NIOS Class 12 Tourism Chapter 16 Solutions
INTEXT QUESTIONS 16.1
1. What do you understand by Human Resource Management?
Ans: HRM is concerned with identifying the human resource requirements of an organisation, attracting them, training them, motivating them, evaluating their performance, administering their compensation, and maintaining cordial labour-management relations. It is the essence of being a manager who has to get the work done through others. The responsibility of managing human resources lies with every manager. The basic elements of HRM are human resource planning, recruitment and selection, training and development, and compensation administration.
2. Describe the main characteristics of HRM.
Ans: HRM is continuous. It is concerned with employees both in groups and as individuals, covers all types and levels of employees, is inherent in all organisations, covers all functional areas of management, and attempts to acquire the willing cooperation of the people for the attainment of the desired goals.
3. Enlist the main objectives of HRM.
Ans: HRM aims at obtaining and utilising human resources effectively, establishing and maintaining a desirable working relationship, securing integration of individual and group goals with those of an organisation, developing human resources as individuals and groups, recognising and satisfying individual needs, maintaining better human relations for retaining talent and meeting the social and legal responsibilities of the organisation.
4. Enumerate the functions of HRM.
Ans: Managerial Functions of HRM
- Planning
- Organising
- Staffing
- Directing
- Controlling
Operative Functions of HRM
- Human resource planning
- Recruitment and selection
- Training and development
- Compensation administration
- Integration and maintenance
INTEXT QUESTIONS 16.2
1. What is the significance of HRM in tourism?
Ans: In every country, tourism is being promoted to generate jobs, earn foreign exchange, and carry out development work. Every segment in tourism needs special attention for training, which requires proper planning and development of human resources. Tourism is intermingled with human resources. No tourist activity is possible without the involvement of humans.
Tourism is about services provided by people, such as escorts, guides, travel agents, hoteliers, entertainers, etc., to a tourist at any destination. A tourist is buying experiences and availing the quality of service, which is reflected in the performance of the people involved in the production and delivery of the service. In such service operations, the emphasis is on courtesy and efficienc,y and it is assumed that the service in tourism is all smiles and effective communication, coupled with knowledge and information.
The tourist perception depends on the people interacting with the tourists and the services rendered by the human resources. The nature, determinants and problem areas of service quality within tourism point clearly to the central role of human resources in attaining levels of excellence at all levels in this respect.
2. Examine the role of HRM in tourism.
Ans: In the tourism industry, the role of HRM is to ensure employment generation and training, and help growth in economic development and foreign exchange earnings. It helps all segments of the tourism industry, such as hospitality, conference and convention, adventure tourism, and eco-tourism by producing trained manpower to serve tourists most efficiently.
INTEXT QUESTIONS 16.3
1. Explain the need for human resource planning in tourism.
Ans: The need for human resource planning arises because it provides for the optimum utilisation of available human resources, determines the human resource requirements, ensures the availability of necessary human resources, and forecasts future skill requirements to serve as a basis for training and development programs.
2. Name the steps in human resource planning.
Ans: The process of human resource planning comprises the following steps:
- Assess current human resources and future business requirements
- Forecast demand for manpower
- Forecast the manpower supply
- Reconciling demand and supply
- Action planning
- Tapping external manpower sources
INTEXT QUESTIONS 16.4
1. List out various sources for recruiting human resources in tourism.
Ans: Sources of recruitment are broadly the following:
Internal Sources: These sources include identifying potential candidates from within the organisation based on transfers, promotions, layoffs, demotions, etc.
External Sources: Employee resignations, retirements, deaths, dismissals, etc., may result in vacancies that need to be filled using external sources comprising advertising, campus recruiting programs, employment agencies, referrals, jobbers, contractors, consultants, and seconding (or deputing) personnel from other organisations.
2. What steps will you follow for selecting the employees?
Ans: Steps in the Selection Process
- I. Formal application
- II. Testing
- III. Interview
- IV. Reference checks
- V. Physical examination
- VI. Analysis and decision
Terminal Exercises
1. What is HRM all about? Discuss the objectives of the HRM function.
Ans: Human Resources Management (HRM) is concerned with the ‘people’ dimension in management. It involves all the matters in an organisation regarding decisions about people. Frequently, the terms like HRM, Personnel Management, Personnel Administration, Labour Management and Manpower Management are used interchangeably.
HRM in an organisation aims at:
- Obtaining and utilising human resources effectively for the accomplishment of organisational goals.
- Establishing and maintaining an effective organisational structure, a cooperative climate and a healthy working relationship among the members of an organisation.
- Securing the integration of individual and group goals with those of an organisation.
- Developing the human resources as individuals and groups within an organisation by providing training and retraining facilities, education and career development advancement opportunities.
- Recognising and rewarding individual needs by offering adequate remuneration, social security and welfare facilities.
- Maintaining high morale and better human relations for retaining the talent in an organisation.
- Meeting the social and legal responsibilities of the organisation towards its employees.
2. Enumerate and explain the principle HRM functions.
Ans: The principle HRM functions include managerial and operative.
Managerial functions are,
- Planning: It involves establishing objectives, setting up programmes, determining policies and procedures and anticipating manpower requirements.
- Organising: It involves providing for the division of work among the most capable groups and individuals. Essentially, this function sets up the requirements of each job and position in the organisation.
- Staffing: Staffing is concerned with obtaining capable people whose personal characteristics match the job requirements of available positions in the organisation.
- Directing: Directing involves motivating people, maintaining homogeneous work groups, stimulating a commitment to work, and providing fair compensation, job security, social satisfaction and recognition for employees and allowance for employees’ participation in decisions affecting their job and welfare.
- Controlling through a feedback of the results of these plans and objectives to management, correction of anything that goes wrong, and appraisal of and reward for good performance.
Operative Functions of HRM
- Procurement is mainly concerned with determining the manpower requirements of an organisation, identifying the sources of manpower supply and making them available to it for final selection.
- Development pertains to the training, retraining and education of the selected employees to enable them to perform their duties effectively, their morale building, effective communication skills, promotion, career development suggestion systems, vocational counselling, and appraising employee performance and potential for further development.
- Compensation: Performance of the compensation function involves developing a philosophy of what wages should be, developing theories as to the source of pay roll, determining the company’s basic wage policy, relating compensation to an individual jobs, selecting and finalising pay scales for different category of staff, arriving at individual differentials in pay, establishing methods of wage payment and determining the type and extent of fringe benefits.
- Integration: With the employees procured, developed and reasonably compensated, the HR Manager brings about an integration of human resources with the organisation to develop a healthy workplace culture.
- Maintenance: This function is concerned with the specific issues of high standard of physical condition, grooming standard, service adequacy, positive attitude, job satisfaction and total service delivery to achieve guest satisfaction.
3. Explain the role performed by HRM in tourism organisations.
Ans: Human Resource Management in tourism is taken at both macro and micro levels.
- At the macro level, available educational and training infrastructure and the efforts of the government and private sector are taken into account.
- On the other hand, at the micro level, one takes into account how best the individual organisations manage their human resources. In fact, human resource management and customer care management are interrelated areas in tourism.
Some organisations and destinations are known for their hospitality and human service and are called service leaders. Research reported in the area has shown that they have achieved this status through effective management of their human resources. The nature, determinants and problem areas of service quality within tourism point clearly to the central role of human resources in attaining levels of excellence at all levels in this respect. Developing a service culture in tourism is crucial for the success of tourism.
4. Why is human resource planning necessary in tourism? Describe the steps involved in the process of human resource planning.
Ans: Specifically, the main objectives of human resource planning are to:
- For optimum utilisation of available human resources.
- To determine the human resource requirements.
- For providing necessary control measures to ensure that the necessary human resources are available at the right time.
- To forecast future skill requirements to serve as a basis for training and development programmes.
These objectives are relevant to any type of tourism firm, though, as per its specific requirements, the firm may add more to it, like meeting the increasing demand of tourists, providing the right service at the right moment or meeting the demand of changing trends and fashions in tourism.
The steps involved in the process of human resource planning are as follows.
- Assessing current human resources and future business requirements: A human resource inventory report includes a list of names, education, training, prior employment, current position, performance ratings, salary level, languages spoken, capabilities and specialised skills for every employee in the organisation. This inventory acts as a guide for considering new pursuits for the organisation and helps in making serious personnel decisions such as selecting employees for training and development, promotion and transfers, career progression, etc.
- Forecasting demand for manpower: The most crucial step of manpower planning is the forecasting of the demand for manpower for the period for which the plan is outlined.
- Forecasting manpower supply: In addition to the demand, managers must consider the supply of sufficient human resources to operate effectively.
- Reconciling demand and supply: Once the demand and supply of human resources are estimated, the next step is to reconcile the two.
- Action planning: Make action plans on the basis of manpower requirements, productivity and manpower costs and estimate the costs involved so that they can be assessed against the potential benefits.
- Tapping external manpower sources is necessary as the ognisation grow and diversifies into newer areas of operation.
5. How does recruitment differ from selection? Identify the main sources of recruitment available to different sectors of the tourism industry.
Ans: Recruiting is defined as the “discovery of potential candidates for actual or anticipated organisational vacancies.” It is the process of identifying the prospective employees, stimulating and encouraging them to apply for a particular job or jobs in an organisation. Selection is the process of determining the extent to which the candidates have the skills, abilities and knowledge required to perform effectively in the positions for which they are being considered.
The two sources of recruitment are internal and external.
- Internal Sources: Internal recruitment is finding potential candidates from within the organisation and encouraging them to apply for organisational jobs that are open. These sources include transfers, promotions and laid-off employees.
- External Sources: In external recruitment, potential external candidates are found and encouraged to apply for organisational jobs that are open. The external sources of manpower can be tapped using three methods of recruitment: direct, indirect and third-party, depending on the job level and skills required for doing the job.
- Direct methods include sending recruiters to educational institutions, employee contact with the public, manned exhibitions, and waitlists.
- Indirect methods cover advertisements in newspapers, on electronic media, in trade and professional journals and brochures.
- Third-party methods, various agencies are used for recruitment, which include commercial and private employment agencies, state agencies, recruitment firms, and management consultancy firms.
6. What is selection? List out the steps in the selection process.
Ans: Selection is the process of determining the extent to which the candidates have the skills, abilities and knowledge required to perform effectively in the positions for which they are being considered. It is the process of examining the applicants about their suitability for the given job or jobs, and choosing the best from the available candidates and rejecting the others.
- Application form: Submitting the formal application form that provides information with respect to the applicant’s comprehensive personal and history profile, education, experience, references, etc. Different types of forms may be used for different types of employees.
- Testing: Employment testing is frequently used to help identify the candidates with the greatest potential for success on the job through paper-and-pencil responses or tests. Tests seek to eliminate the possibility of prejudice on the part of the interviewer and uncover qualifications and talents that would not be detected by the interviewer.
- Interview: The employment interview serves the purpose of obtaining information, giving information, and motivation. It provides an appraisal of personality, background, training, education and interests of the prospective employee.
- Checking References: The provided references, like the previous employers, colleagues, teachers, and professional associations, are approached by mail, telephone or post and requested to furnish their frank opinion about the candidate either on specified points or in general.
- Physical Examination: The candidates are sent for physical examination to the organisation’s physician or to a medical officer approved for the purpose. The vast majority of physical examinations are required to meet the minimum standards for the organisation’s group life and medical insurance programmes and to provide base data in case of future compensation claims.
- Final Selection: Candidates who perform successfully in all the above steps are now considered to be eligible to receive an offer of employment.
- Induction: This programme is an orientation programme, where a fresher/trainee spends a few days in each department of the organisation before he actually joins his own department.
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