Human resources/people in business (2.2 - 2.4) Flashcards
improving productivity and motivation:
- Salaries (communal income)
- Wages (daily/weekly pay)
- Piecework (units produced)
- Profit sharing (% of profits)
- Commission (sales made)
- Training
- Management styles
- Fringe benefits (external benefits that come alongside employment)
- Job design (autonomy, increase engagement)
Management styles:
Autocratic:
- single figure makes decisions alone and spreads information to employees, benefits new workers, unskilled workers and demotivated workers
- suited for businesses struggling in crisis due to increased rate of decision making by experienced figures.
Democratic:
- decisions rely on expertise of workers, choices are influenced by the majority
- improves creativity amongst workers due to involvement in business decisions, suited for skilled workers with expertise in field of interest.
Frederick Taylor - scientific management (summary + pros and cons)
- Assumption that all workers are lazy, relationship deviated of trust
- “A fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work”
- Piecework pay, pay dependent on productivity
Pros:
- Increases productivity
- Quick and easy
- Decreases inaccuracies
Cons:
- Not suitable for team
- Stress/Depressing (Bad for mental health)
- Reduce employee’s creativity and motivation towards work
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (summary + pros and cons):
- Persons activity/satisfaction is determined by basic human needs: physiological needs, safety, love and belonging, esteem, self actualisation.
Pros:
- Simple to understand
- Deepen understanding
- A person status in the pyramid could vary over periods of time
Cons:
- Each country and cultures have different standards of employment
- People can be motivated by intrinsic rewards
- Achievements cannot be measured empirically
Herzberg two factor theory (factors of motivation and factors of satisfaction) (summary + pros and cons):
- Argues that there are separate sets of mutually exclusive factors in the workplace that either cause job satisfaction or dissatisfaction
- Influenced by Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
Pros:
- Direct focus on employee motivation
- Companies can solve problems faced by employees
- Monetary factors are a secondary focus
Cons:
- External factors are not considered
- Employee job satisfaction and efficiency are not directly related
- Does not consider differences in social and cultural backgrounds
Mayo - human relations and school of thought (summary + pros and cons)
- Relational elements e.g attention inspire employees more than financial rewards
- Motivation via creation of coworker relations and enjoyment
Pros:
- Helps workers communicate
- A comfortable and relaxing atmosphere
- Humane treatments
- Greater engagement
Cons:
- Too much focus on non business related concepts i.e personal relationships
- Informal
- Productivity may be lower
- Lose respect for those in supervisory positions
- May increase conflict
Hierarchal structure:
- Subordinates
- Many layers of management
- Long chain of command
- Narrow span of control
Pros:
- Motivation via promotion
- Clear accountability
Cons:
- Slower communications
- Higher cost
Flat structure:
Fewer layers of management
Wide span of control
Short chain of command
Pros:
faster communication
Engagement
Save money on salaries
Cons:
Little or no progression
Reduced motivation
Power struggles
Matrix structure:
- Traditional departments
- Project teams across functional areas
- Temporary or permanent
Pros:
- Utilises skills within the organisation
- Effective communication
- Increased morale
Cons:
- Split across two managers/departments
- Takes time for employees to gel as a team.
Tall organisational structure:
Pros:
- Motivation is increased due to more opportunities
Cons:
- Communication is slower
- Less collaboration
Flat organisational structure:
Pros:
- Communication is faster
- More collaboration
- Increase in money due to decreased chance of promotion
Cons:
- Motivation decreased
- More stress in higher levels of power
Autocratic (summary + pros and cons)
- One person makes all decisions
- No consideration toward the views of employees
- Typically decreases employee morale
Pros:
- More effective over a short period of time
- Effective when a quick decision needs to be made
Cons:
- Typically decreases employee morale
- Lack of group input.
- Less feedback from subordinates
Democratic (summary + pros and cons)
- Members of team have increased participation in organisational affairs
- Manager still makes the decision
Pros:
- leads to deeper relationships
- Employees often feel valued
- Increased production and performance levels
Cons:
- Longer decision making
Laissez faire:
- Employees have freedom and autonomy
- Requires high levels of trust and cooperation between employees and managers
- More effective with highly skilled and experienced workforce
Pros:
- Employees practise leadership and independence
- Departments decide faster
- Employees use their expertise
It boosts employee morale
Cons:
- Confusion/lack of role clarity
Isolation
Paternalistic:
- Manager acts as the head of the family
- Manager treats employees as if a member of their own family
- Manager expects high levels of loyalty and trust from their employees
- Manager listens to the employees but has the final say
Pros:
- High loyalty because employees feel acknowledged and their needs are taken care of
- Good behaviour and work are rewarded
- Reduced absenteeism and quitting
- Decisions are made with the employees’ best interests in mind
Cons:
- Bias: Employees believe this management style is unfair and subjective
- Bad decisions from above cause significant staff dissatisfaction.
Transformational:
- Manager puts employees need before their own
- Manager does not work within the status quo
- Strives for positive change in the organisation’s culture
Pros:
- United in a Common Cause
- Reduces Turnover Costs
- Promotes Morale Through Better Communication
- Gives Employees a Lot of Freedom
- Employees feel valued as if they are apart of something special
Cons:
- Can Be Risky and Disruptive
- Lack of focus
Transactional:
- Wouldn’t typically strive for a change in business culture
- Tends to work within the status quo
- Uses rewards and punishments to motivate employees
- Results focused approach
Pros:
- Create fast results that are predictive
Cons:
- Undue responsibility
Charismatic:
Charismatic:
- Centred on leaders ability to charm and persuade people
- Requires the ability to motivate individuals to pursue the organisations motivation or aims
Pros
- Inspired connection with team members or employees.
- The focused commitment to a company or organisation’s project or mission.
- Strong motivating factors that produce results.
Cons
- Charismatic leaders might display narcissism and shift the focus from their people to themselves.
- Leaders might become self-serving.
It is often viewed as shallow or disingenuous.
Recruitment
- Occurs when a vacancy appears, a restructure within which job roles are altered, growth of a business
- job analysis, to formally decide key characteristics of the role e.g work hours, skills required, delegation of tasks etc.
- a business should progress to prepare recruitment documentation known as a job description or person specification.
- The job description outlines the role given to the employee
- A person specification outlines the skills, experience, and qualifications of applicants.
- Advertising the job vacancy can be done either internally or externally
Internal recruitment:
- a current employee either promoted or redeployed into a role (benefits include lower costs, decreased time scales etc. in regards to cons internal recruitment would include limited pool of applicants, no fresh ideas and the creation of another vacancy),
External recruitment:
- wider pool of applicants, fresh ideas, increased experience and skills. However external recruitments would cost more, take longer and increase the chance of recruiting someone not fit for the role.
Selection:
- shortlist applicants
- shortlisted applicants are then invited to an interview which could be conducted both online or in person.
- Interviews provide the opportunity for businesses to ask the applicant a series of questions (interviews can be time consuming and often lead to superior members of staff being absent from their roles) (do not always identify the best applicants due to personality factors.)
- Assessments explore the applicants personality, attitude, ability and skill. Testing can be time consuming and pressure may affect applicants performance.
- The final stage would result in the business selecting an applicant and offering them a role, this would often include the businesses requesting references.
Differences between Recruitment and selection:
Recruitment:
- entails searching for employees whether internally or externally
- Allows candidates to apply for a vacancy
- economical/cost friendly
Selection:
- Reaping from an existing pool of candidates
- Authoritative figures select candidates, rejecting others
- Comparatively more expensive
Interviews:
Pros:
selecting ideal candidate for position
conducting detailed evaluations
getting to know the candidates yourself
improved customer bonds
Cons:
navigating personal bias
judging individual too quickly
generating stereotypes
a necessity to verify candidate facts
Assessments:
Pros:
remove some bias/subjectivity
clarify the role to participants
assessments provide data
more time conscious
Cons:
vary in quality
assessments are not always specific to jobs
pressure may affect individual performance
may put off picky candidates
On the job training:
- Practical method
to train new/existing employees on equipment uses/methods of use and overall work processes - Upskill or reskill employees
- Mentoring (senior employee given the responsibility to supervise and support another employee)(longer term process).
- Coaching (short term solution to meet the skill requirement and training needs of a business).
- Demonstrations (simple, quick and easy training method for developing new skills)(carried out by anyone in the organisation).
- Job shadowing (simplest method of on the job training, an employee follows another employee while they do their job.
- Job rotations (employees change roles within a business, aim of developing a team of ‘all rounders’.
Benefits and drawbacks:
- Hands on practical training methods delivered by experienced employees
- Flexible, can be delivered as and when required
- Bespoke to the employees role and businesses needs
- Workplace distractions can affect efficiency
- Experienced employees may not have time to dispose of
- Training may not be delivered to the expected standard
