Personal Management - Research Proposal Example

Choice of model The soft, normative model of the Human Resource Management is the chosen model in mapping the practices of ACME Engineering in this case. From the conversation, the interviewee highlights the very core foundation or principle of the Human Resource Management function of the company-the individual. As apparent in the whole conversation, the soft, normative approach to HRM, or more popularly known as the Harvard model of HRM is used to further map this principle as claimed by the company. The individual is the concern of the Harvard model of the HRM. The model is chosen in order to see its application in reality; as the interviewee claims that the HRM function of ACME Engineering centers on the individual. While this model reflects the human side of the HR, its implications on establishing reciprocal obligations and mutuality in order for the HR to function both effectively to the organization and the individual are given consideration in the selection. The preference of this model over the other contrasting school of thought, which is the hard or Michigan model is based on the flow of the conversation, and the more appropriate model from which the analysis can be made with an in-depth discussion. The part in where analysis of practices is reiterated provides various points to commend and points to evaluate in relation to Acme Engineering's Human Resource Management practices. The soft model from where the company patterns some of its policies provides the human part of the HRM practices-in line with its attention to 'the individual.' However, there are points that are raised by the hard model of HRM that are worthy to be considered as well. This can give a more critical analysis to Acme Engineering's HRM practices. Mapping according to model: analysis of practices In order to critically analyze the practices, let us look at some points to commend with the company's adoption of the Harvard model in its HRM function. While the counter-arguments are points to evaluate the practices, only a few of these are drawn from the hard model of HRM in order to critically analyze the practices and effect on the organization as a whole. Attention to individual. With the objective of creating a firm that is not unionized, but gives the benefit of making employees' concerns heard by the company, the company makes the 'individual' the core foundation of the HRM principle the company adopts. This is what Acme Engineering notes as 'getting the benefit of a union' on the employees' viewpoint by giving them voices to air out their concerns and grievances to management, without having a real union and the disadvantages of it. In an interview with Martin Lawrence, an ACME Engineering employee, this is how he has coined it, "So the first principle was people were not that part of business that was going to be taken for granted or given little consideration. People really were critical to the business, so we had to pay a lot of attention to people. "The second principle was that we decided to work without a trade union. We were going to obviously operate in a team environment with groups of people working together. For that to be effective we wanted to maintain the visibility of individual. And that if anything that has permeated all our policies and steps we have taken to get people's side of the business right - giving the individual the visibility and voice within the company has been the strongest the thread." It is a point to commend, of the HR function also serving as the conscience to the organization, giving guidelines as well as a place where grievances of employees can be brought to and resolved. The company encourages individuals to express their concerns to the company-to be outspoken, to be able to speak their minds without being punished for their thoughts and liberty in thinking. This attention to individual is further reinforced by the company's culture as reflected in the values of management and the type of new hires the recruitment sees fit to contribute to this type of culture. However, this 'attention to individual' is only made possible by hearing the employees as individuals themselves in order to keep them from corroborating and forming into groups. In theory, keeping groups and clusters within the organization from forming by focusing and empowering an individual, this is difficult to carry on in reality. The formation of groups, even groups that do not serve to further the members' interests, will eventually form within the organization, which can then lead to formation of power bases. This is made possible by Acme Engineering by coming up with individualized jobs and making the employees part of a group (a work group, in which the outputs of each job is dependent on one another in order to finish a whole project) but not part of a work team that works interdependently and interactively with each other. Quoting from the interview with Martin Lawrence, "In the majority of instances, yes; in some instances they are not dependent at all. In welding they weld individual booths ' and so, although we call it a team, there is much more individually organised work by the very [nature] of it - that's batch production if you like. Whereas [in the] assembly area '[a team]' collectively build(s) a particular machine. So within that team we've got different jobs but each job is dependent on the one before and the one after it, so they are working very much as a team- twelve people building a complete bit." Thus, the individualized jobs make an employee focus on its job, with minimal required interaction to do politicking within the organization. Individualize jobs result in utilization of work groups instead of work teams. This work teams and the synergy that comes from utilization of it is not present in the HR practices of Acme engineering. Due to this, it is not safe to assume the relationship of the organizational structure with the performance, which in any event one may conclude that individualize jobs in this case can hamper the effectiveness. So let us leave the evaluation into Acme Engineering's utilization of individualize jobs in preference over work teams in order to preserve its focus on the individuals. Welfare-type approach / paternalistic relationship. As Karen Legge points out in her book Human Resource Management: Rhetoric and Realities, the point of high commitment management is to strengthen commitment through attitude. Acme Engineering adopts the paternalistic relationship in its human resource management function and carries it up to the smallest of concerns such as lending a company car to an employee, etc. As Martin Lawrence has said, "We are unashamedly paternalistic in some areas. If they feel the company can help them with a problem out-with the company, we will help. For example with small money or when the car breaks down we may make a loan or lend the company car - its credit in the bank is far as far as I am concerned. The little things we do like that go home. A feature that, consciously or subconsciously, people take on board as one of the benefits of working with the organization is the assistance the organization gives. "Any relationship is a mutual expectation, certainly we expect certain things from our staff and, quite rightly, they expect certain things from the company and both deliver." These small 'extra yard' efforts by the company are for the hope of establishment of reciprocal commitment and mutuality with the employee. As part of making the employees heard of their concerns, the company actively helps in the employees' problems in order to show its care for them. Martin Lawrence adds: "It's not quite as calculated as the term quid pro quo [instrumental equality of exchange] but the welfare type approach is unfashionable [however] I believe there is a place for that as part of the employment package. This is quite calculated, it doesn't cost us anything very often but has a disproportionate benefit to the individual. It all gets rather subtle, for example if the car breaks down and they can take a company car home they get a certain buzz out of that because the family must think 'mind you he must be doing well there-lending their car... '. It's a very visible favour, I think it gives the spouse a feeling 'here is a company that thinks highly of my husband, and is probably the fourth rescue service... little favours make a big impact." In pursuit of establishment of reciprocal commitment and mutuality with the employee, it brings us to some of the concerns of the hard model of HRM-which is related to controlling costs. Acme engineering does not have any clear policy in these 'extra yard' efforts, as the interviewee claims it to only cost a bit. In theory, there could be a small budget for that, and to some degree a part of the benefits of the compensation package offered to the employees. But this should clearly be reflected in the company's budgeting procedures and planning in relation to managing its finances, although small. And if this policy is not incorporated into the overall policies of the organization, in support of its economic goals-there is a compromise in this case; as HR policies are argued to also contribute to the overall achievement of the goals of the company. In many cases, this is one serious matter where disputes between the hard and the soft model of HRM are apparent. Recruitment to reinforce and strengthen commitment with employees. Acme Engineering, in pursuit of promoting a culture of free thinking in order to focus on giving an individual a voice within the company--to ensure that he/she will be heard of his/her concerns and grievances without the unnecessary intermediation of a union, the company gives emphasis on youth rather than experience of a new hire. The company wants to recruit individuals who will speak their minds, and have the liberty of thinking in order to criticize and evaluate processes in view of improvement within the organization. As Martin Lawrence has mentioned in his interview, "The individual's place in the organisation [was reflected in] the recruitment policy "we were looking to recruit youth rather than experience, ideally we would have gone for the two - experience didn't just exist, so the recruitment policy in early days, and to an extent currently, was to recruit youth. We were going for young fresh minds. ['] So we had these fresh challenging and, highly opinionated individuals - in fact we were recruiting almost the arrogance of youth, not as represented [malleable ones] to brainwash them. The easiest group to recruit in terms of ongoing obedience and stability would be people my age who were looking for security; they wanted a job where they would clock in, and clock out, go home and not rock the boat. That's the easiest group to have because they are not going anywhere [i.e. they will stay and conform to keep their job]. We were recruiting people on the threshold of their career and they where going to be challenging and demanding to manage." The company extends its establishment of commitment with employees by gathering new hires through personal recommendation of its employees. Martin Lawrence adds: "The thing with a small town is that a good proportion that applies already knows someone working at ACME. You can guage somebody by the company they keep - who their friends are. If a guy who works here whom we know to be sober, responsible and reliable, that says something about his friend, a lot of people get jobs here by personal recommendation. "We advertise and get many speculative applications but increasingly from family. As people get older they have got sons, and even daughters, and we have many members of the same family and even husband and wives indeed. We wouldn't take second-rate candidates because of friends and family but in this imprecise area of recruitment if you know somebody who is a friend of somebody who works for you then that goes for something. There are some people [interviewees] volunteering that they know somebody who works here, but that perhaps may be no real recommendation. And families, that's got to be good; the more family has got dependence on the organisation the more that organisation is important to them as a family." While this act can make employees feel more valued and appreciated by the company, and the company makes sure that its selection still maintains tested procedures to find a fit between a candidate and a job, the issue on how the nepotism and conflict of interest at times will be handled is not clearly answered. While the individualized jobs provide the seclusion to keep groups from forming power bases within the organization and result in conflicting interests, the issue on having relatives and friends work together within the organization is also a point in question as regards this policy in recruitment of Acme Engineering. Pay linked to performance, based on appraisal. As illustrated in the conversation, the appraisal method used by the company directly influences the pay an employee will receive: "Pay gives the appraisal much more bite than one that doesn't link pay. People are waiting for the appraisal'. For the majority of people their appraisal is an important time. It's not one of those slightly embarrassing, yawning instances you have to go through a once a year to satisfy some idiot in the personnel department that neither you or appraiser wants to go through - and it's got no relevance anyway because nothing happens. An appraisal is important here and following it a salary increase is awarded." This is good, as congruence is one of the factors to consider when crafting policies under the soft model of HRM. However, there are various issues that surfaces when the pay is linked to performance. One would be, how is performance defined' Is the performance defined as reaching a certain goal an employee is required to reach' When performance is measured other than that, what factors will be included in order to correctly define the relationship and result in just distribution of pay or incentives' In this context, the issue on HR's clear-cut definition of strategy in its function is required to ensure alignment of goals of the individual with the company. A point to commend is the practice of appraisal within the organization where departmental managers are responsible for the appraisal of the front-line employees, shifting the responsibility from the team leaders. As mentioned by Martin Lawrence in the interview: "The departmental manager has the responsibility with the team leaders input. "If anything it the first line team leaders who are more critical, the managers can take a broader view and'. [will not be so]' influenced by personality. The team leader plays a part, an important part, but doesn't ultimately take the responsibility." While the inputs of the team leaders are much needed for the appraisal, the conflict resulting from working with someone who can directly influence one's salary or pay increase can be removed, as well as the awkward relationship and tendency for politicking. This will leave the work relationship between team-leaders and front-line employees healthy, without undermining the very core philosophy of the company of being outspoken and focus to the individual's voice, as a result of the setup for the appraisal. As we go back to the hard model of HRM which is concerned with strategy, since the company is not just a manufacturing company, but one with a sales function-the issue of performance with regard to the sales function is also in question. How will the performance be measured in the sales function' Will the long-term goals of the company (branding and customer retention) be emphasized over short-term goals (higher sales targets)' What if the people in sales, in pursuit of meeting performance targets for pay increases, become overzealous to the detriment of the brand for being pushy to customers' How about the integrity of financial reporting if performance is linked to pay' Those are the issues that surface alongside the policy of linking pay to performance that the company has to look at too in line with the crafting of its overall strategy, in relation to HRM policies. Pay increase versus career growth for promotion. Due to limitations to career growth, the company compensates it senior and upper-level employees through pay. As Martin Lawrence has elaborated in the interview: "['] If somebody was at the top end of points but not promoted, maybe there was no position, he can be above the guide salary. Each year salary is increased by inflation so what they get is an inflation plus. Somebody at the top end of points but not promoted and no wish to be promoted can be way above the guide salary but we would want to give them more than inflation [retention tool]." This is to recognize the promotion from the performance of an employee. While this can be a good way to compensate them and show appreciation to their performance, like the interviewee mentioned, there are people who look for career advancement in line with promotion. Martin Lawrence adds: "Skills that are required and can be developed from within would be developed within and would look within when they can. Links back to paternalism, familialism and mutual obligation '' but equally we know not everybody is going to be able to progress. World-wide we employ 5,000, here we have 500 and we are going to have people capable of doing other jobs who at the time when they are ready for a bigger job are not going to have the opportunity here, hopefully at some stage they will. We are quite frank with people about that. Hopefully our salary policy is sufficiently flexible to get round this, to some degree the salary system enables them to have a competitive salary, not necessarily equivalent to a senior position, but getting on that way. But more often than not its more than just salary, people want the satisfaction of having got a bigger job and the esteem and acknowledgement that goes with that. So clearly we have a lot of people who feel they have outgrown the job and are not prepared to wait for the opportunities to happen and we wouldn't turn the organisation upside down to accommodate that [117b1]." This raises an issue on employee commitment as a result of job satisfaction and motivation, another factor. While the extrinsic factor of motivation, which is monetary can compensate for the promotion, the intrinsic factor of motivation which results in enlargement and enrichment of jobs-larger responsibilities and more fulfilling tasks and position, is not given enough emphasis and being traded for the other. Conclusion With the objective of creating a firm that is not unionized, but gives the benefit of making employees' concerns heard by the company, the company makes the 'individual' the core foundation of the HRM principle the company adopts. This is what Acme Engineering notes as 'getting the benefit of a union' on the employees' viewpoint by giving them voices to air out their concerns and grievances to management, without having a real union and the disadvantages of it. Due to its emphasis on people, Acme Engineering is able to adopt the Harvard or soft, normative model in its HRM policies. The adoption of this strategy enables the company to maintain healthy relationship and 'reciprocal commitment and mutuality' with its employees without the unnecessary intermediation of unions. With this thinking, the company is able to care more for its employees, give them voices for their grievances to be heard, their interests put in front by the organization in dealing with them, in order to keep them from corroborating and forming groups as ways for their interests to be furthered and heard. While there are points to commend in the practices of Acme and its adoption of the soft model, there are points raised from the hard model's perspective which are also worth considering, so as being able to assess the role of human resource management in Acme Engineering's goal and long-term performance. Works Cited "Aligning the service: the impact of workplace relations. Chapter 5." Australain National University Epress. 4 Aug., 2008. . Bartol, K., Martin, D., Tein, M., & Matthews, G. Management: A Pacific Rim Focus. Australia: McGraw Hill Company, 2005. Beer, M., Spector, B., Lawrence, P. R., Ills, D. Q., and Walton, R. E. 'Human resource management: A General Manager's Perspective'. New York: Free Press, 1985. Blyton, P. and Tumbull, P. (eds).'Reassessing Human Resource Management'. London: Sage, 1992. Lawrence, Martin. "ACME Engineering Personnel Management." Interview. Legge, K., 'Human Resource Management: Rhetorics and Realities'. 10th anniversary edition. 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