Strategic Management Human Resources and Leadership - Assignment Example

Name Class Title: Strategic Management Human Resources and Leadership 1. How does strategic Human Resource (HR) Management differ from operational Human Resource Management? The major differences between strategic HR and operational HR are based on their outlook and functions. The operational HR main focus is on immediate and short term needs while the strategic HR focuses on long term integration. Day to day tactical operations are handled through operational HR while the planning role is carried out by the strategic branch of HR. Activities performed by operational HR include employee relations, recruitment, training, performance reviews. Strategic HR tasks involve preparing the training modules, setting training timeline, employee empowerment, setting performance metrics and training supervisors on employees’ motivation. An example of strategic human resource activity is McDonald’s performance appraisal system which has been very successful (Loosemore, Dainty, & Lingard, 2003). Fig.1, HR roles 2. What are the core strategic HR activities? Strategic HRM deals with the organization intentions on how it can achieve its goals through people. Strategic HR looks at the human as a capital and a source of the competitive advantage. The core activities involve human capital development through recruitment, training, development, establishing employees’ relations. Strategic HR is also tasked with determining employees’ performance metrics, establishing means of employee motivation and carrying out employee evaluations. Through strategic HR activity, the organization is able to determine where it wants to go and how to reach there (Loosemore, Dainty & Lingard, 2003). Fig.2 HR strategy 3. What is the relationship between corporate strategy and HR strategy? There is a strong connection between corporate strategy and HR strategy. HR strategy in the modern business is integrated with the business strategy. For example, developing strong human capital is needed for the success of the business strategy. Human resource management interacts with the executive leadership to come with goals for the overall business. HR strategic goals are aligned with the corporate strategy. Through connection of both HR strategy and corporate strategy leads to organization effectiveness. The integration of the HR strategy with the corporate strategy gives the HR professionals an opportunity to contribute to business strategic success. Linking both strategies helps in smooth mergers and acquisitions. Examples of organizations that have successfully linked HR strategy with corporate strategy are Cisco and TATA (Director, 2013). 4. What is the different strategic HR management axis? Different strategic HR management axis is used in grouping strategies into two dimensional spaces. This helps in determining interpretations based on their locations in the dimensional space. The dimension 1 axis represents the internal dynamic for change. Dimension 2 axis is interpreted as external dynamics or pressure for change. The strategic HR management axis has been used in mapping strategic groups using seven strategic factors. These are reactors, analyzers, service defenders, prospectors and productivity defenders (Armstrong& Armstrong, 2011). 5. What are the latest trends in Strategic HR management? Recently, organizations have been required to treat the human resource as a source of competitive advantage. There has been an increase in highly skilled knowledge based labor as opposed to low skilled labor. The roles of human resource management have become more important. There have been an increase in competition, which has made organizations to be more agile resilient and customer focused. HR has become a strategic partner in business and is a business driven function with ability to influence major decisions. Workplace diversity is a trend that is facing strategic HRM. This is seen especially in multinational organizations such as McDonalds. Talent management has changed and organizations are forced to look for highly skilled workers and engaging more actively in their developing and retaining them. Organizations have been organizing their talents more strategically. There has also been great involvement of HR in employee motivation (Truss, Mankin & Kelliher, 2012). 6. What are the HR professionals’ key competences? The HR core competencies act as the building blocks for the HR professionals in executing their work. The key competencies are; leadership and credibility, organizational capability, problem solver and implementer, excellent interpersonal communication skills and citizenship for the future. HR professional competencies have also been enhanced due to modern business environment. New HR competencies are; credible activist, strategic positioned capability builder, change champion, innovator and integrator. The ability to innovate is a key competency at the organizational level. The HR professionals are also expected to be technology proponent. This is through applying technology in their work. This has led to the basic HR being transformed into HRIS (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014). 7. Why is it important to make regular Human Resource audits? Conducting a periodic HR audit is very vital. This is due to fact that it helps the organization to accomplish different objectives such as ensuring there is legal compliance, improve the competitive advantage, ensure efficient documentation, point out training and development needs and helps in identifying organization weakness in recruitment and other employment related practices. Through HR audit, it becomes possible to know how HR has contributed to the organization. The organization professional image is improved and there is responsibility and professionalism in HR. through HR audit, it becomes possible to identify areas of weakness in HR and ensures that there is cost reduction in HR department. Uniformity of the HR policies and practices is also enhanced through HR audits (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014). Fig. 3, Benefits of HR audit 8. What are the elements of a job profile? Job profile has to cover three main areas which are; position details, job duties, performance standards and job factors. Under the position details, the general information about the job is listed. This includes the working title, compensation, department, and job description and position number if available. The working title is based on the role of the job. This ensures that there is a clear description to avoid vagueness. The work title should describe level of responsibly and role of the job. The second area is the job duties. This is the foundation of the job description and gives the scope and responsibility of the job. This is a very significant part and requires being accurate and concise. It contains key accountabilities, duty statements and the percentage of time. The performance standards give the job expectations, depict the required knowledge and skills and provide means of measuring performance. Job factors lists all the skills and knowledge which is required for one to successfully function in a job (Prien, Goodstein & Goodstein, 2009). Fig. 4, Job Analysis 9. What options a company has for finding candidates for recruiting? At the moment, companies have different ways of finding the right candidate for recruiting. The most common ways of recruitment are; use of advertisement in newspapers, online advertisements, internal promotions, personal referrals, use of recruitment agencies and the government job centers. There has also been use of social media as a means of recruitment. Professional websites such as LinkedIn have also acted as a source of right candidates especially for the multinationals. There have also been rise of social recruiting job vendors. A good example is Resumator which is highly integrated in the social networks. The companies are thus provided with an opportunity to broadcast their jobs using the social sites. There have also been rise of virtual and video interview vendors. An example is GreenJobInterview (Farr & Tippins, 2010). 10. Why does organizational culture matter? Organization culture determines how things are done in an organization. It’s an important tool in an organization as it determines how individuals and the collective organization behave. Organization culture is the main determiner of the organization goals, strategy and how it operates. Through understanding how the organization culture functions, leaders can improve its success. Culture can also be used to deal with change and conflict when they arise in the organization. Organizational culture gives the organization a distinct personality which gives its identity. Through organizational culture, an organization is able to develop a personality. Organization culture shapes decisions, determines organization appropriate behaviors, determines the speed and efficiency and helps in organization capacity for change. Organization culture is also the determiner of outsiders’ attitudes towards the organization (Epstein, Rejc, & Yuthas, 2010). 11. What are the elements of organizational culture? Organization culture is made up of elements which are; organization values, beliefs, norms and assumptions. Values determine what is important for the organization. They act as the guiding principles for the members in an organization. The organization values are in some cases stated in their website. Values also display the public image an organization wants to display. Beliefs determine the best way of carrying out a specific task and achieve the set goal. Norms determine the accepted behaviors in the organization. Through norms, the organization determines how certain tasks are supposed to be accomplished. For example, Nokia culture is best described as collegial and responsive (Epstein, Rejc, & Yuthas, 2010). 12. Why people are prone to resist change? Change in an organization is resisted due to various reasons. The fear of the unknown is one of the reasons. Employees feel that change will affect their job and relationship with other employees. The employees feel uneasy when there is a change in the status quo. People require time to adjust to change. People fear that change will affect their performance due to changes in expectations in new roles. This occurs especially if one feels that they lack the required skills to perform the new tasks. Another cause of resistance is when people are not involved in the change process. Change is also resisted due to fears of social consequence. Failure to prove that change is needed may also lead to resistance. When the resources for change are not sufficient, resistance to change occurs. The climate in which change occurs also affects its adoption (Stare, 2011). 13. What are the key success factors in change management? Key success factors in change management are; stakeholders’ alignment, clear insertion strategy, establishing key roles, change management, creating a guiding strategy, vision and strategy and communicating the vision for change. The organization is also supposed to consolidate gains that enhance change and anchor new approaches in culture. Creating a sense of urgency is needed. This enables the employees to come out of their comfort zones and embrace change. Vision helps in determining the direction in an organization and directs efforts towards change. Enabling people to work on the vision helps in encouraging risk taking and coming up with new ideas. Communication should be actively encouraged in an organization. Mobilizing change helps in reinforcing change in all players involved (Stare, 2011). Fig.5, success factors in change management 14. What types of innovations there are? Types of innovations are incremental, radical, modular, and architectural. Incremental innovations refine and improve an existing design. This is through improving its components. An example is the vacuum cleaner. Radical innovations lead to a whole new design using new components. An example is telephone innovation. Modular innovation uses using new components and a different design concept using the architecture and configuration which are associated with an existing system or product. An example is the clockwork radio. Architectural innovation is based on new system configuration using the same components. This has been seen in Sony Walkman (Sargent, 2014). Innovations can be divided into three groups based on their applications. There are product innovations, service innovations and process innovations. Products innovations are the most well known since they are in direct contact to consumers and are tangible. An example is the invention of the bag less vacuum cleaner (Sargent, 2014). Service innovations are in the form of new service applications. They are in most cases less spectacular and also less eye catching. For example, the use of online sales is an innovation as opposed to traditional means where sales were done door to door. The innovations in the service sector enable service providers in enhancing their productivity and reducing costs (Sargent, 2014). Process innovations have a great impact on the society. This can be best explained by the automation of the processes in industries. Another process innovation is the creation of the modern photocopy machine. The successes of process innovations can be seen in change in the production process of products such as glass used in the buildings (Sargent, 2014). 15. How HR function can support building innovative teams? Innovations in an organization help in creating a competitive advantage. HR has a critical role in supporting innovation in an organization. This is through various ways such as introduction of innovation awards. Through a change in corporate culture, it becomes easy for the HR to enhance innovations. The HR supports innovation through managing performance for innovation. They have to manage the ideas as well as innovation. The HR department comes up with policies which have the capability to enhance innovation. Performance management is a very important tool in coming up with an innovative culture. Innovative culture is the key in driving innovation. Other HR activities that can enhance change are enhancing communication, change management and organizational design (Sargent, 2014). An example of a successful company in innovation through HR functions is Apple Inc. 16. How to motivate people in their work? Motivation can be intrinsic or extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation includes internal desire to perform a certain task. This involves doing a task since it is the right thing to do. Extrinsic motivation is external and is not related to the task one is performing. They include money, incentives and goods. Intrinsic motivation is encouraged at the workplace (Bruce, 2003). People are motivated using different ways at work. At work, it is important to make the employees feel they are doing worthwhile work. This is through giving them tasks that challenge their skills. Staff should be able to understand why they are needed and the impact of their work. Acknowledging staff have a great impact on their motivation. The poor performing staff should be encouraged and praised when they perform well. Staff should be managed effectively in order to give their best. This also enhances the ability to self manage (Bruce, 2003). 17. What different leadership styles there are? Leadership is an important resource in an organization. Autocratic leadership involves a leader who determines policies, activities and goals of an organization without involving others. They take personal approach in leadership and they delegate tasks without participating in their execution. Democratic leadership involves others in making decisions. The leadership is inclusive and members have a feeling of satisfaction. Bureaucratic leadership manages through a set procedure. The leader enforces the rules. This type of leadership is used in most public service such as police service. Transformative leadership leads to a context that maximize both human and organization capability. Transformational leadership is a champion for change in all organization aspects (Kets & Korotov, 2011). This is the leadership practiced at Apple Inc. under leadership of Steve Jobs. Transactional leader encourages things to be carried out based on the status quo. 18. How to develop your leadership qualities? Leadership qualities are developed several ways. Talent management functions play a very vital role in talent development. This is through leadership development programs offered through training and development. One can also improve their leadership skilled through analyzing themselves which helps to understand oneself. Identifying the areas of improvement is also needed. This can be done through seeking feedback or performing employee evaluation using programs such as 360 degrees feedback. After identifying strengths and weakness, one is supposed to take action. One can use strategies such as communicating effectively, encouraging enthusiasm, knowing people around you, accepting responsibilities and engaging in problem solving activities (Kets & Korotov, 2011). References Armstrong, M & Armstrong, M 2011, Armstrong's handbook of strategic human resource management. London: Kogan Page. Armstrong, M & Taylor, S 2014, Armstrong's Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice. London: Kogan Page. Bruce, A 2003, How to motivate every employee: 24 proven tactics to spark productivity in the workplace. New York: McGraw-Hill. Director, S. M 2013, Financial analysis for HR managers: Tools for linking HR strategy to business strategy. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey : FT Press Epstein, M. J., Rejc, B. A & Yuthas, K 2010, ”Implementing sustainability: The role of leadership and organizational culture”, Strategic Finance, Vol.3, no.1. p.41-47. Farr, J. L & Tippins, N.T 2010, Handbook of employee selection, New York, Routledge. Kets, . V. M. F. R & Korotov, K 2011, Leadership development, Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar. Loosemore, M., Dainty, A & Lingard, H 2003, Human resource management in construction projects: Strategic and operational approaches, London, Spon Press. Prien, E. P., Goodstein, L. D & Goodstein, J 2009, A Practical Guide to Job Analysis, Hoboken, John Wiley & Sons. Sargent, M 2014, The Innovation Process, Cork, BookBaby. Stare, A 2011, ”Reducing negative impact of project changes with risk and change management”, Mibes transactions, Vol.5, no.1, p.151-165. Truss, C., Mankin, D & Kelliher, C 2012, Strategic human resource management, Oxford, Oxford University Press. Read More