Management and Organizational Behavior

Dr. Leigh Stelzer

Reference Guide: Human Resource Management, W&N, Chap 11

Objectives:

Know the HR functions.

An increasing number of companies believe that people are the company’s most important asset. Investment and improvement in people’s performance can be leveraged for high corporate returns (intellectual capital accounting). An investment in people (recruiting, placement, training, communicating, incenting) increases productivity and profits. Companies recognize that their business has become too complex to rely on command and control management (C&C). Management is not large enough, smart enough or quick enough to make strategy and day-to-day decisions. Estimates are that the C & C model accesses only 20% of the workers’ effectiveness. Thus, companies are decentralizing decision making and empowering front line employees to become decision makers. Managers are being held accountable for a new "C", coaching and people development skills. Companies are using a balanced score card that measures manager’s people skills and results.

In addition, in many companies Human Resources acts more like a business by developing an internal customer orientation and developing partnerships. HR’s real leverage is maximizing what the organization gets from people. When HR acts like a business, it focuses on: relationships, working closely with line managers; products, becoming more knowledgeable about their products; delivery channels, aligning servers with the products. HR products can be made to compete with outside vendors; with the alternative that products are outsourced

Strategic alignment: Companies can impress workers with the relation between their actions, customer satisfaction and company profits by encouraging and "incenting" workers to act like owners. Companies have increased the customer or market orientation internally and externally by stressing ownership. As much as 25% of an executive’s pay is variable and results driven. The "take ownership" stock option program gives virtually all employees a stake in corporate performance. Additional team incentive programs are based on achieving thresholds.

The human resource function is crucial to contemporary business organizations. Organization strategy requires that the right people occupy the right positions, motivate and perform appropriately, The high price of recruiting and training as well as the potential high costs associated with employing the wrong person means that companies are putting more emphasis on the HR function, especially recruiting.

What does HR do?

1. Identifying the staffing needs of the company. Now and future (strategic).

What needs to be done?

What jobs need to be performed?

What skills are needed?

2. Recruiting candidates and selecting the best.

How do you recruit?

How do you get the best?

3. Appraising (evaluating) employee behavior.

How do you evaluate? For every job there is a standard of performance.

How hard the person worked? Did he/she do the job?

Who does the evaluation, how?

4. Compensating (rewarding) employee performance.

What is the basis for rewards? Should all be paid the same?

Level of performance; Importance of job; Scarcity of skill?

5. Training to increase employee performance. Teach workers:

How to do the job; how to do a better job; new skills to do more do more rewarding jobs; how to make the themselves more valuable to the firm.

Can training be learning style appropriate?

6. Improving the work environment. Make the work place attractive.

Safe, healthy, clean.

Conducive to work: interaction, teaming, power sharing, supportive.

7. Improving the work. HR can influence job design and organizational design?

8. Insuring employee rights. What rights do employees have?

• right to job, seniority, promotions.

• right to not be discriminated against on account of...

• right to speech, associate, form labor organizations