MANAGING HUMAN RESOURCES - MCP1603

P. N. K W. Panditharathne

Registration No. 516942475

Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction.....................................................................................................................3
1.1.1Organizational Structure of UGC...................................................................................4
1.1Changes in Utilization of Human Resources in an Organization......................................6
2.0 Practical constraints of Human Resource Management Practices....................................7
3.0 Workforce diversity has important implications for HRM practices:..............................9
3.1 Training and Development.............................................................................................10
References.............................................................................................................................11

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1.0 Introduction

University Grants Commission

The selected organization is University Grants Commission of Sri Lanka (UGC)
which was established in 1978 as the regulatory body of state Universities & Higher
Educational Institutions with the enactment of the Universities Act No. 16 of 1978. The
enactment of the Universities Act No. 16 of 1978 is considered as the landmark in higher
education sector in Sri Lanka which has begun its evolution into a formalized sector.

UGC has 15 departments and divisions namely, Human Resource department,

Academic Affairs Department, University Admissions Department, Finance Department,
Personnel division, General Administration division, Planning division, Management of
Information Systems division, Internal Audit Division, Infrastructure division, Legal and
Documentation division, IT division, University appeals board, Quality Assurance and
Accreditation Council and Center for Gender Equity & Equality. Each branch performs
unique well defined functions which are assigned to them.

The University System has an approved cadre of 25990 posts as at 30.06. 2017, of
which 13265 posts are in the non-academic non-administrative grades and 10878 posts are in
the academic grades. There are 948 posts in the administrative and Medical Officer Grades
and 899 posts in the academic support grades.

A loyal, committed and skilled workforce is of a paramount importance for the

success of the UGC Secretariat as the case with any other institution. This requires a
concerted effort which encompasses many complementary conditions such as pleasing and
conducive working environment, well defined duty lists for employees in line with duties of
functional departments, divisions, and units, workforce possessing required knowledge and
skills, considerate and caring leadership and optimum interpersonal relations and welfare.

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 1.1.1Organizational Structure of UGC

University Grants Commission

Standing Committees
Chairman

Vice Chairman
Secretary

Academic
&
HR Admission Finance SMT IDD MIS Research QA GEE
s

Personnel

IT L&D
UPF Pension USAB Internal
Audit

UGC has nearly 270 employees and they have been attached to above departments
and divisions. Each department has assigned various tasks as their names suggested.
Functions of the Human Resources Department of the UGC are identifies as formulating &
designing schemes of recruitment for university staff, determination of cadre requirements of
the university system and obtaining necessary approvals from relevant authorities, handling
matters pertaining to recruitment, promotions, training of university staff, salaries, leave,
discipline of employees of the university system, trade unions , issuing of UGC and
establishment circulars, Matters pertaining to Management Committee & Transfer Board.

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 Rigid systems were adopted by the Treasury for the review of requests for cadre to
facilitate speedy recruitment of qualified personnel for smooth functioning of university
system. However Human resources requirement of university system was analyzed by a cadre
review with participation of the Department of management services, department of national
budget, ministry of higher education and UGC by visiting each and every higher educational
institution. In that cadre review was identified optimum human resources requirement at the
department or unit level on zero base.

UGC issued a Commission circular no 937 on strengthening of staff development

with intention of developing competencies of human resources of universities and higher
educational institutions, which comprises comprehensive and detailed Policy Framework,
Institutional Arrangement, Academic, Administrative and Financial Regulations governing
the Staff Development Centers of UGC and Universities.

In collaboration with Office of the National Unity and Reconciliation which is

functioning under the President of Sri Lanka, selected university academics and
administrative staff were trained to conduct awareness programmes in universities on
building of long term and sustainable peace. Those programmes will be beneficial to build
unity and brotherhood in diversified workplaces which will definitely help to enhance
productivity.

As a social security system pension scheme has been introduced. It has to be

developed with enhanced benefits. Further health insurance scheme for staff of the UGC has
been introduced from generated fund of the UGC. Those benefits reduce employee turnover
and improve employee satisfaction, loyalty, allegiance, commitment and quality culture.

Human Resource Management (HRM) is the term used to describe formal systems
devised for the management of people within an organization. The responsibilities of a
human resource manager fall into three major areas: staffing, employee compensation and
benefits, and defining/designing work. Essentially, the purpose of HRM is to maximize the
productivity of an organization by optimizing the effectiveness of its employees. This
mandate is unlikely to change in any fundamental way as world is changing in an
unprecedented pace.

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 HRM structures vary widely from business to business, which shaped by differences
in the type, size, and governing philosophies of the organization. several specialist roles in
HR, including employer branding, HR business partner, and change management, most
positions will require to get involved in multiple functions such as recruitment and selection,
training and development, employee relations, contracts of employment, complaints and
grievances, employee rights, appraisals, and health and safety.

1.1Changes in Utilization of Human Resources in an Organization

High performance work system practices are employment security, selective hiring, extensive
training, self-managed teams, decentralized decision making, reduced status distinctions,
information sharing, contingent rewards, transformational leadership, measurement of
management practices and emphasis on high quality work. Those practices will generate
more job applicants, screen candidates more effectively, provide more and better training,
link pay more explicitly to performance, provide a safer work environment, produce more
qualified applicants per position, hiring based on validated selection tests, provide more hours
of training for new employees and conduct more performance appraisals.

HRM Responsibilities of line managers are placing the right person on the right job,
starting new employees in the organization (orientation), training employees for jobs that are
new to them, improving the job performance of each person, gaining creative cooperation
and developing smooth working relationships, interpreting the firm’s policies and procedures,
controlling labor costs, developing the abilities of each person, creating and maintaining
department morale, protecting employees’ health and physical condition.

HRM responsible for the overall talent management processes, with the help of other
managers, HR leads the way in management development, performance
management, succession planning, career paths, and other aspects of talent management. HR
can't do it alone and relies heavily on managers and executive staff to help plan and execute
the strategies. However, HR has to bring new ideas and effective practices into the
organization.

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 HRM is responsible for the overall recruiting of a superior workforce. HR must
provide leadership, training, scheduling assistance, a systematic hiring process, recruitment
planning processes, interview expertise, selection monitoring, and so on.

HR is responsible for recommending and instituting strategies for employees and the
organization in view of attainment of the organization's strategic goals. If an organization is
changing direction, developing new products, changing mission, vision, or goals, HR must
lead the way with employee programs and processes in line with those changers.

HR managers must make sure that workplace activities, events, celebrations, ceremonies,
field trips, and team building opportunities are regularly organized.

HR should advocates for employees who have issues or conflict with other fellow employees
and management. Therefore HR managers should have skills for conflict management and
counseling to have a more effective approach to working with such employees. Not everyone
have friendships each other but they need to develop effective working relationships for
contributions and productivity. HR can help by knowing the employees characteristics and
taking on the necessary role of advocate, coach and or mediator.

The importance of HR is easily unnoticed in the busy day-to-day in the workplace having an
agenda set for it by more mundane requirements of the day in a more reactive manner,
without contributions in each of these above areas, the organization would be less successful.

2.0 Practical constraints of Human Resource Management Practices

The organization owns by the government and was established by a university’s Act. So the
organization is runs by the minister and the appointed by the broad by the same.

The main constraints of human resource practices as below

 Political appointment – due the political poking and appointment diversion of

workforce
 Change in governments leads change in practices - for different political agendas
strategic and rolling planning gets changed frequently.

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  Shuffle of top management due to the disagreeing with political leadership will
change the cause.
 Training and development areas under utilized
 Lack of initiative of performance evaluation
 Not practical evaluation of key performance indicators.

The effective management of people at work is human resource management which

contributes to the overall success of the organization in a proactive manner. Human
Resources Management has developed as a powerful and influential perspective in
organizations. Most important such changes are considerable amount of restructuring of
organisations and employment throughout tiers of hierarchy, steady occupational structures,
together with a corresponding rise in short-term, part-time, contracted-out or franchised
employment and adoption of technology in the work environment had made influence on
personnel choices and employability.

In order to streamline the staff recruitment procedures as per the guidelines of the
Management services circular 30 of General treasury, schemes of recruitment of all staff
members are being prepared by incorporating currently required skills, knowledge and other
competencies at the level of recruitment. In addition to that schemes of promotions are also
being formulated by incorporating currently required skills, knowledge and other
competencies. Job descriptions for all most all employees have been prepared with
comprehensive description of what the job entails.

UGC recommend to the government on salaries of the university staff. At present university
staff has comparatively good salaries.

Centre for Gender Equality and equality has been established having considered the
global trends in gender sensitive issues in university staff and students. Activities of the
center will paw the way to staff to carry out their work without oppression and discrimination
in a gender sensitive university culture

Attracting global talent requires staying well-informed of new strategies for finding
and attracting talent. The HR department needs to ensure that the appropriate mix of
employees in terms of knowledge, skills and cultural adaptability is available to handle global

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assignments. In order to meet this goal, the organizations must train individuals to meet the
challenges of globalization.

As competition increases with globalisation and liberalisation of trade, management needs to

be innovative to stay ahead and sustain competitive advantage. Emotionally intelligent
workplaces, continuous improvement, relationship management, customer loyalty, and
economics of variety are innovations in management that need to be adopted. Future staffing
needs will be influenced by these innovative practices.

3.0 Workforce diversity has important implications for HRM practices:

 Anti-discrimination. Elimination of any practices that make distinctions between

different groups of employees and that result in one group being disadvantaged and
the other group advantaged.

 Equal employment opportunities (EEO). EEO policies should be in place to

provide all employees a fair chance to be promoted or to succeed without
discriminating against age, sex, race, or nationality.

 Affirmative action. Affirmative actions include initiatives on the management side to

make special efforts to recruit women and minorities.

 Strategic approach to managing diversity. Diversity management activities should

address the differences in the workforce to ensure fair and effective utilisation of
employees. They should also capitalise on the diversity to enhance the organisation’s
competitive advantage.

 Diversity training. Managers need to be trained to communicate and to motivate

employees with different cultural background and needs.

 Benefits programmes. Rewards systems should be revamped to accommodate the

different needs and requirements of different groups of employees.

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Managing diversity will bring definite business benefits to the organisation in the following
ways:

 Diverse talents and skills can be utilised to enhance business performance.

 Diverse work groups are more productive and effective when innovation and creativity
are required.

 It helps to make organisations more attractive and responsive to diverse customer

markets, both locally and globally.

 Research studies have shown that excellent diversity practices are linked to better
financial performance.

3.1 Training and Development

The most important fact is to create budget utilization of training stuff and continuous of
development of the employees benefits to create well-crafted learning environment.

Outbound training secession to build team work and spirit

Building Buttala training center - continuous engage in human capital development.

Financial assistance to administrative and other executive officer to obtain post graduate and
professional qualifications

In order to get competitive advantage, a company has to produce a good or service at a lower
price or in a more desirable format for customers in a high Performance Work System. These
conditions will allow the company to generate more sales or superior margins than its
competitors. Competitive advantages are attributed to a variety of factors, including cost
structure, brand, and quality of product offerings, distribution network, intellectual property
and customer support. Hence company, by following above HR practices, will be able to in
the edge of the competitive advantage.

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References
1. Corporate Plan 2015-2020. University Grants Commission
2. Davenport T. et al., “Improving Knowledge Work Processes”, in Sloan
Management Review, Summer 1996, pp 53-65
3. https://www.concrete.org
4. https://www.investopedia.com
5. https://www.smallbusiness.chron.com
6. Institute of Personnel Management – Course manual
7. Management and Organisations – Course Manual (OUSL)
8. Managing Human Resources – Course Manual (OUSL)
9. Sivalogathasan V, Managing Human Resources, Lecture notes distributed in
the Open University of Sri Lanka

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