Human Resource Management Tools Research Articles

Performance Appraisal Systems as a Strategic Human Resource Management Tool in the Bahamian Public Service

The Bahamian Public Service faces general pressures for better performance, including higher quality, rational administrative systems, and managerial innovation. Because organizational effectiveness depends on high-quality and committed human capital, performance appraisal is important. This study will describe, assess, and recommend changes in the current system.

DESIGNING CBA MODEL OF PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL SYSTEM AS A MERIT RATING FOR HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTION

Performance appraisal system as part of human resource management tools for higher edu- cation institution plays an important role in motivating and increasing educators and sup- porting staff’s performance. It is very valuable for higher education institutions. Yet, in edu- cation affairs, this is still considered less. This research attempts to design competence-based performance appraisal system for higher education institution. Depth interview, secondary data, and questionnaire are used as the instruments. It is conducted in three types of higher education in Indonesia. In terms of professionalism, social competence, and pedagogical competences, it is found that there are three competencies, namely core competency, mana- gerial competency, and technical competency. Core competency is referred to organization’s value, varied among higher education institutions, but mostly includes integrity, customer orientation, achievement orientation, initiative, teamwork, empathy, and adaptability. In terms of managerial competencies, most higher education institutions consider planning, problem solving, influencing others, empowerment, supervising, and controlling. For techni- cal competencies, they include computer literacy, English mastery and job technical mastery.

Performance Management and Trust in Supervisors

This article investigates the effect of performance management and explores one factor—trust in one’s supervisor—as a critical facilitator of it. Although improving performance is a prominent issue in public management and the term, performance management, is in heavy use in the public sector, systematic investigations on the subject are relatively rare. Defining performance management as a human resource management tool, this research empirically tests the associations between performance management and two outcomes: perceived work-unit performance and perceived agency performance. In addition, it examines the role of trust as a facilitator of the successful implementation of performance management. Using the Merit Principles Survey 2005, we test the ideas. Ordered logit regression analyses confirm that performance management promotes perceived performance of both work-unit and agency, and the leverages are further increased under a high level of trust in supervisors.

Personnel performance assessment in information systems outsourcing environments

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to present a tool which uses semantic technologies for personnel performance and workplace learning assessment in outsourced information technology environments.Design/methodology/approach – The paper presents the tool from a technical perspective and introduces a use case that depicts the main features related to human resource management issues.Findings – Semantic technologies enable the monitoring of personnel throughout all of the phases of the management of outsourcing, basing itself on established communication standards used in leading business management tools and recent outsourcing efforts. This monitoring provides to human resource management issues an integrated approach to assess both employee performance and learning outcomes as a result of competence evaluation.Originality/value – The paper shows that semantic technologies can be applied to human resource management tools to bring its intrinsic characteristics to human resource management tasks including pe...

Expatriate Performance Appraisal Management: The Use Of A 360-Degree Feedback At Nokia Telecommunications

Performance management systems are now being used as a comprehensive human resource management tool to evaluate the performance of employees through objective setting, performance appraisal and feedback, continuous training, and career development. The focal point of this article is Nokia Telecommunications, a multinational corporation with extensive experience in sending and receiving people on foreign assignments. The paper discusses performance management systems with a focus on appraisals for expatriates. Given performance appraisal challenges for expatriates, an overview assessment (using Nokia) is offered, a problem is highlighted, and a solution is presented. From the analysis and findings, an alternative performance management system of appraisals is recommended for implementation with Nokia employees working abroad and other expatriates.

Applying Succession Management Benefits For Leadership Continuity

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; margin: 0in 34.2pt 0pt 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Faced with increasing numbers of employees retiring and dwindling replacements, corporations are implementing succession management programs at all levels of the organization to build structural leadership for internal employee advancement, and ensure leadership continuity. There is a need for succession planning management in public service agencies. This article discusses succession management benefits, and incorporation of strategic human resource management tools for leadership continuity in anticipation for retirements and replacements, and suggests future research directions. </span></span></p>

Effort based performance measurement in business process management

AbstractThis paper presents a holistic methodology and associated toolset for business process modelling and analysis. The importance of integrating performance measurement (PM) indicators and tools in business process management has been identified in the literature as well as contemporary approaches that attempt to give a solution to this problem. However, most of these approaches propose solutions based on theories and techniques used in other disciplines or research fields which approach the issue of performance measurement in BPR from their individualistic perspective. In the majority of cases the proposed theories and techniques prove to be inadequate to measure performance holistically and integrate, organizational, human resource management, process management and workflow management concepts. The resulting methodology and toolset is based on business analysis ratios that define and measure key performance indicators in qualitative and quantitative terms and identify the relationships between them. These ratios allow enterprises to achieve a performance evaluation tool for continuous improvement in their attempt to respond and adapt quickly to turbulent markets. The performance measurement toolset (called ADJUST) is used for (1) planning different reorganization scenarios for the achievement of desired performance, (2) for assessing real time performance and (3) reporting deviations from desired planned performance.In order to monitor and assess real time performance the ADJUST software tool provides interfaces to three kinds of management tool categories, namely: Process management tools (PMT): business models, cycle time, primitive cost, etc. Human resource management (HRM) tools: job descriptions, performance measures, etc. Workflow management (WFM) tools: transactions, business rules, workflow models, etc. The ADJUST business analysis engine is based on employee effort analysis and provides meta‐analysis of data analysed in PMT and HRM tools. Data like activity sequencing, cycle times, primitive costing, etc. from PMT tools are analysed in ADJUST in order to assess the percentage of high‐business and low value added activities, mission‐non mission activities, concentration analysis, etc. Knowledge management elements are integrated to job descriptions and associated with performance measures and workflow elements. Similarly, job descriptions and performance measurement data that are provided by HRM tools are analysed further in terms of cost to manage, principal‐agent analysis etc. In the case of WFM tools the ADJUST system provides not only meta‐analysis of workflow processes, transactions and document flows but also dynamic monitoring of their performance in real time. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Research on Chinese small and medium-sized businesses’ human resource management

Human capital, as an important factor of production in the 21st century, has become an important resource which determines economic development and business competition. At present, Chinese enterprises face serious challenges, but also bring opportunities. Therefore, Chinese enterprises will update ideas, adjust the structure of human resources, strengthen personnel training, and learn and introduce the advanced human resource management techniques and tools to ensure corporate strategic objectives.

The perspectives of store manager required competencies based on MCDM Method

Businesses are increasingly adopting competency models, which have proven their value as a human resources (HR) management tool. Specifically, this paper aims to investigate what types of job competencies are required for store managers, how selection criteria are made to find high performance store managers by retailing specialists and store managers themselves. But the influences between criteria have not been clearly shown. Are the perspectives of competent criteria between store managers and retailing HR specialists different? And what is the gap between them? To solve the issues involving the surface of human judgment and different view of points by implementers (store managers) and specialists (aspired level), we propose an effective method based onMCDMwith DETAMEL.

Innovation success of non-R&D-performers: substituting technology by management in SMEs

This paper investigates the impact of in-house R&D and innovation management practices on innovation success in small and medium-sized firms (SMEs). While there is little doubt about the significance of technology competence for generating successful innovations, inhouse R&D activities may be a particular challenge for SMEs due to high risk exposure, high fixed costs, high minimum investment and severe financial constraints. SMEs may thus opt for refraining from R&D and relying more on innovation management tools in order to achieve innovation success. We analyse whether such a strategy can pay off. Based on data from the German CIS we find that R&D activities are a main driver for innovation success if combined with external R&D, using external innovation sources or by entering into cooperation agreements. SMEs without in-house R&D can yield a similar innovation success if they effectively apply human resource management tools or team work to facilitate innovation processes.

Explaining the Balance between Publications and Patents as Outputs from Public-Private Collaborative R&D: An Empirical Study on French Data

R&D collaboration between firms and public research organizations (PROs) is considered a key component of national systems of innovation. A direct benefit from these collaborations is the production of new scientific and technological knowledge, which is disseminated essentially through publications and patents. In this paper, we empirically address the issue of the economic factors shaping the publishing and patenting patterns in public-private R&D collaborative settings by drawing on the data from a survey conducted among laboratories of the largest French public research organizations in the chemistry and life sciences fields. We consistently find that consortia collaborations tend to discard patents while they are supported by the development of new product innovations. Moreover, the proportion of post-docs in the laboratory’s workforce is correlated with more patents than publications. This result is original and highlights the key role played by post-docs for the production of commercially relevant knowledge in French public-private R&D partnerships. It stresses the need for more explicit human resource management tools and policies directed towards this fraction of the knowledge production workforce.

Has regulation killed off the defined benefit scheme as a cost effective tool for human resource management?

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of regulation on both the cost of defined benefit pension (DB) schemes and their effectiveness for human resource management.Design/methodology/approachThe paper initially outlines the factors that have affected the costs of DB schemes. It then reviews relevant theory from the human resources area and details how ongoing regulation has impinged on the use of DB schemes in this area.FindingsMany years of heavy regulation have not only increased the costs of DB schemes but reduced their utility in the field of human resource management. In consequence, the business case for these schemes has been very much weakened.Practical implicationsThe undue regulation of scheme design needs to be reduced to allow organizations to evolve pension forms that provide an attractive balance between their cost and their appreciation by employees and hence their utility in the field of human resources management.Originality/valueThe paper proposes a framework for analyzing the business case for DB'schemes. This framework is very convenient for examining the overall effect of changes in regulation.

Performance-related pay and work motivation: theoretical and empirical perspectives for the French civil service

At a time when the civil services of most OECD countries have embarked on a process of modernization of their practices, we are questioning the relevance of introducing performance-related pay systems, particularly in view of the, more often than not, negative effects on the work motivation of civil servants. The French civil service has recently decided to pay a part of its public officials on the basis of their performance, and we show how these individualized remuneration practices can, in the long term, undermine the public service motivations that drive some civil servants. Our reasoning is supported by the empirical results of studies conducted in the United States, in England and also in France, as well as on the developments of intrinsic motivation theories, combined with the developments of the public service motivation theory. Points for the practitioners Whereas the implementation of performance-related pay as an instrument of motivation has become widespread within the civil service, this article focuses on the difficulties inherent to these compensation practices. We underline in particular the negative effects of performance-related pay on the public service motivations of civil servants. As these specific motivations can be pushed aside, human resource management tools should be adopted that encourage the development of intrinsic motivation, such as task enlargement or enrichment or the implementation of participative management methods.

Development and initial validation of an instrument for human capital planning

AbstractThis article reports on development and validation of an instrument for use in human capital approaches for organizational planning. The article describes use of a team of subject matter experts in developing a measure of human capital planning, and use of exploratory factor analysis techniques to validate the resulting instrument. These data were obtained from a national survey of 494 human resource management and human resource development respondents. The article presents an instrument for assistance with human capital planning as a strategic human resource management tool and further reports on the initial validity and reliability measures resulting from the analysis. In addition, the usefulness of this instrument for human resource management and human resource development professionals is explored.

Application of Industrial Human Resource Management Tools to Physicians: Impact on Finances, Level of Activity and Mortality Rates in an Intensive Care Department

Application de techniques de management de ressources humaines provenant de l’industrie a des medecins : impact sur les finances, le niveau d’activite et la mortalite dans un departement de reanimationObjectifs : Constatant que les mesures mises en place a ce jour pour obtenir une reduction des couts des prescriptions medicales avaient echouees, nous avons entrepris une nouvelle approche par application a nos medecins de techniques de management des ressources humaines provenant de l’industrie pour voir si cela aurait des consequences tangibles dans le domaine des economies.Methodes : Nous avons realise 9 tests psychologiques pour evaluer le niveau d’anxiete et l’implication professionnelle des medecins seniors d’un departement de reanimation de 32 lits. Sur cette base, un leader de projet a ete choisi pour appliquer une politique comprenant un enseignement standardise et une politique de reduction des prescriptions d’actes de biologie. L’ensemble a ete mis en place pour verifier si une diminution globale des prescriptions medicales survenait sans affecter l’evolution des malades. De facon simultanee, nous avons collige pendant l’annee de cette experimentation, les fluctuations des couts financiers des prescriptions d’examens biologiques, de radiologie et celle des medicaments.Resultats : Sur 7 mois, nous avons obtenu une reduction de 22,3 % des prescriptions de biologie, une diminution de 13,21 % de la prescription des medicaments, une diminution de 42 % des prescriptions de drogues anti-infectieuses et une diminution de 11,85 % des prescriptions de radiologie a niveau constant d’activite et sans augmentation ni de la mortalite ni des re-hospitalisations. Cette approche a permis de limiter les prescriptions d’un montant d’environ 900 000 euros sur une annee.Conclusion : Meme dans des conditions de travail exigeantes, l’application d’une politique simple de management des ressources humaines qui ne met en danger ni les malades ni les medecins, a permis une reduction substantielle et prolongee des depenses totales de prescriptions medicales grâce a la mise en place d’une politique qui prend en compte le profil psychologique des medecins seniors.

Innovation Success of Non-R&D-Performers: Substituting Technology by Management in SMEs

This paper investigates the impact of in-house R&D and innovation management practices on innovation success in small and medium-sized firms (SMEs). While there is little doubt about the significance of technology competence for generating successful innovations, inhouse R&D activities may be a particular challenge for SMEs due to high risk exposure, high fixed costs, high minimum investment and severe financial constraints. SMEs may thus opt for refraining from R&D and relying more on innovation management tools in order to achieve innovation success. We analyse whether such a strategy can pay off. Based on data from the German CIS we find that R&D activities are a main driver for innovation success if combined with external R&D, using external innovation sources or by entering into cooperation agreements. SMEs without in-house R&D can yield a similar innovation success if they effectively apply human resource management tools or team work to facilitate innovation processes.

Modeling mixed push and pull promotion flows in Manpower Planning

Manpower Planning is a useful tool for human resource management in large organizations. Classical Manpower Planning models are analytical time-discrete push and pull models. Push models are characterized by the same promotion and wastage probabilities for people within the same group. This assumption is suitable in organizations where for instance promotions are used for reasons of personnel motivation or employees are promoted after succeeding in an exam. In many organizations, people are only promoted when there are vacancies at other levels. In those cases, pull models can be used. Pull models only assume known wastage probabilities. In practice, both assumptions may occur simultaneously. In this paper, a mixed push-pull model is developed for organizations in which both types of flows are considered.

Using human resource management tools to support social enterprise: emerging themes from the sector

PurposeTo devise a human resource management (HRM) approach capable of application to the management of employees in social enterprises.Design/methodology/approachThe difficulty of applying traditional HRM techniques to social enterprises, where the workforce tends to be volunteers, is discussed. Reviews HRM concepts and their relationship/applicability to social enterprise (labour market relationships within social enterprise, resourcing and skills to support social enterprise, leadership and operational strategy within social enterprise). Presents two case studies, involving an inner city credit union in northwest England; and an inner city after‐school club. Reports on a pilot questionnaire survey focusing on the strands identified by the earlier research.FindingsThe results indicated a heavy reliance on volunteer labour with almost all organizations working with volunteers. Notes, however, that when asked whether volunteers were crucial to the running of the organization, only 59 per cent felt they were, with the remaining 41 per cent being uncertain or felt that volunteers were not crucial and only a small fraction (12 per cent) having more volunteers than paid workers. Reveals that the infrastructure to support coherent people‐management systems in social enterprise do not appear to be robust and piecemeal support and advice through a range of well‐meaning board members, fragile networks and higher education institutes cannot provide a strong framework for growth and sustainability in managing human resources in the social enterprise sector. Concludes that labour market relationships, resourcing and skills, and leadership and operational strategy have nevertheless been recurring themes in research in this field which suggests that there may be a very real opportunity for HRM tools and expertise to support social enterprise organizations in achieving their business and social goals.Originality/valueSheds light on the HRM aspects of social enterprises.

The Job Demands‐Resources model: state of the art

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to give a state‐of‐the art overview of the Job Demands‐Resources (JD‐R) modelDesign/methodology/approachThe strengths and weaknesses of the demand‐control model and the effort‐reward imbalance model regarding their predictive value for employee well being are discussed. The paper then introduces the more flexible JD‐R model and discusses its basic premises.FindingsThe paper provides an overview of the studies that have been conducted with the JD‐R model. It discusses evidence for each of the model's main propositions. The JD‐R model can be used as a tool for human resource management. A two‐stage approach can highlight the strengths and weaknesses of individuals, work groups, departments, and organizations at large.Originality/valueThis paper challenges existing stress models, and focuses on both negative and positive indicators of employee well being. In addition, it outlines how the JD‐R model can be applied to a wide range of occupations, and be used to improve employee well being and performance.

Health worker motivation in Africa: the role of non-financial incentives and human resource management tools.

BackgroundThere is a serious human resource crisis in the health sector in developing countries, particularly in Africa. One of the challenges is the low motivation of health workers.Experience and the evidence suggest that any comprehensive strategy to maximize health worker motivation in a developing country context has to involve a mix of financial and non-financial incentives. This study assesses the role of non-financial incentives for motivation in two cases, in Benin and Kenya.MethodsThe study design entailed semi-structured qualitative interviews with doctors and nurses from public, private and NGO facilities in rural areas. The selection of health professionals was the result of a layered sampling process. In Benin 62 interviews with health professionals were carried out; in Kenya 37 were obtained. Results from individual interviews were backed up with information from focus group discussions. For further contextual information, interviews with civil servants in the Ministry of Health and at the district level were carried out. The interview material was coded and quantitative data was analysed with SPSS software.Results and discussionThe study shows that health workers overall are strongly guided by their professional conscience and similar aspects related to professional ethos. In fact, many health workers are demotivated and frustrated precisely because they are unable to satisfy their professional conscience and impeded in pursuing their vocation due to lack of means and supplies and due to inadequate or inappropriately applied human resources management (HRM) tools. The paper also indicates that even some HRM tools that are applied may adversely affect the motivation of health workers.ConclusionThe findings confirm the starting hypothesis that non-financial incentives and HRM tools play an important role with respect to increasing motivation of health professionals. Adequate HRM tools can uphold and strengthen the professional ethos of doctors and nurses. This entails acknowledging their professionalism and addressing professional goals such as recognition, career development and further qualification. It must be the aim of human resources management/quality management (HRM/QM) to develop the work environment so that health workers are enabled to meet their personal and the organizational goals.