The Significance of HR, What Is Organizational Culture - Annotated Bibliography Example

Student’s Name: Tutor’s Name: Course: Date of Submission: Articles Summaries I. Why we Love to Hate HR…and what HR can do about it Harvard Business Review, July- August 2015 Issue. Author: Cappelli, Peter. The significance of HR in the productive performances of organizations has been projected as a factor that is not always regarded with its deserved significance at times except when such performances start to falter. Having acknowledged that, Cappelli illustrated further in the article that despite its pivotal role, HR is still subject to constructive criticism. In what he terms as the personnel pendulum, Cappelli illustrates how underperformances can at times be associated to HR. Notably, the modern HR was born as a consequence of the vacuum that results whenever such negative performances are associated with HR while during productive performances, HR is considered as a nuisance. The fact that in modern HR, organizations and personnel spend less time investing in the growth of the labor resource is largely regarded as a the negative contribution that new HR system has had in organizations. To overcome this negativity, a new trajectory should be set. Trajectories in which layoffs are limited, productive agendas are set, recruitment policies are strengthened, and performance management is revitalized. Besides, businesses should learn to focus on matters that affect their enterprises and avoid investing in time waster, that is, employees who cannot serve to bolster growth and productivity. This is a projection that would ensure that the HR departments serve in supporting the realization of organizational strategies. II. What is Organizational Culture and why should We Care Harvard Business Review, May 15, 2013. Author: Watkins, Michael Watkins resonates in the article that despite its significance, Organizational Culture’s role can barely be defined. Ideally, this is a projection that hampers the positive link that should exist between organizational culture and the incentive systems within the structure. Research and discussions conducted to this effect support the illustration that culture is definitive of the consistent manner of conducting operatives within an enterprise, a projection also referred to as organizational behavior. Of significance is the projection that culture is a result of investing in the enterprise’s values hence the projection that it is a product of compensation. These attributes create a belief and a common definition and description for an organization from the inside and are descriptive of the values and rituals that enhance motivation and integration of the employees. Organizational culture acts as the organization’s immune system and enhances the adaptation to reality. Its significance stretches to factors sub cultures which, when integrated, can simplify the manner and nature of operatives. Ideally, these projections highlight the reasons for which it should be closely evaluated and nurtured by enterprises. III. Social Capital: Prospects of a New Concept Academy of Management Review, 2002, Vol. 27, No. 1, Pp 17-40. Authors: Adler, Paul, and Kwon, Seok-Woo The significance of social capital in the study of youth behavior, families, community life, governance, and democracy is highlighted in the subject’s increasing popularity in social sciences as is illustrated in the article. Further, the use of social capital in explaining the relative success of individuals toward organizational productivity has been acutely illustrated in the article. Social capital, as has been illustrated, is defined by the value of goodwill and the intuition that goodwill is important in defining people’s relations. This is a perception that is further supported by the internal and external links that people develop with their values and with other persons in a common social institution. Its significance, the social institution is a capital because it supports and complements the use of other resources. A strong and comprehensive social structure sires risks and benefits that add even more value to the social structure as they complement individual capabilities and enhance the abilities to handle tasks and contingencies. Notably, the benefits that can be derived from social capital is the availability and use of information and other positive externalities amongst others. Even so, there are risks that include the failure of solidarity benefits and even the risk of negative externalities. A balance within the social capital is very important in ensuring that the risks do not outweigh the benefits. Such a balance would also ensure that contingencies are limited while the value of the capital is maximized. IV. Reinventing Performance Management Harvard Business Review, April 2015. Authors: Buckingham, Marcus, and Goodall, Ashley. The traditional mechanics that are relied upon by enterprises have been cited to be neither focused on improving employee engagement nor propagating the precepts of high productivity which is why organizations are changing their performance management systems. New performance management systems are focused on integrating agility, speed, learning, and the collection of reliable data, factors that serve as best-fits for talent dependent businesses. Besides, the new systems acknowledge the significance of internal feedback and the importance of using the strengths of teams within enterprises. To create a new system the kind that has been created by Delloite, it is important to recognize the significance of performance and its relations with variable compensation. Besides, defining the clarity of the performances and their effect on the general productive performances in the organization is equally important. The third objective for creating the new systems should be focused on enhancing performances. However, all these factors, as Buckingham and Ashley acknowledged, are compounded by transparency that should role play in ensuring that personnel recognize their significance within an enterprise and consequently feel motivated to realize the organization’s objective. V. Organizational Culture: can it be a Source of Sustained Competitive Advantage Academy of Management Review, 1986, Vol. 11, No. 3, Pp 656-665. Author: Barney, Jay. Organizational Culture, as has been indicated by Barney, has been a significant resource in enhancing financial performances, especially as has been exhibited by the established institutions. Culture, as is evidenced in the practices characterize operatives in the institutions, is based on managerial practices and the relations that the enterprises have with their suppliers, clients, and even employees. These projections highlight the relations between culture and organizational performance. However, there are other demands that can make a culture pivotal to the realization of financial performances. These are inclusive of value, rarity, the impossibility to make imitations. That is because valuable cultures integrate with the operatives within an enterprise to facilitate the realization of objectives whereas rare cultures help in creating blue prints that facilitate the exploitation of avenues that are yet to be exploited by other enterprises. Cultures that are hard to imitate have economic values because they maintain the precepts that enhance the exploitation of the avenues that have not been exploited by other firms. This is a projection that hands an enterprise competitive advantage over its rivals as is witnessed in enterprises like McDonalds, IBM, and HP. VI. Invasion of the Annual Revenues The New York Times, Nov, 2013. Author: Korkki, Phyllis. This article points out that performance evaluation are not positively reviewed as they should be. This is a projection that has seen to the abolishment of the practice by some enterprises that reason that the use of lighter evaluation mechanics can be less burdening for the employees, especially the underperformers. Nonetheless, there are enterprises that have maintained its used buoyed by the projection that it creates a podium for analyzing the strengths of employees and rewarding accordingly while according more room for improvement for the less performing employees. The use of the bell curve and forced ranking is even favored by others that consider that the identifying the middle factors that can and should be used by the less performing employees and making appropriate recommendations favors organizational growth. Though this system that ranks employees against a curve can create division within the labor force, it is a decisive factor that can be relied upon to help with the realization growth objectives. This is especially if the standards used are flexible and do not demand for the execution of measures that may not be taken positively by most other employees. For instance, the demand that underperforming employees should get dismissed can lower motivation within the enterprise and create a negative aura that does not favor performances. That implies that the approach that should be used should recognize the aspects that meet the employees’ wishes as much as they seek to reinforce performances. VII. From Experience to Experiential Learning: Cultural Intelligence as a Learning Capability for Global Leader Development Academy of Management Learning and Education, 2009, Vol. 8, No. 4, Pp 511-526. Authors: Ng, Kok-Yee, Van Dyne, Linn, and Ang, Soon. Global leaders, in their significance as organizational assets, enhance organizational functionality on the global scale by creating and propagating interventions that enhance efficacy. Amongst their virtues are intensive cultural experiences and experiential approaches to development. These are factors that underlie international tasks. There are considerations that propagate learning for the global leaders in the development theories. For instance, the Experiential Learning Theory highlights the critical roles that are played by experience and cultural intelligence. In the values of experience, ELT highlights that the cognitive and behavioral outcomes always influence the execution of mandates by the global leaders. Cultural intelligence, on the other hand, integrates with experiential learning to create and enhance the ability to achieve efficacy in diverse settings. These are further bolstered by concrete experience to propagate productive virtues and to ensure that persons can work toward the realization of organizational objectives with determination and collectivity. Ideally, Global Leader Development exploits the virtues that have been made in these projections to influence the outcomes in the productive performances of an enterprise. VIII. Bringing the Global Mindset to Leadership Harvard Business Review, 2010. Author: Javidan, Mansour. The qualities of a leader should enhance the performances of their organizations. These qualities are inclusive of the positive relations with their subordinates, competence and high productivity, accountability and honesty, proper communication skills, and the ability to avoid risks. Regardless, the leaders should maintain some elements of discretion. For instance, they should make decisions on their own and try to outperform other employees. These traits position a manager to influence the performances of his staff by ensuring that he can adopt the right measures that motivate and inspire them. However, these are not the only the factors define a leader. A Global Leader, as is illustrated in the article, should have the virtues that are characteristic of intellectual capital, psychological capital, and social capital. These are features that position a leader to understand the right precepts that should be integrated into leadership in order to cope with the demands that define order, diversity, and productivity. These are features that make a leader diplomatic and empathetic. Ideally, the preparation of future global leaders should cover the details of these precepts. IX. The Twenty-first Century HR Organization Human Resource Management, Winter 2008, Vol. 47, No. 4, Pp. 829–850. Authors: Ulrich, Dave, Younger, Jon, and Brockbank, Wayne. Expectations piled on the HR Departments demand for high levels of efficacy and performances; ‘business within a business.’ It is notable that the HR Departments, however, should operate on the simple objective of creating value. This can be quantified through the financial costs of deliverables or the costs of other activities. That implies that every enterprise should strive to effect HR structures that befit their productivity and enhance the realization of objectives such as growth and productivity. A great HR structure, as has been idealized in the article, should reflect the enterprise’s business organization. It should also respond to the prevailing business models and also serve in the integration of service and responsibility. Depending on the objectives and functions of an enterprise, there are two models of HR that can be used; corporate HR and the embedded HR. While the embedded HR is appropriate for the shared service organizations, the Corporate HR best serves in professionalism. Depending on the strategies that have been implemented by an enterprise, there are always HR implications that can come in the range of business alignments, competency requirements, and management models amongst others. Read More