Concepts of Organizational Human Resource, Diversity Management, and Culture - Literature review Example

CONCEPTS OF ORGANIZATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCE Student’s Name Management Instructor’s Name Institution The city and State Date Date Concepts of Organizational Human Resource Introduction Organizational Human resource management (HRM) entails the governance of all staff members in an organization. Besides, policies that govern employees’ behavior and the behavior of an organization towards its employees are formulated and implemented by an organization’s human resource department. The human resource department is one of the most critical parts of an organization. Apospori et al. (2012) explain that the responsibilities of the human resource department can be classified into three main areas namely organizational, individual, and career. Individual management entails assisting employees in realizing what their strengths and weaknesses are. After the identification process, the weaknesses and shortcomings are dealt with for them to make efficient contributions to the organization. Management of the organization, on the other hand, focuses on putting in place systems that maximize the available human resource. Career development is all about putting individuals in the right jobs in the organization. The models of human resource management are the Harvard model, matching model, 5-P model, contextual model, and the European model (Perez et al. 2008). Organizational human resource involves many aspects or concepts some of the major ones ere including culture, diversity management, international performance management, and training and development. Diversity Management and Culture Diversity management and measuring of diversity are the first steps in managing diversity in organizations through HRM. Human resource management of diversity has had many pressures including international competition, change in the composition of the labor force, and the growing knowledge on human resource management. Organizations should ensure that all employees including top management are respectful of all diverse human aspects including age, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religious beliefs, physical abilities and many more others (Tung, 2013). Diversity management in most organizations is undermined by a failure to follow documented practices and policies because of the lack of attention to these issues. In Australia, for example, it has been reported that many organizations failed to document ethnic background information. About 30% of organizations in Australia do not have information about the age of their employees. Several issues about diversity management as an aspect of Human Resource arise at different organizations in Australia (Bennington & Wein, 2010). Because of failure to follow policies and lack of documentation of policies, some companies have intolerance issue regarding employees of different generations working together, therefore, straining the relationships between the younger and older generations. Besides, persons with disabilities are not recruited as managers are reported to be ignoring applications from the disabled without considering the skills and education levels. Organizations should look to ensure that they recruit a diverse workforce and ensure that policies are put in place to govern diversification management by the human resource department. Several objectives are meant to be achieved by organizations through effective diversity management. One of the objectives is to meet legal regulations by EEO (Equal Employment Opportunity) and AA (Affirmative Action). Other objectives are the attraction of more employees, creativity, flexibility, better marketing, and employee retention. Diverse organizations aim to have a competitive edge over homogenous organizations through high levels of creativity and innovation. The advantages of effective diversity management are the attraction of highly qualified employees and the reduction of absenteeism and turnovers. Gordon (2007) explains that organizations that have ineffective diversity management policies lead to poor perceptions of employees about one another. An effective set of policies and practices on diversity management promotes understanding between employees and therefore creates a healthy working environment for all employees. Diversity management in organizations should aim at ensuring that employees appreciate others and there exists no discrimination of any kind. With effective diversity management policies and structures in HRM, organizations can be able to have a competitive advantage over its rivals in a market (Kossek et al. 2007). The culture of an organization is associated with ceremonies, rituals, language, and myths that shape the behavioral patterns of individual employees of the organization. Managing the culture of an organization through HRM is a complex process, and it, therefore, requires an integrative approach (Egan et al. 2008). Cultural entropy is experienced at high levels for organizations with weak culture structures. Some signs experienced in weak organizational cultures include ineffective leadership, Sun cultures in the organization that often hold different views, poor value systems, disoriented rituals and ceremonies, and poor consensus on achieving set objectives. The general subcultures that exist in weak organizational cultures include the creators, employees, and leaders. The leadership or management subculture is one of the most common in most organizations. Communication is important in organizations, and any breakdown in communication between the managers and subordinates will often be a disadvantage in an organization aiming to achieve its goals. Poor communication due to subculture difference might lead to employees even rejecting changes proposed by the management. Another issue is that of poor delivery of services, and this is a disadvantage in the competitive market. Subcultures often lead to a lack of integration between teams and therefore failure in achieving the set objectives. Leadership is an important function in managing organizational cultures, as it is a group phenomenon. Effective leadership by HRM can allow an organization to manage elements of culture including norms, rituals, rites, language, beliefs, and values. Employee performances are dependent on the culture of an organization as effective culture establishments lead to high performances. The growth and development of an organization are highly dependent on how employees complete their task. It is, therefore, right to conclude that the development and growth of an organization depend on how its culture is established (Jackson, 2009). Employee loyalty and behavior is reliant on knowledge and awareness of the organizational culture. Awareness creation on culture quality is important in improving both the development of the organization and that of the employees. The degree of performance and fulfillment of a company’s objectives is dependent on strong working relationships between employees that are created by the effective management of the organization's culture. Nevertheless, to achieve its goals and objectives, an organization should be able to put in place proper structures and policies that will allow organizational culture to be managed effectively thus allowing for the harmonious working environment for employees. An effectively managed organizational culture often allows for employees in an organization to support change. Strategies dependent on well-organized HRM policies often make organizational culture effective in meeting an organization’s goals. Kaplan and Norton (2011) explained the relationships between culture and management of performances, customers, internal business processes, and financial management systems as aspects of improving organizational culture through casual relationships. Organizations culture and performances are interrelated because of the businesses processes associated with them. The primary contributions of organizational culture are defined as power distance, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, and individualism. Power distance is related to how employees and management relate to each other regarding the perfect relationships both formal and informal. Individualism, on the other hand, is the difference that exists between self-interests and the interests of the organization. Masculinity relates to avoiding the promotion and caring aspects rather than success levels that are dependent on the ambitions and challenges faced by the organization. Finally, uncertainty avoidance aids in dealing with the willingness of the people based on tolerance levels. It is, therefore, essential for organizations to ensure that organizational culture is maintained and managed effectively to ensure that its objectives are met through high-performance levels from the employees. International Performance Management, Training, and Development Training and development are one of the primary functions of an organization that helps in improving employee efficiency and effectiveness. Brown et al. (2008) proof that training involves a planned provision that is aimed at modification of skill, behavior, attitude, and knowledge using learning experiences that result in effective performances. The organization's train to develop the abilities of individual employees to meet the current and future demands of the organization. Employees that have insufficient skills, attitudes, or knowledge at certain areas of the job description or requirement are selected for either of the job or on the job training. On the job training, is conducted in the organization while off job training is conducted in a different location with different conditions from that of the organization. Through proper choices concerning types of training, an organization ensures that its employees are well equipped with the right skills and knowledge, and constant updates are needed regarding HRM policies (Gomez et al. 2012). Training and development have assumed a strategic role in ensuring that the organization's demands are met. The demand for an organization to perform the training and development process is compelling since effective training and development leads to an increase in profits and levels of quality of production. Training and development provide an organization with a competitive advantage over its rivals as it incorporates innovation and improves organizational performances. Several approaches could be used in the process of training and development of employees. The approaches are the proactive approach, reactive approach, and active learning. (Wang & Wang, 2012). The proactive approach entails developing competencies through mixing all learning processes with corporate business techniques. The reactive approach is the traditional methods where technical knowledge and skills are delivered tactically, and training is considered an event oriented activity. Active learning is an approach that trainees take a commanding role in the process by exploring problems and issues under the supervision of their facilitators. The learning process entails asking questions, looking for answers, and providing results and analysis of the answers. This approach is essential in the long-term development of employees, as it will enable them to deal with future issues in the company, therefore, ensuring that the organization remains competitive in the demanding business environments. For an organization to achieve effective management of training and development, there is need to follow three important steps. The first is to identify reasons or needs for training and development. Managers and HRM departments should make it their responsibility to discuss training and development with employees individually. As part of the planning and performance, review processes organizations should ensure that training and development of new employees or promoted staff should not exceed four weeks after appointment regardless of the period they have been in the organization. The second step is to ensure that there are internal training and development. An organization should set up training and development sessions internally with different departments allocated different times within the financial year. Online training sessions can also be provided to the employees to save resources including time and money. The last step is to ensure that the organization sends its employees to external training sessions organized by other organizations. External training and development provide extensive knowledge and skills, as employees will interact with other employees from different organizations (Gardiner et al., 2010). Without proper training and development measures employees can be sidelined regarding promotions. Employees become unaware of their professional career prospects in an organization, as there are no career development plans. Many companies that do not offer training and development to its employees face the issue of poor employee retention as their employees and managers are poached by other organizations competing in the same business environment. It is, therefore, evident that lack of training and development is a competitive disadvantage to an organization (Poole &Jenkins, 2007). International performance management forms an integral part of HRM strategies. International performance management and appraisal create a need for strategic HRM, as it becomes a necessity to manage resources with the objective of satisfying the international market. Effective international performance and appraisal management can be reached through geographical dispersion or multiculturalism (Schuler, 2013). The two dimensions are balanced by using centralized and decentralized approaches. The centralized approach ensures that the headquarters has complete control over other branches, therefore, ensuring that there are effective communication and management in achieving the set objectives. The decentralized approach is important in the process of developing strategies for evaluating performances based on the host country. International organizations are faced with high levels of pressure for the responsiveness of both local and international markets and thus the need for performance evaluation to consider both international and local issues. Therefore, it means that the effectiveness and success of International performance management and appraisal depend on expatriates performances. Companies with issues regarding performance management for example performance evaluations being conducted only at the headquarters and not in other branches face very many challenges because the success of international performance management is dependent on the performances of expatriates. Most of these companies used the centralized approach but not effectively as decisions made at the headquarters affect all other subsidiaries. It is important for companies to create effective strategies and policies that ensure the process of international performance management and appraisal is smooth and bears positive results. Conclusion and Recommendations Culture, training and development, international performance management and appraisal, and diversity management from the four pillars of organizational HRM (Ferris et al., 2009). Good policies and structures to govern these aspects of organizational HRM will always ensure that an organization meets its set targets and maintains its competitive advantage in the business market. Organizations should ensure that organizational culture is maintained and managed effectively to ensure that its objectives are met through high-performance levels from the employees. Besides, organizations should also ensure that training and development are effectively managed by the HRM department to promote the skills and knowledge of their employees and therefore to improve productivity levels and to ensure that the employees are satisfied. Finally, it is important for companies to create effective strategies and policies that ensure the process of international performance management and appraisal is smooth and bears positive results. Proper management of HRM strategies by ensuring that resources are directed to the HRM department would ultimately lead to the development and growth of an organization. References Apospori, E., Nikandrou, I., Brewster, C., & Papalexandris, N. 2008. HRM and Organizational Performance in Northern and Southern Europe, International Journal of Human Resource Management, 19 (8): 1187–1207. Bennington, L., & Wein, R. 2010. Anti-Discrimination Legislation in Australia – Fair, Effective, Efficient or Irrelevant?, International Journal of Manpower, 21 (1): 21–33. Brown, H., Peccei, R., Sandberg, J., & Welchman R. 2008. Management training and development: In search of an integrated approach. Journal of General Management, 15(1): 69-82. Egan, T. M., Yang, B., & Bartlett, K. R. 2008. The effects of organizational learning culture and job satisfaction on motivation to transfer learning and turnover intention. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 15(3): 279-301. 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