Chapter 16 Discussion Topic

High performance work systems are the right combination of people, technology, and organizational structure that makes full use of the organization's resources and opportunities in achieving its goals.
I find that more often than not companies want the high performance work system but aren't willing to put forth the amount of money required to get their company there. They want highly motivated and productive employees, intelligent employees, but they look at the bottom line right now. "How little can I pay people and get them to do the job so I can make a bigger profit?" Seems a little silly if you look at the big picture. Human Resource Managers need to be able to look at the big picture and show managers, ceo's and owners that sometimes putting forth a little more or even a lot more money at first will bring better results in the long run.
What are some ways that HR professionals could convey this information? Use the diagram in the book Outcomes of a High-performance work system and ask yourself "why don't the people in charge see that this is the better way?"

March 30 Reflection

We finished up chapter 15 going over the Hofstede's 5 Dimensions of Culture and work in foreign countries and effects of culture on training design and also compensation for expatriates. We also discussed the papers that are due April 15. We will be doing peer reviews on the papers, I'm mildly interested to see what other people decided to write about.

Chapter 15 Discussion Topic again

I was interested in the Hofstede Dimensions so I thought I'd add more:
Hofstede's Five Dimensions of Culture -
individualism v. collectivism
power distance
uncertainty avoidance
masculinity v femininity
long-term/short-term orientation

Our culture is definitely on the individualism side of the spectrum and I see this at my job where everyone has pretty much the same job in my department and it's up to us to get our part done, we're monitored on our individual accomplishments as well as the group's.
The power distance in our culture seems to be rather low, we call our supervisors or managers by their first names a lot of the time.
Uncertainty Avoidance makes human resource management and forecasting so important in our culture, we don't like to be unsure about our future for the most part and we want to be prepared for what COULD happen.

What are some other things that we as human resource managers could do to deal with uncertainty avoidance? What are some of today's issues with the change in masculinity v. femininity in difference occupations? Do we still have a big issue with gender differences?

March 16 Reflection

We discussed how the union v. management activity went last week and what we got out of it. I could tell that it made a difference when the two sides communicated and when the teams communicated rather than one person for either side made a decision. With these types of scenarios it's very important to try to get as close to a win-win so that there will be more trust and also if it ends up being a lose-lose i.e the labor union "wins" but the company goes under because they can't handle the budget increase so the laborers lose their jobs anyway. You have to communicate with each other otherwise you can't create trust.

We also talked about what supervisors should and should not do to discourage unions. I can see that where I work is pretty much doing it all right.

Chapter 15 Discussion Topic

There are a few factors thataffect Human Resource Management in the International Markets. Culture, Education, Economic Status, and Political-legal systems. Culture involves such things as customs, languages, and religions. If you don't understand the culture of the place you are working, you can cause a lot of problems for yourself and make the job unnecessarily difficult. Small things such as when working in a Hindu-dominated culture to not use or bring a leather briefcase, wallet, etc. This can be tied in with the culture of an organization within the States, every job or company has its own "culture" and it is smart to always learn as much about the culture before you get into a situation that could cause much embarrassment.
How can you learn about a culture before you travel or try to get a job in a new organization? Do you think that it is important to learn about a major faith or beliefs and values of other people or countries you could be dealing with?

March 11 Reflection

We discussed Chapter 14 and the laws behind compensation. There are different types of benefits but one that is newer to Human resources seems to be "family friendly" benefits. These benefits include family leave, child care, college savings plans and elderly care. We did an activity about unions to see how they can help or hinder a company. We also turned in our research paper proposals and got back our Exam re-do's. It was awesome to be able to go back through our exams and try to pick up some of the points we missed, I think I got more out of it too because I could go back through and see what the correct answers were and understand the objectives I wasn't as confident in.

Reflection March 9

Discussed benefits and FMLA, we had a good class discussion. We had the SCOTS in and had a really good discussion on the things we'd like to see happen to the class, it's not that we hate this class and that Human Resources are not important, but this class could definitely be improved and we are all very willing to help. :)

Chapter 14 Discussion Topic

Unions. The text gives a list of what supervisors should do and not do to discourage unions. DO report any signs of union activity to a core management group, DO NOT threaten employees with harsher terms and conditions of employment or employment loss if they engage in union activity. DO treat all employees equally, with respect, etc. DO NOT spy on employees or offer better opportunities if they forgo union activity. Seems pretty basic, turn it over to the management and continue with work as usual, apparently union activity is not our thing.

If you remember a few years ago with the writer's strike and T.V sucked a lot during that time, so as HR Reps we need to make sure we can do what we can to avoid strikes of any kind.

What sorts of things can we do to help avoid strikes? Since it seems that HR reps aren't really supposed to do anything directly related to unions what can we do to help our employees feel that a union is unnecessary?

Chapter 13 Discussion Topic

Paid leave is a beautiful thing. Paid sick days, vacation, floating holidays, all are great benefits that are optional for your employer to provide (unless there is a serious illness). Health insurance is also optional.
I have found talking to your HR rep as long as they aren't idiots is helpful when you are signing up for your own health insurance because it can be daunting, so as future HR reps we should make sure we understand the policies the company offers and can inform the employees which aspects will be most beneficial to their individual circumstances.
What sorts of questions could we ask the employees that could help us help them but would still be legal? Or what could we do to help them on aspects that aren't within that legal realm?

Reflection March 4

I'm assuming that we discussed Chapter 12 which deals withrecognizing employee contributions with pay. The legal requirements for pay structure discussed in chapter 11 involve equal employment opportunity, minimum wages, pay for overtime and prevailing wages for federal contractors. All of this is assuming that pay is equal across gender, race, and favoritism lines. In Chapter 12 they discuss incentive pay, piecework rates with are for individual performance which is often used in factories (paid per product made over the worker average) which is nice because it rewards for going above and beyond.

Reflection March 2

We met in the library to discuss research methods and go over the available software we have. I actually found a lot of material for my research paper, I was pretty surprised. That word doesn't look right, anyway; Christine or whatever her name was helped a lot although I think she thought we were a bunch of rejects with the way she talked to us about the difference between scholarly journals and popular journals. She probably could have gotten away with cutting that whole part of the speech to "if it doesn't have references don't use it". I hate writing research papers, but at least I have interest and direct connection to the topic. :)