Managing People in Practice - Literature review Example

Managing People in Practice Table of Contents Introduction 3 Discussion 3 Performance Appraisal 5 Reward management 5 Training and development 6 Recruitment program 7 Training program 7 Development program 7 Human Resources Performances 8 Leadership 8 Conclusion 10 References 11 Introduction The centrepiece of every successful organization is the application of effective human resource management and operative human relations. In every workplace, the relationship between management and employees is regarded as the substantial value. Furthermore, human relations are determined as the process of fostering work culture, resolution of conflict between management and employees, training and addressing the prerequisites of employees. It is vital for organization to understand the importance of human relation in the workplace. Moreover, the effective application of human relations in the workplace can foster creativity, increase productivity and reduce employee turnover. In the time of dynamic competitive market, the importance of human resource management in aviation industry is vital to develop effectiveness in labour, fuel and aircraft productivity. British Airways is one the profitable flag carrier airline industry in the world. Therefore, it is vital for British Airways to apply effective human relation in workplace to enhance the productivity of organization and performance of employees. The prime purpose of the paper is to provide detailed explanation on the significance of HRM and leadership to foster performance of employees and organization in the aviation industry. Discussion According to Ariya Furkfon, human resource management is vital in every industry, as machines would not work effectively with the help of people. An organization with efficient human resource department can help to meet the needs of business by handling the utmost valuable resources of any company i.e. employees. Recruitment, safety, employee relations, compensations, compliance, training and development are pivotal function of human resource management. According to Minbaeva, organization uses HRM practices to generate organization knowledge and manage complex social relations to sustain and maintain competitive advantage over other competitors. Moreover, it can be explained that HRM practices are set of philosophies, formal policies and specific practices that are specially designed to retain and influence employees to ensure survival and effective operational of the organization. British Airways Plc. is the largest flag carrier airline based on international destination, international flights and fleet size. Four key mission of the company is to focus on employees need, customer requirements, competition and global economic climate. Over the decades, British Airways Plc. has experienced several disappointments. But over the period of time, the corporate objectives of the company were based on effective customer service through resource development. The HRM department of the company started with soul and heart to achieve the corporate objective of the British Airways Plc. Human resource management practices of British Airways Plc. are considered as one of the strongest component. Recruitment, promotions, selection and training systems of the company is determined as one of the best practices. The management strategy of the company is to enhance customer service by effective long, short and medium-term strategies through rationalized training, selection, promotion, and recruitment practices. This is the reason why people look in to the management strategy of the company to generate demanding and intensive training modules. According to British Airways, the performance of staffs working in the organization is vital for the completion of objectives. The most significant development in the airline industry can be seen in three areas such performance appraisal reward management, training and development. Performance Appraisal The quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the job performance can be measured by performance appraisal. The application of effective strategy for performance appraisal not only evaluates the potential of development of employee but also performance. The chief objective of the introduction of performance appraisal in the organization as an HRM activity is to identify training needs, set future objectives, facilitate achievements and assess past performance. For example, the broader concern for British Airways Plc. is the employee development. The philosophy of British Airways is to focus on individual performance. Furthermore, this is the pivotal reason which led the company to one of the successful and largest international airline organizations. The company introduced appraisal scheme is improve relationship between performance and reward. The performance related payments is introduced by British Airways Plc. to make work of the employees within the workplace efficient. At British Airways, administrative staffs are also paid remunerations on the basis of performance. Reward management Employees working in British Airways Plc. are motivated by good remuneration of rewards and packages. The company is moving their strategy to focus on individual determined remuneration. Moreover, these remunerations can be both extrinsic and intrinsic benefits. The company provides individual performance and standardized pay to enhance the performance of employees. This is the one of the crucial part of the human resource management activities of the organization to enhance productivity and attain objectives. The job evaluation grading system governs the percentage of staff earnings. British Airways Plc. also introduced purchase tax free shares to employees. So, it can be clear the introduction of selected human resource activities through good remuneration packages and effective training and development program can enhance the performance of the employees and deliver high quality customer facility. Training and development A significant investment has been by British Airways Plc. in training and development to improve the image of the organization. According to researches, the behavior of staff can influence the level of satisfaction of customers. New training and development program has been developed by the company in a task of changing the attitudes and values of organization towards the customers. New recruited staff and old employees are provided training to provide excellent customer service. Two major learning programs have been introduced by the company to provide extensive employee access. The first program Top Flight is based on providing series of academies which is designed for employees to maintain their program with number of development steps. The second program is the principles of open learning. This program is based providing opportunity to the people to number of qualifications and progressive stages to an MBA degree. The University of Bath provides the degree of MBA to the completion of each stage. These are the following HRM activities initiated by British Airways Plc. to motivate staffs in the workplace to progress. It is believed by every organization that application of effective human resource management can create quality work culture and quality work force. The human capital and employees of an organization is ensured by HRM strategy that it effectively contributes with their knowledge, skills and performance towards its achievements. The key principle of application of HRM strategy is to achieve the vision and mission of an organization. In early 1980s, the human resource management policies that are followed by British Airways are the example of some of HRM concepts that are learned by people. Three key human resource management planning and development program of British Airways are recruitment program, training program and development program Recruitment program The recruitment procedure of British Airways is based on intellectual capacity and analytical skills. The management experience is viewed as least important part at the time of recruitment process. Managers from Royal Air Force joined British Airways recruit suitable people for appropriate position in the organization. Training program Several training program is introduced by British Airways to change attitudes and values within the organization. Moreover, this process of employee recruitment is predominantly based on staff those are basically exposed to the customer communication. Customer First Campaign is undertaken by British Airways which is based on customer centric. Furthermore, this program is being initiated by number of international organizations. Putting People Program is another training program of which is initiated for two days and aimed to more than 19,000 employees. The significant task of the staff is focusing on customers. Managing People First is another one week residential program introduced by the company to breakdown the bureaucracy. Additionally, this establishment has established essential system control, reliability, level-headedness and values of order. Development program A substantial investment has been made by British Airways in development of employees. The number of development and training programs has been established by the company to maintain competitive advantage. The introduction of Top Flight Program and MBA program are some of the development steps. Human Resources Performances In 1974, British Airways Board was created by merging of British Overseas Airways Corporation and British European Airways. Eventually in the year 1980, the company has recorded significant losses due to implementation of effective HRM strategies within the organization. Since then, there have been significant level of restructure and redesigning of human resource to undertake program that can bring radical alteration in the company. Several training and development program have been initiated by the company for managers and line staffs. A conservable amount of investment has been made on HR performance and HR planning. The significant rate of cultural changes has created noteworthy contribution towards the improvement in the performance of business. Market research has been done to verify and reveal the outcome of the radical change within the organization. The research revealed that the rate of customer satisfaction has been positive. The rapid upsurge of HR performance has effectively contributed towards the improvement of performance in the organization. Leadership Leadership is one of the primary functions in organization. Leadership is defined as the communicating the vision, resolving conflicts with others and establishing a clear vision for completion of objectives of the company. The application of effective leadership style in organization can help achieve goals of the organization. Leaders are regarded as the strong figures and have a noteworthy extent of responsibility for creation of good organization culture and lead the direction. According to Crosby and Bryson, leadership is defined as the encouragement and mobilization that is undertaken for common assistance. According to Barnard, Leadership is the ability and capability of superior to persuade and influence subordinates to follow their path and action. The job and responsibly of employees working in British Airways is very specific. The leadership style of CEO of British Airways is confrontational and bureaucratic. Bureaucratic leadership style relies on innovation, creativity and flexibility. The leadership style of Willie Walsh is based on ensuring people to follow mission and vision of the company accurately. Confrontational leadership style is based on involving in communication with management and union to find effective solution for introduction of change management in the organization. Charismatic, democratic, bureaucratic, people-oriented and task-oriented are some of the important leadership styles. Leaders with charismatic leadership style can inspire staff and teams in the organization to drive forwards and be energetic on their work. Democratic is another leadership style where leaders invite other members of the teams and sector to provide effective information that can efficiently contribute towards the administrative system. People oriented leadership style includes participative, delegate and autocratic (Hill and Jones, 2009, p.157). This style is based on stimulating ideas and lot of brainstorming and teamwork. Task oriented leadership style is one of the behavioural approach of leaders focusing on tasks that are needed to be accomplished to meet organizational objectives and goals. Leadership style is viewed as the vital part of organization as it can act as a catalyst to make elements work together to maximize the efficiency. Therefore, the execution of effective organization structure and leadership style can harmonize the expectations and needs of people working within the aviation industry to create successful culture. Conclusion This can be concluded that selection of effective HRM policies and activities can help to fulfil the strategic goals and objectives of organization to achieve competitive advantage. In the era of globalization and competitiveness, it is vital for manufacturing-based industries to turn in to innovative sources and gain competitive advantage through application of effective practices of human resource management. In modern human resource management, it is beneficial to examine and investigate the rate of practice of dictate style of leadership in reference to the transformational and authorizing practices of leadership. The strengthening of the management practice of the British Airways has effectively contributed to enhance the system of selection, recruitment, promotion and training process. The application of enhanced training program has benefited British Airways to gain competitive edge and providing quality customer service. The Airline industry is regarded as the volatile industry, where it becomes challenging for HRM manager to establish a system that allows consistent evaluation of need of the customers and employees, reduction of employee turnover and development of job satisfaction. References Hill, C., and Jones, G., 2009. Strategic management theory. Stamford: Cengage Learning. Read More