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To My Father & Mother

Late Mr. Wolvin de Silva &

Mrs. K. de Z. Wijeratne de Silva

To whom I shall remain indebted for setting the foundation on which this

work is based.

Human talents ManagementBy

Jayadeva de Silva

Contents

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FOREWORD 7

HUMAN TALENTS MANAGEMENT 11

QUALITY IS IN PEOPLE 20

Leadership for Quality 22

Customer Perception 24

Employee Involvement 25

Attitudes on Quality 28

Customer Service 29

Customer care 33

COMMON REASONS FOR NON-PERFORMANCE 41

COUNSELLING AS A METHOD TO UNDERSTAND YOUR EMPLOYEES 47

WHY PEOPLE STAY AWAY FROM WORK 57‘The Bored Absentee’ 59‘The Immature Absentee’ 60‘The Frustrated Absentee’ 61‘The Avenging Absentee’ 62

MANPOWER SHORTAGE? (WITHIN AN ORGANISATION) HERE’S A WAY OUT 67

Symptoms of the problem 67

A solution from within? 68

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Redeployment; A neglected area 70Transfer of work 71What you can 71

HUMAN RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT FOR SMALL & MEDIUM SCALE INDUSTRY IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR 75

PRINCIPLES FOR HUMAN TALENTS MANAGEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT 95

MILITARY LESSONS FOR BUSINESS MANAGERS 103

Influence of the Rulers in the Government 106

The Principle of Detailed Planning 109

Mission 110

Values 112

Choice of Battle Ground 113

The Principle of Concentration of Forces & the Need to Attack122

Swiftness in Execution of Plans 124

Deceptiveness in Actions & Strategies 126

Anticipation of the Enemy’s Reaction and Changes in Environment 127

Planning for Victory & Combat Readiness 127

ANYWAY*... 133

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“A VERY GOOD MOTIVATION FOR ONESELF” 137

RULES OF HUMAN RELATIONS 141

FUTURE OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT 145

MANAGEMENT SKILLS CHECKLIST 157

HOW TO IDENTIFY GOOD MANAGEMENT POTENTIAL169

EXTRAS 191

“SYNOPPOR” – A New Thinking Tool to Discover Opportunities 191

Common Training Terms 193

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Foreword

This book is a collection of thoughts on some very important issues on management. During my

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career, I have trained thousands of people over the last two decades. Many whom I trained requested me to compile a book that could be used for reference. I have therefore decided to publish some selected works on mine under the theme Human Talents Management. This book is aimed at practising business managers & students of management.

Any accomplishment requires the effort of many people and this work is not different. I thank my family Ranjika, Ranga & Nilu and on time my assistants Ravi Rajasinghe & Hiranthi.

I am also grateful to Bradley, Preethi, Dulin and Vajin for the assistance rendered.

My thanks are due to the publisher…

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Human Talents Management

A new concept of leadership is in the making. Successful Companies have already adopted the idea that Leadership is The Art of Managing peoples’ talents and not just getting things done.

The expression Human Resources is misleading and dangerous “People are not resources and resent being treated as such” according to this Concept. They are not pieces of Equipment to move around according to needs Contrary to what some Managers claim, people are not “ Human capital”!

Employee’s expectations have drastically changed over the last few years due to more knowledge-based business, social transformations and economic evolution. New psychological needs are evolving inline with the new profile of people entering the workforce. New employees want:

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(1) To Know more about what is happening in the organisation. Who is doing what? New Objectives? New Priorities? New Strategies? Threats and problems?

(2) To Understand why leaders have made decisions? Why not another decision? What is behind the decision? What are the implications of the decision made?

(3) To Contribute their own ideas and ability. What could be tomorrow?

(4) To Feel Important and have a meaningful role to play within the company. Who am I within the organisation? Do I count? Am I receiving the recognition and respect that I desire? Do I have a fair chance to grow and develop as a person? Effective leaders are looking at practical Ways to maximise the release of individual, team and company talents. The Leader is becoming a nurturer of talents, a catalyst

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in search of Synergy. People are not resources. They have resources. That is not quite the same thing, as the table below illustrate.

Table 1: Human Talents Management (HTM) vs. Human Resources Management (HRM)

Basic Assumption

Managing Human Resources

Managing People’s Talents

People are an important asset that the Company must use to the fullest.

They are resources. Human Resources Planing is Critical.

People have professional talents. They are not resources. They have resources i.e.: Knowledge, Skills. Experience. The release of individual talents is vital to both personal fulfilment and organisational success.

Role Of The Leader

Set Objectives, appraise people’s

Create the right environment so that

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performance on a factual basis and provide the right recognition to the right people- MBO

people can perform at the highest level. The leader channels people’s energy constructively. He cares and shows it. How to understand people.

Leadership How to recruit the right people.

How to appraise People.

How to promote effectively.

How to support/Encourage. How to manage job assignments so that people can perform and grow to their potential.

How to listen and how to be understood

Key Success Factors For Tomorrow’s Leaders Will Be

(1) Behaviour Flexibility (2) Mental Innovation(3) People Orientation

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Behaviour Flexibility

Behaviour Flexibility Effective Leaders are extremely sensitive to their environment and adjust (rapidly) to its changes. Watching them at work, we can say that it is critical for the Leaders of 90s to learn how to learn.

Do what you think is right in a situation

Observe the impact of your behaviour on people (Collaborators, Bossed, Customers….)

Maintain your behaviour if you get what you want. Try something else if you don’t.

Mental Innovation

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The ability to interpret reality in original and unique ways is becoming more and more pressing for corporate Leaders. They are learning that everything is defined and too often, artificially limited by “Mental Programming”.

Nothing is fully known or fixed. Everything is perceived through a Human Mind programmed by education, experience and training. Human mind can explain and control things meaningfully, however some mental constructions are more effective than others. Different situations require different mind reactions. Mental versatility is therefore important.

Be aware of how you construct things in your mind

Expand your repertoire of mental constructions. Try out new ways to explain things. Promote a mind expansion process among your people.

Use the mental Constructions, which are most appropriate for business situations.

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People Orientation

It is amazing how ineffective Leaders are at tapping individual talents within their organisations. Many employees complain bitterly not only about how their Companies have misused their Professional Skills, but also about managers who “do almost everything to make sure that employees do not perform to the fullest of their talents “! It is almost as if leaders are afraid of giving their staff a fair opportunity to perform. Many Leaders have apparently not yet learnt that their employees are frequently working far below Capacity. They do not realise that an employees success is also their own. Employees whose expectations are not met withdraw and star to invest their time, energy and skills outside the organisation. This may be healthy for the individual but not for the organisation.

Care about your people and show them that you as a

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Leader, are truly interested in what they do, how they think and feel, Be honest, Manipulation may succeed in the short term, but is inevitably discovered and resented.

Know their Professional talents and give them a chance to perform at their highest level.

Expect a lot from them and provide the support they need to work well and grow on the job.

Conclusion

Managing talents is not the same as Managing Resources. People or human beings With feelings, ambitions and thought power, The effective leaders will care about people’s talents, adjust in a flexible way to various corporate as well as market demands and promote an organisational climate which tolerates or rather

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encourages a variety of mental styles.

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2Quality Is In People

This paper tries to highlight that Quality and the customer care are primarily matters of attitude and fall within the scope of Human Relations. It takes precision,

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patience and power to steer an aircraft in the opposite direction The same is true of any attempt to change hardened prevailing work attitudes. Apart from massive training and development effort a very strong corporate will to make hard decisions and supreme sacrifices, is required for attainment of 99.9997% Quality which will delight customers.

Today’s customers are demanding more from suppliers. The key differentiator between successful companies and their competitors will be quality.Winning in the new market place requires finding a way to differentiate yourself from competitors, and competitive differentiation is not just a question of providing the right products or having the right strategy. It also means paying closer attention to customer care. In the long run,people simply will not buy from companies that are not prepared to go that “extra mile” in terms of looking after their customers. Then the business that pays attention to quality, service

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and value is going to delight customers,who in turn will ensure that business remain successful. In this paper we will examine the people factor in promoting a Total Quality Culture within an organisation.

Leadership for Quality

Many companies both local and foreign however, are not satisfied with the pay back in their quality improvement efforts. We feel that the creation of a quality culture encompassingthe total organisation requires a revolutionary change. In prevailing work attitude, Surveys among various categories of employees reveal that many people are trapped in their jobs. Could we not, therefore, channel all that concern into quality improvement and make it a positive business process? Great companies who have great names acknowledge that they have great products but more importantly they have great people.

“We strive to give our best to the customer through the quality and

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reliability of our goods and services. Perfection is not easy, but we believe in setting high standards and we expect and demand from all employees superior performance and innovative qualities.We recognise, appreciate and reward a job well done by people who take pride in working for us” So states the business philosophy one of leading Groups companies in Sri Lanka.

In a time of turbulence and uncertainty, we must be able to take instant action on the front line. But to support such action, taken at the front, everyone must have a clear understanding about what the organisation is trying to achieve. Effective visions are aimed at empowering our own people first. Customer second. The first task of the vision is to call forth the best from the company’s own people. Effective vision whilst honouring the past prepares for the future. Effective visions statements are clear, challenging and are about excellence. Effective visions make sense in the turbulent

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world. Effective visions are lived in detail not broad strokes.

Customer Perception

Such Quantum steps of improvements can be obtained only if they can get the organisation to look at the issues in totally new ways, applying creative skills. Tomorrow’s winner must be entrepreneurial as a habit and will have to continually seek improvements in their ability to serve their customers.

Quality is not only for up market products and suppliers who can charge accordingly. Quality can be built in to any business or service, whatever segment of the market has been chosen as the target. It’s a question of meeting the customers’ expectations and then giving just a little bit more. As an example, take two hopper boutiques. Both serve the same range of food, both provide a few tables for customers wanting to eat at the premises, and both do most

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of their trade in takeaways. In terms of quality, they could differ on:

a) The freshness of their hoppers.

b) The oil, flour and coconut milk they use for preparation.

c) The extent to which they can offer customers freshly baked hoppers rather than food that has been kept for a long time

d) The courtesy and efficiency of their service.

e) The cleanliness of their surroundings.

f) The little extras that they provide, such as a paper serviette with takeaways, or a choice of sambols.

Employee Involvement Goodyear, an American Company, is reported to have introduced an employee suggestion scheme under the name “Decentralised Idea generation” and they have

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introduced the term “Associate” as a substitute for employees.

Quality is certainly about manufacturing a product that people can depend on every time they reach for it. But according to Donald R Kellogh President of Coca-Cola, it is more than that. Quality, he says, is a way of life that must involve every employee every day.

We know that quality improvement is about change. Which change you create fear and anxiety. To manage change and make it acceptable one has to build an atmosphere of trust and self-confidence. In October 1887, William Cooper Proctor, grandson of the founder of Proctor and Gamble, introducing a profit sharing plan stressed the core values of their business as follows:

“The first job we have is to turnout quality merchandise that consumers will buy and keep on buying. If we produce it efficiently and economically we will earn a profit in which you

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will share. But the profits can’t be distributed unless they are earned and the company must take care of its equipment, expand normally, remain in a sound fiscal position and part of the earnings must be ploughed back into the business”. It is clear from the foregoing mat.

Leaders of the best companies profoundly believe in and promote the core values of customer-focused quality. Quality has been, and will, remain the key management imperative. Leaders see quality as the heart of the business. It is known that the rate of progress is slow in many Total Quality Management (TQM) Programmers. Leaders, however, could set demanding goals. Asia Brown Boveri’s (ABB) ’10 up Programme’ is an example. This plan calls for 50% improvement in 10 key areas each year in all business.

All this amounts to being committed to meeting the expectations of their clientele, all the time, and then going further. Quality doesn’t

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just happen. It has to be planned for and built into the way an organisation operates. This means that each person must be clear about what is expected of him or her and what they have to do to achieve it. Management by Objectives (MBO) could be used very effectively in this regard. Quality will only remain at a constantly high level if the organisation is proactive rather than reactive. This means that the emphasis must be on thinking ahead and on preventing problems from arising in the first place. Organisations need to develop ways of working that make these happen.

Attitudes on Quality

Maintaining high standards in quality depends on the attitudes of everyone involved. Standards will slip if mistakes and lapses are accepted as inevitable. The positive alternative is to do things right the first time and every time. However, if the occasional lapse does happen, then there should be a positive way of

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dealing with it so that people learn from the mistake, rather than be blamed for it. This means:

Creating an atmosphere in which the people concerned are willing to admit that something is wrong.

Using it as an opportunity to review procedures etc. to prevent it happening again.

Only under such conditions, much talked about quality circles can function. Making quality a reality depends on getting the right mix of Attitude, Skills, Communication Management and Expectations. Each factor should be related closely to the other and none can be considered in isolation.

Customer Service

In order to provide total quality, it is very important that we pay special attention to customer

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service and customer care. Training of employees has assumed much importance in this sphere. There are some key elements crucial to the success of Customer Service Training. They are as follows:

a) Training must be tied to a complete programme. Where Company wide Total Quality Concept (CWTQC) is practised, customer service could be linked to that process, as already stated above.

b) Commitment of the top management is essential. Senior Managers too should participate in training sessions.

c) Customer Service People should have freedom within standards. They need to be trained to pay attention to standards, and also to take the initiative to provide services not specified in the standards.

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d) Service guarantees back-up customer service training and reinforce employee commitment to service standards. Employees will then know that unsatisfactory service has immediate consequences. Service guarantees send a message to customers that the employees are determined to provide quality service.

d) Use of advertising to back up service training and reinforce employee commitment to service standards. Employee will then know that unsatisfactory service has immediate consequences. Service guarantees send a message to customers that the employees are determined to provide quality service.

e) Use of advertising to back up service training enhances the employee’s pride in their work. Very often it

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reinforces the message learned in training sessions that service counts. It also gives employees a public image to live up to.

f) Monitoring of service quality should be undertaken as a feedback mechanism. Employees should know what they are doing wrong. The company can measure the compliance by employees with the service standards. However, providing consistent good quality service means that a customer must perceive something pleasant happening every time he approaches the company.

g) It must be borne in mind that many service skills are simply not trainable. You can teach a person to say, but not how to say it. You can teach a procedure for handling a complaint, but not the attitude that will satisfy the customer and

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bring that person back. To get superior customer service, it is crucial to have the right people.

The following are some of the proven techniques for Customer Service Training:

a) Film & Video for Modellingb) Group Discussionc) Competitor Observationd) Job Rotatione) Role Play f) Video or Audio Feedbackg) Mass Audience Persuasionh) Stress Training

Customer care

Customer care could be judged only in terms of the feeling of the customer. If the customer is not satisfied with the service he or she has received then that service was not good. The writer is of the view that this is the single most important truth about customer

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care. It does not matter how hard one has tried or how much one has done. The only judgement that counts is that of the customer.

The other important factor about customer care is that good customer care has to come as a surprise! If the customers get what they were expecting, they will not be impressed. After all they expected to get that. If they get less than what they expected, then they will be disappointed. Leading Companies are continuously faced with this problem.

Customer care is about detail. It is about getting lots of small things right as well as the big picture. Very often the goods and services offered by competing companies and organisations are not very different. The difference very often depends on the people who are employed. We can learn a lot from Japanese management in the area of total quality management. Therefore, one is tempted to ask - Can we import not just Japanese products but the attitude behind

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them? Quality is practical. Factories, airlines and hospital laboratories must also be practical. But quality is moral, aesthetic, perceptual and subjective. It is about delivering above expectations. The famous Marketing expert, Philip Kotler, Calls this the delight factor. Quality and customer satisfaction should be measured. Rewards should be made on the basis of these measurements. There could be instances when one hears that a particular problem is not serious, because it happened only once and not symptomatic of a larger problem. At our training programmes we get detailed feedback from the participants. There is invariably some criticism. We have found the criticism to be symptomatic of larger and serious issues. Every Customer complaint is symptomatic of a shortcoming. Moreover, it usually represents a very good opportunity for improvement. Some insist that certain parameters are subjective. Cleanliness is subjective. But it can be measured. We only need to add a question to

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our questionnaire- How clean is the place on a scale of one to ten where ten is ‘excellent’ and one is ‘very poor’ In our experience, by far the greatest influence on today’s employees are the people who have managed them. Thus manager have to set an example in whatever they do.

Formal training can have an effect, but for the most part we emulate the managers we worked for earlier in our careers. In the selection of managers, organisations should be careful to give the required weightage for the candidate’s attitude towards customer orientation and the degree of commitment towards total quality management.

In order to incite a “ Quality Revolution”, we in Sri Lanka can learn from the experience of other countries, especially from Japan. We could pay closer attention to rework and recycling operations with a view to promoting the

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concept “ Do it right the first time and every time -resulting in zero defects”. We could deliberately reduce the level of all inventories, as overproduction, oversupplying, overbuying of anything can have a disastrous effect on promoting the Total Quality culture. We can start and do everything on time. If quality is about following standards, then we must admit that, in Sri Lanka, the most violated standard is time. We can pay more attention to cleaning up the work environment. Seemingly unimportant things like inspecting toilets, locker rooms and the floor will have to be considered important.

If today’s managers set a good example in customer-oriented quality management then their subordinates will develop believing that this is the right way to manage, resulting in a steady improvement of quality. Then life will be more pleasant for everyone. As stressed throughout this paper such a change in prevailing work attitudes and sentiments will

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eventually lead to greater economic success domestically and internationally bringing greater prosperity and quality of life for all. Thus, Quality is in People.

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Common Reasons For Non-Performance

When a new employee joins a company, he or she comes with full of hopes and lot of enthusiasm and he/she really wants to work. In any case, you would select only such people for employment, as there exists a fairly large pool of Human resources in the country to choose from. However, it has been observed by many managers that the performance of employees is not up to the standard they would like and the reasons for this can be many. We are presenting below the ten most common reasons for Non-performance according to a survey done by us among managers and executives of the private sector.

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1. They don’t know why they should perform a particular task or tasks.

2. They don’t know exactly when to begin or to end a task.

3. They don’t know what they are supposed to do.

4. They don’t know how to do it

5. They think they are doing it.

6. They think our way won’t work or their way is better.

7. They think something else is more important.

8. They are not rewarded for doing the things right, or not punished for not doing the things right

9. They are not punished for doing wrong things, or not rewarded for not doing the wrong things.

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10. They think they cannot do it.

“Whatever, you experience a problem with performance of an employee, chances are such that the reason could be one or more of the above. Any good Human Resources Manager can recommend the course of action that should be taken to solve the problem.”

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Counselling As A Method To Understand Your Employees

The most important attribute of human beings is their intelligence. This can be defined as our ability to make fresh, appropriate responses to each new situation. It may be impossible to prove that every one like this. However, one of the best sources of information about our nature is our small children. They usually show these qualities to a remarkable degree-highly intelligent, loveable and powerful in getting what they want. When we work closely with more and more adults we find that this is our inherent nature.

People respond best and learn most when they know have the highest expectations of them, and yet clearly, people do not behave like this all the time. Some behave like

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this more than other people. When we think about people around us at work places or elsewhere, we see that most of the time we function amazingly well. At other times we do not. It may be something like fatigue or some bad news that gets in the way or something occurs that triggers a response out of proportion to the actual event. When this happens the difficulty is something more fundamental, which the Behavioural Scientists refer to as ‘distress pattern’. This is a habitual way of reacting in certain situations, which is not a fresh accurate response but a rigid, patterned way of reacting. Some thing happens which reminds us of a past hurt. Our attention goes inwards and we reacting intelligently.

This reaction may have been appropriate long ago when the original hurt occurred, but now completely inappropriate. Or we may react this way because of unhelpful messages given to us by our parents when we were small. These patterns

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are sometimes major difficulties in highly successful and able adults.

For example little boy who was told, “you will never make a success of anything” might become the man who tries to be successful at all costs. Patterns like these are often really important development issues confronting people in Organisations. These are usually more significant than deficiencies in knowledge or skill. We should be able to think about how this applies to our own selves and to people we know. What can we do about these difficulties?

Ones again we can learn a lot from our small children. When they are hurt emotionally, they cry or express their anger. Afterwards they feel fine again. A lot of this can be quite hard on the parents, but it works well for the children. It is a natural healing process which the behavioural scientists call “discharge” Unfortunately we are taught not to do this e.g. Men don’t cry etc. Thus a natural healing process has been blocked.

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Of course it would not be appropriate to give immediate vent to our feelings in most situations. We have to learn function well despite how we feel. However, we have to recover this natural healing process. It is much healthier than repressing our feelings, taking them out on some one else or resorting to alcohol. Furthermore feelings can impair our judgement in ways that are highly detrimental.

Then, counselling can be offered as a far better solution. When we are distressed, what we need is a good listening to. We need to “discharge” i.e. talk about in an appropriate way & express how we feel. We can then re-evaluate the experience and think and act intelligently again.

Our patterns prevent us functioning well. They stop us from getting our work and the rest of our lives the way we want it to be. Patters need to be contradicted. For example man, who was told as a little boy that he would never make a success

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of anything, needs to contradict the message and accept that as a mature man “I can make a success of anything “. This is a simple process and does not require expert skills through it will require some training. This is not theory.

It is simply a basic human process, which help us to live and work well. Now let us consider the implications of the above for the management and development of human resources.

At the very least we can use this as background information to help understand why talented people sometimes behave less than intelligently. It may help us to respond more appropriately when they do this. (What is the difficulty? What would help? )

It explains why listening is often the

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most valuable thing we can do.

We find this is very useful to distinguish people and “patterns”. It becomes much easier to like someone when we realise that they are fine and it is only the “pattern” which is thoroughly obnoxious. When realise it is a “pattern” it is easier to stay rational.

It gives us an extremely valuable developmental tool and provides us with a way of working with people

We work in Organisations where the culture does not usually make it easy to be open about our difficulties. Frankly there is usually a lot of pretence. In this environment we have to approach the introduction of counselling as a key leadership development tool with a good deal of sensitively. It

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requires judgement to decide whether and when to introduce counselling to an individual or group of people. The key factor seems to be safety. When there is enough trust and safety people may be ready to use counselling.

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Why people stay away from Work

Absenteeism continues to be a serious problem in Sri Lanka. This problem is extremely acute in the case of Manual Grade employees. In this article the author suggests a new approach as a solution to this problem

Before analysing why people stay away from work it is worthwhile to identify four major steps that should be taken in controlling absenteeism. These steps are so simple that the tendency is to ignore the importance of following them.

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1) Analyse the situation to determine the type of absenteeism.

2) Confront the employee with the problem

3) Enforce the rules relating to absenteeism

4) Document the occurrence of absenteeism for each employee.

Absentees could be categorised in to at least four major groups and they should be dealt with in a manner suitable to their specific problem.

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‘The Bored Absentee’

He is bored with the work, work is not interesting or challenging; he often stays away from work to participate in something more interesting. You would observe his absence to be sporadic. He tends to keep away just before holidays or after holidays.

In dealing with such ‘bored’ employees you should ask the employee for his true feelings about the job. You should point out the problems his absence is causing to the factory or office. Ask the employee to agree to correct the problem and obtain commitment from the employee. You may point out the advantages of good work record. To him and also the disadvantages of high absenteeism.

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‘The Immature Absentee’

He feels that a day off is a fringe benefit and gives no thought to the consequences of his absence. He is often influenced by others and does not take his work seriously. Such persons may be just after school.. Frequently one meets immature or old people also in this category.

Dealing with such ‘immature absentees’ should be the way you deal with a lot of patience as you cannot expect such persons to know or do things you do not personally show them. However allow them to retain their dignity as adults. You may ask them to deal with the problem in a mature way and refer

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them to the more attitudes required in the business

‘The Frustrated Absentee’

He gets habitually absent in order to relieve his frustration. He is likely to have a long history of aggressive behaviour. Very often these persons find the pressures of the day too difficult to cope with. They usually have more number of days absence and a long record of absence. Their tolerance limit would be normally low and they do not see that they are causing problems to other employees and to the workplace. Here again the person should be made aware of the consequence of his absenteeism. And shown his own record of absenteeism and point out the specific problem and have a follow up on the matter.

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‘The Avenging Absentee’

This situation is the most difficult to deal with. The person feels victimised or taken advantages of. He usually perceives a lot of injustice and discrimination or favouritism a lot of injustice and discrimination or favouritism in the factory or in the office. Usually these persons are prepared to defend them selves and like to argue. It’s not merely the staying away from work that gives him satisfaction but the thought of the disruption that is caused by his absence. These persons too could be persuaded to come to work. Do not show any weakness. They themselves resent it. Be firm and discuss the problem of absenteeism only.

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Finally, the following 10 points will be helpful in controlling absenteeism in the workplace.

1 Determine whether the employee notified you as soon as possible that an absence was necessary.

2 Record the absence in an attendance record book or printed form.

3 Analyse the absence through in depth discussion; don’t accept phoney excuses.

4 Decide through your analysis which of the four types of absentee you are dealing with.

5 Maintaining an alternative work plan to ensure smooth production when absences do occur.

6 Confront every absence so that the employees know that you consider absence serious.

7 Keep a record of added costs that resulted from absenteeism.

8 Indicate a satisfactory programme to avoid absenteeism due to accidents.

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9 Discuss the moral value of “legitimate absence” only with your subordinates.

1 Remember that even the most abusive violator can have an absence that is legitimate.

(Condensed from the materials presented by the author to an In House Training Workshop).

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Manpower Shortage? (Within an organisation) Here’s a way out

Most companies have no means of dealing effectively with the development of people from an under-utilised area to an area, which is short of people.

Symptoms of the problem

If you are suffering from a shortage of manpower in your department or company a visible symptom will most likely by subordinates who come to you in increased numbers for direction and guidance; The reason being the workload in a particular area increasing by leaps and bounds. Faced with such a situation it is essential to ascertain first and foremost whether it is likely to remain that way for a significant

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duration before deciding on what action need to be taken.

A solution from within?

Regrettably the action taken by most managers is to create more work roles and to fill them up with new recruits. What is often not recognised is that there may also be a reduction in work-load occurring in certain other areas is usually quite difficult because there is no automatic gauge for indicating the under load. One exception however is direct production work where production managers soon recognise shortage of work. Even then it is only recognised when the fall off in work-load is large enough to be significant in terms of actually finding it difficult to give people work to do.

Spreading work

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In direct work (work not directly involve with production) the organisation and the system is quite capable of generating additional work or allowing the existing work which has reduced in quantity to be spread in such a way that fall off is not perceptible in throwing up spare people. This provides an ideal opportunity to improve the quantity of work and services provided. Thus it is a major management task to be recognised and identified areas where there may be fall off of work. For example in area such as the provision of information the real work involved in providing the information gradually decreases while requests for information remains at the same level or increases.

The need therefore is decisive and firm administrative decisions to be able to realign the resources from the areas of work reduction or intended work reduction in to areas where workload is patently increasing.

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Redeployment; A neglected area

Moat companies have an effective system of recruitment with printed forms indicating requisitions for personnel and specifically selected staff for interviewing applicants. Bat sadly most companies have no means of dealing effectively with re-deployment of people from and under-utilised area to an area which is short of people. Some times the re-deployment cannot be done directly but must be done by a series of moves.

A company which can effectively grapple with this realignment of resources increases the security of their work force by keeping numbers down to the bare minimum necessary and at the same time increasing the experience at the employees can gain by the sheer necessity of moving them from one type of work to another. In order to facilitate this type of move many personnel policies will need to be made explicit such as the maintenance of

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the income of people who are transferred to work in a place with which they are unfamiliar.

The provision of effective training is also essential.

Transfer of work

It is sometime possible however to transfer work instead of people from an overload area to an under-loaded one. Where this can be done and it can be seen to be advantageous then it is preferable to moving people since the continued existence of working groups and managerial feel of individual performance is important.

What you can

When the workload in a particular area increases each manager at whatever level must search within

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his own resources to find ways of re-deploying people or to adjust work in such a way to take care of the work level. When it reaches the stage where this becomes impossible he must then refer to his own manager indicating the steps he has taken to attempt to deal with the problems and ask his own manager to see if within his wider area of resources the problems can be resolved. This process must be repeated until the whole of the company has been considered with regard to re-deployment.

Finally the necessity of additional work must be reviewed with care before new roles are created and the alternatives of achieving the same results by other means such as capital investments should also be fully explored.

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Human Resources Development For Small & Medium Scale Industry In The Private Sector

Human Resources Development (HRD) has to be, first and foremost linked to the Strategic Planning of an Organisation, as the letter provides vital foresights and needs of Human Resources, in future. The Strategic plan of an Organisation has to be based on the macro level plans of the country. The government strategy for industrialisation is to create an industrial structure capable of operating in a competitive environment, thus supporting the country’s export base whilst meeting the demands of the domestic market. Production for export markets will require competitive advantage over other competitor nations if it is to be economically visible. The quality of our products also should be of such standards to be able to complete in

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the international markets. An Organisation has to then answer the following questions.

What is it that an organisation is required to produce?What are its outputs or results?What skills are required to produce those results?

The function of HRD is to help people to do their jobs to the set standards. For this purpose all employees should have clearly defined objectives. Total comprehension of individual roles, responsibilities and standards of performance required of them is of paramount importance. Employers have to ensure that the employee compensation is compatible with their contribution, so that desired employee performance can be stimulated. Whoever has developed his ability to the extent where he can meet or exceed job requirements, he should be equitably compensated for his contribution.

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A gap between the desired performance and the current actual performance could mean interalia a training need. The important point about identification of training needs is that the Organisation must know what constitutes the standards or desired performance and what the current actual performance is, at sufficient level of detail. Thereafter, systematic training and development could be initiated, which is really a cyclic process consisting of the following element:

Identification of training needs.

Determination of the outcome expectations.

Implementation of training strategies.

Measurement and analysis of results and feedback.

It may not be possible for a Medium or a Small Scale Industry to have full time specialised trainers. Even otherwise, the final responsibility to train and develop employees should be with the line

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managers. Reproduced below is a policy compiled by the author for a large Group of Company.

Human Resource is the most valuable asset of the Company. The only real advantage we have over competitors in the increasingly tough business world is in the quality and quantity of our human resources. In order to increase our advantage over competitors, we must do everything we can to improve their skills, effectiveness and their motivation.

Put the right person in the right place and develop such employee’s ability to utmost so that both, the employee and the Company would benefit.

Assign maximum possible responsibility for the human resources management and development, to operating managers.

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Selection and evaluation based upon actual achievement of the individual.

Human Resources Development should be carried out to achieve development objectives of the individual and the company, to a matching process, which will result in a satisfactory relationship between the two.

Human Resources Development should be therefore, based on employees self-enlightenment supported by management. This can be achieved by creating the right working environment providing necessary motivation towards the development of their personal knowledge, skills and abilities. Human Relations thus become an integral part of this process, as the personnel the Organisation has recruited, trained and compensated have to be integrated into jobs in such a manner that they work together productively and co-operatively with a sense of economic, social

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and psychological satisfaction. Opportunities for training and development should be given to all employees contingent upon their capacity for development.

The private sector in our country has identified the inadequacy of management expertise, specially at the middle and supervisory levels, as the major constraint facing them.. Government has undertaken to provide every encouragement to training institutions and firms to develop the required human resources. The National Institute of Business Management, originally conceived to train managers for the public sector, has been converted by amending the law, to a general management training institution with emphasis on private sector needs. In order to further facilitate training in management and technical skills, the government is preparing proposals for funding skills development by assisting firms and teaching institutions with loans and grants. This scheme is likely to be based on similar successful schemes in

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Singapore, Malaysia and South Korea.

At the organisation level, one must consider three major inputs into its management development process, as follows:

1. The overall requirements of the organisation and its associated strategic business plan.

2. The mutually agreed needs of the individual managers arrived at as part of their performance appraisal and goal setting process.

3. The requirement of the organisation for career and succession planning to cater for requirements and/ or resignations,(Please see Annexure 11 for a suggested Development Model on HRD).

Some Companies use the Assessment Centre method to evaluate as objectively as possible, the general management ability of their future managers. At the Personal

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Assessment Centre the behaviour of potential managers are observed through a variety of standardised performance situations. The centre staffs uses a comprehensive rating scheme and a system of inferencing thereof. Some of the dimensions used are defined below.

1 Oral Communications

To what extent can this individual express himself (in English)? Executives have to present oral reports at various meeting.

2 Written Communications

To what extent can this individual effectively express his or her ideas in writing (Language is English of course)?

3 Leadership Skills

How effectively can he lead a group to accomplish a task without arousing hostility?

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4 Forcefulness

To what extent does this individual make an early impact on others?

5 Energy

To what extents can this individual continuously maintain a high level of work activity?

6 Likeability

To what extent does this individual make a likeable impact on others?

7 Awareness of Social Environment

To what extent can this individual perceive subtle cues in the behaviour of others towards him or her.

8 Behaviour Flexibility

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To what extent does this individual, when motivated, modify his or her behaviour to reach a goal?

9 Self Objectivity

To what extent can this individual realise his or her own assets and liabilities?

10 Inner Work Standards

To what extent does this individual want to do a good job, even if he or she could get by with doing a less acceptable?

11 Managerial Identification

To what extent does this individual relate to Management’s views and problems?

12 Resistance to Stress

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To what extent can this individual’s work performance stand up in face of unusual pressure?

13 Range of Interests

To what extent can this individual interested in a variety of fields of activity, such as science, politics, sport and art etc.?

14 Organising and Planning

To what extent can this individual effectively organise and plan his or her work?

15 Decision Making

To what extent can this individual make decision of high quality and how likely is he or she to make decision when required?

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16 Scholastic Aptitude

To what extent does this individual compare to other individuals in his or her ability to learn new things?

Author does not claim credit for the HRD System outlined here. The paper is an overview of the Human Resources Development effort that should be undertaken for small & Medium Scale Industry in the private sector. In conclusion, what is needed is work within a sound strategic plan based on economic realities and set within the cultural, social, environmental, religious and political aspirations of the Nation, we should compare where we have the comparative advantage and develop our resources the most important being the human resources.

I would summarise what I have covered in this paper as follows

1. The vital link between strategic planning and Human

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Resources Management and Development.

2. All employees must have clearly defined objectives.

3. Process of Management Succession is intimately linked with Management Development.

4. Use of assessment Centres to evaluate employees objectively for general management ability.

5. Human Resources Development should be based on self-enlightenment.

6. Line Managers have the final responsibility to train and develop employees under their purview.

7. Human Resources Development should be carried out to achieve the development objectives of both the individuals and Group

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8 Need to improve and develop each individual’s ability should be emphasised.

9. Human Resources Development should be made an integral part of the performance appraisal

10. Development of young executives with potential for managerial development.

11.The opportunity for training and development should be given to every body.

12. Employee compensation has to be compatible with their contribution.

13. Human Relations to be considered as an integral part of the Human Resources Management.

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Annexure 1

Developmental Model ForHuman Resources Management And Development

ORIGANISATIONAL NEEDS MATCHING PROCESS INDIVIDUAL NEEDS

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Planning for Staffing, Strategic Planing. Human

Resources Planning & Human Resources Inventorying

Planning for growth & development, Inventory of development plans, follow up & evaluation of development plans

Planning for levelling off & disengagement

Planning for replacement and restaffing

Primarily initiated & managed by the Organisation

Job analysis. Recruitment & selection Introduction, Socialisation, Initial

Training. Job Design & Job assignment

Supervising & coaching performance appraisal & judgement of potential

Organisational rewards. Promotions & other job changes. Training &

Development opportunities, Career counselling, joint career planing and

follow-up

Continuing education & retraining, Job redesign.

Job redesign, Job enrichment & job rotation. Alternative

patterns of work and rewards.

Updating of Human resources inventorying. Information

systems for job openings new cycle of recruitment.

Career or job choice

Early career issue: Locating one’s area of contribution. Learning

how o fit into Organisation, becoming productive, seeing a

future for one-self in career.

Late career issues: becoming a mentor :using

one’s experience & wisdom

New human resources from inside or outside the

Organisation.

Mid career issues: locating one’s carer

anchor & buildingone’s career around it

Human Resources Development System

f

Support for Self Development

Orientation courses for new comers

TRAINING PROGRAMS & COURCES PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL & COUNSELLING

CAREER DEVELOPMENT

In-house training programmes conducted by the Human Resources Development Department based on the general training and development needs of the Company Specific training programmes arranged by the Human Resources Development Department depending on the specific needs of the Company/Department concerned

Training programmes and courses conducted by outside Training Organisations.

Overseas Training

Joint evaluation of performance based on participatively pre-set objectives.

Rating scale is also used for performance appraisal. Under this method appraisal is done by evaluating skills, qualities and characteristics of employee such as Initiative and drive, attitude to work, Inner work standard, leadership skills etc.,

Use of counseling to maintain constructive employee attitude and to assist them to overcome problems related to their work performance.

Personnel Assessment Center.

Management dimensions Evaluation by the Group Executive Directorate.

Succession Plan.

Training and Development Needs

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8

Principles For Human Talents Management And Development

1. We recognise the vital link between Strategic Planning and Human Resources Management and Development (HRMD). Strategic Planning provides our management with vital foresight into the problems and needs of human resources, of them.

2. We recognise the need for all employees to have clearly defined objectives for their total comprehension of the individual roles, responsibilities and standards required of them.

3. We ensure that the process of management succession is

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intimately linked with management development. Accordingly, a manpower succession plan is useful tool for ensuring that top management positions can quickly be filled whenever there is a vacancy at that level

4. We are committed to the use of Assessment Centres to evaluate employees objectively for general management ability- through behaviour observation, a variety of standardised performance situations, a comprehensive behaviour rating Scheme and a system of inferencing thereof.

5. We believe that Human Resources Development should be based on worker self-enlightenment supported by Senior Management: by creating the right working environment and facilitating management of oriented

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motivation of individual workers towards the development of their personal skills, improved performance and enhanced career prospects.

6. We believe that line Managers have the final responsibility to train and develop employees under their purview. Accordingly, we ensure that Line Managers undertake full responsibility for developing the potential of subordinates, while Staff Managers, in turn, do not deprive line Managers of their competence.

7. We believe that Human Resources Development should be carried out to achieve development objectives of both the individual and the company through a matching process that would bring the company and individuals together in a mutually satisfactory relationship.

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8. We emphasise the need to improve and develop each individual, ability to keeping all the managers and executives abreast of the latest developments in the technical and management fields through mandatory attendance of a selection of training and development programmes sponsored by the Group, NIBM, SLBDC and other Organisations each year.

9. We believe in making human resources development an integral part of the performance Appraisal, so that no Manager or Executive may be promoted unless he/she has successfully trained another to take over his/her job.

10. We are committed to the development of young Executives with potential for managerial development by giving them every opportunity

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to advance their careers (through training programmes and counselling sessions), simultaneously fulfilling the needs of the company.

11. We believe the opportunity for training and development should be given to all employees equally, Contingent upon their capacity for development.

12. We believe in making employee compensation compatible with their contributions in order to stimulate the desired employee behaviour. Whenever an employee has developed his/her ability to extent where such a person can meet or exceed job requirement, he/she should be equitably compensated for his/her contribution.

13. We consider Human Relations to be an integral part of Human Resources Management, so that the personal we have

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recruited, trained, placed and compensated may be integrated into a job in such a manner as to motivate them to work together productively and co-operatively and with a sense of economic, social and psychological satisfaction.

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9Military Lessons For Business Managers

The Art of War by Sun Tzu is the oldest military classic known in Chinese literature, Sun Tzu’s Art of War is in fact a very short book. It contains less than 6200 characters of classical Chinese literary writing. The book has only 13 chapters with each chapter barely a page long. The fact that the original work of Sun Tzu was in literary writing has created many problems for scholars in capturing the full meanings and implications of his thoughts. This is largely attributed to the complexity of the Chinese Language. Prof. Wee of the National University of Singapore in his book, has provided the closest meanings in English for the terms used in Sun Tzu’s original writings. The idea of an analogy between the world of business and that of the

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battlefield is not a novel one. One would hear of car wars, cola wars and such economic wars almost daily. Various studies relating to the application of military strategies to business practices have been published. For example Marketing Warfare by Rie’s and Trout (1986) has been based on the works of the German General Karl Von Clausewitz, which were written in 1832. The word strategy comes from the Greek word strategos. Originally referring to a general, the word came to refer to “The art of the general” or “What the general does”. Today, strategy refers to the art and science of directing resources to optimise the chances of victory and reduce the effects of tactical defects.

The business world is like the battlefield. In fact businesses have collapsed through poor planning, resulting in the loss of capital and employment. This is no different from war, where poor planning can lead to the loss of

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men, equipment and the battle itself; in the case of Companies in the business world, the impact of losses can at times be felt throughout many other sectors of the economy, just as losses in war can literally tear a nation apart. Thus the challenges facing a Military Head of State and the CEO of a Company is comparable. Please refer Table 1.

Table 1: Comparison between a Military Head of State and a CEO of a Company

Military

1. To consolidate his present government within a defined territory and to protect it from external aggression

2. To expand his present

Business

1. Protect the Market Share of business.

2. Finding new markets whose needs might be met by the current products.

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territory either by conquering neighbour states

Or3. By embarking

on more ambitious expeditions to far away lands and territories.

3. Exploring and developing new products for existing markets.

4. Developing new businesses with new products in new markets.

Influence of the Rulers in the Government

In war, people should be in perfect accord with their Ruler and be willing to accompany him in life and in death without any fear of danger. If the leader is wise and capable he will be able to gain the moral support of his subjects so much so that they will be willing to accompany him through the thick and

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thin of a battle and the ups and downs of the state. While this may seem unthinkable, in reality there are examples such as suicide bombers who are willing to lay down their lives for their leader (although this may evoke some uncomfortable feelings among us). This kind of influence can be observed outside the battlefield when one examines the role governments have played in the success of industries in countries like Japan, Singapore and South Korea. For example, the Japanese Ministry of Trade and Industry (MITI) is known for charting the overall industrial policy for the country. The Japanese government will also not hesitate to support their industries in various ways such as through government guarantees and financing similarly in NICs, the governments have greatly encouraged their companies to have an outward orientation and have packaged various incentives to help them achieve such objectives. The result is that these countries are export driven. On the other hand one

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witnesses corrupt and weak governments that are responsible for the decay in their national economies. It is well known that many African, Asian and Latin American countries suffer economically because of incapable governments that are unable to exercise leadership. In today’s business world, many countries including Sri Lanka rely on foreign investment to stimulate economic growth. One key determinant of the inflow of foreign investment is the level of political stability, which in turn depends heavily on political leadership. An enlightened ruler will create the climate for the rise of the nation. For business a capable government will provide political stability and hence attract foreign investments and stimulate economic growth, while a corrupt government will only sow the seeds of economic decay. The first step in the strategic decision making process whether in military or business is Situation Appraisal. This involves assessing the desirability of engaging in combat.

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Having thoroughly appraised the situation, one would next proceed to formulation of goals and strategies. The choice of strategies has to be compatible with the goals selected and has to be appropriate to a given situation. Next would be the Evaluation of Strategies at which the strategist has to assess the effectiveness of the proposed strategies. Once they are evaluated as feasible and effective, the next stage would be Implementation. During this stage the tactical & operational aspects of effective implementation is considered. Finally to ensure success, there must be Controls with Feedback Mechanisms.

The Principle of Detailed Planning

Strategic Management must begin with detailed planning. Focus is not whether a Company or an army plan or does not plan, rather it is how detailed the planning is. This would encompass consideration of facts, which are micro as well as

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macro, controllable as well as uncontrollable, internal as well as external, static as well as dynamic, human as well as non-human, tangible as well as intangible. In short, detailed planning has to be exhaustive in coverage and consideration. Detailed planning cannot be carried out on the basis of intuition, gut feeling, calculated guesses or other subjective means. It must be based on intelligence, which can be obtained by men who have knowledge of the enemy or the competitive situation. Thus there is a need to actively collect, store, analyse and utilise information for the development of more effective strategies. The successful acquisition and utilisation of information for strategic purposes is an important factor, which determines the competitiveness of a country or a business.

Mission

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In the days before radio and other forms of modern communication, ancient armies solved the problem of keeping the combat unit together and moving forward with a ‘standard’ or ‘ensign’. This device was simply a tall pole with a flag or other symbol representing the combat unit that could be seen above the dust and confusion of the battle. Soldiers used this standard as a rallying point, giving them a focus and helping to ensure unified efforts in combat. The mission and mission statement, we believe, serve the same function for the modern enterprise – to provide a sense of guidance, orientation, and direction in the complexity and occasional flurry of the enterprises day-to-day existence. In an era of discontinuous change, the Mission Statement takes on even more importance as the single statement that provides long-term focus for the efforts of the enterprise. Thus it should have a vision component, describing what the enterprise needs to accomplish, what business it is in (or intends to be in) and what

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significant contribution it expects to make. Then the mission statement should have a ‘theme’ component describing how the enterprise intends to achieve its objectives. This theme component helps to distinguish the enterprise from others by defining its unique characteristics.

Values

Like in the battlefield, in business too people have to operate under tremendous strains. It may be the ‘religious faith’ or ‘faith in their ruler’ which provides the support and guidance for the military general in the battlefront. Similarly, in business management, we need to believe in something. It has to be a belief in something more important and immortal than ourselves that will give us a will to succeed and a kind of serenity in stress. What we mean here is a set

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of values which communicates itself to those are who are being lead, and helps sustain their determination to be successful. This is extremely important in difficult situations, because people who are so inspired and motivated really can do the apparently impossible.

Choice of Battle Ground

In military combat as well as in business one of the important factors to ensure success is to choose battlegrounds carefully. Choosing the right battleground enables the army and the Company to exhibit its strengths better and camouflage its weaknesses. In addition it will also enable the firm to exploit opportunities in the market – for example through niching strategies one could cushion the effects of threats in the

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environment. In choosing a battleground to compete, a Company should opt for one in which it has distinct advantages over its competitors. It can also look for areas ignored by the competitors. An understanding and appreciation of the characteristics of different battlegrounds will help decide the appropriateness of a given strategy. Let us examine the different types of battlegrounds.

Dispersive Ground

This is a battle situation in which the army is fighting in its own territory. For example, one of Israels’ military strategies has always been to avoid fighting a war within her own territory. Its occupation of the Westbank, Golan Heights and Gaza Strip typify her resolve not to fight in her own territory. In the business world one observes that the United States is facing a problem of exports from Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hongkong and Singapore. The US has chosen

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passive and defensive strategies by trying to fight on its own soil, rather than concentrate on a more aggressive and offensive export drive (which would be analogus to fighting beyond one’s territory). On the other hand a Firm competing with two many brands in the same market could be in a dispersive battleground. In such cases, Company has to ensure the unit of purpose among all personnel involved.

Accessible Ground

This is a ground that is open and equally accessible to the enemy and yourself. In such grounds ancient war strategy was to prevent the enemy from entering your territory. In the business world one finds businesses where the market entry and exit are very easy. There is then the need to protect market share by building up strong defenses through improvement of the total system that include production, marketing, advertising and

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promotion, inventory control, planning and distribution outlets – so much so that the walls become thick and impenetrable.

Frontier Ground

When the army has made only a shallow penetration into the enemy’s territory the ground is considered frontier in nature. Military strategy would be not to stop in frontier ground and to keep the forces closely linked. In the area of foreign market entry, the Japanese can be hailed as gurus of this strategy of never stopping at frontier ground. With the coordinated efforts needed in a frontier ground situation, without rushing into foreign markets simultaneously, Toyota entered the US market followed by other Japanese Automobile Companies.

Entrapping Ground

One in which it is easy to get in but difficult to get out. It is a type of ground that is filled with

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boobytraps. Businesses with low capital but high operating costs can be entrapping too. This is especially so where there are strong labour unions or labour laws that prevent management from retrenching workers. At times the unions may even obstruct any modernization or mechanization efforts.

Constricted Ground

In essence, a constricted ground is one in which the access route is narrow and retreat route is tortuous. It is the type of ground that is difficult to get into and at the same time difficult to get out. To survive in a constricted environment, resourcefulness is required in the design of strategies. This is because the competitive advantage enjoyed is often very narrow and at the same time this advantage is vulnerable to attacks. If technology is the competitive advantage it becomes very important to build on this strength and defend it as much as

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possible through continuous upgrading.

Key Ground

Is one which is equally advantageous to the enemy and yourself. Owing to its importance, it is highly contentious and the forces of both sides are likely to contest bitterly for it. For example, with the opening of China many multinational Companies view the Chinese market as a key market owing to the vast business potential. It is therefore, not surprising to witness many Companies rushing into Chinese markets. If one were to apply military strategies one should avoid attacking the enemy on key ground. Rather, it is important to improve your supporting skills – rush up all your rear forces and elements. The way the Japanese have handled the Americans and Europeans in the world markets is a good example.

Focal Ground

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When a state is surrounded by three other states, its ground is considered focal. In such a ground the enclosed state forms the key to the other three states in that the one who captures it can have a commanding situation over other states. Thus it can be expected that the focal ground be always under threat of siege. The strategy here is to be-friend neighbouring states and to strengthen ties with the allies. The small producers in an oligopolistic market structure are in focal grounds. If you are the small producer, it is very important not to agitate the larger competitors. It is better to follow the leader than to lead them. To survive in such a business situation, there is a need to also strengthen ties with allies. These allies would include the suppliers, customers, bankers, labour unions and government bodies. One remembers how the strong support received by Chryslers allies prevented it from going bankrupt or being squeezed out by much larger

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Companies like General Motors and Ford.

Indifferent Ground

Indifferent or indecisive ground is a situation that is dis-advantageous to both the enemy and yourself. In such situations, there is absolutely no advantage in making the first move. When China first opened up, many Companies were hesitant to go in as they were uncertain about the Chinese Policy. Many Companies sidelined themselves and preferred to gain from the experiences of the early entrants. In the same way Japanese concentrated on applied R & D and Production Technology of American and European Firms.

Treacherous Ground

When the Army is travelling in mountain forests, dangerous passes, marshy swamps or other difficult

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terrain it is in treacherous ground. In such a situation the Army does not encamp but should move swiftly. In the mature state of the product life cycle, the market is saturated with all kinds of competitive products. It is therefore, important not to stay too long in matured markets.

Desolate Ground

In war, as the battle progresses, grounds that were originally captured and deemed valuable might lose their appeal as they become less crucial to the subsequent conduct of war. One should not linger on that ground. Much the same way Companies should not stay in declining markets. Japanese Companies abandoned labour intensive industries such as textiles, once they realised that the other developing Countries are able to operate more cheaply than them.

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Distant Ground

In distant ground both sides are away from home base and are equally matched in forces. It is to the best interest of both sides to avoid direct battles which would confer little advantage to either side. The Japanese penetration of foreign markets again provides a very good example of this avoidance of direct battle in distant ground.

Serious Ground

It is one on which the army has penetrated deep into the enemy territory and has left behind many of the enemies fortified cities and towns. In this case the army normally plunders the resources of the enemy but protect its supply routes to ensure a continuous flow of provisions. In the same way, a Company operating in a foreign market should seriously consider relying as much as possible on local resources, which include all factors of production like labour, capital,

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technology, management, raw materials and other supplies.

Death Ground

This is a situation in which the army can only survive if it fights with the courage of desperation, where the only way to survive is fight. Chrysler Corporation of United States was on the verge of bankruptcy between 1978 and 1982. Lee Iaococca made it abundantly clear to his employees that the only way to survive was to fight. His efforts resulted in a drastic change in the behaviour and loyalty of the workers towards management.

The Principle of Concentration of Forces & the Need to Attack

This means economising of forces; In other words application of minimum of strength to a point other than the decisive one in order to pave the way for the application of mass force at the point of decision. The

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idea is to use one’s limited available force to strike at the enemy’s weakest point where victory can be better assured. What is important is relative strength and not absolute strength at the point of contact. Relative superiority can be achieved by clever choice of battleground, maintaining strict secrecy of one’s battle plan and using deception. In war, the invincibility in defence depends on one’s own efforts, while the opportunity for victory depends on the enemy. It follows that those skilled in warfare can make them invincible but cannot cause the enemy to be vulnerable. In ancient times, those skilful in warfare first made themselves invulnerable before waiting for opportunities to defeat the enemy. Even when one is playing a competitive game like football, the only way to win is to kick the ball into the opponent’s goal, as one cannot win by only defending one’s goal. Similarly in competitive business, one has to compete openly for market share, rather than defending one’s own

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market share. This may be specially done when the market is not growing and in times of recession. Over the last two decades, countries like Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Hong Kong had been pursuing attacking strategies in international trade. However as in war, in any corporate planning decision too, it is essential to have a contingency plan.

Swiftness in Execution of Plans

Once a detailed plan is developed based on information gathered through intelligence and the battleground chosen, it is important that the plan be executed swiftly. Swiftness includes perfect timing (as it catches others off guard, and hence minimizes opposition), the maintenance of momentum and the avoidance of protracted campaigns. It also demands that the co-ordination be perfect. All these are equally valid in business

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situations. Like in war, throughout the business one should maintain adaptability in manoeuvres. Adaptability in manoeuvres entails, provision for creativity, innovation and the exercise of initiatives. To move ahead of competitors, a Company must encourage the flow of innovative ideas on all fronts – products, service, marketing strategies etc.

The company must be capable of capitalizing the opportunities as and when they arise.

When large-scale integrated circuits (LSI) first appeared, western countries quickly explored them for usage for missile and space development. Whereas the Japanese saw the opportunity for the use of same in pocket calculators and watches. Price of the LSI circuit dropped, due to large-scale use in the Japanese industries, and the product quality was also stabilised.

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Deceptiveness in Actions & Strategies

All warfare is based on deception. The enemy should not know where you intend to attack; If he does not know where you intend to attack he must defend in many places. The more places he defends the more scattered are his forces and the weaker his force at any one point. In order to achieve distinct advantage in combat, one must choose the battleground that is more advantageous to oneself than to the enemy; and bring the enemy to where you want to fight through the use of baits and deception. At the same time one should not succumb to enemy’s baits. While the term deceptive tactics seems very unethical the truth is that baits are used in the business world too. One of the commonly used methods for less developing countries to attract foreign investments is the offer of incentives such as exemption from taxes through pioneer status, unlimited repatriation of earnings

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etc. Even among developed countries, baits have been used for economic and political reasons.

Anticipation of the Enemy’s Reaction and Changes in Environment

It will be naive to assume that when one embarks on an offensive, the enemy will not react. In other words, it is dangerous to assume that the enemy is not capable of strategising nor is developing effective responses. In essence, there is a need to modify a strategy that may be carefully evaluated and implemented because of the reactions of the enemy and the changes in the environment.

Planning for Victory & Combat Readiness

One over-riding principle for victory in war is that of unity. To win there must be unity of minds and hearts from the ruler to the subjects of the state. To make the war a successful one the appointment of the generals must be based on the

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ability of the skills of the candidates. Just like in the army, the way a business is structured and organised will have a serious effect on the success. This aspect includes effective policies, programmes, operating procedures, channels of communication, lines of authority and responsibility. The organisation and structure of a company is one area that must be considered in strategic Planning. What would be the best way to organise the Company to face the future. Very often the strategy is decided based on the structure. The structure should follow the strategy and not the other way. If a company wants to encourage creativity, innovation and entrepreneurial spirit, what is the best way to structure the company? The strength of an army does not depend on large forces. Army should not advance relying on sheer numbers. What is more important is the training of men and officers in the army as well as in the business. The quality of the people is definitely competitive and it is very interesting to note

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that the more successful companies are also those with a heavy commitment to Human Resources Development. The level of training will dictate the state of combat readiness of the firm. With well-trained personnel, the firm can engage in more activities with greater confidence. Furthermore, they are better able to handle difficult situations and yet produce superior results. Another important dimension to winning a war is discipline. Comprehensive and elaborate measures to direct human behaviour are required to achieve organisational goals and objectives. Companies that place heavy emphasis on their reward system are normally in a stronger position. Japanese companies have a tradition of sending their executives for annual executive training camps where the training not only incorporates military style discipline but also includes doses of spiritual and social values such as learning self sacrifice, humility, hard work, suffering and tolerance. Therefore the need to be ‘combat fit’ should

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be the aim of every Company. Staff training and development auditing and improvement of every aspect of the corporate resources should always be part and parcel of the activities of the Company.

Efficient and effective management of organisations is critical for the country’s development efforts. Increasing competition at both national and international level requires strategic managerial thinking by the business community. The idea of an analogy between the world of business and that of the battlefield was explored as some of the ancient writings on war offer valuable insights into the nature of modern business practices and help explain some of the startling economic trends in our times.

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Anyway*...

People are unreasonable, illogical and self-centered.

Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish and true enemies.

Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.

Succeed anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.

Be honest and frank anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.Be good anyway.

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The biggest people with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest people with the smallest minds.

Think big anyway.

People favour underdogs but follow only top dogs.

Fight for some under dogs anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.

Build anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth.

Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.

*

* Above is a self-motivational tool recommended by the author for his seminar participants.

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11“A Very Good Motivation for Oneself”

A well-known speaker started off his seminar by holding up a $ 20 bill. In the room of 200, he asked, “who would like this $ 20 bill?. Hands started going up. He said, ”I am going to give this $ 20 to one of you but first let me do this.”

He proceeded to crumple the dollar bill up. He then asked. “ Who still wants it?” Still the hands were up in the air. ”Well, he replied. What if I do this?” And he dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe. He picked it up, now all crumpled and dirty. “Now who still wants it?” Still the hands went into the air.

“My friends, you have all learned a very valuable lesson. No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in

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value. It was still worth $ 20. Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt by the decision we make and the circumstances that come our way. We feel as though we are worthless. But no matter what has happened or what will happen, you will never lose your value. You are special. Don’t ever forget it!

“Never let yesterday’s disappointments overshadow tomorrow’s dream”

P.S. Please pass this onto everyone you know. You will never know the lives it touches, the hurting hearts it speaks to, or the Hope that it can bring!

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* This material is used in the seminars conducted by the author.

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Rules of Human Relations

1. SPEAK AT PEOPLE. There is nothing so nice as a cheerful world of greeting.

2. SMILE AT PEOPLE. It takes 72 muscles to frown, only 14 to smile.

3. CALL PEOPLE BY NAME. The sweetest music to anyone’s ears is the sound of his own name.

4. BE FRIENDLY & HELPFUL. If you would have friend, be a friend.

5. BE CORDIAL Speak and act as if everything you do is a genuine pleasure.

6. BE GENEROUS with praise – cautious with criticism.

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7. BE CONSIDERATE with the feeling of others. There are usually three sides to a controversy: yours, the other person’s and the right side.

8. BE ALERT to give service. What counts most in life is what we do for others.

9. BE GENUINELY INTERESTED IN PEOPLE. You can like almost everybody if you try.

10.ADD TO THIS A GOOD SENSE OF HUMOUR, a big does of patience and a dash of humility, and you will be rewarded many fold.

‘Author’s Note : Although volumes & volumes could be written on Human Relations; the aforementioned 10 rules on Human Relations when followed could do wonders.

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Future of Human Resource Management

One area that stands to get hit harder than most in the changes impacting today’s organisations is “Human Resource Management” Many Business managers are of the view that the HR has not really made it as a fully paid up member of the top management ranks. Major Concerns of HR managers as revealed by the members of the HR Study Group of the Employers’ Federation of Ceylon were as follows:

a) It seems that most companies have not transcended the stage of ‘personnel Management’ which seems to delay the recognition that would otherwise be accorded to ‘Human Resource Management.

b) Most do not seem to appreciate the value of Human Resource Management because few are able to quantify the contribution that HR Management makes to the fortunes of a company.

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c) It was thought that the reason for the above may stem from the perception that while it was easy to quantify the gains in other departments, it was not so in the case of HR. This difficulty may be due to the fact that most companies have not developed models for measuring the role of HR and its contribution in monetary terms.

d) It was pointed out that at an international forum the lack of the following three features were supposed to undermine the HR function: credibility, courage and competence.

e) Lack of professionalism in the key areas of the function – professional courage/integrity.

f) Wrong choice of persons for the function – traditionally, several companies were in the habit of recruiting persons with experience in the police and armed forces as personnel

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managers. This, again, is demonstrative of the focus on the management of discipline and punishment as a key area of the personnel function, which seems to have sent the wrong signal with regard to the profession.

g) Organisational culture – it was thought that the culture of a particular organisation was paramount in deciding the value that particular organisation places on the HR function. The opinion was expressed that the professional background of a CEO, at a given time, had an influence on the culture of that particular organisation, which in turn, decided the value that organisation places on the HR function.

h) The question was posed as to whether the HR manager is a business partner or an employee champion. In answering this question, our focus should be on the contribution that an HR professional could make to

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strategic management of a modern company as well as championing the welfare of employees, which includes the ability to professionally design innovative compensation management schemes.

It is obvious from the foregoing that HR is in crisis. This is something like the blind man trying to describe what an elephant looks like while holding only the trunk.

It should be remembered that not only HR but any staff function be it finance, legal or any other that does not contribute directly to the business will have no future. HR function should, in my opinion, re-brand itself as “performance Support”. The function must be totally centered on providing real business support if it is to survive. It should focus on harnessing the latest advances in technology & knowledge to provide managers with real tools to the maximize the performance of their people.

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At the moment, in many places HR is still an expensive administrative function. Same thing is true of the Finance & Accounts Departments. These functions will not survive. Technology to replace these low level functions is already here & it is only a matter of time before the technology really attacks even the higher value added functions of HR.

The pressure on today’s HR Managers to transform themselves to something that is part of the fast paced firm of the future is a fact that we have to recognise. This function is seen by many as never getting higher than the upper middle management. With no middle managers in the future corporate scenarios, they have to become hands on specialists or move over and let someone else more attuned to the needs of the new millennium take over.

The role of HR Executives will be to help develop, support and implement overall company strategies. They must start implementing do-able things and stop developing major

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schemes and bureaucratic concepts that never fly.

Thus lack of real future vision to do things that truly support the business is a major drawback. For instance HR Executives need to rethink the validity of the terms like ‘Careers & Jobs’. As organisations are beginning to realize, that the future is about flexibility. I have suggested the term IGO meaning Income Generating Opportunities in another context and in another forum IGOs would include contract work, sub contract & self employment etc.

In many countries, “Careers” with one employer has become a thing of the past, and it may be necessary to promote new and more radical messages to our staff.

What is required now is to be certain that HR people do not perpetuate the past by it’s continued use of outmoded concepts & words, but be innovative and

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strategic in their approaches to deal with the future organisations.

It is for similar reasons, that I had advocated Human Talents Management (HTM) in place of Human Resource Management and the conceptual framework of which has been outlined elsewhere.

The same Study Group of HR Managers referred to above has identified the following as attributes of a good HR Manager.

a. Knowledge in the particular industry/service

b. Counselling skills.c. Knowledge of behavioural

psychology.d. Communication skills –

Interpersonal skills (IR sensitivity).

e. Ability to be objective.f. Thorough knowledge of

enterprise/organisational vision etc.

g. Ability to be a business partner.

h. Catalyst/Agent for change.

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i. Creative Ability.j. To be an example in terms of

integrity.

It is desirable for any Manager to possess the above attributes. However a practising HR Professional should have sound academic background and professional training in HR management & development. would be essential.

HR Manager should also possess a fair knowledge & appreciation of the other functional areas such as Marketing & Finance in order to understand the total Business Strategy so that he could contribute his professional inputs.

Just like any other profession, HR profession should be continuously researched & developed. In this regard a vital role is expected to be played by the relevant professional organisation. In Sri

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Lanka we have the Institute of Personnel Management, which was incorporated by an act of parliament 40 years old. If we are to accept that the HR profession is being marginalised, it may be necessary to review the role played by IPM. In recent times, we have seen the emergence of other HR organisations with similar objectives to those of IPM, which is indicative of a vacuum created by IPM by commission or by omission.

Personally I would like to see a code of ethics being formulated by a professional body for HR professionals. In my opinion the professional body should help produce HR professionals required by the country and play a role in continuous development of professionalism among HR professionals.

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Management Skills Checklist

There are many skills that managers need to possess to perform effectively in their jobs. Presented below is a list of the most common skills. However, all jobs many not demand them equally.

Rate your skills:

1. Which skills are important in you job?(10 = extremely important ………1=not important.)

2. How well development are your skills in each area?i.e. how good you think you are at using each skill(10 = extremely important ………1=not important.)

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When you have rated each skill area for both aspects (importance and how good you are at them), look back and identify these with the biggest difference between the two rating scores, i.e. high on “importance”, but low on “good at” These are your key development areas.

Where large “negative” difference occurs, i.e. low on “importance” but high on “good at” you should consider whether you are in the right job.

After computing the Management the Management skills Checklist, you should now be able to state what your development objectives should be. Write your development objectives in the table below. Be brief and specific.

An example would be: “To maximise influence through improved presentation techniques”. Then look at each column heading in the matrix and consider how best your development objectives can be met.

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##

Skill Importance in Job

How good at it

01 Motivating people to do jobs for me

02 Building a good working team

03 Communicating well04 Handling grievances05 Disciplining

subordinates06 Chairing / conducting

meetings07 Briefing groups of

people08 Carrying out an

interview09 Getting on with other

people10 Leading a group11 Persuading/

influencing others, events

12 Managing your time13 Managing yourself14 Assessing yourself15 Developing yourself16 Making presentations17 Writing reports

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18 Making decisions19 Planning work20 Setting targets/goals21 Organising people and

tasks22 Controlling

activities23 Analysing and

diagnosing problems24 Designing/

implementing systems/methods

25 Delegating authority26 Allocating work27 Assessing job

performance of others28 Coaching & developing

subordinates29 Writing job

descriptions30 Costing and other

financial matters31 Developing own

technical job skills32 Other (Please

specify)

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# DevelopmentObjectives

On the Job

Action Projects

Self-Study

In-houseProgrammes

ExternalProgrammes

Other

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

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RESEARCH ON EMPLOYEE PREFERENCES

Work with people who treat with respect.

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Interesting work.

Recognition for good work.

Chance to develop skills.

Working for people who listen if you have ideas about how to do things better.

A chance to think for myself rather than just carry out instructions.

Seeing the end results of my work.

Working for efficient Managers

A job that is not too easy.

Feeling well informed about what is going on

Job Security

High pay

Good benefits

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Rank each factor above in its order of importance with “1” being most important “2” being second most important, and so on.

E.g. If job Security is the most important, please mark “1” against so. If good benefits is the 2nd most important, please mark “2” against that and go on.

Please complete this exercise yourself give it to your colleagues and subordinate and compare the result and you will learn a very valuable lesson above motivation.

1) NAME ……………………………………………………………….

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2) DESIGNATION ……………………………………………….

3) AGE …………………

4) MARRIED/SINGLE ………………IF MARRIED NO. OF CHILDREN ………………….

5) ARE YOU INVOLVED IN ANY SOCIAL SERVICE ACTIVITIES - YES/NO

6) ARE YOU A MEMBER OF ANY CLUB OR ASSOCIATION - YES/NO

IF YES NAME OF THE CULB/ASSOCIATION ………………………………….

OFFICE(S) HELD …………………………………

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15

How To Identify Good Management Potential

In selecting persons for managerial positions, we would look at his past performance as a manager. When we are faced with the task of promoting people to the management ranks for the first time or recruiting management trainees we have to use some acceptable method of selection.It is therefore necessary to agree on some managerial dimensions & skills to facilitate our selection,I would propose the use of following dimensions as being desirable

These dimensions have been refined from a very large list. Many of these dimensions are used in Personnel assessment Centres. Considerable amount of research done over the years has demonstrated that performance on these dimensions is

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related to the progress in management. These are not just factors that looked good. They are highly relevant and could be assessed fairly objectively by competent HR professionals. What are these Management dimensions? What follows is a description of some selected dimensions.

Leadership: By using good human relations techniques, to what extent can the individual get people to perform effectively without incurring hostility?

We’re not concerned with any particular style in our definition of leadership. A person could be dominant and aggressive, or rather subtle, but if he/she is effective in getting people and groups to respond to his/her attempts to lead, then we would give the person credit for having leadership skills, provided the individual did not incur hostility on the part of the people he/she was leading. We would look for such things as: does this individual’s subordinates respond to

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his/her leadership attempts? Does the individual bring out information that is goal directed and effective in getting tasks done? Is the person able to coordinate the activities of others effectively? Is the person willing to compromise to reach group goals?

BEHAVIOUR FLEXIBILITY: To what extent can the individual readily modify his/her behavior to reach goals when motivated? Essentially, what we are looking for in this dimension is the individual who can try a variety of approaches to getting something done. We’re not too concerned with whether or not the different approaches are successful or effective; just with whether the individual can try and incorporate different kinds of roles and behaviors and try a variety of approaches to accomplish something. In other words, how flexible is the person, or how rigid is the person in the way he/she goes about doing things? An example of this might be

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a door-to-door salesman who can go to a variety of different customers, size each one up, and tailor his/her sales pitch to meet what he/she thinks the needs of that particular customer are. If the person can do this effectively, we would say he/she is a rather flexible individual. He/she has behavior flexibility. We are not talking about pure mental vascillation, for example, the typical “yes man” – the individual who constantly runs with the group and will sway one way or another depending upon what the group seems to be doing. The “yes man” is not necessarily a person with high behavior flexibility. This is more mental Vacillation. This behavior would, in fact, probably typify a rather rigid style-constantly going with the group consensus without ever taking a position of his/her own. Essentially, what we are looking for with behavior flexibility are those skills a person might possess which will enable that person to adapt to a variety of situations which he or she will undoubtedly be confronted

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with in management, and to be able to react in an effective way and, if necessary, be able to modify and change his/her approach toward dealing with situations to be effective.

ORAL COMMUNICATION SKILLS: To what extent can the individual present an effective oral report?

Our prime consideration with this dimension is that we are looking for the person’s ability to prepare a talk for presentation to a small conference group. We are not so much concerned with how well the person speaks on a one-to-one, face-to-face basis, but rather, given an assigned topic, can the individual prepare a short talk which may be no more that three or five minutes and do so in an effective manner. We are concerned in this dimension more with the style that with the content of the talk per se. A poor idea, for example, expressed very well with much verbal facility, would

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still receive credit for being high in oral communication skills. We would look for such things as: the confidence the speaker displays; is the speaker able to command attention? Is the speaker constantly referring to notes or does the speaker address his/her audience? Is the talk summarized properly and organized well, and is it pleasant to listen to?

We would be concerned to some extent with the individual’s eye contact and gestures which might make the talk more interesting to the listeners, although these are really only important in extreme cases. For example, if an individual never looks at the audience or is extremely rigid in the way the talk is given, this could detract from the effectiveness of the talk. Taking the other extreme, the individual might stare at one person in the audience and use hand gestures to the point that they are distracting from the content of the talk. These would also tend to lessen the effectiveness of the oral

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communication. So essentially, what we are looking for is the individual who can get up in front of a group and present an oral talk which effectively, which has a good summary, which is presented in a clear and concise fashion, which has a fair amount of impact.

RESISTANCE TO STRESS: To what extent can the individual maintain effective work performance in the face of unusual pressures? What we are looking for here is the individual who is likely to hold up and perform effectively at work even in the face of what might be considered unusual pressures. We don’t want to purposely stress an individual to find out how he/she responds to stress; we feel that enough stress is built into the natural design of a job from time to time and that an individual goes through enough stresses outside the job to indicate the impact these have on effectiveness. The thing to look for when you perceive an individual is stressed is what

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happens to that individual’s performance? Does the organization of his or her work tend to suffer? Are there other indications that that person’s effectiveness is reduced when you perceive that the individual is under some amount of pressure?

TOLERANCE OF UNCERTAINTY: To What extent can the individual maintain effective work performance under uncertain or unstructured conditions? Our basic concern with this dimension is with the person’s need for structure. Most management jobs will at some time require an individual to “fly by the seat of his/her pants”. We’re concerned with the effect of this on the individual. Does he/she rely on his/her own resources when necessary or is he/she constantly seeking guidance and reassurance from his/her supervisors or coordinates? Some people depend very heavily on structure when they’re confronted with an unstructured situation. They

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will use rules that don’t actually apply and make them fit a given situation because they need the structure that the rules provide. They might also use past experiences, and again, those past experiences may not be entirely relevant to the present situation. They do this in an effort to impose structure on that situation. Many people enjoy uncertainty and they rise to the occasion and thrive in an unstructured climate. Again, what we are looking for is the person’s ability to function effectively in the face of an unstructured situation.

INNER WORK STANDARDS: To what extent does the individual want to do a good job even if a less good job is acceptable to his/her boss?

Inner work standard is a very individual’s own personal standards which should be used to gauage that person’s inner work standards, not the standards of some else. In other words, we are concerned with how important it is to that

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individual to always do his/her best. For example, a C student in school who is trying his/her very best, but only gets C’s, might be considered high in inner work standards. You don’t need to get A’s to be high in inner work standards. Another example would be the individual who is painting a set of shelves. That person knows no one will ever see the bottom of the shelf, but he/she paints that bottom shelf anyway. Everybody’s ability is different, and our concern is with whether the person does his/her best and works to the limits of his/her capabilities. An individual who is very capable and does okay but could do better might be rated lower on this dimension than the individual who is only mediocre but is working his/her very hardest. So you can’t strictly look for the quality of the end product. It's the quality of the product in relation to the person’s ability that gives us information on inner work standards. Now, in an extreme case you might have a perfectionist who is so high in inner work standards

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that it impedes that person’s effectiveness in getting work done. He or she might be so meticulous in attending to detail and in doing a thorough, precise job that nothing really gets accomplished because he/she gets bogged down in the detail. This is a case where we would still give the person a high rating in inner work standards but we would have to realize that this could reduce that person’s overall management effectiveness to some extent. This does not mean that a perfectionist would always be ineffective; obviously there are individuals who are very meticulous and attend to detail and are very concerned with doing a thorough and good job and can do so effectively.

ENERGY: To what extent can this individual continuously sustain a high level of work activity?

What we are really looking for in this dimension is the activity level of the individual. Most jobs are fairly demanding in the energy which they require to perform and our

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concern with this dimension is to what extent the individual is able to put in a good day’s work without getting run down. We might look for evidence of low energy in the person who in the early part of the afternoon starts to run down a bit and by the end of the day is just dragging his/her ‘tail’ so much that he/she is ineffective. Obviously, you have to consider the person’s physical health as a possible effect on the energy level, but we are looking for the extent to which the individual can sustain a high level of activity. We are not terribly concerned with whether the energy is goal directed and productive. A person could be extremely energetic and ‘wheel spin’ and really get nothing done, but if he/she is able to do that continuously, then give the person credit for having a lot of energy. Later on when you talk about the person’s overall potential you might want to bring out this distinction between high energy-productive vs. high energy-‘wheel spinning’. But we still should not detract from the statement that the

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person who ‘wheel spins’ does have high energy.

PRIMACY OF WORK: To what extent does this individual find satisfactions from work more important that from other areas of life?

With this dimension we are not looking for the individual who puts work in front of everything else. Everybody has other interests and with very few does work rank most important, but we are concerned with whether or not the individual would rank work low on a priority list. In other words, when the chips are down would this individual put in the necessary hours, weeks, whatever, to get the job done? Is the person strictly 9 to 5 even though the job might require more than 9 to 5 from time to time? If the individual is not willing to put in the time, then we might start to question just how important work is. Possibly, one of the more significant ratings on this dimension would be the person who is very low. This could be very

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descriptive and could tell us that everything else seems to come before work in this person’s life and as the demands of the job increase the need for this individual to devote more of his/her time to the job, the likelihood of that person devoting his/her time would not be too great. Therefore we might rate primacy of work low for that individual.

ORGANIZING AND PLANNING: To what extent can the individual effectively organize and plan his/her work?

Perhaps a useful distinction between organizing and planning is that they both reflect the same basic kind of activity but organizing has a present orientation whereas planning implies a future orientation. In this dimension we are concerned with whether the person can separate the wheat from the chaft; in other words, can he/she identify problem areas and take steps to resolve them, and can he/she realize when certain things are relatively unimportant and should not receive a

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lot of attention? Considering the way individuals go about their work, do they have a plan of attack which appears rational, or does it appear haphazard? We are concerned with whether or not the individual is able to see relationships between events and plan accordingly, or whether he or she does not perceive relationships and gets into conflict situations because of it. We are also concerned with whether the person can plan and organize the work of other people when necessary. This would certainly be an important ingredient in being an effective leader. We would be looking for whether or not the individual is methodical in how he/she goes about doing things. Does he/she have well worked out plans? Is he/she aware of the possible consequences of various actions? Does he/she perform effectively through good organizing and planning of his/her work. DECISIVENESS: To what extent is this individual willing to make decisions? With this dimension we

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are looking purely for a quantitative aspect to the person’s behavior and that is: does this person make decisions? Or are things always delegated up the line or down the line or postponed. This is strictly a case of how decisive is the individual. We are not concerned here with whether the decisions the person makes are high quality or not, but rather with whether the person makes decisions and is not afraid to make decisions when it is appropriate to do so.

QUALITY OF DECISIONS: To what extent does this individual make reasonably high quality decisions?

In this dimension we ARE concerned, obviously, with the nature of the actual decisions made. We would be concerned with whether the ‘hip shooter’ does so without any insight at all into the possible consequences of his/her actions. Does the individual consider the long-range implications and consequences or even the short range or immediate consequences of acting

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one way or another? Frequently, a given situation could be handled in a variety of ways in terms of the decisions that an individual might take, and any of the decisions might be good, but the important thing is to find out what the individual’s rationale was behind the decision made. If that rationale is good and clear cut and logical, if possible consequences have been considered and many of the conditions taken into account, then that decision might be high quality.

CREATIVITY: To what extent is the individual able to solve a management problem in a novel way, departing from book solutions?

Essentially what we are concerned with in this dimension is whether or not an individual’s actions plans or suggestions are likely to arouse interest on the part of other people. Do they arouse enthusiasm? Or does the person generally conform to book solutions which are fairly mundane and uninteresting and, even though they might be rather

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effective, aren’t really creative? Again we are not concerned with the effectiveness of the given action, but with whether or not it seems to represent a fair amount of creative ability.

WRITTEN COMMUNICATION SKILLS: To what extent can this individual present an effective written report?

Again, as with oral communications, we are more concerned with the style of a written report then with the content of that report. Is it clearly and concisely worded? Does it effectively convey the message? Does the individual make good use of grammar, syntax, and punctuation so that the report is written in a pleasing manner? Or is it written so haphazardly that it is actually painful to read? You should consider such things as whether or not you understand what the individual is trying to communicate to you in writing in deciding the person’s written communication skills. Essentially, we are looking for a person’s ability to effectively and

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accurately convey his/her thought in writing in a clear, concise business format.

Assessment

For assessment of the presence and the degree of presence of these dimensions in a person we would have to use personal interviews, behavioral exercises, written tests.

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List of publications by Mr. M.U. Jayadeva de Silva

Why people stay away from ‘Hayley News’ January 1990

What an employer looks for in a young graduate? ALGSG news letter issue No.1 August 1991

Companies Training Programmes Summary Report of the Proceeding of the National Meeting on Human Resources Development Through Dual Training 1997

Managing People’s Talents – The Island 23.05.92

Quality is in People – PIM conference on Management Studies 1992.

Art of strategic management & thinking. International institute of Strategic Management conference – Colombo 1993.

Human Resources Development for Small & Medium Scale industry in the private sector 93 –Paper presented at a Seminar organised

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by the Institute of Chemistry of Ceylon.

Creativity Techniques for improving quality circle Activities” –National Quality circle convention 1995

“Counselling – A Method to Understand your Employees” –IPM News letter Vol. Sec VII 1995

“Cogniculture as a New Tool for Business Development – Paper present at the Golden jubilee of the Sri Lanka Association for the advancement of science 1995

“A Diagnostic Chart for Human Resources Managers” –IPM News Letter – Vol 1 Secxvii 1996.

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Extras

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“SYNOPPOR” – A New Thinking Tool to Discover Opportunities

“Synoppor” is the name we have given to a new Management Development exercise. Usually, when a problem stares up in the face we set about solving it. We may even spend time clarifying and redefining a confusing problem. Alternatively it is suggested that a new approach of proactive problem finding be adopted.

This requires us to look for problems and search for things that could be improved or to look for new things that need to be done. By perceiving such needs one can create a “Problem of satisfying those needs.”

Looking back from the vantage point of history, an idea may become obvious only after it has been found. An opportunity may be staring us in the face only after we have succeeded in seeing it. The steps leading to a disaster may be visible only in retrospect. The ingredients

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of success may be discernible only at a later date. Once you have got to the top of the mountain it may be easy to see the best way up. Something, which may be easy to see in hindsight, may have been invisible at the time.

The newly developed Management Development exercise “Synoppor” meaning synthesis for opportunities is a tool to help manager to identity opportunities that are not visible.

Please contact the author of the book for details.

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Common Training Terms

Actuals - current of job performance

Algorithmic skills – procedural skills that can be learned according to set rules and methods

Apprenticeship training – An approach whereby trainees (“apprentices”) are matched up with more experienced workers (“masters”) to learn a particular operation or technical skill.

Behavioral modeling – Demonstration of idea behaviour, usually in teaching interpersonal skills.

Case studies – Complex situation which trainees discuss and for which they try to find solutions.

Coaching - A manager or trainer giving active advice on real problems

Cognitive skills – Mental skills not involving specific action or procedures

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Computer-based training – Training in which the computer is the source of instruction

Computer-managed training – Training in which the computer tracks and administers the training.

Critical mass – The concept of training enough employees from a work group to support skills transfer on the job.

Cross training - Training an employee in a related job skill so he or she ca fill in for a co-worker

Demonstration – Enactment of desired behaviour, usually in psychomotor skills training.

Drill - Repeated practice of simple skills

Experiential training – Training which encourages the learner to use life experience as an integral part of the training.

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Feedback - Any information that tells trainees how they are performing, either in practice situations or on the job.

Flip charts - Written presentation aids that are displayed to the entire audience

Heuristic skills – Skills for which there are no set steps to follow, only general concepts and procedures

In-basket training - A method for practising complex management skills by making decisions about actions and priorities based on a stack of memos, reports, letters, etc.

Job aid - Any written instructions, charts, diagrams, maps, etc. which help a trainee apply learned skills on the job.

Job rotation - A management development technique in which a person moves to another job for the purpose of broadening his or her experience

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Macro training needs - skills needed by a large group, as when a new product or new management system is introduced

Mentor – An experienced manager or employee assigned to oversee a new employee’s orientation to job duties and company culture

Micro training needs - Skills needs by an individual to make up for specific weaknesses or gaps in knowledge

Needs analysis - Systematic investigation of performance deficiencies and potential training remedies

On-the-job training - Any training, which takes place in real work situation during operating hours

Optimals - Definitions of ideal performance

Performance improvement consultants

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An alternate title for trainers, to take into account their wider purpose of solving performance problems in the most effective way possible

Performance improvement opportunity (PIO) - Any situation where there is a gap between desired and actual performance

Performance standards - Formal descriptions of optimals, used to measure employee behaviour

Pre-training – training in background knowledge that is not job-specific

Programmed instruction - self-study in which trainee participates and receives immediate feedback; trainee is led through repeated information and regularly tests himself

Psychomotor skills - skills that involve physical action

Recentralization - An approach combining elements of both

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centralized and decentralized training Retraining - Training employees for jobs significantly different from their current jobs.

Role play - mock situations which are acted out by trainees or others to illustrate interpersonal dynamics.

Self-study - learning in which the instructor is not immediately present.

Seminar - Advanced study in a small group with participation by trainees

Shadowing - A situation in which a trainee accompanies a more experienced colleague in an on the job situation to observe and learn from that person’s behaviour

Simulation - Extended role-playing, usually involving teams; or, a computerized situation with which the trainee can interact

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Subject matter experts(SMEs) - Either technicians or top rated performers on the job who pass on skills and information to trainees

Task analysis - Evaluation of the steps and skills needed to perform a job or part of a job

Transfer - Application of learned skills to on the job performance

Trigger - Specified job situation that elicits learned behaviour.

Vestibule training - Training carried out on actual equipment but not involving production.

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NOTES

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About the Author - Mr. Jayadeva de Silva.

Mr. De Silva an old boy of Ananda college, received his University education in Russia & holds a masters degree in science from Russian Friendship University. He received his Diploma in Personnel Management from NIBM and is a Fellow Member of the Institute of Personnel Management( Sri Lanka)

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Mr. Jayadeva de Silva received specialized training in TQM in Japan & has studied training systems in Australia, Singapore, Indonesia & Mauratius as a member of a World Bank appointed study team. He had also attended the General Management programme conducted jointly by Stanford University(USA) with National University of Singapore, among many local & foreign training programmes.

He has wide experience in management training had authored several papers in management. Currently, He is the Director Human Resources for Browns Group of Companies.

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