Human Resource Management - Summary - HRM2 PDF

Preview

Summary

Download Human Resource Management - Summary - HRM2 PDF

Description

Introduction to Human Resource Management Origins of HRM Roots of people management: (arguably) in the industrial revolution, Emergence of the profession of personnel management: 1950 to 1974, during golden age of Keynesian economic doctrine. New legislation on equal opportunities and diversity: 1970s Personnel function “extended into fabric of the business”

Emergence of HRM in 1980s Globalisation: increased competition from Asian economies Japanese management techniques and ‘economic miracle’ Neo-liberalism: power going from labour to employers

Personnel management

vs.

Ad hoc (created to fulfil needs) Focus: employment contract - legal

HRM Strategic Focus: psychological contract

aspect Outcome: employee compliance Outcome: employee commitment *In reality, HRM also works with employee compliance

Hard HRM Legge 1995: Utilitarian instrumentalism Emphasis: the term Resource Rational approach on managing headcount Envisages humans as another factor of production – minimise costs of it (difference from personnel management?)

Soft HRM Legge 1995: Developmental humanism Emphasis: the term Human Human resources are different from inanimate resources Investments can be made on training and development High commitment management Psychological contract

- Is it really though? - “Manipulative form of management control causes work intensification” - “Cultural construct concerned with moulding employees to corporate values”

Psychological Contract “The perceptions of employee and employer of what their mutual obligations are towards each other.” More implicit, rather than explicit (such as a contract document) Based on beliefs about your own and other’s obligations Creates expectations Social exchange theory

Social exchange theory Generates an expectation of future returning (you do something for me, I’ll do something for you) The reciprocal something is not specified Individuals should help individuals who have helped them

Examples: Employees promise to Work hard Good punctuality, attendance Develop new skills Honesty

Employers promise to provide Pay proportionate to performance Opportunities for promotion, raise Interesting tasks Job security

Breach and violation One partner does not perceive that the other is meeting their obligations May be the result of misunderstanding over nature of obligations (incongruence) or refusal or failure to meet obligations - Possible outcomes: Employees less likely to meet obligations to the firm after a breach Reduction in employee trust – undermining organisational commitment Workforce/Labour turnover (rate of substitution of employees) Persistent negative effect on employee attitudes

Organisational commitment - Approaches aimed to eliciting employee commitment: Affective Emotional attachment to the organisation: belief in its values, sharing them. Happy to spend rest of career in this organisation, the company’s problems are my own, “part of the family” Continuance Rational evaluation of costs and benefits of leaving the firm Gain vs losses of moving to a new organisation, “side bets” may lead one to seeing a high cost associated with leaving the company, economical vc social costs (losing friends, colleagues, trust)

Normative Basic assumptions about work influenced by family, society, organisation. Individual doesn’t necessarily share goals with the organisation, but feels a moral obligation towards it (e.g. due to investments into employee training); company brings up employees to appreciate importance of loyalty. Two influential normative approaches: best practice (universalist approach) and best fit (contingency approach).

Strategic Human Resource Management Strategy Boundary markers for companies (?) Where do we compete and how? Advantages over competitors; what resources, capabilities do we need to serve the market to be better than competitors? – Can be tangible or intangible. How do we execute? Align people and organisation with our strategy: motivation, incentive, control systems, leadership

Conventional view:

Company ought to seek differentiation by focusing on one competitive strategy. A middle way should be avoided

How important is HR function to these company priorities? Innovation Brand Price Design Quality

SHRM – strategic HR management – can be considered both an outcome and a process SHRM is about how employment relationships for all employees can be managed in a way that contributes in the best way possible to the organisation’s goals achievement

Integration between business strategy and HR

CIPD* Center for Innovation in Product Development view: It contributes to effective management of human resources, improvement in organisational performance and success of a particular business It can also help organisations achieve competitive advantage by creating unique HRM systems that cannot be copied by other companies

Types of integration: Re-active (support) HR function is totally submissive to competitive strategy HR strategy is implemented to support the chosen competitive strategy More likely in liberal market economies (?) - HR ensures that: - Organisation has the right number of qualified employees - Employees have skills and knowledge to perform efficiently and effectively - Employees have appropriate behaviours consistent with organisation’s culture and values - Employees meet the organisation’s motivational needs Pro-active (command) HR professionals may be involved in key strategic decisions regarding company strategy HR strategy drives competitive strategy More likely in coordinated market economies (?)

What is needed for integration between strategy and HRM? - Future orientation within HR departments: regular analysis of competencies that will be needed in the future; activation of HR

functions such as recruitment, selection, training and reward to meet those needs - HR strategies should operate consistently as an integral part of the overall business plan - Match HR to strategic/organisational conditions

Integration: *Vertical alignment: a company's goals and objectives will drive its strategies *Horizontal alignment: ensures that all strategies work together and are not in competition

According to Best fit (contingency) school: there has to be vertical alignment between company business strategy and HR policies and practices. Vertical alignment is concerned with linking non HR related matters (such as corporate and business strategy, industry) and people management strategy. Appropriate people strategy must vary according to organisational circumstances (business goals, strategies) To play strategic role in the organisation, HR policies and practices should reflect, reinforce and support organisation’s business aims and objectives.

Horizontal alignment argues that HR strategies need to be internally consistent. -

Achieve a coherent and consistent approach to manage people that permeates all activities of the HR function

- Articulate clear HR policies that relate to one another - Firm has to communicate consistent and reinforcing messages to employees

Example of horizontal misalignment: - Pay based on individual performance vs. autonomous work groups and emphasis on team working - Emphasis on staff training and development vs. use of temporary employment contracts - Emphasis on staff training and development vs. bureaucratic work organisation - Employee empowerment vs. monitoring of attendance - Employee involvement vs. suppression of unions.

When investing in HRM pays off?

Contingency view within the company HR strategy may vary with: Task complexity Skill requirements (hard vs soft skills) Strategic importance of workers Ease of substitution of workers

Recruitment and selection

Recruitment

Resourcing trends in soft HRM Soft: o High commitment talent management o Internal labour market used (i.e. promotion, transfer) o Sophisticated HR function that can identify these people o Emphasis on training, development

Talent management (TM?) - Attraction - Identification - Development - Engagement - Retention - Development of those valuable to organisation o Valuable: high potential (background, experience); pivotal roles in the organisation.

Resourcing trends in hard HRM Hard o Use of external labour market o Few opportunities for promotion (McD) o Less emphasis on policies for retention (undesirable long-term retention) o Little emphasis on training, development o Peripheral labour

Temporary work agencies

Mainly for low wage positions, confidential hiring, temporary executive level Benefits: speed, greater access to expertise, no training, flexibility Drawbacks: costs, lack of control over who is being hired (safety concern) + - : insidious connection – organisation not always responsible for law violations when agencies are involved

Social media and recruitment Lots of techniques for advertising E-recruitment via social media (hard rock, Firenze

Employer branding (“war for talent”) – why you should work for us. Higher salaries are not enough Need of strong “brand” promoting, make clear what company has to offer Tangible and intangible

Selection Key issues Predict which candidates will make the most appropriate contribution to org now and in the future Functional and organisational (team) fit Two-way rather than one-way process

Selection methods Validity – do they measure what needs to be measured? - To what extent do the results predict performance on the job Reliability – Temporal stability, consistency

Fairness in recruitment and selection Procedural justice: how far the selection methods were seen by candidates, extent to which procedures were explained to them Distributive justice: how equitably candidates felt they were treated and whether the outcome of the selection was perceived to be fair

1. Interviews Requires: thorough job analysis, interviewer training, adequate resources, monitoring and evaluation, supplementing with other methods Use of “critical incidents”: behavioural (what did you do), situational (what would you do) 2. Assessment Centres Group exercises, role-play, presentations, written reports, interview, psychometric tests and questionnaires 3. Tests Cognitive (mental ability), personality – can be discriminatory, ethnocentric, self-reporting (fake responses) 4. Pre screening Realistic job previews (accurate picture of job requirements)

Recruiting human capital Dimensions of human capital Intellectual capital, emotional capital, social, physical.

- Intellectual capital

Cognitive complexity and capacity to learn + tacit and explicit knowledge, skills, expertise

- Social Capital Difference in success between individuals that cannot be explained by personal attributes alone. (who one knows and how well) Structural holes They dissolve, sever flow of information Wide network + structural holes diffuse information, reduce wasteful duplication and misinformation Benefits from narrow, closed network (high levels of trust, less need for close monitoring) Minority groups underrepresented in the industry and often offered a limited range of jobs as result of social capital and networks

- Physical capital Person’s appearance indicates a lot about them Linked with aesthetic labour Companies searching for the right looks Promoting firm through employee aesthetic Critique: discrimination, biased selection, inappropriate criteria

- Emotional capital Emotional labour is the management of feeling to create an observable facial and bodily display Ability to manage emotions...