HRM2001S The Potential of an Organization

Samantha was an experienced retail manager in a large department store but after almost ten years in the job, she decided a change of direction. What she wanted was more autonomy and less face-to-face contact with the public. A casual conversation with a friend encouraged her to apply for the newly created position of general manager of Big Bytes – a chain of stores selling and repairing computer equipment plus IT related accessories. All Big Bytes stores were located in large heartland malls. The owner of Big Bytes, Brian Lam, created the position because he felt the number of shops (ten) was now beyond his span of control.

Then, too, a recent change in shopping hour regulations meant all Big Bytes stores were now open seven days a week. Until Samantha was appointed, Brian was a relatively hands-off manager who, as the number of stores increased, gradually ceded more and more control to his store managers. He was not unduly perturbed by this because turnover and profits were satisfactory and, according to his accountant, all tax and other regulatory requirements were met. When Samantha was appointed, his only instruction to her was rather vague, ‘see how each store is going and let me know what you think’.

After two months of meetings and visits Samantha realised that Brian’s increasingly laissez-faire approach had resulted in his shops being managed satisfactorily at best and at worst, poorly. In preparing her report for Brian, she drafted the following list of issues to discuss 

• Store managers lacked commitment. Typically, they were in their positions because they were the longest serving employee at the time the manager’s position became available.

• Managers appointed staff by word-of-mouth. That is, another employee ‘had a friend who wanted a job’ and thought they would be ‘okay’.

• All stores reported high levels of absenteeism and lateness for nebulous, difficult to prove reasons such as ‘my car broke down’ or “I didn’t feel well’. Because most of the staff were students, absenteeism peaked towards the end of each semester. The Christmas/New Year period was particularly bad.

• Staff morale varied from store to store and seemed to correlate largely with each manager’s style.

• Sales were falling due to competition from online sales. The only thing in Big Bytes’ favour was the presence of in-store technicians.

• All store managers admitted that their financial management skills could be better.

• Despite Brian saying the company had a formal appraisal process, the reality was that each manager determined when and how it would be carried out. There was no formal appraisal process for managers.

• Although some employees had been with Big Bytes for several years, staff turnover was higher than the industry average.
• The company operated an annual employee opinion survey. In the last survey employees raised concerns over a lack of training. Because of this, Brian allocated extra funds for employee development but it was not spent. Instead, managers thought that training could be conducted in-store and, as most of the staff were casuals, anything other than the most basic training was a waste of both time and money.

Acting as a HR consultant, you were called in to help Brian deal with the ‘problems’ brought up by Samantha. Write a HR report to address the following:

• Critically analyse the current situation and the implications to the company’s future success.

• Based on her findings, Samantha told Brian that she wanted to try out some of her ideas at the Mega Mall stores. In your opinion, what issues must be addressed in the short-term, mid-term and long-term and how might they be addressed?

• Provide a HR plan to address the future HR needs, including developing a training and development programme and a plan to introduce a proper performance management system.

Human resources are one of the major building block of any organization. The potential of an organization depends not only in its ability to optimize the allocation of its materialistic resources but also to utilize effectively the available human resources. In the process of ensuring the optimization of human resource utilization it is also important to identify the factors that is rendering restraint upon the channelization of human resources (Albrecht et al. 2015).

It is necessary to make the human resources adapt with the new changes that are taking place within the market where the organization operates its business. In order to implement the action plan based on the analysis of the flaws and fortes of the organization human resources needs improvisation from all respect to raise their operational effectiveness as well as performance efficiency. For ensuring smooth functioning of the human resource management it is essential that the managerial endeavors should work in favor of the labor force of the organization from top to the bottom level and vice-versa within the employee hierarchy.

In this case it is been observed that Brain Lam, the owner of Big Bytes is confronted with a lot of issues related to the management for the organization as put forth to him by Samantha, who was earlier the retail manager of a departmental store and joined Big bytes as a general manager later. Big Bytes which is a chain of stores that deploys into the market products like computer equipment and information technology related accessories along with providing repairing and maintenance support (Albrecht et al. 2015). The paper delves into this aspect of human resource management and recommends action plans, execution of which may ensure long run sustenance of the company in the competitive market place.

Overview of the Problem

The background of the problem relates to the endeavor of the general manager Samantha who is a newly recruited professional in Big Bytes. The issues that are being highlighted by Samantha is in putting forth the issues that questions the relevance of laissez faire approach within the organization. Brian lam asked Samantha only to report about the performance of each of the stores which was rather imprecise (Bratton and Gold 2017). Samantha scrutinized the flaws and fortes in each of the stores where she comprehended that:

• there is deficiency of commitments by the store managers
• word of mouth was the medium through which recruitment use to take place
• Ambiguity exits behind high absenteeism and lateness
• The manager’s styles use to influence the morale of the staffs
• Online sales renders substantive competition for which the sales margin were confronted with downfall
• Training regarding financial management was a pre-requisite which were not found to be accomplished
• The formal appraisal process as at an halt due to operational ineffectiveness internally
• Staff turnover rate is high as retention of employees where
  
  low
• Based on the annual opinion survey, it was been found that the employees were unsatisfied with the lack of training opportunities whereas allocation of funds for trainings were implemented

Based on these aspects of concern the statement of the problem can be incorporated.

Statement of the Problem

In order to ensure future success of Big Bytes, the implication of current situations reveals that there exists necessity of emergence of the company from it operational, managerial and financial perspectives. The statement of the problem comprises of ensuring that the human resources of Big Bytes are optimized and proper performance management system is being incorporated along with training and development opportunities.

Diagnosis

The issues that are a matter of concern for Brian Lam, the owner of Big Bytes is comprised of the existing problems that are prevalent due to traditional business approach. The laissez faire approach is being maintained where it is being believed that things will automatically come to their places where it is required. However, the sales are declining, the staff turnover is risen, store managers commitment towards maximizing the objective of the company has been reduced, etc. These things are the outcome of ineffective performance management system and improper channelization of the available human resources.

Along with that, effective grievance management of the employees are required based on understanding their perspectives regarding organizational culture and feedbacks regarding training needs (Marchington et al. 2016).  Samantha have utilized her 10 years’ experience in retail industry based on which she is interested to remove the constraints that exists within the organization and restructure the laissez faire approach towards an innovative one and improvise it in an employee friendly and quality work environment that enriches the organizational practices. It was been found that there is availability of funds that may support the expansion of the business through the chain of stores.

However, there were lack of proper managerial endeavors that will ensure that the allocated funds are properly utilized as well as the expansion of the business if effectively monitored. Increase in the number of the chain stores do not reduce the customer share and also the market capitalization of Big Bytes (Donate and Guadamillas 2015). Thus the major problem is related to high employee turnover which makes the company to loose skilled employees as well as potential customer base. Moreover, if a company earns profit or is able to maximize its sales volume then these are not the only parametric factors that determines the growth and development of the company.

Rather it is to be understood as reflected by Samantha that the organization should be internally strong and stability should prevail regarding its financial health as well as it should be able to optimize its allocated funds and resources irrespective of the fact that the resources are materialistic or human resources. Meeting the tax and other regulatory prerequisites may make Big Bytes financially clear and transparent form all respect that that does not ensure that the company will be stable in the long run or has a successful future sustenance.

As highlighted by Samantha, it is important for Brian Lam to focus much more in boosting the Big Bytes organizational culture and human resource practices intrinsically. This may include the understanding employee grievances and responding them back, effective communication and work oriented training, facilitation of awareness generation programs for motivating employee willingness towards their work as well as boosting their expertise, developmental planning, performance appraisal, rewards & bonuses, raising employee engagement as well as implementation of successful recruitment endeavors, etc.

The SWOT analysis invigorates into the prevailing strengths, weaknesses of Big Bytes while focusing into the upcoming threats and how to capitalize them into opportunities.

Table 1: SWOT

Strength	Weakness
• Presence of good quality technicians in all stores • Availability of sufficient funds for supporting business expansion & enhancing business effectiveness • Demographic advantage in terms of its location in the large heartland malls • Expansionary policy based business approach of Big bytes in the industry	• Low training opportunities for raising expertise of the potential work force of Big Bytes • Low utilization of the allocated funds • Inefficient financial Management •  Casual employee management relationship that increases the number of absenteeism • Low staff morale
Opportunities	Threats
• Technical effectiveness ensures strong customer support • Extensive market expansion enhances the probability to rapidly reach target consumer base • Service quality becomes impressive due to strong technical support which help Big Bytes to enhance its brand value as well as build strong goodwill in the market	• High level of competition in the segment of online sales • Fall in the overall sales volume • Low accomplishment endeavors towards fulfilling organizational commitments by the store managers

Force Field Analysis (driving & restraining Forces)

The force field analysis focuses upon the driving and restraining forces that maximizes the opportunities for Big Bytes based on its strength and weaknesses while minimizing its threats. Majorly the effectiveness of the company to support its potential clients through sufficient technical assistance is a vital component that drives the business of the company. Apart from that the presence of skilled technicians in the various stores of the company ensures that the prospective customers will get quality services (Paillé et al. 2014). The expanding approach of the company into the market is another driving force for Big Bytes. The number of stores have increased from its previous state this outweighs the possibility of the firm to remain unrecognized among the target consumer base. The restraining forces on the other hand is the lack of commitment within the employees and the inability of the organizational entities to maintain a disciplined work culture.

Diagrammatically it can be shown as follows

Implications of Assessments

  The issues that are needed to be addressed can be sub-divided into short term, middle term & long term basis.

Short Term

The commitment level of the store managers should be boosted in the short run and facilitation of effective training and development initiatives is essential. The commitment level of the store managers will get increased if their willingness and involvement towards the company increases. The target consumer base will be effectively reached if and only if the bottom line effective interacts with the prospective consumers (Marchington et al. 2016). The important aspect of utilizing the business expansion by Big Bytes should be utilized and the diversified products and services like the IT accessories and computer equipment should be advertised and marketed effectively within the target consumer base in such a way that it can satisfy the consumers based on their feedbacks and needs.

Middle Term

Beside annual plans and the midterm reviews are concerned with the issues of high employee turnover and hence low employee retention. The employees are being recruited based on word of mouth for which the skill levels of the employees and not been tested and hence unskilled labors are getting employed which are not able to perform at the time of necessity (Banfield, Kay and Royles 2018).

The word of mouth process encourages recruitment of employees but the human resource managers are not able to measure that whether the new recruits requires effective training or not. Rather it becomes tough for the management to identify the areas of expertise of the recruits and where they exactly lacks. Effective performance management initiatives accompanied by proper appraisal and penalizing system will help the organization to nullify the gaps that exist between the expected level of performance and actual level of performance.

Long Term

It is important that the laissez faire approach should be reduced and a more innovative approach should be incorporated in the organizational culture of big bytes. The problem that persists with laissez faire approach is that in this approach the managers use the leadership technique where they provide a very little guidance to the subordinates and the employees are supported with complete freedom to make and implement their own decisions. Due to this reason the senior employees are found to perform for the organization based on their will which hampered the progress of the organization and ensure its smooth pace (Gutierrez, Barrales and Kaynak 2018).

Notably, the store managers rises through the employee hierarchy based on their number of years of serving to the company. However, their existing level of skills are not tested periodically which sometimes underestimate or overestimate the performance level of the human resources. Apart from that, the staff morale is not rising and for which the organizational culture is deteriorating. The employee engagement and willingness towards working for the company is reducing and hence issues like absenteeism and lateness are rising.

Performance Management

The process of performance management is very essential in case of Big Bytes. This is due to the reason that the company have all the requisite resources in terms of funds as well as human capital. Designing a credible and feasible performance management system and resolving the prevailing issues within Big Bytes followed by earning competitive advantage from the rivals in the existing industry and ensure market penetration and maximization of financial profitability and business sustenance can be done. However, it is needed to motivate the employees by effectively handling the grievance management of them as well as of the manager and process the promotion of the work force based on skills and merit but not on seniority of the employees.

Since effective training, rewards and appraisal mechanism is not implemented so the store manager are not being penalized for their lack of commitments and the bottom line employees who are found to be strongly adhered with Big Bytes for raising its quality of production and practice effective organization culture are not found to be rewards. This are working as demotivating factors as they are not founding any form of career growth opportunities. On the other hand, the management of the organization is not able to mobilize the resources optimally coupled with effective managerial and operational endeavors.

The main reasons are lack of employee commitments from the store managers who are promoted to their post not based on their merit or ability to take responsibilities but on the basis of their seniority. Thus many people who may are junior than them yet possess greater skills that is necessary for the post though opportunities are not given to them due to the reason that they are not seniors. Hence, the progress of the organization is dependent upon the traditional aspect of seniority and not the innovative aspect which is concerned with the employees that may not be seniors yet possess greater expertise that are requisite for respective positions of store managers (Shields et al. 2015).

They should be recruited based on their commitments towards the organization, their merits, managerial outlook, analytical thinking abilities and innovative approach towards mobilizing human resources. The process of performance management that is discussed by Samantha endeavored to monitor the allocation of funds and ensure utilization of the human resources to optimize the overall business functionality.

The planned structure as provided by Samantha incorporated the areas upon which actions are needed to be taken by Brain Lam so that the existing problem within the organization may take a halt. It is been highlighted that certain elements should be effectively taken care of regarding the aspect of performance management that will allow to maximize the overall performance of the organization (Chelladurai and Kerwin 2017). Every store managers will be responsible to communicate regarding the existing state of performance of all the underling employees. Along with that the employees should be trained effectively so that their morale remain strong and their commitments towards Big Bytes should be raised.

The store managers will be motivated through training and development of skills and managerial understanding. Proper performance planning thus includes effective goal setting for the employees from the managers as well as enhancing their willingness for the work that they render for the organization (Collings, Wood and Szamosi 2018). Traditional approach should be replaced by innovative approach for which the employees will work due to their willingness and not will be forced to work for the organization.

Effective feedbacks will be undertaken from the top level as well as bottom level employees based on which the loopholes of the organizational practices will be identified and resolved through performance communication and bringing improvement in the performance standards undertaken to estimate performance of the employees as well as the managers.  Human resource management is an essential aspect of concern for any organization. Every organization may possess sufficient funds to support its activities (Jackson, Schuler and Jiang 2014). However, allocation of human resources needs to be optimized to ensure that the utilization of the funds are effective.

For smoothing the functionality of the human resource management initiative sis is also important to assess the employee morale and their endeavors to meet organizational commitments. When the resourceful working force of a company will find that there is enough provision for them to optimize career growth then they will be willingly obedient towards organization objective and would not be forcefully obedient towards it. It is important to delve into the aspect of Big Bytes, a company that deals with computer equipment and IT related accessories.

The manager of the company Brian Lam have faced several challenges from the newly recruited professional Samantha who put forth the existing flaws and fortes within the organization regarding its human resources (Zhao  2015). The organization is in the process of facilitating effective training and awareness generation program that can motivate the employees and the store managers towards practicing an efficient organizational culture and human resource allocation mechanism.

HR Plan

The human resource plan should be in accordance with the objective to mitigate the problems related to the current situation of Big Bytes and the state of the existing market. The human resource management plans are based on the following issues which are deficiency of commitments by the store managers. Word of mouth was the medium through which recruitment use to take place. Ambiguity exits behind high absenteeism and lateness. The manager’s styles use to influence the morale of the staffs.

Online sales renders substantive competition for which the sales margin were confronted with downfall. Training regarding financial management was a pre-requisite which were not found to be accomplished. The formal appraisal process as at a halt due to operational ineffectiveness internally. Staff turnover rate is high as retention of employees where low. Based on the annual opinion survey, it was been found that the employees were unsatisfied with the lack of training opportunities whereas allocation of funds for trainings were implemented (Haneda and Ito 2018). The issues of concern and the respective human resource plan should be accompanied by an appropriate performance management system coupled with training and development initiatives for the employees of the organization which can be incorporated as follows:

Issues	Resolutions
Lack of commitment by the Store Managers	Reduction of Laissez-faire approach and enriching the managers with training and development and promoting them based on merits and acquired skills
Recruitments based on word of mouth	This approach should be reduced because it do not employ people based on their expertise rather based on preference. Effective performance assessment should be incorporated periodically
Staff Morale	The management style is the major =factor upon which the morale of the staffs is dependent upon. Hence the management style should remove the laissez – faire approach and should adhere with innovative management style that enhances employee engagement and strengthen their individual morale of the employees
Falling in Sales Volume	The online competition is reducing the sales for which Big bytes should emphasize ore in promoting their business as well as products and services through online platforms. This will ensure acquisition of more prospective consumers and satisfy potential clients
Boosting the financial Management skills of the Store managers	The store managers should be guided and trained with effective performance management initiatives and facilitation of awareness generation programs regarding financial skill development
Employee Turnover	Employee turnover should be reduced. Employee retention can be boosted by training the employees and ensuring talent development When employees will find  that the performance appraisal process in the company is effective and along with that there is opportunity for career growth and promotion, then the employee turnover will automatically get reduced
Lack of training	Causality of the staffs is a reason for which the allocated funds are not effectively utilized and hence the employees should be made disciplined.

Conclusion

Conclusion can be done based on the flaws and fortes that exists within the organization. There is necessity to implement effective performance management system and ensure proper channelization of the available human resources. Along with that, effective grievance management of the employees are required based on understanding their perspectives regarding organizational culture and feedbacks regarding training needs.

 It was been found that there is availability of funds that may support the expansion of the business through the chain of stores. However, there were lack of proper managerial endeavors that will ensure that the allocated funds are properly utilized as well as the expansion of the business if effectively monitored. Increase in the number of the chain stores do not reduce the customer share and also the market capitalization of Big Bytes.

Thus the major problem is related to high employee turnover which makes the company to loose skilled employees as well as potential customer base. Moreover, if a company earns profit or is able to maximize its sales volume then these are not the only parametric factors that determines the growth and development of the company. Rather it is to be understood as reflected by Samantha that the organization should be internally strong and stability should prevail regarding its financial health as well as it should be able to optimize its allocated funds and resources irrespective of the fact that the resources are materialistic or human resources.

Meeting the tax and other regulatory prerequisites may make Big Bytes financially clear and transparent form all respect that that does not ensure that the company will be stable in the long run or has a successful future sustenance. Hence, it is important for Brian Lam to focus much more in boosting the Big Bytes organizational culture and human resource practices intrinsically to ensure their survival in the long run.

References

Albrecht, S.L., Bakker, A.B., Gruman, J.A., Macey, W.H. and Saks, A.M., 2015. Employee engagement, human resource management practices and competitive advantage: An integrated approach. Journal of Organizational Effectiveness: People and Performance, 2(1), pp.7-35.

Al-Sarayrah, S., Obeidat, B.Y., Al-Salti, Z. and Kattoua, T., 2016. The effect of culture on strategic human resource management practices: A theoretical perspective. International Journal of Business Management and Economic Research, 7(4), pp.704-716.

Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S., 2014. Armstrong's handbook of human resource management practice. Kogan Page Publishers.

Bailey, C., Mankin, D., Kelliher, C. and Garavan, T., 2018. Strategic human resource management. Oxford University Press.

Banfield, P., Kay, R. and Royles, D., 2018. Introduction to human resource management. Oxford University Press.

Bratton, J. and Gold, J., 2017. Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave.

Brewster, C. and Hegewisch, A. eds., 2017. Policy and practice in European human resource management: The Price Waterhouse Cranfield survey. Taylor & Francis.

Brewster, C., Vernon, G., Sparrow, P. and Houldsworth, E., 2016. International human resource management. Kogan Page Publishers.

Chelladurai, P. and Kerwin, S., 2017. Human resource management in sport and recreation. Human Kinetics.

Collings, D.G., Wood, G.T. and Szamosi, L.T. eds., 2018. Human resource management: A critical approach. Routledge.

Donate, M.J. and Guadamillas, F., 2015. An empirical study on the relationships between knowledge management, knowledge-oriented human resource practices and innovation. Knowledge management research & practice, 13(2), pp.134-148.

Gutierrez-Gutierrez, L.J., Barrales-Molina, V. and Kaynak, H., 2018. The role of human resource-related quality management practices in new product development: A dynamic capability perspective. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 38(1), pp.43-66.

Haneda, S. and Ito, K., 2018. Organizational and human resource management and innovation: Which management practices are linked to product and/or process innovation?. Research Policy, 47(1), pp.194-208.

Jackson, S.E., Schuler, R.S. and Jiang, K., 2014. An aspirational framework for strategic human resource management. The Academy of Management Annals, 8(1), pp.1-56.

Krama14. Beyond strategic human resource management: is sustainable human resource management the next approach?. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 25(8), pp.1069-1089.

Marchington, M., Wilkinson, A., Donnelly, R. and Kynighou, A., 2016. Human resource management at work. Kogan Page Publishers.

Nankervis, A.R., Baird, M., Coffey, J. and Shields, J., 2016. Human resource management: strategy and practice. Cengage AU.

Ozolina-Ozola, I., 2014. The impact of human resource management practices on employee turnover. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 156, pp.223-226.

Paillé, P., Chen, Y., Boiral, O. and Jin, J., 2014. The impact of human resource management on environmental performance: An employee-level study. Journal of Business Ethics, 121(3), pp.451-466.

Sheehan, M., 2014. Human resource management and performance: Evidence from small and medium-sized firms. International Small Business Journal, 32(5), pp.545-570.

Shields, J., Brown, M., Kaine, S., Dolle-Samuel, C., North-Samardzic, A., McLean, P., Johns, R., O'Leary, P., Robinson, J. and Plimmer, G., 2015. Managing employee performance & reward: Concepts, practices, strategies. Cambridge University Press.

Sikora, D.M. and Ferris, G.R., 2014. Strategic human resource practice implementation: The critical role of line management. Human Resource Management Review, 24(3), pp.271-281.

Stone, D.L. and Deadrick, D.L., 2015. Challenges and opportunities affecting the future of human resource management. Human Resource Management Review, 25(2), pp.139-145.

Storey, J., 2014. New Perspectives on Human Resource Management (Routledge Revivals). Routledge.

Tarique, I., Briscoe, D.R. and Schuler, R.S., 2015. International human resource management: Policies and practices for multinational enterprises. Routledge.

Taylor, T., Doherty, A. and McGraw, P., 2015. Managing people in sport organizations: A strategic human resource management perspective. Routledge.

Wilton, N., 2016. An introduction to human resource management. Sage.

Zhao, R.M., 2015, May. Human resource management practices as a mediating variable between supply chain quality management and organizational performance. In Control and Decision Conference (CCDC), 2015 27th Chinese (pp. 3925-3928). IEEE.r, R., 20