Examining the Differing Perspectives of Managing Human Resources - Assignment Example

? Managing Human Resources BY YOU YOUR SCHOOL INFO HERE HERE Managing Human Resources Examining the differing perspectives of HRM Guest’s acknowledgement of the hard versus soft views of HRM involve the level by which human capital is considered as valuable organisational assets and their role within the organisation. The hard model of HRM involves aligning organisational goals with business and profitability objectives, considering workers to be much like tangible operational resources. Using a practical, experience-based example, the hard model focuses on scheduling of employees to meet specific timelines for output delivery. The HR manager might view flexible working schedules to maximize productivity throughout an 18 hour cycle. Thus, scheduling labour to meet goals sees the exploitation of talent in the same way that tangible resources are exploited. The soft model of HRM is more people-centred and deals with creating motivational strategies, coaching, or mentoring to achieve high levels of employee commitment and trust. Soft HRM policies consider employees emotional capacity and psycho-social needs and then integrates policy formation objectives with these principles in mind. In soft thinking, the employee is a method to achieve competitive advantage through commitment-building (Armstrong 2008). IR is primarily concerned with the relationship between union bargaining and employees (Elvander 1998). Storey (1992) recognises fundamental shifts from IR to HRM based on key dimensions of practice, policy and specific business goals. Whilst HRM often includes strategies that are people-centred, IR is more transactional in nature, delivering rewards that are highly contingent on performance. The HR school of thought is more unitarist in nature, whilst IR is more pluralist. Storey (1992) sees negotiation as a primary aspect of line management activity in IR with HRM more of a facilitating role. Specific norms demand compliance in IR theory whilst HRM focuses on building policies and practices around vision and mission. In personal experience, the strategic role of line management is to recognize contingencies where the organisation must have practices aligned with needs for organisational performance. Strategic HRM for line management is to identify a best practice model and continue to create strategies aligned with efficiency. Strategic HRM views all organisational divisions and practices to be an amalgamation to achieve best practice, productivity and profit. The implications to employees are diverse training to recognise inter-dependencies and higher demands for performance to achieve long-term goals related to business strategy. Flexibility in the workplace Personal experience describes a flexible model that involves changing contracted hours and periodic placement to perform job responsibilities in order to provide childcare. Under this model, the employee required 30 weeks of employment and must have had no negative assessments associated with periodic performance reviews. This model provided opportunities to replace the traditional Monday-Friday schedule with Saturday working in exchange for a weekly day off and also implementing telecommuting resources for those in service roles. Flexible models provide opportunities for building employee satisfaction and can be implemented according to business needs, such as customer service output expectations or when the business intends to expand its service to include weekend consultation for clients. Thus, it has competitive advantage capabilities and also the ability to create a more productive workforce. Armstrong (2008) identifies that flexible working concepts provide the ability to create a better skilled employee population, such as what occurs in job sharing. When employees are able to experience other divisional roles, they become more fluent in practices and procedures that can, in the long-term give the business more competitive advantage. A disadvantage to flexible working is the ability to determine whether pay is competitive to the labour market, when pay adjustments are made in a flexible system. Under the hard model of HRM, the management considers demand and then measures supply of workers on a continuous operational cycle. In this cycle, flexible working occurs which might not always be in-line with demand. Thus, there are periodic overages in supply which are not fiscally responsible without balance. More advantages of flexible systems are lowered fixed costs and improvement in retention and recruitment of employees. Flexible systems can be implemented by establishing the criteria required for an employee to maintain flexible working conditions. In this way, the strategic side of HRM is considered as well as consistently reinforcing mission and vision as well as expectations for compliance to these mission/vision values and principles. Establishing clear policies for what is demanded of flexible workers as related to productivity and skills development (such as in job sharing) ensure that implementation of these procedures can be evaluated properly and disciplinary systems developed to ensure that productive outputs are being generated. Equal opportunities in the workplace There are a wide variety of discriminations that occur in the workplace, which include cultural/ethnic, gender, sexual orientation, colour, sex/gender, or even the household conditions such as marital status or aid to dependent children. Any form of bias that serves to impede employee equality or fair disciplinary practices where one group or individual is favoured over another are representative of discriminatory practices. The Disability Discrimination Act imposed in 1995 is one example of equal opportunities action taken by government systems. The Equal Pay Act of 1970 highlighted the demands to provide fair pay between men and women for similar work. This particular legislative framework, based on personal working experience, can be implemented in the workplace by establishing a rigid job analysis system and creating job descriptions that are universal for male or female workers. This form of implementation ensures that no matter who is working in a particular role, there is a set pay scale for like responsibilities. The establishment of an anti-discrimination policy in the organisation and the steps for filing grievances should also be well-publicised as an implementation strategy. Humanistic movements in reducing discrimination are currently being developed and implemented by organisations. Most of these policies and values deal with sexual orientation discrimination and handling religious-based discrimination, two situations not clearly addressed in governmental regulations on equal opportunities. The establishment of various tribunals provide opportunities to challenge discriminatory practices, giving employees more protection. Equal opportunity and diversity are quite different, based on personal workplace experience. Diversity deals with flexible thinking, establishing shared decision-making with diverse employees, and establishing a positive organisational culture. Equal opportunities are more technical, ensuring that employees have justice systems established, fair disciplinary practices, and ensuring that there is no particular group that is favoured over another. Equal opportunities deals largely with the structure of the organisation and how employees are treated, whilst diversity is more people-centred and related to vision or mission of the organisation. Employees who have been bullied by other employees or managers would fall under equal opportunities considerations. Creating better psycho-social systems to facilitate more effective knowledge transfer would fall under diversity policies; as one example. Topical human resources Performance management is founded on goal-attainment and the role of individuals or teams in the organisation toward meeting these goals. It involves using 360 degree feedback concepts to gain knowledge of employee performance from multiple raters, establishing learning interventions through training, development of performance appraisals, as well as coaching and mentoring within this performance management cycle. Performance management attempts to align employees with the ultimate goal established and then ensuring that practices and assessments occur throughout this system to ensure compliance and also establish rewards for meeting these goals effectively. Using personal experience, HRM in the workplace involves much recognition of the need for inservice training in order to provide flexibility and adaptability in changing external market conditions. Inservice training is creating a package of training to improve worker competencies and gain new understanding of policy changes that occurs during their regular working schedules. It should be experiential for hands-on learning in order to ensure comprehension (Merriam 2007). This has been fundamentally important for improving job competency in the workplace, as compared to other HR practices such as building effective teams which usually do not focus on individual development. Globalisation demands a higher responsive rate to changing market conditions, including faster time to market for products, better service adaptability, service and product differentiation, and also needs for cultural diversity. Globalisation demands that the organisational HR leadership establish systems and policies that are in-line with externalities and consumer demand. This impacts HR planning as it becomes a continuous cycle of change to meet with global standards, gaining market share in global markets, customer or client satisfaction, and competitive or comparative advantage. HR managers must develop culturally-competent workers to work in a global environment, which involves routine assessment of the external and internal environment to create better training, systems, or organisational culture. Kelley (2009) identifies the vast cultural differences that will determine what policies or practices need to be in place to manage diverse cultures, especially for multi-nationals operating in foreign markets. One aspect is power distance, the level by which employees accept or tolerate distance from management leaders. Some cultures prefer more structure and management intervention, whilst others will demand more unitary policies and shared power, such as in the United States and the United Kingdom. Other cultures are risk averse and will resist change that represents risks to their security or emotional comfort, whilst other cultures readily accept and tolerate risk (Kelley 2009, Lang and Botelho 2010). How employees respond in the workplace will determine how HR is established and whether autonomy, decentralisation, or other important HR functions are established. References Armstrong, M. (2008), Strategic Human Resource Management: A Guide to Action, London: Kogan Page. Elvander, N. (1998), Industrial Relations, Labour Market and Work Life, 4(3), pp.171-185. Kelley, J. (2009), Global consumer culture: consumers’ global brand attitudes in Brazil and Germany. [online] Available at: http://home.ku.edu.tr/~globalbrand/files/Kelley.pdf Leng, C. and Botelho, D. (2010), How does national culture impact on consumers’ decision-making styles? A cross-cultural study in Brazil, the U.S. and Japan, Brazilian Administration Review, 7(3), pp.260-275. Merriam, S.B., Caffarella, R.S. and Baumgartner, L.M. (2007), Learning in Adulthood: A Comprehensive Guide, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Storey, J. (2001), Human Resource Management: A Critical Text, London: Thomson Learning. Read More