HRM Strategic Planning - Coursework Example

HRM Strategic Planning Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code and Name: University: Date of Submission: Executive Summary The baseline of an organization success is the formulation of a sound, achievable strategic human resource plan and policy. The strategy should help in meeting the overall organizational goals and objectives by helping the firm achieve a competitive advantage. People, constitute the most valuable asset at an organization’s disposal. Their effective management, through formulation of such strategies that foster their productivity, is of prime of importance. The strategic management should integrate the organizational strategy with long-term direction. The cultural practices of an organization highly affect the performance of an organization. The management needs to learn and acquaint themselves with their organizational culture as a step towards achieving the set goals and objectives. Table of Contents 1.0. Introduction 2.0 Organizational Culture 3.0 Emergence and Aims of Culture 4.0 Cultural adaptability 5.0 Mission Culture 6.0 Clan Culture 7.0 Bureaucratic Culture 8.0 Organizational Subcultures and cultural strength 9.0 Managerial Ethics 10.0 Corporate Social Responsibility 11.0 Conclusions and Recommendations 12.0 Bibliography HRM Strategic Planning Introduction The human resource manager’s role is slowly changing with the evolution of competition levels in the market and the realization of the great significance attached to strategic planning. Firm’s that relax on their efforts in attracting as well as retaining talents end up facing dire consequence, as they lose their business hub to their competitors. With the increasingly growing competition levels in the market both at local and global levels, firms must become more resilient, adaptable, customer-focused and fragile to succeed. Human resource planning needs to be incorporated with other strategic plans to counter the ever growing competition levels. The realization of cultural and ethical factors likely to affect the firm’s set goals should come to the mind of contemporary human resource manager. Such managers must become aware that these factors need great attention for the organization to achieve its objectives. This research will revolve around exploring the cultural and ethical factors and how they affect the human resource management process. Organizational Culture Culture may be defined as set of norms, values guiding understanding and beliefs that are common among members of a company and inducted to new employees as correct. Cultural practices incorporate the behaviors of all organization employees, but in most cases it goes unnoticed. Efforts by management to alter the organizational culture may lead to mixed reactions from employees and it is only during such times that one may realize the importance attached to an organization’s culture. The visible aspects of an organizational culture indicate deeper values among the organizational employees. These underlying processes, thoughts, beliefs, assumptions and values reflect the real organizational culture. Most of these cultural attributes are eminent in a number of ways but generally grows into a uniformed set of activities implemented through social interactions. Changing society expectations and regulatory reforms have brought about increased emphasis on effects of culture on organizations. Studies strongly link organizational culture and performance. Organizational culture forms a very significance aspect of management as well as organizational theory. The growing significance on the focus of culture stems from the noted behavior that links culture to improved organization profitability. Many practitioners and academics agree that the success level depends on the degree to which a firm’s culture is shared or how strong the cultural practices are practiced in the organization. Organizational culture normally plays a key role in building an organization’s competitive edge. Organizational culture generates competitive advantage through the creation of a fir’s competencies that are both imperfectly imitable and superior to those of the competitors. The unique positioning of an organizational culture thus makes it a strong competitive positioning weapon. Organizations should try and adopt those cultural practices that are likely to lead to increased performances in their organizations. Culture should not only be widely used but should but should as well have features that cannot be copied by easily by the competitors. Further studies on culture and organizations reveal that there are times when organizational culture may act as a hindrance to organizational change. This is more so in particular in those organizations that holds the same culture for long durations of time. Organizations should thus work towards changing their culture from time to time to adapt to the dynamic nature of the business environment. To other people, organizational culture entails boardroom management jargon and policy meetings. While in reality, organizational culture offers a platform for maintaining a productive and effective work environment capable of assisting in meting the firm’s goals and objectives. Organizational culture safeguards the company’s overall reputation and the organization’s values. Its composed of multiple integrated features within the organization, which begins at the top level with the organization mission statements as well as shared management values. Emergence and Aims of Culture Culture offers members a sense of identity with the organization and brings about a commitment to values and beliefs that are broad than themselves. An organization culture is formulated mostly by an individual or a group of persons who together agrees and implements a generally accepted organizational culture. Culture provides two prime functions to a company. First, culture integrates members enabling them to know the way they should relate to one another. In any particular organization, culture dictates how members of an organization behave towards the other members. Internal integration normally implies that employees develop a uniform identity and learn how to work effectively in team work. Culture guides the daily working relationships and dictates how individual communicate within the company. Culture, in addition, guides the accepted codes of ethics in organization’s as well as how status and power are allocated. The second function is that it helps the company to adjust to the external environment. This indicates how the company meets its goals and objectives and interacts with outsiders. The organization’s too acts as a guide in decision making to employees within those organizations that do not have written policies and cultures. Organization Culture and Design Corporate culture reinforces the structural design and strategy that the company needs to be appropriate within its culture. The right relationship among the environment, organizational structure and strategy, and cultural values can improve organizational performance. Culture may be assessed through various dimensions including Isolation versus Collaboration, Lack of Control versus Control, non-concentrated control versus concentrated control, and Time orientation. – Short Term versus Long Term. Culture includes all shared organizational values, behaviors, artifacts, assumptions, beliefs, and, altitudes. The scope of culture is broad and extends to both the internal relationships and its deep because it guides the workforce actions. Adaptability culture focuses on the external environment where change, flexibility, risk taking, creativity, and innovation are the chief feature for success. This form of business welcomes change in a proactive manner as a way of anticipating problems and responses. Cultural adaptability Adaptability culture entails the strategic focus on the outside environment through change and flexibility to achieve the client’s needs. The culture fosters entrepreneurial beliefs, norms, and values that assist the capacity of the company to translate, interpret, and detect signals from the environment. Businesses continue to shift their focus to global operations. It thus becomes a critical step to adapt the culture of the regions in which multinational companies operates. To comprehend cross-cultural deal making and organizations, managers should understand that values have both individual and cultural features, (Scolum & Hellriegel, 2007, pp. 409-420) The manager should focus on how the culture is rep by the companies and individuals in the culture that the organization operates. The understanding should then be integrated with manager’s understanding of those culture and values. Managers should understand that they symbolize the organization culture and that they need to introduce their culture to their new area of operations. Learning a new culture probably in a new business hub is an investigative method. Managers must then behave like anthropologist as they analyze the new culture. The process enhances continued growth that accumulates with working and living in a new culture. Cross cultural environment also call for the management to work from a perspective of professional and personal integrity. If adoption of a certain culture leads to a compromise of one’s sense of ethics, then such practice should be avoided by all means possible. Such an adoption may cause disastrous outcomes. Similarly, attempting to impose one’s culture in a way likely to violate the partner’s or employee’s ethics may as well lead to adverse outcomes. Multinational companies management teams should at all time realize the effects of certain cultural adaptation practices. They should realize on areas to introduce new cultural practices and values and when to avoid such practices. International manager’s actions and decisions affect the well being and the perception of individuals in other cultures. Thus, they should understand and predict the effects of such actions and decisions. Managers need to revise, renew and revisit positions often as their comprehension of cultural differences continue developing. This requires more intuition, skill, insight, focus and balance. The Internal Environment A business internal environment comprises the features within the enterprise, including current management, employees and corporate culture that define the workforce behavior. Some features are known to have effects on the entire organization, while other affect only the management part of the organization. A manager’s leadership or philosophical style directly affects the employees. Conventional manager issue explicit instructions to their members of staff, while modern managers develop the employees to people who may be relied upon to make informed decisions. This section of this report will detail the internal environment with special focus on the organizations mission statements. Mission Culture Mission culture involves emphasis on a vision of the company’s purpose as well as the attainment of set goals and objectives. In most organizations, individual employees are responsible for delegated level of performance in return of rewards in the form of salaries and bonuses from the organization. Mangers should shape behavior by communicating and envisioning a desired state in the future for their organizations. On condition that the organization environment is stable, managers should design the vision into assessable goals and objectives and evaluate their workforce performance for achieving them. A company’s mission statement defines what the company symbolizes as well as its chief reasons for existence. It generally explains the objective of the company and comprises the special features that make it different from other organization the same industry. A mission statement should explain beyond what is recorded down on a paper and it should portray the company’s philosophy and purpose for existence. Clan Culture Clan culture has a chief focus on the participation and involvement of the company’s members as well as on the dynamic expectations associated with the external environment. This culture centers on the employees needs as avenues to high performances. A key value of this culture is minding the well being of the employees, ensuring the employees posses whatever that may fulfill their satisfaction as well as boosting their productivity levels. Shared goals and values, a sense of togetherness, participation, and cohesiveness infuse a clan culture. Some of the clear feature of a clan culture includes company commitment to its workforce, employee involvement, and teamwork. Customers also forms part of the members fraternity, and management should drive their efforts towards the employee empowerment and to encourage their loyalty and participation. Clan companies provide proper working environment, where member demonstrate high levels of sharing and commitment. Social influence, self management, teamwork, extensive socialization, personal commitment, loyalty, and tradition form the chief feature of a clan culture. Organizations employees should think beyond the salaries they obtain and input more on efforts aimed at achieving the overall organizational objectives. The contributions of such individuals should be beyond any contractual agreements. Individuals expect their organizations to treat them well in their daily activities in return of their services. Organizations should thus develop and implement strong clan culture for their continued success. A clan’s culture generates unity trough thorough and long socialization process. Long serving clan members take the role of role models and mentors foe newer members. The clan’s unique history is well known by all its members and often shows its origins and commemorates its traditions in multiple rites. Members posses a common image of the company’s manner and style of behaviors. Public events and statements reinforce its values. A clan’s culture members have a common characteristic of a general pride in their membership to the clan. The members of a clan culture hold strongly identity amongst themselves and recognize their unique fate in the company. A clan’s culture generates states of ownership of an idea, a product or a company. Bureaucratic Culture Bureaucratic culture concentrates on consistency orientation and internal environment for a sound environment. This form of culture utilizes a methodical way to symbols, business, ceremonies, and heroes reinforce the principles of tradition, cooperation, and adhering to established practices and policies as ways towards achieving the organizational goals. Personal involvement is not given a considerable attention in this form of culture, but it is outweighed by extremely high level of collaboration, conformity, and consistency among members. This organization success is based on highly levels of integration and efficiency, (Scolum, John & Hellriegel Don, 2007, pp. 429-430). Some individuals like the predictability and order of a bureaucratic culture, but some people feel constrained and stifled by excess discipline and feel satisfied working in some other kind of culture. Organizational Subcultures and cultural strength Cultural strength is a term used to refer to the extent of agreement among members of a company about the significance of specific values, (Richard, 2009, pp. 79-90). If general consensus exists about the significance of such values, the culture is strong and cohesive; if there is little agreement, this is an indication of a weak culture. A strong culture is associated with regular use of stories, symbols, and ceremonies and managers align processes and structures to enhance the cultural values. These features foster the employee commitment to the strategy and values of an organization. However, cultural; practices particularly in large organizations vary greatly. Even in those organizations with a strong culture, there exist several systems of subcultures. Subcultures reflect the common goals, experience, and problems that members of a department, team or other unit have in common. A unit, branch, or an office of an organization different from the organization’s chief operations forms a subculture. For instance, in organizations where the mission culture constitutes the dominant culture of a company, different department may too reflect features of bureaucratic, clan, or bureaucratic culture. Organizations should thus lay a lot of emphasis on obedience to rule, efficiency and order and the research and development department should foster employee empowerment, customer focus, and flexibility. Ways through which an Organization may adopt change in a Bureaucratic Culture There are various methods through which organizations may enact change to transform the bureaucratic nature of their organizations. First, the organizations need to bear in mind the eminent challenges in bureaucratic cultures. Bureaucracies are accountable and predictable, and these traits make their nature highly conservative. Employees and leaders in bureaucracies settle on these forms of culture because such culture provides them with comfort, and change is taken as a key threat to the soundness of the status quo. It thus become a difficult task motivating the employees to change their norm bureaucratic processes since the employees fears being greeted with adverse effects of such changes. Bureaucratic change process should begin from up the organizational hierarchy starting with the senior most officers in organization to the junior officer. Such a move helps in ensuring that the entire organization adapts to the changes. Organizations should not also expect to conduct an overhaul reform of their bureaucracy levels. The process should be bit by bit to achieve maximum efficiency. Managerial Ethics Ethics may be referred to as the set of moral values and principles that govern an individual’s or group’s behavior with connection to what is wrong or right. Ethics sets standards of what constitutes bad or good in decision making and conduct. Ethics focuses on internal values that shape decisions and forms part of the firm’s social responsibility, (Davis, Mary et al, 2009, pp. 50-68). Ethical issues arise in situations when a person’s or organization’s actions may benefit or harm others. The management of organizations has recently incorporated the increased issue of ethics. Various steps have been initiated to institutionalize ethics. Organizations should hence implement programs and policies that foster ethics awareness in their areas of operations. Reasons why Organizations develop Codes of Ethics Studies have shown that codes play a huge role in building customer’s confidence in the organization level of service or products, and also assist in ensuring fair and ethical treatment of clients. Codes, in addition, increase the chances of detection of unethical practices among employees and competitors. Codes act as a guideline to acceptable ways of behavior and they limit the extent to which one may conduct unethical practices. Codes serve as a good source of self-regulation to members of certain organizations. Members of an organization are only expected to conduct their activities within the stipulated codes of ethics. Corporate Social Responsibility The general codes of ethics require firms to conduct their actions in a socially responsible manner. The firm’s activities should be conducted in the best interest of all its stakeholders. There are various reasons why organizations behave in a socially responsible manner the prime one being self defense. The government and other stakeholders expect the organization to act in a socially responsible manner. To yield to these expectations, the organization is left with no other option apart from acting in a socially responsible manner. The business owes a great responsibility to the society within which it operates. Management should adapt strategies aimed at giving the society members a sense of belonging to the organization. Such a strategy could stretch to providing employment opportunities to the local community members or even involving some of the members in management of the organization. The organization should also adapt the cultural practices of the surrounding community to further integrate the community members in an organization. A point worth noting is that only those desirable cultural practices should be adopted by the business. Conclusions and Recommendations Organizations must try and adopt human resource plans and polices aimed at countering the competitive nature of the business environment. Such plans and policies should be integrated with the overall organization’s strategic plans and necessary techniques should be adopted to achieve them. Sound human resource plans and policies assist organization in retaining their highly skilled and experienced workforce. It is thus paramount for all organizations, irrespective of their size, to human resource strategic plans and policies. Cultural orientations of particular group of individuals have been proved to have effects on the activities of organizations. Culture is defined as the unique way apparent in an organization’s way of doing things. Managing of multicultural organizations especially requires the management to attach significant importance to cultural differences. Management should only impose those cultural practices in organizations, if such practices lead to the improvement of an organization’s performance. Cultural practices likely to silicate mixed reactions from members should be discouraged. The management should also conduct their actions in an ethical manner to boost the organization profitability. Ethical practices should characterize all organizations that consider gaining competitive edge in their operations. List of References Daft, R 2009, Organization Theory and Design. Connecticut: Cengage Learning. Davis, M 2003, Corporate Culture as the Drivers of Transit Leadership Practices, Transportation Research Board, New York. Luthans, F 2005, Organizational Behavior. The McGraw-Hill Companies: New York. Kok-Yee, N., & Earley, C.P 2006, “Culture + Intelligence: Old Constructs, New Frontiers”, Group & Organization Management, Vol. 31(1), pp. 4-19. Managerial Ethics and Corporate Social responsibility 2012, Accessed on May 14, 2012 faculty.salisbury.edu/~whdecker/buad320/chapter4.ppt > Molinsky, A 2007, Cross-cultural code-switching: the psychological challenges of adapting Behavior in foreign cultural interactions, Academy of Management Review, Vol. 32(2), pp. 622-640. Palazzo, B 2002, U.S.-American and German Business Ethics: An Intercultural Comparison, Journal of Business Ethics, 41(3), pp. 195-216. Scolum, J., & Hellriegel, D 2007, Organization Behavior, Cengage Learning, Connecticut. Sims, R. R., & Brinkmann, J 2002, Leaders as Moral Role Models: The Case of John Gutfreund at Salomon Brothers, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 35(2), pp. 327-339. Raghuram, S 2006, Individual effectiveness in outsourcing, Human Systems Management, Vol. 25 No. 2, pp. 127-133. Read More