人力资源管理第十版英文版第三章笔记CHAPTER 3 Individuals Jobs and Effective HR Management.docx

1、人力资源管理第十版英文版第三章笔记CHAPTER 3 Individuals Jobs and Effective HR ManagementCHAPTER 3 Individuals, Jobs, and Effective HR ManagementAfter you have read this chapter, you should be able to: Identify three areas where HR departments should setperformance goals. Describe your current job using the job chara

2、cteristicsmodel. Discuss advantages and disadvantages of work teams. Compare and contrast ways of dealing with turnover andabsenteeism. Enumerate ways to collect data for evaluating HRperformance. Summarize the process of evaluating HR performance.HR TRANSITIONSEffective HR: Linking Individualsand J

3、obs Successfully“A successful company cant be at war with itsown employees.”The kinds of Human Resources systems and practices that organizationsdevelop differ to some extent. Theyevolve in response to different circumstances, but it is becoming clear that HR management does affect an organizations

4、effectiveness and ability to compete. Three examples are given here to show how the relationships among individuals, jobs, and effective HR management can affect an organization.Plastics Lumber Company: In Akron, Ohio, Alan Robbins started a small factory that converts old milk and soda bottles to f

5、ake lumber used in picnic tables, fences, etc. His major problems have been with his employees. He intentionally put his factory in a downtown location and hired local residents. When he began, he was lax and friendlyhe would break out cold beers for everyone at the end of a shift, or grant employee

6、s personal loans. A turning point came when Mr. Robbins had to fire two workers for fighting on the work floor.One was roaming the factory looking for the other with an iron bar in his hand. Both men filed for unemployment compensation, and filed racial discrimination complaints. Mr. Robbins realize

7、d his laissez-faire approach to HR was not going to work. Other tough issues involving alcohol and drugs at work also emerged. In one month, he had to fire four of his 50 employees for cocaine and other substance abuse problems. Absenteeism is a constant problem. So is the threat of lawsuits and inj

8、ury claims, as well as discrimination and unemployment claims. In response Mr. Robbins has built elaborate HR defenses against such problems and says he no longer trusts his employees as much as he once did. His solution is an HR system built around a thick employment manual outlining what will be t

9、olerated and what will not.Northwest Airlines: Northwests customer service and labor problems have gone from bad to the worst among major airlines. Northwest had the highest number of customer complaints, the most delayed flights, and second worst performance on mishandled bags. The airline recogniz

10、ed the problems, but the situation worsened as General Motors and Chrysler announced they were shifting some of their business travel to a Northwest rival. The automakers were unhappy with high fares, delays, and cancellations by Northwest. The FAA is investigating an unusually high number of mechan

11、ical problems, and union employees had a strike. In looking at Northwest Airlines, the CEO of Continental Airlines observed, “They know they have some service issues.” He further noted, “A successful company cant be at war with its own employees.”Chrysler Corporations Windsor Van Plant: When 33-year

12、-old James Bonini was named manager of the big van plant in Windsor, Ontario, virtually everyone was surprised. He was young and inexperienced for the big job in one of the least-automated plants with hundreds of manual jobs. He was selected because his boss wanted to shake up Chryslers manufacturin

13、g plants, where managers thought they were drill sergeants, workers were dissatisfied, and quality problems were abundant.Mr. Bonini made mistakes and was met with skepticism. But his commonsense management approach finally succeeded in changing the culture of the plant and attitudes of many employe

14、es. En route to that outcome, he took actions that had not been used beforeand that paid off. He met with all the workers in small groups; interestingly, many workers had never even met a plant manager.Bonini and his staff redesigned about 70% of the assembly operations and redesigned jobs to improv

15、e ergonomics, cost, and quality. His concern for his people showed up in incidents as minor as dealing with worker complaints about restrooms to changing telephone policy after a worker did not get a call in time to get to his dying wifes bedside. Bonini and his managers used worker teams to help dr

16、aft standard operating procedures, and those teams made meaningful changes in the way workers did their jobs each day.The plants approach to individuals and their jobs was changeda feat acknowledged positively by even the most hard-bitten skeptics. Workers and managers both had changed the way they

17、viewed and did their jobs.The perception used to be that Human Resources thought about the happiness of employees. . . . Now we realize the overriding concern is the yield from employees.” JEAN COYLEThis chapter focuses on individuals: their relationship with their employers and their motivation. It

18、 also looks at the jobs they do and the ways of measuring the effectiveness of HR management in dealing with individuals and their jobs.Throughout the chapter, important HR output variables are considered: productivity, quality, service, satisfaction, and turnover and absenteeism.Individuals are bot

19、h valuable and perverse commodities for the managers who rely on them to accomplish work. In some organizations the people and the innovative ideas they generate are really the “product” that the firm produces. In others, depending on the job design, people may be a necessary but much smaller part o

20、f the overall effort, because machines do most of the work.What is the actual monetary value of an individual to an organization? Employers who compete on the basis of their employees capabilities know the importance of people to the success of the organization. However, the exact monetary value of

21、a skilled workforce may be difficult to identify. An organization may have created a workforce that works harder or smarter than competitors; or one that generates many new ideas and is continually learning new ways and finding better methods. There may be no formula to put a precise dollar amount o

22、n such favorable values and activities, but when a company is sold, such attributes of the workforce bring a premium price.2Just as the quality of the workforce can be a competitive advantage, it can also be a liability. When very few employees know how to do their jobs, when people are constantly l

23、eaving the organization, and when those workers who remain refuse to change or work more effectively, the human resources are a competitive problem that puts the organization at a disadvantage. Simply having an effective strategy and good products or services does not guarantee success for an organi

24、zation if the individual employees do not implement that strategy or produce organizational products or services efficiently.3 Individual Employee PerformanceMany factors can affect the performance of individual employeestheir abilities, motivations, the support they receive, the nature of the work

25、they are doing, and their relationship with the organization. The Human Resources unit in an organization exists in part to analyze and help correct problems in these areas.4 Exactly what the role of the HR unit in an organization “should be” depends upon what upper management expects. As with any m

26、anagement function, HR management activities should be evaluated and reengineered as necessary so that they can contribute to the competitive performance of the organization and individuals at work.In many organizations the performance depends largely on the performance of individual employees. Ther

27、e are many ways to think about the kind of performance required of employees for the organization to be successful; but here, we will consider three key elements: productivity, quality, and service.ProductivityThe more productive an organization, the better its competitive advantage, because its cos

28、ts to produce a unit of output are lower. Better productivity does not necessarily mean more is produced; perhaps fewer people (or less money or time) were used to produce the same amount. A useful way to measure the productivity of a workforce is the total cost of people per unit of output. In its

29、most basic sense, productivity is a measure of the quantity and quality of work done, considering the cost of the resources it took to do the work. It is also useful to view productivity as a ratio between input and output. This ratio indicates the value added by an organization or in an economy.GLO

30、BAL COMPETITIVENESS AND PRODUCTIVITY At the national level, productivity is of concern for several reasons. First, high productivity leads to higher standards of living, as shown by the greater ability of a country to pay for what its citizens want. Next, increases in national wage levels (the cost

31、of paying employees) without increases in national productivity lead to inflation, which results in an increase in costs and a decrease in purchasing power. Finally, lower rates of productivity make for higher labor costs and a less competitive position for a nations products in the world marketplac

32、e.ORGANIZATIONS AND PRODUCTIVITY Productivity at the organization level ultimately affects profitability and competitiveness in a for-profit organization and total costs in a not-for-profit organization. Decisions made about the value of an organization often are based on the productivity of which it is capable.5Perhaps none of the resources used for productivity in organizations are so closely scrutinized as human resources. Many of the activities undertaken in an HR system deal with individual or organizational productivity. Pay, appraisal systems, training, selection, job design, and c