Human Resource Management in Practice. Management Essay

Human Resource Management in Practice
Student Name
Institutional Affiliation
Human Resource Management in Practice
Analysis of HRM Roles
Session 3: Talent and performance
Talent and performance management may interfere with other functional aspects of an organization. For example, some organizations have occupational health and safety and talent and performance management as distinctly different functions. These functions have different agendas which make it challenging to organize an intervention that gains commitment from the two areas. On the one hand, talent and performance managers may be more concerned about attracting and identifying top talent (Gems, 2015). To these managers, all that the organization needs are to recruit and retain top talent that will assist in the fulfillment of the organizational goals. On the contrary, the occupational health personnel may consider employee psychological health as of importance. Occupational managers may prioritize the creation of assistance programs for staff members (Gems, 2015). If both functions do not work together, the organization may attract talent but find it challenging to retain the existing people.
Session 4: Learning and Development
While organizations appreciate the need for learning and development, some consider it to be an expensive venture. A firm should be willing to invest in the learning and development of the workforce. This may be challenging especially for smaller companies with less revenue. Even for the organizations that can afford the process, it may appear as a non-revenue activity. Apart from money, an organization will have to allow employees to participate in such an activity. This wastes precious time of the company and hence denies it the opportunity to attend to other pressing issues like turning prospects into clients. Further, there is a risk that an employee can quit the job after learning and development (Hiregoudar & Patil, 2019). This creates a dilemma for an organization that wants to invest in their staff members.
Session 5: Employer branding, recruitment, and selection
The need to maintain a strong brand has prompted companies to remain careful about who they hire. The law prohibits unlawful discrimination based on gender, race, ethnicity, disability, and age (Puhl et al., 2015). However, when it comes to attractiveness, a debate exists on whether it is wrong for employers to hire based on looks. Currently, no federal legislation specifically prohibits employers from making employment decisions based on any criteria that entail attractiveness or personal appearance. Employers, however, need to be careful since many of the outlined protective factors tend to overlap with attractiveness or appearance. It is critical to appreciate that attractive tends to influence the judgment of employers when making decisions related to hiring and promotions. More physically attractive people tend to be perceived as more favorable candidates (Shahani-Denning, 2003). However, making decisions based on attractiveness alone is not effective. While the company may want to use physical attractiveness to maintain its brand, it needs to acknowledge that attractive individuals are no more or less capable than less attractive ones.
Session 6: Organizational culture
Any firm that does not have an organizational culture is doomed for failure. There is a need for HR to ensure that a firm has a strong organizational culture (Tedla, 2016). There are times when HR needs to change the culture. However, changing the culture of an organization is one of the most challenging HR challenges. This is because an organization’s culture consists of an interlocking set of values, attitudes, goals, and processes among others. These elements fuse and create a mutually reinforcing system that rejects any attempt to alter the culture. For instance, a firm could have new management that desires a more flat organization. However, the existing organizational culture could be favoring a hierarchical structure. Hence, making changes could lead to inefficiency in the short term. Hence, while changing culture may be necessary, it could prove to be impossible.
Session 7: Flexibility, Motivation and Job Design
One of the ways of motivating employees is job design. This involves among other ways job enlargement. Here, there is an increase in the number of tasks that are associated with a particular job (Raza & Nawaz, 2011). In other words, the scope of the job is increased through a range of job duties and responsibilities but within the sale level. On the one hand, job enlargement is critical for reducing monotony. This can be more satisfying for the workers. Additionally, the approach increases work flexibility. Here, workers have additional tasks to perform which increases the scope of undertaking those tasks. However, job enlargement may be costly since workers may need additional training. Moreover, even the enlarged role soon becomes mundane, hence demotivating workers. Therefore, when a company chooses to motivate its employees through job design, there is a likelihood of experiencing similar levels of demotivation and job dissatisfaction despite the costs incurred in training.
Session 8: The new employee: orientation and engendering engagement
A majority of organizations have orientation programs for new employees. This is critical in allowing new staff members to become familiar with the organization. However, more organizations continue to fall short of their onboarding target. When new employees join a company, people tend to consider orientation as something that should be done by HR managers. When it appears as “a HR thing,” employees feel disengaged and exit the organization. Additionally, a debate exists on the length of the orientation. On the one hand, new employees need adequate time to settle down. They need sufficient time to learn more about an organization (Gusdorf, 2008). However, organizations work towards shortening the onboarding program. Companies want to performance and productivity as soon as possible. Moreover, after an orientation, some employees quit the company, especially when their expectations are not met. This raises the question of whether a company should invest much in new employee orientation.
Session 10: The role of the line manager in HRM
Organizations are moving swiftly to innovate in an attempt to survive the competitive environment. Senior management anticipates that an organization pursues brand new ideas. When the senior managers make decisions, they expect that the rest of the employees will implement them. The line managers, in particular, are tasked with ensuring that all the employees toe the line and implement company initiatives (Hirsch et al., 2008). However, in the contemporary world, innovation comes as a result of the involvement of all the employees. Innovation can come from anyone, not just the top management. In a firm that employs a traditional approach to management, the line managers are likely to be excluded from the innovation process. The role of a line manager will be viewed as maintaining the status quo and ensuring that the company meets the set objectives. In such a case, the line manager's task is maintaining the organizational cogs turning. Such a notion excludes line managers from accelerating innovation, which deprives an organization of their innovative skills.
Session 11: International HRM
The emergence of multinational corporations has changed the way HRM operates. In the case of foreign direct investment (FDI), it may be necessary to have expatriates (Wang, Tong, Chen & Kim, 2009). These individuals will be sent overseas to undertake strategic decisions. While expatriates present various benefits to organizations, debates have emerged regarding their effectiveness. Firstly, the parent-country nationals (PCN) are not familiar with the environment in the host countries. Such a lack of knowledge makes them more vulnerable to making the wrong decisions. At the same time, PCNs will be expensive for a company. An organization may end up spending a lot of money on expatriates only to gain little. Nonetheless, this does not make host-country nationals (HCNs) any better. While HCNs are less expensive, they lack global outlook due to their emphasis on national issues. Hence, for a multinational corporation, choosing between PCNs and HCNs presents a major challenge, since each has its shortcomings.
Session 12: Emerging Issues for HR practice
Employees in an organization are not prone to challenges to the issues of health and wellbeing (Grawitch, Gottschalk & Munz, 2006). In modern society, wellbeing as becoming a major issue that needs immediate attention. In particular, employees are vulnerable to stress, anxiety, and depression, not only due to factors emerging from the workplace, but also in their personal lives. The importance of health and wellbeing has seen organizations take measures to protect their workers. However, a key debate issue here is how too much has been blamed on the part of HRM. Employees also have a role to play to enhance their health and wellbeing, without expecting too much from their employers. Workers also have a responsibility to be resilient and move on when they are encountered with such challenges.
Analysis of Apple Inc.
a) Organizational culture
Companies around the globe utilize company culture as a means of attracting talent and increasing company innovation. Corporate culture has become critical in ensuring that organizations achieve their objectives. Employees know what is expected of them and work to ensure that an organization succeeds. In Apple Inc., the organizational culture encompasses a high level of secrecy and combativeness. Secrecy was developed by Steve Jobs, the co-founder, and former CEO. Jobs wanted a culture that ensured that the company could make products and services in complete secrecy. The approach has been p...