The Concept of Flexibility and Commitment - Essay Example

Flexibility Introduction A business organization to be successful in its operational activities in the changing business environment must be flexiblein nature. The art of being flexible through which a business environment can rightly adapt to the changing external environment and bring about operational and procedural changes is known as ‘Flexibility’. Observation suggests that business organizations who have failed to earn due flexibility have turned out to be rigid enough for which they have failed to sustain in the changing business sphere. The concept of flexibility must not be taken as an isolated phenomenon. It works in interrelation with different operational and transactional factors like workforce, technological capital, organizational systems and the concern as a whole. Flexibility allowed in the labor force earns due efficiency if it helps to augment the degree of commitment of organizational workforce. (Procter & Ackroyd, 2009, p. 495). Three main themes would be outlined in the paper, which can be given as follows. Flexibility and Commitment The concept of flexibility to be successful must be closely tied to high degree of organizational commitment. Present level of increased competition triggers the need of a flexible workforce who would rightly adapt to changes in level of demand and operational process. The function of flexibility earns success if the employees work together in a committed manner to achieve organizational goals (Guest, 1989.p.49). Strategic Role of Human Resource Management Moreover, flexibility of the labor force tends to identify the Human Resources Management as a strategic initiative, which helps the company to earn a distinct competitive advantage. Human Resource Management as a strategic function encompasses the different policies and end goals behind the proper management of the labor force. The strategic face of human resource management is likely needed in bigger firms with several departments and also in other multinational firms for maintaining a strong binding in the labor force. (Boxar, Peter & Purcell, 2003. p.50) Recruitment and Selection In key connection to the concept of human resources management is the process of recruitment and selection of the right candidate to help achieve the organizational goals. Thus recruitment and selection procedures and methods must be devised keeping in mind the end goals. Flexibility of the labor force has strong impacts on the level of organizational efficiency and commitment levels of the labor population to the organization. Flexibility The modern day organization desires to bring in a lot of flexibility in their organizational procedure and management of human resources in the organization. Modern day companies observe that through a flexible workforce the company can achieve high levels of profit and helps to gain a distinct competitive position in the world market. It is because the right amount of flexibility helps an organization to reduce the operational costs in a significant manner. Flexibility in a concern can be ingrained into four major areas to increase the firm’s competency in the market. The firm can apply the concept of flexibility to resources like labor, technology, organizational system and with the operational process of the concern. To this end, the different types of flexibility are studied through the use of Atkinson’s Model. Atkinson’s Model defines three types of flexibility viz. Functional, Temporal and Numerical. (Procter, Stephen & Ackroyd, 2009. p.495, 497). Functional Flexibility The level of functional flexibility is related to the working aspects of the labor force where they are required to perform a diversified group of different activities. Functional flexibility to earn success demands the workforce to be optimally trained to rightly adapt to the changing and demanding work environment. Thus, it rightly signifies that the system of functional flexibility helps in the enhancement of work culture and values in the organization. Functional flexibility in an organization helps in the reduction of job roles and thus makes it lesser complex in nature. It helps in the enhancement of effective teamwork in which larger number of employees can participate effectively for achievement of organizational goals. The practice of “job rotation” integrated with the process of functional flexibility helps in making the activities less mundane and helps the employees to get related to different types of jobs. From the viewpoint of organizations the concept of functional flexibility reduces the need for recruitment of specialized labor force for existing workers are already trained to perform diversified functions. However, huge amount of operational and administrative training is needed which increases operational costs of the concern. Functional Flexibility also demands the change in the workgroups of people with the induction of new production and technological systems. Thus, the firm applying functional flexibility has to recruit newer laborers both in the medium and long term. (Atkinson, 1984. p.29). Temporal Flexibility The modern day organizations are found to recruit labor forces for certain flexible periods rather than occupying them in the fulltime workforce. This practice helps the organization to satisfy the organizational tasks with less amount of expenditure incurred on the same. Working standards based on temporal working policies are observed to be of three different type viz. “Flexitime” standards, “Annual hours” standards and “Zero hours” standard. The practice of keeping a flextime workforce requires workers to enter in a certain time period and exit also at set time periods. The evaluation of the total time worked can be done on a monthly basis. Practice of flextime workforce is best observed in cases of clerical and administrative functions where the organization successfully avoids the practice of overtime. The practice of “annual hours” standards in the workforce demands that the employees can at certain time periods required performing more than the normal durations. This variation of time periods in the work circle of employees would be fixed by the managers and owners and adequate levels of overtime is also attached to rightly implement the practice. Increase in the time periods of work depend on the increase in the level of work pertaining to different seasons. Thus, the work system in the tourism industry bears the mark of temporal flexibility. Further, the practice of zero hours standard earns more adaptability in cases of casual labor employment. Such practice is evident in the case of courier companies and restaurants where large number of people can be involved to work for a certain seasonal time period. (Taylor, 2005, pp. 129-131). Numerical Flexibility The numerical flexibility is the approach through which the firm regulates the total number of people needed to perform a particular task. This helps the organization to achieve optimal utilization of the stipulated workforce and thereby helps in reduction of workforce wastage. Numerical flexibility is enabled through the creation of different types of contracts, which in turn regulate the number of people and time required to complete the task. Part time employment is a definite form of numerical flexibility wherein in industries like hotel and manufacturing certain classes of workers are involved on a part time basis. Apart from the service sector industries the practice of part time employment also takes place in clerical and administrative industries. Again, numerical flexibility also takes place in situations where a certain class of specialized workers is temporarily employed to complete a particular project. It can range from senior management to working levels. Temporal employment is also possible for research-based projects wherein people can work from their homes to complete the stated task. (Atkinson, 1984. p.29). Management of human resources earns a strategic outlook through the efficient integration of human resources to achieve future organizational goals. The human resources need to be rightly trained to adapt themselves to changing work structures and adoption of newer processes and technologies. The adoption of the principle of flexibility identifies the creation of specialized jobs and training of the workforce to become “multi-skilled” (Guest, 1989. p. 49). Commitment The level of an individual’s commitment to the operational practices of an organization takes into account the individual’s personal involvement to the organizational goals. High level of commitment also signifies the aspect of the mode of interrelation of one’s personality and individual traits to the organizational philosophy. Increasing levels of commitment also signifies high sense of loyalty for the organization. However, the level of organizational commitment of the employee can further be studied based on three aspects. The individual by dearth of a positive relation to the organization can get involve for a long-term commitment to the concern. Again, an individual can be found to show high level of commitment to the organization for lack of proper opportunity in the job market. An individual driven by a set of personal values also endeavors to continue working in an organization for a longer time period. Thus commitment is observed to be the force, which cements human resources to organizational resources through the development of positive behavioral traits (Guest, 1989, p. 49). Commitment in the context of Human Resource Management The concept of Human Resource Management has actively helped in intensifying the levels of commitment of the individual employees. It is because with the advent of human resource management the employees became identified as potential resources and key assets of the concern. The development of human resource management also led to the enhancement of individual commitment to the organization. Management of individual commitment in the premise of organization function identifies the organizations are social bodies wherein large group of employees are required to work in a collaborative manner to help achieve organizational objectives Moreover, the level of commitment management in the organization also requires the organization to promote a healthy working environment based on enhancement of the paradigms of job security and promotions. Further, the enhancement of the work potential of the staffs can also be brought about through the conducting of effective training and interpersonal communication between the organizational levels. Relating the employees to national and organizational culture and values can bring about enhancement of the commitment levels of the employees in the organization. The employees feel a sense of increased possessiveness, which makes them better committed (Guest, 1998, pp. 40, 45). Increased levels of commitment in the organization help the company to earn greater profits. The level of satisfaction of the employees being increased triggers them to perform effectively augmenting the level of production Selection of employees for higher roles through proper training and developmental opportunities rendered also help in augmenting commitment level of the employees in the organization. The different levels of commitment in an organization also lead to organizational tensions and conflicts. Moreover, experimental studies made rightly suggest that the levels of employee commitment are case sensitive to the changes in the external environment (Guest, 1998, pp. 41-43). Flexibility in generating Organizational Efficiency and its relation to Employee Commitment Organizations need to be flexible enough to rightly adapt to the changing environment by making alterations in the level of resources and technology within a particular time period. Flexibility in the level of business processes helps the organization to be more accountable in satisfying the interest of stakeholders like customers. In order to provide customized services the business organizations need to rightly adopt newer technologies and processes through which quality goods would be produced at minimal cost. Similarly, human resources possessing diversified qualities needs to be possessed by the organization which would help reduce the need for making on periodic recruitments for filling in the knowledge gap. Moreover, the level of flexibility in an organization is taken to be a subject of the “organizational structure”. The level of flexibility to grant high amount of efficiency in the organization demands a steady growth of informal environment within the organization through which the lower level hierarchies would be fed in an increasing manner by operational guidelines (Guest, 1998, pp. 42-43). The organizations based in United Kingdom and United States started adapting change in the policy structures towards employees in rightly identifying them as key organizational assets. The ‘Harvard Stakeholder Model’ identifies the interest of the stakeholders as the potential determinants which affect the decision making power of the organizations. Depending on the interest of the internal stakeholders the organization makes changes in the human resource policy practices for long-term gains Moreover, the resource-based theory of human resource management identifies the firm’s resources as heterogeneous factors, which add competent value to a firm. Thus resources must be developed by a firm to be not only potentially unique but also be resistant to formation of substitutes Thus modern day organizations to draw huge level of commitment from the employees have adapted to changing organizational structure wherein employees can easily work from flexible spheres. Different flexible work patterns include part-time workers who are contracted to operate on part time basis. Employees can also choose to work beyond the prescribed working hours to get the benefits of overtime. The employees can divide an entire task between themselves to rightly complete it within the stipulated period. Other types of flexible work cultures also include “Annual hours contract” and “Zero hours contract”. In the former contract the workers work on hourly basis within an organization while in the latter they work for the stipulated time period. More, amount of flexibility is rendered to workers who work from homes through Internet and telecommunication systems (Atkinson, J. 1984. p. 29; Procter, Ackroyd & Stephen, 2009. pp.500-501). The huge amount of flexibility rendered to the workforce standards has greatly helped the organizations to achieve the desired organizational functions in quick span of time and with significant drop in investment. Moreover, it also helps to increase the loyalty of the workforce to the organization Flexible work programs are successful only for niche industries and hence are not universally applicable. Moreover, the organizations need to possess higher spans of control for initiating the flexible working patterns. Such control patterns need to execute high amount of supervision or otherwise such programs would result in fall in organizational efficiency. (Atkinson, J. 1984. p. 29, 31). The flexible forms of employment have led to mixed psychology among the employees who also differ in terms of organizational commitment. Though some people view the process in helping them to attain a work life balance many others view the process as highly disadvantageous. They feel downgraded for being treated as temporary workers. Moreover, the employees continually fear from a loss of job and high levels of exploitation both on monetary and as well as in the information side. Employees feel as extraneous beings to the work culture that are hired on temporary basis only to be exchanged with fresh people after certain period. Thus they are kept away from taking part in important policy discussions and are treated as a support team of workers taken to complete a particular project. Flexible forms of employment give rise to contractual policies in which the employees are invited to work for the concern. Though this practice helps the firm to reduce employment cost and increase the efficiency in operations yet it contributes to employment conflicts. The workers working in a flexible employment pattern sometimes start feeling degraded for not being given importance in organizational matters. In temporal employment practice workers feel themselves to be separated from the permanently employed people in getting lesser access to organizational benefits. This gives rise to workplace tensions and a frustrated environment where efficiency of the firm gets affected. Thus flexibility which is generally observed in helping the organization perform better than previously also culminates in generating a conflicting work environment if not properly administered (Atkinson, J. 1984. p.31). Conclusion Organizations need to be flexible enough to adapt to the changing external environment to attain high competitive advantage. Flexibility in an organization is rightly professed along the different resources starting from technological to human resources. With the advent of human resource management the outlook of the employer towards the employees have significantly changed in identifying them as key assets to the concern. Modern day employers are facing the pressure of increased customization. More and more number of pressures emanating from the external environment is compelling them to rightly adapt to work specializations for producing quality output in lesser time periods. The above function also demands high level of commitment from the employees to help the organization achieve its desired goal. Commitment demands high level of involvement with the work standards and able to relate oneself to organizational policies. Thus, the employers have shifted to recruiting employees for flexible employment patterns where the people can both operate from their homes or work in a factory or office for certain stipulated time periods. Such flexibility rendered in the workforce helps the employers to get the work done at reduced employment costs and in lesser time periods. As for the employees through such flexible work practices has helped them to find new work life balances yet some feel that they are treated as inferior to the full time workers and hence subjected to lot of exploitative practices. Thus, high amount of job flexibility failed to promote universal increase in the level of organizational commitment. References 1. Procter, S. & S. Ackroyd, (2009), “Flexibility”, In, Redman, T. & A. Wilkinson, Contemporary Human Resource Management: text and cases, pp. 495-516, Harlow: Pearson Education Ltd. 2. Guest, D. (1989). Personnel and HRM: can you tell me the difference? Personnel Management. Vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 48-51. 3. Boxall, Peter & Purcell, J. (2003). Strategic HRM: ‘best fit’ or ‘best practice’? Strategy and Human Resource Management. pp. 47-70. 4. Atkinson, J. (1984). Manpower Strategies for Flexible Organizations. Personnel Management. Vol. 16, no.8. pp. 28-31. 5. Taylor, S. (2005), People resourcing. CIPD Publishing 6. Guest, D. (1998). “Beyond HRM: Commitment and Contract Culture”, In, Sparrow, P.R. & M. Mick eds., Human Resource Management: the new agenda, pp. 37-51, London: Pitman Read More