Busm4499 Key Concepts In Hrm- Assessment Answers

Answer

Human Resource Management is a team of employees in an organization who manage all other employees of an organization in pursuit of achieving the organizational goals and objectives. The Human Resource Management team recruits, positions, trains, compensate and continuously motivate the employees in an organization to improve the results of the company. A good human resource team can give an organization a competitive advantage over others. There are two approaches of understanding the role of Human Resource Management, namely Soft HRM and Hard HRM. Hard HRM focuses its efforts on strategies which aim at lowering the cost of labor and increasing productivity per employee. Soft HRM on the other hand focuses its efforts on human aspect of HRM, wherein it develops the skills of the employees, trains them, provide them with good work environment and ensure state of harmony and high trust in the organization  (Smith 2016). This essay focuses on answering the question: If Human Resource Management should be instrumental or the key driver in contributing to organizational success?

To answer this question further, discussion on the three key issues relating to Human Resource Management in an organization and how Human Resource management helps tackle these issues and how these may affect the organizational success shall be done. The key issues that have been selected are Performance Management, Employee Health and Safety and Employee Wellbeing. Performance Management can be defined as a process through which the managers and employees of the organization work together to plan and review an employee’s work objective and how his work can contribute to the organization. It is a continuous process where objectives are set, progress is assessed and on-going training and feedback is provided to make sure that employees meet their career objectives along with that of the company. Human Resource Management makes sure that the efforts of employees are synced in to contribute to their personal goals with that of company. This ensures that the employees are satisfied in the workplace and are fruitful of the organization as well (Cascio 2014).    

It is argued that in recent year, major changes have occurred in labor markets and organizational environments all around the world. Voluntary employee turnover rate has increased and with that has increased the employers concerns regarding retention particularly of top performers. Though there are multiple ways in which employee retention can be enhanced, positive employer brand, performance management strategies to help employees maximize their potential and innovative ways to design and deliver human resource development initiatives are the important ways of enhancing employee retention (Brewster et al. 2016).  Positive employer brand is creating the positive image of the company to allure top professionals to work with the organization, while performance management is to help them channelize and grow their skills for effective use. Using innovative techniques is to use technology driven information system and social learning in the organization to enhance employee learning, develop them and retain them in the organization. All these human resource management functions help achieve the organizational success (Cascio 2014).       

In context of performance management, it is argued that perceiving goal as invariable has negative relationship with work performance and job autonomy mediate this relationship. Perceiving goals as invariable implies the extent to which the employees think that their goals are absolute that must be met irrespective of other important factors. It thus affects the overall performance of the employees. Higher the invariable goals, the higher are the chances of work performance being suffered. Employees with higher education and working at higher level are found to be more discrete about perceiving goals as invariable and require high job autonomy. This higher autonomy helps the employees to make distinct decisions (Kuvaas, Buch and Dysvik 2014).

It is also argued that employee engagement and behavior is not solely dependent on the activities and initiatives of Human Resource Management team, it is also affected by the behavior of the line managers these employees report to. It is found that level of employee engagement in the organization and its activity is positively related to the behavior of the line managers. Though, again it is in the hands of Human Resource Management to recruit, deploy, develop and train the line managers to achieve maximum employee engagement. The effective and efficient manager, who knows how to motivate his subordinates, can help derive the best results from the individual employee. It is thus argued, that the Human Resource Management impact on the employee’s performance is indirect (Alfes et al. 2013).

Employee Wellbeing has become an important issue in the companies as they strive to make sure that their employees are motivated and satisfied at their workplace. Happy employees make happy workforce which is productive and effective at their job. Employee wellbeing is that part of their wellbeing which is perceived to be influenced by their work and can be determined by their workplace involvements. Thus, the Human Resource management has a great influence on the wellbeing of their employees. They strive to provide an environment and culture which aims at improving the well being of the employees (Fabius et al. 2013).  

With the ageing of workforce, there has been growing concerns about Human Resource practice tailored for old age workforce. It is found that training and development tailored for older workforce increases their intention to stay in the company and they perceive organizational support extended to them. General Human Resource practices are found to have positive influence of employee’s well being and their performance in general terms. However, it is argued that for older age the association between training and their general well being such as happiness and performance weakens. Work related change with age. At older age motivation works differently. However, the association maintenance practices undertaken by human resource team and wellbeing of employee strengthen with his age (Kooij et al. 2012).        

Further, the happy- productive worker thesis states that employees who are higher on well-being also perform well. However, this thesis didn’t what organizations can do to promote the well being of the workers. The research provided the motivations which may promote well being of employees at different levels. It is argued that the resources within the organization play different roles at promoting well being of the company. They provide intrinsic as well as extrinsic motivation to the employees. The resources fulfill basic needs of the employees and thus help them perform better. These resources are associated with well being and performance of the employees working at all the levels (Nielsen et al. 2017).  

It is also argued that paid employment is the essential part of anyone’s life. It comprises of important part of one’s experience and is important source of developing identity, make and maintain relationships in the society and have self esteem. This significance of employment and job makes it essential to examine the ways in which employees can improve their work experience. Greater work experience gives more purpose, meaning and greater well being to the employees. Through effective job crafting, the Human resource management team can ensure greater satisfaction of psychological needs of their employees. It helps employees correlate their work objectives with their personal goals and focus their actions at attaining both. This in turn promotes their well being and performance in the organization (Slemp and Vella-Brodrick 2013).        

Further, it is argued that the well being of the employee also depends on his enthusiasm towards work. According to a theory, there four types of employee: 9-to-5 or relaxed, work engaged or enthusiastic, workaholic or tense, and burned-out or fatigued. The amount of work an employee can do depends upon the category of employee he falls into. His capacity to work determines his well being. If soft work investors who fall in the category of relaxed and burnt out employees are forced to do heavy work, they shall sacrifice their well being and get more stressed. It thus become essential for human resource management to allocate job accordingly to ensure the well being of thee the employees (Salanova et al. 2013).  

It is also argued that employees treat office politics as threat to themselves as it has the potential of delay or hinder the achievement of their personal and organizational goals. It also brings forth stress response in face of attitudes such as job dissatisfaction, anxiety, tension, bad mood and may also lead to withdrawal from the job. It is further proved that the office politics affects the employee’s ability to cope with its stress and may affect his well being in serious manner. It thus reduces the employee’s productivity and performance in the organization (Kehoe and Wright 2013). The people who are more sensitive to it and think and act deeply may find it difficult to cope with it. Thus it is essential for human resource department to ensure there is no or very little office politics that does not affect the well being of the employees, so they continue to be productive and ensure their well being (Rosen and Hochwarter 2014).       

Employee Health and safety on the other hand relates to the preventive measures that shall be taken in an organization to make sure that in no case the health of the employees shall be sacrificed on. It aims at providing safe work environment to the employees. Employees shall also be trained in certain processes so that they can keep themselves safe and also help others in case of an emergency. Employees shall be provided safety against bullying in the workplace, fire and other natural disasters, manually handling  machines in certain organizations, and first aid shall be ready at all the times (Crane and Matten 2016). It is again the responsibility of the Human Resource Management to take care of these measures in the organization. Healthy and Safe environment shall ensure higher productivity in employees (Zanko and Dawson 2012).

In the recent times, there has been growing concerns about focusing on employee’s health and safety in the organization. It is argued to be a good business to focus on such activities. Human resource management team has started to engage in efforts to promote wellness of the employees. They aim to reduce the health risks involved at the workplace, and reduce the chances of injuries and spread of chronic diseases in the organization. This has a remarkable effect on health care costs of the organization and helps increase the productivity and enhance performance of the employees. The healthier and more productive employees prove to be competitive advantage for the company that further benefits all its stakeholders (Fabius et al. 2013).     

In another research, it is argued that workplace mistreatment affects the effectiveness and performance of the employee negatively. Mistreatment represents the interpersonal situation wherein members initiate negative actions against other members in the same workplace. It can be in various forms such as bullying, rudeness, physical aggression etc. evidences also suggest that the violence preventive climate in the workplace is perceived as supervisor support. With such perception, employees of the organization tend to form positive attitude towards the job, feel motivated and themselves extend efforts to reduce mistreatment in the workplace. The employees are able to focus more on their job rather than on fear of being mistreated in the organization. It further helps retain employees (Yang et al. 2014).        

Through, these arguments we analyze the role of human resource in employees performance management, well being and health and satey. Human Resource Management also has an impact on operations and on the bottom line of the organization. Though Human Resource Management deals mostly with employee behavior and development, it doesn’t mean that it has no effect on economics of the company. It can help solve the problems of the organization such as employee turnover, which affects the costs and productivity of the company (Greenwood 2012). Believing that Human Resource Management can impact employee turnover but not on profitability or success of the firm, means to underestimate the effect an employee can have on the organizations effectiveness. to determine the effect of Human Resource Management on bottom line, let’s use an example of employee turnover. If the estimated cost of replacing per employee in the organization $1,500, and the annual turnover rate being 80%, the cost of replacing 80 employees out of 100 would be $120,000. If the turnover rate is reduced to 20%, the company would be able to save $90,000. To retain and encourage employees to work effectively in the organization, amount shall be rather invested in Training programs which are found to be effective at covering up the costs by reducing employee turnover (Armstrong 2012).     

Another aspect of business in which Human Resource Management has an impact is providing service quality and cleanliness. These functions of an organization are usually labor intensive in nature, the customer’s perception of service quality is mainly dependant on the employee’s behavior and way he carries out his job. Through effective design and implementation of training programs, Human Resource Management dictates the behavior and deliverables of the employees (McKenzie and Baker, 2016). If the employees are not able to perform in a desired way which shall ensure the top notch quality of service, the Human Resource Management shall be responsible to device a training program that shall ensure that employees are able to acquire skills needed to perform their job well. Further, it is the responsibility of the Human Resource Management team to determine the right compensation and reward structure for the employees to reward them for their service extended to the company. The structure shall be good enough to motivate employees to continue contributing towards the success of the firm (Vaughan 2012).   

Human Resource Management also plays an important role in assuring the appropriate delivery of customer service. Employees are the mirror of an organization. Organization portrays its image through its employees in a huge way. In such case, the organization requires it human resource team to work towards employee satisfaction. Human Resource Management team shall design a selection procedure which shall ensure that the organization employs individuals who fit the organization’s image requirement. Further, during orientation, the selected employees shall be informed thoroughly about the image that the organization desires them to project. The criteria of evaluating the candidates related to that image shall be set and told to the employees to ensure the employees perform accordingly (Carden and Boyd 2010).Performance appraisal instrument is also designed that credits certain elements of the desired image which shall make sure the employees work in that direction at all the time.

Thus, Human Resource Management significantly affects several factors that affect the success of an organization. The organizations of all the levels need to recognize the importance of Human Resource Management team in various functions of the organization. Human Resource Management might not be the key driver of the organizations success, but it is highly instrumental in assuring one. The core asset of any firm is its employees, who perform its operations and lend their expert professional expertise to the company. Human Resource is the department which aids acquisition and retention of such talent, thus they are important for the overall success of the organization (Ferguson 2016).

References

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