Discuss about the case study Human Resource Management for Business Organisations in Managing.
Human resource management is an approach that helps business organisations in managing their workforce in the best possible manner and in optimising their performance by using the concepts provided in the subject. Human resource management has given business organisations some important concepts, such as compensation & benefits, performance management, recruitment and selection, career management, training and development, etc. (Inc.com, 2016)
Human resource management basically deals with the work conditions and improving them to keep the employees motivated and optimise their performances by providing them with the best work conditions. Hackman and Oldham were two people who proposed the Job Characteristics theory, also known as the JCT (Tutor2u.net, 2016). The basic idea that the two suggested was that the job itself or the task itself was one of the key components that could keep the employees motivated. They said that if the job given to an employee is boring or monotonous, it would stifle the motivation of the employee to work well and on the other hand, a challenging job would always foster motivation amongst the employees. They also suggested in their work that if the employees are motivated to work harder and accept challenging work, they would perform better, will be more satisfied with their jobs and the organisation would be able to experience reduced absenteeism and employee turnover rates (Yourcoach.be, 2016). Therefore, in this report, we will discuss a number of academic literature resources and find out whether the tasks or the jobs can actually help in keeping the employees motivated and improve the final results for the company as well as for the employees.
The modern day business world is tough and only the toughest of the organisations can survive in the global competition. With the advancement of technology and increase in the reach of people, it has become very easy for business organisations to replicate operations and processes and achieve business competencies in the market. Thus, business organisations cannot rely upon technology, operations or processes to gain competitive advantage in the market and are left with only human resources, which can help them in achieving market competencies. Therefore, it is very important that business organisations are able to provide the human resources with the best working conditions and optimise their performances to achieve the best results.
Work conditions here do not merely mean that business organisations should provide the employees with a comfortable cabin to sit in and other facilities that can satisfy their needs. Work conditions here means that the business organisations should provide the employees with tasks or work that suits their expertise and is challenging enough to make them use their mind and skills. Human resource managements are now going for concepts such as job enrichment, job rotation and job transfer to make the working conditions tougher and more interesting for the employees. Job enrichment aims at providing new type of work to the employees so that they do not feel bored with their day-to-day work. Let us now talk about some benefits of providing a challenging work environment to the workforce:
Learning new skills à it has been found that the employees are eager to acquire new skills and techniques that would help them in building their careers and advancing on their career paths. When they are given challenging work or something new to work on, they feel that they have been given an opportunity to learn something new. They feel that they are given a responsibility which they must fulfil to prove themselves. Thus, the idea of being able to learn new skills motivates the employees to work harder (Bizcommunity.com, 2016).
Reduced boredom à it has been found that most of the employees feel bored when they have to do the same work over and over again. Boredom has been found to have a great negative impact on the performance of the employees as they do not feel that their work is challenging or interesting anymore. Providing a challenging work environment to the employees ensures that they do not feel bored and have something to continuously look forward to (Smallbusiness.chron.com, 2016).
Receive recognition à recognition has been found to be one of the most esteem needs of employees working in an organisation. Recognition was also included by Maslow in his Need Hierarchy Theory in which he suggested that the fulfilment of needs motivates the employees to perform better (Study.com, 2016). Providing challenging work to the employees gives the management an opportunity to test their skills, strengths and weaknesses. An employee who is able to perform well in the task that has been given to him stands an opportunity to gain recognition within the organisation and increase his future prospects for performance appraisal or promotions.
Employee Motivation à when the seniors of the organisation trust the employees with responsibilities and challenging work, the employees feel that they do matter to the company and are an important part of the organisation. They feel their sense of belongingness to the company and the feeling of being responsible motivates them to work harder and better for the company (YourArticleLibrary.com: The Next Generation Library, 2015).
Sense of accomplishments à when the management works hard to improve the work conditions for the employees and provide them with challenging work that can reduce their boredom, the employees too feel responsible. When they feel responsible, they also feel motivated to work harder and when they perform well due to their motivation, they receive a sense of accomplishment in the end.
Benefits for the employer à Providing challenging work to the employees is not only beneficial for the employees but also has a great number of advantages for the employers too. The employers can provide challenging work to their employees and can test their skills and knowledge and can easily identify the employees who can be considered for promotions or to fulfil higher vacancies. Further, the employer can also identify the skills or knowledge that is missing in the employees and can arrange for the training and development of the workforce. Therefore, the employer can improve the work conditions and quality of work for the employees by providing challenging work to the employees and testing their skills (Reddy, 2016).
Creates a professional approach à the practice of providing challenging work to the employees also involves introducing a number of regular changes in the organisation. Changes related to routine, jobs, tasks, etc. helps in making the workplace interesting for the employees and they become more professional.
Reduced absenteeism à researchers have shown that job enrichment, or the practice of providing new and challenging work to the workforce, helps a lot in bringing down the absenteeism rates in the organisation, which can greatly improve the final results of a company. When the management provides challenging work and tasks to the employees on regular basis, they have to act more responsibly and even their interest increases in the work that they do. As the employees become more responsible and interested in the work that they do, they avoid taking meaningless holidays or not showing up at work uninformed. Thus, an organisation can bring down the absenteeism rates by making the work environment better and providing more challenging work to the employees.
Reduced labour turnover rates à it has been observed that organisations that provide monotonous or similar work to their employees over and over again have experienced higher labour turnover rates as compared to the organisations that provide challenging and interesting work to their employees. The clear logic behind the finding is that when the employees are given similar work to do every day, they feel bored, their skills are not used adequately and their chances of future growth reduce due to lack of learning, training and development. Thus, they tend to leave such organisations that cannot provide them challenging work. On the other hand, the employees that get challenging work regularly are able to learn new skills and techniques, which help them in developing their career. Thus, they tend to stick with such companies.
Conclusion
From the information presented above, it can be easily observed that an organisation can achieve a great number of benefits by providing better working conditions and also better or more challenging work to the employees. The type of work that an organisation provides to its employees can greatly affect the job satisfaction, motivation and performance level of the employees. An organisation that provides boring and monotonous work to its employees kills the opportunity of fostering a creative and challenging work environment at the workplace. As a result, the employees feel bored and they tend to take unnecessary leaves or switch to other companies, which can further have a negative impact on the performance of the company in the longer run. On the other hand, a company that is able to provide better working conditions to the employees and provide them with work that challenges their skills, makes them learn something new and can benefit them or their career in the future, is able to foster a workplace environment that promotes creativity and challenge. As a result, the employees feel motivated and are highly interested in the work that they do. Their commitment towards their jobs and towards the organisation increases and they show less absenteeism. Consequently, the labour turnover rates also come down.
Therefore, it can be clearly seen that such an organisation can perform well in the longer run and can achieve better results by providing better work to its workforce. Thus, the claim made by Hackman and Oldham that if employees feel their jobs are interesting, challenging and important, they will be motivated, and that high motivation will lead to improved wok performance, job satisfaction and reduced absenteeism and labour turnover is actually true in the modern day business world.
References
Hackman & Oldham’s Job Characteristics Model | Business | tutor2u. (2016). Tutor2u.net. Retrieved 10 August 2016, from https://www.tutor2u.net/business/reference/hackman-oldhams-job-characteristics-model
Hackman and Oldham job characteristics model | Employee motivation theories | YourCoach Gent. (2016). Yourcoach.be. Retrieved 10 August 2016, from https://www.yourcoach.be/en/employee-motivation-theories/hackman-oldham-job-characteristics-model.php
Hackman, J., Pearce, J., & Wolfe, J. (1978). Effects of changes in job characteristics on work attitudes and behaviors: A naturally occurring quasi-experiment. Organizational Behavior And Human Performance, 21(3), 289-304. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0030-5073(78)90055-7
Hosie, P., Sevastos, P., & Cooper, C. (2006). Happy-performing managers. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.
Human Resource Management. (2016). Inc.com. Retrieved 10 August 2016, from https://www.inc.com/encyclopedia/human-resource-management.html
Job Enrichment: Meaning, Characteristics, Advantages and Limitations. (2015). YourArticleLibrary.com: The Next Generation Library. Retrieved 10 August 2016, from https://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/hrm/jobs/job-enrichment-meaning-characteristics-advantages-and-limitations/53318/
Oldham, G., Hackman, J., & Pearce, J. (1976). Conditions under which employees respond positively to enriched work. Journal Of Applied Psychology, 61(4), 395-403. https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.61.4.395
Reddy, K. (2016). Top 15 Advantages and Disadvantages of Job Enrichment – WiseStep. WiseStep. Retrieved 10 August 2016, from https://content.wisestep.com/top-advantages-disadvantages-job-enrichment/
The Advantages & Disadvantages of Job Enrichment. (2016). Smallbusiness.chron.com. Retrieved 10 August 2016, from https://smallbusiness.chron.com/advantages-disadvantages-job-enrichment-11960.html
The importance of a challenging work environment. (2016). Bizcommunity.com. Retrieved 10 August 2016, from https://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/410/423/76259.html
The Needs Theory: Motivating Employees with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs – Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.com. (2016). Study.com. Retrieved 10 August 2016, from https://study.com/academy/lesson/the-needs-theory-motivating-employees-with-maslows-hierarchy-of-needs.html
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