Human Resource Management

This essay analyses the mythical and realistic perspective of contemporary workplaces and the assumptions behind it. It also discusses the role of HR managers in enhancing organizational productivity and employee retention.

Running Head: Human Resource Management
Human Resource Management

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Assumptions of mythical perspective..............................................................................................2
Mythical or Reality..........................................................................................................................3
Description of contemporary workplaces........................................................................................4
Learning from analysis....................................................................................................................5
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................6
References........................................................................................................................................7

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Introduction
It has been observed that several business experts thinks that contemporary organizations are
more productive, efficient as well as effective in comparison to the traditional forms of
organization. Although, this statement is true to an extent but the revolutionary changes brought
in the business context cannot be neglected as these changes have played vital role in terms of
enhancing organizational productivity along with generating opportunities for them to expand
their businesses in the global market. This is also considered that modern work is a myth and in
relation to this, it is said that people working in contemporary organizations are high performing,
bound together towards organizational mission and these also considered as more committed
towards their work in order to attain their career goals. Along with this, it has also been
recognised that workplaces have seen transformed changes in past few decades and the major
reason behind is the introduction of new technologies, new generation of management thinking
and new forms of organization. Encouragement of innovation and creativity has also become an
essential aspect for enhancing contemporary organizations’ productivity (Grant & Ledema,
2013).
This essay will focus over the mythical concept related to functionalities of contemporary
workplaces. All facts behind this myth will be analysed and discussed in this essay with the
objective of identifying the main agenda behind the thinking of Noon and Blyton. Both these
scholars have labelled contemporary workplaces as a myth and in relation to their perception;
assumptions of this mythical concept will be discussed. Apart from this, this quote will also be
analysed with the objective of analysing the mythical extent and the reality because although,
contemporary workplaces are far better than traditional workplaces but the fact also cannot be
neglected that there are numerous factors which have played essential and enormous role in
improving the state of contemporary workplaces. The last part of the essay will include the
perspective of human resource management in this context so that relevant facts could be
analysed through which HR managers’ learning could be enhanced.

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Assumptions of mythical perspective
According to Noon and Blyton (1997), here is a modern myth regarding work and contemporary
organizations blessed with highly productive and efficient employees. Apart from this, it has also
been said by the authors that workplaces themselves have been transformed with the new
technologies. In relation to this, internet has also been the major part in terms of making
organizational functionalities smoother. The major assumptions to this quote are as follows:
 High performing employees: It has been assumed by the authors that people in the
modern organizations are much more efficient in comparison to the traditional
organizations. This may be due to people want to earn more for satisfying their needs,
matching up with the modern trends, along with fulfilling every other requirement as per
the modern trends. With regards to this, it has been observed people work as per their
needs; thus, their performance is totally based on their requirements. Apart from this,
with the increased level of education and training measurers, people get better and more
opportunities in comparison to the few decades back due to which they learn new and
advanced skills to accomplish the tasks in more effective and efficient manner and that
too in less time in relevance to the time taken while accomplishing the tasks in traditional
times (Noon, Blyton & Morrell, 2013).
 Highly committed individuals: This has been observed by the authors as well as by
various business experts that if organization wants to enhance their performance, it is
necessary to retain its key employees along with satisfying their needs and wants. This
makes them feel their significance in the organization and in return, they also show their
commitment towards the organization and its mission. Modern organizations have
realised the significance of taking employees up along with the organization by providing
all facilities and measures for the objective of fulfilment of their needs and wants. This
has helped the contemporary organizations to gain trust from their employees along with
aligning their efforts and mission with the organizational mission (Noon & Ogbonna,
2000).
 New technologies: Technology has been the major factor for making organizations much
more effective and efficient nowadays in comparison to the traditional times. At that
time, there were not such options available like automation, machinery, software, etc.

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through which tasks could easily be performed and every task needs to be performed
manually. But today, technology has brought revolutionary changes in the organizational
functionalities as the whole process of accomplishing tasks have been changed and
manual techniques have been replaced with the automation and various other options
made available with the technology revolution. This has made contemporary workplaces
much effective and efficient (Harley, 1999).
 Teamwork: Although, teamwork was also one of the great measure in the traditional
times for organizations in order to accomplish their tasks as well as to gain desired goals
and objectives and now when things are quite new due to introduction of various
innovative and creative aspects, still teamwork plays vital role in terms of accomplishing
tasks, saving time and to gain desired goals and objectives (Wilson, 2018).
Mythical or Reality
The perspective about contemporary organisations and workplaces are a myth. The concepts like
Total Quality Management, empowerment of employees and adaptation of post-bureaucratic
management approaches are nothing but a myth, which does not happen in reality. There is a thin
line between the myth and reality of contemporary workplaces. It can be said that it is very tough
to determine the difference between both the sides i.e. myth and reality of contemporary
workplaces as both sides act as the two sides of the same coin (Nickson, Warhurst & Witz,
2017).
There are too many myths about a modern workplace. One of them is that employees in these
workplaces are incessantly happy. Over the past decade, it is seen and observed that when
people/ employees are in good mood, they are more sociable and creative (Gunnis, 2017). They
engage more with other people, co-workers, and management but the reality is that it creates
pressure on employees. Too much pressure to create a positive environment supress the balance
of positive and negative emotions of employees and therefore, it creates alienation and not
engagement with both co-workers as well as with the management (Foster & Ren, 2015).
Other myth is that modern workplaces attract lesser conflicts, which is not true. It is believed that
the workplaces disagreements reflects negative productivity, distraction from work and damage
the overall productivity of the company but many researches reveals just opposite. In many

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cases, it has been observed that the disagreements fuels better performance in the employees. It
produces better results and stronger outcomes through better strategies. Modern business
enterprises are known for encouraging workforce diversity for the objective of growth and
expansion in the global markets. But workforce diversity is the major factor through which
disputes and conflicts arises between the employees. Collaboration and teamwork at workplace
are considered as one of the best measure to reach to the desired destination but lot of efforts are
required for creating collaboration between a group of individuals from different cultural
background along with developing tuning amongst them to work with each other and to respect
every teammate’s opinion. Thus, teamwork and collaboration are the biggest myths especially at
that workplace which is working with workforce diversity because where two works together
with different cultural background and unique thinking style, arising disputes and conflicts
amongst them is very obvious as it is a part of human tendency to showcase and place own
culture and thinking up from others (Ibrahim, et. al., 2016).
It can be said that what differentiates the modern workplaces from the classical ones are not the
benefits and alluring facilities it provides but how it satisfies the emotional needs of an employee
and offer the conditions at workplace matters the most. Thus, it is the reality that employees are
guided by self-interested individualism and they did not find the role of collective organization
and representation because every individual at workplace works for own not for others although,
their goals and efforts are aligned with the organizational mission but at certain extent only. Until
and unless, employees did not find their own benefits, they did not perform the assigned tasks
with full enthusiasm which results in low productivity (Doxtater, 2017). Thus, it is necessary for
the top level management of organizations to design their policies and strategies in such a
manner through which attainment of organizational goals could also be capable enough to fulfil
employees’ goals along with rewarding them for their good performances as well as for spending
valuable time at workplace and contributing in enhancing organizational performance (Hedin,
2015).
Description of contemporary workplaces
Contemporary workplaces are more productive in comparison to the traditional workplaces and
the major reason behind this gap is the tech revolution, introduction of internet, introduction of

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training and development programs and enhanced level of education system. This has been the
major factors through which organizational performances have been enhanced (Black &
Yasukawa, 2014). Contemporary workplaces are the result of rapid changes, and adaptation of
advanced measures in relevance to the improvement in products and services. Apart from this,
increasing employee commitment to invent new ideas for the objective of enhancing
organizational productivity is another crucial factor for making workplaces as contemporary
workplaces (Almond & Gray, 2017).
Organizations in the modern business environment have adopted change management as their
primary strategy for the objective of making their products and services more effective. In
relation to the successful adaptation and implementation of change management at workplace,
organization regular provides training to its employees to mould their skills, knowledge and
efforts as per the new change adopted as well as to align their mission with the organizational
vision. Although, introduction of machineries, technology and automation have enhanced
productivity of organizations but at the same time, this has also reduced productivity of
employees as they are required to less engage in the processes like production, inventory
management, employee management, etc. Due to this, employees are being lazy and the
eagerness of innovation and creativity has also been decreased (Carbo, 2017).
Contemporary workplaces have realised the significance of employee engagement, their
contribution and involving them in the decision making processes. These factors have not only
helped the organizations to boost up their productivity but it has also helped the companies to
make work environment better, productive as well as efficient enough to deal with dynamic
business issues. According to organizational theories, people are structured and placed in the
group for the objective of assigning them appropriate tasks as per their skills and talent to pursue
individual as well as collective goals (Kuhn, Ashcraft & Cooren, 2017). Major organizational
theories are rational system perspective, bureaucratic theory, contingency theory and division of
labour. Every theory has its own significance and their application in the workplaces is mainly
dependent upon the organizational requirement, impact of external factors and market trends.
Contemporary workplaces have realised the importance of every organizational theory and on
the basis of business environmental conditions, organizations have been able to generate positive
outcomes in different scenarios (Vasconcelos, 2015).

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Thus, the quote by Noon and Blyton (1997) regarding contemporary workplaces could be said
reality instead of saying it is a myth because assumptions in this quote are directly linked with
the reality. Those factors cannot be described as myth because their people in the modern
workplaces are more productive because they have been gone through advanced training and
development sessions. This has helped them to mould their skills and knowledge as per the
organizational requirements along with making them capable enough to deal with the dynamic
business environment. Employees are guided by self-interested individualism and they do not
like to work in group because it reduces the significance of their efforts and in the modern
workplaces, every employee wants to show him up and more effective than others. Apart from
this, their efforts are aligned with the organizational vision until they find their personal benefits
and the day when they got another opportunity in terms of career growth, they do not thinks for
the loss of organization (Islam, 2015).
Learning from analysis
From the above analysis, it can be said that it is the duty of Human Resource Managers to make
an appropriate flyover between organization requirements and employees’ requirements. This is
the only measure through which both could uplift their performance wisely and on the basis of
market trends. As per HR perspective, following factors have been learnt which seems to be
crucial for an HR:
 Motivation: Motivation is the best measure through which HR managers could easily
retain key and talented employees with the organization for longer run. This helps the
organization to maintain its performance along with enhancing its performance with the
passing time. In relation with motivation, HR managers could easily be able to boost up
their employees’ productivity as well as to retain their interest within the organization
and its functionalities (Bratton & Gold, 2017).
 High performing: Contemporary workplaces are considered as peopled with high
performing, thus, it is the duty of HR managers to make this assumption into reality with
the objective of enhancing organizational performance. This will ultimately help the
employees to enhance their performances as well along with generating several
opportunities for them to boost up their career growth (Rees & Smith, 2017).

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 Retention of employees: This is the major requirement for every organization retaining
the employees of an HR manager is considered as the vital strength. In relation to this,
HR managers needs to show career growth and development of employees at individual
level with the growth and development of organization in order to align their goals with
the organizational mission as well as to develop their interest within the organization
(Wilton, 2016).
 Workplace environment: This is another crucial aspect for every organization which
not only helps to make the organization more productive but it also helps in terms of
attracting employees and motivates them to work according to the organizational
requirements. For making workplace environment better and effective, HR managers
needs to adopt some measures through which not only collaboration and teamwork
could be promoted at workplaces but it is also necessary to develop appropriate
understanding amongst the employees in order to respect their co-workers and their
thinking with the objective of encouraging them towards innovation and creativity
(Marchington, et. al., 2016).
Conclusion
From the aforesaid information, it can be concluded that working in contemporary workplaces is
myth as per Noon and Blyton (1997) but the assumptions made them to prove this quote as myth
are inappropriate. This is because there are various factors in their assumptions which are
directly linked with reality such as employees are highly committed towards organizational goals
and they first seek for their organizational benefits before thinking about their career growth and
development. Both of these factors are not true at all because employees are self-interested and
they did only seek for their personal growth and development before taking any project or before
switching job through which organizational goals could be reached. In this essay, certain aspects
regarding the mythical quote given by the authors have been discussed along with distinguishing
them with the real concepts. Apart from this, the essay has also concluded the learning from this
analysis for the HR managers for the objective of improving effectiveness of their roles in an
efficient manner.

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