Introduction
Being in charge of the human resources of a company and planning their further use is a challenging task mostly due to the combination of the external factors related to the goals of the organization and the internal ones, which are linked to the goals of people working for the company in question. Although the dilemma faced by the organization in the case study might seem to require merely a set of penalties for the staff so that the latter could comply with the current safety requirements, the problem is, in fact, rooted much deeper and demands that the very corporate values and the leadership strategy should be rearranged.
Human Resource Management Issues
Joe’s Problem
When it comes to defining the key human resource issues, which the organization may be having, one must admit that the leadership issue is clearly the weakest link in the generally strong management strategy. Indeed, a closer look at the way, in which Joe directs his employees, will reveal that he may be far too forgiving and tending to be soft when it comes to breaking the corporate rule. While the specific character trait would not have been viewed as entirely negative in other settings, the fact that it led to Joe and his staff treating the issue of safety lightly makes it evident that the reconsideration of the leadership approach adopted by the manager will have to be viewed as a necessity. Particularly, the fact that Joe will have to put his foot down at some point deserves to be mentioned.
Solving the problem outlined above does not presuppose switching to an entirely stiff and rigid leadership style, however; in fact, it is highly doubtful that Joe will be able to make the changes required to become a sterner and a less forgiving manager within a relatively short amount of time, as he will have to make the necessary changes to some traits of his character, which define his leadership skills. Although it is traditionally assumed that leadership qualities are not intrinsic and can be developed in any person (Byars and Rue 89), one still must admit that people, who are just as timid and delicate as Jim are still very likely to find it excruciatingly difficult to out restrictions on the staff members and put their foot down so that the latter could deliver better performance rates. Therefore, it is imperative that the corresponding measures should be adopted to reinforce the key corporate values in the organization and boost the rates of CSR among the staff so that the latter could comply with the organization’s safety principles and, therefore, contribute to the creation of the environment, in which safety could be promoted successfully.
Problem Development
Although tracking down the development of the problem requires the analysis of key character traits of every single staff member, it can be assumed that the problem started with the introduction of the staff members to Joe. The very first message, which he sent with his behavioral patterns, must have screamed about the lack of restraint, which he considers a norm in the workplace. While the first episode could have been minor, it started snowballing and very soon span out of his control, thus, leading to staff disregarding his commands completely. As a result, when the safety issue came up as the problem that needed the managers’ attention and the staff’s compliance with the corporate rules, Jim had basically no authority to reinforce the rules and impose them on his staff.
It can also be assumed that the problem started evolving as the staff members realized that there was no tight supervision over them. Indeed, according to the case study, the employees have been provided with enough room for making their own choices regarding the company-related issues. Hence, the employees may have assumed that they could take the corporate safety rules lightly as well. Although the specified scenario does not make Jim’s leadership skills look favorable, either, it provides a more objective viewpoint on the subject matter, therefore, making it clear that the safety issues in the firm have been spawned by the lack of control that the leadership strategy promoted in the organization creates premises for.
The combination of the two factors listed above can be considered another possible scenario for the problem development. While, when introduced to the company’s staff separately, the lack of a proper leadership system within the organization and Jim’s inconsistent leadership skills may have had no drastic effect on the employees, once combined, they created the environment, in which the manager’s subordinates felt that they were free to make safety-related choices on their own. The specified scenario is the most likely interpretation of the events that led to the lack of control over the safety issues in the workplace.
HRM Issue and the Proposed Solution
It is quite peculiar that the scenario in question does not manifest a complete denial of the problem; in fact, Joe struggles to retain control over the situation and sees to acknowledge fully that there is a disciplinary problem in the workplace. The case in point is a graphic example of an inconsistent leadership approach, which does not provide the staff the required set of values to adhere to, therefore, pandering to their negative characteristics such as the lack of responsibility, unwillingness to change, reluctance in adopting essential values required to facilitate safety in the workplace, etc. In other words, the way, in which the safety ideas are promoted to the staff, will have to be altered significantly, which a change in the leadership strategy is likely to trigger.
Apart from the obvious problem regarding the leadership skills of the manager, the promotion of changes, which Joe is also responsible for, needs to be addressed. According to the existing researches on the subject matter, change management is an indispensable element of any HRM process (Byars and Rue 111). Presupposing that the staff members should be taught to adapt to change and accept it in an adequate manner, therefore, altering their behavioral patterns and adapting to a new worldview, the specified concept seems to have been abandoned completely by Joe. The fact that the employees are against the alterations of their workplace environment as opposed to being against safety as a concept is a graphic proof thereof.
The staff does not mind reinforcing the security system in the organization; these are the restrictions that this reinforcement will impose on them, which they refuse to accept. The above-mentioned type of attitude can be defined as a clear manifestation of the inability of the staff to accept changes as an inevitable and essential part of their work. Indeed, as Byars and Rue (21) clarify, any company, which aims at increasing its performance rates and developing steadily in the environment of the global economy, has to consider the means of helping employees adapt towards changes in the economic, financial, technological and cultural environment.
In fact, change management has a lot to do with the leadership strategy chosen by the head of the company and mimicked by its managers. As a recent study explains, it is essential that the person promoting change in the workplace should have the characteristics such as self-awareness, emotional maturity, motivation, compassion for the staff members, and the skill of creating strong emotional links with the later; however, apart from the above-mentioned features, one must also bear in mind that the significance of the leadership qualities such as consistency, observation, problem-solving, humor, communication, and responsibility is not to be underrated, either (Byars and Rue 85).
To address the issue in question, one will have to consider a change in the leadership approach. The specified decision can be viewed as twofold since it involves a change in the staff’s behavioral patterns and Jim’s approach to conflicts resolution. As the case shows, Jim uses the negotiation strategy based on avoidance to manage the rough edges and make sure that the staff members should remain satisfied. While often deemed as positive in improving the manager–employee relationships, the strategy under analysis has clearly backfired in the scenario above, as employees seem to have no regard for either the safety issues or the information that Jim is trying to get across – or for their manager, for that matter. Herein the importance of changing the negotiation system, which Jim adopts in the workplace, lies. Choosing from the existing five options of negotiating a conflict, Jim chooses the avoidance approach, which can be deemed as temporarily efficient; however, the key problem of the aforementioned strategy is that it only sweeps the problem under the rug instead of providing any actual solutions to it.
Therefore, it can be suggested that the strategy based on collaboration should be used as the prime method of managing the conflicts that may possibly emerge once Jim starts being more persistent about the promotion of new ethical and quality-related standards in the workplace and, therefore, restricting the staff’s options and flexibility. In other words the change, which the company in question will have to undergo, concerns the unique character traits of the people working in it, particularly, Jim.
The improvement of the workflow, however, should be aimed at not only Jim but also the staff. As it has been stressed above the lack of motivation and, therefore, unwillingness to be flexible is one of the basic problems that Jim has to deal with. In other words, the staff feels very insecure about their benefits, which means that the scenario showcases the lack of progress in the compensation and benefits issue development. To be more exact, it would be reasonable to provide the employees with several incentives, including financial ones, which would have made the transition easier.
At this point, the importance of corporate social responsibility (CSR) as the tool for improving motivation rates among the staff and convincing them to switch to the system suggested by the company needs to be brought up. Traditionally defined as the leadership philosophy that helps employees coordinate their personal goals with the requirements set by the organization and, thus, gain opportunities for further development, at the same time making sure that their rights are recognized and that they are provided with all the opportunities available (Byars and Rue 58), CSR serves as the foundation for shaping employees’ perception of their workplace responsibilities and their role in the company.
In other words, the staff will assume a more responsible approach towards their workplace routine after the incorporation of the key tenets of the CSR theory into their daily routine. It is quite remarkable that the introduction of the policy in question allows for the development of sustainability in the organization since a reasonable use of resources lies at the very foundation of the phenomenon of CSR (Byars and Rue 211). Hence, it is desirable that CSR should be incorporated into the HRM strategy design so that the staff could be provided with opportunities to increase their motivation rates and feel that the company supports them in their decision to contribute to the enhancement of the safety standards.
Last but definitely not least, the issue of training and development deserves to be mentioned as the area, in which a consistent setback can be observed. The problem concerning the motivation of the staff – or, to be more specific, the lack thereof – has already been marked above as an evident effect of a poorly designed leadership approach; however, it can also be attributed to an inadequate training and development program suggested by the HRM department. Unless the staff members feel valued, they are very unlikely to change anything about their professional attitudes and accept new roles and responsibilities, a recent study (Byars and Rue 124) claims. Therefore, it can be assumed that the training and development program suggested by the company’s HR department could use certain improvement. Generally, the organization will need to consider adopting an employee-focused HRM approach so that the staff satisfaction rates could increase and that the members of the organization could be more eager to consider the suggestions that the firm makes, as well as accepting the values that the entrepreneurship views as its basis.
Conclusion
Bringing change to a workplace environment is a challenging task that needs arranging the work of numerous departments and making sure that the choice of a particular strategy should not disrupt the operations in other departments. Particularly, the approaches used to manage the human resources of an organization should not affect the performance thereof and the safety rates of the firm. The case in point is a clear example of a poorly chosen HR strategy affecting the security of the staff and creating threats to the safety of the employees. To make sure that people’s lives should not be jeopardized, Jim, the manager, will have to consider changing the attitude of the staff toward the subject matter; the given step, in its turn, will trigger the need to rearrange the elements of the current HR strategy. Once the communication issues are improved, and the staff is ready to undergo the corresponding training without having to fight their reluctance, a rapid improvement in the performance rates and staff satisfaction can be expected. As a result, the issue concerning the lack of control over the staff members and the current safety problems will be resolved.
Works Cited
Byars, Lloyd and Leslie Rue. Human Resource Management. 10th ed. New York City, NY: McGraw-Hill Education, 2010. Print.