Stress is a natural reaction generated within the body of a person to tackle a particular situation or event with focus, toughness and strength. The stress allows people to find out the unknown and hidden areas within them to face a situation. The stress mainly happens in two steps. One is the external stimulus referred to as the stressor that arises in an environment and the second is the response generated by the body to tackle that particular external stimulus. Stress could be basically categorised into different types. Eustress is the term that was coined to explain positive gains due to stress whereas distress is the stress that causes painfulness and negative fall backs. Hyper stress is the overreaction of a body due to the difficulties of worry or trauma and hypo stress is the under reaction or instability of a body due to an external circumstance. Chronic stress on Continue reading
HRM Functions
Collective Bargaining – Definition, Features and Process
Collective bargaining involves discussions and negotiations between two groups as to the terms and conditions of employment. It is called ‘collective’ because both the employer and the employee act as a group rather than as individuals. It is known as ‘bargaining’ because the method of reaching an agreement involves proposals and counter proposals, offers and counter offers and other negotiations. Thus collective bargaining: is a collective process in which representatives of both the management and employees participate. is a continuous process which aims at establishing stable relationships between the parties involved. not only involves the bargaining agreement, but also involves the implementation of such an agreement. attempts in achieving discipline in the industry is a flexible approach, as the parties involved have to adopt a flexible attitude towards negotiations. The main characteristics of collective bargaining are: Collective Process: The representatives of both the management and the employees participate in it. Continue reading
Human Resource Management (HRM) – Definitions, Objectives, Scope and Importance
Definitions of Human Resource Management (HRM) Human Resource Management (HRM) is concerned with the “people” dimension in management. Since every organization is made up of people, acquiring their services, developing their skills, motivating them to high level of performance and ensuring that they continue to maintain their commitment to the Organization are essential to achieving organizational objectives. This is true regardless of type of organization – Government, business, education, health, recreation or social action. Those organization that are able to acquire, develop, stimulate and keep outstanding workers will be both effective, able to achieve their goals, and efficient (expanding the least amount of resources necessary). Those organization that are inefficient and ineffective risk the hazards of stagnating or going out of business. According to Thomas G. Spates, Human Resource Management (HRM) is a code of the ways of organizing and treating individuals at work so that they will get the Continue reading
Performance Management Process
Various authors propose various steps for performance management process. The typical performance management process includes some or all of the following steps, whether in performance management of organizations, subsystems, processes, etc. Note that how the steps are carried out can vary widely, depending on the focus of the performance efforts and who is in charge of carrying it out. For example, an economist might identify financial results, such as return on investment, profit rate, etc. An industrial psychologist might identify more human-based results, such as employee productivity. Performance management process is composed of four main stages: Planning Performance Managing Performance Reviewing Performance Rewarding Performance 1. Planning Performance As with the introduction of any process, there first needs to be clarity about the primary reason for introducing performance management and a clear view about what it is expected to deliver in terms of results. There also needs to be strong commitment Continue reading
Learning Styles
Learning style refers to the ability of an individual to learn. A manager’s long-term success depends more on the ability to learn than on the mastery of the specific skills or technical knowledge. Kolb’s Learning Styles Model Kolb’s model of learning styles is one of the best-known and widely used learning style theories. Kolb’s learning theory sets out four distinct learning styles (or preferences), which are based on a four-stage learning cycle. Much of Kolb’s theory is concerned with the learner’s internal cognitive processes. “Learning is the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience. Knowledge results from the combination of grasping experience and transforming it.” (David A. Kolb, 1984). These four learning styles are: accommodation, divergence, assimilation and convergence. The four learning styles are based on dimensions: feeling versus thinking and doing versus observing. Accommodator: An accommodator learns by doing and feeling. He tends to learn primarily Continue reading
Using Buzz Groups and Syndicates in Training Programmes
Buzz Groups A buzz group can allow an individual to retain anonymity in the group, since the spokesman of the buzz group will express the view of group instead of individual. However an individual can also express a personal view if he/she wishes do so. There can be use of the buzz group method with as few as six, sending into two buzz groups of three people. This approach was used following the first activity of a training programme in which it is necessary to encourage the participants to involve themselves in open discussion at an early stage. During the full group discussion that followed, comments were made on group and individual performance that would have been much less early if the full group had entered discussion immediately after the activity. In fact, the immediate full group discussion approach had been the norm until that particular course and buzz Continue reading