Management Studies: February 2013

Development of HRM Concept

The development of human resources management concept is as follows:
1. Industrial revolution stage: Industrial revolution brought the three major developments

The development of machinery
The linkage of human power to machine
The establishment of factories.

Due to the industrial revolution, people specialized in their job. Workers organized themselves into trade unions to achieve better conditions of employment. Labor laws were enacted to protect the interest of worker. Collective bargaining between labor and management was used to settle industrial disputes.

Robert Owen reduced working hours and built houses and schools for workers. After industrial revolution, problems related to human resources led towards taking care of employees. It can be considered as the first stage of human resources development.

2. Scientific management movement stage: This stage aimed at improving worker efficiency through proper selection, training and compensation. F.W. Taylor suggested the following tips

Individuals who are selected for the jobs should be physically and mentally ready to demand of jobs.
Employees should not be called upon to work at the time that would be detrimental to their health.
Education and development of the workers, properly trained and developed workers produced best.
Incentive system to “earn more be performing more” properly paid workers.
Specialization through division of work to achieve efficiency.

3. Industrial psychology: An employee having positive attitude can faster industrial efficiency. Efficiency can be increased by testing intelligence test of the employee. Thus to increase the efficiency, human psychology should be studied through different test and should developed a good interest, and positive attitude on the work in them.

4. The human relation movement stage: This stage focuses people element in personnel management. Hawthorne studies serve as the beginning of human relation movement. It advocates the following personnel management aspects.

Participative management and teamwork.
Importance of social setting and group dynamics in employee productivity.
Need for improved communication among managers and employees.

5. The period of labor legislation: To control, direct and motivate the labor, there should be strong need of some kinds of legislation. The civil right act was passed in 1964. Discrimination law, pension laws, health and safety laws, federal regulatory agencies and their interpretive, guidelines, and cowed ruling affected virtually every aspect of employment.

6. Organizational development movement stage: The organization development (OD) movement of the 1960s and 1970s was closely associated with the concept of behavioral science. The OD approach concentrates on overall organizational effectiveness, especially with regard to process how people behave in situation where they are constantly interacting with one another. Team development and management of change were often important features of an OD programme. Particular attention was paid to the analysis of group process and OD consultants evolved methods of analyzing organization behavior, especially within and between group, and of solving conflict problems.

Distinction between Personnel Management and HR Management

HRM is developed from personnel management. They are similar in some ways but different in may ways. Many people feel that HRM offered nothing new and is just a meaningless and transatlantic level, which has been attached to personnel management. Effective personnel managers have always practiced HRM.

The following points highlights the difference between Personnel Management and Human Resource Management.

Personnel Management	Human Resource Management
1. It tries to develop individual employee.	1. HRM develops individual's employee through team effort.
2. It is a traditional approach to administration of people.	2. It is a modern system to management of human energy and physical strength.
3. It is concerned with individual satisfaction only.	3. It is concerned with whole team satisfaction.
4. PM dealing is related in negotiating administration and collect agreement.	4. HRM dealing is concerned in wider notion of work i.e. it emphasizes employee participation in decision making.
5. Personnel management used to assist line manager to implement the corporate strategy.	5. HR manager are the line manager who directly contribute to profit.
6. The outcomes of PM is individual satisfaction.	6. The outcomes of HRM is increased productivity, profit and organizational effectiveness.
7. PM has simple rising towards management.	7. HRM has broad vision toward management.
8. PM considers people as variable cost.	8. HRM requires people as social capital and valuable asset.

Concept and Factors Contributed for the Development of HRM

Concept of HRM

Human resource management is concerned with people dimension in organization. It focuses on management of human energy and capabilities to improve productivity. People possessing physical strength and energy alone are not human resource. People become human resource only when they contribute their competencies. Competencies are the combination of knowledge, skill, attitude, experience etc. As we know management is the art of getting things done through other people. Managers perform the function of planning, organizing, staffing, coordinating, directing etc. The staffing function is concerned with human resource management.

According to Decenzo and Robbins, “Human resource management is a process consisting of four functions acquisition, development, motivation and maintenance.”

According to Paul G. Hastings, “Human resource management is that aspect of management having as its goal the effective utilization of the labour resources of an organization.”
Similarly, Oliver Sheldon defines, “Human resource management is a part of the management process, which is primarily concerned with human constituents of an organization.”

Hence, in conclusion human resource management is very crucial for the success of any organization. Human beings are a resource to an organization but it is the living resource which cannot be equated with the other resources which are unanimated. Human resources add to the value while other resources add to the cost. All the firms buy the same material and machines but it is the people in the organization who built it and makes differences in the ultimate product. The human being never reaches an ultimate value throughout his lifetime at work which other resources reach to an ultimate value it starts producing. Thus, the management of human resource is very complicated and challenging task for those who are interested with the successful running of an organization and this implies considerable knowledge by various aspects of human resource management. The human resource management function or personnel function should be lightening rod attracting the tension and human conflict, which are inevitable in an organization and community.

Factors contributed for the Development of HRM

The phrase “human resource management” is not new. It was used as long as 40 years ago, but at that time, it was interchangeable with personnel management. The development of HRM has gone through different stages. Many factors have contributed for the development of human resource management. They are follows:

1. Industrial revolution stage: Industrial revolution brought the three major developments.

The development of machinery
The linkage of human power to machine
The establishment of factories.

Due to the industrial revolution, people specialized in their job. Workers organized themselves into trade unions to achieve better conditions of employment. Labour laws were enacted to protect the interest of worker. Collective bargaining between labour and management was used to settle industrial disputes. Robert Owen reduced working hours and built house and schools for workers. After industrial revolution, problems related to human resources led towards taking care of employees. It can be considered as the first stage of human resources development.

2. Scientific management movement stages: This stage aimed at improving worker efficiency through proper selection, training and compensation. F. W. Taylor suggested the following tips:

Individuals who are selected for the jobs should be physically and mentally to the demand of jobs.
Employees should not be called upon to work at the time that would be detrimental to their health.
Education and development of the workers, properly trained and developed workers produced best.
Incentive system to “earn more be performing more” properly paid workers.
Specialization through division of work to achieve efficiency.

Participative management and teamwork
Importance of social setting and group dynamics in employee productivity.
Need for improved communication among managers and employees.

5. The period of labour legislation: To control, direct and motivate the labour, there should be strong need of some kinds of legislation. The civil right act was passed in 1964. Discrimination law, pension laws, health and safety laws, federal regulatory agencies. And their interpretive guidelines and cowed ruling affected virtually every aspect of employment.

6. Organizational development movement stage: The organization development (OD) movement of the 1960s and 1970s was closely associated with the concept of behavioral science. The OD approach concentrates on overall organizational effectiveness, especially with regard to process how people behave in situation where they are constantly interacting with one another. Team development and management of change were often important features of an OD programme. Particular attention was paid to the analysis of group processes and OD consultants evolved methods of analyzing organization behavior, especially within and between group and of solving conflict problems.

In particular, Schein (1969) developed methodologies for process consulting. This involves helping clients to generate information, which they can understand about their projects and problems, and creating conditions for them to won the solutions to their problems by gaining internal commitment to their choice.

Functions of HRM (Human Resource Management)

1. The staffing function: Although recruiting is frequently perceived as the initial step in the staffing function, there are a number of prerequisites. Specifically, when a company plans strategically, it determines its goals and objectives for a given period of time. These goals and objectives often result is structural changes being made in organization. Once an application has come in, it is time to begin the selection phase. Selection too has a dual focus. It attempts to think out the large set of applications that arrived during the recruiting phase and to select an applicant who will be successful on the job. To achieve this goal, many companies use a variety of steps to assess the applicants. The candidate who successfully completed all steps is typically offered the job, but that is only half of equation. HRM must also ensure that the good prospects accept the job offer, if made accordingly; HRM must communicate a variety of information to the applicant, such as the organization culture, what are expected of employees and any other information that pertinent to the candidates decision making process.

Once the selection process is completed, the staffing function has come to an end. The goals, then of the staffing function are to locate competent employees and get them into organization when this goal has been reached, it is time for HRM to begin focusing its attention on the employee’s training and development.

2. The training and development function: Whenever HRM embarks on the hiring process, it attempts to search and secure a candidate whom we labeled as the “best” possible candidate. And while HRM professionals pride themselves on being able to determine those who are qualified versus those who are not, the fact remains that few, if any, new employees can truly come into an organization and immediately becomes fully functioning, 100% performers. First employees need to adapt to their new surrounding, socialization is a means of bringing about. This adoption while it may begin informally in the late stages of the hiring process. During this time, the focus is to orient the new employee to the rules, regulations and goals of the organization, department, and work unit. Thus, as the employee becomes more comfortable with his or her surrounding, more intense training can occur.

Reflection over the past few decades tell us that, depending on the job, employees often take a number of months to adjust to their new organization and jobs. Does that imply that HRM has not hired properly or the staffing function goals were not met? On the contrary, it indicates and peculiarities involved in each organization’s positions result in jobs being tailored to adequately meet organizational needs.

Accordingly, HRM plays an important to note that employee and career development is more employees centered.

At the conclusion of the training and development function, HRM attempts to reach the goals of having competent, adapted employees who possess the up-to-date skill, knowledge, and abilities needed to perform their current jobs are more successfully.

3. The motivation function: The motivation function is one of the most important yet probably the least understood aspect of the HRM process. Why?
Simply because human behavior is complex trying to figure out what motivates various employees has been a concern of behavioral science. First of all, one must begin to think of motivation as a multifaceted process-one that has individual, managerial and organizational implications. Motivation is not just what the employee exhibits, but also a collection of environment issues surrounding the job. It has been proposed that one’s performance in an organization is a function of two factors ability and willingness to do the jobs. Thus, from a performance perspective, employees need to have the appropriate skills and abilities to adequately do the job.

Motivating employees also requires a level of respect between “management” and “workers”. This respect can be seen as involving employees in decisions that affect them listening to employees and implementing their suggestions where appropriate. The next step is to understand the implications of motivational theories. Some motivational theories are well known by most practicing managers. Performance standards for each employee must also be set managers must be sure that the performance evaluation system is designed to provide feedback to employees regarding their past performance while simultaneously addressing any performance weaknesses the employee may have. A link should be established between employee compensation and performance.

Throughout the activities required in the motivation function, the efforts all focus on one primary goal: to have those competent and adapted employees, with up-to-date skills, knowledge, and abilities, exerting high energy levels. Once that are achieved, it is time turn the HRM focus to the maintenance function.

4. The maintenance function: This is the last phase of the HRM process. The objectives of this phase are to put into place activities that will help retain productive employees. HRM must work to ensure that the working environment is safe and healthy: caring for employees’ well being has a major effect on their commitment. HRM must also realize that nay problem an employee focus in his or her personal life will ultimately be brought into workplace. Employee assistance programs, such as programs that help individuals deal with stressful life situations, are needed. Such programs provide many benefits to the organization while simultaneously helping the affected employee. In addition to protecting employees’ welfare, it is necessary for HRM to operate appropriate communication programs in the organization. Including in such programs is the ability for employees to know what is occurring around them and vent frustrations. Employee relations programs should be designed to ensure that employees are kept well informed through email, net, bulletin boards, town hall meeting, or teleconferencing and to foster an environment where employee voices are heard. If time and effort are expended in this phase, HRM may be able to achieve its ultimate goal of having competent employees, who have adapted to the organization’s culture, with up-to-date skills, knowledge and abilities, who exert high energy level, who are now willing to maintain their commitment and loyalty to the company. This process is difficult to implement and maintain, but the rewards should be such that the effort placed in such endeavours are warranted.

Organizational Outcomes of HRM System

Organizational Outcomes of HRM System

The organizational outcomes of HRM are:

Quality of work life (QWL): Quality of work life refers to the quality of relationships between employees and total working environment of the organization. It is concerned with overall climate of work for better quality of work life. There are two ways of looking at what QWL means. One way equates QWL with a set of objective organizational conditions and practices (e.g. job enrichment, democratic supervision, employee involvement, and safe working conditions). The other way equates QWL with employee’s perceptions that they are safe, relatively well satisfied, and able to grow and develop as human beings. This way relates QWL to the degree to which the full range of human needs is met.
Productivity: Productivity is a measure of the output of goods and services relative to the input labor, material and equipment. The more costs are lower. Improving productivity simply means getting more out of what is put in. it does not mean production through the addition of resources, such as time, money, material or people. It is doing better with what we have improving productivity is not working harder; it is working smarter. Today’s world demands that we do more with less-fewer people, less money, less time, less space and fewer resources in general. Some of the increase in manufacturing productivity is undoubtedly due to wide spread automation in the factory.
Readiness for change: Change is quite complex process. Change is a fact of life. It is a nature of human being that nobody instantly becomes ready for the change. Employee tends to resist change. The main reasons for such resistance are

Fear of unknown: Change may bring uncertainty creates problems. Employee like old ways and fear uncertainty.
Security: Employee may fear threat to job security.
Habit: Employee resists to change due to old habit.
Misunderstanding: Employee may not understand the purpose of change by management.
Social factors: Employees may feel threat to existing social relationships.

Output Components of HRM

If there are good HRM systems in any organization, it will give the following employee related output. It consists of 4cs.

Commitment: If there is good HR System in organization, organizational outcomes will be high commitment of staff. Employee will be more committed. Employee will be loyal, performance oriented, self worth, and involved in work. They show their potentialities with highest degree for the achievement of organizational goal. They will automatically more motivated towards their duty and always think about the interest of organization.
Competences: When there is good HRM system, management can attract and keep people for long time. Finding out their weakness, training can be given to them. With training and imposition new skill, employee can be made competent, that can response to any changes inside and outside the organization high competence to adapt to changes in the environment and assumes new roles; potential for higher-level job. Competency of people can be increased through training and development and organization can proceed into a competitive market.
Cost effectiveness: Cost effectiveness does not signify reducing the cost but managing the cost in a most effective way sot that output can be maximized. This can be done by effective HRM system. With good HR decision in HR activities such as recruitment, selection, training and development, performance appraisal, labor turnover can be reduced, efficiency of labor can be increased, this ultimately affects in well management in cost.
Congruence: Congruence is the relationship between the interest of employee and organization. Good HR system sustains the relation between management and employee; high degree of harmony between the goals of individual and the organization; common vision in goals and working together to attain them.

Techniques of Making OD (Organizational Development) Effective

Techniques of Making OD (Organizational Development) Effective
We can follow the following techniques to make the OD (Organizational Development) more effective:
1. Organizational restructuring: The most comprehensive type of organization change/ development involves a major reorganization, usually referred to as a structural change – a system-wide rearrangement of the task division and authority and reporting relationships. A structural change affects performance appraisal and rewards, decision making, and communication and information processing system.

2. Task and technological changes: This is another way to bring OD at organizational (macro) level. It may try to change task or the technology or both of them as per necessity.

3. Goal setting (MBO): Management by objectives (popularly known as MBO) is an extremely popular tool of OD. It was the first described and advocated by Peter Drucker in 1954. He stressed that business performance requires that each job be directed towards the objective of the whole business.

MBO, also referred to as “Management by Results” is based on the assumption that involvement leads to commitment and if an employee participates, in setting goals, such employees will be motivated to perform better. It ultimately leads to the achievement of objectives. As an OD technique it involves the following steps:

People who are involved in the programme must be educated about the basic principles and procedures of MBO.
Employees and managers meet formally and agree upon clear-cut and quantifiable objectives.
Progress towards the chosen objectives is reviewed after some internal feedback is provided to employees.
An overall evaluation is made to assess the current progress for the next cycle of objective setting and planning.

4. Quality of Work Life (QWL): It is one of the most popular and widely used system wide intervention techniques. It refers to the favorableness or unfavorableness of a job environment for people. The basic purpose is to develop work environment that are excellent for people as well as for the economical health of the organization. The elements in a typical QWL program include many items viz., open communications, equitable reward systems, a concern for employee job security, and participation in job design.

Steps Involved in the Organizational Development

Steps / Processes Involved in the Organizational Development

OD (Organizational Development is a complex process of behavioral interventions. OD responds to unique problems of a specific organization. It is designed and implemented systematically.

Organizational development processes may differ from organizations to organizations depending upon the culture of the society in which it is being applied. For example, where trade unions have poetically bent, the workers are on the board of directors. There are also more industrial government interactions. In such climate, organizational development is more concerned with power and political implications of the action plans. The OD process consists of following steps.

1. Initial Diagnosis / Consultation

The first step in the organizational development process is to approach the organizational development consultant to determine the types of OD programme to be developed. The consultant may be a professional consultant from outside or he may internal service personnel, expert in organization development programmes. At this point, the consultant may have consultation with person from various levels in the organizations in order to gain the knowledge of imports. For this purpose, he may interview such persons or he may adopt any other way to be acquainted with the necessary information.

2. Data collection

The next step in the process is data collection. The consultant meets various groups away from the work in order to determine the organizational climate and behavior problems faced by the organization. They gather information through surveys and develop information through interviews etc.

3. Data Feedback and Confrontation

Data, so collected are made known to work groups concerned and are asked to review the data collected. They so through the data and locate the points of disagreement, discuss such points and take the decision and then suggest the priorities for change.

After having an initial diagnosis and solution to problems, data will be given back to employees for collecting their viewpoints. The situation of confrontation may arise at the time of discussion on solutions of problems.

4. Action Planning and Problem Solving

Data are made known to work groups concerned and are asked to review the data collected. They so through the data and locate the points of disagreement, discuss such points and take the decision and then suggest the priorities for change.

Data are used by the groups to suggest specific recommendations for change. They discuss the problems faced by the organizations and stretch specific plans including who is responsible for problems and at what time.

5. Team Building

During the whole process, group meetings are convened to discuss the programme and the consultant in the whole process as a team. The consultant helps them to see the value of open communication and trust them. These are essential prerequisites for improved group functioning. Consultant also encourage team building through organizing meeting with managers and their immediate subordinates so that they can improve the functioning of the work group with the guidance of consultant.

6. Inter Group Development

With the development of natural team (i.e. a manager and his subordinates), the larger groups comprising several team may be developed. Understanding and co-ordination will be developed among different groups to achieve the objectives. In other words, with the development of natural team (a manager and his sub-ordinates), the larger groups comprising several teams may be developed. In this way, it will include the whole organizations.

7. Appraisal and Follow up

The consultant further helps the organization in making an appraisal of the programmes and find out deficiencies if any. He can develop additional programmes in are where the original programme is felt ineffective and results are poor and that requires improvement. Thus, the consultants advise follow up for better understanding.

Thus, the above social process and the steps discussed are not the same with every type of organization. They may differ from organization to organization depending upon culture of the society in which it is being applied.

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Various kinds of Reactions of People for the Organizational Change

Various kinds of Reactions of People for the Organizational Change

Different people react differently for a given change depending upon their attitude. The perception of the individual about the change may lead to one of the following reaction.

Acceptance: If the employee perceives that the change is largely beneficial to him and he is capable of adjusting himself to the change without any overwhelming scarifies, he accepts the change. His attitude is positive and he looks enthusiastic, supportive and cooperative towards the change.
Resistance: If the employee feels that the change will affect him adversely and he will not be able to adjust it or the change requires extraordinary personal effect or sacrifice on his part, he starts opposing the change through active protests, sabotaging or committing unwanted activities. His attitude becomes negative. He looks worried, afraid and may become non co-operative or vindicate.
Tolerance: If the employee perceives that the change is neither very much beneficial nor poses nay danger, he becomes indifferent and tolerates the change without offering any resistance.
Rejection: If he finds that the change may result in serious losses (i.e. loss of job, demotion, abdication of power, etc.) without expectation of any gain in return, he totally rejects the change and fights it back to tooth and nail. The response to a change may range from complete acceptance to the active resistance and complete rejection of the change.

Forces to Lead Organizational Change

Change is a law of nature; we live in a dynamic world where nothing remains static. Everything around us keeps on changing.

Organization change refers to the alteration of structural relationships and role of the people in the organization. It is largely structural in nature. These changes may be pressurized by internal or external forces, may affect only one or all the levels and departments or may be related to the organizational structure (hierarchy), people, technology, working or social environment. The change in task and other component sometimes change in organizational structured too. Organization change is required due to dynamism of external variables. To make an adjustment with external environment, organizational changes takes place.

Related Topic:

Organizational Change : Concept and Nature

Organization has to survive and operate in an environment. Environment is dynamic and changing fast. Both the external and internal environment forces encourage organization to change. External forces are located outside the organization. They are not control by top management. They bring opportunities and threats to the organization. Generally, the pressure for organizational change may be created by internal and external factors which are described below.

I. External Forces

External forces are those that emerge from the sources external to the environment i.e. the macro environment. These forces directly and indirectly affect the working of an organization. These forces are for beyond the control of an organization. Hence, an organization is bound to change itself as warranted by these forces. Such forces are as follows:

1. Market forces of change

Market conditions are constantly changing. Consumer tastes and preferences are changing. Changes in it may include changes in the nature and extent of demand caused by varying consumer needs, goals and preferences; changes in nature and volume of supply caused by the entry of new suppliers, new products and substitutes and new competitors; changes in the factors of production and changes in other market conditions relating to prices, quality, transport, packaging, warehousing, financing, etc. These changes call for necessary adjustments, alteration, expansion or contraction in the organizations.

2. Socio-culture forces of change

Social values, customs, traditions, living patterns, food habits, clothing patterns, conditions of women etc. are constantly changing. Such changes have a great bearing on the organizations relations and system. Political philosophy (capitalism, socialism or communism) move for social injustice and equality, upliftment of the downtrodden and many other such social factors would influence organizations systems of recruitment and selection, technology and structural relationships. It also influences such as in delayed marriage, people's attitude, norms and value toward society.

3. Technological forces of change

Technology is changing at a very rapid speed. Technological changes have even affected the social conditions of work. Mechanization, computerization and automation have greatly affected the functioning of the modern organizations. New processes and methods have become imperative for promoting organizations efficiency, economy, safety and welfare. Similarly, sophisticated information technology, robotics, faster and cheaper computers, innovation and experimentation have reshaped the jobs arising from new developments in technology.

4. Political forces of change

Change in political and legal factors also required change in organizations. The political system, philosophy of the political party in power, the working of judiciary etc. affect the business system. Similarly, changes in labor, corporate and taxation laws; economic policies relating to industry, business, agriculture and export import controls and regulations and incentives and concessions, all of which have a great bearing on the organizations and compel the organizations to change itself accordingly. The change in political forces as changing world political such as SOVIET UNION, reunification of GERMANY, collapse Saddam Hussein regime in IRAQ. The increase in the activities of pressure groups also lead organizational change.

5. Economic forces of change

The economic condition of a country may cause changes in organizations. State of inflation, deflation, recession, boom, saving rate, rate of investment, availability of resources (raw-materials, energy etc.) infrastructure facilities etc. decide the economic condition of a country.

Similarly, the economic policy plays a major role in shaping the pattern of change. The industrial and licensing policy, import-export policy, monetary policy, taxation policy, policy of globalization and liberalization, backward area development policy etc. are the major factors that may cause change in many business organizations.

II. Internal Forces

Internal forces or causes arise from the internal or micro environment of the organization. These forces can largely be controlled by the management but they do cause certain changes in the organization. Such forces include the following:

1. Change in Organizational Goal

The goals of employees change; organizational goals also experience succession and displacement. Sometimes, organizational goals or objectives are changed. The organization may like to change its business or add more and new lines of product, diversify product, start new business and so on. In such a situation, change in organization is inevitable.

2. Existing Organizations Deficiencies

In organizations, certain deficiencies and adjustments become apparent in due course of time. There are some of the common organizational deficiencies which obviously call for their removal and hence, necessitate changes in the existing organizations pattern:

Unnecessary lengthy chain of command
Unmanageable span of control
Lack of coordination between the departments
Barriers in communication
Disparity in authority and responsibility
Multiplicity of unnecessary committees
Lack of uniformity in policies
Lack of cooperation between line and staff

3. Change in Policies

The organizational policies including production, marketing, personnel and financial policies are changing with needs of the environment. Hence, change in organization becomes inevitable.

4. Sequential change

Every organizational change requires re-adjustments, sequential changes and supportive changes. For example, creation of a new department may cause the appointment of some new managerial positions, which in turn may necessitate reallocation of authority, responsibility and duties of the concerned departments. Other departments might have to realign their structure, tasks, objectives and staffing. It is, therefore, necessary that before any significant change is made, the possible consignment of the change must be identified and evaluated and the problem of change should be examined in its total perspective.

5. Changes in Top Management

Change in top management in the organizations may take place on account of new appointments, transfers, promotions or may be caused by expansion and technological changes. Change in the top level managers invariably involves certain organizational changes. Top management introduces sweeping changes in the organizations to suit his style of working.

6. Change in Personnel

The personnel in an organization change very often. It may be due to promotions, transfers, resignations, retirement and so on.

7. Employee Pressure

Every increasing demand of the employees for better job security and job satisfaction, better safety and welfare, congenial working environment, higher wages and incentives, participation in managerial process and more authority and power also appreciate changes in the organizational structure and pattern.

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Organizational Change : Concept and Nature of Organizational Change
Models for Managing Organizational Change
Forces to Lead Organizational Change
Various Kinds of Reactions of People for the Organizational Change
Organizational Behavior and Its Emerging Trends

The major challenges that the mangers are likely to confront with

The major challenges that the mangers are likely to confront with
Over the years, dramatic changes are taking place in organizations. Although, the field of OB (Organizational Behavior) has been around the past three decades, there are a few dramatically challenges taking place as we have entered the twenty-first century. The business and organization’s environment is changing drastically and the role of manger to maintain organization behavior has become absolutely complete task. For the small instance what is seen that people migration and global mobility of manpower has created cross culture in multinationals, the national and regional political and economic environment is providing the pressure to managers to adjust such changes, labor relations and the role with the influence of trade unions are changing rapidly. Under such circumstances, manager required to think seriously in some major challenges/ issues. Such confronting managers for which OB offers solutions or at least some meaningful insights towards solutions.

Ever Expanding Globalization
By now, the whole world has become a global village. Business has crossed the national boundaries and thus, has become global, popularly known as multinational business. This has made managing men more complex globalization of business poses at least two major challenges for manager.

First, in case of multinational companies, the mangers are frequently transferred to other countries. In a new country, the managers have to manage a workforce that is very different in needs, aspirations, and attitudes from the ones they were used to back in the former country.

Second, even in their own country, the mangers have to work with superiors, subordinates, and peers who were born and brought up in a different culture. The manager’s problem, then is what motivates them may not motivate others, i.e. superiors, subordinates, and peers. For example, the manager may like to adopt an open and straight forward communication style, but the subordinates may find the same style as threatening and uncomfortable. In order to manage these people effectively, the managers need to understand their varying culture accurately and know how it has shaped as such and then learn to adapt the management styles accordingly. In such, the managers need to modify their practices to face the challenges before them.

Work- force Diversity

Work-force diversity can be defined as the situation that exists when members of a group or organization differ from each other in terms of age, gender, race, ethnicity, and education. When workers join organizations, they come with their differing cultural values and lifestyle preferences. Therefore, the challenge for organizations is to make them accommodating to diverse groups of people at work place by addressing

their different lifestyles, cultural moorings, family needs and work styles. Managing people through melting pot assumption was a fact till the other day. Now, it is being replaced by one that recognizes and values differences among workers in organizations. If diversity is managed properly, it can increase creativity and innovations. On the contrary, diversity, if not managed properly, can result in higher turnover, heightened inter-personal conflict and ineffective communication.

Towards Improving Quality
Yet another major challenge before today’s managers have to face is offering of quality products and services to the customers. This is because the delivery of quality products and services to the customers has a direct impact on the success of organizations. The ever increasing concern for quality products and success of organizations. The ever increasing concern for quality products and services has given genesis to today’s buzzword ‘Total Quality Management (TQM)’. TQM is different things to different people and has been both ‘cussed’ and discussed in the management literature and the actual practice of attainment of customer satisfaction through the continuous improvement of all organizational processes. There is no denying of the fact that price, brand, loyalty, attractive design and technical innovations are still important to consumers in developing and developed countries yet the quality of product has surged ahead in relative importance. Similarly, the delivery of quality services in the ever exploding service sector has become very critical. The challenge for managers across the world is, therefore have human resources to deliver quality to products and services to the customers and clients.

Organizational Change : Concept and Nature

Organizational Change

Change is a quite complex process. It is the nature of people that nobody instantly becomes ready to change. Resistance to change is the most baffling problem, which the manager has to face. The resistance to change may be caused by a host, economic, social or psychological factors. It may be implicit and explicit and individual or collective. Implicit resistance may be manifested through resignation, tardiness, low morale, and lack of motivation, increased absenteeism and increased requests of transfer. Explicit response on the other hand may assume the form of strikes, go slow tactics, violent behavior and sabotaging activities. There may be the resistance on the individual level as well as on organizational level.

We know that, change is the law of nature. Similarly, change is a necessary way of life in the most organization. The term 'organizational change' implies the creation of imbalances in the existing pattern of situation. When a business organization operates and functions for a long times an adjustment between its technical, human and structural setup is established. Organization change refers to the alteration of structural relationships and role of the people in the organizations. It means alternation of the status quo of the organization. In other words, organizational change means planned change or alteration in the role and relationships of the people, technology and environment in the organization in order to improve its overall performance. People get adjusted and get used to a set of working relationships, social groups and a set pattern of organizations and individual life. So long as this equilibrium exists, it is easier for the people to adjust in organizations. But when a change is introduced, the existing equilibrium of relationships is disturbed and the problem of new adjustment is created.

The following definitions given by various experts are as follows:

"Organizational change is a rational response to changing requirements for organizational survival, growth and effectiveness." – Albanese

"Organizational change is the intentional attempt by management to improve the overall performance of individuals, group and the organization as a whole by altering the organization's structure, behavior and technology." – Invancevich et. al.

"Organizational change is alterations in the operations of organizations that are either planned or unplanned and are a result of either internal or external influences." – Greenberg and Baron

From the above definitions, change refers to an alteration in a system whether physical, biological and social. In other words, organizational change is the alteration of work environment in the organization. It implies a new equilibrium between different components of the organization like technology, structural arrangement, job design and people.

Nature and Characteristics of Organizational Change

Change takes place in all parts of the organization but at varying rates of speed and degrees of significance.
Organizational change aims at improving overall performance of the organization. More specifically, it aims at organizational survival, growth and effectiveness.
Change results from the pressure of forces which are both outside and inside the organizations. It disturbs the existing equilibrium in the organizations.
Organizational change takes place through change in individual members of the organization.
Change may affect people, structure, technology and other elements of the organizations.
Organizational change means any planned or intended change.
Organizational change means the alterations that take place in the entire organization i.e. its people, their relationships, technology and internal environment.
Organizational change process implies learning as well unlearning certain things.