Human Resource Management - Essay Example

? Human Resource Management College: Paper one Question one The human resource department can demonstrate its effectiveness to an organization by providing a workforce that meets the organizational goals and objectives. In this respect, it means that the department can plan and implement effective policies that attract potential employees, maintain and develop the existing ones such that they become an essential part of the organization. In any business organizations, employees are among the most valuable organizational assets and highly determine the overall performance of any business. Many organizations despite having the abilities essential in enhancing performance have slacked due to poor input towards employees concerns. In fact, according to Levesque (2007, p.30) employee satisfaction leads to customer satisfaction. In this line, I suggest that effective HRM (human resource management) is vital for optimally exploiting creativity and accomplishing organizational as well as individual goals. Organizational leadership must ensure appropriate integration of different activities and synchronized functioning focusing on organizational goals. Effective HRM should demonstrate its commitment to motivate employees and increase their productivity. Employee motivation is vital for guaranteeing commitment of human capital to the given goals. The answer to motivation is centered on the integration of individual and organizational goals. Hence, managers have to show their concentration on important HRM tasks like planning, development, evaluation and compensation. Question two Human resource planning is affected by different environmental factors emerging from internal and external environments. Internal factors like organizational goals, behaviors, technology, employees, demand and supply of personnel, reward and evaluation systems and policies affect the process of planning. Some enterprises could be highly structure while others are not. Some jobs could require skills in teamwork while others might require technical skills. Specifically, these factors define the decision making process in many issues associated with human resources such as promotion, recruitment to counter competition, staffing responsibility and overcoming resistance. This suggests that internal factors influence both strategic and operational components of human resource planning. External factors such as level of education, societal attitudes, economic conditions, laws and regulations, and cultural factors affect human resource planning in varying degrees. For instance, the new technologies employed in many organizations require rigorous and far-reaching education. Likewise, employees in our social-cultural environment want to be involved in the process of making decision. Moreover, human resource managers are required to respond to legal needs, public needs and observe ethical principles. Political limitations require enterprises to adhere to laws issued by regulatory bodies. Economic status especially competition influence the demand and supply for staffs. Question three Human resource practices in different countries have not been exaggerated. The reason is the need to address the differing environments that influence the effective of human resource management. These differences matter a lot when it comes to the factors influencing the organizations. For instance, the organizational behavior adopted by the Japanese organization must differ from that of the United States organizations. Unlike US firms which promote a culture that encourages individualism, Japanese firms must develop a culture that allows for team work. This also reflects the importance of national culture when adopting particular human resource practices. The values that are upheld in one culture differ from those of another and extend to business practices. In addition, different economic situations have resulted in different human resource practices among nations. For instance, the aging situation in United States will demand different practices from those of a developing country where the middle-aged population occupies the larger part of the workforce. Question four Labor is one of the factors of production and its cost adds to the production cost. Goods produced with cheap input costs command low prices and thus are more competitive than those produced at high input cost (Schuler & Jackson, 2007). Always, the lowest-cost producer is in a position to monopolize the marketplace by lowering price below the competitors cost of production. Firms that have low labor costs will most likely compete in the market on the advantage of price. Simply, if a enterprise is not the lowest-cost producer of a common good, it will remain in the marketplace as long as the lowest competitor allows it to remain in this ring. The global economic meltdown has made many consumers across the world to be price sensitive making low-price strategy a strong competitive advantage. Paper two Question one Job analysis and design conventionally were conducted for the purposes associated with recruitment, training, administration, supervision and remuneration. However, the increasing involvedness has made job design and analysis an imperative tool for developing employees in organizations. These processes require an organized collection, assessment and organization of information regarding the job. This is achieved through various techniques including in-depth interviews, questionnaires and observations among others. A job description should be developed with detailed specification of tasks to be carried out, roles and working circumstances, indicating the expectations from the job holder. It is also imperative to define the human traits necessary for the position such as experience, abilities, education, skills and training. Question two The major problem involve in setting up an effective performance appraisal system are identification of appraisal criteria, assessment problems and policy-oriented issues (Goel, 2008). Generally, it is difficult for managers to decide the standards for evaluating performance especially that of employees engaged in unique activities such as research. Aspects such as initiative, tactics, skills and creativity are very hard to evaluate. When making decisions on the performance criteria, it becomes imperative to make decisions on how well employees should perform. The key objective of the performance appraisal framework is to make precise, informed and fact-based decisions, though some of the decisions may not be measurable. Assessment problems emerge due to the difficulties encountered when observing behavior and interpreting it with respect to its causes, consequences and desirability. It is especially difficult to rate behaviors on an appraisal form. There is an important role played by the human element in the process and usually presents bias and subjectivity. However, an effective appraisal is aimed at both objective and subjective measurement of employee performance within the period set for review. The process of implementing performance appraisals is centered on three elements: the job, the employee and the environment of the business. Since these elements are interrelated and interdependent, the appraisal system must be individualized, qualitative, subjective, and focused on solving problems in order to be effective. Just like assessment problems, policy problems are associated with specific jobs. The outcomes of the appraisal framework must be replied with a set of policies and rendered into either positive or negative rewards. Performance of some employees such as those in the research and development is very difficult to evaluate. A research appraiser has to weigh between creativeness and organizational goals. Many researchers do not advocate for judgments on their work, hitherto the dire need for an effective appraisal system in all departments of an organization. Paper three Question one The training of employees adds to the development of human capital within business organizations. Training initiatives are focused on improving and sustaining the present job performance, whereas development initiatives are focused on developing skills and abilities for future jobs. Training and development help employees to satisfy individual goals via higher level of competency and skills. It also facilitates higher contribution at their current jobs and prepares them for higher roles. It develops individuals and groups to meet the needs of the organization. Most important, training and development provide competitive advantage to an organization by eliminating performance deficits, sustaining workers, reducing accidents and wastes as well as meeting the needs of employees. Question two One benefit of having a low turnover in an organization is that it lowers the expenses incurred by the human resources. Expenses incurred during exit interviews, in hiring temporary assistance, of attracting and retaining new employees, and to train new workers are associated with turnover. A firm that keep low turnover reduces the time of reinvesting in similar positions. For instance, the low turnover in Indiana Regional Medical Center has enabled the organization to build a team of experienced workers at relatively low cost. However, low turnover have many costs to an enterprise which affect the performance of the firm significantly. Direct costs are expenses incurred and time spent during recruitment, training and development. Indirect costs may include unmanageable workloads, overtime expenses and low productivity. Although these costs may vary from firm to firm, they have a significant impact on the overall performance. For example, low turnover in Starbucks led to service inefficiency forcing Schultz to devise a health-care benefit strategy which occupied a substantial place in the budget to attract new employees. References Levesque, P. 2007. Motivation: powerful motivators that will turbo-charge your workforce. Irvine, CA: Entrepreneur Press. Schuler, R. S. & Jackson, S. E. 2007. Strategic human resource management. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell. Goel, D. 2008. Performance Appraisal and Compensation Management: A Modern Approach. New Delhi, India: PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd. Read More