5 ........................Chennai Chapter Report 6 ... - National HRD Network

ISSN-0974-1720
Vol - 24 April 2008 Issue - 1
Editor
C. Balaji,
506, Sai Siri Sampada, 7-1-29/23 & 24,
Leela Nagar, Ameerpet, Hyderabad - 500 016.
Email - balaji.chetlur@symphonysv.com
Publisher, Printer, Owner and place of
Publication with address
K. Satyanarayana
Hon. Executive Director
On behalf of National HRD Network
506, Sai Siri Sampada, 7-1-29/23 & 24,
Leela Nagar, Ameerpet, Hyderabad - 500 016.
Mobile: 94406-65375
Tel: +91 (40) 2374-2429, Fax: +91 (40) 2375-3191,
Res.: +91 (40) 2711-2212 Email: ksnhrd@gmail.com
Office Administration
V. Mayan
Mobile: 094901-18810 e-mail: nhrdhyd@eth.net
Design Advisor
A.Thothathri Raman
Consulting Editor, Business India, New Delhi
Mobile: 098112-97249 Email: atraman@gmail.com
Proof Reading
Araman Shahi
Plant Manager, Radiant Consumer Appliances
Mobile: 99512-23782
Email:araman.shahi@rediffmail.com
For Advertising in HRD News Letter
Please Contact:
K. Satyanarayana
Executive Director, National HRD Network
Mobile: 94406-65375 Email: ksnhrd@gmail.com
NHRDN Leadership Team
AQUIL BUSRAI, National President
DWARAKANATH P, Immediate Past President
ANAND NAYAK, Regional President (East)
GOPAL KRISHNA M., Regional President(South)
SATISH PRADHAN, Regional President (West)
RAO G P, Regional President (North)
VARADARAJAN S. (Raja), National Secretary
ASHOK REDDY B, National Treasurer
SATYANARAYANA K, Executive Director
NHRDN Elected Members
HARI HARAN IYER, Elected Member
PRAVEEN KUMAR K, Elected Member
RAMCHANDER M, Elected Member
Printed at:
Kala Jyothi Process P Ltd.
1-1-60/5, RTC ‘X’ Road Musheerabad,
Hyderabad - 500 020.
This journal is on our Website:
www.nationalhrd.org & www.nhrdn.org
Features
5 ........................ Chennai Chapter Report
6 ............................ President’s Message
7 ......................................... Editorial
9 ..... Ten Simple Rules for Hiring Great People
Monster Article
10 ........................ Jaipur Chapter Report
35 ............................. Fascinating Facts
5,10,37,38,39,40.......... Chapter News
39 ............................... Cartoon Corner
41 to 50 ................ Chapter Photographs
Advertisements
2 ...................................... SODEXHO
3 ........................................... CRISP
8 .................................... Monster Jobs
11 ........................ Alphastars, New Delhi
Column
12 .............. Beyond Work: What we do after
office hours
–– Madan Srinivasan
13 ......... Character Strengths and Virtues: An
Introduction - I
–– Dr Jaydeep Lal
14 ........... Facility Changed - People haven't!
–– Dr Rajkumar
Case Study
36 ... Suggestive Solutions to Case Studies - 3
–– R. Dharmarao
Lead Feature
12 .............. Competencies for Credible HR
–– Dr.G.Pandu Naik
Articles
17 ........................ A way to Strategic HR
–– Nupur Dwivedi Pandey
18 .......... Attrition And Talent Management In
Today's Organizations
–– Hari Nair
20 ...... Performance Management - A Tool For
Organizational Growth And Development
–– K Mohan Sharma
22 .............. Kill The Fear Before It Kills You
–– Dr A K Pandey
23 ................... Psychological Assessment
–– Rajni Mittal
24 ..................... Soft Skills - The big myth
–– R Ravi
25 ............... Developing others - A case for
managerial and HR effectiveness
–– Naga Siddharth S
26 ... Extending Longevity And Brand Equity Of
Valuable Employees
–– P Vijayan
27 ............... The Indian Work Environment
Relationship Building
–– Dr. I Narsis
28 ........... Fear: The Killer Of Organizational
Effectiveness
–– By Dr. P. N. Singh
29 ............. Common complaints against HR
–– By Deeksha Singh & Jo Verde
30 ................. Leadership Can Be Learned
–– M Raghuramiah
31 ....................... Talent Poaching: Views
–– R. Krishnamurthi
32 ............. Technology Readiness Amongst
Customers
–– A.Sarangapani, T. Mamatha
33 ........... Employee Stock Options (ESOPs)
–– Dr T.H.Chowdary
34 ..... Raising Ethical Issues: Responsibility to
Each Other
–– Dr.V.Vijay Durga Prasad
© copyright of the articles published in
HRD Newsletter will be with National HRD Network
SUBSCRIPTIONS RATES FOR ADVERTISEMENT TARIFF
HRD NEWSLETTER
1 Year Rs. 300/- Inside Covers 20,000/-
2 Years Rs. 550/- Inside Pages Full Page (Colour) 15,000/-
3 Years Rs. 800/- Full Page (B & W) 10,000/-
5 Years Rs. 1,200/-
Half Page (B & W) 7,500/-
10 Years Rs. 2,000/-
Life Rs. 3,000/-
For other details Please contact:
Contact: ksnhrd@gmail.com
ksnhrd@gmail.com
A/C Payee DD in Favor of “National HRD Network” payable at Hyderabad is to be sent
| HRD News Letter | April 2008, Vol.24, Issue:1 4

A Tree Grows in Chennai
Keeping in mind the pressures that would
come about towards the end of March, the
Chennai Chapter hosted its monthly meeting
early in the month. On the 7th of March,
members of the Chapter came in early to
listen to an unusual speaker; Mrs. Vandana
Gopikumar of 'The Banyan'.
Dr. PVR Murthy, the National Secretary of
the National HRD Network, and Advisor to
the Chennai Chapter, welcomed the
gathering and set the context for Vandana's
talk.
To most Chennai-ites, 'The Banyan' is a well
known name. An institution that was born
out of the sheer determination of two
women: Vandana and Vaishnavi Jayakumar
who, even when they were still students,
founded 'The Banyan' to provide help and
Vandana addressing the members
Questions from the audience
comes from within the individual, good HR
practices of open communication, clear
responsibility setting and providing career
paths have resulted in many of the early
employees continue to work with The
Banyan even 14 years later. One of the
facets that surprised many was that a
leadership institute - 'The Banyan Academy
of Leadership in Mental Health' - was
working to provide formal training for those
seeking to make a mark in this sector!
Some of the members from the audience
shared their personal ties to The Banyan;
M.Radhakrishnan, Head - HR, Apex
Laboratories, spoke about the volunteer
effort that he had been offering for The
Banyan. Ganesh Chella, CEO of Totus
Consulting also shared how The Banyan has
been successful in building a strong second
line of leadership that has enabled Vandana
and Vaishnavi to step back from the day-today
running of the organization.
The powerful impact of Vandana's
presentation, brought forth a spontaneous
response from the assembled Chapter
members; a sum of over Rs.5,000/- was
collected and presented to Vandana on
behalf of the Chennai Chapter!
Devika Dharmaraj, Hon'y Treasurer, hands over
the contributions from the Chapter Members
Anyone wishing to contribute money to The
Banyan may do so by sending cheques or
demand drafts favouring 'The Banyan',
payable at Chennai to: The Banyan, 6th
Main Road, Mogapair Eri Scheme, Mogapair
West, Chennai, 600 037. For other modes
of involvement, please visit their website
(www.thebanyan.org).
The audience in rapt attention
succour to countless mentally ill and abused
women. To paraphrase Vandana, it was
begun as a knee-jerk response, but it
continued because both believed that they
could make a difference. Over the past 15
years since it was founded, The Banyan has
focussed not only on rescuing and providing
shelter to mentally ill women, but more
importantly, to also take steps towards reintegrating
them into society and re-unite
as many of them with their families as
possible.
Members of the audience were keen to know
more about the HR practices that are being
adopted by The Banyan. While replying to
some of the queries, Vandana threw light
on how, while the initial spark to serve
Ganesh Chella makes a point
Radhakrishnan shares his experiences
National HRD Network
Hyderabad Chapter
| HRD News Letter | April 2008, Vol.24, Issue:1 5

Passing the Wisdom Baton:
Mentoring and Leadership
Development
It is said that wisdom is gathered over
years of experience. With average age
of leaders in today's business world
falling dramatically, where is the time for
waiting for many years to roll by to gather
that wisdom? The answer has come in
the form of renewed focus on Mentoring
that promises to distill wisdom acquired
over the years and enrich the young
leader. This may, perhaps be, an
oversimplified definition of Mentoring. But
in essence it does serve a function of
accelerating development of leaders.
Ever since Odysseus, before leaving
home for the Trojan War, asked his
trusted friend, Mentor, to provide care
and guidance to his son Telemachus, a
trend has been set where a seasoned
professional agrees to provide
mentorship to a protégé. When applied
appropriately, this process has produced
remarkable results. Nearer home,
Krishna's mentoring Arjun in the
Mahabharata is an outstanding example
of high value-add of the mentoring
process.
Quite a few organisations have
introduced Mentoring as part of their
leadership development plan. They take
great care in identifying the right mentors,
training them in line with what is expected
out of them and then embark on an
education process for the Mentees so
that they too understand the underlying
purpose of the mentorship scheme and
leverage it to the maximum.
Mentors, in the first instance, must be
one who has acquired reasonable
amount of experience and has a mindset
President's Message
to nurture others. The most important
quality of the Mentor is not being
prescriptive but helping the Mentee
evolve his or her own solution. They do
these by acting as a 'sounding board' to
Mentees' thinking process and at the
same time bringing in anecdotal
experiences and case examples in to the
discussions.
A seasoned Mentor takes genuine
interest in the welfare of the Mentee,
without imposing his or her opinion or
thought process on the Mentee. A good
Mentor thus plays very critical role to help
shape an employee's career by
encouraging, supporting and actively
listening to his Mentee.
A good Mentee is one who is willing to
listen, learn and commit time and effort
to improve his or her own thinking
process, analytical ability and considering
different options willingly. Mentees have
to take responsibility for their own
decision and action and not become
dependant on Mentor or use them as a
crutch. In doing so, such young minds
grow quickly and leverage the experience
of their Mentors. A good leadership
development programme, therefore,
makes mentoring an important element
in its design.
Organisations that find meaningful ways
for engaging their employees through
continuous learning opportunities, have
benefited through better productivity,
purposeful innovation and improved
performance. They have gradually
evolved to become an employer of
choice. Mentoring process provides this
'continuous' learning experience.
Proper mentoring has contributed to
retaining talent. Analysis of Exit
Interviews has shown that one of the
main reasons a top talent will choose one
employer over another is the opportunity
for faster professional development and
a possibility to explore one's own
potential in a shorter time frame.
Mentoring thus provides a customised
and personal platform towards fulfilling
this expectation. Existence of an effective
and serious Mentoring program strongly
signals and organisation's commitment
to helping employees succeed and
advance within the organization. This
message can be somewhat reassuring
in retaining talent.
Mentoring is more than coaching. It is a
process whereby a more experienced
individual seeks to assist someone less
experienced whereas 'coaching' refers to
forms of assistance relating more
specifically to an individual's tasks, skills
or capabilities. Mentor advices but does
not dictate the course of action and the
Mentee can choose his or her course of
action. It is an open relationship in which
the Mentee can freely express and
discuss his or her thought process
without fear of criticism or prescriptive
solutions.
Many organisations are now
experimenting with a modified version of
traditional Mentoring. Instead of
appointing seasoned and experienced
professionals only as Mentors, they are
selecting few bright youngsters and
giving them a role of 'Mentors' especially
for the newly hired employees. Differently
known as a 'buddy system', this has
proved a very effective channel in
communicating organisation's culture,
value systems, tradition and ethos. It has
helped new employees to assimilate
quickly with the organisation and become
productive much faster.
Mentor and Mentee need not be in the
same geographical location.
Organisations with dispersed work force
have realised that it can work as
efficiently across borders thanks to
technology, discussions over phone or
video conference has done away with the
notion of proximity as a requirement. In
fact, it has been found that cross-cultural
mentorship is often more beneficial and
provides a better learning experience to
the Mentee.
A successful mentoring programme is
one where Mentor and Mentee share a
common responsibility for learning.
Where there is commitment and trust
from both and where there is desire to
invest in the process. While the Mentee
gains from the experience of the Mentor,
the Mentor gains by having the
satisfaction of seeing the protégé nurture
and grow under his or her mentorship.
This can be a source of high level of
satisfaction for the Mentors who see
themselves as passing the baton and
having made a difference to another
professional. It is a win-win situation for
all - the Organisation, the Mentor and
most important, the Mentee.
- Aquil Busrai
| HRD News Letter | April 2008, Vol.24, Issue:1 6

Editorial
In the field of HRD we are concerned
with learning. Through a variety of
approaches, methods, technologies
and tools we support people learn.
Irrespective of whether development
happens reactively or proactively, all
learning is for the future. We expect
people to use what they learn in the
future - however near or far the 'future'
may be. We are thus preparing people
for the future.
Given that learning and development
are for the future, one of the questions
we as HR professionals can and
shouldn't escape from is: are we really
preparing people to face the future?
The import of this question will be clear
when we compare the fundamental
characteristic of 'future' and what
happens in most learning efforts.
The fundamental characteristic of
'future' is that it is unknown. Future is
yet to come, and whatever is yet to
come can only be unknown. We may
predict a future, but it is still a prediction.
However correct the prediction can be,
it still remains a prediction - with varying
levels of uncertainty and varying levels
of probability. To feel secure and
comfortable, we claim our 'predictions'
as 'known.'
and many more.
If future is unknown, then are we
preparing people to face the unknown.
I must submit that the answer - with
possible exceptions - has to be a
resounding 'No.' Just take a look at
the following, and you will know what I
am saying:
To face the unknown,
People must learn that they don't
know; but what we teach them is
with the intention of making them
know
People must be comfortable with
tentativeness; but we teach them to
be sure
People must be flexible; we teach
them rigidity
People must learn to explore and
discover; on the other hand we
'give' them - I must add far readily
in these days of 'teach me the how'
People must learn to create for
themselves; but we teach them to
take and accept
People must learn to be
adventurous; we teach them to be
secure in the preence what we give
and get them to accept
People must learn to ask
appropriate questions; we teach
them answers to question we know
People must learn resilience; we
teach them to be stuck with certain
lessons and ways of thinking
People must learn being
comfortable with the 'and'; we teach
them to choose - insist on a 'or'
mentality
As I said before, there are exceptions
to these; and not all development efforts
are guilty of all of the above points. But
those are exceptions, or are they?
- C Balaji
Ms.(Dr.) Uma Ganesh, Chief Corporate Development
Officer HSBC Global Resourcing and Past President of
Pune Chapter of NHRD Network wins IT People
Women Leadership Award 2008.
IT People Awards for Excellence in Information Technology; is an endeavour of IT People Ltd
to every year recognizes individual’s contribution in the field of Information Technology in the
areas such as Leadership style, Entrepreneurship, Innovation, HR Practices, Young Achiever
Instituted in the year 2006 and the very first of its kind, IT PEOPLE AWARDS is an annual eventin the presence of
important dignitaries from IT & ITeS sectors. We are happy to share with you that NHRD Network’s past
president of Pune Chapter and currently a member of the board of NHRD Network -Ms.(Dr.) Uma Ganesh, Chief
Corporate Development Officer HSBC Global Resourcing, HSBC Electronic Data Processing India Pvt. Ltd is among
the distinguished Professionals to be recognized for 2008 s IT People Women Leadership Award.
NATIONAL HRD NETWORK
Online Payment Facility of Membership Fee,
Through Credit Card Now Available.
VISIT NHRDN PORTAL www.nationalhrd.org
| HRD News Letter | April 2008, Vol.24, Issue:1 7

| HRD News Letter | April 2008, Vol.24, Issue:1 8

| HRD News Letter | April 2008, Vol.24, Issue:1 9

Jaipur - Divine Strings : Mohan Veena Recital
Grammy Award winner Pt. Vishwa Mohan Bhatt presents
Mohan Veena recital on March 08, 2008
National HRD Network, Jaipur Chapter &
IILM Academy of Higher Learning, Jaipur in
joint collaboration with Indian Council for
Cultural Relations (ICCR), Ministry of
External affairs, Govt. of India organized a
cultural performance “Divine Strings” -
Mohan Veena Recital by Padmashree Pt.
Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, the most popular
Indian artist, Creator of the MOHAN VEENA
and the winner of the GRAMMY AWARD,
on 8th March 2008 (at 8:30 pm) at Hotel
Clarks Amer, Jaipur.
Pt. Vishwa Mohan Bhatt
The programme was organized on the
occasion of International Women’s Day in
honour of the delegates of First Global
Interfaith Summit “Making Way for the
Feminine: for the Benefit of the World
Community” hosted at Jaipur, on March 6
– 10, 2008.
Dr. Ashok Bapna,
President NHRD &
Director, IILM – AHL,
Jaipur while welcoming
the guests, said that
this International
dialogue of spiritual
leaders organized in
Jaipur, will act as the
voice of civil society and will help to create
a global network of youth leaders collectively
working for positive change and to provide
and coordinate resources that support youth
peace initiatives. He said that the First
Global Interfaith
Summit “Making
Way for the
Feminine: for the
Benefit of the World
Community” has
brought together
leaders from
R e l i g i o n ,
Government, and
Civil Society from all
over the world. He said that it is not enough
merely to seek more representation for
women, but rather we must work toward a
new vision of leadership based on “feminine
principles” viz. more caring society with less
violence, with more attention to the needs
of children and youth, and with greater
sensitivity to the environment. The
programme began with the bouquet
presentation & Lighting of Lamp.
This was followed by the soulful
performance “Divine Strings” - Mohan
Veena Recital by the GRAMMY AWARD
winner Pt. Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, along with
Salil Bhatt on Satvik Veena & Ram Kumar
Mishra on Tabla.
In the beginning pt. Vishwa Mohan Bhatt
said “It gives me great pleasure to present
the programme “Divine Strings” on the
auspicious occasion of International
Women’s Day. The programme is
composed to depict feminine strength -
Shakti - through strings. Music purifies heart,
body & soul. I am grateful to IILM Academy
of Higher Learning & Indian Council for
Cultural Relations (ICCR) for making this
programme possible.
My deep commitment & concerns for the
well being of humanity through Veena &
persistence of today’s Convener, Dr. Ashok
Bapna made me to be a part of this
important conference on “Making Way for
the Feminine: for the Benefit of the World
Community” organized by Global Peace
Initiative of Women (GPIW), New York. I
bow to the feminine spirit. I believe only they
can bring about a transformation of human
consciousness”.
Through the strings of his veena Panditji
paid a rich tribute to the Divine Strength –
Shakti – of women and the Feminine
principles of love, compassion and caring
which can no doubt transform us completely
and make us really good human beings. The
first composition depicted feminine strength
and the power of women. His second
composition was based on the theme that
music spreads love, affection and harmony
and that the whole
universe can be
united through the
seven musical notes.
His third and the last
composition was on
“Lori – the lullaby”
which was dedicated
to motherhood and
women as creator of
the universe.
In the end, Ms. Dena Merriam, the founder
and convener of Global Peace Initiative of
Women (GPIW), New York, presented a
vote of thanks. The program was compered
by Amoli Mehrotra, student of IILM – AHL.
| HRD News Letter | April 2008, Vol.24, Issue:1 10

| HRD News Letter | April 2008, Vol.24, Issue:1 11

Column
Beyond Work:
What we do after
office hours
A
friend once narrated to me about a
small incident that occurred while she
was holidaying in the beautiful city of
Udaipur on a holiday that left her quite
impressed. Upon striking a chance
conversation with the auto rickshaw driver
who was taking them around the city's
famous tourist spots, she discovered that
he was actually a sculptor who specialized
in making bronze and metal artifacts. She
asked the obvious question and here was
the rickshaw driver's response, "My day job
makes me sit in one place all day, but I am
a person who loves to travel around and
meet and talk with new people. Hence
everyday after my work as a sculptor ends,
I drive the auto for a few hours. It energizes
me yet again!"
As I reflected upon it, it struck me that here
was a person who had identified and was
practicing a daily 'ritual' that rejuvenated him
as it seemed to be more representative of
his true self, and what he was intrinsically
motivated by. His day job was not giving his
that chance. Thus, what the man did 'beyond
work' or after his office hours gave him a lot
of satisfaction. This is not to say that he did
not enjoy his job as a sculptor, but he had
realized that there were a few of his key
motivational drivers that were not being met
in his role as a sculptor, hence he chose to
drive the auto that helped address his social
needs.
Several of us may empathize with the auto
rickshaw driver and might consider
ourselves in a similar situation; several of
us would disagree as well. After all, it's
indeed possible that most of our intrinsic
needs are being met at work itself…After
all today's work environment and the long
hours we spend at the workplace gives us
little time to socialize and make friends or
pursue our special interests, hence we
choose to be with our colleagues beyond
work as well, which works as well because
as Gallup says, "If you have a best friend at
work, the chances are high that you're more
highly engaged at work and there is a lot
more camaraderie and harmony at the
workplace.
While what we do at work is indeed
important (that's what gives us our monthly
rectangular paper or online slip), what we
do after office hours in a way completes us
as whole human beings. We can call this
time we spend as 'Beyond Work'.
This is the time period when your roles as
parent, spouse, sibling, friend, and relative
or even as colleague come into sharper
focus. This is the time when you practice
the ritual(s) that rejuvenates you. You may
be doing it as a conscious choice or not, but
you do not mind spending that extra time
doing what you like doing best. It's important
to keep in mind that the rituals we talk about
here are not the result of any kind of
obligation; it's a purely voluntary choice.
If you'd like to sample and celebrate diversity
of the various special interests of your
colleagues, all you need to do is to ask them
a simple question: How do you generally reenergize
yourself during a work day/work
week. You'll be amazed to see what a wide
and fascinating array of rituals we have
chosen that allow us to revitalize ourselves.
Thus, our 'Beyond Work' hours can be spent
playing with our children, partying hard,
signing up for Shiamak Davar's Summer
Funk, hitting the road for the next trekking
expedition or adventure travel, relaxing in a
day spa, playing golf or tennis or even roadside
cricket, pursuing a special hobby like
the arts and music, reading, fitness, yoga &
meditation, volunteering for community
service and work with NGOs, shopping or
going on long drives, member or leader of
the Cultural Committee in your
condominium, taking your pet dog for a walk
or watching the silent and serene
movements of colorful fishes in your
aquarium.
If the above "Beyond Work' rituals was
focused on your personal interests, there
are those that derive their need from an inner
urge to complement their careers at the
workplace. Such rituals may include taking
up speaking assignments, e.g. guest
Madan Srinivasan is based at Gurgaon. He can be reached at: Madan_sri@yahoo.com
– Madan Srinivasan
lectures in a B-school, enrolling and
participating in professional associations for
networking and learning purposes, or even
doing a part-time professional certification
course.
How then in today's world does a person
experience his/her wholeness of being, the
true self? It's when he/she practices rituals
either during or beyond work that meets the
key motivational drivers and therefore
rejuvenates the self.
The rejuvenating rituals at the workplace
and the need to replace one's bad habits
with positive rituals that help manage one's
energy more effectively form the underlying
philosophy of the article 'The Making of a
Corporate Athlete' that appeared at the
Harvard Business Review, January 2001,
that has served as a beacon for companies
that have embarked on their employee wellbeing
programs.
There's also a need to go 'Beyond Work',
as the need is to focus on the real you, rather
than just your role as manager or employee
- one of the many roles that we play in our
lives. Organizations have begun realizing
this; hence their employee well-being
programs have become wider in scope and
embraces both 'During Work' and 'Beyond
Work' aspects.
It would therefore be a good thing to ask
yourself the same question you asked your
colleague a little while ago and reflect upon
the response you hear your inner voice
telling you. What is the rejuvenating ritual(s)
you follow as a habit? When did you discover
that you enjoy doing it? How long have you
been doing it? Do you change your ritual
quite often? (This might mean that you are
a person with diverse interests). Also what
habit/ritual stresses you and leaves you
enervated? How do you cope with it today?
This will help us find more meaning in our
lives and choose rituals that keep us
continuously charged up, full and vibrant
with life and enthusiasm, like the Rajasthani
sculptor.
H
| HRD News Letter | April 2008, Vol.24, Issue:1 12

Let me begin by making a confession. I
had one strange, if not weird habit. I used
to go through telephone directories as a
favorite pass time. However, I wanted to get
rid of this habit. So I settled for going through
dictionaries, rather than directories. I read
a variety of dictionaries, Urdu - Hindi, English
- English, English - French, Hindi - English
etc. My vocabulary did not improve, as is
evident from the limited numbers of words
that I use for writing these columns, but my
knowledge about existence of the variety of
dictionaries definitely improved. I realized
that there are dictionaries of different
disciplines available, and by some chance
one day, I found myself sitting with the
dictionary of psychology in my hands. With
some curiosity, I opened it, started flipping
through it, and then suddenly, thought that
I should look at some words that I always
use in general conversation but am not really
sure of the exact dictionary meaning of the
same. The first word that I looked for was
"hope." To my surprise I did not find any
entry for that. This increased my curiosity,
and I looked for "optimism." Same result. I
tried, "resiliency." No result. Looked at
"Gratitude." No result. I thought, let me give
it an easy one, and I tried, "Happiness." And
believe me; I was surprised to find that there
was no entry against that also.
I thought that I would try to look at some
thing negative now, and soon I was
bombarded with words which I could not
even pronounce, and could not spell
properly without the help of spell check.
Involutional melancholia (this I had to add
to my spell check dictionary), Schizophrenia
(29-entries over four pages),
dysdiadochkinesia, adiadochkinesia, (these
two also have to be added to my spell check
dictionary); I got adequate definitions,
meanings and illustrations for such
terminology. Emboldened now, in the belief
that I am on to some thing, albeit
accidentally, I tentatively moved toward web
search (of course with the help of my
daughter Jaya). I looked at the listed topics
for discussion, and glossary on some
psychology sites, and again got the similar
results.
The narration of this chain of events is not
the accounts of an eccentric and habitual
and compulsive directory/ dictionary reader,
Character Strengths and
Virtues: An Introduction - I
[Psychology of weakness and Psychology of strengths]
Column
but a reflection on the direction that the field
of psychology had taken during the past five
decades.
A search by Luthans (2002) of contemporary
literature in psychology as a whole found
approximately 200,000 published articles on
the treatment of mental illness; 80,000 on
depression; 65,000 on anxiety; 20,000 on
fear; and 10,000 on anger; but only about
1000 on positive concepts and capabilities
of people.
Let us examine, what it means!
The good news is that it signifies the
tremendous strides that we have made in
the areas of mental disorders, and illness.
To quote Peterson and Seligman (2004;
page 3):
"In recent years, strides have been made in
understanding, treating, and preventing
psychological disorders. Reflecting this
progress and critically helping to bring it
about are widely accepted classification
manuals - the Diagnostic and Statistical
Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)
sponsored by the American Psychiatric
Association (1994) and the International
Classification of Diseases (ICD) sponsored
by the World Health Organization (1990) -
which have generated a family of reliable
assessment strategies and have led to
demonstrably effective treatments for more
than a dozen disorders that only a few
decades ago were intractable."
However, the focus of psychology, in the
process had become almost lop sided.
Psychology had always had three missions:
Trying to repair damages, prevent problems,
and build strengths in people. Over the
years, society in general and research
funding sources in particular promoted
concern with what was wrong with people.
Almost exclusive attention in research and
practice became devoted to how to fix and
treat psychological problems and
weaknesses (Luthans, 2002). The pursuit
of damage repair happened at the expense
of the other two missions of psychology.
– Dr Jaydeep Lal
To quote from Seligman and
Csikszentmihalyi (2000; page 5):
"Psychology since World War II has become
a science largely about healing. It
concentrates on repairing damage within a
disease model of human functioning. This
almost exclusive attention to pathology
neglects the fulfilled individual and a thriving
community. The aim of Positive Psychology
is to begin to catalyze a change in the focus
of psychology from preoccupation only with
repairing the worst things in life to also
building the best qualities."
They suggested that psychology neglected
the possibility that building strength is the
most potent weapon in the arsenal of
therapy, and to redress the previous
imbalance, we must bring the building of
strength to the forefront in the treatment and
prevention of mental illness.
In fact way back in 1954 itself, Maslow
was airing a similar opinion. To quote
Abraham Maslow, (1954: Page 354):
"The science of psychology has been far
more successful on the negative than on
the positive side; it has revealed to us much
about man's shortcomings, his illness, his
sins, but little about his potentialities, his
virtues, his achievable aspirations, or his full
psychological height. It is as if psychology
had voluntarily restricted itself to only half
its rightful jurisdiction and that the darker,
meaner half…. We must find out not only
what psychology is but what it ought to be,
or what it might be, if it could free itself, from
the stultifying effects of limited, pessimistic,
and stingy preconceptions about human
nature."
Thus, this much keenly observed, realization
that psychology is not only about weakness
correction, or illness curing and healing, it
is also about making normal people stronger
and more productive and making high
human potential actual, led to the
development of the discipline of positive
psychology, wherein Peterson and
Seligman (2004) developed their
classification of character strengths and
virtues.
How this emphasis moved totally in favor of
repairing damage, and almost nothing else,
has been described in the most In the second part of this essay we will
comprehensive manner by Seligman and discuss about the differences between
Csikszentmihalyi (2000).
strengths and talents.
H
Dr. Jaydeep Lal, Head- iGATE Center for OD & Leadership, iGATE Global Solutions Limited, Bangalore, e-mail: jaydeep.lal@igate.com
| HRD News Letter | April 2008, Vol.24, Issue:1 13

What will you say when you hear of an
Indian airport which is set up on a
sprawling 5400 acres of land, with capacity
to handle 12 million passengers per annum
which is likely to be scaled up to 50 million
passengers, with 180 check-in counters,
3000 car parks etc? Definitely one would
say - WOW! Surely for an Indian such worldclass
facility is a matter of pride. But worldclass
facility needs world-class people with
world-class mindsets to deliver world-class
service. Where are they?
Let me upfront clarify that this article is not
intended to point fingers or criticize any
organization or department or individual.
Being in the HR profession, my intention in
this article is to emphasize the human
dimension despite all the technological
advancement. Particularly in the service
industry, the moment of truth is when the
customer is getting serviced. The human
dimension alone can provide that
extraordinary experience to the customer!
Amidst huge publicity and visibility, the
international airport on the outskirts of
Hyderabad was inaugurated. Despite all the
hue and cry of some of the airlines, unions,
some section of the public, the airport has
become operational. Within first three days
after it started its operations, I happened to
fly out of the Hyderabad airport.
As I was nearing the airport after a longdrive
through the city, I had a sigh of relief
when I saw the board on the high-way
indicating the distance to the airport as 2
kilometres. Once I took the turn on the
airport road, it was another drive of at least
7-8 km! My first thought was why should they
misinform the customer? Why can't they be
factual in matters like distance which has
no subjectivity? Does it speak of lack of
attention to details?
I was passing through the long road to the
departure terminal and I noticed 4 security
personnel in uniform sitting on the road side
and caring for nothing. Why were they there
and idle? If there was no need for them to
be there, then it is excess manpower and if
they were required to be there, then there
is no discipline of performing once own job.
Isn't it an HR issue?
I got down the car and wanting to shift my
baggage onto the trolley. There I had
Facility Changed - People
haven't!
Column
another sight of two staff members who I
suppose were meant to help the passengers
with free trolleys sitting lazily on a railing
and chatting. I struggled to pull out one
trolley, transferred my luggage and started
walking. I do this at every airport and I did it
again. Another ordinary experience despite
having there the people to help!
I was then amazed to see a crowd at the
entrance of the departure terminal. A
sprawling airport having congestion at the
entrance? I managed to push myself through
the crowd and showed my ticket to the
security officer at the gate who yawned lazily
on my face and directed me to approach
the other officer. It happens at many places
and it happened again. Yet another ordinary
experience!
At the check-in counters there was a general
confusion. Firstly to figure out where is what
and secondly to understand and ascertain
that there is no X-ray screening. I read the
boards displayed saying there is in-line
screening at the check-in time itself and
therefore, there is no need for separate X-
ray. I thought it is a great technology and
saves lot of time. The staff at the check-in
queues was repeatedly flooded with a series
of questions. I found them handling the
same to the best of their abilities and
managing the pressure. However, I could
see the bottled-up pressure and stress
manifesting itself in the form of irritability
during their team interactions. I saw a girl,
an airline staff member, approaching her
senior with some clarification so that she
could get back to the passenger. The senior
lost her temper and almost started
admonishing the junior for coming up with
questions. I could see the reason being
stress and the challenge of managing
change with the passengers. Yet another
HR challenge to equip the staff to cope with
and manage change! The icing on the cake
was to see an airport officer (quoting that
he is from the company that holds significant
stake in the airport) approaching the checkin
counter with a friend and recommending
for speedy check-in for his friend and
avoiding the queue. The senior staff member
who is already under immense pressure
lifted her head and bluntly asked the person
to come in the queue!
Dr raj is the CEO of HR Footprints Management Services Pvt Ltd. You can reach him at drraj@hrfootprints.com.
– Dr Rajkumar
With the boarding pass in my hand, when I
was walking towards the boarding gates I
overheard a conversation. One man was
asking an airport staff member (who was in
uniform) details about the boarding gate for
his flight and direction to go. Sharp came
the reply from the staff member - "go and
ask the concerned airline people, it's not my
job!" Doesn't it sound too familiar?
As I was walking past the Coffee Beans &
Tea Leaf counters and several such high
profile international brands of coffee and
snack bars all around, I suddenly thought
about those ordinary people who just started
to fly - thanks to the low-cost airlines. Will
they get overwhelmed with this new airport
- the expensive drive from the city, the
possible airport fee, and unaffordable items
inside the airport? Do I feel proud of an
international airport or should I empathize
with the ordinary people?
I made several more observations before I
finally boarded the flight. The plastic bucket
kept under a dripping false-ceiling near the
boarding gate, the water on the toilet floor
(thanks to the person who was to clean the
washbasins), the tissues thrown loose on
the washbasin platform, the unsecured gate
where the staff was walking in and out (even
I was tempted to take a walk outside the
security zone), the dirt gathered on the
glossy tiles and so on left me with just an
ordinary - or may be less than ordinary
experience.
I must confess that none of the above
experiences are new to me or to many of
us. However, when you enter a much-talked
about world-class facility it is natural to carry
high expectations. What I was ended up was
an ordinary experience. The biggest
reinforcement I got from this entire
experience is that brick and mortar aspect
of building a world-class facility is
challenging but doable. However, to
genuinely provide world-class experience to
the customers, one has to have world-class
mindset and culture. The challenge for
organizations therefore is to focus on
building such culture, attitude and skills
among the human resources. For, otherwise
we will end up with grand facilities and bad
experiences. As a customer, I pay for the
experience not for the facility! H
| HRD News Letter | April 2008, Vol.24, Issue:1 14

Lead Feature
Competencies for
Credible HR
What does any star performer in human
resource (HR) function do? How can
we measure the performance of HR
functionaries? Can HR goals be aligned with
business? Many such questions were often
asked for decades but there has not been
much success in finding answers. The
yesteryears' knowledge and skills may not
necessarily hold good today. HR
functionaries need to sharpen their skills,
redefine their roles and drive the business
to gain the credibility of the stakeholders
they serve.
In this connection a group of researchers
led of Michigan University professor Dave
Ulrich in America has developed a
competency model to benchmark the
performance of HR managers. In this study
the researchers have identified six core
competencies that high-performing HR
professionals personify. Each competency
is broken out into measurable performance
elements. These new competencies
supersede the five competencies outlined
in the 2002 human resource competency
study (HRCS) the last study conducted by
the same researchers, reflecting the
continuing evolution of the HR profession.
What is HR Competency: HR
Competencies are behaviours of HR
Managers at work which result in superior
or average performance. These behaviours
are caused by the knowledge, skills, self
concept, traits and motives of HR
professionals which lead to performance
outcome. HR professionals with the right
competencies will perform better. They will
be more likely, to engage employees, to
serve customers, and to create intangible
shareholder wealth. HR competencies
define what is expected from those who
work in HR and form the basis for
assessment and improvement in the quality
of HR professionals.
To address these issues for the HR
profession, large-scale survey (Human
Resources Competency Study, HRCS) of
HR professionals and their HR and non-HR
associates were initiated in 1988, 1992,
1997, 2002 and in 2007 by Dr Ulrich and
his associates. In all these studies the data
was collected using 360 degree
methodology. Questionnaires were sent to
HR professionals (participants) who then
gave them to their colleagues (associates).
These questionnaires asked about the
competencies and performance of the
concerned HR professional and the
performance of the business where the said
HR professional worked.
The objectives of HR competency studies
were to resolve three issues namely to (1)
define the competencies that add greatest
value to key stakeholders; (2) figure out how
HR professionals develop these
competencies in the fastest and most
effective ways; and to (3) determine how
HR competencies and HR practices align
to business performance.
The 2007 study involved data collection from
10063 (1700 HR professionals and 8363 of
their associates) respondents representing
413 organizations from different countries
across the world. There were 2773 (28%)
respondents from North America; 2127
(21%) from Latin America; 1553 (15%) from
Europe; 2110 (21%) from China; 1235 (12%)
from Australia and Asia Pacific region and
263 (3%) from India. These respondents
represent three groups namely (1)
participating HR professionals completed
the survey in evaluating themselves; (2) HR
professionals who are peers or associates
evaluated the participating HR
Professionals; and (3) Non-HR associates
who are generally line executives and
internal customers evaluated the
participating HR professionals. These
groups provided the opportunity to look at
different perspectives regarding HR as a
profession, the HR department, and the
competencies needed by HR professionals
to be effective in their organization.
The Novelty: The HR competencies of 2007
do have similarities with the 2002 model.
But at the same time there is value add in
the latest one. Five years ago, HR's role in
managing culture was embedded within a
broader competency. Now its importance
merits a competency of its own. Knowledge
of technology, a stand-alone competency in
2002, now appears within Business Ally. In
other instances, the new competencies carry
expectations that promise to change the way
HR views its role. For example, the Credible
Activist calls for HR to eschew neutrality and
Dr. G.Pandu Naik is Head of MBA Programme at PES Institute of Technology. He can be reached at drgpn@yahoo.com
– Dr.G.Pandu Naik
to take a stand- to practice the craft with an
attitude.
Ulrich in this study urges HR to reflect on
the new competencies and what they reveal
about the future of the HR profession. His
message is direct and unforgiving. "Legacy
HR work is going, and HR people who don't
change with it will be gone." Still, he remains
optimistic that many in HR are heeding his
call. "Twenty percent of HR people will never
get it; 20 percent are really top performing.
The middle 60 percent are moving in the
right direction. Within that 60 percent there
are HR professionals who may be at the
table but are not contributing fully. That's
the group I want to talk to. ... I want to show
them what they need to do to have an
impact." says Ulrich.
The super six
The six competencies from 2007 study
described below and the elements that make
them up, offer outlines of what it takes to be
successful in HR profession.
Credible Activist: HR professionals need
to be credibly active in discharge of their
duties. The Credible Activist is respected,
admired and listened. He offers a point of
view, takes a position and challenges
assumptions by; delivering results with
integrity; sharing information; building
relationships of trust; and doing HR with an
attitude (taking appropriate risks, providing
candid observations, influencing others).
The Credible Activist is at the heart of what
it takes to be an effective HR leader. The
best HR people do not hold back; they step
forward and advocate for their position.
CEOs are not waiting for HR to come in with
options-they want your recommendations;
they want you to speak from your position
as an expert.
Cultural Steward: The Cultural Steward
recognizes, articulates and helps shape a
company's culture by: facilitating change;
crafting culture; valuing culture; and
personalizing culture (helping employees
find meaning in their work, managing work/
life balance, encouraging innovation). HR
has always owned culture. This is the first
time it has emerged as an independent
competency. Of the six competencies,
Cultural Steward is the second highest
| HRD News Letter | April 2008, Vol.24, Issue:1 15

predictor of performance of both HR
professionals and HR departments.
Talent Manager/Organizational Designer:
The Talent Manager/Organizational
Designer masters theory, research and
practice in both talent management and
organizational design by ensuring today's
and tomorrow's talent; developing talent;
shaping the organization; fostering
communication; and designing reward
systems. Talent management focuses on
how individuals enter, move up, across or
out of the organization. Organizational
design centers on the policies, practices and
Carried from Page 17
A way to Strategic HR
company's growth. There are two factors to
the same, one stems directly form the point
mentioned above. Since the HR
professionals do not know the intricacies of
business they are able to link up their
contribution towards the overall
organizational success. The other factor is
what I like to call the "contentment factor".
The contentment factor means that HR
professionals are content with the status
they have been given. They work very hard
in their profiles but seldom look beyond. I
remember an instance that happened to me
as a HR person. I was working for a leading
NGO in Delhi when they took up a project
of capacity building of smaller NGOs. This
particular task was entrusted to a senior
director of the organization and while
pondering on what are all areas to capacity
build smaller NGO, areas like project
formulation & implement, finance and
marketing were being finalized, when
somebody (and not me by the way)
suggested why not HRD and the director
very vehemently replied that it is not a
structure that shape how the organization
works. Linking of talent management and
organizational design reflects that HR may
be placing too much emphasis on talent
acquisition at the expense of organizational
design. Talent management will not succeed
in the long run without an organizational
structure that supports it.
Strategy Architect: The Strategy Architect
knows how to make the right change happen
by sustaining strategic agility and engaging
customers. Strategy Architects are able to
recognize business trends and their impact
on the business, and to identify potential
priority area. Though present during the
discussion, I did not make any attempt to
convince him otherwise. Now I am in no way
suggesting that since I couldn't take a stand
then, that nobody else will. However HR
professionals do definitely get affected by
this notion of others and hence prefer to
operate in their own area of comfort. Hence
the contentment factor.
Link up and measure: which means HR
should be able to understand the business
and inturn be able to assess their
contribution to same. Most organizations
have a process of ensuring the efficient use
of their practical and financial resources.
However not many organizations have
systematic process for efficient use of
Human resource. HR is one function that
still is struggling to make an instrument that
should be able to project HR's contribution
in economic terms. Therefore it is imperative
that HR's contribution be seen in tandem
with the organizational goals and
achievements. HR should be able to say
loud and clear, "had we not done our jobs
roadblocks and opportunities.
Business Ally: The Business Ally
contributes to the success of the business
by serving the value chain; interpreting
social context; articulating the value
proposition; and leveraging business
technology. HR contributes to the success
of a business by knowing how it makes
money, who the customers are, and why they
buy the company's products and services.
For HR professionals to be Business Allies
(and Credible Activists and Strategy
Architects as well), they should be what Ulrich
describes as "business literate." The mantra
about understanding the business - how it
works, the financials and strategic issuesremains
as important today as it did in every
survey during the past 20 years. Yet progress
in this area continues to lag.
Operational Executor: The Operational
Executor administers the day-to-day work
of managing people inside an organization
by implementing workplace policies; and
advancing HR technology. These skills tend
to fall into the range of HR activities
characterized as transactional or "legacy."
Policies need to be drafted, adapted and
implemented. Employees need to be paid,
relocated, hired, trained and more. Every
function here is essential, but-as with the
Business Ally competency-high-performing
HR managers seem to view them as less
important and score higher on the other
competencies. Even some highly effective
HR people may be running a risk in paying
too little attention to these nuts-and-bolts
activities.
H
right the organization would not have been
able to achieve its target." They should be
able to report the difference made in
monetary terms. This will help in two ways,
one by bringing to forefront the economic
contribution made by HR and second and
for me the most important, it will help boost
up the HR's image in its own eyes.
Prahalad and Hamel in their book,
Competing for future have said, "What
prevents companies from creating future is
not an installed base of obsolete capital
equipment, not an installed base of end
products that must be maintained and
updated, and not an inefficient installed base
of infrastructure. What prevents companies
from creating the future is an installed base
of thinking." This thinking comes from the
mind of the human resource involved in the
companies and hence the responsibility of
making a company cut an edge. In this
competitive scenario HR needs to be right
there in the forefront learning, unlearning
and strategizing the path of growth for their
organization. HR now needs to be a gogetter
along with the do-gooder.
H
| HRD News Letter | April 2008, Vol.24, Issue:1 16

A way to Strategic HR
At a HR summit organized by an Asia
Pacific Institute of Management, where
I was invited as speaker on HR Present
practices and future perspective, a student
approached me and asked, why is that HR
people seldom become the CEO of the
company. IN order to satisfy his immediate
query, I replied that the reason being that
HR professional don't think like business
partners. I don't know whether that satisfied
the young man or not but it definitely put an
end to his questions.
Later in the day, while pondering over the
issue I asked myself the same question and
the answer that I had so confidently given
to the budding professional seemed not
enough or to simply put it incomplete. Yes,
it is a fact that HR professionals do not think
as strategically as they ought to but there
has to be a reason for this behavior. I have
always believed that HR is CEO driven. To
simplify, if the CEO or the Top
management is not convinced of HR in the
organization, nothing in the world can
convince the employees or the customers
of the department's utility. I myself have had
the experience of working for a CEO who
knew his employees by the salary budget.
Not surprisingly he had a lot of non
performing employees and an HR
department merely acting as a 'Blame Me'
department for the poor management.
However the good part was that the CEO
soon understood that his entire problem
mostly related to availability, quality and
performance of personnel. So he decided
to raise HR's position from a mere support
function to a major front line function. Thus
HR changed its own strategy from a reactive
or firefighting mode to a more proactive
mode. The change did not happen overnight
and the said organization is still undergoing
the change but the change was needed and
finally heeded to.
In this article I would be discussing how
organizations and HR professionals together
can ensure HR's place as a strategic partner.
I believe the onus though very much lies on
HR professionals it is equally shared by the
top management of the company as well.
Therefore I would start this discussion by
bringing to fore some points that the top
management should ensure to facilitate
inclusion of HR as strategic partner.
Valuing human resource: It makes perfect
sense when we are talking of human
resource. As has been said time and again,
amongst all resources present at the
disposal of a company, human resource is
the most valuable one. However it is also
one of the most underutilized resources.
Why, the reason are many but one that
definitely holds out is that companies do not
know the "value" of this resource. Here I am
not using value as a financial term but more
as importance of human resource. It is one
thing to say that human resource is our
greatest asset and another to really believe
in it. The top management should be more
than convinced of the fact that if they want
to run the organization successfully it is
imperative that they take up the task of
managing their workforce more effectively.
Proper management of the human resource
should be the topmost priority in order to
achieve success their areas of business.
Only when the top management themselves
give utmost value to the workforce, will the
workforce feel looked after.
Know your workforce: Though I am not
suggesting that the top management know
all their employees by name but if they can
manage that then nothing like it. But what
is important is that they know their people,
what they like, what they don't. Why does
they work for your company, what are their
combined strengths, what can be done to
harness their strengths. The reason of this
is very simple, if you know your workforce
better, you can relate to them better and if
you can relate to them better you can
understand them better and once you
understand your workforce the chances are
that you are better prepared to handle their
concerns. According to a survey done by
Gallup International Research and
Education Center, only 20% of employees
working the large organizations feel that
their strengths are in play every day.
Alarming though it is to learn that most
organizations operate at 20 % capacity, the
opportunity that presents itself in the face of
this revelation is immense. To spur high
margin growth and thereby increase their
value, great organizations need to focus
inward to find the wealth of unrealized capacity
that resides in every single employee.
Ms Nupur Pandey is Freelance Consultant based at New Delhi E-Mail: nupurpandey@gmail.com
– Nupur Dwivedi Pandey
Understand and Include your HR/ People
Management teams: Valuing employees
and knowing them is only possible if the top
management enables a group of employees
within the workforce to undertake the task
of giving the voice to the workforce and in
turn ameliorating the performance of the
company. This team should not just be
entrusted with the responsibility and the
accountability but also enough authority to
exercise the same. It is important for the
top management to understand that unless
HR is given the right position in the
organization, they won't be able to perform
to the full capacity. Inclusion of HR is another
area that the top management should stress
on. Giving the right kind of exposure to HR
in the area of business will enable HR to
understand the work and expectations from
them more clearly. A very well known
Software firm for example has an HR
representation in all its business meetings.
This definitely would mean that their HR staff
has a really good understanding of the
overall business as well.
This now brings us to the next part of this
article, the responsibility of HR professionals
in Strategic HR.
Understand the business: It is one thing
to shout from rooftop and say that HR needs
to be a strategic partner and another to
actually be one. HR professionals need to
understand that to serve their internal clients
better (which means employees and
management) they need to understand the
organizations' customers better. They need
to know the challenges that their business
faces, the latest developments in their
stream of work and the prospects of growth
in future. Only then will they be able to think
and plan more strategically. Understanding
business also means to be able to look in
the future and prepare the business for the
forth coming challenges and suggest
measures to further the growth of their
business.
Value your contribution: It is a rule of life
that "Unless you value yourself nobody else
will". HR professionals many a times are not
convinced of the contribution to the overall
Contd.. on Page 16
| HRD News Letter | April 2008, Vol.24, Issue:1 17

Consider any sector; name any industry,
Telecom, IT, ITES / BPO, FMCG,
finance, automotive, pharmacy, retail, heavy
machinery, petroleum and now even the
most prestigious power sector. Regardless
of the industry domain you and your
employer belong to, Millennium India is
facing the highest employee turnover ever
in the history of machine revolution.
Employees are geared up to join any
industry whether they have the related
exposure in the past or not. The 30-35%
score for ITES and Telecom, 15-20% for
automotive and 5-10% now for oil and power
sectors, the attrition has snatched away the
sleep out of the eyes of HR managers and
CEOs. HR heads and the plant managers
need to take a call before they end up with
all their top talent drained away by their nextdoor
competitor
Prologue to the Issue
The phrase "Employee turnover" has
become like pizza these days, a hot selling
topic for every HR forum or summit, people
giving all kinds of reasons and remedies,
but still, employee attrition has surfaced as
an incurable and costly impasse for all
organizations. In today's challenging
business climate, managing company's
competent and skilled human capital is vital
for success. This article explores the prime
factors for employee attrition and some
retention strategies and processes that will
help drive long-term tangible business
benefits. Employees are getting sensitive
and thin-skinned day by day. The trigger for
the decision of hopping is as basic it could
ever be. Tick off your subordinate even in
an apparent tone; and be ready for a
vacancy posting to be done the very next
day. The situation is even worse with the
young generation. They start floating their
CV even on bad odor in the washroom or
get irate on the security guard at the main
gate that asked for frisking! Yet it's factual.
We have in our organisation recorded
roughly 12% of left employees quoting
frisking as a factor during their exit
interviews.
Key employees DON'T leave for their
bosses, neither for money
To counterfeit attrition, most companies
usually turn to increasing the compensation
Attrition And Talent
Management In Today's
Organizations
for employees to retain them and become
the best paymasters. Even the big
paymasters fail to understand that higher
salaries can only "delay" the attrition. And
then there has been a catchphrase that
employees leave because of their bosses.
Surfaced in one of our meetings with the
well-known Mr. S Y Siddique of MUL, most
KEY employees seek opportunities that
allow them to use and develop their skills,
and together with their educational
knowledge, yearn for converting them into
competencies. Leaving employees want
more meaning in their work meaning
challenging the challenges. They often
indicate that they want to use their qualities
and skills in challenging teamwork led by
capable leaders.
Managerial staff cites "career growth" and
"leadership" as the major factors that
influence attrition and retention, together
with "opportunities for management" "ability
of top management" "use of skills and
abilities" and "work / family balance".
Professional employees are concerned
about "supervisory coaching and
counseling," "company direction" and
"interesting work". Clerical employee's voice
concerns such as "type of work," "use of
skills and abilities" and "opportunity to learn".
Hourly employees notice whether they are
treated with respect, their "management
ability" and "interesting work"
Exit Interview responses of Sona Koyo
The Exit Interviews for key performers of the
organization were analysed through
language processing tools. The results are
classified as follows
Overall, job dissatisfaction levels are high
at all facilities, in all job classifications and
among both new and lateral recruits.
Hari Nair is Vice President - Human Resources at Sona Koyo Steering Systems Ltd, Gurgaon. E-mail hari.nair69@gmail.com
– Hari Nair
Employees between 2 to 5 years of service
and more than 10 years of service have
higher dissatisfaction levels than those with
less than 2 years of service.
Pay, work schedule, mandatory overtime,
designation levels, opportunities for
advancement, and benefits were most
frequently cited as issues the key
performer's wanted to change about their
jobs.
When asked what incentives motivated
them, pay and benefits were not frequently
cited but majority of the respondents said
that the liking for their work and the interest.
Respondents also frequently cited
communication as a significant factor. Many
key employees expressed a desire for more
two-way flow of information and a voice in
decision-making. They wanted a forum for
sharing their ideas for system improvement.
Some expressed the perception that
inmates have a voice in the system but the
staff does not, and expressed a desire to
see administrative staff make a visit to the
facilities during second and third shifts.
Perceived lack of recognition was also cited
as a contributor to low job satisfaction. Some
respondents described a climate where bad
performance was recognized but good
performance was not. Several employees
expressed a sense that their work is not
valued, nor is it considered a skilled role.
Other workplace climate issues that were
often cited as contributing to poor
performance were lack of teamwork, back
biting and favoritism. The phrase "good old
boy system" came up in several narrative
responses. Though job dissatisfaction
seems to be the norm, there was
considerable variability among facilities in
terms of the issues that were cited as
contributing to job dissatisfaction, especially
compensation.
Challenge the challenges: Mentoring for
Talent Management
The Mentor plays a very vital role of
handholding in the initial stages of an
enterprise. He is the guardian angel to whom
an entrepreneur can turn when in distress.
The Mentor provides business guidance and
shares his experience and skills with the
entrepreneur. The Mentor and the Mentee
have to mutually agree on the time the
| HRD News Letter | April 2008, Vol.24, Issue:1 18

Mentor will spend with the Mentee. This can
vary from several hours a week to several
days in a month. The Mentor may have one
or more Mentees in a cluster of industries
depending on the nature of support needed.
Mentor-Mentee relationship is generally a
long-term association.
Ownership culture for Talent
Management: Pride in the company
Developing an efficient ownership culture is
so vital for any organization. It could be a
utopian vision of an organization where
employees work with the passion of an
entrepreneur, where they feel that they own
the organisation, are self-motivated and
have a great sense of pride in belonging to
the company. Developing such a culture at
the workplace is a tough task for an
employer and for HR team, but it is the only
way to ensure employee loyalty, and bridge
the gap between employer and employee.
If nurtured, this feeling not only optimizes
productivity and excellence beyond
expectations, but also helps in combating
attrition. While most organizations do make
assiduous efforts to inculcate a feeling
among employees, the task is made more
difficult due to the highly fluid situation of
the recruitment market and the constantly
changing loyalties. Interestingly, the ratio of
ownership differs from person to person at
different positions within the organisation.
While it is the top management, which
should forefront the effort by clearly
communicating the organizational vision and
the responsibility of each individual, it is the
immediate boss who is directly responsible
for grooming the sense of ownership among
his or her team members. The need to
create this culture is essential for every
company. It also reduces problems of
employee alienation and attrition.
Employees are more attached to an
organisation, which helps in better
organizational management. Work
performance improves and growth in job
satisfaction is seen at all levels.
Furthermore, employees are more open to
put forth their ideas and talents. A strong
organizational culture enforces the
fundamental law of entrepreneurs that 'what
is good for the business is good for me.
Put Talent Management practices to be
"Employer of Choice"
The change initiatives to craft your
organization into a Preferred Employer
instigate with administrator deeds and
actions. It is significant for managers to
exhibit the exact attitudes and behaviors to
construct elevated levels of employee
engagements. So called Employer of Choice
upshot from an ambiance of conviction,
where the attitudes and actions of
management hold up employee selfsufficiency
and cooperation. In a workplace
with high level of trust, there is transparency
and team zeal, the employees are prolific,
the processes are more pioneering,
customers are more contented - and the
conclusion is more returns on investment.
Robust Performance Reward System for
Key Performers
Broadly speaking, a dynamic
Performance Management System is to
ensure the following:
Assess employee's performance against the
focus area's set in their performance
agreement for the appraisal year and
improves their proficiency. Provide an
opportunity to the employees to express
their views or to seek further clarification on
their performance. Identify potential of
employees and to develop them for future
roles. Train the people to develop their skills,
knowledge and experience to perform their
jobs well. Reward them appropriately.
Generate data for career planning and
succession planning
What Sona does for Talent Management
1. Offer Compensation - Attractive &
Competitive: Fair compensation alone
does not guarantee employee loyalty, but
offering below-market salaries makes it
much more likely that employees will look
for greener pastures. Let employees decide
their own compensation package /
reimbursements once the quantum is fixed.
Use Industry Surveys and other data tools
to stay informed on wage trends
2. Benefits need to be quantified and
qualitative. Although benefits are not a key
reason why employees stick with a
company, the benefits you offer can't be
markedly worse than those offered by your
competitors and like minded industries.
3. Train your front-line, managers and
administrators. It can't be said repeatedly
that people stay or leave because of their
bosses and not the companies. Make sure
your managers aren't driving technologists
away. Harp upon the competencies and
substantially invest in human capital
irrespective of ROI.
4. Roles and responsibilities need to be
dovetailed. Make sure your employees
know what is expected of them every day,
every month and every year, what types of
decisions they are allowed to make on their
own, and to whom they are supposed to
report.
5. Enhancement, advancement and
progression opportunities. Clear
professional development plan gives
employees an incentive to stick around. Do
away with your Performance Management
System if it has turned to NOVA (Non Value
Added Activity) and go in for instant
performance rewards.
6. Retention strategies implementation
needs to have a process owner: If
customer returns, in-house rejections and
non-confirming products can have a process
owner as a countermeasure why not a
process owner for implementation of
retention strategies? Think better, think
bigger, think brighter, think broader, think
bolder, think positive and set higher
audacious goals.
7. Employee engagement practices:
Ask employees what they want more of and
what they want less of - Capture Voice of
Employees. Value addition in terms of
ASKPT (Attitude, Skills, Knowledge,
Practices, and Trust) has to be the end
product. Stay Interviews and its
implementation, call back your employees
and ensure ombudsmen concept.
8. Cross-functional teams: It takes effort
to build an effective team, but the result is
greater productivity, better use of resources,
improved customer service and increased
morale. Give great emphasis on crossfunctional
approach as it endorses
acceptance and accountability.
9. Fun is must. Celebrate successes
and recognize when milestones are
reached. Buffet lunches, birthday parties,
employee picnics and creative contests will
help remind people why an organization is
a great place to work.
10. Mission statement for each
functional area. Everyone wants to feel that
they are working toward a meaningful,
worthwhile goal. Work with your human
capital to develop a departmental mission
statement aligned with company's vision,
Make sure employees understand how their
contribution is important.
11. Assignments for job enrichment:
Employees today want more than just a job.
They want to contribute to the big picture
and help the company sustain it through the
tough times. Provide challenging and
meaningful work assignments that stimulate
them. When employees feel bored, their
motivation declines and they lose focus on
how their work fits into the big picture.
Delegate meaningful work whenever
possible so employees can learn something
new and feel challenged. Additionally,
provide regular development and learning
opportunities.
12. To keep morale high, coach and
facilitate every day. The "I tell-you do"
method of management simply does not
work for motivating and retaining people.
Instead, become a coach to your people and
encourage them to try things their own way.
Allow for mistakes to happen, as mistakes
are often our greatest learning opportunities.
Most people are grateful for constructive
feedback. It shows that you're paying
attention to their progress. H
| HRD News Letter | April 2008, Vol.24, Issue:1 19

We're Doing Great! How come We're not
Performing!?
You may be losing performance in your
organization because you don't really
understand what performance is. Certainly,
if all employees are getting good
performance reviews from their supervisors
once a year, then all must be fine, right?
Wrong! If the performance of the
organization's groups, processes and
employees do not contribute directly to
organizational results, the organization is not
performing well. Neither are the employees
or the processes. They're working hard,
doing things right -- but they're not doing
the right things.
Performance Management (PM), widely
known as Annual Performance Appraisals
or Confidential Reports, has been
considered as a tool for routine annual
performance exercise for awarding salary
increments to employees and rewarding
superior / good performers. Performance
Management has also been viewed as an
annual rehearsal, or ritual. In some public
sector units, or government departments, it
is known as a Confidential Report, which is
used as a tool to reward obedient
government servants suitably and also to
punish those whom the supervisors,
managers or their superiors do not like or
those staff who have confrontation with them
in the past. This is also used as a tool for
transferring staff on likings or dislikings.
Performance Appraisal is surely a strong
management tool, like ammunition in the
armory of Defence Personnel, which may
be used to make an organization a Leader
among others. It can also be a deadly
weapon as in the hands of terrorists, which
may destroy the entire organization, if
misused or viewed only as a ritual.
*Group HR Director, Jotna International
Investments Ltd., 12, Akinwande Street,
GPO Box 1755, Lagos, Nigeria.
In the case of organizations, which value
performance of their employees as a very
important activity for organizational
development, it will be a continuous process
through out year, where supervisors and
subordinates continuously review their work
priorities, work plans and their outputs/
targets, as part of their performance.
Can an organization having majority of its
employees either stars or work-horses be
Performance Management - A
Tool For Organizational Growth
And Development
considered as a "Star Organization" or an
"Outstanding Organization" in its
performance? The answer is simply NO.
Immediately a big question follows "WHY"?
The answers to the 'NO' and 'WHY' will be
elaborated now.
The annual work plans or targets set in
the beginning of the year are set for
individual employees and not for the
organization as a whole.
Employees are after all human beings
who are interested in their 'self'
development. Moslow's Needs Theory,
strictly applies in their behavior at work.
Individual goals and objectives,
although need to match by and large
with the organizational goals, they will
hardly match totally with the broad goals
and objectives of the organization for
which the employees work for.
There is always a big bias in the
performance appraisal, although
organizations believe in total
transparency, which in majority of cases
is based on subjective (personal)
preferences between the Supervisor
and the Staff Member, while in theory
the PMS should be objective-based as
far as possible!
All of us doing well but the Organization
is not doing well! - Why!
The following interesting elaborative case
study by Dr Carter McNamara1, reveals the
basic performance problems that we all find
at work place.
A Common Misunderstanding: Ed is a
new employee at a print shop. He has been
hired to run a machine that prints out highquality
pictures.
Ed's new supervisor, Supervisor Sam
doesn't like Ed at first. Ed looks just like
Sam's brother whom Sam does not like at
all. Still, as a new supervisor, Sam tries to
give Ed a chance. Sam wants to be sure
that Ed does a good job. He isn't all that
sure what "good job" means, but he thinks
he'll know it when he sees it. So Sam sends
Ed to a course to learn how to run the print
machine. The description of the course said
students would learn all about the machine.
Training for Skills -- or a Good Time?
– K Mohan Sharma
claims the result from his course is that each
student will know how to run the printing
machine. Tom hasn't really thought about
how to achieve that result. He knows a lot
about the machine and likes to tell people
about it. So he thinks he'll be a fine teacher.
Tom includes a lot of lectures in the course.
He tells students all about the machine's
history, some tough times he had learning
about the machine and how students can
get a lot done with the machine if they know
what they're doing. Tom wants to be sure
the course achieves its result, so he has the
students fill out a questionnaire.
Ed now likes Tom a lot and feels very good
about the course so he gives the course a
very high rating. Tom told a lot of jokes, the
room was nice and the materials were very
impressive. With all the stuff Tom told Ed,
Ed now feels he could do anything with the
machine. Later that day, Ed tells Supervisor
Sam that the course was very good. Sam is
very pleased about his decision and is glad
the course accomplished strong results.
What Are You Doing? What Should You
Really Be Doing?
The next day, Sam briefly notices that Ed is
much happier at his job. "Great", Sam thinks.
"A satisfied employee is a productive
employee! Right?" (Wrong. Job satisfaction
doesn't mean job performance. Some
research indicates job satisfaction can
actually decrease productivity.) Later that
afternoon, Sam has more time to watch Ed
at his job. Soon Sam is horrified! It doesn't
seem like Ed knows what he's doing at all!
Sam concludes that Ed didn't learn anything!
He confronts Ed. "What are you doing?
You're slow and all your prints are ruined!
You've wasted the company's money!" Ed
feels scared and stupid.
Sam and his company have a typical
performance management problem. If Sam
had followed the principles of performance
management, he would have been more
clear to himself and to Ed about what Sam
wanted was results from Ed's job. Sam would
have been more clear about how he would
measure Ed's results. Sam would have been
more clear about how his expectations, or
performance standards were met.
We can turn this situation around!
Reasons for a Performance Management
System
Teacher Tom wants to convince supervisors
to send employees to his course. Tom Back at work, Sam discusses the situation
Mr. K Mohan Sharma is Group HR Director, Jotna International Investments Ltd., Nigeria. E-Mail: hr.director@jotna.com
| HRD News Letter | April 2008, Vol.24, Issue:1 20

with his Boss Bob. Sam wants to fire Ed --
and right away! Bob calmly disagrees. He
tells Sam, "We can turn this thing around.
I'll tell you how."
He begins to give Sam a broad overview of
a performance management system.
"Basically, a performance management
system is a way to ensure we get results
from all our employees.
Sam interrupts, "Look. I can tell if Ed's doing
a good job or not. I've got his job description.
I've used the performance appraisal form.
Besides, I don't feel good about those
performance appraisals. They're just
something you do once a year, usually to
fire somebody. They're just paperwork. The
guys are scared of them. I dread them. I'm
trying to build a team
A Performance System is more than a
Job Description!
Bob responds, "You don't understand. A
performance system is more than job
descriptions. A job description lists what
duties, what responsibilities a certain job
has. It doesn't tell the employees what
results are really expected of them, what
they are supposed to produce. It doesn't
keep telling you, the supervisor, how well
you expect the employee to be doing at his/
her job. It doesn't make sure that what you're
doing is what your boss -- and their boss's
boss and their boss' boss -- want you to be
doing."
Bob further explains - "A performance system
makes sure we're fair to our employees.
They're getting paid what they're worth. They
know what we want from them. They know
what we think about what they're doing. In
the long run, all of us in the company end up
working toward the same thing. We're all
pulling on the same rope. Maybe the biggest
advantage is that we're talking to each other
about what we're doing, if we're doing it right
and if it's really what the company needs. I
want you to take part in our performance
system, Sam. I'll help you."
Key Terms: Results, Measures and
Standards
Bob explains, "In the performance system,
the first thing you do in figure out what results
you want from the employee.
"Results are what you want Ed to produce
so that customers can do their jobs well.
For example, Ed's internal customer, the
Catalog Department, needs high-quality
prints to do its job. Right?
"Measures are what you use to know if Ed
is achieving the results or not. For example,
how many prints is Ed making in an hour?
Are Ed's prints smeared, are they torn?
"Standards are what you consider when
thinking about how well Ed is doing at his
good job. For example, the standard for
"excellent" should be at least as many highquality
prints an hour as your best people
are producing.
"After we've decided the results, measures
and standards, we'll work together to track
Ed's progress. We'll make sure that we're
all exchanging feedback around here,
including with the Catalog Department.
That's the most important part.
"Any needs that Ed might have, we'll record
on a development plan. That might include
more training. This time, we'll make sure that
teacher knows about performance
management!
Sam heard everything Bob said. He was
skeptical, but he decided to try the
performance stuff anyway, as Bob was the
boss.
Measures: Some You Can Count and
Some You Describe
Sam nods that he understands Bob. "But
how can I measure what he does in
Quality Circles?"
Bob explained, there are a couple of ways
to look at measures. You can count them or
you can describe them -- hopefully you can
do both. With the machine, you could count
the number of prints Ed produced. About
Ed's Quality Circle, though, it's really hard
to count something -- sure, you can count
how many suggestions he makes.
Performance Problem: Inconsistent
Results Across the Organization
Over the next few months, Ed ran his
machine just fine. His Quality Circle made
lots of good suggestions to Sam and Sam's
boss, Bob.
Bob talked to his boss, Management Mike.
Mike looked puzzled. Then he remembered,
"Oh, that's right! The Quality Circles! Yeah,
those Circles are sure keeping people
happy. Keep up the good work, Bob!"
Bob replied, "I thought the Circles were to
improve quality, not to keep people happy.
What am I missing here.
Mike explained that he really couldn't
implement any of the suggestions from the
Circle. "They'll probably just cost more
money. Right now the company needs to
cut costs as much as possible."
Bob left Mike's office feeling very
disappointed and sad. He thought, "We have
a performance management system. Ed's
doing fine. Sam's doing. I'm doing fine. Our
department's doing fine. We're performing,
right? Sure doesn't feel like it, though."
So: All the Parts Are Doing Just Fine --
Yet the Organization Isn't Performing!
Everyone is doing well but the Organization
is idling along!
Employees, the department and
management are all very committed and
very busy. Sam's focused on getting the
most from his people, including Ed. So is
Bob. They all know the results they want,
how they'll measure them and what they
consider to be great work. Yet the
organization really isn't performing. It's idling
along.
This situation is not uncommon.
What needs to be done to turn it around
to make the organization perform:
The HR professionals should strive to add
value to the organization through improved
methods of managing the performance,
such as 360 Performance Management
System. We should ensure to build teams
with defined objectives and plans that work
to achieve the organizational goals.
Management's full support to such a system
is a must for organizational excellence and
development. Management should
encourage establishing of cross-sectional or
functional teams comprising of different
professions / functions that help effective
and positive brain-stoming, which help to
develop suitable work plans to achieve
organizational goals.
HR executives should spend time on
strategic decisions and development areas
of human resource of the organization by
automating routine jobs and transactions,
such as leave, payroll, etc. They should also
invent tools that help to identify
competencies and strengths of its human
resource to reward the best performers
suitably, instead of giving a common normal
increment to all. They should engage the
right competent people at the right job at
the right time, to contribute to the
organizational development.
The HR professionals, at the same time, try
to identify the weaknesses of employees,
as well as the teams, through the
performance appraisals, upward appraisal
feed back (360 Performance Management
System) and initiate steps to strengthen
those areas as part of competency building
through appropriate development plans.
Rewarding the Team Work for
achievements and suitable investment in
appropriate training for development of new
competencies will help boost the morale of
the staff and adds indirectly to motivate them
for valuable contributions to the organization
and its prosperity.
Developing a sense of belongingness to the
organization through social events will help
to retain staff with such human sentiments
rather than using the organization as a
spring board for career advancement.
Simple events like greetings from the CEO
to staff on their birthdays, CEO addressing
the staff at regular intervals, festivals and
to share the organization's achievements,
and its plans for the future, expressing the
confidence of the organization in the
strengths of its staff to achieve those plans,
will be a booster does to prevent grapevine.
1We're Doing Great!How Come We're Not
Performing?(an introduction to employee
performance management) by Carter
McNamara, MBA,PhD, Authenticity
Consulting, 4008 Lake Drive, Minneapolis,
USA
H
| HRD News Letter | April 2008, Vol.24, Issue:1 21

Kill The Fear Before It Kills You
Fear is inevitable and whether we like it
or not it strikes us in form of a sleeping
enemy who is not seen with naked eyes but
trouble us as soon as we close our eyes to
proceed on a journey of productive thinking.
We have no control on this as it enters our
thinking process slowly and make us sick
for ever. The only way to remove the fear
for ever is to make planned efforts. Once
we are surrounded with a fear irrespective
of its magnitude and damage that it can
make, we must prepare a time frame to win
this fear. Remember not to postpone it in
any case as it will than take more time for
eradication. Preparing our safety net of
progress and preparing a plan to combat
fear are two different aspects. Safety net is
a positive outcome of our goal where as fear
will create a hindrance in our safety net. Be
ready to prepare a plan immediately to
combat the fear troubling you again and
again and acting as a reverse force in your
progress.
There was a tradition in a kingdom that the
king would hand over the charge to his
successor and would move to jungle to avoid
any struggle of power. In the jungle, he
would just wait for his death alone. It was
going on from ages. Once there became a
king and he was an able administrator too.
As he approached the age of leaving
everything and going to jungle, he thought
of himself that although he was not
supposed to interfere in the kingdom affairs
but why he should lead a helpless retired
life waiting for the event i.e. death which
was not fixed. Before a year of his retirement
from active life, he got constructed a small
but a beautiful dwelling house with all the
reading and play materials he was fond off
and left the kingdom three months earlier
to the due date of retirement.
You have to strike to remove the fear coming
on your ways. There is no other way to
remove the fear except a planned way to
nullify its effect. In the beginning you may
feel that you are wasting your positive
energy in this act but it is priority for you.
The king in the above refereed story would
not have thought at all till the time of his
retirement but what after that. He must have
been sick of thinking of his life after
retirement much before the actual time of
retirement and he should have wasted his
time as the king due to this fear. He planned
an action to combat the fear and he became
successful and acted different from his
forefathers. That is why it is said that
successful persons work differently.
Once you have decided not to fail, you need
a plan to proceed with. Fear is your greatest
enemy on your path of success and in the
beginning your first step should be to win
over this. Never postpone any fear otherwise
it will grow too big to control. Only a nice
planning will help you to win over it. Once
you achieve this, it is guaranteed, you can't
fail. You must remember that the particular
fear has struck you and only you will be able
to plan for its eradication as you will be in a
better position to know the details of the fear.
Fear is a hidden enemy to your success and
you must kill it immediately to save your
precious time in major quantity to be wasted.
Think, plan a strategy and start action to
combat the fear coming in your ways to get
gain over others to avoid any further
problem. Never leave it to chance as chance
is a chance and you are not sure of the
chance to favour you. You have to prepare
yourself for the chance as chance favours
only those who are prepared to accept the
chance.
Without a time frame you will not be able to
be successful as without a dead line you
can not be serious about the work. So is the
case for your intension of combating fear.
You have to analyze the cause of the fear
which may be due to a situation or a person
and than you have to make a plan of getting
rid of the fear by deciding yourself within a
day or weak or say depending on the
intensity of the fear. Once you decide that
you will do it, start immediate action. During
your journey with your action go on forming
the strategy and plan to combat the fear and
it will save your time and during emergency
also you will not require enough time to
change the plan if it requires. Believe in
action only and try to show your expression
with action without speaking a single word
if it is not required. You must note that
combating your fear is your priority as
without doing this you will not be able to
move smooth on your path of success and
it will trouble you again and again whether
you like it or not.
Fear is the by product of our thinking
process. In any chemical reaction the
Dr A. K. Pandey is the CEO of Pandey Education Trust, Jaipur. E-mail: edutrust@rediffmail.com
– Dr A K Pandey
reactants combine together to form the main
product and side by side a by product is
created. In the same way fear is created
and you must nullify it in order to be prompt
in your action. Fear must be eradicated
otherwise it will condition your thinking and
after being conditioned it is deep rooted and
requires more strength to combat it. A
person working in an organization gets a
feeling that his performance is not in tune
with the expectation of the boss as boss
might have shown his annoyance directly
or indirectly. You will find hardly any boss in
Indian system who gives you positive
reinforcement as most of them feel that it
will lower down their image of being boss.
Now as soon as you encounter your boss
you will get a feeling of fear and after
sometimes even his voice will create a
feeling of fear within you. Let some more
time pass and you will get the same fear
even in his absence. It shows that you have
been conditioned of that feeling and now it
will take time to combat this fear. It will have
direct effect on your performance and your
performance will go on decreasing
irrespective of your best effort. After
sometime you will have a feeling of leaving
the organization and if it does not happen
then your boss will start thinking of replacing
you as you are not giving the desired
performance as defined. The boss will have
a feeling that irrespective of best
environment you are unable to perform
forgetting that you are not performing only
due to his behaviour but boss is always right.
Should you have done to combat this fear
on the very first day when it strikes you it
would have been better and you would not
have suffered so much. You should have
politely requested your boss about the
mistake and then and there you should have
taken corrective measures finishing the
matter immediately. This should have
worked in two fold. First you should not have
suffered so much and second your boss
would have been realistic in telling you
anything. It is essential for your growth.
Under pressure and fear even the best will
perform the lowest. Here both are sufferer
the organization as well as the individual and
you must be careful of such situation. It is
better to say good bye to any situation or
individual than to leave in constant fear due
to that.
H
| HRD News Letter | April 2008, Vol.24, Issue:1 22

Psychological Assessment
Psychological assessment is a term
which is widely used now a days. First
of all it will be prudent to understand the
meaning of the term "Psychological
Assessment ". Psychological assessment is
a tool which aims at uncovering or
understanding the invisible tendencies of the
human mind. It is like throwing the light on
the hidden part of the iceberg of which 90%
remains hidden and only 10% remains
above the water level and visible to all.
Human mind or personality has many hidden
tendencies which are difficult to understand
or quantify by a common person. Only a
trained psychologist can analyze these traits
which may be considered as useful or
harmful for a given situation. Psychologists
use these psychological assessment tools
to achieve the purpose of understanding the
human mind better.
Psychological Tests or Psychometric Tests
are used in Recruitments across the World.
In order to save the time professional
recruiters use Personality Tests to enhance
the accuracy of their understanding of the
potentiality of a candidate for a given job.
More the information available more the
recruiter will be effective in recruitments.
Personality determines the approach of a
person towards a situation. For example
Impulsive people would be ruining the office
atmosphere and they would face difficulty
in getting along with other team members,
so wherever good team players are required
it would be essential to know about these
qualities of the candidate. Psychological
assessments play important role in
understanding different traits of a person
which may be relevant to job. With the help
of these tests findings become objective
rather than subjective. During interviews
applicants present themselves in the best
possible way, showing only positive side of
them, whereas with the help of these tests
their hidden traits become visible. It can also
be conducted on a number of people
together and it saves time when a lot of
candidates are to be screened.
Personality is the inner characteristic of a
person that determines their actions. The
conventional wisdom of Human Resource
Community is neglecting role of the
personality in determining the performance
for many years, they believe that it is the
compensation structure that is most
important factor behind a person's outcome.
But for the last few years again personality
is getting a center stage in organizational
psychology mainly due to two factors. One
is the popularity of Myers-Briggs Type
Indicator (MBTI), many people find MBTI
results useful. Even a superficial knowledge
about another person is useful in
understanding how to manage and work with
that person. Second reason is people's
interest in Emotional Intelligent (EQ).
Alternatives of these tests like interview,
background check, resume check will yield
random results and it will be subjective
based upon the state of mind of the
interviewer, whereas Psychological Tests
are tried and tested over a period of time
and more or less they produce the same
results for different candidates because
each time these tests are exercised following
the same parameters.
It is important to understand that what
people want? People want respect,
approval, status, acceptance and stability
or predictability. It is very interesting to
understand that what bad managers do to
demotivate their team members. They treat
their staff with disrespect and rob them off
their pride and self respect. They believe in
micromanagement and they don't allow
people to control. They don't believe in
providing feedback. These things are
enough to demotivate a person. At times it
will not be possible to find out these negative
traits during the interviews, here
psychological assessment plays an
important role. By conducting a test
leadership style can be found out at the time
of the recruitment. Up to some extend
leadership style will decide the success of a
person at a leader's position and eventually
the performance of the organization. We can
say that personality determines Leadership
style, Leadership style decides employee
attitudes and attitudes decide team function
and organizational performance.
Organizations are always interested in
selecting people who will be productive.
They want to determine and evaluate the
Rajni Mittal is Assistant Manager - HR, IILM Institute For Higher Education, Delhi E.mail - rajnimittal@rediffmail.com
– Rajni Mittal
personal differences which will be useful for
the organization. Integrity is also one of the
personal difference traits that an
organization would like to know before they
hire someone. Different methods such as
reference checks, recommendation letters,
personnel interviews, polygraph or
mechanical lie detectors can be used for this
purpose. For this purpose self - reported
integrity tests can also be conducted. They
are cost effective. Integrity tests are paper
and pencil tests with an aim of assessing
individual's attitude towards honest and it is
an effort to predict future counterproductive
behaviors. There is no. of integrity tests
available in the market.
Apart from conventional paper pencil test
now a days a lot of tests are computer
based. In these test is administered on the
computer. They can be given on stand alone
computer or computer may be linked
through internet or intranet. They are also
known as web based tests. There are few
advantages of computer based tests- they
are easy to administer, scoring can be
instant, and scoring is accurate. Efficiency
is increased, and it can be revised easily. In
Computerized adaptive Test questions are
asked as per the ability of the examinee,
normally first question asked is of the
medium difficulty if it is answered correctly
then next question asked is of the slightly
more difficulty and if it is not answered
correctly then the next question will be much
easier. They are tailor made and provided
to a candidate as per his or her caliber. They
are helpful in measuring performance based
testing and it restricts the chances of
cheating.
All over the world psychological assessment
is an integral part of the personnel selection
but in India it is still an emerging trend. Now
Indian organizations have started to show
interest in assessing the psychological traits
like aptitude, attitude, personality, emotion,
stress coping skill, leadership styles, goal
orientation, motivation, interest,
performance, integrity. This process seems
to gather the momentum now in India with
more and more organizations including
psychological test as part of the recruitment.
H
| HRD News Letter | April 2008, Vol.24, Issue:1 23

Soft Skills - The big myth
Just imagine you are the head of HR of
an organization. Your business unit head
has identified communication as the key skill
to be acquired by his team. You get hold of
a few experts on communication skills. They
train the students on Body language, eye
contact, gestures and voice modulation. And
Voila you have created an expert
communicator.
Fantasy or reality? soft skills Or life skills
are supposed to constitute 80% of success
and yet organizations spend a miniscule
amount of money on training for soft skills.
Why is it that the CEO or President of a
company, looks at the training function as a
marginal function or a necessary evil? Why
is it that despite billions of dollars poured
into human skill development, the actual
delivery or implementation is hardly worth
talking about. All professional managers are
aware of the Initial high syndrome, where
immediately after a training program ,there
is a high, participants feel that they have
picked up some key skills. Go back to the
same group after a month, and most of the
skills would have whittled away.
And yet the spending continues. more and
more theories , more and more skill
programs. UNO has identified about 40 skill
areas and is aggressively pursuing
development of programs for these skills.
Life skills training program has become
popular in most schools and colleges. The
hype is there, the material is there and yet
there is no change in human beings.
Can soft skills be acquired?. It is like asking
a question- Can swimming be taught? Do
we learn to swim because we are taught
swimming or is it because, we always knew
swimming and we had just forgotten. A baby
when put into water can swim naturally and
yet just a mere 5 years later the child forgets
to swim. The child then goes to a swimming
course ,learns swimming and after a span
of 14 days is an expert swimmer. So was
the skill taught or was the inhibition to
swimming removed? This leads us to the
larger question. Can life skills be taught?
Can these skills be imparted to others?
Everybody agrees that Life skills is a critical
component of an individuals performance.
The life skills modules identified by the UN
WHO are indeed key skills or abilities for an
individual. Nobody has any doubts on thatthe
question is what is the best way to impart
these skills.
There are two fundamental approaches
– Outside In approach
– Inside Out approach
The outside in approach assumes that skills
need to be imparted from outside. These
needs to be taught to an individual and over
a period of time through habit and
internalization, it becomes a part of the
individual. The idea behind this is very
similar to car driving- you teach a person
how to drive a car for 21 days and this
becomes a habit with the person. Habit is
good, because it teaches you a fixed way of
doing things. Your conscious awareness is
not involved while using the skill. However
habits are also extremely mechanistic in
nature. Consider the skill of communication
for example. Gestures and showing passion
is good, but is it correct to show this in all
situations? All situations are not the same.
The way to deal with the situation also
cannot be the same. A mechanistic
approach forces an individual to respond in
the same way irrespective of the
environment around them.
They say that some things cannot be taught.
If we want a flexible and highly intuitive
reaction to situations, this cannot be taught.
If we want a response which is highly in tune
with the situation and which is the optimal
response to any situation, the reaction
cannot be automatic. It cannot come from
habit. It cannot be mechanistic.
Here is where the Inside out approach
comes in useful. The fundamental premise
of Inside out approach is that every
individuals comes equipped with the basic
Ravi R is chief Advisor and Mentor/Trustee, Aashwasan Life Enhncement Services, Bangalore. E-Mail: ravi@aashwasan.com
– R Ravi
skills. All human beings have all the life skills.
The expression of each individual is unique,
yet they are optimal responses to situations.
The situation is very much like swimming.
All children know swimming- so you do not
need to teach them swimming. If all the skills
are actually present inside every individual,
then why is it that some people are good at
one skill and others not. If we look back into
our own lives, we do find, that there have
been situations where out communication
has been the best. Situations where out
communication was more like a piece of art,
which was in perfect harmony with the
environment and the people around. All of
us must have glimpsed the beautiful sides
of ourselves where we feel boundless,
infinite without any inhibitions. During these
time, we are assertive, confident, very
communicative, highly intelligent
emotionally and much more. So if we show
these skills some time, and do not show
most of the other times, it clearly implies
that the skills are present but there is some
inhibiting facto which prevents the skills from
coming out. In fact these skills are flexible,
infinitely more powerful than the skills that
are taught from outside. Using these skills,
the individual can vary the response
depending on the situation. Every situation
is different . hence every response must be
different. The infinite skill repository inside
an individual brings forth the deepest and
profound expression. In the Inside out
approach, the emphasis is used to remove
the inhibitions, uncover the patterns and
unravel the person. The Inside out journey
is a deep introspective approach which
throws light into the darkest recesses of
human being- Aspects of a human being
that had never been explored before. When
this happens the individual bursts forth in
the fullest glory.
The Inside out approach brings out deepest
shift in a human being. The changes are
permanent. The Inside out approach however
is not mechanistic in nature , is not skill based,
but is based on the infinite , boundaryless
aspect of a human being.
H
| HRD News Letter | April 2008, Vol.24, Issue:1 24

Ferdinand F. Fournies in his book
Coaching for Work Performance gives
an interesting example where he talks of a
situation wherein a boss 'knights' his
subordinate with the Excalibur and says to
the effect, 'I now pronounce you manager;
go thither and yon and do it", and the
subordinate jumps to his feet and responds
happily saying "Yes, I will go thither and yon
and do it". Then, the author talks about a
similar situation wherein the boss instead
of knighting the subordinate into a manager
says, "I knight you jet pilot; go thither and
yon and do it". Would the subordinate jump
up and willingly respond, or, would he say
something to the effect, "Are you kidding? I
wouldn't know how to start a jet, much less
fly one. And even if I manage to start it, I
would crash somewhere between thither
and yon and kill myself".
When it comes to managerial skills, there
seems to be an underlying belief that a
designation equips a manager with the
requisite skills. A possible moderating factor
could be that the person has been made a
manager because he already 'seemed' to
be playing a role. The crucial missing cog
seems to be in the fact that 'seeming to play
a role' and actually being asked to do it have
very different sets of expectations.
Developing others - A case for
managerial and HR
effectiveness
sense based iterative mode. The less said
of the other not so successful project
managers' operating mechanisms, the
better.
In 'The Leadership Pipeline', Ram Charan
and others call these two transitions as
passages in a career. The interesting thing
being that for each successful transition, the
person needs to un-pack and repack his
baggage in three areas - Work Values, Time
Application and Skills. For example, while
moving from managing self to managing
others, the person needs to move from just
looking at technical efficiency to planning &
delegation, from being a punctual employee
to making time available to subordinates and
priority setting and finally from looking at
spotless contribution technically to getting
results through others and success of direct
reports.
While large companies might invest in
Managerial Development programmes or
even MBAs, it is the other majority which
needs urgent attention. Things might have
worked out in other sectors (am assuming!)
probably because by the time a person
became a manager, he had atleast 14 years
of experience and atleast a kid or two. Thus,
he was probably able to leverage his 'life'
experience at the workplace. How about
those who were in college until 5 years ago
and are now managing others?! And most
importantly, they have absolutely no
exposure to the existence of behavioural
sciences in most cases.
– Naga Siddharth S
From my experiments, a programme which
eases the transition to managing others
needs to be one with a strong appreciation
of the concept of role, clarifying one's own
roles, leveraging role efficacy for performance
management, transactional styles and a
topping of situational leadership. Follow up
workshops every quarter for about two hours
seem to work magic.
However, at the level of the project
managers, a focus on performance
management through in-depth appreciation
of situations, role plays, errors, motivation,
behaviour based goal setting and
performance syndromes works out to be
more apt to help them develop a frame for
thinking, reflecting and relating to their
occupational expectations.
While the most obvious gain from such
exercises is in the realm of managerial
development and organizational performance
and effectiveness, my interest in the same
lies in the fact that developing managers to
manage themselves and their team members
is a stepping stone towards effective
devolution of delegatable areas of people
function to the line, thus allowing for a higher
role for HR in strategy and partnership in
organizational performance. This area is well
explored in a paper "Devolving HR
partnership to the line; Threat, Opportunity
or Partnership" by Susan Whittaker, et.al.(Jan
2003) where the authors observe that while
senior line management is quite ok involving
HR in other-than-routine activities, the junior
line managers' main concern in any such
devolution or partnership is that 'a lack of
support from HR during the delivery of such
service can detract from overall
effectiveness.'
In a typical IT setup, the transition from
Managing Self to Managing others occurs
usually after four years of experience after
a person has joined as a fresher from
engineering. During these four years, the
real 'smart kids' quite intuitively pick up the It is not uncommon to see many a hassled
relevant citizenship behaviours as well as HR manager having his frustration stem
critical success factors which drive from 'why can't the project manager
performance. When made a Lead for a understand such a simple thing' kind of a
group of say five to seven engineers, the theme. It is worthwhile recognizing and
person has his first taste of managing others. appreciating the fact that one cannot expect Being partners in developing others to
This transition is often a turbulent one for a pure techie to become a manager just with manage themselves and others around
many. The next transition occurs when the a change in designation and no formal them is a de-risked strategy towards higher
lead is promoted to a Project Manager after competency building (be it through an MBA partnership and devolution of the People
around three or four years. At this point in or something similar) in the ways of people function to the line. For me, it often seems
time, he moves to the next level of Managing management. This has more serious that much like the concept of Power
Managers. It is worthwhile remembering that implications when such managers grow to Enhancers, HR can achieve success in
a majority of such successful project senior positions in an organisation and are doing what they should be doing only when
managers have grown in 'designation' over gawky or plain defensive and skeptical while they can stop doing what they are presently
time and are basically core engineers and grappling with issues such as visioning and doing! And what better way to do this than
often run their people factories on a common forecasting or for that matter, restructuring. by developing others? H
The author is a HRD professional in a large Indian Technology MNC. E-mail: naga.siddharth@gmail.com
| HRD News Letter | April 2008, Vol.24, Issue:1 25

Extending Longevity And Brand
Equity Of Valuable Employees
1. Why is this important?
The closest analogy is that of acquiring new
customers costing five times more than
retaining/enhancing relationships with
current customers. If that makes business
sense, it is a no brainer that the same should
apply to retaining valuable employees.
Hence, it is vital that companies plan
approaches to extend the longevity of the
valuable employee.
2. What do valuable employees normally
cite as the reason(s) for leaving an
organization, even though they had no
dissatisfaction per se, with the organization?
Some of the oft quoted ones are :
a) Diminishing Job challenge
b) Monotony/Repetition
c) Leader not inspiring/caring
d) Growing gap between talk and walk
etc AND
when the above triggers happen, the
seduction of superior designation, perks,
salaries etc -from the 'outside'- enters in to
the consideration set of the disengaged
valuable employee. This then, if not
addressed and corrected, would lead its way
to the predictable quit.
These valuable employee(s), would have
extended the stay in the organization, if the
latter had created 'new energy' and
'repositioned the former in his/her careerlife
space'.
3. Increasingly, irrespective of business
domain, the value add is happening through
various touch points- across geographies,
network of partners and across time zones.
In this reality, valuable employees may not
be sufficiently challenged and stay long
enough in the 'core organization'. It is also
becoming more common to see a variety
and nature of employment contracts( which
earlier was permanent)- permanent/core,
temporary, contract/outsourced, on site, off
site, trainees etc.
4. In the above scenario, many actors in
the value chain do not have equal access
and capability to attract talented employees,
particularly Managers. Hence there is a big
opportunity for a forward looking
organization to creatively plan careers of its
valuable employees- across the value
chain, outside the core organizations'
physical boundaries, Resultantly , the
performance of the non core organisations'
part of the value chain will be enhanced and
the core organization will get the benefit of
superior system performance.
5. Valuable employees, as they gain the
requisite experience and competence in a
role(s), tend to look for new challenges.
These could be responded through role
enrichment( largely horizontal), larger
roles(vertical), different challenges
(horizontal and/or vertical or both), new
portfolio with wider influencing vistas etc.
Roles that could challenge such valuable
employees are trainers, problem solvers,
auditors, troubleshooters, coaches and
mentors. These valuable employees are
looking for that 'extra connect'- which is not
more money only - but a sense of wellbeing
and reinforcing their identity in their lifecareer
space.
6. As our society ,and the country ,still has
tremendous challengers to enhance
performance and performance capability,
valuable employees of a business
organization can be looked at being
deployed in theses processes too. For
example, partnering the Government
agencies in improving the quality of training
at ITI's- besides enhancing the seats- can
go a long way in reducing the growing gap
between supply and demand of manpower
who are employable. Valuable employees
could be seconded to work, in partnership,
with leading institutes of Business
Management, Engineering, Technology etc
to enhance their content and delivery
mechanism to meet current need gaps and
identify emerging ones.
On another plane, valuable employees can
even be seconded to roles in the Defence/
NCC/Home Guard organizations- which are
non combat and 'civilian in character. This
could help the defence forces address the
growing gap of young officers - for the front
lines - and current supply.
7. Once organizations are willing to change
the 'lens' through which opportunities are
being identified for valuable employees, the
potential is immense.
The total system cost of manpower-in any
P. Vijayan is VP- HR at Mahindra Retail Pvt Ltd -until January 15th, 2008 can be contacted on Latika_vijayan@yahoo.com
– P Vijayan
supply chain delivery process- can be
reduced by having flexible manpower
resources moving 'out'- downstream and/or
upstream- of the physical boundaries of the
'core' organization.
8. Based on the thought processes
elucidated above, I am recommending an
illustrative list of distinct opportunities that
business organizations could tap for
enhancing the longevity and brand equity
of their valuable employees through
secondments:
a) Partner orgnisations eg Advertising,
Market Research and Information
Services, Communications, Tax,
Management Consultants
b) Key vendors-national and
international - who may not have
access to superior people resources
c) Enhancing the leadership building
and thought leadership processes
education/training-Business Schools,
Business professional bodies (AIMA,
SHRM, CCL, NHRDN, NIPM etc)
d) Government/industry bodies eg CII,
FICCI,Assocham etc
e) Government hospitals/health care
centres- rural/semi urban areas
f) Teaching- Engineering and
Business Schools
g) Creating content- Business History/
Corporate history (including from
foreign languages)
h) National calamities/other
opportunities-'national volunteer'
i) Skunk works projects- within the
company/shared corporates
j) Board/Governance role- small and
medium size firms
k) Mentoring students- engineering
and business management
l) Improving the management of
housing societies/communities
I hope that this paper will stimulate all of us
to think even bigger and not get constrained
by the organizations' physical business
boundaries, to identify creative and higher
order purpose roles for extending the
longevity of valuable employees.
H
| HRD News Letter | April 2008, Vol.24, Issue:1 26

The Indian Work Environment
Relationship Building
In an Indian work environment, there exists
a social relationship between the employer
and the employee and among the peer
groups. Employees expect organizations to
look after them like a family and tend to
become alienated if organizations dissatisfy
them. Thus, it is not unusual to find an
employer interested in his employee's social
well-being and concerned about his/her
family and personal matters. The employer
freely socializes and strengthens the
employer-employee bond. Indians hesitate
to change jobs as the attraction of a better
salary is weighed against the sound social
security offered by the current, known
organization.
As relationship building is considered very
important, an Indian rarely discusses actual
business without studying his counterpart
carefully and creating a rapport which he
hopes will lead to trust and partnership
building. If an Indian does not feel confident,
the subject of cooperation will not be
broached. Indians rarely divulge everything
till they are positive that the counterpart can
be trusted to work as a partner. A good
relationship is considered essential for a
rewarding long-term partnership.
It is essential to understand the following
points before working with an Indian:
preliminary relationship building is very
essential;
relationships are more important than
contractual obligations;
a relation-based approach yields better
results than a task-based one.
In an Indian organization, there is
considerable air of informality as is the norm
in an extended family unit, or a collectivist
society. Such informal behavior and a casual
atmosphere can cause concern in a bicultural
work environment and be
misconstrued as being rude and lacking in
manners. For instance, knocking on the
office door before entering another person's
office is not a common practice in India. It is
more common for an Indian to announce
his presence with a "Good morning" or a
cheery "Hello", after entering the office. This
should not be misconceived as showing
disrespect, or as a deliberate intrusion into
one's privacy. This is merely because one
treats the office like a second home with a
large family, where one spends eight hours
in the company of his/her colleagues.
Respect is not based on intelligence alone.
It depends on one's status and position of
authority. One should try to understand that
this respect for the "boss" in the work
environment, or "Sir culture', as it is referred
to, is a deeply embedded attitude. The
attitude of respect should not be
misconstrued as being servile. It should also
be understood that subordinates generally
expect a "boss" to assume the role of a
patriarch and become patronizing and
watchful, Thus, if a "boss" chooses to adopt
a different management style, he/she should
be aware that he/she may have to deal with
subordinates' reactions. There are many
outward signs of demonstrating respect for
one's senior which differs between the two
cultures.
Generally, Indians avoid contradicting the
boss, respecting his/her seniority. Rising
from one's chair at the entry of the boss,
observing respectful silence when he/she
addresses a group, using a more formal
manner of speech than that which is used
with peer groups, such as greeting the boss
more formally than a "Hi", which is
considered too casual and thus
disrespectful, are some of the forms of
displaying respect for authority. This,
however, varies in degree from organization
to organization as it also largely depends
on the boss himself/herself, who, if
influenced by Western work ethos, could
prefer a more informal relationship. It is
customary for an Indian to offer a chair to a
person who calls at his/her office, as keeping
a visitor standing is considered rude. A glass
of water or refreshment is generally offered,
prior to discussing the purpose for the visit.
The casual atmosphere in which Indians
tend to work may strike one as being unprofessional.
If one is conditioned to the
notion that all business transactions should
be conducted in a business-like, formal
atmosphere, the Indian manner of
Dr. I Narsis is Lecturer in Commerce, Bishop Heber College, Tiruchy E-Mail: narsis_8@yahoo.co.in
– Dr. I Narsis
conducting business may be frustrating. You
will often come across people who have
mastered the art of dealing with varied
people and matters during the same time
as that of your appointment hour. Indians,
despite the apparent casual attitude in their
work environment, have a professional
outlook and are thorough in the knowledge
of the subject. Many top Indian bureaucrats,
professionals, and business people have
graduated from some of the prestigious
universities of the West and have good
academic standards. It has been generally
acknowledged that Indians have a sound
knowledge of the subject matter they have
specialized in. Therefore, when negotiating
with an Indian, in public or private sector, or
in business, do not expect any instant
decisions to be taken across the table.
Issues are generally critically analyzed, by
independent professionals, thereby causing
delays in decision-making. Indians prefer to
avoid conflict. Harmony and preservation of
face is greatly valued within their work
environment. Belonging to a collectivist
society, group harmony is desired and
respected. If conflicts have to be resolved
they would prefer a third person to act as a
go-between rather than directly 'have it out'
with the person concerned, for fear of hurting
the person and further widening the gap.
Outsiders are not encouraged to be the third
person, as Indians prefer to keep all conflicts
within the four walls of their homes and
organizations.
If you have a misunderstanding with your
Indian counterpart, and you later find that
person silent, it does not mean that all is
well and back to normal. It may indicate that
your counterpart does not want an open
conflict or further deterioration in the work
environment. It is very likely that he/she is
putting up a facade. Issues affecting dignity,
respect, prestige and face saving, largely
influence and guide an Indian's behavior.
Owing to the class conscious Indian society,
polite expressions such as "Thank you" and
"Please" are normally not used with members
of the peer group or with those in the lower
rung of the office hierarchy. It is reserved for
those who are senior in rank.
H
| HRD News Letter | April 2008, Vol.24, Issue:1 27

Fear: The Killer Of
Organizational Effectiveness
I
had met a very senior executive a few
years back. He had returned from
Singapore only recently. He had accepted a
job in Delhi on a lower salary after rejecting
a better offer from a Mumbai-based
company. On being queried as to why he
did so, he replied: "Dr. Singh, when I visited
that Mumbai-based organization I found fear
all around. I decided I won't be able to work
in an environment of fear." His reply stunned
me.
Fear keeps a significant part of human
energy unutilized. It is said that Franklin D.
Roosevelt believed: The only thing we have
to fear is fear itself. His wife, Eleanor
Roosevelt, described fear as 'the only most
debilitating and soul destroying emotion
known to man.' Also to woman, I add.
Fear stems from personal inadequacy.
There are some managers, who do not
spend enough time and resources for their
own development. There are many others
who spend considerable time and energy for
their own development. They attend
seminars and symposia. Their reading is not
limited to daily newspapers. They read
serious management literature. They keep
themselves updated by interacting with
knowledgeable people in different areas.
These people are on the path of selfdevelopment.
They will have less fear. Those
who are not on the path of self-development
will have more fear. Therefore, one way to
conquer fear is to keep on developing
yourself as you go up in the hierarchy.
Another type of fear strikes you when you
do not play by the rules. When you violate
the law of the land or when you engage in
some unethical or illegal activities like taking
bribe or seeking sexual favour or engaging
in sexual harassment of colleagues and
subordinates. The best way of getting rid of
such fear is to lead your life in an exemplary
manner.
Individual fear is one thing. Organization
wide fear is entirely different. When the latter
happens we can term it a culture of fear. The
main contributors to such a culture are task
- oriented managers. Blake & Mouton call
them 9, 1 managers. In their words, 9,1
managers are described as: 'The 9,1
leadership style rests on the assumption that
there is an inherent contradiction between
the organization's need for results and the
needs of people. Therefore, the latter is
sacrificed in order to achieve the former. The
other belief is that production objectives can
only be met when people are controlled and
directed in a way that compels them to
complete the necessary tasks.' Such
managers rule with an iron hand spreading
fear all around.
The other type of managers, who spread fear
are called opportunists. They are described
as: Opportunism is a Grid theory best
understood by answering the question, Who
is the other person with whom the
opportunist is dealing?" this is significant
because the quality of a relationship is
gauged in terms of how it impacts the future
of the opportunist. An opportunist uses a
combination of other Grid styles based on
what is likely to get him or her ahead. The
question to be answered is," What interaction
style works best with this other person to get
them to do what I want?" These managers
always act in the interest of their own. They
want to know what is in it for me. Anybody
coming in their way will be punished sending
waves of fear all around in the organization.
Dr. P N Singh is Chairman of Grid Consultants based at Mumbai. E-Mail: gridindia@vsnl.com
Agra Chapter News (March 2008)
– By Dr. P. N. Singh
How could we reduce fear in organizations?
Candour and openness can greatly help.
Why people are not candid in organizations?
There are several reasons. First, managers
feel that information is power. They
erroneously believe, passing on the
information to all those who need it would
decrease their own power and increase the
recipients'. It should be remembered that
empowering others empowers you.
Withholding information reduces your
effectiveness. Second, some opportunistic
managers take ad-hoc decisions regarding
careers of their subordinates. Therefore,
people are scared to speak out, lest their
career be harmed. There is silence of the
graveyard in the organization. Nobody
knows what will happen to him or her.
Recently, an excellent executive was shown
the door taking advantage of a loophole in
his contract. His boss was considered to be
highly opportunistic. He put one of his
cronies in his position. Fear has spread like
a wildfire in this organization.
Third, organizations prefer team-players,
who keep silent even when they are clear in
their mind that their silence would hurt the
organization. They do not wish to be branded
as trouble-makers.
Candour is not easy to practice. But, it is
important for removing fear from
organizations. This has to be encouraged
from the top. The organization has to create
a culture of candour like Jack Welch did in
GE.
What could be done to task-oriented and
opportunist managers who spread fear. Put
them in an intensive leadership course. If
they don't improve, just get rid of them. H
Members of National HRD Network including the chapter president, Col(Dr.)C.K.Singh, and Vice-President and Director HIMCS,
Dr. Naveen Gupta, and other members along with the student members participated in MARK-FEST organised by MBA students of
BMAS Engineering College, Keetham, Agra on 14 th March 2008. 35 Companies from Agra region had established their stalls and
displayed their marketing and management talent. Management Quiz, AD-MAD Show, and cultural talent were part of the Fest.
Mr. Anil Goyal, President, National Chamber of Commerce & Industries was the chief guest for function. NHRDN Members got an
opportunity to interact with Mr. Anil Goyal and other Industrialist of Agra.
President National Chamber of Commerce and Industries agreed to have better understanding for organizing industry related programme/
activity for NHRDN Agra Chapter members and also management students of BMAS Engineering College in future.
| HRD News Letter | April 2008, Vol.24, Issue:1 28

he Human Resources (HR) team has a
Tcritical role to play in every organisation.
They are often responsible for Hiring /
Compensation / Training / Performance
management and a host of other employee
related issues. There are however several
areas of concern that employees have with
their HR teams. We have listed some of the
common complaints and our
recommendations to HR stakeholders to
overcome them.
Concern 1 - Transparency in
communicating organisations
expectations from the employee
"Employees hate it when HR comes across
as just a puppet of the top management
hired to issue instructions. So there is a
definitive lack of transparency in their
actions. Most HR department and personnel
seems like doing a formality and not really
into their jobs just following processes so
there's no personalization. It is difficult to
even share your views and thoughts with
the HR department for the fear to bear the
consequences for being vocal about the
visible issues around." says Sumit, a
professional with a leading Entertainment
brand.
Our recommendation to HR - If this is
directed towards the time of interviewing
candidates, we would ask what
responsibility the potential employees have
in taking responsibility for asking the right
questions. I would expect potential
employees to come armed with a list of
questions which HR should be in a position
to answer. In the event HR is not
knowledgeable enough to answer questions
then they need to be truthful, get the
answers and revert back.
If on the other hand this is directed towards
mediation between a manager and his
employee then confidentiality should be
required and demanded from HR. There is
no acceptable excuse for the absence of
communicating expectations clearly,
concisely and in a timely manner.
Concern 2 - Handling Exit interviews
"HR personnel have no idea about the
wealth of valuable information that is
available at their fingertips. Exit interview
information is not about collecting sour
grapes information but about collecting
factual data which shapes the future HR
strategy and policy" says Mithali, a Senior
Manager with a leading telecommunications
company.
Common complaints
against HR
Reprinted with
persmission from rediff.com
Our recommendation to HR - Organisations
need to factor in the costs of decreased
productivity, lost investment in training and
development, loss of revenue for key sales
or management executives, administration
set up, equipment purchase, recruitment
costs, the new employee's induction into the
business culture, management downtime in
interviewing candidates, legal fees and
payout commitments. There can be a lot
more to staff turnover costs than first meets
the eye, which is why it's so important to
recruit the right candidate first off and then
do what you can to keep them challenged
and satisfied. When an individual leaves an
organization there is a story to be told…the
exit interview is an opportunity to create a
story board.
Retention issues are the number one
executive concern then it follows that any
and all input must have serious
consideration; Exit interviews are simply
another valuable way of collecting data.
Concern 3 - Failing to understand the
Business challenges
HR professionals do not look at their
purpose as being strategic, which in itself
creates an aura that HR is driving
administration, not the strategy of the
organization. "They bother more about hiring
than internal employee development. I think
they need to keep in mind that it is the
current employee's performance that
actually reflects on organisations and their
performance, "says Jaspreet, a marketing
manager with a leading retail organisation.
Our recommendation to HR - The role of
HR is to provide overall company assistance
and guidance with the execution on our
company's missions, values and ethics,
while ensuring the right people in the right
job at the right time. Unless and until, we
change the view of HR as contributing to
business results nothing will change. The
HR systems utilized, are just some of the
tools we can use to provide factual data to
support our contributions.
If we are aligned with the strategy and held
accountable for the business results, we will
be able to increase our value within the
organization while increasing the ability to
execute and deliver on business results. And
this of course is based on the premise that
the leadership of organizations views HR
as a contributing business partner.
– By Deeksha Singh & Jo Verde
Concern 4 - Lack of responsiveness
"Whenever there is a concern, they always
ask for paper work and the turn around time
is no long that most employees get
frustrated before any resolution is reached"
says Nisha, an operations manager with a
BPO.
Our recommendation to HR- We have asked
many HR groups that we work with to treat
their operation like a futures
market….betting on what the future will look
like…what their roles will be…how they can
prepare for this and begin to plan, prepare
and influence.
We get troubled when we hear only
recruitment talked about when referencing
HR…. it so much more as a massive
business process and recruitment is a sub
process along with many others. Every time
organizations consider making a change
that impacts a sub process they must look
at the impact on each and every sub process
within. HR absolutely needs to understand
they are a service department with
customers just like all operational groups.
By not responding in a timely manner to the
clients, they in fact fail to meet service
needs. One can't help but consider
outsourcing HR in this thought process and
perhaps one of the many reasons
organizations today are considering this
option. Having said that, all HR personnel
must consider the WIIFM (What's in it for
me)…and perhaps the quick and easy
answer is…I HAVE A JOB, and that job is
servicing the internal customer.
Concern 5 - Lack of empowerment to take
quick decisions
"I often get this feel that HR personal are
sitting on their back and think we have it
covered" says Digvijay, a Branch Manager
with a private bank.
Our recommendation to HR- This could be
a case of HR not being empowered to take
decisions or of HR not being willing to accept
the decision making accountability. In both
the events, this is more of a leadership issue.
If decision making is not pushed down in an
organization, empowerment never occurs.
As the saying goes "The fish always rots
from the top". HR needs to have the support
of the board room to become a best in class
internal service provide. So if the HR teams
have to create magic within, the bosses in
the corner offices need to engage, &
empower.
H
Deeksha Singh is a Managing Partner with WCH Training Solutions, New Delhi. She can be reached at Deeksha@wchsolutions.com
Jo Verde is Senior Director of JeMM Consultants, a Canada based Professional Development and Training firm. jverde@jemmconsultants.com
| HRD News Letter | April 2008, Vol.24, Issue:1 29

Leadership Can Be Learned
any a time it is said leaders are born.
MTrue leaders are born as human beings
so also managers, teachers, accountants,
principals and lawyers are born. The
essence of the issue is that leaders or
managers are made on 'learning'. If one has
decided to become a leader he will, as
essentially it is learnt, and it is one of selfdevelopment.
It is surely a myth that leadership is reserved
for only few of us. Many a time it is
perpetuated myth, while the truth is, it can
be acquired. Another myth, leadership is
linked to position. If one is boss, he can be
leader, or one is CEO he will be leader, and
if one is at top he can be leader. This type of
myth is only limiting oneself to be a leader,
and waiting for the hero to come. Therefore
leadership is not a secret, or an exclusive
trait that it cannot be understood by ordinary
people. They are observable set of skills and
abilities that are useful in the cabin of CEO
or frontline or any place where people are
to be lead. And hence any skill can be learnt,
can be mastered and role models can be
created by coaching.
Tensing Norwkey had conquered Mount
Everest. It is not that, he had conquered
doubts and fears. In an organization, one
will not conquer leadership but he conquers
one's own doubts and fears of leading.
Leadership is essentially of realizing one's
power to influence himself and the people
around. We often see in a family father,
brother or a sister who is forceful has the
power of influencing, and we start believing
them and act. In other words, it is the starting
of developing faith in oneself.
Similarly, in an organization, by observing a
successful manager, a forceful trade union
person, we find that they are having positive
traits, belief in oneself, the commitment to
achieve and zeal to go ahead. By constant
observation, one gets motivation that he also
can be forceful in the area he operates. The
more one puts people first and connects
himself, invests in human capital the more
he will get to lead. In short one should know
leader within himself and a leader in others,
and that thought itself triggers, to electrify
the environment, culminating in an
enthusiastic environment.
Leadership finally is self-development. The
quest for leadership is the quest to discover
one'self. The attitude of caring and valuing
stem at the root of faith in people which make
the leader, automatically. A strong belief in
the competencies of people and in oneself,
creates a multiplying situation of creating a
leader and kindling the desire in people to
become leaders. If one strives to connect
himself with people and community, and
works for self-development and of people
around, it is clear that a leader is born; not
on his own, but by his making, by his innate
desire, by his concern, by his effort and
above all by his own faith in leading.
We have rich experiences in our country of
making 'leadership'. The milk-man of India,
Dr.Verghese Kurien popularly known as 'The
Father of White Revolution' was pioneer of
cooperative movement. Dr.Kurien had used
his management skills to optimum level and
by himself scripted a new epoch in the history
of India's Cooperative movement.
Dr.Kurien's leadership had resulted in his
becoming Chairman of National Dairy
Development Board (NDDB), to replicate the
'Amul' pattern on a nation-wide basis. In
short, then Prime Minister Lal Bahadur
Shastri, in 1965 mooted NDDB, looking at
success story of Dr.Kurien with Amul. Today
we all remember 'Amul' the taste of India.
Behind the success, Dr.Kurien had passion
to serve the poor, had commitment and
perseverance and above all determination.
The co-operative spirit clubbed with
technology and management gave him the
power and his faith in people and himself,
put him in an exalted state. His missionery
zeal was his great asset.
Yet again, the vision of Prof.Vikram Sarabhai
brought space Research in the country to
new heights. He is well known for his Cosmic
Ray Research that lead Space Research.
Programme for the Nation. Both Dr.Homi
Bhabha and Prof.Vikram Sarabhai were
looking for a site to establish Space
Research Station in the equatorial region.
Thumba in Kerala was selected for this
purpose. The locality had series of villages
and thousands of fisherman folk were living
in that area. It also had a beautiful ancient
church and a Bishop's House Prof.Sarabhai
met many politicians and bureaucrats to get
the place for the work of Space Science
Research. But it did not move further
Prof.Vikram Sarabhai's tenacity and
devotion to the cause made him to meet the
Bishop and explain as to why he needs the
space including his house. The Bishop
asked to meet Prof.Vikram Sarabhai on a
Sunday and he went as advised. The Bishop
who was convinced of the commitment of
Prof.Vikram Sarabhai addressed the Sunday
congregation, and had mentioned Science
seeks truth by reasoning and in a way
M Raghuramiah, Dy.General Manager (Personnel) National Aviation Co.of India Ltd. E-Mail: mraghuramiah@sify.com
– M Raghuramiah
science and spiritualism seek the same
divine blessings for doing good for the
people and by saying that sought permission
to give God's abode for a scientific mission.
There was a chorus of 'Amen' from the
congregation.
Because of the National cause and
dedication of Prof.Vikram Sarabhai to
science, the Bishop dedicated the church in
recognition of National goal. Thereby Indian
Space Research Organization at Pallithura
Thumba was born. In this instance, the
truthfulness and commitment to a cause had
resulted in success. The temple of worship
has become temple of science. Eventually
Prof.Vikram Sarabhai's pioneering efforts
brought other space Research Centres and
gave the county the capability of design
development in Space Research. The
leadership of Prof.Vikram Sarabhai is one
of scientific leadership.
We have the example of great Mahatma
Gandhi who was Noble, Political and
Transformational leader. He was not just
perfect in implementing a project but a
master in creating change and a new order.
He had successfully steered ahead in all his
endeavors, with his principles of truth and
non-violence. He was steadfast totally
focused on self-development and was an
embodiment of virtues. He lived for the
people and for a cause. He strived for
perpetuating values in life. He essentially
transformed people. A leader of par
excellence.
And when we look at Industry scenario Shri
Ratan Tata, Shri E Sreedharan, the Delhi
Metroman and Shri N R Narayana Murthy in
Technology were all leaders, who by their
vision, knowledge and effort made a place
for themselves. With their sheer hard work,
fearlessness and their knowledge, have
made tremendous contribution to the growth
of the industry and Nation.
In the end, leaders are what they have
become, by learning, and striving with
continuous effort. They train themselves and
also others and they create leaders by their
strategies. It is true what Mark Twain said :
"There is nothing training cannot do
Nothing is above its reach
It can turn bad morals to good,
It can destroy bad principles & create
good ones
It can lift men to Angelship".
- Mark Twain
By a constant effort a learning organization can
be created and leaders can be made.
H
| HRD News Letter | April 2008, Vol.24, Issue:1 30

There has been a shift in the practice of
talent management. The shift is from
talent running after organizations to
organizations running after talent. As a result,
Talent Poaching has become predominant
and the order of the day. Talent Poaching is
the act of enticing key employees from one
competing firm to another. It is the practice
of proactively targeting and hiring top talent
away from a competitor or top firm, with the
specific intention of:
Securing skills or capabilities faster than
if you were to attempt to develop talent
internally through training and
development efforts
Securing expanded capacity (i.e. more
bodies) that will require less ramp up
time and
Mitigating high-level talent losses due
to attrition
I had been personally nagged by a question
whether Talent Poaching is an acceptable
and a healthy practice. I carried out a study
to find answers to these questions. The
study focused on getting the views of Human
Resource Managers on Talent poaching.
Forty eight Human Resource Managers
were interviewed to collect the data for the
study. The respondents belonged to various
business sectors. The respondent
composition of different sectors is:
seventeen from IT & ITES, eight from
Manufacturing, seven from Banking, six from
Services, five from Educational, and five
from Pharmaceutical sectors.
The respondents were asked the
following questions by the author.
1 What are your views on being a
'poacher' and 'poached'?
2 Is talent poaching ethical?
3 What are the merits of talent poaching?
4. What kind of people do online recruiters
or online poachers target?
5 Should 'no poaching agreement' be
considered seriously?
Let us have an understanding or poaching
practices before we take up the discussion
of the data gathered. There are three
dominant Poaching Strategies. They are:
Direct sourcing. Firms use new datamining
techniques and tools, combined with
age-old recruiter phone techniques, to mine
Talent Poaching: Views
the organizational structure, employee
identities, and employee performance
indicators of talent and product competitors.
This competitive intelligence is later used
to determine who specifically should be
targeted for poaching. All work is carried out
internally.
Third-party poaching. This strategy relies
on using a vendor or series of vendors to
identify everything from which firms to target
to what individuals to go after based on your
strategic objectives. It is also by far the most
common way organizations that find
poaching unethical actually practice it
themselves. In their views, poaching is
perceived as unethical only if you do it
yourself.
Attract them with "honey." The third
strategy is the one that a few organizations
would associate with poaching, what is
called "attract them with honey" strategy.
This approach utilizes different channels to
drive candidates to your organization from
other specific organizations, much like
product firms steer you to their products in
grocery stores.
Discussion
It is found from the analysis that talent
poaching is the highest in IT & ITES sector
and the lowest in Banking sector. The
percentage composition of different sectors
is: 50% in IT & ITES, 14% in Services, 11%
in Manufacturing, 10% in Educational, 9%
in Pharmaceutical and 6% in Banking
sectors.
Talented people, 'On being poached', look
for job satisfaction and sense of recognition
besides astronomical salaries. There is their
justification for being poached. Talent
hunters look for, 'on being a poacher', smart,
innovative and co-operative people as their
workforce. There is their justification on
being a poacher.
Employee poaching is accepted as an
ethical practice in this modern business
world as it is next to success and profit. Most
of the respondents expressed that poaching
was not unethical as the practice had been
widely accepted as part of the business and
moreover, every body was at it. For them
the practice is unethical only if employees
move ahead of the bond agreement. It is
also beneficial from both the employer and
employee point of views as the objectives
are personal success on the being poached
and organizational success on being the
poacher respectively. The analysis of the
data (chart-1) shows that 78% of the
respondents expressed that poaching was
R Krishnamurthi is Asst Professor, Jansons School of Business, Coimbatore. Mail: Jckrish@yahoo.com
– R. Krishnamurthi
ethical while 15% the respondents said that
it was unethical and 5% of them were not
sure.
Chart-1 Is Poaching Talent Ethical?
15%
7%
78%
Yes
No
Not Sure
The respondents had their justification for
poaching talent as the practice of poaching
talent has reduced investment on employee
training considerably. This was because
they were able to get the top talent that they
were looking for and the top talents were
equipped with the required skills and
qualities.
It has also been analyzed that top
companies target employees with high IQ,
adaptability, innovation, smart working and
fast learning. Majority of the respondents
were confident that hiring only the confident,
smart and hard working would lead to the
success of a new organization and not mass
hiring.
'No poaching agreement' is merely a fad and
that cannot be followed strictly. By signing
the 'no poaching' agreement, employees are
forced to work with no interest which creates
conflict, time delay in work process,
counterproductive behavior of employees
which further creates an unhealthy
environment inside the organization. That
will force the top management to spend time
and energy in settling disputes. Today's
organizations do not have room for 'fire
fighting'. The top managements have
intelligently understood that by creating
employee engagement, providing extra
allowances like residence, travel, medical
and educational facilities, and maintaining
a smooth relationship with the employees
will help organizations retain their
employees.
Conclusion
From the analysis of the survey conducted,
it is concluded that in today's business world,
employee poaching is considered ethical by
majority of the respondents for it being
beneficial both for the employer and the
employee as both aim for their success and
wealth maximization in a shorter period of
time. The practice can be accepted as long
as employers and employees strictly adhere
to their written agreements.
H
| HRD News Letter | April 2008, Vol.24, Issue:1 31

All around the world most companies are
at best mediocre techno-ready
marketers - in terms of not only marketing
technological innovations but also
harnessing technologies to foster customercompany
interactions and gain competitive
advantage, this go is not at all sufficient in
today's business environment but in reality,
companies introducing innovative products
and services are much more techno 'savvy'
than marketing 'savvy', i.e. they focus far
more on the technological aspects of their
products and services than on consumers
or consumer reactions to those
technologies. It suggests that there exists
considerable variations across customer
groups in terms of how receptive they are
to the same technology. Companies need
to be cognizant of this market heterogeneity
in terms of market reactions to technology
products and services.
However, the early adopters, Explorers, are
quite different to later Adopters in terms of
how they react to technology and what they
require to enable them to feel comfortable
with it. So the essentials of good technology
marketing is, first and foremost, companies
need to be more customer-focused and
sensitive to the technology-readiness
profiles of their customers. Secondly, they
need to design their marketing strategies
with this in mind and to adjust these
strategies as and when new waves of
customers adopt the product. Technology
products or services must be user-friendly.
This is especially important for later waves
of customers who will be less technologyready.
In addition, there must be appropriate
Technology Readiness
Amongst Customers
customer care to cater to the changing
composition of the marketplace.
Moreover, the technology-readiness relates
to people's mental attitudes towards
technology, specifically it relates to the
propensity of people to embrace and adopt
technology-based products and services for
everyday use both at home and at work, so
it is a measure of mental readiness not of a
technical competence. There are many
people who are technically very competent
but still not highly inclined to adopt
technology. Meanwhile, at the other
extreme, you might have people who are
positively paranoid about technology. For
the latter part of the above statement there
are four facets of technology-readiness they
are, Innovativeness relates to a general
willingness to experiment with new things
and to be an 'opinion leader1, i.e. 'spreading
the word1 to other people. Optimism has to
do with generally positive feelings towards
technology. Consumers who score highly on
innovativeness and optimism are much
more inclined to adopt technologies than are
low scorers, discomfort and insecurity, are
inhibitors of technology adoption. Discomfort
relates to a general fear of technology and
a feeling that technology is something that
is controlling you rather than vice versa.
Insecurity also has to do with a fear of
technology but it is much more transactionspecific.
However, many high-tech companies
introducing innovative products and services
are much more techno 'savvy' than
marketing 'savvy', i.e. they focus far more
on the technological aspects of their
products and services than on consumers
or consumer reactions to those
technologies. Some people clearly have a
natural inclination towards technology while
– A.Sarangapani, T. Mamatha
others have a natural aversion. Such
attitudinal traits may evolve gradually over
the years but they are not going to change
overnight. Analysis of the technologyreadiness
leads to a further interesting
insight. Five distinct categories of customers
emerge based on the four attributes or
dimensions these are 'explorers', 'pioneers',
'skeptics', 'paranoids' and 'laggards'.
Generally speaking, technology is embraced
in a sequence led by the explorers and
ending with the laggards. These five
categories or segments of customers have
distinctly different profiles in terms of their
four technology-readiness components.
High optimism and innovativeness the
'pioneers' characterize the 'explorers',
meanwhile, share the high optimism and
high innovativeness of the 'explorers' but
they also have a relatively high level of
inhibitions, The 'skeptics' can be seen as
the mirror image of the 'pioneers'. They have
few inhibitions about technology but they do
not believe in it and their scores on optimism
and innovativeness are low. They see little
reason to embrace technology. The
'paranoids' show a high degree of optimism
about technology; they are very positive
about it. But they are not very innovative.
Unlike the 'explorers' and the 'pioneers', they
do not like to experiment. They also
demonstrate high levels of discomfort and
insecurity. Finally the 'laggards' are the exact
opposites of the 'explorers'. All of this has
marketing implications in terms of the design
of technology-based products and services
as well as the marketing communications
pertaining to them. The technologyreadiness
construct can be used to survey
customers, to understand the profiles of
those customers with respect to the four
dimensions of technology-readiness, and to
segment them into these five groups.
H
A.Sarangapani is an Assistant Professor Alluri Instt. of Management Sciences, Warangal. E-mail: sarangapani - akuthota@yahoo.co.in
T. Mamatha, is a lecturer in Economics, Padamavathi College for Women, Warangal. you can meet her at mamatha - akuthota@.yahoo.co.in
Carried from Page 33
of the new millennium. The stock options
controversy of the early nineties seemed to
me to be a hugely significant matter at the
time, perhaps because of my own research,
which had emphasized the importance of
good and accurate information in making a
market economy work. But during the boom,
it was difficult to arouse interest in the issue
from many, other than those who benefited
form the bad accounting. It was another
instance where we trusted the judgment of
Employee Stock Options (ESOPs)
the experts, including those in the financial
and accounting community, though, given
their vested interests, we should have been
skeptical".
10. I felt compelled to write this essay in
the light of what I am noticing in the
Compensation Committees of some
companies in which I am holding office and
after reading "The Roaring Nineties" of
Joseph Stiglitz. I hope that companies would
find sincere and transparent and least
harmful way of aligning the interests of
executives and employees on the one hand
and of the share -holders on the other in the
name of enhancing "share holder value"
Directors on Board of companies must
consider the learned Nobel Laureates views
on stock options (called ESOPs in our country)
and remove every ground for misinformation
or inadequate information in the Profit and
Loss Account and Balance Sheets and
auditors must exert to show the true cost of
ESOPs to the share holders. H
| HRD News Letter | April 2008, Vol.24, Issue:1 32

Employee Stock Options (ESOPs)
– Dr. T.H.Chowdary
Many new economy companies in the
IT, software and telecommunications
have been issuing employee stock options.
They proudly pronounce them as part of their
policy to create value for stake- holders; that
is, equity share holders and employees. It
has become fashionable to issue stock
options. That these are a deception, a fraud
on the equity share holders has been
established by no less a person than the
Nobel Laureate, Joseph Stiglitz in his book,
"The Roaring Nineties". To state briefly, he
holds that these are expenses which the
company incurs but are not explicitly shown
in the Profit and Loss Account or Balance
Sheet of the companies. These depress the
profits as well as reduce the market value
of the equity shares. The share holders
cannot make out this well-concealed effect
from a reading of the P&L account and
Balance Sheet. The following are his
observations.
2. Stock options, the right to buy
company's stock at below market prices -
and then pretending that nothing of value
has changed hands was extensively
resorted to by Silicon Valley companies
since the 1990s…..Options were of course
a terrific recruiting tool for small profitless
start -ups that could never have come up
with their equivalent cash. One of the
corporate Manthras of the day was, through
stock options, "bring manager and share
holder interest into alignment." Since no
actual stock got issued until they were
"exercised (which might be several years
down the road), they did not have to be
acknowledged as an expense - a some thing
the firm has spent, or a liability it has incurred
in order to do business that year. Thus, a
company could please employees and
bottom -line conscious investors at the same
time".
"By 2001, options accounted for an
estimated 80 percent of the compensation
of American corporate managers, and the
impact on the Balance Sheet wasn't exactly
trivial, either. IF Microsoft had been required
to acknowledge the value of the options it
doled out that year, the effect would have
been to reduce the company's 2001 profits
(officially, $7.3 billion) by a third. The same
play had enabled both Starbucks and Cisco,
among other companies, to boost profits by
20 percent or more. Intel's profits would have
been cut to a fifth, from $1.3 billion to $254
million, and Yahoo!'s losses would have
increased tenfold, from $93 million to $ 983
million.
Using this device of stock options some of
the notoriously failed companies like Enron,
World Com, Adelphia , the most flagrant and
well publicized of many companies, went
more and more into new ways of maximizing
executives' gains at unwary investors
expense.
The Financial Accounting Standards Board
(FASB) of the USA, an independent body
responsible for formulating accounting
standards came out with draft rules intended
to make companies put a reasonable value
on options and list them as expense but the
FASB was destructively criticized by the
Chiefs of the then Chiefs of companies of
the likes of Enron, WorldCom and Home
Depot, characterizing the FASB's rules as a
terrible blow to the free enterprise system"
which would make it impossible to start up
new businesses . In the event the FASB
adopted a watered down rule that merely
required companies to report all stock options
in foot notes to their financial statements.
Arthur Levitt, Chairman of the Securities
Exchange Board (SEB) later called it the
"biggest mistake" of his tenure at the SEB .
3. Executive pay became a topic of
growing controversy in the later part of the
decade, as stock options enabled the likes
of John Chambers of Cisco, Dennis
Kozlowski of Tyco, Stanford I.Weill of
Citicorp, and David Komansky of Merrill
Lynch to pocket millions of dollars. But while
there was plenty of outrage over the
amounts of money involved - the popular
view was simply that these executives were
being paid too much-other aspects of the
question got slighted.
4. Stock options depressed the share
value in the market in the following way.
When executives (or other employees)
receive stock options, a company is
committing itself to issue new stock, thereby
diluting the value of the existing stock.
Assume a case in which there are already 1
million shares outstanding, each worth $30;
that would make the company's value ( or
"market capitalization") $30 million. If its
executives get, say, an additional 1 million
shares free, then the old shareholders will
have to share the company's wealth-and
future profits-with these "new" shareholders,
and the value of each share will fall to $15.
Thus, the shareholders effectively pay the
executives $15 million - not straight out of
their own pockets, but through the
diminution in their share value.
5. The Nobel Laureate Stiglitz says , "we
might speak of stock options as corporate
theft -executives stealing money from their
very share holders". He further wrote that it
is absolutely wrong to hold that the
performance of the management has
anything to do with the share price in the
market. He observes, "in a stock market
boom most of the increase in the value of
stock has nothing to do with the efforts of
the management" .
6. He further observes trenchantly, the
incentive pay that Compensations
Committees of some companies
characterize the stock options is an
euphemism for "big pay". Cisco's John
Chambers voluntarily cut his annual pay to
$1 but still received a 6 million stock option
in fiscal 2001 even as his company lost $1
billion and its stock price fell 70 percent. But
the practice is so widespread that on
average, there appears little relationship
between compensation and reward.
7. During the 1990s senior executive
compensation rose by 442 percent in eight
years, from an average of $2 million to $
10.6 million. Compensation of American
executives was completely out of line
relative to the salaries of middle
management, relative to the salaries of
workers, relative to anything imaginable.
While senior executive compensation rose
36 percent in 1998 over 1997, the wages of
the average blue-collar worker rose just 2.7
percent in the same period. And the pattern
was repeated over and over again. Even in
2001, a disaster year of profits and stock
prices, executive CEO pay increased twice
as fast as the pay of the average worker.
8. The Nobel Laureate goes on to compare
the compensations in some countries as
follows: In Japan, executive pay is typically
10 times that of the average worker; in Great
Britain executive pay is 25 times that of the
average worker; by 2000 in America, CEOs
were getting more than 500 times the wages
of the average employee, up from 85 times
at the beginning of the decade and 42 times
two decades earlier
9. He concludes most educatively; " new
forms of deception have been developed.
In the go-go environment of the 1990s while
market values soared, human values
eroded, and the playing field became terribly
unlevel once again, contributing to the
bubble that burst soon after the beginning
Contd. on Page 32
Dr. T Hanuman Choudary is Fellow: Tata Consultancy Services & Satyam Computer Services and Former Chairman & Managing Director,
Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd. E-Mail: hanuman.chowdary@tcs.com & thc@satyam.com
| HRD News Letter | April 2008, Vol.24, Issue:1 33

Raising Ethical Issues:
Responsibility to Each Other
Compliance with the highest ethical
standards is a critical element of the
organisation's responsibilities. Organisations
encourage the employees to raise
concerns or questions regarding ethics,
discrimination or harassment matters and
to report suspected violations of applicable
laws, regulations and policies. Early
identification and resolution of such issues
are critical to maintaining the commitment
to be the most respected business company.
Companies devise the code of conduct
which provides an overview of some of the
key policies which employees need to be
aware of. They must also be aware of the
detailed policies, procedures and
regulations. However a company cannot
anticipate every issue that an employee may
encounter.
Privacy for Employees:
Business organizations protect the privacy
policy and confidentiality of employee
personal records including medical records.
Such records must not be shared or
discussed outside, except as authorized by
the employee or as required by applicable
law, rule or regulation or pursuant to a
subpoena or order issued by a court of
competent jurisdiction or requested by
administrative or legislative body. Requests
for such records from anyone outside under
any circumstances must be approved
pursuant to applicable policy of the
organization.
Workplace guidelines for privacy and
security cover employees and other
individuals whose personal details are
provided to the company within the context
of the workforce relationship. Organisations
may process personally identifiable
information about workforce in locations
other than place of employment. In doing
this management will follow applicable rules
in connection with sending, storing and using
such information.
Fair Employment Practices and
Diversity:
Business companies believe that diversity
in workforce is critical to success and they
seek recruit, develop and retain the most
talented people from a diverse candidate
pool. Advancement in such organizations is
based on talent and performance. They are
fully committed to equal employment
opportunity and compliance with the letter
and spirit of full range of laws regarding fair
employment practices and nondiscrimination.
Discrimination and Harassment:
Organisations promote a work environment
where diversity is embraced, where
differences are valued and respected. They
prohibit discrimination, harassment or
intimidation that is unlawful or otherwise
violates company's policies, whether
committed by or against a supervisor, coworker,
customer, vendor or visitor.
Discrimination and harassment, whether
based on person's gender, gender identity
or expression, caste creed, religion,
nationality, age, disability, marital status,
sexual orientation, culture, ancestry, veteran
status, socio-economic status or other
legally protected personal characteristic are
repugnant and completely inconsistent with
our tradition of providing a respectful and
dignified workplace. The top management
will promptly investigate all allegations of
harassment or discrimination and will take
appropriate corrective action to the fullest
extent possible. Retaliation against
individuals for raising, in good faith, claims
of harassment or discrimination is
prohibited.
Companies usually will not allow the use of
its systems including e-mail services and or
intranet or internet-services in a manner that
could be embracing or detrimental to the
reputation or interest or offensive work
environment based on a person's caste,
creed, religion and so on. This includes
transmitting or exchanging communications,
'jokes', pictures, videos and other stories
including those that are harnessing,
demeaning or offensive to any individual or
group. If an employee receives an
inappropriate e-mail from another employee
he or she should report it to the immediate
superior. It is advised by the organizations
Dr.V.Vijay Durga Prasad is Reader, P.B.Siddhartha College, Vijayawada. E-Mail: vijaydurgaprasad@yahoo.com
– Dr.V.Vijay Durga Prasad
to their subordinates not to forward any
inappropriate e-mail to any employee.
Similarly, employees are initiated not to
download, transmit or exchange electronic
images or text of sexual nature or containing
ethnic slurs or any other material of a
harnessing offensive or lewd nature.
The safety and security of the people in the
workplace has become a primary concern
to organizations. Every employee must
comply with all applicable health and safety
policies. Maintaining compliance with all
local laws and internal guidelines that are
developed have to be maintained to secure
healthy work surroundings.
References
1. French, Wendell L., Cecil Bell Jr.,
"Organisation Development: Behavioural
Science Interventions for Organisation
Improvements", Englewood Cliff,
Prentice Hall, New Jersy, 1993.
2. Gardner, Howard, "Frames of Mind",
Basic Books, York, 1983.
3. Greiner, Lary, "Organisational Change
and Development", Richard Irwin Press,
1970
4. Heider, Fritz, "The Psychology of
Interpersonal Relations", John Wiley
and Sons, New York, 1958
5. Likert, Rensis, "The Human
Organisation", McGraw Hill, New York,
1967
6. Pfeffer, J., "Competitive Advantage
Through: Unleashing the Power of the
Workforce", Harvard Business School
Press, Boston, 1994
7. Weiss, David S., "High Impact HR:
Transforming Human Resources for
Competitive Advantage, John Wiley and
Sons, 1999
8. Wilkins, Alan L., "The Culture Audit: A
Tool for Understanding Organisations",
Organisational Dynamics.
H
| HRD News Letter | April 2008, Vol.24, Issue:1 34

Fascinating Facts
– K. Satyanarayana
206. New Screening Devices To Help
Combat The Spread Of SARS.
Authorities in Singapore have adapted new
devices originally developed for a military
purpose - seeing enemies in the dark - to
help combat the spread of SARS. The new
version of the disease, called infrared fever
sensing system, detects passengers' body
temperatures, spotting people with a fever -
without having to touch them or even make
them stop walking. Passengers arriving in
Singapore simply walk past a camera. The
device is in great demand by immigration
and other officials around the world.
(Source: The New York Times,
May 12, 2003)
207. Money Value Of Trees.
A recent survey of trees in a few New York
Streets concluded that the 322 trees had
an average value of $3,225 per tree. The
most expensive one a 214 year-old tulip tree
was valued at $23,069 while a 6 year-old
ginkgo was valued at $54. This is the amount
the city would have to spend to replace a
tree of the same age. This is based on the
monetary value of the services the trees
provided as pollution cleaners through
natural respiration. For example, the tulip
tree scrubs $34.33 worth of pollutants per
year. The city currently values its estimated
5 million trees at about $1,000 each and
credits them with $9.5 million a year in
antipollution benefits. But thousands of trees
are lost each year from vandalism, dog
waste, lack of water and sunlight, and blows
from cars and trucks.
Environmentalists have long argued that the
value of trees is far-reaching and obscure.
They cool the city, saving millions of dollars
in air-conditioning bills. They buffer rain
storms. Trees are working hard for us every
day. A growing tree, as part of its respiration,
takes in carbon dioxide and emits oxygen.
It also stores carbon and absorbs or catches
other gaseous and particle pollution,
including the carbon monoxide prevalent in
vehicle exhaust, and nitrogen dioxide, sulfur
dioxide and ozone. According to American
Forests, a Washington based advocacy
group estimates that the ecological value of
America's urban forests is worth $4 billion
annually.
(Source: The New York Times,
May 12,2003)
208. Strange Customs of Parsees
(Zoroastrians) in India
The Parsees of India are the followers of
the prophet Zarathustra and descendants
of Persians who took refuge in India a
millennium ago. Boatloads of them came to
the shores of India seeking the freedom to
practice their religion. As folklore has it, a
Hindu ruler sent the a full bowl of milk to
suggest there was no room for them. They
sent the milk back with a gold ring in it, to
suggest that they would enrich the land
without disturbing it. The Parsees have lived
up to their promise and built India's most
illustrious houses like Tatas, Godrejes,
Wadias, Marico and others.
They prefer to marry within their faith. The
offspring of those marrying outside their faith
are not considered Parsees. They are driven
by Zarathustra's injunction "Happiness to
him that brings happiness to others," and
have pursued philanthropy with a passion.
They founded India's first cancer hospital,
Indian Institute of Science, TIFR and many
others. Mumbai if full of the housing
colonies, hospitals and schools built by
them. They adhere to ancient rituals. They
worship fire. Mumbai has nearly 50 fire
temples. Upon death, the bodies of Parsees
have traditionally been fed to vultures, to
avoid polluting earth with burial or fire and
air with cremation. Like Jews they consider
themselves as an ethnic group and they feel
they have a duty to preserve their "genetic
distinctness."
There are approximately 75,000 Parsees in
India out of which two-thirds are in Mumbai.
About 1,000 Parsees die every year while
only 300 to 400 are born. For a decade now,
the Parsee council has been offering Rs.
1,000/- or about $21 a month until the child
turns 18 - to any Parsee family that has a
third child. About 100 families are on the
rolls. In 1901, one in 50 Parsees was over
65; a century later, one in 5 was over 65.
Parsees are educated, urbanized and
prosperous. They have been one of India's
most distinctive minorities. Other minorities
can learn a lesson or two from the way the
Parsees have contributed so much for the
prosperity of India without ever demanding
any concessions or privileges from the nation.
(Source: The New York Times,
April 23, 2003)
209. World's Largest And Deadliest
Mining Industry.
World's largest and deadliest mining industry
is in China. There was a gas explosion in
the Luling coal mine in the city of Huaibei,
420 miles south of Beijing on Tuesday the
13th May 2003.More than 100 workers were
in the mine at the time of explosion and 28
have been rescued, 63 people are killed and
23 are missing. A mine official said there
was little hope that those missing would be
found alive. About 7000 people were killed
in Chinese mine accidents last year.
(Source: The New York Times,
May 15, 2003)
213. Trans fats Are More Harmful Than
Saturated Fats.
On May 1, 2003 a San Francisco lawyer filed
against Craft Foods, the maker of Oreos,
seeking to ban its cookies as they contain
trans fats, which exist in hydrogenated or
partly hydrogenated oils found in 40 percent
of prepared foods including cookies, crackers
and microwave products and used mostly to
increase the shelf life. According to the
Institute of Medicine, trans fats increase LDL
cholesterol, the bad form that clogs arteries
causing heart diseases and other health
problems. Trans fats have been linked to high
cholesterol, heart disease and diabetes. The
chairman of the nutrition department at the
Harvard School of Public Health, says trans
fats are much more unhealthful than
saturated fats, which are listed on the labels.
Frito-Lay has taken unhealthful fats out of its
snacks like Doritos and McDonalds has
promised to reduce the level of trans fats and
saturated fats in the oil it uses for frying. For
more information on the subject please visit
www.bantransfats.com
(Source: The New York Times,
May 14, 2003)
K. Satyanarayana, Hon. Executive Director, National HRD Network. He can be reached at: ksnhrd@gmail.com
| HRD News Letter | April 2008, Vol.24, Issue:1 35

Suggested Solutions To Case
Studies - 4
Case Study
– R. Dharma Rao
"PROMOTION OF AN INTERNAL
CANDIDATE", Case Study No.17,
(published in May 2007 issue).
Question: In the prevailing situation,
what action the Dy.GM(HR) should take
to enhance the reputation of HR policies
and also be beneficial to the organization
and employees?
Answer: The M.D. gave a sanction to
Dy.GM(HR) to promote the senior most
chemist as Sr.Chemist. The company
started recently and HR policies were still
under development. Generally, a seniority
list of different category of employees would
be prepared on a particular date every year
and will be communicated to the employees.
But this is not still available. The
performance of the individuals could not be
verified as the system of performance
appraisal was not introduced till that date.
This was also in the process. To decide the
inter se seniority of Chemists by Dy.GM(HR)
was crucial and became a challenge to him.
He also knew that since all the four
candidates joined on the same day and
worked together in the same rank, the
promoted Chemist may have to face
problems initially to control the other three.
But one day or other, this has to happen
and should not be a problem. Any wrong
step at this stage may lead to
demoralization. The Dy. GM(HR) ultimately
decided that he should take a decision on
this vital matter without going back to MD
to help him find a solution. He verified all
the records including the marks obtained in
the interview by the selected four candidates
who joined as Chemists on the same day.
On his scrutiny, he noticed that the column
'technical knowledge' in the interview sheet
should be most important and should be the
criteria to decide the inter se seniority. The
marks secured by N.N.Mahato were higher
in comparison with the other three
candidates. This was his solution to the
problem. He decided ultimately to promote
Mahato and sent a confidential note to MD
through GM mentioning all these details and
obtained his approval. Then, he called all
the four Chemists in his chamber and
explained in detail the advantage of
encouraging the internal candidates for
promotion. Further, he narrated the process
of selecting a candidate for promotion from
among them and the decision on the subject
of inter se seniority. After some discussion,
he wanted their opinion that what should be
the important column in the interview mark
sheet. They were convinced that marks
obtained in the column 'technical knowledge'
should be the deciding factor for inter se
seniority. All these details were transparent.
The four Chemists were in full agreement.
Then he announced that Mahato obtained
more marks than others and was eligible for
promotion as Sr.Chemist. They all were
happy to note these details and shook hands
with Mahato for getting the higher post. The
Dy.GM(HR) then requested all others to give
Mahato their best cooperation and improve
the performance of the Chemical
Laboratory. The practice of encouraging the
internal candidates was thus established in
their organization. This would motivate other
employees to get a promotion whenever any
vacancy arises. The decision satisfied all
top executives and Mahato was promoted.
Later, he was sent to a Management
Development Programme conducted by
NITIE for 15 days. The resultant vacancy
of Chemist was advertised and an external
candidate was selected.
"PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL AND ITS
NEGATIVE FEEDBACK", Case Study
No.18, (published in June 2007 issue).
Question: In this case study, what should
Misra do now?
Answer: It was unfortunate that KM Singh,
who had no concern on his subordinates,
occupied a position of Sr.Manager (HR) in
that organization. He was a lethargic and
known procrastinator. His deliberate
decision to spoil the appraisal of Misra
surreptitiously should be condemned by all
his seniors. But how the reviewer also
endorsed KM Singh's ratings is an impish
mystery. It is generally a practice in the
organizations that line managers consult the
HR Department on a doubt whenever they
R. Dharma Rao, Head, HR, ICBM. He can be reached at: ravidharma_icbm@yahoo.co.in
fill an appraisal form as the subject is
concerned with the morale and motivation
of the employees. This case also reveals
as how a jealous person with prejudice and
malice can damage the well-established
systems of the organization. The abuse of
performance appraisal system in an
established industry by a single person can
break the chain built from bottom to top in
many years. KM Singh is a bad link in this
chain. He is an immoral and unethical
person. This person spoiled an appraisal
of his subordinate, S.D.Misra, a very sincere
and a highly dedicated employee. Misra
was ranked as an 'outstanding' employee
for the last six years. But KM Singh this
year appraised him as 'unsatisfactory'. It is
an indication to Misra that either he should
leave the company or will be told by the
company to leave. He was shocked,
frustrated and humiliated. As per his selfappraisal,
he did three exceptional jobs and
received two appreciation letters from M.D.
The first and foremost rule for rating any
employee is that his immediate superior
should be unbiased. The way in which KM
Singh finished his pending jobs including the
appraisal forms was haphazard and
disorganized. His clandestine motto should
be condemned.
The best alternative left for Misra should be
to bring to the notice of his MD by giving an
authentic letter mentioning all his
'outstanding' achievements in the past
successive years and highlighting his three
crucial jobs he undertook recently on his own
initiative. Or, he should take an appointment
with MD and narrate all his achievements.
He should not accept the ranking of KM
Singh. In fact, at the first instance, he should
meet KM Singh and put forward his point of
view to get justice, if his achievements are
all genuine.
The author does not claim that the way the
problem was dealt with is the best or the
only way of dealing with the problem.
Further, the author shall be highly obliged if
the readers send any other solutions
to these case studies to the email given
below.
H
| HRD News Letter | April 2008, Vol.24, Issue:1 36

Hyderabad Chapter Organized a CEO/HR Round Table On
HR Impact: Evaluating HR’s contribution to business success
At Hotel Katriya De Royal, Hyderabad on March 19, 2008 at 6-00PM. The
Event is followed by dinner and
was Sponsored by
National HRD Network
Overview
HR departments and HR Heads are increasingly called upon to contribute to the strategic decision making process and also to develop
HR strategies to support global business development (For eg. Manufacturing processes, new product development, cross-border
marketing strategies, transfer of technology and human capital) as all organizations are realizing the centrality of people for success of
businesses in knowledge economy. At the same time all organizations require effective HR measurement systems to evaluate HR's
contribution to the achievement of organizations locally as well as globally. Developing such measures/systems is quite a challenging
task and that is why we chose this as the focus of discussion. CEO's and HR Heads from a large number of organizations came and
shared their experiences in this interactive forum.
CEO panel consisted of Mr. Sudhir Reddy, Chairman and MD of IVRCL Infrastuctures and Projects Ltd, Mr. Sachin Gopal, COO of
Agrotech Foods Ltd. HR Panel consisted of Ms. Sheela Reddy, Group Head-HR of Maytas Properties, Mr. Naresh Jhangiani, Head-HR
of Satyam BPO and Mr Ravikant Reddy, CGM-HR of NCC Ltd. The panel discussion was moderated by Mr T Muralidharn, Chairman
TMI Network. Mr K.R.Pillai, DGM of Union Bank of India, Mumbai and Mr. Abraham, General Manager, Union Bank of India, Hyderabad
shared the dais on behalf of the sponsoring organization.
About 150 HR professionals attended the meet followed by Cocktails and dinner. The panel discussion was lively. Mr AjayChandra and
Mr Naseeruddin Ahmed did lion's share of the work for organizing this mega event. Mr M.Arjunan of Union Bank proposed vote of
thanks.
Hyderabad Chapter Programs Calender - April-May 2008
S.No Date Time Program Title Venue Speaker
1 3-Apr-08 6-00PM Meaning of Freedom and its Relevance today NHRD Network Shri. K. Satyanarayana
2 10-Apr-08 6-00PM Emotional Intelligence NHRD Network Shri V.S. Sudhakar
3 12-Apr-08 9-00AM Emotional Intelligence Workshop FAPCCI Y.Satyanarayana
4 17-Apr-08 6-00PM Employee Engagement NHRD Network Ms.Hema Jain
5 24-Apr-08 6-00PM New Economic Culture - Role for HR professionals NHRD Network Dr.Rao VBJ Chelikani
6 1-May-08 6-00PM Assertiveness Skills for Managers NHRD Network Mr. Ajay Chandra
7 8-May-08 6-00PM Performance Management Challenges in Infrastructure Industry NHRD Network Vishwanand Pattar
8 15-May-08 6-00PM Leveraging technology for Talent Sourcing NHRD Network Chennapa Naidu D
9 22-May-08 6-00PM A new role for Trade Union Leadership NHRD Network Dr. Sudarsanam Padam
10 29-May-08 6-00PM Pro-active Leadership NHRD Network Mr. Nanda Kumar
List of participants - 5th Batch Compmod
S.No. Name Organisation Designation
1 Ms.Swati Sam Apeejay Surrendra Group Deputy Manager - HR
2 Mr. Debapi Basu Apeejay Surrendra Group Deputy Manager - HR
3 Mr. Rahul Dutta CESC Ltd Manager - Employee Engagement
4 Ms. Rajrupa Majumdar CESC Ltd Assistant Manager - HR
5 "Ms.Vaishali Banerjee“" IBM Manager - HR
6 Mr.Ashok Dutt ITC Limited Vice President-Human Resources, Leaf Tobacco Division
7 Mr.Rohit V Gupta ITC Limited Manager - HR, Personal Care
8 Mr.Prakash Ranjan ITC Infotech Limited Senior Manager - Learning & Capability Building
9 Mr.Anmol Singh ITC Limited Employee Relations Manager, Hotels Division
10 Ms.Sumita Majumdar ITC Limited Manager, Corporate HR, Hotels Division
11 Mr.Jeevan Unnithan ITC Limited Assistant Manager, HR, Hotels Division
12 Mr.Atul Joshi Mahindra & Mahindra Sr.Manager - Human Resources
13 Mr Ashok Clifford Orchid chemicals & pharmaceuticals Ltd., Dy Manager HR
14 Mr.Arnab Chakraborty Spencer’s Retail Ltd., HRD
15 Mr.Abhijit Bhattacharya Spencer’s Retail Ltd., HRD
16 Mr. Q. Tauheed Tata Steel Head (Business HR), RM
| HRD News Letter | April 2008, Vol.24, Issue:1 37

Chapter News
Krishna Gubbi, Secretary, NHRD, Bangalore
AGRA
Agra Chapter News See on Page No. 28
BANGALORE
International Women’s Day Celebrations
Theme: Indian Women: Empowerment
and Achievements: Now and Further
Ahead March 15, 2008- Taj Residency,
Vijay Nagar Hall
Prof. Anuradha Mahesh, Jt. Secretary,
Bangalore Chapter delivered the Welcome
note. Later Dr.Gopal Mahapatra, President,
Bangalore Chapter shared his perspective
of Women’s Day. He mentioned that women
have been always good at multi-tasking. He
touched upon the Empowerment triangle
and the BIND model.
The Keynote address was by Mr. Dileep
Ranjekar, Program Chairman & CEO, Azim
Premji Foundation. He stated that Women’s
Day should not be celebrated as a Flavor of
the Month but that the focus on developing
women should be sustained over a period
of time. He quoted various data on
inequalities, which hindered women. He
associated development to Psychological,
Social and Economic factors. Dileep wanted
NHRD to create a framework and a forum
for dealing with Women related issues and
to celebrate women related successes.
There were two Round table discussions.
The participants were:
Ranjani Ranganath- Sr. Managing Director,
Cisco Systems
Hemalatha Mohan- Head –Operational Risk
Management– ING Vysya
Jayashree Krishna- Head – Learning
Center, Talent Quest Inc.
Nandini Ashok- GM – Facilities, Sasken
Technologies
Eliane Mathias- GM – BEL
Lynn Tarter- Director – Business Dev. –
Aperian Global
Sadiqa Peerbhoy- Author & Career
Counsellor
Sangita Singh - Wipro
Most of them mentioned that their mother’s
played an influencing and motivating role in
their lives. The participants emphasized need
for working hard, seizing opportunities,
collaboration, risk taking and learning on the
job. Also they stated that women have to think
about themselves as role models, leaders
and mentors and not just as working women.
R. Alexander, Committee Member, NHRD
gave the concluding remarks while the Vote
of Thanks was delivered by Mr.Gopal
Chapter. A Networking Lunch followed this.
NHRD Bangalore Chapter Monthly
Evening Lecture for Feb - 2008
NHRD Bangalore Chapter had organized an
evening talk on 28th February 2008 at Hotel
Chancery, Bangalore. Ms.Barbara
Anderson, a well-known Master Certified
International Coach gave a detailed
presentation on 'Coaching'. Ms.Barbara
spoke on 'the concept - the need - the
methodology and the importance of
coaching' at personal and professional life
of an Executive and the Corporate. It was a
learning session for around 100+ members
who made it a truly interactive session.
Dr.Pallab introduced the speaker and
Mr.Gopal Gubbi gave vote of thanks to all
the NHRD members.
Annual Institutional Members
H R, Subex Limited Represented by
Sanjay Paul Antony, Sr. Vice President-H R,
Jiju George, Sr. Manager - H R
Institute Of Business Mgmt & Tech
Represented by Capt. A Nagara Subba
Rao, Sr.Executive - H R and Vasantha
Lakshmi R, Programme Director
Life Individual Members
Prasad M Kumar, ED - G C D, G M R Group
Mallika Sampath, A M - H R, D L F Ltd
Francis Gonsalves, H R Leader, Sgt India
Shilpa Anna Rajan, Manager - H R, T C S
Stephen Titus, Professor, Nova Training &
Counselling Centre
Sai Babu E V S, Vice President-Wipro B P O
Chandra Shekhar M Mangalgi, GM - Onsite
H R, Alp Mgmt. Consultants
Rajarajeswari Balakrishna, Sr. Manager -
H R, Tally (India) Private Limited
Annual Individual Members
Ramya J, H R Executive, Qwest Telecom
Payel Dutta, H R Executive, Qwest Telecom
Phani Kumar V S V R, Officer - H R, BEL
Subramanya R, Officer - Raymond
Malini Lakshman, Manager - H R, Quintiles
Technologies India Pvt Ltd
Rohit Nair, Consultant, Deloitte
Rajani Ramesh, A M - H R, Mphasis
Payel Shah, Organizational Psychologist,
Inicio
Dermot Byrne, Organizational Psychologist,
Inicio
Manjula Krishnan, Trainee Executive - H R,
Reva Electric Car Gas Company Pvt Ltd
Sivaprakasn K, Executive Secretary,
Sahney Commutators Pvt Ltd
Aditi Yadav, Client Partner, Franklin Covey
Vinoda Kumari, Training Coordinator, O &
A Consulting Pvt Ltd
Sridhar M K Dr, Reader, Canara Bank
School Of Mgmnt
DELHI
See Page No. 40
HOSUR
The NHRD Hosur Chapter Monthly evening
talk was held on 04 03 2008 at Ashok
Leyland Management Development Centre.
Hon. Dean Professor Madhukar Angur from
Alliance Business School, Bangalore spoke
on "Talent Hunt and Retention - A Cahllenge
ahead ".
The speaker underlined the importance of
moving from traditional HR Management to
market driver perspective. While the
traditional management believes in
minimizing employee turnover, the need is
to influence on who leaves when. Candid
assessment of employees into three
categories namely Critical Genius (CG),
Specific Skills (SS) and Easy to Fill (EF) would
help the HR to focus on CG and SS.
Retention of employees is possible by
adequate compensation, job design, job
construction (tailor jobs according to
individuals), social ties and location etc. In
order to manage high attrition, the speaker
suggested other options like outsourcing,
focusing on recruitment, cross training
workers, simplifying and stratifying jobs. As
the speaker widely traveled, he brought out
global perspective on the subject. Around 90
people attended the meeting and interacted
with the speaker. The Alliance Business
School has sponsored the meeting and also
facilitated the Network members with dinner.
Mr. R Rajaram, Chapter President summed
up the meeting. Mr. Sathya M Parsa gave
vote of thanks.
HYDERABAD
See Page No. 37
KOLKATA
The NHRD, Kolkata Chapter felicitated the
sub committee members for the
phenomenal success of the 11th National
Summit - "India's Century: The Challenge
for Indian Business Leadership" at The Park,
Tantra on 15th Jan,08. Mr.Anand Nayak,
Regional President, NHRD and Mr.Sourav
Daspatnaik, President, Kolkata Chapter
gave away the mementos to the members.
This was followed by cocktails and dinner.
| HRD News Letter | April 2008, Vol.24, Issue:1 38

LUCKNOW
Panel discussion organised by Lucknow
Chapter saw a galaxy of corporate heads
and management experts discussing
'Organizational transformation from a
people's perspective'. The respectable panel
comprised of Shiv Kumar (CGM SBI), Jayant
Krishna (RM & principal consultant, TCS),
Prof. Archana Shukla (Prof., IIM-L) & Vijay
Sahi (President Lucknow Chapter & GM,
TOI).
Archana Shukla emphasised on the need
of "speed and innovation" which an
employee has to bring to his/her
organisation. "The two things come from the
individuals who are needed to be managed
accordingly," she said.
Shukla pointed out that there were a few
organisations which tried to challenge the
conventional methods to success. "And the
idea has actually worked," she said while
mentioning the name of a software giant
known for its search engine. "The
organisation does need to be given that kind
of flexibility to grow," she said.
She added that the employees needed to
feel empowered and have a sense of
ownership of the company in which they
were working. "Stress today is on the
horizontal links, rather than the vertical. It is
the horizontal links which bring the team
work into the picture. Something needs to
be done at the behavioural level...the
treatment level of employee. It is only then
that innovation would come," said the HRD
expert.
"Money is an important factor. And that is
surely having an impact," Kumar said. He
cited the example of SBI where a number
of executives were lured by private sector
banks on hefty packages as they were best
trained, were hardworking and honest.
"We need to retain them or else the
knowledge they had acquired over the years
would be lost," he said. The SBI CGM said
that the key to success of an organisation
was the honesty and the transparency which
the employees maintained.
Regional head of Tata Consultancy Services
(TCS), Jayant Krishna stressed on the need
of identifying oneself on the global scale.
"No one is working in isolation. In fact we
are part of a global supply chain. In the
present scenario, the world is getting flat,"
he said emphasising on the need of
identifying cross-cultural issues and
becoming sensitive towards them. All this,
said the TCS head, would come only if, "we
find that latent manager in our employee.
Only then value would be added to a
product. And product is the most important
thing in the business," he said.
Broadly, it was concluded that human
resource management is not only the
business of the HR department, but the
practice has to be there with each and every
individual of the organisation.
The event was the outcome of efforts on
the part of Himanshu Kumar(TCS) & Ujjwal
Kapoor, Chapter coordinator.
PATNA
Members of the Executive Committee
Founder President
Shri Akhaury Maheshwar Prasad
Founder Secretary
Shri Vijay Pratap Singh
Founder Treasurer
Er. Deepak Kumar Baxi
Core Committee
Dr. Gyan Shankar, Ms. Leena Singh
Mr. KK Verma
Mr. Ratnakar Misra, Coordinator.
PUNE
AGM Update
The AGM for the Pune Chapter was held
on Saturday, 15th March 08. This AGM was
important since it also marked the change
of guard for some of the key members of
the Chapter's executive team. The chapter
appointed a new President, Ms Prameela
Kalive, who is the Global HR Head of Zensar
Technologies, a leading global software
services and BPO provider. Ms Kalive has
taken over from Dr Uma Ganesh who has
ably led the Chapter as President for the
past three years. Prameela brings with her
an experience of more than 20 years which
includes a ten year long career as a missile
scientist and technologist and several
leadership portfolios in Zensar.
In addition, the members also nominated a
new Treasurer, Mr Kumendra Raheja, who
takes over from Ms Anusha Chokani. Mr
Raheja is currently with the Indira Group of
Institutes and brings with him vast
experience in the Academics. The other
members of the Executive council who will
continue in their tenure are Aman Rajabali
as the Vice President and Riya Arora as the
Secretary
Prameela presented the Chapter's plans
and agenda for the year ahead - the focus
areas being focus on the HR Student
community and HR professionals. The
presentation made by her is available on
the website.
Talk on 'Cultural Integration' By
Mr. Anniruddha Limaye On Feb 22 2008
Two instances of cultural integration -
Mergers / Acquisitions and large scale hiring
of new employees, particularly experienced
ones, either in leadership positions or as
subject matter experts. Assessing strengths
of two or more cultures that are coming
together and objectively determining what
amalgam is most suited for effectiveness in
the coming times, and then, bringing about
that cultural change or integration. How can
HR professionals play this role effectively
and proactively?
It has now become an important issue of
integrating culture in organizations due to
high attrition rate. Employees are leaving and
joining in a very short span of time. Hence,
the unique culture of an organization is
changing by obvious reasons. Institutes are
facing many problems on this issue. What
could be the model for the retention of talent
in organizations?, How should the HR people
act to retain the employees? What could be
the right strategy to understand the root
problem of HR in order to let the organizations
understand the value of participation of HRD
in the strategic decisions?
Probably we need to dive beneath the
iceberg to understand the root problem.
While merging or acquiring companies, it
becomes an important concern to for parent
companies as well as for the merged
companies to react appropriately in order
to inherit the unique culture of the
organization.
We can create an enchanting & beautiful
garden so that we must not go behind the
butterflies with a net in our hand.
Looking at all the prospects and concerns it
becomes an important task for HR
professionals to think over these problems
to sort out them quickly and efficiently.
Submitted with respect by Dinesh
Pandye.
CARTOON CORNER
Boss, I appreciate the generosity of the
management
in giving me the chance to sort out the
union strike only
on my second day. However, please tell
me what strategy
the management prefers in conflict
resolution - Competing,
Collaborating, Avoiding,
accommodating or compromising?
Col. P Deogirikar, Indore
p_deogirikar@ruchigroup.com
| HRD News Letter | April 2008, Vol.24, Issue:1 39

Managing Global Workforce
NHRDN Delhi Chapter hosted the 59 th
Board Meeting of National HRD Network
on March 1, 2007 at Crowne Plaza,
Gurgaon. The full-day event was well
attended by NHRDN Board members from
across India.
The session was convened by National
President, Mr. Aquil Busrai, which
commenced with the welcome / induction
of new members and recitation of our Code
of Conduct.
This was followed by the change of guard
of the National Secretary. The Board
unanimously ratified the selection of Dr
P.V.R Murthy, C E O, Exclusive search
recruitment consultants as the next National
Secretary.
Highlights of recent achievements and the
tasks ahead were shared with the Board.
Discussion on several agenda items
followed, as circulated by Mr. S.
Varadarajan. Sharing of highlights of
activities by various Chapters.
Delhi Chapter, represented by Vice
President, Mr. Pankaj Bansal, shared with
the Board its achievements of the past year
and also the new project launched by the
Delhi Chapter to build an e-community of
HR professionals placed globally, on the
model of Web 2.0. This innovative measure
has revolutionize the Delhi Chapter website
and created immense potential for
connectivity and networking among the HR
fraternity.
Mr. Pankaj Bansal introduced the Board with
”Young Mind Council”. This is a unique
team of young HR Professionals keen to
dedicate their time and energy to jointly
contribute for betterment of HR. This team
has been formed under the aegis of the
National HRD Network. The team is shaped
by inviting various HR professional from
across the globe to join hands.
The session was followed by lunch,
providing a good platform for interaction
amongst all present. The program was well
received by the participants and they
congratulated Delhi Chapter for its constant
innovation and creating a difference.
NHRDN Delhi Chapter’s second Special
Event of the year 2008 on the special theme
‘Managing Global workforce’ was held on
Thursday, March 13, 2008 at PHD Chamber
of Commerce & Industry, New Delhi. Started
Delhi Chapter’s News
with high tea and networking, the session
was well attended by over 200 participants
with a good blend of members of academia,
from young professionals to many eminent
Chiefs of HR. Delhi Chapter, known for its
enthusiasm and high sprit with its activities
and participation keeps proving the fact each
time, all over again.
N.S.Rajan, President, Delhi Chapter and
Human partner, E&Y commenced the event
with the welcome note and introduced Cris
Collie – CEO, Worldwide ERC and Peggy
Smith, Microsoft Corporation & Worldwide
ERC Chairman of the board of directors.
About Worldwide ERC
In his presentation, Cris Collie introduced
Worldwide ERC (erstwhile Employee
Relocation Council) to the audience. Cris
said “Just like NHRD Network, Worldwide
ERC is also a member driven non profit
organization. With over 14000 members
across the globe who are relocation
professionals and global workforce mobility
specialists. ERC is focused and concerned
with current issues and management
practices for the movement of employees
(by their employers) within the United States
and between all other countries. The
organization is headquartered in
Washington, DC.
“Worldwide ERC has 121 professionals as
Board of directors that brings the global
perspective to their programmes and
services” Said Collie. Dr. Santrupt Misra,
Director – Aditya Birla Group and Board
member – People Strong represents India
on ERC’s board. Worldwide ERC has two
key strategic objectives which are
“Educational research” and “Globalization”
Global Workforce Mobility - Microsoft’s
Approach. Talk by Peggy Smith
Peggy talked about how Microsoft India has
shown a tremendous growth in the past
decade. She also shared that till quite lately
they didn’t have any global mobility strategy.
“We wanted to have world class mobility
services, support and experiences” said
Peggy. “We needed integrated HR policies
and processes that would support our global
talent strategy and provide world class
experiences to the employees and also
managers”. As they say the cobbler son has
the worst shoes, Microsoft the worlds
leading software development company
didn’t had an integrated HR software
platform till recently.
Peggy’s presentation was followed by an
interactive questions and answers session
that brought out interesting thoughts on
global mobility challenges and enablers.
This indeed proved to be an immense
knowledge sharing and enhancing
opportunity. The program was well received
by the participants and they congratulated
Delhi chapter for its constant innovation and
creating a difference.
EmployABILITY 2008
EmployABILITY2008 Inauguration &
Presentation of Ability Awards event was
held on Saturday, Feb 23rd at Lal Chowk
theatre, Pragati Maidan, New Delhi.
The event was inaugurated by Justice Leila
Seth and was anchored by the famous actordirector
Revathy.
The session was convened by Jayshree
Raveendran, Executive Director – Ability
Foundation which commenced with the
welcome note and recitation of prayer.
The ability foundation expressed their
gratitude towards National HRD Network
Delhi Chapter for their special contribution.
Mr S. Varadarajan EVP & CHRO Quatrro-
BPO, .Pankaj Bansal, VP – Delhi Chapter
and CEO, PeopleStrong along with many
others were also awarded for their
contributing efforts in making this event a
success.
EmployABILITY JOB FAIR was
successfully conducted in New Delhi on
Sunday, 24 th Feb 08 with 50 organisations
participating in the hiring process.
EmployABILITY 2008 was jointly organized
by the Ability Foundation and CavinKare Pvt
Ltd, in association with National HRD
Network Delhi Chapter. The job fair offered
equitable employment opportunities to
qualified persons with disability. This acted
as an enabler for qualified candidates with
disabilities and provided them with a great
opportunity to connect with unbiased equal
opportunity employers and a platform to
display their job skills and a demand to be
hired on grounds of merit.
Union Minister for Finance Shri P
Chidambaram graced the occasion with his
presence and appreciated the efforts of
organizing an event with a social cause that
brings people from all walks of life together.
Mr. N S Rajan, President, National HRD
Network Delhi Chapter accompanied the
Union Minister around the Job fair.
ABILITIES MELA 2008
Business and Community Foundation (www.bcfindia.org) in association with LSN Foundation (www.lsnfoundation.org) is
organizing a Mela on 25 th , 26 th and 27 th April 2008 at the Institution of Engineers, Khairatabad to provide a common
platform for NGOs working on disability issues. Corporates/NGOs can put up information stalls. For details contact: Pooja
Purushothaman on 98661-07826 or Neelima on 97014-20456
| HRD News Letter | April 2008, Vol.24, Issue:1 40

| HRD News Letter | April 2008, Vol.24, Issue:1 41

| HRD News Letter | April 2008, Vol.24, Issue:1 42

| HRD News Letter | April 2008, Vol.24, Issue:1 43

| HRD News Letter | April 2008, Vol.24, Issue:1 44

| HRD News Letter | April 2008, Vol.24, Issue:1 45

| HRD News Letter | April 2008, Vol.24, Issue:1 46

| HRD News Letter | April 2008, Vol.24, Issue:1 47

| HRD News Letter | April 2008, Vol.24, Issue:1 48

| HRD News Letter | April 2008, Vol.24, Issue:1 49

| HRD News Letter | April 2008, Vol.24, Issue:1 50

| HRD News Letter | April 2008, Vol.24, Issue:1 51