Firm Performance and Employee Relations Climate - Assignment Example

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT by Student’s Name Code + Course Name Professor University City/State Date Human Resource Management Tutorial Response 1 Traditional and modern organisations are different in times of the resources they value. Traditional organisations used to value financial capital, and physical resources such as land, buildings, and equipment. Therefore, they worked towards accumulation of these resources. However, they believe that though these physical and financial resources provide competitive advantage, they are useless if there are no human resources to drive them. The resource-based view provides a very critical ethical rationale that illustrates the potential for human resources to be strategic assets in the firm (Becker & Huselid 2006, p. 900). Therefore, human resources are viewed as the most valuable assets. This is especially the case in the service industry where success of a business is heavily reliant on the quality of the services offered by the human resources. Any organisation must manage the talent effectively for it to realise any success. How a firm treats its human resources and responds to their needs determined its success. There are different ways in which organisations can view its employees. First, a firm can view its employee as objects to be used as a means to an end. On the other hand, it can view them as partners in business. Modern human resources model have become wide because of technological revolution and forces of globalisation. Furthermore, they operate in an increasingly dynamic and competitive setting where there is instant communication. This means that organisations must create a human resource strategy that fits within the dynamic and competitive globalised environment. Modern human resource models fall into two categories. These are hard versus soft and unitarist; versus pluralist human resource management. A model that was generated by the Harvard Business School is considered as the most influential human resource model in the modern organisational environment. This model sees employees as resources that cannot be treated the same way as other resources. The model outlines four main policy areas. First is the human resource steps and flows, which include practices such as selection, recruitment, appraisal, promotion, and even placement. Secondly, the model offer reward systems. These include motivation tactics, compensation and pay systems. Thirdly, the model emphasizes is the influence of employees. These include, power, responsibility and delegation. Finally, it addresses work systems. Work systems define and design work and alignment of people. Soft human resource management focuses on involving employees through communication, empowerment, consultation, and commitment. On the other hand, hard human resource management focuses on managerial and strategic focus and effective use of employees towards the achievement of objectives and goals of the organisation. Unitarist human resource perspectives believe that organisations can meet the common interests of the human resources and their employees. The perspective also believes that commitment should be encouraged by the two parties so that they can work together using methods of inclusion and exclusion. On the other hand, pluralist perspective holds that there is no way of avoiding conflict of interest between human resources and their employee. This perspective believes that for the human resources and the employer to realise the goals of an organisation negotiation and conflict resolution perspectives need to be used. Modern firms have fully integrated human resource management practices, which are involved in the process of strategic planning within the organisation. Strategic human resource management is defined as a planned pattern of deploying human that enables an organisation to achieve its strategic goals and objectives (Ngo, Lau & Foley 2008, p. 73). Strategic human resource management is a model where strategies of managing human resources are developed taking into consideration the macro and microenvironment forces that are likely to face the organisation in the future. However, not all organisations are able to integrate management of human resources into their strategic planning process due to the inability of the human resource personnel within the organisations to adopt a strategic approach when carrying out their work. Furthermore, some senior managers in the organisation are yet to accept integration of HR departments in the strategic planning system. HRM and ethics go hand in hand. For example, the blame for 2008-2010 global financial recessions went to human resource departments in the organisations that precipitated the crisis. The human resource department should have ensured that all employees followed due process and proper ethics in every operation within an institution. This would ensure strict adherence to the rules and regulations. Tutorial Response 2 The resource based view states that organisations can leverage their human capital and make them sources of competitive advantage (Huselid & Jackson 1997, p. 173). However, this must take place within a human resource environment that supports the goals of an organisation. The human resource environment has changed radically due to a wide array of factors. There are several economic, social, and political cum legislative forces that have affected the human resource environment in the recent past. From an economic perspective, globalisation has created much competition in the market, which requires companies to change the way their approaches to improve their competitiveness. Furthermore, globalisation has affected company various processes within companies and organisations, meaning that they must change the way they recruit and manage personnel. Economic recessions have also influenced the human resources environment in the recent past. A recession creates much uncertainty. This affects labour supply both at the international and domestic level. This makes it hard for a human resources manager to predict labour trends. A manager cannot meet the labour needs of their organisations in such a volatile environment. Social factors have also played a huge role in the changing human resource environment. People who entered the workforce in the 1960s are nearing their retirement. However, birth rates have gone down in the recent past meaning that the numbers of people who are entering the workforce are less than those who are entering the workforce creating a huge human resource gap. This means that the human resource departments have come up with strategies to ensure that the ageing workforce continues working even past their retirement age to make up for that gap that has been caused by a decline in birth rates. Attitudes towards women in the workplace have also changed. In the past, there used to be gender specific roles in the workplace. For example, it was hard to find women in leadership positions. Furthermore, women did not find it easy to get back to the job after giving birth and having a family. However, this has changed. Women are now working in non-traditional roles. There are women working as technicians and even leaders in organisations. This is because the skills gap between women and men has narrowed down in the recent past enabling women to take up roles that were traditionally meant for men. Furthermore, women can now continue working even after giving birth. Therefore, the argument that female employees create more difficulties than male employees because of the female’s physical characteristics and need for time off for maternal responsibilities is wrong. Employees are also demanding more from their employers. Skills have improved in the recent past, as people take up different forms of education to better their chances of employment and promotion. These employees are demanding more fulfilling conditions at the workplace. Failure to satisfy them will force them out in search for greener pastures. Modern organisations must adopt a culture of flexibility. The rigid and bureaucratic tendencies that characterised conventional organisations cannot work today (Ulrich 2008, p. 839). Furthermore, new HR practices such as outsourcing, job sharing, and use of casual and part time workers must be implemented to bridge the human resource gap occasioned by declining birth rates. Furthermore, organisations need to come up with a different structure to promote work life balance for the modern employees who are demanding more fulfilling conditions at work. Organisations are now required to have accommodations for different types of employees in line with affirmative action provisions. For example, the elderly need carers while working parents need some time off to be with their children and their families. Organisations no longer discriminate against the disabled people because the laws protect them from discrimination. This means that organisations must have accommodations in place. The young people, born after 1990, commonly known as the generation Y are entering the workplace. These people have different views and different expectations that must be respected and addressed. Therefore, organisations need to restructure their human resource departments to address changing nature of the human resource environment. Human resource managers must think outside the box and be open to new ideas and divergent opinions and views. Political and legal factors have also changed the human resource environment. Organisations give employment contracts more attention and base promotion on commitment to one's job and loyalty and not length of service. Managers must motivate their employees using benefits such as holidays, overtime payments, and generous pension plans. Issues such as compensation of workers, maternity leave, and constitutional laws now govern anti-discrimination and occupational safety and health, and employers risk lawsuits should they violate legal provisions that relate to treatment of employees in the workplace. References List Becker, B & Huselid, M 2006, ‘Strategic human resources management: Where do we go from here?’ Journal of Management, vol. 32, no. 6, pp. 898-925 Huselid, M & Jackson, S 1997, ‘Technical and Strategic Human Resource Management as Determinants of Firm Performance’, Academy of Management Journal, vol. 40, no.1, pp. 171-188 Ngo, H, Lau, C & Foley, S 2008, ‘Strategic human resource management: Firm performance, and employee relations climate in china’, Journal of Human Resource Management, vol. 47, no. 1, pp. 73–90 Ulrich, D 2008, ‘The twenty-first century HR organization’, Human Resource Management, vol.47, no.4, pp. 829–850 Read More