Human Resources Management In Business Organizations: A Case Study Of Saudi Red Crescent Society

Different aspects of HRM

The assignment focuses on the concept of human resources management within the context of a business organization.  The human resources management (HRM) forms a driving force of a business organization and could be divided into human resources and physical resources. The effective and equal distribution of the resources depends upon strategic and management and leadership skills. Effective human resource management helps in compliance monitoring with the policies and guidelines of the company.

Human resource management is an umbrella term covering different aspects of a business organization such as recruitment and selection of employees, orientation, induction and training of the employees.  In a nutshell, the human resources management refers to optimization of the scarce and the limited resources to achieve the organizational goals and objectives. The role of an HRM extends much beyond the company policies by looking into the personal growth objectives of the employees. The HRM functions by focussing upon a number of basic objectives which are-social objectives, organizational objectives and personal objectives.  For the current study, we are focussing upon Saudi Red Crescent Society  (SRCS) which is a Saudi Arabia based humanitarian society providing emergency medical services in five administrative regions in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia (srca.org 2018).  In the following sections, the issues in Human Resource Management of the Saudi Arabia based Red Crescent society will be discussed.

Here are a number of organizational attributes which shapes the working policies of a company. In this respect, different HR models could be considered which plays a governing role in the shaping of the HR agenda.  In this respect, four different types of HR models as proposed by David Ulrich could be described over here which are – strategic partner, change agent, employee champion and administrative expert.  The strategic partner model refers to the alignment of HR activities with global business scenario. As more and more number of hajj pilgrims visit the country every year, the HRM of the Saudi Red Crescent society need to revise its plan of services and actions. The change agent supports the transition in the business in the area of human capital (Marchington 2015). The Saudi Red Crescent society can do so by increasing the salary structure of the healthcare providers working under the directives of the society. This would help in attracting more number of job seekers along with increasing the productivity of the organization, which would, in turn, increase the capital return on the investments made. The administrative expert focuses on providing quality services at minimums prices. The SRCS in this respect extends its emergency support and care services at minimal prices by launching the air ambulance so that maximum geographical area could be covered. The employee champion, on the other hand, realizes the interest of the employees and protects them during the change period in the organization. Therefore, the Saudi government brought forth the Nitaquat scheme to provide more and more better employment opportunities to the healthcare providers .The model was further contradicted by the Harvard map of HRM policies which outlines a number a generalised process of functioning of the HRM. It could be further divided into human resource flows, reward systems, employee influence and work systems. As mentioned by Cheng et al. (2016), the focus is on achieving the four c’s of HR policies which are –commitment, congruence, competence and cost-effectiveness. The reward systems form an important component of the HRM policy which has a large scale motivation upon the employees. Some of these could be paid by the SRCS in the form of performance bonus or incentives. Additionally, the management needs to take accountability for the training and development of the employees.

HR models proposed by David Ulrich

Additionally, management of ethics is crucial within a healthcare environment. This helps in raising the quality of the emergency healthcare services. In certain areas the ethical standards coincide with taking accountability for the provision of standard healthcare services. This refers to maintaining confidentiality of important health records of the patient. The SRCS ensures this by implementation of data protection softwares. Additionally, practising an informed care approach can help in avoiding the legal breaches in the provision of the support and healthcare services (Hasanain et al. 2015). This will also help in provision of sufficient autonomy to the patients for decision making. However, due to major pressure upon the SRCs during emergency situations and the lack of adequate number of healthcare providers, often the support staffs has been seen to become impatient and cynical with the patients (srca.org  2018). This is clearly a breach of the services ethics and needs to be prevented with the issuance of strict directives by the organization.

The business management tools could be differentiated based on the micro and the macro environmental factors. As commented by Albalawi and Sixsmith (2015), a business firm has to constantly undergo evolution in order to survive within the cut-throat market competition.  Some of the objectives which could be followed by the company in order to gain competitive advantage are product and services diversification. The product differentiation along with cost-effectiveness can help in raising the demand for the services. In this respect using a number of tools such as SWOT, PESTLE and Porter’s can help in understanding the strategic positioning of the company. It helps in understanding the inherent strengths or properties of the organization by reflection upon the loopholes.

The PESTLE, on the other hand, helps in understanding the effect of the external forces on the inner component of the origination. It consists of political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental factors.  Some of these factors are acts as barriers to implementation of changes within the work compliance policies of the organization.  The issues have been discussed in more details over here with regards to Saudi Red Crescent society.

Strengths	weakness
? Its fleet of vehicles helps it handle multiple  emergency cases at the same time ? The air ambulance is able to perform multiple user-defined reroutes anywhere within the United Kingdom (srca.org 2018).	? Shortage of local healthcare professionals ? Functioning of the regional directorates is limited by the lack of budget ?  Inability on the part of the government to keep up with the  changing healthcare needs and demands ? Weak referral systems into the psychotherapeutic wards (srca.org 2018).
opportunities	threats
? increase in the demand for healthcare services ? introduction of air ambulance can help in rapid medical transportation	? increased absence of the employees from the organization owing to health reasons affecting availability of services ? Increased rate of privatization can result put huge amount of economic burden on the population.

Table: SWOT analysis

(Source: author)

Additionally, a pestle analysis could be conducted over here in order to understand the effect of the different macroenvironmental factors on the business processes of the Davidson’s.

Attributes	effects
political	? changes in the insurance coverage policies of the government can affect the service quality offered the red crescent society ? effect of privatization on the survival and support services offered by the  Saudi red crescent society
economical	? the  rising healthcare costs may make it difficult for the Saudi red crescent society to offer the newly invented sophisticated  healthcare technologies at low prices ? the  finances are approved through multi-level channels which can act as a barrier to the realization of the actual amount  provided for the voluntary  health care services
social	? Provided the huge amount of pressure on the SRCS the patients often have to wait for long hours in cues which may upset the entire process strenuous working hours may affect the health of the employees (srca.org 2018).
technological	? the inability  to keep  with the demand for new and innovative  healthcare technologies can be seen as a setback for the company
legal	? the lack of effective emergency aftercare services may result invite legal actions against the healthcare organization in case of infections post first-aid
environmental	· Inability in the management of the human disposals and waste can also affect the surrounding environment as the wastes are disposed of directly into the water bodies.

Table: PESTLE analysis

(Source: author)

Additionally, the Porter’s five forces analysis could be conducted used to analyse the balance of power in business situation.  There are five components of the Porter’s five forces model which are -supplier power, buyer power, and competitive rivalry, entry of new firm and threat of substitution.

Management of ethics in a healthcare environment

In this respect, each component exercises a different kind of power on the company in question over here.  As commented by Al Yousef (2016), possessing a huge number of supplier base can provide competitive advantage to the company as the company don’t have to depend on a single source of raw materials.  In this respect, the Saudi Arabia based Red Crescent society has a huge number of supplier base which provides them with multiple numbers of options for the procurement of raw materials, which helps in keeping the prices in control.

The power of the buyer also serves as an important governing factor of the company. As mentioned by Alanazi (2015), dealing with priority based patients can result in huge amount of fluctuations in price which might result in the generation of negative revenue. Additionally, making the services available at cost -effective prices can also help in attracting the maximum number of customers. The provision of free emergency care services for free can provide the organization better patient reviews compared to some of the privately owned or privately funded healthcare organizations. In this respect, the SRCS is supported and financed by the government and federal government agencies which help in checking and prevention of the unnecessary additional costs. In this respect, the SRCS can gain a competitive advantage by differentiating its health coverage and funding policies as more and more people are moving towards privately owned hospitals for achieving standard and better care services. The cooperative health insurance policies allow for mitigating the additional costs generated from the support and healthcare services offered to the haj pilgrims (srca.org 2018).As argued by Durac (2014), the medical services offered to the foreign immigrants can help in the generation of maximum revenues.  

The high healthcare costs in the Gulf countries can make the immigrant choose government based healthcare services over private healthcare industries (Alanazi 2015). This may help in overcome the threat of substitution from similar or privatized healthcare industries. In this respect, the Gulf countries are host to a range of other healthcare agencies which are on the verge of evolution in terms of their services. Therefore, the SRCS needs to constantly challenge some if its process and initiatives. However, as argued by Haak-Saheem and Festing (2018), the entry of private firms is targeting the limited skilled healthcare provider base as they are shifting towards privately run hospitals in a lieu of better pay.

There are a number of combinatorial factors which may affect the survival of an organization within a larger scenario. The factors could be further divided into internal and external factors. The factors could be divided into lack of sufficient labour, changes in government based policies. The Saudi Red Crescent society is directly or indirectly responsible for providing the community with basic healthcare services. Additionally, the organization is also provided with the additional responsibility of providing emergency health and support care services which could not be mitigated due to the lack of human resources. As commented by Obermeyer et al. (2015), the healthcare organization is directly responsible for the quality of support and healthcare services provided by them.  In this regard, the lack of sufficient human labour may affect the quality and quantity of the support and care services. Though the SRCS operates through a number of multi-operational channels, it is unable to cope up with the large-scale increase in the demand for medical care. The SRCS also faces recruitment challenges due to lack of sufficient human resources. As commented by Birn et al. (2017), majority of the healthcare professionals working in Saudi Arabia are expatriates and often leave the country once they have satisfied their individual purposes for stay within the country.  

Tools for gaining competitive advantage

Additionally, in the wake of the audition and nitaqaut scheme, a lot of immigrant healthcare workers had to leave their jobs in Saudi Arabia and return to their own country.   Under this, the organizations having high numbers of Saudi based employees could apply for block visas. The move was to delimit the greater immigration rates of people from developing nations into Saudi Arabia. This led to a rapid mass movement of experienced healthcare professionals out of the country. Therefore, the newly implemented rules and regulations from the government can act as a resistance to  bringing about positive changes within the healthcare sector. The move for saudization focuses on improving the labour market of Saudi Arabia (Peck 2017). This is done in order to cope up with the issues of unemployment faced by the people of Saudi Arabia. The move was welcomed by the ministry of health which aimed at improving the quality of healthcare providers of the country by providing them with training and additional soft skills development. The nitaquat is based on five different factors which are used for determinant the category of the entity in which a person will be placed (Alshanbri et al.  2014). Therefore, the factors are –the overall saudization percentage, average salaries of the Saudi employees, percentage of Saudi female employees, length of service of the Saudi employees, percentage of employees with high salary structures. These are further used in placing a person in platinum and green category based upon which the government based policies are implemented as a beneficiary program. However, the current base of healthcare providers of Saudi Arabia doesn’t possess the required qualifications which result in recruitment difficulties on the part of the HRM. On the contrary, there exists excessive burden on the ministry of health (MOH) to finance the health and support services, which can make the services, lag behind the overall health targets of the country. As mentioned by Ahmad (2015), restructuring the MOH can help in equal distribution of the health and support care costs in Saudi Arabia.  

In this respect, restructuring the health directorates could help in meeting the overall health targets of the population.  The mannerism in which it could be done is provision of more authority to the regional directorates, implementation of cooperating health insurance schemes and privatization of the government hospitals. This may help in removing the pressure upon the ministry of health services along with provision of better health care services. However as argued by Bradley et al. (2015), the privatisation of healthcare sector may enhance the issues of unequal distribution of health and support care services.  One of the main issues which are faced by the HRM over here is the rightful utilization of the available resource base. Additionally, maintaining transparency norms with the market stakeholders will help in inviting the expression of interest which could help in the improvement of the health and support services.

The role of HRM can be described over here in the broad perspective of the organization. Some of the effective roles over here include development of long-term sustainable goals for the organization. This includes providing the employees with effective training skills as well as looking ensuring that the organizational goals and objectives are met. The Harvard model could be used in order to plan the course of organizational work effectively. The HRM is responsible for recruitment, training and termination of the employees. For absorbing the right source and quantity of employees within the organization the HRM needs to design effective recruitment policies. As commented by Ahmad (2015), maintaining transparency during the absorption of the employees regarding job requirements and the salary packages can help in engaging the right candidates. In order to enhance the productivity of the organization, the HRM of the SRCS can implement effective training programmes which will enhance the quality of health and support care services of the SRCS. This is in accordance with the Saudi vision 2030 which will help in the development of other sectors such as health, education, infrastructure, recreation (vision2030.gov 2018).  The goal was to remove the dependence on oil and petrochemical industries alone. In addition, taking accountability for the performance improvement of the employees can help in raining the standards of the services.

The role of HRM was limited to selection and absorption of the employees within the current organization. The role had been extended in certain cases to the provision of training and appraisal to the employees. However, a number of external forces can contribute to the changing roles of the HRM. Some of these factors are- stakeholder expectation, changing legislation and policies, demographic change, the changing economic environment.

The changes could be implemented successfully by following a clear set of rule or guidelines.  As commented by Alshanbri et al.  (2014), roles could be redefined which will help in eliminating wastage.  Additionally, securing funded support can help in the implementation of a positive workplace culture and ethics. In the recent times there has been an emerging dependence on technologies for supporting the healthcare needs.  As argued by Moran et al. (2014), inability to handle the sophisticated and innovative technologies can affect the quality of healthcare. In such cases provision of effective training can help in the coping up with the changing needs. Moreover, the practice of active listening can ineffective troubleshooting of the problems faced by the employees.

Some of the additional sources which can be used for assessment of contextual data of the business processes are HR metrics.  It is a parameter used for measurement of the success of the HR initiatives. Some of these are employee turnover, affectivity of training, return in human capital, costs of labour and expenses per employee. The metrics measurement will help in analysis of the progress of the HRM policies in achieving the organizational objectives.

Additionally, availability of competitive information can help in analysing the strategic positioning of the company within the global market. In this regard, occasional surveys could be conducted by the human resource management of the Saudi Red Crescent society which will help in development of effective competitor strategies. Moreover, following a balanced scorecard can help in analysing the different perspectives such as the consumer perspective, learning perspective, internal and financial perspective (Alfadda et al. 2016). Thus, understanding the different perspectives will help in the development of an effective health care plan.

Conclusion

The current assignment focuses on the HRM policies of the Saudi Red Crescent Society. In this respect, effective HRM policies help in understanding the organizational objectives and the drafting of effective recruitment policies.  In the current study, we have focussed upon the Saudi Arabia based Red Crescent society. It is a humanitarian organization which caters to the first aid and emergency care and support services of the population.  However, the lacks of effective labour resources can challenge effective delivery of care and support services.  Additionally, the implementation of new saudization act also hinders the absorption of trained foreign nationals which creates a resource gap within the organization. Therefore, restructuring the healthcare sector by providing more power in the hands of the directorate helps in equal distribution of resources.  

One of the main objectives of the HFM policies is to adapt to the changing healthcare needs. This could be done by removing the implementation of the some of the measurement methods which could help in measuring the productivity of the organization. One such device is the HR metrics which helps in comparing the growth perspectives of the organization with reference to its employee base. Alongside, additional level of support and participation from the employees could help in the development of an effective healthcare structure.

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