STI West Negros University

School of Graduate Studies

Bacolod City

MASTER IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

1st Semester, AY 2022-2023

MPAD 510 – Public Human Resource Management

Midterm Examination

Professor - Dr. Yasmin Pascual-Dormido, DPA

Submitted By: Milljan B. Delos Reyes

GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS:

In essay format, discuss your answers comprehensively by properly citing relevant

incidents, documented/reported cases, definitions of theorists, book authors, and
results or findings of research/studies conducted that will best explain your point or
argument. Organize your ideas before writing them while strictly observing correct
grammar and punctuation. Please refrain from plagiarizing the works of other authors,
writers, and researchers. Proper attribution is a MUST. Make sure your essay answers
will cover not less than six (6) pages of a short-sized bond paper. Use Bookman
Oldstyle font, 12 points, single-spaced.

1. What are the challenges Public Human Resource Managers now face? Cite
at least three (3) challenges. Be specific with the examples or incidents that you will
be citing and be able to contextualize each and relate it to principles, theories, and
concepts we have discussed in class.
HR professionals have certainly not imagined the challenges that COVID-19
has dawned on them. The uncertainty has crushed the economy, employees
are in stressful situations, and HR professionals try their best to keep
everything in perspective and aligned. There are already growing bubbles in
different industries around the world, most notably in the financial industries
that contributed a large number of resources to the world’s economy.
According to Oscar Jorda of the Federal Bank of San Francisco, the world
economy is on track to have a full recovery from the 2008 financial crisis. But
due to covid 19 pandemic, the growth that has been obtained during the post-
financial crisis years has been reversed and the world’s economy is on track to
have another economic crisis that is much bigger than the 2008 financial
crisis. The ongoing covid-19 pandemic has swept the world in a matter of
weeks, drastically changing the lives of millions. Countries around the world
declared a national state of emergency and citizens have been asking to shelter
in place, restricting their outings to only essentials. In these difficult times,
many businesses are struggling to keep their doors open and all must find
ways to keep their employees safe, comfortable, and productive. The days
ahead will present some of the most significant HR challenges of our time.
Identifying and implementing effective employee policies and support may
make or break businesses in the coming months of uncertainty. There have
arisen many HR challenges during covid, as this pandemic has turned normal
business functioning upside down. However, those HR teams that have risen to
the occasion will be integral in leading and guiding the businesses through the
storm.

Trying to recover from this economic shock, companies have begun to

reopen, amid this ongoing pandemic, under special rules and a new activity
(e.g., physical distancing at work) that no one else has predicted when will end.
As a result, this pandemic has led to the emergence of a complex and
demanding environment for managers and practitioners of human resource
management (HRM) who need to find the right solutions. ingenious solutions to
keep their business running and help their employees face the challenges of
this unprecedented crisis. situation. In this context, there is little research on
the impact of COVID-19 on HRM, its potential challenges and opportunities for
HRM in organizations, while managers and practitioners alike HRMs need
relevant information that will help them navigate this crisis efficiently and
effectively so that they can support their employees and keep their companies
running. Organizations are often not fully prepared to deal with crises when
they arise Therefore, the scientific community needs to support organizations
by providing information regarding this new pandemic. There are a lot of
challenges that Human Resource Managers now face during this pandemic, it
would take a long time to summarize all of them so I will give three most
common examples. Health and safety standards are perhaps one of the most
obvious HR challenges. Employment law not only governs these concerns but
is also of great importance for the general well-being of employees. Because
workplace health is more than just a matter of health and safety. Today, the
psychological health of employees can deteriorate due to high demands, limited
time, and employee burnout. Of course, times of stress are normal, and in
times of pressure, employees can often produce their best work. But high-
stress levels cannot be sustained. This means that HR professionals need to
keep a close eye on increasing workloads and stress levels. An open policy to
discuss anxiety, unfair working hours, and expectations is essential. Emotional
Intelligence (EQ) training managers can help them realize the benefits of a
healthy mental state. Other training, in mindfulness and general stress-coping
techniques, can help build a resilient workforce. And then there are progressive
companies that allow mental illness leave when employees feel exhausted.
Especially when Filipinos are already above the required working hours of
workers, according to OECD data from 2012, the average working hours per
week in European countries is 35 hours per week, while in the US 40 hours of
average working per week is mandated. Meanwhile, in the Philippines, this has
been largely untouched with a government-mandated 8 hours a day of work
and 6 days a week. I believe this is the main reason why a lot of Filipinos
choose to go abroad and find a greener posture to sustain their family lives.
Physically and mentally, the workers have been battered to the point of feeling
like being paralyzed because of financial and social isolation. According to a
survey conducted in March 2021 of 6000 Filipino workers, the mental capacity
and health of Filipino workers declined amid the pandemic. In a poll by the
mental health and well-being organization MindNation, Filipino employees
rated their mental wellness at work at 6.5 following the pandemic, down from 8
before the unprecedented health crisis. The poll showed that 61% of the
respondents said they were stressed, 53% were either worried or anxious, 34%
were depressed and 32% felt empty. The biggest driver of the decline in Filipino
workers’ mental health is the fear of COVID-19, which 80% of the respondents
said contributed to their worries.

According to indications, mental health and well-being challenges faced

by employees cost businesses at least P7 million in the last year alone.It
recommends that businesses work to stop the stigma on mental health and
well-being, partner with a mental health and well-being provider, and create a
mental health company policy. This staggering amount is nothing compared to
the effects on the company when employees are constantly battling mental
health issues. The Government has considered this a national emergency, so
in collaboration with the Philippine Department of Health (DOH) – has
successfully launched the first-ever mobile application to support Filipinos’
mental health needs. The app is available in both English and Filipino. In the
era of COVID-19, mobile phones are one of the few reliable tools available to
health professionals to reach individuals facing mental health challenges while
confined to their homes. This app successfully delivers self-help tools and
individualized mental health resources to users at a time when face-to-face
interventions are challenging. And the app is an important part of Renew
Health’s efforts to connect Filipinos with community-based drug rehabilitation
(CBDR). Through Renew Health, URC works to help persons who use drugs,
people in recovery, and their families obtain access to informal care, self-help
resources, and community-based rehabilitation and recovery support to reduce
or prevent drug dependence. Although the government has taken drastic steps
on dealing with this issue. The Role of Human Resource Managers has never
been so important than now because they absorb all the problems of the
different characters and aspects of lives in their companies while also taking
care of their own. And as a Human Resource Manager of a company, you have
no choice but to face the problems of Health and Safety Standards that the
company and its employees face. An employee that is not focused on his job
cannot perform well. So Human Resource Managers towards their employees
are very essential in breaking or making them. This is very well stated in their
Book McGregor’s The Human Side of Enterprise, McGregor proposed two
theories by which managers perceive and address employee motivation. He
referred to these opposing motivational methods as Theory X and Theory Y
management. Each assumes that the manager’s role is to organize resources,
including people, to best benefit the company. However, beyond this
commonality, the attitudes and assumptions they embody are quite different.

Although the Theory X of McGregor makes sense since most ideas stated
in that are inherently true for most of us, let us not forget about the inherent
characteristics of humans to adapt to changes. Drawing on Abrahams
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, McGregor states also that once the employee has
stained his needs then the motivation is diminished. It might be true on the
basic needs of employees such as monetary but the higher aspect of needs
such as mental health and safety standards that employees demand is leading
to greater motivation rather than a diminishing one. The second problem that
Human Resource Management has been facing now is Embracing Change with
Grace and ease, change is a shapeshifting that affects our environment, our
competitors, our customers, and our workplace. But whether it's management,
structure, procedures, or technology, everyone knows that people are afraid of
change. Unknown causes cause feelings of uncertainty and anxiety. This
makes the enormous responsibility of adjusting employees to change one of the
repetitive challenges HR professionals face. The HR department is tasked with
not only managing employee morale, well-being, and cooperation through
change but also constantly developing employees to meet changing business
needs. Solution? No one answered correctly. But the effort to communicate
regularly and transparently before, during, and after the change is a good place
to start. Give fair warning of upcoming changes and equip employees with the
skills they need to deal with them. By training the hard and soft skills they
need to cope with change, employees will feel more secure and competent, and
more likely to embrace change. According to the Human relations theory of
Elton Mayo, it takes an interpersonal approach to manage human beings. It
presents the organization as made up of formal and informal elements. As a
Human Resource Manager, one of your main goals is to make your employees
resilient to changes.  Actively listen to what your people are thinking and
feeling. Encourage people to express their worries and anxieties and to face
their emotions. Be empathetic and acknowledge their commitment and effort in
the face of such unpredictable times. To buoy resilience and confidence levels
challenged by the randomness of life, appreciate abundantly. Use recognition
and rewards as a means of propping up and dusting off. Convey gratitude and
be supportive at every possible opportunity. The speed and quality of crisis
communication influence employee resilience, too. Be proactive where and
when you can. This intentional focus on the well-being of employees can speak
volumes. Having the ability to work in a way that allows us to manage our
sense of purpose with flexibility and autonomy gives us a sense of control.
Empower individuals and teams by giving them ownership over their work. As
academics suggest, "the more in control we feel, the more efficacious we feel
about achieving the outcomes we desire, and this sense of competence boosts
well."  Employee listening strategies like frequent pulse surveys are the
ultimate tool for discerning employee sentiment. An integrated focus on
performance management is another.

You can fortify confidence levels and feed into the human desire for autonomy
and control by aligning goals and establishing timelines, tracking progress, and
exchanging valuable feedback. Additional (and frequent) one-to-one
discussions help create a psychologically safe workplace and are an excellent
forum for recognizing efforts. Life is full of surprises. As the adage goes, the
only thing certain in life is change. What are the triggers behind your people’s
anxiety and stress? How can you reduce these triggers? Get to know your
people on a deeper level and familiarize yourself with their physical and
emotional cues. Watch for personal red flags that something is amiss.
Employees are looking to their workplace leaders for assurance, direction, and
support. Try to keep the individual and team focused on deliverables by week,
month or quarter. Continuous performance management processes can help
with that. Individual-centricity is where we’ve just come from, where we’re at
now and where we’re headed in a more intentional and focused way. Recognize
that productivity and performance may be impacted by emotional, physical,
and psychological reactions to situations and circumstances beyond your
control. Adjust accordingly. The difficulties and triumphs experienced as
organizations, teams, and individuals have shown us how employee resilience
doesn’t sit in isolation. It encompasses all aspects of the employee experience
and addresses what matters most when it matters most: from hire to retire,
across different demographic groups, across different time zones and
geographic locations and working spaces, under the direction of different
people. The employee experience means operating under the influence of
personal circumstances—right down to the visibly overwhelmed individual
speaking to you over Zoom as pooch yap, children cajole and a laundry buzzer
sounds off in the background.  Taking the time and use the right tools to
understand the physical, mental and emotional psyche of your people.
Employee resilience comes by way of planning, asking questions, listening
intently, acting on feedback, setting appropriate goals and expected outcomes,
and recognizing and rewarding efforts with authenticity. It’s a people
experience strategy that plays on a continuous loop over and over and over
again. Lastly, talent retention; Workers are being offered more job
opportunities than they have had in recent decades, so all HR professionals
must be careful to maintain the current workforce. Otherwise, you risk losing
them in the competitive talent market. The first step to improving employee
retention is understanding why employees leave in the first place. Exit
interviews can reveal what employees love most about working at your
company, and what they lack. Armed with this knowledge, HR professionals
can develop plans to address the factors that drive employee turnover. Also
consider when employees will retire. This gives you insight into why employees
are leaving. Are there general tenures when people are more likely to leave, and
what factors might play a role? Theory X of McGregor, assumes that the
primary source of employee motivation is monetary, with security as a strong
second. On a larger company, this type of thinking is prevalent as they tend to
keep their grip on the upper echelons of the organization. While most of the
workers does have this characters that is specifically targeted in Theory X, let
us open our minds to the possibilities. People are rational beings, they ten to
evolve base on how the society and nature moulds them. We tend to focus on
the current needs without preparing for the future, this reality should be an
eye opener for Managers that they have a major impact on the performance
and aspects of life of the workers. Contrary to the Theory X of McGregor,
Theory Y states that higher-level needs of esteem and self-actualization are
ongoing needs that, for most people, are never completely satisfied. As such, it
is these higher-level needs through which employees can best be motivated.
This is very related to the talent retention of employees in which most workers
that quits their job have far more deeper reasons than monetary one. This is
consistent with leading research by Gallup, One study of 7,272 U.S.
adults found that 50 percent of employees left their job "to get away from their
manager to improve their overall life at some point in their career." In relation
to that, Maslow’s theory uses a pyramid to describe the different types of needs
that need to be met. Each level, or type of human need, can only be achieved if
all of the levels below are satisfied, starting with basic needs at the bottom.
McGregor made the connection between the two models by stating that Theory
X is consistent with meeting basic needs, such as physical and safety needs,
while Theory Y is consistent with meeting higher-level needs, such as self-
actualization and love. If is high, this may indicate that the new employee is
not well prepared to perform his/her job well. They can alleviate this problem
by improving communication during the hiring process and making the
onboarding process more effective and engaging. Employees leaving at a later
date can be difficult to reach. They may leave the company because they feel
they have reached the limit of their potential at your company. To meet this
challenge, companies must rethink internal mobility and career paths to
provide more growth opportunities for their employees. Fully accepting and
understanding the nature of your people would greatly benefit the whole
organizations. By providing enough training to the Managers and possibly
provide them with further studies should mitigate this problem that has been
hasten with the pandemic.

2. It is said that human resource is the most important of all kinds of resources in an
organization. Why is that so? Based on your experiences in both government and
private service, can you say that human resources are utilized well and that
employees or members of an organization function as assets of their departments or
divisions instead of liabilities? Explain your answer and provide evidence to back
your arguments.

Many companies today focus on gaining a competitive advantage in the market.

Advanced equipment, new technology, superior marketing strategies, superior
customer service, and many other factors contribute to building benefits, the
most important determinant of an organization's success or failure. Without their
support, an organization's day-to-day operations would not go smoothly. Human
resources have always been tied to an organization's profitability and their skills cannot
be replaced by machines. Each individual's skills, knowledge, and experience contribute
to the growth of organizations, communities, and nations. Such valuable talents can be
regarded as human capital, one of the main prerequisites for national economic
development. Strategic human resource management plays a key role in developing an
organization in today's competitive marketplace. Organizations recognize the
importance of focusing on the human factor to generate ideas to improve productivity.
They design recruitment plans to attract, train and develop personnel to their potential.
Employed organizations can afford to meet employee expectations to create a work
atmosphere among employees (Truss & Gratton, 2016). Ironically, people are an
organization's most important asset, but they are also the cost incurred during training
activities. Organizations bear costs when the wrong candidate is hired for a post. These
costs can be divided into direct costs and hidden costs. Direct costs could be hiring
advertisements, training new hires, medical examinations, etc. Additionally, Company
found that these hidden costs were demoralizing older employees. Some of the
organizations try to approach people who have no work experience and are not
sufficiently qualified for jobs. This is because poor customer service may cause some
customers to lose loyalty to the organization. You must be smart in attracting, selecting
and retaining the right employees. Personal development programs always bring many
benefits to an organization. The role of human resource development is to provide
individuals with the learning experiences they need to fill gaps in employee knowledge
and skills so they can work efficiently and effectively. is defined as to be the ultimately
contributes to organizational productivity. A badly manage Human Resource system
would be very catastrophic on the Governments Level. I would take my experience as
an example, in which there are neophyte government officials every time the election
would reshuffle the candidates. It has been the culture of Filipino politics in which
winning politicians would replace the appointees of old losing side regardless if the
person they replace are very competent or the person you are going to replace is
incompetent. Because as a politician you are also a manager of the whole system
within the government, and a good manager knows that constant shuffling would
never create a positive work culture within. Going back to my case, as I stated that
there are always new employees within the government especially in the local
government. The Level of service that we people should get from the competent
employees to be hired by the managers which is the politician has been greatly
neglected. There are times where the local government employees would just yell
to you, sleeping during the working hours and most notable; gossiping while a
long line of people should be served with a better service. On the national level
of governance, we have leaders that if we examine closer, they don’t seem to
know what they are doing like they would just ban everything if they see
something is wrong without prior research on those matters. I don’t believe
that the government is utilizing its employees the best way they could.
Although Philippines is the oldest Democracy in South East Asia, “The delivery
of government services remains dismal,” reports the Senate Economic Planning
Office (SEPO). And according to Clarita Carlos of the University of the
Philippines, “many times the bureaucracy we encounter is arrogant, aloof,
arbitrary and corrupt in its behavior”. She refers to a study according to which
“almost 50 % of government expenditures is lost to corruption”. Imagine if the
government have the best Managers, we could have a much better lives as we
live in. Most employees in the government have become a liability rather than
asses, with negative reputations all across the board; it sows distrust and
prejudice towards the government. Reflecting to the managers itself rather than
the employees. I believe that human resource management should be a
required subjects for all aspiring public servants to be able to serve our country
the best way. In the private sector I could say that they utilize their human
resource managers better than the public one, I believe it is because of the
profit nature of private organizations which is necessary to deliver on promises
to the costumers or risk losing them. Also the private sector is easier to manage
than public sector that manage the whole nation rather than a single entity. Due to
this fact, managers in the private sectors could easily change the course of techniques
because they don’t answer to the whole nation but to the small group of person.
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“Financial and Monetary System”" (2015). The four kinds of Bubbles. 1(1)
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“Philippines Overview” (2022) Philippines Overview: Working Hours, Overtime,
and Coverage of OtherMandatory Labor Rights. 1(3)
https://kittelsoncarpo.com/labor-employment/working-hours/
“Average annual hours”, (2022) Average annual hours actually worked per
worker. 2(23) https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=ANHRS

Schwantes M., (2022) Why People Continue to Quit Their Jobs. 1(2)
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-people-continue-quit-jobs-backed-
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Truss C., Gratton L. (2006) Strategic human resource management: a

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