After the liberation of Bangladesh in 1971 Jute Sector was taken up with special and realistic approach, the Bangladesh Government promulgated the Jute Act in 1974 and established Bangladesh Jute Research Institute (BJRI) with specific mandate which was modified in 1996.

Intended, actual and perceived HRM

There is a difference between intended, actual and perceived HRM (Wright and Nishii, 2006; Boxall and Purcell, 2008). As described in the book of Boxall and Purcell (2008) and studied by Wright and Nishii (2006), senior management including the HR-managers design specific HRM mostly linked to the business plan (Intended). This design is implemented in a certain way (Actual). An employee has his own individual perception of this HRM design (perceived). Resulting in a specific behavior for an individual employee (reaction). Leading to a certain organizational performance. This is all depicted in Figure 1. Along this path problems can occur. In this study, the focus will be on the actual HRM practices and employee reaction. The intended HRM is designed by the director or HR-manager and directly linked to the organizational strategy or business plan. In other words, the intended HRM is directly linked to structural ambidexterity and/or contextual ambidexterity. Differences in the design of HRM for the form of ambidexterity should thus become clear at this level. It may also become clear at other levels such as the actual or perceived level, but in order to research these levels, attention had to be paid towards the implementation of HRM and the perception of individual employees, which would have made this research less focused on and time consuming.

 

 

Vision of BJRI

Economic growth and development of the jute sector through agricultural and industrial research on jute and allied fibre crops.

Mission of BJRI

Development of sustainable technologies through agricultural and industrial researches  on  jute  and  allied fibre crops for income generation, socio - economic development, environment protection and poverty alleviation of farmers and other stakeholders by dissemination the developed technologies.

Objectives of BJRI

After the liberation of Bangladesh in 1971 Jute Sector was taken up with special and realistic approach. The Bangladesh government promulgated the Jute Act in 1974 and established Bangladesh Jute Research Institute (BJRI) with specific mandate which was modified in 1996 with the following major functions.

1. To promote agriculture, technological and economic research on jute and allied fibers and their manufactures and dissemination of results thereof.

2. To organize production, testing and supply of improved pedigree of jute seeds and multiplication, procurement and their distribution to recognized organization, selected growers and such other agencies as may be approved by the Board.

3. To set up research centers, sub-stations, pilot projects and farms in different regions of the country for carrying out research on different problems of jute and allied fiber crops, jute products and allied materials.

4. To establish project areas for demonstration of new varieties of jute developed by the institute and to train the farmers for cultivation of these varieties of jute.

5. To establish annual reports, monographs, bulletins, and other literatures relating to jute research and the activities of the institute.

6. To organize training of officers and progressing farmers on modern improvement method of cultivation of jute and allied fiber crops and also to train technical hands for utilization of technological findings.

7. To do and perform such other activities as may be necessary for the purposes of this Act.

Administration/ Management/ Organizational Structures

Management of the Institute

The  Institute  is  now  under  the administrative control of the Ministry of Agriculture. The Director General is the Chief Executive of the Institute. Under the general policy guidance of the Board of Management, the Director General administers the research, administration and financial activities of the Institute. Presently, Bangladesh Jute Research Institute has 11 divisions, 6 and 4 research divisions under Agricultural and Technological Research Wings respectively and 1 division (Planning, Training and Communication Division) as well as Administration and finance are under Director General’s Office. Besides, Farm Management Unit under Agricultural Research Wing is responsible for the coordination of the management of regional and sub-stations of BJRI located at different regions of the country. Agricultural researches on Jute are carried out under Agricultural Research Wing and industrial researches on jute are carried out under Technological Research Wing. For the region specific agricultural research on jute according to the demand and necessity of the farmers, BJRI has a Central Agricultural Experimental Station on Jute at Manikganj; four regional stations at Rangpur, Faridpur, Kishoreganj and Chandina (Comilla); and three Sub-stations at Tarabo (Narayanganj), Monirampur (Jessore) and Kolapara (Patuakhali) and one breeder’s seed production and research center at Nashipur (Dinajpur).

In the light of the recommendations of the FAO/ADB appraisal report and approval of ECNEC in 1976, a new branch namely “Jute Seed Wing” was created for multiplication and distribution of high yielding variety (HYV) jute seed which was later in 1988 transferred to Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation (BADC). Moreover, to strengthen the industrial research on jute and to use the jute in textile processing system by blending it with cotton and other natural fibres, a development project namely “Jute and Textile Product Development Centre (JTPDC)” had been run for the period of 1995 to 2004 and after completion of the project JTPDC is included in the permanent structure of BJRI. At present the total approved manpower is 527, out of which 154 are scientists. A brief manpower status is given in the Table 1.

 

 

Recent success of BJRI

The genome sequence of Tossa and desi jute has been discovered by BJRI scientists in 2009 and in 2013 Genome sequence of devastating fungal pathogen Macrophomina Phaseolina has been discovered.

Importance of the study

For an institute of science and technology, human resources management is always as important as the others. Research Institute is the place people could do research and apply modern technology, and technological infrastructure to create or innovate. The Institute of Science – Technology can be difficult to survive long term and building up the benefits competitiveness without people, the talented and professionals. Therefore, the HRM system in the organization is really important. However, it only pays attention to human resource development without linking it with the principles and objectives of the Institute, any attempt to promote the effective operation of the workers will return useless (Embose, 2001, Jacobs, 2005, Koontz, 2002). The study is to understand the Human resource management and the HRM system in order to find out the criteria to select a good system for an organization, specifically for the Bangladesh Jute research Institute.

It is a great opportunity to learn about the organizational culture as an Assistant director of BJRI. A chance was given to prepare my report on the topic HRM Practices and  Employee   expectation   of  BJRI.  This   opportunity helps me to learn about the administrative and HR Directorate. BJRI Is a Research organization and during the job, enough knowledge was gotten about the functions of various departments and the functions of HR and Admin. It is really impossible to highlight all the activities of the organization in this report, but I tried to summarize and give enough data related to my topic. I think this report is able to give enough idea about the mentioned topic.

Scope of the study

The paper discusses various condition or state of employees with the work environment and management. Then the paper studies and tries to find out the reason and factors for those various conditions. Finally, the paper suggests with few policy recommendation for effective and better work environment for the employees.

Statement of the problem

Sometimes, lack of proper management of Human Resources cause the failure of an organization. Every government organization operates government rules. Due to the lack of proper Management of Human Resources the government organizations have to face different problem. So, on this problem research can be conducted.

Significance and rationale of the study

The study on HRM is important because success of any organization largely depends on the proper functioning of HRM. More over employees of an organization assist in gaining and maintaining competitive advantages. HRD of government organization can provide attractive policies and practices that the employee desire which is impotent to increase quality service. This department can help the organization in designing organizational culture, performance systems and can help in making change where necessary (Newstorm and Davis, 2007) But what they are actually doing for   the proper development in their organization is very important. So this study is quite significant and rationale.

Broader objective of the study

This paper aims to find out the actual work environment where employees feel the organization of their own.

Specific objectives of the study

To  analyze  and  evaluate  HR  practices  in  BJRI  some objectives are identified and these may include:

1. To know the role of Human Resources Management.

2. To find out the strength and weakness of HRM system of the organization.

3. To understand how the organization trains their workforce and employees.

4. To understand how the organization appraise the performance of the employees.

5. Expectations of employees.

6. To give some suggestions about these findings. 

Sample size

The organization or individual is responsible for the collection and aggregation of data from their initial source.

Sampling technique and unit 

All the necessary information is collected using:

1. Practical desk work.

2. Take expert opinion from the officer.

3. Direct observations.

4. Used questionnaire method.

The employee and officer of HRD and Communication division.

Data sources

Data collected for some purpose other than the problem at hand.

1. Files and Folders.

2. Visit web site.

3. Many circular published by BJRI

4. Several Booklets of BJRI.

Data collection methods

Web site visit and personal interview.

Limitations of the study

There are certainly some limitations of study. There was a probability that different educational and family backgrounds might affect the study. There was a limitation of time frame. Top management was not included in the study. There was a great probability how the truth came to light. The main limitation of the study was the question of proper mental and physical condition of the interviewees. Interviewees are reluctant to express their opinion about the HRM system. They do not want to tell about the negative sides of the management, because they are afraid of strict government rules and departmental procedures.

Termination of service

The Institute may terminate the services of an employee on one month notice in writing or one month salary in lieu of there off. During the probation period, the authority can terminate the service of an officer at the time without any notice.

Promotion

Promotion mainly consider as a meter of right on the basis of seniority. Depending on seniority, efficiency, performance and other consideration of an employee the institute, at its sole discretion based and its needs shall decide the promotion to a higher grade or post.

Salary and benefits

Government shall determine salary of an employee. Subject to the above, the salary and benefits shall be governed by the compensation plan of the Government, which may be revised from time to time at the desecration of the Government.

Bonus/Gratuity

Contributory Provident fund, Group Insurance of any other facility may be given, introduced by the Government from time to time at its sole discretion. The rules and regulations of that scheme/plan will be binding on all affairs when any of the afford-mentioned facility is introduced.

Increment

Institute will pay increment as per government rules. Institute may stop or withhold the increment of any officer/staff for a particular year without assigning any reason. Performance and achievements of an officer shall be appraised at least once in a year/or as prescribed by the competent authority from time to time. Yearly increment may hold up as a punishment of an employee.

 Performance appraisal (ACR)

Performance appraisal of the employee of this organization is according to the government rules and regulations and National Agriculture Research System’s criteria for the scientists. Employees/ Scientists are appraised on a yearly basis. All have to pass the medical test every year. Annual Confidential Report (ACR) is highly confidential and never shown to an employee.

Grading method

The selected feature may be analytical ability, co-operativeness, dependability, self-expression, job knowledge, leadership, etc. Annual Confidential Report’s grading method of BJRI is shown in Table 2. Every employee’s ACR must be satisfactory to get promotion. For the scientists besides ACR points the research work and scientific paper is much important.

 

 

Punishment procedures of workers for different causes

Workers of the organization are punished for different causes. In other word, it can be said that when they employ themselves any unlawful work against factory’s regulation, they are punished. However the organization punishes the workers for doing of the following works.

1. Irregular attendance: When a worker becomes irregular in attending to the work, he will be punished for these. In this case when any one remains absent 2 or 3 days frequently, It will be treated as his habitual behavior. For this the person must be punished.

2. Late attendance: Some workers may have bad habit of attending the work late. For this they will be punished.

3. Early leave: when a worker leaves his work place without the permission of the concern authority, he will be punished for doing that.

4. Unlawful works: The worker will be punished for participating in any other work aside the one given.

Punishment for unlawful work

When the workers employ themselves in unlawful work, a responsible officer or supervisor will inform the management in written form. For this, inquiry will be done. At the inquiry period the concerned workers may be suspended, however, it should not exceed 60 days. But for exceptional case, time may be expanded but salary will be paid. This salary will include half of the basic salary with other benefits in full payment. After inquiry if the worker proves as a guilty person, he will be suspended. If he is not found guilty person, he will not be suspended. If he is not found guilty, his suspension period will be treated as duty period, and will get full wages and salary.

The actions must follow the following procedures

A written statement must be submitted to the authority, which will be approved by head of the institute for legal action. Then a charge sheet should be issued to the accused person and he will be given at least 7 to 10 day’s time for hearing. He should be in under inquiry by a domestic inquiry committee. The committee will make a report. Then decision is made for the accused person. Against this decision, the accused person may appeal within 30 days. Finally, the authority will inform the accused person against his appeal what decision has been taken, and then the accused person may go to court.

Training and development

Training and development is a vital and effective operation of an organization. It is people, not buildings that make a company successful. Assets make things possible but people make things happen (Szilagi, 2002). And for making them efficient and hardworking company should provide training and development of their staffs. To organize training of officers and progressing farmers on modern improvement method of cultivation of jute and allied fiber crops and also to train technical hands for utilization of technological findings is one of the objectives of the organization.  BJRI has also some training and development program. It has a separate division named Planning, training and communication division headed by a Chief scientific Officer. There are also 1 Principle Scientific Officer, 2 Senior Scientific Officer, 1 System analyst, 1 programmer, 2 computer operator and other support staff. The PTC division arranges and processes all kind of training and higher education.

Training and development processes

Training budget and allocation

In the year 2015 to 16 the training budget of BJRI is 7,00,000 (seven lac) taka. Total manpower of BJRI is 572, existing manpower is 452. Among them total scientist 101 and 27 scientists awarded by PhD degree.

Training processes

BJRI has some work plan and Key Performance Indicators for measurement (Table 3). It has to attain these KPI with year wise budget allocation. To achieve these objectives and performance indicator, BJRI organize the job training and off the job training. On the job training such as job rotation, promotion etc and off the job training such as foundation training course, research methodology etc. are being organize by BJRI with association with Bangladesh Agriculture Research Council (BARC).

 

 

BJRI organize the following courses

Seminar/Workshop: BJRI’s scientist and officers take part in various types of seminar and workshop.

Foundation training Course: All level of first class officer has to take the four months foundation training course. Newly appointed scientist and officer should take the course. A scientist should take the foundation course; it carries a grade point for the promotion.

Administrative and financial management training: BJRI’s officers/scientists take part on the administrative and financial management training course organized by several organizations like- Bangladesh Academy of Rural Development (BARD), Bangladesh Public Administration Training Center (BPATC), Financial Management Academy (FIMA) etc.

Farmers Training: BJRI organizes farmers training to disseminate its new jute variety and demonstrate the use of new technology. Every year BJRI has to perform this kind of training to particular number of farmers. It is one of the key performance indicators of BJRI.

Computer based training: BJRI organizes computer and ICT based training for the employee and the scientists. Almost all officer and section got their personal computer with internet facility. It has organized several computer training for this purpose.

Higher education and development: Every year BJRI’s scientist got their higher education scholarship (Domestic).  BJRI’s all scientists completed their MS or M Phil degree. Among the 101 scientist 27 have been awarded by PhD degree. Organization also gives the opportunity to go abroad for higher education if the scientist gets it on his own effort. In the year 2014 and 2015 so far BJRI has organized the following types of training (Table 4).

 

 

Human resource Information System (HRIS): Like other government organization BJRIs HRIS is not so advanced. Still today technology is very costly. BJRI’s HRIS is still mostly paper works or file based. But recently government has decided to formulate a combined communication systems or HRIS among the National Agricultural Research Systems. As a part of that an agreement with a private company named Techno vista has been made. They are working to set a highly improved HRIS among the NARS institute. Human resources management information system will convert human resources information into a digital format, allowing that information to be added to the knowledge base BARC, NARS. It will provide HR related information to all other operation in an integrated manner. This system will have seven key modules: Personnel, Service Book, ACR, Leave, Loan/Advance, Pension and Recruitment (Parvin, 2015).

Safety/benefit in workplace: Institute’s campus is much protected, guarded by Bangladesh Ansar. Their members are always on shifting duty, to protect all kind of terrorist activity. There is also fire safety system in the official buildings. There are also water filters for the employees in the office. There is a central Mosque in BJRI. Employees says there prayers there. A staff canteen is there for the employee. Employee  refreshes  themselves at the canteen. It operated by the staff. The management sanction loan to the employees on its own arrangement. Employees must pay back the loans within a particular period.

Activity of Staff welfare association: There is a staff welfare association in BJRI. The association was established in 1968 to protect all staff from any injustice. But the association members are now involved in other activities. Sometimes they interrupt on managerial decision.

Findings from the study

From observation, face-to-face interview and multiple choice option based questionnaire (Shawn and Rebecca, 2006) some general findings came up with which are as follows:

Face to face Interview: I have concentrated on face-to- face interview. 20 employees are being interviewed with a preset bundle of questions. The asked questions are as follows:

1. What’s your name?

2. What is your educational background?

3. How long you are been in this organization?

4. What is your present designation?

5. Do you enjoy your activities?

6. How you feel your colleagues? 7. What you think of your organization?

8. Does your educational qualifications matches to your job?

9. What you think about your HRM system?

10. How do you realize your management?

11. Do you think the official procedure is very easy?

12. Do you satisfied with your present recruitment and selection process?

13. Have you get any kind of training?

14. Does the training related to your job?

15. Do you think the training is effective for your job?

16. What you think about your performance appraisal system?

17. Have you ever been appraised?

18. Have you seen your ACR report?

19. Have you ever rewarded for your work?

20. Have you ever punished for your work?

21. Identify five positive sides of your management

22. Identify five negative sides of your management

23. Have you got official residence?

24. Have you got transport facility from office?

25. How is your work environment?

26. Do you feel secure in office?

27. Do you face bossing at your office?

28. What do you think about the future of your company?

29. Do you have any plan to switch over somewhere else?

30. Do you want to say something about your top management?

31. How do you feel about staff welfare association?

32. Does the staff welfare association democratic in all aspects?

33. Do you think the staff welfare association is doing the right thing?

34. Have you ever got any extra favor from your management?

35. Have you received any amount of loan from your company?

From the interview I found the following opinion from the employees

The Salary, bonus, incentives are found very regular  and

in time. Most of the employee gets residential opportunity. There is transport facility in the office. The organizations service is not directly related to the people so the work volume is not high in this institute. Institute’s campus is much protected guarded by Bangladesh Ansar. So the employees feel a sense of security here. There is a Mosque in the office premises where employees and their family members says their prayer. Employees get various kind of loan from the office. So they can solve their financial problems. The financial and administrative power is highly centralized. The department heads have little authority on all the issues in department. So, line managers are facing difficulties to maintain their staff. Decisions are mostly centralized. Too much formality makes a process slow and lengthy. Sometimes managers do not treat fairly to every employee. There are no training need assessment system in the training and development process. The performance appraisal and training management system are suffering from biasness. Ethical issues in the workplace are often invisible. Promotion is absolutely on seniority basis. When there is Lacks of reward and punishment system, potential employees are losing their dedication for work. There are no linkage between the administration and other departments. Employees have little knowledge about organizations objectives. Too much organizational politics is an obstacle to implement rules and regulations. The Staff associations interrupt almost all managerial decision. Department heads can’t take proper action against bad employee due to association.

Analysis of these findings

1. Lack of standard job analysis policy: BJRI is unconscious to prepare a standard job analysis before the recruitment and selection process. Its service rules are very old model. As a result, employees can not apply to their academic intelligence on profession life. 

2. Lack of  proper  HR  planning  policy:  When HRD of BJRI is made a Human Resource Planning, that time the HRD of BJRI does not take any opinion toward branch employees. BJRI has some lacking to prepare a proper human resource Planning policy.

3. Lack of ideal recruitment and selection policy: Mainly the institute prefers direct and promotion based recruitment but it is a very lengthy process. BJRI’s existing service rule is backdated. It was established in1990. Job analysis is not appropriate for the posts and sometime it’s confusing and vague.

4. Lack of effective training and development policy: BJRI has continued some training and development program, but those training and development programs are not effective to perform employees. There is no Training Need Assessment (TNA) system.

5. Lack of standard performance appraisal policy: The existing performance appraisal system is not link to pay/compensation packages. There is no feedback system in the performance appraisal system. Performance indicator never set at the beginning of the year and sometime ACR consider as a punishment not as a corrective one. Appraisal is always downwards. ACR is never shown to the employee.

6. Lack of reward and punishment system: There is lack of proper reward and punishment system. The employee who work hard never rewarded or the employee who is reluctant to work never been punished. So, the working environment is deteriorating day by day.

7. Poor HRIS: BJRI’s information system is not so developed. The information is mostly file based. It is not so easy to get any information .Too much formality maintained to disclose any information.

8. Lack of training needs assessment process: The organization arranges almost all kind of training, but suffers from proper needs assessment program. When trainings are essential employee need is never assessed.

9.  Lack of proper action plan: BJRI do not have the proper action plan. This can make the training program successful. Both administrative and financial action plan is needed for the institute.

10. Lack of proper training objectives and measurement tools: The learning process lacks training objectives and measurement tools. Learner’s progress is never verified. Trainee only gets a certificate declaring “passed successfully”.

11. No evaluation system: There is no evaluation system after completing any training course. So the objectives of the course cannot be measured properly.

12. Administration   officer   and    employee   training ignored: Almost all the training designed for the scientist, even the administration and financial training was also captured by them. So administration officer and employees are neglected.

13. Promotion and training based on only seniority: All Promotion and training opportunity is based on seniority. Whether it is the employees task related or not, it not been considered.

14. Existence of organizational politics: There are too much organizational politics. Authority cannot follow Rules regulation due to politics. Due to politics most of the important issue regarding promotion, recruitment even training cannot take place properly. So many employees are dissatisfied.  

15. Activity of staff welfare association: The staff welfare association acts as a trade union though they have no bargaining power. Sometimes they interrupt managerial decision which makes the system slow and lengthy.

1. To formulate standard job analysis policy: BJRI should be conscious to prepare a standard job analysis before the recruitment and selection process. As a result, employee can be applied to their academic intelligence on professional life.

2. To formulate effective human resource planning policy: Human Resource Division of BJRI should be taken employee opinion before preparing a proper Human Resource Planning. As a result, all employees would be applied full concentration to their responsibility and duties.

3. To formulate ideal recruitment and selection policy:  BJRI should establish a modern service rule which will express the actual need of the organization. An ideal service rule can relate the employee to the objectives of the organization.

4. To formulate effective training and development policy: Training and Development Program of BJRI should be increased for each employee specially those who are less than 1 year.

5. To formulate standard performance appraisal policy: Human Resource Division of BJRI should be prepared an error free Performance Appraisal result immediately. The result can be used for training need assessment and help taking proper development initiatives.

6. To introduce reward and punishment system: There must be reward and punishment system, so that employee can evaluate for their performance.

7. To formulate effective benefit and service Policy: Human Resource Division of BJRI number of benefits and services should be increased.

8. Develop Training need assessment program: To achieve the objectives and for proper employee development it has to develop a proper TNA.

9.  Set proper action plan: Management have to set the proper action plan. This can make the training   program successful.

10. Training objectives and measurement tools must be identified: Training objectives and measurement tools must be identified. So, learner’s progress can be verified.

11.  Introduce evaluation System: Evaluation system must be introduced, so the objectives of the course can be measured properly.

12. Opportunity of training for administration officer and employee: The administration and financial officer and employee must get the opportunity for training and education equally, so they will also contribute for the organization more effectively.

13. Training based on task related: All training opportunity must relate to the employees task, so the objective of the training and the job will be fulfilled.

14. Reduce organizational politics: Rules and regulations must be followed strictly. So, organization politics will reduce.

15.  Activity of staff welfare association must be restricted: The activity of staff welfare association must be restricted. They should not interrupt the managerial decision.

The aim of the study was to observe different condition related to employees of the organization. The key factors of the condition were HRM practices, work-environment, dealings with colleagues, boss, management tone, organizational culture, and organizational nature and some hidden matters or issues related to employees and management of the organization. The study discloses that employees want strong management system. The administrative power must be decentralized. The department heads must have the authority and responsibility to punish and reward. Authority should not involve to the politics. They should not take heed to the unfair demands of the staff welfare associations. Moral and ethical issue should be considered in all HR activities. Organization should create a work culture where the employee feel free and ownness to the organization. Overall, a strong and independent audit section is the prerequisite for the organizations effectiveness. Audit section must have the authority to correct the wrong and unlawful decision and bound the authority to follow rules and regulations. On the other hand, employees should always be efficient, polite, obedient, loyal, truthful, devoted to work, honest, sincere and satisfied. Employee can be a best judge of the managers. They should follow the rules and give-up personal interest above the greater interest of the organization.

The authors have not declared any conflict of interest.