Assignment 2 - Group Research Report (30%) PDF

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Assignment 2Group ReportSubject code BUSMSubject name Human Resource ManagementStudent name & IDLecturer Mr. Alex ArokiasamyWe declare that in submitting all work for this assessment we have read, understood andagreed to the content and expectations of the Assessment declaration.Table of Content...

Description

Assignment 2

Group Report

Subject code

BUSM3310

Subject name

Human Resource Management

Student name & ID

Lecturer

Mr. Alex Arokiasamy

We declare that in submitting all work for this assessment we have read, understood and agreed to the content and expectations of the Assessment declaration.

Table of Content Executive summary I. II.

Introduction Analysis 1. How Human Resources Management relates to Employee Engagement and Leadership Practices 2. Employee Engagement 3. Leadership Practices

III.

Recommendations

IV.

Conclusion

References Appendices

Executive Summary This essay discusses the Swiss conglomerate Kuehne & Nagel (K+N). K+N offers a comprehensive range of specialised logistics services. As a globally recognised company, K+N is cognizant of two changes: leadership and employee dedication to their jobs. Thus, two critical questions arise: how performance is measured in workforce engagement and how strong leadership is retained to guide prospective workers. This essay aims to explore how staff influence employee commitment and management practices. We then make some practical adjustments to enhance the efficiency of our work. Additionally, this post discusses how leadership has changed in recent years and makes some recommendations to help executives and workers fit into their jobs. The first half of the book examines the relationship between employee engagement and workplace leadership. Employee commitment: EE's physical dimension is mainly concerned with people's physical energies, their feelings towards each of those three dimensions, and their attitudes toward the organisation and its members. The emotional component affects people's physical power. There are, still, several issues. The second half examines how leaders affect employees' moral expectations to improve their overall performance. Leaders are responsible for employee retention, management, and assignment, while administrators decide if employees stay with the company. Human resources must provide preparation programmes to identify and cultivate prospective leaders. We use psychological techniques to ensure the staff' productivity during the decision-making process. Additionally, the chief should serve as the ship's captain, in charge of his staff's enjoyment. Not only are jobs like K+N motivated, but they are often faced with increased obstacles during their tenure. We campaign for K+N to expand its leadership workshops to overcome language barriers. Additionally, each of these services will shield front-line employees from the top CEO. Following that, the fundamental analysis will be concluded.

1. Introduction

Recognized as the world's largest logistics company, Kuehne+Nagel gains its reputation from creative and vertically integrated logistics networks as well as innovative storage centres. Founded by August Kuehne & Friedrich Nagel in 1890 in Bremen, Germany, the company has been developing continuously for the last 130 years, from a local shipping business to a multinational freight forwarding corporation (Kuehne+Nagel 2021). Acknowledging the global impact it has created, Kuehne+Nagel always values the welfare of society as a whole by staying sustainable, putting customers first and appreciating their employees. Kuehne+Nagel accentuate that colleagues are the primary source of inspiration for the company. Therefore, with over 72,000 supply chain professionals working in 109 counties, Kuehne+Nagel is eager to build for them a beneficial working environment that ensures their satisfaction and happiness. Recently, Ms.Doan Le Minh Ha, General Manager of Human Resources & Administration at KuehneNagel, granted us a glimpse of the company's management system. Throughout the session, Ms.Ha discussed how Kuehne+Nagel had accomplished numerous achievements in the international logistics industry through active recruiting, expansion, and management of its human capital. Human resources management (HRM) developed to serve as a central repository for all appropriate corporate and employee relations procedures, regulations, and decision-making (Aquinas 2009). Additionally, systematic utilization, appraisal, and improvement of human capital ensure the long-term growth and profitability of the company (Gilmore & Williams 2013). Furthermore, HRM understands as a practice that directly impacts company advantages and turns them into a vehicle for protecting companies and maintaining smooth and productive operations (Jabbour et al., 2012). This paper will focus on the role of two vital aspects of HRM, Employee Engagement (EE) and Leadership Practice, within the context of Kuehne+Nagel. The following sections will analyze indepth how the two aspects relate to and affect the performance of HRM, regarding the advantages along with appliances as well as the challenges that Kuehne+Nagel has to overcome. For those reasons, practical recommendations will be given to suggest a future development for the company’s HRM.

2. Analysis 1. How Human Resources Management relates to Employee Engagement and Leadership Practices

According to Alan (2020), HRM practices and systems both positively affected the EE factor. The three HRM practices of career advancement, job security, and performance feedback, were noticed to have a close and beneficial relationship to EE, and were moderated by perceived organizational support (POS) (Aktar & Pangil 2017). When POS is high, the relationship between EE and the three practices is firm. Moreover, there are no small or large companies that can develop and win in the long-term without energized and talented employees who are very loyal to companies and understand how to help the organization achieve its goal (Jack & Suzy n.d.) In terms of leadership management, HRM plays a vital role in all organizations’ management. HRM has to attract well trained, talented, skilful leaders who can create relationships or connections among team members, and have the ability to solve problems and unexpected issues to achieve the organization’s goals (Amadi 2018). As Davenport (2015) stated, the organization can apply commendation assessments to motivate, keep the leader’s spirit, and the employees’ loyalty to achieve the common goal.

2. Employee Engagement

The progress of recent industrialization forces worldwide organizations to pay more concerns in HRM (Albrech 2011), especially with EE since it relates to the retention of talent, the avoidance of employee turnover, employee value addition, growth, and the survival of organizations (Albdour & Altarawneh, cited in Tepayakul & Rinthaisong 2018). Moreover, Hooi (2019) admits that EE is becoming more critical and a significant driver of a company’s strategy to attain sustainable competitive advantage. Therefore, the employers or managerial levels should concentrate more on EE to ensure an efficient and productive workforce (Markos 2010). Throughout the past few decades, there was plenty of research about EE theories and practices, but many authors admitted that its definition is vast and unclear (Macey & Schneider 2008; Hooi 2019; Markos 2010; Tepayakul & Rinthaisong 2018; Masson et al. 2015). In addition, Saks and Gruman (2014) argued that the EE concept is relatively new because most related literature was published around the 2010s. However, despite having various definitions, most of them are inspired by an article from the last century, which Kahn (1990, p. 649) defines EE as 'the harnessing of organization members' selves to their work roles; in engagement, people employ and express themselves physically, cognitively, and

emotionally during role performances. Specifically, the physical aspect of EE concerns the physical energies exerted by individuals to accomplish their roles, the emotional aspect concerns how employees feel about each of those three factors and whether they have positive or negative attitudes toward the organization and its leaders, and the cognitive aspect concerns employees' beliefs about the organization, its leaders and working conditions (Kular et al. 2008). According to Bridger (2014, p. 22), engagement in HRM is the main component to have positive business performance and outcomes as it not only increases profits, productivity, innovation, beneficial discretionary effort, customer satisfaction, and customer retention but also reduces staff absence, voluntary turnover, sabotage, and a range of other negative behaviours. In fact, a study found that companies with a highly engaged workforce can strengthen operating income and net income by 19.2% and 13.7%, respectively, while low engagement companies suffered more than 30% loss in operating income and a 3.8% decline in net income with the same period (Wyatt, cited in Bridger 2014). However, there are barriers for organizations to maintain efficient EE management. According to Ms.Ha, remaining low turnover rate and ensuring employee loyalty are the most significant challenges for HRM. Following the study of Kahn (1990), this state can be recognized as ‘disengagement’, which might cause numerous harmful outcomes for different levels, including organizational level, group level, and individual level, as in Figure 1. Besides, it also leads to continuous conflicts between internal stakeholders like managers and subordinates due to the unproductive results of the company. Hence, the employee would feel that they are not respected or cannot see their value within the organization, and they would likely resign from that firm.

3. Leadership Practices

·

Importance of leadership

Leadership is one of the key elements determining the success and failure of an organization (Khajeh 2018). Generally, a leader's role can be defined as the leadership process that affects team members to achieve an organization's common goal (Rao 2010). In the 21st century, a leader has a significant influence on the organization's performance. A good leader will create bonding relationships with

employees, adapt and respond quickly to challenges, and guide the employees in the same pathway to a future development vision (Nanjundeswaraswamy, Swamy 2015). Successful leaders in this current circumstance often bring positive energy, motivation, and valuable knowledge to employees and their company (Jones 2015). A study by Alblooshi, Shamsuzzaman, and Haridy (2020) stated that several different leadership styles directly and indirectly impact an organization's ability to innovate. And using an effective and forceful HRM can increase its development ability and enhance leadership nature (Gond, Swaen, and Akremi 2011). There is also growing evidence that HR plays a vital role in recruiting and managing human resources to influence the level of efficiency in an organization (Kepha et al., 2014). Therefore, numerous organizations tend to recruit qualified human resources to increase their work efficiency and maintain their competitive ability. The human resources department needs to offer advanced training programs to develop leadership talent in the workforce. ·

FDI + managing expats:

Since the Doi Moi era in 1986, Vietnam has witnessed a momentous transformation from one of the poorest countries in the world into a middle-income country with a vision of economic prosperity (The World Bank 2021). The vigorous economic growth, and the excellent context of national security, and domestic stability are the main factors for Vietnam to attract foreign direct investment (Hong 2009). As a result, many multinational companies (MNCs / MNE) have chosen Vietnam as a viable investment destination to expand their business, and these activities have strong momentum. In addition, multinational organizations that can be known as multicultural organizations and human resources management are about managing the local force and dealing with and managing expats from many different cultures. According to Hassi & Storti (2011), globalization has a substantial impact on training practices abroad, while operating in culturally diverse environments is challenging for HRM / HRM practitioners. Expats believe their contribution increases organizational growth, and the results of the analysis show that managing expats is much more complicated than domestic force (Papadopoulos & Ezziane 2020). Furthermore, Ms.Doan Le Minh Ha determined that leadership in KN requires a flexible ability to adapt to change in the MNC environment. ·

Cultural context

According to Kim, Pan & Park (1998), Eastern nations such as China and South Korea represent highcontext cultures, whilst a Western nation like the United States represents low-context culture. A MNC like K+N can be seen as a model that increases the viability of cultural diversity due to different cultural conflicts of character and attitudes, which can have either positive or negative impact on workplace productivity. Due to cultural diversity, the ability to communicate within the MNC can be

constrained by personality and attitude conflicts. Hence, leaders should be passionate about their goals, improve cross-cultural managing knowledge to connect and inspire employees to achieve their goals (Florea & Manea 2016). In case the practice of leadership is not executed properly, manager's behaviour may lead to employees’ resignation. Usage of pressure attached to the appeal of the leader has an inverse effect on the employee's ability to voluntarily. Henceforth, bonding with employees is an intermediary mechanism to increase employee satisfaction with the job (Reina, Roger & Peterson 2017).

3. Recommendations 1. Employee Engagement

The lack of such a vital aspect like EE at the workplace can lead to burdensome issues, and most concerning of all is the high turnover rate, which the manager of Kuehne+Nagel mentioned. A research about EE in the workplace was conducted by Osborne and Hammoud (2017) to investigate constructive strategies from successful leaders to engage their employees. The research resulted in three practical recommendations: rewards & recognition, empowering employees and building a solid relationship between leaders and employees. According to Biswas (2010), rewards and recognition can be utilized as a psychological instrument to measure job satisfaction, as it is employees’ fundamental need to require intrinsic rewards and being appreciated in the workplace (Haines and St-Onge 2012). Rewards and recognition are means to encourage employees, and, thus, it helps reinforcing work performance, and employees are more willing to engage for a harmonious working environment (Brown 2011). In addition, there are numerous methods to express appreciation and gratitude towards employees, which are much simple, such as giving thankyou notes, organization products, vouchers and gifts, or even non-monetary ways like publishing employee as “person of the month” on the company’s newsletter or the “wall of fame” (Rai et al 2018). In reality, Kuehne+Nagel is applying this system through incentive and promotion, as mentioned by the guest speaker. However, small rewards and recognition along the way like gifts and vouchers or compliments and appreciation can be the deciding factor. Ms.Ha mentioned very specifically that the company focuses tremendously on helping employees to have the opportunity to grow in their career path. Kuehne+Nagel created a development program called “Learning at KN” and successfully delivered 302,402 completed

training sessions in 2018 (figure 2) (Kuehne+Nagel 2018). The program is classified into different targeted groups to focus on specific skill requirements and improve employees’ flexibility and mobility. Additionally, Kuehne+Nagel has invested strongly in online platforms with 230,000 online training sessions compared to 72,00 live training sessions, which is an enormous advantage during the pandemic situation. Enhancing employee’s opportunities through development in “corporate culture awareness, team skills development, incentives, and communication” can be critical factors in performance and EE (Hynes 2012). A recommendation is that we should help the employees not only through those programs but also to give them the challenges to overcome throughout their working period. According to the research of Osborne & Hammoud (2017), the interviewed participants are drawn to be challenged in their professions so they can work at a higher level and earn their leader’s trust. Last but not least, a bonding relationship between leaders and their subordinates is essential in a successful EE strategy. Leaders hold great responsibility in directing social interactions and leading people towards a common goal, and, thus, are the primary source of influence and motivation in the workplace (Skansi 2000). Building a solid relationship between an employee and leader can lead to a healthy team environment and increase productivity. According to Ms.Ha, to reduce the gap between generations, Kuehne+Nagel has developed intimate sections for bonding and experience sharing, which is a sensible method to cherish the age difference within the workplace. Kuehne+Nagel can also utilize this method into the relationship between leaders and employees. This will be an effective way to bond the two together and help solve many issues in work performances as well as EE.

2. Leadership Practices:

Leadership, if practised effectively, will lead employees into blossoming development with proper vision and direction (Souba 2011). To achieve the desired level of leadership practice, it is vital to ensure that the leaders receive proper training and developing programs from the first place. Kuehne+Nagel believes that top managers should have a broad-minded vision and the flexibility to adapt to all situations. Thus, similar to “Learning at KN”, Kuehne+Nagel built a talent program that reaches to managers of the company nationally, regionally, and globally (Kuehne+Nagel 2019). These series of leadership training programs are designed to serve the divergent levels of leaders from team managers to top managers, which are classified into Launch, Rise, and Transform stages. These programs concentrate on strengthening the employees’ skills and preparing them for a potentially

higher management role. As a multinational company, it could be helpful to add the element of cultural diversity into its many talent programs. Cultural diversity, including language barriers and cultural differences within the workforce, can contribute to hardship in management and lead to an ineffective organization (Uzun and Sevinc 2015, Etherton-Beer et al. 2013, Baldassar et al. 2017, cited in du Toit et al. 2020). Kuehne+Nagel can raise awareness of cultural diversity and practice empathy for cultural preferences for future leaders through learning as well as cultural events that bring practical experiences (Mikelyte & Milne 2016).

4. Conclusion

Overall, the paper has conducted analysis on the two factors of EE and leadership practices within the management system of K+N. EE is one of the key determinants to one organization’s success, which is measured by the work efficiency of the human resources department. However, it was shown from the research that issues such as high rate turnover and lack of motivation still remain within the system of K+N. Hence, it is recommended for K+N to conduct in-depth understanding about its employees to empower and encourage them to enhance their dedication and motivation to work. On the other hand, K+N seems to perform well in developing the element of leadership. The organization has a duty to keep implementing adequate leadership training and development programs, and add in the feature of cultural diversity that has a significant impact on the multinational context. Such appropriate utilization of EE and leadership practices can assist and contribute monumentally to the expansion of K+N on its future path.

References Aquinas, PG

2009, Human Resource Management - ...