How British Airways Managing Human Resources

Programme	Diploma in Business
Unit Number and Title	Unit 22 Managing Human resource
QFC Level	Level 4

Introduction

Human resources are the most important assets in any of the organisation which contributes in the enhancement of the productivity and the success of the business. It has become very crucial to manage the human resources in an effective manner so that to ensure the development of the organisation. Managing human resources is thus basically defined as the planning, development and the utilisation of the labour force at the workplace in order to avail better output towards the achievement of the set goals. The HR department of any of the organisation is been considered to be liable for the management of the human resources and recognise various aspects which influence the abilities and productivity of the employees and make them build the same accordingly. The present report is however carried out to evaluate various elements and activities of managing human resources in an organisation effectively. How British Airways managing human resources would be helping in evaluating the Guest’s model of HRM and would conduct a comparison amid the different definition of HRM, personnel and IR practices by Storey. It would also evaluate the flexibility model which could be applied in an organisation. The report would identify the impacts on the flexible working practices due to the changes in the labour market. t would also highlight the implication of the health and safety legislations on the HRM practices. Moreover, the report would includes the detailed analysis of the functionalities of British Airways which is a leading airlines of UK would be discussed throughout the report.

TASK 1

1.1 Guest’s model of HRM as applied in British airways

Human Resource Management (HRM) is refers to maintaining the relation between organization and employees that would be helpful for achieving the objectives more professional manners. According to this model of HRM there majorly six dimensions for analyzing the process of managing human resources.

• HRM strategy: This dimension refers to proper integration of different approach into one strategy that would be helpful in the process of meeting the objectives. This is the responsibility of HR manager to understand the impact of internal and external factors that have direct impact on the HRM.
• Practices: By using this model, HR manager could able to define the operational activities and assign the role to individual considering their capabilities and skills (Guest.et.al, 2012).
• Outcome: According to this dimension, HRM tactics are majorly based on the outcome that is sated by the organization for overall performance of business and internal functionality.
• Behavioral outcome: This refers to discipline and cultural values of organization that plays important role in planning of strategy for HRM practices. the behavior of individual helps to built the positive working environment.
• Performance outcome: For organization performance of individual has significant impact on the planning and development of plan. Guest model suggest that HR has to measure the performance of staff to meet the outcome.
• Financial outcome: This dimension scales the financial return from the invested capital in business (Snell.et.al, 2015).

According to Guest model, consideration and proper balance among the dimensions will help British Airways to maintain the growth. By analyzing the proposed dimension the HR manager of organization will develop the plan for selection, recruitment and training strategy. In addition to this, collection of real time feedback about the issues that staff members are facing the HRM process would be redefined to achieve the objectives. Apart from that, Guest model would support HR manager of British airways to craft decisions according to situation and change the leadership style by focusing on the needs of staff.

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

• HRM: Human resource management as per the views of Storey is an important approach that helps to organize the activities and functions of workplace according to skills and capabilities of team members.
• Personnel management: Personnel management refers to administrative functions of organization for recordkeeping at the operational level. For an organization personal and professional management monitor the approach of staff members as per the rules and regulations and offer the authority (Storey and Sisson, 2014).
• IR practices: This approach is been defined to consider the rules and regulations for managing the human resources activities and promotion of actions to encourage the brand image of organization. In the current scenario, Personnel management and IR practices are considered as common practices to organizational HR activities.

Following are the major differences between British airways and IHG that are offering quality services to customers by directing and controlling the staff members:

Table 1: Diffrence between IR practice and HRM

Elements	Personnel and IR (Hilton)	HRM (British airways)
Employee relation	Adversarial	Developmental and collaborative
Orientation	Reactive, HR manager make decision after analyzing the situation	Proactive, HR manager forecast the conditions and make decision accordingly
Organize	Separate functions, every individual has different approach for planning and performing the activities	Integral functions, this develop the collaborative approach to meet the HRM objectives (Storey, 2016)
Client	Management	Management and employee both
Value	Order, equality	Problem focused
Major Role	Regulatory and record keeping	Problem sensing and training

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

Line managers are the responsible individuals who basically lead specific number of employees or group towards the set of strategic objectives. The line managers of British airways are been provided with the direct managerial responsibilities to lead a specific group of staff members of the individual employees within the organization (Gould-Williams, 2016). Line mangers play a significant role in the development of the strategic approach and facilitate the employees in the critical situations. In context of British airways, it has been found that the line managers is mainly responsible for the assessment of the planning and the strategies being developed by the authorities and convey the relevant information to the subordinates about the same. The manager identifies the issues in the strategies and then communicates the same to the higher management of the airlines directly.

It has been also seen that the line managers is also liable for the monitoring of the performances of the employees and make them capable to enhance their efforts and meet the organizational goals. The manager thus organizes specific training sessions if required for the employees and make them use the same to improve their performances. Developing a strategic approach for HRM, it requires having effective planning, communication and coordination. Thus the line manager leads the employees to coordinate and communicate among each other and reach to the desired levels of output (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014). Along with this, the line manager even contributes in the execution of the strategies being developed by the higher authorities and also involves in the resolution of the issues being faced at the workplace.

TASK 2

2.1 Explain how a model of flexibility might be applied in British airways

Flexibility at the workplace in the common words could be stated as the liberty being provided to the employees in terms of their working patterns and the activities. Workplace flexibility mainly includes different organizational activities, policies and practices which are been introduced with the emergence of the employee and the employer needs particularly. With the purpose to fulfill the needs of the business and avail profits, the organizations in the present times are introducing the concepts of flexibility rapidly. It has been found that the flexibility in the working patterns has become a necessity for the organization so that to keep the employees motivated and make them balance their work life balance effectively (Lange.et.al, 2015). The model of flexibility had proved to be beneficial to the management of British airways to the great extent as it has assisted in providing the employees with the best job satisfaction and motivation towards the work. The flexibility model is been mainly used in British airways for measuring the HRM activities and recognize the requirements of development in the organization specifically.

It has been observed that the authorities of British airways provide the employees with a favorable flexibility at the workplace which makes them maintain their performance levels and provide with their best outputs. There are various types of flexibility models such as functional model, distancing strategies, numerical model, financial model, etc. These flexibility models could be utilized by the organization to meet the levels of flexibility and serve the employees with the best satisfactions (Cogin and Boedker, 2014). However, British airways had applied the financial and functional model of flexibility which would helps in meeting its objectives effectively. The functional model would help the organization in determining the functional skills of the staff members and then allot the responsibilities accordingly. While, the functional model of flexibility helps the organization to identify and meet the financial needs of the employees and provide them with the higher job satisfactions.

2.2 Discuss the types of flexibility which may be developed by British airways

Flexibility at the workplace could be provided in any of the way depending on the work and the organizational business operations specifically. In the present competitive era, the pressure and the workloads had been increased at the workplaces and thus require managing the work life balance of the employees as well. There are various types of flexibility which could be developed by British airways and provide the employees with the better satisfactions over the job. Some of the most effective types of workplace flexibility being developed by British airways are as follows:

• Shift swapping: This type of flexibility is been considered to be an effective approach as it facilitates the employees with the ease to decide their working shifts of specific hours based on their conveniences. British airways had provided its employees with the liberty to set the shifts between two employees having mutual consents over the timing and deliver their duties accordingly (Chang.et.al, 2013). The management however ensures that all shifts are been occupied by the employees and the work is not been affected in any conditions.
• Part time working: With the help of this type of flexibility, British airways would be able to facilitate the candidates interested in the jobs but are not able to serve full time to the jobs due to either personal or any other reason. Being an airlines, it is been identified that the organization requires young and energetic candidates to serve the customers with the better services and represent the airlines effectively. Candidates such as students are been provided with the flexibilities to work for part time and performs with their best efforts (Kossek and Thompson, 2016). This type is been mainly used due to the unavailability of the skilled and suitable candidates for the posts in the organization and thus are required to facilitate them with the flexibilities.
• Flexible working hours: This is another type of flexibility which is been used by British airways at its workplace. In many of the cases, it is required to provide with the flexibilities in the working hours due to various reasons like female employees have specific time choices which must be focused by the organization. British airways thus allow the employees to choose their working hours according to the conveniences but have to ensure the accomplishment of minimum working hours in the organization.

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

The initiative of flexible working practices had provided with the huge benefits to the employees as well as the employer. Based on the employee perspectives, it has been found that the flexible working patterns had proved to be beneficial to the great extent. It has mainly provided the employees with the better living and had made them bring their work life balance to a stable position which made them perform their duties in both the personal and the professional lives effectively. It has been found that the flexibility had helped them to identify their skills and capabilities and put their best efforts towards the work. The most remarkable benefits of the flexible working practices to the employees is the reduction in the work pressure and stress which made them live more enthusiastically (Wachsen and Blind, 2016).  It has even enhanced their job satisfactions and helped in improving their skills and knowledge more effectively. The management of British airways would be able to extract the creative and innovative ideas out of the employees due to the relaxed working patterns and flexibility at the workplace. However, every coin has two sides and the flexible working practices would thus have an adverse impact over the employees. This would make the staff members more lethargic or relaxed towards their duties which could reduce their effectiveness over the performances and lead to the decrease in the organizational profits as well.

Concerning the perspectives of an employer, it has been seen that flexible working practices would help British airways in reducing the absenteeism and gain an enhanced dedication of the employees towards their jobs. It would decline the number of employee turnover and would retain the experienced and skilled employees for longer period span. This would directly lead to the enhancement of the organizational performances and help in meeting the desired objectives effectively (Christensen and Schneider, 2015). However, the employers could face issues in the productivity of the employees due to the comfort zone and could thus impact the success of the business as well.

2.4 Discussion of the impact that changes in the labor market have had on flexible working practices

With the increase in the demands of the knowledgeable and skilled candidates, the competition levels in the labor market had also been increased. The labor market is been generally considered to change when there is a change in the market conditions and thus lays an impact over the flexible working patterns as well. It has been found that due to these changes, the HR manger of British airways had initiated to invite all the candidates regardless of the qualification such as graduates, undergraduates or post graduates due to the fluctuating demands in the market (Glitz, 2012). The organization is been found to strive hard to hire the best suitable candidate for its business and thus is tending to grab them at any of the conditions. Thus, the flexible working practices are been hampered as per the demands of the new candidates as well as the organizational norms.

Conclusion

With the above report it has been concluded that managing human resources is basically the planning, development and the utilisation of the labour force at the workplace in order to avail better output towards the achievement of the set goals. It has been observed that the authorities of British airways provide the employees with a favorable flexibility at the workplace which makes them maintain their performance levels and provide with their best outputs. The report even revealed that flexible working practices had benefited the employees in the reduction in the work pressure and stress which made them live more enthusiastically. Even it has been found that the candidates are mainly discriminated on the basis of age, gender, marital status, etc.

References

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