Sesaat adalah bagaikan sukar untuk dilupakan. Sebab itu banyak perkara yang tidak dapat dicapai kerana minda dan kemampuan yang tak seberapa. Bagaimana nak tingkatkan diri kita untuk mencapai apa yang hendak dicapai...berdampinglah dengan mereka yang cemerlang dalam perkara yang kita cari.
Lagi..apakah ubat sakit hati, sakit jiwa?
...kata orang bijak
baca Al-Quran (orang muslim),baca Alkitab atau ikut agama masing2..
Sedekahkan doa, minta maaf jika bersalah dan mudah memaafkan
beramal..selalu bersedekah kepada orang yang memerlukan..
lain fikir- fikirkan.....sama-sama kita cari.
Saya melihat cehaya di hadapan dan saya perlu mengejarnya.... teman-teman juga pasti melihat terang itu, kita harus mendapatkan kehidupan yang kekal yang Dia janjikan. Sayang bukan semua kehidupan yang kita rasa senang, lazimnya penderitaan harus ditempui dahulu, kemudian jika kita sabar peluang mendapat kejayaan pasti menanti. Anak-anak didikku, anda harus mengerti seni kehidupan di alam maya ini.Jika tidak, kita akan terpesong dari landasan kehidupan yang sebenar. Jawapan ada dalam diri kita sendiri. tinggal di sesuaikan dengan alam yang nyata.
Kelihatan wajah-wajah berseri, suara lembut dan kata dan bicara yang teratur menuju di kalbuku. Tangisan membayangkan bisikan di hati kecil, keluarga yang tersayang kadang pergi... tetapi DIA yang Maha Kuasa tidak pernah meninggalkan kita. Sebab DIA mengajar kita tentang kasih. Terima kasih Ibu,bapa dan semua saudara yang selalu mendorongku untuk berjuang dalam hidup yang penuh kesederhanaan ini. Sememangnya DIA berbicara selalu dan pasti akan memberi kita yang terbaik. Mintalah yang baik, maka akan diberi sesuai dengan yang diminta...tq
Selasa, 8 Disember 2009
HRM-7
Organizational studies
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Organizational studies, organizational behaviour, and organizational theory is the systematic study and careful application of knowledge about how people - as individuals and as groups - act within organizations.
[edit] Overview
Organizational Behaviour studies encompasses the study of organizations from multiple viewpoints, methods, and levels of analysis. For instance, one textbook [1] divides these multiple viewpoints into three perspectives: modern, symbolic, and postmodern. Another traditional distinction, present especially in American academia, is between the study of "micro" organizational behavior -- which refers to individual and group dynamics in an organizational setting -- and "macro" organizational theory which studies whole organizations, how they adapt, and the strategies and structures that guide them. To this distinction, some scholars have added an interest in "meso" -- primarily interested in power, culture, and the networks of individuals and units in organizations -- and "field" level analysis which study how whole populations of organizations interact. In Europe these distinctions do exist as well, but are more rarely reflected in departmental divisions.
Whenever people interact in organizations, many factors come into play. Modern organizational studies attempt to understand and model these factors. Like all modernist social sciences, organizational studies seek to control, predict, and explain. There is some controversy over the ethics of controlling workers' behaviour. As such, organizational behaviour or OB (and its cousin, Industrial psychology) have at times been accused of being the scientific tool of the powerful.[citation needed] Those accusations notwithstanding, OB can play a major role in organizational development and success.
One of the main goals of organizational theorists is, according to Simms (1994) "to revitalize organizational theory and develop a better conceptualization of organizational life."[2] An organizational theorist should carefully consider levels assumptions being made in theory[3], and is concerned to help managers and administrators.[4]
[edit] History
The Greek philosopher Plato wrote about the essence of leadership. Aristotle addressed the topic of persuasive communication. The writings of 16th century Italian philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli laid the foundation for contemporary work on organizational power and politics. In 1776, Adam Smith advocated a new form of organizational structure based on the division of labour. One hundred years later, German sociologist Max Weber wrote about rational organizations and initiated discussion of charismatic leadership. Soon after, Frederick Winslow Taylor introduced the systematic use of goal setting and rewards to motivate employees. In the 1920s, Australian-born Harvard professor Elton Mayo and his colleagues conducted productivity studies at Western Electric's Hawthorne plant in the United States.
Though it traces its roots back to Max Weber and earlier, organizational studies is generally considered to have begun as an academic discipline with the advent of scientific management in the 1890s, with Taylorism representing the peak of this movement. Proponents of scientific management held that rationalizing the organization with precise sets of instructions and time-motion studies would lead to increased productivity. Studies of different compensation systems were carried out.
After the First World War, the focus of organizational studies shifted to analysis of how human factors and psychology affected organizations, a transformation propelled by the identification of the Hawthorne Effect. This Human Relations Movement focused on teams, motivation, and the actualization of the goals of individuals within organizations.
Prominent early scholars included Chester Barnard, Henri Fayol, Frederick Herzberg, Abraham Maslow, David McClelland, and Victor Vroom.
The Second World War further shifted the field, as the invention of large-scale logistics and operations research led to a renewed interest in rationalist approaches to the study of organizations. Interest grew in theory and methods native to the sciences, including systems theory, the study of organizations with a complexity theory perspective and complexity strategy. Influential work was done by Herbert Alexander Simon and James G. March and the so-called "Carnegie School" of organizational behavior.
In the 1960s and 1970s, the field was strongly influenced by social psychology and the emphasis in academic study was on quantitative research. An explosion of theorizing, much of it at Stanford University and Carnegie Mellon, produced Bounded Rationality, Informal Organization, Contingency Theory, Resource Dependence, Institutional Theory, and Organizational Ecology theories, among many others.
Starting in the 1980s, cultural explanations of organizations and change became an important part of study. Qualitative methods of study became more acceptable, informed by anthropology, psychology and sociology. A leading scholar was Karl Weick.
[edit] Specific Contributions
Frederick Winslow Taylor
Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856-1915) was the first person who attempted to study human behavior at work using a systematic approach. Taylor studied human characteristics, social environment, task, physical environment, capacity, speed, durability, cost and their interaction with each other. His overall objective was to reduce and/or remove human variability. Taylor worked to achieve his goal of making work behaviors stable and predictable so that maximum output could be achieved. He relied strongly upon monetary incentive systems, believing that humans are primarily motivated by money. He faced some strong criticism, including being accused of telling managers to treat workers as machines without minds, but his work was very productive and laid many foundation principles for modern management studies. An enlightening book about the life of Frederick Winslow Taylor and his studies is that by Kanigel (1997)[5].
Elton Mayo
Elton Mayo, an Australian national, headed the Hawthorne Studies at Harvard. In his classic writing in 1931, Human Problems of an Industrial Civilization, he advised managers to deal with emotional needs of employees at work.
Mary Parker Follett
Mary Parker Follett was a pioneer management consultant in the industrial world. As a writer, she provided analyses on workers as having complex combinations of attitude, beliefs, and needs. She told managers to motivate employees on their job performance, a "pull" rather than a "push" strategy.
Douglas McGregor
Douglas McGregor proposed two theories/assumptions, which are very nearly the opposite of each other, about human nature based on his experience as a management consultant. His first theory was “Theory X”, which is pessimistic and negative; and according to McGregor it is how managers traditionally perceive their workers. Then, in order to help managers replace that theory/assumption, he gave “Theory Y” which takes a more modern and positive approach. He believed that managers could achieve more if they start perceiving their employees as self-energized, committed, responsible and creative beings. By means of his Theory Y, he in fact challenged the traditional theorists to adopt a developmental approach to their employees. He also wrote a book, The Human Side of Enterprise, in 1960; this book has become a foundation for the modern view of employees at work.
[edit] Current state of the field
Organizational behaviour is currently a growing field. Organizational studies departments generally form part of business schools, although many universities also have industrial psychology and industrial economics programs.
The field is highly influential in the business world with practitioners like Peter Drucker and Peter Senge, who turned the academic research into business practices. Organizational behaviour is becoming more important in the global economy as people with diverse backgrounds and cultural values have to work together effectively and efficiently. It is also under increasing criticism as a field for its ethnocentric and pro-capitalist assumptions (see Critical Management Studies).
During the last 20 years organizational behavior study and practice has developed and expanded through creating integrations with other domains:
• Anthropology became an interesting prism to understanding firms as communities, by introducing concepts like Organizational culture, 'organizational rituals' and 'symbolic acts' enabling new ways to understand organizations as communities.
• Leadership Understanding: the crucial role of leadership at various level of an organization in the process of change management.
• Ethics and their importance as pillars of any vision and one of the most important driving forces in an organization.
[edit] Methods used in organizational studies
A variety of methods are used in organizational studies. They include quantitative methods found in other social sciences such as multiple regression, non-parametric statistics, time dependent analysis, and ANOVA. In addition, computer simulation in organizational studies has a long history in organizational studies. Qualitative methods are also used, such as ethnography, which involves direct participant observation, single and multiple case analysis, and other historical methods. In the last fifteen years or so, there has been greater focus on language, metaphors, and organizational storytelling.
[edit] Systems framework
Kurt Lewin attended the Macy conferences and is commonly identified as the founder of the movement to study groups scientifically.
The systems framework is also fundamental to organizational theory as organizations are complex dynamic goal-oriented processes. One of the early thinkers in the field was Alexander Bogdanov, who developed his Tectology, a theory widely considered a precursor of Bertalanffy's General Systems Theory, aiming to model and design human organizations. Kurt Lewin was particularly influential in developing the systems perspective within organizational theory and coined the term "systems of ideology", from his frustration with behavioural psychologies that became an obstacle to sustainable work in psychology (see Ash 1992: 198-207). The complexity theory perspective on organizations is another systems view of organizations.
The systems approach to organizations relies heavily upon achieving negative entropy through openness and feedback. A systemic view on organizations is transdisciplinary and integrative. In other words, it transcends the perspectives of individual disciplines, integrating them on the basis of a common "code", or more exactly, on the basis of the formal apparatus provided by systems theory. The systems approach gives primacy to the interrelationships, not to the elements of the system. It is from these dynamic interrelationships that new properties of the system emerge. In recent years, systems thinking has been developed to provide techniques for studying systems in holistic ways to supplement traditional reductionistic methods. In this more recent tradition, systems theory in organizational studies is considered by some as a humanistic extension of the natural sciences.
[edit] Theories and models of organizational studies
Decision making
• Mintzberg's managerial roles
• Rational Decision-Making Model
• Scientific management
• Garbage Can Model
Organization structures and dynamics
• Bureaucracy
• Complexity theory and organizations
• Contingency theory
• Evolutionary Theory and organizations
• Hybrid organisation
• Incentive theory (organization)
• Informal Organization
• Institutional theory
• Merger integration
• Organizational ecology
• Model of Organizational Citizenship behaviour
• Model of organizational justice
• Model of Organizational Misbehaviour
• Resource dependence theory
• Transaction cost
• Hofstede's Framework for Assessing Cultures
• Mintzberg's Organigraph
Personality traits theories
• Big Five personality traits
• Holland's Typology of Personality and Congruent Occupations
• Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
Control and stress modelling
• Herzberg's Two factor theory
• Theory X and Theory Y
Motivation in organizations
Motivation the forces either internal or external to a person that arouse enthusiasm and resistance to pursue a certain course of action. According to Baron et al. (2008)[6]: "Although motivation is a broad and complex concept, organizational scientists have agreed on its basic characteristics. Drawing from various social sciences, we define motivation as the set of processes that arouse, direct, and maintain human behavior toward attaining some goal"
There are many different motivation theories such as:
• Attribution theory
• Equity theory
• Maslow's hierarchy of needs
• Incentive theory (psychology)
• Model of emotional labor in organizations
• Frederick Herzberg two-factor theory
[edit] Organization-focused journals
Primary organization-focused journals
• Academy of Management Journal
• Academy of Management Review
• Administrative Science Quarterly
• Journal of Management[7]
• Journal of Organizational Behavior
• Management Communication Quarterly[8]
• Management Science: A Journal of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences *Journal of Management Studies[9]
• Organization Science: A Journal of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences
o Strategic Management Journal[10]
• Strategic Organization - SO![11]
Other journals
• Journal of Applied Psychology
• Organization Studies
• Organization
• Management Learning Management Learning
• International Journal of Knowledge Culture and Change Management [12]
• Journal of Organizational Change Management [13]*European Management Review [14]*Anthropology of Work Review [15]
• Research in Organizational behaviour [16]
• Organizational behaviour and Human Decision Processes [17]
• Human Relations
• Journal of Management Development [18]
[edit] See also
• Organization design
• Organization development
• Organizational Dissent
• Organizational engineering
• Introduction to Organizational Behaviour
[edit] References
1. ^ Hatch, M. & Cunliffe, A., 2006
2. ^ Lillian Margaret Simms, Sylvia Anderson Price, Naomi E. Ervin (1994). The professional practice of nursing administration. p.121.
3. ^ Fredric M. Jablin, Linda Putnam (2000). The new handbook of organizational communication: advances in theory. p.146.
4. ^ Michael I. Reed (1985). Redirections in organizational analysis. p.108.
5. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organizational_studies#Further_reading
6. ^ Baron, Robert A., and Greenberg, Jerald. Behavior in organizations – 9th edition. Pearson Education Inc., New Jersey: 2008. p.248
7. ^ [1]
8. ^ Management Communication Quarterly
9. ^ Journal of Management Studies
10. ^ Strategic Management Journal
11. ^ Strategic Organization - SO
12. ^ International Journal of Knowledge Culture and Change Management
13. ^ Journal of Organizational Change Management
14. ^ European Management Review
15. ^ Anthropology of Work Review
16. ^ Research in Organizational behaviour
17. ^ Organizational behaviour and Human Decision Processes
18. ^ Journal of Management Development
[edit] Further reading
• Ash, M.G. 1992. "Cultural Contexts and Scientific Change in Psychology: Kurt Lewin in Iowa." American Psychologist, Vol. 47, No. 2, pp. 198-207.
• Hatch, M.J., "Organization Theory: Modern, symbolic, and postmodern perspectives." 2nd Ed. Oxford University Press (2006) ISBN 0-19-926021-4.
• Robbins, Stephen P. Organizational Behavior - Concepts, Controversies, Applications. 4th Ed. Prentice Hall (2004) ISBN 0-13-170901-1.
• Scott, W. Richard. Organizations and Organizing: Rational, Natural, and Open Systems Perspectives. Pearson Prentice Hall (2007) ISBN 0-13-195893-3.
• Weick, Karl E. The Social Psychology of Organizing 2nd Ed. McGraw Hill (1979) ISBN 0-07-554808-9.
• Simon, Herbert A. Administrative Behavior: A Study of Decision-Making Processes in Administrative Organizations, 4th ed. 1997, The Free Press.
• Tompkins, Jonathan R. "Organization Theory and Public Management".Thompson Wadsworth (2005) ISBN 978-0-534-17468-2
• Kanigel, R. (1997). The One Best Way, Frederick Winslow Taylor and the Enigma of Efficiency. London: Brown and Co.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organizational_studies"
Categories: Organizational studies and human resource management | Organizational theory
• This page was last modified on 27 October 2009 at 23:47.
• Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License;
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Organizational studies, organizational behaviour, and organizational theory is the systematic study and careful application of knowledge about how people - as individuals and as groups - act within organizations.
[edit] Overview
Organizational Behaviour studies encompasses the study of organizations from multiple viewpoints, methods, and levels of analysis. For instance, one textbook [1] divides these multiple viewpoints into three perspectives: modern, symbolic, and postmodern. Another traditional distinction, present especially in American academia, is between the study of "micro" organizational behavior -- which refers to individual and group dynamics in an organizational setting -- and "macro" organizational theory which studies whole organizations, how they adapt, and the strategies and structures that guide them. To this distinction, some scholars have added an interest in "meso" -- primarily interested in power, culture, and the networks of individuals and units in organizations -- and "field" level analysis which study how whole populations of organizations interact. In Europe these distinctions do exist as well, but are more rarely reflected in departmental divisions.
Whenever people interact in organizations, many factors come into play. Modern organizational studies attempt to understand and model these factors. Like all modernist social sciences, organizational studies seek to control, predict, and explain. There is some controversy over the ethics of controlling workers' behaviour. As such, organizational behaviour or OB (and its cousin, Industrial psychology) have at times been accused of being the scientific tool of the powerful.[citation needed] Those accusations notwithstanding, OB can play a major role in organizational development and success.
One of the main goals of organizational theorists is, according to Simms (1994) "to revitalize organizational theory and develop a better conceptualization of organizational life."[2] An organizational theorist should carefully consider levels assumptions being made in theory[3], and is concerned to help managers and administrators.[4]
[edit] History
The Greek philosopher Plato wrote about the essence of leadership. Aristotle addressed the topic of persuasive communication. The writings of 16th century Italian philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli laid the foundation for contemporary work on organizational power and politics. In 1776, Adam Smith advocated a new form of organizational structure based on the division of labour. One hundred years later, German sociologist Max Weber wrote about rational organizations and initiated discussion of charismatic leadership. Soon after, Frederick Winslow Taylor introduced the systematic use of goal setting and rewards to motivate employees. In the 1920s, Australian-born Harvard professor Elton Mayo and his colleagues conducted productivity studies at Western Electric's Hawthorne plant in the United States.
Though it traces its roots back to Max Weber and earlier, organizational studies is generally considered to have begun as an academic discipline with the advent of scientific management in the 1890s, with Taylorism representing the peak of this movement. Proponents of scientific management held that rationalizing the organization with precise sets of instructions and time-motion studies would lead to increased productivity. Studies of different compensation systems were carried out.
After the First World War, the focus of organizational studies shifted to analysis of how human factors and psychology affected organizations, a transformation propelled by the identification of the Hawthorne Effect. This Human Relations Movement focused on teams, motivation, and the actualization of the goals of individuals within organizations.
Prominent early scholars included Chester Barnard, Henri Fayol, Frederick Herzberg, Abraham Maslow, David McClelland, and Victor Vroom.
The Second World War further shifted the field, as the invention of large-scale logistics and operations research led to a renewed interest in rationalist approaches to the study of organizations. Interest grew in theory and methods native to the sciences, including systems theory, the study of organizations with a complexity theory perspective and complexity strategy. Influential work was done by Herbert Alexander Simon and James G. March and the so-called "Carnegie School" of organizational behavior.
In the 1960s and 1970s, the field was strongly influenced by social psychology and the emphasis in academic study was on quantitative research. An explosion of theorizing, much of it at Stanford University and Carnegie Mellon, produced Bounded Rationality, Informal Organization, Contingency Theory, Resource Dependence, Institutional Theory, and Organizational Ecology theories, among many others.
Starting in the 1980s, cultural explanations of organizations and change became an important part of study. Qualitative methods of study became more acceptable, informed by anthropology, psychology and sociology. A leading scholar was Karl Weick.
[edit] Specific Contributions
Frederick Winslow Taylor
Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856-1915) was the first person who attempted to study human behavior at work using a systematic approach. Taylor studied human characteristics, social environment, task, physical environment, capacity, speed, durability, cost and their interaction with each other. His overall objective was to reduce and/or remove human variability. Taylor worked to achieve his goal of making work behaviors stable and predictable so that maximum output could be achieved. He relied strongly upon monetary incentive systems, believing that humans are primarily motivated by money. He faced some strong criticism, including being accused of telling managers to treat workers as machines without minds, but his work was very productive and laid many foundation principles for modern management studies. An enlightening book about the life of Frederick Winslow Taylor and his studies is that by Kanigel (1997)[5].
Elton Mayo
Elton Mayo, an Australian national, headed the Hawthorne Studies at Harvard. In his classic writing in 1931, Human Problems of an Industrial Civilization, he advised managers to deal with emotional needs of employees at work.
Mary Parker Follett
Mary Parker Follett was a pioneer management consultant in the industrial world. As a writer, she provided analyses on workers as having complex combinations of attitude, beliefs, and needs. She told managers to motivate employees on their job performance, a "pull" rather than a "push" strategy.
Douglas McGregor
Douglas McGregor proposed two theories/assumptions, which are very nearly the opposite of each other, about human nature based on his experience as a management consultant. His first theory was “Theory X”, which is pessimistic and negative; and according to McGregor it is how managers traditionally perceive their workers. Then, in order to help managers replace that theory/assumption, he gave “Theory Y” which takes a more modern and positive approach. He believed that managers could achieve more if they start perceiving their employees as self-energized, committed, responsible and creative beings. By means of his Theory Y, he in fact challenged the traditional theorists to adopt a developmental approach to their employees. He also wrote a book, The Human Side of Enterprise, in 1960; this book has become a foundation for the modern view of employees at work.
[edit] Current state of the field
Organizational behaviour is currently a growing field. Organizational studies departments generally form part of business schools, although many universities also have industrial psychology and industrial economics programs.
The field is highly influential in the business world with practitioners like Peter Drucker and Peter Senge, who turned the academic research into business practices. Organizational behaviour is becoming more important in the global economy as people with diverse backgrounds and cultural values have to work together effectively and efficiently. It is also under increasing criticism as a field for its ethnocentric and pro-capitalist assumptions (see Critical Management Studies).
During the last 20 years organizational behavior study and practice has developed and expanded through creating integrations with other domains:
• Anthropology became an interesting prism to understanding firms as communities, by introducing concepts like Organizational culture, 'organizational rituals' and 'symbolic acts' enabling new ways to understand organizations as communities.
• Leadership Understanding: the crucial role of leadership at various level of an organization in the process of change management.
• Ethics and their importance as pillars of any vision and one of the most important driving forces in an organization.
[edit] Methods used in organizational studies
A variety of methods are used in organizational studies. They include quantitative methods found in other social sciences such as multiple regression, non-parametric statistics, time dependent analysis, and ANOVA. In addition, computer simulation in organizational studies has a long history in organizational studies. Qualitative methods are also used, such as ethnography, which involves direct participant observation, single and multiple case analysis, and other historical methods. In the last fifteen years or so, there has been greater focus on language, metaphors, and organizational storytelling.
[edit] Systems framework
Kurt Lewin attended the Macy conferences and is commonly identified as the founder of the movement to study groups scientifically.
The systems framework is also fundamental to organizational theory as organizations are complex dynamic goal-oriented processes. One of the early thinkers in the field was Alexander Bogdanov, who developed his Tectology, a theory widely considered a precursor of Bertalanffy's General Systems Theory, aiming to model and design human organizations. Kurt Lewin was particularly influential in developing the systems perspective within organizational theory and coined the term "systems of ideology", from his frustration with behavioural psychologies that became an obstacle to sustainable work in psychology (see Ash 1992: 198-207). The complexity theory perspective on organizations is another systems view of organizations.
The systems approach to organizations relies heavily upon achieving negative entropy through openness and feedback. A systemic view on organizations is transdisciplinary and integrative. In other words, it transcends the perspectives of individual disciplines, integrating them on the basis of a common "code", or more exactly, on the basis of the formal apparatus provided by systems theory. The systems approach gives primacy to the interrelationships, not to the elements of the system. It is from these dynamic interrelationships that new properties of the system emerge. In recent years, systems thinking has been developed to provide techniques for studying systems in holistic ways to supplement traditional reductionistic methods. In this more recent tradition, systems theory in organizational studies is considered by some as a humanistic extension of the natural sciences.
[edit] Theories and models of organizational studies
Decision making
• Mintzberg's managerial roles
• Rational Decision-Making Model
• Scientific management
• Garbage Can Model
Organization structures and dynamics
• Bureaucracy
• Complexity theory and organizations
• Contingency theory
• Evolutionary Theory and organizations
• Hybrid organisation
• Incentive theory (organization)
• Informal Organization
• Institutional theory
• Merger integration
• Organizational ecology
• Model of Organizational Citizenship behaviour
• Model of organizational justice
• Model of Organizational Misbehaviour
• Resource dependence theory
• Transaction cost
• Hofstede's Framework for Assessing Cultures
• Mintzberg's Organigraph
Personality traits theories
• Big Five personality traits
• Holland's Typology of Personality and Congruent Occupations
• Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
Control and stress modelling
• Herzberg's Two factor theory
• Theory X and Theory Y
Motivation in organizations
Motivation the forces either internal or external to a person that arouse enthusiasm and resistance to pursue a certain course of action. According to Baron et al. (2008)[6]: "Although motivation is a broad and complex concept, organizational scientists have agreed on its basic characteristics. Drawing from various social sciences, we define motivation as the set of processes that arouse, direct, and maintain human behavior toward attaining some goal"
There are many different motivation theories such as:
• Attribution theory
• Equity theory
• Maslow's hierarchy of needs
• Incentive theory (psychology)
• Model of emotional labor in organizations
• Frederick Herzberg two-factor theory
[edit] Organization-focused journals
Primary organization-focused journals
• Academy of Management Journal
• Academy of Management Review
• Administrative Science Quarterly
• Journal of Management[7]
• Journal of Organizational Behavior
• Management Communication Quarterly[8]
• Management Science: A Journal of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences *Journal of Management Studies[9]
• Organization Science: A Journal of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences
o Strategic Management Journal[10]
• Strategic Organization - SO![11]
Other journals
• Journal of Applied Psychology
• Organization Studies
• Organization
• Management Learning Management Learning
• International Journal of Knowledge Culture and Change Management [12]
• Journal of Organizational Change Management [13]*European Management Review [14]*Anthropology of Work Review [15]
• Research in Organizational behaviour [16]
• Organizational behaviour and Human Decision Processes [17]
• Human Relations
• Journal of Management Development [18]
[edit] See also
• Organization design
• Organization development
• Organizational Dissent
• Organizational engineering
• Introduction to Organizational Behaviour
[edit] References
1. ^ Hatch, M. & Cunliffe, A., 2006
2. ^ Lillian Margaret Simms, Sylvia Anderson Price, Naomi E. Ervin (1994). The professional practice of nursing administration. p.121.
3. ^ Fredric M. Jablin, Linda Putnam (2000). The new handbook of organizational communication: advances in theory. p.146.
4. ^ Michael I. Reed (1985). Redirections in organizational analysis. p.108.
5. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organizational_studies#Further_reading
6. ^ Baron, Robert A., and Greenberg, Jerald. Behavior in organizations – 9th edition. Pearson Education Inc., New Jersey: 2008. p.248
7. ^ [1]
8. ^ Management Communication Quarterly
9. ^ Journal of Management Studies
10. ^ Strategic Management Journal
11. ^ Strategic Organization - SO
12. ^ International Journal of Knowledge Culture and Change Management
13. ^ Journal of Organizational Change Management
14. ^ European Management Review
15. ^ Anthropology of Work Review
16. ^ Research in Organizational behaviour
17. ^ Organizational behaviour and Human Decision Processes
18. ^ Journal of Management Development
[edit] Further reading
• Ash, M.G. 1992. "Cultural Contexts and Scientific Change in Psychology: Kurt Lewin in Iowa." American Psychologist, Vol. 47, No. 2, pp. 198-207.
• Hatch, M.J., "Organization Theory: Modern, symbolic, and postmodern perspectives." 2nd Ed. Oxford University Press (2006) ISBN 0-19-926021-4.
• Robbins, Stephen P. Organizational Behavior - Concepts, Controversies, Applications. 4th Ed. Prentice Hall (2004) ISBN 0-13-170901-1.
• Scott, W. Richard. Organizations and Organizing: Rational, Natural, and Open Systems Perspectives. Pearson Prentice Hall (2007) ISBN 0-13-195893-3.
• Weick, Karl E. The Social Psychology of Organizing 2nd Ed. McGraw Hill (1979) ISBN 0-07-554808-9.
• Simon, Herbert A. Administrative Behavior: A Study of Decision-Making Processes in Administrative Organizations, 4th ed. 1997, The Free Press.
• Tompkins, Jonathan R. "Organization Theory and Public Management".Thompson Wadsworth (2005) ISBN 978-0-534-17468-2
• Kanigel, R. (1997). The One Best Way, Frederick Winslow Taylor and the Enigma of Efficiency. London: Brown and Co.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organizational_studies"
Categories: Organizational studies and human resource management | Organizational theory
• This page was last modified on 27 October 2009 at 23:47.
• Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License;
HRM-6
Organizational Behavior
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Academic field of study concerned with human behavior in organizations; also called organizational psychology. It covers topics such as Motivation, Group Dynamics, leadership, organization structure, decision making, careers, conflict resolution, and Organizational Development. When this subject is taught in business schools, it is called organizational behavior; when it is taught in psychology departments, it is called organizational psychology.
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Organizational behavior is an academic discipline concerned with describing, understanding, predicting, and controlling human behavior in an organizational environment. Organizational behavior has evolved from early classical management theories into a complex school of thought—and it continues to change in response to the dynamic environment and proliferating corporate cultures in which today's businesses operate. "The task of getting organizations to function effectively is a difficult one," wrote David A. Nadler and Michael L. Tushman in Hackman, Lawler, and Porter's Perspectives on Behaviors in Organizations. "Understanding one individual's behavior is a challenging problem in and of itself. A group, made up of different individuals and multiple relationships among those individuals, is even more complex…. In the fact of this overwhelming complexity, organizational behavior must be managed. Ultimately the work of organizations gets done through the behavior of people, individually or collectively, on their own or in collaboration with technology. Thus, central to the management task is the management of organizational behavior. To do this, there must be the capacity to understand the patterns of behavior at individual, group, and organization levels, to predict what behavior responses will be elicited by different managerial actions, and finally to use understanding and prediction to achieve control."
The Behavioral Sciences
Organizational behavior scientists study four primary areas of behavioral science: individual behavior, group behavior, organizational structure, and organizational processes. They investigate many facets of these areas like personality and perception, attitudes and job satisfaction, group dynamics, politics and the role of leadership in the organization, job design, the impact of stress on work, decision-making processes, the communications chain, and company cultures and climates. They use a variety of techniques and approaches to evaluate each of these elements and its impact on individuals, groups, and organizational efficiency and effectiveness. "The behavior sciences," stated Gibson, Ivancevich, and Donnelly in Organizations: Behavior, Structure, Processes, "have provided the basic framework and principles for the field of organizational behavior. Each behavioral science discipline provides a slightly different focus, analytical framework, and theme for helping managers answer questions about themselves, nonmanagers, and environmental forces."
In regard to individuals and groups, researchers try to determine why people behave the way they do.
They have developed a variety of models designed to explain individuals' behavior. They investigate the factors that influence personality development, including genetic, situational, environmental, cultural, and social factors. Researchers also examine various personality types and their impact on business and other organizations. One of the primary tools utilized by organizational behavior researchers in these and other areas of study is the job satisfaction study. These tools are used not only to measure job satisfaction in such tangible areas as pay, benefits, promotional opportunities, and working conditions, but also to gauge how individual and group behavior patterns influence corporate culture, both positively and negatively.
Organizational Behavior and Corporate Culture
The terms "corporate culture" and "organizational behavior" are sometimes used interchangeably, but in reality, there are differences between the two. Corporate culture encompasses the shared values, attitudes, standards, and beliefs and other characteristics that define an organization's operating philosophy. Organizational behavior, meanwhile, can be under-stood in some ways as the academic study of corporate culture and its various elements, as well as other important components of behavior such as organization structure and organization processes. Organizational behavior, said Gibson, Ivancevich, and Donnelly, is "the field of study that draws on theory, methods, and principles from various disciplines to learn about individual perceptions, values, learning capacities, and actions while working in groups and within the total organization; analyzing the external environment's effect on the organization and its human resources, missions, objectives, and strategies.…Effective managers know what to look for in terms of structure, process, and culture and how to under-stand what they find. Therefore, managers must develop diagnostic skills; they must be trained to identify conditions symptomatic of a problem requiring further attention. Problem indicators include declining profits, declining quantity or quality of work, increases in absenteeism or tardiness, and negative employee attitudes. Each of these problems is an issue of organizational behavior."
Further Reading:
Connors, Roger, and Tom Smith. "Benchmarking Cultural Transition." Journal of Business Strategy. May 2000.
Egan, Gerard. "Cultivate Your Culture." Management Today. April 1994.
Gibson, James L., John M. Ivancevich, and James H. Donnelly Jr. Organizations: Behavior, Structure, Processes. 8th ed. Boston: Richard D. Irwin, 1994.
Gordon, George G. "Industry Determinants of Organizational Culture." Academy of Management Review. April 1991.
Hodgetts, Richard M. Organizational Behavior: Theory and Practice. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1991.
Nijhof, Andre H.J., and Marius M. Rietdijk. "An ABC Analysis of Ethical Organizational Behavior." Journal of Business Ethics. May 15, 1999.
Phegan, Barry. Developing Your Company Culture: The Joy of Leadership. Context Press, 1996.
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Business Dictionary: Organizational Behavior
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Home > Library > Business & Finance > Business Dictionary
Academic field of study concerned with human behavior in organizations; also called organizational psychology. It covers topics such as Motivation, Group Dynamics, leadership, organization structure, decision making, careers, conflict resolution, and Organizational Development. When this subject is taught in business schools, it is called organizational behavior; when it is taught in psychology departments, it is called organizational psychology.
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Small Business Encyclopedia: Organizational Behavior
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Home > Library > Business & Finance > Small Business Encyclopedia
Organizational behavior is an academic discipline concerned with describing, understanding, predicting, and controlling human behavior in an organizational environment. Organizational behavior has evolved from early classical management theories into a complex school of thought—and it continues to change in response to the dynamic environment and proliferating corporate cultures in which today's businesses operate. "The task of getting organizations to function effectively is a difficult one," wrote David A. Nadler and Michael L. Tushman in Hackman, Lawler, and Porter's Perspectives on Behaviors in Organizations. "Understanding one individual's behavior is a challenging problem in and of itself. A group, made up of different individuals and multiple relationships among those individuals, is even more complex…. In the fact of this overwhelming complexity, organizational behavior must be managed. Ultimately the work of organizations gets done through the behavior of people, individually or collectively, on their own or in collaboration with technology. Thus, central to the management task is the management of organizational behavior. To do this, there must be the capacity to understand the patterns of behavior at individual, group, and organization levels, to predict what behavior responses will be elicited by different managerial actions, and finally to use understanding and prediction to achieve control."
The Behavioral Sciences
Organizational behavior scientists study four primary areas of behavioral science: individual behavior, group behavior, organizational structure, and organizational processes. They investigate many facets of these areas like personality and perception, attitudes and job satisfaction, group dynamics, politics and the role of leadership in the organization, job design, the impact of stress on work, decision-making processes, the communications chain, and company cultures and climates. They use a variety of techniques and approaches to evaluate each of these elements and its impact on individuals, groups, and organizational efficiency and effectiveness. "The behavior sciences," stated Gibson, Ivancevich, and Donnelly in Organizations: Behavior, Structure, Processes, "have provided the basic framework and principles for the field of organizational behavior. Each behavioral science discipline provides a slightly different focus, analytical framework, and theme for helping managers answer questions about themselves, nonmanagers, and environmental forces."
In regard to individuals and groups, researchers try to determine why people behave the way they do.
They have developed a variety of models designed to explain individuals' behavior. They investigate the factors that influence personality development, including genetic, situational, environmental, cultural, and social factors. Researchers also examine various personality types and their impact on business and other organizations. One of the primary tools utilized by organizational behavior researchers in these and other areas of study is the job satisfaction study. These tools are used not only to measure job satisfaction in such tangible areas as pay, benefits, promotional opportunities, and working conditions, but also to gauge how individual and group behavior patterns influence corporate culture, both positively and negatively.
Organizational Behavior and Corporate Culture
The terms "corporate culture" and "organizational behavior" are sometimes used interchangeably, but in reality, there are differences between the two. Corporate culture encompasses the shared values, attitudes, standards, and beliefs and other characteristics that define an organization's operating philosophy. Organizational behavior, meanwhile, can be under-stood in some ways as the academic study of corporate culture and its various elements, as well as other important components of behavior such as organization structure and organization processes. Organizational behavior, said Gibson, Ivancevich, and Donnelly, is "the field of study that draws on theory, methods, and principles from various disciplines to learn about individual perceptions, values, learning capacities, and actions while working in groups and within the total organization; analyzing the external environment's effect on the organization and its human resources, missions, objectives, and strategies.…Effective managers know what to look for in terms of structure, process, and culture and how to under-stand what they find. Therefore, managers must develop diagnostic skills; they must be trained to identify conditions symptomatic of a problem requiring further attention. Problem indicators include declining profits, declining quantity or quality of work, increases in absenteeism or tardiness, and negative employee attitudes. Each of these problems is an issue of organizational behavior."
Further Reading:
Connors, Roger, and Tom Smith. "Benchmarking Cultural Transition." Journal of Business Strategy. May 2000.
Egan, Gerard. "Cultivate Your Culture." Management Today. April 1994.
Gibson, James L., John M. Ivancevich, and James H. Donnelly Jr. Organizations: Behavior, Structure, Processes. 8th ed. Boston: Richard D. Irwin, 1994.
Gordon, George G. "Industry Determinants of Organizational Culture." Academy of Management Review. April 1991.
Hodgetts, Richard M. Organizational Behavior: Theory and Practice. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1991.
Nijhof, Andre H.J., and Marius M. Rietdijk. "An ABC Analysis of Ethical Organizational Behavior." Journal of Business Ethics. May 15, 1999.
Phegan, Barry. Developing Your Company Culture: The Joy of Leadership. Context Press, 1996.
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sg.news.yahoo.com/business
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www.lateralapproach.com
HRM-5
Organizational Behavior
Introduction
Organizational Behavior (OB) is the study and application of knowledge about how people, individuals, and groups act in organizations. It does this by taking a system approach. That is, it interprets people-organization relationships in terms of the whole person, whole group, whole organization, and whole social system. Its purpose is to build better relationships by achieving human objectives, organizational objectives, and social objectives.
As you can see from the definition above, organizational behavior encompasses a wide range of topics, such as human behavior, change, leadership, teams, etc. Since many of these topics are covered elsewhere in the leadership guide, this paper will focus on a few parts of OB: elements, models, social systems, OD, work life, action learning, and change.
Elements of Organizational Behavior
The organization's base rests on management's philosophy, values, vision and goals. This in turn drives the organizational culture which is composed of the formal organization, informal organization, and the social environment. The culture determines the type of leadership, communication, and group dynamics within the organization. The workers perceive this as the quality of work life which directs their degree of motivation. The final outcome are performance, individual satisfaction, and personal growth and development. All these elements combine to build the model or framework that the organization operates from.
Models of Organizational Behavior
There are four major models or frameworks that organizations operate out of:
o Autocratic - The basis of this model is power with a managerial orientation of authority. The employees in turn are oriented towards obedience and dependence on the boss. The employee need that is met is subsistence. The performance result is minimal.
o Custodial - The basis of this model is economic resources with a managerial orientation of money. The employees in turn are oriented towards security and benefits and dependence on the organization. The employee need that is met is security. The performance result is passive cooperation.
o Supportive - The basis of this model is leadership with a managerial orientation of support. The employees in turn are oriented towards job performance and participation. The employee need that is met is status and recognition. The performance result is awakened drives.
o Collegial - The basis of this model is partnership with a managerial orientation of teamwork. The employees in turn are oriented towards responsible behavior and self-discipline. The employee need that is met is self-actualization. The performance result is moderate enthusiasm.
Although there are four separate models, almost no organization operates exclusively in one. There will usually be a predominate one, with one or more areas over-lapping in the other models.
The first model, autocratic, has its roots in the industrial revolution. The managers of this type of organization operate out of McGregor's Theory X. The next three models begin to build on McGregor's Theory Y. They have each evolved over a period of time and there is no one "best" model. The collegial model should not be thought as the last or best model, but the beginning of a new model or paradigm.
Social Systems, Culture, and Individualization
A social system is a complex set of human relationships interacting in many ways. Within an organization, the social system includes all the people in it and their relationships to each other and to the outside world. The behavior of one member can have an impact, either directly or indirectly, on the behavior of others. Also, the social system does not have boundaries...it exchanges goods, ideas, culture, etc. with the environment around it.
Culture is the conventional behavior of a society that encompasses beliefs, customs, knowledge, and practices. It influences human behavior, even though it seldom enters into their conscious thought. People depend on culture as it gives them stability, security, understanding, and the ability to respond to a given situation. This is why people fear change. They fear the system will become unstable, their security will be lost, they will not understand the new process, and they will not know how to respond to the new situations.
Individualization is when employees successfully exert influence on the social system by challenging the culture.
Impact Of Individualization
On A Organization
_______________________________
High | | |
| | |
| | |
| Conformity | Creative |
| | Individualism |
| | |
Socialization |_______________|_______________|
| | |
| | |
| | |
| Isolation | Rebellion |
| | |
| | |
Low |_______________|_______________|
Low Individualization High
The chart above (Schein, 1968) shows how individualization affects different organizations:
o Too little socialization and too little individualization creates isolation.
o Too high socialization and too little individualization creates conformity.
o Too little socialization and too high individualization creates rebellion.
o While the match that organizations want to create is high socialization and high individualization for a creative environment. This is what it takes to survive in a very competitive environment...having people grow with the organization, but doing the right thing when others want to follow the easy path.
This can become quite a balancing act. Individualism favors individual rights, loosely knit social networks, self respect, and personal rewards and careers. It becomes look out for number 1! Socialization or collectivism favors the group, harmony, and asks "What is best for the organization?" Organizations need people to challenge, question, and experiment while still maintaining the culture that binds them into a social system.
Organization Development
Organization Development (OD) is the systematic application of behavioral science knowledge at various levels, such as group, inter-group, organization, etc., to bring about planned change. Its objectives is a higher quality of work-life, productivity, adaptability, and effectiveness. It accomplishes this by changing attitudes, behaviors, values, strategies, procedures, and structures so that the organization can adapt to competitive actions, technological advances, and the fast pace of change within the environment.
There are seven characteristics of OD:
1. Humanistic Values: Positive beliefs about the potential of employees (McGregor's Theory Y).
2. Systems Orientation: All parts of the organization, to include structure, technology, and people, must work together.
3. Experiential Learning: The learners' experiences in the training environment should be the kind of human problems they encounter at work. The training should NOT be all theory and lecture.
4. Problem Solving: Problems are identified, data is gathered, corrective action is taken, progress is assessed, and adjustments in the problem solving process are made as needed. This process is known as Action Research.
5. Contingency Orientation: Actions are selected and adapted to fit the need.
6. Change Agent: Stimulate, facilitate, and coordinate change.
7. Levels of Interventions: Problems can occur at one or more level in the organization so the strategy will require one or more interventions.
Quality of Work Life
Quality of Work Life (QWL) is the favorableness or unfavorableness of the job environment. Its purpose is to develop jobs and working conditions that are excellent for both the employees and the organization. One of the ways of accomplishing QWL is through job design. Some of the options available for improving job design are:
o Leave the job as is but employ only people who like the rigid environment or routine work. Some people do enjoy the security and task support of these kinds of jobs.
o Leave the job as is, but pay the employees more.
o Mechanize and automate the routine jobs.
o And the area that OD loves - redesign the job.
When redesigning jobs there are two spectrums to follow - job enlargement and job enrichment. Job enlargement adds a more variety of tasks and duties to the job so that it is not as monotonous. This takes in the breadth of the job. That is, the number of different tasks that an employee performs. This can also be accomplished by job rotation.
Job enrichment, on the other hand, adds additional motivators. It adds depth to the job - more control, responsibility, and discretion to how the job is performed. This gives higher order needs to the employee, as opposed to job enlargement which simply gives more variety. The chart below (Cunningham & Eberle, 1990) illustrates the differences:
Job Enrichment and Job Performance
_______________________________
Higher | | |
Order | | Job |
| Job | Enrichment |
| Enrichment | and |
| | Enlargement |
| | |
Accent on |_______________|_______________|
Needs | | |
| | |
| Routine | Job |
| Job | Enlargement |
| | |
Lower | | |
Order |_______________|_______________|
Few Many
Variety of Tasks
The benefits of enriching jobs include:
o Growth of the individual
o Individuals have better job satisfaction
o Self-actualization of the individual
o Better employee performance for the organization
o Organization gets intrinsically motivated employees
o Less absenteeism, turnover, and grievances for the organization
o Full use of human resources for society
o Society gains more effective organizations
There are a variety of methods for improving job enrichment (Hackman and Oldham, 1975):
o Skill Variety: Perform different tasks that require different skill. This differs from job enlargement which might require the employee to perform more tasks, but require the same set of skills.
o Task Identity: Create or perform a complete piece of work. This gives a sense of completion and responsibility for the product.
o Task Significant: This is the amount of impact that the work has on other people as the employee perceives.
o Autonomy: This gives employees discretion and control over job related decisions.
o Feedback: Information that tells workers how well they are performing. It can come directly from the job (task feedback) or verbally form someone else.
For a survey activity, see Hackman & Oldham's Five Dimensions of Motivating Potential.
Action Learning
An unheralded British academic was invited to try out his theories in Belgium -- it led to an upturn in the Belgian economy. "Unless your ideas are ridiculed by experts they are worth nothing," says the British academic Reg Revans, creator of action learning [L = P + Q] -- learning occurs through a combination of programmed knowledge (P) and the ability to ask insightful questions (Q).
Action learning has been widely used in Europe for combining formal management training with learning from experience. A typical program is conducted over a period of 6 to 9 months. Teams of learners with diverse backgrounds conduct field projects on complex organizational problems requiring use of skills learned in formal training sessions. The learning teams then meet periodically with a skilled instructor to discuss, analyze, and learn from their experiences.
Revans basis his learning method on a theory called "System Beta," in that the learning process should closely approximate the "scientific method." The model is cyclical - you proceed through the steps and when you reach the last step you relate the analysis to the original hypothesis and if need be, start the process again. The six steps are:
o Formulate Hypothesis (an idea or concept)
o Design Experiment (consider ways of testing truth or validity of idea or concept)
o Apply in Practice (put into effect, test of validity or truth)
o Observe Results (collect and process data on outcomes of test)
o Analyze Results (make sense of data)
o Compare Analysis (relate analysis to original hypothesis)
Note that you do not always have to enter this process at step 1, but you do have to complete the process.
Revans suggest that all human learning at the individual level occurs through this process. Note that it covers what Jim Stewart (Managing Change Through Training and Development, 1991) calls the levels of existence:
o We think - cognitive domain
o We feel - affective domain
o We do - action domain
All three levels are interconnected -- e.g. what we think influences and is influenced by what we do and feel.
Change
In its simplest form, discontinuity in the work place is "change."
Our prefrontal cortex is a fast and agile computational device that is able to hold multiple threads of logic at once so that we can perform fast calculations. However, it has its limits with working memory in that it can only hold a handful of concepts at once, similar to the RAM in a PC. In addition, it burns lots of high energy glucose (blood sugar), which is expensive for the body to produce. Thus when given lots of information, such as when a change is required, it has a tendency to overload and being directly linked to the amygdala (the emotional center of the brain) that controls our fight-or-flight response, it can cause severe physical and psychological discomfort. (Koch, 2006)
Our prefrontal cortex is marvelous for insight when not overloaded. But for normal everyday use, our brain prefers to run off its "hard-drive" -- the basal ganglia, which has a much larger storage area and stores memories and our habits. In addition, it sips rather than gulps food (glucose).
When we do something familiar and predictable, our brain is mainly using the basal ganglia, which is quite comforting to us. When we use our prefrontal cortex, then we are looking for fight, flight, or insight. Too much change produces fight or flight syndromes. As change agents we want to produce "insight" into our learners so that they are able to apply their knowledge and skills not just in the classroom, but also on the job.
And the way to help people come to "insight" is to allow them to come to their own resolution. These moments of insight or resolutions are called "epiphanies" -- sudden intuitive leap of understanding that are quite pleasurable to us and act as rewards. Thus you have to resist the urge to fill in the entire picture of change, rather you have to leave enough gaps so that the learners are allowed to make connections of their own. Doing too much for the learners can be just as bad, if not worse, than not doing enough.
Doing all the thinking for learners takes their brains out of action, which means they will not invest the energy to make new connections.
Reference
Cunningham, J. B. & Eberle, T. (1990). "A Guide to Job Enrichment and Redesign," Personnel, Feb 1990, p.57 in Newstrom, J. & Davis, K. (1993). Organization Behavior: Human Behavior at Work. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Hackman, J. R. & Oldham, G. R. (1975). "Development of the Job Diagnostic Survey." Journal of Applied Psychology, 60, pp. 159-70.
Knoster, T., Villa, R., & Thousand, J. (2000). A framework for thinking about systems change. In R. Villa & J. Thousand (Eds.), Restructuring for caring and effective education: Piecing the puzzle together (pp. 93-128). Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.
Koch, C. (2006). The New Science of Change. CIO Magazine, Sep 15, 2006 (pp 54-56). Also available on the web: http://www.cio.com/archive/091506/change.html
Revans, R. W. (1982). The Origin and Growth of Action Learning. Hunt, England: Chatwell-Bratt, Bickley.
Schein, E. (1968). "Organizational Socialization and the Profession of Management," Industrial Management Review, 1968 vol. 9 pp. 1-15 in Newstrom, J. & Davis, K. (1993). Organization Behavior: Human Behavior at Work. New York: McGraw-Hill.
________________________________________
Notes
For author and copyright information, see the About page.
Created March 19, 1998
Updated September 3, 2009
A Big Dog, Little Dog and Knowledge Jump Production.
Contact: donclark@nwlink.com
Introduction
Organizational Behavior (OB) is the study and application of knowledge about how people, individuals, and groups act in organizations. It does this by taking a system approach. That is, it interprets people-organization relationships in terms of the whole person, whole group, whole organization, and whole social system. Its purpose is to build better relationships by achieving human objectives, organizational objectives, and social objectives.
As you can see from the definition above, organizational behavior encompasses a wide range of topics, such as human behavior, change, leadership, teams, etc. Since many of these topics are covered elsewhere in the leadership guide, this paper will focus on a few parts of OB: elements, models, social systems, OD, work life, action learning, and change.
Elements of Organizational Behavior
The organization's base rests on management's philosophy, values, vision and goals. This in turn drives the organizational culture which is composed of the formal organization, informal organization, and the social environment. The culture determines the type of leadership, communication, and group dynamics within the organization. The workers perceive this as the quality of work life which directs their degree of motivation. The final outcome are performance, individual satisfaction, and personal growth and development. All these elements combine to build the model or framework that the organization operates from.
Models of Organizational Behavior
There are four major models or frameworks that organizations operate out of:
o Autocratic - The basis of this model is power with a managerial orientation of authority. The employees in turn are oriented towards obedience and dependence on the boss. The employee need that is met is subsistence. The performance result is minimal.
o Custodial - The basis of this model is economic resources with a managerial orientation of money. The employees in turn are oriented towards security and benefits and dependence on the organization. The employee need that is met is security. The performance result is passive cooperation.
o Supportive - The basis of this model is leadership with a managerial orientation of support. The employees in turn are oriented towards job performance and participation. The employee need that is met is status and recognition. The performance result is awakened drives.
o Collegial - The basis of this model is partnership with a managerial orientation of teamwork. The employees in turn are oriented towards responsible behavior and self-discipline. The employee need that is met is self-actualization. The performance result is moderate enthusiasm.
Although there are four separate models, almost no organization operates exclusively in one. There will usually be a predominate one, with one or more areas over-lapping in the other models.
The first model, autocratic, has its roots in the industrial revolution. The managers of this type of organization operate out of McGregor's Theory X. The next three models begin to build on McGregor's Theory Y. They have each evolved over a period of time and there is no one "best" model. The collegial model should not be thought as the last or best model, but the beginning of a new model or paradigm.
Social Systems, Culture, and Individualization
A social system is a complex set of human relationships interacting in many ways. Within an organization, the social system includes all the people in it and their relationships to each other and to the outside world. The behavior of one member can have an impact, either directly or indirectly, on the behavior of others. Also, the social system does not have boundaries...it exchanges goods, ideas, culture, etc. with the environment around it.
Culture is the conventional behavior of a society that encompasses beliefs, customs, knowledge, and practices. It influences human behavior, even though it seldom enters into their conscious thought. People depend on culture as it gives them stability, security, understanding, and the ability to respond to a given situation. This is why people fear change. They fear the system will become unstable, their security will be lost, they will not understand the new process, and they will not know how to respond to the new situations.
Individualization is when employees successfully exert influence on the social system by challenging the culture.
Impact Of Individualization
On A Organization
_______________________________
High | | |
| | |
| | |
| Conformity | Creative |
| | Individualism |
| | |
Socialization |_______________|_______________|
| | |
| | |
| | |
| Isolation | Rebellion |
| | |
| | |
Low |_______________|_______________|
Low Individualization High
The chart above (Schein, 1968) shows how individualization affects different organizations:
o Too little socialization and too little individualization creates isolation.
o Too high socialization and too little individualization creates conformity.
o Too little socialization and too high individualization creates rebellion.
o While the match that organizations want to create is high socialization and high individualization for a creative environment. This is what it takes to survive in a very competitive environment...having people grow with the organization, but doing the right thing when others want to follow the easy path.
This can become quite a balancing act. Individualism favors individual rights, loosely knit social networks, self respect, and personal rewards and careers. It becomes look out for number 1! Socialization or collectivism favors the group, harmony, and asks "What is best for the organization?" Organizations need people to challenge, question, and experiment while still maintaining the culture that binds them into a social system.
Organization Development
Organization Development (OD) is the systematic application of behavioral science knowledge at various levels, such as group, inter-group, organization, etc., to bring about planned change. Its objectives is a higher quality of work-life, productivity, adaptability, and effectiveness. It accomplishes this by changing attitudes, behaviors, values, strategies, procedures, and structures so that the organization can adapt to competitive actions, technological advances, and the fast pace of change within the environment.
There are seven characteristics of OD:
1. Humanistic Values: Positive beliefs about the potential of employees (McGregor's Theory Y).
2. Systems Orientation: All parts of the organization, to include structure, technology, and people, must work together.
3. Experiential Learning: The learners' experiences in the training environment should be the kind of human problems they encounter at work. The training should NOT be all theory and lecture.
4. Problem Solving: Problems are identified, data is gathered, corrective action is taken, progress is assessed, and adjustments in the problem solving process are made as needed. This process is known as Action Research.
5. Contingency Orientation: Actions are selected and adapted to fit the need.
6. Change Agent: Stimulate, facilitate, and coordinate change.
7. Levels of Interventions: Problems can occur at one or more level in the organization so the strategy will require one or more interventions.
Quality of Work Life
Quality of Work Life (QWL) is the favorableness or unfavorableness of the job environment. Its purpose is to develop jobs and working conditions that are excellent for both the employees and the organization. One of the ways of accomplishing QWL is through job design. Some of the options available for improving job design are:
o Leave the job as is but employ only people who like the rigid environment or routine work. Some people do enjoy the security and task support of these kinds of jobs.
o Leave the job as is, but pay the employees more.
o Mechanize and automate the routine jobs.
o And the area that OD loves - redesign the job.
When redesigning jobs there are two spectrums to follow - job enlargement and job enrichment. Job enlargement adds a more variety of tasks and duties to the job so that it is not as monotonous. This takes in the breadth of the job. That is, the number of different tasks that an employee performs. This can also be accomplished by job rotation.
Job enrichment, on the other hand, adds additional motivators. It adds depth to the job - more control, responsibility, and discretion to how the job is performed. This gives higher order needs to the employee, as opposed to job enlargement which simply gives more variety. The chart below (Cunningham & Eberle, 1990) illustrates the differences:
Job Enrichment and Job Performance
_______________________________
Higher | | |
Order | | Job |
| Job | Enrichment |
| Enrichment | and |
| | Enlargement |
| | |
Accent on |_______________|_______________|
Needs | | |
| | |
| Routine | Job |
| Job | Enlargement |
| | |
Lower | | |
Order |_______________|_______________|
Few Many
Variety of Tasks
The benefits of enriching jobs include:
o Growth of the individual
o Individuals have better job satisfaction
o Self-actualization of the individual
o Better employee performance for the organization
o Organization gets intrinsically motivated employees
o Less absenteeism, turnover, and grievances for the organization
o Full use of human resources for society
o Society gains more effective organizations
There are a variety of methods for improving job enrichment (Hackman and Oldham, 1975):
o Skill Variety: Perform different tasks that require different skill. This differs from job enlargement which might require the employee to perform more tasks, but require the same set of skills.
o Task Identity: Create or perform a complete piece of work. This gives a sense of completion and responsibility for the product.
o Task Significant: This is the amount of impact that the work has on other people as the employee perceives.
o Autonomy: This gives employees discretion and control over job related decisions.
o Feedback: Information that tells workers how well they are performing. It can come directly from the job (task feedback) or verbally form someone else.
For a survey activity, see Hackman & Oldham's Five Dimensions of Motivating Potential.
Action Learning
An unheralded British academic was invited to try out his theories in Belgium -- it led to an upturn in the Belgian economy. "Unless your ideas are ridiculed by experts they are worth nothing," says the British academic Reg Revans, creator of action learning [L = P + Q] -- learning occurs through a combination of programmed knowledge (P) and the ability to ask insightful questions (Q).
Action learning has been widely used in Europe for combining formal management training with learning from experience. A typical program is conducted over a period of 6 to 9 months. Teams of learners with diverse backgrounds conduct field projects on complex organizational problems requiring use of skills learned in formal training sessions. The learning teams then meet periodically with a skilled instructor to discuss, analyze, and learn from their experiences.
Revans basis his learning method on a theory called "System Beta," in that the learning process should closely approximate the "scientific method." The model is cyclical - you proceed through the steps and when you reach the last step you relate the analysis to the original hypothesis and if need be, start the process again. The six steps are:
o Formulate Hypothesis (an idea or concept)
o Design Experiment (consider ways of testing truth or validity of idea or concept)
o Apply in Practice (put into effect, test of validity or truth)
o Observe Results (collect and process data on outcomes of test)
o Analyze Results (make sense of data)
o Compare Analysis (relate analysis to original hypothesis)
Note that you do not always have to enter this process at step 1, but you do have to complete the process.
Revans suggest that all human learning at the individual level occurs through this process. Note that it covers what Jim Stewart (Managing Change Through Training and Development, 1991) calls the levels of existence:
o We think - cognitive domain
o We feel - affective domain
o We do - action domain
All three levels are interconnected -- e.g. what we think influences and is influenced by what we do and feel.
Change
In its simplest form, discontinuity in the work place is "change."
Our prefrontal cortex is a fast and agile computational device that is able to hold multiple threads of logic at once so that we can perform fast calculations. However, it has its limits with working memory in that it can only hold a handful of concepts at once, similar to the RAM in a PC. In addition, it burns lots of high energy glucose (blood sugar), which is expensive for the body to produce. Thus when given lots of information, such as when a change is required, it has a tendency to overload and being directly linked to the amygdala (the emotional center of the brain) that controls our fight-or-flight response, it can cause severe physical and psychological discomfort. (Koch, 2006)
Our prefrontal cortex is marvelous for insight when not overloaded. But for normal everyday use, our brain prefers to run off its "hard-drive" -- the basal ganglia, which has a much larger storage area and stores memories and our habits. In addition, it sips rather than gulps food (glucose).
When we do something familiar and predictable, our brain is mainly using the basal ganglia, which is quite comforting to us. When we use our prefrontal cortex, then we are looking for fight, flight, or insight. Too much change produces fight or flight syndromes. As change agents we want to produce "insight" into our learners so that they are able to apply their knowledge and skills not just in the classroom, but also on the job.
And the way to help people come to "insight" is to allow them to come to their own resolution. These moments of insight or resolutions are called "epiphanies" -- sudden intuitive leap of understanding that are quite pleasurable to us and act as rewards. Thus you have to resist the urge to fill in the entire picture of change, rather you have to leave enough gaps so that the learners are allowed to make connections of their own. Doing too much for the learners can be just as bad, if not worse, than not doing enough.
Doing all the thinking for learners takes their brains out of action, which means they will not invest the energy to make new connections.
Reference
Cunningham, J. B. & Eberle, T. (1990). "A Guide to Job Enrichment and Redesign," Personnel, Feb 1990, p.57 in Newstrom, J. & Davis, K. (1993). Organization Behavior: Human Behavior at Work. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Hackman, J. R. & Oldham, G. R. (1975). "Development of the Job Diagnostic Survey." Journal of Applied Psychology, 60, pp. 159-70.
Knoster, T., Villa, R., & Thousand, J. (2000). A framework for thinking about systems change. In R. Villa & J. Thousand (Eds.), Restructuring for caring and effective education: Piecing the puzzle together (pp. 93-128). Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.
Koch, C. (2006). The New Science of Change. CIO Magazine, Sep 15, 2006 (pp 54-56). Also available on the web: http://www.cio.com/archive/091506/change.html
Revans, R. W. (1982). The Origin and Growth of Action Learning. Hunt, England: Chatwell-Bratt, Bickley.
Schein, E. (1968). "Organizational Socialization and the Profession of Management," Industrial Management Review, 1968 vol. 9 pp. 1-15 in Newstrom, J. & Davis, K. (1993). Organization Behavior: Human Behavior at Work. New York: McGraw-Hill.
________________________________________
Notes
For author and copyright information, see the About page.
Created March 19, 1998
Updated September 3, 2009
A Big Dog, Little Dog and Knowledge Jump Production.
Contact: donclark@nwlink.com
HRM-4
Organizational Behavior: Terminology and Concepts
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By tresero
Maslow's Theory
photo - J. Finkelstein
Schermerhorn et al (2005), define organizational behavior (OB) as "the study of human behavior in organizations" (p. 3). OB uses scientific methods to test hypotheses. OB is also a multi-disciplinary study, taking knowledge from social and behavioral sciences and applying it to real-world situations.
Why is organizational behavior important to study? If people are an organizations most important asset then understanding how humans behave in organizations will improve productivity. Understanding OB allows better worker relations, more realistic expectations and improves job satisfaction.
Organizational Culture
An organizations culture stems from "the shared beliefs and values that influence the behavior of organizational members" (Schermerhorn, Jr et al., 2005, 9). Every organization has a different culture. For example, at one small brewery, the corporate culture expects employees in any position to learn constantly about the industry and then teach clients. The culture also encourages direct communications with any other employee no matter what level on the org chart they are. Other company's cultures may expect employees to only do their job and not give input at all.
Diversity
Organizations which do not have a culture of encouraging diversity are at a decided disadvantage. In the modern world of global business, not hiring the best person for the job solely because of gender, race, ethnicity, religion or age is not only foolish, but probably illegal.
Some organizations are even going to the extreme of trying to eliminate all subcultures and become truly multicultural. "The multicultural organization is a firm that values diversity but systematically works to block the transfer of societally based subcultures into the fabric of the organization" (Schermerhorn, Jr et al., 2005, p. 440).
Communication
Two types of organizational communication exist, formal and informal. Organizations of all sizes make use of both, whether directly or indirectly. Formal channels of communication generally follow the chain of command or org chart and are top down. Informal channels on the other hand tend to be more open and spontaneous. Scuttlebutt or gossip is also considered forms informal organizational communication.
Many small companies rely more on informal communications channels. Small organizations by and large adhere less to formal command structures and all employees are generally more active in feedback and decision making.
Adams Equity Theory
Organizational Effectiveness and Efficiency
Organizational effectiveness measures how well an organization is in sync. Even with the best management, superior strategy and flawless execution an organization can be less successful than it could be. Organizations who understand employees as partners stand a much better chance of achieving high organizational effectiveness and efficiency. "Organizational effectiveness is about each individual doing everything they know how to do and doing it well" (NIH, 2004).
Smaller organizations should exhibit more organizational efficiency due to less bureaucratic management. This is not always the case as smaller organizations oftentimes have less clear strategic goals and incomplete systems. Smaller organizations tend to not have as many mature systems in place for employees. This creates inefficiency as several, and oftentimes conflicting, methods are created by employees and not management. These systems may also conflict with management's strategic plan.
Organizational Learning
In todays fast paced, global business environment, organizations need to adapt quickly to threats and opportunities. How an organization learns directly affects the speed and efficiency of an organization to handle opportunities and threats. Richard Karash supplies this definition, "A "Learning Organization" is one in which people at all levels, individually and collectively, are continually increasing their capacity to produce results they really care about" (Karash, 2002).
At many small organizations, employees are constantly learning and experimenting. New products are created and new markets serviced based on employee suggestions. At one small brewery, gluten-free beer, was conceived by a team who were researching new product ideas. The beer was then created by the Brewmaster. After a one year test phase, in which many iterations of the beer was brewed and sampled, a final product was introduced. All employees of the company contributed and in the process learned about the beer brewing process, helping them both professionally and personally.
Conclusion
Whether an organization is for profit or not, motivating and utilizing the talent an organization has is vital in the business world today. Understanding organizational behavior is a major factor for increased opportunity and success in the business world. Gaining an awareness of an organizations culture is necessary for continued diverse growth.
In order to attract the best talent to an organization, a culture of diversity and open communication is needed. Once an organization has the best talent it can find, the organization can improve efficiency and have more wide-spread viewpoints to learn from. Care must be taken though, to make sure the organizational culture is compatible with the strategic goals of an organization.
References
NIH (2004). Organizational Effectiveness and Efficiency. Retrieved October 10, 2007, from http://clinicalcenter.nih.gov/about/profile/profile_archives/2004/effectiveness.html
Karash, R. (2002). What is a "Learning Organization". Retrieved October 10, 2007, from http://world.std.com/~lo/
Schermerhorn, J. R., Jr, Hunt, J. G., & Osborn, R. N. (2005). Organizational Behavior (9th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc..
88
rate or flag this page
By tresero
Maslow's Theory
photo - J. Finkelstein
Schermerhorn et al (2005), define organizational behavior (OB) as "the study of human behavior in organizations" (p. 3). OB uses scientific methods to test hypotheses. OB is also a multi-disciplinary study, taking knowledge from social and behavioral sciences and applying it to real-world situations.
Why is organizational behavior important to study? If people are an organizations most important asset then understanding how humans behave in organizations will improve productivity. Understanding OB allows better worker relations, more realistic expectations and improves job satisfaction.
Organizational Culture
An organizations culture stems from "the shared beliefs and values that influence the behavior of organizational members" (Schermerhorn, Jr et al., 2005, 9). Every organization has a different culture. For example, at one small brewery, the corporate culture expects employees in any position to learn constantly about the industry and then teach clients. The culture also encourages direct communications with any other employee no matter what level on the org chart they are. Other company's cultures may expect employees to only do their job and not give input at all.
Diversity
Organizations which do not have a culture of encouraging diversity are at a decided disadvantage. In the modern world of global business, not hiring the best person for the job solely because of gender, race, ethnicity, religion or age is not only foolish, but probably illegal.
Some organizations are even going to the extreme of trying to eliminate all subcultures and become truly multicultural. "The multicultural organization is a firm that values diversity but systematically works to block the transfer of societally based subcultures into the fabric of the organization" (Schermerhorn, Jr et al., 2005, p. 440).
Communication
Two types of organizational communication exist, formal and informal. Organizations of all sizes make use of both, whether directly or indirectly. Formal channels of communication generally follow the chain of command or org chart and are top down. Informal channels on the other hand tend to be more open and spontaneous. Scuttlebutt or gossip is also considered forms informal organizational communication.
Many small companies rely more on informal communications channels. Small organizations by and large adhere less to formal command structures and all employees are generally more active in feedback and decision making.
Adams Equity Theory
Organizational Effectiveness and Efficiency
Organizational effectiveness measures how well an organization is in sync. Even with the best management, superior strategy and flawless execution an organization can be less successful than it could be. Organizations who understand employees as partners stand a much better chance of achieving high organizational effectiveness and efficiency. "Organizational effectiveness is about each individual doing everything they know how to do and doing it well" (NIH, 2004).
Smaller organizations should exhibit more organizational efficiency due to less bureaucratic management. This is not always the case as smaller organizations oftentimes have less clear strategic goals and incomplete systems. Smaller organizations tend to not have as many mature systems in place for employees. This creates inefficiency as several, and oftentimes conflicting, methods are created by employees and not management. These systems may also conflict with management's strategic plan.
Organizational Learning
In todays fast paced, global business environment, organizations need to adapt quickly to threats and opportunities. How an organization learns directly affects the speed and efficiency of an organization to handle opportunities and threats. Richard Karash supplies this definition, "A "Learning Organization" is one in which people at all levels, individually and collectively, are continually increasing their capacity to produce results they really care about" (Karash, 2002).
At many small organizations, employees are constantly learning and experimenting. New products are created and new markets serviced based on employee suggestions. At one small brewery, gluten-free beer, was conceived by a team who were researching new product ideas. The beer was then created by the Brewmaster. After a one year test phase, in which many iterations of the beer was brewed and sampled, a final product was introduced. All employees of the company contributed and in the process learned about the beer brewing process, helping them both professionally and personally.
Conclusion
Whether an organization is for profit or not, motivating and utilizing the talent an organization has is vital in the business world today. Understanding organizational behavior is a major factor for increased opportunity and success in the business world. Gaining an awareness of an organizations culture is necessary for continued diverse growth.
In order to attract the best talent to an organization, a culture of diversity and open communication is needed. Once an organization has the best talent it can find, the organization can improve efficiency and have more wide-spread viewpoints to learn from. Care must be taken though, to make sure the organizational culture is compatible with the strategic goals of an organization.
References
NIH (2004). Organizational Effectiveness and Efficiency. Retrieved October 10, 2007, from http://clinicalcenter.nih.gov/about/profile/profile_archives/2004/effectiveness.html
Karash, R. (2002). What is a "Learning Organization". Retrieved October 10, 2007, from http://world.std.com/~lo/
Schermerhorn, J. R., Jr, Hunt, J. G., & Osborn, R. N. (2005). Organizational Behavior (9th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc..
HRM-3
NOTE: Certain websites are only accessible during working hours of the Federal or State Government of Malaysia.
WWW SITE LISTINGS
» Ministry of Human Resources (MOHR)
Also known as the Kementerian Sumber Manusia (KSM) in Malay term. Previously known as the Ministry of Labour and Manpower (Kementerian Buruh dan Tenaga Rakyat). The mission of MOHR is to develop a competitive workforce in an environment of industrial harmony and social justice. The MOHR official website features FAQs, departments and agencies, download forms, tender notices, registered foreign maid agencies, labour and human resources statistics, job registration and placement statistics, training institute and rules and regulations.
www.mohr.gov.my/
Notes : Available in English and Malay version.
Social Security Organization (SOCSO) (PERKESO)
Also known as PERKESO or Pertubuhan Keselamatan Sosial in the Malay term. A statutory body under the Ministry of Human Resources. Established in January 1971 to provide social security protection by social insurance including medical and cash benefits, provision of artificial aids and rehabilitation to employees to reduce the sufferings and to provide financial guarantees and protection to the family. The Employment Injury Insurance Scheme provides protection for accidents that occur while traveling, arising out of and in the course of employment and occupational diseases and Invalidity Pension Scheme provides protection against invalidity or death due to any cause not connected with employment. Benefits include medical benefit, temporary and permanent disablement benefit, constant attendance allowance, dependant's benefit, funeral benefit, rehabilitation benefit and education benefit, survivors' pension, invalidity grant. The official site features forms and services.
www.perkeso.gov.my/
Notes : Available in English and Malay languages.
» Department of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH)
Also known as the Jabatan Keselamatan dan Kesihatan Pekerjaan in Malay term. Occupational safety and health in Malaysia started with steam boiler safety (before 1914), then followed by machinery safety (1914-1952 Machinery Branch under Mineral Department). It was continued with industrial safety (1653-1967 Machinery Department), industrial safety and hyginene (1970-1994 Factory and Machinery Department) and finally occupational safety and health (after 1994 DOSH). DOSH is a department under the Ministry of Human Resources, responsible for ensuring the occupational safety, health and welfare of people at work as well as protecting other people from the safety and health hazards arising from activities of various sectors. DOSH is also responsible for enforcement of legislations related to occupational safety and health for Malaysia. The DOSH official website features legislation, OSH info, industrial healthiness and personal protective equipment, certificate/SHO course and services.
www.dosh.gov.my/
Notes : Availble in English and Malay version.
» Department of Skills Development
Also known as the Jabatan Pembangunan Kemahiran (JPK) in Malay term. Formerly known as the National Vocational Training Council. JPK is an agency under the Ministry of Human Resources and is responsible for the co-ordination and control of skills training as well as career development in skills training, in line with the implementation of the National Skills Development Act, 652 2006 on September 1, 2006. The JPK official website features JPK profile, services (NASDA, SKM, A.P.A, NOSS, NDTS, Accredited Centres, Assessment System, Internship, NCS-Core Abilities, Insd. Training Manual, Foreign Workers) and e-services (eSPKM, eNOSS, CEDS-Foreign Worker, Call Center-SPCC).
www.nvtc.gov.my/
Notes : Availble in English and Malay version.
» Department of Trade Unions Affairs
Commonly known as the Jabatan Hal Ehwal Kesatuan Sekerja Malaysia in Malay term. Formerly known as the Registry of Trade Unions. Established in July 1946 to enforce the Trade Unions Enactment 1940. Under this Enactment any trade unions established shall apply for registration to Registrar. The Trade Unions Ordinance 1959 came into force on June 1, 1959 replacing the Enactment. The Ordinance was extended to Sabah and Sarawak in 1965. The Ordinance was revised and renamed the Trade Unions Act 1959 in 1981. The name of the Registry of Trade Unions was changed to the Department of Trade Unions Affairs in 1989. The Department Trade Unions Affairs official website features guidelines for trade unions registration, change of name and address and alteration of rules; forms; statistics; legislations; education programs; and activities.
jheks.mohr.gov.my/
Notes : Available in English and Malay version.
Result Pages « Previous | 1 2 3
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WWW SITE LISTINGS
» Ministry of Human Resources (MOHR)
Also known as the Kementerian Sumber Manusia (KSM) in Malay term. Previously known as the Ministry of Labour and Manpower (Kementerian Buruh dan Tenaga Rakyat). The mission of MOHR is to develop a competitive workforce in an environment of industrial harmony and social justice. The MOHR official website features FAQs, departments and agencies, download forms, tender notices, registered foreign maid agencies, labour and human resources statistics, job registration and placement statistics, training institute and rules and regulations.
www.mohr.gov.my/
Notes : Available in English and Malay version.
Social Security Organization (SOCSO) (PERKESO)
Also known as PERKESO or Pertubuhan Keselamatan Sosial in the Malay term. A statutory body under the Ministry of Human Resources. Established in January 1971 to provide social security protection by social insurance including medical and cash benefits, provision of artificial aids and rehabilitation to employees to reduce the sufferings and to provide financial guarantees and protection to the family. The Employment Injury Insurance Scheme provides protection for accidents that occur while traveling, arising out of and in the course of employment and occupational diseases and Invalidity Pension Scheme provides protection against invalidity or death due to any cause not connected with employment. Benefits include medical benefit, temporary and permanent disablement benefit, constant attendance allowance, dependant's benefit, funeral benefit, rehabilitation benefit and education benefit, survivors' pension, invalidity grant. The official site features forms and services.
www.perkeso.gov.my/
Notes : Available in English and Malay languages.
» Department of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH)
Also known as the Jabatan Keselamatan dan Kesihatan Pekerjaan in Malay term. Occupational safety and health in Malaysia started with steam boiler safety (before 1914), then followed by machinery safety (1914-1952 Machinery Branch under Mineral Department). It was continued with industrial safety (1653-1967 Machinery Department), industrial safety and hyginene (1970-1994 Factory and Machinery Department) and finally occupational safety and health (after 1994 DOSH). DOSH is a department under the Ministry of Human Resources, responsible for ensuring the occupational safety, health and welfare of people at work as well as protecting other people from the safety and health hazards arising from activities of various sectors. DOSH is also responsible for enforcement of legislations related to occupational safety and health for Malaysia. The DOSH official website features legislation, OSH info, industrial healthiness and personal protective equipment, certificate/SHO course and services.
www.dosh.gov.my/
Notes : Availble in English and Malay version.
» Department of Skills Development
Also known as the Jabatan Pembangunan Kemahiran (JPK) in Malay term. Formerly known as the National Vocational Training Council. JPK is an agency under the Ministry of Human Resources and is responsible for the co-ordination and control of skills training as well as career development in skills training, in line with the implementation of the National Skills Development Act, 652 2006 on September 1, 2006. The JPK official website features JPK profile, services (NASDA, SKM, A.P.A, NOSS, NDTS, Accredited Centres, Assessment System, Internship, NCS-Core Abilities, Insd. Training Manual, Foreign Workers) and e-services (eSPKM, eNOSS, CEDS-Foreign Worker, Call Center-SPCC).
www.nvtc.gov.my/
Notes : Availble in English and Malay version.
» Department of Trade Unions Affairs
Commonly known as the Jabatan Hal Ehwal Kesatuan Sekerja Malaysia in Malay term. Formerly known as the Registry of Trade Unions. Established in July 1946 to enforce the Trade Unions Enactment 1940. Under this Enactment any trade unions established shall apply for registration to Registrar. The Trade Unions Ordinance 1959 came into force on June 1, 1959 replacing the Enactment. The Ordinance was extended to Sabah and Sarawak in 1965. The Ordinance was revised and renamed the Trade Unions Act 1959 in 1981. The name of the Registry of Trade Unions was changed to the Department of Trade Unions Affairs in 1989. The Department Trade Unions Affairs official website features guidelines for trade unions registration, change of name and address and alteration of rules; forms; statistics; legislations; education programs; and activities.
jheks.mohr.gov.my/
Notes : Available in English and Malay version.
Result Pages « Previous | 1 2 3
| Next »
HRM-2
Business Dictionary: Human Resources Management (HRM)
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Term that is replacing personnel management and implying that personnel managers should not merely handle recruitment, pay, and discharging, but should maximize the use of an organization's human resources.
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Humans are an organization's greatest assets; without them, everyday business functions such as managing cash flow, making business transactions, communicating through all forms of media, and dealing with customers could not be completed. Humans and the potential they possess drive an organization. Today's organizations are continuously changing. Organizational change impacts not only the business but also its employees. In order to maximize organizational effectiveness, human potential—individuals' capabilities, time, and talents—must be managed. Human resource management works to ensure that employees are able to meet the organization's goals.
"Human resource management is responsible for how people are treated in organizations. It is responsible for bringing people into the organization, helping them perform their work, compensating them for their labors, and solving problems that arise" (Cherrington, 1995, p. 5). There are seven management functions of a human resources (HR) department that will be specifically addressed: staffing, performance appraisals, compensation and benefits, training and development, employee and labor relations, safety and health, and human resource research.
Generally, in small organizations—those with fewer than a hundred employees—there may not be an HR department, and so a line manager will be responsible for the functions of HRM. In large organizations—those with a hundred employees or more—a human resource manager will coordinate the HRM duties and report directly to the chief executive officer (CEO). HRM staff in larger organizations may include human resource generalists and human resource specialists. As the name implies, an HR generalist is routinely involved with all seven HRM functions, while the HR specialist focuses attention on only one of the seven responsibilities.
Prior to discussing the seven functions, it is necessary to understand the job analysis. An essential component of any HR unit, no matter the size, is the job analysis, which is completed to determine activities, skills, and knowledge required of an employee for a specific job. Job analyses are "performed on three occasions: (1) when the organization is first started, (2) when a new job is created, and (3) when a job is changed as a result of new methods, new procedures, or new technology" (Cherrington, 1995).
Jobs can be analyzed through the use of questionnaires, observations, interviews, employee recordings, or a combination of any of these methods. Two important tools used in defining the job are (1) a job description, which identifies the job, provides a listing of responsibilities and duties unique to the job, gives performance standards, and specifies necessary machines and equipment; and (2) the job specification, which states the minimum amount of education and experience needed for performing the job (Mondy and Noe, 1996).
Staffing
Both the job description and the job specification are useful tools for the staffing process, the first of the seven HR functions to be discussed. Someone (e.g., a department manager) or some event (e.g., an employee's leaving) within the organization usually determines a need to hire a new employee. In large organizations, an employee requisition must be submitted to the HR department that specifies the job title, the department, and the date the employee is needed. From there, the job description can be referenced for specific job related qualifications to provide more detail when advertising the position—either internally, externally, or both (Mondy and Noe, 1996).
Not only must the HR department attract qualified applicants through job postings or other forms of advertising, but it also assists in screening candidates' resumes and bringing those with the proper qualifications in for an interview. The final say in selecting the candidate will probably be the line manager's, assuming all Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) requirements are met. Other ongoing staffing responsibilities involve planning for new or changing positions and reviewing current job analyses and job descriptions to make sure they accurately reflect the current position.
Performance Appraisals
Once a talented individual is brought into an organization, another function of HRM comes into play—creating an environment that will motivate and reward exemplary performance. One way to assess performance is through a formal review on a periodic basis, generally annually, known as a performance appraisal or performance evaluation. Because line managers are in daily contact with the employees and can best measure performance, they are usually the ones who conduct the appraisals. Other evaluators of the employee's performance can include subordinates, peers, group, and self, or a combination of one or more (Mondy and Noe, 1996).
Just as there can be different performance evaluators, depending on the job, several appraisal systems can be used. Some of the popular appraisal methods include (1) ranking of all employees in a group; (2) using rating scales to define above-average, average, and below-average performance; (3) recording favorable and unfavorable performance, known as critical incidents; and (4) managing by objectives, or MBO (Mondy and Noe, 1996).
Cherrington (1995) illustrates how performance appraisals serve several purposes, including:(1) guiding human resource actions such as hiring, firing, and promoting; (2) rewarding employees through bonuses, promotions, and so on;(3) providing feedback and noting areas of improvement; (4) identifying training and development needs in order to improve the individual's performance on the job; and (5) providing job related data useful in human resource planning.
Compensation and Benefits
Compensation (payment in the form of hourly wages or annual salaries) and benefits (insurance, pensions, vacation, modified workweek, sick days, stock options, etc.) can be a catch-22 because an employee's performance can be influenced by compensation and benefits, and vice versa. In the ideal situation, employees feel they are paid what they are worth, are rewarded with sufficient benefits, and receive some intrinsic satisfaction (good work environment, interesting work, etc.). Compensation should be legal and ethical, adequate, motivating, fair and equitable, cost-effective, and able to provide employment security (Cherrington, 1995).
Training and Development
Performance appraisals not only assist in determining compensation and benefits, but they are also instrumental in identifying ways to help individuals improve their current positions and prepare for future opportunities. As the structure of organizations continues to change—through downsizing or expansion—the need for training and development programs continues to grow. Improving or obtaining new skills is part of another area of HRM, known as training and development.
"Training focuses on learning the skills, knowledge, and attitudes required to initially perform a job or task or to improve upon the performance of a current job or task, while development activities are not job related, but concentrate on broadening the employee's horizons" (Nadler and Wiggs, 1986, p. 5). Education, which focuses on learning new skills, knowledge, and attitudes to be used in future work, also deserves mention (Nadler and Wiggs, 1986).
Because the focus is on the current job, only training and development will be discussed. Training can be used in a variety of ways, including (1) orienting and informing employees, (2) developing desired skills, (3) preventing accidents through safety training, (4) supplying professional and technical education, and (5) providing supervisory training and executive education (Cherrington, 1995).
Each of the training methods mentioned has benefits to the individual as well as to the organization. Some of the benefits are reducing the learning time for new hires, teaching employees how to use new or updated technology, decreasing the number and cost of accidents because employees know how to operate a machine properly, providing better customer service, improving quality and quantity of productivity, and obtaining management involvement in the training process (Cherrington, 1995). When managers go through the training, they are showing others that they are taking the goals of training seriously and are committed to the importance of human resource development.
The type of training depends on the material to be learned, the length of time learners have, and the financial resources available. One type is instructor-led training, which generally allows participants to see a demonstration and to work with the product first-hand. On-the-job training and apprenticeships let participants acquire new skills as they continue to perform various aspects of the job. Computer-based training (CBT) provides learners at various geographic locations access to material to be learned at convenient times and locations. Simulation exercises give participants a chance to learn outcomes of choices in a nonthreatening environment before applying the concept to real situations.
Training focuses on the current job, while development concentrates on providing activities to help employees expand their current knowledge and to allow for growth. Types of development opportunities include mentoring, career counseling, management and supervisory development, and job training (Cherrington, 1995).
Employee and Labor Relations
Just as human resource developers make sure employees have proper training, there are groups of employees organized as unions to address and resolve employment-related issues. Unions have been around since the time of the American Revolution (Mondy and Noe, 1996). Those who join unions usually do so for one or both of two reasons— to increase wages and/or to eliminate unfair conditions. Some of the outcomes of union involvement include better medical plans, extended vacation time, and increased wages (Cherrington, 1995).
Today, unions remain a controversial topic. Under the provisions of the Taft-Hartley Act, the closed-shop arrangement states employees (outside the construction industry) are not required to join a union when they are hired. Union-shop arrangements permit employers to hire non-union workers contingent upon their joining the union once they are hired. The Taft-Hartley Act gives employers the right to file unfair labor practice complaints against the union and to express their views concerning unions (Cherrington, 1995).
Not only do HR managers deal with union organizations, but they are also responsible for resolving collective bargaining issues—namely, the contract. The contract defines employment related issues such as compensation and benefits, working conditions, job security, discipline procedures, individuals' rights, management's rights, and contract length. Collective bargaining involves management and the union trying to resolve any issues peacefully—before the union finds it necessary to strike or picket and/or management decides to institute a lockout (Cherrington, 1995).
Safety and Health
Not only must an organization see to it that employees' rights are not violated, but it must also provide a safe and healthy working environment. Mondy and Noe (1996) define safety as "protecting employees from injuries caused by work-related accidents" and health as keeping "employees free from physical or emotional illness" (p. 432). In order to prevent injury or illness, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was created in 1970. Through workplace inspections, citations and penalties, and on-site consultations, OSHA seeks to enhance safety and health and to decrease accidents, which lead to decreased productivity and increased operating costs (Cherrington, 1995).
Health problems recognized in the workplace can include the effects of smoking, alcohol and drug/substance abuse, AIDS, stress, and burnout. Through employee assistance programs (EAPs), employees with emotional difficulties are given "the same consideration and assistance" as those employees with physical illnesses (Mondy and Noe, 1996, p. 455).
Human Resource Research
In addition to recognizing workplace hazards, organizations are responsible for tracking safety- and health-related issues and reporting those statistics to the appropriate sources. The human resources department seems to be the storehouse for maintaining the history of the organization— everything from studying a department's high turnover or knowing the number of people presently employed, to generating statistics on the percentages of women, minorities, and other demographic characteristics. Data for the research can be gathered from a number of sources, including surveys/questionnaires, observations, interviews, and case studies (Cherrington, 1995). This research better enables organizations to predict cyclical trends and to properly recruit and select employees.
Conclusion
Research is part of all the other six functions of human resource management. With the number of organizations participating in some form of international business, the need for HRM research will only continue to grow. Therefore, it is important for human resource professionals to be up to date on the latest trends in staffing, performance appraisals, compensation and benefits, training and development, employee and labor relations, and safety and health issues— both in the United States and in the global market.
One professional organization that provides statistics to human resource managers is the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), the largest professional organization for human resource management professionals. Much of the research conducted within organizations is sent to SHRM to be used for compiling international statistics.
Bibliography
Cherrington, David J. (1995). The Management of Human Resources. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Mondy, R. Wayne, and Noe, Robert M. (1996). Human Resource Management. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Nadler, Leonard, and Wiggs, Garland D. (1986). Managing Human Resource Development. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
[Article by: CHRISTINE JAHN]
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Wikipedia: Human resource management
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Home > Library > Miscellaneous > Wikipedia
This article's tone or style may not be appropriate for Wikipedia. Specific concerns may be found on the talk page. See Wikipedia's guide to writing better articles for suggestions. (December 2007)
Human resource management (HRM) is the strategic and coherent approach to the management of an organization's most valued assets - the people working there who individually and collectively contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the business.[1] The terms "human resource management" and "human resources" (HR) have largely replaced the term "personnel management" as a description of the processes involved in managing people in organizations.[1] In simple sense, HRM means employing people, developing their resources, utilizing, maintaining and compensating their services in tune with the job and organizational requirement.
Contents
[hide]
• 1 Features
• 2 Academic theory
• 3 Business practice
• 4 Careers and education
• 5 Professional organizations
• 6 Functions
• 7 See also
• 8 References
Features
Its features include:
• Organizational management
• Personnel administration
• Manpower management
• Industrial management[2][3]
But these traditional expressions are becoming less common for the theoretical discipline. Sometimes even employee and industrial relations are confusingly listed as synonyms,[4] although these normally refer to the relationship between management and workers and the behavior of workers in companies.
The theoretical discipline is based primarily on the assumption that employees are individuals with varying goals and needs, and as such should not be thought of as basic business resources, such as trucks and filing cabinets. The field takes a positive view of workers, assuming that virtually all wish to contribute to the enterprise productively, and that the main obstacles to their endeavors are lack of knowledge, insufficient training, and failures of process.
HRM is seen by practitioners in the field as a more innovative view of workplace management than the traditional approach. Its techniques force the managers of an enterprise to express their goals with specificity so that they can be understood and undertaken by the workforce, and to provide the resources needed for them to successfully accomplish their assignments. As such, HRM techniques, when properly practiced, are expressive of the goals and operating practices of the enterprise overall. HRM is also seen by many to have a key role in risk reduction within organizations.[5]
Synonyms such as personnel management are often used in a more restricted sense to describe activities that are necessary in the recruiting of a workforce, providing its members with payroll and benefits, and administrating their work-life needs. So if we move to actual definitions, Torrington and Hall (1987) define personnel management as being:
“a series of activities which: first enable working people and their employing organisations to agree about the objectives and nature of their working relationship and, secondly, ensures that the agreement is fulfilled" (p. 49).
While Miller (1987) suggests that HRM relates to:
".......those decisions and actions which concern the management of employees at all levels in the business and which are related to the implementation of strategies directed towards creating and sustaining competitive advantage" (p. 352).
Academic theory
The goal of human resource management is to help an organization to meet strategic goals by attracting, and maintaining employees and also to manage them effectively. The key word here perhaps is "fit", i.e. a HRM approach seeks to ensure a fit between the management of an organization's employees, and the overall strategic direction of the company (Miller, 1989).
The basic premise of the academic theory of HRM is that humans are not machines, therefore we need to have an interdisciplinary examination of people in the workplace. Fields such as psychology, industrial engineering, industrial, Legal/Paralegal Studies and organizational psychology, industrial relations, sociology, and critical theories: postmodernism, post-structuralism play a major role. Many colleges and universities offer bachelor and master degrees in Human Resources Management.
One widely used scheme to describe the role of HRM, developed by Dave Ulrich, defines 4 fields for the HRM function:[6]
• Strategic business partner
• Change management
• Employee champion
• Administration
However, many HR functions these days struggle to get beyond the roles of administration and employee champion, and are seen rather as reactive than strategically proactive partners for the top management. In addition, HR organizations also have the difficulty in proving how their activities and processes add value to the company. Only in the recent years HR scholars and HR professionals are focusing to develop models that can measure if HR adds value.[7]
Business practice
Human resources management comprises several processes. Together they are supposed to achieve the above mentioned goal. These processes can be performed in an HR department, but some tasks can also be outsourced or performed by line-managers or other departments. When effectively integrated they provide significant economic benefit to the company.[8]
• Workforce planning
• Recruitment (sometimes separated into attraction and selection)
• Induction and Orientation
• Skills management
• Training and development
• Personnel administration
• Compensation in wage or salary
• Time management
• Travel management (sometimes assigned to accounting rather than HRM)
• Payroll (sometimes assigned to accounting rather than HRM)
• Employee benefits administration
• Personnel cost planning
• Performance appraisal
Careers and education
Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations was the world's first school for college-level study in HRM
The sort of careers available in HRM are varied. There are generalist HRM jobs such as human resource assistant. There are careers involved with employment, recruitment and placement and these are usually conducted by interviewers, EEO (Equal Employment Opportunity) specialists or college recruiters. Training and development specialism is often conducted by trainers and orientation specialists. Compensation and benefits tasks are handled by compensation analysts, salary administrators, and benefits administrators.
Several universities offer programs of study pertaining to HRM and broader fields. Cornell University created the world's first school for college-level study in HRM (ILR School).[9] University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign also now has a school dedicated to the study of HRM, while several business schools also house a center or department dedicated to such studies; e.g., Michigan State University, Ohio State University, and Purdue University.
Professional organizations
Professional organizations in HRM include the Society for Human Resource Management, the Australian Human Resources Institute (AHRI), the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), the International Public Management Association for HR (IPMA-HR), Management Association of Nepal (MAN) and the International Personnel Management Association of Canada (IPMA-Canada), Human Capital Institute (HCI)
Functions
The Human Resources Management (HRM) function includes a variety of activities, and key among them is deciding what staffing needs you have and whether to use independent contractors or hire employees to fill these needs, recruiting and training the best employees, ensuring they are high performers, dealing with performance issues, and ensuring your personnel and management practices conform to various regulations. Activities also include managing your approach to employee benefits and compensation, employee records and personnel policies. Usually small businesses (for-profit or nonprofit) have to carry out these activities themselves because they can't yet afford part- or full-time help. However, they should always ensure that employees have -- and are aware of -- personnel policies which conform to current regulations. These policies are often in the form of employee manuals, which all employees have.
Note that some people distinguish a difference between HRM (a major management activity) and HRD (Human Resource Development, a profession). Those people might include HRM in HRD, explaining that HRD includes the broader range of activities to develop personnel inside of organizations, including, eg, career development, training, organization development, etc.
There is a long-standing argument about where HR-related functions should be organized into large organizations, eg, "should HR be in the Organization Development department or the other way around?"
The HRM function and HRD profession have undergone tremendous change over the past 20-30 years. Many years ago, large organizations looked to the "Personnel Department," mostly to manage the paperwork around hiring and paying people. More recently, organizations consider the "HR Department" as playing a major role in staffing, training and helping to manage people so that people and the organization are performing at maximum capability in a highly fulfilling manner.
See also
• Human resources
• Enterprise Feedback Management (EFM)
• E-HRM
References
1. ^ a b Armstrong, Michael (2006). A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice (10th ed.). London: Kogan Page. ISBN 0-7494-4631-5. OCLC 62282248.
2. ^ "personnel management". The Columbia Encyclopedia (Sixth Edition ed.). Columbia University Press. 2005. http://www.bartleby.com/65/x-/X-personne.html. Retrieved 2007-10-17. "personnel management - see industrial management".
3. ^ Encyclopædia Britannica (kl ed.). "Personnel administration is also frequently called personnel management, industrial relations, employee relations".
4. ^ Encyclopædia Britannica.
5. ^ Towers, David. "Human Resource Management essays". http://www.towers.fr/essays/hrm.html. Retrieved 2007-10-17.
6. ^ Ulrich, Dave (1996). Human Resource Champions. The next agenda for adding value and delivering results. Boston, Mass.: Harvard Business School Press. ISBN 0-87584-719-6. OCLC 34704904.
7. ^ Smit, Martin E.J.H. (2006). HR, Show me the money; Presenting an exploratory model that can measure if HR adds value.
8. ^ The Strategic Impact of High Performance Work Systems
9. ^ "About Cornell ILR". Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations. http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/about/. Retrieved 23 August 2009.
• Wilkinson, A. (1988). "Empowerment: theory and practice". Personnel Review 27 (1): 40–56. doi:10.1108/00483489810368549. http://hermia.emeraldinsight.com/vl=2601464/cl=84/nw=1/fm=docpdf/rpsv/cw/mcb/00483486/v27n1/s3/p40. Retrieved 2007-10-17.
• Legge, Karen (2004). Human Resource Management: Rhetorics and Realities (Anniversary ed.). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 1-403-93600-5. OCLC 56730524.
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
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Term that is replacing personnel management and implying that personnel managers should not merely handle recruitment, pay, and discharging, but should maximize the use of an organization's human resources.
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Business Encyclopedia: Human Resource Management
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Humans are an organization's greatest assets; without them, everyday business functions such as managing cash flow, making business transactions, communicating through all forms of media, and dealing with customers could not be completed. Humans and the potential they possess drive an organization. Today's organizations are continuously changing. Organizational change impacts not only the business but also its employees. In order to maximize organizational effectiveness, human potential—individuals' capabilities, time, and talents—must be managed. Human resource management works to ensure that employees are able to meet the organization's goals.
"Human resource management is responsible for how people are treated in organizations. It is responsible for bringing people into the organization, helping them perform their work, compensating them for their labors, and solving problems that arise" (Cherrington, 1995, p. 5). There are seven management functions of a human resources (HR) department that will be specifically addressed: staffing, performance appraisals, compensation and benefits, training and development, employee and labor relations, safety and health, and human resource research.
Generally, in small organizations—those with fewer than a hundred employees—there may not be an HR department, and so a line manager will be responsible for the functions of HRM. In large organizations—those with a hundred employees or more—a human resource manager will coordinate the HRM duties and report directly to the chief executive officer (CEO). HRM staff in larger organizations may include human resource generalists and human resource specialists. As the name implies, an HR generalist is routinely involved with all seven HRM functions, while the HR specialist focuses attention on only one of the seven responsibilities.
Prior to discussing the seven functions, it is necessary to understand the job analysis. An essential component of any HR unit, no matter the size, is the job analysis, which is completed to determine activities, skills, and knowledge required of an employee for a specific job. Job analyses are "performed on three occasions: (1) when the organization is first started, (2) when a new job is created, and (3) when a job is changed as a result of new methods, new procedures, or new technology" (Cherrington, 1995).
Jobs can be analyzed through the use of questionnaires, observations, interviews, employee recordings, or a combination of any of these methods. Two important tools used in defining the job are (1) a job description, which identifies the job, provides a listing of responsibilities and duties unique to the job, gives performance standards, and specifies necessary machines and equipment; and (2) the job specification, which states the minimum amount of education and experience needed for performing the job (Mondy and Noe, 1996).
Staffing
Both the job description and the job specification are useful tools for the staffing process, the first of the seven HR functions to be discussed. Someone (e.g., a department manager) or some event (e.g., an employee's leaving) within the organization usually determines a need to hire a new employee. In large organizations, an employee requisition must be submitted to the HR department that specifies the job title, the department, and the date the employee is needed. From there, the job description can be referenced for specific job related qualifications to provide more detail when advertising the position—either internally, externally, or both (Mondy and Noe, 1996).
Not only must the HR department attract qualified applicants through job postings or other forms of advertising, but it also assists in screening candidates' resumes and bringing those with the proper qualifications in for an interview. The final say in selecting the candidate will probably be the line manager's, assuming all Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) requirements are met. Other ongoing staffing responsibilities involve planning for new or changing positions and reviewing current job analyses and job descriptions to make sure they accurately reflect the current position.
Performance Appraisals
Once a talented individual is brought into an organization, another function of HRM comes into play—creating an environment that will motivate and reward exemplary performance. One way to assess performance is through a formal review on a periodic basis, generally annually, known as a performance appraisal or performance evaluation. Because line managers are in daily contact with the employees and can best measure performance, they are usually the ones who conduct the appraisals. Other evaluators of the employee's performance can include subordinates, peers, group, and self, or a combination of one or more (Mondy and Noe, 1996).
Just as there can be different performance evaluators, depending on the job, several appraisal systems can be used. Some of the popular appraisal methods include (1) ranking of all employees in a group; (2) using rating scales to define above-average, average, and below-average performance; (3) recording favorable and unfavorable performance, known as critical incidents; and (4) managing by objectives, or MBO (Mondy and Noe, 1996).
Cherrington (1995) illustrates how performance appraisals serve several purposes, including:(1) guiding human resource actions such as hiring, firing, and promoting; (2) rewarding employees through bonuses, promotions, and so on;(3) providing feedback and noting areas of improvement; (4) identifying training and development needs in order to improve the individual's performance on the job; and (5) providing job related data useful in human resource planning.
Compensation and Benefits
Compensation (payment in the form of hourly wages or annual salaries) and benefits (insurance, pensions, vacation, modified workweek, sick days, stock options, etc.) can be a catch-22 because an employee's performance can be influenced by compensation and benefits, and vice versa. In the ideal situation, employees feel they are paid what they are worth, are rewarded with sufficient benefits, and receive some intrinsic satisfaction (good work environment, interesting work, etc.). Compensation should be legal and ethical, adequate, motivating, fair and equitable, cost-effective, and able to provide employment security (Cherrington, 1995).
Training and Development
Performance appraisals not only assist in determining compensation and benefits, but they are also instrumental in identifying ways to help individuals improve their current positions and prepare for future opportunities. As the structure of organizations continues to change—through downsizing or expansion—the need for training and development programs continues to grow. Improving or obtaining new skills is part of another area of HRM, known as training and development.
"Training focuses on learning the skills, knowledge, and attitudes required to initially perform a job or task or to improve upon the performance of a current job or task, while development activities are not job related, but concentrate on broadening the employee's horizons" (Nadler and Wiggs, 1986, p. 5). Education, which focuses on learning new skills, knowledge, and attitudes to be used in future work, also deserves mention (Nadler and Wiggs, 1986).
Because the focus is on the current job, only training and development will be discussed. Training can be used in a variety of ways, including (1) orienting and informing employees, (2) developing desired skills, (3) preventing accidents through safety training, (4) supplying professional and technical education, and (5) providing supervisory training and executive education (Cherrington, 1995).
Each of the training methods mentioned has benefits to the individual as well as to the organization. Some of the benefits are reducing the learning time for new hires, teaching employees how to use new or updated technology, decreasing the number and cost of accidents because employees know how to operate a machine properly, providing better customer service, improving quality and quantity of productivity, and obtaining management involvement in the training process (Cherrington, 1995). When managers go through the training, they are showing others that they are taking the goals of training seriously and are committed to the importance of human resource development.
The type of training depends on the material to be learned, the length of time learners have, and the financial resources available. One type is instructor-led training, which generally allows participants to see a demonstration and to work with the product first-hand. On-the-job training and apprenticeships let participants acquire new skills as they continue to perform various aspects of the job. Computer-based training (CBT) provides learners at various geographic locations access to material to be learned at convenient times and locations. Simulation exercises give participants a chance to learn outcomes of choices in a nonthreatening environment before applying the concept to real situations.
Training focuses on the current job, while development concentrates on providing activities to help employees expand their current knowledge and to allow for growth. Types of development opportunities include mentoring, career counseling, management and supervisory development, and job training (Cherrington, 1995).
Employee and Labor Relations
Just as human resource developers make sure employees have proper training, there are groups of employees organized as unions to address and resolve employment-related issues. Unions have been around since the time of the American Revolution (Mondy and Noe, 1996). Those who join unions usually do so for one or both of two reasons— to increase wages and/or to eliminate unfair conditions. Some of the outcomes of union involvement include better medical plans, extended vacation time, and increased wages (Cherrington, 1995).
Today, unions remain a controversial topic. Under the provisions of the Taft-Hartley Act, the closed-shop arrangement states employees (outside the construction industry) are not required to join a union when they are hired. Union-shop arrangements permit employers to hire non-union workers contingent upon their joining the union once they are hired. The Taft-Hartley Act gives employers the right to file unfair labor practice complaints against the union and to express their views concerning unions (Cherrington, 1995).
Not only do HR managers deal with union organizations, but they are also responsible for resolving collective bargaining issues—namely, the contract. The contract defines employment related issues such as compensation and benefits, working conditions, job security, discipline procedures, individuals' rights, management's rights, and contract length. Collective bargaining involves management and the union trying to resolve any issues peacefully—before the union finds it necessary to strike or picket and/or management decides to institute a lockout (Cherrington, 1995).
Safety and Health
Not only must an organization see to it that employees' rights are not violated, but it must also provide a safe and healthy working environment. Mondy and Noe (1996) define safety as "protecting employees from injuries caused by work-related accidents" and health as keeping "employees free from physical or emotional illness" (p. 432). In order to prevent injury or illness, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was created in 1970. Through workplace inspections, citations and penalties, and on-site consultations, OSHA seeks to enhance safety and health and to decrease accidents, which lead to decreased productivity and increased operating costs (Cherrington, 1995).
Health problems recognized in the workplace can include the effects of smoking, alcohol and drug/substance abuse, AIDS, stress, and burnout. Through employee assistance programs (EAPs), employees with emotional difficulties are given "the same consideration and assistance" as those employees with physical illnesses (Mondy and Noe, 1996, p. 455).
Human Resource Research
In addition to recognizing workplace hazards, organizations are responsible for tracking safety- and health-related issues and reporting those statistics to the appropriate sources. The human resources department seems to be the storehouse for maintaining the history of the organization— everything from studying a department's high turnover or knowing the number of people presently employed, to generating statistics on the percentages of women, minorities, and other demographic characteristics. Data for the research can be gathered from a number of sources, including surveys/questionnaires, observations, interviews, and case studies (Cherrington, 1995). This research better enables organizations to predict cyclical trends and to properly recruit and select employees.
Conclusion
Research is part of all the other six functions of human resource management. With the number of organizations participating in some form of international business, the need for HRM research will only continue to grow. Therefore, it is important for human resource professionals to be up to date on the latest trends in staffing, performance appraisals, compensation and benefits, training and development, employee and labor relations, and safety and health issues— both in the United States and in the global market.
One professional organization that provides statistics to human resource managers is the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), the largest professional organization for human resource management professionals. Much of the research conducted within organizations is sent to SHRM to be used for compiling international statistics.
Bibliography
Cherrington, David J. (1995). The Management of Human Resources. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Mondy, R. Wayne, and Noe, Robert M. (1996). Human Resource Management. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Nadler, Leonard, and Wiggs, Garland D. (1986). Managing Human Resource Development. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
[Article by: CHRISTINE JAHN]
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Wikipedia: Human resource management
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Home > Library > Miscellaneous > Wikipedia
This article's tone or style may not be appropriate for Wikipedia. Specific concerns may be found on the talk page. See Wikipedia's guide to writing better articles for suggestions. (December 2007)
Human resource management (HRM) is the strategic and coherent approach to the management of an organization's most valued assets - the people working there who individually and collectively contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the business.[1] The terms "human resource management" and "human resources" (HR) have largely replaced the term "personnel management" as a description of the processes involved in managing people in organizations.[1] In simple sense, HRM means employing people, developing their resources, utilizing, maintaining and compensating their services in tune with the job and organizational requirement.
Contents
[hide]
• 1 Features
• 2 Academic theory
• 3 Business practice
• 4 Careers and education
• 5 Professional organizations
• 6 Functions
• 7 See also
• 8 References
Features
Its features include:
• Organizational management
• Personnel administration
• Manpower management
• Industrial management[2][3]
But these traditional expressions are becoming less common for the theoretical discipline. Sometimes even employee and industrial relations are confusingly listed as synonyms,[4] although these normally refer to the relationship between management and workers and the behavior of workers in companies.
The theoretical discipline is based primarily on the assumption that employees are individuals with varying goals and needs, and as such should not be thought of as basic business resources, such as trucks and filing cabinets. The field takes a positive view of workers, assuming that virtually all wish to contribute to the enterprise productively, and that the main obstacles to their endeavors are lack of knowledge, insufficient training, and failures of process.
HRM is seen by practitioners in the field as a more innovative view of workplace management than the traditional approach. Its techniques force the managers of an enterprise to express their goals with specificity so that they can be understood and undertaken by the workforce, and to provide the resources needed for them to successfully accomplish their assignments. As such, HRM techniques, when properly practiced, are expressive of the goals and operating practices of the enterprise overall. HRM is also seen by many to have a key role in risk reduction within organizations.[5]
Synonyms such as personnel management are often used in a more restricted sense to describe activities that are necessary in the recruiting of a workforce, providing its members with payroll and benefits, and administrating their work-life needs. So if we move to actual definitions, Torrington and Hall (1987) define personnel management as being:
“a series of activities which: first enable working people and their employing organisations to agree about the objectives and nature of their working relationship and, secondly, ensures that the agreement is fulfilled" (p. 49).
While Miller (1987) suggests that HRM relates to:
".......those decisions and actions which concern the management of employees at all levels in the business and which are related to the implementation of strategies directed towards creating and sustaining competitive advantage" (p. 352).
Academic theory
The goal of human resource management is to help an organization to meet strategic goals by attracting, and maintaining employees and also to manage them effectively. The key word here perhaps is "fit", i.e. a HRM approach seeks to ensure a fit between the management of an organization's employees, and the overall strategic direction of the company (Miller, 1989).
The basic premise of the academic theory of HRM is that humans are not machines, therefore we need to have an interdisciplinary examination of people in the workplace. Fields such as psychology, industrial engineering, industrial, Legal/Paralegal Studies and organizational psychology, industrial relations, sociology, and critical theories: postmodernism, post-structuralism play a major role. Many colleges and universities offer bachelor and master degrees in Human Resources Management.
One widely used scheme to describe the role of HRM, developed by Dave Ulrich, defines 4 fields for the HRM function:[6]
• Strategic business partner
• Change management
• Employee champion
• Administration
However, many HR functions these days struggle to get beyond the roles of administration and employee champion, and are seen rather as reactive than strategically proactive partners for the top management. In addition, HR organizations also have the difficulty in proving how their activities and processes add value to the company. Only in the recent years HR scholars and HR professionals are focusing to develop models that can measure if HR adds value.[7]
Business practice
Human resources management comprises several processes. Together they are supposed to achieve the above mentioned goal. These processes can be performed in an HR department, but some tasks can also be outsourced or performed by line-managers or other departments. When effectively integrated they provide significant economic benefit to the company.[8]
• Workforce planning
• Recruitment (sometimes separated into attraction and selection)
• Induction and Orientation
• Skills management
• Training and development
• Personnel administration
• Compensation in wage or salary
• Time management
• Travel management (sometimes assigned to accounting rather than HRM)
• Payroll (sometimes assigned to accounting rather than HRM)
• Employee benefits administration
• Personnel cost planning
• Performance appraisal
Careers and education
Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations was the world's first school for college-level study in HRM
The sort of careers available in HRM are varied. There are generalist HRM jobs such as human resource assistant. There are careers involved with employment, recruitment and placement and these are usually conducted by interviewers, EEO (Equal Employment Opportunity) specialists or college recruiters. Training and development specialism is often conducted by trainers and orientation specialists. Compensation and benefits tasks are handled by compensation analysts, salary administrators, and benefits administrators.
Several universities offer programs of study pertaining to HRM and broader fields. Cornell University created the world's first school for college-level study in HRM (ILR School).[9] University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign also now has a school dedicated to the study of HRM, while several business schools also house a center or department dedicated to such studies; e.g., Michigan State University, Ohio State University, and Purdue University.
Professional organizations
Professional organizations in HRM include the Society for Human Resource Management, the Australian Human Resources Institute (AHRI), the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), the International Public Management Association for HR (IPMA-HR), Management Association of Nepal (MAN) and the International Personnel Management Association of Canada (IPMA-Canada), Human Capital Institute (HCI)
Functions
The Human Resources Management (HRM) function includes a variety of activities, and key among them is deciding what staffing needs you have and whether to use independent contractors or hire employees to fill these needs, recruiting and training the best employees, ensuring they are high performers, dealing with performance issues, and ensuring your personnel and management practices conform to various regulations. Activities also include managing your approach to employee benefits and compensation, employee records and personnel policies. Usually small businesses (for-profit or nonprofit) have to carry out these activities themselves because they can't yet afford part- or full-time help. However, they should always ensure that employees have -- and are aware of -- personnel policies which conform to current regulations. These policies are often in the form of employee manuals, which all employees have.
Note that some people distinguish a difference between HRM (a major management activity) and HRD (Human Resource Development, a profession). Those people might include HRM in HRD, explaining that HRD includes the broader range of activities to develop personnel inside of organizations, including, eg, career development, training, organization development, etc.
There is a long-standing argument about where HR-related functions should be organized into large organizations, eg, "should HR be in the Organization Development department or the other way around?"
The HRM function and HRD profession have undergone tremendous change over the past 20-30 years. Many years ago, large organizations looked to the "Personnel Department," mostly to manage the paperwork around hiring and paying people. More recently, organizations consider the "HR Department" as playing a major role in staffing, training and helping to manage people so that people and the organization are performing at maximum capability in a highly fulfilling manner.
See also
• Human resources
• Enterprise Feedback Management (EFM)
• E-HRM
References
1. ^ a b Armstrong, Michael (2006). A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice (10th ed.). London: Kogan Page. ISBN 0-7494-4631-5. OCLC 62282248.
2. ^ "personnel management". The Columbia Encyclopedia (Sixth Edition ed.). Columbia University Press. 2005. http://www.bartleby.com/65/x-/X-personne.html. Retrieved 2007-10-17. "personnel management - see industrial management".
3. ^ Encyclopædia Britannica (kl ed.). "Personnel administration is also frequently called personnel management, industrial relations, employee relations".
4. ^ Encyclopædia Britannica.
5. ^ Towers, David. "Human Resource Management essays". http://www.towers.fr/essays/hrm.html. Retrieved 2007-10-17.
6. ^ Ulrich, Dave (1996). Human Resource Champions. The next agenda for adding value and delivering results. Boston, Mass.: Harvard Business School Press. ISBN 0-87584-719-6. OCLC 34704904.
7. ^ Smit, Martin E.J.H. (2006). HR, Show me the money; Presenting an exploratory model that can measure if HR adds value.
8. ^ The Strategic Impact of High Performance Work Systems
9. ^ "About Cornell ILR". Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations. http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/about/. Retrieved 23 August 2009.
• Wilkinson, A. (1988). "Empowerment: theory and practice". Personnel Review 27 (1): 40–56. doi:10.1108/00483489810368549. http://hermia.emeraldinsight.com/vl=2601464/cl=84/nw=1/fm=docpdf/rpsv/cw/mcb/00483486/v27n1/s3/p40. Retrieved 2007-10-17.
• Legge, Karen (2004). Human Resource Management: Rhetorics and Realities (Anniversary ed.). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 1-403-93600-5. OCLC 56730524.
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
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Human Resources 1
Human resources
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
"HR" redirects here. For other uses, see HR (disambiguation).
For the Doctor Who radio play, see Human Resources (Doctor Who audio).
Human resources is a term used to refer to how people are managed by organizations. The field has moved from a traditionally administrative function to a strategic one that recognizes the link between talented and engaged people and organizational success. The field draws upon concepts developed in Industrial/Organizational Psychology and System Theory. Human resources has at least two related interpretations depending on context. The original usage derives from political economy and economics, where it was traditionally called labor, one of four factors of production although this perspective is changing as a function of new and ongoing research into more strategic approaches at national levels.[1] This first usage is used more in terms of 'human resources development', and can go beyond just organizations to the level of nations [2]. The more traditional usage within corporations and businesses refers to the individuals within a firm or agency, and to the portion of the organization that deals with hiring, firing, training, and other personnel issues, typically referred to as 'human resources management'. This article addresses both definitions.
Content
• 1 Development
• 2 Management
o 2.1 Key functions
• 3 Modern analysis
o 3.1 Labour mobility
o 3.2 Perceptions
• 4 Corporate management
• 5 Human resources management trends and influences
o 5.1 Major trends
o 5.2 Individual responses
o 5.3 Framework
o 5.4 Structure
o 5.5 Training
o 5.6 Recruitment
• 6 Modern concept of human resources
• 7 References
Development
The objective of human resources development is to foster human resourcefulness through enlightened and cohesive policies in education, training, health and employment at all levels, from corporate to national.
Management
Human resource management's objective, on the other hand, is to maximize the return on investment from the organization's human capital and minimize financial risk. It is the responsibility of human resource managers in a corporate context to conduct these activities in an effective, legal, fair, and consistent manner.
Key functions
Human Resource Management serves these key functions:
1. Recruitment & Selection
2. Training and Development (People or Organization)
3. Performance Evaluation and Management
4. Promotions/Transfer
5. Redundancy
6. Industrial and Employee Relations
7. Record keeping of all personal data.
8. Total Rewards: Employee Benefits & Compensation
9. Confidential advice to internal 'customers' in relation to problems at work
10. Career development
11. Competency Mapping (Competency mapping is a process an individual uses to identify and describe competencies that are the most critical to success in a work situation or work role.)
12. Time motion study is related to HR Function
13. Performance Appraisal
Modern analysis
Modern analysis emphasizes that human beings are not "commodities" or "resources", but are creative and social beings in a productive enterprise. The 2000 revision of ISO 9001 in contrast requires to identify the processes, their sequence and interaction, and to define and communicate responsibilities and authorities. In general, heavily unionized nations such as France and Germany have adopted and encouraged such job descriptions especially within trade unions. The International Labour Organization also in 2001 decided to revisit, and revise its 1975 Recommendation 150 on Human Resources Development [3]. One view of these trends is that a strong social consensus on political economy and a good social welfare system facilitates labor mobility and tends to make the entire economy more productive, as labor can develop skills and experience in various ways, and move from one enterprise to another with little controversy or difficulty in adapting. Another view is that governments should become more aware of their national role in facilitating human resources development across all sectors.
Labour mobility
An important controversy regarding labor mobility illustrates the broader philosophical issue with usage of the phrase "human resources": governments of developing nations often regard developed nations that encourage immigration or "guest workers" as appropriating human capital that is rightfully part of the developing nation and required to further its growth as a civilization. They argue that this appropriation is similar to colonial commodity fiat wherein a colonizing European power would define an arbitrary price for natural resources, extracting which diminished national natural capital.
The debate regarding "human resources" versus human capital thus in many ways echoes the debate regarding natural resources versus natural capital. Over time the United Nations have come to more generally support the developing nations' point of view, and have requested significant offsetting "foreign aid" contributions so that a developing nation losing human capital does not lose the capacity to continue to train new people in trades, professions, and the arts.
An extreme version of this view is that historical inequities such as African slavery must be compensated by current developed nations, which benefited from stolen "human resources" as they were developing. This is an extremely controversial view, but it echoes the general theme of converting human capital to "human resources" and thus greatly diminishing its value to the host society, i.e. "Africa", as it is put to narrow imitative use as "labor" in the using society.
In a series of reports of the UN Secretary-General to the General Assembly [e.g. A/56/162 (2001)], a broad inter-sectoral approach to developing human resourcefulness [see United Nations Expert Meeting on Human Resources Development. `Changing Perspectives on Human Resources Development. ST/TCD/SER.E/25. June 1994] [4] has been outlined as a priority for socio-economic development and particularly anti-poverty strategies. This calls for strategic and integrated public policies, for example in education, health, and employment sectors that promote occupational skills, knowledge and performance enhancement (Lawrence, J.E.S.) [5].
Perceptions
Terms like "human resources" and "human capital" may be perceived as insulting to people. They create the impression that people are merely commodities, like office machines or vehicles, despite assurances to the contrary.
Corporate management
In the very narrow context of corporate "human resources" management, there is a contrasting pull to reflect and require workplace diversity that echoes the diversity of a global customer base. Foreign language and culture skills, ingenuity, humor, and careful listening, are examples of traits that such programs typically require. It would appear that these evidence a general shift through the human capital point of view to an acknowledgment that human beings do contribute much more to a productive enterprise than "work": they bring their character, their ethics, their creativity, their social connections, and in some cases even their pets and children, and alter the character of a workplace. The term corporate culture is used to characterize such processes at the organizational level.
The traditional but extremely narrow context of hiring, firing, and job description is considered a 20th century anachronism. Most corporate organizations that compete in the modern global economy have adopted a view of human capital that mirrors the modern consensus as above. Some of these, in turn, deprecate the term "human resources" as useless. Yet the term survives, and if related to `resourcefulness', has continued and emerging relevance to public policy.
In general the abstractions of macro-economics treat it this way - as it characterizes no mechanisms to represent choice or ingenuity. So one interpretation is that "firm-specific human capital" as defined in macro-economics is the modern and correct definition of "human resources" - and that this is inadequate to represent the contributions of "human resources" in any modern theory of political economy.
[edit] Human resources management trends and influences
In organizations, it is important to determine both current and future organisational requirements for both core employees and the contingent workforce in terms of their skills/technical abilities, competencies, flexibility etc. The analysis requires consideration of the internal and external factors that can have an effect on the resourcing, development, motivation and retention of employees and other workers. The external factors are those largely out-with the control of the organization and include issues such as the economic climate, current and future trends of the labor market e.g. skills, education level, government investment into industries etc. On the other hand internal influences are broadly within the control of the organization to predict determine and monitor, for example the organizational culture underpinned by management behaviours (or style), environmental climate and the approach to ethical and corporate social responsibilities.
[edit] Major trends
In order to know the business environment in which any organization operates, three major trends should be considered:
Demographics
the characteristics of a population/workforce, for example, age, gender or social class. This type of trend may have an effect in relation to pension offerings, insurance packages etc.
Diversity
the variation within the population/workplace. Changes in society now mean that a larger proportion of organizations are made up of "baby-boomers" or older employees in comparison to thirty years ago. stankein advocates of "workplace diversity" simply advocate an employee base that is a mirror reflection of the make-up of society insofar as race, gender, sexual orientation, etc.
Skills and qualifications
as industries move from manual to a more managerial professions so does the need for more highly skilled graduates. If the market is "tight" (i.e. not enough staff for the jobs), employers will have to compete for employees by offering financial rewards, community investment, etc.
[edit] Individual responses
In regard to how individuals respond to the changes in a labour market the following should be understood:
Geographical spread
how far is the job from the individual? The distance to travel to work should be in line with the pay offered by the organization and the transportation and infrastructure of the area will also be an influencing factor in deciding who will apply for a post.
Occupational structure
the norms and values of the different careers within an organization. Mahoney 1989 developed 3 different types of occupational structure namely craft (loyalty to the profession), organization career (promotion through the firm) and unstructured (lower/unskilled workers who work when needed).
Generational difference
different age categories of employees have certain characteristics, for example their behavior and their expectations of the organization.
[edit] Framework
Human Resources Development is a framework for the expansion of human capital within an organization or (in new approaches) a municipality, region, or nation. Human Resources Development is a combination of training and education, in a broad context of adequate health and employment policies, that ensures the continual improvement and growth of both the individual, the organisation, and the national human resourcefulnes. Adam Smith states, “The capacities of individuals depended on their access to education”.[6] Human Resources Development is the medium that drives the process between training and learning in a broadly fostering environment. Human Resources Development is not a defined object, but a series of organised processes, “with a specific learning objective” (Nadler,1984)[7] Within a national context, it becoms a strategic approach to intersectoral linkages between health, education and employment.[8]
[edit] Structure
Human Resources Development is the structure that allows for individual development, potentially satisfying the organization’s, or the nation's goals. The development of the individual will benefit both the individual, the organization, or the nation and its citizens. In the corporate vision, the Human Resources Development framework views employees, as an asset to the enterprise whose value will be enhanced by development, “Its primary focus is on growth and employee development…it emphasises developing individual potential and skills” (Elwood, olton and Trott 1996)[9] Human Resources Development in this treatment can be in-room group training, tertiary or vocational courses or mentoring and coaching by senior employees with the aim for a desired outcome that will develop the individual’s performance. At the level of a national strategy, it can be a broad intersectoral approach to fostering creative contributions to national productivity [10]
[edit] Training
At the organizational level, a successful Human Resources Development program will prepare the individual to undertake a higher level of work, “organized learning over a given period of time, to provide the possibility of performance change” (Nadler 1984). In these settings, Human Resources Development is the framework that focuses on the organizations competencies at the first stage, training, and then developing the employee, through education, to satisfy the organizations long-term needs and the individuals’ career goals and employee value to their present and future employers. Human Resources Development can be defined simply as developing the most important section of any business its human resource by, “attaining or upgrading the skills and attitudes of employees at all levels in order to maximise the effectiveness of the enterprise” (Kelly 2001)[6]. The people within an organization are its human resource. Human Resources Development from a business perspective is not entirely focused on the individual’s growth and development, “development occurs to enhance the organization's value, not solely for individual improvement. Individual education and development is a tool and a means to an end, not the end goal itself”. (Elwood F. Holton II, James W. Trott Jr)[11]. The broader concept of national and more strategic attention to the development of human resources is beginning to emerge as newly independent countries face strong competition for their skilled professionals and the accompanying brain-drain they experience.
[edit] Recruitment
This article needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2009)
Employee recruitment forms a major part of an organization's overall resourcing strategies which seek to identify and secure the people needed for the organisation to survive and succeed in the short to medium-term. Recruitment activities need to be responsive to the ever-increasingly competitive market to secure suitably qualified and capable recruits at all levels. To be effective these initiatives need to include how and when to source the best recruits internally or externally. Common to the success of either are; well-defined organisational structures with sound job design, robust task and person specification and versatile selection processes, reward, employment relations and human resource policies, underpinned by a commitment for strong employer branding and employee engagement strategies.
Internal recruitment can provide the most cost-effective source for recruits if the potential of the existing pool of employees has been enhanced through training, development and other performance-enhancing activities such as performance appraisal, succession planning and development centres to review performance and assess employee development needs and promotional potential.
Increasingly, securing the best quality candidates for almost all organizations will rely, at least occasionally if not substantially, on external recruitment methods. Rapid changing business models demand skills of experiences which cannot be sourced or rapidly enough developed from the existing employee base. It would be unusual for an organisation today to undertake all aspects of the recruitment process without support from third-party dedicated recruitment firms. This may involve a range of support services, such as; provision of CVs or resumes, identifying recruitment media, advertisement design and media placement for job vacancies, candidate response handling, shortlisting, conducting aptitude testing, preliminary interviews or reference and qualification verification. Typically, small organisations may not have in-house resources or, in common with larger organisations, may not possess the particular skill-set required to undertake a specific recruitment assignment. Where requirements arise these will be referred on an adhoc basis to government job centres or commercially run employment agencies.
Except in sectors where high-volume recruitment is the norm, an organization faced with an unexpected requirement for an unusually large number of new recruits at short notice will often hand over the task to a specialist external recruiter to manage the end-to-end resourcing programme. Sourcing executive-level and senior management as well as the acquisition of scarce or ‘high-potential’ recruits has been a long-established market serviced by a wide range of ‘search and selection’ or ‘headhunting’ consultancies which typically form long-standing relationships with their client organizations. Finally, certain organizations with sophisticated HR practices have identified there is a strategic advantage in outsourcing complete responsibility for all workforce procurement to one or more third-party recruitment agencies or consultancies. In the most sophisticated of these arrangements the external recruitment services provider may not only physically locate, or ‘embed’, their resourcing team(s) within the client organization's offices but will work in tandem with the senior human resource management team in developing the longer-term HR resourcing strategy and plan.
[edit] Modern concept of human resources
Though human resources have been part of business and organizations since the first days of agriculture, the modern concept of human resources began in reaction to the efficiency focus of Taylorism in the early 1900s. By 1920, psychologists and employment experts in the United States started the human relations movement, which viewed workers in terms of their psychology and fit with companies, rather than as interchangeable parts. This movement grew throughout the middle of the 20th century, placing emphasis on how leadership, cohesion, and loyalty played important roles in organizational success. Although this view was increasingly challenged by more quantitatively rigorous and less "soft" management techniques in the 1960s and beyond, human resources development had gained a permanent role within organizations, agencies and nations, increasingly as not only an academic discipline, but as a central theme in development policy.
[edit] References
This section needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2009)
1. ^ Advances in Developing Human Resources Vol 6 (#3) August 2004 and Vol 8, #3, 2006
2. ^ McLean G. N. National Human Resource Development: A Focused Study in Transitioning Societies in the Developing World. In Advances in Developing Human Resources; 8; 3, 2006.
3. ^ http://www-ilo-mirror.cornell.edu/public/english/employment/skills/recomm/quest/qr_1b.htm
4. ^ unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/UN/UNPAN000116.pdf
5. ^ http://ann.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/520/1/42
6. ^ a b Kelly D, 2001, Dual Perceptions of HRD: Issues for Policy: SME’s, Other Constituencies, and the Contested Definitions of Human Resource Development, http://ro.uow.edu.au/artspapers/26
7. ^ Nadler L Ed., 1984, The Handbook of Human resources Development, John Wiley and Sons, New York.
8. ^ McLean, G. N., Osman-Gani, A. M.,& Cho, E. (Eds.). Human resource development as national policy. Advances in Developing Human Resources, August (2004). 6 (3).
9. ^ Elwood F. Holton II, James W. Trott, Jr., 1996, Trends Toward a Closer Integration of Vocational Education and Human Resources Development, Journal of Vocational and Technical Education, Vol. 12, No. 2, p7
10. ^ http://www.ilo.org/public/english/employment/skills/hrdr/init/cze_8.htm
11. ^ Elwood F. Holton II, James W. Trott, Jr., 1996, Trends Toward a Closer Integration of Vocational Education and Human Resources Development, Journal of Vocational and Technical Education, Vol. 12, No. 2, p7
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_resources"
Categories: Human resource management
Hidden categories: Articles needing additional references from July 2009 | All articles needing additional references | Articles needing additional references from January 2009
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
"HR" redirects here. For other uses, see HR (disambiguation).
For the Doctor Who radio play, see Human Resources (Doctor Who audio).
Human resources is a term used to refer to how people are managed by organizations. The field has moved from a traditionally administrative function to a strategic one that recognizes the link between talented and engaged people and organizational success. The field draws upon concepts developed in Industrial/Organizational Psychology and System Theory. Human resources has at least two related interpretations depending on context. The original usage derives from political economy and economics, where it was traditionally called labor, one of four factors of production although this perspective is changing as a function of new and ongoing research into more strategic approaches at national levels.[1] This first usage is used more in terms of 'human resources development', and can go beyond just organizations to the level of nations [2]. The more traditional usage within corporations and businesses refers to the individuals within a firm or agency, and to the portion of the organization that deals with hiring, firing, training, and other personnel issues, typically referred to as 'human resources management'. This article addresses both definitions.
Content
• 1 Development
• 2 Management
o 2.1 Key functions
• 3 Modern analysis
o 3.1 Labour mobility
o 3.2 Perceptions
• 4 Corporate management
• 5 Human resources management trends and influences
o 5.1 Major trends
o 5.2 Individual responses
o 5.3 Framework
o 5.4 Structure
o 5.5 Training
o 5.6 Recruitment
• 6 Modern concept of human resources
• 7 References
Development
The objective of human resources development is to foster human resourcefulness through enlightened and cohesive policies in education, training, health and employment at all levels, from corporate to national.
Management
Human resource management's objective, on the other hand, is to maximize the return on investment from the organization's human capital and minimize financial risk. It is the responsibility of human resource managers in a corporate context to conduct these activities in an effective, legal, fair, and consistent manner.
Key functions
Human Resource Management serves these key functions:
1. Recruitment & Selection
2. Training and Development (People or Organization)
3. Performance Evaluation and Management
4. Promotions/Transfer
5. Redundancy
6. Industrial and Employee Relations
7. Record keeping of all personal data.
8. Total Rewards: Employee Benefits & Compensation
9. Confidential advice to internal 'customers' in relation to problems at work
10. Career development
11. Competency Mapping (Competency mapping is a process an individual uses to identify and describe competencies that are the most critical to success in a work situation or work role.)
12. Time motion study is related to HR Function
13. Performance Appraisal
Modern analysis
Modern analysis emphasizes that human beings are not "commodities" or "resources", but are creative and social beings in a productive enterprise. The 2000 revision of ISO 9001 in contrast requires to identify the processes, their sequence and interaction, and to define and communicate responsibilities and authorities. In general, heavily unionized nations such as France and Germany have adopted and encouraged such job descriptions especially within trade unions. The International Labour Organization also in 2001 decided to revisit, and revise its 1975 Recommendation 150 on Human Resources Development [3]. One view of these trends is that a strong social consensus on political economy and a good social welfare system facilitates labor mobility and tends to make the entire economy more productive, as labor can develop skills and experience in various ways, and move from one enterprise to another with little controversy or difficulty in adapting. Another view is that governments should become more aware of their national role in facilitating human resources development across all sectors.
Labour mobility
An important controversy regarding labor mobility illustrates the broader philosophical issue with usage of the phrase "human resources": governments of developing nations often regard developed nations that encourage immigration or "guest workers" as appropriating human capital that is rightfully part of the developing nation and required to further its growth as a civilization. They argue that this appropriation is similar to colonial commodity fiat wherein a colonizing European power would define an arbitrary price for natural resources, extracting which diminished national natural capital.
The debate regarding "human resources" versus human capital thus in many ways echoes the debate regarding natural resources versus natural capital. Over time the United Nations have come to more generally support the developing nations' point of view, and have requested significant offsetting "foreign aid" contributions so that a developing nation losing human capital does not lose the capacity to continue to train new people in trades, professions, and the arts.
An extreme version of this view is that historical inequities such as African slavery must be compensated by current developed nations, which benefited from stolen "human resources" as they were developing. This is an extremely controversial view, but it echoes the general theme of converting human capital to "human resources" and thus greatly diminishing its value to the host society, i.e. "Africa", as it is put to narrow imitative use as "labor" in the using society.
In a series of reports of the UN Secretary-General to the General Assembly [e.g. A/56/162 (2001)], a broad inter-sectoral approach to developing human resourcefulness [see United Nations Expert Meeting on Human Resources Development. `Changing Perspectives on Human Resources Development. ST/TCD/SER.E/25. June 1994] [4] has been outlined as a priority for socio-economic development and particularly anti-poverty strategies. This calls for strategic and integrated public policies, for example in education, health, and employment sectors that promote occupational skills, knowledge and performance enhancement (Lawrence, J.E.S.) [5].
Perceptions
Terms like "human resources" and "human capital" may be perceived as insulting to people. They create the impression that people are merely commodities, like office machines or vehicles, despite assurances to the contrary.
Corporate management
In the very narrow context of corporate "human resources" management, there is a contrasting pull to reflect and require workplace diversity that echoes the diversity of a global customer base. Foreign language and culture skills, ingenuity, humor, and careful listening, are examples of traits that such programs typically require. It would appear that these evidence a general shift through the human capital point of view to an acknowledgment that human beings do contribute much more to a productive enterprise than "work": they bring their character, their ethics, their creativity, their social connections, and in some cases even their pets and children, and alter the character of a workplace. The term corporate culture is used to characterize such processes at the organizational level.
The traditional but extremely narrow context of hiring, firing, and job description is considered a 20th century anachronism. Most corporate organizations that compete in the modern global economy have adopted a view of human capital that mirrors the modern consensus as above. Some of these, in turn, deprecate the term "human resources" as useless. Yet the term survives, and if related to `resourcefulness', has continued and emerging relevance to public policy.
In general the abstractions of macro-economics treat it this way - as it characterizes no mechanisms to represent choice or ingenuity. So one interpretation is that "firm-specific human capital" as defined in macro-economics is the modern and correct definition of "human resources" - and that this is inadequate to represent the contributions of "human resources" in any modern theory of political economy.
[edit] Human resources management trends and influences
In organizations, it is important to determine both current and future organisational requirements for both core employees and the contingent workforce in terms of their skills/technical abilities, competencies, flexibility etc. The analysis requires consideration of the internal and external factors that can have an effect on the resourcing, development, motivation and retention of employees and other workers. The external factors are those largely out-with the control of the organization and include issues such as the economic climate, current and future trends of the labor market e.g. skills, education level, government investment into industries etc. On the other hand internal influences are broadly within the control of the organization to predict determine and monitor, for example the organizational culture underpinned by management behaviours (or style), environmental climate and the approach to ethical and corporate social responsibilities.
[edit] Major trends
In order to know the business environment in which any organization operates, three major trends should be considered:
Demographics
the characteristics of a population/workforce, for example, age, gender or social class. This type of trend may have an effect in relation to pension offerings, insurance packages etc.
Diversity
the variation within the population/workplace. Changes in society now mean that a larger proportion of organizations are made up of "baby-boomers" or older employees in comparison to thirty years ago. stankein advocates of "workplace diversity" simply advocate an employee base that is a mirror reflection of the make-up of society insofar as race, gender, sexual orientation, etc.
Skills and qualifications
as industries move from manual to a more managerial professions so does the need for more highly skilled graduates. If the market is "tight" (i.e. not enough staff for the jobs), employers will have to compete for employees by offering financial rewards, community investment, etc.
[edit] Individual responses
In regard to how individuals respond to the changes in a labour market the following should be understood:
Geographical spread
how far is the job from the individual? The distance to travel to work should be in line with the pay offered by the organization and the transportation and infrastructure of the area will also be an influencing factor in deciding who will apply for a post.
Occupational structure
the norms and values of the different careers within an organization. Mahoney 1989 developed 3 different types of occupational structure namely craft (loyalty to the profession), organization career (promotion through the firm) and unstructured (lower/unskilled workers who work when needed).
Generational difference
different age categories of employees have certain characteristics, for example their behavior and their expectations of the organization.
[edit] Framework
Human Resources Development is a framework for the expansion of human capital within an organization or (in new approaches) a municipality, region, or nation. Human Resources Development is a combination of training and education, in a broad context of adequate health and employment policies, that ensures the continual improvement and growth of both the individual, the organisation, and the national human resourcefulnes. Adam Smith states, “The capacities of individuals depended on their access to education”.[6] Human Resources Development is the medium that drives the process between training and learning in a broadly fostering environment. Human Resources Development is not a defined object, but a series of organised processes, “with a specific learning objective” (Nadler,1984)[7] Within a national context, it becoms a strategic approach to intersectoral linkages between health, education and employment.[8]
[edit] Structure
Human Resources Development is the structure that allows for individual development, potentially satisfying the organization’s, or the nation's goals. The development of the individual will benefit both the individual, the organization, or the nation and its citizens. In the corporate vision, the Human Resources Development framework views employees, as an asset to the enterprise whose value will be enhanced by development, “Its primary focus is on growth and employee development…it emphasises developing individual potential and skills” (Elwood, olton and Trott 1996)[9] Human Resources Development in this treatment can be in-room group training, tertiary or vocational courses or mentoring and coaching by senior employees with the aim for a desired outcome that will develop the individual’s performance. At the level of a national strategy, it can be a broad intersectoral approach to fostering creative contributions to national productivity [10]
[edit] Training
At the organizational level, a successful Human Resources Development program will prepare the individual to undertake a higher level of work, “organized learning over a given period of time, to provide the possibility of performance change” (Nadler 1984). In these settings, Human Resources Development is the framework that focuses on the organizations competencies at the first stage, training, and then developing the employee, through education, to satisfy the organizations long-term needs and the individuals’ career goals and employee value to their present and future employers. Human Resources Development can be defined simply as developing the most important section of any business its human resource by, “attaining or upgrading the skills and attitudes of employees at all levels in order to maximise the effectiveness of the enterprise” (Kelly 2001)[6]. The people within an organization are its human resource. Human Resources Development from a business perspective is not entirely focused on the individual’s growth and development, “development occurs to enhance the organization's value, not solely for individual improvement. Individual education and development is a tool and a means to an end, not the end goal itself”. (Elwood F. Holton II, James W. Trott Jr)[11]. The broader concept of national and more strategic attention to the development of human resources is beginning to emerge as newly independent countries face strong competition for their skilled professionals and the accompanying brain-drain they experience.
[edit] Recruitment
This article needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2009)
Employee recruitment forms a major part of an organization's overall resourcing strategies which seek to identify and secure the people needed for the organisation to survive and succeed in the short to medium-term. Recruitment activities need to be responsive to the ever-increasingly competitive market to secure suitably qualified and capable recruits at all levels. To be effective these initiatives need to include how and when to source the best recruits internally or externally. Common to the success of either are; well-defined organisational structures with sound job design, robust task and person specification and versatile selection processes, reward, employment relations and human resource policies, underpinned by a commitment for strong employer branding and employee engagement strategies.
Internal recruitment can provide the most cost-effective source for recruits if the potential of the existing pool of employees has been enhanced through training, development and other performance-enhancing activities such as performance appraisal, succession planning and development centres to review performance and assess employee development needs and promotional potential.
Increasingly, securing the best quality candidates for almost all organizations will rely, at least occasionally if not substantially, on external recruitment methods. Rapid changing business models demand skills of experiences which cannot be sourced or rapidly enough developed from the existing employee base. It would be unusual for an organisation today to undertake all aspects of the recruitment process without support from third-party dedicated recruitment firms. This may involve a range of support services, such as; provision of CVs or resumes, identifying recruitment media, advertisement design and media placement for job vacancies, candidate response handling, shortlisting, conducting aptitude testing, preliminary interviews or reference and qualification verification. Typically, small organisations may not have in-house resources or, in common with larger organisations, may not possess the particular skill-set required to undertake a specific recruitment assignment. Where requirements arise these will be referred on an adhoc basis to government job centres or commercially run employment agencies.
Except in sectors where high-volume recruitment is the norm, an organization faced with an unexpected requirement for an unusually large number of new recruits at short notice will often hand over the task to a specialist external recruiter to manage the end-to-end resourcing programme. Sourcing executive-level and senior management as well as the acquisition of scarce or ‘high-potential’ recruits has been a long-established market serviced by a wide range of ‘search and selection’ or ‘headhunting’ consultancies which typically form long-standing relationships with their client organizations. Finally, certain organizations with sophisticated HR practices have identified there is a strategic advantage in outsourcing complete responsibility for all workforce procurement to one or more third-party recruitment agencies or consultancies. In the most sophisticated of these arrangements the external recruitment services provider may not only physically locate, or ‘embed’, their resourcing team(s) within the client organization's offices but will work in tandem with the senior human resource management team in developing the longer-term HR resourcing strategy and plan.
[edit] Modern concept of human resources
Though human resources have been part of business and organizations since the first days of agriculture, the modern concept of human resources began in reaction to the efficiency focus of Taylorism in the early 1900s. By 1920, psychologists and employment experts in the United States started the human relations movement, which viewed workers in terms of their psychology and fit with companies, rather than as interchangeable parts. This movement grew throughout the middle of the 20th century, placing emphasis on how leadership, cohesion, and loyalty played important roles in organizational success. Although this view was increasingly challenged by more quantitatively rigorous and less "soft" management techniques in the 1960s and beyond, human resources development had gained a permanent role within organizations, agencies and nations, increasingly as not only an academic discipline, but as a central theme in development policy.
[edit] References
This section needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2009)
1. ^ Advances in Developing Human Resources Vol 6 (#3) August 2004 and Vol 8, #3, 2006
2. ^ McLean G. N. National Human Resource Development: A Focused Study in Transitioning Societies in the Developing World. In Advances in Developing Human Resources; 8; 3, 2006.
3. ^ http://www-ilo-mirror.cornell.edu/public/english/employment/skills/recomm/quest/qr_1b.htm
4. ^ unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/UN/UNPAN000116.pdf
5. ^ http://ann.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/520/1/42
6. ^ a b Kelly D, 2001, Dual Perceptions of HRD: Issues for Policy: SME’s, Other Constituencies, and the Contested Definitions of Human Resource Development, http://ro.uow.edu.au/artspapers/26
7. ^ Nadler L Ed., 1984, The Handbook of Human resources Development, John Wiley and Sons, New York.
8. ^ McLean, G. N., Osman-Gani, A. M.,& Cho, E. (Eds.). Human resource development as national policy. Advances in Developing Human Resources, August (2004). 6 (3).
9. ^ Elwood F. Holton II, James W. Trott, Jr., 1996, Trends Toward a Closer Integration of Vocational Education and Human Resources Development, Journal of Vocational and Technical Education, Vol. 12, No. 2, p7
10. ^ http://www.ilo.org/public/english/employment/skills/hrdr/init/cze_8.htm
11. ^ Elwood F. Holton II, James W. Trott, Jr., 1996, Trends Toward a Closer Integration of Vocational Education and Human Resources Development, Journal of Vocational and Technical Education, Vol. 12, No. 2, p7
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Categories: Human resource management
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