This paper aims to critique Pfeffer and Veiga’s article “Putting people first for organisational success”, published in the Academy of Management Executive, Vol. 13. No. 2 in 1999. The premise of this article is that organisations’ success is fundamentally based on the quality of people and the ability of the organisations to invest in their management. While this concept might seem axiomatic, reality begs to differ. Companies, either due to lack of conviction or as a part of ineffectual attempts to increase the bottom line, often ignore the piling empirical evidence that point to a strong correlation between financial success and its commitment to people focussed management practices. In other words, actually believing in the phrase “ people are our most important asset” (Pfeffer & Veiga 1999, p.37).
With organisations moving towards a ‘lean and mean structure’ , the authors believe that unthinking outsourcing and downsizing are only short term remedies to increase profit (Pfeffer & Veiga 1999, p.37) . The article centres around seven practices of successful organisations that emerge based on research across industries and nations.
Provide employment security.
Selective hiring
Self-managed teams and decentralisation as basic elements of organisational design
Comparatively high compensation contingent on organisational performance
Extensive training
Reduction of status differences
Sharing information
The above practices outlined by the authors challenge the most commonly held beliefs about management. They further go on to debunk the ideas that to employ these practices, it is necessary to work in the right sector while maintaining the size of the organisation and that it is essential to have a global presenc...
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...don't keep secrets. 42 (2), pp. 55--57.
Pfeffer, J. 1998. The human equation. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
Pfeffer, J. and Veiga, J. F. 1999. Putting people first for organizational success. The Academy of Management Executive, 13 (2), pp. 37--48.
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White, B. and Moraschinelli, E. 2009. The Pursuit of Sustainable Competitive Advantage: A Profile of the Starbucks Corporation.
Xerri, Brunetto and Shacklock. 2009. [online] Available at: http://www98.griffith.edu.au/dspace/bitstream/handle/10072/31861/60353_1.pdf;jsessionid=50A07A53A53BFEE962A2809F44EFC3FE?sequence=1 [Accessed: 9 Apr 2014].
"First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently” was written by Marcus Buckingham and Court Coffman. It’s based on in-depth interviews by the Gallup organization of over 80,000 managers in over 400 companies to help managers as well as talented employees who have the potential and plan on eventually becoming great managers. The book is mainly branched into "four keys" that are vital to proclaim the potential and perplexity of human resource development in organizations of all sizes. These keys consider the capacity of a manager to select the optimum personnel based on talents, results, strengths, and fit. It’s an excellent book that turns the conventional wisdom about managing people upside down and provides great insight on how to assess the performance of an organization in general.
Noe, Raymond A., et al. Human Resource Management: Gaining a Competitive Advantage. 7th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2010. Print.
Lengnick-Hall M.L.; Lengnick-Hall, C.A.; Andrade, L.S.; Drake, B. 2009. “Strategic human resource management: The evolution of the field.” Human Resource Management Review, 19, pp. 64-85.
A Review and Assessment of Its Critiques, Journal of Management, SAGE. Viewed on5th April 2011, at http://jom.sagepub.com/content/36/1/349.full.pdf+html
In addition to Worthy’s argument (1950), Burns and Stalker (1994) underlying a new organizational structure and management methodology which can be considered as groundbreaking and different than the common practices at organization which emphasized on routinization, specialization and conformity. These researchers believed and suggested th...
Nkomo, S.M., 2007. Human resource planning and organization performance: An exploratory analysis. Strategic Management Journal, 8(4), p.387–392. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2486021.
Internal resource is the first consideration that can lead to sustainable competitive advantage and Resource –Based View (RBV) is a theory that usefully helps a firm focus on internal resources (Kraaijenbrink, Spender & Aard, 2010). According to RBV (Valuable, Rare, hard to imitate and non-substitutable), companies have different tangible and intangible resources, these resources can be transformed into unique ability, this special ability cannot flow between firms and rival firms and difficult to reproduce. These unique resources and abilities are the source of enterprise sustainable competitive advantage. In this part, Starbucks and Apple are worth to be analyzed by RBV.
(WK 6, L2) The answers to these questions help leaders determine the written policies and procedures, rewards and penalties, technology, and physical layout of the organization (WK 6, L2). In regard to the first two elements, leaders must remember that structure trumps strategy (WK 6, L2). Finally, in assessing the people of the organization, leaders must ask themselves (1) who are our people, and (2) how do we train them? (WK 6, L2) The answers to these questions help leaders determine the organization 's culture, influence structures, training and socialization, and society (WK 6, L2). In regard to the last two elements, leaders must remember that people trump structure (WK 6,
The company culture is vital to any organization and should include putting both customers and employees first, as suggested in the concept of “people-centered” organizations. These organizations often have a set of values and practices they follow. Although I have worked for companies that list similar values and practices, the fault lies in little to no action, training, or reinf...
Fisher, C., Schoefeldt, L., & Shaw, J. (1996). Human resource management. (3rd Edition). Princeton, NJ: Houghton Mifflin Company.
It is no secret that at a core of every successful organisation lies the management of people. When the employees are successfully managed, they work more effectively and efficiently to deliver desired output.
Schuler, R. S. and S. E. Jackson (2008). Strategic human resource management, John Wiley & Sons.
Keller & Price (2011) pointed out that an organisation that have to develop and maintain competitive advantage has to devise mechanisms of involving every employee into the decision making process. A study conducted by Freeman (1999) in an investigation of the importance of including employees in a decision making process documented that, organisations that include employees in decisions of the running of the organisation have higher chances of developing organisational culture that pushes the organisation to higher levels. In this regard, the facets of the success of any organisations are denoted by the strategic decisions made through initiatives such as group decision-making and other strategic positioning plans. Nevertheless, specific aspects of decisions should be avoided in order to make departments effective. Stone (2013) articulated on core aspects that touches on sensitive matters and which should be avoided for effective running of organisations. In fact, Freeman (1999)
The field of Strategic human resource management (SHRM) has become a “happy hunting ground for academics” and Colbert (2004) validates it by stating that SHRM is an accumulated “plethora of statement, theories, concepts and arguments”. It is evident from these statements that there are various theories and approaches to SHRM. According to Boxall & Purcell (2000), Strategic human resource management refers to the alignment of human resource practices to strategic goals of an organization. Amongst many approaches to SHRM such as best practice, best fit or contingent approach and bundling approach, resource based view (RBV) has been instrumental to development of SHRM (Dunford, et al., 2001). This essay will infer different approaches to SHRM
Torrington, D. Hall, L. & Taylor, S. (2005) Human Resource Management. Harlow: Financial Times Prentice Hall