Summary
Summary Book Leadership and Management
- Course
- Institution
An extended summary of the book Leadership and Management for the pre-master course Business Administration at UvA.
[Show more]
Seller
Follow
deveneyjacqueline
Reviews received
Content preview
Building and managing human resourcesStrategic human resource management
Human resource management includes all the activities managers engage in to attract and retain
employees and to ensure that they perform at a high level and contribute to the accomplishment
of organizational goals. Strategic human resource management is the process by which
managers design the components of an HRM system to be consistent with each other, with other
elements of organizational architecture, and with the organization’s strategy and goals. The
objective of strategic HRM is the development of an HRM system that enhances an organization’s
efficiency, quality, innovation, and responsiveness to customers – the four building blocks of
competitive advantage. As part of strategic human resources management, some managers have
adopted six sigma quality improvement plans. These plan ensure that an organization’s products
and services are as free of errors or defects as possible through a variety of human resource-
related initiatives.
Overview of the components of HRM
Managers use recruitment and selection, the first component of an HRM system to attract and
hire new employees who have the abilities, skills and experiences that will help an organization
achieve its goals. After recruiting and selecting employees, managers use the second component,
training and development, to ensure that organizational members develop the skills and
abilities that will enable them to perform their job effectively in the present and future. Training
and development compose an ongoing process. The third component, performance appraisal
and feedback, serves two different purposes in HRM. First, performance appraisal can give
managers the information they need to make good human resource decisions. Second feedback
from performance appraisal serves a developmental purpose for members of an organization. On
the basis of performance appraisals, managers distribute pay to employees, which is part of the
fourth component of an HRM system. Benefits such as health insurance are important outcomes
that employees receive by virtue of their membership in an organization. Last, labour relations
encompasses the steps that managers take to develop and maintain good working relationships
with the labour unions that may represent their employees’ interests. Managers must ensure
that all five of these components fit together and complement their company’s structure and
control systems. Each of the five components of HRM influence the others. The kinds of people
that the organization attracts and hires through recruitment and selection determine:
1. The kinds of training and development that are necessary;
2. The way performance is appraised;
3. The appropriate levels of pay and benefits.
The legal environment of HRM
The local, state, and national laws and regulations that managers and organizations must abide
by add to the complexity of HRM. The goal of equal employment opportunity (EEO) is to ensure
that all citizens have an equal opportunity to obtain employment regardless of their gender, race,
country of origin, religion, age or disabilities. EEO laws and their environment make the effective
management of diversity a legal imperative as well. Contemporary challenges that mangers face
related to the legal environment includes hot to eliminate sexual harassment, how to
accommodate employees with disabilities, how to deal with employees who have substance
abuse problems, and how to manage HIV-positive employees and employees with AIDS.
Recruitment and selection
Recruitment includes all the activities managers engage in to develop a pool of qualified
candidates for open positions. Selection is the process by which managers determine the relative
qualifications of job applicants and their potential for performing well in a particular job. Before
actually recruiting and selecting employees, managers need to engage in two important
activities: human resource planning and job analysis.
Human resource planning
,Human resource planning includes all the activities managers engage in to forecast their current
and future human resource needs. As part of human resource planning, managers must make
both demand forecasts and supply forecasts. Demand forecast estimate the qualifications and
number of employees an organization will need given its goal and strategies. Supply forecast
estimate the availability and qualifications of current employees now and in the future, as well as
the supply of qualified workers in the external labour market. As a result of their human
resource planning, managers sometimes decide to outsource to fill some of their human resource
needs. Two reasons why human resource planning sometimes leads managers to outsource are
flexibility and cost. Outsourcing has disadvantages. When work is outsourced, managers may
lose some control over the quality of goods and services. Also, individuals performing outsources
work may have less knowledge of organizational practices, procedures, and goals and less
commitment to an organization than regular employees. To gain some of the flexibility and cost
savings of outsourcing and avoid some of its disadvantages, a number of organizations rely on a
pool of temporary employees. Outsourcing has also expanded into knowledge-intensive work.
While cost savings constitute to be a major motivation for offshoring, mangers also want to take
advantage of an increasingly talented global workforce and be closer to the growing global
marketplace for goods and services. Key challenges for managers who offshore are retaining
sufficient managerial control over activities and employee turnover.
Job analysis
Job analysis is a second important activity that managers need to undertake prior to recruitment
and selection. Job analysis is the process of identifying:
1. The tasks, duties, and responsibilities that make up the job (job description).
2. The knowledge, skills and abilities needed to perform the job (job specifications).
After managers have completed human resource planning and job analysis for all jobs in an
organization, they will know their human resource needs and the job they need to fill. They will
also know what knowledge, skills, and abilities potential employees need to perform those jobs.
At this point, recruitment and selection can begin.
External and internal recruitment
Recruitment is what managers do to develop a pool of qualified candidates for open positions.
They traditionally have used two main types of recruiting, external and internal, which are now
supplemented by recruiting over the Internet.
External recruiting
When managers recruit externally to fill open positions, they look outside the organization for
people who have not worked for the organization previously. With all the downsizing and
corporate layoffs that have taken place in recent years, you might think that external recruiting
would be a relatively easy task for mangers. However, it often is not, because even though many
people may be looking for jobs, many jobs that are open require skills and abilities that these job
hunters do not have. External recruiting has both advantages and disadvantages for mangers.
Advantages in having access to a potentially large applicant pool, being able to attract people
who have the skills, knowledge, and abilities that an organization needs to achieve its goals, and
being able to bring in newcomers who have a fresh approach to problems and be up to date on
the latest technology. These advantages have to be weighed against the disadvantages, including
the relatively high costs of external recruitment. Employees recruited externally also lack
knowledge about the inner workings of the organization and may need to receive more training
than those recruited internally.
Internal recruiting
When recruiting is internal, managers turn to existing employees to fill open positions.
Employees recruited internally are either seeking lateral moves, or promotions. Advantages
include internal applicants are already familiar with the organization. Managers already know
,the candidates. Internal recruiting can help boost levels of employee motivation and moral. Also
internal recruiting is normally less time-consuming and expensive than external recruiting. The
disadvantages, a limited pool of candidates and a tendency among those candidates to be set in
the organization’s ways.
The selection process
They have several selection tools to help them sort out the relative qualifications of job
applicants and appraise their potential for being good performers in a particular job. These tools
include background information, interviews, paper-and-pencil tests, physical ability tests,
performance tests, and references.
Background information. To aid in the selection process, managers obtain background
information from job applications and from resumes. Background information can be helpful
both to screen out applicants who are lacking key qualifications and to determine which
qualified applicants are more promising than others.
Interviews. In a structured interviews, managers ask each applicant the same standard
questions. Particularly informative questions may be those that prompt and interviewee to
demonstrate skills and abilities needed for the job by answering the question. Sometimes
called situational interview questions. An unstructured interviews proceeds more like and
ordinary conversation. In general, structured are superior to unstructured interviews
because they are more likely to yield information that will help to identify qualified
candidates, are less subjective and may be less influenced by the interviewer’s biases.
Paper-and-pencil tests. The two main kind of paper-and-pencil tests are used for selection
purposes are ability tests and personality tests. Ability tests assess the extent to which
applicants possess the skills necessary for job performance. Personality tests measure
personality traits and characteristics relevant to job performance.
Physical ability tests. For jobs requiring physical abilities, manager use physical ability tests
that measure physical strengths and stamina as selection tool.
Performance tests. Measure job applicants’ performance on actual job tasks.
References. Applicants for many jobs are required to provide references from former
employers or other knowledgeable sources, who know the applicants’ skills, abilities and
other personal characteristics. References are often used at the end of the selection process
to confirm a decision to hire.
The importance of reliability and validity
Whatever selection tool a manager uses need to be both reliable and valid. Reliability is the
degree to which a tool or test measure the same thing each time it is administered. Validity is the
degree to which a tool measures what it purports to measure – for selection tools, it is the degree
to which the test predicts performance on the tasks or job in question. Manager should strive to
use selection tools in such a way that they can achieve the greatest degree of reliability and
validity.
Training and development
Training and development help to ensure that organizational members have the knowledge and
skills needed to perform the jobs effectively, take on new responsibilities, and adapt to changing
conditions. Training focuses primarily on teaching organizational members how to perform their
current jobs and helping them acquire the knowledge and skills they need to be effective
performers. Development focuses on building the knowledge and skills of organizational
members so they are prepared to take on new responsibilities and challenges. Before creating
training and development programs, managers should perform a needs assessment to determine
which employees need training or development and what type of skills or knowledge they need
to acquire.
, Types of training
There are two types of training:
1. Classroom instruction. Through classroom instruction employees acquire knowledge and
skills in a classroom setting. Is frequently uses videos and role playing in addition to
traditional written materials, lectures, and group discussions. Videos can demonstrate
appropriate and inappropriate job behaviour. During role playing trainees either directly
participate in or watch others perform actual job activities in a simulated setting.
Simulations also can be part of classroom instruction, particularly for complicated jobs that
acquire an extensive amount of learning and in which errors carry a high cost.
2. On-the-job training. In on-the-job training learning occurs in the work setting as employees
perform their jobs tasks. For all on-the-job training, employees learn by doing. Managers
often use on-the-job training on a continuing basis to ensure that their subordinates keep up
to date with changes in goals, technology, products or customer needs and desires.
Types of development
Development often includes additional activities such as varied work experiences and formal
education.
Varied work experiences. Varied work experiences broaden employees horizons and help
them think about the big picture. With organizations becoming more global, managers need
to understand the different values, beliefs, cultures, regions and ways of doing business in
different countries. Another development approach is mentoring. Formal mentoring
programs can be valuable ways to contribute to the development of managers and all
employees. Formal mentoring programs ensure that mentoring takes place in an
organization, structure the process, and make sure diverse organizational members have
equal access to mentors. When diverse members of an organization lack mentors, their
progress in the organization and advancement to high-level positions can be hampered.
Development is an ongoing process for all managers and mentors often find that mentoring
contributes to their own personal development.
Formal education. Many large corporations reimburse employees for tuition expenses they
incur while taking college courses and obtaining advanced degrees. It is an effective way to
develop employees who can take on new responsibilities and more challenging positions. To
save time and travel costs, some managers rely on long-distance leraning to formally educate
and develop employees.
Performance appraisal and feedback
Performance appraisal is the evaluation of employees’ job performance and contribution to the
organization. Performance feedback is the process through which managers share performance
appraisal information with their subordinates, give subordinates an opportunity to reflect on
their own performance, and develop with subordinates, plans for the future. Performance
appraisal gives managers important information on which to base human resource decision.
Performance appraisal can also help managers determine which workers are candidates for
training and development and in what areas.
Types of performance appraisal
Performance appraisal focuses on the evaluation of traits, behaviours and results:
Trait appraisals. When trait appraisals are used, managers assess subordinates on personal
characteristics that are relevant to job performance. Three disadvantages of trait appraisals
often lead managers to rely on other appraisal methods. First, possessing a certain personal
characteristics does not ensure that the personal characteristic will actually be used on the
job and result in high performance. The second disadvantage, traits do not always show a
direct association with performance, workers and courts of law may view them as unfair and
potentially discriminatory. The third, is that they often do not enable managers to give
employees feedback they can use to improve performance. Managers should use trait
The benefits of buying summaries with Stuvia:
Guaranteed quality through customer reviews
Stuvia customers have reviewed more than 700,000 summaries. This how you know that you are buying the best documents.
Quick and easy check-out
You can quickly pay through credit card or Stuvia-credit for the summaries. There is no membership needed.
Focus on what matters
Your fellow students write the study notes themselves, which is why the documents are always reliable and up-to-date. This ensures you quickly get to the core!
Frequently asked questions
What do I get when I buy this document?
You get a PDF, available immediately after your purchase. The purchased document is accessible anytime, anywhere and indefinitely through your profile.
Satisfaction guarantee: how does it work?
Our satisfaction guarantee ensures that you always find a study document that suits you well. You fill out a form, and our customer service team takes care of the rest.
Who am I buying these notes from?
Stuvia is a marketplace, so you are not buying this document from us, but from seller deveneyjacqueline. Stuvia facilitates payment to the seller.
Will I be stuck with a subscription?
No, you only buy these notes for $7.05. You're not tied to anything after your purchase.
Can Stuvia be trusted?
4.6 stars on Google & Trustpilot (+1000 reviews)
77254 documents were sold in the last 30 days
Founded in 2010, the go-to place to buy study notes for 14 years now