HRM 560 Assignment 1: Selecting a Company

Strayer University

Assignment 1: Selecting a Company

HRM 560 – Managing Organizational Change

Winter 2016

Answer:

  • Assess the current Human Resource programs, policies, procedures, or initiatives in terms of effectiveness.

IBM also known as International Business Machine has been around since the late 1800’s. The original name of the organization was the Computing- Tabulating- Recording Company (C-T-R). In 1914, Thomas J. Watson joined the organization and soon became president. Watson used his charisma to increase moral and established employee sports teams, family outings and a company band. An idea that is regularly touted within the walls of IBM today, “THINK,” became a mantra for the C-T-R employees. In 1924, The Computing- Tabulating- Recording Co. is retitled IBM, which had already been operating in Canada under that name since 1917 (http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/history/year_1924.html).

IBM has an Open Door policy called Speak Up! The organization places its values on the employee by showing respect for the individual, their rights and dignity (http://www.ibm.com/ibm/responsibility/ibm_policies.html#hrprincipleshttp://www.ibm.com/ibm/responsibility/ibm_policies.html#hrprinciples). A few other programs and policies include comprehensive employee opinion surveys, daily bulletins, mentorships, educational training (THINK 40), education reimbursement, informational media, and the intranet to name a few (http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/documents/pdf/hr.pdf). With the policies and procedures, IBM’s goal is to seek feedback from its internal customer on the nature of the business, how one feels about the leaders and the direction the organization is going and how well both the leaders and the organization is doing.

Answer:

  • Hypothesize the changes that require improvement.

While these programs engage the employees and are said to be fair, because these anonymous surveys are submitted online via an internal server, most subordinates will only go so far when providing feedback as the assumption is that they could potentially be black balled or insubordinate for voicing opinions. Each year, after these surveys are complete, the water cooler chatter is that the surveys are outdated, peers are questioning who was honest in evaluating management, and the organization is preaching work life balance but the actions of the Frontline managers do not align.

The open door policy is effective for the organization. In my opinion, it gives the HR manager or panel, as well as the organization, depending on circumstance, the opportunity to mitigate, make necessary changes, and cause for the organization to engage in passive retaliation. Many of the employees that have voiced grievances have quickly become subject to scrutiny. Either aligning these employees to managers whom micro-manage, revoking remote access, or creating unreachable goals that lead to action plans that dictate some type of discipline up to termination.

The THINK 40 policy is a requirement within the organization to get 40 hours of training based upon your individual development goals for your perspective department or developmental goals of where one aspires to be within the organization. It is as effective as the leadership. When management aspires to know the team members work life goals then they can align them with the perspective training. In cases where management at a minimum establishes an action plan to grow the employee in their perspective role then the training can still be effective. Many times the training is not effective either because the employee is just fulfilling a position, the training is not related to the role, or the employees skills are not assessed to accurately determine the level of training or program to assign.

The open door program may be a bit more difficult to improve but management should be open to address what the issues are and setup a game plan to improve. Knowing the expectations of the department and the leaders goes a long way in correcting actions. Having procedures established allows the individual the opportunity measure their performance against what is expected and areas one is doing well or needs improvement.

Each of these programs mentioned can be improved but like anything there needs to be checks and balances. These checks and balances should be based upon a team of 5 individuals comprised of equal votes. The individuals should be representative of every level of the organization. Taking into consideration there may be a possible 40/60 split in voting, a compromise should be reached that is agreed upon by those voting and the parties involved.

For example if a sales rep would like to receive training in HR and cannot get the mentor to move forward one should be appointed. While this is a requirement, the mentors do not have to actually make themselves available to you. This I have personal experience with. After reaching out to the individual to potentially meet on a break, at their convenience, or request use of THINK 40 time for the individual, in which both parties receives training hours I am yet to me with 1 of the three identified mentors assigned. A simple change would be to have required quarterly updates with the mentors/mentees in the program to check progress and make it part of the rating for bonuses.

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