Human resource management is an essential concept within the business issues. This reflects the effective and judicious use of the organizational resources for the production of quality product and services. Within this, technology acts as a cornerstone in systematizing the business activities according to their priority (Rees and Smith 2017). This assignment takes up the case study of a Higher Educational Institute for assessing the effectiveness of the ways and means adopted for finalizing the transformation project. In this, the focus of the assignment is on attaching psychological analysis towards mitigating the issues, which might hamper the process of transformation process. As a final touch, the assignment would propose recommendations for improving the approach towards business operations.
The case study takes the reference of a Higher education Institute. Recently, the institute has undertaken the project of digitalizing the business operations. For this, the administrative personnel have developed the strategy to install new IT systems and recruit more employees for enhancing the efficiency in the operations. The transformation team consisted of senior and the experienced officials from the functional departments of the university. The head of the departments were briefed about the tasks and asked to communicate with the team members. The HR department was entrusted with the responsibility to achieve transformation. As there were no occupational psychologists, therefore the HR specialists were hired by the department for gaining suggestions on how to proceed with the transformation project.
The Strategy Director initiated the process of planning through the consideration of the data collected by the organizational department team (OD). Although this took a time of 1 year, it helped in moving on to the next step, recruiting four change managers from IT, Finance and two other academic departments, who would be responsible for regulating and implementing the change. As no applications were submitted, therefore the task seemed next to impossible. The immediate result of this was an urgent meeting, consisting of staffs from the HR department, Finance department and senior academics. The issues of late appointment, improper knowledge management and lack of strategic approach gained prominence in the meeting. Along with this, frequent sick leaves, insecurities due to the lack of support were also the discussion areas.
The meeting between one of the change managers and the Project Director reflects differentiation of opinion. However, taking the blame on herself is the generosity of change manager in terms of defending her position. After 24 months, the manager arranged another meeting. In this, the entire transformation team was alarmed about the need for completing the project on an urgent basis. A report was produced by the Project Director about the approach towards executing the project related activities. The report was full of complaints from the students, staffs and the academics regarding the execution of the assigned duties and responsibilities. These complaints also covered the issues of frequent sick leaves, as a result of stress and the attitude of the change manager. In response to this, the manager of the institution hired Occupational Psychologists for getting external assistance in terms of resolving the internal crisis.
In the workplace, there are several issues takes place, which hamper the productivity. These issues are- lack of strategies, careless attitude of the employees, improper approach towards recruitment and selection and differentiation of opinions among others. All these issues delay the process of completing the undertaken projects within the stipulated deadline. As a matter of specification, lack of strategies adds an interrogative parameter to the business operations. In case of the Higher Education Institute, strategy was developed regarding the adoption of new IT systems. However, non-compliance towards the developed strategies is the result of the negative outcomes, which the institution achieved (Rees et al. 2015). Along with this, recruitment of the change managers was also included in the strategies. Not considering Tuckman’s stages of team development compelled the administrative personnel to encounter the issues of lack of adequate skills within the hired candidates. This raises doubts over the strategies developed by the administrative personnel of the higher education institute, mentioned in the case study.
Meetings are a wise step in terms of planning. However, the Higher Education Institute mentioned in the case study, cannot be credited in terms of the meetings organized. This is because of most of the important personnel did not attend the meeting, which did not serve the true purpose of the altering the business scenario (Lindebaum and Jordan 2014). If the issues remained after briefing the aspects clearly, it is simply the wastage of time, money and efforts. The areas to be covered in the meeting were: lack of adequate skills and support, frequent sick leaves, improper attitude towards strategy planning among others.
The intensity of these issues necessitates the hiring of Occupational Psychologists by the Higher Education Institute, as mentioned by the case study. This is in terms of overcoming the incapability towards solving the workplace issues internally. Going by the functionalities, these psychologists are entrusted with the responsibility to heal the psychological wounds of the employees while carrying out the assigned duties and responsibilities (Clement et al. 2015). Typical examples of these wounds are taking sick leaves for relieving the stress from hard work; suffering from depression due to failure to meet the expectation of the bosses; poor performance appraisal, getting less salary among others.
The function of these psychologists can be aligned with that of the counsellors. They delve deep into the circumstances, which affected the psyche of the employees and obstructed the exposure of better performance. Here, consideration of theory of planned action and reasoned behaviour helps the psychologists in assessing the circumstances, which compelled the employees to expose such behaviours. Most of the companies and organizations do not have the access towards hiring occupational psychologists (Goh et al. 2015). They can hire HR specialists to take suggestions for adopting and implementing the changes through the undertaken projects. In these case, the Higher Education Institute is lucky, as they consulted the Occupational Psychologists for getting external assistance towards solving the internal issues.
According to Robert (2016), humor or refreshment is needed in the workplace for reducing the stress of the hard work. Perceiving humor from the psychological perspective, misutilizing it in workplace can result in the differentiation of opinion. This differentiation can lead to discriminations and harassments, hurting the individual sentiments of the employees. This affectation compels the employees to suffer from depression (Qureshi et al. 2015). It is at this stage that psychologists are needed for counselling the employees, so that they can resume their productive performance at workplace.
Failure to meet the expectation of bosses is also the reasons for suffering from depression. This failure makes the employees think that they are incapable of performing the assigned duties and responsibilities (Beehr 2014). In case of the Higher Educational Institute mentioned in the case study, failure of the staffs to perform the duties appropriately compels the students, staffs and academicians to complain to the manager. The report produced by the manager indicates that the careless attitude of the staffs in terms of the careless attitude, which they have exposed (Ridenour et al. 2015). This carelessness intensifies their lack of understanding the need for taking the transformation project seriously and finalizing the plans for initiating the projects.
Workplace bullying is one of the other psychological issues, which affects the psyche of the employees. Bullying destroys the stability in the relationship between the workers, nullifying the concept of teamwork. Being the victim of bullying compels the workers to adopt silence. Here, workplace communication achieves a negative connotation (Rai and Agarwal, 2018). In case of the higher educational institute, the managers briefed the employees about the changes, which has been proposed. This nullifies the concept of workplace bullying in this case study. Viewing it from the other perspective, the employees bullied the managers by disobeying the instructions of the managers. Typical example of this can be delaying the recruitment of the change manager.
Strategies are very important for the companies and organizations in terms of carrying out the business activities in an efficient and effective manner. Strategies assist the companies and organizations to systematize the business activities. Although the higher education institute developed the strategy of adopting new IT systems, lack of planning nullifies the efforts of the personnel towards developing the strategies (Rees and Smith 2017). In terms of investigating this issue, the occupational psychologists can take into consideration theory of reasoned behaviour and theory of planned action. This is in terms of excavating the reason why the staffs exposed non-complaince towards the developed strategies. From the perspective of the human resource management, lack of strategies contradicts the strategy of adopting new IT system. Rather, the disobedience towards the proposed strategies negates their capability towards the purchasing the new IT systems and implementing them in executing the workplace operations.
The work environment is also one of the grounds, which contributes to the psychological issues in the workplace. Too much noise distracts the workers from the focus of their work. Intentionally creating noise near the staffs leads to conflicts, which needs the psychologists to intervene into the issue (Modini et al. 2016). Herein lays the correlation with the communication issues, which was reported by the manager of the higher education institute. Frequent leaves by the staffs affect the work flow, increasing the burden of the workers to work individually, rather for extra shifts for meeting the targets. Not getting due appraisal for this, psychologically affects the psyche of the staffs in terms of their professionalism.
Official complaints about the change manager are directly related to the psychological affectation of the employees’ psyche. These complaints put the employment of the change managers at stake. Psychologists can excavate the reality of the complaints, which would bring to the forefront the circumstances, which compelled the students, staffs and the academicians to file complaints against the change manager (Nica, Hurjui and ?tefan 2016).
This case study referred by the assignment proves successful in enhancing the clarity of the readers regarding the prevalence of the psychological issues, which take place in the workplace. Most of the companies and organizations do not possess the access to consult the occupational psychologists for achieving solutions to mitigate these issues. Instead, they are provided with HR specialists, who help in seeking effective solutions for the internal issues of the workplace. The higher educational institute referred in the case study is an exception, as they got the external consultation of the occupational psychologists.
The proposed discussion can be sent to the Director, so that they can implement them into their workplace activities. Lack of rational approach nullifies the proposed strategy. In this situation, any new proposal would seem difficult to implement into the business operations. The spontaneous approach of the Project Director is appropriate in terms of altering the business scenario of the higher education institute. Delaying the recruitment of the change manager is also a delay in finalizing the project related activities. Along with this, lack of support from the managers aggravates the complexities of the employees lacking the adequate skills and knowledge.
Complaints from the students, teachers and the clients reflects the careless attitude of the staffs in terms of the executing the assigned duties and responsibilities in an efficient and effective manner. These complaints put the employment of the administrative personnel at stake, which adversely affects the psyche. If the staffs are clear from their end, they can defend themselves, which enhances their position in the workplace. On the contrary, accepting the blame upgrades the status of the staffs in terms of inquisitiveness towards upgrading the standards and quality of performance. One of the change managers, who was called for not attending the meeting can be placed in this category.
Deciding to hire an expert, in response to the ongoing crisis can be considered wise in terms of making the transformation project successful. Exposing spontaneity in this direction is appreciable in case of the change manager in terms of achieving infrastructural development of the institute. Hiring occupational psychologists is an attempt towards ensuring the wellbeing of the employees. This perspective adds value to the transformation project.
After a thorough review of the case study, it can be stated that training is needed for imparting the basic management skills to the staffs. Training would enrich the preconceived skills, expertise and knowledge of the staffs. Along with this, it would fill in the knowledge gaps. Viewing it from the other perspective, training would transfer skills from the managers to the employees. This would enhance the stability in the relationship between the managers, employees and the other staffs. Taking post training tests would help the managers to assess the capability of the staffs to make practical application of the learnt skills in carrying out the assigned duties and responsibilities. The performance of the staffs would assist the managers to make estimates regarding the additional resources needed and the time needed for completing the project successfully.
As a matter of specification, information technology needs to be included in the training courses. As the concept is new, the courses need to be equally divided into segments. This would provide an opportunity to the staffs to achieve an easy grasp over the concepts. Arranging for lectures, seminars and question answer session would provide a platform to the staffs to clarify their doubts. Along with this, these sessions would improve the communication between the staffs, managers, administrative personnel and the clients.
Strategies need to be developed and the staffs need to be instructed to abide by the strategies for the efficient execution of the project related activities. They can be kept in control by alarming the consequences they can face upon violation of the orders. Typical examples in this direction can be salary deduction, cancellation of sick leaves among others. Tracking this performance would be assistance in appraising the approach of the staffs towards the levied orders.
Counselling sessions would be an innovation in the workplace of companies and organization like the higher educational institute of the case study. These sessions would bring to the forefront the issues, which they are facing in the execution of the workplace activities. Maintaining frequency in organizing these sessions would mitigate the instances of conflicts, discriminations and harassments in the workplace. Along with this, the counselling sessions would help the managers to know the staffs well. This would enable the managers to be acquainted with the capability of the staffs.
The employees also need to be made aware of the judicious use of the organizational resources. This would help the staffs in times of crisis. Along with this, this would help the companies like the higher educational institute to achieve sustainable development in the competitive ambience of the market. Apart from this, judicious use of the organizational resources would be an agent in achieving infrastructural development. This would be cornerstone in increasing the sales revenue and profit margin, paving the way for foreign market penetration.
References and bibliography
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