an argument for human resource value modelling

conventional organisation structures,based on vertical levels, reflect salary grades, stages, salary bands. The functional Roles/Positions and Titles assigned to such levels are often correlated to Job evaluation scores using some standard evaluation framework in the background. However the scores' correlation and subsequent administration gets skewed because of internal climate factors. To maintain consistency a structured model is necessary. A value model, based on business value addition potential is very essential. The potential need to be measured and assigned across positions/roles;utilisation periodically validated/measured at holder level through appraisals. Past years of experience and/or age can be combined for an acceptable scale for measuring that potential across employees. One can also sharpen it to accommodate current holder valuations through an assessment rating, if there is scope for that in a company. The value differentials, in the scores, across different roles, within a vertical functional hierarchy, can then be used to define compensation package differentials. Once fixed, the relativities need to be maintained across business growth cycles. That's C&B 's responsibility, of course.

Selection criteria - to reflect professional integrity

Recruitment selection is clearly an hr domain; and therefore it needs to reflect the professional integrity.; and experience shows that is one area even the best employers falter. Of all the criteria, a common pitfall is preference to certain nationalities over others. While structure always follows strategy, the strategy for manning that structure often gets trapped in nationalities which has nothing to do with business functions that ultimately help achieve the business strategies. Recruitment policies often slips into political traps that smacks of unprofessional extraneous motives. The countering argument for protectionist policies, preferences to nationalities are often social responsibilities and corporate citizenship obligations. But such argument is valid perhaps only for local players. Global organizations need to have a broader base principle for hiring. Hiring preferences over certain nationalities and races are unethical and will drain credibility of hr function.

What is changing ?-human nature or the nature of business?

Fundamental Attribution Error
What do you think is changing — human nature or the nature of business?

On human nature, we don’t really know yet, but brain studies are starting to show us something and so are the gene studies. While we have selfish and individualistic tendencies, there are also great communal tendencies. Both are part of human nature.

On the brain side, in my limited knowledge, one thing that seems to be clear so far is that in the reptilian brain, the responses of fight, flight and protection get activated faster than other parts of the brain, like giving and altruism. That doesn’t mean they are not there. The history of civilisation has always been to transcend that which is most animalistic in our nature. People aspire to be higher and spirituality seems to be wired into the brain. Although I must say most wars and evil acts have been committed in the name of religion, we still can’t blame it all on human nature. But by nature, we are greedy. There are things that become socially acceptable over a period of time and it’s in the culture. I am a great believer in the culture.

As far as the nature of business goes, there is nothing inherent in the idea of profit, which says you have to make it in ways that violate social norms or that it has to come only in the short term. That’s the nature of the financial systems that are erected around the business and they can be dismantled. So we can change the rules as we have in the past.

I think companies with values are more sustainable in the long run because they are willing to make short-term trade-offs in the interest of longer-term benefits. It’s like what Winston Churchill said about democracy, ‘It’s the worst system we could imagine, except for all the others’. ....Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Professor of Biz Administration, Harvard Biz School