วันพฤหัสบดีที่ 31 มกราคม พ.ศ. 2556
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วันพุธที่ 30 มกราคม พ.ศ. 2556
ประชุม กพ.สอ. สุคิริน ๓๐ ม.ค.๕๖
ประชุมคณะกรรมการพัฒนาสตรีอำเภอสุคิริน
วันที่ ๓๐ มกราคม ๒๕๕๖
เวลา ๑๓.๐๐ น.
ณ สำนักงานพัฒนาชุมชนอำเภอสุคิริน
วันที่ ๓๐ มกราคม ๒๕๕๖
เวลา ๑๓.๐๐ น.
ณ สำนักงานพัฒนาชุมชนอำเภอสุคิริน
รายชื่อผู้เข้าร่วมประชุม
๑. นางสุนีย์ เดชบุญ
๒. นางพุฒวดี ดำนิล
๓. นางวาสินี คงเพ็ชรแก้ว
๔. นางสายขิม สิงห์พันธ์
๕. โรฮายา ยาการียา
๖. มารียะห์ มือเยาะ
๗. จุฑา สุวรรณกาศ
๘. นางดรุณี นาดี
๙. น.ส.กุลธิดา วงษ์ใหญ่
๑๐. น.ส.มูรณี นาแซะ
๑๑. นายมหามะบักรี ลือบาฮางุ
นายมหามะบักรี ลือบาฮางุ พัฒนาการอำเภอสุคิริน ได้เชิญ นางสุนีย์ เดชบุญ ประธานคณะกรรมการพัฒนาสตรีอำเภอสุคิริน เปิดประชุมและเท้าความถึงงบสนับสนุนอาชีพของผู้ว่าราชการจังหวัดนราธิวาส ตำบลละ๗๐,๐๐๐ บาท ปีที่ ๒๕๕๕ ได้จัดทำกิจกรรมเกี่ยวกับ ตลาดลอยฟ้า โดยแบ่งเป็น
๑) กองทุนข้าวสาร ได้แก่ ต.ภูเขาทอง ต.สุคิริน ต.มาโมง ต.เกียร์
๒) กองทุนปุ๋ยอินทรีย์ชีวภาพ ได้แก่ ต.ร่มไทร
สำหรับปี ๒๕๕๖ จักได้ทำโครงการต่อยอดตลาดลอยฟ้า โดยจะเปิดเป็นสต๊อกสินค้านำร่องระดับอำเภอ และจำหน่ายสินค้าขายส่งให้กับผู้แทนสตรีของตำบล สัปดาห์ละ ๑ ครั้ง คือ ทุกวันจันทร์ เริ่มเวลา ๐๙.๐๐ น. และมีผู้แทนของแต่ละตำบล ๕ ตำบล เป็นคนขาย โดยการทำบัญชีควบคุมการดำเนินการ
ที่ประชุมมอบให้ ๑. นางสุนีย์ เดชบุญ และ ๒. นางวาสินี คงเพ็ชรแก้ว มาจัดทำรายละเอียดโครงการร่วมกับเจ้าหน้าที่พัฒนาชุมชน ในวันที่ ๓๑ มกราคม ๒๕๕๖ เวลา ๐๘.๓๐ น. ณ สำนักงานพัฒนาชุมชนอำเภอสุคิริน
ปิดประชุมเวลา ๑๕.๐๐ น.
วันเสาร์ที่ 26 มกราคม พ.ศ. 2556
วิทยากรกระบวนการเพื่อการป้องกันและแก้ไขปัญหายาเสพติด รุ่นที่ ๑
รายชื่อผู้เข้ารับการฝึกอบรม
หลักสูตร
“วิทยากรกระบวนการเพื่อการป้องกันและแก้ไขปัญหายาเสพติด” รุ่นที่ ๑
ระหว่างวันที่
๗-๑๐ สิงหาคม ๒๕๕๕
ณ
โรงแรมไดอิชิ อ.หาดใหญ่ จ.สงขลา
---------------
๑.
เจ้าหน้าที่พัฒนาชุมชน
(๑) ว่าที่ร.ต.หญิงกานติกานต์ บัวเนียม นักวิชาการพัฒนาชุมชนปฏิบัติการ
สนง.พัฒนาชุมชนจังหวัดนราธิวาส
(๒) นางกัลญา อนุเกตุ นักวิชาการพัฒนาชุมชนปฏิบัติการ
สนง.พัฒนาชุมชนอำเภอเมือง
(๓) นายพิน นิบูร์ เจ้าพนักงานพัฒนาชุมชนชำนาญงาน
สนง.พัฒนาชุมชนอำเภอบาเจาะ
(๔) น.ส.อรฤทัย ทองบุญ นักวิชาการพัฒนาชุมชนปฏิบัติการ
สนง.พัฒนาชุมชนอำเภอแว้ง
(๕) นางกิตติมา กิติบุญญา เจ้าพนักงานพัฒนาชุมชนชำนาญงาน
สนง.พัฒนาชุมชนอำเภอยี่งอ
(๖) นายปฎิพัทธ์ มะลิสุวรรณ นักวิชาการพัฒนาชุมชนปฏิบัติการ
สนง.พัฒนาชุมชนอำเภอจะแนะ
๒.
เครือข่ายภาคประชาชนระดับจังหวัด
(๑) นายนิวัติ ไชยโป บ้านเชิงเขา หมู่ที่ ๔ ต.ปะลุกาสาเมาะ อ.บาเจาะ
(๒) นายจีรพันธ์ สกุลจี๋ บ้านกำแพง หมู่ที่ ๒ ต.กะลุวอ อ.เมืองนราธิวาส
(๓) นายสมพร จินดาราม บ้านปิเหล็งตะวันออก ม.๑๐
ต.มะรือโบออก อ.เจาะไอร้อง
(๔) ร.ต.ต.ณัฐศักดิ์ ทองคง ชุมชนเทศบาลตำบลสุคิริน หมู่ ๖ ต.มาดมง อ.สุคิริน
วันศุกร์ที่ 25 มกราคม พ.ศ. 2556
PERT/CPM
PERT/CPM for Project Scheduling & Management
1. INTRODUCTION
Basically, CPM (Critical Path Method) and PERT (Programme Evaluation Review Technique) are project management techniques, which have been created out of the need of Western industrial and military establishments to plan, schedule and control complex projects.
1.1 Brief History of CPM/PERT
CPM/PERT or Network Analysis as the technique is sometimes called, developed along two parallel streams, one industrial and the other military.
CPM was the discovery of M.R.Walker of E.I.Du Pont de Nemours & Co. and J.E.Kelly of Remington Rand, circa 1957. The computation was designed for the UNIVAC-I computer. The first test was made in 1958, when CPM was applied to the construction of a new chemical plant. In March 1959, the method was applied to a maintenance shut-down at the Du Pont works in Louisville, Kentucky. Unproductive time was reduced from 125 to 93 hours.
PERT was devised in 1958 for the POLARIS missile program by the Program Evaluation Branch of the Special Projects office of the U.S.Navy, helped by the Lockheed Missile Systems division and the Consultant firm of Booz-Allen & Hamilton. The calculations were so arranged so that they could be carried out on the IBM Naval Ordinance Research Computer (NORC) at Dahlgren, Virginia.
1.2 Planning, Scheduling & Control
Planning, Scheduling (or organising) and Control are considered to be basic Managerial functions, and CPM/PERT has been rightfully accorded due importance in the literature on Operations Research and Quantitative Analysis.
Far more than the technical benefits, it was found that PERT/CPM provided a focus around which managers could brain-storm and put their ideas together. It proved to be a great communication medium by which thinkers and planners at one level could communicate their ideas, their doubts and fears to another level. Most important, it became a useful tool for evaluating the performance of individuals and teams.
There are many variations of CPM/PERT which have been useful in planning costs, scheduling manpower and machine time. CPM/PERT can answer the following important questions:
How long will the entire project take to be completed? What are the risks involved?
Which are the critical activities or tasks in the project which could delay the entire project if they were not completed on time?
Is the project on schedule, behind schedule or ahead of schedule?
If the project has to be finished earlier than planned, what is the best way to do this at the least cost?
1.3 The Framework for PERT and CPM
Essentially, there are six steps which are common to both the techniques. The procedure is listed below:
Define the Project and all of it’s significant activities or tasks. The Project (made up of several tasks) should have only a single start activity and a single finish activity.
Develop the relationships among the activities. Decide which activities must precede and which must follow others.
Draw the "Network" connecting all the activities. Each Activity should have unique event numbers. Dummy arrows are used where required to avoid giving the same numbering to two activities.
Assign time and/or cost estimates to each activity
Compute the longest time path through the network. This is called the critical path.
Use the Network to help plan, schedule, monitor and control the project.
The Key Concept used by CPM/PERT is that a small set of activities, which make up the longest path through the activity network control the entire project. If these "critical" activities could be identified and assigned to responsible persons, management resources could be optimally used by concentrating on the few activities which determine the fate of the entire project.
Non-critical activities can be replanned, rescheduled and resources for them can be reallocated flexibly, without affecting the whole project.
Five useful questions to ask when preparing an activity network are:
Is this a Start Activity?
Is this a Finish Activity?
What Activity Precedes this?
What Activity Follows this?
What Activity is Concurrent with this?
Some activities are serially linked. The second activity can begin only after the first activity is completed. In certain cases, the activities are concurrent, because they are independent of each other and can start simultaneously. This is especially the case in organisations which have supervisory resources so that work can be delegated to various departments which will be responsible for the activities and their completion as planned.
When work is delegated like this, the need for constant feedback and co-ordination becomes an important senior management pre-occupation.
1.4 Drawing the CPM/PERT Network
Each activity (or sub-project) in a PERT/CPM Network is represented by an arrow symbol. Each activity is preceded and succeeded by an event, represented as a circle and numbered.
At Event 3, we have to evaluate two predecessor activities - Activity 1-3 and Activity 2-3, both of which are predecessor activities. Activity 1-3 gives us an Earliest Start of 3 weeks at Event 3. However, Activity 2-3 also has to be completed before Event 3 can begin. Along this route, the Earliest Start would be 4+0=4. The rule is to take the longer (bigger) of the two Earliest Starts. So the Earliest Start at event 3 is 4.
Similarly, at Event 4, we find we have to evaluate two predecessor activities - Activity 2-4 and Activity 3-4. Along Activity 2-4, the Earliest Start at Event 4 would be 10 wks, but along Activity 3-4, the Earliest Start at Event 4 would be 11 wks. Since 11 wks is larger than 10 wks, we select it as the Earliest Start at Event 4.We have now found the longest path through the network. It will take 11 weeks along activities 1-2, 2-3 and 3-4. This is the Critical Path.
1.5.3 The Backward Pass - Latest Finish Time Rule
To make the Backward Pass, we begin at the sink or the final event and work backwards to the first event.
At Event 3 there is only one activity, Activity 3-4 in the backward pass, and we find that the value is 11-7 = 4 weeks. However at Event 2 we have to evaluate 2 activities, 2-3 and 2-4. We find that the backward pass through 2-4 gives us a value of 11-6 = 5 while 2-3 gives us 4-0 = 4. We take the smaller value of 4 on the backward pass.
1.5.4 Tabulation & Analysis of Activities
We are now ready to tabulate the various events and calculate the Earliest and Latest Start and Finish times. We are also now ready to compute the SLACK or TOTAL FLOAT, which is defined as the difference between the Latest Start and Earliest Start.
TOTAL FLOAT is the spare time available when all preceding activities occur at the earliest possible times and all succeeding activities occur at the latest possible times.
Total Float = Latest Start - Earliest Start
Activities with zero Total float are on the Critical Path
FREE FLOAT is the spare time available when all preceding activities occur at the earliest possible times and all succeeding activities occur at the earliest possible times.
When an activity has zero Total float, Free float will also be zero.
There are various other types of float (Independent, Early Free, Early Interfering, Late Free, Late Interfering), and float can also be negative. We shall not go into these situations at present for the sake of simplicity and be concerned only with Total Float for the time being.
Having computed the various parameters of each activity, we are now ready to go into the scheduling phase, using a type of bar chart known as the Gantt Chart.
There are various other types of float (Independent, Early Free, Early Interfering, Late Free, Late Interfering), and float can also be negative. We shall not go into these situations at present for the sake of simplicity and be concerned only with Total Float for the time being. Having computed the various parameters of each activity, we are now ready to go into the scheduling phase, using a type of bar chart known as the Gantt Chart.
1.5.5 Scheduling of Activities Using a Gantt Chart
Once the activities are laid out along a Gantt Chart (Please see chart below), the concepts of Earliest Start & Finish, Latest Start & Finish and Float will become very obvious.
Activities 1-3 and 2-4 have total float of 1 week each, represented by the solid timeline which begins at the latest start and ends at the latest finish. The difference is the float, which gives us the flexibility to schedule the activity.
For example, we might send the staff on leave during that one week or give them some other work to do. Or we may choose to start the activity slightly later than planned, knowing that we have a week’s float in hand. We might even break the activity in the middle (if this is permitted) for a week and divert the staff for some other work, or declare a National or Festival holiday as required under the National and Festival Holidays Act.
These are some of the examples of the use of float to schedule an activity. Once all the activities that can be scheduled are scheduled to the convenience of the project, normally reflecting resource optimisation measures, we can say that the project has been scheduled.
2. Exercise
A Social Project manager is faced with a project with the following activities:
So far we have talked about projects, where there is high certainty about the outcomes of activities. In other words, the cause-effect logic is well known. This is particularly the case in Engineering projects.
However, in Research & Development projects, or in Social Projects which are defined as "Process Projects", where learning is an important outcome, the cause-effect relationship is not so well established.
In such situations, the PERT approach is useful, because it can accommodate the variation in event completion times, based on an expert’s or an expert committee’s estimates.
For each activity, three time estimates are taken
Where te is the Expected time, to is the Optimistic time, tm is the most probable activity time and tp is the Pessimistic time.
It is not necessary to go into the theory behind the formula. It is enough to know that the weights are based on an approximation of the Beta distribution.
The Standard Deviation, which is a good measure of the variability of each activity is calculated by the rather simplified formula:
The Variance is the Square of the Standard Deviation.
4. PERT Calculations for the Social Project
In our Social Project, the Project Manager is now not so certain that each activity will be completed on the basis of the single estimate he gave. There are many assumptions involved in each estimate, and these assumptions are illustrated in the three-time estimate he would prefer to give to each activity.
In Activity 1-3, the time estimates are 3,12 and 21. Using our PERT formula, we get:
The Standard Deviation (s.d.) for this activity is also calculated using the PERT formula
We calculate the PERT event times and other details as below for each activity:
5. Estimating Risk
Having calculated the s.d. and the Variance, we are ready to do some risk analysis. Before that we should be aware of two of the most important assumptions made by PERT.
PERT assumes that the expected length of a project (or a sequence of independent activities) is simply the sum of their separate expected lengths.
Thus the summation of all the te's along the critical path gives us the length of the project.
Similarly the variance of a sum of independent activity times is equal to the sum of their individual variances.
In our example, the sum of the variance of the activity times along the critical path, VT is found to be equal to (9+16) = 25.
The square root VT gives us the standard deviation of the project length. Thus, ST=Ö 25=5. The higher the standard deviation, the greater the uncertainty that the project will be completed on the due date.
Although the te's are randomly distributed, the average or expected project length Te approximately follows a Normal Distribution.
Since we have a lot of information about a Normal Distribution, we can make several statistically significant conclusions from these calculations.
A random variable drawn from a Normal Distribution has 0.68 probability of falling within one standard deviation of the distribution average. Therefore, there is a 68% chance that the actual project duration will be within one standard deviation, ST of the estimated average length of the project, te.
In our case, the te = (12+16) = 28 weeks and the ST = 5 weeks. Assuming te to be normally distributed, we can state that there is a probability of 0.68 that the project will be completed within 28 ± 5 weeks, which is to say, between 23 and 33 weeks.
Since it is known that just over 95% (.954) of the area under a Normal Distribution falls within two standard deviations, we can state that the probability that the project will be completed within 28 ± 10 is very high at 0.95.
5.2. Probability of Project Completion by Due Date
Now, although the project is estimated to be completed within 28 weeks (te=28) our Project Director would like to know what is the probability that the project might be completed within 25 weeks (i.e. Due Date or D=25).
For this calculation, we use the formula for calculating Z, the number of standard deviations that D is away from te.
On the other hand, the probability that the project will be completed within 33 weeks is calculated as follows:
The probability associated with Z= +1 is 0.84134. This
is a strong probability, and indicates that the odds are
16 to 3 that the project will be completed by the due date.
If the probability of an event is p, the odds for its occurrence are a to b, where:
Select Bibliography
Wiest, Jerome D., and Levy, Ferdinand K., A Management Guide to PERT/CPM, New Delhi: Prentice-Hall of India Private Limited, 1974
Render, Barry and Stair Jr., Ralph M. - Quantitative Analysis for Management, Massachusetts: Allyn & Bacon Inc., 1982, pp. 525-563
Freund, John E., Modern Elementary Statistics, New Delhi: Prentice-Hall of India Private Limited, 1979
Ref: http://www.interventions.org/pertcpm.html
1. INTRODUCTION
Basically, CPM (Critical Path Method) and PERT (Programme Evaluation Review Technique) are project management techniques, which have been created out of the need of Western industrial and military establishments to plan, schedule and control complex projects.
1.1 Brief History of CPM/PERT
CPM/PERT or Network Analysis as the technique is sometimes called, developed along two parallel streams, one industrial and the other military.
CPM was the discovery of M.R.Walker of E.I.Du Pont de Nemours & Co. and J.E.Kelly of Remington Rand, circa 1957. The computation was designed for the UNIVAC-I computer. The first test was made in 1958, when CPM was applied to the construction of a new chemical plant. In March 1959, the method was applied to a maintenance shut-down at the Du Pont works in Louisville, Kentucky. Unproductive time was reduced from 125 to 93 hours.
PERT was devised in 1958 for the POLARIS missile program by the Program Evaluation Branch of the Special Projects office of the U.S.Navy, helped by the Lockheed Missile Systems division and the Consultant firm of Booz-Allen & Hamilton. The calculations were so arranged so that they could be carried out on the IBM Naval Ordinance Research Computer (NORC) at Dahlgren, Virginia.
1.2 Planning, Scheduling & Control
Planning, Scheduling (or organising) and Control are considered to be basic Managerial functions, and CPM/PERT has been rightfully accorded due importance in the literature on Operations Research and Quantitative Analysis.
Far more than the technical benefits, it was found that PERT/CPM provided a focus around which managers could brain-storm and put their ideas together. It proved to be a great communication medium by which thinkers and planners at one level could communicate their ideas, their doubts and fears to another level. Most important, it became a useful tool for evaluating the performance of individuals and teams.
There are many variations of CPM/PERT which have been useful in planning costs, scheduling manpower and machine time. CPM/PERT can answer the following important questions:
How long will the entire project take to be completed? What are the risks involved?
Which are the critical activities or tasks in the project which could delay the entire project if they were not completed on time?
Is the project on schedule, behind schedule or ahead of schedule?
If the project has to be finished earlier than planned, what is the best way to do this at the least cost?
1.3 The Framework for PERT and CPM
Essentially, there are six steps which are common to both the techniques. The procedure is listed below:
Define the Project and all of it’s significant activities or tasks. The Project (made up of several tasks) should have only a single start activity and a single finish activity.
Develop the relationships among the activities. Decide which activities must precede and which must follow others.
Draw the "Network" connecting all the activities. Each Activity should have unique event numbers. Dummy arrows are used where required to avoid giving the same numbering to two activities.
Assign time and/or cost estimates to each activity
Compute the longest time path through the network. This is called the critical path.
Use the Network to help plan, schedule, monitor and control the project.
The Key Concept used by CPM/PERT is that a small set of activities, which make up the longest path through the activity network control the entire project. If these "critical" activities could be identified and assigned to responsible persons, management resources could be optimally used by concentrating on the few activities which determine the fate of the entire project.
Non-critical activities can be replanned, rescheduled and resources for them can be reallocated flexibly, without affecting the whole project.
Five useful questions to ask when preparing an activity network are:
Is this a Start Activity?
Is this a Finish Activity?
What Activity Precedes this?
What Activity Follows this?
What Activity is Concurrent with this?
Some activities are serially linked. The second activity can begin only after the first activity is completed. In certain cases, the activities are concurrent, because they are independent of each other and can start simultaneously. This is especially the case in organisations which have supervisory resources so that work can be delegated to various departments which will be responsible for the activities and their completion as planned.
When work is delegated like this, the need for constant feedback and co-ordination becomes an important senior management pre-occupation.
1.4 Drawing the CPM/PERT Network
Each activity (or sub-project) in a PERT/CPM Network is represented by an arrow symbol. Each activity is preceded and succeeded by an event, represented as a circle and numbered.
At Event 3, we have to evaluate two predecessor activities - Activity 1-3 and Activity 2-3, both of which are predecessor activities. Activity 1-3 gives us an Earliest Start of 3 weeks at Event 3. However, Activity 2-3 also has to be completed before Event 3 can begin. Along this route, the Earliest Start would be 4+0=4. The rule is to take the longer (bigger) of the two Earliest Starts. So the Earliest Start at event 3 is 4.
Similarly, at Event 4, we find we have to evaluate two predecessor activities - Activity 2-4 and Activity 3-4. Along Activity 2-4, the Earliest Start at Event 4 would be 10 wks, but along Activity 3-4, the Earliest Start at Event 4 would be 11 wks. Since 11 wks is larger than 10 wks, we select it as the Earliest Start at Event 4.We have now found the longest path through the network. It will take 11 weeks along activities 1-2, 2-3 and 3-4. This is the Critical Path.
1.5.3 The Backward Pass - Latest Finish Time Rule
To make the Backward Pass, we begin at the sink or the final event and work backwards to the first event.
At Event 3 there is only one activity, Activity 3-4 in the backward pass, and we find that the value is 11-7 = 4 weeks. However at Event 2 we have to evaluate 2 activities, 2-3 and 2-4. We find that the backward pass through 2-4 gives us a value of 11-6 = 5 while 2-3 gives us 4-0 = 4. We take the smaller value of 4 on the backward pass.
1.5.4 Tabulation & Analysis of Activities
We are now ready to tabulate the various events and calculate the Earliest and Latest Start and Finish times. We are also now ready to compute the SLACK or TOTAL FLOAT, which is defined as the difference between the Latest Start and Earliest Start.
| Event | Duration(Weeks) | Earliest Start | Earliest Finish | Latest Start | Latest Finish | Total Float |
| 1-2 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| 2-3 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 0 |
| 3-4 | 7 | 4 | 11 | 4 | 11 | 0 |
| 1-3 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 1 |
| 2-4 | 6 | 4 | 10 | 5 | 11 | 1 |
- The Earliest Start is the value in the rectangle near the tail of each activity
- The Earliest Finish is = Earliest Start + Duration
- The Latest Finish is the value in the diamond at the head of each activity
- The Latest Start is = Latest Finish - Duration
TOTAL FLOAT is the spare time available when all preceding activities occur at the earliest possible times and all succeeding activities occur at the latest possible times.
Total Float = Latest Start - Earliest Start
Activities with zero Total float are on the Critical Path
FREE FLOAT is the spare time available when all preceding activities occur at the earliest possible times and all succeeding activities occur at the earliest possible times.
When an activity has zero Total float, Free float will also be zero.
There are various other types of float (Independent, Early Free, Early Interfering, Late Free, Late Interfering), and float can also be negative. We shall not go into these situations at present for the sake of simplicity and be concerned only with Total Float for the time being.
Having computed the various parameters of each activity, we are now ready to go into the scheduling phase, using a type of bar chart known as the Gantt Chart.
There are various other types of float (Independent, Early Free, Early Interfering, Late Free, Late Interfering), and float can also be negative. We shall not go into these situations at present for the sake of simplicity and be concerned only with Total Float for the time being. Having computed the various parameters of each activity, we are now ready to go into the scheduling phase, using a type of bar chart known as the Gantt Chart.
1.5.5 Scheduling of Activities Using a Gantt Chart
Once the activities are laid out along a Gantt Chart (Please see chart below), the concepts of Earliest Start & Finish, Latest Start & Finish and Float will become very obvious.
Activities 1-3 and 2-4 have total float of 1 week each, represented by the solid timeline which begins at the latest start and ends at the latest finish. The difference is the float, which gives us the flexibility to schedule the activity.
For example, we might send the staff on leave during that one week or give them some other work to do. Or we may choose to start the activity slightly later than planned, knowing that we have a week’s float in hand. We might even break the activity in the middle (if this is permitted) for a week and divert the staff for some other work, or declare a National or Festival holiday as required under the National and Festival Holidays Act.
These are some of the examples of the use of float to schedule an activity. Once all the activities that can be scheduled are scheduled to the convenience of the project, normally reflecting resource optimisation measures, we can say that the project has been scheduled.
2. Exercise
A Social Project manager is faced with a project with the following activities:
| Activity-id | Activity - Description | Duration |
| 1-2 | Social Work Team to live in Village | 5 Weeks |
| 1-3 | Social Research Team to do survey | 12 Weeks |
| 3-4 | Analyse results of survey | 5 Weeks |
| 2-4 | Establish Mother & Child Health Program | 14 Weeks |
| 3-5 | Establish Rural Credit Programme | 15 Weeks |
| 4-5 | Carry out Immunisation of Under Fives | 4 Weeks |
- Draw the arrow diagram, using the helpful numbering of the activities, which suggests the following logic:
- Unless the Social Work team lives in the village, the Mother and Child Health Programme cannot be started due to ignorance and superstition of the villagers
- The Analysis of the survey can obviously be done only after the survey is complete.
- Until rural survey is done, the Rural Credit Programme cannot be started
- Unless Mother and Child Programme is established, the Immunisation of Under Fives cannot be started
- - Calculate the Earliest and Latest Event Times
- - Tabulate and Analyse the Activities
- - Schedule the Project Using a Gantt Chart
3. The PERT (Probabilistic) Approach
So far we have talked about projects, where there is high certainty about the outcomes of activities. In other words, the cause-effect logic is well known. This is particularly the case in Engineering projects.
However, in Research & Development projects, or in Social Projects which are defined as "Process Projects", where learning is an important outcome, the cause-effect relationship is not so well established.
In such situations, the PERT approach is useful, because it can accommodate the variation in event completion times, based on an expert’s or an expert committee’s estimates.
For each activity, three time estimates are taken
- The Most Optimistic
- The Most Likely
- The Most Pessimistic
Where te is the Expected time, to is the Optimistic time, tm is the most probable activity time and tp is the Pessimistic time.
It is not necessary to go into the theory behind the formula. It is enough to know that the weights are based on an approximation of the Beta distribution.
The Standard Deviation, which is a good measure of the variability of each activity is calculated by the rather simplified formula:
The Variance is the Square of the Standard Deviation.
4. PERT Calculations for the Social Project
In our Social Project, the Project Manager is now not so certain that each activity will be completed on the basis of the single estimate he gave. There are many assumptions involved in each estimate, and these assumptions are illustrated in the three-time estimate he would prefer to give to each activity.
In Activity 1-3, the time estimates are 3,12 and 21. Using our PERT formula, we get:
The Standard Deviation (s.d.) for this activity is also calculated using the PERT formula
We calculate the PERT event times and other details as below for each activity:
| Event | to | tm | tp | te | ES | EF | LS | LF | TF | s.d. | Var. |
| 1-3 | 3 | 12 | 21 | 12 | 0 | 12 | 0 | 12 | 0 | 3 | 9 |
| 3-5 | 6 | 15 | 30 | 16 | 12 | 28 | 12 | 28 | 0 | 4 | 16 |
| 1-2 | 2 | 5 | 14 | 6 | 0 | 6 | 5 | 11 | 5 | 2 | 4 |
| 2-4 | 5 | 14 | 17 | 13 | 6 | 19 | 11 | 24 | 5 | 2 | 4 |
| 3-4 | 2 | 5 | 8 | 5 | 12 | 17 | 19 | 24 | 7 | 1 | 1 |
| 4-5 | 1 | 4 | 7 | 4 | 19 | 23 | 24 | 28 | 5 | 1 | 1 |
5. Estimating Risk
Having calculated the s.d. and the Variance, we are ready to do some risk analysis. Before that we should be aware of two of the most important assumptions made by PERT.
- The Beta distribution is appropriate for calculation of activity
durations.
- Activities are independent, and the time required to complete one activity has no bearing on the completion times of it’s successor activities in the network. The validity of this assumption is questionable when we consider that in practice, many activities have dependencies.
PERT assumes that the expected length of a project (or a sequence of independent activities) is simply the sum of their separate expected lengths.
Thus the summation of all the te's along the critical path gives us the length of the project.
Similarly the variance of a sum of independent activity times is equal to the sum of their individual variances.
In our example, the sum of the variance of the activity times along the critical path, VT is found to be equal to (9+16) = 25.
The square root VT gives us the standard deviation of the project length. Thus, ST=Ö 25=5. The higher the standard deviation, the greater the uncertainty that the project will be completed on the due date.
Although the te's are randomly distributed, the average or expected project length Te approximately follows a Normal Distribution.
Since we have a lot of information about a Normal Distribution, we can make several statistically significant conclusions from these calculations.
A random variable drawn from a Normal Distribution has 0.68 probability of falling within one standard deviation of the distribution average. Therefore, there is a 68% chance that the actual project duration will be within one standard deviation, ST of the estimated average length of the project, te.
In our case, the te = (12+16) = 28 weeks and the ST = 5 weeks. Assuming te to be normally distributed, we can state that there is a probability of 0.68 that the project will be completed within 28 ± 5 weeks, which is to say, between 23 and 33 weeks.
Since it is known that just over 95% (.954) of the area under a Normal Distribution falls within two standard deviations, we can state that the probability that the project will be completed within 28 ± 10 is very high at 0.95.
5.2. Probability of Project Completion by Due Date
Now, although the project is estimated to be completed within 28 weeks (te=28) our Project Director would like to know what is the probability that the project might be completed within 25 weeks (i.e. Due Date or D=25).
For this calculation, we use the formula for calculating Z, the number of standard deviations that D is away from te.
 By looking at the following extract from a standard normal table, we see that the probability associated with a Z of -0.6 is 0.274. This means that the chance of the project being completed within 25 weeks, instead of the expected 28 weeks is about 2 out of 7. Not very encouraging. |
On the other hand, the probability that the project will be completed within 33 weeks is calculated as follows:
If the probability of an event is p, the odds for its occurrence are a to b, where:
Select Bibliography
Wiest, Jerome D., and Levy, Ferdinand K., A Management Guide to PERT/CPM, New Delhi: Prentice-Hall of India Private Limited, 1974
Render, Barry and Stair Jr., Ralph M. - Quantitative Analysis for Management, Massachusetts: Allyn & Bacon Inc., 1982, pp. 525-563
Freund, John E., Modern Elementary Statistics, New Delhi: Prentice-Hall of India Private Limited, 1979
Ref: http://www.interventions.org/pertcpm.html
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Human Resource Management (HRM)
Human resource management (HRM), or human resource development,
entails planning, implementing, and managing recruitment, as well as
selection, training, career, and organizational development initiatives
within an organization. The goal of HRM is to maximize the productivity
of an organization by optimizing the effectiveness of its employees
while simultaneously improving the work life of employees and treating
employees as valuable resources. Consequently, HRM encompasses efforts
to promote personal development, employee satisfaction, and compliance
with employment-related laws.
To achieve equilibrium between employer and employee goals and needs, HRM departments focus on these three general functions or activities: planning, implementation, and evaluation. The planning function refers to the development of human resource policies and regulations. Human resource managers attempt to determine future HRM activities and plan for the implementation of HRM procedures to help companies realize their goals.
Implementation of HRM plans involves four primary activities: acquisition, development, compensation, and maintenance. Acquisition entails the hiring of workers most likely to help a company attain its goals. The development function encompasses the training of workers to perform their tasks in accordance with company strategy. This activity also involves company efforts to control and change employee behavior via reviews, appraisals, incentives, and discipline. Compensation covers the payment of employees for their services. Maintenance requires structuring labor relationshe interaction between a company’s management and its unionized employeesnd ensuring compliance with federal and state employment laws. Finally, the evaluation function includes the assessment of a company’s HRM policies to determine whether they are effective.
Since the inception of modem management theory, the terminology used to describe the role and function of workers has evolved from “personnel” to “industrial relations” to “employee relations” to “human resources.” While all of these terms remain in use, “human resources” most accurately represents the view of workers by contemporary management theory: as valuable resources managed in the same manner as other valuable resources, according to the authors of Human Resource Management.
The need for an organized form of HRM emerged during the industrial revolution, as the manufacturing process evolved from a cottage system to factory production. As the United States shifted from an agricultural economy to an industrial economy, companies were forced to develop and implement effective ways of recruiting and keeping skilled workers. In addition, industrialization helped spur immigration, as the country opened its borders to fill industrial positions. Filling these jobs with immigrants, however, created an even greater need for adequate management of employees.
Between the 1880s and the 1940s, immigration rose significantly and remained robust until World War II. Advertisements circulated throughout the world depicting the United States as the land of opportunity where good-paying industrial jobs were plentiful. As a result, the country had a steady stream of low-skill, low-cost immigrant workers who occupied manufacturing, construction, and machinery operation positions. Even though these employees performed largely routine tasks, managers faced serious obstacles when trying to manage them since they spoke different languages.
Early human resource management techniques included social welfare approaches aimed at helping immigrants adjust to their jobs and to life in the United States. These programs assisted immigrants in learning English and obtaining housing and medical care. In addition, these techniques promoted supervisory training in order to increase productivity.
While some companies paid attention to the “human” side of employment, however, others did not. Therefore, other factors such as hazardous working conditions and pressure from labor unions also increased the importance of effective management of human resources. Along with the manufacturing efficiencies brought about by industrialization came several shortcomings related to working conditions. These problems included: hazardous tasks, long hours, and unhealthy work environments. The direct cause of employers seeking better HRM programs was not poor working conditions, but rather the protests and pressures generated by workers and organized labor unions. Indeed, labor unions, which had existed as early as 1790 in the United States, became much more powerful during the late 1800s and early 1900s.
There were two other particularly important contributing factors to the origination of modem HRM during that period. The first was the industrial welfare movement, which represented a shift in the way that managers viewed employeesrom nonhuman resources to human beings. That movement resulted in the creation of medical care and educational facilities. The second factor was Frederick W. Taylor’s (1856-1915)Scientific Management, a landmark book that outlined management methods for attaining greater productivity from low-level production workers.
The first corporate employment department designed to address employee concerns was created by the B.F. Goodrich Company in 1900. In 1902 National Cash Register formed a similar department to handle worker grievances, wage administration, record keeping, and many other functions that would later be relegated to HRM departments at most large
U.S. companies. HRM as a professional discipline was especially bolstered by the passage of the Wagner Act in 1935 (also known as the National Labor Relations Act), which remained the basic U.S. labor law through the 1990s. It augmented the power of labor unions and increased the role and importance of personnel managers.
During the 1930s and 1940s the general focus of HRM changed from a focus on worker efficiency and skills to employee satisfaction. That shift became especially pronounced after World War II, when a shortage of skilled labor forced companies to pay more attention to workers’ needs. Employers, influenced by the famous Hawthorne productivity studies and similar research, began to emphasize personal development and improved working conditions as a means of motivating employees.
In the 1960s and 1970s the federal government furthered the HRM movement with a battery of regulations created to enforce fair treatment of workers, such as the Equal Pay Act of 1963, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), and the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970. Because of these acts, companies began placing greater emphasis on HRM in order to avoid lawsuits for violating this legislation. These regulations created an entirely new legal role for HRM professionals. Furthermore, during the 1970s, HRM gained status as a recognized profession with the advent of human resource programs in colleges.
By the end of the 1970s, virtually all medium-sized and large companies and institutions had some type of HRM program in place to handle recruitment, training, regulatory compliance, dismissal, and other related issues. HRM’s importance continued to grow during the 1980s for several reasons. Changing workforce values, for example, required the skills of HRM professionals to adapt organizational structures to a new generation of workers with different attitudes about authority and conformity. Shifting demographics forced changes in the way workers were hired, fired, and managed. Other factors contributing to the importance of HRM during the 1980s and 1990s were increasing education levels, growth of service and white-collar jobs, corporate restructuring (including reductions in middle management), more women in the workforce, slower domestic market growth, greater international competition, and new federal and state regulations.
Towards this end, R. Wayne Pace, writing in Human Resource Development, identifies seven underlying assumptions that provide a foundation and direction for HRM. First is the acknowledgment of individual worth, suggesting that companies recognize and value individual contributions. Second is that employees are resources who can learn new skills and ideas and can be trained to occupy new positions in the organization. Third is that quality of work life is a legitimate concern, and that employees have a right to safe, clean, and pleasant surroundings. A fourth assumption is the need for continuous learning; talents and skills must be continually refined in the long-term interests of the organization.
A fifth assumption supporting the existence of an organized HRM within a company or institution is that opportunities are constantly changing and companies need methods to facilitate continual worker adaptation. Sixth is employee satisfaction, which implies that humans have a right to be satisfied by their work and that employers have a responsibility and profit motivation to try to match a worker’s skills with his or her job. The seventh and final assumption is that HRM encompasses a much broader scope than technical trainingmployees need to know more than the requirements of a specific task in order to make their maximum contribution.
HRM department responsibilities, other than related legal and clerical duties, can be classified by individual, organizational, and career areas. Individual management entails helping employees identify their strengths and weaknesses, correct their shortcomings, and then make their best contribution to the enterprise. These duties are carried out through a variety of activities such as performance reviews, training, and testing. Organizational development focuses on fostering a successful system that maximizes human, and other, resources. This important duty also includes the creation and maintenance of a change program, which allows the organization to respond to evolving outside and internal influences. The third responsibility, career development, involves matching individuals with the most suitable jobs and career paths.
The positioning of HRM departments is ideally near the theoretic organizational center, with maximum access to all divisions and management levels. In larger organizations the HRM function might be headed by a vice president, while smaller entities will have a middle-level manager as head of HRM. In any case, because the HRM department is charged with managing the productivity and development of workers at all levels, the top HRM manager ideally has access to, and the support of, key decision makers. In addition, the HRM department should be situated in such a way that it has horizontal access, or is able to communicate effectively with all divisions within the company. Horizontal access allows HRM to integrate, educate, and train the workforce, and to facilitate changes that affect one division and indirectly influence other segments of the company or institution.
The structure of HRM departments differs according to the type and size of the organization that they serve. But many large organizations (including governments, institutions, manufacturing companies, and service firms) organize HRM employee development functions around various clusters of workershey conduct recruiting, administrative, and other duties in a central location. Different employee development groups for each department are necessary to train and develop employees in specialized areas, such as sales, engineering, marketing, or executive education. In contrast, some HRM departments are completely independent and are organized purely by function. The same training department, for example, serves all divisions of the organization.
Training and development activities include the determination, design, execution, and analysis of educational programs. Orientation programs, for example, are usually necessary to acclimate new hires to the company. The HRM training and education role may encompass a wide variety of tasks, depending on the type and extent of different programs. In any case, the HRM professional ideally is aware of the fundamentals of learning and motivation, and must carefully design effective training and development programs that benefit the overall organization as well as the individual. Training initiatives may include apprenticeship, internship, job rotation, mentoring, and new skills programs.
Human resource maintenance activities related to safety and health usually entail compliance with federal laws that protect employees from hazards in the workplace. Regulations emanate from the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, for instance, and from state workers’ compensation and federal Environmental Protection Agency laws. HRM managers must work to minimize the company’s exposure to risk by implementing preventive safety and training programs. They are also typically charged with designing detailed procedures to document and handle injuries.
Maintenance tasks related to worker-management relations primarily entail: working with labor unions, handling grievances related to misconduct such as theft or sexual harassment, and devising systems to foster cooperation. Activities in this arena include contract negotiation, developing policies to accept and handle worker grievances, and administering programs to enhance communication and cooperation.
The authors of Human Resources Management posit four factors, the “four Cs,” that should be used to determine whether or not an HRM department or individual program is succeeding: commitment, competence, cost-effectiveness, and congruence. In testing commitment, the HRM manager asks to what extent do policies enhance the commitment of people to the organization? Commitment is necessary to cultivate loyalty, improve performance, and optimize cooperation among individuals and groups.
Competence refers to the extent to which HRM policies attract, keep, and develop employees: Do HRM policies result in the right skills needed by the organization being available at the proper time and in the necessary quantity? Likewise, cost-effectiveness, the third factor, measures the fiscal proficiency of given policies in terms of wages, benefits, absenteeism, turnover, and labor/management disputes. Finally, analysis of congruence helps to determine how HRM policies create and maintain cooperation between different groups within and outside the organization, including different departments, employees and their families, and managers and subordinates.
In addition to advanced data gathering and analysis techniques, several simple observations can be made that provide insight into the general effectiveness of a company’s human resources. For example, the ratio of managerial costs to worker costs indicates the efficiency of an organization’s labor force. In general, lower managerial costs indicate a more empowered and effective workforce. Revenues and costs per employee, when compared to related industry norms, can provide insight into HRM effectiveness.
Furthermore, the average speed at which job vacancies are filled is an indicator of whether or not the organization has acquired the necessary talents and competencies. Other measures of HRM success include employee complaint and customer satisfaction statistics, health insurance and workers’ compensation claims, and independent quality ratings. In addition, the number of significant innovations made each year, such as manufacturing or product breakthroughs, suggest HRM’s success at fostering an environment that rewards new ideas and is amenable to change.
Besides evaluating these internal aspects of HRM programs, companies also must assess the effectiveness of HRM programs by their impact on overall business success. In other words, companies must link their evaluation of HRM methods with company performance to determine whether these methods are helping their business by increasing quality, reducing costs, expanding market share, and so forth. Ultimately, companies must make sure that they have the right amount of properly skilled employees performing tasks necessary for the attainment of company goals and that greater revenues and profits result from HRM efforts to increase the workforce and improve worker training and motivation.
The most important piece of HRM legislation, which affects all of the functional areas, is Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and subsequent amendments, including the Civil Rights Act of 1991. These acts made illegal the discrimination against employees or potential recruits for reasons of race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. It forces employers to achieve, and often document, fairness related to hiring, training, pay, benefits, and virtually all other activities and responsibilities related to HRM. The 1964 act established the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to enforce the act, and provides for civil penalties in the event of discrimination. Possible penalties include forcing an organization to implement an affirmative action program to actively recruit and promote minorities that are underrepresented in a company’s workforce or management. The net result of the all encompassing civil rights acts is that HRM departments must carefully design and document numerous procedures to ensure compliance, or face potentially significant penalties.
In addition to the civil rights acts, a law affecting acquisition, or resource planning and selection, is the Equal Pay Act of 1963. This act forbids wage or salary discrimination based on sex, and mandates equal pay for equal work with few exceptions. Subsequent court rulings augmented the act by promoting the concept of comparable worth, or equal pay for unequal jobs of equal value or worth. The important Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, which was strengthened by amendments in the early 1990s, essentially protects workers 40 years of age and older from discrimination. The Fair Credit Reporting Act also affects acquisition activities, as employers who turn down applicants for credit reasons must provide the sources of the information that shaped their decision. Similarly, the Buckley Amendment of 1974 requires certain institutions to make records available to individuals and to receive permission before releasing those records to third parties.
The major laws affecting HRM development, or appraisal, training, and development, are the civil rights act, the equal pay act, and the age discrimination in employment act. All of those laws also affected the third HRM activity, rewards, or salary administration and incentive systems. In addition, however, HRM reward programs must comply with a plethora of detailed legislation. The Davis-Bacon Act of 1931, for instance, requires the payment of minimum wages to nonfederal employees. The Walsh Healy Public Contracts Act of 1936 ensures that employees working as contractors for the federal government will be compensated fairly. Importantly, the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 mandates employer compliance with restrictions related to minimum wages, overtime provisions, child labor, and workplace safety. Other major laws affecting rewards include: the Tax Reform Acts of 1969, 1976, and 1986; the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981; the Revenue Act of 1978; and the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982.
Perhaps the most regulated realm of the HRM field is maintenance (or benefits), safety and health, and employee/management relations. Chief among regulations in this arena is the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, which established the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. That act was designed to force employers to provide safe and healthy work environments and to make organizations liable for workers’ safety. The sweeping act has ballooned to include thousands of regulations backed by civil and criminal penalties, including jail time and fines for company executives. Also of import are state workers’ compensation laws, which require employers to make provisions to pay for work-related injuries, and forces HRM managers to create and document safety procedures and programs that reduce a company’s liability. The Wagner Act of 1935 is the main piece of legislation governing union/management relations, and is a chief source of regulation for HRM departments. Other important laws related to HRM maintenance include: the Norris-Laguardia Act of 1932, the Social Security Act of 1935, the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947, and the Landrum-Griffin Act of 1959.
A second important change affecting HRM was new organizational structures that began to emerge during the 1980s and continued through the 1990s. Because many companies began expanding their operations and diversifying their products and services, the central decision-making system failed to respond quickly enough to managers’ needs and concerns. Therefore, companies started scrapping traditional, hierarchical organizational structures in favor of flatter, decentralized management systems. Consequently, fewer managers were involved in the decision-making process and companies were adopting more of a team approach to management. HRM professionals, as the agents of change, were charged with reorganizing workers and increasing their efficiency. These efforts also resulted in the proliferation of part-time, or contract, employees, which required human resource strategies that contrasted with those applicable to full time workers.
A third change factor was accelerating market globalization, which was increasing competition and demanding greater performance out of workers, often at diminished levels of compensation. To compete abroad, companies were looking to their HRM professionals to augment initiatives related to quality, productivity, and innovation. Other factors changing HRM include: an accelerating rate of change and turbulence, resulting in higher employee turnover and the need for more responsive, open-minded workers; rapidly changing demographics; and increasing income disparity as the demand for highly educated workers increases at the expense of lower-wage employees.
Greenlaw, Paul S., and John P. Kohl. Personnel Management: Managing Human Resources. New York: Harper & Row, 1986.
Minehan, Maureen. “Technology’s Increasing Impact on the Workplace.” HRMagazine, December 1997, 168.
Pace, R. Wayne. Human Resource Development: The Field. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1991.
Scarpello, Vida G., James Ledvinka, and Thomas J. Bergmann. Human Resource Management. Cincinnati: South-Western, 1995.
Walker, James W. “Are We Using the Right Human Resource Measures?” Human Resource Planning, June 1998, 7.
Ref: http://www.enotes.com/human-resource-management-reference/human-resource-management-hrm
To achieve equilibrium between employer and employee goals and needs, HRM departments focus on these three general functions or activities: planning, implementation, and evaluation. The planning function refers to the development of human resource policies and regulations. Human resource managers attempt to determine future HRM activities and plan for the implementation of HRM procedures to help companies realize their goals.
Implementation of HRM plans involves four primary activities: acquisition, development, compensation, and maintenance. Acquisition entails the hiring of workers most likely to help a company attain its goals. The development function encompasses the training of workers to perform their tasks in accordance with company strategy. This activity also involves company efforts to control and change employee behavior via reviews, appraisals, incentives, and discipline. Compensation covers the payment of employees for their services. Maintenance requires structuring labor relationshe interaction between a company’s management and its unionized employeesnd ensuring compliance with federal and state employment laws. Finally, the evaluation function includes the assessment of a company’s HRM policies to determine whether they are effective.
HISTORY
Key principles and practices associated with HRM date back to the beginning of mankind. Mechanisms were developed for the selection of tribal leaders, for example, and knowledge was recorded and passed on to youth about safety, health, hunting, and gathering. More advanced HRM functions were developed as early as 1000 and 2000 B.C. Employee screening tests have been traced back to 1115 B.C. in China, for instance. And the earliest form of industrial education, the apprentice system, was started in ancient Greek and Babylonian civilizations before gaining prominence during medieval times.Since the inception of modem management theory, the terminology used to describe the role and function of workers has evolved from “personnel” to “industrial relations” to “employee relations” to “human resources.” While all of these terms remain in use, “human resources” most accurately represents the view of workers by contemporary management theory: as valuable resources managed in the same manner as other valuable resources, according to the authors of Human Resource Management.
The need for an organized form of HRM emerged during the industrial revolution, as the manufacturing process evolved from a cottage system to factory production. As the United States shifted from an agricultural economy to an industrial economy, companies were forced to develop and implement effective ways of recruiting and keeping skilled workers. In addition, industrialization helped spur immigration, as the country opened its borders to fill industrial positions. Filling these jobs with immigrants, however, created an even greater need for adequate management of employees.
Between the 1880s and the 1940s, immigration rose significantly and remained robust until World War II. Advertisements circulated throughout the world depicting the United States as the land of opportunity where good-paying industrial jobs were plentiful. As a result, the country had a steady stream of low-skill, low-cost immigrant workers who occupied manufacturing, construction, and machinery operation positions. Even though these employees performed largely routine tasks, managers faced serious obstacles when trying to manage them since they spoke different languages.
Early human resource management techniques included social welfare approaches aimed at helping immigrants adjust to their jobs and to life in the United States. These programs assisted immigrants in learning English and obtaining housing and medical care. In addition, these techniques promoted supervisory training in order to increase productivity.
While some companies paid attention to the “human” side of employment, however, others did not. Therefore, other factors such as hazardous working conditions and pressure from labor unions also increased the importance of effective management of human resources. Along with the manufacturing efficiencies brought about by industrialization came several shortcomings related to working conditions. These problems included: hazardous tasks, long hours, and unhealthy work environments. The direct cause of employers seeking better HRM programs was not poor working conditions, but rather the protests and pressures generated by workers and organized labor unions. Indeed, labor unions, which had existed as early as 1790 in the United States, became much more powerful during the late 1800s and early 1900s.
There were two other particularly important contributing factors to the origination of modem HRM during that period. The first was the industrial welfare movement, which represented a shift in the way that managers viewed employeesrom nonhuman resources to human beings. That movement resulted in the creation of medical care and educational facilities. The second factor was Frederick W. Taylor’s (1856-1915)Scientific Management, a landmark book that outlined management methods for attaining greater productivity from low-level production workers.
The first corporate employment department designed to address employee concerns was created by the B.F. Goodrich Company in 1900. In 1902 National Cash Register formed a similar department to handle worker grievances, wage administration, record keeping, and many other functions that would later be relegated to HRM departments at most large
U.S. companies. HRM as a professional discipline was especially bolstered by the passage of the Wagner Act in 1935 (also known as the National Labor Relations Act), which remained the basic U.S. labor law through the 1990s. It augmented the power of labor unions and increased the role and importance of personnel managers.
During the 1930s and 1940s the general focus of HRM changed from a focus on worker efficiency and skills to employee satisfaction. That shift became especially pronounced after World War II, when a shortage of skilled labor forced companies to pay more attention to workers’ needs. Employers, influenced by the famous Hawthorne productivity studies and similar research, began to emphasize personal development and improved working conditions as a means of motivating employees.
In the 1960s and 1970s the federal government furthered the HRM movement with a battery of regulations created to enforce fair treatment of workers, such as the Equal Pay Act of 1963, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), and the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970. Because of these acts, companies began placing greater emphasis on HRM in order to avoid lawsuits for violating this legislation. These regulations created an entirely new legal role for HRM professionals. Furthermore, during the 1970s, HRM gained status as a recognized profession with the advent of human resource programs in colleges.
By the end of the 1970s, virtually all medium-sized and large companies and institutions had some type of HRM program in place to handle recruitment, training, regulatory compliance, dismissal, and other related issues. HRM’s importance continued to grow during the 1980s for several reasons. Changing workforce values, for example, required the skills of HRM professionals to adapt organizational structures to a new generation of workers with different attitudes about authority and conformity. Shifting demographics forced changes in the way workers were hired, fired, and managed. Other factors contributing to the importance of HRM during the 1980s and 1990s were increasing education levels, growth of service and white-collar jobs, corporate restructuring (including reductions in middle management), more women in the workforce, slower domestic market growth, greater international competition, and new federal and state regulations.
THE FOCUS OF HRM
Businesses and organizations rely on three major resources: physical resources, such as materials and equipment; financial resources, including cash, credit, and debt; and human resources or workers. In its broadest sense, HRM refers to the management of all decisions within an organization that are related to people. In practice, however, HRM is a tool used to try to make optimum use of human resources, to foster individual development, and to comply with government mandates. Larger organizations typically have an HRM department and its primary objective is making company goals compatible with employee goals insofar as possible. Hence, for a company to attain its goals, it must have employees who will help it attain them.Towards this end, R. Wayne Pace, writing in Human Resource Development, identifies seven underlying assumptions that provide a foundation and direction for HRM. First is the acknowledgment of individual worth, suggesting that companies recognize and value individual contributions. Second is that employees are resources who can learn new skills and ideas and can be trained to occupy new positions in the organization. Third is that quality of work life is a legitimate concern, and that employees have a right to safe, clean, and pleasant surroundings. A fourth assumption is the need for continuous learning; talents and skills must be continually refined in the long-term interests of the organization.
A fifth assumption supporting the existence of an organized HRM within a company or institution is that opportunities are constantly changing and companies need methods to facilitate continual worker adaptation. Sixth is employee satisfaction, which implies that humans have a right to be satisfied by their work and that employers have a responsibility and profit motivation to try to match a worker’s skills with his or her job. The seventh and final assumption is that HRM encompasses a much broader scope than technical trainingmployees need to know more than the requirements of a specific task in order to make their maximum contribution.
THE ROLE, POSITION, AND STRUCTURE OF HRM DEPARTMENTS
In Personnel Management, Paul S. Greenlaw and John P. Kohl describe three distinct, interrelated fields of interest addressed by the HRM discipline: human relations, organization theory, and decision areas. Human relations encompass matters such as individual motivation, leadership, and group relationships. Organization theory refers to job design, managerial control, and work flow through the organization. Decision areas encompass interests related to the acquisition, development, compensation, and maintenance of human resources. Although the method and degree to which those areas of interest are handled vary among different HRM departments, a few general rules characterize the responsibilities, positioning, and structure of most HRM divisions.HRM department responsibilities, other than related legal and clerical duties, can be classified by individual, organizational, and career areas. Individual management entails helping employees identify their strengths and weaknesses, correct their shortcomings, and then make their best contribution to the enterprise. These duties are carried out through a variety of activities such as performance reviews, training, and testing. Organizational development focuses on fostering a successful system that maximizes human, and other, resources. This important duty also includes the creation and maintenance of a change program, which allows the organization to respond to evolving outside and internal influences. The third responsibility, career development, involves matching individuals with the most suitable jobs and career paths.
The positioning of HRM departments is ideally near the theoretic organizational center, with maximum access to all divisions and management levels. In larger organizations the HRM function might be headed by a vice president, while smaller entities will have a middle-level manager as head of HRM. In any case, because the HRM department is charged with managing the productivity and development of workers at all levels, the top HRM manager ideally has access to, and the support of, key decision makers. In addition, the HRM department should be situated in such a way that it has horizontal access, or is able to communicate effectively with all divisions within the company. Horizontal access allows HRM to integrate, educate, and train the workforce, and to facilitate changes that affect one division and indirectly influence other segments of the company or institution.
The structure of HRM departments differs according to the type and size of the organization that they serve. But many large organizations (including governments, institutions, manufacturing companies, and service firms) organize HRM employee development functions around various clusters of workershey conduct recruiting, administrative, and other duties in a central location. Different employee development groups for each department are necessary to train and develop employees in specialized areas, such as sales, engineering, marketing, or executive education. In contrast, some HRM departments are completely independent and are organized purely by function. The same training department, for example, serves all divisions of the organization.
HRM IMPLEMENTATION ACTIVITIES
To fulfill their basic role and achieve their goals, HRM professionals and departments engage in a variety of activities in order to execute their human resource plans. HRM implementation activities fall into four functional groups, each of which includes related legal responsibilities: acquisition, development, compensation, and maintenance.ACQUISITION.
Acquisition duties consist of human resource planning for employees, which includes activities related to analyzing employment needs, determining the necessary skills for positions, identifying job and industry trends, and forecasting future employment levels and skill requirements. These tasks may be accomplished using such tools and techniques as questionnaires, interviews, statistical analysis, building skill inventories, and designing career path charts. Four specific goals of effective human resource planning are:- Sustaining stable workforce levels during ups and downs in output, which can reduce unnecessary employment costs and liabilities and increase employee morale that would otherwise suffer in the event of lay-offs.
- Preventing a high turnover rate among younger recruits.
- Reducing problems associated with replacing key decision makers in the event of an unexpected absence.
- Making it possible for financial resource managers to efficiently plan departmental budgets.
DEVELOPMENT.
The second major HRM function, human resource development, refers to performance appraisal and training activities. The basic goal of appraisal is to provide feedback to employees concerning their performance. This feedback allows them to evaluate the appropriateness of their behavior in the eyes of their coworkers and managers, correct weaknesses, and improve their contribution. HRM professionals must devise uniform appraisal standards, develop review techniques, train managers to administer the appraisals, and then evaluate and follow up on the effectiveness of performance reviews. They must also tie the appraisal process into compensation and incentive strategies, and work to ensure that federal regulations are observed.Training and development activities include the determination, design, execution, and analysis of educational programs. Orientation programs, for example, are usually necessary to acclimate new hires to the company. The HRM training and education role may encompass a wide variety of tasks, depending on the type and extent of different programs. In any case, the HRM professional ideally is aware of the fundamentals of learning and motivation, and must carefully design effective training and development programs that benefit the overall organization as well as the individual. Training initiatives may include apprenticeship, internship, job rotation, mentoring, and new skills programs.
COMPENSATION.
Compensation, the third major HRM function, refers to HRM duties related to paying employees and providing incentives for them. HRM professionals are typically charged with developing wage and salary systems that accomplish specific organizational objectives, such as employee retention, quality, satisfaction, and motivation. Ultimately, their aim is to establish wage and salary levels that maximize the company’s investment in relation to its goals. This is often successfully accomplished with performance based incentives. In particular, HRM managers must learn how to create compensation equity within the organization that doesn’t hamper morale and that provides sufficient financial motivation. Besides financial compensation and fringe benefits, effective HRM managers also design programs that reward employees by meeting their emotional needs, such as recognition for good work.MAINTENANCE.
The fourth principal HRM function, maintenance of human resources, encompasses HRM activities related to employee benefits, safety and health, and worker-management relations. Employee benefits are non-incentive-oriented compensation, such as health insurance and free parking, and are often used to transfer nontaxed compensation to employees. The three major categories of benefits managed by HRM managers are: employee services, such as purchasing plans, recreational activities, and legal services; vacations, holidays, and other allowed absences; and insurance, retirement, and health benefits. To successfully administer a benefits program, HRM professionals need to understand tax incentives, retirement investment plans, and purchasing power derived from a large base of employees.Human resource maintenance activities related to safety and health usually entail compliance with federal laws that protect employees from hazards in the workplace. Regulations emanate from the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, for instance, and from state workers’ compensation and federal Environmental Protection Agency laws. HRM managers must work to minimize the company’s exposure to risk by implementing preventive safety and training programs. They are also typically charged with designing detailed procedures to document and handle injuries.
Maintenance tasks related to worker-management relations primarily entail: working with labor unions, handling grievances related to misconduct such as theft or sexual harassment, and devising systems to foster cooperation. Activities in this arena include contract negotiation, developing policies to accept and handle worker grievances, and administering programs to enhance communication and cooperation.
EVALUATION OF HRM METHODS
One of the most critical aspects of HRM is evaluating HRM methods and measuring their results. Even the most carefully planned and executed HRM programs are meaningless without some way to judge their effectiveness and confirm their credibility. The evaluation of HRM methods and programs should include both internal and external assessments. Internal evaluations focus on the costs versus the benefits of HRM methods, whereas external evaluations focus on the overall benefits of HRM methods in achieving company goals. Larger human resource departments often use detailed, advanced data gathering and statistical analysis techniques to test the success of their initiatives. The results can then be used to adjust HRM programs or even to make organizational changes.The authors of Human Resources Management posit four factors, the “four Cs,” that should be used to determine whether or not an HRM department or individual program is succeeding: commitment, competence, cost-effectiveness, and congruence. In testing commitment, the HRM manager asks to what extent do policies enhance the commitment of people to the organization? Commitment is necessary to cultivate loyalty, improve performance, and optimize cooperation among individuals and groups.
Competence refers to the extent to which HRM policies attract, keep, and develop employees: Do HRM policies result in the right skills needed by the organization being available at the proper time and in the necessary quantity? Likewise, cost-effectiveness, the third factor, measures the fiscal proficiency of given policies in terms of wages, benefits, absenteeism, turnover, and labor/management disputes. Finally, analysis of congruence helps to determine how HRM policies create and maintain cooperation between different groups within and outside the organization, including different departments, employees and their families, and managers and subordinates.
In addition to advanced data gathering and analysis techniques, several simple observations can be made that provide insight into the general effectiveness of a company’s human resources. For example, the ratio of managerial costs to worker costs indicates the efficiency of an organization’s labor force. In general, lower managerial costs indicate a more empowered and effective workforce. Revenues and costs per employee, when compared to related industry norms, can provide insight into HRM effectiveness.
Furthermore, the average speed at which job vacancies are filled is an indicator of whether or not the organization has acquired the necessary talents and competencies. Other measures of HRM success include employee complaint and customer satisfaction statistics, health insurance and workers’ compensation claims, and independent quality ratings. In addition, the number of significant innovations made each year, such as manufacturing or product breakthroughs, suggest HRM’s success at fostering an environment that rewards new ideas and is amenable to change.
Besides evaluating these internal aspects of HRM programs, companies also must assess the effectiveness of HRM programs by their impact on overall business success. In other words, companies must link their evaluation of HRM methods with company performance to determine whether these methods are helping their business by increasing quality, reducing costs, expanding market share, and so forth. Ultimately, companies must make sure that they have the right amount of properly skilled employees performing tasks necessary for the attainment of company goals and that greater revenues and profits result from HRM efforts to increase the workforce and improve worker training and motivation.
LEGAL INFLUENCES
The field of HRM is greatly influenced and shaped by state and federal employment legislation, most of which is designed to protect workers from abuse by their employers. Indeed, one of the most important responsibilities of HRM professionals lies in compliance with regulations aimed at HRM departments. The laws and court rulings can be categorized by their affect on the four primary HRM functional areas: acquisition, development, compensation, and maintenance.The most important piece of HRM legislation, which affects all of the functional areas, is Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and subsequent amendments, including the Civil Rights Act of 1991. These acts made illegal the discrimination against employees or potential recruits for reasons of race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. It forces employers to achieve, and often document, fairness related to hiring, training, pay, benefits, and virtually all other activities and responsibilities related to HRM. The 1964 act established the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to enforce the act, and provides for civil penalties in the event of discrimination. Possible penalties include forcing an organization to implement an affirmative action program to actively recruit and promote minorities that are underrepresented in a company’s workforce or management. The net result of the all encompassing civil rights acts is that HRM departments must carefully design and document numerous procedures to ensure compliance, or face potentially significant penalties.
In addition to the civil rights acts, a law affecting acquisition, or resource planning and selection, is the Equal Pay Act of 1963. This act forbids wage or salary discrimination based on sex, and mandates equal pay for equal work with few exceptions. Subsequent court rulings augmented the act by promoting the concept of comparable worth, or equal pay for unequal jobs of equal value or worth. The important Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, which was strengthened by amendments in the early 1990s, essentially protects workers 40 years of age and older from discrimination. The Fair Credit Reporting Act also affects acquisition activities, as employers who turn down applicants for credit reasons must provide the sources of the information that shaped their decision. Similarly, the Buckley Amendment of 1974 requires certain institutions to make records available to individuals and to receive permission before releasing those records to third parties.
The major laws affecting HRM development, or appraisal, training, and development, are the civil rights act, the equal pay act, and the age discrimination in employment act. All of those laws also affected the third HRM activity, rewards, or salary administration and incentive systems. In addition, however, HRM reward programs must comply with a plethora of detailed legislation. The Davis-Bacon Act of 1931, for instance, requires the payment of minimum wages to nonfederal employees. The Walsh Healy Public Contracts Act of 1936 ensures that employees working as contractors for the federal government will be compensated fairly. Importantly, the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 mandates employer compliance with restrictions related to minimum wages, overtime provisions, child labor, and workplace safety. Other major laws affecting rewards include: the Tax Reform Acts of 1969, 1976, and 1986; the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981; the Revenue Act of 1978; and the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982.
Perhaps the most regulated realm of the HRM field is maintenance (or benefits), safety and health, and employee/management relations. Chief among regulations in this arena is the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, which established the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. That act was designed to force employers to provide safe and healthy work environments and to make organizations liable for workers’ safety. The sweeping act has ballooned to include thousands of regulations backed by civil and criminal penalties, including jail time and fines for company executives. Also of import are state workers’ compensation laws, which require employers to make provisions to pay for work-related injuries, and forces HRM managers to create and document safety procedures and programs that reduce a company’s liability. The Wagner Act of 1935 is the main piece of legislation governing union/management relations, and is a chief source of regulation for HRM departments. Other important laws related to HRM maintenance include: the Norris-Laguardia Act of 1932, the Social Security Act of 1935, the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947, and the Landrum-Griffin Act of 1959.
FORCES CHANGING HRM
In the 1990s several forces were shaping the broad field of HRM. The first key force, new technologiesarticularly information technologyrought about the decentralization of communications and the shake-up of existing paradigms of human interaction and organizational theory. Satellite communications, computers and networking systems, fax machines, and other devices were facilitating rapid change. Moreover, since these technologies helped blur the lines between work time and personal time by enabling employees to work at home, HRM professionals began adopting “management by objective” approaches to human resources instead of the traditional “management by sight” method.A second important change affecting HRM was new organizational structures that began to emerge during the 1980s and continued through the 1990s. Because many companies began expanding their operations and diversifying their products and services, the central decision-making system failed to respond quickly enough to managers’ needs and concerns. Therefore, companies started scrapping traditional, hierarchical organizational structures in favor of flatter, decentralized management systems. Consequently, fewer managers were involved in the decision-making process and companies were adopting more of a team approach to management. HRM professionals, as the agents of change, were charged with reorganizing workers and increasing their efficiency. These efforts also resulted in the proliferation of part-time, or contract, employees, which required human resource strategies that contrasted with those applicable to full time workers.
A third change factor was accelerating market globalization, which was increasing competition and demanding greater performance out of workers, often at diminished levels of compensation. To compete abroad, companies were looking to their HRM professionals to augment initiatives related to quality, productivity, and innovation. Other factors changing HRM include: an accelerating rate of change and turbulence, resulting in higher employee turnover and the need for more responsive, open-minded workers; rapidly changing demographics; and increasing income disparity as the demand for highly educated workers increases at the expense of lower-wage employees.
SEE ALSO: Compensation Administration; Employee Motivation; Hiring Practices
[Dave Mote,
updated by Karl Heil]
updated by Karl Heil]
FURTHER READING:
Beer, Michael, et al. Human Resource Management. New York: Free Press, 1985.Greenlaw, Paul S., and John P. Kohl. Personnel Management: Managing Human Resources. New York: Harper & Row, 1986.
Minehan, Maureen. “Technology’s Increasing Impact on the Workplace.” HRMagazine, December 1997, 168.
Pace, R. Wayne. Human Resource Development: The Field. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1991.
Scarpello, Vida G., James Ledvinka, and Thomas J. Bergmann. Human Resource Management. Cincinnati: South-Western, 1995.
Walker, James W. “Are We Using the Right Human Resource Measures?” Human Resource Planning, June 1998, 7.
Source: Encyclopedia of Business, ©2000 Gale Cengage. All Rights Reserved. Full copyright.
Ref: http://www.enotes.com/human-resource-management-reference/human-resource-management-hrm
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