Free Essay Human Resource Management

numba1 · Uploaded by **numba1** on Aug 23, 2005

Human Resource Management

MODULE 1 - HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

DISCUSSION QUESTION 2

Staffing, training, compensation and performance management are important HRM functions. How can each of these functions help companies deal with meeting stakeholders� needs? High-performance work system challenges? Global challenges?

An important aspect of an organization�s business focus and direction towards achieving high levels of competency and competitiveness would depend very much upon their human resource management practices to contribute effectively towards profitability, quality, and other goals in line with the mission and vision of the company.

Staffing, training, compensation and performance management are basically important tools in the human resources practices that shape the organization�s role in satisfying the needs of its stakeholders. Stakeholders of an organization comprise mainly of stockholders who will want to reap on their investments, customers whose wants and desires for high quality products or services are met, employees who want their jobs in the organization to be interesting with reasonable compensation and reward system and lastly, the community who would want the company to contribute and participate in activities and projects relating to the environmental issues. Common rules and procedures of human resource management must be adhered to by the organization which forms basic guidelines on its practices. Teamwork among lower levels of staff and the management should be created and maintained to assist in various angles that would deem necessary in eliminating communication breakdowns and foster better relationship among workers. The management should emphasize on good corporate culture in order to develop employees and create a positive and conducive work environment.

High performance work systems are integrating employees� talents and skills and technology in order to maximize them together to achieve the desired results. In order for an organization to achieve high competency levels and a competitive advantage through high performance work systems, the organization must first of all, invest in sufficient hands-on training to equip their staff force. In doing so, they would be able to identify the talents of their workforce and the areas of strength to later fit them into suitable roles. The organization must also maintain this through constant improvement process through incorporating technological standards. Continuous improvement in culture must be constantly maintained. As stated by Deming, people need to feel comfortable discussing problems and suggesting solutions. Managers need to work at breaking down barriers between departments so that interactive discussions can take place. Fear to be more proactive must be eliminated.

Competing in global markets entail many factors and centralization of its human resource practices is certainly vital to improve global competitiveness and empower employees for global assignments. To achieve success in global marketplace, the challenge of all businesses regardless of their size is to understand global corporate cultural differences and invest in human resources which includes selecting and retaining talented employee, training and development whilst encouraging employees to be innovative and creative. Employees selected to work in foreign locations should be prepared beforehand with adequate cross-cultural training. In the long run, the organization will reap cost-effectiveness through the abovementioned and maintain quality of its products and services.

MODULE 1 - HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

CASE STUDY � DAIMLER HAS TO STEER THE CHRYSLER MERGER

QUESTION 1

One way to expand business globally is to merge with another company to create a powerful international corporation. The challenge of mergers is to unite two different companies with distinct business processes, strategies and cultures. Mergers are even more challenging when they involve companies from different countries (such as the Chrysler-Daimler Benz merger). Executives need to review operational, financial and people processes to develop a common set of rules practices and procedures for the new company. What HRM issues do Chrysler Corporation and Daimler Benz have to resolve to make the merger successful?

In the case of Chrysler and Daimler Benz� merger, distinct human resource resolutions had to be directed and implemented in order to ensure a successful merger between the two large corporations. Daimler Chrysler had a number of challenges to face and crucial decisions to deliberate to prevent their merger from falling apart.

The cultural differences in their nationalities were quite apparent and links had to be immediately created to bridge the gap that could threaten the corporation�s direction towards achieving success. The attitudes of the American and German stakeholders were diverse, in that Americans focused on immediate investment returns whilst the Germans whose labour and banks held board seats had long term planning in mind thereby focusing on long term returns. Further to this, the issue of compensation philosophies arose with the vast difference in their system there was totally irreconcilable as the American CEO earned far more than his German counterpart. In the issues of the downsizing of their overcapacity, explosive decisions on apportion layoffs had to be considered eventually. Furthermore, Daimler was identified as the controlling partner and hence, they had to take complete charge. The different locations of their headquarters and operations could create unwanted centrifugal forces among their departments.

The basic need to resolve the issues at hand were to standardize the human resources management practices of both corporations. In this way, the merger could focus on a single standardized corporate culture that could be inculcated from the onset of its operations on critical functions of which included the compensation and benefits system.

Another vital area of concern is to establish a common set of rules, regulations and guidelines on the general operations of the organization. Financial and operational performance requirements had to be in place and directions to enhance development paths for senior executives.