Q 1: “Borderless world, Diversity Management, and Knowledge power, are some of theoverarching factors being encountered by the Human Resource Mangers of 21st centurybusiness world”. How do they affect the dynamics of Human Resource Management intoday’s organizations? Explain with examples from the organization you are familiarwith or have been working for. Briefly describe the organization, you are referring to.Answer

1. Borderless world:-At its core, the globalization of business refers to the free movement of capital, goods,services, ideas, information, and people across national boundaries. Markets in everycountry have become fierce battlegrounds where both domestic and foreign competitorsfight for market share.International marketing is undergoing a transformation to become integrated globalmarketing. The emphasis has shifted from understanding and explaining between-countrydifferences to identifying transnational similarities; and from country-by-countryfunctional adjustment of marketing mix elements to seeking global cross-functionalintegration.The emergence of integrated global marketing has a greater potential for theorydevelopment in international marketing as it is not contextually bound and thus can begeneralized.

Effective global operations require a genuine equidistance of perspective. But even with thebest will in the world, managers find that kind of vision hard to develop—and harder tomaintain.Effects of Borderless World:-Advancement in technology make possible to access any information from all corners of theworld via Web, media, networking and etc. people can survey in any cases, like: what thetastes and preferences are in other countries, the styles of clothing now in fashion, thesports, and the lifestyles.In Japan, for example, leader (boss) can no longer keep the people in substandard housingbecause now they know—directly—how people elsewhere live. In fact, ten millionJapanese travel abroad annually these days. During 1988, nearly 90% of all Japanesehoneymooners went abroad. This kind of fact is hard to ignore. The government now

seriously recognizes that it has built plants and offices but has failed to meet the needs ofits young people for relaxation and recreation. So, for the first time in 2,000 years, theirpeople are revolting against their government and telling it what it must do for them. Thiswould have been unthinkable when only small, official elite controlled access to allinformation.There are four key trends that are influencing the emerging market potential:

1. Demographics:Overall world population growth is now concentrated in the developing world. Whereindustrial nations are facing an increasingly older population, the emerging marketsremain young. The developed world comprises only 11% of the world’s population.2. Governments:Many countries that once relied on centrally planned economies are becoming market-driven. Industries that governments previously restricted to foreign companies are nowopening to foreign investment.3. Communications:Access to the emerging markets is increasing due to huge developments in communicationstechnology such as the Internet and electronic commerce. Cyberspace represents aprofound shift in the nature of communications as well as our perception of distance.4. Urbanization:As infrastructure improvements are made, urban growth in the emerging markets willcontinue to explode. Simultaneously, the emerging markets' share of world imports willrise. Hence to overcome the dazzle, Companies must be equipped with the appropriateknowledge, information, and strategy to make its market forays successful.ExampleMost managers are nearsighted. Even though today’s competitive landscape often stretchesto a global horizon, they see best what they know best: the customers geographicallyclosest to home. These managers may have factories or laboratories in a dozen countries.They may have joint ventures in a dozen more. They may source materials and sell inmarkets all over the world. But when push comes to shove, their field of vision isdominated by home-country customers and the organizational units that serve them.Everyone—and everything—else is simply part of “the rest of the world.”Not long ago, the CEO of a major Japanese capital-goods producer canceled severalimportant meetings to attend the funeral of one of his company’s local dealers. When areporter asked him if he would have done the same for a Belgian dealer, one who did alarger volume of business each year than his late counterpart in Japan, the unequivocalanswer was no. Perhaps headquarters would have had the relevant European managersend a letter of condolence.

After all, he was the head of a global organization, not just a Japanese organization. Byviolating the principle of equidistance, his attendance underscored distinctions amongdealers. He was sending the wrong signals and reinforcing the wrong values. Poor visionhas consequences.However, this nearsightedness was not intentional. No responsible manager purposefullydevises or implements an astigmatic strategy. But by the same token, too few managersconsciously try to set plans and build organizations as if they saw all key customersequidistant from the corporate center. Whatever the trade figures show, home markets areusually in focus; overseas markets are not.There is no single best way to avoid or overcome nearsightedness. An equidistantperspective can take many forms. However, well trained manager that is knowledgeableand skilled can build a value system that emphasizes seeing and thinking globally is thebottom-line price of admission to today’s borderless economy.Honda, for example, has manufacturing divisions in Japan, North America, and Europe—allthree legs of the Triad—but its managers do not think or act as if the company weredivided between Japanese and overseas operations. Indeed, the very word “overseas” hasno place in Honda’s vocabulary because the corporation sees itself as equidistant from allits key customers. At Casio, the top managers gather information directly from each of theirprimary markets and then sit down together once a month to lie out revised plans forglobal product development.2. Diversity Management:-"Diversity Management" is a strategy to promote the perception, acknowledgement andimplementation of diversity in organizations and institutions.At the University of Vienna, diversity management is based on the idea that diversity opensup alternative ways of perceiving, thinking and acting and thus enriches the life of theacademic community.Human beings differ in age, social and national background, gender, sexual orientation,physical and mental ability as well as religious belief and worldview.Diversity is a source of creativity and innovation that can provide the potential for futuredevelopment and competitive advantage. Diversity and its potential is essential for theUniversity as it satisfies the mandate of an institution of higher education to offer a broadrange of teaching and learning opportunities to students and staff alike.Ensuring that diversity is made visible and fruitful remains a central concern of diversitymanagement. In doing so, individual and structural representation of perception andappreciation may be reflected upon. This means that social, institutional as well as personalviews and expectations are questioned:How do we provide for and/or perceive physically disabled people? How does our societytreat homosexual, bisexual and transsexual people? Do women have equal career

opportunities? How people from two different generations would work? How does oursociety deploy older people?Although schemata of perception and assessment make us feel secure by providing astructured view of the world, they may also cause discrimination if they remain rigid.Relying on a negative and rigidly stereotyped view of a person or group of persons maydeprive this (group of) person(s) of equal opportunities. It may block their access toresources such as knowledge, money or decision-making power. Diversity managementaims at reducing discrimination and promoting equal opportunities.Diversity Management ObjectivesThe ultimate objective is for diversity to become a valued and institutionalized componentof business processes in high-performance organizations. To support this objective, thediversity plan works to achieve:

Diversity at all employment/occupational levels — Achieve diversity levels thatreflect the population of world at all employment levels and specifically, in policy-making positions. Cultural awareness — Achieve a work environment that supports cultural diversityand uses the varied experiences of employees to create a high-performanceorganization. Diversity buy-in — Achieve an organizational acceptance that views diversity as acompetitive advantage in terms of achieving high performance and improvingproblem-solving techniques. Performance organization — Ensure that the varied talents and experiences of allemployees are contributing to and supporting the business operations of theorganization.Each objective must be qualitatively or quantitatively measured.

Impact of diversity on productivity, quality of work life and bottom lineAll employees, no matter whom, no matter at what level, want to be treated with respect.They want to know that their employer values the work they do. That’s the most basicthing you must do in managing diversity. And when diversity is managed well, productivityand the quality of work life improve, so do stock prices.Researchers examined the effect on stock prices of announcements of U.S. Department oflabor award for exemplary diversity programs and announcement of damage awards fromthe settlement of discrimination law suits. A company can easily spend $100,000 to get ameritless lawsuit alleging unfair discrimination tossed out before trial. And if a case goes toa jury, the fees sky rocket to $300,000; and often much higher. As we noted, diversity hasevolved from being the correct thing to do to being the essential thing to do. It’s a mistake,however, to think there is cookie cutter approach. Rather, the path to diversity success

must take into account each organization’s unique goals, resources, number of employees,business locations, product lines, and customer bases.ExampleThe strategy at Blahna Inc., it has finally gotten the message. The company is now usingdiversity management strategies to head off conflict and reduce turnover amongemployees it can ill afford to lose.Several years ago Blahna formed a 20 member committee for workplace diversity, chairedby a vice president. The committee was chartered to consider why women and minoritiesweren’t better represented at all levels of the organization. Although the company had agood record of hiring women and minorities, the committee discovered that turnover wastwo to three times higher for these groups than it was for white males.Sample exit interviews reveled that women and minorities left for culture related reasonsfor instance, because they did not feel valued in their day to day work or in theircommunities, did not have effective working relationship or did not sense that the workthey were being given to do would lead to the fulfillment of their career goals. White males,on the other hand, left for business related reasons, such as limited opportunities for futureadvancement.As a result of this initial investigation, Blahna formed a 25 person diversity advisorycommittee. The committee developed a multipronged approach for dealing with diversityissue including building bridges with the broader community outside of the company.Within the company itself, a key strategy involved training conducted diversity consultants,hope and associates.To date, 60 percent of Blahna’s 11000 employees have gone through a two day diversityseminar; 40 percent have gone through a more extensive six day training program as well.The premise of the training is that the more different you are, the more barriers there canbe to working well together,’ explains Blahna’s chief diversity officer. Training sessionsdon’t offer advice on how to get along with Asian Americans, women, or other specificgroups. Rather, the emphasis is on learning skills that will make it easier to relate to andcommunicate with others.A key part of the training offered by hope and associated is the implementation of a‘consulting pairs’ process the consulting pairs approach is designed to help trainees takewhat they have learned in training and apply it on the job. When a conflict which may ormay not be related to diversity first arises between two peers or between a manager andemployee, a consulting pair is called in to facilitate discussion and problem solving. Theunique feature of this approach is that the consulting pair is selected to matches closely aspossible the backgrounds of the individuals who are involved in the conflict. Of course, allproceedings are strictly confidential.The result?Ken Hartman is a happier guy these days. As president of one of Blahna’s divisions, the 48year old executive is a step away from honing the ranks of senior management. Life haschanged for him since blahana ‘stopped talking about values like diversity and beganbehaving that way.

3. Knowledge power:-Information is a vital key to any organization, it can fetch from worker, employees,customer, business intelligent. It can be raw which need to be refined or readymade whichcan be used readily. Most of the giant companies have it different research and marketingdepartment.There is a common misconception that market research initiatives are reserved only formarketing departments or product development teams. Many business professionalsincorrectly assume that research is too cost-prohibitive or that they lack the expertise toconduct an effective survey effort on their own.In actuality, there are many ways to gather feedback and information to make yourbusiness or organization more successful. Perhaps the easiest, yet most powerful way, isusing online surveys. Online surveys are easy to design and implement with minimalresources. When you utilize a full featured online survey application, you can conductexhaustive research efforts without the expense and hassle of a third party. Using onlinesurveys to gather business intelligence is a proven and cost efficient way to help yourorganization thrive.Here are some examples of how a company can increase its knowledge power:

Customer Satisfaction & Retention Employee Feedback Product Development Pre & Post Event Evaluations Training & Education Evaluations Business Intelligence & Market Research Sales Leads Message Testing

Customer Satisfaction & RetentionOnline surveys get to the heart of your customer and illustrate how to better serve them.Understanding what your customers want and responding to their needs increasescustomer satisfaction, loyalty and attracts new customers. Improve the product userexperience for your customers by consistently collecting their feedback. Use online surveysto ask customers about their experience with your customer service department. Askspecific questions to learn which customer service representatives are performing well andadding value to your organization since your customer service representatives areambassadors for your organization so it is important to make sure that you are wellrepresented. With online surveys, the feedback is instantaneous which allows you to makedecisions quickly and effectively.Employee FeedbackSatisfied employees are more productive and deliver better results, products and servicesfor your organization. Satisfied employees are loyal to your organization and make for apositive company culture. Employees who are on the front lines want to share insight and

information with management to make processes more efficient, and ultimately make theorganization more successful. Online surveys are the tool to help you obtain valuablefeedback from your employees. The feedback can be anonymous - so you are guaranteedhonest answers when you ask sensitive questions. Find out how to improve their workingenvironment, what benefits would be most valuable or even when to have the nextcompany happy hour. Online feedback gives human resource managers the information toincrease employee morale, reduce employee turnover and maintain a positive workenvironment.Product DevelopmentLet your customers express their needs and give you their wish list. Allow them to themhelp you innovate. Let them tell you what pain points need to be addressed. An onlinesurvey gives customers the opportunity to voice their ideas and enables organizations toturn suggestions into revenue generators. Customers will appreciate your organization'sdesire to deliver what they want. Your outreach efforts for new products will also pave theway for an easy up sell opportunity. Think of your customer as an extension of yourproduct development team and ask them what they need.Pre & Post Event EvaluationsSurveying the attendees, exhibitors, sponsors, speakers, and volunteers is an essential toolevent planners use to gauge event success. Their feedback provides a clear roadmap toimprove future events. Through these surveys, you can find out what would encourageattendees and exhibitors to attend future events, what they didn't like about past events,and what they expect at future events. Why guess at what your attendees want and needwhen you can simply ask them before the event even starts?Training & Education EvaluationsMost organizations get feedback from their audience by distributing evaluation forms andpens. Evaluation forms typically ask the audience member if they thought the presenterwas effective, if the training topic was valuable or if the material was challenging.Unfortunately, completed paper surveys are often given to an already time-starvedadministrative assistant, who then must manually enter all the responses into aspreadsheet and calculate the data. Processing these paper surveys is a painful process andmany times the qualitative feedback is illegible due to the participant's handwriting style.With online surveys, the feedback is automated and the results are instantaneous. The datacan be accurately analyzed in a variety of ways. Online survey tools can even store resultsso they can be compared to past and future evaluations. With this visibility, organizationscan design and improve on training and education programs to consistently challengeparticipants.Business Intelligence & Market ResearchOnline surveys are powerful tools used to gather information on industry trends, marketsegments, and used to analyze market developments. Through online surveys, you candetermine who your real competitors and prospective customers are while obtainingsupporting data for your next strategic move. Survey results are central to the development

of company goals and business models. A solid business plan should always includeextensive market research.Sales LeadsAn online survey is an innovative way for your organization to cultivate more sales leads.When surveying prospects, make the survey perform as a research and marketing tool. Atthe end of the survey, capitalize on the marketing opportunity by asking your respondentsif they would like to receive more information about a product or simply redirect them toyour web site. Capture as much contact information as possible while you have theattention of prospective clients and guide them into your sales funnel. You can use surveysto qualify prospects to ensure you and go after the best prospects first.Message TestingFor both qualitative and quantitative research, online surveys are the best way to handle alarge group of respondents. It is no secret that telephone, mail, and focus group researchmethods are very expensive to launch. In addition, it takes most organizations over twomonths with dedicated resources to implement, input, and read results from a typicaltelephone or a mail research initiative. By the time the results are consolidated andprocessed from traditional research methods, you missed a marketing opportunity. Onlinesurveys are easy to design and quick to execute - and results are immediate. When youselect the right online survey solution, conducting surveys is quick, easy and economical.ExampleGarud Securities P. Ltd., a security company, was initiated as guard provider. Till date it3000 security guards with Garud electronic security department and Garud EnergyDepartment.Their services apart from security guards are CCTV surveillance, remote access, alarmsystem, GSM security panel system, CMS system, alternative energy system.They have been upgrading their services using two practices:1. Employee feed backThe company hires limited numbers of trained guards annually. Then it allocatesthem to particular institutions, organization and personnel. Allocated guardsworked as per company’s rules and regulation.Company has different department for patrolling, surveillance, bouncers. In everymeeting, employees interest are share, questioner and suggestions are placed.2. Customer suggestion:This is an essential part of communication of any organization. An organizationshould be customer oriented, so customers’ suggestion, hint, idea are essentialfactors to be consider while taking a decision.The head of departments, in regular basis, do make personnel interaction with everyclient (most of them were banks, finance companies and VIPs)From both practices what they have found is physical security is not enough and reliable. Inanother hand, Union and politics in guard are two main threats to company. In suchscenario, with help of employee feedback and customer suggestions, they decided to

expand. They added electronic security departments, which deal with cctv surveillance,alarm system, electronic equipment related to security. Soon after expansion their clientsraise by 69%, because client were assure that system like cctv will be provide proof if anyincident occur. Even if there is human error, clients were comfort due to alarm system andelectronic security system. Soon afterward, clients demanded different security system asper their requirement, like glass break sensor, motion sensor, magnetic door sensor, andpatrolling services.Hence a company needs information which can be generated from any source but it totallydepends upon company whether, use it or not.

Q 2: “Each employee in an organization performs various roles. Role perception of amanager and an employee make a complex web as they interact”. Elaborate this statementin the light of socialization factors in organizational socialization process. Outline theimportance of initial Job socialization on the employee and the organization. Explain withthe help of your personal experience and organizational experience with respect to theabove concepts. Explain the situation and describe the organization, you are referring to.Answer

Introduction of SocializationSocialization is the process of mutual adaptation of new employees and new employer toone another. In course of familiarization to each other, employees learn the organizationalculture, values, attitudes, and behaviors appropriate to their roles in the organization. It is aprocess of adaptation that takes place as individuals attempt to learn the values and normsof work roles.Different Roles of Employee in the light of Socialization Factors in the OrganizationA person performs different actions with respect to people and according to situation.The pattern of actions that people aspect from you is directly related to position one hasoccupied in the group. A person functions in roles both on the job and away from it. He/shecan perform as buyer and seller, boss and subordinate, and an advisor and seeker ofadvice. Each role needs different behavior approach.For example: a company’s system engineer has to be adaptive in working witheducated board of directors with low level of technical knowledge, uneducated butexperienced technicians. He has to deal with subordinate and superior, staff and line,technical and non-technical, and education and uneducated. A role set is the entireconfiguration of surrounding roles as they affect a particular role. The collectiveexpectation forms a set role for a role of system engineer.Activities of manager and workers alike are guided by their role perceptions, that is,how they think they are supposed to act in a given situation. Since mangers perform manydifferent roles, they must be highly adaptive in order to change from one role to anotherquickly. But there should be job description; otherwise they tend to lose motivation andefficiency. They may even have difficulty communicating because they will not betalking about the same things in the same way.Socialization factors in Socialization process in an organization

Orientation - A first step of socializationOrientation is the introduction of a new employee to the organization, the requirement ofjob, the social situation in which he will be working and the organization's culture. Theorganization's culture includes its values, shared beliefs, history, tradition and norms ofbehavior expressed as do's and don'ts.

They are individuals influence by different past experience and life style. In socializationprocess, organization is working in heterogeneous environment. Different employee fromdifferent society and culture has different expectation from company, behavior andsatisfaction.Orientation should create an initial favorable impression. Key ingredients of the good firstimpression include sufficient information about when and where to report for work,efficiently handled paperwork and friendly people to guide new employees. Orientationshould encourage acceptance by other employees. Introductions, informal interaction, atour of the facilities with short stops to hear people talk about their jobs and history ofemployment at the farm, and opportunity for the new employees to ask questions all canhelp gain acceptance.These processes help to understand his role in an organization and status and role of otherin the organization. On other hand communication between manager and employee is vitalfactor; a poor communication can create ambiguity in role expectations. From manager’spoint of view, a fuller understanding of roles should help him know what others expect ofhim and how he should act. Knowing these, he can improve his decision making andprovide motivation to several job roles.Employee Performance and Organizational StabilityEmployee's performance depends to a considerable degree on knowing what he should orshould not do. Understanding the right way to do a job indicates proper socialization.Furthermore, the appraisal of his performance includes how well they fit into theorganization. A manager should know what are his role and his status in front of othercoworker. When role expectations of a job are materially different or opposite, theincumbent in the job tends to be in role conflict because he cannot meet one expectationwithout rejecting the other. In similar way, an employee should have job description andadequate communication pool.As a result, proper socialization becomes a significant factor in influencing both the actualjob performance and how it is perceived by others. Over a period of time, when jobs arefilled and vacated with a minimum of disruption, the organization will be more stable. Itsobjectives will be more smoothly transferred between generations. Loyalty andcommitment to the organization should be easier to maintain because the organization'sphilosophy and objectives will appear consistent over time. Given that most managersvalue high employee performance and organizational stability, the proper socialization ofemployees should be important.Socialization to Reduce AnxietyThe entry of an outsider into an organization is an anxiety-producing situation. Stress ishigh because the new member feels a lack of identification; if not with the work itself,certainly with a new superior, new co-worker, a new work location, and a new set of rulesand regulations. A feeling of isolation and loneliness are not unusual. This anxiety state hasat least two implications. First, new employees need special attention to put them at ease.This usually means providing an adequate amount of information to reduce uncertainty

and ambiguity. Second, the existence of tension can be positive in that it often acts tomotivate individuals to learn the values and norms of their newly assumed role as quicklyas possible. Therefore, the new member is anxious about the new role but is motivated tolearn the ropes and rapidly become an accepted member of the organization.Managing socialization factorsThere are obvious physiological differences, stereotypical masculine traits, and status andcross cultural differences. Stereotypical masculine perception leads to problems for womento rise in the organizational hierarchy to managerial positions. Furthermore; differentialrecruitment of women to lower level jobs that requires dependence and passivity andexcessive control that give women less power. It is very important both organization andmanger not to fall into habits of stereotyping different subculture. An organization shouldperform cross cultural comparison to improve its culture and belief.Importance of initial job socializationOrganizational socialization is more important in early career of any employee. Manystudies of early careers focus on the first jobs to which new employees are assigned. Thepositive impact of initial job challenge upon later career success and retention has beenfound may times in wide variety of settings. Among engineers, challenging early workassignments were related to strong initial performance as well as to the maintenance ofcompetence and performance throughout the engineer’s career. In other word, challenginginitial job assignments are an antidote to career obsolescence.A manager should give a clue about the expectation that organization have with him andhis role with other. A few studies have confirmed that managers given challenging initialjobs with high expectations jobs, they were socialized to have higher aspirations andperformance standards. The moral seems to be that “success breeds success”; numerousother studies seem to confirm the findings (Buchanan, 1974). Other than a newcomershould be given challenging but obtainable target. His role should be described otherwisehe or she will be lost in role ambiguity. Proper mentoring and honest feedback should begiven on performance.Frequently, both the individual and organization have influence in the selection process.The corporation recruits, interviews, tests, and selects from number of candidates. Theindividual investigation has the most say in the matching process, the individual investingand evaluated various job opportunities.After understanding the organization’s culture and values, a new comer will match his goal,expectation, culture and career with different dynamics an organization. Many times anemployee adapt him or herself to the organizational culture. But some time, an employeewith authority would change the culture and norms of an organization.If initial job socialization is done properly, the employee will quickly embrace theenvironment of an organization; understand key factor, values and vision.

Organizational Example – Arvind Mills LimitedArvind Mills Limited, based at Ahmedabad is one of the largest textile producers in Indiacurrently dealing in the manufacturing of Shirting, Bottom Weight, Denims and Knitsfabrics having garment brands like Wrangler, Arrow etc. In the year 1999-2000, the millsuffered due to the inferior relationship shared by the management and staff includingworking employee union. It was on the verge of closing down the operation as the workcould not be carried properly, mismanagement and poor socialism factor resulted in hugefixed operational costs incurring huge losses for the company.The management then realized the importance of socialism factor between them and thestaff employees including workers union and came to the mutual conclusion to understandtheir importance too in the company. With the result, employee friendly policies wereformed which increased the socialism factor drastically and contributed for the company’sgrowth by leaps and bounds.

Q 3: Consider Potential Appraisal, Assessment Centers, and Career and Succession Planningin an organizational context. Describe the dynamics of these concepts, their interactionaloutcomes, and impact on overall functioning and management of the organization. Putdown your experience with respect to the dynamics of these factors in totality as seen byyou in an organizational situation or the situations which you are familiar with. Brieflydescribe the situation and the organization, you are referring to.Answer

1.POTENTIAL APPRAISALIn consonance with the philosophy of human resource development that has replaced theerstwhile personnel management in many organizations, more emphasis has been laid onthe appraisal of the employees’ potential in addition to their performance. Performance is athing of the past, while potential includes the possible knowledge, skills, and attitudes theemployee may possess for better performance.Potential can be defined as ‘a talent but unrealized ability’.The purposes of a potential review are:1. to inform employees of their future prospects;2. to enable the organization to draft a management succession program ;3. to update training and recruitment activities;4. to advise employees about the work to be done to enhance _their careeropportunities.The following are some of the requirements and steps to be followed when introducing apotential appraisal system:Role Description: A good potential appraisal system would be based on clarity ofroles and functions associated with the different roles in an organization. Thisrequires extensive job descriptions to be made available for each job. These jobdescriptions should spell out the various functions involved in performing the job.Qualities Required: Besides job descriptions, it is necessary to have a detailed list ofqualities required to perform each of these functions. These qualities may be broadlydivided into four categories –(1) Technical knowledge and skills, (2) Managerial capabilities and qualities,(3) Behavioral capabilities, and (4) Conceptual capabilities.Indicators of Qualities: A good potential appraisal system besides listing down thefunctions and qualities would also have various mechanisms for judging these qualities in agiven individual. Some of the mechanisms for judging these qualities are –(a) rating by others, (b) psychological tests, (c) simulation games and exercises,(d) performance appraisal records.

Organizing the System:After fulfilling above mentioned steps, an organization requires clarity in organizationalpolicies and systematization of its efforts.Feedback:If the organization believes in the development of human resources it should attempt togenerate a climate of openness. Such a climate is required for helping the employees tounderstand their strengths and weaknesses and to create opportunities for development. Agood potential appraisal system should provide an opportunity for every employee toknow the results of assessment. He should be helped to understand the qualities actuallyrequired for performing the role for which he thinks he has the potential, the mechanismsused by the organization to appraise his potential, and the results of such an appraisal.A good potential appraisal system provides opportunities continuously for the employee toknow his strengths and weaknesses. These are done through periodic counseling andguidance sessions by either the personnel department or the managers concerned. Thisshould enable the employee to develop realistic self-perceptions and plan his own careerand development.2.Assessment CentersCompanies run a series of extended selection procedures, called assessment centers, eachlasting one or two days or sometimes longer. They are commonly held either on employers’premises or in a hotel and are considered by many organizations to be the fairest and mostaccurate method of selecting staff. This is because a number of different selectors get to seeyou over a longer period of time and have the chance to see what you can do, rather thanwhat you say you can do, in a variety of situations.Assessment centers method is a process that evaluates a candidate’s potential formanagement based on three sources:1. Multiple assessment techniques, such as situational tests, tests of mental abilities,and interest inventories;2. Standardized methods of making inferences from such techniques, becauseassessors are trained to distinguish between effective and ineffective behavior bycandidates and3. Pooled judgments from multiple assessor to rate each candidate’s behavior.The following are the essential elements for a process to be considered an assessmentcenter:1. Job Analysis

2. Behavioral ClassificationAssessment center requires that Behaviors displayed by participants must beclassified into meaningful and relevant categories such as dimensions, attributes,characteristics, aptitudes, qualities, skills, abilities, competencies, and knowledge.

3. Assessment TechniquesThe techniques used in the assessment center must be designed to provideinformation for evaluating the dimensions previously determined by the job analysis.Assessment center developers should establish a link from behaviors tocompetencies to exercises/ assessment techniques. This linkage should bedocumented in a competency-by exercise/ assessment technique matrix.4. Multiple AssessmentsMultiple assessment techniques must be used. These can include tests, interviews,questionnaires, sociometric devices, and simulations. The assessment techniques aredeveloped or chosen to elicit a variety of behaviors and information relevant to theselected competencies/dimensions. Self-assessment and 360 degree assessment datamay be gathered as assessment information. The assessment techniques will bepretested to ensure that the techniques provide reliable, objective and relevantbehavioral information.5. SimulationsThe assessment techniques must include a sufficient number of job relatedsimulations to allow opportunities to observe the candidate’s behavior related toeach competency/ dimension being assessed. At least one—and usually several—jobrelated simulations must be included in each assessment center. A simulation is anexercise or technique designed to elicit behaviors related to dimensions ofperformance on the job requiring the participants to respond behaviorally tosituational stimuli.6. AssessorsMultiple assessors must be used to observe and evaluate each assesses. Whenselecting a group of assessors, consider characteristics such as diversity of age, sex,organizational level, and functional work area. Computer technology may be used toassess in those situations in which it can be shown that a computer programevaluates behaviors at least as well as a human assessor. The ratio of assesses toassessors is a function of several variables, including the type of exercises used, thedimensions to be evaluated, the roles of the assessors, the type of integration carriedout, the amount of assessor training, the experience of the assessors, and the purposeof the assessment center. A typical ratio of assesses to assessors is two to one. Aparticipant’s current supervisor should not be involved in the assessment of a directsubordinate when the resulting data will be used for selection or promotionalpurposes.7. Assessor TrainingAssessors must receive thorough training and demonstrate performance that meetsrequirements prior to participating in an assessment center. The training shouldfocus on processing of information, drawing conclusions, interview techniques andunderstanding behavior.8. Recording BehaviorA systematic procedure must be used by assessors to record specific behavioralobservations accurately at the time of observation. This procedure might includetechniques such as handwritten notes, behavioral observation scales, or behavioralchecklists. Audio and video recordings of behavior may be made and analyzed at alater date.

9. ReportsAssessors must prepare a report of the observations made during each exercisebefore the integration discussion. It is suggested that assessors must prepare thereport immediately after the assessment is over otherwise they are likely to forgetthe details. Not only this, these reports must be independently made.10. Data IntegrationThe integration of behaviors must be based on a pooling of information fromassessors or through a statistical integration process validated in accordance withprofessionally accepted standards. During the integration discussion of eachdimension, assessors should report information derived from the assessmenttechniques but should not report information irrelevant to the purpose of theassessment process. The integration of information may be accomplished byconsensus or by some other method of arriving at a joint decision. Methods ofcombining assessors’ evaluations of information must be supported by the reliabilityof the assessors’ discussions. Computer technology may also be used to support thedata integration process provided the conditions of this section are met.

3.Career planningCareer planning is an individual's lifelong process of establishing personal careerobjectives and acting in a manner intended to bring them about.Career management is the process of deciding what work opportunities to accept or reject,depending on their perceived value in helping achieve career objectives. It includes notonly decisions made by an individual but also those made about the individual bymanagers and others who control what work opportunities can be made available.Career development is the process of improving an individual's abilities in anticipation offuture opportunities for achieving career objectives. Finally, and perhaps mostimportantly, a career consists of the organized structure and sequence of patterns in anindividual's work life.Career planning seeks to achieve the following objectives:a) It attracts and retains the right persons in the organizationb) It maps out careers of employees suitable to their ability, and their willingness tobe trained and developed for higher positionsc) It ensures better use of human resources through more satisfied and productiveemployeesd) It ensures more stable workforce by reducing labor turnover and absenteeisme) It utilizes the managerial talent available at all levels within the organizationf) It improves employee morale and motivation by matching skills to jobrequirements and by providing job opportunities for promotion

g) It ensures that promising persons get experience that will equip them to reachresponsibility for which they are capableh) It provides guidance and encouragement to employees to fulfill their potentiali) It helps in achieving higher productivity and organizational developmentCareer plans must recognize that:1. Members of the organization should receive recognition as individuals with uniqueneeds, wants, and abilities;2. Individuals are more motivated by an organization that responds to their aspirationsand needs;3. Individuals can grow, change and seek new directions if they are given the rightopportunities, encouragement and guidance.

Career planning techniquesCareer planning uses all the information generated by the succession plans, performance,and potential assessments and self-assessments to develop programs and procedureswhich are designed to implement career management policies, achieve successionplanning objectives and generally improve motivation, commitment and performance. Theprocedures used are those concerned with: Personal development planning. Training and management development. Mentoring Career counselingIn addition, career planning procedures may cater for the rising stars by 'fast tracking'them, that is, deliberately accelerating promotion and giving them opportunities to displayand enlarge their talents. But these procedures should pay just as much, if not more,attention to those managers who are following the middle route of steady, albeitunspectacular, progression.1. Career counselingPerformance management processes, should provide for counseling sessions betweenindividuals and their managers. These sessions should give the former the opportunity todiscuss their aspirations and the latter the chance to comment on them helpfully and, ata later stage, to put forward specific career development proposals to be fed into theoverall career management programs.2. Personal development planningPersonal development planning is carried out by individuals with guidance,encouragement and help from their managers/HRM as required. A personal developmentplan sets out the actions people propose to take to learn and to develop themselves. Theytake responsibility for formulating and implementing the plan, but they receive support

from the organization and their managers in doing so. The purpose is to provide a 'self-organized learning framework'.3. Management developmentThe formal approaches to management development include:1. development on the job through coaching, counseling, monitoring and feedback bymanagers on a continuous basis associated with the use of performancemanagement processes to identify and satisfy development needs, and withmentoring;2. development through work experience, which includes job rotation, jobenlargement, taking part in project teams or task groups, 'action learning', andsettlement outside the organization;3. formal training by means of internal or external courses;4. Structured self-development by following self-managed learning programs agreedas a personal development plan or learning contract with the manager or amanagement development adviser these may include guidance reading or thedeliberate extension of knowledge or acquisition of new skills on the job.4.Succession planningSuccession planning is a process whereby an organization ensures that employees arerecruited and developed to fill each key role within the company. Through your successionplanning process, you recruit superior employees, develop their knowledge, skills, andabilities, and prepare them for advancement or promotion into ever more challengingroles.Actively pursuing succession planning ensures that employees are constantly developed tofill each needed role. As your organization expands, loses key employees, providespromotional opportunities, and increases sales, your succession planning guarantees thatyou have employees on hand ready and waiting to fill new roles.Effective, proactive succession planning leaves your organization well prepared forexpansion, the loss of a key employee, filling a new, needed job, employee promotions, andorganizational redesign for opportunities. Successful succession planning builds benchstrength.Continuous self and staff development are essential to continuous performanceimprovement. One’s own self development needs to be related to your personal strengthsand weaknesses and to the career aspirations. This requires planning of careerprogression and setting career goals. This can be achieved by identifying potentialities ofemployees with the help of potential appraisal and various in it viz. assessment center.Example:The Arcadia Group Limited is one of the UK's largest fashion retail companies. It employsaround 25,000 people and has over 2,000 outlets in the UK. It also has a growing number ofstores abroad. The group includes eight major high street brands. Each brand targets itsown market segment.

In 2002, Philip Green bought Arcadia for £800 million. He changed it from a public limitedcompany (plc) to a private limited company (Ltd). Since then the Arcadia Group has beenextremely successful. In 2005, the Group's turnover was over £1.7 billion. Its profits wereover £326 million.Philip Green's management style is entrepreneurial. He is always looking for new businessopportunities. He seeks new and better ways of doing things. Green says, 'I am brave but Itake a view. It is an educated view. I am careful; I am not reckless.'Green has an excellent grasp of what customers want and what they are willing to pay for.This comes from his life-long passion for retailing. He started in shoe wholesaling at 16. Heset up his own business at 21. Throughout his career, he has turned around under-performing retail businesses. To do this Green has excellent staff around him. This is theresult of good recruitment, selection and training programs.RecruitmentThe success of Arcadia relies on the quality of its employees, such as its store managers andits sales staff. Recruitment occurs both at store level (with each store recruiting its ownsales advisors) and centrally. Arcadia's Head Office is using specially designed managementdevelopment programs to target two groups: school leavers, and newly qualified graduates.With these programs Arcadia is looking to recruit the next generation of students who arepassionate about a career in retailing and able to become future leaders in the business.

The Retail Management Trainee Program (MTP) targets students with 2 A levels orequivalent. The Graduate Retail Management Program targets students who have graduatedfrom University.To attract applications the company:• attends career fairs and presentations• produces advertisements and posters• uses in-store communications• advertises on the company website (www.arcadia.co.uk/recruitment).When recruiting new employees Arcadia looks for specific abilities. These are calledcompetencies. The key competencies are:• working with people• putting the customer first• maximizing impact• Inspiring performance• driving the business forward• making the right choices• understanding the role.Recruitment is an important part of workforce planning. Organization must anticipate theirworkforce needs and take actions to meet these. At Arcadia, the opening of new stores andthe expansion of existing outlets means more staff must be recruited.

SelectionThe selection process for the Retail Management Trainee Program has two stages: An online application Attending an assessment center.The online application form involves a number of questions. These focus on thecompetencies required by Retail Management Trainees. Candidates who do well in theiranswers are invited to an assessment center.The selection process at the assessment center takes place over one day. It involvesstructured interviews and team activities. Group exercises allow a close analysis of howwell someone works with other people. This is a key aspect of retailing. A place on theRetail Management Trainee Program is offered to candidates who are successful at theassessment center.

Training and developmentRecruiting the right people does not guarantee performance. Employees must also betrained effectively.Much of the training at Arcadia is on-the-job and occurs within the stores. Off-the-jobtraining is used for general management skills. The training at Arcadia is linked closely todeveloping the competencies that the company looks for in its recruits. Thesecompetencies are enterprise related. They are essential for anyone wanting to be asuccessful retail manager.The training on the Retail Management Trainee Program includes: induction training to learn about retailing and store operations workshops that focus on core skills, these include team motivation and planning learning about specific areas of responsibility, such as managing a store team Visiting stores on placements to learn about how they operate.Successful recruits must also produce a personal and career development plan. This helpsthem prepare for their future management position.Progression on the Retail Management Trainee Program can be rapid. A trainee can havetheir first management position after just one year. A typical career path is shown.

Internal recruitment is encouraged at Arcadia to enhance the potential of employee. Thecompany appoints managers by promoting from within whenever it can. Internalrecruitment is preferred because of existing employees:1. Know the culture of the business already; this means that they understand how thebusiness works and already have a network of contacts so can adapt to their newrole more easily.2. Understand the business, this saves time in training.3. Are motivated to remain with the business because of the promotion opportunities.This reduces recruitment costs because staff stays longer.The following profiles show examples of current Arcadia employees.Management TraineeTroy Fairlie, Burton, Leeds Headrow'It has been a whirlwind few months since joining Arcadia's Retail Management TraineeProgram. I now have the skills and confidence to manage the day-to-day running of thestore on my own. I have also been given some important responsibilities, such asoverseeing the recruitment of all the Christmas temporary staff. I managed the entireprocess from short listing and interviewing candidates to making the final decisions. Thetraining program also gives you the opportunity to attend workshops. At these workshops,you learn about the theory behind retail management. You can also discuss and share yourexperiences with the other trainees. A retail manager's role involves many skills - I cannotwait to develop all of these!'Deputy Store ManagerNatasha Minty, Evans, The Plaza, London Oxford Street.'As a Deputy Manager, my responsibilities vary on a day-to-day basis. They range frommanaging and training a large team of people to influencing the commercial success of thestore. I have to be a multi-specialist. I am often a coach, strategist, and an accountant all inone day! As a Deputy Store Manager, you have to be people orientated. You have to enjoyinteracting and influencing those around you.'Operations ManagerRosalyn Rasdale, Topshop Dublin St Stephens (Giga-Store).'I am Operations Manager of one of the largest stores within Arcadia. This involvesimplementing operational controls and procedures, which means looking after the runningof everything that goes on behind the scenes. I do this by motivating and leading mydedicated team. My responsibilities include cash and stock loss prevention, scheduling andpayroll of the store team, maintenance and security of the store premises and looking afterstaff and customer welfare. I am involved at both ends of the retail operation. I see theproduct coming in in the morning and handle the cash taken from sales at the end of thenight!'

Area ManagerSarah Richardson, Miss Selfridge.'As an Area Manager I am responsible for managing 19 stores across Scotland and theNorth East of England and our flagship store on Oxford Street. No two days are the same.The pace of change within the business stretches and challenges you. To be an AreaManager you need an ability to lead, inspire and develop a high caliber team. You need tolook actively to exploit profit opportunities. You need good business skills and a focus oncustomer service.'ConclusionThe Arcadia Group is a highly successful retail company. Its success is due to the leadershipof Philip Green and the quality of its employees.It has a good program of potential appraisal, career development, recruitment andselection. It has Retail Management Trainee Programs for school leavers and graduates. Onjoining Arcadia, employees are given responsibilities early on. They are able to progressquickly in the organization and can be promoted rapidly. Working in retailing is exciting.Each day there are new challenges. Employees have to learn to plan, make decisions andlead a team of people. They receive substantial training. This helps them to do their jobsmore effectively.

Q 4: How do you see the role, presence, necessity, and impact of ‘Mentoring andPerformance Coaching’ in organizational situations in Indian context in general?AnswerCritically describe the experience the organizations have with respect to these concepts,their applicability, effectiveness and prospect. You may like to compare few organizationsyou have known or familiar with or even you can come out with your own experience inorganizational context. Describe the context, and the organization you are referring to.Mentoring is a development process, including elements of coaching, facilitating andcounseling, aimed at sharing knowledge and encouraging individual development. It has alonger-term focus [than coaching] designed to foster personal growth and to help anindividual place their creative, personal and professional development in a wider cultural,social and educational context (e.g. Why am I doing what I do? How do I perceive myidentity? In what ways does this impact on my professional life and work? Where am Igoing? What determines my long-term goals?) (Renshaw, 2008, p. 11).Coaching is an enabling process aimed at enhancing learning and development with theintention of improving performance in a specific aspect of practice. It has a short-termfocus with an emphasis on immediate micro issues (e.g. How can I improve myperformance in this particular area? How can I strengthen my workshop practice? Whatare the most appropriate ways of making my team work together more effectively?)(Renshaw, 2008, p. 11).Mentor is a teacher, an advisor, a sponsor, and a confidant. He or she should be bright andwell-seasoned enough to understand the dynamics of power and politics in theorganization and also be willing to share this knowledge with one or more new hires.Some organizations have established “quad squads” that consist of a mentor plus three newhires: male, a female and one other member of protected group. It assigns mentors to threeor four promising young executives for a year at a time. There are also benefits for thementor. For example, just being chosen as a mentor, according to one 35 year old femalebranch bank manager boosted her self-esteem. Another was deeply touched when afledgling coworker left the following note on her desk: “I will carry your lessons with methroughout my life.”Mentors matter, evidence indicates that a new employee’s satisfaction with the mentoringrelationship has a greater impact on job and career attitudes than whether the mentoringas formal or informal. Conversely, bad mentoring may be destructive and worse than nomentoring at all.The mentor’s role is to be a culture carrier, to teach new hires the ropes, to provide candidfeedback on how they are being perceived by others, and to serve as a confidentialsounding board for dealing with work- related problems. If successful, mentorrelationships can help reduce the inflated expectations that newcomer often have about

organizations, can relieve the stress experienced by all new hires, and best of all, canimprove the new comer’s chances for survival and growth in the organization.Now a day, country like India use reverse mentoring, in which older manager meet withyounger subordinates to learn about new technology and electronic commerce. It’s a win-win for both parties, and both are expected to teach each other. One 27 year old mentorsaid the sessions made her more comfortable in dealing with her 54 year old boss. “ I canteach him things … I know things he doesn’t know” at the same time , she gets to observefirst-hand the skills a manager needs to run a big operation, such as the ability tocommunicate with lots of different people.The rapid change in technology, shifting organizational structures, and global marketplacedynamics have transformed mentoring into a process that often extends beyond theservices of a single mentor. In fact, over the course of their careers, individuals are likely todraw support from a network of “developers,” including those from work, family,community organizations, and peer groups.Mentoring is more important in early career of any employee. Many studies of early careersfocus on the first jobs to which new employees are assigned. The positive impact of initialjob challenge upon later career success and retention has been found may times in widevariety of settings. Among engineers, challenging early work assignments were related tostrong initial performance as well as to the maintenance of competence and performancethroughout the engineer’s career. In other word, challenging initial job assignments are anantidote to career obsolescence.The characteristic of the first supervisor are also critical. He or she must be personallysecure; unthreatened by the new subordinate’s training, ambition, and energy: and able tocommunicate company norms and values. Beyond that, the supervisor ideally should beable to play the roles of coach, feedback provider, trainer, role model, and protector in anaccepting, esteem building manner.On other hand variable affects the likelihood of obtaining a high level job later in one’scareer: initial aspirations. Encourage employees to aim high because, in general, higheraspirations lead to higher performance. Help them to generate alternatives for dealing withvarious problems. Increase their personal and interpersonal effectiveness by givingfeedback about their behavior and assisting them in analyzing their inter-personalcompetence.Coaches are able to communicate feeling and meaning, as well as content. Communicatingwith no personal agenda, and without judging or influencing, are essential aspects of thecommunicating process, especially when dealing with people's personal anxieties, hopesand dreams. Good coaching uses communication not to give the client the answers, but tohelp the clients find their answers for themselves.

Rapport-building:A coach's ability to build rapport with people is vital. Normally such ability stems from adesire to help people, which all coaches tend to possess. Rapport-building is made fareasier in coaching compared to other services because the coach's only focus is the client.When a coach supports a person in this way it quite naturally accelerates the rapport-building process.Motivating and inspiring:Coaches motivate and inspire people. This ability to perform this; lies within us all. It isborne of a desire to help and support. People who feel ready to help others are normallyable to motivate and inspire. When someone receives attention and personal investmentfrom a coach towards their well-being and development, such as happens in the coachingrelationship, this is in itself very motivational and inspirational.Motivating and inspiring:Coaches motivate and inspire people. This ability to perform this; lies within us all. It isborne of a desire to help and support. People who feel ready to help others are normallyable to motivate and inspire. When someone receives attention and personal investmentfrom a coach towards their well-being and development, such as happens in the coachingrelationship, this is in itself very motivational and inspirational.Impacts for organizations

a research and learning culture increased sense of professionalism and a culture of recognition a culture of high aspirations and vitality a pastoral culture a coaching and mentoring culture Impacts on organization leadership: Improved professional and career development: Greater external links Enhanced knowledge and skills shared within the organization Recruitment and retention of personnel Improved organization policies, systems and processes

Organizational Example:

The Largest Car Rental Company in North AmericaCreating a successful Mentoring Program for the Largest Car Rental Company inNorth America challenged: Improving Program Quality Increasing Employee Satisfaction

Enterprise Holdings, the parent company of the well-known Enterprise Rent-A-Car,Alamo Rent A Car, and National Car Rental brands, owns and operates the largest fleetof passenger vehicles in the world today - more than 1 million cars and trucks. It employs68,000 people, and Forbes ranks it #21 in the Top 500 Private Companies in America.Enterprise prides itself on promoting from within, so it's no surprise that the companyembraced corporate mentoring early on since studies show corporate mentoringhelps attract, develop, , and retain top talent. But in 2002, the corporation faced acrossroads in regards to its mentoring program.Chris Tabourne, Assistant Vice President of Diversity & Inclusion, says, 'In 2002, ourEmployee Opinion Survey revealed that too many of our employees weren't satisfiedwith the quality of mentoring they were getting.'While Enterprise's continued research and employee feedback clearly pointedtoward a need to increase the effectiveness of its informal and formal mentoringprograms across many, if not all groups and regions, the question became how toaccomplish this.Solution: Fostering 'True' Mentoring, Designing a Goal-Oriented Program, Getting theMost Out of TechnologyEnterprise brought in several corporate mentoring vendors to discuss program designand implementation. Management Mentors eventually won the business.”We selected Management Mentors because they did a nice job of identifying theopportunities that existed in our mentoring programs at the time, and then providing afresh approach to improving their effectiveness. Management Mentors shifted our paradigmtowards true mentoring by helping us to understand the difference between coaching,which is how most of our programs had always been run, and mentoring, which is whatwe really needed,” Tabourne says.Enterprise identified four key goals it wanted its mentoring program to achieve:1. Provide leadership development2. Increase the diversity of management3. Help improve retention4. Increase employee satisfaction in the area of mentoring.Management Mentors President Rene Petrin worked with Enterprise in designing andimplementing a program that would meet these objectives. Petrin says, “Working with adesign team, we were able to transition into a true mentoring model and linkmentoring to the four strategic goals while avoiding making the program aperformance-based initiative, which had caused the previous programs to beunsuccessful.”The initial pilot program involved two groups with a total of six programs and 68 pairs.After Enterprise completed the 12 months of the pilot program, it started an annual

roll out in North America that ran for the next three years and averaged about 14groups per year. Tabourne notes, “To date, we've had 44 local groups or about 2700employees that have participated in the program over the last five years.”As the company's corporate mentoring program grew, so did the opportunities inintegrating technology to help streamline the program managers' work. Petrin says,“Multiple benefits exist for using an online mentoring system. First, it provides ease ofmanagement because everything from forms, reports, and so forth are all in onecentral place. It can be accessed 24/7. And it's a perfect solution for organizationsthat have multiple branches or locations.'Tabourne remarks, 'As we looked at and evaluated the time and effort it takes tomanage a mentoring program of our size, the online option made sense. Having MentoringComplete manage the program has made a huge difference in the program'seffectiveness. As the person responsible for overseeing a companywide program,having all pairs' information at my fingertips via my computer saves me time and effortin following the progress and success of the program. The time our programmanagers spend managing the program has been reduced significantly since weadded the online system, too.”Results: Mentoring Success, Happier Employees, Fulfilled MentorsIn Enterprise's current 12-month rolling report, it has 450 pairs at an over 89 percentpairs' retention percentage. Its mentee retention percentage is over 92 percent,including over 94 percent for both women and minorities. In addition, the overallpromotion percentage for mentees participating in the program has continued toexceed expectations.Tabourne says, 'Both the feedback from the mentees and mentors continues to beterrific. The feedback on how much the program has benefitted our mentors hasbeen a nice surprise. We weren't expecting the great feedback from the mentors on theimpact of the program on their own development. In fact, we occasionally get mentorswho say they may have benefited more from the program than their mentees. Also,the high retention rate of our mentee's exceeds our initial expectations.'Petrin adds, “It's always satisfying for me when a client has embraced a truementoring model and begins to create a mentoring culture. The fact that Enterprise'smentors and mentees have commented they're significantly changed throughmentoring supports the research that indicates corporate mentoring, when doneproperly, is truly transformational and makes a difference to the bottom line.”In addition, the program has helped position Enterprise to compete more effectivelyfor top talent. Tabourne remarks, “Our formal mentor program is a great attribute toour company's recognition of the needs of our many Gen Y employees we hire. Werecognize that today's generation places a high value on training and personalcareer development. They prefer daily contact with managers to ask questions andensure they are meeting required expectations or goals. Having a mentor that they canspeak with regularly about personal and professional goals is a good way for

employees to enhance their access to career guidance. Because we promote fromwithin our organization, our mentors all have been (professionally) where theirmentees have been, so they are uniquely qualified to provide helpful advice,guidance, and tips.”