Human Resource Management Challenges

Dhruba Lal Pandey

HUMAN Resource Management is a complex work that a manager has to perform. Every line manager
requires involvement in the work of human resource management. Most of the Nepalese
organisations neither form the separate human resource department nor do they assign entire
responsibility of managing human resources to that particular department. Without proper
mobilisation of human resource, it is quite impossible to achieve success in business.
Mechanistic Thinking
Maintaining a reciprocal and beneficial relation between the employers and employees is essential in
any successful organisation. Nepalese entrepreneurs do not think for the betterment of the
employees, especially in private sector. In this connection, Nepalese entrepreneurs thinking seems to
be not humanistic but mechanistic.
Nepalese entrepreneurs still do not like to let the employees participate in the management of the
organisation. They just let the employees participate in the management only to comply with the
provisions of Company Act and Labour Act of Nepal. They do not take it as an important function in
an organisation eventhough human resource is more important than other resources for the
successful functioning of the organisation. Nepalese entrepreneurs consider the human resources as
machine and think they should work as machines because they think they have purchased them and
they should obey all their orders and directions. But human resource is different from machinery and
other resources because they can foresee the consequences of decision or any activities the
management introduces in the organisation. Every human being have competency and their
competency can be developed by providing training, opportunities to take part in seminars, meetings
etc. and management but improvement in other resources is not so easy. But Nepalese entrepreneurs
are not ready to change their traditional concept of viewing the employees.
World market replaced mechanistic concept of human resource management long back and has
established the human capital approach. They established the theory that human being or employees
are the very important assets of any organisation. The organisations should invest a large amount of
capital for the development of manpower. They should invest the amount in conducting appropriate
training, seminars, meeting and preparing environment for the involvement of employees in such
programmes. Currently use of partnership approach side by side with the human capital approach has
been a popular practice worldwide.
Partnership approach recommends that every important and keen stateholder including human
resource must be involved in the organisation as a partner to maintain a permanent and long lasting
relationship with them so that they will be big help to the organisation even at the time of crisis too.
This relationship helps increase the efficiency of the staffs. Some of the service sector organisations
like banking sector have established this concept in the work field providing certain percentage of
shares to the employees. After being provided the share, they are also the owner of the company and
they have the right to share the profit as well. It instill the feeling of belongingness. It helps to reduce
the absenteeism and labour turnover. Less absenteeism and turnover increases the prestige of the
organisation while increasing the production and productivity. This approach is rigorously used all
over the world even in India. But Nepal is not still able to introduce this concept in the work field.
Nepalese labour sector is also not free from problems. Nepalese labour sector has excessively been
politicised. They carry on the political activities through trade unions. The leaders of the trade unions
do not involve in the work of the organisation. They draw the salary without doing any work which is
the burden to the organisation. Such activities of trade union leaders increase the cost of production.
The organisation cannot punish to such workers because of political protection of the workers. Labour
unions of the developed countries have turned into professional and economic organisations from the
organisation of the political activists but Nepalese labour unions are taken as the sister organisations
of the major political parties and they work at the instruction of their respective parties inside the
organisations. Such Labour Unions do not emphasise to the professional and economic benefits of the
employees and employer organisation but they are working for the political benefits of the concerned
parties. They are unable to understand the fact that until and unless their employer organisation
remains financially strong, they cannot get additional benefits eventhough they have good relation
with the political party leaders. Only a few labour leaders may gain benefits from the political parties
and the leaders but entire labourer can get benefits only when their employing organisation
generates large income and benefits. Nowadays, it seems that the employees in Nepal are not trying
to strengthen the economic situation of the employing organisation but they are backing the political
leaders. Labour unions hardly think about the betterment of the organisation and professional
benefits of the employees.
Supportive
Thus, traditional thinking of employers and employees and excess politicisation of the labour unions
are the major challenges in the human resource management of Nepal. For the improvement of
labour situation and the situation of the organisations, employers and employees should change their
traditional concept of managing employees by the employers and employees and should not take the
employers as the exploiters. Both of them must take each other as the supportive and very important
factor for the success of the organisation and benefits of development of the employees. They must
realise that in the absence of any one of them another cannot be complete and cannot run their
activities. Major political parties of Nepal must reconsider their concept of setting the labour unions as
the sister organisations if they really want to uplift the economic and industrial sector of Nepal. The
political leaders should not interfere in the activities of the labour unions and allow them to operate
as professional and economic organisations.