Q 1: Borderless world, Diversity Management, and Knowledge power, are some of the overarching factors being encountered by the

Human Resource Mangers of 21st century business world. How do they affect the dynamics of Human Resource Management in todays organizations? Explain with examples from the organization you are familiar with or have been working for. Briefly describe the organization, you are referring to. Answer 1. Borderless world:At its core, the globalization of business refers to the free movement of capital, goods, services, ideas, information, and people across national boundaries. Markets in every country have become fierce battlegrounds where both domestic and foreign competitors fight for market share.

International marketing is undergoing a transformation to become integrated global marketing. The emphasis has shifted from understanding and explaining between-country differences to identifying transnational similarities; and from country-by-country functional adjustment of marketing mix elements to seeking global cross-functional integration. The emergence of integrated global marketing has a greater potential for theory development in international marketing as it is not contextually bound and thus can be generalized.

Effective global operations require a genuine equidistance of perspective. But even with the best will in the world, managers find that kind of vision hard to developand harder to maintain. Effects of Borderless World:Advancement in technology make possible to access any information from all corners of the world via Web, media, networking and etc. people can survey in any cases, like: what the tastes and preferences are in other countries, the styles of clothing now in fashion, the sports, and the lifestyles. In Japan, for example, leader (boss) can no longer keep the people in substandard housing because now they knowdirectlyhow people elsewhere live. In fact, ten million Japanese travel abroad annually these days. During 1988, nearly 90% of all Japanese honeymooners went abroad. This kind of fact is hard to ignore. The government now

seriously recognizes that it has built plants and offices but has failed to meet the needs of its young people for relaxation and recreation. So, for the first time in 2,000 years, their people are revolting against their government and telling it what it must do for them. This would have been unthinkable when only small, official elite controlled access to all information. There are four key trends that are influencing the emerging market potential: 1. Demographics: Overall world population growth is now concentrated in the developing world. Where industrial nations are facing an increasingly older population, the emerging markets remain young. The developed world comprises only 11% of the worlds population.

2. Governments: Many countries that once relied on centrally planned economies are becoming marketdriven. Industries that governments previously restricted to foreign companies are now opening to foreign investment. 3. Communications: Access to the emerging markets is increasing due to huge developments in communications technology such as the Internet and electronic commerce. Cyberspace represents a profound shift in the nature of communications as well as our perception of distance.

4. Urbanization: As infrastructure improvements are made, urban growth in the emerging markets will continue to explode. Simultaneously, the emerging markets' share of world imports will rise. Hence to overcome the dazzle, Companies must be equipped with the appropriate knowledge, information, and strategy to make its market forays successful. Example Most managers are nearsighted. Even though todays competitive landscape often stretches to a global horizon, they see best what they know best: the customers geographically closest to home. These managers may have factories or laboratories in a dozen countries. They may have joint ventures in a dozen more. They may source materials and sell in markets all over the world. But when push comes to shove, their field of vision is dominated by home-country customers and the organizational units that serve them. Everyoneand everythingelse is simply part of the rest of the world.

Not long ago, the CEO of a major Japanese capital-goods producer canceled several important meetings to attend the funeral of one of his companys local dealers. When a reporter asked him if he would have done the same for a Belgian dealer, one who did a larger volume of business each year than his late counterpart in Japan, the unequivocal answer was no. Perhaps headquarters would have had the relevant European manager send a letter of condolence.

After all, he was the head of a global organization, not just a Japanese organization. By violating the principle of equidistance, his attendance underscored distinctions among dealers. He was sending the wrong signals and reinforcing the wrong values. Poor vision has consequences.

However, this nearsightedness was not intentional. No responsible manager purposefully devises or implements an astigmatic strategy. But by the same token, too few managers consciously try to set plans and build organizations as if they saw all key customers equidistant from the corporate center. Whatever the trade figures show, home markets are usually in focus; overseas markets are not. There is no single best way to avoid or overcome nearsightedness. An equidistant perspective can take many forms. However, well trained manager that is knowledgeable and skilled can build a value system that emphasizes seeing and thinking globally is the bottom-line price of admission to todays borderless economy.

Honda, for example, has manufacturing divisions in Japan, North America, and Europeall three legs of the Triadbut its managers do not think or act as if the company were divided between Japanese and overseas operations. Indeed, the very word overseas has no place in Hondas vocabulary because the corporation sees itself as equidistant from all its key customers. At Casio, the top managers gather information directly from each of their primary markets and then sit down together once a month to lie out revised plans for global product development. 2. Diversity Management:"Diversity Management" is a strategy to promote the perception, acknowledgement and implementation of diversity in organizations and institutions. At the University of Vienna, diversity management is based on the idea that diversity opens up alternative ways of perceiving, thinking and acting and thus enriches the life of the academic community. Human beings differ in age, social and national background, gender, sexual orientation, physical and mental ability as well as religious belief and worldview. Diversity is a source of creativity and innovation that can provide the potential for future development and competitive advantage. Diversity and its potential is essential for the University as it satisfies the mandate of an institution of higher education to offer a broad range of teaching and learning opportunities to students and staff alike. Ensuring that diversity is made visible and fruitful remains a central concern of diversity management. In doing so, individual and structural representation of perception and appreciation may be reflected upon. This means that social, institutional as well as personal views and expectations are questioned: How do we provide for and/or perceive physically disabled people? How does our society treat homosexual, bisexual and transsexual people? Do women have equal career

opportunities? How people from two different generations would work? How does our society deploy older people?

Although schemata of perception and assessment make us feel secure by providing a structured view of the world, they may also cause discrimination if they remain rigid. Relying on a negative and rigidly stereotyped view of a person or group of persons may deprive this (group of) person(s) of equal opportunities. It may block their access to resources such as knowledge, money or decision-making power. Diversity management aims at reducing discrimination and promoting equal opportunities. Diversity Management Objectives The ultimate objective is for diversity to become a valued and institutionalized component of business processes in high-performance organizations. To support this objective, the diversity plan works to achieve:

Each objective must be qualitatively or quantitatively measured.

Diversity at all employment/occupational levels Achieve diversity levels that reflect the population of world at all employment levels and specifically, in policymaking positions. Cultural awareness Achieve a work environment that supports cultural diversity and uses the varied experiences of employees to create a high-performance organization. Diversity buy-in Achieve an organizational acceptance that views diversity as a competitive advantage in terms of achieving high performance and improving problem-solving techniques. Performance organization Ensure that the varied talents and experiences of all employees are contributing to and supporting the business operations of the organization.

Impact of diversity on productivity, quality of work life and bottom line All employees, no matter whom, no matter at what level, want to be treated with respect. They want to know that their employer values the work they do. Thats the most basic thing you must do in managing diversity. And when diversity is managed well, productivity and the quality of work life improve, so do stock prices. Researchers examined the effect on stock prices of announcements of U.S. Department of labor award for exemplary diversity programs and announcement of damage awards from the settlement of discrimination law suits. A company can easily spend $100,000 to get a meritless lawsuit alleging unfair discrimination tossed out before trial. And if a case goes to a jury, the fees sky rocket to $300,000; and often much higher. As we noted, diversity has evolved from being the correct thing to do to being the essential thing to do. Its a mistake, however, to think there is cookie cutter approach. Rather, the path to diversity success

must take into account each organizations unique goals, resources, number of employees, business locations, product lines, and customer bases. Example The strategy at Blahna Inc., it has finally gotten the message. The company is now using diversity management strategies to head off conflict and reduce turnover among employees it can ill afford to lose. Several years ago Blahna formed a 20 member committee for workplace diversity, chaired by a vice president. The committee was chartered to consider why women and minorities werent better represented at all levels of the organization. Although the company had a good record of hiring women and minorities, the committee discovered that turnover was two to three times higher for these groups than it was for white males. Sample exit interviews reveled that women and minorities left for culture related reasons for instance, because they did not feel valued in their day to day work or in their communities, did not have effective working relationship or did not sense that the work they were being given to do would lead to the fulfillment of their career goals. White males, on the other hand, left for business related reasons, such as limited opportunities for future advancement. As a result of this initial investigation, Blahna formed a 25 person diversity advisory committee. The committee developed a multipronged approach for dealing with diversity issue including building bridges with the broader community outside of the company. Within the company itself, a key strategy involved training conducted diversity consultants, hope and associates. To date, 60 percent of Blahnas 11000 employees have gone through a two day diversity seminar; 40 percent have gone through a more extensive six day training program as well. The premise of the training is that the more different you are, the more barriers there can be to working well together, explains Blahnas chief diversity officer. Training sessions dont offer advice on how to get along with Asian Americans, women, or other specific groups. Rather, the emphasis is on learning skills that will make it easier to relate to and communicate with others. A key part of the training offered by hope and associated is the implementation of a consulting pairs process the consulting pairs approach is designed to help trainees take what they have learned in training and apply it on the job. When a conflict which may or may not be related to diversity first arises between two peers or between a manager and employee, a consulting pair is called in to facilitate discussion and problem solving. The unique feature of this approach is that the consulting pair is selected to matches closely as possible the backgrounds of the individuals who are involved in the conflict. Of course, all proceedings are strictly confidential. The result? Ken Hartman is a happier guy these days. As president of one of Blahnas divisions, the 48 year old executive is a step away from honing the ranks of senior management. Life has changed for him since blahana stopped talking about values like diversity and began behaving that way.

3. Knowledge power:Information is a vital key to any organization, it can fetch from worker, employees, customer, business intelligent. It can be raw which need to be refined or readymade which can be used readily. Most of the giant companies have it different research and marketing department. There is a common misconception that market research initiatives are reserved only for marketing departments or product development teams. Many business professionals incorrectly assume that research is too cost-prohibitive or that they lack the expertise to conduct an effective survey effort on their own. In actuality, there are many ways to gather feedback and information to make your business or organization more successful. Perhaps the easiest, yet most powerful way, is using online surveys. Online surveys are easy to design and implement with minimal resources. When you utilize a full featured online survey application, you can conduct exhaustive research efforts without the expense and hassle of a third party. Using online surveys to gather business intelligence is a proven and cost efficient way to help your organization thrive. Here are some examples of how a company can increase its knowledge power: Customer Satisfaction & Retention Employee Feedback Product Development Pre & Post Event Evaluations Training & Education Evaluations Business Intelligence & Market Research Sales Leads Message Testing

Customer Satisfaction & Retention Online surveys get to the heart of your customer and illustrate how to better serve them. Understanding what your customers want and responding to their needs increases customer satisfaction, loyalty and attracts new customers. Improve the product user experience for your customers by consistently collecting their feedback. Use online surveys to ask customers about their experience with your customer service department. Ask specific questions to learn which customer service representatives are performing well and adding value to your organization since your customer service representatives are ambassadors for your organization so it is important to make sure that you are well represented. With online surveys, the feedback is instantaneous which allows you to make decisions quickly and effectively. Employee Feedback Satisfied employees are more productive and deliver better results, products and services for your organization. Satisfied employees are loyal to your organization and make for a positive company culture. Employees who are on the front lines want to share insight and

information with management to make processes more efficient, and ultimately make the organization more successful. Online surveys are the tool to help you obtain valuable feedback from your employees. The feedback can be anonymous - so you are guaranteed honest answers when you ask sensitive questions. Find out how to improve their working environment, what benefits would be most valuable or even when to have the next company happy hour. Online feedback gives human resource managers the information to increase employee morale, reduce employee turnover and maintain a positive work environment. Product Development Let your customers express their needs and give you their wish list. Allow them to them help you innovate. Let them tell you what pain points need to be addressed. An online survey gives customers the opportunity to voice their ideas and enables organizations to turn suggestions into revenue generators. Customers will appreciate your organization's desire to deliver what they want. Your outreach efforts for new products will also pave the way for an easy up sell opportunity. Think of your customer as an extension of your product development team and ask them what they need. Pre & Post Event Evaluations Surveying the attendees, exhibitors, sponsors, speakers, and volunteers is an essential tool event planners use to gauge event success. Their feedback provides a clear roadmap to improve future events. Through these surveys, you can find out what would encourage attendees and exhibitors to attend future events, what they didn't like about past events, and what they expect at future events. Why guess at what your attendees want and need when you can simply ask them before the event even starts?

Training & Education Evaluations Most organizations get feedback from their audience by distributing evaluation forms and pens. Evaluation forms typically ask the audience member if they thought the presenter was effective, if the training topic was valuable or if the material was challenging. Unfortunately, completed paper surveys are often given to an already time-starved administrative assistant, who then must manually enter all the responses into a spreadsheet and calculate the data. Processing these paper surveys is a painful process and many times the qualitative feedback is illegible due to the participant's handwriting style. With online surveys, the feedback is automated and the results are instantaneous. The data can be accurately analyzed in a variety of ways. Online survey tools can even store results so they can be compared to past and future evaluations. With this visibility, organizations can design and improve on training and education programs to consistently challenge participants. Business Intelligence & Market Research Online surveys are powerful tools used to gather information on industry trends, market segments, and used to analyze market developments. Through online surveys, you can determine who your real competitors and prospective customers are while obtaining supporting data for your next strategic move. Survey results are central to the development

of company goals and business models. A solid business plan should always include extensive market research.

Sales Leads An online survey is an innovative way for your organization to cultivate more sales leads. When surveying prospects, make the survey perform as a research and marketing tool. At the end of the survey, capitalize on the marketing opportunity by asking your respondents if they would like to receive more information about a product or simply redirect them to your web site. Capture as much contact information as possible while you have the attention of prospective clients and guide them into your sales funnel. You can use surveys to qualify prospects to ensure you and go after the best prospects first.

Message Testing For both qualitative and quantitative research, online surveys are the best way to handle a large group of respondents. It is no secret that telephone, mail, and focus group research methods are very expensive to launch. In addition, it takes most organizations over two months with dedicated resources to implement, input, and read results from a typical telephone or a mail research initiative. By the time the results are consolidated and processed from traditional research methods, you missed a marketing opportunity. Online surveys are easy to design and quick to execute - and results are immediate. When you select the right online survey solution, conducting surveys is quick, easy and economical. Example Garud Securities P. Ltd., a security company, was initiated as guard provider. Till date it 3000 security guards with Garud electronic security department and Garud Energy Department. Their services apart from security guards are CCTV surveillance, remote access, alarm system, GSM security panel system, CMS system, alternative energy system. They have been upgrading their services using two practices: 1. Employee feed back The company hires limited numbers of trained guards annually. Then it allocates them to particular institutions, organization and personnel. Allocated guards worked as per companys rules and regulation. Company has different department for patrolling, surveillance, bouncers. In every meeting, employees interest are share, questioner and suggestions are placed. 2. Customer suggestion: This is an essential part of communication of any organization. An organization should be customer oriented, so customers suggestion, hint, idea are essential factors to be consider while taking a decision. The head of departments, in regular basis, do make personnel interaction with every client (most of them were banks, finance companies and VIPs)

From both practices what they have found is physical security is not enough and reliable. In another hand, Union and politics in guard are two main threats to company. In such scenario, with help of employee feedback and customer suggestions, they decided to

expand. They added electronic security departments, which deal with cctv surveillance, alarm system, electronic equipment related to security. Soon after expansion their clients raise by 69%, because client were assure that system like cctv will be provide proof if any incident occur. Even if there is human error, clients were comfort due to alarm system and electronic security system. Soon afterward, clients demanded different security system as per their requirement, like glass break sensor, motion sensor, magnetic door sensor, and patrolling services. Hence a company needs information which can be generated from any source but it totally depends upon company whether, use it or not.

Q 2: Each employee in an organization performs various roles. Role perception of a manager and an employee make a complex web as they interact. Elaborate this statement in the light of socialization factors in organizational socialization process. Outline the importance of initial Job socialization on the employee and the organization. Explain with the help of your personal experience and organizational experience with respect to the above concepts. Explain the situation and describe the organization, you are referring to. Answer Introduction of Socialization Socialization is the process of mutual adaptation of new employees and new employer to one another. In course of familiarization to each other, employees learn the organizational culture, values, attitudes, and behaviors appropriate to their roles in the organization. It is a process of adaptation that takes place as individuals attempt to learn the values and norms of work roles.

Different Roles of Employee in the light of Socialization Factors in the Organization A person performs different actions with respect to people and according to situation. The pattern of actions that people aspect from you is directly related to position one has occupied in the group. A person functions in roles both on the job and away from it. He/she can perform as buyer and seller, boss and subordinate, and an advisor and seeker of advice. Each role needs different behavior approach. For example: a companys system engineer has to be adaptive in working with educated board of directors with low level of technical knowledge, uneducated but experienced technicians. He has to deal with subordinate and superior, staff and line, technical and non-technical, and education and uneducated. A role set is the entire configuration of surrounding roles as they affect a particular role. The collective expectation forms a set role for a role of system engineer.

Activities of manager and workers alike are guided by their role perceptions, that is, how they think they are supposed to act in a given situation. Since mangers perform many different roles, they must be highly adaptive in order to change from one role to another quickly. But there should be job description; otherwise they tend to lose motivation and efficiency. They may even have difficulty communicating because they will not be talking about the same things in the same way. Socialization factors in Socialization process in an organization Orientation - A first step of socialization Orientation is the introduction of a new employee to the organization, the requirement of job, the social situation in which he will be working and the organization's culture. The organization's culture includes its values, shared beliefs, history, tradition and norms of behavior expressed as do's and don'ts.

They are individuals influence by different past experience and life style. In socialization process, organization is working in heterogeneous environment. Different employee from different society and culture has different expectation from company, behavior and satisfaction. Orientation should create an initial favorable impression. Key ingredients of the good first impression include sufficient information about when and where to report for work, efficiently handled paperwork and friendly people to guide new employees. Orientation should encourage acceptance by other employees. Introductions, informal interaction, a tour of the facilities with short stops to hear people talk about their jobs and history of employment at the farm, and opportunity for the new employees to ask questions all can help gain acceptance.

These processes help to understand his role in an organization and status and role of other in the organization. On other hand communication between manager and employee is vital factor; a poor communication can create ambiguity in role expectations. From managers point of view, a fuller understanding of roles should help him know what others expect of him and how he should act. Knowing these, he can improve his decision making and provide motivation to several job roles. Employee Performance and Organizational Stability Employee's performance depends to a considerable degree on knowing what he should or should not do. Understanding the right way to do a job indicates proper socialization. Furthermore, the appraisal of his performance includes how well they fit into the organization. A manager should know what are his role and his status in front of other coworker. When role expectations of a job are materially different or opposite, the incumbent in the job tends to be in role conflict because he cannot meet one expectation without rejecting the other. In similar way, an employee should have job description and adequate communication pool. As a result, proper socialization becomes a significant factor in influencing both the actual job performance and how it is perceived by others. Over a period of time, when jobs are filled and vacated with a minimum of disruption, the organization will be more stable. Its objectives will be more smoothly transferred between generations. Loyalty and commitment to the organization should be easier to maintain because the organization's philosophy and objectives will appear consistent over time. Given that most managers value high employee performance and organizational stability, the proper socialization of employees should be important.

Socialization to Reduce Anxiety The entry of an outsider into an organization is an anxiety-producing situation. Stress is high because the new member feels a lack of identification; if not with the work itself, certainly with a new superior, new co-worker, a new work location, and a new set of rules and regulations. A feeling of isolation and loneliness are not unusual. This anxiety state has at least two implications. First, new employees need special attention to put them at ease. This usually means providing an adequate amount of information to reduce uncertainty

and ambiguity. Second, the existence of tension can be positive in that it often acts to motivate individuals to learn the values and norms of their newly assumed role as quickly as possible. Therefore, the new member is anxious about the new role but is motivated to learn the ropes and rapidly become an accepted member of the organization.

Managing socialization factors There are obvious physiological differences, stereotypical masculine traits, and status and cross cultural differences. Stereotypical masculine perception leads to problems for women to rise in the organizational hierarchy to managerial positions. Furthermore; differential recruitment of women to lower level jobs that requires dependence and passivity and excessive control that give women less power. It is very important both organization and manger not to fall into habits of stereotyping different subculture. An organization should perform cross cultural comparison to improve its culture and belief. Importance of initial job socialization Organizational socialization is more important in early career of any employee. Many studies of early careers focus on the first jobs to which new employees are assigned. The positive impact of initial job challenge upon later career success and retention has been found may times in wide variety of settings. Among engineers, challenging early work assignments were related to strong initial performance as well as to the maintenance of competence and performance throughout the engineers career. In other word, challenging initial job assignments are an antidote to career obsolescence. A manager should give a clue about the expectation that organization have with him and his role with other. A few studies have confirmed that managers given challenging initial jobs with high expectations jobs, they were socialized to have higher aspirations and performance standards. The moral seems to be that success breeds success; numerous other studies seem to confirm the findings (Buchanan, 1974). Other than a newcomer should be given challenging but obtainable target. His role should be described otherwise he or she will be lost in role ambiguity. Proper mentoring and honest feedback should be given on performance.

Frequently, both the individual and organization have influence in the selection process. The corporation recruits, interviews, tests, and selects from number of candidates. The individual investigation has the most say in the matching process, the individual investing and evaluated various job opportunities. After understanding the organizations culture and values, a new comer will match his goal, expectation, culture and career with different dynamics an organization. Many times an employee adapt him or herself to the organizational culture. But some time, an employee with authority would change the culture and norms of an organization.

If initial job socialization is done properly, the employee will quickly embrace the environment of an organization; understand key factor, values and vision.

Organizational Example Arvind Mills Limited Arvind Mills Limited, based at Ahmedabad is one of the largest textile producers in India currently dealing in the manufacturing of Shirting, Bottom Weight, Denims and Knits fabrics having garment brands like Wrangler, Arrow etc. In the year 1999-2000, the mill suffered due to the inferior relationship shared by the management and staff including working employee union. It was on the verge of closing down the operation as the work could not be carried properly, mismanagement and poor socialism factor resulted in huge fixed operational costs incurring huge losses for the company. The management then realized the importance of socialism factor between them and the staff employees including workers union and came to the mutual conclusion to understand their importance too in the company. With the result, employee friendly policies were formed which increased the socialism factor drastically and contributed for the companys growth by leaps and bounds.

Q 3: Consider Potential Appraisal, Assessment Centers, and Career and Succession Planning in an organizational context. Describe the dynamics of these concepts, their interactional outcomes, and impact on overall functioning and management of the organization. Put down your experience with respect to the dynamics of these factors in totality as seen by you in an organizational situation or the situations which you are familiar with. Briefly describe the situation and the organization, you are referring to. Answer 1.POTENTIAL APPRAISAL In consonance with the philosophy of human resource development that has replaced the erstwhile personnel management in many organizations, more emphasis has been laid on the appraisal of the employees potential in addition to their performance. Performance is a thing of the past, while potential includes the possible knowledge, skills, and attitudes the employee may possess for better performance. Potential can be defined as a talent but unrealized ability. The purposes of a potential review are: 1. to inform employees of their future prospects; 2. to enable the organization to draft a management succession program ; 3. to update training and recruitment activities; 4. to advise employees about the work to be done to enhance _their career opportunities.

The following are some of the requirements and steps to be followed when introducing a potential appraisal system: Role Description: A good potential appraisal system would be based on clarity of roles and functions associated with the different roles in an organization. This requires extensive job descriptions to be made available for each job. These job descriptions should spell out the various functions involved in performing the job.

Qualities Required: Besides job descriptions, it is necessary to have a detailed list of qualities required to perform each of these functions. These qualities may be broadly divided into four categories (1) Technical knowledge and skills, (2) Managerial capabilities and qualities, (3) Behavioral capabilities, and (4) Conceptual capabilities.

Indicators of Qualities: A good potential appraisal system besides listing down the functions and qualities would also have various mechanisms for judging these qualities in a given individual. Some of the mechanisms for judging these qualities are (a) rating by others, (b) psychological tests, (c) simulation games and exercises, (d) performance appraisal records.

Organizing the System: After fulfilling above mentioned steps, an organization requires clarity in organizational policies and systematization of its efforts.

Feedback: If the organization believes in the development of human resources it should attempt to generate a climate of openness. Such a climate is required for helping the employees to understand their strengths and weaknesses and to create opportunities for development. A good potential appraisal system should provide an opportunity for every employee to know the results of assessment. He should be helped to understand the qualities actually required for performing the role for which he thinks he has the potential, the mechanisms used by the organization to appraise his potential, and the results of such an appraisal. A good potential appraisal system provides opportunities continuously for the employee to know his strengths and weaknesses. These are done through periodic counseling and guidance sessions by either the personnel department or the managers concerned. This should enable the employee to develop realistic self-perceptions and plan his own career and development. 2.Assessment Centers Companies run a series of extended selection procedures, called assessment centers, each lasting one or two days or sometimes longer. They are commonly held either on employers premises or in a hotel and are considered by many organizations to be the fairest and most accurate method of selecting staff. This is because a number of different selectors get to see you over a longer period of time and have the chance to see what you can do, rather than what you say you can do, in a variety of situations. Assessment centers method is a process that evaluates a candidates potential for management based on three sources: 1. Multiple assessment techniques, such as situational tests, tests of mental abilities, and interest inventories; 2. Standardized methods of making inferences from such techniques, because assessors are trained to distinguish between effective and ineffective behavior by candidates and 3. Pooled judgments from multiple assessor to rate each candidates behavior. The following are the essential elements for a process to be considered an assessment center: 1. Job Analysis

2. Behavioral Classification Assessment center requires that Behaviors displayed by participants must be classified into meaningful and relevant categories such as dimensions, attributes, characteristics, aptitudes, qualities, skills, abilities, competencies, and knowledge.

3. Assessment Techniques The techniques used in the assessment center must be designed to provide information for evaluating the dimensions previously determined by the job analysis. Assessment center developers should establish a link from behaviors to competencies to exercises/ assessment techniques. This linkage should be documented in a competency-by exercise/ assessment technique matrix. 4. Multiple Assessments Multiple assessment techniques must be used. These can include tests, interviews, questionnaires, sociometric devices, and simulations. The assessment techniques are developed or chosen to elicit a variety of behaviors and information relevant to the selected competencies/dimensions. Self-assessment and 360 degree assessment data may be gathered as assessment information. The assessment techniques will be pretested to ensure that the techniques provide reliable, objective and relevant behavioral information. 5. Simulations The assessment techniques must include a sufficient number of job related simulations to allow opportunities to observe the candidates behavior related to each competency/ dimension being assessed. At least oneand usually severaljob related simulations must be included in each assessment center. A simulation is an exercise or technique designed to elicit behaviors related to dimensions of performance on the job requiring the participants to respond behaviorally to situational stimuli. 6. Assessors Multiple assessors must be used to observe and evaluate each assesses. When selecting a group of assessors, consider characteristics such as diversity of age, sex, organizational level, and functional work area. Computer technology may be used to assess in those situations in which it can be shown that a computer program evaluates behaviors at least as well as a human assessor. The ratio of assesses to assessors is a function of several variables, including the type of exercises used, the dimensions to be evaluated, the roles of the assessors, the type of integration carried out, the amount of assessor training, the experience of the assessors, and the purpose of the assessment center. A typical ratio of assesses to assessors is two to one. A participants current supervisor should not be involved in the assessment of a direct subordinate when the resulting data will be used for selection or promotional purposes. 7. Assessor Training Assessors must receive thorough training and demonstrate performance that meets requirements prior to participating in an assessment center. The training should focus on processing of information, drawing conclusions, interview techniques and understanding behavior. 8. Recording Behavior A systematic procedure must be used by assessors to record specific behavioral observations accurately at the time of observation. This procedure might include techniques such as handwritten notes, behavioral observation scales, or behavioral checklists. Audio and video recordings of behavior may be made and analyzed at a later date.

3.Career planning

9. Reports Assessors must prepare a report of the observations made during each exercise before the integration discussion. It is suggested that assessors must prepare the report immediately after the assessment is over otherwise they are likely to forget the details. Not only this, these reports must be independently made. 10. Data Integration The integration of behaviors must be based on a pooling of information from assessors or through a statistical integration process validated in accordance with professionally accepted standards. During the integration discussion of each dimension, assessors should report information derived from the assessment techniques but should not report information irrelevant to the purpose of the assessment process. The integration of information may be accomplished by consensus or by some other method of arriving at a joint decision. Methods of combining assessors evaluations of information must be supported by the reliability of the assessors discussions. Computer technology may also be used to support the data integration process provided the conditions of this section are met.

Career planning is an individual's lifelong process of establishing personal career objectives and acting in a manner intended to bring them about.

Career management is the process of deciding what work opportunities to accept or reject, depending on their perceived value in helping achieve career objectives. It includes not only decisions made by an individual but also those made about the individual by managers and others who control what work opportunities can be made available.

Career development is the process of improving an individual's abilities in anticipation of future opportunities for achieving career objectives. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, a career consists of the organized structure and sequence of patterns in an individual's work life. Career planning seeks to achieve the following objectives: a) It attracts and retains the right persons in the organization b) It maps out careers of employees suitable to their ability, and their willingness to be trained and developed for higher positions c) It ensures better use of human resources through more satisfied and productive employees d) It ensures more stable workforce by reducing labor turnover and absenteeism e) It utilizes the managerial talent available at all levels within the organization

f) It improves employee morale and motivation by matching skills to job requirements and by providing job opportunities for promotion

g) It ensures that promising persons get experience that will equip them to reach responsibility for which they are capable

Career plans must recognize that: 1. Members of the organization should receive recognition as individuals with unique needs, wants, and abilities; 2. Individuals are more motivated by an organization that responds to their aspirations and needs; 3. Individuals can grow, change and seek new directions if they are given the right opportunities, encouragement and guidance. Career planning techniques Career planning uses all the information generated by the succession plans, performance, and potential assessments and self-assessments to develop programs and procedures which are designed to implement career management policies, achieve succession planning objectives and generally improve motivation, commitment and performance. The procedures used are those concerned with: Personal development planning. Training and management development. Mentoring Career counseling

h) It provides guidance and encouragement to employees to fulfill their potential i) It helps in achieving higher productivity and organizational development

In addition, career planning procedures may cater for the rising stars by 'fast tracking' them, that is, deliberately accelerating promotion and giving them opportunities to display and enlarge their talents. But these procedures should pay just as much, if not more, attention to those managers who are following the middle route of steady, albeit unspectacular, progression. 1. Career counseling Performance management processes, should provide for counseling sessions between individuals and their managers. These sessions should give the former the opportunity to discuss their aspirations and the latter the chance to comment on them helpfully and, at a later stage, to put forward specific career development proposals to be fed into the overall career management programs. 2. Personal development planning Personal development planning is carried out by individuals with guidance, encouragement and help from their managers/HRM as required. A personal development plan sets out the actions people propose to take to learn and to develop themselves. They take responsibility for formulating and implementing the plan, but they receive support

from the organization and their managers in doing so. The purpose is to provide a 'selforganized learning framework'. 3. Management development The formal approaches to management development include: 1. development on the job through coaching, counseling, monitoring and feedback by managers on a continuous basis associated with the use of performance management processes to identify and satisfy development needs, and with mentoring; 2. development through work experience, which includes job rotation, job enlargement, taking part in project teams or task groups, 'action learning', and settlement outside the organization; 3. formal training by means of internal or external courses; 4. Structured self-development by following self-managed learning programs agreed as a personal development plan or learning contract with the manager or a management development adviser these may include guidance reading or the deliberate extension of knowledge or acquisition of new skills on the job.

4.Succession planning

Succession planning is a process whereby an organization ensures that employees are recruited and developed to fill each key role within the company. Through your succession planning process, you recruit superior employees, develop their knowledge, skills, and abilities, and prepare them for advancement or promotion into ever more challenging roles.

Actively pursuing succession planning ensures that employees are constantly developed to fill each needed role. As your organization expands, loses key employees, provides promotional opportunities, and increases sales, your succession planning guarantees that you have employees on hand ready and waiting to fill new roles. Effective, proactive succession planning leaves your organization well prepared for expansion, the loss of a key employee, filling a new, needed job, employee promotions, and organizational redesign for opportunities. Successful succession planning builds bench strength. Continuous self and staff development are essential to continuous performance improvement. Ones own self development needs to be related to your personal strengths and weaknesses and to the career aspirations. This requires planning of career progression and setting career goals. This can be achieved by identifying potentialities of employees with the help of potential appraisal and various in it viz. assessment center.

Example: The Arcadia Group Limited is one of the UK's largest fashion retail companies. It employs around 25,000 people and has over 2,000 outlets in the UK. It also has a growing number of stores abroad. The group includes eight major high street brands. Each brand targets its own market segment.

In 2002, Philip Green bought Arcadia for 800 million. He changed it from a public limited company (plc) to a private limited company (Ltd). Since then the Arcadia Group has been extremely successful. In 2005, the Group's turnover was over 1.7 billion. Its profits were over 326 million. Philip Green's management style is entrepreneurial. He is always looking for new business opportunities. He seeks new and better ways of doing things. Green says, 'I am brave but I take a view. It is an educated view. I am careful; I am not reckless.' Green has an excellent grasp of what customers want and what they are willing to pay for. This comes from his life-long passion for retailing. He started in shoe wholesaling at 16. He set up his own business at 21. Throughout his career, he has turned around underperforming retail businesses. To do this Green has excellent staff around him. This is the result of good recruitment, selection and training programs.

Recruitment The success of Arcadia relies on the quality of its employees, such as its store managers and its sales staff. Recruitment occurs both at store level (with each store recruiting its own sales advisors) and centrally. Arcadia's Head Office is using specially designed management development programs to target two groups: school leavers, and newly qualified graduates. With these programs Arcadia is looking to recruit the next generation of students who are passionate about a career in retailing and able to become future leaders in the business. The Retail Management Trainee Program (MTP) targets students with 2 A levels or equivalent. The Graduate Retail Management Program targets students who have graduated from University.

To attract applications the company: attends career fairs and presentations produces advertisements and posters uses in-store communications advertises on the company website (www.arcadia.co.uk/recruitment).

When recruiting new employees Arcadia looks for specific abilities. These are called competencies. The key competencies are: working with people putting the customer first maximizing impact Inspiring performance driving the business forward making the right choices understanding the role.

Recruitment is an important part of workforce planning. Organization must anticipate their workforce needs and take actions to meet these. At Arcadia, the opening of new stores and the expansion of existing outlets means more staff must be recruited.

Selection The selection process for the Retail Management Trainee Program has two stages: An online application Attending an assessment center. The online application form involves a number of questions. These focus on the competencies required by Retail Management Trainees. Candidates who do well in their answers are invited to an assessment center. The selection process at the assessment center takes place over one day. It involves structured interviews and team activities. Group exercises allow a close analysis of how well someone works with other people. This is a key aspect of retailing. A place on the Retail Management Trainee Program is offered to candidates who are successful at the assessment center.

Training and development Recruiting the right people does not guarantee performance. Employees must also be trained effectively. Much of the training at Arcadia is on-the-job and occurs within the stores. Off-the-job training is used for general management skills. The training at Arcadia is linked closely to developing the competencies that the company looks for in its recruits. These competencies are enterprise related. They are essential for anyone wanting to be a successful retail manager. The training on the Retail Management Trainee Program includes: induction training to learn about retailing and store operations workshops that focus on core skills, these include team motivation and planning learning about specific areas of responsibility, such as managing a store team Visiting stores on placements to learn about how they operate.

Successful recruits must also produce a personal and career development plan. This helps them prepare for their future management position. Progression on the Retail Management Trainee Program can be rapid. A trainee can have their first management position after just one year. A typical career path is shown.

Internal recruitment is encouraged at Arcadia to enhance the potential of employee. The company appoints managers by promoting from within whenever it can. Internal recruitment is preferred because of existing employees: 1. Know the culture of the business already; this means that they understand how the business works and already have a network of contacts so can adapt to their new role more easily. 2. Understand the business, this saves time in training. 3. Are motivated to remain with the business because of the promotion opportunities. This reduces recruitment costs because staff stays longer. The following profiles show examples of current Arcadia employees. Management Trainee Troy Fairlie, Burton, Leeds Headrow 'It has been a whirlwind few months since joining Arcadia's Retail Management Trainee Program. I now have the skills and confidence to manage the day-to-day running of the store on my own. I have also been given some important responsibilities, such as overseeing the recruitment of all the Christmas temporary staff. I managed the entire process from short listing and interviewing candidates to making the final decisions. The training program also gives you the opportunity to attend workshops. At these workshops, you learn about the theory behind retail management. You can also discuss and share your experiences with the other trainees. A retail manager's role involves many skills - I cannot wait to develop all of these!'

Deputy Store Manager Natasha Minty, Evans, The Plaza, London Oxford Street. 'As a Deputy Manager, my responsibilities vary on a day-to-day basis. They range from managing and training a large team of people to influencing the commercial success of the store. I have to be a multi-specialist. I am often a coach, strategist, and an accountant all in one day! As a Deputy Store Manager, you have to be people orientated. You have to enjoy interacting and influencing those around you.' Operations Manager Rosalyn Rasdale, Topshop Dublin St Stephens (Giga-Store). 'I am Operations Manager of one of the largest stores within Arcadia. This involves implementing operational controls and procedures, which means looking after the running of everything that goes on behind the scenes. I do this by motivating and leading my dedicated team. My responsibilities include cash and stock loss prevention, scheduling and payroll of the store team, maintenance and security of the store premises and looking after staff and customer welfare. I am involved at both ends of the retail operation. I see the product coming in in the morning and handle the cash taken from sales at the end of the night!'

Area Manager Sarah Richardson, Miss Selfridge. 'As an Area Manager I am responsible for managing 19 stores across Scotland and the North East of England and our flagship store on Oxford Street. No two days are the same. The pace of change within the business stretches and challenges you. To be an Area Manager you need an ability to lead, inspire and develop a high caliber team. You need to look actively to exploit profit opportunities. You need good business skills and a focus on customer service.' Conclusion The Arcadia Group is a highly successful retail company. Its success is due to the leadership of Philip Green and the quality of its employees. It has a good program of potential appraisal, career development, recruitment and selection. It has Retail Management Trainee Programs for school leavers and graduates. On joining Arcadia, employees are given responsibilities early on. They are able to progress quickly in the organization and can be promoted rapidly. Working in retailing is exciting. Each day there are new challenges. Employees have to learn to plan, make decisions and lead a team of people. They receive substantial training. This helps them to do their jobs more effectively.

Q 4: How do you see the role, presence, necessity, and impact of Mentoring and Performance Coaching in organizational situations in Indian context in general? Answer Critically describe the experience the organizations have with respect to these concepts, their applicability, effectiveness and prospect. You may like to compare few organizations you have known or familiar with or even you can come out with your own experience in organizational context. Describe the context, and the organization you are referring to.

Mentoring is a development process, including elements of coaching, facilitating and counseling, aimed at sharing knowledge and encouraging individual development. It has a longer-term focus [than coaching] designed to foster personal growth and to help an individual place their creative, personal and professional development in a wider cultural, social and educational context (e.g. Why am I doing what I do? How do I perceive my identity? In what ways does this impact on my professional life and work? Where am I going? What determines my long-term goals?) (Renshaw, 2008, p. 11). Coaching is an enabling process aimed at enhancing learning and development with the intention of improving performance in a specific aspect of practice. It has a short-term focus with an emphasis on immediate micro issues (e.g. How can I improve my performance in this particular area? How can I strengthen my workshop practice? What are the most appropriate ways of making my team work together more effectively?) (Renshaw, 2008, p. 11).

Mentor is a teacher, an advisor, a sponsor, and a confidant. He or she should be bright and well-seasoned enough to understand the dynamics of power and politics in the organization and also be willing to share this knowledge with one or more new hires. Some organizations have established quad squads that consist of a mentor plus three new hires: male, a female and one other member of protected group. It assigns mentors to three or four promising young executives for a year at a time. There are also benefits for the mentor. For example, just being chosen as a mentor, according to one 35 year old female branch bank manager boosted her self-esteem. Another was deeply touched when a fledgling coworker left the following note on her desk: I will carry your lessons with me throughout my life. Mentors matter, evidence indicates that a new employees satisfaction with the mentoring relationship has a greater impact on job and career attitudes than whether the mentoring as formal or informal. Conversely, bad mentoring may be destructive and worse than no mentoring at all. The mentors role is to be a culture carrier, to teach new hires the ropes, to provide candid feedback on how they are being perceived by others, and to serve as a confidential sounding board for dealing with work- related problems. If successful, mentor relationships can help reduce the inflated expectations that newcomer often have about

organizations, can relieve the stress experienced by all new hires, and best of all, can improve the new comers chances for survival and growth in the organization.

Now a day, country like India use reverse mentoring, in which older manager meet with younger subordinates to learn about new technology and electronic commerce. Its a winwin for both parties, and both are expected to teach each other. One 27 year old mentor said the sessions made her more comfortable in dealing with her 54 year old boss. I can teach him things I know things he doesnt know at the same time , she gets to observe first-hand the skills a manager needs to run a big operation, such as the ability to communicate with lots of different people. The rapid change in technology, shifting organizational structures, and global marketplace dynamics have transformed mentoring into a process that often extends beyond the services of a single mentor. In fact, over the course of their careers, individuals are likely to draw support from a network of developers, including those from work, family, community organizations, and peer groups. Mentoring is more important in early career of any employee. Many studies of early careers focus on the first jobs to which new employees are assigned. The positive impact of initial job challenge upon later career success and retention has been found may times in wide variety of settings. Among engineers, challenging early work assignments were related to strong initial performance as well as to the maintenance of competence and performance throughout the engineers career. In other word, challenging initial job assignments are an antidote to career obsolescence. The characteristic of the first supervisor are also critical. He or she must be personally secure; unthreatened by the new subordinates training, ambition, and energy: and able to communicate company norms and values. Beyond that, the supervisor ideally should be able to play the roles of coach, feedback provider, trainer, role model, and protector in an accepting, esteem building manner.

On other hand variable affects the likelihood of obtaining a high level job later in ones career: initial aspirations. Encourage employees to aim high because, in general, higher aspirations lead to higher performance. Help them to generate alternatives for dealing with various problems. Increase their personal and interpersonal effectiveness by giving feedback about their behavior and assisting them in analyzing their inter-personal competence. Coaches are able to communicate feeling and meaning, as well as content. Communicating with no personal agenda, and without judging or influencing, are essential aspects of the communicating process, especially when dealing with people's personal anxieties, hopes and dreams. Good coaching uses communication not to give the client the answers, but to help the clients find their answers for themselves.

Rapport-building: A coach's ability to build rapport with people is vital. Normally such ability stems from a desire to help people, which all coaches tend to possess. Rapport-building is made far easier in coaching compared to other services because the coach's only focus is the client. When a coach supports a person in this way it quite naturally accelerates the rapportbuilding process. Motivating and inspiring: Coaches motivate and inspire people. This ability to perform this; lies within us all. It is borne of a desire to help and support. People who feel ready to help others are normally able to motivate and inspire. When someone receives attention and personal investment from a coach towards their well-being and development, such as happens in the coaching relationship, this is in itself very motivational and inspirational.

Motivating and inspiring: Coaches motivate and inspire people. This ability to perform this; lies within us all. It is borne of a desire to help and support. People who feel ready to help others are normally able to motivate and inspire. When someone receives attention and personal investment from a coach towards their well-being and development, such as happens in the coaching relationship, this is in itself very motivational and inspirational. Impacts for organizations a research and learning culture increased sense of professionalism and a culture of recognition a culture of high aspirations and vitality a pastoral culture a coaching and mentoring culture Impacts on organization leadership: Improved professional and career development: Greater external links Enhanced knowledge and skills shared within the organization Recruitment and retention of personnel Improved organization policies, systems and processes

Organizational Example: The Largest Car Rental Company in North America Creating a successful Mentoring Program for the Largest Car Rental Company in North America challenged: Improving Program Quality Increasing Employee Satisfaction

Enterprise Holdings, the parent company of the well-known Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Alamo Rent A Car, and National Car Rental brands, owns and operates the largest fleet of passenger vehicles in the world today - more than 1 million cars and trucks. It employs 68,000 people, and Forbes ranks it #21 in the Top 500 Private Companies in America. Enterprise prides itself on promoting from within, so it's no surprise that the company embraced corporate mentoring early on since studies show corporate mentoring helps attract, develop, , and retain top talent. But in 2002, the corporation faced a crossroads in regards to its mentoring program.

Chris Tabourne, Assistant Vice President of Diversity & Inclusion, says, 'In 2002, our Employee Opinion Survey revealed that too many of our employees weren't satisfied with the quality of mentoring they were getting.'

While Enterprise's continued research and employee feedback clearly pointed toward a need to increase the effectiveness of its informal and formal mentoring programs across many, if not all groups and regions, the question became how to accomplish this. Solution: Fostering 'True' Mentoring, Designing a Goal-Oriented Program, Getting the Most Out of Technology Enterprise brought in several corporate mentoring vendors to discuss program design and implementation. Management Mentors eventually won the business.

We selected Management Mentors because they did a nice job of identifying the opportunities that existed in our mentoring programs at the time, and then providin g a fresh approach to improving their effectiveness. Management Mentors shifted our paradigm towards true mentoring by helping us to understand the difference between coaching, which is how most of our programs had always been run, and mentoring, which is what we really needed, Tabourne says. Enterprise identified four key goals it wanted its mentoring program to achieve: 1. Provide leadership development 2. Increase the diversity of management 3. Help improve retention 4. Increase employee satisfaction in the area of mentoring.

Management Mentors President Rene Petrin worked with Enterprise in designing and implementing a program that would meet these objectives. Petrin says, Working with a design team, we were able to transition into a true mentoring model and link mentoring to the four strategic goals while avoiding making the program a performance-based initiative, which had caused the previous programs to be unsuccessful.

The initial pilot program involved two groups with a total of six programs and 68 pairs. After Enterprise completed the 12 months of the pilot program, it started an annual

roll out in North America that ran for the next three years and averaged about 14 groups per year. Tabourne notes, To date, we've had 44 local groups or about 2700 employees that have participated in the program over the last five years.

As the company's corporate mentoring program grew, so did the opportunities in integrating technology to help streamline the program managers' work. Petrin says, Multiple benefits exist for using an online mentoring system. First, it provides ease of management because everything from forms, reports, and so forth are all in one central place. It can be accessed 24/7. And it's a perfect solution for organizations that have multiple branches or locations.' Tabourne remarks, 'As we looked at and evaluated the time and effort it takes to manage a mentoring program of our size, the online option made sense. Having Mentoring Complete manage the program has made a huge difference in the program's effectiveness. As the person responsible for overseeing a companywide program, having all pairs' information at my fingertips via my computer saves me time and effort in following the progress and success of the program. The time our program managers spend managing the program has been reduced significantly since we added the online system, too. Results: Mentoring Success, Happier Employees, Fulfilled Mentors In Enterprise's current 12-month rolling report, it has 450 pairs at an over 89 percent pairs' retention percentage. Its mentee retention percentage is over 92 percent, including over 94 percent for both women and minorities. In addition, the overall promotion percentage for mentees participating in the program has continued to exceed expectations.

Tabourne says, 'Both the feedback from the mentees and mentors continues to be terrific. The feedback on how much the program has benefitted our mentors has been a nice surprise. We weren't expecting the great feedback from the mentors on the impact of the program on their own development. In fact, we occasionally get mentors who say they may have benefited more from the program than their mentees. Also, the high retention rate of our mentee's exceeds our initial expectations.' Petrin adds, It's always satisfying for me when a client has embraced a true mentoring model and begins to create a mentoring culture. The fact that Enterprise's mentors and mentees have commented they're significantly changed through mentoring supports the research that indicates corporate mentoring, when done properly, is truly transformational and makes a difference to the bottom line. In addition, the program has helped position Enterprise to compete more effectively for top talent. Tabourne remarks, Our formal mentor program is a great attribute to our company's recognition of the needs of our many Gen Y employees we hire. We recognize that today's generation places a high value on training and personal career development. They prefer daily contact with managers to ask questions and ensure they are meeting required expectations or goals. Having a mentor that they can speak with regularly about personal and professional goals is a good way for

employees to enhance their access to career guidance. Because we promote from within our organization, our mentors all have been (professionally) where their mentees have been, so they are uniquely qualified to provide helpful advice, guidance, and tips.