HRM3704 - Contemporary Issues in Human Resource Chap 1 - 13 Q&A

HRM3704 - Contemporary Issues in Human Resource Chap 1 - 13 Q&A. Describe the issues that will play a major role in the future in McKee`s catalytic period.  Increase in cross-border employment  A workforce comfortable in, and with, other cultures  Fewer organisations from continued mergers and acquisitions  Use of just-in-time professional workers  An increase in outsourcing of administrative functions  More innovative compensation practices  More selective approach by employees regarding their careers  Telecommuting and other forms of flexible work being widely introduced  Teams playing 2.) Describe the present in which HR professionals can be successful.  Become involved with line managers in strategy formulation and implementation,  Become an expert in the way work is organised and executed  Become involved in reducing costs through administrative efficiency, while maintaining high quality  Become a reliable representative for employees when putting their concerns to management  Become involved in efforts to increase the employees' contribution to the organisation  Become an agent for continuous transformation, shaping processes and culture to help improve capacity for change. 3. Discuss the employee-employer contract of employment The new employee- employer relationship Successful and competitive organisations are able to turn their strategies into action quickly, manage their processes efficiently and maximise their employees1 contributions and commitment. Organisations must abolish the old way of doing things and implement new practices. This can take place through re-engineering, restructuring, downsizing, and other activities S - The study-notes marketplace Downloaded by: nkosilerato8 | Distribution of this document is illegal S - The study-notes marketplace 2 4.) Give a definition of the new psychological contract May/June 2015; May/June 2016 The psychological contract - what employees and employers want and expect from each other will change dramatically in the new work environment. The psychological contract that is dynamic, voluntary, subjective, and informal accomplishes two tasks: firstly, it defines the employment relationship, and, secondly, it manages mutual expectations Two types of violation of the psychological contract can occur, reneging and incongruence Reneging occurs when either party to a psychological contract knowingly breaks a promise to the other Reneging may also occur because one party is unable to fulfil its promise or because one party does not want to fulfil the terms of the agreement. Incongruence occurs when the parties have different understandings of their obligations in terms of the contract. Those different understandings occur because the terms and conditions of psychological contracts are often perceptual. 5.) Give four reasons why virtual teams have become important.  The change in organisation structures to flat or horizontal formats  The emergence of environments that require interorganisational cooperation as well as competition  Changes in workers' expectations regarding their involvement in organisations  The globalisation of trade and organisational activity. 6.) Give some examples of the training needs of self-managed work teams.  Self-managed work teams need training in addition to the training needed to perform the specific job they have been employed for.  Communication is vital for such teams to succeed and each team member will subsequently have to be trained to communicate properly if the team wants to be successful.  Linked to this are proper listening skills which are vital for proper communication.  Team also needs training in communication, listening and supervisory skills, conflict resolution, decision making, running, meetings and time management. Downloaded by: nkosilerato8 | Distribution of this document is illegal S - The study-notes marketplace 3 7.) Give a brief explanation of the evolving roles of HRM during the four periods of organizational change as described by McKee.  The mechanistic period. - Associated with the 1940s and 195os when manufacturing was the driving force in industry.  The legalistic period. - 1960s and 1970s saw an unprecedented amount of legislation in the social and employment areas.  The organistic period. - Tremendous organisational change started to take place in the 1980s - globalisation, mergers, acquisitions, re-engineering, and downsizing  The strategic period. - 1990s has become known as the strategic period. Strategic thinking and planning emerged as the most prominent activity to deal with the continual change faced by corporate organisations. 8.) Explain Ulrich`s-role model for HRM Ulrich: for HR professionals to be successful, they have to play at least four different roles,  strategic partner,  administrative expert,  employee champion  change agent Axes of Ulrich's model represent two aspects:  focus (i.e. short-term and long-term)  activities (managing processes, HR tools and systems, and managing people Strategic Focus * Strategic HR Planning * Staffing and Talent Management * HR & Business partner * Organisational design * Culture and Image * Survey Action Planning * performance Management * Tanning and Developing Strategic Change Processes Partner 1 3 Agent People Administrative 2 4 Employee Expert Champion * Compensations * Employee Relations * Benefits * Labour Relations * HR Information systems * Safety and works compensation * Compliance * Diversity and EEO Operational Focus Downloaded by: nkosilerato8 | Distribution of this document is illegal S - The study-notes marketplace 4 9.) Discuss the employee-employer relationship in the work environment. Successful and competitive organisations are able to turn their strategies into action quickly, manage their processes efficiently and maximise their employees1 contributions and commitment. Organisations must abolish the old way of doing things and implement new practices. This can take place through re-engineering, restructuring, downsizing, and other activities. 10.) According to Mahlon Apgar IV, a number of options are available for the alternative workplace to tailor work arrangements to your own needs. Discuss these options. Oct/Nov2015 Alternative workplace options relates to moving work to the worker instead of the worker to the work. Options available to tailor work arrangements to personal needs are described below:  Placing workers on different shifts or travel schedules This enables workers to share same desk and office space Replace traditional office with open-plan space  Implementing concept of “hoteling” On this option, work space will be furnished, equipped and supported, can be reserved by the hour/day/week. Again, here concierge provide employees with travel/logistic support  Creating satellite offices This entails breaking large centralized facilities into network of smaller workplaces located close to customer or employees home  Introducing telecommuting or virtual offices This entails performing work electronically wherever worker chooses, supplements traditional workplace rather than replacing it. 11.) Brief describe what you understand by talent management. (Oct/Nov2015; May/June 2016 Having people in organisations doesn’t constitute talent management only. Talent management to the attraction, motivation and retention of talented individuals within an organisation. This process include workforce planning, talent-gap analysis, recruitment, selection, education development, retention, talent reviews, succession planning and evaluation. Organisations need to ensure that all these processes are in place for a sound talent management. Talent management can been see as the use of an integrated set of HRM activities to ensure that an organisation attracts, retains, motivates, and develops the talented people it needs now and in the future. The concept not only enhances the value of outsiders, but also looks at the talent an organisation already possesses. Downloaded by: nkosilerato8 | Distribution of this document is illegal S - The study-notes marketplace 5 12.) Michaels, Handfield-Jones and Axelrod identify 4 key areas of organizational to act upon if they are going to make talent a source of competitive advantage, briefly discuss these 4 areas. Discuss four talent management challenges in organisations. May/June2015; May/June 2016 Four talent management challenges in the case study are discussed below: The organisation does not have accountability when it comes to talent management in the form of:  Craft winning employee value proposition (EVP) - EVP is everything employee experiences within organisation including intrinsic/extrinsic satisfaction, values, ethics, culture - How well organisation fulfils employee’s needs, expectations, aspirations - Intrinsic satisfaction rate higher than extrinsic satisfaction. Intrinsic factors such as having interesting, challenging work that one is passionate about are rated highly by employees when they consider the place of employment.  Rebuild your recruitment strategy - Understand the new workforce - Values and ethics act as important sources of attraction - Understanding how potential employees view or obtain information about organisation can enhance match between person and organisation, increasing fit and retention  Weave development into your organisation - Employees want work that provide opportunities and is challenging - Organisations must develop talent and weave it into the culture - Training and development considered critical issues in retention  Differentiate and affirm your people - Recognize individual achievement - Be aware of employees diverse lifestyles and needs - Building diversity is opportunity to attract wider range of talent An important factor in diffe rentiating and affirming employees is awareness of their diverse lifestyles and needs.  Embrace a talent mindset - Having better talent at all levels is how you out-perform your competition - Better talent critical source of competitive advantage - Talent management becoming important role for CEO Downloaded by: nkosilerato8 | Distribution of this document is illegal S - The study-notes marketplace 6 13.) Alert management to the risk that the chief learning officer (CLO) exposes the organization to. Oct/Nov 2016  A vacancy risk. To safeguard key business capabilities, focus on scarce skills  A transaction risk. To avoid loss of key talent, select successors with leadership ability, and hire for organisation capability, and fit to position.  A portfolio risk - maximise strategic talent leverage, focus on senior management's commitment to development and performance standards.  A readiness risk. To accelerate leadership development, provide full business exposure to rising stars. 14.) Criticize the appointment of relatives and friends in the organization and advise the manager on the correct procedure to be followed when doing selection. Oct/Nov 2016 Appointing relatives and friends have a negative impact on the outlook and performance of the organisation. Nepotism has no value or place in profit-seeking organisations as it damages the opportunity of attracting, motivating and retaining competent employees within the organisation. There must be transparency, fairness and accountability on the part of managers in appointing the workforce of the organisation. Proper procedures must be applied in recruiting and appointing employees in the organisation. Proper selection based on the suitability of the employees should be adhered to when staffing the organisation. The right people must be appointed for the right job within the organisation at the right time for the organisation to meet its strategic objectives. To be able to be competitive enough in the market, organisations need to employ the right people for the right job based on the right criteria used in staffing the organisation. Downloaded by: nkosilerato8 | Distribution of this document is illegal S - The study-notes marketplace 7 Chapter 2 1. Distinguish between cross-functional and self managed teams.Oct/Nov 2016 Cross-functional teams  Includes employees from each of the functional sub-unit.  They allow flexible, efficient deployment of personnel and resources to solve problems as they occur.  These are teams created to improving coordination of the independent activities among specialised sub-unit. Self-managed teams  Teams in work environment responsible for determining what they want to do, how they want to do it, when they want to do it  can respond quickly to needs of a particular situation  Team members participate in decisions  HR professional becomes coach/counsellor/advisor to team Downloaded by: nkosilerato8 | Distribution of this document is illegal S - The study-notes marketplace 8 2. Discuss the attributes of the four mindsets needed to retain competitive advantage in the new competitive landscape May/June 2015; Oct/Nov 2015 The attributes for four(4) mind-sets are needed by managers to retain a competitive in the new competitive landscape are: (i) A global mindset needed to convert globalisation threats into growth opportunities. Attributes:  thinking beyond geographic boundaries,  valuing integration across borders,  viewing the firm as having a global identity  appreciating regional and cultural diversity.