Line managers’ implementation of HRM objectives

Discuss about the Managing Organizations and Leading People Liability.

The plan and progress of HRM practices in an organization are the liability of HR professionals, whereas the line managers are accountable for implementing those HRM practices on the operational work floor. As per Storey (2014), the designing ways of the HRM practices by the HR professionals and the implementation of the same by the line managers play an important role in determining the success or failure of those practices. The line manager’s implementation process of the HRM practices is primary for employee satisfaction and motivation to that of the design of those practices by the HR people. The role of line managers is crucial in the way they influence employee behaviors and attitudes through translating the designed HRM practices in the best possible way. Their influencing plays a primary role in determining the performance of an organization.

The Line Managers do get involved in the process of recruitment and selection, though this function is generally carried out by the HR people (Bratton and Gold 2012). At certain times the line managers do take an active part in decision making even though they do not influence much over such activities. The Line managers have shown an effort to get involved in the developmental activities of the employees. An extended part of the performance appraisal process, the line managers (LM) recognizes the developmental and training needs of the employees. Their increased involvement in such activities boosts employee satisfaction at work and their performance. The LMs also get occupied in career developmental process along with their HR counterparts. The HR people do see LMs as people who do not have the required skill to manage the career developmental activities. (Alfes et al, 2013) have explored the contribution of LMs in structuring the pay and benefits which depends on the situation. They took into consideration the scenario of Edward Hospital Trust, an institution which is partly owned by the government which impacted the limitations within which decisions regarding pay and benefits were to be determined. For example, when the government adduced a policy which is cost-neutral in determining local pay, the line managers had little prospect of exerting an influence. But, the organization’s decision to shift towards a framework of local pay to solve a certain operational problem can open the door for LMs to commence and pressurize the content of the framework (Townsend 2014.). This states that the roles of LMs tend to vary and sometimes act as a link between the operational and tactical level of activity.

Critically evaluating on drawing on contingency or ‘best fit’ perspectives to human resource management

In the recent scenario, operating organizations persist with their survival for different goals in accordance to the organizational plan and types. These organizations can be categorized as private, public and non-governmental institution. The three have the business of providing quality service. Human resource is the common ground that binds these three organizations. Only a strong financial resource system will not guarantee success for an organization, it is the human resource people who have it in them to bring success.

In current circumstances, an organization is shaped in which the human resource of the past is not taken into consideration. Organizations are faced with circumstances that require explanation for thorny challenge of incorporate business and needs of people.

It states that the practices of human resource management improve the effectiveness of organizations along with its performance through magnetize, recognize and preserve employees with information and skill and making them perform in a certain way that would support the objectives and mission of the organization. The usefulness of the HRM practices is based on the engenderment of suitable behavior and attitude in employees. In recent times the Hr departments are expected to add to the performance of the organizations and there is a general belief among the organizational people that the process of strategic management depends largely on the degree to which the function of the HR is involved.

The ‘best fit’ approach to strategic human resource management (HRM) investigates the relationship that exists between the HRM and strategic management by judging the control of vertical integration (Stone 2013). Leverage in vertical integration is gained through linking closely the HR practices and policies to the objectives of business and is regarded as the key essential of strategic HRM. The ‘best fit’ school of HRM centers on the close association between the strategy of the organization and the other systems. According to Paauwe et al, (2012), all the systems of the organization must commence with the strategies in business as it identifies what the company wants to achieve and the level of performance to be demonstrated in order to be effective. The organizational needs of the staff are to be acknowledged through the ‘best fit’ policies and practices.

Best fit practices are based on picking the most valuable HR policies depending on matching them suitably to the environment of the organization. The dependent factors persuade HR strategy comprises of the strategies pursued in business, management skills, economic conditions and industry sector.  For best fit, the strategies of organization are first followed by the organizational systems and practices that follow. In the ‘best fit’ model, the HR manager recognizes first the external fit related to the strategies of marketing and operations and tries to ‘fit’ them with the strategies of the HR.

“Effective reward management systems are fair reward management systems.”

The system of ‘best fit’ illustrates a high margin of assurance in agreement to the pay as a motivator. The expectancy theory is followed where it is taken into consideration that people will achieve more and do better if they consider their endeavor will be satisfied through rewards. The ‘best fit’ practices hubs on the financial aspects and assists it as a driver for commercial human resource.

Lincoln Electronic of U.S. applied the ‘best fit’ strategy aimed at enhancing the abilities of employees along with their business and technical knowledge through considerable investment in the best practices of training method that are globally recognized. Certain training programs for sales trainees are to be conducted along with providing regular vocational trainings for knowledgeable workers. Such actions are considered for supporting and maintaining the best effective objectives generating a competitive advantage and a core competency as compared to industry rivals. Lincoln’s advancement to train their employees is similar to that of Toyota’s immersion training for achieving higher efficiency and superiority.  The ‘best fit’ approach was also implemented by the company in its employee participation program. The company follows an open door policy where there is a direct communication between the management and employees.

In a business organization, reward management is the way to execute policies and strategies to reward the employees to a fair average according to the organizational values (Armstrong and Taylor 2014). Reward management in business organizations consist of evaluating the remuneration of employees along with other benefits. The main aspiration of the reward management is to compensate the employees in fair manner for their performance. The reason for reward management’s existence in organizations is to stimulate employees for better work performance to achieve the pre-determined organizational goals. Reward management comprises of not only the financial rewards but also the non-financial ones like development and training of employees, increase in job responsibility and recognition of employees.

Richard Mayer owned a business of air-conditioning and heating in Austin. During the early 90s, the man faced a major problem of cost cutting, as demanded by his customers who were mostly commercial property management businesses. To achieve this cost cutting factor, the commercial management businesses resolute to end their terms with Richard Mayer and employ their own handymen. Lay off of the 200 person odd workforce would have been a bit harsh and Richard did not want it either, instead he made sure to restructure his workers into territories. Each worker was assigned to their own territories by Richard, as if they were operating their own business. Each ‘area director’ was put through training procedures in negotiating, budgeting, estimation of costs and ways to handle consumer complaints. Richard’s belief was that his employees, if trained to be technically sounded, ambitious and friendly, could successfully operate as small-town ‘handymen’, even after being a part of a large enterprise.        Richard Mayer’s idea connected well with his actions and the area directors improved themselves to have a strong sense of pride and ownership in their territories. Scheduling own work, handling own equipments, advertising campaigns and developing their own estimates became an easy affair for the employees. Such rewards were well deserved by the employees. The wages of the employees increased because of Richard’s program. Before this scenario, an employee working for Mayer used to earn $55,000; this program in its first year has increased his earning figure to $95,000. Richard’s employees were extremely happy for being rewarded in such a manner and Richard was benefited with a growth of 175% of his business in a period of just 24 months.

Internal equity: When being compared to others in the business, the rewards must be valued as fair. Allocation of rewards to the employees should consist of fair and reasonable reasons and criterion for everyone in the organization. Acceptance of such allocation of rewards to employees should come from all the parties in an organization (Marchington and Suter 2013). Consistency is the key in applying those rewards throughout the organization.

HR professionals managing compensation programs do keep in mind the legal considerations associated with the reward system. Internal pay within an organization must always be equitable, though the general norm among the organizations is to reward high performers with more money, creating a difference in pay among the employees engaged in same kind of work. HR must be aware of the facts that employees performing the same job should not be paid differently on the basis of gender, color and age as it is against the laws.

External equity: The rewards must be perceived as a fair one when compared to those that are being offered outside the organization for such comparable work. External equity is the position that subsists when the pay rates of an organization are equal to the market rates. An employer’s aim should always be to pay that is required to draw, keep and inspire a fair number of employees who are qualified. The compensation rates are being compared to bring in competitiveness. However, there are people who complicate this process. For example, hiring the head of the administrative department might require the talent for competition to be from a different set of companies than when the organization is hiring a software developer.

Employee participation is a way of sharing opinions and decisions among the individuals who hierarchically are unequal. Employee participation can also be defined as a term consisting of two elements; one where grievances are expressed by the employees in facing problems  in work process and the second, employee’s participation in the decision making process of the organization. Only decision making process is not the only way for employee participation, it takes into account the entire welfare of the employees. Over the years the trade unions have been the voice of the employees in most of the countries. Most of the employee concerns are being voiced through their relevant trade unions. The trade unions have played a major part in varying the way the employees are treated in the businesses.

The effect of participation and involvement of employees is a diverse phenomenon. Specific organizational goals determine the strategy of employee involvement.

Job satisfaction: The job satisfaction of the employees plays an important role in determining the way they carry out their responsibilities and duties. Employees resign when they are not satisfied with their job responsibility. According to Gallie (2013), the Human Resource Management people have been enhancing productivity and developing human capital for a long time through proper employee participation and satisfaction of the employees in performing their jobs. Researchers deem job satisfaction as the inconsistency that exists between the values of an employee and what the situation has to offer to that particular employee. The employees feel much confident about their work and presence in the organization when their decisions are trusted by the management and have a positive result on the business’s outcome. As per Simons (2013), employee participation is the way through which workers can let go their stress, ideas and related concerns of the business. According to certain scholars, satisfied employees have a propensity to value more and exploit the organizational opportunities provided to them. The Human Resource Manager at Google argues that an organization’s improvement or development is not possible unless there is a significant level of employee involvement. Nowadays, most of the employees want to contribute in many other ways than just performing the work as directed by the management.

Employee Involvement: Involvement of employees produces an environment that calls for sharing of ideas and innovation with their respective managements. If a certain organization lacks proper employee involvement, the enterprise will face the challenge of employee absenteeism and shortage of staff (Pinder 2014). Researchers have found out through their study that Britain faces a major challenge of non-involvement of their employees in organizational decision making, thus giving rise to low job satisfaction. Such employees do not find the zeal to perform their duties and have poor innovation power. This is an important factor on why employees resign from their jobs and go in search for better opportunities that offers effective employee relation (Cummings and Worley 2014). There are certain employee involvement programs that play their part in encouraging and motivating the employees.

Ideas Campaign: Involvement of employees through promotion of “ideas campaign” can be a major booster for the organization which can be achieved by placing dry-erase boards in each of the departments (Vanichchinchai 2012). Employees having new ideas for smooth running of the business can put their opinions or suggestions on the board. That same employee having the idea or suggestion would be responsible for making it happen. For example, an employee recognizes the fact that in moving parts from one table to another it is consuming a lot of time of the workers having the job to assemble the parts. Her solution is to rearrange the tables’ one next to another in a long row which get rid of the steps that were required to be taken previously. This idea can be immediately implemented and tested out for two weeks to find out whether there is any increase in the productivity. On successful implementation, the idea can be adopted. Employees generating ideas which are approved and adopted successfully by the organizations should be presented with some kind of rewards (Boxall and Macky 2014).

Safety Committees: Workplace accidents are a common factor, but reducing the same would help in improving the productivity level and attendance of employees. Safety committees are being implemented at workplaces to attain this goal. Each of the committee members should be given a one year term to serve. There should be a proper place for these safety meetings where involvement of at least one member of management is necessary to consider the suggestions. The suggestions and safety programs should go through the committee members. Contests can be held to find out the department that is injury free for the longest period of time to be handled by the committee.

An oil refinery with around 350 employees engages its workers in a lot of ways. The employees of the oil refinery acts as monitors of health and safety related issues allocated to precautionary safeguarding contractors. They are the people responsible for improving and revising the safety work procedures. They comprises of a team that improves and evaluate safety analysis regarding jobs.

Suggestion Box: Suggestion Box has long become old-fashioned but a suggestion box with a thrust can involve all the employees from throughout the company. Employees can be informed through company memo that all the suggestions will be read on Mondays. A chosen suggestion will be showcased in the newsletter of the company. The worker who has prepared the suggestion can be rewarded with a two hours off with pay any time she selects in the coming next 30 days.

Ritzer refers to as ‘McDonaldization’ and assess the extent to which it applies as a model of organization used in business across industrial sectors

According to Ritzer, McDonaldization comprises of four mechanisms which are efficiency, calculability, predictability and control.

Efficiency is the most optimal method for achieving a task. Competence in McDonaldization defines that every organizational feature is geared towards time minimization (Senge 2014). From the viewpoint of a customer, efficiency is realized in the best possible way from being hungry to being full. Efficiency takes into consideration the interests of the industry, but serves as a beneficiary to the customer (Kerzner 2013.).  Examples of such can be the ATM’s, Voice Mail, salad bars. In the efficiency part customers end up doing what has already been done for them. It is for the ‘privilege’ part that the consumers pay.

As per Ritzer and Dean (2015), calculability absorbs the emphasis part on things which needs to be counted and quantified. Quantification takes into account the propensity to highlight quantity rather than excellence. Examples of this can be: “Big Gulp” and “Big Mac” and “Biggie Meals”. It also takes in the time-quicker factor which is often recognized as being better like “Losing weight fast” and microwaves allowing, “Spending much fewer time in kitchen.” Workers in organizations as such are evaluated on how fast they can achieve their jobs and not on the quality they produce.

Predictability (Engle 2012), refers to an attempt made to constitute our environment in a way that surprise does not influence our sensibilities. The prime example of predictability is the movie industry which is in the habit of churning out sequel after sequel. Author Tom Clancy’s success along with many others is a depiction of predictability. People get to follow their favorite programs and characters which assure a predictable profit for producers. Shopping is also a predictable factor, taking place in the malls, often happening in the same stores and layouts. The workers in the organizations go through their daily jobs which is highly repetitive and predictable (Larsen, Manning and Pedersen 2013).

Control (Dustin 2016), takes into account the standardized form of people who are often replaced or substituted by the non-human technologies. Ritzer’s argument was that McDonald, on entering a country unifies the patterns of consumers along with westernizing the local cultures through starting of food chains. The best example for such would be the present day classrooms and schools that are becoming way too familiar with that of the Western world. This signifies the fact that the Western Culture which was focusing on the efficient part of knowledge transfer has been spread across the globe.

Compare and contrast contingency theory and strategic choice perspectives on what makes for an appropriate and successful organizational structure

Contingency plans are effective in making sure that businesses operate in a smooth manner when posed with difficulties and challenges. The contingency theory takes into account the facts that there is absence of any possible way of organizing a corporation, leading a company or making important decisions regarding the same (Van de Ven et al, 2013). Moreover, the main action course is dependent upon the external and internal situation.

In Images of Organization, as depicted by Gareth Morgan, organizations are open systems that require cautious administration to balance the internal needs and to familiarize oneself to the circumstances of the environment. Moreover, there is no best way in organizing things, the appropriateness of the form depends on the task kind or the environment that one is part of. Above everything else, management must apprehend in achieving alignments.

Fiedler’s contingency model focuses on the contingency model in organizational leadership. This contingency model includes the existing relationship between the style of leadership and the situation’s favorability (Goetsch and Davis 2014). Three empirically derived dimensions are being described by Fiedler to explain the situational favorableness:

Leader-member relationship: is generally high if the leader is well accepted and respected

Task structure’s degree: is generally very high if the task is structured

Leader’s power position: is generally high if a great covenant of power and authority are properly accredited to the position of the leader.

Joan Woodward discovered that manufacturing organizations which were financially successful with varied work technologies differed in terms of management levels and the degree of specialization of worker. Joan’s view was that certain forms of organization were appropriate for certain technologies of work.

The size of the organization is another contingent factor to have an impact on the effectiveness of the organizations. Small organizations can be informal in their work process and structure, whereas for big organizations things have to be in formalized shape (Battilana and Casciaro 2012). Small organizations can be controlled by the owner himself, but in case of larger organizations it necessitates a complex and control mechanism which is indirect in nature.

The strategic choice perspective (Hill, Jones and Schilling 2014) is a systematic theory. The main idea of the theory is to build a belief of interaction in which negative aspects are taken into consideration in order to attain the goals. Problem is not with the predictions that are being made. The analysis part is done at the macro level of the organization in which the cause and effect factors are associated with each other in a linear manner. Little attention is provided to the micro-diversity whereas the interaction part is taken as an uniform manner and harmonious.

The strategic choices made forms a part of the learning process in an organization that takes into account both the external environment as well as the internal situation related to politics.

Changing an organizational structure is never an easy job. The present scenario will throw a lot of such companies who successfully wants to achieve the goal of changing culture but have failed to attain the same (Alvesson and Sveningsson 2015). Even if there are certain success stories down the line, it is only a part that has been successfully altered. This gives rise to the question on why is it difficult to change an organizational culture. The answer can only be that people are habitual by nature.

Changes of such sort can be good, but then it has to overcome the barrier of people’s comfort level and daily routines. Another important aspect can be people not understanding the procedure or importance of creating an organizational structure, thus not putting much effort in areas that needs more attention and nurturing in order to have a healthy organizational culture. It is important from an individual or a group’s point of view to know the culture that already exists in an organization and which needs to be changed. The final goal of transformation is an important factor that needs to be known in order to bring in a cultural change in the organizations (Schneider, Ehrhart and Macey 2013). Often it happens that bringing in smaller changes can affect the bigger picture and it is only possible if the people who are assigned for that particular job know in full details on what the existing culture is all about. Change can only be possible if one knows what exists before. Changing the culture of an existing organization is a hard job. It requires a lot of shifting which forces the employees to discard the old assumptions, values and other routine works before incorporating to the new changes in their normal agenda (Daft 2012). For a change to happen in the organizational culture, company executives need to offer a persistent support along with a well structured and executed training program.

Examples of such a scenario can be when a new chief executive gets selected from outside the organization. In such circumstances two things can follow; either a substantial period will follow with modest changes taking place till the time the chief executive gets to know about the organization, or a stressful period along with personnel turnover while a new business culture gets developed.

According to Nielsen and Randall (2012), at times change becomes inevitable, and organizations under extreme pressure do get inclined towards that changes and such pressures can be either external to the association or a consequence of a very tough leadership.

Mr. Ramsford, the president of PSB College, hired his cousin Peter, whose selection raised a few eyebrows and became a worrying factor among the college staffs. Peter made his way from the high-tech university. At PSB people never felt anything needs a change. In the first month at PSB, Peter made a few changes regarding the dress code and policies regarding the dining policies. Wearing jeans or eating at their desks during class time became prohibited. The main idea of Peter was to create an environment that could attract a new target market of students. The staff at PSB was pretty used to their old ways and attitudes, so much so that they became aggrieved to small changes. They stick together refused to change their ways and habits. One morning when Peter was making his way through the hallways, he observed that Professor William was having his burger while working with a science student. Later that day he noticed Professor Matthew wearing flip-flops during a sociology lecture. Even Mr. Ramsford was marked wearing his preferred Hawaiian shirt on campus. The staff of the college looked up to Mr. Ramsford whose relaxed attitude and behavior created a casual work environment. The culture needed a change and the changes were being met with resistance.

Organizations have to adjust for certain social and cultural environmental changes. Social changes can take place for things like spreading of knowledge and education, and efforts taken in by the government (Cummings and Worley 2014). Social factors like providing equal opportunities to women, equal work pay are some of the challenges that the management faces in the current scenario. The management has to pursue definite social norms in structuring its marketing, employment and certain other policies.

An organizational cultural change necessitates some insights to what the existing culture is all about and how altering it can bring about a meaningful change.

Organizational Structures: This is about the hierarchy, or who reports to whom and why

Rituals and routines: Group interactions are prepared in a business setting, the simple example being having meetings on a weekly basis.

• The sex of the employee: This does affect an organizational culture. There are certain organizations where there is still male dominance over their female counterparts. Male employees are generally very aggressive whereas the female are rather caring and softhearted.
• The foremost factor influencing culture is the individual’s work process with an organization. In their own way the employees contribute to the workplace’s culture. Attitudes, mentalities, perception of employees also affect the organization’s culture.

Examples: Defense background people generally follow a strict culture where their employees abide by the policies and guidelines. They are never late to work. The mindset of employees generally forms the culture of the place. Youngsters in an organization promote healthy competition.

• Certain procedures and strategies are designed in a way to attain the objectives of the organization that contributes to its culture. Fast paced industries such a s event management and advertising anticipate their employees to be more considerate, belligerent and actively hyper.

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