Human Resource Managementa Case Study Management of Human Resources-Assignment
Introduction:
In order to critically assess and recommend alternatives, I would like firstly to give a brief description of the business crisis the company was facing and the subsequent need for change in the company’s overall business strategy. I would then like to focus on the key aspects of the firm’s human resources strategy and the changes that were made in order to supplement the overall changes in the business strategy.
Business Crisis:
International Computers Limited (ICL) was born in 1968 out of the merger between English Electric Computers (EEC) and International Computers and Tabulators. With £40 million of government support it
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This new focus, and the ongoing financial crisis led to the need to restructure the financial side of the organisation. This was achieved mainly through downsizing in a number of product areas and a series of redundancy procedures. As the case does not explain in detail the actual redundancy procedures, it is difficult to make critical assumptions of the firm. The availability of additional resources, coupled with the need for a newer set of skills and scarce financial resources appears to be a justification for the course of action taken by the company.
Cultural changes:
Armstrong (1999) cites the work of Furnham and Gunter (1993) defining culture as ‘the commonly held beliefs, attitudes and values that exist in an organisation. Put more simply, culture is ‘the way we do things around here’.
With shifts in the product strategy and the recent collaborations came the difficult task of changing aspects of the cultural values of the organisation. The company traditionally embraced what theorists would generally refer to as a role culture. This referred to organisations operating in relatively stable environments with more of a focus on procedure, hierarchy and bureaucracy rather than dynamism (Amstrong, 2000 citing the works of Harrison, 1972; Handy, 1976; Schein, 1985 and Williams et al, 1989). For the organisation to succeed in the more volatile
The term "culture" has been used more and more recently but what exactly does it mean? Some have even regarded culture as "the most central problem of all social science" (Malinowski, 1939). According to Merriam Webster (2016), culture is defined as the arts and other manifestations of human achievements. If culture was as simple as Merriam-Webster defines it then the lives of anthropologists, sociologists, and psychologists would be much easier. As we know, culture varies greatly across religion, countries, and some cases in just states; the difference between the north and the south. We can conclude that culture is a set of shared thoughts, values, and cognitions (Geertz, 1973). With culture in itself varying tremendously based on values and location, then surely organizational culture is no simple concept either. The term "organizational culture" has just recently become to be used more (Barley, 1988). Though there may be disagreements on defining culture universally, researchers tend to agree that culture is of vital importance in an organizational context, whether that organization is a company or a government (Kilmann, Saxton, & Serpa, 1986).
1. Ch 1, page 60-61, question 4: What is “evidence based HR”? Why might an HR department resist becoming evidenced based?
2. Give some examples of ethical issues that you have experienced in jobs, and explain how HR did or did not help resolve them.
Culture can be defined as a set of shared values, shared beliefs and customary ways of thinking doing things, which shape and guides the ways of organisational members. Culture is therefore very crucial as it has the ability to influence the processes or the activities of employees and the functioning of the organisation without necessarily imposing measures and control.
1- Based on the definition of Ricky W. Griffin, Michael W. Pustay in their book international business a managerial perspective in chapter four they defined culture in saying, culture is the collection of attitudes, beliefs, values, customs, and behaviors that distinguish one society from another. A society’s culture decides the rules that govern how firms operate in the society. many characteristics of culture are worth noting for their relevance to international business.
Culture within an organisation is a system of shared values, beliefs and norms of individuals in the organisation and how the value consensus creates a way in which people behave. The shared values have a strong influence on the individuals in the organisation and dictates how a person acts, dresses and performs in their job. A unique culture is developed and maintained by an organisation which provides guidelines and boundaries, through informal means, for the behaviour of the people within the organisation.
According to Greenwood (1957), culture is defined as "The interactions of social roles required by these formal and informal groups generate a social configuration unique to the profession" (p. 52). In any profession, it is important to respect others cultures, beliefs, and values.
Coined as “the way we do things around here” (Deal and Kennedy, 1983, p. 501), culture encompasses how an organisation is run, its “personality”, and the norms, values, beliefs and attitudes (Armstrong, 2010) that reflect the organisation’s mission, aims and goals.
b) What changes or restructuring would you recommend? Develop a human resource forecast that correlates with your plans.
Beautyism in the workplace is discrimination in one of its most disguised forms. Employers get away with this form of discrimination everyday. Because someone is categorized as beautiful it doesn’t mean that they have all the knowledge they need to succeed on a job or neither does it validate that they are a better selection than the next person. An idea can be developed or an assumption made from the treatment that is given to the person who was hired because of beautyism. What will be noticed in most cases it the special treatment that is given that is
Analysis of Human Resource Management The report starts with the introduction to Human Resource Management (HRM) and the role it has to play within an organisation followed by brief introduction of the chosen organisation for the discussion-McDonald’s Restaurants Ltd. Also, it gives the reasons why this organisation has been chosen. The report presents the key strategic issues and corporate strategy of McDonald’s.
Human resource management is the process of utilizing human resource efficiently and effectively to achieve the goals and objectives of the organization. Human resource is the most important resource of an organization compared to other resources since the success of the organization mainly depends on its people. Human resource management is a part of the process that helps the organization to achieve its objectives once the general direction strategies have been established, the next stage is to formulate company’s objectives and develop them into action plans. The objectives cannot be attended without the resources which of course include people. Human resources management should be part of the process which determines what people are required, how to use them, how to get them and how to manage them. This should be fully integrated with all other management processes. Human resource management is giving fully support to how
Human Resource Management involves a wide array of functions that encompasses the time from when an employee enters an organization to the time the employee leaves the organization. The specific activities that are involved in HRM include job design and analysis, recruitment, orientation and placement, development and training of the personnel, employee remuneration, and performance appraisal (Aswathappa, 2007: 5). This paper shall focus on three main activities which are recruitment, training, and personnel development. When it comes to recruitment, it is incumbent upon the Human Resource Manager to bring into the workforce, employees that are both wiling and competent to accomplish specific tasks. The work of recruitment goes hand in
According to research, broad banding refers to where the numbers of salary grades are consolidated into fewer, but broader, pay ranges (Kovac 2006). In broad banding, the spread of the pay ranges is wider and there is less overlap with the other pay ranges. Broad banding came about because organizations wanted to flatten their hierarchies and move decision-making closer to the point where necessity and
The classic Phrase by Mckinsey organisation, “the culture is how we do things around here” is taken as reference by many great people. It’s true that culture exist in an organisation which influences the work being done and also affects the success or failure of the project.