Leadership Report: IBM's Performance, Culture, and Employee Engagement

This report provides an in-depth analysis of IBM's leadership and human resource management practices. It begins by examining performance-related initiatives, including appraisal systems, talent acquisition, and employee selection processes. The report then delves into culture-related initiatives, exploring different organizational culture types and their impact on employee engagement. Furthermore, it discusses employee management strategies, such as salary packages, training programs, and workplace culture. The report identifies key challenges and recommends improvements, including self-appraisal initiatives, a more flexible organizational culture, and enhanced employee training programs. The conclusion emphasizes the organized HR management of IBM, highlighting both its strengths and areas for further development. Overall, the report offers valuable insights into IBM's approach to leadership, employee management, and organizational culture, providing actionable recommendations for enhancing its HR strategies.

Leadership
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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................4
Performance related initiatives...................................................................................................4
Employee management related initiatives.................................................................................7
Recommendation........................................................................................................................8
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................9
References................................................................................................................................10

Introduction:
This is the study which is based over the entire perspectives of an organisation. The
organisation selected here is the IBM. In this study, in the first segment there will be a
discussion regarding the performance related initiatives of an organisation which is being
operated within the organisation for the measurement of the performance. In the second
segment, there will be a discussion over the initiatives based on culture that is required by the
organisation to operate the culture. The third is the engagement related initiatives and in the
last segment there will be a brief discussion of the recommendations that is required to
initiate within the organisation for improvement.
Performance related initiatives:
The performance of the employees is required to be measured, which is being regarded as a
necessary measure. During the improvement of the business or building up the present
success, this is the procedure which has impacted the operations in a major manner. The
performance of an employee is measured with some valued steps like the:
Unnamed Appraisal are being gathered for the subordinates. The 360degree appraisal is
comprised of major benefits for assessing the ability of the manager for managing and
leading.
Self-Appraisal are required to be performed which is being regarded as a major option.
The feedback of the colleagues is being collected (Hansen et al. 2017).
The evaluation of the supervisors is compiled and lastly, the 360degree evaluations’
limitation are understood.
Talent acquisition is the procedure of hiring as well as attracting the skilled employees for
fulfilling the basic needs of the company. This has helped the companies for building the

workplaces with the skilled employees, those are responsible for making the business
success. The process selection is included within the talent acquisition (Johnson et al. 2016).
Employee Selection is the procedure of putting the right men in the position of right job. The
salary is the amount that is paid to the employee for his services towards the company. This is
a fixed amount.
The incentives are the drivers for attracting the employees and the retainment of the
employees during their start-ups. The three chief kinds of incentives are like the profit
sharing, bonuses and stock options.
Job-redesign is the technique which means the restructuring of the elements like the tasks,
responsibilities and duties of a job for creating it as encouraging for the employees.
The employee autonomy is focused over tasks due to certain reasons like, for increasing the
loyalty and ownership feeling, productivity is increased with the reduction of labour costs.
Job satisfaction is promoted, the customer relationship is impacted, the succession planning is
simplified naturally.
The team work is being regarded as the tool for making the team efficient, organised and
happy. And proper training is required for benefitting the organisation.
Culture related initiatives:
Developing culture and engagement:
There are numerous types of culture within an organisation which are:
Clan culture: this specifies about friendly working environment with a lot in common and is
same to the major family.

Adhocracy culture: This specifies about a creative and dynamic working environment
where risks are taken by the employees as well as the leaders and are the innovators (Kelana
et al. 2016).
Market culture: This specifies about the organisation which is result-based and is
emphasized towards the finishing of the work and the performance of the things where the
people are competitive, and the goals are focused.
Hierarchy culture: This specifies about a structured and formalised work environment
where the tasks of the people are decided by the procedure (Mäkelä and Kinnunen 2018).
The cultures of the organisation can be based on the following theories. They are:
Culture as the Adaptive System:
This is a significant expansion of the cultural theory which is derived from the observant of
the cultures in the evolutionary perspectives. This is being regarded as a widened bridge
among the studies of the hominid evolution and social life of the humans.
Ideational theories of culture:
Within this perspective, there are three further varied ways of the approaching pf the cultures
as the methods of the ideas. These are the cultures as the cognitive systems where culture is
being observed as a method of knowledge and the cultures as the structural systems where the
structuralist approach is observed. The last one is culture as the symbolic systems where the
culture is being treated as the systems of the shared symbols as well as the meanings (Moeller
et al. 2017).
Thus, observing all these theories, it is to be said that, IBM work culture is to be structured
over the basis of the adhocracy culture. The cultural features also stimulus the human

resource sustenance for the exertions of the firm to respond to the prospects and threats
within the external business environment.
Employee management related initiatives
The engagement of the top class business entities in terms of their employee’s workforce is
becoming a growing trend in the global scenario. In this respect, the discussed company IBM
has taken certain initiatives which will be discussed in the following segment of the report.
 The attractive salary packages of the organisation is one of the key reason for
enhancing the morale and motivation of the employees and increase the employee
engagement.
 The training and development program of the company based upon the online and
offline procedure is also very effective in terms of increasing the efficiency and
engagement of the employees (Petrovski et al. 2017).
 Though there are a large number of employees prevails in the company who are
working in a contractual basis, the permanent employees are enjoying the job
security in this company.
 The job satisfaction of the employees is being provided through the remuneration
schemes and the career opportunity given by the company. Beside this, the workplace
culture is also another key consideration in terms of enhancing the employee
engagement.
 A huge scope of career development has been provided by the company in this
respect which enhances the employee engagement and reduce the rate of employee
turnover.
 The work environment applied in the workplace is also adaptive, suitable and flexible
for the employees which enables them to sustain more work engagement (Strandberg
2017).

 The key challenges related to the innovation and performance of the company has
helped the HR department in terms of enhancing the employee engagement.
 The internal social media platforms of the company has helped in this respect in
terms of enhancing the communication among the employees and solicit the
feedbacks from them.
 The recognition through the promotion is another factor that is being implemented by
the management in order to improve the employee engagement.
 The flexible culture of the company welcomes several innovative ideas made by the
employees and takes their suggestions into consideration while making the decision.
This also helps in terms of the growing employee management of the company.
Recommendation
For each of the discussed initiatives, certain recommendation can be made in this respect in
terms of identifying the flaws in the strategy and thus, suggesting certain recommendations
for the HR strategies implemented by the company. These recommendations are:
 The appraisal procedure of the company is being dependent upon the performance
analysis of the employees through the software. In this respect, the management can
implement certain self-appraisal initiatives which can enhances the motivations and
morale of the employees. Apart from this, certain period incentives can also be
helpful for motivating the employees to perform better in a long run in order to
achieve the targets of the company.
 The adhocracy culture of the company is also very suitable when it comes to the
creativity and innovation. But in order to enhance the communication between the
employees, more flexible culture is needed to be implemented in this respect. Beside
this, the implementation of fun culture can also be a good idea in order to improve the
employee satisfaction. In this regard, the company can prepare a hybrid culture for

their employees in order to obtain the required sustainable workplace culture
(Venkatesh 2017).
 The HR department of the company can also make certain improvement in terms of
their employee engagement initiatives. In this respect, the training and development
of the employees can be improved by implementing more thorough training to the
employees. Beside this, the communication among the employees can also be
enhanced in this regard in terms of introducing certain workplace competencies
regarding the communication and collaboration. The company should also provide
more flexibility to the employees in order to reduce the job stress in the organisation.
Conclusion
In the given segment, it can be stated that HR management of IBM follows a much organised
policy in terms of managing the human workforce in the entity. Three key considerations
regarding the management of employees has been stated in the given report which
particularly states the steps taken by the management in terms of increasing the job
satisfaction of the employees and reducing the staff turnover. Beside this, there are certain
draw backs in this strategy which has been identified in the conclusive statement and
necessary suggestions has been provided in this respect.
References:

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Human Resource Information Systems: Co-Evolution of Technology and HR
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Moeller, M., Harvey, M. and Maley, J., 2017. HR Guidelines for Mitigating Cross-Border
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COMPETIVENESS OF ICT COMPANIES: A SEE CASE STUDY. University-Industry
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Strandberg, C., 2017. The role of human resource management in corporate social
responsibility.

Venkatesh, A.N., 2017. Conceptualizing HR Analytics Practices for Healthier Organizational
Performance–A Framework Based Analysis. International Journal of Engineering, Business
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