Unit 18 Guest Model in Managing Human Resources Assignment

Introduction

Managing the human resources is been considered as the most important aspect for an organisation. It is an approach which helps an organisation to carry out wide ranges of the activities such as planning, recruitment, selection, training, etc. of the workforce effectively. With the help of these approaches, the organisations are able to manage the workforces in adequate manner and lead towards the achievement of their goals (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014). However, the present report is been carried out with the intention to evaluate the HRM policies and the related aspects in order to enhance the performances at the workplace. It would be evaluating the Guest model of HRM along with the comparison between the HRM, IR practices and the personnel management. The report would also be assessing the implication of the line managers in IKEA, a leading company which deals in the ready to assemble furniture products all over the world. The report would be analysing the types of flexibility models which might be developed by IKEA. Moreover, the report would also discuss the impacts of changes in labour had on flexible working practices. It would be identifying the forms of discrimination which could take place at the workplace of IKEA. Furthermore, the report would be assessing the approaches being used to manage the employee welfare along with the implication of the health and safety legislations on the human resources practices of IKEA in detail.

Task 1

1.1 Explain Guest’s model of HRM

The Guest’s model helps the organization to find the difference between personnel management and Human resource management. With the help of this model a manager can recruit and train the candidates. This model assists the management to identify the skills of the employees and aware the manager to improve the skills of the employee for better output. This model was introduced by David Guest that assists the management to improve the performance of the employee. IKEA adopts this model to increase the trust of the employees on the organization. It combines the HR into strategic management and engages the employees to achieve the predefined goals. The foremost task of this model is to utilize the resources effectively by which optimum utilization can be carried out (Latorre.et.al.2016). Another task of this model is to implement the strategies in the organization best way that reflects quality results for the welfare of the organization. The model identifies the outcome of the policies if any problem identified than find the suitable alternative for the improvement.

The model measures the performance of the employees and checks the financial status of the organization. After implementing this model communication skills of the employees may improve and IKEA generate more revenue in comparison to the past years. The model depicts the good relation among the employees and manager and defines the sources of recruitment in the organization (Savaneviciene and Stankeviciute, 2015). This model facilitates IKEA to divide the responsibilities among the employees and allot the suitable task to the suitable candidate.

1.2 Compare the differences between Storey’s definitions of HRM, personnel and IR practices

Storey stated that HRM is the continuous process of management which emphasis on the efficiency of the employees to achieve the organizational goal. Storey divide HRM into two model soft and hard model. Soft model depicts that IKEA treats his employee as a valuable assets to achieve the predetermined goals. On the other hand hard model depicts that the manager should identify the need of employee and evaluate the performance of the employee through various tools and techniques (Storey and Sisson, 2014). This model assists management to manage the operations and implement the strategies by which productivity can be raised.

In personnel management, manager is focused about the recruitment and pay roll of the employees. It is a bureaucratic segment of the management in which organization is more focused on the limited number of employees and leaves the other. For instance, Sales manager promote the subordinates of his department because of bureaucracy. IKEA follow the instruction of the storey model that helps the manager to assess the needs of the employees. It facilitates manager to evaluate the emotional needs of the employees like performance appraisal, promotions, motivations, allowance etc. IR practices assist the organization to design the rules and regulation for the better control over the employees (Beer.et.al.2014). It helps the management to monitor the performance of the employees in better way. Through this model HR department can easily keep an eye on the employees for better performance. Storey narrates that manager design the rules and regulation for better control and improvement in efficiency of employee relation.

1.3 Assess the implications for line managers and employees of developing a strategic approach to HRM

Line manager plays vital role in the development of the strategy and provide assistance to the employees when they are facing any difficulty. Line manager combines the strategies with culture of organization, policies and goal of the business. It has the liability to remove the conflicts between the employees and top management. Line manager creates the link between senior management and employees. Manager has the liability to convey the message of employees to the top management. Line manager implement the strategy set the top management to solve the particular issue. All the employees achieve the task on time this kind of strategies adopts by the line manager (Alfes.et.al.2013). Manager implements the policies and procedures by which each and every department meets the deadline on time.

The manager has the duty to assess the strategic plan and he found any difficulty in the plan then convey the problem to the higher authority. He identifies the issues of labor and tries to solve as soon as possible with permanent solution. Line manager should identify the pros and cons of the plan before implementation. Line manager has duty to monitor the performance of the employee if he is not working properly then try to improve the performance by providing training (Campbell and Evans, 2016). Line manager of IKEA keep an eye on every employee and inform them about their performance in case of lack of training then conduct the training sessions for the development of the employees.

Task 2

2.1 Explain how a model of flexibility might be applied in practice

Flexibility at the workplace have been a major concern in the present times as it had become very important for the organization to provide the employees with better perquisites and keep them satisfied with their jobs. With respect to IKEA, it has been found that the employees are been provided with an effective flexible patters at the workplace so that to incur better productivity out of their efforts (Storey and Sisson, 2014). The flexibility models assist the organization in measuring the existing human resource management activities; provide justification of the development at present. Some of the effective models which could be applied in IKEA are:

Financial model: The financial model is been mainly used to keep the employees motivated and engage them to work more effectively. By providing the employees with financial benefits, IKEA would ensure higher levels of job satisfaction of the employees and keep them encouraged to work for the growth of the business (Van Dooren.et.al, 2015). With the help of this model, IKEA also reduces the employee retention rate and motivate them to sustain for the longer periods of time. In addition to this, the financial model could be established with the help of pay and reward structure for the employees. The initiative of financial appraisals is been considered to be an effective technique to keep the employee motivated. For instance, offering with the bonuses or pay for extra working hours would encourage an employee to stretch its working hours and increases the productivity of the business.

Functional model: It has been found that IKEA is capable enough to adjust the skills and knowledge of the employees and match the activities being required for the changing working patterns in its production system (Hughes and Stephens, 2016). This model is been applied in the organization with the intention to measure the functional skills of the staff members and provide them with the suitable roles. The functional model mainly indicates that the employees must be provided with the adequate training and must be motivated to work with their best efficiencies.

2.2 Discuss the types of flexibility which may be developed by an organisation

Flexibility is mainly referred to the quality of adapting or bending as per the changing environment at the workplace. It also indicates to the ease of carrying out any of the functionalities as per the requirements or conveniences. Some of the basic types of flexibility which could be developed at the workplace of IKEA are as follows:

Shift swapping: In this type of flexibility the employees are facilitated to set their shifts as per their convenience and coordinate with the authorities. The manager of IKEA thus assures that all the shifts are been covered and the productivity is not hampered.
Part time working: This type of flexibility, the workers are been allowed to work less than the basic working hours or partial time (Hörning.et.al, 2015). This occurs in case if the candidate is unable to give whole time to the organization due to any of the reason like students.
Job sharing: In job sharing, the employee of IKEA would be facilitated with the liberty to divide their full time task among two employees on mutual consents of specific hours among them.
Flexi-time: The employees in this type are provided with full liberty to perform their work in any of the way beyond the determined hours by the company (Jansen and Kant, 2016).
Work from home: This type of working flexibility allows the employee to work from its home only and just provide the reports to the managers. This type is usually considered less advantageous for some of the employee as could lack in the supervision of the leader at home and lead to less efficiency.

Thus, these types of flexibility could help the organization to establish an effective flexible working environment and acquire the best outputs out of the employee’s efforts.

2.3 Assess the use of flexible working practices from both the employee and the employer perspective.

The flexible working practices are been mainly considered as an important aspect which impacts both the employer and the employees at the workplace. It has been identified that the flexible working practices could be carried out in many of the ways like team working, job sharing, party time working, and work from home, etc. With the view of the employee of IKEA, the flexible working practices would help them in establishing an effective work life balance and would be able to adjust the timings between the personal and professional lives (Kossek and Thompson, 2016). The flexibility at the IKEA workplace would help the employer in putting more efforts and perform with its full efficiencies. It would be provided with the liberty to contribute in the decision making by providing with the new ideas and views towards the growth of productivity and also make effective decision in the absence of the managers. In addition to this, the flexibility might lay adverse impacts on the employees as would make them set in more comfort zone which could reduce their efficiency levels and lead to the reduction in the productivity.

With respect to the perspective of an employer, it has been seen that the flexible working practices in IKEA would facilitate with the reduction in absenteeism, acquire higher employee commitments, keep a hold on the skilled and knowledgeable employees, enhance the production levels of the business, etc. Moreover, IKEA would be able to provide higher job satisfaction to the employees and would motivate them to put their best efforts in the business (Rubery.et.al, 2016). On the contrary to this, the employer might face various issues due to the comfortable working patterns as could make the employee less productive and lazy which would directly hamper the performances of the business.

2.4 Discuss the impact that changes in the labour market have had on flexible working practices

Change is an ongoing event which is been carried out with the intentions to bring improvements or modification in an activity. It has been found that the labor market keeps on changing due to the market conditions as well as the business environments of the organisation. It is very mush important for the HR managers to select the best suitable candidate with the required skills and competencies for the business. However, the labour market is been mainly defined as the place where the employers and the employees interact with each other. It has been seen that the labour market had both the positive and negative impact over the flexible working practices of IKEA (Wilkinson, 2013). It has been identified that IKEA is now hiring all the candidates whether graduate, under graduate or post graduates for various posts in the business.

It has been also seen that with the increase in the self employment and the economic growth of the country, the labour market had been highly changed. Many of the workers now a day prefers having flexible working patterns as it offers them with the better opportunities and life styles. Thus, the labour market is providing with the higher choices of workers in the flexible working practices. In addition to this, IKEA is also striving hard to retain their skilled and experiences workforce by providing them with the flexible working choices (Christensen and Schneider, 2015). On the other hand, flexible working practices are also been adversely impacted due to these changes as the employees are not been provided with adequate amount of training or exposure in the business due to their part time or short term contracts. This also leads to the greater stress and job insecurities in the business.

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Task 3

3.1 Explain the forms of discrimination that can take place in the workplace

In recent years discrimination at the work place is increasing by which employee retention is the major problem. Many organizations discriminate the employees on the basis of their gender, caste, colour etc. Following are the types of discrimination at the work place.

Race or Ethnicity: It has been seen that most of the employees discriminated just because of their colour and race. The employees which belong from different state or color are treated badly and reject the candidate from very beginning.

Gender Discrimination: Organizations reject the candidates on the basis of their gender. Sometimes management focuses on the make candidates rather than female candidates. The IKEA believes that male candidates are more productive in comparison of female candidates and hire the male candidates for the organization. Sometime management forces the female employees to retire from the job due to over age. This kind of gender discrimination case happened in the organization (Ali.et.al.2015).

Discrimination due to disability: Management of reject the disable persons due to their inefficiency. The management rejects the candidates because they lost the body parts or partially loss their body function. Many times HIV positive people are rejected by the management or any employee found to HIV positive then immediately fire from the job.

Age discrimination: IKEA advertise that organization needs young dynamic candidates for the management. That states that organization did not require old workers in the organization so it is sort of partiality with the old age candidates (Krieger, 2012). Employees state that they have to leave the job unwillingly just because of age.

3.2 Discuss the practical implications of equal opportunities legislation for an organisation

IKEA binds the management to avoid discrimination at the work place by implementing effective policies. Organization creates good working environment in order to remove the negative thoughts in the mind of the employees and improve the efficiency by selecting the best candidate for the organization. In order to implement equal opportunities act in the organization management takes the necessary steps in the organization are as follows:

Organization must allot task to the employees which should not be based on the age, gender, religion, disability discriminations (Alvarez.et.al.2013).
IKEA has to implement the provisions of human rights act in order to protect the rights of employees from discrimination.
Management should design the committee which monitor that employees did not feel discriminated or injustice. If committee found any unethical activity then directly report to the management and take the suitable action against the employee.
Management should implement various programs like recruit the candidate on the basis of their talent and did not discriminate with employees on the basis of their gender.
Organization should provide equal opportunities with proper responsibilities and roles by which they feel motivated and give their best towards the organizational goals.
For equal opportunities act assist the management to implement the policies in a manner that every individual can easily understand the policies (Hourdequin.et.al.2012).
After implementation of policies management should review the policy if management found any discrimination then take the necessary step to eradicate the discrimination.

3.3 Compare the approaches to managing equal opportunities and managing diversity

The difference between equal opportunity and diversity is changes in responsibility of individual with the changes in designation. Equal opportunities are affected with the government policies, human rights act and various other external forces. Whereas diversity is influenced with internal forces like internal environment of the organization, culture of the organization etc. Internal force includes activity inside the organization and ethical practices in order to maintain diversity.

Another difference related to the goals of the organization that drive the operations of IKEA. The main aim of equal opportunity act is to maintain the balance at the work place by giving justice to the employees (Kirton and Greene, 2015). The act reveals the mistakes and errors happened at the work place in the past quarters. The main objective of the act is to correct the errors and provide justice to the employees. The act removes the discrimination in the organization and indirectly boasts the morale of the employees.

Equal chance act binds the organizations to follow the guidelines of the government for the welfare of the employees. For instance, IKEA needs to create the committee which keeps eye on every department and provide authority to member take the legal action if any recruiter does the discrimination with the employees. On the other hand, Diversity approach creates the peaceful environment in the organization which motivates the employees to retain in the organization behaviour for longer tenure (Wajcman, 2013). Equal opportunity treats the entire employee as one where as diversity approach manages problems of all the employees.

Task 4

4.1 Compare different methods of performance management

Performance of employee based on the roles and responsibilities if he has lots of responsibilities then will not be able to manage sometimes. Management has to review the performance of every employee in order to improve the performance. Manger of IKEA has adopts various techniques to monitor the performance of the employee.

Graphic Rating Scale: IKEA adopts this method to raise the productivity of the employee and wants to increase the revenue of the organization (Van.et.al.2015). Rating scale provides ranking to the employees from one to five. Through this method manger can easily analyze the performance of the employee. This method is faster method in comparison of other methods. Big organization like IKEA uses this method because it is less time consuming method and reveals the true performance of the employees.

Management by objective: In this technique management clearly defines the goal to the employees and informs them to achieve the goal on time. Management set the deadlines for the employees on which they have to work if employee fails to meet the deadline then line manger take the improvement actions. Management monitors the performance of the employee and discusses the performance with the employees.

Ranking method: This method analyzes the performance of the employees by ranking them according to the set criteria (De Waal, 2013). Manager compares the performance of the employee with his peers and allots the rank according to the comparison. The best former get the first rank and compare with others.

4.2 Assess the approaches to the practice of managing employee welfare in a selected organisation

IKEA implement various programs for the welfare of the employee this increase the motivational level of the employees. The first program is personal assistance in which employee able to solve their personal issues within the organization. This program helps the management to decrease the stress of the employee by which he can work better for the organization. This will improve the capability of the employee. Another program in employee welfare program is job security management decides to job security to the employee if he works more than one year (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014). Management also provides assistance that after retirement employee will get the pension by which he or she can easily survive without job.

The main aim of the program is to train the human resource of the better future. The programs are implemented to improve the performance of the employee. IKEA applied the Blanket approach by which management can easily convince to the employee by providing financial assistance (Bergqvist.et.al.2013s). Another approach is cafeteria approach in management provides flexibility to the employees by which they perform better to achieve the organizational goals.

4.3 Discuss the implications of health and safety legislation on human resources practices

In the present times, there are wide ranges of the legislations being implied on the business concerning the health and safety at the workplace. It has been identified that these legislation are proved to be helpful in ensuring a healthy and rational human resources practices for the employees. It is very much important for IKEA to ensure the safety of the employees at the workplace and provide them with adequate amount of facilities and ensure a healthy environment at the workplace (Snell.et.al, 2015). With the purpose to imply the safety norms, IKEA provides the employees with safety equipments and uniforms and ensures that the expertise is only working to the specific fields. For instance, employees working with machineries are been highly trained and made sure that they carry their PPE equipments with them. The employees are been provided with the health insurances and the accidental compensation if in case of any of the calamity.

IKEA also acquires a separate health committee which looks after the safety and security of the employees at the workplace and makes them aware about the health issues on periodic basis. The tools and machineries used at the workplace are also been pre tested and are majorly handled under the supervision of the professionals only. In addition to this, the employees are been provided with a fixed working hours and flexibilities in the shifts so that to provide them adequate rest and keep them healthy and safe (Krieger, 2012). Moreover, IKEA requires having additional investments to the availability of the safety equipments like medical aids, cost of medical professionals and execution of fire and emergency system for the employees.

4.4 Evaluate the impact of one topical issue on human resources practices

The most recent issue being faced by the human resources practices of IKEA is to manage the diversity at the workplace. It has been identified that the workplace of IKEA acquires wide diversity of capabilities, culture, personality and perceptions of the employees which requires having extra effort by the business. The diversity management helps an organization in establishing an effective teamwork and well maintained behavioural culture within the organizational framework. It has been seen that IKEA is been lacking in managing the differences among the employees and thus going through a bad phase of reduced productivity and conflicts at the workplace (Harvey and Allard, 2015). However, it is very much important for the management of IKEA to resolve the issues and attain a health environment at the workplace. The HR manager must facilitate the employees to enhance the communication among them which would help them share their views and establish mutual consents over the specific decisions. Moreover, with the help of effective communication and the training sessions, IKEA would be able to manage the diversity at the workplace in more effective and systematic ways.

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Conclusion

With the above report it could be concluded that, managing human resources is basically an approach which helps an organisation to carry out wide ranges of the activities such as planning, recruitment, selection, training, etc. of the workforce effectively. The report has revealed that flexibility at the workplace had become an important aspect in order to establish a productive environment at the workplace. It has been also identified that the labour market had both the positive and negative impact over the flexible working practices of IKEA. It has been seen that ensuring the health and safety legislation at the workplace would help in establishing a reliable and effective working environment for the employees. Even it has been revealed that at present IKEA is been lacking in managing the differences among the employees and thus going through a bad phase of reduced productivity and conflicts at the workplace.

References

Books and Journals

Alfes, K., Truss, C., Soane, E.C., Rees, C. and Gatenby, M., 2013. The relationship between line manager behavior, perceived HRM practices, and individual performance: Examining the mediating role of engagement. Human resource management, 52(6), pp.839-859.
Ali, S.R., Yamada, T. and Mahmood, A., 2015. Relationships of the Practice of Hijab, Workplace Discrimination, Social Class, Job Stress, and Job Satisfaction Among Muslim American Women. Journal of Employment Counseling, 52(4), pp.146-157.
Alvarez, S.A., Barney, J.B. and Anderson, P., 2013. Forming and exploiting opportunities: The implications of discovery and creation processes for entrepreneurial and organizational research. Organization Science, 24(1), pp.301-317.
Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S., 2014. Armstrong's handbook of human resource management practice. Kogan Page Publishers.
Beer, M., Spector, B., Lawrence, P., Mills, D. and Walton, R., 2014. Beattie, D.(1987)“Integrating human resource and business plans at ICL', Institute of Personnel Management, National Conference Paper, mimeo. New Perspectives on Human Resource Management (Routledge Revivals), 10(3), p.184.
Bergqvist, K., Yngwe, M.Å. and Lundberg, O., 2013. Understanding the role of welfare state characteristics for health and social care and inequalities–an analytical review. BMC public health, 13(1), p.1.
Campbell, P. and Evans, P., 2016. Reciprocal benefits, legacy and risk: Applying Ellinger and Bostrom’s model of line manager role identity as facilitators of learning. European Journal of Training and Development, 40(2), pp.74-89.
Christensen, K. and Schneider, B. eds., 2015. Workplace flexibility: Realigning 20th-century jobs for a 21st-century workforce. Cornell University Press.
De Waal, A., 2013. Strategic Performance Management: A managerial and behavioral approach. Palgrave Macmillan.
Harvey, C.P. and Allard, M., 2015. Understanding and managing diversity.
Hörning, K.H., Gerhardt, A. and Michailow, M., 2015. Time pioneers: Flexible working time and new lifestyles. John Wiley & Sons.

Unit 18 Guest Model in Managing Human Resources Assignment