Value formation in human resources and national development

Roshantha Fernando

Management: Management as a discipline has evolved through the years from Fredrick Taylor to Henry Ford to contemporaries such as Peter Drucker and Tom Peters etc. in the last 30 years with the emergence of various concepts on Human Resources Management and Human Resources has been spoken about more than any other aspect in management.

Human Resource Management has rightly located the heart of the employee at the heart of the business universe. It is now accepted that it is a vital part of the development process.

Consequently every business organisation has a sacred duty to develop this resource while inculcating the correct values and business ethics.

Recent changes

While the recent changes in Human Resources Development has been overwhelming, regrettably individual interests have superseded corporate and social interests. Money has replaced morality and envy has taken over from admiration for achievement.

With regular monotony we read in the newspapers of incidents of worker indiscipline, acts of vandalism and sabotage in workplaces, as well as of alarming number of cases of fraud, misapplication and misappropriation of funds, dereliction of duty and various acts of employee misconduct.

Apparently the appetite to make quick money is driving employees, even those at Managerial levels to violent and unethical extremes. The malpractices by Managers and Directors in Public establishments and private enterprises have been on the increase.

Cases of Directors swindling shareholders, misappropriation of large sums of money and receiving gratifications are quite common. It has not come as a surprise if more and more employees both at managerial levels and the lower levels are convicted for misconduct, criminal and civil offences.

Deteriorating standards

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

The whole workforce in this country is in danger of becoming trapped in false values, becoming rich fast and amassing riches is the thing. In the pursuit of riches principles, ethics and values are relegated to the limbo of forgotten things.

Development and value formation

It is widely accepted that Human Resources Development is the vital part of the development process. We in Sri Lanka are now continuously reviewing the approaches to development. We have moved a long way from Harriod Domar model of considering finances are the only tangible investment.

Now we are investing more on Human Resources and Technology. The importance of the "Human Resource" in the process of National Development cannot be overemphasized. In the process of attempting to develop the Human Resources the increasing importance of value formation and education is being realized.

Values and culture

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

Education

All Government and business enterprises over the world have recognised the importance of worker education and value formation in Human Resources Management and National Development. In Sri Lanka education and value formation has never been more crucial in Human Resources Development than at present.

Certain organisations had at random times in the past and probably without being consciously aware of it, used education and value formation for their own sake not so much with a view of developing staff.

This they apparently did without fixed purposes of ensuring that it would be beneficial for managing human resources towards achievable and determinable goals in productivity, efficiency, discipline, and group effectiveness.

Never before in the history of this country has it become so essential to plan and implement well thought out programmes of training and education to the future generation which is going to face rapid changes in all spheres of human activities. We are aware that in 1945 Japan was completely devastated. Robbery, stench, begging, prostitution demoralisation, lack of public services confronted the Japanese.

New values

How did Japan graft new values to their traditional culture? The humiliating and ignominious defeat in the war and the dire economic consequences placed Japan in unenviable economic and political predicament.

In its efforts to rebuild the concept of the Four Ds - Diligence, Dexterity, Discipline and Dedication - which attributes were deep rooted in the Japanese society, were significantly instilled in the Japanese minds.

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

Strategies

To ensure value formation, basically to restore the sense of right and wrong among the workers, all Government and Private Sector Establishments will have to employ carefully selected strategies. The importance of education in general to defend the cultural and historical values and to make our children inheritors of a secure future cannot be overemphasised.

We have to formulate strategies to build a corporate culture with a genuine endeavour to educate the workforce. If individuals and corporate values are inconsistent, the employers must intensify training discreetly emphasising the positive aspects of Sri Lankan values.

An attempt must be made to create a corporate culture of excellence that can provide a high morale environment for employees to realise their potential as individuals and as employees. Shared values define the fundamental character of the nation and certainly helps to accelerate natural development, integration and reconciliation.

Human Resources Managers role

One asset which is reliably rare among Human Resources personnel is an understanding of and sensitivity to the key operating elements required to maintain their company's current profitability and to enhance its future growth.

It is one of the Human Resources Manager's role to help, shape, enhance such values in a manner that influences the corporate and national destiny. It is the Human Resources Manager's enviable task to be at the nerve centre of the company's value system - and to be one of the prime movers in the quest for value-driven excellence.

Regrettably many Human Resources Managers and union leaders assume their positions with little or no preparation in the field of labour management.

Trade union responsibility

Considering the spate of wild cat strikes we have experienced recently, paralyzing essential services, causing considerable inconvenience and hardship to the public and the irreparable damage to the national economy, the urgent need is to restore the sense of right and wrong among the workers.

General attitude of the employees towards their employers must change radically. Unfortunately the general attitude of the workers "we have our rights, we must fight for them."

When one party in a relationship is made to believe that the other party can do no good, and therefore must learn how to fight evil, then it is not surprising that we have a confrontational labour-management relationship climate in this country. When people are virtually trained to fight they look for a fight.

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