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Human Resources
Rodney Overton
Martin Books
Success in Business
Published by Martin Books Pty Ltd
ACN 112 719 052
20 Blackwoods Road
Boat Harbour NSW 2484
Australia
Overton, Rodney
ISBN 978-1-921360-44-2
rodney@sydneybusinesscentre.com
Rodney Overton
September 2007
rodney@sydneybusinesscentre.com
Table of contents
1 Human Resource Planning and Development (H.R.P.D.)..........1
• What is Human Resources?.............................................................2
• The role of the Human Resources Manager.....................................3
• Human Resources Planning and Development (HRPD).................... 4
• Human Resource Policies.................................................................5
• Steps in the Human Resources process...................................... 6-8
• An organisation and its stakeholders...............................................9
• The politics of Human Resources...................................................10
• What should staff contribute to the business?.............................. 11
• Components of Human Resources........................................... 12-16
6 Case Studies................................................................................. 95
• An efficient office...........................................................................96
• The changing world of work..........................................................96
• Human Resources check list..........................................................97
• Economies of scale........................................................................ 98
• Community obligations and charities...............................................99
• State sales administration.............................................................100
• Some acronyms............................................................................101
• Interstate branches...................................................................... 102
• some people adages.................................................................... 103
• Personality attributes....................................................................104
• Determinants of personality..........................................................105
• Personality traits...........................................................................106
• Some euphemistic translations.....................................................107
• Rating your manager.................................................................... 108
• Are you a people person?............................................................109
• Some Mistakes Candidates Make at Job Interviews.............110, 111
Index.................................................................................................112
1
Human Resource
Planning and Development
Managing Human Resources
2
1-Human Resource Planning and Development
3
Managing Human Resources
4
1-Human Resource Planning and Development
5
Managing Human Resources
CAREER DEVELOPMENT
• Ensuring that employees develop new skills
• Ensuring that employees are challenged in their jobs
• Maintaining and monitoring performance appraisal systems
• Maintaining an up-to-date succession plan, particularly for key positions
within the organisation
LEGISLATION
• Making required government returns, such as fringe benefits tax and
equal opportunity reporting.
• Ensuring and monitoring conformity with all employment legislation such
as health and safety and equal opportunity.
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1-Human Resource Planning and Development
POLICY FORMATION
• A variety of policies relating to the human resources of the organisation
need to be developed and monitored, including:
• Security of employment
• Conditions of employment
• Pay scales and methods
• Retirement policy, terms and conditions
• Health and safety of employees
• Equal opportunity and affirmative action
• Promotions and transfers
• Remuneration
• Discipline procedures
• Grievance procedures
• Absenteeism policies and procedures
• Training and development of employees
• Recruitment procedures and standards
EMPLOYEE RELATIONS
• Negotiating and liaising with unions, employee representatives and
employees on such areas as:
• Legislative matters
• Workforce restructuring
• Industrial democracy
• Enterprise bargaining
• Pay awards
• Employment contracts
EMPLOYEE WELFARE
• Ensuring the health, safety and welfare of all employees through
organising or monitoring such things as:
• Conditions of work
• Provision of specialist crisis counselling, such as alcohol or drug abuse
• Confidentiality of personal employee details
REMUNERATION
• Pay arrangements
• Compensation and benefits
• Incentive schemes
• Superannuation policy and arrangements
• Performance-based remuneration
• Incentive programs
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Managing Human Resources
ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Designing and implementing organisation change initiatives
Introducing organisation development and change programs, such as
TQM, Benchmarking, ISO Certification, job redesign, enterprise
bargaining
Ensuring the organisation is structured in a way that will achieve its
vision and objectives
Implementing and overseeing internal communication programs
MISCELLANEOUS
In addition, personnel departments often undertake a variety of miscell-
aneous duties such as:
Overseeing the company canteen
Producing an employee newsletter or news video
Making business-related travel arrangements for employees
Overseeing the company nurse and doctor
Liaising with outside consultants and organisations on personnel-related
issues, such as arrangements for temporary staff, and making or
recommending charitable contributions
Managing and maintaining HR information systems (HRIS)
OWNER INDUSTRY
STAFF COMMUNITY
SUPPLIERS CUSTOMERS
ORGANISATION
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Managing Human Resources
The negative
• Never reinforce the failure of others to reinforce your cause.
• Forget about ‘brown nosing’, posturing for the benefit of your peers.
• Spreading rumours and sowing inaccurate information about people or
circumstances is a definite no.
• Never indulge in power plays, threaten to withhold or reveal critical
information, build opposition or refuse to give support.
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1-Human Resource Planning and Development
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Managing Human Resources
STAFFING PROCESSES
To ensure that the organisation acquires the necessary human resources
to fulfil its goals.
JOB ANALYSIS
To specify what jobs need to be filled and identify the required skills.
DEVELOPMENT PLANNING
How will long term employees who may stay 30 or 40 years in the
organisation, make on-going contributions, remain motivated and
productive, and maintain their job satisfaction?
promotion?
If individuals do not get good feedback around their development
needs, they will remain uninvolved in their own development.
"People" are the key to business success, as most people realise. But
"people" as a success factor is like the weather - everybody talks about it,
but no one does anything about it.
Legendary former GE Chairman Jack Welch makes an interesting point
that, while GE aspires to be No.1 or No. 2 in every market it competes in,
Welch claims that their core competence is developing people. GE and a
few other big companies have cultures that strongly encourage effective
management and people development, but in the vast majority of
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Managing Human Resources
companies, that does not happen. Here are a few key truths about people
as a success factor which may be helpful for you:
That which gets reinforced gets repeated. Michael LeBoeuf a few years
ago wrote a book called, The Greatest Management Principle in the World,
and that is his key point. The reinforcement principle of behaviourism was
discovered by B.F. Skinner and has been rejected by some people because
it applies as much to rats in a cage as it does to humans. And guess what?
It works just as well on both (including kids). If you want somebody to
repeat a behaviour, reinforce it with some type of reward that they will
appreciate. Consistency is extremely important.
You cannot not communicate. That axiom, from The Pragmatics of
Human Communication, refers to the fact that not communicating with
someone says to them, "I don't care about you." Studies of non-managerial
employees usually find that they consider internal communication to be
inadequate. Managers get busy putting out fires and trying to be sure
clients' needs are met, and they forget the importance of communicating
with everyone about what's going on with the company.
They may rationalise that, "I’m in charge and I know what I'm doing," but
all the employees see is the stone wall of silence. People want to know
what is going on and how it does or will affect them, and you cannot overdo
that. It shows people you care about them. Not communicating says you
don't care about them, even if you really do. The most effective
communication is always face to face. Face time says "I care about you"
like nothing else. Avoid e-mails or memos for any information which might
be misunderstood or possibly construed as negative.
If you want it done, ask the doers. Before initiating change or
"improvements," let the people who will be responsible for implementation
have a say in the way the changes will be handled. That is obvious but so
often not done. Even if you go against their preferences, they appreciate
being heard, respect you for asking, and will be more likely to follow
whatever the outcome. If you do not ask, it is amazing how people can
resist in many subtle ways that ultimately sabotage the outcome.
When you ask for people's input, respond quickly. You do not have to do
what they ask. But employee emotions are extremely time sensitive. You
lift their hopes when you seek their input, and if you act on that input, you
sustain their enthusiasm and energies. If you wait too long, the emotional
peak passes and you will not have another chance like that for a long time.
This is one reason GE has been so successful with their "workout"
sessions. Everyone involved gets in one room and one manager is in
charge. Discussion focuses on one problem. No one leaves the room until
the top manager decides what action will be taken on the problem. The
decision may be to act now or to delegate the problem to a task force if
more information is essential, but some action is always taken. This is one
way GE keeps their people "electrified" and loyal.
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2
Staff Recruitment
Selection - Training - Supervision
These three items, Selection, Training, and Supervision are the absolute
corner stones of good Human Resources management.
These are the true basics and without them nothing in Human Resources
management is possible.
MOTIVATION
Motivation is the roof and spire of the building. Roofs and spires don’t stand
on air, they stand on solid foundations, and in good management the solid
foundation stones are:
SELECTION
TRAINING
SUPERVISION
Individuals as a rule tend to have a far different perception of motivating
factors than does management, as to what really motivates them.
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2-Recruitment, Induction, Integration
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Managing Human Resources
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2-Recruitment, Induction, Integration
PERFORMANCE MEASURES
How will the performance of the person be measured? Obviously very
important for sales positions.
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22
2-Recruitment, Induction, Integration
8 ENCOURAGE PRIDE
Show pride in your company and its products and encourage others to
take pride in their work.
Set a high example.
Don’t accept second best personally or your staff will follow your lead.
9 ENCOURAGE CREATIVITY
Meet with your staff at least once a month for a brainstorming session.
Get suggestions on how to improve your product, service, customer
satisfaction or profit.
Reward ideas that work.
Encourage on-going commitment.
10 HAVE A SECOND-IN-COMMAND
Groom a deputy who shares your goals and ideas.
Let your staff know that your deputy has your confidence and your
authority when you are absent.
Then go on holidays to test the system.
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Managing Human Resources
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2-Recruitment, Induction, Integration
TO ALL STAFF
Now that we have established
KWALITY CONTROL please THINK AHEA
D
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Managing Human Resources
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2-Recruitment, Induction, Integration
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Managing Human Resources
Body Language
Many skilled interviewers make a special point of studying the body
language of the people being interviewed. It can provide an insight into the
interviewee.
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2-Recruitment, Induction, Integration
Salary Packages
The total value of an employment package can comprise provision of some
of the following perquisites and / or other items.
The total cost to the employer when totalled will give a ‘package value’.
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Managing Human Resources
An Interview Evaluation
After the interview the following summary could be a useful assessment:
Ranking 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
Appearance
Personality
Maturity
Aptitude
Objectives
Experience
Education
Overall assessment
Others
Total
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2-Recruitment, Induction, Integration
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2-Recruitment, Induction, Integration
LANGUAGE
Common language and conceptual categories. If members cannot
communicate with and understand each other, a group is impossible by
definition.
BOUNDARIES
Consensus on group boundaries and criteria for inclusion and exclusion.
One of the most important areas of culture is the shared consensus on who
is in, who is out, and by what criteria one determines membership.
INTIMACY
Consensus on criteria for intimacy, friendship and love. Every organisation
must work out its rules of the game for peer relationships, for relationships
between the sexes, and for the manner in which openness and intimacy
are to be handled in the context of managing the organisation’s tasks.
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Managing Human Resources
IDEOLOGY
Consensus on ideology and ‘religion.’ Every organisation, like society, faces
unexplainable events that must be given meaning, so that members can
respond to them and avoid the anxiety of dealing with the unexplainable
and uncontrollable.
LACK OF SKILL
Hiring subordinates is a skill an executive is expected to posses by virtue of
his or her position. Consequently, executives are rarely trained in selection,
and only a few executives are naturally gifted in this area. Furthermore,
since selection is always time consuming and often tedious, it may get
short shrift, despite its importance.
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2-Recruitment, Induction, Integration
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Managing Human Resources
CREATIVITY
What are barriers to people embracing and engaging in creative activities?
HABIT
We have always done it this way.
FEAR
Why risk changing the status quo with the inherent risks of failure?
PREJUDICE
Fear + ignorance = prejudice
‘That would never work here, and, we just don’t do things like that’.
INERTIA
The best way of all to overcome creativity!
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2-Recruitment, Induction, Integration
Disengagement Interviews
What do you do when people resign? It is quite amazing just how few
organisations carry out ‘debriefings’ when people resign from their
organisation. Enlightened thinking suggests that this is an opportune time to
gather valuable feedback about the organisation, its policies, goals and
people.
Some suggested questions for obtaining feedback might be:
What are your long term goals?
Why are you leaving at this time?
What did you most enjoy about working here?
What was disappointing about working here?
How do your family relate to your work?
Why did you choose to work here?
What does your new position offer, that outweighs those available here?
Was the training you received here of benefit to you?
How could our organisation have helped you more?
Are you disappointed in this organisation, and your achievements here?
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Managing Human Resources
A MANAGER
• A manager is someone who manages people.
• They succeed because of empathy, patience, knowledge, restraint and
courage.
• They fail because of inexperience, ignorance, intolerance, fear or
simply because of circumstances which were too much against them.
• No person is identical to another person and since no people problems
are identical there is no standard formula for solving people problems,
and every manager will have their own unique style anyway.
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3
A very good real life example of a Mission Statement is this one from the
Department of Administrative Services [D.A.S.]:
‘To be recognised by our customers and the government as Australia’s
best provider of services and a leader in public sector reform’.
Another excellent example which I noticed in the employment columns
of a newspaper, is from the South Australian Film Corporation:
‘We will stimulate and assist the film and video industry and community to
achieve sustained economic and cultural benefits that are valued by the
people of South Australia’.
On the first day on the job as the new manager, the new
person called a meeting of his staff and had this to say.
‘Now it is essential that we work as a team. If we work as
a team we can accomplish a lot. Don’t forget though, I expect
you to do exactly as I say and to follow my instructions in your
work as a team.’
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Managing Human Resources
42
3-Organisations and People
Organisational Structure
Old and new paradigms
OLD NEW
STRUCTURE Tall Flat
44
3-Organisations and People
Typology of organisations
What goals do organisations have?
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Managing Human Resources
Bureaucracy
A definition of bureaucracy might be:
A business, or any institution, that exists to carry out an organisation.
Or: Any company giving less than two-thirds of its energies to its business,
and more than one-third of its energies to its organisation.
Mediocrity in a bureaucracy exists, when the penalty for success gets
to be as big as the reward for failure.
CHARACTERISTICS of BUREAUCRACY
Division of Labour
Rules and procedures
Authority
Impersonality
Careers and merit
BUREAUCRACY
POSSIBLE BENEFITS
• Stability
• Efficiency
• Control
POSSIBLE PROBLEMS
• Red tape
• Inflexibility
• Dominating authority
• Position protection
Staff Rooms
Many companies in the past set up their staff rooms as lacklustre and often
small spaces and were at a loss to understand why usage of the facility by
their staff was low.
Enlightened companies are now commissioning interior decorators to
design and implement stimulating, casual and relaxing staff rooms.
These specially designed spaces take on a new persona and can even
introduce a cafe ambience with a design theme and ‘funky’ colours’. The
aim being to encourage staff to interact in-house at break times rather than
going out.
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3-Organisations and People
Managing Change
Do you have conscious procedures and commitment? Organisational
change will not be maintained simply because there has been early
success.
There are a number of interventions that are possible, and many are
necessary if a change is to be maintained. Many organisations are living
with the effects of successful short term change results that have not been
maintained
Probably the most important requirement for continued change is a
continued feedback and information system that lets people in the
organisation know the system status in relation to the desired states.
POLITICAL ACTIONS
Broaden the political support for radical actions. Realise the level of
dissatisfaction and discomfort with the current situation. Sensitise key
factors / champions to the need for change.
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Managing Human Resources
Cure all
It has been reported that, in a break with contemporary practice,
Volkswagen halved absenteeism at its plants in Germany by hand-
delivering get-well cards to workers who call in to advise that they are
too sick to come to work that day.
Employees who are not at home when the card carrier arrives are
invited to talk to the boss on their return to duties.
There is a little rule of sailing where the more manoeuvrable ship should
give way to the less manoeuvrable craft.
I think this is sometimes a good rule to follow in human relations as
well.
Psychologist Joyce Brothers
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3-Organisations and People
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Managing Human Resources
Company Culture
FORMAL QUALIFICATIONS
A well known and respected director of an Australian company, which
operates in a number of overseas countries likes to relate this story,
usually after the second port:
“It is not only the MBA courses that produce arrogant graduates. I came
from University with a doctorate degree in economics thinking I knew
everything in the world. It took a couple of years in industry to teach me I
knew very little.”
Another leading and well respected Australian company director with
an MBA from Harvard, says that even there, staff go to great lengths to
discourage arrogance.
“They tried to tell us that we would come out jacks of all trades and
masters of none, that it would probably be years before we worked
ourselves up to a job senior enough to look on business from the high
perspective from which we had been regarding it at school.
But that is a warning young people find difficult to accept.”
A common view of these two people is that, ‘To be a successful
manager and not just a back room specialist, one needs many qualities
which are not intellectual but personal, such as leadership.’
An Australian owned company operating in the U.K., and other parts of the
world, started to use the word ‘seamless’ to describe what the Australian
headquarters called a ‘consistent level of standards’.
The word was intended to mean there would be an internationally
accepted internal standard and systems. To those in the Melbourne head
quarters, it would mean that any client would receive a constant quality
whether they purchased the services the company offered in Australia,
London, Tokyo, New York or Singapore.
It soon became obvious to the staff and management world wide, that
what the word ‘seamless’ really meant, was that the common standards
and phraseology being talked about would all be set in Melbourne and it
was a case of do everything the Australian way. The company found itself
with serious problems of how to handle the discontent and complaints
about corporate imperialism!
The ultimate result of this philosophy was that creative and dynamic
staff soon left because their freedom of thought was being eroded and only
customers who are attracted to and want to buy Australian will remain as
customers.
Ultimately managerial positions overseas have to be filled by
Australians because they are the only ones prepared to perpetuate the
gospel laid down by Melbourne headquarters.
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3-Organisations and People
Forgetting Curves
FUTURE SHOCK
It was not the great companies traditionally linked with radio valves that
made the great success of semiconductors, but small companies that were
almost complete strangers to the field.
It was not the great electronic companies that made the conquest of
computers possible, but companies that were working in different areas.
This was not through lack of knowledge and skill on the part of the
original companies, nor indeed lack of enterprise, but because their
forgetting curves were too long. The newcomers simply had nothing to
forget.
This is the irony and the threat. A new company that has full access to
latest technology - in whatever country - will immediately acquire the most
up to date equipment, will train staff to the optimum level, will build up staff
to the minimum level needed to work the equipment and will not be
burdened by surplus plant, buildings and stock holdings.
A long established company will have old plant, probably the wrong mix
of skills in the work force, surplus machinery and buildings and will carry
stock no longer relevant to the business.
These constraints will be compounded by old style attitudes towards
management methods, a trade union structure inherited from earlier and
different times, and an ethos ill suited to the changing world.
STRUCTURE
An organisation that has evolved successfully around one type of product
or market environment can rarely change rapidly.
Yet all too often, new firms merely graft opportunities or challenges
onto existing structures rather than take bold steps into the future.
The reluctance to change comes in part from the attitudes described
already, but it is also due to too slow a pace of change. People who can
recognise the foothills of some dramatic change rather than merely seeing
them as perturbations in the normal run of business are vital to innovation.
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Managing Human Resources
EMPLOYEES
The chance to learn
The first element involves treatment of
on the job and to go
employees, which forms a prominent part of
on learning
the psychological contract between company
and employee.
Employees dedication and loyalty is seen as a quid pro quo as a
perception of fair treatment by the company.
Employment security, good wages and benefits and employee safety
are seen as the major issues in a lot of companies.
CUSTOMERS
The second leg of the stool. Dedication to the service ethos should be a
powerful value in successful companies. The importance of quality service
should be instilled early in every employee’s career and constantly
reinforced by management.
‘The Customer is King (or Queen)’, seems a fitting adage for the new
millennium and should be practised at all times.
Can your company conduct competitive customer service competitions
to encourage excellence in customer service.
SHAREHOLDERS or OWNERS
The third leg of the stool. Shareholder accountability should be
safeguarded by those elements of organisational culture that encourage
productivity and sound financial management.
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3-Organisations and People
Crisis Management
Is your organisation prepared for the unexpected?
Is your organisation prepared for, and able to handle a major crisis?
Is your organisation capable of handling a major crisis?
Do you have a crisis management team with clearly defined strategies
for crisis?
Can you get accurate information about your crisis, fast?
Statistics suggest once a crisis commences:
in 70% of cases it will escalate.
in 50% of cases it will interfere with business.
in 50% of cases it will effect profits.
What if your business burnt down on a Sunday night? What if there was no
power supply one morning, to your premises? Or your business was hit by
an earthquake? (These are actual examples from our own work
experience.)
When this was originally written Sydney had just experienced a major
hail storm, which was reported as being Australia’s second worst natural
disaster. Tarpaulins to cover roofs had to be flown in from China, and
weeks later many people affected by the storm were still experiencing
difficulties. At the time of a major revision of this book Sydney was
experiencing bushfires with major loss of property.
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Managing Human Resources
ACCEPTANCE
A recognition that the job and its benefits are lost
An ability to look for new work and move on emotionally
Rehabilitation and rebirth
Mark Twain said: Training is everything. ‘The pearl was once a bitter
almond. A cauliflower is nothing but a cabbage with a university
education.’
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3-Organisations and People
Discrimination
At the time of writing Sue Goward was the high profile head of the Office of
the Status of Women.
In press article she claimed that,
‘Discrimination does not come cheap. Its costs
are not just financial penalty or damaging Human Resource
publicity for a company, but also lost managers should
opportunity. In fact it is almost passé to talk constantly ask
about discrimination; it is better known as bad themselves, “Why
management. would someone want to
A study in the United States rated the come and work in this
performance of the Standard & Poors 500 organisation?”
companies on equal-opportunity factors,
including the recruitment and promotion of
women and minorities.
It found that companies rated in the bottom
100 for equal opportunity had an average of
8% return on investment. Companies rating in
the top 100 had an average return of 18%.
The lesson is clear: to be competitive,
organisations need to take advantage of the Can you gain more from
range of talents of their staff and strengthen your people by
their business profiles and management empowering them.
diversity. Good equal-opportunity practice Can you increase their
makes good business sense. ability to achieve by
Surveys show that poor equal-opportunity enhancing their self-
practices contribute to high staff turnover and esteem and improving
absenteeism. A University of Melbourne study their skill set?
has estimated it costs a professional services
firm about $75,000 to replace a key
employee.’
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3-Organisations and People
Code of Conduct
Many organisations produce a Code of Conduct for their employees.
Employees would be expected to read it, ask questions of their
supervisor and then sign it to indicate they understand the ethical
procedures of the organisation.
Everything must be above board and be seen to be so. Internal auditors
may be responsible for checking procedures.
A code of ethics may be necessary to support a Code of Conduct.
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3-Organisations and People
Negotiation
Negotiate is what we do when the other side can hurt us’, is an old adage
veteran diplomats like to use.
This implies that negotiation is an exercise in relative power, in which
one side tries to win as much as possible while minimising the risk of
getting hurt. This view implies there must be a winner and a loser, at least
relatively.
How much each side wins or loses depends on its relative power and its
skill in using this power, or threatening to use it, during negotiation.
People who try to resolve conflicts through the use of power often get
the creativity of their opponents turned against them.
Consequently, what is seen as a win-lose confrontation (usually by both
parties) frequently winds up as a lose-lose: neither party gets what it really
needs.
Most of us see differences between us as problems to which we must
apply our imagination to get our way.
If we could believe that conflict, when properly managed, can be an
opportunity rather than a problem, and that outcomes favourable to both
sides are possible, we might free ourselves from the mental tyranny of
misusing power in negotiation.
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Managing Human Resources
Creative Negotiating
Creative negotiating is a process whereby two or more parties meet and
through artful discussion and creativity, confront a problem and arrive at
an innovative solution that best meets the needs of all parties and secures
their commitment to fulfilling the agreement reached.
This includes bargaining, compromising or trading, techniques that may
occur in negotiation but are not essential to it.
The word bargaining is more or less synonymous with haggling.
It is usually used to describe a commercial transaction or a trade off:
Union-management talks being a good example.
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Managing Human Resources
My Job - My Role
This quick quiz should be done from memory, without reference to any
outside prompts.
For most people at work there is: A role that should be performed, a role
that the person thinks they are performing and there is a role that they are
actually performing. A common method of overcoming these problems is
Management by Objectives [MBO], or similar setting of objectives for a
person’s position. Some of the criteria used to set these objectives:
CLEAR definite, specific and unambiguous.
MEASURABLE in terms of quantity and / or quality
CONSISTENT will contribute to the desired end result of the organisation or
unit.
CHALLENGING encouraging personal skills and knowledge growth
ACHIEVABLE possible for the job holder
ACCEPTABLE agreed to and accepted by both the person and the person’s
manager.
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4
Leadership
What type of leadership should an effective leader provide?
Some of the myriad leadership responsibilities of management include:
Showing the way, and defining the goals and intentions of the
organisation.
Going ahead of, in a spiritual relationship with your people.
Guiding, people into alternate methods and directions.
Causing progress, and setting in motion people and activities for
progress.
Being decisive, and maintaining constant flow and growth.
Having grace under pressure
Creating pathways with the leader’s values and visions.
Controlling and influencing actions of people and the organisation.
Directing and maintaining cohesive achievement.
Commanding and exerting authority in the context of effective
leadership.
Raising morale, of people and the organisation.
Being the first and more important, letting others be the first, and receive
the credit.
Heading the team and being ultimately responsible for what happens.
Beginning, and setting in motion the stimulus and movement for motion.
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4-Leadership and Motivation
Leadership
The Visionary
Creates meaning by crafting a vision, mission and direction that define the
focus of an enterprise. Continually evolving, elaborating, and interpreting
this meaning for the people in the organisation.
The Team Builder
Puts the correct people in the correct places for the leadership team, welds
them into a focused team to advocate the common goal, using their
individual strengths and resources, continuously developing them as a
team and as individual leaders who can produce the desired results.
The Buck-stopper
Faces the difficult issues, sorts the truth from the challenges, and makes
the necessary decisions and changes. This person needs to be open
minded, a good listener and be prepared to collaborate with the
management team.
The Living Symbol
Leads in a highly visible manner, which is not necessarily a charismatic
style but a constant and persistent pattern of reinforcing the organisational
goals, at every opportunity. This will involve simple, everyday actions that
enable people to associate the leader with the success of the organisation.
This association will result in the leader being automatically associated with
a concept of success. This person will become a ‘human logo’.
Each of these people needs to be a visionary, a team builder, a living
symbol, and a buck stopper for their own enterprise, within the enterprise.
Leadership Steps
PROCESS
BASIS LEADER BEHAVIOURS OUTCOMES
Power
Base
PERFOR
Legitimate ASSIGN IMPLEMENT EVALUATE REWARD -MANCE
Information
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Good Leadership
Demonstrate concern for people
Provide for opportunity and assist in self development
Provide an atmosphere encouraging self-satisfaction and pride
Encourage team effort
Maintain complete fairness, honesty and integrity.
Maintain open, consistent, and regular communication.
Encourage public service
Encourage creativity
Commit ourselves to productivity and quality
Maintain consistency
Dedication to improvement
Keep things simple and basic
Build on a basis of ‘need’
Give attention to detail
Conserve resources
Listen carefully to what others are saying and ‘take it on board’
A Bad Boss
Is dictatorial, bullying and inconsistent
Feels threatened by divergent opinions and will surround him or herself
with people of similar views
Withholds information, uses his or her power to effect change
Enjoys intimidating staff and is often autocratic
Is one dimensional
Quells conflict rather than drawing differences out
Is a workaholic with few if any close relationships
HR at the banks
At Hewitt Associates, Bell and Brown say that any change in culture that
creates a desirable employer brand has to come from the top of an
organisation. At Westpac, chief executive David Morgan put his name to
the "barbecue cards", and signs off personally on many pieces of
communication with staff. Similarly, John McFarlane, the chief executive of
ANZ Banking Group, has been keen promoter of better communication and
motivation of staff.
McFarlane says: "In terms of running the bank, we have been doing lots
of work on performance ethics, about what gets our people excited and
performing well." In early 2001, the bank began a program of what it calls
"perform, grow and break out". "It is a simple communication to everyone
in the company about performing better, being more in control, and having
the courage to be different," McFarlane says. "The hard-faced image of the
banks is not going to help us grow. We want to be the bank with the human
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face, for customers but equally importantly for our people. Enhancing the
people agenda is vital for us."
Future Vision
How will you rate and address:
Customer requirements?
Employees’ desires and expectations?
Improved employee job satisfaction?
Improved communications, both up and down?
Active employee support for company vision, goals and objectives?
Improved quality and productivity?
Suppliers’ desires and expectations?
Core competencies?
Vital issues affecting your business and organisation?
Personal desires and ambitions of the leadership team?
And compare against your local competitors?
And compare against the worlds best practices?
A Personal Goal
• Be good at what you do.
• Get better at what you do.
• Be the best at what you do.
• Stay the best at what you do
You are responsible for your life. Completely, utterly, totally, 100%
responsible. Fate, destiny, whatever will throw you chances here and there
but it is up to you to take hold of them.
Obstacles, brick walls, and everyday hassles will constantly try to hold
you back (mainly in the form of other people) but it is up to you whether
you let these affect you or not.
When you peel back all the layers of yourself and the world it is as
simple as that. A yes/no decision every time. Everything is not black and
white - far from it, and life is complicated.
It often takes extreme courage and strength to make a decision - either
way - but you must do it if you want your life to progress and if you want to
grow.
Stop looking around for people, organisations and movements to blame.
Ultimately you decide what you are going to do, how you are going to do
it and how much you are prepared to gain or sacrifice while getting it.
Finally, get to know yourself - intimately.
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Sequence. Maslow believed that an individual must satisfy one need before
feeling free to take on the tensions associated with the next level and
before trying new behaviours aimed at satisfying the next higher need.
Motivating factors. Among his motivating factors were the challenge of the
job itself, achievement, recognition, responsibility, advancement, and
growth.
Many people at first glance think that money is the all important
motivator. However research shows that as long as a reasonable and fair
income is supplied, issues such as achievement, recognition, and the nature
of the work will over ride money considerations. In some of our tutorials we
ask people what work issues they talk about in their breaks - invariably the
answer is achievement, recognition, and the nature of the work, with
money seldom discussed!
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Element Ranking
Achievement 41
Recognition 33
Nature of work 26
Responsibility 23
Advancement 20
Wages / money 15
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SELF
ACTUALISATION
Drive to become what you are
capable of Inherent well-being, self-
fulfilment, personal growth and
development, the opportunity to fulfil
one’s basic potential, to become
more like one’s natural self
SELF ESTEEM
Status, recognition, attention
Self respect, autonomy, achievement
Ego and status, esteem needs for
accomplishment, participation, prestige, self-
esteem, independent thought and action,
privileges, authority, recognition, professional
group membership
SOCIAL BELONGING
Need for affection, belonging, acceptance and friendship
Social needs for affection and caring relationships,
trust, feedback, friendships, discussions, being
informed, helping other people
SAFETY
Need for security and protection from physical and emotional harm
Health care, fringe benefits, routine, stability, financial reward,
safety, security
PHYSIOLOGICAL
Basic need for food, drink, living quarters, sexual needs,
clothing and physical fitness
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Motivation by shareholding
Many newly successful businesses are forced to think long and hard about
retaining their key employees.
They worry that their larger and more affluent competitors might make
them offers which they could not possibly match.
How can this risk be minimised? Many organisations already pay key
staff a performance bonus.
Another way is to offer these people a stake in the business by means
of share ownership.
If the company was to become an unlisted public company there could
be several options.
The organisation could:
Issue newly created shares to staff at a discount
Issue staff with contributing shares, which would mean that they are
partly paid with the proviso that they become fully paid at a later
date
Offer staff interest free loans to buy fully-paid shares
Issue share rights or options, giving staff the opportunity to buy
shares at a specific price at a specific date
Any share scheme would need to be structured in such a way that control
of the business was not lost by its original proprietors.
One way of doing this is to create a special class of shares that give a
profit entitlement but not an equity entitlement.
An approach to issuing shares could be to allocate shares on the basis
of length of service.
Further you could make shares conditional upon specified service
periods being completed.
As an example of staff share ownership, one successful manufacturing
organisation we know of is currently 66% owned by family members and
the remaining 34% is owned by twelve key staff.
Another organisation in the western suburbs of Sydney offers all
employees the chance to buy company shares through a scheme that
enables them to contribute 10% of their wages into a share pool.
For every five shares they buy, the company gives them one free.
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The winning dish was the hot fudge sundae, the runner-up
created Baked Alaska.
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The Individual
• drive
• force
• emotion
• instinct
• need urge
• want
• desire
• wish
• feeling
• impulse
• striving
Incentive
• purpose Performance
• interest
• intention
• goal plan
• aspiration Environmental
event
• attitude
• value
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See that people are matched with their capabilities and preferences
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Irritability 3. Increased,drinking,
smoking, eating, drugs
Persistent fatigue
4. Vague speech patterns
Lack of concentration
5. Brooding
Hunger for sweets
6. Depression
Increased use of alcohol and drugs
7. Insomnia
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86
5
88
5-Training and Evaluation
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90
5-Training and Evaluation
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Staff Appraisals
An Agenda for an Appraisal Meeting
1. Update personnel file (addresses, contacts, etc.)
2. Review Job Description
3. Amend Job Description
4. Identify performance issues
5. Identify additional resource requirements
6. Set and review performance targets
7. Determine and professional development initiatives
8. Confirm next review
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A Performance Review
JOB PERFORMANCE Quantity, quality, economy of operation, other.
-3 -2 -1 0 +1 +2 +3
-3 -2 -1 0 +1 +2 +3
-3 -2 -1 0 +1 +2 +3
-3 -2 -1 0 +1 +2 +3
-3 -2 -1 0 +1 +2 +3
-3 -2 -1 0 +1 +2 +3
-3 -2 -1 0 +1 +2 +3
-3 -2 -1 0 +1 +2 +3
Name .........................................................................
Position......................................................................
Date...................................................................................
TOTAL RATING................................................................
...............Yes...............No..............Doubtful
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Case Studies
6-Case Studies
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Managing Human Resources
Economies of Scale
In the early 1990’s, a manufacturing company based in Sydney found a
lucrative niche market for it’s products and continuously expanded their
production and facilities. In due course, the demand for the company’s
products grew ten fold.
A few years later the company management decided to carry out a
meaningful survey of the cost benefits and economies of scale they thought
they had achieved by producing 10 times more product.
They were amazed at the results, which in simplified form were, originally:-
10 production people were producing
100 units per hour, which required
10 people and 1 supervisor.
When the company’s production had increased 10 fold to 1,000 units per
hour they required not 110 people (10 times as many) as thought but 196
people, comprising:-
• 100 production people • 10 supervisors
• 1 manager • 3 assistant managers
• 18 people in human resources • 19 people in long range planning
• 22 in accounting and procedures, and
• 23 in purchasing and expediting
When management had recovered from the initial shock at the vast
increase in people, they realised that this diseconomy of scale was not all
just a bureaucratic proliferation and empire building, (though some of that
was obviously inherent).
Management realised and accepted grudgingly that their major problem
was the Big is good college of organisational management syndrome.
Organisations and companies take business processes such as
purchasing, accounting and expediting and create fragmented departments
with bureaucratic job titles, inflexibility, lack of responsiveness, walls and
barriers and major increases in non productive overhead costs.
Invariably in this situation customer focus is lost and activity becomes more
important than results, with lack of innovation, and constantly increasing
overheads and ‘analysis paralysis’.
These days of course, this company no longer exists in this form.
Most people are able to identify an organisation with these problems!
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Interstate Branches
A company with two interstate branches decided that the time was
opportune to open a third interstate branch in another state. The benefits
were thought to be an increased national presence, increased purchasing
power, a further step towards a national network of branches, and of
course more profits on the bottom line.
In due course an experienced manager to run the new branch was
recruited and that person spent six weeks at head office ‘learning the
business’ and preparing to open the new branch.
On a number of occasions the new manager asked what was expected of
the new branch, what was expected of him (no Job Description was ever
supplied) who he would report to, what budgets he was expected to set and
perform to and a number of other similar questions.
The two co-directors who ran and owned the company (although they
worked in offices only 15 meters apart they used to make appointments,
days in advance, for meetings to see each other for discussions), kept
referring to the other as the person who would be responsible as the
person to report to. When the topic of budgets was raised a firm answer or
commitment could never be obtained.
The general feeling seemed to be, ‘We are market leaders here, and we
will take this new state by storm, and in three months be in profit’.
The new manager found this situation difficult, but set some budgets of
his own, with optimistic and profitable projections for the next three years.
In due course the new branch was opened, but after three months was
struggling to gain market share, much to the surprise of one of the
directors.
However after a year the new branch was showing significant growth
and market share and was running at a modest profit. After two years the
ongoing bad feeling between the two owners was resolved by one of them
buying the other one out. Despite this, the former co-owner used to enjoy
visiting the branches he had helped create, much to the chagrin of the
remaining director.
The new branch continued to perform well and exceed the optimistic
budgets the branch manager had set.
Despite the change in ownership head office still did not supply any
guide lines, budgets or policies for future directions.
On a visit to one of the branches by the new sole owner - who was also
now Managing Director (M.D.) - the manager there convened a meeting of
staff and invited the M.D. to address them, expecting the new owner to say
something motivational about the companies future and their role in it.
The M.D. was lost for words and could not find anything at all to say,
much to the embarrassment and disappointment of the staff in this branch.
On a number of occasions the branch managers asked the M.D. for
annual or six monthly managers meetings to discuss strategies and to
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review operations on a ‘big picture’ scale. The M.D. refused point blank and
admitted that, ‘I don’t want my managers talking to each other and
discussing sales and wages’. The branch managers overcame this by
having regular meetings on the telephone, when they compared branch
sales, wages and profitability.
In order to keep in touch with the branches, the M.D. used to phone
selected people working in the branches at home, to find out what ‘was
happening’. The branch managers were not among the people he would
phone at home.
In due course the M.D. was both surprised and hurt about the feedback
he was getting from suppliers and customers about the lack of respect the
branch managers and people working in the branches and in the industry
had for him.
His reaction to this was swift. On various pretexts he fired all the branch
managers over a short period. After the first manager was fired morale
sagged and gossip in the branches and in the trade flourished. By the time
the third branch manager was ineptly and publicly dismissed the owner /
M.D. was held in ridicule. In all cases the replacement managers were
inexperienced, internal people, who had been earmarked as future
managers without their knowledge.
Not surprisingly, a number of key people in all the branches looked for,
and found other jobs.
What would you have done?
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Locus of control. Some people (internals) believe they are masters of their
own fate. Other people (externals, who tend to be less satisfied with their
jobs) see themselves as pawns of fate, believing that what happens to
them in their lives is due to luck or chance.
Achievement orientation. People with a high need and motivation to
succeed (internals) can be described as continually striving to do things
better. They want to overcome obstacles and feel that their success or
failure is due to their own actions.
Authoritarism. The extremely high-authoritarian personality is intellect-
ually rigid, judgmental of others, deferential to those above and exploitive
of those below, distrustful and resistant to change.
In jobs requiring sensitivity to the feelings of others, tact and the ability
to adapt to complex and changing situations this person may be viewed
negatively.
Machiavellianism. Named after Niccolo Machiavelli who wrote in the 16th
century on how to gain and manipulate power. An individual high in
Machiavellianism is pragmatic, maintains emotional distance, and believes
that ends can justify the means. ‘If it works, use it’ is consistent with a high-
Mach perspective.
Risk taking
People differ in their willingness to take chances. This propensity to assume
or avoid risk has been shown to impact on how long it takes managers to
make a decision and how much information they require before making
their choice.
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Determinants of Personality
An adults personality is considered to be made up of both hereditary
factors (was their Personality determined at birth?) and environmental
factors (the interaction with their environment), moderated by situational
conditions.
HEREDITARY refers to those factors which were determined at
conception. e.g. Physical, stature, facial attractiveness, sex,
temperament, muscle composition and reflexes, energy level, and
biological rhythms, who your parents were and their biological,
physiological, and inherent psychological makeup.
The HEREDITARY approach argues that the ultimate explanation of an
individuals personality is the molecular structure of the genes, located in
the chromosomes.
The HEREDITARY argument can be used to explain why someone’s nose
resembles her mothers or why someone is a good athlete, when their
parents were also.
If all Personality characteristics were completely dictated by hereditary,
they would be fixed at birth and no amount of experience would alter
them.
ENVIRONMENT concerns the culture in which we were raised - our early
conditioning; the norms among our family, friends, and social groups; and
other influences that we experience.
Culture establishes the norms, attitudes, and values that are passed
along from one generation to the next and create consistencies over
time.
SITUATION influences the effects of hereditary and environment on
Personality.
An individual’s Personality, while generally stable and consistent, does
change in different situations.
Different demands in different situations call forth different aspects of
one’s Personality.
SITUATIONS seem to differ substantially in the constraints they impose
on behaviour - some situations may constrain behaviour e.g. Church or a
job interview, while others such as a picnic in the park constrain few
people.
Personality traits
Researchers have identified 16 PERSONALITY TRAITS, which have been
found to be generally steady and constant sources of behaviour, allowing
prediction of an individual’s behaviour in specific circumstances by
weighing the characteristics of their situational relevance
1. Reserved Outgoing
2. Less intelligent More intelligent
3. Affected by feelings Emotionally stable
4. Submissive Dominant
5. Serious Happy-go-lucky
6. Expedient Conscientious
7. Timid Venturesome
8. Tough-minded Sensitive
9. Trusting Suspicious
10. Practical Imaginative
11. Forthright Shrewd
12. Self-assured Apprehensive
13. Conservative Experimenting
14. Group-dependent Self-sufficient
15. Uncontrolled Controlled
16. Relaxed Tense
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Disagree Agree
1 2 3 4 5
When assigned tasks, I thoroughly understood
what was expected of me.
When assigned tasks, I understood how they
fitted into the overall aims for the engagement.
Help was available when I needed to have
questions answered.
I received prompt feedback on my work, whether
good or bad.
When corrected for something I did or omitted, it
was done in a constructive way.
I was kept informed of things I needed to know to
do my job properly.
I received good coaching to help me improve my
performance.
I had the freedom to make the necessary
decisions to do my work properly.
I was actively encouraged to volunteer new ideas
and make suggestions for improvement.
Team meetings were conducted in a way that
builds trust and mutual respect.
In this engagement we set very high standards
for performance.
I felt I was a member of a well functioning team.
My work made good use of knowledge and
ability.
My engagement helped to learn and grow.
My work was interesting and challenging.
TOTALS
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5. They're Dishonest
Common forms of dishonesty include exaggerating about achievements or
misrepresenting knowledge. There's also the candidate who mentioned his
arrest after saying on his application he had never been arrested - and the
one who actually stole something from the interviewer's office.
Besides highlighting ignorance in action, the survey confirms that truth is
stranger than fiction and proves that life is not all that rosy on the other
side of the interview process either.
Source: CareerBuilder.com
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Index
Interview 42 matching 33
disengagement 37 Manpower planning 12 Why do they fail? 36
evaluation 30 Maslow 73, 75 will expect 78
how to 24,25 Matching people 33 Performance
process 24, 25 Measuring 6 appraisal 13
questions 25 your professionalism 60 review 93
Interviewers should ensure Meetings 43 Person description 20
that 24 and team think 43 Personal
Interviewing how to 26 Memo to all staff 25 goal, a 71
Intimacy 33 Machiavellianism 104 goals and objectives,
Inventory Mission statements 40 setting 91
Human Resource 12 Morale problems 81 improvement programs 15
of development plans 13 Morgan, David 70 evaluating 90
Moses 60 Personality
Job Motivation 73, 74 attributes 104
Analysis 12 and needs 76 determinants of 105
changes 14 and productivity 80 traits 106
Descriptions, writing a 21 by shareholding 77 Peter principles 54
Design 13 shareholding, by 77 Planning
Enrichment 15 traditional theory 73 and development
My 64 what motivates people? 74 components, overall 12
Planning what motivates you? 74 disengagement 15
Redesign 15 Motivational determinants 79 job/role 12
/role playing 12 My job, my role 64 manpower 12
Rotation 15 overall components 12
Judgment of potential 13 Needs, analysis 89 replacement and restaffing
Juggling 77 Needs, work related 72 35
Negotiation 59-62 retirement 15
Keeping close to the Conference 62 Policies, human resources,
customer 98 Creative 59, 60 5
Process 61 Policy formation 7
Lack of skill 34 Utility of 59 Political
Language 33 Win - win 59 actions 47
Leadership 66-72 New staff, induction of 12, 32 correctness 101
good 70 Politics, the, of Human
quiz 85 Occupational Health & Resources 10
steps 68 Safety, (OH&S) 55 Portfolio of tools 4
Leading a team 72 Office, efficient, attitudes of Potential
Le Boeuf, Michael, 16 96 judgment of 13
Legislation 8 Open questions 41 problem areas
Letter of engagement 32 Organisation, an, and its Power and status 33
Living symbol, the 67 stakeholders 9 Prejudice 36
Locus of control 104 Organisational Press release, new personnel
development 8 31
McFarlane, John 70 form, new 44 Process
McKinsey & Co 83 goals 4 of negotiation, the 61
Management rewards 14 staffing 12
crisis 53 stakeholders 9 steps in the HR process 6
is considered a mysterious structure 44 Productivity and motivation
act 34 Organisations, typology of 45 80
rating form 94 Overall planning components Professionalism, measuring
Manager 12 your 60
a 38 Owners 52 Promotion
Human Resources, role of is considered a just reward
3 Package, salary 29 34
rating 108 Paradigms, old and new 44 Promotions 14
universal 34 Pareto principle 56 Punishments 33
Managing Patterns of work 15
change 47 Pay 29 Questions
replacement 35 People, open 41
restaffing 35 adages 103 ten basic 63
your career, six steps, to at work 49 what are they? 63
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Index