Chapter 2 (41-94) PDF

Review of Literature
CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Planning is the first and most crucial function of management; Well plan is half done, it
means looking ahead and designing future courses of action to be followed which tells
where we should begin and how things will be in an organization. Therefore planning
makes possible effective co-ordination & perfect adjustment between present and future
developmental needs of the organization. It is easy for human beings to learn from the
past experiences and make the plan for the future. In this context, a review is made of the
existing relevant literature available on the topic of research.
2.1 RECENT STUDIES IN HR PRACTICES IN GLOBAL CONTEXT
Plessis & Huntley (2009) there has been a move from personnel management PM to
human resource management HRM; more recently to international human resource
management IHRM. Challenges in IHRM involve the same activities as domestic HRM;
the main difference is that domestic HRM is involved with employees within only one
national boundary. IHRM assists organizations to best utilize their HR in the international
context. Since multinational activities are involved in HRM, it is believed that IHRM is
more complex than domestic HRM. In the South African context, employees come from
different backgrounds and experiences; it is more difficult to manage them in a
multinational corporation MNC than if they were all in the same country.
Internationalization impose a movement in the direction of standardization of pay,
working conditions and management systems in MNCs, including HRM, the influence of
local culture, institutional arrangements and labour market practices. A model was
developed by the authors and is recommended for use by South African HR practitioners.
Bowra, Sharif (2012)The main endeavor of this study is to examine the relationship and
nature of relationship between the employee perceived performance and human resource
(HR) practices (compensation, performance evaluation, and promotion practices) in the
banking sector of Pakistan. Survey of 235 banking personnel was conducted through
personally administrated questionnaire to investigate the impact of HR practices on
employees perceived performance. The relationship and nature of relationship is
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calculated by applying the Spearmans correlation matrix and multiple regression
analysis. The Spearmans correlation results demonstrate that, the employee perceived
performance and HR practices has the positive and significant relationship. The
regression results indicate that the two HR practices: performance evaluation and
promotion practices are significant but the compensation practices are not significant.
Moreover, this study provides help for top-management of banking sector to design or
revise their HR policies and make practices to attain high employee performance.
Roche & Teague (2011) The research conducted in this study reveals the advent of HR
functions that have commonly avoided radical reconfiguration or depletion of resources
and that have gained new influence as business partners, mainly on foot of a hard HR
agenda dictated by primarily short-term responses to acute commercial challenges. The
basis of HRs new-found centrality to business is manifestly the increased dependency of
firms on HR expertise and knowledge in successfully introducing controls or reductions
in areas like pay and headcount and related changes in working-time regimes and work
practices.
This new centrality however, does not appear to have commonly translated into
leadership with respect to HR strategy over the medium to long-term, nor into strong
advocacy regarding the pivotal role of many soft HR practices in harnessing
commitment and engagement for sustainable business success.
Few instances were reported in the focus groups or case studies (Ericsson was an
exception) where HR managers were active in positioning HR practices, systems or
processes to support business revival over the medium or long-term. Where such an
instance was identifiable, for example in the Ericsson case study, the strategic focus of
the HR function preceded the recession. Where HR managers have become influential as
a result of the recession, it cannot be inferred with any confidence that they will remain
influential when more normal business conditions return.
Boedker et. al.(2011) This research report aims to open up the black box of
management and provides insights into the leadership, culture and management practices
that higher performing workplaces deploy and benefit from. It also illustrates the
productivity and profitability benefits that accrue to higher performing workplaces. It is
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part of a 2.5 year project funded by the Department of Education, Employment and
Workplace Relations to the Society for Knowledge Economics in December, 2009. It
shows that HPWs consistently outperform the rest both in regards to managing their
intangible assets and their productivity and profitability.
Thite & Wilkinson (2011) The rapid rise of multinational Corporations (MNCs) from
emerging economies has led to greater interest and urgency in developing a better
understanding of the deployment and diffusion of managerial strategies from their
perspective and without assuming the prevailing Western ethnocentric orthodoxy. This
paper develops a conceptual framework of global HR strategies and practices in MNCs
from emerging economies across their subsidiaries in both developed and developing
markets. Using data from a pilot study of an Indian MNC, it provides insights and
guidance into the motives, strategic opportunities and constraints in cross national
transfer of HR policies and practices in a multi-polar world.
The year 2008 has been a year of transition, with the global economic recession affecting
businesses across the globe. The pharmaceutical industry, although comparatively less
affected, has metamorphosed in terms of bifurcating business units, rationalizing
operations, restructuring certain jobs, etc. Earlier, the role of HR personnel mainly
involved recruiting talent, but today, it is more about retaining it, says, Saloni Vora.
Hanif Khaki (2006) is of the view that, today human resources management is opening
up new avenues around the world. Thus the demand for experienced human resource has
increased. Today businessmen have understood the value of hiring professionals with
experience working in HR. The companies have learned the importance of good relations
with their workforce. The fact is that Human Resource Management exists just for this
purpose to bridge the gap between employee and employer. The company which does
not realizes the importance of its human resource cannot progress. The employee also
likes an organization which cares for them and rewards their services accordingly.
Examples of this begin at the most basic level of appreciation. Certificates of recognition
awarded on a monthly, bi-yearly, or even yearly basis, for instance, are all that many
employees wish. Likewise, health benefits are probably the second most important factor,
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besides financial benefits which is always welcomed by the employee. The HR
department is generally very open for such aspects in the workspace.
Rosenberg, Marc J. (2006) discusses that training organizations, will have to focus far
more on the workplace rather than just the theoretical knowledge, and learning should be
such to help people on the job. Training organizations will have to become more
diversified in their approach. They will need to find new technologies and approaches for
training organizations formal and informally. It is essential to focus on how the processes
and tools of work can be made easier, from the start. He says, Only these things will
help in sustaining good performance of the employees. While traditional e-learning and
associated technologies are important, practitioners have often been too quick to embrace
them, especially to solve current problemsa "cure all" mentalitywithout considering
what future challenges and consequences might be. We should think of e-learning and
learning technology as enablers, not as a strategy. Its the highway, not the destination;
the means rather than the ends.
Sheth Hiral (2005) did a global IBM study on human capital that provided a deep insight
into the issues related to HR practices. A surprising trend that emerged demonstrated a
disparity in HR practices between upcoming and developing markets. He observed that
the human resource team is more active and takes care of employee needs in an emerging
or upcoming market than in a maturing or developing market. In a maturing market, the
HR function became more institutionalized i.e. more tilted towards the organizational
needs and less focused on the individual employee. According to the study, the build
strategy is a better option in the long term, than buy talent strategy. However a balance
between the two is the best approach. It was found in the study that companies that
invested in building talent, has higher profits per employee as compared to organizations
who buy talent. Moreover, the study also pointed out that organizations, which buy talent
tend to face many problems. Thus it may be concluded that the build talent strategy is
better for the long term.
John Simmons (2003) laid emphasis on the need for balancing performance,
accountability and equity in stakeholder relationships by pursuing socially responsible
HR practice. The paper uses stakeholder analysis to examine issues of performance,
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accountability and equity in organizations; and to analyze the relationship with more
socially responsible HR practice. Its theme is that effective governance can be reconciled
with social responsibility, and that incorporating stakeholder views in HR systems
enhances organization performance and commitment.
Bowen et al (2002) conducted a study of various countries on the role and importance
assigned to human resource management in an organization. The study was conducted on
different dimensions such as firstly how the status of HRM departments varies (e.g.,
perceptions of its importance and involvement). Second, on whether there is cross-
country strategic HRM (SHRM) in terms of the conventional contingency approach
(linking HRM practices to strategy), as well as a resource-based view of the firm (e.g.,
developing organizational capability as competitive advantage). The results of the study
showed significant differences in HRM status across countries, significant correlations
between status and organizational capability, and in Asian countries, a slight tendency for
HRM practices to be linked more to a differentiation strategy, whereas, in Anglo
countries, a strong linkage between HRM practices and organizational capability.
Hiltrop (2002) evaluated the HRM practices of Multinational organizations i.e. those
organizations which operates in more than one country. This article differentiates
between multinational and domestic companies and also compared and contrasted the
HRM practices of multinational companies. The conclusions drawn from the study help
to understand what strategies multinational companies adopt to attract talent, its retention
and how to motivate people and how this varies between industries and nationalities of
the corporate parent.
Sheppeck and Militello (2000) were of the view that over a period of time organizations
from stable operating configurations (patterns) which has a bearing on their
organizational effectiveness. These configurations are affected by factors like operating
environment, business strategy, HRM practices, and senior managers values and
behaviour regarding employees. However, once established, the configurations or
patterns guide employee behavior, there resistant to change, and are associated with
different levels of organization effectiveness.
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Gravett Linda (2004), in her view, strategic planning is not a one-time event, but rather
its an ongoing process that must be fluid to address the changing environment in which
the organization exists. Strategic planning is future oriented, with a vision for a period of
about three or five years so that there is enough time to set goals, carry them out and
analysis the results. The purpose, then, for establishing a strategic plan is to: decide
where the department will continue over the specified timeframe, prepare an action plan-
specifying where the organization wants to go, help the staff focus on the truly important
activities, access the requirements of required resources needed to accomplish the
objectives followed by a plan to acquire unavailable resource for ensure that the
objectives defined achieved.
Lou Adler (2005) diagnosed that root because analysis method should be used to hire
efficient employees. Root cause analysis is a method of going deep into the real cause of
the problem rather than relying on superficial information. Generally Companies want to
employ efficient and more proactive candidates. For this, these companies offer good
compensation packages and other benefits to attract and retain these employees. But
when root cause analysis was used it was found that problem is not compensation, in
order to employ good candidates, the scope of job should be increased, in other words his
job should be enriched i.e. it should provide more challenges and opportunities.
Therefore, root cause analysis tries to understand the problem in depth & then find
solution accordingly.
Scott Weston (2003) studied use six sigma in Recruiting. A sigma is a mathematical
symbol for what is known as standard deviation. In this case it is used as a statistical term
that measures how much a process varies from perfection based on the number of defects
per million units. It provides a clear design or framework to help an organization a
process of improvement fully right from start till the end. He opined that some areas of
recruiting are more art than science; therefore, it can definitely be applied to the sourcing
and selection processes in recruiting. If these areas can be measured, so can improvement
to them. It is based on training of its participants and these are referred as green belt,
black belt, and master belt to indicate a level of training, capability and their respective
roles in implementing the six sigma methodology. It is almost similar to TQM
improvement method. The resources include both financial and manpower commitments
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and will often entail an additional budget investment to reap the rewards in the future.
Therefore six sigma involves a lot of time and manpower cost but does gives very good
results.
Pearse Robert F (2003) analyzed that knowing and understanding organizational culture
is very important for succeeding in a career. For reaching the top position in the
organization this knowledge of culture is very important. But this is easier said than done.
For the success of the career it is important to have information about the organization
culture. Especially those managers who wants frequent promotions knows what kind of
behavior is most appreciated in each culture. After understanding the important role of
organizational culture helps personals to maximize their potential. He suggested that we
should know our culture and manage it accordingly. The tough guy organizational
culture, the work hard/play hard organizational culture model, the bet-the company
model, organizational culture and the bureaucratic organizational culture model were
recommended by him in his study.
Jacobson Ralph (2006) in his research paper he has emphasized that the most widely
used and an effective tool for performance appraisal as perceived by human resource
professional is 360-degree competency assessment process. The issues involved with the
360-degree assessment include the determination of competencies, interpretation of
results and subsequent efforts to use the data to create development plans. These are
simpler, most cost effective and more powerful methods for providing feedback that are
more likely to improve individual and organizational performance. The 360-degree
involves giving a list of competencies and a set of behavioral anchors to co-workers and
managers to use in evaluating performance. They are then asked to check their level of
agreement. Two clear issues emerge with this method of assessment since 5-8 people are
involved, one or two answers have a significant impact on the averaged score for that
item. Secondly, it is difficult to specify the context in which they expect particular
competencies to be exhibited. He stated that the purpose of competency assessment
should be to pinpoint and develop those few critical competencies that yield
extraordinary and disproportionate performance. He mentioned about some feedback
alternatives: providing direct feedback and using leadership tools. According to him the
direct feedback approach actively involves the employee and all critical stakeholders in
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the improvement process. The leaders toolbox approach skips the diagnostic assessment
completely and instead provides a common language for leadership at all levels, as well
as many management and leadership tools to more directly achieve bottom line
improvement.
Masthan et al (2005) in their research on performance management concluded that any

economy requires more performance-based organizations for its development. Better
performance means, achieving higher productivity with limited resources- a fewer
people, lesser costs and time. In a dynamic environment, the organizations, for their
survival and growth, need to focus attention in scaling up in performance. For which,
they need to understand the key factors that influence performance. These factors are
quality innovation, productivity with quality, low cost and quality, better people
practices, collaborative leadership and learning culture.
Beatty et al. (2005) in their book that is based on research from 1850 individuals
organized in 265 teams from industry and academic in both public and private sectors,
recommend building smart teams for high performance. According to their book, there
are three critical processes and skill sets that a team needs. Teams must devote sufficient
time and energy to developing effective team management practices, problem solving
abilities and conflict- handling processes to work effectively together. Team management
practices refer to task processes, social processes and commitment of members to
complete the task on schedule in their study. According to them, good team practices
should include explanation of purpose and goals followed by roles and responsibilities
and then norms and protocols. Teams with strong problem solving skills should have
effective inter personal skills. Team members should work hard and understand each
other for effective communication and better decision-making. In conflict handling, team
members should not avoid thorny issues but have a strategy in place to deal with the
problems. They should work to identify and understand the underlying issues and to deal
with them effectively. The team effectiveness gap analyzer in their study would provide
an overall assessment to both what is in good shape and where the gaps need to be
bridged so that high performance can be practices in organizations.
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Ashton Chris (2004) studied transforming strategic performance through the balanced
scorecard and observed that it provides senior management with a high level depiction of
what needs to be done, if the organization is to deliver to its strategy. CEO conviction to
champion scorecard deployment and senior management team buy-in-to derive the
process. Using the scorecard as a strategy map to link vision, strategic themes, strategic
objectives and operational measures through cause-effect relationships. The vision is the
roof, strategic themes are the pillars and the foundation comprises the people and
technology dimensions.
Brown Chris (2003) studied the systems that aim to improve workforce performance. He
opines that an appraisal system should have the full support of senior management.
Without this, the system will eventually collapse. The appraisal system should first have
been piloted and then reviewed and the intentions of the appraisal system should be
clearly communicated to all staff. All staff should have training in appraisal techniques.
Interviewing skills, giving feedback and objective setting are all elements that require
training to be carried out effectively. The system should enable all staff to have clearly
established aims and objectives that are linked with the business strategy. The appraisal
system should follow a cycle of defining the performance that is required, measuring and
evaluating it, giving feedback and sharing information with other parts of the
organization. The system should have simple and easily understood documentation
supporting it. It should not be a part of the standard disciplinary procedures of the
company, be adaptable and encompass all levels of staff in the organization, must be
subject to ongoing monitoring, review, evaluation and updating.
Hal Richman & Wiggenhorn William (2006) are of the view that emerging markets,
which have a strong economic growth trajectory and market opportunity, are of great
interest to large multinational corporations and other organizations with an international
presence. But there is a lot of leadership talent waiting to be developed in these markets,
and a lot of risk if this development doesnt occur.
Abraham Samuel (2002) observed in his study that new employment philosophy calls
for career resilience, with a view to merge individual interest and company needs. While
presenting a new paradigm for career management in his study he examined that one of
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the most difficult jobs HR managers have in any industry is the idea of how to provide a
blueprint for career progression for the employees. He found out that organizations that
will thrive in the new reality are those that are filled with employees who have the option
to leave, but choose to stay; those that fail will be populated by employees who are only
there because they are afraid to go elsewhere.
Hyde and Pethe (2005) opine that, in management, the current era is the era of Human
Resource Development and Employee Involvement. The modern approach to
management ensures employee involvement and empowerment. Employees and
management admit that many obstacles to achieve organizational goals can be overcome
by employees themselves if they are provided the necessary tools and authority to do so.
There is a direct relationship between the concept of employee involvement and
employee empowerment and organizational growth and development. The present study
seems to be an attempt to explore the impact and relationship between the HRD climate,
empowerment and organizational citizenship behavior in private and government
organizations.
Daniels Aubrey (2003) in his study on how do you appease your employees after you
fire their favorite co-worker explains that it is always difficult to terminate employees
under any condition, but it is especially difficult when the person has good peer relations
with the remaining employees. For that reason, such terminations are usually done
poorly. That is to say that employers take way too long to make the decision or they wait
until the problem is so severe that everyone is in agreement that the person must go. Not
only is this devastating to the employee who is terminated, but it also usually results in
less confidence in leadership with the remaining employees. The most common
complaint of unfair treatment in the workplace comes from management's failure to deal
with poor work behavior and poor performance. Good performers, in particular, don't like
when management tolerates this type of behavior. Good performers are often called on to
take on tasks that poor performers don't get done or do poorly. Be vigilant for
opportunities to positively reinforce good work habits and good performance, but don't
hesitate to apply negative sanctions when the behavior warrants it.
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2.2 RECENT STUDIES IN HR PRACTICES IN INDIAN CONTEXT
Saleena Khan, Bhawna Chahar (2010) in the contemporary context, the Indian
management mindscape continues to be influenced by the residual traces of ancient
wisdom as it faces the complexities of global realities. One stream of holistic wisdom,
identified as the Vedantic philosophy, pervades managerial behavior at all levels of work
organizations. This philosophical tradition has its roots in sacred texts from 2000 B.C.
and it holds that human nature has a capacity for self transformation and attaining
spiritual high ground while facing realities of day to day challenges (Lannoy
1971).Human Resource Management has evolved considerably over the past century, and
experienced a major transformation in form and function primarily within the past two
decades. Driven by a number of significant internal and external environmental forces,
HRM has progressed from a largely maintenance unction, to what many scholars and
practitioners today regard as the source of sustained competitive advantage for
organizations operating in a global economy. Some of the factors that contribute to the
evolvement of human resources management are technology, globalization, diversity,
immigration and an aging workforce. In this article, we would be discussing the various
Issues that HR is facing in todays corporate scenario. A few challenges they have been
able to overcome successfully but a lot of issues still need to be dealt with. We would be
discussing issues HR is facing in the present and some strategies which, if adopted, can
help the HRM to sustain better in the challenging and dynamic scenario.
Ayanda, Sani (2011) This study examines empirically, the influence of ownership-type
and age on the adoption of Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) practices
that have been shown to contribute to organizational effectiveness. The study also
hypothesized that there is no significant difference between the level of strategic HRM
practices adopted by government-owned universities and private universities in Nigeria.
A multi-respondent survey of 29 government-owned universities and 15 private
universities in Nigeria was undertaken and data collected was subjected to regression
analysis and one way analysis of variance as well as descriptive statistics in pursuance of
the stated objectives of determining whether ownership-type and age influence the
adoption of strategic HRM practices in Nigerian universities and if any significant
difference exist between the level of strategic HRM practices adopted by government-
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owned universities and private universities. Results indicate an impressive moderate
adoption of strategic HRM practices in the Nigerian university system and that the extent
of this adoption is mostly a function of whether the university is government-owned or
run by private investors. Results also show that there is indeed a significant difference
between the level of strategic HRM alignment, training and development, career planning
system and employee participation of government-owned universities and private
universities in Nigeria. The study, therefore, recommends amongst others that
universities should improve its integration of HRM practices into their overall operations
and strategies and that private universities should be encouraged to adequately plan for
the career development of its employees as well as giving them adequate opportunities to
participate in taking strategic as well as tactical decisions affecting their work
environment.
Baral1, Bhargava (2011) Work-life balance has become a subject of concern for both
research scholars and business leaders in view of the contemporary demographic,
technological, market, and organizational changes associated with it. However, there has
been little academic attempt to provide a holistic picture of work-life balance benefits and
programmes (WLBPs) offered by various organizations in India. With the basis of extant
literature, primary and secondary data, the present paper has made an effort to understand
the current status of WLBPs in Indian organizations and to identify its future prospects.
The paper has discussed the challenges for effective implementation of such policies,
which can help HR managers to be cautious before introducing WLBPs in their
respective organizations. Analysis of literature and available data suggests that family-
friendliness of employers in India have been reflected in various welfare provisions
which has been a matter of concern for employers since industrialization. With time, the
scope and coverage of such initiatives have broadened and have become more individual
growth and family well-being oriented. However, these policies and practices are more
prominent in new economy organizations such as software and services organizations.
Moreover, the range of WLBPs varies across organizations and there is still a long way to
go when WLBPs will become strategic HR initiatives in most organizations. The paper
suggests that organizations need to incorporate WLBPs and encourage a culture that
support utilizing them to ensure employee commitment and productivity. While
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introducing WLBPs, congruence between employee needs and organizational values also
should be considered.
Khans (2012) in recent years, emerging market economies (EMEs) are increasingly
becoming a source of foreign investment for rest of the world. It is not only a sign of their
increasing participation in the global economy but also of their increasing competence.
More importantly, a growing impetus for change today is coming from developing
countries and economies in transition, where a number of private as well as state-owned
enterprises are increasingly undertaking outward expansion through foreign direct
investments (FDI). Companies are expanding their business operations by investing
overseas with a view to acquiring a regional and global reach.
SHARMA (2010) This study has tested empirically the differences of significant
importance of e-recruitment practices associates responses for organization type,
organizational size and respondent category; impact of e-recruitment on quality, wider
choice, time and cost in hospitality and healthcare sector, large and small size, and HR
Managers and employees; and differences of significant importance of quality, wider
choice, time and cost between HR Managers and employees. The results as presented for
the differences of significant importance of e-recruitment practices associates responses
for organization type, organizational size and respondent category imply that e-
recruitment practices have significant differences across organizational size and
respondents category. In contrast, Organization type pays equal importance to e-
recruitment.
Suman Shikha (2006) studied the knowledge athletes in organizations. She observed that
technical specialists become the backbone of new technology in the enterprise.
Successful companies create competitive advantage in the marketplace through
innovation and creativity. They effectively manage their human resources to create and
market new products and services. Human resource management strategies have the
potential to fuel innovation and creativity in the organization. The four dimensions in
which the HRM strategies that can push innovation and creativity are: human resource
planning it involves multidisciplinary approach to new product development that help
in finding right people and overshadowing the cost incurred in the lengthy recruitment
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process. Performance appraisal- it includes not just rewarding the good employees and
punishing the bad ones but also helping the marginal performers. Self-policing and peer
control mechanisms are encouraged in favor of superior subordinate evaluations. Reward
system the companies provide their employees with freedom to conduct R&D, freedom
to fail, and to run their own new ventures. The motive is to maximize productivity and
minimize turnover. The challenge lies in balancing team rewards with individual rewards.
Managing employees careers employees are continually educated and trained in
different skills to provide them a well-rounded professional experience. When the
companies review these four principles there is little thats new or earth shaking but that
is the nature of HRM. Finally work is the primary motivator. It recognizes how important
HRP is and performance management for R&D personnel, it recognizes that the
professional and institutional recognition should go hand in hand and that the laboratory
heads role is much more than simply to inspect the work of his or her researchers.
Innovation has as much to do with the environment that is created as the creative types
that are employed.
Ramesh T (2005) studied the changes occurring in the field of human resource
management in todays era. He observed that todays competitive business climate
presents the HRM function with a number of important challenges and opportunities
dramatic advances in technology, in recruiting, selection, training, appraisals, rewards
and other human resource practices. In his study, he observed that HR functions are
concerned with a variety of activities that significantly influence almost all areas of an
organization and aim at the organization fulfilling its employment, carrying out job
analysis, planning to meet their requirement, providing training facilities and
implementing organizational development programmes. The success of HRD in an
organization depends to a large extent on the existence of a favorable HRD climate a
combination of various factors such as openness, team spirit, trust, autonomy,
cooperation, integrity, recognition, participation, fair compensation, counseling, problem
solving, valuing the assets, and respect for the individual. There are two main ways of
human capital management practice that might enhance performance. Firstly, through
raising the skill base of employees appropriate recruitment and retention,
comprehensive training and broad based departmental activity. Secondly, through
enhancing employee motivation and ability to use their skills through measures such as
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design of reward systems, participative problem solving and team work. Having capital,
an asset of any organization, is a function of people management and is all about having
an objective view on the deliverables that professionals can create. And in no case can we
replace it with figures and logarithms. It is the human intellect, human energy and human
inventiveness, which accomplish excellence for the firm. If a company wishes to make
purposeful trade off, it must create radical decentralization and give autonomy to the
employees. A good HR leader can always turn the worst to the best because he/she can
really get the employees to work and motivate them to perform better. Getting the
employees to work and to give their best requires an EI quotient assessment. This would
result in better conflict resolution skills, better understanding of others and more pro
social strategies in inter personal solving.
Padhi Nayantara (2005) reviewed strategic human resource management and studied
that it bridges the gap between business strategy and HRM. It focuses on the integration
of HR with business and its environment. According to her, SHRM has become topical in
recent years but the definitions, reason of integrating business strategy and HRM, and the
process of integration widely vary. Organizations are changing and adopting new ways
along with new intensities. Parallel to these changes, and inspiring or legitimating them is
a body of ideas of a various and complex nature known as SHRM. Managers need to
realize its importance and try to link HRM with organizational strategy and performance.
The key functions associated with this concept are- integration of HRM with business
policies and plans, HR deployments, exploring peoples capabilities and matching them
with business strategies, capacity building, organizational learning and commitment.
Reddy Sumati (2005) opines that businesses are faced with intense competitive
pressures. Hence, this requires them to continually develop their competencies to respond
to the ever-changing market forces. One solution is to develop collaborative work system
built around teams. Teams are an innovative way of resolving business-related
challenges. Organizations can choose to formulate a team, which best suits, its
requirement. Teamwork brings astounding results. The business imperative to deploy
teams in response to the need to retain competitiveness has led organizations to evaluate
team productivity vis--vis individual productivity. Teamwork brings several advantages
to organizations. It can ensure survival, amidst business uncertainties and intense
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competition. Teamwork is also ideal for product innovation in an environment, which
can render a product obsolete in shorter time frame with respect to product innovation,
however the process itself is time- consuming and expensive in terms of resource
involved. Teams can, nevertheless, be effectively employed to achieve efficient and
cost-effective product design processes. Wars have been won through effectively
coordinated teamwork and singular focus on team goals. Teams work in animal kingdom
as well. Not only do human beings practice teamwork, but also so do different species of
animals, which rely on teamwork to ensure their survival. Hence, teams have been tested
and found to be successful in several businesses. Organizations which invest the time and
effort to built team based systems as a parallel structure to the existing structure are the
ones who will benefit in the long run.
Pal Som (2005) studied HRD in larger context that how we can develop the emerging
workforce. His study focuses on how corporate, educational institutions, research bodies,
training and development organization and the government, can co-ordinate and co-
operate to train and develop a graduate in this phase for taking on work roles effectively
in the corporate world. It discusses what the corporate world looks for in fresh graduates,
and the type and quality of training needed for fitting well into the corporate world. It
provides a framework of developing a talented pool of human capital and looks at how
constructivist psychology can help in the development and implementation of the
framework.
Shantaram M.R. (2005) examined a case on human resources issues in information

technology (IT). His case describes the problems of the IT industry in general. It covers
issues of redundancy and retraining due to changing technologies, issues of different sets
of employees gaining and loosing relative importance. It highlights challenges created
when a set of people are in short supply due to many companies chasing them. Issues
arising out of rapid fire hiring by different departments, like parity dissatisfaction, HR
costs are also highlighted. Further the case touches upon how a negative culture is created
by certain functions especially for training and development. Finally the case raises
questions about the approaches to monitoring.
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Sharma Devinder, (2003), Human Resource Development, have explained the
successful implementation of a suitable HRD programme is crucial to the success of
many organizations and to the self development of its managers and employees. The
book highlight; the role of managers in HRD; the variety of approach to HRD; ways of
building learning into the management process; how to deal with the team conflict and
the notion of virtual team situations; how to manage change.
Nivedita Kothiyal (2005) developed a model investigating human resource management

(HRM) practices as antecedents of perceived organizational support (POS) and tested
with the help of responses received from a sample of 277 executives from an Indian
Pharmaceutical Organization. The results of the study suggest that fairness of
performance appraisal and career development are highly significant predictors of POS.
Realistic job preview, and satisfaction with benefits are also significant predictors of
POS. The findings are not surprising as these practices are more a part of the
discretionary action taken by the supervisors as agents of the organization. Training has
no significant explanatory influence on POS. A reason for this finding could be that
training conducted in the organization, particularly in the manufacturing unit was more a
part of good manufacturing practices (GMP) as required by external accreditation
agencies. Therefore, employees may not have perceived it as a discretionary action taken
up the organization. The perceptions on realistic job preview, fairness of performance
appraisal, career development, training, and satisfaction with benefits were measured.
Results suggest that perceptions of these practices have significant correlations in the
positive direction with POS. Also, except for perceptions on training, all the other
variables contributed significantly to the development of POS. Tenure with the
organization was the only demographic variable that contributed significantly to the
development of POS. The statistical method used was regression.
Srivastava V N and Ghosh K (2005) hold the opinion that even after more than a
decade of the changed economic environment, a large number of high performing
enterprises have become low performing; many of them have been struggling to survive
and some have faced closure also. The arrival of many world class organizations with
higher order experience levels has severely threatened many of the so-called high
performing Indian organizations with lower order experience levels and has put their total
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survival at stake. The state of affairs in state government departments also has not been
very sound. Widespread frustrations and demoralizations have been found among the
state employees. Today, the organizations are looking towards HR to make them more
competitive and come out of the red by successfully meeting the challenge. State
government departments also undertook HRD planning and implementations at the
instance of the World Bank in the World Bank funded projects in the health, forestry and
other social development sectors. The paper discusses the HR needs in the present
context, the HR perspective, some experiences of developing HRD plan in the forest
departments in two states in India, the critical business areas and a few HR challenges
that can really help achieving transformations.
Palekar Padmaja (2006) in his study emphasized that outsourcing of recruitment and
selection has picked up pace, essentially in IT industry. But outsourcing all the activities
involved in the recruitment process does not provide a competitive advantage because of
inherent problems associated with it i.e. inefficiencies because contractors lack firm
specific knowledge and engage in opportunistic behavior. But there are advantages too,
such as, reduction of cost by provision of economies of scale and increase in incentives
and accountability. Hence, he observed that effective recruitment processes ensure that
the right people are matched with right roles in the organization. He also observed in his
study that the two most commonly outsourced activities in organizations were
transactional and administrative HR functions.
Rajan Susy (2005) opines that mentoring is a one to one non-judgmental relationship in
which an individual voluntarily gives time, support and courage to one another.
Mentoring represents a powerful form of management. It is a process to increase
visibility of skill and talent in ones organization. It is a process of learning from the
senior persons within the company who are actual ropes of organizational life.
Objectives of mentoring include improvement in study skills such as instructing specific
skills and knowledge that are very critically linked with job performance, building self-
confidence, time management, communication skills and providing important insights
into the corporate affairs. There is a wholesome benefit to almost all the parties involved
in the process. For the mentee, mentoring can improve self-confidence, self-esteem,
increase motivation, broaden horizons and experience, and raise achievements along with
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aspiration levels. For mentors, there is the opportunity to develop skills & understanding
as part of their personal development, to feel valued and to contribute something back to
the community. For mentoring to be effective, each organization has to draw up a
mentoring camp or programme that fits its companys culture and answers the needs of
its employees. A well planned and managed mentoring programme will definitely
provide the opportunity needed for any person to learn, develop and work to his or her
potential. At the individual level, it allows them to discuss confusing, perplexing or
ambiguous situations and their innermost feelings and emotions with someone they can
trust and respect. The mentor needs to be competent. He should have good
communication, genuine interest in the mentee, commitment, clarity of goals and good
sense of humor.
Muralidharan T (2005) examined corporate ethics that could be extended to the process
of recruitment. There must be some set of rules to be followed and more importantly the
recruiting company should abide by these rules to ensure that there is no malpractice at
any side. The author says that behind every attrition, there is recruitment. i.e. whenever
an employee leaves an organization in hurry, he is sure to join any other organization.
Corporate sector has clear guidelines on corruption, sexual harassment and even
competition spying. But when it comes to framing policies for recruitment they turn a
blind eye to patently unfair and unethical trade practices. The author suggests that to
avoid such instances, the top 10 IT and BPO corporate should get together and follow the
following set of rules while hiring: No recruitments without retrieving letter or providing
proof of serving the notice period, corporates should not hire anyone who has spent less
than one year in his current organization. The logic is formed as the basis of recovering
recruitment costs and obviously the doubtful loyalty to the hiring organization, no
headhunting should be encouraged, corporates should not bail out the prospective
employee commitments such as employment bonds etc.
Sreekanth (2004), His study explains about the employees engagement and retention in
an organization. According to him, the employees can be retained for a longer time by
sensitizing them with relative value of the employment offer. It depends upon the ability
of manager to understand, predict and control the attrition in the organization, as
compensation and other social intervention are not enough to retain talented employees.
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In order to make effective retention plan three factors are really necessary i.e. challenging
work environment, learning opportunities, career growth. He examined that different
folks require different strokes and same folks require different stocks at different point of
time. The challenge for HR organization is the ability to understand these factors and
design dynamic programs/intervention, which have maximum return on investment. His
study gave some interesting recommendations for high attrition rate. If permanent
attrition is to be avoided then the organization should undergo proper planning, it should
focus on lead time reduction, multi- skill/ cross skill development and move from people
dependency to process focus.
Kalyani (2004) studied the benefits of online recruitment. He says that clerical work has
significantly reduced, information is obtained in a pre- determined and uniform manner,
data can be categorized on various basis, instant feedback such as registration and
acknowledgement can be done, data created can be used for voluminous reports, quicker
communication due to email, progressive impression of company in front of candidates
who apply for jobs and online advertisements have a wider reach and are available all the
time.
Singh P N (2002) examined that good training leads to better organizational results.
Organizations should put their best managers in the training department and should
consider the following points while selecting trainers. Does the candidate understand the
business well? If yes, the trainer is more successful. Does the candidate practice what he
preaches? The effective trainer must be good role model. They should design training
process powerful enough to produce result, target training at key result area, adopt a
training process approach, training must use a process approach to build and maintain
performance improvement, get trainees to complete end of course action plans, use
Multiphase training, follow up after training. There are six things that trainer can do to
increase his or her effectiveness: Recognize the type of learning difficulties, identify the
student with learning difficulties, show empathy for student with learning difficulties,
create a learning environment, make accommodation for student with learning difficulties
and provide support for student with learning difficulties.
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Sudhaker. V. S. (2005) refers to training and coaching as emerging HR interventions and
lists the benefits of it as follows: higher return on investment, less stress in the workplace,
removal of fear and lack of confidence, improved personal performance and personal
contribution, increased knowledge and highly developed skills, improved team working,
working relationships with peers, increased job satisfaction and staff retention.
Kumar Ramesh (2005) in his study on the need of training employees in the present-
day scenario focuses on planned development of these programmes. He says that training
is needed when the factors such as potential triggers, negative indicators and external
indicators are in routine. Therefore, training is required- as top-level managers, senior
managers of various functional areas and supervisors of other grades would otherwise be
seriously affected. Hence there is a need to explore new ways and methods to determine
the exact training needs to provide the right training to the right person. Planned
development programmes will return values to the organization in shape of increased
productivity, heightened morale, reduced cost, greater organizational stability and
flexibility to adapt to changing external requirements.
Chaudhuri Manodip Ray (2004) his study focuses on employee training and its
importance in the future. The essentials in training are to match employee specification
with the job requirement and organizational need. It is also for coping with technological
advances and to improve human relations. He examined some priority areas in todays
training agenda; leadership management training, technical training, custom- designed
training for specific needs, teamwork and problem solving training, workplace security/
safety training, sexual harassment prevention training, conflict resolution training and
quality control/ quality management training. No matter where, when, why, how and
from whom the training program is conducted, an effective training exercise must be a
teaching method that advocates principles and practices of learning as its core focus.
Srikanth K. (2004), in his research emphasized on the fact that the productivity of an
organization is dependent on occupational health and employee well being. In turn, the
well being of an employee is a function of various factors like organizational psychology,
job security, work hours, control at work, and managerial style. His study analyzes the
various factors that affect the employees state of being. It has looked at the
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consequences of workplace changes, particularly their impact at both the individual
employee level and the organizational level. The focus was on four major areas in
organizational psychology. Job security: Organizations are increasingly utilizing
contingent workers as an alternative to conventional full-time employees. His research
clearly suggests that perceived job insecurity is bad for employee well being. This, in
turn, can impact organizations through increased sickness absence. Given the reported
increase in perceived job insecurity, organizations need to consider the financial costs
associated with those employees who are reluctant to be working in jobs, which they
perceive to be insecure. Work hours: There has been an increase in the use of workdays
or work shifts longer than 8 hours. Some schedules compress the workweek so that 36-48
hours is completed in 3-4 days instead of five. In terms of actual weekly work hours,
some countries have reduced work time whilst in others it has been extended. The
increase in work hours in some countries is in part due to the trend for restructuring and
downsizing in many organizations. There exists a relationship between prolonged work
hours and employees mental and physical ill health. Changes in work time schedules
shows that prolonged work hours and work shifts have detrimental effects on employee
well being. Where extended work shift schedules are to be implemented, these must be
carefully evaluated and appropriate precautions made to reduce work overload and
environmental exposure to chemicals and other hazards. Control at work: many
employees have perceived a gradual loss of control over their work lives and careers over
these years. The concept of perceived autonomy or control has been extensively
investigated in his research. Managerial style: increased managerial pressure can also
impact employee well being. In an investigation of organizational management style,
there are greater levels of perceived stressors (underutilization of skills and job overload)
for employees in a traditional organization compared to those working under a more
democratic management style. A negative management style can exacerbate stress levels
for managers if their behavior results in deterioration in an employees work performance
or attitude towards them. Organizations should raise awareness amongst their managers
of the importance of providing support for their employees.
Sumalata B (2004) examined outsourcing of training and development in various

organizations. She observed that as the outsourcing market matures, it is expected that
firms will gain considerable competitive advantage. Training BPO has proven a powerful
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strategy that can help companies create this competitive advantage. Advantages of out
sourcing training are that it allows a company to focus on its core business or core
competencies, it benefits the company in accessing the world class solutions, a good BPO
has many cost effective characteristics the basis of which are efficiency and cost
management and the ability to vary service level with customer demand. She studied the
following two approaches to outsource the HR functions: One is for external resources
known as replacement strategy and the second is for internal resources.
Kodwani Amitabh (2004) in his study on training and return on investment thereof
focuses that constant up- gradation of new skill; knowledge and technology are essential
weapons in the competitive struggle. New technology cannot be acquired and
implemented successfully without training. The value-added by giving proper training
and the losses incurred due to inadequate training are too high, which cannot be ignored.
The net value of training increases with wider dissemination throughout the organization.
Evaluation of T & D has mainly two basic objectives i.e. assessing training effectiveness
and using it as a training aid. He studied that the primary objective of evaluation is to
improve training processes in order to achieve stated objectives (to sort out the good
training from the bad). Since evaluation affects learning, it could also be used as a
training aid. He emphasized that one of the basic reasons for evaluating training activities
is because top management people who are funding the training programs are asking for
such evaluation data. Such data not only include indicators of management support, such
as total training investment and the number of man hours spent in training, but also
tangible evidence of the effectiveness of training like successful learning, improved on-
the-job performance, changes in key business measures, and ROI in terms of profitability.
Seth Meera (2003), in her research on training the top brass examined that leadership is
not just about vision and strategy formulated by top management, but something that
needs to be woven into the very fabric of the organization through realism and rigors in
execution. An attitude of continuous learning and open-mindedness needs to be infused at
all levels. Today, a number of so-called sophisticated analytical decision tools have
become available which mirror real-life that is full of uncertainty and risk. Probabilistic
models with the capacity for numerous simulations of what if and what can go wrong
must take their place alongside time-tested analytical techniques he emphasized that we
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should not forget that they, too, were considered too sophisticated when they were
introduced, but were gradually accepted through practice.
Sanghi Seema (2003), studied some aspects of training needs and skill requirements of
Indian workforce in the next fifteen years. She observed that workforce has to be multi
skilled. The environmental pressures would increase and people should be prepared both
mentally and with multi skills for a quick shift. She recommended, while educating our
workforce for the global challenges it needs to be trained for: (i) behavioral skills to
change mindset, (ii) Vocational skills related to agriculture and on farm activities, and
off farm activities, (iii) Tourism, films, information and communication, medical
services, construction, fine arts, cottage & small scale, (iv) IT and IT enabled services
and (v) Various languages.
Rao T S R Krishna (2003) examined the learning perspective in training.

According to him, to survive for a long time organizations, big or small have to undergo
learning. The need of the hour is that the learning organizations continually expand the
capacity to be creative and innovative. Learning is the key in being able to both identify
opportunities that others might not see and to exploit these opportunities regularly and
fully. People are more receptive if they are involved in a learning experience, which is
interactive and fun. The players in the learning game soon become stimulated and start
developing ideas. This results in new skills and concepts getting absorbed quite fast. A
trainer must excite and direct the learners self motivation. People learn best through self-
discovery, so they should be put in situations where they are actively involved in the
training sessions. Experience is the best teacher but unfortunately, a private tutor. He
studied that we have to develop a tested tool to solve the conundrum of collective
learning. The training system can play a pivotal role here by being a conduit for sharing
experiences. The method encompasses the belief that learning is most effective when it
involves active participation. This method goes beyond the conceptual framework and
departs from imbibing skills and values. On the other hand, it offers the trainees or the
users an opportunity to absorb and embrace ideas and ideals because they have
themselves experienced them.
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Rao P.L. (2003) suggested training to youngsters while playing games in his study. He
conducted a workshop to bring out professionalism, creativity, group behavior and
adjustment in adults. Games such as the alchemy, group buildup, bomb the city, throwing
the ball and different roles were used for training and development and it was found out
that some adults are only good as heads but their contribution is minimal, some are
selfish and try to corner resources as much as possible, there are some who spoil the
environment like mud and there are quite a few who add value to the group.
Majumdar Shyamal (2005) observed that every year, employees and their immediate
bosses enter into an elaborate gaming exercise called the performance appraisal. Most of
it is just empty form filling. But every company still goes through the ritual. A good
performance appraisal scheme is the managers ability or willingness to give people not
just good news but the news about their weakness that they dont know. While managers
are focusing on how much money this is going to mean in their pocket. Also, managers
are often forced to be dishonest on appraisals in order to ensure that the employee get
something. They would like to avoid the inevitable confrontation associated with telling
an employee that he merited no increase. He has discussed the Bell curve in his study.
His Bell curve theory explains that most employees are in the middle as far as
performance is concerned. There is bunching of excellent performers at the top and the
worst cases at the other end. Managers have to keep this broad picture in mind when they
rate their team members. These kind of artificial structural rigidities often lead to a huge
number of de- motivated people in an organization. Apart from deciding increments,
nothing gets done with the data that HR gets out of it. Companies are unable to take a call
on how many of its people can be posted for new business assignments, what are the
common sets of weaknesses on which employees have to be trained, how to improve the
performance of under performers and so on. Everyone wants to be in the top-performing
bracket, which just cannot happen. Most employees in these companies want a
performance driven culture but are not willing to accept lower performance. If the
management does not have the skill to manage such expectations, the company can only
except to see an ever-growing number of long faces and a rising attrition graph. One
problem is that companies assess people in a certain way at the time of hiring but
differently at appraisal time. This makes process very uncertain.
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Adivarahan (2005) studied that employees performance was measured on certain
parameters by the employees supervisor in earlier days. Based on this appraisal system,
employees growth was determined and most of the time, employee was not even aware
of his appraisal. In current situation, many organizations have introduced new methods
that are transparent and effective. First is the Balanced Scorecard, where the employee
fixes his own targets and appraises himself. His supervisor approves his high
performance. After this the organizational objectives are set. He also suggested some
methods in current practices. The employees should be educated about job responsibility
and accountability and then the targets levels should be fixed as month by month to
achieve organizational objectives. Another method is 360-degree appraisal where an
employee is appraised by his friends, official people and family. Official environment
includes immediate supervisors, coworkers, customers, suppliers etc. Friends
environment includes school/ college friends, friends in same department, other friends.
Family environment includes family members, relatives etc. All these environments are
in contact with each other to get the true picture of employees performance by these
groups. Friends environment reveals the fair picture of employees nature and true
performance, as they know him better. Feedback from family also improves the
productivity, as they are able to point out weaknesses better than others. All these are the
methods being adopted by organizations nowadays to measure and evaluate the
performance of employees. This gives motivation and encouragement to them but if not
practiced in smooth way can lead to problems also. Performance appraisal is the indicator
that may be communicated to the employee and based on this employee growth for a
particular period is determined. Growth includes increment, promotions, feedback etc.
The parameters related to 360 degree vary from organization to organization, individual
to individual, department to department and position to position. Similar is the case with
BSC. It is more important that HR people constantly look for any good procedure or
process for the improvement of the organization or individual.
Kumar and Sinha (2005) According to their research business performance may be used
for a variety of purposes including decision-making, financial control and executive
remuneration. Companies have been measuring costs, quality, quantity, cycle time,
efficiency, productivity, etc of products, services and processes. They studied that
performance measurement systems play a key role in developing strategy, evaluating the
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achievement of organizational objectives and compensating managers. Their research
emphasizes on the emerging trends in corporate performance management and highlights
some of the best practices. Companies are focusing on stakeholders to ensure they pay
attention to all the important facets of performance, more recently; the concept of the
multiple stakeholders has come to the force. Companies can no longer be satisfied with
only considering shareholders and customers. Employees are also seen as important
stakeholders; as are suppliers, government and the community at large and these
stakeholders need to be incorporated into the performance measurement system.
Srinivasan Vasanthi (2005) reviewed Williams book titled Performance Management

that gives account of three PM model:
A system for managing organizational performance

A system for managing employee performance
A system for integrating management, organization and employee performance.
She observed that the critical drivers of performance culture are the performance
philosophy of the organization and a robust method to drive the planning and goal setting
process in alignment with the organizational performance indicators. There is a great
need for setting goals, process improvements goals and strategic goals. While setting the
goals at the beginning of the year, there is an exception that individual will require
periodic feedback on their performance. The last part of Performance management is
Appraisal. Appraisal provides an opportunity to consolidate the evaluation pertaining to
an individual performance.
Sivaram Y.G. (2004) studied the HR competency model developed by Confederation of

Indian Industry (CII), which mentions about nine behavioral competencies. They are
communication, initiative, drive, creativity, self-confidence, teamwork, influence,
problem-solving and interpersonal skills, these play a key role in any organization. He
studied the objectives of banks and classified them broadly as: earning profits, enhancing
the market share, gaining recognition in providing good customer service, providing
returns to the shareholders, maintaining adequate risk management practices, ensuring
that compliance standards are maintained, ensuring employee development through
training, giving adequate reward to the employees and achieving employee satisfaction.
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Communication helps in generating sustained team excellence and satisfaction that are
crucial ingredients in a working environment. Hence, there is every need to master
proven interpersonal and self-communication techniques. The advantage of strategic
communication is that it not only improves the performance of banks but also facilitates
strengthening of the systems. Banks can use communication for meticulously building
ongoing relationships with all the stakeholders, ranging from customers and staff, to the
general public. He studied that the policy initiatives that are to be taken with regard to
streamlining of banking operations should involve taking steps for reducing transaction
costs, and build flexibility in operations. Banks should take new initiatives in building the
entrepreneurship class and finance such activities that contribute to economic growth.
Policy initiatives should look at up gradation of risk management systems and ensure
higher compliance standards.
Prasad Mohan (2004), while giving his viewpoint about Performance Management said
that it is a strong leverage tool for achieving the business results as every employees
focus is going through paradigm shift to Key Result Areas (KRAs). He says that every
employee should focus on his deliverables. The basic fear, according to him, could be the
strong probabilities of some promises, which we would have made, meant to impress
somebody. He adds the Honesty to admittance of mistakes pay rich dividends especially
when we show this quality not when our chips are down but when there is scope to make
amends.
Sharma Shambhavi (2004) in her study on the impact of strategic human resource
management on firm performance observed that Achieving organizational
excellence in todays competitive era is a continuous process and is a result of
high performance throughout the organization. Effective corporates and processes
are the bedrock of successful organizations, human resource management (HRM)
being the most vital corporate initiative dealing with the Live brand of the
organization- its people. Hence, HRM function can no longer be treated as a mere
support function. In most of the leading organizations worldwide, the HRM
function is now being treated as a strategic partner of the organization through,
Strategic Human Resource Management Interventions. Her study observed the
following approaches to evaluate the HR function and its impact:
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The strategic HR framework: It offers specific tools and paths to identify how a
firm can leverage its HR practices
a) The integrative framework: This framework identifies three paths through,

which HR practices can contribute to business performance: By building
organizational capabilities, by improving employee satisfaction, by shaping
customer and shareholder satisfaction.
b) HRD Scorecard: The HRD scorecard matches business strategy HR
deliverables and objectives to provide a statistical basis by which HR efficiency
and contribution to strategy implementation can be measured.
c) HRD Audit: HRD audit is a process of examining policies, procedure,
documentation system and practices with respect to an organizations HR
function.
d) Program Evaluation: Program is a systematic process for determining the
merit of alternative activities that have been or are being implemented for the
purpose of selecting a preferred option for future implementation.
e) People Capability Maturity Model: The People Capability Maturity Model
is a road map for implementing workforce practices that continuously improve
the capability of the organization
f) People Process Model: The people process model links individual and team
objectives to business goals.
g) HR Accounting: HR accounting method evaluates sum total of the worth of
the organization to use it in strategic planning as the other assets.
Singh Kuldeep (2003) studied the effect of human resource management practices on the
firm performance in India. He examined that the aim of the human resources in the
organization context is to ensure the availability of competent, motivated and learning
employees to the organization to facilitate the achievement of its business objectives. The
broad objective of his study was to arrive at an understanding of the extent of the
relationship between the HR practices and organizational performance. He explained
about the shift which is taking place in the role of HR function and managers, and this
new role is an active partner along with other functionaries like production, finance,
marketing, etc, which have two implications i.e. it will require HR function and persons
69
dealing with it to provide more inputs related to HR and will require HR to demonstrate
those investments in to contribute in business results. Empirically most of the work has
been undertaken to study the relationship HRM practices and firm level outcomes like
productivity, employee turnover and market value which have concluded that employee
participation and empowerment, job redesigning, employee training, etc are widely
believed to improve the performance of the organization. And it has been also found that
the organization effectiveness was associated with capabilities and attributes of HR staff,
and further explained that the relationships between HR management effectiveness and
productivity, cash flow and market value were positive. The results were according to the
HR Practice Index, Profit-Cost Margin, Productivity, Turnover, Return on Capital
Employed and Return on Net Worth. The combined impact of measures of HR practices
was studied by computing coefficient of determinants between index of measures of
HRPI and measures of organizational performance and which indicates an increase in the
use of HR practices is likely to result in the reduction of the employee turnover and also
the increase in the organizational productivity. Organizations can adopt various practices
to develop and enhance employees physical capacity, ability, knowledge and skills,
which focus on improving quality of individuals. Indeed, investments in training produce
beneficial organizational outcomes. Further organizations can monitor the development
of desired attitudes and behaviors in employees through the use of the appraisal
mechanisms. The study indicates that Indian organizations are still not convinced of the
fact that investments in human resources can result in higher performance. It has been
also observed that there is variation even in the usage of HR practices among the
organizations. Further HRPI explained a variation in all the measures of objective
organizational performance, which is not higher than the variation accounted for
individual practices which are due to the high degree of relationship among the HR
practices as indicated by the coefficients of correlation. Thus it also implies that
evaluation of HR practices on organizational performance needs to be made at the system
level, i.e. HR practices a system and not the evaluation of individual HR practices
because it is likely to show biased results.
Murty G R K (2003), According to his study, performance management is a systematic

and data oriented approach to managing people at work. It relies on positive
reinforcement as the major way to maximize performance. His research talks about
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different constituents of PM in detail. Job description is the important constituent of PM.
The defined performance standards offer a benchmark to evaluate the actual work
performance. When standards are developed in collaboration with the employees for
whose position they are being developed, it is more likely that the standards will be
appropriate to the requirements of the job & reflect the realities of the work context and
conditions. The next important constituent is observing employee performance. He
suggested some options that can be exercised such as evaluating the output and products
of the employees work, periodically reviewing and discussing with employees their
standard of performance at the job vis--vis management expectations and obtaining
feedback from customers. It is a strategic and integrated approach to delivering sustained
success to organizations by improving the performance of the people who work in them
by developing the capabilities of the teams and individual performers.
Jain Pankaj (2006) studied the concept of additional income tax on fringe benefits. He
described fringe benefits as consideration for employment provided by way of: a) any
privilege, service, benefit, facility or amenity, directly or indirectly, provided by an
employer, whether by way of reimbursement or otherwise to his employees including
former employee or employees. b) Any free or concessional ticket provided by the
employer for private journeys of his employees or their family members. c) Any
contribution made by the employer to the superannuating fund for employees. He is of
the opinion that many perquisites are disguised as fringe benefits; neither the employer
nor the employee pays any tax on these benefits.
Chabria Vishal (2006) observed in his study that the fringe benefit tax (FBT) has been a
bone of contention ever since it was included in 2005- 2006 fiscal years budget. His
study affirms that FBT is here to stay. The reason is that tax had made the exchequer
richer by few thousands crore in the very first year of imposition. Today FBT has been
softened in the following areas, superannuating fund, airlines and shipping industries,
transport expenses under sales and promotion publicity head.
Aarti (2001) has opinion, that stress can adversely affect organizations in a plethora of
ways ranging from increased customer complaints and high levels of staff burnout. The
thrust of good stress management initiatives should be not only on identifying the sources
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of stress, but also troubleshooting solutions based on the input, interaction and needs of
all concerned. Efforts should be made to help employees realize that managing stress is
nothing but managing oneself and one's life more effectively. It does require dedication
and commitment, but the rewards are great, long lasting and extensive. Workplace
wellness impacts not only the individual, but also those he comes in contact with in
simple terms, mental health is a state of successful performance of mental function,
resulting in productive activities and fulfilling relationships with other people; the thrust
of all efforts must begin with providing an enabling environment at the workplace by
setting clearly measurable goals and defined objectives for the employees, ensuring the
individuals are well matched to their jobs, training retraining employees particularly in
interpersonal skills, providing necessary guidance and support for those experiencing
high stress levels, soliciting ideas from employees to combat stress and encouraging
flexible or shorter hours.
Saxena S.K. (2005) gave his perspectives on occupational safety, health & environment
of workers at national level. According to him one of the most important impact of
globalization and liberalization of international trade on occupational safety, health and
environment is that of harmonization of standards. The harmonization of standards in the
global economy will be a powerful tool for self-regulation in safety, health and
environment by the industries. The existing scenario of occupational health and safety is
not very appealing so far as the effectiveness of existing infrastructure is concerned.
Apart from the statutory compliance, the infrastructure has to be improved further and
that requires proper funding and political will. The solutions for the current problem are
the four new paradigm shift namely resource, academic, cooperative & R & D. Providing
decent conditions of work to the workers in all occupations for ensuring health
protection at work is the recommendation of ILO in current times. This could be achieved
only through knowledge of safety and health and its appropriate application. It is also
necessary that the applied knowledge be pushed to the politicians, bureaucrats,
journalists, employers and trade union leaders for better and effective results. A total
change in the attitude towards occupational safety and health is needed at all levels, from
government down to the shop floor workers. The fact that investments in OSH can yield
returns with rich dividend in the form if increased productivity and economic
development needs to be appreciated by each and every individual of an industrial
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community. This can be facilitated by promotional activities and advocacy backed by
authentic management information system available to all. Empowering the workforce to
decide what they need and how that could be worked out best for them may provide the
required solutions for many of their OSH problems.
Rao K Raghvendra (2003) opines that HR works best when the top leadership in a
company partners with the HR department to create a people- oriented performance
culture. Companies where people are the only source of value-addition have been quicker
off the mark in understanding the new realities of HR and the metrics they need to
evaluate themselves. The challenges are different for manufacturing and services
companies. The challenge before an HR manager in a manufacturing unit that is being
restructured is in handing out pink slips, managing sagging morale, bargaining with
employees in wage and benefits settlements, and looking after litigation. Further, they are
trying to manage costs, boost productivity and yet try to hold onto critical talent. What
are tested are their crisis management skills, communication and people management
skills, and the ability to lead from the front. On the other hand, he observed that, services,
which are either at the start-up or growth stages in India, are in a constant need to be fast
and agile. Here the challenge is in establishing base level HR practices, recruiting quality
workforces and managing exceptions, dealing with competitive employees and pressures,
managing employee expectations. HR managers, dream sellers and decisiveness.
Indiana University (2004), According to the HR policies of Indiana University factors

used in determining promotions and transfers should be made by examining all factors
necessary to determine the best qualifications and capabilities to fill the position. These
factors may include, but not be limited to: experience, past performance, job-related
educational background, ability and qualifications to perform the work, attendance record
over the last twelve (12) months (not including extended periods of sick leave of two
weeks or more due to serious illness or injury or approved leaves of absence). When
qualifications and capabilities are found relatively equal, employees should then be
ranked in order of occupational unit seniority date (in the occupational unit of promotion)
first and university seniority date second. Unless otherwise mutually agreed to by
management, employee, and local union and except for openings occurring in jobs of a
unique nature requiring unusual skills and abilities, an employee must work on a job for
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at least the following times: three (3) months before requesting a promotion to another
job and six (6) months before requesting a transfer to another job.
Raina Anupama D (2006) in her study explains that the growth of attrition rates has
been a major concern for the last couple of decades. According to her, many experts
believe that attrition rates can be lowered through effective hiring systems, while others
believe that the problem lies with the nature of the organization's system. The main
objective of her research was being to know the problems and effects of attrition on call
centers. Another objective of the research was to study the retention measures adopted by
the call centers to retain employees, and in the end, develop a module for the call center,
which can help in curbing the existing problems faced by them. The research analysis
shows a gradual increase in the attrition rate. It was also found that attrition was more
common between the age group of 20-25 years and within three months of joining the
organization. Qualification-wise, the employees leave the organization for career growth
and higher studies. Further analyses show that attritions in call centers occur because of
lack of social interaction, personal problems, slow growth prospects, odd shifts and
monotony of work. Keeping in mind the causes of attrition, various employee retention
strategies were recommended.
Ekka Pradeep Kumar (2005) examined how to manage employee attrition. He observed
Attrition tends to be high in the initial months of an employees induction. It is lowest for
employees with two to four years of tenure in an organization. No company can avoid
attrition therefore the focus should be on increasing the average retention period. Career
growth has a relatively high impact on average tenures. He critically analyzed employee
satisfaction surveys and exit interviews apart from direct feedback from employees.
According to him, the problems causing employee attrition can be grouped as under:
Dissatisfaction with the compensation package, Insecurity over career growth , Lack of
recognition, Technological preference, Dissatisfaction with the work culture, Unfulfilled
promises, Conflicts with superior, Regional preferences, Personal and family reasons. To
manage attrition in the short run, an immediate thrust has to be given to the first three
factors by revamping the performance management system (PMS). A good PMS takes
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care of issues relating to the articulation of expectations, periodic reviews for correction,
counseling and support, and overall performance assessment for rewards and recognition.
Chandrasekhar S. (2005) recommended how the professionals should make EXIT or

leave the companies. In brief it talks about- what should be the dos and donts dos for a
professional before leaving the organizations. According to the author, proper interviews
should be conducted for all the leaving employees, to know the reasons for their EXIT.
As everyone has got a different style of working, a good professional should try to coach
his/her colleagues so that they can adapt themselves with their working style and take
over the work smoothly. There are various reasons for which an employee leaves the
organization. All the good professionals plan their EXIT well before time and dont leave
the organization in hurry. EXIT should be planned and discussed with immediate boss
and at least one or two key players of top management, so that they can get ample time to
fill in the vacuum of the leaving employee. If somebody is holding a key position in the
organization, he/she should avoid signing off undue favors and those matters which have
long term implications and should handover the long-term projects as it is without trying
to complete them in huff. One should try to complete all the pending transactions or
should simply close all those transactions which could not be completed by him/her and
accordingly make the data of all unfinished work which they were pursuing. Another
very important thing is, one should leave the organization with dignity and should avoid
speaking ill about the company and its employees. Companys assets should be handed
over to company. So it becomes important for companies to have structured way of EXIT
and should make every departure as helpful as exit.
Murty GRK (2004) did an in-depth study of exit interviews. He observed that these
interviews provide great insights into how employees perceive their organizations and the
levels of employee satisfaction. These interviews provide an elicit and honest feedback
from the outgoing employee which is sure to bring into notice a wide range of
organizational and operational issues. His study reveals that employees mainly quit
because of the following reasons: better career opportunities elsewhere, job
dissatisfaction, autocratic corporate leadership, minimum or no training support and
inadequate compensation.
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2.3 HR PRACTICES AND JOB SATISFACTION RECENT STUDIES
Savaneviciene, Stankeviciute (2011) The Author is of the view that HRM does
influence performance and there appears to be no consensus on the nature of HRM
practices and categorization of performance outcomes, also little attention is paid to
exploring the processes through which the impact takes place. There paper reveals the
nature of HRM practices and the content of organizational commitment and job
satisfaction. The paper proposes an answer to the question - how HRM practices can
influence organizational performance. The approach of impact is based on AMO
framework, which discloses the importance of employees abilities, motivation and
opportunity to participate. Besides, the paper presents empirical research showing that
skill-enhancing, motivation-enhancing and engagement-enhancing HRM practices have
positive relations with affective human resource reactions: organizational commitment
and job satisfaction.
Arumugam, Mojtahedzadeh (2011) this article purpose a model to conduct an

empirical study in Malaysian Industries in order to improve their financial performance.
There are many factors which are effective factors in improving performance of
Malaysian Industries namely, employee participation, and training, and job description,
career planning system, compensation system, selection system, and performance
appraisal system. The Job satisfaction plays a fundamental role in determining the
performance in Malaysian industries. In this research, a model has been developed that
includes Human Resource Management Practices and job satisfaction to study their
influence on the performance of Malaysian industries. It is hoped that this paper can
provide an academic source for both academicians and managers due to investigate the
relationship between Human Resource Management Practices, Job Satisfaction, and
Financial Performance in a systematic manner to increase successful rate of Human
Resource
Martin(2011) The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of human resource
(HR) practices on the job satisfaction and organizational commitment of new Extension
agents as they relate to intent to quit. This study focused on Extension Agents with less
than six years of employment and included four objectives: 1) to describe Extension
76
agents experience with HR practices during the first six years of employment, 2) to
describe newly hired Extension agents job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and
intention to quit, 3) to identify the relationship between HR practices, job satisfaction,
organizational commitment, and intent to quit, and 4) to explain newly hired Extension
agents intent to quit based upon HR practices. Based upon the findings and conclusions
of this study, the researcher recommends the following to Extension organizations
wishing to limit occurrences of unwanted voluntary turnover of Extension Agents.
Findings indicate a significant relationship between perceptions of human resource
practices and intention to quit, mediated by organizational commitment and job
satisfaction. Accordingly, the research has important implications for the management of
Cooperative Extension and anyone working in or preparing to work in related fields.
Rehman (2011) it reveals a diverse aspect of a practical operation of human resource

management practices and performance linkage in Pakistan. It shows that human resource
planning; the most critical element of personnel function is emerging. The task of
acquiring sound and credible employees belongs to the Human Resources Management
(HRM). The challenge of identifying the right man for the right job, individuals to fill
public sector positions is to be met. A large number of potential opportunities are
available in the employment market but the challenge for organizations is to identify and
select those candidates who could perform effectively and efficiently. Selection and the
assessments chosen for the selection process should be done on the basis of the
requirements of the job. Knowledge is essential on part of the organization in terms of
what constitutes good job performance; what kind of knowledge, skills and abilities are
required and what measures would be effective in assessing these. The results of this
article move about the field of human resource management forward by empirically
viewing a link between HR practices like job analysis, job design, job evaluation, job
security, and job succession planning and job performance. The implications of the
distinctive consequence of the human resource practices on organizational performance
measures were found remarkable. Altogether this paper makes an effort signifying a
substantial positive contribution by HRM to organizational performance.
Shamsudin et. al. (2012) recently the phenomenon of cyber deviance has become a major
concern of employers, as its represent outgoing challenge for the contemporary scholar
77
and practitioners, these challenges related to the significant costs in organizations, in both
human and financial terms. The purpose of this paper is to revisit the management
literature and establish a link between HR practices, leadership style and cyber deviance.
Within this context this paper will also conceptually propose the possibility of
organizational commitment to mediate this relationship. In this manner the paper will
propose a research model and develop propositions to be later tested empirically.
It has shown the role of HR practices, leadership style in influencing cyber deviance. In
addition this study suggest that organizational commitment as mediating variable can
play important role in the relationship between HR practices, leadership style on cyber
deviance. This paper has postulated that HR practices and leadership style and
organizational commitment have negative effect on cyber deviance. The phenomenon of
cyber deviance still very much at their infancy despite the growing literature, employer
should give more attention to their employee.
Nunes Joseph C. and Xavier Drze (2006) are of the opinion that employee loyalty
programs, when designed and executed well, are ingenious marketing tools. In a wide
variety of industry settings, theyve proven their ability to reduce churn, increase sales
and profitability, and yield the kind of insight that allows a company to provide more
valued services to its customers. Making sure that a companys loyalty program will
carry its weight and begins with clarifying what the program is expected to do. This
requires careful attention to the details of program design, from the value and nature of
the rewards to the ways in which they are bestowed and redeemed. Perhaps more than
anything, a successful program depends on competent and consistent execution. Even
with all of this, true loyalty might be too much to expect, but companies will likely have
longer-term relationships with happier customers. And that, sounds like the best kind of
competitive advantage.
Berry Mike (2005) studied that average levels of job satisfaction among women workers
has been falling for 15 years, despite greater equality in the workplace and flexible
working laws. Research based on about 25,000 British women employees examined that
women workers used to have significantly higher levels of job satisfaction than men in
the UK, but now they have almost the same level as male workers. The results seem to be
78
a sign of growing pressures on women in the workplace, as women compete increasingly
with men for better jobs. The study shows satisfaction among women, who work part-
time, has fallen more dramatically than among the full-timers.
Garcez Claudia (2005) did her study on Job Satisfaction: The Challenges Transformed
Organizations Face. According to her, transformed organizations face tremendous
challenges in the need to attract and retain a productive workforce. Organizations must
create new ways to keep their employees satisfied. Surveys should be conducted as a way
to find out what is causing workers to be dissatisfied and action taken when the root is
discovered. A powerful tool for organizational psychologists to use in advising their
clients on ways to keep their employees satisfied is to consider following Frederick
Herzbergs theory. By following this theory, transformed organizations will have the best
opportunity to create and retain a motivated productive workforce.
Faragher E B et al (2005) did a meta-analysis to study the relationship between job

satisfaction and health. A systematic review and meta-analysis of 485 studies with a
combined sample size of 267 995 individuals was conducted, evaluating the research
evidence linking self-report measures of job satisfaction to measures of physical and
mental well-being. The overall correlation combined across all health measures was r =
0.312 (0.370 after Schmidt-Hunter adjustment). Job satisfaction was most strongly
associated with mental/psychological problems; strongest relationships were found for
burnout (corrected r = 0.478), self-esteem(r = 0.429), depression (r = 0.428), and
anxiety(r = 0.420). The correlation with subjective physical illness was more modest (r =
0.287). Correlations in excess of 0.3 were rare in this context. The relationships found
suggested that job satisfaction level was an important factor influencing the health of
workers. Organizations should include the development of stress management policies to
identify and eradicate work practices that cause most job dissatisfaction as part of any
exercise aimed at improving employee health. Occupational health clinicians should
consider counseling employees diagnosed as having psychological problems to critically
evaluate their workand help them to explore ways of gaining greater satisfaction.
Srivastav Deepak (2005) opines that public sector reforms have brought changes in the
managerial function. Managements have been given more power and autonomy for
79
conducting various activities and in decision making for critical issues. Accountability of
management has also been increased. Subsequently, professional leadership has
developed a work-oriented environment by shifting importance to employee
performance. This means that the best performance is being rewarded and vice- versa. In
a competitive environment, jobs and growth have been linked to individual performance.
Competitiveness leads to the cultivation of a competitive spirit in individual employees.
In such an environment, the less competitive employees are rejected. This situation forces
employees to make work the central part of life. Employees want better pay and
promotion policies.
Bradley, Don E et al (2004) did a survey on Self-employment and job satisfaction:

investigating the role of self-efficacy, depression, and seniority. They are of the opinion
that first of all, self-employed persons should enjoy higher job satisfaction than others.
Second, a portion of the association between job satisfaction and self-employment should
be explained by higher levels of self-efficacy and by lower levels of depression among
the self- employed compared to others. Third, self-employment veterans are a select
group and should be different systematically from self-employment newcomers with
respect to reported job satisfaction. Findings offer support for the first and second
arguments above but not the third. Post-hoc analysis suggests that among the newly self-
employed, the association between job satisfaction and self-employment depends on both
the quantity and quality of time invested in the business.
HP Technology (2004) is of the viewpoint that with an increasing number of workers

eager to find a greater work/life balance, one has to find out what one can do now to keep
the employees happy. Improve your employees job satisfaction by providing workers
with responsibilityand then let them use it, show respect, recognize the whole person
and mark out a clear path to growth. Trends toward increasing job dissatisfaction can be
reversed, and even employees with low morale can become motivated and enthusiastic
again. But it takes workand creativityon the employers part. According to Jill
Casner-Lotto, vice president of the Work in America Institute, for work/life programs to
succeed, there must be both bottom-up and top-down support. [Support from the top] is
criticalsenior-level management sets the tone, creates the environment in which these
initiatives can happen, and then provides the resources, but this top-level commitment
80
must be combined with mid-level and front-line managerial support and grassroots
employee involvement if it is to be truly successful.
Staff WorkZ (2004), in his job satisfaction and retention survey found out that salary has
become the top issue as to why people stay, or leave their organization for another.
Retention programs are more effective and less expensive than recruitment programs
according to their study. Reduced turnover gives more stability, which pleases both
employees and customers alike. The average cost to recruit and train one employee is
estimated at 2.5 times an employees salary. The study observed that only half of the
workforce put effort into their job over and beyond what is required. Three out of four
people said they had the ability to become more effective than they were. A satisfied
workforce reflects a positive attitude toward others. They in turn reflect a positive attitude
toward customers and patients thus generating higher satisfaction scores, which help in
growing the profits of your organization.
2.4 HR PRACTICES AND ORGANISTIONAL COMMITMENT RECENT

STUDIES
Sial (2011) the purpose of this research is to probe into the effects of HRM practices
namely promotion, performance evaluation and compensation on organizational
commitment of faculty members of Universities in Pakistan. 206 teachers of various
Pakistani universities were selected randomly, irrespective of gender, race and
designation and dispensed with a questionnaire. The results show that organizational
commitment is strongly, positively influenced by compensation practices adopted by the
universities. However performance evaluation and promotion practices were found to
have no significant relationship with Organizational commitment.
Chaudhuri (2012) the human resource practice of training outsourcing is emerging as

one of the fastest growing segments of the broader business process outsourcing
industry. In spite of its growing popularity in both academic literature and professional
practice, training outsourcing is continuously subjected to critical reviews and on-going
debates regarding the decision to outsource or not to outsource. There exists, however,
a paucity of research on training outsourcing as a human resource development (HRD)
practice on different organizational outcomes. This conceptual paper attempted to build
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on and extend previous research that examined the relationship between training and
organizational commitment by focusing on outsourced training. This study also fills an
important gap in the training outsourcing literature by taking into consideration employee
perceptions and preferences towards outsourced training. The study is framed by social
exchange theory to explore possible relationships between training outsourcing and
organizational commitment.
Abbas (2010) the study provides an insight account into the phenomenon of human
resource management practices and leadership styles carried out in public and private
sector universities. These practices are considered very effective in retaining the valuable
human capital. The study investigates the effects of human resource management
practices (also termed as HR practices) and leadership styles on organizational
commitment and citizenship behaviors (critical determinants of organizational
effectiveness by Katz, 1964) among university teachers. The results reveal that both
human resource practices and leadership styles positively predicted organizational
commitment of faculty members however they did not predict citizenship behaviors.
Regression results further revealed that HR practices were more important than
leadership styles in predicting organizational commitment of valued human capital.
Khan et. al. (2011) the study comprehensively evaluates the relationship between HPWS
and organization commitment and the level of organizational commitment among gender
(male and female), nature of tenure (regular and contract employees) and job experience.
Results based on academic faculty sample of 616 from 22 public sector universities of
Pakistan show that HPWS is positively and significantly associated with organizational
commitment. Kruskal- Wallis test reveals that there is no significant difference in
organization commitment of male and female academic faculty. Academic faculty with
regular tenure is more committed than academic faculty with contract tenure. High
experience academic faculty is more committed than less experience academic faculty.
The results also indicate that gender moderate the relationship between HPWS and
organizational commitment. However moderate effect of tenure and experience are not
confirmed.
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Ardts et. al. (2011) the study went beyond previous research on leader-member
exchange (LMX) by examining employees who are supervised by more than one boss.
Using data from 122 PhDs from a Dutch university, the current study had three research
objectives. First, to examine the effects of PhDs' LMX with both their promoter and their
assistant promoter on affective organizational commitment (AOC). Second, to examine
the mediating role of satisfaction with HR practices in the two LMX - AOC relationships.
Since the promoter as the higher level boss has more influence on different HR practices
the third objective was to examine whether the LMX - AOC relationship is stronger for
the promoter than for the assistant promoter. The results showed that both promoter LMX
and LMX assistant promoter were positively related to PhDs AOC, and both
relationships were fully mediated by PhDs satisfaction with HR practices. As expected,
these effects were significantly stronger for the promoter than for the assistant promoter.
Vanitha, V, et al. (2006) analyzes the organizational commitment and stress among the
information technology (IT) professionals. Some of the demographic variables and sex
differences between the male and female IT professionals on organizational commitment
and stress were also examined. An Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) test was used to
analyze the data, which consisted of 76 IT professionals. Results, based on the study of
various variables, revealed that there was no significant difference between the male and
female IT professionals.
Kassahun Tilaye (2005) as per his findings, there is a significant difference in

perceptions of Indian employees towards the level of their commitment to their
organization. The difference is reflected in such a way that an overwhelming majority of
employees had moderately high level of commitment, the second majority of them had a
high level of commitment, while a very small number of them believed that they had only
low level of commitment to their organizations goal or objectives. His study also
attempted to examine the extent of association between organizational commitment, and
both personal characteristics and organizational practices as viewed by the subjects of his
study. The results of the data analyses revealed that out of ten independent variables
considered for his study, nine of them established direct association while one of them
(viz. education) established an inverse relationship with organizational commitment. His
study asserted that the contribution of personal characteristics to a total variation in
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organizational commitment is very minimal (almost negligible). This gives an interesting
clue to managers and personnel officers that commitment can be engendered through pro-
employee management practices, such as providing a great deal of liberty (freedom) to
employees to decide on their work, a high level of managerial support accorded to
employees even to the extent of going out of its way to share personal problems of
employees, ensuring fairness of work-related outcomes both content-wise and
procedurally, and so forth.
Park Sungmin, Henkin Alan B., Egley Robert (2005) in their study teamwork was
found to be a significant predictor of teacher team commitment. Respondents showing
higher levels of teamwork skills perceived higher levels of team commitment. Results,
while not entirely confirmatory, suggested the importance of trust in the commitment
equation. Prior researches had confirmed the value-added effects of organizational
commitment in terms of job performance, organizational effectiveness, and employee
retention. Therefore, their study focused on teacher teams as the unit of analysis, and
posited associations between teamwork, viewed as team skills, trust and teacher team
commitment. Data were derived from responses of elementary school teachers to an
instrument including established measures of teamwork component skills, affective- and
cognition-based trust, and team commitment.
McKenna Steve (2005) in his study used qualitative data from 20 managers in four small
Singaporean businesses in the services sector and explored the issue of organizational
commitment. The findings generally supported those in the positivistic literature on
organizational commitment. It also argued that continuance commitment, largely seen as
negative for organizations and performance, can be both positive and negative in certain
circumstances. His study further suggests that owner/manager style in the businesses may
have an important impact on manager commitment and that the future growth and
development of these businesses may be stunted as a consequence of negative aspects of
the entrepreneurial management style.
Sikorska-Simmons Elzbieta (2005) this study examines the role of organizational

culture, job satisfaction, and socio- demographic characteristics as predictors of
organizational commitment among staff in assisted living. She is of the view that it is
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particularly important to examine organizational commitment, because of its close links
to staff turnover. In her study, organizational culture, job satisfaction, and education were
strong predictors of commitment, together explaining 58% of the total variance in the
dependent variable. Higher levels of organizational commitment were associated with
more favorable staff perceptions of organizational culture and greater job satisfaction. In
addition, more educated staff members tended to report higher levels of organizational
commitment. Other than education, socio- demographic characteristics failed to account
for a significant amount of variance in organizational commitment. Because job
satisfaction and organizational culture were strong predictors of commitment,
interventions aimed at increasing job satisfaction and creating an organizational culture
that values and respects staff members could be most effective in producing higher levels
of organizational commitment. Data were collected from 317 staff members in 61
facilities, using self-administered questionnaires. The facilities were selected from
licensed assisted living programs and were stratified into small, traditional, and new-
model homes. A researcher distributed staff questionnaires during 1-day visits to each
facility. Organizational commitment was measured by the extent of staff identification,
involvement, and loyalty to the organization.
Sanne G.A. et al (2005) their paper examined the effects of Human Resource
Management (HRM) practices and antecedents (personal variables, job and role
characteristics, and work experiences) on organizational commitment among Dutch
university employees. Analyses of the web survey data revealed that decentralization,
participation, social interactions, and laissez-faire management are important HRM
practices for affecting academics' organizational commitment. Likewise, the antecedents
age, educational level, organizational tenure, household size, career mobility, job
challenge, job level, working hours, organizational climate, and social involvement all
have significant influences on either affective, continuance or normative organizational
commitment of university employees. Some of the findings contradict the existing
literature, whereas others confirm contemporary theories.
Ulrich and Brockbank (2005) in their book The HR Value Proposition discuss an HR
perspective that is both unique and powerful and is one that establishes the linkages
between employee commitment, customer attitudes, and investor returns. Changing any
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single HR practice (staffing, training, appraisal, teamwork, and upward communication)
does not create a transformation. Unless the entire array of HR practices collectively adds
value for key stakeholders, transformation has not occurred. Transformation requires
integrating the various HR practices and focusing them jointly on value-added agendas
such as intangibles, customer connection, organization capabilities, and individual
abilities. Moving toward service centers, centers of expertise, or outsourcing does not
mean that HR has been transformed. If new delivery mechanisms provide basically the
same old HR services, the function has changed but not transformed itself. HR
transformation changes both behavior and outputs. The changes must improve life for
key stakeholders in ways that they are willing to pay for. We believe that a fundamental
transformation of HR starts with a definition of HR valuewhich the receivers are and a
clear statement of what they will receive from HR services. It also requires a complete
picture of all the elements of HR transformation, so that piecemeal attempts do not
become isolated events.
Swailes Stephen (2004) is of the opinion that organizational commitment is a desired

outcome of human resource management (HRM) strategies given its links to positive
attitudes and behavior in the pursuit of change. The organization, however, is just one of
several foci for employee commitment. His study explored the links between multiple
commitments and employee behavior. Cluster analysis of data from public accountants
identified four main commitment profiles. Private sector accountants also showed
profiles 1 and 4 together with a cluster showing commitment to the work group only and
a cluster showing commitment to the supervisor only. Profiles explained variation in
behavior aimed at task achievement and innovation for public but not private
accountants. Behavior was highest for profile 1. He views that HRM strategies need to
look beyond organizational commitment and engender commitment to other foci in order
to win the behavior required to support successful change programmes.
Wheatley et. al. (2004) studied "Social Exchanges within Organizations and Work
Outcomes". Their research focused primarily on employee relationships with supervisors
and with the organization to explain employee in-role and extra-role behaviors. It extends
the understanding of social exchange by exploring two additional exchanges (employee
relationships with top management and with employees in other work areas) and
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examines all four social exchanges effect on work behaviors. It also extends notions of
employee performance to include employee involvement in organizational improvement
efforts. Data collected in a field study of 129 supervisor-subordinate dyads suggested that
local (interpersonal exchanges with supervisors and colleagues in other work areas) and
global (exchanges with top management and the organization) foci have different effects
on work performance and that local social exchanges have a greater influence on work
outcomes than global social exchanges.
Awasthy Richa, Gupta Rajen K. (2004) the paper aimed at conceptualizing

organizational effectiveness from perspective of executives working in MNCs.
Underlying assumption seems to be that if employees are taken care of, they are likely to
feel accountable to other stakeholders objectives. Executives today would like to
consider them business partners in an organization. Therefore, a learning oriented
workforce is considered one of the key competencies of any organization. Thus, present
day organization should aim at developing an organizational culture more conducive to
adapting to changes & developing employees. This seems to be important for
organizational effectiveness.
Bennett Jason et al (2003) in their paper presented and tested a conceptual model
linking perceptions of the internal work environment and external markets to information
technology (IT) worker turnover. The model focused on organizational commitment
(OC) as the primary predictor of turnover intention. They suggested that OC mediates
perceptions of the workplace and external environment on turnover intention.
Specifically, they hypothesized that OC mediates the influence of (1) job satisfaction, (2)
perceived job characteristics, (3) perceived competitiveness of pay, and (4) perceived job
alternatives on turnover intention. Also, perceived job alternatives are modeled as having
a direct effect on turnover intention. Analysis provided moderate empirical support for
the research model. OC and perceived job alternatives demonstrated distinct effects on
turnover intention. In addition, OC mediated the influence of job satisfaction, perceived
job characteristics, and perceived competitiveness of pay on turnover intention. Findings
suggested that through cultivating positive beliefs about the job and attitudes toward the
employer, managers might counter the influence of external markets on IT workers
turnover intention.
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Sharma Radha R. & Sharma Baldev R. (2003) According to them organizational
Commitment (OC) is an intense positive orientation towards an organization, ones
identification with it, viewing the organizations goal as ones own and overstretching
oneself to achieve the same. Motivation, a driving force for goal directed activity and
OC, exerts considerable influence on various aspects of work performance and
withdrawal behavior. Their study reveals that job content and scope for advancement are
critical determinants of organizational commitment and work motivation. It has clearly
brought out that job content is the most significant determinant of organizational
commitment and motivation. Organizations striving for performance improvement and
productivity enhancement need to focus on not only enriching the job but also finding the
right person for the right job. It is often observed that employees are assigned jobs that do
not match their ability and background. Consequently neither is they able to contribute
nor are they able to guide their subordinates, causing low motivation and commitment
among them as well. Competency mapping and matching of person-position profiles can
take care of this problem, and should go hand in hand with job enrichment. Another
implication of the findings was that for developing organizational commitment among
managerial staff, organizations need to create more opportunities for their vertical
movement and scope for professional development and career enhancement.
Turan, M.S. and Gupta Pradeep, (2003) Human Resource Function : The new Profit
center , have very well highlighted that changing business conditions and changes in
organizational structures have compelled human resources departments to increasingly
alter their perspectives on their role and function. According to authors for organizational
acceptance and effectiveness, human resource function must increasingly become partner
of overall business goals and objectives and its present and future needs and justify itself
as a value function. In this article an attempt has been made to establish a result based
approach when implementing human resource programmes. It also explores the paradigm
shifts from traditional approach to result based approach.
Howard Larry W. (2002) studied managers and executives from 257 organizations and
completed mailed surveys investigating relationships among reward strategies, task
interdependence, team performance, and firm productivity. All measures attained at the
firm level. As expected, firms that based employee rewards on either personal or
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collective output tended to demonstrate higher levels of productivity. Output-based
reward strategies had no direct relationships, however, with team performance. Also as
expected, task interdependence moderated the relationship between rewards based on
human capital and team performance. Team performance was highest when firms with
complex task interdependence used human capital strategies to reward employees. He
observed that one of the more perplexing challenges facing human resource professionals
today involves finding ways to compensate teams and team members fairly and
efficiently, while providing incentives to enhance productivity and performance. He
recommended that first; he identified alternative reward strategies that characterize an
organizations strategic compensation system. Then he identified the structural impact of
designing work for teams rather than individuals. Next he proposed relationships among
alternative reward strategies and performance outcomes. Finally, he presented the results
of a nationwide survey of human resource managers in the U.S., asking them about some
of these relationships. He analyzed the data at the organization level. According to him
this is the only study of reward strategies, teams, and performance measured at the level
of the firm.
Cooper Amy Rachelle (2002) her dissertation meta-analytically examined the expansive
material associated with work commitment. According to her, work commitment, a
multidimensional construct, encompasses the level of involvement an employee has with
his or her work, organization, job, career, and union. The primary purpose of her study
was to (1) cumulate the correlations found among each of the dimensions of work
commitment to see which, if any, were inter correlated, and to (2) determine the impact
of work commitment dimensions and sub dimensions on specific outcome variables (job
satisfaction, job performance, and turnover). A number of interesting results stemmed
from the 213 separate meta-analyses that were conducted by her. First, the evidence did
not indicate that all of the sub dimensions for each respective dimension were positively
correlated. Specifically, there was not enough evidence to indicate that continuance
organizational commitment was positively correlated with its other organizational
commitment sub dimensions. She opined that future research might consider revamping
the work commitment taxonomy so that all sub dimensions that fall within a particular
dimension are interrelated. It might be appropriate, therefore, to drop continuance
organizational commitment from the work commitment taxonomy. Second, while most of
89
the respective dimensions were interrelated, this was not the case across the board. For
instance, there was no evidence of a significant positive relationship between
organizational commitment and union commitment. In fact, the only significant
relationship was negative between organizational commitment and belief in unionism.
Further, there was no evidence of a positive relationship between union commitment and
either work ethic endorsement or job involvement, respectively. These findings supported
Morrow's (1993) rationale for excluding union commitment from the work commitment
taxonomy.
Michael Riketta and Angela Landerer (2002) the authors postulated that attitudinal
organizational commitment (AOC) and accountability to an external audience mutually
moderate their relationships with work behavior. These hypotheses were tested for two
types of work behavior (in-role performance and organizational citizenship behavior),
using self-report data from 63 employees of a German health service organization. As
expected, the correlation between AOC and in-role performance was higher for low as
opposed to high accountability, and the correlation between accountability and in-role
performance was higher for low as opposed to high AOC. Contrary to expectations, no
moderator effects occurred for organizational citizenship behavior.
Jacqueline et al (2002) inferred that the ability of profit sharing to increase

organizational performance via positive changes in employee attitudes has yielded mixed
results. Drawing on principal agent, expectancy, and organizational justice theories, they
assessed how perception of profit sharing (capacity for individual contribution and
organizational reciprocity) alter organizational commitment and trust in management
using longitudinal data provided by 141 engineering employees. Favorable perceptions of
profit sharing served to increase organizational commitment while only organizational
reciprocity predicted trust in management.
Tansky and Cohen (2001) undertook an empirical study on the relationship between
organizational support, employee development, and organizational commitment. This
study conducted in a major Midwestern hospital found that organizational commitment
and perceived organizational support were significantly correlated with satisfaction with
career development. Results suggested that when organizations make efforts to develop
90
their managers, the managers become more committed to the organization and also more
likely to develop their employees.
King Stephen & Harcourt Mark (2001) their study examined the relationships between
organizational commitment and three constituency-specific commitments for firefighters
and station officers employed by the New Zealand Fire Service. The subjects were
firefighters employed by the New Zealand Fire Service. Commitment to firefighters,
station officers, senior management, and the Fire Service were measured using the Cook
and Wall (1980) scale. They found that constituency-specific commitments explained
approximately 30 percent of the variance in organizational commitment, four-fifths of
which was explained by commitment to operational staff and the remaining fifth by
commitment to senior management. The degree to which the results were a reflection of
the industrial relations climate remains to be seen.
Ensher et. al. (2001) examined the effects of perceived discrimination on job
satisfaction, organizational commitment, organizational citizenship behaviour, and
grievances. In this study of 366 ethnically diverse operating-level employees, it was
examined how their perceptions of discrimination from a variety of sources-including
supervisors, coworkers, and the organization itself-affect their work-related attitudes and
behaviors. The results suggest that all three types of perceived discrimination have an
effect on organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and organizational citizenship
behavior. Contrary to predictions, however, there was no relationship with grievances.
Sharma Baldev R. and Joshi Rama J. (2001) the study conducted by them was
designed to focus on organizational characteristics as predictors of organizational
commitment among managerial employees. The findings revealed that executives are, by
and large, quite satisfied being members of this organization. Out of the organizational
characteristics examined only two, i.e. performance appraisal and job content, have
emerged as the best predictors of organizational commitment. Out of the large number of
organizational characteristics studied, only two emerged as critical determinants of
organizational commitment: job content and performance appraisal. The findings of this
study are also significant from an academic point of view. The two determinants of
organizational commitment are not related to any tangible extrinsic rewards such as
91
monetary benefits or welfare facilities. The findings of this study call into question the
theory of need hierarchy as the higher order needs of the respondents happen to influence
their motivation even when their lower order needs are relatively neglected. On the other
hand, the findings of this study tend to support the two-factor theory of Herzberg et al
(1959), which maintains that while the absence of extrinsic rewards (e.g., monetary
benefits, working conditions, safety and security, etc.) prompts the person to feel
dissatisfied, it is the ego-satisfying intrinsic rewards (e.g., job content, recognition, sense
of achievement, advancement, etc.) that contribute to employee motivation.
Ackfeldt Anna L. (2000) studied that the recent marketing literature reflects a growing
interest in organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs). She is of the opinion that in
particular, several recent studies have drawn attention to administrative mechanisms
including leadership support to examine how OCBs are managed. The general premise is
that explicit administrative mechanisms can be deployed by an organization to influence
employees OCBs. She examined that previous research has shown that OCBs can be
influenced by different mechanisms and employee responses. However, the tendency has
been to examine OCBs as a one-dimensional construct and to examine employee
responses in isolation. She developed hypotheses about interdependences between
administrative mechanisms, employee responses and OCBs and examined the effects of
administrative mechanisms and employees responses on separate dimensions of OCBs.
The results of her study generally support the premise that OCBs can be influenced by
selectively deploying administrative mechanisms. However, the effect of administrative
mechanisms on OCBs is mediated by employee responses including organizational
commitment. She suggested that these results have significant implications for managing
customer-contract employees and further research in this field.
Meyer and Allen (1990) in their study provide a description of each of these
commitment forms as follows:
i) Affective commitment involves the employee's emotional attachment to, identification

with, and involvement in the organization. Employees with a strong affective
commitment continue employment with the organization because they want to do so.
ii) Continuance commitment involves commitment based on the costs that 'employee
92
associates with leaving the organization. Employees who perceive the costs of leaving the
organization are greater than the costs of staying remain because they need to do so.
iii) Normative commitment involves the employee's feelings of obligation to stay with the
organization. Employees with a high level of normative commitment stay in the
organization because they feel ought to.
Allen and Meyer (1990) they found in their study, "Organizational Socialization Tactics:
A Longitudinal Analysis of Links to Newcomer's Commitment and Role Orientation",
that institutionalized tactics are associated with a custodial orientation and individualized
tactics with an innovative orientation. Each socialization tactic correlated with
commitment. Institutional tactics tend to associate with higher levels of commitment.
Their results fit with Van Maanen & Schein's 6 socialization tactics except fixed-variable
and investiture-divestiture. The best predictor or role orientation was serial-disjunctive.
Maybe some other factor (degree of certainty) underlies all the co-variation between
dimensions. They mentioned that another study showed a negative correlation between
role ambiguity and commitment (Morris & Sherman, 1981).It seems that other factors not
measured also impact commitment. The negative correlation between role orientation and
commitment was gone in 1 year. It appears that to foster both innovativeness and
commitment one should use investiture tactics but keep the "old timers" away from the
impressionable newcomers. They emphasized that it's a tough balance because the best
people to teach newcomers about the role also may teach the undesirable "old ways" as
well. Maybe job descriptions performance appraisals can help accomplish the right
balance (give newcomers belief they can affect their role descriptions).
2.5 SUMMING UP
The review of literature emanates the fact that HR practices have undergone a
tremendous change over a period of time. Having gone through various studies, it is
evident that HR practices have strong bearing upon the workforce in textile industry.
These HR practices vary in range from HR Planning to Recruitment and Selection,
Training and Development, Welfare Activities, Exit Interviews and so on. In this
competitive age, these HR practices can help in building core competence in the
employees, which enables them to give efficient and effective output. To cater to the
93
challenging day-to-day demands of the organizations and the employees, these HR
practices are made accustomed for given situations. The textile units are exploring
various alternative HR Practices for efficiency and flexibility of the employees at their
workplace. Based upon the resource based view, there exists a serious gap which
suggests that human resources are valuable where they enable an industry to enact
strategies that improve efficiencies and effectiveness, exploit market opportunities and/or
neutralize potential traits. The researcher analyzed all the facts through review of
literature. Thus, the present study will help us to identify and fill these gaps existing in
present literature.
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Review of Literature

2.1 RECENT STUDIES IN HR PRACTICES IN GLOBAL CONTEXT

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

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

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

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

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

Srinivasan Vasanthi (2005) reviewed Williams book titled Performance Management

A system for managing organizational performance

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

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

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

Indiana University (2004), According to the HR policies of Indiana University factors

Chandrasekhar S. (2005) recommended how the professionals should make EXIT or

Arumugam, Mojtahedzadeh (2011) this article purpose a model to conduct an

Rehman (2011) it reveals a diverse aspect of a practical operation of human resource

Faragher E B et al (2005) did a meta-analysis to study the relationship between job

Bradley, Don E et al (2004) did a survey on Self-employment and job satisfaction:

HP Technology (2004) is of the viewpoint that with an increasing number of workers

2.4 HR PRACTICES AND ORGANISTIONAL COMMITMENT RECENT

Chaudhuri (2012) the human resource practice of training outsourcing is emerging as

Kassahun Tilaye (2005) as per his findings, there is a significant difference in

Sikorska-Simmons Elzbieta (2005) this study examines the role of organizational

Swailes Stephen (2004) is of the opinion that organizational commitment is a desired

Awasthy Richa, Gupta Rajen K. (2004) the paper aimed at conceptualizing

Jacqueline et al (2002) inferred that the ability of profit sharing to increase

i) Affective commitment involves the employee's emotional attachment to, identification

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