Events

Experts Call For Participative Decision-Making and Enabling Capacity as Human Resource Inputs

 

Jaipur, March 23: A fervent call for participative decision-making at all levels in both public and private organizations as well as creation of “enabling capacity” as an important constituent of human resource development was given here today with the identical emphasis on extension motivation, individual autonomy and decentralization through delegation and shared responsibility.

 

The occasion was the First Udai Pareek Memorial Lecture delivered by eminent management and human resource expert Prof. T.V. Rao, former Professor at IIM-Ahmedabad and founder of National HRD Network, at Indralok Auditorium here. Prof. Rao spoke brilliantly on “Beyond Management: Some Conceptual Contributions of Prof. Udai Pareek to the Modern World”.

 

The Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Dr. C.P. Joshi, who is an old student of Prof. Pareek, chaired the lecture session this evening, while the event was attended by a battery of academicians, intellectuals and experts associated with the fields of management and HRD in the Pink City. The audience remembered Prof. Pareek as the doyen of HRD movement in India.

 

 

Prof. Pareek was a unique, modest and brilliant innovator in the field of HRD and applied behavioural sciences and the present generation of HRD practitioners sows and harvests what Prof. Pareek has planted along with Dr. T.V. Rao and other luminaries in the field. It was pointed out at the memorial lecture that Prof. Pareek’s concept are relevant to the future of all kinds of organisations, the global society and the entire mankind at large.

 

In his lecture, Prof. Rao elaborated the concept of participative decision-making by giving several examples and said the individuals in an institution should be involved by sharing of their knowledge and information in the crucial matters. “Design of HRD or any of its sub-system must give adequate weightage to the ideas and existing resources of people,” he said.

 

Underlining the need for balancing various factors, Prof. Rao listed the items such as balancing differentiation and integration, balancing specialization and diffusion of function, balancing linkages within and with other function, balancing quantification and qualitative decisions and balancing internal and external help. He said the introduction of human resource system should be properly phased and there should be enough thinking about how these phases would be built one over the other.

 

“It is high time that organizations of all forms conduct an HR audit or social audit of themselves, and their programmes to renew themselves. This extends to the political parties, particularly their youth wings, and various government agencies and non-governmental development agencies and agents,” said Prof. Rao while summing up his observations as the concluding lesson of his hour-long lecture.

 

Referring to the significant contributions of Prof. Pareek to the fields of HRD and management, Prof. Rao said some of the wonderful concepts given by the eminent expert were extension motivation, role efficacy, institution building, super ordinate goals and societal change. Of all these, extension motivation and role efficacy are Prof. Pareek’s original contributions.

 

The extension motivation, pointed out Prof. Rao, deals with the ability to sacrifice one’s own comforts and desires for the sake of others and working for larger goals that benefit larger groups or society. “We must create an extension culture in India and create policies that are driven by extension motivation and future,” said Prof. Rao, adding that the government policies should also truly reflect concern for the welfare of the society and long-term thinking rather than short-term goals.

 

Several other theories propounded by Prof. Pareek were touched in the lecture with the observation that institutions should be agents of change in the society and the community. The framework for decision-making, according to Prof. Rao, should strictly involving making of institutions, where health and organization’s growth are primary concerns. Collaborations, extensions and creativity are the motivation’s partners.

 

Prof. Rao is currently Chairman of T.V. Rao Learning Systems Pvt. Ltd. And Chairman, Academic Council, Academy of Human Resources Development, Ahmedabad. He was Professor at IIM-Ahmedabad for over 20 years beginning 1973. He has also worked as short-term consultant to UNESCO, Ministry of Health, Indonesia, and the Commonwealth Secretariat, London.

 

Dr. C.P. Joshi, in his address, touched the innovative concepts set out by Prof. Pareek and called upon the professionals and entrepreneurs to develop a corporate culture wherein there are ample opportunities to develop the human resource for the betterment of the employee, organization and the country.

 

Dr. Joshi said while the need for achievement must be inculcated in every citizen, the extension services should be popularised at the Panchayat level to motivate the villagers and encourage them to reduce their dependence on the government. He pointed out that 25,000 Swarna Jayanti Pathshalas were established in Rajasthan during 1998 to 2003 by applying the model evolved by Prof. Udai Pareek. The same method can be adopted now for evolving a political entrepreneurship, he added.

 

“One must draw learnings from the wisdom of HR Guru Prof. Pareek and nurture the values and ethics which will in a way strengthen the foundation of their personal and professional lives. It will help them gear up efficiently for the new and the most challenging phase of their lives,” said Dr. Joshi.

 

Others who addressed the gathering on the occasion were Mr. Basant Khaitan, president, Udai Pareek HRD Research Foundation, Dr. Ashok Agrawal, Managing Trustee, IIHMR, Jaipur, Mr. N.S. Rajan, national president, NHRD Network, and Dr. Ashok Bapna, president, NHRD Network, Jaipur.