Human Resource Management at Help With Assignment

Human Resource Management

Human resources are the people (including their knowledge, skills and abilities) within an organization who perform the actual work of the organization. Their efforts enable the organization to meet its objectives. The intellectual capital of each organization has been a growing focus in our highly competitive world.

Human resources management is the effective use of an organization’s human resources to improve its performance. This management is no small order, it takes great skill, ability and practice.

HRM is one of the greatest challenges facing businesses today. The challenge is not just faced by human resource professionals, it is the responsibility of all managers throughout an organization. Management is the practice of getting things done through others. Only by effectively managing the firm’s human resources will the goals and objectives be met.

Although all companies have access to the same technology and the same information, it is the people within each organization who make the difference in organizational performance. That is human resources provide the foundation for the organization’s competitive advantage.

At the turn of the century, Frederick Taylor conducted studies at Midvale Steel Works. Known as the Father of Scientific Management, Taylor suggested that it was management’s responsibility to develop the one best way to perform the job and then it was the employee’s responsibility to perform the job in that one best way. Taylor’s premise was that management should systematically hire the appropriate workers for the job and then outline each detail of the job to be performed.

After this Elton Mayo discovered the importance of the person in the work place. From 1927 to 1932, Mayo conducted research at the Western Electric plant in an effort to find solutions to the shortcomings of Scientific Management. Mayo’s study highlighted the improved productivity gained by paying attention to workers and the significant role social relationships played in the workplace.

We can think of an organization as an open system and its productivity as a transformation process. Inputs, or resources are procured from the external environment. The resources go through a transformation process that results in outputs, or products. The resulting products are then absorbed into the external environment that is they are consumed.

Here, the point is that each organization must remember the impact of external environment. In the case of human resources, the external environment becomes especially critical as organizations compete with each other for labor. Additionally, an organization’s overall human resource function must be competitive to attract qualified applicants and then retain them.

The world today is characterized by constant change occurring at an unprecedented pace. Nearly all companies operate in a dynamic environment. Some of the changes that characterize the world of business today include the following.

· Changing Employee expectations

· Competition in a global arena

· Cultural and social diversity

· Emphasis on increased productivity

· Fall of the command and control manager

· Flatter organizations

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Our other articles on Human Resources include Human Resource Development, Recruitment & Selection, Compensation & Rewards, Performance Appraisal

Theory X and Theory Y in Human Resource Management from HelpWithAssignment.com

Theory X and Theory Y in Human Resource Management

Theory X and Theory Y have been propounded by Douglas McGregor who was an American social psychologist. He presented his theory in his 1960 book, ‘The Human Side of Enterprise’.

The Theories X – Y are used extensively in management and motivation. The theory has been used by management to formulate and develop motivation and positive management styles, strategies and techniques. It remains central to the organizational development and in improving organizational culture.

Theory X: Theory X assumes autocratic management. The theory says that managers under Theory X assume that most people are naturally lazy and need to be controlled and supervised. They think that people need to be motivated all the time. One of the notions that Theory X managers have toward their people is that they are not very smart and they need good encouragement to do good work.

Characteristics of Theory X managers: Some of the most noticeable characteristics of Theory X managers are autocratic behavior.

• The managers are results-driven. They are concerned with the completion of a given task. They issue deadlines for the completion of work.
• The managers lack tolerance. They are very intolerant in nature.
• Most of the theory X managers distances themselves from workers. They do not have much of an attachment to with their employees.
• Theory X managers issue threats and warnings to make people follow their instructions.
• They do not participate in the process of team building.
• They are unconcerned about the welfare or morale of the employees.
• They are one-way communicators and poor listeners.
• They withhold rewards and suppress pay and remuneration levels.
• They are poor at delegating responsibilities and think giving orders is delegating responsibility.
• They hold on to responsibility but shift accountability to subordinates.

Conversely, Theory Y assumes democratic management. The theory says that managers under Theory Y assume that most people like to work. The managers assume that they have self-control. They assume that people can motivate themselves and want to do a good job. One of the important notions that Theory Y managers have about their people is that they are smart.

Some of the characteristics of Theory Y managers can be seen. Theory Y managers are quite opposite to that of Theory X.

Even Theory Y managers are results-oriented, after all, but they are also concerned with not just the completion of work, but they assist their subordinates in doing things.

• Theory Y managers are very tolerant in nature. They tolerant mistakes and try to rectify them by explaining what should not be done and what needs to be done.
• Theory Y managers do not distance out from their employees. They think it is all one team including oneself and move along providing motivation and encouragement to the team.

• They do not threat employees for non-compliance. Instead, they explain them about the norms and compliance issues and make them realize that instructions are for the betterment of work.
• They actively participate in the team building process and make sure that every employee in the team is more than a better performer.
• They are very much concerned about the welfare and morale of employees. They try to know the grievances of their employees, if any and try to solve them, if possible.
• They are good communicators and good listeners and take suggestions and constructive criticism seriously.
• They do not withhold any rewards and compensations to threat the employees. They also praise their employees for their good work.
• They are very good at delegating responsibilities. They not only give orders but also give directions and suggestions to complete the work.
• They hold on to responsibility and also accountability to themselves.

These are the fundamental differences in the views of Theory X and Theory Y. The theories are used extensively in the management school of thought for the betterment of work, productivity and organizational culture in the long run.

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This article is in continuation with our previous articles on Human Resource Management which include Maslow's Theory of Motivation, Human Resource Development, Recruitment & Selection

Termination of Service in Human Resources from HelpWithAssignment.com

According to the popular saying, “all the good things should come to a stop”, and so does employment. After the long process of recruitment, selection, training, working and career development naturally, the employee moves on. The process of ‘moving on’ or in terms of employment can mean different things under different circumstances.

• Resignation of the employee
• Retirement upon reaching an agreed predetermined age
• Retrenchment due to downsizing or redundancy
• Dismissal due to gross misconduct or poor performance or non-compliance
• Expiry of fixed term contract
• Expiration of contract due to the interaction with outside forces such as operation of law or death, illness or imprisonment.

Issues with Resignation:

• High investment in training
• Feedback of reasons during exit interview
• Extension or shortening of notice period
• Restriction to further access of sensitive information
• Leaving report – used as work reference for reference
• Collection of Security cards, tags or credit cards
• Final settlement with the candidate

Issues with Retirement:

• Retirement age in the state – national differences
• Health related issues due to age
• High cost of pension payments
• Career opportunities for younger staff

Issues with Retrenchments:

• Downsizing due to automation of processes
• Layoff due to fall in the demand for the product
• Opposition from trade unions
• Loss of public confidence
• Fall in morale of remaining employees, stress and job-insecurity

Issues with Dismissal:

An employee is dismissed if the employer terminates the contract of employment or the fixed term contract expires and is not renewed

• Redundancy – job has ceased to exist
• The service of the employee is no longer required
• Gross misconduct, negligence and poor performance of the employee for a prolonged period of time

Industrial Relations Act of 1967 states that employees depending on the income from jobs for their survival should not be at the mercy of uncaring employers. The legislation introduced to protect the job-security of employees. There are procedures that needed to be complied both for employers and employees who want to dismiss and who want to file against, respectively with the department of Industrial Relations.

Procedures

• Employee files written claim within 60 days of dismissal
• A meeting between both the parties is facilitated by the Industrial Relations Officer.
• The dispute is settled when reinstatement or compensation takes place
• Unsettled cases are taken to the Industrial Court for arbitration, which decides whether the dismissal was just or unjust.

Compensation for unlawful/unfair dismissal

• General principle is that one month’s pay for every year in service and back pay from the date of dismissal till the date of judgment.
• In some cases employer has been ordered to pay future wages up to the date of retirement under contract of employment.

For more details you can visit our websites at http://www.helpwithassignment.com/human-resources-assignment-help and http://www.helpwiththesis.com

This article is in continuation with our previous articles on Human Resource Management which include Human Resource Development, Performance Appraisal, Compensation & Rewards, Recruitment & Selection

Human Resource Development in Human Resource Management from HelpWithAssignment.com

In organizations people develop in terms of numbers, but a successful organization is the one where proper training is imparted to their employees. This training is of two types. One is short-term training. And the other is long-term training. Short-term training is mainly focused on the job that has to be done and performance concerns. And the long-term training is about the development of the individual as well as the organization in terms of broadening the skills for future responsibilities.

The Phases in Training and Development:

• Phase 1 Needs Assessment: An assessment about the organization, the task and the persons must take place in this phase. At the organization level, an examination of the environment, strategies and resources of the organization to determine where training emphasis should be placed. Task analysis should determine what content of a training program should be on the basis of a study of the tasks and duties involved in the job. Person Analysis involves the determination of specific individuals who need training.
• Phase 2 Program Design: The training program design is based on instructional objectives, trainee readiness and motivation, principles of learning and characteristics of successful trainers. Instructional objectives represent the desired outcomes of a training program. Trainee readiness requires motivation using positive reinforcement. Eliminate threats and punishments. Being flexible. Designing interesting instruction and breaking down physical and psychological obstacles to learning. Principles of learning involve feedback and reinforcement. These include spot rewards and behavior modification.
• Phase 3 Implementation: The implementation phase is the biggest phase of all where the actual training is imparted to the employee. This phase requires choosing an instructional method. This involves the nature of training, types of trainees, organizational extent of training and importance of training outcomes. Training methods for managerial and non-managerial employees differ.
• Phase 4 Evaluation: The last phase is about the evaluation of results. Measuring the utility of training programs include calculating the benefits that are derived from training, quality improvement and contribution to profits. Reduction in turnover and waste, Increases productivity and cost reduction are seen. Viewing training in terms of the extent to which it provides knowledge and skills that create a competitive advantage and a culture that is ready for a continuous change.

Special Training and Development programs:

Organization wide training programs:

• These include Orientation training, Basic skills training, Team and cross training and diversity training.
• Orientation training is a formal process of familiarizing new employees with the organization, their jobs and their work units.
• Basic skills training has become an essential occupational qualifications, having profound implications for product quality, customer service, internal efficiency and workplace and environmental safety.
• Team/ Cross training is a difficult and comprehensive process. Team development is not always linear sequence of ‘forming, storming, norming and performing’. Additional training is required to assimilate new members. Behavioral and process skills need to be acquired through participative exercises.
• Diversity training helps in awareness building. It helps employees appreciate the benefits of diversity. It provides employees with skills necessary for working with people who are different from them.

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This article is in continuation with our previous articles on Human Resource Management such as Compensation & Rewards, Recruitment & Selection, Career Management.

Performance Appraisal in Human Resource Management from HelpWithAssignment.com

Performance Appraisal Systems take a variety of forms and are central to Performance Management Systems.

Appraisal takes place annually between the manager and the employee. However there are number of trends that are changing the style and relationship of the appraisal. One important trend is to hold periodic reviews on a more regular basis. This allows for a more dynamic process of discussion and adjustment to objectives to counter the criticism that objectives set and reviewed annually do not fulfill to important aspects of the process.

The objectives should remain relevant and achievable. The process of dialogue allows for relationship building and coaching that needs to take place.

The main purposes for Performance Appraisal include:

• Evaluating Performances to enable a ‘rewards’ formula to be put into operation.
• Auditing to discover work potential, both present and future, of individuals and teams.
• Construction succession plans for corporate replacement planning.
• Discovering training needs for identifying gaps to be filled by formal training.
• Motivating staff to clarify and offer feedback on standards and objectives.
• Developing individuals advising on, conducting and explaining work methods to enable individuals to take responsibility for their own performance, training and development and working relationships through feedback, dialogue and information sharing.

The Approaches or Orientations in Performance Appraisal:

• Control Orientation: In this scheme, an assumption that a superior is controlling authority. This is often perceived by employees negatively. The “them and us” attitudes are formalized through power to judge via paperwork, which seals a view of how well somebody is perceived to work. This approach works best where clear targets are available, which can be judged obviously. It improves a standardized appraisal that is ‘felt fair’.
• Development Orientation: The development appraisal does not start from the manager in control but the need to deal with the uncertainty in the minds of the employees who genuinely want to know how they are performing and what the organization thinks of their contribution. The employees need support to enhance contribution and match their skills with organizational needs. This is a bottom up approach. The demand to develop and a learning climate are likely to evolve from such an attitude.

Types of Appraisals:

• Top-down Schemes: is the most traditional form of appraisal. This emphasizes both subordinate feedback and the lead on objective setting coming from the top. The problems faced by this type of appraisal is that it stresses traditional organizational hierarchies, there may be lack of impartiality and favoritism. There can be lack of full knowledge of the employee in some areas where manager’s span of control may be wide. To counter the problems an independent reviewer is often asked to review the outcomes to avoid any potential bias.
• Self Appraisal: Rarely used, as independent forms of appraisal but, encourages greater ownership and participation in the appraisal scheme through self-reflection and helps ensure full preparation for the appraisal discussion. In an open environment it allows managers to shift from a directive, informing style to counseling style, thereby assisting staff to form objectives and plans, moving from ‘telling’ and ‘selling’ to facilitating which is seen as a creative and more effective level of satisfaction and ownership.
• Upward Appraisal: It is increasingly used to reflect the growing trend for organizations to recognize that they have a duty to provide effective working systems for employees. Employees are invited to provide managers with a rating on such dimensions as effective communication, involvement in decision-making, clarity of objectives and goals and so on.
• Peer Appraisal: Involves members of teams evaluating each other. One of the arguments for this type of system is the pressure to treat internal working relationships as internal feedback systems to external customer feedback techniques. There are sensitivities involved and careful development of staff is required in using such schemes.
• Multi-dimensional Appraisal: It is also called ‘360- Degree Appraisal’. It is used to collect data from outside the immediate team and often from external customer feedback. Its key advantage is to overcome the criticisms of impracticalities and lack of knowledge of a single appraiser. The term refers to the various sources of data: boss, peers, customers and reporting staff, in order to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of the performance relationships and retain positive employee relations.

Recent Trends in Performance Appraisal

• Reduction in paperwork
• Clarity of objective setting
• Emphasis on the quality of the review discussion
• Greater involvement of staff in the process

Disadvantages of Appraisals

• Overtime to complete the paperwork
• Vague objectives and inconsistent standards of objective setting.
• Emphasis on getting the review ‘over’ rather than on the quality of the interview process.
• Narrow individual orientation that ignores wider feedback and operating context.
• Failure to integrate appraisal issues within the wider organizational and operational reality.

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This article is in continuation with our previous articles on Human Resource Management such as Compensation & Rewards, Recruitment & Selection, Career Management.

Recruitment & Selection Strategies at HelpWithAssignment.com

Recruitment:

Recruitment is the process of finding possible candidates for a job or a function. Advertising is commonly part of the recruiting process and can occur through several means; through newspapers, through professional publications, using advertisements placed in windows, through a job center, through campus interviews, etc.

Selection:

The process used to identify and hire individuals or groups of individuals to fill vacancies within an organization. Often based on an initial job analysis, the ultimate goal of personnel selection is to ensure an adequate return on the investment – to make sure the productivity of the new hire warrants the cost spent on recruiting and training that hire.

Both Recruitment and Selection deal with all those activities associated with attracting candidates, work assessment and the design of selection criteria through to the actual selection activity. It is the attempt to provide a more strategic, systematic and objective approach to ensure more effective selection against subsequent job performance indices. An important theme is fairness in selection particularly in relation to equality of opportunity.

Recruitment is a positive process where more and more candidates are encouraged to apply. Selection is a negative process where unsuitable candidates are rejected.

Recruitment is concerned with tapping the sources of human resources where as selection is concerned with selecting the most suitable candidate through various interviews and tests.

Recruitment does not result in contract of service where as selection results in a contract of service between the employer and the selected employee.

Criteria for a successful Recruitment and Selection process

Effective

Efficient

Fair and legal

Perceived to be fair

Stages in Recruitment and Selection

Stage1, Determination of job roles: The organization must determine the job roles for a particular job. This shall include the type of work, the number of processes, the protocols that have to be followed and whether there are any targets associated with the job. This is called job analysis or job description.

Stage2, Determination of required attributes: In order to determine the required attributes, a number of plans are followed. One of them is Rodger’s 7 point plan, competency profiles are utilized.

Stage3, Finding and attracting applicant: Labor market analysis must take place in order to attract new applicants for the job. A number of recruitment sources like advertising with newspapers, advertising with recruitment agencies and consultancies, job centers, campus interviews, etc should be taken up.

Stage4, Choosing the right people: Even a large recruitment process is futile when the right persons capable of executing the job in the right manner are not selected. Selection of candidates must take place under a good framework using appropriate selection techniques.

Recruitment and Selection
Person Specification Frameworks, Rodgers’s 7 point plan, physical make-up, attainments, general intelligence, special aptitudes, interests, disposition, circumstances.

This article is in continuation with our previous articles on Human Resource Management which include Career Management, Maslow's Theory.

For more details on Human Resource Management you can visit our websites at http://www.helpwithassignment.com/human-resources-assignment-help and http://www.helpwiththesis.com

Career Management at HelpWithAssignment.com

When the word career comes to anyone’s mind, they tend to think differently and the perception about career is different for different people. Even scholars and researchers define the term differently. In normal sense, career is used to describe a sequence of related jobs that a person takes up during his/her tenure.

Researchers Greenhaus and Schein came up with good definitions for the word career in a technical sense saying, “the pattern of work related experiences that span the course of a person’s life.”

An individual and an organization have interests in an individual’s career and both parties may take actions to influence that career. These set of related activities are referred to as career planning and career management.

Career Management can be defined as an ongoing process of preparing, implementing and monitoring career plans undertaken by the individual alone or in concert with the organization’s career systems. It may include activities that help the individual develop and carryout career plans, but the focus is on taking actions that the organization’s anticipated HR needs will be met. At its most extreme, career management is largely an activity carried out by the organization. An example of such an activity is succession planning, which is typically carried out by senior management to determine which employees can and should be prepared to replace people in positions of greater responsibility.

Typically, career management revolves around the employee’s role, the organization’s role and the goals of both the individual and the organization.

The organization’s role is to establish a favorable context. The management of an organization does this by providing management support, providing collaboration between line managers and HR managers, training management personnel and setting goals which include planning human resources strategy, changing HR policies as and when required, providing for job rotation, providing outplacement service, announcing the program and explaining its philosophy to the employees.

Successful Career management practices include:

· Placing clear expectations on employees.

· Giving the employees the opportunity for transfer.

· Providing a clear and thorough succession plan.

· Encouraging performance through rewards and recognition.

· Giving employees the time and resources they need to consider short and long term career goals.

· Encouraging employees to continually assess their skills and career direction.

Career opportunities and requirements for a particular job include

· Competency Analysis: Competency analysis measures three basic competencies for each job: know how, problem solving and accountability.

· Job Progressions: The hierarchy of jobs a new employee might experience, ranging from starting a job to jobs that require more knowledge and/ or skill.

· Career Paths: Career paths include the lines or ways for advancement in an occupational field within an organization. There are a lot of possibilities in career paths like promotion, transfer, demotion or exit.

· Promotion: A promotion can be defined as a change of assignment to a job at a higher level in the organization. Principal criteria for determining promotions are merit, seniority and potential.

· Transfer: The placement of an individual in another job for which the duties, responsibilities, status and remuneration are approximately equal to those of the previous job.

· Demotion: Demotion is defined as the downgrading of work. An employee who was given greater responsibility, after demotion will be given lower level in the organization.

· Exit: an employee who quits the organization is defined as exiting.

A career span of a person is divided into 5 stages based on the age of the person.

· Stage 1 Preparation for work (ages 0-25): Develop occupational self-image, assess alternative occupations, develop initial occupational choice, pursuing necessary education.

· Stage2 Organizational entry (ages 18-25): Obtaining job offers from desired organization(s), select appropriate job based on complete and accurate information.

· Stage 3 Early Career (ages 25-40): Learn job, learn organizational rules and norms, fit into chosen occupation and organization, increase competence, pursue goals.

· Stage 4 Midcareer (ages 40-55): Reappraise early career and early adulthood goals, reaffirm or modify goals, make choices appropriate to middle adult years, remain productive.

· Stage 5 Late Career (ages 55-retirement): Remain productive in work, maintain self-esteem and prepare for retirement.

Often employees want to change job because of one reason which is career plateau. A career plateau is a situation where the probability of moving up the career ladder is rather low.

The types of plateaus that have been observed include:

· Structural Plateau: Structural Plateau is defined as a situation where the chance of advancement is very low or there is no advancement at all.

· Content Plateau: Content Plateau is defined as the situation where the job is no longer any challenging. This is also a demotivating factor for many employees. People want jobs that are challenging.

· Life Plateau: Life Plateau is a situation where there is a danger of crisis of personal identity. Every person is unique and the uniqueness is especially seen in someone’s work. An organization is a good place to improve the individuality and self-esteem of a person. If the job is threatening to endanger the personal identity of a person, then this paves the way for life plateau.

This article is in continuation with our previous article on Human Resources Management Maslow's Theory.

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