From five original mechanisms to a full, integrated system of nine
Introduction
Topic 33 introduced the five original mechanisms from Rao and Pareek's 1974–75 Larsen & Toubro review: Performance Appraisal, Potential Appraisal, Feedback and Counselling, Career Planning and Development, and Training and Development. As HRD matured as a field, Rao's later work (1991) expanded this into a fuller set of nine subsystems, which this topic details and classifies.
๐ฏ Learning Outcomes
- List Rao's (1991) nine HRD subsystems and describe what each does.
- Classify the nine subsystems into functional clusters: appraisal-based, development-based, motivation-based, and support subsystems.
- Explain why performance appraisal is described as a "prerequisite" for several other subsystems.
- Explain why HRD subsystems lose their synergistic value when treated in isolation.
๐ Why This Matters
Performance appraisal is considered foundational precisely because its outputs feed directly into several other subsystems: it supplies the data used for career planning, potential appraisal, training-needs assessment (Topic 12), and organisational development — meaning a weak or poorly designed appraisal system quietly undermines the entire integrated HRD system built on top of it.
1. Rao's Nine HRD Subsystems
1. Performance Appraisal
Determines how well an employee is performing their job — the foundational subsystem others depend on.
2. Potential Appraisal & Development
Identifies employees' latent abilities and future promise, distinct from current job performance.
3. Feedback & Performance Coaching
Uses performance data to monitor development, identify training needs, and strengthen the superior-subordinate relationship.
4. Career Planning & Development
Maps out employees' long-term growth paths within the organisation.
5. Training
Builds specific skills and knowledge, on the job or through dedicated programmes — the subsystem this course has focused on most heavily (Topics 4–24).
6. Organisation Development (OD)
Organisation-wide, top-managed planned change efforts — the same OD strategy already covered via Beckhard (1969) in Topic 8.
7. Rewards
Recognises performance beyond normal wages, motivating better utilisation of human resources.
8. Employee Welfare & Quality of Work Life
Promotes a general climate of motivation and wellbeing beyond narrowly job-related concerns.
9. HR Information Systems
Stores and organises people-data to support HRD decision-making across all the other subsystems.
2. Classifying the Nine Subsystems
These nine subsystems can usefully be grouped into four functional clusters, based on the role each plays within the overall system:
| Cluster | Subsystems | Shared Function |
|---|---|---|
| Appraisal-Based | Performance Appraisal, Potential Appraisal & Development | Generate the data other subsystems depend on |
| Development-Based | Training, Career Planning & Development, Organisation Development | Build capability at the individual and organisational level |
| Motivation-Based | Rewards, Employee Welfare & Quality of Work Life | Sustain effort and commitment over time |
| Support | Feedback & Performance Coaching, HR Information Systems | Connect and circulate information between the other subsystems |
Note: this four-cluster grouping is an analytical organisation of Rao's nine subsystems for teaching purposes, not a classification Rao himself published under these exact cluster names.
3. Why Integration Matters
Rao's own framing is explicit that HRD is a process, not merely a set of isolated mechanisms and techniques. Any single subsystem — say, training alone — can exist in an organisation without an overall HRD plan, but in isolation these mechanisms do not deliver the synergistic benefits of an integrated system. Performance appraisal outcomes, for example, are meant to feed directly into training-needs assessment, reward decisions, career planning, and feedback — when these connections are not deliberately built, each subsystem operates as a disconnected island rather than part of one coherent HRD system.
4. A Worked Illustration of Integration
Consider a Subject Matter Specialist whose annual performance appraisal (Subsystem 1) reveals a specific weakness in delivering field demonstrations. In a genuinely integrated HRD system, this single data point would trigger several linked responses: a targeted entry in the next training-needs analysis (Subsystem 5, connecting back to Topic 12); a note in the potential appraisal file (Subsystem 2) distinguishing a coachable skill gap from a more fundamental fit issue; a feedback and coaching conversation (Subsystem 3) between the SMS and their supervisor; and, if the gap persists despite training, a factor considered in future career planning discussions (Subsystem 4). If the organisation instead treats performance appraisal as a once-a-year paperwork exercise disconnected from training calendars or career decisions, the same appraisal finding simply sits in a file — technically "captured" but never actually used, echoing Topic 29's distinction between findings that are collected and findings that are genuinely acted upon.
๐พ Extension Angle
A KVK or SAU that conducts performance appraisals of its Subject Matter Specialists but never links the results to training plans (Topic 12's needs analysis), career progression, or recognition is running an isolated appraisal mechanism, not an integrated HRD system in Rao's sense — even though the appraisal itself may be well designed.
๐ฎ๐ณ Indian Institutional Context
This nine-subsystem model, developed and refined by Rao through his consulting work across numerous Indian and Asian organisations, remains the most widely referenced HRD framework in Indian MBA and management curricula, making it a genuinely native Indian academic tradition rather than an imported model.
๐ Beyond Agriculture
Corporate HR departments across sectors organise themselves around close variants of these same nine subsystems — often as separate teams for "talent management" (potential appraisal, career planning), "learning and development" (training, OD), "total rewards" (rewards, welfare), and "HRIS," reflecting the same four-cluster logic used in Section 2.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Rao, T. V. (1991). Reading in Human Resource Development. Oxford & IBH Publishing. [Source of the nine-subsystem HRD framework.]
- Rao, T. V. (1996). Human Resources Development: Experiences, Interventions, Strategies. New Delhi: Sage Publications. [Cross-referenced — see Topics 8 and 33.]
- Rao, T. V., & Pareek, U. (1975). Review of the performance appraisal system at Larsen & Toubro. Ahmedabad: Indian Institute of Management. [Cross-referenced — see Topic 33.]
- Beckhard, R. (1969). Organization Development: Strategies and Models. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. [Cross-referenced — see Topic 8.]