Human resource Management - Essay Example

1. The Air Force believes in the importance of evaluating the performance of its human resources. The organization utilizes a competency based performance evaluation and feedback process. Along with work performance the Air Force evaluates the physical fitness of its employees to ensure they are in top shape. Fitness is an important priority because an officer’s duties include protecting national security and the civil population. The officer performance report (OPR) evaluates six different aspects of the officer’s work.

The six areas are job knowledge, leadership skills, professional qualities, organization skills, and judgment and decisions, and communication skills (Af, 2007). In 2007 the Air Force changed its evaluation process to make it more user friendly and to achieve a system with value added characteristics. The OPR new design allows the evaluator more flexibility and the ability to provide greater feedback concerning deficiency in performance areas. It is more flexibility because it reduced the time it complete the evaluation by eliminating unnecessary narratives in the report.

I like the new system because the new evaluation process provides consistency. The elimination of biased opinions makes this tool fairer for everyone so it can be utilized for promotion purposes. In the past the Air Force wasted a lot of important resources in this process, which could have been used for more useful initiatives such as employee development and training programs. There some things I do not like about the evaluation process. First of the Air Force does not provide the employees the opportunity to express their opinion about their yearly performance.

Doing so would allow a more honest process in which the employee can point out the things he/she needs to improve. Such a process would allow the Air Force to better serve the long term professional needs of the employees.2. Johnson & Johnson is a consumer products company that specializes in healthcare products which is one of the largest global firms with over 230 operating unit locations. The firm has wealth of diverse human resources that provide a competitive advantage to Johnson & Johnson.

This company follows a credo which is foundation of values and corporate culture. In 2002 the company started a new project called e-university. The e-university was created to interconnect the different operation units in order to create a centralized training and development platform. The e-university serves three main objectives: it increases learning rate, improve use of resources and employs growth development. The e-started with three employee training and development programs, but now there 72 different training programs.

This new system allows the company to optimize its worker diversity since the different training programs are developed by the staff of Johnson & Johnson operating units around the world. Walt Disney is another company that has its own university system as part of its human development initiatives. The university Disney utilizes differs from the Johnson & Johnson concept because the company has an onsite physical facility they use for the activities of Disney University. The company utilizes this university as a recruiting tool for college intern programs and to provide orientation to new Disney employees.

This university was created to serve specific corporate objectives. The Johnson & Johnson virtual university objective is to serve the needs of the employees. The employee can create their own customized training and development programs. The Johnson & Johnson program has greater scope since it allows for greater employee participation. ReferencesAf.mil. (2007). Air Force streamline officer, enlisted evaluation forms. Air Force Link. Retrieved October 27, 2008 from http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123060357%20&%20http://findarticles.

com/p/articles/mi_qa3719/is_/ai_n8994317