How Managing Team Performance Affects the HRM Function - Research Paper Example

How managing team performance affects the HRM function Introduction Any organized human activity, which is done in-group, will be most times constituted into structure called organization. Organization is a structure with a ‘collage’ of humans doing their allocated work under the supervision of a leader, for the benefit of the organization as well as them. After the recruitment and apportionment is over, it is the duty of the organization particularly leader and the different managers to provide the employees a perfect working environment, in which they will work effectively. Perfect working environment in the sense, the leader and the different managers should play their part in formulating feasible targets, arranging the needed resources, allocating the work load perfectly, motivating the workers while they were working, solving the problems that may arise and finally rewarding the workers when they achieve the intended targets. Among the different managers who form a part of this process, Human Resource Manager’s (HRM) contribution will be immense. They will have a prominent role in the overall functioning of the organization, as they will only manage the important component of any organization, the workers. Even with automation and computerization happening in every segments of organization, the functioning of the organization is totally dependent on the workers. So, only if the workers are kept in a perfect condition both physically and mentally, they can work perfectly and provide optimum productivity. Thesis The role of HRM is to provide workers a “perfect condition” in the work place, and make them work in unison as teams, and thus focus on team work Literature Review Before delving into the discussion about the role of HRM in the management of organization, the views of eminent personalities, thinkers, experts, will be reviewed or discussed in this part of the paper. According to Redman and Wilkinson (2001) Human Resource Management is concerned with the way in which organizations manage their people. So, it is the human resources department or the HR manger by constituting the vital parts of the organization, who should spell out or should help the employees to find out the benefits, opportunities, growth, etc, they may get, if they continue working in the same organization. So, HRM’s by managing employees’ careers are actually managing the employees’ future and in a way the company’s future as well. Sparrow (1999) argues that HR managers must be proactive, willing to take risks, action oriented, able to delegate and trust staff, etc (qtd. by Joynt and Morton, 1999). That is, they should not allow others to manage them or dictate them, but should manage others like a leader. With strong mental attitude and high physical energy, they should get into the problem the employee or teams of employees faces, and solve it in a beneficial way, both to the employees and to the organization. HRM should also be the harbinger of change inside the organization. After the management in discussion with the HRM decides to go for a change, it will be the duty of the HRMs to prepare or train the employees to adapt to the change. It is a crucial job because, if the employees are not trained well enough and thus were unable to work in the changed environment effectively, it will paralyze the whole organization. And this is what explained by the website, Training zone. “In order to remain competitive, change is an inevitable part of organisational life. But resistance to change can trigger productivity paralysis through low morale and reduced output.” (Training zone). According to Maby, Skinner and Clark, HRM will have to put in extra efforts if the some groups of workers are not in favor of the change in the organization. “…groups of employees towards the lower end of the organizational hierarchy, who are arguably the least likely to be responsive to the attempt to produce an organizational culture.” (Maby, Skinner and Clark, 1998). These groups of workers have to be given extra attention by the HRM, and be made part of the change, taking place inside the organization. One of the important functions of HRMs is to provide the employees, the optimal working environment, so they can work optimally. That is, if they work in an environment which is very intimidating, dangerous, unfavorable, etc, it will surely bring down the motivation level of the employees to bare minimum. With less motivation, the employees will be hard-pressed to use his/hers physical and mental part to work effectively for the organization. “…low levels of worker motivation and commitment result in poor quality work... and poor balance of the flow of work” (Mabey, Salaman and Storey, 1998). So, the important aspect is, the motivation levels of the employees have to be kept at optimal levels, so that the profit flows into the organization’s coffers continuously. The first step that can be carried out by the HRMs to increase the motivational level of the employees and thereby teamwork, is to involve them in all the important process that take place inside the organization, including the decision making process. “…give them a clear sense of purpose, an accurate explanation of their personal importance in the running of the organisation, and regular communication about the direction and performance of the business” (HR zone). The other option that can be tried by HRMs, which could surely increase the employees’ motivation level and thereby productivity, is by giving rewards for the successful workers. That is, the organizations can also achieve their goals and intended profits by consistently linking rewards and punishments to the activities of the candidate. So, in a way HRM should focus on building resilient people who are able to gain rewards from existing jobs (HRM guide). Team formation can also be improved by optimizing the communication channels between the different departments and also at the basic level between different workers. Here also, the role of HRMs is crucial, because they only have to build the ‘channels’. And if there is a barrier free communication channels between the different sectors of the organization, workers can air their views, ideas, grievances etc. “Good two-way communication can help to build the psychological contract, in which employees feel valued by their employer, and the employer values (and is seen to value) employees’ contributions” (cipd) Research Methodology Aim The methodology used to analyze the HRM function in team management involves analysis of 12 sources, including books, journals and websites. Using these sources and the common concepts about Human Resource management, the structure of the paper was formalized. Limitation HRM’s role in the management of organization and also in the building of team cannot be limited and defined in an enclosing manner; it is an evolving process, with new thoughts, happenings, etc, happening regularly. Objective Research the wide topic of HRM, under certain contexts related to the organization culture, pro-activeness and team building. Role of HR Managers The success or failure of an organization depends on the role; the manager plays particularly the HR managers. The managers by following certain managerial skills can ‘sprinkle’ success on the lives of the workers, by making work productively. The managerial skills will be visible and should be put to effective use when the manager as a ‘builder’ builds a solid working group. The managers can build a group, needed for specific tasks and to achieve the intended targets, apportioning or recruiting individuals with talent, knowledge and attitude. With this ‘living’ group, and the material things like capital, machines, infrastructure etc the managers will embark on an organization. But, in most cases, the managers will normally take over or manage an existing organization. That is, the building of the ‘group’ of workers as well as the installation of infrastructure, set up, etc, would have already taken place, with the managers only managing the organization. This job of taking an existing set up and managing it, brings in set of challenges and this where HR manager‘s roles will be visible, as they will perform various functions for the effective management of the organization. HR Manager will formulate or re-modify, and establish a feasible and importantly common organizational culture to accentuate team performance or team work In organization, the workers like the five different fingers in one’s hand will be different from one another having different characters, attitudes, education, background etc, etc…and the unison of these different humans under a single organization to reach a target is, and will always be a difficult proposition. As these different humans could only create a different working culture, the success rate will be minimal, with the formation of both self-managed teams and even self-directed teams getting obstructed. And, if a common working culture, if correctly said, the perfect, feasible and winnable working culture is ‘operationalised’, through out the organization, the organization will be a success story, with teams evolving according to the demands of the situation. In any case, the ‘script’ for this ‘success story’ can only be scripted, by an effective leader or managers. That is, the task of the HR manager is to create a working culture, embed the working culture in the working group and environment in the form of team culture, sustain it and also rectify it, when faults occur. The culture creation will start with the HR manager ‘imposing’ his/her own assumptions, ideals, ideas, etc, as a form of organizational culture. They will, therefore, be quite comfortable in imposing those views and personal cultures, on their partners and employees as the organization copes with challenges and targets. This imposition of manager’s assumptions, as a form of good culture is one of the first steps. Because once a common culture is imposed on the employees, they will have a common thing to hold on to. And if the many employees adopt this common culture, they will surely form into a team and with also work as team, with the common culture acting as the binding element. So, this external impetus or adoption of common culture from external source forms the basis for the self-managed teams, as the “common goal is defined outside the team” (Chatfield). But, in some organizations, the challenge to this imposition of a new culture will come in the form of experienced workers who will be slugging out in the same job in the same environment, importantly in the same mindset for years, who could act as the disturbing element in the formation of a team, with a common organizational culture. That is, when majority of the workers form into self-directed teams and are working on a target, these experienced workers “could throw the spanner”, affecting the team’s or organization’s ability to reach its targets. And changing them to accept the new effective assumptions and work culture will be difficult. They will be too slow and will not be fast enough to react. But, the HR manager is only responsible for making them fall in line and make them fast and ready, thereby transforming the self-directed teams into self-managed teams. So, this process of great working culture will always be or should always be ‘seeded’ by the HRM. “HRM highlights responsibility for managing organization culture and leadership issues. HRM concerns with setting consistent HR policies which reflect and communicate “core values” of the company. It is through building culture and sharing common values among people that companies are trying to ensure that their acts and decision are based on best interest of the company rather than stressing on conventional rules and procedures, thus achieving the element of speed” (Alagse.com). HRM will be an initiator with proactive approach, imbuing it in the team as well The HR managers will maximally try new proactive approaches and will also encourage same from their subordinates. “HRM is proactive rather than reactive, system-wide rather than piecemeal, treats labour as social capital” (Blyton and Turnbull 1992, p.5). By traveling to conventions and other business events, where new innovations, new business processes, etc, will be displayed or discussed, they will get newer perspective about the industry in which they operate. That is, by this action, the HRMs will get a fair idea about the market, the organization’s competitors and importantly the changing mindset of the workers, who will be working in different organization and different countries. When they become equipped, by these important aspects of management, they can easily plan out on how to aid the formation of team working culture and actualize both self-managed and self directed teams. This trait of HRM to go to different places and thereby enriching themselves, is also intertwined with another good trait – they will always be in search of new avenues. That is, they will not settle with the thought he/she knows all the answers and has all the solutions, instead they would try to find more answers and solutions to the problems, which will keep on arising in an organization. This proactive approach of getting involved or participating in all the processes, when the need arises and giving their fullest effort will elevate the status of leaders inside the organization. With this elevated status, their function of imbuing teamwork in the workers will also become an easy affair. Getting involved in the sense, the manager’s ‘touch’ both mental wise and physical wise should be found in all aspects of an organization, including in the formation of self-damaged teams. As the other role of the HR manager is to motivate his/ her subordinates through his/ her action, they should involve themselves in a proactive manner, and should ‘push’ the workers to manage themselves. “Good management consists in showing average people how to do the work of superior people” (Rockefeller). Functions of HR manager will be of strategic nature with teamwork inbuilt in it The human resources manager will play a major role in all the process of the organization. “The HRM perspective stresses that each activity should form part of the whole process of people management.” (Price 2002, p.17). All the important targets and strategies will be formulated during the decision making process, and HR manager’s contribution or inputs about the employees’ performance, skills, problems, etc will help a lot in formulating effective strategies and importantly in the formation of self- managed teams. That is, the HR managers while formulating the strategies can involve the workers productively and importantly as a team in the decision making process. So, during the process of decision-making, one of the approaches the HR manager will try is, putting for discussion his/ hers thoughts among the workers, and will involve them productively as a form of teamwork. This strategy will have unexpected at the same time favorable results, because one may never know from where, when and importantly from whom a great idea could come. So, HRM’s act of involving and allowing co-workers as a team to play a part in the decision-making, but at the same time being the final authority is a good managerial trait and that constitutes the concepts of self-managed teams. As another form of teamwork, the HRMs will also utilize the services of the experts in all the important processes of the organization. That is, if the HRM feels he/she is lacking in any particular field mainly knowledge wise, they will bring in the experts and will try to fill in the pieces. This is one of the important teamwork based strategic work because experts will bring their wealth of experience in to the new avenue. Ken Olsen, mentioned by Fortune magazine in 1986 as the most successful entrepreneur in the history of American business’, who incorporated all the important aspects of Human Resource Management, always set up a number of committees and groups and insisted that all ideas be discussed and debated before they were acted on. “I’m not that smart; if I really knew what to do I would say so. But when I get into a group of smart people and listen to them discuss the idea, I get smart very fast” (Olsen). For Ken Olsen, groups were a kind of extension of his own intelligence and he often used them to think out loud and get his own ideas straight in his head. (Schein 2004, p.235). Conclusion Any organization and also its leader or manager should not stagnate and saturate. Schein (2004, p.418) pushes forward this idea by stating “that the leader of the future must be a perpetual learner”. Perpetual learner in the sense, the leader or the manager should learn new levels of perception and acquire lot of insights for running an organization. As discussed in this paper, every HR Manager should start by playing an important role in the development of a work culture and thereby leading to the formation of self-managed teams. Then, he with the help of human other departments should motivate the employees and the mangers working under him to perform to their level best. Then, by involving others in the process of decision-making, the manager should award purely on merit. So, unison of humans into a team with an urge to usher an organization into a leading ‘utopia’ will be a successful endeavor, if the leader or manager exhibit optimum function. And, if the different methods for optimum performance management are followed and the HR manager shows all the good managerial skills discussed here, in relation to the formation of self-managed team and its performance, the organization would have a ubiquitous presence all over the world. Bibliography alagse.com, Human resource management and personnel management - shift in focus, viewed 15 February 2008. http://www.alagse.com/hr/hr2.php Blyton, P and Turnbull, P 1992, Reassessing Human Resource Management, Sage. Chatfield, M. Self-Directed and Self-Managed Teams. viewed March 5, 2008 http://www.irism.com/selfteam.htm cipd. Employee communication, viewed 16 February 2008 http://www.cipd.co.uk/subjects/empreltns/comconslt/empcomm.htm?IsSrchRes= 1 HRM Guide, Developing yourself, viewed 15 February 2008. http://www.hrmguide.co.uk/hrm/chap11/ch11-links4.htm HR zone. 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