People in organization: HRM Flashcards
Define Hard HRM
This approach is when managers treat employees like any other resource
-> Employee relations are likely to be strained
Define Soft HRM
This approach is when managers make sure that employee welfare and motivation are top priorities
Pros and Cons of Hard HRM (3 and 6)
Pros:
- Cost-effective -> Efficiency and effectiveness could be improved
- Quicker Decision-making
- Well monitor of staff
Cons:
- Demotivation
- Higher absenteeism
- Higher staff turnover
- Less successful recruitment due to bad publicity
- Spent money on recruitment more because high labour turn over
- Reliant on management
Pros and Cons of Soft HRM
Pros:
1. Motivated staff
2. Loyalty
3 Increased recruitment power due to good employee reviews
4. Good publicity because high level of staff staticfaction.
Cons:
- Costly [higher pay, performance-related incentives]
- Decision-making may take longer
Define Temporary contract
Lasts for a fixed time period, can be full-time or part time
e.g) 6 months
Define part-time contract
Employment contract that is for less than normal full working week such as 40 hours
e.g) 8 hours/week
Define flextime contract
Employment contract that allows staff to be called in at times most convenient to employers and employees
e.g) at busy times of day
Define Outsourcing
Not employing staff directly, but using an outside agency or organisation to carry out some business functions
Pros and Cons of Part-time and flextime contract for the firm (4- 3)
Pros
- Staff can be required to work at particularly busy periods of the day but not during the unproductive time
e. g) Banking staff needed at lunch time
- > reduce overhead costs to a business
- > Flexibility for firm -> real competitive advantages because they give customer service without substantial cost increases- Higher staff availability to cover up absenteeism
- Can assist staff skill before provide them the full-time contract -> Safe & more efficient in long term.
- Teleworking could apply to some groups of workers
e. g) Online customer service- > Save overhead costs such as smaller office building and less table, chairs needed.
Cons:
- There will be more staff to manage than if they were all full-time
- Poor communication due to more staff and it’s hard to have 100% of the staff at a certain time.
- Low motivation levels because part-time employees are easily to feel less involved and committed than the full-time workers
- > Harder to do teamwork and spread the culture because staff never actually meet each other due to different working hours.
Pros and cons of Part-time & flextime contract for the worker (2-3)
Pros:
- Ideal for students, parents with young children, elderly people who do not wish to work a full week but still want to make a living
- Easier to combine jobs with different firms, giving greater variety to their working lives + earning more.
Cons:
- Paying and reward system are not the same with the full-time workers
- Earning less than full-time workers
- Working contracts and working condition are not as secure compare to full-time workers
Define Teleworking
Staff working from home but keeping contact with the office by means of modern IT communication.
Define 4 measurements of poor employee performance?
- Labour productivity: The output per worker in a given time period. It’s calculated by:
Total output in time period ( per year) / Total staff employed - Absenteeism rates: Measures the rate of workforce absence as a proportion of the employee total. It is measured by:
Absenteeism (%) = number of staff absent / total number of staff x 100 - Labour turnover: Measures the rate of employees leaving an organisation. It’s measured by:
Number of staff leaving in 1 year / the average number of staff employed x 100 - Labour costs per unit:
Total salary/ labour productivity
Explain Labour productivity (5)
- Key measurement of employee performance
- Output per worker increases over times = Labour productivity or efficiency is increasing = given constant wage rates
- Low Labour costs per unit => set lower price for product => High level competitive with other businesses
- Productivity data usually compared with business in the same industry
- Measuring productivity in service industry is more complex than in primary or secondary sector industries
E. g) - Transport industry - Km travelled/ driver/ year
- Hotels - number of guest nights/ employee/. Year
- IT and Banking/ Finance service - Revenue earned on average/ employee/ year
5 factors that caused level of productivity to increase
- Motivated staff -> Higher level of effort
- Higher efficiency and reliable capital equipment
- Better staff training
- Increase worker involvement in problem solving to speed up methods of production e.g: Kaizen or quality circle group
- Improved internal efficiency
e. g: Avoid waiting for supplies to arrive)
Explain Absenteeism rates (2)
- Expensive to employ extra staff or ask other staff to work over-time to cover absent staff
- Hygiene factors of the job might increase absenteeism
e. g) Poor working condition = illness of staff
- Oversupervison = worker stress
Explain labour turnover (3)
- High % of labour turnover = staff discontent, low morale and possibly a recruitment policy that leads to employed wrong people
- % of labour turnover can be particularly high in certain industry.
e. g) Fast food restaurant’s labour turnover can exceed 100% - Labour turnover rate in organisation can be very low because they have different legislation and contract.
4 Cost of high labour turnover
- Expensive recruitment, selection & training new staff process
- Low output level and poor customer services due to not enough staff before recruit new staff
- Hard to establish staff loyalty and regular contact with customers
- Hard to establish team spirit and team work culture.
3 potential benefits of high labour turnover
- Low-skilled and less productive staff leave = replace with higher skill workers
- New ideas and practices are brought in organisation by new workers
- Business that aims to staff redundancy due to rationalisation (hop ly hoa), will find high labour turnover will do this, as leaving staff will not be replaced.
2 Others measure of workforce performance: ( not any applicable for any businesses
- Wastage levels: The number of wasted or damaged products expressed as the proportion of total output
- Reject rates and consumer complaints as a proportion of total customers served.
5 Ways/ Strategies to improve employee performance
- Apply soft HRM
- Regular appraisal (danh gia) of performance against agreed preset targets: If workers regularly fail to reach these targets, then actions need to be taken by management, which may be of a disciplinary nature (mang tinh ky luat) or might involve further training.
- Training: In order to increase efficiency and offering opportunity for general educational qualifications -> to stretch & challenge every worker
- Quality circle: Small groups of workers encouraged to take responsibility for identifying and suggesting solutions to work-related problems
- Cell production and autonomous work group( nhom lam viec doc lap): Teams of workers are given multi-skilling training and the opportunity to take responsibility for a complete section of work
- > This will involve them taking decisions on finding the best way to motivate the team in order to achieve preset goals
Define Mbo
A management model that aims to improve performance of an organization by clearly defining objectives that are agreed to by both management and employees
Possible benefit of MBO (3)
- Each manager and subordinate will know exactly what they have to do. This will help them prioritise their time and enable them to see the importance of what they do to the whole organisation
- By using the corporate objectives as the key focus to all departmental and individual objectives => everyone work to the same overall target => avoid conflict and ensure a consistent and well-coordinated approach
- Managers are able to monitor everyone’s performances => measure success or failure
Possible cost of MBO (3)
- Process of diving corporate objectives can be time consuming. Best performed only after full consultation
- Objectives can become outdated quickly due to changing nature/dynamics of business
- Setting targets does not guarantee success. Issues such as adequate resources and staff training must also be addressed to achieve the targets
Why do we need labour legislation?
Prevent exploitation of workers by powerful employers Prevent loss of industrial output and national income from excessive use of trade union collective action
How can the state affect industrial relations and trade unions? (3)
- Through industrial relations law
- Through agencies set up to improve industrial relations such as arbitration councils
- Through its own policies as a major employer
Causes of conflict between employers and employees (4)
Rationalisation and organisational change
- Common management view: business needs to cut overheads and be flexible and adaptable to deal with competition
- Common employee view: Business change - e.g. relocation/new tech
- Common management view: change is necessary to remain competitive and profitable
- Common employee view: change can lead to job losses, result in retraining new skills => might not be able to cope, demands greater flexibility
What are the 3 broad approaches to labour-management relations?
- Autocratic management style with a ‘take it or leave it’ attitude to workers
- Collective bargaining between powerful trade unions and major employers and their associations
- Cooperation between labour and management, recognising that successful competitive businesses will benefit all parties
Autocratic management style with a take it or leave it attitude (3)
- no labour security and low levels of motivation staff will not have the opportunity to be trained due to frequent job changes
- no common objectives established between labour and management non-existent job enrichment
- no staff involvement => no contribution
Collective bargaining between trade unions and employers (2)
- national agreements were not always suitable/affordable for small businesses strikes and other industrial action caused disruption and lost output and sales
- powerful unions resisted any changes that might adversely affect their members and this led to a lack of investment in and development of key industries
Cooperation between labour and management
actively involve workers in important decision making and operational issues
Define trade union
an organisation of working people with the objective of improving the pay and working conditions of their members and providing them with support and legal services
Reasons for worker joining trade union (2)
- power through solidarity, puts workers in stronger position individual industrial action. e.g. one worker going on strike is not effective
- provide legal support to employees who claim unfair dismissal or poor conditions of work unions pressurised the employers to ensure all legal requirements are met
How can negotiations be categorised? (2)
- national level - with employers’
- associations collective bargaining - at a business level is when a firm negotiates with union officials plant based bargaining where each factory or administration centre agrees a deal between union officials and local management
Define trade union recognition
when an employer formally agrees to conduct negotiations on pay and working conditions with a trade union rather than bargain individually with each worker
Benefits for employers (2)
- Employers would be able to negotiate with one officer rather than individual workers the union system could provide an additional, useful channel of communication with the workers
- 2 way communication unions can impose discipline on members who plan to take hasty industrial action that could disrupt business growth of responsible, partnnership unionism => increased productivity
Define single union agreement
an employer recognises just one union for purposes of collective bargaining
Reasons for no strike agreement
improves the image of the union as being a responsible representative body and this could encourage employees to become members often agreed in exchange for greater union involvement in decision making process
Define industrial action
measures taken by the workforce or trade union to put pressure on management to settle an industrial dispute in favour of employees
Forms of industrial action (4)
- Negotiations
- Go slow - workers keep working at a minimum pace as demanded by their contract of employment. Bonus payments might be lost but at busy times this action can be very disruptive
- Work to rule - employees refuse to do any work outside the precise terms of employment contract
- Overtime bans - refuse to work more than contracted number of hours Strike
Ways of settling disputes (4)
- Negotiations Public relations - using media to try to gain public support for the employer’s position in the dispute
- Threats of redundancies
- Changes of contract
- Closure Lock outs
Define conciliation
the use of a third party in industrial disputes to encourage both employer and union to discuss an acceptable compromise solution
Define arbitration
resolving an industrial dispute by using an independent third party to judge and recommend an appropriate solution
Define no strike agreement
unions agree to sign a no-strike agreement with employers in exchange for greater involvement in decisions that affect the work force
