Human Management in the Telecommunications Sector - Essay Example

Human Capital Management in the Telecommunications Sector Hypothesis People are fundamental in the management of engineering and business enterprises. Consideration of the human factor component is critical in management. The telecommunications sector can benefit significantly from effective deployment of human capital management. Introduction A study has been conducted on the application of human capital management in the telecommunications sector. The study has been based on the review of relevant literature, and recommendation of good practices. Advances in the Telecommunications Sector Telecommunications firms have increased the deployment of switches, enhanced infrastructure, and increased beadcount (Majumdar, 1998). In the last few decades, the development of location based service has accompanied the growth of mobile telecommunications. Location based services such as global positioning satellite systems offer many benefits to consumers, but raise issues pertaining to privacy, trust and justice. Socially responsible telecommunication firms should develop policies to safeguard data and build trust (Chen et al., 2008). There has been a need to be able to exchange information within firms, partners, and customers. The four layers of the value chain include network operators, system integrators, assemblers, and sub-assemblers. E-commence initiatives influence process and relational innovations through collaboration. The use of collaborative electronic tools can strengthen business relationships, and trigger information visibility. In a business-to-business e-commerce environment, tighter long-term relationships between tiers of stakeholders are vital to the success of products or services. Generally, e-commerce is associated with sales and procurement activities. However, in this case it goes beyond to collaborative product development, forecasting, production planning, and management of inventory (Cassivi et al., 2005). Human capital of higher quality can enable firms to increase the range of various activities, and enhance their abilities to increase returns. Figure 1. Advances in the Telecommunications Sector (Cassivi et al., 2005) The Role of Knowledge Management in the Telecommunications Sector According to Wei et al. (2009), the competitive edge of firms in today’s economy stems from “difficult to replicate” knowledge assets, and manner of deployment. The contemporary economy is knowledge based and requires direct engagement for the generation of knowledge. The knowledge economy emphasizes on human talents that organizations can harness, and developing those abilities. Participating in the evolving global networks requires building capabilities for competitiveness. The real value of organizations depends on ideas, insights and information that employees bring, and data banks and patents instead of physical assets. The primary force behind all competencies and capabilities is the management of knowledge. Progressive organizations have been in the pursuit of ways to create and generate value from knowledge assets. Success in the global information society will depend on the ability of organizations to identify, value, create, and evolve their knowledge assets. Integration of telecommunications and computer services has resulted in the growth of sophisticated technology. Success factors for knowledge management implementation include business strategy, organizational structure, knowledge management team, knowledge map, and knowledge audit. Successful knowledge management strategies must be driven by clear links to business objectives. Knowledge drives strategy and strategy drives business strategy. The organizational structure is based on the division of work, tasks, and responsibilities. Knowledge sharing can occur in organizations with more individuals in decentralized setups. Matrix structures and emphasis on leadership facilitate greater knowledge sharing by cutting across traditional departmental boundaries. Knowledge-intensive organizations have teams that carry out the work. The primary responsibility of a knowledge management team is to build, implement, focus, and deploy a knowledge management program. It is important to form a strong and capable knowledge management team from different functional departments. The knowledge map provides a snapshot of the position of an organization at any given time in comparison to its competitors. It helps figure out where knowledge, expertise, and experiences reside. The map helps describe how to find, what to find, and where to find useful knowledge within an organization (Wei et al., 2009). Proper planning of a knowledge management program requires understanding of knowledge assets. A knowledge audit enables identification of where knowledge resides within the organization. It is important as designing of strategies ensure that knowledge is created, transferred, and protected to benefit the organization. Enablers of knowledge management include culture, leadership, technology and measurement. They work in concert to streamline the capture, flow, and transfer of knowledge within an organization allowing accomplishment of specific tasks. The organizational culture is the knowledge sharing climate such as the level of enthusiasm. Leadership is the ability to align knowledge management behaviour with the organizational strategy, allowing identification of opportunities, promotion of values, and communication of best strategies. Tools, systems, platforms, and automated solutions constitute technology that enhances the development, application, and distribution of organizational knowledge. Information systems, databases, communication technologies, web technologies, email constitute technology support while groupware, whiteboards, video conferencing equipment, and flexible manufacturing systems constitute equipment, which are key enablers of a successful knowledge management program. Performance measurement includes assessment methods of performance measurement systems that are necessary for successful knowledge management implementation. Knowledge management process refers to management of explicit knowledge, and people centred strategy for the management of tacit knowledge. Activities include generation and creation of new knowledge, documentation and codifying individual knowledge, and dissemination of knowledge through company-wide database. Construction includes development, discovery, and capture of activities. The process is self-transcending and continuous. Embodiment is the translation of data and information into usable information. Examples of knowledge codification include databases, directories, and handbooks. Deployment is the transfer of knowledge, and mechanisms to make contents accessible. Tangible assets depreciate in value after use, but knowledge grows with use and depreciated when not used. A critical process is the transfer of knowledge into a form that can be used by consumers (Wei et al., 2009). Human Capital Management Innovative firms should organise in a way that attracts and exploits talented workers. Information management plays an important role in organisational design for human capital management. Characterised optimal information management policies, which are determined based on whether employers face participation constraints or by the inability to fully leverage human capital. The distribution of information has disproportionate information on market outcomes in terms of wages and turnover rates (Bar-Isaac et al., 2007). Firms should manage information by deploying systems to know their workers better. The strategic approach to human resources requires design and implementation of policies and practices that are internally consistent for ensuring that its human capital contributes to the achievement of its business objectives. Firms can achieve greater levels of market value by effective use of human capital management. Recruiting excellence, collegial and flexible workplace, communications integrity and rewards and accountability are human capital drivers. Firms can acquire employees with prior human capital for accomplishing tasks, or trained in these skills. Establishing a collegial and flexible workplace requires employees to work well together, and requires the firm to promote communications integrity. Employees should be trusted enough to share information with them, allowing them to communicate outside of hierarchical boundaries. Leveraging the human capital for outstanding customer service requires effective communication. The performance measurement system must have clear rewards and accountability for establishing the relationship between performance and rewards (Molina and Ortega, 2002). Rational selection and use of resources that are valuable, rare, difficult to copy, and non-substitutable result in long lasting firms and high profits. According to the institutional theory, firms operate within a framework of norms, values, and taken-for-granted assumptions that constitute acceptable economic behaviour. Human behaviour extends beyond social obligation and economic justification. Institutionalized activities result from individual, organisational, and interorganisational analyses. Manager’s norms, habits, and unconscious conformity account for individual level of institutionalized activities. Corporate culture, shared belief systems, and political processes supporting given forms of management shape institutional structure and behaviour. Governmental pressure, industry alliances, and social expectations define socially acceptable firm conduct (Molina and Ortega, 2002). The resources-based approach combined with institutional theory explains the relationship between human resources management and firm performance. Effective management of human capital leads to employee and customer satisfaction (se figure below). Superior firm performance can be achieved by application of product, service, financing, and human capital strategies (Molina and Ortega, 2002). Specific firm actions and behaviour patterns cause higher levels of employee satisfaction and productivity with lower levels of employee turnover. Such improvements result in higher customer satisfaction and loyalty. Figure 2. Effective Human Capital Management (Molina and Ortega, 2002) Strategy for Human Capital Management in the Telecommunications Sector The strategy for human capital management should be the integration of traditionally separate human resource activities into a cohesive “hire and retire” strategy (Briainbench, 2003). The approach allows alignment of goals of employees, and the goals of the company for specific, measureable, and realistic business objectives. Figure 3. Objective Matrix for Human Capital Management (Briainbench, 2003) The components of the human capital management program include organisational design, workforce planning and development, recruitment, development, and performance. Organisational design includes skills measurement systems for provision of a base of consistent and pre-defined skill requirements and descriptions (Briainbench, 2003). This can accelerate the development of competency models, and help firms adapt quickly to address changing job requirements. Workforce planning and development requires skills metrics for provision of roll-up view of skill levels across the organisation. This makes skill gaps apparent, and managers can focus on training and development of resources. Assessment scores in skills can help firms identify and prepare employees to fill in important job roles as other retire (Briainbench, 2003). Employees can grow within the company by the achievement of set milestones for advancing careers, and satisfying requirements for new positions. A common application of skills measurement systems is recruitment. Firms can improve their screening processes by creation of direct links from job postings for tests and scored questionnaires. Recruiting decisions throughout the hiring cycle requires application of skills metrics as a part of the applicant tracking system for supporting recruiting decisions throughout the recruiting cycle. For example, candidate qualifications can be validated and candidates can be identified for advancement in hiring process, quickly and effectively in pre-employment screening (Briainbench, 2003). Skills development can be accelerated by the implementation of online skills measurement systems. Firms can quickly distinguish employees that need training in a particular skill than those who do not and avoid unnecessary training costs. Training effectiveness can be determined by pre and post training assessment. By maintaining a focus on training efforts, employees have the opportunity to access skill assessments and learning resources anytime. Employees can develop their skills, improve them, and measure progress on a continual basis. Employees receive certification by meeting or exceeding baseline assessment scores which is an effective tool for demonstration of skills readiness to customers and other stakeholders (Briainbench, 2003). There are several advantages offered by skills measurement systems for the management and improvement of performance. This includes balanced scorecard initiatives and employee evaluation. As balanced scorecard initiatives are driven by metrics, skills measurement systems provide valuable sources of metrics that can be gathered easily. This allows critical skills across the firm to be gauged across the enterprise. Employees can be evaluated and performance determined by multitude of factors. The scores are a valuable source of objective data for supporting the employee evaluation process (Briainbench, 2003). Such system enable employees track improvements in existing skills, and validate acquisition of new skills. Future Direction Intangible assets such as expertise, experience, and patents will become increasingly important to the performance of any organization. Measurement tools that can accurately determine the performance of a knowledge-based companywill have to be adopted (Wei et al., 2009). The emphasis would be on placing strategic and technical characteristics of human resources embedded in a social context (Molina and Ortega, 2002). Conclusion Information should be put to work on multiple fronts from organisational design to planning and recruitment of workforce, and subsequent employee development and performance measurement. The processes associated with human capital management are diverse, and the skills component driving many of those processes could be effectively managed by the use of skills measurement systems (Briainbench, 2003). Effective human capital management leads to higher employee satisfaction, leading to higher customer loyalty, which further leads to better firm performance (Molina and Ortega, 2002). Human capital management can increase adaptability, enhance work performance, and the ability to do more with existing resources. However, this requires effective integration of business objectives and relevant information about the capabilities and skills of employees. The strategy for human capital management within the telecommunications sector should be the application of objective matrices. References Bar-Isaac†, H., Jewitt, I. & Leaver, C. (2007). Information and Human Capital Management. Stern School of Business Economics Working Paper Series. 1-34. Briainbench. (2003). Strategy: Human Capital Management. Available: http://www.brainbench.com/pdf/STG_HumCapMgnt.pdf. Last accessed 20 March 2010. Cassivi, L. Leger, P. & Hadaya, P. (2005). Electronic commerce and supply chain integration: the case of the telecommunication equipment industry. Business Process Management Journal. 11 (5):559-572. Chen, J., Ross, W. & Huang, S. (2008). Privacy, trust, and justice considerations for location-based mobile telecommunication services. 10 (4): 30 - 45. Majumdar, S. (1998). The Impact of Human Capital Quality on the Boundaries of the Firm in the US Telecommunications Industry. Ind. Corp. Change, 7: 663 - 677. Molina, J. & Ortega, R.(2002). CAN EFFECTIVE HUMAN CAPITAL MANAGEMENT LEAD TO INCREASED FIRM PERFORMANCE? IE Working Paper WP 15/02: 1-28. Wei, C. Choy, C. & Yew, W. (2009). Is the Malaysian telecommunication industry ready for knowledge management implementation? Journal of Knowledge Management. 13(1): 69-87. Read More