Research Topics: Human Resource Management Case Study

CAREERS AND WORK-LIFE BALANCE AT COMPUCAN

CASE STUDY CAREERS AND WORK-LIFE BALANCE AT COMPUCAN  (2006)       Introduction and background to the company Compucan is a multi-national, blue-chip IT company renowned for its progressive HRM policies. The company has declared its commitment to helping employees achieve work-life balance. It has conducted a number of company-wide surveys in order, first, to understand the experiences of its employees and then to design appropriate policies, which both meet their needs and are compatible with business objectives. Various practices have been introduced, notably flexible hours, home- and tele-working. However, some job roles are far less suited to these kinds of flexible working initiatives. Consequently, some employees have more opportunities to take up flexible working options than others. Business needs and the demands of certain job roles can also dictate that these ‘options’ are not always optional for some employees. That said, there are a number of company initiatives designed to respond to employees’ needs and preferences. Women returning from maternity leave, for example, have a right to a minimum of two-years’ part-time employment. Those who elect to return full-time after maternity leave receive an uplift to their salary for a two-year period to help cover child-care costs. Men are not entitled to these benefits at present, nor are those who care for other dependents or have other major life commitments outside of work. The company does, however, allow employees to apply for a 12-month sabbatical and, if successful, will part fund their ‘year out’. On the face of it then, and relative to many other employers, Compucan is working hard to create a family-friendly work environment in which its employees can achieve and maintain a healthy work-life balance. This case study presents an opportunity to assess the difficulties, which even the best-intentioned company can experience when attempting to put policy into practice. The following discussion draws from the accounts of a number of Compucan employees. The employees we hear from here are all graduates, aged around 30 years, working at various UK locations in a number of different job functions and levels. Attention is turned first to mothers, then fathers and finally single people without children. Motherhood and career at Compucan Molly is married with a young child. She has worked for the company for 10 years and opted for part-time hours on returning from maternity leave three years ago. Her husband also works for the company on a full-time basis. Comparing herself to others Molly feels relatively well off: I know a lot of women in this area who work, or did work for various different employers, who’ve got children, and I’m in a very, very good position. In terms of having the option of going back part-time and having flexible hours and flexible days … They’re very good if she’s ill, which happens rarely, and that sort of thing. As a part-time job for a working mother, it’s an extremely good one, it really is. Exercising her right to the company’s family-friendly options, however, comes at a price. Before I had a child I had a career … I’m not prepared to put in the sort of time and effort that it takes to have a career – well I’ve got a young child. If I was prepared to do that then I would still see it as a career and I think I would still be treated as having a career. Molly feels that because of her part-time hours she is no longer able to maintain a career at Compucan and, importantly, she feels that her colleagues no longer treat her as someone who has a career. It is as though there is a tacit rule that career is something that is reserved only for men and childless women, not for mothers with child-care responsibilities. Even if her husband wanted to do so, he would be unable to share the child-care responsibilities with Molly since the company do not offer men the option to return part-time following the birth of a child. Thus Molly is the primary carer for the couple’s child.   Jasmine is 30 years old, married with two children and has worked at the company for nine years. She made good progress in her early years at the company, earning rapid promotion to a first line managerial position. However, her line management role ended when she first went on maternity leave. My career stopped with the birth of my first child. If I bring up anything to do with promotion with my manager it’s very quickly squashed. I believe until I’ve stopped having children, until I walk in and say I’m definitely not having any more children, they won’t even consider me for promotion. Thus, like Molly, Jasmine not only feels that she no longer has a career but that she is n being treated as though she has a career. Despite all the efforts of the company to create a family-friendly work environment, there appears to be a widespread acceptance, however reluctantly, of the incompatibility of motherhood and career at Compucan. Samantha, like Jasmine, achieved rapid promotion before she had her first child and also recently returned from maternity leave to work part-time: My career is coming to a bit of an end because of, you know, how my priorities have changed … I suppose I’m slipping now from being on the high-flying list to being on the mediocre list. She describes a female colleague who went through a similar experience: There’s a lass who used to be my manager when I first joined who’s older than me. She went into management. Terribly career-minded. Really moved on very quickly took on some really difficult roles, loads of stress. Then she suddenly fell pregnant in her early 40s. She’s gone from like the real high-flying sort to the mediocre bunch, Though they don’t like it, Molly and Samantha have all rationalised the end of their career as linked to their decision to work part-time. Jasmine, however, does not accept this explanation. Following the birth of her first child, she initially returned to work full-time and took up the enhanced pay incentive. She soon discovered that she was still prevented from continuing her career, even on a full-time contract. From this experience she concludes: There’s no point in coming back full-time. One of the things about coming back full-time is that you keep your career going, but you don’t, so there’s really limited point. You do if you work 12 hours and work absolutely no differently to the way you worked before, then you’re fine. But the fact that you’re working an 8- to 9-hour day, no matter what you get done in that time, the fact that you don’t have lunch, the fact that you literally don’t chat to anyone, you’re just head down working the entire time you’re there just doesn’t count. So therefore what’s the motivation for me to come back full-time? Such demanding long hours cultures put those with commitments outside work at a distinct disadvantage. This expectation that aspiring employees should work long hours, as well as the assumption that women should shoulder primarily child-care responsibilities, is deeply embedded in the company’s history and values. Molly offers a comparison between the old system as was and the new system aspired to, along with the inherent difficulties in bridging the divide between the two: I think the company as a whole is now very keen to be flexible around families … but it also likes people to be quite devoted to it. It’s a bit double-edged, I think. For a long time, particularly on the technical side, the company has employed mostly men who will work long hours. The company has expected their wives to not work. Ifs been a fact that most of the men have had wives who don’t work and so if they have children, it’s the wives who look after them. Even a supposedly family-friendly company still, it seems, values most and offers greatest rewards to those prepared to sacrifice family life. New mothers find their career and their family life cast in opposition to each other. As they understand it, they must make a ‘choice’ between family on the one hand and career on the other,   Fatherhood and career at Compucan Unlike new mothers, new fathers at the company report that career and family life are not in opposition, but they are experienced as in competition with each other, Fathers are able to retain their careers perhaps in large part because their wives shoulder most child-care responsibilities. New fathers do nevertheless report difficulties achieving a work-life balance. With fatherhood comes a desire to decrease the time devoted to work in order to free up time for family life as distinct from primary child-care responsibilities). Fathers’ dilemma is this: the more time devoted to work, the faster the speed of career progression; time spent on family life slows down career progression.   For Tom, who is 30 years old, married with a three-month-old son, first marriage and then fatherhood has meant he now devotes less time to work than before: Before I was married and certainly before I had my son the hours and the weekends that I was working, .. I mean I put in a lot of time. It was not unknown to get up in the middle of the night and do something because we’d just had a new order or I couldn’t sleep or something like that. I don’t do that anymore. So it is not just mothers whose hours of work decline due to family commitments. But mothers suffer more profound effects on their careers. Perhaps this is because primary child-care responsibilities fall almost exclusively to women, leaving their husbands freer meet the demands of their careers. For example, Tom’s wife has given up entirely her own full-time career to care for their son full-time. Tom’s concerns rest with minimising the time demands of his career in order that he can spend more time with his family. He believes that he may have to compromise the speed of his career progression in order to achieve the work-life balance he desires: My life outside of work has changed quite a lot over the past three months. I’m now looking at my career and thinking – I don’t spend as much time as I always in my ow mind said I would with my family, That didn’t used to be a problem until my wife gave up work, because we were both working the same sort of hours. Now it is a problem. Or I can see it growing into one because I’m not doing what I always wanted to do, I wanted to be able to spend more time at home, not work on Sunday evenings, , , I can’t see a step forward, I can’t see a career progression without home life suffering a bit. I mean I don’t want [my wife] to have to go back to work so I need to look for that next job now and look for a bigger salary, but that may have an implication on how much time I get to spend with [my wife] and [son]. Although men’s careers are affected by parenthood, they are affected in different ways. The speed of a new father’s career progression may be restricted if he wishes to cut back on working hours to spend more time with his family but, unlike new mothers, fathers do feel that they retain their careers. New mothers on the other hand feel that the advent of parenthood signals not just the end of opportunities for career progression but the end of their careers. The single person and work-life balance at Compucan Ruby, who has been with the company for seven years, is 30 years old, single and has no children. She has been seriously ill recently. She hoped that she would recover quickly but has been advised by her doctor that her health problems are likely to continue for the foreseeable future. She is back at work now following a period of sick leave and has taken on a new role which is less physically demanding and involves far less travel than her previous roles. The experience of illness has caused Ruby to reflect on the sacrifices she has made for the sake of her career. Her previous roles required her to be geographically mobile – an ‘intergalactic traveller’. Responding to these work demands has taken its toll on her life outside work. Ruby is a keen and very talented athlete, but in pursuit of her work career she has all but abandoned her ‘athletics career’ as she puts it. She has been paid very well for her efforts – so much so that she was able to payoff her student debts and buy her first flat by the age of 25. Looking back, she recalls having little time to enjoy her success, hardly ever seeing the inside of her new home. She also regrets the impact work has had on her relationships: Because I was never at home, I saw a couple of relationships flounder, simply because I just never was around, Ben is 28 years old, single and has been at the company for five years. He has been promoted much higher and faster than he expected and realises he could reach executive level within a relatively short space of time. This makes him wonder just how high up the corporate hierarchy he wants to go, given the high price which accompanies such success. I’m perhaps beginning to realise that I need to think about (a) where my natural ceiling is and (b) what I want to sacrifice to get there. If you want to get to executive level you have to live to work. You have to expect that most weekends you might be travelling somewhere. You’re always on call effectively, If you’re on holiday, you’re probably always looking at your mail. You’ll be travelling all over the show away from your home and family and friends. You know, if you have children then you probably wouldn’t be able to go and see their sports day, that sort of thing, What makes Ben’s account interesting is that he is a senior member of the company’s HRM department. While the department is undoubtedly working hard to create a family-friendly work environment in which employees can achieve and maintain a work-life balance, achieving this in practice is clearly far from easy. Questions 1.    With reference to theoretical models, concepts, and current environmental conditions, examine the key issues identified in the case study. 2.    How successful has Compucan been in its efforts to become a family-friendly employer, and what barriers have hampered its family-friendly and work-life balance policies? 3.    What advice would you offer the organization?         Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

CAREERS AND WORK-LIFE BALANCE AT COMPUCAN

CASE STUDY CAREERS AND WORK-LIFE BALANCE AT COMPUCAN (2006) Introduction and background to the company Compucan is a multi-...

CASE STUDY: FOUNDATIONS OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

CASE STUDY CAREERS AND WORK-LIFE BALANCE AT COMPUCAN  AND  in  (2006 )       Introduction and background to the company Compucan is a multi-national, blue-chip IT company renowned for its progressive HRM policies. The company has declared its commitment to helping employees achieve work-life balance. It has conducted a number of company-wide surveys in order, first, to understand the experiences of its employees and then to design appropriate policies, which both meet their needs and are compatible with business objectives. Various practices have been introduced, notably flexible hours, home- and tele-working. However, some job roles are far less suited to these kinds of flexible working initiatives. Consequently, some employees have more opportunities to take up flexible working options than others. Business needs and the demands of certain job roles can also dictate that these ‘options’ are not always optional for some employees. That said, there are a number of company initiatives designed to respond to employees’ needs and preferences. Women returning from maternity leave, for example, have a right to a minimum of two-years’ part-time employment. Those who elect to return full-time after maternity leave receive an uplift to their salary for a two-year period to help cover child-care costs. Men are not entitled to these benefits at present, nor are those who care for other dependents or have other major life commitments outside of work. The company does, however, allow employees to apply for a 12-month sabbatical and, if successful, will part fund their ‘year out’. On the face of it then, and relative to many other employers, Compucan is working hard to create a family-friendly work environment in which its employees can achieve and maintain a healthy work-life balance. This case study presents an opportunity to assess the difficulties, which even the best-intentioned company can experience when attempting to put policy into practice. The following discussion draws from the accounts of a number of Compucan employees. The employees we hear from here are all graduates, aged around 30 years, working at various UK locations in a number of different job functions and levels. Attention is turned first to mothers, then fathers and finally single people without children. Motherhood and career at Compucan Molly is married with a young child. She has worked for the company for 10 years and opted for part-time hours on returning from maternity leave three years ago. Her husband also works for the company on a full-time basis. Comparing herself to others Molly feels relatively well off: I know a lot of women in this area who work, or did work for various different employers, who’ve got children, and I’m in a very, very good position. In terms of having the option of going back part-time and having flexible hours and flexible days … They’re very good if she’s ill, which happens rarely, and that sort of thing. As a part-time job for a working mother, it’s an extremely good one, it really is. Exercising her right to the company’s family-friendly options, however, comes at a price. Before I had a child I had a career … I’m not prepared to put in the sort of time and effort that it takes to have a career – well I’ve got a young child. If I was prepared to do that then I would still see it as a career and I think I would still be treated as having a career. Molly feels that because of her part-time hours she is no longer able to maintain a career at Compucan and, importantly, she feels that her colleagues no longer treat her as someone who has a career. It is as though there is a tacit rule that career is something that is reserved only for men and childless women, not for mothers with child-care responsibilities. Even if her husband wanted to do so, he would be unable to share the child-care responsibilities with Molly since the company do not offer men the option to return part-time following the birth of a child. Thus Molly is the primary carer for the couple’s child.   Jasmine is 30 years old, married with two children and has worked at the company for nine years. She made good progress in her early years at the company, earning rapid promotion to a first line managerial position. However, her line management role ended when she first went on maternity leave. My career stopped with the birth of my first child. If I bring up anything to do with promotion with my manager it’s very quickly squashed. I believe until I’ve stopped having children, until I walk in and say I’m definitely not having any more children, they won’t even consider me for promotion. Thus, like Molly, Jasmine not only feels that she no longer has a career but that she is n being treated as though she has a career. Despite all the efforts of the company to create a family-friendly work environment, there appears to be a widespread acceptance, however reluctantly, of the incompatibility of motherhood and career at Compucan. Samantha, like Jasmine, achieved rapid promotion before she had her first child and also recently returned from maternity leave to work part-time: My career is coming to a bit of an end because of, you know, how my priorities have changed … I suppose I’m slipping now from being on the high-flying list to being on the mediocre list. She describes a female colleague who went through a similar experience: There’s a lass who used to be my manager when I first joined who’s older than me. She went into management. Terribly career-minded. Really moved on very quickly took on some really difficult roles, loads of stress. Then she suddenly fell pregnant in her early 40s. She’s gone from like the real high-flying sort to the mediocre bunch, Though they don’t like it, Molly and Samantha have all rationalised the end of their career as linked to their decision to work part-time. Jasmine, however, does not accept this explanation. Following the birth of her first child, she initially returned to work full-time and took up the enhanced pay incentive. She soon discovered that she was still prevented from continuing her career, even on a full-time contract. From this experience she concludes: There’s no point in coming back full-time. One of the things about coming back full-time is that you keep your career going, but you don’t, so there’s really limited point. You do if you work 12 hours and work absolutely no differently to the way you worked before, then you’re fine. But the fact that you’re working an 8- to 9-hour day, no matter what you get done in that time, the fact that you don’t have lunch, the fact that you literally don’t chat to anyone, you’re just head down working the entire time you’re there just doesn’t count. So therefore what’s the motivation for me to come back full-time? Such demanding long hours cultures put those with commitments outside work at a distinct disadvantage. This expectation that aspiring employees should work long hours, as well as the assumption that women should shoulder primarily child-care responsibilities, is deeply embedded in the company’s history and values. Molly offers a comparison between the old system as was and the new system aspired to, along with the inherent difficulties in bridging the divide between the two: I think the company as a whole is now very keen to be flexible around families … but it also likes people to be quite devoted to it. It’s a bit double-edged, I think. For a long time, particularly on the technical side, the company has employed mostly men who will work long hours. The company has expected their wives to not work. Ifs been a fact that most of the men have had wives who don’t work and so if they have children, it’s the wives who look after them. Even a supposedly family-friendly company still, it seems, values most and offers greatest rewards to those prepared to sacrifice family life. New mothers find their career and their family life cast in opposition to each other. As they understand it, they must make a ‘choice’ between family on the one hand and career on the other,   Fatherhood and career at Compucan Unlike new mothers, new fathers at the company report that career and family life are not in opposition, but they are experienced as in competition with each other, Fathers are able to retain their careers perhaps in large part because their wives shoulder most child-care responsibilities. New fathers do nevertheless report difficulties achieving a work-life balance. With fatherhood comes a desire to decrease the time devoted to work in order to free up time for family life as distinct from primary child-care responsibilities). Fathers’ dilemma is this: the more time devoted to work, the faster the speed of career progression; time spent on family life slows down career progression.   For Tom, who is 30 years old, married with a three-month-old son, first marriage and then fatherhood has meant he now devotes less time to work than before: Before I was married and certainly before I had my son the hours and the weekends that I was working, .. I mean I put in a lot of time. It was not unknown to get up in the middle of the night and do something because we’d just had a new order or I couldn’t sleep or something like that. I don’t do that anymore. So it is not just mothers whose hours of work decline due to family commitments. But mothers suffer more profound effects on their careers. Perhaps this is because primary child-care responsibilities fall almost exclusively to women, leaving their husbands freer meet the demands of their careers. For example, Tom’s wife has given up entirely her own full-time career to care for their son full-time. Tom’s concerns rest with minimising the time demands of his career in order that he can spend more time with his family. He believes that he may have to compromise the speed of his career progression in order to achieve the work-life balance he desires: My life outside of work has changed quite a lot over the past three months. I’m now looking at my career and thinking – I don’t spend as much time as I always in my ow mind said I would with my family, That didn’t used to be a problem until my wife gave up work, because we were both working the same sort of hours. Now it is a problem. Or I can see it growing into one because I’m not doing what I always wanted to do, I wanted to be able to spend more time at home, not work on Sunday evenings, , , I can’t see a step forward, I can’t see a career progression without home life suffering a bit. I mean I don’t want [my wife] to have to go back to work so I need to look for that next job now and look for a bigger salary, but that may have an implication on how much time I get to spend with [my wife] and [son]. Although men’s careers are affected by parenthood, they are affected in different ways. The speed of a new father’s career progression may be restricted if he wishes to cut back on working hours to spend more time with his family but, unlike new mothers, fathers do feel that they retain their careers. New mothers on the other hand feel that the advent of parenthood signals not just the end of opportunities for career progression but the end of their careers. The single person and work-life balance at Compucan Ruby, who has been with the company for seven years, is 30 years old, single and has no children. She has been seriously ill recently. She hoped that she would recover quickly but has been advised by her doctor that her health problems are likely to continue for the foreseeable future. She is back at work now following a period of sick leave and has taken on a new role which is less physically demanding and involves far less travel than her previous roles. The experience of illness has caused Ruby to reflect on the sacrifices she has made for the sake of her career. Her previous roles required her to be geographically mobile – an ‘intergalactic traveller’. Responding to these work demands has taken its toll on her life outside work. Ruby is a keen and very talented athlete, but in pursuit of her work career she has all but abandoned her ‘athletics career’ as she puts it. She has been paid very well for her efforts – so much so that she was able to payoff her student debts and buy her first flat by the age of 25. Looking back, she recalls having little time to enjoy her success, hardly ever seeing the inside of her new home. She also regrets the impact work has had on her relationships: Because I was never at home, I saw a couple of relationships flounder, simply because I just never was around, Ben is 28 years old, single and has been at the company for five years. He has been promoted much higher and faster than he expected and realises he could reach executive level within a relatively short space of time. This makes him wonder just how high up the corporate hierarchy he wants to go, given the high price which accompanies such success. I’m perhaps beginning to realise that I need to think about (a) where my natural ceiling is and (b) what I want to sacrifice to get there. If you want to get to executive level you have to live to work. You have to expect that most weekends you might be travelling somewhere. You’re always on call effectively, If you’re on holiday, you’re probably always looking at your mail. You’ll be travelling all over the show away from your home and family and friends. You know, if you have children then you probably wouldn’t be able to go and see their sports day, that sort of thing, What makes Ben’s account interesting is that he is a senior member of the company’s HRM department. While the department is undoubtedly working hard to create a family-friendly work environment in which employees can achieve and maintain a work-life balance, achieving this in practice is clearly far from easy. Questions 1.      With reference to theoretical models, concepts, and current environmental conditions, examine the key issues identified in the case study. 2.      How successful has Compucan been in its efforts to become a family-friendly employer, and what barriers have hampered its family-friendly and work-life balance policies? 3.      What advice would you offer the organization?         Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

CASE STUDY: FOUNDATIONS OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

CASE STUDY CAREERS AND WORK-LIFE BALANCE AT COMPUCAN AND in (2006 ) Introduction and background to the company Compucan is ...

Case Study

Part One : Macro   Accordingly, recognizing that macro analysis is critical when developing as well as maintaining reliable business systems such as in HR and its operations as there can be growth in its size and such complexity patterns. have to amicably exercise his power as the CEO but, be aware also of the issues and challenges left behind and to those rising ones, the ideal process to control over such problems and the essence to resolve them justifiably in diagnosing patterns of organization behavior and its problems.   1.  Culture The culture is tight mostly, pointing to the human resource system and such management culture as there lacks development of such ideal pacing. Human resource culture and the overall culture is too comprised and that there were no enough space to breathe and such shortage and over posit of manpower is highly visible, the culture then is at high risk for and his team            2.  Structure The need to restructure the club’s organization structure that will be flowing within the proper context, integrating ideal leadership stance and power. The structure has to be strong in essence with the CEO being supported by the management from within the high as well as below levels. Thus, the organization structure is weak and does not incorporate proper HRM guidelines and principles.   3.  Leadership The showing of unfair leadership is present as there arise such conflicts of interests and values among the employees and such unresolved issues from within the management and there is indication of discrimination from within the workers culture norms and such skills towards work. Humanitarian leadership is less shown as heavy shifting schedule is present in the organization, the leadership imposes a sort of authoritarian notion and that those executives only can decide on the things to do and consider and that those staff under it have no right to give such ideas and opinions         4.  Strategy The business strategy is not properly functioning, as there are a lot of issues concerning to the human resource policies that needs full attention and comprehensive evaluation and as much as possible such execution of a much better, more clear and effective strategic human resource systems and strengthen its underlying assumptions as crucial to employees growth and development that would generate a more stable and successful organization respectively. Aside, the HR strategy being utilized has not been updated and it does not follow certain guidelines and regulatory patterns deemed possible for the welfare of the staff. Furthermore, relating to the culture strategy of the organization ideal decision process are being off the line as blocked by so many issues surrounding the business milieu. The paying strategy of the club does not adhere to its standards as there is unjust payment schemes mostly centering on the low level workers that is not good and is questionable in such ways.   5.  Technology Speaking of technology, redundancy in functionality is exposed from within and that there is no ideal changes to the advancement of such operations that would consequently back up the relevance of technology and its ideal applications from within the organization. The technology process does not incur good basis for the structure of the organization. The process of technology consumption does not adhere to such skills and performance development of the management and staff, there can be lack of staff training and development since the technology found within the human resource area is weak and is not appropriate in general terms.   Micro 1.     Symptoms Various human resource systems have exposed and exploited such appropriate system context to address such issues and problems concerning the HR and operations of the organization as the analysis makes use of non technical context to improve HR system and management in its reliability. This is especially important for large, dynamic systems, where execution context may be distributed across many components. Ideally, one explanation regarding micro symptom is the observation that CEO, organization incurs more dynamic nature in its culture particularly, in its HR culture process, as such distributed points of the system imposes such single system wide execution of its micro assessment path that is being associated with the value of services being provided in a complete ideal paradigm.   Ideally, there can be some issues pointing to their HR management development as such there can be certain trend towards outsourcing, particularly offshore that has been contributing to the decline in the number of their people and that such human capital skills get commoditized and moved out but fears are present in the company whether failures and risks will strike the club or not. Aside, the ample practice of such initiatives to develop its own talent, including leadership in training program and leader to leader project for their HR managers as the goal is about pushing as much down as the organization can to the people who are closest to the work to take on more responsibility. Then, the employees well being are given importance and the company tried to project an image of socially responsible entity. However, despite the positive aspects and strength of the culture, there were number of issues which was criticized. In the light of the number of law suits filed against the company, the top management realized that there were drawbacks in the culture of the company and began taking steps towards correcting the actions of the CEO, . Thus, other underlying issues can involve overtime woes, strict policy on overtime and the company’s rules forbade it, it was observed that, at most of the stores, employees worked between 5 and 15 hours overtime per week as company had 40 hours work week. Since the company was very strict about not allowing overtime and instances where store managers who paid overtime were demoted and even dismissed, usually done on an unofficial basis. Since overtime was not allowed, store managers often asked workers to clock out after their shift was over and then continue working. Sometimes workers were put to work as soon as they came to the stores at the start of the shift, even before they could clock in. Sometimes the time cards were also edited by the people in charge of payroll to show that employees worked only 40 hours per week. When people clocked in more than 40 hours the additional hours were deleted from the records that was regular practice in order to control the expenditure on salaries. Part 2: Recommendations There are main recommendations for assessing the organization in its human resource system and such operational principles to support such macro and micro pathways. First, it must be possible to associate unique path with each distinct request. For example, if the same request is handled by different components in different, possibly distributed processes, the organizational team must be able to make this connection, perhaps by using a unique ID that travels with the request. Second, it must be possible to report observations and associate them with the components that made them. For a pipelined system, a logging mechanism together with knowledge of component request entry and exit would be sufficient. The need for understanding the club’s organization structure, including good relationship between external as well as the organization’s internal environment in such component formation and state, there enables the consultants and such business operators to possibly anticipate potential problems from within the club such as those centering on the human resource issues and its challenges and to be able to fully upgrade the human resource system strategically. Thus, knowing how such ideal components and shared state are used is critical when debugging failures from within the management operations, for instance. To acquire useful techniques that generate such HRM models in automatic motion.     However, macro and micro paths do amicably capture such application from within such structure as such, the runtime paths will then record how the human resource system in such services deal with the continuing problems as revealed which compares favorably with error prone in such human generated representation and such strategically driven analysis that may predict how the club’s system might embrace the value of its culture, providing Tim more space and time to adjust situations and implement changes for the good of the business. Thus, the understanding and being aware of such actual behavior posited by the staff as such HR system undergoes vivid investigation and can be used as enough input to recover corporate values and its related mechanism such as for example, recursive restarts as well as reduction of such mean time to repair such damages being done. It can be that while currently used for better organization planning, situations seen may possibly be applied to problems and issues debugging in the workplace as well as human resource system tuning, and its refinement. Then, by tracing runtime paths from the web servers, through the application components and to the databases, there can easily determine how the process is shared across the areas of the business. There are several unbolt, challenging problems that can benefit from such high point system perspective that macro analysis do provide such as the following: Assuming system structure: Furthermore, systems evolve through both changes to their components and changes in how these components interact. Understanding such intercomponent relationships enables developers and operators to anticipate potential conflicts and debug problems. Unfortunately, current techniques for tracking changes in these relationships rely on error-prone, manual documentation, which is infeasible for rapidly changing systems. As systems grow and increase in complexity, there has been the desire for ideal and automatic integration of such value mechanisms that is for assuming good organization system and structure for ample tracking of such strategic evolution within process. Detecting application failures: Despite best efforts at unit testing and quality assurance, services still fail. Worse still, many application-level faults are only seen by end users after deployment, even though systems are constantly monitored for signs of failure. The difficulty is that broken or misconfigured components or bad component interactions may only exhibit symptoms at the application level and the global context required to programmatically diagnose such application-level failures is usually not available. Analyzing failures: Failures often manifest themselves far from their root cause. In the extreme case, faults are not detected within the system’s boundaries at all and are only visible to external observers. Unfortunately, existing evaluation tools have limited, confined view of the HR system and thus work best when failures manifest themselves close to what has been the cause respectively.   Amicably, one HRD activity to utilize is the training and development of people in right workforce milieu such as those done for simplification but not necessarily to position such HRD development as better source of company growth in manpower skills and knowledge composition. Although mistakes were seen as work opportunities and the possibility that the employees are to be encouraged in giving their own suggestions for improvement in working practices on store grounds but such assessment of individual employee performance can possibly be in default motion.   Thus, it should be noted that such human resources director draws little distinction between the terms personnel management and HRM as basic theory of personnel management manifest in, for example, practices like management development, succession planning, job enrichment and broadening, he opines, remains relevant and valid. Every HRM initiative, therefore, is subject to cost-benefit analysis of business costs and savings to anticipate any unwarranted criticism and underline several legitimacy of its HRM development ways. It is recommended that the HR team must acquire transnational perspective of better human markets and thus, the organization will enable to face innovative challenges and seize the opportunities created by their HR development integration ( 1992). As the strategic HRD of the company then, conceptualizes planned learning and development of individuals and groups to be of benefit to the business as well as individual learners. There is also the need to advocate as well as align the format of organization approach in its HRD activities so that the company can drive ample strategic direction from within (1995).   Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

Case Study

Part One : Macro Accordingly, recognizing that macro analysis is critical when developing as well as maintaining reliable busin...

Alcan, Incorporated Case Study

This paper discusses knowledge management and human resource management in relation to teamwork and how it is transferred within and across organizations. It defines certain concepts on these two topics and relates them on how it can be very useful in certain cases, such as the one mentioned in this paper. It also emphasizes on the role of technology as a crucial element in knowledge and human resource management. The importance of teamwork in relation to a specific case study is also discussed and given emphasis.     Introduction During the turn of the century, the world experiences more drastic changes than before. The people, the environment, the culture, information and even religions have already changed. It is as if the whole world evolved into a massive ball of information and technology that lead to the expansion and the development of every human being. In comparison to the events that happened the past centuries, everything happens today in fast-pace; like everybody is joining a race and everybody would like to win it! With what is happening to the world right now, it could be deduced that the development of technology and the need of this technology to be known to man is the main reason why everything changes.             With the changes each of us undertakes, a company must be able to cope with these changes, especially in dealing with employees. In this case, a company must also adapt its policies and approach to effectively communicate with its work force. This is why the human resource management of a company must be adjusted also to suit the needs of its employees. To be able to do this, proper knowledge must also be possessed in order to apply human resource management properly, in relation to innovation and technological expertise.   Knowledge and Human Resource Management             Knowledge management and human resource management are two important concepts in management of an organization. As defined by (2006), knowledge management designates an approach to improving organizational outcomes and organizational learning by introducing into an organization a range of specific processes and practices for identifying and capturing knowledge, know-how, expertise and other intellectual capital, and for making such knowledge assets available for transfer and reuse across the organization. It is very important in a firm or an organization to transfer this knowledge, as it determines their success in the business. This should be emphasized especially in using advanced technology for the improvement of the company. It was also reported, that programs in knowledge management are typically tied to specific organizational objectives and are intended to lead to the achievement of specific targeted results such as improved performance, competitive advantage, or higher levels of innovation (2006). This concept determines also the concept of human resource management, as this two concepts go hand in hand in an organization. These two concepts are major key factors in the application and role of technology in an organization and in determining how each component of a team will cooperate with each other.             In relation to knowledge management is the concept of human resource management, which largely affects the impact of teamwork to any organization. It was reported that human resource management is a set of practices or techniques about managing people in an organization as effectively as possible for the good of the employees, the company and society. It is also a managerial function or department, which is becoming important to organizations in their efforts to manage people as effectively as possible. Furthermore, it includes a variety of activities such as staffing needs; whether to use independent contractors or hire new employees to meet their needs, recruiting and training the best employees, ensuring they are high-performers, and dealing with performance issues ( 2005).             In addition, human resource management can be useful because managing people well may influence so many outcomes in an organization, such as profitability, productivity, employee involvement and investor return, which are all important to the stakeholders, the employees, the stockholders, the organization itself, the customers and the society (2005). Knowledge Workers and Teamwork             In relation to the mentioned concepts is the existence of a knowledge worker, which, according to  (2002) can be understood depending on the use of information in an organization.  As reported, a knowledge worker is one who works primarily with information and develops them. Because knowledge grows, all knowledge workers, particularly Research and Development project managers, need to easily access and search internal and external knowledge bases (2006). In addition, knowledge workers are believed to produce more when empowered to make the most of their deepest skills; they can often work on many projects at the same time; they know how to allocate their time; and they can multiply the results of their efforts through soft factors such as emotional intelligence and trust. Organizations designed around the knowledge worker, instead of just machine capital, are thought to integrate the best of hierarchy, self-organization and networking rather than the worst. Each dictates a different communications and rewards system, and requires activation of knowledge sharing and action learning. A basic pattern rule of human systems when you mix them you will get the worst of each unless you contextually and carefully attend to connecting the best ( 2006).             For all of these concepts to become effective, teamwork must exist alongside with the use of technology. Teamwork is a very important factor in all organizations when it comes to its improvement, development and establishment. According to  (1999), attitude, goals, and teamwork can make a significant difference in the eventual success of a long, complex project. In many cases, a project team literally decides to succeed, not through a genuine desire on the part of the team to be successful, but through the evolution of a shared attitude among the team members that the project will succeed no matter what. The importance of teamwork in an organization largely determines how the organization will perform. Organizations have different components or committees in which different nature of work is distributed. However, even if each component acts separately, each must still coexist with other components and somehow work with them properly. This is possible with the concept of teamwork, with working harmoniously with other systems and with effectively applying a good deal of human resource management. Moreover, each of these components must be managed by human resource teams as effectively as possible and be reminded of their roles in the organization and the community. In addition, good communication must also be established, where the role of technology comes in. Companies nowadays are relying on the different advancement of technology, especially with the use of computer devices. Computers are now important tools in relation to cultivating effective communication. In the case of Alcan, Incorporated, this multinational corporation has gone a long way and becomes a good case study in relation to teamwork and human resource management. It was reported that Alcan was founded in 1902, a multinational, market-driven company and a global leader in aluminum and packaging, as well as aluminum recycling. It is involved in operations in primary aluminum, fabricated aluminum, as well as flexible and specialty packaging, aerospace applications, bauxite mining and alumina processing. The goal of this company is to make a positive difference, and operates based on integrity, accountability, trust, transparency and teamwork. These values guide the company in making good on their commitments to maximize value. The company also strives for innovation and product excellence; to create a safe, stimulating and rewarding environment for our people; to find new opportunities for continuous improvement and profitable growth; and to ensure all activities are conducted in a sustainable manner that will not compromise the aspirations of future generations ( 2004). Moreover, the company sees sustainability as another means for us to improve our performance by increasing the economic results of our actions and reducing environmental impacts within the context of business growth. In addition, the company will reap the benefits that result from being closer and more responsive to markets and trends in the society they serve. Thus, making the returns that shareholders demand driven by the company’s ability to invest in employees, in customer service, in the best technology and equipment and in the best performance in the areas of environment, health and safety. The good teamwork and positive values that the company demonstrates, results in its stability and success.  Teamwork has a large impact on the success of the whole organization, as each component has its specific roles and functions and is crucial in the development of the organization. Conclusion             Different aspects contribute to the success of an organization and become an established firm in the business scene. Each element comprising organizations have unique roles and functions differently. Due to this distinction from one another, comes the role of the human resource management department, which is responsible for the human resource activities of the company. The role of human resource is important as it contributes to the dissemination of information in the company. It is also responsible for the knowledge management in the firm. It was reported that due to today’s highly competitive environment, organizations are encouraging the human resource departments to play many roles within the organization. This can then lead to improving productivity, enhancing the quality of work life in the organization, complying with all of the necessary laws and regulations needed in managing the firm effectively, gaining competitive advantage, and enhancing workforce flexibility ( 2005). These additional roles will not only improve the human resources department specifically, but also, improve the performance of the whole organization.                         We must recognize that teamwork is an important aspect in the success of an organization, and that the cooperation of the work force may determine the future of the firm. In conclusion, human resource management controls knowledge management and affects the teamwork of each element that comprises the whole organization. The harmonious working together of each gives the company its full advantages.    Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

Alcan, Incorporated Case Study

This paper discusses knowledge management and human resource management in relation to teamwork and how it is transferred within and a...

Human Resource Management: Case Study Analysis of Harrison Brothers Corporation

Human Resource Management: Case Study Analysis of Harrison Brothers Corporation     I. Human Resource Management             Human resource management (HRM) comprise the entire gamut of knowledge and practices that describes the nature of work and regulates employment relations ( 2000). HRM is also an approach geared towards the achievement of organisational goals by directing the organisation systems so that human resources and talents are utilised efficiently and effectively ( 2006). HRM is most considered as a generic term that covers the entirety of a work-based organization, working terms and conditions, and representational systems (2003). HRM covers the five functional activity areas, which are: 1) staffing—getting people with the appropriate knowledge, skills and experience to work in vacant positions in the organisation with the entire processes broken down into HR planning, job analysis, recruitment, selection; 2) rewards—development and implementation of reward systems covering work evaluation, performance appraisal, benefits; 3) employee development—analysis of training requirements by identifying the skills and capabilities of employees; 4) employee maintenance— administering and monitoring of work standards and organisational policies to develop a competent workforce; and 5) change and relationship management—monitoring employment relationship issues and adjusting to changes. ( 2000)     II. Role of the Human Resource Manager             The human resource manager plays an important role in an organisation by contributing various key competencies necessary in decision-making. To optimize the contribution of the human resource manager, that person should assume the role of strategic partner, employee advocate and change mentor in the organisation. ( 2000) The assumption and accomplishments of these tasks defines the importance of human resource management in the workplace and the influence of the human resource manager reflects upon the achievement of the organisation of its goals.             , the human resource manager of the Westpark store, assumed several important roles during the beginning of her employment with Harrison Brothers Corporation. The most important task that she undertook is actually developing a human resource unit separate from operations and sales. This is an important task because the delineation of tasks enables the managers to focus on their areas. Due to the establishment of the human resource unit,  had to slowly influence corresponding changes in the existing human resource-related practices. The change in the organisation was also recognized by , the sales manager. First change is the development of working relationships with the operations and sales divisions to determine the human resource needs and issues they currently face as basis for staffing decisions. Pat Hartlake, the operations manager recognized the importance of the establishment of a separate and experienced human resource unit and developing good relations with the HR staff to achieve efficiency in addressing human resource problems.                  Second change is the performance of human resource functions. One activity is staffing or obtaining qualified employees through advertisements and interviewing applicants and looking at application papers to determine work stability.  has a background in sales so she is confident in her ability to select qualified employees. Another activity is investing in employee motivation. Previously, the store has a high turnover rate primarily attributed to the inconsistencies in discipline procedures. introduced a performance assessment procedure that considers the quality and quantity of work performed by employees as basis of disciplinary action, possibly dismissal after incurring three valid disciplinary actions, and annual salary increases. Still another activity is employee development through the discussion of career development expectations of employees as part of professional assessment. Unfortunately, the human resource unit found problems when the support staff disregarded this task in order to immediately complete the evaluation.             Third change is linking human resource activities with the other operations of the organisation such as through the actual observation of the floor-level performance of employees as the changes are introduced. As the organisation develops, human resource activities are expected to concurrently develop.             Through the introduction of human resource changes in the organisation, the , the human resource manager, recognized and assumed the role of a strategic partner of the organisation through its performance enhancement activities, employee advocate by introducing a uniform motivation system, and change mentor by developing partnerships with other organisational units to achieve change.          III. Harrison’s Business Strategy             Harrison is an established department store, in existence for more than a century, but experiencing the challenges of new competing firms and the rapidly changing market in terms of customer taste and demands. As an established firm, Harrison has to take a defensive stand ( 1998) and reposition the company in the market with consideration of its competitors. To boost its competitive advantage, the company identified five business strategic goals covering cost minimization, resources optimization, aggressive revenue generation, and product and brand development. These strategic goals all lead to the enhancement of the organisation’s value chain as its competitive advantage ( 1998). One of the important support activities in developing an efficient value chain is human resource management because this area takes charge of the organisation, administration and monitoring of human resources allocation and optimization.               However, for the human resource management unit to sufficiently support the enhancement of the organisation’s value chain, its activities should be bottom line or directed towards the company’s needs and objectives so that the fulfilment of its various functions lead to optimum results (Renckly 2004) and the human resource issues raised by the operations managers should be addressed.   IV. Human Resource Structure and Staffing             Harrison operates twenty department stores across Australia. To encourage the efficient management of these stores, the company has a decentralised structure so that the company only has small corporate offices. Every Harrison store has a simple organisation structure headed by the executive vice president who is also the general manager that reports directly to the main corporate office. The general manager is assisted by the store manager of the branch in supervising the overall operations of the business. There are five working units: human resource management, operations management, and three sales units. The organisational structure is simple and highly task-based. This structure works well with the company’s strategic goal of minimizing cost since the simple structure only requires the company to obtain the human resource it needs to function efficiently. This also prevents redundancy in the allocation of tasks since only needed people are hired. (2004)             The human resource management unit is headed by the human resource manager who takes charge of the activities of the unit and links these activities to the performance of the tasks of the other units in order to achieve the business objectives of the store. Under the human resource manager are two human resource assistants, the employee trainer, and the payroll clerk. The human resource management unit is also a small group that covers all human resource functions. A small group enables communications and coordination between the members in developing, implementing, monitoring and assessing HR activities.   V. Importance of Human Resource Responsibilities & Implications             The primary purpose of human resource management unit is the creation, development, maintenance and communication to the whole organisation the personnel policies applicable to the firm as well as to advocate, advice, support and consult with employees regarding employment issues while at the same time working towards the best interest of the firm. ( 2006) On the surface, these human resource responsibilities may be contradictory. However, on a deeper perusal, the successful balancing of all these tasks defines an efficient human resource management. These responsibilities are achieved through specific human resource functions previously discussed.             The recognition of the key management personnel of the importance of these functions as these apply to their working units determines the importance accorded to these functions and the result of the accomplishment of these functions. Generally, greater significance accorded to these functions entails greater effort and cooperation towards their achievement in terms of the accomplishment of specific roles, adherence to personnel policies and participation in the enhancement of human resource activities.             In the Westpark store importance of human resource functions is higher among store managers relative to human resource managers. This means that store managers recognize the role that human resource functions play in the day-to-day operations of the company more than the human resource managers do. This implies a problem for the company since there is an inconsistency in the value accorded to human resource responsibilities. This results to store managers having greater expectations from human resource activities more than what the human resource management unit can provide. The disparity is likely to cause disruptions in the value chain, misunderstandings among managers, and disillusionment among employees.             In the case of human resource managers, it is surprising that little regard is given to safety, knowledge of the business and change management when these functions are crucial responsibilities since safety prevention enhances the work motivation of employees apart from preventing resource wastage, knowledge of the business provides the foundation for identifying appropriate personnel policies in the context of the particular business, and change management enables the human resource management unit to adjust the accomplishment of these functions to the changing needs and goals of the company. Slightly more than average importance is given to training and compensation when these are also crucial aspects of employee motivation for the achievement of overall efficiency. Although staffing and performance management are accorded with the greatest importance, the human resource functions lead to excellent results when accomplished simultaneously and considered as an aggregate. The placing of lesser importance to any function undermines the effectiveness of human resource management results.             In the case of store managers, much importance is given to all human resource responsibilities because all these responsibilities apply to the accomplishment of their tasks.   VI. Evaluation of the Development of HR Function at Harrison             Prior to the introduction of changes to the human resource function at Harrison, human resource unit was basically non-existent. The status of the human resource unit was explained by the store manager in describing the unit as too internally focused and not playing a key role in the organisation. The operations manager also experienced problems with the human resource unit when they were not able to recommend decisive action on immediate human resource problems. These problems were attributed to the operations manager having to perform a dual task of handling operations and human resource functions and the heightened employee disillusionment expressed in the high turnover rate.               The company recognized the need to boost its human resource unit to support its strategic goals, especially since its strategic goals covers sustained employee competence in a changing business environment. Human resource functions have been introduced particularly staffing and employee motivation. However, the changes made in human resources management are not sufficient to fully support the company’s strategic goals. The human resource manager admitted that the employee career development assessment and the human resource innovation remain as problem areas. The human resource unit has to address these areas to enhance employee motivation and develop innovative human resource activities, which together with its other functions comprise the comprehensive human support for the achievement of the goals of the company.        VII. Recommendations              The human resource management unit should enhance the assumption of its role as a key player in the organisation through the result-based approach (1999) by identifying and performing its human resource functions to become an efficient support for the company in achieving strategic objectives.             Improving the human resource functions of the HR unit of the Harrison department store in Westpark involves a process that starts with the identification of objectives based on the human resource issues of the company, the determination of the best possible solution to these issues through coordination with the other work units, implementation of these solutions through the cooperation of the other units, the assessment of results and the readjustment of activities according to need. (1999)             Specifically, the human resource unit has to strengthen the link of its activities with the company’s objectives. In achieving the goal of improving the sales performance of personnel, human resource activities have to improve staffing, training and motivation policies to attract qualified personnel to remain and contribute their knowledge and skills and grow with the company. It also has to develop good relations with the managers of the other working units through communication to encourage the transfer of information crucial to decision-making and policy implementation. It also has to organise and streamline all its activities to include all important functions, particularly employee career development assessment and policy innovations, taking into consideration limited resources.   Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

Human Resource Management: Case Study Analysis of Harrison Brothers Corporation

Human Resource Management: Case Study Analysis of Harrison Brothers Corporation I. Human Resource Management ...