Posts Tagged ‘organizational’
Human Resource Management and Organizational Behaviour in the University System: the Registry Experience
Human Resource Management and Organizational Behaviour in the University System: the Registry Experience
INTRODUCTION
In every organization, there are three major resources to be managed if the organization wants to achieve its objectives and goals. These resources are Humans, materials and financial resources. And out of these three, human resource management is the most important and difficult to manage. The reason being that every human being is born unique and therefore is bound to have different characteristics– that is, the ways they think feel reason and act. Secondly, human beings control and coordinate the other resources. They constitute the workforce of an organization and are referred to as personnel. Since human nature plays a very major part in the overall success of an organization, it is therefore important to have an effective working relationship between the employee and the manager as this is essential for the success of the organization.
Human Resource Management, which involves the efficient and effective management within an organization, is one of the vital functions of Educational Administrators. This is because every administrator has a function to perform through his staff and his own abilities. Every university like other formal organizations needs human beings to execute its programmes and achieve educational goals and objectives. To be able to achieve this, the Registrar who is the ‘chief of administration’ has to ensure that personnel with whom he works knows what to do, when to do it and how to do it. Another name for human resource management is personnel management. No matter the name we chose to call it, its basic function is to deal with people who make up an organization. And these people have diverse interest, goals and values.
Akpakwu (2003), regards personnel management as the proper utilization of the people in an organization towards achieving their needs and organizational goals. To this extent, it involves understanding the nature of people in an organization, their needs and aspiration and evolving the necessary strategies to accomplish these needs and aspirations. It also involves identifying the objectives of the organization and creating a conducive atmosphere towards leading staff to achieving the goals of the organization. Armstrong in Akpakwu (2003), sees personnel management as the process of obtaining, organizing and motivating the human resources needed in by an organization. He advocated for the creation of a very conducive and cordial environment in order to satisfy the needs of the workers and achieve organizational goals. Denga (1990), on the other hand, regards Human management as an exercise in human engineering. People have needs, problems, feelings temperament etc which they come along with to these institutions. What ever name it is called, human resource management is the responsibility of all those who manage people. The administrative manager must therefore find ways of satisfying these needs in such a way that the individual, organization and society’s objectives are achieved.
FUNCTIONS OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
The primary responsibility of a human resource manager is to ensure that human resources are utilized and managed as efficiently and effectively as possible. To this end, the university chief administrator is required meet the following objectives:
1. Recruitment and selection, developing the work place required by the organization.
2. Helping in creating a working environment that is conducive for his members of staff so as to promote maximum contentment thereby motivating them.
3. Ensuring that the abilities and skills of the workforce are used to the optimum in pursuance of the university’s mission and mandate.
4. Ensuring a fair balance between the personal needs of staff and the needs of the Registry and the university in general.
The effectiveness and of any organization is dependent on the efficient use of its resources particularly the human resource. Human resource functions can be generally classified into three basic functions namely:-
1. Personal utilization to meet organizational needs
2. Motivation of employees to meet their needs and organizational needs
3. Maintenance of human relationships.
Other human resource management functions include :-
1. Recruitment and Selection:- This involves searching for a suitable person to fill the vacant position. In the registry department, the least qualification for an administrative secretary is a bachelor’s degree. The basic goal of staffing is to locate qualified applicant who will stay with the organization.
2. Training and Education:- This involves developing staff to professional growth. In the Registry department, training involves induction of new employees, formal training of staff which may include on the job training.
3. Wages and salary Administration:- This refers to the financial benefits that are given to staff for the jobs they have performed. In the university administration, fixing of salaries is a continuous exercise as position and posts keep changing due to growth and functional advancement.
4. Staff Appraisals:- This is the continuous process of feed back to subordinates about how well they have performed on their jobs. In the registry department, members of staff are formally appraised annually by their immediate supervisors and the evaluation ratified by the Appointments and promotions committee.
5. Welfare:- In University administration, the main purpose of welfare is to provide assistance to members of staff and also encourage a positive relationship between staff and the university by providing extra security comforts.
6. Trade Union Relations: – According to Akpakwu (2003), trade unions are “sounding boards” for policies and decisions affecting staff. In university administration, joint committees comprising management team and trade unions have proved to be effective in resolving conflicts. Trade Unions champion the problems and grievances of their members with the view of improving the welfare of their members.
The functions of chief administrative officer in the university are many. Generally though, he is to plan, organize, coordinate, direct and report activities in relation to staff under him.
ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
All organizations including educational institutions are made up of people who chose to work in it primarily because it enables them to satisfy at least some of their personal needs. Virtually everybody works, plays or is educated in an organization. Attempt must be made to define what an organization is. Ede (2000), defines organization as a system of consciously coordinated activities which are deliberately structured for the purpose of realizing specific goals. Dale (1978), views organization thus: “Whenever several people are working together for a common end, there must be some form of organization: that is the task must be divided among them and the work of the group must be coordinated. Dividing the work and arranging for coordination make up the process of organization and once that is completed, the group may be described as an organization.”
According to Unachukwu (1997), the more complex an organization is, the more difficult it is to coordinate activities, predict events or phenomena and attain set objectives maximally. We can therefore view organizational behaviour as the systematic study of the nature of organizations; how they begin, how they develop and their effects on individual members. It is also a systematic attempt to understand the behaviour of people in an organization; not just human behaviour but structural behaviour, elements behaviour, systems behaviour and even policy behaviour. Thus for staff in the registry department of the university to function efficiently and effectively, the Registrar must understand the nature of people he is working with and be able to interpret their behaviours. Organizational behaviour follows the principle of human behaviour: People in an organization are governed by the same psychological mechanisms both on the job and outside the job. Organizational behaviour is human behaviour in a particular setting. The behaviour of an individual in an organization is determined to some extent by internal and external factors. These include learning ability, motivation, perception, attitude, emotions, frustration etc. while the external factors include stress, reward system, degree of trust, group cohesiveness, social factors, office policies etc. Organizational behaviour can also be situational. An individual’s behaviour cannot be disassociated from the situation he finds himself. For example, a normally calm individual is forced into constant close physical aggressiveness with some other people. The behaviour of that individual is therefore a function of interaction between his characteristics and other environmental variables. Organizations are seen as complex systems consisting of interrelated subsistence. Changes or alteration in any part of the system have consequences on other part of the system. Modification in the system leads to desired positive changes called functions. Negative consequences in response to alteration or change in the system are called dysfunction. Therefore the behaviour of an individual is borne out of the decisions that have been taken in an organization.
Organizations represent constant interaction between structure and process. To get an assignment accomplished in an organization, we need to define who does what. Structures refer to organizational shapes, definitions and rules. It is what binds an organization together. Process is the sequence of activity in the system. Decision Making, Communication, Leadership and Conflict are few examples of the many processes that take place within an organization. Ocho (1997), aptly suggests that human beings in an organization need to be constantly motivated for adequate production and commitment. Consequently, the primary responsibility of the Registrar is to ensure that human resources are utilized and managed effectively and efficiently to meet the university goals.
HUMAN RELATIONS APPROACH TO MANAGEMENT
Good human relations in an organization, for it to function effectively and efficiently cannot be over-emphasized. It provides knowledge on how people interact and respond in different organizational situations in an effort to satisfy their needs and in the process meet organizational goals. The chief administrator’s ability to understand his staff and their problems, and his belief in and the practice of democratic leadership will go a long way to make him succeed in his supervisory and administrative task. The effective operation of any organization depends on the Human Resources in that organization. Unachukwu (1997), implicitly states that Educational Administration is concerned with the mobilization of the efforts of people for the achievement of educational objectives. It is therefore imperative that the Registrar cultivates the habits of Human Relations in his odious administrative task. Edem (1987), observed that the difference between the ideas of the Efficiency movement and those of the Human Relations movement was that of the former emphasizing getting most out of the worker, even to the extent of requiring him to subordinate his interest and needs of those in the organization, while the latter emphasized the humanitarian aspects which sought to satisfy the needs of the worker, minimize his frustrations and increase the level of job satisfaction.
According to Mary Follet,(1964), a prominent pioneer of the Human Relations movement in the National Society For The Study of Education, she stated that the real service for business men is no t just the production and distribution of manufactured articles, but to give an opportunity for individual development and self-actualization through better organization of human relationships. The process of production is as important for the welfare of society as the product of production. Follet perceives administration as a shared responsibility, asserting that organizational structures should permit a free interplay of ideas in order to minimize the rigidity of hierarchical structures; but warned that shared responsibility should not be construed as being synonymous with laissez-faire and absence of focal points of reference.
Unachukwu (1997), itemized the human relations movement stress as thus:
1. Human relations focus on workers as human beings rather than as
producers.
11. It focuses on the development of morale and individual.
111. Human relations emphasize paying attention to workers as human
beings in an informal associations within an organization.
1V. Human Relations led to the policy of consultation of participation by
Workers.
V. Human Relations approach led to the diffusion of authority which led to
a wider participation in decision making. It led to a decentralized
approach to organization rather than centralization. This explains why
committees are used as tools for decision making.
MOTIVATION AND ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
Without human resource, there can be no organization. These human resources are in two categories: Management and Subordinates.
Okonkwo (1997), is of the view that workers and their needs should be uppermost in the minds of the leadership of any organization. In other words, poor management of human resources in an organization will lead to ineffectiveness or collapse of the organization. Edem (1998), states that the Barnard-Simon theory of motivation recognizes the relationship between the satisfaction by organizations of the needs of workers and the workers productivity. The theory assumes that workers will perform satisfactorily well if their needs are met. Nwankwo (1982), opines that the more the needs of workers are satisfied within the organization, the more they are motivated to work and thus satisfy the needs of the organization. To motivate a worker therefore is to propel, impel and energize him into action that will lead eventually to the achievement of organizational goals. Thus motivation is primarily concerned with spending effort towards a goal. Leavitt (1972), provided motivation model from three basic premises:-
(I) Behaviour is caused: The things we do, do not just happen. There
always underlying factors
(11) Behaviour is directed: In the ultimate sense, there aimless behaviour.
(111) Behaviour is motivated: Underlying what we do are motives and
drives which provide us with the energy to attain goals or at least to
move in the direction of goals.
These three premises help a lot in understanding the behaviour of workers in an organization. When Adam Smith conceptualized the economic basis of human motivation, it was his opinion that people work primarily for money and are unconcerned about social feelings, and are motivated to do only that which provides them with them with the greatest reward. This approach has been criticized because its view of man is dehumanizing. Money may not be the only primary source of rewarding behaviour in an organization as there is limit to which money can be used in motivating workers. According to Argyle (1972), People can become committed to the goals of the organization as a result of participating in decision making in their work place or co-partnership schemes or through their relationships with groups or supervisors. Commitment could also come through the job itself. For example through ones achievements, recognition, responsibility and professional growth. All these are motivators that would energize human resources to meet organizational goals and objectives. The ability of the educational manager to therefore plan and organize human resources effectively, motivate and control the staff is crucial to the effective and efficient management of the university. This is because good human resource management practice not only helps in attracting and retaining the best of staff, but also motivating them to outstanding work performance. Lack of motivation in work situations has serious effect on job satisfaction and when job satisfaction is absent, the worker might soon leave the organization. Saiyadanin (1999), supporting states that advancement or changing one’s status reflects when this growth is not experienced, the staff member becomes frustrated and dissatisfied.
CONCLUSION
Basically, the Registrar who is the Chief Administrative Manager deals with human beings at various levels. Administration at all levels involves effective planning, organizing, supervising, controlling and evaluating. It is therefore his duty too co-ordinate all activities in the registry to meet the university’s mission and mandate. Attempt has been made to understand the meaning of human resource management as the understanding of human behaviours, their needs, aspiration in an organization and developing strategies to accomplish these needs and aspirations. Knowing that if these needs are neglected, it could lead to failure in achieving set goals for the university system. This paper has also shown that organizational behaviour is not just the study of the systems, processes, and structures in an organization. But also the systematic study of individuals’ behaviour in an organization. It should be understood that these individuals work with external and internal environments which are psychological and sociological in nature. University administrators should therefore deal with staff individually and collectively with a view of understanding them deeply. To this end, it has therefore becomes necessary for university registrars to advocate the use of good human relations so as to ensure effective and efficient administration in universities. This paper has also traced the need to motivate workers not only through monetary means but also to recognize the individual’s worth and enhance their feeling of responsibility and achievements
References
Argyle M. (1972), The Social Psychology of Work. Penguin
Akpakwu A.O.(2003), Human Resource Management Towards Stable Higher Institutions. ‘Benue State University Of Education Journal, Vol4 No.1
Dale E. (1978) Management Theory and Practice. Tokyo: Mcgraw-Hill, Kogakusha Ltd.
Y and other work organizations. Calabar, Nigerian Educational Publishers.
Denga, D.I. (1996), Human Engineering for higher productivity in industry
Ede .S. A. (2000) Educational administration and management, Jos, Nigeria: Ichedum Publication Nigeria, Ibadan, Nigeria, Spectrum Books Ltd.
Edem D.A. (1987), Introduction to Educational Administration in Nigeria. Ibadan, Spectra Books limited.
Leavitt H.J. (1972), Managerial Psychology, 3rd Edition. Chicago, University of Chicago Press.
Nwankwo J. (1982), Educational administration, Theory and Practice. Vikas Publishing house PVT Ltd., New Delhi
National Society for the Study of Education. (1964), Behavioral Science and Educational Administration, The Sixty-third yearbook, part 2 (University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Okonkwo S.N. (1992), An analysis of selected factors in Relation to Academic Staff Utilization: A case study of Anambra state colleges of education. An unpublished Ph.D Thesis, University of Benin, Benin City.
Unachukwu G.O.(1997), Human Relations and School Administration.
“Dynamics of Educational Administration and Management: The Nigerian Perspective”, edited by A. N, Ndu, L.O. Ocho, and B.S Okeke, Awka. Meks Publishers
Okonkwo S.N.(1997), Job satisfaction and the Work Behaviour of Nigerian Teachers, Akwa Meks Publishers.
Ocho L.O. (1997), Administration and Leadership in Education
Awka. Meks Publishers
Saiyadain M.S.(1999), Human Resource Management. New Delhi: Tata McGraw – Hill publishing company.
Ebi is an Assistant Registrar in the Nasarawa State University, Keffi. She is currently on her Ph.D research in Educational Administration and Planning.
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Organizational Psychology in Human Resource Management
Organizational Psychology in Human Resource Management
Organizational Psychology is a subject which applies the principles of psychology into one of the most important areas of people’s life – work. Specifically, we work with the human aspects of the workplace and aim at improving people’s efficiency, and hence organizational effectiveness, through our knowledge about human functioning.
There exist a group of professionals who share a similar aim and are working closely with us, the human resource professionals. Despite the close relationship with HR professionals, Organizational Psychologists are distinctive professionals. Unfortunately, there is always some confusion among the general public that people just cannot tell who is who. More importantly, even some HR professionals do not know what we are doing and what can we offer them.
When we tell them we are Psychologists, a frequent reply is “but we don’t have any mental problems”!
As Organizational Psychologists, we work with a wide range of domains that are related to people’s everyday work life. We design work activities, schedules and workplaces; we design reward principles that are based on human motivation theories; we develop training principles and train the trainers; we develop selection procedures and tools; we formulate performance appraisal systems; and we advise on organizational development issues as well as career development decisions.
As you may recognise, our work reaches every working individual on the planet and our working field is very closely related with the work of HR professionals.
Although there are quite a few overlapping areas between Organizational Psychology and Human Resource Management (HRM), there are fundamental differences between us.
The first and perhaps the most obvious difference between us is the knowledge foundation. As psychologists, we base our work heavily on science. All work has to be backed up by scientific evidence and statistics is always in our toolbox.
In contrast, HRM is essentially a business study which emphasizes more on the practical side, with less focus on the scientific side. Moreover, in addition to working on overlapping areas, we work on different levels. Organizational Psychologists focus more on the design and development of procedures, tools and principles while HR professionals work more on the operational level, such as implementation of selection systems and applying training principles in real training scenarios.
The discrepancy between the knowledgebase of Organizational Psychologists and HR professionals has been documented in academic journals.
For example Sally Carless and colleagues pointed out that although there are important advancements in HR-related research, the everyday HR practice have benefited from it to a minimum level. They found that this is due to the lack of knowledge among HR professionals, especially when the training of the HR professionals emphasizes on general skill and knowledge in favour of science.
In contrast, the training of Organizational Psychologists is built upon the scientist-practitioner model which emphasizes on both research and practical skills and stipulates that practice must be supported by scientific evidence.
Another reason may lie in the Continuous Professional Development (CPD) requirement. As Organizational Psychologists, CPD is a statutory condition for registration and this helps them to keep updated with the latest developments in the field. However there is no such requirement for HR professionals. Carless’s study confirmed that Organizational Psychologists are experts in the field, especially in the area of selection and the authors articulated that “scientific integrity is a key differentiating feature of I/O (Organizational) psychologists.”
Having closely related working areas, our work is actually complementary to each other. Without Organizational Psychologists in the design and development work of various HR processes and tools, the HR professional would not be enjoying these scientific and highly effective products.
On the other hand, without the help of HR professionals we could never apply our work to such a broad range of people. Moreover, our relationship is much more complex and interactive than one might be aware of. Besides the above mentioned supplier-user relationship, HR professionals are also partners, advisors and sometimes suppliers for Organizational Psychologists.
HR professionals are our partners in projects where we provide them with the technical skills and knowledge while they take care of the operational part. Furthermore, HR professionals are experts of their company; therefore we work side by side during consulting jobs where we need them to assist us with internal matters as well as providing us with an insider view.
More importantly, as HR professionals are frequent users of our services and products, we rely a lot on their opinions and requests in developing our products and services. They are also providers of valuable data and participants for us to carry out scientific studies (e.g. validation of assessment tools). All in all, we are inter-dependent parties with entwined relationships rather than independent parties or competitors.
Being Organizational Psychologists, what can we offer to HR professionals? A lot. With the expertise in assessing human characteristics and knowledge about human performance, we are experts in selection.
Based on the understanding about the requirements of the job as well as the characteristics needed for any particular position, we can come up with an ideal person profile that the organization is looking for. Then we can design, or choose among proper tools that accurately measure the required characteristics, knowledge and skills.
According to research these procedures enable us to create the best selection system which predicts future performance of the employed staff. One should not be surprised that the best selection tools like psychometric tests, assessment centres, and structured interviews as well as standardized selection procedures are all designed and developed by Organizational Psychologists.
Another contribution of the organizational psychology profession to the HR field is in training. A brief look at the training market reveals that it is flooded with many training courses and providers.
Obviously their quality varies and some of them do not even know what they are talking about! Our own company has undertaken work for clients who have come to us after being dissatisfied with trainers who appear to have simply taken some information from the internet to put together a training session without any real understanding of the subject matter!
As Organizational Psychologists we are working hard to turn around this situation. We are experts in training design; some understand how people learn and how people learn the best! In designing and delivering training courses, scientific human learning theories and training principles are followed, but not just by gut feelings or experience only. Factors like transfer of learning, specific needs of the organization and maintenance of learning are all fully considered.
Besides selection and training, Organizational Psychologists also offer various consultancy and advisory services to HR professionals. The range of work can be as small as reviewing a performance appraisal check list or an assessment centre exercise to as big as designing a tailored selection system.
On top of that, we can also go into the organization to diagnose the roots of problems and solve them accordingly, using our scientific approach and advanced knowledge about mechanisms and dynamics within the workplace.
However, as mentioned at the beginning of this article, one big obstacle we face is the lack of knowledge about our profession within the HR profession (particularly in Asia), as well as the public in general.
The implication is that we often face questions like “what is organizational psychology?”, “what is the difference between Organizational Psychologists and HR consultants?” and even “why do I need to employ scientific tools and procedures?” It can be hard work explaining all this to prospective clients! Another related problem is people always think we are very expensive!
But the fact is all the products and services we offer are based on scientific research which means they have undergone lengthy and sophisticated processes of development and the cost of all these are huge. By employing our scientific tools and principles the benefit is long lasting and continuously contributing to the performance of the organization, and these are all documented in the scientific literature.
Another hidden obstacle for us in Asia is caused by the organizational hierarchy. Very often, the first contact point between our clients and ourselves are assistants of HR professionals who have minimal understanding of what we are talking about. When they do not understand they just cannot relay our message precisely to their manager.
The result is obviously that the management level does not receive our message and the name of Organizational Psychology just remains unheard no matter how hard we try!
As Organizational Psychologists, we see a real need to educate the public, and more importantly, HR professionals about the subject of Organizational Psychology so that the fruit of science can be returned to them.
There are major overlapping work areas between Organizational Psychologists and HR professionals such as selection, training, career development and performance management, but we work on different levels and perspectives thus our relationship is actually collaborative rather than competitive.
Organizational Psychologists can offer help to HR professionals in various areas such as training design, development of selection systems, supervising performance management processes and many more. Nevertheless Organizational Psychologists in Asia face obstacles as the subject is relatively unheard of among HR professionals and communication is often blocked by organizational hierarchy.
Therefore one very important task for us as Organizational Psychologist is to promote this subject so that people know what we can offer and make use of our expertise! We are sure that with the growing popularity of the subject, HR professionals, and other related professionals like career counsellors and coaches, will benefit highly from Organizational Psychology.
Dr. Graham Tyler is an award-winning registered organizational psychologist and executive director of PsyAsia International, an HR training, consulting and assessment organization with offices in Hong Kong and Singapore, and clients globally. Visit PsyAsia at http://www.psyasia.com
and http://www.psychometricassessment.com.
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Human Resource Planning – How Does It Affect The Organizational Success
Human Resource Planning – How Does It Affect The Organizational Success
Unlike many years ago, today the business organizations are under immense pressure because of the umpredictable, turbulent and competitive environment. If the businesses are to keep up with the ever increasing competition, then they obviously have to manage their resources effectively. Managing the resources have to be done with careful consideration. Managing the human aspect of the organization is very vital as the the success of the entire organization depends on it’s workforce. In other words, managing the workforce in an organization is indeed not an easy task as people basically have different feelings, aspirations thoughts and needs. However, when it comes to managing the human resources effectively, it is rather important to plan how to utilize the humen resources better, in order to get the most out of the workforce, while fulfillling their needs. This is where the human resource planning comes into action thsu taking into consideration both the orgainzation and the employees.
Human resources planning is the process by which the management ensures that the right number of people with the right skills are available at the right time, in the right job, in order to help the organization achieve it’s objectives. In other words, human resource planning is all about finding out in advance how many workers are needed to perform the tasks, how many employees with the required skills are avilable within and outside the organization and how is it possible to fulfil the staffing needs of the organization when needed. Human resource planning is not new. It has been practised by many organizations in the past as well, in order to ensure that the right person does the right job at the right time. However, in the past the nature of human resource planning practised by many organizations were slightly different to what it is today. This was because, the environmental conditions in the olden days were stable and certain, and as a result, the human resource planning was mainly focussed towards the short term demand for labour.
But today, with the increasing nature of environmental stability, changes in technology and the ever increasing competition, the nature of human resource planning has changed thus focusing on both the short term and the long term labour needs of the organizations. In other words, they not only plan the workforce for the current situation, but also for the many years ahead. If not, then the organizations that do not plan for the future have not much of opportunities to survive the increasing competition.
Having said that, in order to utilize the human resources effcetively, the human resources planners basically have to forecast the organizations workforce needs first, and then come out with a plan which will direct them how to fulfil those needs. In other means, if the human resource planners are to provide the right number of people with the right skills in order to perform the tasks at the right time, then they obviously have to gather information, came up with objectives and make decisions.
When it comes to human resource planning, there are three main key areas that have to be addressed by the human resource planners. These includes finding out the demand for labour, performing a supply analysis and balancing both the demand and the supply of labour in the organization. If we go into see each of the key areas in more detail, first of all the human resource planning begins with understanding the corporate strategy and objectives of the organization. In other means, if they are to decide on how many employees are needed with the right skiils, then they have to know where the organization is heading . With knowing nothing about where the organization wants to go, and how they want to achieve it’s corporate strategy, it is no point coming up with plans regarding the workforce. This is because the number and types of employees needed basically depends on what the organization wants to achieve. Only once they have an insight to the strategies and objectives of the organization, then they are able to forecast the demand for labour needed by the organization both in the short term as well as the long term.
Once the human resource planners have an through knowledge of how many employees are needed in the organization with the required skiils, then next what they do is to take a count of the current workforce in the organization. In other words an inventory of course, to find out how many employees are currently available in the organization and the skills and knowledge of the employees, inaddition to their profile facts such as age , sex , and where theycome from etc. This basically provides the human resource planners with with an insight to what types of skills are available immediately, which will in turn help them to decide what needs to be done next.
Taking into consideration the inventory of the current workforce available immediately, then they go into analyze the internal supply of labour availabe against the estimated demand for labour both in the short term as well as the long term that is necessary to achieve the strategies and objectives of the organization. By doing so, they compare both the figures in order to find out whether the deman for labour could be fulfilled by the immediately available workforce. In other words, to see whether there is a gap between the supply and demand for labour. Then of course, if there happens to be a gap between the supply and demand for labour that means there is either a shortage or a surplus of labour.
However, if there happens to be a surplus or shortage of labour supply then the human resource planners will develop strategies in order to remove this gap. If there is a surplus meaning to say that the internal supply of labour available is more than the forecasted demand, then they will probably take cation to reduce the available workforce uisng strategies such as retirement, reduce hours and remove flexi hours etc.But if there happen to be a shortage in the labour supply, then they will develop strategies such as recruitment, increase over time increase temperary workers, increse flexi hours etc in the short term. But whenit comes to long term planning, they mainly concentrate on strategies such as training and development, promotion and career development programs etc, in order to prepare the existing workforce for the future demand of the organization. At the end, human resource planning also involves in keeping a track of the strategies they have implemented in order to findout whether the required labour demends have been met.
To conclude, it should be said that human resource planning is vital for any organization whether big or small. This is because, it does affect the entire organization by way of preparing the workforce to achieve its objectives. If the organizations are to face the challenges in the future, it is of course the human resource planning that paves the way for the organization to utilize the workforce effectively and efficiently. If not for human resource planning, the organizations will be un prepared to face the on going competition. Hence so, it should be said that orgainzations survival amaong the competitors mainly depends on how well the organizations human resource planning is.
Shameena Silva
Bachelor of Hospitality Management ( Australia), MBA (U.K.)
e-mail: shameena_silva@yahoo.co.uk
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Describe the roles of organizational management and leadership play in a healthy organizational culture?
I need to know how this is done by creating and maintaining a healthy organizational culture.
All about the role of management information system to organizational development?
I want to have a background information of Management information systems and its importance to organizational development
What does organizational behavior have to do with management?
What does organizational behavior have to do with management?
Why does micro-management in a company lower employee job satisfaction and organizational commitment?
When you hear some people talk about their jobs, of how their managers are micro-managing them, they tend to speak negatively about their employer. Why does mico-management lower job satisfaction and organizational commitment for employees? Can someone explain this to me?


