Fundamentals of Human Resource - Assignment Example

Human Resource Management Table of Contents Question 3 Question 2 4 Question 3 5 Question 4 5 Question 5 6 Question 6 7 Question 7 8 Question 8 9 Question 9 9 Question 10 10 Reference 12 Question 1 1. Please explain what is ‘Ergonomics’ and its relationship with HRM. Ergonomics is a popular term in human resource management that refers to the science of work and people. Basically this term has been derived from two Greek words ‘ergon’ and ‘nomoi’ which means ‘work’ and ‘natural laws’ respectively. Ergonomics has become an important aspect in the study of human resource development. Figure 1 depicts the different areas that ergonomics deals with. Safety, health, training, productivity etc are the major concerns of human resource development (Khalil et al, 1993, p.1). The following diagram shows the intensive relationship that ergonomics shares with HRM. Figure 1: Areas of Study in Ergonomics (Source: Khalil et al, 1993, p.2) Question 2 2. Please explain what is ‘Job enlargement’? What are two of the methods of job enlargement and please at least one example for each of the methods. Job enlargement is one of the most important methods of designing a job for an organisation. Modern day business is pressurised with increasing work load, however the organisations are reluctant to taking up more employees. In such a situation, job enlargement is an important tool that assigns “workers additional same-level activities, thus increasing the number of activities they perform” (Brown, 2009, p.30). There are two popular methods of job enlargement i.e. job rotation and job extension. Job rotation involves frequent movement of employees from one department to another as per the job requirement. Job extension is the process of combining a multitude of tasks under a common profile. For example, a receptionist’s job may include typing, mailing and clerical tasks (Noe-a, 2006, p.123). Question 3 3. Please explain what are job enrichment and its primary purpose to HRM. Please also give an example of job enrichment. According to Hackman and Oldman, job enrichment deals with the qualitative change of job that helps to raise the degree of significance, autonomy and feedback and enables employees to gain higher authority in their work place (Feder, 1999). Job enrichment is meant to provide greater satisfaction to employees for increasing the quality and efficiency of job. For example to implement job enrichment, direct feedbacks of the employees are helpful as it increases the quality of job done by employees. Question 4 4. Flexible Work Schedules seems to have various benefits. Please explain at least two reasons why flexible work schedules are difficult to implement in many organizations. Flexible work schedules provide several benefits to the employees and it also helps to enrich the job quality. Many workers face tremendous difficulties to meet the exact work timing due to genuine personal problems. This is true in case of working mothers or single parents who have to take care of their children along with their professional jobs. However, the process of implementing flexible work schedule is not easy. Cross-functional tasks and job deadlines are two major difficulties faced by organisations while implementing flexible work schedule. Cross functional tasks require cooperation with different departments and often it is not possible to synchronise them. Job deadline is another major barrier in this respect as some jobs are required to be finished within the given deadline. Thus, it becomes difficult for organisations to implement flexible work schedule. Question 5 5. Please outline the human resource planning process? Human resource planning is an organised process that attempts to match the skills, talents and interests of human resources with the organisation’s long term objectives and its available opportunities. Figure 2 portrays the human resource planning process of an organisation. Figure 2: Human Resource Planning (Source: Mathis & Jackson, 2008, p.47) The above figure includes the various steps that are included in HR planning and takes into consideration the long term objective and strategies of the organisation. The next steps involve the assessment and scanning of the external and internal factors. Forecasting is also important to recognise the organisational needs and the available labour resource. Question 6 6. Stock option seems to be an indirect financial incentive for job applicants and existing employees. It is also one of the low cost benefits for employees. Please state why contemporary job applicants and existing employees would prefer other benefit such as flexible work hours or health care benefit? Compensation management is one of the important tasks in human resource that manages wages, salaries, incentives and other benefits given to the employees for their valuable contribution to the organisation. The compensation management often offers company’s stocks to their employee that helps the companies to avoid recording any compensation expense in their financial statement. However, employees are not satisfied with such indirect financial incentive and want other benefits like flexible work hour or health care benefits. These benefits help the employees to manage their work-life balance and provide them with the much required mental peace. Question 7 7. Are employment – at – will policies and due-process policies contradictory to each other? Which policy would be in favour the employer and which would in favour employees? Why? According to the employment-at-will policies, employer or employees are able to terminate the relationship at any point of time without any liability regardless any proper cause. Whereas, process policies “lay out the steps an employee can take to appeal a termination decision” (Noe-b, 2008, p.196). Process policies are more favourable for the employee than employment-at-will policies as the former provides many legal advantages to employees. Job security is one of the most important features that process policies have for the job applicants. The companies who focus on due-process policies assure high job security and benefits for the employees. However, employment-at-will polices seems to be more favourable for employers. Question 8 8. Please state all the external and internal recruitment sources. Please also state in general at least three recruitment sources their effectiveness in terms of yield ration and cost per hire. Organisations exercise various options to choose their employees according to their needs. These can be classified primarily into two categories. These are internal and external sources. The external recruitment includes placement agencies, educational institutes, employee referrals, press advertisements, labour contractors, unsolicited applicants, recruitment at factory gate etc and internal recruitment include sources like promotions, transfers, retired employees etc. Among all these mode of recruitment; promotions, transfer and educational institute are the most effective ones. Promotions and transfers are internal procedures that provide experienced and trained employees and incur minimum hiring cost. The educational institutes are also a good source of potential employees for the organisations. Question 9 9. What comment problems and weaknesses processed by recruiters? Please state at least two of them. What are the consequences resulted by such problems and weaknesses? What may be done to improve such problems and weaknesses? The behaviour and nature of the recruiters affect the feature of the vacancies as well as the applicants. The major problem faced by the recruiters is that most of the applicants perceive recruiters to be less knowledgeable. However, there are common weaknesses like unmet expectations, less knowledge about the job profile and misrepresented information. Unmet expectation leads to the building up of wrong perceptions about the recruiters in the mind of the applicants and misrepresentation of information leads to mistakes in hiring proper candidate for a particular job profile. Noe has suggested three ways to enhance the recruiters’ impact. These are A recruitment team is more efficient than individual recruiting. Recruiter must avoid offensive and abusive behaviour. Applicants should be provided timely feedback by the recruiters (Noe-a, 2006, p.166). Question 10 10. In the second step of Selection process, what are the two most important considerations? Give an example to explain the two considerations. The first step of selection process involves ‘screening of the applicants’ resumes and verifying whether these resumes are at par with the designed job profile. This is followed by the next stage where the selected candidates are allowed to sit for tests and work samples. This process includes steps like aptitude tests, achievement tests, physical strength and integrity tests to weed out dishonest candidates etc. In this process, validity and reliability are the most important factors that are taken into consideration. An example of reliability in this process is that the results of the tests like aptitude or IQ tests must be free from random error. The example for validity, for example, includes the measurement of height and weight as the valid test for the job of a security guard. Reference Brown, R. 2009. Careergonomics: A Practical Guide for Mastering Personal Development and Employment Success in the 21st Century. AuthorHouse. Feder, I. 1999. Customized Job Enrichment and its Effect on Job Performance. [Pdf]. Available at: http://bookpump.com/dps/pdf-b/1120699b.pdf. [Accessed on August 13, 2010]. Khalil, T.M., Abdel-Moty, E. M., Rosomoff, R. S. and Rosomoff, H. L. 1993. Ergonomics in Back Pain: A Guide to Prevention and Rehabilitation. John Wiley and Sons. Mathis, R. L. and Jackson, J. H. 2008. Human resource management. 12th Edition. Cengage Learning. Noe-a. 2006. Fundamentals of Human Resource. Tata McGraw-Hill. Noe-b. 2008. Human Resource Management (Sie) 5E. Tata McGraw-Hill. Read More