Human Resource Management - Assignment Example

Employees have started relating their career success in terms of their upward mobility in the organization. The major vehicle for climbing up the ladder is the promotional system of the organization. The study would mainly focus on promotional decisions of the organization and present different facets of promotional system in the companies. Stumpf and London (1981) had developed a representation that included the influence of the organization and the individuals on the promotion decisions. It also involved the types of promotion decisions, such as potential of the individuals, performance level, etc.

Later Stumpf and London (1981), found that the promotional decisions should be based on the potential ratings of the employee. The other research states that there are many other informal and formal criteria of evaluation for taking the promotional decisions based on the ability and the seniority (Halaby, 1978; Mills, 1985). Other features like performance, education and demographic characteristics also matter in this case (Taylor, 1975). The two major inputs considered by most of the organization for taking promotional decisions are potential of the employee and the performance.

Still the question remains unanswered, as how can we understand that an employee has potential. The well-designed tool for the measurement of potential can be done at the assessment center. According to the results from a study, bad hiring and poor promotion in organizations are increasing and about 51 percent of the survey respondents in the survey agreed to the fact. Poor promotion decisions include undeserved promotions, favoritism, etc. Among all the reasons that can be stated for poor promotion decisions, favoritism is the most common.

In US, about 92 percent agreed that favoritism takes place in almost all large organizations. 75 percent have witnessed this and about 23 percent have practiced this. The surprising element is that about 83 percent executives agreed that favoritism leads to poor promotion decisions, yet they follow it blindly. The promotion decisions include searching competencies of the employee to fit in to the new job profile and match up to the manager's expectations. However, it is difficult to identify competencies.

Managers face the dilemma while selecting the appropriate candidate. If they consider new candidates or even the existing employees, they have to evaluate, assess and monitor their performance and potentials. This is a time taking and laborious method, though the most efficient one. In this scenario poor promotion decision-making creeps in. Ineffective promotion can increase the inefficiency of the organization as well. Poor Promotional decisions can rouse suspicion, and fear among the employees.

For example, promotions given to those employees who have good relation with the upper management are often seen in organizations. When such employees are given promotion, they might threaten the managers to complain against them to the members of the top level management. It can also become a major issue for discrimination. After considering the significance of promotional decisions and the general factors that affect the poor promotional decisions in the organization, further study on the issues related to poor promotion decisions would be done in context of Peter Principle.

Peter Principles states that the individua