Managing Human Resources: Productivity, Quality of Work Life, and Profits - Literature review Example

Personal decision making situation – critical reflection Name of the Student: Name of the Instructor: Name of the course: Code of the course: Submission date: Personal decision making situation – critical reflection Introduction It is imperative to note that diverse organizations in different industries necessitate profound decision making processes. This is central in the attainment of the organizational goals and objectives. I was engaged in a decision making situation when I was employed during my summer holiday in the procurement department of a certain fashion company. I had the chance of being a member of an interviewing panel when the company sought to recruit new employees aimed at elevating the performance of the company amid increasing competition. In the above situation, I was mandated with the role of developing the benchmarks for screening the applicants for the post of marketing manager in the organization. Additionally, I was to undertake the initial screening of all the applicants who had applied for this post. In this latter undertaking, I had to make decisions on the individuals who would proceed to the second phase of the recruitment process. The subsequent section is thus a critical reflection of this decision making situation. Different theories and models will be put into utility aimed at arriving at a robust inference at the end of this analysis. Analysis of the decision making process A wide alley of researchers, for instance, Heneman and Judge (2003) and Cascio, (2003) and Gberevbie (2008) have come to a consensus that one of the core challenge confronting contemporary organizations in the realms of performance is their lack of capacity to institute strategies which have the capability of recruiting employees who are competent and retaining them towards the attainment of organizational goals. It is against the cognition of this fact that my employers decided to engage a robust strategy of selecting and recruiting employees having the capacity of enhancing the performance of the company both in the short and long-term. In my undertaking of conducting the initial screening of the applicants, I had to make decisions on the individuals who were to proceed to the actual interview process. In this case, the bio-data of the applicants played a key role in informing my decision in recommending particular applicants to proceed to the next level. This is best epitomized by gender whereby different researchers have revealed the existence of women discrimination in the hiring process in various organizations (Abbas, Hameed and Waheed, 171). In this case, I made a decision to select those who were to proceed to the next stage on a gender composition of 1:1. Additionally, there was the issue of age. This is whereby it became apparent that the younger generation possess high academic qualification but have limited experience in the workplace. In this case, I had to weigh the alternative of training and development of this class of applicants against the predominant selection of highly experienced applicants. This is against the backdrop of high prevalence of negative perceptions about hiring young people based on bias on their basic skills, preparedness to work as well as their attitudes (Hasluck, 2). Thus, in the issue of age, I made a decision of selecting the relatively younger applicants to proceed to the next level of interviews. Nonetheless, this decision had detrimental impacts while presenting my recommendations to the employer. This is based on the fact that the employer had an inherent belief that the more experienced employees will pose immediate impact on the performance of the organization unlike the young employees who required intensive training to make them competent in this post. The above perception has been cemented by different scholars, for instance, Bell and Blanchflower, (2010) who revealed that in the recent past and especially in the course of the recession, majority of the employers have been greatly inclined towards placing higher emphasis on the previous experience of the recruits. As a result, this scholar inferred that this stance has had the detrimental impact of excluding capable young recruits who could be beneficial to the business. During the stage of actually screening the recruits, I made a decision of giving each applicant a chance of presenting a distinct strategy on how to market the products from the company which would have the impact of elevating the performance of the company and eventually aiding in the attainment of the set goals and objectives. This against the determination by Gberevbie (1447) that the core reason behind the establishment of various institutions is the accomplishment of specified goals. This particular decision proved to be the most controversial in the benchmarking undertaking. This is whereby the applicants had the chance of proving their unique approach to the marketing tasks which would be assigned to them. Nonetheless, it became apparent that majority of the more experienced employees had a more holistic and informed understanding of the market dynamics, the consumer trends as well as the costs of various marketing models which they perceived as being the most effective. In this case, the more experienced employees in the fashion industry proved to have high skills and knowledge which was evident in their presentations when compared to the younger recruits who were fresh from the learning institutions. This reality has also been revealed by Guest and Shacklock (718) who determined that the older employees have higher skills in their field of expertise. Additionally, James (16) argued that majority of the young people not only lack organizational skills but also personal development. As a result, this realization made me to make a decision to review the benchmarks based on age which had been outlined in a preceding analysis. Nonetheless, I made a subsequent decision of mixing the younger recruits and the older ones in list of the recommended applicants which proved to be fatal while presenting my report to the employer. As I later came to realize, he was convinced that the older applicants who proved in their presentations to have excellent capacity of posing immediate positive impacts on the performance of the organization ought to have been given a priority in my rating of the applicants. Lastly, I made a decision of considering the personal image of the applicants in the report. This is against the perception that what one is wearing in most cases form the first impression about the basic character of the person (Lightstone, Francis and Kocum, 15). In this case, I included the general image of the applicants in my assessment report. This particular decision proved to be particularly pleasing to my employer and the interviewing panel at large. My employer actually commended this decision. According to his explanation, the marketers are supposed to be the image of the company to the consumers. Thus, a marketing manager who has a good personal image is bound to be fundamental in the marketing operations of the company, mostly in the fashion industry. Therefore, it is evident from the preceding analysis of the decision making process that the decisions had diverse implications on the outcomes of both undertakings. The subsequent analysis will apply different theories as to how decision could have been improved. Selection and application of theories The first theory which will be explored in this section is the group theory. According to Teale (277), a group can be perceived as any number of individuals who have a psychological awareness of one another, who engage in interaction and who view themselves as a group. Lunenburg (2) cited some of the advantages of group decision making as including a greater sum total of knowledge, an increased number of alternatives, a more profound comprehension of the problem and the decision, a greater number of approaches to the problem at hand as well as an elevated acceptance of the decision among other merits. In my decision making situation analysed in the preceding section, a group would have been increasingly useful in arriving at more profound decisions. In this case, the inclusion of older individuals in the benchmarking and screening process would have been highly beneficial in improving both processes. This is founded on the fact that they would have been integral in shedding some light on the expectations, attitudes, values and norms of their peers. This would have been instrumental in ensuring that the older recruits are not disadvantaged based on their inherent characteristics and perceptions on business operations. In addition, the inclusion of more female members in both of the above decision processes would have been key in making the female recruits more comfortable and confident in the screening process. This would have been core in enhancing their performance, mostly during the presentations. Nonetheless, it is worth noting the inference by certain researchers, for instance, Sommers (598) who determined that diabolical impacts on performance are bound to be experienced under particular circumstances, for instance, on a simple task, when there is a requirement for convergent thinking or when heterogeneity culminates in the variation of the abilities among the group members. However, despite these fears, I feel like a greater shift towards group decision making would have been instrumental in not only enhancing the quality of the decisions arrived at but also in improving the experience of the recruits in the overall screening process in the organization. The other theory is the perception theory. In a generic sense, perception can be perceived as the process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment. In this case, different scholars, for instance, Böhm and Brun (1) have recognized the role of perceptions in the decision making process, both at the individual as well as in the collective level. In the decision making process under analysis, the employer ought to have expressed to me his personal perceptions and preferences of experienced employees as opposed to the young ones who have limitations in terms of skills and knowledge. This would have informed my decision to prioritize experience in the screening process as opposed to higher preference of young recruits who show potential of development and great retainability capacity in the organization. In this case, I have a feeling that if the employer had briefed me on his perceptions about the older employees and the expectation of immediate impact on the firm’s performance would have been helpful in setting my priorities right in the decision making process. Additionally, this would have helped me to increasingly shun from expressing greater preference of younger people based on the common age factor between myself and them. This is supported by Hablemitoglu and Yildirim (214) who determined that the values and goals which influence the decisions made by young people are a clear representation of the world view of the young people whose decisions are made. Thus, the initial expression of the perceptions by the employer prior to commencing these interrelated decision making processes would have been chief in making me avoid making decisions in preference of younger employees based on our common age denominator and instead base my decisions on the actual experience of the recruits. Conclusion The preceding has revealed the centrality of profound decision making process in the performance of various firms. Additionally, this critical reflection has analysed a decision making situation which I was engaged in which entailed developing the benchmarks for screening the applicants for the post of marketing manager in the organization as well as undertaking the initial screening of all the applicants who had applied for this post. In this regard, the various decisions have been analyzed and their outcomes while forwarding the recommendations about the best suited candidates to the management. Lastly, this critical reflection has utilized two theories on expounding how the decision could have been improved. The theories which were put into utility are groups theory as well as perception theory. Based on these two theories, this analysis has revealed that their profound utility before and during the decision making process would have been critical in not only enhancing the quality of the decision making process and the eventual outcomes but also in ensuring that the recruits who were being screened experienced utmost confidence and comfortability during the entire screening process aimed at identifying the most suited candidate for the advertised post amongst themselves. Works cited Abbas, Qaisar, Hameed, Abdul and Waheed, Aamer. Gender Discrimination & Its Effect on Employee Performance/Productivity. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 1.15 (2011): 170-176. Bell, David and Blanchflower, David. Young people and Recession: A Lost Generation?. London: Centre for Economic Policy Research, 2010. Print. Böhm, Gisela and Brun, Wibecke. Intuition and affect in risk perception and decision making. Judgment and Decision Making, 3.1(2008): 1–4 Cascio, Wayne. Managing Human Resources: Productivity, Quality of Work Life, and Profits. 6th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill, Irwin, 2003. Print. Gberevbie, Daniel. Staff Recruitment, Retention Strategies and Performance of Selected Public and Private Organizations in Nigeria. Ph.D. Thesis. Covenant University, 2008. Print. Gberevbie, Daniel. Strategies for employee recruitment, retention and performance: Dimension of the Federal civil service of Nigeria. African Journal of Business Management, 4.8 (2010): 1447-1456. Guest, Ross and Shacklock, Kate. The impending shift to an older mix of workers: Perspectives from the management and economics. International Journal of Organizational Behaviour, 10.3 (2005): 713-728 Hablemitoglu, Sengul and Yildirim, Filiz. The Relationship Between Perception of Risk and Decision Making Styles of Turkish University Students: A Descriptive Study of Individual Differences. World Applied Sciences Journal, 4.2 (2008): 214-224. Heneman, Herbert, Judge, Timothy. Staffing Organization. 4th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill, Irwin, 2003. Print. Hasluck, Chris. Why businesses should recruit young people. February, 2012. Web. 19th August, 2013. (http://www.ukces.org.uk/assets/ukces/docs/publications/why-businesses-should-recruit-young-people.pdf) James, M. ‘Out of shorts and into the boardroom’, Management Today, June, 2001: 14-19. Print. Lightstone, Karen, Francis, Rob and Kocum, Lucie. University Faculty Style of Dress and Students’ Perception of Instructor Credibility. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 2. 15 (2011): 15-22. Lunenburg, Fred. Group Decision Making. National Forum of Teacher Education Journal, 20.3 (2010): 1-7. Sommers, Samuel. On Racial Diversity and Group Decision Making: Identifying Multiple Effects of Racial Composition on Jury Deliberations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90.4 (2006): 597– 612 Teale, Mark., Dispenza, Vincenzo., Flynn, John and Currie, David. Management Decision- Making: Towards an Integrated Approach, United Kingdom: Pearson Education, 2003. Read More