IB Recruitment and Retaining Emloyees 9

Question 1

HRM

Answer 1

Human resource management (HRM or HR) is the strategic approach to the effective management of organization workers so that they help the business gain a competitive advantage, Commonly referred to as the HR Department, it is designed to maximize employee performance in service of an employer’s strategic objectives.

Human Resources Management includes all the activities required for acquiring, maintaining, and developing an organization’s human resources

Question 2

5 activities of HRM

Answer 2

1. Human resources planning
2. Job analysis (determining nature of jobs)
3. Recruiting
4. Selection
5. Orientation (acquainting new employees with the company)

Question 3

HRM programs to reduce turnover

Answer 3

• employee relations: increase job satisfaction through survey and various programmes
• compensation: congratulating effort
• benefits: rewarding employees to increase well-being

Question 4

activities for improving employee skills and capabilities

Answer 4

• training and development

- performance appraisal: evaluating current performance and setting future aims

Question 5

Human Resources Planning

Answer 5

Human resource planning is a process that identifies current and future human resources needs for an organization to achieve its goals. Human resource planning should serve as a link between human resource management and the overall strategic plan of an organization.

Question 6

forecasting human resource supply

Answer 6

• replacement chart

- skills inventory

Question 7

attrition

Answer 7

normal reduction when employees leave

Question 8

comparable worth

Answer 8

is a concept that seeks equal compensation for jobs requiring same level of education, training and skills.

Question 9

commissions

Answer 9

payment that is a percentage of sales revenue

Question 10

employee benefit

Answer 10

is a reward in addition to regular compensation that is provided indirectly and usually include services

can be flexible for employees individual needs

Question 11

performance appraisal techniques

Answer 11

objective: measurable quantity such as units of output, volume of sales, or number of defective products
judgmental: judge employee’s performance level through ranking

Afterwards there should be a performance feedback

Question 12

motivation

Answer 12

is the individual internal process that energizes, directs and sustains behaviour.
Influenced by morale (Stimmung)

Question 13

financial motivators

Answer 13

• piece rates: pays workers for each unit of output they produce
• time rate
• salary
• fringe benefits: company cars…

Question 14

Theories of motivation

Answer 14

• F W Taylor Machine: Theory of Scientific Management
• Elton Mayo: Theory of Human Relations
• Abraham Maslow: Theory of the Hierarchy of Needs
• Fredrick Herzberg: Two-factor Theory
• Douglas McGregor: Theory X and Theory Y
• William Ouchi: Theory Z
• Reinforcement Theory

Question 15

F W Taylor: Theory of Scientific Management

Answer 15

F W Taylor: Theory of Scientific Management

• managers can find out best way to complete a job through a scientific procedure of observation, experiment and calculations.
• manager controls
• punishment
• max effectiveness
  “ a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work’:

–> Taylor’s ideas formed the basis for the mass production assembly lines that dominated manufacturing in the twentieth century.

–> Critique: people are treated as machines, not uniqueness of each person is considered, money as only motivator

Question 16

Elton Mayo: Theory of Human Relations

Answer 16

Mayo drew two different but equally important conclusions from the surprising results of his workplace experiments:

1. Importance of teamwork –> more motivation
2. Hawthorne effect: if managers work closely with the employees –> morale-boosting effect (feeling of importance of employees)

–> Critique: his experiments were not scientific, workers will not always share goals of managers

Question 17

Abraham Maslow: Theory of the Hierarchy of Needs

Answer 17

Five levels of needs:

1. physiological needs
2. Safety needs
3. Love and belonging needs
4. Esteem needs
5. Self-actualization

if level 5 is provided and 3 misses, then it is worthless

• -> Critique:
• generalization about needs is not correct
• employees might seek for satisfaction somewhere else than in the job
• matching rewards to every worker is almost impossible

Question 18

Fredrick Herzberg: Two-factor Theory

Answer 18

• two sets of factors that that motivate workers:
  motivators and hygiene factors

1. motivators are factors that have the potential to motivate workers by providing job satisfaction

e. g. sense of achievement, recognition, responsibility, opportunities
- -> help the human need to grow psychologically

2. hygiene factors can create job dissatisfaction
   e. g. company policy, relationships with others, working conditions, pay and status, security

–> Critique:
Some jobs, especially low-skilled ones, cannot be easily “enriched’; and many workers may not seek responsibility or advancement.

Question 19

Douglas McGregor: Theory X and Theory Y

Answer 19

Theory X is a concept of employee motivation generally consistent with Taylor’s scientific management and assumes that workers dislike work and only function in a highly controlled work environment.

Theory Y is a concept of employee motivation consistent within the ideas of human relations movement and assumes responsibility and work towards organizational goals, and by doing so they achieve personal rewards.

McGregor argued that most managers behave in accordance with Theory X, but he maintained that
Theory Y is more appropriate and effective as a guide for managerial action.