Critical Analysis: HR's Role in People Management - Apple vs Tesco

This case study critically analyzes the role of Human Resources (HR) in shaping people management strategies within Apple Inc. and Tesco Plc. It highlights how both organizations, despite operating in different industries, utilize HR to drive employee motivation, manage grievances, and enhance performance. The study explores the influence of contemporary HR theories, such as those by David Guest and Herzberg, on their approaches. It contrasts Tesco's proactive HR policies and structured grievance management with Apple's reactive and creativity-focused environment. Furthermore, the analysis extends to employee efficiency management, comparing Tesco's 'steering wheel' strategy with Apple's 360-degree feedback system. The case study concludes that HR plays a vital role in aligning people management with the overall business goals, fostering a strong professional culture, and ensuring employee engagement and retention within both organizations. Desklib provides access to similar case studies and solved assignments for students.

Running Head: People Management
Critical Analysis of the role of HR in People Management
A comparative study of Apple Inc and Tesco Plc
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Running Head: People Management
Table of Contents
Part 1...........................................................................................................................................................3
Introduction.............................................................................................................................................3
Critical Analysis of the role of HR in People Management.....................................................................3
Conclusion...............................................................................................................................................6
Part 2...........................................................................................................................................................7
Reflective Self Evaluation.......................................................................................................................7
References...................................................................................................................................................9
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Part 1
Introduction
The human resource management is a significant aspect of any business organisation. The
formula of success for an organization lies in its people management strategy and the human
resource plays a crucial role in managing that. It is of prime organisational significance for the
HR to ensure that the workforce remains driven and motivated in accordance with the mission
and vision of the organization. Effective human capital management is an imperative aspect for
the proper running of an organization, needless to say, the aspect of HR is of paramount
importance to the organization. Over the years number of theories on HR has been developed
and the contemporary organizations follow them as core principles. Apple Inc and Tesco Plc are
considered behemoths in their respective industry and the credit for this largely goes to their
strategic human management (Reilly and Williams, 2017). The present study will take an
opportunity to critically analyze the role of HR in developing a coherent people management
approach in these organizations.
Critical Analysis of the role of HR in People Management
Tesco Plc is one of the leading retail organizations in the UK and has had a fair share of success
in most parts of the world. On the other hand, Apple Inc is considered one of the most innovative
organizations developing hi-tech consumer electronics. Both the organizations cover a
significant space in the global business map, hence it could be said that it is the business strategy
of these organizations and moreover, the execution of the strategy that has led to their success.
As per Armstrong and Taylor (2014), the role of HR comes into the picture when one talks about
the execution of business strategy because this is where the employees come into the picture. As
most of the contemporary organizations including the currently chosen case study organizations
follow contemporary HR practices they are largely influenced by strategies theories put forward
by David Guest. Ulrich et al., (2012) highlighted that the main concept put forward by Guest is
considering the employees as assets and not mere inputs in the business process which would
fetch output because the employees or staffs are something more than that. Both these
organizations have followed this theory to enhance their people management process that has not
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only helped them to improve their service provision but has helped to gain a competitive
advantage which is extremely important to sustain in their respective market.
Both these organizations have a lot of things in common yet they are different in their people
management approach which makes it interesting to analyze their attempt to have an excellent
people management strategy. According to Nankervis et al., (2016) Motivation has been
considered as one of the major aspects that drive employees to work in an organization which
has been clearly stated in the Herzberg’s theory of motivation. In this theory, the author gave a
number of attributes which motivate employees and some which put them off at work where
respect and rewards have been considered two of the most important motivating factor. Both the
organizations Apple and Tesco have their own strategy to motivate employees. In a recent
statistics of Tesco employees, it has been seen that the HR are more inclined to employ
supervisors who are interested to work with their subordinates as team members which clearly
solves the biggest problem of being looked at as subordinates. Mandip (2012) stated that Tesco
clearly understands that employees need to be considered equal and not merely weighed based
on their position which largely affects the self-respect. This strategy has helped largely instill
faith among the lower level employees. These employees have to work under certain regime but
yet have the scope of working as equals which eliminate the problem of disrespect. This form of
people management has been effective for Tesco because the organization has to manage
numerous staffs working in stores as well as for the back office.
Tyson (2014) stated that Apple Inc is probably the only organization where employees hardly
have any bindings in terms of hierarchy because the organizations wants its employees to be
innovative and free which helps to get the best possible effort yet provides all sorts of support to
be independent at the workplace not taking away the credit, recognition and respect. Hence it is
clear that both the organizations follow the same theory but in a contrasting way to keep the faith
and belief of the employees intact at the workplace.
Brewster (2017) emphasized on the fact that values, vision, and culture play a huge role in the
process of people management because organizations need to be driven by a particular vision
which is a long-term goal. In order to achieve this long-term goal organizations need to have
employees who are well groomed with professional values and the culture that prepares them for
any further challenge, they have to face. During the mid-90s Tesco was still trying to get past
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two of the other leading retailers in UK M&S and Sainsbury’s respectively. Apple was still
trying to compete with Microsoft to capture the computer market. Mester et al., (2018) said that
it cannot be denied that People management largely helped these organizations achieve their
long-term goals because the employees understood their roles and responsibilities and put in
their best effort to make sure the organization achieves its goals. This only happens when the
employees are in a contented state of mind. Aswathappa (2013) said that Tesco allowed its
employees to find the truth which is more of an exposed people management strategy. These
employees were able to now communicate more with the consumers and get their feedback and
forward their insights to the upper management due to the streamlined hierarchy. The effective
execution of their insights being accordingly recognized for their efforts helped them to become
more active. Apple, on the other hand, implemented a participative leadership style where
employees were able to show their creativity and accordingly work based on their
responsibilities which fetched effective results.
Bryant and Allen (2013) stated that the grievance management strategy is functionally significant
in managing the people in contemporary organizations. Different organizations have different
approaches to grievance management both Apple and Tesco excelled in this segment in different
ways. The HR of Tesco was much proactive in nature whereas Apple had a reactive approach to
grievance management. Bratton and Gold (2017) stated that Both Tesco and Apple are focused
on making sure all employees understand where they fit in the organization. When Tesco had
separate company policies regarding grievances of the employees Apple apart from basic rule
relied on the events as it came which helped to improve the approach towards people
management without having premeditated ideas and plans. It worked well for Apple as its work
is much more creative in nature in all levels and hence the mental fatigue as compared to the
physical fatigue would be higher to Tesco where physical fatigue to the lower level employees
has to be managed.
Vaiman, Scullion, and Collings (2012) stated that Employee efficiency management is a crucial
aspect of people management strategy. Tesco had a unique approach in the form of “steering
wheel” strategy to analyze the performance which not only helped to analyze the performance of
the employees but also the outlets and bigger stores. This helped to analyze the overall
performance and accordingly helped the HR team to create efficiency improvement strategy.
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Briscoe, Tarique and Schuler (2012) stated that Apple implemented the 360-degree feedback
strategy implemented for the creative team where not only creativity was kept in as an attribute
but discipline and teamwork was also considered important. Apple was able to track down the
individual performances and accordingly the efficacy of each of the employees could be
understood which helped to implement performance management strategies. Failures have been
strategically handled in both the organizations where Apple makes sure the objective is achieved
through productive on the job training, on the other hand, Tesco believes intensive
communicative session and mock-ups.
Kehinde (2012) highlighted that strategic aim of the Human resource management of an
organization is to align with the business planning and to deliver the best possible result initially
through selection and recruitment and then effective talent retention. This is where people
management strategy plays an important role. Goetsch and Davis (2014) said that there is a
strong similarity in people management approach between both the organizations in the context
of employee relations. The HR departments of both these organizations are highly responsible
for developing a great ambiance for the employees especially through regular communication,
performance management, being the mediator between the upper management and the lower
level employees, identifying talent and recognizing them which largely influences the employees
to work and stay with the organizations.
Conclusion
To conclude it could be said that HR plays a significant role in both the organizations namely
Tesco and Apple in the context of people management. The HR helps to develop a strong and
coherent people management strategy through effective communication, planning and business-
oriented approach which helps the organizations to achieve their respective goals. It is also
essential to state that the HR of both these organizations follows the mission, vision, values of
the organization to create a strong professional culture that helps the employees to understand
their roles and responsibilities and helps to support the organization making it easier to manage
people (Bratton and Gold, 2017).
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Part 2
Reflective Self Evaluation
In my short yet enlightening professional career, I have understood the significance of team work
in achieving a specified target. I could say from my experience as a professional working in a
team or working with people is quite like having different kinds of food in the same platter. This
is where the people management skill gains paramount importance. In my last stint with a
company I was working as an assistant supervisor and had to manage people. In a small project
that had to be delivered within a short period of time, it created all sorts of a problem as the team
leader fell ill and had to take a day off. Being the next person in the hierarchy I had to organize a
team to start off from the scratch. As stated earlier, working with people with a different mindset
is actually trying to mix immiscible liquids it was important for me to have a proper people
management strategy in place. We had a diversified workgroup and hence the very first thing I
did was to clearly set goals which I feel is the first step to effective people management ( Stahl,
Björkman and Morris, 2012). Being able to sketch the goals clearly it becomes extremely easy to
convey the ideas and roles and responsibilities to the team members. So, naturally, it helped me
to communicate with the employees about the roles and responsibilities. The roles and
responsibilities had been properly allocated but I realized later that I was never a good listener
which eventually created problems for me.
Since I was so far working as a deputy and worked on the path sketched by the supervisor I did
not have to do much of the talking. This revealed that I had to communicate well which means
listening more and acting precisely. From the event, I realized that it is important to become a
leader which means it is important to listen to the issues of the people which would help to
complete a project without any hassles and will help to make sure each and every employee is
satisfied with the role. From the event, I realized that I am a good thinker which is a positive side
and is important to become a skilled people manager but with that, it is also important to be an
active listener which I have to work on. It is also important for me to get self-organized in order
to drive people and define each and everyone’s role effectively so that they could rely on me as a
leader. An HR or a leader needs to set examples as all the great leaders of the past have done and
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for that, it is crucial for me to go through leadership theories and ideas and to be able to
implement interactive communication which would ultimately prepare them for the challenge.
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References
Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S., 2014. Armstrong's handbook of human resource management
practice. Kogan Page Publishers.
Aswathappa, K.E.M.A.L., 2013. Human resource management: Text and cases. Tata McGraw-
Hill Education.
Bratton, J. and Gold, J., 2017. Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave.
Brewster, C., 2017. The integration of human resource management and corporate strategy.
In Policy and practice in European human resource management (pp. 22-35). Routledge.
Briscoe, D., Tarique, I. and Schuler, R., 2012. International human resource management:
Policies and practices for multinational enterprises. Routledge.
Bryant, P.C. and Allen, D.G., 2013. Compensation, benefits and employee turnover: HR
strategies for retaining top talent. Compensation & Benefits Review, 45(3), pp.171-175.
Goetsch, D.L. and Davis, S.B., 2014. Quality management for organizational excellence. Upper
Saddle River, NJ: pearson.
Kehinde, J., 2012. Talent management: Effect on organization performances. Journal of
Management Research, 4(2), pp.178-186.
Mandip, G., 2012. Green HRM: People management commitment to environmental
sustainability. Research Journal of Recent Sciences, ISSN, 2277, p.2502.
Mester, B., Andrews, A., Allen, C. and Chiozzi, L., 2018. Performance management.
Nankervis, A.R., Baird, M., Coffey, J. and Shields, J., 2016. Human resource management:
strategy and practice. Cengage AU.
Reilly, P. and Williams, T., 2017. How to get best value from HR: The shared services option.
Routledge.
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Stahl, G.K., Björkman, I. and Morris, S. eds., 2012. Handbook of research in international
human resource management. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Tyson, S., 2014. Essentials of human resource management. Routledge.
Ulrich, D., Younger, J., Brockbank, W. and Ulrich, M., 2012. HR from the outside in: Six
competencies for the future of human resources. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Vaiman, V., Scullion, H. and Collings, D., 2012. Talent management decision
making. Management Decision, 50(5), pp.925-941.
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