Contributing Factors for Developing and Managing People - Essay Example

Contributing Factors for Developing and Managing People By + Contributing Factors for Developing and Managing People Human Resource management is a coherent and strategic approach to managing the most valued assets of an organization; the people working for the organizations, who both collectively and individually contribute to the company achieving its objectives (Armstrong, 2009, 4). In Human Resource, a number of issues arise in the course of managing people. I had the privilege of working for an organization that undertakes internet sales as its main activity, with its focus on electronic equipment. For the organization to perform effectively, the management had to hire competent staff with product knowledge on the products that the organization would be selling (Quinn, 2006, 26). In the course of working for the company, I realised a number of issues in the management of people. This paper shall look into the issues that I identified, and explain the details surrounding them based on the different theories in Human Resource to explain my experiences as well as explore possible solutions to these issues. The company has been in operation for about five years. During this period, the organization has seen three popular Chief Executive Officers leave the company for rival organizations. Despite the staff members not liking the feeling of seeing their heads go almost every year, they stay at the organization because the organization offers those emoluments and allowances such as health insurance cover, house allowance and transport allowance. However, the pay package that the organization offers is slimmer compared to the package that the other competing companies offer. The difference lies in the fact that at this organization, there are less stringent rules of engagement for the employees. For instance, twice a week employees do not have to wear strictly official weal. On Fridays and Saturdays when people attend work, they can dress up in casual wear. Secondly, there is a one-hour lunch break for all employees, as well as regular team-building activities for employees working in every department. The management hires employees purely on merit. However, the employees that the organization currently has have come from different ethnic and racial origins. At the organization’s various departments, there are people of African descent, Asians, Europeans, Native Americans and people of Spanish descent. This diversity has provided considerable challenges at the organization, especially with regard to communication among employees and the convergence of the differences in culture among the employees to come up with a united workforce that works in unison to achieve the goals of the organization. The majority of the employees at the organization are not satisfied with the environment in which they work. Most of them need higher remuneration for the work that they perform, yet the company has communicated that pay increases will only happen when employees reach sales targets and the company grows. Theories that apply to the case study Motivational Theories As mentioned earlier in this document, the employees of an organization form its greatest asset. The management has the responsibility of ensuring that employees at the organization receive adequate motivation for them to perform their duties adequately and achieve the corporate success that the organization and the management desire (FAO, n.d., n.p.). Employees at an organization should also be motivated to work according to the values of the organization. When employees are sufficiently motivated, the organization can benefit from employee retention, since the workers will have the desire to maintain their places of work (Armstrong, 2009, 251). From the case under study, it is evident that the organization has made a few steps towards motivating its employees through the provision of allowances like house allowance and health insurance for its employees. The employees may feel motivated to work for the organization because these allowances are essential to them, and they help them to cut their expenditure on housing and health care (Taylor, 2005, 142). The organization also provides a flexible and easy working environment for its employees, which is a motivational factor to employees. However, the organization’s management should do more to motivate the employees through offering better pay packages (Quinn, 2006, 77). Asking employees to perform first before they get higher salaries does not indicate creativity in motivation of employees on the part of the organization’s management. Instead of taking such a position, the management of the organization should motivate the employees in the various ways possible so that employees can feel motivated enough to increase their productivity. With an increased productivity, employees have higher chances of performing well in the various departments within the organization (Fee, 2005, 33). Process theory Expectancy theory The expectancy theory falls under the theory of motivation (Taylor, 2005, 151). This theory posits that employees at an organization have different goals that they have set and from these expectations, employees can derive motivation. Vroom’s expectation theory places more emphasis on the choice that employees make towards creating expectations and goals. In the case under study, it is imperative that the management encourages the employees to set goals for themselves so that they can make progress in their places of work both professionally and financially. The motivation that the employees can derive can come from provisions such as commissions for units sold per week or monthly. Such motivation can contribute to better outcomes for the employee and for the company as well (FAO, n.d., n.p.). However, an argument that could hold is that the satisfaction of an individual’s basic needs does not assure one of progression. Individuals will get motivated when their expectation that their actions will contribute to their achievement of set objectives. This theory also depends on the rational reasoning by employees to evaluate their own professional behaviour and make the decision to act in ways that contribute to rewards related to their work (Armstrong, 2009, 257). Content theory Content theory falls under the motivation theories. Employers look for high performance from employees. The performance of employees depends on several factors such as the ability of the employees, support from different places within the work setting as well as the motivation of the employee to undertake the tasks as described in their job description and towards the achievement of the goals of the organization. In that light, it is important to recognize that every employee in the organization has needs that he or she seeks to meet (Arnold, 2005, 124). The content theory is concerned with the employees’ needs, those that they desire to satisfy. According to Marslow’s Needs Hierarchy, employees seek to satisfy their needs in a certain order. A human being’s most basic needs are his security and safety needs, esteem needs, physiological needs, love and belonging needs and self-actualization needs (Taylor, 2005, 183). The management at the organization should motivate the employees in their desire to satisfy their most pertinent needs first so that they can focus on their work and deliver for the organization (Fee, 2005, 56). The company should pay employees well so that they do not leave the company to go and work for rival companies. Organization theories Classical organization theory: the Scientific Approach by Taylor This theory bases its reasoning on the concept that work should be planned so that the organization can achieve standardization, efficiency, simplification and specialization. The organization in the case study needs to adopt the scientific approach, so that employees become more efficient in their work and increase their productivity. The company is undergoing slow growth, which results from the company not making as much profits at it should. With profit maximization, the organization should be able to have better remuneration packages for its employees, along with additional allowances other than the ones the organization currently provides (Armstrong, 2009, 283). From this theory, when the organization’s employees increase their productivity and the organization begins performing better, the management should direct the advantages of such improvement to the employees (Maynard, n.d., n.p.). In relation to the case study, the management of the organization should put measures in place that increase the productivity of the employees, including training on capacity building so that the employees can increase their productivity. This will contribute to improvement of individual earnings as well as the institution’s overall earnings (Fee, 2005, 87). However, this theory fails to provide guidelines for the increment of the productivity of the workers. This part is essential, considering the fact that employee productivity forms the basis for the performance of an organization. It leaves it upon the employee to work out methods of increasing their productivity (Arnold, 2005, 134). Conclusion In the management of people, it is essential that various factors that motivate their work be availed to them. The management of organizations should emphasize on the comfort of employees, especially since by being the most essential resource for any organization, employees need to be sufficiently motivated to perform their duties (FAO, n.d., n.p.). Further, the organization needs to implement measures within its ranks that would allow the employee to work with the aim of improving their productivity for a specific reward. Subsequently, the organization will also benefit from such improvement of productivity (Maynard, n.d., n.p.). References Armstrong, M. (2009). Armstrongs handbook of human resource management practice (Eleventh ed.). London: Kogan Page. Arnold, J. (2005). Work psychology: understanding human behaviour in the workplace (4th ed.). Harlow, England: Prentice Hall/Financial Times. Fee, K. (2005). 101 learning and development tools: essential techniques for creating, delivering, and managing effective training ([Enhanced Credo ed.). London: Springer London. Quinn, R. E. (2006). Becoming a master manager: a competency framework (4th ed.). Chichester: John Wiley. Session 1. Organizational theories. (n.d.). Session 1. Organizational theories. Retrieved October 16, 2014, from http://www.fao.org/docrep/w7503e/w7503e03.htm Taylor, S. (2005). People resourcing (3rd ed.). London: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. Trevor Maynard The Value of Effective Marketing Integration. (n.d.). Trevor Maynard The Value of Effective Marketing Integration. Retrieved October 16, 2014, from http://www.trevormaynard.com/academic/HRMMotivate.htm Read More