Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory

According to Maslow (1970), an individual is ready to act upon the growth needs if and only if the deficiency needs are met. He was a psychologist and he introduced the Mslow's hierarchy of Needs.

Maslow's initial concept included only one growth need that is up to self-actualization position. Self-actualized people can be categorized by their characters as follows;

1. Much focused to problems;

2. Can be easily motivated on appreciation of life;

3. Concerns very much on personal growth

4. Abilities are more focused on experiences.

Maslow later realize some of the issues and came up with new new layers by introducing the growth related to self fulfillment of needs. Mainly he identified two of the first growth needs, in the figure 1 depicted as self fulfillment needs as part of the more general level of self actualization (Maslow & Lowery, 1998) and another level which is beyond the general level mainly focused on the growth focusing on the highest expectations in the self-actualization (Maslow, 1970).

Figure 1: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs theory has not been able to considered as a great deal of support with respect to specific areas of concepts it proposes. The model defined by Maslow is concerned more on effectiveness in describing the different types of behaviours of highly successful individuals who are are having a very good potential in growth need strength because employees who are different to the idea of increasing their growth will not realize any physiological reaction to their jobs.
(Greenberg & Baron, 2003)

Friedlander (1966, p 143) carried out on his surveys targeting a cross-section of the working population in Los Angeles, posited “background factors, altitudes and aspirations affects workers needs, expectations and situation assessment”.

Also he made a further argument by mentioning that the theory makes the following unrealistic assumptions

• all employees considered as in a similar platform.
• all situations considered of employment are similar.
• there is one and only one best way to meet the needs which are clearly mentioned.

Another criticism to the Maslow's view was published by Basset-Jones & Lloyd (2004, p 961). They presented that in general circumstances, the Maslow's needs of theory related to employees satisfaction. In Simple words feeling of employees to take credits for the needs met and needs not met is a measurement of employee satisfaction and dissatisfaction.

References:

Maslow, A. H. (1970). Motivation and personality. New York: Harper & Row.

Basset-Jones, N. & Lloyd, G.C. (2005), “Does Herzbergs Motivational Theory have staying power”? Journal of Management Development, Vol.24, No.10, pp. 57-56

Friedlander, F. (1966) “Motivation to work and Organisational Performance”, Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 50, No. 2, pp. 143-152.

Greenberg J & Baron A.R (2003) “Behaviour in Organisations”, Prentice Hall, Vol. 8, pp.195-197

Talent Management Strategy

Talent Management Strategy

figure 01

Talent management has the ability to influence the organizing of employees, using of technology & allocation of resources. (Richard et al., 2011)

According to CIPD (2017) there are several important facts that an organization should be concern when implementing a talent management strategy.

Alignment to corporate strategy – Talent management strategy of the organization should be supportive to the corporate strategy.  When preparing the talent management strategy corporate strategy should be prioritized.

Inclusive approach vs exclusive approach – Inclusive approach focused on entire employee force of the organization & it engage every employee to develop their talents. Exclusive approach is focused only to a specialized segmentation of employees like key employees or highly potential employees.

When preparing talent management strategy the organization should decide whether they are going to focus on whole workforce or several employees. Though the organization have the option to use either approach the talent management process should be fair for all the employees.

Involving the right people – There are two parties involved in talent management strategy as participants & managers. Participants refer to the segment of employees that have been selected for talent management process. Once the talent development program is completed for the selected employees it is necessary to provide proper feedback. Otherwise the participant might feel dissatisfied & unsure about the career development opportunities available with the talent management process.

Managers refer to managerial level employees including directors of the company who conduct talent management activities. Respective line managers will be responsible for the developing of talent in their team.

Role of HR division – HR division have a major role in preparing talent management strategy. Responsibility of choosing the most suitable talent management approach based on the organizational requirement is lying with HR division.

Every organization use unique talent management strategy based on their organizational requirements. It is necessary to provide proper recognition for the knowledge, skills & capabilities of the employees since it is an important fact to get competitive advantage. (Colling & Mellahi, 2009).

 References

1. Collings, D. and K. Mellahi, 2009. Strategic talent management
2. CIPD, (2017). Talent management: Understand the changing context and business case for talent management, and the key features of a talent management strategy.
3. Richard, S W., Audrey, B. S., & Scott E., (2006). Nine best practices for effective talent management. Development Dimensions International Inc.

Influence of Trade Unions

Influence of Trade Unions 

Figure 01

As per the Deakin & Morris (2012)  Trade Unions as the groups of people who collate the interests of their employees against the organization that may seek opportunities to achieve the interests of the employees. CIPD (2017) described trade unions as independent collective bodies which are representing the interests of workers. Further they identified that the literature on trade unions as so extensive. Freeman & Medoff (1984) says that independent trade unions are the most effective vehicle for employee voice, as a source of guidance to challenge the unilateral power of management control.

According to Kaine (2014)  Unions often mobilize members to take collective actions over individual grievances. He has taken transport industry of London Underground as an example where such mobilizing occurs, which extend individual grievance into more expansive collective action of the sector or whole workforce.

A trade union is an organization consist of workers who have joined together to achieve their goals in different areas such as wages and working conditions as well as negotiates contracts and conditions with employers while keeping employee satisfaction highly and protecting the workers from unsafe or unfair working conditions. Also these organization are formed together by labor, workers or employees with the aim of achieving their demands for better conditions at a working atmosphere while the Fundamental purpose of a Trade unions is to protect the interests of their employees.­­­

According to Julia.H (2017), There are two types of Trade Unions .

1. Craft unions- Represent workers who have the same skill under same profession.
2.  Industrial unions – Represent workers who are employed in the same industry with specific skills or profession.

       As per the Armstrong.M (2009),Trade unions have two unique roles which can be identified as to secure through collective bargaining, improved terms and conditions for their members, as well as to provide protection, support and advice to their members as individual employees. Also as many researches shows an additional role which means  providing legal, financial and other services to their members, has come to the industry more recently.

References

• Armstrong. M (2009), 11^th ed , A hand Book of Human Resource Management Practice Kogan Page, UK.
• Deakin, S. F. & Gillian S. Morris, 2012. Labour Law. In: r. 6, ed. s.l.:Hart Publishing.
• KAINE, S. (2014) Union voice -Handbook of research on employee voice. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, pp170–187.

Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility

Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility 

figure 01

As per the Chandler (2001) corporate social responsibility refers to transparent business practices that are based on the ethical values, compliance with legal requirements and respect for people, communities and the environment. In other words beyond making profits, companies are responsible for the whole impact they create on people and environment. currently stakeholders expect that organizations should be more environment friendly and socially responsible in conducting their business.

Also Business Accounting and common usage "bottom line" refers to profit or loss. These days most of the companies adopted the TBL framework to evaluate the performance levels in a broader aspect to create a great business value. According to Elkinton (1998) triple bottom line consists of 3 stages and commonly known as 3P's

1.  Profit - Refers to the economic value created by the organization after deducting the cost of all inputs.
2. People - Refers to fair business practices toward labors, community and region which conducts the business.
3. Planet -  Refers to sustainable environmental practices as environmental sustainability is the more profitable course for a business in the long run.

Benefits of CSR

CIPD (2013) stated that, through CSR activities organizations can build its credibility, positioned higher in the market, protect the reputation and ultimately securing the company's license to operate the business. Therefor most of the companies are adopted to TBL framework while they are more concerned about CSR activities.

References 

• Chandler, G. (2001). Defining Corporate Social Responsibility, Ethical Performance Best Practice.
• CIPD (2003). Corporate Social Responsibility and HR’s Role, Londona
• Elkinton, J. (1998). Cannibals with forks : The Triple Bottom Line of 21st Century Business

Diversity of Workforce

Diversity of Workforce

As per the  Saxenaa (2014) , Workforce diversity can be identified as the similarities and differences between employees in terms of physical capabilities and disabilities, race, religion, age, social backgrounds, gender, and sexual orientation. Also auther explained further, no two humans are alike and people are different not only in above psychological characteristics but also in their perspectives and prejudices and in current scenario, employing diversified workforce is necessary for every organization but to manage such diversified workforce is also becoming a big challenge for management.

Workforce diversity is a major concern for most of the businesses today since organizations need to understand and go through the workforce diversity effectively because of globalization requires more attention and interaction among people from diverse cultures, beliefs, and backgrounds 

As per the Esen (2005 ), under the umbrella of diversity practices, currently organizations are employing approaches of understanding and relationship-building which encourage the voice of all employees to be heard and involved with achieving a competitive advantage by learning the perspectives of diverse employee groups are adding value and creativity to organizations’ strategic direction.

As per the  Devoe (1999), many challenges can be identified in managing diverse work population since it is more than simply acknowledging differences in people. Also author says that it involves in recognizing the value of differences, combating discrimination and upholding the inclusiveness resulting managers to be challenged with losses in personnel and work throughput due to prejudice and discrimination, also complaints and legal actions against the company.

Negative attitudes and behaviors also can be hurdles to organizational diversity because they can damage working relationships and hurt morale and work productivity. (Esty et al. 1995).
Organizations always need to have a look for the ways to becoming comprehensive while holding diversity because it has the potential to yield the greater competitive advantages as well as the work productivity (SHRM 1995). Stephen Butler, chairperson of the Business-Higher Education Forum, strongly trust that diversity is an invaluable competitive asset (Robinson, 2002) and Black Enterprise(2001) highlighted that managing diversity in the current global context is a key factor of effective people management in a workplace.

References

• Saxenaa, A., 2014. Workforce Diversity: A Key to Improve Productivity Ankita. Institute of Management Studies Annual Research Conference .
• Esen, E., 2005. 2005 Workplace Diversity Practices , s.l.: Society for Human Resource Management.
• Black Enterprise. 2001. “Managing a multicultural workforce.” Black Enterprise Magazine (July).
• Devoe, D. 1999.Managing a changing workforce: Achieving outstanding service with today’s employees. Davie, FL: Workplace Trends Publishing.
• Onday, O., 2016. Global Workforce Diversity Management and the Challange of managing diversity. Global Journal of Human Resource Management , Volume Volume 4.

Work Life Balance

Work Life Balance 

Figure 01

Work-life balance concept comes to platform in 19^th century with the workers’ Union campaign against the long working hours. In earlier 20^th century workers demanded for various liabilities such as maximum cap on working hours. After sometimes, in 1980  organizations started to promote more family friendly working policies in order to attract employees.  Though these working comforts were implemented focusing on women workers initially, companies offered those family friendly work advantages to male workers as well. Those family friendly work policies had telecommuting & flexible scheduling.

During the initial stage of work-life balance concept it contained protect family life in competitive workplace & career focused society. But at present work-life balance concept has broad indicators such as health & safety at work, equality, labor market flexibility & international competitiveness. (Syed, 2015). 

figure 02

According to the UK labor market statics 43% of the female workers are employed in part time jobs where as only 13% male workers are engaged in part time jobs. (ONS, 2012) By looking at the fact we can define that the female workers are more concern about work-life balance.

Thomas (2013) suggested that the biggest problem is work-life balance is time pressure. Time pressure is the difficulty faced by the employee to manage both official work & home work. Thomas named the said issue as Work-family conflict. Most of the time women employees are getting affected by the work-family conflict. Women employees would get frustrated when they failed to manage their time. Hence most of the women choose to do a part time or a seasonal job to have more work flexibility.

References

• Hill, E.J., Miller, B.C., Weiner, S.P. and Colihan, J. 1998. Influences of the virtual office on aspects of work and work/life balance. Personnel Psychology, 51(3), 667–83.
• ONS (Office for National Statistics) 2012. Gender Working Patterns.
• Felstead, A., Jewson, N., Phizacklea, A. and Walters, S. 2002. Opportunities to work at home in the context of work–life balance, Human Resource Management Journal, 12: 54–76.
• Thomas, K.C. 2013. Work–Life Balance: A Sociological Study of Women Professionals in Kerala. Kerala: Mahatma Gandhi University.
• Syed, J. (2015).Work-life balance. Managing Diversity and Inclusion: An International Perspective, pp.291-314. London: Sage.

Challengers in Employee Recruitment and Selection

Challengers in Employee Recruitment and Selection 

figure 01

According to Armstrong (2009) recruitment is the process of finding and engaging potential candidates at a minimum cost to fill the vacant positions in an organization. Selection is a part of the recruitment process concerned with deciding which applicant should be appointed to jobs.There are four stages in  recruitment and selection process.

 1. Defining recruitment -  Preparing job role and specifications, deciding terms and conditions of employment.
2. Planning and recruitment campaigns - Organizing/planning campaigns to find suitable candidates
3. Attracting candidates - Evaluate the alternative sources of applicants, advertising, e-recruiting
4. Selecting Candidates - Interviewing, testing, shifting applications, offering employment, obtaining references, preparing contracts for employment.

Challengers in Recruitment ans Selections process

Figure 02

1. Labor Market Conditions

According Gusdorf (2008) strength of the economy and labor market conditions will have a significant effect to attract and retain top-level employees. In a strong economy with little unemployment, organization will have to offer higher incentives, compensation or benefits to attract quality applicants.

2. Promotion From Within

Internal promotion process creates a staffing gap in their former position and it still creates a position to fill. However that gap is likely to be filled by a lower, less-skilled employee and it has become a challenge for the companies.  Most of the companies use internal promotion process as an employee motivational tool and a rewarding scheme for good work and long term relationship.

3. Nepotism

Nepotism is hiring of relatives. When hiring relatives most employers require a family members to work in different areas of the organization to prevent favoritism issues and moral problems among employees.

Equal Employment Opportunity Versus Affirmative Action

Figure 03

According to Dessler (2013) equal employment opportunity aims to ensue that regardless of age, national origin, sex, disability, race or color they have an equal opportunity on selection processes such as recruitment, hiring, promotions and compensations.

Affirmative Action is a management tool designed to ensure the equal employment opportunity among employees.

References

• Armstrong, M.(2009). Armstrong's Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice, 11th Ed

• Richardson, M. (2008). Recruitment Strategies - Managing & Effecting the Recruitment Process
• Dessler, G.(2013). Human Resource Management, 13th Ed
• Gusdof, M. (2008). Society for Human Resource Management

Employee Engagement

Employee Engagement

   Figure 01

                                           

Employee Engagement can define as the commitment towards organization's work which created employees's through motivation to achieve  high level of performances (Armstrong, 2012) 

As per the Armstrong there are two elements of employee engagement 

01. Job Engagement  : Refers to feeling positive about the job
02. Organizational engagement : Refers to Positive impression by employees towards the organization and its values 

According to Whittngton (2017) Employee engagement has a positive and significant effect on organizations. 

                                              Figure 02

As per the Armstrong (2017) Employee engagement helps to organization in a way reducing employee turnover, Enhancing productivity and increasing profitability by giving high  responsibilities to non managers

Figure 03

References:

• Armstrong, M. (2012). Armstrong's Handbook of Management and Leadership - Developing Effective People Skills for Better Leadership and Management. London: Kogan Page, pp.147-159.
• Armstrong, M. (2017). Armstrong's Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice. 12th ed. London: Kogan Page, pp.136-152.
• CIPD (2012). Managing for sustainable employee engagement. [online] 151 The Broadway London. UK: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. Available at: https://www.cipd.asia/knowledge/reports/engagement-management-guide [Accessed 5 Jul. 2012].
• Whittington, L., Meskelis, S., Asare, E. and Beldona, S. (2017). Enhancing Employee Engagement. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp.98-107.

Innovation and Human Resource Management .

What is Human resource? what is Resource? Resource is source or supply from which a benefit is produced . Typically resources are Materials , Energy , Services , Staff, Knowledge or other assets.
Human resource is something special. People inside the company we namely employees. Human Resource Management also known as Human capital Management.
Human Resource Management is the practice of Recruiting, Hiring , Deploying and Managing an organizations employees. HR department is usually responsible for Creating , Putting in to effect and overseeing policies governing workers and the relationship of organization with its employees.

Innovation is the most spirited aspect in the modern business environment which helps a firm to gain a competitive advantage over other firms.
" Firms with greater Inattentiveness    could be more successful in responding to changing environment and developing new capabilities that allow them to achieve better performances"
(Chen , 2009)

Innovation is really mega trend that determine business and world. So-many companies said 80% of their revenue is done with products were invented in the last few years.  Engineers , people and production they have to change their mind , They have to work with different products for innovations.  Training process and Reward systems have an impact on Innovation .

                Figure 01. Innovations in Telecommunication Industry   

"Organizational culture is one of  the main drive force of innovation .HR practices could support the enhancement of the corporate culture to be more innovative and scholars identified organizational culture and climate, individual characteristics and support systems are the main factors in work place". (Tarun, 2009)

References

Chen ,C-J 2009 . Strategic human resource practices and innovation performance.
volume 62. PP 104-114

Tarun , N , 2009 .  Determinants of creativity and innovation in the workplace
9 (1) PP 84-106