Human Resources Development: An Evolution

1974-1984

Human Resources Development

A philosophy based approach: Competent and Committed People build organizations. Culture makes organizations last long time. Openness, collaboration, trust, authenticity, proaction, autonomy, confrontation and experimentation are values that promote getting the best out of people and build organizations. HRD is continuous competence building, commitment building and culture building. Task clarity, goal setting, performance review, performance analysis, feedback, Training, career planning, potential assessment development coaching and mentoring are tools to build competencies. Recognition, rewards, work facilities, hygiene’s, developmental supervision are tools for commitment building. Articulating values, vision, systems development, top management setting example, periodic diagnosis and Self renewal exercises, etc. are means to build culture. HRD is the responsibility of the HR function and top management commitment is essential for good HRD.

1984-2004

Hrd = Human Resource Development

Hrd=Human Resource Department

Human Resource Management

Training departments renamed as HRD. Personnel function is retitled as HR Management. HRD is retitled to mean HR department. Human resources need to be managed, they are to be recruited, incentivized, given targets, motivated. Recruitment can be outsourced, training should to be outsourced as there is so much to train and learn. Soft-skills can be developed through online programs with least expenses.

2004-2017

HRD = Human Resources Department

People are resources. They could be outsourced as attrition is high and retention is low. They can be bought with money. They can be procured from other companies. Recruitments agencies will do this for you. Compensation surveys go a long way in attracting and retaining talent. Employee engagement, great place to work etc. surveys will help you build employee brand and retain people. Hr departments need to be cost effective and cost sensitive. Their main job is to attract and retain people who are resource and can be called as talent.  Nurture talent and create bench strength. Leadership development and succession planning will sail you through difficult times and help you face competition.

Renewal and rejuvenation of HRD

Human Resources Development

Human is not merely a resource

Human is creating possibilities

HRD is recognizing and nurturing talent. Talent is unlimited. Organizations are platforms to discover, apply and nurture talent. Every person is one’s own HRD manager. Every individual has the responsibility to discover, utilize, nurture and multiply talent. HR is too important to be delegated to a department or function. HR departments can facilitate the organizations to be human. No corporation, country or community can grow without being human.

Be Human. Humans are different. They have a soul and spirit. we are all talented possibilities and can make many things happen. Let us treat each other with respect. Respect failures as they are as much human as successes.

The Power of Incompetence and Powerlessness of the Competent

The Power of Incompetence and Powerlessness of the Competent

T. V. Rao

I always wondered if most Chairpersons, CEOs, MDs, Presidents, CXOs, CHROs really and genuinely interested in recruiting and using competent people as peers (colleagues at same level) or juniors at immediate next levels. Often good leaders are advised to be great leaders by getting team members more competent than them and when they choose employees more competent than them, the organizations really prosper. I have begun to feel that this remains mostly in theory and rare to find people like Dr. Vikram Sarabhai or Ravi Matthai or Abdul Kalam who are highly secure (emotionally) Institution Builders and always respected competence, recruited competent people and left them free to build institutions. As late Dr. Kamla Choudhry postulated Dr. Sarabhai and Matthai spotted competent people and built Institutions or centers around them.

Today it is perhaps rare to find such people and phenomena. It seems that no leader (CEO/CHRO/CXO or equivalent) would want to have more competent people around them as almost all of them be afraid of losing credit and fear of getting drowned in the glory of the competent colleagues or juniors. Only family family-owned business heads who made already a great success and achieved peak of emotional security seem to show this capability. Almost all leaders now a days want to maintain their supremacy and believe the only way to do that is by having normally less competent people around them.

I must clarify what I mean by competence- it is not necessarily domain competence but it could also mean attitudinal, emotional or style or some form of inadequacy that makes an individual more acceptable to their seniors but less impactful on juniors or others.  Competency is defined as knowledge, attitudes, skills, self-concept, emotional intelligence, values, traits etc. In academic world, I know the heads of many Institutions including those of some premier Institutions who ensure that positions a of importance is held by people who are less competent or at least have one weakness or the other which gives them a good handle of control over these leaders. For example, one Director always chose a “yes person” as his Dean or Head of the Department wherever he had choice. Some others recruit competent people and make them incompetent either by over boosting of their ego to a level of dysfunctionality, or pumping too much of their vision and styles and leave little choice for the person to use his/her other competencies. A Chairman went to search all over the world for a good CEO of International repute and pumped into is head a lot of ego that made the CEO partially incompetent by becoming rigid and exercising a high ego. He in turn chose an “Yes Person” as his next level and delegated whatever suited him.  Recently when a reputed Industrialist became the Chairman of an academic Institute and needed to choose a committee to assist him to rejuvenate the Institute, he chose a few members from his Board who either belonged to his fraternity or popular names and completely ignored members with domain expertise who could give him good inputs. It may not have even occurred to him that there are competent people. Normally the choice of the team member is based on one with who o feel comfortable rather than one who can contribute. That is where competence becomes powerless and incompetence becomes powerful. Remember the article that appeared in Harvard Business review on Competent jerks and Lovable fools (HBR, June 2005) The authors proposed that normally when people must choose people to help them at work, they use likeability over competence as a criterion. Many CHROs make sure that they don’t have highly competent HR Managers. or tend to choose who can surpass them as it will lead to ego clash or sharing of credit. This also explains the reason why there is no succession planning in most organizations including the PSUs and PSBs despite the need for the same being felt for the last over two decades. This is simply because of the “fear of competent overshadowing the incompetent”. So, Incompetence wins and the competence is shelved and sometimes retires unnoticed.

I would like now to turn the argument round to say that that it is not to your advantage if you are highly competent person. You should have some incompetence with you to be chosen to work with. One of the incompetencies is lack of time. There are some leaders who volunteer or get appointed as members of the Board, or Advisory Board, or Task Force, Committees etc.  Once in it, they rarely attend meetings as they are very popular and busy people. These busy and popular people re normally chosen as they rarely attend meetings and happily lend their name for the final report. This is another form of incompetence preferred by leaders. The Chairman of these committees want to feel that they have a “High Powered “Committee (who never attended any meetings! For example, if you form a search Committee to find the next president of a professional body or the Director of an institution what are your criteria? First criteria is the person who should have good track record and credibility. Second criteria are the person should have domain familiarity and some domain knowledge or some experience in search for competent people. A rarely asked question is on the interest of the candidate and time he/she can spare. I have seen many committees where the report is almost written by the Chairman or Secretary and few of his cronies and the Committee is used to give an online approval. What do you consider such type of members who give their “yes” response and feel happy to be called members of the Committee? I call them also incompetent people as their competence is not available to be put to use.

When five of us worked for the HR Committee of the Ministry of Finance called as Khandelwal Committee, there were five of us members: A IT Professor from IIT and a member of Bank Board, Another Private sector bank ED, A Successful Chairman of Bank of Baroda, Chairman of another bank and Chairman of the IBA, and a HR Expert. I understand that we were carefully chose. We worked for six months visited all Nationalized banks and held detailed discussions. At one time, we divided ourselves to look at our special areas of domain competence (for example a IT specialist looked at IT issues, strategy specialist looked strategies and so on). Of course, we also had ex-officio members who may not have attend all meetings but kept them I the loop all the time by continuously circulating minutes.  This one committee report that was accepted almost in toto for implementation.

Most of the time I have begun to feel that to be competent and aggressive is a disadvantage and you may be discredited as a difficult person to deal with or sometimes a person who only makes notice and may not have much to contribute. The at means your competence has made you powerless and you should have been incompetent in a way that the other members feel more secure to have you as a member. However, if you are too timid and shy and are not noticeable even if you are competent in many ways you may be kept out. If you are competent and shy you are incompetent. If you are competent and aggressive, again you are incompetent. Your competence makes you powerless. Your competence should be only to the level that makes others feel secure.  The challenge is to be incompetently competent or competently incompetent? A competent jerk who is lovable? Or a Lovable fool who is competent?

Publications of T. V. Rao

Books by Talam Venkateswara Rao (T. V. Rao)

Books by Dr. T. V. Rao

1.       HRD, OD and Institution Building: Essays in Memory of Udai Pareek. New Delhi: Sage Response Books, 2016 Edited jointly with Dr. Anil K Khandelwal

2.       Effective People: New Delhi: Random House, 2015

3.       Performance Management: Towards Organizational Excellence: New Delhi: Sage Response Books, 2016

4.       HRD Audit: Evaluating the Human resources Function for Business Improvements, 2^nd edition, New Delhi: Sage -Response Books, 2014

5.       Organization Development: Accelerating Learning and Transformation: New Delhi: Sage: Response Books, 2011 (S. Ramnarayan & T V Rao

6.       The Power of 360 Degree Feedback: Developing Leadership the India Way: 2^nd edition, jointly with Dr. Raju Rao, New Delhi: Sage- Response Books, 2014

7.       100 Managers in Action: New Delhi: Tata McGraw-hill, 2012 (with Charu Sharma)

8.       Entrepreneurship: A South Asian Perspective by D. F. Kuratko and T. V. Rao: New Delhi: Cengage Learning, 2012

9.       Nurturing Excellence: Indian Institute of Management, New Delhi: Macmillan, (Co-authored with Vijaya Sherry Chand, 2011)

10.    Managers who Make a Difference: New Delhi: IIMA Book Series, 2010 Random House. (Second edition 2016 with added chapters)

11.    Life after 360 Degree Feedback and Assessment and Development Centres; Editors T. V. Rao, Nandini Chawla and S. Ramnarayan): New Delhi: Excel Books, 2010.

12.    HR Best Practices; New Delhi: Steel Authority of India (jointly with Nisha Nair, Neharika Vohra, and Atul Srivastava), 2009.

13.    HRD Score Card 2500; New Delhi: Sage, Response Books, 2008

14.    Hurconomics; New Delhi: Oxford & IBH, 2008 Republished by Pearson Education: New Delhi, 2011..

15. The Power of 360 Degree Feedback; (Jointly with Mr. Raju Rao), New Delhi: Response Books, Sage, 2005. (Won Two awards as best Management book of the Year: DMA and ISTD)

16. The Future of HRD; New Delhi: Macmillan India, 2003

17.    HRD in Asia: First Asian Research Conference on HRD; (jointly with Ramnarayan, Udai Pareek, AAhad Usman Gani) Academy of HRD, New Delhi: Oxford and IBH, 2003.

18.    HRD Audit; New Delhi, Response Books, Sage Publications, 1999

19. Institutionalization of Innovations in Education; Ahmedabad: Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation & TVRLS, 1999  (With Jaya Indiresan and M G Jomon)

20. Changing Teacher Behaviour through Feedback; Hyderabad: ICFAI, 2006, (With Udai Pareek)

21. Training for Education Managers; New Delhi: Macmillan, 2005 (With Udai Pareek)

22. 360 Degree Feedback and Assessment & Development Centers; (edited by T V Rao and Nandini Chawla) New Delhi: Excel Publications, 2005

23. Performance Planning and Review Manuals; Ahmedabad: TVRLS, 2005

24. HR @ Heart of Business; (edited by TV Rao, A Gangopadhyay, RSS Mani), New Delhi: Excel Publications, 2002.

25. Performance Management and Appraisal Systems; New Delhi: Response Books, 2004

26. 360 Degree Feedback and Performance Management Systems; (Editors T V Rao, Gopal Mahapatra, Raju Rao and Nandini Chawla) Volume 2, Excel Publications: New Delhi 2002.

27. 360 degree Feedback and Performance Management systems Volume 1; (Editors: T V Rao and Raju Rao), Excel Publications: New Delhi, 2000.

28. Organizational Renewal in NGOs: Experiences and Cases; (Co-author with Uma Jain), Hyderabad: Academy of HRD, 1996

29. Organization Development: Interventions and Strategies; (Co edited with S Ramnaryan and Kuldeep Singh), New Delhi: 1998, New Delhi: Response Books

30.    Pioneering Human Resources Development: The L&T System; Ahmedabad, Academy of HRD, 1998 (Co-author)

31.    Redesigning Performance Appraisal System; 1996, Tata McGraw Hill, New Delhi

32.    Human Resources Development: Experiences, Interventions Strategies; 1996, Sage Publications, New Delhi

33.    Performance Appraisal and Review: Trainers Manual, Operating Manual and Skills Workbook; Learning Systems, New Delhi, 1978

34.    Designing and Managing Human Resources Systems; Oxford & IBH Publications, New Delhi, 1981, 1991, 2003 (Co-author) (This book has won ESCORTS award as best management book in 1982)

35.    Performance Appraisal: Theory and Practice; AIMA-Vikas Management Series, New Delhi, 1984 (Also translated into Bhasha Indonesia by PPM, Jakarta).

36.    Recent Experiences in Human Resources Development; Oxford and IBH, New Delhi (edited by T.V. Rao and D.F. Pereira)

37.    Alternative Approaches and Strategies of HRD; (edited by T.V. Rao, K.K. Verma, E. Abraham and A. Khandelwal), Rawat Publications, Jaipur, 1987

38.    Excellence Through Human Resource Development; (editors M.R.R. Nair and T.V. Rao), New Delhi, Tata McGraw Hill, 1990

39.    Designing Entrepreneurial Skills Development Programmes; London, Commonwealth Secretariat, 1990 (co-author)

40.    The HRD Missionary; New Delhi, Oxford and IBH, 1990 (Second edition: 2009 TVRLS)

41.    Readings in HRD; New Delhi, Oxford and IBH, 1991

42.    Career Planning and Promotion Policies;  Ahmedabad, Academy of HRD, 1982 (co-author)

43.    Appraising & Developing Managerial Performance; AHRD Publication, 1996, reprinted at New Delhi: Excel Books, 1999

44.    Institution Building in Education and Research: From Stagnation to Self-Renewal; (Eds. R.J. Matthai, Udai Pareek and T.V. Rao), All Indian Management Association, New Delhi, 1977.

45.    Adult Education for Social Change; Manohar Publications, New Delhi, 1980 (co-author)

46.    Handbook for Trainers in Educational Management with special reference to Asia and Pacific; UNESCO, Bangkok (Co-author) 1981

47.    Management Processes in Universities; New Delhi: Oxford & IBH (PSG Monograph 1, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad 1978, co-author with R.J. Matthai and Udai Pareek)

48.    Behavioural Sciences Research in Family Planning; Tata McGraw Hill, New Delhi, 1974 (co-author)

49.    Doctors in Making; Sahitya Mudranalaya, Ahmedabad, 1976

50.    Managing Family Planning Clinics; Asian and Pacific Development Administration Centre, Kaula Lumpur, Malaysia, 1977 (co-author)

51.    Change Agents in Family Welfare: An Action Research in Organized Industry; Academic Book Centre, Ahmedabad, 1978 (co-author with Pramod Verma)

52.    Developing Entrepreneurship: A Handbook for Policy Makers, Entrepreneurs, Trainers and Development Personnel; Learning Systems, New Delhi, 1978 (co-author)

53.    Identification and selection of Entrepreneurs; (Eds. T.V. Rao and T.K. Moulik), Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, 1979

54.    Developing Motivation Through Experiencing; Oxford and IBH Publications, 1982 (co-author with Udai Pareek)

55.    Entrepreneurial Skill Development Programmes in Fifteen Commonwealth Countries: An Overview; Commonwealth Secretariat, London, 1991

56.    Handbook of Psychological and Instruments; Samasthi Publications, Baroda, 1974 (co-author)

57.    Stewart Maturity Scale: Indian Adaptation; Manasayan, New Delhi, 1976

58.    Sales Styles Diagnosis Exercises; Learning Systems, New Delhi, 1976

59.    Behaviour Processes in Organizations; Oxford and IBH Publications, New Delhi, 1981 (Co-author with Udai Pareek and D M Pestonjee)

60.    Measuring and Managing Organizational Climate; Ahmadabad: Academy of HRD, 1996 (With Dalpat Sarupriya and Dr. Sethumadhavan)

61. Selected Readings in HRD; New Delhi: Tata McGraw Hill, 1998 ( with Singh, Kuldeep & Nair, Baburaj)

62. HRD Philosophies and Concepts: The Indian Perspective; Ahmedabad: Academy of HRD, 1994 (with  Abraham, E & Nair, Baburaj V. Eds.)

63. HRD in the New economic Environment; New Delhi: Tata McGraw Hill, 1994 (co-edited with Silveira, D. M., Srivastava, C. M. and Vidyasagar, Rajesh)

64. Competency Mapping Education Kit (4 Volumes), Ahmedabad: TVRLS, 2005.