Assignment on Human Resource Management (HRM) (Sample-3)

 
1.      Introduction:

Human resource development is very important for an organization as it plays a very role in sustaining and creating high performance and efficient organizations. It is defined as the combined use of practices polices and systems to develop maintain and recruit employees in order to gain organizational goals and objectives.
HRD works best when top or senior managements have the power to operate, monitor and execute it. In a decentralized system its function should be situated at a senior level. 

Benefits of Human Resource Development:

·         Increased potential to manage changes

·         Cost saving by improving productivity and efficiency

·         Increased individual and organizational performance and effective consumption of employee’s knowledge and skills.

·         Indentify management and supervisor support levels

·         Higher equity between level of responsibility and compensation

·         Define and distribute employees duty, responsibility, works and link those to organization mission

·         Augmented capacity to attain organizational objectives and goals

·         Planned systematically to support organizational mission.

2.      Understand the role of human resource development within organizations:

2.1  Compare and contrast 3 pioneer definitions of the term ‘human resource development’ (HRD)

According to the Jones (1981) “Human Resource Development is a systematic explanation of people’s work-related abilities, focused on the attainment of both organization and personal goal.” He focused on performance, organizational and personal goals.

McLagan (1983) stated that “training and development is identifying, assessing and through planned learning helping develop the key competencies which enable individuals to perform current or future jobs”. He gave this definition on basis on training and development.

According to the Nadler and Wiggs (1986), “Human Resource Development is a comprehensive learning system for the release of the organization’s human potentials-a system that includes both vicarious (classroom, mediated, simulated) learning experiences and experiential, on-the-job experiences that are keyed to the organization’s reason for survival”. He gave importance on formal and informal adult learning performance.[1]

2.2  Assess the need for human resource development in organizations

Human are the important agents of development or it can be said that human resource is the most vital and important factor of economic development. If all the members of an organization become skilled this company has competitiveness over other companies. In the following portion it is illustrated why human resources development is needed in an organization:

1)      Country Develops if The Human Resource is Developed:  to increase economic development the country constructs hospitals, power houses, dams, bridges, buildings, roads, etc. to run these units teachers, scientist, engineers, doctors, skilled workers, are required.  If the country invests money in human resource development it pays dividend in return.

2)       Increase in Productivity: provision of healthy atmosphere, improved skills and better education will result in most and proper use of resources which cause the increment in economic production.

3)      Increase efficiency: HRD offers many training and education courses to the employees that inspire them to give their full effort and get the best output by using minimal inputs. As a result personal efficiency becomes optimal. If all the employees become skilled, it needs less time for an organization to get the best output what it deserved.   

4)      Higher output: HRD creates an organizational culture which will be productive. It helps to create harmony and effective team. Effective teams and groups lead the organization run effectively. So all the resources are being used effectively and the organization gets higher result. So effective HRD ensure high profitability. 

2.3  Evaluate the internal and external barriers to Learning and Development

Most barriers to development are internal rather than external. Some external barriers can be a competitor putting pressure on anyone’s sales, speed of service, or quality. These things can cause a break down in development if anyone is not careful and vary from, instead or adjusting, his development progress. Another external barrier could be under/over employing a new hire from outside of the company. If this happens anyone development can slow, go to fast, or just fall apart al together. One other way some external can affect the development of a business is a price war. This can obviously mean a price war from many different angles. A strike, a retail price was a cost price war, or even a production price war. All of these are caused by things external from the source itself. 

Internal barriers are not just more common, they are more harmful, and less curable than the others. Many of these barriers are done purposefully, and with only regard for self interests. In some rare cases barriers to development are there for good reason, but the long-term effect of these barriers needs to be weighed before they are put into place. Barriers such as checklist, reviews, and evaluations, are there for good reasons in most cases. These, despite their good intended nature, can cause a hiccup in the development of said venture. If one is wary of losing a powerful position due to a ability of a coworker, than that person may make his/her progress seem less righteous than it actually is. This then becomes the underemployment of said employee within this organization, and maybe a person feels this position who is now over-employed, and this can cause an adverse affect throughout the entire section this type of action occurs in. Mismanagement, under management, untrained, unevaluated, unrecognized, and underappreciated employees, are jus a few of the internal barriers that can, and do, exist within an organization [3].

3.      Be able to critically analyze learning and development theory.

3.1  Evaluate learning and development theories.

According to the Kolb there are four distinct learning styles based on a four-stage learning cycle. Kolb’s model is especially grateful as it helps to understand individual people’s different learning style. His model is an explanation of a cycle of experiential learning that applies to all. He also included those cycle of learning to his experiential learning theory normally named as four-stage cycle of learning. This theory provides a basis for reflection and observation.

Kolb says that “ideally (and by inference not always) this process represents a learning cycle or spiral where the learner 'touches all the bases', ie., a cycle of experiencing, reflecting, thinking, and acting. Immediate or concrete experiences lead to observations and reflections. These reflections are then assimilated (absorbed and translated) into abstract concepts with implications for action, which the person can actively test and experiment with, which in turn enable the creation of new experiences”.

Key concepts Gregory (1987) from operant conditioning are:

1.      Reinforcement, defined as the means by which the probability of the organism behaving in a desired way may be increased by positive reinforcement, in which the organism is rewarded (for example, with food) for a particular response (for example, for pressing a lever), or negative reinforcement, in which the organism may act to remove an aversive stimulus in a way that results in increased frequency (strengthening) of a particular behaviour.

2.      Negative reinforcement should not be confused with punishment: the latter is intended to eliminate particular behaviours through punishment by application (the administering of an adverse stimulus following undesirable behaviour) or punishment by removal (removal of a positive reinforce following undesirable behaviour).

3.      The use of reinforces is a means by which animal behaviour can be shaped in successive small steps; for example, Skinner ‘taught’ pigeons to play a rudimentary form of ping-pong.

Borthick et al. stated that “behaviourism in its educational manifestation frames the learning process as the communication of predetermined, pre-sequenced information to learners with feedback, reinforcement and remediation”. Amongst the fundamental assumptions of behaviourism were:

1.      Human behaviour is justified by factors outside of the person, intentions, feelings, thoughts play little role in determining what we do.

2.      Every human being are biological machine and they react according to the stimuli

3.      Learning can be inferred from behaviour but it cannot be observed [4].  

3.2  Evaluate the concepts of Personal and Organization Development

The book “Personal and Organization Transformations” (Fisher, Rooke, and Torbert, 2003) speaks to our profession’s passion for supporting development and transformation.  Their work is being elaborated on here because of their focus on both personal and organizational shifts, within the context of organizations.

Torbert and David Rooke (2005) believe that leadership philosophy or styles are not as important as a leader’s stage of development, their “Action Logic”, in determining effectiveness in times of uncertainty.  The terms they use for the Action Logics, from the earlier to the later stage, are Impulsive, Opportunist, Diplomat, Expert, Achiever, Individualist, Strategist, Alchemist, and Ironist.    They also have done research that points to organizations needing someone with at least a “strategist” action-logic on the team in order to transform itself.

They have also identified a parallel track for organizational development, and the stages are named Conception, Investments, Incorporation, Experiments, Systematic Productivity, Social Network, Collaborative Inquiry, Foundation Community of Inquiry, and Liberating Disciplines.

These Personal and Organizational stages (“action logics”) provide us another way of looking at how we orient ourselves to our work and our business.  With this developmental perspective, we can gain an extra view of our motivations, communications, and how we make decisions.  Individuals and Organizations do not operate at just one stage, but along a spectrum, so the framework allows for meaningful reflection for how much of our thinking and action is in the various action logics.  Inspirational questions like “What would a Strategist or Alchemist do?” or “How would a Foundational Community of Inquiry look at this?” can help expand our thinking and actions to new levels [5]

3.3  Identify and explain 4 factors influencing tourist demand in a tourist destination area of your choice.

Tourism mostly affected by technological change but there are some other factors from medical improvement to the space tourism innovation. Technology and tourism is changing with time, location and space. Nowadays tourism is influenced by personal safety, transport and better communication. If there is a good communication network to a specific tourist area, people are willing to visit this place as it saves time, money and stamina. Technological advancement open a new door to tourism as before tourist are really worried about transport, communication, medical services, accommodation and safety. Nowadays people want cheaper, quicker and easier services and before determining a place they think about above facilities. For an example, the Dominican Republic was not that much developed in technology before and tourist faced a lot of problems regarding accommodation and services even pure drinking water. This place has high demand to the tourist for its warm weather and cheap air flight. Another factors influences tourism very much and that is online booking for accommodation, air flight, leisure and recreation is travelling places. Nowadays most of the people booking their holiday on the internet and they look for better priced deal from various travel agents. Infrastructure, civil works; better communication network through bus, air, train, and boat has an effect on tourism. The ability of travelling depends on personal income, physical fitness, political stability, personal security and cultural resources and so on.      

3.4  Apply and analyze 2 theories or models relevant to understand and motivate the tourist demand in the above chosen destination.

Each tourist destination places have some speciality for various services or products. For motivating tourist, first of all it is very essential to know the tourist demand and choose and feelings. There are two kinds of motivation like push and pull motivation. According to the Yoon and Uysal, “analysis of tourist motivation attempts to extend the theoretical and empirical evidence on the causal relationship among the push and pull motivations, satisfaction, and destination loyalty”. According to the Dann, Chon, Pearce, Uysal & Hagan, “Motivation has been referred to as psychological/biological/social needs and wants, including internal (or emotional) and external forces”. According to Uysal & Hagan (1993), “these forces describe how individuals are pushed by motivation variables into making travel decisions and how they are pulled or attracted by destination attributes”.

Push factors are origin related and it refers to the intrinsic and intangible desires of a traveller like health and prestige, adventure, relaxation and rest, desire to escape. Pull factors are those which attract tourist to a certain destination and tangible characteristics like historical and cultural resources, recreation facilities, accommodation, and beaches and so on.

Tourism motivation is a multi-motive dimensional. Tourist wants to visit a certain places for multiple reasons; Motivation is also a flexible and dynamic variable. According to the Pearce “The design of a motivation list must be flexible enough to incorporate individual changes across the life-span and consider the effects of broad cultural force on tourist motivation” [6]

4.      Understand the organizational factors that influence learning and development.

4.1  Analyze the influence of organization leadership and culture on learning and development

Leaders and organization culture can influence learning and development. Leaders can mold and shape the beliefs, basic assumptions, values and shared those things to the members of the organization. He maintains good relation with everyone and he provides supports to those persons who need help very badly. First of all effective leaders have good knowledge about every person of his group or team. He knows every ones demand and needs. He monitors his subordinates regularly. He prepares variety of strategies according to the employee’s present condition and their needs. Leaders inform their higher authority regarding various training programs or education courses to increase the efficiency, productivity and effectiveness of employees. He is the role model to his subordinates and majority of them try to follow him; so a leaders play a very vital role in learning and development of employees.

Organization culture contains organization view, mission, vision and goals and key people of an organizational culture are leaders, managers, top-level managers, supervisors. Most of the employees try to follow their managers or leaders. Managers and leaders motivate their employees regularly. Organization culture may be destructive or constructive. Constructive organization culture helps to increase employee’s efficiency, productivity, skills and knowledge and to augment organization’s output and productivity. On the other hand, destructive organizational culture reduces employee’s skills, knowledge, efficiency, productivity and so on. In this culture, employee-employee, employee-manager, employee- organization relationship is not good and conflicting. The opposite scenario is prevailing in constructive organizational culture.

4.2  Critically analyze the impact of an organization’s environment on human resource development

The elements of organizational environment are social support, employee autonomy and control, the way work is organized, management practices and leadership style. Those factors have dramatic impact on employee human resource development. There are two kind of environment is an organization like internal environment and external environment. The environment of an organization can be defined as all the job and organizational factors that affect the interaction between people and their jobs and the organization. HRD and productivity heavily depend on organizational environment. Various factors are mentioned in the following parts of the assignment: 

·         Leadership style – leaders believe on employees, the link between organization’s business goals and employee development, commitment to employee development.

·         Management practices – support for work-life balance, feedback and rewards, communication, fairness, how employees participate in decisions, how employees are involved in decisions, how work are designed, directed and distributed.

·         Social support – communication between supervisors and peers and interpersonal relationships

·         Pervading culture – what management pays attention to and reward, how employees think, act and feel and unconscious norms, values shared by the members of the organization.

HRD work best when all the employees become motivated and satisfied otherwise all the attempts will be unfruitful. Normally employees become satisfied when

·         Employees has job security

·         When employees has life satisfaction means balance between their personal responsibility and work

·         Every employees have their personal goals

·         Good rewarding systems

·         Good relation between manager and employees

·         Dedication to work

4.3  Critically analyze the impact of organization strategy on human resource development.

Human resource development (HRD) professionals have long discussed linking HRD with organizational strategy. Many people feel that if only HRD could be effectively linked to the organization's long-term strategy, then it would command top management's attention, galvanize management support, and attract additional resources. Strategy is defined as the way an organization chooses to compete or meet customer or constituent needs. HRD means the "integrated use of training and development, organization development, and career development to improve individual, group, and organizational effectiveness" (McLagan, 1989, p.7). This introductory chapter presents one model of how to link HRD with organizational strategy and summarizes in detail how that model can be applied. The author also reviews, briefly, some recent issues that have emerged on linking HRD with organizational strategy.

5.      Know how to develop an effective performance management program.

5.1  Analyze the nature of a performance management program and assess the links with learning and development (there are two parts to this question. First explain the nature of performance management and thereafter evaluate its role in L&D system).

For sound human resources practice there is no other options except performance management. It helps to get improve and excellence organizational results. It helps employees to know their responsibilities and their contribution to fulfillment of organizational purposes. Authority will provide training according to the employee’s skills and talents. All the members should be committed to their jobs. Performance management includes performance awards, ongoing communication and learning opportunities. Sound performance management helps employees to realize their duties, responsibilities and contributions to the organization, attaining organizations goals and objectives and getting reward according to their hard work.   

The development activities include identifying employees which need training and development, providing various courses and programs according to the employee’s skills and abilities, review employees performances regularly and so on. Counseling and coaching improve employee’s confidence and performance and the relation between their subordinates and superiors. Performance management is an important tool for preparing and implementing strategic plans. It helps to integrate and align the organizational objective with the KPI’s in horizontal and vertical ways in an organization. 

5.2  Apply effective performance measures in two different practical situations from organizations

Program name: Food Safety and Inspection Service

Outcome of performance measure- Reduction in prevalence of food borne illness from meat, poultry, and egg products

Explanation: The purpose of the program is to ensure that the commercial supply of meat, poultry, and egg products is safe, wholesome, and correctly labeled and packaged. The key indicator of program effectiveness is whether or not less people are getting sick as a result of foodborne illness from pathogens such as Salmonella and E. coli. FSIS uses data collected and estimated by the CDC on the incidence of foodborne illness. Further analysis is used to understand the link between changes in the incidence of these illnesses and the control measures implemented by FSIS. This is the long-term outcome measure used; annual measures track the prevalence of pathogens (e.g., Salmonella) on food items at processing plants.

Program name: Rural Utilities Service Telecommunications Program

Outcome of performance measure- Percentage of rural telecommunications subscribers receiving new or improved service

Explanation: The purpose of this program is to improve and expand telecommunications in rural areas. The measure directly relates to this purpose. Once targets are established, this measure will indicate whether the program is effective. In addition, over time this measure will provide information on the portion of rural America benefiting from program loans. The measure supports the agency’s mission to support rural America. Performance is measured using a formula based on the number of subscribers supported by new loan funds divided by the total number of rural subscribers of active borrowers (both are based on data reported by borrowers). The data is verifiable since borrower records on the number of customers could be used to verify the numbers reported to USDA. [7]

5.3  Critically evaluate a range of motivation theories (how motivation theories helps in employee motivation, explain critically with examples and justifications)

Maslow

Maslow's hierarchy of need categories is the most famous example: 

self-actualization

Esteem

belongingness

Safety

physiological

Specific examples of these types are given below, in both the work and home context. (Some of the instances, like "education" are actually satisfiers of the need.)

According to Maslow every human beings want to fulfil the lower needs first and if those needs are met then the next level will be activated. This theory has some problem like if anyone is hungry and not having shelter, he will not go to church. According to this theory people can’t do the higher things until he has the lower things. But the actual fact is that poor people are more religious than rich people, so the prediction is not accurate enough. 

Alderfer amend the Maslow hierarchy of needs theory and according to him there are three kind of needs like existence needs, relatedness needs and growth needs. This is same as Maslow but there is no hierarchy and it is little bit rational. According to the Maslow, sex lie in the bottom category but it is not essential for existence. According to the Alderfer, people may have sex whenever he wants. Alderfer believed that “as you start satisfying higher needs, they become more intense (e.g., the power you get the more you want power), like an addiction”.

According this theory: Not everyone is motivated by the same things. It depends where you are in the hierarchy. The needs hierarchy probably mirrors the organizational hierarchy to a certain extent: top managers are more likely to motivate by self-actualization/growth needs than existence needs.

[8]

6.      Understand the importance of Human Resource Development

6.1  Evaluate the growing recognition of the importance of human resource development in enhancing organization performance.

The HRD manager is the principal evaluator of the impact of the HRD program on overall organizational efficiency. Within this subrole, the manager is responsible for the design, development, and implementation of program evaluations as well as cost/benefit programs. Each of these is used to determine the effects of learning on the employees and the organization. HRD managers are also responsible for the evaluation of career development programs and organizational development activities. The evaluation of the effectiveness of learning specialists, instructional designers, and consultants is another part of this sub-role. 
HRD is about improved performance and productivity through increased knowledge, competencies, skills, and attitudes. In other words, HRD is about learning, its effects on employees, and its impact on the organization. The manager of HRD is the person responsible for the management of learning within the organization and the development of programs and activities that foster growth. 
The manager of HRD should possess knowledge of program planning and design, as well as knowledge of how to evaluate learners, programs, and instructors. A manager of HRD should also be able to deliver or facilitate learning programs and activities. In addition, he or she must know how to assess the pacts that HRD is having on the organization and be able to effectively communicate such results to organizational decision makers. 
Finally, an HRD manager must understand the importance of career development and organizational development, how they contribute to learning and development and when it is appropriate incorporate them into the learning system.

6.2  Demonstrate an understanding of processes relating to human resource development

Notably, HRD is not only a field of study but also a profession.HRD practitioners and academia focus on HRD as a process. HRD as a process occurs within organizations and encapsulates: 1) Training and Development (TD), that is, the development of human expertise for the purpose of improving performance, and 2) Organization Development (OD), that is, empowering the organization to take advantage of its human resource capital.TD alone can leave an organization unable to tap into the increase in human, knowledge or talent capital. OD alone can result in an oppressed, under-realized workforce. HRD practicitioners find the interstices of win/win solutions that develop the employee and the organization in a mutually beneficial manner. HRD does not occur without the organization, so the practice of HRD within an organization is inhibited or promoted upon the platform of the organization's mission, vision and values.

7.      Understand the purposes, relevance and value of specific management development initiatives and programs.

7.1  Assess the importance of management development to organization performance

Any organizational development expert will tell you that the effectiveness of management holds a direct correlation to the organization’s overall success. By taking the time to invest in good Management Development, the economic benefit to the organization can be increased. The better trained the staff is, the less likelihood there will be costly errors or oversights, efficiencies will be improved, sales and marketing campaigns will run smoother, and overall company positioning will be improved. It all boils down to training and leadership at all levels.

Management development may teach:

§   structured informal learning: work-based methods aimed at structuring the informal learning which will always take place

§  formal training courses of various kinds: from very specific courses on technical aspects of jobs to courses on wider management skills

Leadership which deals with emotions is an important component of management which is about rational thinking.

The Management Charter Initiative (MCI) originally set out management competencies for management S/NVQ’s, these competencies are now part of the National Qualifications Framework (NQF), it is from these competencies that managers can be assessed and development needs determined. To enhance the skills, knowledge and abilities to improve organizational mechanisms.

8.      Conclusion:

The observation and assessment of HRD needs is the initial phase of the HRD process. The quality of what happens in that phase sets the foundation for all that follows – for good or for ill. It may determine real needs, clearly and comprehensively, or it may identify false or inadequate understanding of needs. This could affect just one individual, or a discrete team, or perhaps the whole organization. The process takes place within the broad context of performance management in the organization. If it is done properly, then HRD needs will relate to business development, issues common to an occupational group will be clearly mapped, and individuals will be accurately reviewed. If attention is paid to all these three levels of needs assessment, then the subsequent phases of the HRD process are more likely to provide positive outcomes for investments in HRD: that is, to address real and important gaps between expected performance and actual performance. Success in the HRD process depends on the quality of analysis of what is involved in organizational performance, task performance and individual performance. It depends upon a coherent and integrated performance management system as a whole.

Reference:

1.      Swanson R. A., Holton E.F., Holton Ed, Foundations of human resource development, 2001, page-4

2.      Importance of Human Resource Development, Retrieve on: 15/05/12, Available at:http://www.oppapers.com/essays/Importance-Human-Resource-Development/153820

3.      Yahoo Answers website, Retrieve on: 15/05/12, Available at: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070801013554AAAWdmt

4.      Individual Learning and development, Retrieve on: 15/05/12, Available at:  http://globalonline.napier.ac.uk/videostore/enu/lld/reader-lld/content/lld/textpages/enu-lld-bk0303.html

5.      O’Loughlin D., Personal and organizational development: some maps for the Trip, December 6, 2010. Retrieve on: 15/05/12, Available at: http://mdi.com.pk/management/2010/12/personal-and-organizational-development-some-maps-for-the-trip/

6.      Zhang J., Marcussen C., Tourist motivation, market segmentation and marketing strategies, (June, 2004), Retrieve on: 15/05/12, Available at:http://www.crt.dk/media/tourism_motivation_and_marketing_strategies_denmark_jie_zhang_carl_henrik_marcussen_crt_2007.pdf

7.      Example of performance measure, Retrieve on: 15/05/12, Available at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/part/performance_measure_examples.pdf

8.      Theories of motivation, Retrieve on: 15/05/12, Available at:  http://www.analytictech.com/mb021/motivation.htm