Does employee characteristics impact HRD climate? A study in banking sector.
| Author | Mittal, Shweta |
| Position | Human resource development |
Introduction
In this ever increasing competitive environment where human resource is a means of creating a sustainable competitive edge, most of the organizations are investing in HRD such that the growth of employees should be intertwined with the progress of organization. The term HRD was coined by Nadler where he described HRD as organized learning experiences provided by employers that take place within a specified period of time, and that aim to bring about the possibility of performance improvement and/or personal growth. Rao (1985) elaborately define HRD as "a process by which the employees of an organization are helped, in a continuous, planned way to: acquire or sharpen capabilities required to perform various functions associated with their present or expected future roles; develop their general capabilities as individuals and discover and exploit their own inner potential for their own and/or organizational development purposes; develop an organizational culture in which the supervisor-subordinate relationships, teamwork, and collaboration among sub-units are strong and contribute to the professional well being, motivation and pride of employees. "Human Resource Development (HRD) was also defined as "a set of systematic and planned activities designed by an organization to provide its members with the opportunities to learn necessary skills to meet current and future job demands' (Werner & DeSimone, 2006:5).
In organizations today lack of competent workforce is also an ever-increasing challenge, which requires new ways to manage competence and employability of the personnel. So, HRD focus on honing and adding the skills required in the course of time. HRD should keep a balance in number of relevant considerations to get an outcome. They should focus and provide support to the strategic direction of the organization and achievement of the goals too. Then HRD subsystems should be designed by taking into consideration existing knowledge and providing support to acquire new knowledge. To make the knowledge or learning embedded in the organization HRD subsystems like performance appraisal, recognition and reward are considered to be effective methods. The main focus of the HRD is to enhance the work related skills, knowledge, capabilities of employees and employees working as individuals and teams to work more effectively. Prahalad & Hamel (1990), Pfeffer (1994) and Ghoshal et al. (1998) say that the organizational internal capabilities can be a source of competitive advantage. Such a thought was different from the idea that competitive advantage can be achieved by external environment analysis for justified financial, technological and product market related decisions. HRD is needed for the aspired future status expressed in corporate and business strategies, thus making capabilities driven HRD approach proactive in nature (Subert et al., 1995). Organizations become dynamic and growth oriented if their people are dynamic and pro-active. Every organization can do a lot to make their people become dynamic and proactive through proper selection of such people. Organization cannot survive beyond a point unless they remain continuously alert to the changing environment and continuously prepare their employees to meet the challenges. HRD is an essential process for organizational survival and growth. An optimal level of "Developmental Climate' is essential for facilitating HRD.
The study by Pooja Purang (1996) found that the perception towards HRD climate is better in private organizations and multinational organizations than in public sector undertakings. Salokhe (2002) has conducted a study of the HRD climate in selected banks in Kolhapur district of Maharastra. It revealed that there exists a remarkably good HRD climate in the scheduled, co-operative and public sector banks. There was no substantial variation in the perception of HRD climates across the different cadres of employees. Another study by Mishra and Bhardwaj (2002) reported that the managers in a private organization perceived the HRD climate as favorable. Rodrigues' (2004) study in the engineering institutes in India found that the HRD climate is highly satisfactory. Srimannarayana (2007) found that a moderate HRD climate was prevailing in Dubai organisations. Prakash R. Pillai in 2008 reported that the level of the learning orientation of the employees working in the banks is highly influenced by the HRD climate fostered by their organizations. Srimannarayana (2008) found that moderate HRD climate was prevailing in the organizations in India. The HRD climate in the management institutes is average and the perception of the employees differs on the basis of gender and experience on HRD Climate (Smruti Patre & Rashmi Gupta, 2011). Santosh K. Mohanty & K. M. Sahoo in 2012 found that an average HRD climate has been prevalent in the IT industry.
HRD Climate
A major challenge for any organization in this era of international competition seems to be 'survival and sustainability' amidst cut throat competition. It is increasingly argued that the organizations, best able to meet the challenges will be those that can acquire and utilize valuable, scarce and inimitable resource (Barney, 1995). Human resources can fall into this category, particularly, if...
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