PeoplePower Recruitment Company - Case Study Example

Management case study Placements cells and companies have become a significant component of the economies in the modern world, especially in the global context. This is an important for ensuring that the recruitment of the employees of the companies is done in accordance to the specific needs of the companies and the placement cells ensure that the case specific demands of the various companies are met. This is important as this methodology is more efficient and also this helps in ensuring that the resources of the companies as well as the economy are utilized economically. Thus, the trust and the responsibility that are placed in these recruitment companies are high. One such company is the PeoplePower Recruitment Company. The Missing controls: There are a number of controls that have to be exercised by the company while recruitments are being carried out. The most important control that has to be exercised by the placement cells that is that they ensure and regulate the recruitment process in such a manner that all the different sections of the society so that the various factions of society are accommodated into the work sector and no section of society is isolated. This also allows for the representation of the different viewpoints that exist to come forth. John in his recruitment process was unable to ensure that the various sections of society were represented. The complain that most of the companies that he recruited employees for made was that the company had failed to ensure that the recruitments accommodated the various cultural diversity that is present in the Australian population. Another important control that has to be maintained by all recruitment companies is that the process should be able from all resources that exist, and the process that is adopted should be able to provide not only the younger generations but also members of society who have experience. Also there has to be ensured that the various genders are able to be represented in the working section so that there is the availability of equal opportunities to all disregarding their gender or caste. This criterion too was not completely met by John during his recruitment. There was seen that most of the people who were employed by the John were young males who were white from the private educational institutes in the country. This has led to isolation of certain population of the country. The Halo Effect and the Stereotyping Trend: There can be observed two effects that have influenced John in his recruitment process. One of the effects that can be clearly observed to have influenced the decision of the recruitment process is that of the Halo effect. The Halo effect syndrome can be described as a cognitive bias and in this syndrome there is seen that the preceptor notices a positive trait of the subject and due to this does not lie emphasis on the negative traits that the subject might posses (Nisbett and Wilson, 1977). In other words the observer lays importance on only one characteristic and ignores the other. This is clearly seen in John’s recruitment technique. The bias can be understood in terms of a inclination to create a general optimistic or meritorious impression about the value and the worth of an employee. This would thus mean that a manager would feel perceive the actual merit of an employee to be more than it actually is. The boss in such a scenario would automatically rather perceive the individual think that and rather than rate independently for each item, the manager inflates the ratings.The result is that the ratings become inflated, and inaccurate, at least for some items. The problem with this is that an employee may receive feedback on some items that do not help him or her improve. The best solution is therefore for the manager to ensure that he is conscious of the possibility of the development of a bias and for the organization to ensure that each rating item as independent from all other items. Stereotyping is one of the worst mistakes that a recruitment executive could make while selecting candidates for a particular job. Stereotypes could range from gender stereotypes to ethnic stereotypes (Macrae, Hewstone and Stangor, 1996). Stereotypes ate a set of structured beliefs about the characteristics of members if social categories. These influence how people attend to, encode, represent, and retrieve information about others and how they judge and respond to them. There could also be a bias in the mind of the recruiter with respect to the education and training that a certain school or institution could provide its incumbents (Steeler and McLaren, 1995). The biggest problem with the concept and the nature of the stereotyping process is the fact that it leaves little or no room for judging the person on his or her personal qualities or demerits. John has stereotyped the applicants and there can be seen a certain amount of bias in his recruitments. The first trait that is noticeable is that all the employees that he has recruited are usually young men and there has been no emphasis laid on the fact that past experience is also important. Another important trait that has been seen is that most of those recruited are white and he has ignored the cultural diversity that is present in the Australian population. Also the fact that most of the recruited come from a background of private education reflects his bias for them, and also reflects the fact that he has ignored the other classes that are present in society. 3. Halo Effect and Stereotyping: Significance to managers and management Much of the commercial industry and its management is contemporarily shaped by the Halo Effect. Halo Effect is in essence the tendency to pass judgments on specific matters based on general evaluations. At first, all of this may seem like harmless journalistic hyperbole, but when researchers gather data that are contaminated by the Halo Effect—including not only press accounts but interviews with managers—the findings are suspect (Rozenweig, 2007). This was in fact one of the major trends that came under the scanner in the recent economic crisis. Obviously, the extent to which a manager is influenced byh the halo effect bias will vary from manager to manager, and even for any one manager, from employee to employee. The fact a given company was doing well was attributed to its brilliant strategy and great management tactics- this in fact had its manifestations in the overall systems of appraisal that the company would show at the end of the given year for its employees (The Economist Report, 2009). The best example of the Halo effect is the fact that CEOs in companies that required a bailout in the form of governmental stimulus during the economic crisis were drawing magnificent salaries, not for their capabilities but on their reputations (Deutsch, 2007).   Stereotypes are in essence a psychological contract and should for all intents and purposes have no real impact on the manner of functioning an organization has. Nonetheless, one would have to consider the fact that the psychological leanings of the organizational staff would automatically have an impact on the organization itself. The idea is that a stereotype might not have an impact on the minority but the manner in which the majority reacts to the minority. A distorted perception would mean that a given group in an office environment would have strong opinions of the importance of their own unit (Kroon, 1995). Gender biases and stereotypes have been found to be embedded in the most refined talent management schemes. A simple example would be the case of wherein most organizations still perceive the top brass of corporate leadership as requiring masculinity. There are cases wherein many are seen to be more or less capable in case they posses qualities that would not relate in any direct or coefficient manner to the world that is required of them (Hastings, 2009). In John’s case, he keeps choosing Australian born white males, despite the fact that this would in no way constitute a work efficiency trait. This results in a perpetual cycle that can overlook and underutilize potential top performers. This would thus mean that stereotypes while being a psychological case in point have major repercussions where organizational and business management is concerned. Diversification in the workforce: Contemporary global business stands in firm support of the theory of "business case for diversity". The idea is simple, the world is a global market place, there can be no business that can afford to work in the restricted local surroundings. Given this nature of the global commercial scenario, organizations that would imbibe a work force drawn from various ethnic, educational and cultural backgrounds would have automatically a better pulse of what would work and the things that would as compared to the myopic view that a homogenous workforce would provide an organization. Diversity in the workforce would be advantageous to both the association and the members. A diverse workforce would bring with it like an improved process of decision making and problem solving. There would also be the advantage of better creativity and fresher ideas, resulting in enhanced product development (Taylor, 1991). It provides organizations with the ability to compete in global markets (Fine, 1980). Diverse organizations will be successful as long as there is a sufficient amount of communication within them. Because people from different cultures perceive messages in different ways, communication is vital to the performance of an organization. Miscommunication within a diverse workplace will lead to a great deal of challenges. A big part of this scheme would be the development of a team that is characterized by the managers and executives within the staff and faculty who have the skills to recruit, manage, and mentor diverse populations.  Management of diversity within an organization would mean the creation of an organizational culture that is characterized by members that have the power and the authority to ensure contribution for the developmental work within the unit. This would symbolize in turn, a need for these executives to be sensitive and alert to the interactions among and between faculty and staff. This would be achieved best by a proper articulation by the company executives Effective mentoring in a multicultural setting involves offering opportunities for faculty and staff to learn about diverse people and cultures. This would entail a comprehension of the varied learning styling structures and approaches to problem-solving. Finally the management of a diverse workforce that is offset by the characterization of a system of organizational feedback would ensure that the company stays in good hands and achieves the targets that it sets for itself. 5. Motivation that is provided to the employee can be intrinsic and extrinsic. The manager would first and foremost need to ensure that John gets to do the job that he likes doing best and in the manner that he likes doing this. The idea is that if an employee is doing a job that he likes doing chances are that he would do it better than he would do if he was doing something that he does not like. This would therefore also mean that the manager himself would have to have a better understanding of the business and the prospective aims and targets of the business as whole. With respect to the duties of a manager, some level of control over the type and manner of work being done by John should have been established long ago. Attention needed to be given on the question of timing and sequencing and to the identification of short-term priorities and initial actions, to the consistency in approach and to the way in which managerial will was fostered (Shah, 2007). The idea would have been to initiate and sustain reform. Surprises for the clients needed to be minimized. The idea should have been to ensure that there was a screening process followed as far as John’s judgment was concerned. There was also the need for an observation of the kind of candidates that were being selected on a regular basis. A simple cursory glance over the nature of candidates being appointed would have demonstrated long back the signs of John’s faltering. Another control that should have been established in a clearer manner was the definition of the need that was to serve the various clients. The idea is simple. John has demonstrated a lack of understanding as far as the aims of his organization are concerned and the aims of the clients are concerned. The last control that the manager should have applied was that he should have ensured that that applicable rules and regulations of the recruitment process were being complied with during the selection of the candidate. 6. Motivational Tools: The approach of the manager has to be focused on mutual investment approach. There has to be a communication of the value of long term loyalty and commitment to not just the task but to the job (Losey et. Al., 2005). Some amount of stress has to be placed on training and development. The idea behind this focus is not just to improve skills for the current job but also to prepare the employee for future responsibilities. Job rotation and participation in cross-functional or cross divisional tasks can get rid of the feeling of stagnation and boredom that seems to have set in (Charvatova and Veer, 2006). The idea is to give the employee a new challenge, continuously helping him evolve thereby adding greater value to the organization’s resources with the same amounts of inputs. There is also a certain amount of stress that needs to be laid on promotion from within the organization itself, thereby help remove the feeling of alienation and disillusionment from the staff. The performance evaluation criteria and processes need to be related to broad contributions. In addition to individual evaluation, performance appraisal by peers and based on team performance should be made a more common feature. The broad based contributions can be captured in what is known as the 360-Degree feedback mechanism. Finally, the key to using compensations and benefits in building a mutual investment oriented employee relations process is not focused merely on increasing the absolute pay or benefits but communicating preferred behavior and accentuating long term investment in employees. In conclusion therefore one may reiterate the fact that there are a number of variables that one would need to deal with an accept in the management of an organization and its related employees. The biggest factor that manager would have to keep under notice is that fact that there are a number of psychological processes that affect and impact the manner in which in which employees function. One cannot separate the concepts of man management with the concepts of man’s psychology. The second most important point is that the work of the manager is not just to point mistakes out once they have occurred but intercept these mistakes and ensure that the employee understands so that he/she can be stopped from making them again. Finally factors of training and motivation play an important role as far as the growth and development of an organization are concerned. References: Nisbett, R E and Wilson T E, 1977, The halo effect: Evidence for unconscious alteration of judgments, pub, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (American Psychological Association, vol.35 No.4, pp250-256.  Deutsch C H, 2006, With Its Stock Still Lackluster, G.E. Confronts the Curse of the Conglomerate, Nytimes.com. accessed October 28, 2009, Macrae C N, Hewstone N and Stangor C, 1996, Stereotypes and Stereotyping, pub, Guilford Press, p1 Steeler C E and McLaren P, 1995, Multicultural education, critical pedagogy, and the politics of difference, pub, SUNY Press, pp113-115 Rozenweig P, 2007, The Halo Effect, pub, Alfred Publishing Co, pp15-17 The Economist Report, The Halo Effect, pub, October 14, 2009, accessed October 28, 2009, < http://www.economist.com/businessfinance/management/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14299211> Kroon J, 1995, General Management, pub, Pearson South Africa, p533 Hastings H R, Stereotypes impact talent management, study suggests, pub, HR Magazine, accessed October 28, 2009, < http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3495/is_5_54/ai_n31904201/> Taylor C J, 1991, The Multicultural Organization, pub, Academy of Management Executive, Vol. 5 No.2, pp34-47 FineM G, 1980, Cultural Diversity in the Workplace: The State of the Field, pub, Journal of Business Communication, Vol. No.4, pp485-502 Losey M R, Meisinger S, Ulrich D, 2005, The future of human resource management: 64 thought leaders explore the critical HR issues of today and tomorrow, Edition: illustrated, Published by John Wiley and Sons, pp46-55 Charvatova D and Veer C G, 2006, Communication and Human Resource Management and its Compliance with Culture, pub, International Journal of Social Science, Vol.1 No1, pp14-18 Shah A, 2007, Local public financial management, pub, World Bank Publications, pp157-161 Read More