Promotion – A Seniority or Competencies?

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Table of Contents

Introduction
The Concept of HRM
Hypothesis
Literature Review
Methodology
Research Methodology
Population and Sampling Procedure
Conclusion
References

Introduction

Today’s business environment is changing fast. People in any organization are not understood now as overhead cost which should be cut down, rather they are being understood as profitable investment with the proviso that they are pleased by approachable and bring into line HR practices. The contemporary theory of business management gives priority to the management of people and talks about challenging issues related to it in this competitive environment (People are Strategic…What about HRM, 2012).

The Concept of HRM

Human Resource Management is based on the philosophy of people management which believes that workforce is exclusively important for the growth of any organization. An organization achieves benefits by using its people effectively, portraying their expertise and being resourcefulness to meet objectives. The aim of the HRM is to recruit skillful, flexible and committed people. It focuses on recognizing their efforts and rewarding them on that basis and emphasizes on developing key competencies. The HRM model highlights:

The requirement of searching innovative ideas of working
The main role of managers in stimulating change
Handling workers as individuals instead of treating them as a pan of collective work force
Encouraging the workers to accept their management as their ‘Priers’ instead of understanding them as their opponents (Human Resources Management Systems, n.d.).

Since the achievement of the goals fixed by the organization depends on its employees and employees are selected through a big screening process conducted by the HR, the role of HR seems to be very important in the organization. The HR agenda sets by him should meet with the objectives of the company. For the growth and development of any organization the strategies planned by its HR should be every effective (Noe et al, 2010).

At the present, the role of HR Manager is not limited to only above mentioned responsibilities. He is responsible to suggest any employee for the company for the promotion as well. Promotion, which is an important part of any person’s career, is another name of increased responsibilities and many people look forward to their promotions in their whole professional life since it not only increases responsibility but also increases pay and other different facilities.

People find total job satisfaction when they are promoted to next level. It is not necessary that promotion process is always a positive experience by the employee or the employer. Employers offer the chance to the people to reward their exceptional performances by promoting them.

They look for the loyal candidates to fill such open positions through promotions. But this is a challenging job. Secrecy, unfairness or randomness can weaken the whole process, which may affect its efficiency. Many decisions are involved in any organization to do the promotion process (Dessler & Varkkey, 2012).

Hypothesis

Now the management dilemma is this whether the promotion should be based on seniority or competencies. Or it should be the combination of the two.

Literature Review

Today’s business world is very competitive and it surely needs the competencies to handle all the dealings. It is the fact that promotion which is based on competencies is the superior motivator. In many governmental positions seniority is counted for any promotions but many companies prefer to keep the criteria of competence and this criterion is based on many other different things.

Several Union agreements keep the clauses that focus on seniority, like, “In the advancement of employees, employees with the highest seniority will be given preference, where skills and performance are approximately equal” (Dessler & Varkkey 2012, p.392). Many civil services rules related to promotion which favors seniority instead of competence are even followed in many public sector organizations.

Now another question comes how the competency should be measured. If any organization decides to choose competence, what should be the criteria? How should it be measured? It is simple to define and determine the past performances, like, defining the job, setting standards and using some appraisal tools to verify performance. But when it comes to promotion, a valid procedure is needed to declare a candidate’s future performance.

Most employers believe that previous performances of a candidate are sufficient to decide that he is capable of handling new responsibilities of a new position and it is supposed to be the simplest process for doing promotions. Nevertheless, some employers assess the caliber of the candidates by testing and doing evaluations so they can recognize their potential.

Many employers adopt more comprehensive approach. For example, in many developed countries police department have taken up a systematic approach while assessing their candidates for promotions. This approach is traditional and includes written knowledge test, credit for seniority, an assessment center, and a score that is based on latest appraisal ratings.

Some other different departments review the personnel records. Job related measurements are done here. It involves supervisory related education and experience, systematic evaluation of behavioral evidence and ratings from multiple sources (Dessler & Varkkey 2012).

There are two types of processes for promotion- formal and informal. Most of the companies adopt informal promotion process. The open positions may or may not be declared by these companies and the managers of such companies may have their own criteria to do final decisions about the candidates’ promotions and the criterion is actually unpublished.

In such companies the employees may have this tendency that the factor like ‘who you know’ is very important rather than performing good and they find it difficult to work hard for moving ahead since they find it is useless (Dessler & Varkkey 2012).

There are many other companies which adopt formal process and they publish promotion policies and procedures. There many components are mentioned. Employees of such companies receive a formal promotion policy where the criterion of awarding the promotion is very well described.

There is a job posting policy which assures that all the open positions will be posted with their proper requirements and a proper circulation of such positions will be done among all the employees of the company. Many employers have the policy of maintaining employee qualification databanks. They use replacement charts. Employee information system is computerized.

It is not very easy to manage promotions. It is not a simple task. Suppose, if any company is scaling back, it becomes more difficult to motivate its employees with the prospect of promotions. It is also very tough to offer a promotional opportunity like engineers, who will not be interested in a managerial role.

Many options are on hand. “The exploration division of British Petroleum, has two equivalent career paths, one for managers, and another for ‘individual contributors’ such as high performing engineers. At BP, individual contributors can move up to nonsupervisory but senior positions, such as ‘senior engineer.’ These jobs have most of the financial rewards attached to management-track positions at that level” (Dessler & Varkkey, 2012, p. 393).

Another option is to change the department of the person- to move the person horizontally. For example, if a production employee can be moved to human resources. In this way his skills can be developed in a better way and later on his aptitudes can be tested. Promotions are only possible when a person is in the same job so he can be trained to bear more responsibilities in a new position.

The management dilemma starts when it is recognized that many young persons have the capability of doing leadership since they are very talented. Other people keenly observe their work and these young leaders are curious to show that they are perfect in the work which is allocated to them. In many cases they are given such a basic task which other people will not do but these young people are so curious that they happily accept the work (Thomasray, 2011).

In some cases pay increase is based on the employees’ total work period. As long as an employee has spent time in his job, he will get good increment. It works as a good motivator in employee preservation. But in such cases the performance is neglected as it is not rewarded (Thomasray, 2011).

Promotion and Pay increment can be based on job related skills and knowledge. It will motivate the employees to acquire more knowledge, new competencies and more skills. In this way the seniority is not being counted rather skills and knowledge are getting credits. This question arises If it fair to promote a person since he has been working in the company for a longer period though he is not very talented (Thomasray, 2011).

Some believe that “promoting based solely on seniority is not just an imperfect solution- it’s a terrible solution” (Haden, 2013, para 1).

There are lots of problems with seniority based promotions (Haden, 2013):

Motivation is limited. People do not want to work hard as they find no reward of their hard work.
Initiation of work is stopped since people find it useless.
Some people work hard and some people do not work hard. This situation create resentment among hard workers and above all when they see the less hard worker being promoted, it makes irritable the hard working people.
If the talent is not rewarded, nobody will be interested to work in such environment. Such kind of atmosphere in the company stops the recruitment of talented people.
The treatment of employers with their employers reflects the treatment of their employee with their customers. If the employee will be happy with the fair environment of the company, he will keep the customers happy too.

People should not be promoted since they are working in the company for a longer time. If two candidates are equally knowledgeable and skillful then it makes sense to see the seniority (Should promotions be based on seniority, 2014).

Methodology

The presented research is a qualitative analysis of the effectiveness and a descriptive survey design to investigate whether promotion should be based on seniority or competencies. The findings aim to provide a detailed analysis of the data from a given population to determine the fact. It also observes the positive and negative sides of the idea.

Research Methodology

This part of research deals with research methodology that was employed in conducting the study. It therefore covers the research locale, research design, target population, sample selection, research instruments, conducting, reliability of research instruments, validity of the research instruments, data collection procedures, data analysis, and reporting.

The research methodology that was used in the study is the combination of a qualitative research method. By using this methodology, the hypotheses of the research questions can be measured, determined, and analyzed. The method also helped in determining the quantity and consistency of results. The method contributed in shaping the perception of promotion and its criterion.

The method used is a descriptive representation of the phenomenon and collect quantifiable data that can be statistically verified and analyzed to measure the effectiveness of the whole research.

Hence, qualitative research technique was used as it was concerned with the quality or kind. This research technique uses in depth interviews for exploring the better view of the situation. It also intends to know about the understanding of people relating to a particular subject or institution (Research Methodology: An Introduction, n.d.).

Qualitative research is done with an aim to improve quality and is often considered as ‘Motivational Research’. It also focuses on people’s opinion about particular subjects or institutions (Research Methodology: An Introduction,n.d.).

The statistical survey provides standardized information about the research subject. It is a well-organized way to gather information regarding the understanding of a subject by a large number of respondents. For the purpose of this study, Likert scale, a bipolar scaling method, is used to construct the questionnaire.

Likert scale is used to construct questionnaires to get psychometric replies from the people. It aims at obtaining the degree of agreement or knowing the preferences of the respondents. These scales do not use comparative techniques, but rather evaluate a single feature. The level of agreement has to be shown with the statements in an ordinal scale (Bertram, n.d.).

The Likert Scale is an easy to use system in the surveys. It can be in the form of self- completion questionnaires or can be given as a self-completion part of survey, administered by an interviewer (Brace, 2008). In this system, participants are asked to show their degree of agreement with the given statement. Likert scale system uses five-point scale system where the respondents have to pick any one option from the given five points. The rating on Likert scale used for this survey depicts the following:

1= Strongly agree

2= Agree

3= Neither agree

4= Disagree

5= Strongly disagree

Before the final distribution of the questionnaire, a test research was carried out. For this purpose, 10 copies of questionnaire were sent randomly through email. The aim of the pilot study was to make sure that the questionnaire is easy to understand to the participants. Then the questionnaire was sent to the sample selected for the research.

The design is best suited for this study. The rationale behind the choice of the design is that it studies individuals or objects as whole units and not in parts. The design also investigates concept of promotion with a view of understanding it more broadly.

The purpose of the study is to investigate the criterion of promotion by collecting various opinions. The study is guided by the actual data collected from the respondents, and the purpose of the study is to analyze them. Such worldview requires the analysis of the strength of the facts and comments.

This worldview entails a systematic procedure and structure in the research process because it follows a rule-bound approach, which meant that this worldview made use of surveys, content analyses, field experiments, and other assessments that will collect verifiable data (Philimore& Goodson, 2004). The worldview also entails the focus on data that will reveal trends, patterns, and statistical relationships (Creswell, 2003).

The research design for this study will employ the use of survey questionnaires and analyzing data gathered from the respondents. The study involved the use of the questionnaires. These were prepared in advance, and the questions were reviewed to find their relevancy in the concept being investigated. The language used in the questionnaires was relatively moderate to be understood by the people and the procedure was understood.

There were some short answers type questions too where the participants had to just rate the answers on Likert scale of 1-5.

Population and Sampling Procedure

The population of interest for this study is total 20 respondents. Out of them, 5 are managers, 5 clerks, 1 HR manager, 9 other employees of the company so a large no of participants is used in the sample. Since this is a descriptive design, sampling is a significant process because of the need to obtain an accurate representation of the population (Heck, 2004).

Instrumentation

Survey questionnaires were used as the research instrument. The survey was conducted in two ways- a face to face interview and a telephonic interview. In a face to face interview, all the participants were provided with survey questionnaires in order to determine their perceived level of criterion of promotion.

The survey instrument was based on the general type of questions related to their understanding about the idea of promotion; its criteria and its expected and unexpected outcomes.There were two types of questions open-ended and closed targeting different groups.

In a telephonic interview similar survey questionnaire was used. Normally telephonic interviews are avoided in the qualitative research as the reliability of data seems not to be very authentic. Also there is much probing required. Though the respondents feel comfortable through a telephonic interview yet, it is perceived that the quality of the data will not be very good (Novick, 2011).

Two sets of the questionnaires were prepared recognizing the different levels of understanding of the situation by the different people. One questionnaire set was exclusively prepared for HR manager of the company and another set was prepared for the employees of the company, like, managers, clerks etc. The questions were asked as per different understanding levels of the different two groups.

Reliability

The data collection method that was used needed to be clearly defined and described; in terms of the how instrument has been tested and validated by past studies (Sunderman et al., 2004). The strategy for obtaining good measures for the study involves upholding the relevance and appropriateness of the study for the data collected and the purpose of the study. Thus, the instrument section clearly defined the processes for this method, which will enable future researchers to duplicate the study.

In order to uphold the reliability of this study, the participants were selected according to their various types of designations in the company. The questionnaire targeted people from different designations as per the setting of its questions.

Data Collection Procedures

It was planned how to reach the people for collecting data. The locale of the study was conducted in various channels. The choice of location was based on how accessible the channels were to the researcher and on the idea that the ideal setting for any study should be easily accessible to the researcher.

The target groups for this research were the various people working in the company. A sample that is fully representative of attitude and views of people on criterion of promotion was selected.

Sampling is a technique used by researchers to gather information. It involves selecting individuals or objects from a population or a group for study. The main research instruments to be used in this study were questionnaires. In this case, two sets of questionnaires were prepared for the target groups. These questions targeted the employees of the company.

After making the survey questionnaire, the HR manager of the company was approached directly but the other employees of the company were approached through the company’s administration department which would receive the questionnaire.

Printed copies of the questionnaire were distributed later. The questionnaire was given to the respondents to fill for a later scoring. The participants were given sufficient time to complete the questionnaire. After one week, the same questionnaire was given to the group for scoring.

Primary Research Findings

The primary research was conducted by making questionnaires and those questionnaires were distributed among 20 participants. The participants were divided. This division was based according to their department. It was as follow:

The survey was conducted among 20 people through their administrative department and also by sending them mails. Some of them were interviewed through telephone.

In view of the promotion criteria prevalent in the organizations, a large number of the respondents pointed out that promotion based on merit foster human resource enrichment in an organization. Competence based promotion criteria develops a feeling of accomplishment and is seen as a reward to the employee.

Hence, it develops a competitive spirit among the employees and motivates them for self-development. The respondents feel that such promotion criteria motivates employees to do better in view of the surrounding completion and proves beneficial for the organizational growth.

However, some respondents feel that the justification given for human resources enrichment through promotions has developed dissatisfaction among some of the employees. They feel that it may lead to consequences like instability of employment, non-commitment, treachery, increasing absenteeism. The dissatisfaction may also cause accusations and industrial disputes. They favored the seniority based promotions since a long service period helps in judging an employee’s capability to hold the designation he is being promoted to.

They justified their view by indicating that seniority based promotions will retain matured employees in the organization, as they will be certain of their promotion in due course of time. Seniority based promotions make the employees content and loyal. Further, promoting young employees on merit basis may result in lack of maturity, stability of mind and expertise of judgment at senior levels.

Most of the respondents revealed that seniority based promotions suppress motivation. Employees are not motivated to work harder to reach the higher levels and keep waiting for their turn to be promoted. In Seniority based promotion system, employees do not come up with ideas as there is no reward attached to initiatives.

Some employees indicated that the drawback with seniority based promotion system is that even the slackers are promoted. It fuels resentment among those who work harder but are not rewarded until their turn comes. Clients and customers are also satisfied with those organizations that have competent and swiftly working staff. It leads to organizational growth as each employee makes efforts to perform to their level’s best.

The individual efforts of the employees lead to their growth and consequently to the growth of their organization. However, some respondents feel that senior staff at higher levels is crucial as they are familiar with the company management and have experienced many circumstances and know how to tackle them. They feel that senior staff at higher levels remains loyal to the organization and can becomes mentor of the new employees.

Majority of the respondents revealed that their organization is gradually inclining towards the competence based promotion system. Many departments have clearly taken the initiative regarding merit based promotion process. Their perception regarding the promotion of their employees is associated with the benefit they bring to the organization.

Only few departments are still using the seniority criteria for promoting the employees. They perceive seniority to be the right criteria for promoting their employees as they have been with the organization for a long time and can be trusted in view of crucial decision making.

A significant number of the respondents indicated that their staff representatives are having a positive outlook towards competence based criteria for all permanent promotions. They consider all capable and competent employees, irrespective of the years they have served the organization, for promotion.

It generates the feeling of openness and concern towards organizational benefit. However, some respondents indicated that the staffing policy of their organizations adheres to the retention and seniority in planning their internal appointments at crucial levels as they do not rely on new staff on certain significant matters.

Majority of the respondents indicated that there is no instructional framework designed for replacing the promotion criteria from seniority basis to competence grounds. The general trend is towards more open, competitive and merit based promotion procedures. The job prospects, performance appraisal and development routes are established clearly at the time of recruitment so that an upbeat work ambiance can be shaped leading to the profit of the employer and the employee both.

While answering on Likert scale majority of employees strongly agreed on the points like competence based promotion system work as a motivational factor in self development and rewarding competence with promotions stir a feeling of accomplishment in the employees.

They also strongly agreed on the point that competence based promotion system contributes to organizational growths. Some of the employees rated on the point strongly that seniority based promotions bring higher trust on the part of employee from the organization and absence of performance appraisal system leads to disorientation from work and negative attitude towards hard work.

According to HR manager of the company, the promotion should mainly be based on competency. He mentioned the policy of the company that each person has to set S.M.A.R.T (measurable, achievable etc.) objectives at the beginning of the year which is the rated by the manager at the end of the year.

The rating determines the bonus, salary raise and eventually promotion. In the company there are three factors which determine the promotion, the candidate’s portfolio’s strategic relevance to the overall goals of the company; how rare are his skills (retention0 and how has he performed. Very senior people are given promotion as well but they rise only up to a certain level based on seniority. For example, a product manager will be promoted to senior product manager is not given a leadership role out of seniority but competency.

All things being equal seniority can then be a factor. One more aspects to consider for promotion is the political factor. Sometimes one person is promoted due to political reason such as circle of influence. Suppose, a person knows something very well and his VP is cognizant of the fact and wants to build a stronger relationship with that thing then there are high chances that that person can be promoted but there is no doubt in this that the person is a good performer as well.

Conclusion

Basically, promotion is an important part of any company’s whole working process. It needs various criterions to fulfill this requirement. Nobody can deny the fact that promotion is the superior motivator and it is not a very job to manage promotions. In many governmental positions seniority is counted for any promotions but many companies prefer to keep the criteria of competence and this criterion is based on many other different things. A valid procedure is needed to declare a candidate’s future performance.

It is obviously noticed that talent takes first place to the seniority while doing promotions. There are many young leaders who are very talented and are capable of working on very senior positions irrespective of their age. Competence based promotion criteria develops a feeling of accomplishment and is seen as a reward to the employee. Such promotion criterion motivates employees to do better in view of the surrounding completion and proves beneficial for the organizational growth. Seniority based promotions hold back motivation.

It is strongly felt that competence based promotion system work as a motivational factor in self development and gratifying competence with promotions rouse a feeling of achievement in the employees.

References

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