HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT IN REVITALIZING THE ORGANIZATION

Transcription

1 HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT IN REVITALIZING THE ORGANIZATION MIHAI VALENTIN CIOLACU University of Bucharest, Faculty of Psychology and Organizational Sciences, Department of Psychology Abstract To understand which factors lead the organization to a low level of vitality, we present the main dysfunctional leadership styles and their effects on employee s productivity. The article presents the values of a successful leader and how organizations form their future leaders in order to ensure continuity and growth. Due to more frequent changes due to technological developments many companies are forced to form reliable leaders with increasingly reduced resources and in a short period of time. A company cannot survive for a long time if its leaders do not take into account the company s level of vitality. This article addresses the issue of reviving an organization bringing answers to the following questions: when and how to begin implementing a process of revitalization to our organization? Which are the aspects we should pay special attention to when referring to a company s revitalization? How important is innovation in the context of the globally growing competition? Is the organization s management ready for change? The revitalization process is a process of organizational change implemented and accepted by the organization. The implementation of this process brings value, vitality, and enthusiasm to the organization. Keywords: organization, leadership, revitalizing, human resources 1. THEORETHICAL FRAMEWORK To start the company revitalization we need answers to these two questions. Why is the implementation of the revitalization process necessary at this moment? * [email protected] 12

2 How can we revitalize the company we run? The answers you get trying to answer these questions will simplify the way to achieve the desired results. Organizational change is no longer enough to be able to keep the place you earned and to evolve. Organizational change is a complex process. We can define the process of revitalization as the amount of changes proposed and successfully implemented that give extra value, energy and innovation (Strabel 1996). The employees' psychological capital is now more valuable than ever. The energy and enthusiasm with which employees achieve their goals make the difference. The emotion that the company sends to the public is more valuable than the product offered. No coincidence that successful companies make serious investments in details. Small details make the difference. Strategic Human Resource Management recognizes innovation as a basic factor for companies experiencing change (Madhavan and Grover, 1998). Through human resource practices (HR practices) the companies can shape the employee s attitudes, skills, behavior, thus determining them to achieve their objective (Collins and Clark, 2003). Competition is increasingly fierce due to globalization and technological development. Competition is global and a company cannot last too much on a global market unless it provides high quality services. Adherence to high standards of service quality has become a crucial requirement for companies that want to survive (Abdi, Shavarini, Hosein 2006) Currently, the global competition shows us how important innovation, flexibility, responsiveness and cooperation is for long-term success. The vitality offered by innovative components and changes implemented successfully protects the organizations in a changing environment. Organizations that want to continue their work and evolve depend on employees with specialized knowledge, technological skills, that are creative, enthusiastic, nonconformist. (Hayton, 2004; Laursen, 2002; Soutaris, 2002, Stewart, 1996; Twomey & Harris, 2000). Companies that bring on the market a high level of innovation will do better in times of crisis. A relaxed attitude among employees it s recommended. They have the role to implement innovative solutions that will get the company out of the crisis (Montes et al 2004). Although a company has access to specialized information about implementing a new strategy, about some beneficial changes, the difficulties arise exactly in the moment of implementation. Changes will occur gradually without greatly affecting production or company image (Ruggles, 1998; Scarbrough, 2003). Many companies pay special attention to the environment being involved and supporting recycling campaigns and responsible consumption of resources. A famous case is represented by Xerox. This company has a program to reward and appreciate the employees that come up with solutions for responsible resources consumption (Fernandez, Junquera, Ordizia 2003). Thus the company wins 13

3 consumers appreciation even if it needs to invest in environmental projects that seem to bring no profit to the company. Collective leadership of a team involves power sharing between team members. They are trained in a process of mutual support in achieving goals. Decisions are taken by the group and a leader is not essential. The responsibilities and rights are shared within the group (Avolio, Sivasubramaniam, Murry, Jung, & Garger, 2003, Pearce & Conger, 2003) Neurotic leadership. A leader's personality significantly influences the people that he leads, the organizational culture and its strategy. As the leader's personality is stronger the more its behavior will be reflected in the company s culture, structure and strategy. The leader's personality can be of a vital influence to the organization but the opposite is also true. Within an organization that is going to fail, which is dominated by deception, the leader will also become depressed. If the company faces a number of tough threats from the competition the leader may become slightly paranoid (House, Howell 1992). Suspicious leaders always expect to be tricked by the employees, they have the impression that there are information leaks inside the company. They are capable to invent evidence to confirm their most pessimistic scenarios. Employees constant fear that they will be victimized by such a leader. Relationships between the leaders and the employees are tense. A suspicious leader justifies their hostility saying that the employees are lazy, incompetent or intentionally want to offend him (Kramer 1998). Dramatic leaders have a constant need to attract attention to themselves, to stand out. These leaders want to stand out and manifest their grandeur by what they do. In organizations led by such leaders only those employees who tend to idealize their dramatic leader, who are able to ignore their flaws and accentuate their qualities are able to keep their jobs. These employees are highly dependent on their leaders. These employees are easily controlled and manipulated (Penney, Spector 2002). Depressed leaders feel powerless because of events that have left an unpleasant imprint. They are unsatisfied with this feeling of helplessness. Depressed leaders have a low level of energy and their enthusiasm is down. The organization drifts without direction. Employees are not motivated, they do not finish papers on time or only provide the necessary to the organization, not trying to give their best. Change proposals are met with resistance because senior management do not feel able to implement the measures necessary to revitalize the organization (Elfenbein 2007). Compulsive leaders want to have absolute control and think no one can manage to achieve goals better than them. Compulsive leaders dominate the 14

4 organization on every level of the hierarchy. They are obsessed with perfection, cadence and thorough organization. These leaders are perfectionists and fail to see things as a whole. They like routine and find it difficult to deviate from the planned activities. Within an organization managed by a compulsive leader employee s freedom is very limited and their initiative, involvement, personal responsibility and enthusiasm are very low (De Cremer 2006) Values of a successful leader Schmidt and Posner (1982) in their study called "Managerial values and expectations" revealed the time s successful managers values. The authors concluded that successful managers appreciate the integrity and skills of employees. A percentage of 61% of participants stated that they want a return to core values, among which cooperation and improving human relationships are very appreciated. A percentage of 80% of respondents say they are more aware of their own values now than five years ago. These values, they say, determine the degree they achieve their objectives. We cannot have an organization with a high level of vitality, productive, full of innovation, adapted to the times and the competition if we are not careful to the values that company leaders and employees follow (Schmidt, Posner 1982). In order to have high quality leaders organizations develop training programs. Following the high quality standards of these organizations they are careful to cultivate the qualities and values desired in the future leaders. The number of processes and skills that future leaders must acquire is high. It is a complex task but it is the only way that a company can ensure that it will have the leaders that it needs (Van Welsh & Drath, 2004). Traditionally, organizations have relied on their future leadership development programs but with the new technology and increasing global competition they seen that they can no longer cope. The challenge that the organizations are facing at the present time is to continuously form successful leaders in a shorter time and at lower cost. This way they can manage to keep up with the pace of development and able to compete (Ilgen, Pulakos 1999). Leadership training programs are coordinated by an experienced leader who represents a pattern of conduct. Those in training are encouraged to take responsibility for their own development. It is a process of self-development inside the company and under the close supervision of a leader with outstanding results in the field (McCauley, 2001). To begin a process of organizational change aimed at increasing vitality, productivity and growth, the management of an organization is forced to make an elaborate analysis of the actual state of the company. It is aimed to analyze the positive aspects that gave good results and take the company forward. What works 15

5 will be preserved. It will also analyze some other aspects that keep the company at a dead point or lead it to an inevitable failure. These aspects will be replaced with functional ones (Peters, Baum 2007). Organizational revitalization requires a high degree of awareness of the situation of the company. If the management of the company does not manifest an attitude of openness towards change, organization revitalization is less likely to be successfully implemented. Received at: , Accepted for publication on: REFERENCES Abdi, F., Shavarini, S., Hoseini, S. (2006). Glean lean: how to use lean approach in services industries? Journal of Services Research, Avolio, B. J., Sivasubramaniam, N., Murry, W. D., Jung, D., & Garger, J. W. (2003). Assessing shared leadership: Development and preliminary validation of a team multifactor leadership questionnaire. In C. L. Pearce, & J. A. Conger (Eds.), Shared leadership: Reframing the how's and why's of leadership (pp ).Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Collins, CJ., Clark, KD. (2003) Strategic human resource practices, top management team social networks, and firm performance: the role of human resource in creating organizational competitive advantage. Acad Manage J De Cremer, D. (2006). Affective and motivational consequences of leader self-sacrifice: The moderating effect of autocratic leadership. The Leadership Quarterly, 17, Elfenbein, H. A. (2007). Emotion in organizations: A reviewed theoretical integration. Academy of Management Annals, 1, Fernandez, E., Junquera, B., Ordiz M. (2003) Organizational culture and human resources in the environmental issue: a review of the literature. International Journal of Human Resource Management;14(4):634e56. Hayton, J. C. (2004). Strategic human capital management in SMEs: An empirical study of entrepreneurial performance. Human Resource Management Journal, 42(4), House, R. J., & Howell, J. M. (1992). Personality and charismatic leadership. The Leadership Quarterly, 3, Ilgen, D. R., & Pulakos, E. D. (1999). Introduction: Employee performance in today's organizations. In D. R. Ilgen, & E. D. Pulakos, The changing nature of performance: Implications for staffing, motivation, and development (pp. 1 20). San Francisco: Jossey- Bass Kramer, R. (1998). Paranoid cognition in social systems: Thinking and acting in the shadow of doubt. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 2, Laursen, K. (2002). The importance of sectoral differences in the application of complementary HRM practices for innovation performance. International Journal of the Economics of Business, 9(1), Madhavan, R., Grover, R. (1988). From embedded knowledge to embodied knowledge:new product development as knowledge management. J Mark 16

6 McCauley, C. D. (2001). Leader training and development. In S. J. Zaccaro, & R. J. Klimoski (Eds.), The nature of organizational leadership (pp ). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Montes, FJL., Moreno, AR., Fernandez LMM. (2004) Assessing the organizational climate and contractual relationship for perceptions of support for innovation. Int J Manpow 25(2): Penney, L., & Spector, P. (2002). Narcissism and counterproductive work behavior: Do bigger egos mean bigger problems? International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 10, Peters, L., & Baum, J. (2007). The importance of local context in leadership development and evaluation. In K. M. Hannum, J. W. Martineau, & C. Reinelt (Eds.), Thehandbook of leadership development evaluation (pp ). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Ruggles, R. (1988) The state of the notion: knowledge management in practice. Calif Manage Rev 40(3):80 9. Scarbrough H. (2003) Knowledge management, HRM and the innovation process. Int J Manpow 24(5): Schmidt, W., Posner B. (1982). Managerial values and expectations: The silent power in personal and organizational life. New York: AMA Membership Publications Division,American Management Associations Soutaris, V. (2002). Firm-specific competencies determining technological innovation: A survey in Greece. R & D Management, 32(1), Stewart, T. A. (1996). Taking on the last Bureaucracy. Fortune, 15, Strebel, P. (1996). Why do employees resist change? Harvard Business Review, 74(3), Twomey, D. F., & Harris, D. L. (2000). From strategy to corporate outcomes: Aligning human resource management systems with entrepreneurial intent. International Journal of Competitiveness, Van Velsor, E., & Drath, W. H. (2004). A lifelong developmental perspective on leader development. In C. D. McCauley, & E. Van Velsor,The Center for Creative Leadership handbook of leadership development (pp )., 2nd Ed. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass 17