unit 2 - chapter 3

Question 1

what constitutes HRM and how is it different from personnel management?

Answer 1

what constitutes HRM and how it differs from personnel management.

• HRM represents a set of policies and practices for managing people that are integrated with the wider strategy of the business
• HRM describes a set of policies toward employees notable for its internal consistency
• HRM represents the acceptance by the organisation that its strategy should be based on the capabilities of its human resources
• HRM gives line managers a wider set of responsibilities for policies concerning managing people and leads to a less prominent role for personnel specialists
• HRM captures the view that people are the prime resource of the organisation.

Question 2

how does John Storey define HRM?

Answer 2

‘a distinctive approach to employment management which seeks to achieve competitive advantage through the strategic deployment of a highly committed and capable workforce, using an integrated array of cultural, structural and personnel techniques’ (1995, p. 5).

Question 3

what are the beliefs and assumptions of HRM?

Answer 3

• That it is the human resource that gives competitive edge.
• That the aim should not be mere compliance with rules, but employee commitment.
• That employees should be very carefully selected and developed.

Question 4

what is the critical role of managers in HRM?

Answer 4

• Because HRM practice is critical to the core activities of the business, it is too important to be left to personnel specialists alone.
• Line managers need to be closely involved both as deliverers and drivers of the HRM policies.
• Much greater attention should be paid to the management of managers themselves

Question 5

what are the key levers in HRM?

Answer 5

• Managing culture is more important than managing procedures and systems
• Integrated action on selection, communication, training, reward and development
• Restructuring and job redesign to allow devolved responsibility and empowerment.

Question 6

extended discussion of Storey’s model

Answer 6

• First, HRM is described as a ‘distinctive approach’. This means that it is seen as representing a fundamental shift from previous practices to employment management.
• Second, you should appreciate the emphasis on the ‘strategic role’ of HRM. This means that there is a belief that the human resource offers potential for competitive advantage, and thus, HRM should be an integral part of the process of setting the strategy of the organisation, with board and line management involvement rather than a restricted functional area (this point is discussed further below).
• Third, HRM policies should be integrated. This means that respective elements of the function should be internally consistent and designed to meet wider strategic goals.
• Finally, HRM is said to differ from ‘traditional personnel management’ through its greater emphasis on developing a highly committed workforce.
• In the past, personnel management largely located itself as ‘between’ management and workers and was therefore predominately occupied with regulating their agreements or facilitating resolution when they broke down. Now, however, HRM is seen as central to the creation of commitment in staff.

Question 7

what is the skepticism re: HRM claims?

Answer 7

• some view HRM as simply a re-labelling of existing practice.
• This view suggests that although many personnel managers have had their titles changed, their essential activities remain unchanged.
• Consequently, there is some scepticism regarding the claims of HRM to transform the employment relationship, particularly when there is an obvious gap between its theoretical claims and its practical implementation

Question 8

what is hard HRM?

Answer 8

• Hard HRM emphasises the quantitative, calculative and business strategy aspects of managing the human resource in a rational fashion.
• employees are to be treated as any other economic factor.
• This is the traditional market-led approach under which managers seek to control employees, subject to an overall business strategy

Question 9

what is involved in “soft” HRM?

Answer 9

• The ‘soft’ variant is a developmental model that has its roots in the human relations school and emphasises the importance of people issues such as
  
  • communication,
  • motivation,
  • leadership,
  • training
  • development.
• Rather than control and compliance, it seeks mutual commitment to wider organisational goals.

Question 10

what are the 4 Ds of organisation forms?

Answer 10

four Ds of

• decentralisation,
• disaggregation,
• de-layering
• disorganisation

(Thompson and McHugh, 2002).

Question 11

what is involved in decentralisation?

Answer 11

Decentralisation

• Organisations are said to be decentralising when they divide their large bureaucratic structures into smaller and more independent units, operating as autonomous profit centres with delegated decision-making powers.
• The integration between these autonomous units is supposedly secured through the overall organisational strategy, information systems and culture.
• Thus, they are (hypothetically) guided by a ‘shared vision’ rather than by rules, memos and managerial control.

Question 12

what is involved in disaggregation?

Answer 12

disaggregation

• This goes beyond the internal restructuring of organisations and refers to the break-up of large organisations into networks of small firms.
• Organisations are reduced to an essential core and then sub-contract non-core activities to smaller companies.

Question 13

what is involved in de-layering?

Answer 13

De-layering

• This refers to a shift towards flatter, less hierarchical forms of organisation where whole layers of middle management are removed,
• vertical lines of communication and authority are replaced by horizontal communication between self-managing teams.

Question 14

what is involved in disorganisation?

Answer 14

Disorganisation

The idea contained in the term ‘disorganisation’ is that bureaucratic structures and rational planning processes are no longer appropriate in a supposedly increasingly turbulent and unpredictable environment.

Question 15

what is involved in the notion of Atkinson’s “flexible firm”?

Answer 15

• flexible firm has replaced predictable homogeneous employment patterns, standardised contracts and uniform payment systems with more varied and flexible working arrangements, allowing a closer match to be achieved between the type and amount of labour available, and the nature and volume of work demands.
• Consequently, the flexible firm is made up of two groups of employees: .
  
  • a ‘core’ of highly trained workers on full-time, permanent contracts, who tend to possess key skills and, as a result, enjoy high status, job security and good career prospects .
  • a ‘periphery’ of temporary, part-time, casual and mainly low-skilled workers (although the periphery also includes ‘knowledge workers’ selling their skills on a freelance basis) on ‘non-standard’ employment contracts.

Question 16

what is involved in functional flexibility?

Answer 16

Functional flexibility:

• this refers to the ability of firms to reorganise jobs, so that the jobholder can deploy her/his skills across a broader range of tasks.
• It enables the organisation to make more effective use of permanent full-time staff by re-deploying them across various jobs and parts of the organisation according to needs.

Question 17

what is involved in numerical flexibility?

Answer 17

Numerical flexibility:

• this denotes the ability of the organisation to adjust the number of workers, or the level of hours worked in line with changes in demand for them.
• Numerical flexibility can take different forms and includes part-time work, temporary work, reduction of employment security for fulltime staff and modification of working time patterns to reflect patterns of work pressure (e.g. overtime, shift working, annual hours contract)

Question 18

what is involved in distancing (or sub-contracting)?

Answer 18

Distancing (or sub-contracting): this refers to the displacement of employment contracts by commercial contracts whereby a company may simply contract out peaks in workload to another individual or organisation.

Question 19

what is involved in financial flexibility?

Answer 19

Financial flexibility: this refers to the move away from single payment systems, towards variable and individualised payment systems, seeking a closer relationship between individual contributions and reward (e.g. performance related pay, profit-sharing).

Question 20

what are the points of contradiction between the concept of flexibility and the rhetoric of HRM?

Answer 20

researchers such as Legge (2005) have highlighted the following contradictions

• First, while flexibility is one of the core values of HRM, there are some significant tensions between certain forms of flexibility (in particular, numerical flexibility) and other HRM values, such as quality and commitment. The pursuit of numerical flexibility via temporary working is unlikely to produce commitment and quality.
• Second, there is a tension between numerical and functional flexibility. Functional flexibility is dependent on a satisfactory degree of employment security, stability and commitment, which are all likely to be eroded by the introduction of numerical flexibility. So jobs that are subject to numerical flexibility are unlikely to be done by core workers. Firms are less willing to train periphery workers to be more flexible in their work skills, and these workers have little motive to supply functional flexibility

Question 21

what are positive views of organisational flexibility?

Answer 21

• positive views (e.g. Garsten, 1999; Bone, 2006) have tended to celebrate flexibility as holding the promise of increased worker empowerment and participation at work.
• In this view, labour market flexibility offers individuals new freedom in controlling their working lives and in balancing home and work.
• Here it is argued that while job security and predictable careers have been lost, this is not something to lament since flexibility affords new possibilities for inter-organisational, inter-occupational moves, and for combining work, family and leisure. This is certainly the case for some workers, especially those with high skills that are in short supply.

Question 22

what are negative aspects of organisational flexibility?

Answer 22

• Here flexibility is associated with a movement towards increasing cost cutting, the casualisation of labour and work intensification within labour markets.
• Numerical flexibility is often associated with casualisation rather than empowerment or better work–life balance (Thompson and McHugh, 2002).
• Moreover, as Surman (2002) outlines, although the liberty promised by flexible working practices such as teleworking enabled by modern technologies has been widely celebrated (e.g. DTI, 2002), the uncertainties produced by ‘flexible’ working arrangements have the potential to create anxiety.
• Workers must find new ways of managing what they often perceive as an irregular working arrangement. Without the geographical distinction between home and work, Surman found that workers often lost a division that had informed and organised their social practices.
• Far from inducing a more liberating work–life balance, flexible working practices like teleworking actually brought into question a worker’s everyday activities and were something that they found both unsettling and disconcerting.
• Workers now had to make their own decisions about how, when and where to work, decisions that had previously been made for them. While on the one hand this allowed greater freedom, it also created new pressures.

Question 23

definition of international HRM (Scullion)

Answer 23

International HRM has been defined by Scullion as ‘the human resource management issues and problems arising from the internationalisation of business, and the human resource strategies, policies and practices which firms pursue in response to the internationalisation process’ (1995, p. 354).

Question 24

comparative perspective for international HRM

Answer 24

• The comparative approach is concerned with understanding why HRM practices differ across different countries.
• This orientation considers the different institutional and cultural structures associated with a nation that have an impact on the human relations approaches of employing organisations.
• These include legal and regulatory frameworks, systems of industrial relations and employment practices.
• The emphasis on these differences encourages us to consider to what extent human resource policies adopted in one country might be applicable elsewhere or whether they need to be adapted to meet particular national contexts.

Question 25

what is involved in the international perspective of HRM?

Answer 25

• In contrast, the international perspective is concerned with the practices of multinational organisations that have operations in different countries.
• This perspective considers the methods necessary to manage these organisations’ internationally diverse and geographically dispersed workforces in order to secure both global and local competitive advantages.
• These methods include global management succession planning, selection and training for the expatriate experience and management of the local labour market.
• In contrast to the comparative approach, ‘international’ HRM is prescriptive in its orientation and tends towards proposing universal approaches to ‘international’ problems. The comparative differences between national contexts are largely ignored in favour of ‘global’ practices that are implemented throughout an organisation’s territories.

Question 26

what is involved in the convergence vs divergence approaches?

Answer 26

• The convergence thesis argues that the process of globalisation and development of international trade will lead, in time, to a convergence of national business environments, including human resource approaches, as developing economies industrialise.
• In other words, industrialisation creates similar patterns of management and organisation irrespective of national context.
• However, evidence for this is mixed (Rowley and Bae, 2002; Jacoby, 2005). Within Europe and the Asia- Pacific region there remain significant differences in business practices despite economies being well advanced. National, regional and local cultures continue to influence approaches to employment management.
• Consequently, the idea that the ‘best’ HR practices have ‘universal’ application lacks empirical support.
• At best, it is argued that globalisation might be causing some degree of limited convergence across regional clusters such as China, South Korea and Japan (Rowley et al., 2004). However, even within these clusters significant differences remain.

Question 27

what are the stages of process model of organisational selection?

Answer 27

• Analysis - This should involve, at the strategic level, deciding what jobs are needed, an analysis of each vacant job to decide if it needs filling or redesigning, and determining the characteristics required of individuals to fill it effectively.
• ‘Recruitment’ is geared to attracting or finding a pool of candidates with the required characteristics.
• ‘Selection’ involves choosing the most suitable candidate from within that resulting pool – many and various methods exist to do this, such as interviews, psychometric tests and work simulation exercises.
• ‘Induction’, the final step in the process, refers to the activities that help smooth the transition for a new appointee from outsider to member of the organisation – a process that is important both for the productivity of the organisation and for the mental wellbeing of the employee

Question 28

what is involved in person-job fit?

Answer 28

Person–job fit

• The traditional approach to recruitment and selection is based on the view that organisations should specify as closely as possible the requirements of the job and then look for individuals whose personal attributes fit those requirements.
• It is founded on an assumption that human behaviour is determined by factors internal to the individual, for example their particular skills, aptitudes and attitudes, with the implication that selection techniques should be concerned with accessing and measuring these internal, personal factors, which can then be compared against those required for the job.

Question 29

what is involved in the social negotiation approach?

Answer 29

Social negotiation (Peter Herriot) The following ideas are central to this approach

• that people are constantly changing .
• that people’s self-perceptions are important
• that jobs are constantly changing
• that the selection that takes place is of both parties by each other
• that information is exchanged
• that negotiation takes place
• that the purpose of the process is to establish a psychological contract, or to discover that one is not feasible.

Question 30

what is the psychological contract?

Answer 30

• the unwritten expectations about what employees anticipate from employers in terms of compensation and how they will be developed
• also employer’s expectations about the loyalty and diligence of the people who work for them.

Question 31

what is the implication of social negotiation approach?

Answer 31

• highlights that both parties – applicant and organisation – make decisions about whether to continue in the organisational entry process.
• In this approach, the goal of organisational entry is to help the newcomer perform better by enhancing their understanding and motivation during the process.
• This is in contrast to the person–job fit approach, which aims only to identify the person who will perform best in the particular job.

Question 32

what are the different assumptions behind the person-job fit and social negotiation approaches?

Answer 32

different assumptions about the determinants of people’s behaviour.

• The person–job fit approach assumes that the factors that determine people’s behaviour come from within the individual – that people have personality traits that are consistent and endure.
• The social negotiation approach, on the other hand, is based on the idea that factors external to the individual have an important bearing on the individual’s behaviour.

Question 33

what is involved in person-organisation fit?

Answer 33

• 1 It suggests that if an organisation wants to predict an applicant’s behaviour and their performance, the organisation needs to analyse the applicant’s ‘fit’ with the organisation’s culture.
• 2 It emphasises the importance of creating an environment that suits newcomers, and of creating a job that is satisfying and motivates the individual.
• 3 It acknowledges that high performance in one situation does not necessarily mean that the person will perform well in a new situation. Therefore, this perspective prompts the manager to explore the reasons why a person has performed well in their existing situation – that is, how the person interacts with the situational factors in their current job – so that the manager can consider how the person will behave in a new situation.
• 4 That recruitment has a future dimension. Individuals may be expected to make future contributions to the organisation that lie outside the work role to which they are presently being recruited.

Question 34

what is the basis for competency approach?

Answer 34

• The competency approach is based on the identification of behaviours, skills, knowledge and attributes that underline successful performance and differentiate excellent performers from poor ones.
• It provides a more flexible approach to selection than a job-orientated approach in that it can be used to identify characteristics that are relevant across the organisation and are related to organisational competitiveness.
• Thus competency frameworks are usually seen as being compatible with HRM initiatives such as flexibility, team-working and multiskilling because they are not constrained by jobs but rather relate more broadly to the general qualities associated with competitiveness.

Question 35

what is involved in job analysis?

Answer 35

Short-term analysis requires the organisation to assess where it stands with regard to the: .

• tasks that must be completed .
• skills required to do the work
• roles that need to be filled.

The idea is to gain a full understanding of the job, the qualities required to perform it effectively and the wider context of the job. This information is then written up as a job description that can be used to help future jobholders understand what is required of them.

Question 36

what is involved in analysis of long-term objectives?

Answer 36

This type of analysis can be done along four lines of questioning: .

1. How might the job develop and change? .
2. How adaptable, flexible and able to learn is the individual? .
3. What are the organisation’s long-term mission and objectives? .
4. How will the job help the incumbent develop?

Question 37

what is involved in analysis of organisational development?

Answer 37

This involves analysing the organisational environment the newcomer will experience.

• The organisational environment includes the job that the newcomer will do;
• the sub-culture and work group they will join;
• the organisation’s mission, objectives, values and dominant culture;
• the technologies that are used;
• the external environment in which the organisation is located.

The task of the selector is to assess the interaction of the applicant with factors in the environments in which the applicant has performed well, to enable a considered estimate of person and environment interactions in the new organisation.

Question 38

what is involved in putting together the person specification?

Answer 38

• This is a profile of the ‘ideal’ candidate – that is, a list of characteristics that are considered necessary to perform the job well.
• it is increasingly argued that the traditional approach to recruitment and selection is too job-centred, or ‘task-oriented’.
• In particular, it is argued that the ways in which job analyses are conducted and, hence, person specifications are designed tend to rely too heavily on the past and do not pay much attention to the changing requirements of the job and the organisation.
• The different ways in which the profile of the ‘ideal’ or ‘best’ candidate can be drawn up must be considered.
• The profile could be defined in terms of fitting the organisational culture or job specific expertise, or in respect of the likelihood that the candidate will stay with the organisation.

Question 39

what is involved in recruitment and selection?

Answer 39

• Recruitment is the process of attracting a pool of applicants.
• This can be done in-house by members of the organisation or it can be sub-contracted to third parties.
• Having attracted a pool of candidates for a position, the most suitable candidate must be identified.
• , the method used will be affected by the perspective held on organisational entry.
  
  • For example, managers who take a person–job fit view of the process (whether consciously or unconsciously) will use tests designed to expose certain key psychological traits thought to be related to the intended job.
  • Selectors who prefer the person–organisation fit approach will seek means to gauge the extent to which the person’s skills, values and attributes complement those of the organisation

Question 40

what are the problems with interviews as selection technique?

Answer 40

• Impressions formed in the first five minutes greatly influence the selection but are based on very little information. .
• Interviewers tend to look for reasons to reject rather than for reasons to accept interviewees, which suggests the ‘least bad’ applicant gets the job. .
• ‘Halo and horns’ – the interviewer’s perception of one good or one bad impression produces an assumption that contaminates their perception of other comments. The candidate is quickly perceived positively (gaining a halo) or negatively (given horns) on the basis of limited evidence.
• . Appearance affects an interviewer’s judgement, even if irrelevant to the job. .
• It is difficult to assess specialised skills and abilities in an interview. .
• ‘Recency’ effects – the interviewer’s recent experiences in his or her work environment may disproportionately influence the decisions taken.

Question 41

how can you improve validity and reliability of interviews as a selection method?

Answer 41

It has also been argued that the validity and reliability of interviews as a selection method can be improved

• by increasing the number of interviewers (sequential, panel interviews) and structuring the interviews around standardised questions,
• including hypothetical questions relating to situations encountered in the job (e.g. ‘What would you do if …?’) (Newell and Shackleton, 2001).

Question 42

what is involved in cognitive tests?

Answer 42

Cognitive tests assess attributes such as intelligence, special ability or numerical ability; they have been found to have a relatively high predictive validity meaning they are good at identifying such abilities. However, some have questioned the extent to which they add to the information that could be obtained from simply looking at academic qualifications.

Question 43

what is involved in personality tests?

Answer 43

• Personality tests assess individuals against a theoretical model of underlying personality factors. Many personality tests are available, with different levels of predictive validity.
• The use of psychometric tests has increased recently; however, this resurgent popularity raises questions about the ways in which they are used and manipulated by both organisations and candidates (e.g. Henderson et al., 1994; Newell and Shackleton, 2001).
• There are mixed feelings generally about testing – while tests are often defended on the basis of greater objectivity, the validity of some can be and has been called into question.
• Qualified psychologists are needed to interpret the results of the most sophisticated psychometrics and their relevance to the job and organisation.

Question 44

overview of selection techniques

Answer 44

• physical ability tests
• literacy and numeracy tests
• intelligence tests
• personality tests
• analogous tests (simulation)
• assessment centres

Question 45

what should be included in induction-related information according to Fowler?

Answer 45

• Individual level – includes personal contractual issues and personal support. This could include basic information on: hours of work and breaks; flexitime arrangements, if any; leave; expenses; payment methods; salary increases and rewards; welfare and other benefits, such as sports and social facilities; training and development opportunities; sickness and absence procedures; geography of buildings and location of facilities; dress code. .
• Job/task level – provides a general idea of the work to be done and how the employee should begin his or her employment. This is likely to include knowledge of: health and safety (for example, fire drills); work procedures (including, for example, security), use of telephones, data protection; other procedures and regulations; equipment and resources available, including IT resources; standards and targets for performance; on-the-job training availability; helplines and manuals. .
• Support at departmental level – the relationship of the employee’s job to other jobs in the department and to the jobs of people in other departments. This may include: meeting key contacts; defining internal customers; identifying where joint working is required; departmental objectives; departmental communications mechanisms. .
• Organisational level – wider issues to do with the structure, objectives and wider context of the business as a whole. This could include: policies, aims and core values; HRM policies, such as discipline procedures, equal opportunities, staff development, and pension and insurance schemes; the structure and functions of the business; the nature and size of the business and its competitors.

Question 46

overview of circumstances of exit from organisation

Answer 46

• voluntary exit
• downsizing and redundancy

Question 47

what are the drawbacks of downsizing?

Answer 47

• smaller than anticipated increases in productivityreductions in costs not achieved .
• increases in efficiency not achieved .
• profitability not increased .
• underestimates of the length of time taken for the organisation to recover from downsizing
• poor morale in the people who remain .
• an increased distrust of management .
• an increased resistance to further change.

Question 48

what are the five tests of managing grievance/discipline issues effectively?

Answer 48

five main tests that, according to Renwick and Gennard, management must pass if they are to manage grievance and discipline issues effectively

• fairness
• reasonableness
• consistency
• operating with just cause
• operating within the law.

Question 49

what is the control loop for managing performance?

Answer 49

the loop involves three main stages:

• setting specific targets;
• monitoring the extent to which individuals fulfil these targets;
• taking corrective action if and as necessary.

A fourth stage may be added if desired: setting new targets in the light of previous performance.

Question 50

what is the theoretical basis for the control loop?

Answer 50

• goal-setting theory - Locke argued that goals pursued by employees can play an important role in motivating superior performance.
• In aiming to achieve goals, people examine the consequences of their behaviour. If they think their current behaviour will not allow them to achieve their goals, they will either modify their behaviour or choose different goals.
• If managers can intervene to set goals in such a way that individuals think the organisation’s aims are worth achieving, then they should be able to improve their staff’s performanc

Question 51

what are the implicit assumptions of performance management as a rational activity?

Answer 51

• an organisation’s goals can be expressed in terms clear enough that they can be used to construct actual policies, standards and targets
• it is possible to measure – or at least estimate reliably – the extent to which an individual or a group is helping to achieve those standards and targets
• human performance can be analysed as a series of interlocking causes and effects
• this series can be managed – in other words, poorly performing parts of the chain can be ‘repaired’, or at least ‘improved’, by the actions of ‘managers’.

Question 52

criticism of rational approach to performance management

Answer 52

• The day-to-day managerial control of human resources is often much more ‘messy’ than the rational model suggests.
• Very few managers work to a detailed and specific plan.
• Often their objectives are numerous and sometimes contradictory (for example, some organisations have a commitment to investing in people at the same time as making redundancies).
• Also, objectives may be changing so fast that any attempt to base a system of performance management on them would be problematic.
• Even when objectives are clearly defined, the precise standards to be attained and maintained to achieve them may not be so clearly specified.
• Some strategic goals, such as increasing sales in a certain country, have an implicit measure of performance associated with them, but with others – for example, increasing customer satisfaction – it may be hard to think of how to measure performance satisfactorily.
• Sometimes, the kind of performance that is measured is chosen not because it is the most valuable definition for the organisation but because it is simply easier to measure.
• Critics of the rational approach to performance management also argue that taking too mechanistic a view of the management of people undermines the social and informal basis of relationships at work, which depend on interpersonal interactions

Question 53

problematic aspects of objective performance measures

Answer 53

• managers must be cautious about their expectations for measurement and must consider the possibility of ‘objective’ measures (based on independently verifiable data) and the inevitability of subjective measures (derived from human judgement).
• For example, objective measures are usually quantitative measures of how well an individual or a group is meeting the objectives set. They might specify targets, such as deadlines, quantities, costs and resource usage.
• However, objective measures may not be as robust as they appear. - profitability would seem to be a tried and tested measure, yet accountants know that profits reflect decisions on how to treat costs and revenues and on when paper gains should be released onto the profit-and-loss account.
• In other words, many apparently objective measures are, in reality, quite subjective.

Question 54

what are the issues around subjective measures of performance?

Answer 54

• Subjective measures of performance are inevitably made in all organisations.
• Most people will have a complex picture of the abilities and performance of their colleagues, which is based only in part on formal results.
• subjective measures are associated with a variety of problems. Because ratings are given by people to other people, it can be hard to disentangle social influences: ratings may reflect race, gender or personal biases rather than pure performance.
• many appraisers feel socially uncomfortable giving relatively poor ratings. As a result, they may give ratings tightly clustered around the mean, or give way to a general rating ‘creep’ by awarding more marks above a suggested mean than below it.

Question 55

what should be included in the aims for the appraisal system?

Answer 55

The aims for appraisal systems therefore should include the following: .

• setting, to clarify and agree on goals for a given future period .
• evaluating, to enable the organisation to share out the money, promotions and rewards fairly
• . auditing, to discover the work potential, both present and future, of individuals and departments .
• discovering training needs by identifying gaps and inadequacies that could be remedied through training programmes .
• motivating staff to reach organisational standards and objectives .
• developing individuals by advice, information and the exploration of changing behaviour and practice .
• checking the effectiveness of personnel procedures and practices .
• building relationships between staff and managers .
• constructing succession plans for human resources, and departmental and corporate planning.

Question 56

what are alternative approaches to options appraisal?

Answer 56

• increasing use of alternative sources of information, in particular from peers, subordinates and customers (Redman, 2005)
• . Peer appraisal is still rather uncommon in organisations, although in theory it could have much to offer because peers may be in a position to give a unique insight into an individual’s team contribution.
• Upward appraisal – the appraisal of line managers by their subordinates – while not yet very common, is a practice that is also increasing (Redman, 2005).
• Many organisations are moving towards a notion of ‘360-degree’ appraisals, when a cross section of colleagues and even customers are asked to comment on the performance of an individual.

Question 57

what are the issues around 360-degree feedback?

Answer 57

• . It is often argued that 360-degree feedback appraisal provides a more objective and accurate picture of a person’s performance, as it draws on different sources of evaluation and perspectives;
• however, as Grint (1993) suggests, this may just involve replacing the subjective assessment of a single appraiser with the subjective assessments of multiple assessors.

Question 58

what are problematic aspects of appraisal interviews?

Answer 58

• In summary, there is a good deal of evidence to suggest that formal appraisal interviews are generally neither well conducted nor well received (e.g. Grint, 1993; Coates, 2000)
• Appraisers often feel it necessary to reinforce their place in the hierarchy
• appraisers may still be influenced by their personal relationships with the appraisee.
• Moreover appraisees often feel that their performance is being assessed during the appraisal interview more intensively than at any other time. They may therefore frequently say what they feel the appraiser wants to hear.
• In some cases, this leads to people over-extending themselves when agreeing objectives for the future. This, in turn, can lead to stress and underperformance as the extent of the overcommitment gradually becomes apparent.

Question 59

what are the conflicts within appraisal system?

Answer 59

• potential conflicts when the same appraisal system is used for both judgmental and developmental purposes (Redman, 2005).
• Appraisal systems are often criticised for being made to serve incompatible ends, placing conflicting demands on both appraisers and appraisees.
• McGivern and Ferlie (2007) argue that yet another common interpretation of performance appraisal is that it is no more than box ticking, something that has to be gone through but has little relevance or impact.

Question 60

what is involved in performance management?

Answer 60

• continuing unchanged;
• taking action to correct or improve performance;
• revising the standard

Question 61

what is involved in continuing unchanged re: performance management?

Answer 61

Continuing unchanged

• Monitoring may suggest that not only is an individual not going to meet his or her objectives but also that there are reasons why the best option might be to avoid taking corrective action.
• For example, it might be that the disparity is not serious at this point and intervention can be postponed.
• it should not be assumed that intervention will always result in positive outcomes. In some circumstances, it could actually make things worse

Question 62

what is involved in correcting performance?

Answer 62

Correcting performance

• This option might involve insisting that the work is done again or improved, arranging additional training for some of the staff – or any other form of corrective action.
• The manager has to consider whether corrective action is being applied directly to the cause of the problem or to the effect arising from that cause.
• On some occasions, it may even be that discipline (e.g. formal warnings) may need to be enforced to ensure that standards are not undermined or ignored.
• This will require considering many aspects of working with people, including leadership, motivation, power, conflict and disciplinary procedures.
• may also need to consider possible legal implications.

Question 63

what is involved in revising the standard?

Answer 63

Revising the standard

• it may be decided by the manager that the original goal was not appropriate and needs modifying.
• The standard or target may need revision when a standard is exceeded or when changed circumstances have made the standard (or target) unrealistic.
• However, revising standards can produce a number of adverse and unanticipated consequences.
• These include:
  
  • encouraging people to ignore any future standards;
  • discouraging those who worked hard to meet the target;
  • engendering a feeling of failure.
  • There is also no guarantee that the new standard will be any more realistic than before

Question 64

how can managing reward be used to support organisational objectives?

Answer 64

• integrated approach: under HRM, payment systems are generally not just seen as a cost, or as compensation for past service rendered, but are used as a managerial tool to produce certain effects:
  
  • to motivate,
  • to retain,
  • to control
  • as a way to engineer strategic or cultural change.
• For example, many appraisal systems seek to ensure not only that employees achieve specific job-related outputs but also that they demonstrate attitudes and values that are consistent with the wider organisational culture.
• Judging this is likely to be subjective and requires good people skills from the appraiser.

Question 65

what are the issues related to performance-related pay?

Answer 65

Applying expectancy theory three conditions must be met if people are to work harder: .

• People must feel that their behaviour affects the performance of the relevant group (expectancy). .
• They must be convinced that any improved performance will bring them the reward of a higher PRP pay-out. .
• Employees must value the bonus pay.

Question 66

what are the various objectives for introducing PRP?

Answer 66

. Lewis (2001) suggests that, in theory, PRP is introduced in order to serve various objectives besides the traditional one of ‘motivating’: .

• to help in recruitment and retention by offering higher salaries to high performers .
• to weaken the power of trade unions – PRP serves to bypass the collective bargaining process, in which trade unions are often involved, and to individualise pay .
• to increase the role of line managers – through the introduction of PRP, line managers have to pay greater attention to communicating with, monitoring and evaluating their staff .
• to provide greater financial control by rewarding those who are contributing to the performance of the organisation .
• to reward and recognise good performance; this is especially important in downsized, down-layered organisations where promotion may not be easy even for good performers .
• to support programmes of cultural change – PRP puts a financial tag on the values the organisation wants to promote and is a way of communicating these values to employees, as well as rewarding them for displaying ‘appropriate’ behaviours and attitudes.

Question 67

what is the criticism of PRP?

Answer 67

• First, the difference in pay between high and low performers may not be meaningful. In other words, high performers may not think that their additional reward reflects their additional efforts.
• financial constraints - PRP can lead to very small differentials in pay between high and low performers. Employees may feel insulted by the low level of extra pay they receive.
• It has also been suggested that PRP could inhibit innovation and change and encourage employees to ‘stick to what they know’ and can do well, concentrating on those aspects of the job that are assessed at the expense of other, perhaps less tangible, aspects.
• by rewarding some individuals and not others, PRP could endanger cohesion and cooperation among colleagues.
• To counter these effects, some companies have incorporated factors such as ‘contribution to team-working’ in their appraisal criteria.
• Further, there may not be any clear link between employees’ performance and pay.
• Employees may not feel that their pay increase is actually closely linked to their own performance; they may believe that performance measures do not reflect their actual performance.
• PRP systems may place the blame for poor performance on individuals’ shoulders when broader factors in the organisation or the environment are at fault.
• PRP assumes a rather simplistic view of motivation and the psychological contract. In truth, individuals are motivated by a wide range of factors.
• Some people may not be especially motivated by money as a reward.
• some may be happy to conform to group norms almost irrespective of the outcome.
• Etzioni (1988) has argued that, in practice, people behave according to their values, rather than as the rational calculating machine that underlies process theories of motivation.

Question 68

what are the implications of human capital theory?

Answer 68

• The first implication is the need for information. If managers need to know both the cost of that programme and also, in financial terms, the value it will yield.
• emphasis on information focuses attention on which particular training and development activities will be profitable.
• the human capital approach implies that each proposal for an activity (e.g. a training course) should be considered on its merits.
• Another important consideration is the mobility of capital. In investing in its employees, a company is building the human capital in each of them. I
• General skills will be attractive to other employers, so an employee may decide to quit the company that has provided the training and accept a higher wage from another company eager to make use of his or her skills.
• Therefore, human capital theory highlights the need to take into account the possibility that investment in general skills may lead to employees being poached by competitors before the organisation has had a chance to recoup the cost of the training

Question 69

criticism of human capital theory

Answer 69

• over-rationalises decisions taken in organisations
• in practice, managers do not have access to the information required, such as the expected effect of a particular training course on someone’s productivity.

Question 70

ideas related to the knowledge economy

Answer 70

• Felstead et al. (2007) argue that policymakers appear to believe that ‘learning’, ‘training’ and ‘skills’ are the key levers to enhance productivity and raise living standards.
• knowledge economy, where intelligence and education are rewarded and valued as never before.
• Workers in the new economy are supposed to be ‘self-programmable’, adaptable, flexible and able to engage in self-learning (Castells, 2000).
• The assumption that a skilled workforce is required to produce quality goods and services is reflected in the UK government’s policies on competitiveness and economic growth

Question 71

criticism of knowledge economy concept

Answer 71

• s, empirical evidence concerning employment trends suggests that most jobs do not require skilled people to carry them out (Felstead et al., 2007, p. 104).
• Korczynski (2005) argues that front-line service work – for example, homecare assistants, restaurant waiters, retail store workers and call-centre workers – is a major area of employment growth but remains some distance removed from the knowledge economy.
• He argues, ‘The rhetoric concerning the “high skill” economy is amazingly adept at avoiding the fact that the largest area of growth is in poorly rewarded frontline service jobs’ (Korczynski, 2005, p. 3).

Question 72

what is involved in training needs analysis?

Answer 72

• The first stage is identifying what the job involves through discussions with the jobholder and those with whom they deal: the job purpose, areas of responsibility and the key activities and tasks.
• Second, the competencies, knowledge and (often) attitudes that are required to do the job must be determined, distinguishing as far as possible between those that are essential and those that are desirable.
• Third, a profile of the existing skills of the person doing the job, on the basis of their past experience, qualifications and demonstrated ability in the workplace, is drawn up. These are matched with the list of the knowledge, skills and attitudes required.
• If a significant gap is apparent between the required job and the existing skills – especially if a skill is important for that job – then this is identified as a training need.

Such an approach has important benefits.

• It is systematic, and so helps to prevent jumping to the wrong conclusions.
• It also helps set priorities for varied training needs that are based on organisational requirements.
• works best with well-defined jobs that require specific skills or techniques that can be reliably cultivated in people who are willing to acquire them.

Question 73

what are the challenges of training needs analysis approach?

Answer 73

• The work is unstructured and rather fluid. In addition, the smaller the organisation, the less specialised and defined will be the roles. .
• The skills and knowledge may not be obvious from lists of the key activities. It may not be easy to train a person in the abilities required. .
• People who offer particular skills may resent being told they are ‘deficient’ and need training; the organisation might do better to fit the role to what the person can offer.

Question 74

what is involved in “on the job” training?

Answer 74

• most common approach and can range from relatively unsophisticated ‘observe and copy’ methods to highly structured programmes of job rotation, shadowing and mentoring.
• the main benefits of on-the-job training are that it facilitates the transfer of learning (learning is relevant) and involves limited cost.
• The limitations are that its effectiveness depends on trainers’ (mentors, line managers) skills and willingness,
• it can be disruptive and in practice it is often haphazard (Doyle, 2001; Holden, 2001).

Off-the-job training can take different forms, from

• informational methods (such as lectures, open/ distance learning courses)
• to experiential methods (such as role playing or outdoor-based learning like an ‘outward bound’ course).
• The main advantage of off-the-job training is that it may be helpful to get people away from their work environment to facilitate exposure to new ideas.
• unlike on-the-job training, it may be difficult to transfer the new skills and knowledge acquired to the job situation, and off-the-job training tends to be expensive.

Question 75

what is involved in learning by doing?

Answer 75

• ‘sitting by Nellie’, where a new employee is put next to an experienced employee to pick up how to do the job through a combination of trying it out, observation and guidance from an experienced worker.
• Unfortunately, problems arise when ‘Nellie’ (the experienced employee), although extremely competent in her (or his) job, is not skilled in training.
• This can lead to frustrations for both parties, as one struggles to understand explanations and the other cannot understand why it is taking so long to pick up skills that they take for granted.

Question 76

what is involved in mentoring and coaching?

Answer 76

Mentoring and coaching

• This is an approach whereby a senior or experienced employee facilitates the development of a new employee.
• This association is wider than the trainee– trainer relationship and means that the mentor acts as an adviser and helper to the trainee throughout an extended period of development.
• This term is also used when an established employee is to be developed to a more advanced level, such as a junior manager being selected as having great potential and given a very senior mentor.

Question 77

what is involved in shadowing and job rotation?

Answer 77

Shadowing and job rotation

• shadowing is usually used for management development and aims to widen the trainee’s organisational experience by assigning them to periods of working with managers in different departments.
• success of this method strongly depends on the commitment of both parties.
• Trainees might consider the experience as not relating to their direct work responsibilities and therefore time not well spent.
• Also, the receiving department might find hosting the trainee disruptive to their work.

Job rotation

• derived from the ‘Quality of Working Life’ movement in the 1970s
• was intended to help relieve boredom and thereby raise the productivity of shop-floor workers.
• If workers are adequately trained for their different roles then job rotation is an excellent method of achieving greater team-working and empowerment at work.
• However, in the absence of adequate preparation, workers may feel that they are simply being asked to do more work without being adequately compensated.

Question 78

what is involved in courses and training programmes?

Answer 78

• Sometimes it helps to remove people from the day-to-day demands of their working environment so that they have the time and space necessary to think innovatively or approach problems from new perspectives.
• Nevertheless, such courses or workshops will inevitably be interpreted in different ways by organisational members.
• For example, being sent on a course might be seen as a sign of approval that the training is necessary as preparation for a promotion.
• However, it could also be considered as a ‘message’ that the employee is inefficient in their work.
• External courses and other forms of off-the-job training have been frequently criticised, for example employees who fail to see the relevance of the training to their dayto-day work are inclined to dismiss it as a waste of time and money.

Question 79

what is involved in training evaluation?

Answer 79

• Reaction: this taps trainees’ views of the training programme. A familiar type of evaluation at this level is the post-course questionnaire. The problem with this level of analysis is that it evaluates the course itself, but not participants’ actual learning. .
• Learning: do the trainees show evidence that they have achieved the learning objectives? Here the evaluation would focus on the extent to which trainees can demonstrate that they have learned relevant concepts, knowledge and skills. This could be measured through pre- and posttraining tests. While the evaluation of learning is useful, it remains incomplete: trainees may have learned and understood new concepts and ideas but not transferred these to the workplace. The transfer from learning to behaviour is the focus of the next level of evaluation. .
• Behaviour: at this level, the evaluation is concerned with assessing the impact of training on behaviour. It involves comparing trainees’ behaviour before and after training and assessing the extent to which their performance has improved. This could be done through performance appraisal.
• . Organisational results: the extent to which training has had an impact on organisational effectiveness. Information can be collected on a wide range of organisational measures, such as customer satisfaction, productivity, staff turnover or quality improvements. However, this level of evaluation is particularly difficult since any change in these organisation-wide measures could have been brought about by factors other than training.

Question 80

what are the problems involved in training and development?

Answer 80

relationships between training, commitment and performance are far more complex than suggested in the prescriptive literature.

• It is difficult to establish a direct causal relationship between training and performance. For example, Wong et al. (1997) in a study of small and medium-sized companies taking part in a management development programme, suggest that the effects of training were affected by a host of factors (for example, the local labour market, structure, growth stage, size of the company) and argue that the impact of training on ‘the bottom line’ is difficult to measure.
• Antonacopoulou (2001) also warns against assuming some simple and direct relationships between training, learning and performance. She argues that competing priorities and objectives (between individual employees and the organisation, or between short-term and long-term objectives) may undermine the effectiveness of training in encouraging learning, development or improved performance. The effect of training and development on employees’ attitudes and commitment is also complex.
• Heyes and Stuart (1996) argue that training has the potential to positively influence commitment, motivation and performance but only to the extent that it is integrated within a coherent package of HRM strategies. Training is most likely to have a positive impact on motivation, performance and commitment when it is linked to promotion, rewards, future employment prospects and the chance to use the skills developed during training while in the job.

Question 81

what is the criticism of person-fit approach?

Answer 81

• The person–job fit approach has been criticised for a variety of reasons.
• In particular, the amount and pace of change means that the jobs for which people are recruited soon change;
• organisations may be interested in future outcomes such as promotability, as well as performance in a particular job;
• people influence the organisation’s performance beyond the boundaries of their own jobs;
• applicants also make decisions that affect the outcome of the entry process

Question 82

what is involved in job description?

Answer 82

• The job description is used, along with other information gathered during entry analysis, to produce a set of selection criteria.
• These criteria are the knowledge, skills, abilities and other attributes that jobholders must possess to be able to perform the job effectively.
• Selection criteria fall into two categories:
  
  • essential criteria, which a person must be able to fulfil to be able to do the job – for example, a Heavy Goods Vehicle (HGV) licence for a lorry driver –
  • and desirable criteria, which a person should be able to fulfil – for example, experience of driving a lorry in other countries.
• The selection criteria are the key factors that are used to decide who to recruit.