QUESTION
Question
It has been widely commented that “Human resource diversity is increasing in organisations globally. The levels of of international mobility, especially through migration, have increased, impacting upon the human resource management (HRM) strategies of firms.”
If you were asked, as a Human Resources consultant, to develop strategic HRM plans and policies for an organisation that is undergoing such changes, what key issues would you address (and why), especially in the fields of ethics and culture?
In your report, you are required to provide strategic recommendations on key HRM plans and policies that would best facilitate any potential change in the organisation’s HR profile.
You can choose to approach this from a generic sense or on an organisation of your choice.
Report requirements
Your report must be professionally presented and contain the following:
Title page containing your name, student number, title of the assessment, word count. Your report should have headers, footers, and page numbers. Use Times New Roman 12pt font for the body text and you may choose the font and font size for your headers and sub-headers. Headers, footers and page numbers should not appear on the title page.
Executive summary
This summary states the purpose of the report and provides a summary of the entire report, including your recommendations and conclusions. This summary should not be any longer than 10% of the total word count. Try to avoid including any reference citations.
Table of contents
This should be automatically generated by Word (or similar software). The title page, executive summary and table of contents do not appear in this list.
Introduction
This section discusses the purpose of the report and introduces the main issues that you will be discussing in the main body of the report
Main body of the report
This section contains the information that you have investigated during your research to answer the assessment question above. You should give this section and any sub-sections meaningful headings so that the reader can follow your discussion.
Conclusion and recommendations
This section contains the results of your analysis of your research. Do not introduce new reference citations in this section. You can draw on references you have used in the main body of the report.
Reference list
This section lists all resources that you have cited in your report. The reference list and citations in your report should follow the Harvard format. Do not list works that you have read and not cited. The Faculty uses the Harvard (Author/date) style of referencing (http://facultysite.cqu.edu.au/FCWViewer/view.do?page=3955).
Please note: A minimum of five (5) scholarly references are required for this assignment.
Assessment criteria
The assessment for both assignments is criterion-referenced. You will receive a total score of the marks and the corresponding grade that reflects how well your assignment has met the stated criteria that is displayed in the Assessment Criteria and Standards Matrix on the last page of this Course Profile. Marks will be rewarded on the basis of:
1. Knowledge and understanding 20
2. Evaluation 10
3. Research skills 10
4. Communication skills 10
The total mark for this assessment item is 50.
You are expected to read widely for this assignment, and not just rely on the textbook. In addition to the prescribed textbook, you should access scholarly material, including peer reviewed journal articles, chapters from edited books of readings, and books on specific topics pertaining to HRM and organisations. The reference lists in your textbook, as well as other textbooks, are good places to start when looking for further references. Reliance on websites or textbooks only is NOT an appropriate literature search and will not help you to achieve higher marks and/or grading.
Before starting your assignment, please review the Assessment Feedback Sheet and Assessment Criteria and Standards Matrix attached to this Course Profile. You should also read Chapters 1, 2 and 3 in the Faculty’s Guide for students at http://fbi.cqu.edu.au/FCWViewer/view.do?page=492
If you are having difficulty with any aspect of the assignment, including uploading of the assignment, please contact your Lecturer as soon as possible.
SOLUTION
Executive summary
Weyerhaeuser Company has yearly sales of around 25 billion and has nearly 54,000 employees in the United States and 18 other countries of the world. It is one of the largest companies dealing in paper and forest products. It has enjoyed fairly consistent success from 1970. In the 1980s while the domestic and global competition rose, the national economy witnessed a recession. The paper industry was also plagued by overcapacity. Suddenly the successful strategy of the company of being a big business group seemed inappropriate against the smaller and speedier rivals who were concentrating more on their customers. In wake of this do or die crisis, the top management of the company restructured it into three divisions which were the forest products, paper products and the real estate. The core values of the company were also specified by the management which highlighted the importance of customers for the company as well as the significance of its people, accountability and financial responsibility. To adhere to these values, the employees of the company were required to change their behaviors. To support the new behavior of its employees, a new system of human resource management was required. The managers of the company were trained to understand the innovative strategy and also its implications on the way new business units were to be managed1. The system of compensation and performance appraisal was also revised so that factors like teamwork, customer focus and environmental responsibility could be evaluated. With the change in business conditions, Weyerhaeuser’s structure and strategy will also continue to evolve and align with its HR policies and practices.
Introduction
Organizations have entered a phase which is characterized by changes which are very dramatic, rapid and turbulent2. These fast paced changes have also impacted the way work is performed by the employees in their organizations. In this way we can say that change has become an integral part of the organizational life (Kettley and Reilly, 2003). There are several trends that impact the
right in organizations. These changes have also impacted the human resources and management of human resources and a new term has been coined to describe the process of managing people in different organizations. This process is now also call personas management. Human resource management is related with the adoption of a strategic and coherent approach in managing the most valued assets of an organization3. These are the people who work for the organization and contribute jointly towards the achievement of organizational goals. Experts believe that human resource management can be treated as a set of interrelated policies which have a philosophical and ideological underpinning (Kearns, 2005).
Human resource management functions through the system of human resource that combines HR philosophies, strategies, policies, processes, practices and programs Becker and Gerhart (1996).
The importance attached to the strategic integration is perhaps the most important feature of human resource management. It flows from the vision of the top management and leadership. The ability of any organization to integrate the HRM issues with the strategic plans is a key policy goal for HRM4. It stresses that the HR policies should be integrated with each other as well as with the business plans of the organization.
Changes in Organizations
Organizations can experience several types of planned changes which may vary in degree and timing. When organizations undertake key adjustments in their methods of doing business, generally the need for radical changes arises. Radical organizational changes may be required in the event of adoption of new organizational structure or while changing from a private company to a publicly traded company. Radical changes are comparatively infrequent and usually take a long time to be implemented. Huge investments in planning and in the implementation of
changes are generally required when radical changes undertaken by the managers. Almost everyone and everything is touched by radical changes in the organization (Johnson and Scholes, 1997).
Incremental changes on the other hand are a continuous process of evolution in which small changes keep on taking place regularly. And the cumulative effect of these small changes has the capacity of transforming the organization completely. Still when these incremental changes are taking place, they appear to be only a normal aspect of improving and revising the methods of doing the work in the organization.
Timing of Change:
The difference in the magnitude of change can also be in reference to the timing of the change. Reactive change takes place when the organization is required to change in response to an event up in the external environment of the organization. These could be the new strategic moves of their competitors or new technological or scientific innovations. Performance problems could also be a reason for the need of reactive changes. Weyerhaeuser failed to comprehend the changes in its environment that shook paper and lumber industry and therefore it was forced to undergo radical reactive changes. In some cases the upcoming events can be predicted and the managers are able to foresee the changes that will be required to succeed in future. This is the case for anticipatory change which and argumentation undergoes when it takes action while anticipating upcoming events. At times even anticipating change can also be radical. This particularly happens when the leaders of the organization believe that major changes will be required even though no apparent crisis is present at that moment. As the organization faces no present crisis, the managers can carefully planned and implement the change in the gradual manner. Successful companies need to be adept at implementing all types of changes. They understand the need for continuous evaluation of their HR policies and practices to see if these are aligned and also to make adjustments in the human resource management system whenever required (Institute of Personnel and Development, 1999).
Learning organizations:
Learning has been identified as a significant core competency by several organizations. Learning organizations continuously try to find new methods to satisfy their customers and other stakeholders by integrating the resources of technology, information and people. These organizations are adept in handling both the incremental and radical changes. Although they undergo radical changes when required but more often they are able to anticipate the need for change in time before a crisis forces them to do so. HR policies and practices need to support the behavior for change and continuous learning. Experimentation, learning and documenting the learning is included in these behaviors (Hutchinson and Wood, 1995).
HR Planning and the Process of Change
In most of the organizations, the process of planning starts with the scanning of the external environment at the organization and the a vision regarding the place of the organization in coming five or ten years. Once the long term vision along with the clear objectives has been developed, the management team starts working backwards to understand the short term implications of such change. After this the organization may go through several cycles of short term planning as it moves closer to its long-term objectives (Guest et al, 2000). Generally there is a bit of chaos when strategic change takes place. In fact some organizations appear to thrive on such chaos but most of the organizations try to impose some kind of order and keep this chaos under control by implementing systematic planning during the process of strategic change.
Elements Of HR Planning: human resource planning reference to the activities that are associated with the scanning and assessing of the environment and also with specifying the objectives that need to be achieved by the HR activities along with the measures that will be used for assessing these achievements5. It is also related with the development of specific plans for human resource policies and practices and also with the timetable for implementing these plans.
In several companies, change is stimulated by the strategic objective of the company to improve customer satisfaction. It has been seen that the customer driven changes are more common in organizations from the manufacturing and service sectors. Human resource objectives provide in qualitative or quantitative terms what needs to be achieved with regard to the human resources of the organization. It is considered that if the HR objectives of the organizations are met, it becomes easier to achieve the overall strategic objectives of the organization (Hutchinson and Purcell, 2003). The organizations need to identify the measures which they are going to use to assess the progress made in achieving these objectives.
Aligning HR Planning and Business Planning:
It has been seen that during the time of heightened environmental stability the focus of HR planning is almost exclusively on matching the demand for human resources with its supply6. The main purpose of HR planning is to make sure that the right kinds of people are available at the right time and place so that the predictable business needs can be served effectively.
Organizational Analysis:
It involves the assessment of internal and external environment and the aim of this analysis to completely understand the present environment before taking any kind of action7. Although the idea that organizational analysis should be performed before taking any other action appears too obvious, its importance is generally underestimated by the organizations. Most of the tools used in this analysis are the HR tools used for planning and change.
HR Forecasts:
These forecasts estimate the future HR requirements of the firm. Forecasting efforts focus on developing estimates regarding a number of people and the kind of competencies they need to have. It also focuses on the likely supply of skills and people. Implementing plans which aim at ensuring the availability of right number of people the right kind of skills at the right time is also a part of HR forecasting.
Employees’ Opinions:
Opinion of the employees is also a source from which useful information can be collected during the process of organizational analysis. Opinions regarding problems as well as their potential solutions can prove to be very helpful especially when the HR professional are planning for a change in the organization. Employees’ opinions can be found using various methods like the employee surveys. The contents of these surveys depend on the areas which are of greatest concern in the organization. Other methods of knowing the employees opinions are focus groups and involving the employees and the development of plans regarding change in the organization.
A number of things can be done by organizations while implementing HR plans to increase the effectiveness during the process of change in the organization. These steps include involving the employees in the development of plans, managing resistance to change, showing respect in difficult times and establishing accountability in the organization. When the people responsible for preparing the plan for strategic change start following the principle of involvement, the implementation stage also starts by the time these plans are developed completely. The employees of the organization already have knowledge regarding the vision which they need to understand so that they can also be involved in the process of planning (Gratton, 2000).
Resistance to Change:
Most of the planned organizational change efforts face some kind of resistance. Different forms of this resistance include malicious compliance, immediate criticism, sabotage, deflection, silence and insincere agreement. The reasons behind this resistance are misunderstanding, cynicism and fear. Many people resist changes in the organization as the fear that they will not be able to develop the competencies that will be required to perform effectively in the new situation. Similarly people also resist change when they can’t understand the implications of such changes. Lack of trust and misunderstandings can create resistance if these are not addressed in time (Hoque and Moon, 2001).
Conclusion and recommendations
Most of the companies regardless of their size are being affected by the realities of globalization. Managers are constantly required to think about where their competition could be and where can they find their customers. Many times they realize that they need to be present in markets across the world to survive in the long run. They may also need to outsource or offshore a part of their activities due to cost or skill reasons. In such cases, HR professionals need to think about planning and managing workforce which is global in nature.
Reference list
Gratton, LA (2000) Real step change, People Management, 16 March, pp 27–30
Guest, D E, Michie, J, Sheehan, M and Conway, N (2000) Employment Relations, HRM and Business Performance, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, London
Hoque, K and Moon, M (2001) Counting angels: a comparison of personnel and HR specialists, Human Resource Management Journal, 11(3), pp 5–22
Hutchinson, S and Purcell, J (2003) Bringing Policies to Life: The vital role of front line managers in people management, CIPD, London
Hutchinson, S and Wood, S (1995) Personnel and the Line: Developing the Employment Relationship, IPD, London.
Institute of Personnel and Development (1999) Organisational Development – Whose Responsibility? IPD, London
Johnson, G and Scholes, K (1997) Exploring Corporate Strategy, Prentice Hall, Hemel Hempstead
Kearns, P (2005) Human Capital Management, Reed Business Information, Sutton, Surrey
Kettley, P and Reilly, P (2003) e HR: An introduction, Report No 398, Institute of Employment Studies, Brighton
LA46
“The presented piece of writing is a good example how the academic paper should be written. However, the text can’t be used as a part of your own and submitted to your professor – it will be considered as plagiarism.
