Project management
Format AMA Volume of 500 – 5000 pages (10 pages) 1. TASK 1 The advantage of AMO The advantage of Human capital 3.0. TASK 3; Human Resource Management • HR specialists • The company promotes social responsibility by being financially stable, valuing all stakeholders of the company and promoting environmental impact of the business. The managers ensures that the workforce embrace the culture of the organization hence increasing the competitive advantage of the firm. This creates sustainable vision for the organization through non-hierarchal business. References Aluvala, R. (2017). HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT: NEW HORIZONS. Zenon: Zenon Academic Publishing.
Assignment type : Case Study
The management of human resources is made to increase the motivation and performance of employees in order to achieve the goals and objectives of the organization. Human resource is primarily mandated with people management within organizations. It mainly focuses on the lied down policies and systems to ensure that the human force performs excellent and to the objective of the organizations. The department of human resource is also mandated to design employees’ benefits, employee recruitment, development and training, employee performance appraisal and rewarding the production staff. Besides, human resource plans about the organizational changes and establishing industrial relations. It’s also balanced organizational requirements and practices arising from collective bargaining and laws by the government (Armstrong, 2006).
Managers in human resource department perform key functions to sustain business operations. The managers outline policies that enhance and facilitate employee-employer relations. Human resource managers successfully motive employees to achieve the organizational financial objectives while still keeping their principles. Many theories have been advanced to explain how human resource motivation works perfectly in attaining the best results from employees. According to AMO theory, the job of human resource managers is to determine the abilities, opportunities, and motivation. Hubbard’ human resource management challenges fall perfectly by this theory. The human resource must apply the theoretical models of AMO practices to identify the ability and opportunities of the existing employees to enhance their productivity. Ones the abilities or skills and opportunity are identified, the management will be in a better position to plan for the company (Johnston& Wilkinson, 2016).
1.1. AMO THEORY
AMO theory proposes that for the organization to function well, the managers must inwards and critically assess the composition of the worker’s profiles. The company which has wrong composition of employees has a high risk of failure, lack of employee culture of trust, and this disenables the critical synergies between Opportunity, Motivation, and Ability for overall team performance. Most companies ignore the well-being of the employees.
• It makes management understand the employee’s abilities or skills, their desire and opportunity to contribute positively to the success of the organization.
• It creates opportunities for employees and enhances company’s performance.
• It creates culture of trust within an organization.
• It enables management to recruit and retain the best employees and ensure proper composition of human resource.
The disadvantage of AMO
• When the parties fail to cooperate, take responsibility geared a common objective, lack of proper attitude which amounts to weakened satisfaction rate and enhance well-being.
• Also some firm forget about the well-being of the employees which is a function of AMO.
Hubbard Company values employees’ motivation by ensuring that they merely don’t just work for money but ensuring better employee-customer retention. Dick ensures that employees are valued and achieve the company’s goals. Dick as a manager ensures socially responsible stance and recruiting excellent staff. The human resource also has equipped the staff with customer relation skills to enhance professional and good personal approach for high sales. However, the company experienced striking employee’s causing disruption in the company’s operations. Dick proved to be a great human resource manager by facilitating and improving communication between the parties and resolving the dispute (Dransfield, 2000)
1.2. HUMAN CAPITAL THEORY
The other key human resource theory is the theory of human capital. The most important aspect of labour economics is to think of the set of workers marketable skills as a source of capital for various investments. This perspective is critical as it enables the management to understand investment, incentives and wage structure and the company’s earnings. Practically, human capital corresponds perfectly to any stock of knowledge or qualities of worker contributing to their productivity. The ability to view employees as part of human capital investments makes the company invest heavily in human capital development. The investment school includes school quality, work attitudes, training, and others.
• Helps researchers and policy makers to evaluate relationship between input-output, education and training as inputs and economically beneficial output.
• Provide understanding of how policy develop incentive for investing in individual own education.
• It can predict individual investment in training and education for more productivity.
The disadvantage of human capital
• It fails to show how training and education translate to high earning.
• It assume that high education amount to high productivity and that education is homogeneous which not really the case.
By applying this theory on Hubbard food as a case study dick Hubbard supports university student studying food technology. If dick Hubbard started giving internship to those students in his company which would results into freshly graduated food technology student with innovative ideas help in uplifting revenue in future via paying them low wages. But psychologically more motivation they would work more by heart. This would eventually help both ends. One is for company and secondly freshly graduated students.
1.2.2. TASK 1.2
The AMO framework parameters are related constructs and their precise inter-relationships is often difficult to theoretically justify, and there, therefore, viewed as correlated but constructs which are distinct. The best practice for Hubbard Foods would be establishing dynamic human resource culture that will ensure great team work and excellent performance. Since AMO proposes independent working system components for shaping the characteristics of the employees and they significantly contribute to the success of the business. Dick should enhance the culture of the organization through enhancing employee abilities, motivation and opening opportunities for them. He should increase the ability of the employees through training and educational development. The company should motivate the employees through vocational staff welfare, better payment packages, creating conducive working environment for staff welfare and probably paid leaves. The company should also ensure the provision of employment opportunities that contribute to the company’s objectives and goals (Boxall& Purcell, 2015).
1.2.2. AMO THEORY
Hubbard Company should utilize the theory of AMO to ensure that the organizational leaders have proper human resource management tools that significantly provide a positive impact on the business performance. Failure to provide the three aspects in the management of human resource, performance is inhibited significantly. Provision of the three aspects ensures that performance is enhanced since excellent employee performance is a strong attribute that contributes to the continued success of the organization. The company should equip the employees with the ability to perform excellently through knowledge and skills. The company should ensure thorough job assessment during employee recruitment and selection process. Hubbards should enhance the employee abilities through proper training, ways of learning and development tools right from commencing their employment.
Apart from the improved ability, the management should also motivate the employees. Influences of excellent motivation include internal and external rewards, reviews of performance, proper feedback, right career development, security of employment, and ensuring that employees balance work and life. The company should learn what motivates employees best to produce positive performance outcomes such avoiding intimidation like wearing ties (Lauby, 2005).
2.0. TASK 2; Human Resource Strategies
Human resource management can use the theories and models to develop organizational strategies.
Tasks 2: Human Resource strategies
Human resource management can use the theories and models to develop organizational strategies.
Team Performance: The Company should create well-functioning teams, the managers should look inward and assess the human capital composition and employee profiles. Besides, wrong employee composition results to poor performance culture of trust increasing the risk of disenabling the necessary synergies, especially between motivation, ability, and opportunity. Developing robust organizations through enhancing the three aspects significantly improves overall team performance. Secondly, the company should develop a strategy of competent management through knowledge management and performance evaluation. The managers should allow reconciliation of company’s interest with individual interests and compare knowledge and skills of each worker to ensure proper teamwork and integration. The managers should identify all the management skills necessary to achieve the objectives of the organization.
Employee Satisfaction and solving conflicts: The management should create an education climate assessment to allow objective assessment of the employees’ degree of satisfaction. Allow them to understand their needs, work expectations and their perception of the company’s existing problems. The human resource manager should take into consideration the labour disputes; ensure job satisfaction and proper communication within the organization to achieve excellent performance.
Involvement of Employees: The Company should ensure workers union and collaboration with them to achieve common consensus. They should ensure improvement plan for solving conflicts and detecting problems. The company should establish a culture of trust where work performance is high by investing a conscious effort to ensure proper allocation both employee profiles and management. Employees put the work strategic agenda in practice and follow it. Culture also will ensure common goal for both the management and employees and creates robust organizations for passionate employee thrive (Employee Satisfaction- A Prediction of Economic Success of Service Companies, 2007).
Setting Organizational Goals: Professionally, culture creates trust though not in short term but the more employees and management interact. It builds business common goals that are achievable. Besides, an organization can build more human resource strategies such as investing in employee incentives, leadership, mentoring and creating an analytical and problem-solving team. Establishing common meeting for management and internal communication will greatly improve the performance of the business.
The main goal of management is viewing human resource as capital that when good investments are made can improve performance and productivity of the firm (Fairholm, 1994). All said and done, investment in human resource is as good as any other company assets.
Human resource management performs a different variety of functions. The primary responsibilities of human resource managers is to cooperate the strategic and ensure functional responsibilities in all human resource disciplines. They provide compensation and benefits to employees by ensuring the provision of guidance and direction. They develop strategic compensation plan, aligning performance systems of management and compensation structure. Human resource managers also ensure training and development such new hire orientation, leadership training and professional seminars or workshops. He also ensures employee relations by investigating and resolving work issues and preserving the employee-employer relationship. They attain this by designing an effective workers’ relations strategy. The management also ensures that there are proper employee recruitment and selection. Human resource is responsible for employment decisions related to the corporate branding and retaining employees who are talented (Aluvala, 2017).
3.1.1. UNIONIZED ENVIRONMENT
The unionized environment helps to nurture proper employment practices and sometimes it is used as an excuse for poor practices by human resource management. Where there is no employee union it helps the manager greatly as the employees don’t have poor practices and the manager can control the human capital. The unionized employees in Hubbard helped the company to communicate with striking staff and solving the dispute in the year 2000.
• Managers
The managers should facilitate a more collaborate employee relations climate in unionized environment, training on how to manage employees in less adversarial style rather than discipline them. Human resource manager should also consult with union and keeping them in case of loops of major changes.
• Employees
Employees in unionized setting should respect the managers as much as they follow the union rules. The employees should ensure the business mandate is adhered to despite sometimes going against their union duty specifications. Employee relations should fall under the company’s mission and their relation skills should create culture of trust and improve performance. Besides, the labour union should create relation perspective that improves all parties’ relationship.
• HR specialists
The HR specialists creates enabling climate for both employees and management. They ensure that all parties have collective bargaining power determining the duration and termination of job contracts. They communicate in case of disputes for their employees. They also ensure that there is better compensation for employees and that their working climate is conducive and safe for daily operations.
(Kreiner, 2011)
3.1.2. NON-UNIONIZED
Non-unionized work environment is where the employees lack union for collective bargain and termination of contracts. These parties play different roles in non-unionized environment where;
• Managers
The managers must understand the current laws which are always changing and implement them in work place and communicate about the laws to its employees. The department of human resource also handles the hiring, firing, promoting and disciplining the employees within the company. Human resource also handles employees’ compensation and keeping their records. The managers create culture of trust for the employees and involve them in all aspects of decision making. The managers ensure positive workers relations and techniques. Besides, employees asking for inputs create loyalty and trust between employer and staff.
• Employees
Employees also play a role by ensuring their feedback is addressed well and that their opinions are being addressed by management. To address employee relations the management allows dialogues and expression of ideas or suggestion. They also follow the mission of the business for them to achieve the goals. Appropriate measures for both employees and management are enhanced to improve the performance of the company. Good relations are created through positive working environment and giving workers sense of satisfaction and appreciation (Blanpain, 2007).
The HR specialists play a key role by ensuring that the employees understand the current laws and how to motivate them to achieve the goals of the organization. They also encourage the employees to register with unions to gain bargaining power and job termination security.
3.2. TASK 3.2; Role of parties in Hubbard Company
Hubbard Company has unionized employees that works for the benefit of common understanding. During the year 2000, the company experienced striking labour force; however, due to good working relations between the parties, the company resolved the dispute through communication. The union provided improved communication while the management used employee relation to solve the controversial public relation war. The role of management of Hubbard has developed good code of conduct to ensure that employees perform excellently. They also ensure training, development and participation in community activities which bring great success to the firm. Besides human resource management, the employee union bring performance much better as the company’s employees are compensated well; welfare is also ensured and proper working condition. Despite viewing human resource as capital, the company should understand the sources of human capital differences in order to understand the incentives to invest in employees. Innate ability makes employees have different amounts of skills and abilities. The other difference is caused by the level of schooling. However, schooling accounts less significantly to the amount of wage the employees earn.
4.0. TASK 4; Strategic Leadership
Strategic leadership is the ability of the management to correctly and voluntarily make important decisions that a decided to enhance the prospects of the company’s long term objectives or success.
(wikipedia, n.d.)
Dick shows strategic leadership through various methods. Firstly, Dick establishes new factory in Mangere, Auckland targeting low income earners. His goal is to create employment to low socio-economic class in the area ending up employing 80% in the company from Auckland. This shows the code of value for the company as it increasing its sales through increasing purchasing power. This creates high earning for the company and being part and parcel of the local community. Secondly, the Dick Hubbard ensures initiative for the children in the Auckland for free breakfast. He provides over 1000 breakfast in the region. This ensures that the community appreciate the presence of the company in the region. Hubbard also provides a programme to help victims of domestic violence. He launched the DVFREE HR programmes which highly benefited the participating businesses. This ensures effective and efficient operation as employees are safe at workplace health and domestic safety problems. Besides, the manager, Dick shows great leadership by sharing company’s success with staff through employees’ trips. He took the workforce to Samoa in 1998 to celebrate the 10-year anniversary in business and appreciating their culture and heritage. The trips are continuous processes which help to motivate the workforce for better productivity. Besides, he ensures no corporate ego trips or committee decision and no back stabbing. Dick achieves this by being the role model for the rest of the staff to follow his commitments. The company takes employees to trips to enhance bonding and support of both workforce’s culture and heritage. The recognition of workforce diversity brings high performance and effective interaction hence promoting code of value within the organization
Strategic leadership brings company goals to the understanding of employees’ expectation and commitment thus increasing their participation and efficiency in the organisation. The codes of values of Hubbard have influence on the brand strategy. It is seen as a socially responsible company working for the broader community in New Zealand and this gives it a better image which helps to increase the sales and create brand awareness.
4.2 Evaluation of code of value for Hubbard Food Company
Code of value is an organizational framework outlining the company’s mission, vision, and values. Techniques on how professional are supposed to solve problems, the companies ethical principles which are based on the business’s core values and standards expected of professionals. Codes of values increase Company’s performance as employees do what is best for the company. They also ensure success and continuity of the business in long-term. So is the case with Hubbard Foods as the stance on social responsibility has helped the company to grow. Hubbard Food Company shows the various code of the conduct through;
(investoprdia, n.d.)
• Dick created socially responsible business in 1998 through distinctive, simple no-nonsense management and practicing the values he preaches to the staff. This is the folklore of Hubbard and shapes the expectation of the workforce.
• Dick creates code of values by motivating the workforce to see beyond the money. This social responsible stance ensures gaining and retaining the best staff, enhancing customer rapport and increased personal approach. The company’s sales therefore increase drastically.
• Besides, the management ensures better communication between employees, unions and HR specialists which creates conducive environment for business. Code of value is enhanced by taking community as a key pillar for the brand strategy through improved marketing. He participates in community good causes of student support, local charities and projects such as Ronald McDonald House and Outward Bound. This improves the local community greatly. All this code of values has increased the company’s sales and exports.
• Mr Dick ensures are no nonsense management of staff, establishing a code of conduct like committee decisions and avoidance of corporate ego trips. This practice sums up the managers philosophy to managing human resources and also practices what he preaches. Excellent code of conduct ensures that they are clear and acceptable practice. Performance improves greatly when ethical behaviour is encouraged through board, employees and managers levels. Hubbard food codes of conduct ensure that they are easy to identify and resolve conflicts and enhance company’s reputation. Besides, it helps the company to specify its social responsibility such as participating in an area of domestic violence to solve domestic issues.
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Blanpain, R. (2007). Decentralizing Industrial Relations and the Role of Labour Unions and Employee Representatives. Alphen: Kluwer Law International.
Boxall, P., & Purcell, J. (2015). Strategy for Human Resource Management. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Dransfield, R. (2000). Human Resource Management. Portsmouth: Heinemann.
Employee Satisfaction- A Predication of Economical Success of Service Companies. (2007). Munich: GRIN Verlag.
Fairholm, G. W. (1994). Leadership and the culture of Trust. Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group.
Hayton, J. (2012). Global Human Resource Management Casebook. New York: Taylor & Francis.
investoprdia. (n.d.). code of ethics. Retrieved from http://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/code-of-ethics.asp
Johnstone, S., & Wilkinson, A. (2016). Encyclopedia of Human Resource Management. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.
Kreiner, S. (2011). The union role in employee ownership. Philadelphia: PACE of Philadelphia, Inc.
Lauby, S. (2005). Motivating Employees. Virginia: American Society of Training and Development.
wikipedia. (n.d.). strategic leadership. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_leadership
