COIT20251 Assessment Sample
November 11, 2023Understanding the Business Environment Sample
November 17, 2023Organization Profile
The University of Queensland is one of the highest educational provider institutions, leading in research and teaching in Australia. This higher education provider is involved in providing excellence with the help of the creation, transfer, preservation, and application of knowledge. It’s been more than a hundred years since this higher education provider was established and has educated many outstanding students and has worked with various individuals to deliver the knowledge and the leadership skills for a better future (Arora, 2016).
Significant support is offered by the University of Queensland for supporting the research of the higher education of students. This is carried out by providing a wide range of scholarships and travel research awards through the strategic management system. Human resource management is involved in providing dedicated office spaces, training skills, and opportunities to develop professionally (Baldi & Trigeorgis, 2015, January). The framework of career development was introduced by the University. This has been designed to accelerate the career development of students and to enhance their opportunities for employability. From the evidence, it has been proven that the research at the University excels in both the impact and the quality (Boselie & Brewster, 2013).
The University of Queensland has some mission, values, and Vision. These are used as guidance for their future strategies and priorities. Tools are provided by them to provide the guide for their day-to-day processes and behaviors. Also, this will be reflected in all their activities and decisions, which include:
- All the procedures and policies are to be monitored.
- Providing help to make sure of the consistent purpose and commitment from the leaders of the institution.
The university follows some values that will be implemented with its strategic plan and are supported by the set of principles and the objectives of the organization. They will guide the behavior and decisions (Çolakoğlu, Chung & Tarhan, 2015).
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Mission
The statement of mission can be defined as the purpose set by the organization and also it answers the existence of the organization what does it, for whom it does it, and how it does it. This university strives to influence society positively by engaging them in the search for excellence. It shapes the future of the students and develops them into leaders in their specific fields. This is to inspire future generations and to advance the ideas that benefit the world. The University strives hard for the success of the students and the staff professionally.
Vision
An aspirational description is provided in the statement of vision by the University of Queensland. It defines what the organization wishes to achieve or it wants to accomplish. It has been proposed so that it will serve as the perfect guide for directing the institution via present and future courses of action. The statement is designed in such a way that it has to align with the strategic directions made by the University. A vision is made so that it is active all the time and looks forward.
The key elements that are included in this (Fernando, 2016) HRM model are shown in the following figure. The other old and the new models are found to share a basic similarity: both models will position the practices of HRM in the middle of the complex set of relationships. It is between the conditions of the organization like the business strategies, their staff, and the outcomes of the organization. The current model is quite expensive. Previously the models have focused exclusively on the competitive strategies as the promoters of the decision. The current model is found to include many aspects of the firm additionally concerning the internal and external environment (Fernando, 2016).
From the evidence, it has been shown that environmental factors will shape HRM practices in different ways (Fernando, 2016). Hence the current model is highly appropriate and relatively less dependent. The current model must identify the importance of looking after the concerns of the broad collection of important stakeholders while the previous model emphasized only the bottom-line indicators. The current model identifies that effective organizations will strive to achieve success.
The external environmental factors that are present in Jackson and Schuler’s (1995) HRM model are as follows:
Global environment
Many specific components are included under the term Global environment. This is to know how these components will impact the contributions of HRM to the OE. Hence, these are understood, analyzed, and then interpreted (Gallup Consulting 2010).
Under this, the following features are included:
- Relations in industry and the activities of the union
- The conditions of the industry and the market
- Labor markets globally
- Conditions of national and regional
- All the regulations and laws
- Technologies that are evolving
Any changes in the above-mentioned components of the external environment are known to result in economic growth for numerous countries. This is because more customers will enter the middle class; more workers will enter the labor force, the speed in communications is more, and the opportunities for private entrepreneurship with the rapid development and the extent of technology are greater. Firms that have developed economies will expand their operations continually in the developing economies due to the growth opportunities. Organizations from developing countries will tend to move to developed economies to take advantage of the affluent markets (Jackson, Schuler & Jiang, 2014).
Organization environment
In the external environment, many changes in turn require significant changes in the environment of the organization of the firms all over the world. The key components that are included in the organizational environment are:
- Culture in the organization such as the values and the styles of leadership
- The strategic objectives of the firm such as the objectives of competitive business and the diversification
- The biography of the organization like the ownership of the firm and its history of joint ventures globally and
- The structure of the organization in which the structure of the HRM function and the geographical scope are included
As per the needs of the firm, these features of the organizational environment are changing so that it will become more flexible, sensitive, and adaptable to the requirements of the different customers who are located all over the world. In all the developing countries every global organization is required to serve the customers. They should be considerably more competitive in achieving the advantage in terms of innovation, cost, and quality (Jackson, Schuler & Jiang, 2014).
Figure 1: Outcomes for External Stakeholders
Source: (Jackson, Schuler & Jiang, 2014)
Jackson and Schuler’s model
The Jackson and Schuler model has been used to analyze the factors of the external operating environment at the University of Queensland which are as follows:
Global environment
As per (Kramar, 2014), strategic human resource management will emphasize the requirements of the plans of HR and the strategies that have been formulated within the background of the entire strategies of the organization and their objectives. These are made to be responsive according to the changing nature of the external environment of the organization. It is a kind of approach that will require the interpretation and adaptation of the management of the University of Queensland for making sure of the HR business strategies and plans that are most suitable and fit their business. Hence, the themes of the SHRM are the incorporation of the functions of HRM; adherence to the wider goals of the organization, and approachability to the external environment (Kramar, 2014).
The current study focuses on the HR departments of the University of Queensland. Especially in countries like Australia education has become the new business that is emerging. There is stiff competition between the universities and their main aim is to achieve the topmost position among all the world-ranking universities. The university aims to make the management of human resources quite challenging similar to that of the private sector. For HR departments and the university globalization and internationalization are creating new challenges.
According to the researchers, the HR department has to develop into the strategic partner of the organization. For instance, Lengnick-Hall, Lengnick-Hall & Rigsbee said that pressures posed for reducing the costs, expectations of the customer being high, the endless effort in meeting the challenges of the global competitive advantage, and the various opportunities that are offered by the advancement in the information technology are considered to be the factors which contribute to the development of functions of HR (Lengnick-Hall, Lengnick-Hall & Rigsbee, 2013).
An Organizational environment
Marler & Fisher in the later years have brought the conversation regarding the role of HR at the University of Queensland concerning the activities that are operational and strategic in the organization (Marler & Fisher, 2013). As per Sparrow, Scullion & Tarique. the HR department’s role in the University has been divided into three levels such as strategic, operational, and managerial. At the operational level, the routine functions of operations are included while at the managerial level the matters of management like retaining and developing the employees. While explaining the roles at various levels the strategic level in the university is more emphasized. It is because it has been claimed that the effectiveness of the role of HR is dependent on those kinds of functions at the strategic level where the business needs and the organizational needs are met on the whole. The HR role in the University of Queensland has been divided into four categories such as operationally proactive, reactive, strategically proactive, and reactive Brockbank (Sparrow, Scullion & Tarique, 2014).
The different functions of HR
The following discussion is concerning the different functions of HR in which the below typical functions of HR are included:
Planning, resourcing, and retention: According to Hansel it has been stated that the welfare of the University will depend on their ability to recruit and then retain the talented professionals. It was also found by Hansel that if the institutions are not retaining the expert faculty then they will face a difficult time in establishing quality resource programs. The members of the faculty will begin their careers with determination as per Ullah & Zheng but it fades out quickly with the increased stress and low levels of satisfaction. According to other researchers, it has been noted that in the case of females, the morale and retention are worse for faculty who are from different backgrounds (Ullah & Zheng, 2014).
The ease of improving the retention of the required faculty has increased in the institutions due to the evidence that if the faculty is retained then the quality of institutions is improved. This can be achieved by providing better resources to the faculty. Hence, if the faculty is successfully retained in higher education, then it will increase the popularity of the university (Zhu, 2014).
Recruitment and selection: The recruitment and selection process is labor intensive. For achieving long-term sustainability the firms have found it critical (Kramar, 2014). In an organization, the typical process of selection involves judging the candidates from a variety of dimensions that range right from the measures and objectives like experience and educational qualification when it comes to the subject and personal details like the output that is expected and the potential of leadership.
In this, the forms of application, evaluation of the filled form, resumes, portfolios, and writing samples are included. If inappropriate methods are used for the selection and recruiting process, then it will lead to a high cost for the institutions.
Training and Development: In this part, the importance of development and training are emphasized. Strategic human resource management has been defined by Hall (1984) as the identification and management of the learning of the employee in combination with the development of strategies for corporate and business for the future. It is repeated by (Gannon, Roper & Doherty, 2015) that to accomplish the objectives of the organization training and development have to be helped. To help the training of the human resource the developmental plan has to be established which is again aligned with the corporate strategic goals carefully.
Remuneration and rewards: The most important aspect that is involved in the effective strategy implementation as per (Çolakoğlu, Chung & Tarhan, 2015), is the orientation of the managers in the future and the reward and the remuneration system which is considered to be important by the company. Matching the rewards with the achievement of the strategic goals creates an effective system of remuneration. The mechanism that is required by the organization is the one that demonstrates the interest of the senior management in accomplishing the strategic goals and the remuneration or the reward is the mechanism (Çolakoğlu, Chung & Tarhan, 2015).
Employee relations: The practices and the management of human resources will play a vital role in building the culture of the organization by maintaining employee relations appropriately with them and colleagues. Most of the studies highlight that the significant strategic actions that are related to the HRM might enhance the trust of the employee and hence a culture of innovation and trust is built. Hence, the practices of HRM in the organization have to be designed in such a way that it facilitates trust among the employees in maintaining good employee relations with the organization.
The impact of each external environmental factor on the HR functions
The impact of each external environmental factor on the HR functions of the University of Queensland is as follows:
- Retaining the employees who are important for the organization of the University of Queensland is indicative of the success of the firm. The plan of retention should be proper so that it will help the organization to deal with it effectively with the turnover rate of the employee in an increased manner. Participation of the employee is found to improve the levels of motivation among the employees of the organization which is also a part of the empowerment process at the workplace.
- The system of recruitment and selection in the University of Queensland is known to form the basis for the various activities of HR. The selection system is rigorous, valid, and sophisticated helps to find out a valid candidate with appropriate potential.
- An important strategy of HR is training and development which has been correctly analyzed by the University of Queensland. The management has analyzed the faculty and the training needs of the staff regularly.
- In many ways, the motivation that has been given to the employees by the organization is found to influence the heads of the University. For rewarding the employees performance-based compensation has been used as they have achieved the targets set by the organization.
- The culture in the organization has been seen in a way similar to the strategy of the higher management who has communicated in the University to maintain employee relations. The communication was found to be open and frequent.
References
Arora, R., 2016. Role of Performance Improvement and Instructional Design in Strategic Human Resource Management. Journal of Strategic Human Resource Management, 5(1).
Baldi, F. and Trigeorgis, L., 2015, January. Toward a Real Options Theory of Strategic Human Resource Management. In Academy of Management Proceedings (Vol. 2015, No. 1, p. 14862). Academy of Management.
Boselie, P. and Brewster, C., 2013. At the crossroads at midnight: Strategic human resource management now. Discussion Paper Series. sl: John H. Dunning Centre for International Business.
Çolakoğlu, S., Chung, Y. and Tarhan, A.B., 2015. Strategic Human Resource Management in Facilitating Organizational Change. Organizational Change Management Strategies in Modern Business, p.172.
Fernando, S.D., 2016. Employee Personal Financial Literacy as Strategic Human Resource Management Initiative: With Special Reference to ABC Bank PLC.
Gallup Consulting 2010, The state of the global workplace: A worldwide study of employee engagement and wellbeing, viewed 20 February 2015.
Gannon, J.M., Roper, A. and Doherty, L., 2015. Strategic human resource management: Insights from the international hotel industry. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 47, pp.65-75.
Hamid, J., 2013. Strategic Human Resource Management and Performance: The Universalistic Approach-Case of Tunisia. Journal of Business Studies Quarterly, 5(2), p.184.
Jackson, S.E., Schuler, R.S. and Jiang, K., 2014. An aspirational framework for strategic human resource management. The Academy of Management Annals, 8(1), pp.1-56.
Kramar, R., 2014. Beyond strategic human resource management: is sustainable human resource management the next approach? The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 25(8), pp.1069-1089.
Lengnick-Hall, M.L., Lengnick-Hall, C.A. and Rigsbee, C.M., 2013. Strategic human resource management and supply chain orientation. Human Resource Management Review, 23(4), pp.366-377.
Marler, J.H. and Fisher, S.L., 2013. An evidence-based review of e-HRM and strategic human resource management. Human Resource Management Review, 23(1), pp.18-36.
Martín Alcázar, F., Miguel Romero Fernández, P. and Sánchez Gardey, G., 2013. Workforce diversity in strategic human resource management models: A critical review of the literature and implications for future research. Cross Cultural Management: An International Journal, 20(1), pp.39-49.
Sparrow, P., Scullion, H. and Tarique, I., 2014. Challenges for the field of strategic human resource management.
Ullah, A. and Zheng, C., 2014. The Impact of Strategic Human Resource Management Practices on Australian Dairy Farm Performance. In Work Organization and Human Resource Management (pp. 55-72). Springer International Publishing.