Comprehensive Analysis of Human Resource Management Practices at eBay

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of eBay's Human Resource Management (HRM) practices. It begins with an introduction to HRM and its importance, followed by a discussion of various HRM models, including the Fombrun, Harvard, Guest, and Warwick models, with a focus on how these models can be applied to eBay. The report then delves into the impact of environmental factors on eBay's culture and HRM plans, examining political, economic, social, and technological influences. It highlights the value of the Warwick model for eBay, explaining its components and benefits. The analysis further explores Storey's 27 points of difference between HRM and personnel management in the context of eBay. The report then examines eBay's job design strategies, including job enlargement, enrichment, and rotation, and discusses hiring and firing strategies. It includes corporate examples of good HRM practices and concludes with recommendations for employee HRM practices.

Human Resource Management

Table of Content.
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Discussion on the ways of modifications or change in HR strategies ........................................1
Impact of environmental factors on culture and HR plan of eBay..............................................5
Use of HR model and its values for the firm...............................................................................5
Using Storey's 27 points of difference between human resource management and personnel
management as a benchmark in context with the firm................................................................7
Job designing strategies of eBay................................................................................................10
Analysation of job design in Ebay Company:...........................................................................10
Hiring and firing strategies of ebay during this period .............................................................11
corporate examples of firms using good HR practices and literature to justify your stand.......11
Recommendation to employee regarding HRM practices.........................................................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Human resource management may be defined as the practices of recruiting, hiring,
employing, and deploying as well as managing human resources within an organisation. Human
resource management are responsible for forming and implementing various policies of workers
within an organisation. Human resources are considered as a crucial part of company and an
asset to it. People involved in human resources are the one who directly carries out the
operations of a company. Aims of human resources is to make effective use of different
employees working with an organisation, reducing the risk that are may affect the organisation,
and maximise the returns on investment. The project includes analysation of eBay which is a
multinational e-commerce organisation based in San Jose, California which provides consumer-
to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales via its website. eBay was founded in 1995, and
currently operating business in about 32 countries (eBay, 2022). The project contains various
HRM models and analyse the impact of environmental factors on culture as well as HR plan. IT
describes HR model and state its value. In addition, it analyse strategies of job designing and
various strategies of hiring and firing. Furthermore, it includes examples for justification in
relation to the good HR practice and literature.
MAIN BODY
Discussion on the ways of modifications or change in HR strategies
Models of Human resources explain role of human resources within an organisation.
Human resource model allows to explain the roles of HR and add values to the organisation. A
few human resources models in context with eBay are as follow:
Fombrun Model: The Fombrun model of human resource management emphasis on
various management functions and the interrelations between them that occur within an
organisation such as development, rewards, appraisals etc. The model explains nature and
significance of difference activities of human resources (Eisape, 2019).
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Illustration 1 Fombrun Model
The Harvard Model: The Harvard model includes six important components of HRM
that are stake holders interests, situational factors, HRM policy, HR outcomes, long term
consequences, and feedbacks.
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Illustration 2: The harvard model

The Guest Model: The guest model focuses on assumptions of HR manager, to begin
strategies with. The Model demands certain practices whose execution is responsible for a
certain outcome. The model emphasize on six components: human resources strategies,
practices, outcomes, behavioural outcomes, results of performance and financial consequences.\
The Warwick Model: The Warwick model centres around five elements, that are macro
environmental forces, micro environmental forces, business strategy content, HRM context, and
HRM content. This model identifies and classifies the important environment that influences
HRM.
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Illustration 3: Guest model of HRM

Changes in the strategies of HR policies
Changes are required in an organisation for its effective growth asChanges in the
strategies of HR policies well as for the involvement of its employee. eBay acquired changes in
its HR policies to run smooth business in every situation such as the pandemic one, the changes
undergone are (Collings and et. al., 2021):
Work from home flexibility: Lots of employees raised concern regarding their working
in pandemic period, so eBay provided them flexibility to work from home.
Technology dependency: To manage data of employees, novel technologies are required
to manage informations related to their attendance, leave, and other related things (HILL, 2022).
Leave policies: eBay announced new paid family and medical leave policies that offer up
to 12 paid weeks of full pay paternal leaves and 24 weeks of full pay maternity leaves. In
addition, eBay increased its disability leave to first 12 week of disability to fully paid (Fei, Jiang
and Xing, 2020).
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Illustration 4: The warwick model

Impact of environmental factors on culture and HR plan of eBay
HRM consist of different activities that are planned for a group of people such as
procuring, maintaining, processing, and utilizing. There are several factors that may have an
impact over culture as well as on the plan of human resources of firm. Impact of such
environmental factors on culture and Human resources plan of eBay are:
Political factors: Political factors may have an impact over business growth. After
pandemic, the situation of work is changed. A majority of work within eBay is managed within
virtual environment. Government has made several policies regarding work for COVID
precautions. Plan of human resources in an organisation also create changes to make a plan in
accordance to it.
Economical factors: Economical factors have an impact over the financial status of the
organisation. Due to pandemic period, economical condition of country faced a recession. Such
recession had a impact over demand and purchasing power of consumers. eBay developed a
culture to create demand of their products among people.
Social factors: There is an increase in awareness of people regarding their health after
pandemic, this directly have an effect over business. Changes in perspectives of people and the
employees have bought a change in their preferences. As employees now are preferring work
from home and a flexibility in their working hours.
Technological factors: Technology advancement create an impact over culture of the
organisation. After pandemic situation, advancement in technology and software is in demand to
manage effective working of employees virtually. Advance technology improves speed of work
and quality of work and helps an organisation to track the working, attendance, and leave of the
people working.
Other factors: Increase in the competition in market, increases the demand of skilled
employees. It creates an impact on culture and plan of HR in eBay. Organisation needs to make
changes that can help them to look for skilled employees. HR needs to create such strategies, that
allow them to attract new trained, skilled and qualified personnels and retain the working
experienced ones.
Use of HR model and its values for the firm
Out of four HR models, the Warwick human resource management model is the one that
maps the connect between external factors and environmental factors. The Warwick model was
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developed by Hendry and Pettigrew, who were researches at Warwick university. The model
explores that how human resource management adapts to change in such factors. The model
more specifically, identifies and classifies the environmental influences that are affecting human
resource management. The model supplies the context and content in which human resource
management take place. Human resource management practices are more effective when these
factors are taken into account (Pattanayak, 2020). The elements and sub elements of Warwick
model are:
Outer context (macro environmental forces): Includes factors like Socio- economic,
technical, political-legal, and competitive factors.
Inner context (firm specific or micro environmental forces): includes factors like
culture, structure, politics/leadership, task technology, business outputs.
Business strategy context: include factors like objectives, product marketing, strategies
and tactics.
Human resource management Context: include factors such as role of individual,
definition, organization, and human resource outputs.
Human resource management content: include factors such as human resources flows,
work systems of organisation, reward systems, and employee relations.
The Warwick model is helpful for eBay due to multiple valuable reasons, that are:
Warwick model helps in making out the connections in ebay between inner context or micro
environment factors like culture, structure, politics, task technologies, business outputs and outer
context or macro environmental forces like socio economic, technical, political-legal and
competitive factors.
 The model allow eBay to acquire changes in the organisation in order to be in
competitive field in market.
 It is important to adopt changes in a business.
 This model is the one which helps the firm to plan certain business strategies.
 The model helps the firm to adapt learning and align internal and external factors together
for getting success.
 The Warwick model identifies and classifies the important environmental factors that are
influencing human resource management.
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 Alignment of internal and external context in an organisation will achieve performance
and growth of the firm.
Using Storey's 27 points of difference between human resource management and personnel
management as a benchmark in context with the firm
Management in employees: It can be described as maintaining satisfied workforce.
Personnel management is a part of management which is associated with the employees at work
and their relationships with and within organisation. Personnel management is considered as
planning, compensating, organising, and integrating people for their contribution in organisation.
Human resource management: Human resource management is the practice of hiring,
recruiting, managing, and employing the employees of organisation. Human resources are
responsible for making and improving policies of work within an organisation. They help people
at workplace to manage in order attain mission. It helps the firm to hire new skilled employees to
attain goals of the company (Aini, Solihin and Muda, 2021).
Believes and assumption: Personnels management and human resources management
are crucial for every organisation especially the one like eBay. These two terms consist of
different believes and assumptions that are important for an organisation. Personnel management
is rule separating while human resource management looks for various rules and regulations
within an organisation. Behaviour of personnel management is based on customers whereas
behaviour of human resource management is based on values and missions. Guide to
management in personal management is procedures whereas in human resource management it is
business need. Conflicts in personnel management is institutionalized whereas in human resource
management it is de emphasized.
Aspect of strategies: Human resource management is quite different from personnel
management on the basis of aspect of strategies. Personnels management is related with labour
management and human resources management is related with customers.
Line management: personnel management is different from human resource
management in aspects of line management. Personnel managers are required to adopt
transactional leadership whereas human resources managers are required to adopt
transformational leadership. Communication in personal management is direct whereas it is
indirect in human resource management. Hire standardisation is considered in personnel
management whereas it is considered low in human resource management.
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Key levers: selection of employees is separate in personal management whereas it is
marginal in human resource management. Personnel management provide pay on job basis
whereas human resource management provide it on the basis of performance.
E.Analyse the job design strategies of the chosen firm
Analysation of job design in Ebay Company:
Job analysis of design is a term in which, the process of analysing the occupation or job into it's
component of organizational structure, work activities, skills and information regarding content.
Whereas job design is takes care of performance of the organisation, division of work and task
completion
Enlargement of Job: Job enlargement is a approach in which adding the more task, additional
activities with the same level of job role and require similar skills and content of work is
different with adding more responsibilities to a employer, It helps a Ebay manager to increase
satisfaction of employer, increases quality of work and decreasing the cost of employees (Haffer,
Haffer and Morrow, 2021).
Ebay used this approach for increment of work and engaging of employers.
Enrichment of Job: Job enlargement is focuses on adding task, where job enrichment works on
to motivational dimension, Where leader of a organisation can motivates to the employers to
achieve their goals and task. It is basically similar to the job enlargement. Ebay can used this
approach as to motivated the employees towards their goals (Demerouti, Peeters and Heuvel,
2019).
Rotation of Job: Job rotation is a approach, where moving of employees one job to the other job
in the same organization, where no additional skills are required, employees have gain variety of
skills through different experiences this can makes more interest of employs into the
organization. Under this the employees move from one job to another in order to add some
change or variety while performing the task. Along with it, this it has some drawbacks too that is
the cost can get increased. Ebay used this approach as to replacement of employees while
absence, to provides the potential of new roles. It can also use this approach as reducing
monotony (Ho and et.al.., 2020).
Simplification of Job: Job simplification is the approach where, Ebay manager broke the job
into smaller parts for increases the productivity of employees and also reduces the work pressure,
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to achieving the goal or task. This approach is basically to create a more focused on achieving
the task.
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Illustration 5:
Using Storey's 27 points of difference between human resource management and
personnel management as a benchmark in context with the firm