Strategy in Case of British Sky Broadcasting Group - Coursework Example

Investigation of Equality and Diversity Strategy in an Organisation Executive Summary This particular report intends to identify the equality and diversity of human resource strategy in case of British Sky Broadcasting Group. This particular report reviews academic viewpoint with reference to the best practices principles of human resource management process. At the same time, the report critically analyses the human resource strategy of British Sky Broadcasting Group with the evidence of academic literature. Moreover, according to the analysis it has been revealed that during the human resource strategic planning the organisation needs to consider several essential aspects such as culture, environment, values and ethics among others. Furthermore, from this report it has also been recognised that the organisation will need to emphasise towards the best practices of human resource management with the aim of maintaining competitive advantage in the operating marketplace. Table of Contents Executive Summary 2 Table of Contents 2 3.0 Introduction 3 3.1 Literature Review 5 3.2 Critical Analysis 8 3.3 Findings 10 3.4 Recommendation 11 3.5 Conclusion 13 References 14 Bibliography 16 3.0 Introduction British Sky Broadcasting Group is a globally renowned public limited company. The company was established in the year 1990. Over the years, this organisation has provided ‘internet streaming media’, broadband as well as telephone services to the local market of the United Kingdom (UK) and Ireland. The organisation has listed its name in the London Stock Exchange under the constituent of the FTSE 100 Index (Stock Challenge, 2014). The organisation operated its function in the mass media industry since long. In this regard, it has been recognised that British Sky Broadcasting group has contributed £6 billion on the gross domestic product of the UK during the year 2013-14. Apart from this, it has been also recognised that approximately 117,000 people in the UK market rely on the organisation for their employment (1British Sky Broadcasting Group, 2014). Moreover, it has also been revealed that through entertaining and connecting people, British Sky Broadcasting group has developed its brand image and by satisfying the needs of millions of customers in the UK marketplace. On the other hand, in order to identify the mission and vision of the organisation it has been perceived that the organization has emphasised towards promoting culture with the aim of enhancing the efficiency level. At the same time, the organisation has concentrated on building healthy relationships with its employees, customers and stakeholders in order to attain long term sustainability in the marketplace (2British Sky Broadcasting Group, 2014). In this report, the objective is to investigate the equality and diversity of human resource strategy of British Sky Broadcasting group with reference to the academic literature. At the same time, the report will also provide certain recommendations regarding the most effective use of human capital with reference to the best practice approaches. 3.1 Literature Review According to the report of Information Resources Management Association (2010), British Sky Broadcasting Group has introduced a Human Resource Information System (HRIS) through which the organisation fulfils the need of transparent and consistent Human Resource (HR) process. In this regard, the organisation believes that consistency is the key component of a business, through which performance can be upraised during business operations. Similarly, in this context, the report of British Sky Broadcasting Group (2014) claimed that through incorporating corporate governance strategy the organisation has facilitated its entrepreneurial management more effectively with the aim of accomplishing long term profitability as a telephone and broadband service provider organisation. However, the report of Information Resources Management Association (2010), argued that the UK based mass media organisation has incorporated Electronic Staff Record (ESR) technique through which the organisation has been able to maintain an integrated recruitment process. At the same time, through the assistance of ESR solution, the organisation keeps a track and record of the human resources and payroll of the employees along with the information of learning management system more effectively (British Sky Broadcasting Group, 2014; Information Resources Management Association, 2010). According to the viewpoint of Woods (2011), British Sky Broadcasting Group has practiced HR policies during their business operations considering the culture of the UK market place. At the same time, Woods (2011) claimed that the organisation practices ethical concern during the implementation of the human resource strategy. Apart from this, organisation has also maintained a funny and friendly environment for smooth execution of its operations. However, the report of British Sky Broadcasting Group (2008), argued that the organisation has practiced fair and equal treatment during their business operations. In this regard, the organisation has emphasised on preventing a bias approach regarding working practices. At the same time, the organisation has considered equal and fair approach for all the essential aspects such as age, gender, sexual orientation and religious beliefs among others. On the other hand, the report of British Sky Broadcasting Group (2008) claimed that the organisation has established and ensured a working environment, where zero tolerance has been committed by the organisation regarding internal political aspects along with physical/ mental harassment and other discrimination related issues (Woods, 2011; British Sky Broadcasting Group, 2008). Similarly, according to the report of British Sky Broadcasting Group (2008), witnessed that the UK based mass media organisation always maintains the principles of equal and fair opportunity for their employees i.e. of training, promotion and performance management aspects. In this regard, Woods (2011) claimed that the organisation has given more priority to their employees and stakeholders. However, Woods (2011) arguably claimed that in order to enhance the business performance the organisation has improved its engagement with its employees. In this regard, the organisation has availed Sky Insider facility for their existing employees as well as for their retired employees. However, the report of Information Resources Management Association (2010), argued that through the implementation of ESR solution, the organisation has been able to conduct a benchmarking information systems in their business operation, which is assisting British Sky Broadcasting Group to compare the processing power of their organisation with respect to the best performing organisation of the globe. At the same time, it also aids the UK based mass media organisation to identify the potential or scientific environment of the business. Apart from this, it also assists British Sky Broadcasting Group to identify the realistic situation of the competitive marketplace (Woods, 2011; Information Resources Management Association, 2010; British Sky Broadcasting Group, 2008). Simultaneously, according to the report of British Sky Broadcasting (n.d.), the organisation also maintains honesty and integrity during their human resource strategy practice. In this regard, it can be asserted that the organisation does not tolerate any sort of illegal activities of their employees. For an instance, British Sky Broadcasting Group does not tolerate potential conflicts such as accepting bribe or misusing any information. Similarly, the organisation does not entertain any kind of fraud or theft associated aspects during their HR practice. Moreover, consuming drugs or alcohol during the working hours is considered as an unfair practice for the employees of British Sky Broadcasting Group. In this regard, according to the HR policy of the organisation, British Sky Broadcasting Group takes strict legal steps regarding involvement of their employees on such unfair practices, which affects the brand image. However, the organisation also takes legal steps including termination or are penalised financially if the employees are caught while conducting unethical practices (British Sky Broadcasting, n.d.). According to academic review it has been recognised that good practice of HRM includes hard HRM and soft HRM. In this regard, it can be claimed that the ‘hard’ approach usually rely on the manpower planning, which is aligned with the aim of ensuring human resource strategy in case of business movement. On the other hand, it has been recognised that the Harvard Model ‘soft’ HRM usually concerns about workers’ outcome. It also encourages employees to ensure their effort with the aim of enhancing commitment towards the organisational goal. In this regard, in order to highlight the notion of an ‘Equality-Diversity’ in case of HR policies, it can be claimed that equality and diversity related value chain assists organisations to conduct or practice good business sense with the aim of enhancing the dignity as well as self-esteem among the employees. In this context, it can be claimed that British Sky Broadcasting Group has recognised that during the contemporary era, competitiveness among business environment has increased. Thus, the organisation has implemented ‘Equality-Diversity’ in order to respond quickly to the customer needs or demands. In this regard, it can also be claimed that an organisation has practiced ‘Equality-Diversity’ norms with the aim of enhancing or promoting the fair principles of work environment (Bus Eireann, 2000). 3.2 Critical Analysis In keeping with the evaluation of academic literatures on the human resource strategy of British Sky Broadcasting Group, it has been revealed that in terms of strategic human resources approach, the organisation has a little margin of error if considered the good practices. According to the evaluation, it is depicted that the organisation has its own organisational values and standards depending upon which it usually practices the human resource strategies. At the same time, as compared to the good practices of HRM polices it can be asserted that the organisation have few similarities and distinctions with regard to the academic best practices of the human resource strategy (Woods, 2011). For example in order to identify the similarities and disparities with the good practices it has been identified that the organisation does not emphasis towards the training and development of the skills and abilities of their employees. Likewise, it has been revealed that the organisation is highly conscious regarding the performance of their employees and in this context the organisation has adopted an ESR tool for ensuring effective solution. At the same time, it has also been revealed that the UK based mass media organisation has maintained honesty and integrity as well as ethical concern during the implementation of their human resource strategy (Information Resources Management Association, 2010; British Sky Broadcasting Group, 2008). Subsequently, it has been recognised that British Sky Broadcasting Group has always tried to enhance the effectiveness of the workforce. Therefore, the organisation has adopted individual benchmarking technique for their employees. On the contrary, it can be claimed that the organisation does not focus on the multi-skilled and team oriented candidates. Moreover, the organisation does not emphasise to recruit people on the basis of flexibility, which has sustained the performance of the organisation (Woods, 2011). According to the report of Reputation Institute (2012), an increasing competitive environment has affected the potential growth aspect of the organisation in terms of human resource strategy. For instance, the report of British Sky Broadcasting Group (2008) claimed that British Sky Broadcasting Group has maintained equal opportunity and equal treatment for its workforce, which has enhanced the performance of the organisation by ensuring a funny and friendly environment during the business operation in the UK and Ireland marketplace. On the other hand, according to the report of 3British Sky Broadcasting Group (2014), the organisation faced several challenges during its business operations in terms of values and culture, which affects the growth aspects of the organisation in an adverse manner. The report of Reputation Institute (2012), argued that British Sky Broadcasting Group does not concentrate on the reputation of the business rather, gives priority to produce best products and services. At the same time, the organisation has only concentrated on the governance, leadership and performance related aspects. Moreover, it is evident that the British Sky Broadcasting Group does not take much consideration regarding the reputation and economy, which influences the share price of the organisation in a negative manner (3British Sky Broadcasting Group, 2014; Reputation Institute, 2012; British Sky Broadcasting Group, 2008). A graphical representation is depicted below for better understanding about the above stated conception. Fig. 1: Share Price of British Sky Broadcasting Group (Source: Reputation Institute, 2012) 3.3 Findings From the forgoing discussion, it has been recognised that the British Sky Broadcasting Group considers the aspects of best practice with regard to human resource management and development process. Moreover, it has been recognised that the organisation consider zero tolerance for the unethical and discrimination related issues. At the same time, it has been also perceived that during the HR practice the organisation emphasis towards equal and fair practice for their workforce for better deliverance of service. For example it can be stated that British Sky Broadcasting Group considers cultural aspects, environmental position, ethics and values related aspects more consciously during the business operations. Additionally, the British Sky Broadcasting Group as per the aforementioned discussion takes into account corporate governance strategy for ensuring the interests and needs of the stakeholders, which can enhance the productivity along with performance of the organisation. In this regard, British Sky Broadcasting Group implies that implementation of good HR practices and equality and diversity norms ensures long term sustainability of the organisation in a competitive market position (British Sky Broadcasting Group, 2014; Woods, 2011; British Sky Broadcasting Group, 2008). 3.4 Recommendation According to the above discussion, it has been recognised that British Sky Broadcasting Group faced challenges in case of practicing human resource strategy during the business operation due to lack of concentration on reputation of the business. At the same time, the organisation did not adhere to the principle of good practices in case of implementing human resource strategy. Thus, in this regard, it can be recommended that the organisation needs to follow the basic principles of good practices in relation to the human resource strategy, with the aim of enhancing skills and ability of their workforce. Moreover, the organisation will need to consider cultural and environmental aspect more sincerely in order to ensure long term sustainability in the mass media industry. Additionally, it can also be suggested that British Sky Broadcasting Group should consider the notion of ‘Equality-Diversity’ in case of HR policies along with ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ approach of HRM policy, which will assist the organisation to enhance the quality of overall working environment. Simultaneously, it will also ensure productive outcome and profitability from organisational point of view. 3.5 Conclusion Based on the above discussion, it can be asserted that the modern human resource management principles determine the performance management, succession planning and aptitude development of an organisation. Apart from this, it also provides opportunity of ensuring competitive benefits. Moreover, effective human resource practice also assists to cultivate better managers and employees for an organisation. In this regard, it can be asserted that in order to produce better working environment and to ensure ethical practices an organisation will need to highly emphasise towards the practices of fair and equal opportunity for its workforce. On the other hand, maintaining the integrity and honesty is also highly essential, through which good image can be established in the competitive market position. Thus, in order to conclude this particular report, it can be evidently asserted that through considering best human resource practices principles British Sky Broadcasting Group can enhance the performance of the organisation with long term sustainability in the competitive market. References British Sky Broadcasting, No Date. Sky’s Ways of Working. Believe in Better, pp. 1-18. British Sky Broadcasting Group, 2014. Memorandum on Corporate Governance. Documents. [Online] Available at: http://corporate.sky.com/documents/corporate-governance/corporate-governance-memorandum.pdf [Accessed October 26, 2014]. British Sky Broadcasting Group, 2008. Fair and Equal Treatment at Work. Sky Creative, pp. 1-4. 1British Sky Broadcasting Group, 2014. Consumer Business. About Sky. [Online] Available at: https://corporate.sky.com/about-sky/at-a-glance [Accessed October 26, 2014]. 2British Sky Broadcasting Group, 2014. Believe in Better. About Sky. [Online] Available at: https://corporate.sky.com/about-sky/believe-in-better [Accessed October 26, 2014]. 3British Sky Broadcasting Group, 2014. Annual Report 2014. Documents, pp. 1-148. Bus Eireann, 2000. Human Resources Embracing Equality and Diversity. Eighth Edition, pp. 1-2. Information Resources Management Association, 2010. Information Resources Management: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools and Applications. Idea Group Inc. Reputation Institute, 2012. Corporate Reputation: The Main Driver of Business Value. Reputation Institute, pp. 1-9. Stock Challenge, 2014. FTSE All-Share Index Ranking (Unofficial Guide). FTSE UK Index. [Online] Available at: http://www.stockchallenge.co.uk/ftse.php [Accessed October 26, 2014]. Woods, D., 2011. Interview with Deborah Baker, Director of People at Sky. Interviews. [Online] Available at: http://www.hrmagazine.co.uk/hr/interviews/1020200/interview-deborah-baker-director-people-sky [Accessed October 26, 2014]. Bibliography Gupta, S. & et. al., 2010. 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