Human Resource Management Final - Essay Example

Final Human Resource Management Paper Business organizations operate in their respective environments as determined by organizationalstructure, culture, leadership style, strategic competitive environment and a host of other internal and external influences such as the regulatory framework. Given the degree of influence under these circumstances, each organization adopts its own leadership style with a view to achieving organizational goals such as profits, market share growth, higher share prices, quality improvements, brand loyalty, sustainability and benchmarks. These organizational goals can be divided into short term goals and long term goals. In order to achieve those organizational goals there should be a very good leadership style in organizational environment. There are many different leadership styles in the modern business world and almost every one of them has a particular reason or reasons for its existence. According to Burns (1978) transformational leadership has a set of category constructs such as values, morals, farsightedness, long term goals, principles, acute awareness about the dividing line between causes and symptoms, mission statements, strategic perspectives and human resources. Transformational leadership is primarily and immediately concerned with winning the support of those subordinates to achieve predefined organizational goals. While many such objectives are not realized in the short run due to a variety of reasons such as inadequate planning and wrong forecasts about cash flow, sales revenue and profits, there can be some recovery in the long term. Transformational leader seeks with fervent hope to inculcate a sense of responsibility and pride in achievements among the subordinates. A critical theoretical perspective that has been developed on this particular aspect looks at the transformational leader’s attitude towards his\her subordinates as power-sharing partners whose contribution to the productive process is rewarded with acknowledgment. However according to the leadership style in People Express it was centered on a hybrid model of the time, i.e. a good admixture of people orientation and share ownership in the company would motivate the average employee to perform better. The former is directly related to the transactional leadership theory while the latter is linked to the then populist ideological concept of ‘share owning democracy’ (www.harvardbusiness.org). Neither of them worked. Instead Burr should have focused on the very management and organizational culture at People Express. For instance he could have done better by creating proper channels of communication for continuous feedback of information, especially from the lower layers. Secondly employees could have been encouraged to take part in service ‘quality improvement circles’. People orientation is basically a concept associated with democratic organizational structure and management style. However Burr failed to notice that what he needed was a skills identification strategy to overcome the level of competition in the market. This is true even today. Ritz Carlton Hotel Company has a set of specific values and its philosophy based on gold standards - Credo, Motto, three steps of service, service values, 6th diamond and the employees promise – is characterized by a desire to achieve motivation related positive synergies at each level of the organizational hierarchy (www.ritzcarlton.com). However leadership style of Ritz Carlton is characterized by transformational and democratic principles and employees are empowered to provide their superior service to create a unique personal experience to its guests. Management and the subordinates are always responsive to their guests in order to achieve critical success factors of the organization. The existing degree of freedom for the lower level tiers of the hierarchy has proved that the organization has been run on the principle of broader employee participation in the decision making process. However critics have pointed out that this is limited in every way because very few such decisions filter in to the top level decision making process of the Hotel, if at all. Hewlett Packard (HP) is a high tech firm in global reach. Its corporate objectives are characterized by a set of values from the very inception of the company (Packard, 2006). Thus its organizational leadership structure consists of a short hierarchy where leaders are functionaries at all levels. However the management structure and decision making processes were decentralized at HP with a view to making important decisions affecting to the company’s daily operations. HP implements a horizontal communication to be carried out with a specific focus on organizational goals. Motivation of staff at HP is rooted in the delegation of decision making powers and responsibility to team leaders. In fact the current leadership capability of HP developed leaders at all levels in order to meet the values and win in the international competitive business environment. 2. (a) In the first instance globalization and/or globalism particularly refer to a set of liberal economic principles that underlie the very nature of how best to expand international business links beyond the national borders of countries. However in order to achieve and win in the global market, managers of the organizations should practiced unique HRM policies and principles in their particular organization (Holden, 2005). This diversity has injected a considerable amount of controversy and conjecture into the current discourse on the subject though. However it is the technological environmental influences that have impacted heavily on the organizational goals and outcomes of the modern business organization. Particularly the operations need to be updated in keeping with competitors’ moves. Modern equipment costs dearly when innovative approaches are put in place. The big organization has the resources to meet these new challenges. Thus the organization’s capabilities would be decided primarily by the technological innovations that the management is able to put in place. Cultural diversity of workforce in modern business organizations has attracted the attention of many researchers. Multicultural workforces in the context of the modern business organization have been studied with specific reference to international Human Resource Management (HRM) practices. HRM involves such tasks as recruitment, training & development (T&D) of skills, employee relations, retention and motivation strategies, workplace culture and delegation of power, authority and responsibility (Berman, 2009). Thus a far more strategic significance is assumed by its country-specific and organization-specific contexts than any other dimension. 2. (b) Globalization has had a negative impact on People Express. In the first place the airline has been forced to operate with surplus capacity and increasing labor costs. Secondly globalization has forced People Express to adopt far reaching cost cutting measures that might affect service quality and standards. Further People Express has to invest a considerable amount of money in improving its IT infrastructure. Right now the company’s faced with cash flow problems and budgetary constraints. Finally increasing cultural diversity of its workforce requires higher expenditure levels on T&D skills. Ritz-Carlton hotel chain has been affected by globalization in a different way. At the operational level Ritz-Carlton depends on global expertise to manage its departmental level operations at both individual hotels and holiday resorts. Globalization has threatened its global operations in two ways. In the first place the hotel depends on local labor force that is increasingly becoming expensive due to expatriate training programs. Secondly the organization’s supply chain management is becoming more expensive due to supplies being sourced from different part of the world. On the other hand IT related constraints have forced the hotel to curtail expenditure on new expansion programs. Finally cultural diversity of its workforce has a negative impact on its T&D programs. As for HP globalization has forced it to abandon some of its expansion plans in China. Secondly its IT related expenditures in overseas factories have been rising due to rising equipment cost and labor cost. Finally cultural diversity of its workforce especially in Asia entails ancillary cost for highly expensive T&D programs at a variety of factories. 2. (c). People Express is not so much geared to meeting the challenges of globalization in its current strategic orientation related incapabilities. Thus it’s essential for the organization to develop a systemic approach such as a cost effective staff recruitment and training strategy. IT infrastructure related expenditures have to be aligned with the forecasted cash flow. Finally People Express needs to redesign its strategy on cultural diversity of staff and related recruitment. Its inability to retain trained cadres has to be overcome through higher incentives. Ritz Carlton Hotel is similarly faced with problems related to globalization. Globalization has threatened international level operations of Ritz-Carlton and therefore the Hotel needs to refocus on how best to train and retain few local and foreign employees as a core group for the continuous operation. Similarly the hotel should focus on developing a new IT infrastructure development program such as one based on outsourcing contracts to cheaper suppliers. Finally the Hotel must exclusively develop job enrichment and enlargement practices to retain the above mentioned core group of employees. HP’s current level of operations especially in Asia are more likely to falter if the Chinese manufacturing concerns are not well managed to achieve the positive synergies associated with globalization. For example Chinese labor force requires not only a higher level of training but also costly retraining programs. The company should reduce the core labor force to a minimum. Its ICT related problems are centered on the rivals’ modernization programs. For example Dell, IBM, Toshiba, Sony and Samsung have spent millions of dollars on modernizing their IT infrastructure. HP has to follow suit. As for cultural diversity the workforce requires retraining programs and expatriate placement schedules. 3. (a) The value statement for the toys manufacturer can be based on the company’s customer value creation strategy “Safety, Care, Quality and Fun” (source: original). As a value statement shows the first word is Safety. This key concept has become a very big issue in the current times. For instance toys come from a variety of sources and a variety of countries. The potential customer must be informed about the level of safety for their kids. The word Care carries a greater weight because parents and elders care for their kids. Similarly Quality matters because children need quality products. Fun is associated with keeping the kids happy during the play time. Thus each toy must be exciting enough to the kid. Vision statement for the company can be based on its futuristic philosophy. “We are committed to creating healthier and intelligent future generations with emphasis on the preservation of the environment”(source: original). The first word in the mission statement which strikes the reader is “committed”. The word commitment gives an idea about the company’s future plans. Next creating healthier and intelligent future generations would appeal to people because parents and elders want their kids to be healthier and intelligent. However such statements can be questioned by legal authorities. Regulators often question such claims unless sufficient proof is given. 3. (b) R&D department of the company will have to develop some compensation programs for employees’ efforts. In the first instance research must be carried out as to how to compensate those regular comers as against absentees. The technology aspect of toy manufacturing depends on the cost factor and the operational safety of gadgets. The employees of the technological unit deserve a higher level of compensation for target oriented productivity. They must be compensated according to project completion within defined time schedules. The sales people of the toy manufacturing firm perform a very vital task in identifying market segments and pushing up sales in niche markets to maintain a steady cash flow. Thus they must be compensated on the basis of meeting sales targets. Finally administrative unit has employees who are trained to carry out such difficult task as managing the whole company on a day-to-day basis. The staff must be compensated by using an efficiency determination technique such as one based on regular attendance and optimum coordination. 3. (c) The toy manufacturing company has adopted the following three policies in HRM related practices in addition to the above. In the first place the company has a motivation strategy that encourages employees in all four departments to contribute to the progress of the company by way of participating in quality improvement circles. Even the administrative staff are called upon to contribute to these quality improvement programs. One such program is centered on creating quality circles to develop ways and means for the quality improvement in each aspect of the toy such as the counting machine’s ability to process the child’s commands efficiently and fast. Monthly the most efficient quality circle consisting of 5 employees with the leader gets a reward. Next the company has put in place a strategic initiative, viz. measuring clock-in and clock-out times of the staff according to their time of arrival and the time of departure. For example if the latter is later and the former is earlier, then that particular employee would receive a commensurate compensation for his contribution (Karen, 1998). On the other hand those who report late and leave early are de-compensated. Finally the company has adopted a third strategy in which employees of the four units are compensated on the basis of additional qualification and training received at a higher level during evenings and weekends at some designated institutions. For example management employees are expected to further their qualifications and training by attending part time courses of study at collages and poly-techniques. REFERENCES 1. Berman, Evan. Human Resource Management in Public Service: Paradoxes, Processes, and Problems.3rd ed. California: Sage Publications, 2009. 2. Burns, James Macgregor. Transforming Leadership: The Pursuit of Happiness. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2003. 3. Holden, Philip. HR and Its Implications for Corporate Strategy. Oxford: Spiro Press, 2005. 4. Karen, Jorgensen. Pay for Results: A Practical Guide to Effective Employee Compensation. California: Silver Lake Publishers, 1998. 5. Packard, David. The HP Way: How Bill Hewlett and I Built Our Company .New York: Collins Business, 2006. 6. Gold standards of Ritz-Carlton, Retrieved from www.ritzcarlton.com on December 18, 2009. 7. Beer, M. People Express Airlines: Rise and Decline, Retrieved from www.harvardbusiness.org on December 18, 2009. Read More