Unit 9: Chapter 8 Part A- Human Resources

→Human Resources:
✓ Managers are responsible for acquiring, developing, protecting, and utilizing the resources an
organization needs to be efficient and effective.
✓ One of the most important resources in all organizations is human resources—the people involved
in producing and distributing goods and services.
✓ Human Resources - The people involved in producing and distributing goods and services.
✓ Include all members of an organization, ranging from top managers to entry-level employees.

→Strategic Human Resources Management:

o Organizational architecture - Combination of organizational structure, control systems, culture, and
a human resource management system that managers develop to use resources efficiently and
effectively.
o Human resource management (HRM) 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.
o These activities make up an organization’s human resource management system, which has five
major components:
1. Recruitment and selection
2. Training and development
3. Performance appraisal and feedback
4. Pay and benefits
5. Labor relations

o Strategic human resource management 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.
o 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.
→The Legal Environment of HRM:
▪ Equal Employment opportunity- The equal right of all citizens to the opportunity to obtain
employment regardless of their gender, age, race, country of origin, religion or disabilities.

→Recruitment and Selection:

➢ Recruitment - Includes all the activities managers engage in to develop a pool of qualified
candidates for open positions.
➢ Selection - Process by which managers determine the relative qualifications of job applicants and
their potential for performing well in a particular job.
➢ Before recruiting and selecting employees, managers need to engage in two important activities:
1. Human resource planning
2. Job analysis
Human Resource Planning:
▪ Includes all the activities managers engage into forecast their current and future human resource
needs.
▪ Outsource- To use outside suppliers and manufacturers to produce goods and services.

Job Analysis:

❖ Process of identifying the tasks, duties, and responsibilities that make up a job (the job description)
and the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to perform the job (the job specifications).
❖ For each job in an organization, a job analysis is needs to be done.

External Recruitment:
o When managers recruit externally to fill open positions, they look outside the organization for
people who have not worked for the organization previously.
o Examples:
~Advertisements in newspapers or magazines
~Open houses for students and career counselors at high schools and colleges or on-site at
the organization.
~Career fairs at colleges
~Job fairs
o Advantages:
»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.
»Being able to bring in newcomers who may have a fresh approach to problems and are up
to date on the latest technology.
o Disadvantages:
-High costs
-Employees lack knowledge about the inner workings of the organization
-Employees may need to receive more training
-There is uncertainty concerning whether the employees will actually be good performers.
Internal Recruiting:
✓ Managers turn on existing employees to fill open positions.
✓ Employees recruited internally are either seeking lateral moves (A job change that entails no major
changes in responsibility or authority levels) or promotions.
✓ Advantages:
*Internal applicants are already familiar with the organization (goals, structure, culture, rule,
norms).
*Managers already know the candidates.
*Managers have considerable information about their skills, abilities and actual behavior on
the job.
*Boost motivation and moral levels of employees.
*Those who are not seeking a promotion can see that it’s a possibility for the future.
*Useful way to learn new skills
*Less expensive and time-consuming
✓ Disadvantages:
~Limited pool of candidates and a tendency among those candidates to be set in the
organization’s ways.
~Organization may not have suitable candidates
The Selection Process:

Interviews:
➢ Structured interview: Managers ask the same standard questions.
➢ Situational interviews: Managers gives a scenario that they would likely encounter on the job and
ask how they would handle it.
➢ Unstructured interview: Proceeds like an ordinary conversation.

Paper-and-Pencil Tests:
❖ Ability test: Extent to which people possess necessary skills for job performance (verbal skills).
❖ Personality test: Measure personality traits and characteristics relevant to job performance.

Physical Ability Tests:

o Measure if people can physically perform, like a firefighter, also measures strength and stamina.

Performance Tests:
✓ Measures job performance on actual job tasks.

References:

• Reliability- The degree to which a tool or test measures the same thing each time it’s used.
• Validity- The degree to which a tool or test measures what is purports to measure.
→Training and Development:
▪ 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.

Types of Training:
1. Classroom Instruction: Employees acquire knowledge and skills in a classroom setting, can be like a
course.
2. On-The-Job Training: Training takes place in the job setting as employees perform job tasks, training
can be provided by coworkers or supervisors.

→Performance Appraisal and Feedback:

➢ Appraisal – Is the evaluation of employees’ job performance and contributions to the organization.
➢ 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.
➢ Different types of performance appraisals:
1. Trait appraisals
2. Behavior appraisals
3. Result appraisals
Trait appraisals:
❖ Managers assess subordinates on personal characteristics that are relevant to job performance,
such as skills, abilities, or personality.
❖ Example: A factory worker, for example, may be evaluated based on her ability to use computerized
equipment and perform numerical calculations.
❖ Disadvantages of trait appraisals:
1. Possessing a certain personal characteristic does not ensure that the personal characteristic
will actually be used on the job and result in high performance.
2. Because traits do not always show a direct association with performance, workers and the
law may view them as unfair and potentially discriminatory.
3. They often do not enable managers to give employees feedback they can use to improve
performance.
Behavior appraisals:
o Managers assess how workers perform their jobs—the actual actions and behaviors that workers
exhibit on the job.
o Whereas trait appraisals assess what workers are like, behavior appraisals assess what workers do.
o Example: A manager might evaluate a social worker on the extent to which he looks clients in the
eye when talking with them, expresses sympathy when they are upset, and refers them to
community counselling and support groups geared toward the specific problems they are
encountering.
o Advantage of behavior appraisals:
1. Behavior appraisals have the advantage of giving employees clear information about what
they are doing right and wrong and how they can improve their performance.
2. And because behaviors are much easier for employees to change than traits, performance
feedback from behavior appraisals is more likely to lead to improved performance.

Result appraisals:
✓ Managers appraise performance by the results or the actual outcomes of work behaviors.
✓ Example: One salesperson strives to develop personal relationships with her customers. She spends
hours talking to them and frequently calls them to see how their decision-making process is going.
The other salesperson has a much more hands-off approach. He is very knowledgeable, answers
customers’ questions, and then waits for them to come to him. Both are making targets.

Objective and subjective appraisals:

• Objective – Are based on facts and are likely to be numerical—the number of cars sold, the number
of meals prepared, the number of times late, the number of audits completed.
• Subjective - Are based on managers’ perceptions of traits, behaviors, or results. Because subjective
appraisals rest on managers’ perceptions, there is always the chance that they are inaccurate.
Who Appraisals Performance?

▪ 360-degree performance appraisals- A performance appraisal by peers, subordinates, supervisors

and sometimes clients who are in a position to evaluate a manager’s performance.

Effective Performance Feedback:

➢ Formal Appraisals- An appraisal conducted at a set time during the year based on performance
dimensions and measures that were specified in advance.
➢ Informal Appraisal- An unscheduled appraisal of ongoing progress and areas for improvement.
➢ Guidelines for giving effective performance feedback:
»Be specific and focus on behaviors or outcomes that are correctable and within a workers
ability to improve.
»Approach performance appraisal as an exercise in problem solving and solution finding,
not criticizing.
»Express confidence in a subordinate’s ability to improve.
»Provide performance feedback both formally and informally.
»Praise instances of high performance and areas of a job in which a worker excels.
»Avoid personal criticisms and treat subordinates with respect.
»Agree to a timetable for performance improvements.