Human Resources and Conflict Management - Essay Example

Human resources and conflict management Human Resources & Conflict Management Many people have the illusion that human resource management and conflict management have importance only in professional life. In fact, these things have huge importance in a person’s private life as well as social life. Different strategies are used by different people to manage human resources and conflicts effectively. Based on the changes happening in human life, the needs of the people and the nature of the conflicts are changing day by day. The concepts learned from the classes may help a person to develop better human resource and conflict management skills. Theoretical knowledge is extremely important in identifying the needs of the people and organization as well as the nature of the conflicts. My father has an appliance repair business and around 35 employees are working in our business. These employees are working in various departments such as servicing or maintenance, pickup and delivery, customer care, billing, sales etc. Moreover, people from different cultures are different nationalities are also working in our business. This paper analyses how human resource management and conflict management concepts I learned from my classes can be effectively applied in our business as well as in personal life. Equal employment opportunities “Equal opportunity employment refers to the approach of the employers to ensure the practice of being fair and impartial in the employment process”(Equal employment opportunity, 2007). In my organization, we are keen to avoid cases of any kind of employment discrimination. We normally respect merit rather than the colour of skin or gender differences while recruiting and promoting employees. At the time of recruitment of employees, we value the academic achievements, technical skills, communication abilities decision making abilities and problem solving skills of the candidates rather than the culture, race, skin colour or gender of the candidates. Employee benefits “Employee benefits are all forms of consideration given by an enterprise in exchange for service rendered by employees”(Employee benefits, n.d., p.165). It can be divided into two categories; short term benefits and post- employment benefits. Wages, salaries, incentives, etc come under short term benefits whereas benefits given at the time of retirement or after the retirement are labeled as post-employment benefits. We have arranged a contributory pension plan for all the employees working in our organization. We deduct 10% from the basic salaries of each employee and deposit 20% (10% from employee salary +10% from our account) in the name of each employee in contributory pension scheme. Moreover, at the time of retirement, we are paying each employee certain amount as retirement benefit. While dispersing benefits at the time of employment, we consider only the past performances of the employees. We make sure that all the employees who performed better in the past should get more benefits than those who performed poorly. We have a standardised system to assess the performances of the employees. The performances of each employee are evaluated based on the norms of that system periodically and based on the outcomes, we are deciding whether to give more benefits to an employee or not. Training and development “A number of studies have shown that results of training affect overall performance of an organization such as productivity, turnover rate, absence rate and organization commitment etc” (Lin et al. 2011, p.927). We have arranged periodical training to all our employees in order to keep them updated about the new things happening around them. For example, the technologies used in new home appliances are entirely different from that in the past. Analogue technologies have given way for digital technologies and it is necessary for our technicians to keep their knowledge updated to service the home appliances in an efficient manner. We have service contracts with many of the prominent home appliance manufacturers and upon request; they are ready to provide enough training to our technicians on various technical matters. According to Redman and Wilkinson (2008) “On the job training can be integrated in to the way work is designed and controlled in an organization” (Redman and Wilkinson, 2008, p.126). We are more focussed in providing on the job training to all the employees at the time of their introduction to our organization, irrespective whether they are fresh or experienced. According to Yamauchi et al. (2009), “technical change induces both on-the-job and off-the-job training, and controlling for technical change makes returns to on-the-job training even larger” (Yamauchi et al. 2009, p.1633). We provide both on the job and off the job training to our employees. We know that off the job training will provide a stress free environment to the employees which are necessary to keep them fresh always. “Training and education are not only seen as the way of helping individual to become more adaptive in their work, but also of providing more knowledge and skills” (Marchington & Wilkinson, 2005, p.52). We are conducting employee empowerment programs to develop leadership skills, communication skills, problem solving skills etc. The challenges raised by the multicultural work environment may go out of control if the employees lack skills in tackling it. So, we are frequently conducting training sessions and refresher programs to keep the employees updated in all areas of their professional life. Conflict management in personal and professional life Conflicts can occur at any time anywhere in the world. It can occur in family, society and workplace. It is difficult to adopt a standardized procedure to solve conflicts of different types. In other words, it is difficult to solve a conflict with the fiancé same way like a conflict with a fellow worker. It should be noted that the lovers are emotionally attached whereas the workers are attached professionally. Professional attachments and emotional attachments are entirely different things and therefore different management strategies are necessary to resolve diverse conflicts. “In most conflicts, neither party is right or wrong; instead, different perceptions collide to create disagreement. Conflict is natural and its up to you to respond to conflict situations quickly and professionally’ (Human Resources at UC Berkeley, n. d). Effective communication skill is necessary to manage conflicts of any nature. Both in personal life and professional life, it is necessary to identify the root cause of conflict first, before trying to solve it. I have many experiences of conflicts with my fiancé at home. As we are attached emotionally, there is no point in trying to solve it in a professional way. However, I usually hear her complaints first before suggesting any solution to it. Based on my experiences, I can safely say that it is important to become a good listener in solving conflicts of any kind. I will never interfere until the person on the other end complete his/her complaints. Only after hearing the entire things, I will suggest certain solutions to settle the issues. In other words, better understanding of the problem is necessary to solve any type of conflicts in personal as well as professional lives. Conclusions Effective use of concepts learned from the classes can help a person in managing human resources effectively. It can also help a person in solving conflicts in personal and professional lives. References Equal employment opportunity (2007), Retrieved from http://recruitment.naukrihub.com/employment-opportunity.html Employee benefits (n. d), Retrieved from http://www.mca.gov.in/Ministry/notification/pdf/AS_15.pdf Human Resources at UC Berkeley (n. d). Retrieved from http://hrweb.berkeley.edu/guides/managing-hr/interaction/conflict/introduction Lin Y., Chen S., & Chuang H (2011). The Effect of Organizational Commitment on Employee Reactions to Educational Training: An Evaluation using the Kirkpatrick Four-level Model. International Journal of Management Vol. 28 No. 3 Part 2 Sept 2011 Marchington, M. & Wilkinson A. (2005). Human resource management at work CIPD Publishing, 2005 Redman T and Wilkinson A (2008). Contemporary Human Resource Management. Publisher: Financial Times/ Prentice Hall; 3 edition (9 Dec 2008) Yamauchi F, Poapongsakorn N & Srianant N. (2009). Technical Change and the Returns and Investments in Firm-level Training: Evidence from Thailand. Journal of Development Studies. Date: November 1, 2009. DOI: 10.1080/00220380903012748 Read More