HRM in the Knowledge Economy - Annotated Bibliography Example

Running Head: REFLECTIVE JOURNAL Reflective Journal Name Institution Date Week3. O’Donnell, L. (2009). Human capital reporting: should it be industry specific? Asia Pacific journal of human resources 47(3). According to the author, human capital is defined as the skills, abilities, attitudes, qualities and competencies of an organizations employees and a systems that can be used to manage employees of an organization as a resource that enhances its operations. Human-capital experts such as Human Resource professionals have a strategic communication responsibility to synthesis and interpret the net knowledge value of a firm’s human capital. O’Donnell explains that recent developments concerning intangible reporting and investments have increased the investor demand for intangible value-drivers in HC information. The disclosure of intangible value-creation has increased and gained momentum. This analysis is inclusive of HC management, corporate governance and value creation and destruction during acquisitions and mergers. According to the author, assessment of human capital enables investors to identify companies that have the capacity to outperform other companies. Drawing from past literature, he explains that applied capital social responsibility is related with high financial returns and provides a means of measuring management quality and management systems. O’Donnell explains that though important, increased research on human is not of greater importance than practices that are socially sustainable. Such practices build human skills and capability needed to sustain high-level company performance and enhance societal and community well-being. The Star Model is a research based response that helps investors and executives in understanding how future value of the organization can be created from the human capital at hand. This model supports the fact that different organizational strategies will call for different combinations of Human Resource practices and has a management-system focus as Human capital management systems are most likely to be the drivers of value-creation in most organizations in the world over.. Themes that were revealed from the findings of the HC research that was done in the biotechnology sector, a sector that holds human capital as a key factor to its success includes the lack of focus and attention on Human capital analysis and reporting practices. A large number of Board members in organizations fail to understand the industry and the importance of the value that Human Capital offers to the organization because in the past, HC information was rarely shared by HR professionals with related external financial-analysts. This observation reveals that Boards may require compelling advice and evidence from the HR department to convince markets that their firm holds high human capital profitable in the future. This will allow the board and high net-worth investors to focus on hiring the best management and personnel for the company. The second theme is a HC trend that aims at formulaic as opposed to meaningful reporting. Reporting has been standardized to the extent that most companies end up using the same policies yet they have different organizational strategies. This habit of formulaic reporting renders these policies to be meaningless if all companies do the same. Instead, analysts of listed firms should aim at measuring the turnover, an external factor that is understandable to external parties. Also, listed firms should act in a proactive manner by voluntarily disclosing Human Capital information. When stakeholders and financial markets are informed of such information, their interest as well as the interest of potential investors, is greatly increased. The third theme is the fact that analysts are focused on operational activities rather than strategic ones. Analysts are should be offered further training on strategic issues so that they can be able to convince external investors to believe in the company. This is because, strategic issues, for instance, core capabilities of the firm, are the items that place the company above its competitors. The last theme is the development of alternative forms of reporting that are more effective. This can be done by the establishment of a firm criteria or basis companies can use for HC reporting. By this, HR professionals will be in a position to act as strategic interpreters of HC data that is complex in nature and communicate the value of the data to external markets. The author concludes that human capital reporting is important and should be industry based. He explains that this is an opportunity for the HR professionals to interpret complex HC data and advise markets on the value of such data. I tend to differ with O’Donnell in his emphasis that socially sustainable practices are more important than increased research on human. In my opinion, the two are equally important since practices cannot be socially sustainable without continuous research on human. This is bearing in mind that society is being transformed socially especially due to new technological innovations and globalization. As a result, what may have been thought as adequate and sustainable in one generation may not be sustainable in another generation. For instance, training of midwifes has been thought to be a sustainable project especially in areas where families earn low income. However, people may not opt for this in future especially with increased decentralization of public services. In addition, though the practices build human capacity and capability as indicated by the author, research is important in maintaining this capability. Nonetheless, I agree with the idea of Boards requiring compelling advice and evidence from the HR department so as to be able to convince markets that their firms holds high human capital profitable in future. In my experience, HR professionals have been ignored in conducting external financial analysis. There has been much concentration on financial assets neglecting the role of HR in identifying necessary capabilities in her employees. In addition, the uniqueness of organizations is not represented in the policies. The application of formulistic reporting denies prospective investors an opportunity of understanding what is happening in the firm. However, doing this may earn the organization a competitive edge as investors gain more confidence . I therefore agree with the author that analysts should aim at measuring the turnover which is an external factor understandable to external parties. For instance, when a new CEO was appointed to head my organization, there was a reaction from observers who knew the CEO as a high performer. This saw the number of investors increase by 10%. The lack of knowledge on strategic issues by analysts has therefore denied the company a chance to attract investors. Lastly, I agree that HR professional should step in to interpret complex data as this would reap an added advantage to the organization by attracting investors. Week 4. Whicker, L. & Andrews, K. (2004). HRM in the knowledge economy: Realizing the potential. Asia Pacific journal of human resource 42(2). The article explores management of knowledge in a knowledge based economy from the perspective of human resource management (HRM) with the aim of realizing value from knowledge assets. Whicker & Andrews (2004) evaluate the contribution of HRM in an enterprise recognizing employees’ knowledge as the prime asset. According to the authors, the role of HRM has significantly change due to the transformation of the economy to a knowledge economy. Four points are postulated to portray a knowledge economy namely recognition of the importance of knowledge to organizations, existence of complex relationships, communication technology and information being embedded in business transactions and human relations and lastly the importance of speed in securing a competitive edge yet without neglecting the importance of planning. To optimize on the advantage of having knowledge, four main elements have been evaluated by the authors namely content, technology, people and processes. As the organizational needs change and competition increases, this four elements must be developed through knowledge for any organization to maintain a competitive edge. The role of HRM in the knowledge based economy has been identified as provision of expertise in the definition and understanding of firm-level strategic knowledge capabilities in relation to the four elements. In addition, HRM should minimize knowledge risk, develop knowledge workers and manage them through knowledge-learning-doing nexus in addition to building value for knowledge as an individual and organizational asset. In overall, the knowledge economy demands that HRM concentrates in assessing future knowledge needs for the organization hence building and sustaining knowledge assets. In this regard, knowledge risk assessment and mitigation involves taking measures to ensure that important knowledge assets such as skilled persons are not lost. The authors also explain the importance of building knowledge value. In this regard, they explain that what is learn is never important until it is put in to application and therefore training should be done for employees to gain practical knowledge and skills relevant to the organization. Drawing from Kramar et al (1997), the authors explain how HR functions have significantly changed from ad hoc to corporate strategist. An explanation of the shift of HRM focus is drawn from a comparison of the HRM focus in the traditional economy and in the knowledge economy. While the HRM traditionally focused on development of HR strategy aligning it with the business strategy, the knowledge economy requires that HRM contributes to the development of business strategy as a strategic knowledge capabilities’ expert. This is also the case with recruitment and selection where the HRM is required to identify, attract and sustain relevant talents rather than simply seeking and selecting required resources. With regard to training and development, the HRM should develop organizational and individual capability rather than develop individual competencies and skills. Lastly performance management has shifted from monitoring and modifying individual performance to managing productivity of the knowledge worker. The authors conclude that the people working for an organization and the knowledge they possess form the organization’s most valuable assets. As a result, employees must be recognized as assets for nurturing and development . This has resulted to an urgent need for HR functions to be aligned with strategic knowledge capabilities. In addition, the HRM must realize the workers value in relation to knowledge possessed and be capable to assess knowledge risks. With the realization of the value of the knowledge assets through responding to the key challenges posed by the knowledge economy, HRM will significantly contribute to enhancing organizational performances through knowledge building and sustainability. An emerging theme is the role of HRM in building and maintaining strategic knowledge capabilities especially during selection and recruitment. I agree with the authors in that HRM is focused now more than ever in maintaining knowledge capabilities. For instance, the job requirements have been revised over time in my organization with new employees being required to have the capability to execute more than one task. For instance, my organization previously had a receptionist and a secretary at the same time. The current requirement is that a receptionist must have secretarial skills so as to play both roles. There were also two posts for a data entry clerk and a field officer but this has changed over time. Any person applying for the position of a field officer is now required to also have skills in data entry and analysis. This just indicates the growing need for development and maintenance of knowledge capabilities by HRM. The authors also draw from literature to explain the increased need for developing workers trough learning. He explains the economic benefits of knowledge workers in solving complex problem and enhancing creativity in any organization. This has been evident in my work experience where those engaged in training are more productive than those who are not. For instance, during my first years of working, I had to forward all customer complaints to my team leader to solve. However, after attending several training on customer service and group discussion, the number of clients whom I referred to my seniors reduced by 60%. This meant that the HR had more time to handle other issues. I also agree with the authors that productivity is not simply achieved through the accumulation of knowledge and skills but rather through the execution of skills learned. Within a period of three months, our customer based had increased by 20% and positive comments were received from the clients. Most clients indicated that they were satisfied since they did not have to waste time waiting for the HR to solve even some minor problems. The training also encouraged team work and knowledge sharing hence development of employees at individuals levels. In my opinion, HRM may not succeed in the knowledge economy by simply identify the knowledge assets and managing knowledge risk. The employees who are its prime assets must be involved in identifying their learning and development needs so as to realize the full benefits of knowledge gained. Week 5 Mallon, M. (2001). Team development at Fisher and Paykel: the introduction of ‘everyday workplace teams’. Asia pacific journal of human resources, 39(1). The author reports on implementation of a team-working initiative through the development of an ‘Everyday Works Teams’ vision at Fisher and Paykel which is a manufacturing company based in New Zealand. This was done by conducting a review processes through participatory, documentation review, observation and interview research. While the observations and interviews revealed perceptions of staff, documentation review revealed information on improvements since the launching of team sessions through ‘hard’ measures. Purposive sampling was applied in selecting participants. According to the author, though Fisher and Paykel had maintained a culture of team work for a long time, completion and price wars were catching up with the company. The need to stay ahead of competitors made the company rethink on its strategy. Since it recognized the importance of innovation to maintain a competitive edge, the company resulted to building a culture that would encourage innovation and creativity. The company as a result embraced training and development in order to transform its teams to become more accepting of change in response to changing marketplace through no cost/low cost improvement activities. In its endeavor to develop self-directed teams, it developed a vision whereby each individual will be viewed as the president of their responsibilities and a focus to provide satisfying services to customers. Drawing from literature, the author explains the importance of team-work and in particular self-managed teams in continuous improvement and addressing innovation issues in manufacturing companies. Cited benefits of team-work include collaborative problem solving, improving customer response , reduction of costs, increased commitment, the exploitation of new technologies and enhanced creativity. However, team-work if undertaken without caution can also promote rigid and unhelpful attitudes discouraging individual initiative and creativity. In addition, the establishment of norms can be frustrated hence the need for excellent boundary management as well as clearly defined objectives. The implementation of team-work included holding one hour discussions where team building activities were conducted, skill development and improvement was done and work issues discussed. The vision to develop self-managing team culture was embraced with teams being required to encourage all members to contribute, bear a unified vision, understand and apply quality tools, be positive, working within their defined boundaries, take responsibility for plans which should be linked to goals and plan for their development at individual and group level including the development of the process. Identified components of team work included communication, need for ideal training, development of pay systems to complement team system and understanding teams. All teams were provided with the same workbook for uniformity. The author divided the staffs into three categories when reporting on their perceptions. The fist category were the champions who were proud of the change but also experienced challenges and expressed their concern on the slow speed at change was being adopted. The author then identifies leadership as being critical in the implementation of self-managed teams. This is based on their vital roles of managing people, reporting, problem-solving exercised on daily basis and monitoring production. These category reported that the full benefits of the initiative had not been reaped since they were not consulted before the establishment of the initiative and the lack of opportunities for presentation. The third category was that of team members. Only a few indicated having experienced personal development while other expressed their frustrations. The author explains that although improvement was evident, hard measures should have been put in place to determine whether the anticipated benefits were as a result of considerable investment of time, money and energy has delivered the anticipated benefits. Since these were not available, it was hard to quantify improvement resulting from teamwork in particular. Organization should therefore focus on measuring improvement resulting from team-initiatives to identify the actual benefits of teamwork. He concludes that team-working initiatives promotes improvement activities and up-skilling for teams and provides a platform for their growth. In my opinion, team-initiatives promote improvement on daily activities when aligned with personal needs and goals. Neglecting the needs of each individual and concentrating on organizational goals may result to frustrations on the part of the employee especially where the employee has to put in extra resources such as time. For instance, at one point my organization decided to enhance team work by grouping us in departments. However, we were required to continue working normal hours and find our free time to meet. This resulted for meetings being held before leaving the work place. Though team work would have been expected to result to increased output, it only resulted to frustrations since employees went home late than they ought to. Within a month, there were more employees reporting to work late and each of them had to give an explanation. In the next two months, three employees had resigned from work as a result of work place stress and burnout. It is until the employees were involved in designing team-initiatives that increased productivity was realized. I therefore agree with the author when he emphasizes on the value of leadership in developing successful team initiatives. In my experience, leaders have a big role to play in influencing employees to adopt change and work together in attaining organizational goals. My team leader in the organization clearly understands our learning needs due to our daily interaction and we believe in him more than the management. For instance, once the management wanted to implement a reward system whereby teams would be rewarded rather than individuals. We were all looking up to our leader and asking of his opinion. As a result, organizations should work hard to develop leaders who have the capacity to manage people and support its vision and mission. Lastly, the challenges that face team-initiatives can be overcome through a collaborative approach where all stakeholders are involved including employees in the lower levels. This is in agreement with the author’s findings that leaders failed to fully support the initiative because they were not initially involved. Team work therefore can result to an organization reaping increased productivity so long as the challenges facing teams formation and sustainability are addressed. Read More