Human Resources in Organizations - Essay Example

Name: Tutor: Title: Human Resources in Organizations Institution: Date: Introduction The human resource department in an organization is responsible for the general management of a firm’s workforce. This includes attracting and selecting potential candidates who are trained as employees, assessed and rewarded. It also manages leadership, culture and compliance to labor and employment laws within the organization. According to Bhagria (2010), the department has a sole responsibility of ensuring job specifications and duty descriptions are clear to employees. The issue in Great South University between a potential employee and the head of management department represents human resource issues that may exist in an organization. The essay explains a problem of employee recruitment misrepresentation as a result of non specification of duties. Analysis of the problem The main Human Resource issue that exists between Great Southern University’s HR assistant, head of management department and their potential employee, Doctor. Wong is performance of non-obligatory duties. Professor Elizabeth Sinclair makes an employment offer to Dr. Wong by telephone, which according to the HR assistant, Anthony; she is not authorized as the head of department to do so. This happens when employees’ duties are not specified and their responsibility not clearly stated. The problem of non obligatory performance can result from failure to understand the role of the HR department. Lawler et al., (2009) considers the human resource department in the organization as being responsible for staffing. This involves determining the human resource needs and requirements for the job, recruitment of potential candidates, selection and placement of the selected employees. Professor Sinclair performs the responsibility that is not within the scope of her duty but the HR’s. This might be because she does not understand the role of the HR department. Dr. Wong could be in a better position to consult the HR department too if he understood the role of the department since he knew that Professor Sinclair was not the HR manager. The problem of staff performing duties that are obligated to other departments can be as a result of failure of job specification and poor organization culture. According to Riley (2012) job description outlines the key tasks that a given job entails, its main accountabilities and responsibilities and purpose to the organization. It provides essential information for the potential candidates being recruited, and the team recruiting so that they can identify appropriate people fit for the jobs. Professor Sinclair assumes or doesn’t understand her responsibilities and scope of her accountability as the head of her department. She performs the responsibility of the HR department by placing an employment offer and communicating inappropriately of Dr. Wong allowance as the organization new employee. Avoiding non obligatory performance Training and development is a one of the main functions of the human resource department. According to (Coetzee, 2007, p. 48) training enables the organization to keep its employees viable. Through training, employees are reminded of the scope of their job requirements and responsibilities. It also emphasizes the role of other departments within the organization. This ensures that employees stick to their roles and respect the authority of other organization departments. Training also allows employees to understand job specifications and conditions of other levels of jobs apart from theirs. This equips them with necessary information to deliver incase of any external inquiry. Improving communication within the organization also avoids performance of non obligated duties. Communication involves both vertical and horizontal communication. All functions of the HR require communication for appropriate management of workers (Miller, 2012, p. 20). Improving vertical communication could have avoided the problem since Sinclair, as the head of department could have communicated to the HR manager concerning the employment offer. This could have avoided misrepresentation and non obligatory performance. Improving information systems within the organization plays a big role in improving employee knowledge on the current affairs of the organization. This includes updating the communication channels such as notice boards and the organization information platform for information technology-oriented organizations. It ensures that employees stay up-to date with the activities of the organization. All organization departments post their activities on such platforms for everyone to see. This is among the measures taken by the HR department in ensuring efficient management of workforce. Human Resource department conducts performance appraisal of employees for their good and for the organization. Performance appraisal enables the HR manager and staff analyzes the workforce and identify if they are still aware of their scope of work and roles as per the requirements of the job (Bhagria, 2010). Job specification and description is important in avoiding performance of other staff jobs and enables a new employee understand the scope of their job and conditions related to it. Riley (2012) argues that, a job description defines the employment conditions of a given job and sets out the responsibilities and accountabilities of the job. This enables a continuing staff to always refer to the description of their responsibilities. Anew employee is also able to refer to the provisions and consult in case of any misunderstanding. A job description could have enabled Dr. Wong to understand the employment conditions that his job provides and consulted for any variance with the information the Professor Sinclair mistakenly delivered. Developing an organization culture serves as a long term measure of ensuring that employees stick to their job requirements and respect other organization functions authority. Lawler et al. (2009) point out that the HR has the responsibility of improving organization culture to the better. They identify organization culture as having a great impact on employee performance. The HR department can develop an organization culture of complete separation of duties and power in decision making. This avoids performance of other people’s authorities and avoidance of responsibility. It enables each employee to be accountable for what they do within the scope of their authority and not accounting for other’s performances. It avoids the situation of a head of another department performing duties within the authority of another. Ethical issues involved The situation between Dr. Wong and the two senior staffs of great Southern University involves ethical issues that are both legal and also affect the organization image. According to Smedley (2008) ethical issues in an organization arises in employee responsibility, compensation plans performance appraisal and employment issues. Legal ethics have been compromised in terms of the contract and misrepresentation. Employment contract or any other contract binds two or more parties together and require that both parties enclose clear and true information (Blanpain & Koukiadaki, 2010). It was the duty of the organization to ensure that information given to the new employee is right and displays the true facts since it is assumed that he knows nothing about the organization yet issues within the organization are concerned with it and not the new employee. Great southern University also compromises its ethic requirements when they deny compensating Dr. Wong for damages. Since Dr. Wong acts as a result of false information delivered by a staff of the organization, he is not responsible for his own losses, but the university is. Out of good faith, the organization could compensate him and afterwards settle it with its staff. It is up to the human resource manager to ensure that there is effective communication within the organization and ensure that employees have knowledge of other posts apart from theirs. Smedley (2008, p. 3) explains that such inefficiencies are as a result of poor organizational culture from the top management to the lower level employee. Ethical issues can also result from employee responsibilities (Lonkgstaff, 2012). A job description states the level of job within a given function and immediate boss for the position. From the information, Dr. Wong seams to well understand that Professor Sinclair was his immediate boss and this is why he was comfortable with the instructions. This displays unethical issues among the organization employee. It is also linked to an organization culture that is not value based to clarify employee duties and responsibilities that they are obligated to. A value-based organization culture involves a clear structure of employee hierarchy and responsibilities involved. Moral issues are also ethical. Ethical issues are evident in Professor Sinclair actions of communicating the wrong employment conditions to Dr. Wong. Job description provides for employment conditions for the specific post. Moral issues of staff within the organization also display the ethics of the business. A HR professional needs to understand how they communicate to people within and outside the organization and the impact of their actions. The HR assistant makes a decision to solve a mistake that is committed by the head of department. This decision involves another party, Dr. Wong who pays the price for the organization’s lack of ethics. As Brown (2005) puts it, the HR department decision may seam appropriate when nothing is done, but ethics involves corporate and the society, and is becoming legal and a criminal issue as well. Morale can be affected and productivity extinguished if certain codes of ethics of a company are violated as a result of selfish interest or ignorance. Performance of another parties duties and making them accountable can demoralize their ability to work. Anthony is likely to be affected by Professor Sinclair’s actions. Advice to Dr Wong The advice that best suits Dr. Wong’s situation is litigation. Smedley (2008, p. 4) states that, a business can not exist as a culture if there is no trust and for this reason, issues need to be settled through litigation. Ethical violations lead to low morale change of attitude and less productive workforce. Through litigation, Dr. Wong will decide if he will still want to work with the university, as a result of rebuilt trust. Conclusion The HR department carries the whole organization through its functions. Issues may arise within the department in terms of employment and compensation as a result of the nature and culture of the organization. When this happens, ethical issues arise and both the organization and the society are affected. The organization and parties affected can resolve such issues through litigation. Reference Bhagria, A. (2010). Roles and functions of the human resource department. Lawler, E. E., Boudreau, J. W., & University of Southern California. (2009). Achieving excellence in human resources management: An assessment of human resource functions. Stanford, Calif: Stanford Business Books. Riley, J (2012). Human resource management: Recruitment-job Description. Tutor2u. Top of Form Coetzee, M. (2007). Practising education, training and development in South African organisations. Cape Town: Juta. Bottom of Form Miller, K. (2012). Organizational communication approaches and processes. Australia: Cengage. Smedley, R. (2008), Ethical issues in Human Resource Management. Blanpain, R., & Koukiadaki, A. (2010). Regulation of fixed-term employment contracts: A comparative overview. Alphen aan den Rijn: Kluwer Law International. Brown, M.T. (2005). Corporate Integrity: Rethinking Organizational Ethics and Leadership. Cambridge Press. Longstaff, S. (2012). Ethical issues and human resource development Some tentative thoughts. St. James Ethics Center. Read More