Recruiting and Selecting Staff to Achieve an Effective Team - Assignment Example

?Recruiting and selecting staff to achieve an effective team by comparing and contrasting relevant theories and drawn from evaluating your own experience Introduction One of the major activities of any human resource department is to equip its organization with those people who can actually bring cohesion among them in order to meet the organizational goals in the most effective manner. Recruitment and selection is the key process by which human resource department actually picks the most appropriate people to for the most appropriate jobs. Chiefly, there two kinds of evaluations are conducted by the human resource department at the time of recruitment and selection process. Every candidate is asked to show his/her own set of skill in terms of technical skills relevant for that particular job and soft skills (human skills), which shows how effectively the candidate can work in a team in the organizational dynamics. As far as the technical skills are concerned, human resource department makes specifics arrangements pertaining to present those skills in collaboration with the existing technical people working in the organization. However, for human skills, human resource department itself evaluates every candidate and allows the candidates to demonstrate their human skills in front of them. Human skills mainly include the skills pertaining to communication, presentation, ability to work in a team, decision-making capability, and leadership skills and so on. Ability to work in a team is considered as the one of the most important abilities that recent advocates of human resource seek in a candidate. Team working is considered as an effective way of producing the desired results as compared to the work done under individual capacity. New ideas, new ways of doing and managing things, accumulation of varied skills, and other benefits emphasizes the importance of working under the team structure. Several human skills theories are presented by the management scientists and behaviourists with the different contexts. Theories pertaining to motivation, leadership, individual personality attributes, learning styles and team-based theories are quite useful in understanding how team structure should be formulated which can benefit the organization in an effective way. Reflection of Organization Theories Following are the main theories that are discussed and applied in organizational dynamics of recruitment and selection to achieve an effective team. 1. Motivation Theory – Vroom’s Expectancy Theory There are various motivational theories presented by different management behaviourists such that they consider motivation with different pairs of spectacles. Motivation is the key factor that ultimately drives a candidate to apply for a certain position in an organization. What actually motivates a person to work for an organization is dependent upon two major factors namely as expectancy and valance as described by Victor Vroom in his Expectancy Theory. According to this theory, the force of motivation is directly dependent upon the product of expectancy and strength. In order to achieve a desired goal, the desired achievement is dependent upon two factors, firstly, the expectation of achieving that goal and secondly, the possibility or real strength of achieving that goal. In case, if any of expectancy or valance becomes zero, then there would be no motivation to achieve that goal. In the organizational context, when human resource managers evaluate the human skills of the candidates at the time of recruitment and selection, they define job description and job specification in such a manner that the jobs to be done by the candidates after their recruitment should motivate those potential employees. Job description is especially focused in this regard because the summary of the duties and tasks to be done by the employees are mentioned in the job description. Those duties and tasks should be framed in such a manner, which can increase the expectancy as well as the possibility of completing those tasks. In case, if some unattainable or unrealistic kinds of tasks and duties are documented in the job description, it will no longer result in motivating the employees and they would prefer to switch the organization causing more worries to the human resource managers. Therefore, it is one of the most important duties of the human resource department to offer such rewards, which can appropriately compensate the employees’ work in order to keep them motivated to perform their duties. 2. Personality Theory – Myer-Briggs Type Indicator Another important theory envisaged by the human resource manager at the time or recruiting and selecting the potential candidates is the types of personality that job candidates possess individually. According to this theory, an individual can have different types of personality such that his/her personality can be viewed as extrovert or introvert, sensing or intuitive, thinking or feeling, perceiving or judging. Therefore, it becomes an essential part of the duty of the human resource managers to examine the types of personality of the potential employees so that appropriate employees with their corresponding personality traits can be best fitted in the organizational settings. There are jobs in the organization, which require employees having specific types. Therefore, in order to meet the requirements of that particular job, it is of vital importance to place the most compatible employee on that job position so that intra-organizational frictions in the form of clashes and conflicts can be avoided as much as possible. 3. Learning Style Theory – Honey and Mumford Learning Styles Nowadays every organization aims itself to be a learning organization such that it wants itself not only equip with the most latest advancements but also keeps a close eye on upcoming trends, as a result it takes every action on proactive basis. In such organizations, learning is the most vital part. Overall, the organizational learning is based upon the individual learning of the employees. According to the theory presented by Honey and Mumford (1994), there are four different styles of learning such that each individual carries a unique style of learning. If that individual is imposed with a different learning style, his/her learning ability will be confined and the desired outcomes from the learning may not be achieved. Those four learning styles are Activist, Reflector, Theorist, and Pragmatist. Activist is that learner who is ready to go into any new thing. Reflector on the other hand is the one who tries to grasp the learning content initially and then decides as how to absorb it. Theorist is that learner who relates the concept with other things. Finally, Pragmatist is the one who views the learning content in its real life practical terms. Because of the truly varied nature of these learning styles, human resource managers needs to be aware of the fact that the potential employees must have different learning styles. Therefore, at the time of recruitment and selection, the evaluation of the candidates should be carried out in such a manner that the learning style of each candidate should be identified appropriately. Once the candidate is selected as an employee of the organization, his job description should be framed such that his/her tasks can boost up his/her learning skills and ultimately the organization can receive the benefits of his/her enhanced learning experiences. 4. Team Contribution Theory – Belbin’s Team Role Theory Individuals alone cannot demonstrate their skills more effectively than working under teams. Belbin worked out upon the contribution of individuals working under team. A perfect team is considered as the one, which consists of nine team roles presented by Belbin. Those nine team roles are Plant, Resource Investigator, Coordinator, Shaper, Monitor/Evaluator, Team Worker, Implementer, Completer, and Specialist. Belbin believes that any team comprising of individuals having these nine team roles will result in the maximum amount of benefits to the organization. Since the prime responsibility of human resource department is the development of effective teams which can achieve the organizational goal. Therefore, at the recruitment and selection stage, all the potential employees should be evaluated in terms of their appropriate roles, which they can actually play under the teams. Once the appropriate roles of those employees are identified, then the process of team development begins and then proceedings are followed. Conclusion In my personal opinion, I believe that the recruitment and selection stage is very crucial to the human resource department as this activity defines the future of the organization. In case where employees are placed in the teams at the stake of their relevant compatibility, the organization will not end up in achieving its objectives in a fruitful manner. I would also to bring the attention of the readers that the human resource managers should take into consideration the relevant management and behaviourist theories so that the most appropriate employees with their best skills can be deployed to their job positions. This would not only utilize their skills effectively but also allow the organization in meeting its strategic objectives. References Boddy, D. 2008. Management. An Introduction. Fourth edition. Harlow, FT Prentice Hall Marchington, M. and Wilkinson, A. 2008. Human Resource Management at Work, London, CIPD Mullins, L.J. 2005. Management and Organisational Behaviour. Seventh edition. Harlow, FT Prentice Hall Torrington, D. et al. 2011. Human Resource Management, Harlow, FT Prentice Hall. Read More