HR Policy and Management Practices at the Workplace Level - Essay Example

?Critically Review the Situation at RestaurantCo and Identify the Strengths and Weaknesses of its Approach to Managing Human Resources Table of Contents Introduction 3 Corporate Strategies and Culture 4 HR Policy and Management Practices at the Workplace Level 6 Discussion 8 Conclusion 10 References 12 Introduction Human resource signifies the workforce of an organization or association and its corresponding functionalities. In modern business context, human resource plays a vital role, as they are considered to be a major factor behind the success of any association. With acceleration in the competition and transformed business world, it has become very essential to adapt new policies and strategies in preserving human resource efficiencies, which would help the management to maintain a coordinated relation amidst its employees. Theoretically, the dimension of Human Resource Management (HRM) helps in linking the functions of human resource with the determined organisational objectives in order to improve the performance of the organisation on the whole. Apart from linking the human resource functions with the strategic objectives of the firm, it further assists the organization in establishing a proper understanding amidst the superiors and the supervisors working within it. HRM further helps in maintaining a coordinated relation between the external factors that contribute substantially to the organizational development and success (Bratton, n.d.). With the continually growing significance and complexities in the HRM dimension, the adaption of Employees Involvement and Participation (EIP) is often argued to contribute in differentiating a company’s internal strengths by enhancing the flexibility of the workforce to adjust with the external business environmental changes. The notion behind the concept of EIP concentrates on the fact that effective involvement and participation of the workforce would lead towards the achievement of the organizational goals and efficiencies. The concept of measuring the formal and informal EIP link further can be regarded as an important part of any organization, as it helps in evaluating the employees performances over a certain standard of time, in comparison with pre-set standards or goals. Formal EIP is further considered to be those practises, where the managers of a department consult with the employees before implementing a new work practice within the set working environment; whereas, informal EIP signifies that decision-making process, where the managers do not follow any formal procedure to gather suggestions from the subordinates (Storey, 2007). In this essay, the discussion henceforth will intend to critically evaluate the situation of RestaurantCo and to identify the strengths and weakness of its approaches thereon. The discussion will further aim at assessing links between corporate strategies, culture, HR policy and management practices at the workplace level of RestaurantCo with EIP. Corporate Strategies and Culture In corporate strategies, authority is considered to be highly important to practice an effective decision making procedure. Authority is generally considered as an obligation to act on behalf of a department or agency or any higher level of authority within an organization. Furthermore, authority is the key to the managerial job; they endure the right of indulging into the decision-making process being in the top level management. Delegation of authority is basically the process of allocating the work and transferring the rights from the higher authority to the lower level employees within an organizational context that inculcates EIP related aspects to a considerable extent. This form of strategy is usually adapted by the top level management when there is an over load of work or is viewed in large industries where assigning managers for a single department is very essential maintaining a linkage between the organisation’s short-term or long-term objectives and the workforce performances. Correspondingly, it has been viewed that today’s business organizations are adapting the policy at a rapid speed, which ensures establishment of a better relation amidst their subordinates and top level management. Reflecting upon the concept of EIP, these strategies followed within an organization ensures its development and growth. On the basis of assigning authority to the lower level employees, delegation of authority has been broadly divided into centralization and decentralization forms of corporate strategic frameworks (Acharya, 2013). Centralization signifies the system of assigning authority to the subordinates, keeping the final decision making power reserved for the top level, focusing on a strong linkage between corporate strategies and the EIP framework utilised within the organisation. It has been viewed that fast food restaurant businesses like McDonald’s and Pizza Hut among others usually follow the centralized policy of delegating authority within their operating aspects. The prime reason behind adapting the centralized way of delegating authority is to evaluate customer experiences and quality at every outlet of the restaurant company, which further plays a major role in shaping the organisational culture within the organisation (U.S Environment Protection Agency, 2012). On the contrary, decentralization denotes the system of assigning the decision making power to the subordinates. This form of policy is usually adapted in businesses, where diversification is done at a rapid speed. Furthermore, in this form of delegating the authority, the subordinates are allowed to take decisions authoritatively for the overall benefit of the organisation. However, it has been viewed that in some cases, consulting with the top level management ensures better understanding amidst the subordinates and the top level management, especially in restaurant companies, thus maintaining a strategic link between the dimensions of EIP (U.S Environment Protection Agency, 2012). With reference to the case i.e. ‘The role of managers and employee voice in the restaurant industry’, it has been assessed that RestaurantCo follows a particular program named ‘Mystery Customers’, which has been implemented to measure the performances-related bonuses of the local managers all around its outlets. Wherein, this form of centralized monitoring highlighted the degree of control of the head office, which directly contradicts the autonomy of the branch managers within the local levels. However, in relation to the aforesaid contradictions, a mixed approach might prove to be beneficial for RestaurantCo. In accordance, a mixed approach management style within an organization will based upon situational analysis. In this regard it can be stated that there has been an ethical culture prevailing within the association. As it has been viewed that the salary paid to the employees were based on their performance helping in better employment involvement and participation. Considering, situational analysis will ensure effectual management approach that inculcates vital areas, which directly relate with organizational success and development (Suter & Marchington, n.d.). HR Policy and Management Practices at the Workplace Level Managing the capabilities of the workers within an organization is considered to be vital in terms of HR policies and managerial practices, as effectual capability management of the employees ensures maintenance of a coordinated working process and effective employee’s involvement and participation. Capability management is considered as a high level integrative management function that helps the top level management of an organization to maintain it work force in such a way that the organizational framework is achieved efficiently. Capability frame work is further considered to be a blueprint that provides the frame work for teaching leadership and for leadership practises in general. It is generally provided to the branch manager or other higher level authority, for deriving relevant t information during the decision-making procedure within an organization. It generally serves as a guideline, which ensures effective and efficient decisions by the managers within a branch (Cheng & et. al., 2009). With reference to the case i.e. ‘The role of managers and employee voice in the restaurant industry’, it has been viewed that, as the businesses of the RestaurantCo was expanding at a rapid speed, effective leadership control with the implementation of strong EIP framed a vital part for the differentiated outlet of the businesses. Correspondingly, the top level management of RestaurantCo created a capability framework that portrayed differentiated capabilities and skills of the workforce as a corporate strategy that framed an essential part in establishing a positive behaviour within the organization. However, on close observation it was assessed that in spite of apparent support from the management, the business still implemented a centralised way of delegating authority, which acted as a barrier to establish a participative culture within different outlets of the business. Additionally the concept of establishing capability framework restricted the managers’ functions within a boundary, which increased the risk of conflicts amidst the workers and the mangers in the different outlets. In this regards, RestaurantCo could have adapted the mixed approach of delegating the power within the organization. Furthermore, with rapid acceleration of business expansion, the decision-making processes gets complex. This requires a moderate level of management authoritative control in the form of EIP, to deal with the critical situation, being based upon situational analysis. It would further help the management to select the best practise and implement it throughout its outlets in the near future (Suter & Marchington, n.d.). It has been viewed in this regard that there lies immense potential of informal EIP to influence the employees view in RestaurantCo, as referred to the aforesaid case, where decisions can be observed as taken without any consultation of the employees, i.e. exhibiting a weak EIP system. Contextually, the line managers can ask for suggestions or set up meetings involving the employees and asking for feedbacks about the new policies being implemented within the workplace. Customers’ feedbacks would also contribute in building effective EIP plans in RestaurantCo, being considered as an important part of any business. For instance in the aforesaid case it can be observed that as the business had numerous outlets, the informal form of EIP proved to be the best practise within differentiated outlets. It has also been highlighted that informal form of EIP is considered to be the best policy within small firms, as consulting formally with the employees’ may result in wastage of time concluding no significant remark on the corporate strategies practices or the culture followed within the workplace. However, formal EIP is strongly followed in large industries with the intention to make sure that appropriate suggestions are asked from all the employees present in the managerial level and therefore, a proper association of workforce performances and organisational objectives can be maintained (Cox & et. al., n.d.; Suter & Marchington, n.d.). Discussion With reference to the case emphasising the corporate strategies, cultural frameworks, managerial practices and HR policies in connection with the concept of EIP, it can be clearly viewed that as the organization grew, it became quite vital to delegate authority amid the middle-level managers by the top level management and again by the middle-level managers to the low level supervisors to maintain a coordination between employee performances and organisational objectives. Formal and informal EIP practices are thus considered to be the two sides of a single coin as its main motive is to implement new policy or strategy in the benefit of the organisation. Informal form of EIP is a process where the managers ask suggestions in an informal way, often, irrespective of the hierarchical levels, as it is considered to be one of the best ways for decision-making processes within the small business. This form of policy is specially recommended for post-bureaucratic work system similar to that of RestaurantCo, as in this form of working system, the business tends to be involved in small-scale production of a large variety of products. In this context, the corporate strategies and HR policies emphasising horizontal and vertical job enlargement, careful division of the task and training the employees according to the organization’s working process can be considered as essential characteristics of post-bureaucratic work system. Though, the informal form of EIP is clearly central to the role of managers in this context, this style would not be effective in other sectors, as decisions taken informally sometimes can harm to the organizational goal to a great extent being largely depended on the managerial and leadership qualities of the personnel. In some business areas, proper evaluation, research and formal suggestions are deemed as quite mandatory, which can be observed as absent in the informal form of EIP (Conservatives, n.d.; Suter & Marchington, n.d.; The Higher Education Academy, 2013). The concept of integrating the policy of HRM in the working system has been in practice since the past. It is generally considered to be a process of managing people individually or collectively in the workplace to attain the principle goals of an association. The process of HRM is also considered to be a collective function of all the vital aspects that require surveillance for completing a predefined objective. With reference to above mentioned discussion and the case, it can be inferred that after the enlargement of RestaurantCo, the branch managers were fully in charge of the outlets assigned to them. However, it was viewed that the informal form of EIP was followed in the organization principally, which created an enthusiastic form of organizational culture. It has also been viewed that though an assistant manager was present in every outlet, bestowed with the prime duty to act as an intermediary between the workers and the managers, the employees reported directly to the manager raising the negative influences of possible conflicts, as often theoretically argued to be associated with informal EIP. Moreover, it was also observed that a centralized monitoring system was followed in RestaurantCo, which acted as a barrier in the final decision making by the managers. Contextually, in centralised form of delegating authority, subordinates need to inform the top level management about the new policies planned to be implemented within the organization. The process usually is considered to be a time consuming phenomenon, as it is evaluated by all the top level managers. After the implementation of the HR policy in context of delegating authority amid managers, redefined corporate strategies should have been taken by the top level management to help the branch managers to run the outlets in a coordinated manner, like providing capability framework and list of qualities that are essential for the assigned job. This would help the workforce to perform their duties effectively in alignment with the organisational goals. Thus, it can be stated that even though informal EIP system possesses certain disadvantages, if proper guidelines are followed, it will help in completing the task in a time efficient manner. It shall thus minimize operational costs to be incurred by the organisation and ensure achievements of organizational goals efficiently (Suter & Marchington, n.d.; Storey, 2007). Conclusion Human Resource is considered to be an essential part of any organization. In today’s competitive business world, it has become vital for every organization to recruit the productive employees and train those committed personnel who decipher limitations. The implementation of effective and all-inclusive HRM strategies has thus become essential in every business sector, as it provides a better opportunity to deal with managerial issues by adhering to the principles of EIP. The first vital step that is considered in the HRM context is the recruitment process. In this step, the organization should set up certain methods that would help in evaluating the future performances and the capabilities of the recruited employees. Training and development is considered the next vital part as it involves activities that would help the employee to adjust with the new working environment. Delegation of authority is also considered to be another vital aspect as it mainly involves transferring of decision making rights from the top level to the lower level managers, practicing a structured framework for EIP. With reference to the case and the discussion, it was further viewed that in case of RestaurantCo, the organization followed a centralized form of delegating authority, where the branch managers were given right to make decisions, but the authority was restricted thereon amid the staff members. However, the branch managers were observed to follow an informal form of EIP as it made the decision making procedure easier at the lower hierarchical levels of the organisational structure. Hence, rendering the situational paradoxes with considerable significance, RestaurantCo’s corporate strategies, cultural framework, HR policies as well as managerial practices proved quite effective in preserving a beneficial EIP system. References Acharya, A., 2013. 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