Discuss about the Construction Management for Management in the Organizational Structure.
From past few decades it has been observed that human resource management in the organizational structure remain as one of the supportive pillars and managing people is the most important part in running a successful organization. In the context of construction industry it has been realized that the task of managing people has been very difficult and challenging for it (Caligiuri, 2014). In spite of its well established socio economic structure the construction industry remained unperceivable especially in the context of human relation. Being the part of the global economy the construction industry faced issues related to the human resource management due to its lack of attention to the labor workforce and human capital management. Besides, it have been argued by many researchers in the previous researches that human capital forms the base of good performance and growth of the organization. It is a rare thing and the most surprising fact at the same time that the HRM practices in the construction industry have been devoid of specific and detailed elaboration for so long(Caven, 2013).
Hence, this study has been solely contributedto the elaboration of the changing patterns of HRM practices in the construction industry that remained unnoticed for such along time. The researcher has provided theories related to HRM practices in the organizational structure and critically evaluated the appropriate area of focus that would highlight the new ways of incorporating effective HRM practices in the construction industry. Apart from this, this study would also provide an analysis of the critical thinking and recommendations for the betterment of the HRM practices in the industry. Therefore, evidences depict that many changes have been adopted by the construction industry in the context of human resource management (HRM) and this study would enlighten new approaches to make it more advance in this regard (Chenget al. 2006).
More than a decade human resource management has become one of the aspect that has developed and matured with time and formed as a discipline exercised by the organizations in the context of managing people. The increasing market demand and altering industrial environment that have pushed the organization especially the construction industry to concentrate on the practices of managing the human capital in the organizations (Teo, 2013). It is the human resource management theories that has invented techniques for managing human capital in organizations. Hence, it is would be illogical to provide all the relevant theories that has shaped the practices of human resource management. Thus, few theories would be discussed here in order to provide a superficial perspective in this regard (Esmi and Ennals, 2009).
The role behavior theory depicts the aim to predict the behavior of individuals in an organization that would help the managers to take decision in the context of people management and ensure the positiveeffects of the future consequences of such decision taken on behalf of the organization. The key focus that the theory preaches is the change of employee relation in order to make them able to cope with the changing atmosphere and set the level of their performance in accordance with the market demands.
The comparative theory depicts the engagement of human capital in drawing competitive advantage to the organization. The human capital is the base of any organization to draw more profitability and sustainability in the market. It mainly focuses on the act of strengthening internal capability and also needs attention in reducing the production cost per unit. Hence, acquiring internal capability means having good base of human capital management that is able to produce cheaper, but quality products and services.
The human capital theory advocates the advancement of human capital in organization due to training and development programs included in the HRM practices. It has been now largely acknowledged by theorist that high investment to develop human capital has increased the performance level of the organizations. Hence, the human resource training and development programs must be formed based on the human capital models developed in this regard (Kaufman, 2001).
The economic and the contractual factors have influenced the construction industry, though it has been inspired by the project based works and factors for a long time. The substantial labor management in most of the countries has made the relationship between the employee and the employer cordial, the human capital in the form of the labors took the shape of the base of delivering success to the project work in the construction industry (Gardner and Wright, 2009).
In order to assess the changing patterns of human resource management practices in the construction industry, the practices related to the HRM need to be assessed through macro and micro perspectives of HRM in the construction industry. These both perspectives needs to be elaborated through three dimensional aspects, namely, a) human focus, b) resource focus, c) management focus. But in this study the researcher has concentrated on a specific dimension of management focus, human focus and resource focus, in order to give a detailed description of the changing scenario of the construction industry (Geare etal.2006).
Most of the literature related to this topic have been focused on the contribution of human capital to enrich the profitability of an organization and consider them as the best resource of an organization to draw competitive advantage at the same time in the construction industry. Another important aspect that needs to be highlighted in order to elaborate the role of HR functions and the contributions of the organizational management in the context of managing people in the construction industry (Lin, 2011). In the construction industry the completion of a successful project encompass workers and multiple parties that demands an effective people management policy to manage the diversity between the workers and the parties. Besides, the role of the HR managers in early period of time depends on the transitional and employment requirements of an organization, but contemporarily the role of HR managers needs to adapt the strategic way to develop their responsibilities that include adaptation of the industrial changes, building organizational culture and appear as partner of the business that the organization is conducting (Minbaevaet al. 2009).
On the other hand, the relevant data that advocates in relation to human focus explains the well being of the employees and concentrate on their needs at the same time. In this context, the HRM focuses on developing a healthy and effective relationship between the employee and the organization. If it can be assessed from a micro perspective the human focus concentrates mainly on the aspects of employee relationship and nature of employment and issues regarding employees. In relation to the construction industry, it can be summed up by saying that human focus is another vital aspect that manages the relationship between employee and employers and the way in which employers communicate, negotiate with employees (Caven, 2013).
In the case of elaborating the resource focus in relation to the construction industry, it can be asserted that as HRM performs in accordance with its nature of human focus. It also concentrates on the resources like employees, which is able to draw quality performance. From a micro perspective, it can be discussed that the HRM of an organization advocates the human capital by nature that includes the reformation of strategic structure, maintain employee relation while keeping the profitability of the organization in mind. Besides, from a macro perspective, it has been realized that the HRM of an organization also perceives the resource based view regarding the needs of the employees in an organization. Most of the information that has been employed in the course of this study is supported by resource based view that depicts the fact that people management are the key to generate effective HRM in the construction industry (Cheng et al. 2006). It is the HR managers who are able to inculcate changes that would be effective in the context of HRM practice. Hence, in the construction industry the skills and the knowledge of the HR managers are fundamental in this context, but many companies in the construction industry fail to identify the quality of HR professionals.
Discussed from a macro perspectives, it can be realized that the HR function in the construction industry has gone through lot of changes. The HRM practices that manifests change generated by the influence exercised on the national, international and workplace of an organization (Wilkinsonet al. 2012). Hence, focusing on the management aspects enlighten that scope to study about the changing patterns of the HRM practices that has broaden the scope for the organization to think about renovating their exiting people management theories in the construction industry and prepare the people acting within the industry to cope with the changing working environment as well (Greed, 2013).
In this component of the study the critical perspective in the context of changing patterns of human resource management in the construction industry would be elaborated based on a case study or hypothetical example of Tarmac, one of the leading building material supplier in the UK. Through this instance the limits and other practices related to it would be highlighted in the context of HRM practices of the construction industry. Tarmac has been formed in 1903 in the UK and become one of the leading building material supplier and also engaged with other sectors like, manufacturing light bulbs and supplying building materials for constructing roads and also contributed to the sectors like toothpaste and chewing gum etc. (Lafarge Tarmac. 2016).
There are many other different aspects that work behind a successful organization, but this example has been employed in order to elaborate the condition and implementation of human resource management practices in the construction industry. Here the researcher has highlighted the human resource practices within Tarmac and how the changing patterns helped Tarmac to meet its objectives and organizational goals.
Figure: structure of human resource management of Tarmac.
Source: (Businesscasestudies.co.uk. 2016).
The key concept of human resource management is to understand that what kind of HRM practices does an organization need to inculcateto achieve its goals. In case of Tarmac, it can be said that it requires skill and knowledge that HR professionals need to acquire in order to generate effective strategic outlines for the organizational and the employees as well. It involves the entire business planning for future in which the HR professionals plays an important role. As mentioned earlier that it takes the right skills and knowledge to enable an organization to meets its organizational objectives. In case of construction industry it could be presented as a representative of the entire sector as the changing patterns in HRM are being highlighted through this particular instance. Tarmac has prepared a field in which all the employees need to contribute in diverse way in order to achieve the vision of the organization to obtain the exceptional. In order to engage employee performance and manage human capital at the same time Tarmac has generated five goals demonstrating through the word DREAM that illustrates develop market, reduce cost, engage employees, act responsibly and manage assets.
Figure: organizational goals set by the management of Tarmac.
Source: (Businesscasestudies.co.uk. 2016).
Tarmac has enhanced the HRM practices by adopting the changing patterns of the HRM practices that most organizations in the construction industry ignores or did not find the scope to concentrate on such matter. The main feature of the management system of Tarmac is to engage its employees and the HR function works in this regard to provide appropriate training programs and internal and external course for the employees in order to develop and grow their skills in the respective areas they are working on. Hence, in order to achieve the exceptional communication is important and in this case HR managers are the key to deliver all the required element that develop a working environment for the employees (Lafarge Tarmac. 2016).
In case of depicting the merits of management focus in the context of HRM practices in the construction industry it can be said that, managing the people in an organization is one of the most important aspects, but in case of the construction industry discussion of human resource management has appeared too often. But it is evident that, contemporarily certain changes have been noticed in the construction sector and these changes in the human resource practices have broaden the scope for the organization to concentrate on rectifying the old ones (Siew, 2014). Therefore, among the three dimensions of HRM perspective in the construction industry the management focus is important as without the HR professional or managers employees would not be able to acquire skills or targets in relation to obtain organizational goals. On the other hand it has some limitation that highlights, not only management but also the human capital and resources accumulated through their delivery of work is also important in solving the issues related to the HRM in the construction industry. Through the instances of organization acting in the construction industry the positive side of the changed HRM patterns are being evaluated and it impacts at the same time. Hence, it can be said that in the given instance the role of management focus has been discussed though in a converse way, but it explained that at present organizations are growing and drawing competitive advantage through the adaptation of new HRM practices and changing the future scenario as well (Silvius and Schipper, 2014).
This study has provided several different outlooks regarding the HRM practices in the construction industry, but here the researcher has concentrated on the management aspects of an organization which explains that the HR functionalities are the key concept of generating effective practices in relation to manage people in an organization. In this regard few recommendations can be cited in order to highlight the effectiveness of the approaches and the applicability of it in practical.
As the study has discussed about the management perspective, therefore, it can be said that most of the training programs, recruitment process and accountability for managing HR issues are bestowed on the project managers. Thus, the emotional intelligence has a significant effect on the work performances of the project managers in the construction sector. Hence, it is evident that the level of emotional intelligence can influence the performance of the employees, as the managers are solely devoted to the project work. On the other hand, impact of the approach that the research has adopted could be mentioned in terms of many organizations in the construction sector have employed and concentrated on the management perspective as it has been believe that without a proper HR function an organization would not be able to generate effective HRM strategies.
Besides, the organization that are implementing the management perspective approached need to be aware of the fact that whether this approach is suitable and able to cope with the present structure of their organizational and cultural base. In order to generate effective outcomes the strategy needs to fit with the project goals and organizational culture and also to enhance the benefits of such implementations. The benefits of the strategies that are drawn from the project goals must be aligned in order to become a part of the entire organizational project and corporate structure (Söderlund and Bredin, 2006).
Conclusion
To conclude this study it can be cited that this research work has been devoted to bring out the issues related to the HRM practices in the construction industry. After the entire assessment of the HRM in the construction industry it can be realized that there are many aspects that are responsible for the generation of the issues in this regard which includes, poor management of employee relation that may affect both the quality of work and performance of the employees. Hence, the HRM practices have been elaborated from both macro and micro perspective depending upon the three dimensional element of HRM, among which the researcher has concentrated on the management perspective that enhanced other important side of HRM in an organization. The role of an HR manager has also been evaluated. Apart from this, instances of construction project and organization has been provided in relation to HRM practices that has highlighted the approach mentioned in this study in order to assess the present HRM practices of the construction sectors and the impacts of the adoption of the changing patterns of HRM by the organization. Hence, it can be asserted that adapting the ability to cope with the changing circumstances and industrial scenario related to the HRM practices of the organization would surely enhance scope the future profitability of the construction industry.
References
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Lafarge Tarmac. (2016). Building Products | Tarmac. [online] Available at: https://www.tarmac.com/tarmacbuildingproducts [Accessed 23 Jul. 2016].
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