Human Resources Management of Temple University - Research Paper Example

Part Company Profile/ Temple Temple is a completely public research in Pennsylvania. The university was originally founded in the year 1884 by Russell Conwell. Russell Conwell was a Yale-educated lawyer from Boston. In the year 1884, he began to give tuitions to a young man who could only study for a short time period due to his busy job schedule (Conlin 552). Russell Conwell got dozen of students to provide coaching. After this, he convinced the members of his cogeneration to develop an educational institution for the benefit of working people. However, the Temple College received the charter of incorporation only in the year 1988. Since then the university has evolved into one of the premier institutions for higher studies of the nation (Temple 1). The university is one of the country’s largest professional education providers. The university offers more than 300 academic degree programs. Temple University is one of the state-related universities of Pennsylvania. The number of total full-time faculty of Temple University is 1,935. On the other hand, the number of total part-time faculty is 1,501. The full-time employee strength of this university is 5,786. The university is the national center of superiority in research and teaching with an effective international presence. The university always tries to appoint talented faculty. Temple University’s 300 various academic programs provide excellent educational opportunity for academically highly motivated and talented students. The dramatic growth of the residential campus community and supreme diverse student population enrich the extracurricular and educational life of all the people belonging to Temple University. The university attracts students from across Pennsylvania through quality education and learning process. The university maintains international presence with campuses in Rome, Tokyo, Beijing, London and six other worldwide locations. In addition to these, the university offers 100 master’s degree and 48 doctoral programs (Hilty 292). The university tries to develop new knowledge that can improve the condition of human beings. Temple University sincerely maintains its commitment in retaining, supporting and recruiting excellent and knowledgeable faculty to achieve the institutional goal. In addition, the university supports the aspirations of talented and capable students. Part 2: Identified Problems In spite of huge popularity and reputation, the institution faced several HRM problems that can affect the learning environment of the university. (A) Employee Morale Recently Temple University is facing huge problem regarding morale of employees. Low employee morale is affecting the entire operational process. Negative perception and dissatisfaction with the work environment is forcing the employees not to perform effectively. The faculties, teaching staffs and employees of other department are constantly appealing to the board management to review their compensation and salary distribution process. In spite of significant hard work, the employees and staffs are not recognized effectively. In addition, several workplace conflicts are affecting the workplace environment. Most importantly, these conflicts are affecting the learning environment that may affect the future career of several students. Gender, age, color and compensation conflicts are increasing within the workplace of Temple University in Pennsylvania. First of all, the silent conflict between white and African American faculties is increasing at a rapid pace. This conflict is affecting the mentality of students (Cascio 23). Several surrounded conflicts are forcing the students to divert their attention from educational activities. The old workforce of Temple University is facing other problems regarding employment benefit, pension distribution and retirement benefit. Several young and old employees within the workforce are not satisfied with the employment benefit and compensation structure. In addition to these, some of the employees complained that the management of the university generally takes biased decision in terms of compensation and salary distribution process. It is quite unfortunate that being a prestigious university the institution is facing these kinds of unethical issues. Negative perception and dissatisfaction about employment policies and workplace environment is affecting the common institutional goal of the university. Social recognition of employees is one of the important employee motivational tools that can help an organization to successfully drive their employees towards the institutional goals and objectives. Temple University tries to appoint effective and knowledgeable faculties but they cannot retain them properly due to lack of effective employees recognition (Gregory 210). Faculties try hard to provide effective learning and education in all possible ways but in return negative and in adequate mentality of the university management force them to look for other employment opportunities. Recently, Temple University is trying to implement several key strategies to offset the lack of raises. First of all, they are trying to reduce the workload and job stress of the employees by reducing the weekly job schedule. Moreover, the university is trying to reduce operational cost to offset the lack of raises. (B) Performance Development System There are two basic factors to consider while determining the salary or compensation raises, these two factors are performance and goal. People used to serve more and perform effectively against a good salary or compensation and benefit structure (Heneman 67). These processes are interlinked with the achievement of institutional goals. Temple University was facing workplace conflicts due to inadequate compensation distribution. It affected the motivation level of the staffs and faculties. Therefore the performance level of all the staffs was not up to the mark. Volatile performance level affected the performance of university. Ultimately, it can create several negative impacts on the future career of the students. Increments are considered as the effective motivators for the employees. Employees should recognize that the raises effectively represent a reward for outstanding performance. There are several forms of rewards that can motivate an employee to perform effectively, such as monetary reward, promotional reward or effective social recognition (Stein 192). Temple University is lacking of these aspects. Therefore, the university is facing it difficult to extract effective performance from their staffs. As a result, it can violate the reputation of the university among the society and students. Inadequate performance evaluation time and cost of the employees is another major HRM issue for Temple University. The management of the university is overlooking this performance evaluation process. In adequate salary distribution, reward distribution or lack of appropriate social recognition are the negative consequences of this poor performance development system. Part 3: Consultant Recommendations This part of the assignment will help Temple University to overcome the workplace associated issues and challenges. (A) Employee Moral First of all, the management of the university should understand their flaws associated with workplace. Lack of motivation is affecting the performance level of the staffs. Therefore, the management of the university should try to adopt effective leadership style. Employee management is a difficult task for a management of an organization. The global business sectors are aggressively trying to retain effective employees. However, the management of Temple University should try to develop professional development procedures for the employees. The management should adopt strategies like work only on 4 or 5 days per week. This strategy will help the university to reduce the level of work stress of the faculties and other university staffs. Moreover, the university should introduce workplace diversity in their operation to enhance collaborative working. (C) Performance Development System Effective motivation process can help an employee to perform significantly. Being a prestigious university, the Temple University should try to retain their effective faculties and support staff. The university is facing problem in employee motivation process. This issue is reducing the performance level of the employees (Armstrong 93). The management should try to review the performance level of the faculties based on the pass or fail reviews. In addition to this, the management should try to know the reason behind the ineffectiveness. Unfair increments are the major reason behind the workplace issues. The university should develop fair increment policy to improve the performance level of the faculties and staffs. The cost of living raise of the employees need to be considered by the management. Reduced working hours and working days have several positive aspects. It can help the university to reduce the consumption level of natural resources. It can help Temple University to reduce their operational cost. As a result, it can help the employees to attain fair raises. (D) Recommendations for Fairness Temple University should adopt cost effective operation strategy. The university can adopt several strategic planning processes to reduce their operation cost. 3 days of week off during summer time will help the university in both ways. First of all, it can reduce the level of electricity consumption of buildings and fuel consumption of transport vehicles. The university should focus on campus placement. They can employ their own students in their operation process. It can increase the efficiency and profitability of the university. Secondly, Temple University should try to reduce the turnover rate of employees. The management should introduce employee centric professional development plan and policies (Saraf 72). Moreover, they need to provide effective reward and compensation to the employees based on their performances. Last but not the least; the management of Temple University should try to keep their employees happy and engaged. The university should try to engage their effective faculties or support staffs in several education centric decision making processes. It can boost the morale level of the employees to perform effectively to achieve their professional and personal goal. Work Cited Cascio, F. Wayne. Managing human Resources: Productivity, Quality of Work Life, Profits. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2013. Print. Gregory, Raymond. Age Discrimination in the American Workplace. New York: Rutgers University Press, 2001. Print. Saraf, Dilip. Conquering your workplace. New York: iUniverse, 2005. Print. Stein, Steven. Make Your Workplace Great. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, 2010. Print. Temple. History. Temple University, 2013. Web. 14 September 2013. . Conlin, Joseph. The American Past, Volume II: Since 1865. Stamford: Cengage Learning, 2010. Print. Hilty, James. Temple University: 125 years of service, to Philadelphia, the Nation, and the World. Pennsylvania: Temple University Press, 2010. Print. Heneman, Robert. Strategic Reward Management. New York: IAP, 2002. Print. Armstrong, Michael. How to Manage People. London: Kogan Page, 2013. Print. Read More