Resource Management In Organization - Assignment Example

Table of Contents Answer – 1 2 Answer – 2 4 Answer – 3 6 Answer – 4 8 Bibliography 10 Answer – 1 After considering the information provided by the HR department of the company, it appears that the HRM strategies followed by the company suffer from several loopholes. The prevailing recruitment and selection policy followed by the company is not effective because it is time consuming and has failed to generate enough good recruits. After conducting the required analysis it was found that the employees working in the finance and administration department do not share a healthy relation with the management. The organisational culture thus failed to motivate the employees which resulted in a high turnover. This negative organisational culture made an adverse impact on the newly jointed graduates and they started losing their interest in their job. This negative work environment and high turnover rate affected the productivity of finance and administrative department as a result of which the entire organisation suffered. To overcome the prevailing problems in the finance and the administration department, the root causes needs to be identified first. Later on, an effective plan needs to be devised that would solve the problem in the best possible manner. As the prevailing problem is directly related to the HR as well as finance and administration department, hence all these departments should work hand in hand to come up with the best possible solution. The HR department has to collect data that would help to identify the reason for dissatisfaction of the graduate employees with their present job. Data can be collected in several ways; the HR department can conduct one to one interview, telephonic interview, mass discussion or survey with the help of a questionnaire. In this case a questionnaire is the best way to gather information because the employees will feel free to reveal the true facts as their identity will not be disclosed. These quantitative data need to be analysed by the managers of HR as well as the respective department. On basis of the information collected, the HR department can assist the respective managers to improve their relationship with the employees. Maslow's theory and Herzberg's theory related to motivation should to be used to enhance the level of job satisfaction among the employees. Another major problem is the inefficiency of the HR department to generate enough recruits. The time that HR department takes in the selection and recruitment process needs to be minimised. First of all the HR department should conduct the required analysis to understand the respective job responsibilities of a graduate in the finance and administrative department. This analysis will help the HR department to modify the existing recruitment and selection process and to select the most suitable candidate. The HR department can use IT tools to make the process quick and more effective. HR department should maintain a pool of potential employees so that as and when the need arises, suitable candidate can be easily selected. To reduce the cost associated with recruitment the company should use both internal as well as external source. To develop a healthy organisational culture, the company can plan to introduce strategic human resource management so that the human resource can assist the management in achieving organisational goal. Answer – 2 The HRM department of different organisations have their own preferential approach. These HRM approaches can be segregated into ‘equal opportunity’ approach and ‘diversity’ approach. Each of this approach has its own pros and cons; hence a fair comparison should be made before selecting the most suitable approach for the organisation. The equal opportunity approach propagates that each employee should have access to opportunity, resources and rewards and no differentiation should be made among the employees in terms of gender, age or ethnicity. This approach dictates that recruitment & selection, promotion & rewards or any other employee benefits should be distributed in a fair manner. The management should attempt to maintain high degree of involvement in the organisation but at the same time it should ensure that flexibility is not compromised with. The management should provide the required skills to the employees to help them develop decision making power for the benefit of the organisation. This strategy is highly popular in developed nations where the rate of industrialisation is very fast. According to this strategy, the management segregates the employees into small groups on basis of their gender, ethnic group or age and attempts to develop distinct policies that best suit their requirement. This policy helps to address different requirements of employees exclusively and keeps them motivated. However, this process should be done judiciously so that other employees do not feel that the management is biased to a specific cluster of employees. The greatest disadvantage of equal opportunity approach is that it hinders the development of a generalised sense of obligation toward the organisation and the employees never get the feel of a corporate concern. With time, organisations started crossing geographical boundaries and multinational companies were born (MNC). Such phenomena led to the emergence of the concept of diversified HRM. Here the management has to deal with a more diversified human resource that belongs to different culture, background and follows different ethical values. Diversity approach herein has developed a centre point for developing the HRM policies. In the present globalised environment, diversity approach is more effective in handling challenges associated with inequalities. In the equal opportunity approach, the management is responsible for motivating the employees, identifying the loopholes in the existing HRM policies and amending them. It also enhances the commitment of the employees towards the organisational goal. The process thus necessitates a high degree of managerial involvement in the organisation’s HRM. On the other hand, diversity approach mandates employees belonging to different culture and different background to work together. In such a diversified workplace the employees get the opportunity to share their past experience and skills. Such workforce is necessarily more motivated, effective and possesses the ability to understand a wide array of customer need. After evaluating both ‘equal opportunity’ approach and ‘diversity’ approach, it appears that the latter one is more effective. Not only does it help the companies to enhance the productivity of their diversified workforce but also to gain a competitive position in the market. Hence most of the companies prefer diversity approach over equal opportunity approach. Answer – 3 Companies use rewarding strategies to reward the employees so that they feel motivated enough to assist the management in achieving organisational goal. Rewarding strategy should be based mainly on specific motivational strategies. For example Maslow’s theory will assist in identifying whether an employee will prefer a monitory reward to fulfil basic needs or non-monitory reward that will enhance his/her self esteem and give rise to self actualisation. At the same time, the management should also take into account Herzberg’s theory so that rewards can minimise the effect of those factors that result in job dissatisfaction and at the maximise them that results in job satisfaction. There are certain other modern motivational theories that should be taken into account while developing the rewarding strategy in the organisation. The commonly used motivational theories are; expectancy theory that says, a reward is effective only if it is valued by the employee otherwise it fails to generate the required effect. The goal theory developed by Latham and Locke which opines that motivation and performance will be high if the management is successful in developing challenging and mutually agreed goals. The equity theory that explains employees are motivated only when they feel that management is giving fair and equitable treatment to all its employees. All these motivational theories need to be taken into account while developing the rewarding strategy. While developing the reward strategy for a rapidly growing small pharmaceutical company, the management needs to follow the above mentioned motivational theories. As the company is small in size, it is not possible to provide large monitory rewards. But since the company is growing at a fast rate, it should motivate its work force to put their utmost effort for achieving organisational goal. The goals set by the company should be achievable and self realistic in nature. As for example the employees should be rewarded if they accomplish the project within the budgeted time and cost or they provide good customer service. The main motto of such rewards is to improve team spirit among the employees and to motivate them to work as a team. Since the organisation is small, the numbers of employees are quite limited hence the concept of pear to pear recognition should be introduced. Every department should organise a pear recognition programme where the last week winner will give a gift to the new winner. Apart from this, the management can use public appraisal rewards as a form of non-monitory rewards. The departmental head should meet all its employees in the coffee room for 5 to 10 minutes and should acknowledge the star performer in front of others. To convey this information to other departments a picture of the employee should be pasted in the wall with small note. Though such rewards do not cost much yet they are highly effective in motivating the employees to put their best effort. While developing the reward strategy for the small pharmaceutical company, the management should develop schemes that are fair and equitable. The reward schemes should assist the employees to gain self fulfilment and to achieve recognition. These rewards not just motivate the employees but also play a vital role in developing a healthy organisational culture. Answer – 4 Companies adopt management development programmes to enhance the knowledge and managerial skill of their managers so that they can add a competitive edge to the company and assist in achieving the corporate goals. This UK based company though has its operation in different parts of the world yet the lack of effective management has resulted in a below average performance. The company has therefore decided to implement a management development programme with the aim to enhance its performance and to gain competitive position in the global market. There are many reasons that inspire a company to introduce management development programs. Managers are the ones who directly interact with the people of different background, culture and language. It is the management of the company that is directly responsible for success of the company because all the vital decision regarding mergers, acquisitions, diversification, disinvestment, downsizing, etc are taken by them. The management is also responsible for hiring the right person at the right time and at right place. The management is also responsible for training the employees, appraising their performance, motivating them and judging the requirement of training. It is not the human resource but the management that is responsible for utilising other resources to fulfil the requirement of the customer in the best possible manner. The management of the company should therefore undergo a well planned and properly executed management development programme for enhancing the required knowledge, skill and attitude (KSA). Apart from the general functional knowledge such as that of HRM, financial management, operations or system management, the managers also get the opportunity to learn the skills that help them to become an effective manager. The managers learn the subtle nuances of stress management, leadership, emotional intelligence, team building and group dynamics. Since this is an UK based MNC, its management lacks the required knowledge to handle a diversified workforce and other vital managerial issues related to globalisation. Thus a management development programme will assist the managers to overcome the present short comings and again competency in the market. While implementing the managerial development programme (MDP), the company needs to finalise the financial budget and the time span that should be allotted for completing the programme. The MDP can be conducted ‘in-house’ as well as outside the company. If the company believes that it possess enough capital and expertise, then an in-house MDP can be arranged, otherwise the company can collaborate with any well-known management training institute and conduct a short per-time course. The training should vary from managers to managers depending on their job responsibility and their position in the company’s hierarchy. It is equally important to set the time frame by which MDP should be completed. Since the company is investing for managerial development, the progress needs to be monitor at regular intervals of time. After the development programme is over, the participants must be interviewed to analyse their response to MDP. The participants’ suggestions should also be heeded as these provide the vital clues for improvement. If the company takes all the above mentioned factors into consideration, then undoubtedly it will result in an effective and successful MDP. Bibliography Torrington, D., Hall, L. & Taylor, S. 2008. Human Resource Management. 7th ed. Harlow: FT Prentice Hall. Read More