Policies are a company’s core values represented to employees, the public and other organisations within a set of behavioural and moral guidelines, which proceed to define the reputation and arguably the success of a business. A human resource (HR) department within an organisation will adapt to the size and scope of the business, and “project the values of their organisations” (CIPD, 2018). Prospective stakeholders may feel more trusting, thus more likely to invest in, a company in which they share the same core values with. As an example, Costa Coffee has an environmental policy to “integrate environmental considerations into all business decisions” (Costa Coffee Environmental Policy Statement, 2018), which has lead to the introduction of recyclable paper cups made of sustainable wood pulp. As a result, Costa may attract stakeholders with an invested interest in eco-friendly products. These policies also guide expectations of employee performance, for instance through Costa’s procedure to “raise employee awareness of their own environmental responsibilities at work and their role in implementing this policy”.
Policy can be seen to be upheld and functioning effectively through reviewing statistical data used in a meta-analysis, quantitatively measuring business growth or decline, meeting business targets (perhaps in the production process), and employee turnover rates (staff may decide to seek work elsewhere if regulations are too stringent and inflexible). Qualitative feedback may involve customer complaints or feedback and employee appraisal feedback. Companies can use this information to update their policies in keeping with the needs of staff and customers, which drives a business through tailoring their values around their most important assets in people satisfaction and therefore success. For employees, happiness and inclusivity leads to motivation, and motivation is the driver for hard work and efficient use of an individual’s skill set in service to the company. (EVIDENCE – policies regarding motivation or engagement of employees).
Table: ’Developing the people resource’ – leads to motivation (include theory)
The hotel organisation, Marriott International, states in their Global Employment Principles (2012) that “our global workforce is a key to our success”, whereby they believe in “taking care of our associates so they can take care of our guests”. These policies have resulted in huge success for the company, with “470 hotels with over 76,000 rooms during 2017” which increased their worldwide distribution by over 5 percent, to nearly 1.3 million rooms, returning $3.5 billion to shareholders in 2017 alone (Marriott International, Inc. 2017 Annual Report). These statistics demonstrate a direct correlation between the company’s people-oriented policies, and huge international success.
The organisational support theory by Eisenberger et al., 1986, offers an explanation of how employer support, through enacted policies such as those of the Marriott, affects employee performance and behaviour. It discusses the concept of perceived organisational support (POS), which suggests that employees gauge the “extent to which the organisation cares about their well-being and demonstrates appreciation”, therefore if an employee feels supported and their contributions are valued by the company they’re employed by “they feel an obligation to return this support” (Rhoades and Eisenberger, 2002). This may present itself in the form of excelling employee performance. “POS manifests in increase in in-role and extra-role performance and decrease in stress and withdrawal behaviours such as absenteeism and turnover.” (Dasgupta, Suar, and Singh, 2013). The effects of this managerial style on employee behaviours and attitudes can then be measured through quantitative assessment. “Organisation support theory suggests that the development of POS is the employees' tendency to assign humanlike characteristics to the organisation” (Rhoades and Eisenberger, 2002). What makes someone human may be the beliefs they value most, just as the policies, along with the brand, of a business are the backbone of what personifies the company name; this connection to the people resource ultimately leads to success through the “human” ability of the company to care.
Despite correlational statistics suggesting that the success of the Marriott is due to its policies in supporting employees, these results do not explicitly demonstrate that this is the causation, and instead could be due to other external factors. It may be ignorant not to consider that an organisation’s results could also be influenced by variables such as new technology, new production methods, advertising, mergers, market changes, legislative changes, and even global-political conflicts (Boselie et al., 2005), making it difficult to pinpoint one factor that explicitly leads to success. “Empirical research has found that [HR practices] can have negative effects on the employees” (Byremo, 2015) including stress (Godard, 2001; Ramsay et al., 2000), burn out (Kroon et al., 2009), and the effects of work on private life (White et al., 2003).
Furthermore, Byremo states an assumption that “if HR has an effect on organisational performance, the HR practices will first have an effect on employee attitude and behaviour or at least on operational results before one can see effects on the financial performance”, however studies by Combs et al. (2006) demonstrated a contradiction. Instead, they found that there is no significant difference between the effects of operational measures (impacting the people resource) on business success, and purely financial measures on business success, raising the question about the extent to which people-based HR policies really have an impact.
Regarding people as a resource, the Marriott International have demonstrated that their success is not merely correlational through their polices on the subject of equality, diversity and inclusion. According to their Global Employment Principles (2012): “Marriott supports and upholds the elimination of workforce discrimination”, and their Global Diversity and Inclusion document (2015) expresses their aim in “Positioning global diversity and inclusion as a business priority as we work with associates, suppliers and owners”. The organisation’s reality subsequently supports what they promise stakeholders, defying the glass ceiling constraints through winning awards such as the ‘Catalyst Award for Advancing Women in the Workplace’ back in 2002, with a 300% increase in ‘diverse and women top leadership’, and with the 1999 launch of the ‘Women’s Leadership Development Initiative’ (Global Diversity and Inclusion, 2015). One dated concern in policies, is that organisations are legally permitted to discriminate against employees with tattoos. However, the awards presented to the Marriott directly reflect how their dedication to inclusivity has been recognised. Especially with their Employer of Choice with the WorldatWork 2017 Seal of Distinction.