Impact of Organizational Culture in contemporary context

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Organizational culture is known to be the social and psychological environment of a company or organization. The Culture of an organization can affect all areas of how the organization operates and how work gets done. It is said that ‘Most academics and practitioners studying organizations suggest the concept of culture is the climate and practices that organizations develop around their handling of people’ (Schein, 2004).

CIPD in 2011 conducted six case studies in to developing organization cultures in some of the top companies. One of them were The Art Council of England where ‘in 2003, nine regional and independent arts boards, each with their own boards, governance structures and ways of doing things, merged together into Arts Council England’ (CIPD, 2011). After the merger they set a new vision for the organization called ‘Great art for everyone’ (CIPD, 2011). The cultural modification activates was focused on the organizations formation. It is said that the ‘Company interventions focused on the organizational structure, embedding the new values and demonstrating leadership commitment for the culture change’ (CIPD, 2011).

Similarly, ‘London Barnet Housing Department brought-out a culture which is customer driven. This lean project was rolled out in 2009, which provides efficient and effective service’ (CIPD, 2011). The other companies taken into this study was Visa Europe which developed a peak performance culture, The Children’s trust Southampton towards a culture of partnership working, National Police improvement agency developing a customer focused culture and finally BNP Paribas building a business development culture were discussed (CIPD, 2011)  

Every organization has its distinct culture with a mixture made up by folks with special and different personalities, talents and individual goals. In a changing world with newer innovation leaders need to deal with ways to encourage employees to achieve company objectives while preserving organizational culture and values. When an organization culture changes takes place the most common scenario is the employee frustration and dissatisfaction which needs to be managed well.

The organization that I’m operational for the past eight years has gone through many changers. But the core culture which the company was built-on is always kept secured. Currently we have brought in an adaptive culture for the employees where they are encouraged with confidence and risk taking. This has given them an unknowing breezy opportunity to explore changers among them while focusing on the changing needs of the customers. This has been one of the successful contemporary cultural changes that we have adapted thus far.

References

CIPD, (2011). ‘Developing organization culture: Six case studies’. CIPD. June. Available at:  file:///C:/Users/User/Downloads/developing-organisation-culture_2011-six-case-studies_tcm18-10885.pdf (accessed on 30th December 2017 at 10.30 am).

Schein, E.H. (2004) Organizational Culture and Leadership, Third edition, San Francisco:Jossey-Bass.

Changing Trends in HRM the Global Perspective

The world is changing in many ways; the past twenty years have changed so much starting from global climate changers to technological, business, transportation, social and even cultural changers. Similarly Human Resources Management also has had its own part of change from the conventional practice. It was stated that ‘Over the last thirty years HR organizations have gone through several transformations, moving form an operational role (the ‘Personal department’) to one of HR as a service centre to one focused on driving talent outcomes’ (Bersin, 2015)

Technology and Globalization are main areas where HRM have being increasingly effected, it is noted that this two areas are having direct effects on the nature of work performed. Business in today’s world does not have any boundaries or area demarcations, but it can be reached to every corner of the world in a blink of a second.  It was said that ‘Information and communication technologies has opened up new channels of communications and transformed business models in some industries, creating new services and new jobs (such as social media consultants). Information and communication technologies have also facilitated the outsourcing of work overseas as well as enabling more employees in the UK to work remotely’ (CIPD, 2013). As HR Mangers adopting to such ICT changers is a challenging task. It’s important to train individuals (Employees) to meet the challenges of globalization and infuse them with new technology so that the company business goals are met.

Gareth Williams the Global HR Director at Travelex UK, writing to CIPD explains the success he has had after infusing Cloud technology in to the business.  He writes as ‘I now have the team supporting the cloud technology solutions that runs the optimized operational HR process, the benefit of using cloud is that it is highly adaptive and changers can be made within seconds. In my organization HR mangers and HR partners both go to work with armed technology and this is the very reason we were able to win the NimbusNinety Cloud innovation Award as the most innovative application of cloud in the enterprise’ (Williams, 2015)

Finally, the role of a HR Manager is sprouting with the vast changes in competitive market environment and it involves a more strategic role in the success of an organization. The designation change from Chief HR Officer to the New Chief change officer its self explains the perspectives. It is said that ‘HR Professionals as change agents have the responsibility to ease the charges in the organization and protect employees’ (Ulrich and Brockbank, 2005). I have personally experienced the changes taking place over the past eight years in the organization I work for. Daily reports to sales invoicing and filed staff tracking are mobile based which saves lodes of time in my day to day work. 

References

Bersin, J (2015). ‘A modern HR operating model: the world has changed’. CIPD, February. Available at: https://www.cipd.co.uk/Images/changing-operating-models_tcm18-10976.pdf (accessed on 20th December 2017 at 12.12 pm, p. 5-7.

CIPD. (2013). ‘Megatrends: The trends shaping work and working lives’. CIPD.  Available at:  https://www.cipd.co.uk/Images/megatrends_2013-trends-shaping-work_tcm18-11401.pdf (accessed on 20th December 2017 at 11.00 am.

Ulrich, D and Brockbank, W. (2005). ‘ The HR value proposition’, Boston,MA: : Harvard Business School Press.

Williams, G (2015), ‘Cloud technology in the operating Model’. CIPD. February. Available at:  https://www.cipd.co.uk/Images/changing-operating-models_tcm18-10976.pdf (accessed on 20th December 2017 at 12. 15pm, p.18-19

Contemporary Performance Management Practice in a global Context

Performance management is the process or an activity of developing a working environment where people are able to perform to their maximum abilities. The aim of this process is to maintain and improve employee performances in line with organizations objectives.  It’s also a system that starts when a job is distinct as a needed job function to the organization. This continues process take place until the employee leaves the organization or resign from his or her employment.

Its better defined by Armstrong as , ‘Performance Management is the continuous process of improving performance by setting goals that are aligned to the strategic goals of the organization, planning performance to achieve the goals, reviewing progress, and developing the knowledge , skills and  abilities of people (Armstrong, 2016).

 ‘In Summary Some of the main tools used in performance management are, setting clear objectives, Performance ratings, Performance appraisals and feedback, learning and development and Performance related pay’ (CIPD,2017).

Many companies globally have shown importance to performance management, ‘In 2012, Deloitte uncovered the fact that 2 million hours a year were spent completing forms in their company. They also carried out a survey that reflected that 58% of the HR execs believed the existing performances management system didn’t drive engagement of performance. In reaction, the organization massively revamped their approach to performance management and   introduced Snapshot, an app- Based management system’ (Heran, 2016). Furthermore Heran explains that employee’s feedback was collected through this app on five key aspects as, Business acumen, global acumen, technical capability, leadership skills and relationships.

The well known electrical company, General Electrical's used to have a very infamous performance management system known as “Rank and Yanks. In this system the employees were rated in the annual performance review and the bottom 10% was fired. But currently the company have aborted this system and developed an App called Performance Development at GE, (PD@GE). This app has helped employees and mangers communicate regularly where it has helped the HR department save a lot of time in conducting annual performance reviews (Heran, 2016).

An article written by peter Cappelli and Anna Taris to the Harvard Business review explains the global changers that organizations are adopting into performance management practices. They explain that company's like Adobe, Juniper Systems, Dell, Microsoft, IBM, Deloitte, Accenture, GAP have given up the traditional appraisal systems and replacing with frequent, informal check-ins between managers and employees (Cappelli and Taris, 2016)

Finally, Contemporary Performance Management Practice in a global Context is taking its stand in many top corporate's worldwide. It is advisable to look at these global changes and the impacts this corporate's are having after such changes. So far the development of such newer practices have proven to be much effective than the conventional systems used before. The company that I work for is still using the conventional appraisal systems which is very complicated and time consuming.   HR mangers globally have agreed that using newer technology in conducting appraisals have saved them a lot of time.

References

Armstrong, M. (2016). ‘Armstrong’s Handbook of Management and Leadership for HR’.  4^th Ed. New York: Kogan page, pp 86-87.

Cappelli, P and Travis, A. (2016) ‘The performance management revolution’.  Harvard Business review, October. Available at : https://hbr.org/2016/10/the-performance-management-revolution (Accessed on 11th December 2017).

CIPD. ( 2017). ‘Performance management : an Introduction’. CIPD.  Available at:  https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/fundamentals/people/performance/factsheet (accessed on 12^th December 2017 at 3.33 pm).

Hearn, S. (2016). ‘How top companies are redefining performance management’ The Social work place. 18^th May. Available at: http://thesocialworkplace.com/2016/05/how-top-companies-are-redefining-performance-management/ (accessed on 12^th December 2017 at 9.02 am)

A Critical Review of 'Maslow Hierarchy of needs'

Abraham Harold Maslow, An American Psychologist and Philosopher proposed that human beings are driven by different factors at different times. These driving factors are hierarchical, in the sense that we generally start at the bottom layer and work are way up. Maslow wanted to understand what motivated people. He believed that people possess a set of motivation systems unrelated to rewards or unconscious desires (Maslow, 1943). This belief was the birth of ‘Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs’ theory in 1943.

This theory was well recognized as it was very easily grasped, adopted and applied in a simple manner. Also this theory helped people to be motivated while identifying similarities and deference’s among the theory. The usage was so that the theory was used to understand human needs useful for businesses such as in product planning, positioning and pricing. In addition the relevance was so that the modern business word started using this theory to motivate employees and interpret human behaviors.     

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 Nevertheless many criticisms have irrupted since this theory was brought forward as to the practical as well as to the limitation on the methodology. It is noted that Maslow considered only a very narrow segment of human population for this study and because of this the hierarchy fails to take individual and cultural differences into account. He assumed that the same needs will apply equally to all human societies (King-Hill, 2015).

 In addition ‘it has been criticized for its apparent rigidity (different people may have different priorities and it is difficult to accept that needs progress steadily up the hierarchy) and for the misleading simplicity of Maslow’s conceptual language’ (Armstrong, 2009).

The other factor is the availability (less) on Empirical evidence. There is no way to measure specifically how satisfied one level of need must be before moving to the next level. Also there are no facts indicating that all humans experienced the theory in the order Maslow specified.  ‘In fact Maslow himself expressed doubts about the validity of a strictly ordered hierarchy’ (Armstrong, 2009).

Nonetheless and regardless the intense criticism levied towards this theory we need to understand that this is one revolution which is still taken into consideration. Maybe the cluster of sample and the way it was conducted had some defaults; but still it remains as one of the best employee motivation theories available globally.

Referencing

Armstrong, M (2009). ‘Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice’. 11^th Edi. Kogan page, UK, pp. 351.

King-Hill, S. (2015). ‘Critical analyses of Maslow’s Hierarchy of need’, ‘Student teacher perspective’, The STeP journal, 2(4), pp.54-57.

Maslow, A (1943). ‘A theory of human motivation’. Psychological review, 50(4); PP. 370-396.

Mentoring! A solution characteristic in Talent Management

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Talent management is a key area of concern for most HR Mangers globally as it’s very much linked with the company’s business goals and strategies. The challenge is to find the right talent that is needed while developing the present employees talents to keep up with market and industrial trends.  It is said that ‘talent management is the process of ensuring that the organization has the talented people it needs to attain its business goals’ (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014). Most of all - Attaining, formally know as reaching or achieving will fulfill the company’s goals where profitability is made.

Furthermore, it has been highlighted that ‘Talent management contains strategies and protocols for the systematic attraction, identification, development, retention and deployment of individuals with high potential who are of particular value to an organization’.(Tansley and Tietze, 2013)  This speaks about identifying a single person or a set of people with the correct potential and who are value builders. But similarly we must understand that everyone is equally talented and everyone is contributing to achieve company’s set goals. As HR managers it is advisable to look at individual talents before planning any development, because if the purpose is retention of current employee talent then decisions must be made with transparency.

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When making such changing decisions Mentoring plays a mega role. Mentoring is a formal or informal relationship established between an experienced, knowledgeable employee and an inexperienced or new employee. The purpose of a mentor is to help the new employee quickly absorb the organization's Cultural and social norms. ‘A mentoring relationship is a win-win for all parties: the employee who seeks a mentor, the mentor, and organizations that employ the mentoring pair. Mentoring is also a powerful form of job training and can contribute experience, skills, and wisdom to a mentored employee to increase and expand employee development.’ (Heathfield, 2017)

As employees if you have been mentored by a knowledgeable current employee, where an automated processes of respect and trust is developed within you towards him or her. The more you believe the more you learn!. The mentoring person must support, coach, advice, motivate,explain goals and direct you. But it’s wise to remember to absorb what is only good for you! There are some incidences that the mentor will try to take advantage of your unknowings where you will be leaded to unpleasant situations. As said by heathfield ‘it a win-win situation’.

References:

Armstrong, M and Taylor, S (2014) ‘A hand book of human resource management practice’, Kogan page, 13^th ed, UK, pp 264-265.

Heathfield,S.M, ( 2017) the balance: The best employee development opportunities available in your workplace; Feb 15^th, available at https://www.thebalance.com/susan-m-heathfield-1916605 (accessed at 23rd November 2017 at 6.55 pm)

Tansley, C and Tietze, S (2013) Rites of passage through talent management stages: an identity work perspective, International Journal of Human Resource Management, 24 (9), pp 1799–1815

Industrial Actions

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Industrial action are taken by workers when they do something as a protest against their employer or company. It can be done as stopping work for time period or by only doing certain types of work. A dispute between the workers and employer that is not been resolved lead into such industrial actions.  The oxford dictionary explains industrial action as ‘Action taken by employees of a company as a protest, especially striking or working to rule.’ (Oxford, 2017)

In most of the cases first there will be some kind of discussions between the employees and the employer; if such discussions fail and still the dispute is prevailing with no decision then the employees are pushed to take industrial action. These actions are known as strikes, where employees stop work for a specific time frame or refuse to work for the employer. Sometimes it’s seen that employers stop employees from all job factions. This is called a lock – out situation. Some of the other common strike methods are working to rule, overtime ban, working slowly.

The National labor relations board, which is an independent federal agency that protects the rights of privet employees, situated in Washington DC, USA states that ‘Employees who strike for lawful objects fall into two classes “economic strikers” and “Unfair labor practice strikers.’ Further the NLRB explains that ‘If the object of a strike is to obtain from the employer some economic concession such as higher wages, shorter hours, or better working conditions, the striking employees are called economic strikers, and employees who strike to protest an unfair labor practice committed by their employer are called unfair labor practice strikers.(Nlrb, 2017 ). Furthermore it is important for the trade union to support this industrial action so that it becomes official.

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“Protection is provided under the Trade Union and Labor Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 (which is here referred to as ‘the Act’). The Act gives immunity to trade unions from being sued if the union takes industrial action ‘in contemplation or furtherance of a trade dispute’.” (Unison, 2009)

In conclusion, as HR managers you will have to act wisely as the issue irrupts between organizations and its employees.  It is said that ‘you are dealing with people, and every person may have a different perspective or opinion on what is happening within the organization, were communication with all employees must be as clear and honest as possible to avoid any confusion or worsening of the situation so that if you have prior knowledge of a situation that could occur, consult with employees to try find the best possible solution for everyone involved. Planning for the future can take the pressure off if when a conflict occurs.’ (Processworx, 2017)

References:

National labor relations board, (2017), Washington US, available at https://www.nlrb.gov/strikes                  (accessed 11th November 2017 at 7.56 pm)

Processworx, (2017), ‘The role of HR and industrial action’, 12th May,

http://www.processworx.com.au/the-role-of-hr-and-industrial-action/ (Accessed 11^th November 2017 at 10.42 pm)

Oxford, English oxford living dictionaries 2017,

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/industrial_action (accessed 11th November 2017 at 5.19 pm)

Unison,(2009) 'Unison industrial action handbook', London UK, Unison press.

Learning and Development a Coherent approach to E-Learning

Learning and Development is a key aspect in HRM. There are many ways that employees can be developed and trained. Some of these methods include on the job training, on the job development, off the job training, Induction programs, Internal as well as external workshops.

Organizations offer such programs to keep their employees skills updated and maintained, so that organizations are able to achieve their strategic goals. It’s a primary objective that HR Managers selects the right employees for such L&D while it’s extremely vital that employees participate and apply it to their day- to- day job functions.

Definition to L&D:

‘The primary purpose of Learning and development as an organizational process is to aid collective progress through the collaborative, expert and ethical stimulation and facilitation of learning and knowledge that support business goals, develop individual potential, and respect and build on diversity.’ Harrison, R (2009:08)

Armstrong (2014:21) speaks about the main components of learning and development,

• Learning - the process by which a person acquires and develops knowledge, skills, capabilities, behaviors and attitudes. It involves the modification of behavior through experiences   as well as more formal methods of helping people to learn within or outside the work place.
• Development – the growth or realization of a person’s ability and potential through the provision of learning and educational experiences.
• Training – the systematic application o formal processes to impart knowledge and help people to acquire the skills necessary for them to perform their jobs satisfactorily.
• Education –the development of the knowledge, values and understanding required in all aspects of life rather than the knowledge and skills relating to particular areas of activity.

 Recently published article by Steve Olanski. Who is a frequent writer, contributor to Forbes magazine about the “8 key factors for developing employees”.

He states that “Unless you continually reinvest in developing your employees with successful on-boarding and ongoing training- helping them reach their full potential- they may leave and you will find yourself back at square one trying to procure more talent.” (Forbes, 2015 July)

Taking into consideration, we should look at more ongoing, newer trends for L&D. This is where E-Learning plays a mega roll as a common L&D method.

E-Learning

This method is one of the current trends of L&D. Individuals can use the web for his or her learning and development.  It also can be called as Web based L&D.

Definition:

‘E-learning involves the use of computer, net worked and web-based technology to provide learning materiel and guidance to individual employees. It can be delivered through a firm’s internet system.’ (Armstrong, 2014)

This emerging trend is successfully used by top companies worldwide for learning and development. Its seen that, The Royal Mail Group which is one of  UK’s top postal service provider, where they develop staff at all levels are using an Interactive video experience focused on positive conversation with a combination of E-Learning technology for mangers which have been very successful. (Royal Mail, 2017), (Sponge, 2017)

Walmart who is an American multinational retail corporation, introduced ‘Axonify’. This is a hand set employee knowledge platform; it helps to build employee knowledge and challenging behavior. For example, the Walmart case study  states   “ if the company determines employees are not meeting ladder safety standards, they can look at if the learning content itself is insufficient or if there is another reason why employees are not following ladder safety procedures” (Walmart case study, 2016)

This is a clear shift from class room L&D to hand set L&D. Writing to Training Magazine about the “5 trends for the future of learning and development” by Wentworth, D who is a senior learning analyst, speaks about how mobile phones have transformed into a learning device. Furthermore the writer explains that only 10% of company’s still use it as a mobile web based learning solution. (Training Magazine, 2014 Aug)

In conclusion we must understand that HRM in a global context, where learning and development is shifting into new paradigms, E-Learning is becoming one of the major contributors to this shift. It’s a more economical approach. HR Mangers must provide innovative ideas so that employees will be motivated to contribute more towards achieving organizational growth. 

Referencing:

Dessler, G (2013) Human Resource Management, Pearson, 13^th ed., USA

Harrison, R (2009) Learning and Development, 5^th ed., London, CIPD

Armstrong, M and Taylor, S (2014) A Hand Book of Human resource Management Practice, Kogan Page, 13^th ed., UK

Forbes Magazine (2015 July) (https://www.forbes.com/sites/steveolenski/2015/07/20/8-key-tactics-for-developing-employees/#79d535d06373) accessed on 10^th Nov 2017 at 8.17 pm

Training Magazine (2014 Aug) (https://trainingmag.com/5-trends-future-learning-and-development) accessed on 10^th Nov 2017 at 8.46 pm

Walmart Case Study (2016) (http://axonify-jp.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/CaseStudy_Walmart.pdf) accessed on 10^th Nov 2017 at 9.20 pm

Royal Mail Group, (2017) UK Post office (https://www.royalmailgroup.com/our-people/our-culture/training) accessed on 10^th Nov 2017 at 9.33 pm

Sponge, (2017) UK (https://spongeuk.com/results/developing-leaders-at-royal-mail) accessed on 10^th Nov 2017 at 9.13 pm