INSTRUCTIONS
Assignment Task 1: Organization Based study
- Choose an organization of your choice, preferably the organization where you are working (or) worked (or) familiar with in the GCC region. Understand the chosen organization’s objectives and understand the working procedures of the organizations related to the HR management. Give out clearly the chosen organization’s goals and objectives. (7 Marks)
- State the Strategic activities pertaining to building employee commitment, flexibility and quality in the chosen organization and assess the strategic integration of these activities in achieving the organizational goals and objectives. (7 Marks)
- What are the various external drivers which underpin the organizational strategy? Discuss the international economic drivers and their influence over the HRM strategies in your chosen organization. (7 Marks)
- Assuming that your chosen organization is diversifying its operations to new locations (countries), carry out the workforce demand and supply forecast for a new location (of your choice). (7 Marks)
- Analyze the importance of employees’ relations in the chosen organization, as well as identify the key elements of employment legislation in the organization; discuss their influence and impact on HRM decision making in the organization. (7 Marks)
- Discuss the performance management system of the chosen organization and evaluate its role and significance in enhancing the overall performance of the chosen organization. (7 marks)
- Select any two theories of management and leadership and reflect on the impact these have on your organizational strategy and devise a leadership strategy that you believe will support your organization’s direction. (8 marks)
Question 1
When an organization has established its marketing mix and start to comprehend its plans for the four P’s: product, price, promotion and place, It is very important for it to incorporate objectives and strategies for what the organization aims to do in order to achieve its goals. Saud Bahwan Group is an organization in Oman dealing vehicle manufacturing. The organization has become great at branding and marketing its products, an achievement which does not come easy. It’s all about its action plan in regard to meeting and accomplishing its objectives (Kaplan& Norton, 2014 p.40).
Recruiting has become a key to the success of Saud Bahwan Group. The organization requires all its candidates to be committed to the company, be hardworking and ambitious in getting all details perfect. This makes Saud Bahwan Group recruit high-quality workers from the other firms (Kaplan& Norton, 2014 p.40).
Saud Bahwan Group is also known as a different organization in many ways. Instead of promising both work and life balance, the organization emphasizes on hard work for all its employees. Instead of encouraging career progression, Saud Bahwan Group concept is for all its workers to own their career. Career path basically does not qualify Saud Bahwan Group support, workers must seek facts about other jobs in different units themselves (Kaplan& Norton, 2014 p.40).
Saud Bahwan Group objectives (Churchill &Cooper, 2012 p.250)
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Objective 1- to continue producing groundbreaking products: Saud Bahwan Group has set and established its name by itself through its efforts of coming up with its products with a new and exciting feature to the whole world
Objective 2- innovating and dictating the movement for future technology. Saud Bahwan Group has it in mind that the consumers will always buy the next big and brand loyalty is very hard to come by. Therefore, Saud Bahwan Group has always made efforts to ensure it keeps pace with technology.
Objective 3- expanding nationwide chains of Saud Bahwan Group stores globally. This aims at increasing the organizations sells substantially
Objective 4- making its products available in every other possible channel. This will enhance its reachability and expand its markets. Such channels are, online and Big Box retailer
Strategic Goals of Saud Bahwan Group organization (Churchill &Cooper, 2012 p.250)
In regard to the latest Saud Bahwan Group mission and vision statements, the organization has cited three major goals which are leveraging the ability to develop and design, environmental responsibilities and finally to expand and enhance. The first goal is a sub-section of the organization’s vision statement which is to be an organization that spearheads innovation.
The second goal is a continuous one because for any organization to keep a stable competitive advantage, world class integration and innovation through their goods and services is a necessity to enable the organization remains above their competitors in the market.
Finally on the third goal which is enhancement and expansion of the organization, the organization has highly invested its resources on research and development. For instance, the organization has its investments in research and development for about $3billion hence providing the crucial role of expansion and enhancement in line with its mission and vision statements.
Question 2
In consideration that employee engagement has become one of the Holy Grail strategies towards the success of an organization. Engaging employees is the key but keeping them focused and connected is the less obvious thing. Saud Bahwan Group has adopted four main ways in order to gain its employees commitment (Meyer, Becker &Vandenberghe, 2014 p.86)
Maintaining Employee communication
Saud Bahwan Group management has committed itself to communicating with its employees and taking actions on issues and concerns impeding worker commitments. They openly state priority issues, what should change, what expected to improve and how the workers will be part of the changes. The biggest issue behind this change is that the management before used to sit on the information with believing that the employees will read their intentions which eventually can’t work. Clear and direct communication is very important to making engagement happen. This has really helped maintain employee’s commitment in Saud Bahwan Group (Meyer, Becker &Vandenberghe, 2014 p.86)
Adapting strategies for its workers specifically
Working environment has always been a very complicated place. This is because apart from managing the needs of the workers, the organization also manages and works with multicultural and multigenerational attitudes. The perception of commitment varies within the 3 generations and different cultures in the working environment. Saud Bahwan Group management has adapted to its workers engagement strategies while balancing its perception on the differences. This has really helped the organization capture employee’s commitment (Meyer, Becker &Vandenberghe, 2014 p.86)
Question 3
The external and influential factors which affect Saud Bahwan Group organization decisions on its business model, strategies and directions are based on the increasing necessity to have solutions in regard to the forces that affect the external business model. These factors have inhibited the organizations market share and revenues. These external factors are based on the organization’s Five Forces analysis, in relation to the porter’s model, indicating the strengths of external business environment (Meyer, Becker &Vandenberghe, 2014 p.86)
They can be grouped into three main categories, the strong forces, moderate forces and weak forces. The strong forces include but not limited to Saud Bahwan Group competitive rivalry and clients bargaining power. Danger of substitution and the bargaining power of the suppliers are the weak forces while the entry of new competitors into the market industry is a moderate influence on the organization (Meyer, Becker &Vandenberghe, 2014 p.86)
In order to withstand these forces, the HRM team has ensured that it constantly hires employees who are innovative enough to enable the organization remain relevant across the whole industry
Question 4
Workforce planning is very important when an organization is forecasting both its current and future staffing requirements in relation to its strategic objectives and addressing the matters related to labour supply and demand. Getting the right balance between labor supply and demand ensures that an organization has right number of employees with right skills and at the right time (Blyton &Turnbull, 2012 p.43)
In my case scenario, where Saud Bahwan Group has planned to diversify its operations to Kuwait, workforce demand and supply is very important. The brand vehicles produced in Saud Bahwan Group is unfamiliar in Kuwait. Considering this fact, marketing the brand will be of much requirement on establishing the branch than selling since most of the people are not aware of the products. Therefore, more marketers will be required on launching the organization in this country than sellers (Blyton &Turnbull, 2012 p.43)
Comparing the cost and quality of vehicles in Kuwait with the products of Saud Bahwan Group, in the next 3-5 years the products of this organization will have become familiar hence attracting more customers. Similarly, the products range and services of Saud Bahwan Group will have expanded in this locality. To ensure that the objectives of the organization are realized, it will have to hire more sellers in the sales department to be able to meet demands of its customers (Blyton &Turnbull, 2012 p.43)
Question 5
Every person at the workplace shares relationship to his fellow workers to some extent. This is because people are not machines which works with just a mere button push. They need people to talk to, share happiness and sorrowful moments as well as discussing ideas. Good employees’ relations in Saud Bahwan Group and the favorable elements of employment legislation like workers benefits have positively impacted and influenced HRM decision making in this organization (Blyton &Turnbull, 2012 p.43)
The good relationship between the employees has encouraged consultation from the HRM department in whichever the decisions they make. Where the department misses a point in the decision making process has always got brilliant ideas which help it achieve its targets as a department as well as the targets of the organization as a whole. The Human resource management has therefore established a work culture that motivates conducive working relations, anchored in a creative and less destructive competition spirit (Blyton &Turnbull, 2012 p.43)
Question 6
Performance management system in Saud Bahwan Group
In the case of Saud Bahwan Group, the organization has been largely driven by the culture which was set by the founder of the organization Saud Signer. At the heart of his approach, he emphasizes on pushing everyone to do more to help the organization more competitive. This has made the organization to be increasingly demanding with its employees. To ensure that all the workers are working effectively as expected, the organization has a performance management system (Haesli &Boxall, 2013 p.23).
The performance management system achieves its target by first ensuring that best people are hired for different positions in the organization. This entails having candidates meeting the basic requirements of the positions through their education and experience. The recruits who meet these requirements are then moved to areas where the organization evaluates the specific skill tests. This involves Saud Bahwan Group having employees take exams which are in practical form and go through a series of interviews with an aim of locating the best employees (Haesli &Boxall, 2013 p.23).
Once someone starts working for the organization, he/she is provided with competitive benefits package. The elements offered include; tuition reimbursement, life/health insurance, stock options and flexible scheduling. Combination of outlined factors helps Saud Bahwan Group find the best employees. With time, the employees are provided with lots of other benefits to motivate them do more in the organization. This has made Saud Bahwan Group create innovative products (Haesli &Boxall, 2013 p.23).
Question 7
Theories of management and leadership
There are many theories of management and leadership which can be associated with success of Saud Bahwan Group. This paper considers only two of them: trait theory and transactional theory (Knudsen, 2015 p.179).
In consideration of trait theory, it can be definitely seen from the above description that one advantage Saud Bahwan Group has can be directly associated with its founder, Saud Signer. The leadership qualities of Saud Signer are inborn. Saud Signer has an innate desire in controlling the organization and accepting the responsibilities. He is a born risk-taker and has many times avoided living a life of mediocrity. This has highly enhanced the performance of Saud Bahwan Group under him (Knudsen, 2015 p.179).
In consideration to transactional theory, Saud Bahwan Group management has many times used rewards approach mechanism to motivate its workers. Conversely, punishment has been used to correct members who don’t complete their tasks. This approach has highly motivated the workers in this organization as well as discouraged employees who are always against what is expected. The performance of Saud Bahwan Group has therefore improved through this approach (Knudsen, 2015 p.179).
Assignment Task 2: Case Study
There were several factors which led to closure of Enron’s despite of the company adopting EVP strategy. Allowing the employees to do what they wanted without restricting them marked the start of this demise. Giving employees the freedom to do whatever they wanted made some act selfish and for personal gains. Allowing employees to move freely within the company also was another big mess since employees could allocate themselves to offices where they had no qualifications to hold. If only the freedom was restricted to some extent, the employees could have performed since practices like embezzlement of funds could have been controlled. Qualification monitoring could also have been evaluated before any employee to be allowed to hold any office. If I was appointed as the CEO of Enron in a similar context to turn the company around, there are several recruiting, talent management and retention HR strategies I would implement to revive the company back to its original laurels. Such strategies include but not limited to; (Dyer &Reeves, 2015)
Recruiting on the basis of qualifications
This approach could increase the company’s visibility in professional seminars and activities that give them and the company as a whole the greatest exposure. To achieve this also, I would be conducting job fairs where I can attract talented and qualified applicants.
Tapping in-house talent
I would establish an employee referral program to recruit and retain individuals. I would ask the current employees for recommendations and initiate employee referral program that would reward them. Since close monitoring shows that this company uses 360 degree performance appraisal system, I would closely look at the feedback provided from the peers of the employees. The insight from the peers will be more helpful.
Assignment Task 3
There was a starkly difference on the way Mazda and Chrysler approached the bankruptcy in 1980’s. According to international HR strategies, it is very important and perhaps most fundamental step to end all favoritism towards managers. Many Companies tend to consider the top management of the company as potential expatriates and then regard the rest of their workers as local employees. This clearly explains the reason behind Chrysler cutting the salaries of its staff members different.
In America, the culture of equality has been adopted highly as opposed to the case of japan. As per the case scenario, Mazda practiced equality to all its employees by deducting the salaries equally across all its employees regardless of the position held by the employees. This was extended to the bonuses as well. On the other hand, in Japan where the culture of equality has not been adopted, employee’s salaries were deducted without equality.
References
Kaplan, R.S. and Norton, D.P., 2014. How strategy maps frame an organization’s objectives: in an excerpt from their new book, two noted authors on corporate management outline how organizations can mobilize and sustain their intangible assets for value-creating internal processes. Financial Executive, 20(2), pp.40-46.
Churchill, N.C. and Cooper, W.W., 2012. Auditing Records: Individual Task Accomplishment and Organization Objectives. in: New Perspectives in Organization Research, New York et al, pp.250-275.
Meyer, J.P., Becker, T.E. and Vandenberghe, C., 2014. Employee commitment and motivation: a conceptual analysis and integrative model. Journal of applied psychology, 89(6), p.991.
Blyton, P. and Turnbull, P., 2012. The dynamics of employee relations. Palgrave Macmillan.
Knudsen, C., 2015. Theories of the firm, strategic management, and leadership. Resource-based and evolutionary theories of the firm: Towards a synthesis, pp.179-218.
Haesli, A. and Boxall, P., 2013. When knowledge management meets HR strategy: an exploration of personalization-retention and codification-recruitment configurations. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 16(11), pp.1955-1975.
Dyer, L. and Reeves, T., 2015. Human resource strategies and firm performance: what do we know and where do we need to go?. International Journal of human resource management, 6(3), pp.656-670.