HRM 325 Strategic Management Human Resources Assessment 2019

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HRM 325 Strategic Management Human Resources
Assessment 2019
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Executive Summary
This report will state the concept of business strategy and strategic human resource strategy
and the relationship between these two strategies. The use of vertical alignment and horizontal
integration in a business strategy can be used to overcome the challenges of an organisation.
These two practices will also be briefed in this report. The strategic use Best fit, Universalist and
Resource based view will also be presented in this report. Performance management and
reward system of an HR practise and the recommendations to improve it will also be stated in
this report. The concept of employee relations and the role of different actors in an organisation
along with the use of employee voice and employee relations in order to improve the employee
relationship will be stated.
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Table of Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................................4
Task 1............................................................................................................................................5
Task 2............................................................................................................................................9
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................13
Reference List..............................................................................................................................14
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Introduction
A brief discussion will be presented about Business Strategy and Human Resource Strategy in
this report. Vertical Alignment and Horizontal Integration in the perspective of HR will be briefed
in this task. Strategic Human Resource Management has three theories, which will be
presented in it along with the benefits and limitations of those models. The models also have
some differences and similarity in it and it will also be discussed in this report. Strategic
Perspective of Resource Based View, Best Fit and Universalist will have a brief discussion in
this task. HR practices along with it benefits and limitations will be discussed in this report.
Brown’s Hotel is a premium hotel, which was established in 1837 at Mayfair, London
(roccofortehotels.com, 2019). The hotel is owned by Rocco Forte Hotels after 3rd July 2003 and
is one of the oldest hotels of London. It has five floors with 115 rooms and two restaurants in it.
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Task 1
Relationship between Business Strategy and Human resource Strategy
The future planning of creating and maximising aggressive advantages in order to accomplish a
specific goal is called Business Strategy. In order to overcome these goals the business
strategy needs to be aligned within its different departmental strategy and within the overall
business strategy. The HR has different roles like recruiting the employees and training them.
Retaining the employees and engaging them also comes under the HR practises. The HR
needs to look after the compensation and benefits of the existing employees (Delery and
Roumpi, 2017). There is a strong link between a business strategy and HR strategy as business
cannot function without the practises of an HR.
In order to implement a business strategy it needs good employees for the Browns Hotel to
function. If the HR does not recruit good employees then the business will not have skilled
labours to execute the business strategy efficiently. The HR needs to keep the employees
focused and motivated towards the financial goals of the organisation. The different
departments of the hotel need to cooperate with the HR and advice it to recruit the kind of
employees that will fit the criteria (Johnson, 2016). For example if the production department of
an organisation does not communicate properly with the HR then it will recruit employees that
do not fit in the production department of the business and hence the production will slow down.
Vertical Alignment and Horizontal Integration
These two strategies are used by the Brown’s Hotel in both its industry and production process.
In order to acquire a company, which is at the same value chain as the Brown’s Hotel,
Horizontal Integration is used as a strategy. When Brown’s Hotel wishes to grow with the help
of horizontal integration it will aim to acquire a similar company of the same market. Many
companies use this strategy to increase their size of the business, in order to diversify their
product offerings and majorly to reduce the competition in the market (Waseem and Majid,
2015). Horizontal integration is even used to expand its customer base in the overseas market.
For example, Brown’s Hotel can acquire some other luxury star hotel in order in order to widen
its operations in some other countries.
However, when Brown’s Hotel acquires a company that has the production process in the same
industry then it is called Vertical Alignment. This strategy is used to strengthen the supply of
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the organisation, to capture the supply network of company’s suppliers and its own suppliers,
and to reduce the cost of the production (Martinson and De Leon, 2018). This strategy also
increases the profit of the hotel business by selling its products directly to the customers from
the newly acquired business.
Three models of Strategic Human Resource Management
Basis Management by
objective
Harvard Model Michigan Model
Definition In order to set record
and detect the goals
of the organisation
this technique is used
by both the managers
and the employees
(Kaźmierczyk et al.,
2016). The
management and the
employees both need
to agree on the
objectives of the
organisation
Stakeholders interest,
situational factors,
long term
consequences, HRM
policies, HR
outcomes and a
feedback loop through
are the six main
components of the
Harvard Model
(Kaufman, 2015).
This model is often
called as the hard
model of HRM as it
uses the employees
as a medium to gain
the objectives of
Brown’s Hotel (Tiwari
et al., 2019). This
acknowledges the
importance of
motivating and
rewarding the people.
Appraisal Systems It measures the
employee’s
performance
The training and
development of the
employees’ needs in
focused in this theory.
This model focuses
on the good and bad
judgements about the
employees.
Organisational
Structure
The organisational
structure is
comparatively shorter.
The organisational
structure is flatter.
It has taller
organisational
structure.
Table 1: Difference between three models of HRM
(Source: Created by the learner)
All these three models focus on the growth of the company and are a part of Strategic Human
Resource Management. All these models are somehow connected with the employees and the
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decision making process of the organisation. These models are similar in terms of improving
communication, motivation and leadership of an organisation.
Strategic Perspectives of Best Fit, Universalist and Resource Based View
Best Fit of tends to investigate the connection between HR strategies and the Brown’s Hotel
Strategy. It makes sure that the HR practises are suitable with the different business strategies.
Best Fit states that the HR strategies needs to focus on the needs of the employees as well as
the organisation (Croonen et al., 2016). This strategy comes with several limitations as there will
be hurdles in order to handle new challenges.
Universalist approach states that HR practises is the most superior practise of the organisation
(Malik, 2018). The best organisational output is created by the different HR practises, which
even creates effective results to achieve the aim of the business.
Resource Based View strategy is used to attain competitive advantage, which is a managerial
framework. This framework is used to develop the Brown’s Hotel’s strategic capability by
developing the efficiency of the managers and other employees (Paauwe and Boon, 2018). This
approach even states that investment in the people directly adds to the value of the firm.
Critically evaluate the specific HR practices of Performance Management and Reward
The HR’s major role is to improve the efficiency of the workers by creating a healthy working
environment by creating more challenging opportunities for the employees in order to make
employees participate in the process of decision making of the business. In the modern world all
the HR practices is focussed towards the development of the employees, which in turn will
benefit the organisation (Noe et al., 2017). Performance management is very essential in this
competitive market as it improves joint goal setting and feedback. Rewarding the employees is
also a major practise of the HR. In order to develop the performance of the employees and the
organisation an effective management of reward system is very essential. The HR needs to
reward the employees’ performance. If an employee sees that his contribution is creating an
impact on the company’s growth then the person will be motivated to perform even more.
A healthy pay and bonuses motivates the employees to improve its efficiency and to work
harder. The rewards should be relevant and must be valued by the employees. Performance
managements come with various benefits and limitations. It creates job satisfaction, which is a
major benefit for the employees as well as good career opportunities for the same. It also saves
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time and reduces conflicts between the employees (Shields et al., 2015). If an organisation has
good performance management and reward system then the employees tend to be loyal for
Brown’s Hotel. Communication can improve between the employees, which will benefit the
organisation directly. It is consuming as the manager spends most of the time to type
performance emails for the employees. If the practise is not pleasant then it can be discouraging
that is a limitation about this practise.
Recommendations to improve performance management system
In order to improve the performance system Brown’s Hotel can combine the strategy with
technology. The managers spend a lot of time typing performance emails for the employees,
which consumes unnecessary time and it is not even productive. Instead of typing the
organisation can use the help of technology to create the emails. Brown’s Hotel can directly
communicate the company’s goals. This will help the employees to improve their efficiency as
the objectives will be clearly outlined to them. It can develop software, which will keep a track of
the goals and how much efforts the employees are putting in order achieve those goals (Lueg
and Radlach, 2016). A good performance feedback to the employees improves the performance
management system. If the employees see that their work is creating an impact on the
company’s growth then they will feel motivated to work even more.
There is another way to create effective performance management is by using the reviews of
the peers. There are various technical applications that provide peers’ review and the managers
can keep a track on them. The company can even organise regular meetings in order to give a
progress report to its employees. These practices can help improve the performance
management system, which will lead to an effective growth.
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Task 2
Concept of Employee Relations
The practise of controlling the relationship between the employers and the employees is called
Employee Relations. A good employee relation provides fair and unbiased treatment to all the
employees. This will make the employees more committed towards their work. This practise will
prevent any kind of problems arising at a workplace. This practise is applied to make use of
effective employees to overcome the organisation’s mission, which is also a part of the HR
practises. A good employee relation is essential to have a tough edge in the market (Ferguson,
2018). A good pay and safe working conditions are issues that affect the employees and it can
be resolved by creating a good employee relations. Brown’s Hotel can adapt this practise in
order to create a good reputation among the share holders who are also the investors of the
business.
Unitarism theory of employee relations states that temporary conflicts can arise between an
employer and an employee but it can only be effective if they agree to cooperate at some point
of time. The people who agree with this theory believe that the employer and the employee both
work for the survival of the organisation. In order to avoid these conflicts the management
should ensure that the recruitment process is wise and unbiased (Greenwood and Van Buren,
2017). The employees should be given task of their own interest, which will get the best out of
them.
A business organisation is a combination of various complex departments, which is even stated
by the Pluralism theory of employee relations. The management and the employees are the
two main components of various complex departments. Since, the management and the
employees will have different objectives in their there are chances of conflict between them
(Siebert et al., 2015). The managers need to have different outlook in order to solve this
conflicts by establishing employment rules so that there can be fair outcomes.
Marxism theory of employee relations present that conflicts arise due material interests
between the management class and the labour class. The management class takes most of the
profit by exploiting the labour class. The conflict between these two classes was fuelled by
severe competition at a workplace (Laing, 2019). When the investment of the Brown’s Hotel
increases the wages of the labour class also decreases, which leads to further conflicts and it
sometimes also leads to violence.
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Role of the actors within the Employment Relationship
Brown’s Hotel is made up different departments, which include the board of directors, the
manager, the HR manager and the staffs. All of them have different roles to play to have good
employee relations.
The board of directors of the Brown’s Hotel have an important role to play to maintain healthy
employment relations between the employees. Since, the board of directors are the highest
authority of the company it becomes a huge responsibility for them to have a good relation with
the managers and the staffs. The board of directors and the mangers work together to run the
company and should have a good relation between them. The director only sees the overview of
the business so keeping a communication with the managers is important as the mangers are
the ones who actually have an inside view of the business. It is responsible for the actions of the
managers. The managers represent the directors on an international level. They both should
coexist in order to run the business (Reina et al., 2018). The board of directors shall assign
challenging tasks to the managers who will further assign it to the general staffs. The tasks shall
be assigned according to the interests of the employees. The board of directors should make
sure that all the important decision regarding the company takes place on an open forum. This
will give everyone a clear picture about the objectives of the organisation.
The managers of Brown’s Hotel should properly communicate with the employees in order to
know the problems and issues arising at a workplace. The employees should be very clear
about what is expected from them. In order to have a good employee relation the
communication should be clear and transparent. If an employee feels neglected or left out then
the employee relation can be hampered. The managers and the generals should take their
lunch together in order to have a good leisure time with each other and there should be no
discussion of work at that time (Terglav et al., 2016). It should encourage the employee who is
performing well. If the managers find out that any two employees are doing well with each other
then it should make them work together in the same project. The manager should be unbiased
with every employee working under it.
The HR manager of Brown’s Hotel plays an essential role in bringing the employees together. It
should use its practises to strengthen the bond among the employee and bring them together.
The employees are deeply involved in work that they hardly get time to interact with each other.
In order to avoid these situations the HR should organise extracurricular activities at the
workplace in order to make the employees interact with each other (Van De Voorde and Beijer,
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2015). Effective work is attained if the employees are satisfied with their job profile. A small get
together organised by the HR can help develop good employee relations. The birthday of the
employees should be organised to have a healthy and happy working atmosphere. It should
also send congratulatory mails to the employees when they perform well.
The employees of Brown’s Hotel also play a major role in improving the employee relations. An
employee should have proper communication with other employees in order to have a good
bond among each other. They should avoid getting into a conflict with each other and should
have a happy face while communicating with each other. They should respect its colleagues
and the managers as a negative attitude can lead to disagreement within them. Even if an
employee disagrees with another employee then also it should not complain rather it should
explain its problem politely (Steers and Lee, 2017). It should actively take part in activities
organised by the company. The employees should also work in a team to maintain a good
relation with everyone in the organisation.
Recommendations of how mechanisms of employee participation and employee voice
can contribute to improved employment relations
The process where the employees are involved in the process of decision making is called
Employee participation. Employee participation is important for the progress of Brown’s Hotel.
The individual employees take responsibility in order to carry out activities that will meet the
requirements of the customers. Employee participation is a motivational technique where an
employee can identify its own strength and weakness. The efficiency of the employees will
become better through continuous participation in the activities (Irawanto, 2015). It also
improves cooperation and job satisfaction among the employees. The turnover of the
employees also decreases with regular employee participation. Employee Voice is the process
by which people their views and issues to each other. It can used to control and resolve the
matters that affect them at work.
Employees can gain innovation and productivity and organisational improvement by the help of
employee voice. It even leads to greater career opportunities and job satisfaction for the
employees. The employees should have a voice in order to influence its working conditions. If
the there is a lack of employee voice in Brown’s Hotel then the employees can get frustrated
and they can voice their grievances on the social media websites. This will create a negative
impression about the company in the public and the company will fail to recruit new talents.
Employee voice can help solve the grievances internally and the negative commentary can be
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kept off public forums (Ruck et al., 2017). Employee voice increases the chances of collective
learning within the company. This practise can also be used to solve the mental issues faced by
the employees, which will increase the employee relationship with the other employees and the
employer. It can also be used to improve the decision making process of the organisation.
Employee voice allows the company to gain a vast source of knowledge and experience. This
will allow the seniors to take decisions with more complete information that will lead to better
outcomes. It will build a level of trust among the employees and they will feel more valued about
their existence.
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