Emerging Trends and Perspectives PDF

UNIT 16 EMERGING TRENDS AND PERSPECTIVES Structure 16.0 Objectives 16.1 Introduction 16.2 HRD for Industrial Organisation 16.3 HRD Priorities for Large Organisations: Lessons from the Past 16.4 HRD for Small Organisations 16.5 HRD for Service Sectors 16.6 Organisational Outcome...

UNIT 16 EMERGING TRENDS AND PERSPECTIVES Structure 16.0 Objectives 16.1 Introduction 16.2 HRD for Industrial Organisation 16.3 HRD Priorities for Large Organisations: Lessons from the Past 16.4 HRD for Small Organisations 16.5 HRD for Service Sectors 16.6 Organisational Outcomes of HRD Systems 16.7 Tourism : Trends in HRD 16.8 Let Us Sum Up 16.9 Clues to Answer 16.0 OBJECTIVES After reading this Unit you will be able to: sum up the issues discussed in earlier Units of this course, know about the application of these issues in various types of organisations, and understand the emerging trends in HRP and HRD in tourism industry. 16.1 INTRODUCTION This is the concluding Unit of this course. This Unit aims at integrating some of the critical learnings form the earliers units. The integration is not intended to be a summary but is intended to build on the previous Units and lead the reader into future. As previous Units have presented sufficient information on the trend of HRD practices, this Unit intends to present only the trends in perspectives and issues. The reader will get some insights into the complexities involved in effectively implementing the HRD function, the roles needed to be played by different agents in HRD and some lessons form the past for the future. HRD has become a movement in country. Ten years age hardly any organisation had HRD departments or talked about it. Today it is difficult to find organisations that employ large number of people that do not talk about HRD. Several of them even have HRD departments or HRD Managers. A few years ago HRD meant a new name for training. Today most organisations talk in terms of HRD Climate, Performance appraisals, Potential Development, Performance Counselling, Career Development, Organisation Development and the like. Thus HRD has come to stay and has become an important dimension of modern management language as well as technology. In spite of this popularisation of HRD in the last few years, success experience of HRD is limited to a few organisations and many others are yet to translate their goodwill into action. Organisations in the small scale sector have to seriously think about it and those in the service sector cannot afford to neglect it. This Unit also familarises you with HRD in various types of organisations along with the trends emerging in tourism. 200 16.2 HRD FOR INDUSTRIAL ORGANISATIONS Concern for developing employees and their competencies existed in several organisations and their top management much before the HRD departments got started and the term HRD got popularised. If organisations did not invest in their people, they would not have grown and expanded. However top management of each organisation found their own ways of developing employee competencies. Most organisations in the past focused on developing and maintaining the motivation of employee through welfare schemes, salary and perks, promotions and punishments. In the feudal atmosphere, a few of the employees always had the opportunity to be spotted and developed faster than the rest. Now-a-days organisations and their top management have recognised that HRD cannot be limited to a few employees in coverage. It is also recognised that HRD is too important be left for informal processes to take care of and that it should be a well planned activity. In a survey conducted by Rao and Abraham in 1985 it was founded that only about 32% of organisations did not have separate HRD Departments or functionaries and only 11% did not emphasize HRD in their personnel policies. The situation may be even better now. The earlier units have given details of experiences of some public and private sector organisations in introducing HRD. The following trends seem to emerge from a survey of HRD practices: 1) Many organisations recognise today that training is only instrument that initiates development and the real development in terms of acquiring new managerial and human competencies takes place on the job. 2) Mechanisms like performance appraisals, interpersonal feedback, potential development, job- rotation, OD exercises facilitate development and their utility is being recognised. Many organisations are using these mechanisms. 3) Creating a HRD culture in which employees mean what they say and are trusted, where employees are helpful to each other, where employees take initiative and mistakes are used as learning opportunities, and where problems are faced without fear and jointly is being considered more important than mechanical use of HRD instruments or systems. 4) In large organisations employing thousands of staff developing a HRD culture is being experienced as a difficult and challenging task. There are more failure than success because attitude change, value development and cultural change cannot be brought about in short periods of time. However, organisations are relentlessly pursuing. 5) Public sector undertakings have given a remarkable lead in introducing HRD systems but they have difficulties due to changes of leadership, large size and social responsibility. 6) Chief Executives, Top Management and Line Managers are becoming more aware of their role in HRD and are increasingly playing facilitating role. 7) New mechanisms and processes of HRD are being explored for part-time employee and unionised categories as their HRD needs are different than these of the Executives. 8) Sharing of experiences is being valued increasingly as indicated by the fact that several dozens of organisations are very willingly sharing their HRD experiences in the National HRD Network Conference and other forums like the Confederation of Engineering Industry, ISTD and NIPM. In spite of all these developments employee competencies are not getting developed at the same rate at which they could develop. This is because: 1) Some executives/office bearers look at anything that is initiated by the top management with suspicion and reluctance. 201 2) There is already enough cynicism in some organisation that all changes meet with failures. 3) Competent and well trained HRD staff are few and the field inset has not developed to such an extent that perceivable changes can be seen as a result of HRD work. 4) Some organisations implement HRD merely to imitate others rather than with a genuine concern to develop employees. 5) Some top managers pay only lip sympathy to HRD, are unwilling to allocate separate budget for HTD activities and blame HRD for every failure that takes place in the organisations. 16.3 HRD PRIORITIES FOR LARGE ORGANISATIONS: LESSONS FROM THE PAST Some of the characteristics of large organisations that effect the introduction and strengthening of the HRD functions include the following: Size The mere size of the organisation (e.g. in the banks, the number of officers to be covered is in several thousands and highest being the SBI with about 40,000 officers, other public sector units like SAIL has also in thousands) makes the introduction and monitoring of any sub-system difficult as any new sub-system introduced requires orienting all the employees through orientation programmes. Circulars are ineffective and employees do not have a culture of finding time to read booklets and manuals prepared by the organisation. Even two–day/three–day orientation workshops seem to influence only the ‘faithful’. Others either pay lip sympathy during the workshop and forget it later or oppose the sub-system due to their own personal frustrations and past negative experience and spread their “managerial atheism” to others in the organisation, or want all problems to be solved either by the sub-system or before the system is introduced. Geographical Spread Most of these organisation are spread out geographically all over the country making monitoring of implementation is very difficult task by a central department. Distortion in Messages The scope for rumours and distortion in communications is very high in large organisations. One bad experience somewhere in the organisation between an appraiser and appraise during review discussions is enough to provide data for rumour-mongers to exaggerate and send wrong messages alround. There is limited scope to clarify such wrong communications. Larger the organisation more the scope for negative experiences to be thrown up and in our culture negatives are shared quicker, faster and intensely. Change of Chief Executives Most of the large organisations are from the public sector. In public sector every time the Chief Executive changes there is a threat of organisational priorities changing. Quite often HRD staff wait to understand the HRD philosophy and priorities of the new Chief Executive. A lot of time and enthusiasm gets lost in the transition period as normally HRD is not the priority of most Chief Executives in their first year of office. In some cases the role of the HRD Manager itself may undergo change to suit the priorities of the Chief Executives. The above mentioned factors cannot be overlooked for the sake of HRD. Therefore, it is useful to concentrate on other ways that can be useful in strengthening HRD. Given below are some of the priority focal points for strengthening HRD. 202 Monitoring is very important A large part of HRD staffs work should be that of monitoring the implementation of HRD sub- system or mechanisms. This monitoring is not merely statistical monitoring but more of “spiritual monitoring” that requires dynamism on the part of HRD staff. For example, if a development- oriented performance appraisal system is being introduced, the HRD staff should be spending a large part of their time contacting line managers, interviewing them to find out the way they are implementing, understanding their problems, giving them guidance, helping them to do a good job and ensuring support for strengthening the implementation. Structural changes are required In large organisational a small number of HRD staff only will not be able to monitor implementation. Good monitoring involves availability of a friend, philosopher and guide in closer proximity to the implementor. For an effective implementation of a performance appraisal system, every 50 employees require someone to help them and someone who can keep reminding them of their responsibilities. Hence it is advisable to develop HRD facilitators in large number in the organisations. Managers could be developed into HRD facilitators with some minimum training. Each manager chosen as a HRD facilitator should be able to spend at least 10% to 15% of his or her time in HRD facilitation and it should be made as a part of his or her job (one of his or her key performance areas) and his or her own performance appraisal should give due weightage to the facilitation done by him or her. In addition other structural mechanisms like task forces and periodic review workshops are required. There could be department-wise/unit-wise task forcest constantly review HRD implementation. HRD Climate should be the focus rather than the HRD Mechanisms A new performance appraisal system, a skills inventory, a training policy, a career development plan, a potential development system, career planning and job-rotation plan, a new communication method etc. are all mechanisms organisations use to help employees develop and utilise their competencies. These are means to competency development which in turn is a means for organisational growth and dynamism. These should be kept in mind. Quite often mechanisms/sub- systems are pursued to an extent that the formats procedures and deadlines become more important than the spirit and climate they are expected to develop. For example percentage returning the appraisal forms or time may become more important than the extent to which the objective are achieved (role clarity, mutuality, developing a supportive climate, recognition of strengths and weaknesses etc.) and the processes followed. Similarly capacity utilization of the training institute may become a priority than improving training effectiveness and ensuring development through training. There is a constant danger of means becoming ends. The main focus of HRD as generation and improvement of HRD climate should not be forgotten. HRD mechanisms an sub-systems are instruments and instead of depending on one or a few instruments the organisation should be flexible enough to keep trying out several instruments for strengthening the HRD culture. Encourage innovations Today most organisations know performance appraisal (performance planning, analysis and development), potential appraisal, feedback and counselling, training, job-rotation, career planning and development training and OD exercises as mechanisms of development. There are not enough. Large organisations have a large scope for experimentation and innovations. There is no single way of developing people. In the last few years the HRD departments of some banks have shown a good degree of innovativeness in HRD. The manager-to-messenger and the visiting faculty experiments of SBI are examples of this. Unfortunately whenever an innovative practice is sought to be institutionalised in a large organisation problems start. In the beginning they are pursued with enthusiasm in a few places and as every one starts doing it or if every one is asked to do it, the effectiveness seem to go down. 203 Instead of more institutionalisation of innovative mechanisms and processes, the HRD staff and the top, management should encourage managers to come up with as many new ways as possible of helping employee development and also help them in implementing. HRD staff then will have scope to learn from managers. In-Company networking is essential In large organisation managers could experiment with various ways of developing human resources. One of the functions of the HRD department should be to collect these innovative practices and disseminate to other employees so that they could get inspired by these practices and in turn develop many new practices. An in-house newsletter may be one way to share. Similarly HRD staff should also try constantly to learn from the experiences of other organisations by sharing their own experiences and using the existing professional bodies like HRD Network, NIPM, ISTD etc. Decentralisation encourages experimentation Instead of controlling the HRD function from central office, it is useful to create HRD cells in very viable unit and give them autonomy to function independently. Only the minimum should be imposed on them (for example while it may be useful to have a common framework for the appraisal system scope for improvements should be provided to the various units. Or an OD intervention the central office found fit somewhere need not be imposed on every unit). The HRD staff of the operating units should have at least half of the time available to do what they see as useful and important and only the remaining time to implement centrally conceived HRD practices. Frequent get-togethers of HRD Staff is useful In large organisations with decentralised set-up mechanisms should be evolved for HRD staff and facilitators to get together frequently and exchange notes. They should keep on examining the roles they are performing and create self-renewal processes in the HRD function itself. It is useful for the HRD developments to undertake OD work for improving their own functioning. A point that should be examined in each of these get together is the way the HRD staff is spending their time. If more than 25% of their time goes in routine administration it is indicative that the HRD department is beginning to cease functioning as a change agent. Periodic surveys are useful It is advisable to make annual surveys on this instrument or a similar and make the data available to managers. Departmentwise analysis could be done and feedback given to each department. In fact the survey feedback charts on the HRD climate could be displayed by each department and departmental staff could get together to discuss methods of improving the HRD climate. Process orientation should be strengthened Where employees are encouraged to express their ideas and opinions freely, encouraged to be pr- active and somewhat risk-taking; where people are authentic and trust each other; where people try to help each other and have concern for their team and their organisation and other larger goals there HRD is likely to take place better and well. For such a culture to be generated a high degree of process sensitivity is required. Process sensitivity consists of a quick and ready recognition of various human process dynamics that occur in organisations as various employees work together to accomplish organisational goals. 204 Most of the time employees are so much concerned with accomplishing results they tend to neglect the human process means that are being adopted to achieve these goals. The leadership styles, ‘We’ feeling, initiative, team spirit, work-motivation, decision-making styles, management of mistakes, management of conflicts, goal setting, job-involvement etc. constitute human processes in organisation. Unless every organisation and its sub-systems become sensitive to these processes, they cannot be strengthened. HRD managers need to develop such process-orientation in managers so that HRD implementation is facilitated. There are two pre-conditions which are essential for effective implementation of the HRD function. These are “top management commitment” to HRD and “HRD staffs dynamism and personal example”. Without these two no HRD will take place in any organisation. The top management should believe in HRD and communicate their belief in HRD by providing the necessary support to HRD staff. The support needed is not merely iin terms of budget and staffing of HRD department but also in terms of communicating to managers the importance of HRD, releasing their time for HRD and making demand on them to develop their subordinates. The HRD departments should practice themselves what they expect other managers to do. They should have a high degree of initiative dynamism and creativity. When these two pre-conditions are met and if the priorities outlined in this paper can be taken up the HRD dream is likely to be fulfilled. 16.4 HRD FOR SMALL ORGANISATIONS Developing competencies of employees is very much needed in the small scale sector. Setting up a small scale industry is relatively easy for an enterprising individual. However, managing it well and making it grew is much more difficult. There is some research evidence to suggest that small scale entrepreneurs who fail to make a mark so because they fail to change or develop themselves and their competencies with changing needs of their enterprise. Entrepreneurs normally have a high degree of perseverance, risk-taking achievement/business motivation, self-respect, confidence and a need for independence. Along with these they also have a tendency to work hard, take personal responsibility for everything and a preference for doing most things themselves. As a result of working hard from conception till the time the manufacturing activity beings they become workaholics. One of the unintended consequences of this is their failure to let others in the organisation take personal responsibility, experience feelings of contribution and success. Thus seen the employees in a small enterprise become dependent on the owner and work only out of loyalty to him or her and fail to enhance their own competencies or share burden. Failure to develop employee competencies is what is the result of lack of delegation and the concentration of all critical decisions and activities in the hands of the owner-entrepreneur. Thus entrepreneurs soon become susceptible to everworking, imitation, stress, labour problems etc. If small scale entrepreneurs have to succeed they should to learn to delegate, learn to identify a few strategic individuals from among those they employ and develop them as their second and third line in command. The owner-entrepreneur should identify his or her own competencies and keep one or two of the key functions like the diversification and expansion or finance or marketing or production or personnel and train others to handle the rest. Sometimes it is pitiful to delegate and such times the entrepreneurs may have to examine himself or herself and his or her interpersonal trust and may need to cultivate trusting some of his or her subordinates. Owner entrepreneurs of small scale enterprises should also spend considerable time sharing their plans and vision of the enterprise with their employees. Periodic meeting with employees listening to them and their problems, communicating to them the problems and difficulties of the enterprise etc. may help generate a feeling of belonging to the organisation and get more commitment and loyalty form the employees. 205 In addition, the owner-entrepreneur should individually interact with as many, employees as possible. Without having to use any elaborate formal performance appraisal, he or she should discuss with each individual about his role, performance, strengths, weaknesses, aspirations and hopes, opportunities for growth, developmental needs, satisfaction etc. at last once a year or more. It is worthwhile for small entrepreneurs to keep a small budget for employee development and motivation purposes. He or she could make this budget available for a team or committee of employees and encourage them to undertake HRD activities. These may include training, field visits, guest lectures, picnics, company day celebrations, counselling services for school going children of employees, awards and the like. Small enterprises offer ample scope for developing employee competencies in such a way that the impact of HRD can be experienced in a short time. The owner-entrepreneur usually is the HRD manager in a small enterprise and, therefore, the chances of positive outcomes are high. I strongly urge the small scale entrepreneur in and around this city to get together for a day and discuss about the HRD needs and strategies for them. It is quite possible that there is a lot they can learn from each other in this meeting itself. Check Your Progress–1 1) Mention the trends that emerge from the survey done by Rao and Abraham. ………………………………………………………………………………………………….. ………………………………………………………………………………………………….. ………………………………………………………………………………………………….. ………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 2) Write an essay on HRD in small organisations. ………………………………………………………………………………………………….. ………………………………………………………………………………………………….. ………………………………………………………………………………………………….. ………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 16.5 HRD FOR SERVICE SECTORS HRD is most needed in sectors like Tourism, Health and other services. It is also most neglected in these sectors. In these sectors the HRD activity is limited to training. Even the training is not done enough both qualitatively and quantitatively. The fact that schools, and colleges and universities have practically no HRD budget is an indication of the low importance given to HRD. The entire country has only one National Institute to train managers in Education and even this Institute does not have sufficient faculty strength and they are merely involved in training. Some is the case with the Health sector. The recent efforts by the Central Government to train Bureaucrats and Politicians is a welcome step in HRD. The services sector has something to learn from industry. If they used the experience available from industry the new appraisal system designed for IAS officers would have been more effective. In the tourism sector, although the larger organisations and hotel chains have HRD departments, the smaller organisations usually don’t have HRD. Tourism industry should understand that HRD 206 is vital since tourism is more about proper and effective development of human resource, much more than in case of any other industry. A few suggestions are given below to initiate and strengthen HRD in services sector: 1) Every institution/department should be treated as an independent unit for HRD purposes. Separate financial allocations for HRD should be built into the budgets of these institutions. 2) The service sector institutions/departments should be encouraged to plan their own activities every year including the HRD activities. 3) New competencies to handle the HRD function should be developed among these institutions/departments at appropriate levels (institutional, district or state levels). 4) Service sector should explore the use of various mechanisms in developing service and managerial competencies of their staff. 5) Employee orientation programmes should be planned to make them understand the need and scope of HRD. This will ensure employee co-operation for developing HRD plans. 16.6 ORGANISATIONAL OUTCOMES OF HRD SYSTEMS An executive of a company that has introduced HRD system a few years ago remarked to a HRDD consultant, “your HRD had very little impact in my company. Look at my case I have not been promoted so far. Only those who butter the boss continue getting promotions and HRD does nothing about it”. Another executive asked a consultant once, “Tell me Sir, those companies that are using HRD, are they doing better than those that don’t use HRD? How are their balance sheets?”. All these concerns and questions are indicative of high expectations managers have from a new management system like HRD. In fact, whenever a new management concept, theory or technique starts getting popular and talked about, we have a tendency to look for solutions to all our organisational problems in that. It happened with PERT, MICS, MBO, Sensitivity Training, TA, etc. and it is happening now with HRD, computers, Japanese Management and so on. We treat them as Pansecea for all ills. It is this tendency on the part of our enthusiastic executives and top management that kills the utility of the concept, theory, practice or technique in spite of its inner worth. These expectations go to the extent that Chief Executive of some companies want “results” on parameters that can be shown on the balance sheets. In a year or two (some cannot even wait that long) if “results” are not good the manager in-charge of the new system/practice has to carry all the curse and criticism and soon the system may be discontinued or at least put in cold storage. This is the fate most management practices that found way into our organisations have met. In the more fortunate organisations where the practices continues under the leadership of persistent and perceptive top management, those systems are continuously under fire by the managers who are supposed to implement them. For example, the budgeting system in some companies where it is intended to be bottom up but turns out to be top down (partly due to top managements ‘style’ and partly due to line managers dependence or incompetence). One can visualise very clearly HRD meeting the same fate in the years to come. Comments like those cited above made by executive of some organisations are indicative of this possibility. To some extent this can be prevented if both the top management and line managers understand what is involved in practicing or implementing a particular management system, concept or method, 207 what it can achieve, what is cannot and become sensitive to the less visible good it can bring to the organisation in terms that our balance sheets do not recognise. HRD system and such human systems are highly vulnerable to be put in cold storage due to the slow and less visible changes they aim at bringing in organisations. HRDS (Human Resources Development System) aims at creating mechanisms and processes in organisations to continuously develop the competencies of employees so that they can perform their present jobs well, equipped to perform future roles the changing organisation may demand and thus contribute to organisational vitality and growth. HRDS assumes that development of employee competencies is a continuously process and most it should take place on the job in the workplace. HRD Systems assume that higher level competencies like managerial skills, leadership, team development, management of employee initiative etc. could be developed mostly, on-the-job. There is no perfection/saturation point in acquiring these competencies and these need to be acquired continuously. These can be acquired by employees provided the psychological climate in the organisation is conducive to learning these. In order to develop such complex competencies in executives, HRD Systems aim at creating a conducive organisational environment and positive human processes. Performance appraisals, counselling, task forces, work teams, quality circles, rewards, training programmes, career development plans, OD exercises, job enrichment programmes etc. are used as instruments to develop human competencies. In order to get synergistic effects, these are used in a planned way as a system (hence HRD system!). One can list the following as the possible outcomes of HRDS when it is implemented patiently over a reasonable period of time. 1) Employees in the organisation should start taking more initiative (and become more pro- active). 2) The employees should be able to solve problems on their own and refer them less frequently to higher levels. 3) There should be more team spirit and collaboration. 4) There should be a stronger identification with the organisation and increased involvement in work. 5) There should be more and more creative ideas coming from employees with an increase in innovativeness at various levels. 6) The top management should become more sensitive to the problems and processes due to increased openness in communications. 7) People feel motivated to work and contribute as these are recognised and rewarded whenever possible by the top management. 8) Employees becomes more prepared to face any challenges or crisis situation the organisation faces as they have competencies to handle the game. When all these happen the organisation is likely to grow in size, profits, vitality, crisis management competence etc. Thus HRDS may lead over a long period of time to things that can be shown in the balance sheet. How long is this period is very difficult to answer. For some organisations it may take a very long period (as much as 15 to 20 years) to achieve this because human process changes are involved. For some other organisations a five-year period may be sufficient to trigger of change. The size of the organisation, its existing culture, the strength of the traditions followed in that company, their preparedness for change, top management’s commitment, line manager’s 208 maturity, the environmental turbulances (a significant crisis created by the environment can put the organisation out of gear and put HRD processes in cold storage due to fire fighting operations) etc. determine the effectiveness of HRD systems and the period over which such effectiveness can be observed. Some times when enlightened organisations that already have good HRD processes adopt HRD Systems change may not be easily visible. This is because the organisation already has vitality and HRD is helping it to maintain that and add in small increments that may not be easily noticeable. Some times when moderately conservative organisations use HRD Systems change could be noticed faster and in some others if may be slowly if employees have been too conservative. It must be realised that success or failure of HRD should be measured in terms of parameters like those mentioned above and not simply in terms of complaints made by managers about the HRD System of figures in the balance sheet. Unfortunately the top management of very few organisations are willing to use these indicators. Even in these few that are willing to use these indicators, measurement and consequent demonstrability of changes in these dimensions become very difficult. For example how can the HRD manager demonstrate to the top management that as a result of the new HRD processes followed in that company managers are taking more initiative than before, collaborating more, generating new ideas solving problems at their own level, more involved in their jobs etc. If uses Questionnaires, finally one is told it is “academic research” and top management wants “concrete results”. If he or she gives instances, he or she is told “but these are some instances and these people are initiative takers any way form the beginning”. If he or she asks managers to speak out, the human tendency is normally to speak loudly about “what good things are not taking place in the company” rather than “what good things are taking place” or alternately to credit themselves for all good things and discredit the systems for all bad things. For example, in one organisation some time after introducing an open appraisal system a Questionnaire survey was conducted. About 45% of the executives felt that the communication and understanding between them and their bosses improved. Another 50% or so reported no change. But about 5% reported some deterioration in relationships due to poor counselling skills of some senior executives. The Questionnaire study had to be nearly ignored by the top management as some among the 5% having disturbed relationships started accusing the new system and sending complaints to top management. In another organisation a sizeable number of line managers did not take the system seriously and the top management started pulling up the HRD department alone instead of pulling up both the HRD staff and line managers. Thus in a number of ways HRD could be in trouble like many other management systems. Therefore, it is important for the top management to keep the purpose of HRD in mind and evaluate its impact in terms of these purposes. The ideal situation would be when the Balance Sheets of companies go beyond financial statements and include human resource statements. This complex change may not take place for year to come. Therefore, our organisations should think of preparing Human Resources Accounting report giving various details of its human resources competencies, utilisation, needs, deficiencies, morale, motivation, team work, organisational health, stress levels, etc. annually. These could be used as internal documents for human resources planning, development and administration decisions. These reports should be presented to the Boards and should be discussed and decisions taken every year to improve situation. The HRD departments should undertake this task. Unless this is done HRD and such other systems aiming at human processes will find it difficult to proceed. 209 16.7 TOURISM : TRENDS IN HRD It is needless to emphasise again the importance of HRP and HRD in tourism. Only those organisations will be able to survive in this century which provide quality services and exceptionally good customer care. All those organisations who are not for quick gains and intend to carry their business operations in this sector for a long duration have not only understood the relevance of HRP and HRD but have started making serious efforts in this regard. V.S. Mahesh’s paper on Human Resource Planning and Development : A Focus on Service Excellence, whereby he discussed at great length the concept of Moments of Truth (TS-3) is in itself a sample of the kind of attention being paid to HRD. Mahesh has clearly stated that “if the expectations of management for particular front line staff are positive, the likelyhood of this expectation (employees doing their jobs correctly though aware that the management is most unlikely to be able to see or hear them) being met will be increased”. Gail Cook Johnson in a research pointed out that the companies which were termed as service leaders had the key characteristic of application of the principle of empowerment to all employees. According to her “empowerment is manifest in the way that companies : are highly focussed and consistent in everything they do and say in relation to employees, have managers who communicate with employees, facilitate, rather than regulate, their employees’ response to customers, solicit employee feedback about how they can do things better, stress the importance of teamwork at each level of the organisation, and plan carefully the organisation’s recruitment and training needs”. Further she has mentioned that service leaders can be recognised with following characteristics: 1) Their unfailing commitment to service principles 2) Their investments in people to ensure staffing competence 3) A management philosophy which stresses communication, a pro-active orientation and employee feedback, and 4) A dedication to teamwork. Similarly, Sarah Mansfield stresses on the importance of customer care and this according to her involves everyone within the organisation. She places lot of emphasis on taking care of the staff unlike many organisations which look first to the customer. According to her, “improving the experience of the staff encourages a better service and a better experience for customer. More customers are obtained thereby improving the climate in which management and staff work. Investment and greater professionalism follow success and the cycle of achievement is reinforced”. Hence, “care for your staff and they will care for your customers”. Eddie Brogan and Roy C Wood, keeping in view the experience of the Scottish tourism industry have observed that, “greater attention to human resource function is forthcoming than has hitherto been the case, because of corporations’ realisation that training, development and labour retention can help attain competitive advantage’’. No doubt, that with a better trained labour force to care for the customer, the company will definitely have an edge above others providing similar services. E. Brogan has emphasised that a training culture has to be developed within an organisation and this needs a major effort because mutual trust has to be developed between trainees and the industry. Well-formulated training programmes are needed and one cannot afford to leave out any 210 segment in this regard. The employees even ought to be trained about the concepts of sustainable or responsible tourism. The government or the local bodies at many destinations are going ahead for training even those employees who are in the informal sector. E. Inskeep in a study on the Training for Tourism and Developing Countries has cited examples from Fiji where special training programmes were organised for retailers who catered to tourists by selling handicraft goods. Countries like Ethiopia and Indonesia have also had similar programmes in their countries for training artisans, performing artists and even traditional farmers. One must remember here that dance, drama, music, folk culture, etc. are all a part of the tourism products and services and hence they are to be taken care of. The National Tourism Organisations, in many countries, have adopted management development programmes for their senior officers along with training programmes for their employees. Today, more and more themes are being added in the training programmes. Guest-host relationships, behavioural patterns and expectations, fluency in foreign languages and highly specialised training for emerging new forms of special tourism are some of these themes that have been incorporated. Preservation, conservation, maintaining the authenticity are other aspects that are applied during the training programmes. A more recent trend in HRD in tourism is that of mentoring. Formal mentoring has been described as the state-of-the-art in tourism education by L.C. Cameron and D. Harvey. Though informal mentoring has been there for long, right from the days of Homer, formal mentoring is a recent phenomena. Kram defined mentoring as “a relationship between a young, adult and an older, more experienced adult that helps the younger individual learn to navigate in the adult work and the work world”. According to Bowen mentoring is, “the process which occurs when a senior person in terms of age and experience (the mentor) undertakes to provide information, advice and support to a junior person (the protégé) in a relationsbip lasting over an extended period of time, enmarked by substantial emotional commitment on the part of both parties”. Cameron and Harvey mentioned that, “mentoring is a means by which a senior and more experienced individual acts as a facilitator of self-education and learning to a more junior member of staff”. According to them, “this state-of-the-art process of formal mentoring is recommended in situations where students obtain the benefits of hands-on work experience at the same time as they are pursuing their tertiary studies. The mentoring process establishes a support system in which the student (protégé) is matched with and supported by a senior employee (mentor) who has extensive organisational knowledge and a high level of aptitude and work-related skills, as well as the personality and motivation to assist the trainee not only to attain the greatest possible benefit from their university or college study but also to utilise this in their own desire to learn through work experience”. According to them effective mentoring can overcome many cultural gaps in the tourism and hospitality industry and the mentor ensures that “the student has the opportunity to put what they are learning in theory into practice in the work environment”. They believe that mentoring in tourism can be utilised for short developmental courses also. They believe that “the mentoring process also adds to the organisation’ stability as mentors impart the norms of the organisation to new individuals, thus promoting a cooperative rather than competitive relationship”. Of course, the mentor and the protégé must have certain characteristics in order to work in a relationship of mutual trust. Though considerable literature has started emerging on human resources planning and development in the field of tourism, still more research, creativity and innovation are required in this area and the HRD has to keep pace with the changing fashion, trends and demands in tourism. 211 Check Your Progress–2 1) Mention the changes that are taking place in HRD in the service sectors. ………………………………………………………………………………………………….. ………………………………………………………………………………………………….. ………………………………………………………………………………………………….. ………………………………………………………………………………………………….. ………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 2) What do you understand by mentoring? How is it useful in tourism. ………………………………………………………………………………………………….. ………………………………………………………………………………………………….. ………………………………………………………………………………………………….. ………………………………………………………………………………………………….. ………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 16.8 LET US SUM UP This Unit gave you an overview of the emerging trends and perspectives in human resoruces planning and development keeping in view the industrial organisation and the priorities for large and small organisations. It also discussed the HRD in the service sector and familiarised you with the outcomes of HRD systems in certain areas. Lastly, certain trends in HRD in the tourism sector were mentioned keeping in view the nature of the tourism industry. Movements of truth, caring for your employees, mentoring and the need for training in the informal sector of tourism all go a long way in providing better services to the tourists and bringing a brand image not only for the service providing organisations but also to the destination itself. It will not be out of context to mention here that a continuous harmonious relationship is to be maintained between the various sectors of the tourism industry and the training institutions. Of late the distance learning mode is also being effectively used to train human resources in far off and remote regions for providing tourism services. The IGNOU’s distance learning programmes are an example in this regard. 16.9 CLUES TO ANSWERS Check Your Progress–1 1) Read Sec.16.2 for your answer. 2) See Sec.16.4. Check Your Progress–2 1) See Sec.16.5. 2) Base your answer on Sec.16.7. 212