Chapter 2 - Trends in Human Resource Management Flashcards
Internal Labor Force
Organization’s workers:
- employees and people who have contracts to work at organization
External Labor Market
- individuals who are actively seeking employment
- # and kinds of people in external labor market determine kinds of HR available to an organization
Changes in the Labor Force
Aging, Diverse, Skill deficiencies
Baby Boomers
- opportunity for learning
- time management
- undeserved rewards
Generation X
- pragmatic and cynical
- self skills
Generation Y (1981-1995)
- includes me
- will be managing people much older than self
HRM Implications of Aging Workforce
- Spend time on…
- > retirement planning
- > retraining older workers
- > motivating workers whose careers plateau
- organizations struggle to control rising cost of health care and other benefits
- organizations must find ways to attract, retain, and prepare youth labor force
HRM Practices that support diversity management
- Communication
- Development
- Performance Appraisal
- Employee Relations
Skill Deficiencies of Workforce
- gap between needed and available skills has decreased companies ability to compete
- sometimes lack the capacity to upgrade tech, reorganize work, and empower employees
Organizations have best fit between…
- social system (people and how they interact)
- technical system (equipment and processes)
Key trends in high performance work systems
- reliance on knowledge workers
- empowerment of employees to make decisions
- teamwork
Knowledge Workers
- Employees whose contribution is specialized knowledge of customers, processes, and/or profession
- especially needed for jobs in: health services, business services, social services, engineering, and management
Employee empowerment
- giving employees responsibility and authority to make decisions regarding all aspects of product development or customer
Employee engagement
- full involvement in one’s work and commitment to one’s job and company
- associated with higher productivity, better customer service, lower employee turnover
Teamwork
- work teams often assume many of the activities traditionally reserved for managers…
-> selecting new team members
-> scheduling work
->coordinating work with customers and other
units of the organization
HR’s beginnings
- started as “personnel” and just kept track of things
- now is involved in all major areas of company
Total Quality Management (TQM)
companywide effort to continuously improve the ways people, machines, and systems accomplish work
TQM Core Values
- methods and processes are designed to meet the needs of internal and external customers
- every employee receives quality training
- quality is designed into a product or service so errors are prevented from occurring
- organization promotes cooperation with all to improve quality and hold costs down
- managers measure progress with feedback based on data
Mergers/Acquisitions
HRM has major role in these…
- diff. b/w businesses involved in the deal make conflict inevitable
- training should include conflict resolution skills
- need to sort out difference in 2 companies’ practices regarding compensation, performance appraisal, and other HR systems
Ways to lay off employees but keep reputation…
- programs to find other jobs
- severance packages
- teach how to write resumes
Reengineering/Downsizing
- complete review of the organization’s major work processes to make them more efficient and able to deliver higher quality
- affects HRM in 2 ways:
- > how HR accomplishes its goals may change
- > change requires HR to help design and implement change so that all employees will be committed to the new organization’s success
Outsourcing
- having another company provide services
- > outsourcing gives the company access to in-depth expertise and is often more economical as well
- > HR helps with a transition to outsourcing
Offshoring
moving operations from the country where company is headquartered to diff. county where pay rates are less but necessary skills are available
International Labor Pool
hiring at home may involve selection of employees from other countries
HR Information Systems (HRIS)
computer system used to acquire, store, manipulate, analyze, retrieve, and distribute information related to an organization’s human resources… HRIS can:
- > support strategic decision making
- > help the organization avoid lawsuits
- > provide data for evaluating programs or policies
- > support day-to-day HR decisions
Electronic Human Resource Management (e-HRM)
- e-HRM: processing and transmission of digitized HR information especially using computer networking and Internet
- Self-Service: system in which employees have online access to information about HR issues and go online to enroll themselves in programs and provide feedback through surveys
Psychological Contract
employment relationship that describes what employees and employers expect from the employment relationship
Nature of employment relationship change
Employees now looking for:
- flexible work schedules
- comfortable working conditions
- greater autonomy
- opportunities for training and development
- performance related financial incentives
