Competency Quality Management

A PROJECT ON VALIDATING “COMPETENCY MAPPING” FOR ATTAINING THE BEST “QUALITY CIRCLE PRACTICES” AT HZL

Executive Summary

Successful quality circles offer a wide variety of benefits for businesses. They talk about the perceptions as well as employee's awareness, increase management's awareness of employee ideas, as well as employee awareness of the need for innovation within the company. Adding on, quality circles can improve a business's competitiveness by reducing costs, improving quality, and promoting innovation.HZL with the above motives, implemented the Quality Circles. The Quality Circles lead t self development, mutual development, quality improvement , cost reduction, waste reduction, productivity improvement, improvement in safety, job satisfaction , problem solving opportunities, people involvement and participation in team building. But, at present the Quality Circles are not able reciprocate the same.

Therefore the present study aims at two basic objectives

Phase I:

1. To understand the Quality Circle acyivities at Hindustan Zinc Lilmited.
2. To understand the perceptions of the Quality Circles facilitators and leaders in respect to the formation of the of the Quality Circles

So the quality circles being not up to the mark ,the project aims to streamline the Quality Circle activities at Debari and to provide impetus so that the members get onto self-motivated mode. Further, to facilitate the environment for the activities and conduct appropriate guidance structures at Hindustan Zinc Limited .There must be support based on the respect of humanity, aiming at participation by everybody .Also, to develop capabilities and capacities of the Quality Circle members and to make the work place full of vitality.

Phase II:

The second phase explored Competency Mapping of the employees.Competency plays an important role in shaping up the perceptions of the employees.It is basically a measure to avoid making the mistake of hiring a round peg for a square hole. One of the underlying principles of Competency Mapping is finding the right person for the right job (specially the Facilitators of the quality circles).

After the detailed study on reasons behind the non effectiveness of Quality Circles, Competency Mapping Study was taken up. The facilitator's competencies were taken into account for the same. An effort was taken up to relate the individual competencies to the competencies required for the best Quality Circle Practices at HZL.

Identifying, assessing and linking people competency with the Quality Circle competency from the core mapping. Competency Mapping is a process of identifying key competencies for a particular position in an organization. Therefore, the executive's opinion about the competencies required for the Quality Circles was taken into account. The relevance and role of HR Managers is going through a flux. The new generation HR Manager attempts to link their individual competency with those set of competencies, which make them successful in their leadership role. In the present study, executives from various departments were selected randomly and were included in the sample. Questionnaires were filled by only those executives who had a free will. The find outcome of this project is in the development of a suggested framework to unable them to bridge the gap between the prevalent and required set of competencies. Hindustan Zinc Smelter (Debari) at present is not making use of the Competency Mapping tool. Therefore the executives were made aware of this tool of HR and to make them know the benefits of Competency Mapping as a tool to help their growth in an organization. Various formats to get the Quality Circles get streamlined are also suggested which include Evaluation Criteria, Format for the meetings and the minutes ,Introduction for of the commandments of QC's, relating awards and recognition to the same. As a result the company organized a Quality Circle gathering with a lunch in which a briefing for the Quality Circles was again given ,besides bags to all the quality circle members were given so as to give them recognition by differentiating them from the non members.

Certificate From Industry Guide

Certificate From Faculty Guide

This is to certify that, Ms Arushi Chauhan from MBA (HR) class of 2009 is a Bonafide student of Amity Business School, Amity University - Uttar Pradesh and is presently pursuing a Post Graduate Programme in Management.

Under my guidance, she has submitted her project titled “Validating Competency Mapping for Attaining Best Quality Circle Practices at HZL”, in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the summer internship project from Hindustan Zinc Limited, Udaipur, from May 1, 2008 to June 30, 2008 during the Post Graduate Programme in Management.

This report has not been previously submitted as part of another degree or diploma of another business school or university. (Date July 24, 2008)

Dr. R. Sujatha

Senior Faculty (HR)

Amity Business School

CHAPTER: 1

INTRODUCTION

1. Company Profile
2. Introduction to Quality Circles & Competency Mapping
3. Objective & Rationale

COMPANY PROFILE

VEDANTA GROUP

Welcome To The Vedanta Group

Vedanta an over US $ 8.2 billion, Vedanta Resources plc (“Vedanta”) is a London listed FTSE 100 diversified metals and mining major. The group produces aluminium, copper, zinc, lead and iron ore and also commercial energy. Vedanta has operations in India, Zambia and Australia and a strong organic growth pipeline of projects. With an empowered talent pool of 30,000 employees globally, Vedanta places strong emphasis on partnering with all its stakeholders based on the core values of entrepreneurship, excellence, trust, inclusiveness and growth.

1. Chairman - Mr. Anil AgarwalDeputy Chairman - Mr. Navin Agarwal
2. Chief Executive Officer - Mr. Kuldeep Kumar Kaura
3. Vedanta Group is a well established name in the corporate world.
4. Vedanta has a strong track record in managing operations and improving costs and output. Its zinc and copper operations rank in the top quartile of global cost efficiency.
5. Its principal operations are located in India, where they have a major market share in each of their main metals: aluminum, copper, zinc and lead. There are also substantial copper operations in Zambia and a copper mine in Australia.
6. Vedanta Resources plc was listed in London in December 2003.
7. At the time of listing, Vedanta set out a carefully structured strategy, to which the board and management remain committed.
8. The group comprises three major businesses: Aluminium - comprising bauxite mining, alumina refining & aluminium smelting operations in India. Copper - comprising smelting & refining operations in India, copper ore mining in Australia, & an integrated copper production in Zambia. Zinc - comprising zinc-lead mining & smelting operations in India.
9. Sterlite Industries is an important segment of Vedanta Group.
10. Sterlite Industries (India) Limited was acquired in 1986, bringing together several metal related activities managed by the Agarwal family.  In 2001 it acquired a 26% stake in Hindustan Zinc Ltd., an integrated zinc and lead producer, from the Government of India and a further 20% through a compulsory open market offer.
11. Vedanta is successfully operating in India in collaboration with Hindustan Zinc Ltd (HZL).The Zinc business of Vedanta is managed within Hindustan Zinc Limited.  HZL is India's only integrated Zinc Company, operating from mine to finished metal and supplied around 80% of India's zinc requirements in 2007-08.

Vedanta Resources Plc - A Snapshot

1. National presence
2. Hindustan Zinc Limited (HZL)
3. Sterlite Industries (India) Ltd (SIIL)
4. Bharat Aluminium Company Ltd (BALCO)
5. The Madras Aluminium Company Ltd (MALCO)
6. Vedanta Aluminium Ltd. (VAL) Lanjigarh
7. Sesa Goa LimitedSterlite Energy Limited

2) Global presence

1. Copper Mines of Tasmania, Tasmania
2. Konkola Copper Mines, Zambia

3) Sterlite Group has also strong presence in Optical cables business through

Sterlite Optical Technologies Ltd. (a non Vedanta Company)

4) A leading producer of key commodities in India

1. FY2007-08 Group turnover : US $ 8,203 million
2. FY2007-08 Group EBITDA :US $ 3,010 million

$7.5 billion investment programme. First phase of $2.2 billion completed on time and within budget. The next phase of $5.3 billion under implementation and on schedule.

STERLITE INDUSTRIES

1. Sterlite Energy Limited (SEL) is a part of Vedanta Resources plc , a London listed metals and mining major with Aluminium, Copper, Zinc and Iron ore operations in India, Australia and Zambia, and a subsidiary of Vedanta group flagship company, Sterlite Industries (India) Limited. SEL was established to develop, construct and operate power plants and seeks to become one of India's leading commercial power generation companies. SEL is well positioned to capitalize on India's economic growth, power deficit and large coal reserves to develop a commercial power generation business. It shall benefit from Vedanta group's experienced and focused management with strong project execution skills, experience in building and operating captive power plants, substantial experience in mining activities and the capacity to finance world-class projects.

Various objectives of Sterlite group regarding HZL are:

1. To make Chanderiya Smelter, Rampura Agucha mines known for its world class operations.
2. To make Zawar mines, RDM, ZSP and ZSV internationally competitive

HINDUSTAN ZINC LTD. PROFILE

1. Hindustan Zinc Limited (HZL) is one of India's leading Zinc-lead producers and exceptional in its extent of its technology coupled with vertical integration in other non-ferrous metals.
2. Hindustan Zinc Limited was incorporated from the erstwhile Metal Corporation of India on 10th January 1966 as a Public Sector Undertaking.
3. Hindustan Zinc is a vertically integrated company with mining and smelting operations located mainly in the State of Rajasthan and in the State of Andhra Pradesh.
4. Hindustan Zinc is India's only integrated producer of Zinc and Lead and is among the world's leading integrated Zinc and Lead producers.
5. Its metal production capacity is currently 754000 tones per annum.
6. The smelters are situated at Chanderia, Debari and Visakhapatnam .The mines are situated at Zawar, Dariba and Rampura Agucha

VISION OF HZL

1. To be a world-class zinc company, creating value, leveraging mineral resources and related core competencies.

MISSION OF HZL

1. Be a lowest cost zinc producer on a global scale, maintaining market leadership
2. One million tones zinc-lead metal capacity by 2010
3. Be innovative, customer oriented and eco-friendly, maximizing stake-holder value

Introduction to Quality Circle

A Quality Circle is a small group in which people who work in the first line work place, continually improve and maintain the quality of products, services, job.

This small group promotes the activity in such a way as to autonomously administer it, utilize the QC concept and technique and others, display creativity and make self development and mutual development.

This activity intent to:

1. Develop workers capability; perform the self-actualization for QC Circlemembers, make the work place full of brightness and vitality.
2. Enhance customer satisfaction and make a social contribution.

The executives and the mangers in order to make QC Circle activities successful, contribute to improving the enterprises, constitute and implement company wide TQM or similar one by themselves. Facilitate the environment for the activity and continually, conduct appropriate guidance and support based on the respect for humanity, aiming at the participation by everybody and positioning the activity as important for human resources development and work place utilization

Quality Circles Functioning:

A typical quality circle consists of 5 to 10 members from the same working area. A leader is either elected by the members or the senior most people assumes the leader's role.

The quality circle meets once every week, usually outside working hours. The meeting lasts for half hour to one hour.

The quality circle is assisted by a facilitator or a coordinator, who is from the executive cadre.

The facilitator helps in ensuring that the requirements for the quality circle meetings are met. He also is the contact between the quality circles and the senior management. In many cases, the facilitator helps the team in case they face difficult in solving a problem.

Quality Circle Policy at Hindustan Zinc Limited

Introduction:

This policy provides objectives of the Company's Quality Circle Program and outlines a broad framework for operations of quality circles in the company for its continuity and consistency amongst the units. It provides the strategic direction for the efforts to achieve sustainable operations of quality circles in the company and qualitative aspects embedded in the company's vision and mission statements. It incorporates the basic approach of quality circles concept appropriately to improve the work culture.

Objectives:

The quality circles will have the following objectives:

1. To enhance employees job satisfaction and belongingness.
2. To provide an effective platform to the employees to contribute through their ideas & knowledge in a healthy environment so as to use their full potential.
3. To promote team work and improve communication at all levels.
4. To develop problem solving analytical approach at shop floor to solve day to day problems.
5. To improve work culture through reduced waste and enhanced quality and productivity.
6. To further expand employee development through education and awareness.

The Set Up:

QC BASICS

1. Quality circles will have four to eight workmen of same work area involved in doing similar kind of activities as members.
2. They will meet as per schedule preferably at least once in 21 days, and identify, select, prioritise the problems.
3. Analyze the causes of problems after discussions in the meetings and then make recommendations of solutions through discussions a nd /or brif Presentations.
4. The QC members will then work together to implement the approved solutions in their work area & would be facilitated by the management wherever necessary.

Role of QC Leader

1. The leader of the QC will be chosen from the group by the group members only.
2. QC can have different leaders for different problems.
3. The leaders of the QCs will be given necessary inputs by the shop flor facilitator so the leader becomes competent enough to take responsibility for the operation of the QC and can explain proper uses of QC techniques to the circle members.
4. The leader should ensure that the meetings are held as per schedule and a report of each QC meeting is made covering all aspects.

Role of Facilitator

An executive of shop floor will facilitate each QC.This executive - The Facilitator - will be responsible in following ways:

1. Be primarily an advisor to the QC of his department /Section/Sub Section.
2. Be active and helpful to the extent the group wants his involvement and keep him informed through interactions / reports of the QC meetings etc.
3. Constantly promote & encourage the circle concept & extend all facilities to QCs for organizing meeting as per schedule. These facilities will include meeting place, stationary & other material for arranging presentations.
4. Maintain liaison, contacts and provide feedback on requests in a timely manner towards ‘Solutions-implementation.'
5. Educate & encourage other employees of the area to join the QCs /Form new QC.

Role of Convenor

For overall coordination & facilitating jobs at unit level, the HOD of Unit I.E. Dept. will act as the UNIT convenor (s) to expedite the coordination process. He will be responsible for:

1. Smooth and uninterrupted operations of Unit Quality Circle Program.
2. Education / Training to facilitators, Leaders and Members.
3. Coordinating circle operations by acting as an interface between facilitators /circles and Unit Steering Committee Unit Management.
4. Providing feedback to steering Committee and extend help as and when required by the facilitators/circles.
5. Maintaining records of all QCs of the unit based on QC meeting.
6. Helping facilitators /HODs in evaluation of QC performance.
7. Organizing Unit's Annual QC Convention preferably in the quality month i.e. November and declaration of the best quality circles of the year.
8. Attending circle meetings occasionally and organizing QC leader meetings periodically.
9. Coordinating with Convenor of Corporate QC Steering Group.(CQCSG)
10. Sending a monthly report to the convenor of CQCSG i.e. HOD of Corporate IE Department Corporate office giving all the details regarding Unit Quality Circle operations .The details will include number of QCs ,their strength ,meeting frequency ,areas identified / approved for analysis, Q.C. Techniques employed, presentations made, No. of improvements effected & their brief details ,designation of Sr. Level Officers of the unit who extended visible support ,the evaluation sheets of QCs performance etc.

Unit Steering Group (USG)

1. USG will be chaired by Unit Head and will consist of HODs of major functions of the unit viz. production, maintenance, personnel, accounts, stores etc.
2. USG will be responsible in conformance to unit's operational requirements consistent with broad guidelines of QC Policy.
3. USG shall provide guidance & direction to QC program within the unit.
4. USG will also publicize the circle activities /achievements within & outside the unit .Their objective will be to promote QCs in all areas of the unit.
5. The members of the group will show their visible support by attending meetings regularly with the facilitators and the circle members for encouragement & advises. They will also allocate higher priority for attending presentation of quality circles as & when requested.

CQCSG:

Corporate support to all QC activities in the Units would be extended through a Corporate QC Steering Group.

The Operative Framework:

1. The membership of the circles will be open to all workmen on voluntary basis
2. QC members will work in coordinated team manner to accomplish the activities taken on their own initiative by sharing responsibilities among themselves.
3. QC members will identify, select, prioritize and analyze the problems.
4. QC members will participate in all QC activities including presentation & set for other fellow workmen to emulate.
5. QC members will be in constant touch with the facilitator.
6. QC members will set up schedules for meetings and presentations within the framework of known company work loads in consultation with the facilitator & send minutes of meetings promptly to the Unit Convenor with a copy to the facilitator.
7. The circle will maintain continuous communication amongst all members.
8. QC members will present the identified problems along-with alternative solutions to management for acceptance.
9. QC members will pursue to implement the solutions of the problems as approved by management.
10. QC members will make presentation on the progress of implemented solutions to management.
11. Circles will not address the following subjects:
12. Employees Complaints
13. Personal Grievances
14. Personality related issues

Role of Unit Steering Group:

1. USG may participate in circles' actions and will address to circles' requests.
2. USG will also support all implementation activities.
3. USG may also suggest problems to the quality circles for further exploration.
4. USG will encourage formation of quality circles on other areas of the unit.

Performance Evaluation:

The performance of each quality circle will be evaluated based on following guidelines:

1. Evaluation Period: 1 Year
2. Parameters Weightage %

 No. of Meetings (Frequency at least once 15(Maximum 17

in 21 days) meetings in a year)

1. Attendance of members 15 (in percentage)

Regular submission of minutes of 10meetings/reports to Unit Convenor

1. No. of new problems identified and their 10 selection process
2. Analysis ,effective use of QC tools, 10 workload distribution among the members
3. Quality of solved problems with respect to 10

potential of the groups

 No. of solutions implemented 10

 No. of presentations made, quality of 20 presentation, participation of members special features in the presentation. Comparison among circles will be done on the basis of the marks scored by different QCs of the unit.

Recognition & Facilitations Aspects:

The efforts of circles attract non -financial awards only which could be in terms of recognition /publicity and theothers as outlined below:

 At the time of formation & registration of quality circles:

1. Inauguration of QC by Unit Head.
2. Introduction of QC members to Unit Head in presence of their Departmental Head.
3. Displaying the details of newly formed QC on all notice boards of the Unit. Provision of stationary (writing pad, pen/pencil) to QC members.

 After 10 meetings or completing at least one useful project whichever is later - inviting QC members with spouse on a ‘tea” by HOD.

 After 1st presentation to HOD of Respective Department, a certificate would be given to all QC members on a tea-get-together of the department.

 Presentation of selected QCs to Unit Head in presence of all QCS of the unit where certificates shall be awarded to circle members signed by Convenor & chairman of USG together.

 Honour at important occasions where QC member could be invited with the spouse.

 QC page will be included in monthly departmental and unit report giving highlights of implemented solutions.

 After annual performance review of QCs in the unit publication of details of completed projects by QC members with their photographs for circulation in all the units of HZL.

 Two best QCs will be selected in the unit convention after 1 year of their operations based on performance criteria & will be awarded accordingly (Preferably in quality month i.e. November).

Awarding QCFI membership to members of best two circles judged by evaluation committee constituted by Unit Steering Group Subject to eligibility.

 Sending Unit's best two QC's to other units for presentation on some important occasion of the unit.

 Recognition to QCs standing 1st or 2nd in Unit consecutively for two years by CQCSG.

 Best quality circle judged by CQCSG at Corporate level matching with corporate image be considered for sending for participation in national competition organized by QCFI when the opportunity comes.

Introduction to Competency Mapping

In the modern competitive world, business managers are required to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the business operations. As there are several factors that affect efficiency and effectiveness of operations the improvement is required to be carried out in every factor. These factors are required to bring every factor in synchronization with other factors. To improve synchronization between different elements is an important approach to improve effectiveness and efficiency of the operations.

Manpower, technical and managerial abilities are the most important resource of any organization .The most important resource is the most difficult to manage as no two persons are similar. Every person has different Qualities, attitude, motives, personality traits, skills, knowledge etc. which has effect on their performance at work. Organizations in order to facilitate excellence in the performance of the people in the organization are required to identify the right person for every job. This matching between jobs and people is an important avenue for organizational improvement efforts.

HR professional are entrusted with the responsibility for selection, training and development, administration deployment support, performance appraisal and performance diagnostics of the employees. The most important part of these responsibilities is assessment of the individuals for their superiority for different functional tasks, and development of their potential to be effective and excel in the assigned tasks.

Currently most of the organizations are using personal interview, written tests and group discussion for the purpose of assessment. These approaches were mostly based on personality tests/psychometric tests. These tests have improved assessment of candidates but still the reliability of the results is not adequate to forecast effectiveness of the selected candidate for the job.

Research conducted by Industrial and organizational psychologists have found that effectiveness of a person to carry out a job depends not only on single or isolated factors but on set of many different factors. Such set of factors that help the possessor to be effective in a particular job is termed as competency for that particular job is termed as competency for that particular job.

HR function entrusted with the responsibility of finding right person for every job and development of the employed person to do the assigned job effectively, have found competency mapping assessment as a very effective tool.

Definition:

Competency mapping is the process of identification of the competencies required to perform successfully a given job or role or a set of tasks at a given point of time. It consists of breaking a given role or job into its constituent tasks or activities and identifying the competencies (technical, managerial, behavioral, conceptual knowledge, an attitudes, skills, etc.) needed to perform the same successfully. Competency assessment is the assessment of the extent to which a given individual or a set of individuals possess these competencies required by a given role or set of roles or levels of roles. Assessment centers use multiple methods and multiple assessors to assess the competencies of a given individual or a group of individuals. In order to enhance objectivity they use trained assessors and multiple methods including psychometric tests, simulation exercise, presentations, in-basket exercises, interviews, role-plays, group discussions etc. The methods to be used depend on the nature of competencies.

Psychometric tests or instruments:

These are scientific methods of assessing personality traits, attitudes, qualities, abilities, aptitude, interpersonal styles etc of individuals in an organization. Psychometric tests can be used effectively to develop individual and organizational excellence. Psychometric instruments are essentially diagnostic in nature. They are useful in assessing the intellectual, managerial, social and emotional competencies of individuals.

Typically these tests are used as a starting point for individual/team development. They enable individuals in organizations to identify strengths and areas of improvement. Hence, they provide directions for developing specific competencies. Some organizations use these for evaluating individuals; others apply these for driving change or for developmental purposes. Many organizations today use these tools to enhance their mentoring systems, team building initiatives, managerial and leadership effectiveness and leadership development.

Competency mapping is essentially an in-house job. Consultants can at best give the methodology and train line managers and HR staff. Consultants cannot do competency mapping all by themselves because no consultant can ever have all the knowledge required to identify the technological, managerial, human relations and other conceptual knowledge, attitudes and skills required for all jobs in a firm.

Where consultants are excessively relied upon, the data generated is likely to enrich the consultants and consulting firms much more than the commissioning firm itself. The lower the consultant's involvement, more the work needs to be done internally and higher the intellectual capital generation and retention within the organization.

Objective and Rationale

The objective behind taking up this project was mainly to develop a optimistically positive attitude in the employees. This would lead onto a self motivated mode to give them an impetus to get the Quality Circles streamlined. This attitude development task could be done by mapping the present competencies of the executives and knowing their level of participation in the various HR Practices taken up at HZL.

The associated objectives taken up in the two phases during the project are :

PHASE I

Quality Circles

A.Self Development through Change in attitude:

1. From “I don't care” to “I do care”.
2. Continuous improvement in quality of work life through humanization of work.
3. Bring out the hidden potential of the people by imparting additional skills.
4. Improved organizational Culture through Development of Team Spirit:
5. Individual Vs Team - “I could not do but we did it.”
6. Eliminate interdepartmental conflicts.
7. Positive working environment with higher motivational level.
8. Total involvement of people at all the levels.

This is based on two ideas: that employees can often make better suggestions for improving work processes than management; and that employees are motivated by their participation in making such improvements. Thus, implemented correctly, quality circles can help HZL reduce costs, increase productivity, and improve employee morale (the most challenging factor). Other potential benefits that would be realized besides this include greater operational efficiency, reduced absenteeism, improved employee health and safety, and an overall better working climate.

PHASE II

Competency Mapping

A. To identify the concept of competency and competency based HR practices.

A1. By learning how to develop the mapped competencies (to streamline the

Quality Circles)

A2. By validating the various approaches towards building Competency Model.

B. Defining the factors for success in jobs (also QC ) and work roles within

the organization.

B1. Mapping succession possibilities for employees within the organization.

B2. Assessing the current performance and future development needs of

persons holding jobs and roles

To develop an understanding about the Competency Mapping HR Tool

amongst the chosen and assigned executives.

C1. Defining the concept of Competency Mapping and its symbiosis

with leadership role (aligning with the Quality Circles)

C2. Getting the Questionnaire filled up to know an individual's competency

and his willingness to enhance the workings of Quality Circles at HZL.

The project is taken to develop theoretical and application -oriented inputs on competency mapping and develop mapped competencies. HZL Debari does not have a Competency Mapping framework presently thereby having no competencies defined for any role. The challenge was to formalize the competency analysis process starting from identification of workforce competencies required to streamline the Quality Circles to utilization of competency information for activities like training &development, staffing and competency development.

CHAPTER: 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

1. Review of Quality Circles
2. Review of Competency Mapping

Review of Quality Circle

After the Second World War, Japan was one of the devastated countries. The quality of products they produced was nothing worth mentioning. In addition the bombing of two important cities had left the country bereft of cable manpower and resources.

The Japanese emperor called a meeting of all his senior industrialists to discuss what could be done to make things turn for the better. Amended was given to study what other countries were doing to be successful.

One factor which immerged after studies was that in USA manufacturing organizations were following the advice and teachings of some persons known for their contribution to Quality. Two names that stood out were Deming and Dr. Juran.

The emperor invited these two eminent gentlemen for a lecture tour of Japan .The Japanese manufacturing concerns learned two important lessons from them:

1. Reduce variability
2. Strive to manage for quality through executive leadership.

The Japanese workforce embraced the teaching of Dr. Deming and Dr. Juran and put these teachings into practice. Their first foray into quality was to copy electronic goods. And they did it not only to perfection but even better. This story was repeated in the auto mobile industry. The Japanese .helped by the oil crisis, were able to export their small automobiles to the USA. These cars soon gained a lot of preference & popularity. What happened after that is history.

During this period what happened in Japan was spectacular. The executives and managers in the Japanese organizations felt that the teaching of Dr. Deming Dr. Juran should also be made useful to the workers. The foremen were given the responsibility to impart training in Quality to workmen .In addition the whole nation took on a responsibility of generating quality awareness. A course in quality control was broadcast over the radio. This course of 91 lessons was broadcast everyday for 15 minutes. This was followed by a television lecture series. All this happened between 1956 and 1961.

The 1st group of quality circles then known as quality control circles was launched in 1962.

The then basic principals of Quality circles were:

1. The membership consisted solely of people at bottom of the company organization - non supervisors and working supervisors.
2. Membership was voluntary.

The work of the circle was mostly conducted outside the regular hours.

1. Compensation for this out - of - hours varied from full time pay to nothing.
2. A few years back (1998), there were over 408000 registered quality circles in Japan with about 3.12 million members and still rising.

Review of Competency Mapping

A team of Educationists lead by Benjamin Bloom in the USA in mid fifties laid the foundation for identifying educational objectives and there by defining the knowledge attitudes and skills needed to be developed in education. The task force lead by Bloom took several years to make an exhaustive classification of the educational objectives that were grouped under the cognitive domain.

David McClelland the famous Harvard Psychologist has pioneered the competency movement across the world. His classic books on "Talent and Society", "Achievement Motive", "The Achieving Society", "Motivating Economic Achievement" and "Power the Inner Experience" brought out several new dimensions of the competencies. These competencies exposed by McClelland dealt with the affective domain in Bloom's terminology. The turning point for competency movement is the article published in American Psychologist in 1973 by McClelland titled where in he presented data that traditional achievement and intelligence scores may not be able to predict job success and what is required is to profile the exact competencies required to perform a given job effectively and measure them using a variety of tests.

Latter McBer a Consulting Firm founded by David McClelland and his associate Berlew have specialized in mapping the competencies of entrepreneurs and managers across the world. They even developed a new and yet simple methodology called the Behavior Event Interviewing (BEI) to map the competencies. With increased recognition of the limitations performance appraisal in predicting future performance potential appraisal got focused. And Assessment centers became popular in seventies. The setting up of an Assessment center was in integral part of the HRD plan given to L&T by the IIMA professors as early as in 1975. L&T did competency mapping and could not start assessment centers until much latter as it was not perceived as a priority area.

CHAPTER: 3

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Materials and Methods Used

An exploratory research design was used .Data was collected from both Primary & Secondary sources.

Primary Research

The primary research involved the conduction of interviews with personnel from various Quality Circle Facilitators and Leaders. In addition interviews were conducted with other HR executives(chosen and given to me), asking their opinions about the working of the Quality Circles. Personnel's from other HR Programs like Six Sigma were contacted who gave a briefing as to what are the loopholes on the part of the management because of which the quality circles are lagging behind & how would the competency mapping tool streamline the same.

Secondary Research

The secondary research undertaken was by study of reports and policy of HZL regarding workings of Quality Circles and from information available on the public domain from the company websites and other sites from Internet.

The two phases of the project were managed as follows with the help of primary & secondary research.

The actual mapping was carried out on a very small scale for this project. To do the mapping the following steps were taking by me in mapping out competencies:

1. A structured questionnaire (appendix) was designed for the employee and part “b” was for his subordinates. The same questionnaire was administered to both for getting the rating. Each question was designed to elicit behavioral examples from the candidate which demonstrate the use of one or more key behaviors underlying each competency that is accounted for in the interview.
2. The employees were first given a briefing about what is competency mapping concept exactly.
3. Then the employees who agreed to fill up the Questionnaire at their free will were asked to rate his/her own competency level in the questionnaire.
4. Another Questionnaire was prepared for the Quality Circle Facilitators/Leaders to know the present working scenario and thereby finding out the major loopholes in backlog.
5. The questionnaire for the laborers was built to bring forth the following:

5.1 To collect information about employment related factors of contract laborers.

5.2 To study the working condition of contract laborers data on employment work undertaken, working conclusions, work hours, wages & allowance & deduction (if any) welfare, social security etc. of contract laborers are collected and analyzed.

5.3 To there any promotion of contract workers.

For Phase II ,as people could hardly give time, more emphasis was placed on individual ratings rather then on superior subordinate or peer rating which would have made the process less biased. The ratings thus commuted can be used to link competencies to any other HR system.

Competency mapping began with identification of the working competencies required to perform the organizational business activities(along with Quality Circles). Once the competencies were identified, a mapping between the targeted value of competency was tried to measure, analyze and predict the future capability of competencies and then necessary corrective / preventive actions to be taken to either enhance or maintain the current capability. The information was collected by directly approaching the executives, labourers, facilitators /leaders of various Quality Circles from the various departments. For labourers the map was built to know their skills along with competency. A specially designed questionnaire in Hindi was prepared for the labourers. Beside the record based information the information was obtained through discussions with the labourers.

CHAPTER: 4

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

1. Of Quality Circles
2. Of Competency Mapping

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

QUALITY CIRCLES:

Top Management

Steering Committee Management

Employees

Facilitator

COORDINATOR

Leader

Grass Root

Employees

Members

Potential Members

QC Structure

Global Spread

Japan - 1962

East Asian Countries - 1970 - 1984

USA - 1974

UK - 1979

European Countries - 1976 - 1984

India - 1980

China - 1981

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK of COMPETENCY MAPPING

The business organizations all over the world have been placing greater emphasis on mapping competencies which are vital for the success of their key executives. Competencies have been defined as “An underlying characteristics of employee (i.e. a motive, trait, skill, aspects of one's self-image, social role, or a body of knowledge) which results in effective and/or superior performance (Boyatzis 1982).”

In the Indian context it is widely believed that executives are possessing analytical frame of mind which explains the success of Indian IT and ITES companies. There are many world ranking educational institutes such as IITs, IIMs, IISCs etc., which are churning out high quality professionals. Some of them are occupying high position in MNCs around the world. The people competencies are largely a function of their upbringing, type of educational provided and the kind of professional working environment, which is made available to them to work in.

Therefore while developing a competency mapping framework at HZL one of the biggest challenges before HR managers is to connect business competencies to people competencies. The Human Resource Management system is expected to play a pivotal role in linking individual competencies with the vision and mission of the HZL. Therefore the top management is first expected to take inventory of their own competencies which are vital for future success in their leadership role. Competencies are cluster of knowledge, skill, and abilities (KSA). Identifying those KSAs, which are vital for superior performance, is necessary for a leader manger.

The top management of HZL will play a pivotal role for success in business. They are supposed to be the navigator of the ship of business. The basic competency required for success in leadership roles goes much beyond simply managing subordinates (Khandwala, 2004).They have to play a proactive role in transforming the fortune of the business organization they are heading.

Against this backdrop an attempt has been made:

1. To develop a theoretical framework of Competency Mapping.
2. To identify core managerial competencies which are required for success in leadership roles.
3. To empirically analyze the objective of self assessment
4. To compare and contrast the set of competencies which are prevalent in the respondent HR managers as against the required set of competencies.

The major outcome of this project is to make the employees aware about the need for applying competency-mapping framework in performing their managerial roles in such a much better way by analyzing the gaps between the required and prevalent set of competencies and formulating, strategies to bridge this gap.

Construct Of Competency Mapping

Competency refers to the behavior by which skills are acquired and the desired standard of performance reached. It is interesting to note that there is thin line difference between competence and competency.

COMPETENCE COMPETENCY

Skill based Behavior based

Standard attained Manner of behavior

What is measured How the standard is achieved

In another definition by Spencer & Spencer (1993) competency has been defined as “Competencies are an underlying characteristic leading to successful performance.”

COMPETENCY vs. COMPETENCE

1. Competency: A person- related concept that refers to the dimensions of behavior lying behind competent performer.
2. Competence: A work- related concept that refers to areas of work at which the person is competent
3. Competencies: Often referred as the combination of the above two. Ex: UK organizations.{Woodruff. (1991)

Competencies may be grouped as follows:

Knowledge

Knowledge is awareness, information or understanding about facts,rules,principles,guidelines,concepts,theories,or processes needed to successfully perform a task .The information may be concrete ,specific, and easily measurable or more complex ,abstract, and difficult to assess. Knowledge is acquired through learning and experience. Examples include knowledge of diagnostic characteristics of a disorder, or knowledge of a practice guideline.

Historically ,training and education programs have placed heavy emphasis on imparting knowledge .From a competency perspective ,it is important that knowledge considered essential for a task or job be identified as explicitly as possible. Consistent with Mc Cleland's original set of premises the knowledge imparted should also have a link to meaningful, work related outcomes. Therefore, the assessment of knowledge as an element of competency should take into consideration the impact of that knowledge on individual job performance.

Skills

A skill is a capacity to perform physical or mental tasks with a specified outcome. Similar to knowledge, skills can range from highly concrete and easily identifiable tasks, to less tangible and more abstract tasks, such as facilitating a team meeting in order to achieve consensus. Spencer and Spencer refers to knowledge and skills collectively as “surface” competencies, as they tend to be the easiest elements of competency to develop through training.

Abilities

An ability is demonstrated cognitive or physical capability to successfully perform a task with a wide range of possible outcomes. It is often a constellation of several underlying capacities that enable us to learn and perform. Examples of abilities include thinking analytically, problem solving, making projections based on current data, managing or evaluating a program, synthesizing and integrating information from several sources. Abilities are more complex than skills, and difficult and time consuming to develop, as they typically have a strong component of innate capacity. For example analytical thinking comes more naturally to some people.

Distinction between Central & Surface Competencies

(Sangi 2004)

Knowledge and Skill

Surface

Core personality

Trait,

Motive

Self Concept

Attitude

Fig 1.

CENTRAL AND SURFACE COMPETENCIES

The Distinction:

The term competencies is having much wider meaning and multifarious connotation such as skill, knowledge, traits ,motives, self concepts, social orientation etc. Another view of competencies is to consider them as a cluster of key KSAs .It has been believed that the employees possessing appropriate knowledge, skill abilities can deliver superior performance. Identifying such a blend of KSAs from the foundation for competencies mapping framework.

Competency mapping is a process of identifying key competencies for a particular position in an organization Garrett define it as ,'Competency mapping is a process an individual uses to identify and describe competencies that are most critical to success in a work situation or work role”. In other words, it involves defining what is important to be successful in a job. Competency Mapping identifies an individual's strengths, weaknesses in order to help them better understand themselves and to show them where career development efforts need to be directed. Competency mapping is a process of identifying key competencies for an organization and/or job and incorporating those competencies throughout the various processes (i.e. evaluation, training, recruitment) of the organization. Therefore competency mapping has two aspects first is related to identifying individual competencies and second is to assess the job related competency.

The success of HR leadership lies in mapping these two types of competencies on a two-dimensional plane, so that the gap between these if any, can be analyzed. The successful HR manager's devise appropriate strategies such as job evaluation, recruitment, Training &Development, succession planning, performance management system etc.

The success of an organization largely depends on a quality of senior level managers. How well they perform their leadership role defines the future course of action for the organizations. Competency Mapping has become the latest buzzword in HR literature .However very less research work has been conducted which aims to identify the core competencies which are required by key managers for achieving in their leadership role. A study by Khandwala (2004) attempts to fulfill this gap. The present communication is yet another attempt to find out the applicability of competency mapping framework through empirical analysis of Indian HR managers of selected business organizations.

Classification of the Competencies:

1) Organizational Competencies

2) Job related Competencies

3) Personal Competencies

Organizational competencies are unique factors that make an organization competitive. According to C.K. Prahlad and Hamel who wrote the famous book competing in the future,”Organisational competencies:

• Provide potential access a wide variety of markets

• Make a significant contribution to perceived customer benefits of the end product.

• Are difficult for competitors to imitate.

Organization need to focus their efforts in the area of their competencies and strengthen them and outsource the other activities. This is very important as these competencies are fundamental to the success of the organization.

Job related competencies are those competencies are which are required for performing a specific job. These are the competencies one must demonstrate to be effective in his job/role, task, or duty. Thus these competencies are job or role specific and vary from job to job. A competency model can be used to develop specific job related competencies and come out with a competency dictionary. These competencies are organization specific as roles and responsibilities may vary from time to time and organization to organization even though the job title may be the same. Job related competencies may become the criteria for most of the HR functions like selection .T & D, performance appraisal, compensation etc.

Personal competencies are aspects of an individual they include the abilities of individuals to perform the activities within an occupation or function to the standard expected in employment. It includes the various behavioral competencies apart from the knowledge and the skill level of an individual, the competencies includes:

• Personal competencies like developing oneself, taking initiative, delivering results, showing commitment, and adaptability.

• Interpersonal competencies like influencing, Relationship building, advicing, team orientation, service orientation, cultural awareness, communication and openness.

• Information oriented competencies like strategic thinking, business understanding, and conceptualizing innovation, processing, analyzing and comprehending.

• People management competencies like leadership, directing, building teams, facilitating performance, motivating, guiding people, and transferring knowledge.

Other competencies are:

• Threshold competency

• Differentiating competency

Threshold competencies are those competencies which a job holder needs in order to perform the job effectively. However these competencies do not distinguish the average performer from a superior performer. It is the differentiating competencies which are present only in superior performer which makes them excel in their respective roles or jobs and bring out outstanding performance. For example knowledge about manufacturing process, tools, equipments is threshold competency and quality orientation is the differentiating competency.

CHAPTER: 5

DISCUSSIONS

Discussions

Mc Gregor's X & Y theories:

One of the assumptions people have about workers is that most people just don't like to work. Due to this dislike for work most people must be coerced controlled, directed and threatened with punishment to make them work. Also, an average human being works a bear minimum lacks ambition, refuses to take responsibilities, and would rather be told what to do than to think for himself.

Alternatively the other assumption is that people do not like or dislike work inherently but rather develop an attitude towards it based on their experience with it. People possess enough imagination, ingenuity, and creativity to solve organizational problems. Hence under the right circumstances, people do not shun responsibility but seek it.

These two assumptions about people's behavior are summarized in the table.

It is important for every facilitator to introspect and find out what is his attitude towards people , more so in the quality circle environment.

Quality circles operate on the factors assumed under theory Y and the theory itself finds practical application in Quality Circles.

X and Y Theory Comparison

Assumed Attitude of employee towards	Theory X	Theory Y
Organizational Objectives	Indifferent to them	Will work towards them if they perceive rewards associated with doing so
Responsibility	Will avoid it if possible	Will accept responsibility if they are rewarded for acting with responsibility.
Work	Dislike all forms of work	Consider work as natural as play if they associate reward with working
Rewards	Want money and security. More pay will produce more work.	Behave in a way that seek to satisfy a variety of needs.
Appropriate means of dealing with employees	Coercion, pressure, threat of punishment. Well specified tasks and close control. Pay and monetary incentives.	Establish a work environment in which employees can realize recognition ,challenge, satisfaction of achievement etc.

Competency Mapping

Competency for a job can be defined as a set of attributes that enable an employee to meet and exceed expectations of his internal as well as external customers and stake holders.

It has been a general observation that hard work, sincerity, knowledge, intelligence, alone does not make a person star performer in his profession in his profession. There are other factors that help an individual to excel in his profession. We have observed that top scorers from objective type of tests are not able to hold their rank in descriptive type of tests .Similarly a good runner is not always a good hockey player, as every game needs different set of physical and mental qualities to excel. Thus set of human qualities that make a person star performer for a particular activity defines the competency for that particular activity.

Good managers are generally aware about different qualities a person must possess to do a job effectively, and they make use of their knowledge to select and train their subordinates. Organizational psychologists have studied and refined this understanding and converted it into a structured and formal process thus making it available for business application.

In organization or business context, competency required for a particular job depends on many factors. The factors include social culture, nature of business, business environment, organizational culture, work environment, organizational structure, duties and responsibilities, nature of processes and assigned activities, attitude and motives of colleagues, superiors & subordinates. Some of these factors may change with time, and thus changing competency requirements for the same job position in an organization.

Competency for any job position at a particular time is a unique set and as organization has many different job positions, managing many such sets is a difficult task. Hence for the purpose of HR management, the job competency is divided into elemental competencies.

Fig 2.

Competency mapping and Leadership Role: A symbiosis

Leadership is supposed to be all pervasive in the organization .Success in leadership role can make or mar the fortunes of a business organization. With the unprecedented pressures of the globalization the business cannot afford to take risk. Therefore increasing emphasize is being placed on identifying the set of core competencies which are vital for making one vibrant and a dynamic leader, who is capable of transforming the entire synergy of business. Efforts are being made to unravel not only the present competencies but also to forecast the competencies which will be required in future. This exercise of identifying competencies and working on them to be inculcate in one's personality definitely makes one a better leader. This in essence, is the symbiotic relationship between competence mapping and leadership.

According to Khandwala, a senior manager is required to play multiple roles such as strategic roles, operational roles and leadership roles. He has developed an inventory of six sub sets of managerial competency. While performing strategic roles, the senior managers are required to be proficient in contextual sensitivity competencies. Simlarly, the initiative to smoothly manage new projects and seize new opportunities is also vital for achieving in the strategic role. For the operational roles, the senior mangers must adopt a resilient problem solving attitude. They should also be highly innovative for achieving success in leadership role, great emphasis is laid on mapping interpersonal relationship with a focus on task execution competencies.

The HR manger is the pivot around which the whole organization revolves. The HR managers are vital link between the management and the workforce. The success of an organization is intricately linked to the effectiveness of HR leadership. Rothwell in his extensive research work identified some of the competencies possessed by HR mangers. Some of them are visionary leadership, sound knowledge of the business, successful change agents, excellent interpersonal skills based on mutual trust, emphatic behavior, caring and nurturing attitude etc.

HR manager plays the caretaker role in an organization. The nurturing environment developed by Hr manager boosts the moral of the rest of the workforce in an organization .It is a generally accepted notion that HR managers must be good psychologist to manage huge diversity prevailing among the employees. Ulrich Dave in his famous book entitled Human Resource Champion advocates that the new vision of HR must be defined by what HR can deliver and not by he does.

In future the complexion of the HR profession will undergo a sea-change .The HR manager will be required to act as a strategist. The HR manger of future must essentially have a problem solving attitude to enhance performance of their workforce. They will require to design and deliver flexible and customized HR systems. The futuristic HR manager must be well versed with the IT and techniques, as their application will abound in future.

Moreover the function of Competency Mapping and development and assessment centers has become one of the key responsibilities of HR mangers. Their responsibility does not end there but it also covers the formulation and implementation of various techniques to equip employees with the required set of competencies.

Competencies and Career development: A SYMBIOSIS

First and foremost, competencies must be demonstrated by individuals. Perhaps the most common place where they are demonstrated is within the scope of a particular job or project involvement. However, competencies are also developed and demonstrated by individuals in the following settings: volunteer roles in the community, professional associations, school projects, sports participation settings, and even within one's own home life.

One of the first encounters with competencies for most individuals is in securing employment with a new organization. Organizations that are purposefully using cutting-edge methods to choose talent for positions or project roles are engaging in what is called “competency-based interviewing and selection”. These interviewing and selection methods are being used not only for hiring external applicants, but also for staffing internal roles, as described later in this article.

Many organizations that use competency-based interviewing and selection are also later using the same competencies to assess performance, to encourage future development plans from individuals, and to plan for succession in the organization. Therefore, the individual employees in such an organization will have an ongoing need to use and map their competencies.

Up to this point, it is implied that the main need for identifying and mapping competencies is for individuals who may be pursuing full-time employment with HZL. However, the need for mapping of competencies also extends to independent contractors seeking project work with those organizations that broker their services. Take the example of The Fulcrum Network, an organizational development consulting brokerage organization. Fulcrum recently released a manual entitled “How to Hire the Right Consultant,” in which it identified 18 factors that can be used to evaluate consultants. (Fulcrum Network, 2002, pg. 10) Most of the 18 factors would be considered competencies.

CHAPTER: 6

RESULTS & SUGGESTIONS

• Phase I Findings

• Recommendations for Phase I

• Phase II Findings

• Conclusions for Phase I&II

 

Phase I Findings

According to the available data and information through the quality circle members lately on April 30 , 2003 the number of quality circles was 28 which are as follows:

Sr. No.	Name of Quality Circle	Department
1	Karmath	R & A
2	Samadhan	R & A
3	Nivaran	R & A
4	Adarsh	R & A
5	Astha	L & P
6	Golden	L & P
7	Maharana Pratap	ZE
8	Shivaji	ZE
9	Jai Mewar	Zn Dust
10	Sanjivni	Lab
11	Sanskar	ETP
12	Jagriti	Instrumentation
13	Prerna	Instrumentation
14	Viashwakarma	Civil
15	Shriram	Wood Shop
16	Trishul	Electrolysis
17	Shakti	Electrolysis
18	Hariom	DG Set
19	Sahayog	Mechanical
20	Shreenath	Mechanical
21	Parivartan	Mechanical
22	Diamond	Auto
23	Star	LR Mill
24	Arjun	Workshop
25	Purushottam	P & A
26	Saraswati	P & A
27	Ridhi-Sidhi	Finance
28	Prayas	Materials

After the analysis done it was found that only 15 Quality Circles are in process at May 30,2008 and which are as follows:

Sr. No.	Name of Quality Circle	Department
1	Karmath	R & A
2	Rashtahit	R & A
3	Novelty	MCTP
4	Pragatisheel	ETP
5	Maharana	ZE
6	Jagriti	ZE
7	IT	IT
8	Sagar	W.Supply
9	Golden	Instrumentation
10	Lakshya	Instrumentation
11	Sunrise	L & P
12	Shrinath	L & P
13	Best	L & P
14	Sanjivni	Lab
15	Rana	E.S.

Reasons for the failure of the quality circles are:

• Insufficient training or education. The right tools and techniques have to be provided to all the members and not just the facilitators before a start is made.

• As problems are solved outside the control of their own work area or process. This is one of the most common factors.

• There is lack of time to meet. Therefore the management must allocate time for circles to meet in slack times and even during high growth periods.

• AS the quality circles were not giving quick results, there was withdrawal of support to quality circle activities by the top management.

• The scene of VRS at HZL has also affected the quality Circles because if the facilitator , leader were missing some to the quality circles became inactive and eventually extinct.

• There is low volunteer rate to join the quality circles.

• There is inability in the workers to learn new process and problem solving skills.

• As according to some employees the problems are solved as an when they occur , they do not wait to hold a quality circle meet , so there is lack of problems.

• One of the major loopholes here at HZL is that employees expect rewards in return for joining the Quality Circle. This clearly shows that they are not well aware of the basic approach of Quality Circles.

• Problem of shifts is yet another noticeable issue ,as the members of one quality circle do not belong to the same shifts they find it difficult to set such a time when all can come together at the same time to conduct a meeting. Therefore a fewer groups only meet.

• Some of the facilitators are of the opinion that the workload is already high, thereby they get no time to conduct the meetings regularly or on some fixed days.

• Inactiveness on the part of the Facilitators and the leaders to take up any kind of initiative to motivate their team members to maintain the scenario of regular meetings along with records of the minutes of the meetings.

• One of the reasons was non cooperation from the members because of conflicts amongst them.

• Another fact for the failure was that workers take this as an extra burden activity which is of no good to them. Even there is no well defined recognition given to them if they come up with some idea for quality improvement.

• Most of the people are working in the organization since a long time on the same position therefore over the years they have developed the ability to tackle a wide range of problems at work in an imaginative and creative way all by themselves.

• There is no mid year evaluation made by the steering or the Executive committee to monitor the growth so the quality circles are all the more getting inactive.

• As there is interdepartmental conflicts prevailing at times, quality circles do not at all meet for cross-pollination of ideas, skills, & experiences. Neither do they coordinate the quality improvement initiatives or allow the empowerment & growth of staff members.

• There is no scene of rotational attendance to ensure that the entire department is conversant with quality circle programme.

• There is no provision of baseline evaluation of the department involved before starting the activities of the quality circles programmes so that data is available that would make comparison possible in the future, therefore this lack of baseline information about the department is not the cornerstone of the evaluation process.

• There is no agenda drawn or communicated to the steering committee to ensure productive meetings & full participation of the steering committee.

• There are no minutes generated out of each meeting from the various quality circles to ensure continuity & progress.

• There is no proper monitoring system prevalent to ensure the successful working of the various quality circles.

• There is no case in which any progress repots are sent by the steering committee to the HODs.

• There is no sense of belongingness by the workers towards the quality circles and they never go out of their way to uplift the work standards of the quality circles.

Recommendations for Phase I

Here are some suggestions to get the Quality Circles streamlined at Hindustan Zinc Limited.

MOTIVATION:

People differ not only in their ability to do but also their will to do. The motivation of a person depends on the strength of his motives. Motives are sometimes defined as needs, wants, derives or impulses , within the individual. Motives are directed towards goals which may be conscious or sub conscious.

Goal

Urge to satisfy the Need

Internal Need

Need -Urge - Interrelationship

Some of the needs that are satisfied through quality circles are as follows:

• Freedom: “Respect for the human individual” is the foundation of Quality circles. Thus the need of freedom of expression without fear and also the freedom, of association is addressed through quality circles.

• Security: If one has the security of one's job security against injustice, he can be expected to perform well. Acquisition of knowledge through quality circles provides one a secure feeling.

• Affection: Every one wants to belong to a group such as associations, clubs etc.People want to have the goodwill and love of others .Quality circles provide the right atmosphere to satisfy this need.

• Self Assertion: The circle respects everyone's opinion. Thus every person gets to voice his thoughts and feelings.

• Achievement: Everyone wants to do a good job and achieve something in whatever they do. In the quality circle there are many opportunities provided to help members get a sense of achievement.

• Recognition: Recognition gives people social status and prestige. One of the important principals of quality circles is to give recognition.

• Self Actualization: This is the need for opportunities to do things for which one is suited. When that is provided, the person propels himself through self motivation to rise to great levels of performance.

Hindustan Zinc must bring the ten commandments of Quality Circles in their Policy

The commandments are as follows:

First:

It is a lie to say, “We have no problems.” Problems are everywhere. Actively search them out.

Second:

Use accurate data no guess work. Observe the workplace carefully and grasp the facts accurately using data.

Third:

You can not win empty -handed .Study the quality Circle tools well and apply them thoroughly and effectively.

Fourth:

Skill is important. Improve your technical ability by studying specialists skills , techniques and tricks.

Fifth:

It is not good trying to everything at once. Advance steadily by faithfully following the QC seven-step formula.

Sixth:

Do not be beguiled by apparently attractive solutions. Analyze the possible causes rigorously and only act after identifying the true ones.

Seventh:

Computers are useful but not creative. Exercise your ingenuity and originality.

Eight:

Without a rational approach ,thing will come to a dead end. Move ahead using the QC viewpoint.

Ninth:

It is not good standing back and telling the subordinates to get on with it. Learn to tackle difficulties.

Tenth:

Never give up.Br determined and fight to the last.

Evaluation Criteria:

So as to make the Quality Circles more effective the following evalution scheme must be followed. This may create a sense of belongingness to the circle and would help the Team members to work on their Quality Circle in order to score more. The evaluation criteria can be as follows:

Selection of the best circle:

Sr. No	ELEMENTS CRITERIA	TAGET	MAX. MARKS
01	NUMBER OF MEETING HELD	ONCE/WEEK	30
02	% ATTENDANCE	100%	20
03	NUMBER OF PROBLEMS SOLVED AND APPROVED	4/YEAR	20
04	SPECIAL ACTIVITY	2/YEAR	10
05	MAINTAINING MEETING MINUTES	UP TO DATE	20
06	IMPLIMENTATION STATUS OF APPEOVED PROJECTS AS PER PLAN	UP TO DATE	100

Associating Rewards and Recognition:

• The various Quality Circles must be provided with a proper place to conduct the meetings.

• There must be provisions made to provide stationary to the quality circle members.

• After 10 meetings and completing three months Quality Circle badges must be provided to the members.

• After every successful presentation a laminated certificate must be presented to the quality circle members.

• After solving problems and implementing the solutions the quality circle groups must be made entitled to some awards as per the company's decision.

• Quality Circle page must be included in the Annual department reports. Also the names of the members whose ideas have been implemented must be highlighted to give them recognition.

• Every year provision must be made to select the three best quality circles which may be evaluated on some baseline facts and must be given due recognition accordingly.

• Sending the I three selected Quality Circles from Debari to other units for presentation on some important topics on some particular occasions.

• The I three Quality Circles must even be sent to the Head Quarter for presentations.

Suggested Format

This simple format is recommended to compulsorily to complete every time a Quality Circle meeting is held. This will help to evaluate the effectiveness of the workings of the quality circles at HZL.Along with this this will be helpful in maintaining records.

HINDUSTAN ZINC LIMITED

ZINC SMELTER, DEBARI

To,

Sr. Mgr. (MS)

Zinc Smelter, Debari

Sub:- Registration of Quality Corcle

We are forming a Quality Circle whose details are as under:-

1-Name of Quality Circle

2-Area of Quality Circle

3-Meeting Day

4-Facilitator

5-Area Coordinator

Details of membership are as under

S No. Name E. No. Role Signature

1

2

3

4

5

6

Signature of FacilitatorSignature of Coordinator

Phase II Findings

Compiled Analysis of the sample size of 10 executives from different departments:-

• On the question of the job profile all the executives gave not only the work they actually do but also those areas where they have performed their best though only once in a while.

• The answer to the question what are the competences required for their profile, the executive gave at length the various requirement for the same on which they are working this shows that they have a complete idea as what the profile expects out of them.

• Are there some minimum qualifications & skills required to do the job?

• 100% of the sample taken said, yes they all required and that the complete sample size are well qualified for the position they are working presently on.

• The executives, 100% of the sample size said all their competencies were utilized at the profile they are presently working at. This in turn shows that the executives are satisfied at the profile at which they are working presently.

• Eighty percent of the executives said that the Quality Circles were not streamlines at HZL. Twenty percent of them were of the opinion that to some extent are the Quality Circles are streamlined.

• 95% executives say that they can take charge of the Quality Circles if time permits them for the same.2% of them are of the opinion that Quality circle concept was made for the Japanese and not for Indians.

• 90% executives are confident that they possess the core competencies required to become the facilitators.

• The competencies required for to become a proactive facilitator according to the executives are: one must have leadership qualities, must be able to keep the members motivated besides must be able to impart the basic concept of Quality Circle in the members without any hazels. The next factor in line was to get time out for the conduct of the regular meetings(apart from competencies).

• The basic strength area of the executives in maximum cases fulfill completely. They match in all areas. This shows that the executives are giving their level best at HZL.

• Every one in the sample taken come up unanimously that the present job adds value to their personality in relation to other jobs.

• The executives are of the opinion that they always have scope of novelty or innovation in their job.

• Executives are given training and the benefits which they get from the training are as follows:

a)Helps in building necessary knowledge about a new concept.

b)Makes than more completive.

c)Benefited in working culture team organization, source of motivation to work hard.

d)Enhances their professional growth.

e)Helps in increasing interpersonal skills.

• Training providers various tools for analysis.

• Helps a lat in terms of establishing behavioral report with sub-ordinates, seniors & colleagues.

• Gives are impetus for overall development & improvement in managerial skills.

• Training provides additional knowledge build up & value addition.

• Training helps executives to update their present knowledge.

• To analyze issue in a scientific way.

• The executives are of the opinion that they face issues in the daily working, but they have a way out to get the problems solved by using the best possible available means.

• All the executives in the sample taken gave the fact their subordinates are competent enough for their respective profiles.

• The superiors even want to bring some changes in the profiles of the subordinates.

• The executives have welcomed competency mapping tool at HZL with full vigor this will help them in there future enhancements.

The next best designation for the selected sample of individuals at HZL is of:-

(Table No. : 5)

Sr.No.	Present job profile	Department	Next Designation (In their opinion)
1.	New imitative 9OD), Audit launching, payroll, HR Administration	HR	A.G.M.
2.	Manager, Supervisor Subordinates for smooth running of plant	Leaching & pacification	Associate Manager
3.	Process control, Monitoring quality, R & W activities	Laboratory	A.G.M.
4.	HR Head	HR	G.M.
5.	Looking at cadmium plant along with additional jobs at L & P	Leaching	Manager
6.	Dive Six Sigma Initiative, handhold projects as per DMAIC roadmap	Six Sigma	G.M.
7.	Preparing M/S Reports, calculation of production data, Keeping track of data	M/S.	Associate Manager
8.	M/S Project, Establishment sections	J. Manager	Manager
9.	Purchases & imports related to plant machinery & spares	Materials	Head Purchase
10.	Coordinator for M/S. L &D, Legal Cases, Welfare activities on line HR System	HR	Unit HR Head.

Detailed Analysis of the contractual labourers (Sample : 30)

Q.1Number of years the workers have been employed at HZL.

Analysis

(Table No. 6)

Sr.No.	No. of Years	Value
1	Less than 6 months	2
2	6 months to 1 year	2
3	1 yearto 5 years	4
4	5 years to 10 years	8
5	10 years to 15 years	7
6	15 years to 20 years	0
7	20 years to 25 years	4
8	25 years to 30 years	3
	Total	30

Fig 7

The distribution of the sample shows that workers are well settled in their particular work for a long time 77% of the sample size taken are working in the plant for more than 5 years. They are used to the work and have no plans to quit in the future. They have a sense of belongingness which adheres them to same position all the more.

Q.2In the time allotted for lunch & refreshments enough for them?

Analysis: Workers are actually given an hour for lunch, rest & refreshments. In the sample 26 workers came up with the fact that they were satisfied with the time allotted for lunch. 4 exceptions were the workers who work on the furnace taking out slack & doing the rappelling work. They said they just go in rotation as an when time is available. When one worker is back then only another one is able to go. So, in a way they have to make hurry so that another one can go. Therefore, they do not have time for rest unlike other workers.

But, again the fact is that these workers who work on the furnace all paid the highest of the rest of the workers i.e. 289 per day.

Fig 8

Q.3How many hours do they actually work on the plant?

Analysis: Every worker has to work for eight hours minimum. But the actual distribution is as follows:-

(Table No. 9)

1 hour	Lunch & Rest
10 Minutes	Morning Tea
10 Minutes	Evening Tea
15 Minutes	Changing and reaching the plant & finally getting started
30 Minutes	Winding up the day's work, taking a shows to go back home

All this accounts for more than 2 hours daily. A single shift is for 8 hours and two hours are minimum required for the about listed factors. Therefore on an average a worker is actually at work for not more than 6 to 7 hours depending upon how active a worker is and his sincerety towards work. Many workers even take more than 10 minutes for their tea time. Therefore even if the worker says he leaves the work premises fifteen to twenty minutes late after the actual shift time he is not working for those extra minutes for which he stays in the work area.

Q.4 What in their opinion do they think about their work? Can they work more than they do at present or the work load is already very much?

Analysis: 48% of the sample size says that the workload is too much they need to work more than they can comfortably do. They are of the opinion that, if their workload is cut down they will be able to deliver more an in a better way.

29% of the sample workers think the work given to tham is according to their capabilities, they are satisfied with the present work load and the working scenario.They seem to have been contented with what they do daily, they don't want any kind of changes in their daily work on the schedule. They are happy doing the same monotonous job daily. They don't ever think of any progress, therefore there is even not any innovation in their working styles.

23% of the workers feel that, at times the workload is more. Whenever there in some breakdown they have to work harder, were else the daily routine work is done by them easily. They are of the opinion, when the workload level is high they have to do it, they have no other option, to be on the job they have to keep up their performance during crisis.

Fig 10.

Q.5Do they face any difficulty during work?

Analysis: 59% of the workers said that they do not face any kind of difficulty or problems during work. The reasons behind this:-

a)They have been doing the same kind of work since a long time.

b)Some trivial issues here & there do not matter much they solve them themselves.

24% workers of the sample taken said that they face problems while working. The steps taken by them to resolve them are as follows.

- Speak out the issue to the engineer.

-They have no other option but to solve it all by themselves.

-They inform the concerned office of the particular department where they work.

-At times workers seek the help of their supervisors and this way to resolve any issue is the most common among the workers.

-Some workers were of the opinion that they solve it themselves, they approach the plant people or the concerned authority only in the extreme cases.

17 %of the workers said that they face the problems or difficulty sometimes specially during a breakdown or so. The steps taken by them are the same as taken by the workers who said they have issues very often.

Fig 11

Q.6. Did they do this type of work before. Where? For what duration?

Analysis:100% of the sample size has not done the kind of work they are doing now. Either they were doing some other work on some of them have started with HZL only.

Q.7Why are they working at HZL.

Analysis: They are working at HZL

-At their free will

-They do not have an invitation outside HZL.

-5% of the workers are here because they think that they are paid here more than outside.

-Another fact they get a weekly off.

-If any injury is there they, are compensated by the company so they feel secure and are not worried about their medical expenses in case they face any mishap.

-They even get a decent overtime more than they can get working anywhere else other then HZL.

-In the sample a female worker came up with the fact that there is not body else at here place who can earn therefore she is working here. She is ready to work harder and prefers to do in office work than being on the plant.

-Workers are also of the opinion that they have been working here since a long time and don't want to discontinue.

Q.8No. of leaves taken in last 15 days.

Analysis: On an average a worker takes at least two leaves besides the official off's the Reasons for leaves taken.

-The most common being work at home.

-Next reason is health related issues.

-A worker was of the opinion that when he gets really worked up, he takes two days leave gets energized and gets back to work with full vigour

Q.9The workers capable of doing any other work than what they are doing now?

Analysis:13% of the workers said they cannot do anything else. The reason being they have been doing the same work even since they are working & it's too late to change now.

Rest all the workers feel they are competent enough for some or the other work than what they presently all doing and would be happy if by doing some other work they get their pay raised.

Workers even feel that if they are taught some other work they will be happy doing that.

CONCLUSIONS

• Hours of work, rest interval & spread over were as per the provision of respective acts.

• Workers are allowed weekly off, leave & holidays including national holidays without wages.

• Direct and contract workers were not employed on the same job in a unit probably to avoid payment of same wages to both categories.

• Contrary to the general belief that contract laboures are engaged on regulars/adhoc type of jobs, majority of contract workers in the plant so deployed on jobs which are of regular nature.

• No case of imposing fines on contract workers was reported

• No disparity in payment of wage to women contract workers Vis a Vis there male counterpart was noticed.

• More wags are paid to the to workers who actually work near the plant.

• Registers of attendance/wages are maintained.

• Lowest paid 80/ highest being 289/.

• Almost 100% labours are gives benefits in kind in the form of uniforms, safety helmets glasses, masks, shoes, hand gloves, food, tea, snacks etc.

The basic reasons of refusal to join quality circles .The facilitator will have to be sensitized to these reasons and be prepared to help people overcome them.

Some of the common reasons found while doing the project are as follows:

• Outside Commitments: People may have commitments outside the workplace which cannot be rearranged and or delegated.

• Fear / Embarrassment: Some people may be illiterate and do not want to this to be discovered .Sometimes they may be finding it difficult in front of a group and fear that they may have to do just that.

• An overwhelming Workload: The current workload may be so overwhelming that there is no time or energy left for another task.

• Not a Team Player: Some people enjoy working alone and find the team process slow and cumbersome. They want to take immediate action when an opportunity presets itself they cannot relate to an analytic thought process.

• Mistrust of Management: Some people do not trust the motives of management .They mite believe that quality circles do not have any decision making authority that management has already made its decisions and quality circles are merely a political vehicle by which to get support for their decisions.

• Fear of Failure: Some people have a genuine fear of failure, a fear of expectations being too great for them to meet. They feel that if the quality circles fails to achieve its objectives they mite be blamed.

• Fear of Loosing one's Job: Having heard about quality circles reducing costs , streamlining processes combining job duties etc some people fear that this will result in them loosing jobs.

• An “I DON'T CARE” Attitude: There are always a few people generally a small percentage, who really don't care for the company's wellbeing. They are content with working at designated schedules and being told exactly what to do and how to do it.

• Conflicts: Past or present conflicts with leader's or peer's can strongly influence the behavior of some people .This can prevent them from getting involved in quality circles. Conflicts can also arise during the tenure of the quality circle.

• Bad Experiences: Some people may have got involved in quality circle earlier and had been criticized by their peers. They may have come under fire for unpopular decisions.

Impact of Competency Mapping on quality Circles

1) Competency Mapping projects an appearance as a “cutting-edge” and well-prepared candidate, who has taken the time to learn about competencies, investigate those in demand, and map his/her own competencies prior to interviewing. Demonstrates self-confidence that comes from knowing one's competitive advantages more convincingly, and from being able to articulate those advantages in specific language.

2) Secures essential input to resume development - the need for HZL is to assign the Quality Circle to those employees who can get them working after restructuring the mindset of the members to QCs.

3) Develops the capability to compare one's actual competencies to an organization or position's required/preferred competencies, therefore the recruitments HZL goes for in near future for HR , must actually look for the people with knowledge & capability to get the Quality Circles working again with full vigour.

4) The true factors for success don't really vary that much in most organizations. This is another way of saying that competencies tend to be valid across a wide range of jobs, work roles, organizations, industries, and professions. Therefore, even if competencies are not officially being used at HZL they do indeed have a lot to do with success. So an individual who is prepared with insight into his/her own competencies will probably be able to handle the Quality Circles better than a person having no knowledge of the same.

Many strong philosophical offer argument for the importance of an individual knowing and mapping his/her competencies as part of ongoing career planning inside an organization. Nowell-Philipp says that in today's organizations, especially those going through fundamental change, it is essential to be able to “articulate your value-add and who you are, as a person and as a professional, in language that is common and accepted in the organization”. That prerogative implies the importance of competency-based self presentation: at this time especially at HZL so that the leadership qualities of the employees are brought forward which would bring forth healthy quality circles.

Based upon the above description of the benefits of competency mapping, and the likely organizational and self-employed applications of one's competency map, it is probably clear that an individual needs to become very familiar with his/her own competencies and examples of when they have been demonstrated in the past. Therefore, individuals need to build some time into their career management efforts to do the following:

Research (likely through informational interviews with key contacts) which competencies are in demand in HZL as a whole, and in particular positions of interest.

Map their current competencies, giving emphasis to those which appear to be in the most demand at HZL for the best practices of the Quality Circles at HZL.

Practice describing the competencies, complete with behavioral examples of past use. Map their Quality Circles development needs for additional competencies, based on their future career goals. One caution here: The Gallup Organization has recently presented the results of relevant research in their best-selling books First Break All the Rules, and later, Now, Discover Your Strengths. They caution that Strengths (talents, to which one has added knowledge and skills) may not be developable in many cases, and may need to be built into up-front hiring criteria as a result. So the caution with using competencies for development planning is this - be careful of spending too much time trying to develop a missing competency into strength. Sometimes the implication may be for the individual to find a position that better matches his/her current strengths.

CHAPTER: 7

FUTURE IMPLICATIONS

Future implications:

A competency model can provide an important, and useful, tool to guide individual development. Mapping the future is no different. It describes what it takes for one as an individual contributor and as a workplace learning and performance professional, to achieve career success. It is a foundation on which an individual's carrier plan can be build and can develop him in the specifically chosen plan. The key to a successful career in future is to align with the needs of the organization and their leaders to achieve business results.” Mapping the Future” provides the means to create a common language that you can use to discuss what is it that one's organization needs from workplace learning and performance. It also answers this question: What competencies should individuals possess to be successful in the field? It provides a clear picture of success so one can compare his performance against a set of valid descriptions.

Therefore the need at Hindustan Zinc is to get the Quality Circles streamlined and the employees need to align their competencies with this particular need at Hindustan Zinc Limited to achieve business results. Apart from the recommendations given to get the Quality Circles back in the normal process, finding the right person for the right job is also the need of the hour at Hindustan Zinc Limited.

One may however begin by some reflection on what it will take for one to be successful in the field and in one's organization in future. A good strategy for one to follow is to think about oneself in relation to the competencies outlined and answer the following questions:

• Which competencies are likely to be most important in to my current job?

• Which competencies will become more important in the future?

• How do I stack up against the competencies in terms of my performance?

There are many ways to carry out the assessment process, informally or formally. An informal method uses competencies as a foundation to prompt self-reflection and guide career conversations with one's mentor or supervisors. A more formal method relies on such organized approaches to assessing individual competencies as 360 -degree assessment, and work samples. The result of such assessment will indicate which strengths one should be leveraging and areas in which you need further professional development.

Strengths and development needs, once identified, can be documented and form the basis for an individual development plan. A well prepared plan can help one in leveraging one's strength and focus one's developmental priorities. The plan can also facilitate accountability by clarifying what learning strategies one will use ,when one will learn ,what support one will need ,and how one's results can be measured .One's development needs can be met through many learning approaches including training education, rotational experiences, mentoring,coaching,organized work assignments-learning experiences ,and many other learning -oriented inventions.

Individuals may also use a competency model as a foundation for documenting their own accomplistments.Increasingly; employers want to see evidence of achievement, such as work samples and not just evidence of education or experience, and assembling relevant work samples.

CHAPTER: 8

APPENDICES

Appendices:

Questionnaire

Quality Circles

Hindustan Zinc Limited

Q 1. What is the name of the:

a. Quality Circle : _____________________________________________

b. Department/Sector :__________________________________________

c. Area Coordinator :___________________________________________

d. Facilitator : ________________________________________________

e. Leader : ___________________________________________________

Q 2. Total number of members in this Quality Circle is:

_________________________________________________________

Q 3. What is the number of meetings held during a month?

_________________________________________________________

Q 4. Are you satisfied with the workings of this Quality Circle?

_________________________________________________________

Q 5. If yes then why and if no then why not?

_________________________________________________________

Q 6. What is the level of participation from your group members?

__________________________________________________________

Q 7. What are the various techniques used in the Quality Circle?

__________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

Q 8. What is the number of problems discussed in a meeting?

_________________________________________________________

Q 9. What is the further course of action after discussing the problems?

__________________________________________________________

Q 10. What is the frequency of implementation of the solutions?

__________________________________________________________

Q 11. Are presentations conducted at Plant or Departmental level regularly?

__________________________________________________________

Q 12. Are any reports prepared about the minutes of the meetings?

_________________________________________________________

Q 13. Whom are the repots submitted to?

_________________________________________________________

Q 14. What are the benefits of conducting such Quality Circle meetings?

_________________________________________________________

Q 15. How are the members motivated to form or join Quality Circles?

__________________________________________________________

Q 16. What are the reasons for some Quality Circles to become :

Dormant: ________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

Inactive: _________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

Q 17. What suggestions would you like to give to revive the Quality Circles at HZL?

________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

CHAPTER: 9

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bibliography

• Sanghi, Seema (2004).The Handbook of Competency Mapping, Response Books, New Delhi.pp 2 - 3

• Garret, Steve (1999) .Competency Mapping: What is it and how it can be done by individuals.

• Freeman, C. (1997). “Training HR Pros to Fit Your Culture.” HR Focus.

• Beck,S (2003), “Skill and competence management as a base of an integrated personnel development (IPD).”

• Dubois,D.(1993), “Competency -Based Performance: A strategy For Organizational Change” HRD

• Mc Clelland, D. (1973), “Testing for competence rather than for intelligence.”AmericanPsychologist, Vol20, pp321-333.

• Quality by Design, J.M. Juran, The Free Press, 1992,

ISBN 0-02-916683-7. Pages 394-399

• Cotton, John L. EmployeeInvolvement: Methods for Improving Performance and WorkAttitudes. Newbury Park, Calif.: Sage Publications, 1993.

• A Study of Measuring the Critical factors of Quality Management,Masood A.Badri,Donald Davis, Donna Davis, International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management.(1995)Vol -12,pp 36-53

• Employer-Employee Based Quality Circles in Japan: Human Resource Policy Implications for American Firms, George Munchus,III,The Academy of Management Review,Vol.8,(1983),pp255-261

• Seymour Z. Mann, Quality Circles: Changing Images of People at Work by William L.Mohr(1985),pp 108-112

Web Links:

• www.esc.edu/MDF

• https://ns.hr-xml.org/2_0/cpo/competencies

• www.aicpa-eca.org

• https://www.careertrainer.com

• www.google.com

• www.altavista.com

• www.vikipedia.com

• www.yahoo.com

• www.citehr.com

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