Career Development from the Perspective of an Individual Employee

Career development comprises those personal improvements one undertakes to achieve a career plan. The personnel department may sponsor these actions or they may be activities that employees undertake independent of the department. That is career development may be organizational and individual. From an organizational career standpoint, career development involves tracking career paths. In contrast, individual career development focuses on assisting individuals to identify their major career goals and to determine what they need to do to attain these goals. Each person must accept responsibility for his   own career; assess his own interests, skills and values and take the step required to ensure a happy and fulfilling career. It is unwise to leave these jobs to others. In the case of individual career development, the focus is entirely on the individual and includes his career outside the organization as well as inside. So while organizational career development looks at individuals Continue reading

An Introduction to Workforce Diversity Management

Today, at the beginning of the 21st century, the world is submerged in a wide range of demographic trends which have the potential to radically change the demographic, cultural and ethical mixture of the population in many countries within just a few decades. Top managers often say that their company’s people are its most important asset. In a tight job market and a global economy a company that puts people first – regardless of their race, religion, gender, age, sexual preference, or physical disability – wins. Companies, especially big multinational players which have to deal with these changes, are growingly forced to react. Employees, once a homogenous group in many countries, are increasingly diverse and need to be integrated within and into working environments. Diversity can present an immense source of opportunities but it can also mean the opposite, a big threat. Diversity management is a managerial approach in response Continue reading

Wage Issues under Collective Bargaining

Almost all contract negotiations pivot upon, and most grievances and  arbitration procedures thus ultimately deal with, four major areas : (1) wages  and issues that can be directly related to wages; (2) employee benefits or  economic “fringe” supplements to the basic wage rate; (3) “institutional” issues  that deal with the rights and duties of employers and trade unions; and (4)  “administrative” clauses that treat such subjects as work rules and job tenure. Probably no issues under collective bargaining continue to give rise to  more difficult problems than do wages and wage-related subjects. When  negotiations reach a stalemate, they frequently do so because management and trade union representatives are not able to find a formula to resolve wage disputes.  And wage controversies are, for that matter, by far the leading overt cause of  strikes; Over the past decade, for example, they have accounted for over 40  percent of all such work Continue reading

Workers Participation In Management – Definition, Features, Objectives, and Importance

Workers participation in management is an essential ingredient of Industrial democracy. The concept of workers participation in management is based on Human Relations approach to Management which brought about a new set of values to labor and management. Traditionally the concept of Workers Participation in Management refers to participation of non-managerial employees in the decision-making process of the organization. Workers’ participation is also known as ‘labour participation’ or ‘employee participation’ in management. In Germany it is known as co-determination while in Yugoslavia it is known as self-management. The International Labour Organization has been encouraging member nations to promote the scheme of Workers’ Participation in Management. Workers’ participation in management implies mental and emotional involvement of workers in the management of Enterprise. It is considered as a mechanism where workers have a say in the decision-making. Definitions of  Workers Participation In Management According to Keith Davis, Participation refers to the mental Continue reading

Trade Unions and Collective Bargaining

In approaching collective bargaining, a trade union has series of goals, some economic and some non-economic, not all of which can be won from the employer at one time. Further more, a number of the goals are in conflict with each other. Therefore, trade union decides to give priority to these goals, and for giving priority union may classify the goals. There are many ways of classifying the goals, trade union seek to achieve through collective bargaining. The two categories used here are economic and non-economic, they may also be classified according to the members as individuals opposed to the unions as an institution, according to leader versus rank and file, or according to intra-union interest groups, such as the young against the old or one group of skill against another. It follows, then, that the priority ranking of the demands by the union represents a compromise between the different Continue reading

Coordination – Meaning, Definition, Features and Importance

Although Henri Fayol, James Mooney, Ordway Tead, Lyndall F. Urwick, Luther Gullick and Louis A. Allen, all consider coordination as a separate function of management, it seems more accurate to treat coordination as the essence of managing because the achievement of harmony of individual efforts towards the accomplishment of group goals is the very purpose of management. Coordination is inherent in all managerial functions. Each of the managerial functions is an exercise in coordination.   A manager achieves coordination through the management process and co-ordination is the outcome of managerial functions.   In fact, coordination makes planning more purposeful, organization better-knit and control more regulative, it is the key to the process of management.   Coordination is the result of the process of management. Meaning and Definition of Coordination Coordination implies an orderly pattern or arrangement of group efforts to ensure unity of action in pursuit of common objectives.   Continue reading