The Meaning of Personnel Management - Essay Example

Introduction The meaning of personnel management (PM) has been debated over for quite some time since the term has been introduced in the 1980s. Basically, PM refers to the management of every group within the workplace. Since the term has been used, it has become the most popular term in the English-speaking world. While the managers play a vital role in the concept of PM, it is actually an aspect of all management jobs. This means that even line managers should be intimately involve in various PM activities. Larger organizations even have internal PM specialists whose expert skills are vital for handling the technical aspect of PM. These technical activities may include the designing of the selection process, the conduction of collective employment negotiations, the development of training needs analysis and the formation of the equal employment opportunity policies (Boxall and Purcell, 2003). In this perspective, PM is not a process of a single person. Rather, it involves an integrated effort of all responsible and participating groups. The increasing popularity of PM among organizations led to several theories, concepts and models related to it. In Britain for instance, the academic interest over PM had initiated a debate about the real meaning of the term, including its ideological presuppositions and its consequences for the teaching and practice of industrial relations. According to Storey (1995), PM is a distinctive approach to employment management and that it is a process which seeks to obtain competitive advantage by means of the strategic deployment of a highly capable and committed workforce, utilizing a an integrated array of cultural, structural and personnel techniques (p. 5). Likewise, Guest (1987 and 1990) created an PM model that strongly integrated management approach wherein high levels of flexibility and commitment are sought from a high quality staff. In some other points of view (Keenoy and Anthony, 1992), PM was considered as a workplace manifestation of Thatcherite enterprise culture, an ideology that would make management prerogative the natural order of things. ACME HR Analysis Mr. Oliver is the Human Resource Manager of a plant in the United Kingdom, the company is called ACME Engineering. Mr. Oliver's main goal is to run the factory diverse from the original Japanese plant. In ACME UK plant, trade union is prohibited by Mr. Oliver, although he is projecting that he understands the sentiments of the employees. The clients come to the factory before buying ACME's products, so they can have knowledge about the production and processes. This is possible because ACME is handling both production and marketing and the sales facilities. ACME has always related strategic management style to personnel management. CME's PM can be referred to as unitary or pluralist. Mr. Oliver has not given his employees any recognition of their hard work. Moreover, the employees are not satisfied with their compensation. Since the Employee Compensation nowadays is based in the concept of insurance, no-fault means that it does not matter who is a fault, and recognizes that no one is at fault. Herein, the only thing that matter is that provision in the policy will be made for the employee's medical care and loss of earning power. In return for predetermined and certain benefits, employee gives up the right to sue their employers (Ulrich, 1998). In return for certain limitations on the amount of the benefits, the employer provide for all injured employees, even when the injuries could not necessarily have been prevented. In this manner, it can be noticed that both the employees and the employers "gave-up" certain rights when the laws were enacted. With this regard, the PM practice that ACME engineering should imposed must be able to create an Employee Compensation Policy that would certainly not neglect the right of each of any members of the organisation like the employee and the employers. Moreover, the PM should be ready for changes and policy amendments to adapt to a constantly changing environment. In PM, the employee reward is intended to align employees with organisational strategy by providing incentives for employees to act in the firm's interest and perform well over time. Expectancy theory carries a clear message that employees must feel confident that their effort will affect the rewards they receive (Siegel, 1996). Perceptions of equity are therefore crucial in an employee's decision to remain and produce valuable work. Equity is a multidimensional construct, embracing external equity (the degree to which a firm pays employees the rate they would find in the external labour market), internal equity (the degree to which a firm differentiates pay between employees on the basis of performance in similar jobs), and individual equity (the degree to which employees are rewarded proportionately to their individual performance) (Dean and Snell, 1993). Because of the changing demands of performance on employees in high- velocity companies, perceptions of equity in its three forms may become confused, as job roles and job interdependence become more varied and flexible (Sims, 1998). Since employees would expect that as their job changes, so will their rewards, designing reward systems in high-velocity environments presents a major challenge to organisations. In high-velocity environments, a premium is placed on individuals who are able to operate in ambiguous circumstances and who are able to take advantage of loose job descriptions provided by their employers (Snell & Dean, 1992). Organisations in high-velocity environments such as in the international marketplace are willing to pay proportionally higher salaries to individuals who have such skills. It is expected therefore, that emphasis on individually equitable rewards as a means of recruiting and retaining highly capable employees would be required (Gomez-Mejia & Welbourne 1990; Snell & Dean, 1992). In addition, Employee Reward can be one of the greatest foundations of control available to a company in its quest to increase organisational performance and effectiveness, yet remain one of the most underutilized and potentially complex tools for driving organisational performance. The importance and complexity of linking reward strategies to business goals in a systematic manner has been a recurrent argument in the study in this field, as has the importance and difficulty of linking rewards to the longer-term view (Hambrick & Snow, 1989). In describing the strongest level of linkage the emphasis has been placed on Lawler's (1990) description of reward processes which are capable of reinforcing the behaviours crucial to business strategy like long-term versus short-term, customer focus versus financial results. Japanese vs Western There is a big difference between the HR principle of the Japanese and the West. The western focuses on people and the gratitude of individuals, on the other hand, the Japanese, focuses inside the team and not necessarily has an individual decision (Schneider, 1983). The western approach give importance to the individual output and at the same time the Japanese gives emphasis to the shared vision of the team and culture in achieving the objective of the company. Culture is an important factor in the art of human resource management, because for any organization to operate effectively it must for some extent have a general set of believes and assumptions (Henderson, 1996). Because understanding the term of the culture metaphor helps organizations to be aware of how employees are thinking about the organization phenomena, and to recognize how different attitudes, value and beliefs affect the workplace. Understanding and assessing the national culture and organization's culture can mean the difference between success and failure in today's fast changing business environment (Heneman, Schwab, Fossum and Dyer, 1989). Cultural assessment can provide measurable data about the real organizational values and norms that can be used to get management's attention. According to McEwan (2001), culture is inseparable form the nation of human society which makes defining it a complicated task. Barbeschi (2002) states that the process of making an organization is simultaneously the growth and maintenance of relationships among individuals who are working towards a common goal and the actual accomplishment of tasks, individually and collectively. As an increasing number of organizations seek to operate in foreign markets, it is vital that management practitioners develop a better understanding of, and sensitivity to, the impact of different national settings on the management task (Jenner, 1994). In the field of cross-cultural management/organization, scholars have sought to assist practitioners in achieving this by conducting research that has generally been guided by two key questions: (1) what is general and universal in the management of organizations; and (2) what is peculiar or specific to one nation or culture To date, there have been a series of review articles of the cross-cultural management/organization literature that have given a detailed picture of the nature of the research undertaken to answer these two questions (Lipiec, 1990). In addressing these issues, researchers have described the conceptual, theoretical, and methodological problems encountered and the solutions proposed. Rapid changes in forces affecting the global workforce, differences between countries related to labour-management relations, and increases in the incidence of multinational corporate activities have resulted in significant attention to international human resources management (Overman, 1994). Not only are labour relations affected by domestic change, but the impact of global production has added another complex dimension for those firms choosing to compete internationally. Innovative global competitors have developed approaches for effective employee-management relations at the international level. The extent to which the practices and processes of human resource management (PM) can be transferred from one country to another has been the subject of considerable debate. Since labour relations vary greatly from country to country, MNC managers find the human resource approach used in one country to be ineffective or of limited value in another country (Bean, 1987). This question is of special interest to multinational corporations when they seek to establish PM processes spanning different cultures and countries (Schuler et al., 1993). Diversity and Leadership in ACME In managing people in a culturally-diverse organization, as in any organization, the manager must first satisfy the needs of the employees. Through empowerment, ACME improves employee satisfaction which results to an increased competence, self-esteem and self-respect, which are very important to one's well-being (McGovern,1998). Moreover, the Company creates an environment that results in its employees feeling better about them when they are in it. A work environment that constantly raises an employee's self-esteem, above that she/he experiences anywhere else in their life, will be where she/he most desires to spend their time and yields very high employee satisfaction with their job and costs next to nothing. People do more of what they enjoy and less of what they do not enjoy; and that people who enjoy working are more productive. Creating such a work environment is the responsibility of all corporate or organizational leadership (Williams,1995). There are no schools that teach how to create such an environment and very, very few training programs that result in the behaviours necessary to do so. While a very small number of managers of people have found and refined the skills that produce such a high satisfaction environment, these are skills that anyone can learn and master through conscientious and consistent practice. ACME's values of celebrating the diversity of people, ideas and cultures, and its honoring the dignity and value of individuals working as a team recognize the primary purpose for empowering employees: enhancing people's control over their lives. It is clear that the Company does not ignore the person-environment interaction and the critical role that both individual and contextual characteristics play in the empowerment process, which result in risking the implementation of ill-fated empowerment initiatives (McGovern, 1998). When assessing the interaction between culture and empowerment, it seems useful to identify and understand those subcultures that might engender a work environment more or less empowering than the larger organizational system (Wilkins and Dyer, 1988). By seeking these diverse subcultures, the Company can potentially elicit the unanticipated opportunities for empowerment present within a potentially disempowering, larger organizational context. Aside from motivating and empowering their employees, ACME should enable them to develop their self-management capabilities (Lipiec, 2001). Developmental feedback seeking is the extent to which one seeks feedback on performance and development needs. Individuals need to understand themselves, their strengths and weaknesses, developmental needs, and performance in their current environment. Conclusion As the business world has become more complex and jobs more technical, many large corporations have turned away from simple on-the-job training to more formalized learning formats. Further, corporate structures are becoming more decentralized and diverse, so adopting training programs that keep talent and try to instill commitment in their people is important not only to the success of the companies but also to their workers. ACME must consider refocusing its current human resource management when it comes to training to carry out its value of honoring the dignity and value of its workforce. References Barbeschi, M. (2002). Organizational culture of the OPCW Secretariat. Disarmament Forum, 4, 46-53. Bean, R. (1987). International comparisons in the study of industrial relations. Employee Relations, 9(6), 3-7. Century. 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