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Issues of HARM Often the benefits of HARM oversold Employers may not be able to deliver on the promise of HARM – often the quest for ‘success’ (profits and survival) can necessitate cutting employee’s conditions The best HARM techniques and high commitment workplaces will not necessarily ensure success -?? they can’t protect the organization against pressures from international competition and the global financial system Researchers have sought unsuccessfully to find direct links between HARM practices and organizational success IR regulation and unions have not disappeared Globalization and offspring
Academic Disciplinary Contributors to HARM – management, sociology, psychology, social psychology, economics, employment relations and organizational behavior HARM Functions Job Design Recruitment and selection Training (learning) and Development Performance management Career Development and succession Employment Relations Ethics Quality of work/life – employers try to give employees a balance of work and life Ethics – relationship between the firm and the environment Chapter 1 The focus of HARM is on the managing people within the employer employee relationship.
Specifically, it involves the productive use of people in achieving he organization’s strategic business objectives and the satisfaction of individual employee needs. It adds value by designing and implementing HER practices and policies that motivate employees to translate their know-how into productive behavior. HARM affects customers, business results, and shareholder value. Human capital is their most important resource. Seven dimensions of effective people management that produce substantially enhanced economic performance are: 1. Employment security 2. Rigorous selection 3. Self-managed teams and decentralized decision making 4.
Comparatively high compensation linked to individual and organizational reference 5. Extensive training 6. Reduces status distinctions 7. Extensive sharing of financial and performance info throughout organization HER has a positive effect on organization performance by increasing employee knowledge, skills and abilities (Asks), empowering employees to act, and motivating them to perform. Human capital is the knowledge, skills and abilities present in an organization’s human resources. It is the product of learning, education and training. Social capital describes the strengths of personal relationships existing within an organization.
It promotes knowledge sharing, employee titivation, teamwork, collaboration and willingness to get things done. The HARM manager is responsible for performance. The position helps to achieve the strategic business objectives of the organization. It deals directly with people. The HER manager deals with changes and challenges such as: Industrial relations Globalization Culture Workforce demographics Remuneration Nature of work Activity-based working Displaced workers Legal Productivity Technology The HER function is recognized for contributing to the bottom line (final result).
There is a need for HER managers to create a better understanding among line managers of the valuable contribution to be made by HARM and to adopt strategies to improve their relationship with the line managers. The devolution of HER to line managers is a controversial issue. It can lead to ambiguity, conflict, loss of credibility, reduced competence and execution difficulties. Yet it improves the image of the HER department and sees HER less involved in administrative work and more involved in strategic activities. Two extreme theoretical approaches to HARM are instrumental (hard) and humanistic (soft).
Instrumental HARM stresses the rational, quantitative and strategic aspects Of managing human resources. Performance improvement and improved competitive advantage are highlighted. Humanistic HARM recognizes the need for the integration of HER policies and practices with the organization’s strategic objectives, but places emphasis on employee development, collaboration, participation, trust and informed choice. Roles of a HER manager: The HER manager is expected to understand the business as well as any line manager, and to be their equal in contributing to the organization’s competitive success.
They must develop and implement HER strategies that support the organization’s business objectives, improve productivity, and enhance employee wellbeing. It is criticized for marginality employee- focused HARM responsibilities and downgrading ethical considerations. Also, it is too management focused, it creates role conflict, damaged HER credibility and challenged HRS role as an employee advocate. HARM has become more business oriented and strategically focused.
Change and cultural transformation catalyst – initiate and monitor change and cultural info, promote and audit employee engagement, promote a high performance culture Talent manager -?? attract, develop and retain core employees, identify and rack high performers not currently employed by the organization, manage data on local and international talent to be employed on project teams, act as talent spotter/scout Employee advocate – understand employee needs and point of view, act as employee voice in management decision making Board and senior executive resource counselor – confidant, coach, adviser, senior appointments HER trends HER functional expert – speak and act with authority on HER issues, create value, measure HER performance in relation to efficiency and effectiveness Legal adviser – ensure legal compliance re HER activities, monitor legal hazard sis, raise ethical and governance issues Strategic partner – contribute to strategy development, participate in strategy execution Organization ambassador -?? represent organization in a competent and professional manner, market HER to the rest of the organization HARM Activities: Job analysis Human resource planning Recruitment Selection Performance appraisal Human resource development Career planning and development Employee motivation Change and cultural transformation Health and safety Remuneration and benefits Industrial Relations (employee relations) Manage diversity HARM, Productivity and Organization Performance
A common indicator of organization and HARM performance is productivity. Productivity is an organization’s total output of goods and services divided by its total inputs (relationship of inputs to outputs). Two approaches can be employed – total (or multi) factor productivity and single factor productivity. Total (multi) factor productivity is the ratio of outputs to the total inputs from labor, capital, materials, technology and energy. Single factor productivity measures the ratio Of total outputs to a single category Of inputs (such as labor). Organizations can improve labor productivity by giving employees more knowledge, better skills, more resources and better designed jobs.
As productivity increases, produce more at a lower in less time and the economy flourishes, higher standards of living, higher pay, more expenditure, and more job opportunities. As productivity decreases, produce less at a higher cost in more time and the opposite happens. Improving labor productivity requires improving employee-management relationships. High-performance HER work systems (HAPS) that make work more satisfying and rewarding lead to increases in employee discretionary effort and productivity. Discretionary effort is effort that employees linearity make in excess of the minimum amount required to satisfy the job requirements. Work intensification is the increase in effort that employees must make.
High-performance work systems are associated with higher job satisfaction, yet employees can experience overload leading to greater job dissatisfaction. While research suggests strong links between HAPS and positive worker attitudes and behavior, some results remain contradictory. Ethical Issues and HARM Factors that influence ethical behavior include a person’s personality and national culture, the situation and its importance to the individual, the report culture and the existence of clear, unambiguous organizational policies and codes of conduct. A whistler’s is an employee who makes known an organization’s illegal, unethical or improper practices to a third party (e. G. Newspaper or community group).
Any employee thinking of exposing an organization’s wrongdoing should consider the matter very carefully because the personal and professional costs can be extremely high. They are courageous people who take serious risks, but may suffer reprisals. HARM has a responsibility to ensure that compliance systems and the organization’s culture promote ethical behavior, trust, open communications and accountability. Most people will be reluctant to become weightlessness unless they are guaranteed confidentiality and are not subject to media scrutiny. Employees who act in good faith must know that they will be protected and given procedural fairness. Strategy Strategy defines the direction in which an organization intends to move and establishes the framework for action, which it intends to get there.
The purpose of strategy is to maintain a position of advantage by capitalizing on an organization’s strengths and minimizing its weaknesses. To do this, an organization must identify and analyses the threats and opportunities present in its external and internal environments. Organizations need to develop strategies to deal with these external influences if they are to avoid a reactive. A reactive is when managers wait until a problem occurs before taking action. Stakeholders A stakeholder is any individual group or organization that is affected by or has a vested interest in an organization’s policies and decisions. They support or oppose the organization’s strategies.
Stakeholders may have common or conflict acting interests. Internal: Directors Managers – profitability, costs, reputation, ethics, competition Employees – pay, working conditions, fair treatment, job security Owners: – preserve assets, profit, long-term growth, reputation Individual institutional Government External: Customers – quality, price, convenience, service, safety, reputation Distributors Suppliers – creditworthiness, purchasing power, ethics, reputation Governments -?? competition, environment, health & safety, regulation, tax Political parties Regulatory authorities Media Local communities General public – legal compliance, environment, social responsible, ethics
Special Interest groups – environment, equal opportunity, ethics & rights Trade unions – pay and benefit, working conditions, unionism An organization may often find it difficult to simultaneously satisfy all of its stakeholders. Individual stakeholders also may find themselves in conflict situations, and organizations need to priorities. Interest IS now centered on an approach that recognizes the interdependence of stakeholders. This is because organizations that see their stakeholders as partners gain a competitive advantage. Organizations increasingly are taking into account the interests of the wider immunity and acting in a socially responsible way.
This has led to organizations focusing on their environmental and social performance as well as their functional performance (triple bottom line). Strategic Intent Strategic intent is the sustained obsession to achieve a challenging long-term objective. Audacious ambitions can aid long-term success by focusing and applying organizational energies to a unifying and compelling goal. Companies are successful if they have core values and a core purpose that remain fixed while their business strategies and practices endlessly adapt to a changing world. Core values assist in decision-making and are brought to life by the implementation of policies and practices that reinforce them. Many organizations desperately need HARM strategic intent.
Achieving this requires organizations to move from their traditional conscript mindset (employees are externally motivated to perform) to a volunteer mindset (employees are internally motivated to perform). Strategic Management Strategic management is the process whereby managers establish an organization’s long-term direction, set specific performance objectives, develop strategies to achieve these objectives in the light of all the relevant internal and external circumstances and undertake to execute the chosen action plans. It aims to help the organization to achieve a competitive advantage and to ensure long-term success for the organization. It does this by giving managers consistent guidelines for action and by allowing the anticipation of problems and opportunities.
Components Strategy formulation involves selecting an organization’s mission, key objectives and business strategies. Strategy implementation involves designing an organization’s structure and control systems and evaluating the selected strategies in achieving the organization’s key objectives.