Human Resources of Consultco - Case Study Example

Running head: HUMAN RESOURCE RESEARCH IN PRACTICE Human Resource Research in Practice [Writer’s name] [Institution’s name] Executive Summary An organization these days is full of diversity. However the diverse populations usually face a lot of barriers. This has to be handled by the human resource department. Human resource management is an important part of any organization. The dissertation shall highlight the fact that human resource department in United Kingdom do not pay attention to the issues of women regarding their growth and development as well as their leadership roles. Thus, they should give more attention to such studies. It shall show how the country should invest more time in studying the possibilities and less time to thinking over how masculine the roles may be. Discrimination is an important human recourse issue and should be resolved promptly. Inorder to investigate the above mentioned notion a case study method shall be used , the organization selected is Consultco. The case study will show how the human resources of Consultco should value females and leadership should be recognized as something vitally important for them .leadership in this context does not mean a political leader but someone who can manage people well. Recommendation shall be given for the implementation and improvement of better human resources method in order to resolve the ongoing issue in the organization. Table of contents Introduction...........................................................................4 Context ................................................................................6 Methodology ........................................................................9 Case study method .............................................................10 Case study ..........................................................................10 Realiblilty and validailty ......................................................10 Findings of the Case ...........................................................11 Recommendations................................................................15 Reflections............................................................................16 References ...........................................................................17 Human Resource Research in Practice Introduction An organization these days is full of diversity. However the diverse populations usually face a lot of barriers. This has to be handled by the human resource department. Human resource management is an important part of any organization. It shall be mentioned in the report that United Kingdom does not pay attention to the issues of women in administration or leadership roles. Thus, they should give more attention to such studies. It shall show how the country should invest more time in studying the possibilities and less time to thinking over how masculine the roles may be. Also a lot of work on special innate tendency that may be found in employees i.e. The capacity to realize the extent to which their inner psyche can function, and resolve their own issues (Rogers & Rothlisberg, 1988). Some people are successful in exploring themselves enough to realize this ability on their own; however a lot of people may require a lot of assistance before they do realize it. This innate tendency is what makes human resource professionals so precious and important for the entire merger or acquisition process. The human resource department not only handles issues regarding recruitment , but also works to manage employee satisfaction by solving their issues like, performance management , leaves, designing proper polices regarding benefits and leaves ect. This case will highlight the issue that diversity needed to be tackled as the women felt they had no power Employees of both sides usually think about which company will have more power regarding their decisions, growth and development of the new merged or acquired organization. The rules and regulations and who their boss will be should be resolved from before. As mentioned earlier even the arising conflicts should be resolved The human resources of Consultco should value females and leadership should be recognized as something vitally important for them .leadership in this context does not mean a political leader but someone who can manage people well The case study will show how the human resources of Consultco should value females and leadership should be recognized as something vitally important for them .leadership in this context does not mean a political leader but someone who can manage people well .In organization like Consultco Management leadership means to be able to solve all problems with majority and manage people well. Good understanding of people management is in a woman ‘s nature and thus they make better managers and also design less authoritative policies. .In organization like Consultco Management leadership means to be able to solve all problems with majority and manage people well. Good understanding of people management is in a woman ‘s nature and thus they make better managers and also design less authoritative policies. This report shall highlight the role and hindrance which women face in organizations. The report shall use a case study to analyze the situation. Context As per the researches carried out by Hatcher (2003) female employees can successful manage a the leadership rule , thus his studies emphasised on women in management and the management practice , (Fennell 2005, p.150). many researcher also noted that female employees in the other positions have always worked amongst men who thought of themselves as the ruling class. A major contribution of Rodger to human resource when it comes to resolving issues regarding decrimination is could be that he found out that people need to improve their evaluation and communication skills. He also pinpointed the fact that people should be good listeners; active listeners are always good communicators. This indeed is truly a good finding for human resource management professionals as they should know that they have to carefully listen to the needs of the employees then they can find a proper solution to their problem. In time when change is taking place in the organization such kind of communication is extremely important Since there is very study done on the topic it reflects the fact that women in leadership roles are extremely unimportant for them. It may be said that tangled and confused political, historical and socio-economic trends and environment of united kingdoms ’s situation provide an fascinating and multifarious tapestry to untangle and investigate regarding the important role of the women in modern society and especially , these state of affairs which may create the requirement for research which study in depth the role of female employees in management. The human resource management department helps the administration to handle employees at the most crucial times. Diversity management is one such situation in which the organization needs sound and professional handling of the employees, inorder to avoid turnover rate and unsatisfied employees. If the human resource department is not proficient enough to handle the situation at such time then the performance may be effected . In order of the management to function effectively according to the needs to the organization prefect human resource processes should be designed regarding staffing, training, appraising, rewarding, promoting, as well as other issues of discrimination like the glass ceiling . Huselid etal (1997) stated that the responsibilities of human resource management does involve strategic implementation which is equivalent to strategic business planning. They further state that even the most simple implementation of Human Resource Management have to have some technicalities so that they can handle discrimination issues with the business strategies to ensure the success of the organization. It may be noted that closely knitted trends of united kingdom’s context provide an fascinating and multifarious tapestry to study and investigate the important role of women in contemporary society and In particular, these circumstances create the need for research that explores women in the role of management. The human resource management department helps the administration to handle employees at the most crucial times. Diversity management is one such situation in which the organization needs sound and professional handling of the employees, inorder to avoid turnover rate and unsatisfied employees. If the human resource department is not proficient enough to handle the situation at such time then the performance may be effected . As per the above mentioned notion researcher have highlighted teh findings that women usually make use less bossy and strict directorial styles, they design less bureaucratic policies, and give more attention to employees and their issues (Eagly 2005, p470). Female leaders mostly give more importance to relationships between employee and the manager , they consider power as a multi-dimensional and multidirectional method by which one can enforce their influence on those around them. They do not think of power as a tool to gain doctorial authority over others . it may be noted that this mind set has brought about a new trend in organizational s cultures. According to Rutherford (2001) therefore, organisational cultures seem to have set barriers to women’s growth and development and their opportunity to gain managerial position in the organization. furthermore, vast and interconnected social, economic and political relationships forming the associated with policies underpinned by managerialist and market principles in Consultco. (Davies 2003), seem to have an influential effect on the executive position and leadership. A company can only grow further if it values it’s top most employees, if it does not care of their needs they will not be able to retain them. Apart from this other employees will also start to leave as they w ill note that the employees are not considered as important to the organization. This high turnover rate can also make new employees think twice before joining the organization. The organization may be labelled as an organization which only think about it’s profits and not it’s employees. For a job people usually prefer a place where they can work in a caring environment, a place where their needs are recognized and valued. Organizations have to pay close attention to compensation and benefit planning when decrmination in process. If they care for their employees at such a time employees will care for them. Should realize as per the discussion that women have a more understanding nature and style of leadership as compared to males, they even design less bureaucratic policies.. Methodology The dissertation will basically be based on a secondary research method in which qualitative data is used. “Secondary research includes collecting information from third-party sources such as company websites, sales and accounting records, magazine articles and marketing research reports. It also includes any previously gathered information used by the marketer from any internal or external source”. (Prescott 2008) The Case Study Method The case study method shall be used A case study is a kind of qualitative research method. This method requires involves an in-depth analysis of a certain incident: it is far better than utilizing various different variables with a rigid set of rules for their manipulation. The case study method utilizes a lot of different methods to gather data from one or more sources like people or organizations (Bent 2011). The reasons behind the event are quite vague at the start of the study and the best part of this kind of study is that the researcher does not have to worry about experimental controls of any kind. The Case The case study took place within a single international consulting firm, ‘Consultco’. Consultco is one of the world’s leading providers of management consulting and technology services and represents one of the ‘Big 4’ consulting firms. The case study is located in the UK practice. As the aim of this case study was to ascertain how the promotion to partner process worked, and whether it disadvantaged women, it was necessary to seek the views of a number of members of a PSF, in this case consultants, to elicit their understanding of the conditions necessary to advance within their firm. The organization consists of both male and female consultants, representing a variety of ages, grades and the four key business areas in the UK practice. However most of their employees are males infact 60% are males. Reliability and Validity Reliability refers to the consistency of a measure. A study is reliable if it attains the same result every time it is carried out, and then only is it considered an accurate study . If the outcome of the research can be reproduced by utilizing the same approach and fail to be completed in a specified time period at the required environment, the research tool then maybe called a reliable tool for similar researches. As per this research the risibility is quite consist as the cases used in it will reproduce the same result every time it is analyzed. Advantage to using case studies is that they have high reliability. Validity is a term used for a study or tool which measures what it claims to measure It is very important for a test to be valid so that it’s results and outcomes maybe properly analyzed. . Validity is not based on statistics methods it also requires the study to observe behaviour and then apply stats to further confirm the validity. As per this study the validity is also quite strong as the case study clearly measure the role of human resources at the time decrimintaion . Validity is easily measured in case study based researches. Findings of the Case The discrimination of female employees at management positions at Consultco remains an issue which needs to be resolved , especially as the employees are mostly women (Cubillo and Brown 2003, p.280). nevertheless, the boost in liberal attitudes regarding the gender roles, and a less conventional division of workforce in all European countries, has extremely helped women to be placed in leadership within their organization situations (Lovenduski and Stephenson 1999, p.34 ). The above mentioned case study is completely based on how discrimination against women workers is widespread in UK . the case completely based on issues which female employees working in Consultco in UK have to face . the findings of the case study may be supported by in depth studies help to differentiate among internal and external barriers, as well as their impact on the career and professional promotion, which seems to be giving rise to the ‘glass ceiling’ concept mentioned in the case study (Fitzgerald and Weitzman 1992, p130). Usually female employees in organizations are not as capable to manage cultural barriers and thus also face difficulties while managing the structural barriers . Their professional objectives are usually according to the requirement of their on going situations and life style (Burke and Nelson 2002, p.287). In the Consultco ‘s environment, a number of researchers have attempted to identify and categorize some of the barriers impeding the progress of women’s careers in \ administration and leadership (Brown and Ralph 1996, p.80). Other important findings in the above mentioned case study may be regarding role conflict. It may have highlighted the fact that role conflict was hampering the decision-making process of the management regarding providing females with equal opportunity for management and leadership roles with the organization (Greenhaus and Powell 2003, p399). It may also be noted that the , the rationale for the case study has thoroughly highlighted the discrimination and glass ceiling concept prevailing in Consultco, as they do not provide proper growth opportunities for women who are eligible for the leadership roles. The role of female workers as good leaders or proficient workers have always been disregarded and thus, their role has almost always been ignored or has been considered as irrelevant. If the practice in the above mentioned case is considered the , women’s issues usually over looked in the organization and their hard work is considered to be worthless(Calás and Smircich 1996). Leadership and managerial roles have always been considered male roles. Consultco also bases it’s notion of development and growth of employees on the same above mentioned basis of discrimination. Studies and research regarding management and organization have usually rejected or disparaged the importentnce of gender as a notion in which may help to improve managerial practices in an organization. This conventional mind set gives the female ability to lead and understand the situation far better then males a lower status as compared to males in the organization (Knights and Kerfoot 2004, p.432). As per the case study it may also be noted that , female employees are regarded as an valuable human resource for Consultco. With regard to the case study it may noted leadership can be related it with the efforts of managers as well as their abilities to fulfil their responsibilities of Consultco management. The real meaning of management is based on individuals in positions of power and tasks they effectively perform in the organizations. in this case in question it may be considered as Consultco. Although the constant environment of discrimination prevailing Consultco , administration have noted that institutionalized privileges, are given more to males then females, so much so that even the growth and development of male employees are considered more then females. But it is important to highlight that this study does not intend to favour either gender , male or female , however to it does recognize the need to change the mind set based on the old-fashioned and traditional believe that men are meant to be leaders and females are meant to care for the home and children (Krüger 2008, p.157). As noted this case regarding Consultco was studied from the female point of view to get in-depth insight and to analyze how complex work and tasks are usually given to males . the findings of the study also highlighted the previously underestimated and undocumented tasks and responsibilities , recognizing the dynamics and difficulty involved. In an attempt to identify the barriers prevailing in Consultco ‘environment, a variety of researches were studied so that a few of the barriers may be classified , as these barriers hinder the growth and development female employee’s careers in every field of work and also do not let them take up a leadership role (Brown and Ralph 1996 ,p.82). Recommendations It is recommended that the human resources of Consultco should value females and leadership should be recognized as something vitally important for them .leadership in this context does not mean a political leader but someone who can manage people well. In organization like Consultco Management leadership means to be able to solve all problems with majority and manage people well. Good understanding of people management is in a woman ‘s nature and thus they make better managers and also design less authoritative policies. As mentioned earlier in the report that the country has given very little attention to the issues of women in administration or leadership roles. Thus, they should give more attention to such studies. Therefore the country should invest more time in studying the possibilities and less time to thinking over how masculine the roles may be. also did a lot of work on special innate tendency that may be found in individuals i.e. The capacity to realize the extent to which their inner psyche can function, and resolve their own issues (Rogers & Rothlisberg, 1988). Some people are successful in exploring themselves enough to realize this ability on their own; however a lot of people may require a lot of assistance before they do realize it. This innate tendency is what makes human resource professionals so precious and important for the entire merger or acquisition process. A major contribution of Rodger to human resource could be that he found out that people need to improve their evaluation and communication skills. He also pinpointed the fact that people should be good listeners; active listeners are always good communicators. This indeed is truly a good finding for human resource management professionals as they should know that they have to carefully listen to the needs of the employees then they can find a proper solution to their problem. In time when change is taking place in the organization such kind of communication is extremely important Reflection The above case analysis gives a clear understanding of how organizations tend to have put barriers in the way of women and their leadership options . Even so, the case does not intend to give preference to either women or men, but it highlights the needs of organizations to realize the true potential of women managers. However, their main test is how well they can manage the human and organizational factors which arise during such a process. For complete success it becomes important for them to take such matters under control by hiring a proficient human resource department. For example if the employees do not agree with a certain decisions made by the management it cause internal conflicts. In this case one more learnt that diversity needed to be tackled as the women felt they had no power Employees of both sides usually think about which company will have more power regarding their decisions, growth and development of the new merged or acquired organization. The rules and regulations and who their boss will be should be resolved from before. As mentioned earlier even the arising conflicts should be resolved Internal as well as external conflicts prevail in the employees. Many employees prepress their feelings and cannot perform well or hey just leave resign from their job. Their insecurities are what cause these internal conflicts. This is another burden which the human resource department has to face during the merger and acquisition process. As for the external conflicts, it may mean that they will be face with hostile questions and arguments from the employees. This too has to be tackled by the human resource department. References Brown, M. &. Ralph, S. (1996). Barriers to women managers’ advancement in education in Uganda. International Journal of Educational Management, 10 (6), 18-23. Burke, R.J. (2002). Organizational culture: A key to the success of work and family programs. In R.J. Burke and D.L. Nelson (Eds), Advancing Women's Careers: Research and Practice. Malden, MA: Blackwell. pp287–308 Burke, R.J.,; D.L. Nelson. Burke, R.J. and D.L. Nelson (2002). Advancing Women's Careers. Malden, MA: Blackwell . Carnicer, M.P., Sanchez, A.M., Perez, M.P. and Jimenez, M.J. (2004), “Analysis of internal and external labour mobility: a model of job-related and nonrelated factors”, Personnel Review, Vol. 33, pp. 222-40. Cubillo L and Brown M (2003) “Women into Leadership and Management: International Differences?” Journal of Educational Administration Vol 41 (3), 278 – 291 Eagly, A. H. (2005). Achieving relational authenticity: Does gender matter? The Leadership Quarterly, 16, 459-474 Fennell, H-A. (2005). Living leadership in an era of change. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 8(2), 145-165. Fitzgerald, L. F., & Weitzman, L. (1992). Women’s career development: Theory and practice from a feminist perspective. In Z. Leibowitz & D. Lea (Eds.), Adult career development: Concepts, issues and practices pp. 125–157. Alexandria, VA: National Career Development Association. Greenhaus, J. H., & Powell, G. N. (2003). When work and family collide: Deciding between competing role demands. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 90, 291-303. Hatcher, C. (2003), Refashioning a Passionate Manager: Gender at Work. Gender, Work & Organization, 10: 391–412 Huselid, M.A., Jackson, S.E & Randall, R.S. (1997). Technical and strategic human resource management effectiveness as determinants of firm performance. Academy of Management Journal, 40(1): 171-188 Knights, D. and Kerfoot, D. (2004), Between Representations and Subjectivity: Gender Binaries and the Politics of Organizational Transformation. Gender, Work & Organization, 11: 430–454. Kottke, J.L., & Agars, M.D. (2005). Understanding the processes that facilitate and hinder efforts to advance women in organizations. Career Development International, 10(3), 190-202. Krüger, M. L. (2008). School leadership, sex and gender: Welcome to difference. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 11(2), 155-168. Lovenduski, J. and Susan Stephenson (1999) Women in Decision-Making: Report on existing research in the European Union. Brussels, European Commission Directorate-General for Employment, Industrial Relations and Social Affairs V/D.5. p34 Prescott Andrew (2008) Advantages and disadvantages of secondary research retrieved from http://prosandconsofsecondaryresearch.blogspot.com/ on 15 May 2012 Rogers, Carl R., and F.J. Roethlisberger (1988). "Barriers and Gateways to Communication." Harvard Business Review July/August (1952): 28-34. Also published in Harvard Business Review 19-25. Rusch, E.A. and Marshall, C. (2006) 'Gender filters and leadership: Plotting a course to equity', International Journal of Leadership in Education, 9, 3, pp. 229–50 Rutherford, S (2001); ‘Any Difference? An Analysis of Gender and Divisional Management Styles in a Large Airline’ in Gender, Work and Organization Vol 8, No3 p65 Read More