2.1 + 2.3: Introduction to HRM + Leadership & Management

What are the roles of HRM?

1. Recruitment

2. Induction

3. Retention

4. Appraisals

5. Absenteeism

6. Dismissal + Redundancies

7. Training and Development

What is induction?

Training new employees to get acclimated with the norm and operations of the organisation

What are Appraisals?

Formal procedure of assessing the performance and effectiveness of employees in relation to their job description

What is Absenteeism

Dealing with issues that arise when employees are unable to attend work

What is Dismissal and Redundancies?

Both letting go of workers when their job is no longer needed.

Dismissal: - often due to underperformance or misconduct in workplace

Redundancies: - Maybe due to prolonged economic recession

What are the internal factors and how do they influence HRM?

1. Size of Organisation

- The larger the firm the more HR, recruitments, training, appraisals

2. Strategic Direction of the Organisation

- Depending on the priorities and future plans

3. Organisational Structure

- A clear structure helps workforce planning, easier to identify vacant positions or redundant jobs

4. Finances of the Organisation

- Effective workforce planning cannot happen without sufficient funding, more finance allows hiring and higher paying workers and training

5. Motivation

- Higher levels of motivation, the more productive workers tend to be, thus lower labour turnover rate

6. Corporate culture

- Influences its approach to HR matter such as working hours, flexitime, teamworking, trainings, promotions etc..

What are the external factors and how do they influence HRM?

1. Demographic change

- Variations in the structure of the population, e.g. average age, gender, education attainment level, retirement age

2. Change in Labour Mobility

- Measures the extent to which workers have the ability and willingness to move between geographic locations and occupations for their employment

- Increasing and maintaining labour mobility ensures a more efficient allocation of HR.

3. Immigration

- Eases skills shortages (maybe due to ability)

- Flexible work structures (businesses are able to open for longer hours due to workforce flexibility)

- Marketing structures (different tastes from mass)

4. Flexitime

- Enables employees to work a set number of score hours per week

- Can improve morale and labour productivity, however may result in a lack of accountability and productivity

5. Gig Economy

What is the Gig Economy?

Refers to labour markets in which workers are given short term / one off contracts, they are paid for each individual job, instead of traditional payment.

What are the advantages of Gig Economy?

For Worker:

1. Workers enjoy freedom and flexibility

2. Potential to earn a significant amount of income as they can work for multiple businesses

3. Better work life balance

For Businesses:

4. Business gain from reduced costs of production, no need to hire so many full time workers

- lower cost of production allow them to provide more price competitive goods/services.

What are the disadvantages of Gig Economy?

1. Reduces the need for full time workers, possibly limiting peoples potential for career development

2. Do not have fixed employment contracts, thus possible lack of job security and stable income

3. Need to purchase their own tools, set up costs.

4. May miss out on employee benefits

What are the reasons for resistance to change in the workplace?

1. Self Interest

- Occurs when employees place their own interest above those of the organisation, and worried about the implications of change for themselves, rather than the possible benefits to the organisation as a whole.

2. Low tolerance

- People tend to like stability and normality, they worry they cannot adapt to change so resist it.

3. Misinformation and Misunderstanding

- Misinformation causes the purpose and potential benefits of change not to be clearly communicated, thus workers may feel that it is unnecessary.

4. Interpretations of circumstance

- Employees and employers may disagree on the rationale and benefits of change, may believe that there are better solutions.

What are the strategies for reducing impact / resistance to change?

1. Education and Communication

- Educate and inform staff beforehand, this can allow them to see the rationale for change, limits misunderstanding

2. Participation and Involvement

- This can motivate and improve morale amongst workforce, thus more likely to accept change, also prevent misunderstandings

3. Facilitation and Support

- Provide skills and resources they need to cope with change

4. Negotiation and Agreement

- Managers use bargaining incentives to limit resistance to change, those who resist change might be offered early retirement or redundancy to leave the organisation

5.Manipulation and Co-option

- Bringing a representative of those resisting change into the change process, attempting to convert their thinking so the advantages can be communicated

- However, seen as unethical can backfire if found out.

6. Explicit and Implicit Coercion

- Typically used as a last resort, managers can use coercion to force staff into accepting change, by threatening disciplinary action, dismissal, forcing the change.

What is Scientific Thinking Management?

- Relies on making decisions thoroughly by gathering necessary information and data, then analysing this before deciding what to do.

What are the 3 steps of scientific management?

1. Where are we now - identifying the issue / opportunity

2. Where do we want to be - Deciding what is important for the organization in relations to its business objectives and mission or vision

3. How do we get there - Using available data to compare alternative options in order to choose and implement a plan of action to achieve these goals.

What is Intuitive Thinking / Management

Relies on considered instinctive feeling and emotions to make decisions

- suitable when reliable facts and data are not readily available, however level of experience can lead to mistakes.

What are the functions of Management?

- Planning

- Short term plans set by junior management, long term plans set by senior management.

- Organising

- Managers organise the various factors of production in the production process, as well as short and long term objectives

- Command

- Managers have the authority to give instructions to their subordinates to carry out tasks

- Coordinating

- Managers ensure that all employees have a common approach to achieving the different goals in the different sections of the organisation

- Controlling

- Managers are in charge of ensuring that performance of individual employees meet the standards and requirements of the organisation

What is leadership?

- About influencing other people to achieve a vision/goal

- Effective leaders are crucial if employees are to be inspired and motivated to achieve organisational aims and objectives.

Autocratic (authoritarian) Leadership Style

- Strict and rigid mangement style

- Involving only managers making all the decisions in the organisation

- Autocratic managers do not like to delegate responsibility to subordinates, preferring to tell employees what to do.

- Suitable for situations that require critical deicision or when dealing with unskilled workers, but can lead to demotivation.

Paternalistic Leadership Style

- Act rather like parents

- Take actions that they believe are in the best interest of subordinates

- Tend to have good bond and professional relationship with their team

Democratic Leadership Style

- Those who prefer to discuss and involve employees in decision making

- Can improve staff morale and motivation as workers feel they have some input in decision making

- However, can be very time consuming and not always necessary to involve staff.

Laissez-faire Leadership Style

- Prefer to have minimal involvement in day to day work with their employees

- Can boost staff motivation because employees feel valued

- However due to lack of senior management command + control workers may become less productive / proactive.

Situational Leadership Style

Leader who is willing and able to change leadership style according to the circumstances being faced.

Adv and Dis of Autocratic Leadership?

Adv:

- Ensures the leader has complete control of the operations

- Speeds up the business decision making process

- Provides workers with clear sense of direction

- Suitable for critical and urgent situations

Dis:

- Creativity and innovation are suppressed and discouraged

- Due to not being in involved in decision making

- May result in higher labour turnover rate

Adv and Dis of Paternalistic Leadership?

Adv:

- Can motivate staff as they feel guided and interest are protected

- Ensures harmonious relationship, which promote loyalty

- Higher motivation, productivity and lower staff turnover rate / profitability

Dis:

- Decision making is still centralised, workers may become dissatisfied if views are ignored

- May not make the best decision

Adv and Dis of Democratic Leadership?

Adv:

- Workers feel valued as they are actively included in decision making

- More motivation

- Collaboration leads to higher morale and improved productivity

- Regular feedback and consulting employees.

Dis:

- May result in disagreement

- Ineffective when critical decisions need to be made quickly

- Time consuming, consulting with everyone takes time.

Adv and Dis of Laissez faire?

Adv:

- Can be motivational due to more freedom to carry out tasks

- Encourages individuals to be creative, thus more innovative

- Builds drive amongst employees because the leadership gives them autonomy in decision making

- Higher productivity, staff moral, lower labour turnover rate, higher profitability

Dis:

- Monitoring and coordination of business are more difficult and time consuming

- Slack can arise due to minimal level of supervision

- Does not suit all workers, having large amounts of freedom worry some workers.

Adv and Dis of Situational Leadership?

Adv:

- Recognizes effective leaders have to be adaptive

- Possibly most practical, as applies to almost all business organisations

Dis:

- Workers become used to a particular leadership style, they may become disheartened or unsettling if the leader changes style

- Most people prefer a natural leadership style.