1.1.

INTRODUCTION

Human resource management can be defined as managing the functions of employing,

developing and compensating human resources resulting in the creation and development of
human relations with a view to contribute proportionately to individual, organizational and
societal goals.
The liberalization of the Indian economy in 1991 has created a raft of challenges for
organizations operating in India the world's largest democracy. This country of over a billion
potential customers has some of the world's richest individuals, rocket and nuclear
technology, and an infrastructure that includes the world's largest slums, with 25% of the
population earning less that one USD a day. An IT power house and one of the fastest
growing countries for outsourcing, India has the largest area of land under cotton cultivation
in the world. Textiles, jewellery and leather produced in this country adorn the top echelons
of fashion houses internationally. Indians are born into their castes which creates a social
hierarchy that spills over into organizational life. This is the scenario within which Human
Resource Management (HRM) is evolving from a primarily industrial relations and personnel
function to that of the creation and molding of strategic and systemic policies and practices
aligned with business goals in an environment of intense global competition.
The role of human resource management is to plan, develop, and administer policies and
programmes designed to help employees and management to work in an integrated way. The
major functional areas in human resource management are: Human resource planning,
recruitment and selection, performance and career management, training and development
and compensation, retention, attrition and downsizing.
Employee training is the most important sub-system of human resource development.
Training is a specialized function and is one of the fundamental operative functions for
human resources management. Training improves changes and moulds the employees
knowledge, skill, behaviour and aptitude and attitude towards the requirements of the job and
the organization. There is a growing influence in the importance of educational and
vocational training setup on HRM practices in Indian organizations with new courses in

Human Resource Development (HRD) and Industrial Relations being offered by educational
institutions. National institutions such as the HRD Academy, Indian Society for Training and
Development, the National Institute of Personnel Management, the All India Management
Association, National Institute of Industrial Engineering and Indian Society for Applied
Behavioural Sciences also play a role in the training and development of HRM professionals.
In a cross-national study of 252 Indian and 174 British companies on corporate training and
development policies and practices found that in both countries the continuous pressure for
quality innovation and productivity were the major drivers for training and development
initiatives. In India the percentage of payroll spent on training was 1.2% compared with 5.4%
in Britain. 55.3% of employees were trained per year in India, in contrast to 61.7% in Britain,
with HRD/training staff per 1000 employees being 2.3 in India and 4.0 in Britain. It is worth
noting that in the same study, 65% of Indian organizations perceived the absence of transfer
of learning from training to workplace as a major deficiency.
Interestingly MNC's have the reputation of providing marginally greater attention to training,
though they tend to provide intensive inputs in aspects concerning immediate job
performance in contrast to Indian companies which provide wider job knowledge.
In analysing business practices of MNC's in India he found that they were beneficial to the
educated and trained employees but seem to have adverse effects on lower levels of the
Indian society and economy and some managers in India found US management practices
lacking in humanistic and social concerns as they tend to be too market oriented and
impersonal.
The term training refers to the acquisition of knowledge, skills, and competencies as a result
of the teaching of vocational or practical skills and knowledge that relate to specific useful
competencies. It forms the core of apprenticeships and provides the backbone of content at
technical colleges and polytechnics. In addition to the basic training required for a trade,
occupation or profession, observers of the labor-market recognize today the need to continue
training beyond initial qualifications: to maintain, upgrade and update skills throughout
working life. People within many professions and occupations may refer to this sort of
training as professional development.
Training differs from exercise in that people may dabble in exercise as an occasional activity
for fun. Training has specific goals of improving one's capability, capacity, and performance.

A training program can serve a range of diverse purposes, and organizations initiate training
programs for many different reasons. In broadcasting one of the strongest motives is the need
to respond to challenges presented by new technologies. As our technology changes at an
increasingly rapid pace, it requires new skills. The resulting changes in job descriptions
frequently blur boundaries between previously distinct jobs, producing greater demands for a
multi-skilled staff. In any event, many persons will need to be trained in the new skills
required by technology changes, and some of that retraining will be conducted within their
organizations. Improving efficiency and performance to ensure that the organization is
capable of responding to the challenges of its competitors will sometimes require a very
different\ kind of training program. But in striving for enhanced efficiency and levels of
performance, training should also be seen as a part of individual professional development.
An organization can increase the likelihood that it will keep valued employees if it
demonstrates that it is willing to invest in their professional development, by helping them
gain new skills and expertise through organizational support for their training.

1.2.

TRAINING AND EDUCATION

Many a times training is often confused with education. Training is different from education.
Clearly there are overlaps, and the boundary between the two can sometimes be blurred but
Milano & Ullius (1998, p.4) summarized the distinction very well when they wrote that:
Education focuses on learning about; training focuses on learning how.
Education has broader goals than training and the material covered is intended to be used in
many different contexts. This distinction is clear if we contrast for example, broadcast
education with broadcast training. In addition to including courses to learn skills in such areas
as production or management a universitys undergraduate curriculum in broadcasting will
also include courses in topics such as the history of broadcasting, its social purpose, the legal
and regulatory frameworks that shape its performance, and the ways its output has been
critiqued. The graduates of that program will move on to many different occupations and they
will use what they have learned in a variety of ways.

While training may, of necessity, occasionally touch on these more inclusive areas of
knowledge they will be less central to the activity. Fundamentally, training helps someone do
something better and the skills it develops are usually specific to a particular task. Therefore,
the objectives in training are more specific than those in education. In training it is usually
easier to state the goals in a clear and ultimately measurable form because the expected
outcome is more easily defined.
In education the objectives are less specific and thus determining whether or not those goals
have been achieved becomes much more challenging. Because of the difference in aims
between training and education, the strategies and techniques each uses in instruction are
different. A common problem for trainers is to unlearn teaching methods they have
acquired without thinking during their schooling years. Breaking habits of instruction that
teachers use can be the first step toward becoming a highly effective trainer.

1.3.

TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT: CONCEPT

In the field of human resource management, training and development is the field concerned
with organizational activity aimed at improving the performance of individuals and groups in
organizational settings. It has been known by several names, including employee
development, human resource development, and learning and development. Harrison
observes that the name was endlessly debated by theChartered Institute of Personnel and
Development during its review of professional standards in 1999/2000. The term "Employee
Development" was looked as negative depicting the master-slave relationship between
employer and employee for those organizations where employees are given the status of
"partners" or "associates" to be comfortable with. "Human Resource Development" was
rejected by academics, who objected to the idea that people were "resources" an idea that
they felt to be demeaning to the individual. Eventually, the CIPD settled upon "Learning and
Development", although that was itself not free from problems, "learning" being an over
general and ambiguous name. Moreover, the field is still widely known by the other names
(Harrison, R.; 2005).
Training and development encompasses three main activities: training, education, and
development. Garavan, Costine, and Heraty, of the Irish Institute of Training and

Development, note that these ideas are often considered to be synonymous. However, to
practitioners, they encompass three separate, although interrelated, activities (Harrison 2005;
Montana & Charnov 2000; Garavan, et al., 1995):
1. Training: This activity is both focused upon, and evaluated against, the job that an
individual currently holds.
2. Education: This activity focuses upon the jobs that an individual may potentially hold in
the future, and is evaluated against those jobs.
3. Development: This activity focuses upon the activities that the organization employing the
individual, or that the individual is part of, may partake in the future, and is almost
impossible to evaluate.

1.4.

STAKE HOLDERS IN TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT

Training and development is an integrated activity for the people and by the people of
organizations. Many a times there is confusion related to the roles associated with training
and development and identifying the stakeholders who may impact training or who may have
an impact or get affected by training and development activities.
According to Torrington, Hall and Taylor (2004) the "stakeholders" in training and
development are categorized into several classes. They are understood as following;
a) Sponsors: The sponsors of training and development are senior managers.
b) Clients: The clients of training and development are business planners. Line managers are
responsible for coaching, resources, and performance.
c) Participants: The participants are those who actually undergo the processes.
d) Facilitators: The facilitators are Human Resource Management staff.
e) Providers: The providers are specialists in the field. Each of these groups has its own
agenda and motivations, which sometimes conflict with the agendas and motivations of the
others.
The conflicts with perhaps the most devastating career consequences are those that take place
between employees and their bosses. The number one reason people leave their jobs is
conflict with their bosses. And yet, as author, workplace relationship authority, and executive
coach, Dr. John Hoover points out, "Tempting as it is, nobody ever enhanced his or her career

by making the boss look stupid." Training an employee to get along well with authority and
with people who entertain diverse points of view is one of the best guarantees of long-term
success. Talent, knowledge and skill alone won't compensate for a sour relationship with a
superior, peer, or customer.

1.5.

TRAINING AND LEARNING ORGANIZATION

Training cannot be imparted unless organizations function as learning organization.

According to following management professionals, "Learning Company is an organization
that facilitates the learning of all its members and continually transforms itself" (Pedler,
Burgoyne & Boydell, 1991). "The essence of organizational learning is the organization's
ability to use the amazing mental capacity of all its members to create the kind of processes
that will improve its own"(Dixon 1994). "Organizations where people continually expand
their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of
thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually
learning to learn together" (Senge,1990).
Learning organizations are those that have in place systems, mechanisms and processes, that
are used to continually enhance their capabilities and those who work with it or for it, to
achieve sustainable objectives for themselves and the communities in which they
participate.
The important points to note about this definition are that learning organizations:
Are adaptive to their external environment
Continually enhance their capability to change/adapt
Develop collective as well as individual learning
Use the results of learning to achieve better results.
A learning organization is one in which people at all levels, individually and collectively are
continually increasing their capacity to produce results they really care about. A learning
organization is an ideal state, a vision. Becoming a learning organization requires a cultural

change for most organizations. To be successful agencies should work with all staff members
to:
1. Create and communicate a shared vision for the organization.
2. Make information in the organization accessible to all.
3. Help employees manage change and creating the type of change desired by the
organization.
4. Empower employees to act.
5. Acknowledge and support the need to take risks.
6. Learn to manage the organizations knowledge by:
(a) Keeping information current
(b) Maintaing historical knowledge
(c) Addressing increasing volumes of information.
Members of the organization need to promote a learning culture to meet the challenges faced
by agencies because successful implementation of training can only happen if organization
has the culture that encourages learning. Promoting a Learning
Organization culture is really required because organizations are facing so many challenges
during their life cycle. Following are some of the challenges faced by organizations;
1. Rapid Change: Change in the workplace is occurring rapidly. Agencies are being forced to
quickly adapt work processes. In a Learning Organization, change is seen as an opportunity
to learn through problem solving.
2. Shifting Focus: Business agencies are changing their focus from a role of ensuring
compliance to one of serving customers. A Learning Organization can ensure that there is a
strategic alignment between customer needs, organizational goals, individual learning, and
resource allocations.
3. Eroding Knowledge Bases: The recent attrition of employees, reductions-in-force, and
expected retirements are eroding the organizational knowledge bases. A Learning
Organization fosters information exchange and captures expertise from all levels of
personnel. And, technology is leverage to support information exchange.

4. Limited Training Resources: Training budgets are shrinking while staff members have
less time to attend formal training sessions. A Learning Organization can make use of
alternative strategies that integrate learning into the workplace. These alternative methods
cost less and are effective.
5. Evolving Roles of Supervisors: Supervisors are assuming increasing responsibility for
traditional human resource functions. In a Learning Organization, managers serve as teachers
and each individual is empowered to be responsible for his or her own learning.

1.6.

NEED FOR TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT

Training is important for industry as every organization needs well experienced and skilled
people to carry out their activities. Since organizations are becoming more complex the
importance for training and educating employees are all the more high.
Some of the reasons are listed below:
1. Technological advances: Business environment is changing rapidly because of the fast
pace change in technology. Today, even a small company has its processes automated
resulting into demand for skilled manpower. It is thus important for the employees to upgrade
their technical proficiency and adapt to the new processes and techniques relevant to their
profession.
2. Organizational complexity: Organizations require coordination and integration of
activities at various levels. Though technological advances may provide a support to deal
with the complexity of organizations, especially the advancement in communication systems,
Information technology, still it requires training and retraining their manpower to adapt to the
complex system. Unfamiliar situations in the organization require coordination of efforts
from diverse background.
Operations research and other newly emerging disciplines have developed a variety of new,
mathematically sophisticated techniques to attack such complex organizational problems as
inventory control, scheduling and transportation coordination. However many of these

techniques require an understanding of mathematics and calculus which managers might not
be possessing. For such activities it becomes mandatory to go for training in related field.
3. Organizational tenure: Employees serving in the organization are expected to perform
well not only in present but also in future. Their total organizational tenure is dependent on
their potential to perform well. Organizations make investment in management development
programmes to provide a ladder to the career of the employees in the organization and have a
successful outcome.
4. Human relations movement: Human relations movement has led to the realization that
employees work in the organization not just to fulfill their lower order needs related to
monetary benefits and security but also to fulfill the needs of recognition, socialization and
self actualization. They would like to work for the organizations which provide them
interesting and challenging job rather than dull and monotonous job. As dull job bring
inefficiency, management has to look for innovative ways to make job interesting and this
requires continuous efforts of making job attractive. And the same time employees handling
job should also be ready to change and have required skill set. Training and development of
employees at all the levels becomes necessary to make it happen.