Human Resource Management in the Context of Organizations and Their Environments - Essay Example

Case A. In the specific case there are several issues that belong to the area of employee relations while there are also others that are related with the legal principles applicable among the participants. At a first level, the particular workplace seems to be fair towards the employees. More specifically, the employees follow a certain route of development, as the case of Sue proves, while their efforts are evaluated under equal terms from the human resources management team – in this case the responsibility for the placement to the particular positions throughout the company belongs to a manager who has the main responsibility for the decisions taken in the human resources sector of the firm. The differentiation that seems to appear in certain areas, mainly in the working hours, is in accordance with the standards applied in the particular sector, i.e. the quality control. For this reason and because the specific position has extended requirements, any possible problem with the working hours or other similar one which is related with the increased demands of the particular sector (quality control) are issues that should be considered by the interested candidate (here Sue) before applying for the specific position. The company seems to treat her employees fairly recognizing their efforts and it is for this reason that Sue after working on the specific department was proposed the specific position which she accepted. However, the legal framework followed in the specific case was not the appropriate one. Sue did not sign any specific contract regarding the terms of the specific position, the payment provided or other supplementary issues. The absence of contract makes the interpretation of the specific case difficult as each party can present any claim (as including in the arrangement made between them for the specific position). As a result, the employee could proceed to a discussion with her former employer and propose a series of changes in order to continue working in the specific firm. The outcome of such an initiative might be helpful both for the company and for Sue. On the other hand, if no agreement would be achieved, then the parties involved have the right to present their own claims before the authorized court which will take into account the following issues: a) Sue by the acceptance of this position accepted all the terms that are normally related with this type of work (responsibilities, working hours etc.) – in this case Sue should continue to work but the salary would be increased reaching the normal standards for the specific position, b) Even giving the fact that Sue had specific responsibilities regarding her position, there may be a ‘separate’ responsibility for the company to inform her (written) for them and because the firm did not follow this procedure Sue has no responsibility for the outcome and should be left to make a choice as of her position in the company onwards. The lack of a contract, i.e. of a written agreement, should be consider as the major pitfall of the human resources department – the manager – in the specific case. B. Taking into account the conditions that have been developed in the company’s internal environment after the case of Sue, the organization should proceed to a series of immediate and medium term projects in order to meet the demands of the flow of work. More specifically, the company should proceed to an agreement – even temporary – with Sue in accordance with which the latter should work for an 8 hours swift (i.e. as she used to) but this agreement should last for a specific period of time after which Sue would have to choice between the current working hours and the removal of the specific position. Moreover, the company should start a recruitment selection procedure in order to hire two quality control technicians who would work for a 12 – hours swift (i.e. in accordance with the practice held in the specific position). The use of temporary staff in the specific sector would also be a measure of support in order for the company to face the increased demands that the current staff shortage has created. C. Human resources management is an organization sector which is crucial for the performance of a specific firm. In its area, there are several theories that have tried to examine the conditions and the terms on which a hr strategy should be applied. In this context, Jackson et al. (1995, 237) found that HRM can be used as ‘an umbrella term that encompasses (a) specific human resource practices such as recruitment, selection, and appraisal; (b) formal human resource policies, which direct and partially constrain the development of specific practices; and (c) overarching human resource philosophies, which specify the values that inform an organizations policies and practices’. On the other hand, Ulrich (2000) notices that ‘HR professionals can apply innovative ways to develop current employees, including: new and stretch job assignments, membership on project teams, action learning in training experiences, leaders running training programs, 360[degrees] feedback, coaching, Web-based best practice and learning mechanisms, and Web-based skill building’ (Ulrich, 2000, 18). In order for the above hr strategies to succeed in their mission, the existence of continuous employee support would be necessary. For this reason Elsdon et al. (1991, 41) stated that ‘a person-to-person career counseling should be offered to the extension that such an activity creates greater workforce flexibility by enabling employees to respond rapidly to a changing environment and customer needs’. The above ‘measure of employee support’ would be furthermore combined with an appropriate analysis, the strategic skills analysis as suggested by Summers et al. (1997, 18) who stated that ‘for those organizations seeking a competitive advantage through innovative human resource activity, strategic skills analysis (SSA) represents a means to link business strategy with human resource strategy’. In the particular case the application of the above human resources procedures would help the manager to resolve the problem appeared with Sue but also to avoid any similar problems in the future. The development of recruitment selection (through the introduction of innovative recruitment techniques) and the application of a multi-level employee evaluation would help the human resource department of the company to meet the requirements of the organization and support its development in the future. Case 2 A. Stress can be defined as ‘the sum of physical and mental responses to an unacceptable disparity between real or imagined personal experience and personal expectations. By this definition, stress is a response which includes both physical and mental components’ [1]. The above phenonomenon has been examined a lot in the empirical field and there are many assumptions that can be made regarding this ‘psychosomatic’ illness. At a first level Freze (1985, 314) found that ‘the correlation between physical stress and psychosomatic complaints can be explained by some 3rd variable, while the correlation between psychological stress and psychosomatic complaints cannot be explained by any of the alternative hypotheses while the objective conditions of work stress had been proved as elements of influence to the development of subjective stress and psychosomatic complaints’. In the above context but specifically with reference to the work – related stress Agius et al. (1996, 219) tried ‘to assess the work demands as potential stressors of health service consultants, and to describe the development of tools for measuring stress experiences of consultants; Principal components analysis showed that professional work demands of consultants fell into three categories: clinical, academic, and administrative while their perceived stressors separated into four main factors: clinical responsibility, demands on time, organisational constraints, and personal confidence’. A similar study is that of Dollard et al. (1994) who studied particularly the issue of stress at work among correctional (prison) officers in South Australia. The above researchers found that there are specific variables that have significant effects on the work – related stress. These variables in accordance with the above study include: ‘demographic variables (length of service, finances), personal variables (negative affectivity), work environment variables (work role ambiguity, institutional relationship concerns, inmate concerns, worktime concerns, low autonomy, and low involvement), and emotional suppression; Recommendations were formulated including: the appointment of a full-time mental health counselor, organizational and individual strategies aimed to improve supervisor support and management training, greater participation in organizational decision making, and post-shift debriefing’ (Dollard et al., 1994, 82). Stress at work seems to have common elements among employees in all organizations around the world. Any possible differentiations can be explained due to particular cultural and social conditions and ethics. B. In order to decide on a specific cooperation between the health and safety representatives and the trade unions we should primary examine the role and the ‘power’ of unions in the particular sector. In this context, Allen (1954, 18) stated that ‘the functions of trade unions are as diverse as the interests of their members’. This means that their intervention in a specific workplace should be carefully considered in advance because there is the chance for a negative outcome that will influence the productivity of employees and as a result the performance of the whole organization. In the specific case, the representatives of both sides should try to discover the issues that led to the problem and propose specific and feasible solutions for the development of the employees’ productivity not only temporary but mainly in the long term. However, it should be noticed that the involvement of union’s representatives to the whole effort (enhancement of employees’ productivity) should be limited to the borders set by the health and safety representatives and at the time when the latter decide that the presence of the former would be helpful for the success of the whole initiative. In other case, the result could be different from the expected one as a severe turbulence could be caused in the entire workplace. C. If the specific case would be handled not as a health and safety issue but as a disciplinary one, then the company would have to face severe problems regarding the productivity of its employees. If using as an example the case of the two employees that have been already suspended, we could come to the assumption that discipline is not an issue to the productivity problem that the company faces. Both employees had a clean disciplinary record, which is a fact that proves the absence of potential ‘willingness’ in the absence from work. That’s why the application of measures of discipline would not help the increase of the company’s productivity. The specific issue should be therefore categorized as a health and safety issue for one more reason. If having this character, the problem will not lead to severe turbulences inside the company and its employees will follow every measure suggested as part of the problem’s solution. However, there are another issue that needs to be examined; this of the human resources strategy of the company. While the health and safety rules would help the company to recovery (if applied successfully) the whole effort will not lead to a long-term solution as long as the human resources department of the company is not restructured. The re-examination of current human resources policies and plans could help the health and safety measures to achieve the targets set regarding the specific problem. Case 3 A. The two main Acts related with maternity are the following two: Employment Rights Act 1996 Sex Discrimination Act 1975 In order to find an appropriate solution for Mrs. Brown we should examine the issue both from its legal and its ethical (with a reference to the employee relations) aspects. At a first level, it has been stated that a woman does not have a right to return to work part time [2]. However, it seems that this is a subjective opinion and that in practice there are chances for a woman to return to her work on a part time basis after the end of the maternity leave period. In this context, there are three cases which present a differentiation. Moreover, in ‘Mayer v Australian Nuclear Science and Tech nology Organisation(ANSTO), Myer was a business development manager; ANSTO refused Mayer’s request to return to work part-time; The Court decided that ANSTO’s refusal amounted to indirect discrimination on the basis of sex. However, in a case in which the facts were very similar to Mayer, the court came to a very different conclusion; In Kelly v TPG Internet Pty Ltd the applicant held the position of customer service billing manager prior to her maternity leave; Her request to return to work part-time was also refused because the Court held that Kelly was requesting positive discrimination to which she is not entitled under Australian discrimination law; In a recent case, Reddy v International Cargo Express Pty Limited, the NSW Administrative Decisions Tribunal held that the employer indirectly discriminated against Ms Reddy when it refused to accommodate her request to return to work part-time’ [2]. In the specific case, the acceptance by the employer of Mrs. Brown’s request could cause severe turbulences in the firm’s operation since there could be a differentiation from the practice held for all the company’s employees. For this reason, the request of Mrs. Brown should be examined carefully before being accepted. On the other hand, it should be highlighted that in the legal field the above dispute would be difficult to be resolved because of the lack of clear corporate strategy on the specific issue. B. The particular case raises a series of issues for the company’s Equal Opportunities practice. More specifically, if the request of Mrs. Brown will be accepted by the company, then the firm will have to change its employment practice on this issue and will have to apply positively to similar requests in the future. However, this would have severe effects both for the company and the employees the number of whom should be limited in order for the former to respond to the increased financial demands of a specific part of its workforce. From another point of view such a decision could create issues of discrimination for male employees who don’t have an analogous right and such a claim if being accepted by the company’s management would raise turbulences among the employees in all operational sectors. The company should proceed however to a restructuring of its human resources strategy trying to distribute fairly and equally the multiple tasks. Moreover, the remuneration of employees should be also increased giving to women with young children the necessary financial basis for their children’s support without limiting their hours of work. The application of the human resources theories presented above could also help the human resource management of the company to develop its capabilities and to create a more familiar relation with the employees, an initiative which would enhance the relationships among the employees and the administration in all business activities. References Agius, R., Blenkin, H., Deary, I., Zealley, H., Wood, R. (1996) ‘Survey of perceived stress and work demands of consultant doctors’ Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Edinburgh. Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 53: 217-224 Dollard, M., Winefield, A. (1994) ‘Organizational response to recommendations based on a study of stress among correctional officers’ International Journal of Stress Management, 1(1): 81-101 Elsdon, R., Iyer, S. (1999). Creating Value and Enhancing Retention through Employee Development: The Sun Microsystems Experience. Human Resource Planning, 22(2):39-47 Freze, M. (1985) ‘Stress at work and psychosomatic complaints: a causal interpretation’ Journal of Applied Psychology, 70(2): 314-328 Jackson, S. and Schuler, R. (1995). ‘Understanding Human Resource Management in the Context of Organizations and Their Environments’ Annual Review of Psychology 46: 237-254 Summers, S.B., Summers, T.P. (1997). Strategic Skills Analysis for Selection and Development. Human Resource Planning, 20(3): 14-19 Ulrich, D. 2000. From eBusiness to eHR. Human Resource Planning, 23(2):12-22 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stress_%28medicine%29 [1] http://www.humanresourcesmagazine.com.au/articles/28/0C02F228.asp?Type=60&Category=871 [2] Read More