INTRODUCTION (Luthan 2005; Muchinsky, 2008)

Organizational behavior (often abbreviated OB) is a field of study that investigates the impact that individuals,
groups, and structure have on behavior within organizations, for the purpose of applying such knowledge
toward improving an organization’s effectiveness (Robbins, 2013). OB applies the knowledge gained about
individuals, groups, and the effect of structure on behavior in order to make organizations work more
effectively. The field of organizational behavior deals with human behavior in organizations. Formally
defined, organizational behavior is the multidisciplinary field that seeks knowledge of behavior in
organizational settings by systematically studying individual, group, and organizational processes.

There are four central characteristics of OB (Luthans, 2005):

• firmly grounded in the scientific method.

• studies individuals, groups, and organizations.
• is interdisciplinary in nature.
• is used as the basis for enhancing organizational effectiveness and individual well-being.

As per, Greenberg (2011), OB tenets are-

OB APPLIES THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD TO PRACTICAL MANAGERIAL PROBLEMS: - OB

knowledge is based on the behavioral sciences. These are fields such as psychology and sociology that seek
knowledge of human behavior and society through the use of the scientific method. Although not as
sophisticated as many of the “hard sciences,” such as physics or chemistry—nor as mature as them—OB’s
orientation is still scientific in nature. Thus, like other scientific fields, OB seeks to develop a base of
knowledge by using an empirical, research-based approach. That is, it is based on systematic observation and
measurement of the behavior or phenomenon of interest.

OB FOCUSES ON THREE LEVELS OF ANALYSIS—INDIVIDUALS, GROUPS, AND

ORGANIZATIONS: - To best appreciate behavior in organizations, OB specialists cannot focus exclusively
on individuals acting alone. After all, in organizations people frequently work together in groups and teams.
the field of OB focuses on three distinct levels of analysis—individuals, groups, and organizations. The field
of OB recognizes that all three levels of analysis must be considered to comprehend fully the complex
dynamics of behavior in organizations. Careful attention to all three levels of analysis—and the relationships
between them—is a central theme in modern OB.

OB IS MULTIDISCIPLINARY IN NATURE: - OB draws on a wide variety of social science disciplines.

Rather than studying a topic from only one particular perspective, the field of OB is likely to consider a wide
variety of approaches. These range from the highly individual-oriented approach of psychology, through the
more group-oriented approach of sociology, to issues in organizational quality studied by management
scientists

OB SEEKS TO IMPROVE ORGANIZATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS AND THE QUALITY-OF-LIFE AT

WORK. The key reason to know about OB is simple—it matters. Indeed, OB makes a very big difference in
the world of work. Not only does OB explain how people feel about their work, but importantly, how well
they perform

ASSUMPTIONS (Muchinsky, 2008):

The field of OB is guided by two key assumptions—fundamental ideas that are widely accepted by everyone
who does scientific research on OB or who puts these findings into practice in the workplace.
1. OB Recognizes the Dynamic Nature of Organizations: OB scientists recognize that organizations
are not static, but dynamic and ever-changing entities. In other words, they recognize that organizations
are open systems—that is, self-sustaining connections between entities that use energy to transform
resources from the environment (such as raw materials) into some form of output (for example, a
finished product).
2. OB Assumes There Is No “One Best” Approach: Today’s OB scientists agree that there really is
no one best approach when it comes to such complex phenomena. To assume otherwise is not only
overly simplistic but, grossly inaccurate. When it comes to studying human behavior in organizations,
there are no simple answers. For this reason, OB scholars embrace a contingency approach—an
orientation that recognizes that behavior in work settings is the complex result of many interacting
forces. This orientation is a hallmark of modern OB. for example, consider how an individual’s
personal characteristics (e.g., attitudes and beliefs) in conjunction with situational factors (e.g.,
relations between coworkers) may all work together when it comes to influencing how a particular
individual is likely to behave on the job. hence, explaining OB phenomena often requires saying, “it
depends.”

EXTRA INFO –
As per Basnet (2020), there are two types basic assumptions of OB. They are the assumptions about
A. Nature of people (Poudyal & Pradhan, 2018)
Individual Differences - Organizational behavior assumes that all the individuals are differences
from each other. The difference in individuals can be in several ways like physical characteristics,
intelligence, perception, personality, attitudes, aptitudes, emotion, learning capability and
communicative ability.
• Whole Person- Organizational behavior assumes that an individual should be considered
as a whole person. We cannot separate individual’s psychology, beliefs, values, attitude
from physical work settings.
• Selective Perception-Perception is a process by which individuals organize and interpret
their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to the environment (Robbins, 1997).
Perception is an individual’s own view. Each person has a unique way to see, organize and
interpret about event, people and things.
• Motivated Behavior- Motivation is the willingness to do something to achieve
organizational goals and, at the same time, to satisfy individual needs (Templer, Cattaneo,
DeCenzo & Robbins, 2000)
• Value of the Person - Organizational behavior assumes that people are more valuable and
different than non-living things. Employees should be treated with respect, dignity and
equity by the organizations. Employees should not be treated only economic tools.
• Desire for Involvement- Individuals have desire for involvement in work. They want to
show their creativity, skills, and efficiency while doing the work. People have capabilities
for task performance, role fulfillment, and meaningful contribution and to meet challenging
situations.
B. The assumptions about Nature of Organizations (Gautam & Gautam, 2019)
• Social System- Organizations are the part of social system. Organizations are operated by
social and psychological laws. Organizational behavior assumes that organizations are
open social system. These systems affect behavior of individual.
• Mutuality of Interest-Organizational behavior assumes mutuality of individual and
organization interests. Interests flow both ways. Organizations need people and people need
organizations. Mutual interest provides a common goal for all the participants, which
results in encouragement of the people to solve problems of the organization.
 • Ethical Treatment- Ethics involves moral issues and choices. It deals with right or wrong
behavior about event, people and things. Ethical behavior of an individual depends on the
moral standard or codes of conduct determined by society. Managerial ethics is the standard
of behavior that guides individuals’ managers in their work. Organizational should
establish rules, code of conduct, working procedures and system.

INDUSTRIAL OR ORGANISATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

(only if a short note is asked)

One of the specialty areas of psychology is industrial /organizational (I /O) psychology (represented by
Division 14 of the APA, the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, or SIOP). Ryan (2003)
commented that I /O psychology does not have a clear identity and that relatively few people have ever heard
of “industrial and organizational psychology,” nor do they understand how our discipline differs from others.
Blum and Naylor (1968) defined it as “simply the application or extension of psychological facts and
principles to the problems concerning human beings operating within the context of business and industry”.
It’s concerned with behavior in work situations.

There are two sides of I /O psychology: science and practice. I /O psychology is a legitimate field of scientific
inquiry, concerned with advancing knowledge about people at work. As in any area of science, I /O
psychologists pose questions to guide their investigation and then use scientific methods to obtain answers.
Psychologists try to form the results of studies into meaningful patterns that will be useful in explaining
behavior and to replicate findings to make generalizations about behavior. In this respect, I /O psychology is
an academic discipline. The other side of I /O psychology—the professional side—is concerned with the
application of knowledge to solve real problems in the world of work. I /O psychologists can use research
findings to hire better employees, reduce absenteeism, improve communication, increase job satisfaction, and
solve countless other problems. Most I /O psychologists feel a sense of kinship with both sides: science and
practice. Accordingly, the education of I /O psychologists is founded on the scientist–practitioner model,
which trains them in both scientific inquiry and practical application.

I /O psychology is more than just a tool for business leaders to use to make their companies more efficient.
So the I /O psychologist has a dual existence. Well-trained I /O psychologists realize that an effective
application of knowledge can come only from sound knowledge, and they can therefore both contribute to
knowledge and apply it. Dunnette (1998) believes that an emerging trend in I /O psychology is greater fusion
of the science and practice aspects of our profession than we have witnessed in the past

HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS OF OB

The history of OB is rich and diverse. The field was born at the confluence of several forces, developed and
grew through global conflict, and was woven into the societal fabric of which it is a part. History of OB
psychology can be broadly divided into three such as Scientific Management, Human Relations Movement
and Classical Organizational Theory. What we know today as I /O psychology was a merging of two forces
that gathered momentum before 1900. However, the psychologist W. L. Bryan did not advocate studying
problems found in industry per se, but he stressed examining real skills as a base upon which to develop
scientific psychology. The second major force in the evolution of the discipline came from the desire of
industrial engineers to improve efficiency. They were concerned mainly with the economics of manufacturing
and thus the productivity of industrial employees. Industrial engineers developed “time and motion studies”
to prescribe the most efficient body motions per unit of time to perform a particular work task. It’s a type of
applied research designed to classify and streamline the individual movements needed to perform jobs with
the intent of finding “the one best way” to perform them. The merging of psychology with applied interests
and concern for increasing industrial efficiency was the impetus for the emergence of I /O psychology. Koppes
(2002) observed that in the late 19th century American society was undergoing rapid changes and
developments because of industrialization, immigration, a high birth rate, education, and urban growth. These
societal demands forced psychologists to popularize their science and demonstrate the value of psychology in
solving problems and helping society.

By 1910 “industrial psychology” was a legitimate specialty area of psychology. Four individuals stand out as
the leading figures in the field of IO and they are as follows: Four individuals stand out as the founding figures
of I /O psychology. First was Walter Dill Scott, who gave talks and published books like “The Theory of
Advertising” (1903) and “The Psychology of Advertising “(1908) which led business leaders to think of the
need for applying psychology to advertising. Scott had expanded his areas of interest and published two more
books: Influencing Men in Business and Increasing Human Efficiency in Business. During World War I, Scott
was instrumental in the application of personnel procedures in the army.

Frederick W. Taylor realized the value of redesigning the work situation to achieve both higher output for
the company and a higher wage for the worker. His best-known work is his book, The Principles of Scientific
Management (1911).. Scientific management is also known as Taylorism. It’s applying science to work and
studying tasks carefully and systematically at the micro level to speed up work. In 1911, Taylor advanced the
concept of scientific management, which not only identified ways to design manual labor jobs more
efficiently, but also emphasized carefully selecting and training people to perform them. Taylor believed in
Division of labour, hierarchy, selection, training and compensation. He wanted employees to work as if they
were machines resulting in time and motion studies. Tenets of Taylorism includes that Physical work can be
scientifically studied to determine the optimal method of performing a job. Workers can be made more
efficient by prescribing how to do their jobs. Workers will be willing to adhere to these prescriptions if paid
appropriately. People are primarily motivated by economic rewards and will take direction if offered the
opportunity to better their economic positions (Zink, 2017). Taylor wrote the principles of Scientific
Management in 1911. These principles were: (1) science over rule of thumb, (2) scientific selection and
training, (3) cooperation over individualism, and (4) equal division of work best suited to management
and employees (Van de Water 1997). Taylorism had mixed outcomes. On the positive side, it boosted
productivity, accomplished more work with fewer people meant for more company profit and more consistent
products of higher quality. On the contrary, companies failed to pay employees more, separated workers from
greater meaning of the work, deskilled employees and made them expendable, survival of the fittest created a
harsh atmosphere which also resulted in employee burnout, dehumanisation and mental anguish.

Koppes (1997) reported that Lillian Moller Gilbreth pioneered industrial management techniques that are still
used and was more concerned with the human aspects of time management. She was among the first to
recognize the effects of stress and fatigue on workers. Hugo Munsterberg’s book Psychology and Industrial
Efficiency (1913) was divided into three parts: selecting workers, designing work situations, and using
psychology in sales. The primary emphasis of the early work in I /O psychology was on the economic gains
that could be accrued by applying the ideas and methods of psychology to problems in industry.
World War I (1917-1918) was a potent impetus to psychology’s rise to respectability. OB also made a major
contribution to the military. Campbell (1990a) described the efforts of I /O psychologists to develop a test for
the selection and classification of military personnel. Although psychology’s impact on the war effort was not
substantial, the very process of giving psychologists so much recognition and authority was a great impetus
to the profession. Also, in 1917 the oldest and most representative journal in the field of I /O psychology—
the Journal of Applied Psychology —began publication. The first article published in it not only summarized
the prevailing state of industrial psychology at that time but also addressed the science-versus-practice issue
that still faces I /O psychologists.

During the same time that proponents of scientific management got scientists thinking about the
interrelationships between people and their jobs, another approach to managing people emerged. This
perspective, known as classical organizational theory, focused on the efficient structuring of overall
organizations. The idea was that there is an efficient way to organize work in all organizations—much as
proponents of scientific management searched for the ideal way to perform particular jobs. One of the most
influential classical organizational theorists was Henri Fayol, a French industrialist who pioneered various
ideas about how organizations should be structured. For example, Fayol advocated that there should be a
division of labor, the practice of dividing work into specialized tasks that enable people to specialize in what
they do best. He also argued that in any organization it always should be clear to whom each worker is
responsible—that is, which managers have authority over them. Max Weber proposed bureaucracy which
attempts to make organizations operate efficiently by having a clear hierarchy of authority in which people
are required to perform well-defined jobs. Characteristics of an ideal bureaucracy includes formal rules and
regulations, impersonal treatment, division of Labour, hierarchical structure, authority structure, lifelong
career commitment and rationality. Weber’s universal view of bureaucratic structure contrasts with the more
modern approaches to organizational design, which recognize that different forms of organizational structure
may be more or less appropriate under different situations. Still, contemporary OB owes a great deal to Weber
for his many pioneering ideas.

Inspired by the prospects of scientific management, but taking a more humanistic approach, other work experts
advanced the idea that social factors operating in the workplace are an important determinant of how
effectively people work. At the forefront of this effort was Elton W. Mayo, an organizational scientist and
consultant widely regarded as the founder of what is called the human relations movement. This approach
emphasized that the social conditions existing in organizations—the way employees are treated by
management and the relationships they have with each other—influence job performance.

The increasing skepticism with scientific management inspired the growth of another movement: The Human
Relations Movement. The Human Relations movement took a more humanistic approach towards the
workplace. It was informed by the idea that social factors operating at the workplace effect employee
productivity (Greenberg, 2011). Human Relations Movement is a perspective on organizational behaviour that
rejects the primarily economic orientation of scientific management and recognizes, instead, the importance
of social processes in work settings. Individual work behaviour is determined by a complex set of factors.
Tenets include that man is not just a rational, logical being, but also an emotional, non-logical being who often
reacts unpredictably to his work environment. Workplace must be seen as a social system not just a productive
system while Including workers in the decision-making process can reduce resistance to change.

In 1927 a series of experiments began at the Hawthorne Works of the Western Electric Company. Although
initially they seemed to be of minor scientific significance, they became classics in industrial psychology.
Hawthorne studies represent a series of research studies that began in the late 1920s at the Western Electric
Company and ultimately refocused the interests of I/O psychologists on how work behaviour manifests itself
in an organizational context. One of the major findings from the studies was a phenomenon named the
Hawthorne effect, positive change in behaviour that occurs at the onset of an intervention followed by a
gradual decline, often to the original level of the behaviour prior to the intervention. The studies originally
looked into whether workers were more responsive and worked more efficiently under certain environmental
conditions, such as improved lighting. The results were surprising: Mayo and Roethlisberger found that
workers were more responsive to social factors—such as the people they worked with on a team and the
amount of interest their manager had in their work—than the factors (lighting, etc.) the researchers had gone
in to inspect. It suggests that to understand the way people behave on the job, we must fully appreciate their
attitudes and the processes by which they communicate with each other. Their revelation of the complexity of
human behaviour opened up new vistas for industrial psychology, which for nearly 40 years had been
dominated by the goal of improving company efficiency.

The techniques developed during the Second World war could be applied to business and industry in
peacetime. World War II was a springboard for refining industrial psychological techniques and honing the
skills of applied psychologists. Each of the two world wars had a major effect on industrial psychology but in
a somewhat different way. World War I helped form the profession and give it social acceptance. World War
II helped develop and refine it.

In 1990, the Handbook of Industrial and Organizational Psychology was published (Dunnette & Hough),
the first of a four-volume set that document some of the profession’s finest scientific achievements. Today,
OB is multidisciplinary in both its content and its methods of inquiry. Thus, OB draws heavily on the basic
social science disciplines that this report recommended for incorporation into business curricula. It was
precisely because of this work that the field of OB rapidly grew into one that borrows heavily from other
disciplines, making it the hybrid science that it is today. By the time the twentieth century drew to a close,
OB clearly was a multidisciplinary field that was making important contributions to both science and practice.

Today, in what has been called the Infotech age, computer technology has made it possible to eliminate vast
amounts of grunt work that laborers used to have to perform. Much boring, monotonous, and dangerous
physical labor has been eliminated by computer technology, and this has changed the way people work. At
the same time, the best managers have learned that they could use this opportunity, as one observer said, “to
tap employees’ most essential humanity, their ability to create, judge, imagine, and build relationships. In the
last century, the field has undergone vast changes. It has now recognised the importance of focusing on the
needs of the individual employees and not just that of the organisation. Currently, managers focus on
employees’ ability to create and build relationships (Collins, 2000). Thus, contemporary OB recognizes that
people care more than ever about the interpersonal side of work such as recognition, relationships, and social
interaction (Greenberg, 1993).

The relevance of scientific management & human relations movement in the COVID “new normal”,
especially when employees are working from home

The Covid-19 pandemic has affected all spheres of life ranging from personal and social to professional. It
has created unprecedented challenges for organisations both at the employee and at the organisational
level. The biggest challenge, nonetheless, remains the large-scale transition to work from home that
organisations have initiated. A survey by Gartner (2020) of 229 Human Resources (HR) departments
revealed that about one-half of the companies had more than 80% of their employees working from home
during early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic and also estimated substantial long-term increases for remote
work after the pandemic.

The usage of the principles of Scientific Management during the shift to work from home can increase
employees’ productivity. The first principle, science over rule of thumb, emphasises upon the need to
determine what a job entails using scientific principles. The Covid-19 pandemic has created additional
requirements (safety related or otherwise) for most jobs. Thus, job descriptions must reflect this change in job
processes and approaches. Every job description should be based on the results of a thorough job analysis
conducted through a collaborative effort among human resources staff, supervisors and employees
(SHRM, 2020). The second principle of scientific management talks about scientific selection and training
of employees. Within the context of the pandemic, recruitment of employees can shift to the virtual mode.
This can be done via company websites or online job boards such as LinkedIn. Many of the scientific
techniques of recruitment and selection, such as structured interviews, group discussions and psychological
testing can take place via online platforms such as Zoom or Google Forms. The shift to work from home has
created a need for new forms of training such as cybersecurity training and appropriate workplace
behaviour training. Furthermore, newly recruited employees also need to be trained about the job processes.
All these forms of training could be accomplished by using technological platforms such as Zoom or by
providing an online lecture series.

The third principle of scientific management, cooperation over individualism, can be best understood in the
light of virtual teams. Prior research shows that virtual teamwork tends to lack the communication richness
available to face-to-face teams (Martins, Gilson, & Maynard, 2004) and that traditional teamwork problems
such as conflict and coordination can escalate quickly in virtual teams (Mortensen & Hinds, 2001). Prior work
has shown the need – especially in virtual teams – to formalize team processes, clarify team goals, and
build-in structural solutions to foster psychologically safe discussions. Aligning teams, ensuring that teams
communicate regularly via online platforms and thorough information processing among team members can
ensure that members of a virtual team cooperate with one another. The final principle i.e., the equal division
of work best suited to management and employees is perhaps the most relevant in the current pandemic.
A large number of employees have been laid off during the pandemic which has the potential to create a
disproportionately large brunt of work for some of the existing employees. This is likely to interfere with
employee productivity and create more stress. Thus, organisations need to ensure an equal division of labour
among its employees (Anseel et al., 2020). Many organisations have resorted to using ‘gig workers’ for the
same. For instance, companies like Deloitte, McKinsey and Co. from their surveys stated that companies and
HR may increasingly rely on freelance-temporary workers rather than going for a permanent hiring, in view
of the pandemic.

In this context, Taylor’s take on productivity comes to foreground. Taylor’s keen observations during time
and motion studies show how long it took for workers to perform an operation, the types of work-related
materials they used methods to help each worker optimize his or her personal level of productivity, and
techniques for achieving efficient division of labor. The legacy of scientific management is found wherever
machine-like precision in an operation is required to improve profitability. For instance, scientific
management is at play when workers assemble a McDonald’s burger in seconds. Further the theory becomes
important in COVID times due to following five reasons. First, it introduced better management through
scientific methods such as work study, incentive plans, rest hours etc. Second, it eliminates wasteful time and
motions in performing various activities as it introduced time and motion studies to increase contribution to
organisational goals. Third, he identified planning and execution as two distinct jobs. People responsible for
planning and execution belong to separate departments and need distinct specialization. Fourth, rather than
treating all workers at par, the theory rewards efficient workers (those who produce more than the standard
output) by paying them a higher rate and lower rate to inefficient workers (those who produce less than the
standard output). This motivates workers to increase efficiency in order to make financial gains.

The Human Relations Movement pays attention to social factors that operate at the workplace. Employees’
productivity is influenced not just by the working conditions but also by the social relationships that are present
at the place of work. This is still applicable when the shift to work from home has been made. Thus, Human
Relations Movement can be applied to effectively reduce the social isolation and workplace loneliness
experienced by employees. In such a scenario, it is essential for organisations to invest in technological tools
to help employees connect. Sharing videos, emoticons and GIFs can be a way for people to build and
maintain relationships with their co-workers even while working from home. Employers can also encourage
the formation of online social support groups among employees (Skipp, 2020). Apart from social
relationships with co-workers, relationship with one’s supervisor or leader also plays a role in influencing
employee productivity and well-being. Research has shown that the absence of traditional physical cues of
dominance and status in virtual settings can foster more participatory relationships of employees and their
supervisors (Antonakis & Atwater, 2002). Leaders can make use of this to ensure more equitable relationships
with their subordinates. Furthermore, because working remotely reduces any opportunity for subordinates to
get feedback for their performance, leaders should themselves ensure that regular feedback is provided by
holding regular one on one meetings with their subordinates via online platforms. When supervisors
empathise with their employees and listen to their concerns, employees become more engaged. Research on
emotional intelligence and emotional contagion tells us that employees look to their managers for cues
about how to react to sudden changes or crisis situations. If a manager communicates stress and
helplessness, this will have what Daniel Goleman calls a “trickle-down” effect on employees (Barsade, 2002).
Thus, The HR managers have been pushed to deal with these additional in a pandemic which can only be
resolved if the focus is on employee’s well- being, a central tenet of Human relation movement in OB.

CHALLENGES

1. SEXUAL HARASSMENT

Sexual harassment is bullying or coercion of a sexual nature, or the unwelcome or inappropriate promise of
rewards in exchange for sexual favors (Barickman, 1991). This type of harassment can take place at the
workplace or other professional or social situations. In most modern legal contests, sexual harassment is
illegal. As defined by the United States’ Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), “It is unlawful
to harass a person (an applicant or employee) because of that person’s sex. Harassment can include “sexual
harassment” or unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favours, and other verbal, physical or
psychological harassment of a sexual nature. Barak (2005) has categorised gender harassment (sexual) in 4
categories as active verbal abuse, passive verbal, active graphic harassment and passive graphic abuse. Studies
have shown substantial rates of sexual harassment: 42% among female federal workers (US Merit Systems
Protection Board, 1981) 53% among female workers in the general population (Gutek, 1985), and 50%. among
female university students (Fitzgerald et al, 1988).

Further, situation brought by the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a spike in people working from home
(WFH) and subsequently a rise in cyber sexual harassment. The current Cyber Sexual Harassment (CSH) is
defined as the use of the internet to make uninvited advances, communications or interactions with another
person or entity (Shufford, 2020). Since the nationwide lockdown started, Cohere Consultants, a pan-India
practice working on sexual harassment and diversity and inclusion in the workplace, has seen a 20% rise in
complaints (Singh, 2020). Cyber sexual harassment policies of the organisations are ineffective and
harder to implement in virtual situations (PTI, 2020). Since work and social life are intertwined with
modern technologies, it's hard for the potential victims to evade sexual harassment (Slonje & Smith, 2008). In
addition, superiors with better technology can now access sensitive information if they wish, something that
would not have otherwise been possible (Vranjes et al., 2017). Such personal information could then be
leveraged to threaten or even harm individuals by posting it online. Further, perpetrators are often able to
conceal their identities and stay anonymous online (Staude-Müller et al., 2012). Anonymity is what increases
the severity of sexual harassment (Mishna et al., 2009), making the victim feel helpless and powerless. The
online disinhibition effect makes people indulge in things online that they would not normally do (Suler,
2004). Power imbalance between the target and therefore the perpetrator is another important characteristic,
with the web context providing new opportunities to realize it (Langos, 2012). Having technologically
advanced skills translates to having more power on the internet (Vandebosch & Van Cleemput, 2008).

The Four Factor Model (O’Hare & O’Donohue, 1998) identifies the risk factors of sexual harassment, from
a patriarchal perspective. Some of these risk factors are described as follows:
• Motivation. This dimension is based on extremely patriarchal notions of victim blame. The motivation
dimension examines the variables which originate from the victim that could serve as a motivator for
the harasser (Feingold, 1992).
• Overcoming internal inhibitions against harassment. An individual with low moral values may not
regard harassment as seriously wrong or immoral, and thus feels uninhibited from sexually harassing
someone else.
• Overcoming external inhibitions against harassment. External factors like lack of privacy,
knowledge of grievance procedure and presence of skewed gender ratio, unprofessional working
environment & sexist attitudes lay the ground for SH
• Overcoming victim resistance. This factor refers to the ability of a victim to recognize and in turn stop
any behavior towards harassment. The related variables are sex-role and the job status of the victim.

Consequences

Fitzgerald (1995) posited in Integrated Model that sexual harassment is a stable behavioral construct, and
that sexual harassing behaviors should be viewed as related manifestations of this construct rather than
behaviors occurring in isolation. According to him, organizational climate for sexual harassment and job
gender context are considered critical antecedents of sexual harassment which is in turn is responsible for
negative consequences such as Job outcomes (job satisfaction, organizational withdrawal), Psychological
well-being such as (stress, anxiety, and depression), Health-related outcomes like (headaches, sleep
disturbances, gastrointestinal problems).

Studies addressing the deleterious mental health consequences of sexual harassment (Fitzgerald et al,
1988, Schneider et al, 1997) also suggest that it has substantial public health implications. Mental health
consequences include anger, depression, anxiety, and substance use and abuse (Richman et al, 1996). Less
attention has been directed to more generalized interpersonally abusive workplace experiences, since
epidemiologic studies of workplace stressors have generally emphasized task-related aspects of work (Kohn
& Schooler, 1983). By contrast, organizational behavior studies focus greater attention on interpersonal
interactions, and epidemiologic research has linked conflictual workplace interactions with psychiatric
morbidity (Romanov et al, 1996).

Sexual harassment has a direct effect on employers and the global economy. Each year, millions are lost
due to absenteeism, low productivity, employee turnover, low morale, and legal costs stemming from sexual
harassment. The economy also suffers due to premature retirement and higher insurance costs. According to
the Handbook of Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (2015), there can be professional consequences
as well, such as decreased performance, increased absenteeism and subsequent loss of pay, loss of promotional
opportunities, and retaliation from the respondent, or colleagues/friends of the respondent, the victim being
subjected to gossip and scrutiny at work, objectification, becoming publicly sexualized, being ostracized,
having to relocate and weaken the support network.

Apart from these consequences for the victim, there also exist legal consequences for the harasser which
vary from country to country, company to company, based on extent of harassment, workplace policies etc.
Organizations that use technology—especially the Internet and e-mail—must address the potential for
harassment, bias, discrimination, and offensive sexual behavior abuses (Verespe, 2000). For instance,
Chevron, which settled a sexual harassment lawsuit for $2.2 million because offensive e-mails—such as “25
reasons why beer is better than women”—were readily circulated on the company’s e-mail system.
Organizations such as Citigroup and Morgan Stanley have also been taken to court by employees for racist e-
mail proliferating on their e-mail systems (Michaels, 2004).

Recommendations

All organizations must have a policy handbook which clearly states their sexual harassment policy, general
harassment policy, policy about how sexual harassment investigations are conducted in the company and a
policy that forbids an employee in a supervisory role from dating a reporting employee and that details the
steps required should a relationship form.

1. Managers and supervisors are the front lines when it comes to managing employee performance and
needs from work. Organizations should be careful to not promote a workplace culture that allows
any form of harassment to occur. It is essential for an employer to show that he/she takes appropriate
steps following a sexual harassment complaint. In fact, demonstrating immediate action and that
the consequences for the perpetrator were severe, is also critical.
2. Employees, supervisors and managers must be trained at least once a year, focusing on what sexual
harassment is, explain that employees have a right to a workplace free of sexual harassment, review
your complaint procedure, and encourage employees to use it.

2. WORK FROM HOME

The covid-19 pandemic has affected all spheres of life ranging from personal, social to professional. With
the recent advent of the pandemic, organizations suddenly have to navigate the unprecedented and thereby
find new solutions to challenges arising across many areas of their operations, thus making the role of HR
equally crucial in addressing the challenges posed by the pandemic in current times. With the increased nature
of ambiguous living and uncertainty around work, the human resource management requires the organisations
to quickly venture into the “unknown unknowns” as they strive to help their workforce adapt to and cope with
radical changes occurring in the work and social environment (Caranevale & Hatan, 2020). Gartner (2020)
survey of 229 Human Resources (HR) departments showed that approximately one-half of the companies had
more than 80% of their employees working from home during early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic – and
estimated substantial long-term increases for remote work after the pandemic.

While the COVID-19 impact can be felt by organisations across sectors, 72% of the Indian organisations
stated that its impact will be felt beyond six months, according to an EY survey titled ‘HR resilience planning
- COVID-19 impact and preparedness’. According to the survey, around 70% of the organisations believe that
the single biggest concern for continued remote working is a fall in productivity. In light of such strains,
COVID-19 has substantially contributed to greater risk of employees encountering job burnout – a chronic
stress syndrome, including chronic feelings of exhaustion and a distant attitude toward work (Demerouti
2010). Moreover, the continuous exposure to COVID-19 news fosters rumination – repetitively and passively
focusing on symptoms of distress and on the possible causes and consequences of these symptoms (Nolen-
Hoeksema et al., 2008). A survey done by SHRM revealed that sixty-five percent of employers claimed
maintaining employee morale as a huge challenge during the pandemic. More than one-third of employers
are facing difficulties with aspects like company culture, employee productivity and leave regulations.

Employees find it difficult to maintain boundaries between work and home while they are working from
home. When the willingness of employees to work from home during the pandemic was explored, it was found
that that willingness to work from home was dependent on factors like availability of good internet
connectivity, quiet working environment and presence of children at home (Shareena and Shahid, 2020). For
managers and supervisors, work from home is challenging because regular monitoring and supervision of
employees becomes difficult (Bhave, Teo & Dalal, 2020). This makes it difficult for employers to conduct
routine activities like performance appraisal.

The crisis is also forcing organisations to re-look at the HR processes and operations through a digital lens.
More than 70% of the organizations are now moving to virtual methods of recruitment, and emerging
technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Robotic Process Automation and Machine Learning are leading this
change, the survey said.Mak and Kozlowski (2019) observed before the pandemic, “Virtual teams … are
growing in number and importance.” Prior research shows that virtual teamwork tends to lack the
communication richness available to face-to-face teams (Martins, Gilson, & Maynard, 2004) and that
traditional teamwork problems such as conflict and coordination can escalate quickly in virtual teams
(Mortensen & Hinds, 2001). Increased team virtuality as a result of COVID-19 may also decrease helping
and prosocial behavior (Newark et al, 2017). Research evidence has shown that virtual teamwork tends to
lack the communication richness available to face-to-face teams (Martin et al, 2004) and that traditional
teamwork problems such as conflict and coordination can escalate quickly in virtual teams (Mortensen,
2001)

The loss of social connections – for those who were laid off and those required to WFH – is a less obvious
impact of COVID-19; however, we know from research those high-quality social interactions – including
informal chats among co-workers – are essential for mental and physical health (Mogilner et al 2018).
Handshakes are another social activity we know to be valuable (Schroeder et, 2019) that can no longer be
practiced. Against this backdrop, both the requirement to WFH and plans to de-densify workplaces in support
of physical distancing are likely to have side effects that include at least some degree of harm to individuals'
mental and physical health (Brooks et al., 2020).More extreme than the loss of social connections, loneliness
is a psychologically painful emotion that results from people’s subjective feelings that their intimate and social
needs are not adequately met (Cacioppo et al., 2006) and was already considered “an epidemic” (Murthy,
2017) prior to COVID-19. Workplace loneliness has been shown to have strong negative relationships to
employees’ affective commitment, affiliative behaviors, and performance (Ozcelik & Barsade, 2018).

A survey done by AON consisting of 304 companies in Asian Pacfic region revealed that about 67% of HR
professionals face business continuity challenges followed by flexible work arrangements (64%), managing
employee communications (54%) and reviewing current welfare policies (25%). A further challenge
extends to means of assessment and evaluation amidst the pandemic i.e., the performance appraisal cycles.
Working remotely may reduce the opportunities for subordinates to gain feedback from leaders and prior
research suggests that a lack of learning opportunities is associated with lower organizational commitment
and higher risk of turnover (Vandenberghe et al., 2019).

Employees often find it challenging to maintain boundaries between work and non-work (Ramarajan & Reid,
2013). Thus, maintaining work-life balance with house work and office work is increasingly taking a toll on
both physical and mental health of employees. With WFH, many organisations have realised the importance
of agility in working and thereby stressing on the role of ‘gig workers. Companies like Deloitte, McKinsey
and Co. from their surveys stated that companies and HR may increasingly rely on freelance-temporary
workers rather than going for a permanent hiring, in view of the pandemic. However, with increased gig
workers, the challenges include getting and staying organized; managing the heightened emotions associated
with such work; figuring out and maintaining an identity so that those emotions do not disrupt the productivity
upon which their survival depends; coping with loneliness while also seeking out and maintaining functional
relationships that support the work; and, establishing some semblance of a longer-term career (Ashford et al.,
2018).

Solutions

In light of such enormous challenges, it becomes essential for HR to take up a much more dynamic and
comprehensive role that can help organisations to come out of the challenges posed by the pandemic. The HR
increasingly needs to focus on fostering resilience among not only its workforce but also in the culture of the
workplace with an equally resilient leadership, leading the entire organisation in this time of adversity. For
eg, the use of new digital technologies, sophisticated automation powered by AI, advanced analytics, Internet
of Things (IoT), etc. can help reshape the way operations are done to support or augment human decision
making. COVID has further highlighted the importance of being innovative, agile and creative on almost all
fronts. Thus, being constantly innovative in providing support to employees is something which can go a long
way. For eg, companies like Amazon and Starbucks have come up with insurance coverage for their frontline
workers as well as launched innovative measures like ‘tele-medicines’ to provide the needed medical support
to their employees online as they continue working from home. As employees increasingly begin to
experience burnout and stress, HR may use top-down interventions to take care of employee health and
well-being with a goal to restore balance between job demands and resources. This can be done by
providing (a) immediate tangible resources, such as information (e.g., about working from home, prevention
of transmission), employee assistance programs (EAPs), or access to counseling, therapy, and training; and
(b) psychological resources such as feedback, support, and inspiration through regular contact with their
employees using video calls (Oprea et al., 2020). Demonstrating empathy and listening to employees has
become increasingly important, particularly during a crisis like covid which can be daunting. Employees
are keen to be heard, and the HR team plays an important function in providing that support. One of the things
that keeps employees engaged is knowing that the organization cares about educating and upskilling them.
Changing workplace needs require employees to pick up new skills to stay relevant. The company’s HR
team can lead this initiative and build training plans that target various work functions, benefiting not
just the employee but the organization as well, which can expand its scope with multi-skilled professionals to
tackle new areas of the business. Global HR functions have been building “priority teams” that are tasked with
ensuring a smooth workflow during crises, while managing employees fairly and effectively. The team
identifies sustainable practices that keep the company and its employees in sync during trying times, as well
as in the long run, providing the means of much needed support. These can include check-ins and monitoring
of employee health and well-being. In addition, regular emails offering healthy work-from-home tips and
highlighting supporting policies and practices will go a long way in combating the always-on culture, while
convincing employees that the company cares for their well-being. Further, showcasing compassionate
leadership becomes equally essential during these times especially when organisations are managing health
and safety, ensuring work continuity, and promoting well-planned and ethical policies. The need for building
a collective sense of community with the colleagues and organisation, on the whole can further prove to
be highly beneficial for organisations to come out of the adversity much more successfully and stronger. The
HR therefore must focus on increasing collaboration alongside providing support in order to develop solutions
for problems being faced. Further CHROs of leading organisations are offering some form of wellbeing
assistance, such as webinars, wellbeing check-ins, apps, expansion of in-house wellbeing programs.
Revamping communication strategies in order to enhance employee engagement can also prove to be highly
effective in combating the challenges of the contemporary times.

Though the long-term implications of COVID-19 are currently unknown, there is little reason to believe its
impact on organizational life will be short-lived. Accordingly, the focus of HR must be forward thinking,
building on the assumption that the grand challenge currently being faced by organisations is not a singular,
anomalous event, but rather constitutes a “new reality” that offers new opportunities to which companies and
employees alike will need and want to remain attentive. Alongside realising the importance of empathy,
compassion, and mental health; HR needs to tap into the experiences of their employees and challenges that
current scenario is creating in front of them in order to tackle them in a more inclusive and comprehensive
manner.

Examples of organisation that have taken active steps to combat this challenge-
• In March 2020, due to the pandemic, WALMART changed some of its employee benefits. Employees
can now decide to stay home and take unpaid leave if they feel unable to work or uncomfortable
coming to work. Additionally, Walmart employees who contract the virus will receive "up to two
weeks of pay". After two weeks, hourly associates who are unable to return to work are eligible for up
to 26 weeks in pay.
• RP TECH INDIA has unveiled Work from Home (WFH) and Learn from Home (LFH) solutions to
help people safeguard from coronavirus. It is important to set standards for working hours, define clear
deliverables and metrics that will enable employers to track output and measure employees’
performance. Employers should invest in video conferencing and collaboration tools also explore
virtual community forums for knowledge sharing. one must take care of his mental and physical health
and organizations can to help employees strike a balance between work and family. companies should
regularly organize health and fitness activities for them to keep them happy and motivated. RP tech
India recently organized a virtual Talent Hunt for employees and their family members. Recognition
can be the biggest motivation for employees and it also ensures constant performance from them.

3. GLOBALISATION
As part of the rapidly changing environment, organizational members face the globalization of business.
Organizations are no longer constrained by national borders in producing goods and services. BMW, a
German-owned firm, builds cars in South Carolina. Similarly, McDonald’s sells hamburgers in China, and
General Electric expects to receive 60 percent of its revenue growth from developing countries in the next ten
years (Robert, 2005). This is globalization, a process of interconnecting the world’s people with respect to the
cultural, economic, political, technological, and environmental aspects of their lives (Lodge, 1995).

As per DeCenzo, 2008, the rise of multinational and transnational corporations’ places new requirements on
human resource managers. For example, human resource departments must ensure that employees with the
appropriate mix of knowledge, skills, and cultural adaptability are available and ready to handle global
assignments. All countries have different values, morals, customs, political and economic systems, and legal
systems. However, a strong case can be made that traditional business approaches need to be understood
within their social context. That is, organizational success can come from a variety of practices—each of
which is derived from a different business environment. For example, status is perceived differently in
different countries. In France, status is often the result of factors important to the organization, such as
seniority and education. This emphasis is called ascribed status. Human resource managers need to understand
societal issues, such as status, that might affect operations in another country. Countries also have different
laws. For instance, in the United States laws guard against an employer taking action against an employee
solely on the basis of an employee’s age.

In other words, cultures around the world impact the organizational behavior of managers and employees
quite differently. For example, a recent study found that cultural differences (by country, race/ethnicity, and
religion) affected the attitudes and behaviors of managers toward profit and other related business concerns
(Yong, 2008). Hofstede's original study (1980) compromises mainly four dimensions such as power distance,
uncertainty avoidance, individualism collectivism and masculinity femininity. There are clear and systematic
differences in work related attitudes in the diff cultural groups. For example, a research study conducted by
Welsh, Luthans, and Sommer found that U.S.-based extrinsic rewards and behavioral management approaches
significantly improved the productivity of workers in a Russian factory, but a participative technique did not
(Luthans, 1998). These variables indicate a country’s means of dealing with its people and how the people see
themselves. For example, in an individualistic society such as the United States, people are primarily
concerned with their own family. In a collective society such as that in Japan, people care for all individuals
who are part of their group.

Managers face the difficult task of balancing the interests of their organization with their responsibilities
to the communities in which they operate. For e.g., It’s increasingly difficult for managers in advanced
nations, where minimum wages are typically $6 or more an hour, to compete against firms that rely on workers
from China and other developing nations where labor is available for 30 cents an hour (Robbins, 2008).

The pandemic has placed an unprecedented burden on the world economy, healthcare, and globalization
through travel, events cancellation, employment workforce, food chain, academia, and healthcare capacity.
Pandemics affect the economy in terms of demand and supply. consumers and investors tend to lose
confidence in marketplaces affected by the pandemic, depreciating the demand side of the market. absenteeism
and reduction in the workforce negate the supply side. public health and international response to pandemic
affect economics and development policies in trade, travel, and health response [Huang,2020]. The uncertainty
on the global growth forecast by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2020 is expected to decline by 3%,
and by 6.1% for advanced economies [Wahrungsfond,2020].

Expatriates face a wide variety of challenges in today's world as pandemic affects severely. Concerns about
global health insurance, Unexpected Tax Implications of Relocating Back, personal safety, employer inability
to support rapid moves forms some of the potential issues. As relocation issues mounted, expats were faced
with other issues, which included the absence of remote work arrangements for professionals overseas,
scarcity of potential work locations, and tax planning for professionals to allow them to make sound tax
decisions of where they were working from remotely. expatriates identify their main challenges over the next
two years as related to managing new types of mobility (such as virtual assignments), compliance requirements
(immigration and tax) and health care. One of the primary concerns for many companies has been to support
the mental wellbeing of assignees through this time and there has been a need for increased engagement with
assignees to discuss their wellbeing, as well as any changes to assignments (Lextar,2020). And, when people
are faced with new cultures, it is not unusual for them to become confused and disoriented, a phenomenon
known as culture shock. People also experience culture shock when they return to their native cultures after
spending time away from it—a process of readjustment known as repatriation (DeCiere, 2000).

4. DIVERSITY
Diversity and social issues have had a dramatic effect on the study and application of management and
organizational behavior. In the past, diversity was treated primarily as a legal issue; that is, for well over 45
years it has been directly against the law to discriminate against anyone, on any basis. Now organizations are
beginning to realize that diversity is not just something to deal with, but instead a reality to build on to make
a stronger, more competitive enterprise. As noted in a recent report on needed strategic initiatives to succeed
in the new global economy, “Diversity must be recognized and nurtured as the organization’s greatest
asset, and the ability to attract and work with diverse talent must be seen as a critical competitive
advantage” (Foster, 2008). Organizations are not sure about the meaning of diversity. “Diversity means much
more than ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation. New and evolving diverse populations include a full range
of ages, as well as career and geographic experiences”.

Reasons for emergence of diversity

A major for the emergence of diversity as an important reality is changing demographics. Older workers,
women, minorities, and those with more education are now entering the workforce. The composition of
today’s and tomorrow’s workforce is and will be much different from that of the past. For example, USA
Today calculates a Diversity Index (based on population racial and ethnic probabilities) that shows now about
1 out of 2 people randomly selected in the United States are racially or ethnically different, up from 1 out of
3 in 1980. In addition, the U.S. Department of Labor estimates that the majority of new workers entering the
workforce will be women or minorities. At the more micro level it means that there should be diversity in
every level of an organization. Unfortunately, such an assumption is not yet valid because diversity has not to
date noticeably reached the top levels of most organizations. There is still only a handful of women who have
broken through the “glass ceiling” of large corporations to become CEO, and only a small minority of Fortune
500 board directors or corporate offıcers are women (Branson, 2007). The second reason for the emergence
of diversity is legislation and lawsuits. Legislation going as far back as the Civil Rights Act of 1964
prohibited discrimination in employment on any basis. More recent legislation (Age Discrimination Act of
1978, Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978, Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, Civil Rights Act of
1991 and Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993) has also prohibited discrimination at the workplace. These
laws, along with lawsuits and the threat of lawsuits, have put teeth into diversity. Individuals and groups that
have found themselves excluded from organizations or managerial positions can bring and have brought
lawsuits in an effort to overcome discriminatory barriers and ensure themselves equal opportunity in
employment.

Still another reason for the emergence of the importance of diversity to organizations is the realization that
diversity can help them meet the competitive pressures they currently face. Firms that aggressively try to
hire and promote women and minorities are going to end up with a more talented and capable workforce than
those that do not take such a proactive, affırmative action approach. For example, a large study by the
American Management Association found that the more accurately the senior team of a company represents
the demographics of its market, the more likely it is that the company will design products, market services,
and create ad campaigns that score a hit (HR focus, 1999). Moreover, companies that gain a reputation for
“celebrating diversity” are more likely to attract the best employees regardless of age, gender, or ethnicity.
One study examined the relationships among racial diversity, business strategy, and firm performance in the
banking industry (Richard, 2000). It was found that racial diversity interacted with business strategy in
determining company performance as measured in three different ways: productivity, return on equity, and
market performance. Such research findings are not limited to U.S. firms. For example, a recent study found
that the percentage of women on the boards of Spanish firms was positively related to their value (Campbell
and Minguez-Vera, 2008).

Stimulated by competitive pressures, organizations now recognize and strive to obtain diverse viewpoints in
their decision-making processes and teams. Recent academic research points out the complex linkage
between work group diversity and work group functioning, (Baugher, Varanelli and Weisbord, 2000). but
there is also growing practical evidence that diversity leads to innovation and often breakthrough competitive
advantages. For example, women working for Reebok pointed out that there was no good shoe available for
aerobics. The firm took this advice and began marketing aerobic shoes, which became very profitable and
served as a breakthrough for Reebok in the very competitive athletic shoe industry. A final major reason for
the emerging challenge of diversity is that more and more organizations are entering the international arena.
A natural by-product of going international is increased diversity, in this case cultural diversity. If domestic
organizations have and promote diversity, then, as they expand globally, they will be accustomed to working
with people who have different cultures, customs, social norms, and mores.

Diversity management

Diversity Management is the deliberate effort made by the leaders of an organization to hire diverse talent and
workplace that values and protects each of its employees equally by providing resources to learn from, connect
with and respect individual differences. SHRM has identified outcomes such as the following for effective
diversity management:
1. Creating a work environment/culture that allows everyone to contribute all that they can to the
organization.
2. Leveraging differences and similarities in the workforce for the strategic advantage of the organization
3. Enhancing the ability of people from different backgrounds to work effectively together.
Diversity can be managed using –

Individual level approaches to managing diversity: Individual approaches to managing diversity typically
take two interdependent paths: learning and empathy. The first is based on acquiring real or simulated
experience; the second is based on the ability to understand feelings and emotions.
a) Learning: Many managers are often unprepared to deal with diversity; because of their inexperience
they are unsure of how to respond. Even those who think they are knowledgeable may actually need,
but not seek, diversity training. For example, one recent study revealed an interesting counterintuitive
finding. Those with low competence in the diversity domain were unaware of their deficiency and
therefore were not motivated to participate in diversity training, while those who were relatively
competent expressed more interest in additional diversity training and the opportunity to attend a
voluntary session (Kulik et al, 2007). At the heart of this learning process is communication. Managers
must openly communicate one-on-one, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, sexual preference, religion,
or those challenged with a disability, in order to determine how best to understand and interact with
them. In this way managers can learn more about a diverse group’s personal values and how the
individuals like to be treated. Managers can also begin to develop a personal style that works well with
each member of a diverse group. For example, to their amazement, many managers have learned that
people who are challenged with a disability do not want special treatment. They want to be treated like
everyone else, asking only for equal opportunities in employment. In this learning process, managers
can also encourage diverse employees to give them candid feedback regarding how they are being
treated. In this way, when the manager does something that an employee does not feel is proper, the
manager quickly learns this and can adjust his or her behavior. This form of feedback is particularly
important in helping organizations gain insights to effectively manage diversity.
b) Empathy: Closely linked to the individual learning strategy is empathy, the ability to put oneself in
another’s place and see things from that person’s point of view. Empathy is particularly important in
managing diversity because members of diverse groups often feel that only they can truly understand
the challenges or problems they are facing. For example, many women are discriminated against or
harassed at work because of their gender. A recent meta-analysis of 62 studies of gender differences
in harassment perceptions found that women perceive a broader range of social-sexual behaviors as
harassing (Rotundo, Nguyen and Sackett, 2001). Empathy is an important way to deal with more subtle
problems because it helps the manager understand the diverse employee’s point of view. Many
managers try very hard to promote minorities into management positions and to give them work-
related experiences that can help their careers. At the same time, however, these managers need to
empathize with the fact that some minority members may be ambivalent or have mixed emotions about
being promoted. They may like advancement in terms of pay and prestige, but at the same time they
 may be concerned about receiving special treatment, failing, or not living up to everyone’s
expectations. By learning how to empathize with these feelings and by offering encouragement,
guidance, and after-the-fact backup support, the manager can play an important individual role in more
effectively managing diversity.
Organisational level approaches to managing diversity: Organizational approaches to managing diversity
include a variety of techniques. Some of the most common involve testing, training, mentoring, and programs
designed to help personnel effectively balance their work and family lives.
a) Testing: A problem that organizations have encountered with the use of tests for selection and
evaluation is that they may be culturally biased. As a result, women and minorities may be able to do
the job for which they are being tested even though their test scores indicate that they should be rejected
as candidates. In recent years, a great deal of attention has been focused on developing tests that are
indeed valid for selecting and evaluating diverse employees (HR focus, 2008). One way to make tests
more valid for diverse employees is to use job-specific tests rather than general aptitude or knowledge
tests. The applicant’s age, gender, and ethnic background are not screening criteria. This approach
differs sharply from using traditional tests that commonly measure general knowledge or intelligence
(as defined by the test). People from different cultures (foreign or domestic) often did poorly on the
traditional tests because they were culturally biased toward individuals who had been raised in a white,
middle-class neighborhood. Job-specific tests help prevent diversity bias by focusing on the work to
be done. Besides being culturally unbiased, tests used in effectively managing diversity should be able
to identify whether the applicant has the necessary skills for doing the job. The word processing
example above is a good illustration because it measures the specific skills, not the subjective personal
characteristics, required for the work. In some cases carefully conducted interviews or role playing can
be used because this is the only effective way of identifying whether the person has the necessary
skills. If pencil-and-paper or online tests are used, then to help ensure that they are not biased, scientific
norming could be used. This is a process that ensures the tests are equivalent across cultures.
b) Training: Diversity training plays a key role in managing diversity in two ways. One way is by offering
training to diverse groups. Members from a diverse group can be trained for an entry-level skill or how
to more effectively do their existing or future job. The other approach is to provide training to managers
and other employees who work with diverse employees. In recent years a number of approaches have
been used in providing such diversity training. Most diversity training programs get the participants
directly involved. An example is provided by Florida International University’s Center for
Management Development (CMD). This center provides diversity training for employers in South
Florida, a geographic area where Latinos and African Americans constitute a significant percentage of
the population. One of CMD’s programs involves putting trainees into groups based on ethnic origin.
Then each group is asked to describe the others and to listen to the way its own group is described.
The purpose of this exercise is to gain insights into the way one ethnic group is perceived by another
ethnic group. Sometimes training games are used to help participants focus on cultural issues such as
how to interact with personnel from other cultures. In many cases these diversity-related games are
used as supplements to other forms of training. Research has found that the major key to the success
of diversity training is top-management support for diversity; also important are mandatory attendance
for all managers, long-term evaluation of training results, managerial rewards for increasing diversity,
and a broadly inclusionary definition of diversity in the organization.
c) Mentoring: A mentor is a trusted counselor, coach, or advisor who provides advice and assistance. In
recent years, many organizations have begun assigning mentors to women and minorities. The purpose
of the mentor program is to help support members of a diverse group in their jobs, socialize them in
the cultural values of the organization, and pragmatically help their chances for development and
advancement. There are a number of specific benefits that mentors can provide to those they assist,
including the following: 1. Identify the skills, interests, and aspirations the person has 2. Provide
 instruction in specific skills and knowledge critical to successful job performance 3. Help in
understanding the unwritten rules of the organization and how to avoid saying or doing the wrong
things 4. Answer questions and provide important insights 5. Offer emotional support 6. Serve as a
role model 7. Create an environment in which mistakes can be made without losing self-confidence
(Crampton, 1999). A number of organizations now require their managers to serve as mentors, but
besides the above types of benefits, there may also be a downside. One problem is that mentors may
become overly protective and encase those they mentor into a “glass bubble” by shunting them into
jobs with adequate pay and professional challenges, but eliminate all chance of further advancement.
d) Work/Family programs: In the typical family today, both the mother and the father have jobs and work-
family issues have recently received considerable attention in research and practice. Initially the needs
of the dual-career family were met through alternative work schedules, which allow the parents
flexibility in balancing their home and work demands. The most common alternative work schedule
arrangements are flextime, the compressed workweek, job sharing, and telecommuting, but there
are also some newer programs that help balance work and family. Flextime allows employees greater
autonomy by permitting them to choose their daily starting and ending times within a given time period
called a bandwidth. Many companies are using this concept and similar ones to help their employees
meet both organizational and personal demands. Prominent examples are that about three-fourths of
the workforce of both Hewlett-Packard and IBM use flexible work arrangements. Another alternative
work arrangement is the compressed workweek which compresses the workweek into fewer days.
These arrangements give employees more time with their families, although their full impact on
productivity, profitability, and employee satisfaction is still to be determined. Job sharing is the
splitting of a full-time position between two people, each of whom works part-time. This arrangement
is more common in professional positions in banking, insurance, and teaching. Still another alternative
work schedule that is gaining in popularity is telecommuting. Currently about a third of organizations
allow employees to work from home or off site on a regular basis. For example, over 9,000 Hewlett-
Packard employees work entirely from home.

Some examples of some other programs by companies (Luthans, 2011):

1. PepsiCo has a “concierge service” (similar to hotels) that helps employees with errands or tasks that
need to be done during the workday (e.g., getting an oil change, lining up a baby-sitter, or contracting
for house repairs).
2. Eastman Kodak has a “humor room” where employees can read light, funny materials or engage in
activities to take their minds off a stressful day.
3. Ben & Jerry’s has a “Joy Gang” charged with creating happiness in the workplace. This group plans
birthday and anniversary celebrations and creates other joyful events.

GENDER DIVERSITY AND COVID-19 pandemic underscores society’s reliance on women while
simultaneously exposing structural inequalities across every sphere, from health to the economy, security to
social protection. female jobs are 19 percent more at risk than male ones simply because women are
disproportionately represented in sectors negatively affected by the COVID-19 crisis. As COVID-19 has
disproportionately increased the time women spend on family responsibilities—by an estimated 30 percent in
India, it is not surprising that women have dropped out of the workforce at a higher rate than explained by
labor-market dynamics alone (McKinsey,2020). pandemic can be seen in a spike in domestic violence as
women are sheltering-in-place with their abusers; the loss of employment for women who hold the majority
of insecure, informal and lower-paying jobs; and the rapid increase in unpaid care work that women mostly
provide already. As women take on greater care demands at home, their jobs will also be disproportionately
affected by cuts and lay-offs. the impacts of the COVID19 global recession will result in a prolonged dip in
women’s incomes and labor force participation, with compounded impacts for women already living in
poverty (United Nations,2020).

https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/diversity-and-inclusion/diverse-employees-are-struggling-the-
most-during-covid-19-heres-how-companies-can-respond# : Struggles of diverse employees during covid

Articles on relevance of diversity during covid

• https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/diversity-and-inclusion/diversity-still-matters ;
https://hr.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/workplace-4-0/diversity-and-inclusion/diversity-
inclusion-at-the-workplace-and-their-relevance-during-the-covid-19-scenario/75841023

Impact of covid on diversity

https://www.bc.edu/content/dam/files/centers/cwf/research/Info%20Request_D%26IImpact_April2020.pdf

LABOUR SUPPLY: DOWNSIZING AND OUTSOURCING

Technology has made it possible for fewer people to do more work than ever before. Automation, the process
of replacing people with machines, is not new, of course; it has gone on, slowly and steadily, for decades.
Today, however, because it is not large mechanical devices but digital data that are manipulated, scientists
refer instead to the informating of the workplace. The term informate describes the process by which workers
use computer information technology to transform a once-physical task into one that involves manipulating a
sequence of digital commands (Zuboff, 1988). Thanks to this process, for example, today’s auto workers can
move around large hoods and trunk lids by pressing a few buttons on a keypad instead of physically
manipulating them by hand. Likewise, the process of placing sales orders often is informated. As a result of
informating, many jobs are disappearing, leaving organizations (at least the most successful ones!) smaller
than before.

Indeed, organizations have been rapidly reducing the number of employees needed to operate effectively—a
process known as downsizing. Typically, this involves more than just laying off people in a move to save
money. It is directed at adjusting the number of employees needed to work in newly designed organizations,
and is therefore also known as rightsizing (Hendricks, 1992). Many organizations need fewer people to operate
today than in the past—sometimes, far fewer. It’s important to note that we’re talking here not about jobs lost
due to economic downturns but to changes in the way work is organized that no longer makes certain jobs
necessary.

Another way organizations are restructuring is by completely eliminating those parts of themselves that focus
on noncore sectors of the business (i.e., tasks that are peripheral to the organization) and hiring outside firms
to perform these functions instead—a practice known as outsourcing. By outsourcing secondary activities,
an organization can focus on what it does best, its key capability—what is known as its core competency.
Companies like ServiceMaster, which provides janitorial services, and ADP, which provides payroll
processing services, make it possible for their client organizations to concentrate on the business functions
most central to their missions. So for example, by outsourcing its maintenance work or its payroll processing,
a manufacturing company may grow smaller and focus its resources on what it does best, producing goods.
Another widely outsourced function in computer-related businesses is customer service. The vast majority of
these services are provided by companies located in other countries, in which specialized facilities have
developed to house them. The practice of using outsourcing services of overseas companies is known as
offshoring (short for offshore outsourcing). Typically, this practice allows companies to take advantage of
lower labor costs and to leverage the expertise of talented workers in other parts of the world.
Some critics fear that outsourcing represents a “hollowing out” of companies—a reduction of functions that
weakens organizations by making them more dependent on others (Brown &Wilson, 2005). Others counter
that outsourcing makes sense when the work that is outsourced is not highly critical to competitive success
(e.g., janitorial services), or when it is so highly critical that it only can succeed by seeking outside assistance.
For example, it is a widespread practice for companies selling personal computers today to outsource the
manufacturing of various components (e.g., hard drives, CD-ROMs, and chips) to other companies. Although
this practice may sound atypical compared to what occurs in most manufacturing companies, it isn’t. In fact,
one industry analyst has estimated that 30 percent of the largest American industrial firms outsource over half
their manufacturing (Fong, 2005).

Furthermore, Thousands of organizations have decided they can save money and increase their flexibility by
converting many jobs into temporary or part-time positions, giving rise to what is commonly referred to as the
contingent workforce (Befort, 2003). Temporary workers can be found in secretarial, nursing, accounting,
assembly-line, legal, dentistry, computer programming, engineering, marketing, education, publishing, and
even senior management positions.
Types of Contingent workforce:

a. Part-Time Employees: Part-time employees are those who work fewer than 40 hours a week.
Generally, part-timers are afforded few, if any, employee benefits. Part-time employees are
generally a good source of workers for organizations to supplement their staff during peak
hours. For example, the bank staff that expects its heaviest clientele between 10 A.M. and 2
P.M. may bring in part-time tellers for those four hours. Part-time employees may also be a
function of job sharing, where two employees split one full-time job.
b. Temporary Employees: Temporary employees, such as part-timers, are generally employed
during peak production periods. Temporary workers also act as fill-ins when some employees
are off work for an extended time. For example, a secretarial position may be filled using a
“temp” while the secretary is off work during his twelve-week unpaid leave of absence for the
birth of his daughter. Temporary workers create a fixed cost to an employer for labor “used”
during a specified period.
c. Contract Workers: Contract workers, subcontractors, and consultants (who may be referred
to as freelancers) are contracted by organizations to work on specific projects. These workers,
typically highly skilled, perform certain duties. Often their fee is set in the contract and paid
when the organization receives particular deliverables. Contract workers are used because their
labor cost is fixed and they incur none of the costs associated with a full-time employee
population. Additionally, some contract arrangements may exist because the contractor can
provide virtually the same good or service in a more efficient manner.
Organizations facing a rapidly changing environment must be ready to quickly adjust their workforce. Having
too many permanent, full-time employees limits management’s ability to react. For example, an
organization that faces significantly decreased revenues during an economic downturn may have to cut staff.
Deciding whom to lay off and how layoffs will affect productivity and the organization is extremely complex
in organizations with a large permanent workforce. On the other hand, organizations that rely heavily on
contingent workers have greater flexibility because workers can be easily added or taken off projects as
needed. In addition, staffing shortages, opportunities to capitalize on new markets, obtaining someone who
possesses a special skill for a particular project, and the like all point to a need for the organization to swiftly
adjust its staffing level.
COVID:

Temporary workers: A report on the state of the professional gig economy during Covid shows that the
success of work-from-home is pushing companies to hire a mix of full-time, flexible and freelance workers,
which is pushing the demand for white-collar gig workers (Economic times, 2021). Services that were once
reliant on brick-and-mortar establishments have now grown to include gig-like employment through apps,
such as blood sample collections via apps such as ThyroApp, packers and movers services via apps such as
the Porter app, etc. The disruption of 'stable jobs' in the Covid-19 aftermath and technological commotion has
potentially disrupted the employment landscape of the country, pushing it towards a transitional phase by
replacing older molds of work with a new one. This new work environment includes rising numbers of
digitally connected, highly-skilled specified freelancers or ‘gig’ workers who have been welcomed
wholeheartedly by the employers worried about the bottom-line in a highly competitive business today. A
report by ASSOCHAM puts the annual growth rate of gig economy at 17 per cent and predicts that it will
touch $455 billion by 2023.Now with Covid-19 creating havoc with the established, structured and formal
ways of doing business, the shift in the job market is a given. The scope of the Indian Gig economy would
shift significantly, moving from the large number of blue-collar jobs to start including various white-collar
jobs as well. While contract workers in factories and low-skilled jobs struggle with high incidence of
unemployment, the knowledge economy stands to benefit from the gig framework. The technological adoption
done by the companies to facilitate employees to work-from-home has augmented the out-of-the-box thinking
for Indian businesses resulting in newer ways to reach out to candidates with requisite skills. Workers or
freelancers can procure multiple projects or gigs at the same time, thereby increasing their income manifold.
Owing to the current pandemic and consequent technological push, the trend of having senior roles, including
some CXO-level roles, as part of the gig economy, is expected to become a reality sooner than anticipated
(Sodh, 2020).

Downsizing during the covid pandemic

COVID-19 has badly impacted the economy and a lot of companies have reported losses in their revenue
leading to the slashing of salaries or downsizing people in the short term. LinkedIn stated cutting 960 jobs, or
6% of its global workforce, on July 21 in lieu of the pandemic.

In May,2020, Uber Technologies eliminated an additional 3,000 jobs IN INDIA. The company is closing
dozens of offices around the world and is shutting down many of its side projects in an effort to weather the
coronavirus pandemic that has devastated the ride-hailing business. Uber dismissed 3,700 employees in
customer support and human resources. Combining both the sets, the layoffs now work out to about 25 per
cent of the total workforce. Healthcare startup Cure.fit has also laid off 10 percent of its employees and cut
salaries across board while British airline Virgin Atlantic said on the 5th of May that it is planned to cut 3,150
jobs and would move its flying programme from London Gatwick to Heathrow airport as it counts the cost of
the Covid-19 pandemic. WeWork India,, has decided to lay off around 20 percent of its staff
• can look here for examples
https://www.businessinsider.in/thelife/news/the-coronavirus-outbreak-has-triggered-unprecedented-
mass-layoffs-and-furloughs-here-are-the-major-companies-that-have-announced-they-are-
downsizing-their-workforces-/slidelist/75459304.cms :
• managing employees in a downsized environment - https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/tools-
and-samples/toolkits/pages/managinginadownsizedenvironment.aspx:
• https://allwork.space/2020/08/downsizing-and-flexibility-what-businesses-want-during-covid-19/ :
downsizing and flexibility during covid
Outsourcing and covid

Despite perceived negative aspects related to the covid 19 pandemic, outsourcing has only continued to grow.
In fact, outsourcing is now being embraced by organizations of all sizes and domains. From startups to large
enterprises, outsourcing continues to be a tool of choice to gain competitive advantage in the business scenario.
Businesses are moving over to multiple platforms - cloud, social, mobile etc., stakeholders are getting
geographically distributed; in such a disparate environment, outsourcing has been able to conveniently adapt
to rapidly changing business environments (Edgson,2020). More than 93% of organizations are
considering or have already adopted cloud services to improve outsourcing (Dautovic,2021).
• https://www2.deloitte.com/cy/en/pages/tax/articles/outsourcing_relevancy_post_covid19_environme
nt.html : relevance of outsourcing in the post covid world
• https://entrepreneurialchef.com/outsourcing-benefits-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic/ : benefits of
outsourcing during the pandemic
• https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/01/28/why-the-pandemic-led-to-an-increase-
in-it-outsourcing/: why the pandemic led to an increase in IT outsourcing
• https://balticassist.com/outsourcing-after-covid-19-what-will-change/: how will outsourcing change
after covid

4. QUALITY MANAGEMENT
A quality revolution continues in both the private and the public sectors. The generic terms that describe this
revolution are quality management or continuous improvement. The revolution was inspired by a small group
of quality experts—individuals such as Joseph Juran and the late W. Edwards Deming. Continuous
improvement is the organizational commitment to constantly improving quality of products or services.

Kaizen
An American who found few managers in the United States interested in his ideas, Deming went to Japan in
1950 and began advising many top Japanese managers on ways to improve their production effectiveness.
Central to his management methods was the use of statistics to analyze variability in production processes. A
well-managed organization, according to Deming, was one in which statistical control reduced variability and
resulted in uniform quality and predictable quantity of output. Deming developed a fourteen-point program
for transforming organizations. Today, Deming’s original program has been expanded into a philosophy of
management driven by customer needs and expectation. Quality management expands the term customer
beyond the traditional definition to include everyone involved with the organization—either internally or
externally—encompassing employees and suppliers as well as the people who buy the organization’s products
or services. The objective is to create an organization committed to continuous improvement or, as the
Japanese call it, kaizen—one that leads to achieving an effective and lean workplace.

Components of Kaizen:
1. Intense focus on the customer. The customer includes not only outsiders who buy the organization’s
products or services but also internal customers (such as shipping or accounts payable personnel) who interact
with and serve others in the organization.
2. Concern for continuous improvement. Continuous improvement is a commitment to never being
satisfied. “Very good” is not good enough. Quality can always be improved.
3. Improvement in the quality of everything the organization does. Continuous improvement uses a broad
definition of quality. It relates not only to the final product but also to how the organization handles deliveries,
how rapidly it responds to complaints, how politely the phones are answered, and the like.
4. Accurate measurement. Continuous improvement uses statistical techniques to measure every critical
variable in the organization’s operations. These are compared against standards, or benchmarks, to identify
problems, trace them to their roots, and eliminate their causes.
5. Empowerment of employees. Continuous improvement involves the people on the line in the improvement
process. Teams are widely used in continuous improvement programs as empowerment vehicles for finding
and solving problems.

Total quality management

“Total Quality Management (TQM) is a philosophy that involves everyone in an organization in a continual
effort to improve quality and achieve customer satisfaction.” It is the application of qualitative methods and
human resources to improve all the processes within an organization and exceed customer needs now and in
the future. TQM integrates fundamental management techniques, existing improvements, and technical tools
under a disciplined approach (Talukder and Ghosh, 2004). It seeks to impose standards, achieve efficiencies,
define roles of individuals within processes and the organization as a whole, reduce errors and defects by
applying statistical process control, and to employ teams to plan and execute processes more efficiently. It
requires leaders who are willing to create a culture in which people define their roles in terms of quality outputs
to customers.

Organization process towards TQM involves a focus on these 4 values:

1.Awareness: Every employee responsible for continuous improvement and should be aware of the benefits,
TQM will bring, e.g. communicate the need for TQM and educate employees.
2.Involvement: Organization should induce sense of belonging in the employees and involve them in every
proactive process, e.g. communicate vision, develop supportive culture, develop them.
3.Commitment: All employees are committed to satisfy internal and external customer and TQM becomes
way of life, e.g. develop teams, goals, recognition systems, promote change etc.
4.Ownership: Good initiative and innovative technique should be recognized which encourages employees
to give their best, e.g. recognize achievements, reward success, empowerment, etc.

TQM continuously improves the processes by incorporating the knowledge and experiences of employees.
Implementing TQM in Indian industries needs to understand how customers define quality in both the goods
and services offered. One way to measure product performance and quality is through customer surveys, which
can help managers identify design or manufacturing problems. Problems realized from the use or
implementation of TQM in India include companies being reluctant to change their organization, a lack of
commitment, a lack of trained knowledgeable and skilled employees able to implement TQM skills and results
emerging slowly from the company added effort (Gupta, 2016).

Work process engineering

Although continuous improvement methods are useful innovations in many organizations, they generally
focus on incremental change. Such action—a constant and permanent search to make things better—is
intuitively appealing. Many organizations, however, operate in an environment of rapid and dynamic change.
Consider the changes faced by the automotive industry as consumer preferences changed quickly from SUVs
to hybrids when fuel prices skyrocketed in 2008 and the financial crisis emerged, or the airline industry as it
tried to recover from the 9/11 terrorist attacks and increased security requirements only to be hit hard by those
same fuel prices and financial crisis that sent the auto industry reeling. Incremental change simply won’t do.
As the elements around an organization quickly change, a continuous improvement process may actually keep
them behind the times.
Work process engineering goes beyond incremental change and requires an organization to face the possibility
that what the organization may really need is radical or quantum change. Work process engineering is more
radical than continuous improvement. It usually entails rethinking or redesigning processes used to accomplish
organizational goals with the objective of dramatic improvements in efficiency and competitiveness. These
actions will ultimately require many changes that will involve human resource professionals.

Covid
The first test quality management and quality management systems were put through, as COVID-19's impact
became known, was the test for agility. As governments and regulatory agencies across the globe launched
new SOPs for industries to combat COVID-19, mitigate risks, and restore normalcy, industries had to think
on their feet and be ready to roll out revised processes, communicate the revisions, and ensure conformity
across the organization. At Intellect, they witnessed how quickly Intellect customers set up remote work,
empowered everyone with access to quality documents, data, reports, and training while enabling business
continuity with remote auditing and quick online approvals. Complaints and non-conformances tracking,
among other things, also went fully digital. EpiGuard, learned firsthand how supplier challenges become
magnified during a crisis when the coronavirus led to a spike in demand for its products. Companies that rely
on disconnected or paper-based systems lack real-time visibility into current and accurate quality data and
related activities across their ecosystems and therefore have no way of sustaining “pandemic proof” quality.
Having in place a digital, cloud-based quality management system (QMS) that fosters quality alignment
between remote sites and systems is essential to maintaining quality extensibility as ecosystems shift,
according to Bjorn Olsen (2020).

As companies attempt to normalize or adapt to the new environments and obstacles that will inevitably arise,
there are several “next steps” that will enable them to confidently contend with the kinds of quality
predicaments that have come to light during the pandemic such as By Ensuring quality data connectivity,
Taking steps to move beyond reactive and even proactive quality management and toward predictive
quality management, Continually maintain high quality standards for supply chain partners etc
(Matte,2020).

5. CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

Apart from having financial responsibilities, organisations also have responsibility of obeying the law and
answering to yet a higher standard, behaving ethically. In addition to these considerations, many of today’s
organizations are going beyond their ethical responsibilities by taking proactive steps to help society at large
by virtue of their philanthropic (i.e., charitable) contributions. Together, these four types of responsibilities—
economic responsibilities, legal responsibilities, ethical responsibilities, and philanthropic responsibilities—
reflect an organization’s most fundamental forms of responsibility. Collectively, this is referred to as the
pyramid of corporate social responsibility.

The term corporate social responsibility typically focuses at the top of the pyramid. It describes business
practices that adhere to ethical values that comply with legal requirements, that demonstrate respect for
individuals, and that promote the betterment of the community at large and the environment. It involves
operating a business in a manner that meets or exceeds the ethical, legal, and public expectations that society
has of businesses. CSR is therefore, defined as the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically
and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their
families as well as of the local community and society at large” ( Holme and Watts, 2010 ).

Corporate social responsibility takes many different forms, some of the major forms are:
 ● Helping the community by making charitable contributions. One of the most popular ways for
companies to be socially responsible is by giving donations back to the communities in which they
operate. Such acts are not only helpful and generous, of course, but also stand to be good business
practices insofar as helping the community promote business and helps develop future employees.
● Preserving the environment. Many companies are involved actively in efforts to preserve the natural
environment like McDonalds and UPS. So interested are individuals in preserving the environment,
that in 2010 the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC, which regulates standards for
publicly traded companies) imposed a regulation that requires public companies to warn investors of
any serious risks that global warming might pose to their businesses.
● Socially responsible investing. Another popular form of being socially responsible involves being
highly selective in making investments. This calls for making investments in companies that promote
the well-being of society and refraining from investing in companies that may do harm.
● Promoting the welfare of employees. One of the most fundamental ways a company has of being
socially responsible is by promoting the welfare of its own employees. Several companies have gone
out of their way to avoid abusive labor practices even if they prevail in the industry. As an illustration,
the Brazilian cosmetics firm Natura Cosméticos shows its support for human rights by not using child
labor. It also gives generously to educational programs and encourages its employees to do volunteer
work for nonprofit organizations.

Several survey reports and studies have pointed out that social responsibility and profits go hand in hand. A
report by Brodes (2010) showed that the companies in the 100 Best lists outperformed the others by 26 percent
which was explained by the potential benefits of investing in socially responsible companies. Although there
are surely many different reasons for this link between social responsibility and profitability, a key one, in
connection with ethics, is that people often support the socially responsible activities of organizations with
their patronage and investments. With this in mind, there exist mutual funds that invest only in socially
responsible companies and books that provide detailed information on the socially responsible (and
irresponsible) behavior of companies that consumers and investors can use to guide their decisions.

Although profit may not be the primary objective for engaging in socially responsible behavior, it is clear that
there is a strong link between the two. Moreover, this connection appears to be bidirectional in nature. The
idea is straightforward: Companies that are successful financially invest in social causes because they can
afford to do so (i.e., they “do good by doing well”) and as we noted previously, socially responsible companies
tend to perform well financially (i.e., they “do well by doing good”). This relationship, which has been referred
to as the virtuous circle.

In India, The Companies Act, 2013 makes 'corporate social responsibilities' (CSR) mandatory for a particular
class of companies. Businesses can invest their profits in areas such as education, poverty, gender equality,
and hunger as part of any CSR compliance. At public sector business organisations in India, CSR has been
also looked upon as closely linked with the principle of sustainable economic development, which demand
that organisations should make decisions and act based not only on financial factors but also on immediate
and long term social and environmental consequences of their operations and activities (Kumar, 2019). Yet
several challenges to CSR faced by organisations are-

• The Shrinking Role of Government: In the past, governments have relied on legislation and regulation to
deliver social and environmental objectives in the business sector. Shrinking government resources, coupled
with a distrust of regulations, has led to the exploration of voluntary and non-regulatory initiatives instead.

• Increased Customer Interest: There is evidence that the ethical conduct of companies exerts a growing
influence on the purchasing decisions of customers. In a recent survey by Environics International, more than
one in five consumers reported having either rewarded or punished companies based on their perceived social
performance.

• Growing Investor Pressure: Investors are changing the way they assess companies' performance, and are
making decisions based on criteria that include ethical concerns. The Social Investment Forum reports that in
the US in 1999, there was more than $2 trillion worth of assets invested in portfolios that used screens linked
to the environment and social responsibility.

• Competitive Labour Markets: Employees are increasingly looking beyond paychecks and benefits, and
seeking out employers whose philosophies and operating practices match their own principles. In order to hire
and retain skilled employees, companies are being forced to improve working conditions.

• Supplier Relations: As stakeholders are becoming increasingly interested in business affairs, many
companies are taking steps to ensure that their partners conduct themselves in a socially responsible manner.
Some are introducing codes of conduct for their suppliers, to ensure that other companies' policies or practices
do not tarnish their reputation. The concept of CSR had different meanings depending on the stakeholder and
that depending on the specific situation of the enterprise’s expectations can also vary.

In the present COVID times, the role played by organisations through CSR is gaining a lot of public attention
and importance. Thus, ever since the coronavirus was declared a pandemic by WHO, corporates have come
out to support the government and the people of the country by allocating and sharing resources, helping in
the vaccination process, focusing on employee welfare and more. Globally last year in 2020 leading companies
like Mc Donald’s, Audi, Coca-Cola, Volkswagen began advocating for social distancing norms through a
creative change in their logos. For example, Nike began globally sharing the message ““Staying apart is the
best way to stay united”. Indian famous dairy brand Amul released a series of messages motivating people to
wash their hands, greet others using the no-contact, namaste method and to work from home to protect novel
coronavirus from the social transition. Hindustan Unilever Limited, through its product Lifebuoy soap,
spreads the message of “washing hands frequently with Any Soap or Hand-wash or Alcohol based Sanitizer
to combat against the spread of CoronaVirus”. More recently, as India began to fight the deadly second wave
of the pandemic, many leading organisations have come forward to support the governments in these trying
times. For example, HUL recently started the mission “HOPE” in all major metropolitan cities of the country
grappling with lack of oxygen supply to provide them access to oxygen concentrators and cylinders for free.
Similarly, SBI recently announced to allocate 71 crores to support government initiatives aimed at controlling
the second wave through investments in ICU beds, oxygen concentrators etc. even companies like Google
and Microsoft have pledged to help India in controlling the second wave caused by the virus in the country.
Samsung too has pledged $5 million (Rs 37 Crore) as its contribution to India’s fight against the current surge
of Covid-19, providing donations to central and state governments, and boosting the healthcare sector with
essential medical equipment for hospitals, as part of its citizenship initiatives. Reliance Foundation has set
up 1,000-bed Covid Care facilities with oxygen supply in Jamnagar. GiveIndia and OYO Care have
launched a fundraising campaign #ShelterForAll with an aim to raise Rs 10 crore to offer rooms as isolation
and quarantine shelters for COVID-19 positive patients in need in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Gurgaon/Delhi
NCR for symptomatic as well as asymptomatic COVID-19 patients during their recovery.

Apart from these health related initiatives, various leading companies have been consistently coming up with
empowering initiatives especially for marginalised communities to help them come out of the negative
economic setbacks caused by the pandemic. For example, Tata Power and Amazon India have together
launched an initiative called ‘Dhaaga’ to empower women entrepreneurs which will not only provide the
beneficiaries with needed training and skills but also generate employment opportunities for them through
Amazon’s on-going ‘Saheli’ initiative. The tech giant, Google, has launched similar empowerment initiatives
and has pledged to support 1 million rural women in India. The company recently launched internet Saathi
program within which, the Women Will web platform has been launched. This platform, accessible in English
and Hindi, will enable aspiring women to explore entrepreneurship.

6. TECHNOLOGY
Technology has had a positive effect on internal operations for organizations, but it also has changed the way
human resource managers work. HRM professionals have become the primary source of information in many
organizations. Information can quickly and easily be communicated via company Websites and intranets, e-
mail, and messaging. Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS) allow HRM professionals to better
facilitate human resource plans, make decisions faster, clearly define jobs, evaluate performance, and provide
cost effective benefits that employees want. Technology helps to strengthen communications with both the
external community and employees. Following are few areas where effect is direct:

A. Recruiting: Contacting a pool of qualified applicants is one of the most critical aspects of recruiting. Word
of mouth, newspaper advertisements, and college visits are often supplemented or replaced altogether by
job postings on the Internet. Posting jobs on company websites, or through specific job-search web sites
such as careerbuilder.com and Monster.com, help human resource managers reach a larger pool of
potential job applicants and assist in determining if an applicant possesses some of the basic technology
skills.
B. Employee Selection: Once applicants have been identified, HRM must carefully screen final candidates
to ensure they fit well into the organization’s culture. Many Internet tools make background searches of
applicants quick and easy. HRM selection tools help to “select out” people who aren’t team players, can’t
handle ambiguity and stress, or are a poor fit with company culture
C. Training and Development: Technology is also dramatically changing how human resource managers
orient, train, and develop employees and help them manage their careers. The Internet has provided HRM
opportunities to deliver Web based training and development to employees on demand, whenever the
employee has the time to concentrate on the material.
D. Motivating Knowledge Workers: Knowledge workers appear more susceptible to distractions that can
undermine their work effort and reduce their productivity. Employers often believe they must monitor
what employees are doing because employees are hired to work, not to surf the Web checking stock prices,
placing bets at online casinos, or shopping for presents for family or friends
E. Paying Employees Market Value: It’s becoming more difficult today for organizations to find and retain
technical and professional employees. Many companies have implemented an extensive list of attractive
incentives and benefits rarely seen by nonmanagerial employees in typical organizations: for instance,
signing bonuses, stock options, cars, free health club memberships, full-time on-site concierges, and cell
phone bill subsidies. These incentives may benefit their recipients, but they have downsides. One is the
perception of inequity if they are not offered to all employees. The other is the increasing problem created
by offering stock options as a benefit to employees.
F. Communications: The rules of communication are being rewritten as information technology creates more
opportunities for communication. Employees today can communicate with any individual directly without
going through channels. For instance, virtual meetings allow people in geographically dispersed locations
to meet regularly
G. Decentralized Work Sites: For human resource managers, much of the challenge regarding decentralized
work sites revolves around training managers how to establish and ensure appropriate work quality and
on-time completion. Decentralized work sites remove traditional “facetime,” and managers’ need to
“control” the work must change. Instead, greater employee involvement will allow workers the discretion
to make decisions that affect them.
H. Legal Concern: Organizations that use technology, especially the Internet and e-mail must address the
potential for harassment, bias, discrimination, and offensive sexual behavior abuses (Verespe, 2000).
 Organizations such as Citigroup and Morgan Stanley have also been taken to court by employees for racist
e-mail proliferating on their e-mail systems(Michaels, 2004). As one researcher pointed out, federal law
views a company’s e-mail no differently than if offensive materials were circulated on a company’s
letterhead (Grossman, 2000). Therefore, HRM policy must define inappropriate electronic
communications, reserve the right to monitor employee Internet and e-mail usage, and specify disciplinary
actions for violations.

Months into the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of employees are still working remotely. Companies have
installed tracking software on computers to supervise their employees at home as well as in the office.
Employee monitoring software comes in many forms. It could be something as simple as Slack giving the
boss access to ones private messages or as complex as dedicated programs that monitor how many minutes
one spend using Slack (also Facebook, YouTube, actual job). Some programs allow the employee to self-
report time spent on various tasks, and others can record it for them. Some take screenshots of an employee’s
monitor at random intervals, while others record every single key they press. The videoconferencing software
Zoom, for example, used to allow hosts on its paid service to turn on something called “attention tracking.”
This feature let them see if meeting attendees navigated away from the app for longer than 30 seconds during
a meeting, which served as a good indication that they were looking at something else. Companies can pick
and choose which monitoring features they want to enable.

Some major employers like Microsoft, Target, and Deloitte have extended their remote work policies to mid-
2021 or announced plans to maintain them on a permanent basis. By simulating, modifying, and enhancing
real-world situations, these tools [augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) ] allow companies to have
greater control over the “environment” in which training takes place. Das (2020), says, “The technology needs
to be more immersive to blur boundaries; for instance, with life-size screens for meetings between physical
and virtual locations. It is a matter of time before 3D replications of individuals, for instance, Microsoft Mesh,
located virtually will seem to be present in the same room.” According to Pichai (2021), Google is now
developing “advanced video technology that creates greater equity between employees in the office and those
joining virtually.” Companies have already started talking about virtualizing embedded work for select
customers with backup power systems and office workstations supplied to engineers at home (The Economic
Times, 2020). Technology also provides companies to build an atmosphere of camaraderie while sitting in
one’s own room. Planning virtual coffee breaks, happy hours, participating in online karaoke sessions are
some of the fun ways to let one’s hair down.
Virtual games through new apps like Psych are being used by teams to unwind and play games jointly from
home.

As far as workers and their representatives are concerned, the main danger lies in the new capacity that exists
for monitoring and surveillance. New technology may allow employees' work and productivity to be
monitored, and also aspects of their personal lives, while their use of the internet and e-mail can be subject to
monitoring. This raises questions of both privacy and the relationship of control at the workplace. These
dangers can be even greater, and the surveillance technology even more advanced, in situations where there
is a physical distance between the worker and the employer. The crisis is also forcing organisations to re-look
at the HR processes and operations through a digital lens. More than 70% of the organizations are now moving
to virtual methods of recruitment, and emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Robotic Process
Automation and Machine Learning are leading this change, the survey said.

Henceforth, there will be the era of the virtual supervisor, able to do anything without the worker always being
fully aware of what is going on and, in certain circumstances, and over and above legitimate monitoring of
employees’ safety and productivity, able to draw up the virtual employee’s professional, intellectual and
psychological profile (Ray, 2020).