Human Resources

A corporate scheme is the one which represents the overall vision and the mission of an administration. Many companies fail to concentrate on this and all they focus is on the bring forthing the goods and services trusting it satisfies the demands and wants of the client which is besides of import but is non everything an administration does.

Let ‘s get down up with the intent of the assignment, the ground for this research is to measure the linkage of a company ‘s human resource ‘s scheme and the corporate scheme. Now by the corporate scheme here we mean is the overall vision set by the administration. This statement can be justified by many writers and is the existent fact that everyone in the administration should cognize.

The ground is that the administrations fail largely is, they are non able to set up an effective scheme ( Verena, V 2006 ) of their functional countries such as the human resources, selling, finance etc. The assignment is concentrating chiefly with the human resources and it ‘s planning and the corporate scheme.

“ Corporate scheme concerns two different inquiries: what concern the corporation should be in and how the corporate office should pull off the array of the concern units. ” ( Porter, M. 1990 )

The above definition reveals two facets that first every administration should cognize the industry it is covering. Second, the scope of concern units a company deals in. Now it is obvious that the corporate scheme can non be fulfilled without the proper engagement of the human resources in other words the employees to pull out the best possible result ( Rowe, A. 2006 ) . Thus the construct of alining the human resources scheme could be extracted by this impression.

Therefore, this assignment evaluates the schemes laid by Singapore Airlines in order to accomplish the overall corporate scheme of the administration. The kernel of this research is the critical factor which would hold made the managing of the employees even better based on the literature used in the appraisal.

THE CORPORATE STRATEGY AND OBJECTIVES OF SINGAPORE AIRLINES

Overview

Singapore Airlines is a diversified company covering in assorted related concerns having harmonizing to an article written by Heracleous, L. , Wirtz, J. , viz. :

Singapore Airport Terminal ( 80.8 % )

Singapore Engineering Company ( 81 % )

Singapore Airlines Cargo ( 100 % )

Silk Air ( 100 % )

Tiger Airways ( 49 % )

Virgin Atlantic ( 49 % )

Corporate Scheme

Given that the company deals in diversified concerns Singapore Airlines at its corporate degree follows the scheme of related variegation. A related variegation scheme is in which:

“ … an administration operates in several concerns that are someway linked to one another ” ( Ricky, W. Griffin 2007 )

Harmonizing to Ricky, W. Griffin there are three basic benefits of utilizing such a scheme which are:

The administrations that use such a scheme do non depend on any one concern cut downing the fiscal menaces.

They cut down the operating expenditures i.e. the costs are divided by the figure of concerns.

There is a interactive attack of basking the strengths and capableness through a figure of concerns it operates in.

Aim

Harmonizing to an article written by Jochen W, Loizos H, and Nitin P, the aims of Singapore Airlines were to:

Supply a superior client satisfaction that will be consistent and moderately priced.

A pleasant ROI to the stockholders and bring forthing equal net incomes to afford an ample support for investings.

Develop the best Human Resources patterns that draw, grow, motivate and retain the work force which play a function in accomplishing the house ‘s aims.

Maximise the capacity of operations and utilize all the available resources.

With the above referred scheme and aims of Singapore Airlines through the attested beginnings it is clear that the house from it ‘s really founding has a construct of pull offing its ‘ employees ( cost effectivity ) in such a manner that it delivers and sustains an first-class service.

Note: This subdivision is deliberately clean

A CRITICAL EVALUATION OF HUMAN RESOURCES STRATEGIES IN CONTEXT TO SINGAPORE AIRLINES

Knowing that Singapore Airlines has a corporate scheme that is related differentiated one and the aim of the house is to accomplish leading for in an first-class service which means the vision of the Singapore Airlines is to remain in front of the rivals. Now by this it besides evaluated that it is an air hose industry which is a service based industry.

A logical impression to acquire from the aims set by Singapore Airlines is that it has to concentrate on utilizing the resources in such a manner that it turns out to be in excellence and the demand of best people with best public presentation through their accomplishments. In a scenario of such a sort this assignment takes a critical reappraisal of the schemes laid by the company with the aid of available literature on how can a steadfast do the best public presentation deploying and redeploying the human resources and the human resources schemes used by Singapore Airlines. These schemes can be extracted by the aid of the diagram given below which is followed by the account of each of the scheme.

RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION

“ Furthermore, “ the people recruited ” in an endeavor or an organisation creates the concern civilization which can foreground endeavors ‘ places and do them different from rivals. ” ( Vinet, N. 2010 )

The definition spring by Vinet draws an of import that the enlisting scheme should be done with the alliance of the coveted aim of an administration as it is the people in the administration who deal who represent the endeavor by making a civilization and that differentiates the administrations from the challengers.

A research conducted by Jochen W, Loizos H, and Nitin P Singapore Airlines is the one which is much concern of this affair as they lay a thorough scheme in the enlisting procedure and a rigorous procedure of choosing the employees. The procedure of recruiting and choice of employees goes through the undermentioned phases as evaluated from the research:

Baseline enlisting and Screening: at the really first measure from a scope of appliers the showing of the appliers is made on the bases of their age ranges, academic makings and physical properties.

Interviews: the appliers which are successful in the showing are farther take three unit of ammunitions of interviews.

Uniform test: the appliers after the interview phases have to travel through the test of their visual aspects in the uniform.

Water trials: a assurance degree testing is done of the appliers ‘ i.e. they are made to leap in H2O from a tallness of three meters, this gives the position to the interviewer what the reaction of them will be if such a state of affairs comes up where they have to escort the riders in the H2O.

Psychometric trial: the psychological trials are so behavior to judge the intelligence, attitudes, aptitudes and personalities of the appliers.

After the enlisting is made the successful appliers are farther monitored on a six month test and so contracted for five old ages if successful. This procedure of selecting is a most rigorous procedure by which Singapore Airlines ensures that they recruit the people with right accomplishments attributes the company desires to hold to accomplish the set aims.

Training AND DEVELOPMENT

An article Greg Procknow gives five of import grounds as to why preparation is necessary in an administration:

Training contributes to the overall scheme.

Ensures the quality out of the employees through the preparation and development.

Guaranting the security and safety is kept among the employees every bit good as the clients

Attracting the skilled people and retain the bing 1s.

Non-financial wagess for the employees for illustration: publicities.

Singapore Airlines has a good lucifer given above such that it does believe that preparation is pool that links itself with the employees. It does hold a good accent on the preparation on the employees concentrating on the point that being a service based administration the employees the merely means by which it can accomplish its strategic aims and stick to the corporate scheme.

Therefore a research conducted by Jochen W, Loizos H, and Nitin P, Singapore Airlines group has seven preparation schools for the seven chief places of operations and service conveyance:

Cabin crew

Flight operations

Commercial preparation

Information engineering

Security

Airport services preparation and technology

Further the preparation classs are conducted on a four and twenty nine months for the bing employees to assist them cognize and follow what the administration expects from them.

Singapore Airlines follows holistic scheme in developing the human resources which is non merely concerned with the wellness and safety issues but besides on the functional issues and beauty attention, high-quality and alien nutrient and vino, art of conversation.

The house has a Management Development Centre ( MDC ) besides offers general direction preparation under the horizon of the HR division.

Service DELIVERY TEAMS

[ MAXIMISING PERFORMANCE ]

Harmonizing to Jochen W, Loizos H, and Nitin P, the accent is laid in order to pull out a high value of public presentation from the employees through public presentation assessments. Through the public presentation appraisals the company is doing the squads effectual in executing. The public presentation is evaluated and assured through the followers:

The leaders or the company supervise the staff developments

The Staff public presentations are evaluated and communicated to them through assessments.

The staffs are supervised sporadically.

Feedbacks are taken besides from the monitored.

An improved monitoring is done establishing on the employees feedback.

As a consequence of such a public presentation assessment Singapore Airlines are successful in accomplishing a high public presentation ensuing a to an effectual bringing squad.

Choice STAFF CONTROL

[ MAXIMISING CONTRIBUTION ]

The staff control scheme is laid particularly with the frontline cabin crew such that the corporate scheme and the organizational ends are communicated to the staff. They are made clear that their function is they do non hold a vision of going the universe ‘s largest air hose but be a cost leader in the industry. Therefore, the quality is to maintained and is non optional, this ensured by guaranting they hire people with the same quality through a series of appraisals made in the enlisting procedure ( psychometric trials, H2O trials, tea party trial, etc. ) .

The ultimate rivals to Singapore Airlines are Air France-KLM Group, British Airways and the Lufthansa Airlines. The quality of the staff and their services are controls in order to remain in front of these challengers in footings of cost leading.

MOTIVATION AND REWARD

To anticipate the best out of the employee they have to be motivated through a wages system ( Makenan, I. 2008 ) . This should b vitamin E genuinely based on their public presentation which denotes ‘well done good occupation ‘ as every employee expects this from this grasp from the directors, leaders and the administration.

Harmonizing to the article written by Jochen W, Loizos H, and Nitin P, Singapore Airlines uses both fiscal and non-financial wagess in order to the acknowledgment of the employees which can be seen below as follows:

Non-financial wagess:

Photographs and names of the good employees in the newssheets which is a signifier of acknowledgment.

Annual Deputy Chairman ‘s Award

Fiscal wagess:

A important per centum of variable wage constituents linked to single staff parts and company ‘s fiscal public presentation.

The above wagess used by Singapore Airlines works as a good factor to maximize the part and accomplishments of people who are selected exhaustively through the stiff enlisting and choice procedure.

All the above schemes laid by the administration are successful 1s which help the administration to keep the corporate scheme and accomplish the corporate aims so far by cognizing it has been making good.

Critical ASPECTS OF THE HUMAN RESOURCE STRATEGIES IN CONTEXT TO SINGAPORE AIRLINES

Retention schemes

Although the organistion is making really good in footings of pull offing the human resources and has been really effectual besides the house has made an effort to retain the accomplishments in the administration. An accent has besides made to make so as harmonizing to the research made by Jochen W, Loizos H, and Nitin P, shows that the administration maintains a direction development Centre which focuses on develops the employees and helps in retaining them by spliting the development programmes into 3 parts as:

programmes the focal point on the varying precedences and required accomplishment at different managerial hierarchal phases ;

Encouragement programmes to develop the managerial accomplishments ;

Programs that focus in the countries of societal protocols and framing which in bend aid in self-development.

But still the administration is holding a 10 % labour turnover every twelvemonth which may be due to the ground that the employees are non good motivated or recognised.

The findings from the appraisal made on the footing of the assignment rubric gives a position point that the house has a keeping on the list and doing an indirect effort to prolong the work force, but at that place stands a demand for a direct keeping scheme which should be focused as the antonym can ensue in the followers:

Excessively much cost of enrolling people as it is already traveling through a drawn-out procedure in the hunt of the right accomplishment.

Excessively much of clip consumed besides in the enlisting and choice process.

New staff takes clip or finds it hard to set in the civilization and environment.

The skilled work force joins the rivals which is a winning point given to the challengers.

In order to get the better of the people go forthing the administration a scope of schemes can be laid.

Schemes to halt the labor turnover

Implementing of motive theory given by Fredrick Herzberg which divides people in the administration into two parts which given below in the theoretical account.

Although the administration is actuating the employees through wagess but there should be a proper categorization of both the parties to stress on and development programs should be laid in conformity.

Create communities among the employees which in bend build up a societal web. Peoples do non go forth the administration as go forthing the administration would be go forthing their webs. ( Torrington D. , Hall L. , Taylor S. 2005 )

Execution of grudge direction could besides cut down the resigning of employees as it makes them experience they have an option if they are non satisfied by their superior. Singapore Airlines should hold a process for placing such grudges. They can be identified by the followers:

Beginning: Lecture notes

Exit interview, these are done with the employees who are go forthing the administration, and are helpful in retaining the employee by offerings and besides acquiring the feedbacks from them which can be incorporated in the administration.

Gripe Boxs: these are the boxes in which the employees put their grudges and their critics to any superior. They differ from the suggestion boxes as the people do non stipulate who they are.

Opinion Survey: A signifier of self rating of the grudges by the administration and a good manner to keep employee relationship and anticipate maximal part from the work force.

Open-door Policy: A policy which is spoken of many times in an administration and is really less in action. This policy is the one where any employee or the director is free to near a superior to describe his or her grudge.

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

Singapore Airlines does non hold an accent on the construct of cognition sharing among the employees. A cognition that is seemed to be preserved within the people but should be among the people as sharing of cognition tends to heighten when the thoughts shared and this is done in a collaborative mode. ( Lecture resources )

Schemes to promote cognition sharing in an administration:

The procedure can be divided into people itself with specific duty to make so. As shown in the diagram below: Beginning: Lecture notes.

The cognition designers: Chief Knowledge Officer and affect, among other things, who emphasize on how the cognition can be shared and how people will be trained, how they will be rewarded for collaborative working.

The cognition facilitators: consists of people who run processes to assist knowledge flow, for illustration company journalists who write up client instance surveies and undertaking reappraisals ; bibliothecs who develop the storage and retrieval of information ; information service suppliers who provide an internal consultancy service to happen and present information to staff ; webmasters who develop the company intranet.

The cognition cognizant: Consists of employees, who have a duty in sharing their expertness and cognition and take part in value of coaction.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

The research in this assignment was made on Singapore Airlines as it is a service based administration and trades in a service industry and the human resource factor is much more critical here as they represent the organistion. It is their service which derives the competitory advantage for the administration.

Singapore Airlines Emphasize on a double scheme i.e. cost leading and distinction. The human resources scheme has been good aligned so far to prolong the competitory advantage as the research shows that Singapore is non a budgetary air hose but still is offering the monetary value of a budgetary air hose.

As this appraisal is based on the research made on the diary The Role of Human Resources in Achieving Service Excellence and Cost Effectiveness at Singapore Airlines by Jochen Wirtz, Loizos Heracleous and Nitin Pangarkar in 2007, the diary reveals five schemes laid by Singapore air hoses in order to aline the human resources scheme to the corporate scheme and aims through maximization of accomplishments and part of the people.

At the terminal of the rating and the amplification of these schemes a point of view was clear that the administration although has a stiff and rigorous process of recruiting and choosing the people but which evidently for no uncertainty has to be so drawn-out and besides dearly-won. This factor could be reduced by cut downing the labor turnover. They necessity is due to a ground that when the economic system is down the turnover is what it is at the minute ( 10 % ) , but if the economic system is on the extremum this per centum can besides travel at the extremum.

Therefore the administration should be concentrating on two chief factors given already recommended in the above subdivision that is:

Retention scheme to prolong the accomplishment in the organistion and cognize why they leave the company. ( Torrington D. , Hall L. , Taylor S. 2005 )

Build or make cognition sharing environment in the company so that even if the people leave the administration at that place silent accomplishment remains expressed. The ground is that new staff take clip to set in the civilization and to be trained to give the same public presentation of the former employees

64 A STUDY OF HRM PRACTICES AND ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE IN SELECTED PRIVATE SECTOR ORGANIZATIONS IN INDIA 1. Executive summary The new economic environment is primarily marked by the freeing of shackles for entrepreneurship and economic growth. The “license system” has been replaced, to a great extent, by a “market system”. The challenge of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices would be to create an environment of resilience, which can accommodate and assimilate successfully changes in systems, structures, technologies, methods, etc. People would have to ascribe the right meaning to the change process.

India is well-equipped to succeed on global markets. It has a pool of highly educated people, a well-developed judicial system, democratic governance, an established banking industry, and fairly sophisticated and inter-linked fi nancial markets. Knowledge industries will be at the vanguard of economic opportunity, and India will be poised to take advantage of this trend with its corpus of highly skilled people. The changes on the market scene have necessitated the Indian industry to look inward for the development of human resources (HR).

People develop themselves in a globalized scenario with new directions along with new problems and issues arising to develop new competencies to meet the changing requirements, aspirations, and problems. There are, however, some universal goods towards which all human resource management efforts should be aimed at. The emergence of Japanese human resource management has led to the concept of culture in a big way. At the organizational level, the goal of HRM is normally to have competent and motivated employees to ensure managerial effectiveness and growth of the organization.

Organizations normally direct their HRM efforts towards the development of competencies and organizational culture. Organizations use mechanisms to achieve HRM goals with competent and committed employees. Organizations can achieve very little even if they have excellent technological and other resources at their command. Such an assertion gains better credibility in the context of developing countries like India, that is, typically in early growth stages in terms of economic development, and growing more rapidly than the ‚traditional‘ developed economies of Japan,

North America and Europe. The countries with higher rates of growth are mostly in South East Asia, South Asia and some Latin American countries. Research evidence shows that HR practices along with culture do affect effi ciency in the organization. There are hardly any or very few studies which show a link between HRM practices and organizational culture in India. The review of literature has identifi ed that the major chunk of research in India emanates from descriptive data and experience sharing, which does not serve certain practice-oriented concerns.

There is very little systematic, empirical research in the scientifi c paradigm that has been carried out in the Indian HR lexicon. HR research is inspired by western models, and lacks an indigenous perspective. The review of literature on HRM practices has revealed that the most of the work done is in relation to organizational strategy. The methodology employed a sample of 95 respondents from two private sector organizations. The questionnaire consists of 90 items, of which (1) 69 items concern HRM practices of the organization, and (2) 21 items concern organization culture.

The correlation analysis has been used to infer the relationship between variables of HRM practices and organizational culture. A healthy culture is required for utilizing and enhancing employee competencies and to develop people. This study focuses on the positive signifi cant relationship between HRM practices and organizational culture in private sector organizations. There is a positive signifi cant relationship between HRM practices and variables of organizational culture operationalised in terms of self-realization, status enhancement, inventive values and socio economic support.

The pressures are most likely to be felt by those who have led and managed the change process in such a volatile economic environment. HRM would have the ability to attract and retain people and this would be the key to manage this macro change—in terms of both pace and rate. Change leaders would be confronted with the need to reorient culture, thinking and paradigms. HRM as a function and as a prime mover would need to focus on this changing and emerging role with the help of organizational culture. 2. Introduction The global turmoil has witnessed the growing importance of Human Resources Management (HRM) in both business and public life.

The turbulent business climate brought in the wake of liberalization, globalization, changing technologies, growth in knowledge and advances in information technology is offering managers a complex and challenging situation (Davis, 1995). Indian organizations are tending to become competitive to meet globally relevant standards. The growing emphasis on privatization has warranted a new focus in terms of result orientation, long-term strategies, consumer focus, initiative and different mindsets for internal and external communication.

The Indian business scenario is characterized by the historical rigidities arising largely out of centralized planning. Our decision-making is infl uenced, among other factors, by posing more a constraint rather than a facilitator. The practice of protecting Indian industries through protective tariffs and quotas for over four decades has led to a lack of global competitiveness in terms of quality of products, services and prices. Indians are more accustomed to thinking in terms of narrow identities like our own selves, caste, and community, regional and linguistic groups.

A failing and defi cient infrastructure and frustrating bureaucracy at operating levels, and the cultural and indigenous barriers added fuel to fi re. Hamel and Prahalad (1991) contend that a competitive advantage is obtained if a fi rm can obtain and develop human resources, which enable it to learn faster and apply its learning more effectively than its rivals. The HRM has emerged and evolved as one of the most important areas of organizational science and practice. It has not been developed in isolation, but rather in the context of industrial change and economic development.

The uniqueness of the Human Resources (HR) approach requires a totally different type of attention from managers. The HR has characteristics that provide the greatest challenge as well as opportunity. A company‘s HR is fragile with delicate relationships, along with unpredictable contributions, and permanency is uncertain (Guest, 1991). Wright, Smart, and McMahan, (1995) mention that the crucial inputs, among others, to an organization are its human resources. People bring to their jobs diversity of skills, needs, goals, and expectations. They are ocialized into the organization through their hiring to begin with, and their continuous functioning in the organization. According to Bulla and Scott (1994), we need to ensure that the human resource requirements of an organization are identifi ed and plans are made for satisfying those requirements. Guest, Conway, Briner and Dickman (1996) are of the opinion that the interface between the individual and the organization is critical to full utilization of human resources. The individual and the organization establish a „psychological contract“.

Individual members expect to make contributions to the organization and receive certain rewards in return. The organization provides certain rewards and expects in return certain contributions from the individual. It is at this interface between the individual and the organization that issues such as HR planning, work analysis, career development, leadership, job motivation, the appraisal-reward process, and the organizational culture become important. The patterns of work relationships at work refl ect the HRM philosophy.

The practices and philosophy of HRM are perpetuated by managers who are encouraged to follow the role model of their seniors. In the process of organization socialization they internalize the values and attitudes of their leaders. The entire process is thus institutionalized (Snell, Youndt, and Wright, 1996). In general, HRM has been described as: broad and strategic; involving all managerial personnel; regarding employees as the single most important organizational asset; being proactive in its responsibilities; and having the objective of enhancing organizational performance and meeting employee needs (Poole, 1990). . Organizational culture The idea that organizations have culture has been acknowledged since Lewin, Lippitt and White’s (1939) research on creating social climate. Culture and climate are integral parts of an organization. Organizational culture refers to a system of shared meanings held by members that distinguishes one organization from other organizations (Schien, 1985). Organizational culture provides employees with a clear understanding of the way things are done in that organization. Organizational culture is the perceived, subjective infl uence of the formal system, the informal ‚style‘ of managers and other ignifi cant environmental factors on the attitudes, beliefs, values and motivation of the people in a particular organization (Litwin and Stringer, 1968). The concept of culture is seen as a kind of bridge between the individual and the organization. Culture performs a number of functions within an organization. It creates a distinction between one organization and another, it conveys a sense of identity for role incumbents, it facilitates the generation of commitment, and it enhances social system stability. Finally, culture sells as a sense-making and control mechanism that guides and shapes the attitudes and behaviour of employees.

Hofstede (1980) felt that cultures which are high on the long-term orientation focus on the future and hold values in the present that will not necessarily provide an immediate benefi t (e. g. , Japan, China), while cultures with short-term orientation (e. g. , USA, Russia) are oriented toward the past and present and promote respect for tradition and for fulfi lling social obligations. The fi ve dimensions discussed by Hofstede (1980), help us understand the potential problems of managing employees from different cultures.

One interesting fi nding of his research was the impact of culture on a country’s economic health. He found that countries with individualistic cultures were wealthier. Collectivistic cultures with high power distance were all poor. Cultures seem to affect a country’s economy through their promotion of individual work ethics and incentives for individuals to increase their human capital. Research into the link between organizational culture and effectiveness is also limited by lack of agreement about the appropriate measures of effectiveness. The current literature has its roots in the early 1980s.

Deal and Kennedy (1982) and Peters and Waterman (1982) focused their attention on the strategic importance of organizational culture and stimulated interest in the topic. Kotter and Heskett (1992) expanded on this by exploring the importance of adaptability and the fi t between an organization and its environment. Peters and Waterman (1982) argued that companies with strong culture are highly successful. They argued that superior fi rm performance is achieved if a company moves away from a purely technical, rationalistic approach towards a more adaptive and humanistic approach.

Carroll (1983), Reynolds (1986), and Hitt and Ireland (1987) questioned the approach taken by Peters and Waterman. Owing to such results, the causal link between strong culture and performance was seriously questioned by the end of the 1980s. Most of the studies lack a clear theoretical conception of the nature of the cultureperformance link. Siehl and Martin (1990) elaborate on this view and also suggest that culture may serve as a fi lter for factors that infl uence the effectiveness of the organization.

These factors may differ between organizations. A more thorough understanding of the mechanisms at play is essential for research on the culture-performance link. Wilderom and Van den Berg (1998) found no direct signifi cant zero-order relationship between culture and performance. Taking the perceived performance and managerial leadership along with HRM practices into account, Wilderom and Van den Berg (1998) did discover that a signifi cant relationship exists between culture and performance.

This fi nding illustrates the importance of the development of more elaborative theories on the direction and contingencies in the relation between culture and performance. Without such theories, we may draw overly simple or even misleading conclusions. In light of the above fi ndings, it is necessary to understand the relationship between HRM practices and organizational culture. The presumption is that more effective systems of HRM practices, which simultaneously exploit the potential for complementariness or synergies with organizational culture, lead to better performance and enhanced effectiveness.

Indian organizations are embedded in Indian culture, which infl uences and is infl uenced by the economic, political and social factors, and is also subjected to global business infl uences. Sinha and Sinha (1994), found self-realization and inventive values as the highest form of work values in Indian culture. Organizations appreciate corporate core values of self-realization and inventive values as they encourage and recognize innovation, creativity and achievement. 4. Review of literature Schuler (1992) suggests that Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) has many different components, including policies, culture, values and practices.

Strategic business needs of an organization are infl uenced by its internal (which mainly consist of factors such as organizational culture and nature of business) and external characteristics (consisting of the nature and state of economy in which the organization is existing and critical success factors, i. e. , opportunities and threats provided by the industry), which are infl uenced by HR activities. Thornhill, Lewis, Millmore, and Saunders (2000) found a potential role for HR-centred strategies to be used to change or realign the culture of an organization.

An organization can change its culture through its recruitment strategy of replacing managers with those from outside, restructuring the organization, downsizing the workforce, training programmes, new reward strategies and performance management to alter employee behaviours or reinforce emergent ones. After the economic liberalization, Indian organizations were under pressure to change from low-cost, indigenous, less effi cient and outdated technology to high-cost modern technology and prepare people to use it. This was done to develop and maintain their competitive edge in the larger business environment (Khan, 1999).

The potential value of the employees is to be increased by collectively enhancing and linking their skills and capabilities in tune with the contemporary requirements of the market, and to be faster than the competitors. The success of the HRM will be determined by its ability to harness the intelligence and spirit of people by creating a learning climate. Indian organizations normally direct their HRM efforts towards the development of competencies, culture and effectiveness among employees individually or in groups 69

AOP 18(4), 2010, ISSN 0572-3043 (Singh, 2003). Organizations may use many mechanisms to achieve their HRM goals as without competent and committed employees, an organization can achieve very little even it has excellent technological and other resources at its command. Such an assertion gains better credibility in the context of developing countries like India, that is, typically in early growth stages in terms of economic development and growing more rapidly than the ‚traditional‘ developed economies of Japan, North America and Europe.

This also includes most South East Asian, South Asian and some Latin American countries. Selection in organizations is based on non-job related criteria like attractiveness, goal orientation, and interpersonal skills: a general lack of concern for value congruence (Prakash, 1994). The dominant emphasis has been on the universal practice of identifying and improving on existing performance strategies. This practice would require a complete reversal where congruencies of values should fi nd a place in selection and training.

Only then would it possible to achieve linkages with the values of the wider socio-cultural context in India. In order to make an organization effective, the values of the society and the cultural milieu should be synthesised with those of the organization and its functioning. Fombrun, Tichy, and Devanna (1984) expanded these premises and developed the model of SHRM, which emphasises a ‘tight fi t’ between the organizational strategy, organizational structure and HR system. Political, economic and cultural forces are responsible for an organization’s mission and strategy.

This explains these causal relations, which form the ‘tight fi t’ between strategy, organization structure and HR polices and practices. On the basis of mission and strategy, the shape of organization is structured, i. e. , people are organized to carry out different tasks to achieve the organization’s mission. Hendry and Pettigrew (1992) propose that a number of internal factors such as the organizational culture, structure (positioning of HR), leadership, level of technology employed and business output directly contribute to forming he contents of HRM. HRM could be seen as a menu of strategic choices to be made by human resource executives in order to promote the most effective ‘role behaviours’ that are consistent with the organization’s strategy and aligned with each other (Sparrow and Hilltrop, 1994). The present study The present study is to examine the relationship between HRM practices and organizational culture. To this end, HRM practices are viewed in terms of planning, recruitment, selection, training and development, performance evaluation, career management and rewards.

Organizational culture is viewed in terms of self-realization, status enhancement, inventive values and socio-economic support. Self-realization consists of values such as achievement, ability utilization, advancement, aesthetics, personal development, and peace of mind. Status enhancement, one of the variables of organizational culture, consists of values of altruism, authority, physical activity, and prestige. Inventive values, another variable of organizational culture, consists of values of autonomy, creativity, lifestyles, risk-taking, and variety.

Socio-economic support consists of work values of social relationship and interaction, comforts, dependency, good working condition and economic gains. The self-realization and inventive values give inner satisfaction to a person while performing a job in an organization. The variables of status enhancement and socio-economic support are extrinsic values, which are required in the Indian environment. Indian society and developing societies are ridden with insecurities and lack of resources and people generally have a history of failures.

Fear of failure leads to giving importance to socio-economic support and lack of resources lends too much importance to status enhancement (Sinha, 1990). The idea that individuals are capable of development rests on the conviction that people are important and their involvement is necessary for an organization to be effective. This conviction is translated into practice through a variety of programs that facilitate individual development and lead to better adjustment with the environment. In a growing economy, the emergence of the new organization and shift in the HRM paradigm have ecessitated a review of the skills, roles and competencies of the ‘new’ HR managers (Ulrich, 1997); in this new era, HRM has evolved in the context of the globalized economic environment. As such, it represents a response to the dramatic and continuous change that globalization has had on society and the world of work. Those who will man the HRM will undergo a change in roles. It will be necessary to inculcate in employees the required new skills, competencies and motivation (Dyer jr. , 1999). The understanding of HRM practices would require a comparative study of practices in the organizations.

The relationship between HRM practices and organizational culture among private sector organizations is studied. This paper also studies similarities and differences in HRM practices and organizational culture between two different organizations in the private sector. 5. Objectives of the study 1. To investigate the various HRM practices, i. e. , planning, recruitment, selection, performance evaluation, training and development, career management and rewards at the managerial levels in private sector organizations. 2. To study and examine the relationships between various aspects of HRM practices and organizational culture. . To fi nd whether there is any difference in the organizational cultures of the two organizations under study. This study was conducted at a time when Indian organizations were facing a very different competitive scenario compared to the past. They were facing competition from MNCs in the new liberal and global economy on the domestic markets. The competition was in terms of reduced cost, improved quality of products and better services. These environmental constraints placed more pressure on managers. More often than not, these concerns were looming large on the horizons of Indian organizations.

The fi ndings have bearing in this context. Managers across organizations in the private sector strongly endorsed self-realization (one of the variables of culture), which was signifi cantly correlated to almost all HRM practices. These are planning, recruitment, selection, performance evaluation, training and development, career management, and rewards. While organizations fi nd themselves in worldwide competition, most of the individuals are striving for achievement, ability utilization, advancement, aesthetics, personal development, and peace of mind.

Realization or anticipation of realization of the values has resulted in better performance. Self-realization encourages people to satisfy their achievement needs in the work situation (Super and Nevill, 1986; Sinha, 1990). Self-realization in India came quite close to self-actualization in Spain. Status enhancement was strongly related to HR practices in private sector organizations. The values loaded on this factor are authority, altruism, prestige and physical activities. The desire for authority, altruism, prestige and physical activity has a positive impact on the performance of managers.

Managers developed a positive attitude towards their work and contributed signifi cantly to self-realization and status enhancement, which were the most valued factors in India. Recruitment, selection, and performance evaluation, training and development, career management, and rewards turned out to be strongly correlated to status enhancement in the private sector. Selection based on planning along with proper recruitment leads to status enhancement. Rewards (fi nancial and non-fi nancial) were strongly related to status enhancement. Performance evaluation (one of the HRM practices) was strong related to status enhancement.

Performance evaluation served as a key input for administering formal organizational rewards, career growth and a tool of punishment (Cummings, 1973). Managers working in the organizations were in an excellent position to analyze newcomers’ skills and abilities and to provide feedback (House, 1995). As a purveyor of organizational expectations, performance evaluation was critical. Through the evaluation process, those working in the organization were aware of how well they were meeting their task and role demands (Asford and Cummings, 1983; Nelson, 1990).

Clear rewards are the hallmark of an organization that effectively socializes newcomers. In addition to their readily apparent value, the rewards provide 75 AOP 18(4), 2010, ISSN 0572-3043 challenging assignments, promotions and salary increases, etc. , which give encouragement that provide status enhancement for managers (Chatman, 1991). Rewards were also found to be strongly related to inventive values in private sector organizations. Those working in the organizations with desired values of risk-taking, variety, autonomy, lifestyle and creativity were rewarded.

Rewards encourage people to be more creative, have variety and autonomy in their work life along with risk-taking and help to chalk out one’s own lifestyle in the organization. Similarly, training and development in private sector organizations were strongly correlated to inventive values. So, rewards and training and development in the private sector affect both individual esteem and lifestyle signifi cantly. Managers have developed to take on a variety of tasks in order to perform at an optimum level.

Managers in the organization have developed to be autonomous and chalk out their own lifestyles to be more effective in the job. This also means employees will expect organizations to offer them opportunities to develop a portfolio of skills that enhances their marketability. Thus, organizations will have to provide work assignments and learning opportunities that allow for challenge and growth and self-development (Maurer and Tarulli, 1994). Socio-economic support consists of social relationships and interaction, comforts, dependency, good working conditions and economic gains.

Managers were indifferent and did not care much for social interactions and relationships, whereas Indian managers held signifi cant value expectations concerning economic gains, good working conditions and comforts. HR practices were signifi cantly related to socio-economic support in the private sector. Through planning, recruitment and selection practices, newcomers with stronger systems of support report fewer adverse psychological outcomes related to job performance than do those with less support. Quality relationships with organizational insiders can even help newcomers to overcome the negative effects of unmet expectations (Major,

Kozlowski, Chao, and Gardner, 1995). Interacting with enthusiastic newcomers may be good for insiders’ attitude and morale. The study also found a relationship between career management and socio-economic support. People working in the organizations look for career management that will give them the breadth of experience that seems to be needed now, and start looking down on the in-depth expertise of the command-centred manager. So, a shift in culture happens, not because people have changed, but because their beliefs about what they have to do to get ahead have changed (Gunz, Hung, 2000).

Rewards were strongly related to socio-economic support in private sector organizations. Litwin, Bray and Brooke (1996) felt that the nature of rewards is the key determinant of how effective they are. Managers who emphasized recognition and encouragement were more effective in shaping the culture of the organization or targeted results. The reason could be that managers working in the private organizations are experiencing a tremendous amount of change around them, thereby realizing that socioeconomic well-being will provide them with stability in a fast changing environment.

Furthermore, evidence from literature found the contention that similar work experiences result in uniformity of culture characteristics (Schein, 1987). 76 ACTA OECONOMICA PRAGENSIA 4/2010 Rewards (one of the HRM practices) were strongly related to all the variables of culture in private sector organizations. There is hardly any difference between the two organizations when it comes to practicing rewards and training and development. People within the organizations are either rewarded or trained for acting in accordance with the dominant values of the organizations in India.

Although this sample is not large enough to generalize the results, still rewards send clear and consistent signals about desired values and norms expected from people working in the organizations (Sethia and Van Galinow, 1985). The perception of the respondents from both private sector organizations were compared and it was found that there was a statistically signifi cant difference in the variable of socio-economic support between the two organizations, as shown in the table. This means employees in organization A perceived it in a better manner in comparison to their counterparts in organization B.

Prakash (1994) felt that Indian organizations are congruent with their cultural surroundings (which is marked by diversities and paradoxes). There is a need to use multiple perspectives at different levels of analysis such as society, organization, management and the individual. It is important that organizations continue to grow and evolve newer perspectives in terms of their values and redefi ne their linkages with the society. Such fi ndings provide support that market economies have the inevitable consequences of rendering organizations competitive.

Newman (1972) predicted that the Western work relationships are likely to appear to a great extent in Indian organizations as well. That is, employees in the organizations are likely to become achievement- oriented. There is a struggle for survival, where no one can afford to ignore an opportunity to get optimum results. As one moves higher on the hierarchical ladder of an organization, the individualistic orientation becomes stronger. The correlation analysis between dimensions of HRM practices and dimensions of culture shows that HRM practices do affect the culture of the organization.

Ulrich and Lafasto (1995) felt that HRM practices provide information and shape behaviour and experiences of employees. Thus hypotheses H1a, H1b, H1c, H1 d, H1 e, H1 f and H1 g are validated. 11. Conclusions This paper has shown a signifi cant, positive and meaningful relationship between HRM practices and organizational culture. HRM practices become the means whereby organizational culture is created and sustained. Designing new culture requires that HRM professionals are ahead of the cultural change curve with innovative and exciting HRM practices.

HRM has been proposed by others to be a potentially powerful lever for shaping and changing the culture of an organization to make the organization more effective (Schien, 1983; Ulrich, 1997). This is a study of HRM practices in two large private sector organizations in India. HRM practices differ between the private sector organizations. This variation provides support to the fact that the adoption of HRM practices is contingent on the specifi c requirements of each organization (Schuler and Jackson, 1981).

There is a signifi cant difference between the socio-economic support variable in organizations A and B. One fi nds no signifi cant difference in the other three variables of organizational culture in private sector organizations, i. e. , self-realization, status enhancement and inventive values. The results developed through inferential analysis to measure differences among the variables of HRM practices and organizational culture in private sector organizations are as follows: 1. The two private sector organizations showed that the perceived mean of organization A was higher for all HRM practices. . The comparison of the dimension of organizational culture in the two private sector organizations showed that employees of organization A perceived the socio-economic support more than those in organization B. 3. It is evident that organization A showed relatively better perception of planning, recruitment processes, selection, performance evaluation and career management aspects of HRM practices in comparison to organization B. 4. There is no signifi cant difference between organization A and organization B in training and development and rewards as per the response of the respondents. 5.

Planning, recruitment, selection, training and development, performance evaluation, career management and rewards are signifi cantly correlated with all the dimensions of organizational culture. Human Resource Management Practices – Literature review Human resource management (HRM) practices are being increasingly treated as dependent rather than independent variables. Whereas in the past researchers focused almost exclusively on how changes in HRM practices affect employee performance or satisfaction, researchers now are beginning to ask how organizational conditions shape HRM practices.

Examples of organizational conditions hypothesized to impact HRM practices include strategy (Hambrick and Snow 1987; Snow and Hrebiniak 1980; Olian and Rynes 1984; Lawler 1984; Hambrick and Mason 1984; Gupta and Govindarajan 1984a, b; and Miller, Kets de Vries and Toulouse 1982), organizational life cycle stage (Kochan and Chalykoff 1987; Kerr 1982, 1985), technological change, union presence, internal labor markets and even whether or not an organization has a personnel department (Osterman 1984; Pfeffer and Cohen 1984; Cohen and Pfeffer 1986).

Until recently almost all HRM research was dominated by the technical perspective. The technical perspective presumes that organizations wish to plan, staff, appraise, compensate, train and develop their employees in order to ensure that the right people (skill-wise) are in the right place (job) at the right time (Collins 1979). The technical perspective leads to research designed to develop techniques for maximizing the match between employees’ knowledge, skills and abilities on the one hand and the demands of the jobs on the other (Schneider 1985).

The presumed result of good matching is organizational effectiveness, from which individual employees and the organization as a whole both benefit. The control perspective views HRM practices as a means for organizations to ensure the predictability and reliability of social interactions. The goal is to ensure that employees behave as solid citizens, living according to organizationally approved norms and values (Noland and Bakke 1949; Hollingshead 1949; Bowles and Gintish 1976; Edwards 1976; Collins 1979).

This perspective recognizes that organizations attempt to govern social performances in addition to job performance. Desirable social behaviors presumably include getting along well with others and acting as a good citizen who shows concern for the organization’s functioning. The institutional perspective posits two major explanations as to why organizations use particular HRM practices: organizations copy the practices they see being used by others, and/or they adopt practices to gain legitimacy and acceptance (Meyer and Rowan 1977; Zucker 1977; Meyer 1980).

The institutional perspective assumes that legitimacy and acceptance are important objectives for most organizations because constituencies have the power to offer and withhold resources which, in the long run, may determine the firm’s economic performance. 180 The political perspective holds that HRM practices reflect the distribution of power in an organization. For example, having an extensive set of HRM practices implies a powerful personnel department upon which others must depend when making personnel-related decisions (Osterman 1984; Pfeffer and Cohen 1984).

But existence of other powerful groups-such as unions or competitors who minimize their labor costs-may act to countervail or suppress the expression of the personnel department’s wishes (Doeringer and Piore 1971). As suggested by Kochan and Chalykoff (1987) the economic perspective can also explain variations in HRM practices. Relatively affluent conditions in an organization permit it to pay higher wages. This in turn enables an organization to attract more job applicants and be more selective. Higher selectivity (lower selection ratios) diminishes the need to train employees.

Furthermore, the attraction of more highly qualified individuals may lead to conditions that give more power and discretion to the employees, thus reducing the attractiveness to them of collective bargaining. The reverse scenario holds under less affluent economic conditions (Osterman 1984). Based on the five perspectives previously presented which help explain some of the variation and similarity in HRM practices across organizations, we aim to diagnose two private organizations from human resource management practices perspective.

Our hypothesis is: HRM practices differ based on the company’s size and activity length. Conclusions Based on the analysis, we can conclude that both companies are efficient from HRM point of view. Both organizations are continually developing, having a market in expansion, the difference between them, which may influence the HRM practices, are the size and the activity length: organization 2 is large and relatively old compared to organization 1. The differences recorded are elated to prospecting, selection methods, training needs evaluation, working conditions, and social protection area where organization 2 is more developed. From the five perspectives presented, only three are representative for the analyzed organizations. The technical perspective presumes that organizations wish to plan, staff, appraise, compensate, train and develop their employees in order to ensure that the right people (skill-wise) are in the right place (job) at the right time. That is why both organizations are carrying out trainings for their employees and the trained people usually got promoted.

The political perspective holds that HRM practices reflect the distribution of power in an organization, having an extensive set of HRM practices implies a powerful personnel department upon which others must depend when making personnel-related decisions. The results of the analysis point out that human resource department of the two companies are relatively strong and well organized. There are no conflicts, which can mean that either the employee are satisfied with their work and rewards or the labor unions are not very strong compared to the management and HR departments of the companies.

The economic perspective can also explain variations in HRM practices. It is well illustrated by the analyzed organizations as they have a continually growing activity volume which means that they can give higher salaries. In the case of organization 2, which is larger and relatively old compared to organization 1, the management offers, besides rather good salaries, non-financial benefits. Also, the social protection is more developed in the case of organization 2. Based on all these results, we can conclude that our hypothesis is confirmed, HRM practices differ based on the companies’ size and activity length.

In an early review of the HRM – performance literature, Dyer and Reeves (1995) posited 4 levels of outcomes of HRM practices—employee, organizational, financial, and market— suggesting that the impact of HRM is likely to work outward through these levels. Employee outcomes consist of affective reactions such as satisfaction and commitment as well as behavioral reactions such as absenteeism and turnover. Organizational outcomes focus primarily on operational performance measures such as quality, productivity, and customer satisfaction.

Financial outcomes, such as accounting profits, represent the next step in their causal chain. Finally, market outcomes consist of measures of the market value of firms based on stock price. Becker et al. (1997) similarly argued that HRM practices operate most directly through employee skills, motivation, and work design, resulting in behavioral outcomes such as creativity, productivity, and discretionary effort, which are expected to work through operational and eventually through financial market outcomes.

This paper should include sections on the strategic advantages of performance appraisals, potential forms of bias within the appraisal system, as well as how performance appraisals can contribute to the achievement of strategic objectives. Performance appraisal is considered a key tool for managerial needs of today’s organizations and is the process by which organizations evaluate job performance. A performance appraisal system usually requires a manager to rate each employee’s performance according to performance criteria’s that have already been established over a period of time.

Performance appraisal systems also provide a basis for planning improvement as well as means for determining merit increases, transfers and even dismissals. The most important purpose or goal of the appraisal is to improve performance and hence productivity in the future. Performance appraisals allow employees to see where they are at and managers can get valuable information from employees to help them make employee’s jobs more productive.

As a result of appraisals, managers’ control over work and results may increase, problems can be identified early, employees are motivated by being allowed to input into and own their objectives, enhances communication, objective feedback given back to employees, facilitates decision making in regard to pay scale and promotion, centralized record of performances. Some strategic advantages of performance appraisals are that it can provide a record of performance over a period of time.

Meaning that if you have been on the job for 5 years and the current appraisal is not up to par the employer can go back and look at past appraisals and see if it’s worth it to fix the problem to keep you or let you go. They provide an opportunity for a manager to meet and discuss performance with an employee. In larger companies an HR manager may hardly ever see the employees; by doing the performance appraisal it allows for a one on one with each employee.

Another strategic advantage is the appraisal provides the employee with feedback about their performance and how they completed their goals. Thus it also opens up the subject of how the employee could improve on the lower rated performances and provides an opportunity for an employee to discuss issues and to clarify expectations with their manager. Finally some strategic advantages could be an opportunity to think about the upcoming year and develop employee goals and can be motivational with the support of a good reward and compensation system.

Some potential forms of bias within the appraisal system could be a Personality conflict between a manager and an employee and this could cause the manager to inaccurately assess an employee’s contributions to an organization. The manager could be comparing the skills and contributions of one employee to another and it could result in an unfair assessment of the employees. A manager should be assessing an employee’s performance after a pre-determined amount of time. A first-impression performance appraisal isn’t enough time to make an assessment.

It has the potential to be swayed either positively or negatively. A manager should never rate an employee’s performance based on recent behavior rather than on past performance. If an employee has a spotless record except for a recent mistake, the manager should not forget all of the good he or she has done. The last potential form of bias with in the appraisal system is that a manager should avoid political bias. This happens when non-performance related issues cloud the judgment of a performance appraiser such as religious beliefs or lifestyle choices.

Human Resource Strategies 660 Monday, Trimester 1 2011, 18th April Assignment 3 HR Case Analysis at Workplace Word Count:2500 I. Introduction The Global Financial Crisis (GFC) in 2008 affected lots of industries including the miners. Employment in mining is particularly vulnerable to a cycle of rapid expansion and contraction, as changing economic circumstances cause demand and prices for certain commodities to rise or fall. Eventually the GFC resulted in lots of labour cutbacks in the resource industry (Australian Government, 2009).

The key human resources (HR) challenges facing the West Australian mining industry for the next few years are considered to be: replacing retirees; the retention of key talent; growing the talent pool training and development; and keeping staff motivated (Dickie and Dwyer, 2010). On the other hand the WA Chamber of Minerals & Energy (CME, 2006) identified a number of HR strategic issues for the WA resource sector like; skills shortage, employee attraction and retention, flexible workplace practices, indigenous employment opportunities and community-regional services.

The company I work for decided to go through downsizing in order to reduce the operating costs during GFC. This article aims to delineate several HR issues as a result of global downsizing process in the organisation. The main focus will be sudden redundancies, decrease in motivation, labour shortage, health and safety issues and recruitment of new employees. Since several HR issues are interrelated to each other, with the purpose of this article, the main focus will be mainly on downsizing policy and its short and long term effects in the organisation. II. The Downsizing Policy and Its Effects

Organizational downsizing is a prevalent strategy designed to improve organizational performance while selectively decreasing costs. It refers to “an organizational decision to reduce the workforce in order to improve organizational performance” (Kozlowski et al. , 1993). Therefore stemming from the desire to become more efficient and effective, firms in both the private and the public sectors has adopted downsizing strategies (Cameron, 1987). Furthermore, the increasingly dynamic and competitive workplace and the trend toward globalization have prompted many firms to downsize (Appelbaum et. l, 1999). The GFC created considerable uncertainty, in the mining industry. In addition to the recruitment and retention issues, organisations were faced with trying to keep staff motivated at a time when more job losses were predicted and budgets became getting tighter (Dickie and Dwyer,2010). My current employer decided to go through global downsizing as a response to GFC. Fifty percent of the employees were made redundant and number of the projects was tremendously decreased due to the limited budget. The HR department played an active role in that period to manage the downsizing process.

One of the strengths during this process was keeping good communication between HR and the upper level managers. The process was completed with collaborative work between HR and management. The professional assist received from consultants involved improvement the employees’ self awareness levels, increase their motivation and confidence as well as creating effective CVs. However during downsizing process several HR related issues started to rise in the company. The employees who remained in the company lost their trust and motivation.

Besides due to loss of skilled labour the productivity decreased and the incident numbers dramatically increased. The turn-over rates were high and the team dynamics were damaged. Eventually the sudden decision given by upper managerial level due to economical downturn resulted serious HR issues in the company. The downsizing process and its long and short term influences for this case study is summarised in Figure 1 below. Global Downsizing Global Financial Crisis HR Issues Redundancies Survival syndrome in remaining employees Increased turn-over records Skills Shortage Increase number of injuries in the company

Management of HR Issues Aggressive recruitment policy (overseas transfers, secondments , graduates) Employee Engagement Survey Re-evaluation of salary packages and staff benefits Job Analysis and Talent Assessment Improved Graduate Development Program Maintaining trainings and developments Improvement in Health and Safety System Figure 1. The HR Issues of company. II. A. Survival Syndrome Since company mainly focused on those who lost their jobs; the employees who remained in the company suffered more after redundancies. Employee resentment and concern, loss of morale was high among the remaining employees.

The labour shortage created several issues for employees like job burnouts, working longer hours, increased pressure, and role overload and decrease morale. Unfortunately the bad influence of downsizing on the psychology of remaining employees was not well managed by HR department of the company. Brockner (1992) defines ‘the survivor syndrome’ as impact of downsizing on the remaining employees. There is considerable evidence that remaining employees feel shocked, embittered towards management, fearful about their future and guilty about still having a job whilst colleagues have been laid off.

Such employees are more likely to have lower morale and increased stress levels, be less productive, and less loyal with increased quit levels. According to study 70 percent of senior managers who remained in downsized firms reported that morale, trust, and productivity declined after downsizing those who lose their jobs may seem the most affected by downsizing, it is more likely that the employees who remain suffer the more negative effects (Appelbaum et. al, 1999). Eventually the HR was not able to create good strategy to keep the remaining employees’ motivation high during downsizing process.

Shook and Roth (2010) explained that failure to identify employee issues in the pre-downsizing due diligence phase creates a chaotic workplace atmosphere and increases employee fears and stress levels. These change events affect career uncertainty, fear, and stress in employees. Employees have long-term memories of their old comfortable culture and they fight to keep it. Employee resistance includes a variety of passive as well as aggressive techniques. Culture change may take years to complete and can be difficult to manage, even when HR is fully engaged and supported.

These transitions are more difficult to manage when HR is not involved. In fact, culture change may never be fully realized without HR support because of the human resistance (Szabla, 2007). Furthermore due to limited professionals the remaining staff started to have difficulty to maintain the work and life balance. The consequences of imbalance between work and personal or family life were visible at the workplace. The emotional exhaustion, cynicism and burnouts were common. Unfortunately The HR department was not fully aware of the situation until the employee turnovers increased and also effectiveness decreased.

With shortages of professionals and an active economy the pressures on existing employees looks set to rise and therefore this is an area which needs to be benchmarked and revisited with a view to adopting best practice throughout the sector (Wilkinson, 2008). II. B. Skills Shortage On the other hand downsizing affects employees’ affective commitment to the organization both directly and indirectly. However, its indirect impact is much stronger (Lee and Corbett, 2005). Apart form the short term sudden effects the long term effects of the downsizing started in the organisation.

Working with less force resulted in company to have inadequate supply of talent, increasing number of health and safety incidents at workplace and delays in production due to limited talented labour force. Especially after the recent mining boom, the company decided to increase the number of production activities in spite of limited skilled labour. It is a big challenge nowadays to find the specialised professionals in the mining industry. Apparently the HR division and management team chosen to concentrate on short-term needs rather than the organisation’s long term eeds during GFC. Sheaffer et. al (2009) claim that whereas downsizing affects the short-term performance of larger and established companies positively, it generally affects long-term performance inversely. A common mistake for HR managers is to concentrate on short-term replacement needs rather than on the organisation’s long-range HR requirements. Such a non-strategic approach causes management to be caught unawareness by changes in employee availability and quality of labour, creates a series of short-term dilemmas.

Stone also adds that of the right numbers of qualified and skilled employees are not available, an organisation may not be able to meet its strategic business objectives (Stone, 2010). The mining companies are now beginning to acknowledge that the current supply shortage is already impacting the productivity, efficiency and profitability of their operations. The shortage of skilled workers in combination with high turn-over rates are among the top factors impacting industry growth, either by stopping or delaying projects that would otherwise proceed, or by significantly adding to the cost of new projects (Schultz and Grimm, 2008).

During boom times, mining companies find it difficult to attract staff, even though huge salaries are on offer. This highlights a challenge quite unique to mining; namely, attracting highly skilled people to the remote location of most mine sites (Ednie, 2004). Eventually the skills shortage is still one of the biggest issues in the organisation. Since most of the experienced (high-cost) employees were made redundant company faces challenges in finding the experienced professionals. The HR department started the recruitment process however the mining market is still sparse of skilled professionals in specific roles.

This is one of the biggest challenges for the HR department. II. C. Health and Safety Issues Poor occupational health and safety (OHS) performance equates with poor human resource management (HRM), and poor ethical, legal and social responsibility (Stone, 2010). Since the mining boom hit the market recently the mining organisations increased their production activities in order to compete among the resource market. However the number of the staff stayed same while the number of projects was tremendously increasing. This lead to enhance health and safety related incidents at work place.

Specifically in this case during the downsizing process most experienced staff with extensive safety culture made redundant. This created a big gap in management of health and safety issues in the company. When employees leave, they take valuable process knowledge, customer and supplier relationships and a host of organizational know-how with them (Schultz and Grimm, 2008). The inexperienced new employees (i. e graduates, overseas staff) have difficulty in implementing the high quality safety standards due to their sparse knowledge about the safety system of the organisation.

Therefore increased emphasis on HR management is particularly important to the development of safety culture in the organisation. On the other hand once the crisis in the division was more visible due to increased number of incidents and low quality work the HR department started to take active role in collaboration with upper management. The pro-active recruitment strategy implemented in order to attract more skilled employees. Moreover “global employee engagement survey” was performed in order to evaluate the current employee’s satisfaction and asses the major HR related issues at that time.

This survey added tremendous value to the group to define the major problems in the organisation. The HR department in collaboration with upper managers performed well by initiating extensive survey and also by following up the survey results. III. Improvement in HR Strategies Successive HR planning is essential in order to solve any HR issues at the workplace. During the downsizing process HR department has an important role. Chadwick et al. (2004) indicates that downsizing is more likely to be effective in the longer term when accompanied by accompanied by practices that reinforce the contribution of HR to financial success (e. . , extensive communication, respectful treatment of redundant employees and attention to survivors concerns over job security). Levin (2009) identified three broad priorities in Australian businesses: (1) Retention strategies. (2) Downsizing or “Right sizing” activity will continue. (3) Organisations need to continue to invest in their people. In a downturn economy, HR practitioners need to be emphasising to their organisations that it is necessary to do the right thing for the long-term value and sustainability of the business (Levin,2009).

This includes recognising the link between leadership and performance, and hence ensuring that leadership talent is retained, developed and, most importantly, allowed to lead through the tough times (HRL, 2009). Based on the literature survey several strategies are proposed in this section to manage the previously defined critical HR issues: A. Investment in HR systems in the organisation: Especially during the global decisions the HR should be in collaboration with all levels of management.

Alignment between the business and human resource management (HRM) strategy is the key factor of success for organisations (Wylie,2005 and Wang and Shyu, 2008). Implementing proactive HRM practices and succession planning programs should be one of the targets. B. Gap Analysis: Clear understanding of the problems is severe in HR practice. In order to manage the ‘survivor syndrome’ HR should focus on motivation of remaining employees. The department can make detailed gap analysis and survey in order to assess the staff morale and expectations. This should be followed by upper management actions.

C. Optimising Human Capital: Mining companies needed to communicate the reasons for staff redundancies and budget cutbacks and engage their staff in decisions going forward in order to generate trust among their remaining workforce so that they could remain competitive once the economy improved. HR should create serious strategies in order to make people connected to the organisation (Dickie and Dwyer, 2010). D. Talent Assessment: The employee talent assessment in collaboration with HR and line managers will address the current skills gap in the organisation.

This will also give good understanding about the skills and expectations of the current staff. E. Training and Career Development: Developing a collaborative, cross-industry strategy for training/educational programs and employer-provided training to facilitate the availability of a skilled labour force is one of the retention strategies. Company should actively support and enhance the people skills and relational abilities of all employees through training and development programs (Dickie and Dwyer, 2010).

With this perspective well structured graduate and mentoring program also can be attractive especially for the Gen Y workers. F. Focus on improvements in leadership: Training managers to actively manage retention in their areas also adds value. Besides the leadership competencies of the management should be improved ino der to solve the current challenge. Pick et. al (2010) proposes action reflection learning (ARL) methodology as an HR tool to improve the skills of leaders in the organisation. G. Improvement in Health and Safety: The current safety culture should be measured by HR.

Sexton et al (2006) describes Safety Attitude Questionnaire (SAQ) as an HR tool which helps to measure the team work climate, job satisfaction, perceptions of management, safety climate, working conditions and stress recognition. Also learning from incidents as well as improved safety system should be managed by HR. On the other hand visible leadership and supervising on sites should be maintained to assist the new employees. H. Growing the Talent Pool: Since it is a big challenge to attract the best employees in the market, employee benefit offerings such as full medical, dental, profit sharing and wellness programs could be effective.

Attractive packages in a work culture with a family-oriented atmosphere need to be developed. Recruitment strategies should be improved to persuade the skilled specialists in the market. I. Communication: The mostly effective companies have two-way communication between senior leaders and employees. A good communication plan on how to deliver HR initiatives would be beneficial (Dickie and Dwyer,2010). IV. Conclusion Since mining operations operate with a finite resource, often remote locations, require specialised skills, with high capital intensity and are subject to political, social and environmental global issues.

Downsizing policies will be choice of the organisations in the market with plunging commodity prices and falling demand (Dickie and Dwyer,2010). Strong HR strategy creating a link between leadership and performance is a key factor to cope with these trends in the resource sector. References Appelbaum, S. H. , A. , Everard, and L. T. S. , Hung. 1999. Strategic downsizing:critical success factors. Management Decision, 37(70): 535-552. http://www. emeraldinsight. com. dbgw. lis. curtin. edu. au Brockner, J. 1992. Managing the Effects of Layoffs on Survivors, California Management Review. (34): 9-27.

Cameron, K. S. , D. A. , Whetten, and M. U. , Kim. 1987. Organizational dysfunctions of decline, Academy of Management Journal, 30: 126-38. Chadwick, C. , L. W. , Hunter, and S. L. , Walston. 2004. Effects of Downsizing Practices on the Performance of Hospitals, Strategic Management Journal, 25(5):405–427. CME . 2006. Australia Strategic Management Issues Facing WA in 2007 and beyond, Chamber of Minerals & Energy, Perth. Department of Resources Energy and Tourism, Australian Government, 2009. Our people: Demographics, workforce and Indigenous Participation. Enhancing Australia’s Economic Prosperity. ttp://www. ret. gov. au/energy Dickie, C. , and Dwyer, J. 2010. A 2009 perspective of HR practices in Australian mining. Journal of Management Development. 30(4):329-343. Ednie, H. 2004. Innovative solutions for mining’s human resource challenges, CIM Bulletin, 97(1076):9. HRL. 2009. How HR Can Revive to Survive, Human Resources Leader, Chatswood. Kozlowski, W. J. S. ,G. T. , Chao, E. M. , Smith, and J. , Hedlund. 1993. Organizational downsizing: strategies, interventions, and research implications, International Review of Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 8: 263-317.

Levin, A. 2009. HR Priorities in 2009: The Landscape Continues to Change, Brisbane. http://www. astorlevin. com Lee, J. , and J. M. Corbett. 2005. The impact of downsizing on employees’ affective commitment, Journal of Managerial Psychology,21(3):176-199. Pick, D. , K. ,Dayaram and B. Butler. 2010. Regional development and global capitalism:the case of the Pilbara, Western Australia, Society and Business Review, 5(1):99-110. http://www. emeraldinsight. com. dbgw. lis. curtin. edu. au Schultz, R. and M. , Grimm. 2008.

Recruitment and Retention Challenges in the Mining Industry, MRC-Business Consulting Services. http://mining. com Sexton, J. B. , R. L. Helmreaich, T. B. Neilands, K. Rowan, K. Vella, J. Boyden. , et al. 2006a. The safety attitudes questionmnaire:Pschometric properties, benchmarking data, and emerging research. BMC Health Services Research, 6(1): 1-44. Sheaffer,Z. , A. Carmeli, M. S. , Revivo, and S. Zionit. 2009. Dwonsizing strategies and organisational performance:a longitudinal study, Management Divison, 47(6):950-974. http://www. emeraldinsight. com. dbgw. lis. curtin. edu. au/

Shook, L. V. , and G. Roth. 2010. Downsizings, mergers, and acquisitions –Perspectives of human resource development practitioners, Journal of European Industrial Training. 35(2):135-153. http://www. emeraldinsight. com. dbgw. lis. curtin. edu. au Stone, R. J. (2008) “Managing Human Resources” 3rd Edition, Brisbane: John Wiley & Sons. Szabla, D. 2007. A multidimensional view of resistance to organizational change: exploring cognitive, emotional, and intentional responses to planned change across perceived leadership strategies, Human Resource Development Quarterly, 18( 4):525-58.

Wang, D. and C. , Shyu. 2008. Will the strategic fit between business and HRM strategy influence HRM effectiveness and organisational performance? , International Journal of Manpower, 29(2):92. Wilkinson, S. J. 2008. Work-life balance in the Australian and New Zealand surveying profession, Structural Survey, 26(2):120-130. Wylie, J. 2005. The ideal antidote to shrinking margins – doing more with your existing assets and people, Engineering and Mining Journal, 206(6):58.

Management is a very sensitive part of any organization. If work is done by proper management therefore the result will be a healthy one otherwise on the other hand the work will be not done in a proper manner and will create a big problem for an organization. In an organization there are many people or in other words we can say that there are a lot of group of people working together with the help of the corporation and help of each other because when you have to do work in an organization where there are many people around you there you should corporate with one another in order to get a better result so that you can make your organization the best one. (Hafeez, 2003)

An organization is a place where you work in a group and where you get a chance to interact with different kind of people. Along with this you also get a chance to share information with each other and in this way your level of information rises and therefore you can work more and more. (Hafeez, 2003)

This is not an easy task. In this way you have to be very much careful and attentive towards your job because when you will not pay any kind of attention towards your job then how come you can expect a good result from your organization? Your organization is just because of you people and it is your responsibility to maintain good relationship with each other in order to have a good result. Maintaining good relationship does not means just hi hello.

No, you should be sincere with your job, with people who are around you and working with you, you should be careful about your work that in what manner your work is going to be done? What are the conditions? Whether they are healthy one for your job or un healthy? These all above mention points have a great importance in an organization and if you want your organization to be a successful one then you should follow these instructions. (Law, 2003)

It is a natural fact that when you are working in a place where you are in contact with many people, it is not necessary there that those all people who are working with you or around you are of same habits as you are. All are different from one another. Some people are good natured, some are rich, some are selfish, some are caring, some are devoted towards there work etc . Here the main issue is that how you are working there in an organization in order to have a better position and a good result. (Law, 2003)

It is not an easy task. When you are running an organization and there are many employees who are working under you, it is obvious that they all are of different thinking, background etc. so how they can manage to do a great job? How it is possible that they all can work together? The answer is that with corporation everything can be done. If there is corporation you can do whatever you want to.

The organization is responsible to maintain a good corporation among their employees. It can teach them that how they can work with a group of people who all belong to different areas, thinking etc. when ever good and healthy environment is provided to employees they will feel happy about it and therefore they will work with more interest and as a result of this the organization will give a better and better output. (Mintzberg 2001)

Each and every organization consists of HR department which is basically responsible for any kind of misunderstanding  between they employees and it is their duty to teach them that how an organization can be a successful one what is needed and what is not. Employees want good environment so that they can work on it easily and can therefore provide better results. (Mintzberg, 2001)

Managing any organization is actually not an easy task. This needed a lot of hardwork and apart from this a lot of input is required and these all are the responsibility of the HR department to provide such kind of atmosphere to the employees where they can work with full energy and can be involved in work with full zeal and zest. (Mintzberg, 2001)

There are many problems which people usually faces while working in any organization. When a group of people is working together they will face many problems because each and everyone in the group is of different nature. But this is also the responsibility of the organization to make sure that employees are satisfied with their group and apart from this they also feel comfortable because if the atmosphere is not comfortable there will be difficulty in doing any kind of work and on other hand if with the help of HR department people feel relaxed and free to work among different group of people they will in the end for sure provide a good result which will be a treat for an organization. (Wageman, 2001)

The HR department has different kinds of activities to be carried out. To hire people who are best in order to ensure that they will give at their best and make their organization the best one. The HR department has a lot of work to do to see that what their employees want, what are their needs, how they can work so that the organization can produce a good output.

There are different roles of HRM department in any kind of organization.

• Basic overviews of HRM
• Getting the best employees
• Paying employees
• Training employees
• Ensuring safe work conditions

Basic overviews of Human Resource Management (HRM) include many kinds of activities. To provide best facilities to their employees, to ensure that their employees are working according to their need and demand. All the organizations are very keen in choosing the best employee in order to get a best result. Best employees are selected after a wide range of selection and tests and those who fulfill the criteria of the organization are selected in order to work for that particular organization to give best input in order to produce the best output. (Wageman, 2001)

It is the matter of fact that if your employees will get a good pay they will work at their best level too. And on the other hand if they will not get that much pay in the result they will also not work at that level. This is one of the type of motivation. It is obvious that the employees are always motivated when they are getting good and fair enough pay. If they are not getting food pay they will not work at that level. (Wageman, 2001)

All the employees should be trained so that they can work at their best level. Training employees is the duty of HRM department to keep an eye on their employees and to check that whether they are working or not and if they are working so at what level they are working. HRM department is responsible for all these type of activities and they should train their employees too that at what level they should work. At what extent they should work. And in the last at what limit they should work to produce best and best result. Producing best result is not an easy task. Employees should be first trained that how to fulfill the organization’s desire and demand or wishes. What actually the organization want so that they can work at their best level. ( Koch, 1996)

Another important part of the HRM department is to ensure the best and safe working environment and conditions. It is the matter of fact that if employees are not feeling secure in an organization then therefore they will not perform their duties at that extent. On another hand if the organization ensures the employees that they will be given with best environment along with best pay and the conditions will be safe and sound then their employees will really work hard in order to give best result to the organization. (Koch, 1996)

Motivation is actually plays an important role here. The key dimension for any successful organization is that how the HRM department is working. Here, it has a major importance that how it is working and how it is working in order to train their employees so that their employees can do at their best. Many people are there who just work for the sake of money. This is the one of the reason that how the organization faces downfalls. (Koch, 1996)

Organization is to work for people but here the main role is played by its employees that how the employees are performing and the rise or downfall of any organization is totally dependent on the performance of any organization. If employees are not working well or they are least interested about their duties so therefore in the result the organization will automatically faces downfall. (Koch, 1996)

In order to overcome these all downfalls, it is the foremost duty of any kind of organization to first of all choose best workers or employees so that they can work well and can provide best input to them. The second way is to provide their employees the best facilities so that they can be attracted towards those facilities and in order to gain them they will  automatically work at their best because in return they are getting a lot. This is one of the basic and main formulas for the success of any kind of organization.

This formula does not include any kind of calcutaion or any kind of worksheet; this is just an easy way to make your organization the best one. If an organization is providing the best facilities to their employees for example high pay, bonus, holidays etc therefore their employees will automatically get attracted towards their work and will put effort at their best. (Martin, 1998)

Apart from this all the foremost duty of the HRM department is to keep an eye on their employees that how much they are involved in their work, how much they can do and how much they are doing. What are their needs and demands? What actually they want and whether they are working at their best or not; whether they are interested in their work or not. (Martin, 1998)

In the end the most important duty of the Employee is be sure of the policies about that organization in which they are working. They should be aware of the rules and regulations of their company or organization in which they are working. And they should strictly follow them in order to be there. (Martin, 1998)

The best part of any organization is to make sure that their employees are well known along with well educated. If their employees are well educated they will not face any kind of difficulty or hardship. Being well educated is the most important part because if your employee is well educated that means he or she can do all kind of work or activities which their organization want from them. And if you hire such personnel who are not well educated therefore in the end the organization will going to suffer a lot because whatever will be the result it will be for an organization as a whole not for the employees. (Martin, 1998)

Last but not the least one of the important task for any kind of organization is to provide the best working place or area. It matters a lot. Because the place where you are working is a form of motivation for you if you like that place then for sure you will also like to work there and in the result you will give the best input which will produce the best output. The best working place or area condition matters a lot for all the employees. It should be safe, hygienic, and along with this it should be the best to for in. (Mitchell, 1982)

All the employees want a luxurious place to work in but they are unaware of the fact that working in a luxurious place will provide a slight difficulty for them because if they are working in a luxurious place they will always want to feel comfortable etc. but this is some how true that the working place should be safe and sound and should be good for work in. (Mitchell 1982)

The HRM department is responsible for all these type of activities because if they will give the best input to the employees, in the result their employees will give the best effort to produce the best output. (Mitchell, 1982)

Working is not an easy task. It needs a lot of attention and hardwork that is the reason why people usually say that the working environment matters a lot because you have to work hard and if the working environment is good you will love to work there and will find not a single type of difficult while working. (Mitchell, 1982)

Here, safety needs matters a lot for any employee. If an employee is being provided with safety measures he or she will automatically find charm in that working and on the other hand if he or she will find unsafe to work in that particular environment therefore in the result he or she will hate to work in that condition. (Martin 1998)

References

Henry Mintzberg. Organization Science, Vol. 12, No. 6, , (Nov. – Dec., 2001), pp. 759-771

K.Hafeez. The Journal of the Operational Research Society, Vol. 54, No. 2, Special Issue: Knowledge Management and Intellectual Capital, (Feb., 2003), pp. 153-164

Marianne J.Koch. Strategic Management Journal, Vol. 17, No. 5, (May, 1996), pp. 335-354

M.S Law. Journal of International Business Studies, Vol. 34, No. 3, , (May, 2003), pp. 255-265

Ruth Wageman. Organization Science, Vol. 12, No. 5, (Sep. – Oct., 2001), pp. 559-577

Will Mitchell, MIS Quarterly, Vol. 6, Special Issue: [1982 Research Program of the Society for Management Information Systems], (Dec., 1982), pp. 49-70

L. Martin. Strategic Management Journal, Vol 19, No 12 (Dec, 1998), pp 1193-1201

Why is it important for companies to conduct Ethics Training? Conduct Ethics Training is important for companies because it not only involves doing what is right and proper, but it is also good for business. Ethical conduct is the basis for long-term success in any organization. Here are some of the many advantages to ethical conduct at work:

1. Ethical conduct promotes a strong public image for the organization. People respect an organization that makes ethical choices. Customers like doing business with an organization they can trust.
2. Ethical conduct makes the best use of resources.
3. Money, time, and effort are put into productive activities rather than diverted for questionable purposes or personal gain.
4. Ethical conduct on the part of all employees also helps maintain quality and productivity. When employees follow ethical standards, they do not cut corners or short-change the company or its customers.
5. Ethical conduct assists the organization to comply with laws and regulations. What is ethical is also legal.
6. Ethical conduct ensures good and proper relationships with customers and vendors.
7. Ethical conduct boosts morale and promotes teamwork.

When employees can trust one another and management, they can work together more harmoniously and effectively. Week two: What are the most critical steps to successful implement high-performance work systems? First, work flows are organized around key business processes, and people are often grouped into teams to carry out those processes. Second, high performance work systems include a number of human resource policies and practices: staffing, training, performance management, compensation, etc. , that are intended to enhance employee skills, knowledge, motivation, and flexibility.

These practices take different forms, but are based on the belief that people are a critical competitive asset of the organization. Third, most high performance work systems rely on new approaches to leading employees. Often this means fewer levels of management and new roles for managers. Managers become facilitators and integrators and share responsibility for decision making and results with their employees.

Discussion Board

Discuss how would you go about diagnosing poor performance problems If I find the problem, I can work in the solution. To figure out what’s causing the performance issue, you have to get to the root of the problem. In my opinion, performances depend of the ability and the motivation of the employee. Someone with 100% motivation and 75% ability can often achieve above-average performance. If an employee is not making enough effort is necessary increase pressure to see if performance increase. If the problem is the ability; for example over -difficult tasks, increase the pressure can aggravate the problem. The ability can be lower when the employee was promoted to a position that is to demanding for him or maybe they no longer have the motivation to realize a good performance. Suggest ways in which the motivating value of merit raises may be increased.