Human Resource Management Practices and Beliefs

Human Resource Management

The field of business is increasingly getting competitive as the years go by. Every enterprise is devising ways on how to cope with the competition through creativity and focusing on the operation of their businesses. Strategies such as benchmarking, SWOT analyses, and the use of operation management have been employed in various organizations. However, there still seems to be some difficulty in how work is done concerning the employees. As it is evident that every organization or institution needs a workforce for it to accomplish its tasks, there needs to be a human resource management department that decides on the eligibility of employees. Thus, the presence of an active Human Resource Management department is essential for the excellent performance of a company.

The department of Human Resource Management (HRM) performs various tasks for an organization or institution. HRM implies to the governance of people and works to achieve excellence or success. Despite the distinct methodologies different organizations use in their HRM departments, the sole purpose of the sector is still the same; to maximize the effort of all the people who make up the institution to increase the performance of the company. Just like any other field, the HRM has a scope to which it performs its tasks. The department is subdivided into three sectors, which include Micro HRM, Strategic HRM, and International HRM. The Micro HRM is in charge of the significant human practices and policies. The exercises involve selection, induction, recruitment, transfer or promotion, performance management, training and development, and remuneration.

Strategic HRM covers the systematic issues that face the organization and it analyzes all the plans put in place by the institution measuring what impact they have on the performance of the company. It stands for areas such as industrial relations, which involve aspects such as collective bargaining, disciplinary and grievance procedures, union-management issues, settlement of disputes, and joint consultation . International HRM deals with the institutions of the same company but is operating across international boundaries. The subdivision tackles issues such as social-political conflicts that may occur in different countries . It is thus essential that these fields function effectively and efficiently as any error may lead to huge losses.

To achieve a particular level of effectiveness and efficiency, the HRM consists of several beliefs set to guide the department in conducting its operation. These beliefs stress on the treatment of both the interest of the company and the employees as one unit . The unitary approach helps the organization to make well-informed decisions that benefit both the company and the workers. HR is an essential asset which can be enhanced and established in various ways, despite the different job allocations of employees, they are all equal as they all add value to the organization daily. Others include institution operations should be transparent to workers, the openness, trust, enthusiasm, and collaboration of individuals is significant for human resources. Lastly, HR encourages every manager to help their subordinates on how to utilize and develop their capabilities.

Point of View. In the case study, various HRM practices and beliefs are evident. HRM activities such as hiring can be seen from the start of the article, with the author stating that she joined the organization immediately after she completed school. The author also mentions that after several years, she got a promotion to be a program manager for the soft products business. Getting promoted is also an HRM practice under the Micro HRM scope. Her work as a program manager was to coordinate the whole project from testing, planning, development, operations, and finance. Concerning an HR belief on the first page, seeing that the author mentioned that program managers do not have formal authority over anyone. She views that her work is only to guide and give solutions to issues that may develop in her area of work. Her speculations are correct; as we can see her pointing out that she was the judge when the business and development sectors had a disagreement regarding the soft goods.

On the second page, the author still mentions the HRM practices that she went through. She talks of two individuals who deserve a promotion to being the program manager; her and Rachel. First of all the author mentions that it took her about two years to become a leader of the soft goods business, contrary to the six months that she took to become the program manager. In regards to belief, most HRM tends to promote individuals who have years of experience in a particular work and are usually of higher ages. Contrary to that, we see that the author’s promotion was regardless of her many years of experience but instead because of her technicality. There was thus a lot of controversy regarding her promotion because she was young and the fact that Rachel, who is older than her and was once considered her mentor, was also eyeing the position and did not get it.

The author was in charge of the recruitment and selection of workers, which are practices done by the HR department. The writer and her boss made five to six acquisitions that contributed to the increase in the organization’s growth. Additionally, their act of selecting potential workers, who mostly were young and vibrant, helped their division to work better. In another words, she mentions that the soft goods business was the top-performing group. The emphasis given by the HRM department of always informing the employees of the organization’s operation is also evident in the article. Subsequently, explains that to ensure that everything was interoperating; they had to meet, about ten of them, and present their project lists, which indicated what they were planning to do during the next phase.

The author, at the end of the second consideration as the case stated, it is mentioned that while presenting her project proposals, they would first face rejection only to be accepted because her team was very productive. She attributes the top performance to her very selective way of hiring employees. In addition to that, she recruited mostly young individuals who could offer to work for about 80 hours weekly, even if they did need to instead of hiring mature people. If the human resource department recruits competent and highly productive individuals, the company operates optimally and there is often high performance, which leads to the corporation’s excellence. Also, if HR does not choose effective and efficient workers, the firm fails to achieve its objectives, and the organization performs poorly.

Then, the author’s perception of certain HR beliefs was clearly identified mentioning that her approach to her subordinates was not typical, as many HR departments require a manager to be. Bluntly admits that she hates the belief that HRM encourages managers to practice, for instance, not being honest with those under you. A particular example that she uses is the fact that superiors often do not inform their subordinates of the performance at work. Therefore, she explains that the typical attitude the HR department urges managers to do is not to show their workers what they think of them, an aspect she detests. The author states that she hates fake people and that on her side; she told her subordinates if they were doing a good or bad job so that they could either keep up the excellent work or change for the better.

The third page also shows a comprehensive case analysis shows the author exercised the belief or practice of encouraging workers to maximize on utilizing their full capabilities. The author stresses that she often coaxed her subordinates to work hard because she wanted them to succeed. She mentions that there is nothing she would love most than the company being run by superstars who were initially in her team. The author also emphasized that she would not take any credit for what she did not do and that all she wanted was to trumpet the success of her employees, which is a crucial trait of a good leader. In the end, her HR practices of transparency, thorough selection of workers, and constant encouragement helped her team to be the highest performing.

Evaluation of the Strengths and Weaknesses of HR Practices and Beliefs

The sole purpose of the HRM practices and beliefs is to help a company or business attain its objectives of success. Concerning the study case, the HR practices of the program manager were all good as they contributed to the excellent performance of her team. The first strength lies in her thorough selection of who she hires into her division. She mentions that her team often recruited individuals with potential, were competent, and who were very vibrant and dedicated to their work. Through that, her team was able to continually perform excellently as all her workers were skilled in their line of work. The other strength of the author is that she was often transparent with her subordinates. She states that her planning team would always meet to discuss their next strategy and operation, an element that ensured that everything was interoperating. Her employees achieved excellent performance as they knew what they were working for and thus did it enthusiastically. The critical weakness of the HR practices in the case study includes the hiring of Terry. He was not only competent for the position he was given but always did poorly in his area of work.

HR Errors in the Hiring of Terry

Statement of the Problem. The first error that the HR made regarding Terry’s recruitment is deciding to hire him on the basis that he is a friend and scuba coach of the executives. The selection of employees is never based on friendship but on the competency of an individual in the field of work. The second error that the HR made was opting to give Terry a job position despite him failing all of his job interviews. The company had a selection policy of hire or not hire, where if an individual performs poorly in his interview, he gets no hire. The executives still recruited him even though all of his feedback was negative. Their action led to the low performance of the division in which Terry worked.

Areas of Consideration and the Alternative Course of Action. It is important to note that both Terry and Phil, who are the worst-performing employees at the moment in our company, were not hired as per the regulations of employing workers. Additionally, the background of the two individuals does not show that they have any expertise in the area of work that the company performs. Terry, for instance, was an engineer at GE and he was a turbine designer while also being a scuba instructor. Both of these areas do not relate to the tasks performed in the firm, which makes his presence there irrelevant. Terry also did not follow the rules that guide the hiring of employees, he had negative feedbacks from all the interviewers, which meant that he is not eligible to work in the company, but still, the executives gave him a job. The overall performance of Terry is terrible as he often relies on others for him to make judgments regarding his work. It thus makes it mandatory that the company should fire him.

On the other hand, Phil’s story is quite different from that of Terry, although his also a low performer. Phil ended up in the corporation because our firm had recently acquired his company, to which there he was a call center manager. As per our Human Resource policy, an organization does not immediately get rid of the employees of an institution it just acquired. So Phil ended up in the soft goods team where he did various tasks. However, because his primary profession was as a call center manager, he has no expertise in the group which results in his poor performance. However, Phil can accomplish various tasks well better than Terry, which makes the choice of firing him somewhat hard. So, the firm is undecided whether it should fire him or just offer him training.

The Possibility of Firing Terry and Phil

The decision or the Best Course of Action. In the case study, both Terry and Phil are underperforming in their field of work, which puts the possibility of firing both of them, an option. However, in comparison to how both of them perform, Phil performs better than Terry. Thus, if I were a consultant, I would fire Terry and give Phil another chance to improve his performance. Generally, both of them had not been hired according to the regulations that govern company recruitment at all, which makes all of the eligible to getting fired. I would fire Terry because of various reasons; first, Terry failed all of the job interviews, which imply that he does not qualify to be one of the company’s employees. Second, Terry since his recruitment has been performing below expectations with 2.5, an aspect that no organization takes lightly.

The third reason for firing Terry is that he is highly dependent on others, which disrupts the typical work environment for other employees. Thus, to reduce the unrest Terry causes, he should go home. Regarding Phil, I would not rush to fire him because he has occasionally done well in his area of work. However, his position at work is not entirely defined, so to improve his performance, I would find an excellent area to which he could be useful then take him through various training to enhance his performance. It is thus evident that Phil would remain while Terry packs his bags because one is more productive than the other.

Recommendations and Conclusion

All on all, the case study identifies several human resource management practices and beliefs that are essential for the excellent performance of a company. For instance, the program managers' act of being transparent with her subordinates and being thorough during hiring much helped the company. On the first page, she mentions that it is when the company was starting, but through its course, it gains momentum and performs well because of her excellent choice of employees and her transparency with her workers. Concerning the observations made from the author’s experience, the HR department must be keen when hiring individuals to increase the performance of the organization. The best choice in employees that it should consider should mostly include individuals with experience in the field of work and who are punctual in completing their tasks. Furthermore, as a consultant I would highly recommend that Terry should pass through training sessions that adds a value to him as well as leading him to a high level-performance instead having a possibility of firing him. In addition, providing a guidance among retraining Terry gives a chance to learn while performing a job that ensure efficiency and effectiveness to the overall organization.

References:

• Badaracco,Jr.J.L.(2006,July10). Two Tough calls (A). Harvard Business School Press, 9-306-0277
• Boxall, Peter, John Purcell, and Patrick M. Wright. 'Human Resource Management: Scope, Analysis, and Significance.' The Oxford Handbook of Human Resource Management 1.1 (2008): 1-16.
• Hewett, Rebecca, Amanda Shantz, and Julia Mundy. 'Information, Beliefs, and Motivation: The Antecedents to Human Resource Attributions.' Journal of Organizational Behavior: Wiley Library (2018): 570-586.

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