The Most Important Concepts of Human Resources Management Based on Pricewaterhouse Coopers - Coursework Example

HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT and Section # of Introduction Human resource management has grown considerably in the past few decades from just hiring and firing, the department has acquired many other functions as well but to understand why this has taken place the evolution of strategic human resource management and some of the most important concepts need to be studied. TASK 1 Sub Heading 1 The organization that is used for the purpose of this assignment is pricewaterhouse coopers, it is an organization that fits closest to the concepts that will be discussed in this paper and has a flexi work arrangement for its workers, but only 6% of all employees have a formal agreement for flexi timing. a) The guests model of human resource practices basically propagates the usage of hard and soft dimensions of HRM, these are basically tools that direct a business to proper usage of their human resources, in essence they are strategies that direct a company on how they should treat their human resources. The hard-soft approach basically is a totally contrasting approach as is evident by the name, the hard approach propagates that the business integrate the human resources that it has closely with its business strategies i.e. that the human resources should not be treated in isolation of the business rather the business should look at them as cost centres and treatment should be according to the business cycles. Firms that follow a hard HRM dimension believe in laying of their employees when the business conditions call for such a measure, the followers of this dimension believe in work intensification and prolonged working hours as they believe that employees are cost centres, working intensification leads to lower costs in the form of more work being done in a lesser amount of time and hence lesser compensation. The hard dimension also propagates that firms link the pay of their employees to the performance of each employee, what this does is that it makes the employees to work much harder and get work done much more efficiently. On the other side of the spectrum is the soft approach which basically says that the ‘human’ element of employees should not be ignored and they should be treated as individuals who have a human aspect to them, the dimension needs organizations to empower its employees and give them the space to take initiatives and mould the organizational system in such a manner that it leads to employee involvement at all levels of the organization and this leads to employee commitment to the organization. The soft dimension also focuses on employee development through training programs so that employees are never obsolete and can always add some value to the organization through the newly acquired skill set. Price water house coopers ensures that its employees receive periodical trainings so that they are never obsolete and this has turned price water house cooper to be what it is today because human element is the most important in auditing .Equal opportunity employees fall under the category of employees that practice the soft dimension of HRM, some companies that practice the soft dimension in the contemporary world are cadburry shwepes and crown Ltd. Companies that follow the hard dimension are CSR and Email Ltd. The hard approach is basically driven from theory X which states that humans do not like to work and hence have to be closely monitored and regulated, where as the soft approach is driven from theory Y which says that humans will work for a cause that they are committed to and hence the softer dimensions looks to liberate the workers but keep them committed by involving them in the organization at many levels. b) Storey has defined different criterias for the differences in HRM and personnel models, the criterias are time & planning, psychological contract, control systems, employee relations, structures and systems, roles and evaluation criteria. In the HRM model the focus is basically on long term, strategic and integrated planning, the psychological contract is that of commitment, self control systems, employee relations are fostered in an environment of high trust and the outlook is highly individualistic, the systems are highly flexible, roles are usually integrated with management and the evaluation criteria that is used is maximum utilization through the humanistic approach. Where as in the personnel or the industrial relations the planning element is much more reactive and ad hoc, the psychological contract is that of compliance to the standards within the organizations, control systems are externally regulated, employee relations are dealt on a collective basis and there is an element of low trust, the structures and systems are centralized and much more formalized, roles are usually professional or specialist and the evaluation criteria is cost minimization with an element of the hard approach of HRM. These are some of the distinct differences between the HRM and personnel management models according to storey. Price water house coopers is a firm believer in human resource management rather than personnel management and has a fully active human resource management department that is committed to serve the best interest of the company by hiring and promoting the best talent that there is available c) In the strategic human resources model the key managers are line managers because they are the people that this approach looks to empower and they are a key element for any human resources strategy to be implemented successfully, managers in this kind of model have to assume a transformational leadership role whereby they are required to address the needs of the human assets within the company, the communication in this kind of model is much more direct than in Personnel Management and line managers and employees communicate directly with each other rather than having any personnel management specialist acting as a go between. A major challenge for managers is that there are no clear operating procedures when it comes to employee handling, each case has to be given individual attention and the humanistic element has to be kept in mind that is why line managers in such organizations should be facilitators to the employees rather than being bureaucratic. It follows a system of trainees being trained under a senior manager, the senior manager in the case of price water house coopers is the line manager and serves the responsibilities that have been chalked out above. TASK 2 a) Flexibility is a key concept in HRM practices in the contemporary world, one model which is the most well known and is most commonly applied in the modern era is that of ‘Flexi-time’ or flexible work timing. The idea is basically to create a work environment where employees can select their own work schedules according to whatever is convenient for them because not everyone is at ease with working from 9am to 5pm on a daily basis and hence it is a very useful tool. Employees have to be present at ‘core’ timings which are usually in the morning and constitute 50% of the work time of a day but they have the liberty to choose the other 50% according to their own convenience. For example the core timings are 9am to 1pm, the employee would have to be present at that time but the other four hours he or she can schedule according to their own convenience, it can be from 3pm to 7pm as well. This is a relatively easy to implement HRM system and any organization can put it to use with relative ease. b) Women are increasingly becoming a part of the workforce in all areas and units of the organization but at the same time they cannot let go of their family responsibilities. Although they are becoming more and more professionally dynamic they still have to take care of their children and perform all sorts of household chores. With the increasing divorce rate all around the globe, the concept of single parents is increasingly becoming common. Hence, one parent has to perform the duties of two and this has led to an increase in the need of flexible timings at work. Some jobs are such that they require flexible timings because they need high concentration levels at all times and hence the need for breaks at regular intervals to keep the concentration levels at the optimum level has become a necessity. Flexible timings is one of the ways that employers grant the employees a high level of flexibility but there are other ways and methods by which employers are guaranteeing their employees high levels of flexibility, flexi work places is another example, this allows the employers to work from different places such as their home, the role of modern technology has to be appreciated because high internet speeds and different technologies have made it possible for people to work from their homes and most organizations in the developed world have adopted the practice of flexi time and flexi work places. Another kind of flexibility is the advent of part-time labor, people can work only part time in some organizations i.e. they do not have to work the whole day 9am to 5 pm but rather they can work on a part time shift which would be for around 4 hours and they would be paid according to the work that they have done, this kind of flexibility is more dominant in the manufacturing sectors. All of these flexible work practices are implementable very easily, the organization has to decide upon one of the strategies or more than one if they are interested in doing so and they can achieve this by ensuring that they have the right systems in place to allow for these kinds flexible procedures, it is also very important that they have the right technology systems to implement the flexible work place systems because if they do not then it would not be possible at all for the organization or its employees to work from a remote location. Price water house coopers allow for the following; Family leaves, Briefcase Moms, Briefcase Parents, Child Care and access to Employee Assistance Program. The advantages for the employees is that they have more choice and they would feel liberated because of the choices that they have and this can have a direct positive impact on the performance of employees, more flexibility means that they can work with relatively more ease because the pressures of their personal lives are considerably reduced because of such kind of flexibility. The disadvantage could be that they might have too many distractions leading to lower output, for example if someone chooses to work from home they would have many distractions such as children or guests coming over and hence disrupting their work. For employers the advantages are that they would be able to retain the work force with relative ease because they have flexible systems rather than rigid ones which can sometimes lead to a high employee turnover ratio. Another advantage is that they foster higher levels of employee commitment because of such flexible work systems. One disadvantage might be that the costs for such employees can increase due to increase in over heads resulting from flexible timings because they might have to keep the office open for a larger amount of time, or they might have buy technology systems so that they can cater to flexible work places which can be relatively costly. TASK 3 a) There are various forms of discrimination that are prevalent in the corporate environment but some of the most notable ones are discriminations based on gender, race, ethnicity and religion. Some employers prefer to work with males rather than having females in the work force for a variety of reasons and this leads to discrimination that is based on gender. Muslims and people from minority communities sometimes complain that they are being discriminated against on the basis of religion, blacks have also had this complaint for quite some time now and so do Asians. Discrimination is not only practiced at the entry level or the hiring level of an organization but it can also be practiced by line managers when they are filling up forms for promotion of the employees working under them or when bonuses have to be distributed. b) Equal Employment Opportunity or EEO is one of the legislations that deal with discrimination in the workplace, this legislation basically says that no employer can discriminate between prospective candidates on the basis of gender, ethnicity, race or religion. Organizations can ensure equal employment opportunities by training the recruitment staff to be non-discriminatory and evaluating the recruitment staff continuously to check for any visible sign of discrimination. The recruitment staff should be internally liable to give reasons for hiring a particular person over other applicants as this can lead to the unearthing of any discriminatory behavior if present. Proper training and feedback measures is critically important and these are the measures that the organization has to take to ensure that there is no discrimination and it is important that the organization does so because if it does not it can be taken to court and would have to pay a very high price if it is found guilty. Price water house coopers is a declared EEO and ensures that there is no discrimination at any level of the organization and that people are hired if they have sufficient background to fulfill the responsibility of the position but as with many other firms, price water house coopers has raised the bar extremely high and their intake is based solely on quality. c) Some employees are focusing on diversifying their work force continuously and look to higher people with diverse backgrounds, some employees have raised the bar for their intake and only concentrate on the quality of the intake rather than the race, religion or ethnicity of the applicants. Many companies conduct seminars and encourage their employees to attend such seminars where cultural diversity is explained so that the biases that lead to discrimination can be removed from within the present workforce. A current initiative from price water house coopers includes training its human resources department to overcome their own biases and to bring out their biases out in the open during training so that they can be addressed. They are also focusing on training employees at the managerial staff level to identify discriminatory behavior of all kinds and of all levels so that it can be addressed as soon as it is evident. d) Equal opportunity is more focused on the hiring procedures whereby the company focuses on giving equal employment opportunity to everyone who applies or everyone who is eligible to apply but management of diversity is related to the current employees and how they inter act with each other, both of these terms have become increasingly important because of globalization and both of them have to be taken care of. Diversity can be managed through making people understand each other so that differences can be removed and this can be done through case studies, role plays, seminars and other such activities where as equal opportunity is secured through legislation. So in comparison it can be said that they are two different things and there are different tools to address the problems associated with them, as mentioned above as well EEO is a proper law now and if not implemented there can be charges against the company for discrimination but there are no strict rules and regulations related to managing diversity in fact each organization can have their own tools to address the issue, with price water house coopers organizational level activities such as games and picnics are the tools that are used to bring people, who are from different backgrounds, close together and make them understand each other and over come their differences. Conclusion In conclusion all that there is to put forwards is that price water house coopers is doing a fantastic job by having the right combination of the human resource policies and strategic maneuvering of these policies has enable price water house coopers to be the largest audit firm in the whole world, the concepts have although developed nearly two decades ago are still applicable in todays environment as shown by price water house coopers. Self Evaluation I believe I have done justice to the topic and the paper over all but some aspects could have been done in a better fashion because there is always some room for improvement. But the paper has been written after a thorough research and has helped me grasp the major concepts of strategic human resource management. BIBLIOGRAPHY Bratton J., Gold J. (2001). Human Resource Management – Theory and Practice. Routeldge. Armstrong M. (2000). Strategic human Resource Management: a guide to action. Kogan Page Publishers. Albrecht M. (2001). International HRM: managing diversity in workplace. Wiley Blackwell. Armstrong M. (2006). A handbook of international HRM Practice. Kogan Page. Patricia M. Trainer. 2009 HR pros and employees report high job satisfaction BLR HR [online] available at http://hr.blr.com/HR-news/HR-Administration/Communication/HR-Pros-and-Employees-Report-High-Job-Satisfaction/ Jane. 2008. Some employers say generation Y workers a challenge. BLR HR [online] available at http://hr.blr.com/HR-news/HR-Administration/Communication/Some-Employers-Say-Generation-Y-Employees-Are-a-Ch/ Read More