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PEOPLE MANAGEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT

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... Guest, Purcell) ... In the UK, Purcell stresses the need to understand where, when and ... Boxall,P. and Purcell,J. (2003) Strategy and human resource ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: PEOPLE MANAGEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT


1
PEOPLE MANAGEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT
  • Best practice and best fit human resource
    management

2
Defining and measuring best practice HRM
  • High commitment, high performance, high
    involvement, best practice
  • USA studies (Pfeffer,Huselid) explored links
    between HRM and performance
  • UK studies (West, Guest, Purcell)
  • Studies differ in several respects, making
    conclusions difficult

3
Differences between studies
  • Nature and type of HR practices used
  • Proxies developed for each of the practices
  • Measures of performance used
  • Sectors in which studies have taken place
  • Methods of data collection
  • Respondents from whom information has been sought

4
Components of best practice HRM
  • Employment security and internal labour markets
  • Selective hiring and sophisticated selection
  • Extensive training, learning and development
  • Employee involvement, information sharing and
    worker voice
  • Self-managed teams/teamworking
  • High compensation contingent on performance
  • Reduction of status differentials

5
Employment security and internal labour markets
  • Fundamentally underpinning the other 6 practices
  • Job reductions should be avoided wherever
    possible
  • Enhance through HR planning and flexibility
  • Defining employment security
  • Policy of no compulsory redundancy
  • Use of temporary workers to protect the core
    workforce
  • Expectation on the part of senior managers that
    new staff will remain long-term

6
Selective hiring and sophisticated selection
  • Trend towards more sophistication in selection
    techniques
  • Employers looking for more than technical ability
  • Measuring selective hiring
  • Number of applicants per position
  • Proportion administered an employment test
  • Sophistication of processes
  • Measures capture different components of the
    selection process
  • Best practice selection should be integrated and
    systematic

7
Extensive training, learning and development
  • Employers aiming to synergise the contribution of
    talented and exceptional employees
  • T,L and D one of the most widely quoted and
    important elements of best practice
  • Examples of measures used
  • Number of days training
  • Proportion of workers trained
  • Budget set aside for training
  • Studies have focused on quantity, not quality of
    training

8
Employee involvement, information sharing and
worker voice
  • EI can include downward communication, upward
    problem solving and project teams
  • EI is important because
  • It conveys an important message about trust
  • Employee suggestions are important for quality
    management
  • Participation provides management with legitimacy
  • Measures for EI include
  • Regularity of team briefs
  • Regularity of attitude surveys
  • age trained in group problem solving
  • Wide range of measures make comparison of results
    difficult

9
Self-managed teams/teamworking
  • Identified by many managers as a fundamental
    component of organisation success
  • Seen as leading to better decisions
  • Measures used include
  • Proportion of workers in teams
  • Use of formal teams
  • Distinguish between on-line and off-line teams?
  • Difficulties of self-managed teams?

10
High compensation contingent on performance
  • Pfeffer argues there are two elements
  • Higher than average reward
  • Performance-related reward
  • UK studies more critical of PRP than US studies
  • Measures used
  • Access to incentive systems
  • Appraisal used to determine compensation

11
Reduction of status differences/harmonisation
  • Used to convey messages about employee value
  • Encouraging an open culture
  • Egalitarian symbols eg uniforms, canteens, car
    parking
  • Share ownership may also be important
  • Measures used
  • Existence of employee share schemes
  • Commitment to achieving single status

12
Bundles of human resource practices
  • EI/employment security/reduction of differentials
  • Teamworking/incentives/training
  • Selection/flexibility/internal promotion
  • The more the better but how many are needed?
  • What happens if achievement of one contradicts
    another?

13
HRM and performance the USA studies
  • Huselid survey of 1,000 organisations concluded
    that the magnitude of the return for investments
    in high performance work practices is
    substantial
  • Pfeffer argues that best practice HRM has the
    potential to have a positive impact irrespective
    of size, sector or country

14
HRM and performance studies in the UK
  • Wests research in the NHS shows three practices
    have a strong impact on performance training,
    teamwork and appraisal
  • Guest has looked at the extent of adoption of
    best practice HR and its effectiveness
  • Guest concludes that research methods used impact
    on results
  • Subjective measures lead to a positive message
  • Objective measures produce a less consistent
    message

15
Questions about the best practice performance
link
  • Direction of causality
  • Does HP management lead to better performance?
  • Do profitable companies have more scope to
    introduce best practice/HP management?
  • Little consistency in HR practices in the bundle
  • Variation in proxies used to measure performance
  • Dangers in relying on self-report scores from HR
    managers
  • Doubts about how much autonomy organisations have
    in decision making

16
Universal application of best practice HR?
  • Pfeffer and Huselid argue for universality
  • In the UK, Purcell stresses the need to
    understand where, when and how it is applied
  • Marchington and Wilkinson express doubts about
    best practice at a conceptual level
  • It works best on the assumption that employers
    have a long-term perspective
  • Easier to engage in best practice HRM when labour
    costs form a low proportion of costs
  • Is flexible employment compatible with best
    practice HRM?

17
Critique in Beardwell, Holden and Claydon
  • The validity of the research methods?
  • Problems associated with inconsistencies in the
    models
  • Direction of causality
  • Applicability to organisations in highly
    competitive markets
  • The underlying theme of unitarism

18
Best-fit HRM
  • Assesses the extent to which there is vertical
    integration between an organisations business
    strategy and its HRM policies and practices
  • Demonstrate vertical integration through
  • Linking business goals to individual objectives
  • Measurement and rewarding of business goals

19
Designing HRM to fit organisational goals
  • How can HRM and business strategy be linked?
  • Life cycle models
  • Competitive advantage
  • Strategic configuration
  • All outside-in approaches

20
Life cycle models (1)
  • Start-up
  • Need for committed, flexible staff
  • Little formalised practice
  • HR combined with other managerial tasks
  • Growth
  • Formal and systematic HR procedures
  • Need for specialist expertise
  • Maintenance of employee motivation and morale

21
Life cycle models (2)
  • Maturity
  • golden age with high commitment practices
  • May be followed by increasing focus on control of
    labour costs
  • Doubts about sustainability of positive
    psychological contract
  • Decline/renewal
  • Rationalisation and redundancy
  • Services contracted out

22
Competitive advantage models
  • Cost reduction
  • Quality enhancement
  • Innovation

23
Cost reduction
  • Resourcing
  • Ad hoc
  • Tight performance management
  • Learning and development
  • Poor or non-existent
  • Employee relations
  • Little EI or communication
  • Reward management
  • Low pay levels, no additional benefits
  • HR function
  • Lacking influence

24
Quality enhancement
  • Resourcing
  • Sophisticated recruitment and selection
  • Learning and development
  • Extensive training, long-term focus
  • Employee relations
  • Well developed systems
  • Reward management
  • Competitive pay and benefits
  • HR function
  • Potentially large influence

25
Innovation
  • Resourcing
  • Focus on competencies and transferable skills
  • Learning and development
  • Provided if necessary, individual takes
    responsibility
  • Employee relations
  • Informal communications
  • Reward management
  • Cafeteria reward system, some share ownership or
    profit sharing
  • HR function
  • Advice and support, potentially some influence

26
Strategic configurations and HRM
  • Defenders an internal employment system
  • Concentrate on efficiency in current products and
    markets
  • Have narrow product ranges
  • Have a centralised organisation structure
  • Prospectors market employment system
  • Inclined to change and adaptability
  • Explores new product markets and opportunities
  • Less reliant on existing skills and abilities

27
Defenders internal employment system
  • Resourcing
  • Careful recruitment and selection
  • Well-developed internal labour markets
  • Learning and development
  • Extensive with long-term focus and career ladders
  • Employee relations
  • Emphasis on co-operation and involvement
  • Reward management
  • Clear grading structures, share ownership
  • HR function
  • Well established, potentially large influence

28
Prospectors market employment system
  • Resourcing
  • Buy in labour for specific tasks
  • Learning and development
  • Extensive , individuals take responsibility
  • Employee relations
  • Emphasis on responsibility and performance
  • Reward management
  • Pay determined by external market comparison
  • Bonus and incentive systems
  • HR function
  • Limited HR role

29
Limitations of best fit models (Marchington and
Wilkinson)
  • Models are deterministic and top down in
    orientation
  • There are multiple influences on organisations
  • Managers do not have complete control over
    workers
  • Models are static
  • Lack of attention to institutional forces
  • Categorisation of real organisations can be
    difficult

30
Limitations of best-fit models (Beardwell, Holden
and Claydon)
  • Reliance on rational planning approach
  • Lack of sophistication in description of generic
    strategies
  • Employee interests ignored
  • Lack of internal context

31
Resource based view of the firm
  • RBV analyses strategy from inside-out
  • Focuses on internal resources and the unique
    factors which enable organisations to remain
    viable
  • Competitive advantage requires four attributes
  • Value the resource makes a difference
  • Rarity there is a shortage of these resources
  • Imperfect imitability difficult for other
    employers to copy these resources
  • Non-substitutable resources cannot be rendered
    obsolete or unnecessary

32
Converting HR strategy into goals
  • Why might managers and supervisors not implement
    HR strategies in the way envisaged?
  • Lack of identification with employer goals
  • Problems of work overload
  • Limited investment in training and development
  • Value of retaining some flexibility at workplace
    level
  • Failure to apply organisational goals

33
Conclusions
  • Best practice HRM suggests there is one best way
    in which HRM should be delivered and that this
    has a positive impact on organisational
    performance
  • There are grounds for arguing that this model
    cannot apply to all workforces
  • Best fit HRM is the idea that HR practice should
    and does vary between organisations, depending on
    business strategy or product market circumstances
  • The resource based view focuses on internal
    resources

34
References and further reading
  • Beardwell,I., Holden,L. and Claydon,T. (2004)
    Human resource management a contemporary
    approach, FT/Prentice Hall
  • Boxall,P. and Purcell,J. (2003) Strategy and
    human resource management, Palgrave Macmillan,
    London
  • Guest,D., Michie,J., Conway,N. and Sheehan,M.
    (2003) Human resource management and performance,
    British Journal of Industrial Relations, Vol 41,
    No 2, pp291-314
  • Marchington,M. and Wilkinson,A. (2005) Human
    resource management at work, CIPD, London
  • Sisson,K. and Storey,J. (2000) The realities of
    human resource management, Open University Press,
    Milton Keynes
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