Can an Organisation's Growth be Restricted by its Recruitment Policies - Essay Example

Dissertation Paper: Can an Organisations Growth be Restricted (Constrained) by its Recruitment Policies and Employee Motivation Strategies on Workersmore than 50 Years of Age? Student’s Name Instructor’s Name Subject / Course Date Table of Contents I. Introduction ……………………………………………………………….. 3 II. Literature Review …………………………………………………………. 3 a. Organizational Culture ……………………………………….. 3 b. Work Equality …………………………………………………. 4 c. Importance of Work Flexibility and Work-Life Balance ... 6 d. Current UK Employment Law with Regards to the Pension Age …………………………………………………… 7 III. Research Methodology …………………………………………………. 8 IV. Research Questionnaire Design ……………………………………….. 8 V. Research Target Site …………………………………………………….. 9 VI. Population, Sample Size and Method of Measurement …………….. 9 VII. Analysis of Gathered Research Data ..…………………………………. 10 V. Proposed Time Frame for the Research Study ………………………. 10 Appendix II – Survey Questionnaire …………………………………………… 11 References ……………………………………………………………………….. 12 - 15 Introduction Veterans or the Traditionalist are employees born before 1945 whereas the Baby Boomers are workers born between the years 1945 – 1964. At the present time, the veterans and the Baby Boomers are composed of 10% and 45% of the workforce respectively. (Francis-Smith, 2004; Allen, 2004; HR.com, 2003; Johns, 2003; Raines, 2002) Even though the number of younger generations joining the workforce is constantly increasing, the older generation’s expertise in soft skills and managerial abilities is still considered as an important component in making an organization successful. For this reason, there is a strong need to determine the best way to increase the work motivation of the older generation employees. For this study, the researcher aims to determine whether the organization’s growth be restricted by its recruitment policies and employment motivation strategies on workers more than 50 years of age. To address the purpose of the study, the researcher will first conduct a literature review on organizational culture, work equality, importance of work flexibility and work-life balance, and the current employment law with regards to the pension age. Eventually, the researcher will conduct a quantitative and qualitative research survey among employees more than 50 years old. Literature Review Organizational Culture Organizational culture refers to “a set of norms, beliefs, principles and behaviour that gives the organization a unique character.” (Brown, 1995) It is also defined as “a pattern of behaviour developed by an organization to cope with problems related to external adaptation and internal integration aside from enabling the employees to feel and think positively.” David (1999: 143) Organizational culture is a paradigm which is often developed by employees within the organization. Over time, organizational culture forms a strong set of behavioural patterns and belief that could greatly affect the perception of employees with regards to its organizational goals and success. (Willcoxson & Millett, 2000) In fact, organization culture could greatly influence not only the success of the organization in terms of attaining its organizational goals but also its current performance. (DuBrin, 2002; David, 1999; Robbins, 1998) In order to effectively develop a strong organizational culture, managers play an important role when it comes to determining and implementing an acceptable organizational culture that promotes employees’ loyalty as well as motivating them to participate in supporting the effort on attaining the organizational goal within the heirarchy. (DuBrin, 2002: 298; Hellreigel et al., 2001; Hampden-Turner, 1990: 7, 9) In fact, it is the managers’ attitude and standards of behaviour that contributes in the formation of organizational culture. (Aspinwall & Staudinger 2003: 156) Work Equality Regardless of gender, race, age, sexuality and disabilities, social scientists from different local educational institutions have been studying issues related to work equality. (van Oorschot & Hvinden, 2001; Barton & Oliver, 1997) Since the importance of work equality in UK is high, the government implemented several public policies to promote equality on work. Equality Act 2006 focuses on promoting equality and diversity related to human rights. (Office of Public Sector Information, 2008a) In order to protect disabled individuals, the UK government implemented the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 stating that it is unlawful for employers to discriminate against disabled employees. (Office of Public Sector Information, 2008b) Therefore, employers are mandated to make necessary adjustments on building construction design or the provision of audio tape or sign language interpreter to enable the disabled people to function well within the business organization. (Office of Public Sector Information, 2008c) Under the Sex Discrimination Act 1975, the Equality and Human Rights Commission seek to reduce work inequalities that are related directly or indirectly to sex1 or status discrimination2 on employment or vocational trainings and sexual harassment. (Women and Equality Unit, 2008a) UK government also maintains the Race Relations Act 1976, which was amended back in 2000, to prevent and minimize racial discrimination to anyone regardless of the person’s race, colour, nationality, ethnicity or national origin. (The University of York - Equal Opportunities Office, 2008) To improve the policy on gender, race and disability equality, the local government introduced the Public Sector Duties which protects both men and women on work equality issues back in 1999. (Women and Equality Unit, 2005) Equal Pay Act 1970 (ammended back in July 2003) was also publicly introduced to address the socio-economic problems related to gender pay gap. (Women and Equality Unit, 2008b) This Act states that employers should provide an equal pay to men and women who perform the same work or is equivalent to the work load or value. Importance of Work Flexibility and Work-Life Balance Due to globalization, a lot of businesses in developed countries were forced to cut down the number of manpower in order to reduce its operational costs and remain competitive in the market. (Johansson, 2002) Such business strategy resulted in increasing the gap between the number of employed and unemployed individuals. As a result, employed individuals are often experiencing stress caused by work overload. The study of Bejerot & Aronsson (2001: 307) reveals that imbalance between work and the personal lives of employees combined with a sudden increase in the work load could lead to health detriment. As a result, the organization always ends up with higher costs of medical and hospital bills due to the increase in the number of sick leaves. (Ibid: 304) In worst cases, employees could end up losing their jobs because of absenteeism due to illnesses or the need to take care of their love ones. (Williams, 2006) Changes in the work environment made the U.K. government decided to promote the ‘Work-Life Balance.’ As part of the program, most of UK-based business organisations are managing employees better by offering them a Flexible Working Arrangements to bring balance between work and personal life of each employee. Given that there is a strong correlation between the work environment and Work-Life Balance, HR managers should design the ‘Flexible Working Arrangements’ based on the specific personal needs of each employee. For example: the number of single or married women who are actively participating in locally paid jobs is constantly increasing. (Kasper, Meyer, & Schmidt, 2005) Since both men and women are spending time working for money, it only means that men and women should have the benefit of enjoying paternal and maternal leave to enable them to spend more time with their children. Balancing employees time at work and personal life is considered an important part of maintaining the competitiveness of the country’s future workforces. A little time off from work will enable parents to supervise their children in order to prevent them from being dropped out from school (Bridgeland, Dilulio, & Morrison, 2006; Levin-Epstein, 2006; Heymann et al., 2002) and to enable them to recharge their physical and mental strength from work-related stress. Basically, employees who are very much supported by the business organization are able to provide a better work performance than those employees whose personal needs are being ignored. (Burud & Tumolo, 2004) Current UK Employment Law with Regards to the Pension Age Pension Act 2004 outlines the policies behind the pension plan. Age-Related Payments Act 2004 is an Act that enables the Secretary of State to award the payment of pension (£50 – 100) to local citizen individuals more than the age of 70. (Office of Public Sector Information, 2004) Depending on special cases, payment of pension may be awarded to people more than 60 years old. The idea of increasing the pension age up to 68 years old is to strengthen the pension provision throughout the United Kingdom. (BBC News, 2006) Since the population of Baby Boomers with more than 80 million is significantly more than the Generation X3 population with 46 million (Francis-Smith, 2004; Martin & Tulgan, 2004; Allen, 2004; Johns, 2003; Raines, 2002), there is a strong possibility for the local government to encounter a huge problem in case all members of the Baby Boomers population will have to collect their pension payment all at the same time. For this reason, the government strongly encourage the older population to remain an active part of the national workforce. Research Methodology The researcher will make use of ‘explanatory non-experimental research’ questionnaires which will be distributed to selected participants. Basically, ‘explanatory non-experimental research’ is a type of quantitative questions the normally use ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions followed by asking ‘how’ or ‘why’ to enable the researcher to gather some explanatory information from the selected participants. (Johnson, 2000) Allowing the participants to share their own opinion by answering the questions ‘how’ or ‘why’ will give the researcher the opportunity to determine whether or not the particpants is answering the survey questions in a logical manner. Research Questionnaire Design The research questionnaires are designed to give the researcher a basic information related to the participants’ age, gender and civil status. From these information, the researcher would eventually seek to determine whether they have children or grandchildren to take care of. With regards to the major research questions, the researcher will focus on determining specific factors that could effectively increase the work motivation of Baby Boomers and the Veterans employees. Among the specific major questions includes the type of Flexible Working Arrangements offered by each respondents’ employer followed by determining whether these Flexible Working Arrangements is sufficient in motivating the respondents to remain active at work. Specifically the last question is designed to enable the researcher to know whether the use of Flexible Working Arrangements is effective in preventing the Veterans or the Baby Boomers employees from filing an early retirement. (See Appendix I – Research Survey Questionnaires on page 11) Research Target Site Target site for the research study will include any establishments or organization that is situated close to the researcher’s geographic area that officially employs workers with age more than 50 years old. Population, Sample Size and Method of Measurement Regardless of job description, the researcher will randomly select a total of 80 workers with the age 50 years and above. In order to prevent having a gender-bias survey result, the researcher will equally divide the 80 questionnaires to male and female workers. Eventually, the researcher will make use of basic statistical measurements using Microsoft Office Excel software in computing for the survey frequency and percentage. Analysis of Gathered Research Data To critically analyse the gathered data, the researcher will eventually combine the qualitative and quantitative survey result of each research question. Based on the corresponding survey questions, the researcher will separately list down quantitative and explanatory results provided by each respondent to enable the researcher easily analyse the data. Proposed Time Frame for the Research Study The proposed time frame for the competition of the research study is a period of 1-1/2 to 2 weeks or approximately 10 – 15 days. During the first couple of days, the researcher will develop an official research plan for the study. Upon developing the research plan, the researcher will develop and print a total of 80 survey questionnaires for each selected survey respondents. Between the third and fourth day, the researcher select a target site that employs workers more than 50 years of age. Right after gathering a list of prospective research site close to the researcher’s geographic area, the researcher will start conducting the research survey by personally seeking consent to each target respondent prior to discussing the main purpose of the study. Upon completing all the survey questionnaires on the eighth day onwards, the researcher will start tallying the gathered survey questionnaires. Eventually, the researcher will perform the statistical measurements prior to officially completing the research study. *** End *** Appendix II – Survey Questionnaire 1 How old are you? ___ 50 – 55 ___ 56 – 60 ___ 61 – 65 ___ 66 – 70 2 What is your gender? ___ Male ___ Female 3 What is your civil status? ___ Single ___ Married ___ Divorced/Separated 4 Do you have a child / grandchild / children under your care? ___ Yes ___ No 5 How many children do you have under your personal supervision? _____________ 6 Does anyone help you take care of the children? ____________________________ 7 Do you consider you time with work and your family and love ones sufficient and balanced? ___ Yes ___ No; Why? _____________________________________ 8 How many hours do you work in a week? ___ between 1 – 15 hrs; ___ between 31 – 40 hrs; ___ between 49 – 60 hrs ___ between 16 – 30 hrs; ___ between 41 – 48 hrs; ___ above 60 hrs 9 Does your employer offer a Flexible Working Arrangements? ___ Yes ___ No 10 What kind of Flexible Working Arrangements does your employer offer? ___ Flex. in Place of Work; ___ Flex. Time; ___ Control over Overtime Hrs ___ Leave-for-School; ___ Compressed Work Week ___ Parental Leave; Others; Please Specify: __________________________ 11 Are you satisfied with the Flexible Working Arrangements your employer has offered? ___ Yes ___ No; Why? ___________________________________________________ 12 What are the reasons for you to be unofficially absent from work? _________________ 13 Do you agree that the Flexible Working Arrangements helped you minimize your absenteeism from work? __________________________________________________ 14 What inspires you to work? ________________________________________________ 15 In terms of work performance, did the Flexible Working Arrangements help you increase your motivation to work? If yes, why? If no, why? ______________________________ 16 Do you have any suggestions or comments on how employers could increase employees’ work motivation by proving the existing Flexible Working Arrangements? ______________________________________________________________________ 17. Are you satisfied enough with your work to prevent you from filing an early retirement? ___ Yes ___ No; Explain. _________________________________________________ *** Thank you! *** References: Allen, P. (2004, September). Benefits Canada. Retrieved April 20, 2008, from Welcoming Y: http://www.benefitscanada.com/content/legacy/Content/2004/09-04/welcomingy.pdf Aspinwall, L., & Staudinger, U. (2003). Psychology of Human Strengths: Fundamental Questions and Future Directions for a Positive Psychology. Washington: American Psychological Association. Barton, L., & Oliver, M. (1997). Disability Studies: Past, Present and Future. Leeds: Disability Press. BBC News. (2006, May 25). 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