M.docx

M.COM – DMB-107 ANSWER-1= A performance appraisal, also referred to as a performance review, performance evaluation,[1] (career) development discussion,[2] or employee appraisal[3] is a method by which the job performance of an employee is documented and evaluated. Performance appraisals are a part of career development and consist of regular reviews of employee performance within organizations. A performance appraisal is a systematic, general and periodic process that assesses an individual employee's job performance and productivity in relation to certain pre-established criteria and organizational objectives.[4][5] Other aspects of individual employees are considered as well, such as organizational citizenship behavior, accomplishments, potential for future improvement, strengths and weaknesses, etc.[4][6][7] To collect PA data, there are three main methods: objective production, personnel, and judgmental evaluation. Judgmental evaluations are the most commonly used with a large variety of evaluation methods. [1] Historically, PA has been conducted annually (long-cycle appraisals); however, many companies are moving towards shorter cycles (every six months, every quarter), and some have been moving into short-cycle (weekly, bi-weekly) PA.[8][9] The interview could function as "providing feedback to employees, counseling and developing employees, and conveying and discussing compensation, job status, or disciplinary decisions".[8] PA is often included in performance management systems. PA helps the subordinate answer two key questions: first, "What are your expectations of me?" second, "How am I doing to meet your expectations?"[10] Performance management systems are employed "to manage and align" all of an organization's resources in order to achieve highest possible performance.[1] "How performance is managed in an organization determines to a large extent the success or failure of the organization. Therefore, improving PA for everyone should be among the highest priorities of contemporary organizations".[11] Applications of results A central reason for the utilization of performance appraisals (PAs) is performance improvement ("initially at the level of the individual employee, and ultimately at the level of the organization"). [12] Other fundamental reasons include "as a basis for employment decisions (e.g. promotions, terminations, transfers), as criteria in research (e.g. test validation), to aid with communication (e.g. allowing employees to know how they are doing and organizational expectations), to establish personal objectives for training" programs, for transmission of objective feedback for personal development, "as a means of documentation to aid in keeping track of decisions and legal requirements"[12] and in wage and salaryadministration.[1] Additionally, PAs can aid in the formulation of job criteria and selection of individuals "who are best suited to perform the required organizational tasks".[4] A PA can be part of guiding and monitoring employee career development.[16] PAs can also be used to aid in work motivation through the use of reward systems.[4] Potential benefits[edit] There are a number of potential benefits of organizational performance management conducting formal performance appraisals (PAs). There has been a general consensus in the belief that PAs lead to positive implications of organizations.[17] Furthermore, PAs can benefit an organization's effectiveness.[16] One way is PAs can often lead to giving individual workers feedback about their job performance.[13] From this may spawn several potential benefits such as the individual workers becoming more productive.[18] Other potential benefits include:  





Facilitation of communication: communication in organizations is considered an essential function of worker motivation. [13] It has been proposed that feedback from PAs aid in minimizing employees’ perceptions of uncertainty.[16] Fundamentally, feedback and management-employee communication can serve as a guide in job performance.[13] Enhancement of employee focus through promoting trust: behaviors, thoughts, and/or issues may distract employees from their work, and trust issues may be among these distracting factors. [19] Such factors that consume psychological energy can lower job performance and cause workers to lose sight of organizational goals. [13] Properly constructed and utilized PAs have the ability to lower distracting factors and encourage trust within the organization. [20] Goal setting and desired performance reinforcement: organizations find it efficient to match individual worker's goals and performance with organizational goals.[13] PAs provide room for discussion in the collaboration of these individual and organizational goals.[21] Collaboration can also be advantageous by resulting in employee acceptance and satisfaction of appraisal results.[22] Performance improvement: well constructed PAs can be valuable tools for communication with employees as pertaining to how their job performance stands with organizational expectations. [16] "At the organizational level, numerous studies have reported positive relationships between human resource management (HRM) practices" [13] and performance improvement at both the individual and organizational levels.

ANSWER- 3= Human Resource Planning (HRP): Definition, Importance & Process Human Resource Planning Human Resource Planning is a systematic process of forecasting both the prospective demand for and supply of manpower, and employment of skills with the objectives of the organization. It can also be termed as the method of reviewing the manpower necessities to ensure that right kind of skills is made available to the organization. The main purpose of HRP is to set the goals and objectives of the company. In other words, it is to have the precise number of employees, with their skills matching the requirements of the organization, so that the organization can move towards its goals. Chief objectives of Human Resource Planning are as follows: Guarantee ample supply of resources, whenever there is a need for it. Make sure that the current manpower in the company is being used properly. To foresee the potential requirements of manpower at various skill levels. Evaluate excess or scarcity of resources that are available at a given point of time. Predict the impact of technological changes on the resources as well as on the kind of jobs they do. Manage the resources that are already employed in the organization. Ensure that there is a lead time available to pick and train any supplementary human resource. Need for Human Resource Planning The need of HRP may arise because of the following reasons:       

1.

In India, unemployment is a grave concern. Scarcity of manpower and that too with the required skill sets and competence, has given rise for need of Human Resource Planning. 2. It comes handy for smooth and continuous supply of workers when a huge number of employees is retiring, or leaving the company or maybe they are incapable of working due to psychological or physical ailments. 3. There is a need for Human Resource Planning when there is an increase in employee turnover, which is obvious. Some examples of this turnover are promotions, marriages, end of contract, etc. 4. Technological changes lead to a chain of changes in the organization, right from skill sets product methods and administration techniques. These changes lead to an overall change in the number of employees required and with entirely different skill set. It is here that the Human Resource Planning helps the organization deal with the necessary changes. 5. Human Resource Planning is required to meet the requirements of diversification and growth of a company. 6. There is a need for Human Resource Planning in downsizing the resources when there is a shortage of manpower. Similarly, in case of excess resources, it helps in redeploying them in other projects of the company. Importance of Human Resource Planning After the need for HRP, it is apt to discuss the importance of it. A few are mentioned below.

    

It gives the company the right kind of workforce at the right time frame and in right figures. In striking a balance between demand-for and supply-of resources, HRP helps in the optimum usage of resources and also in reducing the labor cost. Cautiously forecasting the future helps to supervise manpower in a better way, thus pitfalls can be avoided. It helps the organization to develop a succession plan for all its employees. In this way, it creates a way for internal promotions. It compels the organization to evaluate the weaknesses and strengths of personnel thereby making the management to take remedial measures. The organization as a whole is benefited when it comes to increase in productivity, profit, skills, etc., thus giving an edge over its competitors. Human Resource Planning Process

In any Human Resource Planning model there are three key elements which the management should adhere to: 1.

Forecasting recruitment needs: There are a number of ways in forecasting your business needs, to know the exact number of employees required to run the business. Factors to be considered are the economical situation of any given country, internal and external factors of an organization and the demand for the products. 2. Evaluate Supply: In estimating this, there are two aspects, one is the evaluation of the internal resources and the other is the prospective or external resources. Among the two, external factors require extra care, these include education, unemployment rate and law that is in existence. Evaluating these factors very closely will help the organization in filling the right resources at the right time with the right skill set. 3. Supply and demand balance: This element of Human Resource Planning is very important, as striking a balance between these two forces will help the organization in understanding if there is shortage or excess of employees available in a particular group. It also helps in understanding as to the need of full time or part time needs of the organization.

ANSWER-4= Types of Training

There are a number of different types of training we can use to engage an employee. These types are usually used in all steps in a training process (orientation, in-house, mentorship, and external training). The training utilized depends on the amount of resources available for training, the type of company, and the priority the company places on training. Companies such as The Cheesecake Factory, a family restaurant, make training a high priority. The company spends an average of $2,000 per hourly employee. This includes everyone from the dishwasher and managers to the servers. For The Cheesecake Factory, this expenditure has paid off. They measure the effectiveness of its training by looking at turnover, which is 15 percent below the industry average (Ruiz, 2006). Servers make up 40 percent of the workforce and spend two weeks training to obtain certification. Thirty days later, they receive follow-up classes, and when the menu changes, they receive additional training (Ruiz, 2006). Let’s take a look at some of the training we can offer our employees. As you will see from the types of training below, no one type would be enough for the jobs we do. Most HR managers use a variety of these types of training to develop a holistic employee. Technical or Technology Training Depending on the type of job, technical training will be required. Technical training is a type of training meant to teach the new employee the technological aspects of the job. In a retail environment, technical training might include teaching someone how to use the computer system to ring up customers. In a sales position, it might include showing someone how to use the customer relationship management (CRM) system to find new prospects. In a consulting business, technical training might be used so the consultant knows how to use the system to input the number of hours that should be charged to a client. In a restaurant, the server needs to be trained on how to use the system to process orders. Let’s assume your company has decided to switch to the newest version of Microsoft Office. This might require some technical training of the entire company to ensure everyone uses the technology effectively. Technical training is often performed in-house, but it can also be administrered externally. Quality Training In a production-focused business, quality training is extremely important. Quality trainingrefers to familiarizing employees with the means of preventing, detecting, and eliminating nonquality items, usually in an organization that produces a product. In a world where quality can set your business apart from competitors, this type of training provides employees with the knowledge to recognize products that are not up to quality standards and teaches them what to do in this scenario. Numerous organizations, such as the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), measure quality based on a number of metrics. This organization provides the stamp of quality approval for companies producing tangible products. ISO has developed quality standards for almost every field imaginable, not only considering product quality but also certifying companies in environmental management quality. ISO9000 is the set of standards for quality management, while ISO14000 is the set of standards for environmental management. ISO has developed 18,000 standards over the last 60 years 1. With the increase in globalization, these international quality standards are more important than ever for business development. Some companies, like 3M (QAI, 2011), choose to offer ISO training as external online training, employing companies such as QAI to deliver the training both online and in classrooms to employees. Skills Training Skills training, the third type of training, includes proficiencies needed to actually perform the job. For example, an administrative assistant might be trained in how to answer the phone, while a salesperson at Best Buy might be trained in assessment of customer needs and on how to offer the customer information to make a buying decision. Think of skills training as the things you actually need to know to perform your job. A cashier needs to know not only the technology to ring someone up but what to do if something is priced wrong. Most of the time, skills training is given in-house and can include the use of a mentor. An example of a type of skills training is from AT&T and Apple (Whitney, 2011), who in summer 2011 asked their managers to accelerate retail employee training on the iPhone 5, which was released to market in the fall. Soft Skills Training Our fourth type of training is called soft skills training. Soft skills refer to personality traits, social graces, communication, and personal habits that are used to characterize relationships with other people. Soft skills might include how to answer the phone or how to be friendly and welcoming to customers. It could include sexual harassment training and ethics training. In some jobs, necessary soft skills might include how to motivate others, maintain small talk, and establish rapport. In a retail or restaurant environment, soft skills are used in every interaction with customers and are a key component of the customer experience. In fact, according to a Computerworldmagazine survey, executives say there is an increasing need for people who have not only the skills and technical skills to do a job but also the necessary soft skills, such as strong listening and communication abilities (Hoffman, 2007). Many problems in organizations are due to a lack of soft skills, or interpersonal skills, not by problems with the business itself. As a result, HR and managers should work together to strengthen these employee skills. Soft skills training can be administered either in-house or externally.Professional Training and Legal Training In some jobs, professional training must be done on an ongoing basis. Professional training is a type of training required to be up to date in one’s own professional field. For example, tax laws change often, and as a result, an accountant for H&R Block must receive yearly professional training on new tax codes (Silkey, 2010). Lawyers need professional training as laws change. A personal fitness trainer will undergo yearly certifications to stay up to date in new fitness and nutrition information. Some organizations have paid a high cost for not properly training their employees on the laws relating to their industry. In 2011, Massachusetts General Hospital paid over $1 million in fines related to privacy policies that were not followed (Donnelly, 2011).

ANSWER-5= Trade union A trade union, also called a labour union or labor union (US), is an organization of workers who have come together to achieve many common goals, such as protecting the integrity of their trade, improving safety standards, and attaining better wages, benefits (such as vacation, health care, and retirement), and working conditions through the increased bargaining power wielded by the creation of a monopoly of the workers.[1] The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members (rank and file members) and negotiates labour contracts (collective bargaining) with employers. The most common purpose of these associations or unions is "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment".[2] This may include the negotiation of wages, work rules, complaint procedures, rules governing hiring, firing and promotion of workers, benefits, workplace safety and policies. Important provisions of the trade unions act, 1926 Main Provisions of the Trade Unions Act, 1926 are given below: 1. Definition of Trade Union: Trade Unions means any combination, whether temporary or permanent, formed primarily for the purpose of: (a) Regulating the relations between (1) Workmen and employers; or (2) Workmen and workmen; or: (3) Employers and employers; or (b) For imposing restrictive conditions on the conduct of any trade of business and includes any federation of two or more unions. 2. Registration Trade Unions: Under the Act, registration of unions is not compulsory though it is always desirable to have a Trade Union registered. ADVERTISEMENTS: The registration gives immunity to its officers and members against civil and criminal proceedings under certain circumstances. An unregistered trade union is not necessarily unlawful. Before a trade union is granted registration, it is required to comply with certain formalities. It has to sponsor at least seven members who may apply by filing an application for registration to the registrar of the Trade Unions of the State in which the head office or registered office, as the case may be, of the Trade Union is to be located. A Trade Union is not entitled for registration unless the executive thereof is constituted in accordance with the provisions of the Act and its rules for the following matters: (a) Name of the Trade Union (b) A copy of the rules (c) Names, occupations and addresses of members making application. (d) Titles, names, ages, addresses and occupations of its office bearers. (e) Its assets and liabilities, if the union has existed for more than a year before the date of application. 3. Cancellation of Registration: The Registrar of Trade Unions is authorised to withdraw or cancel the registration under the following circumstances: (a) On the application of the Trade Union to be verified in the prescribed manner; or (b) If the registrar is satisfied that the certificate of registration has been obtained by fraud or mistake or that the Trade Union has ceased to exist or has willfully and after notice from the Registrar contra vended any provision of the Act or allowed any rule to continue in force which is inconsistent with any provision of the Act or the rule as the case may be. Two months’ previous notice in writing, specifying the grounds for cancellation, is necessary to be given by the Registrar before cancelling or withdrawing the certificate. 4. Procedure for Change in Name: Any registered Trade Union may with the consent of not less than two-third of the total number of its members changes the name. 5. Dissolution of Trade Union: When a registered Trade Union is dissolved, a notice signed by the secretary, and seven members of the union is required to be sent to the Registrar within 14 days of the dissolution. 6. Membership: The right of membership of a trade union is available to a minor who is not below 15 years of age but the membership of the executive is not available to a person (1) if he has not attained the age of 18 years and (2) if he has been convicted for by a court in India of any offence involving moral turpitude and sentenced to imprisonment, unless a period or 5 years has elapsed since his release. 7. General and Political Funds: The trade union must have a general fund. It may or may not have political fund. Contributions to the political fund, if made, must be made separately and spent to promote the civil and political interests of its members. These are separate funds and each must be spent for the purposes listed in the Act. Contribution to political fund is not compulsory.

ANSWER-8= Computer Application and Human Resource Management! The computer application in human resource management is the managerial applications of computer use which is usually known as management information system. In case of Human Resource Management, it is known as Human Resource Information System (HRIS). Computer converts the data into meaningful information needed by the manager to make decisions, planning and control. Today HRIS is computer based information system. Manager as a decision maker is a processor of information. He must possess the ability to obtain the information, store the information, process and retrieve the information and use it for the right decision. Today knowledge is increasing with the tremendous speed. There is an explosion of knowledge. Current information is very essential for right decision. Speed and accuracy is the special feature of computer. The machine does not get bored or fatigued. It can handle any quantity of data. The speed and accuracy of computer has led to speedy transactions and other business operations. The information is made available to management more quickly Computer provides large and sophisticated database to the manager that can be used at appropriate time for making decisions. Today’s computer languages are user friendly that allow manager to learn enough skills in a short time ranging from a day or two to have an access to the most of their demand for immediate and ad hoc information provided data are properly collected, organized and stored in a computer. Management must insist on economic quality the quality which is cost effective. It should establish quality standards that reflect needs of the organisation. It can be easily done through “Quality Circles’. They should focus their attention on programming techniques, documentations, new technology use etc. Computer is a time saver device. Data and Information: There is a distinction between data and information. Data are facts and figures in the form of historical records that are not used in making decisions. Information on the other hand consists of data which are retrieved and processed and used for making decisions, forecasting and argument. Processed data is information. Decisions Support System: ADVERTISEMENTS: Decision support system aids the manager in decision making. According to R. H. Sprague and E. D. Karlson, decision support system is, “an interactive computer based system that helps decision makers utilizes data and models to solve unstructured problems.” A decision support system can be created in which senior and experienced manager’s procedures and methods of decision making can be replicated. It will help the managers immensely to arrive quickly at a decision on any problem related to human resources of the organisation. DSS facilitates the present executive to have experts’ advice at his finger tips. The system is user friendly. It provides a readymade advice to the executive. DSS for several human resources problems can be developed and kept ready. DSS helps an executive to plan for future. Data base Management System: It is a collection of software for processing interrelated data. In large organisations there is an expansion in succession at the bottom structure. They face with a problem of integrating the organisations human resources information. Their activities should be integrated. The information about their activities should be integrated. There are several software packages that are developed to integrate the data contained in a data base. Such software packages are known as database management systems. The data base management systems are special computer programmes enabling user to create, manipulate, retrieve and maintain file data. The database management system facilitates creation, addition, deletion and modification and sorting of records. It also helps in preparing printed reports as per required specifications. It helps in arranging the data in desired sequence. It acts as an interface between applications programme and the office files. Management Information System: Management information system or MIS is the old concept. The computerized MIS is new. Executives used MIS for planning and control. Computerized MIS added new dimensions by way of increased speed and accuracy. The use of computer has made the management information system feasible. It is not necessary that management information system should be computerized. There are host of tasks that are performed perfectly by employees and executives but there are certain tasks that can be speedily and accurately performed by this electronic machine” computer. According to Gordon B. Davis and Margrethe H. Olson management information system is, “an integrated, user machine system for providing information to support operations, management and decision making functions in an organisation. The system utilizes computer hardware and software; manual procedures; models for analysis, planning, control and decision making; and a data base.” MIS helps in integrating organisational information. In respect of human resources management it helps in having the integrated information in respect of human resources of the organisation. The information can be utilized by anyone needing it for which the knowledge of computer is not essential. Simply knowledge of using it will do. MIS is a support system for various functions of management.