Human Resource Management Practices - Assignment Example

Topic: Human Resource Management Lecturer: Presentation: Assignment 1. Please the eight most important Human Resource Management practices. Effective recruitment and selection helps in the engagement of qualified employees who are enthusiastic about the tasks they will be assigned in the organization. Training and development for employees to cope with the constantly changing operating environment and to remain competitive through broadening and deepening their knowledge, skills and abilities Performance management is important in ensuring that high performance and commitment is maintained in the workforce. It involves following up on the employees’ performance in relation to the job description and the organizational objectives. It also involves reward schemes to motivate the employees Human resource managers also need to plan and administer employees’ salaries and benefits to maintain a motivated workforce. Maintaining positive employee relations in the workplace is important for the maintenance of employee competence. This involves promoting team building activities to enhance productivity among employees. Establishing and enacting personnel policies is also a significant practice in employee retention. Appropriate policies help to maintain a contented workforce Compliance with labor laws helps to avoid conflicts that may lead to revoked operating licenses or legal suits against the organization Human resource management needs to be supportive to the organizational strategy. This is because it is one of the functions of the organization’s management that is aimed at enhancement of the overall strategy 2. What are the major differences between personnel management and human resource management? Personnel management involves the process of recruiting and selecting employees to fill in vacant positions in an organization. It also involves helping them to become conversant with the organization’s activities and ensuring that the right job is given to the right person, as well as determining the pay for employees in relation to their ranks in the organizational hierarchy. On the other hand, human resource management is based on strategy. It is concerned with the advancement of human capital through a tactical and articulate approach to the management of workers, who are the most treasured assets that are considered to be the underpinning element in the accomplishment of the organizational goals. In other words, it is not only managing people as in personnel management but also empowering them to utilize their potential to the maximum in line with the organizational objectives (Legge, 2004). 3. Please state at least five of the most important Total Quality Management core values. Customer-focused quality is one of the core values that ensure the organization produces according to the feedback obtained from the customers. Customer satisfaction is what organizations strive to accomplish. Leadership is also a core value that is needed for managers to steer the organization to excellence through implementing TQM initiatives and motivating the rest of the organization’s workforce to do the same. Continuous improvement ensures that the organization increases production efficiency at reduced costs Full participation is significant in TQM and it is accomplished through benefits and reward schemes as well as capacity building programs Rapid response ensures timely delivery of products through reorganization of processes to eliminate redundant activities that hamper progress and reliability in delivery of goods and services. 4. How do Mergers and Acquisitions affect the practice of Human Resource Management? Different companies involved in the merger usually have different human resource strategies, and a merger may lead to the acquiring company influencing the combined strategy thereby overshadowing the other. Employees have different expectations and a merger may affect their productivity. The organizational culture and procedures resulting from the merger may affect employee retention in the long run (Stahl and Mendenhall, 2005). 5. How does the aging of our society affect the Human Resource Management practice? An aging society has adverse impacts on human resource management especially due to the fact that the management has to sacrifice resources to motivate the aging workforce to remain in the company. Human resource management practices have to be adjusted to accommodate the demands of the older workers. The aging workforce lacks flexibility that is required to maintain competitiveness in the rapidly changing operating environment. However, companies need them because they possess significant experience and hence the need to adjust the HRM practices to motivate them (William, 2004). 6. Why do knowledgeable workers are in a position of power? Knowledgeable workers are significant in position of power since companies need their knowledge for increased productivity. They are important in transferring knowledge to the rest of the workforce. Such workers have the capacity to take the many opportunities in the job market and therefore companies tend to maintain and motivate them so that the knowledge they possess is not passed to other organizations. Furthermore, replacing them may lead to further expenses of developing knowledge in new workers. 7. How would you relate the relationship between horizontal development, vertical development, and management and the frontline in an organization? Horizontal development is a situation in which the organization competes with others in the market and acquires competing companies to increase its competitiveness. Vertical growth is the case whereby a company is established and expands on its own without merging with or acquiring competitors. Management includes the key decision makers in the organization while frontline includes the workers who undertake the company activities and their immediate supervisors. The management develops the strategic objectives and goals to be implemented by the front line (Whitfield & Poole, 1997). 8. Please discuss the human resource management philosophy for the organization of industrial revolution and contemporary organization. The HRM philosophy of organizations of the industrial revolution was based on output per worker. Employees were compensated and rewarded depending on what they produced. Performance based pay was largely adhered to. The contemporary organizations are focused on motivating employees to maintain competence and effectiveness in their operations (Viswesvaran & Ones, 2000). 9. Please discuss the nature of job descriptions, job specification and the relationship between the two. Please also give example to explain. Job description is written to describe the job that an organization is offering. It contains the tasks, connections and the expected output of a person holding the position. For example, the title of the job, rank, and immediate supervisor among other details that presents an overview of the job. Job specification presents a breakdown of the qualifications of the person for the job (Armstrong, 2006). For example, degree holder, five years experience and computer literate among other competences that might be required for a person to perform the job effectively. 10. Ideally, organization and manager should treat human resource as one of the most important and valuable asset for the company. Please discuss the underlying reasons why employees’ needs are widely and usually neglected? There are varied reasons why organizations neglect employees’ needs. Some of the common reasons include ignorance among the managers concerning the significance of having a contented workforce. They mainly focus on output rather than the process, thereby forgetting needs such as flexible working, work-life balance and occupational health and safety. Some managers belief that recruitment and selection is enough to provide the organization with the desired competences and therefore do not include employee training in the organization’s strategy. The increasing supply of labor makes employees desperate to retain their jobs since if they are dissatisfied with the employer, other able and willing employees will be available for replacement. This understanding makes employers to neglect their needs (Legge, 2004). References Armstrong, M. (2006). A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice (10th ed.). London: Kogan Page Legge, K. (2004). Human Resource Management: Rhetorics and Realities. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan Stahl, G. and Mendenhall, M. 2005. Mergers and Acquisitions: Managing Culture and Human Resources, Stanford University Press Viswesvaran, C., & Ones, D. S. (2000). “Perspectives on models of Job Performance”. International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 8(4), 216-226. Whitfield, K. & Poole, M. (1997). Organizing Employment for high performance: Theories, evidence and policy”. Organization Studies, Vol. 18,5 pp 745-764. William G. (2004). “Establishing and Maintaining the Trust of Your Employees”. Human Resource Planning, Vol. 27, 2 pp 23-36 Read More