“ The superior man is easy to serve, but difficult to please ... the inferior man is difficult to serve, but easy to please.” - Confucius
Business cannot be done alone we need people to work with us. This is where Human Resource Management comes into play. It starts from the time we decide to start a business. HR Management includes job identification and specification, advertising the vacancy, recruitment and selection process, training, assigning roles and responsibilities, staff development, performance appraisals and exit policies.
HRM deals with humans hence better understanding of psychology becomes crucial. When identifying a job and specifying it, we pay a lot of attention to the qualification and experience of the person while generally ignoring the need for specifying the traits and qualities needed. The importance of the need for certain traits and qualities in a person for a specific role is very well defined in recruitment of defense officers. No matter how great an interview the candidate gives if they do not have the Officer Like Qualities they will not be selected. If these qualities are already specified during job identification and specification then the selection process becomes easier. However, it should be kept in mind that it is the selection and recruitment process where all our knowledge of human psychology is to be implemented. We can find many people who clear the qualification and experience criteria for a specific role but it is the psychology of the person that plays a vital role in the selection of the right candidate.
Trainers should definitely have a clear understanding of human behavior and psychology for them to be able to provide the training in an effective manner; else it would become a lecture or a speech which no one would be interested in listening to. When psychology of a person is predefined in job specification and selection then assigning the role and responsibilities becomes relatively easier. It should be kept in mind that roles and responsibilities should be assigned based on the temperament, nature and mindset of the candidate.
In staff development we should understand the psychology of the staff in relation to their dreams and aspirations. There might be people who would put themselves forward with their current role while others might be willing to grow further and faster. Understanding this psychology of the staff will help us handle the situation better. During appraisals it is important to make sure that the employee agrees with the appraisal and this could become easier if we understand the psychology of the person where we can explain things to them based upon their nature. Exit policies, in both cases where a person is leaving or we are asking them to leave, should be implemented keeping in mind the psychology of the person exiting the organization. This would help us in ending the current relation amicably and in an amiable manner.