Employee Relations Management

D. P. Sahoo, a doctorate in economics and postgraduate diploma holder in industrial relations (IR) and personal management, is currently Associate Professor in HR and OB at the Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad (since 2012).

He has worked in various industries including the sugar factories of BIC, power sector (The Durgapur Projects Ltd, Durgapur), paper mills of Ballarpur Industries (BILT), an ITES organization (TechBooks) presently known as Aptara, The Doon School and joint ventures of Maruti (Bharat Seats Limited [BSL] and Machino Plastics). He has more than three decades of corporate experience in people management and managing IR.

He has been a very strong negotiator and represented the management in the Bihar Sugar Mill Wage Board, successfully completed long-due settlements in the sugar units of BIC, in the paper mills of BILT, BSL (a joint venture of Maruti), and settled various IR issues while working at The Durgapur Projects Ltd. Dr Sahoo with his hands-on experience in IR has managed critical labour problems, including strikes, gheraos, workers' demonstrations, agitations, lockouts and has also handled retrenchment cases.

His PhD was on 'Misconduct of Employees in Industries'. This study was conducted by him in the industrial belt of Durgapur and Asansol, which is considered as a zone of adverse IR.

The academic life of Dr D. P. Sahoo began in the year 1987, when he was offered to teach 'Labour Laws' in Burdwan University. He has taught in various management institutes and universities including Kurukshetra University (1998-2000); Sharda University, Greater Noida; Asia Pacific Institute of Management, New Delhi (May 2003-September 2004), and has also worked as a visiting faculty in various management institutes.

Dr Sahoo has headed the HR functions in various organizations including state government undertakings. He had the advantage of bringing to the classroom his experience of professional life. He also worked as a consultant to various organizations, both in the areas of IR and strategic human resources, and conducted various management development programmes for executives of PSUs and private sectors.