The principal component of an organisation is its human resource or the men who are at work. People at work comprise a large number of individuals having biological differentiations like age, sex, height, colour, etc. and diverse socio-economic and religio-political affiliations, different IQs and mental capabilities, diverse educational abilities and credentials. These individuals in the workplace demonstrate not only similar behavioural patterns and characteristics to a certain degree but at the same time they have many complex dissimilarities among themselves.
Every individual who works has his own set of needs, drives, goals and experiences. Each has his own physical and psychological traits. Each human being is not a product of his biological inheritance but also result of intermingling with his environment. Family relationships, religious beliefs, cultural moorings, caste or racial background, educational accomplishment, the application of technological innovations and several other environmental and experimental influences and the way he/she has been socialised, have an everlasting impact on his mindset.
People come to work with certain specific motives and aspirations, to earn money, to get employment, to have positional goods, to see better prospects in future, to be treated as a favourable lot and dignified member of the society being at the workplace. They sell their labour for reasonable wage or salary and other admissible benefits. It is they who provide the knowledge and much of the energy through which organisational objectives are often achieved.
The management of man is a difficult job. Practically it is a task of not maintaining man on the ground but administering a social system within an organisation. The management of man is altogether a Herculean task because of ever changing nature of the people. No two persons are similar in intellect and behavioural patterns, traditional backgrounds and basic emotions such as hurt, pain and anger. They differ widely also as groups and are subject to many diversities.
It is but natural that in an organisational setup some people are reciprocative, some are lethargic and few of them may be defiant and delinquent. So it is very difficult to understand what they feel, what they do, and what they have in their mind. Therefore, they cannot be remote-controlled like a machine or device shifted and altered from one place to another; even if sometimes it deems necessary from the administrative point of view. To be very candid, they always need ethical gesture, cordial treatment, patient hearing and more precisely a tactful handling by the skilled management personnel.
If the manpower is properly handled, it may prove a driving force for successful running of an enterprise. Manpower management is not a joke. In the real sense managing people is the fulcrum of personnel management.
The entire management of an organisation depends upon the stewardship of a ‘Man’ called manager. A manager is supposed to know full well the Dos and Donts of the human resource management. He should always behave like a Good Samaritan. Besides he should also know the art of handling workers and always try to help the organisation to be prosperous and growth oriented.