GRM in University System

Jyoti Bahl

Human Resource has emerged as one of the most essential, unique and valuable asset for all the organisations and because of this reason the Human Resource Development is being viewed as very essential requirement by most of the organisations in order to become more competent and forward looking in this fierce competition of the liberalised era.Every organisation is paying special attention to this great asset i.e. human resource. The human resources possess managerial and work skills, creative abilities, commitment to work and organisation, values, sagacity and competence, and all these virtues identify the human resource as the most crucial variable of the organisational dynamics and an essential force for organisational survival and growth.
In order to facilitate the Human Resource it is necessary for the organisations to set up an optimal level of developmental climate that is the collective personality of that organisation and is created by the social and professional interactions among the individuals of that organisation. It further decides the approach to be adopted for accomplishment of goals and resolving the problems. Along with this, it serves as the determinant of the attitude towards continuous personal growth and development, creativity and generation of new ideas and functional improvements.
An organisation in order to be successful essentially requires a human force which has the urge to excel and such type of energy can emerge only when they have reached certain level of satisfaction.
As mentioned in the Need Hierarchy Theory of Abraham Maslow a person who has to search for basic requirements of living can not reach up to the level of self actualization. Similarly, if an organisation is not serving the basic requirements of their human resource viz., salary, allowances, working conditions, promotion, training, transfers, etc they cannot excel in their performance and ultimately hinder organisational performance. Thus, incur the need for a mechanism that can deal with all the problems of the human resource and provide solution to them.
The Human Resource Developmental Climate that is, the human environment within which the members of any organisation perform their functions facilitate the employees in acquiring the capabilities required for the performance of various functions associated within their present and future expected roles, develop general capabilities in individuals and exploit their inner potential for organisational development. It is characterised by the tendency of treating the people as the most important resource and faith in their capability to change and acquire new competencies at any stage of life. It is further characterised by open communication, encouragement in risk taking and experimentation, trust, collaboration, team spirit, top management support and supportive HRD practices and personnel policies. The major HRD practices adopted by the organisations are Performance Appraisal Mechanism, Potential Appraisal Mechanism, Counselling and Feedback Mechanism, Grievances Redressal Mechanism, Career Development Mechanism, Promotion Mechanism, and Training and Development Mechanism. All these mechanism are equally important and necessary to run an organisation successfully and to ensure the growth and development of human resource of that organisation. However the Grievance Redressal Mechanism (GRM) is one such mechanism absence of which make all other mechanism fruitless and useless as the first thing the human resource requires in an organisation is feel at home approach and that can be induced in an organisation only when there is proper support system to handle the issues and problems of the human resource of that organisation.
With the establishment of a sound and effective Grievances Redressal Mechanism (GRM), an organisation can become more accountable and responsible towards their human resource. Grievance redressal is necessary not only to solve the problems being faced by an individual in an organisation but the feedback received from that individual becomes an essential source of data for the strategists and think tanks of the organisation which they can convert into effective strategy to be implemented in the future course of action by the organisation administration.
The Grievance Redressal Mechanism (GRM) is an essential requirement of all the organizations but when it comes to Universities it become a little more important as Universities are the generators of future think tanks and policy makers, they are the socio-economic transformers of a country. The measuring gauge of the effectiveness and efficiency of the university efforts in meeting the rising expectations of the society and the country depends upon how best the university authorities have cared for their employees who are adequately skilled and can become India’s greatest force for progress and the real marker of India’s greatness. University employees are the builders of new generation, they have to inculcate new ideas in the future generations. Thus, they must be free from all kinds of issues or grievances in their working atmosphere. Grievances may incur due to number of reasons however the major reason is non-fulfilment of expectations that an employee has in mind while entering the organisation. There are several issues like working conditions, work culture, interpersonal relationships, leadership, career enhancement, performance and potential appraisals, promotion policy, emoluments, leave procedures, job assignments, transfer procedure which can become reason for dissatisfaction, anger and grievance among employees. Dissatisfied employees harbour grievances as they feel their rights have been infringed upon which leads to disturbed and stressed mind and ultimately poor work performance which certainly affects the standard and status of institution also where such employees are working.
If we observe the World ranking of Universities, 2018 it can be seen that the first institution that can be seen in this list is Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi at 172nd position,then Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay at 179th position and then Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore at 190th position. None other institutions come in the top 200 Universities of the World and it an issue of concern. Our leaders have often emphasized over the need of raising the standards of our Universities as future of a country lies in the present University Scenario. Universities of India need to review and overhaul them so that they come in the competition of the World top Universities. There are various aspects of raising the standards of Universities and one among them is satisfied employees because their dissatisfaction leads to their over stressed minds which fail to think creatively and innovatively and if a University intends to excel, their employees particularly the teachers must be able to work free mind. The Grievance Redressal Mechanism (GRM) is that provision which can ensure the employees of University a free, transparent and healthy climate to work and become innovative in their fields. Keeping this in mind the Universities Grant Commission has framed UGC (Grievance Redressal) Regulations of 2012 under which it is mandatory for all the universities to appoint an ‘ombudsman’ in their campuses and a Grievance Redressal Committee (GRC) for every college or group of colleges. Under this regulation almost all universities have set up their Grievance Redressal Cells so that a responsible and accountable attitude is developed among all the stakeholders in order to maintain a harmonious educational atmosphere in the institute.
The University human resource can be categorised under administrative wing, teaching faculty and non-teaching staff. Besides, there are students who are the main part and parcel of any University. The problems in a University often arise because of the trifle issues arising out of conflicts among the human elements present there. Though nature of all the problems may vary but they certainly affect the performance of the whole institution as one issue is often inter-related to other issue. Thus, an integrated Grievance Redressal Cell can prove to be more beneficial to sort out issues of University people.The problems may evolve in between teacher-administration, teacher-teacher, teacher-student, administration-student, student-student in a university system.
These issues can be handled smoothly in single trial if there is integrated grievance redressal system in the universities. Further suggestion boxes or complaint boxes can be installed in all the academic and administrative departments so that the aggrieved can submit their complaint in written to the University authorities who in turn can take all possible action to provide relief to the sufferer and punishment to the offender. The suggestions can also prove to be guidelines for the University authorities to decide their future course of action.
Effective Grievance Redressal Cells can truly prove to be highly beneficial to the Universities of India and with their satisfied, motivated and active human resource they can surely attain higher ranking in the World List of top Universities.
(The author is Assistant Professor in the
Department of Commerce, Government College
for Women, Parade, Jammu.)
feedbackexcelsior@gmail.com

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here