The Implications of Human Resource Management Practices on the UAE Economy and Society - Essay Example

Name Tutor Course April 19, 2010 Contents Executive Summary The Evaluation of the Practicality of Human Resource Management Practices in FTOs Evaluation of Human Resource Management Practices Conceptualization The Implications of Human Resource Management Practices on the UAE Economy and Society Conclusion Executive Summary Human resources are the most important assets that an organization, whether private or public, that seeks to have a competitive advantage over the rest in the market place needs to develop. This is because for all the other resources within the organization to be of any value, they need the knowledge, skills and abilities of human beings to make them operational. Better still, whereas organizations have the ability of imitating the other resources owned by others, human resources, their knowledge, skills and abilities cannot be imitated this way. Managers of firms that intend to ensure continued success have therefore come to agree that human resource management and associated practices need to be integrated in their strategic plans rather than consider them as part of a costly appendage of the firm. The Formal Training Organizations (FTO) in the United Arabs Emirates (UAE) has in recent years taken up the issue of human resource development very seriously. The evolution of human resource management from personnel management has forced organizations to rethink how they relate with their employees. Rather than dwell on the narrow aspects of personnel management such as employee recruitment, staffing, planning, appraising, compensating, training and development, human resource managers in progressive organizations have embraced other human resource management practices that enhance the traditional ones such as selection and recruitment that is strict and rigorous, competitive training, both inductive and on the job training, promoting teamwork and multitasking, enhance management of communication between management and workers, institution of quality circles and insisting on getting the right quality the first time, encouraging employee participation in decision-making and innovation; and encouraging employee interaction through common facilities such as using a common canteen and using same symbols such as uniform and badges irrespective of status (Ostroff, et al 610. This way, the firm is able to quickly meet its objective, besides winning commitment from the workers. In order to achieve this, FTOs in the UAE have sought to align the various human resource management practices with one another and with the organizations’ policies, objectives and strategic plans. This paper seeks to evaluate the practicability of human resource management practices in the FTOs in the UAE, evaluate the conceptualization of the human resource management practices and their implications on the UAE economy and society. The Evaluation of the Practicality of Human Resource Management Practices in FTOs Human resource management practices in FTOs in the UAE are increasingly becoming an important feature. Most of organizations, having come to terms with the importance of highly skilled workers have devised selection and recruitment procedures which are strict and rigorous. Advertisements are placed internally and externally, and in cases that heed highly specialized individuals, such advertisements are placed internationally. Short listing of probable candidates is done and interviews held. In some cases, a series of interviews are conducted. This ensures credibility. Internal applicants are can only be considered when they match the qualifications, and upon going through the interview successfully. Most FTOs in the UAE have also been found to have put in place programmes aimed at developing their human resources through competitive training processes. New employees are for example subjected to induction training to acquaint them with the structure of the organization, the policies and strategies and the general work environment. Because of the changes taking place in the global arena, there has been need to offer on the job training to all employees in order to equip them with the latest knowledge and skills that involve their work. This is quite important because most of these institutions offer training to international students, therefore their staff should have an edge over their students if they have to remain competitive. It has also been established that most FTOs have come up practices that foster teamwork among employees. Employees are encouraged to form teams, both formal and informal, from which they are able to operate. Many times, management assigns them work in groups, organizes sporting activities and outings, all if which are meant to help them identify closely with teams, and when the teams work together, productivity goes up. Employees are also encouraged to multitask or multiskill. All lecturers and tutors in these organizations are for example computer literate. They are therefore able to prepare their work plans on the computer without need for secretarial services. The human resource managers are striving to ensure FTOs in the UAE streamline and improve on the degree and manner of communication between management and employees. Organizations where this has already been done have experienced a lot of industrial peace because problems have often been addressed before the situation blows up. Though many of the FTOs have established channels of communication, they are flexible enough to allow for direct communication when need arises. Some FTOs have instilled in their employees the idea of quality circles and laid considerable emphasis on employees getting it right the first time. This is meant to avoid wastage of time and resources in remedying what might have been spoilt in the first attempt. This management practice has however not been strictly applied because in each undertaking, there is room for errors from which individuals learn and make corrections later. Most successful FTOs have been noted to have encouraged their employees to make suggestions on some issues affecting them within the organization. The suggestions might be solicited by the management, or offered by the employees without solicitation. In most cases, it was noted that employees who have been given this latitude are more hardworking and committed to the organization than those who do not have this privilege. Where all employees might not be accommodated such as in salary, working conditions and related decisions, their leaders are often involved. Employees are also given room to make innovations, which help in sharpening their creativity, knowledge and skills. Another human resource management practice commonly used in FTO in the UAE is the use of common symbols by all employees in the organization, irrespective of their position. Most of the organizations have similar canteens, uniform and badges for all employees. This way, there is a feeling of reduction in social distance between the management and employees. This fosters employee closeness and opens up channels of communication, especially at the informal level. Evaluation of Human Resource Management Practices Conceptualization Though there exist a number of human resources management practices, each organization has the discretion of choosing the practices it deems fit. This depends on the structure of that organization, its workforce as well as the type of activities it undertakes. Most organizations have also tended to implement these practices in isolation. It should however be noted that these practices do not operate in isolation, but they rely on and complement each other. Their success depends on how they are integrated with each other, and with the overall organizational strategy. The human resource management practices, if well implemented, should be able to work together with other aspects of the organization to improve employee motivation. Vroom’s Theory of motivation could be used to explain this relationship. Employees who are well motivated using a number of motivators, in combination with other factors such as the knowledge and skills he possess, his ability and understanding of his role is likely to record improved work performance (Vroom 251). A number of human resource management practices, as earlier posited, could be combined for purposes of achieving greater success. Competence based practices such as training and development together with staffing practices could be combined with motivation in terms of reward together with role application such as involvement in decision-making within the organization (Guest 265). Another conceptualization related to human resource management looks at these practices as belonging to two categories. This concept these practices into job and organization focused practices. Job focused human resource management practices include employee job related employee training. After employees have been recruited for example, they are taken through induction and training programs to acquaint them with their new work environment. Attention here is on both the employee and the job (Tsui et al 1098). Organization based practices include employee involvement in decision making and career planning. It can therefore be established that the FTOs in the UAE have tried to implement a number of human resource management practices that focus on the employees, the job and the organization. The need for the formulation and implementation of the human resource management practices in the FTOs has been necessitated by a variety of reasons. In the first place, the population of the workforce has continued to change and exhibit different characteristics. For example, the normal aging process requires that experienced employees retire from employment, creating the need for organizations to replace them. That is the time human resource managers have to select and recruit those who are competitive. After recruitment, the new employees are to be taken through an induction and training programs, fitting them within teams within the organization and, with time, involving them in the decision making process within the organization. The Implications of Human Resource Management Practices on the UAE Economy and Society The human resource management practices discussed above have had various implications on the UAE economy and society. Streamlined selection and recruitment procedures for example ensure that only the best employees are given opportunities to work. Such employees are able to realize high productivity, making the services they offer quite competitive in this field. For this purpose, the UAE has become a favorite destination for people seeking foreign training. The high level of induction and on the job training makes employees in these organizations quite competitive on the world market. The UAE has hence ended up becoming a leading exporter of well equipped trainers. Team working has helped foster cordial relations and tolerance among employees. Such employees become assets within the society because of their ability to relate well with others. Multiskilled employees are an asset because it is possible to fully utilize an employee’s potential without necessarily employing another one. This way, the organization and by extension the government is saved the expenditure of employing expatriates who would need top be paid handsomely. Employee participation in decision-making and innovation has the advantage of fostering their creative abilities. Such abilities are important because they could incubate ideas which could be developed into viable economic ventures. The beneficiary of the implementation of the human resource management practices is the whole society. The skills learnt and developed from the organization are later used in solving diverse societal problems. The money earned from employment is used to develop the society and its members. A society of individuals who are satisfied at their places of work has fewer stress-related problems. Conclusion From the foregoing discourse, it can be established that the FTOs, like many other organizations that seek to have a competitive advantage in the market place have realized the importance of having a high caliber of human resources. In order to attract and maintain the bets on the market, they have put in place a number of human resource management practices and deftly used them developing them. Most of these practices have been implemented in clusters, because none of then working alone can achieve much. For this purpose, integrating a number of them has helped achieve better results. The practices, as established, address the employee, the job and the organization. The implication here is the organizations do not only think about their own selfish interests, but those of the employees too. This way, as the organizations grow and develop, so do their employees. All these have a positive effect on the economy of the government as well as the overall well being of the society. Works Cited Guest, D.E. Human Resource Management and Performance. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 1997. Ostroff, C., & Bowen, D. E. Moving HR to a Higher Level: HR Practices and Organizational Effectiveness. In K. J. Klein & S. W. J. Koslowski (Eds.), Multilevel theory, research, and methods in organizations, 2000 Tsui, A.S., Pearce, J.L., Porter, L.W., Tripoli, A.M., (1997). Alternative approaches to employee-organizational relationship: Does investment in employees pay off? Academy of management journal, 1997 Vroom, V. Work and Motivation. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1964. Read More