Description
Service sector has been driving India to a better position in terms of economy in comparison with Industrial and agriculture sectors. Under various service sector areas, the retailing sector has been continuously securing good position in terms of employment and as well as contribution to India’s GDP.
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International Journal of Business and Administration Research Review. Vol.I, Issue No.2, Nov-Jan2014.
HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN
ORGANIZED RETAILING – A STUDY OF SELECT RETAILERS
Bhaskar.Nalla*
Dr.P.Varalaxmi**
Abstract
Service sector has been driving India to a better position in terms of economy in comparison with
Industrial and agriculture sectors. Under various service sector areas, the retailing sector has been
continuously securing good position in terms of employment and as well as contribution to India’s
GDP. Retailing sector has been observing tremendous changes with the entry of organized retail
companies. In the area of cut throat competition in organized retailing especially in 21
st
century, the
need for effective Human resource Management practices (HRM practices) has been increasing
rapidly. The present study is a research based study primarily focuses on analyzing the HRM
practices and the employees’ perceptions towards the satisfaction levels. Further, the study will
bring a comparative analysis on the three select retail companies, i.e., Reliance Fresh, More and
Spencers retail units in three select cities of India.
Key words: Acquisition, development, motivation, maintenance, Organized retailing.
*Ph.D Research Scholar,University College of Commerce & Business Management,Kakatiya University,Warangal.
**Associate Professor,Dpt.of. Commerce & Business Management, University Post Graduates College (KU),AP.
Introduction
Human beings are considered as the
dynamic elements of management. The
success of an organization depends hugely on
the efforts of the human resources. Human
resource is now recognized and utilized as the
most valuable of all organizational assets. The
resources of men, money, materials and
machinery are collected, co-ordinated and
utilized through people. According to L.F.
Urwick, “business houses are made or broken
in the long run not by markets or capital,
patents or equipment but by men. “Of all the
resources, manpower is the only resource
which does not depreciate with the passage of
time. The greatest strength of India is its rich
abundant human resources. The prosperity of a
nation or an organization depends on the
proper development and utilization of its
human resources, as all other resources can be
generated by a well motivated human
resource. Organizational growth, change and
success ultimately depend on the actions of
human resources.
Conceptual overview of human resource
management activities
Human Resource management (HRM)
is centralized on the ‘people’ in management.
The term HRM has received huge importance
in the modern business due to its influences on
organizational productivity. HRM is
considered as the philosophy, policies,
procedures and practices relating to the
management of people within organizations.
In the words of Michael j.jicius, human
resources as ‘a whole consisting of inter-
related , inter-dependent and interacting
physiological, psychological and sociological
and ethic components’. According to Leon
C.Megginson, ‘human resources are
knowledge, skills, creative, abilities, talents
and aptitudes obtained in the population;
whereas form the view point of the
indibvi8dual enterprise, they represent the
total of the inherent abilities acquired
knowledge and skills as exemplified in the
talents and aptitude of its employees’.
According to K.Ashwathappa, “Human
Resource management refers to a set of
programmes, functions and activities designed
and carried out in order to maximize both
employees as well as organizational
effectiveness.” Edwin B.Flippo, has defined
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human resources management as ‘the
planning, organizing, directing and controlling
of the procurement, development,
compensation integration, maintenance and
reproduction of human resources to the end
that individual, organizational and societal
objectives are accomplished.”
Human Resource Management
activities are broadly classified into four
functions or categories. These include:
a) Acquisition of human resources
b) Development of human resources
c) Motivation of human resources
d) Maintenance of human resources
A) Acquisition of human resources
Acquisition process is mainly
concerned with securing and employing the
people possessing required kind and level of
skills necessary to achieve the organisational
objectives. The acquisition function begins
with planning. It also covers other functions
such as job analysis, human resource planning,
recruitment, selection, placement, induction
and internal mobility.
B) Development of human resources
Development process is concerned
with improving, moulding and changing the
skills, knowledge, creative ability, and
aptitude and value s of the employees. The
development function of human resources
concentrates on three dimensions which
include employee training, management
development and career development.
C) Motivating of human resources
The motivation function begins with
the recognition that individuals are unique and
that motivation techniques must reflect the
needs of each individual. It is an area of
management that deals with integrating people
into work situation in a way that motivates
them to work together productivity, co-
operatively and with economic, psychological
and social satisfaction.
D) Maintenance of human resources
The maintenance process is concerned
with providing those working conditions that
employees believe tare necessary in order to
maintain their commitment to the
organisation. The objective of the maintenance
function is to retain people who are
performing at high levels.
HRM in organized retailing
Employment market in India is lacking
for skilled manpower. The retailing industry
is generating huge employment opportunities
especially in the area of organized retailing.
The requirement of man power in the cut
throat competition in the retail industry is
rapidly increasing in all the functional areas of
retailing organizations. The HR needs are
increasing to see the customers at the retail
outlets and to motivate them indirectly for
more buying. HRM activities plays crucial
role in many areas including placing the right
person in the right job, starting new employees
in the enterprises, training employees for jobs
that are new to them, improving the job
performance of each person, gaining creative
co-operation and developing smooth working
relationships, Interpreting the company’s
policies and procedures, controlling labour
costs, developing the abilities of each person,
creating and maintaining department morale
and protecting employees health and physical
condition.
In retailing, human resources are
needed for almost all aspects of activity –
buying, inventory management, marketing,
accounting, selling, training, packaging and
dealing with customers. If not managed or
coordinated effectively, adverse effects on all
these functions will be noticeable. This will
affect the firm’s image, turnover and profits,
and also reduce goodwill, which is important
for maintaining and increasing the retailing
firm’s market share. HRM helps retailing to
prove its ability, to stand efficiently before
consumers, to create profitability, to provide
better services, to help the economy to grow
instantly, to improve the workforce and to be
part of success of the organizations. Retailing
Industry to day is in the challenging mode and
whizzing along on the fast lane. Being a
labour intensive industry sector, workforce
management has emerged as the single biggest
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task for human resources managers.
Companies are being challenged to reorganise
and adapt their employees to become more
efficient. A glance of the profile of three
select retail outlets for the present study is
given below.
a) Reliance Fresh
Reliance Fresh is the convenience store format
which forms part of the retail business of
Reliance Industries of India which is headed
by Mukesh Ambani Reliance plans to invest in
excess of Rs 25000 crores in the next 4 years
in their retail division. The company already
has in excess of 1000 reliance fresh outlets
across the country. These stores sell fresh
fruits and vegetables, staples, groceries, fresh
juice, bars and dairy products. A typical
Reliance Fresh store is approximately 3000-
4000 square feet and caters to a catchment
area of 2–3 km. The Reliance Group, founded
by Dhirubhai H. Ambani (1932-2002), is
India's largest private sector enterprise, with
businesses in the energy and materials value
chain. Group's annual revenues are in excess
of US$ 66 billion. The flagship company,
Reliance Industries Limited, is a Fortune
Global 500 company and is the largest private
sector company in India.
b) More Retail
More is a retail unit of Aditya Birla Retail
Limited. Aditya Birla Retail Limited is the
retail arm of Aditya Birla Group, $40 billion
Corporation. The Company ventured into food
and grocery retail sector in 2007 with the
acquisition of a south based supermarket
chain. Subsequently, Aditya Birla Retail Ltd.
expanded its presence across the country
under the brand "more." with 2 formats
Supermarket & Hypermarket. Aditya Birla
Retail Limited currently has employee
strength of around 9,000 people. Key
functions are headed by professionals with
vast retail experience in India and globally.
Quality & Value through own labels. Aditya
Birla Retail Ltd provides customers a wide
choice of products under its own labels. The
objective is to provide quality products at
attractive price points to customers. Since
quality of the products is of prime importance,
stringent quality norms have been set and are
followed.
c) Spencers’ Retail
Spencer's Retail is one of India’s fastest
growing retail stores. Spencer's is based on
the 'Food First' Format (it mainly offers fresh
and packaged food). Many outlets though
sport multiple formats for retailing food,
apparel, fashion, electronics, lifestyle
products, music and books. It is owned by the
RPG Group, a major business house.
Spencer’s Retail Limited is a multi-format
food-first retailer providing a wide range of
quality products to discerning young
customers - well-travelled citizens of the
world, looking out for authentic flavors and
experiences in a fun-filled shopping
environment. Part of the Rs. 9,000 crore RP-
SG Group, we run about 200 stores (including
about 30 large format stores) across 45 cities
in India, employing more than 7,000 people.
As one of the earliest entrants in the retail
space in India, it has been instrumental in
introducing Indian consumers to the concept
of organized retailing, becoming the country’s
first grocery chain back in 1920, and offering
the joys of hypermarket shopping in 2001.
Need and importance of the study
In the present competitive scenario, the role of
retailing is increasing rapidly with the entry of
global players. Many Indian companies
strongly keeping their aim on entering in retail
industry. With increasing globalization, firms
are entering a dynamic world of international
business that is marked by liberalization of
economic policies in a large number of
emerging economies like India. To face the
challenge of increasing competition that has
resulted from liberalization, Indian
organizations have initiated adoption of
innovative human resource management
practices both critically and constructively to
foster creativity and innovation among
employees. The huge opportunities in
organized retailing encouraging the companies
to enter in retail industry. The last 2 decades
has witnessed the tremendous potential for
organized retailing. Further, the increasing
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challenge in employee retention, absenteeism,
job rotation, and lengthy laborious hours of
work place are creating the organizations to
face the hurdle of retaining employees. And at
the same time, the increasing entry of new
entrants is also posing threats to maintain and
preserve existing qualitative human resources.
In view of these, the present study will
thoroughly analyze the various human
resource practices followed in select retail
units in Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai.
Review of literature
Select references pertaining to the research
paper on HRM practices in organized retailing
is presented here.
McGuire et al. (2003) in their article titled
“Examining the Matching Process – Human
Resource Management and Competitive
Strategies: A Study of the Irish Retail Sector”
focused on how human resource management
is linked to the competitive strategy of the
firm. Further the paper focused on the
competitive advantage in the retail sector. The
authors concluded that the issue of
competitive strategy and positioning is an
extremely important issue within the
service/retail sector. And also, the choice of
competitive strategy has significant
implications for the range of human resource
practices available to the retail organizations.
The study clearly identified that the cost
bounded ness of competitive strategies such as
financial considerations would appear a
significant factor in determining the overall
approach taken towards human resource
management in the retail sector. Sohel
Ahmad et al. (2003) in his article titled “The
impact of human resource management
practices on operational performance:
recognizing country and industry differences”
made an attempt to generalize the efficacy of
seven HRM practices proposed by Pfeffer in
the context of country and industry, focusing
primarily on the effects of these practices on
operations.
Catherine Truss(2004) in the article titled
“Who’s in the driving seat? Managing human
resources in a franchise firm” has concentrated
on the role of human resources with special
reference to retail franchise firm. The author
has opined that the management of a franchise
firm is ultimately depended on the
functionality of human resources; hence
effective human resources will help to
achieving the goals of a franchise firm. Ashok
Som(2006) in the paper titled “Bracing for
MNC competition through innovative HRM
practices: The way ahead for Indian firms” has
concentrated on the emergence of
Multinational companies in the organized
retailing in India. Further, the paper has
concentrated on the impact of MNC
competition on Indian retail firms. The author
has supported the need for innovative HRM
practices by the Indian firms to tackle with the
competition from Multi national companies.
The author has concluded that unless the
Indian firms implement innovative HRM
practices, the MNCs will tap the market and
this will become a huge threat to the future
development of growth by the Indian retail
firms.
Julia Merkel et al.(2006) in their published
book on “Retailing in the 21
st
Century”
focused on the new challenges in the retail
human resource management. In this book the
authors have provided the need for
professional Human Resource Management in
Retailing. The authors viewed that retailing is
a major labour intensive industry sector. The
authors further suggested that people are the
driving force behind all transactions that occur
in retailing outlets. And in the future world of
retailing, there will be an increasing need to
adapt and change towards a more formative
and proactive style of HRM.
Chakraborthy D.(2007) in the article titled
‘Indian Retail sector – HR challenges’ has
critically examined the practices of human
resources for the management of retail
organizations. The article has analyzed the
evolution and growth of Indian retail sector
with special reference to organized retailing.
The article has further focused on the
emerging dimensions in retail sector with a
special focus on HR challenges. Singh B.D.
et al.(2008) in their study on HR challenges in
Indian retail sector has revealed that rising
retail industry in India is especially providing
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great scope and challenges to the HR front.
Further, the study evaluated that the growing
industry requires many strong back up of
Human Resources hence the HR department s
must act pro-actively to attract, nurture and
retaining trained manpower.’ B.B.Lakshete
(2011) in the article titled “Human Resource
Management in Retailing” studied on the
scope of HRM in retailing sector. Further, the
paper also focused on the challenges and
usefulness of HRM in retailing. The paper
concluded that HR challenges when taken care
of by the organization are bound to make a
difference to the organizational success.
Objectives of the study
The paper mainly focuses on core Human
Resource Management activities implemented
in select organized retail units. More
specifically the paper concentrates on the
following objectives.
1. To study the acquisition of human resources
by select organized retail companies.
4. To analyze and examine the strategies
adopted for the development of human
resources in the organized retailing
companies.
3. To examine the performance and
maintenance of human resources in the
organized retail companies.
4. To ascertain the problems and prospects in
the implementation of human resource
management activities by the organized retail
companies.
Finally, the study provides research findings
and suggestions on the basis of analysis.
Methodology of the study
The primary data is collected from a
structured questionnaire from the sample
respondents. The sample respondents include
the employees of select retail organizations
and the supervisors and HR managers of
select retail organizations. While selecting a
sample size of 360 respondents, convenience
sampling method is applied. The secondary
data is collected from the annual reports of
select companies, internet, news papers,
magazines and articles pertaining to the HRM
activities in organized retailing.
Analysis of survey results
The detailed analysis on the various
observations on the perceptions of the
employees on the implementation of HRM
practices in organized retailing is specified
below.
i) Analysis on employees’ perception towards adequacy of man power
Table No.1: Employees perception towards adequacy of manpower in organizations
S.No. Company Category Adequacy of manpower
In their respective organization
Total
Yes No
1. Reliance Fresh 98 22 120
2. More 72 48 120
3. Spencers 91 29 120
Total 261 99 360
Chi-square tabular value 5.99 at 2 d.f. and 5% level of significance
Chi-square calculated value 15.99
Source: field survey
The above statistics clearly revealing that
majority of the employees from Reliance
Fresh opined ‘yes’ which indicates that there
is need for manpower in their respective
organization. Majority of the employees from
More retail and Spencers’ have also opined
‘yes’ which indicates that the two companies’
employees are keen for the need of manpower
in their respective organizations. Chi-square
test is applied to analyze is there any
association between employees of three retail
companies and their opinion on need for
manpower. At 5% level and 2 degrees of
freedom, the statistics has shown that the chi-
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square value (calculated) is 15.03 which is
more than the tabular value of 5.99. Hence, it
is to conclude that there is an association
between the employees of three select retail
companies and their opinion on need for man
power in their respective organizations.
ii) Employees perception towards responsibility about the estimation of manpower gaps
Table No.2: employees perception on responsibility about estimating manpower gaps
S.No. Company Category Responsibility about estimating
Manpower gaps
Total
Senior
executive
Branch
Manager
Supervisor S.I Others
1. Reliance Fresh 20 65 22 10 03 120
2. More 10 82 20 4 04 120
3. Spencers 11 79 12 8 10 120
Total 41 226 54 22 17 360
Source: field survey
Table No.2 shows the perceptions of
employees towards the people who takes the
responsibility in their organization for
estimating manpower gaps. From the statistics
on Reliance Fresh, it is observed that majority
of the employees have opined branch manager
as the responsible for estimating manpower
gaps. For More and Spencers’ also, it is
observed that Branch managers takes the
primary responsibility for estimating
manpower gaps.
iii) Employee perception towards forecasting of
requirements frequents
Table No.3: Employees perception on
forecasting of requirements
S.No Company
Category
Perception on
forecast
Of
requirements
Total
Yes No
1. Reliance
Fresh
101 19 120
2. More 98 22 120
3. Spencers 89 31 120
Total 288 72 360
Chi-square
tabular value
5.99 at 2 d.f. and 5%
level of significance
Chi-square
calculated value
4.04
Source: field survey
Table No. 3 shows the perceptions of
employees with reference forecast
requirements. Majority of the employees from
all three retail companies have opined ‘yes’
which indicates that their company focuse on
the forecasting of requirement of man power
in their respective organizations. Chi-square
test is applied to analyze is there any
association between employees of three select
companies and their opinion on forecasting
requirements. The test result shown non
significant which means there is no
association between employees of three select
retail companies and their opinion on
forecasting requirements for their respective
organizations.
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iv) Employees’ perception towards induction
training in retail companies
Table No.4: Employees perception induction
& development programs
S.No Company
Category
Total No.
of
Induction
/ training
days in
the
company
Development
Programmes
in the
company
Yes No
1. Reliance
Fresh
30 09 111
2. More 15 11 109
3. Spencers 30 12 108
Source: Field survey
From the table no. 4, it is clear that Both
Reliance Fresh and Spencers are spending 30
days for induction training to the newly
recruited employees, where as More is
spending only 15 days for induction and
training. Further, the development
programmes for the existing employees, it is
understood that majority of the employees
who are working for these three companies
have opined that they are not availing any
development programmes in the work place.
Hence, the results show that the retail
companies are only focusing on the induction
programmes rather than continuous
development programs.
v) Employees’ perception towards appraisal process in the retail companies
Table No.5: Perceptions of employees towards appraisal process
Company
Category
Perception towards appraisal process period Total
Once in
a month
Quarterly Half yearly Yearly Cannot
specify
Reliance Fresh 0 09 03 100 08 120
More 0 02 04 105 08 120
Spencers 0 03 05 100 12 120
Total 0 14 12 305 28 360
Source: field survey
From the table no.5, it is clear that all the three
retail companies are not adopting appraisal
process either in month or quarterly. Very few
employees have opined that they have
experienced appraisal process in half year.
And further, it is observed that majority of the
three companies employees, i.e., 83% of
Reliance Fresh and Spencers employees and
87.5% of More retail companies employees
have opined that they have experience the
appraisal process once in a year. Overall,
from the survey, it is to conclude that majority
of the retail companies are adopting appraisal
process once in a year. And further only 7%
of the all the sample respondents have opined
that cannot specify about the appraisal
process.
vi) Employees perception towards motivational process implemented in retail companies
Table No.6: Employees perception on initiators for motivation at workplace
Company
Category
Initiators for motivation at work place Total
Branch
Manager
Floor
manager/
Supervisor
Peers Senior
executives
No source
of motivation
Reliance Fresh 02 61 15 40 02 120
More 08 15 08 52 37 120
Spencers 11 39 20 45 05 120
Total 21 115 43 137 44 360
Source: field survey
Table No.6 shows that there is a difference in
the perceptions of the employees with
reference to the sources for motivation at work
place. From the table, it is observed that
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majority of the employees from Reliance
Fresh, i.e., 50.8% of them have opined that
floor managers take the responsibility for
motivating the employees at work place.
From More Retail Company, majority of the
employees, i.e., 43% of them have opined that
senior executives take the responsibility of
motivating at the work place. From Spencers’
retail store, it is observed that both senior
executives and Floor managers take the
assignment of motivating the employees at
work place. From the table, it is understood
that in Spencers’ retail store, all the categories
of employees, i.e., senior executives, floor
mangers, peers and Branch managers are
taking the responsibility in motivating the
employees. One-way ANOVA is applied to
analyze is there any significant difference in
source people of motivation in the three retail
companies. The test results are specified
below.
Table No.7: ANOVA Test results
ANOVA of One-way Classification results
Source of Variation SS df MS F P-value F crit
Between Groups 3433.333 4 858.3333 4.29453 0.028056 3.47805
Within Groups 1998.667 10 199.8667
Total 5432 14
From table No.7 , it is observed that the calculated vale of F, i.e, 4.294 is greater than the tabular
value. Hence, Null Hypothesis is rejected. So, the test results clearly specifying that there is a
significant difference in the source people in motivating the employees at work place.
vii) Employees perceptions towards working conditions at work place
Analysis is made to understand the
employees’ perceptions towards working
conditions at work place. The factors
including rest rooms, first aid, ventilation, rest
hours, toilets and free environment among
Peers are considered and their overall
satisfaction levels are adopted in 5 point rating
scale. The summarized results are specified
below.
Table No.8: Employees perception towards working conditions
Company category
Perceptions towards working conditions Total
Extremely
Satisfied
Satisfied Neutr
al
Dissatisfied Extremely
dissatisfied
Reliance Fresh 10 63 19 20 08 120
More 06 37 10 52 15 120
Spencers 11 79 10 12 08 120
Total 27 179 39 84 31 360
Source: Field survey
From the results, it is to understand that,
majority of the employees of Reliance Fresh
have opined “satisfied’ which indicates that
they have satisfied from the working
conditions of the work place. Majority of the
employees of More have opined that they have
dissatisfied with the working conditions.
From Spencers’ majority of the employees
have opined that they are satisfied and this
indicates that the employees are having
satisfaction over the working conditions. One-
way ANOVA is applied to analyze is there
any significant difference in the employees’
perception towards working conditions, the
test results are presented in table no.9
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Table No.9: ANOVA test results
ANOVA of One-way classification test results
Source of
Variation SS df MS F P-value F crit
Between
Groups 5462.667 4 1365.667 7.205417 0.005344 3.47805
Within Groups 1895.333 10 189.5333
Total 7358 14
Source: field survey
From the table no.9, it is clear that calculated
value of F, i.e., 7.2054 is greater than the
tabular value of F, i.e., 3.4780 at 5% level of
significance. Hence, the results shows that
null hypothesis is rejected which means, there
is a significant difference in the perceptions of
the employees of all the three companies in
terms of satisfaction levels over working
conditions.
vii) Employees perception on overall HRM activities in the retail companies
Table No.10: Employees overall perception on HRM activities
Company
category
Satisfaction levels on HRM activities Tot
al Extremel
y
Satisfied
Satisfie
d
Neutra
l
Dissatisfi
ed
Extremely
dissatisfied
ACQUISITION OF HUMAN RESOURCES
Reliance Fresh 11 69 30 8 02 120
More 15 43 22 20 10 120
Spencers 20 59 25 19 07 120
Two-Way ANOVA results: At 5% level of significance, 2, 4 d.f.
F-Cal for rows = 0.3208 (Tabular value for rows = 4.4589)
F-Cal for columns = 18.6310 (Tabular value for columns = 3.8378)
Conclusion:
1) H0 is accepted for rows ? There is no significant difference in the satisfaction
levels of employees with reference to acquisition of human resources.
2) H0 is rejected for columns? There is a significant difference in the opinions of
the employees of three select retail companies.
DEVELOPMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES
Reliance Fresh 11 79 10 12 08 120
More 12 28 30 20 10 120
Spencers 20 49 21 19 11 120
Two-Way ANOVA results: At 5% level of significance, 2, 4 d.f.
F-Cal for rows = 0.1373 (Tabular value for rows = 4.4589)
F-Cal for columns = 4.3915 (Tabular value for columns = 3.8378)
Conclusion:
1) H0 is accepted for rows ? There is no significant difference in the satisfaction
levels of employees with reference to development of human resources.
2) H0 is rejected for columns? There is a significant difference in the opinions of
the employees of three select retail companies
MOTIVATING OF HUMAN RESOURCES
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Reliance Fresh 06 37 10 52 15 120
More 11 55 22 29 15 120
Spencers 16 55 24 15 10 120
Two-Way ANOVA results: At 5% level of significance, 2, 4 d.f.
F-Cal for rows = 0.07136 (Tabular value for rows = 4.4589)
F-Cal for columns = 5.5589 (Tabular value for columns = 3.8378)
Conclusion:
1) H0 is accepted for rows ? There is no significant difference in the satisfaction
levels of employees with reference to motivation of human resources.
2) H0 is rejected for columns? There is a significant difference in the opinions of
the employees of three select retail companies
MAINTENANCE OF HUMAN RESOURCES
Reliance Fresh 11 21 52 16 20 120
More 12 45 23 30 10 120
Spencers 18 52 20 12 08 120
Two-Way ANOVA results: At 5% level of significance, 2, 4 d.f.
F-Cal for rows = 0.0372 (Tabular value for rows = 4.4589)
F-Cal for columns = 2.3020 (Tabular value for columns = 3.8378)
Conclusion:
1) H0 is accepted for rows ? There is no significant difference in the satisfaction
levels of employees with reference to maintenance of human resources.
2) H0 is accepted for columns?There is no significant difference in the opinions
of the employees of three select retail companies
Source: Field survey
Table No.10 shows detailed summarized
results on overall perceptions of the
employees of three select retail companies
with reference to core HRM activities in
organized retailing. With reference to
Acquisition of human resources, majority of
the employees of all three select retail
companies, i.e., Reliance Fresh, More and
Spencers have opined that they have satisfied
with the acquisition of human resources by
their respective companies. The
dissatisfaction levels are very low to Reliance
Fresh in comparison with other two retail
companies. The test results revealed that there
no significant difference in the perceptions
towards acquisition of human resources but
the results have shown that there is a
significant difference in the opinion of
employees of three select retail companies.
With reference to development of human
resources, majority of the employees of
Reliance Fresh and Spencers’ have opined that
they are satisfied with the company’s practices
towards development of employees. Where
as, from More retail, the dissatisfaction level is
comparatively higher than the satisfaction
levels. Two-way ANOVA test results
revealed that there is no significant difference
in the satisfaction levels of employees with
reference to development of human resources
where as there is a significant difference in the
opinion of the employees of three select retail
companies.
The satisfaction levels of employees with
reference to maintenance of human resources
have shown that majority of the employees
have opined neutral, where as majority of the
employees of More and Spencers’ have opined
that they are satisfied with the maintenance
activities of companies. The ANOVA test
results have shown that there is no significant
difference in the satisfaction levels of
employees with reference to maintenance of
human resources and also, there is no
significant difference in the opinions of the
employees of three select retail companies.
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Findings & suggestions
The importance of human resources in
the organizational point of view is need of the
hour especially in the era of globalization.
The effectiveness of human resources are
directly influencing the organizational
productivity. From the study on HRM
activities in organized retailing, it is observed
that all the three select retail companies have
been actively engaged them selves in terms of
man power planning and taking
responsibilities over estimating manpower
gaps. The comparative study on the
acquisition of human resources for the three
companies has shown that there is a significant
difference in the perceptions of the employees
with reference to acquisition of human
resources in the three companies. The
induction and training days in the organization
has also shown that there is a significant
difference in the three companies. The
development programs in the company are not
taken place which indicates that all the three
companies are only focusing on the induction
rather than continuous development
programmes. Further, the appraisal process
has also clearly revealed that almost all the
companies are only focusing once in a year to
make decisions on appraisal process and this is
one of the key issues which is need to be
considered. Further, the motivation process in
the three select retail organization has clearly
revealed that, only floor managers and senior
executives are taking the responsibility.
Hence, there is a need for extending this
particular key HRM activity by all the
categories of employees. It must be
implemented as a collective activity for
continuous motivation to the employees. The
working conditions in all three select
organized retail companies have shown
satisfactory except for the case of ‘More’ retail
company. The analysis on overall perceptions
of the employees of three select retail
companies have shown that, there is a
significant difference in the opinions of the
employees with reference to acquisition,
development, motivation of human resources
where as the results have shown that there is a
similarity in the opinions with respect to
maintenance of human resources. Hence,
from the study it is to conclude that there is a
significant difference in the HRM activities
implemented in three select retail companies.
Further, the field survey results are clearly
showing that all the three companies have not
given complete satisfaction to the employees
with reference to core activities of HRM.
There is still lot of unfilled areas of
development by the three retail companies
especially in the area of induction, training,
development, motivation and employee
facilities.
Effective concentration on these activities at
micro level will brought out a great value to
the productivity and satisfaction to the
employees.
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References
1. Ashok Som(2006), “Bracing for MNC
competition through innovative HRM
practices: The way ahead for Indian
firms”, Thunderbird International
Business Review, vol.48, Issue 2,
March/April 2006, pp:207-237.
2. Aswathappa,K.(2008), “Human Resource
Management” Tata McGraw-Hill
Publishing Co. Ltd, 5
th
Edition,p.5.
3. B.B.Lakshete(2011), “Human Resource
Management in Retailing” , MAHMUL
Hi=Tech Research Analysis, Half Yearly
Research Journal, vo.1, Issue:1,
February-July,2011, pp:30-39.
4. Beach D.S.(1975), “Personnel: the
Management of People at Work”,
Macmillan, New York.
5. Casio W.F(1995), “Managing Human
Resource”, McGraw Hill Book
Company, New York.
6. Catherine Truss(2004), “Who’s is in the
driving seat? Managing human resources
in a franchise firm”, Human Resource
Management Journal, vol.14, Issue 4,
November 2004, pp:57-75.
7. Chakraborthy D. (2007), "Indian Retail
Sector-HR Challenges", Effective
Executive, May, 28-32.
8. Edwin B. Flippo(1980), “Personnel
management, McGraw-Hill, New York,
p.5 &131.
9. Julia Merketl, Paul Jackson and Doreen
Pick(2006), “New Challenges in Retail
Human Resource Management” article
published in Retailing in the 21
st
CenturyLeon C megginson (1982),
“Personnel and human Resource
Administration, Richard D.jrwin,
Homewood 111,p.6.
10. McGuire, D. & Cross,C(2003),
“Examining the Matching Process –
Human Resource Management and
Competitive Strategies: A Study of the
Irish Retail Sector”, paper presented at the
7th Conference on International Human
Resource Management, University of
Limerick, June 4-6,2003.
11. Michael J. Jecius.(1973), “Personnel
Management 1973, p.37-38. Quoted by
Gupta, C.B. HRM Sultan Chand 7 Sons,
New Delhi-Reprint 2008.
12. Singh, B.D., Mishra & Sita(2008), “Indian
retail sector – HR challenges & Measures
for Improvement”, Indian Journal of
Industrial Relations, Vol.44, Issue:1,
January Edition.
13. Sohel Ahmad & Roger G.
Schoroeder(2002), “The impact of human
resource management practices on
operational performance: recognizing
country and industry differences”, Journal
of Operations Management, pp:19-43.
14. Source retrieved from
www.spencersretail.com
15. Source retrieved from www.ril.com ›
BusinessSource retrieved from
,www.adityabirla.com/businesses/Profile/
aditya-birla-retail-limited
doc_398391796.pdf
Service sector has been driving India to a better position in terms of economy in comparison with Industrial and agriculture sectors. Under various service sector areas, the retailing sector has been continuously securing good position in terms of employment and as well as contribution to India’s GDP.
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HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN
ORGANIZED RETAILING – A STUDY OF SELECT RETAILERS
Bhaskar.Nalla*
Dr.P.Varalaxmi**
Abstract
Service sector has been driving India to a better position in terms of economy in comparison with
Industrial and agriculture sectors. Under various service sector areas, the retailing sector has been
continuously securing good position in terms of employment and as well as contribution to India’s
GDP. Retailing sector has been observing tremendous changes with the entry of organized retail
companies. In the area of cut throat competition in organized retailing especially in 21
st
century, the
need for effective Human resource Management practices (HRM practices) has been increasing
rapidly. The present study is a research based study primarily focuses on analyzing the HRM
practices and the employees’ perceptions towards the satisfaction levels. Further, the study will
bring a comparative analysis on the three select retail companies, i.e., Reliance Fresh, More and
Spencers retail units in three select cities of India.
Key words: Acquisition, development, motivation, maintenance, Organized retailing.
*Ph.D Research Scholar,University College of Commerce & Business Management,Kakatiya University,Warangal.
**Associate Professor,Dpt.of. Commerce & Business Management, University Post Graduates College (KU),AP.
Introduction
Human beings are considered as the
dynamic elements of management. The
success of an organization depends hugely on
the efforts of the human resources. Human
resource is now recognized and utilized as the
most valuable of all organizational assets. The
resources of men, money, materials and
machinery are collected, co-ordinated and
utilized through people. According to L.F.
Urwick, “business houses are made or broken
in the long run not by markets or capital,
patents or equipment but by men. “Of all the
resources, manpower is the only resource
which does not depreciate with the passage of
time. The greatest strength of India is its rich
abundant human resources. The prosperity of a
nation or an organization depends on the
proper development and utilization of its
human resources, as all other resources can be
generated by a well motivated human
resource. Organizational growth, change and
success ultimately depend on the actions of
human resources.
Conceptual overview of human resource
management activities
Human Resource management (HRM)
is centralized on the ‘people’ in management.
The term HRM has received huge importance
in the modern business due to its influences on
organizational productivity. HRM is
considered as the philosophy, policies,
procedures and practices relating to the
management of people within organizations.
In the words of Michael j.jicius, human
resources as ‘a whole consisting of inter-
related , inter-dependent and interacting
physiological, psychological and sociological
and ethic components’. According to Leon
C.Megginson, ‘human resources are
knowledge, skills, creative, abilities, talents
and aptitudes obtained in the population;
whereas form the view point of the
indibvi8dual enterprise, they represent the
total of the inherent abilities acquired
knowledge and skills as exemplified in the
talents and aptitude of its employees’.
According to K.Ashwathappa, “Human
Resource management refers to a set of
programmes, functions and activities designed
and carried out in order to maximize both
employees as well as organizational
effectiveness.” Edwin B.Flippo, has defined
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human resources management as ‘the
planning, organizing, directing and controlling
of the procurement, development,
compensation integration, maintenance and
reproduction of human resources to the end
that individual, organizational and societal
objectives are accomplished.”
Human Resource Management
activities are broadly classified into four
functions or categories. These include:
a) Acquisition of human resources
b) Development of human resources
c) Motivation of human resources
d) Maintenance of human resources
A) Acquisition of human resources
Acquisition process is mainly
concerned with securing and employing the
people possessing required kind and level of
skills necessary to achieve the organisational
objectives. The acquisition function begins
with planning. It also covers other functions
such as job analysis, human resource planning,
recruitment, selection, placement, induction
and internal mobility.
B) Development of human resources
Development process is concerned
with improving, moulding and changing the
skills, knowledge, creative ability, and
aptitude and value s of the employees. The
development function of human resources
concentrates on three dimensions which
include employee training, management
development and career development.
C) Motivating of human resources
The motivation function begins with
the recognition that individuals are unique and
that motivation techniques must reflect the
needs of each individual. It is an area of
management that deals with integrating people
into work situation in a way that motivates
them to work together productivity, co-
operatively and with economic, psychological
and social satisfaction.
D) Maintenance of human resources
The maintenance process is concerned
with providing those working conditions that
employees believe tare necessary in order to
maintain their commitment to the
organisation. The objective of the maintenance
function is to retain people who are
performing at high levels.
HRM in organized retailing
Employment market in India is lacking
for skilled manpower. The retailing industry
is generating huge employment opportunities
especially in the area of organized retailing.
The requirement of man power in the cut
throat competition in the retail industry is
rapidly increasing in all the functional areas of
retailing organizations. The HR needs are
increasing to see the customers at the retail
outlets and to motivate them indirectly for
more buying. HRM activities plays crucial
role in many areas including placing the right
person in the right job, starting new employees
in the enterprises, training employees for jobs
that are new to them, improving the job
performance of each person, gaining creative
co-operation and developing smooth working
relationships, Interpreting the company’s
policies and procedures, controlling labour
costs, developing the abilities of each person,
creating and maintaining department morale
and protecting employees health and physical
condition.
In retailing, human resources are
needed for almost all aspects of activity –
buying, inventory management, marketing,
accounting, selling, training, packaging and
dealing with customers. If not managed or
coordinated effectively, adverse effects on all
these functions will be noticeable. This will
affect the firm’s image, turnover and profits,
and also reduce goodwill, which is important
for maintaining and increasing the retailing
firm’s market share. HRM helps retailing to
prove its ability, to stand efficiently before
consumers, to create profitability, to provide
better services, to help the economy to grow
instantly, to improve the workforce and to be
part of success of the organizations. Retailing
Industry to day is in the challenging mode and
whizzing along on the fast lane. Being a
labour intensive industry sector, workforce
management has emerged as the single biggest
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task for human resources managers.
Companies are being challenged to reorganise
and adapt their employees to become more
efficient. A glance of the profile of three
select retail outlets for the present study is
given below.
a) Reliance Fresh
Reliance Fresh is the convenience store format
which forms part of the retail business of
Reliance Industries of India which is headed
by Mukesh Ambani Reliance plans to invest in
excess of Rs 25000 crores in the next 4 years
in their retail division. The company already
has in excess of 1000 reliance fresh outlets
across the country. These stores sell fresh
fruits and vegetables, staples, groceries, fresh
juice, bars and dairy products. A typical
Reliance Fresh store is approximately 3000-
4000 square feet and caters to a catchment
area of 2–3 km. The Reliance Group, founded
by Dhirubhai H. Ambani (1932-2002), is
India's largest private sector enterprise, with
businesses in the energy and materials value
chain. Group's annual revenues are in excess
of US$ 66 billion. The flagship company,
Reliance Industries Limited, is a Fortune
Global 500 company and is the largest private
sector company in India.
b) More Retail
More is a retail unit of Aditya Birla Retail
Limited. Aditya Birla Retail Limited is the
retail arm of Aditya Birla Group, $40 billion
Corporation. The Company ventured into food
and grocery retail sector in 2007 with the
acquisition of a south based supermarket
chain. Subsequently, Aditya Birla Retail Ltd.
expanded its presence across the country
under the brand "more." with 2 formats
Supermarket & Hypermarket. Aditya Birla
Retail Limited currently has employee
strength of around 9,000 people. Key
functions are headed by professionals with
vast retail experience in India and globally.
Quality & Value through own labels. Aditya
Birla Retail Ltd provides customers a wide
choice of products under its own labels. The
objective is to provide quality products at
attractive price points to customers. Since
quality of the products is of prime importance,
stringent quality norms have been set and are
followed.
c) Spencers’ Retail
Spencer's Retail is one of India’s fastest
growing retail stores. Spencer's is based on
the 'Food First' Format (it mainly offers fresh
and packaged food). Many outlets though
sport multiple formats for retailing food,
apparel, fashion, electronics, lifestyle
products, music and books. It is owned by the
RPG Group, a major business house.
Spencer’s Retail Limited is a multi-format
food-first retailer providing a wide range of
quality products to discerning young
customers - well-travelled citizens of the
world, looking out for authentic flavors and
experiences in a fun-filled shopping
environment. Part of the Rs. 9,000 crore RP-
SG Group, we run about 200 stores (including
about 30 large format stores) across 45 cities
in India, employing more than 7,000 people.
As one of the earliest entrants in the retail
space in India, it has been instrumental in
introducing Indian consumers to the concept
of organized retailing, becoming the country’s
first grocery chain back in 1920, and offering
the joys of hypermarket shopping in 2001.
Need and importance of the study
In the present competitive scenario, the role of
retailing is increasing rapidly with the entry of
global players. Many Indian companies
strongly keeping their aim on entering in retail
industry. With increasing globalization, firms
are entering a dynamic world of international
business that is marked by liberalization of
economic policies in a large number of
emerging economies like India. To face the
challenge of increasing competition that has
resulted from liberalization, Indian
organizations have initiated adoption of
innovative human resource management
practices both critically and constructively to
foster creativity and innovation among
employees. The huge opportunities in
organized retailing encouraging the companies
to enter in retail industry. The last 2 decades
has witnessed the tremendous potential for
organized retailing. Further, the increasing
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challenge in employee retention, absenteeism,
job rotation, and lengthy laborious hours of
work place are creating the organizations to
face the hurdle of retaining employees. And at
the same time, the increasing entry of new
entrants is also posing threats to maintain and
preserve existing qualitative human resources.
In view of these, the present study will
thoroughly analyze the various human
resource practices followed in select retail
units in Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai.
Review of literature
Select references pertaining to the research
paper on HRM practices in organized retailing
is presented here.
McGuire et al. (2003) in their article titled
“Examining the Matching Process – Human
Resource Management and Competitive
Strategies: A Study of the Irish Retail Sector”
focused on how human resource management
is linked to the competitive strategy of the
firm. Further the paper focused on the
competitive advantage in the retail sector. The
authors concluded that the issue of
competitive strategy and positioning is an
extremely important issue within the
service/retail sector. And also, the choice of
competitive strategy has significant
implications for the range of human resource
practices available to the retail organizations.
The study clearly identified that the cost
bounded ness of competitive strategies such as
financial considerations would appear a
significant factor in determining the overall
approach taken towards human resource
management in the retail sector. Sohel
Ahmad et al. (2003) in his article titled “The
impact of human resource management
practices on operational performance:
recognizing country and industry differences”
made an attempt to generalize the efficacy of
seven HRM practices proposed by Pfeffer in
the context of country and industry, focusing
primarily on the effects of these practices on
operations.
Catherine Truss(2004) in the article titled
“Who’s in the driving seat? Managing human
resources in a franchise firm” has concentrated
on the role of human resources with special
reference to retail franchise firm. The author
has opined that the management of a franchise
firm is ultimately depended on the
functionality of human resources; hence
effective human resources will help to
achieving the goals of a franchise firm. Ashok
Som(2006) in the paper titled “Bracing for
MNC competition through innovative HRM
practices: The way ahead for Indian firms” has
concentrated on the emergence of
Multinational companies in the organized
retailing in India. Further, the paper has
concentrated on the impact of MNC
competition on Indian retail firms. The author
has supported the need for innovative HRM
practices by the Indian firms to tackle with the
competition from Multi national companies.
The author has concluded that unless the
Indian firms implement innovative HRM
practices, the MNCs will tap the market and
this will become a huge threat to the future
development of growth by the Indian retail
firms.
Julia Merkel et al.(2006) in their published
book on “Retailing in the 21
st
Century”
focused on the new challenges in the retail
human resource management. In this book the
authors have provided the need for
professional Human Resource Management in
Retailing. The authors viewed that retailing is
a major labour intensive industry sector. The
authors further suggested that people are the
driving force behind all transactions that occur
in retailing outlets. And in the future world of
retailing, there will be an increasing need to
adapt and change towards a more formative
and proactive style of HRM.
Chakraborthy D.(2007) in the article titled
‘Indian Retail sector – HR challenges’ has
critically examined the practices of human
resources for the management of retail
organizations. The article has analyzed the
evolution and growth of Indian retail sector
with special reference to organized retailing.
The article has further focused on the
emerging dimensions in retail sector with a
special focus on HR challenges. Singh B.D.
et al.(2008) in their study on HR challenges in
Indian retail sector has revealed that rising
retail industry in India is especially providing
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great scope and challenges to the HR front.
Further, the study evaluated that the growing
industry requires many strong back up of
Human Resources hence the HR department s
must act pro-actively to attract, nurture and
retaining trained manpower.’ B.B.Lakshete
(2011) in the article titled “Human Resource
Management in Retailing” studied on the
scope of HRM in retailing sector. Further, the
paper also focused on the challenges and
usefulness of HRM in retailing. The paper
concluded that HR challenges when taken care
of by the organization are bound to make a
difference to the organizational success.
Objectives of the study
The paper mainly focuses on core Human
Resource Management activities implemented
in select organized retail units. More
specifically the paper concentrates on the
following objectives.
1. To study the acquisition of human resources
by select organized retail companies.
4. To analyze and examine the strategies
adopted for the development of human
resources in the organized retailing
companies.
3. To examine the performance and
maintenance of human resources in the
organized retail companies.
4. To ascertain the problems and prospects in
the implementation of human resource
management activities by the organized retail
companies.
Finally, the study provides research findings
and suggestions on the basis of analysis.
Methodology of the study
The primary data is collected from a
structured questionnaire from the sample
respondents. The sample respondents include
the employees of select retail organizations
and the supervisors and HR managers of
select retail organizations. While selecting a
sample size of 360 respondents, convenience
sampling method is applied. The secondary
data is collected from the annual reports of
select companies, internet, news papers,
magazines and articles pertaining to the HRM
activities in organized retailing.
Analysis of survey results
The detailed analysis on the various
observations on the perceptions of the
employees on the implementation of HRM
practices in organized retailing is specified
below.
i) Analysis on employees’ perception towards adequacy of man power
Table No.1: Employees perception towards adequacy of manpower in organizations
S.No. Company Category Adequacy of manpower
In their respective organization
Total
Yes No
1. Reliance Fresh 98 22 120
2. More 72 48 120
3. Spencers 91 29 120
Total 261 99 360
Chi-square tabular value 5.99 at 2 d.f. and 5% level of significance
Chi-square calculated value 15.99
Source: field survey
The above statistics clearly revealing that
majority of the employees from Reliance
Fresh opined ‘yes’ which indicates that there
is need for manpower in their respective
organization. Majority of the employees from
More retail and Spencers’ have also opined
‘yes’ which indicates that the two companies’
employees are keen for the need of manpower
in their respective organizations. Chi-square
test is applied to analyze is there any
association between employees of three retail
companies and their opinion on need for
manpower. At 5% level and 2 degrees of
freedom, the statistics has shown that the chi-
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square value (calculated) is 15.03 which is
more than the tabular value of 5.99. Hence, it
is to conclude that there is an association
between the employees of three select retail
companies and their opinion on need for man
power in their respective organizations.
ii) Employees perception towards responsibility about the estimation of manpower gaps
Table No.2: employees perception on responsibility about estimating manpower gaps
S.No. Company Category Responsibility about estimating
Manpower gaps
Total
Senior
executive
Branch
Manager
Supervisor S.I Others
1. Reliance Fresh 20 65 22 10 03 120
2. More 10 82 20 4 04 120
3. Spencers 11 79 12 8 10 120
Total 41 226 54 22 17 360
Source: field survey
Table No.2 shows the perceptions of
employees towards the people who takes the
responsibility in their organization for
estimating manpower gaps. From the statistics
on Reliance Fresh, it is observed that majority
of the employees have opined branch manager
as the responsible for estimating manpower
gaps. For More and Spencers’ also, it is
observed that Branch managers takes the
primary responsibility for estimating
manpower gaps.
iii) Employee perception towards forecasting of
requirements frequents
Table No.3: Employees perception on
forecasting of requirements
S.No Company
Category
Perception on
forecast
Of
requirements
Total
Yes No
1. Reliance
Fresh
101 19 120
2. More 98 22 120
3. Spencers 89 31 120
Total 288 72 360
Chi-square
tabular value
5.99 at 2 d.f. and 5%
level of significance
Chi-square
calculated value
4.04
Source: field survey
Table No. 3 shows the perceptions of
employees with reference forecast
requirements. Majority of the employees from
all three retail companies have opined ‘yes’
which indicates that their company focuse on
the forecasting of requirement of man power
in their respective organizations. Chi-square
test is applied to analyze is there any
association between employees of three select
companies and their opinion on forecasting
requirements. The test result shown non
significant which means there is no
association between employees of three select
retail companies and their opinion on
forecasting requirements for their respective
organizations.
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iv) Employees’ perception towards induction
training in retail companies
Table No.4: Employees perception induction
& development programs
S.No Company
Category
Total No.
of
Induction
/ training
days in
the
company
Development
Programmes
in the
company
Yes No
1. Reliance
Fresh
30 09 111
2. More 15 11 109
3. Spencers 30 12 108
Source: Field survey
From the table no. 4, it is clear that Both
Reliance Fresh and Spencers are spending 30
days for induction training to the newly
recruited employees, where as More is
spending only 15 days for induction and
training. Further, the development
programmes for the existing employees, it is
understood that majority of the employees
who are working for these three companies
have opined that they are not availing any
development programmes in the work place.
Hence, the results show that the retail
companies are only focusing on the induction
programmes rather than continuous
development programs.
v) Employees’ perception towards appraisal process in the retail companies
Table No.5: Perceptions of employees towards appraisal process
Company
Category
Perception towards appraisal process period Total
Once in
a month
Quarterly Half yearly Yearly Cannot
specify
Reliance Fresh 0 09 03 100 08 120
More 0 02 04 105 08 120
Spencers 0 03 05 100 12 120
Total 0 14 12 305 28 360
Source: field survey
From the table no.5, it is clear that all the three
retail companies are not adopting appraisal
process either in month or quarterly. Very few
employees have opined that they have
experienced appraisal process in half year.
And further, it is observed that majority of the
three companies employees, i.e., 83% of
Reliance Fresh and Spencers employees and
87.5% of More retail companies employees
have opined that they have experience the
appraisal process once in a year. Overall,
from the survey, it is to conclude that majority
of the retail companies are adopting appraisal
process once in a year. And further only 7%
of the all the sample respondents have opined
that cannot specify about the appraisal
process.
vi) Employees perception towards motivational process implemented in retail companies
Table No.6: Employees perception on initiators for motivation at workplace
Company
Category
Initiators for motivation at work place Total
Branch
Manager
Floor
manager/
Supervisor
Peers Senior
executives
No source
of motivation
Reliance Fresh 02 61 15 40 02 120
More 08 15 08 52 37 120
Spencers 11 39 20 45 05 120
Total 21 115 43 137 44 360
Source: field survey
Table No.6 shows that there is a difference in
the perceptions of the employees with
reference to the sources for motivation at work
place. From the table, it is observed that
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majority of the employees from Reliance
Fresh, i.e., 50.8% of them have opined that
floor managers take the responsibility for
motivating the employees at work place.
From More Retail Company, majority of the
employees, i.e., 43% of them have opined that
senior executives take the responsibility of
motivating at the work place. From Spencers’
retail store, it is observed that both senior
executives and Floor managers take the
assignment of motivating the employees at
work place. From the table, it is understood
that in Spencers’ retail store, all the categories
of employees, i.e., senior executives, floor
mangers, peers and Branch managers are
taking the responsibility in motivating the
employees. One-way ANOVA is applied to
analyze is there any significant difference in
source people of motivation in the three retail
companies. The test results are specified
below.
Table No.7: ANOVA Test results
ANOVA of One-way Classification results
Source of Variation SS df MS F P-value F crit
Between Groups 3433.333 4 858.3333 4.29453 0.028056 3.47805
Within Groups 1998.667 10 199.8667
Total 5432 14
From table No.7 , it is observed that the calculated vale of F, i.e, 4.294 is greater than the tabular
value. Hence, Null Hypothesis is rejected. So, the test results clearly specifying that there is a
significant difference in the source people in motivating the employees at work place.
vii) Employees perceptions towards working conditions at work place
Analysis is made to understand the
employees’ perceptions towards working
conditions at work place. The factors
including rest rooms, first aid, ventilation, rest
hours, toilets and free environment among
Peers are considered and their overall
satisfaction levels are adopted in 5 point rating
scale. The summarized results are specified
below.
Table No.8: Employees perception towards working conditions
Company category
Perceptions towards working conditions Total
Extremely
Satisfied
Satisfied Neutr
al
Dissatisfied Extremely
dissatisfied
Reliance Fresh 10 63 19 20 08 120
More 06 37 10 52 15 120
Spencers 11 79 10 12 08 120
Total 27 179 39 84 31 360
Source: Field survey
From the results, it is to understand that,
majority of the employees of Reliance Fresh
have opined “satisfied’ which indicates that
they have satisfied from the working
conditions of the work place. Majority of the
employees of More have opined that they have
dissatisfied with the working conditions.
From Spencers’ majority of the employees
have opined that they are satisfied and this
indicates that the employees are having
satisfaction over the working conditions. One-
way ANOVA is applied to analyze is there
any significant difference in the employees’
perception towards working conditions, the
test results are presented in table no.9
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International Journal of Business and Administration Research Review. Vol.I, Issue No.2, Nov-Jan2014.
Table No.9: ANOVA test results
ANOVA of One-way classification test results
Source of
Variation SS df MS F P-value F crit
Between
Groups 5462.667 4 1365.667 7.205417 0.005344 3.47805
Within Groups 1895.333 10 189.5333
Total 7358 14
Source: field survey
From the table no.9, it is clear that calculated
value of F, i.e., 7.2054 is greater than the
tabular value of F, i.e., 3.4780 at 5% level of
significance. Hence, the results shows that
null hypothesis is rejected which means, there
is a significant difference in the perceptions of
the employees of all the three companies in
terms of satisfaction levels over working
conditions.
vii) Employees perception on overall HRM activities in the retail companies
Table No.10: Employees overall perception on HRM activities
Company
category
Satisfaction levels on HRM activities Tot
al Extremel
y
Satisfied
Satisfie
d
Neutra
l
Dissatisfi
ed
Extremely
dissatisfied
ACQUISITION OF HUMAN RESOURCES
Reliance Fresh 11 69 30 8 02 120
More 15 43 22 20 10 120
Spencers 20 59 25 19 07 120
Two-Way ANOVA results: At 5% level of significance, 2, 4 d.f.
F-Cal for rows = 0.3208 (Tabular value for rows = 4.4589)
F-Cal for columns = 18.6310 (Tabular value for columns = 3.8378)
Conclusion:
1) H0 is accepted for rows ? There is no significant difference in the satisfaction
levels of employees with reference to acquisition of human resources.
2) H0 is rejected for columns? There is a significant difference in the opinions of
the employees of three select retail companies.
DEVELOPMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES
Reliance Fresh 11 79 10 12 08 120
More 12 28 30 20 10 120
Spencers 20 49 21 19 11 120
Two-Way ANOVA results: At 5% level of significance, 2, 4 d.f.
F-Cal for rows = 0.1373 (Tabular value for rows = 4.4589)
F-Cal for columns = 4.3915 (Tabular value for columns = 3.8378)
Conclusion:
1) H0 is accepted for rows ? There is no significant difference in the satisfaction
levels of employees with reference to development of human resources.
2) H0 is rejected for columns? There is a significant difference in the opinions of
the employees of three select retail companies
MOTIVATING OF HUMAN RESOURCES
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Reliance Fresh 06 37 10 52 15 120
More 11 55 22 29 15 120
Spencers 16 55 24 15 10 120
Two-Way ANOVA results: At 5% level of significance, 2, 4 d.f.
F-Cal for rows = 0.07136 (Tabular value for rows = 4.4589)
F-Cal for columns = 5.5589 (Tabular value for columns = 3.8378)
Conclusion:
1) H0 is accepted for rows ? There is no significant difference in the satisfaction
levels of employees with reference to motivation of human resources.
2) H0 is rejected for columns? There is a significant difference in the opinions of
the employees of three select retail companies
MAINTENANCE OF HUMAN RESOURCES
Reliance Fresh 11 21 52 16 20 120
More 12 45 23 30 10 120
Spencers 18 52 20 12 08 120
Two-Way ANOVA results: At 5% level of significance, 2, 4 d.f.
F-Cal for rows = 0.0372 (Tabular value for rows = 4.4589)
F-Cal for columns = 2.3020 (Tabular value for columns = 3.8378)
Conclusion:
1) H0 is accepted for rows ? There is no significant difference in the satisfaction
levels of employees with reference to maintenance of human resources.
2) H0 is accepted for columns?There is no significant difference in the opinions
of the employees of three select retail companies
Source: Field survey
Table No.10 shows detailed summarized
results on overall perceptions of the
employees of three select retail companies
with reference to core HRM activities in
organized retailing. With reference to
Acquisition of human resources, majority of
the employees of all three select retail
companies, i.e., Reliance Fresh, More and
Spencers have opined that they have satisfied
with the acquisition of human resources by
their respective companies. The
dissatisfaction levels are very low to Reliance
Fresh in comparison with other two retail
companies. The test results revealed that there
no significant difference in the perceptions
towards acquisition of human resources but
the results have shown that there is a
significant difference in the opinion of
employees of three select retail companies.
With reference to development of human
resources, majority of the employees of
Reliance Fresh and Spencers’ have opined that
they are satisfied with the company’s practices
towards development of employees. Where
as, from More retail, the dissatisfaction level is
comparatively higher than the satisfaction
levels. Two-way ANOVA test results
revealed that there is no significant difference
in the satisfaction levels of employees with
reference to development of human resources
where as there is a significant difference in the
opinion of the employees of three select retail
companies.
The satisfaction levels of employees with
reference to maintenance of human resources
have shown that majority of the employees
have opined neutral, where as majority of the
employees of More and Spencers’ have opined
that they are satisfied with the maintenance
activities of companies. The ANOVA test
results have shown that there is no significant
difference in the satisfaction levels of
employees with reference to maintenance of
human resources and also, there is no
significant difference in the opinions of the
employees of three select retail companies.
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International Journal of Business and Administration Research Review. Vol.I, Issue No.2, Nov-Jan2014.
Findings & suggestions
The importance of human resources in
the organizational point of view is need of the
hour especially in the era of globalization.
The effectiveness of human resources are
directly influencing the organizational
productivity. From the study on HRM
activities in organized retailing, it is observed
that all the three select retail companies have
been actively engaged them selves in terms of
man power planning and taking
responsibilities over estimating manpower
gaps. The comparative study on the
acquisition of human resources for the three
companies has shown that there is a significant
difference in the perceptions of the employees
with reference to acquisition of human
resources in the three companies. The
induction and training days in the organization
has also shown that there is a significant
difference in the three companies. The
development programs in the company are not
taken place which indicates that all the three
companies are only focusing on the induction
rather than continuous development
programmes. Further, the appraisal process
has also clearly revealed that almost all the
companies are only focusing once in a year to
make decisions on appraisal process and this is
one of the key issues which is need to be
considered. Further, the motivation process in
the three select retail organization has clearly
revealed that, only floor managers and senior
executives are taking the responsibility.
Hence, there is a need for extending this
particular key HRM activity by all the
categories of employees. It must be
implemented as a collective activity for
continuous motivation to the employees. The
working conditions in all three select
organized retail companies have shown
satisfactory except for the case of ‘More’ retail
company. The analysis on overall perceptions
of the employees of three select retail
companies have shown that, there is a
significant difference in the opinions of the
employees with reference to acquisition,
development, motivation of human resources
where as the results have shown that there is a
similarity in the opinions with respect to
maintenance of human resources. Hence,
from the study it is to conclude that there is a
significant difference in the HRM activities
implemented in three select retail companies.
Further, the field survey results are clearly
showing that all the three companies have not
given complete satisfaction to the employees
with reference to core activities of HRM.
There is still lot of unfilled areas of
development by the three retail companies
especially in the area of induction, training,
development, motivation and employee
facilities.
Effective concentration on these activities at
micro level will brought out a great value to
the productivity and satisfaction to the
employees.
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International Journal of Business and Administration Research Review. Vol.I, Issue No.2, Nov-Jan2014.
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