Unit 3 AOS 2 Flashcards
Chapter 2
Human Resource Management Definition
Organizing employees’ roles, pay, and working conditions in an organization.
Employee Definition
Individuals hired by a business to complete work tasks and support the achievements of business objectives.
HR Manager Responsibilities
Includes recruitment, motivation, training, performance management, termination, awards, dispute resolution, and culture.
How may a HR’s role vary in a Big vs. Small Business
Big Businesses have the HR Manager seperate to the general manager whereas in small businesses they are often the same person.
What’s the relationship between Human Resource Management and Business Objectives?
The effective management of employees can be a major contributor to the success of a business, because employees are in a key position to affect customers, business results and ultimately shareholder value.
Identify and Define Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs suggests employees have five fundamental needs which they strive to fulfil in a sequential manner. Once one need is met, it is no longer a motivator for an employee and the employee will strive to achieve the next need in the hierarchy.
What are the five fundamental needs of Maslow’s theory in order?
Low Order External Needs:
Physiological
Safety and Security
Social*
High Order External Needs:
Social*
Esteem
Self-accualisation
What are some strengths and weaknesses for Maslow’s theory?
Strengths:
- Clear path to motivate employees
- Employees are in an environment that pushes them to their full potential
- Motivation can occur quickly
- Low to no cost
Weaknesses:
- Assumes employees are motivated in the same order and by the same things
- Difficult to measure employee success
- Time consuming for managers
- Tedious for managers
- May be costly
What are possible strategies of achieving Social Needs?
- Good working environments
- Teamwork
- Social Events
- Supportive arrangement
What are possible strategies of achieving Esteem Needs?
- Promotions
- Job titles
- Rewards/recognition
- Acknowledgement
- Responsibility
What are possible strategies of achieving Self-acculisation Needs?
- Personal interest
- Self-satisfaction
- Opportunities to take on new challenges
- Employee development
What are the four drives?
Acquire, Bond, Learn, Defend
What is the Drive to Acquire?
The drive to acquire is the desire to achieve rewards and high status. This includes financial and non-financial rewards.
What is the Drive to Bond?
The drive to bond is the desire to participate in social interactions and feel a sense of belonging.
What is the Drive to Learn and what are some examples?
The drive to learn is the desire to gain knowledge, skill and experience.
Training courses, mentoring systems, assigning challenging work tasks to broaden knowledge.
What is the Drive to Defend and what are some examples of it?
The drive to defend is the desire to protect personal security as well as the values of the business.
- Provide support for employees
- Be open with employees
- Have grievance procedures in place
What are the five principles of Locke and Latham’s goal setting theory?
Clarity, Commitment, Challenge, Task Complexity, Feedback
What’s the difference between task complexity and challenge?
Task complexiy refers to the skills you may need to learn in order to achieve a certain goal, this could include training.
Challenge is how difficult the goal is to encourage employees to improve rather than learn new skills.
What is the impact of feedback on goal setting?
Managers should provide regular feedback and monitor progress.
What are strenghts and weaknesses of Locke and Latham’s goal setting theory?
Strengths:
- Very ‘individual specific’ approach
- Peresonal interests align with business objectives
- Improves trust and relationships
- Easy to assess
Weaknesses:
- Could be time-consuming
- Can be hard to align business objectives with personal interets
What are some similarities and differences between Maslow’s and Lawrence’s?
Similarities:
- Concerned with physical, social and emotional needs
- Suggest employees value different motivators.
Differences:
- Maslow’s is sequential
- Four Drive is in any order
What are some similarities and differences between Maslow’s and Locke and Latham’s
Similarities:
- Recognise personal employee motivations
- Recognise the importance of manager feedback
Differences:
- Motvations in Locke can be unique rather than listed like Maslow’s
- Maslows is applied by a manager, Locke is applied by employees
What are some similarities and differences between Lawrence and Locke and Latham’s
Similarities:
- Goal achieving can be similar to drive to acquire and learn
- Managers seek an understanding of employees personal needs
Differences:
- Four Drive is applied by managers while Locke is applied by employees
- Pursuit of goals is one at a time in Locke while multiple goals can be completed at once during Lawrence and Nohria’s
What is Performance-Related Pay?
Pros and cons?
It’s a financial reward that employees recieve for reaching or exceeding a set business goal.
Pros:
- Improves business performance
- Tangible rewards
- Motivated quickly
Cons:
- Unhealthy competition
- Time consuming to review performance
- Increase expenses
What is Career Advancement?
Pros and cons?
It is the upward’s progression of an employees job position.
Pros:
- Improves business performance
- Employees feel more valued with more responsibilty after promotions
- Promotion existing employees is cheaper than hiring new ones
Cons:
- Limited senior positions
- Demotivated if overlooked
- May not desire senior positions
- Increase cost of wages
What is Investment in Training?
Pros and cons?
Is allocating resources to imrpove employee skills and knowledge.
Pros:
- More valued
- Improves job satisfaciton
- Employees may complete tasks quicker due to extended skillset
Cons:
- Training may not be relevant to specific jobs of employees
- Some may not value the skillset
- Time consuming
- Training can be costly
What is Support Strategies?
Pros and Cons?
It involves providing employees with any assistance that improves their satisfaction at work.
Pros:
- Decreased employee resignation
- More valued through well-being considerations
- Saves time
- Little extra expenses
Cons:
- Manager can give bad interpersonal skills
- Motivation may not be instant
- Costly
What are Sanction Strategies?
Pros and Cons?
It involves penalising employees for poor performance or breaching business policies.
Pros:
- Pressure employees to follow management instructions
- Can motivate employees immediately
Cons:
- Negative corporate culture
- Repeated use can result in resignation
- Employee and manager trust can decrease
- Replacement employees are time-consuming
- Hiring new employees is expensive
What is on-the-job training?
Examples?
It involves employees improving their knowledge and skills within the workplace.
eg. Job shadowing, mentoring, coaching, hiring external trainers, rotation systems
What is off-the-job training?
Examples?
It involves employees improving their knowledge and skills in a location external to the business.
eg. Theory conferences, performing simulations, workshops, TAFE, online training
What are examples of performance management?
- Management by Objectives
- Performance Appraisals
- Self Evaluation
- Employee Observation
What is Management by Objectives?
It involves both managers and employees collaboratively setting individual employee goals that contribute to the achievement of broader business objectives.
What are some pros and cons of Management by Objectives?
Pros:
- Works towards business and personal goals
- Positive work environment
- Inolved in goal setting
Cons:
- Too many goals = stress
- Time consuming to creat goals
- Failure may be demoralising
What are performance appraisals?
Involves a manager assesing the performance of an employee against a range of criteria, providing feedback and establishing plans for future improvements.
What are some outcomes and types of Performance Appraisals?
Outcomes:
- Remuniration and reward
- Counselling
- Job promotion/transfer/rotation
- Termination
Types:
- Essay Method
- Critical Incident Method (only good or bad aspects)
- Comparison Method
What is self-evaluation?
Involves an employee assesing their individual performance against a set of criteria in relation to their contribution to their business team or unit.
What are some pros and cons of self evaluation?
Pros:
- Can gain insight into understanding of own abilities
- Aware of own pros and cons
- Saves time
Cons:
- May be dishonest
- Developing criteria takes time
- May be unreliable
What is employee observation?
Involves a range of employees from different levels of authority assesing another employee’s performance against a set of criteria.
What are some pros and cons of employee observation?
Pros:
- Gain multiple perspectives
- Removes performance stress due to unawareness of assesment
- Employees may respond better to peer feedback
Cons:
- Results can be misleading
- Friends may provide unreialable information
- Using peers to asses disrupts their workflow
What are the types of termination?
Voluntary:
- Reitrement
- Resignation
- Redundancy
Involuntary:
- Dismissal
- Redundancy
What are transition considerations?
Examples?
Are the social and ethical practices that a manager can consider implementing when terminating employment.
eg. social issues, financial issues, difficulty finding a new job
What are entitlement considerations?
Examples?
Are legal obligations an employe owes to its employees following the termination of their employment contract.
eg. annual/long service leave, redundancy pay, notice of termination, justifiable reasons of employment termination
What are some redundancy considerations?
Entitlement:
- Notified of redundancy
- Payment/severance package
- Time off work to look for employment
Transition:
- Couneselling
- Resume assistance
- Outplacement services
- Extra training
What is voluntary redundancy?
It is the termination of an employment by an employer because it does not need a particular job done by anyone or needs fewer people to do a particular type of job.
What is dismissal?
It is the termination of the employement relationship due to incompetence of indiscipline of an employee.
Who are the Participants in the Workplace?
- HR
- Employees
- Employee Associations
- Unions
- FWC
What is the role of the HR Manager?
They are individual who coordinate the relationship between employees and management within a business. Are involved with processes within a business including the employment of staff, dispute resolution, and upholding legal requirements.
What is the role of employees?
They are inviduals who are hired by a business to complete work tasks and support the achievement of its objectives. This includes understanding workplace procedures and safety and reporting illegal or unethical behaviour.
What is the role of Employer Associations?
They are advisory bodies that assist employers in understanding and upholding their legal business obligations. They can share information, provide advice/support and represent employees.
What is the role of unions?
THey are organistaions composed of individuals who represent and speak on behalf of employees in a particular INDUSTRY to protect and improve their wages and working conditions.
What is the role of the FWC?
It is Australia’s independent workplace relations tribunal that has a range of responsibilities outline by the Fair Work Act. They also act as an arbitrator or mediator
What are some responsibilities of the FWC in the workplace?
- Approve enterprise agreements
- Approve or disapprove industrial actions
- Resolve disputes
- Provide a safety net of minimum conditions
- Remedy unfair dismissal claims
What are awards?
They are legal documents that outline the minimum wages and conditions of work for employees across and entire industry.
What are agreements?
They are legal documents that outline the wages and conditions of employees and are applicable to a particular business or group of businesses.
What does NES stand for and what 11 NES do awards and agreements need to comply with?
- Max weekly ours
- Working arrangement requests
- Conversions from casual to permanent
- Parental leave
- Personal leave
- Annual leave
- Commmunity service leave
- Long service leave
- Public holidays
- Notice of termination and redundancy pay
- FWC statement and casual employement information statement
Outline the dispute resolution process (four steps):
- Business dispute resolution
- Independant third party involvement
- Third party resolution (mediation)
- Escalated to FWC (arbitration)
What is Mediation?
Pros and cons?
Inovles an impartial third party facilitating discussions between disputing parties to help each side of the conflict reach a resolution themselves.
Pros:
- Promotes positive workplace relationships
- Disputing parties have more control = more satifisfied witih outcome
- Less expensive
Cons:
- Agreements may not be reached
- Parties can go back on their decisions
- Power imbalance may occur
What is arbitration?
Pros and cons?
Inovles an independant third party hearing arguments from both disputing parties and making a legally binding decision to resolve the conflict.
Pros:
- Formal therefore final decision is made
- Legally binding decision
- Fair
Cons:
- Reduced control
- Employees may be unhappy
- Time consuming and expensive
