Recruiting

Those people adapt faster to new situation and hence solve problems much faster, and it is also unnecessary to antenna them their cooperate culture. Rule N minus 1 To keep the people busy and permanently challenged. The HRS management has developed a general rule of hiring people. The so-called n minus 1 rule. What Is this rule, it basically means that Microsoft is not hiring the needed amount of employees, instead they hire less than needed. In this case, they are not pressured to fill up all the positions and can make sure only to hire the best and most fitted for the Job.

All the employees are challenged with more work to keep workstation and work performances high. Hire/ no hire – system In Microsoft, the hiring process followed the strict hire or no hire system. The system works Like this. There are approximately 10 Interviewers for one employee and all of them have evaluate the candidate base on his creativity, problem solving skill and their personal opinion. Then they are bound to give their vote of hire or no-hire. All the results come together and finally the manager over the position, which to be filled, will decide on those results and his personal opinion over the candidate.

Babbler says, if we are not 100% sure that we want this guy, we always don’t hire. Hiring mediocre is far worse than hire the bad. Work environment Campus Work Place Since most people are recruited fresh from college education, most employees lack comfortable and familiar. So he created his firm to look like a campus for fresh off college employees. The offices of the employees were all closed offices which you could decorate and personalize. Those reminded more of dormitories than of offices.

A garden and a small pound in the middle of the campus for leisure and creative thinking process were also included. Caffeine culture Microsoft spent a lot of money for mandated benefits for their employees. The key to this strategy is to bind the workers as long to their workplace as possible. So the average day of a Microsoft employee looked like this: get up in the morning, drive to work, do some work, breakfast, do some more work, lunch, do more work, dinner, drive home sleep. The cafeteria was subsidized and basically everything with caffeine was for free – to raise productivity.

Feeling of a small company Bill Gates wanted to keep the feeling of his company the same one when they first founded Microsoft – a small company. To ensure that, he splinted his firm into small divisions and even smaller workups. That way people felt more important of their job, not like some wheels in a big company. Development Personal mentoring To ensure competitiveness, Microsoft has developed a ladder system – linked to their salaries. If work was accomplished in a satisfactory way, one could climb up the ladder without being promoted to management level.

This system is especially fitting to Microsoft, since most newly recruited employees were high technically skilled programmer, that meant not everyone of those people was a good manager. Don’t fire the learning When people at Microsoft fail at some projects, they won’t have to fear being fired. Bill Gates says that it would be stupid to fire people who Just learned a lot from allures and give them away to other companies. Instead they even get promoted to other projects to encourage them and motivate them to do better on this new project.

Review and Reward SMART system. It was a evaluation system of the employees achievement based on his work results quantified in Specific, Measurable, attainable, result-based, and time-bound features. That way, comparison between coworkers was made possible. Evaluation system Everyone at Microsoft was evaluated twice a year. They were given a rating between one (poor) and 5 (outstanding) to evaluate their work. All employees had to evaluate homeless first before seeing their supervises and getting evaluated by them.

That way it was made sure that everyone stayed on track and was getting permanently challenged. If an employee had no idea of what rating they were going to get, it meant that their manager did a poor Job. Options Last but not least, people were motivated with options on the firm. It not only meant, being rewarded for their present work but also meant to reward those in the future, to bind monetary rewards to the future performance of the firm, which is all dependent on the employees performances.

(Point 2) Organisation Benefits of attracting and retaining a diverse workforce: An increasing number of companies are realising the benefits of having a diverse workforce and as a result are incorporating equality and diversity objectives in their business strategies. Diversity is a widely-used concept which refers to visible and non–visible differences between individuals. There are six main strands of diversity: race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, age, and religion which are covered by UK legislation. Diversity also incorporates differences such as class, personality and working patterns What is meant by a diverse workforce?

Social diversity: Demographic diversity such as age, race ethics and gender Value Diversity: Psychological difference in personality and attitudes Information Diversity: Benefits are: * Diversity in employment promotes cost-effective employment relations: Employers have more choice from a greater skills base, improved employee satisfaction, reduced internal disputes, greater workplace harmony, improved retention and more effective and fairer promotion of talent * Diversity enhances customer relations: matching internal employee diversity to population diversity can provide performance benefits, which enhance awareness of consumer needs Diversity enhances creativity, flexibility and innovation in organisations: the flexibility, creativity and ability to innovate are enhanced by the existence of dissimilar mind sets * Diversity promotes sustainable development and business advantage: e. g. external recruitment of diverse top-team talent to inject new ideas and challenge the organisational mind sets and ways of doing things that can hinder change and organisational progress. (point 3) Factors that affect an organisation approach to Recruitment and Selection FACTORS AFFECTING RECRUITMENT (point 4)

Different recruitment and selection methods Recruitment and selection are usually considered as one process. However, I will make the distinction here between the initial actions and considerations when planning staff recruitment and the process of selecting an individual from a pool of applicants. Recruitment needs to be carefully planned in order to attract the right type of applicant. Recruitment The key to effective recruitment is preparation: knowing the job and what is required of someone to perform it well. The costs of recruiting the wrong person can be significant.

The cost of employing someone may be at least twice their salary when factors such as training, expenses and employer’s contributions to their pension are added. INTERNAL| AGENCY| EXTERNAL| Cheaper and quicker to recruitFamiliarity with the business and operationsBusiness already aware of strengths and weaknesses of candidatesProvides opportunity for promotion – motivational| Wider nets of targeted candidate attractionSaving management time interviewing only a top candidateProcess streamlining| Outside people bring in new ideasLarger pool of workers of which to find candidatesWider range of experience|

Selection Psychometric tests These are particularly useful if you want to assess candidates for Managerial or Senior appointments or candidates for appointments where there is a special need for the post – such as strong relationship building skills. These types of test are especially good at assisting with assessing how candidates are likely to behave, for example, towards a manager, towards their peers, and towards their subordinates. They will often provide a profile which should be discussed with the candidate to check validity, as they are self-perception questionnaires.

Candidates should also be given feedback on the profile. The profile should be a part of the assessment, contributing perhaps up to 10% towards the final decision. They should be used carefully as they need to be used in the right way by properly trained assessors. Interviews Interviews can take many forms and styles. A type of interviewing recommended is Criteria-Based Behavioural Interviewing. This type of interviewing is based around the criteria identified in the person specification – the essential and desirable criteria.

It is therefore really important to prepare a good person specification right at the start of the recruitment process. It is also important to identify how each of the criteria will be assessed. Some items in the criteria e. g. a qualification, can be assessed by reference to the application form, these can be called the “hard or factual criteria” and can usually be assessed on the application form or c. v. Presentations Presentations can be used in a variety of ways depending on how they relate to the job description and the normal working practices expected of the post.

In assessing presentations, it is important to have decided on the criteria against which each candidate will be marked. These could include criteria which will also be assessed at interview, but may take on a particular aspect – e. g. communications skills could be assessed in the interview but will be mainly looking at how the person communicates with the panel and gets their points across, as well as how they interact with the members of the panel. In a lecture style presentation, the candidates’ communications skills to a large group will be assessed, which is much more formal delivery.

Employee planning, recruiting, selecting, staffing and hiring is often a very difficult, timely and expensive task for any organization wishing to survive in today’s economy. In order for any organization to be successful they must attract and hire the most talented employees that fit the culture of the organization. It is the employees that make up an organization, so to be successful they must have a strict strategic process in place to recruit the right people for their organization.

There are many strategies that organizations use to recruit employees which include, the pipeline approach, competitiveness, employment branding, sourcing, diversity and technology to name a few. (ere. net, 2008, 4) At Patton –Fuller Community Hospital many of these strategies are used effectively by their Human Resource department. The pipeline approach is a strategy that seems to be one of the most important recruiting strategies because the approach builds a steady stream of applicants, and allows for resumes and applications to come in, and get sorted into areas of expertise that may be needed down the road.

It is very important for organizations to plan for a need that may develop as time goes on. It is also extremely important to note that in every industry there lies a competitor. Organizations must take note of what the competitor is doing at all times when it comes to recruitment strategies. This strategy is one that could be adopted by Patton-Fuller Community Hospital in the case of losing an employee; it is always a good idea to have back-ups that may be available or recruited from the competition.

Employment branding is extremely important in the recruiting process for any organization, especially in the medical field. The employees are attracted to a hospital’s external image as being a leader in the health care profession. Potential employees need to believe in where they work, and hospitals and other organizations can achieve this by painting this external image of what the organization is all about, attracting many talented applicants. Sourcing is a critical ecruitment strategy for Patton-Fuller Community Hospital.

“If you don’t utilize sources that attract a high percentage of top performers, it is unlikely you will make a quality hire. ” (ere. net, 2008, 8) Patton-Fuller relies upon their top-performing employees’ referrals, and recruiters that can screen potential applicants to ensure that they don’t end up with a weak hire. Diversity is becoming extremely important in all industries, but especially in the hospital setting.

By hiring diverse people, the needs of the diverse patients that come into the hospital can be treated by a diverse group of individuals with different talents for different positions. Diversity for Patton-Fuller will allow for this hospital to succeed, so it is very important that they take this into consideration for every hire. Technology is the key for many hospitals wishing to survive in today’s economy. With new technologies on the rise Patton-Fuller can continue to advertise their needs on the web, which will save the company time and money by increasing the hiring speed and improve screening.

In the medical field it is extremely important to have the most talented, dedicated team of professionals on staff to care for the needs of patients. The employees must be trusted not only by the patients, but also the staff. In order to ensure that the top notch employees are chosen, Patten-Fuller Community Hospital will have to continue to use the recruiting strategies that they currently use and try others as the future of technology is constantly changing.

Three: Recruiting Introduction The following report is submitted to the Staffing Services Director on recruiting at Tanglewood. Task 1: Develop a recruitment guide using Exhibit 5. 3 in the textbook as the format. Recruitment Guide for Store Associate Position: Store Associate Reports to: Shift Leader Qualifications: — High school diploma or equivalent Prior retail experience is preferred Relevant Labor Market: Pacific Northwest Timeline: Continuous Activities to undertake to source well qualified candidates: Staff members involved: Budget

Task 2: Describe the best “targets” for your recruiting efforts by considering the job and organizational context. Evaluate the various methods of recruiting in terms of whether they seem more like “open” or “targeted” recruiting, using the information in the book to help you make this decision. If some methods seem more “targeted,” whom do you think they target? The store associate position is an entry-level position in the Tanglewood organization and is focused on retail sales, customer service, and inventory control as the key activities for an employee at this level is expected to concentrate on for day-to-day operations.

Task 3: For each division use the data tables provided in Appendix B to estimate how each method fares in terms of yields and costs. Provide a one-page summary of the essential results of the various data tables you have been provided. Task 4: Northern Oregon has suggested that the other divisions of the company use a policy of using kiosks and staffing agencies rather than using the more “touchy-feely” method of relying on referrals. Does this division have a point? What would the effect of other regions increasing their use of external hiring be?

I think Northern Oregon has a valid point about the methods Tanglewood uses Task 5: Tanglewood’s top management is highly committed to improving customer service quality, and proposes that simply finding the cheapest way to hire is not sufficient. Besides costs and retention, what other measures of employee performance would be good “bottom line” metrics for the quality of a recruiting method? How might the managerial focus groups’ concerns fit with these alternative considerations?

I agree with Tanglewood’s management that “cheapest isn’t necessarily best” when considering how recruiting for new employees planned and executed. Task 6: The question of realism in the recruitment policy has been raised in focus groups. Write one paragraph proposals for targeted, realistic, and branded recruiting messages for Tanglewood’s customer store associate positions. What are the traditional arguments for and against using realistic recruiting policies?

This paper discusses the relative impact of recruitment/selection, training, and development for organizational effectiveness. First, recruitment and selection is discussed. Job analysis is very important in the selection process because it provides a realistic job preview and it identifies relevant traits and abilities needed for the job. Furthermore, predictive validity of several selection methods are discussed from which work samples, GMA, tests, and structured interviews are appeared to be the best predictors of future job performance. Second, the impact of training on organizational effectiveness is discussed.

Training design issues are discussed, and it is argued that training can increase organizational effectiveness although the effects of training are hard to assess. In addition, training is linked to recruitment and selection in which it is argued that the two HR practices are interdependent. Third, the concept development is discussed in which a distinction has been made between team and organizational development. The success of development is highly dependent upon employees’ support. Moreover, the concept strategic human resource management is introduced.

This concept entails linking HR practices to the strategic management processes and emphasizing coordination or congruence among different HR practices in order to increase the effectiveness of HR policies. Finally, three different theoretical perspectives on SHRM are discussed; the contingency, the configurational, and the universalistic approach. Introduction Competition, globalization, and continuous change in markets and technology have caused a transformation in the role of human resources (HR) from a traditional administrative to a more strategic role (Beer, 1997).

Human resource management (HRM) has become a part of the firm’s strategy and has to be minimized as a cost and maximized as value-adding component (Rogers & Wright, 1998). However, the added value of HRM has been subject of debate. Although latest empirical research showed that HRM has an positive effect on performance, the relationships are often weak and the results remain ambiguous (Paauwe & Boselie, 2008). So, there seem to be some indistinctness on what impact human resource practices actually have on organizational performance and effectiveness.

This paper will go into this issue and discuss the relative impact of recruitment and selection, training, and development for organizational effectiveness. First, the concerning concepts will be defined and discussed. Furthermore, the impact of the three separate HR practice on organizational effectiveness will be discussed. Finally an attempt will be made to integrate these HR practices and their effect on organizational effectiveness. Organizational effectiveness In order to discuss the impact of the three HR practices, the concept organizational effectiveness needs to be defined which is a very broad, vague concept and therefore hard to define.

Effectiveness refers to the output while taking into account the preset objectives, it is clearly a goal oriented measure (Rogers & Wright, 1998). This definition of effectiveness remains very broad since there are multiple ways to assess or measure outcomes. In this paper the typology of Dyer and Reeves (1995) will be used, who distinguish between four measures of organization outcomes; human resource outcomes (turnover, absenteeism, job satisfaction), organizational outcomes (productivity, quality, service), financial accounting outcomes (return on assets, profits), and capital market outcomes (stock price, growth, returns).

Logically, they argue that HR strategies were most likely to have an impact on HR outcomes, followed by organizational outcomes whereas the other two outcomes are more indirectly related. Recruitment and Selection Job analysis and recruitment The first HR practice that will be discussed is recruitment and selection, which is quite essential for organizations since it all starts with recruiting and selecting the right employees. An appropriate selection system starts with a job analysis in which the duties a job requires and what skills are needed to perform these duties is being analyzed (Fisher, Schoenfeldt & Shaw, 2003, chapter 4).

Job analysis can provide a realistic job preview about what the job will be and therefore reduces early employee dissatisfaction and turnover (Fisher et al. , 2003). Job analysis is also important for the assessment of job performance in for example 360 degree feedback since a job analysis can set performance criteria. In this feedback subjective measures are used which are vulnerable to measurement rating errors like halo-effects (Viswesvaran, Schmidt & Ones, 2005).

Nevertheless, subjective measures might be very useful to assess organizational effectiveness, especially in relation to HR practices since subjective measures are mainly used to assess HR or organizational outcomes which are more directly related to HR practices (Dyer & Reeves, 1995). Objective measures involve actual percentage figures for sales growth or profitability which measure financial and capital market outcomes and these are more distal and indirectly related outcomes (Dyer & Reeves, 1995).

Once applicants with realistic job expectations are recruited the actual selection process starts. Selection is the process of choosing from a group of applicants the individual best suited for a particular position and organization (Mony, Noe & Premeaux, 2002, p. 175). The recruitment process is very important for this because recruiting the right employees with realistic job expectations has a significant impact on the quality of the selection decision (Mony et al. 2002, chapter 7).

Making right hiring decisions is one of the best ways to improve productivity. Therefore, majority of managers recognize employee selection as one of their most difficult and most important business decisions (Mony et al. , 2002). The selection process starts with choosing the right selection instrument. Job analysis is also highly relevant for this since job analysis can identify relevant and specific traits and abilities needed for the job which saves time by not measuring irrelevant traits or abilities (Voskuijl, 2005).

The goal of the selection process is to select those applicants who are likely to perform the best on the future job. Therefore, the selection methods used in the selection process need to be valid, especially high predictive validity and/or incremental validity are relevant. Predictive validity refers to observing employee performance over a period of time to determine whether the selection method has differentiate the successful and less successful employees (Mony et al. , 2002).

Incremental validity refers to whether the instrument can explain anything additional beyond other instruments. Selection methods Schmidt and Hunter (1998) performed a meta-analysis of 85 years of research in personnel selection presenting the validity of 19 different selection procedures for predicting job and training performance. They also assessed the incremental validity of selection procedures beyond the predictive validity of general mental ability in order to assess which combinations of methods show the highest validity for job performance.

Their results revealed that work sample tests (0,54), GMA tests (0,51), and structured interviews (0,51) show the highest predictive validity for job performance. Schmidt and Hunter (1998) state that GMA can considered to be the primary personnel measure for hiring decisions. More recent findings of Schmidt and Hunter (2004) confirmed this and state that GMA is of critical importance. Salgado et al. (2003) found similar results and argue that there is validity generalization and large operational validities in different occupational groups for predicting job performance and training success with GMA measures.

Salgado et al. (2003) found job complexity to be a moderator; the more complex the job is, the more GMA matters. Regarding the incremental validity above GMA tests, Schmidt and Hunter (1998) conclude that the best combination of selection methods would be the GMA test plus a work sample test (0,63), or plus integrity test (0,65), or plus a structured interview (0,63). Unstructured interviews show a lower predictive validity as well as lower incremental validity above GMA tests compared to structured interviews.

According to a meta-analysis of Huffcutt, Conway, Roth and Stone (2001) the most frequently rated construct in interviews in general are basic personality and applied social skills. They also distinguish between unstructured interview and structured interview and found that structured interviews focus more on constructs that have a stronger relationship with job performance like job knowledge and skills, whereas unstructured interviews focus more on general intelligence and education (Huffcutt et al., 2001).

So, it seems that unstructured interviews mainly measure general mental ability; intelligent people tend to do better on unstructured interviews. Nevertheless, many organizations in the United States rely solely on unstructured interviews (Schmidt & Hunter, 1998) since they have a high face validity; they are transparent and people feel like they have some influence over the results. Although the results of Schmidt and Hunter (1998) show that there are more valid methods available.

Since people, as well as the applicant as the recruiting organization, seem to have a preference for unstructured interviews, they should be used at the end of a selection process where their potential harm is minimalized since only suitable candidates are left. Another selection method which employers often use and believe to be a useful predictor whereas academics believe that they have little predictive validity, is grade point average (Roth, BeVier, Schippmann & Switzer, 1996). The meta-analysis of Roth et al. (1996) however, shows that GPA could be a more valid predictor of job performance than many academics thought.

Taking a look at personality inventories as selection tools, Dudley, Orvis, Lebiecki and Cortina (2006) conclude that they are becoming increasingly popular and most researchers agree personality is important for predicting job performance. The five-factor model is the most used method to assess personality, the most important factor for predicting job performance is conscientiousness (Dudley et al, 2006). Schmidt and Hunter (1998) found a predictive validity of 0,31 for conscientiousness tests.

Conscientiousness is also a construct that is often measured in interviews, as Huffcutt et al. (2001) have found that conscientiousness is the single most rated construct in structured interviews and is a good predictor of job performance. Schmidt and Rader (1999) argue that different approaches of structured interviews all measure facets of conscientiousness and GMA which have a known generalizable validity. There is some dissent whether facets of a broad trait like conscientiousness are also relevant to consider in the prediction of job performance. Research shows that narrow traits or facets show incremental validity above and beyond global conscientiousness (Dudley et al., 2006).

Moreover, Schmidt and Rader (1999), and Huffcutt et al. (2001) argue that facets of conscientiousness like responsibility, dependability, initiative, and achievement orientation are important in predicting job performance. So, recruitment and selection have quite some impact on organizational effectiveness provided that the selection system first recruits the right employees and then, in turn the right and relevant selection methods are used to select the best suited applicants for the position.

Job analysis is important in this process because it both enables providing a realistic job preview as it identifies the traits and abilities needed for the job, selection methods can be chosen based on that. The selection methods with the highest predictive validity are work samples, GMA tests, and structured interviews in which conscientiousness is a frequently rated construct. However, the predictive validity of these selection methods refers to job performance of that particular job on individual level rather than organizational performance or effectiveness.

Nevertheless, choosing the right selection methods and selecting the best employees will probably also increase organizational effectiveness. Training Training design Training and employee development can be defined as ‘a systematic approach to learning and development to improve individual, teams, and organizational effectiveness’ (Kraiger & Ford, 2007, p. 281). Thus, the goal of training is to improve organizational defectiveness. The effectiveness of training programs is often hard to assess, especially at the organizational level where many other factors might interfere and influence the outcomes.

Therefore, the training should be designed in such a way to make evaluating effectiveness possible. First, training criteria should be set, without these you cannot determine if the goals were met. Training criteria are classified into two levels: training level and performance level, the latter is most important for assessing the impact of training on organizational effectiveness because performance-level criteria are concerned with the person’s performance on the job rather than in the training setting (Spector, 2006, p. 181).

Spector (2006, chapter 7) however, states that one should include criteria at both levels to thoroughly evaluate effectiveness, although some studies show that training is effective at the training level but not at the performance level. In order to assess the criteria a proper design should be chosen. The two most popular designs are: pretest-posttest and control group (Spector, 2006). Pretest-posttest design is intended to evaluate how much participants gained from the training by testing the performance criteria before, and after the training (Spector, 2006).

In the control group design, participants are tested only once after the training and are compared with equivalent employees who have not been trained (Spector, 2006). In practice however, the most used design is the post-test with only self-report measures, which is obviously not sufficient for evaluating effectiveness because there is not comparison possible. Besides, self-report measure might not be a valid predictor of performance, as Dysvik and Martinsen (2008) show in their study that student’s subjective reactions to teaching and their consequent performance were not correlated.

On the other hand, assessing training effectiveness at organizational-level is also very hard when the control group or pretest-posttest design are used. For the control group design is it hardly impossible to find an equivalent organization in order to make comparison possible. When using the pretest-posttest design another problem might occur; other factors might emerge during the training process causing increased organizational effectiveness. In an ideal situation the trained entity should be isolated in order to exclude spurious effects, obviously this is hardly impossible too.

Furthermore, Spector (2006) points out some factors that should be taken into consideration when designing a training program in order to maximize the transfer of training. Ignoring these factors might result in an training program that does not affect behavior on the job (Spector, 2006). These factors are for example; feedback, training should be as identical to real job situations as possible, and overlearning which refers to giving the trainee practice beyond what is necessary to reach the criteria (Spector, 2006). Effectiveness of training programs

According to the previous paragraph training can have quite a big impact on organizational effectiveness, provided that the right criteria, design, and design factors are formulated. There are however, different views on the effectiveness of training programs. On the one hand there is the ‘best practice’ view that states that firms that investigate in training and development efforts outperform those who do not. On the other hand, Wright and Geroy (2001) state that ‘the belief that training leads to improved employee and firm performance is myth that equates training with goodness’ (p.586).

Campbell and Kuncel (2001) support the best practice view by stating that ‘training is a critical component of effective human resource management’ and that its importance for both individuals as organizations can probably not be overstated. A point of critique to the best practice view is the issue of reverse causality, since already successful organizations tend to invest more in training and development (Tharenou, Saks & Moore, 2007).

Moreover, there are studies that argue that the effectiveness of training is dependent on several individual, contextual, and situational factors that might mediate or moderate the relationship between training and organizational effectiveness. Colquitt, LePine, and Noe (2000) attempt to develop an integrative theory of training motivation using a meta-analytical approach. They summarized literature on training motivation including its antecedents, situational and personality variables, and its relationship with training outcomes like declarative knowledge, skill acquisition, and transfer.

They argue that more proximal variables, like motivation to learn and transfer of training, mediate between the more distal variables (in this case individual and situational characteristics) and job performance (Colquitt et al. , 2000). Findings of this study indicate that individual characteristics like locus of control, conscientiousness, anxiety, cognitive ability, job involvement, and self-efficacy are significant predictors of training motivation.

Also the situational factor climate, which refers to trainee’s perceptions about characteristics of the work environment that influence the use of training content on the job, was a significant predictor of training motivation (Colquitt et al. , 2000). Blume. Ford, Baldwin and Huang (2010) performed a similar meta-analysis in exploring the impact of predictive factors on the transfer to training, though they examined these effects in different tasks and contexts.

They found that predictor variables like motivation and work environment had stronger relationships to transfer when the focus of training was on open as opposed to closed skills (specific skills) (Blume et al. , 2010). Furthermore, their results confirmed the meta-analysis of Colquitt et al. (2000) by finding positive relationships between training transfer and cognitive ability, conscientiousness, motivation, and a supportive work environment (e. g. climate). Especially cognitive ability is a valid predictor of training success (Schmidt & Hunter, 1998; Salgado et al., 2003; Colquitt et al. , 2000).

The main difference between these two meta-analysis is that Colquitt et al. (2000) focus on the difference between distal and proximal variables in which training motivation is a more proximal variable, and therefore indicated as a mediating variable. Whereas Blume et al. (2010) do not distinguish between distal and proximal variables, and consider individual characteristics and training motivation to be both predictors of transfer of training. What these two meta-analyses do not show it the eventual impact of training on organizational outcomes.

Tharenou, Sasks and Moore (2007) examined this in a meta-analysis from 67 studies. They distinguish between human resource (employee attitude, behavior, and human capital), organizational performance (performance and productivity) and financial outcomes (profit and financial indicators). The results of their review suggest that training is positively related to HR outcomes and organizational performance outcomes, though the effect is small caused by other variables that influence employees attitudes (Tharenou et al. , 2007). In addition, training was only very weak related to financial outcomes (Tharenou et al., 2007).

This partly confirms the previous mentioned research of Dyer and Reeves (1995) since Tharanou et al. (2007) suggest that the outcomes more proximally related to training show the strongest correlations. Training and Recruitment & Selection So, one can conclude that training has quite some impact on organizational effectiveness although but this effectiveness is dependent on several variables. Tharenou et al. (2007) for example suggest that the relationship between training and firm performance is mediated by employee attitudes and human capital.

Employee attitude is something that can be influenced at the workplace, by for instance creating a supporting work environment, whereas human capital is much harder to directly influence. Human capital refers to workforce knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs). Some of these KSAs however, can be indirectly influenced by adapting the recruitment and selection process to select employees with characteristics that predict training success. Conscientiousness and general mental ability are the most mentioned individual characteristics that have shown to be good predictors of training success (Salgado et al., 2003; Blume et al. , 2010; Schmidt & Hunter, 1998; Colquitt et al. , 2000).

Schmidt and Hunter (1998) argue that when employers are using GMA test to select employees, that employee will have a high level of performance as well as he or she will learn the most from job training programs and will acquire job knowledge faster from experience. This also works the other way around, Connerley (1997) suggests that one of the strategies to attract better employees is to improve the quality of recruiters by training them.

This, and the earlier mentioned issue of adapting recruitment to select employees that are more likely to benefit from training, shows the interdependency between recruitment and selection, and training in relation to organizational effectiveness. Development The last HR practice discussed in this paper is development which is highly connected to training. Employee development has already been discussed in the previous section about training, therefore this section will mainly focus on team and organizational development.

Team development

The changing nature of work has led to an increasing shift towards the use of teams which has implications for how teams should be designed to enhance both individual and team performance (DeShon, Kozlowski, Schmidt, Milnerz & Weichmann, 2004). Kozlowski and Ilgen (2006) define team development as ‘an informal process by which group members attempt to create effective social structures and work processes on their own’ (p. 105). They conceptualize team effectiveness as performance evaluated by others, member satisfaction and viability (Kozlowky & Ilgen, 2006).

Furthermore, several factors that enhance team effectiveness are pointed out; unit and team climate, team mental models and transactive memory, collective learning, team cohesion, team efficacy and potency, and team regulation skills (competencies, functions, and dynamic adaption) (Kozlowky & Ilgen, 2006). Adair, Hideg and Spence (2013) support the view that team climate, cohesion, and collective learning are important by pointing out the importance of developing shared values in teams. Furthermore, DeShon et al. (2004) examined the role of feedback towards individual and team goals and how this affects resource allocation decisions.

They found that teams receiving individual and team feedback were most committed to the team goal (DeShon et al. , 2004). So, these studies mainly point out the importance of team development for team effectiveness. Castka, Sharp and Bamber (2003) go even further by stating that the use of teams is an important means in organizational change and continuous improvement (innovation activities) and that the organizational ability to mobilize their employees in teams for problem solution matters not only to managers, but also to investors (p.29).

Investors attach great importance to use of teams and might base their decision to invest based on this (Castka et al. , 2003). Castka et al. (2003) introduce two arguments why organizations can gain from teamwork development. First, organizational teams can improve organizational performance through involvement, learning, and increased communication. Second, as pointed out before, organizations that develop their teamwork and improve their performance due to this increases its value for investors (Castka et al. , 2003).

Thus, according to these authors, team development might also have effects on the organizational level and might even affect financial outcomes by referring to investors. Organizational development Weick and Quin (1999) argue that ‘from the perspective of organizational development, change is a set of behavioral science-based theories, values, strategies, and techniques aimed at the planned change of the organizational work setting for the purpose of enhancing individual development and improving organizational performance, through the alteration of organizational members. on-the-job behaviors’ (p. 363).

So, according to them organizational change and development can enhance individual development as well as improving organizational performance by altering organizational members on the job behaviors. As argued before, these behaviors might be enhanced by training or by recruiting and selecting the employees that are most likely to behave in a way that enhances organizational development and performance. Other ways to alter employees’ on-the-job-behavior is using interventions like job rotation, job enrichment, and teambuilding which lead to better organizational outcomes (Buchanan & Huczynski, 2010) and it motivates employees.

Piderit (2000) argues that successful organizational change is highly dependent on generating support and enthusiasm from employees for the purposed change. Grant (2011) proposes that end users can imspire and motivate employees by deliviring convincing testimonials of their experiences with the organization, whereas when leaders are the sole source of inspiring messages, they are considered as being uncredible. Organizational development is thus aimed at improving organizational performance, the effectiveness of this aim is to a large extent dependent on employees’ acceptance and support for the development.

However, there is some critique on organizational development that it mainly focus on soft attitudes and values, rather than on the hard operational and financial results (Buchanan & Hyczynski, 2010). In addition, the difficulties in assessing and measuring the effectiveness that applied to training programs might also aply to organizatioanl development. Strategic Human Resource Management Although there are some conditional factors that need to be taken into account, the three HR practices discussed in this paper can have quite some impact on organizational effectiveness.

The problem often is that it is very hard to assess the sheer effectiveness of these practices on organizational effectiveness. Nevertheless one can conclude that the HR practices mainly have their effect on proximal human resource and organizational outcomes like turnover, job satisfaction, and productivity which in their turn might have effects on financial outcomes. This is seen from a micro or tradition HRM perspective, which covers the sub functions of HR policy and practice.

The growing importance of HR for organizational success however, has led to an increasing interest in making HRM a more integral, strategy-driven activity in organizations (Perry, 1993, p. 59). This is called strategic human resource management which can be defined as ‘an interdependent bundle of planned or emergent human resource activities that are intended to achieve positive organizational outcomes’ (Maler & Fisher, 2013, p. 23 ). These interdependent bundles of HR practices should be aligned in such a way to complement and strengthen each other (Gruman & Saks, 2011).

This is a macro-orientated view of HRM, it differs from traditional HRM on two dimensions, as argued by Wright and McMahan (1992). The first is the vertical dimension which entails the linking of HR practices to the strategic management process of the organization. The second dimension is horizontal, which emphasis the coordination or congruence among the different practices (Wright & McMahan, 1992). An example of this, is the congruence of selection and training as earlier discussed in this paper.

So, an internal fit between the HR practices of an organization can lead to a higher added value than when the HR practices are considered as separate. Theoretical perspectives Behavioral perspective focuses on employee behavior as a mediator between HR practices and firm performances (Wright & MCMahan, 1992). So, this perspective can explain that although some HR practices might not have a direct impact on organizational effectiveness, they do enhance employees’ behavior (e. i. motivation and commitment) which on its turn affects firm performance.

The bahavioral perspective has its roots in contingency theory. Contingency theory entails that an organization’s HR practices must be consistent with other aspects of the organization in order to be effective (Delery & Doty, 1996). Two other theories that are distinguished, are the configurational and universalistic theory. Configurational theories are concerned with how the pattern of multiple independent variables is related to a dependent variable rather than with how individual independent variables are related to the dependent variable (Delery & Doty, 1996, p.804).

The SHRM perspective is a form of configurational theory because it is an integrative perspective which argues that patterns of HR activities, as opposed to single activities, are necessary to achieve organizational outcomes (Gruman & Saks, 2011). SHRM is also a form of the contingency perspective, because the vertical dimension of Wright and McMahan (1992) entails the linking of HR practices to the strategic management process of the organization.

On the other hand, there is the universalistic approach, which is the earlier mentioned best-practice view which states that some single HR activites are always the best choice to achieve organizational outcomes. The earlier mentioned meta-analysis of Thanerou et al. (2007) found support for both the contingency and universalistic perspective. On the one hand, they found that training appeared to be stronger related to outcomes when it was matched with organizational capital intensity and business strategy (contingency), whereas on the other hand, they found training to be related independently to organizational outcomes (Tharenou et al., 2007).

Also other studies discussed in this essay show support for both perspectives, GMA for example is found by Schmidt and Rader (1999) to be a generalizable factor , since it is always a good predictor of job performance and training succes. Salgado et al. (2003) however, found job complexity to be a moderator. Finally, Delery and Doty (1996) assessed the theoretical foundation of the SHRM literature, and concluded that each of the three perspectives can be used to structure theoretical arguments in order to explain significant levels of variation in financial performance.