MGMT 90015 Notes
Week 1 Introduction pp.2-3
Week 2 Staffing pp.4-7
Week 3 Performance management pp.8-11
Week 4 Reward management pp.12-16
Week 5 Job quality, engagement, voice pp.17-20
Week 6 Diversity Management pp.21-24
Week 7 Conflicts and negotiation pp.25-28
Week 8 International HRM pp.29-33
Week 9 HRM, Ethics and CSR pp.34-38
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Week 1: Introduction
- Human resources management (HRM): manage people and work to ensure they are performing effectively AND satisfy individual employee needs to achieve organisational strategic objectives - importance of HRM: other resources in the firm are tied on HRM à need a stable system to meet
commitment and standard and manage people effectively to build competitive advantage (organisation depends on the people to be successful)
- HRM build both human (knowledge, skills, abilities: what individual can do) and social capital (personal relationship to promote knowledge sharing teamwork, work commitment, motivation: building relationship and network in the organisation)
- HRM aims to influence individual and workplace performance
Individual performance (AMO model) Workplace performance - ability: do employee have the right skills and
knowledge
- motivation: do they feel incentivised, interested - opportunity to perform: how jobs are designed,
how much freedom, what scope of the outcome can they influence
- organisation: develop a work system that coordinate individuals
- capabilities: facilitate knowledge sharing - attitudes: altitudinal climate (e.g. fairness
and trust) influence how employees are engaged and committed
- HRM system (bundle of HR practices) has to be internally aligned (horizontal fit): configure the practices that coherent and reinforce each other
p work together to develop a strong HR system to enhance the employee performance - strategic HR management: HR strategy and choices are determined by the firm strategy
p implementation of the HR practices differs with culture, context, circumstances and internal or external constraints
Þ Vertical fit: adopt practices to achieve high-performance work system towards the organisational direction (reflect firm objective and fit with business strategy) and get the advantage over competitors
Þ HRM closely connected to business strategy to achieve the strategic objectives - Porter 3 generic business strategies
Low cost Uniqueness
Broad target
Low-cost leadership: lowest cost in the industry
Differentiation: be unique in the industry in some dimensions valued by customers, customers are
willing to pay more because of the uniqueness Narrow
target
Focused low-cost leadership Focused differentiation
Focused strategy: limited segment of the market (firm can better serve a limited segment, e.g. particular segment type, product line, geographical area)
3 p Strategic HRM: HRM policies have to associate with business strategy
Þ competitive strategy à required employee skills and behaviours à supportive HR strategy à HRM outcomes (best-fit HR practices for the employees, organisational wellbeing and social legitimacy) to align with business strategy
e.g. differentiation strategy: focus on highly-skilled hiring, profit-sharing pay practices;
e.g. uniqueness strategy: selective hiring, flat structure (minimise the status distinctions) Þ think about the consequences for individual workers, organisational effectiveness and
societal well-being
Þ the environment also shapes HRM strategic choices: attune to the environment and development to adopt practices correspondingly internally and externally
Internal - strategy, culture
External - technological, economic, social, legal
- goals of HRM
Control labour cost - make labour productive at a reasonable cost à make labour work harder (cost-effective labour: costs incurred by hiring workers is high)
Human resources advantage
- create superior and hard to imitate human capital
Social legitimacy - operate according to legal and social laws
- corporate Social Responsibility: beyond shareholders but stakeholders (e.g. contribute to social welfare and environmental issue)
- investors look social performance à improve social legitimacy and be employer of choice
- roles of HRM: strategic partner (implement the strategies), change agent (transform and develop changes), administrative expert (develop an efficient and effective system to ensure organisation process), employee champions (respond employees concern and increase employee commitment) - strategic value: eliminate transactional (payroll, record-keeping) and focus on transformational
work (create the long-term capability and adaptability in changing environment, knowledge environment and management development)
p HRM: improve service delivery through specialisation (expertise, functional specialist) - challenges of HRM: people are inherently complexed (conflicts with different interests and
different reaction to different practices), fast-changing environment (horizontal and vertical fit ongoing alignment process has to be made consistently), ethical dilemmas (opposing demands from different stakeholders: e.g. business partner vs employee champion), legitimacy (incur huge cost and may think of wasting time)
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Week 2: Staffing
- aim of HRM: human resource advantage à develop superior and hard to intimate organisational capability and human resource to increase its competitiveness in hiring talents
- war for talent: the rise of knowledge economy (increasing demand for knowledgeable talents), demographic changes (declining birth rate, fewer skilful workers and shrinking labour supply), skill shortages (talent shortages: difficult to fill jobs with lack of applicants and necessary experience à unfilled vacancies, shortages in particular industry)
p competition for labour is fierce: need a good system to attract applicants and choose the right people (organisational success depends on the best applicants being selected à have to attract experienced and qualified one)
- ways of recruitment Internal
recruitment
- hire within the existing workforce
J - cheaper cost in attraction, training and compensation (20% lower than external), faster process, ease of assessing ability, good performance reward (work harder for promotions: beneficial for motivation and retention), existing workforce understand what is expected and know about the corporate culture
L - infighting, specialised knowledge current employee pool don’t have, discontent about not to be promoted
External recruitment
- fill the vacancy from suitable outside applicants
J - high talent pool with more applicants to bring in new skills and
perspectives (look at the company with fresh eyes) for problem-solving and changing the organisation culture
L - difficult to evaluate past performance, not fit with organisational culture, higher cost, affect current workers morale
- employee branding: organisation try to differentiate with others by convincing current or future employee that the company is an attractive place to work for
p highlight the benefits and rewards to reach out people: create a unique proposition in employment experience to separate from other companies
p employer of choice: helps to secure and retain top talents (characteristics: give employees work-life balance, autonomy of work, learning opportunities)
Þ increase the quality and quantity of applicants (reduce cost in recruitment)
p giving future employees by giving realistic job review and organisational introductions via different platforms (e.g. employee testimonials, review companies) à but may be
unauthentic, contrived or false to give employees a positive impression
