HR vital part of national development

Management as a discipline has evolved through the years from Fredrick Taylor to Henry Ford to contemporaries such as Peter Drucker and Tom Peters etc. in the last 30 years with the emergence of various concepts on Human Resources Management and Human Reources has been spoken about more than any other aspect in management. Human Resource Management has rightly located the heart of the employee at the heart of the business universe. It is now accepted that it is a vital part of the development process. Consequently every business organization has a sacred duty to develop this resource while inculcating the correct values and business ethics.

While the recent changes in HR development has been overwhelming, regrettably individual interests have superseded corporate and social interests. Money has replaced morality and envy has taken over from admiration for achievement. With regular monotony we read in the newspapers of the incidents of worker indiscipline, acts of vandalism and sabotage in workplaces, as well as of an alarming number of cases of fraud, misapplication and misappropriation of funds, dereliction of duty and various acts of employee misconduct. Apparently the appetite to make quick money is driving employees, even those at Managerial levels to rising levels. The malpractices by managers and directors in public establishments and private enterprises have been on the increase. Cases of directors swindling shareholders, misappropriation of large sums of money, receiving gratifications are quite common. It won’t be surprising if more and more employees both at managerial levels as well as the lower levels are convicted for misconduct and criminal and civil offenses. From a careful study of various acts of worker indiscipline and misconduct it has been found that the main cause for the unsatisfactory and alarming trend is lack of values among the workers and also the failure of employers to create a corporate culture by value formation.

Deteriorating standards
In the context of deteriorating standards of our social, economic and political life the need for value formation has been accepted as an essential pre- requisite for HR and national development.

The whole workforce in this country is in danger of becoming trapped in false values, becoming rich fast and amassing riches is the thing. In the pursuit of riches principles, ethics and values are relegated to the limbo of forgotten things. Some of the intricate problems in our establishments both public and private arise from the inordinate desire and craving for riches. Values are fast diminishing. Lin Yuntang has rightly asserted “Today we are afraid of simple words like goodness, mercy and kindness. We don’t believe in good old words because we don’t believe in good old values any more and that is why the world is sick”

It is widely accepted that HR development is the vital part of the development process. We are investing more on HR and technology.

Values and Culture
Values and culture are inextricably woven. Culture has been defined “as the body of customary beliefs, social forms and some material traits constituting a distinct complex of tradition of a national, religious or social groups that complex whole includes knowledge, beliefs, morals, law, customs, opinion, religious, etc”.

Education
All government and business enterprises over the world have recognized the importance of worker education and value formation in HR management and national development. In Sri Lanka education and value formation has never been more crucial in HR development than at present. Certain organizations had at random times in the past and probably without being consciously aware of it, used education and value formation for their own sake not so much with a view of developing staff. This they apparently did without fixed purposes of ensuring that it would be beneficial for managing human resources towards achievable and determinable goals in productivity, efficiency, discipline, and group effectiveness. It is accepted that values are the bedrock of any culture, whether national community or corporate. Education is the primary conduit for value formation; this is why the primacy of education is enshrined in the basic laws of the country. However the type of education imparted in our schools and universities seriously influence value formation. We are aware that unfortunately under the system of formal education very little is devoted to the development of social values.

Never before in the history of this country has it become so essential to plan and implement well thought out programmes of training and education to the future generation which is going to face rapid changes in all spheres of human activities. We are aware that in 1945 Japan was completely devastated. Robbery, stench, begging, prostitution demoralization, lack of public services confronted the Japanese. They began to live under McArthur’s occupation. Yet today Tokyo is among the most affluent, progressive safe and orderly cities in the world.

New values
How did Japan graft new values to their traditional culture? The humiliating and ignominious defeat in the war and the dire economic consequences placed Japan in unenviable economic and political predicament. In its efforts to rebuild the concept of the Four D’s Diligence, Dexterity, Discipline and Dedication which attributes were deep rooted in Japanese society, were significantly instilled in the Japanese minds.

The significance and relevance of such a concept and its effect can only be visualized in the context of our own current, social political religious and economic environment.

Strategies
To ensure value formation, basically to restore the sense of right and wrong among the workers, all government and private sector establishments will have to employ carefully selected strategies. The importance of education in general to defend the cultural and historical values and to make our children inheritors of a secure future cannot be overemphasized.

We have to formulate strategies “to build up a corporate culture with a genuine endeavour to educate the workforce. If individuals and corporate values are inconsistent, the employers must intensify training discreetly emphasizing the positive aspects of Sri Lankan values. An attempt must be made to create a corporate culture of excellence that can provide a high morale environment for employees to realize their potential as individuals and as employees. Shared values define the fundamental character of the nation and certainly help to accelerate natural development, integration and reconciliation.

HR manager’s role
One asset which is reliably rare among HR personnel is an understanding of and sensitivity to the key operating elements required to maintain their company’s current profitability and to enhance its future growth. It is one of the HR manager’s role to help, shape, enhance such values in a manner that influences the corporate and national destiny. It is the HR manager’s enviable task to be at the nerve centre of the company’s value system - and to be one of the prime movers in the quest for value- driven excellence. Regrettably many HR managers and union leaders assume their positions with little or no preparation in the field of labour management.

Union responsibility
Considering the spate of wildcat strikes we have experienced recently, paralyzing essential services, causing considerable inconvenience and hardship to the public and the irreparable damage to the national economy, the urgent need is to restore the sense of right and wrong among the workers. The general attitude of the employees towards their employers must change radically. Unfortunately the general attitude of the workers is “we have our rights, we must fight for them.”

Improving relationships
When one party in a relationship is made to believe that the other party can do no good, and therefore must learn how to fight evil, then it is not surprising that we have a confrontational labour-management relationship climate in this country. When people are virtually trained to fight they look for a fight. Union leaders have close contact with their membership. It is appropriate to assume that they can influence the thinking and actions particularly of the lower classes to a great extent. They represent an ideal pressure group. Due to the close contact with the membership they can facilitate the transformation of the attitude of their members. They can assist in the process of social change which is essential for industrial harmony and national development.

Among the responsibilities and functions of unions, the “education function” in the process of ensuring industrial peace and national development is of importance, and unions can contribute in various ways to make the workers more knowledgeable and impress upon them their obligations and responsibilities and values apart from continuously and persistently emphasizing their rights and privileges. We have to restore the sense of right and wrong.

Our laws, our rules, company regulations in many cases are observed more in breach whereas in many developing countries the primacy of laws, rules and regulations for daily existence is respected as a matter of course and habit.

What is needed at a macro level is to examine on a national level what value systems are and should be retained and strengthened to attain clear and concise national goals. On a micro level in corporate, industrial and agricultural enterprises, a prolonged and consistent education and training should be maintained to implant these value systems until they become second nature to our workforce. This should be complemented and practiced in schools, vocational institutes, civic and social organizations. The management of our HR both in the national and corporate level needs as a strategic objective, the redirection of our personal, professional and social value systems to key in step with the attitudes and work ethics demanded by a nation struggling for industrial and political survival.