Question:
Discuss about the Environmental and Economic Performance.
The main aim of this task is to provide a brief outline about the business activities and operations of university. University of Melbourne has been selected in the task which is incorporated in Australia. The university is working for welfare of the students by providing good education to them. Along with this, the paper explains the external factors which could affect the performance and productivity of university. It explains the significance of human resource management in the organization. Human resource management is important part of each and every organization. Various strategies, policies and plans are made by human resource management in the firm. In addition, the paper explains that how external factors affect the HR practices and functions. Moreover, here is the discussion about the functions of HRM and Jackson & Schuler model. Further detail of the task has been stated below.
The University of Melbourne is a specific research university which is situated in Melbourne, Australia. The university was founded in 1853 by Hugh Childers and the academic staff of the university is approx 4,068. It is the second oldest university in the world. Melbourne’s main campus is situated in Parkville with some others campuses located in Victoria (Australian’s leading university, 2018).
Mission: The main mission of the Melbourne is to provide high and quick quality of services and consultancy to all levels of the university a psychological processes, development issues and mental health especially in relation to learning environment.
Vision: The main vision of the University of Melbourne is to contribute in the development and evolution of the university. Furthermore, the university wants to provide enduring and meaningful networks with academic and other services areas. Being purposeful, accountable and passionate in the work is another significant vision of Melbourne. Apart from this, the core values include respect, professionalism and creating community which help to provide good education to students in the world (Potts, 2012).
There are various factors presented in Jackson and Schuler’s (1995) HRM model which influence the operations activities and operations of University of Melbourne. The organization needs to focus on the external factors to overcome the competitors in the marketplace (Budhwar, and Debrah, 2013). The external factors have been stated below.
Industrial relations and union: It is one of the biggest external factors which influence the activities and operations of human resource management. Various companies are not able to maintain good relations with workers therefore; it affects the productivity and efficiency of the employees. Labor union also plays a significant role to attain long term goals and objectives of the firm. Trade union is an organization who have come work together to accomplish the common objectives of the company. If the employees do not make trade union, then they are unable to work together within the organization. As a result, it will affect the growth and success of the firm. Apart from this, managers and leaders should maintain reciprocal relationship with employees to attain mission and vision of the firm (Rainnie, 2016).
Industry and market conditions: It is an important external factor which may influence image and goodwill of the company adversely. The success and growth of the firm depends on the market condition. There are various competitors exist in the marketplace which could influence the growth of the firm. Market conditions also affect the choices, preferences and wants of the customers. New and innovative technologies also affect the market and industry conditions. The firm should identify and evaluate the market conditions, risks and challenges to gain competitive advantages. They should analyze the plans, policies and strategies of the competitors. No company can explore and flourish its business without knowing competition and market conditions in the world (Hines, 2012).
Global labor markets: The global labor markets influence the flexibility on consumers as well as businesses. These flexible markets can lead to lower unemployment and higher performance of the firm. The organization should maintain a good relationship between employee and employer rights to maintain favorable working environment. Sometimes, flexible labor markets affect the outputs of the firm. In flexible labor market, temporary and part time workers may not get enough training from the company because they only have short term contracts.
National and regional culture: The socio-cultural elements also affect the operations and activities of the firm adversely. The socio-cultural factors include custom, belief, values, languages, and traditions. Different countries follow different culture and they speak their own languages. Therefore, culture differences arise in the marketplace which may influence the individual productivity and efficiency. The organization should provide cross cultural training to the employees to understand and know culture and language of different countries (Cavusgil et al, 2014).
Law, regulation, treaties: Different countries have their own rules, regulations and treaties therefore, they are unable to understand the culture of one country. As a result, conflict arises among the different countries. Before initiating business activities and operations in foreign country, the firm should understand and analyze the rules, regulations and policies of foreign country.
New and evolving technologies: Changes in technologies also influence the progress of the company. Now a day’s innovative and new technologies are being used by many companies for rapid production but they are not providing training to the workers for knowing benefits and results of the technology. It may influence the working efficiency and effectiveness of the employees. The organization should provide proper training and development coaching to the employees to understand the advantages of the new technology (Christensen, 2013).
All these factors affect the financial position of the firm in the international market. Effective policies and strategies shall be made by the company to manage and control the external factors. The organization should analyze and measure the market risks and issues to stay in the competitive market.
Jackson and Schuler model is used by University of Melbourne to analyze and evaluate the external factors in the competitive market. By using this model, the university can overcome the rivalries in the market. HRM plays a critical role to evaluate the external factors of the market (Budhwar and Debrah, 2013). The Jackson and Schuler model has been detailed below.
The above mentioned framework shows that how Jackson and Schuler model plays an empirical role to measure and identify the external factors of the market. It will also help to stand out against the competitors. University of Melbourne uses this model to make a good image in the international market. Furthermore, it also encourages workers to execute tasks and duties successfully and effectively.
There are enormous functions that are being executed and performed by the human resource management of University of Melbourne. HRM is the practice of recruiting, hiring, managing and deploying the employees of the firm. The functions of human resource management have been detailed below.
Planning, resourcing and retention: Planning, resourcing and retention play a significant role in each and every organization. Planning may be defined as a process that identifies and evaluates the future and current human resources needs and requirements for the company to attain goals and objectives of the firm. Human resource planning is an important part of the firm as HRP serves a link between human resource management and the overall tactical plan of the firm.
Apart from this, resourcing is also an important function of HRM. The main role of human resource management is to obtain the employee services, build their skills and stipulate them to attain high level of efficiency and productivity. Resourcing helps to ensure that employees are maintaining their commitment accomplish the goals and objectives of University of Melbourne. Moreover, resourcing is necessary to recruit and hire the potential candidates in the workplace. In addition, recruitment and selection process is done with the help of resourcing in HRM (Cowling and Mailer, 2013).
Additionally, retention also plays an empirical role in human resource management. Employee retention is the ability of the firm to retain its employees within the organization. Employee retention is significant because they create a favorable working environment in the organization. It is also essential to increase and enhance company’s morale and give employees a sense of pride what they do at the workplace. Employee retention provides several benefits to the organization as well as employees. Recruitment costs are very expensive and it is time consuming process. In keeping and retaining staff, Melbourne can save their time and money. Along with this, it also boosts and develops morale, loyalty and confidence of the workers at the workplace. In this way, it is considered an effective and dynamic strategy of the human resource management.
Recruitment and selection: Employment and selection is the primary function of the HRM. Recruitment is the first step of selection. It may be defined as an overall process of short listing, attracting, selecting and selecting appropriate candidates for jobs within an organization. On the other hand, selection is the process of choosing the most appropriate applicant for the vacant position in the firm. University of Melbourne uses unique recruitment and selection process to select and retain potential, skills and experience staff. This process also helps to reduce high labor turnover and absenteeism in the organization and will increase the overall efficiency and effectiveness of the university (Rees and Smith, 2017).
Training and development: It is a part of academic services and a division of university services. Training and development helps to address the weaknesses of the employees and maximize their performance. People who receive essential training and development coaching are more able to perform their tasks and duties in a hassle free manner. Also, it supports the enhancement of teaching, learning and assessment capability by developing unique skills and knowledge among the staff. No company can maximize their profits and revenue without effective workforce therefore training and development is most significant function of human resource management (Ford, 2014).
Remuneration and rewards: Remuneration and reward is vital function in the organization which is provided by the firm to its employees in the form of salary, pay, allowances, wage, and other benefits. Remuneration and reward system exists in the University of Melbourne in order to inspire staff for providing good education to the students. This system also helps to provide recognition to the workers at the workplace. Remuneration and reward is an effective tool used by HRM in order to attain long term objectives and goals (Rees and Smith, 2017). The HRM of University of Melbourne develops strategies and policies on salaries and other benefits to workers for deriving commitment to the firm. Along with this, HRM also tries to provide other economic benefits to the employees in the organization. If University of Melbourne wants to provide unique services to students then it should provide proper remuneration and rewards to staff. It will also help to gain competitive advantages in the marketplace (Marchington et al, 2016).
Employee relations: An Employee relation is an important function of HRM which helps to maintain co-ordination and cooperation among the employees within the organization. Good and effective employee relations increases production and quality of work as it reduces employee turnover in the organization. Maintaining reciprocal relations with employees provide enormous benefits to the workers in the firm (Kim and Bae, 2017). It can help to reduce and eliminate conflict among the staff. Apart from this, strong relations are significant not only individual staff productivity but that of the firm as a whole. It helps to create good and dynamic working environment and teamwork at the workplace. Through reciprocal relations, employees can share their problems and issues with managers and they can do work successfully and effectively. All these are the core functions of human resource management that are performed to increase returns and revenue of the firm (Amah, Nwuche and Chukuigwe, 2013).
The external factors may influence the policies, strategies and plans of the human resource management. HRM plays an imperative role in University of Melbourne. A well developed and unique strategy should be taken into consideration in order to reduce the impact of external factors. The HRM practices have been changed continuously due to political, economic, technological and legal factors influencing the trade management practices (Briscoe, Tarique, and Schuler, 2012). Therefore, it is essential to analyze the impact of the external elements on HRM functions and practices. The external factors are considered dynamic and they are uncontrollable. The impact of external factors on HR practices and functions has been discussed below.
Impact of industrial relations and union on HR functions: There is close relations between labor union and HRM. The company cannot survive its business activities without effective and unique labor union. Along with this, productivity is highly related to the potential and skilled employees who perform tasks and duties in a hassle free manner (Lansbury and Bamber, 2013). To appoint potential and talented candidate, HRM plays a vital role within the organization. They are responsible to appoint capable and experienced applicant in the organization. HRM is a link between employee and employer and they maintain dynamic relationship among them. HRM cannot perform their work effectively without dynamic labor union. Labor union helps to maximize the productivity and revenue of the firm as it also improves efficiency of the workers (Harrod and O’Brien, 2012).
Impact of Industry and market conditions on HR practices: The market condition may also influence the functions and activities of HRM largely. If the market conditions are not appropriate and favorable then it can affect the HR practices widely (Rani and Mishra, 2014). There are various factors exist in the marketplace which could influence the functions of University of Melbourne. Competitor is one of the biggest factors which may affect the success of the university. Along with this GDP and per capital income decides the minimum wage rate which is the part of benefits and compensation also influence the activities of HRM. HRM should monitors on the market factors to beat the competitors in the world (Jackson, Schuler and Jiang, 2014).
Impact of global labor markets on HR functions and practices: Labor markets affect the human resource planning within the organization. Labor demand and supply is the part of the HRP. The labor supply and demand depends on the level of labor education, experience, knowledge and skills. HRM recruits employees on the basis of these characteristics. Along with this, University of Melbourne hires applicants with high qualification (Vance and Paik, 2014). If HRM is unable to hire potential and capable employees then it will affect the HRM functions and practices. The growth of HRM largely depends upon the potential and competent employees. Moreover, productivity growth rate in labor market will have direct impact on efficiency and effectiveness of HRP. Additionally, HRM will facilitate the distribution of workers to generate more and more vacancies. University of Melbourne monitors skills, qualification, experiences and potential of the staff to provide higher education to the student (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014).
Impact of National and regional culture on HR functions: The socio-cultural elements are very difficult to handle for HR professionals. People who come from different cultures and regions are appointed in the university which creates the diversity and negligence of diversity can become a big reason to damage the organization. Every organization has its own culture therefore; employees need to adjust themselves in that culture. Furthermore, ethical behavior also influences the organization’s culture. HRM uses Hofstede model to manage the cross cultural differences within the organization. If the HRM is unable to provide training and development coaching to the workers for understanding the culture and langue of the firm then it might affect the functions and growth of the company. Hence, University of Melbourne provides effective training to the workers to maintain a favorable working environment in the organization (McFarland and Wehbe-Alamah, 2014).
Impact of Law, regulation, treaties on HR practices: The government regulations, rules, policies may also influences the human resource management. The legal factors affect every process of the HR department including training, hiring, termination, compensation and much more. The legal factors which affect the HRM functions are such as government policies, national labor laws, economic policy and health and safety regulations. Along with this sexual harassment prevention, equal employment, safety and health management, disability accommodations are the modern HR related laws which are being practices globally. The legal policies and frameworks decide the applications of different HRM practices through labor and employment laws (Martin and Whiting, 2016).
Impact of new and evolving technologies on HR practices: Technological advancements are also affecting the HR functions in the organization. Information technology also influences the HRM practices positively. The human resource information technology helps to manage the activities and operations more efficiently and effectively. Innovative technologies help to conduct the business operations effectively (Spector et al, 2014).
Now it is assumed that all the external factors influences the HRM practices and functions adversely and positively. University of Melbourne should monitor on these factors to stay in the rivalry market. It will also help to maximize the profits with minimizing the cost of the firm (Schaltegger and Wagner, 2017).
Conclusion
On the above mentioned study, it has been concluded that University of Melbourne is one of the biggest universities in Australia. The university maintains a sustainable human resource management to run the business operations successfully. The external factors also influence the functions of HRM. Therefore, it is essential for HR professionals to get ready to cope with the changing requirements. HRM should take effective measures to eliminate these factors. Jackson & Schuler model have explained in the paper to understand and evaluate external factors. Along with this, HRM performs several functions to attain competitive benefits in the marketplace. Recruitment, selection, compensation, rewards, remuneration, training and development are main function human resource management.
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