Applied Strategic Evaluation - Essay Example

Applied Strategic Evaluation Name Course Tutor’s Name Date: Introduction Strategy in employment relations differs among companies. However, an effective strategy should ideally enhance the likelihood of obtaining positive attitudes and results from the workforce. It should build a cooperative and stable relationship with employees, minimise conflict, achieve commitment through effective communication and involvement, and develop mutuality in the workforce (Zheng, Rolfe, Di Milia & Bretherton 2007). Additionally, strategy in employment relations should align to the bigger organisational strategy and as such, should deliver on four organisational goals namely: commitment, competence, cost and congruence (Zheng et al. 2007, p. 932). This essay is an evaluation of the strategy in human relations as reflected in three case studies. The first case study relates to strategic recruiting while the second case study relates to rebuilding employee trust by managers. The third case study on the other hand looks at demoting a long-serving and faithful employee. The essay concludes by noting that strategic employee relations is not just about what managers say or document in employee policies; rather, it is also about how the management treats, interacts with and manages the employees. Maltreatment, an inconsiderate act, or wrongful hiring may have larger consequences in the organisation and as such, it is indicated that employers need to design and implement effective employment relations strategies. Strategic recruiting: Midwest Education, Inc. The case of Midwest is not easy to decipher. While the company’s three divisions have ad hoc recruitment procedures, employee turnover is low, thus meaning that most employees register high job satisfaction levels. In one division recruitment is done through referrals by existing employees; in another division, recruitment is done through getting experienced people from other distribution centres; while in the third division, a combination of creativity, knowledge and experience is sought in new hires (Murray & Fischer 2010). However, the need to increase production by 25-40% has alerted the management that the Midwest can no longer rely on prevailing recruitment methods. A strategy contains a set of planned activities meant to help in the attainment of a set objective. As Gunningle, Turner and Morley (1998, p. 115) observe, strategic employee relations is “characterised by the integration of employee relations considerations into the business plan to facilitate the establishment and maintenance of competitive advantage.” Reviewing the Midwest case based on the foregoing understanding of strategy, one can thus argue that the company does not have a strategy to effectively handle its human relations. For example, the HR head in the creative development division seems to be struggling with hiring the right people – i.e. people with the right skills, abilities and attitude. Ideally, recruitment should be the first step in strategic human relations to address issues such as qualification, selection, pay, bonuses, induction and performance appraisal (Baker 1999). Notably, Midwest has four sections that handle staffing, compensation and benefits, labour relations, and “training, career development and performance appraisal” (Murray & Fischer 2010, p. 98). Notably however, the aforementioned four sections work separately, meaning that the company does not have a solid human relations management structure. Evidently, all three divisions in Midwest have different staffing needs. However, a strategic human relations approach would streamline recruitment and provide guidelines on how best to recruit and select resourceful employees for each of the divisions. Since all HR heads seem to understand the human resource requirements for the departments they head, their input should be considered during the development of a human relations strategy. Notably, and in the light of a 25-40% production increase, all three divisions in Midwest would not be able to recruit additional employees through their current approaches. This signals the need for strategy formulation, which would formalise the recruitment procedures to be followed by each division considering the different dynamics therein. For example, the recruitment strategy for the creative development division needs to consider the high salaries, flexible and supportive work environment needs by potential new hires for that department. Much as it seems that the current situation in Midwest is working well, one wonders what would happen if some of the critical people working in the company lost their employment for any reason. For example, Max is mentioned as a reason why the manufacturing division does not have a high turnover. However good Max is, his relations with employees face the threat of discontinuation if he left Midwest. This indicates that there is a need for formal employee plans and policies which would direct managers to behave and act appropriately with the employees. Case study 2: Trust restoration This case is based on a public sector organisation in the UK as indicated by Pate, Morgan-Thomas and Beaumont (2012). The workforce in the organisation is said to enjoy “long tenure and relatively high job security” (Pate et al. 2012, p. 152). Still, their trust levels were found to have declined, something that was linked to the management’s failure to address bullying. To remedy the situation, the management initiated an initiative that sought to regain employee trust. Strategic behaviour is defined as “the actions which a firm takes to improve its competitive position relative to actual and potential rivals, in order to gain a permanent commercial advantage, thereby increasing its long-run profits” (Smith & Round 1998, p. 26). With the foregoing in mind, the public organisation arguably behaved strategically in addressing the trust issues that were present in the workplace, specifically because the organisation realised that the lack of trust would injure workplace performances. By addressing the trust issues, managers at the public organisation were arguably adopting conduct that was economically inevitable, and whose outcome was a conscious attempt by the management to shape the organisation’s internal environment for the good of the company. Notably however, it is argued that strategic behaviour can occur in two categories: non-cooperative behaviour and cooperative behaviour (Smith & Round 1998). The first phase in the public organisation where the management ignored bullying at the workplace can perhaps be categorised as an uncooperative behaviour strategy, which was perhaps intentionally adopted to establish whether bullied people could resolve the problems they faced (or perhaps stand up to the bullies) without management intervention. Such a strategy was perhaps intended to avoid job losses such as those witnessed when the bullies were fired. The need for a different strategy was however signalled by the link that was established between bullying and diminishing trust by the workers. The cooperative behaviour is more proactive and as is evident in the public organisation case; it took reassuring, firing the bullies, and adopting a strategic policy framework dubbed ‘Dignity in the workplace’ for it to take effect. The apology offered by the management for not acting fast enough to resolve the bullying problem was arguably part of the cooperative strategic behaviour, whereby the management first started by admitting its shortcomings, and then putting in place measures to counter workplace bullying. Notably, the strategy in the public organisation context was to enhance employees’ trust in the management, and the approach adopted arguably would be expected to work well because as Clarke and Payne (1997) observe, trust is conceptualised as having six qualities key among them being integrity. Integrity is defined as a quality that is sincere, honest and one that fulfils promises (Clarke & Payne 1997). Initially, the non-cooperative behaviour strategy (assuming that the managers were trying to get the bullies and those being bullied to resolve issues without management intervention) did not realise its objective. This can be interpreted to mean that a bad strategy is almost as bad as the absence of a strategy. Case Study 3: ‘Possible demotion of a long-time and faithful employee’. Although defined as a “long-time and faithful employee” Lucas is also defined as being unable to perform “the essential elements of his job” (Lucas2010, p. 47). The lack of strategy in employee relations in this context is reflected in the 28 years that Lucas had worked at the ABC Company. The lack of strategy is revealed some more by his promotion to a General Clerk I, because according to Farazmand (2004), strategic human relations practices are evident in the hiring, training, development, appreciation and management of human resources. In ABC Company’s context, it would appear that Lucas was appreciated not for his work-related performance, but for his longevity and punctuality in the workplace. Had strategic human relations been in place, ABC Company would have discovered Lucas’ inability to perform essential job-related tasks sooner. If anything, he would not have been promoted to a General Clerk I position and as such, the current issue would have been avoided. If indeed Lucas’ mental capacity was similar to that of a fifth grader, it is safe to assume that the socialisation system, communications, performance-related pay, employee involvement and employee autonomy were indicators that were lacking in the company. According to Farazmand (2004), the foregoing indicators are evident in strategic integrated workplaces, and especially where individualism is upheld in employee relations. Staff appraisal is also indicated as an essential part of strategic human relation practices, and through such appraisals, any underperformance is detected and the corrective measures taken (Kane & Palmer 1995). Seemingly, such appraisals never took place at ABC Company, thus explaining why Lucas’s low performance was never detected. A lack of human relations strategy is also evident because, even those who knew that Lucas did not perform his duties as required did not alert the relevant people to have his performance evaluated. At the very basic, human relations should be reflected in individuals in their desire and ability to understand others, their talents, abilities, weaknesses and needs (Lamberton 2010). Ideally, Lucas’ inadequate performance might have been noted by a significant number of his co-workers. However, the fact that the ABC Company had not put a strategic human relations program in place could have led to the knowledge held by Lucas’ co-workers to go to waste. Even in the wake of Lucas’ case, it would appear that ABC Company is only concentrating on Lucas alone instead of designing and implementing a human relations strategy that will guide the recruitment, selection, payment policies and other human relations-related practices. The company should ideally engage in human resource planning, which according to Kane and Stanton (1991) enables organisations to put in place strategies, which include training and development of staff. Conclusion In the first case study (Midwest Education, Inc), all three divisions have department heads who understand the requirement for their respective divisions; however, the company does not have a unifying strategy which would harmonise the human relations therein. In the second case study, employees had declining trust levels towards their employer because of the lacklustre manner in which the management handled workplace bullying. However, the company was quick to realise its shortcomings and instituted a plan to regain the trust it had lost from its employees. From the second case study, I have learnt that although human relations can be severed at some point in an organisation’s lifecycle, the situation can be remedied by taking the right corrective action. In the third case study, I have learnt that if strategic human relation practices are not in place, information held by the workforce, and which would help in managerial decision-making, does not necessarily reach the managers and/or decision-makers. The case of Lucas’ lack of skills and expertise, and the fact that he stayed for about eight years before someone could notice his incompetence is suspect. It indicates that even those who realised that Lucas was not as competent as his position demanded were not willing to expose him. Based on the above three case studies, I now realise that good employment relations do not just happen; rather they take the deliberate efforts of the management to nurture and attain. References Baker, D 1999, ‘Strategic human resource management: Performance, alignment, management’, Library Career Development, vol. 7, no. 5, pp. 51-63. Clark, M.C & Payne, R.L 1997, ‘The nature and structure of workers’ trust in management’, Journal of Organisational Behaviour, vol. 18, no. 3, pp. 205-224. Farazmand, A 2004, ‘Innovation in strategic human resource management: Building capacity in the age of globalization’, Public Organisational Review: A Global Journal, vol. 4, pp. 3-24. Kane, B & Palmer, I 1995, ‘Strategic HRM or managing the employment relationship?’ International Journal of Manpower, vol. 16, vol. 5/6, pp. 6-21. Kane, R. L & Stanton, S 1991, ‘Human resource planning: Where are we now? Asia Pacific Human Resource Management, vol. 29, no.2, pp. 5-20. Lamberton, H 2010, ‘Human relations and you’, In Lamberton, L & Minor, L (Eds.), Human Relations, McGraw Hill, NY, pp. 1-27. Lucas, J. J 2010, ‘Case study: Possible demotion of a long-time and faithful employee’, Journal of Business Case Studies, vol. 6, no.2, pp. 47-48. Murray, L & Fischer, A. K 2010, ‘Strategic recruiting: A human resource management case study’, Journal of Business Case Studies, vol. 6, no. 6, pp. 97-102. Pate, J., Morgan-Thomas, A & Beaumont, P 2012, ‘Trust restoration: An examination of senior managers’ attempt to rebuild employee trust’, Human Resource Management Journal, vol. 22, no.2, pp. 148-164. Smith, R. L & Round, D. K 1998, ‘A strategic behaviour approach to evaluating competitive conduct’, Agenda, vol. 5, no.1, pp. 25-36. Zheng, C, Rolfe, J, Di Millia, L & Bretherton, P 2007, ‘Strategic people management of coal mining firms in Central Queensland’, Management Research News, vol. 30, no. 9, pp. 689-704. Read More