Effective Management of Human Resource - Term Paper Example

CASE STUDY ANALYSIS: HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT By Student’s Name Course Title Name of Instructor University Affiliation State Date Executive Summary Business organizations have adopted various strategies aimed at improving human resource management in the contemporary society. Human resource management plays a significant role in creating an enabling workplace environment within the business. The adoption of global operations by most businesses have cemented the role of human resource management at the global scene. Through effective management of human resource, business organizations have been in a position of boosting the organizational culture, diversity management, international performance management as well as improving training and development. All these aspects are critical in the operations of the business since they ensure that the business achieves sustainability as well as its goals and objectives. The paper examines the main issues presented in the ‘No Name’ Aircraft Company case study, how the human resource management can deal with the issues and the recommendations that should be presented to the company by an international HRM consultant. Table of Contents Executive Summary 2 Introduction 4 The Issues in the Case Study 4 Presence of Unfavourable Organizational Culture 4 Poor Diversity Management 6 International Performance Management 6 Ineffective Training and Development Process 7 How HRM Should Deal with the Issues at the Firm 8 Organizational Culture 8 Diversity Management 9 International Performance Management 10 Training and Development 10 Conclusion 11 Recommendation for the Organization 12 Creation of a Sustainable Organization Culture 12 Adoption of Policies that Promote Workplace Diversity 13 Enhance the International Performance Management 13 Improve Training and Career Development in all Divisions 14 Reference List 15 Introduction The adoption of human resource management practices has improved the operations of business organizations. Business leaders who have recognized the importance of effective human resource management have managed to experience increased operations both in the local and the global market. Some of the critical issues that human resource management can enhance in business include diversity management. The advent of globalization has brought the need for businesses to embrace a diverse workforce. Moreover, human resource management can create a sustainable environment for the adoption of viable organizational culture, training and skill development as well as performance management within the business organization. The Issues in the Case Study According to the case study, the ‘No Name’ Aircraft Company is facing diverse problems that have brought a tremendous impact on its operations. The CEO, Adams O’Meara has noticed the decreased performance of the aircraft manufacturing company in the global market. The major issues that are facing the company include: Presence of Unfavourable Organizational Culture Culture is an important factor in the operations of a business organization. The aspect of culture that is lacking in the organization is effective communication among the employees, the managers, and the customers. There is a severe communication breakdown in ‘No Name’ Aircraft Company. For example, the employees and managers in the headquarters based in Australia lack efficient communication with the employees that are based on the subsidiaries firms in China, Singapore, and Vietnam. The managers in the subsidiary companies do not receive crucial managerial information from the headquarters. This has led to poor coordination of operations in the company. Moreover, the breakdown in communication has been experienced between the integrated teams and the across teams. This has led to poor working relationships between the teams since the employees do not receive adequate instructions on how to conduct their operations. Lack of teamwork has therefore brought a devastating impact on the aircraft company. Each department within the organization operates independently due to the lack of integration among the working teams. The breakdown in communication has therefore created an unsustainable business environment for the employees as well as the stakeholders of the organization. Through lack of coordination that has been brought by inefficient communication channels, ‘No Name’ company has also experienced a reduction in the quality of the aircraft being manufactured for the local and the global market. The company’s subsidiaries in China and Vietnam has been producing low-quality aircraft. This has elicited from both governmental and non-governmental organizations that purchase the planes. The production of low-quality products has been attributed to the culture that exists within the company. The lack of coordination between the company’s headquarters in Australian and the subsidiary firms in China, Vietnam, and Singapore has led to poor performance leading to the production of low-quality aircraft for the global market. The continuous production of substandard airplanes has led to a decreased demand as well as collaboration with the stakeholders such as the shareholders and government agencies. Poor Diversity Management Another critical issue that is facing ‘No Name’ aircraft company is a lack of proper diversity management within the company. There has been an increasing need for global organizations to practice tolerance in a diverse workforce (Collins & Smith 2006, p. 553). The company practices intolerance to individual’s minority groups such as people living with disabilities. For example, in the company’s subsidiary in China, the managers have refused to employ workers who have different forms of disability. The discrimination of such minority groups has made the company unable to gain from skilled personnel who are living with a disability. The company’s headquarters is also intolerance towards young employees. The senior managers have been practicing age-based discrimination since they believe that the young workers lack relevant skills that can be used in the manufacture of high quality aircraft. The company has failed to appreciate diversity in its workforce. The workers are also hesitant to work with people of other cultures. This scenario had hindered efficient working relations in ‘No Name’ aircraft company. International Performance Management Performance management is important for multinational organizations in the modern society. Effective international performance management improves the operations in various global markets. However, ‘No Name’ aircraft company has experienced ineffective international performance management. One critical issue that has hindered performance management at the company is poor performance appraisal process. The managers of the company only conduct the performance appraisal at the headquarters in Australia leaving the subsidiary firms. The company has therefore failed to analyze and evaluate the performance of the employees in its subsidiaries in Singapore, China, and Vietnam. Lack of performance appraisal has hindered the operations of the company since the workers’ skills are not evaluated by the senior managers of the organization. The inefficient performance management has brought a negative impact on decision making among the company subsidiaries and the headquarters. For example, in case a decision has been made in the headquarter, the lack of appraisal in the subsidiaries will lead to the misinterpretation of the information since the employees in the subsidiaries lack proper coordination of activities. Therefore, ‘No Name aircraft has experienced a decrease in its operations due to the lack of proper international performance management in its operations. Ineffective Training and Development Process ‘No Name’ aircraft company also experiences poor training of its workers in both the headquarters and the subsidiary firms. Although training is important in skill development, the aircraft company has failed to undertake this crucial process. The company undertakes limited training for the expatriates who are assigned to work in China and Singapore. Through insufficient training, the expatriates have been experiencing difficulties in working in the new environment. The company has also failed to train the employees on how to interact with a new culture and also how to enhance their skills in the subsidiary firms. Employees such as Alice Morgan experienced difficulties when she moved to Singapore since she was not properly trained by the managers at the company’s headquarters. The aircraft company also lacks systematic workforce planning and management. The firm, therefore, cannot effectively undertake career development plans for the employees. The workers at the company have been facing difficult tasks in operating in different environments since they encounter diverse cultures. The inability of the company to train the employees has led to a high turnover of skilled workers. The competitors of ‘No Name’ aircraft company has been luring the remaining skilled workers resulting in poor performance in the organization. How HRM Should Deal with the Issues at the Firm Human resource management can bring a tremendous impact on the operations of contemporary business organizations. Human resource management creates an enabling working environment in the organization through ensuring that critical issues such as diversity management, organizational culture, and international performance management are in line with the goals and objectives of the company. The HRM, therefore, should have solved the issues in the following ways: Organizational Culture One of the most important roles of human resource management in an organization is to improve the culture within the organization. Human resource management can ensure that the company adopts efficient communication channel that can boost the dissemination and exchange of information within the organization. Through adopting and implementing effective communication channels such as teleconferencing, email conversation, press releases, reports, and memos, the human resource department can eliminate the communication breakdown in the aircraft company. Such communication practices will boost communication between the company and the subsidiary firms in Singapore, China, and Vietnam. The communication breakdown has been caused by lack of proper channel of communication. Moreover, the human resource practices will encourage the adoption of top-down and horizontal communication in the company. Moreover, the human resource will also encourage teamwork among the employees in different departments of the company. This measure will also enhance the quality of the airplanes that the company is manufacturing. This is because through boosting communication, there will be increased coordination between the integrated teams and the across teams. Human resource management will play a critical role in enhancing the communication in the company thus improving the performance of the subsidiaries and the headquarters in Australia. Diversity Management The adoption of human resource management practices will also enhance diversity management in ‘No Name’ aircraft company. Human resource management can create a sustainable environment for a diverse workforce through encouraging tolerance towards individuals of other cultures. One of the common aspects of a diverse workforce in the company is the presence people from other cultures. The expatriates who work in a foreign company can face discrimination from the majority community. However, human resource management practices can develop measures that ensure that employees co-exist with the expatriates. The adoption of the power-distance theory can also assist in the practice of tolerance to people of other cultures. The HRM will encourage tolerance of the young employees. As the HRM consultant, I will create awareness among the managers on the need to embrace diversity and hence stop discriminating people living with a disability as well as the young workers in the company. The HRM will also organize for meetings in which tolerance of diverse cultures will be discussed. Such measures will thus eliminate the intolerance of the diverse workforce that exists in the aircraft company. International Performance Management The human resource management practices can also result in the implementation of efficient international performance management. The HRM should develop a policy that ensures that the performance management appraisals are conducted at the subsidiaries firms. Currently, ‘No Name’ company undertakes performance appraisal at the headquarters only. Therefore, the company’s subsidiaries in Singapore, China, and Vietnam has been experiencing poor performance due to the lack of performance appraisal. However, human resource management can develop a plan that highlights how the expatriates at the subsidiaries will be appraised. The developed plan, therefore, can be used to undertake international performance evaluation in all divisions of the company. The plan will also ensure that the appraisal is conducted in consideration of the culture of the expatriates so as to improve their adaptability in the new environment. The HRM should also evaluate the critical global performance management factors such as the purpose of appraisal, the level of technology, the performance standards, and the supervisor-subordinate relationships. Through such analysis, human resource department will be in a position to adopt policies that will enhance the international performance management in the company. Training and Development Human resource management is also responsible for conducting employee training and career development in business organizations. Hence HRM should develop an efficient training and career development program in ‘No Name’ aircraft company. The plan should highlight the training methods of the expatriates and the important factors that will be considered during the training sessions. For example, the HRM should ensure that the expatriates undergo periodic training to ensure that they clearly understand the organizational culture as well as the skills needed in the different departments of the organization. The human resource management practices will also ensure the implementation of the systematic workforce planning and management development plans for the organization. Through the adoption of HRM practices, the company can embrace programs that facilitate career development among the employees. Such programs should also ensure that the employees are rotated in the different subsidiaries to increase their level of exposure to different working environments. For instance, through the planning of the human resource management, the workers in the subsidiary firms such as China should also be allowed to work in Australia for a period before moving to another region such as Vietnam. This will ensure that the workers learn how to work in a global market and also improves the ability of the workers to interact with foreign cultures. Conclusion In summary, human resource management is crucial for the operation of business organizations in the global market. The adoption of effective human resource management practices such as the creation of a favourable organizational culture, diversity management, international performance management and employee training can improve the operations of an organization. Contemporary business who would like to operate in the global market should thus embrace the human resource management practices in their operations. The creation of an enabling workplace environment boosts communication and coordination of activities within the business. Through enhancing diversity management, the human resource has enabled various businesses to operate successfully in the international market. Moreover, through training and career development, companies have managed to possess skilled workforce who are in a position to produce high quality products and services for the local and the global market. Recommendation for the Organization As an international human resource management consultant, there are several measures that I believe should be adopted by the company to improve its operations in the global market. Creation of a Sustainable Organization Culture The organizational culture that exists in a business organization is crucial to the success of the organization. ‘No Name’ aircraft company should adopt measures to ensure that it creates a sustainable environment in the organization. The CEO, Adam O’Meara should ensure that the human resource department develops policies that are aimed at improving the communication in the company. For example, the human resource department should embrace advanced telecommunication infrastructure to enhance the level of communication among the integrated and the across teams. The adoption of viable communication channels such as reports, press releases, teleconferencing and social media communication can change how information is exchanged in the company. The managers should be encouraged to interact freely with the junior employees in the firm. The human resource department should encourage the use of horizontal communication as well as open-plan offices to boost the interaction among the senior and junior employees. Another role that HRM can undertake to improve the culture at the company is to improve coordination of activities and decision making process. Through ensuring that the decisions that have been made reach the head of departments in various subsidiary firms, the human resource department will be in a position to boost communication in the firm. The human resource development should, therefore, collaborate with the senior managers to create an enabling organizational culture. Adoption of Policies that Promote Workplace Diversity The organization should also implement various policies that can promote diversity in the workplace. For example, the human resource department should enforce a policy that prohibits non-discrimination of employees based on age, culture, gender and presence of the disability. The human resource development should, therefore, hire workers based on their skills without any discrimination. For example, the policies should be enforced in China where job seekers with various disability have been denied employment opportunities by the aircraft company. The HRM should also encourage the managers to avoid discriminating the junior employees based on their level of experience. The human resource management practices should foster workplace diversity through promoting the interaction of the workers from different cultures. Socialization is important for employees since it leads to the development of teamwork that boosts the operations of business organizations. Enhance the International Performance Management Another measure that ‘No Name’ company should undertake is to adopt factors that can boost the international performance management. The human resource management should ensure that performance appraisal is conducted in the headquarters as well as the subsidiaries in China, Vietnam, and Singapore. Through developing plans for conducting the performance appraisals, the human resource personnel should facilitate the appraisal process to ensure that the performance of the employees in all the divisions is evaluated. This measure can boost the performance of the employees since they will work towards achieving the set goals and objectives of each department. For example, the HR department should undertake performance appraisal for the manufacturing division and the sales division of the subsidiaries in Vietnam and Singapore so as to improve the production of the aircraft for the global market. Since there is stiff competition in the international market, there is need to improve the performance of the employees so as to boost the quality of the products. The HR, therefore, should undertake expatriate appraisal while considering the prevailing economic conditions, the purpose of the appraisal as well as the supervisor-subordinate relationships within the organization. Improve Training and Career Development in all Divisions The human resource management should ensure that it adopts a proper training and career development program for the employees in the organization. The expatriates working in other subsidiaries such as Singapore should be trained on how to enhance their skills in a new workplace environment and also how to interact with individuals of other cultures. In each subsidiary company, the human resource should conduct training after every three months to boost the skills of the workers so as to match the rising demand for skilled expertise in the global market. The human resource managers should also adopt management development programs to ensure that highly performing workers are promoted to higher job positions. The human resource department, therefore, should develop a viable plan for enhancing the skills of the employees in the aircraft manufacturing company. Reference List Collins, CJ and Smith, KG 2006, ‘Knowledge exchange and combination: The role of human resource practices in the performance of high-technology firms’, Academy of management journal, vol. 49, no.3, pp.544-560. Read More