Lecture 11: Guest lecture Giovanni Manchia / Kathleen Stephenson
Chapter 5: Human resources
1. Where does HRM come from…
2. What the key concepts are..
3. Different approaches to HRM..
4. Schiphol Case - What happened there? What went wrong?
5. Key HRM activities
What is HRM?
HRM became more important in the 80’s. Move away from personnel departments.
The HR manager in small organizations is usually also the business owner, manager or
supervisorLots of the activities might be taken on by just the owner of a firm.
-distinctive approach to employment management to achieve competitive advantage.
Main school of thoughts: hard-michigan-taylor-scientific management and
soft-harvard-mayo-human relations
Scientific management
Fredrik Winslow Taylor tried to figure out how to deal with industrialization. His main idea is that we
can use science to organize work. Time and motion studies: how quickly people could work etc.
(determine how much time and how many motions result in the best way to do things)
HRM view: selection, retention, training, motivation
selection: find the right person for the right job
retention: very easily replaceable employees
training: only training someone to accomplish a certain task
motivation: give people incentives to motivate them (they will work harder)
-mentions Charlie Chaplin
Human relations:
Elton Mayo did research in a factory, the light - how would it affect productivity if it was not up to
improving lightning? -Managers should consider the attitudes, feelings, and relations of workers.
Open AI - CEO was dismissed (what happened after that?). His buddies at the organization
campaigned to get him back. - We stay at an organization because of the human relations and
connections we have
Selection:
Retention:
Development: having opportunities to develop one self
Motivation: monetary rewards
Combination of the two: Theory X and Theory Y
Theory X (aligns with scientific management): assumes workers are lazy, resistant to change
Theory X beliefs lead to controlling practices, employee resistance and poor results
(Douglas McGregor)
Theory Y assumes expenditure of physical and mental efforts is natural and can be enjoyed.
-external control and threat of punishment is not the only way to get to organizational objectives.
Self-direction and self-control
Now Giovanni for the Schiphol Case:
Let’s start with a video: 4 km waiting lines at Schiphol Airport.
-Since the May school holidays, Schiphol Airport has been suffering from high passenger numbers
and a severe lack of staff, resulting in long queues at check-in, security, and passport control, as well
as issues with baggage handling.
, “I worked for I-SEC International security: a global airport security firm, both for passenger screening
and personnel screening. In 2022 I temporarily replaced the director of security.”
-there was a shortage of staff, also a workers strike
-hours-long lines for security
-condemnation by major airlines, most notably KLM
Root causes (a perfect storm)
-labor shortages (security agents, handlers and marachause)
-unprecedented growth of passenger volume (everyone wanted to travel all at once)
-COVID legacy (of all the planes that would leave during COVID, 99% did not fly) (no flights, no profit
→ firing employees)
-historic decisions that helped Schiphol grow:
1. central hub function: they were a gateway for US flights towards other destinations (you can go to a
lot of places from Amsterdam)
2. Low cost proposition: they offered a low cost proposition with minimized cost price → Schiphol
became very attractive to low cost airlines. You don’t invest in other things that are not core activities
3. Outsourcing non-core activities: not done by Schiphol Group: - catering - bagage handling - security
Why would it be advantageous to oursource? Many competitors that want the outsourcing project -
best quality for the lowest price, it helps you save costs.
The price they needed to pay for this was: low cost proposition and outsourcing.
“The salary, the outdated canteens with dirty and broken equipment, disturbed day and night rhythm
(and no balance between private and working time). Security guards start 116 times per day.”
- Undercover Journalist
Solutions - Attraction and retention
-Integral candidate first-approach
They launched a campaign: work at Schiphol. The big question is why would anyone want to work as
a security agent. → candidate first-approach
1st: It was about the money. If you can earn relatively more money for an easier job, Schiphol raised
the salaries. To recognize the importance of the role. 3rd: they made a good impression with building
a new roster: much more possible to have more predictable working schedules instead of 116 times..
(Gezond roosteren).
Learnings:
1. Hard-Michigan school: initial approach of Schiphol was the hard approach to HRM, they put them in
hard rosters (Taylor wrote his book in 1911, so it’s not that extreme anymore, unfortunately it’s still
alive like Amazon that has penalty points - every time you pee or take a vacation you get these points,
if you have to many you get laid off)
2. Soft-Harvard school: after the fact
Recruitment
-recruitment refers to the processes and practices used to attract suitable employees to the
organization. It involves searching for and obtaining potential job candidates in sufficient numbers and
quality so that the organization can select the most appropriate people to fill its job needs.
-Recruiters need to know what they are looking for in terms of skills, knowledge, and capabilities and
if they match the job.
-Firms should try to provide a realistic job preview (don’t glamorize the job) in order to manage the
psychological contract and ensure person-job fit.
