Wednesday, April 25, 2012

strategic management and performance management related helping structures

strategic management and performance management related helping structures




















Human resource management definition and images


Human resource management
 (HRM, or simply HR) is the management of an organization'sworkforce, or human resources. It is responsible for the attraction, selection, training, assessment, and rewarding of employees, while also overseeing organizational leadership and culture, and ensuring compliance with employment and labor laws. In circumstances where employees desire and are legally authorized to hold a collective bargaining agreement, HR will typically also serve as the company's primary liaison with the employees' representatives (usually a labor union).
HR is a product of the human relations movement of the early 20th century, when researchers began documenting ways of creating business value through the strategic management of the workforce. The function was initially dominated by transactional work such as payroll and benefitsadministration, but due to globalization, company consolidation, technological advancement, and further research, HR now focuses on strategic initiatives like mergers and acquisitions, talent management, succession planning, industrial and labor relations, and diversity and inclusion.
but images are different 






Monday, November 21, 2011

Compensation Management - Meaning

“If you pick the right people and give them the opportunity to spread their wings - and put compensation and rewards as a carrier behind it - you almost don’t have to manage them.”
Jack Welch
Most of us would have heard the term “compensation” in the context of getting paid for the work that we do. The work can be as part of full time engagement or part time in nature. What is common to them is that the “reward” that we get for expending our energy not to mention the time is that we are compensated for it.
From the perspective of the employers, the money that they pay to the employees in return for the work that they do is something that they need to plan for in an elaborate and systematic manner. Unless the employer and the employee are in broad agreement (We use the term broad agreement as in many cases, significant differences in perception about the employee’s worth exist between the two sides), the net result is dissatisfaction from the employee’s perspective and friction in the relationship.
It can be said that compensation is the “glue” that binds the employee and the employer together and in the organized sector, this is further codified in the form of a contract or a mutually binding legal document that spells out exactly how much should be paid to the employee and the components of the compensation package. Since, this article is intended to be an introduction to compensation management, the art and science of arriving at the right compensation makes all the difference between a satisfied employee and a disgruntled employee.
Though Maslow’s Need Hierarchy Theory talks about compensation being at the middle to lower rung of the pyramid and the other factors like job satisfaction and fulfilment being at the top, for a majority of employees, getting the right compensation is by itself a motivating factor. Hence, employers need to quantify the employee’s contribution in a proper manner if they are to get the best out of the employee. The provision of monetary value in exchange for work performed forms the basis of compensation and how this is managed using processes, procedures and systems form the basis of compensation management.
As the module progresses, readers would be introduced to other aspects of compensation management like the components of compensation management, types of compensation, inclusion of variable pay, the use of Employee Stock Options etc. The aspect of how skewed compensation management leads to higher attrition is discussed as well. This aspect is important as studies have shown that a majority of the employees who quit companies give inadequate or skewed compensation as the reason for their exit. Hence, compensation management is something that companies must take seriously if they are to achieve a competitive advantage in the market for talent.
Considering that the current trend in many sectors (particularly the knowledge intensive sectors like IT and Services) is to treat the employees as “creators and drivers of value” rather than one more factor of production, companies around the world are paying close attention to how much they pay, the kind of components that this pay includes and whether they are offering competitive compensation to attract the best talent. In concluding this article, it is pertinent to take a look at what Jack Welch had to say in this regard: As the quote (mentioned at the beginning of this article) says, if the right compensation along with the right kind of opportunities are made available to people by the firms in which they work, then work becomes a pleasure and the manager’s task made simpler leading to all round benefits for the employee as well as the employer.
source website is


http://www.managementstudyguide.com/compensation-management.htm
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more concepts about Compensation Management is

Compensation Management
The typical global enterprise still relies on spreadsheets or outdated legacy software systems to manage compensation, which leads to inconsistency in how compensation policies and plans are created, implemented, and measured. The fragmentation of compensation management within many organizations can result in poor decisions based on inaccurate or out-of-date information, inefficient and costly systems for rollups and approvals, and an inability to align compensation decisions to the performance of individuals and groups.
SumTotal Compensation Management simplifies and standardizes the planning, modeling, budgeting, analysis, and execution of global compensation and reward policies. Built on the industry’s most complete talent platform, SumTotal Compensation Management enables you to:
  • Achieve global compensation visibility by replacing spreadsheets and legacy systems with a flexible, centralized, and modern compensation system
  • Build a culture of high performers by aligning performance, goals, and rewards across an entire organization
  • Reduce the cost and complexity of compensation administration by optimizing rollups, exception handling, and approvals
source website is
http://www.sumtotalsystems.com/products/compensation-management.html
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Monday, November 14, 2011

Selection Process is One of the Most Important Function in Human Resource Management


The Recruitment and Selection Process is one of the basic HR Processes. Recruitment and Selection is very sensitive as many managers have a need to hire a new employee and this process is always under a strict monitoring from their side.

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Selection Process  have some Important Characteristics

Based on objective criteria, the management team selects top performers in a given position. The top performing employees are assessed on their mental ability, behavioral traits and occupational interest, which include the following 20 core characteristics:

- Learning index

- Verbal skill

- Verbal reasoning

- Numerical ability

- Numeric reasoning

- Energy level

- Assertiveness

- Sociability

- Manageability

- Attitude

- Decisiveness

- Accommodating

- Independence

- Objective judgment

- Enterprising

- Financial

- People service

- Creative

- Technical

- Mechanical
 This data is used to create a unique job fit profile that lays the foundation for the skills and characteristics required by your company for screening and hiring talented people.
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Another is

Selection Process In Hrm

The selection process consists of various steps. At each stage facts may come to light which may lead to rejection of the applicant. Steps involved in the selection are: -application
* Preliminary interview: - Initial screening is done to weed out totally undesirable/unqualified candidates at the outset. It is essentially a sorting process in which prospective candidates are given necessary information about the nature of the job and the organization.

* Application blank: - Application form is a traditional and widely used device for collecting information from candidates. The application form should provide all the information relevant to selection.
* Selection test: - Psychological are being increasingly used in employee selection. A test is sample of some aspects of an individual’s attitude, behavior and performance. It also provides systematic basis fro comparing the behavior, performance and attitudes of two persons.

* Employment interview: - An interview is a conversation between two persons. In selection it involves a personal, observational and face to face appraisal of candidates for employment.

* Medical examination: - Applicants who have crossed the above stages are sent for a physical examination either to the company’s physician or to a medical officer approved for the purpose.

* Reference checks: - The applicant is asked to mention in his application form the names and addresses of two or three persons who know him well.

* Final approval: - The shortlisted candidates by the department are finally approved by the executives of the concerned department. Employment is offered in the form of appointment letter mentioning the post, the rank, the grade, the date by which the candidate should join and other terms and conditions in brief.

source file is
http://www.oppapers.com/essays/Selection-Process-In-Hrm/486505

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Definition for recruitment, selection and training.

Recruitment refers to the process of attracting, screening, and selecting qualified people for a job. For some components of the recruitment process, mid- and large-size organizations often retain professional recruiters or outsource some of the process to recruitment agencies.
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Recruitment is the process of identifying that the organisation needs to employ someone up to the point at which application forms for the post have arrived at the organisation. Selection then consists of the processes involved in choosing from applicants a suitable candidate to fill a post. Training consists of a range of processes involved in making sure that job holders have the right skills, knowledge and attitudes required to help the organisation to achieve its objectives. Recruiting individuals to fill particular posts within a business can be done either internally by recruitment within the firm, or externally by recruiting people from outside.

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What is Recruitment?


recruitment is the process of attracting qualified 
applicants for a specific job. the process begins when 
applications are brought in and ends when the same is 
finished. the result is a pool of applicants, from where 
the appropriate candidate can be selected.

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Manage Recruitment and Staffing in Your Organization


 Recruitment and staffing provide the overall framework for the process of planning, recruiting, selecting, and hiring employees. The goal of recruitment and staffing is to identify the smartest, most versatile employees you can find. Retention of your best employees starts with your effective recruitment and staffing process, strategies, policies and procedures. Recruitment and staffing are the focus of these resources.

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Recruitment process outsourcing

Recruitment Process Outsourcing is a form of business process outsourcing (BPO) where an employer outsources or transfers all or part of its recruitment activities to an external service provider.
The Recruitment Process Outsourcing Association defines RPO as follows: "when a provider acts as a company's internal recruitment function for a portion or all of its jobs. RPO providers manage the entire recruiting/hiring process from job profiling through the onboarding of the new hire, including staff, technology, method and reporting. A properly managed RPO will improve a company's time to hire, increase the quality of the candidate pool, provide verifiable metrics, reduce cost and improve governmental compliance.

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www.ik20.com

Source websites are
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recruitment
http://www.cssforum.com.pk/css-optional-subjects/group/business-administration/16400-what-recruitment-selection-training.html
http://www.allinterview.com/showanswers/1515.html
http://humanresources.about.com/od/recruitingandstaffing/Employee_Planning_Recruiting_Selecting_Staffing_and_Hiring.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recruitment_process_outsourcing


Monday, September 26, 2011

Human Resource Management Definition

Human Resource Management (HRM) is the function within an organization that focuses on recruitment of, management of, and providing direction for the people who work in the organization. Human Resource Management can also be performed by line managers.
Human Resource Management is the organizational function that deals with issues related to people such as compensation, hiring, performance management, organization development, safety, wellness, benefits, employee motivation, communication, administration, and training.
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Monday, June 27, 2011

Human Resource Development Different point of View

As technology is permeating our personal and professional lives, it is also having an enormous impact on the field of human resource development (HRD). Virtual HRD (VHRD) has recently emerged as a new area of inquiry in the field and is driving a paradigm shift necessitating new skills, policies and theories as we move forward.

This webcast will highlight a recent issue of Advances in Developing Human Resources, (December, 2010) on Virtual Human Resource Development (VHRD).





Human resources is a term used to describe the individuals who make up the workforce of an organization, although it is also applied in labor economics to, for example, business sectors or even whole nations. Human resources is also the name of the function within an organization charged with the overall responsibility for implementing strategies and policies relating to the management of individuals (i.e. the human resources). This function title is often abbreviated to the initials "HR".

Human resources is a relatively modern management term, coined as late as the 1960s. The origins of the function arose in organizations that introduced 'welfare management' practices and also in those that adopted the principles of 'scientific management'. From these terms emerged a largely administrative management activity, coordinating a range of worker related processes and becoming known, in time, as the 'personnel function'. Human resources progressively became the more usual name for this function, in the first instance in the United States as well as multinational or international corporations, reflecting the adoption of a more quantitative as well as strategic approach to workforce management, demanded by corporate management to gain a competitive advantage, utilizing limited skilled and highly skilled workers.

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Key Functions of Human Resources

Human Resource Management functions described as:

1.
Manpower Planning: The HR considers the actual requirement of the staff for the organization. Because the overstaffing is wasteful and expensive, and understaffing leads to loses of the organization economics and profits.

2.
Employee selection: Selection of employees for the suitable job.

3
Employees motivating: Motivating employees and encourage them to give their best in work productivity. Providing financial rewards to the staff.

4.
Employees relation: Keeping a healthy relationship with the employees and their problems are redressed.

5. Payroll module: Payment of salaries and wages to the workers at the proper time.

friends links are source is
www.abouthr.com/blog/human-resources/

HR Functions

HR Other Functions

Performance Appraisals


Once a talented individual is brought into an organization, another function of HRM comes into play—creating an environment that will motivate and reward exemplary performance. One way to assess performance is through a formal review on a periodic basis, generally annually, known as a performance appraisal or performance evaluation. Because line managers are in daily contact with the employees and can best measure performance, they are usually the ones who conduct the appraisals. Other evaluators of the employee's performance can include subordinates, peers, group, and self, or a combination of one or more (Mondy and Noe, 1996).


Just as there can be different performance evaluators, depending on the job, several appraisal systems can be used. Some of the popular appraisal methods include (1) ranking of all employees in a group; (2) using rating scales to define above-average, average, and below-average performance; (3) recording favorable and unfavorable performance, known as critical incidents; and (4) managing by objectives, or MBO (Mondy and Noe, 1996).


Cherrington (1995) illustrates how performance appraisals serve several purposes, including:(1) guiding human resource actions such as hiring, firing, and promoting; (2) rewarding employees through bonuses, promotions, and so on;(3) providing feedback and noting areas of improvement; (4) identifying training and development needs in order to improve the individual's performance on the job; and (5) providing job related data useful in human resource planning.


Compensation and Benefits


Compensation (payment in the form of hourly wages or annual salaries) and benefits (insurance, pensions, vacation, modified workweek, sick days, stock options, etc.) can be a catch-22 because an employee's performance can be influenced by compensation and benefits, and vice versa. In the ideal situation, employees feel they are paid what they are worth, are rewarded with sufficient benefits, and receive some intrinsic satisfaction (good work environment, interesting work, etc.). Compensation should be legal and ethical, adequate, motivating, fair and equitable, cost-effective, and able to provide employment security (Cherrington, 1995).


Training and Development


Performance appraisals not only assist in determining compensation and benefits, but they are also instrumental in identifying ways to help individuals improve their current positions and prepare for future opportunities. As the structure of organizations continues to change—through downsizing or expansion—the need for training and development programs continues to grow. Improving or obtaining new skills is part of another area of HRM, known as training and development.


"Training focuses on learning the skills, knowledge, and attitudes required to initially perform a job or task or to improve upon the performance of a current job or task, while development activities are not job related, but concentrate on broadening the employee's horizons" (Nadler and Wiggs, 1986, p. 5). Education, which focuses on learning new skills, knowledge, and attitudes to be used in future work, also deserves mention (Nadler and Wiggs, 1986).


Because the focus is on the current job, only training and development will be discussed. Training can be used in a variety of ways, including (1) orienting and informing employees, (2) developing desired skills, (3) preventing accidents through safety training, (4) supplying professional and technical education, and (5) providing supervisory training and executive education (Cherrington, 1995).


Each of the training methods mentioned has benefits to the individual as well as to the organization. Some of the benefits are reducing the learning time for new hires, teaching employees how to use new or updated technology, decreasing the number and cost of accidents because employees know how to operate a machine properly, providing better customer service, improving quality and quantity of productivity, and obtaining management involvement in the training process (Cherrington, 1995). When managers go through the training, they are showing others that they are taking the goals of training seriously and are committed to the importance of human resource development.


The type of training depends on the material to be learned, the length of time learners have, and the financial resources available. One type is instructor-led training, which generally allows participants to see a demonstration and to work with the product first-hand. On-the-job training and apprenticeships let participants acquire new skills as they continue to perform various aspects of the job. Computer-based training (CBT) provides learners at various geographic locations access to material to be learned at convenient times and locations. Simulation exercises give participants a chance to learn outcomes of choices in a nonthreatening environment before applying the concept to real situations.


Training focuses on the current job, while development concentrates on providing activities to help employees expand their current knowledge and to allow for growth. Types of development opportunities include mentoring, career counseling, management and supervisory development, and job training (Cherrington, 1995).


Employee & Labor Relations


Just as human resource developers make sure employees have proper training, there are groups of employees organized as unions to address and resolve employment-related issues. Unions have been around since the time of the American Revolution (Mondy and Noe, 1996). Those who join unions usually do so for one or both of two reasons— to increase wages and/or to eliminate unfair conditions. Some of the outcomes of union involvement include better medical plans, extended vacation time, and increased wages (Cherrington, 1995).


Today, unions remain a controversial topic. Under the provisions of the Taft-Hartley Act, the closed-shop arrangement states employees (outside the construction industry) are not required to join a union when they are hired. Union-shop arrangements permit employers to hire non-union workers contingent upon their joining the union once they are hired. The Taft-Hartley Act gives employers the right to file unfair labor practice complaints against the union and to express their views concerning unions (Cherrington, 1995).


Not only do HR managers deal with union organizations, but they are also responsible for resolving collective bargaining issues—namely, the contract. The contract defines employment related issues such as compensation and benefits, working conditions, job security, discipline procedures, individuals' rights, management's rights, and contract length. Collective bargaining involves management and the union trying to resolve any issues peacefully—before the union finds it necessary to strike or picket and/or management decides to institute a lockout (Cherrington, 1995).


Safety and Health



Not only must an organization see to it that employees' rights are not violated, but it must also provide a safe and healthy working environment. Mondy and Noe (1996) define safety as "protecting employees from injuries caused by work-related accidents" and health as keeping "employees free from physical or emotional illness" (p. 432). In order to prevent injury or illness, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was created in 1970. Through workplace inspections, citations and penalties, and on-site consultations, OSHA seeks to enhance safety and health and to decrease accidents, which lead to decreased productivity and increased operating costs (Cherrington, 1995).


Health problems recognized in the workplace can include the effects of smoking, alcohol and drug/substance abuse, AIDS, stress, and burnout. Through employee assistance programs (EAPs), employees with emotional difficulties are given "the same consideration and assistance" as those employees with physical illnesses (Mondy and Noe, 1996, p. 455).


Human Resource Research



In addition to recognizing workplace hazards, organizations are responsible for tracking safety- and health-related issues and reporting those statistics to the appropriate sources. The human resources department seems to be the storehouse for maintaining the history of the organization— everything from studying a department's high turnover or knowing the number of people presently employed, to generating statistics on the percentages of women, minorities, and other demographic characteristics. Data for the research can be gathered from a number of sources, including surveys/questionnaires, observations, interviews, and case studies (Cherrington, 1995). This research better enables organizations to predict cyclical trends and to properly recruit and select employees.


Conclusion


Research is part of all the other six functions of human resource management. With the number of organizations participating in some form of international business, the need for HRM research will only continue to grow. Therefore, it is important for human resource professionals to be up to date on the latest trends in staffing, performance appraisals, compensation and benefits, training and development, employee and labor relations, and safety and health issues— both in the United States and in the global market.


One professional organization that provides statistics to human resource managers is the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), the largest professional organization for human resource management professionals. Much of the research conducted within organizations is sent to SHRM to be used for compiling international statistics.




Bibliography


Cherrington, David J. (1995). The Management of Human Resources. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Mondy, R. Wayne, and Noe, Robert M. (1996). Human Resource Management. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Nadler, Leonard, and Wiggs, Garland D. (1986). Managing Human Resource Development. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.





Source:
http://bbamba.info/Articles/HR/HR-Functions.html
http://www.answers.com/topic/human-resource-management?cat=biz-fin

HR Functions

First HR Function is

Staffing


Both the job description and the job specification are useful tools for the staffing process, the first of the seven HR functions to be discussed. Someone (e.g., a department manager) or some event (e.g., an employee's leaving) within the organization usually determines a need to hire a new employee. In large organizations, an employee requisition must be submitted to the HR department that specifies the job title, the department, and the date the employee is needed. From there, the job description can be referenced for specific job related qualifications to provide more detail when advertising the position—either internally, externally, or both (Mondy and Noe, 1996).


Not only must the HR department attract qualified applicants through job postings or other forms of advertising, but it also assists in screening candidates' resumes and bringing those with the proper qualifications in for an interview. The final say in selecting the candidate will probably be the line manager's, assuming all Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) requirements are met. Other ongoing staffing responsibilities involve planning for new or changing positions and reviewing current job analysis and job descriptions to make sure they accurately reflect the current position.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Human resources basic

Human resources is a term used to describe the individuals who make up the workforce of an organization, although it is also applied in labor economics to, for example, business sectors or even whole nations. Human resources is also the name of the function within an organization charged with the overall responsibility for implementing strategies and policies relating to the management of individuals (i.e. the human resources). This function title is often abbreviated to the initials "HR".
Also see these website for Information
www.techcedo.com
www.worldnewsbreak.com

Human resources is a relatively modern management term, coined as late as the 1960s. The origins of the function arose in organizations that introduced 'welfare management' practices and also in those that adopted the principles of 'scientific management'. From these terms emerged a largely administrative management activity, coordinating a range of worker related processes and becoming known, in time, as the 'personnel function'. Human resources progressively became the more usual name for this function, in the first instance in the United States as well as multinational or international corporations, reflecting the adoption of a more quantitative as well as strategic approach to workforce management, demanded by corporate management to gain a competitive advantage, utilizing limited skilled and highly skilled workers.
Contents


1 Human resources purpose and role
1.1 Key functions
2 Human resources management trends and influences
2.1 Major trends
2.2 Individual responses
2.3 Framework
2.4 Structure
2.5 Training and development
2.6 Recruitment and selection
3 Other considerations
3.1 Trans-national labor mobility
3.2 Ethical management
4 See also
5 References

Human resources purpose and role

In simple terms, an organization's human resource management strategy should maximize return on investment in the organization's human capital and minimize financial risk.

Human resource managers seek to achieve this by aligning the supply of skilled and qualified individuals and the capabilities of the current workforce, with the organization's ongoing and future business plans and requirements to maximize return on investment and secure future survival and success.

In ensuring such objectives are achieved, the human resource function is to implement an organization's human resource requirements effectively, taking into account federal, state and local labor laws and regulations; ethical business practices; and net cost, in a manner that maximizes, as far as possible, employee motivation, commitment and productivity.
Key functions

Human Resources may set strategies and develop policies, standards, systems, and processes that implement these strategies in a whole range of areas. The following are typical of a wide range of organizations:
Also see these website for Information
www.techcedo.com
www.worldnewsbreak.com

* Maintaining awareness of and compliance with local, state and federal labor laws
* Recruitment, selection, and on boarding (resourcing)
* Employee recordkeeping and confidentiality
* Organizational design and development
* Business transformation and change management
* Performance, conduct and behavior management
* Industrial and employee relations
* Human resources (workforce) analysis and workforce personnel data management
* Compensation and employee benefit management
* Training and development (learning management)
* Employee motivation and morale-building (employee retention and loyalty)

Implementation of such policies, processes or standards may be directly managed by the HR function itself, or the function may indirectly supervise the implementation of such activities by managers, other business functions or via third-party external partner organizations. Applicable legal issues, such as the potential for disparate treatment and disparate impact, are also extremely important to HR managers.
Human resources management trends and influences
This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this section if you can. The talk page may contain suggestions. (March 2010)

In organizations, it is important to determine both current and future organizational requirements for both core employees and the contingent workforce in terms of their skills/technical abilities, competencies, flexibility etc. The analysis requires consideration of the internal and external factors that can have an effect on the resourcing, development, motivation and retention of employees and other workers.

External factors are those largely outside the control of the organization. These include issues such as economic climate and current and future labor market trends (e.g., skills, education level, government investment into industries etc.). On the other hand, internal influences are broadly controlled by the organization to predict, determine, and monitor—for example—the organizational culture, underpinned by management style, environmental climate, and the approach to ethical and corporate social responsibilities.
Major trends

To know the business environment an organization operates in, three major trends must be considered:

1. Demographics: the characteristics of a population/workforce, for example, age, gender or social class. This type of trend may have an effect in relation to pension offerings, insurance packages etc.
2. Diversity: the variation within the population/workplace. Changes in society now mean that a larger proportion of organizations are made up of "baby-boomers" or older employees in comparison to thirty years ago. Advocates of "workplace diversity" simply advocate an employee base that is a mirror reflection of the make-up of society insofar as race, gender, sexual orientation etc.
3. Skills and qualifications: as industries move from manual to more managerial professions so does the need for more highly skilled graduates. If the market is "tight" (i.e. not enough staff for the jobs), employers must compete for employees by offering financial rewards, community investment, etc.

Individual responses

In regard to how individuals respond to the changes in a labor market, the following must be understood:

* Geographical spread: how far is the job from the individual? The distance to travel to work should be in line with the pay offered, and the transportation and infrastructure of the area also influence who applies for a post.
* Occupational structure: the norms and values of the different careers within an organization. Mahoney 1989 developed 3 different types of occupational structure, namely, craft (loyalty to the profession), organization career (promotion through the firm) and unstructured (lower/unskilled workers who work when needed).
* Generational difference: different age categories of employees have certain characteristics, for example, their behavior and their expectations of the organization.

Framework

Human Resources Development is a framework for the expansion of human capital within an organization or (in new approaches) a municipality, region, or nation. Human Resources Development is a combination of training and education, in a broad context of adequate health and employment policies, that ensures the continual improvement and growth of both the individual, the organization, and the national human resourcefulness. Adam Smith states, “The capacities of individuals depended on their access to education”. Human Resources Development is the medium that drives the process between training and learning in a broadly fostering environment. Human Resources Development is not a defined object, but a series of organised processes, “with a specific learning objective” (Nadler,1984) Within a national context, it becomes a strategic approach to inter sectoral linkages between health, education and employment.
Structure

Human Resources Development is the structure that allows for individual development, potentially satisfying the organization's, or the nation's goals. Development of the individual benefits the individual, the organization—and the nation and its citizens. In the corporate vision, the Human Resources Development framework views employees as an asset to the enterprise, whose value is enhanced by development, "Its primary focus is on growth and employee development…it emphasizes developing individual potential and skills" (Elwood, Olton and Trott 1996) Human Resources Development in this treatment can be in-room group training, tertiary or vocational courses or mentoring and coaching by senior employees with the aim for a desired outcome that develops the individual's performance. At the level of a national strategy, it can be a broad inter-sectoral approach to fostering creative contributions to national productivity.
Training and development

At the organizational level, a successful Human Resources Development program prepares the individual to undertake a higher level of work, "organized learning over a given period of time, to provide the possibility of performance change" (Nadler 1984). In these settings, Human Resources Development is the framework that focuses on the organization's competencies at the first stage, training, and then developing the employee, through education, to satisfy the organization's long-term needs and the individual's career goals and employee value to their present and future employers. Human Resources Development can be defined simply as developing the most important section of any business, its human resource, by attaining or upgrading employee skills and attitudes at all levels to maximize enterprise effectiveness. The people within an organization are its human resource. Human Resources Development from a business perspective is not entirely focused on the individual's growth and development; "development occurs to enhance the organization's value, not solely for individual improvement. Individual education and development is a tool and a means to an end, not the end goal itself" (Elwood F. Holton II, James W. Trott Jr). The broader concept of national and more strategic attention to the development of human resources is beginning to emerge as newly independent countries face strong competition for their skilled professionals and the accompanying brain-drain they experience.

Recruitment and selection

Applicant recruitment and employee selection form a major part of an organization's overall resourcing strategies, which identify and secure people needed for the organization to survive and succeed in the short- to medium-term. Recruitment activities need to be responsive to the increasingly competitive market to secure suitably qualified and capable recruits at all levels. To be effective, these initiatives need to include how and when to source the best recruits, internally or externally. Common to the success of either are: well-defined organizational structures with sound job design, robust task and person specification and versatile selection processes, reward, employment relations and human resource policies, underpinned by a commitment for strong employer branding and employee engagement and onboarding strategies.

Internal recruitment can provide the most cost-effective source for recruits if the potential of the existing pool of employees has been enhanced through training, development and other performance-enhancing activities such as performance appraisal, succession planning and development centres to review performance and assess employee development needs and promotional potential.

Increasingly, securing the best quality candidates for almost all organizations relies, at least occasionally if not substantially, on external recruitment methods. Rapidly changing business models demand skill and experience that cannot be sourced or rapidly enough developed from the existing employee base. It would be unusual for an organization to undertake all aspects of the recruitment process without support from third-party dedicated recruitment firms. This may involve a range of support services, such as: provision of CVs or resumes, identifying recruitment media, advertisement design and media placement for job vacancies, candidate response handling, shortlisting, conducting aptitude testing, preliminary interviews or reference and qualification verification. Typically, small organizations may not have in-house resources or, in common with larger organizations, may not possess the particular skill-set required to undertake a specific recruitment assignment. Where requirements arise, these are referred on an ad hoc basis to government job centres or commercially-run employment agencies.

Except in sectors where high-volume recruitment is the norm, an organization faced with sudden, unexpected requirements for an unusually large number of new recruits often delegates the task to a specialist external recruiter. Sourcing executive-level and senior management as well as the acquisition of scarce or ‘high-potential’ recruits has been a long-established market serviced by a wide range of ‘search and selection’ or ‘headhunting’ consultancies, which typically form long-standing relationships with their client organizations. Finally, certain organizations with sophisticated HR practices have identified a strategic advantage in outsourcing complete responsibility for all workforce procurement to one or more third-party recruitment agencies or consultancies. In the most sophisticated of these arrangements the external recruitment services provider may not only physically locate, or ‘embed’, their resourcing team(s) in the client organization's offices, but work in tandem with the senior human resource management team in developing the longer-term HR resourcing strategy and plan.
Other considerations

Despite its more everyday use, terms such as "human resources" and, similarly, "human capital" continue to be perceived negatively and may be considered insulting. They create the impression that people are merely commodities, like office machines or vehicles, despite assurances to the contrary.

Modern analysis emphasizes that human beings are not "commodities" or "resources", but are creative and social beings in a productive enterprise. The 2000 revision of ISO 9001, in contrast, requires identifying the processes, their sequence and interaction, and to define and communicate responsibilities and authorities. In general, heavily unionised nations such as France and Germany have adopted and encouraged such approaches. Also, in 2001, the International Labour Organization decided to revisit and revise its 1975 Recommendation 150 on Human Resources Development. One view of these trends is that a strong social consensus on political economy and a good social welfare system facilitates labor mobility and tends to make the entire economy more productive, as labor can develop skills and experience in various ways, and move from one enterprise to another with little controversy or difficulty in adapting. Another view is that governments should become more aware of their national role in facilitating human resources development across all sectors. which includes following[citation needed]
Trans-national labor mobility

An important controversy regarding labor mobility illustrates the broader philosophical issue with usage of the phrase "human resources". Governments of developing nations often regard developed nations that encourage immigration or "guest workers" as appropriating human capital that is more rightfully part of the developing nation and required to further its economic growth.

Over time, the United Nations have come to more generally support the developing nations' point of view, and have requested significant offsetting "foreign aid" contributions so that a developing nation losing human capital does not lose the capacity to continue to train new people in trades, professions, and the arts.
Ethical management

In the very narrow context of corporate "human resources" management, there is a contrasting pull to reflect and require workplace diversity that echoes the diversity of a global customer base. Such programs require foreign language and culture skills, ingenuity, humor, and careful listening. These indicate a general shift through the human capital point of view to an acknowledgment that human beings contribute more to a productive enterprise than just "work": they bring their character, ethics, creativity, social connections and, in some cases, pets and children, and alter the character of a workplace. The term corporate culture is used to characterize such processes at the organizational level.

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Human resource management

Human resource management (HRM is the strategic and coherent approach to the management of an organization's most valued assets - the people working there who individually and collectively contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the business. The terms "human resource management" and "human resources" (HR) have largely replaced the term "personnel management" as a description of the processes involved in managing people in organizations. In simple words, HRM means employing people, developing their capacities, utilizing, maintaining and compensating their services in tune with the job and organizational requirement.

Human resource management (HRM is the strategic and coherent approach to the management of an

organization's most valued assets - the people working there who individually and collectively

contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the business. The terms "human resource

management" and "human resources" (HR) have largely replaced the term "personnel management" as a

description of the processes involved in managing people in organizations. In simple words, HRM

means employing people, developing their capacities, utilizing, maintaining and compensating

their services in tune with the job and organizational requirement.


* Organizational management

* Personnel administration

* Manpower management

* Industrial management


But these traditional expressions are becoming less common for the theoretical discipline.


Sometimes even employee and industrial relations are confusingly listed as synonyms, although

these normally refer to the relationship between management and workers and the behavior of

workers in companies.


The theoretical discipline is based primarily on the assumption that employees are individuals

with varying goals and needs, and as such should not be thought of as basic business resources,

such as trucks and filing cabinets. The field takes a positive view of workers, assuming that

virtually all wish to contribute to the enterprise productively, and that the main obstacles to

their endeavors are lack of knowledge, insufficient training, and failures of process.


Human Resource Management(HRM) is seen by practitioners in the field as a more innovative view of

workplace management than the traditional approach. Its techniques force the managers of an

enterprise to express their goals with specificity so that they can be understood and undertaken

by the workforce, and to provide the resources needed for them to successfully accomplish their

assignments. As such, HRM techniques, when properly practiced, are expressive of the goals and

operating practices of the enterprise overall. HRM is also seen by many to have a key role in

risk reduction within organisations.


Synonyms such as personnel management are often used in a more restricted sense to describe

activities that are necessary in the recruiting of a workforce, providing its members with

payroll and benefits, and administrating their work-life needs. So if we move to actual

definitions, Torrington and Hall (1987) define personnel management as being:



“a series of activities which: first enable working people and their employing organisations to

agree about the objectives and nature of their working relationship and, secondly, ensures that

the agreement is fulfilled" (p. 49).


While Miller (1987) suggests that HRM relates to:


".......those decisions and actions which concern the management of employees at all levels in

the business and which are related to the implementation of strategies directed towards creating

and sustaining competitive advantage" (p. 352).

[edit] Academic theory


Research in the area of HRM has much to contribute to the organisational practice of HRM. For the

last 20 years, empirical work has paid particular attention to the link between the practice of

HRM and organisational performance, evident in improved employee commitment, lower levels of

absenteeism and turnover, higher levels of skills and therefore higher productivity, enhanced

quality and efficiency . This area of work is sometimes referred to as 'Strategic HRM' or SHRM (.


Within SHRM three strands of work can be observed: Best practice, Best Fit and the Resource Based

View (RBV).


The notion of best practice - sometimes called 'high commitment' HRM - proposes that the adoption

of certain best practices in HRM will result in better organisational performance. Perhaps the

most popular work in this area is that of Pfeffer who argued that there were seven best

practices for achieving competitive advantage through people and 'building profits by putting

people first'. These practices included: providing employment security, selective hiring,

extensive training, sharing information, self-managed teams, high pay based on company

performance and the reduction of status differentials. However, there is a huge number of studies

which provide evidence of best practices, usually implemented in coherent bundles, and therefore

it is difficult to draw generalised conclusions about which is the 'best' way (For a comparison

of different sets of best practices see Becker and Gerhart, 1996


Best fit, or the contingency approach to HRM, argues that HRM improves performance where there is

a close vertical fit between the HRM practices and the company's strategy. This link ensures

close coherence between the HR people processes and policies and the external market or business

strategy. There are a range of theories about the nature of this vertical integration. For

example, a set of 'lifecycle' models argue that HR policies and practices can be mapped onto the

stage of an organisation's development or lifecycle. Competitive advantage models take Porter's

(1985) ideas about strategic choice and map a range of HR practices onto the organisation's

choice of competitive strategy. Finally 'configurational models' provide a more sophisticated

approach which advocates a close examination of the organisation's strategy in order to determine

the appropriate HR policies and practices. However, this approach assumes that the strategy of

the organisation can be identified - many organisations exist in a state of flux and development.


The Resource Based View (RBV), argued by some to be at the foundation of modern HRM , focusses on

the internal resources of the organisation and how they contribute to competitive advantage. The

uniqueness of these resources is preferred to homogeneity and HRM has a central role in

developing human resources that are valuable, rare, difficult to copy or substitute and that are

effectively organised.


Overall, the theory of HRM argues that the goal of human resource management is to help an

organization to meet strategic goals by attracting, and maintaining employees and also to manage

them effectively. The key word here perhaps is "fit", i.e. a HRM approach seeks to ensure a fit

between the management of an organisation's employees, and the overall strategic direction of the

company (Miller, 1989).


The basic premise of the academic theory of HRM is that humans are not machines, therefore we

need to have an interdisciplinary examination of people in the workplace. Fields such as

psychology, industrial relations, industrial engineering, sociology, economics, and critical

theories: postmodernism, post-structuralism play a major role. Many colleges and universities

offer bachelor and master degrees in Human Resources Management or in Human Resources and

Industrial Relations.


One widely used scheme to describe the role of HRM, developed by Dave Ulrich, defines 4 fields

for the HRM function:


* Strategic business partner

* Change Agent

* Employee champion

* Administration Expert


Business practice


Human resources management involves several processes. Together they are supposed to achieve the

above mentioned goal. These processes can be performed in an HR department, but some tasks can

also be outsourced or performed by line-managers or other departments. When effectively

integrated they provide significant economic benefit to the company.


* Workforce planning

* Recruitment (sometimes separated into attraction and selection)

* Induction, Orientation and Onboarding

* Skills management

* Training and development

* Personnel administration

* Compensation in wage or salary

* Time management

* Travel management (sometimes assigned to accounting rather than HRM)

* Payroll (sometimes assigned to accounting rather than HRM)
* Employee benefits administration
* Personnel cost planning
* Performance appraisal
* Labor relations

***HRM strategy*****

An HRM strategy pertains to the means as to how to implement the specific functions of Human

Resourse Management. An organization's HR function may possess recruitment and selection

policies, disciplinary procedures, reward/recognition policies, an HR plan, or learning and

development policies, however all of these functional areas of HRM need to be aligned and

correlated, in order to correspond with the overall business strategy. An HRM strategy thus is an

overall plan, concerning the implementation of specific HRM functional areas.

An HRM strategy typically consists of the following factors:-

**** "Best fit" and "best practice" - meaning that there is correlation between the HRM strategy

and the overall corporate strategy. As HRM as a field seeks to manage human resources in order to

achieve properly organizational goals, an organization's HRM strategy seeks to accomplish such

management by applying a firm's personnel needs with the goals/objectives of the organisation. As

an example, a firm selling cars could have a corporate strategy of increasing car sales by 10%

over a five year period. Accordingly, the HRM strategy would seek to facilitate how exactly to

manage personnel in order to achieve the 10% figure. Specific HRM functions, such as recruitment

and selection, reward/recognition, an HR plan, or learning and development policies, would be

tailored to achieve the corporate objectives.

***** Close co-operation (at least in theory) between HR and the top/senior management, in the

development of the corporate strategy. Theoretically, a senior HR representative should be

present when an organization's corporate objectives are devised. This is so, since it is a firm's

personnel who actually construct a good, or provide a service. The personnel's proper management

is vital in the firm being successful, or even existing as a going concern. Thus, HR can be seen

as one of the critical departments within the functional area of an organization.

***** Continual monitoring of the strategy, via employee feedback, surveys, etc.

The implementation of an HR strategy is not always required, and may depend on a number of

factors, namely the size of the firm, the organizational culture within the firm or the industry

that the firm operates in and also the people in the firm.

An HRM strategy can be divided, in general, into two facets - the people strategy and the HR

functional strategy. The people strategy pertains to the point listed in the first paragraph,

namely the careful correlation of HRM policies/actions to attain the goals laid down in the

corporate strategy. The HR functional strategy relates to the policies employed within the HR

functional area itself, regarding the management of persons internal to it, to ensure its own

departmental goals are met.
[edit] Careers and education
Further information: Graduate degree programs in human resources management
Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations was the world's first school for

college-level study in HRM

Several universities offer programs of study pertaining to HRM and broader fields. Cornell

University created the world's first school for college-level study in HRM (ILR

School).University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign also now has a school dedicated to the study

of HRM, while several business schools also house a center or department dedicated to such

studies; e.g., University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Minnesota, Michigan State

University, Ohio State University, Roosevelt University,and Purdue University.

There are both generalist and specialist HRM jobs. There are careers involved with employment,

recruitment and placement and these are usually conducted by interviewers, EEO (Equal Employment

Opportunity) specialists or college recruiters. Training and development specialism is often

conducted by trainers and orientation specialists. Compensation and benefits tasks are handled by

compensation analysts, salary administrators, and benefits administrators.
Professional organizations

Professional organizations in HRM include the Society for Human Resource Management, the

Australian Human Resources Institute (AHRI), the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development

(CIPD), the International Public Management Association for HR (IPMA-HR), Management Association

of Nepal (MAN) and the International Personnel Management Association of Canada (IPMA-Canada),

Human Capital Institute. National Human Resource Development Network in India.
Functions

The Human Resources Management (HRM) function includes a variety of activities, and key among

them is deciding what staffing needs to have and whether to use independent contractors or hire

employees to fill these needs, recruiting and training the best employees, ensuring they are high

performers, dealing with performance issues, and ensuring your personnel and management practices

conform to various regulations. Activities also include managing your approach to employee

benefits and compensation, employee records and personnel policies. Usually small businesses

(for-profit or nonprofit) have to carry out these activities themselves because they can't yet

afford part- or full-time help. However, they should always ensure that employees have—and are

aware of—personnel policies which conform to current regulations. These policies are often in the

form of employee manuals, which all employees have.

Note that some people distinguish a difference between HRM (a major management activity) and HRD

(Human Resource Development, a profession). Those people might include HRM in HRD, explaining

that HRD includes the broader range of activities to develop personnel inside of organizations,

including, e.g., career development, training, organization development, etc.

There is a long-standing argument about where HR-related functions should be organized into large

organizations, e.g., "should HR be in the Organization Development department or the other way

around?"

The HRM function and HRD profession have undergone major changes over the past 20–30 years. Many

years ago, large organizations looked to the "Personnel Department," mostly to manage the

paperwork around hiring and paying people. More recently, organizations consider the "HR

Department" as playing an important role in staffing, training and helping to manage people so

that people and the organization are performing at maximum capability in a highly fulfilling

manner.

Human Resources Basic

Considering a career in Human Resources? Looking for basic information about Human Resources? Thinking of changing careers? Need human resources career development and career education information? Get an HR occupational outlook. Make this your first stop for Human Resource management and Human Resource career development.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Different Types of Compensation Management?

There are two different types of compensation management: direct and indirect. Compensation is the combination of monetary and other benefits provided to an employee in return for their time and skill. The field of compensation management provides management with the ideal combination of the different remuneration types. The purpose of this type of program is to retain and motivate good employees.

Direct compensation is typically comprised of salary payments and health benefits. The creation of salary ranges and pay scales for different positions within the company are the central responsibility of compensation management staff. The evaluation of the employee and employer portions of benefit costs is an important part of a compensation package.
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Sunday, November 7, 2010

Recruitment Process Steps

Main Recruitment Process Steps

The aim of the HRM Function is keeping the recruitment process design as simple as possible. The HR Recruiters should not forget about this main goal during the design phase of the recruitment process development.

The recruitment process is simple on the high level, but it contains a lot of interaction among different participants in the recruitment process. The HRM Function, the line manager and candidates need to receive and share a lot of information and their interaction is usually the main issue during the recruitment process.

The main steps of the recruitment process are:

1.Job Design
2.Opening Job Position
3.Collecting Job Resumes
4.Preselection of Job Resumes
5.Job Interviews
6.Job Offer
The job design is the most important part of the recruitment process. The job design is a phase about design of the job profile and a clear agreement between the line manager and the HRM Function. The Job Design is about the the agreement about the profile of the ideal job candidate and the agreement about the skills and competencies, which are essential. The information gathered can be used during other steps of the recruitment process to speed it up.

The Opening of the Job Position is generally the job of the HR Recruiter. Skilled and experienced HR Recruiter should decide about the right mix of the recruitment sources to find the best candidates for the job position. This is another key step in the recruitment process.

The next step is collecting of job resumes and their preselection. This step in the recruitment process is very important today as many organization lose a lot of time in this step. Today, the organization cannot wait with the preselection of the job resumes. Generally, this should be the last step done purely by the HRM Function.

The job interviews are the main step in the recruitment process, which should be clearly designed and agreed between HRM and the line management. The job interview should discover the job candidate, who meets the requirements and fits best the corporate culture and the department.

The job offer is the last step of the recruitment process, which is done by the HRM Function, it finalizes all the other steps and the winner of the job interviews gets the offer from the organization to join.source of this recruitment process website is http://hrmadvice.com/hrmadvice/hr-processes/recruitment-and-selection/recruitment-process-design-and-development/main-recruitment-process-steps.html

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Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Human resources

Human resources is a term used to describe the individuals who comprise the workforce of an organization, although it is also applied in labor economics to, for example, business sectors or even whole nations. Human resources is also the name of the function within an organization charged with the overall responsibility for implementing strategies and policies relating to the management of individuals (i.e. the human resources). This function title is often abbreviated to the initials.
"
The term 'human resources' as used in organizations describes the workforce capacity available to devoted to achievement of their objectives. "

The early development of the function can be traced back to at least two distinct movements. One element has its origins in the late 19th century, where organizations such as Cadburys at its Bournville factory recognised the importance of looking after the welfare of the workforce, and their families. The employment of women in factories in the United Kingdom during the First World War lead to the introduction of "Welfare Officers". Meanwhile, in the United States the concept of human resources developed as a reaction to the efficiency focus of Taylorism or "scientific management" in the early 1900s, which developed in response to the demand for ever more efficient working practices within highly mechanised factories, such as in the Ford Motor Company. By 1920, psychologists and employment experts in the United States started the human relations movement, which viewed workers in terms of their psychology and fit with companies, rather than as interchangeable parts.
During the middle of the last century, larger corporations, typically those in the United States that emerged after the Second World War, recruited personnel from the US Military and were able to apply new selection, training, leadership, and management development techniques, originally developed by the Armed Services, working with, for example, university-based occupational psychologists. Similarly, some leading European multinationals, such as Shell and Phillips developed new approaches to personnel development and drew on similar approaches already used in Civil Service training. Gradually, this spread more sophisticated policies and processes that required more central management via a personnel department composed of specialists and generalist teams.
The role of what became known as Human Resources grew throughout the middle of the 20th century. Tensions remained between academics who emphasized either 'soft' or 'hard' HR. Those professing so-called 'soft HR' stressed areas like leadership, cohesion, and loyalty that play important roles in organizational success. Those promoting 'hard HR' championed more quantitatively rigorous management techniques in the 1960s.
In the later part of the last century, both the title and traditional role of the personnel function was progressively superseded by the emergence, at least in larger organizations, of strategic human resources management and sophisticated human resources departments. Initially, this may have involved little more than renaming the function, but where transformation occurred, it became distinguished by the human resources having a more significant influence on the organizations strategic direction and gaining board-level representation.

Human resources purpose and role

In simple terms, an organization's human resource management strategy should maximize return on investment in the organization's human capital and minimize financial risk. Human Resources seeks to achieve this by aligning the supply of skilled and qualified individuals and the capabilities of the current workforce, with the organization's ongoing and future business plans and requirements to maximize return on investment and secure future survival and success. In ensuring such objectives are achieved, the human resource function purpose in this context is to implement the organization's human resource requirements effectively but also pragmatically, taking account of legal, ethical and as far as is practical in a manner that retains the support and respect of the workforce.

Key functions

Human Resources may set strategies and develop policies, standards, systems, and processes that implement these strategies in a whole range of areas. The following are typical of a wide range of organizations:

Recruitment, selection, and onboarding (resourcing)
Organizational design and development
Business transformation and change management
Performance, conduct and behavior management
Industrial and employee relations
Human resources (workforce) analysis and workforce personnel data management
Compensation, rewards, and benefits management
Training and development (learning management)
Implementation of such policies, processes or standards may be directly managed by the HR function itself, or the function may indirectly supervise the implementation of such activities by managers, other business functions or via third-party external partner organizations.


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Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Leadership for Project Managers

LeadershipIn the first half of the 20th century there was a belief that Scientific Management was the new way forward. Scientific Management was the herald of a new era, removing the need for skilled craftsmen, for example on Henry Ford's production lines, and making the factory owners richer. The principle was simple; reduce complicated tasks to a series of simple tasks, each task being performed by a different person. People were treated as machines and doomed to boring, repetitive tasks. But with social changes and world wars, people decided that they wanted to be treated as such, and not as spare parts for a machine, and they insisted on being given rewarding and interesting work. Many psychologists began experimenting in the area of motivation, and eventually began suggesting that there were benefits to be had from leading people, rather than pushing them and punishing them.So how do leaders differ from managers?They say that, a manager "does the thing right", and a leader "does the right thing”. They also say that, “A leader is born, not made,” but none of these statements have much to do with real leadership. Oh sure, most leaders do the right thing most of the time, but what the “right thing” is, and who gets to decide what the right thing is? And who are “they” anyway and how does one get to become one?Doing the "right thing" seems quite a simple concept, but consider for a moment that In times of battle some unlucky leaders have had to sacrifice the lives of a few to save many. If you were the husband, wife, parent or child of one of the sacrificed “few”, would you say the leader did “the right thing”? How now if you were a relative of one of the "many" that was saved? Suddenly "right" and "wrong" don't seem that simple any more.And saying that leaders are “born not made” is a cop-out. It is true that some people are born with natural leadership abilities, but everyone can improve and develop with training and practice.I believe a true leader inspires others to greatness, and they do this through their direct influence. They help others achieve what those individuals thought was impossible for them to do. A project manager who is also a leader can encourage a team to perform much better than a group of individuals can.So in many ways a leader is like a coach, someone who works with you, encourages you and gets the best out of you. It doesn't mean that a leader will never push you or never move you out of your comfort zone. Often it's the reverse; athletes for example employ a coach to do precisely that.Johnny Weissmuller, the star of the early Tarzan movies in the 1930’s and 40’s was a very powerful man. Before he acted Tarzan he was an Olympic swimmer who won five gold medals and three bronze medals in 1924 and 1928, in the 100, 400, and 800-metre freestyle relay. He also won a bronze medal as a member of the U.S. water polo team. Obviously his huge strength gave him a big advantage over his competitors; and yet not so many years later, teenage girls were breaking his records. Obviously they weren’t more powerful than Johnny – the difference was in the technique and the coaching – the leadership, if you like. If you can tap into true leadership you will cause those around you to achieve more than they think they can.When you study motivational theory, you soon come upon Douglas McGregor's "Theory X" and "Theory Y". And what these boil down to is, “You get what you expect from people.” So if we think of everyone as basically selfish then we will always try to manipulate them in order to get what we want. Hey! Doesn’t that make us selfish too? What does a leader do then? A leader expects the team to perform, and that will be communicated to them by the leader's actions. A leader encourages, leads by example, cares about the team and gives regular feedback. People need to be recognised and praised. Find a reason to praise your team members privately each week and ensure that no one misses out. But the praise itself should be spontaneous and not formulaic. I believe in encouraging everyone, not praising just for the sake of it, but everyone does something that’s worthy of praise sometimes. Communicate often with your team; give them the “big picture” and where they fit it. This helps give them a sense of team identity, and that is a good step towards integrating them into the team.A leader influences and inspires others to believe in themselves and to follow the vision of the organisation and the team. This implies strongly that a leader must know, understand and believe the vision themselves! Try to work out what has inspired you in the past, and then you can inspire others, by communicating that passion to them.Emotions are a powerful motivator, so a leader needs to be passionate to help others “feel” the vision. A leader is not driven by their ego, because if they are, then they will inspire others to follow them, instead of the vision – so a leader is a signpost for where people should go. To be a leader, you must be credible and honest, you have to “walk the talk”, because people tend to do as you do, rather than what you tell them to do.Whilst leadership is not about ego, a leader still needs to stand out from the crowd – if you’re Mr/Ms Average you’re not going to inspire many people, even if you’re good at your job. Genuineness by definition cannot be faked. A true leader has to be compassionate as well as passionate, so make to effort to develop a relationship with your staff, but with the usual provisos for appropriate relationships of course.A leader can't afford to waste time in too much time in the minutiae of the team, in fact a functioning team will solve many of it’s own problems with peer pressure etc. For example, time keeping, dress standards, interpersonal conflict and so on, but remember - peer pressure can be a good servant but a damaging and unforgiving master, so you as leader will need to keep an eye on it. A leader is expected to solve “higher level” problems such as budgetary, emergencies, compliance, need for unique expertise or when the team can’t resolve an issue. But beware of becoming the person to whom everyone brings problems or you will never find time to do your own work.Your leadership type can and should evolve with the team; following a continuum from autocratic-biased to free-rein-biased styles (analogous to development of the parent-child relationship over time).Leaders lead by example, but they also know when it is the right time to push. This is most obvious in “take charge” leaders, exemplified by the likes of Churchill, they know what to do in a crisis, and are not afraid to do it, and they can rally people to the cause – because they live the vision. A leader is expected to be a stabilising influence when times are tough, and be able to deal with any cliché that may arise. You need to evaluate your team’s current situation and assess what is needed to progress the team to a future vision. A problem with Churchillian leaders as role models is that they get dumped from office with the crises is over, and this can be true of any single-skilled leader. A true leader needs the ability to change leadership styles to suit the team and the need. They need to be able to handle peacetime as well as war.So a leader is some of the things that I have described, as well as being a manager in the traditional sense. Often as a project manager and leader you will find yourself doing the “best” thing rather than the “right” thing because you have to do all of the above and still get your project in on time and on budget. Sometimes this means “biting the bullet”, “making the hard decision”, or flogging a dead cliché. But if you follow the leadership path, rather than the strict management path, you are much more likely to earn the respect and loyalty of your team members, customers and other stakeholders along the way, and (I believe) end up with a better project overall.
From nasir mustafa
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Matrix Organizations, What Are They?

Until the 1970's, typical, large organizations tended to function in "silos", logical divisions where essentially isolated groups of workers reported to a line manager or functional manager. Imagine columns on a page with a line manager at the top of each column and a group of workers inside each column under the manager.As these groups operated autonomously, it was not unusual to find functions replicated in each silo.In an Information Technology company for example, you might find software programmers in the development area, some more in the customer support area, and yet more in the quality assurance area, because each of these functional units had a programming need.If your organisation still operates in this manner, give your boss a copy of this article.And so it was in the 1970s that attempts to improve traditional organization structures, led to the creation of the “Matrix" organizational structure.In the matrix organisation, considering our IT example above, all programmers are now in a separate programming department and report to a functional manager in charge of programming, and that manager would control almost all of their work. In a matrix we usually refer to the line manager as a functional manager because all of their workers perform similar functions.So workers in a matrix organisation are compartmentalized by their required skills into silos, like columns in a matrix, each with its dedicated manager. The workers report to and are responsible to their functional manager, who in turn usually has sole responsibility for the advancement of their workers, as well as the administration of their area, including budgeting.So far the matrix organization sounds much like the traditional organization, except that all workers within a silo (a column in the matrix) are partitioned by a particular skill-set.The other difference between traditional organisations and matrix organisations is that matrices have rows (lines running across the columns, not fights).Traditional organizations operated quite well, but they were inefficient, with lots of duplication of skills around the company. But their major weakness was when they tried to manage projects.The problem was that in the traditional organisation, the concept of a project team, which is my nature cross-functional, did not exist, because the project manager's "team" team comprised of people from different functional areas, managed and controlled by different functional managers -- not by the project manager. And this is not a recipe for successful projects.So we have our columns of functionally similar workers in each column of our matrix, with a functional manager at the head of each column.Now picture rows running across the page, with a project manager at the "head" (i.e. the left hand side) of each row. The rows intersect the columns and so intersect the columns of workers. So each row is a silo of workers of differing functionality, headed by a project manager.In such a matrix structure there is an obvious tension between the project managers at the head of each row (each project) and the managers at the head of each column (each functional area) as they are sharing the same workers, and as each manager (project and functional) has a job to do, we have a conflict of interest.There are different types of matrix organization, designed to balance the power struggle-struggle between the managers conflicting needs. The main types are listed below.The Weak MatrixThis type of organizational structure is a bit of a nightmare for Project Managers because they are effectively reduced to being project facilitators. They make plans and monitor the execution, but they have no real authority over staff, and are almost totally reliant upon the functional managers to provide resources.The workers have little loyalty to the project managers (or the project), because it is the functional managers who decide the advancement of the workers within the organization. And the workers' performance is usually measured only on the work that they do for their functional manager -- not on their project work -- so in fact working on a project may be seen by the worker as undesirable as they will have less time to do their regular work, so the project manager may find them unmotivated.And as the PM has no real authority over the team members, then they often have to report the problem of workers not performing, to the functional managers in the hope that they will encourage the workers to work more on the project.But remember that the functional managers are primarily responsible for the performance of their own functional areas, so their workers performing project tasks can actually reduce the productivity of their area (often projects are ignored in the benchmarks). So this leads to a clear conflict of interest between the PM, the functional managers and the various workers.In this situation the PM usually loses -- and that’s the easy to remember it -- the PM is weak in a weak matrix. The Strong MatrixAll these problems led to the creation of the “strong matrix” organization In the strong matrix the tables are turned, it is the project managers that have responsibility for the workers, not the line managers. But the PMs are not responsible for the human resource administration.This empowers the project managers to manage the workers directly, and thus properly manage the whole project, but without tying the PMs up in HR administration.I have worked in organizations like this, where I managed my teams and was responsible for everything except the HR functions, and I found it a very satisfying environment from a project point of view. So my teams would have me as project manager and I had sole authority and responsibility to direct their work, but they also had staff managers who looked after anything that was not project-related, i.e. performance reviews (but I provided the key input to these) training, vacation administration, employment contracts etc. And this meant that I could focus on the projects. So when a project manager starts a new project, they discuss their staffing requirement with the functional managers and the functional managers try to make the resources available (and provide training fro them, where necessary). Usually the functional managers will draw up plans and charts (e.g. Gantt charts) of how “their people” will fit inside projects, and they might move staff between projects and project managers as required (after consulting with the project managers).Effectively the PM and the functional managers work together, but overall control of everything project-related is the function of the project manager -- so in a strong matrix, the project manager is the stronger party. The Balanced MatrixThere is an old saying, “power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”. In each type of matrix organization there is a struggle for power, and so there needs to be some way to bring this into balance, otherwise one group will dominate the other, to the detriment of the project, and ultimately to the detriment of the organization as a whole (although individual projects or functional areas may blossom for a while). A very dominant project manager for example may bully the functional managers into always giving them the best team members for their projects. One way of reducing the problem is to make rules within the organization that varies who can manage a worker, depending upon certain circumstances. For example there could be a rule that says if an worker is to work on a project for less than one week then the functional manager (or project manager) has sole control over the worker, but if the requirement is for more than one week, control changes hands.Or there may be rules that the same worker can’t work for the same PM, on two consecutive projects.There are many possible rules that could be made of course, but the goal is to balance the power between the PM and the functional managers so that we don’t have a win/lose situation, and I’m sure you can guess that this type of organizational structure is called a “balanced matrix”. So weak, strong, or balanced, the "strength" is always from the viewpoint of the project manager.
From nasir mustafa
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