Human Resources

Question 1

What are some main Business objectives?

Answer 1

• Provide Service. Make Profit, Growth
• Customer satisfaction vs Shareholder Satisfaction
• Higher Quality Products & Services
• Lower operating costs
• Lower capital cost
• Survival

Question 2

What are human factors which come into these objectives?

Answer 2

• “We can plan and build as much as we like, but you need people to make it happen”…
• •…and they need to be skilled in the right things at the right time…
• They also need to be motivated to do the job

Question 3

What is the role of Human Resources?

Answer 3

• Most important resource
• Most complex
• Least predictable
• Understanding Human Behaviour

Question 4

In the organisation of a company what were traditional heirarchies of 1950s to 1980s?

Answer 4

• Manager as expert
• Many layers of management –low spans of control
• Tight control of people –low levels of delegation
• Management versus Leadership
• Discipline-specific –“technical silos rule”
• Technical managers rather than asset managers

= CONTROL

Question 5

In the 1990s there developed a flatter more flexible structure where the manager was a leader/enabler, what did this entail?

Answer 5

• Fewer layers of management –higher spans of control
• Multi-disciplinary teams -project basis
• Huge increase in delegated authority
• The stakeholder concept –“team ownership”
• Asset managers rather than pure technical managers
  = INNOVATION / TEAMWORK

Question 6

In 2010, it developed in to an even flatter structure, adapting to finite skills.

Answer 6

• The “new change paradigm” –just “is”, not “done to”
• A return to focus on technical skill
• Matrix -Asset Manager + Chief Technologist
• Constant global talent pool overview
• Career development “for real”
• Developing in-house talent

= TALENT MANAGEMENT

Question 7

What are the more updated key goals for human resources?

Answer 7

• Personal expectations and development
• The need for alignment to overall goals (versus traditional “division of work”)
  Greater project complexity and technical challenges
  Greater personal ownership = better solutions
  The need for faster communication and decision-making
  The drive for real accountability!

Question 8

What is key to managing people?

Answer 8

• Soft Elements
• Value judgement
• No right or wrong solution
• Difficult to define precisely
• Interpreted differently: Emotional & Cultural
• Principles, priorities and circumstances
• Organisational goals, personal goals
• Better climate

Question 9

When managing people what comes in into play for the ‘individual’?

Answer 9

Personality, Attributes + Skills, Attitudes + Values and Expectations and Needs.

Question 10

When managing individuals what comes into play?

Answer 10

Personal Interactions, Influence, Authority, leadership + manipulation and Communication

Question 11

What comes into play when managing groups?

Answer 11

Functions + Structures, Internal Organisations, Role relations, group resources and pressures, Communication

Question 12

What are the 4 elements which need to have an equal balance when managing people?

Answer 12

Future strategic focus vs Day-to-day Operational focus and People vs Process.

Question 13

What is a combination of future strategic focus and Process?

Answer 13

management of strategic human resources (helping to ensure the success of business strategies.

Question 14

What is a combination of future strategic focus and people?

Answer 14

Management of transformation and change (helping create the capacity for cultural and organisational change)

Question 15

What is a combination of people and day-to-day operational focus?

Answer 15

Management of employee contribution (managing the day-today problems, concerns and needs of employees)

Question 16

What is the combination of process and day-to-day operational focus?

Answer 16

management of Organisational Infrastructure (Developing and delivering the HR processes critical to success)

Question 17

What is the role of motivation to HR?

Answer 17

• Motivation: an inner drive that stimulates a person to act in such a way as to satisfy a perceived need. A person may be motivated by personal gain, concern for the good of others, desire for security, or a need for excitement or a physical or intellectual stimulus
• managers must determine needs and provide incentives to motivate subordinates to work toward company objectives

Question 18

MBTI was developed by Isabel Myers Briggs, what does it show?

Answer 18

It shows that everyone uses four functions but give different priorities to each varying dependent on circumstances. The is a chart of 16 combinations of the four a person will fit into at least one.

Question 19

What are the four opposing functions of human behavior?

Answer 19

Extraversion vs Introversion
Sensing vs Intuition
Thinking vs Feeling
Judging vs Perceiving

Question 20

What are the roles of a manager?

Answer 20

• regulates
• maintains
• Relies on Control
• Asks what, who, where
• Focuses on systems
• Eye on bottom line
• Protects status quo
  Des things right
  “necessary”

Question 21

What are the roles of a leader?

Answer 21

• Originates
• Develops
• Build trust
• Asks why, what else
• Focuses on people and talent
• Eye on the horizon
• Challenges status quo
• Does the right things
• “Essential”

Question 22

Tips on human resources

Answer 22

• A good boss is a combination of a manager and a leader, and the emphasis should be on the leadership skills
• Make sure that your requirements are clear and there’s no doubt about what needs to be done and how.
• Listening to your employees should be top of your priority, listen and involve them they will work better.
• You need to understand how people work and think
• As a boss you should never be surprised by people’s capacity to be irrational, stupid, selfish, and emotional. A bad boss is someone who can’t understand this, and then gets emotional themselves. If you want to know how you are doing, check your blood pressure every once in a while.