File name: Jeffrey Sonnenfeld


I need introduction, conclusion and references. PLEASE MAKE SURE THESE PAPERS ARE SEPARATE THANKS


Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and Maury Peeper have proposed a typology of career systems in which organizations are classified as one of four distinct strategic staffing types: fortress, baseball team, club, or academy (see pages 139-143 of the Greer text). Analyze your current or former employer according to this typology system by answering the following questions:


Club: When the strategy is to be the low-cost producer, the focus is on cost control. With cost control as the guiding principle, predictability and a short term focus are valued. Companies in this category compete by increasing their efficiency in controlling costs, maintaining quality, and providing customer service, Types of companies in the club category include airlines, banks, utilities and governmental agencies. Club personnel policies emphasize development and training, as employees are hired in only at entry level, talent is developed within the organization, and higher level vacancies are filled by promotions from within.


Baseball Team: Companies in this category pursue an innovation strategy. As such, they design and produce new products and routinely redeploy resources from discontinued products to the development of new ones. Hewlett-Packard is an example of a successful company in this category. In Sonnenfeld and Peeper’s framework, investment banks, broadcasting companies, software developers, entertainment companies, and biological research companies fir this category.  Companies in this category also can be professional firms such as law firms, advertising agencies, consulting firms, and accounting firms. The baseball team brings in talent at any level within the organization and does not place much emphasis on development. Instead, there is a “buy” approach to talent.


Academy: Academies are somewhat of a hybrid in that they are both product innovators and competitors in long run production roles. They attempt to explicit niches in the marketplace. Types of companies in this category include manufacturers of electronics, pharmaceuticals, consumer products, and automobiles. Texas Instruments is an example of a successful academy.


Fortress: Companies in this category are in highly competitive markets and are at the mercy of their environments. Examples of the type of companies in this category include those in hotels, retailing, publishing, textiles, and natural resources. Because companies in this category are essentially reactive, there are few systematic strategic implications.


1.     Which strategy type does the employer most closely match? Why? (Your analysis should include a discussion of the employer’s overall HR strategy focus, and its policy implications for employee entry, development, and exit.)


2.     In a memo format, advise the leadership of your current or former employer on which policies, if any, would you change? Why?


I NEED 2 PAGES


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I need introduction, conclusion   I need 3 pages


Integrating strategy and human resource management


The experiences of several organizations provide good examples of the integration of strategy and human resource management. One such example is provided by the experiences of People’s Bank, a financial services company headquartered in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Massive changes began to take place in the business environment of banking with deregulation and relaxation of ceilings on interest. Money markets began to drain off funds that ordinarily went into banks deposits, forcing them to rely on more expensive sources of funds. Further, the money center banks began to compete in the same middle markets as regional banks. People’s, which was a small regional bank, responded by changing its strategy from a product orientation to one directed toward markets. With a product orientation, products are developed and then markets are sought out in which to sell the product. Conversely, a market orientation involves an opposite approach in that market demands are determined and then products developed to serve the market. As a result of these changes.  People’s transformed itself into a diversified financial services company with 139 branches and a fully integrated banking services and stock trading presence o the internet.


Because of major changes in People’s strategy, there was recognition that new organizational structures would be needed to accommodate the changes. The organization was decentralized, hierarchical levels removed, strategic business units formed, and new senior vice presidencies created within a matrix structure. The bank then conducted a study of the types of employees that would be needed with the new strategy’s skill and organizational requirements. Major changes were undertaken as a result of the audit. For example, the performance appraisal system was revised. The revised system emphasized goal setting, linked individual goal accomplishment and rewards with the attainment of the bank’s objectives, and placed greater emphasis in performance appraisal on marketing and sales. Further, human resource planning was more fully integrated with the strategic planning process through synchronization of its scanning processes with the bank’s overall environmental scanning process.


The experiences of the US Navy provide another example of the integration of strategy and human resource management. As a result of its linkage of strategic planning with human resource management, the Navy was able to pursue a practice strategy that provided lower labor costs. In the Navy’s case, its human resource planners analyzed the labor cost savings of a strategy involving its civilian employees that would substitute local wage policies for national wage reactions to these changes, planners could determine whether sufficient labor supplies would be available with the cost saving strategy. In this example, the planners also examined the impact of the reduction of private sector middle management positions and found that higher quality employees could be hired.


Ingersoll-Rand’s experiences with one of its divisions also provide a good example of the outcome of a strong linkage between strategy and human resource management. Ingersoll-Rand’s rock-drilling division was experiencing rapid growth and had shortages of labor. It also needed to train its employees to work with new technology and wanted to control labor costs. The outcome of integrating its human resource capabilities with its strategic planning process was that the company implemented a number of programs, including gain sharing and employee involvement teams. It also had employees participate in decisions on the purchase of new technology and made a major commitment to technological training.


A final example of the integration of strategy and human resources is provided by Maid Bess, a manufacturer of uniforms. The company faced intense competition from foreign manufacturers, and control of labor costs became very critical. Because of its labor intensity, the company closely integrated human resource management with the strategic planning process. As an outcome of the integrated strategy planning process, the company’s executive vice president designed a compensation program that incorporated bonuses that enhanced productivity, increased employee wages, and reduced turnover.


Based on these descriptions of the experiences of People’s bank. Ingersoll-Rand and Maid Bess, what is the unifying theme of the role played by human resource management?


How does the strategic role of human resource management in the US Navy case differ from the others?


What were the environmental influences stimulating the actions described for each of these organizations?


What managerial trends are indicated in the experiences of these organizations?


The Ingersoll-Rand case indicates that its solutions to the problems it faced were based largely on employee empowerment approaches. Explain how employee empowerment can provide a viable source of competitive and advantage to be considered in strategic decision making.



Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com


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