How might an understanding of organizational theory help the HRM practitioner to perform their role more effectively
With the accelerated development of economical globalization and the rapid progress of industrial restructuring, the international market has become increasingly competitive and unpredictable. Owing to this, managers’ attention has shifted to the organization inside. Technological innovation and marketing-oriented strategies are increasingly difficult to grasp, the manager turned inward to seek for the steady competitive advantage to sustain the business continuing. And in the period of knowledge economy, human capital play a decisive role in the formation of organizational core competiveness more clearly, the various needs and values of individuals nowadays bring new challenges to human resources management and how to manage a wide range of diverse staff, maintain good relations in the organization need to be resolved promptly.
Obviously, the international competition can be viewed as the competition in the capability of human resources, in the quantity and quality of human resources,also in the level of development of human resources and mechanisms. Meanwhile, with the change of emphasis, the organizational theory has got great enrichment and progress basing on the original ones. It takes on the coexistence of classics and innovation under the new situation and the significance for guiding the HRM practitioner will be more authoritative.
In light of the existed requests in human resource management under the new situation, the essay mainly introduces that the organizational theory has imposed its effect on the performance of HRM practitioners as a guiding role. In order to keep up with the international market drogue, enhance the core competiveness of organization and achieve new breakthrough of the role of human resource management.
This essay contains three main components:
The first part introduces the chief organizational theories and involved scopes. The second part outlines the roles HRM practitioners are performing and their specific tasks and goals. The third part details five main aspects of organizational theories which has given great assistance for the performances of the role of HRM with its application.
The organizational theory mainly contains aspects about the organizational environment, the leadership, the team work,the motivation and the organizational culture. Firstly, there are four aspects included in the organizational environment theory: Culture aspect,Social construction aspect,Technology aspect and Physical aspect. The ultimate goal of this theory is to realize the interaction between internal and external environment of the organization so that practitioner can complete their building and upgrading for internal environment and the adaptation and reformation for external environment. The leadership theory integrates the complexity of the leadership’ phenomenon. A phenomenon of leadership, not only is it the result of the leader’s own behavior, but also depends on the surrounding environment. As a result ,it focuses on how to adjust the style of leadership in different circumstances and how to manage the staff indifferent stages of the orgznization. Then, the team work theory. A good team management can arrange the job appropriately according to different organizational patterns.It aims at the joint effort, the coodination between the staff, and how to arrange jobs to the members to exert their potential capacity. The last one, the theory of organizational culture. It points to the the spirit and ideology of a organization,those are the most essential part of one organization which can figure a successful social imagine and help the company be accepted easily by the publics. Meanwhile, it puts emphasis on how to harmonize the orgnizational culture and the each staff’s personal culture.
As HRM practioners, they has to ensure the greatest satisfaction for the demand of human resource management , so they need to recruit qulified members and train them constantly to improve the value of the whole human capital. At the same time, maintaining and motivating the human resources to make their potential abilities explored maximized is also necessary. As to the relationship, the team collaboration should be achieved by the HRM practitioner.Above all, they must pay more attention on achieving the comprehensive development of individuals while achieving organizational goals.
Totally speaking, the organizational theories has guided the HRM practitioner accomplish organizational objectives and tasks. Firstly, the organizational environmental theory has provided the basis for HRM practitioner making a human resourse plan and recruiting staff. The forecast and decision for supply and need has been maken based on the analysis of internal,external organizational environment. Secondly,the incentive theory has helped the HRM practitioners motivate employees to perform better and improved the employee’s satisfaction and responsible senses through the pays, benefits and career plans. In addition, HRM practitioners afford to evaluate the overall quality of staff, therefore, the building of rational evaluation systems of job performance under the direction of the incentive theory has become more efficiently. Thirdly,theories of organizational culture have incredible influences on employees with its direction and radiation.It represents the soul of the organization. Lastly, through the leadership theory, equity theory, as well as the establishment and training of orgnizational culture theory have maken employees become more identified with the organization and has improved their cohesion and loyalty invisibly.
Management is the unity of science and art, the below illustrates the concret combination between the organizational theories above and the objectives and tasks of HRM practitioners. It proves that the application of organizational theories have acted as an inreplaceble role in directinging HRM practitioners’ specific work.
The organizational environment theory has been used to assess the internal and external environment of organization combined with the PEST, SWOT analysis.Under the assistance of the two, the HRM can make a human resources planning and lay down identify goals for human resource development.
The analytical framework for issues of human resources planning is PEST, SWOT Analysis and organizational theories.
We always take the four factors of the organizational environment theory into consideration when we analysis the external environment of the organization in the step two showed in the gragh:
Political factors: according to the government’s industrial policy, the HRM practitioner can determine the border of company’s obligation and carry out human resources planning legally. Meanwhile, the human resource management is influenced by the coherence and continuity of the policies.
Economical factor: Today, the state of economic and labor market tend to be endogenous variables of human resource management. HRM’s planning has involved the prospects for the enterprise tightly, while the prospect has a positive correlation with the entire economic state.
Cultural factor: Historical traditions, geographical environment, and levels of economic development in different countries are vary from each other. With the development of transnational corporations, the integration of national culture is progressing steadily. Thus, the organizational culture theory has been used more and more in building the corporate culture and the cultural conditions of human resources’locations have been taken into account so fully that the HRM practitioners can easily ensure the integration between the member and organization.
Technological factor has maken the HRM practitioner take the changes about staff’s job roles and skills affected by technological reform into account and required the organization to build teams immediateiy which had a clearly defined responsibility. Also, it has changed the structure of the organization, it makes the nature of human resources management transform from mechanical model to authorized one. What’s more, technologies produce more flexible organizations which require the learning culture and adaptable staff.
The interactive application between contingency theory and organizational environment adds flexible features to the orgnization. Thus, HRM practitioners have kept a harmonious internal relationship and enhanced its capability to adapt to the complex environments.
Firstly, executing the appropriate style of leadership according to the organization’s development stage. Generally speaking, the HRM practitioner gave directions and instructions to the staff in the initial stage during the development of the organization. It is just the “Informed style” shows in contingency theory. HRM practitioner adopted “Marketing style" to explain the work and persuade employees; and HRM practitioners used “participation style" in thefast developing stage. They encourage employees to solve problems themselves. In this period, they only need to observe and monitor the staff’work.In the matured period, they adopted “Authorized style", and they onlyneed to deliver the work to employees.
Some efficient HRM practitioners conduct teams by the disparate team management which is based on the barrel theory. The barrel theory says that the capacity of a bucket depends on the shortest piece of wood.Therefore,those successful HRM practitioners adopted the working style which adapt to the overall organizational context. And they also payed attention targetly to each member,as a result, improved the competitive power of the whole.
Nowadays, more and more organizations begin to change to the learning organization. The learning organizaition is characterized by flat-style structure, self management,the commonly shared role of the HRM. In this kind of organization,the HRM practitioner acts as a designer, a servant and a teacher. As a designer, they device the structure, policy, development and basic idea of the organization. As a servant, the HRM practitioner affords the mission of achieving the vision and continuing or retreating with the pace of all members. As a teacher, the HRM practitioner define the reality and assist the member taking a profoud grasp of the real station as their foremost task . Ultimately, all of this have promoted the learning ability of the employee.
In current situation,the building of the emotional intelligence in a team tends to be the new title of the team theory. It requests the creation of emotional norms to support the trust, belongling and efficiency senses in a team. In detail, firstly, the HRM practitioners tend to note the emotional awareness and domination in different levels of a team. When a person’s feeling can’t keep pace with the others in harmony, the HRM practitioner offering an opportunity about face to face emotional interaction. Secondly, the HRM practitoner make their efforts to construct the emotional intelligence on basis of the members’ common visions. Thirdly,HRM practitioners take account of not noly the mutual confrontation but also mutuai concerns such as care, esteem, coutesy, support and sympathy to attract all team members taking part in the emotional constrution. Fourthly, they create a positive organizational environment. So, when facing challenges, each member treat those with a successful mentality. Naturely, the negative ones also have been driven away by free and active imagination.
For example, Japan’s Mitsui, it was the first place of the top five hundreds of the world. Its subsidiaries or affiliates, such as Sony, Toyota is also the world famous company. Not the same as the United States, Japan’s business do not pursuit entrepreneurial leaders, instead, they engage in the pursuit of teamwork, the building of emotional intelligence and creating unified team norms.
The HRM practitioners finished the organizational incentive tasks, enhanced members’ satisfaction by the help of applicating incentive theories such as hierarchy of needs theory, two-factor theory and equity theory.
The first level of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory is "Physiological need. The HRM practitioners created a good working environment for employees to satisfy employees’ physiological need, and the staff became more prone to be motivated and worked efficiently. And the HRM practitioners also considered employees’ "Safety need". It contains the need for stability, security, protection and separation from fear and anxiety. For example, HRM provided a stable working space, income and welfare to the empolyees, so that employees have not felt the violation from their personal working environment. The third level of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory indicates employees also have the need of belongingness and love .Persons’sociality determine their dependency on a group. As a result of these pressure from various quarters of modern community, it has greatly increased the staff’s belonging desire to the organization. Therefore, the HRM practitioner made their staff felt loved through not only substantial but also spirited ways. Such as concerning staff’s hardships, promoting and encouraging solidarity to help the staff relations, employee medical and pension insurance schemes and so on.The HRM practitioners recognize that employees have the need of obtaining self-esteem and esteem from others as it tells in the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory. Therefore, the HRM practitioner payed more attention to praise their employees. Being recognized and praised, the staff will realize their values and get great self-confidence to find approaches to problems they encountered during work. This will form a benign circle which can increase the efficiency of organization. Self-actualization need is the highest level of need. The job now is not for money and life, but for self achievement. Most of the HRM practitioners have awared the importance of allowing staff to develop creative or innovative ways.By doing this,the HRM practitioner have guaranteed employees’ growth and achievement.
Employees’ commitment has been enhanced by the communication of organizational culture and the cultural training conducted by the HRM practitioner.
The organizational culture plays a very important role in the organizational administration. So, through the spreading of culture, the organization have been upgrading in the following five areas. Firstly, the whole organizational value which each of the employee holds have got a guiding by the culture and became more conducive to business growth. Secondly, it restrained the individual’s thoughts and behaviors to conform the requirement of the organization. Thirdly, the value which was accepted by staff have became a bond and produced a great cohesion among them. What’s more, the culture have taken on the function of impelling staff to work hard . Finally , the propagation of culture have not only impacted the employee in the organization but also the society outside through various channels.
Specifically, the spread of culture conducted by the HRM practitioner have absorbed talented person. For example, on one hand, during the recruitment, the HRM practitioner took effort to spread the culture and let the external personnel comprehend the organization. As a result, they have attracted talents who can reach the standards of the organizational culture. On the other hand, for the interior personnel, the HRM practitioner carried out cultural training on them and made employees owned a sense of belonging to the organization and created intimacy with cthers. The sense of belonging and pride of the staff turned to contribute to the social image and competitiveness of the orgaxization.
Taking Disney for example, "high-quality","efficiency" and "meticulous service" are the core culture of Disney. It is also reflected this on the training of the staff. When a staff was asked by a children, he must squat down to answer the question immediately and ensure that their eyes are in the same level as the children. In order that it can avoid the children’s barriers about looking upside. Because for Disney the children might be the future customer and possibly come back soon. The details of the training indicated the Disney’s focus on the corporation culture and all of these reasons have made Disney became one of the most successful company in the world.
Nowadays,the creative process of values about human resources is a sustainable competitive advantage of a enterprise, and how to utilize organizational theories to guide HRM practitioners building competitive advantages has been a direction of the research on human resources management. This article expounds the main theories associated with the HRM practitioner’s tasks in detail and states the significance of their application to the performances of the HRM practitioners. In conclusion, the HRM practitioner should take rational use of these organizational theories to make reasonable human resource planning, recruit talents, motivate staff, enhance the staff’s coordination and encourage team workin accordance with the actual situation and the environment of the organization. Above all, we are in the period of the knowledgale economy. It is charactered by high tempo, highly competitive, high pressure. The opportunities and threats, benefits and risks are existing at the same time faced by people. In this new situation, the organizational theories has become increasingly rich and raised new challenges to human resources management. The HRM practitioners should give full play to the advantage of the organizational theories with the times.