The Issues at Phillips in Victoria that Impact Human Resource Management - Case Study Example

Human Resource Management Student Name: Institution: Date: Introduction Human resources managers face various challenges with today’s workforce such as diverse workforce, technology and legislation matters affecting the workplaces. However, HR managers who successfully encounter such challenges often apply their leadership skills and expertise to proactively address issues that arise due to the challenges (Mayhew, 2014). For the past twelve years, Philips Company in Victoria has been experiencing severe problems that caused its productivity levels to fall. This report is written following the recent appointment in the position of Human Resources Director to the new high-tech manufacturing plant established in Manila. It is written in response to the task assigned to identify the issues at Philips in Victoria that impact Human Resource Management and lessons learnt about job and work design based on the company’s case that could help to ensure that factory workers are optimally productive. The issues at Phillips in Victoria that impact Human Resource Management It can be noted that for twelve years, Philips in Victoria has been experiencing severe problems that have poorly affected the production levels of the company. In particular, the management of Philips had been focusing on inadequate quality control and poor labour relations as well as unsettled issues related to workforce low morale. As a result of these accumulated risks, the annual labour turnover of the company rose to 120 percent, increasing the labour and capital charges and the key tariff reductions of the company Compton as cited in (Kriegler & Grant Stendal, 1982). In their research to determine whether it is internal commitment or external collaboration, compared the interaction effects of two major HRM systems on the innovation and performance of a firm. Based on the data collected from 179 companies within China, they noted that commitment-oriented system which fosters internal cohesive and collaboration-oriented system that is purposely used to build external connections entirely lead to firm innovation and increase the bottom-line performance of a company (Zhou, Hong & Liu, 2013). Due to lack of motivation in operating the old production lines, the workers became more dissatisfied with being in a repetitious work cycle that could involved little skills and not last for long. By each operator placing less electronic components within a television set and could not fit a conveyor belt, it greatly bored the workers who also felt lonely and unchallenging to handle inordinately tedious work. Furthermore, the speed of work was under the direct control or influence of the line which gave no freedom to the workers to move about. As a result, chaos arose between operators because any mistake made by a single people could mean that the worker in the nearby line was held responsible to address the issue. It is noted that supervisors worked as overseers with full control over the workers Compton as cited in (Kriegler & Grant Stendal, 1982). This implies that because of the poor layout of the line, the workers were not free to involve in social interaction. The common challenges faced by human resource managers in today’s business scenario include globalization in the workforce diversity, changes occurring within the political and legal environment and technological advances. Such challenges cannot be ignored by human resource professionals, and thus should be aligned with the design and execution of innovative mechanisms of promoting skills and competencies of HR professionals to equip them with the necessary knowledge to overcome the emerging challenges. Contemporary organizations will succeed in their future businesses only if they develop the capability to manage diverse talents that provide innovative ideas to their work (Srivastava & Agarwal, 2012). It was only after recommending of workers’ committees that Philips Company plant in Manila was redesigned to ensure that it is always clean and safe, more comfortable. Other abatement devices were also considered in addition to improving and installing the lighting and ventilation facilities and controlling temperature. Therefore, it is apparent that Philips Company has taken serious steps to shift from a monotonous factory environment in which staffs were encouraged to redecorate their workshop. For example, pot plants and photographic murals were acquired to motivate workers take coffee breaks as much as can afford. Since technological advances are changing the workplace settings, for example, remote reporting relationships, telework and telecommuting have shifted from being seen as anomaly to norm. Thus, it has become necessary for HR managers to develop flexible work schedules as well as work arrangements as possible ways to enhance productivity for employees. It is crucial for the managers to promote mutual understanding between employers and employees through telecommuting. Research shows that telework which involves working from home often require motivation and discipline from employees. This implies that for employees who do not have such traits may not perform well if exempted to operate from their comfort home (Mayhew, 2014). It should have been a human resource concern to understand earlier enough that the old assembly system was an outdated one to increase the production levels of the Philip Company. From the company’s production, it is surprising to find that it took the company two days to shift from producing a single television model to another. However, with the adoption of the new system it has become easy for the semi-autonomous work teams to exercise a multi-skilled workforce that has enabled Phillip Company to shift from its smaller production of 14-inch portable television to a larger 26-inch remote control television models only in minutes Compton as cited in (Kriegler & Grant Stendal, 1982). Lessons learnt about job and work design from the Philips case that might help ensure that factory workers are optimally productive The fundamental lesson borrowed from the Phillip’s case is that taking a participative approach and having protracted discussions with workers and their unions is crucial to revamping the production level of a company. From Philip’s integrated work-restructuring program or approach, it is apparent the implementing radical changes to a factory’s work methods, physical and social environments as well as decision-making procedures improves the morale of workers. Basically, workers of Philips Company were dissatisfied with the old production lines that were characterized by repetitious work cycle. However, after restructuring the work to develop into a new system, it was easy for the management to divide television assembly into major components specified as cabinet chassis, wiring and the remote control panel. Effective work design can be achieved only if people or employees in the organization are involved in designing their work. In so doing, it becomes easy to increase dignity and meaning within the workplaces particularly by involving the front-line staff to careful identify issues affecting them and finding appropriate solutions to their problems to lower the costs of human capital and increase the quality of service. Therefore, human resource managers must acknowledge that work design basically involves people in integrating the different elements of their duties or work systems to achieve the intended objectives of a productive and satisfying work. Mostly, actual redesigning of the work is not only coordinated by the organization’s Steering Group but also conducted by the Redesign Team found from within the organization (Srivastava & Agarwal, 2012). From the employee relationship point of view, research shows that a number of workers consider going to the department of Human Resource (HR) as visiting the office of a school principal. This creates two major challenges for HR managers in a company where employees’ perception is that in the workplace there is no adult-adult relation but instead a parent-child relationship. This makes many workers to think that nothing helpful can be found upon going to the HR department (Mayhew, 2014). However, from the case of Philips Company it is relevant to mention that convincing employees that HR is both an employee and company advocate. In addition, HR managers are required to devise possible ways to redesign the work structure and know their employees better as well as encourage them to acknowledge that HR is specifically entrusted with role of addressing their needs. It is worthwhile to note that the old assembly line was disregarded which enabled the workers to identify themselves into small self-controlled production teams or commonly today as self-managing teams. As human resource managers, it is important to encourage teams or workers develop a high level of autonomy in the company. The teams operating under the new system and aided by engineers, worked collaboratively to remodel their work place where some focused on designing new production machinery and others enhanced innovative production processes. It feels encouraging learning that the teams working under a redesigned work structure could measure and control their respective production output levels in terms of work efficiency and product quality. Over and above, the team tested and fixed any fault in addition to handling the role of training, hiring and firing which have helped them to become multi-skilled experts who can ably execute their duties in different ways Compton as cited in (Kriegler & Grant Stendal, 1982). Based on the developments that Philips Company had achieved after adopting a new work system, it is necessary to point out that the role of redesigning and implementing a new work system begins when management and labour collaborate to discuss matters of mutual significance to their work needs. Therefore, it is true that implementing new work systems involves formulating news policies to enable every aspect of work to be analyzed in more non-punitive and defensive manner that instils a culture of problem-solving and innovation among the employees in the company (Srivastava & Agarwal, 2012). By allowing the teams in Philips Company to operate with a high level of autonomy, it can be learnt that team members developed into multi-skilled individuals who could work in different ways. They can independently decide to entirely assemble the components within a 30 minutes work cycle cheaper than how it could be done under the old system or share the individual tasks among members. References Compton, R.L. as cited in Roy Kriegler and Grant Stendal, (1982). Classics in Australian Management-A case of Philips Company. The National Times Publishers. Mayhew, R., (2014). Major Challenges Affecting a Human Resource Manager, Employee Relationships, Demand Media. Retrieved October 16, 2014 from, Srivastava, E. & Agarwal, N., (2012). The Emerging Challenges in HRM. International Journal of scientific & Technology Research. Vol.1, No.6, pp.46-48. Zhou, Y., Hong, Y. & Liu, J., (2013). Internal Commitment or External Collaboration? The Impact of HRM Systems on the Innovation and Performance of Firm. Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Vol.52, No.2, pp.263–288. Read More