Human resource management Flashcards
Human resource management is (definition
The sum of all strategic, policy, procedures and day-to-day acts that together aim to guide employment relations in organizations
Hr practices
Are all the policies and procedures used for managing employment relations experienced by people in the workplace. Used by managers, teams, project leaders and employees themselves
Employment relationship
A reciprocal relationship between those who perform work or services and those who offer employment in the aim of realizing organizational goals
Why dont all organizations do the same (management wise etc)
1) it doesnt fit (there are differences in organizations and HR practices are effective to different extents)
2) Because different stakeholders have different interests in HRM
3) because some methods are unethical
Research practice gap
Researches only know about half of the methods that are available
Evidence based HRM
A decision making method for practitioners to find effective interventions to manage human resource. By taking the best research evidence into account together with understanding the needs and requirements of stakeholders while upholding ethical standards for employees
Equifinality
Not one solution fits all, but equally effective solutions that lead to the same outcome in different ways
Quick fix
Immediate action on a problem (influenced by fads and fashion, limited understanding of the problem or inaccurate knowledge. (not evaluated often followed by another quick fix) (often harmful)
Evidence based HRM
Is a conscientious, explicit, and judicious decision making process to adress important people related issues in organizations by combining the best available research evidence with measurrable data and professional knowledge available in organizations
Validity (definition)
The evidence helps you understand the cause of the problem (check the quality of measure, research design and use good theory
Reliability
The findings reported in the evidence would be similar if we replicated the research
generalizability
We can use this evidence to say something about the targeted employees for the problem intervention
Ethicality
Do not harm
Benefits of evidence based HRM
A better understanding of problems in the organization
A culture of learning and curiosity
Reduction of organizational politics
When is EB-HR not useful
Arguable: in common, day-to-day management decisions and in crisis situations
Human resource management (definition)
Human resource management is the sum of all strategy, policy, procedures and day to day acts that together aim to guide employment relations in organization
–> towards the goal of organizations
While ensuring alignment with various contextual conditions such as organization characteristics, industry dynamics, competition, labor markets nad legal institutionsal settings
Operating performance
Productive sales quality and customer loyalty
Financial performance
Profits return on assets ROI tobins
Employee performance
Retention (opposite of voluntary turnover) , employee productivity, value added per employee
Innovation indicators
Eg, new products or services, patents
Resources
Are tangible and intangible features that enable actors to realize their goals
Resource based view (barney)
1) physical capital: money, offices/factories, machines and computers
2) organizational capital
a) structural organizational capital
b) social organizational capital
3) human capital (knowlege and skills the employees in the organization possess)
Which resource leads to competitive advantage
- sustainable
- Rare
- Non-transparent
- non-transferable
Social and human capital: highest value for unique capability… Why?
Because social organization capital and human capital are stored in the behavior and minds of people. Individuals who leave thake their skills knowlege and networkds with them. Transfer of skills knowlegde and social relations is difficult
Business case for HRM
Investing in HRM leads to unique capability for competetive advantage
Causality
An empirically observable relationship that suggest a mechanism through which a cause leads to an effect
Human capital
All knowledge, skills, ideas, abilities and health available in the people working within an organization
Human capital (economic view)
HC is a rare resource for individuals and for organization, that can be a unique capability for competitive advantage
Individuals: career income
Organizations: performance outcomes
Generic human capital
Broad diplomas, generic industry knowledge
Firm-specific human capital:
Non-transferable, firm specific knowledge
HC as individual differences (intelligence)
Speed with which people process, retrieve and combine information
Reliable tests
HC as individual differences (personality)
Relatively consistend style in which people think, act and feel
Reliable tests or interview
Structure of intelligence
The underlying factor g
Smaller aptitutes (e.g. memory, speed of retrieval, logical reasoning) all load positively on g
Scores are normally distibuted over the population
Scores are stable over a lifetime
Scores correlate high with performance
Structure of personality
Five dimesions (big five)
Openness, agreeableness, extraversion, conscienciousness and neuroticism (emotional stability)
Social capital theory
The potential that is generated by the network of social relationships in an organization and that can be used to enable actions
Social capital dimensions
1) structural social capital (network opportunity to meet)
2) Relational social capital (Bonding/friendship)
3) Cognitive social capital (organizational climate/shared understanding
Levels
Individual, team, organization and society
Social exchange theory (unleashing human and social capital)
Explains why people put effort at work, exchange mechanisms in the employment relationship
Social exchange theory (humans)
Relationships between people are based on exchange
Economic vs. social exchange relations
Does the relationship make me happy
Gouldner (social exchange theory)
The norm of reciprocity
Implicit expectation about fair repays
If reward is very high –> extra effort to make up
If reward does not come –> anger, frustration and revenge
Social exchange theory (Blau)
Organizations although not human are assigned human like characteristics. Hence the norm of reciprocity applies as well
The social exchange should be in balance´if
The employer is good to their employees (more so than expected) then the employees will feel compelled to be an exemplary employee through a positive attitude and extra effort
Does social exchange pay off (research evidence)
Extra investing in employees increases
Job performance, willingness to do something extra (OCB), employee commitment
Longitudinal and meta-analytical evidence
Behaviors/attitudes induced by social exchange (OCB, commitment and satisfaction) result in better organizational performance
Essential goals of planned change
Change employees behaviour
Improve competitive advantage or service
External forces for change
Social (Including diversity, ageing workforce, changes in attitudes nad preferences)
Technological (eg. ict, online shopping)
Economic (competition from BRIC: low wage emerging economies)
Political (e.g. conflic in easern europe, privatisation of public sector organisations)
Legal (e.g. regulation of food additives, changes to employment law
Ecological (E.g. energy usage)
Internal forces for change
Performance (eg poor quality or service)
Innovation (E.g. production or product desing)
Human resources (E.g. commitment, high absenteeism)
Participation (E.g. Generate new ideas, ways of doing)
Leadership (E.g. new champion for change)
Conflict (e.g. inter department power shifts)
Safety (e.g. unsafe or unhealthy processes)
How can HRM and leadership help organizations to compete and survive in environment of continuous change
Change management strategy –> Theory that explains what happens here –> performance of the organization
Managing change
The process of planning and executing change to minimise the resistance, while maximising cooperation and the effectiveness of prcess
change agents
Can be managers to non-managers
Lewins theory of planned changet 3 stages
To reach desired state: increase driving forces, reduce resisting forces or combination of both
1)Unfreezing (thaw ways of doing)
2) Movement (modify behaviours by seeing organisation as a system of learning)
3) Refreezing (embed changes to avoid regression by positive reinforcement, by coaching, by revising rules governing behavior
Criticism of lewins three stage model
The third stage refreezing
1) In fluid/volative business situations, the concept of refreezign would not be in line with reality
2) refreezing is considered to be a quaintly linear and static concept
3) This migh furthermore undermine continuous learning
Kotters eight stage model
1) failure to create a sense of urgency
2) failure to create a powerful guiding coalition
3) Failure to recognise the power of vision
4) failure to communicate the vision
5) failure to remove the obstacles that block the vision
6) failure to plan for a nd create short-term wins
7) declaring victory too soon
8) failure to anchor the changes in the organisational culture
Kotters advise on how to practice change (building on lewins theory of planned change
1) unfreeze (establish sense of urgence)
2) Move (guiding coalition, change vision, communcate change vision, empower others to take action, generate short time wins)
3) Freeze (consolidate gains, promote change; Institutionalise new approaches)
Dynamic capabilities
The organizational competence in changein and adapting its resources to deal with dynamic environments
Resources that allow organizations to enterprise: seize oppertunities when they come along
Human resource scalability: the flexible firm
The speed with which an organization can adjust its work force
Quality (amount of employees)
Quanitity (The type of tasks that employees can do)
The flexible firm
Combining permanent and flexible employment methods
Organizational lerning capability
The capacity of the organization as a whole to access information from outside the organization, bring it in the organization, learn from it and convert that learning into new knowledge
Needed: Hr practices aimed at knowledge transfer and strong social ties within the organization and ouside the organization
Organizational capability for innovation
Management systems that encourage knowlege createion and proactive behavior at all levels of the organization, and a strategy oriented towards innovation.
The mechanisms of culture chagne
The techniques used to change culture cover the whole range of personnel management practice and have included initiatives in the following areas:
Recruitment, selection, induction, traning and development, communications, payment and reward, appraisal, employee relations, organization structure, counselling and redundancy and social activiteis
Change oriented leadership (4-tings)
Intellectual stimulation, Inspirational motivation, individualized consideration and idealized influence
Behavioral indicatios of individualized consideration
Recognizes differences, Enlarges individual discretion, creates strategy for continuous improvement, promotes self-development, ecnourages others to take initiative, coaches and counsels, Tragets areas to develop and to elevate individual needs
Transformational leadership (Idealized attributes)
I belive this is whats right not simple the right thing
General characteristis (Confidence in the vision, sense of purpose and trust)
Actions (Exhibits persistence in pursuing objectives, demonstrates dedication to followers)
Why multinational corporations (MNCS) go abroad
Market seeking behaviour:
To gain access to and to serve local or regional markets
Efficiency seeking behaivour:
Exploit international factor-cost country differences
The General field of HR
Major functions and activities ,HR planning, Staffing, performance management, training and development, compensation (remuneration) and benefits and industrial relations
Types of employees
Within and cross cultural workforce diversity, coordination and communication
Human resource activity
Procurement, allocation and utilization of human resources
Nation/country categories where firms expand and operate
Host country, parent country and third country
Differences between domestic HRM and IHRM
More HR activites, the need for a broader perspective, more involvement in employees personal lives, changes in emphasis as the workforce mix of expatriates and locals varies, risk exposure and broader external influences
Attitudes of senior management to international operations
Attitudes to other cultures are part of our mind set which affects behaviours, Senior management need to have a strong international orientation in order to maange international operations
Inexperienced managers may assume that there is a gread deal of transfer abilitiy between domestic and international HRM
Failure to recognise differences may be due to: ethnocentrism, inadequate info or lack of international perspective
This failure, whatever the cause will result in difficulties
What is an expatriate
An employee who is working and temporarily residing in a foreign country
Some firms prefer to use the term “international assignees”
4 dimensions for successful expatriate selection
1) self oriented (expresses adaptive concern for self-preservaition, self enjoyment and mental hygene)
2) perceptual (Accurately understands why host nationals behave the way they do)
3)others-oriented (concerned about host national coworkers and has desire to affiliate with them)
4)cultural toughness (able to handle the incongruence between the host country and that of the home country)
Convergence vs divergence
An isssue facing all international firms is the extent to which their HR policies should either converge worldwide to be basically the same in each location, or diverge to be differentiated in response to local requirements
Global standardization requirements
According to MNE’s global requirements:
Strategy and structure
Corporate culture
Firm size and maturity
Localization
According to the host country context:
Cultural environment
institutional environment
Firm size and maturity according to features of the local affiliate:
Mode of operation
Subsidiary role
Drivers of standardisation
Those MNE’s that are very large, have long history of international business, have worldwide corporate culture tend toward standardisation; also wholly owned subsidiaries give more control than cross border alliances (M & A, IJV)
Aim is to standardise HRM practices on world wide basis in e.g. pay and rewards, performance mgt
Diversity of localisation:
- culture
- Institutional environment
- Subsidiary size
- Mode of operation e.g. Licensing, subcontracting, M&A, IJV, wholly owner subsidiaries
Standardisation and localisation:
Desire to build corporate identity means MNe strive to create consistency in HR practices
To be effective locally must be adaptive to local cultural requirements
Culture and institutional environment shape behaviour and attitudes in subsidiaries
Global nature of business calls for increased consistency but variety of cultural environment calls for differentiation
National culture:
A system of values and norms that are shared among a group of people and that, taken together constitute a design for living
Culture comprises three levels:
Inner patterns of thought and perception
Deep-level verbalisation
Visible patterns of behaviour
Culture, Human behaviour and socialisation
Individuals and group express culture and its normative qualities through symbols, which determine values, which again shape human behaviour
Shared values and behaviour change over time and generations
Socialisation
The process by which members lean the way of life of their society
Collectivism
People are born into extended families or other ingroups which continue to protect them in exchange for loyalty
Harmony should always be maintained and direct confrontations avoided
High-context communication
Identity (collectivism)
Is based in the social network to which one belongs
Individualists
Everyone grows up to look after him/herself and his/her immediate (nuclear) family
Children learn to think in terms of “I”
Low-context communication
Identity (individualists)
Identity is based in the individual
Collectivists in firms
Hiring and promotion decisions take employees in group into account
Management is management of groups
Relationships prevail over tasks
Individualists in firms
Hiring and promotion decisions are supposed to be based on skills and rules only
Management is management of individuals
Task prevails over relationship
Large power distance
Inequalities among people are both expected and desired
Less powerful people should be dependent on the more powerful
Parents teach children obedience
Children treat parents with respect
Small power distance family
Inequalities among people should be minimized
Some interdependence exists between less and more powerful people
Parents treat children as equals
Children treat parents as equals
Large power distance workkplace
Superiors are offended if subordinates bypass them
Employees expect boss to behave consistently with status
Centralization is popular
Subordinates expect to be told what to do
Small power distance workplace
Bypassing of superiors accepted
Boss is expected to coach others to make decisions
Decentralization is popular
Subordinates expect to be consulted
Uncertainty avoidance
Measures the extent to which national cultures differ in how the respond to ambiguous situations and the extent to which they try to avoid these situations
Low uncertainty avoidance Family
Uncertainty is normal feature of life and each day is accepted as it comes
Comfortable in ambiguous situations and with unfamiliar risks
Lenient rules for childre
What is different is curious
High uncertainty avoidance family
The uncertainty inherent is life is felt as a continuous threat to which must be fought
Acceptance of familiar risks; Fear of ambiguous situations and of unfamiliar risks
Tight rules for children
What is different is dangerous
Low uncertainty avoidance workplace
There should not be more rules than is strictly necessary
Tolerance of deviant and innovative ideas and behaviour
Motivation by achievement
High uncertainty avoidance workplace
Emotional need for rules
Suppression of deviant ideas and behavior; resistance to innovation
Motivation by security
Criticism on the national dimensions of culture
Term national culture is misleading
Claiming to measure values of national culture is problematic as there is wide variance in the personal values of that population
More likely to have a plural orientation with hyphenated identities such as african american, anglo indian etc.
Power distance
The degree to which members of a collective expect power to be distributed equally
Humane orientation
The degree to which a collective encourages and individuals for being fair, altruistic, generous, caring and kind to each other
Collectivism I (institutionalized collectivism)
The degree to which organizational and societal institutional practices encourage and reward collective distribution of resources and collective action
Collectivism II(in-group collectivism)
The degree to which individuals express pride, loyalty, and cohesiveness in their organizations and families
Assertiveness
The degree to which individuals are assertive, confrontational and aggressive in their relationship with others
Gender egalitarianism
The degree to which a collective minimizes gender inequality
Performance orientation
The degree to which a collective encourages and rewards group members for performance improvement and exellence
General systems theory
Systems adapt to their environments in order to survive. Organization is a living organism
Resources flow in and transformed in output
Contingency
Companies who operate in line with their characteristics/context/strategy perform better than companies who dont
Vertical fit (strategic alignment HRM)
Every HR activity supports the organizational strategy
Horizontal fit (strategic alignment HRM)
The Hr activities are not aligned
HRM in the lifecycle (startup)
Flexible patterns of work, recruitment of highly motivated and committed employees, competitive pay and little formality
HRM in the lifecycle (growth)
More sophisticated recruitment and selection, training and development, performance Mgmt process, rewards systems and developing stable employee relations
HRM in the lifecycle (Pleateauing)
Attention to the control of labour cost, focus on increasing productivity and control compensation
HRM lifecylce (Decline)
Plan labor reductions, retraining, career consulting
Isomorphism
A contraining process that forces one unit in a population to resemble other units that face the same set of environmental conditions
Institutional isomorphism (increases when)
They add that rate of institutional isomporphism is increased when firms:
Are highly dependent on the institutional environment
Exist under high uncertainty or ambiguous goals
Rely extensively on professionals
Decent work
Decent work is the minimal standard for work conditions that allow a good quality of life (a shared moral concern exists worldwide that bad jobs should be abolished in order to improve the quality of life for all
Indicators of decent work
Opportunities for work: Employment opportunities for everyone who is available and seeking work
Basic human rights: abolishment of work that is objected to in international conventions on basic human rights
Social security: Regulations for the protection of workers against different contingencies such as old age, disability, death of the principal breadwinner and unemployment
Indicators of decent jobs (quality of work conditions
Productive work, equity in work, dignity at work and security at work
Utilitarianism
Whichever action gives the greatest happiness or utility is to be preferred .
Provides a rationality for any employer seeking to wrggel out of any social responsibility
What does good mean 1,2,3
1) pleasure = hedonistic utilitariansim
2)pluralistic goods e.g. frienships knowledge beauty
3) Preference utilitarianism
Rights theory (kants categorical imperative) (Universal principle)
A person should act that the principle of ones act could become a universal law of human action in a world in which one would hope to live
A person should treat other people as having intrinsic value and not merely as a means to achieve ones end
People should not be treated as objects but as subjects
Deontological (duty) rights theory:
We must treat people as end in themselves and not a means to an end
Individuals have rights that should not be sacrificed simply to produce a net increase in the collective good – ethical rights which are basic to all individuals
We have duties (obligations, commitments or responsibilities)
E.g. employees have a right to a decent living wage
Justice as entitlement
Humans beings have a right to acquire and transfer property freely, providing they follow due process nad avoid fraud and theft
Justice as fairness
What sort of society would we like to live in, without knowing what position we would occupy in it
Virtue ethics
Emphasises the role of ones character and the virtues that ones character embodies for determining or evaluating ethical behaviour
Ethics requires us, at least at times, to act for the well-being of others. It asks to define the virtues that lead to a life that is full, satisfying, meaningful, enriched and worthy
This is called character and is the emotional (affective) side of humans
Character is shaped while young by parents, schools, church, friends, and society – As adults it is modified by workplace
HR as an ethical champion
the greatest burden of pluralist hope lay upon the shoulders of personnel, the company function and department that specialises in dealing with employees and their representatives
Ethics shoudl be seen as part and parcel of everyday personnel policy, not some entirely different realm of activity
Paternalism
Worker defence and social responsibility (HR has the social conscience of the business
Corporate social responsibility (CSR)
Applied business ethics
Based on stakeholder theory of the firm
Characterized as a multi-layered concept with four interrelated responsibilities: economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic
Detractors, however, suggest that:
CSR is only a public relations or marketing ploy and misleads consumers
CSR is too marginal to make a real difference
Real change through regulation of markets and business
An organisation can limit non-rational effects on outcomes by
Setting objectives
Maintaining optimal group size
Preventing over-dominance
Methods to reduce danger of bias/error
Brainsotrming
Stepladder technique
The delphi techinique
HRm roles with global code of conduct
1) Drawing up and reviewing codes of conduct
2) Conducting a cost-benefit analysis to oversee compliance of employees and relevand alliance partners
3) Championing the need to train employees and alliance partners in elements of the code of conduct
4) Checking that performance and rewards systems take into consideration compliance to codes of conduct
The effect of stress
Physiologial, emotional and behavioural
Acute stress:
Stress related to a single event; impacts work performance unitl the event has passed
Chronic stress
Negative performance effects of acute stress + health effects
Conservation of resources
The greatest stress for individual is when basic resources are loss. Individual tries to compensate these resources through other resources
Conservation of resources
The greatest stress for individual is when basic resources are loss. Individual tries to compensate these resources through other resrouces
Sources of stress:
work
Role related or interpersonal
Stress capacity
The range and level of issues to which our emotional and physical responses are positive in terms of work performance and general well being
Managing stress
Accepting individual differences
Maximising “stress capacity”
Developing physical and emotional resilience
Acquiring skill to manage stress
Developing emotinoal resilience
INcreasing self awareness
Positive self-talk
Create relationships with individuals or groups who can provide objective comment on work situations
Acquiring skills
Creating a personal development plan
Taking responsibility for managing your own career
Dealing with stress issues among team members (work related offer)
Coaching, training and support
Dealing with stress issues among team members non work related
Every situation is unique
Situation must be assessed on its merits
Treat each case fairly and equally
Seek a second opinion
Motivation
A cognitive decision making process that influence the effort, persistence and voluntary goal-directed behavior
Intrinsic motivation
Stems from persons internal desire to do something
Extrinsic motivators
Stem from outside the individual and include tangible rewards (pay)
Theories of work motivation (content theories)
Relate to conscious choice that lead to a specific type of work behaviour
Process theories
Relate the conscious choices that lead to a specific type of work behaviour and include
Equity theory and expectancy theory
motivation fators
Promotion opportunities, opportunities for personal growth, recognition, responsibility and achievement
Hygene factors
Quality of supervision, pay, company policies, physical working conditions, relations with others and job security
Equity theory
Based on comparison of the ratio between employee input into task and output (rewrds)
Inequity can motivate changes in behaviour
Contemporary systems of rewards management and performance-related pay represent the influence of equity in the workplace
Adam
Based on comparisons between inputs (what an individual brings to employment) and outputs (factors received in return for input)
Focuses on peoples feelings about how fairly they have been treated in comparison with treatment received by others
Where inequity is perceived, the individual tries to restore equity. He/she will do this by:
Distorting inputs or outcomes
Disregarding the comparable other and referring to a new one
Expectancy theory (victor vcroom)
Considers the relationship between output and desirable reward
Expectancy is then the link between the effort and performance
Job design
Job rotation(relif from boredom)
Job enrichtment (increased responsibility and wider range of duties added)
Work simplification (breaking down into small sub parts)
Job enlargement (extension of work plus additional tasks to obtain a complete unit
Job specialization
Dividing work into separate jobs that include a subset of the tasks required to complete the product or service
Scientific management (frederick winslow taylor)
Advocated job specialization
Taylor also emphasized person-job matching, training, goal setting and work incentives
Evaluating job specialization advantages
Less time changing activities, lower training costs, job mastered quickly
Evaluating job specialization Disadvantages
Job boredom, discontentment pay, higher costs, lower quality and lower motivation
Job rotation benefits
minimizes repetitive strain injury, multiskills the workforce and potentially reduces job boredom
Supporting empowerment (individual factor)
Possess required competencies, able to perform the work
Conducting a force field analysis
Step 1: Current situation vs.
Desired situation
Step 2: Restraining forces
Step 3: Driving forces
Step 4: Evaluation
Step 5: Design a plan of action
3 parts of dynamic capabilities
- Adaptive capability
Flexible adjust of business priorities, management systems and organization structures - Absorptive capability
Bring in and use new information and knowledge - Innovative capability
Develop and create new products and markets
contested career perspective
The most qualified and skilled people ‘win’ the best careers
sponsored career perspective
Those with the right connections and who receive help from influential
others ‘win’ the best careers
Organizational citizenship behavior
ehavior that is not
formally required by the employer in a job description, but which contributes to the
overall functioning of the organization
agile organizations
Organizations that
increase their human resources’ adaptive, absorptive and innovative capabilities
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