The Way People Are Managed Is Vital for the Performance of Organizations - Coursework Example

The Way People are Managed is Vital for the Performance of any Organization Name of the Student: Name of the Instructor: Name of the course: Code of the course: Submission date: The Way People are Managed is Vital for the Performance of any Organization In the current world where we are witnessing unprecedented increase of competition in both national economic and global environment, it has been acknowledged that the competitive advantage of any organization is not only pegged on technology and products but also on its employees. It is paramount to appreciate that employees are managed via HRM (human resource management) capacity. As a result majority of organization have come to appreciate that their most important part of their business is their employees (Adrian, Noel, & Liezel, 2009). This is because organizations have appreciated that the only way they can succeed is through it people. It is an apparent fact that products only cannot maintain the competitive advantage but energy, diversity and creativity that the people input into the organization. The main meaning of competitive advantage in employees is founded on attempt to make something in the company that would not be straightforwardly copied by the competitor. From this back ground, it is apparent that the way people are managed is vital for the performance of any organization. The relationship between employer and employees is very important and it has huge effect on the performance of any organization. There is where industrial relations come in. It tends to explain the relationship between employer and employees within settings of organization. The relationships that emanate at the place of work mainly include the relationship between individual employees and the relationship between employers and workers. From unitarism perspective, organization is viewed as a single and harmonious system, seen as a single happy and united family. The main assumption in this approach is that the staff and management, and every member of the organization subscribe to the same purposes, interests, objectives. As a result, it is possible to work in unison and hand in hand in an effort of achieving mutual aims. Additionally, unitarism has adopted an approach of demanding loyalty of every employee (Nirali, 2008). As a result trade unions are rendered unnecessary and conflict is deemed as a disrupting process. The employees under unitary approach have several views. First view is that working practices are supposed to be flexible. Also, employees should be multi-skilled, business process improvement oriented and prepared to handle any task with high efficacy. Another view that employee should have is that if a union is acknowledged, its duty is that of facilitating a means of passing information between employer and employees. The third view is that the presence of emphasis on sound terms and good relationships and terms of employment. This approach is mainly found in various small family owned organizations. It is also evident in big entrepreneurial organization that have expanded within a short period, but where the founder still remains at the helm of all operations. Such examples are Virgin of Richard Branson, Amstrad of Alan Sugar or Body Shop of Anita Roddick (Howard & Gill, 1993). Another approach is Pluralist which views the organization as being comprised of pluralist of interest groups where each has varying and genuine objectives and aspirations. As a result, this approach appreciates that firm cannot always avoid conflicts and trade union can take a major role in such scenario. The enterprise that embraces pluralist approach acknowledges trade unions and is ready to share decision making within the organization with them. To give an example is public sector management in Britain which is known to take pluralist approach from early days. The above mentioned approaches will definitely have effect on the performance of an organization. Under plularist approach, it is apparent that the organization is more participatory as compared to unitarism approach. When workers are involved more in organization decision making processes they become more motivated and as a result their performance increases (Juliette & Jeff, 2005). The ever increasing process of world globalization has resulted to more interaction among persons from various cultural, life and belief backgrounds. Individuals are no longer working and living in an isolated marketplace but they are now component of a global economy where stiff competition is emanating from diverse regions of the world. As a result, organizations require diversity to be able to compete effectively in the current era of globalization (Kramar etal, 2011). Hence, capitalizing and maximizing on diversity within workplaces has gain importance in contemporary human resource management realms. There are some challenges that are associated with management of workplace that is composed of diversity and therefore, managers should have necessary skills to manage multicultural working environment. The main advantage that has been associated with diversity and inclusion is that an organization tends to gain competitive advantage. To start with, an organization that has embrace diversity and inclusion has an edge when it comes in attracting and retaining the highly qualified and talented employees. The second competition advantage is that a multicultural firm is in an advantaged position in serving different external customers in a more globalized market. This kind of an organization has a clearer understanding of the requirements of cultural, economic, social, political and legal environments of the foreign countries. Another advantage that is associated with hi-tech and research oriented sector is a wide range of talents obtained from ethic and gender diverse organization turns out to be a valuable advantage. This is because creativity flourishes on diversity environment. Additionally, organizations that have embraced diversity are known to have an edge in solving problems, have good capacity to obtain a more broad meaning, and are more likely to reveal multifaceted interpretations and perceptions when tackling a complex matter. This implies that the organizations are not vulnerable to groupthinking phenomenon (Barbara & Białostocka, 2010). All these advantages translate into improved performance of the organization. Ana example of a company that has employed diversity in its human resource management is CSC, a company that offer technology enabled business services and solutions. CSC maintains that diversity and inclusion is a part and parcel of strategy of company for growth of business. It has taken lead in acknowledging the importance of diversity. It has employed 93,000 staff from 70 different nations, operating main branches on 4 continents; Asia, Australia, North America and Europe (CSC, 2013). The company has strong commitment in treating every employee and supplier with respect and fairness. Another important aspect to be considered by human resource management is the issue of employee turnover and retention (Lake, 2000). The researchers have established that effect of employee turnover on firms has heavy impact and if it goes uncorrected it might destroy strategy put in place to obtain organizational goals. Also, when a company loses an important worker, there is undesirable effect on innovation, consistency in offering services to clients can be destroyed, and huge delays in the discharge of services to clients might happen. It has been estimated that an average organization loses about USD 1 million with every ten professional and managerial employees who depart the company (Sunil, 2003). This implies that there is huge impact on the performance of the organization as a result of loosing valuable employees. Therefore, it is paramount for organization to know the commitment of employees to the organization in order to prevent such losses. This will assist the organization to meet the expectations and needs of clients and to develop and sustain a competitive advantage in the current globalized economy. For organizations to boost their efforts of retaining their valuable employees, they should come up with strategies in order to ensure they retain competitive advantage. One such strategy is reward and recognition. Individuals have a fundamental human need to feel respected and appreciated. Recognition has been approved as a power way of improving retention, morale and energizing the employees. Recognition strategy aids the organizations to meet this need as well as developing alignment between behaviors and business goals required for organization to prosper. The example of such strategy is employed by Bertholon Rowland where is holds its quarterly meeting with an aim of giving service awards to their employees (Gregory, 2007). This is done after every 5 years anniversary. Every employee gets a cash award and a certificate from the CEO. Additionally, the company takes that opportunity to recognize new hires and promotions. By doing this, the company has managed to retain it crucial employees and hence it has retained its competitive advantage. In conclusion, it has been established that the relationship between employer and employees is paramount since it directly affects the performance of the organization. The paper has evaluated both unitarism and plularism approaches that are employed by diverse organizations in an effort of relating with their employees. Under plularist approach, it is apparent that the organization is more participatory as compared to unitarism approach. The diversity of workforce has gained a huge popularity among organizations owing to the fact that they extend competitive advantage especially to the firms that operate on global platform. It has been revealed that organization that employ diversity as their human resource strategy enjoy several advantages that allow them perform more effectively. Additionally, turnover and retention of employees have huge impact to the organization. Therefore, organizations have endeavored towards ensuring retention of their valuable employees. They have employed several approaches such as reward and retention. References Adrian, R., Noel, P., & Liezel, R. (2009). Human Resource Management. Cape Town: Formeset Printers Cape. Barbara, M., & Białostocka, P. (2010). Cultural Diversity in Organisational Theory and Practice. Journal of Intercultural Management , 2 (2), 5-15. CSC. (2013). Diversity. Retrieved April 18, 2013, from: www.csc.com/about_us/ds/78731-diversity Gregory, S. (2007). 401 Proven Ways to Retain Your Best Employees. Georgia: CYC publications. Howard, G., & Gill, P. (1993). British industrial relations. London: Routledge. Juliette, S., & Jeff, H. (2005). Employee participation and company performance. A review of the literature , 1 (1), 1-90. Kramar, R., Bartram, T., De Cieri, H., Noe, R., Hollenbeck, J., Gerhart, B. & Wright, P. (2011). Human Resource Management: Strategy, People, Performance, 4th Edition . Sydney: McGraw-Hill . Lake, S. (2000). Low-cost strategies for employee retention. Compensation , 32 (4), 65-72. Nirali, P. (2008). Human Resoure Management: Managing People at Work. Mumbai: Nirali Prakashan. Sunil, R. (2003). Managing Employee Retention as a Strategy forIncreasing Organizational Competitiveness. Applied H.R.M. Research , 8 (2), 63-72. Read More