Critique of Human Resource Management - Essay Example

Critique of Human Resource Management Research Paper. According to Polit et al (2001), research can be described, "As a systematic inquiry that usesdisciplined method to answer questions or solve problems, through specific scientific methods or procedures (Stevens et al. 1993). This 'scientific methods' of research refers to a body of techniques or procedures employed by researchers for the investigation of phenomena and the acquisition of knowledge, as well as the correction and integration of previous knowledge, based on observable, empirical, measurable evidence, and also subjects to laws of reasoning (Bozinovski, 1995). Thus, as apparent in the above explanation, research, by intent, is supposed to create knowledge in the relevant fields, to develop, refine and expand the horizon of knowledge in such a chosen field. Although specialised procedures vary from one field of inquiry to another, common ideas shared by the various fields of study is, first and foremost, the conviction that the process must be objective so that the researcher does not bias the interpretation of the results or change the results outright. Secondly, is the complete documentation of data and methodology, which could be made available to other researchers upon request, thus enabling others the opportunity to test the viability of research results, critique a research or establish statistical measures of reliability of the research results (Polit et al, 2001; Bozinovski, 1995). Research in the field of International Human Resources Management is intended to expand what is known in the practice of Human Resources (HR), empower the professional HR manager to capably foresee and manage the complex and constantly changing challenges facing the human resources management, as this is paramount for the continuous relevance of human resources management as a tool for achieving the developmental and market competitive goals of firms and companies, in the emerging global market (Parahoo, 1997). Critiquing a research work, therefore, involves a careful examination of all aspects of the study, to assess its strength, limitations, meanings and relevance, in a bid to gain adequate up to date knowledge, improve practice and provide essential data necessary for further studies (Parahoo, 1997; Polit et al, 2001). The purpose of this paper is to critically analyse a chosen piece of human resources management research report titled 'The Impact Of Human Resource Management Practices On The Implementation Of Total Quality Management: An Empirical Study On High-Tech Firms' a recent paper presented earlier this year by Ching-Chow Yang (2006) and published in the TQM Magazine Vol. 18 No. 2, pp. 162-173. Generally, the research paper looks into what relationship exists, if any, between Human Resources practices and the implementation of Total Quality Management (TQM). This is reportedly, due to the high failure rate in the implementation of TQM despite its perceived numerous benefits in generating improved quality and efficiency, increasing customer satisfaction and market competitiveness. The researcher argue that, although, this high failure rate of TQM implementation has been attributed to the fact that companies and firms place little importance on human resources management, as it affects TQM, little or no empirical research efforts exists to back up this argument. This has therefore given rise to the necessity of the research at hand. Objectively evaluated, this appears to be a reasonable premise upon which the research effort is based, thus enhancing the utility of such a research results for the implementation of TQM and improvements of human resources practices. As suggested by Stevens et al. (1993), this research therefore fulfils the requirement of adding to knowledge and expanding what is already known in the field of enquiry. Research Structure Quoting Confucius, Farh et al. (2005) stated that "a mechanic who wishes to do his work well must first sharpen his tools." They explained that when conducting high quality empirical research, the development of valid measuring tools and framework is very important. The format for reporting the research work and the general structure of the research report is one of these tools that are crucial. The report structure widely accepted and in use by most researchers, worldwide, is the - abstract, introduction, literature review, research methodology, results, analysis and discussion, conclusion- format. Although, this appears to be the format followed by the researcher in preparing the research report, some key items of this format appears to be missing in the report. For instance, there is no clear-cut literature review in the report. Reading through the introduction, one gets the feeling that the author had somehow compressed some kind of literature review into the introduction, considering the number of literatures that were reviewed in the introduction. However, this should not take the place of well composed and clearly sub-titled literature review. Boselie and Ton (2001) and Aguilera and Dencker (2004), which are also researches concerning Human Resources and TQM, though do not have a section titled 'literature review' can be seen to have sections in their report dedicated to reviewing previous literatures on the subjects they are researching. According to Burns and Groves (1999), a literature review (in research reports) serve to provide an overview of what is known in the particular field of inquiry and thus creates the need for the present research efforts. It also serves to provide a background knowledge and appreciation of the subject matter to an uninitiated reader of the report. The absence of a clear-cut literature review in Yang (2006) might therefore be seen as a shortcoming of the report. Besides the issue of literature review, the research report can be said to be well written and structured; the language is fluent and easy to follow, even for a layman, and the various issues are presented with ample evidences and references from previous works. The writing style does appear to follow the Harvard referencing system in the bibliography, which suggests: Author, Year of Publication. Title. Edition. Place of publication: Publisher. The language, layout and style of writing are also of major concern in research reports. On a general note, Yang (2006) can be said to well written and structured. Research Title. The purpose of a title in every academic work is to serve as identification, to provide information and to concisely describe the content of such academic work. This understanding is conveyed in Walsh and Wigenes's statement "a title should be informative and should refer closely and descriptively to the focus of the research" (2003). In the case of the research under review the title 'The Impact Of Human Resource Management Practices On The Implementation Of Total Quality Management: An Empirical Study On High-Tech Firms', succinctly and concisely describes the direction of the research and provides enough information to enable the surface reader understand the line of argument/thought of the author. Thus, the title of this piece could be considered as appropriately informative and also spells the content, direction and approach of the study. Author The academic qualifications and experience of research authors impact greatly on the relevance and reliability of any research study (Crookes, 1999). In this case, no explicit mention is made of the research author's qualifications, however, the research approach, considering the framework developed for the study, points to the fact that the author is experienced in the field he has chosen to research. Perusing through the research reports, one may be tempted to assume that the researcher must hold a Doctoral degree or higher, considering the high level of scholarship exhibited in the research study as evidenced in the research report Abstract An abstract is intended to provide the surface reader with in depth information about a research study, without taking too much time or space. An abstract should briefly state the problem studied or research question, the research design and settings, the population, sampling criteria and sample size, the method for data collection and overview of the findings and results and perhaps conclusion (Parahoo, 1997; Polit et al, 2001). Averagely, this is conveyed in about three hundred (300) words and should contain enough information to enable the reader to decide if the report is relevant and what reading. In our case study, the abstract appropriately identifies the problem being researched, which is that, despite the numerous acclaimed benefits of Total Quality Management (TQM), there has been an increasing failure rate recorded with the implementation of the strategy. And that though, this has been attributed, in several circles, to the lack of congruence in and poor attention paid to human resources practices, there is little or no empirical research results to support the argument. This would be seen to be in line with another study carried out by Boselie and Ton (2001), which also seek to address employee perception of Total Quality Management and how this affects the performance and efficiency of TQM. Also, the abstract of the report under review succinctly describes the research purpose, the research methodology or approach and gave a short analysis of the research's main findings, demonstrating the validity of the research contention that human resources practices and implementation does actually affects Total Quality management (TQM) implementation and also illustrating the other effects of human resources practices. The abstract also gave an overview of the research's limitations or implications, the implications of the research findings for human resources practitioners and managers, and what the author described as "originality of the research." In all, the abstract happen to summarise the main points of the study in fluent and understandable language, and thus enables a surface reader to understand the direction of the study. Introduction Laws et al. (2003) propose that a good introduction should serve as background knowledge to the reader, contain the information necessary for understanding the line of thought in the report and convey a clear idea to the reader about the main issues or contention in the paper. A good introduction should also highlight the plan or outline that will be followed in the course of the report, creating something like a map that will guide the reader through the course of the paper. In Yang (2006), the introduction provides the reader with an insight into the historic development of Total Quality Management (TQM). As was proposed by Laws et al (2003), the introduction in Yang (2006) attempted a definition of the main terms of the research, thus providing background knowledge to the reader. Apart from explaining the key terms of the report, the report introduction also provided information on what necessitated the research, stating that the numerous benefits attributed to Total Quality management (TQM) seem to be elusive in several companies and firms, due to lack of proper human resources practices. This therefore creates the need for empirical research into whether and how, human resources management practices affect TQM, as a means to further improve on TQM implementation and thus quality performance of companies. However, although the introduction described the intention of the researcher as obvious in the statement "The present study overcomes the difficulty in measurement by using a questionnaire survey of HR managers and other senior managers of high-tech companies in Taiwan to quantify the effect of HRM practices on TQM practices and the implementation of TQM," it does not describe the plan or outline that will be followed in the course of the report, as suggested by Laws et al (2003) and Stevens et al. (1993). Nevertheless, the introduction in Yang (2006) summarized the main reason for carrying out the research, briefly stated the methodology that will be applied to achieve the aim of the research and also explained why the method was chosen by stating that "the reasons for choosing senior management of high-tech companies as the survey target are..." (Yang, 2006). This completely in line with Stevens et al. (1993) suggestion that an introduction should not just explain the main terms of the research, but should also briefly introduce the reader to what will be found in the rest of the paper. As stated above, in the generally accepted research report structure, the introduction of the report is usually followed by a literature review of the research topic. And according to Crookes (1999), a literature review is suppose to analyse what has been researched and published about the research topic and thus demonstrate what is known about a research problem and, in the process, establish the need for the current study. In this regard, one will expect the literature review of this research topic to carry out a thorough and up to date appraisal of available literatures on the research topics: Human Resources practices and Total Quality Management. Surprisingly, however, there is no section appropriately titled 'literature review' in Yang (2006). This format appears to be applicable to some other reports found also on the topic of Human resources and Total Quality Management, as can be observed by reviewing Boselie and Ton (2001), Aguilera, and Dencker (2004). Though in this other reports, one finds sections that can be conveniently described as 'literature review' as such; the only issue was with the naming of such sections. However, the section that followed the introductory passage titled 'Conceptual framework and objectives' could be taken as a literature review, though when critically analysed, this section seem to also provide information about the research question, research hypotheses and the research aim and objectives, which are all supposed to be separate sub sections in the report. Considering the information provided in the first paragraph of this section, we can conveniently take this part to be the literature review of the report, in the absence of any other alternative. In this respect, the first observation would be that the section is perhaps too short to provide in-depth analysis and review of available literatures in the research field. Again, considering the fact the field of human resources management is a constantly evolving and changing field of knowledge and practice, one will expect a recent research in this field to limit the literatures to be reviewed to those published within a ten year period. This does not seem to be the case with Yang (2006). Though, on average, most of the literatures cited are recent and up to date, one can still find old literatures dating between fifteen to than twenty years in the report. Examples include: Walton, (1986), Wilkinson, (1992), Ross, (1993). However, on a positive note, this section of the report can be said to appropriately serve the purpose of a literature review, as the main terms of the research were analysed in the light of available literatures. Most of the points raised were presented with enough information from a wide range of literatures. The central role of Total Quality Management (TQM) in several human resources literatures was highlighted by reviewing a handful of literatures that have attempted to assign a concrete definition to the concept of Total Quality Management. The varying perspective on the concept was clearly conveyed in the opening statement of this section of the report thus; "There are many definitions of TQM; interestingly, no single definition can express the whole picture." In this section, also, information from the literatures reviewed was appropriately linked to the present research and a need for the present research was clearly highlighted, according to the role of a literature review as suggested by Crookes (1999). This was done by reviewing several academic works that have looked into the implementation of Total Quality Management (TQM) and Human resources practices and concluded that there appears to be an interrelationship between these two, but without any statistical measures to support this contention. As stated earlier on, in this section of the paper, the framework that was applied in the process of carrying out the research was explained and the research objectives stated. In a way, one can assert that this section of the report conveniently performed the roles of a literature review, research question and hypotheses and also presented the research objectives. And without sub titling each of these sections separately, all of the information required for the different sections was provided within this one section, without any, losing out its touch or essence. Perhaps, this could seen as display of professionalism on the part of the research author. One of the most important factors that, in most cases, determine the strength and validity of a research study lies in the reliability and authenticity of the data collated for the purpose of the research. This is buttressed by Walsh and Wigenes (2003) assertion, "using unreliable data collection method or tools leads to validity problems with the data". Moreover, since collation of data for most research requires collecting personal/private information, ethical procedures/protocols need be followed to ensure the protection of the subjects' privacy. This argument is conveyed in Walsh and Wigenes' statement "the ethics of the research is concerned with the standards of behaviour and the practical procedures that researches are expected to follow." In the research under review, information was gathered with the aid of questionnaires that were distributed to HR managers and chief executive officers of what the author defined as 'high tech' firms, though, he admitted that there is no grounds for the categorisation of selected companies as high-tech, besides the fact that they are located in a particular area of Taiwan. Here one finds two contrasting statements by the author; after stating that "although there is no precise definition of high-tech industries," he went ahead with why high tech companies were selected for the research, "The study focused on high-tech companies because, in general, high-tech companies have devoted relatively more attention to the implementation of HRM practices and TQM practices than have other enterprises." I think since there are no precise definition for the so-called high-tech companies, there should be no ground for the argument that these set of companies devote more attention to implementation of HR practices or TQM practices. Also, although, the author stated that data for the research was collated through questionnaires, no explicit mention was made about personal information being collated during the course of the research, which is an ethical issue with any research effort. However, considering the author's statements that out of the 300 questionnaires sent out, "there were 62 valid questionnaires in the 64 responses, representing a response rate of 20.66 per cent," one can deduce that perhaps the personal information required in the questionnaires could have reduced the response rate. Methodology Basically, the approach or methodology of the research under review was interviews and questionnaires. The HR managers and CEOs of what the author referred to 'high-tech' companies were first interviewed about their implementation of HR practices and TQM practices; this was in a bid to gain insight that would "confirm the effectiveness of the questionnaire." The questionnaires were then distributed to HR managers and CEOs of the three hundred (300) selected companies. However, Boselie and Ton (2001) argue that this approach might not be appropriate. They believe that research that takes only the HR managers and CEOs' views into perspectives would only reveal the interrelationships between HR management and TQM at an organisational level. They contend that "research on the perceptions of individual employees might obtain new insights for further discussion on the effectiveness of HRM/TQM in an organisation" (Boselie and Ton, 2001, p.2). The author did a good job by indicating the questions that were included in the questionnaires, which were questions about basic data of the respondent and information about the organisation, information about the HR and TQM practices of the company and the perceived relationship between the different HR practices and TQM. He also described the format of the questionnaire, by explaining that a five point scale was used for the assessment of both the HR and TQM implementation in a company and the perceived effects of HR practices on TQM. However, one would have expected the author to present the raw data of the research or at least a copy of the questionnaire distributed, somewhere in the research report, within the methodology or appropriately in the appendix. The absence of all the information about the research data collated could be seen as a deficit in the study that could mar attempts to verify the claims made by the researcher, in subsequent research efforts. Result and Analysis A research only becomes useful and applicable to practice after the findings have been systematically analysed and the results presented in appropriate format. In this respect, Cormack (2000) argue that "it is essential that data be presented in a manner that is clearly understood, via an appropriate media, using an appropriate format, so as to facilitate both individual and professional development" (Cormack, 2000). In this regard, though Yang (2006) failed to present the raw research data, he did a good job with the analysis of the results. Since the research was intended to evaluate, in empirical manner, how the implementation of HR practices affect Total Quality Management (TQM) implementation, the researcher sub divided the result analysis into four: the effect of various HRM practices on TQM practices, the effect of various HRM practices on implementation of TQM, the effect of implementation of HRM on various TQM practices, and the effect of implementation of HRM and TQM on quality performance. Using the conceptual framework developed for the purpose of this research, Yang (2006) was able to positively answer the research question. Thus, he was able to demonstrate that: With the exception of 'employee relations', implementation of all other HR practices exert "a positive and significant effect on the performance of TQM - thus confirming the assertions of several academics and practitioners." When the different HR practices are evaluated independently, the practice of 'training and education' had most significant single effect on the implementation of TQM Evaluating each TQM practice separately for the effect of HR practices, the TQM practice of 'culture change' and development was the most significantly affected by HR practices. Implementing HR practices have profound influence on employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction. The later being the goal of every company and finally Individually, and collectively, TQM practices impact greatly on customer satisfaction, which in turn increases market competitiveness and profit turnover for any company Obviously, as contended by Cormack (2000), the goal of every research effort is to be able to present its results in a clear, concise and understandable manner, that it would improve knowledge and be useful for professional practice. This goal has apparently being achieved by Yang (2006) in the research under review. However, one shortcoming in this regard is that one would have expected Yang (2006) to present 'Result Analysis' and Discussion of the result findings as two separate sections of the report, as proposed by most authors, for example, Polit et al (2001) and Giere (1998). But, like he did with the literature review, the analysis and discussion of the results were merged into just one section of the report. Though, objectively, this does not seem to take away from the beauty of the report, as the report was lucidly presented and the implications it holds for practice apparent from the discussion. Yang (2006) concludes the research report on a sound note. He drew the reader's attention to the utility of TQM and the need to ensure that effective TQM practices are implemented for a company to achieve customer satisfaction, which is a pre-requisite for market competitiveness. In this manner, he demonstrated the need for the present research into how HR practices hinder TQM practices. He then went ahead to show how the research has been able to demonstrate the link between poor HR practices and the failure rate of TQM implementation. In essence, the conclusion of the report gave an overview of the whole reports and ends with recommendation or implications of the research for practitioners. However, in concluding this piece, Yang (2006), would have done well to explicitly state the limitations of the research, in line with the contention that a research should have limitations and implications for further studies. Reference Aguilera Ruth V and John C. Dencker (2004). The Role of Human Resource Management In Cross-Border Mergers And Acquisitions. Int. J. of Human Resource Management 15:8 1355-1370. Baldwin R John and Johnson Joanne (1995). Human Capital Development and Innovation: The case of Training in Small and Medium Sized Firms. Presented to the Micro-Economic Analysis Department, Statistics Canada. Boselie, Paul And Ton Van der Wiele (2001). 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