ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

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The culture is most commonly described as the way things are done in an organization. The organization culture is formed through several components, which are behaviours, norms, values, philosophy, rules of the games and feelings (Hellriegel et al.,1998 cited in Martins & Terblanche,2003). 

A strong culture provides shared values that ensure that everyone in the organization is on the same track. Values are invisible guidelines. They are the core elements of culture. The values shared among the members of the group often determine the common actions and structures.

According to Coleman (2013) there are six components of a great corporate culture which are vision, values, practices, people, narrative and place. He further states the integrated culture is built by employees with the desire and ability to share company values and embrace those values. World’s greatest firms recruit employees who are talented and best suited for their corporate culture.

Benefits of strong organizational culture

The newly recruited employees identify the values of the organizations through the culture and they will be able to maintain the direction towards the organizational goals. A strong culture attracts and retains talented employees. Employee turnover will be less when they feel that they belong to that particular organization. Further corporate culture adds to the brand identity, which could create a major impact on sales and customer loyalty.

Global example on organizational culture

Edward Jones is a financial services firm in USA, which is in the Fortune’s “100 Best Companies to Work for” list. It has placed high value on making sure their customers and employees both are happy. Every employee has the opportunity to become a partner. Over 7900 office administrators have been promoted to partner. During the recession of 2008, though the firm worked towards cost cutting it managed to keep all of their employees. Further they are drastically opposite from the finance industry, where 63 percent of their employees are female (Daisyme, 2015).

References

Martins, E. C. & Terblanche,, F., 2003. Building organisational culture that stimulates creativity and innovation. European Journal of Innovation Management, 6(1), pp. 64-74.

Coleman, J., 2013. Havard Business Review. [Online]
Available at: https://hbr.org/2013/05/six-components-of-culture
[Accessed 4 July 2018].

Daisyme, P., 2015. Enterpreneur. [Online]
Available at: https://www.enterpreneur.com/article/249293
[Accessed 5 July 2018].

TECHNOLOGY AND HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

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The world has become a global village. The great development in communication, technology, computer and internet have brought the organizations closer and changed the functioning of the business world in great way. With the impact of technology many business functions are done with speed and accuracy with computers and internet including human resource management.

In recent years, human resource management (HRM) has gone through rapid transformation due to information technology (IT) in selection, efficiency of recruitment, motivating, developing and retaining employees. A survey of leading consultation firms indicated that technology and talent management are the two primary drivers of change in HRM. The current HRM work has gone through a fundamental change due to the continuous innovations in technology (Stone, et al., 2015).

IT has enhanced the standards of performance management, learning and development opportunities of the employees, saving time and money, reducing expenses, and storing data to make analysis and decisions. The human resource managers, job seekers and employees can obtain information related to human resources and services through the internet or an organization’s intranet or web site. HRM has become more strategic and flexible with more focus given to customer satisfaction.

Organizations have implemented a systematic procedure through IT to collect, store, retrieve, maintain, and validate data which is named as human resource information systems (HRIS). The data is used by organization for its personnel activities, human resources, and organization unit characteristics. Further management can use these data as a decision-making tool (Jain, 2014).

Disadvantage of IT in HRM

The growth of IT has shrink the job opportunities in the organization which has resulted in a large number of employees losing their jobs and if knowledge in IT is less the applicants can’t get the desired jobs. New IT systems can be expensive and the organizations may face difficulties in implementing same and it might be risky from data security point of view (Rohilla, 2017).

Global example on IT in HRM

Nissan Motors after it’s collaboration with Renault, has over 130,000 employees worldwide. To function successfully it needed standardized HR practices. In 2010, CEO Carlos Ghosn introduced HRIS and his aim was automating and transforming the HR services in the whole organization. The strategy behind HRIS implementation was standardization of all HR practices throughout the organization around the world. Some of the immediate benefits due to HRIS were an effective way of sharing information which was HR centric. The new forum also allowed employees to make changes in the HR related information or benefits relation about them instead of waiting to fill forms and HR personnel doing it (Gupta & Banerjee, 2013).

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References

Jain, V. K., 2014. Impact of Technology on HR Practices. International Journal of Informative and Futuristic Research, 1(10), pp. 25-37.

Stone, D. L., Deadrick, D. L., Lukaszewski, K. M. & Johnson, R. D., 2015. ResearchGate. [Online]
Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265685423
[Accessed 29 June 2018].

Gupta, R. & Banerjee, P., 2013. HRIS at Nissan: a new era in human resource management. [Online]
Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/264820251_HRIS_at_Nissan_a_new_era_in_human_resource_management
[Accessed 11 July 2018].

Rohilla, J., 2017. Role of Information Technology in Human Resources. International Journal of Advance Research, Ideas and Innovations in Technology, 3(2), pp. 566-569.

DIVERSITY OF WORKFORCE IN ORGANIZATIONS

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What is diversity?

Diversity can be defined as acknowledging, understanding, accepting, and valuing differences among people with respect to age, class, race, ethnicity, gender, disabilities, etc. (Esty et al 1995 cited in  Algahtani, 2013, pp.53)

Globalization and Diversity 

 The rapidly increasing globalization has created a situation where more people from various diverse backgrounds interact with each other. Worldwide economy is competing within a global framework and people have become a part of it. Due to this reason, organizations have more diversified workforce to remain in competition.

Benefits of Diversity in workplace 

In a work place employees are interdependent and respecting individual differences can increase productivity. Diverse workforce will increase marketing opportunities, recruitment, creativity, and business image. Further it will reduce lawsuits. Both employers and employees are benefited from diversity (Esty et al. 1995 cited in Green, 2002).

A company’s performance and bottom line improves with a diverse workforce.

A key driver of internal innovation and business growth is workforce diversity. This was identified through a study done by Forbes (Walter, 2014).

Global Examples 

Denny's is a table service diner-style restaurant chain. It operates over 1,600 restaurants in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom etc. In early 90’s it became infamous by denying service to African Americans. The Company faced two lawsuits for discrimination and repeated civil rights violations, which ended up settling the cases for $ 54 million. Due to the above the company went through a major transformation and appointed a chief diversity officer, mandatory diversity training was given to employees and a policy was implemented not to tolerate any discrimination. Further they increased hiring minority employees. With all these changes Denny’s was ranked by the Fortune magazine as the best place for minorities to work in 2000 and 2001 (Barak, 2005)

 Virgin’s success over the 40 years has been the company’s policy of employing a diverse workforce, from a variety of backgrounds and who have various skills, viewpoints and personalities which will help to spot opportunities, anticipate problems and come up with original solutions before the competitors (Branson, 2018)

Reference

Algahtani, A., 2013. Diversity in the Corporate Setting. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 4(14), pp. 53-57.

Barak, M., 2005. The Management of Workplace Diversity. [Online]
Available at: https://brownkutschenkovargo.weebly.com/real-world-examples.html
[Accessed 25 june 2018].

Branson, R., 2018. Why Richard Branson Values Diversity. [Online]
Available at: https://www.virgin.com/entrepreneur/why-richard-branson-values-diversity
[Accessed 25 June 2018].

Green, K. et al., 2002. Diversity in the Workplace: Benefits, Challenges, and the Required Managerial Tools. University of Florida/IFAS Extension, Volume HR022.

Walter, E., 2014. Forbes. [Online]
Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/ekaterinawalter/2014/01/14/reaping-the-benefits-of-diversity-for-modern-business-innovation/#3653ad652a8f
[Accessed 25 June 2018].

  

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT IN ORGANIZATIONS

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Employee Engagement Meaning

Employees harness themselves towards the work roles of the organization. This may be physical, cognitive and emotional which is elaborated as employee engagement (Kahn 1990 cited in Armstrong 2014, p.194).

Components of Employee Engagement

According to Armstrong (2014), motivation, commitment and organizational citizenship behaviour are three overlapping components of employee engagement.

 Motivation

The factors that influence people to behave in certain ways, the strength and direction of behaviour is motivation (Armstrong, 2014).

Commitment

The strength of an individual’s identification with, and involvement in, an organization (Armstrong, 2014). 

Organizational Citizenship Behaviour

When the employees behave beyond the expected level in duty to contribute towards the achievement of the organizational effectiveness, this situation is organizational citizenship behaviour (Organ 1988 cited in Armstrong 2014, p.196).

                                           Model of employee engagement

                                                    Source: Armstrong et al (2000)

Drivers of Employee Engagement

Research firms have identified the following as the key factors which are the drivers of employee engagement (The Conference Board 2006 cited in Singh 2016, pp.364-368).

• Trust & integrity

• Nature of the job and pride about the company

• Line of sight between employee performance and company performance

• Career growth opportunities and employee development

• Relationship with managers and coworkers

Outcome of Employee Engagement

High level of engagement is linked to the following (Stairs and Galpin 2010 cited in Armstrong 2014, p.197).

• Low absenteeism and high employee retention

• Increased effort and productivity from employees

• Improved quality with reduced error rate

• Increased sales, higher profitability and increased earnings per share

• Enhanced customer satisfaction and loyalty

Example on Employee Engagement

According to the surveys conducted by Gallup organization, they have found out that when employee engagement is in high degree business units perform 83% above the company median and in contrast the performance is only 17% when the employees are with low engagement (Dressler, 2013).

Southwest Airline was ranked 8^th in the world’s most respected companies in a survey of corporate executives by Fortune Magazine 2018.

Gary Kelly, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Southwest Airline said “Our employees are dedicated to the basics- Reliability, Hospitality, and low costs, but their dedication makes Southwest anything but basic. It’s what sets us apart. It’s an honour and a tribute to our employees to be the top 10 most admired companies in the world” (Anon, 2018)

From the above example we can see how the employee engagement has contributed towards the success of the organization.

References

Armstrong, M., 2014. Armstrong's Hand of Human Resource Management Practice. 13th ed. Philadelphia: Kogan Page.

Dessler, G., 2013. Human Resource Management. 13th ed. USA: Prentice Hall.

Singh, Y., 2016. Employee Engagement as a Contemporary Issue in HRM--A Conceptual Framework. International Journal of Engineering and Management Research, 6(5), pp. 364-368.

https://www.dallasnews.com/business/southwest-airlines/2018/01/19/southwest-airlines-named-among-worlds-10-admired-companies-fortune

PERFORMANCE MANAGEMANT IN ORGANIZATIONS

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What is performance

Performance is the Behaviour that accomplishes results (Brumbach 1988, cited in Armstrong 2014, p.334).

Performance Management (PM)

PM is the function of aligning the performance of the individuals and teams towards the organization’s strategic goals. This is a continuous process which identify, measure and develop their performance (Aguinis,2013).

Underpinning Theories

Goal Theory -  supports the emphasis in PM on setting and agreeing objectives against which performance can be measured and managed (Latham and Locke 1979, cited in Armstrong 2014, p.335).

Control Theory – priority is given on feedback, aligning the behaviour of employees towards the organizational goals. Through feedback, discrepancies are identified and corrective measures are taken to rectify same (Armstrong, 2017).

Social Cognitive Theory - Social cognitive theory was developed by Bandura (1986).  Developing and improving positive self-confidence in employees has been identified as an important PM objective.

 

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Principals of Performance Management 

The following are the principals stated by Armstrong (2017),

·        PM should have clear organizational goals which is aligned with measurable success criteria.

·        Be simple and focus on performance improvement with clarity of roles. Further it should be designed and implemented with the involvement of employees.

·        Be aligned with learning and development initiatives and regularly assessed themselves against success criteria.

·        Be transparent and equitable and explain the rationale which links them to rewards.

Success story of Implementing the Performance Management System

Merrill Lynch is one of the world’s leading financial management and advisory company, with offices in 36 countries and private client assets of approximately UD$1.1 trillion. The company has implemented a PM system where managers and employees have regular conversations and feedback is exchanged. Coaching is given if needed. Frequent reviews of the goals are met overcoming the deviations. Further they have developed a website which contains all information about the aspects of PM for the reference of managers. The new PM system clearly defines the organization’s expectation from the employees, their development path in career and how they will be judged relative to compensation (Aguinis, 2013).

At Toyota Motor’s Lexington, Kentucky, Camry plant, teams of employees monitor their own results, individual daily performance metrics is updated. With regular meetings, they continuously align those results with the work team’s standards and with the plant’s overall quality and productivity needs. Team members who need coaching and training receive it, and procedures that need changing are changed (Dessler, 2013).

References

Armstrong, M., 2017. Armstrong's Hand of Human Resource Management Practice. 13th ed. Philadelphia: Kogan Page.

Aguinis, H., 2013. Performance Management. 3rd ed. USA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Bandura, A.,1977. Social Learning Theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ, Prentice-Hall

Dessler, G., 2013. Human Resource Management.13th ed. USA: Prentice Hall.

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT AND THE WORK DESIGN

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Organizations plan how things should be done in the workplace by individuals and teams. Further they decide the job role of each individual. These two functions are categorized as work design and job design accordingly.

Work Design defined

Work design is preparing systems and procedures of work, along with a suitable working atmosphere to enhance the productivity and effectiveness to make the organization a great place to work, giving priority to health, safety and wellbeing of employees (Armstrong, 2014).

Job Design Defined

Job design is defined as specifying the contents, methods and relationships of jobs, with the aim of achieving the organizational and technological goals. Further satisfying the social and personal requirements of the job holder is also taken into consideration  (Buchanan, 1979).

Past and Present of Work Design

Adam Smith (1776) originated the concept of division of labour which is the beginning of work design.

Taylor (1911) introduced the scientific management movement, which transferred the responsibility from individual employee to engineers or managers. This method is called ‘Taylorism’.

Henry Ford (1914) introduced the moving assembly line, which is called ‘Fordism’. Work simplification practice was embedded in organizations.

According to CIPD (2008) ‘smart working’ is the present context of work design, which focus on managing the work environment in order to release employees’ energy and drive business performance.

Smart Working

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CIPD (2008) through its research identified smart working arrangements include flexible working hours, high performance working, lean production and designing jobs in which there is a higher degree of freedom to act.

Global Examples for Smart Working

The Australian Government’s Fair Work Act 2009 allows eligible employees to request flexible work arrangements from their employer. Flexible work options are a key feature of age-friendly workplaces that successfully attract and retain older workers.

In February 2013, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) consolidated 800,000 square feet into 208,000 while implementing its smart working initiative program, which:

1.     Eliminated hierarchical barriers by removing individual offices and cubicles. Decreased square footage with the optimized and increased utilization of meeting and work spaces.

2.     Decreased water, energy, and paper usage with energy-saving fixtures.

3.     An open space floor plan designed to speed up decision making, reduce email and formal meetings, and enhance collaboration and trust.

References 

Armstrong, M., 2014. Armstrong's Hand of Human Resource Management Practice. 13th ed. Philadelphia: Kogan Page.

Buchanan, D. A., 1979. The Development of Job Design Theories and Techniques. New York: Praeger Publishers.

CIPD, 2008. Smart Working: How smart is UK PLC? Findings from organizational practice. CIPD.

Government of Western Australia Public Sector Commission 2010,

 A Guide to Managing an Ageing Workforce, http://www.publicsector.wa.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/guide_to_managing_an_ageing_workforce.pdf Accessed on 6^th June 6, 2018 at 9.40pm

Work Design Magazine

http://www.franciscauffman.com/sites/default/files/articles/pdf/GSK_Haworth_CaseStudy_LoRes%20WorkDesign%20Magazine.pdf  Accessed on 6^th June 6, 2018 at 9.55pm

EMPLOYEE RELATIONS IN ORGANIZATIONS

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According to Armstrong (2014), employee relations are the methods and approaches adopted by the employers to deal with the employees, either collectively through their trade unions or individually. These are concerned with managing the employment relationship and the psychological contract.

Employment Relationship Defined

International Labour Organization defines employment relationship as the legal attachment between employers and employees. This attachment is created when people engage in work or services under certain rules in return for wages.

As mentioned by CIPD (2005), the following are included in  employment relationship,

• Managing the employment contract.

• Ensuring compliance with employment law.

• Communication with employers by way of employee surveys and team briefings.

• Promoting retention,involvement and engagement.

• Discussion and negotiation, with or without trade unions to  achieve the collective goals.

Psychological Contract Defined

As per Schein (1988), an implicit contractual relationship exists between employer and employee, which is created from a series of assumptions on the part of employer and employee about the nature of their relationship. Assumptions which are mutual understandings, creates a series of expectations that may have a considerable degree of moral force, but may not be legally enforceable.

The main assumptions are that,

• Fair and honest treatment from employers.

• Equity and justice will be the base of the relationship, which will require adequate information about developments and changes.

• Employee loyalty to the employer will be reciprocated with a degree of employment and job security.

  • Employer will value and recognized the input from employees.

International Example on Employee Relations

According to Fortune's Global Most Admired Companies list Dell is placed third. They maintain a very strong employee relations, through adopting a winning culture and has become a great company and a great place to work’. 

Employee relations in ITV (The oldest and largest commercial terrestrial television network in United Kingdom) is based on collective bargaining, consultation with elected employee representatives and direct engagement with individuals.

Conclusion

Organizations formulate and implement plans according to their policies, to achieve the set goals, with the consideration of productive relationships and the needs of employees to be treated justly.

Reference

Armstrong, M., 2014. Armstrong's Hand of Human Resource Management Practice. 13th ed. Philadelphia: Kogan Page.

Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (2005). What in Employee Relations?. London: CIPD

Leat, M., 2014. Employee Relations. Edinburgh Business School, 1041(January).

Schein, E., 1988. Organizational Psychology. 3rd ed. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

http://ilo.org/ifpdial/areas-of-work/labour-law/WCMS_CON_TXT_IFPDIAL_EMPREL_EN/lang-en/index.htm

Accessed on 23^rd May 2018 at 11.20am

LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY IN ORGANIZATIONS

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Human Resource Management departments focus to create a knowledgeable, skilled, engaged and committed workforce in order to achieve the organizational goals. This is done by the process of acquiring and developing knowledge, skills, capabilities, behaviours, and attitudes through learning or developmental experiences.

Learning 

As explained by Honey and Mumford (1996), learning has happened  when people can   reveal that they know a new thing which they didn’t know earlier,  and when they are able to perform a new task that they could not do before.   

Development 

Development is concerned by ensuring the growth of a person’s ability and potential through learning experiences or through self motivated learning.(Armstrong, 2009)..

Harrison (2009) defined learning and development more broadly as "The primary purpose of learning and development as an organizational process is to aid collective progress through the collaborative, expert and ethical stimulation and facilitation of learning and knowledge that support business goals, develop individual potential, and respect and build on diversity."

Strategic Human Resource Development (SHRD)

Learning and development strategy is the approach an organization adopts, focusing the achievement of its present and future goals by developing the skills and capacities of individuals and teams (Armstrong, 2009). 

It can be described similarly as strategic human resource development, defined as follows.

SHRD prepares individuals and teams with required skills, knowledge and competency to perform present and future tasks of the organization, by introducing, eliminating, modifying, directing and guiding processes. 

Strategic Learning and Development Cultures in Global organizations

General Electric (GE) has placed strong emphasis on SHRD to build a strong culture of learning and innovation. The learning culture within GE is founded on the Work-Out Philosophy. This philosophy is based on gendering self-confidence, encouraging challenge and simplicity to systems, and utilizing working practices that result in speed of responsiveness. SHRD plays a major role in driving and sustaining the culture of GE. 

Procter & Gamble (P&G) is the world’s largest consumer-product company.  Consistent with a ‘promote from within’ policy

and the belief that P&G’s human resources are a major source of competitive advantage that are hard to replicate, the development of employees is all pervasive and is central to the organizational culture. Employees receive multi-source reviews starting within a year after they join the company, and can take advantage of numerous development programmes over their career.

Conclusion
Organizations have recognized that people are an important source of sustained competitive advantage. Skills and competencies enable an organization to be more flexible and to reconfigure to meet strategic challenges. Organizations should implement best-practice SHRD strategies to maximize business performance.

References

Armstrong, M., 2009. Armstrong's Hand of Human Resource Management Practice. Philadelphia: Kogan Page.

Garavan, T. N. & Carbery, R., 2012. Strategic Human Resource Development. Research Gate, Issue July, pp. 33, 35 and 41.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/242390323 

accessed on 15th May 2018 at 8.10pm

Honey, P. & Mumford, A., 1996. The Manual of Learning Styles. 3rd ed. Maidenhead: Honey Publications.

Walton, J., 1999. Strategic Human Resource Development. Harlow: Financial Times / Prentice Hall.