Managing People and Organizations - Coursework Example

Name: Instructor: Course: Date: Managing People and Organizations Introduction Management is defined as the act of organizing people together so as to achieve or accomplish certain objectives and goals using available tools and resources effectively and efficiently. It incorporates planning, staffing, organizing, directing or leading and controlling a group of one or more entities or people (Schermerhorn 13). Management can also be termed as human action and design which is aimed at facilitating production of reliable and useful results or outcomes from a certain system. In most cases, management is included as one of the factors of production together with materials, machines and monetary resources. For any management to be considered as efficient, it has to be innovative in their operation that is coming up with new ideas and opinions (Drucker 45). The following discussion is a critique of the article titled “Person/organization job fitting and affective commitment to the organization: Perspectives from the UAE” by Mohamed Behery. Conceptualization / Literature review analysis In this article, Behery reviews literature from both the United Arad emirates (UAE) and other parts of the world mostly Europe and makes very comprehensive comparisons which brings out his arguments well. In other words, literature review in the article is extensive and comprehensive. In this research paper, Behery tries to explore how organizations in the UAE recruit their employees and the criterion they use in the recruitment process. The main idea is that the UAE community is trying to look at its job market in terms of how many people fit in their organization’s requirements and whether these careers are in line with the personality of the employees or not. In so doing the report presented indicate that there is a big relationship between what is referred to as the person- organization fit and the person job fit. However, rating UAE in terms of what was applied in the western countries is somehow not workable. This is because the conditions in those regions and those of UAE are not the same. People in Europe and those in UAE follow different lifecycles and therefore interact with different environments (Marchington 34). In addition to that, the employees in the Arab countries and those in other parts like Europe develop different personalities. Through the same ways, the conditions in the UAE greatly contribute to what each and every organization sets up in order to survive in the competitive environment and therefore, the person being recruited as an employee of the organization already gets the person-organization fit already there. It is therefore the duty of the person to adjust to the expectations of the organization. This article is important to the field of strategic management and organization effectiveness because it tries to bring out or emphasize on the importance of recruiting people who effectively fit to the job description or who fit to the conditions/environment of the organization. In other words, it emphasizes on professionalism in the field of strategic management. For management to be effective, qualified staff that fits to an organization well must be recruited and this is what the article emphasizes on. This article has several strengths which are clearly evident in organization, structure and arguments in the article. To start with, the literature review is comprehensive and explores various perspectives from different background or settings. Secondly, the organization of ideas and arguments in the article is very orderly in that arguments flow well from one argument to another which makes it easy for the reader to follow the arguments. The article also incorporates some statistical data which supports the arguments by the author and this makes the article comprehensive and reliable. The relationship between person organization fit and the person job fit does not come out clearly in the article. We cannot tell what the expected results are when a person completely adheres to the expectations of the organization but does not fully fit into the stipulated expectations of the job. It is therefore hard to measure the level of productivity of the person in this case and this is weakness in the article because it should be able to give us an insight of the expected results. Research model The model of the research is comprehensive. It clearly shows what those who were sampled uphold and their expectations. Nevertheless, the statistics here indicate that those who were picked for sampling are from large companies which had already established. The contributions of small companies have been bypassed and the resultant data cannot be used to mean a representation of a whole. Therefore, the reliability of the conclusion could only be enhanced if all the study would have included both the small and the large companies. Data collection method The method of acquiring data is to be viewed with speculations. This is because those who were sampled might have provided unreliable information. This can greatly be attributed to the person organization fit. The organization might require the confidentiality of their information and therefore employees find the need to protect the image of the organization. In so doing, the answers on the questionnaire might have been influenced by so many factors within the person and the organization and therefore leading to biased answers. Study method The study method does not also put all factors into consideration. A good example is when it is concluded that whenever someone scored higher on person job fit, it is obvious that he or she is in line with the organizations’ expectations or the person organization fit. If other factors were highlighted in this study, then a different trend would have also been manifested. Some employees for example adjust to fit into the job not because of their interest in it but due to circumstances that surround them. It therefore follows that they adhere to the organizations’ policy. Data analysis The method of data analysis used in this research paper is too complex to be understood by ordinary persons. This is because the calculations appear to be complex and specialized to statisticians and therefore any person who seeks to understand the correlation between the person and job or the organization may find it difficult to understand how the changes are brought about. He or she may be unable to follow when the two are mediated by the psychological contracts. In this article, the number of employees used is just a sample of the working population in UAE. We cannot therefore make a generalized conclusion about the relationship among these variables about the country and the Middle East at large. The respondents information and the data obtained here is only a representation of what those in those organizations that were sampled uphold and therefore not the fact on the ground. This is also prone to change over time. The data in this article is prone to changes depending the time it is collected. This is because if all other factors were kept constant and then other employees of the same organization of the same type were given a questionnaire to fill out, their response would be different and if the same methods of analysis were applied, then conclusion about the people and the organization would not be the same. This therefore indicates that the findings of this research paper are only applicable to those who were sampled and not the general UAE labor market. To add on that, psychological contracts or the PC’s between the employee and the employer have a great impact on the overall production. The workers’ PC once violated has a great effect on the person organization and person job fit. This indicates to us that at the beginning, the person might have fitted very well into the hemisphere of his organization and job need but once the agreement between him and his employer is not honored, then the person might change. This may make that person seem unfit. In this article, the presentation of the P-O fit and P-J fit seems to be in a way that depicts some permanency. These are therefore two ideas that can be able to change with time as the individual progresses while in the organization. The conditions in the Middle East and those in western countries are not the same as earlier mentioned. This is because the problem of the UAE and the Middle East at large is not person organization and job fitting alone. UAE faces other challenges in its labor market like discrimination especially based on gender. Therefore, individuals may be well fitted for the organization and the job at large but the psychological contract acts as a barrier once he or she is within the organization. Statistical verification Verification of this statistics is not easy. This is because as earlier discussed, the mode of acquiring and analyzing this facts is complicated and time consuming and therefore anybody who would want to verify these might find it not easy. Calculating the coefficients and showing how these variables relate and the effect they exert on each other cannot be explained at a glance. A good research should provide readers with alternatives of data verification so as to make them understand it well (Kent 28).This research does not provide these alternatives and this is a flaw in the research. This research also implies that there is need for managers to reinforce the good things their employees do so as ensure the development of person organization and job fit. In contrast, it is clear that for one to fit in any kind of job there has to be nurturing that begins long time before the one is even absorbed into the job market. Rewarding therefore has very minimal impact on whether someone gets to fit into the job or not. The interests of the person are also a key determinant in whether one gets to fit into the job or not and therefore managerial rewards have minimal contribution and they only serve to motivate the employees (Behery). Results The results of this experiment are an indication that for the success of any organization, there must be people who readily fit into the system. Nevertheless, it neglects the fact that even if the person fits into the job and the organization, the conditions in which he or she works in are very important when it comes to productivity. It is therefore one sided in the essence that it majors only on the side of the employer and the employee while assuming the environment which directly affects both of them. The research has emphasized so much on the abstract part while not adequately touching the concrete areas. Other factors that might need to be put into consideration when working out on how to manage people and organizations have not been considered and therefore the research needs to be stepped up so as to include things such as finances. This is because they are very important when it comes to effective management of people as employees and the organization as a whole. General comments The article’s readability is good because the grammer, organization of ideas and the structure are efficient and this makes it easy for the reader to read. The article is relatively difficulty to interpret mostly the statistics part which appears a little bit complicated though the author tries to make the statistical interpretation easy. This is a scholarly article which incorporates high academic standards and its level of arguments is also very high. The article structure, organization and literature review clearly shows that the article is written by a highly qualified scholar. This article is very beneficial to academicians and practioners because it gives an insight on the importance of recruiting qualified staff in organizations which helps in propelling an organization to greater heights. To academicians, the article demonstrates scholarly writing which helps them in improving their writing skills. Organizational behavior is defined as the study of how individuals, people and groups act or behave in organizations. It interprets the relationship between people and the organizations they work for. Organization effectiveness on the other hand refers to the ability of an organization to run well controlled structures and human resources. The topic of this article is important in understanding organizational behavior management and advancement of organization effectiveness in the UAE because it bring out clearly the idea that the UAE community is trying to look at its job market in terms of how many people fit in their organization’s requirements and whether these careers are in line with the personality of the employees. The article clearly indicates that there is a big relationship between what is referred to as the person- organization fit and the person job fit and this helps in understanding UAE’s job market. The introduction section is well drafted and the author clearly introduces the topic well by giving a brief background of previous research which has been carried out on this field or topic. In the introduction, the author gives readers an overview of the discussion and the expectations and this helps the reader in understanding the article since it makes the flow from one paragraph or point to the other easy. The statement of the problem is clear and inclusive in that it incorporates the diverse concepts discussed in the article. The problem statement gives the reader an insight of the components or contents of the discussion which in turn makes understanding of the article easy. Conclusion To conclude, the need for selection of job and organization fitting persons is good but it needs to be made holistic so as to be able to succeed in any organization but it hasn’t to stop at that level because other factors also affect the way an organization in a cross cultural environment like that of UAE is run. This article provides an insight into the factors that affect a one on one relationship between an employee, his job and the organization. However, this relationship is also determined by other external factors that have not been examined in the article. They determine the way an organization is run and therefore its requirement which influence the job requirements and therefore the person. It therefore calls for synchronization of all the systems and not the individuals alone or the organization policies. Work cited Schermerhorn, John. Management. New Jersey: J. Wiley, 2005 Drucker, Peter. Management: tasks, responsibilities, practices. Oxford: Gulf Professional Publishing, 1999 Marchington, Mick, & Wilkinson Adrian. Human resource management at work: people management and development. London: CIPD Publishing, 2005 Behery, Mohamed. “Person/organization job fitting and affective commitment to the organization Perspectives from the UAE.” Emerald 16 .2 (2009): 179-196. Kent, Raymond. Data construction and data analysis for survey research. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2001   Read More