Human Resources Management Practice - Case Study Example

1.1 The elements that impact professional growth strategy involve the company’s strategy of keeping its own people without recruiting other skilled workers for instance. Recruiting skilled employees is advantageous in that they will bring a wealth of knowledge gained from their past experiences at other different organisations rather than retaining the same old people who may lack relevant knowledge in some instance. In some cases, head hunting tactics can be employed to outsource the best talent than keeping the same old staff as this would hinder growth strategy. The growth of the company and its professional products is seen through the expansion of the labour force. It seems the firm has no intention of hiring any extra employees even in crunch times. Rather, it prefers to retain its old staff which does not promote growth. Whilst it is a noble idea to retain the old workers, the strategy does not promote product innovation as the company would be relying on the same old ideas. Every firm operates in a dynamic environment hence, new changes have to be taken into consideration. New employees are likely to bring in some new ideas into the company that can be harnessed in the development of new or improvised products which promote growth of the products offered by the company. One major weakness of retention is that in the long run, it is likely to breed a culture of resistance to change. The old employees would be used to their traditional ways of doing things hence they would be so sceptical about anything which might be different due to fear of the unknown in most cases. Product innovation or growth is heavily suppressed by people who have a firm belief in their own ways of working they are used to. It can be noted from the above discussion that various factors outlined above impact in various ways to the professional product growth strategy with reference to the company’s position on the position to retain its staff even under difficult conditions. 1.2 In addition to training its employees for other jobs, the firm can as well revise or offer incentives that motivate the employees as a way of maintaining its relationship with domestic employees. Training people for other jobs requires extra effort on behalf of the employees so they ought to be motivated to undertake such an initiative which can also help them to understand better the nature of the job they do. As highlighted in the case study above, the company is vertical in its operations meaning that there is a hierarchy of some sort when it comes to delegation of duties. In this regard, highly skilled personnel occupy the top positions. However, training employees for other work needs motivation which loosely refers to the processes that account for an individual’s intensity, direction and persistence of effort towards attaining organisational goals (Robbins et al 2003). Whilst efforts are made towards the attainment of organisational goals, consideration should also be taken into account to cater for the needs and interests of the workers. Whenever employees are tasked to undergo training to perform other duties which are different from their skills, they would expect something positive from the company and this is the only viable way a firm might employ to maintain relationship with its domestic workers. In some instances, the work they would be trained to do would require more skills and extra effort hence the benefits to accompany such initiative must be commensurate with the effort invested. The expectancy theory aptly describes this scenario where employees are motivated to put maximum effort towards the attainment of the organisational goals. The expectancy theory says that an employee will be motivated to exert a high level of effort when he believes that effort will lead to good performance appraisal which will also lead to organisational rewards such as bonus or promotion in particular (Robbins 2003). Such rewards will satisfy the employee’s personal goals. In view of the above argument, this can be the most effective way of maintaining relationship with the domestic workers as they would have a motive to undertake training in extra work. If they do not expect to get anything from the training, they would be disgruntled which would lead to poor performance as a result of less satisfaction derived from their work. Over and above, individuals need to be motivated in order for them to put more effort in their performance by virtue of fully knowing that they will get something at the end of the day. 2. Basically, equal employment opportunity (EEO) is a legal approach to work place discrimination which states that it is against the law to deny a person a job or a job advantage because of race, gender, age or other primary characteristics. The computer assisted screening of applicants is partly unfair to a certain extent as potential employees would be denied the chance to get employment when they are dropped from the list at an early stage during the computer based interview as a lot of things about personalities and attributes are ought to be considered when selecting potential employees. A computer is a machine which is programmed by a human being and in its own capacity, it does not think or reason. The scenario of a computer interviewing a person may not reflect the exact characteristics of that person being interviewed as there is a tendency of inconsistency in the way a computer may be programmed to conduct the interview. There may also be no coherence in the structure of the interview as the computer would just perform the task it was programmed to do. The criteria might have disadvantages in that the interviewee is not given the opportunity to fully give details about his own side of the story but would only be expected to respond to already programmed questions. Potential employees may be disadvantaged because they can not fully give a detailed account of their experiences as well as other personal attributes over the computer. Some candidates are given a short interview while others, more likely candidates would be interviewed at great length. This is unfair since these people who have been given limited time are not given equal opportunity compared to their counterparts who are interviewed at length. The behavioural based interviewing approach used by Nike in the given case study is also not fair to a certain extent when it comes to giving all the potential employees an equal chance to employment. Whilst it may be advantageous to the company itself in that it would get the right people with the right skills on the basis of their experience and strengths, the method of selection is unfair on behalf of other inexperienced job seekers. In this case, employment opportunities are only entitled to those who already have experience. Those who have no experience in this case are denied the chance to prove their capabilities and competencies since preference is given to the experienced workers. This is an indirect way of discriminating against other potential employees on the basis of lack of experience. It can be noted that there are notable practices outlined in the case study which do not give equal opportunities to all the jobseekers as the criteria used are unfair since other potential employees are systematically disadvantaged even though they may be capable of doing the job with suitable qualifications. 3. When setting the wages for the purchasing agent, Perkins and Balkin should consider that the market is dynamic hence susceptible to changes depending on the interests and needs of the customers. In some instances, business will be very high while in some cases it will be very low. One major consideration that should be taken into account is the fact that the purchasing business is never stable at one particular position but is characterised by ups and downs. Therefore, given this scenario, it would be very advisable to consider a pay-for-performance based wage strategy. This strategy is advantageous in that it does not strain the financial resources of a company in the event of low business being witnessed. Much of the revenue generated by the company is generated from the sales hence if there are little sales, it might be difficult to meet all the wages of the purchasing agents. On the other hand, fixed wage structures are likely to cause conflicts in the long run as the agents would feel as if they are being underpaid by virtue of observing the sales recorded by the company. A commission based wage structure is also advantageous in that the workers will know right from the onset that their wages are determined by the amount of sales they generate for the company. Under normal circumstances, there is no person who is ever satisfied by the pay he is given. Surprisingly, some workers would even press for salary reviews moments after being awarded a hefty salary hike. In this case, each purchasing agent would know that he will get wages that are commensurate with what he has sold instead of continuously pressing the administrative body for review of their salaries. On the other hand, commission based wages are a source of a major boost in the overall purchases made for the whole company. The agents will be target driven hence the need to generated more sales which would mean more money would motivate them to perform extra hard fully knowing that they would earn more if they manage to generate more sales. Overally, this will be a big advantage to the company as a whole since it would manage to witness a growth in the total sales which would mean more revenue generated. Over and above, it can be concluded that commission based wage strategy is advantageous in that it is target driven which would mean that there are high chances of boosting the sales as individual purchasing agents will always put optimum effort in doing their business. Sources Michael Armstrong (1999), Human Resources Management Practice, 7th Edition, Kogan Page Limited, USA. Thornburg L, “Computer Assisted Interviewing Shortens Hiring Cycle,” HRMagazine 43, no 2 (February 1998): 73-79 Robins S.P., Odendaal, A. & Roodt, T., (2001), Organisational Behaviour: Global and Southern African Perspective, Pearson Education, SA. Read More