Critical Analysis of the role of HR in People Management
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.
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 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.
Approaches to Motivation and Employee Engagement
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 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.
Values, Vision, and Culture
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. 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).
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 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.
References:
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