KENYA METHODIST UNIVERSITY

MASTERS OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION COURSE

HRMG 541 : EMPLOYEE RESOURCING

PRESENTED BY : GIKINGO JAMES MURAGE

ADM NO. : BUS-3-5317-2/09

PRESENTED TO : DR. MAINA WAIGANJO; COURSE INSTRUCTOR

Question: Discuss the following Human Resource Management Approaches:

1) High commitment

2) High performance.

3) High environment

Critically discuss their contribution to managing voluntary labour turn over.

(1) High commitment model

One of the defining hallmarks of HRM is its emphasis on the importance of enhancing

mutual commitment. The high commitment model has been described as a HRM

approach aimed at eliciting a commitment so that behaviour is primary self-regulated

rather than controlled by sanctions and pressures external to the individual and relations

within the organization based on high levels of trust. This model will influence HR

practices that will be aimed at eliciting high commitment to work, the organization and

fellow workmates.

Components of high commitment model

(1) Employment security

(2) Selective hiring and sophisticated selection.

(3) Extensive training, learning and development.

(4) Employee involvement, information sharing and worker’s voice.

(5) Self-managed teams / team working.

(6) High compensation contingency on performance

(7) Reduction of status differentials / harmonization.

(1) Employment security

Employment security fundamentally underpins the other six human resource practices,

principally because it is regarded as an unrealistic to ask employees to offer their ideas,

hard work and commitment without some expectation of employment security and

concern for their future careers. The contribution of a positive psychological contract

contributes to open and trusting employment relationship, and the notion of mutuality that

is seen as a key component in partnership agreements both relate to this.

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There are obviously limits to how much employment security can be guaranteed. It does

not mean that employees are able to stay in one job for life, nor does it not prevent the

dismissal of staff who fail to perform to the required level. Similarly, a major collapse in

the product.

Market that necessitates reductions in the labour force should not be seen as undermining

this principle. The most significant point about including employment security as one of

the high commitment HR practices is that it asserts that job reductions will be avoided

wherever possible, and that employees should expect to maintain their employment

within the HR organization. Employment security can be enhanced by well devised and

forward looking systems of human resources planning and an understanding of how

organisations may be structured to achieve flexibility. Indeed, there is also a business case

for employment security. Laying people off too readily constitutes a cost for firms that

have done a good job selecting, training and developing their workforces. Lay offs put

important strategic assets on the streets for the competition to employ.

Compulsory lay off and downsizing undermine employment security, the following can

act as alternatives.

1. Proportionately reducing work hours to “spread the pain” of reduced employment

costs across the entire workforce.

2. Reducing wages to reduce the labour costs.

3. Freezing recruitment to prevent overstaffing..

4. Putting production workers into sales to build up demand.

(2) Selective hiring and sophisticated selection

Recruiting and retaining outstanding people and capturing a stock of exceptional human

talent is seen as an effective way to achieve sustained competitive advantage. Even

though employees have wanted to recruit the best people available, this is nowadays more

likely to be systematized through the use of sophisticated selection techniques and taking

greater care when hiring. Increasingly, employees are looking for applicants who possess

a range of social, interpersonal and team working skills in addition to technical skills.

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The proxies used to measure ‘selective hiring’ include:

- Number of applicants per position or as many good applicants as the

organization needs.

- The proportion administered on employment test prior to hiring.

- Sophistication of selection process such as the use of psychometric tests and

realistic job previews.

These measures capture quite different components of the selection process and on whether

the focus is on the overall approach taken by employers or the precise techniques they may

use. Moreover, some of them emphasize inputs rather than outputs in terms of the quality of

those recruited. For example, attracting a large number of applicants for a position may

indicate poor HR procedures due to failures to define the job and the field adequately prior to

advertising. It is possible that selective hiring, especially when it focuses on how well new

recruits might fit with the prevailing organizational culture, can lead to under-presented

groups being excluded from employment. Moreover an excessive “cloning” of employees

could be problematic if the organization is keen to promote initiative and diversity and

counterproductive if business needs and markets change. On the other hand, there may be

situations where it is impossible to attract sufficient applicants due to skills shortages as some

professional jobs in the health sector – where the emphasis shifts to generating a pool of

potential recruits rather than finding more sophisticated ways to choose between them.

Recruiting high quality, committed staff is seen as central to “best practice” HRM, and

the use of psychometric tests, structured interviews and work sampling is likely to

increase the validity of selection decisions. Competencies to be sought at selection

stage include trainability, flexibility, commitment, drive and persistence and initiative.

(3) Extensive training, learning and development

Having recruited “outstanding human talent”, employees need to ensure that these people

remain at the forefront of their field, not only in terms of professional expertise and

product knowledge but also through working in teams or in interpersonal relations. The

idea that employees aim to synergise the contribution of talented and exceptional

employees should be viewed as one element in “organizational process advantage”. There

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is little doubt that there has been a growing recognition of the importance of individual

and organizational learning as a source of sustained competitive advantage as employees

introduce more skills – specific forms of training and experience continuing skills

shortages in some areas.

The use of the word “learning” is crucial as it demonstrates employee willingness to

encourage and facilitate employee development rather than just providing specific

training to cover short term crisis.

There exists problems in trying to measure and evaluate the concentration of training and

learning. While it is clearly important to establish how much time and resources

employees invest in formal training, and whether or not this covers the entire workforce,

it is also crucial to identify the type of training which is provided and who has

responsibility for managing this. Quite a number of studies have looked solely at the

financial or quantitative aspects – in terms of money or time invested in training – and

ignored the quality or relevance of training and learning that is provided. There have been

incidences where workers are overqualified for the job they do, and as such training may

add little to organizational performance or worker skills.

(4) Employee involvement, information sharing and worker voice

There are a number of reasons why employee involvement is an essential component of

the high commitment paradigm. First, open communications about financial performance,

strategy and operational matters not only ensures workers are informed about

organizational issues, it also conveys a symbolic and substantive message that they are to

be trusted in an open and positive manner. Second, for teamworking to be successful,

workers require information in order to provide a basis from which to offer their

suggestions and contribute to improvements in organizational performance. Third,

participation can provide management with some legitimacy for its actions on the ground

that ideas have been put forward by workers and/or at least considered by them before

decisions are ultimately made.

Information sharing can include downward communications, upward problem-solving

groups and project teams, all of which are designed to increase the involvement of

individual employees in the work place.

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Employees voice is essential as it provides the workers with opportunity to express their

grievances openly and independently, in addition to being able to contribute to

management decision-making on task-related issues. Employee voice may be achieved

through trade union representation and collective bargaining as well as through formally

established grievance and dispute procedures.

(5) Self managed teams / team working

This practice has become more prevalent over the last decade for a variety of reasons, not

least as a way of pooling ideas and improving work processes it has been identified as a

fundamental component of organizational success. It is also one of the key attributes that

employees look for in new recruits. Team work is especially seen as leading to better

decision-making and the achievement of more creative solutions. Evidence suggests that

employees who work in teams generally report higher levels of satisfaction that their

counterparts working under more “traditional” regimes.

(6) High compensation contingent on performance

There are two elements to this practice – higher than average compensation and

performance related reward – although both send a signal that they deserve to be

rewarded for superior contributions. To be effective, this needs to be at the level in excess

of that for comparable workers in skill organizations so as to attract and retain high

quality labour. In addition, rewards should reflect different levels of worker contribution.

(7) Reduction of status differences / harmonization

Symbolic manifestations of egalitarianism seen in the HR practices of some companies

are meant to convey messages to manual workers and lower grade staff that they are

valuable assets who reserve to be treated in a similar way to their more senior colleagues.

It is also seen as a way to encourage employees to offer ideas within an “open”

management culture. This can be seen through egalitarian symbols, such as staff

uniforms, shared canteen and car-parking facilities, but it is also underpinned by the

harmonization of many terms and conditions of employment – such as holidays, sick-pay

schemes, pension and hours of work. The principal point behind moves to single status

and harmonization is that it seeks to break down artificial barriers between different

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groups of staff, thus encouraging and supporting teamwork and flexibility. Extending

employee share ownership to the workforce as a whole is a further way through which

status differences can be reduced.

1. High Performance Model

The high performance model originated from the US high performance work practices

aimed at making an impact on the performance of the firm through its people in areas

such as productivity, quality, levels of customers service, growth, profits and ultimately

the delivery of increased shareholder value.

High performance management aims to make an impact on the performance of the firm

through its people in such areas as productivity, quality, levels of customer service,

growth, profits and, ultimately, the delivery of increased shareholder value. High

performance management practices include rigorous recruitment and management

development activities, incentive pay systems and performance management processes.

There is some overlap between this concept and that of high commitment management.

High performance work design as described by Buchanan (1987), requires the following

steps;

Management clearly defines what it needs in the form of new

methods of working and the results expected from their introduction:

- Management sets goals and standards for success;

- Multi-skilling is encouraged – that is job demarcation lines are eliminated as

far as possible and encouragement and training are provided to acquire new

skills;

- Self managed teams or autonomous working groups are established.

- Managers and team leaders adopt a supportive rather than an autocratic style

(this is the most difficult part of the system to introduce);

- Support systems are provided that help the teams to function effectively as

operating units;

- The new system is introduced with great care by means of involvement and

communication programmes;

- Thorough training is carried out on the basis of an assessment of training

needs;

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- The payment system is specially designed with participation of employees, to

fit their needs as well as those of management;

- Payment may be related to team performance but with skill-based pay for

individuals;

- In some cases, a “peer performance review” process may be used that involves

team members assessing one another’s performance as well as performance of

the team as a whole.

2. High Involvement Model

This approach involves treating employees as partners in the enterprise, whose interests

are respected and who have a voice in matters that concern them. It is concerned with

communication and involvement. The aim is to create a climate in which a continuing

dialogue between managers and the members of those teams take place in order to define

expectations and share information on the organisation’s mission, values and objectives.

This establishes mutual understanding of what is to be achieved and a framework for

managing and developing people to ensure that it will be achieved.

Having stated what way management approach

1) Comprised of, it is imperative to discuss each approach’s

contribution to management of voluntary labour turn over.

Although several sets of innovative HR practices have recently been proved to enhance

effectiveness in an organization and to retain talented employees, this configuration of

practices is narrowly focused and often lack theoretical grounding. The three

complementary frameworks i.e. high involvement, high performance and high

commitment conceptual frameworks have received much attention in the academic press.

The high performance model suggests that five distinct, supportive HR practices may

influence employees’ work related attitudes and performance behaviours.

First through empowerment, organizations allow employees to assume several roles and

responsibilities and thus exert a greater influence at work while enjoying increased

autonomy. Employee discretion and influence through task involvement fosters a great

sense of support, trust and intrinsic motivation and provides work attitudes (Eby,

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Freeman, Rush, Lance, 1999; Lawlet, 1986). This increased sense of responsibility also

stimulates more initiative and effort on the part of everyone involved. This way

employees are motivated to remain in the organization.

Second, high-performing firms use competences development practices e.g. job rotation

programs, mentoring and training, or both improving productivity of existing employees

and sending the employees the signal that decision makers are willing to invest in them

beyond short-term returns. Such practices go a long way in retaining employees in an

organization. Third, previous research shows that information sharing practices favour the

internalization of organizational goals and values by employees, enhance feelings of

mutual trust, and make individuals important to the company. Information sharing is one

of the easiest and most effective ways to foster employee involvement within

organizations. Information sharing also represents an important component at high

performance organizations because the sharing of information on such things as financial

performance, strategy and operational resources conveys to the organization’s people that

they are trusted. Employees into which such feelings have been inculcated would want to

stay with the organisation for long.

Important components of high performance organizations because the sharing of

information on such things as financial performance, strategy and operational measures

conveys to the organization’s people that they are trusted. Employees into which such

feelings have been inculcated would want to stay with the organization for long.

Fourth, motivational researchers have long acknowledged that the need for recognition is

a fundamental driver of human behaviour. For most highly skilled professionals, much of

their motivation ensues from the recognition they get from managers for a job well done

and the feeling that they are a pivotal part of the organization. Several scholars found that

high performance organizations persistently sought to recognize and reinforce valuable

contributions made by employees. Such highly motivated employees will remain in an

organization for a long time.

Fifth, fair organizational rewards refer to the perceived fairness of various job outcomes,

including compensation conditions, performance evaluations and job assignments. A high

level of perceived equity signals to employees that the organization supports them and

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has their well being at heart. Such practices create a sense of belonging to the employees

which all individuals crave for.

It is widely accepted that employees’ commitment to the organization can take various

forms and that antecedents and consequences of law can be quite different. First, affective

commitment corresponds to an employee’s personal attachment and identification with

the organization resulting in a strong belief in and acceptance of the organisation’s goals

and values. Employees with a strong affective commitment continue employment with

the organization because they want to do so.

Affective commitment plays a central role in the turnover literature studies conducted

confirm that affective commitment is well established as an important antecedent to

withdrawal behaviours. Scholars also have found a negative relationship between

continuance commitment and turnover intentions. When employees recognize that

availability of comparable alternatives is limited elsewhere, they will be more

predisposed to stay in their current organization to avoid losing their relative advantages

or privileges.

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References

1. Talent Management. Avoid The Threat of Mass Voluntary Turnover. (2009)

Retrieved, October 13, 2009, from Article base:

Official website: http://wwwvoluntary-turnover-1228397.htm.

2. Pare G., Tremblay M. (2007). The Influence of High Involvement Human

Resources Practices, Procedural Justice, Organizational Commitment, and Citizenship

Behaviours on Information Technology Professionals’

Turnover intentions. Group & Organization Management 2007; 32; 326’

DOI: 10. 1177/ 105960110628685.

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