Week 8

Managing people: Human Resource Management &

Diversity
Chapter 9: pp. 156 – 158
Chapter 11
 Recap of Week 7 Topics

1. What organising is ?
2. Four departmentalisation approaches to organisational
structure & team structure
***3. The factors that influence organisational
design/structure focusing on strategy and environment
***4. Kurt Lewin’s 3 step approach to organisational change.
5. The 5 stages of organisational decline.
6. Different methods that managers can use to minimise
resistance to change.
***2 Topics useful for Workbook 3 Assessment :
Organisation structure focusing on strategy & environment
Kurt Lewin’s 3 step approach to org change
 Week 8 Topics

1. How companies use recruiting & selection

(attracting function) to find qualified job
applicants
2. How to determine training needs, appropriate
training methods & types performance
appraisals used to develop employees
3. How to maintain a quality workforce through
work-life balance and work design: Explain the
four approaches to job design including job
characteristics model (JCM)
How is this topic relevant to me?

Workbook 3 Topics:
3. Attracting an effective workforce (based on
Lecture 8)
4. Developing an effective workforce (based on
Lecture 8)
5. Job Design using JCM (Job Characteristics
Model) (based on Lecture 8)
Glassdoor's annual list of the best places to work in
2020 included 31 tech companies, ranging from
industry giants like Google, Microsoft,
and Salesforce
Google claimed the top spots in the best places to work in the
U.S. in both Glassdoor's and Fortune magazine's annual 2019
lists.

What is it that makes Google such a great place

to work for?
• PAUSE
• Video: Inside Google's Massive
Headquarters (6.3 m)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v
=Z-pT0XDYvDM
 What are they
doing right?

• Attracting
• Developing
• Maintaining an effective workforce within an
organisation
(remember ADM)
 Human resource management (HRM) refers to
activities undertaken to attract an effective
workforce, develop the workforce to its
potential,and maintain the workforce over the
long term.
 The organisation’s competitive strategy determine
the demand for skills and employees.
 The Strategic Approach to HRM
A strategic HRM applies the process to ensure the effective accomplishment
of organization's mission.

Source: Samson, D. & Daft, R.L. 2012, Fundamentals of Management,

4th Asia-Pacific Edition, Cengage Learning
Attracting an Effective Workforce

Attracting involves:
i. HR Planning : a process of predicting
(forecasting)the need for new employees
based on types of vacancies that exist
ii. Recruiting : a set of activities designed to
attract a qualified pool of job applicants
iii. Selecting : involves choosing from a pool of
the best-qualified job applicants
 Attracting: (i) Planning

• Human resource planning

– The forecasting of HR needs
and the projected matching of
individuals with expected job
vacancies.
• Consider key questions eg
emerging new technologies;
volume of business, staff
turnover
 Attracting: ii) Recruiting

The process of developing a pool of qualified job applicants

Activities or practices that define the desired characteristics of applicants
for specific jobs.
Involves:
•Job analysis: The systematic process of gathering and interpreting
information about the essential duties, tasks and responsibilities of a job.
•Job description: A concise summary of the specific tasks and responsibilities
of a particular job.
•Job specifications: An outline of the knowledge skills, education and
physical abilities needed to adequately perform a job.
Note: Realistic job previews enhance recruiting effectiveness…increased
employee satisfaction & reduced turnover
 Recruitment Considerations

EEO: Equal Employment Opportunity: the right to

employment and advancement without regard to race,
sex, gender, colour or national origin.
Affirmative action – e.g., Equal Opportunity for Women
in the Workplace Act 1999 (Australia)
- assists organisations to achieve equal opportunity for
women
- aims to encourage employers to consider whether any
of their current or historical practices diminish the
likelihood of women taking on roles long dominated
by men!
 Internal recruiting

Internal: recruiting from within - less expensive; deals

with people whose performance records are well-
established; builds loyalty and motivation
• A pool of applicants who already work for the
company.
• ‘Promotion from within’.
• Improves employee morale and motivation.
• Reduces employer time and cost.
• Job posting is the procedure for internal advertising.
• Career path is a planned sequence of jobs.
 External recruiting
External: recruiting from outside the
organization- brings in outsiders with
fresh perspectives; provides access to
specialized expertise or work experience
not available from insiders

• Advertising
• Employee referrals
• Walk-ins
• Outside organisations
• Employment agencies
• Special events
• Internet job sites: e-recruiting
 Attracting: (iii) Selecting

Selecting is …
The process of determining the skills,
abilities and other attributes a person
needs to perform a particular job.
Choosing from the pool of recruited
applicants
In the selection process, employers
assess applicant’s characteristics in an
attempt to determine the fit between
the job and the applicant
 Selection Devices

Application forms References and

and résumés background checks

Interviews
Selection tests
 Selection Devices

Selection devices must be valid and reliable

 Reliable – device measures consistently over
repeated uses
 Valid – device has a demonstrated
relationship with future job performance
Developing an Effective Workforce

Development includes:

i. Orientation of employees
ii. Training
iii. Performance Appraisal

– a set of activities to familiarize employees

to their jobs, co-workers and key aspects
of the organization
Developing: (i) Orientation
 Orientation is…
— Set of activities designed to
familiarise new employees with
their jobs, coworkers and key
aspects of the organisation. Eg
mission, policies and procedures

 Begins the process of socialising

newcomers ie influences the
expectations, behaviour and
attitudes of a new employee in a
way considered desirable by the
organisation
Developing: (ii) Training

Training Training Training

needs methods evaluation
 Developing: (ii) Training
Types of training activities:
On-the-job training
•takes place in the work setting while someone is doing a job
•most common method for training and development
Mentoring and coaching
• a more experienced employee is paired with a newcomer or less-
experienced employee to provide guidance, support & learning
opportunities
Classroom training
• including lectures, films and simulations
Self-directed learning
• use of books, manuals, or computers to provide subject matter in highly
organised and logical sequences that require employees to answer a
series questions about the material with which the employee works, to
learn material at his or her own pace
Computer-based training (or e-training)
• includes computer-assisted instruction, Web-based training and tele-
training.
 How Google does it
• Through the following perks and benefits:
• Googlers can be reimbursed up to $8000 per calendar year on pre-
approved, work-relevant courses that are provided through external
training providers or academic institutions.
• Engineers can also enroll in the MS at Stanford Program, a one year
program at Stanford University designed to increase an engineer's
knowledge through a master's program in a technical field. The cost of
this program is fully covered by Google.
• Classes on a variety of subjects from estate planning and home
purchasing to foreign language lessons in French, Spanish, Japanese and
Mandarin.
• Google offers a Global Education Leave Program for Googlers who wish
to take a leave of absence to pursue further education on a full-time
basis. The education leave can be up to a maximum of 5 years and the
reimbursement may be up to a maximum of $150,000. The education
leave program is a new program that was just announced in 2006 and
already has a few employees who are utilizing the program.
 Developing: (iii)
Performance Appraisal

Sharing
Measuring
performance
job performance
feedback

Performance appraisal is …
The process of observing and evaluating an employee’s
performance, recording the assessment and providing
feedback.
 Developing:
(iii) Performance Appraisal
Assessing performance using multidimensional ratings:
– 360-degree feedback: uses multiple raters, - include
supervisors, co-workers and customers, as well as the
individual, to provide appraisal of the employee from a
variety of perspectives.
– Performance review ranking systems: evaluates
employees by pitting them against one another.
– Behaviourally anchored scale: uses specific descriptions
of actual behaviors to rate various levels of performance
– Note: Important to avoid stereotyping and halo effects
 stereotyping occurs when a rater places an employee into a class
or category based on one or a few traits or characteristics
 halo error occurs when an employee receives the same rating on
all dimensions of the job even if performance is good on some
dimensions and not good on others
Example of a behaviorally anchored rating scale
for performance appraisal
Campling et al., 2008 Figure 12.4
Maintaining a Quality Workforce
 Career development
- Involves employers structuring the career progress
of their employees
 Work-life balance
- Involves balancing career demands and personal
and family needs
 Compensation and benefits
- Salary and non-monetary compensation paid to an
individual
 Retention and turnover
- Involves taking steps to deal with replacement
decisions such as management of promotions,
transfers, terminations, lay-offs and retirements
 Job Design: specialized jobs; job rotation, job
enlargement, job enrichment via Job-Characteristics
Model (JCM)
 Compensation

Compensation Employment
Decisions benefits
(Financial) (non-financial)

Job evaluation determines the worth of each job by

determining the market value of the knowledge, skills and
requirements needed to perform it. After conducting a job
evaluation, most companies try to pay the ‘going rate’, meaning
the current market wage. Employees can also receive benefits
by commission, profit sharing and stock options.
Employee separations: loss of
employees for any reason
Downsizing:
Planned
Terminations
elimination
Of jobs

Turnover ;leave
Retirements voluntarily

Because employee separations affect recruiting, selection,

training and compensation, organizations should forecast the
number of employees they expect to lose through terminations.
 Job design:
the number, kind and variety of tasks that individual workers
perform in doing their jobs.

Job
characteristics
model (JCM):
normative
approach to job
enrichment:
looks at the tasks
of jobs

How to design types of jobs that will keep employees

motivated in the job?
 Types of Job Designs
Job Specialization
Focusing one's occupational
concentration on a specific
area of expertise
Not much expansion in scope
or responsibility of the job of
employees; boring &
repetitive
Influences their productivity
tremendously but make them
less flexible to perform other
types of work that fall outside
their particular speciality.
Poor motivation
Example: assembly line in
manufacturing like in Ford
Motors
Job Enlargement Job Enrichment
Aligning various tasks & extra Increasing the responsibility,
duties to the job of employees scope & challenge of the job
of employees
Horizontal expansion of a job: Vertical expansion which
additional of extra duties & involves an expansion of
tasks functions & responsibilities of
employees
Positively influences the Motivating and positively
productivity of workers. influence performance of
Slight increase in motivation workers
Example: . a receptionist Example : empowering
tasked with filling up customer service staff to have
employment visa forms some authority to make
payments without seeking for
supervisory approval
What about Job Characteristics Model
(JCM) in job enrichment?

• Let’s take a quick look in this clip and answer a

few questions:
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukzSIKYUY6c
Job Characteristics Model (JCM)
By Hackman & Oldham
A job redesign approach that seeks to
motivate workers & lead to positive
work outcome looking at nature of the
tasks.
Identifies five core job characteristics
Internal work motivation :
and their relationship to personal and
comes from the job itself rather
work outcomes than from outside rewards,
Emphasizes internal work motivation: such as a raise or praise from
the boss. If workers feel that
- experience work as meaningful
performing the job well is itself
- experience responsibility for work rewarding, then the job has
outcomes internal motivation.
- knowledge of results
- Characterized by high general job
satisfaction & high work effectiveness
 Job Characteristics Model
All jobs have 5 core dimensions/characteristics that predict job
satisfaction

Skill variety

Feedback
Task identity

Task significance
Autonomy
 Job Characteristics Model

1. Skill variety – degree to which job requires a variety of different

activities so that they can use a number of skills & talent
2. Task identity – degree to which job requires completion of a whole
& identifiable piece of work
3. Task significance- degree to which job has a substantial impact on
the lives or work of other people
4. Autonomy – degree to which job provides substantial freedom,
independence & discretion for individual to schedule the work &
determine procedures in carrying it out
5. Feedback – degree to which the individual obtains direct & clear
info about the effectiveness of his/her performance
Among employees with strong growth needs, jobs that score high on
these five core dimensions lead to high employee performance and
satisfaction.
 Examples of High and
Low Job Characteristics
Characteristics Examples

Skill Variety
 High variety • The owner-operator of a garage who does electrical repair, rebuilds
engines, does body work, and interacts with customers
 Low variety • A body shop worker who sprays paint eight hours a day

Task Identity
 High identity • A cabinetmaker who designs a piece of furniture, selects the wood, builds the
object, and finishes it to perfection
 Low identity • A worker in a furniture factory who operates a lathe to make table legs

Task Significance
 High significance • Nursing the sick in a hospital intensive care unit
 Low significance • Sweeping hospital floors

Autonomy
 High autonomy • A telephone installer who schedules his or her own work for the day, and
decides on the best techniques for a particular installation
• A telephone operator who must handle calls as they come according to a
 Low autonomy routine, highly specified procedure
Feedback
 High feedback • An electronics factory worker who assembles a radio and then tests it to
determine if it operates properly
• An electronics factory worker who assembles a radio and then routes it to a
 Low feedback quality control inspector who tests and adjusts it
 Job Characteristics Model: 3
Psychological States

 The 5 characteristics in the JCM directly affect three

psychological states (motivation condition) of employees:
Experienced Meaningfulness of work: the greater the demand
on his/her skills, the easier employee identifies with the task and
when task has high importance on those around him/her and to
society. This state refers directly to the first 3 characteristics of
the JCM
Experienced responsibility for results/outcomes of work: given
freedom to perform the task. Relates to autonomy in the JCM.
Knowledge of results: by gathering information from feedback
provided
 The higher the psychological states experienced by
employees, the more positive the personal and work outcomes
resulting in increased motivation, performance, and job
satisfaction.
Job Characteristics Model: 3
Psychological States
Implications for Managers

In order to motivate employees, there is a need to:

– Recognise individual differences
– Create the right job for employees
– Use feedback
– Allow employees to participate in decisions that
affect them
– Link rewards to performance
– Empower employees
 Attempt the mcqs in Quiz 8 to test your
knowledge and application of this week’s lecture