Human Resource Management Challenges at Gesuri Lloyd - Essay Example

Human Resource Management Challenges Human Resource Management Challenges HR Planning There are numerous human resource challenges that face shipping companies in Indonesia. This research focuses on Gesuri Lloyd, which is one of the largest shipping companies in the country. Basically, the existence of a weak corporate structure and poor employee relations in the company poses a great threat to its operations (Gesuri Lloyd, 2012). It has facilitated the current freedom among the employees and the executive management to involve in any activity provided the activity will enable the company to achieve increased sales of the products (Friedman, 2012). The company is principally profit driven, and this has significantly contributed to the increasing cases of statement alteration and abuse of overtime laws. The management has pegged their commission on the performance of their juniors, thus forcing the managers to coerce the juniors to perform. Therefore, this essay looks at two aspects of management practices, which could be implemented to help the organization, including HR planning and employee relations (Friedman, 2012). In the shipping industry, HR Planning is important because it helps avert the resulting operational inefficiencies following style of leadership that the company employs, the management of the company must adopt a combination of two or more leadership styles. The executive management should formulate strategic policies directed at enabling the adoption of both the participative and delegate leadership styles. This will enable the company to streamline structures in the organization so that all the operations are strategically consolidated towards the efficient attainment of the overall goals of the organization (Sonnentag & Llies, 2011). The participative leadership style will work towards empowering the employees. By using this style, the executive management will enforce an understanding between them and the employees. This will be indicative of the management’s willingness to cooperate with the other staff members in achieving and benefiting from the overall benefits thus accruing (Kreitner, Kinicki & Cole, 2007). This will enable the employees to identify with the operations of the organizations as they will feel considered in the implementation of the organizational processes (Kurland & Flamholtz, 2005). By employing the delegate leadership style, the management of the company will be able to consolidate the efforts of the organizational skill set towards the attainment of the primal objectives of organization. This way, the company will be able to accomplish the necessary operational management efficiency in the company (Dessler, 2011). The executive managers will be able to attach other employees to the key performance areas that will significantly determine the level of financial outcome in terms of the shareholders’ value. The company operates under a significantly weak corporate structure. From the initial stages of the company, the management accepted a centralized system of operations (Simon, 2001). In this case, the management decisions are instituted among the high rank management team and then passed down to the employees. The employees do not have a say in all the decisions of the company. As such, the company practices a centralized system of communication. However, the channels of communication between the employees and the high level management have not been clearly defined following the unclear role definition in the organization. As a result, the management has remained to control the operational processes with unlimited control over the staff (McWilliams & Matten, 2010). The employees of the company have ultimate control over the procurement processes as well as the efficiency of their juniors. The filed case of the woman employee who was harassed by a highly performing product officer is a perfect example of the fact that the company practices under a seriously weak corporate structure. There are no clearly defined roles as well as the code of conduct within the premises of the company (Kurland & Flamholtz, 2005). The gap that results from the weak corporate structure in the company has fuelled the fraudulent practices as well as the unethical deals among the employees of the company. This has also extended to influence the interaction between the employees of the company and the outside environment including the regulatory bodies and the customers (Kurland & Flamholtz, 2005). Employee Relations The company has no clear employee relations’ package. However, the company has utilized false advertisement to trick the new recruits into believing that Countrywide has perfect incentive programs that rewards the employees who have a track record of high performance as indicated on the department of justice platform for claims about the operational interaction with The company prior to his recruitment, the employee indicates that he was convinced to believe that the company had a perfect reward system that incorporates both the quantitative and qualitative aspects of the sales of the products (Northouse, 2006). The employee admits that the company exposed him to a good incentive amount that really motivated him but only for the first few months. Things changed onwards and all the executive managers in the name of supervisors would demand is high quantity of sales. It is evident that the company applied double standards even on its employees. The supervisors received high returns in the form of rewards while the juniors who actually work hard for the sales receive nothing in returns (Pontel, 2009). The supervisors will examine the internal accounts of the juniors to evaluate how much each junior will receive as rewards. The system is subject to alterations and in many occasions, employees have complained of significant cuts in their anticipated rewards. The supervisors also employ the “and times and” to determine the level of rewards that the employees under their supervision are worth. They will further make subsequent checks on the level of junior performance to evaluate and assign values to the performance. The superiority associated with the supervisors has significantly influenced the perception of the juniors in accepting their rewards. Provided the supervisor’s account reads quantity in terms of volume of products sold, the executive management will accord the supervisor a lot of powers in managing the affairs of the organization. It is actually the quantity delivered that specifies the promotional capability (George et al., 2007). There are no proper structures in place to guide the incentive and reward system. Therefore, the system has been exposed to unscrupulous behavioral influence given that the supervisors are the one to manage their junior’s account. The unhappy employee in this case, recorded that there are numerous cases of supervisors demanding exponentially high standards that leaves the juniors stressed out. The resulting stress is significant in influencing the behavioral capabilities of the employees (Mathis & Jackson, 2010). In order for the company to fully motivate its employees, the executive managers should develop strategic policies aiming at addressing all the motivational components of the reward system. The executive managers should acknowledge the fact that employee motivation is not only pegged on the financial reward, which is based on the quantitative performance capability of the employee. Properly managed incentive systems should incorporate the physical and psychological benefits to the employee (Solyndra, 2011). The case of the woman employee who was harassed by the high performing product officer is a perfect exemplification of how employee motivation was an issue in the company. This was a reason for the executive management to assess the causes of harassment and provide solutions to the problem rather than perceive the expectant woman employee as negatively affecting the performance level of the officer. The company should also enhance software use to include features that will record the individual contribution of each employee (Lawson, 2002). This will enable the management to have a clear understanding of the financial contribution of each of the employees, thus improving the system of reward. As such the executive management will be able to monitor the incentive program thereby averting the possibility of sabotage of the program following the individualistic approach of the supervisors in wanting to gain more from the sales than the juniors who does the bulk of the work (Ambrosini & Bowman, 2003). Further, the enhancement of this program will enable the executive managers to control the negative influence that results from the application of double standards in rewarding the employees. Conclusion and Recommendations In summary, the human resource challenges affecting the shipping organizations could be tackled through effective adoption of sound HR planning and encouraging employee relations. In this regard, the executive management should employ the 7S technique to assess the organizational behavior issues so as to enable the development and implementation of the necessary strategic formulations to help the organization to restore calm within its operations. References Ambrosini, V., & Bowman, C., 2003. Managerial Consensus and Corporate Strategy: Why Do Executives Agree or Disagree about Corporate Strategy. European Management Journal, 21 (2), pp. 213 – 221. Dessler, G., 2011. Human Resource Management (12th Edition). Delhi: Pearson. Friedman, M., 2012. University of Michigan. Retrieved from George, B. et al., 2007. Discovering Your Authentic Leadership. Harvard Business Review, pp. 1-9. Gesuri, L., 2012. Company Profile. 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