Dr. D. Mukhopadhyay
Rise and fall of an organization depends on the capability and quality of human resource remaining under the possession of a firm as a hired object. Human resource is one of the four factors of production. Even in a highly automated factory, one man is required whose duty would be to switch on and switch off the machine. Decentralization of the authoritative power is the backbone of modern management. Centralization, on the other hand, suffers from inherent limitations and it yields corruptive practices. An organization is to take into account capability of an individual, motivational aspects and the extension of opportunity to perform. When we speak of capability of an individual, we mean possession of knowledge and skill to handle a particular task. Secondly, the question of motivational aspects substantiates that somebody would perform a duty when he /she feels adequately interested and incentivized and finally opportunity refers the work structure and environment which provide necessary support and medium of expression. Therefore, capability or ability, motivation and opportunity may tentatively be considered to be the determinants of work place performance of an individual.
Indian management is based upon the orthodox concept more or less similar to the practice of Henry Ford. The owner of a firm takes somebody in confidence that is capable of creating distance between the decision maker and the individuals bestowed with creativity and talent. At first instance, the concerned authority feels that everybody is inefficient except that individual. However, in due course, the hypnotized slumber chain breaks up but then it is too late to gain the confidence of the mass as it happened in the case of Ford Motors. Therefore, trusteeship and fiduciary approach should be the basis of judgment so that the business can navigate at an appropriate port. It is a will known fact that there is dearth of well qualified and experienced staff in any sector and many firm fail to retain them due to their engrossed thoughtfulness that the employer would have absolute authority to dictate the final term. It is true during the short run. They should not forget that an individual is embodiment of flesh and blood and emotion centric which the machine is not. An individual cannot remain faithful, like a dog, to his master just for food but it needs freedom of thought and expression. Labour scarcity is a problem that can afflict entire industry on macro count and the concerned firm when micro aspects is considered. The industrial sectors that need skilled human resource are the worst sufferers and it includes education industry as a eye-catching case. Rewards and package an organization offers to the employees is the primary motivational force for higher productivity.
It is important to establish what they are offered as the consideration for the contract of employment. The bundle of offer may contain the areas of recognition of achievement and success besides monetary benefits. The organization is to clearly transpire the motivational schemes and reward giving aspects. De-motivation and disaffection take place when employment terms and conditions for growth and career development are not clearly but ambiguously are practiced by the employer. In a labour intensive economy, the labour market is dominated by the buyer of labour and labourers have hardly any bargaining strength and as a consequence, laborers are price takers. Wages and salaries are the major constituents of financial rewards and it is fixed on the basis of educational qualifications and experience. Wages and salaries are paid by a firm to the individuals for bringing their expertise into the organization. But, overall growth and development of the firm depends upon the attribute of belongingness of the individual and an individual attaches his/her belongingness when the basic and safety needs are at least taken care of by the employer. A frustrated employee generates negative energy and it is detrimental to the smooth functioning and operation of the organization. Frustration comes into play when the relationship between expectation, effort and reward is skewed. For instance, an individual pursues qualifications or update his/her skill and knowledge through further learning with an expectation that he/she will receive promotion in the job, enhancement and opportunities shall be opened before him/her when the course is finished.
But, it may be mentioned that only few organizations encourage the employees for further studies. Motivation comes partly from the self and mostly from the employer. The employer needs to create the congenial environment within which everybody shall be motivated to contribute the best possible output. People respond positively to equality and treatment of fairness and they respond negatively when neither equity not fair treatment is present in the organization. It is the common habit of people to respond positively when they understand that attitudes, behaviour, values and ethics are valuable to the employer and they show negativity in the reverse situation. It is pertinent to mention that people are resource and it is the prime mover of an organization. An organization means people and not bricks and mortars. They need to be given constant attention to their wants and they seek this from many sources including place of work and work it. They would seek this attention elsewhere if the work does not care for them or the work is de-motivating itself. The man at the helm of affairs of an organization must understand that key to positive motivation is nothing but establishment of a high order of mutual trust, commitment and responsibility.
The principal responsibility to build trust among the employees lies with the organization, the employer or the appropriate authority. Employees are expected to respond positively when fiduciary relationship between the decision makers and rank and file is built up and the employees may not find it morally binding to be committed when they come across lack of commitment and irresponsible acts on the part of the employer or where it takes confrontational and adversarial view of the staff. Functional style of the management, organizational culture, values, ethics, nature of participation, nature of representation and nature of work are certain organizational factors that are to be given priority for motivating the people. The employees are definitely to offer the desired level of productivity otherwise the organization shall not be able to grow and sustain but industrial relations and performance should not be contrary to each other. Douglas McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y suffer from their inherent limitations since both of them are found to be too inadequate to define the characteristic feature of an employee. Theory Y is too optimistic in describing the basic feature of an employee and Theory X gives too much negativity about an employee and thus came Theory Z which lies in between Theory X and Theory Y and is acceptable to both the employees and the employer. But still there is gulf between the theory and practice. There should be a common platform for both the employer and employee and a symbiotic relationship perhaps can generate better result. In the very beginning of this write up , it is mentioned that employees need human touch to soothe their pangs and pains and not stick. Stick approach has failed to generate result. Again carrot approach is not equally good for the organization and thus a middle path i.e. Theory Z gives a win-win situations for the employer and the employed. The employee is the wealth producing resource of an organization. It mobilizes, allocates and combines the remaining three factors of production in best possible manner and enterprise should have control over this wealth producing resource and it must utilize this resource productively. Productivity is essence of profitability.
For instance, low productivity leads to high cost and that land in the sphere of low profitability. An organization cannot survive without reasonable profit. Therefore productivity management is an economic function of an organization but profiteering is uncalled for. Profiteering gives the birth of exploitation and a rational being never accepts any kind of exploitation and if it so, there is confrontation and conflict and this leads to loss of productive hours and hence loss to the organization. It is now high time to treat human resource as an asset and it should appear as an intangible asset in the asset side of the Balance Sheet. Though efforts to quantify human resource for disclosing on the Balance Sheet is on but this is in infancy stage. It is a matter of irony that we disclose furniture and fixture in the Balance Sheet but not human resource. There is some legal issues which act as barrier for quantifying and disclosure of human resource in the Balance Sheet though a new area of modern accountancy is trying to resolve the issue through human resource accounting.
The growth and prosperity of an organization depends on the efficient and effective functioning of human resource and it needs treatment different from that of machine. Most of the organization fails because of inefficiency and ineffectiveness of human resource in general and lack of judicious decisiveness of the people who is responsible for decision making. In simplicity, machine does not make decision but man decides as to when, what and how. In organized sector, there is considerable dignity of human resource but unorganized sector is devoid of having any sign of dignity of labor. There are many laws to protect the interest of labour but there is not proper compliance and implementation rate is considerably low. Profit is gulf between revenue and cost and profitability is the index showing the efficiency of the management.
According the Peter F. Drucker, profit is the result-the result of performance of the business in marketing, innovation and productivity In order to survive, profit is the mantra and this is possible only when human resource keeps its commitment for desired performance through standard productivity and a dissatisfied employee cannot give his/her one hundred percent to the organization. Motivation is the final answer to all the issues raised in this write up. Modern business needs leaders who can motivate their ranks and files with heart and not with stick. Russi Modi is an example of motivational leader who ruled the empire of TISCO for decades and people remember him because he ruled with heart and not with stick.
(The Author is Professor of Management at School of Business, Faculty of Management, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, Katra)
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