Internship experience at Arabian Building Chemicals factory - Essay Example

? Final Paper Internship Acknowledgements I would like to articulate my sincere gratitude to the ABC Company for giving me a potential opportunity tocomplete my 2 months of MBA internship with the organization. I am extremely thankful to Mr. Yousef Mohammad (Human Resource Manager of ABC Company), Mr. Mahfoz Salem (General Manager Of ABC Company), Mr. Adel Mahfoz (Sales Department Manager of ABC Company) and Mr. Mashoor (Law Department Manager of ABC Company) for guiding me throughout the internship period. Executive Summary The purpose of this report is to explore my internship experience at Arabian Building Chemicals factory. My major task was to determine the satisfaction level of the employees within the organization through survey and data collection method. ABC Company is one of the emerging Saudi Arab based paint products manufacturing organization. This internship report will try to motivate the employees of the organization to participate in the sample survey data collection method. Primary and secondary data collection method has been implemented to achieve significant data. The report will propose some recommendations if there is any problem with the workplace environment and employee satisfaction level. The Report Methodology and Individual task This internship report has been compiled based on the experiences during the internship at ABC Company. The data and information is gathered from sample survey method, secondary literature sources and text books. I joined Arabian Building Chemicals factory as a management trainee in the human resource department. My internship duration was 2 months. My role was to review the employee satisfaction level and employee loyalty. Introduction Several leading organizations around the globe are trying to implement new unique strategies in order to retain effective and skilled employees. Now-a-days, the organizations are trying to develop effective HRM strategies. HR policy can enhance effective organizational culture and favorable workplace environment. Skilled employees always demand favorable workplace environment and effective communication with the top management. Human Resource management is the management of a workforce or human resource of an organization. HRM is highly responsible for selection, attraction, training, rewarding and assessment of employees. This report will determine the ABC Company’s employee satisfaction level and loyalty of employees. Summary of Internship positions, scope, goals and objectives Employee and workplace management in a manufacturing company is a challenging task. This process needs experienced and skilled management team who can manage effective workplace environment by handling the workplace issues with sheer leadership skills. I have joined the company as a human resource management trainee. The human resource manager, sales department manager, general manager and law department manager helped me to learn several practical aspects of HRM. My role was to review the satisfaction level of the employees. Moreover, I had to find out the conflicts and issues with respect to the workplace if they are available. It can provide huge scope for my future career. I am trying to enter in this type of management sector. The 2 months of internship experience can help to provide solutions to the critical cases in my future organization. This internship experience can help me to achieve both professional and personal growth. My key task was to handle the entire questionnaire and the employees who are participated in this data collection process. HRM Process Every business aims at the realization of a particular mission. The mission can be achieved through the adoption of appropriate strategies and when carried out in the proper fashion. This is done by the employees of the organization who are regarded as the biggest assets. It is the task of the human resource management department to understand who should be entrusted with what job and who has the capability to taste success in the times to come. Hence how the people would carry out the various strategies is designed and planned by the HR department. The Human Resource Management Process involves the steps as discussed below. First of all the HR Department commences its job by undertaking the Human Resource Planning. This particular work is done in several steps. It involves the process of recruitment by which the best talents available to the company are acquired through various process of selection like initial screening, group discussion and interview. The selection of the best among the applicants is done and then they are offered the position for which they have been interviewed. Since the person would be new to the organization and would not know the various nuances of the organization culture, he has to undergo an induction, training and orientation process. After the training period if the company needs to evaluate if he would be an asset to the organization then the HR Team might make him the permanent employee and provide the employee with additional benefits (Harzing & Pinnington, 2010). If the employee performs well in the organization he might be considered for a promotion. If he does not then he might be asked to leave and the company has to look for a substitute going through the same process. At the beginning of every year therefore the company needs to make a forecast how many new people they need to recruit and how many are eligible for promotion in the company. The Human Resource Department also has to take care of the salary and perquisites of the employees. By this process the department has to understand the needs of the people as per their location, work experience and skills and have to decide on a salary that would be commensurate to their living. Since the salary acts as the chief object that motivates the employees the company has to decide on a salary that would retain the employees. The employees might also ask for benefits and bonuses that would act as an additional stimulator and would encourage them to work more than their peers. The third dimension of the human resource management process would be the performance management by which the employees who work better than the others would be awarded exceptionally and thus would have some effect on the others in the same department. The performances of the employee need to be measured well to know that how much work is performed by them and how their performance can be improved. They need to know the areas that need improvement and how much training would be needed to achieve that. Finally employee relation has to be maintained to ensure that the best talent is retained in the company, the employees do not get unionized or take part in agitation against the government (Collins, 2007). Hence employee safety, work life balance and job satisfaction has to be looked into. Thus all these processes work in a harmonious manner so that the department can show cohesiveness in the management of human resources. HRM as a Philosophy Human resource management philosophy is not only the human resource function. It also includes current organizational value, corporate culture and leadership style of top management. Valuable human resource management philosophy helps a leader of an organization to develop effective and sustainable future vision for business. Now-a-days, the concept of human resource management has changed slightly (Wilkinson, Bacon & Redman, 2009). Recently several leading organizations are trying to incorporate several unique strategies in human resource management process in order to develop effective workplace environment. Employee engagement and reward distribution is the modern day human resource management approach. These two tools are generally utilized as the employee motivation tool that can help an organization to meet future objectives. HRM from a family business perspective The most accepted business model followed in Saudi Arabia is the model of family business. Most of the trade that takes place in this region of the globe is run by families. It is seen that the businesses are controlled and operated by the family heads only. Thus the ownership and the management are aligned together. Over time this has led to several problems that caused unrest among the employees. The people who manage family businesses lack knowledge and training about how they should run a business and their employees. The skills that they acquire are mainly from the experience of their forefathers that are shared with them and their own life experiences. But the formal training of how to manage the human resources is lacking. Most of the employees in these organizations work on a contract basis and hence they do not develop any feeling of bonding towards the organization (Fleischer, 2009). There also arises inconsistency in the way the families want to incorporate their family values in the company and the employees want the business values to be. There are several disadvantages of this family ownership business model. Saudi Arabian organizations generally try to incorporate their family values in business model. Leadership problem is the major consequence of this family ownership business model (Ali, 2008). The management team generally tries to maximize their business profit in several unethical structures. In recruitment and selection process, the management of the organization always tries to hire relatives or the belongings. It affects the whole workplace culture. In adequate decision making process hamper the communication across the departments within an organization. These workplace issues can create huge problem for the young employees. In a traditional company the older and experienced employees get more value and respect comparing to the new ones. In Saudi Arabia, the family ownership business organizations are lacking effective training and development process. As a whole this family ownership structure can seriously hamper the workplace environment of an organization. Background of ABC Company Arabian Buildings Chemicals is an established company in the paints industry of Saudi Arabia. It is specialized in the production of products associated with large scale painting. The company also operates in the export and import business of paints to various countries across the world like Middle East, Africa and Australia. ABC has a strong presence in the industry for the last 3 decades since 1989 when it started its manufacturing only for the local markets. It works harmoniously with other companies in different parts of the world like United Kingdom and Italy. The company is the first of its kind in the production of paints, solvents and varnishes and undertaking an average production of 45000 ton every year. The company is blessed with capable and efficient human resources who aim at implementing systems of operations that produce the most superior quality of product. The company invests a lot of capital on research and development so that the most upgraded and advanced form of products can be delivered to the customers (Ali & Ali, 2004). Therefore at every stage of the process of production the most advance process is carried out to ensure the best quality of product. The company abides by all legal and regulatory principles that govern a business and the safety and precautionary standards imposed by the legal framework of the government. For example, the Saudi Arabian Standards Organization which is the apex body for standardization in Saudi Arabia has approved the quality as the best one and has approved their right to use the SASO mark on their products (Soufi & Mayer, 1991). Paint Industry in Saudi Arabia The paint industry in Saudi Arabia is very much challenging. The paint sector is still unripe and very much price conscious. Saudi Arabia is one of the developing economies around the globe. The country is an oil-based economy. The government of Saudi Arabia has strong control over the major economic activities. However, after a time period of immense GDP growth, the country is now experiencing moderate GDP growth due to extreme hike in price of oil and several forms of fossil fuels. In addition to this, construction of several new economic cities influenced the other industries to actively operate within this emerging economy. The Saudi Arabian paint industry is quite inexperienced. In addition, the business organizations in Saudi Arabia follow family ownership structure. Therefore, this organization structure is creating several leadership issues and workplace conflicts that are affecting the business performance of these organizations. The paint industry is realizing that the industry can achieve significant growth if they sincerely conduct appropriate business practices. Slowly and gradually, the industry is achieving potential competitive advantages due to growing market demand and hike in oil price. Significant investment in infrastructure and rapid construction activities are motivating several local and international paint companies to operate their business practices in this emerging market place. Now-a-days, the organizations within the paint industry are trying to educate the business client and the customers about the features and qualities of their products. Aggressive and unique marketing strategy is increasing brand awareness of several organizations. It is expected that the industry will be able to manage a significant growth rate and market share in next five years. Research Methodology There are two types of research methodologies namely qualitative and quantitative research methodology. Quantitative research methodology generally deals with numerical data and figures. On the other hand, qualitative research methodology deals with the behavior, feelings, attitude and emotions of human beings. This type of research methodology depends upon the exploratory nature of a research. The objective of this specific study is to determine the effectiveness of HRM in ABC Company. The study will consider the views of the employees about the HRM practices to analyze collected data. Therefore, it is clear that the study is exploratory in nature. It will be effective if the study considers the inner feelings of respondents to achieve significant research output. Therefore, qualitative research methodology has been selected for the study. Sampling 300 employees have been selected for a survey method in order to understand the employee satisfaction level. Questionnaire method has been applied in this study to collect data. 200 employees already have sent their responses. In this survey method two forms of questionnaire have been selected like mailing questionnaire and hard copy questionnaire. Data Collection Method There are two major types of data collection method namely primary data collection method and secondary data collection method. Primary research is considered as the first hand data collection method. In this data collection method, a researcher usually collects information and data through a field survey method. On the other hand, secondary data collection method helps a researcher to collect data from different sources, such as internet, books, research papers, magazine and online journals. It is true that the validity of a primary research is always significant comparing to the secondary research method. Both these data collection method have several advantages. Primary research method can help a researcher to collect a real time data that can help to determine appropriate, effective and expected research outcome. On the other hand, secondary data collection method is quite flexible and time consuming comparing to the primary data collection method. Looking into the significance of these two methods and nature of the study, both primary and secondary data collection method has been selected for the study. In primary data collection, sample survey method has been selected for this study. On the other hand, subject related text books and online academic websites have been considered as the major secondary data sources. 300 employees of ABC Company have been selected for the sample survey process. The survey result will be reflected in the research finding section. Literature Review Effective employee satisfaction and employee loyalty process help the human resource management of an organization to maintain effective work culture and conflict free work environment. Now-a-days, several leading organizations are trying to implement unique workplace strategies to retain their effective employees. According to several leading organizations, employees are considered as the greatest growth drivers of an organization. Therefore, it is very much important for the organizations to follow effective HRM strategies to achieve potential competitive advantages. Effective HRM practices involve appropriate recruitment, selection, orientation program, training & development, cultural group dynamics, collaborative group work & behavior, significant performance appraisal, appropriate salary distribution, unbiased reward distribution and valuable organizational culture (Banfield & Kay, 2008). It is very much important for the organizations to develop effective and employment centric HRM policies to maintain good relationship with the workforce. Motivated and encouraged workforce can help an organization to grow its ultimate productivity. Biased decision making process can affect the whole workforce. It can create several types of workplace conflicts. Significant leadership style needs to be adopted by the HR professionals and managers to maintain strong ethical codes in an organization. Saudi Arabia is one of the developing economies around the globe. The country is known for its large oil reservoir. Recently the economy of Saudi Arabia is growing at moderate rate due to this reason. Therefore, several organizations are trying to operate within other industries. Majority of the organizations in Saudi Arabia follow ownership structure in the organizational structure (Crawley, Swailes & Walsh, 2013). This hierarchical structure has several negative aspects. Several workplace issues and conflicts can be raised due to this ownership model. In this model, the management of the organization selects or appoints relatives or friends as higher officials and company representatives. Sometimes lack of appropriate qualification background and experience of these officials can raise several leadership issues. It can create several workplace conflicts. This particular scenario is changing slowly and gradually as several foreign players are entering into these emerging markets. ABC generally manufactures various ranges of paint products. The organization is trying to expand its business practices in several emerging global economies. Therefore, it is quite important for the management of the organization to understand the needs for effective workplace culture, skilled employees and diversified workforce. Strong motivation level can help the organization to meet the satisfaction level of the employees. It will motivate the employees to provide better performance. Research variables In this specific study, research variable has been categorized into two parts, such as employee satisfaction construct and employee loyalty construct. Moreover, each of the constructs is categorized into two variables, such as independent variable and dependent variable. Employee satisfaction Construct In order to compute independent variables the employees were asked to give their opinion about 18 factors by the use of Likert-Scale Survey table. There are five options, such as strongly agree, agree, indifferent, disagree and strongly disagree. Likert-Scale Survey Questions Strongly Agree Indifferent Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree 1 My immediate manager is supportive. 2 I feel satisfied to work with ABC. 3 Management decisions are employee centric, 4 My immediate supervisor has Effective HRM competencies. 5 I get appropriate HRM training. 6 Training provided for future development is adequate. 7 Employment HR policies are same across all the departments. 8 I get effective information and communication advantages. 9 The Communication from Hr department is quite adequate and timely. 10 I want to be with the organization for a longer period of time. 11 I feel my job is secured working in this company. 12 I feel my company follows strong ethics and good compensation policy for the employees. 13 I can avail better employment opportunity in future. 14 I usually get effective recognition of my work from Hr department. 15 I get periodic performance feedback form. 16 My organization maintains performance standard on yearly basis. 17 Do you think HR department of your organization is able to deal with the employee problems fairly? 18 Do you think the relationship between the HR department and the other employees are stable enough? From the above factors an overview of perceived service quality can be attained. This analysis is known as XServQual for consequent analysis. On the other hand, the overall employee satisfaction in this organization is considered as the dependent variable of this construction. Employee Loyalty Construct Employee loyalty construction is based on two variables, such as dependent and independent variable. Employee’s loyalty to the organization is considered as the dependent variable. On the other hand, regarding independent variable employees are asked to give their opinion about 3 factors by the use of Likert-Scale Survey table. Questions Strongly Agree Indifferent Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree. 1 HR managers strive to provide high employee satisfaction. 2 Overall satisfaction with performance appraisal. 3 Overall satisfaction with compensation process. Research Findings and Discussion 300 employees agreed to participate in the sample survey data collection method among the total number of employees. 75% of total respondents replied that the organization has a serious HRM and workplace problem. According to these employees, the management of the organization hardly bothers about the employee satisfaction and motivation process. They basically focus on business profit and client acquisition. According to the respondents, the organization tries to provide quality products and services to the customers but lack of employee motivation and communication process is forcing the employees to search for better employment options. Huge job stress, long working period, less respect and biasness to a particular group of workforce can hamper the business performance of the organization. Rest of the 25% of the respondents did not share much information and views to secure their employment opportunity in ABC Company. Insight of ABC Employees This particular section will discuss about the insights from the employees of ABC Company. It is true that the organization is trying to enter in the emerging paint manufacturing industry. In addition to this, the organization is trying to expand their business practices in global market place. It is trying to manufacture quality products in order to achieve significant market share. In spite of all these things, the organization is suffering from several workplace challenges and conflicts. ABC Company follows ownership organization structure. Therefore, the organizations always undertake independent decisions. ABC is a traditional and family based organization. In these kinds of organizations, the workforce usually belongs from a low or medium age group. Lack of respect for the young employees affect the motivation and encourage level of the new comers. Family based ownership model always faces problem in HRM policy development. In addition, this organization structure can hamper the communication process between the departments within the organization. Lack of skill and experience can make it difficult for the management to recruit and select skilled employees. However, it is quite difficult for the organization to maintain a good and effective workforce without a significant organization structure and HRM policies. Recommendations It is true that ABC Company is facing critical workplace challenges as the ownership model and traditional organization structure is making difficult for the company to meet the satisfaction level. Following recommendation plan will help to overcome the issues. First of all, the organization needs to change its ownership structure. They need to develop an unbiased, skilled and experience management team. It will enhance effective decision making process. The organization should employ skilled and competence HR manager who can adopt appropriate leadership strategy in a specific situation. Employee motivation and satisfaction need to be taken care of by the HRM team to attain significant business output. Effective training and development program will help the employees to increase their skills and competencies. Flatter organizational hierarchy will help the employees to communicate with the higher officials. It can clear several types of doubts regarding any issues. The organization should adopt the concept of workplace diversity. Effective workplace diversity can enhance collaborative group work. This strategy can reduce several workplace conflicts, such as age, gender or income discrimination. In addition, the management of the organization should appoint an effective research and development team in order to find out leadership and several workplace issues. These findings can help the HR manager to give effective solutions in order to overcome those issues. The management of the organization should focus on appropriate salary distribution. Appropriate performance evaluation and reward distribution process for significant performance will motivate the employees to give their 100%. In addition to this, effective employee performance can help the organization to satisfy the needs of customers and several business clients. Employee satisfaction and employee loyalty have a positive relationship with the profit of the organization (Mezzullo, 2010). Effective workplace environment can build a strong relationship between the employee and management of the organization. These recommended plans will help to create value for the organization. Limitations and Challenges I have faced several challenges during my internship period with the ABC Company. Long adjustment time was taken due to limited experience and knowledge about the company. Receiving permission from the top level management and executives regarding the sample survey data collection method was time consuming. The employee strength of this organization is 400. 300 among the total number of employees agreed to take part in the data collection process. Each and every employee provided limited data and information about the HRM process of the organization due to their job security issue. Lastly, the feedback process was not significantly completed due to limited internship time period. Summary of Learning Outcomes from this internship Internship experience is highly essential for a management student and job seeker. It can provide clear insights of a specific subject. During the two months of internship period my role was to review the employee satisfaction level of ABC Company through a data collection method. My initial instructor, project guide, human resource manager (Yousef Mohammad), sales department manager (Andel Mahfoz), general manager (Mahfoz Salem) and law department manager (Mashoor) helped me to learn several practical aspects of HRM. An organization needs to maintain the entire department to achieve successful business objectives. The role of human resource department of an organization is quite vital and critical. Each and every HRM representative needs to monitor and manage several HRM processes to encourage the employees to give their 100 percent. The employees of ABC company are not motivated enough due to in adequate ownership structure and several leadership problems. First of all, I learned that the organization should follow ethical standards in policy development process. The management needs to be unbiased to all the employees regarding performance evaluation and reward distribution process. The management needs to communicate with the workforce to increase the confidence level of the employees. This internship experience and practical knowledge will help me to undertake significant decisions in my future career. Conclusion It is clear from the above data analysis process; ABC Company is facing serious workplace challenges in spite of effective manufacturing process. Although the organization is trying to expand their business practices in several countries but inadequate policy development and poor organization structure can create several workplace issues. The organization needs to develop effective HRM policies to maintain favorable workplace environment. Traditional family ownership organization structure is affecting the communication process between the employees and top management. Inadequate leadership skills and lack of workplace diversification can hamper the business performance of the organization in several areas. Skilled employees are the major business growth drivers. Therefore it is the responsibility of the management of the organization to retain their skilled employees to betterment their business performance. Appendix Status Report Template Affected Attributes Original Proposal Revisions Comment on Revisions Scope A questionnaire distributed to 300 employees. For the hard copy questionnaire, a cover letter explaining the purpose of the study will be enclosed. Review the comments of 300 employees. The employee strength is 400. Rest of the 100 employees did not show their interest to take part in the process. The participated respondents did not provide effective information about ABC Company’s HRM process. Limitations No limitations at this time No limitations at this time No limitations at this time Resources HR of ABC Office space and entering tag to all ABC facilities Resources are now available Parking ticket and laptops are provided. Schedule Working from Monday to Friday during internship. Internship started on May 25th Internship approved for 8 weeks. Milestone 1 Work in Human Resources department (HR) in ABC as management trainee and researcher for the company and propose an internship project proposal. Project proposal submission revision to instructor contacts and reflect supervisor. Revisions made on original report to reflect supervisor contacts and contacts and submitted Milestone 2 Work with the entire HR team and Submit midterm project status summarizing my internship experiences. Submitted Submitted Milestone 3 Explain overall internship experience and submit a Final project report. Submitted Submitted Deliverable I Project proposal Submitted Submitted Deliverable II Final project report & presentation Submitted Submitted References Ali, A. (2008). Business and Management Environment in Saudi Arabia. London: Routledge. Ali, M., & Ali, B. (2004). Handbook of Industrial Chemistry. New York: McGraw-Hill. Banfiled, P., & Kay, R. (2008). Introduction to Human Resource Management. New York: Oxford University Press. Collins, A. (2007). Contemporary security studies. New York: Oxford University Press. Crawley, E., Swailes, S., & Walsh, D. (2013). Introduction to International Human Resource management. New York: Oxford University Press. Fleischer, C. (2009). HR for Small business. New York: Sourcebook. Harzing, A., & Pinnington, A. (2010). International Human Resource management. London: Sage. Mezzullo, L. (2010). An Estate Planner’s Guide to family business entities. New York: ABA. Soufi, W., & Mayer, R. (1991). Saudi Arabian Industrial Investment. London: Greenwood Publishing. Wilkinson, A., Bacon, N., & Redman, T. (2009). The Sage Handbook of Human Resource Management. London: sage. Read More