What Role Does Human Resources Development Have in Realizing Wider Social Goals - Literature review Example

Supervisor Q. What role does HRD have in realising wider social goals, such as diversity, equal opportunities and issues of social exclusion?  By: February, 2009 Table of Contents 1.0 Introduction 1.1 Problem Statement and purpose of this paper 1.2 Structure and design of work 2.0 Overview of Human Resource Development 2.1 Role and Functions of Human Resource development 2.2 Role of Human Resource Development towards Diversity 2.3 Role of Human Resource Development Towards Social Exclusion 3.0 Conclusion, Recommendations and the way Forward Executive Summary. This report attempt to address evaluates and provides recommendations to some of the contemporary Human Resource Management Issues. The report focuses on the Human Resource Development aspect of an organization where we examine the role of Human Resource Development in the realization of social goals such as diversity, equal opportunities and issues of social exclusion. Paul Iles model was selected based on the evidence in HRD that support the ‘Best Fit’ Approach. This model covers all aspects that directly or indirectly affect the Business Strategy, Human Resource strategy, and the corporate strategy. The model was chosen because it covers the SWOT analysis, A focus on the training on teams for fostering a more participatory organizational culture, Training programs for the HR group Promotion & recruitment within the company, Performance related pay (PRP) & Annual bonus which is related to company performance, Individual Development and feedback, and finally Performance Appraisals. These points were the recommendations made and roles presented of the needs of contemporary Human Resource Development in an organization. The recommendation was adapted from the work of existing scholars such as Kotter, and Gilbreath. 1.0 Introduction The formulation and implementation of a successful corporate strategy for managing global operations according to Bartlett & Ghoshal (1992) and Beatty & Schneider (1997) requires a commensurate strategy for managing international human resources. Schuler et al. (1993) stipulated that, existing human resource frameworks describe policies and practices focused on aligning the strategic initiatives of the organisation and geared towards realizing some social goals of the enterprise. This situation will be complicated further with the current development of global managers while simultaneously managing the tension between integrating global operations and achieving local responsiveness (Schuler et al 1993). Henderson & Clockburn (1995), postulated that, organisations grow with their culture. As the activities of an organisation becomes more global so to should be the culture as the needs of the different stakeholders becomes diversify. 1.1Problem Statement and Research Questions Andrews (1997: p. 52) defines corporate strategy as “the pattern of decisions in a company that determines and reveals its objectives, purposes, or goals, produces the principal policies and plans for achieving those goals, and defines the range of business the company is to pursue, the kind of economic and human organisation it is or intends to be and the nature of the economic and non-economic contribution it intends to make to its shareholders, employees, customers, and communities”. The definition of corporate strategies emphasises the need for the organisation to satisfy the needs of all the stakeholders if the organisation is to achieve is overall objective of maximising shareholder value. Stakeholders include employees, customers and the communities in which the organisation operates. Employees, customers and communities therefore have a significant impact on the success of the organisation and thus on the corporate strategy of the organisation. In formulating corporate strategy, organisations need to identify and priorities strategic issues, which involves scanning, selecting, interpreting and validating information. (Schneider, 1989). Against this background and awareness, organisations and human resource practitioners have developed different tools that assist organisation Human resource development (HRD) in realizing wider social goals, such as diversity, equal opportunities and issues of social exclusion (Schneider, 1989). Thus, this paper seeks to provide an answer of what role HRD have in realizing wider social goals, such as diversity, equal opportunities and issues of social exclusion? This will be realized through the use of certain human resources developmental models such as Paul 11 best fit model. 1.2 Structure and Design of Work In the first part of this paper, emphasis will be laid on Paul 11 best fit model. The subsequent section examines relevant literature in line with the problem statement. Part three of the paper looks at the conclusion and recommendation of work. 2.0 Overview of Human Resource Development The primary thrust of HRM theory endorses a shift from collectivism to individualism in the employment relation and consequently facilitates principally a non-union, or at least a highly co-operative enterprise union approach, to managerial strategy (Schneider 1988). Human Resource development encompasses all what is needed to deal with one of the most important assets of an organization (Stewart 1999: 18). Many researchers have postulated that, this perspective fits in with much of the available empirical data, although the evidence is contested by other researchers. In present day organization, because any discussion about how an organization’s succeeds or fails ultimately comes back to the way individuals are managed, Academics and Practitioners agree that as the dynamics of competition accelerates, people are perhaps the only truly source of competitive advantage (Youndnt &Snell 1995). According to, Turner, Keegan & Hueman (2006:317), for an organisation to be effective and successful, the human resource management functions must be integrated into the various organizational strategy. The researchers argue that for this to become a best practice, organisation cultural values must be clearly defined towards diversity, social inclusion were none of the stakeholder is a looser. HRD encompasses all the efforts and strategies employed by an organisation to give its human resources a best fit. According to Jackson & Shuler (2002) referred to it as an umbrella term that encompasses (a).specific human resources practices such as recruitment, selection and appraisal and (b). Formal human resource policies which directs and partially constrain the development of specific practices and in all, it comprise a system that attracts develops, motivates and retains those employees who ensure the effective functioning and survival of the organisation and its members (Jackson & Schuler 2002). 2.1 Role and Functions of HRD It Has long been argued by some researchers that, those who are present at the workplace, be they managers, human resource specialists, supervisors, or shop floor employees are best placed to develop working arrangements that are most suited to improving efficiency and productivity of the business … (Reith 1998: 11). One way to this is through effective HRD activities. According to Cobb Gnyawali & Offstein (2006:315) effective human resource management and policies have, indeed, been linked to strategic outcomes, human resource management theory has yet to link human assets and HR practices directly to the building blocks of strategy and competitive behavior. Accordingly, their model of strategic human resources links both micro and macro literature streams. Jackson E. S., Schuler S. R., & Sparrow, P., (1994) in their study of, “Convergence or divergence: human resource practices and policies for competitive advantage worldwide” postulated that as traditional sources and means such as capital, technology or location become less significant as a basis for competitive advantage, firms are beginning to look into other innovative sources. One of these is HRD. Jackson., Schuler., & Sparrow, (1994) went further and argue that while traditionally human resource was regarded as a personnel department function, it is now a collective responsibility amongst managers and non-managers, personnel directors and line managers. “The resource base view of the firm infers that firms create competitive advantage by implementing unique combinations of resources and business practices that are difficult (or impossible) for competitors to imitate” from this viewpoint, HRD practices are key components of overall firm strategy. In fact, the success of some well-known firms has been attributed attributed to their HRD practices as a competitive advantage (e.g. Southwest Airlines and SAS). 2.2 Role of Human Resource Development towards Diversity According to Sveiby (1997) a key to retaining personnel in knowledge based-organisation is ensuring that employees had the opportunities to work on interesting projects with interesting careers challenges clearly defined. Diversity involves recruiting and training personnel of different background, different needs and different career goals. Today most organisations tend to be more goals oriented and one can deduce that the management believes that conducive workplaces are an argument against competitiveness. Human resource development prepares the organisation with a diverse workforce environment. According to Sveiby (1997), organizations under such a situation should create and incorporate healthier psychological work environments. This was the same position echoed by Gilbreath (2008) when the researcher postulates that, healthy psychological environments contribute to career conduciveness. According to Gilbreath (2008), creating strong HRM policies requires creating a strong psychological environment in which employees can thrive. Such an environment requires conducting stress audit, monitoring the work of the environment, matching people and work environment and using teams of employees and researchers to study the work environment. Human resource development practitioners should eliminate unnecessary stressors (e.g., poor job design, ineffective supervisor behaviour, poor communication, mismatches between employee’s skills and job demands). The Human Resource department of the Brokers can also facilitate this through greater involvement, employee’s autonomy, physical comfort, organisational security and recognition. Through these, HRD create a more diversify organisation workforce, better placed to meet up with the increasing challenges of the global business environment. To be critically useful to management, Ellis et al(2007) argue that an overall HRD framework should capture and integrate various functions and also clarify how various aspect of HRM add value to an organisation. Gilbreath supported this argument when the researcher calls for organisation facing communication and job satisfaction problems to institutes good fit between employees and their work environment. Under good fit theory, demand ability fit, suppliers value fit, self concept jobs fit and person group fit should be primary for workers integration and commitments. One factor that affects the implementation of HRM practices that has received significant attention is culture. Culture can be defined at different levels that range from the group to the organization to the national level (Erez&Earley, 1994). Culture comprises values and norms that guide individuals’ behavior. Many view organizational practices and theories as culturally bound (Adler, 1997; Hofstede, 1980) which would mean that the values of a country should be compatible with a management practice for it to result in employee motivation Kotter (1995), in his article “Why transformation efforts fail”, argues that, the bad outcome of most change efforts is caused by the management’s failure to take the company through a series of important change steps. According to the author, these failures are caused by generally underperforming management rather the researcher postulates that, there is little experience out there when it comes to organisational change processes and as he states; “Even capable people often make at least one big error” (Kotter 1995). According to Kotter, successful organisation implementing change process needs to follow and adopt his eight-step model for transforming organisation. This model includes establishing a sense of urgency, forming a powerful guiding coalition, creating a vision, communicating the vision etc. According to Piercy, ( 1995) the larger the gap between a companys employees and customers perception concerning both service product and service delivery the smaller the probability of satisfying the customers. This indicates that organisation in other to have a more profound understanding of their activities and shareholders value creation needs to align it HR management policies with the goals of the organisation. Effective human resource policies and management then becomes critical, and as Mayson &Barret (2006) writes in their paper “the management of human resources becomes even more critical. Rapid growth can put a great deal of pressure on organizational resources and systems which, in turn, puts pressure on managers and employees to react to fast changing landscapes”. This involve satisfying the needs of the major stakeholders, by creating a collective we environment without social exclusions, a diverse work force, where equal opportunity is defined through human resource development and everybody is a winner. 2.2 Role of Human Resource Development towards Social Exclusion Marlow (2006) in her study “Human resource management in smaller firms”: A contradiction in terms? Postulated that human resource management was develop as managerial approach aim to put the employer employee relationship were strategically focused towards organizational performance and competitiveness. Marlow (2006:3) further contends that a lack of an effective human resource management system within the context of small firms will make HRM appears like a “fuzzy concept which in turn promote sloppy thinking”. What the researcher meant here is that, for a best fit and best practice effective human resource development should work towards aligning the interest of socially disable or who falls within social exclusion. Marlow (2006:474) in her discussion argued that there seems to be an agreement that HR management has specific characteristics differentiating it from other analyses of the employment relationship with its underlying managerialist ideology articulated as shaping the employment relationship to either engender greater employee commitment, enhance productivity and so strengthen organisational competitiveness, or to treat labour as a resource. Marlow (2006) also referred to the hard side of HR management, which to her utilises coercion and surveillance to motivate commitment to productivity. Huselid, A. M., (1995) from his results based on a national sample of nearly one thousand firms indicated that human resource practices have an economically and statistically significant impact on both intermediate employee outcomes (turnover and productivity) and short- and long-term measures of corporate financial performance. Support for predictions that the impact of High Performance Work Practices on firm performance is in part contingent on their interrelationships and links with competitive strategy was limited. Cobb Gnyawali & Offstein (2006) refers to human resources as unique stores intangible assets that influence the way firms compete. To support the importance and strategic role of an effective human resource planning Cobb Gnyawali & Offstein (2006) went further to postulate that human and social capital of a firm, particularly those at the upper level of organisation hierarchy , contribute to the firms awareness of the competitive environment, technical capabilities and its ability to undertake numerous, complex, and forceful competitive actions. By examining how human capital, intra-firm social capital, and executive compensation influence firm competitive, Cobb Gnyawali & Offstein (2006) advance strategic human resource policies as cornerstones for an organisation competitive edge. Cobb Gnyawali & Offstein (2006) uses “competitive behavior” of firms to refer to the way in which a firm competes within its sector by launching specific and observable competitive actions and moves to gain and sustain a competitive edge. Effective human resource policies can effectively contribute to a firm’s competitive advantage. It can play an integral role in determining the organizational flexibility that is influenced by strategic human resource policies1. In it, these researchers argued that, an effective human resource policy is a breakthrough towards maximization of bureaucracies and inertia. This is so because it can be changed quickly to meets the needs of a changing environment. In this regard, the workforce possesses a variety of skills and behavioral repertoires and the firm flexibility is increase2. Another importance of effective human resource planning is illustrated by Jackson and Shultz (1992). The researchers contend that, effective HR management ensures a strategic fit amongst a subset of strategically relevant variables while simultaneously seeking to build generic organizational capabilities. As a result, both fit and flexibility is being promoted and achieved via a multifaceted HRM that blends both fit and flexibility in an organisation. To illustrate Jackson & Schuler (1992) uses an example to support their findings. Firms that seek to increase levels of customers services can develop selection tests, such as role plays or interviews that assess an individual skills in providing customer services and designed training programs to improve or build these skills. Doing this involve development of a wide range of employees skills and repertoires, firms flexibility will be encouraged and developed by an effective human resource policies. Additionally, effective human resource practices may provide significant competitive advantage opportunities when they are used to create a unique (difficult to imitate) organizational culture that institutionalises and make the best out of organisational competencies3. DeMarie & Werbel (2005:3) defined organizational culture as the shared set of beliefs about how things work; values that indicate what is worth doing, and norms about how people should behave . They went further and argue that organisational culture has been shown to have a strong relationship to firm performance when it is aligned with firm values and strategy. Similarly, through effective human resource planning appraisal and compensation systems can motivate skilled employees to engage in effective discretionary decision making and behaviour repertoires in response to variety of environmental contingencies. In other work, many researchers have indicated that effective HR management practices provide maximal effectiveness when bundled with participative work systems that provide employee with the opportunity to contribute their discretion4. 3.0 Conclusion This paper has looked at the contemporary issues inhuman resource management in relation to the role of HRD towards diversity and social exclusion. I have examine current literature that provide an answer to the research questions presented at the beginning of the work. I can conclude that today an effective human resource policy has become a necessity in every organisation. This is so because of the recent shift in focus for competitive strategies and advantages based from different dimension. Effective HRD compliance programs need to be integrated into your business strategies and given more than just lip service. Compliance has to start at the top and trickle down to all levels, so everyone in the company knows that the workplace must be kept safe and discrimination wont be tolerated. So far, many researchers have been able to recommend the following methods as a pathway towards effective human resource development. Keep abreast with the laws. Human resource policies changes most often and to be on the safe side requires organisation to be responsive to current laws and their environment. This will enable the organisation develop appropriate policies and facilitate communication with employees. The next step will be for the organisation to hire human resource professionals with the skills and talents to forge ahead with compliance measures. In the absence of this organizations should contract with human resource consultants5. Organizations are also called upon to develop a handbook that meets their respective human resource needs and which can be expanded subsequently. The human resource department should make sure new policies are reviewed with the lawyer prior to implementation6. It should be noted policies are general statements of the organizations position and any accompanying procedures are the steps necessary for implementation. Hence, it is the responsibility of the managers to understand and implement the policies. For effective human resource management can contribute to a firm’s strategic and competitive advantage. It can play an integral role in determining the organisations flexibility that are influenced by strategic human resource policies. Through development of a wide range of employee’s skills and repertoires firm flexibility will be encouraged and developed. References Andrews K. (1997). Resources and Strategy: A Reader, edited by Nicolai J. Foss. Oxford University Press, ISBN 0198781792, 9780198781790 Bartlett, C., & Ghoshal, S. (1992). The multinational corporation as an inter-organizational network. Academy of Management Review, 15(4), 603-625. Reith P (1998) Workplace Agreements: The Benefits for Jobs, Wages, and Economic Security, Ministerial Discussion Paper, Department of Employment, Workplace Relations and Small Business. Canberra. Schneider, S.C (1988). National vs. corporate culture: Implications for human resource management. Human Resource Management, 27(4), 231-246. Schuler, R., Dowling, P., & De Cieri, H. (1993). An integrative framework of strategic international human resource management. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 4(4), 717-764. 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The International Journal of Human Resource Management, Volume 5, Issue 2 May 1994 , pages 267 – 299 Jensen Michael C., (2003): Theory of the Firm Residual claims, and organisational forms. Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England Malow S., (2006) Human resource management in smaller firms: A contradiction in terms. Human Resource Management Review Volume 16, Issue 4, Pages 467-477 Exploring the Intersection of HRM and Entrepreneurship Muller R., and Turner JR., (2005).The impact of principal-agent relationship and contract type on communication between project owner and Manager. International Journal of Project Management 23 (2005) 398-403 Piercy, N,F, ( 1995): Customer Satisfaction and the internal market, marketing our customers to our employees, journal of marketing practice, applied marketing science, Vol. 1, no, 1,pp. 22-44 Poole, M., (1999). Human Resource Management and Industrial organisation Critical perspective on business and management Tsui, S. A., (1990).Multiple-Constituency Model of Effectiveness: An Empirical Examination at the Human Resource Subunit Level. Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 35, 1990 Osborne F., Hyman J, & Jack S., (2006).Small entrepreneurial ventures culture, change and the impact on HRM: A critical review. Human Resource Management Review Volume 16, Issue 4, Pages 456-466 Exploring the intersection of HRM and entrepreneurship Guest editors introduction to the special edition on HRM and entrepreneurship. Read More