Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management - Research Paper Example

Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management Name: Unit: Course: Professor: Submission Date: Contents Contents 2 2.2.Data Type and Data Collection 6 Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management 1.0. Introduction Organizational behavior can be viewed from three perspectives. At the micro-level, we have individual employees in the organization. At the meso-level, we have workforce groups, while at the macro-level it is the organization and how it behaves in relation to internal and external business environment. These three groups behave differently in various organizational roles. How they interact is important in determining organizational performance. For the management to effectively manage the organization, human behavior, and workforce motivation are essential components that need proper management attention to avoid counterproductive work behavior. How the human resource management resources, acquires, retains, motivates, and offers training and development to the employees determines how they behave, the level of workforce turnover, and how the organization performs.The motivation of employees arouses, directs, and maintains a certain level of human behavior essential in attaining goals and objectives of the organization. However, there are other factors that determine organizational behavior such as national culture, organizational culture, and organizational citizenship behavior (Kaifi&Noori, 2011 p.88, Memari, Valikhani, Aghababaee&Davali, 2013 p.568). There are several theories of motivation that are relevant to organizational behavior. These theories include organizational justice theory, expectancy theory, equity theory, incentive theory, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, Theory X, and Theory Y, and the Fredrick Herzberg’s two-factor theory (Yudhvir&Sunita, 2012 p.58-61). This study focuses on Galfar Engineering, Construction, and Contracting Company based in Oman. It analyzes how the company motivates its employees, provides recommendations, and supports the arguments with the above theories of motivation. It goes further to evaluate the HR activities of the company and assesses the HR standpoint. Finally, it provides recommendations relevant to improve the HR activities in the company and maps the Guest Model of Human Resources Management with the company. 1.1. Rationale of the Study The Interface between organizational behavior and the human resources management practices go a long way in determining the success of an organization. The human resource is a fundamental ingredient that determines the success of other resources in an organization as well as influencing the performance of the organization. The human resources department is, therefore, as important as any other department in an organization. High-performance organizations focus on empowering their workforce and respecting their diversity. They mobilize and value talents and self-directed teamwork. Their HRM department knows how to acquire employees and promote their growth through training and development (Bakker &Schaufeli, 2008 p.147). There are key organizational behavior transitions that continue to encircle the modern workplace. They include corporate governance, ethical leadership, and quality of work life, job migration, organizational transformation, globalization, personnel management, and career planning. Organizational behavior is a recent field of study that was developed to enable managers to understand the complexities of the modern workforce. It focuses on the behavior and attitude of workers in all facets of the organization. All departments in an organization such as the finance, accounting, production, and marketing departments are run by the workforce. Therefore, understanding workforce needs and addressing them is an essential practice that influences how they perform in the organization. It is for these reasons that it is impossible for an organization to succeed without paying particular attention to the aspects of organizational behavior. In the contemporary business world, operations are characterized by uncertainties especially circumnavigating around the workforce. Today the problem of workforce turnover continues to bother many organizations in the world. Acquiring and maintaining the correct talent pool, knowledge workers, and intellectual capital continue to puzzle the effectiveness of the human resources management. Therefore, it is essentially important for an organization to learn and adopt proper organizational behavior that values the human resource and enhances performance. 1.2. Aims and Objectives This study focuses on organizational behavior and its linkage with the human resources management. The aim of the paper is to use the Galfar Engineering, Construction, and Contracting Company based in Oman as a case study to analyze how the company motivates its employees, providerecommendations, and support the arguments with relevant theories of motivation. Further, the paper evaluates the HR activities of the company and assesses the HR standpoint. Finally, it aims to provide recommendations relevant to improve the HR activities in the company and to map the Guest Model of Human Resources Management with the company HRM practices. 2.0. Methodology 2.1. Sampling This study uses purposive or judgmental sampling to widen the scope of the data exposed. The study narrows down to idiographic sampling or critical case sampling, a form of experience sampling, by taking a phenomenal case study of a single firm to promote proper understanding of the complexities or experiences by the individual firm, and thereby provide relevance to the study findings. Purposive sampling is a robust non-probability sampling technique whose efficiency is ensured by its inherent bias (Tongco 2007 p.147). The study focuses on a case study of Galfar Engineering, Construction, and Contracting Company, making the sample an idiographic purposive sample. Critical case purposive sampling is convenient for a limited resources research or in cases where the focus is on a single unit. However, critics of this sampling technique argue that it is based on judgment and, therefore, it is subjective and may contain researcher’s bias. 2.2. Data Type and Data Collection This study uses secondary data. It collates, summarizes, and synthesizes existing research materials on organizational behavior and human resources management. As opposed to primary research where data is collected from research subjects, this secondary research uses other researcher’s primary researches contained in publications and reports. Data for the case study company is collected from the company’s website. The use of secondary data is economical because it is easily accessible. It is also efficient because little time and energy are required to obtain the data. Secondary data also adds depth to primary data (Brodeur, Israel & Craig 2011 p.1). However, the problem with secondary data is its age and accuracy. Therefore, the source and accuracy of secondary data must be evaluated to ensure it does not provide misleading information (Brodeur, Israel & Craig 2011 p.2). 3.0. Study Analysis 3.1. The Case Study Galfar Engineering, Construction, and Contracting Company (Galfar)is a multinational construction company based in Oman. It is the largest construction company in Oman with EPC capability in Roads and Bridges, Oil and Gas, and Civil and Utilities sectors not only in Omanbut also in India and other GCC countries. The company has grown immensely over the last 40 years to become the preferred development partner in Oman. The company owns over 7,000 fleets of equipment and provides employment to over 23,000 workers. It is the private sector’s largest employer among the Oman nationals. The company endeavors to provide quality and excellent construction services while at the same time promoting employee safety, employee satisfaction, improved performance, and social responsibility.The company’s priority is the safety of its employees and it has won several safety awards including British Safety Council’s Sword of Honor for its advanced safety provision to employees. The company’s prowess in engineering, construction, procurement, project management and operations and maintenance has made it the most sought after and trusted company in the region. The company leadership is an effective one focused on strategic vision and has seen the company soar to Muscat Securities Market listings (Galfar 2015). 3.2. Galfar’s Human Resources and Motivation The company employs over 23,000 employees who constitute about 4,000 Omani nationals and the rest mainly from North Africa and Indian sub-continent. It prides itself with what it terms as “OmanisationProgramme” whose aim is to acquire, train and employ Omani nationals. The company workforce is highly trained, well-motivated, highly skilled, and competent enabling it to meet the requirements of Galfar’s demanding customers. The workers have the experience of working in adverse and difficult conditions and it has the best managers and engineers with advanced experience and knowledge. The company’s endeavor to develop a well-trained and well-skilled national workforce has made it establish Galfar training centers that train and impart skills on various fields relevant to the company. The company has also devised various strategies to recruit, develop, and retain nationals in different categories. The company has initiated Graduate Engineering Training (GET) scheme that recruits, inducts, and trains fresh engineering graduates. Also, the company has a training and development strategy dubbed as Omani Technical Staff Development Program that continues to improve staff skills. Finally, the company has enhanced the salaries of national workers in all sectors to retain them in the company (Galfar 2015). The company sources lateral thinkers with the potential of adding value to its business and processes. The company’s capital resource is guided by the company core values and principles and encouraged to have teamwork ethic. The company values growth and development not just for the organization but also for the employees. It values several elements for mutual growth and success of the organization and the individual that include competitive salary compensations, rigorous training and counseling, conducive working environment, proper communication channels, and equal opportunities for growth for its employees (Galfar 2015). 3.3. Theories of Motivation, their Applicability in Galfar’s Scenario and Possible Recommendations The equity theory of organizational behavior relates organizational demands with employee satisfaction. It argues that employees always strive to balance their satisfaction with the services they offer to the organization. The employee satisfaction comes from proper salary compensation, job security, and employee benefits among other factors. The factors determining employee satisfaction can be broken down into various metrics including flexibility, workload, training and development, time factor, enthusiasm, and employee-management relationship. The equity theory advocates for fairness in the workplace and avoidance of discrepancies that may baffle operations in the workplace (Kaur, Aggarwal&Khaitan, 2014 p. 230). The Galfar Company satisfies the requirements of equity theory as it balances employee input with the company output through its advocacy of mutual growth of the company and employees. Therefore, if a company would succeed in its operations without erupting counterproductive organizational behavior, it has to balance its ambitions with employee satisfaction. The incentive theory rotates about the rewards to the human effort. Proper salary compensation motivates employees to work harder, be innovative, and be loyal to the organization. Compensation plans that offer high employee satisfaction promote high productivity and lower employee turnover (Frey &Jegen, 2001 p.589). The Galfar Company has confirmed that it offers competitive salary compensation across all the levels of the workforce. It has increased salaries even the ones of truck drivers. The company continues to achieve greater success due to high employee motivation. According to the expectancy theory, motivation occurs through cognitive antecedents that alter employee perceptions on effort-to-performance, performance-to-reward, and reward expectations. The theory’s argument is that employees tend to believe that there is a relationship between effort, performance, and rewards. This is to mean that an employee expects that his or her effort and performance achieved will be equally rewarded (Lunenburg, 2011 p.1). It is with no doubt that the Galfar Company rewards employee efforts and performance thus the reason why many job seekers in Oman desire to be part of Galfar team. The company’s employee turnover is also negligible indicating employees are well motivated and satisfied. It is always advisable to reward employee efforts and exemplary performance beyond employee expectations to encourage and motivate hard work as well as retain employees in the organization. Increasing employee satisfaction improves organizational performance and increases productivity. However, motivation should be directed to the right employee for the right position at the right time to avoid wastage of resources and time. Abraham Maslow in his hierarchy of needs theory argued that people are unable to function well if the environment they work in does not meet their needs. The theory identified five needs that need to be satisfied hierarchically to motivate employees. From the bottom to the top these needs are physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, esteem needs, and self-actualization. Different employees lie in different levels in the need hierarchy and need-specific motivation needs to be directed to the right employee at the right time. However, critics of this theory argue that it is difficult to satisfy all employees’ needs especially the high ranked ones (Kaur, 2013 p.1062). The Galfar Company has indicated that it values employee safety more than anything else. This is understandable because being a construction company; the employees are exposed to high risks of injury. It also offers counseling, training and development, and equal opportunities for career growth. The company’s performance is unmatched in Oman and, therefore, one can tell that a motivated employee is a valuable asset to any organization. Therefore, recognizing employee value and accomplishments is essential to increasing productivity and improving organizational performance. Organizational justice theory of motivation focuses on fairness in the workplace regarding procedures and interactions between the workforce and management. Areas, where injustices may arise in the workplace, include unequal pay, unfair performance reviews, biased selection of staff, and arbitrary dismissals. These injustices may demotivate employees and increase employee turnover. The result is poor organizational performance (Baldwin, 2006 p.1). The Galfar Company has increased salary compensations to all workers including truck drivers to retain them in the company. The company also has an unbiased recruitment criterion and promotes safety to all workers. Again, one can tell why the company has low employee turnover and exemplary performance always exceeding customer expectations. According to the Fredrick Herzberg’s two-factor theory, employees are motivated by hygiene factors and motivators at the workplace. The absence of hygiene factors causes dissatisfaction in the workplace and may increase workforce turnover or employees may perform poorly due to counterproductive organizational behavior as a result of lack of motivation. Motivators refer to the nature of the workplace environment and the job undertaken. The theory suggests that motivating employees lead to job satisfaction and high performance. Again, the Galfar Company has no shortcomings in terms of employee motivation as far as this theory is concerned (Dartey-Baah&Amoako, 2011 p.1). Theory X and Theory Y of motivation are two controversial theories. According to theory X, the average worker is self-centered, lazy, dislikes change, lacks ambition, and longs being directed. It advocates for total management control over employees and argues that motivation is all about instilling fear and pain to encourage good performance. Theory Y, on the other hand, argues that human beings are active, long to grow, and always strive to improve themselves, their environment, and assume their responsibilities. Theory Y suggests that it is good to ‘water’ employee talent and skills and let them ‘bloom’ (Stewart, 2010 p.1). This study recommends the application of theory Y to HRM department because employees perform better when given freedom of action and motivated through humane ways. 3.4. Applicability of Traditional and Modern HRM Practices The efficiency and effectiveness of the human resource management (HRM) practices among other managerial and individual aspects translate to high employee performance. Current business trends such information technology and globalization have led to the development of modern HRM practices to replace the traditional practices. The modern HRM practices are aimed at increasing employee performance more than the traditional practices. According to Mellam, Rao&Mellam (2015), modern HRM practices lead to high employee performance while traditional HRM practices lead to low employee performance (Mellam, Rao&Mellam, 2015 p.389). People’s performances influence organizational performance and these performances are determined by the processes, practices, purposes, and principles of the HRM department. Modern HRM practices, as opposed to traditional HRM practices, focus on recruitment of employees with skills and abilities that match the job requirements, training and development to improve employee capabilities, competitive salary compensation coupled with benefits and incentives to motivate employees, inclusive participation and appraisal of employee performance, and recognition and reward of exemplary performance. Also, modern HRM practices focus on soft skills such as aptitude, attitude, and emotional intelligence in the selection process other than focusing on abilities and hard skills. Further, modern developments facilitate the provision of multiple skills through training and development other than specialized technical skills that can easily render the employee redundant in case of technological change. Finally, modern HRM practices have shifted from traditional monetary rewards for appraisal to non-monetary reward for recognition of exemplary performance, and also advocate for equal salary compensation packages contrary to the traditional HRM differential salary compensation packages (Mellam, Rao&Mellam, 2015 p.389-390). Therefore, this study recommends the application of modern HRM practices in HR departments because various studies have found out that it leads to improved organizational performance. 3.5. The Galfar HR Standpoint Assessment The Galfar Engineering, Construction and Contracting Company is one of the few examples of organizations with an efficient and effective HRM department that has improved the performance of the company over the years. The company has extensively applied modern HRM practices such as selecting employees who not only have skills and abilities to match the job requirements but also have the right attitude and aptitude to heighten the company performance; training and development to improve employee technical skills; competitive and equal salary compensation packages; provision of employee safety and job security, and appraisal of employees to motivate them towards good organizational performance. Assessment of the company’s HRM practices indicates the application of core values and principles that do not compromise employee satisfaction and appropriate employee motivation programs. Hence, the company’s exceptional performance in Oman can be attributed to HR efficiency and effectiveness. 4.0. Recommendations This research’s case study provides a company with a strong and well-established HRM department that has enabled the company to grow immensely over the last 40 years. The HRM has resourced, trained and developed, and retained appropriate talent pool over the years. However, a critical analysis of the Galfar HRM identified a few areas and practices that if implemented could not only enhance the HRM efficiency and effectiveness but also further improve employee performance. First and foremost, there is a need to adopt workforce planning. Workforce planning is a modern development in the business world. It is an essential element of any human resources department that performs or intends to perform well in the contemporary business world. Many organizations fail in this area either because they are unaware of the benefits of workforce planning or because it is a daunting endeavor to implement workforce planning. Workforce planning has various benefits. First, it is significant in forecasting talent needs in an organization to prevent surprises regarding labor shortages or surpluses. Second, effective workforce planning ensures acquisition and retention of skill-appropriate employees as well as ensuring proper training and development. It also ensures replacement of talent on time in occasions such as retirement to prevent surprises in case of sudden turnover. Finally, workforce planning enables the human resource professionals to plan adequately for business cycles of boom and recessions in their organizations (Sullivan 2002). Secondly, there is a need to introduce modern technology in resourcing, placement, and monitoring of employees. For instance, the company should adopt Electronic Human Resources (EHR) system that collaborate human resources information and information technology. The invention centralizes human resources function enabling easy management and control of the workforce. All HR functions are integrated with the system such as recruitment, performance management, compensation, workforce planning, learning and development, and employee relationships. The EHR invention has proved to work well in HRM. For example, the Nokia Corporation adopted the practice in 2007 and proved effective in HRM (EHR Consultants 2007). Lastly, an understanding of HRM models such as the Guest’s Model of HRM could go far in enhancing HRM practices in the company. The Guest’s Model of HRM advocates for the acquisition of high-quality employees committed to the organization and flexible all the time. Guest argued that commitment to the firm gives the best HRM outcome, and binds the employees to the organization to obtain behavioral outcomes of cooperation, involvement, organization citizenship, and increased effort (Marsden 2002 p.21). The Galfarcompany has partially utilized the recommendations of this model through the acquisition of skilled employees, training, and development, ensuring the safety of employees, and offering competitive compensation. 5.0. Conclusion For a company management to effectively manage the organization, human behavior, and workforce motivation are essential components that need proper management attention to avoid counterproductive work behavior. How the human resource management resources, acquires, retains, motivates, and offers training and development to the employees determines how they behave, the level of workforce turnover, and how the organization performs. The motivation of employees arouses, directs, and maintains a certain level of human behavior essential in attaining goals and objectives of the organization. Several other factors also determine organizational behavior such as national culture, organizational culture, and organizational citizenship behavior. Theories of motivation indicate that employee motivation improves their performance and that of the organization. The Galfar Company case study provides a scenario where an organization motivates employees through competitive salary compensation packages, training and development, safety and job security assurance, equal remuneration schemes, and equal opportunities for career growth. The company has performed well for the last 40 years indicating that employee motivation promotes positive organizational behavior, minimizes counterproductive employee behavior, and as a result, improves the performance of the organization. However, there is a need for the company to adopt modern practices in HRM such as workforce planning and electronic human resources management (EHRM). (Word Count: 3308; Excluding Conclusion, References, and Contents) 6.0. References Baldwin, S. 2006. Organizational Justice, Institute for Employment Studies, 1-15. 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