Posts Selected From the Category "Human Resource Management"

Learning Styles

Posted by Abey Francis on December 13, 2012 in Human Resource Management / No Comments

Learning style refers to the ability of an individual to learn. A manager’s long-term success depends more on the ability to learn than on the mastery of the specific skills or technical knowledge. There are four styles people use when learning: accommodation, divergence, assimilation and convergence. The four learning styles are based on dimensions: feeling versus thinking and doing versus observing.

Accommodator: An accommodator learns by doing and feeling. He tends to learn primarily from hands-on experience. He tends to act on gut feeling rather than on logical analysis. An accommodator tends to rely more heavily on people for information while making decisions. He seeks action-oriented careers such as marketing, politics, public relations and management.

Diverger: A diverger learns by observing and feeling. The diverger has the ability to view concrete situations from different angles. When solving problems, diverger enjoys brainstorming. He takes time and analyses many alternatives. Diverger is imaginative and sensitive to the needs of the other people. He seeks careers in entertainment, arts and services sector.

Converger: A converger learns by doing and thinking. The converger seeks practical use for information. When presented with problems and making decisions, the converger tends to focus on solutions. Converger tends to prefer dealing with technical tasks and problems rather than social and interpersonal issues.…

Determinants of Job Stress

Posted by Abey Francis on December 10, 2012 in Human Resource Management / No Comments

One major source of job stress is the job itself. The way the job is designed, the amount of time pressure an individual faces and the amount of expectations others have of a person at work can all lead to job stress. Interpersonal relationships are a second source of job stress. How much contact an individual has with coworkers and managers, how much time he or she deals with clients or consumers, and how pleasant those interactions are all influences of how much stress an individual experiences at work. Third source is problems in personal lives, which can spill over into the work environment, adding further tension to an already stressful work situation.

Determinants of Job Stress
Job Characteristics

A major source of job stress is a person’s role in the organization. A role is simply the set of expectations that other people in the organization have for an individual, For example, supervisors, coworkers, customers and suppliers expect an employee to behave in certain predictable ways. The expectations others have of an employee arc sometimes unclear, in conflict, or too high for the employee to meet within the time allotted, and he or she experiences stress.

Role Ambiguity: When there is a lot of uncertainty surrounding job definitions or job expectations, people experience role ambiguity.…

Strategic Innovation in Human Resource Management

Posted by Abey Francis on November 27, 2012 in Human Resource Management / No Comments

Businesses can recapture the innovative spirit that initially launched their success. It has been done in companies old and new, big and small, and in just about every industry you can imagine. Each case is different, but there are three common threads. First, corporate leaders recognized the intellectual capital and potential that resided within their own employees. Second, they turned to the Human Resources Department to find the key to unlocking that potential and putting that capital to work. Third, the company reaped tremendous rewards in terms of productivity and profitability as a result. What is common to each strand of this process is the importance of HR departments to the process of strategic innovation.

Ideas are the lifeblood of business success. Most of today’s corporate giants began with little more than a great idea and an entrepreneurial gleam in their eye. They leveraged their intellectual capital to build financial strength. Yet, along the way, many corporations lose the ability to innovate and take risks. Entrepreneurship gives way to entropy, and new ideas are relegated to the suggestion box in the employee cafeteria.

It does not have to be that way.

Businesses can recapture the innovative spirit that initially launched their success.…

Evolution of Performance Management

Posted by Abey Francis on November 27, 2012 in Human Resource Management / No Comments

Traditionally, performance appraisal has been used as the guide for employee performance. Performance appraisal also known as ‘performance evaluation’, ‘merit rating’, and ‘performance assessment’ is a process of recording assessment of employees’ performance, potential and development needs. According to Wayne F Cascio (1995) performance appraisal is defined as “the systematic description of job related strengths and weaknesses of an individual or a group”. Performance appraisal is a system of review and evaluation of an individual’s (or team’s) performance. Lately it has been supplanted in more and more companies with performance management (PM), a more comprehensive human resource management process.

Within the recent past there has been a shift from traditional annual performance appraisal to continuous performance management . The obvious reasons behind this have been the inadequacy of Performance appraisal in serving as a performance enhancement tool. Performance appraisal is known to be a contentious and unpopular activity of Human Resource Management. It is contentious because employees do not readily accept their manager’s assessment about their performance, and managers feel uncomfortable when they have to defend their judgment. It is unpopular because managers do not want to play the role of a judge; besides they have feelings of guilt if their evaluation is critical of their employees’ performance.…

Managing Workforce Diversity

Posted by Abey Francis on November 27, 2012 in Human Resource Management / No Comments

How administrators manage workforce diversity greatly depends on the needs of the organization. For example, some companies may want a diversified work force in order to make them more competitive in the global market. Diversity helps them to better understand international markets. While other organizations consider diversity as a means to bring about greater harmony in the workplace and an opportunity to prepare employees and volunteers to deal with the nation’s changing demographics. Regardless of the reasons, managing diversity is here to stay. So, it’s no longer an issue whether to implement diversity training, but how diversity training will be implemented.

“Managing for Diversity” pertains to a philosophy that is purely motivated by business purpose and market advantage. It is seen as a strategy for improving organizational competitiveness and efficiency. It is distinctly different from policies grounded in social purposes such as equal employment opportunity or affirmative action. It focuses on managing the mix of individuals assigned to a task, involved in the subordinate-supervisor relationship, or employed in the organization. It may address decisions about composition of work groups, choice of supervisor, and training and other support for diverse groups.

Managing Diversity Through Voluntary Affirmative Action Programs

Through voluntary affirmative action programs, the employer makes an extra effort to hire and promote those in the protected (female or minority) groups.…

Employee Assistance Program (EAP)

Posted by Abey Francis on November 26, 2012 in Human Resource Management / No Comments

Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs) are used to make professional help available to the employees. Typical Employee Assistance Programmes offer assistance to employees in such areas as alcoholism, drug abuse, emotional stress, family problems and financial indebtedness.

Although research findings tend to vary, it is believed that EAPs are valuable contributors to both employees and employers.

First of all, giving employee assistance is simply the right thing to do from the standpoint of humanity, and there are some cost-benefit arguments in favor of EAPS. Certainly, the resolution of personal problems tends to make the employee a more effective contributor to employer objectives. That is, money spent on abating alcoholism among the workforce is perceived to be cheaper than money spent on ineffective performance, lost time, illness and death on the part of employees suffering from the disease of alcoholism.

Characteristics of an effective EAP

The EAP should be staffed with competent professionals who respond to employee problems with empathy and who know what services are available in the local community.

The EAP should be accessible to all employees 24-hours a day, seven days a week.

The EAP should be advertised to all employees so that all are aware of the program.

The EAP should be available to all employees and their dependents.…