chapter iv implementation of human resource

140

CHAPTER IV

IMPLEMENTATION OF HUMAN RESOURCE STRATEGY-

ACTION PLANS AND PRACTICES

The following Chapter dwells into the collective opinions and experiences of the Sample

Respondents which were expressed in their unique individual styles. The responses from

the Sample were assembled, tabulated, and classified to draw meaningful inferences and

are presented in a textual format coupled with Human Resource action plan and practices.

Responsiveness towards Change

Business environment has become complex and aggressive. At any given moment of time,

there are multiple forces on an organization such as competitors, customer demands,

regulatory requirements, supply upsets, and technology breakthroughs. Organization‟s

overcome these hurdles by anticipating change, formulating a change management strategy

and finally by successfully implementing an action plan. Failing in any one of these would

lead to loss of market share, profits in the long-term. Organizations could no longer

succeed by producing the same goods or services year after year. Instead, they must adapt

rapidly to the changing consumer demands and needs to cope with an unpredictable

existing competition. The strategic ability of an organization to respond towards these

unanticipated situations was referred to as adaptability in this Study.

141

In response to a question „changes made in your organization are a reaction to

circumstances‟ from 186 Respondents 48 percent Respondents „agreed‟ and 41 percent

Respondents „strongly agreed‟ that their organization‟s adapted to changes. Whereas 9

percent Respondents „disagreed‟ for adaptability toward change by their organization and 2

percent, Respondents remained „neutral‟ on this aspect (Chart IV. 1).

Without an exception, the Indian Banking Sector had undergone changes due to economic

reforms. Changes had taken place with respect to: the ownership pattern of Banks; changes

in delivery channels; and range of services provided to the customer‟s. Banks like State

Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, and HDFC Bank, have

broken the long-standing jams and started interacting in more friendly and professional

manner with their customer‟s. Banks had started accepting online applications, which

made things easier for the aspirants.

One of a visible change symbol observed was an adoption of „Bancassurance‟ model by

Banking Organizations. Canara Bank has tied up arrangements in both life and non-life

insurance segments. In life insurance segment, Canara Bank has associated with AVIVA

Life Insurance Company India Private Limited to undertaken the marketing of life

insurance products. In non-life insurance segment, Canara Bank developed a strategic

alliance with United India Insurance Company Limited for marketing of non-life insurance

products.

142

CHART IV. 1

ORGANIZATION’S RESPONSIVENESS TO CHANGES

To Study the change, three forms of change were discussed. First, Banks needs to change

product portfolio. Product here referred to transient intermediary mechanisms through

which the markets derive value from the organization and the organization derives value

from the market. Second, process changes in Banks. Process here referred to the overall

layout of the place concerned i.e., how the Banks branches is to designed to ensure

maximum convenience to customer‟s. Identifying the key processes which organization

may excel to add value to their services made these processes simplified. To satisfy

customers, organization‟s brought entirely new internal processes, which customers could

easily understand and follow it. Third form of change was organization’s responding to

customer needs. In order to focus upon long-term relationship building with customer‟s

deep knowledge of customer needs was emphasized. Due to the rapid changes taking

place, organization‟s needs to develop a more focused and coherent approach to manage

customer‟s preferences. On these three forms of change, Respondents were questioned.

0%

9%

2%

48%

41%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

Strongly

Disagree

Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly

Agree

Adaptability

143

In response to a question „your organization has made continuous changes in its products

and services‟ from 186 Respondents, 52 percent Respondents „strongly agreed‟ and 45

percent Respondents „agreed‟ that their organization‟s made changes in the products and

services offered by them. Whereas 3 percent Respondents „disagreed‟ on any kind of

product portfolio modified by their organization (Chart IV. 2).

In response to a question „your organization has made continuous changes in its processes‟

from 186 Respondents, 58 percent Respondents „agreed‟ and 45 percent Respondents

„strongly agreed‟ that their organization‟s had brought changes in the processes of their

Banks (Chart IV. 2).

In response to a question „your organization recognizes change in customer preferences‟

from 186 Respondents, 67 percent Respondents „strongly agreed‟ and 32 percent

Respondents „agreed‟ that their organization‟s were identifying changes taking place in

customer‟s requirements. Whereas 2 percent Respondents „disagreed‟ on any concern

shown by their organization towards customers requirements (Chart IV. 2).

Overall Banks had undergone three major changes. As in case of traditional Banking there

existed products which were limited to drafts, telegraphic transfers, bankers‟ cheque and

internal transfer of funds. Foreign, Private and few Public Sector Banks has also

introduced customized Banking products like investment advisory services, photo-credit

cards, cash management services, investment products and tax advisory services.

144

Today Banks have become into one-stop financial shop. For instance, ICICI Bank has

added features to their services by allowing there users to access account information over

a secure line, request chequebook and stop payment and transfers of funds on-line. ING

Vysya Bank‟s product portfolio offered products that catered to every financial

requirement, for all life stages. ING Vysya Bank has developed the LifeMakerTM a simple

tool that helped customer‟s to choose a plan according to their requirements of saving,

investment, or retirement and life stage of customer‟s. State Bank of India brought an

entirely new spectrum of loan products like housing loans, car loans, personal loans,

consumer durable loans, education loans, loans against share and financing against gold.

Banks are also providing financial assistances to agriculturists, through a network of rural

and semi-urban branches and offered schemes covering a wide range of agricultural

activities like crop loan, finance to horticulture, farm mechanization schemes, land

development schemes and irrigation project loans.

Payment processes exercised by Banks are very different from the conventional methods.

Due to the introduction of technology based processes different methods have evolved by

which customer‟s could make payments. Different methods of payment today are - cash,

cheque, demand drafts, credit cards, debit cards, and electronic payments. Electronic

payments could be made in the form of Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT), Electronic

Clearing Service (ECS) for small value repetitive payments and through Real Time Gross

Settlement (RTGS) System for large value payments. Customers could make payment as

per their convenience, with the help of any processes.

145

Banks like State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, and many others Banks has

become systematic and simpler to solve customer‟s problems. Customer just needs to walk

in the Bank‟s branch and press the key related to his problem and machine automatically

allocates the concern person from the branch to the customer, according to the type of

problem of the customer. This has helped customers to save time and to overcome his

hesitation and lack of knowledge about Banking processes. Bank of India has developed a

customer centric infrastructure layout that enabled Bank to provide increased customer

service levels with ability to attract new customers and manage customer‟s with the help of

Core Banking Solutions across branches.

To respond towards changing customer‟s preferences Banks managed information‟s

related to their: customer‟s profiles, location and cash position; customer‟s preferences;

and complaints. Banks had also focused on region-specific campaigns rather than national

media campaigns due to diversity in country like India. Another region-specific effort

made by Banks was to use local languages on Automated Teller Machines. As customers

found it much easier to operate in their local languages. Banks also noted down customers

recommendations and inquired from customers about their impression about the services.

All Commercial Banks including Public Sector Banks has understood the importance of

customer retention.

146

CHART IV. 2

MAJOR CHANGES IN BANKS

Nature of Change Strategic in Banking Organizations

Change accepted as an opportunity and a right perspective of the change might slice

competitive edge over the competitors for the organization. The question here arises

whether Change in Banks was strategic or not? If organization predicts changes, coming

ahead in the business from the study of influences of various environmental factors; that

means that organization is strategic. Different natures of change required different

strategies to be adopted by organizations. If organization initiates for future environmental

developments, one could state that the nature of change is strategic in the organization and

this aspect referred to as predictability in this Study.

0% 0 0% 3%

0 2% 0% 0% 0%

52%

58%

32%

45% 48%

67%

Change in Product

Portfolio

Process Changes in

Banks

Organization's

Responding to Customer

Needs

Strongly Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree

147

In response to a question „your organization is able to anticipate changes, either internal or

in external environment‟ 74 percent Respondents „agreed‟ and 26 percent Respondents

„strongly agreed‟ that their organization‟s were predictable with concern to changes which

organization might come across in future (Chart IV. 3).

Respondent responses were further corroborated by the following observations: Banks are

investing in the state of the art technology that ensured reliable service delivery; structural

changes has taken place in Banks, prominently in Public Sector Banks; top-level strategic

planning cells analyzed aspects related to technology up-gradation for instance, in Banks

like Canara Bank, Union Bank of India and ICICI Bank.

Customer feedback and data collection was carried specifically in State Bank of India

where customers could register their complaints through a touch screen device placed at

the Banks branch that collected customer‟s feedback. Further, this feedback machine

transferred the stored information for processing and to be utilized by management to

know how operations were carried. Another strategic approach adopted by Branch

Managers was that they conducted conferences to acquaint employees about existing and

expected environmental threats and opportunities. Almost all Public, Private and Foreign

Banks has adopted systematic approaches towards environmental diagnosis including

volatile changes in world financial markets and caution steps taken towards these changes.

148

CHART IV. 3

PREDICTABILITY OF CHANGE IN BANKS

Towards being strategic, organizations must follow the law of change to survive in this

competitive era. Due to changing internal and external environment, rapid changes

occurred in the organizations. Organizations needed to have four main aspects with respect

to adjustment towards change. First, significance of change means organizations needed to

view change as a vital constituent of their survival strategy. Second, Change as a process,

means change could not be looked as with specific „beginning‟ or „ending‟, suggesting

changes should flow like stream through time 1. Third, change management means

involvement of management to manage change. As support from management plays key

role to carry the processes of changes. Management helps to change employee attitudes

from avoidance to acceptance. Fourth, change as continuous means implementation to be

uninterrupted. To get insight on these four aspects Respondents were questioned on these.

0% 0% 0%

74%

26%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

Strongly

Disagree


Agree

Preditability

149

In response to a question „your organization recognizes change as a crucial act‟ from 186

Respondents , 72 percent Respondents „agreed‟ and 28 percent Respondents „strongly

agreed‟ that their organization considered change as a vital component (Chart IV. 4).

In response to a question „change is thought of as a process in your organization‟ from 186

Respondents, 74 percent Respondents „agreed‟ and 26 percent Respondents „strongly

agreed‟ that their organization‟s perceived change as process. (Chart IV. 4).

In response to a question „change management involves top-management support‟ from

186 Respondents, 60 percent Respondents „agreed‟ and 40 percent Respondents „strongly

agreed‟, that management of their organization played an important role in bringing

changes (Chart IV. 4).

In response to a question „change is implemented on a continuous basis in your

organization‟ from 186 Respondents, 76 percent Respondents „agreed „and 16 percent

Respondents „strongly agreed‟ that their organization‟s implemented changes on

continuous basis whereas, 8 percent Respondents „disagreed‟ on change implementation in

their organization‟s (Chart IV. 4).

These finding were further corroborated by the following aspects: management talked with

employee representatives, union leaders about issues like- introduction of technology into

the work practices, additional allowances or variable remunerations to staff, changes in

branch timings or working hours ; change curriculum has been included as a component in

staff training programmes; bank circulars, newsletter explaining imperativeness of changes

were circulated, showing the significance of change to Banking Industry.

150

Considering change being an essential factor, Banks had taken up skill up-gradation

through proper training and re-training to keep their workforce efficient enough to take up

the challenges due to the environmental changes unfolding every day. Training

programmes on change management were organised by Banks like Bank of India, Kotak

Mahindra Bank, Vijaya Bank, UCO Bank, and ICICI Bank with institutes like Indian

Institute of Finance and Banking (IIFB), National Institute of Banking Management

(NIBM). Due to change, sometimes even employees might need to even unlearn their past

knowledge and re-orient themselves to the present knowledge.

Banks considered change as a process. For this reason, Banks hired outside specialist or

consultants for changes occurring in their organizations. Banks faced changes due to

acquisition or mergers taking place in order to achieve increased market presence. Apart

from these Banks, undergo continuous changes due to the technological changes.

Banks developed state of the art accounting software‟s like Online Tax Accounting

Systems (OLTAS), specifically implemented by Bank of Baroda. This software helps to

collect taxes on the behalf of Central Board of Direct Taxes, Government of India. Banks

using software needs to upgrade their Information Security Management System to ensure

confidentiality. These security systems included firewalls, anti-virus, centralized domain

controlling, application security, database security, and other measures, which prevent fund

transfer frauds. This raised the need of technological changes as technology becomes

obsolete if not updated.

151

Other types of changes implemented by Banks included for instance, financial systems like

Basel I in which Banks were focused on credit and market risks. Basel II implementation

endeavoured Banks to constantly upgrade their risk management systems to address the

changing environment. Banks, implemented 24* 7 Banking nationwide and worldwide to

cope changes in the requirements of their customer‟s. For example, ING Vyasa opens on

Sundays, ICICI opens from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays and provided 24 hour customer

service. Oriental Bank of Commerce service branch in Delhi required their officers to work

in Morning Shift, between 6 a.m. to 1p.m. and in the Evening Shift, from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m.

for this employees were given inconvenience allowance Rs. 2, 500/- per month to motivate

them to work in odd hours.

ICICI Bank has successfully brought and implemented various changes to overcome the

effects of recession during 2008- 2009. ICICI Bank clearly communicated the

organization‟s position and strategies to its customers, investors, regulators, and

employees. This open communication also acted as a significant confidence building

measure among stakeholders in the background of a volatile environment and ensured

stability. In Indian Bank (IB) Human Resource Practices, beginning from hiring to

retirement was brought under SAP software. The Hong Kong Shanghai Banking

Corporation (HSBC) and ICICI Bank has introduced uniform for their employees in the

branches operating in India. Both these Banks implemented change successfully.

152

CHART IV. 4

IMPLEMENTATION OF CHANGE IN BANKS

Performance Influenced by Strategic Intent

Performance standards help organizations to know, the strengths and weaknesses of their

organizations. Thus, defining outcome metrics clearly identified the gaps existing in the

organizations performance. Performance of organizations largely depended on policies,

processes, and their effective implementation. Banking Organizations achieving their

tangible and intangible objectives referred to as performance in this Study.

0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0%

8%

0% 0% 0% 0%

72% 74%

60%

76%

28% 26%

40%

16%

Significance of

Change

Change as a Process Change

Management

Change as

Continuous


153

In response to question „your organization is able to achieve both tangible and intangible

goals‟ from 186 Respondents, 71 percent Respondents „agreed‟ and 15 percent

Respondents „strongly agreed‟ that their organization‟s were able achieve performance

objectives. Whereas 14 percent Respondents „disagreed‟ that, their organization‟s failed to

achieve the performance standards (Chart IV. 5).

Banking Sector has recorded marked improvement, as Non Performing Loans (NPL) has

declined and Banks profitability levels has trended upwards 2. Banks had built up their

assets size and diversified their product ranges from rural to urban products, along with

diversification internationally. For instance, Bank of India‟s net profit reached Rs. 3007

crore over and above the profit level of Rs. 2009 crore in 2008. The operating profit of the

Bank went up by 47.45 percent from Rs. 3701 crore in 2007-08 to Rs. 5457 crore in 2008-

09. The Returns on Assets reached the benchmark level of 1.0 percent 3. Besides financial

measurements, Banks realized that its revenue comes from their customers who are willing

to pay for the values provided to them by the organizations. Further, the performance

improvements were also indicated by the increased market share, customer retention,

customer acquisition, and customer satisfaction in Banking Industry.

CHART IV.5

PERFORMANCE OF BANKS

0%

14%

0%

71%

15%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

Strongly

Disagree


Agree

Performance

154

As we discussed performance of an organization, at its backdrop lies Strategic Intent. Thus,

defining Strategic Intent of an organization for Business or for Human Resource Strategy

provided sense of purpose and direction to organizations. Strategic Intent could be

expressed with the help of following components: the vision serves the purpose of stating

what the organization wishes to achieve in the end .Vision statement also guided

employees about the services that they have to provide to their customers; the mission

statement that defines the basic reason for the existence of the organization. The mission

statement mentions about its purpose, the nature of business and customers it seeks to

serve and satisfy; the values and principles that defines the personal values and helps

employees to match their values with the organizational values and principles. Thus,

defining the values and principles helped to avoid the situations of conflict and confusion.

Organization‟s reflected the values in words like teamwork, communication, innovation or

quality; the goals provide guidance, direction, facilitate in planning, motivation and helps

organization‟s to evaluate and control performance. Goals formulated by organization‟s

needed to be realistic which were achievable by employees; and the objectives defined, as

strategic objectives which are guide to organization towards growth plans and financial

objectives are related to the financial achievements of the organization. Thus, identifying

organization‟s existing vision, mission, values and principles, goals and objectives gave a

logical starting point for strategic management because these clearly presented situation

and condition of organizations. To get insight on Strategic Intent aspects, Respondents

were questioned accordingly.

155

In response to a question on „employees are well aware of their respective service level

agreements‟ from 186 Respondents, 80 percent Respondents „agreed „and 12 percent

Respondents „strongly agreed‟ that they were aware about the purposes of their services.

Whereas, 6 percent Respondents „disagreed‟ on any specific purposes being stated by their

organization‟s to be achieved by employees and 2 percent Respondents remained „neutral‟

on this aspect (Chart IV. 6).

In response to a question „your organization has a purpose of existence in the society‟ from


agreed‟ that their organization‟s had a particular purpose to serve to the society. Whereas,

13 percent Respondents „disagreed‟ on any purpose that their organization‟s aimed at

(Chart IV. 6).

In response to a question „core values and principles are clearly defined in your

organization‟ from 186 Respondents, 72 percent Respondents „agreed‟ and 18 percent

Respondents „strongly agreed‟ that they are aware about the values and principles that they

have to adhere to, while working in the organization. Whereas, 10 percent Respondents

„disagreed‟ on values and principles defined to them (Chart IV. 6).

In response to a question „organizational goals are realistic‟ from 186 Respondents, 54

percent Respondents „agreed‟ and 13 percent Respondents „strongly agreed‟ that the goals

defined to them were realistic. Whereas, 33 percent Respondents „disagreed‟ about goals

defined were realistic (Chart IV. 6).

156

In response to a question „Mergers/Acquisitions, Integration/Diversification are considered

important strategies for growth in your organization‟ from 186 Respondents, 56 percent

Respondents „agreed‟ and 14 percent Respondents „strongly agreed‟ that their

organization‟s aimed to achieve higher growth objectives through merger, acquisition,

integration and diversification. Whereas, 27 percent Respondents „disagreed‟ and 2 percent

Respondents „strongly disagreed‟ that the growth plans formulated did not specified about

the strategic aims of the organization and 1 percent Respondents remained „neutral‟ on this

aspect (Chart IV. 6).

In response to a question „financial objectives of your organization such as revenue,

earnings or return on investment etc. are achievable and realistic‟ from 186 Respondents,

64 percent Respondents „agreed‟ and 13 percent Respondents „strongly agreed‟ that their

organization‟s had achieved the financial objectives, already defined. Whereas, 23 percent

Respondents „disagreed‟ suggesting that their organization‟s were not able to achieve

financial objectives (Chart IV. 6).

Banks have begun to explain strategic vision to their employees. For instance, Indian Bank

defines its vision as „first choice of the common man‟ and to achieve this vision employees

need to know how to achieve this vision of their organization. To reach to the common

man Indian Bank has opened an exclusive Core Banking Solution branch along with online

bio-metric voice guided Automated Teller Machine facilities in Dharavi, Mumbai, to target

a large number of migrant workers who were under the unbanked sector from many

decades and covered 770 villages under financial inclusion project (2006-07)4.

157

Banks also stressed on defining the purpose statement, which also acted as a guideline for

structuring strategies. For instance, Yes Bank in their mission statement emphasized

towards their commitment to add long-term value to the Society. Apart from vision and

mission, every Banks branch manager define role to their employees that consisted of set

of goals to be achieved by them in a particular period. Further, these goals were defined in

terms of financial objectives like Return on Investment (ROI) and Return on Equity

(ROE). Finally, clearly defined goals and objectives reduced the difficulty in the

coordination of the activities and events. In context of Human Resource Department, the

vision of Human Resource Department in some Banks is to have excellent people for their

organization. The mission of Human Resource Departments could be to achieve strategic

aims and business plans through the resourcing, development, and motivation of

workforce. Banks had the following values and principles: right people in the right job;

continuous improvement; compliance with the law; treating people with respect, fair and

equitable practices and work-life-balance.

CHART IV. 6

RESPONDENTS RESPONSE ON STRATEGIC INTENT

0% 0% 0% 0% 2% 0% 6%

13% 10%

33% 27%

23%

2% 0% 0% 0%

15%

0%

80%

67% 72%

54% 56%

64%

12%

20% 18% 13% 14% 13%

Vision Mission Values and

Principles

Goals Strategic

Objectives

Financial

Objectives


158

Human Resource Strategy and Organization Change

To meet the challenges due to change, organization‟s needed to focus on appropriate

capacity building measures to handle advanced risk management system and to equip

themselves with appropriate skills. Human Resource Strategy, calls for reviewing and

reengineering the Human Resource functions, both at the level of corporate Human

Resource Division and at the level of branch managers to proactively manage people at

work. Human Resource Strategy defined as a co-ordinated set of actions aimed at

integration of organizational resources 5. Thus, it is essential that Human Resource

Strategies and Change intertwined with each other. Human Resource personnel‟s may

suggest best Human Resource Strategy, which could combine resources and behaviour to

their best with the organizational changes.

In response to a question „resources are utilized in a synergetic manner‟ from 186

Respondents, 70 percent Respondents „agreed‟ that in their organization various resources

were managed to produce higher results .Whereas, 18 percent Respondents disagreed‟ that

their exist hardly any combined fruitful effect of the resources present in their organization

(Chart IV. 7).

159

CHART IV. 7

HUMAN RESOURCE STRATEGY IN BANKS

Existence of change has emphasized the existence of Human Resource Strategies in the

organization. The change factors that Banking Organizations has to face are: workforce

demographic changes which are complex to understand. These exist in the organization‟s

due to the diversity of the workforce; changes in employee expectations due to changing

social values ; technological changes are taking place at a faster rate and Banks are

required to make review of the arrival of new tasks, techniques, and the skills associated

with these ; organizational restructuring due to downsizing, mergers and closure

intermediaries. Organizational restructuring bring in major realignments among culture,

vision, values, strategy, structure, and management system; changes in customer’s means

the changes taking place in the needs of customer‟s; and changes in the economic

conditions of an organization due to uncertainties existing in the external environment. To

get insight on organization change Respondents were thus, questioned.

0%

18%

0%

70%

11%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

Strongly

Disagree


Agree

Human Resource Strategy

160

In response to a question „diversity exists within your organization workforce‟ from 186

Respondents, 52 percent Respondents „strongly agreed‟ and 41 percent Respondents

„agreed‟ that workforce diversity existed in their organization. Whereas, 5 percent

Respondents „disagreed‟ and 2 percent Respondents „strongly disagreed‟ on existence of

diversity among the workforce in their organization (Chart IV. 8).

In response to a question „employee expectations change continuously from the


Respondents „strongly agreed‟ that changes in the employees expectations had occurred.

Whereas, 13 percent Respondents „disagreed‟ on any kind of variations that had occurred

with respect to employee expectations in their organizations and 2 percent Respondents

remained „neutral‟ on this aspect (Chart IV. 8).

In response to a question „technological changes are appreciated and absorbed with

swiftness‟ from 186 Respondents, 49 percent Respondents „agreed‟ and 41 percent

Respondents „strongly agreed‟ that the technological changes were adopted by their

organizations speedily. Whereas 8 percent Respondents „disagreed‟ on technological

changes being appreciated by their organization‟s and 2 percent, Respondents remained

„neutral‟ on this aspect (Chart IV. 8).

In response to a question „there have been change in your organization structure owing to a

restructuring‟ from 186 Respondents, 71 percent Respondents „agreed‟ and 20 percent

Respondents „strongly agreed‟ that organization‟s structure had changed resulting into

restructuring of their organization‟s (Chart IV. 8). Whereas, 7 percent Respondents

161

„disagreed‟ on any structural changes taken in their organizations and 2 percent

Respondents remained „neutral‟ on this aspect (Chart IV. 8).

In response to a question „customer‟s preferences have changed in the past few years‟ from


agreed‟ that change in customer preferences had been observed. Whereas 11 percent

Respondents „disagreed‟ and 3 percent Respondents „strongly disagreed‟ that their

organization had hardly paid attention towards the changes in the customer preferences and

4 percent Respondents remained „neutral „on this aspect (Chart IV. 8).

In response to a question „your organizational plans and policies are influenced by India‟s

economy‟ from 186 Respondents, 60 percent Respondents „agreed‟ and „26 percent

Respondents strongly agreed‟ that their organizational plans and polices were influenced

by changes in the economic conditions. Whereas, 13 percent Respondents „disagreed‟ that

their organizations were not influenced due to the changes in the economic conditions and

1 percent Respondents remained „neutral‟ on this aspect (Chart IV. 8).

In the context of organizational changes, it was observed that Banks workforce constituted

of different age groups, people from different castes, religions, and gender. The Private

Sector Banks were transparent on employment terms and boosted job opportunities for

employment of women. Banking Sector encouraged a high recruitment rate for women, as

these jobs were perceived to provide a better stability, lesser travel, regular working hours,

and a secure working environment, dissimilar from many other fields of jobs. Women like

Naina Lal Kidwai of the HSBC Bank, Shikha Sharma of the Axis Bank, and Chanda

Kochhar of ICICI Bank were encouraged to take up top management positions.

162

Employee‟s expectations had changed from the traditional allurements such as job security,

attractive remuneration, and housing to the employees wanting more information about

their organizations, to know reasons behind manager‟s decision and they want to be valued

and personally recognized for their contributions.

Banks constantly face changes in technology and accordingly some of them have

reconfigured the skill mix of their employees. The Public, Private, and Foreign Banks had

adopted technology and benefited with respect to quality of risk management systems,

better service delivery, improved handling of accounts and remittances and reduced

operation cost in spite of vast expansion strategy adopted by them. For instance, Dena

Bank has launched several technology enabled services like Dena bill-pay, Dena M-

banking, Dena internet banking, Multi-city cheque facility and value added services

through Automated Teller Machine.

Union Bank of India has brought value added services like- online ticketing of air and rail,

online tax payment, online trading of shares, online bill payments, online Demat

information apart from the regular Banking services. With the introduction of technology,

jobs had become more broad based and this made it mandatory on the part of Human

Resource Management to train workers and to replace them in time. Human Resource

Management plays an important role in selection and induction of competent people, and

motivating them to perform at higher levels of efficiency, by providing them mechanisms

that ensured that they maintain their affiliation with the organization.

163

Banks had realigned their existing human resource and readjusted staffing patterns. Due to

the advent of computerization clerical and subordinate staffs were in excess in each Bank.

Jobs were designed and restructured for Banks to get flattened organization structure,

which also encouraged work innovation in the organizations. Surplus staff was relocated or

reassigned with the job duties to overcome surplus manpower. Mobility of the staff was

recommended and on this aspect, management had negotiated with employees and

persuaded them, as mobility of staff improves organizational efficiency and productivity.

Not only Public Sector Banks like State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Canara

Bank and Central Bank of India but also Foreign Banks like Standard Chartered Bank and

BNP Paribas periodically introduced volunteer retirement schemes to get rid of extra flab 6.

Economic changes also influenced organization‟s and were mainly analyzed by top

management. Human Resource Managers played a key role to scan and study the direct

and indirect influences of these economic uncertainties on the Human Resource Strategies.

In relation to this, Human Resource Managers adopted role of protector and screener in the

Banking Industry. Economic uncertainties brought the change of interest rates, mergers

and acquisition plans, reorganizations or relocation of Bank branches, and changes in

bonus incentives of employees. For instance, ICICI Bank viewed economic changes and

accordingly adopted a conscious strategy for building of stable and low cost funding base

by consolidating their balance sheets and setting clear targets. This resulted into

moderation of business volumes which helped Bank to position better and regain their

growth cycle 7.

164

CHART IV. 8

ORGANIZATION CHANGE VARIABLES INFLUENCING BANKS

0% 0% 0% 0% 3%

0%

5%

13%

8% 7%

11% 13%

0% 2% 2% 2%

4% 1%

41%

63%

49%

71%

48%

60%

54%

22%

41%

20%

34%

26%

Workforce

Demography

Emplyoees

Expectations

Technology Organizational

Restructure

Changes in

Customers

Economic

Conditions


165

People Centric Human Resource Strategies

The prime aim of the Human Resource Strategy is to put in place the building blocks of

best practices for people management. This entailed developing a template of best

practices in people management for the use. To know that organization‟s really valued

there employee‟s, Respondents were questioned.

In response to a question „your organization consider its employees as value creators and

its policies also reflect the same‟ from 186 Respondents, 56 percent Respondents „agreed‟

and 34 percent Respondents „strongly agreed‟ that their organization considered their

employees as value creator for their organization and organization‟s policies were

employee centric. Whereas, 8 percent Respondents „disagreed‟ that their organization

policies were not employee centric and 2 percent Respondents remained „neutral‟ on this

aspect (Chart IV. 9). To add to this above findings, Banks had repeatedly mentioned in

their various reports that „human capital‟ to be the most important valuable asset in this era

of competition.

CHART IV. 9

BANKING ORGANIZATION’S BEING PEOPLE CENTRIC

0%

8% 2%

56%

33%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

Strongly

Disagree


Agree

People Centric

166

Any organization could be called as people centric organization if it adapts people centric

strategies. To build employees relationship, organization‟s need to practice following

strategies: teamwork, information sharing, creativity, participation, empowerment, quality

of work-life, workplace feedback, employee management relationship/collective

bargaining, grievance handling, and career progression planning. To strengthen

relationships with employees, organizations need to provide benefits to their employees

like - flexible benefits, flexi work arrangements, health and safety and working conditions.

Various employees‟ related strategies are discussed. Teamwork here referred to as a set of

values that encouraged behaviour such as listening and responding co-operatively to

viewpoints expressed by others and providing support for organizational achievements.

Along with teamwork, employees needed to be well informed thus raising the significance

of the information sharing. Sharing information helped to remove confusion and resistance

among employees. Information flow needs to be clear and consistent to generate trust and

cooperation among employees of the organization and to sustain competition organizations

need to allow their employees to work with creativity.

Stronger employee relationship stimulates employee‟s to devise decisions that affected

organization‟s well being. Initiative nature of employees allowed employee‟s to take work

related decisions covering issues like work methods, task assignments and performance

outcomes. Thus, organization‟s needed to practice participative style to be a people

centric organization. In order to motivate employee‟s to make decisions and participate,

employees needed to be empowered by their organizations. Apart from empowerment,

quality of work- life needed to be improved to increase employee‟s satisfaction by

strengthening workplace learning and managing change transitions.

167

Further workplace feedback encourages understanding, acceptance, and ultimately

behavioural modification among employees. It creates a timely opportunity to identify

potential trouble and rectify if any mistake existed. Researchers had also emphasized that

there should be a report after performance analysis of an employee and at the end detailed

results and recommendations based on the analysis of resources and participants feedback8.

Thus, work place feedback helps to develop better understanding.

Work place feedback will be fruitful if employee-management relationship/collective

bargaining were encouraged by the organization‟s in which representatives of management

and workers negotiate on terms and conditions of employment. Though cooperation may

exist in an organization, still conflicts may arise in the organization due to day-to-day

working, which could be handled with the help of grievance handling procedures.

Grievance handling procedures allowed employees to ventilate their feelings. Thus,

organization‟s needed to have a proper grievance resolution and handling procedure.

Lastly, for an organization to be a people centric organization it requires to have career

progression, as it aligns employee‟s needs with career opportunities available within the

organization.

In response to a question „consistent joint efforts from superiors, peers and subordinates is

present during day to day functioning‟ from 186 Respondents, 76 percent Respondents

„agreed‟ and 20 percent Respondents „strongly agreed‟ that in their organization‟s seniors,

peers and subordinates provided support to each other at work place. Whereas 4 percent

Respondents „disagreed‟ that, hardly any joint efforts were made by employees in their

organization‟s (Chart IV. 10).

168

In response to a question „information from top management is clear and consistent‟ from


agreed‟ that their organization‟s emphasized on the consistent and clear information flow.

Whereas, 4 percent Respondents „disagreed‟ on any kind of emphasizes been made by their

organizations on the sharing of information (Chart IV. 10).

In response to a question „your organization encourages employees to provide creative

suggestions‟ from 186 Respondents, 63 percent Respondents „agreed‟ and 19 percent

Respondents „strongly agreed‟ that their creative suggestions were encouraged by their

organizations. Whereas, 13 percent Respondents „disagreed‟ and 1 percent Respondents

„strongly disagreed‟ that hardly creative suggestion were heard or promoted by their

organizations, and 4 percent Respondents remained „neutral „on this aspect (Chart IV. 10).

In response to a question „your organization encourage participative style‟ from 186


agreed‟ that their organizations practiced participation. Whereas 13 percent Respondents

„disagreed‟ that employees were hardly motivated to participate in the decision- making

(Chart IV. 10).

In response to a question „your job gives you enough prospects to resolve problems‟ from

186 Respondents, 78 percent Respondents„ agreed‟ and 9 percent, Respondents „strongly

agreed‟ that they were allowed to take decisions within one‟s area of operations. Whereas,

11 percent Respondents „disagreed‟ suggesting that the job of employees hardly provided

any prospects to resolve problems at the workplace and 2 percent Respondents remained

„neutral‟ (Chart IV. 10).

169

In response to a question „improvement in quality of life of employees and customers is

emphasized‟ from 186 Respondents, 63 percent Respondents „agreed‟ and 23 percent

Respondents „strongly agreed‟ that quality of life was emphasized by their organizations.

Whereas, 14 percent Respondents „disagreed‟ that hardly any emphasize was made to

improve the quality of work-life for employees (Chart IV. 10).

In response to a question „feedback is provided to employees in a regular and planned

manner‟ from 186 Respondents, 64 percent Respondents „agreed‟ and 25 percent

Respondents „strongly agreed‟ that they were provided proper feedback in their

organizations. Whereas, 9 percent Respondents „disagreed‟ that hardly any emphasize was

given on work-related feedback and 2 percent Respondents remained „neutral‟ on this


In response to a question „conflicts occur sometime between employees and management‟


„strongly agreed‟ that in their organizations there existed cooperation among employees

and management. Whereas 15 percent Respondents „disagreed‟ and 1 percent Respondents

„strongly disagreed‟ that hardly any cooperation existed between employees and

management this aspect hinted towards existence of conflicts between employees and

management 7 percent Respondents remained „neutral‟ on this aspect (Chart IV. 10).

170

In response to a question „grievances and their resolutions are handled in a proper manner‟


„strongly agreed‟ that in their organizations grievances were resolved appropriately.

Whereas, 16 percent Respondents „disagreed‟ suggesting that organizations were not

handling grievances of their employees properly and 1 percent Respondents remained


In response to a question „individual career planning is part of HR Strategy‟ from 186


agreed‟ that their career aspirations were taken care of by their organizations. Whereas, 23

percent Respondents „disagreed‟ that hardly any career planning was carried by

organization for their employees and 2 percent Respondents remained „neutral‟ on this


At the workplace, teamwork and supportive work-relationships helped both employees as

well as the organization. In the work settings, their existed an urgent requirement to

generate new ideas and to translate these into practical applications. Federal Bank believed

in „we‟ and emphasized that individuals joining their organization must work as a part of

the team. To support teamwork top management in Banks used a mixture of formal and

informal, direct and indirect means of communication with employees. For instance, State

Bank of India used circular, report, manual, and proceeding of the board as a means to

provide information to their employees. The Bank also, recognized the importance of

establishing several channels of communication between management and employees.

171

Banking Organizations need to promote creativity among their employees. As customers

view Bank as a solution provider to their problems and look for the best solution. As a

result, Private and Foreign Sector Banks have already started seeking for creative ideas for

modern products for their customer‟s. ICICI Bank implemented a project named

e-Commodity Based Financing (e-CBF) which enabled funding against agricultural

commodities to farmers, traders, and corporate according to their requirements.

Creative support to Banking Industry requires that their employees actively initiate new

ideas for providing prompt services to their customers. Employee‟s were found to be

participating at different level like at -board level, staff work councils level, joint councils

and committee level, collective bargaining level, and through suggestion schemes and

quality circles. Private and Foreign Bank employees participate in formulation of their

compensation packages. This helped to develop cordiality and friendly environment which

explicitly helped Banks to motivate employees. Banks also provided quality of work-life to

their employees to reduce number of grievances among employees. For instance, HDFC

Bank promoted Employee Think Tank and introduced constant interaction with employees

in the employee town halls and open houses to cover the gaps between employees and

organization. Cementing of the gaps resulted into greater openness and transparency in

launching initiatives like voice of employees and upward feedback or full circle feedback.

The ultimate motivate behind this was to ensure maximum employee touch points for

higher success in engagement efforts.

172

ICICI Bank has specifically empowered their newly joined employees and provided

complete authority to them to handle their job roles. After two weeks of an orientation

programme employee were given assignments and were motivated to make decisions in the

very first week itself. Apart from employee participation, ICICI Bank practised

performance feedback sessions to improve performance of their employees. During

feedback, process employees were made aware of problem areas and were made to

understand the consequences of the problem behaviour.

Kotak Mahindra Bank has developed a simpler way for feedback named as Kotak

Integrated Sales and Service System (KISSS) worked as an online application, which

defined the action plan for their employees. This online application consisted of details

related to relationship calling, daily sales report, and appointment schedules. This software

also sends weekly details about the performance scores and indicated employees lagging

point so that employees could quickly work upon on the same before the end of the month.

Kotak Integrated Sales and Service System clearly predicted the performance of their

employee‟s portfolio.

To overcome employee‟s discontent the joint consultative committees were set up at

different levels. In Banks, a grievance procedure has become an integrated part of the

policy to promote better relationship between management and employees. For instance,

Bank of Baroda has introduced a help-line directly connected to Chief Executive Officer‟s

office for those employees who faced any sort of crucial problems. ICICI Bank has started

staff space on the intranet where employees could participate in collaborative activities

such as- contributing documents, engaging in discussions and posting or answering queries

leading towards better cooperation.

173

Banks also provided potential career opportunities for their employees. Opportunities such

as addition of specialist skill or knowledge to employees with the help of training

programme, promotion to a higher level and position rotation. For instance, in HDFC

Bank, Senior Managers managed talent of their organization by categorizing potential

employees across various levels and planned succession planning for them according to

their career aspirations. ICICI Bank has established development centres that focused on

people available in the organization rather than to hunt for talent from outside. These

centres evaluated strengths, assessed development needs, and provided career opportunities

to employees within the organization itself.

Bank of Baroda has undertaken a Human Resource initiative named as „Khoj‟ where

organization-wide talent identification from officers to clerks was done and employees

with high potential were deployed or promoted in the key business areas. Chinatrust

Commercial Bank (CTCB) has created Individual Development Plan (IDP) for their key

staff members. The Individual Development Plans comprised of career path and growth

plan for employees in the years ahead. These plans included a detailed review of

employee‟s abilities, strengths, expertise, knowledge, development needs, employee

satisfaction surveys, and feedback.

It was observed in Public Sector Banks that for top level vacancies political interference

for filling up of the vacant positions was there. Along with this, hindrance like seniority

based career progression and reservation quotas also acted as an obstacle in the way of

young talented officer‟s career path particularly in Public Sector Banks.

174

CHART IV. 10

EMPLOYEE DEVELOPMENT RELATIONSHIP STRATEGIES

0%

0%

1%

0%

0%

0%

0%

1%

0%

0%

23%

16%

15%

9%

14%

13%

11%

13%

18%

4%

1%

1%

7%

2%

0%

1%

2%

4%

0%

0%

66%

67%

55%

64%

63%

77%

78%

63%

63%

76%

10%

16%

22%

25%

23%

9%

9%

19%

19%

20%

Career Progression

Grievances Handling

Employee-management

Cooperation

Workplace Feedback

Quality of Work-life

Empowerment

Participation

Creativity

Information Sharing

Teamwork

Strongly

Agree

Agree

Neutral

Disagree

Strongly

Disagree

175

Further, for Human Resource Strategy to become people centric, organizations need to

provide benefits to their employees for social security purposes. Providing benefits helps

organizations to retain and motivate employees to perform for their organizations. A

growing number of organization‟s have adopted family friendly policies related to formal

or informal sets of terms and conditions designed to enable employees to combine family

responsibilities with employment. Organization‟s provided support to their employees by

providing them flexible work arrangements and to provide protection against eventualities

of today‟s modern lifestyle, employees were given flexible benefits as per their

requirements. There existed awareness in the organization‟s to develop the workplace as a

safe workplace. Organizations must promote health awareness at workplace. Health

promotion motivates employees and improves performance of employees at the workplace

along with good and safe working conditions in the organization.

In response to a question „employees are allowed to choose flexible benefits like medical,

insurance and retirement benefits from 186 Respondents, 43 percent Respondents „agreed‟

and 13 percent Respondents „strongly agreed‟ that their organization‟s provided facilities

like childcare and flexible working hours whenever employees required. Whereas, 27

percent Respondents „disagreed‟, 15 percent Respondents „strongly disagreed‟ that hardly

any flexible work arrangements were provided by their organization and 2 percent

Respondents remained „neutral‟ (Chart IV. 11).

176

In response to a question „employee family friendly polices like childcare, flexible work

time are realized‟ from 186 Respondents, 49 percent Respondents „agreed‟ and 8 percent

Respondents „strongly agreed‟ that they were provided with benefits like medical,

insurance and retirement. Whereas, 31 percent Respondents „disagreed‟ and 9 percent

Respondents „strongly disagreed‟ that hardly any emphasis was given towards flexible

benefits for employees, and 3 percent Respondents remained „neutral‟ (Chart IV. 11).

In response to a question „Programmes/campaigns on health awareness or related issues are

regularly conducted‟ from 186 Respondents, 56 percent Respondents „agreed‟ and 27

percent Respondents „strongly agreed‟ that regular health related programmes had taken

place in their organizations. Whereas, 17 percent Respondents „disagreed‟ that hardly any

health awareness programmes were carried by their organization‟s (Chart IV. 11).

In response to a question „working conditions provided to employees are good‟ from 186


agreed‟ that the working conditions provided by their organizations were good . Whereas,

3 percent Respondents „disagreed‟ that hardly any emphasis was being made by their

organization on working conditions and 1 percent Respondents remained „neutral‟ on this


Private and Foreign Banks has introduced practices like parent leave, flexible working

hour and supportive childcare polices. These practices provided sympathetic understanding

and material aid to their employee‟s to deal with stressful situations. Access to flexible

scheduling helped employees to manage their work and family and increased job

satisfaction and lowered their work-family conflicts.

177

For instance, HSBC Bank offered flexible working hours to their staff instead of

conventional day‟s per year basis. HSBC Bank also provided on-line job share register,

which enabled employee‟s to form a professional job sharing partnership. The Bank has

offered flexible working arrangements to around 10 percent of their employees that was

6,500 workforce 9.

Retirement benefit like pension is provided to employees of Public Sector Banks as one of

the major benefit to employees. Public Sector Bank employees are eligible to receive a

benefit pension equivalent to 50 percent of their last salary drawn. In this, few variations

might exist from one Public Sector Bank to another. For instance, SBI Bank employees

received 40 per cent of their last salary drawn in the form of pension, provident fund and

gratuity 10

.

Public Sector Banks also provided medical benefits to their employee‟s like medical

expenses incurred on diseases. For medical benefits Banks tied with hospitals at major

centers in India like Delhi, Mumbai and other metro cities where employee and his family

members could walk-in. In these hospitals, reserved beds were kept for employees and

their dependents.

Banks also emphasized on the health issues like physical health, mental health, stress

management, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), alcoholism and drug abuse,

and violence at work place. Fitness programmes and employees assistance to prevent

health problems and health hazards that might occur were suggested to employees.

178

Most of the Public Sector Banks conduct medical check-up for their employees of 45 years

of age and above once in 2 years in the approved diagnostic centre. Bank employees work

on computer for more number of hours thus, the risks associated are highlighted to

employees by their organizations.

Apart from these, recently after the instance of 26 November 2009, Mumbai terror attack,

few Banks quickly offered a team of psychologists to their employees as a proactive

measure to provide relief and reduce stress among employees. Banks also stressed upon the

security of their employees, thus, they periodically reviewed implementation of security

arrangements at branches. Security arrangements included, installation of time lock at the

cash safe and constant observations were made by installation of Close Circuit TV (CCTV)

to monitor and record the movements inside the branch premises round-the-clock.

CHART IV. 11

BENEFITS TO BANK EMPLOYEES

21% 18%

0% 0%

23% 24%

17%

3% 0%

3% 0% 1%

51% 47%

56%

46%

5% 8%

27%

50%

Flexi-benefits Flexi-work

arrangements

Health Promotion Working

Conditions


179

Effectiveness of Human Resource Practices required Human Resource Strategies

Human Resource Practices depend on having the right Human Resource Strategy.

Organizations need to consider relevant Human Resource Strategy to achieve

effectiveness. Effectiveness of Human Resource Practices in this Study means „how well

the Human Resource Practices were implemented ‟.

In response to a question „there existed effective Human Resource Practices in your


Respondent „strongly agreed‟ that in their organizations, Human Resource Practices were

implemented and well practised. Whereas 15 percent Respondents „disagreed‟ that, hardly

their organization‟s practised well formulated Human Resource Practices (Chart IV. 12).

CHART IV. 12

EFFECTIVENESS OF HUMAN RESOURCE PRACTICES IN BANKS

0%

15%

0%

73%

12%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

Strongly

Disagree


Agree

Effectiveness of Human Resource Practices

180

Human Resource Strategy in organization‟s acted as an active endeavour that managed

people and their skills with the immediate and long-term aims of the business in their

mind. The following Human Resource Strategies were studied in the backdrop of Banking

Industry: manpower planning predominantly incorporated the „number crunching‟. The

manpower requirements change, due to the new emerging areas of operation and

geographical dispersion nature of this industry; cost controlling of manpower helps to

maximize productivity and minimise output cost per unit with the help of human resource

budget; talent acquisition referred to as the policies and programmes that ensured that

organization gets and keeps talent it needed ; deployment helps to overcome surplus or

excess staff in Departments resulting into effective deployment of resources so that they

could handle positions handed over to them ; job profile and designating employees in well

planned manner make employee‟s accountable for their decisions, for the job assigned to

them; skill up-gradation helps employees to provide an environment in which employees

were encouraged to learn and develop as organization‟s required their employees to

perform in complex situations on multiple tasks; appraisal of employees helps to measure

employee‟s efficiency for the job assigned to an employee. Measuring performances of

employees also helped to gain productivity for organizations; Compensation signifies that

the rewards given to employees were as per their performance to encourage employees to

contribute towards the fulfilment of the company goals. Understanding the workforce and

recognizing what their employees find rewarding acts as, an effective reward; promotion

policies help to motivate employees by means of reward systems contributing to increase

productivity. Motivation through, rewards also contributed towards higher market value of

the company and positively related to employees satisfaction and commitment; managing

workforce diversity maximizes the utilization of employee‟s potential and recognized the

differences among workforce.

181

Thus, organization‟s need to successfully manage different groups; and finally outsourcing

services such as hiring, training and many other services helps to overcome complexities

and competition of business environment. To get insight on Human Resource Strategies

prevailing in Banking Organizations Respondents were questioned.

In response to a question „manpower planning is efficient in terms of right person at the

right place and at right time‟ from 186 Respondents, 65 percent Respondents „agreed‟ and

2 percent Respondents „strongly agreed‟ that organizations used their manpower to the best

by placing right person at right place and at right time. Whereas 31 percent Respondents

„disagreed‟ that, there existed hardly any proper utilization of the manpower (Chart IV.

13).

In response to a question „there are strategies to control personnel cost to as low as

possible‟ from 186 Respondents, 72 percent Respondents „agreed‟ and 16 percent

Respondents „strongly agreed‟ that their organizations designed strategies towards

controlling the manpower cost. Whereas, 13 percent Respondents „disagreed‟, indicating

that their organizations did not paid attention towards cost reduction (Chart IV. 13).

In response to a question „your organization is able to attract the best talent‟ from 186


agreed‟ that their organizations were able to attract best talent available in the market.

Whereas, 17 percent Respondents „disagreed‟ that their organizations lacked in attracting

the cream talent from the market (Chart IV. 13).

182

In response to a question „employees are provided guidance and given training‟ from 186


agreed‟ that in their organizations they were guided and provided with knowledge to work

in new areas .Whereas 17 percent Respondents „disagreed‟ that hardly any emphasis was

given to guide employees for new responsibilities (Chart IV. 13).

In response to a question „employees take responsibilities of the decisions made by them


„strongly agreed‟ that they were assigned job profiles and designations appropriately.

Whereas, 2 percent Respondents „disagreed‟ that they were not clear about their job

profiles and their designations and 1 percent Respondents remained „neutral‟ on this aspect

(Chart IV. 13).

In response to a question „there is a continuous effort to improve skills and competency of

employees‟ from 186 Respondents, 48 percent Respondents „agreed‟ and 42 percent

Respondents „strongly agreed‟ that their organizations emphasized on improving

employee‟s competencies and skills. Whereas 9 percent Respondents „disagreed‟ that, their

organization hardly emphasized on talent improvement and 1 percent Respondents


In response to a question „employees efficiency is closely measured‟ from 186


agreed‟ that in their organizations their performances was monitored continuously.

Whereas 11 percent Respondents „disagreed‟ that, their organizations hardly paid any

attention to measure employee‟s efficiency (Chart IV. 13).

183

In response to a question „better performance is facilitated by rewarding employees‟ from


agreed‟ that in their organizations rewards were linked to performance of an employee.

Whereas, 6 percent Respondents „disagreed‟ and 2 percent Respondents „strongly

disagreed‟ that hardly any emphasis was made on reward based performance by their

organizations (Chart IV. 13).

In response to a question „recognition, rewards are as per merit and on long-term basis‟


„strongly agreed‟ that their organizations gave recognition and reward as per merit.

Whereas 17 percent Respondents „disagreed‟ that, hardly their organizations considered

merit as a basis to reward their employee‟s (Chart IV. 13).

In response to a question „all groups of the workforce are equally managed (age, gender,

race, religion etc)‟from 186 Respondents, 69 percent Respondents „agreed‟ and 16 percent

Respondents „strongly agreed‟ that in their organizations all different groups were

managed well . Whereas, 15 percent Respondents „disagreed‟ that hardly their

organizations paid attention towards managing diversity with respect to age, gender, race

and religion (Chart IV. 13).

In response to a question „processes like hiring, training have been outsourced „from 186


agreed‟ that their organizations had outsourced services. Whereas 3 percent Respondents

„disagreed‟ that hardly any services were outsourced (Chart IV. 13).

184

Respondent responses were further corroborated with the observations. Banks viewed

manpower planning as integration of strategic and operational plans to ensure future

staffing needs. Public Sector Banks manpower planning focused mainly on the number of

staff members and employees who would be required in the middle management. These

manpower planning were mostly quantitative in nature and determined number of staff

members that Banks would required to recruit for the next few years.

Banking Organizations are continuously reviewing their existing manpower requirements

to manage changes in the market conditions and to keep inventory of skilled personnel to

be utilized for the emerging job requirements. On the basis of revised requirements, Bank

of Baroda and Punjab National Bank recognized the requirement of two Executive

Directors to handle operations of Banks, as these two Banks were very large Banks. For

the purpose of manpower planning Banks had taken help of technology. For instance, State

Bank of India being one of the largest Bank in India has developed Human Resources

Management System also known as SBI HRMS Portal, which helped in doing resource

planning effectively and also reduced the cost factors related to manpower.

A decade back Banks faced a lot of Human Resource wastage due to the disparities

between the demand and supply of manpower. Today Banks are making efforts to

overcome these challenges by preparing details such as: surplus personnel existing in one

unit; same skilled personnel again employed in another unit without any redeployment of

surplus employee; and over employment resulting into assigning of work to workers below

their abilities and capacities leading towards wastage. Mostly Private and Foreign Banks

has well prepared Human Resource budget. As a result, their business per employees was

higher as compared to Public Sector Banks.

185

Public Sector Banks recruited mostly staff, for which they advertised in the local and

national newspapers and conducted written test, group interviews for selecting candidates.

Banks are also fulfilling the requirements internally by reassignment, re-allocation of the

responsibilities and even internal promotions for their internal candidates. Public Sector

Banks like State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Bank of Baroda, Allahabad Bank,

UCO Bank and Canara Bank recruit employees at following levels: Clerks, Junior

Management Grade Scale – I, Middle Management Grade Scale – II, Middle Management

Grade Scale – III, Senior Management Grade Scale – IV and Top Executive Grade Scale-

V. For these Banks, Banking Services Recruitment Board (BSRB) invite applications for

various posts like - clerks, typist and agriculture clerks and many other for the respective

regions.

Banks like ING Vysya Bank, Deutsche Bank, Barclays Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank

identified and cultivated strategic talent pools from various resources like universities,

management schools, and community forums. Business Head, Human Resource Head, or

Chief Executive Officer approves recruitment activities in these Banks. Expenditures were

budgeted and pre-approved by Business Unit Heads and Human Resource Heads. One of

the Respondents from HDFC Bank mentioned that to end bulk recruitment they followed

recruitment programmes in following ways: banking on internal network by using talent

pool; and banking on external network by using job portal, direct sourcing, Bank website,

placement agencies, job fairs, print media, and campus hiring. Innovative Human Resource

recruitment processes aided by the latest technology backed all these programmes.

186

Banks constituted a huge number of job profiles, which has different responsibilities

associated with them. Different job profiles existed were: customer service, front desk,

cash handling, probationary officer, loan officer, personal loan officer, home loan officer,

home loan agent, loan manager, loan processing officer, accountant, product marketing and

sales executive, recovery officer, retail asset manager, property appraiser, customer service

executive and many others. For instance, job profile of Loan Officer in Canara Bank

includes checking the eligibility of the individuals seeking loans from the Bank. Evaluation

of loan application and probability of loan repayment by customer verified. After this loan

officer recommend or approve loan. HDFC Bank, Relationship Representatives promote

different products and services offered by their Bank. Relationship Representatives were

responsible for opening and closing accounts and keeping a record of all the financial

transactions. Bank of America, Senior Operational Risk Specialist develops risk

management tools, database and prepared appropriate risk metrics and reports. They were

also required to lead process changes at individual unit level.

Skill up-gradation is an important area for Banks. SBI Bank has Strategic Training Unit

(STU) focused on skill up gradation of employees in view of expansion, changing business

environment, and competition. Employees had to attend a two-week training programme

once in 18 to 24 months. This training unit also provided training programmes to other

Public Sector Banks and some Foreign Banks on their request on cost-to-cost basis 11

.

187

Union Bank of India has Staff College situated at Bangalore, and seven centers in various

parts of the country. The staff college organized training programmes for various

disciplines like International Banking, Credit, Information Technology, General Banking,

Marketing, and Human Resource Development. Union Bank of India also conducted

executive education programmes in association with ICFAI Business School, Hyderabad in

the areas of software -project management, service edge - improving service quality etc. A

new trend has emerged amongst Banking Organizations to groom candidates in specialist

areas from the beginning for tomorrow. Canara Bank used interventions like „SPANDAN‟

for bringing attitudinal change among their front line staff, programme named

„PRATIBHA‟ for grooming in-house talent in varied specialized areas and executive

grooming through other reputed institutes also.

ICICI Bank conducted a Probationary Officer programme for graduate students to pursue

their career in Banking through one year intensive residential classroom training and

internship programme. This programme also helped Bank to develop specialists with

Banking knowledge and skills in the areas like- corporate banking, private banking, risk

and credit management, branch management, relationship management and these

individuals were recruited as Assistant Manager. Training institutes established by Reserve

Bank of India named Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology

(IDRBT) provided facility of training to both Public and Private Sectors Banks in the areas

such as networking technology, payment system, security technology, cyber crime, data

warehousing and data mining, corporate intranet and electronic mail.

188

Chinatrust Commercial Bank provided training to their staff for supervisory roles in

different fields. The supervisory skill training programme included people management,

performance management, presentation and communication skills, and change

management. Finally, skill-building strategies are aimed to achieve following objectives:

developing service orientation; focusing on the customer‟s needs ; collaborating with the

client ; awareness about customers satisfaction ; skills to seek information about the real

underlying needs of the customers ; and development of skills to rapidly changing

environment .

Indian Bank‟s Association suggested re-naming Annual Confidential Reports as Annual

Performance Assessment Reports and its contents to be shared with the officer

concerned12

. There also existed a provision in this report that if any employee does not

agree with the appraisal grading then they are free to raise their comments against the final

grading, but within a stipulated period of receiving the report. Mostly Banks carried

appraisal processes once in a year. But, there also existed few Banks like ICICI Bank in

which performance appraisal was carried out twice a year and on the other hand, HDFC

Bank does it regularly with the help of Management Information System with which

performance was calculated and monitored across the regions and branches. Centurion

Bank of Punjab has online appraisal system used for conducting performance appraisals

during the year.

189

The appraisal report constituted of appropriate list of objectives, which could clearly

demonstrate the performance of an employee. For instance, State Bank of India appraisal

form consisted of two parts. Part A consisted of details regarding employees duties and

responsibilities, objectives to be achieved by employees in a stipulated period of time,

employees capabilities in different areas required for the current role requirements (Scale:

1 to 3 poor, 4 to 6 satisfactory, 7 to 9 good, 10 excellent), and employee job aspirations;

and Part B consisted of details listed by appraiser on appraises objectives achieved,

appraises career direction options and wishes, and readiness for promotion. It also

constituted of key responsibility areas considered such as: loan disbursement, bad loan

recovery, fee-based income, and the number of new account added were used for

evaluation of employee performance 13

.

Private Sector and Foreign Sector Banks has given competition to Public Sector Banks as

they offered much more attractive pay components. Public Sector Banks followed an

industry-wide norm fixed by Indian Bank‟s Association in consultation with Government

of India, Ministry of Finance, New Delhi 14

. Salaries offered by Private and Foreign Banks

included a significant variable component linked to performance and this resulted into

salary differential as high as 200 to 400 per cent. Government fixes the salaries for Public

Sector Bank chiefs. Private Banks needed a clearance from Reserve Bank of India for

remuneration to their top executives, but there existed no cap on it.

190

The compensation packages and bonuses of Chief Executive Officers, of Private and

Foreign Banks were too high. For instance, Chanda Kochhar, Managing Director (MD)

and Chief Executive Officer of ICICI Bank was offered salary between Rs. 84 lakh and Rs.

1.62 crore annually; Aditya Puri, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of HDFC

Bank received basic pay ranging between Rs. 1.08-1.32 crore; Shikha Sharma, Managing

Director and Chief Executive Officer of Axis Bank, was offered a basic pay of Rs. 1.25

crore 15

. In contrast to Chief Executive Officers of Public Sector Banks like State Bank of

India Chief O.P Bhatt was paid salary of Rs. 26.51 lakh. Recently during the period of

recession, Reserve Bank of India had proposed to limit the annual salary hikes of Chief

Executive Officers or whole time directors of Private Banks to 10-15 percent as the fact

that higher salaries and bonuses of bankers was blamed for the 2008 global financial

meltdown.

Apart from remunerations, promotion policies are also essential for employee‟s motivation.

Promotions in Private Sector Banks were performance based and the pace of employees

advancing in these organizations was faster as compared to Public Sector Banks 16

.

However, even Public Sector Banks like Union Bank of India, Mumbai based branch

decided to put in place a fast track promotion policy up to the rank of Assistant General

Manager (AGM) to ensure that senior executives had a sufficient tenure with the Bank. For

instance, newly recruited officers used to become Assistant General Manager in 20 years,

but with the help of fast track promotions employees could become Assistant General

Manager within 11 years. These fast track promotion processes also acted as an

inducement for retaining talent 17

.

191

Banks had adopted policy measures to achieve greater participation from women

employees. Women had taken employment in Banks on a priority basis as these

organizations had gender sensitive work culture and relatively unrestricted environment

with flexible timings. For instance, following Banks showed impressive male–female

ratios employed in their organizations: HSBC Bank male-female gender ratio was

64.5:35.5 in India out of which 50 percent of the top managers were women. HSBC Bank

has also set up a task force of 100 employee‟s consisting largely of women business heads,

to pursue gender diversity 18

; ICICI Bank has 70:30 male-female ratios; Axis Bank claimed

that in metro branches, there ratio was even higher at 40 percent; Standard Chartered Bank

male-female ratio of employees in India was 69:31. Private and Foreign Banks were ahead

of Public Sector Banks with a healthy ratio of 30 percent 19

. On the other hand Public

Sector Banks provided job reservations to scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, other

backward classes, disabled persons, and ex-defence and para-military personnel.

Banking Industry had experienced the need of infusion of some developmental services

from outside to augment the internal knowledge capacities. Banks had adopted outsourcing

strategies due to the following reasons- it helps in cost reduction through process

improvement and control; it helps Banks to concentrate on its core business areas instead

of back office operations; it helps to make services flexible to meet the changing

customer‟s requirements. For instance, IndusInd Bank has entered into an infrastructure-

on-demand agreement with IBM India, which included building an Information

Technology infrastructure, implementing server consolidation, and setting up disaster

recovery systems. This partnership also supported Banks goal to become totally customer-

centric by providing more secure, responsive, and efficient services. It also allowed Bank

to scale up the operations and pursue aggressive growth plans as well.

192

CHART IV. 14

HUMAN RESOURCE STRATEGIES IN BANKS

0%

0%

0%

2%

0%

0%

0%

0%

0%

0%

0%

3%

15%

17%

6%

11%

9%

2%

17%

17%

13%

31%

0%

0%

0%

0%

0%

1%

1%

0%

0%

0%

0%

53%

69%

67%

58%

70%

48%

53%

73%

62%

72%

65%

44%

16%

16%

34%

19%

42%

44%

10%

21%

16%

4%

Outsourcing

Managing Workforce Diversity

Promotion Policies

Compensation Realignment

Appraisal of Emplyoees

Skill up-gradation

Job Profile and Designation

Deployment

Talent Acquisition

Cost Controlling of Manpower

Manpower Planning

Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree

193

Customer retention was emphasized repeatedly to employees, because without customers

an organization would not have any revenues, profits, and consequently no market value.

Customer orientation among employees needs to be included as it helps to build customer-

oriented attitude of employees. Thus, organizations must emphasize to consider their

customers as valuable. Employees learning how to build customer relationship help

employees to select the right kind of customer. As it could not, be desirable or even

possible to create relationship with all customers. To learn to build relationship with

customers employees need to accurately identify changing customer needs and develop

new complex products to satisfy their needs and to provide higher levels of customer

services. Thus, product innovation has emerged as a significant feature to meet needs of

customers.

A greater use of Human Resource Practices was associated with the higher level of

productivity and excellent services. Quality services in Banks referred to as right service at

the first time. Apart from quality services, Banking Organizations need to provide

convenient services to their customers. Thus, organizations services procedures needed to

be as per customer‟s handiness. Ultimately, all these strategies helped to achieve customer

satisfaction. To get insight on customer relationship strategies Respondents were

questioned on these.

In response to a question „each customer is considered valuable‟ from 186 Respondents, 65

percent Respondents „agreed‟ and 26 percent Respondents „strongly agreed‟ that they

considered each customer as valuable and paid attention towards relationship building.

Whereas 9 percent Respondents „disagreed‟ that, their organizations were not vigilant on

customer relationship building (Chart IV. 14).

194

In response to a question „customers need gaps are closed by continuous new product

development‟ from 186 Respondents, 55 percent Respondents „strongly agreed‟ and 44

percent Respondents „agreed‟ that their organizations developed products as per

customer‟s needs .Whereas 1 percent Respondents „disagree‟ that hardly any new product

developments took place in their organization (Chart IV. 14).

In response to a question „customer-service procedures have changed in the past‟ from 186

Respondents, 58 percent Respondents agreed‟ and 35 percent Respondents „strongly

agreed‟ that their organizations emphasized towards good services for customers. Whereas,

4 percent Respondents „disagreed‟ that no emphasis was given towards quality of services

to be provided to the customers (Chart IV. 14).

In response to a question „your organization emphasize on providing a good service to

customers‟ from 186 Respondents, 73 percent Respondents „agreed‟ and 9 percent

Respondents „strongly agreed‟ that their organizations developed handy service processes.

Whereas 11 percent Respondents „disagreed‟ and 5 percent Respondents „strongly

disagreed‟ that their organizations hardly emphasized on convenient services to be

provided to their customers and 1 percent Respondents remained „neutral‟ on this aspect

(Chart IV. 14).

Respondent responses were further corroborated by the following observations. Banking

organization‟s needed to develop new products so as to fulfil the customers need gap. For

instance, SBI Bank conducted programme in 2007, named Parivartan for all levels of

employees to change their mind set and to improve their communication skills.

195

In 2009, Bank launched another programme; „Citizen SBI‟ aimed at attitudinal change and

transformation of their employees, through a series of Human Resources activities. Union

Bank of India conducted „Customer Day’ in all their branches on 15th of every month

where employee‟s interacted with customers. Customer empowerment through customer

education was the key tool adopted by Banks. Towards this end, Bank had come out with a

„Citizens Charter’ in September 1997. „Citizens‟ Charter‟ encompassed most of the Bank

operations. This has been prepared to promote fair Banking practices and to give

information with respect to various activities, related to customer services.

Union Bank of India, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and many other Banks have

provided call centre services to their customers. In these call centres, customer‟s could

record complaints and deficiencies in the services provided to them by Bank. Banks had

also enabled online grievance redressal mechanism whereby grievances could be lodged

online for speedy redressal of any complaint. In addition to these Banking Codes and

Standard Board of India (BCSBI) had set minimum standards to be practised by Banks

while dealing with individual customers. These standards provided protection to customers

and explained to Banks how to deal with customers for their day-to-day operations. Banks

provided clear information about their products and services and details about the terms

and conditions like interest rates or any service charges. In order to make exchange of

information easier Banks provided information to their customers in Hindi, English or

other appropriate local language.

196

The customer-oriented strategies helped Banks to retain customers and improve quality of

services. Banks benefited as increased investment in technology to handle complaints of

customers was prompt. Customer-oriented strategies also benefited customers by moving

customers to lower cost automated channels, such as Automated Teller Machines and

online Banking to make services convenient for customers.

CHART IV. 14

CUSTOMER RETENTION STRATEGIES BY BANKS

0% 0% 0%

5% 9%

1%

8% 11%

0% 0% 0% 1%

65%

44%

58%

73%

26%

55%

35%

9%

Customer

Relationship

Product Innovation Service Quality Convenient Services


197

Cross-cultural Differences Influencing Human Resource Strategy Formulation and

Implementation

Management of cultural diversity needs to be included in the Human Resource Strategy

enabling the effective management of workforce differences created due to demographical

changes. Human Resource Strategies must be aligned with the cultural differences because

organizations cannot treat their workforce as a homogeneous workforce. Thus, Human

Resource Strategies formulated should have inclination towards the cross-cultural

differences existing in their organization.

In response to a question „while formulating Human Resource Strategies, are cultural

differences between headquarters and branches considered‟ from 186 Respondents, 56

Respondents „agreed‟ and 15 percent Respondents „strongly agreed‟ that cultural

differences were included in the Human Resource Strategies. Whereas 20 percent

Respondents „disagreed‟ and 2 percent Respondents „strongly disagreed‟ that hardly any

cultural differences were included in the Human Resource Strategies, and 6 percent

Respondents remained neutral on this aspect (Chart IV. 15). Even during various seminars

and summits Human Resource practitioners and key Banking, personnel‟s has mentioned

that organization‟s need to take seriously into account the cultural differences.

198

CHART IV. 15

HR STRATEGY CONSIDER CULTURAL DIFFERENCES

Cross-culture means multiculturalism referring to the presence of many different cultural

backgrounds within an organization. Understanding cross-cultural differences helps an

organization to deal with people who differ dramatically in terms of ethnicity, race, gender,

physical ability and sexual orientations. The management of cultural diversity has become

a significant issue for Banking Industry due to workforce diversity. Following six cultural

differences, factors were identified that would play an important role in the formulation of

Human Resource Strategies with respect to cultural differences. First, an appropriate

organization building up starts from acceptances of different opinions of employees

liberally. It also reflects that how organization‟s viewed and valued their employees 20

.

Second, is time orientation refers to the different attitudes towards time (past, present and

future), reflected by the notions that how employees prioritized their task. It also reflects

how employees co-ordinated, planned and organised. Time orientation framed would

decide for employees, in which sequence the task in the organization has to be completed.

Thus, organizational and individual time orientation needs to be matched for better

2%

20%

6%

56%

15%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

Strongly

Disagree


Agree

Human Resource Strategies

199

performance. Third, control process refers to how people to be treated 21

. It is essential that

organization‟s approach of controlling their employees must be acceptable to their

employee‟s, according to their cultural backgrounds. Fourth, formality refers to how the

exchange of information took place. Fifth, there should be both upward and downward

communication with the use of appropriate communication channels in the organization.

Sixth, differences existing among workforce with respect to identity. This refers to whether

employees identified themselves with their organization‟s 22

. Signifying that in

organization individual must view themselves with organizations. To get insight on cross-

cultural aspects Respondents were questioned on these.

In response to a question „differences in opinions are accepted liberally among employees‟


„strongly agreed‟ that their opinions were accepted liberally in their organizations.

Whereas, 13 percent Respondents „disagreed‟ that hardly any attention was paid towards

employees‟ opinions and 1 percent remained neutral on this aspect (Chart IV. 16).

In response to a question „completing an assigned task timely is considered as a significant

measure in your organization‟ from 186 Respondents, 48 percent Respondents „agreed‟

and 41 percent Respondents „strongly agreed‟ that they completed their tasks within the

stipulated time period assigned to them. Whereas 11 percent Respondents „disagreed‟ that,

hardly any importance was given towards completion of task on time by their

organizations (Chart IV. 16).

200

In response to a question „your organization have a well defined structure for decision-

making‟ from 186 Respondents, 81 percent Respondents „agreed‟ and 8 percent „strongly

agreed‟ that the way they were controlled in their organization was acceptable to them.

Whereas, 9 percent Respondents „disagreed‟ that they did not liked the way employees

were commanded and 2 percent Respondents remained „neutral‟ on this aspect (Chart IV.

16).

In response to a question „managers and co-workers provide mutual support‟ from 186

Respondents, 53 percent Respondents „agreed‟ that information flow in their organization

was irrespective of hierarchy levels. Whereas, 45 percent Respondents „disagreed‟ and 2

percent Respondents „strongly disagreed‟ that communication flow was strictly within the

hierarchy levels (Chart IV. 16).

In response to a question „your organization allow open communication to employees‟


„strongly agreed‟ that they could communicate openly. Whereas, 15 percent Respondents

„disagreed‟ and 2 percent „strongly disagreed‟ that they were hardly allowed to express

freely and 1 percent Respondents remained „neutral‟ (Chart IV. 16).

In response to a question „there exist shared purpose among employees‟ from 186


agreed‟ that they identified themselves with their organizations. Whereas, 11 percent

Respondents disagreed that they did not viewed themselves associated with the

organization and 2 percent Respondents remained „neutral‟ on this aspect (Chart IV. 16).

201

Respondent responses were further corroborated by the following observations:

Organization and individual‟s time orientation needed to be matched for better

performance. Time emphasis might differ from Public Sector to Private Sector to Foreign

Sector Banks. Even in few advertisements Banks had shown emphasis on time for their

organizations. It was recognized that top leadership of organizations clearly determined the

time orientation for the organization as a whole, so that the decision-making and assigned

tasks completion move in consistent manner within organization. Another difference,

which gave rise to conflict, was the ways in which employees were controlled. Mostly in

Private and Foreign Sector Banks and in few Public Sector Banks, Bank Managers were

visible to their employees, for example by walking and gathering information. However,

managers who commanded too obviously or involved themselves in the work details of

employees might de-motivate employees who take pride and honour in their work.

In Bank branches, employees used English language for business purpose, but not all

employees could speak English fluently. Thus, in order to avoid miscommunication,

employees communicated in Hindi or even in their local languages in their offices, this was

specifically observed in Public Sector Banks and in few Private Sector Banks. Free ways

of communication allowed by these Banks suggested that Banking Organizations have a

moderate way for commanding employees. Other method of communication in Banking

Industry existed were Human–Computer Interaction (HCI) culture. Banks practised

computer mediated communication processes. Almost all Public, Private and Foreign

Banks has adopted e-mail as major source of communication between employees.

202

Heads at HSBC India, communicate with their employees through blogs and town hall

meetings and talked about business performances face-to-face with employees. Human

Resource Strategies in which cultural differences were considered were: recruitment

process; training and development; and compensation packages etc. Banks emphasise on

alignment of Human Resource Strategy with cultural differences specifically during

mergers and acquisition of Banks.

CHART IV. 16

CROSS CULTURAL DIFFERENCES VARIABLES IN BANKS

0%

0%

0%

2%

2%

0%

13%

11%

9%

15%

45%

11%

1%

0%

2%

1%

0%

2%

77%

48%

81%

63%

53%

77%

9%

41%

8%

18%

0%

10%

Opinion of Emplyoees

Time Orientation

Control

Communication

Formality

Identity


203

Strategy Implementation and Organizational Culture

The major challenge for organization‟s existed with respect to the implementation rather

than generation of strategies. Strategy implementation involves the integration,

assimilation of both individual goals and organizational goals. For implementation,

individuals must be willing to work toward goals that not only allowed them to meet their

own needs but, in doing so, organizational objectives were also achieved.

In response to a question „there exists well integrated strategies within the organization‟


„strongly agreed‟ that their individual needs and organizational requirements were well

integrated. Whereas, 9 percent „disagreed‟ that hardly any emphasis was made on

integration of individual and organizational needs and 3 percent Respondents remained


Banks need to implement various Human Resource Strategies such as: acquiring talent

which could identify key growth opportunities and design strategy and business plans for

growth areas; developing strategy for enhancing performance in key products and

enhancement of credit and risk management processes; developing strategies for people

during merger and post merger better organization‟s integration; and evolving strategies to

design a sales force for retail customers.

204

CHART IV. 17

STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION IN BANKS

Organization culture is acquired with the period and passed on to new employees through

the process of socialization and this influence the behaviour of employee. In turn,

organization culture influences a host of practices, policies, and procedure implementation.

Thus, for appropriate strategy implementation suitable organization culture needs to be

embedded. For the purpose of the Study, following key components needed to be

considered as part of organization culture for better strategy implementation such as:

cultural differences, employee empowerment, accountability, innovation, mentoring, and

equal opportunity practices.

Cultural differences resulted into differences among employee behaviour. Cultural

differences needed to be managed for embedding organization culture. Various differences

like dress and appearance, language, values and norms, relationships and work habits

would exist in organizations but managers need to manage them.

0% 9%

3%

80%

8%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

Strongly

Disagree


Agree

Integration

205

Employee‟s perception, expectation, and behaviour likely to be different and because of

this, employees approach towards resolving and applying solutions are different. Thus,

organizations emphasize on employee empowerment 23

. In order to avoid situations of

conflicts employees must know duties they have to perform and about decisions related to

productivity, quality, and profit, they were responsible, so as to make employees

accountable. For better strategy implementation, organization culture must be innovative.

Employees need to be supported to remain innovative in order to promote them new ideas.

For this reason, the embedding of organization culture through mentoring considered as an

effective way to support implementation of strategies by fully integrating and transferring

skill and knowledge. The mentor-protege relationships at workplaces speed up the rate of

learning more easily as compared to the mere advices obtained from supervisors

periodically and trial-and-error learning processes carried out routinely. Mentoring

develops feeling of oneness by promoting acceptance towards organizational values.

Organizations, which provided mentoring to their employees, were considered more

relationship oriented. Apart from these organization‟s needed to practice equal opportunity

for their employees.

In response to a question „there are cultural differences between headquarters and

branches‟ from 186 Respondents, 55 percent Respondents „agreed‟ and 12 percent

Respondents „strongly agreed‟ that in their organization cultural differences existed across

branches and headquarters .Whereas 27 percent Respondents „disagreed‟ and 2 percent

Respondents „strongly disagreed‟ that hardly any cultural differences existed in their

organization and 4 percent Respondents remained „neutral‟ on this aspect (Chart IV. 18).

206

In response to a question, „employee viewpoints influence organizational culture‟ from 186


agreed‟ that their viewpoints were considered. Whereas 27 percent Respondents

„disagreed‟ that employees viewpoints were not considered and 2 percent Respondents

remained „neutral‟ (Chart IV. 18).

In response to a question „every employee is accountable for their decisions and actions‟


„strongly agreed‟ that in their organizations employees were accountable for the decisions

made by them. Whereas, 2 percent Respondents „disagreed‟ and 2 percent Respondents


In response to a question „new business ideas are well accepted‟ from 186 Respondents, 66

percent Respondents „agreed‟ and 11 percent Respondents „strongly agreed‟ that in their

organizations they were promoted to give new ideas .Whereas, 22 percent Respondents

„disagreed‟ that innovation was not promoted (Chart IV. 18).

In response to a question „your organization invests in coaching and mentoring of

employees‟ from 186 Respondents, 63 percent Respondents „agreed‟ and 29 percent

Respondents „strongly agreed‟ that in their organizations mentoring existed. Whereas, 6

percent Respondents „disagreed‟ that hardly they were provided with mentors at the

workplace and 1 percent Respondents remained „neutral‟ on this aspect (Chart IV. 18).

207

In response to a question „employees are given equal opportunities‟ from 186 Respondents,

67 percent Respondents „agreed‟ and 16 percent Respondents „strongly agreed‟ that they

were provided with equal opportunities .Whereas, 17 percent Respondents „disagreed‟ that

their organization did not practised equal opportunities practice (Chart IV. 18).

Recently, HDFC acquired Centurion Bank and their Human Resource Head tried to

assimilate the cultures of two organizations together in which employee‟s perspective

played a major role emphasizing that organization culture should not be a left out aspect 24

.

Making employees accountable for their decisions helped in strategy implementation in an

easier way and avoided conflicts between managers and employees. Most of the Banks

provided training to their employees on the responsibilities they have to handle and each

employee adhered to his areas of duties assigned to him.

Banking Industry has slowly agreed on the power of openness and innovation, of not just

product and service but also of processes, to exploit opportunities and to manage the risks

of globalization. Banks take skill advantage of their employees to promote innovation to

achieve and to sustain. It has been observed that those Banks, which supported innovation

for introduction of a new product, opening of a new markets for their products and

services, implementation of new processes and new organization structure has performed

better.

Few Private and Foreign Banks provided mentors to their new employees to help them

navigate the organization and familiarize themselves with history, values, practices, and

policies. Banks are also using mentoring to foster culture of learning organization towards

better implementation of strategies.

208

Banks recognized that workforce with the composition of the local communities and

transferring power and responsibilities to these employees helped to understand and

respond to the needs of their customer‟s locally even better. Hence, every Bank‟s top

management tried to ensure no discrimination on grounds of age, gender, colour, race,

ethnicity, language, caste, creed, economic or social status or disability.

Almost all Bank have specified codes of conduct in order to avoid conflicts with

employees : related to information on trade secrets, customer information, employee

related information, strategies, research in connection with the Bank, legal, and technical

data to be kept as confidential information and used for Bank‟s business purposes only;

regarding employees to proceed on deputation to other branches at short notice; Bank may

at its discretion fix business hours at all branches/offices depending upon its business

needs and requirements; Bank may at its discretion utilize the services of their staff .

CHART IV. 18

CULTURAL VARIABLE INFLUENCING IMPLEMENTATION OF HR

STRATEGY

2% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0%

27% 27%

2%

22%

7%

17%

4% 2% 1% 1% 1% 0%

55%

67%

53%

66% 63%

67%

12%

4%

44%

11%

29%

16%

Cultural

Differences

Emplyoee

Empowerment

Accountability Innovation Mentoring Equal

Opportunity

Practices


209

Human Resource Strategy and Business Ethics

Formulation of corporate strategy should be dependent upon social strategy, which

represents a set of social values. These values could best be tabulated through appropriate

Human Resource Strategy in which such values may represent ethical behaviour of the

organization towards its employees. In this way, a relationship between Human Resource

Strategy and Business Ethics could be understood. To measure Human Resource Strategy

with respect to Business Ethics it was measured by knowing Human Resource Strategies

were trustworthy or not?

In response to a question „your organization is trusted by employees and customers from


agreed‟ that employees and customers had trusted organizational practices. Whereas, 6

percent Respondents „disagreed‟ that hardly they trusted organizational practices and 2

percent Respondents remained „neutral‟ on this aspect (Chart IV. 19).

CHART IV. 19

HR STRATEGIES TRUSTWORTHINESS IN BANKS

0% 6%

2%

49%

42%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

Strongly

Disagree


Agree

Trustworthiness

210

For the purpose of the Study some ethical considerations has been taken in the research

process such as: true information sharing for organizations was essential to build trust in

its practices. Deceptions about organization conditions would result into lower value for

the organization; consistency in saying and doing helps to build importance for policies

and procedures; equality at work with relation to men and women and caste system to be

practised by organization in order to be ethical; respect of employees acts as a hallmark of

a modern and productive organizations, which means respect for the social and cultural

backgrounds of all employees; privacy of employees, it means protecting, employees‟

private life from intrusive actions 25

; employees volunteering help to build strong

relationship between individual and organization working towards the same objectives; and

social responsibility of organization referred to their concern for various stakeholders.

In response to a question „your organization allow sharing of factual information‟ from 186


agreed‟ that records and information communicated to employees was reliable. Whereas, 3

percent Respondents „disagreed „that information communicated was not true and 1

percent Respondents remained „neutral‟ on this aspect (Chart IV. 20).

In response to a question „there is freedom from discrimination in your organization‟ from


agreed‟ that their organization practised equality. Whereas, 4 percent Respondents

„disagreed‟ that hardly their organization practised equality and 2 percent Respondents


211

In response to a question „employees are treated respectfully‟ from 186 Respondents, 69

percent Respondents „agreed‟ and 18 percent Respondents „strongly agreed‟ that they were

treated respectfully at workplace. Whereas 11 percent Respondents „disagreed‟ that in their

organization employees were not treated courteously and 2 percent Respondents remained


In response to a question „there exists consistency between saying and doing in your

organization‟ from 186 Respondents, 54 percent Respondents „strongly agreed‟ and 40

percent Respondents „agreed‟ that in their organizations consistency between saying and

doing existed . Whereas 6 percent Respondents „disagreed‟ that, hardly any consistency

existed in the practices (Chart IV. 20).

In response to a question „employees are scrutinized against parameters other than their

performance‟ from 186 Respondents, 47 percent Respondents „agreed‟ and 19 percent

Respondents „strongly agreed‟ that they were scrutinized on the parameters that they were

informed already .Whereas 26 percent Respondents „disagree‟ that hardly their

organization was concerned about the matters related to employee privacy and 8 percent

Respondents remained neutral (Chart IV. 20).

In response to a question „employees initiate and actively participate in social causes‟ from


agreed‟ that they took initiatives actively and contributing for various causes. Whereas, 13

percent Respondents „disagreed‟ that hardly they need to volunteer for any causes as it was

not asked by their organization and 2 percent Respondents remained neutral on this aspect

( Chart IV. 20).

212

In response to a question „your organization undertake social responsibility‟ from 186

Respondents, 63 percent Respondents „strongly agreed‟ and 18 percent Respondents

„strongly agreed‟ that their organizations took up social responsibility causes (Chart IV.

20).

Banks ensured and promoted for societal causes. For instance, HSBC Banks programme

named „Catalyst‟ and HDFC Bank programme named „Corporate Volunteering Program‟

encouraged their employees to volunteer time and skills for causes like to celebrate

festivals with the underprivileged or employees seeking donations for various natural

disasters. Banks also conduct programmes to support community initiatives such as:

educational sponsorships for girls, adoption of state-run schools, running of academic

support classes, reading classes, providing skills training to school dropouts, youth, women

and other disadvantaged groups. Punjab National Bank organized free medical, eye and

general check-up camps, camps to distribute artificial limbs, blood donation camps. Punjab

National Bank has taken keen interest in nurturing sports towards this end, „PNB Hockey

Academy‟ was established which provided training to young players who represented

country at various national and international level hockey tournaments. Hence, employees

must be motivated to participate in these programmes, which could be fruitful for the

society.

Human Resource professionals of various Banks have taken following steps to overcome

the dilemmas in relation to ethical practices like providing written standards of workplace

conduct to employees, orientation or training on ethical workplace conduct, and details

about the disciplinary action associated with ethical violations.

213

CHART IV. 20

BUSINESS ETHICS IN BANKS

On the basis of Data Analysis, this part of the Chapter discussed the effectiveness of

Human Resource Practices in Sample Banking Organizations. Further, in the next part,

additional statistical analysis is undertaken for further enhancing the understanding of the

research objectives.

0%

0%

0%

0%

0%

0%

0%

3%

4%

11%

6%

26%

13%

0%

1%

2%

2%

0%

8%

2%

0%

58%

66%

69%

40%

47%

58%

37%

38%

28%

18%

54%

19%

27%

63%

True Information Shared

Equality

Respect of employees

Consistency in Saying

and Doing

Privacy

Employees Volunteering

Social Responsibility


214

Hypothesis Testing

The data is tested „statistically‟ to determine whether a research hypothesis should be

accepted or not. The approach to analysis is sequential, ranging from bivariate analysis

(2 variables) to multivariate analysis (more than 2 variables).

Bivariate Analysis:

Cross-tab with Chi square: Our research problem requires us to compare variables with

each other hence; we have represented our collected data into a cross-tab. A cross tab is

also called contingency table or a pivot. The most critical objective while testing a

hypothesis was to identify relationships between variables, as our ultimate aim was to

describe how the values of one variable vary according to the values of another variable. A

key challenge in doing this was collecting data from a Sample whereas the inferences that

we wanted to draw were for a larger population. In addition, there could be other random

factors causing diffusion in results. Through Chi-square analysis, we could control this

diffusion i.e., if the differences between our model and reality were small, our

understanding was good. Further, a significant value of Chi-square does not indicate that

there is necessarily a strong relationship in the population, it just indicates that there is

some relationship i.e., different from what would be expected based on chance alone.

Hence, Chi-square confirms that there‟s an association, but does not signify causality.

215

Pearson Correlation: Correlation is a measure of the relation between two or more

variables. Correlation coefficients range from -1.00 to +1.00. The value of -1.00 represents

a perfect negative correlation while a value of +1.00 represents a perfect positive

correlation. A value of 0.00 represents a lack of correlation. Correlation helps in

ascertaining a predictive relationship between two variables hence, causality could be

determined through correlation.

Multivariate Analysis:

Prediction Model using Regression: If a hypothesis gets proved, we attempted a model

using Regression analysis. The R-square value signifies the variation in dependent

variables as explained by the combination of optimum independent variables.

Research Hypothesis 1: Banking Organizations are Responsive to Change.

Step a: Stating „null hypothesis‟

H0: There is no relationship between change and Banking Organizations response to it.

Step b: Decomposing the independent variable

The null hypothesis states that there exists no relationship between change and Banking

Organizations response to it. The Banks response is the dependent variable in this

relationship as it is the outcome. Banks responsiveness was measured by values that were

captured as „adaptability‟.

216

Change is a complex phenomenon, hence to capture all perspectives it has been

decomposed into following three variables: change in product portfolio; process changes in

Banks; and organization‟s response to customer needs.

Step c: Hypothesis testing

Cross-tab with Chi-square test was applied to find association between the variables. The

output (Table IV. 1) showed that there exists a significant association between

„adaptability‟ (dependent variable) and „change‟ (independent variable). The Chi-square

test reads a significance level of less than < 0.1. This can be interpreted that we are 90

percent confident that the interval contains the true population mean. We can also say that

90 percent of all confidence intervals formed in this manner (from different samples of the

population) will include the true population mean (Table IV. 2).

0.1 is the error or mistake that may happen by chance. Since the value of probability was

less than 0.1 for all three independent variables, we may conclude that there has been an

association between adaptability and change. Hence, we rejected the null hypothesis

H0: „There is no relationship between change and Banking Organizations response to it.‟

217

TABLE IV. 1

CROSSTAB BETWEEN CHANGE AND BANKS ADAPTABILITY

Adaptability

Total


Agree

Change in

Product

Portfolio

Disagree 6 0 0 0 6

Agree 7 3 65 21 96

Strongly Agree 3 0 24 57 84

Total 16 3 89 78 186

Process

Changes in

Banks

Agree 16 3 84 5 108


Total 16 3 89 78 186

Organization‟s

Response to

Customer Needs

Disagree 3 0 0 0 3

Agree 12 0 46 1 59


Total 16 3 89 78 186

TABLE IV. 2

CHI-SQUARE VALUES FOR CHANGE

Pearson

Chi-

square

Value Df Asymp. Sig.

(2-sided)

Change in Product Portfolio 102.017 6 0.000

Process Changes in Banks 147.402 3 0.000

Organization‟s Response to

Customer Needs 106.237 6 0.000

218

Step d: Correlation analysis

Chi-square test cannot determine the causality. Hence, correlation analysis was employed

to determine cause and effect relationship. For one-to-one correlation all values in the

correlation table were standardized ranging from -1 to+1, all variables were highly

correlated (Table IV. 3). There existed positive significant correlation between

„adaptability‟ with „change in product portfolio‟(0.561), „process changes in banks‟(0.703)

and „organization‟s responding to customer needs‟(0.624). This means that the chosen

three variables were fairly independent of each other and were strongly correlated with

Banks adaptability to change. This supports our Research Hypothesis that Banking

Organizations are responsive to change. Therefore, from the overall results we could

conclude that Banks are responsive towards changes in product, process, and customer

preferences.

TABLE IV. 3

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CHANGE AND BANKS ADAPTABILITY

Adaptability

Adaptability

Pearson Correlation 1

Sig. (2-tailed)

N 186

Change in Product

Portfolio

Pearson Correlation 0.561**

Sig. (2-tailed) 0.000

N 186

Process Changes in

Banks



N 186

Organization‟s Response to

Customer Needs



N 186

** Correlation significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

219

Step e: Developing a model

To determine the quantum by which the independent variables, optimally predicted an

organizations response towards change, multiple regression analysis was used. R-square

value for the model was 0.648 this was the amount of variance in the predicted variable

that was explained by independent variables: change in product portfolio, process changes

in banks and organization‟s responding to customer needs.

Following model derived (Table IV. 4).

Adaptability = -1.072 + 0.372(change in product portfolio) + 0.662 (process changes in

banks) + 0.518(organization‟s responding to customer needs)

Hence, adaptability is predicted to: increase 0.372 when the „change in product portfolio‟

goes up by one; increase by 0.662 when „process changes in banks‟ goes up by one;

increase by 0.518 when „organization‟s responding to customer needs‟ goes up by one ;and

be -1.072 when all three independent variables are zero.

As is evident from the model that „process changes in banks‟ has the most effect on the

dependent variable „adaptability‟. Followed by „organization‟s responding to customer

needs‟ and „change in product portfolio‟

220

TABLE IV. 4

BACKWARD REGRESSION ANALYSIS FOR ADAPTABILITY

Model

Unstandardized

Coefficients

Standardized

Coefficients t Sig.

B Std. Error Beta

(Constant) -1.072 0.132

-8.106 0.000

Change in Product

Portfolio 0.372 0.065 0.286 5.714 0.000

Process Changes in

Banks 0.662 0.098 0.384 6.764 0.000

Organization‟s Response

to Customer Needs 0.518 0.077 0.349 6.755 0.000

The above Model through regression analysis has helped in explicating the Research

Hypothesis. We now have a quantitative model for the relationship between „adaptability‟

and „change‟. This model could be used to optimize this relationship. Thus, this confirms

that Banking Organizations are responsive to change. Even during the interaction with

Bank employees, they specified that Banks had changed the process for application of a

personnel loan into an easy and simple procedure. Personnel loan process constituted

mainly three things: producing of proper documents; filling up of application form; and

paying for the initial down payment. They also specified that this process might fail if

customers were asked to produce many documents along with the forms some of which

may not be necessary at all.

221

Thus, it is necessary that customer‟s should be asked for the minimum but most necessary

documents instead of unnecessary documents. In case of application form, the application

form must be in a language, easily understood by the customer‟s and it should not be very

lengthy eliciting a lot of unnecessary information. Thus, considering these aspects Banks

changed their processes to make Bank processes simpler and also modified their products

according to their customer‟s preferences.

The above empirical findings were further supported by findings of the Researchers like

Shanmugam and Das 26

; and Prasad and Ghosh 27

, who pointed towards improvement in

the performances of the Banking Sector due to its adaptability towards changes.

Avermatete, Viaene, Morgan, and Crawford 28

stressed on the importance of change in

products and processes of the organization in order to move the organization to exploit new

markets. Leeladhar 29

supported that Indian Banks had adapted to the changes, specifically

changes in the Banks processes like using of electronic transmission of payments and

development of relationship-oriented products like small loans. Finally, Singh and

Kumar30

; and Verma, and Chaudhuri 31

in their studies mentioned that due to the existence

of competitive landscape in Banking Sector most of the Public Sector Banks were in the

process of adopting strategies, which could provide them competitive edge. Thus, this

finally proves Research Hypothesis that „Banking Organizations are responsive towards

changes‟.

222

Research Hypothesis 2: The Nature of Change in Banking Organization is Strategic.


H0: The nature of change in Banking Organization is not strategic


The null hypothesis states that the nature of change in Banking Organization is not

strategic. To be „strategic‟ is the dependent variable in this relationship as it is the

outcome. This was measured by values that were captured as predictability. „Nature of

change‟ is a complex phenomenon, hence to better capture all perspectives it has been

decomposed into following four variables: significance of change; change as continuing

process; change management; and change implementation.


Cross-tab with Chi-square test was applied to find association between the two variables.

The output (Table IV. 5) showed that there existed a significant association between

„predictability‟ (dependent variable) and „nature of change‟ (independent variable). The

Chi-square test reads a significance level of less than < 0.1. This can be interpreted, that we

are 90 percent confident that the interval contains the true population mean. We can also

say that 90 percent of all confidence intervals formed in this manner (from different

samples of the population) will include the true population mean. (Table IV. 6).

223


less than 0.1 for all four independent variables, we may conclude that there has been an

association between being „strategic‟ and „nature of change‟. Hence, we rejected the null

hypothesis H0: „The nature of change in Banking Organization is not strategic.‟

TABLE IV. 5

CROSSTAB BETWEEN NATURE OF CHANGE AND PREDICTABILITY

Predictability

Total

Agree Strongly Agree

Significance of Change

Agree 131 3 134

Strongly Agree 7 45 52

Total 138 48 186

Change as a Process

Agree 123 14 137


Total 138 48 186

Change Management

Agree 93 0 93


Total 138 48 186

Change as Continuous

Disagree 13 2 15

Agree 125 17 142


Total 138 48 186

224

TABLE IV. 6

CHI-SQUARE VALUES FOR IMPLEMENTATION OF CHANGE IN BANKS

Pearson

Chi-

square

Value df Asymp. Sig.

(2-sided)

Significance of Change 139.044 1 0.000

Change as a Process 65.992 1 0.000

Change Management 64.696 1 0.000

Change as Continuous 98.789 2 0.000


Chi-square cannot determine the causality. Hence, correlation analysis was employed to

determine cause and effect relationship. For one-to-one correlation all values in the

correlation table were standardized ranging from -1 to +1, all variables were highly


„predictability‟ with „significance of change‟ (0.865), „change as a process‟ (0.596),

„change management‟ (0.590) and „change as continuous‟ (0.449). This means that the

chosen four variables were fairly independent of each other and were strongly correlated

with Banks predictability of change. This supports our Research Hypothesis that „Banking

Organizations nature of change is strategic‟. Therefore, from the overall results we could

conclude that „significance of change‟, „change as a process‟, „change management‟ and

„change as continuous‟ lead to Banking Organization being strategic.

225

TABLE IV. 7

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN NATURE OF CHANGE AND PREDICTABILITY

Predictability

Predictability


Sig. (2-tailed)

N 186

Significance of Change



N 186

Change as a Process



N 186

Change Management



N 186

Change as Continuous



N 186


* Correlation significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).

226


To determine the quantum by which the independent variables, optimally predicted nature

of change, multiple regression analysis was used. R-square value for the model was 0.793

this was the amount of variance in the predicted variable that‟s being explained by

independent variables: „significance of change‟, „change as a processes‟, „change

management‟ and „change as continuous‟.

Following model depicted (Table IV. 8).

Predictability = 0.046(constant) + 0.704 (significance of change) -0.017(change as a

process) +0.176(change management) +0.070(change as continuous)

Hence, predictability is predicted to increase: 0.704 when „significance of change‟ goes up

by one; decreases by 0.017 when „change as a process‟ goes up by one; increase by 0.176

when „change management‟ goes up by one; increases by 0.07 when „change as

continuous‟ goes up by one ;and be 0.046 when all four independent variables are zero.

As is evident from the model that „significance of change‟ has the most effect on the

dependent variable „predictability‟ followed by „change management‟ and „change as

continuous‟. The variable „change as a process‟ has a relatively small albeit negative effect

on „predictability‟.

227

TABLE IV. 8

BACKWARD REGRESSION ANALYSIS FOR PREDICTABILITY

Model

Unstandardized

Coefficients

Standardized

Coefficients t Sig.

B Std.

Error Beta

(Constant) 0.046 0.056

0.833 0.406

Significance of Change 0.704 0.050 0.722 14.099 0.000

Change as a Process -0.017 0.048 -0.017 -0.364 0.717

Change Management 0.176 0.037 0.201 4.799 0.000

Change as Continuous 0.070 0.025 0.110 2.773 0.006


Hypothesis. We now have a quantitative model for the relationship between being

„strategic‟ and „nature of change‟. This model could be used to optimize this relationship.

Thus, this confirms that Banking Organization‟s has a strategic approach towards change.

The literature review on Banking Industry confirmed that this industry has performed well

in order to cope change. The subject literature showed that the customer‟s status has

changed from an isolated to a connected, an unaware to a well informed, and a passive to

an active customer. As Banks faced challenges from both the fronts domestic and

international thus, Banks needed to predict changes and taken actions to overcome these

challenges.

228

The above empirical findings were supported by the studies of the following Researchers

as : Tyson 32

confirmed that being strategic means description of future action which were

always directed towards change ; Quinn 33

emphasized on the strategic change as a

necessity for an organization; Truss and Gratton 34

mentioned there existed the requirement

of quality practitioners involved into decision making, policy implementation and to

predict the corporate world in the evolving and changing environment; Nadler 35

suggested

regarding the implementation of change to be assured and controlled at the time of

maintenance and after the transition; and an empirical study by Nath , Mukherjee and Pal 36

on Indian Nationalized Banks revealed that Banks, in order to survive must adapt to the

changing environment and position themselves with respect to their strategic groups to

improve their perceived service quality . Even their performance metrics need to be

grouped strategically.

Apart from the above Researcher, Pettigrew and Whipp 37

issued warning to financial

services on the basis of their research that the implementation of change must be

cumulative and stressed that employees responsible for the process of change need to make

continual assessments, repeated choices and multiple adjustments. Thus, this finally proves

the Research Hypothesis that „the nature of change in Banking Organization is strategic‟.

229

Research Hypothesis 3: There is a Correlation between Strategic Intent and

Performance.


H0: There is no correlation between strategic intent and performance


The null hypothesis states that there exists no relationship between strategic intent and

organization‟s performance. Here „performance‟ is the dependent variable in this

relationship as it is the outcome. „Strategic intent‟ consists of hierarchical elements, to

better capture all perspectives it has been decomposed into following six variables: vision;

mission; values and principles; goals; strategic objectives; and financial objectives.



output below (Table IV. 9) showed that there existed a significant association between

„performance‟ (dependent variable) and „strategic intent‟ (independent variable). The Chi-

square test reads a significance level of less than < 0.1. This can be interpreted as that we



samples of the population) will include the true population mean (Table IV. 10). 0.1 was

the error or mistake that may happen by chance. Since the value of probability was less

than 0.1 for all six independent variables, we may conclude that there has been association

between performance and strategic intent.

230

Hence, we rejected the null hypothesis H0: „There is no correlation between strategic intent

and performance.‟

TABLE IV. 9

CROSSTAB BETWEEN STRATEGIC INTENT AND PERFORMANCE OF

BANKS

Performance

Total Disagree Agree

Strongly

Agree

Vision

Disagree 3 9 0 12

Neutral 0 3 0 3

Agree 21 108 20 149

Strongly Agree 2 12 8 22

Total 26 132 28 186

Mission

Disagree 19 12 0 31

Agree 7 111 6 124


Total 26 132 28 186

Value and

Principles

Disagree 12 7 0 19

Agree 14 105 15 134


Total 26 136 28 186

Goals

Disagree 17 11 0 28

Agree 9 105 14 128


Total 26 132 28 186

Strategic

Objectives

Strongly Disagree 2 0 0 2

Disagree 20 28 2 50

Neutral 0 0 2 2

Agree 4 90 10 104


Total 26 132 28 186

Financial

Objectives

Disagree 22 20 0 42

Agree 3 101 15 119


Total 26 132 28 186

231

TABLE IV. 10

CHI-SQUARE VALUES FOR STRATEGIC INTENT

Pearson

Chi-

square

Value df Asymp. Sig. (2-sided)

Vision 12.265 6 .056

Mission 156.016 4 .000

Value and Principles 60.504 4 .000

Goals 85.419 4 .000

Strategic Objectives 95.048 8 .000

Financial Objectives 95.763 4 .000


Chi-square cannot determine causality. Hence, correlation analysis was employed to




„performance‟ with „vision‟ (0.158), „mission‟ (0.676), „values and principles‟ (0.509),

„goals‟ (0.589), „strategic objectives‟ (0.540) and „financial objectives‟ (0.610). This

means that the chosen six variables were fairly independent of each other and were

correlated with Banks performance. This supports our Research Hypothesis that strategic

intent and performance are correlated. Therefore, from the overall results we could

conclude that vision, mission, values and principles, goals, strategic objectives, and

financial objectives were planned well resulting into better performance of an organization.

232

TABLE IV. 11

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN STRATEGIC INTENT AND PERFORMANCE OF

BANKS

Performance

Performance


Sig. (2-tailed)

N 186

Vision

Pearson Correlation 0.158(*)


N 186

Mission

Pearson Correlation 0.676(**)


N 186

Value and Principles



N 186

Goals



N 186

Strategic Objectives



N 186

Financial Objectives



N 186



233


To determine the quantum by which the independent variables, optimally predicted an

organization‟s performance, multiple regression analysis was used. R-square value for the

model was 0.582 this was the amount of variance in the predicted variable that was

explained by independent variables: mission, goals, and financial objectives as strong

predictors of the performance of Banks.

Following optimum model derived (Table IV. 12).

Performance = 0.197 + 0.382(mission) + 0.232(goals) + 0.228(financial objectives).

Hence, „performance‟ is predicted to: increase 0.382 when „mission‟ goes up by one;

increase by 0.232 when „goals‟ goes up by one; increase by 0.228 when „financial

objective‟ goes up by one; and be 0.197 when all three independent variables are zero.

As is evident from the model that „mission‟ has the most effect on the dependent variable

„performance‟, followed by „goals‟ of the organization and „financial objectives‟.

234

TABLE IV. 12

BACKWARD REGRESSION ANALYSIS FOR PERFORMANCE OF BANKS

Model

Unstandardized

Coefficients

Standardized

Coefficients t Sig.

B Std. Error Beta

(Constant) 0.197 0.060

3.309 0.001

Mission 0.382 0.056 0.412 6.881 0.000

Goals 0.232 0.057 0.240 4.048 0.000

Financial Objectives 0.228 0.052 0.265 4.399 0.000


Hypothesis. We now have a quantitative model to assess the relationship between

„strategic intent‟ and „performance‟. This model could be used to optimize this

relationship. Thus, this confirms that strategic intent correlated with performance of

organization. Strategic intent, represent a proactive mode i.e., a symbol of an

organization‟s future and it also energize all organizational levels for a collective purpose

was mentioned by Hamel and Prahalad 38

; Hart 39

; Hamel and Prahalad 40

. Lovas and

Ghoshal 41

mentioned that goals and mission being a part of strategic intent, point out the

long-term market or competitive positions that an organization hopes to build along with

the sense of direction to employees for better performance. Quinn 42

; and Burgelman and

Grove 43

highlighted that poor performance of an organization was due to the failure in

defining clearly the strategic intent. Thus, this finally proves the Research Hypothesis that

„there is a correlation between strategic intent and performance‟.

235

Research Hypothesis 4: Organization Change and Human Resource Strategy are

Co-related.


H0: There exists no correlation between organization change and Human Resource

Strategy


The null hypothesis states that there exists no correlation between organization‟s change

and Human Resource Strategy. „Human Resource Strategy‟ is the dependent variable in

this relationship as it is the outcome of organizational changes. Hence, to better capture all

perspectives of organization change it has been decomposed into following six variables:

workforce demography; employee‟s expectations; technology; organizational restructure;

changes in customer‟s; and economic conditions.



output (Table IV. 13) showed that there existed a significant association between „Human

Resource Strategy‟ (dependent variable) and „organization change‟ (independent

variables). The Chi-square test reads a significance level of less than < 0.1. This can be

interpreted, that we are 90 percent confident that the interval contains the true population

mean. We can also say that 90 percent of all confidence intervals formed in this manner

(from different samples of the population) will include the true population mean (Table IV.

14).

236


less than 0.1 for all three independent variables, we may conclude that there has been

association between Human Resource Strategy and organization change. Hence, we

rejected the null hypothesis H0: „There exists no correlation between organization change

and Human Resource Strategy‟.

TABLE IV. 13

CROSSTAB BETWEEN ORGANIZATION CHANGE AND HUMAN RESOURCE

STRATEGY


Total


Agree

Workforce

Demography

Disagree 7 3 0 0 10

Agree 8 0 64 4 76


Total 16 3 89 78 186

Employee

Expectations

Disagree 10 0 8 7 25

Neutral 0 3 0 0 3

Agree 3 0 81 33 117


Total 16 3 89 78 186

Technology


Neutral 0 3 0 0 3

Agree 2 0 87 2 91


Total 16 3 89 78 186

237


Total


Agree

Organizational

Restructure

Disagree 7 0 4 2 13

Neutral 0 1 2 0 3

Agree 9 2 81 40 132


Total 16 3 89 78 186

Strongly

Disagree 0 0 3 2 5

Changes in

Customer‟s


Neutral 0 3 1 3 7

Agree 4 0 81 4 89


Total 16 3 89 78 186

Economic

Conditions


Neutral 0 0 0 1 1

Agree 9 0 62 42 113


Total 16 3 89 78 186

238

TABLE IV. 14

CHI-SQUARE VALUES FOR ORGANIZATION CHANGE

Pearson

Chi-square


(2-sided)

Workforce Demography 193.448 6 .000

Employee Expectations 283.345 9 .000

Technology 513.885 9 .000

Organizational Restructure 107.918 9 .000

Changes in Customer‟s 296.092 12 .000

Economic Conditions 31.219 9 .000


Chi-square cannot determine the causality. Hence, correlation analysis was employed to



correlated (Table IV. 15). There existed positive significant correlation between „Human

Resource Strategy‟ with „workforce demography‟ (0.733), „employees expectations‟

(0.459), „technology‟ (0.955),‟ organizational restructure‟ (0.527), „changes in customers‟

(0.584) and „economic condition‟ (0.316) (Table IV. 15). This means that the chosen six

variables were fairly independent of each other and were correlated with Human Resource

Strategies. This supported our Research Hypothesis that Organization change and Human

Resource Strategy are co-related. Therefore, from the overall results we could conclude

that workforce demography, employees expectations, technology, organizational

restructure, changes in customers and economic condition changes would influence Human

Resource Strategies.

239

TABLE IV. 15

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ORGANIZATION CHANGE AND HUMAN

RESOURCE STRATEGY


Human Resource

Strategy


Sig. (2-tailed)

N 186

Workforce

Demography



N 186

Employee

Expectations



N 186

Technology



N 186

Organizational

Restructure



N 186

Changes in

Customer‟s



N 186

Economic

Conditions



N 186



240


To determine the quantum by which the independent variables, optimally predicted

organizational change variables influencing the Human Resource Strategy for which,

multiple regression analysis was used. R square value for the model was 0.918 this was the

amount of variance in the predicted variable that was explained by independent variables:

„workforce demography‟, „technology‟, and „organizational restructure‟.

Following model depicted (Table IV. 16).

Human Resource Strategy = -0.104 + 0.069 (workforce demography) +0.902

(technology) + 0.102(organizational restructure)

Hence, Human Resource Strategy is predicted to: increase 0.069 when the „workforce

demography‟ goes up by one; increase by 0.902 when „technology‟ goes up by one;

increase by 0.102 when „organizational restructure‟ goes up by one ; and be -0.104 when

all three independent variables are zero.

As is evident from the model that „technology‟ has the most effect on the dependent

variable „Human Resource Strategy‟, followed by „organizational restructure‟ and

„workforce demography‟.

241

TABLE IV. 16

BACKWARD REGRESSION ANALYSIS FOR HUMAN RESOURCE

STRATEGIES

Model

Unstandardized

Coefficients

Standardized

Coefficients t

Sig.

B Std. Error Beta

(Constant) -0.104 0.043 -2.414 0.017

Workforce

Demography 0.069 0.036 0.061 1.888 0.061

Technology 0.902 0.037 0.868 24.522 0.000

Organizational

Restructure 0.102 0.030 0.084 3.428 0.001


Hypothesis. We now have a quantitative model to the relationship between „Human

Resource Strategy‟ and „organization change‟. This model could be used to optimize this

relationship. Thus, this confirms that organization change is co-related with Human

Resource Strategy. These empirical finding were further supported by research studies

undertaken by various Researchers. For instance, Dertouzos 44

raised the importance of

Human Resource requirements with respect to the new competencies such as strong

computer skills, strong communication skills, customer friendly skills as technological

changes had taken place. Tyson 45

; Armstrong and Baron 46

; and Palthe and Kossek 47

highlighted in their study that Human Resource professionals needed to start development

of strategies at the embryonic stage of change programmes.

242

Palthe and Kossek 47

mentioned that the difference between top performing and an average

organization arises due to the kind of strategic initiatives taken towards alignment of

Human Resource Strategies with change. Bhattacharjee 48

further discussed in the study

that diversity of workforce had increased in the organizations due to the age gaps and due

to geographical as well racial differences. Hence, the mixed composition of the workforce

needs to work together by accepting each other with different viewpoints. Thus, this proves

the Research Hypothesis that „organization change and Human Resource Strategy are co-

related‟.

Research Hypothesis 5: Organizations having HR Strategy are People Centric.


H0: There exists no relationship between organizations having Human Resource Strategy

and being people centric.


The null hypothesis states that there exists no relationship between Human Resource

Strategy and organizations being people centric. Organization being people centric is the

dependent variable in this relationship as it is the outcome.

243

There are numerous Human Resource Strategies, hence to better capture all perspectives it

has been decomposed into following fourteen variables: teamwork; information sharing;

creativity; participation; empowerment; quality of work-life; workplace feedback;

employee-management cooperation ; grievance handling; career progression; flexible

benefit; flexible work arrangements; health and safety; and working conditions .




„organizations being people centric‟ (dependent variable) and „Human Resource Strategy‟

(independent variables). The Chi-square test reads a significance level of less than < 0.1.

This can be interpreted that we are 90 percent confident that the interval contains the true

population mean. We can also say that 90 percent of all confidence intervals formed in this

manner (from different samples of the population) will include the true population mean

(Table IV. 18).


less than 0.1 for all three independent variables, we may conclude that there has been an

association between „organizations being people centric‟ and „Human Resource Strategy‟.

Hence, we rejected the null hypothesis H0: There exists no relationship between

organizations having Human Resource Strategy and being people centric.

244

TABLE IV. 17

CROSSTAB BETWEEN HUMAN RESOURCE STRATEGY AND

ORGANIZATIONS BEING PEOPLE CENTRIC

People Centric

Total


Agree

Teamwork

Disagree 0 0 8 0 8

Agree 15 4 80 42 141


Total 15 4 105 62 186

Information

Sharing

Strongly

Disagree 3 0 0 0 3


Agree 5 1 80 31 117


Total 15 4 105 62 186

Creativity


Neutral 0 0 5 3 8

Agree 12 1 71 34 118


Total 15 4 105 62 186

245

People Centric Total


Agree

Participation


Neutral 0 1 2 0 3

Agree 12 3 78 53 146


Total 15 4 105 62 186

Empowerment


Agree 8 3 71 42 124


Total 15 4 105 62 186

Quality of

Work-life


Agree 12 4 82 19 117


Total 15 4 105 62 186

Workplace

Feedback

Strongly

Disagree 2 0 0 0 2


Neutral 0 2 0 0 2

Agree 1 2 95 21 119


Total 15 4 105 62 186

246

People Centric Total


Agree

Employee-

management

Cooperation

Strongly

Disagree 0 0 1 0 1


Neutral 0 2 0 1 3

Agree 3 1 91 13 108


Total 15 4 105 62 186

Grievance

Handling


Neutral 0 0 0 1 1

Agree 5 1 73 45 124


Total 15 4 105 62 186

Career

Progression

Disagree 10 2 17 4 33

Neutral 0 1 1 1 3

Agree 5 1 86 31 123


Total 15 4 105 62 186

Flexible

Benefits

Strongly


Disagree 6 2 32 17 57

Neutral 1 0 5 0 6

Agree 7 1 54 30 92


Total 15 4 105 62 186

247

People Centric

Total


Agree

Flexible Work

Arrangements

Strongly

Disagree 1 0 16 11 28

Disagree 4 1 28 17 50

Neutral 1 0 3 0 4

Agree 6 2 45 27 80


Total 15 4 105 62 186

Health

Promotion


Agree 4 0 77 24 105


Total 15 4 105 62 186

Working

Conditions

Disagree 3 0 2 0 5

Neutral 0 1 0 0 1

Agree 9 0 67 10 86


Total 15 4 105 62 186

248

TABLE IV. 18

CHI-SQUARE VALUES FOR HUMAN RESOURCE STRATEGIES

Pearson

Chi-square

Value Df Asymp.

Sig. (2-sided)

Teamwork 17.441 6 0.000

Information Sharing 70.311 9 0.000

Creativity 27.119 9 0.001

Participation 19.756 9 0.019

Empowerment 13.037 6 0.042

Quality of Work-life 45.856 6 0.000

Workplace Feedback 300.957 12 0.000

Employee- management

Cooperation 194.837 9 0.000

Grievance Handling 34.859 9 0.00

Career Progression 99.301 9 0.000

Flexible Benefits 12.698 12 0.391

Flexible Work Arrangements 5.971 12 0.918

Health Promotion 75.113 6 0.000

Working Conditions 108.229 9 0.000

249






organizations being „people centric‟ with „workplace feedback‟ (0.808) , „employee-

management cooperation‟ (0.527), „career progression‟ (0.501), whereas independent

variables like „teamwork‟ (0.187), „information sharing‟ (0.375) , „creativity‟ (0.216),

„participation‟ (0.101), „empowerment‟ (0.220), „quality of work-life‟ (0.107) , „grievance

handling‟ (0.332), „health promotion‟ (0.405) and „working conditions‟ (0.446), variables

were positively correlated however their causality in presence of other variables was not

substantial, but nevertheless they had a correlation, so we retained them. Whereas „flexible

benefits‟ (-0.046) and „flexible work arrangements‟ (-0.081) were negatively correlated

(Table IV. 20). This means that the chosen fourteen variables were fairly independent of

each other and eleven chosen variables were positively correlated with „organizations

being people centric‟. Therefore, from the overall results we could conclude that

teamwork, information sharing, creativity, participation, empowerment, quality of work-

life, workplace feedback, grievance handling, career progression, health and safety and

working conditions provided to employees lead organization to become people centric.

250

TABLE IV. 19

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HUMAN RESOURCE STRATEGY AND

ORGANIZATIONS BEING PEOPLE CENTRIC

People Centric

People Centric


Sig. (2-tailed)

N 186

Teamwork



N 186

Information Sharing



N 186

Creativity

Pearson Correlation 0.216


N 186

Participation



N 186

Empowerment



N 186

Quality of Work-life



N 186

People Centric

251

Workplace Feedback



N 186


Cooperation



N 186

Grievance Handling



N 186

Career Progression



N 186

Flexible Benefits

Pearson Correlation -0.046


N 186

Flexible Work

Arrangements



N 186

Health Promotion



N 186

Working Conditions



N 186



252



organizations being people centric, multiple regression analysis was used. R-square value

for the model was 0.764, this was the amount of variance in the predicted variable that was

being explained by the independent variables: information-sharing, quality of work-life,

workplace feedback, employee-management cooperation, grievance handling, career

progression, health promotion, and working conditions.

Following model depicted (Table IV. 20)

People Centric = -0.074+0.109 (information sharing) + 0.079 (quality of work-life) + 0.596

(workplace feedback) + 0.153(employee-management cooperation) –

0.075(grievance handling) + 0.094 (career progression) + 0.082(health

promotion) +0.140 (working conditions).

Hence, organization being people centric is predicted to: increase 0.109 when the

„information sharing‟ goes up by one; increase by 0.079 when „quality of work-life‟ goes

up by one, increase by 0.596 when „workplace feedback ‟ goes up by one ; increase by

0.153 when „employee-management cooperation‟ goes up by one ; decrease by 0.075 when

„grievance handling‟ goes up by one; increase by 0.094 „career progression‟ goes up by

one; increase by 0.082 when „health promotion‟ goes up by one; increase by 0.140

„working conditions‟ goes up by one ;and be -0.074 when all eight independent variables

are zero.

253

As is evident from the model that „Workplace feedback‟ has the most effect on the

dependent variable „Human Resource Strategy‟, followed by „working conditions‟,

„employee -management cooperation‟, „information sharing‟, „career progression‟ and

„health and safety‟. The variable „grievance handling‟ has a relatively small albeit negative

effect on being „people centric‟.

TABLE IV. 20

BACKWARD REGRESSION ANALYSIS FOR ORGANIZATIONS BEING

PEOPLE CENTRIC

Model

Unstandardized

Coefficients

Standardized

Coefficients t Sig.

B Std.

Error Beta

(Constant) -0.074 0.085

-0.877 0.382

Information Sharing 0.109 0.033 0.133 3.341 0.001

Quality of Work-life 0.079 0.036 0.087 2.222 0.028

Workplace Feedback 0.596 0.044 0.617 13.630 0.000


Cooperation 0.153 0.038 0.171 3.973 0.000

Grievance Handling -0.075 0.039 -0.082 -1.937 0.054

Career Progression 0.094 0.036 0.098 2.294 0.023

Health and Safety 0.082 0.036 0.098 2.294 0.023

Working Conditions 0.140 0.055 0.112 2.561 0.011

254


Hypothesis. We now have a quantitative model to the relationship between organizations

being people centric and Human Resource Strategy. This model could be used to optimize

this relationship. Thus, this confirms that Human Resource Strategies were correlated with

organizations being people centric. These empirical finding are further supported by

researcher‟s studies such as: Wright et al., 49

; Testa and Ehrhart 50

; and Singh 51

who

emphasized that organization must treat their employee‟s, as assets .This raised the concern

that organizations need to become people centric organizations. Dabholkar et al.,52

;

Ehrich, and Hansford 53

; Youndt and Snell 54

; and Drew, and Murtagh 55

pointed that

organizations need to develop Human Resource Strategies, which consider employees as

valuable part of their organization and these Human Resource Strategies must strengthen

employee‟s belief that the organization would provide support to them to deal with

stressful situations at work or home.

Guest and Conway 56

found that grievance resolving provided an opportunity to

communicate about business related issues, harassment at work, job related issues and it

also helped to improve the satisfaction level of an employee. Schuler and Jackson 57

emphasized that career progression was one of an important strategy, which needs to be a

part of Human Resource Strategies as it define „what people are required to know and be

able to do to carry out work at progressive levels of responsibility‟. Holt and Andrews 58

mentioned that providing healthy, safe, and pleasant working conditions helped to achieve

quality outputs and standards. Likierrman 59

emphasized on improved workplace feedback

specifically through face to face. Thus, this finally confirms the Research Hypothesis that

„organizations having Human Resource Strategies are people centric‟.

255

Research Hypothesis 6: Effectiveness of Human Resource Practices is Co-related with

Human Resource Strategy.


H0: There exists no relationship between effectiveness of Human Resource Practices and



The null hypothesis states that there exists no correlation between effectiveness of Human

Resource Practices and Human Resource Strategy. The effectiveness of Human Resource

Practices is the dependent variable in this relationship as it is the outcome. Effectiveness of

Human Resource Practices was measured by values that were captured for it.

Human Resource Strategy consisted of many aspects, hence to better capture all

perspectives it has been decomposed into following fifteen independent variables:

manpower planning; cost controlling of manpower; talent acquisition; deployment; job

profiling and designation; skill up-gradation, appraisal of employees; compensation

realignment; promotion policies; managing workforce diversity; outsourcing; customer

relationship; product innovation; and service quality.

256




„effectiveness of Human Resource Practices‟ (dependent variable) and „Human Resource

Strategy‟ (independent variable). The Chi-square test reads a significance level of less than

< 0.1. This can be interpreted as that we are 90 percent confident that the interval contains

the true population mean. We can also say that 90 percent of all confidence intervals

formed in this manner (from different samples of the population) will include the true

population mean (Table IV. 22).


less than 0.1 for fifteen independent variables, we may conclude that there has been an

association between effectiveness of Human Resource Practices and Human Resource

Strategy. Hence, we rejected the null hypothesis H0: There exists no relationship between

effectiveness of Human Resource Practices and Human Resource Strategy.

257

TABLE IV. 21

CROSSTAB BETWEEN HUMAN RESOURCE STRATEGIES AND

EFFECTIVENESS OF HUMAN RESOURCE PRACTICES

Effectiveness of

Human Resource Practices Total

Disagree Agree Strongly Agree

Manpower

Planning

Disagree 28 30 0 58

Agree 0 102 18 120


Total 28 136 22 186

Cost Controlling of

Manpower

Disagree 12 12 0 24

Agree 14 105 14 133


Total 28 136 22 186

Talent Acquisition

Disagree 24 8 0 32

Agree 4 105 6 115


Total 28 136 22 186

Deployment

Disagree 16 16 0 32

Agree 12 110 13 135


Total

28 136 22 186

Job Profiling and

Designation


Disagree 10 4 0 14

Neutral 0 2 2 4

Agree 17 117 13 147


Total 28 136 22 186

258

Effectiveness of



Skill Up-gradation

Disagree 4 12 0 16

Neutral 0 3 0 3

Agree 16 66 7 89


Total 28 136 22 186

Appraisal of

Employee

Disagree 12 8 0 20

Agree 16 104 11 131


Total 28 136 22 186

Compensation

Realignment


Disagree 4 6 1 11

Neutral 0 1 0 1

Agree 19 77 12 108


Total 28 136 22 186

Promotion Policies

Disagree 20 12 0 32

Agree 8 107 9 124


Total 28 136 22 186

Managing

Workforce

Diversity

Disagree 23 5 0 28

Agree 5 118 5 128


Total 28 136 22 186

259

Effectiveness of



Outsourcing

Disagree 3 2 1 6

Agree 21 74 3 98


Total 28 136 22 186

Customer

Relationship

Disagree 15 2 0 17

Agree 12 104 5 121


Total 28 136 22 186

Product Innovation

Disagree 1 0 0 1

Agree 10 66 6 82


Total 28 136 22 186

Service Quality

Disagree 9 4 1 14

Agree 15 85 7 107


Total 28 136 22 186

Convenient

Services

Disagree 2 13 1 16

Neutral 0 3 0 3

Agree 18 65 6 89


Total 28 136 22 186

260

TABLE IV. 22

CHI-SQUARE VALUES FOR HUMAN RESOURCE STRATEGY

Pearson

Chi-

square


(2-sided)

Manpower planning 86.062 4 0.000

Cost Controlling of Manpower 34.282 4 0.000

Talent Acquisition 145.041 4 0.000

Deployment 61.576 4 0.000

Job Profiling and Designation 55.233 8 0.000

Skill Up-gradation 10.634 6 0.100

Appraisal of Employees 51.651 4 0.000

Compensation Realignment 28.754 8 0.000

Promotion policies 99.219 4 0.000

Managing Workforce Diversity 181.597 4 0.000

Outsourcing 28.120 4 0.000

Customer Relationship 110.831 4 0.000

Product Innovation 9.822 4 0.044

Service Quality 38.397 4 0.000

Convenient Services 10.144 6 0.119

261






effectiveness of Human Resource Practices with „manpower planning‟ (0.640) , „talent

acquisition‟ (0.743), „deployment‟ (0.491), „appraisal of employee‟ (0.479), „promotion

policies‟ (0.623) , „managing workforce diversity‟ (0.784), and „customer relationship‟

(0.640), whereas rest of variables like „cost controlling of manpower‟ (0.387), „job

profiling and designation‟ (0.380), „skill up-gradation‟ (0.174), „compensation

realignment‟ (0.331), „outsourcing‟ (0.325) , „product innovation‟ (0.055), „service quality‟

(0.388) and „convenient services‟ (0.098) were positively correlated however their

causality in presence of other variables was not substantial, but nevertheless they were

correlation, so we retain them. This means that the chosen fifteen variables were fairly

independent of each other and were correlated with effectiveness of Human Resource

Practices. This supports our Research Hypothesis that effectiveness of Human Resource

Practices is correlated with Human Resource Strategy. Therefore, from the overall results

we could conclude that various Human Resource Strategies discussed here leads to

effectiveness of Human Resource Practices.

262

TABLE IV. 23

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HUMAN RESOURCE STRATEGY AND

EFFECTIVENESS OF HUMAN RESOURCE PRACTICES

Effectiveness of

HR Practices

Effectiveness of HR

Practices


Sig. (2-tailed)

N 186

Manpower Planning



N 186

Cost Controlling of

Manpower



N 186

Talent Acquisition



N 186

Deployment



N 186

Job Profiling and

Designation



N 186

Skill up-gradation



N 186

Appraisal of

Employee



N 186

Effectiveness of

HR Practices

263

Compensation

Realignment



N 186

Promotion Policies



N 186

Managing Workforce

Diversity



N 186

Outsourcing



N 186

Customer

Relationship



N 186

Product Innovation



N 186

Service Quality



N 186

Convenient Services



N 186

**Correlation significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).


264



effectiveness of Human Resource Practices, multiple regression model was used. R-square

value for the model was 0.759, this was the amount of variance in the predicted variables

that was explained by the independent variables manpower planning, talent acquisition, job

profiling and designation, promotion policies, managing workforce diversity and

convenient services as strong predictors of the dependent variable effectiveness of Human

Resource Practices .


Effectiveness of HR Practices = 0.077 +0.135 (manpower planning) + 0.303 (talent

acquisition) + 0.174 (job profiling and designation) +

0.115(promotion policies) + 0.343 (managing

workforce diversity) -0.104 (convenient services).

Hence, effectiveness of Human Resource Practices is predicted to: increase 0.135 when

„manpower planning‟ goes up by one; decreases by 0.303 when „talent acquisition‟ goes up

by one; increase by 0.174 when „job profile and designation‟ goes up by one; increases by

0115 when „promotion policies‟ goes up by one; increases by 0.343 when „managing

workforce diversity‟ goes up by one; and be 0.077 when all six independent variables are

zero.

265

As is evident from the model that „managing workforce diversity‟ has the most effect on

the dependent variable „effectiveness of Human Resource Practices‟. Followed by „talent

acquisition‟, „job profile and designation‟, „manpower planning‟ and „promotion policies‟.

TABLE IV. 24

BACKWARD REGRESSION ANALYSIS FOR EFFECTIVENESS OF HUMAN

RESOURCE PRACTICES

Model

Unstandardized

Coefficients

Standardized

Coefficients t Sig.

B Std.

Error

Beta

(Constant) 0.077 0.066

1.173 0.242

Manpower Planning 0.135 0.042 0.159 3.211 0.002

Talent Acquisition 0.303 0.048 0.343 6.332 0.000

Job Profiling and

Designation 0.174 0.047 0.144 3.714 0.000

Promotion Policies 0.115 0.046 0.125 2.486 0.014

Managing Workforce

Diversity 0.343 0.059 0.357 5.769 0

Convenient Services -0.104 0.039 -0.107 -2.658 0.009

266


Hypothesis. We now have a quantitative model for the relationship between „effectiveness

of Human Resource Practices‟ and „Human Resource Strategy‟. This model could be used

to optimize this relationship. Thus, this confirms that Human Resource Strategy correlated

with effectiveness of Human Resource Practices.

In literature, review it has been emphasized during several instances from quantitative and

qualitative research findings of Researchers like Fombrum et al., 60

; Schuler and

Jackson61,62

; Pfeffer‟s 63

; and Richardson and Thompson 64

that the best Human Resource

Practices depended on Human Resource Strategy. Kandola and Fullerton 65

stated that

managing diversity would create a productive environment by making everyone feel

valued and their skills utilized fully to meet the organizational goals, results into the

effectiveness of Human Resource Practices. A survey of 835 Private Sector Organizations

by Guest et al., 66

discussed that the better usage of Human Resource Practices was

associated to higher levels of services provided by employees. Finally Becker et al., 67

highlighted that linking of promotion decisions with Human Resource Practices, enable

management to obtain the best talent available within the organization to fill posts. Thus,

this finally proves the Research Hypothesis that „effectiveness of Human Resource

Practice and Human Resource Strategy are co-related‟.

267

Research Hypothesis 7: Cross-cultural Differences influence Human Resource

Strategy Formulation and Implementation.


H0: Cross-cultural differences do not influence Human Resource Strategy formulation and

implementation.


The null hypothesis states that there exists no relationship between cross-cultural

differences and Human Resource Strategy formulation and implementation. Human

Resource Strategy is the dependent variable in this relationship as it is the outcome.

Human Resource Strategy was measured by values that were captured for it. Cross-cultural

differences is a complex phenomenon , hence to better capture all perspective it has been

decomposed into following six variables: opinion of employees; time orientation; control;

communication; formality; and identity.




„Human Resource Strategy‟ and three independent variables. The Chi-square test reads a

significance level of less than < 0.1 for these three variables (opinion of employees;

formality; and identity). This can be interpreted, that we are 90 percent confident that the

interval contains the true population mean.

268

We can also say that 90 percent of all confidence intervals formed in this manner (from

different samples of the population) will include the true population mean. (Table IV. 26).

However, we cannot draw the same inference for the other three variables (time

orientation; control; and communication).

0.1 is the error or mistake that may happen by chance. This value of probability was less

than 0.1 for three independent variables (opinion of employees; formality; and identity)

and is more than 0.1 for the rest of the three variables (time orientation; control; and

communication). Cross-cultural differences cannot exclude concepts of time orientation,

control, and communication; since these three variables do not show an association, we

accepted the null hypothesis H0: Cross-cultural differences do not influence Human

Resource Strategy formulation and implementation.

TABLE IV. 25

CROSSTAB BETWEEN CROSS CULTURAL DIFFERENCES AND HUMAN

RESOURCE STRATEGY


Total

Strongly

Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree

Strongly

Agree

Opinion of

Employees

Disagree 0 6 2 14 2 24

Neutral 0 0 2 0 0 2

Agree 3 30 8 80 23 144

Strongly Agree 0 2 0 11 3 16

Total 3 38 12 105 28 186

269


Total

Strongly


Strongly

Agree

Time

Orientation

Disagree 0 5 0 12 3 20

Agree 1 15 7 55 12 90


Total 3 38 12 105 28 186

Control

Disagree 0 2 1 10 3 16

Neutral 0 2 0 2 0 4

Agree 3 33 11 82 21 150


Total 3 38 12 105 28 186

Formality

Strongly

Disagree 0 0 0 4 0 4

Disagree 3 27 12 37 4 83

Agree 0 11 0 64 24 99

Total 3 38 12 105 28 186

Identity

Disagree 0 0 3 14 3 20

Neutral 0 3 0 0 0 3

Agree 2 28 8 87 18 143


Total 3 38 12 105 28 186

270


Total Strongly


Strongly

Agree

Communic-

ation

Strongly

Disagree 0 0 0 1 0 1

Disagree 0 5 0 14 9 28

Neutral 0 0 0 2 0 2

Agree 3 26 12 67 13 121


Total 3 38 12 105 28 186

Identity

Disagree 0 0 3 14 3 20

Neutral 0 3 0 0 0 3

Agree 2 28 8 87 18 143


Total 3 38 12 105 28 186

TABLE IV. 26

CHI-SQUARE VALUES FOR CROSS-CULTURAL DIFFERENCES

Pearson

Chi-

square


(2-sided)

Opinion of

Employees 33.345 12 0.001

Time Orientation 5.053 8 0.752

Control 8.708 12 0.728

Formality 46.112 8 0.000

Communication 17.766 16 0.338

Identity 33.887 12 0.001

271

However, the above empirical findings do not support the Research Hypothesis stated as

„Cross-cultural differences influence Human Resource Strategy formulation and

implementation‟. Nevertheless, there existed instances in various research studies of many

researchers like, Jackson and Schuler 68

who framed a model, which emphasized the

interplay between cultural differences and Human Resource Management. Bowen and

Ostroff 69

in their study suggested the influence of culture on Human Resource Practices

suggesting that Human Resource activities must include cross-cultural differences.

Rousseau and Schalk 70

; Sparrow et al.,7 1

; Tung 72

; Von Glinow et al., 3

had documented

that Human Resource Strategies needed to be adjusted according to the culture in which

the organization operates and Human Resource professionals needs to be sensitive toward

the cultural variations with respect to employees opinions, communication and hierarchy

system . The research work of Hall 74, 75

emphasized that people from different cultural

background needs to synchronize their time and behaviour with their organization to have

harmonized and smooth running. Phatak et al., 76

contributed to define the control

methodologies with Human Resource Management so as to visualize how organization

culture monitor and evaluate employee‟s. Finally, Cotte and Ratneshwar 77

in their research

suggested cultural differences to be made part of an organization. According to these

viewpoints, one could conclude that cross-cultural differences influence the formulation

and implementation of Human Resource Strategies but owing to the lack of empirical

proofs from the survey data, we cannot accept the Research Hypothesis.

272

Research Hypothesis 8: Organization Culture and Strategy Implementation have a

Strong Relationship.


H0: There exist no relationships between organization culture and strategy implementation.


The null hypothesis states that there exists no relationship between strategy

implementation and organization culture. Strategy implementation is the dependent

variable in this relationship as it is the outcome. Strategy implementation was measured by

values that were captured for „integration‟. Organization culture being complex

phenomenon, hence to better capture all perspectives it has been decomposed into

following six independent variables: cultural differences; employee empowerment;

accountability; innovation; mentoring; and equal opportunity practices.




„integration‟ (dependent variable) and „organization culture‟ (independent variable). The

Chi-square test reads a significance level of less than < 0.1 for five variables (cultural

differences, employee empowerment, accountability, mentoring, and equal opportunity

practices) except one (innovation). This can be interpreted as that we are 90 percent

confident that the interval contains the true population mean.

273

We can also say that 90 percent of all confidence intervals formed in this manner (from

different samples of the population) will include the true population mean (Table IV. 28).


less than 0.1 for five independent variables except for one, we may conclude that there has

been an association between integration and organization culture. The variable named

„innovation‟ with which on the basis of survey data the value of probability is greater than

0.1 but, many Researcher‟s emphasized that the key to organizational success lies in

developing a new set of thinking type of culture to yield innovative idea . To name the

studies one of the most ambitious research programmes in the area of innovation was led

by Van de Van de Ven et al., 78

at the University of Minnesota. The literature review by

McLean79

explored relationship between organization culture and innovation. Recently an

empirical study by Dasanayaka 80

, on the gift and decorative-ware industry in Sri Lanka

was undertaken to identify the culture types (clan, adhocracy, hierarchy, and market)

which stimulate towards innovativeness thereby increasing the organizations

competiveness. This study clearly demonstrated relationship between innovation and

organization culture. Thus, based on these prior research studies, innovation was

considered as an important variable to be studied. Hence, we rejected the null hypothesis

H0: „There exist no relationships between organization culture and strategy

implementation‟.

274

TABLE IV .27

CROSSTAB BETWEEN ORGANIZATION CULTURE AND INTEGRATION

Integration

Total


Agree

Cultural

Differences

Strongly Disagree 0 2 2 0 4


Neutral 0 0 7 0 7

Agree 9 1 82 10 102


Total 16 6 149 15 186

Employee

Empowerment


Neutral 0 0 3 0 3

Agree 14 0 98 13 125


Total 16 6 149 15 186

Accountability

Disagree 0 0 4 0 4

Neutral 0 1 0 0 1

Agree 13 1 78 7 99


Total 16 6 149 15 186

Innovation

Disagree

8 2 29 1 40

Neutral 0 0 2 0 2

Agree 6 4 101 12 123


Total 16 6 149 15 186

275

Integration Total

Disagree Neutral Agree

Strongly

Agree

Mentoring


Neutral 0 1 1 0 2

Agree 12 5 92 9 118


Total 16 6 149 15 186

Equal

Opportunity

Practices

Disagree 16 0 15 0 31

Agree 0 3 120 3 126


Total 16 6 149 15 186

TABLE IV. 28

CHI-SQUARE VALUES FOR ORGANIZATION CULTURE

Pearson

Chi-square


(2-sided)

Cultural Differences 38.913 12 0.000

Employee Empowerment 28.245 9 0.001

Accountability 38.344 9 0.000

Innovation 11.990 9 0.214

Mentoring 17.930 9 0.036

Equal Opportunity

Practices 144.456 6 0.000

276





correlated (Table IV. 29). There existed significant positive correlation between

„integration‟ with „equal opportunity practices‟ (0.627) whereas rest of variables like

„cultural differences „(0.136), „employee empowerment‟ (0.086), „accountability‟ (0.106),

„innovation‟ (0.211) and „mentoring‟ (0.060) were positively correlated however their

causality in presence of other variables was not substantial, but nevertheless they had a

correlation, so we retain them. This means the chosen six variables were fairly

independent of each other and were correlated with strategy integration within the

organization. This supports our Research Hypothesis that organization culture and strategy

implementation have as strong relationship.

TABLE IV. 29

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ORGANIZATION CULTURE AND INTEGRATION

Integration

Integration


Sig. (2-tailed)

N 186

Cultural

Differences



N 186

Employee

Empowerment



N 186

277

Integration

Accountability



N 186

Innovation



N 186

Mentoring



N 186

Equal

Opportunity

Practices



N 186



To determine the quantum by which the independent variables, optimally predicted for

integration, multiple regression model was used. R-square value for the model was 0.413,

this was the amount of variance in the predicted variable that was explained by the

independent variables: innovation and equal opportunity practices.

278

Following model derived (Table IV. 30)

Integration = 0.432 +0.102 (innovation) +0.456(equal opportunity practices)

Hence, integration is predicted to: increase 0.102 when „innovation‟ goes up by one;

increases by 0.456 when „equal opportunity practices‟ goes up by one; and be 0.432 when

both independent variables are zero.

As is evident from the model that „equal opportunity practices‟ has the most effect on the

dependent variable „integration‟. Followed by „innovation‟.

TABLE IV. 30

BACKWARD REGRESSION ANALYSIS FOR INTEGRATION

Model

Unstandardized

Coefficients

Standardized

Coefficients t Sig.

B Std.

Error Beta

(Constant) 0.432 0.056

7.679 0.000

Innovation 0.102 0.040 0.144 2.520 0.013

Equal Opportunity Practices 0.456 0.043 0.611 10.722 0.000


Hypothesis. We now have a quantitative model for the relationship between „strategy

implementation‟ and „organization culture‟. This model could be used to optimize this

relationship. Thus, this confirms that organization culture have a relationship with strategy

implementation.

279

These empirical findings were further supported by research studies undertaken by various

Researchers. Martin 81

highlighted that integration was necessary for strategy

implementation in an organization as it helped to bring employees closer to organizational

objectives. Integration also helps to build organization where commitment flourishes.

Frink et al., 82;

Baird and Meshoulam 83;

and Palthe and Kossek 84

supported the

implementation of strategies based on equality authorizes employees and allow them to

express their cultural differences. Research scholar for instance, Amabile et al.,85

supported

organizational encouragement by empowering employees on aspects of risk taking, idea

generation, and participative decision-making to ensure strategy implementation. Delaney

and Huselid 86

formulated Human Resource Model in which organization culture was a

part of the model. Acosta et al., 87

; and Truss 88

demonstrated the impacts of cultural

differences to be considered for implementation of sound and sustainable strategy. Thus,

this finally proves the Research Hypothesis that „organization culture and strategy

implementation have a strong relationship‟.

280

Research Hypothesis 9: HR Strategy and Business Ethics are related.


H0: There exist no relationship between Human Resource Strategy and Business ethics.


The null hypothesis states that there exists no relationship between Business ethics and

Human Resource Strategy. The Human Resource Strategy is the dependent variable in this

relationship as it is the outcome. Human Resource Strategy was measured by values that

were captured as „trustworthiness‟. Business ethics consist of various components, hence

to better capture all perspectives it has been decomposed into the following seven

independent variables: true information share; equality; respect of employees; consistency

in saying and doing; privacy; employee volunteering; and social responsibility.




trustworthiness (dependent variable) and business ethics (independent variables). The Chi-

square test reads a significance level of less than < 0.1. This can be interpreted as that we



samples of the population) will include the true population mean. (Table IV. 32).

281


less than 0.1 for six independent variables except privacy, we may conclude that there was

an association between trustworthiness and business ethics. The variable named „privacy‟

with which on the basis of survey data the value of probability was greater than 0.1 .

Researchers like Armstrong 89

; and Rao 90

had emphasized that privacy played a key role in

Human Resource Strategy. Issues related to privacy like personal private questions related

to individual, need to be avoided during interview. Information like, employee infected

with AIDS need not be disclosed. Hence, we rejected the null hypothesis H0: „There exist

no relationships between Human Resource Strategy and business ethics‟.

TABLE IV. 31

CROSSTAB BETWEEN BUSINESS ETHICS AND TRUSTWORTHINESS

Trustworthiness

Total Disagree Neutral Agree

Strongly

Agree

True Information

Shared

Disagree 6 0 0 0 6

Neutral 0 2 0 0 2

Agree 6 2 79 21 108


Total 12 4 91 79 186

Equality

Disagree 5 0 2 2 9

Neutral 0 2 1 0 3

Agree 7 2 86 27 122


Total 12 4 91 79 186

Respect of

Employees


Neutral 0 4 0 0 4

Agree 0 0 74 54 128


Total 12 4 91 79 186

282

Trustworthiness

Total Disagree Neutral Agree

Strongly

Agree

Consistency in

Saying and Doing

Disagree 8 4 0 0 12

Agree 4 0 66 4 74


Total 12 4 91 79 186

Privacy

Disagree 2 1 23 22 48

Neutral 2 0 6 8 16

Agree 4 2 41 40 87


Total 12 4 91 79 186

TABLE IV. 32

CHI-SQUARE VALUES FOR BUSINESS ETHICS

Pearson

Chi-

square

Value df Asymp.

Sig. (2-sided)

True Information Shared 251.969 9 0.000

Equality 180.772 9 0.000

Respect of Employees 307.370 9 0.000

Consistency in Saying and

Doing 228.056 6 0.000

Privacy 7.817 9 0.553

Employees Volunteering 141.063 9 0.000

Social Responsibility 71.835 3 0.000

283





correlated (Table IV. 33). There existed positive significant correlation with „true

information shared‟ (0.713), „equality‟ (0.594), „respect of employees‟ (0.680),

„consistency in saying and doing‟ (0.805), and „social responsibility‟ (0.600) whereas

independent variables „employees volunteering‟ had positive correlation (0.389) and

„privacy‟ had a negative correlation (-0.107). However their causality in presence of other

variables was not substantial, but they have a correlation, so we retain them.

This means that the chosen seven variables were fairly independent of each other and six

variables were correlated with trustworthiness. This supports our Research Hypothesis that

Human Resource Strategy and business ethics are correlated. Therefore, from the overall

results we could conclude that true information shared, equality, respect of employees,

consistency in saying and doing, employee volunteering, and social responsibility

influenced Human Resource Strategy.

284

TABLE IV. 33

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BUSINESS ETHICS AND TRUSTWORTHINESS

Trustworthiness

Trustworthiness


Sig. (2-tailed)

N 186

True Information

Shared



N 186

Equality



N 186

Respectful

Workplace



N 186

Consistency In

Saying and Doing



N 186

Privacy



N 186

Employees

Volunteering



N 186

Social Responsibility



N 186



285


To determine the quantum by which the independent variables, optimally predicted for

Human Resource Strategy measured as trustworthiness, multiple regression analysis was

used. R-square value for the model was 0.784, this was the amount of variance in predicted

variable that was explained by the independent variables true information shared, equality,

respect of employees and consistency in saying and doing.


Human Resource Strategy = -0.212 + 0.347(true information shared) + 0.210 (equality) +

0.159 (respect of employees) +0.454 (consistency in saying

and doing)

Hence, Human Resource Strategy is predicted to: increase 0.347 when „true information

shared‟ goes up by one; increase by 0.210 when „equality‟ goes up by one; increase by

0.159 when „respect of employees‟ goes up by one; increase by 0.454 when „consistency in

saying and doing‟ goes up by one ;and be -0.212 when all four independent variables are

zero.

As is evident from the model that „consistency in saying and doing‟ has the most effect on

the dependent variable „trustworthiness‟, followed by „true information shared‟, „equality‟

and „respect of employees‟.

286

TABLE IV. 34

BACKWARD REGRESSION ANALYSIS FOR TRUSTWORTHINESS

Model

Unstandardized

Coefficients

Standardized

Coefficients t Sig.

B Std. Error Beta

(Constant) -0.212 0.068

-3.126 0.002

True Information Shared 0.347 0.055 0.285 6.344 0.000

Equality 0.210 0.048 0.180 4.359 0.000

Respect of Employees 0.159 0.048 0.159 3.344 0.001

Consistency in Saying

and Doing 0.454 0.050 0.454 9.012 0.000


Hypothesis. We now have a quantitative model for the relationship between „Human

Resource Strategy‟ and „business ethics‟. This model could be used to optimize this

relationship. Thus, this confirms that Human Resource Strategies are correlated with

business ethics. These empirical findings were further supported by earlier findings of

following Researchers: Thite 91

mentioned that successful people management depend,

how fairly they were treated in the organization. Pickard 92

emphasized following key

aspects: fairness, equal treatment, and confidentiality to be adopted by Human Resource

practitioners to enhance ethical standards. Smith and Kelly 93

highlighted that to recruit

and retain best talent organizations require to have high character and credibility. Finally,

Woodall and Winstanley 94

mentioned that Human Resource professionals should act as

guardian of ethics in an organization.

287

Some of the practises supporting ethical behaviour have been emphasized by Human

Resource executives such as: avoiding abusive behaviour at work, respect for seniors,

adherence to working hours, punctuality, avoiding internet abuse, emphasizing safety, non-

discrimination behaviour, confidentiality of information and non-corrupt behaviour etc.

Thus, this finally proves Research Hypothesis that „Human Resource Strategy and business

ethics are related‟.

This part of the Chapter dealt with the empirical testing in the backdrop of the previous

research findings and, thus, laying the basis for conclusive reporting and evolving needful

recommendations in the subsequent Chapter V.

288

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chapter iv implementation of human resource

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