and discover to our chagrin that our
breathing technique all this while has been
far from perfect. When we discover that our
abdomen swells when we exhale, we find it
difficult to change the way we used to
breathe overnight. It takes lots and lots of
practice. Even in the end, we are not sure
we've perfected the art of breathing? Why
Madan Srinivasan is based at Gurgaon. He can be reached at: Madan_sri@yahoo.com
– Madan Srinivasan
does this happen? Because breathing is a
naturally learnt process and we have been
required to unlearn a wrong technique. Not
impossible, but slow and maybe painful too!
Changing/adapting/switching one's thinking
style is not very different. Like all naturally
learnt processes, it is intuitive and gets
conditioned in the environment we grow up
in, but it would not make fundamental pathbreaking
changes under normal
circumstances.
Therefore, organizations resort to specific
interventions e.g. Six Thinking Hats
Workshops, Seeds and Catalysts for Matrix
Thinking, use of Mind Maps and appropriate
coaching and support. In the process,
employees not only learn and experiment
with new thinking techniques, but also
increase the probability of developing
effective solutions for improving business
performance.
How can one be sure when to use what
thinking style, when most of us have a
preferred style? The first thing is to be aware
of one's own predominant style. In any given
situation, one needs to assess and define
the situation and apply the appropriate
thinking style. Easier said than done, but
then it's all about PRACTICE!
Of course, this is not to say that
organizations require all of us to think alike.
In fact, we should guard ourselves from
getting into a Groupthink mode, as that
would make us nothing better or worse than
frogs in the well. We should preserve our
diversity of thinking styles and processes,
while complementing it with different thinking
tools & techniques. A cross-functional team
will be more effective if it has members who
have complementary thinking styles as
these, when used well can yield a higher
quality solution/plan.
So when you are next working on a
presentation for a cost savings project,
making a sales call to a prospective
customer or resolving a conflict with your
colleague, you can pause and ask yourself
which thinking style you are using, and if it
work in this situation. Adapt your style
accordingly and see the results for yourself!
The wins will be for you to experience. I've
already got a penny for your thoughts!
u H
| HRD News Letter | June 2007, Vol.23, Issue:3 7|

Supply Side Of HR
Column
The supply side of HR, is in a serious
shape and the effects of which the
industry will feel in another two to five years
unless they get around to doing something
drastic soon. Ironically this will happen at a
time when India is swelling in its ranks of
the youth with the possibility of 70 per cent
of Global youth population being seen within
the borders of India in the next one decade!
"Most of the nation's job and economic
growth has been generated by family-owned
Indian enterprises and multinationals in
industries such as information technology
(IT), telecommunications, business process
outsourcing (BPO) and pharmaceuticals.
Maintaining high growth rates is a high
priority for these industries because they
face increasingly stiff international
competition, most notably from China. But
sustaining growth may be difficult, dueironically-to
a lack of qualified people "
SHRM article
HR crisis: People think there is a spark but
there is an absolutely forest fire out there in
terms of HR. The crisis of confidence is the
result of an historical neglect of the
education by industry and its failure to
provide leadership to the former! Now that
education itself is being seen as much a
business as a social obligation and the need
for the industry to have diversified talent, it
is time industry stepped in to take more
proactive role in the material that is being
churned out of our school system.
We need to take into consideration the
following
1. Education supply chain: The education
supply chain has changed dramatically and
there is no credible quality benchmark or
visible industry participation in any
significant node of this supply chain. An
opportunity The number years of school
education has gone up by three years (12
years to 15) as the entry age has come down
from 6 years 3 with possible early rise in
stress levels.
In contrast the format of college and
professional degree as well as higher
education has remained static
One year professional MBAs are getting
popular only now and so are the three year
parttime degrees in higher education for
working professionals.
2. Privatisation of education: Education is
no longer charity but is considered as a
business opportunity with the average
returns of 20 per cent in the initial five years
going up to 40 per cent in the later period.
Since it is the ultimate cash and carry
business there is incentive for people to
invest in it. Large industrial group still
consider education as a charitable activity
and as such indulge in it selectively which
means the field is open for some
enterprising few to develop large identifiable
chain of institutions with a clearly discernible
mark of quality.
3. Investments in education: Because of
the confusion about the status of education
whether it is a charity or business, normal
investment route is shut for education and
it is dependent by and large on the largesse
of a Trusts or personal funding of the
promoter groups and its running expenses
are completely self financed with bank
funding limited to building construction. This
shuts out professionals and well meaning
industry to enter the education field.
4. Management education: Management
education in India is primarily driven by the
government through its six IIMs, IITs,
management departments of universities,
professional institutions like NITIE. Private
players of significance are few even though
their number in Tier II and Tier III are very
high and it is growing.
5. Education leadership: Education
leadership is abysmal mainly because of the
weakness in the supply side which
comprised in the past of a few government
owned institutions and it is also dictated by
the new set of owners who have little
understanding in fostering professional
leadership. A clear opportunity exists for
developing an institution for preparing
leadership for the industry like the Tata
Management Training Centre (TMTC) of
Education Leadership!
6. Faculty Shortage: Single biggest
problem facing the education industry today
is faculty numbers and quality which is also
due historical reason of neglect and poor
6 Testing services
Thothathri Raman is Consulting Editor, Business India based at Delhi E-Mail: atraman@gmail.com
– A.Thothathri Raman
visioning. The PhDs of value are few and
the capacity in the industry to produce PhDs
in a hurry is very low.
7. Softskills for Faculty quality: The
industry intervention like finishing schools,
softskills training in campuses is usually
aimed at students but the weakness lies in
the area of faculty whose profile has also
changed over the years , especially in
engineering colleges where the average
experience of any faculty is now two to three
years! Faculty needs a structured training
programme. An academy for faculty training
NHRDN Institutional response
1. The existing scope of CompMod can be
expanded to develop a faculty
competency model at entry level
incorporating leadership, training skills
and consulting
2. A Learning Centre in HR to help the
medium and smaller member
enterprises to complete their induction
programmes
3. A HR leadership Assessment Forum as
a research body that will go into
leadership aspects and research into
succession planning, leadership
compensation and such other issues
4. A Faculty training Academy for
engineering and management schools
which will run distance education cum
contact programmes in HR leadership
on one year, two year and three year
modes
5. Centres of Excellence supported by
select individual industry membership
of NHRDN in the areas of
i. compensation
ii. mergers and acquisitions
iii. leadership
iv. integrating family business
v. sectoral HR
vi. training youth (this is a partial list
and it can grow!)
u H
| HRD News Letter | June 2007, Vol.23, Issue:3 8|

| HRD News Letter | June 2007, Vol.23, Issue:3 9|

The HRD We Dream(t)!!!
Interview with :
Dr. Udai Pareek and Dr. T V Rao
Dr. Udai Pareek and Dr. T. V. Rao are two
former IIMA professors are legendry HR
men who pioneered the concept of HRD in
India when it did not exist in 1974 while
consulting with the L & T. The twosome
professors have since done path-breaking
work in by dedicating themselves to the
profession for over three decades. It is
thanks to their effort that the HRD as a
concept has evolved distinct from the
Personnel Function which the corporate
were used to in the past. Prof T V Rao like
his counter part Dr Pareek, had spurned
opportunities to go abroad and stayed
behind to found National HRD Network
(NHRDN) in 1985 and Academy of HRD in
1990. Between them the professors have
consulted some of the best Indian and global
companies and also UNESCO in the area
of HR and leadership.
NHRDN interviewed both the professors on
a range of issues allowing them to revisit
their work over the past decades and also
giving them an opportunity to vent their
feelings about the growth of HR movement
in the country. In the excerpts that follow,
the professors express their satisfaction as
to the scale and size of the HR function in
India while they are also unhappy at the fall
in ethical standards and adoption of
unhealthy industry practices by the industry.
They also lament the absence and sense
of purpose for the HR professionals and their
inability to groom hardcore HR professionals
to look after the human resource related
aspects in the industry. They recommend
transformational leadership among the HR
personnel and rededicating of the industry
to the core values of the HR community.
They also exhort the educational institutions
and the industry bodies like NHRDN to take
a more proactive role in promoting HR as a
concept.
Q1: What is your feeling about HR in the
country to day? Do you think HRD
has come to stand on its own as a
profession? Are HR managers
getting their respect they deserve?
Are they living up to the standards
and expectations they are expected
to maintain?
TVR: Our feeling about HR in the country is
one of both satisfaction and disappointment,
hope and apprehension. I will explain all
these mixed feelings as follows: Satisfaction
is due to the fact that we have progressed a
lot from the days of apprehension about
HRD as an old wine in new bottle to the
level where we are constantly discovering
more solutions to new problems and
challenges. We acted with the belief that
HRD is the soul of personnel function.
Remember Udai Pareek’s address in late
seventies to NIPM on “Personnel Function
in search of a soul” And HRD was given the
status of the soul of HR function by Udai.
We suggested to CEOs beginning mid
seventies to accept HRD as a philosophy.
Our argument was that every employee
spends a large part of his or her waking life
for the company, with the company and in
the company. The organization is the first
family and therefore it is in the interests of
the organization to take good care of the
person, provide right conditions for him,
direction for his growth and ensure growth
of the company. We suggested critical
attribute analysis (now a days called as
competency mapping), identification of
KPAs, performance analysis and coaching,
career and succession planning, HRIS, OD
and many such interventions to promote
capacity building of individuals, teams and
the organization. We promoted HR as a
philosophy and not as a technique to get
things in return though we hoped that
returns will come on their own. In fact we
promoted HRD as a responsibility of the top
management and of all senior managers.
Recognizing this L&T even trained a large
number of their line managers in 1975-76
as HRD facilitators and used to call them
selves as L&T University. We are
establishing corporate Universities to do the
same things L&T has done in mid seventies.
Holk Larsen, NM Desai, SR Subramanian
supported it and Dennyson Pereira
spearheaded the movement. HRD was an
act of faith and not based on any research.
The research findings from the US that have
come in the last one decade have supported
our philosophy and assumptions
scientifically. There are studies that proved
in the US that HR interventions have
enhanced a share holder value by several
percentage points. The fact that we
promoted a philosophy which has
scientifically been supported latter and the
way many corporate have been taking these
interventions and constantly trying to
implement them is a matter of satisfaction.
HRD has definitely added to the quality of
work life in industry. It has come of age. It is
no more taken for granted. T is a part of life
of any corporation. While we can’t take credit
for all that happened to is not happening in
the HR we are satisfied that we originated
and promoted a concept and philosophy and
pursued it for the last three decades
relentlessly.
The dissatisfaction is out of the fact that
HRD also got diluted in some ways and in
some of the organizations. HR managers
have not been doing right things though
some of them are doing whatever they are
doing well. HRD has not yet established its
credibility fully with the line managers and
particularly in the new economy industry. It
pains us deeply when we hear rumors like
that in a particular city HR managers are
even going to the extent of helping candidate
to write or rewrite their bio-data in ways that
get them selected – for a fee! The news that
ethical standards and values are not being
followed by some is painful. Some of the
HR managers have reduced themselves to
be “dalals”. By this I am told that their main
job is to contract and subcontract. They are
busy locating recruitment agencies to whom
they can subcontract their recruitment,
training agencies to subcontract their
training and consultants to subcontract their
competency mapping and performance
appraisals is very disappointing.
Q2: What is wrong with that? The
requirement of industry is huge and
the personnel in HR function small,
oursourcing is the only way out!
TVR: There is nothing wrong in using
recruitment agencies and outsourcing
training. I am not against these as and when
needed. I am concerned about outsourcing
as a way of life and as a substitution to
learning and managing your corporation.
What is wrong is the way you do it and the
purpose for doing it. The purpose should not
be to show to the top management
quantitative results in terms of costs saved
and the number game to show the number
recruited. Some HRD managers don’t do
their own basic work of profiling the job
properly through competency mapping and
the like and ensure that scientific recruitment
is followed. I am told they even make false
promises and get wrong people in order to
fulfill their targets and shoe cost savings to
their top. That is why many candidates leave.
So instead of contribution to retention HR
is designing attrition from the very beginning
by not doing their job properly. There is no
research and there are no basic questions
like what competencies are needed, what
we can offer to the candidate in terms of
the career etc. The attitude of Dalalgiri is
what pains us. Some of them ask us to
submit tenders even without understanding
the organization. Submitting the tender
document following all norms is more
important than understanding their problem
and addressing the problem. They are not
| HRD News Letter | June 2007, Vol.23, Issue:3 10|

willing to spend their own time and effort to
understand the issues. They lack required
qualifications and competence. Any one with
a master’s in any subject is being taken for
HR in some of the companies. We are also
dissatisfied that after three decades of the
evolution of this function we have not
influenced companies to recruit
professionally qualified HRD professionals.
A master’s in Social Work does not ensure
that you are professionally qualified HR
person. Many HR professionals lack the
basic HR knowledge. This is a big
disappointment for us. The NHRDN has
made some moves in this direction but it is
no where near the solution. In sum I am
disappointed with the poor quality of HR
professionals, lack of understanding of the
CEOs and other top management of the
need for having professional trained if not
qualified managers as HR managers, lack
of identification of the required skills sets,
inadequate supply of professionally trained
HR managers, not intone with curricula of
schools that prepare HR managers, and
eroding ethical values , slow work and
Dalalgiri of HR managers, and not raising
up to the occasion with speed of
professional bodies is disappointment to me.
In sum, in my view the knowledge base of
HR in India is tremendous. HRD has come
to stand on its own as a profession. However
we have done very little to consolidate our
gains. It is high time that this is done with
focus on HRD for this region -India and the
Asia pacific. Good HR managers are getting
the respect they deserve but there are many
bad HR managers whoa re spoiling the
profession and its image. They are not living
up to the standards and expectations they
are expected to maintain. In my view jobhopper
HR managers are doing a lot of
damage to the profession. Changing the job
in a short time is like shifting your dispensary
or clinic suddenly in the middle of treatment
to your patients. I think HR managers need
to set right examples of sticking to their jobs
for longer periods. They should not enter the
profession if they are only commercial in
outlook and the main purpose in life is to
become a millionaire soonest possible.
Q3: What is your feeling about HR in the
country to day? Do you think HRD
has come to stand on its own as a
profession? Are HR managers
getting their respect they deserve?
Are they living up to the standards
and expectations they re expected
to maintain?
UP: I am happy to see HR increasingly
occupying key position in organizations.
Several organizations have inducted HR
Heads in their Boards recently. This shows
the growing realization of the importance of
HR. In several organizations HR is fulfilling
the expected role. However, in most
organizations HR continues to function as
old-time personnel department. HR
managers are not getting the respect, and
in many cases, the HR function is
responsible for this sorry state of affairs.
Unfortunately HR has not yet achieved the
level of the profession, which it deserves.
By and large, HR is not living up to the
standard expected of it.
Q4: What do you feel when you look
back at the HRD departments and
the institutions you both have
started or are associated with?
Specially the L&T, SBI, Crompton
Greaves, BEML and other
organizations? Do you look back
with satisfaction?
TVR: The HRD departments of these
organizations specially L&T, SBI, CGL and
the like have done marvelous job until late
eighties. Somewhere in late eighties the
people who succeeded the early HRD chiefs
have not been able to build on the past. The
growth of the HRD and it impact has to been
of the same magnitude as it was a decade
before that. For example assessment
centers were introduced in CGL in mid
eighties. SBI struggled a lot with its
performance appraisal. Job rotation, skill
inventory and the like. L&T went of
incorporating quality and such other
concerns into it HRD. These organizations
have done a good job. They could have been
much more of role models than what they
are today. Also today there are many other
corporations especially from IT and other
new economy industry who have come up
with innovative HR practices. The failure of
organizations like L&T, SBI, CGL and the
like is in terms of lack of innovativeness and
inability build on the past. This needed
strong HRD managers and unfortunately it
is what they lacked. Mr. Naik the current
CEO is one of those whom I have personally
interviewed in mid seventies. He had a lot
of HR ideas even in those days. So there
were HR practitioners in CEOs but not
supported bys strong HRD managers. For
me the only satisfaction with these
corporations is out of history we created and
not out of what they have been able to do
subsequently. Some of them have built on
the work we did, others did not.
UP: I share TV Rao’s sentiments. The great
organizations that pioneered HR in the
country have on the way gone astray in
relation to the spirit of HR. In my opinion, the
main reason is undue reliance on foreign
consulting groups, who, without much
experience in India, and without intimate
knowledge of the organizations, are
recommending structures and processes that
are anti-HR. It is a pity that some excellent
HR practices in the organizations have been
discontinued. Several years back D.M. Silvera
had independently visited several
organizations, and had documented some
innovative HR practices based on the Indian
cultural orientations. While some new
organizations have been designing innovative
practices, the older organizations, which
pioneered HR function, have lost interest.
Q 5: What do you think about the
direction in which HR is headed in
this country? Does it have a bright
future? Do you think it has created
the right image? Will it evolve
as an honored profession like
Medicine, Engineering, Chartered
Accountancy and the like?
TVR; I definitely think that HR has bright
future. The way HR I s headed in the country
is both good and bad. Don’t take my criticism
as an indication of the state of affairs in HR
in the country. Perhaps the malpractices and
in competencies in HR are more an
exceptions than a rule. However the
magnitude of these exceptions is good
enough to pay attention and to be warned
about. There is a lot of dilution. There is also
a lot of purposiveness in HR today. In most
cases HR has become HR administration
rather than HR development. What is
needed in future knowledge society is
continuous development of its people and
their competencies. People and their
competencies are going to be business
drivers in future. Share holder values can
be enhanced by right HR practices. There
is no sub statue for competency building and
commitment building. HRD defined as the
three Cs – competence, commitment and
culture building- had become more critical
today than before and it is going to become
even more. As technology, money, and
systems lose their competitive advantage
by virtue of their easy accessibility of all
people and their competencies or ‘Talent”
is going to become scarcer and hence gain
a strategic advantage. If HR can realize their
and HRD managers prepare themselves to
this changing role, then HRD will have bright
future. If HR fails to recognize this other
functions will take charge and new titles get
created like “performance manager” “People
processes manager” “OD expert” etc. I have
mentioned a few of these in my book on
“The Future of HRD”. HRD has still a long
way to go to be accepted fully as profession.
It has the knowledge base and it should draw
from psychology of learning, personality
theories, Social psychology, assessment,
measurement, competency mapping etc.
We have the required disciplinary
background but no body that can put them
together. Bodies like NHRDN have a long
way to go. Unfortunately over last one
decade they have alienated the
academicians slowly and to day it is filled
with people who often have little thirst for
theory and knowledge. Professional bodies
not having such academic rigor will have
difficulty establishing professional
standards. Commercial minded
management schools and consultants
cannot do full justice to help is evolve as a
profession. We have a long way to go.
UP: I am an optimist and believe that HR
has a bright future. It is certainly on way to
become a business partner, and acquire
professional status like other professions.
| HRD News Letter | June 2007, Vol.23, Issue:3 11|

Certainly it will be necessary for academic
bodies (Universities and Management
Institutes), Professional bodies (NHRD,
AHRD), and work organizations to do a lot
of work in this regard. HR Journals have also
to play an important role in this regard. I am
quite impressed by Human Capital, which
has spread the message of innovative
practices in HR, and has become a good
forum for sharing of experiments and
experiences. We need more such journals.
Q6: What is your message for the future
HR professionals and others who
are likely to man HR positions in
organizations and professional
bodies like the National HRD
Network?
TVR: Learn, relearn and learn. Continuous
learning is the only way. Learn from all
sources. Respect and be sensitive to your
inner world, neighborhood and global
scenes. If you learn only from overseas your
HR will be baseless. If you stick only to
indigenous and inward learning your
learning will be shape less and only will be
a foundation. Hence you need to learn from
all sources. You need to be a relentless
learner. Regarding NHRDN the main
message I like to give is don’t make means
as ends. Conferences, seminars and such
other Events are means and the moment
they become ends it is he end of a
professional’s body. Similarly
Presidentships, Secretary Ships and other
positions are means to save the profession
and not your self not the body you manage
at a give point. Don’t miss the forest for the
trees or the trees for the wood. Don’t cling
on top positions. If you cant give time for
the profession make way for others and not
outsourcing agencies. Don’t try to do in
NHRDN what your own employer does not
allow you to do. Don’t spend a penny of the
body without being accountable for that
penny and demonstrate return on every
single penny you spend in the same year
you are office bearer. Respect the history
and learn from it.
UP: A large number of young persons are
preparing themselves to enter HR
profession. I would like these bright young
people to be more serious about their
preparations. HR will not be able to fulfill its
role unless HR people know the business,
and have insight into various aspects of the
business they are associated with. They
should equally be adept in the understanding
of organizational processes. Increasingly HR
will be required to play the role of internal
consultancy in the organizations. The skills
of change management will be essential for
success of HR people. The institutions and
professional bodies have the responsibility
of helping young budding professionals to
become more efficient to play this required
role.
Q7: In your opinion what roles should
be played by the academic
institutions like the management
schools and professional bodies
like the NHRDN and research
centers like the academy of HRD to
shape the future of HRD?
TVR: Management schools should
innovate, train and recruit competent faculty,
Use increasingly practitioners from industry,
build theory of HRD that can take the
country and the profession forward.
Professional bodies like the NHRDN should
focus on establishing standards, enforcing
them. Promote research in Universities, fund
research and establish standards of HRD
education. For that they need to have
enough academies and theoreticians in the
body. It should be managed like a
professional body and not like a corporation.
This is what we owe to our profession.
NHRDN and AHRD should take the HRD
beyond the corporate sector and come up
with innovations in HRD for NGOs followed
by the Government and close with HRD for
communicates. The success of HRD is when
it becomes a part of life and a part of every
one and every process. HRD is learning and
instituting processes that facilitate learning
and grown and make work and life healthy
and happy for all.
UP: HR will become a valued profession
only if all concerned with this function
Vasudevan's Feedback on this Month's Editorial
contribute to its effectiveness. In the first
place, HR must be value-based. As in our
original concept, HR should be concerned
with all the units of the organsiation, from
individual employees to the total
organization. It is time that we distinguished
between transactional HR and
transformational HR. The transactional HR
would include functions like recruitment,
induction, performance management,
development system, career development,
separation etc. However, while these are
important functions to make organizations
effective, they cannot take the organization
to a higher level of greatness. For that they
need to pay attention to transformational
HR, which may include functions like talent
management (identification, nurturing and
mentoring talent), culture building (trust,
equality and involvement), change
management (including mergers and
acquisitions and their processes),
leadership development, reward system,
and very importantly, ethics and social
responsibility. While some of the
transactional functions of HR may be
outsourced, transformational aspects need
to be strengthened in the organizations. For
this all concerned agencies need to play
their roles. Educational institutions, where
HR people are being prepared, need to
orient their training to include significant
work on the transformational aspects.
Professional bodies like NHRD should take
the responsibility for accrediting individuals
and organizations on rigorous professional
criteria. In fact, they can also publish ranking
of organizations and management institutes;
this will help in raising professional
standards. Research is extremely important.
We need to generate new knowledge in HR.
While AHRD and NHRD have done
commendable work in publishing in some
good experiences and case studies, more
rigorous standards are needed to search
and publish material based on significance
experiences in Indian organizations. While
we can know everything about Western
organizations, we don’t have information
about our own innovations. This lacuna
needs to be filled up.
u H
Dear Balaji,
Thanks for the treat.
The process of discovery you narrate is indeed a breakthrough in consciousness. The key points in the editorial is to focus on the Power
equation between the giver and receiver, and that is essence of adult learning where value add is mutual. I am amazed at that which
made you raise the fundamental question, and make the team revisit the obvious. What came out was the reverse of Guru paprampara,
where we are all comfortable when we receive from the Guru. What you are ushering is a new wave of andragogy where there is Sishya
parampara for the Guru's to transcend. Partly the group got energized because of your ability to ask the 'rightful' question to to help
them make meaning intuitively and thus weave around the conversations, like truth etc. However it is worth while to examine your life
scripts. Do you run a script that defy conformity!
The brain storming pattern is similar to the GODS facilitation when members looked at the need for Asia OD network and something
similar you probed in Christ College Seminar. Sishya the Guru receives the gift of thankfulness and playfulness from the Guru and
acknowledges the same.
Greetings,
Vasu, Hosur
| HRD News Letter | June 2007, Vol.23, Issue:3 12|

| HRD News Letter | June 2007, Vol.23, Issue:3 13|

Employee attrition is a costly dilemma for
all organizations. In today's taxing
business climate, managing company's
competent and skilled human capital is vital
for success. Is your approach to recruiting
and retention aligned with your company's
strategic goals? This article explores the
prime factors for employee attrition and
some retention strategies and processes
that will help drive long-term tangible
business benefits.
Companies usually turn to increasing the
compensation for employees to retain them.
This however is no longer helpful in solving
the problem as the skilled work force has
many opportunities which masses of them
give predilection to. Employee attrition costs
12 to 18 months' salary for each leaving
manager or professional, and 4 to 6 months'
pay for each leaving Management or even
hourly employee. According to a study by
Ipsos-Reid, 30% of employees plan to
change jobs in the next two years.
Most leaving employees seek opportunities
that allow them to use and develop their skills.
Leaving employees want more meaning in
their work meaning challenging the
challenges. They often indicate that they want
to use their qualities and skills in challenging
teamwork led by capable leaders.
CASE STUDY: A Major Auto Component
Manufacturer
The Exit Interviews for key performers of
the organization were analysed through
language processing tools. The results were:
v Overall, job dissatisfaction levels are
high at all facilities, in all job
classifications and among both new and
lateral recruits.
v Employees between 2 to 5 years of
service and more than 10 years of
service have higher dissatisfaction
levels than those with less than 2 years
of service.
v Pay, work schedule, mandatory
overtime, designation levels,
opportunities for advancement, and
Attrition and Retention
- The Way Out
Lead Feature
benefits were most frequently cited as
issues the key performer's wanted to
change about their jobs.
v When asked what incentives motivated
them, pay and benefits was not
frequently cited but majority of the
respondents said that the liking for their
work and the interest.
v Respondents also frequently cited
communication as a significant factor.
Many key employees expressed a
desire for more two-way flow of
information and a voice in decisionmaking.
v They wanted a forum for sharing their
ideas for system improvement. Some
expressed the perception that inmates
have a voice in the system but the staff
does not, and expressed a desire to see
administrative staff make a visit the
facilities during second and third shifts.
v Perceived lack of recognition was also
cited as a contributor to low job
satisfaction. Some respondents
described a climate where bad
performance was recognized but good
performance was not. Several
employees expressed a sense that their
work is not valued, nor is it considered
a skilled role. Other workplace climate
issues that were often cited as
contributing to poor performance were
lack of teamwork, back biting and
favoritism. The phrase "good old boy
system" came up in several narrative
responses.
v Though job dissatisfaction seems to be
the norm, there was considerable
variability among facilities in terms of
the issues that were cited as
contributing to job dissatisfaction,
especially compensation.
If you are a boss, the following statistics
should give you nightmares! However, here
is a list of the most common `personality
wrongs' that many managers commit that
have to be corrected for the managers to
succeed.**
– Hari Nair and Abhishek Gavane
Boss's always right
Most frequently the senior managers deem
themselves too great to consign mistakes,
simply because now they have a
designation that deceives them into
believing that they are perfect and incapable
of any faux pas. Such notions can be
dangerous and prove an obstacle to learning
and improving.
Me and Only Me
The most common mistake a senior
manager makes is to think of himself, and
not involving his subordinates when taking
decisions. Authoritarian leadership is not
appreciated in today's corporate world. Most
of the present day employees can and do
think for themselves and do not appreciate
any dictatorial control.
Forever and for always
Senior managers must not take their
leadership for granted. Many senior
managers believe, `Once a leader, forever
a leader'. They forget that the title is only
temporary and that true power does not lie
with them but with the employees.
Black-and-white pictures
If a senior manager sees the world and all
the situations in it clearly demarcated as
black or white, it will be difficult to be
subjective. He should know that there are
lots of gray shades too and judging everyone
by one's individual standards is surely not
the best thing to do. Every person has
distinct individual characteristics.
All-knowing
This epithet is for the Power above us all,
though some senior managers would love
to use it for themselves! Considering one
above any fallacy is indeed the biggest
fallacy in itself Good senior managers
understand that they are people of average
knowledge and intelligence. They know
there is still a lot to learn. They hire the best
people to acquire this knowledge. Such
leaders succeed and the organization of
such leaders succeeds, too.
Hari Nair is with Sona Koyo Steering Systems Ltd, Gurgaon as its Assistant Vice President - Human Resources. He can be reached by
e-mail - hari.nair@sonagroup.com; harinair64@gmail.com
Abhishek Presently working at executive level in Sona Koyo Steering Systems Ltd, Gurgaon and can be reached by e-mail
abhishek.gavane@sonagroup.com or abhishekgavane@gmail.com
| HRD News Letter | June 2007, Vol.23, Issue:3 14|

Sorry, no sorry!
Accepting one's mistakes and apologizing
for it, is a sign of healthy self-worth.
Unfortunately, some senior managers get
embarrassed about their mistakes and do not
acknowledge it, in an attempt to cover it. But
remember that acknowledging a mistake is
the first step to finding its solution and makes
one appear humane too. Similarly, taking
criticism positively is also an endearing
quality in a senior manager. Making changes,
as suggested by employees, increases the
trust they establish in you.
Permanency
Leaders who are unreceptive to change will
find it difficult to survive in this dynamic
world. Senior managers must be open to
taking risks and judge the pros and cons of
every opportunity that comes their way. Old
habits die hard and one's `character'
mistakes are the most difficult to correct
Nevertheless, a true desire to change and
a little determination will make you the
perfect senior manager.
Recruiting and Retention for the
Workforce
The need to increase recruiting and
retention effectiveness is a flaming issue
worldwide. The business benefits of these
approaches are reaching into the developing
world-an encouraging sign that the
learning's of human capital management
can help raise global workforce standards.
Compensation
The Issue: While just 31 percent of
respondents indicated making more money
was their primary reason for job hunting, it's
evident that paying proactive competitive
salaries is MUST.
(Carried from 18)
HRD - Lessons From Cricket
Mr. Greg Chappell was making the same
mistake. The rest of the world, BCCI and
the media included, thought that he will
transform the team. It was the wrong way to
start, even if a major change was called for.
Greg Chappell is now criticized for his
failure, which is the natural result of his
attitude, but the surviving managers have
not learnt the lesson. They keep saying how
the ones dropped are no good (in fact, they
may be called back again, like in the case
of VVS Laxman), that there are not enough
capable cricketers to choose from (implying
that those selected are only compromises)
and so on. None of these observations do
justice to the decision makers of the past or
the ones assigned the roles now.
No manager or leader will have the best
resources at his disposal. His skill lies in
getting the best out of what he has, aware
that every person has some skill and lots
of potential that is not yet expressed.
Blaming, accusations and threats do not
What We Can Do:
Use of Industry Surveys and other data tools
to stay informed on wage trends.
To benefit both company and employees,
tie increased one time performance pay to
meeting specific goals aligned with business
objectives.
Collect data from exit interviews to
document trends from your departing
employees, and then use this data to make
a business case for increasing salaries
across the board.
Conduct ESS to find out what perks,
benefits and forms of compensation other
than money will help keep them motivated.
Let employees decide their own
compensation package / reimbursements
once the quantum is fixed.
Management and Retention
Improve managers' leadership,
communication and interpersonal skills
through coaching, training and feedback.
Rate these key skills in their evaluations,
and tie compensation to performance.
Create a safe environment and process for
employees to bring up concerns with their
managers. Address problems quickly.
Communication:
Provide clear vision, brawny and consistent
communication, teamwork and respect for
workers' efforts.
Share the company vision/mission clearly
and regularly.
Collaborate, communicate and listen.
Contented employees achieve amazing
things.
bring out the best. They inhibit even the
normal capabilities. The public can indulge
in what they want to and ask for 'heads to
roll'. The ones responsible for performance
cannot join the crowd, because if some
heads roll, other heads have to found as
substitutes. These new heads will also be
affected by the same dynamics of fears and
be required to roll sometime later. When the
leader, who is looked upon for support, also
leads the blaming game, accusing players
of attitudes and resistance to change, the
team ceases to function.
While past performances are necessary
indicators of capabilities, they are not
determinants. Critics may comment adversely
about the selections made, for example, into
the national team of someone who has not
even played a Ranji Trophy. Forming opinions
about potential is the selector's job and not
every media person can agree on that. The
selector has to stand by his judgement and
not falter when evidence of potential takes time
Organization Culture:
Culture is reflective of senior leadership.
Being dissatisfied with senior leaders is one
of the seven reasons people leave jobs. For
IT people, it may be a culture that doesn't
communicate. If the culture doesn't care for
people, you have to go after what they do
care about, which is the bottom line.
To the extent that an organization over time
develops uniquely shared norms we can
distinguish organizations by its culture. The
people in the organization create
organizational culture. He models this
process as a cycle of Attraction- Selection-
Attrition (ASA)
Attraction: People seek a "fit" with their own
personality in their choice of career and
employer.
Selection: Organizations recruit and select
people that are compatible - they "fit" in.
Attrition: When incompatible people join a
company, they tend to leave seeking a "fit"
with another organization. This leaves the
organization with more homogenous group.
This tendency towards homogeneity
reinforces common shared norms of
behavior or culture.
**Reference: Article on "Employees leave
boss's not their jobs" published in "The
Hindu"
Employee attrition rate can be never being
entirely eradicated. It can only be influenced
to keep it in control. The business model on
which a subsidiary operation runs is
significant in achieving this. Outsourcing
higher end responsibilities that offers
challenging tasks to the employees goes a
long way in helping.
u H
to emerge. It is the job of the coach and the
captain to get the best out of the person
selected and to help him overcome any
problems he may have. It is not the job of the
coach or the captain to publicly announce that
his men have problems.
It is said that in 2005, when the Indian coach
was being chosen, one of the members in
the selection panel asked Tom Moody how
he could compare himself with Greg
Chappell, who had played more tests and
scored more runs. In April 2007, the BCCI
is said to be wooing the same Tom Moody,
in Barbados and Jamaica, because of his
outstanding job with the Sri Lankans. Making
selections of personnel, including cricketers
and coaches, requires observation of not
merely objective data, but making inferences
about capabilities not yet demonstrated..
Those inferences may not seem to be quite
rational. Managers know that skill and
potential are not established by past
performance or qualifications Good tennis
coaches are not Wimbledon champions.u H
| HRD News Letter | June 2007, Vol.23, Issue:3 15|

Attitude & Behavior
Attitude is a way we feel about something,
It can also be said as it is a predispositions
toward given aspects of the world. Let us
understand what is the root of one's attitude.
The root of attitude are the sensations.
Sensations are the ongoing process in
human body at sub conscious level. One
has no control as to what kind of sensation
will arise at particular moment. These
sensations may be the result of contact of
physical senses like, hearing, vision, taste,
touch or smell or past accumulated
experiences, associations, peer-group,
family etc. When the senses come in contact
with the organizational atmosphere some
kind of sensation arise at subconscious level
which will be perceived by the conscious
mind as per its past experiences. The
perceived notion takes the form of attitude
and in turn that attitude converts into the
behavior of the employees.
ATTITUDE IS A RESULT OF:-
A long affect of the change attitude may take
shape into the habit pattern of the
employees. At this juncture it becomes more
difficult to change his attitude and break his
accumulated habit pattern. The attitude of
one can be changed at perception level. It
is difficult from the conscious level of mind
to perceive differently however, it is easier
to perceive neutrally at sensation level.
However, realizing the subtle or gross
sensations may require some expertise. It
is essential for the supervisors to notice any
change in attitude of the employees. It can
be for shorter duration, however, when it
remains constantly for a longer period it
needs to be addressed or corrective
measures will be required. Alternately the
output given by the employee may be
affected. HR Department should be vigilant
for such kind of employees. The few of the
cases are discussed below:-
Dealing with absenteeism
Many a time an employee starts making
himself absent due to certain organizational
perceptions made by him. At such a juncture,
he need to be understood as a whole person
as an employee, an family head, a society
member. He should be communicated
immediately and any stimulant found for his
absenteeism should be dealt with promptly.
This may help him to become as earlier and
stop absenting himself.
Dealing with change in attitude due to his
peer group well placed and earning more.
Friends provoke many a times an employee
when they are placed and earning more than
him. At such a time, he should be realized
about his surroundings, his capabilities and
Changing Attitude
Of Employees
– Prof. Shyam Shukla
his earning at local level. Many times there
has been cases, the employee who have
been dealt properly at the time when they
were leaving the organization due to
underpayment have joined back after some
times on realizing the factual.
Dealing with alcoholism/intoxications
Such cases are to be dealt with more
carefully as this may not be possible to
correct him simply by counseling, as it is
difficult to change his attitude at conscious
level. It may be endeavor of the organization
to grant him leave or some concessions for
the cause of going to some meditation/deaddiction
centers to help him to see himself
at subconscious level & get rid of such habits.
Dealing with cases of unwanted tour
billings/expenditures quoted by the
employees
Under such circumstances, instead of
pointing out the same, clear-cut policies are
to be issued, keeping a level of flexibility to
accommodate the real kind of expenditures.
This will directly or indirectly clarify the
perception of the employees to manage their
expenditures with in those limits.
Dealing with cases of change in attitude
of old employees.
In case of changes in attitude of old
employees to be noticed promptly to find out
stimuli for the same and deal it accordingly.
The older employees should be trained by
their bosses to work even in adverse
conditions too. This will make them realize
that he is in a team for achievement of certain
objective, it will make him more tougher as
well as a good team player.
u H
Prof Shyam Shukla, Corporate Relations Manager, Central Institute of Business Management Reseatch & Devlopment & Tresurer
NHRDN Nagpur Chapter and can be reached at cibmrdadm@rediffmail.com).
(Carried from 24)
SENSATIONS
PERCEPTATION
ATTITUDE
Organisational Stupidity means bad
response towards change. In order to
remove the pattern of stupid behaviors from
organization, an intensive strategy plan has
to be created, so that unpredictable and
uncertain forces from the environment would
be answered smartly and Intelligently.
The characterstics of such organization
should be:
l Learning Culture: The ambience of
organization should generate, exchange
and sustain learnings.
Organisational Intelligence: A systematic Perspective
l
l
l
l
Continous Learning: Learning should be
an integeral part of any organization and
at the same time it should be perpetual.
Knowledge Generation: Organisation
should empower the people and bring
everybody on board.
Critical System thinking: Analytical and
logical thinking should takeover stupidity
as a system in organization.
People centered: OI is people centeric
because the foundation of any form of
intelligence is Indiviual IQs.
l A spirit of flexibility: A flexibility is the
only key factor of creating and
sustaining intelligence.
In the end I would like to conclude that
Organisational Intelligence is the mode of
improving the relevance and effectiveness
of an Organisation so that the resistance to
change can be minimized. Thus expressing
the reaction and response to uncertain
variables will be intelligent rather than
stupidity.
u H
| HRD News Letter | June 2007, Vol.23, Issue:3 16|

Employee Engagement
- Key to Talent Retention
The Hospitality Industry has been
growing at a tremendous rate over the
last few months and the exponential growth
is going to increase. After a five-year
downward spiral starting 1997-98, the
hospitality industry in India witnessed a
visible revival only by the second half of
2002-03, thanks to strong domestic travel
trends and a positive economic and
investment environment. There is a huge
domestic tourist market in India, including
business and leisure travellers. This is
estimated at some 300 millions tourists or
tourist trips a year, which may also include
those travelling for social and religious
purposes.
The industry, despite being an important
component of the economy, contributed only
2% of the GDP in 2003/04. According to
recent estimates of the WTTC (World Travel
and Tourism Corporation), Indian tourism
demand will grow at 8.8% over the next ten
years (from 2005-15), which would place
India as the second most rapidly growing
tourism market in the world. This is expected
to result in a growth of 7.1% in total travel
and tourism GDP. Based on the forecasted
growth in demand we expect that another
1,00,000 to 1,25,000 rooms will need to be
added, across the country, in the next five
to seven years, to be able to meet the
increase in demand, but less than half of
that is under different stages of planning and
construction.
Demand has outstripped supply and the
need for more rooms and for more qualified
manpower at the supervisory cadre, the
assistant manager level and department
head levels is increasing. There is a dearth
of management-oriented trained people in
the industry. We started seeing a brain drain
from this sector to banks and multi-national
companies 4-5 years ago and this has only
increased. The salary structure in the hotel
industry is not inspiring either. 10-20% of
the graduates from hotel management
institutes are now taking up jobs in the
financial services sector. The problem
becomes more acute at the midmanagement
level, with over 50% choosing
to opt out in favour of other service sector
jobs, such as BPO's, IT companies etc. The
hospitality sector is one of the few industries
not to have raised salary levels in a big way
over the last few years, but that would have
to change.
Also, a fatter pay package is not the only
attraction. Better work conditions in other
industries, particularly in banks where most
employees enjoy a five-day week and a 9-6
job have become a big draw for employees
moving out of the hospitality industry. The
attrition rate in the hospitality industry is
around 30% and according to HVS
International, a hospitality constancy,
branded hotels in the top 10 hotel markets
(cities) will need about 94,000 employees
in the next five years, more than twice the
existing requirement. According to WTTC,
the Indian Travel &Tourism (T&T) Economy
employment is estimated at 25,607,000 jobs
in 2007, 5.5% of total employment. By 2017,
this should total 28,322,000 jobs, 5.2% of
total employment.
Keeping this in mind, it has been difficult to
retain talent but, we have been doing the
best we can. Below we have highlighted
some of the initiatives we have. By and large
we try to engage the employees to create a
fun atmosphere and to ensure that they are
satisfied. This is going to be the key for an
employer to retain an employee apart from
ensuring that the compensation and benefits
are in par with industry standards of not only
hospitality but pan industries. A lot of hotels
are trying out different ways, such as
Employee Stock Options, SAP
Implementation, opportunities for
International exposure etc.
New comer's High tea is a novel concept
we have of welcoming the new employees
to the our Family. This happens once in a
quarter where the employees along with
their parents are invited over a High Tea.
The General Manager addresses the
employees and their parents saying how
good it is to work for the group. Then the
parents are also allowed to speak and ask
questions. The senior most employees of
the organization also share their experience
with the new comers. This has been a
successful initiative as the Tata Group and
Sandeep Banerjee, Area Head - HR, Taj Coromandel, Chennai Region, E-Mail: sandeep.banerjee@tajhotels.com
Vikas Chawla Asst. Manager - H R, Taj Coromandel, Chennai E-Mail: vikas.chawla@tajhotels.com
Vikas Chawla and Sandeep Banerjee
Taj Group has had a heritage and are trusted
brands. Through the high tea we try and win
the confidence of the parents and family that
Taj is a great place to work at.
Another concept is that of the Birthday Bash
where all the employees celebrating their
birthday in a month would be invited by the
G.M and the staff cafeteria is decorated to
a specific theme with special sumptuous
food planned by the Chef is served. The
function starts off with games for the
birthday babies and it is fun to watch the
employees playing games like passing the
ball, Musical chair, etc. It is followed by a
cake cutting along with the birthday song.
We also go out of the way to receive
feedback from employees about cafeteria
food, about various activities that we have
and also to give their suggestions. We also
try to entertain our employees during our
Movie day which is an ideal concept for the
employees to have a break and an
entertainment from their usual work routine.
It is decided in the Town Hall meeting as
which movie to screen and right at the mid
way of the month the movie is screened
during the Tea break with special snacks.
The movie is screened in the staff cafeteria.
On occasions like Independence Day,
republic day, Valentines Day, New Year
appropriate movies would be screened as
on the theme.
Considering that a lot of our employees work
long hour we also have Yoga classes. This
is an innovative and a highly effective
practice to help the employees to vent out
their stress and make the body and mind
calm. This has a great influence on the
executives too for whom the classes are
conducted. Sports Activities are also
conducted once a year which involve games
like Table Tennis, Cricket, Carom, Volleyball,
Chess, Shuttle, Tennikoit and Throw ball.
Ladies also participate in the same. Apart
from this we also have a All India Taj Cricket
Tournament and all units take part in the
same making it an competitive and fun filled
event.
As a welfare initiative we started an
Employee cooperative store and has
(Contd.. On Page 44)
| HRD News Letter | June 2007, Vol.23, Issue:3 17|

HRD - Lessons From Cricket
When the Indian cricket team returned
from the West Indies in the very first
week of the World Cup competition, the
reactions ranged from the logical and the
analytical to the utterly senseless violence
against the players' homes. Some officials
of the BCCI expressed their anger by
suggesting that contracts and payments
should be withheld or at least curtailed.
Many others asked for a complete
revamping of the system of team selection.
This entire episode provides an interesting
case study for management of Human
Resources. .
The simple facts are that a group of persons
selected after trials over long periods of
time, in camps, and in action in the field,
failed to perform, even at the minimal level.
These persons had superb credentials,
having experience and records to their
credit, as good or better than any other so
far in the history of the game. Individually,
their skills were proven. When selected, they
were hailed to be the best team ever from
India. Expert commentators, even from
abroad, saw the team as strong contenders
for the title. Few had doubts about the team
reaching the semi finals. Yet it fell at the first
hurdle. Two 'minnows' had made the grade
ahead of India.
How could such a powerful team, consisting
of experienced and proven players, fail so
badly? It is common knowledge that skill
does not always result in corresponding
performance. There are mediating factors,
variously described as concentration,
application, enthusiasm, etc which affect
sharpness of reflexes and coordination of
the various limbs and organs in use. These
are all functions of the mind. The mind
provides the energy that converts the skill
into performance or withdraws the energy
and then, the skill is not available. This
phenomenon, may be referred to as 'being
in form' or 'out of form', by sportsmen, 'mood'
by ordinary people and 'morale' by
managers. This is the same phenomenon,
which enhances performance in front of
cheering supportive crowds and kills
performance before booing crowds, or
raises levels of performance after every
success, like a goal or a wicket. This is the
area to explore to understand the reasons
for failure and the corrections that may be
required.
Any manager, familiar with the behaviours
of people as individuals and as groups,
would know that outstanding individuals, put
together do not become outstanding groups.
They have to gel and become cohesive as
teams, before high performance team-work
can happen. Cohesion is the result of the
interactions within the group, across all
levels. The major responsibility for making
this happen remains with the leader. In this
case, the leaders are, the captain first and
the coach next. They have to be seen and
accepted as leaders. Acceptance comes
from their behaviours within the group.
'Being seen' happens as a result of the way
they relate to the world outside, particularly
their bosses.
In this case, the controversies about the
team began with the South Africa tour. A
few setbacks and the captain, the coach and
the players were subjects of discussion in
the media and the public. As one columnist
wrote, 'the media was in a frenzy of
flagellation and wanted to wreak some
mayhem on someone'. Even some
parliamentarians thought it proper to raise
the matter. The President of the BCCI
announced that he was sending the Chief
of the Selection Committee to South Africa.
Mr. Dilip Vengsarkar went. The message to
the team clearly was that the local
management, including the captain and the
coach, were not good enough for the task
and Mr Vengsarkar was coming to take
charge.
When any person, individual or collective,
performs or fails, it is alright for the public to
be stringent in its criticism. But the person
in question, will be looking forward to his
leader for understanding and support. If that
does not happen and he also joins the public
bandwagon, the extent of demoralization is
high. The action of sending Mr. Vengsarkar
to South Africa had this effect. Whether Mr.
Vengsarkar interfered with the captain and
the coach or not, is irrelevant. His travel to
South Africa was adequate to undermine
the authority of the leaders in the perception
of the team. Every member felt let down by
their own bosses. Thereafter, neither will
S.Balachandran
authority be exercised, nor will it be
accepted, by anyone. There will always be
the super boss in the background. The
morale of the team had been damaged. The
blame game had begun. The team selected
for the two home series, against the West
Indies and Sri Lanka, although performing
well, was still subject to controversies about
the inclusion of one or another.
The Times of India carried in its edition of
the 23rd April 2007, an interview with Johnty
Rhodes, the legendary fielder and currently
the fielding coach for the South African team
in which he is quoted as saying "Five World
Cups is a long time. But it doesn't make me
the expert. It might well be that AB de Villiers
might need some advice from Graeme
Smith who has played in one-and-a-half
World Cups. Just because I am the senior
guy in the team, doesn't mean that I know
everything. All the guys are pretty focused
and are comfortable with their roles." This
is an attitude that respects the competence
of the individuals who are assigned various
roles. That is the attitude that gets the
individuals to respond with enthusiasm. The
opposite attitude "I know better. I will tell you
and you do that" will get the opposite
response of fear, hesitation and frustration,
conditions in which performance will be less
than optimal.
Indian managers, by and large, have
assumptions of superior competence and
do not easily recognize or respect the
competence in subordinates. This is so
despite loud public assertions to the
contrary. This is true of politicians who
become ministers. Mr. Mani Shankar Aiyer
is an example. He did not hesitate to
denigrate his subordinates, be it Mr. Raza
of the ONGC or Mr. Kalmadi of the Indian
Olympic Association. Many managers, while
taking charge of new responsibilities, have
the habit of proclaiming that their duty is to
clean up the establishment, as if all the
predecessors, have done all wrong. .This is
the best way to alienate the members of the
group. Even if they do not sabotage, their
cooperation would be minimal. The new
officials of the BCCI, (after Mr. Dalmia) and
Mr. Vengsarkar together contributed to this
(Contd.. Page 15)
Mr. S Balachandran is MD and CEO of Achievers Spectum, Mumbai. E-Mail: s.balachandran@vsnl.com
| HRD News Letter | June 2007, Vol.23, Issue:3 18|

Work Life And Stress
Management
As modern organizations are growing
and becoming complex entities
because of organic and inorganic growth,
the animate human resources of the
organization are more at the receiving end
in terms of stress.
"Everybody knows what stress is and yet
no one knows what it is"
Today stress is omnipotent irrespective of
age, sex, education or status it affects our
life the most. It is just not a phenomenon of
today, but was existent since time
immemorial. Right from the beginning of the
civilization human organisms are subjected
to stressful events like birth itself, crying,
crawling walking etc. Today the transition is
that modern stressors have increased so
also the manifestations of stress have
increased.
Stress is any condition that disturbs normal
functioning. It is difficult to define stress, as
there is no satisfactory definition of stress
that encompasses the social, psychological,
biological, organizational issues, which have
an impact over an individual. There is no
single level of stress that is optimal for all
people. We are all individual creatures with
unique requirements. As such, what is
distressing to one may be a joy to another.
And even when we agree that a particular
event is distressing, we are likely to differ in
our physiological and psychological
responses to it.
Stress broadly can be looked as an
Anticipatory, Current and Residual Stress.
Anticipatory stress: It is in response to
expected Stress a person might give more
attention" what might happen" than to what
is happening.
Current stress: This occurs during the
experience for e.g. - a person in the midst
of an activity experiences this, job
assignment etc
Residual stress: This occurs after the
experience has passed.
The causes of work related stress are:
1) Work Overload: Either you have got too
much to do and too little time to do or
job is very difficult and complex you feel
you cannot handle it.
2) Poor relationship with bosses, or
subordinates.
3) Lack of autonomy. Having no control
and participation in decision making it
is one of the main reasons of stress.
4) Role conflict: sometimes one feels
caught in between conflicting demands
from superior and subordinates that can
be stressful. One particular experiences
conflict between organizational and
personal roles.
Individual Role Organization
An organization has its own structure and
goals; the individual has unique personality
and needs. These interact and become
integrated to some degree in the role.
Otherwise, neither the organization nor the
personal goals will be realized.
5) Hardiness: Hardy people tend to involve
themselves in what is going on rather
than feeling alienated from it they feel
and act as though they are influential
rather than helpless in face of ups and
down of life and they see life as a
challenge.
6) Organizational climate: with
organization and human resources
becoming multicultural individual could
experience organizational climate which
cause of lack of adaptability. Sometimes
stress arises when employees do not
possess the necessary skills to carry
on with the work assigned to them. Work
stress can also be over the uncertainty
of the sufficiency of their tasks in
relevance to their position and role
7) Bullying or Harassment: Bullying is the
willful, conscious desire to hurt another
and put him/her under stress.
8) Lack of job security: In the era of pink
slips job security is always a question
mark giving rise to ample stress.
9) Work life Imbalance: use to long erratic
work hours working against the
biological clock and especially in the
B.P.O and ITES and because of
spending excessive time away from
home and family.
C Lalitha and Dr. Sapna Singh
10) Office Politics and conflict among staff.
Also induces stress
The ASTRA SHASTRAS of modern
Stress Management are:
1) Proper planning and realistic goal
setting in life.
2) Controlling anger and anxiety.
3) Developing positive thinking.
4) Effective management of time.
5) Good manners and developing good
habits.
6) Practicing yoga and regular physical
exercise.
7) Relaxation and taking breaks.
8) Balanced and good diet is the guru
mantra for physiological Stress
Management'
9) Finger Magic: massage,
aromatherapies are rejuvenating for
mind and body.
10) Yoga is also greatly beneficial to a
stressed mind and Soul.
Organizational techniques:
Organizations should encourage employees
to undergo periodic physical and
psychological examinations and personal
surveys to ascertain current stress levels.
Personal counseling should be provided by
organizations to identify undue stress levels
and then identify any corrective measures
for the individual.
The organization should promote a climate,
which actively assists employees to
minimize their stress.
Summary:
Stress is the "wear and tear" our bodies
experience as we adjust to our continuously
changing environment; it has physical and
emotional effects on us and can create
positive or negative feelings. The modern
organizational work life is prone to stress.
Individuals should learn to manage stress
and develop coping strategies for
themselves. Organizations should also work
towards providing a stress free environment
that can go a long way and become a winwin
strategy for all.
u H
C. Lalitha, Assistant Professor, with Sister Nivedita College of Professional Studies E-Mail: channalalitha1@yahoo.co.in
Dr. Sapna Singh, Head, Dept. of Business Management, RBVRR College, Hyderabad E-Mail: sapnasingh66@yahoo.com
| HRD News Letter | June 2007, Vol.23, Issue:3 19|

Organizational Climate
through Leadership
J. Arpan Kumar
Prologue
The work place is constantly changing.
Corporate mergers, down-sizing, rightsizing,
budget cut backs, employees/publicignited
law suits, changing technology and
ongoing regulatory compliance issues have
forced many organizations and government
bodies to rethink the way that they operate.
Additionally managers and supervisors are
forced with new challenges in motivating
employees while addressing work place
violence, employees/public safety, sexual
harassment, discipline/firing issues and
dealing with troubled employees. Research
conducted by Harvard Business school
unfolds that conducive organizational
climate is a sine qua non for organizational
effectiveness in this highly turbulent and
tumultuous business environment.
Organizational climate is the perception of
how it feels to work in a particular
environment. It is the atmosphere of the
work place, including a complex mixture of
norms, values, expectations, policies and
procedures that influence individual and
group patterns of behavior. It is, in effect
people's perceptions of "the way we do
things here".
Elements of Organizational Climate
Organizational climate is the atmosphere of
the work place, including a complex mixture
of norms, values, expectations, policies and
procedures that influence individual and
group patterns of behavior. It is, in effect
people's perceptions of "the way we do
things here". The study of the climate is very
important. It provides for an individual to
interpret and give meaning to his or her
environment, which will have immense
implications upon the formulation of
expectancies, instrumentalities and affective
reactions. As per the study of Harvard
Business School the following are the
dimensions, which in general are measures
to organizational climate and these are
Clarity: Purpose, goals, roles, clear
procedures.
Flexibility: Unnecessary rules are minimized
and creativity is encouraged.
Standards: Setting challenging goals and
improving performance is emphasized.
Responsibility: Initiative and risk taking are
encouraged. There is accountability at all
levels.
Rewards: Recognition is directly related to
levels of performance and expectations.
Team commitment: People work
cooperatively, trust each other and are proud
to be a part of the organization.
Climate through Leadership
According Tom peters" Leadership is
emerging as the most important element of
business-the attribute that is highest in
demand and shortest in supply".
Leader's total commitment is common
prescription for success of organizational
climate. Leaders need to maintain
disciplined attention to create climate and
influence climate. Peter Senge has adopted
the definitions for leadership; in the abstract-
"Leadership is the capacity of a human
community to create its future". In operation-
"Leadership is the ability in an organization
to initiate and to sustain significant change,
to work effectively with the force that shape
change". The important point about this
definition is the emphasis on collective
capacity. In the organization people have to
work collectively for the growth of
organization. One person cannot handle and
change a system. But the actions and
statements of a company leader will
influence people. In a study carried out in
UK it was found that, there are few words/
phrases mentioned or frequently used in
respect to leadership and which in turn
create/influence the climate of the
organization. Those are leader/leadership
Skills, communicator/communication skills,
interpersonal skills, influencing skills, proven
track record, inspiring skills, motivational
skills, strategic thinker. Such wanted skills
come out with certain actions and
statements, and these actions and
statements influence or create the climate.
When employees accept actions and
statements of leaders then it is reciprocal
and collective. This is what synergy. The
nature of the climate in any organization
finally depends upon the synergy levels that
exist in, and these levels are to be created
and maintained by leaders through their
extra-ordinary skills. A true practice of
leadership for the best climate is
demonstrated most authentically in the
leadership moment. According to Jan
carlzon the legendary CEO of Scandinavian
airlines system "people are not born with
self confidence. Even the most selfconfident
people are broken; self-confidence
comes from success, experience, and the
organizations environment. The leader's
most important role is to instill confidence
in people. They must dare to take risks and
responsibility. You must back them when
they make mistakes". This strengthens the
argument of creating the best climate where
employees dare to learn the bits and bites
of self-confidence. One of the most
significant strengths of an effective and
efficacious leader is his ability to create a
positive climate with his actions and
statements. Effective and efficacious
leaders use a repertoire of style to create
positive work climates in the areas they
manage. In the recent past Kirkpatrick and
Locke of UK developed a specific model in
which they identified several traits that are
consistently associated with effective and
efficacious leadership and can institute
amicable climate. They are Drive, leadership
motivation, honesty and integrity, selfconfidence,
cognitive ability, and knowledge
of business. Running through all these
theories, themes, traits which emphasize
the importance of values, integrity,
truthfulness and morality, and with where
leadership is now being scrutinized and
discussed in terms of ethical leadership,
authentic leadership, spiritual leadership,
and servant leadership. Leadership when
described in these terms is based on a
moral foundation centered around a selfawareness
of ones behaviors where
authenticity is practiced, ethics are adhered
to, learning, growth and the development of
others are encouraged. These all talks, talk
in perspective to climate through leadership.
J. Arpan Kumar is Faculty and Head of the Department, C. Malla Reddy Institute of Management, Hyderabad.
He can be reached by arpankumarj@gmail.com
| HRD News Letter | June 2007, Vol.23, Issue:3 20|

Proven leadership principles to strengthen
and stabilize organizational climate
l Attitude of "It could be done"
l Willing to change mind when require
l Following and doing things decisively
l Maintaining of enthusiasm between
failures
l Demonstrating 100% corporate
commitment
l Exciting, adventurous, new and even
risk-taking
l People stay when leaders who take
them in directions that are interesting,
Impact of Organizational Climate
Glamorous globalization has changed the
life styles, mind styles, position styles and
efficiency styles of the people. All these have
changed the culture of the organization
accordingly and in turn the climate of the
organization has been affected. The climate
of organization depends upon various factors
and changing factors. The satisfaction levels,
motivational levels and above all acceptance
levels of all employees across the globe have
changed and increased. There is an
increasing amount of circumstantial evidence
to suggest that the globalization of business
is generating similarities in the ways in which
firms manage their employees. For example
the factors like salary and job security
became primary factors for almost all global
companies to maintain good organizational
climate. Even in developed countries like
USA, UK, Germany etc., people are rating
these factors as primary. Countries like china,
South Korea, Japan, India are no exception.
Across the corporate globe there are many
companies which strive hard to establish
decent climate. At Southwest Airlines to
nurture, stabilize and standardize
organizational climate the top management
is committed to provide their employees a
stable work environment with equal
opportunity for learning and personal
growth, creativity and innovations are
encouraged for improving the effectiveness
of the Southwest Airlines. Above all
employees will be provided the same
concern, respect and caring attitude within
the organization that they are expected to
share externally with Southwest airlines
Customers. Southwest airlines pride it on
being a fun place to work, having amazingly
low turnover rate and a highly productive
workforce in the industry. The reason, its
workers are highly motivated. Southwest
airlines climate also de-emphasizes
hierarchy. Elitism is not "looked upon very
highly here, titles are not that important,"
says its CEO. The unique about southwest
airlines is its profit sharing plan and this plan
has led number of employees to become
millionaires after eighteen or twenty years
of service. Such are the efforts made by
Southwest airlines to stabilize and
standardize their organizational climate.
Changes in society, markets, customers,
competition, and technology are forcing
organizations to clarify their values, develop
new strategies, and learn new ways of
operating. The success of any company
depends upon in handling these issues
successfully. During 1980s, then chief
executive of British airlines Colin Marshall
clearly recognized the need to transform an
airline nicknamed bloody awful by its own
passengers into an exemplary of customer
service. Marshall felt an organization whose
people clung to functional silos and valued
pleasing their bosses more than pleasing
their customers couldn't become the world's
favorite airline. For this he understood the
need to strengthen the climate of the
company in respect to changes in values,
practices, relationships, creating trust,
respecting individual and making teamwork
happen through out the company.
Education is the other important factor,
which contributes ample for the climate to
be healthy. The significance of education
and training is growing day by day
unchallenging. Companies like IBM,
Motorola, Xerox, and Du Pont are training
and educating their employees on various
subjects like diversity, Leadership,
Empowerment, Stress, Gender
discrimination, Knowledge management,
Risk taking, creativity, emotions etc. These
elements do contribute a lot for the success
of organizational climate. Today across the
globe diversity has become subject of
concern. As the working population
becomes more diverse and an increasing
number of young and old people from both
genders and from different regions, religion,
race, caste, language seek employment,
business firms are trying to be sensitive on
this issue. Now managing diversity is issue.
Multi cultural organizations must be
developed and will be thoughtful. Business
firms are wrestling with diversity that has
previously being over looked and now
demand careful attention. The proper
handling of this sensitive issue will promote
team spirit. One is good and one plus one
is best. One is individual and one plus one
is a team. One is energy and one plus one
is synergy. Synergy strengthens the climate
of organization. Today most of the corporate
minds are reeling around the concept
synergy. This is the very strength for
dignifying the climate of organization. The
other seemingly sensitive issue for the
balance of organizational climate has been
the new theory work-life balance. This theory
is assuming greater significance and
cracking the corporate minds. Hewlett-
Packard has created a new designation by
name work life manager to assist every one
from the CEO to down in handling the issue
work life balance. The climate of the
organization mostly depends on the warm,
support, standards, responsibility, reward,
clarity, and identity. In the process of
strengthening the organizational climate,
Cathay Pacific Airways is committed to take
a positive approach to human resources
management by recognizing people the
company's most valuable asset.
A healthy organizational climate is
indispensable for the success and
sustenance of modern organizations as
evident by the above-cited cases.
Consistency and continuity are the
hallmarks of a robust organizational climate.
A journey with good elements will fetch the
consistency and continuity over complexity.
Once a monumentally successful company,
Philips lost its competitive edge in the mid -
1980's and even came close to collapse.
The Chairman and president of Philips Jan
D. Timmer (and many observers) attributed
much of the company's troubles to its
corporate climate. Climate bolsters a
company's identity as one organization.
Conclusion
The progress and prosperity of any
organization depends upon the mental
balance of its people. When the state of
minds of people working for the organization
is balanced, the success of the organization
is assured. Success depends upon the
"balance of mind" Balanced minds will
create Balanced climate. The unbalanced
minds in the organization will knowingly or
unknowingly, consciously or subconsciously,
disrupt or dilute the activities
of the organization. F.W.Taylor the father of
scientific management has advocated
"mental revolution" to workers and
managers. Mental revolution states about
"integration of interests" and this will be
achieved when people think balanced. When
the minds of people are balanced they are
not biased and will create balanced climate.
Climate reflects the state of minds of people.
Global competition and the ever-increasing
speed of technology change have altered
the rules of the game and have forced
corporate planners to seek new solutions.
The climate of organizations depends upon
various factors. Organizations must control
those factors in order to shape their climate
and to remain competitive in this dynamic
business environment characterized by
intense competition coupled with towering
customer expectations. Leaders play a
critical role in the development of climate.
Leaders shape climate by their behavior, by
what they pay attention to, by what they
measure and control, and their reactions to
critical incidents and crisis for environment
of openness, transparency, mutual trust and
admiration.
u H
| HRD News Letter | June 2007, Vol.23, Issue:3 21|

TRUST
That's ultimately what relationships are
built upon.
There was a flimsy bridge and a small girl
and her father were crossing the bridge. The
father asked his daughter to hold his hand
so that she does not fall into the river. The
small girl said, "No, father. You hold my hand."
The father was puzzled and asked what
difference does that make. The girl replied,
"There is a big difference. If I hold your hand
and something happens to me, chances are
that I may let your hand go. But if you hold
my hand, I know for sure that no matter what
happens, you will never let my hand go."
That is trust. Not only in this anecdote, but
also in any relationship, the essence of trust
is not in its bind, age, caste or creed but in
its bond. What is trust? It is the firm reliance
on the integrity, ability, or character of a
person or thing. Trust indicates a willingness
to become vulnerable to another based on
confident positive expectations of their
conduct. In the words of Rousseau and her
colleagues "Trust is defined as a
psychological state comprising the intention
to accept vulnerability based upon positive
expectations of the intentions or behavior
of another". Trust is an individual's belief in,
and willingness to act on the basis of, the
words, actions, and decisions of another.
Trust in Interpersonal relationship
Trust is compared with "glue" that holds our
relationships together and enables us
individuals to perform more efficiently. The
need for trust arises from our
interdependence with others. We often
depend on other people to help us obtain,
or at least not to frustrate, the outcomes we
value (and they on us). As our interests with
others are intertwined, we also must
recognize that there is an element of risk
involved in so far as we often encounter
situations in which we cannot compel the
cooperation we seek. Therefore, trust can
be very valuable in social interactions.
Building Trust
Trust building is a bilateral process that
requires mutual commitment and effort.
There are several ways we can act on their
own to initiate or encourage the trust building
process. This is accomplished by taking
steps to minimize the risk that the other
party will act in untrustworthy ways, or by
policing our actions to ensure they are
perceived as evidence of trustworthiness.
Communication
We have to communicate accurately, openly
and transparently if we are interested in
building trust. In addition, we should act
openly--that is, be clear about the intentions
and motives for our actions. This helps the
other party calculate our trustworthiness
accurately, because we are willing to act
transparently and to be monitored for
compliance.
Behaviour
Our trust in another individual can be
grounded in our evaluation of his/her ability,
integrity, and benevolence. That is, the more
we observe these characteristics in another
person, our level of trust in that person is
likely to grow. Ability refers to an assessment
of the other's knowledge, skill, or
competency. This dimension recognizes that
trust requires some sense that the other is
able to perform in a manner that meets our
expectations. Integrity is the degree to which
the trustee adheres to principles that are
acceptable to the trustor. This dimension
leads to trust based on consistency of past
actions, credibility of communication,
commitment to standards of fairness, and
the congruence of the other's word and
deed. Benevolence is our assessment that
the trusted individual is concerned enough
about our welfare to either advance our
interests, or at least not impede them. The
other's perceived intentions or motives of
the trustee are most central. Honest and
open communication, delegating decisions,
and sharing control indicate evidence of
one's benevolence.
Emotional sensitivity and Empathy
In a relationship, you have to express
concern for others. The trust others have in
you will grow when you show sensitivity to
their needs, desires, and interests. Acting
in a way that respects and protects other
people, and refraining from engaging in selfinterested
pursuits to the detriment of others
will also contribute greatly to the trust others
place in you. When you violate someone's
trust, they deem that you are acting in your
own self-interest.
Sumathi Annamalai
Consistency
While building and maintaining interpersonal
relationships, you have to establish
consistency and predictability. You can
enhance the degree to which others will
regard you as trustworthy when you behave
in consistent and predictable ways. Every
effort should be made to ensure that our
word matches with our action and that we
honor pledged commitments. Our integrity
is reinforced to the extent that we do what
we say we will do.
Problems when there is no trust
Trust violations occur when a person's
confident positive expectations of another
person get disconfirmed. These violations
result in lower subsequent trust, and may
reduce the extent to which victims of these
violations cooperate with the offender.
Research within organizations has shown
that trust violations affect mutual support and
information sharing, and even produces
negative effects on organizational citizenship
behaviors, job performance, turnover, and
profits. The experience of a trust violation is
likely to result in the trustor making (1) a
cognitive appraisal of the situation and (2)
experiencing a distressed emotional state.
Conclusion
Interpersonal Trust is very essential for
achieving high performance within any
organization. Once the trust is lost, rebuilding
trust is not as straightforward as building trust
in the first place. After trust has been
damaged, two things have to occur
(1) Dealing with the stress the violation
imposed on the relationship, and
(2) Determining if future violations will occur.
Effective trust repair is often necessary to
resolve conflicts. Although this process is
difficult, there are steps the offender can
take to enhance the likelihood of stimulating
the victim's willingness to reconcile, and
further the trust rebuilding process.
However, we stress that rebuilding trust is
a process, not an event. As such, it is likely
to consume a lot of time and resources. And
I would like to conclude with a quote,
To be trusted is a greater compliment
than to be loved.
GEORGE MACDONALD u H
Ms. Sumathi annamalai is asst professor with school of management studies, Bharath university Chennai She can be reached on her
E-Mail: swahini_a@yahoo.com
| HRD News Letter | June 2007, Vol.23, Issue:3 22|

Stress And Strain:
Balancing The Work Life
Stress and Strain are the buzz words in
today's corporate culture. Whether it is
in knowledge based industry or
manufacturing or service industry, it gives a
lot of importance to retain the employees and
to stop attrition rate in employee turnover in
any industry. To reduce the stress levels in
employees, all the CEOs are giving much
importance and working for building like Yoga
Centre, organizing Pranayam within their
compounds, Prayer Halls, constructing
temples, ZIM clubs, swimming pools, and
meditation centres, conducting cultural,
musical and spiritual Programmes to their
employees. All these help to the employees
to make their working life balanced, enjoy with
their work and live for a happy life. What is
happy and how it balances the people? What
are the HR practices to make them happy?
Happiness is the foremost desire in every
one's life. It is a natural instinct in all living
things in nature. Contrary to this, most are
found unhappy, depressed and
discontented. Why so? Truly, happy people
are very few. Most probably, their perception
of happiness is mis-understood or their
search for it is in wrong direction or they
might not know what happiness is.
Happiness is not easy to define or express
in words. It is a state of mind, a feeling and
more of an experience. When your mind is
perturbed, disturbed, you experience
restlessness and when it peaceful, you feel
happy. In clinical terms, happiness is the
hormone ETHYMIA that maintains your
mood. If its level is low, you feel depressed
and it is high, you feel happy. Various
psychological and biological factors
influence the hormone level with the mind
acting as a catalyst.
Reasons for unhappiness: There can be a
number of reasons for unhappiness, but the
basic factors are.
Unending desires for material comfort:
Money may bring material comforts. But can
it buy happiness? At levels of dire poverty,
money certainly matters because it is
necessity for survival. Beyond that, the
impact is minimal. Wealth is like health. Its
absence breeds misery, but having it does
not guarantee happiness. Unending desires.
The question is, should we give up desires
to be happy? If we do, there would not be any
progress in individual, organizational and in
national development. Shunning of desires
enables a detached outlook. Detachment
doesn't mean denying yourself of possessions.
It means your mind is tuned to transcend that
deprivation realizing that happiness lies not
in its pursuit, but within you.
Inability to accept failures: Expectations are
quite natural. But not getting what you
expect, the mismatch between giving and
getting, causes unhappiness.
It works wonders if you follow the golden
rule propagated by Gita:
"KARMANYA VADHIKARASTE,
MA PHALESHU KADACHINA!
MA KARMPHALHETU BHOORMATAE
SANGASTAVA KARMANI!!
It means, 'your right is to work, but never to
the fruit there of. Be not instrumental in
making your actions always bear fruit, nor
let your attachment be to in action." This
approach may seem difficult to practice, but
if adopted in the right spirit; your life will be
full of happy.
Harmful emotions in human minds:
Anger, greed, jealousy, ego, attachment etc.
are harmful traits as they destroy your
happiness. They lurk in one form or other in
every human mind and rob you of mental
peace. For instance, anger often results in
the collapse of a person's discriminative
feeling. Similarly, jealousy, envy, ego,
attachment are tenacious tenants of a
person's mind.
Discounting the present for a happier
future:
Discounting the present and plan and work
to assure a happy future. That's quite natural.
But ignoring the present and worry for
tomorrow lead to sorrowness. To be happy,
learn the art of living in the present.
To be happy, consider the following steps:
1. Enjoy what you do - Enjoy doing every
thing you do. All work may not be to your
liking, but if required to do, enjoy doing it. It
will give you a lot of satisfaction and pleasure
if you do by enjoying it. Feel, work is a
privilege and god given gift.
2 Follow a planned diet- Don't
contaminate your body with toxins. To be
happy, a planned diet is necessary. Health
and happiness are complementary.
P.R.Naidu and Dr. P.D. Raju
3. Live in the present - To be happy, learn
the art of living in the present. Keep your
attention for the present to be happy,
otherwise you will spoil the present as well
as the future.
4. Give love and respect - Think of others
and try to make them happy by extending
your hands. It will automatically make you
happier. Those who give love and respect
will automatically generate happiness.
5. Meditation - Take time to meditate to
have peace in the turbulent mind. Meditation
helps to focus on the sub consciousness
that guides you what is good or bad. To be
happy, listen to the Inner voice and keep
balance in every situation, for which
meditation will be a great stimulator. Prayer
purifies the mind, gives you strength to face
problems and stress and helps in removing
harmful emotions and negative thoughts.
6. Pranayam - Pranayam, a technique for
efficient breathing, aids the body in
connecting its battery - a network of nerves
behind the stomach, which is a store house
of tremendous potential energy. Pranayam
releases it for physical and mental
rejuvenation. It also aids in controlling the
mind, which in turn reduces stress, deepens
insight, and expands consciousness,
essential ingredients for happiness.
7. Humour & Laughter - Humour and
laghter help defend against subconscious
fears, worries and other disturbing emotions.
Laughter is one of the finest for many health
benefits and easy to practice anti stress
measure.
Do the best to your ability and leave the rest
to God. He will be your partner in all your
endeavors and work as a force to bring
happiness in your life. HR should create an
environment where such value based
culture inculcates in the mind of every
employee to feel stress less in their working
area.
"Happiness depends on what you give
and not what you can get
From others. It is not necessary that
giving should only be in
Kind; even a small favour, a good deed
or some sweet words or
Love-loaded glance to make some one
smile when in agony can be considered
a valuable gift" - Gandhiji.
u H
Mr. P. Ramu Naidu is Sr.EA(HRD),NALCO,VIZAG. E-mail: rnpitta23@rediffmail.com
Dr. P.D. Raju is Associate Professor, Dept. of IRPM, Andhra University, Visakhapatnam. E-mail: dhananjaya@234yahoo.com
| HRD News Letter | June 2007, Vol.23, Issue:3 23|

Organisational Intelligence:
A systematic Perspective
Ms. Shikha Bhardwaj
Organisational Intelligence popularly
Known as O.I. Is composed of two
constituents - one is Organization and other
is Intelligence. Organization is a combination
of different interdependent components
working towards common goals. Intelligence
means the capability and ability to solve
problems.
Now on the basis of these two dimensions
we can understand and define O.I as the
capability and competency of an
organization to comprehend and conclude
knowledge relevant to its business purpose.
Organisational Intelligence focus includes
the creation, development and Retention of
Organisational competencies ( OCs). An
organization works by the people, of the
people and for the people. In simple words
it is people management. So an organization
display lots of pieces of intelligence in terms
of Individual Competencies.
Individual
Intelligence
Emotional
Intelligence
Spiritual
Intelligence
NUMBER OF YEARS OF EXPERIENCE
Individual Intelligence is measured by
Intelligence Quotient (IQ), which broadly
reflects an individual's capability and
competency to understand and evaluate a
problem. But by far what is more important
for an organization is - synchronization of
these intelligent pieces into an intelligent so
as to create ORGANISATIONAL
INTELLIGENCE, smartly.
Emotional Intelligence is the ability to
accurately perceive the emotions in one self
and others, understanding emotional
meanings and managing emotions. EI is
measured as Emotional Quotient (EQ). It
reflects an extension of self- understanding
by introspection and observation.
Spiritual intelligence motivates people to
balance their work and family. This
Intelligence creates an ability to complete
oneself by fulfillment of needs. It is
measured as Spiritual Quotient (SQ).
Now we can say that Organisational
intelligence is a comprehensive approach
which is measured as a function of
Individuals IQs added to EQs and SQs.
O. IQ = f ( IQ, EQ, SQ)
O.IQ is Organisational Intelligence Quotient
which is the summation of all the Quotients
which exists in its Human Capital and to use
them intelligently so as to respond smartly
and sharply to ever changing Environment.
IQ primarily is the ability to solve logical
problems.
EQ allows us to judge the situation we are
in and behave appropriately.
SQ allows us to ask if we want to be in that
situation in the first place and then finding
the alternate.
Organizational intelligence is an extension
of Knowledge Management (KM) which is
characterized by using Intellectual capital
with Technical capital so as to increase an
organizations immunity to sustain changes
in the environment and respond in an
effective manner.
Organisational intelligence is focused on
active and appropriate engagement in
"WHAT IS GOING ON (WIGO)", both inside
and outside the organization. In last it is a
collection of intelligent Human resource in
terms of knowledge, Skills, attitude &
emotions will definitely leads to
Organisational Intelligence (OI)
OI is the capacity and capability of an
organization to measure the structural
capital which is popularly known as machine
power and Human capital which is known
as people power. This is distinguished
perspective of managing tangible assets
with the intangible assets.
Elements of OI
l Introspection Analysis: It is the type of
analysis wherein an organization
studies its Strength, Weaknesses,
Opportunities and Threats internally and
externally.
l Comparative Analysis: How well does
an organization interpret and
understand itself and its environment in
comparison to the industry?
l Action research: Before proceeding for
further action backward research in
terms of thinking, process, decision,
policy etc. needs to be carried out.
l Knowledge Database: Creating a
databank of all the information gathered
and learned by means of experience
l Implementation: It is the next main
element to implement the learnings and
knowledge to actual processing in a
systematic process.
l Dissemination of information: In other
word communication, how do people
exchange, learn, transmits and share
the information.
Process of Organisational Intelligence:
Knowledge
Management
Creating
Knowledge
Capturing &
storing
knowledge
Capturing & storing
knowledge
Step 1: Knowledge management: Acquiring,
Storing & Implementing the existing
knowledge.
Step 2: Creating Knowledge: Creation of
hidden & new knowledge
Step 3: Capturing & storing knowledge:
Capturing & storing the knowledge gathered
in step 2.
Step 4: Transforming Knowledge:
Transformation of knowledge into actions.
From a broader viewpoint, an organization
is a composition of Individual Intelligence,
Business Intelligence, Developmental
Intelligence and many more …………..
But ultimately all these activities are aimed
to remove Organisational Stupidity.
(Contd.. Page 16)
Ms. Shikha Bhardwaj is Lecturer - HRM, Army Institute of Management & Technology, Greater Noida Email: shikhabhardwaj23@gmail.com
| HRD News Letter | June 2007, Vol.23, Issue:3 24|

Hewitt Best Employers
India 2007: Economic
Times article of April 2007
Sanjeev Nayyar
(This article is an excerpt from The
Economic Times article published in
April and due permission has been taken
by the author from the paper for its
reproduction.)
Summary of article are -
A. Key Findings:
1. Engagement Up - staff engagement
rising to 82% in 2007.
2. Career growth critical - career
opportunities remain the biggest driver
for employment.
3. Leaders hold the key - quality of
leadership has the biggest impact on
co's performance.
4. Soft skills important - esp. in customer
focused sectors.
5. Talent Shortage - and attrition rate are
on the rise.
B. Why do best employers score over
others?
1. Effective & committed leaders: leaders
who know to walk the talk, who
consistently demonstrate the
organization's values in all behaviors
and action.
2. Astute Management of Talent: CEOs
make it a point to groom leaders within
the organization. That way co's have a
reservoir of talent, promote from within.
3. Spotting Talent: The best cos have
elaborate and robust performance &
competency mapping systems. Satyam
has developed a Leadership Capability
Model i.e. used for hiring, performance
management and succession planning
for leaders.
4. Setting High Goals: Best cos are serious
about goal setting. They reward risk
taking rather than a conservative
approach. They know how to raise the
bar on performances.
5. Coaching for Performance: Best cos
have a cadre of managers who are good
at performance coaching.
6. Strong Review and Reward systems:
Best cos drive performance differently
through variable pay plans linked to
performance (100%).
7. Building Skills for the future: Best cos
say they have managers that provide
clear direction on skills required for their
future success in the organization.
8. Building growth into every job: Best cos
have the tools and training to grow in
their current job.
C. Key points made by Mr. Kumar
Mangalam Birla, Chairman of AV Birla
group, the best employer.
1. We are allowing employees to have
more control over their careers.
2. We are focusing on the quality of life of
our managers esp. those who live in
townships like Nagda, Chitrakoot.
3. I believe in people power, empowering
them within a defined framework.
4. Biggest challenge is to attract and retain
talent.
D. What is it that gives Indian employers
an edge?
1. Delayered DNA: MNCs are driven by
policies & practices formulated in distant
headquarters with layered bureaucratic
procedures. Indian cos HR policies are
not tweaked for India but designed from
scratch.
2. Contextual Edge: Born here Indian firms
have a better understanding of pulls &
pressures, emotional needs & social
underpinnings of executives.
3. Indian MNCs: earlier MNCs offered
global postings as a carrot. Indian cos
with expansion plans & M & A deals
have become great magnets to retain
talent.
4. Humility: Come to think of it engaging
employees is all about managing egos
and emotions as well. Despite their new
found growth Indian cos have kept the
humility intact.
E. Key points made by Mr. B Ramalinga
Raju, Chairman Satyam Computers,
2nd best employer.
1. We have created an organization
structure that will create true
entrepreneurs.
2. We believe that today's structures need
to be interdependent rather than
monoliths.
3. It is not possible to know every
employee although I would like to know
each of the 40,000 employees by name.
4. As the business grew larger we realized
the need to increase the number of
leaders from 30 to 1,500 by giving
managers independent businesses to
run.
5. Every activity was split into a business
unit and then benchmarked with the
best in that business for e.g. recruitment
function was made into a business unit
and benchmarked against the best
players in that domain.
6. To make sure that business and
corporate objectives are in sync Satyam
evolved a framework which measured
all business units on a common set of
criteria.
7. We spend about 10% of payroll
expenses on learning & development.
F. Small Rewards & Incentives keep the
spirits high: J W Marriott, 3RD best.
1. Reward coupons are kept by the head
of HR to give employees who show the
extra bit of commitment to excellence
during the day.
2. Employees are asked to nominate a
colleague who has gone beyond his call
of duty. On the 25th of every month
winners are declared such as leader of
the month and so on.
3. There is a home drop facility for all
women after 7pm and those who are
pregnant.
G. How do you bring voice of
salespersons in the Board room -
Eureka Forbes, 4th best?
1. There was a need to bring the voice of
the star performers, Eurochamps into
the board room. So Eurosenate was
launched. Objective is to allow
Eurochamps to bring issues that are
Sanjeev Nayyar is CEO Surya Consulting, Mumbai. Email is sanjeev@suryaconsulting.net
| HRD News Letter | June 2007, Vol.23, Issue:3 25|

elevant to strategic development of the
organization.
2. Through an election 14 representatives
were chosen from 56 members to form
the Senate. Each candidate prepared
an election manifesto (meaning
business goals), solicited votes through
various channels.
3. Employees can now see their opinions
reflected in corporate decisions.
H. Freedom with accountability at
Cisco, best co no 5.
1. The company does not track people
being at work, attendance, nos of hours.
However, work pressure is intense.
Weekly targets are given and those who
do not meet their targets could loose
their job.
2. It provides employees with a lot of
resources and freedom to help achieve
targets.
3. We are no longer running an Indian
business from India but running a global
business from India.
I. Learning to get Young at Godrej
Products, best co no 6.
1. Made a conscious decision to lower the
average employee's age to 34.
2. The co has a Young Executive Board
that reports to the Chairman. This gives
exposure to young employees during a
2 year stint, grooms leaders.
3. Employee's gets freedom and
experimentation is rewarded.
4. Built two teams, red & blue that
presented different views on a 3 year
strategic plan for any particular
business.
J. Showering care in Gallons Agilent
Tech, best co no 7.
1. Care for their employees, always tries
to anticipate employee needs and how
to make working more comfortable for
them.
2. CEO pays great attention to fitness.
3. New employees are made to feel
welcome. My nameplate was there and
so was my email id. I felt welcome.
K. BPO with a banking edge Scope
International best co no 8.
1. Getting the gender ratio right has helped
in man management.
2. 2 way talent movement between BPO
and bank i.e. Standard Chartered has
resulted in common talent for the group.
3. Transparency and scope of leadership
has made Scope a better place to work.
4. There is a demand for a higher
incremental learning opportunity
considering it is a BPO.
L. Chasing Growth with Care TCS best
co no 9.
1. The world of all the 90 group Tata
companies is available on the group
Intranet.
2. To keep the giant function smoothly it
has put Ultimatix in place. Pulse (an
employee satisfaction survey), PEEP
(one to one discussion with
management), Icalms (career planning
and learning).
3. Recognition of good work is very high.
M. Change job, not the company, Kotak
Mahindra bank, best co no 10.
1. Institutionalize HR practices that bank
followed when they were smaller.
2. Internal job posting is an important HR
practice, now proposed to be done
online.
3. Elaborate reward & recognition system
for its sales team which lays down clear
standards of performance that puts
sales executives into 4 categories:
qualifiers, challengers, achievers and
high fliers and maps out their career
path.
4. Employee appreciation system on the
intranet so when an employee achieves
something their names are displayed on
the intranet.
N. What makes a Winner?
1. As business environment change &
corporate strategies are tweaked best
employers need to reinvent their people
practices and constantly realign/
reevaluate them to maintain relevance.
2. Earlier best employers like TCS, Infosys,
P & G did something unique, innovative
at each point of time hence they were
best employers then.
3. Key driver to employee engagement has
consistently been 'career opportunities'.
It tops the key drivers list because it
represents deeper, long term planning
in contrast to many drivers like pay,
environment which are more her and
now.
4. Today global mobility is longer a
differentiator.
5. Today career opportunity is all about
multiple careers within a single
organization. Its all about variety,
flexibility and value add.
6. Today change in the names of best
employer is largely dependant on the
ability of the organization to keep pace
with changing employee expectations.
7. In order to retain their relevance,
employers have to be willing to listen
and act upon feedback, create a more
open work environment, be more
accepting to all kinds of diversity, and
enable their employees to realize their
potential.
O. Looking beyond Numbers
1. Best employees are using corporate
social responsibility to give back to the
society in the process offering another
platform to engage with their
employees.
2. One of the Dr Reddy's core values is
harmony and social responsibility.
3. Satyam, 10% of the organization will
devote 10% of its time in volunteering
for the co's social responsibility.
4. CSR could involve supporting schools,
working with NGO's, adopting villages,
organizing healthcare camps.
5. Satyam worked on toning up emergency
response system in Andhra Pradesh
since it is affected by cyclones.
6. Agilent helped a village school with
computer lab and school equipment.
7. Examples are many, good employers
always give back to society in one way
or another.
P. Living with Attrition
1. Even best employers have to deal with
it. Just that they know how to work
around it.
2. Change & Flexibility: Getting bored will
happen quick & easy. Employees want
to have option of multiple employment
contracts - full time jobs, consultancy,
project based jobs to retainer ships. Job
rotation to be institutionalized.
3. Dreams Unlimited: A firm's training and
growth potential will be critical in judging
factors for jobseekers.
4. Democratic Workplace: Cos can no
longer be very headquarter driven. They
have multiple nodal structures with
decentralized command structures.
5. Life beyond work: Caring companies
need to connect with their staff beyond
work and be able to engage with them
better. Satyam Idol, a mega show
organized by the IT major encourages
people to show and reinforce their talent.
For children they have a 3 day
residential program like Global Racing
Star where 13-18 year olds are groomed
in presentation, behavioral and
attitudinal skills. u H
| HRD News Letter | June 2007, Vol.23, Issue:3 26|

Women At Workplace
"A woman is a full circle. Within her is
the power to create, nurture, and
transform. A woman knows that nothing
can come to fruition without light".
Women who earlier stayed at home to attend
their domestic duties now maintain both
work and home simultaneously, participating
in the process on an equal footing with men
in social and economic development.
Women have moved away from their
traditional roles of home worker and child
rearing to social and business solutions.
"Women in India today are equal and status
to men. They play a vital role in every walk
of life. The women who adopt a career in
life are called working women. They work in
all areas like, administration, industry,
technology, education and even army and
police. They have proved themselves
equally successful in all fields. Women
employees today constitute a major share
of the workforce. In India alone, over 400
million are employed in various streams due
to a combination of factors like, women's
emancipation, growing economic needs,
greater equality of sexes, increased literacy
rate and suitability for certain soft jobs.
The success stories of a few women at the
top cannot be used to claim that everything
is fine for women at work. It is not. It is obvious
that until marriage, the career needs and
preferences of women do not seem
significantly different from that of men. The
challenge of making choices begins to set in
after marriage. The biggest challenge of
alignment is to do with women being able to
make the trade offs and choices about what
is important to them and ensuring that these
choices sit well with them, not just
intellectually but also emotionally. The
availability of huge opportunities, the upsides
of significant income, the peer pressures and
often the family compulsions make it difficult
for women to make these choices with ease.
At the root of this conflict lies the fact that in
addition their role as employees, women also
play the role of homemakers. This leads to
significant emotional conflicts on a day-today
basis, something that is seldom
recognized or spoken about.
Issues at workplace:
l Gender Stereotypes:
Gender stereotypes is defined "as a shared
set of beliefs about purported qualities of
females and males."
Boy = strong, aggressive, the leader
Girl = weak, passive, the follower
Therefore, Girl < Boy = Girl is inferior
to Boy
According to a recent survey conducted
among 50 management students in Kerela,
they were asked to say about the roles of
man and women in any context, the findings
were as follows
STEREO TYPES
MAN
WOMEN
l Bread earner l Homemaker
l Strong l Family caretaker
l Security provider l Emotional
l Ambitious l Gentle
l Courageous l Cook
l Entrepreneur l HR
l Responsible l Reproduction
Source: Women in management, Gaurav
sharma and Ridhi agarwal, Spandan IIM (K)
Journal, November 2005
These types of gender stereotypes about
women affect their advancement at
workplace, Top management's perceptions
of men and women are more informed by
gender-based stereotypes than facts,
leading to misrepresentation of the true
talents of women. Research studies
document there are many negative effects
of gender stereotyping in the workplace like
role-status incongruence; career immobility,
including recruitment and evaluation
differences; power differences; differences
in training and developmental opportunities;
feedback differences and job segregation
One of the consequences of inaccurate
gender stereotyping is that women are less
likely to be chosen for traditionally male
positions, such as those in senior
management. This
Angelin Michael is Faculty with Velammal College of Management, ChennaiE-Mail: angelinmichael@yahoo.com
Angelin Michael
occurs because the perceived lack of fit
between the job requirements and the
stereotype attributes ascribed to women
managers leads to expectations that they
will fail. Perhaps because of the
expectations that they will fail, women are
less likely to be chosen for assignments
involving risk or working in unfamiliar areas
of the business.
Glass Ceiling
Glass ceiling is a word coined by Americans
during early 1970's to describe the
phenomena of social and organizational
prejudiced attitudes that create artificial
barriers preventing women reaching senior
executive positions.
With the kind of educational parity women
achieved in the late 1960's and 70's, it was
expected that women would make it quickly
to the top. However such expectations did
not really materialize, particularly at the top
level. One of the reasons for women
hindered upward movement is the
prevalence of too many male executives at
the top acting as a ceiling for the women
reaching the top. Even in USA were working
women constitute around 46% of the
workforce but their occupancy at the top
level was only 2%. In India women are
mostly confined themselves to teaching,
nursing, banking and other service sectors.
Very few are noticed as director, CEO or in
strategic positions.
It is evident that glass ceiling exists not only
because of employer's biased attitude or
male domination; it also exists due to women
centric time related problems and their
attitudinal disposition towards their family,
children and job demands.
Source: Complied from Business World,
Sept.2003
Glass ceiling reveals three levels of artificial
WOMEN IN TOP
S.NO COMPANY TOTAL NUMBER NUMBER OF % OF WOMEN
NAME OF EMPLOYEES WOMEN IN TOP IN TOP
IN INDIA MANAGEMENT MANAGEMENT
1 NIIT 13457 134 3.87
2 WIPRO 24000 40 0.16
3 INFOSYS 15356 29 0.18
4 Dr.Reddy's Lab 5062 34 0.67
5 BPCL 12494 325 2.60
| HRD News Letter | June 2007, Vol.23, Issue:3 27|

arriers to the advancement of women they
are social barriers, which is outside the
control of business, internal structure
barriers within the direct control of business
and governmental barriers.
l Wrong Perceptions
There is a difference in the perception of
seeing a women at work compared with
men, to quota a few, Women are seen as
emotional compared to men, women are
seen to more creative, flexible, and better
team players. Marriage is seen as raise for
men and shift in focus for women. Minor
symbols like family photo on the desk of a
men is viewed as gentlemen while for
women it is perceived as her life's focal point
is home not career. A group of women
talking in an organization is always seen as
gossiping.
Women continue to be perceived as weak,
inferior, and second-class citizens .The
general perception is that women's income
is supplementary. More over a casual
interaction by woman with her male
colleague at work place is interpreted as a
date or an affair. A dogmatic belief that
women are incompatible with high pressure
and high demanding jobs. A woman is
emotionally weak and cannot take highpressure
workloads, woman cannot be a
tough taskmaster, and a woman has too
many priorities at home that affect working.
Traveling and over night for business
purposes is a constrain for women. Women
are susceptible to pressures and may break
down under adverse conditions.
l Gender discrimination
It is clear that all human beings are
supposed to be treated equally, but by
looking at the gender distribution in
workplace one cannot escape from the fact
that men and women are not treated equally.
Undoubtedly the male female bias is still
reported with uniformity all across the globe
and at highest level in India.
According to Kelly's survey with regard to
gender discrimination, the following question
was asked to female employees (Source:
Business Manager, April 2007 )
(Carried from 29)
4. We are governed by this software and
we also have the power to rewrite this
software.
5. God gives us the freedom of action and
intelligence (Vivek) for deciding
righteousness of action.
6. All our thoughts and deeds are a result
of this software.
7. So all the wrongs or rights that we think
or do are caused by this software.
8. But we have the power to make this
software to think and work as we wish.
9. Use of this power is carried out through
Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP).
Question: when applying for a job in the
last 5 years have you experienced gender
discrimination?
Women response
NO YES
118 231
Gender gaps are close but at a slow pace.
In India situation at pay to women is quite
discriminating. The placement of women
talents in non strategic positions unmindful
of their past achievement and current zeal
for more output remind about how "gender
bias" takes place on ground of job profile
and did not allow decent pay for women
workers in may organizations.
In a recent survey in India, a female
employee working in a private insurance
company shared her experience with regard
to her first employment when the interviewer
asked about her future plans of marriage
and family matters he was hesitant to offer
the job when she said she was going to
marry within three months. Private corporate
prefer males in high delivery positions.
Another biased practice is to have two
unwritten sets of rules for success: for men,
based on performance, and for women,
based on appearance. An employer may not
make a woman's level of attractiveness a
requirement for a particular job category. The
salary picture for women is even more
inequitable than that for promotion. Women
consistently make less money than men in
almost every industry.
l Sexual harassment
The term "sexual harassment" was coined
in 1974 at Cornell University, United States.
Sexual harassment is described as
harassment in subtle ways, which may
include sexual innuendoes, inappropriate
sexual gestures and propositions for dates
or sexual favours. In more blatant forms,
such harassment may include leering,
pinching, grabbing, hugging, patting,
brushing against and touching.
Approximately 15,000 sexual harassment
cases are brought to the U.S. Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission
"Living with sharks, yet growing joyfully"
10. Thus NLP is the technique of giving auto
suggestion to your mind for unlearning
and relearning.
11. NLP is currently being extensively used
for improving well being of people.
Firstly as part of NLP technique, reading of
the following lines (courtesy - author
unknown) "I promise myself today…."
everyday in the morning and is going to
rewrite our software.
I promise myself today….
To start my life afresh as bygones are
bygones,
(EEOC) each year. Media and government
surveys estimate the percentage of women
being sexually harassed in the U.S.
workplace at 40% to 60%. In India nearly
sixty percent of working women have faced
sexual harassment at some point of time in
their working lives.
Sexual harassment is a common term today
and many corporate cases related to the
same have been reported in the past.
However it is found that it is associated with
a lack of concrete HR policies in place to
tackle with the issues. This leads to a distinct
subjectivity to it. Many cases go unreported
and cause job switches. It is true that an
employee leaves a person (boss or peers)
rather than a company. To pursue the case
and file a complaint is itself associated with
a lot of harassment. Most women were
unaware of the Supreme Court guidelines
and complaints mechanism/formal
institutions of redress. Many feared attitudes
that would blame them for provoking the
incident, or feared loss of reputation as a
result of redress. Many feared attitudes that
would blame them for provoking the incident,
or feared loss of reputation as a result of
complaining. They also realized their
relatively powerless positions and feared
job-related discrimination, including
dismissal and withholding of promotions.
To conclude women has to learn to be
independent physically, financially and
emotionally. and to be self-reliant! Though
we can say that today's women has
traveled a lot from the domestic four walls
of the house to a successful career women,
but examples and exemptions cannot make
history, There is a still a lot to do and achieve.
She has to take the whole society with her
and the days are not far off. At the end what
matters is not an individual success but the
upliftment of working women and
elimination of gender bias in the workplace
and society as a whole.
"One of the things about equality is not just
that you(women) be treated equally to a
man, but that you(women) treat yourself
equally to the way you treat a man".
u H
To keep smiling and remain cheerful through
out the day
To remain totally positive in my thinking and
deeds
To find solutions to all the problems which
may come across
To help as many people as possible
To complete all my jobs with a planned
approach so as to feel satisfied at the end
of the day
To remain in meditative state
To spread happiness and joy everywhere
I promise myself today….
To follow the above everyday day after the
day.
u H
| HRD News Letter | June 2007, Vol.23, Issue:3 28|

The almighty sends all of us on this earth
for living our life in joy and bliss and so
also to achieve the ultimate goal of self
realization. While self realization can be
considered a distant goal, it should not be
difficult to live life in joy and bliss.
As a matter of fact, all of us want to be
happy, tension free, relaxed enjoying every
moment, if not all the time then at least most
of the time. And that is the reason, we do
so many things in our life, work hard
sometimes even harder than hardest which
may really not be required.
We want to take care of our parents, give
very good education to our children, have a
nice living standard, give an excellent
performance on the job or in the profession,
do something for society and live a life free
of worries and tensions.
But in reality most of the time we have one
worry or the other. We keep chasing the
mirage called happiness, harder we try
farther it appears to have gone. Therefore,
we try still harder and get into a vicious cycle
and by the time we realize; in most cases it
is rather late.
We want to do so many good things, help
others. But somehow the circumstances or
the people around us don't respond in the
desired manner and thus we fail to achieve
many things and which most of the times
result in frustration and stress.
Thus our success or failure seems to be
dependent on two factors, firstly people we
interact with and secondly the circumstances
and situations we face in life, most of the
times on which we have no control.
If we analyse, basically there are two kinds of
people we interact with (1) people who are
helpful to us and (2) people who are not helpful
rather they constantly try to pull us down.
Likewise, the circumstances we face in life
are of two types (1) favourable situations
and (2) not so favourable situations.
So what are we talking about is the people
and circumstances. If both these are OK and
favourable -then life can really become a
bed of roses and everything honky dory.
However, in reality it is extremely unlikely to
find people all the time that are helpful and
the situations which are favourable.
It is the "not helpful people" and "non
"Living with sharks, yet growing joyfully"
[Based on Emotional Intelligence (EI) &
Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP)]
favourable circumstances" which I refer as
Sharks. These sharks play havoc in our life. If
we are able to manage them well, our life can
really become quite joyful and blissful. On the
contrary, if we allow them to take charge of
our life, then our life becomes quite stressful.
And unfortunately the research shows that
"stress" is the biggest killer - all
psychosomatic ailments such as diabetes,
arthritis, spondilitis, problem of high or low
blood pressure, high cholesterol,
hypertension, depression that we
unfortunately acquire sometimes are all
mind related problems which are a result of
stress.
And my presentation is focused on how to
survive, grow, prosper and remain happy
despite these sharks.
Paradoxically, there is only one kind of
people in this world and that is everyone on
this earth is a damn good fellow in his heart.
Because, all of us are product made by the
almighty and He cannot error in his creation.
Yet we have some people with these shark
like characteristics. Do we blame them? No
we should not. Because, they are what they
are as they too have their own sharks. And
in the process of living life with these sharks,
so much friction is generated, so much
stress is created, that they became what
they are. And in any case blaming them is
not going to help the situation.
Not all people are sharks. There are good
people as well. But we don't have to worry
about them, as living with them is a joy in
any case and not a problem.
Yes this is what the reality is. We are going
to work with these people. You cannot deny
it. You cannot wish it away. The only way to
live with them is to learn the art of living
with sharks yet growing joyfully.
For learning the art of living with sharks yet
growing joyfully, firstly we need to
understand emotional intelligence which is
explained in very simple words in the
following paragraphs:
Emotional Intelligence
1. We are continually encountering
emotions either of our own or that from
others.
2. These emotions are negative as well as
positive.
Pramod Jain is based at Pune and can be contacted at pramod7jain@vsnl.net
Pramod Jain
3. Our ability to overcome and get out of
the effect of a particular emotion is
known as Emotional Intelligence.
4. A person, least affected by such
emotions is supposed to be having high
emotional intelligence.
5. Whereas a person overwhelmed by
emotions is one with low emotional
intelligence.
6. Modern research have shown that our
well being is directly related with our
emotional intelligence.
7. Yog, Pranayama, Dhyan, Prayer,
Satsang, Shravan and Seva helps in
improving EI
How to measure one's EI
1. Getting annoyed fast
2. Having a short temperament
3. Getting angry fast
4. Jaldi se rooth jaana- "jaiye, hum apse
naraaj hain"
5. Gets switched off fast
6. Jaldi se fuse ud jaata hai.
7. All the time passing judgment
8. Get into arguments very fast
9. Always trying to fool others
10. Being sharks to others
The above stated are symptoms of low EI.
High level of emotional intelligence is good
for the well being of a person whereas low
emotional intelligence obstructs the process
of living the life joyfully. This situation of low
emotional intelligence can be helped by
applying the techniques of Neuro Linguistic
Programming (NLP). Both EI and NLP are
not new to our country Bharat. Rather, we
have contributed maximum to EI and NLP
through our religious scriptures. The concept
of NLP has been explained in very simple
words in the following paragraphs.
Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP)
1. We all come on this earth with our ready
software.
2. This software is a combination of Brain
and mind.
3. Software is upgraded or downgraded by
the environment.
(Contd.. On Page 28)
| HRD News Letter | June 2007, Vol.23, Issue:3 29|

Mapping And Retaining
Talent Human Resource
- A Study
* Dr. B. Prakash *B. Madhavi * J. Madhavi
INTRODUCTION:
Throughout the developed world and across
large parts of the developing world, the most
important ingredient in our economies is,
by far, skilled workers. Right now, we might
be forgiven to think it is oil or another
commodity. In fact, there is enough oil in
Aleberta, Canada alone to supply North
American and European demand for the
next 75 years. The problem is Aleberta is
short at least 100,000 of the skilled and semi
skilled workers it needs to extract that oil -
despite offering some of the highest wages
and lowest taxes in North America.
The demand for talent has reached
pandemic levels across much of the world.
Yet, there is and will be no shortage of
people. Worldwide, population growth is
nearly as steep as it has ever been.
According to the United Nation's mid range
projections, the world will support over nine
billion people by 2050. There is an obvious
but important distinction between the thin
layer of talent worldwide that can contribute
to our increasingly global economy and
"labor". The distinction is often lost when
we talk about the broad labor shortages and
general demographics.
There's no dearth of human resources in
the country and even as India prepares to
take on a more hands-on role in the global
economy, its young and vibrant workforce
is raring to go. The situation is visibly
different from just a few years ago, when
Indians were merely relegated to the status
of being the back office of the world or an
even simpler, "a cheap work force". No more!
Thanks to an economy growing at 9% per
annum, India Inc. is expanding like crazy
and seeking to become globally competitive.
But every change brings with it, its share of
challenges. The upwardly mobile work force
is being spoilt for choice, leading to even
higher attrition rates.
And talent, it appears, is unable to keep
pace with the blistering growth rate of
Corporate India.
" The biggest challenge is to cope with the
increasing demand for manpower" - Ruby
Arya, It's literally 'war for talent' out there as
India Inc. engages in endless bidding to grab
the right talent. In fact; this fight for talent
has compelled companies to move beyond
traditional methods of recruiting to create a
portfolio of talent sourcing avenues.
Companies across sectors are ramping up
their operations and capacities due to which,
a greater need is being felt to map the labour
market from the strategic planning process.
But creating strategies for sourcing
employees alone is not going to work in
today's business scenario.
Faced with a tough proposition in attracting
talent, HR Heads of companies have started
applying the Segmenting - Targeting -
Positioning (STP) approach of marketing,
better known as 'employer branding'
strategies. Observes Yogesh Gupta, Sr.
Analyst with a leading KPO, "Companies are
trying their best to portray themselves as a
dream company anyone would vie to work
for." Look up the huge recruitment ads
(touting vast employee testimonials) in
newspapers these days and you would
agree!
While opportunities are in abundance, at the
macro-level, the talent pool seems to be
drying up. Here's why, NASSCOM has
projected a shortage of manpower by
500,000 employees for the IT industry by
2010.The projections for employment in
retail industry - 800,000 jobs to be created
by 2008. Add to that the woes of all business
sectors with respect to the soaring attrition
levels. Talent crunch has caused even the
giants in respective industries to adopt new
measures. TCS, for one, has recently
launched a talent transformation initiative
through which it plans to employ general
science graduates and train them within the
company. Explaining the initiative, S. Rama
Dorai, CEO & Managing Director, TCS says,
"This initiative is by and large to enlarge and
develop a suitable talent pool available to
the IT industry." Retention of talent has
become another concern of equal
importance. Facilitating consistent
performance is significant enough, points
out Dr. Y.V. Verma, Director - HR & MS, LG
Electronics India: "LG India has an internal
energy, environment, safety and health
department, also there are informal clubs
such as singing, games and yoga clubs
which aim at de-stressing employees and
building their overall personality."
Guess a little singing, dancing and gymming
goes a long way in engaging that talent pool.
The time is ripe for HR managers to develop
intelligence through continuous study of
market dynamics for effective manpower
planning and retention. And they have their
work cut out for 2007.
CONCLUSION:
Today, talent management can perhaps
solve many HR issues. Put simply, it implies
the effective placement and optimal
productivity from talent with in the
organization. Surajit Banerjee, VP-HR,
Spice Jet agrees when he says that,
"Leadership development and employee
engagement are the dominant challenges
HR faces today." People are the essence of
an organization. All the technological up
gradation, state-of-the-art facilities, et al, can
come to a naught if all the employees in the
company are not performing optimally.
Agree? Here are some issues related to
effective talent engagement that experts
point towards - employee development,
performance review mechanisms, talent
engagement, leadership development and
facilitating productivity. Once the mapping
of talent requirements is done, the next issue
is employee development. Explaining how
Phoenix Yule Ltd. plans to do this, J.K.
Mukherjee, the company's General
Manager - HR & IR shares, " Employees
should be exposed to training skill
orientation, over seas visits to achieve a
higher knowledge grip and improve on the
job performance".
u H
Dr. B. Prakash, Principal, Mother Teresa P.G. College, Chowdaryguda (V), Ghatkesar (M), R.R. Dist - 501 301. Hyderabad.
B. Madhavi , Faculty, Mother Teresa P .G. College, Ghatkesar (M), R.R. Dist. e-mail: madhavibsr@yahoo.com
J. Madhavi , Faculty, Mother Teresa P .G. College, Ghatkesar (M), R.R. Dist. e-mail: nadgavu_412@yahoo.co.in
| HRD News Letter | June 2007, Vol.23, Issue:3 30|

Knowledge Sharing
And Empowerment
Knowledge is the most important factor
in the long-term success of both an
individual and an organization. With
knowledge taking on increased importance;
it makes sense that there is an opportunity
to create competitive advantage by
effectively managing its storage and use.
An effective knowledge management
system creates competitive advantage by
evolving the availability of the right
knowledge to do the right degree in the
moment of need. According to a recent
industry survey (KPMG 2001), 81% of the
leading organizations in Europe and the U.S.
say they have, or are at least considering
adopting, some kind of knowledge
management system. The majority of these
firms get involved in knowledge
management initiatives with the goal of
gaining competitive advantage (79%),
increasing marketing effectiveness (75%),
developing a customer focus (72%), or
improving product innovation (64%).
What Knowledge management means
for organizations
Knowledge management is a business
philosophy it is an emerging set of principles.
Process, organizational structures and
technology applications that help people
share and leverage their knowledge to meet
their business objectiveness.
Knowledge management is normally used
to refer to those managerial practices that
are implemented with the main (or sole)
objective of creating, storing, disseminating
and exploiting organizational knowledge
Why should we focus on knowledge
management?
Today the creation and the application of
knowledge is essential for the survival of
almost all business . the term knowledge
management in todays world is a tool for
competitive advantage as:
l Intangible product ideas process
,information is taking a growing share of
global trade from the traditional tangible
goods of the manufacturing economy
l The only sustainable for gaining upper
hand in today's competitive business realm
is continuous innovation or the application
of new knowledge
l The increasing rate of labour turnover
being a night mare for all the hr managers
along with the potential erosion of
knowledge
l Lighting changes that takes place in
technology which erode our knowledge base
and in many expertise of business domain,
such as in IT industry where 50 percentage
of what you know 5 years ago is probably
obsolete today.
Developing a knowledge sharing culture
Knowledge sharing is not an easy to
accomplish . It requires a total in many of
our attitude. Till now we have lived hoarding
knowledge, believing it to be power, To have
a knowledge sharing mentality, we need to
understand and accept than even greater
value that lies in its exchange .For this it is
mandatory that we work very hard and
ensure the presence of a climate conductive
to knowledge sharing .we will have to value
and appreciate the knowledge that may be
lying beyond the borders of our teams,
departments, organization and borders.
Above all we need to have a common goal
.the betterment of not just ourselves but of
our organization as well. In facts this
demands a change in organizations overall
culture.
The knowledge pull can be defined as a
related desire among the employees to
tap the companies' available intellectual
resources for their own as well as for the
organizations betterment. Establishing and
maintaining knowledge databases is of no
use if the employees do not feel inclined to
make use of this database for knowledge
sharing or assimilation.
In order to overcome this companies
successful in knowledge sharing are known
to be concentrating on establishing clear
goals that promote knowledge pull by forcing
employees to reach beyond themselves. The
employees are encouraged to make use of
all available resources, including the
corporate knowledge base to improve their
changes of reaching these goals.
S. Preetham Sridhar
From the analysis of various real-world
scenarios as well as on the basis of findings
published in gurteen knowledge letter (a
knowledge management newsletter
distributed in over 86 different countries) the
following key-steps towards implementing
knowledge sharing has been identified.
To create a knowledge sharing culture we
need to encourage people to work together
more effectively to collaborate and to share
ultimately to make organizational knowledge
more productive. A few things to be
remembered in this context are: -
l The purpose of knowledge sharing is
to help an organization meet its business
objectives.
l Learning to make knowledge productive
is as important if not more important than
sharing knowledge.
l Changing a culture is tough not only
does it mean change, which has always
been tough; it means seeing the world in a
different way. It means revealing our hidden
paradigms like the tacit acceptance that
"knowledge is power".
The organisation should focus on:
Ø Rewarding and Knowledge sharing
Ø Motivating Knowledge Sharing:
Ø Overcoming Objections
THE CONCEPT OF EMPLOYEE
EMPOWERMENT
It is true that employee empowerment at the
individual team and organisational levels.
It is true that age of empowerment has
become a key rhetoric of the last decades
of the twentieth century.(senge et
al;1999;11)Empowerment is about
achieving organizational goals; it mean
getting every one involve in making the
business a success
According to management practitioners
empowered organizations will gain
commercial advantages and will be more
competitive. further more they suggest that
more traditional command and control
structure disempower organization
members. (belbin 1998).
Prof. S. Preetham Sridhar is Faculty - School of Management, V.L.B. Janakiammal College of Engineering & Technology, Coimbatore.
E-mail : preethamsridar_s@yahoo.com.
| HRD News Letter | June 2007, Vol.23, Issue:3 31|

In the words of Guptha, empowerment may
be defined as 'the process of sharing power
and providing an enabling environment (by
removing hurdles) in order to encourage
employees to take initiative and decisions to
achieve organizational and individual goals'.
Empowerment may be regarded as a holistic
way of living together. As stated earlier,
empowerment demands changes at three
levels namely individual team and
organizational levels. Any change taking
place a primary level i.e., the individual level
is rapidly reflected in the other two levels also.
The various changes required at
individual levels include
l More of inward looking and less of
outward looking
l Shift from process orientation to
outcome orientation
l Taking responsibility for results
l Proactively seeking information for
learning.
Internal satisfaction can be achieved
through de-centralization of hierarchy power
structures by establishing a considerable
degree of participative management, by
creating a high degree of participative
management, by creating a high degree of
autonomy throughout the organization and
also by developing effective work groups.
All these methods are found to be
contributing towards employee
FACTORS OF KNOWLEDE
SHARING EMPOWERMENT
1. RESPECT FOR TEAM
MEMBERS
2. MANAGEMENT
ATTITUDE
3. OPEN
COMMUNICATION
4. OPPURTUNITIES FOR
LEARNING
5. ORGANISATIONAL
SUPPORT FOR
INNOVATION
6. RESPONSIVE
SUPERIORS
7. OPPURTUNITIES FOR
SELF DEVELOPMENT
8. PERFORMANCE---
LINKED
FEEDBACK
9. AUTONOMY
empowerment. Only a self-empowered
person can empower others. Once an
individual is empowered he will exhibit
responsibility a sense of ownership
satisfaction in accomplishments power over
what and how things are done, recognition
for their ideas and the knowledge that they
are important to the organization. The
concept of empowerment in any
organization should be backed by proper
feedback as well as autonomy in the
organizational culture.
Some of the factors that directly influence
the process of empowerment includes
adequate respect for team members,
management attitude, open communication
opportunities for learning, organizational
support for innovation, responsive superiors,
opportunities for self development
performance linked feedback and autonomy.
All these variables may be regarded as
empowering variables and they have a direct
bearing on an individual's self efficacy,
organizational commitment, role
satisfaction, job involvement, team
relationship, positive attitude, new outlook,
competitive spirit, creativity etc. Any
organisation would look forward to
cultivating all these characteristics in their
employees as the various empowering
variables are proven factors that enable
individuals to perform better. In short when
the empowering variables are present to a
greater extent as a consequence there will
E
M
P
O
W
E
R
M
E
N
T
EFFECT OF THE FACTOR ON
INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE
evolve an environment highly favorable for
the successful functioning of an
organization.
KNOWLEDGE SHARING AND
EMPOWERMENT.
It is found that in most of the modern
organizations the role of top management
is that of a facilitator. The facilitator can play
an important role for the individual to be a
continuous learner. This results in a cyclic
transition:-
1. SELF-EFFICIENCY
2. ORGANIZATIONAL
COMMITMENT
3. IMPROVEMENT IN
WORK
ENVIRONMENT
4. ROLE
SATISFACTION
5. JOB INVOLEMENT
6. IMPROVED TEAM
RELATIONSHIP
7. POSITIVE
ATTITUDE
8. NEW OUT LOOK
9. COMPETETIVE
SPIRIT
10. CREATIVITY
Owner → Manager → Learner
→ Facilitator → Owner.
This cyclic approach will help in creating an
environment favorable for knowledge
sharing process. In such an organization
that provides the right environment for its
employees the general strategy culture and
incentives constitute the basic framework
of empowerment. The same factors are
found framing the framework for knowledge
sharing as well. Comparing the two
frameworks the relationship between
employee empowerment and knowledge
sharing can be tagged as direct. In fact
controlled employee empowerment in an
organization becomes a necessary
prerequisite for successful knowledge
sharing. Thus when empowerment
increases knowledge sharing also increases
through individual performance.
K
N
O
W
L
E
D
G
E
S
H
A
R
I
N
G
u H
| HRD News Letter | June 2007, Vol.23, Issue:3 32|

Workplace Bullying
Pranati Raheja
Definition of workplace bullying:
Bullying in the workplace can be defined as
'all those repeated unreasonable and
inappropriate actions and practices that are
directed to one or more workers, which are
unwanted by the victim, which may be done
deliberately or unconsciously, but do cause
humiliation, offence and distress, and that
may interfere with job performance, and/or
cause an unpleasant working environment.'
(Based on Stale Einarson and Paul
McCarthy) Or
"The repeated less favorable treatment of a
person by another or others in the
workplace, which may be considered
unreasonable and inappropriate workplace
practice. It includes behavior that
intimidates, offends, degrades or humiliates
a worker". (Source ACTUQ/QCCI/Old Govt
Dept of Workplace Health & Safety) Or
"Persistent, offensive, abusive, intimidating
or insulting behavior, abuse of power or
unfair penal sanctions which makes the
recipient feel upset, threatened, humiliated
or vulnerable, which undermines their selfconfidence
and which may cause them to
suffer stress" (MSF Union, 1994)
Comments that are objective and are
intended to provide constructive feedback
are not usually considered bullying but
strong management.
What qualifies as bullying behavior?
The bullying behavior could range from
verbal abuse, blame, humiliation, personal
and professional denigration, manipulation
of job specifications, unrealistic workload,
aggressive e-mails or notes, overt threats,
harassment, sabotage of career and
financial status, spreading malicious
rumors, gossip, or innuendo that is not true
withholding necessary information or
purposefully giving the wrong information
intruding on a person's privacy by pestering,
spying or stalking under work - creating a
feeling of uselessness criticizing a person
persistently or constantly, belittling a
person's opinions, unwarranted (or
undeserved) punishment, blocking
applications for training, leave or promotion,
tampering with a person's personal
belongings or work equipment overt
aggression / violence etc.
Profile of a workplace bully
The serial bully:
l Is a convincing, practiced liar
l Is vile, vicious and vindictive in private,
but innocent and charming in front of
witnesses; no-one can (or wants to)
believe this individual has a vindictive
nature - only the current target of the
serial bully's aggression sees both sides
l Uses excessive charm and is always
plausible and convincing when peers,
superiors or others are present (charm
can be used to deceive as well as to
cover for lack of empathy)
l Is unusually skilled in being able to
anticipate what people want to hear and
then saying it plausibly
l Is self-opinionated and displays
arrogance, audacity, a superior sense of
entitlement and sense of invulnerability
l Is a control freak and has a compulsive
need to control everyone and everything
displays a compulsive need to criticize
whilst simultaneously refusing to value,
praise and acknowledge others, their
achievements, or their existence
l Undermines and destroys anyone who
the bully perceives to be an adversary,
a potential threat, or who can see
through the bully's mask
l Is adept at creating conflict between
those who would otherwise collate
incriminating information about them
l May pursue a vindictive vendetta
against anyone who dares to held them
accountable, perhaps using others'
resources and contemptuous of the
damage caused to other people and
organizations in pursuance of the
vendetta
l Is also quick to belittle, undermine,
denigrate and discredit anyone who
calls, attempts to call, or might call the
bully to account
l Gains gratification from denying people
what they are entitled to
l When called upon to share or address
the needs and concerns of others,
responds with impatience, irritability and
aggression
l Is mean, stingy, and financially
untrustworthy
l Is convinced of their superiority and has
an overbearing belief in their qualities
of leadership but cannot distinguish
between leadership (maturity,
decisiveness, assertiveness, cooperation,
trust, integrity) and bullying
(immaturity, impulsiveness, aggression,
manipulation, distrust, deceitfulness)
Types of a Bully Manager
Bullying Managers can be put into four
types:
1. The Bulldog Bully
This is a manager who resorts to raised
voices and aggressive body language to get
their way and refuses to allow you to state
your case often with a torrent of verbose.
Other techniques include getting red in the
face, using abusive language, slamming
doors and banging the table a great deal.
They operate under a cloud of fear and
employees are petrified of making any slips
or mistakes in case they incur the boss's
substantial wrath, this leads to a lack of
desire to take any responsibility for tasks
outside the employee's job specification and
any creativity is stifled.
2. The Silver Tongued Tempter
This type is most skillful and cunning, not
for them the crudities of the active bully their
style is wholly more covert but no less
devastating. They happily promise great
rewards and watch with glee at the extra
activity their falsehoods generate. When the
unfortunate victim realizes the full extent of
the STT's empty promises and complains
the STT then accuses them of negativity,
because they dare to take them at their word.
Often the STT will blame the withheld reward
on 'situations beyond my control', 'other
departments' or change the goal posts. For
example an employee in a local financing firm
was promised a promotion to team-leader
with the associated pay rise, when the date
arrived for her promotion the manager
explained that the company wouldn't pay her
a supervisor' s wage until she had 'proven
herself'! This results in apathetic demotivated
and disengaged staff.
Pranati Raheja is Sr. Officer HR, Atlas Copco (India) Ltd Mumbai. She can be reached on her E-Mail: Pranati.Raheja@in.atlascopco.com
| HRD News Letter | June 2007, Vol.23, Issue:3 33|

3. Messrs Reasonable & Co
This one somehow manages to make all
your requests seem not only ridiculous but
outrageous too and convince you that their
interpretation of the situation is perfectly
acceptable and even normal, when, in fact,
the reverse is true. The outcome is staff
adopting a work to rule style and rejecting
any attempt to take any initiative, as the
perception is that there will be no back-up
or assistance.
4. The Trapper
Perhaps the trapper is the worst of the lot, if
there is a 'worst'. These managers will
actively work to set-up the unfortunate victim
by setting vague or difficult work tasks or
engineering an altercation so that they can
paint the employee into or corner or use the
event as an excuse for trumped up charges
or even verbal/written warnings. This style
results in massive turnover as staff get wise
to the scammer and look for more ethical
managers elsewhere.
How bullying affects an individual?
People who are the targets of bullying may
experience a range of effects. These
reactions include:
l Shock
l Anger
l Feelings of frustration and/or
helplessness
l Increased sense of vulnerability
l Loss of confidence
l Physical symptoms such as
l Inability to sleep
l Loss of appetite
l Psychosomatic symptoms such as
l Stomach pains
l Headaches
l Panic or anxiety, especially about going
to work
l Family tension and stress
l Inability to concentrate, and
l Low morale and productivity
How bullying affects the workplace?
Bullying affects the overall "health" of an
organization. "Unhealthy" workplaces can
have many effects. In general these include:
l Increased absenteeism
l Increased turnover
l Increased stress
l Increased costs for employee
assistance programs (EAPs),
recruitment, etc.
l Increased risk for accidents / incidents
l Decreased productivity and motivation
l Decreased morale
l Reduced corporate image and
customer confidence, and
l Poorer customer service.
Law and Bullying
Law in Canada
The Canadian Province of Quebec
introduced legislation addressing workplace
bullying on 1 June 2004. In its Act
representing Labor Standards
"psychological harassment" is prohibited.
The Commission des normes du travail is
the organization responsible for the
application of this act.
Under the Ontario Occupational Health and
Safety Act 1979, "all employers must take
every precautions reasonable in the
circumstances to protect the health and
safety of their workers in the workplace. This
includes protecting them against the risk of
workplace violence "The Act requires
establishment of Joint Occupational Health
and Safety Committees for larger employers.
Under the act, workplace violence is defined
as "...the attempted or actual exercise of
any intentional physical force that causes
or may cause physical injury to a worker. It
also includes any threats which give a
worker reasonable grounds to believe he or
she is at risk of physical injury"
Law in United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, although bullying is
not specifically mentioned in workplace
legislation, there are means to obtain legal
redress for bullying. The Protection from
Harassment Act 1997 is a recent addition
to the more traditional approaches using
employment-only legislation. Notable cases
include Majrowski v Guy's & St Thomas'
NHS Trust wherein it was held that an
employer is vicariously liable for one
employee's harassment of another, and
Green v DB Group Services (UK) Ltd, where
a bullied worker was awarded over £800,000
in damages.
In the latter case, at paragraph 99, the judge
Mr Justice Owen said:
"...I am satisfied that the behavior amounted
to a deliberate and concerted campaign of
bullying within the ordinary meaning of that
term."
Where a person is bullied on grounds of sex,
race or disability et al, it is outlawed under
anti-Discrimination laws.
Law in Sweden
Workplace bullying in Sweden is covered
by the Ordinance of the Swedish National
Board of Occupational Safety and Health
containing Provisions on measures against
Victimization at Work, which defines
victimization as "...recurrent reprehensible
or distinctly negative actions which are
directed against individual employees in an
offensive manner and can result in those
employees being placed outside the
workplace community."
The act places the onus on employers to
plan and organize work so as to prevent
victimization and to make it clear to
employees that victimization is not
acceptable. The employer is also
responsible for the early detection of signs
of victimisation, prompt counter measures
to deal with victimization and making
support available to employees who have
been targeted.
Situation in India
Currently there is no legislation in India that
specifically deals with bullying in the
workplace. Some countries have legislation
on workplace violence in which bullying is
included. But employers have a general duty
to protect employees from risks at work and
many employers choose to address the
issue of bullying as both physical and mental
harm can "cost" an organization.
In general, there will be differences in
opinion and sometimes conflicts at work.
However, behavior that is unreasonable and
offends or harms any person should not be
tolerated.
What can you do to improve the
situation?
If you are in HR
l Define bullying in precise, concrete
language with clear examples of
unacceptable behavior and working
conditions
l Establish proper systems for
investigating, recording and dealing with
bullying
l Investigate complaints quickly, while
maintaining discretion and
confidentiality and protecting the rights
of all individuals involved
l Take action swiftly
l Create an environment in organization
in which dignity and fairness for all is
the norm
If you are being bullied
l Keep a track of all incidences with date,
time, witnesses , emails , memos ,
telephone calls - if need be do voice
recording
l Find out as much as you can about your
organizations policy on harassment and
bullying.
l Write to the bully following any and each
incidents, denying or correcting their
false claims if necessary. Keep copies
of any correspondence as evidence.
l If the behavior doesn't stop , present
your case (as factually as possible) to
bully's boss and HR and ask them to
take action
l If no appropriate action is taken
approach top-management with your
case, proofs, responses from the bully/
your boss/bull's boss/HR
l If no action is still taken start looking at
other options as it doesn't make to stick
to an organization which doesn't care
about its employees
l Do be a part of self help groups as
bullying can lower morale
u H
| HRD News Letter | June 2007, Vol.23, Issue:3 34|

Emerging Business Scenario In
The New Millennium And Challenges
INTRODUCTION
The developments in communication
technology in the last two decades are
totally transforming the business paradigm.
Cross- cultural encounters are ultimately
creating a global culture. The shift to the new
millennium is thus a quantum shift
demanding a part of the global economy.
With the business scenario turning into a
corporate Olympiad, Indian companies have
to necessarily trim their size, get more
focused and be efficient in order to survive
in the light of forced competition. The
compulsions faced by organizations at the
fundamental level call for a change in the
mindset and perspective and in the
approach to business and people.
The following inter-related phenomena is
emerging and posing challenges to the
corporate world in the new millennium.
BORDERLESSNESS IN BUSINESS
The borderlessness is evident clearly if we
look the following activities and in the way
various aspects of work get done in different
parts of the world. With the advent of teleworking,
activities like online services and
software development for many US
companies; medical transcription work
(electronic and care technology) for
American doctors and reservation and
ticketing for some European airline
companies, are now being done in India.
Some of drug companies are planning to
transfer their R&D activity to India to take
advantage of the cheap skills. The
borderlessness in business is also reflected
in the launch of products. Companies like
Gillette, Microsoft and P&G launch their
latest products simultaneously from multiple
centres worldwide.
Not only are political and geographical
borders being rendered irrelevant, the
boundaries of organizations are also getting
increasingly porous. Now-a-days,
organizations are outsourcing many of their
secondary functions from different countries
throughout world except their core activities.
Mega corporations like ABB straddle the
globe with 1,200 companies spread all over.
Visa International, the credit card company,
spreads across like an invisible financial
nervous system ensuring smooth flow of
credit across the world.
Organizations are redrawing their
boundaries in such a way that they are both
competitors and collaborators in various
markets. For instance, AT&T and Motorola,
Philips and Sony, Microsoft and Compaq are
all competing as well as collaborating
indifferent segments of the world market.
The cross-cultural and cross-border
mingling has resulted in the creating of a
new class of people-global citizens with
global attitudes, tastes and networks. Since
it unleashes multiple variables, the
borderless world precludes immense
complexity-complexity in the environment,
in inter-organizational relationships, in
modes of conducting business and in sociocultural
diversity. In India, the borderless
world is shaking the roots of business. While
some companies are feeling the excitement
and facing up to the challenges, the demand
for a tilted playing field indicates the anxiety
among many Indian business leaders about
competition. While the borderless world is
creating global citizens on the one side, it is
also threatening the identities of people.
INCREASED DIVERSITY
The phenomenon of diversity challenges the
skills of people while negotiating and doing
business across cultures. Enron,
McDonalds and Cargill Seeds had to face
intense pressure from various lobbying
groups in India. Organizations in various
parts of the world are grappling with multiethnic
and multi-gender work-forces. The
multiple perspectives and approaches to
decision making and problem solving, the
attitudes to work, as well as the concept of
time, are some of the major challenges to
be handled while managing diverse people.
The differences in value systems and
philosophies of life colour the perceptions,
attitudes and behaviour of people while
dealing with each other. It influences the way
in which people approach problems, their
prioritization and their methods of problem
solving. Diversity would also be more
pronounced across genders and with more
and more women joining the workforce
Dr. G. Ramanaiah is Professor, School of Management, SRM University, Chennai E-Mail: drgr2005@hotmail.com
Dr.G.Ramanaiah
posing a challenge for effective
management.
PRE-EMINENCE OF KNOWLEDGE
POWER
The advancement of human society has
been based on knowledge power which
played a critical role in ensuring increased
human longevity, safety and comfort,
prospecting lies in the knowledge
component. Research and development has
created entirely new industrial sectors-in
biotechnology, polymers, plastics, software
and so on. Clearly then, knowledge is the
epicenter for competing effectively in 21st
century. Companies have to invariably
acquire knowledge.
OLYMPIAN COMPETITION
The emergence of a borderless world,
increased diversity and the pre-eminence of
knowledge power has increased the
complexity of the business environment and
has given rise to Olympian competition. The
era of stable and steady organizations is long
over and survival in the Olympian era hinges
on being hard nosed and fleet footed.
Companies have to change gears
appropriately in order to survive. If the
response is slow, they are overtaken. For
example, the Indian luggage industry did
shift from moulded luggage to soft luggage.
The complex market dynamics have thrown
up immense paradoxes. The classic
example is that of leading American
companies like IBM, GM, Ford, and K Mart,
found that their profitability was not keeping
up with their superstar status in terms of
market share.
CONCLUSION
Thus companies trapped in the old mindset
collapse while those with the right mindset
are able to successfully handle the same
paradoxes. Due to growing competition among
companies worldwide, diversity in workforce,
borderless world, information availability in the
advent of Internet, companies have to evolve
strategies to effectively manage paradigm
shifts in organizations. Organizations need to
develop global vision, follow secular approach
in dealings and customization in order to
survive and grow in the 21st century.
u H
| HRD News Letter | June 2007, Vol.23, Issue:3 35|

Attrition - A Challenge and an
Opportunity for HR Professionals
P. Soma Raju
Any recent meeting of HR Professionals
is incomplete without discussion on
attrition. This is not a new problem. The
challenge of attrition, as it was earlier called
employee turnover, has been there in every
sunrise industry, be it IT, BPO, Retail or
Service sector. It is a major problem even
in old economy manufacturing industry
whenever they witness boom. In every
industry that witness boom, the trend is to
go for expansions, acquisitions and mergers
and even to go for new green field projects
to catch up with the market and business.
Attrition is therefore no longer a new
phenomena or problem. The onerous duty
of every HR professional is to contain this if
not control it totally, as far as possible by
evolving and implementing appropriate
industry and sector specific strategies. The
factors responsible for attrition vary from
industry to industry and sector to sector.
However, there are common factors,
applicable to all, that contribute to the
problem of attrition. While formulating the
strategies to contain attrition, every HR
manager should consider the following
factors.
The Role of Technology :
Technological advancement besides its
contribution to improvement in quality of life
of the mankind it also played its part to
disturb the human relations at work.
Introduction and usage of machines and
other gadgets at work place have come in
the way of man to man interface and
interactions. In their mad rush to compete
and catch up with the business and market,
employers tend to sacrifice the human side
of the enterprise. Technology centric
processes have started dominating earlier
people centric processes in the
organizations. It is unfortunate that people
are forgetting that it is the men, men alone
either make or break the organizations. The
HR professionals can no longer afford to
ignore this even in technology driven
companies. It will be imperative to every HR
professional that people centric processes
are the need of the hour and they should
provide for man to man interface and
interactions. As Aristotle said man is a social
animal and can't operate in isolation.
Leadership Factors:
The employees in every emerging sunrise
industry are relatively quite young. They look
for guidance and consider their leaders as
role models. The real problem is only the
leaders in these sectors. In many
P Somaraju can be reached at Chandrasraju@gmail.com
organizations leader is a person who had
already changed many Jobs. The example
he has already set is Job hopping is the
order of the day and if anyone to come up
in career, it is only through change of Jobs.
Often we observe that a person who
changed many Jobs is rewarded more than
a person sticking to one employer. These
days loyalty to an employer is a disincentive.
This reinforces in the minds of young people
that they should change as many Jobs as
possible to grow in their career. Slowly the
initial euphoria fades away and it is
ultimately proved in many organizations that
existing employees proves to be better than
the Job hoppers if proper training is given.
Utmost care is needed while choosing and
entrusting leadership roles to the people.
Inter Personal relations:
Interpersonal relations if not handled
properly, will have a disastrous effect in
organizations' working. The young and
ambitious employees need to be nurtured and
led in a right direction. It is often said that
"employees leave the boss" but not the
organization. This clearly indicates the
importance and role of leader in containing
the attrition. Many organizations boast of exit
Interview as a tool to find the reasons for
attrition. Unfortunately, very few organization
use the feed back from exit interview to change
or modify their policies. If the feedback is
against the bosses or leaders, neither it is
discussed nor it is used for change of policy.
The employees are made to believe "Boss is
always right". This needs to be changed. We
hardly find organizations that allow
subordinates appraising superiors / leaders
and feed back in the process being used to
reward or reprimand the bosses / leaders.
HR Quick fixes :
The pressure on HR professionals to recruit
people on war footing to recoup the attrition
is tremendous and always challenging.
Quick fixes or shortcuts are thought of as a
solution to tide over the problem. Poaching
is one of them. "If you poach my people, I
poach your people" is the method adopted
by HR professionals. Often it is encouraged
by the employers and we find this practice
across the industry. Why can't HR
professionals think of alternatives instead
of resorting to shortcuts. A careful study and
analysis of the trends in attrition provides
an understanding to chalk out long range
plans to combat the challenge of attrition.
Systematic approach to recruitment,
developing internal employees on a
continuous basis and proper succession
planning can be thought of as appropriate
strategy for this problem.
Employment policies:
Many organizations often formulate their
policies keeping the employees and their
needs as individuals. Whenever employee
related problems arise, HR managers tend
to address Job context issues. Annual / half
yearly salary reviews, ESO PS and
providing good ambience environment and
facilities are examples of the employers
focus while attending to the problems like
motivation and attrition etc. Needless to say
that employees issues should not be
considered in isolation. His needs and
aspirations must be looked at in a holistic
manner and needs of the family have also
a bearing on the employee working. The role
of family in individuals' life in the Indian
context is known to us very well. The family
of an employee also play a vital role in
attrition. Therefore organizations while
formulating the policies, employees and their
family as a unit must be considered in the
larger interest. As it is said, it is easy to
address the Job context factors rather than
Job content factors. Any amount of efforts
without addressing the Job content issues
become futile in containing the attrition. HR
professionals should keep in mind that any
number of measures that make the
employees being well of becomes
incomplete without the measures to take
care of the well-being of the employees. In
the ultimate analysis it is clear that many
factors contribute to the problem of attrition.
HR professionals should have a
comprehensive and well devised plan of
action to tackle the problem effectively.
u Human interface and people centric
processes should not be given a go bye
in the name of technology development.
u Enough care should be taken while
choosing and entrusting the leadership
roles to people so as to ensure good
role models for younger generations.
u Extensive use of exit interview feed
back and avoidance of bosssubordinate
discrimination in the
matters of rewards and reprimands.
u Long range plans should be worked out
instead of opting for quick fixes, as a
measure of lasting solution.
u Employment policies should take care of
the well being of the employees rather
than making the employees being well off:
In the end attrition is really a challenge to
face and an opportunity to prove for the HR
professionals.
u H
| HRD News Letter | June 2007, Vol.23, Issue:3 36|

Time Management:
Balancing Work and
other aspects of your life
N. Santhi, J. Jacinth Salome and R. Ramya
Introduction:
"Time, like a snowflake, disappears while
we're trying to decide what to do with it."
-St. Louis Bugle
Manage your time well for each module of
your work i.e. make sure you get a good
balance between work and social life. That
is vital for life in general. You need to balance
time. If you are bad at balancing things make
a personal timetable. Even if you are not
able to stick to it, you will have an idea what
you should be doing each day. This is better
than trying to do everything each day and,
at the end of the week, not achieve anything,
which creates lot of stress leading to
imbalance in work and life.
Too many people are losing valuable time.
Some are not using their time to their best
advantage, a lot of others are wasting their
valuable time, and quite a few are allowing
other people to waste their time. There are
only 24 hours in a day, but it seems like we
already have filled all that time, how can we
fit more in? How can we get more time just
to relax and enjoy ourselves? The answer
is through the effective management of our
time. Time management is an essential skill
for a success in any profession or business
and to maintain balance between work and
life. It is a matter of choice how we use the
time we have. We can either allow time to
control our activities or we can make
timework for us by establishing priorities and
scheduling our work. Effective time
management is about getting more done
with your available time.
Concentrate on results, not on being
busy
Many people spend their days in a frenzy
of activity, but achieve very little because
they are not concentrating on the right
things. According to The 80:20 Rule or
Pareto Principle, " 80% of unfocussed effort
generates only 20% of results, the remaining
80% of results are achieved with only 20%
of the effort". While the ratio is not always
80:20, this broad pattern of a small
proportion of activity generating non-scalar
returns recurs so frequently as to be the
norm in many areas.
Time Management tips:
l Set goals that are SMART : Specific
(assessment task dates),
l Measurable (can be checked and
measured)
l Achievable (can be attained)
l Time frame.
l Plan how the time will be used.
l Learn to prioritise (do the most
important tasks first).
l Divide large block of task into
manageable units.
l Clubbing of identical work.
l Delegation of authority.
l Give Sufficient time to family
Biggest time wasters and Strategies:
There are several aspects that waste time,
a precious resource. The following can be
listed as prominent time wasters.
l Inadequate planning: It affects all we do
both professionally and personally.
Unfortunately too many of us think that
goals and objectives are yearly things
and not daily considerations. This result
in too much time spent on the minor
things and not on the things that are
important to our work/lives.
l Ineffective Delegation: Good delegation
is considered as an important key skill
required for both managers and leaders.
The best manager is one who has an
ability to delegate work to staff and
ensure it is done correctly. This is
probably the best way of building a
team's morale and reducing your
workload at the same time.
l Paperwork: The information stored in
files or papers makes our room become
ruthlessly spotless. By keeping your
information organized in a way that
makes sense to you. We have to set
paperwork priorities. Learn to reduce the
amount of time spent on paperwork. By
measuring the extent of the problem we
have to find the physical facilities for
handling paperwork.
l Procrastination: Habitual procrastination
is often a sign of dissatisfaction. Many
people today feel that they have to
accomplish everything yesterday and
don't give themselves enough time to
do things properly. This leads only to
half finished projects and no feeling of
achievement. By reducing the amounts
of procrastinating you do, you can
substantially increase the amount of
active time available to you.
l Meetings: Studies have shown that the
average manager spends about 17
hours a week in meetings and about 6
hours in the planning time and untold
hours in the follow up. It is widely
acknowledged that one third of the time
spent in meetings is wasted due lack of
planning.
l Inadequate staff: To stay on to our
schedule of work and to get it
accomplished we have to possess
adequate staff. Learn who can help you
accomplish the satisfactory completion
of tasks and who can help you find
resources for various tasks. Develop
organizational skills - with practice
anyone can learn strong organizational
skills to increase personal productivity.
l Inability to say "No": Such a small word
but so hard to say. But first you must be
convinced that you and your priorities
are important. Once convinced of their
importance, saying "no" to the
unimportant in life gets easier. Some of
the most stressed people around lack
the skill to 'just say no' for fear of
upsetting people.
l Poor communication: Poor
communication between staff and an
overload of electronic information is
making them less efficient than their
counterparts, according to research.
Develop good relationships with the
parties who are providing incomplete or
Mrs. N.Santhi and Ms. J. Jacinth Salome are Lecturers at Velammal College of Management and Computer Studies and
Ms. R. Ramya is Lecturer Velammal College of Engineering, Chennai. They can be reached at saneel136@yahoo.com;
jsalomej@yahoo.co.in, ramya_ivar@yahoo.co.in respectively
| HRD News Letter | June 2007, Vol.23, Issue:3 37|

l
l
delayed information. Use good
communication skills to try to resolve
the issue.
Travel: Try to Clarify purpose of travel,
Explore alternatives to travel, Keep a
folder with short task and reading that
can travel with you and Confirm all
appointments at planned destination
before finalizing travel schedule.
Telephone Interruptions: Have you ever
had one of those days when you thought
your true calling was in Telemarketing?
The telephone-our greatest
communication tool can be our biggest
enemy to effectiveness if you don't know
how to control its hold over you.
l
l
Drop-In Visitors: The five deadliest
words that rob your time are "Have you
got a minute". Everyone's the culpritcolleagues,
the boss, and your peers.
Knowing how to deal with interruptions
is one of the best skills you can learn.
Confirm appointments before calling on
clients. While waiting for an
appointment, review your to-do list.
Socializing: Make sure you plan time for
social activities and family life. If you are
busy with your work, put a friendly 'work
in progress' sign on the door. If someone
does interrupt you, stand up. People are
less likely to hang around if you remain
standing.
Conclusion
To conclude, to get a better grip over your
time and your life. Learning how to handle
your time well is an essential skill for
success in any profession or business. So,
you better begin managing time in your
formative years itself! Resolve to pay closer
attention to how you spend your time. Watch
how the business professionals you admire
allocate their time and emulate some of their
business practices. Avoid procrastination,
maintain your focus and practice good
organizational skills, and you'll earn respect
and recognition in your career. Success
comes to those who work hard and know
how to manage their time well. u H
Performance Appraisal - A Case
Study - A Dog And A Butcher
R.A. Sharma
BUTCHER'S SHOP:
A Butcher watching over his shop is really
surprised when he sees a dog coming inside
the shop. He shoos him away. But later, the
dog is back again. So, he goes over to the
dog and notices it has a note in its mouth.
PURCHASE OF LAMB LEG:
He takes the note and it reads " Can I have
12 sausages and a leg of lamb, please? The
dog has money in its mouth, as well."
BUTCHER TAKES 10 DOLLARS:
The Butcher looks inside and, to and behold,
there is a Ten Dollar note there. So he takes
the money and puts the sausages and lamb
in a bag, placing it in the dog's mouth. The
butcher is so impressed, and since it's about
closing time, he decides to shut the shop
and follow the dog.
DOG MOVES & LEVEL CORSSING:
So off he goes. The dog is walking down
the street, when it comes to a level crossing;
the dog puts down the bag, jumps up and
presses the button. Then it waits patiently,
bag in mouth, for the lights to turn. They do,
and it walks across the road, with the
butcher following him all the way.
BUS TRAVEL BY DOG:
The dog then comes to a bus stop, and
starts looking at the timetable. The butcher
is in awe as the dog stops a bus by pulling
its left leg up and gets in it. The butcher
follows the dog into the bus. The dog then
shows a ticket which is tied to its belt to the
bus conductor. The butcher is nearly fainting
at this sight, so are the other passengers in
the bus. The dog then sits near the driver's
seat looking outside. As soon as the stop is
in sight, the dog stands and wags its tail to
inform the conductor. Then, without waiting
for the bus to stop completely, it jumps out
of the bus and runs to a house very close
to the stop.
DOG REACHED HOME:
It opens the big Iron Gate and rushes inside
towards the door. As it approaches the
wooden door, the dog suddenly changes
its mind and heads towards the garden. It
goes to the window, and beats its head
against it several times, walks back, jumps
off, and waits at the door.
DOOR OPENS & A BUSES / SHOUTS TO
DOG:
The butcher watches as a big guy opens
the door, and starts abusing the dog, kicking
him and punching him, and swearing at him.
The butcher was surprised with this, runs
up, and stops the guy.
BUTCHER:
"What in heaven's name are you doing? The
dog is a genius. He could be on TV, for the
life of me! " To which the guy responds: "You
call this clever?
DOG MISSED KEY:
This is the second time this week that this
stupid dog's forgotten his key."
MORAL OF THE STORY:
You may continue to exceed on lookers
expectations but shall always fall short of
the boss expectations.
It's a dog's life after all….. u H
Mr. R.A.Sharma is Managing Director, Master Consultancy & Productivity Pvt Ltd, Secunderabad
Email : masteriso2k@yahoo.com, rasmcppl@rediffmail.com, masterios2005@yahoo.com,
| HRD News Letter | June 2007, Vol.23, Issue:3 38|

Corporate Stress
Management
S. Prabhakar
INTRODUCTION
Stress is known to be a psychological
phenomenon with immediate and direct
physiological manifestations as well as
experience of discomfort. It is defined as a
response developed by the body to protect
one from over work or extremely strained
conditions. The stress response of one's
body is meant to protect and support him.
The body tries to maintain stability and
adjusts with the environmental changes.
Whenever this equilibrium is threatened, the
body reacts in a "fight or flight response".
Hence, it can be understood that stress is
our body's "physical and emotional reaction"
to certain circumstances that frighten,
irritate, endanger or excite and place
demands on the body.
CONSEQUENCES OF STRESS
The consequences of stress on the
human body have been given below for
better understanding to overcome
stress:
l Anxious reaction - Reacting
spontaneously and unknowingly.
l Difficulty to concentrate
l Tensed action - Wrong sequence of
actions
l Distraction - Getting disturbed
l Worried ness - Being upset and
bothered
l Uneasiness
l Anger
l Psycho-somatic disorders - loss of
appetite, ulcer, peptic ulcer
l Increased heart beat and blood
pressure
l Hypertension / Diabetes mellitus
l Alcoholic dependence
l Drug addiction
l Suicidal tendency
SYMPTOMS OF STRESS
The symptoms of stress among
industrial and corporate employees are:
l Butterfly in the stomach
l Sudden sweating
l Giddiness
l Shivering
l Palpitation
l Increased heart beat
SIGNS OF STRESS TO BE MONITORED
Organizations need to be sensitive to the
subtle signs and signals that the stressed
employees provide. According to
"Worksafe", Australia, there are four areas
that may indicate that the employees usually
suffer from stress which are:
l Decline in performance / productivity /
output with no clear reasons
l Increasing error rate and excessive
wastage
l Deterioration in work flow and planning
l Deadlines not being met
l Standards of decision - becoming poor
or are non existent
l Decrease in motivation and
commitment, morale among employees
l Increase in work time with no
improvement in results
l Occurrence of internal sabotage
l Strained relationship between people at
work
l Deterioration of industrial relations
l Increase in vague illness
l Increase in late coming and early
departures
l Increase in break from work and
absenteeism
These symptoms are usually recognized by
themselves but they do not feel that it is due
to stress. In these circumstances, the
Management can be of a great help in
diagnosing.
SITUATIONS OF STRESS
Research study reveals that stress need not
be only related to the work of an employee.
It may be also due to other environmental
situations like:
l Unexpected death or disease in family
l Seeing any accident suddenly
l Loss of money / status / prestige
l Meeting unknown persons
l Deliberate blame
l Being in-charge for money, jewels
l Misunderstanding with others
l Arranging social functions like wedding,
etc.,
l Goal achievement
With a comprehension of knowing the
consequences, symptoms and situations of
stress one should be able to manage stress
positively, which are discussed below:
OBJECTIVES OF STRESS
MANAGEMENT
The objectives of stress management are
l To understand the mechanism of stress
l Coping it positively
l Prevent psycho - somatic disorders
l Keep better health
l Prevent hypertension, cardiac diseases
l Cope up with peers, parents and others
effectively
l To improve oneself to be a best problem
solver
l For social adjustment
l For successful team participation
l To control emotions
These objectives of stress management
pave way to overcome stress in the
following ways:
CONTROLLING STRESS IN NORMAL
LIFE
The following are the simple ways which can
control stress in the normal living of an
individual.
l Spending time to think and relax
l Reading good books
l Working on hobby (Games, Gardening,
etc.,)
l Taking a walk (which is considered to
be more effective)
l Listening to music
l Controlling Diet
Mr. S Prabhakar is Asst Professor - HR, Karpagam College of Engineering, Coimbatore. E_mail: prabakarsumathi_s@yahoo.co.in
| HRD News Letter | June 2007, Vol.23, Issue:3 39|

l Performing breathing exercises and
laugh therapy
l Building support system (usually with
family and friends)
l Developing communication skills
l Improving the ability to identify options
for solving problems
l Pre-planning effectively
l Practicing Yoga and Meditation regularly
CONTROLLING STRESS IN
ORGANISATIONAL LIFE
Management of stress in any organization
can be at individual level called coping and
at the organizational level through stress
management interventions. These
approaches can be initiated at different
levels and differentiated by the scope of the
intervention, its target and underlying
assumptions. The organizational
interventions are hence classified in to
Primary, Secondary and Tertiary
interventions.
Primary Interventions
These are source interventions i.e.,
interventions through with organizations try
to remove the source that causes stress.
The aim is to reduce the number or intensity
of stressors. It is proactive approach where,
work environment is altered through
alteration in organization structure, culture,
technology and processes (Burk, 1993,
Murphy, 1998)
Secondary Interventions
These are moderating interventions which
aim to modify individual response to
stressors and enhance individual's stress
tolerance capacity through unveiling stress
information, stress training, etc.,
Tertiary Interventions
These are damage control interventions and
start when some damage has already been
done. The aim is to minimize the harmful
consequences of stress by helping
employees to cope more effectively. These
are usually done through employee
assistance programmes, counseling, actual
treatment, etc.,
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded that there is no oneintervention
strategy that can work across
organizations, situations and times.
Therefore, besides the need for
management to be innovative and
imaginative, there is a need for a constant
monitoring of their employees and also it is
the responsibility of the employees to
monitor themselves to live a happier
personal and work life.
u H
Importance Of Human Relations -
Lessons From Vedic Period
The Hindu dharma of Indian culture
believes that Vedas have been
generated and heard from Breathing sounds
of VI RAT PURUSHA and recorded by
Brahma.It is wellknown fact that the Vedas
existed thousands of years much before
Christian era. One of Veda-mantras says that
" Braahmanosya Mukha maaseeth
Baahoo Rajanya krithaha
Urootha dasya edvaisyaha
Padbhyagam soodro aj ayatha"
The meaning of the above mantra can be
stated that the entire activities of human
beings are brought under four broad
categories
l) The learned people(born from face of
VIRAT-PURUSHA) should preach
goodness,skills,knowledge etc., to
society as GURUs .
2) The physically strong people (born from
hands of VlRAT-PURUSHA) should rule
the kingdoms with justice and affection
towards people.
3) The commercially capable people(born
from upper parts of legs of VIRAT-
PURUSHA) should take up trading
activities.
4) All other people (born from feet of
VIRAT-PURUSHA) should take up
industrious and trading activities that are
needed by the society.
This itself is the basis for Chaturvarna
philosophy of Bharatiya Samskriti.
Accordingly Veda Sastras developed. This is
DIVISON OF WORK which Henry Fayol
derived as one of Management Principles
applied to single entity. But Vedas are
applicable to entire Society and for that matter
to entire Universe.
The groups of people entrusted with different
activities were named with their traditions
and interestingly these names have been
developed into number of caste and sub
caste-systems which can be considered as
Divisons and Sub-divisons existed in India
from Vedic period. There were no such
number of castes in other countries like in
India. For example the group of people who
have taken up production of wood articles
were called as "vadrangis (carpenters)",the
group belonging to iron and steel industry
were called "kammaris (blacksmiths)" the
group involved with gold and silver industries
were called "kamsali (gold smiths )"and so
on.. . Thus industrial groups were identified
with the work relating to caste groups. Some
of these groups also built Crafts guilds.
The workmen, artisans, craftsmen in these
A. Madan Gopal is a consultant based at Hyderabad. Ph. 9247115098
A. Madan Gopal
fields felt necessity of being united for
achieving their minimum requirements. The
description of Unions of workmen in different
occupations is found at many places in vedic
literature as follows:-
1) GANA and VRAT in Rigveda
2) SHESHTHI in Aitareya Brahmanas
3) GANA and GANAPATHI in Vyasa
Samhitha
4) SHRENI in Artha Sastra
5) PUGA, GANA, VRAT,SRENI and
SANGHA used by Katyayana for groups
of wokmen
6) The utility of Unions has been stated in
Sukla Yjurveda Samhita as "if men are
united nothing can deter them"
Koutilya has given good description for
Unions of employees, craftsmen, artisans.
According to him, "The work of Unions
should be controlled by a Board of three
directors. The members should pay entrance
fee to the President and the profits earned
by the Union should be equally distributed
among the members."
Thus it is evidently clear that from Vedic
period the importance of industrial groups
and their leaders were distinctly identified
the industrial relations were recognized and
managed.
u H
| HRD News Letter | June 2007, Vol.23, Issue:3 40|

The thinking human or the
behavioural man?
Hirak Bhattacharya
Prolegomena
Since my 'early retirement' from the duties
of a corporate manager (in which profession,
I thought, I was already in a hole and still
digging!), I resolved to embark upon an
undertaking to understand human
intelligence beyond the 'physics' of matter
and the 'psyche' of mind.
I have since written a paper titled 'Is
intelligence insipid?' in an effort to give
shape to my thoughts. In so doing, I have
drawn liberally, inputs from many a great
souls, and quoted from their writings directly
for preserving the solemnity and integrity of
their ideas (I firmly believe that language is
primarily an instrument of thought). I
subjected myself to the imputation of
sufficiency rather than to any reproach of
redundancy. Yet, I tried to be as original as
possible in the formulation of my thought.
This article is a part of the aforementioned
paper. Needless to mention, the article is
domain neutral. It seeks to address to the
dichotomy between determinism and
freedom in ways that explains the 'process
of thinking' more than the 'products of
thinking'. The apparent deviant disposition
of the article is therefore unintended.
It may sound naive to say that this paper is
not targeted to anyone. I shudder to consider
anyone as a cocooned ideologue. But this
is only half true, I have an audience in mind
nonetheless, to whom it is addressed
explicitly not by intent but by design. I tried
to address it to those who find it difficult to
extricate them from the contemporary
deterministic/ reductionistic worldview of
human beings.
The current perspective
Two types of tyrants - the ones elected out
of the voters' list and the other, selected or
catechized through administration of
multiple-choice questions rule our world
today! They rule us from outside through
promises and the worst form of tyranny is
the tyranny of promises. Nothing is as
compelling as the promise of spectacular
results. Politicians promise that our lives will
greatly improve once we vote for them.
Others promise of goods and services in
the same vein. Significantly, both types
advocate that we would not have to selforganise
ourselves. Consequently the 'tacit
knowledge' (the survival kit) of our society
gives way to promises of 'mental models'.
Most of these 'mental models' are promises
of pseudo self-organisation involving
external support systems to survival. The
vital question is whether these support
systems have sufficient free energy for
enough irreversible entropy production on
their own, in the first place. Can this
importation be carried on forever? The flip
side is that it obliterates our own tacit
knowledge for irreversible self-organisation
(entropy production) and makes us
dependent on pseudo self-organization.
Since they can't promise anything in
perpetuity, they talk about relentless change.
This change, they opine, must necessarily
be brought about through external means
and we are kind of predestined to be at the
mercy of support systems forever. All our
changes must be anchored in support
systems. We have thus flung ourselves into
the open, groping to find support systems
calibrated with the precision of the science
of the day and decorated with the
paraphernalia of the current dispensation
of change.
In the kind of morass that we are presently
in, hackneyed ideas are certain to remain
proprietary and even, likely to perpetuate.
Such fond beliefs are steadfastly nurtured
and they manifest in various forms of
pedagogic trickery, guile and deception. The
over pretentious emphasis on 'change', a
potentially observable phenomenon,
appears as a carefully devised entrapment.
Promises easily catch the imagination of the
gullible. Any pep talk on change is a
contraption of high currency and contextual
value today to most of us who have become
inexorably impressionable. Look at the
tyrants' near megalomaniac assertion of
having taken unto themselves the onerous
task of changing us from the cradle to the
grave!
It does not amuse us a bit knowing that
evolution, on the other hand, never needed
a helping hand to change us all! Evolution
seeks to take us to the whole. It is spread
over time. Indeed there are fairly distinct
stages in evolution and each stage is
associated with the next subsequent stage
and we have to commute through all the
stages without any support systems. We can
neither skip nor hasten to complete a stage
anytime too soon. Time has no true rational
bearing, change has. And this accounts for
our predilection to change. Rationality of
change, thus, obscures the whole. Each
such change takes us to a diversion from
the main route and even before finding a
parking slot, we are on to another blind alley!
This is a stage of neurosis, a fond way of
regarding every milepost of change
engineered by us as beckons of
development and progress towards the
ultimate whole.
We have inflicted upon ourselves much
change in as much as landing ourselves in
a perpetual struggle to understand, adapt,
respond and manipulate the changing
conditions! We find ourselves overwhelmed
by the changes we initiate. And all this in
the name of creating order! Our ability to
create order has been confined to
approaches based on causal, linear logic
of mechanistic sciences, within carefully
circumscribed boundaries. Can real world
systems be designed, controlled, predicted
or even understood completely? Have we
been able to leverage complexity of real
world through quantitative research and
mathematical models in order to create
sustainable life-style perched 'on the edge
of chaos'? No doubt, the metaphors of
complexity and change have usefulness of
their own but too often they are applied
without adequate reference to the whole.
Mechanisms and models, thus formed, are
inappropriately prescriptive. One of the
major problems is that the whole is seldom
bound by the mechanisms we rationalize.
Are mechanisms that have actors endowed
with free will (who are simultaneously part
of and perhaps, aware of the system as well)
fully comprehensible? 'Unfreeing' of free will
is a dubious assumption.
Relatively unfree is an assumption that finds
many takers (and history is replete with)
amongst best of our social scientists. This
is not only convenient but gives in also to
the cathexis of rationality. Nowhere is it so
pervasive than the current dispensation of
management science. Yet, to our dismay
Hirak Bhattacharya is freelance Consultant based at Kolkata E-Mail: hirok_b@yahoo.com; hirak.bhattacharya@gmail.com
| HRD News Letter | June 2007, Vol.23, Issue:3 41|

and disbelief, we encounter many stubborn
areas in human resources management,
which resist our understanding as being
rational despite many elegant theories. One
of the major problems of such contrived or
'get-well' theories is that they are seldom
appreciated second-hand. And since they
are not, Gandhi and Patton find their place
in our management literature as case
studies. When a case for any Patton to have
pursued non-violence in British-ruled India
or any Gandhi commanding Third Army
during Second World War is not found, we
are asked to switch contexts and become
situational! The other associated problem
has been seen in the difficulty of extending
the 'experimental methods' used to study
individuals and their decisions to aggregate,
dynamic settings. Much of this malady lies
in our seeking an objective definition for
human resources. As 'active resources', as
they appear commonly, we have attempted
to rationalize them and their actions as mere
objects through many a 'panhuman'
deterministic models. Casting spotlight
selectively on an issue, howsoever
inscrutable, is easy under the current
dispensation of management thinking.
Unwittingly or otherwise, one is tempted to
be swayed by the current thought, which is
largely American. The subject has
metamorphosed into a utilitarian product
with more and more fashionable versions
being made available everyday. We are
reminded, to our dismay and disbelief, of
Mark Twain's scorn that every fashion
becomes ugly after 6 months! The
ostensible reason, as most proponents are
apt to point out is that the world is changing
thick and fast and hence, the need for
changing antidotes. Once it is christened as
science (inexact, though), there is no looking
beyond the deterministic pursuit! It is no
longer confined to the hallowed precincts
of established pedagogy; it is there on the
streets. One who has not embraced a
'management theory for human resources'
has not also added anything to the sum of
his immortality. Courtesy the Internet, we
are slowly evolving in a new incarnation
called 'insta-delphians'! One is probably
succumbing to the pursuit of determinism,
by trying to redeem the unmanifest.
Determinism we seek and above all, the
lever of determinism; much rationalistic
theories. It is no longer an exercise, per se,
in creativity but 'recreativity'. Look at any
research paper of the day! Annexed to it is
a long 'bib', a kind of 'explanatory fiction' to
quote B.F.Skinner, which stands guard
against any inadvertent spillover! You are
indeed on a busy highway, forever trying to
overtake. The faster you are, the sooner you
loose sight of the total reference. Ironically,
the same rationality, which warns us against
fast driving, does not do so with theories,
with our 'Cartesian quests for the elusive
straight line', with our attempts to 'fudge
references in order to camouflage a lie'! The
other most important issue is that the lofty
principles of management science are
applied rather recklessly to pure economic
entities or subjects without reference to any
consistent sociology. Management science
must attempt at convergence of people,
economy and society (or at least their
behaviours!). There is no tenable win-win
situation without this convergence. We err in
the definition of competition. Competition for
survival is not the same as competition for
strategic advantage. The latter, as Michael
Porter has said, is a zero sum game in which
many stand to loose. There is no win-win
situation, which is integrative to the whole.
This determinism was first manifest in the
term 'skills' and if beauty was a promise for
pleasure, skill certainly was a promise for
performance. Our relentless advocacy with
skill brought us to the same door wherein
we went. The usefulness of skill became alledifying
and remained a beauty! Isn't money
more beautiful than useful to the miser? So
our workers kept waiting for their pie in the
promise of pleasure! We were forced to
grant, probably at our own discomfiture,
legitimacy to such abstractions as emotions,
intuitions, judgment, creativity etc (and
perhaps faith) as accompaniments. The
objectivity of skill was thus predicated on to
the subjectivity of behaviours (objectively,
though!) in an effort to psyche him up! The
practice of pragmatism with the tool of
rationality, unless it has some relevance to
the 'whole', is an exercise in disaggregation.
In studying humans, this inevitably leads to
groping in human vulnerabilities. Now enters
emotion, for, despite its apparent lack of
deducibility and tangibility; romanticizing
with emotion is still better (it is aggregating!).
One may call these passive resources,
somewhat similar to passive earth pressure
in soil mechanics. And we know, how
important it is in designing retaining walls.
Americans are best known for their
pragmatism. Philosophy apart, they are the
practicing masters of pragmatism. This one
philosophy has penetrated deep into their
lives in as much as a social philosophy. Truth
to them is efficacy, as William James had
proudly proclaimed. Test of action is all.
Francis Bacon (an Englishman, though) felt
that the rule, which is most effective in
practice, is also true in theory. Bentham's
dictum that utility is the test of all -
reverberates in every American heart. They
are ready to accept an error if useful! This
apart, their overtly manifest insistence on
the omnipresence of 'mechanisms' in every
aspect of existence borders on 'faith', a word
which they avowedly denounce on
weekdays! 'Mechanism is probably
universal………..mechanism prevails even
in the innermost recesses of the soul.
Psychology graduates from literature into
science only when it seeks the mechanical
and material basis of every event' - that's
how George Santayana echoes in every
scholastic mind. He also asserts that reason
is no foe to instincts, it is through their
successful unison that the rational animal
is created. There is nothing beyond
mechanical and material in life. Causal
efficacy is all. Thought, consciousnesses
are for moral and esthetic delights (meant
for kindred and idealistic souls only) and
have no causal relevance. To him 'value of
thought is ideal not causal'. And wisdom?
Well, it comes from disillusionment! Impulse
and desires move brain and body (desires,
adulterated or otherwise, have some
efficacy nonetheless!). Reifying humans is
but a corollary to this. Reasoning like
instincts does err! Earlier we used to marry
by instincts, suitably administered (and well,
garnished and embellished!) by the society
with the tacit knowledge that it acquired over
centuries. Now, we marry by reason and
divorce by an equally formidable reason! We
know that truth is not given, but a given task
to be achieved. Today, for achieving any task,
we can always find a reason! It is no wonder
that they discard Marxism by calling it as
an 'empty epistemology' and welcome the
same epistemology in studying humans! It
is opportunistic determinism at its best -
'man, a being of lack' is unacceptable in
economics as 'naïve anthropology' but 'a
man is not free' is acceptable in social
science (or at least, in management
science)! Personification of capital is a taboo
but by the same token of dialectics,
personification of behaviour is science.
Lloyd Morgan proposed a 'canon of
parsimony' i.e., given two explanations; you
should accept the simpler one! Skinner
bespoke of 'practical non-social
contingencies of survival', almost in the
same vein. Psychology, for it to be called a
science, needed objective realities and thus,
needed 'behaviours'. Behaviour of atoms is
mundane, but behaviour of humans is
sacred and hence, 'Behavioural Science' is
now called the mother of all sciences!
The general trend in management research
today has been to study the grosser aspects
of human behaviour. One of the limitations
of such a study is that it cannot explain
enough. The domain of human resources is
just a part manifest and may appear
deceptibly simple and amenable to
sequential thinking. When overtly manifest,
reasoning attempts to discover/deliver the
truth. And how about truth being a sensation
that is socially consistent (Philosophy tells
us that socially consistent sensation is the
test of truth)? In matters of life, body, senses,
environment, instincts, habits, feelings and
a myriad of other constituents including
sociology, consistency of sensation is a
| HRD News Letter | June 2007, Vol.23, Issue:3 42|

troublesome issue. We have
'schizophrenics' as some 'scheming' souls
consigned to the 'phrenetic' environs of our
highly socialized 'zoos'. A psychiatrist from
Kansas City rues his role as the 'deemed'
attorney and the consulting doctor of the
patient (adult) at the same time! Our
Reformation Centres are like cemeteries,
'those who are already in will never possibly
come out and those outside, do not want to
get in'. This is the social insulation to the
high-voltage vagaries of nature. Truth here,
as somebody has said, is the common
denominator of our delusions in which all of
us agree! Our predilection towards a surfeit
of statistics driven solutions to human
problems reminds one of Nietzsche's phrase
that truth is the most useful form of error. In
recent times, Jo Owen strips bare the
management of the day saying that
managers use statistics the way a drunk
uses a lamppost (not for illumination but
support)! 'Reason when it forgets its loyalty
to sensation puts a premium on subtleties
rather than raw evidence. It often
masquerades a desire (and an adulterous
one at that)'. Interestingly, when the
ubiquitous 'mechanisms' apparently fail to
respond to causation, we have handy
statistical tools of variance and correlation
to wriggle us out before it scatters all too
much.
For about two centuries, Psychology tried
to figure out 'what he is' and eventually, gave
way to the pursuit of studying 'what he does'.
"Human behaviours are known (or
predicted) and can be controlled. John is a
human being and therefore his behaviour
can be predicted/ controlled" - is still,
admittedly, a syllogism. Human Resources
Management now has become more of a
mental gymnastics, an endeavour to deal
with our 'managerial misfortunes' rather than
an activity directed with a consistent theory.
Mintzberg had talked about insight and
warned us against 'management folklore'
almost two decades back. Well, thinking (or
'insighting') is indeed a weakness for it may
not earn us a living! And when your thought
presides over your action, you are an
introvert in Psychology and you become a
spoiler of action or a Keynesian in
Economics trying to figure out fullemployment
when you are yet to find
employment for yourself or an
epistemologist in philosophy wallowing in
the cobweb of reason or a roving poet in
the wanderlust world of literature or a
surrealist in Arts trying to perch a bird atop
a nude or a cosmologist in the ethereal
ambience of the Science of Cosmology or
Cosmogony! Else you are destined to
become a non-existentialist like Kafka trying
to metamorphose into a gigantic insect.
Of late, the imperatives of studying 'what
he has' have suddenly dawned on us. In an
effort to track 'what he has in him' we have
landed ourselves into studying neuronal
actions of the brain. Though the intended
purpose was to track thought and action,
we find ourselves tracing portions of the
brain that are purported to be related to our
'emotional' and 'rational' bearings. Soon, we
will have emotion and rationality detectors!
Neuro-HR and Neuro-marketing are already
in the ramp awaiting their rambunctious
entry. This again is a recrudescence of
determinism. Thought or the value of thought
continues to languish in the altar of
determinism. However, the challenge of
thought is very precise: to what do we
ascribe our thought itself?
u H
Key Steps To
Six Sigma Success
Companies worldwide are turning to Six
Sigma, the data-driven management
approach popularized by General Electric,
to help them improve performance, increase
profitability and raise customer satisfaction.
The process was pioneered by Bill Smith at
Motorola in 1986 and was originally defined
as a metric for measuring defects and
improving quality.
Even companies with successful Six Sigma
programs often struggle with many of the
routine tasks such as process definition,
resource management, and project and
financial tracking. All Six Sigma businesses
experience the pain of managing the details
inherent in the program's five-step
methodology: Define, Measure, Analyze,
Improve and Control (DMAIC).
An integrated technology solution can
streamline those tasks and support a
company's Six Sigma program by enabling
employees to focus on strategy instead of
wrestling with the mechanics of tracking and
sharing critical data. Easing the pain and
increasing the rewards for companies that
implement Six Sigma.
The following are the key steps to six
sigma get success in any organization:
1. Establish Leadership Support and
Engagement: When company leaders
use Six Sigma language, participate in
training and project updates, and assign
Six Sigma goals and objectives to their
direct reports, a program is more likely
to succeed.
2. Align Goals with Six Sigma Activities: It
is absolutely critical that all Six Sigma
activities contribute to corporate goals
and objectives.
3. Establish Six Sigma Infrastructure: This
will consist of employees who are trained
and certified in various Six Sigma roles,
such as Master Black Belt, Black Belt
and Champion, plus a training curriculum
and a detailed deployment strategy.
Mr. M Srinivas is Faculty in Informatics, Alluri Institute of Management, Warangal E-Mail: allurimaster@gmail.com
M. Sreenivas
4. Identify Opportunities to Improve: These
can fall into three categories: customer
complaints; metrics that expose areas
that need improvement; and barriers to
achieving the corporate mission or vision.
5. Match People with Projects: Matching
the right people with the right projects
essential. An organization should select
its best and brightest to participate in
the Six Sigma program, and then make
sure there is clear correlation between
individual skills and specific project
requirements.
6. Ensure Execution and Accountability:
Communication is critical to executing Six
Sigma and sustaining program
momentum. To ensure accountability,
incorporate Six Sigma deliverables into
every employee's performance objectives;
report project and program status
routinely at all levels of the business; link
bonuses to Six Sigma achievement; and
make training and certification
prerequisites for promotion. u H
| HRD News Letter | June 2007, Vol.23, Issue:3 43|

I was a college student then spending my
time between either studying or running
errands for home and my parents buying
groceries, vegetables and other odd items.
Of us four brothers, I was assigned this
specific portfolio; may be because my
parents had their own mechanism of
identifying their children's core competence.
They reckoned that here is 'a guy who is
not shy of making the best buy' by getting
into daily hard bargains with the same
vegetable vendors!! and striking a deal even
for a few paises/anna (4, 8 annas of those
days fame) here and there; made a
significant difference to our family's
budgeting and finance management !!.
It was on one of those occasions when on
my return home after the daily routine , that
conversation between my parents and me
which changed my native outlook to 'social
responsibilities ' a paradigm shift that hold
me in good stead even after decades.
Well, I was rendering the account for the
money advanced to me for buying of
vegetables and groceries items when my
mother found that the balance was short!!
"By five Rupee ".On her gentle enquires, I
mentioned to her" Amma round the corner I
came across a beggar (who was blind) with
two small children and asking for some help
and feeling pity them, I helped the family with
Life is like that - Corporate Social
Responsibilities,
a perspective paradigm
five rupees. May be it will help them to have
a cup of tea at least THANKS TO ME!!! ...."
While this conversation was on ( and I still
remember the gentle smile of
acknowledgement from my ever pious
mother ) that I heard those providential
statement in his inimitable base voice from
my father .
"Look YOUR CHARITY IS FINE, NICE TO
LISTEN TOO, BUT AT WHOSE COST ".
Your have no right to be charitable in life at
someone's cost. Tomorrow when you start
earning you may even donate your entire
salary I will not ask you why, but today,
what you have done may be noble at one
level and your mother may be impressed
too but in my books, it's a violation of life's
principles ".
He closed the subject of discussion with the
usual punch line;
"WE HAVE NO RIGHT TO TAKE THE
OTHER PERSONS' CONSENT FOR
GRANTED, MORE SO WHEN WE ARE
OPERATING FROM A POSITION OF
TRUST AND AS A CUSTODIAN -
ESPECIALLY MONEY"
So saying he moved off to his den (the
balcony) leaving my mother dumbstruck.
I stood there alone vacantly staring at the
Mohan M. Prasad is Head - HR with GMR Group based at New Delhi and his E-Mail: Mohanprasad04@yahoo.com
Mohan M. Prasad
floor and learnt from the incident yet another
gospel truth, this time on FAMILY SOCIAL
RESPONSIBILITIES (FSR).
Well , reflecting on the daily news that
certain organizations are making with their
pious pouring from the prosperity of
business , I somehow get an uncomfortable
feeling and my thought goes back to what
my dad had advised me " CHARITY, YES
BUT WHOSE COST ?". The question that
looms large is the value system and an
ethical issue. Can donation /contribution to
various charitable institutions under banner
of "Corporate Social Responsibilities
"become a balance sheet item?? Especially
when it's done to meet more the personal
agenda of the people in the helm of
corporate affairs and more so to keep their
social status soaring sky high in the world
of " vain -vanity".
The answer is begging the question, may
be this article can serve some food for
thought and same time provoke some
internal debate for deliberation and
discussion.
The bottom line in my books of wisdom is
that the principle of "FSR is no different from
the logic of its lateral application on CSR".
But then.....Life is like that, like it or leaves
it. We have to live with the system.
u H
(Carried from 17)
Employee Engagement - Key to Talent Retention
general provisions. Right from toiletries to
snacks such as biscuits, chips, chocolates,
soft drinks are sold to the employees at a
very nominal rate.
We also believe in employees showcasing
their talent and recently we had a singing
competition for all the employees of Taj units
in Chennai. This was covered by a local
television network and was telecasted for a
month. This concept also has many other
programs which would be done in the future.
Even at our Annual Day employees have
the opportunity to dance, sing, act or play
an instrument and showcase their talent in
front of all employees and their parents.
Recently we also had a fashion show titled
"Walk of Pride" empowering employees to
walk with pride, to be groomed and also to
enjoy walking on the ramp.
Apart from the same we also give monetary
ways of retaining talent - through housing
loans and other kinds of loans. We also
provide accomodation to our executives and
other employees who have relocated to
Chennai from other cities. We also have a
credit society which helps employees who
need certain loans. All these are small
advantages that an employee gets by being
part of our company and in the long run it
has proven beneficial for us. Ofcourse we
would be affected by the fringe benefit tax
on giving all these benefits.
Ayudha Pooja celebrations, Annual Picnic,
World Environment day, Children's Day are
some of the other activities to engage the
employees. We also have Recreation Room,
Knowledge Centre and the Library for the
employees as benefits.
Summing up, it is very important to keep
the employees engaged and to make them
part of one family. Compensation could be
one way of retaining them, but if they are
not enjoying their work and do not like their
work place then they will not stay in the
organisation for a long time.
u H
| HRD News Letter | June 2007, Vol.23, Issue:3 44|

Case Study - 18
Performance Appraisal System has been
established in that firm several years
ago. The Management, with the help of
Consultants, conducted several innovative
experiments and introduced many
improvements in their existing system. The
Company believes that the system of
performance appraisal is a strong tool and
if it is wrongly rated, the results may mar. It
printed on the format, a flowchart with full
details mentioning dates and months for
execution. It first goes to appraisee who
writes down, if any, all his non-routine and
excellent achievements in the self-appraisal
column. Then the rater, his immediate boss,
puts his remarks on this and rates the
appraisee by ticking 'outstanding, good, fair
and unsatisfactory' on the columns of quality
of output, job knowledge, decision making,
communication skills, quality of work,
human relations, planning and organizing,
creativity and initiative, development of
subordinates or team members, leadership
and motivational skill, reliability under
pressure, time management, etc. The
reviewer thoroughly reviews column by
column and gives his own opinion. Before
it is sent to top management, for better
transparency, the signature of the appraisee
is taken. Clear guidelines for filling up the
form have also been given. Personal
prejudices should not influence the ratings,
they should be objective to help the
appraisee to improve his performance, etc.
This system has been in vogue and
generally satisfies all levels of executives
and above. The Management takes pride in
this system which results to retain the
employees.
The blank form was given to S.D.Misra,
Manager (HR), a very sincere and a highly
dedicated employee, who achieved
'outstanding' rank for the last six years, for
writing in the self-appraisal column. He did
certain critical jobs during the year and wrote
three. One - The industry suffered scarcity
of water during summer which affected their
industrial canteen also. Misra, who was also
in charge of the canteen, went to the small
dam from where they receive water. He
Performance Appraisal
And Its Negative Feedback
found the pipe line supplying water to the
industry's main sump during night time every
day. On one night, he went along with his
assistant and observed to his surprise that
an employee of the dam closed the valve of
their pipe line and opened another valve for
supply of water to another industry. They
caught hold of that person who had
confessed that he was doing this for some
illegal gratification from that industry. He
stopped this malpractice and continued to
visit that place during nights for more than
a week. The problem of artificial scarcity of
water was solved with his initiative. Two -
There was an accident just outside the
factory's gate where one of the employees
was killed by a speeding lorry. It was about
2-15 p.m. when Misra received this sad
news. He rushed to the spot and identified
the employee. The doctor of their First Aid
was brought who declared the employee
dead. He took the responsibility of breaking
the news to his family staying at a village at
a distance of 12 kms. He did this job very
cautiously and delicately. He met the police,
who already reached the accident spot, and
completely involved himself in the whole job
of police formalities, postmortem of the
body, etc. Due to some politician's
interference, the family members refused to
accept the body till the Management
promised a job for one of the family
members of the deceased. Misra made
successful negotiations with the family who
stopped the agitation and accepted the body
for cremation. He received two appreciation
letters from M.D. for these two successful
achievements. Three - Once Misra arranged
a meeting for finalizing a three-day in-house
training programme at one of their group
industries, 73 kms. away. He was to go there
along with his three colleagues. The Driver
was told to make the jeep ready. At that time,
Misra could get a signal from the driver that
he was not interested to go there. Next
morning, they were to start by 7 am and all
four were present. The driver phoned saying
that his daughter was sick and cannot come
to duty. Misra told that 'Our programme goes
as usual and no postponement. I shall drive
the jeep'. Others said that long drive on a
R. Dharma Rao, Head, HR, ICBM. He can be reached at: ravidharma_icbm@yahoo.co.in
– R. Dharma Rao
rough road may be tiresome and advised
him to postpone the meeting. But Misra was
firm and said 'One employee cannot disturb
any of our scheduled programmes'. He
drove the jeep to and fro and finished the
job successfully. Having written these three
achievements in the self-appraisal column,
he handed over to his immediate boss,
K.M.Singh, Sr.Manager (HR), in a
confidential envelope.
K M Singh, who is known to be a
procrastinator and lethargic, kept pending
all appraisal forms till last day. Further, he
had three enquiry reports for study and
comments. Out of these, one was a case of
suspension pending enquiry. He had kept
pending all these reports and appraisals
which became urgent now. His boss was
pressurizing him to complete these jobs
immediately. K M Singh had decided the
priorities and took up the suspension
pending enquiry case first. It took more than
a day. He then started rating hurriedly nine
appraisals and completed the job
haphazardly without any concern on the
consequences.
The form, with comments of the rater and
reviewer, came back to Misra for his
signature. He was shocked and reacted very
sharply. It was an 'unsatisfactory' appraisal
which he had seen for the first time. The
cool and gentle Misra lost all his patience.
He started thinking. K M Singh wanted to
promote his junior, Srivastav, and
deliberately spoiled his appraisal. He
wondered whether he had read the three
achievements and the appreciation letters
of MD. 'Outstanding' continuously for six
years and suddenly 'unsatisfactory'! He
understood the ulterior motto of his boss,
who had also developed an inferior complex
of late. What is the use of Management's
mission and goals? K M Singh cannot be
called a true representative of Management.
What is the use of the systems and methods
on performance appraisal - 360 degree,
visual- analysis- scale, measurement-based
appraisal process, critical incident method,
etc.
u H
| HRD News Letter | June 2007, Vol.23, Issue:3 45|

Chapter News
AGRA
Team Building out door exercise was
He backed up his presentation with mind
twisting exercise. Presentation was followed
College represented by
Shri Premraj Jain V, Hon.
conducted by Col (Dr) C K Singh for NHRDN be an extensive question and answer Dr Sudheendra Rao LN, Placement Officer
Agra Chapter members on 03 April 07 at session. Mr. H K Gupta introduced the
Annual INSTITUTION Members
Mehtab- Bagh behind Taj- Mahal. The very Speaker. Mr. Naresh Mehta. G. M. (HR),
purpose was to understand and get Adani Exports Ltd. and a popular HR expert
SBM Jain College of Engg represented by
acquainted with one another, self gave momento to speaker. Mr. Harshal
Nair VNM, Professor
awareness, empathy and trust. Team Sarda, Director Synergy Agro Tech gave Sugant R, Dept. Head Management Studies
building games included Siblings, Blindwalk,
Symbolic Sharing, fairy tales etc.
vote of thanks. He profusely thanked Mr. Odessa Technologies represented by
Kailash Rathi our Permanent Institutional Priya jayakumar, HR Recruiter
Student members enjoyed the maximum.
Member and Sr. Gen. Manger of G.H.C. L. Ruchira Chakravarthy, HR Executive
Ltd. for hosting the evening and Mr. Ashish
On 13th April a meeting was held at hotel
METIS Insurance Brokers represented by
Agrawal, Director of Arham Petrochem for
Holiday Inn Agra. Dr Naveen Gupta Chapter
Bindu Sebastian, VP- Business Development
organizing back up.
vice president and Dean HIMCS delivered
Mallika Sheth, VP Business Development
Welcome to New Members
a talk on human skills in organizational
ESIKA INFOTECH Pvt Ltd represented by
performance and assessed participants (i) Mr. Patel Vishnu Chimanlal
Shivaprasad G Desai, Managing Director
through psychometric tests. Besides the
members the programme was also attended
(ii) Mr. Gandhi Rejendra B.
(iii) Miss. Pandya Monaz
Abhisek Uday, Associate Vice President
First Face Information Technologies Pvt Ltd,
by the practicing managers, entrepreneurs
represented by (1)Suresh Cavale, CEO
and management students. Aims and
Shirish Cavale, Head Operations
objectives of the NHRDN were conveyed BANGALORE
Dendrite Software India Pvt Ltd represented
and participants were motivated for Welcome to New Life Members
by Rajesh Bhola, Director-HR
becoming permanent institutional and life Maclean S Raphael, VP-HR& Management
Ravi Prasad Dasari, Manager-Training
members.
Support, WEP Peripherals Ltd
International School of Business & Media
On 25th April 07 Brigadier B P S Khati, VSM Deepak D, Chief Manager, HRD, Hindustan
represented by Dr. Chethan Bajaj, Director
gave presentation at the multipurpose hall Aeronautics Limited
and Nandini Bajaj, Faculty-HR
at BMAS Engineering College on Kaizen in Sandhya Rani G, Deputy Manager
Management with special reference to Personnel, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited
Annual Individual Members
tourism sector in Uttarakhand. NHRDN Agra Nidhi Prasad, Personnel Officer, HAL
Malini Lakshman, Manager-HR, Health Asyst
chapter memento was presented to Brig. Suresh Cheluvaraj, Director, WECAT
Nitha Shirali, General Manager- HR, Klueber
Khati by chapter member Anshu Dawer. Management Solutions
Lubrications Systems
Dr (Miss) Anshu Dawer has been Pratik Kumar, Director , Wipro Limited
Manjunath B Prakash, Manager_HR,
designated as Agra chapter coordinator. Her
Siemens Information Systems
Sai Suryanarayana M, HR Manager, ITC
telephone number is 09837441020 and mail
Pooja Sharma, Key Accountant Executive,
Romy Sahay, General Manager, TM,ITC
ID is meghmanav@gmail.com .
Inspire Consultancy
Infotech India Ltd
Welcome to new members-
Abdul Gaffar Sait, Manager-HR, Basket
Amitav Mukherji, D M, HR, ITC Ltd,
(a) Individual Life Members-
Options
Balacandar S, HR Manager, ITC Limited,
(i) Dr. A K Gupta, Principal, BMAS
Sumana BM, Business Development
Padmavothi Bharadwaj, Manager (T), QUES
Engineering College, Agra
Manager, Kamsro Technologies
Shruti Batra, Asst Manager-HR, ITC Ltd
(ii) Miss. Rupali Singh, Student, BMAS
Pearl Salome Cap MS, head Business &
Anand Talwar, VP Talent Management, ITC
Engineering College, Agra (Converted
Operations, CEO Pvt Ltd
Infotech India Ltd
from student to life membership)
Gopaul YD,
Thomas Mathew, HR Manager, ITC Ltd
(iii) Miss Shefali Singh, Student
Ramesh K, Manager-Finance & Admin,
Arvind Raj B, Manager - H R, Wipro Infotech.
Annual Individual Membership-
Sudarshan Cargo Pvt Ltd
Venkatesh S, President- Group H R,
(a) Dr (Ms) Anshu Dawer, Lecturer, BMAS
Andleeb Jain, Head CDC, GMR Group
Vedantha Group,
Engineering College, Agra
Dr. Sridhar MK, Reader, Canara Bank
Permanent Institution Members
School of Management Studies
Wockhard Hospital represented by
Varadharaju J, Head HR, Laons Global
AHMEDABAD Kumar S Krishnaswamy, Group Head - HRD
Poonam Sharma, Manager-HR, STS
Ahmedabad chapter had a presentation on Vishal Bali, Chief Executive Officer
Infotechnologies India Pvt Ltd
5th May by Mr. Ashwani Kumar, Director, TATA Coffee Limited represented by Srikanthan K, Group Manager, Microisoft
Mind Master India a renowned expert on Sashikala Bency, Senior Manager (HR) Ganapathi Hegde Major, Principal
"Neuro Linguist Programming on Strategies
of Peak Performance."
Mr. Ashwini Kumar appraised the
participitants with modern methods to
improve peak performance of one and all.
Uthra P, Deputy Manager-HR
Millipore India Pvt Ltd. represented by
Manjunath N, General Manager-HRD
Muralidhar CL, Manager-HRD
Sitadevi Rathanchand Nahar Adarsh
Consultant, Transitions
Ashwin Kumar Lunkad, Soft Engineer, HP
Arindam Goswami, Manager TATA Elxsi
Chandra Kumar R, HR Associate,
PROLIANT & Ex- ITI Ltd
| HRD News Letter | June 2007, Vol.23, Issue:3 46|

Charitha Changappa K, Executive-HR,
NOVO NORDISK
Namitha appaiah, SR HR Associate, 24x7
Learning Solutions
Asha Kurian, Management Trainee, HRTCS
Vaishnavi M, Vijaykumar, Manager-HR,
Modelytics India Pvt Ltd
DELHI
NHRDN Delhi Chapter hosted the 55th
Board Meeting of National HRD Network on
May 12, 2007 at The Grand, New Delhi. The
full-day event was well attended by NHRDN
Board members from across India.
The session was convened by National
President, Mr. P. Dwarakanath, which
commenced with the welcome / induction
of new members and recitation of our Code
of Conduct.
This was followed by the change of guard
of the National Presidency. The Board
unanimously ratified the selection of Mr.
Aquil Busrai, Executive Director-HR, IBM
India as the next National President, to be
formally installed in the next Board meeting
in July. Mr. Dwarakanath was requested to
continue on the Board for his invaluable
guidance and support.
Highlights of recent achievements and the
tasks ahead were shared with the Board.
Discussion on several agenda items
followed, as circulated by National
Secretary, Mr. S. Varadarajan, including
approval of accounts for the year 2006-07
and sharing of highlights of activities by
various Chapters.
Delhi Chapter, represented by President, Mr.
N. S. Rajan and Vice President, Mr. Pankaj
Bansal, shared with the Board its
achievements this past year and also the
new project being launched by the Chapter
to build an e-community of HR professionals
placed globally, on the model of Web 2.0.
This innovative measure will revolutionize
the Delhi Chapter website and create
immense potential for connectivity and
networking among the HR fraternity.
Post the Board Meeting, Delhi Chapter
organized an exclusive special event in
honour of the Board members, titled, "A
Rendezvous with Harsha Bhogle". Harsha
Bhogle, leading Indian cricket commentator
and Journalist, shared his experiential
learning and incisive observations from the
world of sport and the immeasurable value
of coaching for success. Coaching has been
increasingly recognized to be an integral
developmental intervention deployed for
Leadership Capability Building.
Harsha Bhogle, an extremely dynamic
speaker, kept the audience enthralled by his
style and substance. Eminent Heads of HR
from Delhi were also invited to join the Board
members for this evening session. The
session was followed by dinner, providing a
good platform for interaction amongst all
present. The program was well received by
the participants and they congratulated
Delhi Chapter for its constant innovation and
creating a difference.
HOSUR
NHRD HOSUR CHAPTER organised
Monthly meet - cum - Talk on 8 May at Ashok
Leyland Management Development Centre.
Mr V.NAGARAJAN, Deputy General
Manager-HR, TTK Prestige Limited, Hosur,
spoke on "BITTER & BETTER
EXPERIENCES OF INDUSTRIAL UNREST
& SIGNING OF WAGE SETTLEMENT" at
this meet.
The Session witnessed a huge gathering
comprising of distinguished professionals
and Management students. Prof. Janaki
Ramudu, welcomed the gathering and
introduced the speaker to the audience. Ms.
Shyamala Devi, Deputy Superintendent of
Police, Hosur graced the occasion with her
presence.
The Speaker made a lucid presentation with
appropriate anecdotes to suit issues like
Communication, Interpersonal relations,
good understanding, being smart in work
place, etc. Drawing on his experience of
handling wage settlements over three
decades including a recent one, he dwelled
on intricacies of handling industrial unrest,
concluding a long term settlement,
challenged faced by the HR and the specific
role of HR team. He emphasised that each
and every employee can do any work
provided it is backed by conviction. This
conviction alone will drive the entire
organisation to achieve its objectives and
goals.
Mr G.Rajappa, Executive-HR and Mr. NRS
Subramaniam, Officer-HR of TTK Prestige
Limited, were the facilitators for the
programme.
The session was very lively and invited
intelligent questions and comments. The
Chapter President, Brig KS Bhoon had to
intervene to limit the questions. The DSP,
Ms.Shyamala Devi participated in the
session with great enthusiasm and gave her
short but incisive views on industrial unrest.
The session concluded with a sumptuous
dinner hosted by TTK Prestige.
HYDERABAD
Welcome to New Members
Life Members
Krishna Veni P Dy Gen Manager, Megha
Engg Infra Ltd
Narayana Ch S S, Senior Executive - HR,
Spring Board Technologies
Annual Membership
Harish Reddy K, HR, Consultant
Satya Murthy P V V N, Consultant, V N
Vision
Sita Rama Swamy, Consultant, V N Vision
Raju D V S S, LIC Agent, LIC of India.
HYDERABAD CHAPTER PROGRAMMES
June 2007
07-06-07 - 6.30 p.m. Mr. Subrahmanyam A, Program Director, Physiologist, International
HRD Network
School, Will Speak on “Brain Power Utilization for better results”
14-06-07 - 6.30 p.m. Mr. Muthy Kumar Swamy, Director, Root & Wings, Will Speak on
HRD Network
“Corporate Counseling How What and Why?
21-06-07 - 6.30 p.m. Mr. Nagaiah Chowdary V, Manager-HR, News Time, Will Speak on
HRD Network
“Team Building”
28-06-07 - 6.30 p.m. Mr. C.S. Krishna, International Transformation Coach, Nithyananda
HRD Network Dhyanapeetam, will speak on “Ananda Spurana Program”
July 2007
05-07-07 - 6.30 p.m. Ms. Mehnaaz siddiqui, Asst.Prof. Badruka College Institute Trade,
HRD Network
of Foreign Will speak on "Attrition in IT Industry"
12-07-07 - 6.30 p.m. Dr. Aryasri, Director, JNTU, CMS, Will speak on
HRD Network
"High Performance work Culture"
19-07-07 - 6.30 p.m. Mr. M R Shantaram, Managing Director, Intercon International
HRD Network
Will speak on "Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO)"
26-07-07 - 6.30 p.m. Mr. S Hanumantha Rao, Director - HR. ECIL, will speak on
HRD Network
"Strategic Role of HR"
(Contd.. On Page 50)
| HRD News Letter | June 2007, Vol.23, Issue:3 47|

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| HRD News Letter | June 2007, Vol.23, Issue:3 49|

KOLKATA
Workhshop on "Fundamentals of
Compensation & Benefits Management"
The National HRD Network, Kolkata
Chapter organized a one day workshop on
"Fundamentals of Compensation and
Benefits Management" at The Golden Park,
Kolkata on 27th April,07.
The workshop was conducted by
Ms.Gangapriya Chakraverti - the Business
Leader of the Human Capital Product's
Solutions and Mr.Vishal Bakshi - the Deputy
Business Leader of Mercer Human
Resource Consulting.
Around forty eight HR professionals from
various industrial sectors actively
participated in this workshop.
The workshop started off with
Ms.Chakraverti explaining the role of
Compensation in Human Resource
Management, Components of
Compensation and the Evolution of
Compensation Management practices in
session I.
In session II our faculty drew attention to
the latest Benchmarking Process,
Understanding Survey results and Basic
Statistics used in Compensation surveys.
Post lunch, during Session III the concepts
of 3P Management Model, Understanding
the Pay Structure terminology and
developing a Pay Structure was discussed.
This was followed by tea / coffee break.
Session IV resumed with discussion on
developing Salary Structures and Pay
ranges based on Compensation study and
Approaches to determining Compensation
& Benefits of Expatriate employees.
The workshop concluded with a Panel
discussion on Compensation Practices
comprising of Mr.L.Prabhakar, GM -
Corporate HR of ITC Ltd ,Mr. Sujoy
Banerjee, Senior GM - HR of Eveready
Industries Ltd and Mr.Vikas Vasal - Director
KPMG along with Ms. Gangapriya
Chakraverti.
This has been another successful
endeavour of National HRD Network,
Kolkota Chapter of bringing forth the
evolution of Compensation Management
practices.
MUMBAI
NHRDN, Mumbai Chapter this time had
invited Dr. SANTRUPT MISRA - DIRECTOR
- HR & IT of ADITYA BIRLA GROUP &
IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT of NHRDN,
for their Monthly Evening Lecture Meet on
18th May 2007, since the Aditya Birla Group
had bagged No.1 slot in the "Hewitt Best
Employer Survey - 2007". Dr. Misra was
requested to speak on subject "The Journey
to Becoming a Best Employer - The Aditya
Birla Group Experience".
The announcement of the session was very
well received and we had a record of 300
participants.
Mr. Vineet Kaul, President, NHRDN,
Mumbai Chapter, in his opening remark
mentioned how the current dynamite
business scenario is indeed putting
pressure on attracting and retaining talent.
In this scenario the employer's value
proposition goes beyond just paying high
salary. The best employer survey does look
at the employer engagement and alignment,
Opportunities for Growth & Development,
Performance differentiation and Quality of
HR practices. The Aditya Birla Group under
leadership of Dr. Misra was a very good
example of how this was achieved.
In a very eloquent manner Dr.Misra shared
the ethos and practices that have been
inculcated amongst employees of the Aditya
Birla Group. He rightly said that all the
companies have very good HR Tools and
Practices. However the real effort that has
been made is to make employees have faith
and live the values mainly:
l
l
l
l
Integrity - Honesty in every action.
Commitment - Deliver on the promise.
Passion - Energized action.
Seamlessness - Boundary less in
Letter & Spirit
l Speed - One step ahead always.
Dr. Misra shared many simple but very good
examples of various projects undertaken
whether in the school run at their remote
locations, Performance Management
System, steps taken to develop learning
across the organization and also all the work
that has gone over decade in bringing about
change in the organization. He also shared
anecdotes of observation from overseas
visitors and also competition in how they
have experienced the different culture
amongst the employees of Aditya Birla
Group.
The presentation was followed by very
interactive Question & Answers. Overall all
the participants were enriched by the
session.
Mr. Sanjay Muthal, Vice President, NHRDN,
Mumbai chapter, did an excellent handling
of Q&A session. He also proposed the Vote
of Thanks.
Dear Shri Dharma Rao Garu,
Your Case Study "EMPLOYEES
WELFARE AND THEIR
ORGANISATION" in HRD
NEWSLETTER.
It is really good sir. Especially your
Explanations are good. And your wording
is simple…keep writing this type of
articles. These type of articles are needed
by every executive who is working in the
industrial or business organizations.
varaprasad from vizag
Erratta
Wrong Photograph
of G.Rajesh Kumar was printed
on Page 32 of May 2007 issue of
HRD News Letter
The Correct Photo of the author
is placed below.
The error is regretted
CARTOON CORNER
Yes, there may be many mistakes
in that draft given
by me but I have not cheated in
getting this job. I
would have done well in interview
by HR because
I had attended 'spoken English'
classes, not 'written'..
Col. P Deogirikar, Indore
p_deogirikar@ruchigroup.com
| HRD News Letter | June 2007, Vol.23, Issue:3 50|

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