The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : HR professionals urged to study their industry

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Tamil Nadu

HR professionals urged to study their industry

Staff Reporter

They must try to understand and solve workers’ problems

“MBA streams should be designed as to specialise in a single subject”
“Combination of subjects would deny the opportunity to specialise in a single area”

Tiruvannamalai: Human Resource (HR) professionals should study the process of industry in which they are working and try to understand and solve workers’ problems, N.N. Ragavachari, Senior General Manager (HR), TVS Lucas Ltd. said.

Speaking at Special Lecture Programme organised by Department of Management Studies, Dr. MGR Educational & Research Institute University at its Arani campus on Saturday, he said that it would be good if MBA streams were so designed as to specialise in a single subject. Though premier institutes like IIMs have MBA courses in single subjects such as finance, marketing, HR etc., in other institutes there was combination subjects in MBA courses such as HR & finance, marketing & finance and marketing & HR etc. Combination of subjects would deny the opportunity to specialise in a single area. However combinations such as HR & finance, marketing & finance would be relevant, he said.

“Some people think instead of doing C.A. one can do MBA (finance). By doing so they can save only one year but in terms of depth of knowledge one cannot match C.A. in matters of accounts” Mr. Ragavachari said.

“In the old days students have to wholly rely on class room teaching. On the contrary, now they have access to lot of information on any subject through internet. So, they can learn and update about changes taking place in industry with rapid pace. Change is here to stay always. If you don’t change yourselves accordingly you will be pushed behind. Subjects once viewed differently like economics, history and literature are gaining momentum now. Especially the country now needs more economists,” he said.

In the area of problem solving, Mr. Ragavachari sensitised future HR professionals among students of management that they would have to encounter accident investigation in factory, police cases with regard to grievous offences on the part of workers such as taking matches and cigarettes into factories especially of petrochemical or textile industry etc. HR professionals would have to solve even domestic disputes of workers, like the ones arising out of bigamy. To face these problems and solve them successfully, the professionals should thoroughly know the process of the industry, empathise with labourers and counsel them, he said.

A.C. Ravi, secretary, ACS group of colleges, presided over the function. Rector Jameel Ahammed and Dean R. Jayaraman were the others who gave speeches. K. Siva, Head, Department of Management welcomed the gathering.

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