HR in organisations
M.S.S.Varadan
HR CAN WIN: K. Suresh Kumar; Excel Books, A-45, Naraina Phase I, New Delhi-110028. Rs. 175.
This book is a compendium of the author’s experiences as a human resources (HR) professional. It is built around a narration of incidents in his work life in the form of cases. The overriding emphasis is on a sound human relations approach to organisational problems. It also includes a paper on career development. The cases cover different aspects such as improvement of customer relations, employee relations, employee involvement in quality efforts, developing clarity of roles in a growing organisation, performance management systems, 360 degree feedback system, tackling the ego of top executives and dealing with statutory authorities.
Work teams
The industrial relations scene in Kerala is generally acknowledged to be a challenging one. The chapter “Industrial Harmony Through Patriotism” deals with how a difficult situation of strained management-union relations was tackled through an innovative approach. The case of reorganising the work teams in the chapter “Toonz Animation”, which has received awards, is an interesting one of a hi-tech firm where the HR had played a crucial role in bringing about greater role clarity among team members and improving their creative productivity.
The chapter on performance tracking for managerial efficiency deals with the age-old problem of performance appraisal or the lack of it in organisations! The end note sums it all: “In today’s reality, organisations are trying to implement third generation strategies with second generation structure through first generation people.”
An amusing but practical chapter relates to how a senior executive felt ignored when not called upon to light the traditional lamp in a function. The paradigm shift from “organisation centric” career development to “individual centric” has been well brought out. The traditional idea has to take a back seat, as brought out tellingly: “Today and tomorrow’s knowledge workers have one main career concern; they want to increase their marketability in the labour market. They do so by adding to their knowledge and skills and keeping them right, up to date. Their career is a professional one between organisations and not a managerial one within them.”
Creative appraoches
The need for HR people to be “business partners” and to develop rapport with a cross section of people in the organisation has been brought out. Though the concepts outlined are fairly well known, creative approaches in utilising them and achieving the breakthrough in difficult situations have been appropriately emphasised.
The book could very well do with some editing to avoid numerous spelling and grammatical errors that have crept in. The chapter “Transformation Journey through 360 degree feedback”, loaded with statistics, could have been made more reader friendly. The last chapter “Career Growth” carries with it a similar problem. Cases could have been grouped and classified into main facets of HR for better comprehension. On the whole it is a commendable effort and would enthuse other HR practitioners also to document their experiences for the benefit of the HR community as a whole.
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