Human Resource Management

Human Resource Management (HRM) is branch of management that deals with people at work, it is concerned with the human dimensions of management of the organization. As organization consists of people, therefore acquiring them, developing their skills, providing them motivation in order to attain higher goal and ensuring that the level of commitment is maintained are the important activities.

Psychological Contract – Meaning and Importance

The psychological contract is certainly an important aspect of the employment relationship as it invisibly binds the employer and the employee through a set of expectations. For the individual in an organisation, the psychological contract is mostly relevant as it directly affects the level of motivation, commitment and morale of that person. Moreover, a positive psychological contract helps to boost the productivity and performance of an employee.

Thus, to gain the commitment and loyalty of individual employees, it becomes essential that organisations put in place appropriate systems to foster the identification of employee expectations and ways to fulfill them. However, expectations are not easily identified, both on the employers and employees side.… Read the rest

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Leader-Member Exchange Theory (LMX)

Several leadership theories including trait, behavioral, and contingency theories assume that the leader-member relations are consistent, with the leaders interacting with all subordinates homogeneously. But, Leader-Member Exchange Theory (LMX) asserts that leader-member relations are heterogeneous as leaders cannot distribute their limited resources and time to all the subordinates equally. Hence the leader develops unique dyadic relations with each member over a series of exchanges i.e. Vertical Dyadic Linkage Approach (VDL). Leader-Member Exchange Theory (LMX), also called the Vertical Dyad Linkage Theory developed by Graen and his colleagues suggests that leaders cultivate qualitatively different types of relations with different employees. The theory dictates that effective leadership processes takes place when leaders and followers develop mature partnerships and thus gain access to the mutual benefits of this relationship.… Read the rest

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Important Soft Skills for Workplace Success

Soft skills are essentially people skills – the non-technical, intangible, personality-specific skills that determine one’s strengths as a leader, speaker, listener, negotiator, and conflict mediator. It means skills related to human attitude, team work, leadership qualities, over all human nature enhancements. Soft skills thus is a sociological term relating to a person’s “EQ” (Emotional Intelligence Quotient), the cluster of personality traits, social graces, communication, language, personal habits, friendliness, and optimism that characterize relationships with other people. They are, in many instances, complementary, and serve to unlock the potential for highly effective performance in people qualified with the requisite hard skills.

In broader terms soft skills is a range of abilities including work ethics, courtesy, teamwork, self-discipline and self-confidence, professional presence, language proficiency, cultural sensitivity, communication skills, ability to accept and learn from criticism, ability to handle client relationships, networking, creativity, ability to motivate yourself and lead others, time management, leadership and interpersonal skills.… Read the rest

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John Holland’s Theory of Career Choice

It is John Holland’s view that career choice and career adjustment represent an extension of a person’s personality. People express themselves, their interests and values, through their work choices and experience. In his theory, Holland assumes that people’s impressions and generalizations about work, which he refers to as stereotypes, are generally accurate. By studying and refining these stereotypes, Holland assigns both people and work environments to specific categories.

John Holland (1966, 1973, 1992, 1997) has published five books that explain his typological theory. Each book represents an update and a further-refined version of earlier work in the development of his theory.… Read the rest

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Kirkpatrick’s Training Evaluation Model

Donald L Kirkpatrick, Professor Emeritus, University Of Wisconsin, first published his ideas in 1959, in a series of articles in the Journal of American Society of Training Directors. The articles were subsequently included in Kirkpatrick’s book Evaluating Training Programs. He was president of the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) in 1975. Donald Kirkpatrick’s 1994 book, Evaluating Training Programs, defined his originally published ideas of 1959, thereby further increasing awareness of them, so that his theory has now become arguably the most widely used and popular model for the evaluation of training and learning. Kirkpatrick’s training evaluation model is now considered an industry standard across the HR and training communities.… Read the rest

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E-Learning at the Workplace

Globally, the e-learning market has been growing rapidly, and e-learning is beginning to emerge as the new model of training and education across a wide range of different sectors and industries. This growth has resulted in part from extensive changes in the working environment, and from a shift from a product-based economy to a knowledge-based one, meaning that there is a more pressing need to train and educate workforces in new technologies and services. In addition, technological advancement and challenges in technology-oriented working life have paved the way for new forms of electronic learning. Consequently, e-learning now accounts for a significant proportion of corporate investment in workforce training.… Read the rest

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