Brushing aside the ‘quick-fix’ solution in the management stream, Dewakar emphasizes on the systematic approach, which can really propel the vehicle of modern management.

The book, published by Prentice Hall of India, can really show a deep insight to the management students as the book has got a rare combination of concept along with real life simulations, which have been encountered mostly by the administrator, Mr. Dewakar Goel, during his prolonged career as a top rank holder in various organizations including AAI.

Prof Dewakar Goel privileges the experience of panel experts/ faculty members in most of the reputed management organization, which includes IISWBM, IIT, XLRI, as a result he realizes the pitfalls as well as the expectation and needs of the management student. According to the ever befitting friend, Dewakar, “I chose the subject as it forms a part of the curriculum for management students”.

A right mix of academics and live industry experience fueled by an innovative and sensational approach have formulated Performance Appraisal and Compensation Management: A Modern Approach, really differently.

The well recognized courageous approach in his own professional endeavor has been reflected through out his book mainly while dealing with most sensitive and controversial issues like Conflict, Emotional Biasness, Performance appraisal. The Ph.D in management (scholar), Dewakar feels communication skills, motivation and leadership styles are the essential qualities for being a successful manager. Let us reiterate in Dewakar’s own language, “It provides the foundation for appraising performance in an exemplary manner, with real objectivity. This will give rise to maximum productivity by exploiting human resources to an optima.”

Prof Dewakar Goel, with his academics as MBA as well as PGDPMIR, feels, there is no scope for the managers to skittle out, rather a continuous steady approach can only be rewarding. Dewakar also never disagrees the humane factors while evaluating or optimizing the performance, as he feels, Drumming up a fierce environment can hardly pave the way of success.

Even he feels, the gravity of a post will allow you only to totter instead of commanding the respect of the team and ultimately the team will erupt in wild jubilation upon your relinquishing the post. On the other hand a manager should control his exuberance as a controlled emotion and properly slog out to maximize yield.

It is known that every successful guy gets a backyard inspiration from a girl. Dewakar never hesitates the contribution of his wife, who had left her lucrative career in law from Mumbai High court just to ignite the passion of Dewakar.

The pertinence and the wide spread impact of modern management is echoed, when Javed Akhtar admits, “Appraise the performance not the individual”. He also reiterated that the book is necessary for all managers even for the film industry folk as it impinges upon appraisal of performance not only objectively rather crediting the real performer.

At one point of time Television used to be called as the idiot box, which has become a foolish notion of ignorant people with so many mushrooming channels on the board.

Television has been able to hypnotize people of all ages irrespective of cast, creed, sex and status. A clerk of a government organization tries to relinquish all his frustration at the television serial. An unemployed young man tries to find out the solace from the Mega Hit film and tries to compare his fate with the hero of the movie and starts shifting all the blames to his luck for his such worst possible situation in life. A house wife always tries to get her break in front of the television serial, which shows an emotional outburst of another illiterate lady by which she has been turned to a miscreant from a simple native girl. May be the mother opens the cartoon serial to show the glimpses to smoothen the feeding process to her kids.

If we really look at Television has got an inescapable impact on each and every people. The Television lovers always argue on the positive impact of the TV by showing the example of world news and information channels like discovery and all. The innumerable media channels really opens up the door for global information and knowledge and this is also true many people watch those news channels to keep them up-to-date.

The mind boggling audio visual shows have got a deep seeded impact than newspapers or magazines.

The question can never be raised about the utility of a television, but the question remains about it’s usage. We can be humble enough to ask a housewife, how much percentage she watches the news out of her total time allotted for Television. Nobody has to answer us, but we want to raise this question within yourself, which can become a real self analysis exercise.

On the other hand the movies and most of the serials may temporarily give you a relief from your daily tensed schedule, but it also casts a tremendous impact on the frustrated young people, which may also lead them to create nuisance. The devastating effect of Television can be noticed, when we read some group of miscreants formulated the strategy of a bank robbery being inspired by some Television Mega Serial.

Even the imaginary cartoon movies had been observed to build up a devastating effect on kids, where they hardly differentiate between the virtual world of the movie and the real world. It’s good to watch that the hero can jump from an airplane to fight out 20 other people and take the princess along with him, but is that reality?

Psycho analysts have found several negative impact of Television mainly on the kids and house wives, where even young generation does not remain untouched.

The time has not come, when we can call television as a socio-economic scourge, but surely we have arrived at a stage, when we need to think twice before switching on the knob of the Television.

The irony is every popular discovery or event ensues fraudulences wherein a group of people look upon their vested interests putting it way above the advantages that ripples through the masses.

It started with off line transactions and it caught the eyes of frauds no later than people started using Credit card transactions on the Internet. The effect has become so devastating that even most courageous people also have started thinking twice before typing their credit card details on the box.

Now what the common people should do? Should we stop using the credit card in spite of it’s significant advantages and moreover when e commerce has become so popular? Rather let us focus into the causes and it’s remedies. One should never use his credit card number in any unsecured site as well as they should try to check the physical existence/ association of the merchant with the financial institutes.

Let us take an example of Prime Casino, who not only ensures the safeguard of the credit card processing using the latest sophisticated security software, which is even more powerful than prevailing 128 bit encryption methods, but also they disclose clearly that their financial transactions are processed by Eproc Ltd who have got the physical existence at Mezzanine West, Hadfield House, Library Street, Gibraltar, UK.In spite of that if somebody becomes panicky, they can take the help of the toll free number, where dedicated finance people is ready to take care of the entire transaction.

Perhaps companies like Prime Casino could hit the nail right on the head as this could the best way to remove the worries of the credit card holders and raise the confidence, which the people seriously lack today.

The buyers’ agent is associated with various MLS (Multiple Listing Services). He tries to find the best suited deal for you. Any property is generally listed by the sellers’ agent and once the property is listed it comes to the notice of the buyers. Even personal contacts of the buyers at times have been found to get the best deal for the buyers.

The agent is supposed to do a thorough investigation of the listed property to safeguard your interest. 

He has to search the reports of titles, ownership, taxes etc. Remember he has to remain involved in the process till the deal is complete. He has to make everything transparent to you. The entire financial dealing will be done through him and the certificates, legal documents will be handed over to you through this real estate agent only. 

If you have difficulties in finding the right buyers’ agent, you can always contact a NAEBA listed EBA to protect your interests to the hilt. 

Don’t hesitate to disclose even your secrets to the buyers’ agent as he is supposed to safeguard them at any cost!

We can simply treat marriage as the seed of a desired bonding between a guy and a girl, and becomes fruitful only when it is watered properly, it leaves it’s far reaching fragrance to the society.

Its like a diamond ring, you need to wipe out every dust to make it more glittering.

The flowery dream communicated by various media, the unbearable tension of today’s life style, the restless minds of today’s young stars at times get divulged and some people treat marriage just a game of fun, where divorce comes even faster than changing the color of the shirt. We can still treat them as exception as a result of contorted facts manufactured from the fertile brain of a gamut of people of a particular segment.

We must apprehend impediments in maintaining a holistic relationship of a marriage, but it is surely a wonderful bonding, that teaches the young minds to share both joy and pain for life.

When you dream of marriage, your subdued mind might become unconscious and when you get married, you become conscious.

It is said, the intellect becomes fruitful only when the spirit of the nature meshes with the materialistic world. Similarly a successful marriage deserves the real mesh of two souls and bodies. The imagination of a dream girl or dream boy may bend with reality, still the relationship continues, so as the world. People, who believes in immortality of soul, they find marriage also as an immortal relationship. The crux is people often try to find accomplishments of all beautiful dreams in marriage, which never becomes realistic just like the youthful romanticism hardly find its 100% success in the hard reality.

Still the social bonding of marriage encompass love and feeling for the counterpart, may be even as a result of compulsion.

In the worst possible case, It may be compared with a cage, where birds have been forced to live together in spite of their likings and disliking, who despair to get out, but hardly can. Even if marriage in an edifice, we need to rework and rebuild perhaps every night.

In marriage nobody can deny the impact of the sexual relationship, which makes the bonding stronger. Post marriage sexual life makes your life disciplined, arises the fellow feeling and it lets you float in the pleasure of satisfaction.

A systematic sexual life is always desirable for your body and mind. Love, the harbinger of hope, converts sex from a mere physical exercise to true pleasure.

It is not necessary that a man needs to be deaf and the woman needs to be blind to continue a successful married life! We believe that it is the instinct, which makes a married life successful and makes the guy and girl more passionate towards the other!

Here are some excerpts:

At times, one needs to initiate the brand promotion activities just to foster the awareness. One needs to be very careful as you might need to reinforce advertising to penetrate a larger segment.

Interactive Branding gives you the opportunity even to rebuild the relationship with the existing customers to pave the way for a long term retention. After all, everybody deserves recognition!

Read more on Interactive Branding

President Kalam’s message of seeing dreams makes me go down the memory lane when I realized that there was a dream to become a writer.

Having walked on this earth for half of my life I started writing to see that old dream may come true. It works. Sincere efforts never go a waste. Failures can motivate you. When the books came with my name establishing me as a writer though not by profession but by virtue of hobby. Suddenly a dream came and haunted for long. It was a dream to have my book released by President Abdul Kalam. Now, a big task, what to do for crystallizing this dream into reality. My son came for my rescue because by that time I was not knowing ABC of internet. He mailed on the site of President of India. I was asked to send my profile and the things continued in the form of telecom and letters between me and Secretary to President of India.

The dream came true I got the confirmation that President has agreed to release my book on his next visit to Kolkata since at that time I was posted at Kolkata Airport. Unfortunately, the visit of the President for the scheduled date was postponed and I was transferred to Delhi. My publishers became impatient and were not having time to wait for release of the book anymore. The dream remained unfulfilled because my book “Living a Stressful Life with Joy” had to be released with full fanfare by my friend Shabana Azmi. As a matter of fact she obliged me from the embarrassment. Her image, Parliamentarian Status and personality made value edition to the book.

Let me tell you how the dream came true. I attended one marriage party with my family in Delhi in Army club.

All of a sudden while having dinner the entire crowd got surprised by the presence of President Abdul Kalam. He was talking to the people as if a normal person is talking to his colleagues. We came to know that the bride is daughter of a DRDO Scientist who happened to be the old associate of President.

I could not control myself and shook hand with the President introducing myself as an author of the above book and reminded the President that my book was to be released by him at Kolkata Airport. It was almost a year ago. The President surprised me by replying “But I understand you got transferred”. I had my day. My dream got fulfilled. I cannot believe that among millions of people a man of such high esteem can remember such a small incident which may not be significant at his level. I know that the book release item remained in the agenda of the President’s visit to Kolkata because after my coming to Delhi I got a call from District Magistrate Office that my book is to be released by the President since his visit was rescheduled. I had to say sorry with the information that I have come to Delhi on transfer.

Can we have a President like APJ Abdul Kalam whose heart beats even for a normal citizen of the country, in fact it is rare to have such a memory for a human being.

when Bharakha Dutt in Hindustan Times wrote about second term for this maverick President I had no words except to say why second term ? It should be for hat trick in times to come. He is the President with extraordinary qualities. I cannot forget this incident of seeing the dream come true. Today my book is having the second edition and is available in different countries of the world. I got name and fame but somewhere I feel that this is all because of the inspiration and the motivation I got from my President APJ Abdul Kalam from his message to see dreams, big dreams. His remembrance of releasing my book is more than the real releasing. Is it not so ?

Author: Prof. Dewakar Goel, A poet, writer, singer, professor and bureaucrat

Note: This article had been published first when APJ Abdul Kalam was the president of India.

But when we talk about the kiss on lips it is taken as a deep passion giving meaning of the love with brain and body.

Recently, the US President Bill Clinton came in news when his personal life was exposed and the kiss was one of the debated component and thereafter George Bush, US President elect during his election campaign exhibited the act of kissing his wife passionately in public making it open that its not a sin when accepted by the social norms.

Dr. Hobert of West Germany preferred this concept for doing research on it he observed this phenomena at length and conducted many experiments the outcome of his research came with some fascinating and starling results Dr. Hobert explained as to what happens in kissing, as the lips of two persons of opposite sex touch, the first and foremost reaction is in the brain.

The sensation and nerves of the tongue act as an active reporter of kiss and convey it through the third branch of the fifth nerve to the brain.

The brain transmits it to the spinal cord on to the nervous system throughout the body. It spreads with the speed of electricity. As this sensation is being conveyed other communication through the nerves are blocked when the pelvic nerves get the news the secretion of adrenal in the pancreas increases leading to the simulation of the sex glands.

The above process has a direct effect on the heart as the adrenaline hormone enters the blood stream causing an increase in the heart rate and blood pressure and the result is that the whole body is shaken and the heart rate may be as high as one hundred and fifty beats per minute against the normal of around seventy. In order to keep the harmony with the heart the lungs activity also increases and the respiratory rate goes upon sixty per minute against normal of twenty five per minute at this stage the persons start panting and feel exhausted and finally as a result of this activity the blood pressure of the persons in action rises to 180 against the normal of 120.

The above research work done by Dr. Hobert was further enhanced by Prof. Clayesorce and Prof. Climbeez who took ECG of the concerned persons in such conditions and as per their findings they maintained that the fat on heart muscles starts dissolving and it is because of this that some Physicians advise heart patients to go in for kissing spree while other doctors refrain from giving such advises and call this act as dangerous for the heart patients.

It has also been observed in some cases that when the lips strike there is an exchange of millions of micro organisms and according to Dr. Hobert syphilis, diphtheria, leprosy, tuberculosis, jaundice and small pox etc. can be caused if one of the two persons involved in the process of kissing is suffering from it.

During last few years lot of research work has been done to find out the causes of spreading HIV resulting in the incurable disease of AIDS. In most of the cases the experiments ruled out kissing as a cause of transmitting HIV because the blood contact is necessary for it. But in some cases it has been observed that there may be some internal micro-injuries in the mouth cavity and since there is a lot of exchange of saliva in the process of kissing the remote chances of transmission of HIV are there in case a person is suffering from it.

Sometime back there was an epidemic of flu throughout the world and health authorities publicly requested the people to refrain from the act of kissing from some time because there was every likelihood that it may spread in the vide range of society.

A very interesting revelation came out of the research on kissing when it was discovered that it can lead to lengthening of the back bone. Some researchers gave the shock by emphasizing with authenticity that a single kiss can diminish the life span by about thirty seconds.

Now the alarming threat is for the young people in the age group of 17 to 25 years because the researchers say that kissing can also result in kiss disease called Mononucleosis the reasons for this findings are not known may be it is based on surveys.

In today’s world there is commercialisation of every thing and kissing has also not been left which is evident from various unusual kissing competitions specially in London where it has been organised for the students of Boolwitch Polytechnic School. Number of student boys and girls participated in kissing competition. When David and his girl friend Jany set a record of continuously kissing for one hour and thirty five minutes. However later on this record was broken in Munich when a couple kissed continuously for one hour and forty five minutes.

The kissing competitions became so famous that after London and Germany the students of Texas College in USA set a record of kissing continuously for nine hours and twelve minutes. Its not the end the students of Eastern College of Washington broke this record by kissing at a stretch of twelve hours.

The Guinness Book of World Records recorded the score of kissing by a couple continuously for nineteen hours and twelve minutes but after recognition of this event by the Guinness Book a number of kissing competitions were organised world over lastly the Super Push Corporation, Israel, a branch of the international consumer products company, Colgate-Palmolive, New York, USA, organized a kissing competition in Tel Aviv’s main sqare, Rabin Square, to see which couple could kiss for the longest time. The previous record, set in New York in 1998, stood at 29 hours.

On 5th April, 1999 the Israeli Couple Dror Orpaz and Karmit Tzubera managed to keep kissing (while standing up) for a record 30 hours 45 minutes without stopping for any rest breaks of any kind – not even to sit down.

They started the competition with 106 other couples but were the only ones remaining for the last 12 hours of their marathon session.

Once they had completed their embrace they were both taken to hospital and treated for exhaustion. Well we are fortunate that our country is not in this race. May be because it is considered as a criminal offense under our law to have such acts in public.

I am sure that my young friends in their teens will keep the above biological facts in their mind while expressing their passion of love by means of kissing.

Author: Prof. Dewakar Goel
General Manager(P&A)
Email- dewakargoel14@gmail.com

Understanding a human being as a defined depletable resource.

Initially when the theories relating to management in general were developed for the organizations the alphabet ‘m’ came in prominence because it was giving rise to the relevant words such as money, machine, market, material and these were considered as basic resources for managing the show. Though, the man was also important but it was not considered as resource until after a considerable lapse of time it was realized that there was always a man behind the machine and when there is discontentment or problems with a man the other resources also get affected e.g. if there is a strike or lock out because of industrial unrest arising out of the problem of human being, the entire organization suffers and inspite of availability of other resources the work is stopped. It was also realized that the performance and output coming from other resources is solely dependent on the man and the term used for man became manpower. Although, this additional ‘m’ for manpower was added but it never got the status of resource.

It was in early 70s that human or man was considered as resource. This was the beginning which later made it as the most important resource for performance management. The other components money, material, market, machine became secondary. A need was felt to develop this most important resource which gave rise to concept of human resource development by way of training etc.

In order to enhance the performance level of the human resource, the human resource development came under the ambit of human resource management because training and development is also a part of management of human resource.

We are required to relate the issue with performance management which is the ultimate goal of any organization for achieving its objectives with the help of the tools such as communication, motivation, job evaluation, eliminating the evils of emotional bias conflict etc.. Therefore, it becomes necessary to have for having sufficient knowledge of personnel concepts by the non-personnel executives also.

Personnel Management Is The Main Key

Coming back to the issue of personnel management, human resource management and human resource development the core issue remains personnel management. The dictionary meaning of personnel signifies people where as the human word inspite of having the same connotation is being used only in relation to the resource meaning thereby that the management of human who are considered as resource only come under the ambit of human resource management. Similarly, for development purposes also the term is used human resource management meaning thereby the development of human who are considered as resource.

Let us see how personnel management is a bigger term as compared to the other two. The personnel means people. Now, it makes us to manage the people who may be the resources or may not be but a manager is required to manage them to justify the term personnel management. Now, the question comes who are these people to be managed though they are not the resource to the organization. These people may be identified as outside agencies and other persons who come in contact with the organization though they are not resource. Or in some cases, they are the persons of other organizations coming in contact with a particular organization. The Government and private agencies, the personnel of regulatory agencies even the customers, distributors and retailers are the personnel who are to be managed though they may not be directly the resource to the organization for covering them with the title of human resource. We cannot ignore that all these personnel are to be managed for smooth functioning of organizational activities. When we talk about the performance management of the organization it also comes under personnel management because the performance level is not only dependent on human resource but other factors are also involved.

From the above description it is very clear that the personnel management still remains the bigger term to manage human resource and to develop them.

It may be recalled that a few years back there was a strong proposal before the General Body Meeting of Indian Institute of Personnel Management to change the name of the institute as Indian Institute of Human Resource Management. I was one among the corporate member of Indian Institute of Personnel Management to oppose the proposal on the basis of justification as envisaged above. The general body agreed with the majority view and on merits the original name remained.

There was another reason which supported the stand of retaining the original name and that was the definition of personnel management given by the Institute to all concerned. The definition of Personnel management given by the Institute says “Personnel management is that part of management function which is primarily concerned with human relationships within an organization. Its objective is the maintenance of those relationships on a basis which by consideration of well-being of the individual enables all those engaged to make their maximum personal contribution in the effective working of the organization.”

Performance Management in the ambit of Personnel Management

For any organization the core issue is Performance management and for that purpose the important issue is how to appraise the performance in an effective and objective manner. Various tools such as job enrichment, job enlargement, effective communication, motivation, elimination of emotional bias are discussed for supporting the performance management. But the most important aspect is Personnel Management as a whole which speaks about human as resource and its management and development.

It is said that “Manpower management is the most crucial job because managing people is the heart and essence of being a manager. Personnel management is concerned with any activity relating to the human element or relations in the organisation.”

Various experts studied the concept of managing personnel and carefully drafted the definitions. Management is a science which is quite different from other sciences because it is based on practices. When a concept is time tested and management experts feel satisfied about applicability of the theories devised by them then only they promulgated the same.

Before coming to the definitions of personnel management given by the experts we must appreciate that the spirit behind every definition is the management mantra which says “Optimum utilization of human resource with best of the capabilities available in order to achieve organizational objective”.

Normally there are three levels of management, top, middle and supervisory and it has been observed that at top level the technical and professional skill requirement is only 5% whereas the managerial and administrative skill requirement is higher to the extent of 35%. At the middle level the requirement of technical and professional skill is 20% and it is the same for managerial and administrative skill also that is 20% . The ratio of skills needed at the supervisory level is opposite to top level management i.e. technical and professional skill requirement at 35% and managerial and administrative skill at 5%.

It is quite interesting to note that the balance 60% requirement is inter-personal skills which is the same for all the above three levels and proves the importance of personnel management to the maximum.

Let us see what the management experts says :

“The personnel function is concerned with the procurement development, compensation, integration and maintenance of the personnel of an organisation for the purpose of contributing toward the accomplishment of that organisation’s major goals or objectives therefore personnel management is the planning, organizing, directing and controlling of the performance of those operative functions.”……… EDWIN B. FLIPPO

Manpower management effectively describes “The process of planning and directing the application, development, and utilization of human resources inemployment. ………… DALE YODDER

Personnel administration is a method of developing the potentialities of employees so that they get maximum satisfaction out of their work and given their best efforts to the organization. …………..PIGROS & MYRES

Personnel management is that part of management process which is primarily concerned with the human constituents of an organization. ………E.F.L. BRECH

Personnel Management is the function of guiding human resources into a dynamic organization that attains its objectives with a high degree of morals and to the satisfaction of those concerned. It is concerned with getting results through people.

All management is personnel management as it deals with human beings, its development can best discussed in terms of human development, philosophical, psychological, spiritual and physical. The development and utilization of human resources is not by any means and ancillary activity but a central element in the operation of a business. ……………….LAWRENCE APPLEY

The nearest analogy for the personal management is in the human body. It is in fact the brain, the controller, not only just a limb, and a member not yet the blood streams, the energizing force. The personnel management is the nervous system, it is a line channel, not just a duct and in some respects has automotive force. It issued in enemy action if it is applied for partial paralyses results. It gets out of balance then it causes instability, chaotic action, di-equilibrium that can be found in all stages of advancement in close parallel with neurosis.

But above all personnel management is inherent in the whole body and intimately connection with its every movement. The nervous system can never be thought of as an adjunct of the body – any more than personnel management is an extraneous or superimposed element on the structure of the organization. The personnel lie embedded in the structure and are inherent in the dynamism of that structure. It is integral part of the process of management itself. ……………..ALDRICH

All the activities of any organization are initiated and determined by the persons who make up that institution, plants, officers, computers, automated equipment and all else that a modern organization uses. These are unproductive except for human efforts and direction. Of all the tasks of management, managing the human component if the central and most important task because all else depends on how well it is done, that is why the personnel management has in modern times become a highly specialized job. …………..RENSIS LIKERT

No organization can be rendered efficient so long as the basic fact remains unrecognized that it is principally human. It is not a mass of machines and technical process but it is a body of man. It is not a complex of matter but the complex of humanity. It fulfils its functions not by virtue of impersonal force but by the human energy. Its body is not an intricate maze of mechanical devices but a magnified nervous system. ……………..OLIVER SHELDON

The organization can be thought as an interweaving of human elements and material elements. With the human elements as the warp, while interlocking and interweaving with this element are the material elements the woof of the fabric. The warp of the fabric is the human element appearing and re-appearing, the strength-giving element holding the entire fabric together and giving it live and character of continuity. The organization cannot succeed if this human element is neglected. …………..J.M. DIETZ

Human factor is the core issue

We have seen that in all the definitions the human factor has been given the great emphasis and it has been justified beyond doubt that managing personnel is the core issue before every practicing manager. If we look towards the performance management which is the prime responsibility of every manager the personnel functions come as offshoot of the process of appraising performance. It goes for human resource planning, career development, compensation, promotions, transfers, training and development, selection validity, layoff decisions and finally the performance feedback. The tools in the form of professional skills are the same for all managers because basically every manager is a personnel manager for his own team thereafter he comes for his actual designation depending upon the nature of job. This is what we can observe in the definitions given by eminent experts from world over as envisaged above.

We have quoted the above definitions from the books of these experts but the definitions never end there. We come across many other definitions where the authors are not known. But keeping in view of their relevancy and importance it is necessary to remember the following definitions clarifying the concept of personnel management further.

• Personnel Management is that phase of management which deals with effective control, and use of manpower as distinguished from other sources of power.
• Personnel Management is a method of developing potentialities of employees so that they get maximum satisfaction out of their work and give their best efforts to the organization.
• Personnel management is an extension of general management that of prompting and stimulating every employee to make his fullest contribution to the purpose of business.
• Personnel management is a function concerned with developing and utilizing the manpower resources of the business to optimum extent in achieving the objectives of business.
• Personnel management is concerned with planning, organizing, directing, controlling of the procurement, developing, integration of the people for the purpose of contributing to organization, individual and social goals.
  Personnel Management is the part of management which is concerned with the people at work and with their relationship within the organization.
  Personnel Management is the recruitment, selection, development, utilization and accommodation of human resources by the organization.
• Personnel Management is concerned with attaining maximum individual development, desirable working relationship between employers and employees and employees with employees and effective molding of human resources as contrasted with physical resources.
• Personnel administration is concerned basically with manpower or people, organizational resources or output. It involves the task of handling human problem of an organization and is devoted for acquiring, developing, utilizing and maintaining an efficient work force.
• Personnel management is a code of ways for organizing and treating individual at work so that they will each get the greatest possible realization of their intrinsic ability thus attaining maximum efficient for themselves and their group and thereby giving to the organization of which they are a part for determining competitive advantage and for giving optimum results.

Personnel Management is that field of management which has to do with planning, organizing and controlling various operative functions of procuring, developing, maintaining and utilizing a labour force so that :

• objective for which the organization is established are attained economically and effectively
• objectives of all levels of personnel are served to the highest degree
• objectives of the community are duly considered and served.

Every manager is a personnel manager

The definition of personnel management given by various experts have made threadbare analysis of various dimensions of managing personnel.

The role and responsibility of personnel managers makes it a core department of the organization but there is still need to have a bird’s eye view about various functions of personnel department because every manager in the organization is wedded with the department of personnel in one way or the other. For having proper coordination and smooth functioning it is necessary that all managers should have not only the concept of personnel management but they should be aware about various activities.

Let us see what are the various task of the organization which are primarily undertaken by the personnel department.

Organizational Planning and Development

• Determining organizational needs
• Planning and designing organizational structure
• Development of inter-personnel relations
• Staffing and employment

Manpower Planning

• Recruitment
• Selection
• Placement
• Orientation on Induction
• Transfers
• Promotions
• Separations i.e. Discharge, Dismissal, Retirement, Resignation, Retrenchment, Removal, Death etc

Training and Development

• Operative Training
• Executive Development
• Wage & Salary Administration

Job Evaluation

• Wage & Salary
• Maintenance of Pay Roll
• Incentive Compensation
• Performance Appraisal
• Motivation

Non-financial incentive

• Satisfaction of social and Psychological needs
• Employee Services & Benefits
• Safety & Security
• Employee counseling
• Medical Services
• Recreation and Welfare
• Leave, Pension, Gratuity, Provident Fund and Other supplementary benefits

Industrial Relations

• Discipline
• Grievance handling
• Labour laws implementation
• Collective bargaining
• Personnel Records, Audit & Research

Data Collection and analysis

• Moral surveys
• Record keeping
• Evaluation of personnel programmes
• Identification of needs
• Development of more appropriate programmes

If we carefully consider the above functions it will be revealed that it is not only the personnel manager alone who can undertake the whole task but these are the functions which can be performed by him as institutional manager. It is not possible to undertake these task in isolation without the support of concerned departments therefore, it becomes imperative for other managers to have sufficient knowledge of above functions.

Human relations are important for every manager

Time and again it is said that, every manager is a personnel manager for his own department when it comes to the question of line manager because he comes in direct contact with the employees working under him and needs to tackle the manpower utilizing specialized managerial skills, may it be in the area of effective communication, leadership qualities, motivation and so on.

When the question comes of dealing with human relations the quote of noted expert Keith Davis becomes relevant which says “human relation is the study and application of knowledge about human behaviour in organizations as it relates to other system elements; key elements are : people, structure, technology and the external social system. It seeks to improve people – organization relationships in such a way that people are motivated to develop team work that effectively fulfill their needs and achieve organizational objectives.”

The concept of human relations relate to people individually & collectively. Human Relation is a process of directing their efforts, motivating them, controlling their actions and modifying their behaviour to fit the need of the organization.

We often sum it up by saying that Management consists of ‘Getting things done through other people’. So Human Resource is a very important resource and this resource can be either Harnessed to the best possible extent by the management or let partially tapped.

Now, it comes to our mind as to what should be the approach for harnessing this resource to the maximum extent? this becomes more controversial, especially because …………..

The average man is by nature indolent ——— he works as little as possible.
He lacks ambition, dislikes responsibility, prefers to be led.
HE is inherently self-centred, indifferent to organizational needs.
HE is by nature resistant to change
He is gullible ——- not very bright.

It may be appreciated that effective solution for the above problem lies in human relations, the relations between Management and the workers. So Management can persuade the workers directing his behaviour towards the set goals.

From the above, though it seems very easy that the problem can be solved, but it is difficult question what relation Management should keep and what should be the approach for it ? For this the Management can take two extremes hard approach or soft approach. Let us describe what are these approaches.

At one extreme, management can be hard or strong. Here methods for directing behaviour involves coercion and threat, close supervision, tight controls over behaviour.
There are also difficulties in the hard approach which force breeds counterforces, restriction of output, antagonism. This approach is especially difficult during times of full employment.

The other extreme for directing behaviour is the soft Approach. The methods for directing involve are being permissive, satisfying people’s demands, achieving harmony.
Even here some difficulties are there. These difficulties frequently leads to the abdication of management ——– to harmony, perhaps but to indifferent performance. The result is that, people take advantage of the Soft Approach. They continuously expect more, but they give less and less.

Author:
Dewakar Goel
Jt. General Manager (Pers), AAI

Some persons fail to distinguish between good and bad performers. May be they do not want to make the distinction or they are not being able to understand the concept of performance appraisal

It is a common practice to play safe by giving almost equal ratings to the entire group because by doing so one can easily shirk the responsibility and can pose as goody goody to all. Though this practice is dangerous for performance management. A large number of appraisers are suffering from halo effect hence unable to separate strong and weak points.
 
The performance is required to be assessed for the whole period by giving equal weightage for the period being assessed but it has been observed in most of the cases that appraisers are accustomed of rating the most recent performance ignoring the previous achievements. It really forfeits the basic objective of performance appraisal and amounts to great injustice. The good and bad work both are to be monitored around the year but it becomes quite easy to remember the recent events whether the same are good or bad.

After all appraiser is also a human being having his own pluses and minuses, personality traits, strengths and weaknesses so it is quite natural that he suffers with personal biases, likes and dislikes. The result comes in the form of great loss for the entire concept of Performance Appraisal.

Whatever we may say but especially in the Indian context large number of people are their who still feel attached to their beliefs which might have been inherited by them or acquired under the influence of elders. The result comes in the form of their assessment over the performance being partial for racial, ethnic, sexual or based on age related preconceived ideas.
 
Why emotional bias comes in appraisal
 
We are going to talk about the emotional bias in rating the performance and after observing the errors as envisaged above. A question comes quite naturally as to what are the probable causes which makes a person emotionally biased for or against the concerned appraisee.
 
We know there are different systems for managing the performance and every organization has got its own policies with regard to performance management. The appraiser needs to be well conversant with all related aspects of the concept of appraising performance as adopted by the organization but at times he fails due to inadequate knowledge of practice and procedure. Some appraisers do not possess the required skills and due to lack of understanding the rating pattern they cause great harm in assessment of the performance of the subordinate.
 
The triangle of hierarchy is having broad base and narrow apex, therefore, it is quite natural that higher you go up in the ladder of hierarchy the number of subordinates reporting to you will increase. The result comes in the form of lack of time for large number of subordinates to assess their performance and the appraiser finds himself in a hurry to complete the task.

A person cannot implement the system unless and until he is convinced about its accuracy.

At times the emotional bias comes due to doubts about accuracy of rating methods in the mind of appraiser. The emotional bias in rating performance also comes when the appraiser is suffering with disagreement with the given standards meaning thereby that he is not finding himself satisfied in assessing the performance on the prescribed parameters.
 

A very peculiar situation comes causing emotional bias in the mind of appraiser when he is having apprehension of overriding the rating on review.

It so happens that he feels insecured about the final outcome of his rating and is unsure about the assessment made by him. In some cases instances have been reported where the appraiser suffers with the influence on rating due to superior’s pressure. How it comes ? It is really a strange situation where the reviewing officer pressurizes the appraiser to rate the performance of his subordinate as per his own whims and fancies with not correlation with the actual performance. The appraiser feels a great amount of emotional bias and assess the performance much against his will. The pressure tactics work because the appraiser feels about the poor assessment of his own performance incase he is not honouring the instructions of his superior.
 
In most of the cases there is always suspicion for the final result of rating in the mind of appraiser which ultimately causes emotional bias.

The appraiser remains in a dillemna and uncertainty harms his objective assessment.

Its not necessary that the assessment made by appraiser is ratified by his superior officer, therefore, there is always an apprehension of disagreement on review.
 
Here comes a weird situation when the appraiser is having the fear of interview with disappointed subordinate. This shows a great amount of emotional bias in the mind of appraiser and clearly signifies that he is not confident about the assessment made by him. We have learnt various methods of performance Appraisal but those all were described in ideal situations. Nowhere the system gives room for emotional bias. This fear of interview with the disappointed subordinate is quite dangerous for the objectivity of Performance Management. We cannot generalize the presence of this emotional bias in all managers. In fact, this attracts the leadership traits and personality factors. As an appraiser one needs to be firm and clear in his mind but the quantum of emotional bias comes when there is lack of confidence on assessment of rating in the mind of appraiser.
 

Sometimes the appraiser suffers with the fear of promotion of subordinate for good rating. Especially in the cases where the subordinates are quite senior.

There may be a case when the subordinate is aspiring for a position being held by an appraiser and it is only a question of good rating to be given to him by the appraiser for becoming his pear or colleague. The appraiser finds himself in a very puzzled mental state of losing a subordinate to find him equal in rank just because he is going to give a good rating. This emotional bias is a result of some kind of complex of insecurity in the mind of appraiser.
 
In some cases where the appraiser is conscious about the fact of loss of promotion by poor rating to subordinate and he is not being able to do justice to the system may be because of his affection, effinity or regard towards the subordinate.

There is, possibility of difference of opinion on review between the appraiser and the superior officer.

As a matter of fact, it is a positive sign but in actual practice it becomes the cause of emotional bias doing damage to the objectivity of performance management.
 
Afterall a assesser is also a human being and it is quite common for an individual to feel concerned about himself. The appraiser is also an appraisee for his own performance by the superior. Therefore, he feels concerned about the assessment made by him for his subordinates and the reaction of his superior on his actions. Let us understand this situation in objective manner because appraising performance of subordinates is also a job for the appraiser and his assessment capabilities are required to be assessed by his superior, therefore, its quite natural this emotional bias comes in appraising the performance when he tries to give projections in ideal manner may be against the actuals.
 
How can we overcome emotional bias
 
We have observed the errors in appraising performance the causes of emotional bias in performance management inspite of the fact that every organization aspires to have a system which is devoid of bias. Since, the human element is involved in the process of appraising performance, therefore, it is impossible to eliminate the errors and emotional biases whatever system we may adopt but it is possible to minimize them.
 
We have learnt various modern techniques of appraising performance where efforts have been made to reduce the influence of human angle having biasness but its really difficult to think about a system which is not having the errors in one form or the other. We are not going to bear the consequences of emotional biases, therefore, the remedial actions have been thought about. There is rider you can’t have readymade remedies for overcoming emotional bias because these are dependent on human aspects. Still there can be some aspects of remedial measures which can make the difference.
 
Personal traits are important
 
Look there are three kind of persons. The wisest is who learns from the mistake of others. Then comes a wise man who learns from his own mistakes but there are people who never learnt anything inspite of seeing the mistake of others and experiencing their own mistakes one after the other.
 
To eliminate emotional bias while appraising the performance the first and foremost requirement is to think positive and observe the following :-
 

Always have positive mental outlook
 
Forget dejection, despair, failure and powerlessness.
 
Avoid negative suggestions
 
Focus on strengths
 
Look for opportunities
 
Beware of weaknesses
 
Make a change by seeking positives
 
Make stress a learning experience
 
Human touch makes the difference

At times we suffer emotional bias due to failures but there is a need to realize that failures are just stepping stones to success in disguise. Sometimes you need to fail in order to succeed. Similarly, the obstacles like money, habit, fear and other people can all be overcome. As an appraisee or appraissor you need to believe that nothing can stop you when you are moving in the direction of your dreams.
 
In order to generate objectivity in performance management we need to believe that we can only control our efforts but cannot control the results. When we talk about fears in the context of emotional bias it should be born in mind that we only give powers to our fears. We all have the ability to change but not to the same degree. Sometimes the questions are more important than the answers. It may look philosophical but it is true that there is a difference as to where we are and where we want to be, therefore, we must consciously change thoughts, words and actions to match our vision.
 
We all know that effective communication skills are necessary tools for appraising performance. There are certain words which comes with their meanings in emotional form as an appraiser or an appraisee we need to play with the meanings of the words by practicing the concepts in true spirit. Let us understand and debate the words, sympathy, empathy and apathy as they come into practice with their meanings.
 

Sympathy  -   An emotional affinity, pity,    The feeling or emotions of one person give rise to same in another.  Creating a state of shared feeling.
 
 
Empathy  -  The ability to recognize, perceive and  directly feel the emotion of another. Sense of upset directly and internally.
 
 
Apathy  - The state of indifference,  the individual is unresponsive or indifferent to aspects of emotional, social  or physical life.

The need is to identify the concept of empathy in correlation with sympathy and apathy. Its necessary to be a good human being first having self development then only one can reduce emotional bias while appraising the performance.
 
 
You will find that though motivation is one of the tool for performance management and we have discussed this concept in detail but as an appraiser sometimes the self actualization comes in your way as emotional bias. We need to eliminate the influence of this important aspect to some extent. There cannot be any room for total contentment or satisfaction because success is a journey not a destination. One is moving on this endless road. For every person there is another person that matches until you meet, you will never be complete. Learning is an unending continuous process in any avocation in life, therefore, nobody makes it on their own. Don’t be afraid to ask for help or advice.
 
 
How the system works in Public Sector
 
 
Before discussing various remedies for overcoming emotional bias let us discuss the comprehensive executive appraisal system which is being followed in most of the public sectors. The following components are there for appraising the performance.
 
In most of the public sectors A self appraisal portion is given in the Performance Appraisal Report where the concerned executive is required to write about his own performance with regard to the targets laid down for him and the constraints faced in achieving the same. The executive is free to write his achievements as well as the reasons for non-fulfillment of tasks.
 
The second portion of the report is the detailed appraisal by the Reporting Officer to whom the concerned executive reports. The reporting officer is required to comment on the performance of the executives with regard to the parameters like job knowledge, quality of work, quantitative achievements of targets, cost consciousness, group effectiveness, initiative, ability to solve problems, inter-personnel relations and communication skills etc. The reporting officer is also expected to give an overall assessment of the performance of the executive on a five point scale ranging from outstanding to poor. Besides these the training requirements and possibility of job rotation are also to be recommended by the Reporting Officer.
 
In the third part, the assessment made by the Reporting Officer is to be reviewed by the officer at the next higher level where he has to give his comments as reviewing officer. He has got the liberty to agree or disagree with the observations of the reporting officer even to the extent of changing the ratings after giving necessary reasoning for doing so. In most of the cases the reviewing officer agrees with the Reporting Officer.
 

In some of the public sectors the head of the concerned discipline is designated as a specialist officer who reviews the report from an expert angle and his observations mainly deals with the job knowledge and skills required by the concerned executive and also for the training needs.

Finally the Performance Appraisal Report goes to the countersigning authority who is also the appointing and disciplinary authority of the concerned executive. The signature of the counter signing authority in agreement with the assessment made at the lower level signifies the final approval of the rating on the 5 point scale from outstanding to poor.
 
EXECUTIVES ARE AWARE OF PITFALLS IN THE SYSTEM
 
We need to discuss the emotional bias in appraising the performance. This issue is so important and vulnerable in public sector that in one of the public sector undertakings the above appraisal system was discussed in the meeting of senior executives. One of the senior executive pointed out that this system is too complicated and time consuming. It was also mentioned that in this system the Reporting Officer is expected to have a proper record of the targets set by him for individual executive and also to maintain the record of reviewing performance on periodical basis. He is also required to talk to the concerned executive from time to time. Most of the executives felt that though these requirements are important for implementation in order to give justice but in most of the cases the same not being followed mainly due to reason that it is very difficult to follow the system meticulously
 
Various issues involved in the above performance appraisal system were discussed and the executives were of the view that it will be better to replace the system by evolving the simple format. One of the executive while supporting the idea gave an example of crisp and brief report written by Managing Director of a company for Head of the Personnel Department. The report written by Managing Director reads as follows.
 
“Mr. ‘X’ held charge as Head of the Personnel Department covering establishment, recruitment, training and industrial relations of the company. He is very intelligent and extremely sharp and thorough with rules and regulations. He is tactful with labour and firm with the union leaders. He exhibited courage on various occasions and showed no partisan attitude. His visible desire to be considered as very important can be taken as the only weakness. At times he bypassed seniors to take credit for dispensing favours. On one or two occasions he reacted in immature fashion when his efforts to overshadow other departments were thwarted. It is not that he is not loyal to the company but he seems to be more important to himself. Barring the element of ego which is apparent, his knowledge, drive and dynamism is excellent. Mr. ‘X’ is an officer with many pluses on his side. His integrity was never in doubt.”
 
The above crisp and brief report in a simple format was discussed by the executives. Many senior executives agreed that a simple narration like the above will be an easy system to operate. However, some of the executives were of the view that the system will not do justice to the individual or to the organization unless the comments are given in respect to well defined parameters in order to bring out various aspects of personality of the individual officer together with specific comments on the work performance linked with pre-determined targets. Although the matter was deliberated at length but finally it ended inconclusive.
 
 
 
 
EMOTIONAL BIAS CAN BE MINIMISED
 
There can be many dimensions of the problem to have a detailed discussion. Let us take the view in the form of remedies for overcoming the emotional bias in general.
 
The appraiser needs to have positive thinking and should not allow negative thoughts to come in his mind then only he will be able to reduce the emotional bias while rating the performance. It has been observed that in most of the cases the appraisers are having a tendency of giving high rating with no correlation to the actual performance. As a matter of fact it is result of emotional bias for pleasing everybody. Though its difficult to eliminate this quantum totally, however, the same can be reduced.
 
Generally, a person who is appraising the performance of his subordinates forgets that he is required to rate the performance and not the individual. Emotional bias comes in such a manner that at times the individuality of a person becomes more important. The only way to overcome this problem is the concentration towards goals and objectives viz-avis performance. rating the performance not the individual. At times it is quite natural when the appraiser is emotionally biased in favour or against the subordinate but it goes against the concept of Performance Appraisal. The appraiser needs to concentrate on the actual performance in correlation with the targets achieved or not achieved by the concerned individual. His personality should not come in picture. The emotional bias also comes in the way of firmness of the assessment because a person who is biased will not be able to stand firm on the assessment made by him.
 
We know that there are number of methods for appraising performance and management vise objective is one of them. There may be case when organization is not following this concept for appraising the performance but when the question comes of reducing emotional bias the objectivity of the system becomes important. The assessor must feel about the basic objective of appraising performance by asking question to himself as to why he is assessing the performance and what is the purpose of doing so.
 
In most of the cases lack of self confidence comes as cause of emotional bias, therefore, the appraiser must feel conscious about it and generate the feeling of self confidence. The self development techniques may come quite handy in this regard. Analysis of pros and cons of the assessment made is also necessary but the same should be done in a positive manner by taking care that emotional bias is not coming in the way.
 
The emotional bias in appraising the performance is mostly due to the individual personality of the appraiser. His leadership traits are also responsible for it. It has been generally seen that either a person is too lenient or strict. Some appraisers feel proud in identifying themselves as strict managers and some feels happy when their image comes as a lenient leader.
 
These managers need to understand that their leniency or strictness harms the performance management to a great extent and their own personality trait is forfeiting the basic objective of appraisal. Self realization is the best solution for reducing this kind of emotional bias. The appraiser must have the feeling that his performance is also going to be assessed by his superior and when there is a team work it is like a machine where every component has got its own existence and importance for smooth functioning, therefore, while making the assessment of the performance of subordinates the appraiser must feel about his own contribution which is also going to be assessed and he should follow the principle of deserve and desire. What he expects from his superior he should be able to give the same to his subordinates.
 
STRONG DETERMINATION IS NECESSARY
 
We have already discussed the concept of “Play it safe” while discussing the causes of emotional bias, therefore, it becomes necessary here to find ways and means for not allowing this practice in the matter of assessing performance in an objective manner. We all know that there are number of dimensions of performance management and the result of final rating attributes many corrective actions to be taken by the organization for further improvement.

The play it safe damages the whole system and negates the concept of punishment and reward the results are harmful.

An employee who is required to be rated outstanding is also grated ‘good’ which demotivates him on the other hand a poor performer also gets good rating which deprives him to have the chance for improving his performance, therefore, this aspect needs to be taken care. The appraiser must avoid identical rating to all subordinates.
 
If the performance is required to be assessed of the whole year and number of subordinates are large in number then a appraiser must keep a record of good and bad performance of all individual employees working under his control. He needs to record happenings which attracts various parameters of assessing performance. The periodical review of such recordings will help him in assessing the performance of the whole year rather than concentrating on the happenings of recent past. It has been observed that if the performance is to be evaluated for the period from January to December suddenly the level of efficiency increases during the last months. It makes the appraiser biased for rating the performance good forgetting the poor performance during the initial months of the year. It is otherwise also when the Outstanding performance of initial months is not recorded and some bad performance of the current months is their before the appraiser. This effects the whole process and a great damage is done, therefore, as an appraiser one needs to take care for avoiding this part assessment of the year.
 
In the appraisal system various parameters are devised concerning the job requirement and required performance levels. We may also call it as yardsticks or benchmarks for giving necessary weightage. Now the question comes as to what weightage is to be given to various parameters.

In fact, when a particular methodology is planned and adopted for assessing the performance it is made quite clear as to what weightage is to be given to each parameter.

It varies from job to job depending upon the nature of work and the task to be performed, therefore, their should not be any room for having biasness in giving weightage to various parameters.
 
Now, comes the most common emotional bias which is described in terms of likes and dislikes. Some appraisers act like typical scorpio. They like a person or dislike to the extremes. There is no inbetween which makes them as highly biased appraiser. This emotional bias causes great amount of frustration among the employees effecting not only the performance but the system at large. Similarly, some appraisers are in the habit of judging the employees by comparing behaviours which is also not correct because one needs to assess the performance and not the individual, therefore, there is no question of comparing two individuals for assessing them when their jobs are different. If one really takes these aspects into consideration it will become easy to overcome with this kind of emotional bias.
 
APPRAISER NEEDS TO FEEL RESPONSIBLE
 
The most important thing in the appraisal system is accountability and responsibility of all concerned. Here comes the question as to how much responsibility is accepted by the appraiser and appraisee and to what extent they are feeling accountable. The requirement is to understand the job and performance, in other words the task and accomplishment. If all members in the team are feeling conscious about their role play then there is no doubt that appraisal will be done in objective manner overcoming with emotional bias.
 
Last but not the least it is the role of the leader which effects the whole system and training plays an important in this direction. We do not have born leaders but leaders are made. The performance appraisal is incomplete unless the concept of counseling it not introduced in it, therefore, at every level one must learn the art of counseling because if one is appraiser for his subordinate he is appraisee also for his superior. Both ways for improving the performance of a subordinate he needs to know how to counsel them and as an appraisee again he must understand as to how the counseling is to be taken in a positive manner when it comes from his superior. In nutshell it can be said that for overcoming with emotional bias in the process of appraising performance learning the art of counseling is an important tool which comes as the greatest remedy. 
 
 
Author: Prof. dewakar goel  MAIL ………dewakargoel14@gmail.com