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fundamentals of human resource management
Questions and Answers of
Fundamentals Of Human Resource Management
• developing an understanding of knowledge and know-how transfer through cultural interactions.
• broadening cross-cultural analysis to include an understanding of integration–differentiation in global managing;
• developing the relevance of cross-cultural studies through an incorporation of stakeholder analysis of particular interaction situations;
• developing thick cultural analysis grounded in interaction situations such as international joint ventures;
• advancing understanding of the interaction processes of cultures, within power relations, that give rise to successful and unsuccessful hybrid forms of managing through cross-vergence of cultures;
• investigating the cultural contributions that non-Western (particularly postcolonial and post-Soviet) approaches can make to global managing;
• breaking out of previously conceived and investigated cultural dimensions, to develop new concepts that are more helpful in overcoming pejorative assumptions about cultures outside Western
• developing conceptual and empirical links between theoretical formulations of cultural value dimensions and specific manifestations in HRM/people management policies and practices;
4 What are the different stakeholder needs and expectations in post-colonial countries, and how are companies identifying these, and reconciling them in their management practices?
3 How are multinational companies that operate in post-colonial countries successfully adapting people management practices to local needs and expectations?
2 How are instrumental and humanistic influences in organizational requirements and management practices being managed and reconciled in postcolonial countries?
1 What management systems are operating in African countries (and other post-colonial regions), in different ways in different industries and companies, and how successful are these systems in
3 What can be learned from Indian HRD, and its integration of Western and nonwestern approaches to managing people, in order that it can be applied in African countries?
2 Eskom is a state-owned enterprise that has now gone through various stages of liberalization and privatization. In view of the increased pressures to make profits and to make savings on the costs
1 Learning from some of the measures taken by Eskom, AECI and Germiston City Council, what could a foreign company like Colgate Palmolive do to contribute to the development of human potential within
• Successful techniques are focusing directly on people instead of technologies or processes, operating on the principle that devising systems for getting the best out of people will automatically
• Corporations are discovering that their core capabilities lie not in particular products or product categories, but in unique expertise.
• People are becoming the principal instrument in delivering service to the customer, particularly as the service industry grows in importance.
• CEOs are aiming their internal and external processes directly at customer satisfaction.
• Middle-level managers in India espouse a greater belief in change and are less conservative than their American counterparts at this level.
• In contrast to American managers, Indian managers favour labour and government intervention in the affairs of the organization.
• Indian managers at both middle and senior levels in organizations profess a belief in group-based, participative decision making, but have little faith in the capacity of workers for taking
• Achievement–ascription. Quite often more traditional societies accord status according to ascription. Again, this may influence recruitment and promotion policies that may be at variance with
• Universalism–particularism. An inclination to apply the rules according to friendship and kinship relations has implications for recruitment and promotion policies in organizations in some
• Centrality of work (MOW, 1987). Some African countries may be considered to be high in femininity and low on work centrality. This has implications for the results-focus of many Western
• Uncertainty avoidance (Hofstede, 1991). African societies are considered high in uncertainty avoidance. Western (mainly American) views of change management which increase participation and
• Power distance (Hofstede, 1991). African cultures are generally seen as tolerating higher levels of inequality and hierarchy. This has implications for the level of participation in organizations
• a feeling of involvement in and contribution to the lives of others.
• belief in the correspondence of own outcomes with the outcomes of others through interdependences, where a person’s misbehaviour may bring shame on the whole collective; and
• concern about self-presentation and loss of face, and gaining approval of the collective;
• willingness of a person to accept the opinions and views of others through normative social influence which lead to conformity, and maintaining harmony;
• sharing of non-material benefits such as time and affection;
• sharing of material benefits within a social network of reciprocity;
• concern by a person about the effects of actions or decisions on others within a wider collective;
• the Accelerated Development Programme, which focuses on developing business leaders from people who are identified as being able to help Eskom achieve its business objectives; this is focused
• the Business Leader’s Programme, which addresses the needs of the changing roles of newly appointed managers and professionals, and develops business understanding and leader skills in the
• the Manager’s Challenge Programme, which is designed to stretch and challenge the company’s most promising managers, and to address the more contextual and business issues;
• The new Growth, Employment and Redistribution policy (GEAR) which was presented to parliament in June 1996 has continued to attract criticism from the trade union movement for its implications
• There are lower levels of tertiary education in technical and scientific subjects than in other (developing) countries and this is likely to affect the skills pool.
• Private sector organizations in South Africa spend only an estimated 2 per cent of payroll per year on education and training, compared with 6–8 per cent in the leading industrial nations
• The number of people completing their artisan training in 1992 was 5,588: less than half the 1985 figure.
• The recent Employment Equity and Skills Development Bills of 1997 are aimed at redressing racial and gender-based employment inequalities, and require companies with more than 50 staff to
• Approximately 11,300 affirmative action posts have been allocated in the public sector since April 1994 (Horwitz et al., 1996).
• Government pressure has increased for the upward mobility of black managers, particularly in the public and parastatal (publicly owned utilities)sectors.
• The Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) in part tries to meet this need and has a large commitment to educational provision and people development.
• Trade unions and employer associations. These act as pressure groups and can influence employment relations depending on their relative strengths.
• Management and employees. Motivations and behaviours, and particularly responses to changes, may be critical factors in the ways emerging HRM policies and practices take shape.
• Foreign investors. These often bring fixed ideas about HRM in terms of organizational culture, management philosophy and practice.
• Enterprise owners. In view of transition to private control, ownership questions will be open to debate, and will include a combination of state, banking, private and foreign interest. These
• The banks. As major shareholders in privatized companies, and creditors of technically bankrupt companies, banks have a say in systems of ownership and control, and the nature of the company
• National government. This applies particularly to the legislative framework under which firms operate in such countries as Czech Republic, including company, employment and social legislation
4 How can the development of a learning organization help in the success of the joint venture, and what form should this take?
3 How would the situation be different if Volkswagen were to establish a joint venture with a Russian company? What people management principles and practices should be put in place?
2 The transfer of management knowledge from the German to the Czech operations may be problematic not only because of the power position of the German partner, but also the hunger for Western
1 What are the main problem areas in the German–Czech joint venture of Volkswagen–Skoda described above, and how can they be accounted for by reference to differences in culture? What part is
• Strained labour–management relations that are deep-rooted. Long-term benefits, they believe, can be obtained through appropriate employee training on company survival, and both managers and
• Confusion surrounding compensation and benefits, with a lack of information and benchmarking. Comparative data for benchmarking needs to be collected and disseminated.
• A disregard for health and safety management. Managers can be encouraged to take a proactive approach to these issues, and a holistic approach that ties in these issues with the company’s
• Lack of personal accountability and responsibility. Rewards can be tied to effort.
• A lack of commitment to the organization. Western managers can help to foster organizational commitment through promoting the organization as a stable ongoing entity, which employees and managers
• Underestimation of the complexities of a free market, with a tendency to rely on imported solutions. Western managers, they recommend, should encourage a blend of HRM involving both free market
• Flexibility. Organizations are introducing new working patterns and abandoning some traditional ones, influenced by economic transformation and savings in labour costs; however, part-time working
• Pay and benefits. Evidence suggests a significant departure from the old centralized mode, particularly for managers, professionals and technicians, with pay for clerical and manual workers still
• Trade unions. Some enterprises may view the increasing influence of trade unions as a problem, with trade unionists seeing the future of trade unions as uncertain.
• Recruitment and redundancy. Skills shortages as a result of loss of employees and lower wages in the state- and former state-owned organizations has led to targeting of school leavers, the
• The interest in developing know-how, often through foreign sources, has led to the development and uptake of training in HRM through the universities and through foreign companies.
• Attempts to address over-staffing through various methods which did not reflect future skills and operational needs have highlighted the need to develop other methods of human resource planning.
• The entry of foreign organizations with more attractive compensation packages and work is also causing problems of retention in state-owned and justprivatized organizations, and there is a need
• The loss of entrepreneurially minded staff from larger organizations back to family businesses has focused attention on recruitment, retention and compensation.
• Specific training needs are coming to the fore: language, computer, sales and marketing skills.
• Exposure to market forces has focused attention on the cost of human resources as a high proportion of operating costs.
• a lack of management responsibility concerning ecological issues and the utilization of scarce resources.
• a neglect of quality in relationship to international competitors;
• too much short-term, situational thinking, and a lack of long-term planning;
• manager–employee relationship deteriorating over time;
• a high level of employee turnover and absenteeism and a lack of identification with hard work;
• a lack of participation in decision making and initiative by employees;
• Favourable environment. Particularly the proximity to the European Union, and potential membership within it, may provide favourable conditions for development.Yet Srica (1995) indicates that
• a change in management, with managers of former DDR enterprises still often the same people who operated under the old system, but perhaps then in more junior positions. Somes managers have been
• changes in the relative importance of various functions: production was slimmed, with a shift towards quality, reliability and differentiation;purchasing was slimmed as it is easier to handle
• a reduction in the workforce of enterprises which were deemed as overmanned, with an emphasis on efficiency and productivity; this had an impact on lower absenteeism and better work discipline;
• the loss of markets in the former Soviet bloc, with its collapse, but evidence that this may still be a key factor in the positioning of some companies;
• scarcity of labour owing to full employment in a planned economy, making an employee with poor performance better than a vacant job.
• full employment policies, and therefore lack of concern with negative appraisal, as salaries varied very little and there was no danger of unemployment;
• socialist egalitarianism which resulted in wage levelling;
• a replacement of pecuniary motivation by social-ideological commitment.
• an emphasis on long-term strategy rather than short-term profitability;
• economic policy which was socially directed and concerned with the good of society rather than the optimization of the economy;
• the articulation and coordination of a range of production facilities through a central plan;
• Family coordination. Despite the eroding of the traditional family in many of the Soviet republics, there is evidence that family traditions and ties had survived despite Sovietization and
• Ethical coordination. This would apply to the motivation of those in enterprises who were prepared to give up their personal time and make sacrifices for the good of the enterprise. The extent to
• Self-governing coordination. The nominal character of cooperative enterprises was of self-governance, but only vestiges of a system of proposals or criticisms from below pertained in practice. It
• Market coordination. The extent to which horizontal market linkages existed within the formal sector was minimal, or non-existent. Enterprises could be typified as having a lack of relationship
• respublicanskie (republican, having their headquarters in the republics, and directly supervising sectors which were focused on local needs such as intrarepublic transportation, and which were
• soyuzno-respublicanskie (Union-republican, linked to affiliated ministries within the Soviet republics where there was a need for more management decentralization in industries such as
• soyuznye (all-Union, controlling enterprises directly from Moscow);
• branch ministries to which enterprises were directly subordinated, and which were responsible for translating directives of the functional committees into concrete operating decisions for the
• functional committees having no direct supervision of enterprises, but responsible for overall policy and planning (GosPlan) and certain subordinate aspects of economic life such as supply
• The leadership had no authority to make independent decisions about using the cooperative’s income, alienation of the cooperative’s means of production and how the means of production would
• The leadership was only formally elected by the membership, and was often an appointed member of the bureaucracy, which in turn was dependent on upper levels of the bureaucracy.
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