2.5 Making Human Resource Decisions Flashcards
What is an Organisational Structure?
It is how a business is organised in terms of communication and decisions making. It identifies specific job roles
What are the 4 basic roles of staff?
Directions
Senior Managers
Supervisors or Team Leaders
Operational and Support staff
What is the role of Directors?
Responsible for the business’ strategy and overall direction
- decide on strategy and targets and regular board meetings
What is the role of Senior Managers?
Organise the playing the director’s strategy into action, using a team of middle and junior managers (ranked below) to help them
What is the role of Supervisors/ Team Leaders?
(ranked below managers)
Look after specific products or small teams of operational or support staff
What is the role of Operational and Support Staff?
Workers who aren’t responsible for any other staff, who are given specific tasks to perform by managers, supervisors or team leaders
What is a Chain of Command?
The chain connecting directors to operational and support staff
What is a Span of Control?
Number of direct reports to one manager
What are the features of a Hierarchical structure?
- Long chain of command, more layers of management
- SO communication between the top and bottom of the structure becomes difficult and slow as more people need to pass on the message
- Each manager has a narrow span of control, making a firm more effective as managers can monitor the employees they are responsible for more closely
What are the features of a Flat structure?
- Short chain of command, messages are passed on quickly
- Each manager has a wide span of control, so they have lots of employees to manage at once, which can be difficult to do effectively
What are the features of a Centralised Organisation?
- All major decisions are made by 1 CEO or a few senior managers at the top of the structure
- Senior managers tend to have lots of experience, and can get an overview of the whole business. Policies are uniform throughout the whole business (adv)
- If all decisions are only made by 1 or 2 people, it can slow down decision making and communications of the decisions can take a long time to pass to all employees-> so they react slowly to change (disadv)
- Senior managers at the top of organisational structures can become powerful, BUT only depending on a few people too heavily can cause issues if they lack specialist knowledge or begin making poor decisions.
What are the features of a Decentralised Organisation?
- Authority to make most decisions is delegated (ie more important decisions to regional managers, employees have more say etc)
- (ADV) Employees can use expert knowledge of the sector to make decisions. They don’t have to communicate decisions with managers above them-> changes can be made more quickly. (IMPORTANT in a competitive environment, where firms need to respond quickly to changes or opportunities in the market faster than competitors)
- (ADV) Senior managers are less responsible and make less decisions, so less need for a central office/headquarters, decreasing fixed costs
- (DIS) Can lead to inconsistencies between departments/regions, furthered diversified by the fact employees might not be able to see overall needs for the business, so make decisions that negatively impact the business as a whole.
How does a business decide what type of structure to adopt?
- Depends on size of business
small business= flat structure, no need for any employees or managers - As a business grows, it employees more staff, so managers may be needed to organise and control things-> becomes hierarchical
When can a business decide to become decentralised?
- The bigger the business, the greater number of managers needed-> so it might split into different parts (ie managed by department, region etc) to operate more easily
- Business often start with a centralised structure, but decentralise when it gets to big to make all the decisions at the top OR its more efficient for different areas/locations of the business to be managed separately
Why is Effective Communication within a business important?
It allows different areas of a business to work well together, and ensures all employees understand their roles and why
How does Effective communication improve staff motivation?
Improve staff motivation as employees feel included in what is going on at the firm Employees feel more confident they are doing their job well
What are barriers that delay effective communication?
Noise- difficult to hold conversation in noisy environment (ie factory)
Personalities- some employees may feel uncomfortable communicating with others in the firm-> they don’t personally get along or find them unapproachable
Distance- many businesses operate across different sites, sometimes miles apart-> can be difficult to speak face to face
Jargon- technical language used in one department may not be understood by people in other departments
Type of communication- face to face communication includes body language, can ensure the message is properly received and understood, however hard to get across a tall structure. Written notes can travel slow through a tall structure, but ensures the correct message is received
What are the effects on a business of having insufficient communication?
Leads to Inefficiency
- People being slow to receive important information on what they should be doing, means time and money are wasted on incorrect acts
- Information may not be passed between different departments or teams, so tasks can be repeated, or not done in ways that are best for the business as a whole
Can demotivate staff
- They feel frustrated as a lack of communicated stops them from doing their job properly.
- Makes them feel unvalued as they aren’t told about things that happen in a firm
What are the effects on a business of having excessive communication?
Leads to Inefficiency
- Takes time to pass and receive messages
- If people uninvolved with the messages are involved in the communication, it wastes valuable time
- People start to take less notice of messages, and may miss out on ones important to them
-Leads to many people trying to pass on the same message, giving conflicting information, creating confusion over what is correct-> leads to wasted time to then find out the right information, or mistakes through misinformation
REDUCED EFFICIENCY AND PRODUCTIVITY-> REDUCES OUTPUT
Staff feel demotivated
- feel overwhelmed
- annoyed as it effects their ability to do their job well
What is a contract of employment?
A legal agreement between an employee and employer, that includes details about how an employee works (ie how many hours they do)
What is the difference between a full time and part time job?
Full time- 35-40 hours per week
Part time- 10-30 hours per week
Why might people prefer a full time job?
Financially benefitting
Why might people prefer a part time job?
Spend more time with family or on other interests
Why are Full time jobs good for a business?
- easy to employ one person to do certain jobs
- more control over the hours they do (only have 1 job)
Why are part time jobs good for a business?
- makes Financial sense if business is seasonal
- can fill in if other staff members are absent
What is Flexible hours?
When employees can choose working hours and patterns to suit them
ie full time worker can spread hours over 4 days a week rather than 5
What are the benefits of working Flexible hours for the employee?
- Motivating, makes it easier for staff to fit other commitments in (ie childcare)
- Lower stress levels
- General improvement in wellbeing, employees have choice of work hours
- reduced childcare costs, as hours are flexed
What are the benefits of working Flexible hours for the business?
- increases staff retention
- increased productivity
- lower rates of absents
- Help to match supply and demand more closely
What is a zero-hour contract?
Employer doesn’t have to offer any work at all + employee doesn’t have to accept the work offered to them
- used in businesses with lots of fluctuation in demand
- cheap
- don’t waste money on paying unneeded staff
What is a permanent contract of employment?
Has no end date, the person stays employed unless
- they choose to leave
- dismissed for misconduct
- job is made redundant
What is a temporary contract of employment?
For a fixed period, at the end the contract can be renewed or they can leave the company
What is a freelance contract of employment?
Self employed person is employed by the company, usually to work of a specific project
- hired and dismissed in short notice
What is a benefit to temporary and freelance contracts?
Make it easier for the firm to employ people with particular skills for a certain period (without committing to a permanent contract)
- can easily adjust the number of staff according to the needs of the business?
How has technology changed the way employees work?
- working is more efficient (ie repetitive tasks can be done faster and more accurately by computers than staff)
- Can work from home some days
- ## Easier for employees to share information and communicate (ie access documents any time, communicate via video conference, email from different locations)
What is recruitment?
The process of identifying the need for a job, defining the requirements of the position and the job holder, advertising the position and choosing the most appropriate person to fill the vacant post
What are the steps to recruitment?
- Job analysis
- Advertisement
- Selection
What is Job analysis?
When a vacancy arises in a organisation, so the business collects and interprets information about the position
- this is used to create a job description and person specification
What is a Job Description?
Description that details the role of the job
- Job title
- Purpose
- Duties
- Line manager/line management responsibilities
- Location
- Hours of work
What is a Person Specification?
Lists the qualifications, experiences, skills, and attitudes needed for the job
How does a business select during recruitment?
Go through the candidates that apply for the job and select the best one
What is Internal recruitment?
Recruiting current employees into new roles, advertised within the company
What are advantages of internal recruitment?
- cheaper
- post can be filled more quickly
- candidate will already know lots about the firm
- Bosses may know the candidate well
What are disadvantages of Internal recruitment?
- No new employees or ideas
- Employee vacancy needs to be filled
What is External Recruitment?
Recruiting outside the business, advertised in lots of places
- local, national press
- job centres
- trade journals
- employment websites
What are the advantages of external recruitment?
- Job advert will be seen by more people, can find someone really suited to the job
What are the disadvantages of external recruitment?
- expensive
- only specialist or senior jobs are advertised nationally in the press as it is expensive
What is a Curriculum Vitae (CV)?
Summary of person’s personal details, skills, qualifications and interests- part of a written application for a job
- written in standard format to give the firm basic facts
- almost all firms ask for a CV
What is an application form?
Give firms relevant information about the people, can ask specific questions unanswered by a CV- part of a written application for a job
- quicker to process than open ended letters written by candidates
Why do some firms use online application forms?
Easier to fill, can compare applications using computer software
Why would staff need ongoing training when working for a business?
- Retrain
- Learn new processes
- use new technology
- develop, make sure they’re doing their job as well as possible
What is Informal training?
- employee learns how to do their job by being shown, and then practicing
- no plan, usually given by other workers
What is a benefit to Informal training?
Cost effective for employer, employees work and learn at the same time
What is a problem with informal training?
Bad working practices may be passed down employees
What is Formal training?
Involves a set plan with learning objectives and schedule
- learning in a training department or away from the workplace (ie in college)
What is a problem with formal training?
more expensive than informal training
What is the benefit with formal training?
higher quality, usually taught by people better qualified to train others
What are Performance reviews?
Firms set employee targets, then review their performance to ensure they are doing as well as they should be
What happens if employees meet or beat their targets set in performance reviews?
- rewarded with higher pay or promotion
What happens if employees don’t meet their performance targets?
- Manager decides what training or support may be needed to help them improve
What are the benefits to training and development?
- make staff more productive, makes staff better at their jobs, work faster, lower business unit costs
- Help staff stay up to date with changes in the business (ie understanding new technology used in the business)
- Makes staff feel more motivated, shows firm is interested in how well staff are doing their jobs + are willing to help them improve, makes staff feel like they are progressing in the form, can increase staff retention
Why is having motivated staff important?
- they work harder, leading to high productivity
- they want the firm to do well, so work harder to ensure this happens
- more likely to stay at the firm (high levels of staff retention), less time and money spent on recruiting and training new workers, reducing costs
- can attract new staff, recruiting new employees is easier, more applicants for vacancies
What is examples of Financial motivation?
wages or a salary
- the more they are paid, the more motivated employees feel to stay at their jobs
What is the difference between a wage and a salary?
wages are paid weekly or monthly, usually to manual workers. Based on the amount of work they do (in hours)
Salary is a fixed amount paid monthly- ie office staff
What is the advantage and disadvantage of a salary?
The business knows exactly how much pay will be
BUT
doesn’t link pay to performance, so it doesn’t encourage employees to work harder
What is an advantage of wages?
Links pay to performance so encourages employees to work as hard as possible
What are examples of extra financial incentives?
Commission
Bonus
Fringe Benefits
What is Commission?
paid to sales staff for every item they sell
- on top of their current salary
What is a Bonus?
Lump sum added to pay, usually once a year
- commonly paid if the worker has met performance targets
What is Fringe benefits?
Any reward that is not part of a worker’s main income
- staff discount
- company car
- gym membership
- daily meal allowance
- free health insurance
- cost money for the business BUT save for the worker, motivates them
How can Promotion boost motivation?
- train employees to learn new skills, start to take on new tasks, have greater responsibility
- can lead to promotion, likely to be paid more
- promotion + opportunity to be promoted can be motivating
How can Job Rotation motivate employees?
- production jobs can become boring and repetitive (ie working on a factory assembly line)
- Job rotation reduces this by occasionally moving workers from one job to another
- Motivated them to be less bored
- Learn different jobs- can cover if other workers are absent
What is a problem with job rotation?
Replacing one boring job with another doesn’t increase job satisfaction
How does Job Enrichment increase motivation?
When a worker is given greater responsibility, ie supervising the work of new staff
- as employees get better at their jobs, they become more productive, so do the amount of work in less time
- increasing responsibility can stop them feeling their increased productivity is being punished by continuous work
- gives workers new challenges so may motivate them to work harder
What is a problem with Job Enrichment?
- May expect a pay rise
How does Autonomy increase motivation?
Means to give workers freedom to make their own decisions
ie told a goal but not told specifically how to achieve it
- responsibility motivates workers as it makes them feel trusted and that their contribution is valued
