HRM Challenges in Today\'s Organizations All Organizations

HRM Challenges in Today's Organizations

All organizations require employees to make them a success and this function is considered as important as finance, machinery and land for running the organization successfully. The important point to note here is that individuals all have different temperaments and working methods, and some people in the organization are responsible for making them all work together. This is the job of the human resources department which is otherwise known as the personnel department. If an organization is not staffed correctly then it ends up loosing the economy of scale that it should have got also the maximum possible customers and profits.

On the other hand, if there are too many people then there is a lot of financial liability if they are retained, and when they are laid off, there are financial implications from redundancy payments. If the organization cannot do manage its own staff then a lot of funds will be required for the needed consultation and needed action. The people to be removed cannot be removed immediately as there are some minimum periods of notice that has to be given. Thus there are a variety of problems. The problems that have been discussed are only the problems regarding the number of people as that is what we have to discuss.

At the same time, the importance of the human element is different in different types of organizations. In certain sectors the function of human element is the most important, and these are the service sector organizations. With the development of manufacturing technology, the number of direct shop floor workers is getting less, and the greater emphasis is now on making people happy through proper service to them. Yet, in many parts of this industry, the turnover is very high, and this is causing a lot of cost. The objective of this paper is to find out the reasons for the departure of people from these organizations so that corrective measures can be taken to reduce the high turnover. At the end of the exercise, it is expected that we shall be able to find out some reason as to why the people develop a sense of dissatisfaction, and then decide to leave the organization or the circumstances under which the employees are compelled to leave the organization.

There has to be some methods to measure this dissatisfaction so that we can go ahead and stop the dissatisfaction from happening. So far as the other reasons, for employees being compelled to leave an organization, it may be different, like policies of the government or a better profit to be earned by the proprietors. It is still important to know why the employees are being compelled to leave. This was viewed to be very important before the last elections for President, but is not being considered to be so important now. At the same time, the general financial conditions do not seem to have improved. Our research will thus be concentrated on methods of measurement of employee dissatisfaction, the reasons for the same and whether this is resulting in a high employee turnover. In any organization aimed at customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction should be an important function.

Prior Research

The direction of this research is on the reasons why employees continue to work or do not work at their best after they have been employed by the organization for long durations. This can be found through a continuous study and review of the financial, psychological and physiological rewards that the employees receive when they are working. Hours of work are determined by the national level agreements or government decisions. A lot of other factors in the salaries and working hours of the workers are decided through local negotiations and similar matters. To the workers these are probably as important as the other part of the compensation. It has to be understood that the number of employees needed depends on the achievement of individual workers and that is the reason why good personnel policies are beneficial for the organization. The achievements also depend on other conditions like environment, welfare, employee benefits, etc., but first and foremost is that the wages must be accepted as fair and just. The development of behavioral science is leading to a situation where the limitations of money as being the prime motivator are being questioned, and this is leading to the mobile and multi-skilled employees laying more stress on things like job satisfaction, involvement, participation, etc. (Employee Evaluation)

There is only one professional association for accounting technicians in England and they have recently conducted a study among their students who were directly supported by their employers. It was seen that the students supported by their employers are the group which achieves better results in their scheme of educational research and training as also in the examinations for the other qualification. The direct support and link with employers and the training center provide an invaluable net of support that helped the students. To find out the reasons for success, the organization approached many employers with more than 250 employees. It was expected that there will be many different answers to the questions, but there was a clear trend that emerged in the answers. The respondents who are using the skills of their accounting technicians to the full extent and constituting 40% of the organizations interviewed had the most satisfied employees. The concerned students also performed the best. The other group of 60% is not utilizing the potential of the employees. (Accounting Technicians in 2001)

The next important point was to find out the biggest problems that were being faced by the organizations today and the problems which came out at the top of the list were meeting internal and external customer service requirements and the impact of new technology and its use expanding rapidly. Apart from that were the changes in laws, shortage of skills and e-commerce. These were important and cannot be neglected. It is clear that one of the most significant issues for all organizations is the introduction of new IT systems. The public sector organizations also emphasized that they must get value for the money that they spent. The relationship of money spent and efficiency of the employee is an important consideration for all organizations. (Accounting Technicians in 2001)

While it is clear that technical know-how is required, it is seen by users of accounting technicians that there is requirement of need of further skills. The skills which are felt to be important are personal effectiveness in terms of communication and time management, IT skills, development of skills in project management, staff management and supervision and operations management. This is a matter of continuing training to employees for the purpose of updating them with technological changes and this is another aspect that must be pursued. This is an area of research which has shown clearly that when human resources are satisfied, they produce better results, and it is up to the management to provide them resources so that they can meet the new challenges. (HR growth: what you need to know about the changes in HR?)

In another are we have to see the development of human resources practice unit of Korn/Ferry International at Dallas. This organization directly places human resources executives at the highest levels and the ones at middle management come from its subsidiary called Futurestep. According to the chief of the human resources practice unit of the organization, Greg Hessel, "We consider our human resources practice as the second-highest priority, second to our CEO and board of directors' practice. We have 20 people worldwide dedicated to the human resources practice, with the United Kingdom, Mexico, Latin America, and the U.S. [as] the most active markets." (HR growth: what you need to know about the changes in HR?) Thus it is clear that the organization considers the practice of human resources as very important. (HR growth: what you need to know about the changes in HR?)

Through practice, this organization was able to discover the importance of human resources function to its total activity, and it realized this further when the total activity of the organization remained steady even when the economic situation turned bad. The company did not loose its total requests for service, though that was the result in many other organizations in the industrial areas, technology or even retail sales. At the same time, when the situation became difficult, it was seen that the job of the human resource person became more difficult. The organization realized that some of their members were not capable of becoming business partner executives even though that was the role for which they were destined. Here there was no shortage of satisfaction in terms of money or any other benefits, and the obvious question comes as to the reason of this failure. (Advances and challenges in human resource management in the new millennium)

The problem that was seen after study was that the concerned persons did not have the required talent. This resulted in those executives being replaced with others who were more capable. It was just a process of replacing talent. The losses of staff were even at senior levels and that meant the senior leadership teams became smaller. This ended up putting more pressure on the general human resources to deliver the requirements for the clients. They had to work in better and more efficient ways. This shows that motivation is not limited to the position or benefits that one provides but is also linked to the individual capacity. Sometimes the individual capacity is forgotten or ignored due to the background of the individual, but that is only an injustice to the individual. One has to look at the capacity of the individual to develop before giving him more responsibility. Remember C.N. Parkinson? That is what happens in many cases and this particular experience only showed that.

After having looked at some situations where the placement or recruitment of human resources was relatively easy, let us look at a case where placing them becomes a very difficult exercise. This is about some executives and the location is Sao Paulo in Brazil. About 850 executives there had been released by various organizations and they had come to Catho Institute for being placed in other organizations. Catho Institute is a professional outplacement center and they were expected to be able to do it without major difficulties. There were not many difficulties about the salaries and benefits that these executives were earlier enjoying, as it was in line with the standards of the industry in Brazil. The only thing with these executives was that they wanted to re-enter the job market, after having been in some organizations, and apparently quite comfortable there for some considerable length of time. (Advances and challenges in human resource management in the new millennium)

The experience of the firm gave us an insight into the present day expectations of employers. Of the total group it was easy for roughly half to be placed very easily in different organization. They also received salaries and other benefits as per their desires and expectations. The balance were still not been placed. This provided a natural reason for the outplacement organization to try to find out the reasons for this. It was soon found that this group may have to wait for quite some time, as they are not meeting the expectations of employers. The characteristics of this group have not been found to be satisfying -- eighty percent of this group has not read even one book in their area of specialization during the last one year. In short, they have not kept pace with the changes that have been taking place, and that is very important for any employee so that the employee can provide service of the type required by the employer. (Advances and challenges in human resource management in the new millennium)

The deficiency is not only in terms of reading books, but in total development as a manager. They have not attended any job-related training program, seminar or workshop. This was the experience of ninety-five percent of them. As much as seventy-five percent of these persons do not have any knowledge of computers. Knowledge about computers is probably one of the requirements of an executive now. A lot of information for any job is now transferred through the computer, both in terms of receiving information and sending reports. Another large section of seventy percent does not speak any language other than their mother tongue and this is a requirement in Brazil. They should know English, French or Spanish. According to experts in Brazil, it will be a long time before these executives get a job at a level that they had been employed in earlier.

One has to remember that the world is changing and for some the pace of change is very high. This change has to be recognized and individuals have to try their best to keep pace with the change so that they are up-to-date. It is important that all employees are informed of the world around us as that will help them react to reactions from other individuals. When an individual does not realize the change they become part of a group that is being left behind and thus they will be left just watching events happen from the side. They will not be a part of the events. This has to be recognized, and all individuals trying to be in the job market must remain in line with the world. (Advances and challenges in human resource management in the new millennium)

The next study that we are considering is one that was done in East Carolina University. There as much as 40% of the grounds workers, library clerks, patient representatives and medical records clerks were not satisfied with the existing performance management system. This dissatisfaction existed though the largest portions of these employees received very good and outstanding evaluations from the system. This is surprising as normally dissatisfaction may have been expected from only 5% of the employees who had received ratings from the system as being below the level of 'good'. (Performance Appraisal Systems, Productivity, and Motivation: A Case Study)

The other cause of dissatisfaction may have come when employees who are not so good received very high ratings and the others came to know about it. This undeserved ranking also may be a reason for irritation and resulting dissatisfaction. This means that when a worker has worked very hard to receive a ranking of very good knows that there are 10 other workers who have also received a ranking of being very good may end up being dissatisfied when he knows that the others are not so good. Remember the irritation may not be with the organization, but with the system. Another group of employees may be dissatisfied with the system as they may have received a ranking at a high level, but the corresponding financial benefit that they received may not be felt to be enough. (Performance Appraisal Systems, Productivity, and Motivation: A Case Study)

Regarding the supervisory level, none seemed to be dissatisfied with the system, and their satisfaction also provided an adequate support for the system as they are part of the system in giving ratings to the employees. Thus they have to be satisfied to enable their participation in the system. This view point is important not only for the supervisors who gave a ranking below good to 5% of the employees but for the entire range of supervisors who evaluated all the workers. Even when the employees believe that they have not got as good a ranking as they deserved, the supervisor must be satisfied with the system to give a proper ranking. It is quite likely that many of the employees felt that they deserved better rankings, though there were as many as 71% among the employees who received a ranking of outstanding or good. It has to be understood that the working conditions have little variation and under such a condition it is difficult to motivate employees.

There are many reasons for the satisfaction or dissatisfaction of supervisors. It does not always depend on the number of employees the supervisor is satisfying or the amount of time the supervisor is spending on developing plans. The quality of supervisors has made them find ways to reduce the total amount of time that they require to work within the system. Some of the supervisors have found ways in which they can work within the same basic plan for years together. Others ask the employees to prepare essays that the supervisors use as part of the appraisal at the end of the year. They also make notes of the quality of work done by different employees and that also may form the basis of the difference in appraisals. (Performance Appraisal Systems, Productivity, and Motivation: A Case Study)

The question is whether these techniques that have improved efficiency been at the cost of effectiveness. It should also be checked whether supervisors re-examine work plans and adjust the plans as employees' knowledge, skills, and abilities. When those improve along with their development needs then the question comes as to how the supervisors will take care of the change. At the same time, it is not that all employees are motivated only by the factors that do not relate to the existing performance system. A large part of the employees are motivated by some factors that are not related to the existing systems of performance management. Many of the employees are motivated on their own either due to their personal qualities or the sheer enjoyment that they have with their work.

Another source of motivation is the pay that these employees get. This also tells us that if there is not enough provision for enough pay, then these employees will cease to have enough interest in their work. These workers need increases in pay probably both as a financial reward and also as a symbol of recognition. When those are absent, then the university will risk loss of employees and incur large expenses for replacing those particular employees. When the question came to supervisors, almost as many as 90% of them felt pay to be the main motivator. Along with this were the importance of recognition and prestige as motivators and the fear that they would loose their importance over a period of time. This means that there has to be provisions for increase of remunerations based on credit over a period of time, as the employer is likely to loose these valued employees over a period of time. They are also a group that will be difficult to replace. (Performance Appraisal Systems, Productivity, and Motivation: A Case Study)

There is also a belief by two thirds of the total employees that the University needs to improve the methods of communication of its policies and procedures to the staff. There is no direct relationship of these procedures to the ratings of employees; there are some links of compliance with procedures in certain work plans. This is how it is related to the mission of the university and productivity of the employee. The satisfaction of the employees does not appear to be related to the policies and procedures in force in the university. The satisfaction of employees is related directly to their perception that the procedures being adopted are fair and that there is adequate amount of trust and satisfaction between them and their supervisors. The results show that there is no direct difference in ratings on account of race or sex among the employees. (Declining job Quality here to stay)

Thus a high section of employees should feel that the system is fair, yet only 36% of the employees feel that the system is fair. This judgment should be taken as a limited judgment since this was a case study and the results are based on a sample, yet there seems to be a need to improve the performance. Whether the results received from this study is accurate or not can be judged only with a study based on a larger sample and that would confirm or refute the results of this study. At the same time, there are benefits in improving the system and this would come in the form of better employee satisfaction and productivity. These benefits should be far greater than the procedure and costs of implementing changes at both internal and external levels.

When changes are considered, they have to be implemented at both internal and external levels. The methods of internal changes would be to improve the methods of communications of the policies of the university, procedures to be followed within the university, the mission or the vision of the university that is communicated and general improvement of the work plans. So far as external changes are considered there has to be consideration of funding priorities with the acceptance by the legislature and what that means in simpler terms is making a provision for merit pay. Ultimately it is the pay which is the motivator for the employee to produce better productivity and also continue with the organization. (Declining job Quality here to stay)

Another study was done roughly three years after the end of the official recession in 2001, and yet there was not sufficient concern about the economy though one could expect that citizens would like to know how far the position has improved. A research was completed by Pew Research in Early August of 2004 and the results of that study showed that economic conditions were poor or at best fair. Time had conducted a study at that time, and the study had shown that economy was the main concern of the voters during the poll again in the first week of August. The voters had a lot to think about at that time with a lot of terror reports. Even the report for July as released by the Labor department had shown an increase of only 32,000 new jobs in July.

Along with that was the information that wages have been dropping every month from November 2001 and the real wages were less than the wages at that time. There were a large number of Americans who had lost jobs at that time where they had been working for quite some are now with other jobs, if they are fortunate enough, but they still earn less what they were earning then, after considering the impacts of inflation. The other benefits enjoyed by American workers have also fallen and the share of Americans who had employer provided health insurance has fallen by four percent during this period from 2001 to 2003. Now less than 25% of the workers are guaranteed a pension by their employers. The question to be considered is whether the workers have lost interest in their jobs due to the loss of benefits? (Declining job Quality here to stay)

There have also been large number of job losses and from January 2001, there has been a loss of 2.7 million jobs as decided by the manufacturers, and this drop was large than the drop that had taken place in previous 22 years. Apart from the losses in manufacturing jobs, there was a loss of 850,000 professional and information services jobs. These jobs were expected till a few years earlier to compensate American workers for the jobs in manufacturing that they had lost. These were the jobs for the 21st century. It is not that the salary levels have gone down, and the hourly salaries for manufacturing workers were more than $16. For workers in information, the average hourly wage was more than $21, and for professional and business services workers it was more than $17.

The question then comes back as to why there were so many job losses and what was the impact of these job losses on the persons who suffered most from it -- the workers. One of the given reasons is that the rising trade deficit was the reason for the loss of nearly 1 million jobs lost in manufacturing. This is the opinion of the Economic Policy Institute. According to another group of experts, Goldman Sachs, there was a large portion of the jobs lost in America were really shipped to countries outside of America. These were in the area of professional services and information and the number of jobs was around 600,000. The details are also available for these losses, and it is said that software jobs were cut to the extent of 154,000 for the period of 2000 to 2002. While the jobs were being lost in United States, it is said that there was an addition of 150,000 jobs in India in the software export sector. This was during the period from 1999 to 2003. (Declining job Quality here to stay)

Of the total jobs, 100,000 were on account of export production which was to go to United States. Another analysis has put the figure for jobs sent to India at 140,000 for 2003 alone. It may be that the point being discussed is not directly concerned with the employees, who had lost their jobs, let us consider the wages of the workers in America and India. For the workers who do the same work in India, the payment made to the worker is between $2 and $4. We have just seen earlier that the wages of the American worker was $21. Considering the large number of workers involved, it is certain that the money involved is of the order of $4 billion for 100,000 workers. Is this the reason? (Declining job Quality here to stay)

According to the figures from the Labor Department, more than half the workers who had lost their jobs during the period of January 2001 and December 2003, and were able to find new positions were still earning less than what they were earning earlier. Their salaries were $572 a week which was now reduced to $581 and that is a reduction of 16%. Another group of one-third the workers are now earning about 20% less than what they were earning before. The same trend is also seen in the low salaried jobs like temporary help, in restaurants, retail outlets and building services. In earlier periods these jobs constituted 22% of the jobs outside the farm sector, but now for the new jobs that are opening up, they are about 44%. Compared to this, the openings in the high wage sector which were 24% of all employment earlier are now only 29% of the new employment opportunities that have come. There was also an analysis of household members of all households as to whether they were looking for work between February and June 2004.

Then a comparison was made of the part-time work and full time work and it was seen that 97% of the new employment was in the area of part-time work. The number of jobs that are going to go overseas is 1.1 million, or 2.1% of all jobs as per the estimate of Forrester by 2007. According to Gartner Inc. The jobs that have already moved abroad by 2004 are one in ten so far as the jobs with United States information technology vendors and service providers. The numbers of jobs that have already moved abroad are expected to double by another ten years according to economy.com. This will mean a shift of about 600,000 jobs in a year. (Declining job Quality here to stay) The workers are clearly seeing the movement of these jobs, and some of them are victims of this shift, and that may be due to their lack of competence or suitability to the job. This is bound to affect them so far as their psychology to work is concerned. Should this be studied further?

Sources of Research Information

1. Name of author -- Not known

The title - Accounting Technicians in 2001

Place of publication -- England

Publishers -- AAT Company, UK

Date of publication -- 2001

2. Name of author - Milca Esdaille

The title - HR growth: what you need to know about the changes in HR?

Place of publication -- Internet

Publishers - Black Enterprise

Date -- June 2004

3. Name of author - Chiavenato, Idalberto

The title - Advances and challenges in human resource management in the new millennium

Place of publication -- Internet

Publishers- Public Personnel Management

Date - spring 2001

4. Name of author - Bonnie G. Mani, Ph.D.

The title - Performance Appraisal Systems, Productivity, and Motivation: A Case Study

Place of publication -- Internet

Publishers -- IPMA HR Organization

Date -- published recently, but study was done in 1993

5. Name of author -- AFLCIO

The title - Declining job Quality here to stay?

Place of publication -- Internet

Publishers -- AFLCIO

Date -- Labor Day 2004

Objectives of proposed research

It is clear that there have been a large number of people who have become unemployed or reemployed at lower levels during the last few years. At the same time, others and these individuals have to be kept interested in working. For those who like their jobs, this is not a problem, and any further incentives/interesting propositions will only build up their interests. Thus we view the challenge in today's human resource management in organizations to retain an interest in the organization and in a manner so that they are not continuously on the look out for other opportunities. Our objective through this research will be to determine the methods for improving the interest and attention of employees to the organization that they are employed in.

Methodology and Justification for Research

Though the aims of this research are clear, we now have to determine as to how this research will be done. The required information will have to be collected from organizations that have satisfied employees and the main effort will be to find out from the employers what their efforts have been to keep their employees happy. At the same time, the other side of the picture will also have to be seen. This is the final, resultant picture of the organization in the minds of the employees. Thus the method of the research is a two stage survey -- the first is a study among the employers of the methods they are using to keep the employees happy, and based on that there will be a study among the employees of the effectiveness of the plans of the employers. (Why Internet Job Searching is Popular)

Naturally the method of the survey will be through a set of direct questions. The first set will be asked to the management of the companies that will be considered to be good employers and those who are interested in the future of their employees. The next survey will be through a set of questions that will be asked to the employees of the organization. The attitudes of employees have changed and some determine, even prior to joining the organization that they will be there for a certain number of years. This was seen in a survey of MBA students worldwide conducted by Pricewaterhouse Coopers. In that survey, the students said that they wanted from their first job was that they get a good reference for their future career. (Why Internet Job Searching is Popular)

It is clear that many employees do not want to continue with their employers for very long periods and if an employer has a large number of such employees, then there will still be departures and necessary arrivals in the years to come, irrespective of all actions taken by the employer. In that survey there were only 20% of the students who wanted to stay with the employer for more than five years. Thus the average period of stay of such employees is not likely to be more than three of four years, as a large number will definitely leave the organization within five years. (Why Internet Job Searching is Popular)

The question remains as to what the employers can do to counter this trend? In the case of General electric, there was an announcement by the company that they would be taking on most of their new employees from the interns, co-ops and work study students who had already some dealings with the company. It was expected by them that since the employees already had some experience with the company they would know the company better and thus not join the organization with a predetermined decision to leave after a short period of stay. This is some sort of a desire to extend the period of stay through prior dealings, and though this was not the result of a survey among employers, yet it reflects a method used by employers to use employees for long periods.

There was a general opinion by some employees in April 2001 that they would hire 19% more college graduates than they had hired before. It is not that the employees required such a large number of personnel more, due to the growth or development of the organization, but they were providing for the departure of certain numbers among their own employees. On the other hand, the same employers expected to have 20% less graduates than the year before. This clearly shows the losses among employees expected even by renowned organizations. There are some opinions regarding the matter, and according to Peter Cappelli, Director of Wharton's Center for Human resources these are the ways in which a new labor market is emerging. That has not only changed the manner in which employees are hired or fired, but is also a reflection of the way those individuals look at their jobs, their employers and future careers. (Why Internet Job Searching is Popular)

This is not a position that has developed today, but one of the early studies in human resources management function in smaller organizations found that areas of accounting, finance, production and marketing were all given more important than human resources management. This was also often due to the reason that in small businesses the function was directly being handled by the proprietor himself so that he could be certain of the reactions of the employees to his ideas. In a small business a lot of ideas are unconventional as they have to change conventions to be able to move ahead faster than their competition. In many such cases there is no employment of full time human resources professionals within the organization. This may also be a method for the organization to save on its financial resources. At the same time, these methods of trying to manage human resource issues without engaging specialists may cause a lot of harm to the organization. (Human resource management in U.S. small businesses: A replication and extension)

This may not be understood immediately, but the effects will be seen in the long run. One of the main reasons for the failures of organizations is managerial incompetence as reported in the final analysis. One of the main areas where managerial incompetence is cited is the capacity in areas of human resources management. This may be in one of many areas like ineffective recruitment of personnel, inappropriate selection, poor or non-existent training, lack of incentives, lack of benefits, unfair rates for payment of salaries and other benefits and weak or non-existence of appraisal of performance by employees. Once again it shows clearly the benefits of having a clear and comprehensive policy for human resources management. Our study is not for direct evaluation of the management, but only to find out whether enough efforts are being made to communicate the viewpoint of the management to employees and whether employees are being able to understand the points that are being made. (Top management's perceptions of changes in HRM practices after union elections in small firms: implications for building competitive advantage)

For gaining competitive advantage also it is important to have proper management of human resources. This is an area where duplication of the advantage by competitors is very difficult, if not impossible. It is possible for competitors to get facilities for the same advantages from other aspects like plant or equipments, or even in terms of product design, but human resources of one organization cannot be duplicated in any other. This has been seen in the case of many organizations like Wal-Mart, Southwest Airlines and Nucor Steel. (Top management's perceptions of changes in HRM practices after union elections in small firms: implications for building competitive advantage)

These organizations have earned very good returns from their investment through the use of their human resources, and this has been due to their very good systems of communication to the employees from the management and from the employees to the management. This is even more important in the case of small organizations as the human resources have to take a more active and direct role in the development of their resources and advantages. These organizations are in general more dependent on their human resource function than bigger organizations. To a certain extent the importance of the human element in organizations has been reduced in importance due to the concentration on profits and money. They have been viewed to be the principle reasons for the behavior of both institutions and individuals. This emphasis may have caused more harm than benefits. (Breaking the Barrier to Upward Communication)

Let us remember that all organizations which are viewed today as major organizations had begun as small entrepreneurships. When entrepreneurships are studied it is seen that they give a lot of importance to autonomy, independence, pursuing an avocation or calling, or vocation or an avocation, and utilizing experience they had gained. The first emphasis of such organizations is not on making money, though they may be making a good amount of money nevertheless. This is the position even today where a large number of jobs are being created due to the starting and development of a large number of businesses which have been created a short time ago. It can also be seen that a large number of jobs are available in America today within organizations that have not been set up for profits -- they are the public sector organizations.

It can even be said that values, mores of conduct and ethics are better guides to the behavior of humans within a proprietary venture. They are often not so much concerned about volumes as they often have limited capacity and are even willing to sell out when the business seems to have become remunerative and others are wiling to buy it over from them. The picture of profits is often more emphasized in movies about entrepreneurs, rather than among real life entrepreneurs. This is also a fact known among their employees, yet they are willing to leave the organization for reasons unknown, and that is what we want to find out. (Breaking the Barrier to Upward Communication)

It should not be a surprise that importance of human resources are not being given due importance within organizations. The biggest insistence of management has been on productivity being increased, profits being increased and the desirability of global communication and change for development of organizations. We have theories of management called management by objectives or results and the greatest emphasis of these theories is on the ends that an organization achieves from its functioning and not on the way it carries on about its business. What it means is that profits or the quantity of produced materials are the results of the functioning of an organization and personnel are part of the methods through which that end is reached. This leads to insistence on quantity over quality and profits over ethics.

The organizations want immediate paybacks against the investments and are not ready to wait to get into a situation where they will continue to get earnings over a long period of time. It is not this sort of an attitude was there even earlier as former Chrysler Corporation President Robert Lutz mentions in his famous book named as Guts about the story of the Dodge Viper. According to him as per the customer surveys and preferences the indication was that the Viper automobile should have never been built. Though these negative indications were there, the vehicle was finally built and this provided the source for the second turnaround for the company to go through. There are many chapters in the book with the objective of clearly highlighting these aspects. (Breaking the Barrier to Upward Communication)

Data and Information

Well any research in the form of surveys gives us a lot of raw data which has no meaning unless two major factors are taken into account. The first is that before the survey is conducted, the questionnaire must be prepared in a manner that is clearly understood by the persons to whom it is applied. Here the problem is made that two sides of a problem are to be viewed together and thus there will be two questionnaires which will have to be applied to two groups. The economic status of the two is different and to a large extent their culture and language are also different. In the present situation of large sections of employees being discharged and there being less likelihood of them being re-employed, whether with their original employers or other employers, they are likely to be cautious. (Motivating the Survivors of a Downsizing)

A large number of them also are not likely to be of original American origin and thus the concerned language is likely to be different. These are important points that have to be considered when the questionnaire is designed, as we shall otherwise end up with a lot of meaningless information. Whether the questionnaire is suitable should also be not decided on personal opinions of some individuals, but can be thoroughly tested out with pre-tests which give answers to the questions that are to be asked. If the answers are in line with expected results, then it is likely that the question is proper. On the other hand, sometimes the answers may be unrelated or totally off the mark, then it should be considered important enough to revise the questionnaire.

The collection of data in a correct manner is very important as when any employee survives a layoff, and then the person is left with many of the same negative emotions and beliefs as were instilled in those employees who were laid off. They usually go through a large number of negative emotions and beliefs about their work, about the competence of their management and in general about the company. There are many layoffs that have taken place even in companies that are in the business of modern matters. In March 2001 there was an announcement from Disney that they were about to slash 4,000 persons; there was an announcement from Proctor and Gamble that they would reduce 9,600 jobs and from Delphi Automotive Systems that they would lay off 11,500 persons. (Motivating the Survivors of a Downsizing)