Topic 6 - Decision-Making to Improve Human Resource Performance Flashcards
(91 cards)
1
Q
Why has effective human resource management become more important in recent times?
A
- Most businesses now provide services rather than produce goods - people critical resource in quality and consumer service level of any service business
- Competitiveness requires business to be efficient and productive
- Move towards fewer layers of management hierarchy placed greater emphasis on delegation and communication.
2
Q
Define HRM:
A
Design, implementation and maintenance of strategies to manage people for optimum business performance.
3
Q
Key tools to help meet the strategic needs of the business:
A
- Workforce planning
- Recruitment & selection
- Training & development
- Rewarding and motivating staff
- Communication
- Roles and responsibilities
4
Q
Important HR objectives:
A
- Ensure human resources employed cost-effectively
- Make effective use of workforce potential
- Match workforce to business needs
- Maintain good employer/employee relations.
5
Q
Internal influences on HRM objectives:
A
- Corporate objectives
- Operational strategies
- Marketing strategies
- Financial strategies
6
Q
External influences on HRM objectives:
A
- Market changes
- Economic changes
- Technological changes
- Social changes
- Political & legal changes
7
Q
2 broad approaches to HRM:
A
1) ‘Hard’ HR
2) ‘Soft’ HR
8
Q
Hard HRM:
A
- Treats employees as resource of business
- Strong link with corporate business planning
Focus of HRM: identify workforce needs of business and recruit & manage accordingly.
9
Q
Key features of hard HRM:
A
- Short term changes in employee numbers
- Minimal communication
- Little empowerment or delegation
- Taller organisational structures
- Suits autocratic leadership style.
10
Q
Soft HRM:
A
- Treats employees as most important resource in business
- Treated as individuals and needs planned accordingly
Focus of HRM: concentrate on needs of employees - roles, rewards, motivation.
11
Q
Key features of soft HRM:
A
- Strange focus on longer=term workforce planning
- Strong and regular two-way communication
- Flatter organisational structures
- Suits democratic leadership style
12
Q
Key influences on job design:
A
- Maintaining quality
- Operational efficiency
- Labour retention
- Skills of workforce
13
Q
What is the Hackman & Oldham’s job characteristics model based on?
A
Belief that TASK itself is key to employee motivation.
14
Q
What are 3 ways of adding challenge to a job?
A
1) Variety
2) Autonomy
3) Decision authority
15
Q
What are 2 ways of adding variety and challenge?
A
1) Job enrichment
2) Job rotation
16
Q
5 job characteristics Hackman & Oldham suggested to help predict job satisfaction:
A
1) Skill variety
2) Task identity
3) Task significance
4) Autonomy
5) Job feedback
17
Q
The organisational structure of a business is important because it determines:
A
- Authority and responsibility
- Individual job roles and titles
- People to whom others accountable
- Formal routes through which communication flows in business.
18
Q
The organisation structure of a business will depend on several factors, including:
A
- Size of business
- Type of business
- Management and leadership style
- Competitive environment
19
Q
The organisational chart also shows the:
A
- Span of control
- Line management
- Chain of command
20
Q
Why is the structure of an organisation an important determinant?
A
Hoe effectively can both identify need for change and also respond to necessary change.
21
Q
What is a flexible organisation?
A
One that’s able to adapt and respond relatively quickly to changes in its external environment order to gain advantage and sustain competitive position.
22
Q
Organic structures characterised by:
A
- Informality
- Flexible and fluid
- Favours informal
- Associated with decentralised decision-making & employee empowerment
- Find change easier to handle
23
Q
Mechanic structures characterised by:
A
- More formality & bureaucratic
- Associated with centralised decision-making & supervision
- Reliance on formal communication methods
- Favours standardised policies and procedures
- Little perceived need to change
- Greater resistance to change when implemented
24
Q
Businesses that have a centralised structure keep?
A
Decision-making firmly at top of hierarchy (among most senior management).
25
Give examples of businesses that use a centralised structure.
Burger King, Pizza Hut, McDonald's
26
Advantages of centralised structures:
- Easier to implement common policies and practices for business
- Prevents other parts of business from becoming too independent
- Easier to co-ordinate and control from centre
- Economies of scale and overhead savings easier to achieve
- Greater use of specialisation
- Quicker decision-making - easier to show strong leadership.
27
Disadvantages of centralised structures:
- More bureaucratic - often extra layers in hierarchy
- Local or junior managers likely to much closer to customer needs
- Lack of authority down hierarchy may reduce manager motivation
- Customer service not benefit from flexibility and speed in local decision-making.
28
What happens in a decentralised organisation structure?
Decision-making spread out to include more junior managers in hierarchy, well as individual business units or trading locations.
29
Examples of businesses who use a decentralised structure:
Morrison, Tesco
30
Advantages of decentralised structure:
- Decisions made closer to customer
- Better able to respond to local circumstances
- Improved level of customer service
- Consistent with aiming for flatter hierarchy
- Good way of developing junior management
- Should improve staff motivation
31
Disadvantages of decentralised structure:
- Decision-making not necessarily 'strategic'
= More difficult to ensure consistent practices and policies
- May be some diseconomies of scale
- Harder to achieve tight financial control - risk of cost overruns.
32
What do individuals do in a matrix structure?
Work across teams and projects as well as within own department or function.
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Advantages of matrix structures:
- Can allow individuals to use particular skills within variety of context
- Likely to result in greater motivation amongst team members
- Good way of sharing resources across departments.
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Disadvantages of matrix structures:
- Difficult to co-ordinate
- Team members may neglect their functional responsibilities
- Takes time for matrix team members to get used to working in this kind of structure.
35
What does the traditional organisational structure of a business focused on?
Functions, departments and main activities.
36
What principles are involved in the traditional functional structure?
- Specialisation
- Authority
- Responsibility
- Definition
- Span of control
- Chain of command
37
How do businesses achieve a flatter organisational structure?
Through delayering
38
Define delayering:
Popular strategy to remove one or more levels of hierarchy from organisational structure.
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What does delayering usually involve increasing and in effect, what can this do?
Increasing average span of control of senior managers within business. This can chop number of layers without removing single name from payroll, as people affected moved elsewhere in business.
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What is increasing delayering seen as?
Way of reducing operating costs, particularly as response to economic downturn.
41
Advantages of delayering:
- Offers opportunities for better delegation, empowerment and motivation as number of managers reduced and more authority passed down hierarchy
- Improve communication within business as messages have to pass fewer levels of hierarchy
- Can reduce costs as fewer managers required
- Can encourage innovation
- Brings managers into closer contact with customers.
42
Disadvantages of delayering:
- Period of disruption may occur as people take on new responsibilities and fulfil new roles
- Not all organisations suited to flatter organisational structures - mass production industries with low-skilled employees may not adapt easily
- Can have negative impact on motivation due to job losses.
43
What is recruitment and selection the process of?
Identifying need for a job, defining requirements of position and job holder, advertising position and choosing most appropriate person for job.
44
How can recruiting employees with the correct skills be beneficial to a business?
Adds value to business and recruiting workers at wage or salary that business can afford, will reduce costs.
45
Advantage of an interview for the employer:
- See how applicant reacts under pressure
- Conversational ability
- Natural enthusiasm or manner of applicant
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Advantage of an interview for the candidate:
- Whether job/business is right for them
- What culture of company is like
- Exact details of job
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What is a disadvantage of interviews?
Can be unreliable as applicants can perform well at interview but not have qualities or skills needed for job.
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How can other selection tests be beneficial?
Increase chances of choosing best applicant and so minimise high costs of recruiting wrong people.
49
Internal recruitment is when:
Business looks to fill vacancy from within its existing workforce.
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External recruitment is when:
Business looks to fill vacancy from any suitable applicant outside business.
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Advantages of internal recruitment:
- Cheaper and quicker
- People familiar with business and how it operates
- Provides opportunities for promotion within business - motivating
- Business already knows strengths and weaknesses of candidates.
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Disadvantages of internal recruitment:
- Limits number of potential applicants
- No new ideas can be introduced from outside
- May cause resentment amongst candidates not appointed
- Creates another vacancy which needs to be filled.
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Advantages of external recruitment:
- Outside people bring in new ideas
- Larger pool of workers from which to find best candidate
- People have wider range of expertise.
54
Disadvantages of external recruitment:
- Longer process
- More expensive process due to advertising and interviews required
- Selection process may not be effective enough to reveal best candidate.
55
A well-motivated workforce can provide the following advantages:
- Better productivity: can lead to lower unit costs of production and so enable firm to see its product at lower price
- Lower levels of absenteeism as employees content with their working lives
- Lower levels of staff turnover
- Improved industrial relations with trade unions.
56
Labour turnover is defined as:
Proportion of firm's workforce that leaves during course of a year
57
There are many reasons why a high labour turnover figure (poor employee retention) may cause problems for a firm:
- Increases recruitment costs
- Reflects poor morale in workforce and so low productivity levels
- Increases training costs of new workers
- Loss of productivity while new worker settles in
58
Advantages of a firm experiencing labour turnover:
- Gives chance for new people to be brought into business who may have fresh ideas and up to date market knowledge
- Workers with specialist knowledge or expertise can be employed rather than having to train existing lower skilled employees.
59
A business can improve its employee retention by offering:
- Financial incentives
- Non-financial incentives
- Improving effectiveness of its recruitment and selection processes
- Conducting research to understand why employees are leaving.
60
Training can be defined as:
Process of increasing knowledge and skills of workforce to enable them to perform their jobs effectively.
61
Training takes place at various points and places in a business. Commonly, training is required to:
- Support new employees
- Improve productivity
- Increase marketing effectiveness
- Support higher standards of customer service and production quality
- Address changes in legislation
- Support employee progression and promotion.
62
Effective training has the potential to provide a range of benefits for a business:
- Higher quality
- Better productivity
- Improved motivation - through greater empowerment
- More flexibility through better skills
- Less supervision required
- Better recruitment and employee retention
- Easier to implement change.
63
Effective training starts with a 'training strategy'. The 3 stages of a training strategy are:
- Identify skills and abilities needed by employees
- Draw up an action plan to show how investment in training and development will help meet business goals and objectives
- Implement plan, monitoring progress and training effectiveness.
64
Most common reasons for under-investment in training:
- Fear employees will be poached by competitors
- Desire to minimise short-term costs
- Cannot make justifiable investment case
- Training takes time to have desired effect.
65
With on-the-job training:
Employees receive training whilst remaining in workplace.
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Main methods of on-the-job training:
- Demonstration/instruction
- Coaching
- Job rotation
- Projects
67
Advantages of on-the-job training:
- Generally most cost-effective
- - Employees actually productive
- Opportunity to learn whilst doing
- Training alongside real colleagues
68
Disadvantages of on-the-job training:
- Quality depends on ability of trainer and time available
- Bad habits might be passed on
- Learning environment may not be conductive
- Potential disruption to production.
69
Off-the-job training occurs:
When employees taken away from their place of work to be trained.
70
Advantages of off-the-job training:
- Wider range of skills/qualifications can be obtained
- Can learn from outside specialists or experts
- Employees can be more confident when starting job
71
Disadvantages of off-the-job training:
- More expensive
- Lost working time and potential output from employee
- New employee may still need some induction training.
72
Delegation involves:
Assignment to others of authority for particular functions, tasks, and decisions.
73
Advantages of delegation:
- Reduces management stress and workload
- Allows senior management to focus on key tasks
- Good method of on-the-job training
74
Disadvantages of delegation:
- Cannot/should not delegate responsibility
- Depends on quality
- Harder in smaller firm
- May increase workload and stress of subordinates.
75
Taylor's Theory of Scientific Management argued:
- Workers don't naturally enjoy work and so need close supervision and control
- Therefore managers should break down production into series of small tasks
76
What does Taylor's approach have close links with the concept of?
An autocratic management style
77
Key summary for Taylor:
- Workers given one repetitive task so can learn to master it
- Managers should give orders and closely control workers
- Workers should be paid per item produced - piece rate
78
Key summary for Mayo's Human Relations School:
- Workers motivated by having social needs met
- Workers should work in teams
- Managers should have greater involvement in employee's working life
79
McGregor's Theory X workers could be described as follows:
- Individuals who dislike work and avoid it where possible
- Lack ambition, dislike responsibility
- Desire security
80
Theory Y workers where characterised by McGregor as:
- Consider effort at work just like rest or play
- Ordinary people who don't dislike work
- Who seek responsibility
81
Herzberg believed businesses should motivate employees by adopting democratic approach to management and by improving nature and content of actual job through certain methods. Some of the methods are:
- Job enlargement: workers being given greater variety of tasks to perform which should make work more interesting
- Job enrichment: involves workers being given wider range of more complex and challenging tasks surrounding complete unit of work.
- Empowerment means delegating more power to employees to make own decisions over areas of working life.
82
Key summary for Herzberg's Two-factor Theory of Motivation:
- Workers motivated to work harder by motivators
| - Workers can become de-motivated if hygiene factors aren't met.
83
Key summary for Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs:
- Workers motivated by having each level of need met in order as they move up hierarchy
- Levels are: Physical, Security, Social, Self-esteem, Self-fulfilment
- Workers must have lower level of needs fully met by firm before being motivated by next level.
84
Job rotation may offer advantage of...... however?
Offers advantage of making easier to cover for absent colleagues, but may also reduce productivity as workers initially unfamiliar with new task.
85
A negative aspect of job enlargement:
Sometimes viewed by employees as requirement to carry out more work for same amount of pay.
86
What does job enrichment attempt to do?
Give employees greater responsibility by increasing range and complexity of tasks they're called upon to complete and giving them necessary authority.
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What did Herzberg argue about job enrichment?
Should be central element in any policy of motivation.
88
Empowerment involves:
Giving people greater control over their working lives.
89
Who identified some of the higher needs of empowered teams?
Maslow or Herzberg motivators
90
Advantages of empowered teams:
Higher productivity, leading to improved competitiveness and higher profits or market share.
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Disadvantages of empowered teams (which may only exist in the short term):
Cost and disruption of training, and opposition from employees.
