CHAPTER 12
MANAGING
HUMAN RESOURCES
From studying this chapter, you will attempt to acquire
1. An overall understanding of how appropriate human resources
can be provided for the organization.
2. An appreciation for the relationship among recruitment efforts,
an open position, sources of human resources, and the law.
3. Insights on the use of tests and assessment centers in employee
selection.
4. An understanding of how the training process operates.
5. A concept of what performance appraisals are and how they can
best be conducted.
1
Chapter 12
Managing Human Resources
Defining Appropriate Human Resources:
The phrase appropriate human resources refer to the individuals within the
organization who make a valuable contribution to management system goal
attainment. This contribution results from their productivity in the position they
hold.
Inappropriate human resources refer to organization members who do not make
a valuable contribution.
Productivity in all organization is determined by how human resources interact
and combine to use all other management resources. Such factors as
background, age, job related experience, and level of formal education all play a
role in determining how appropriate the individual is for the organization.
Steps in providing Human Resources:
There are four steps; (Figure 12.1)
1. Recruitment
2. Selection
3. Training
4. Performance Appraisal
Figure 12.1 Four sequential steps to provide appropriate human resources for an
organization.
STEP 1
Recruitment
STEP 2
Selection
STEP 3
Training
STEP 4
Performance
Appraisal
1. Recruitment:
It is the initial attraction and screening of the supply of prospective human
resources available to fill a position. Its purpose is to narrow a large field of
prospective employees to a relatively small group of individuals from which
someone eventually will be hired.
To be effective, recruiters must know the following:
a) The job they are trying to fill,
b) Where potential human resources can be located,
c) How the law influences recruiting efforts.
2
Knowing the Job:
Recruitment activities must begin wit a through understanding of the position to
be filled so the broad range of potential employees can be narrowed down
intelligently. The technique commonly used to gain that understanding is known
as job analysis ( job analysis is a technique commonly used to gain an
understanding of what a task entails and the type of individual who should hired
to perform the task.) Basically, job analysis is aimed at determining a job
description (list job specific activities that must be performed to accomplish
some tasks or job) and a job specification (a list of the characteristics of the
individual who should be hired to perform a specific task or job). (Figure 12.2)
Figure 12.2 Relationship of job analysis, job description, and job specification.
JOB ANALYSIS
A process for obtaining all
relevant job facts
JOB DESCRIPTION
A statement containing
items such as:
 Job title
 Location
 Job summary
 Duties
 Machines, tools,
equipment
 Working conditions
JOB SPECIFICATION
 Education
 Experience
 Training
 Judgment
 Initiative
 Responsibilities
 Communication
skills
 Physical effort
 Physical skills
Knowing Sources of Human Resources:
Human resources specialists in organizations continually monitor the labor
market so they will know where to recruit appropriate human resources and
what kind of strategies and tactics to use to attract job applicants in a
competitive market place.
Sources of human resources available can be generally categorized in two ways:
3
a) Sources Inside the Organization:
Some individuals who already work for the organization may be well qualified
for an open position. Although existing personnel are sometimes moved laterally
within an organization, most internal movements are promotions. Promotion
from within has the advantages of building employee morale, encouraging
employees to work harder, and encourage them to stay with the organization.
Human Resource Inventory: consist of information about the characteristics of
organization members. This information focuses on member’s past performance
as well as how they might be trained and best used in the future.
Walter S. Wikstrom proposed that organization keep three types of record for
human resources inventory.
 Management Inventory Card: is a form used in compiling a human
resource inventory. It contains the organizational history of an individual
and indicates how that individual might be used in the organization in the
future. (Read your text book, page 259 fig. 12.3)
 The Position Replacement Form: This form focuses on position-centered
information rather than the people-centered information maintained on the
management inventory card. Note that the form indicates little about a
person who is holding the position but much about two individuals who
could replace him. (Read your text book, page 260 fig. 12.4)
 Management Manpower Replacement Chart: It is a formal used in
compiling a human resources inventory. It is people-oriented and presents
a composite view of individuals management considers significant to
human resource planning. (Read your text book, page 261 fig. 12.5)
Those three forms help management to answer the following questions:
i)
What is the organizational history of an individual, and what potential
does that person possess? (Management inventory chart)
ii)
If a position becomes vacant, who might be eligible to fill it? (Position
replacement form)
iii) What are the merits of one individual being considered for a position
compared to those of another individual under consideration?
(Management manpower replacement chart)
b) Sources outside the Organization:
If a position can not be filled by someone presently employed by the
organization, management has available different sources of human resources
outside the organization. Those are:
4
i)
Competitors: One often-tapped external source of human resources is
competing organizations. It has some advantages;
 The individual knows the business
 The competitor will have paid for the individual’s training up to the
time of hire
 The competing organization will probably be weakened somewhat
by the loss of the individual
 Once hired, the individual will e valuable source of information
about how to best compete with the other organization
ii)
Employment Agencies: They help people find jobs and help
organizations find job applicants. Such agencies can be either public
or private. Public agencies do not charge fees.
iii)
Readers of Certain Publications: Perhaps the most used external source
of human resources is the readership of certain publications. Recruiters
simply place an advertisement in a suitable publication. The
advertisement describes the open position in detail and announce from
qualified individuals.
(Ex: An opening for a top-level executive might be advertised in the
Wall Street Journal)
iv)
Educational Intuitions: Many requesters go directly to schools to
interview students close to graduation time. Business schools,
engineering schools all have different resource to offer.
2. SELECTION:
Selection is choosing an individual to hire from all those who have been
recruited. Selection has series of stages through which job applicants must pass
in order to be hired. Each stage reduces the total group of prospective employees
until one individual is hired.
There are two tools often used in the selection process:
a) Testing:
It is examining human recourses for qualities relevant to perform available jobs.
It has 4 categories.
i)
Aptitude test: it measures the potential of an individual to perform a
task. (Ex. Intelligence, mechanical skills,…)
ii) Achievement tests: it measures the level of skill or knowledge an
individual possesses in a certain area. (Ex. Typing)
iii) Vocational interest tests: It attempts to measure an individual’s interest
in performing various kinds of jobs.
5
iv) Personality tests: it attempts to describe an individual’s personality
dimensions in such areas as emotional maturity, subjectivity, honesty,
and objectivity.
Testing Guidelines:
Several guidelines should be observed when tests are used as part of the
selection process.
 First, it must be both valid and reliable. A test is valid if it measures what
it is designed to measure and reliable if it measures similarly time after
time.
 Second, test results should not be used as the sole determinant of a hiring
decision. People change over time, and someone who does not score well
on a particular test might still develop into a productive employee.
 Third, care should be taken to ensure that tests are non-discriminatory;
many tests contain language or cultural biases that may discriminate
against minorities.
b) Assessment Centers:
It is a program in which participant engage in a number of individual and group
exercises constructed to stimulate activities at the organizational levels to which
they aspire.
These exercises can be; participating in leaderless discussions, giving oral
presentations, and leading a group in solving some assigned problem.
Participants are assessed to the following criteria:
 Leadership
 Organizing and planning ability
 Decision making
 Oral and written communication skills
 Initiative
 Energy
 Analytical ability
 Use of delegations
 Human relations competence
 Controlling
 Self-direction
6
3. TRAINING:
After recruitment and selection, the next step in providing appropriate human
resources for the organization is training. It is the process of developing qualities
in human resources that will enable them to be more productive. The purpose of
training is to increase the productivity of employees by influencing their
behavior.
The training of individuals is essentially a four-step process. (Figure 12.3)
 STEP 1: Determining training needs
 STEP 2: Designing the training program
 STEP 3: Administering the training program
 STEP 4: Evaluating the training program
Figure 12.3 Steps of the training process.
Step 1
Determining
Training Needs
Step 4
Evaluating the
Training
Program
Step 2
Designing the
Training
program
Step 3
Administering the
Training Program
STEP 1: Determining training needs: They are the information or skill areas
of an individual or group that require further development to increase the
productivity of that individual or group.
Training is a continuing activity. Even employees who have been with the
organization so many years, training activity needed to improve their skills.
7
Determining Needed skills: There are several methods of determining which
skills to focus on with established human resources. One method calls for
evaluating the production process within the organization. Such factors as
excessive rejected products, unmet deadlines. Another method for determining
training needs calls for getting direct feedback from employees on what they
believe are the organization’s needs. Organization members are often asked
what types of training they need to do a better job. a third way of determining
training needs involves looking into future. If the manufacturing of new
products of the use of newly purchased equipment is foreseen, some type of
related training almost certainly will be needed.
STEP 2: Designing the training program: Once training needs have been
determined, a training program aimed at meeting those needs must be designed.
STEP 3: Administering the training program: That is training the individuals
selected to participate in the program. Different techniques exist for transmitting
necessary information and developing needed skills.
Techniques for Transmitting Information:
1. Lectures: it is the most widely used technique. The lecture is a primary oneway communication situation in which an instructor orally presents
information to a group of listeners.
An advantage of the lecture is that it allows the instructor to express trainees
to a maximum amount of information within a given time period.
Also it has some disadvantages:
i) One-way communication
ii) Little or no opportunity exists to clarify meaning, to check on whether
trainees really understand the lecture materials.
iii) Little or no opportunity for participate, knowledge of results or over
learning.
2. Programmed Learning: it is a technique for instructing without the presence
or intervention of a human instructor. Small pieces of information requiring
responses are presented to individual trainees, and the trainees determine
from checking their responses against provided answers whether their
understanding of the information is accurate.
Ex. Multiple-choice, true-false
It has some advantages and disadvantages:
The main advantages are; it can be computerized and students can learn at their
own pace, know immediately if they are right or wrong, and participate actively
in the learning process.
The disadvantage is that; no one is present to answer a confused learner’s
questions.
8
Techniques for Developing Skills:
It has 2 categories:
a) On-the-job training: reflect a blend of job-related knowledge with experience
in using that knowledge on the job. They include coaching (is directed critiquing
of how well an individual is performing a job), position rotation (includes
moving an individual from job to enable the person to gain an understanding of
the organization as a whole), and special project committees (are vehicles for
assigning a particular task to an individual to furnish him or her with experience
in a designated area)
b) Classroom techniques: For developing skills also reflect a blend of job-related
knowledge and experience. The skills addresses through these techniques can
range from technical, such as computer programming skills, to interpersonal,
such as leadership skills. Specific classroom techniques aimed at developing
skills include various types of management games (requires small groups of
trainees to make and then evaluate various management decisions). The role
playing format, typically involves acting out and then reflecting on some
people-oriented problem that must solved in the organization.
In contrast to the typical one-way communication of the lecturer, the skills
instructed in the classroom encourages high levels of discussion and interaction
among trainees, develops a climate in which trainees learns new behavior from
carrying out different activities. The difference between the instructional role in
information dissemination and the instructional role in skill development is
dramatic.
STEP 4: Evaluating the training program: After the training program has been
completed, management should evaluate is effectiveness. Because training
programs represent an investment, a reasonable return is essential.
Basically, management should evaluate the training program to determine if it
meets the needs for which it was designed, by trying to answer these questions
to see the effectiveness:
i)
Has the excessive reject rate of products decline?
ii)
Are deadlines being met more regularly?
iii) Are labor cost per unit produced decreasing?
4. PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL
Even after individuals have been recruited, selected and trained the task is not
finished. The fourth step is performance appraisal. It is the process of reviewing
past productive activity to evaluate the contribution individuals have made
toward attaining management system objectives. Like training it is a continuing
activity that focuses on both established human resources and newcomers. Its
main purpose is to furnish feedback to organization members about how they
can become more productive and useful for the organization.
9
Why use performance appraisal?
Most US firm using performance appraisal. Douglas McGregor has suggested
three reasons:
i)
They provide systematic judgment to support salary increases,
promotions, transfers, and sometimes demotions on terminations.
ii)
They are a means of telling subordinates hoe they are doing and of
suggesting needed changes in behavior, attitudes, skills, or job
knowledge; they let subordinates know where they stand with the boss.
iii) They furnish a useful basis for the coaching and counseling of
individuals by superiors.
Handling Performance Appraisals:
If performance appraisals are not handled well, their benefits to the organization
will be minimal. There are several guidelines to handle it.
1) Performance appraisal should stress both performance in the position the
individual holds and the success with which the individual is attracting
organizational objectives.
2) The goal is an objective analysis of performance rather than a subjective
evaluation of habits.
3) Appraisal should be acceptable to both the evaluator and the subject, that
is, both should agree that it has benefit for the organization and worker.
4) Performance appraisals should provide a base for improving individual’s
productivity within the organization by making them better equipped to
produce.
Potential Weaknesses of Performance Appraisals:
To maximize the payoff of performance appraisals, managers must avoid several
potential weaknesses;
1) Performance appraisals focus employees on short-term rewards rather
then on issues that are important to the long-term success of the
organization.
2) Individuals involved in performance appraisals view them as a rewardpunishment situation.
3) The emphasis of performance appraisal is on completing paper work
rather than on critiquing individual performance.
4) Individuals being evaluated view the process as unfair or biased.
5) Subordinates react negatively when evaluators offer unfavorable
comments.
10