MN325 Exam Notes PDF

**Diversity Management (DM)** - the systematic and planned commitment by organisations to recruit, retain, reward and promote a heterogeneous mix of employees - True diversity management recognises these differences between employees as a positive and, if managed properly, a source of sig...

**Diversity Management (DM)** - the systematic and planned commitment by organisations to recruit, retain, reward and promote a heterogeneous mix of employees - True diversity management recognises these differences between employees as a positive and, if managed properly, a source of significant benefit to the organisation **Steps to Creating an EDI strategy:** - Assess your current position - Engage with your employees - Set clear objectives - Develop and implement policies - Provide training and support - Regularly track your progress against the set objectives   **Starbucks Case Study - inclusion and diversity:** - The arrest of two men at a Philadelphia Starbucks - for trespassing after one asked to use the bathroom without making a purchase - Video and outrage went viral - The company set to close 8000 stores across the country for racial bias training - Starbucks used the video as a teachable moment and created a new training video - Workers heard from rapper common - activist, watch a film, break into smaller discussion groups - In wake of video, Starbucks has said anyone can use their facilities without having to purchase something - Starbucks settled with the two men   - According to estimates Starbucks likely lost around \$12 million by closing its US based stores on that afternoon - Starbucks emphasised the session was just the beginning of a long-term commitment to diversity and combating racial bias - Starbucks announced plans to globalise these efforts and make similar initiatives part of the on-boarding process for new employees   - Some employees felt as though the training wasn\'t overly inclusive for all backgrounds and more discussions between co-workers should be had   - **Unitarist Perspective (one-to-one)** - organisation is one large family, all on the same side pulling together in the same direction - inequality of power is not relevant here and conflict is therefore perceived as a deviant behaviour - Interests are common - employees are part of a unified happy family all pursuing same goals - Conflict is dysfunctional, harmony and order is the normal state of affair - Third party presence (union) viewed as intrusive - Management strategy uses soft HRM aimed at gaining commitment and hard HRM aimed at exerting control - Role of government is minimal   - **What opportunities does this particular approach provide managers:** - Prioritises economic goals (efficiency) over social legitimacy which provides managers with several opportunities - By adopting a Unitarist (HARD) HRM model, Amazon focuses on efficiency, productivity, flexibility and speed often at the expense of employee well-being - Created a highly performative environment where only those who thrive under intense pressure or comply with minimal resistance remain - Allows managers to maintain strict control (hierarchy) over employee performance - push for productivity targets that align closely with customer satisfaction rather than employee well-being - Allows Amazon to achieve legitimacy within the marketplace where efficiency and quick service are valued highly by consumers. - Allows managers to meet high-performance standards and ensure operational efficiency while remaining competitive by focusing on **customer-centric goals** - Amazon\'s emphasis on productivity gives them a competitive advantage by enabling managers to uphold consistent performance metrics (hierarchy) that benefit the business even if this approach risks high employee turnover and dissatisfaction   **Week 6 - The Employment Relationship (ER):** - The relationship between the employer (management) and employee - all existing interactions between these two parties   Challenges for Management (Features of ER): 1. Indeterminate - Nothing is automatic about the ER - employees have to be motivated - Managers need employees to do more than comply - employers need employees\' cooperation and commitment to continuously improve performance 2. Continuous - The ER is open-ended - it continuous over time - importance of negotiation and exercise of power on issues like pay and performance - Focus on terms and conditions (employees) - Focus on business performance (managers) 3. Exploitative - Exploit is to utilise a person for one\'s own ends - Employers \'exploit\' employees in the sense that they deploy their labour/knowledge power to meet business goals - to generate a surplus - ER is asymmetric 4. Co-operative and antagonistic - Co-operative in the sense that neither party can secure their goals without the cooperation of the other - mutual dependency - Antagonistic because it is exploitative and indeterminate - the potential for conflict of interests is ever present no matter how hard managers try - Managerial skills are key to mediate   **Amazon Case Study - Application of FoR (shape managerial actions) - Unitarism** - Amazon market value of \$1.99 trillion - CEO - Jeff Bezos first to top \$100 billion as the number 1 on Forbes list - Large number of employees of 1,532,00 (2024) with a variety of skills - largest number in logistics - Working at Amazon: - \'Purposeful Darwinism\' - losers leave or are fired in annual cullings of the staff - The company strives to do big, innovative and groundbreaking things - **What opportunities does this particular approach provide managers:** - Prioritises economic goals (efficiency) over social legitimacy which provides managers with several opportunities - By adopting a Unitarist (HARD) HRM model, Amazon focuses on efficiency, productivity, flexibility and speed often at the expense of employee well-being - Created a highly performative environment where only those who thrive under intense pressure or comply with minimal resistance remain - Allows managers to maintain strict control (hierarchy) over employee performance - push for productivity targets that align closely with customer satisfaction rather than employee well-being - Allows Amazon to achieve legitimacy within the marketplace where efficiency and quick service are valued highly by consumers. - Allows managers to meet high-performance standards and ensure operational efficiency while remaining competitive by focusing on **customer-centric goals** - Amazon\'s emphasis on productivity gives them a competitive advantage by enabling managers to uphold consistent performance metrics (hierarchy) that benefit the business even if this approach risks high employee turnover and dissatisfaction   A blue circles with white text Description automatically generated - **Numerical Flexibility** - ease with which number of employees can be adjusted to fluctuations in demand - **Functional Flexibility** - ease with which the role/tasks of employees can be adjusted to fluctuation in demands - **Working-time Flexibility** - working time flexibility allows workers to vary their working times according to their needs - **Location Flexibility** - Variable payment systems linked to measures of performance   - **Flexibility Traps (Kossek et al. 2015)** - Altering work-life balance dynamics - Reduced contact between flexibility users and other stakeholders - Increased feelings of isolation - Difficulty in managing careers and performance - Employees might worry about career advancement opportunities, important projects and meetings - Managers not sure how to support, monitor and motivate - Fairness - Perception of inequity and injustice amongst co-workers - Lack of clarity on how nonusers should work with co-workers - Potential for backlash and stigma - Feelings of resentment can build up against managers and line managers who decide hoe and when employees can work remotely - lack of clarity on decision making process could demotivate employees - Culture of unbalanced flexibility - Programs that don\'t fit with employees\' needs and expectations - Managers should be trained and learn how to design flexible policies that fit with the culture of the company - **Top challenges/downfalls of managing people remotely:** - Onboarding new team members - Difficulty \'reading the room\' on a certain topic - Trying to navigate more complex issues - In terms of remote team management training - 45% did not believe their organisation provided them with required training - 36% indicated they received basic training - 19% indicated that they received sufficient training to manage remote teams   - **War on Talent** - refers to an increasingly competitive landscape for recruiting and retaining employees - Background of TM - talent is never defined - introduced by Mc Kinsey consultants late 1990s - identified as the critical success factor in corporate world - Focuses on: - Differentiated performance: A,B,C players influence performance and success - Identifying key positions in the organisation - 6 Theoretical perspectives on talent: - Talent as capital - Talent as individual difference - Talent as giftedness - Talent as identity - Talent as strength - Talent as the perception of talent - **Dries (2013) 5 Tensions - do not offer a formal definition of TM** - **Tension \#1: Object vs. Subject** - Subject (who) perspectives on talent focus on identification and development of talent people - focus on high potential employees - organisations rely on succession planning and organisational career management - Object (what) perspectives on talent focus on the identification and development of characteristics of talented people - links human capital, resource base view and individual differences - **Tension \#2: Inclusive vs. Exclusive - most debated tension** - Inclusive perspective assumes people can all be talented in a different way - focuses on strength-based TM - Exclusive perspective assumes that some are inherently more talented than others - Dark side of exclusive TM - destructive to teamwork, hypocrisy, raises ethical questions, dehumanising - **Tension \#3: Innate vs. Acquired** - Innate (born) perspectives on talent focus on selection, assessment and identification of talent - talent shortages - select highly sought after profiles - Acquired (taught/learned) perspectives on talent focus on education, training, experience and learning as tools for talent development - demands of labour market - Influences our beliefs and talent - implicit person theory and culture - **Tension \#4: Input vs. Output perspective** - Input perspective on talent focus on effort, motivation, ambition and career orientation is assessment of talent - Output perspectives on talent imply a focus on output, performance, achievements and results - **Tension \#5: Transferable vs. Context-dependant** - Transferable perspectives on talent assume that talented people will demonstrate their talent regardless of the working environment - Context-dependant perspectives on talent assume that interactions between individuals and context matters - talent not always transferable   **Week 9 - Performance, Reward & Engagement:** - Why is engagement important? - It is seen as the backbone of good working environments - Engaged employees increase operating income - It is the intrinsic state of being with emotional and cognitive components, exhibited through engagement-fuelled behaviours - higher levels of productivity and job dedication - **Theoretical Models: Burnout Anti-Thesis Approach:** - Concept of work engagement emerged from burnout research - cover spectrum of employee unwellbeing (burnout) to employee wellbeing - **Kahn\'s (1990) Need-Satisfying Approach:** - Identifies personal engagement and disengage as the behaviours by which people leave out or bring in the delf during a role performance - **Satisfaction Engagement (Gallop)**     - **Strategic learning and development** - takes a broad and longer-term view about how to ensure that the organisation has the knowledgeable, skilled and engaged workforce needs - Aim of strategic learning and development is produce a coherent and comprehensive framework for developing people through the creation of a learning culture and the formulation of organisational and individual learning strategies - Training Cycle - four steps: - **Needs analysis** - identify specific knowledge and skills the job requires and compare with trainees\' knowledge and skills - **Training design** - formulate specific, measurable knowledge and performance training objections- review possible training programme content and estimate a budget - **Implementation/Delivery** - implement programme by training the targeting employee group using methods such as on-the-job and online training - **Evaluate** - assess the programme\'s success or failures