Social Ecological Framework and Policy Implications

Question: Discuss about the Social Ecological Framework and Policy Implications. Answer: Introduction: Unlike earlier times, when the role of a Human Resource Manager was merely confined to the duty of recruiting and terminating the service of the employees, in a global, and highly competitive world the HR role has largely evolved. Human resources of an organization, that is the employees, are as important as the financial resources, and hence an effective way of handling them would be the only way to ensure higher profitability for an organization. An organization that intends to be assured of its long-term sustainability must ensure that each of the employees is well motivated to work with higher efficiency rates. Each of them should be able to work in an organized way with the management, so that each of them works in a positive, friendly workplace (Sparrow et al. 2013). Hence, the dynamic role of a HR manager encourages him to offer effective training to the employees, organize performance appraisal programs to motivate the staffs and ensure a healthy workplace culture at workplac e as well. As far as AirFly is concerned, it has been observed that the company has been losing on its profit, and when the matter was being thoroughly investigated, it was being observed that the problem lies in the lack of quality management which has resulted from the absence of efficient management of the employees at workplace. Considering the fact that the inevitable loss of share and profit owing to its inefficient HR management is posing a major threat to the growth of the organization, the following essay intends to critically analyze the workforce culture and employee management policies of the company, and accordingly offer recommendations. International Performance Management: Presently, performance management has emerged to be a strategic and well-integrated management system that intends to align the organizational goals and objectives with the personal interests and benefits of the employees. AirFly is an Australian organization that also operates in other foreign locations, such as China, Singapore and Vietnam. However, it is being observed that there is a striking lack of integration in the management process of all the four branches of the company (Mone and London 2014). Due to the lack of effective communication regarding the strategies as well as the absence of proper recognition, the employees are working without having any sense of direction, or goals that needs to be accomplished. The organizational theories claim that the employees will never work hard, if they are not being provided with a sense of direction, and their performance is not being reviewed in an accurate way. It has been observed that the managers working in different parts of the world are failing to keep in touch with the organizational objectives and goals, and the lack of an organized approach towards communicating the goals is a source of great problem. The company needs to chalk out the immediate strategies that can restore the company to its previous form, and the managerial plans and strategies should be chalked out only through mutual consent from the managers of the other branches of the company as well. The goals and strategies need to be communicated accordingly to each employee. An organization should align the organizational goals with the personal benefits of the employees, so that they can be encouraged to work harder (Armstrong and Taylor 2014). While speaking of performance management system, it is important to ensure that the employees are being informed that their performance will be evaluated, as only then will they work with greater devotion. In case of international performance management, it becomes doubly important to monitor the performance of the employees and supervise the management activities of the organization. This is where AirFly lacks, as there is an absence of a systematically organized approach to employee management. Edwin Locke had introduced the Goal Setting Theory whereby he claimed that when an organization communicates its goals and objectives to the employees on a regular basis, the employees usually get motivated to work harder, and these results in better employee performance (Sanders and Yang 2014). The employees should be provided with a sense of direction, or else they might be lost, ultimately leading to loss of employee motivation, high rate of employee turnover and loss of profitability of the specific company. Again, the Justice theory of Performance Management claims that an employee decides to perform well only when he understands that his performance is being monitored and recognized by the company. In case of AirFly, it has been observed that no recognition policy is being maintained, and consequently the employees are not only losing sight of goals, but they are unable to offer quality work that ultimately is affecting the quality of the aircraft products produced by the company (Buckingham and Goodall 2015). Culture Diversity Management: AirFly has a simple rule that states that the employees should work in harmony with each other, irrespective of any form of difference. However, until and unless a strict policy is being implemented, the mere statement announcing the importance of diversity management will not help the company. In AirFly, it has been observed that the management authority of each country has a distinct approach in taking decisions or handling employees, and this accounts for the profitability of the company falling apart. Besides, there is little or no sense of unity among the employees, as the senior employees are intolerant towards the junior staffs, while the recruitment policy of China does not even acknowledge the importance of hiring disabled people even if they possess the required expertise and skills (Klarsfeld et al. 2014). Undoubtedly, the notion of managing an array of cultural diversity in a professional environment can prove to be challenging for the company, however the implementation of effectual policies in important as it would benefit the company through a wide array of expertise available. This will help in improving the quality of work done, by helping the management take better decisions. According to academic literature, the greatest benefit of a homogenous work culture is that it helps in gaining access to a different degree and nature f knowledge, skills and expertise that ultimately assists the company to grow. Besides, any form of cultural diversity is viewed as a competitive advantage that implies that the diverse workforce could contribute to prospective competitive advantage to the organization (Harvey and Allard 2015). The expatriate employees, who are being sent to work in the other countries, fail to get their ideas across owing to the cultural barriers that exist along the way. Consequently, the China branch of AirFly will behave in a highly distinguished way than that of Australia, given the remarkable cultural differences that exist between t he two nations. According to Geert Hofstede, the corporate culture of a nation is largely determined by the regional culture, and hence the managerial decision or attitude of the employees at work would largely vary according to the countries. Considering the fact that AirFly has its subsidiary branches in three countries belonging to the East, proper training should be given to the employees of each branch of the organization. This will ensure that a uniform organizational culture is being maintained everywhere and yet diversity is ensured in terms of hiring or promotional policies of the company (Bond and Haynes 2014). According to the Social Identity theory, organizations where employees possess a strong sense of belonging, will be able to work with greater motivation. This is because they will have a tendency to communicate with each other more often, share views or ideas about the business decisions being taken, and will participate more actively in the business activities of a n organization (Bond and Haynes 2014). However, in case of AirFly, there is a striking absence of a unified culture, and hence the employees do not bond well with each other, and as is no organized way of handling the business actions in the respective countries, the workplace culture is neither positive nor employee-friendly. Training and Development: As far as the training of the employees of the organization is concerned, it has been observed that the employees require training on two fields- first of all, cross-cultural training while dealing with the managers and the employees of different country or culture, and career advancement training. While the diversity management training programs help in the smooth functioning of an organization, the latter helps in motivating the employees to work with greater dedication. According to the Strategic Training Model, any training intervention should be carefully planned and implemented keeping in view the organizational goals of the organization. Presently, the organization is losing its shares, and it is evident that its profit margin is quite low, and hence professional development courses assisting the employees enhance their manufacturing skills with the intervention of advanced forms of technology, can largely increase the efficiency rate, apart from motivating the employees to wo rk harder (Ford 2014). The primary concept of this training model is that the employees should be trained so as to solely or primarily benefit the employees, and thus the training should be aligned with the business needs of the company. In case of AirFly, apart from developing the skills and competency of the employees, it is equally important to help the employees gain cultural awareness so that they can have a comprehensive understanding of and mutual respect towards the employees with a varying culture, religion or ethnicity (Noe 2014). The diversity training can successfully impart knowledge to the employees regarding how to educate the employees on accepting differences, and ultimately resolve differences, keeping in view the organizational goals that can be achieved only through mutual participation (Bell et al. 2017). Recommendation: From the above discussion, it is clearly evident that though the AirFly organization has been encountering a loss of shares and fall in profitability owing to the poor quality if the products, the underlying reason to be held accountable for this factor are lack of coordinated approach among the employees of the organization and inefficient management of human resources. First of all, as far as the administration system of the organization is concerned, it is highly fallacious. The management authority of AirFly should follow a uniform culture, and allow less flexibility of decisions to the subsidiary branches of the company located in other parts of the globe. While managing the workforce across the borders, the AirFly should periodically organize meetings stating, discussing and communicating the measurable goals to be achieved by the end of a given period of time. In case it is not possible to physically meet the managerial representatives of the organization in the respective cou ntries, it is advisable that the management authority of Australia communicates the goals and the objectives via web-conferences. It should be ensured that even if the mangers of each country do not communicate with the employees of the other countries, it must be ensured that the respective managers communicate the goals and immediate strategies of the organization to the employees. Besides, the workforce of AirFly presently cannot be termed to be positive or friendly, and hence it is highly important to motivate the employees. Hence, the managers of each branch should communicate the employee benefits such as additional bonuses, or incentives, or compensatory leaves that the employees can avail (Warner 2013). Besides, no employee will work enough hard until they feel that their performance and contribution is being monitored, and hence employee performance monitoring systems should be implemented in the organization. The managers under which the employees work must be asked to kee nly observe, review and rate their performance while the employees are working to accomplish a specific goal. The managerial heads or the departmental heads of each branch would be asked to make a report after following up with the efficiency rate of the employees and this way of monitoring employee performance would be made known to the management as well as the employees. The managers must regularly communicate the goals and the objectives as well as well as the employee benefits to the employees, so that the employees can be daily motivated to work harder. Next, the organization should arrange diversity training programs for helping the employees become more tolerant towards each other, and develop linguistic as well as cultural awareness of the other communities and people of other cultures. The organization is recommended to introduce a strong, rigid anti-discriminatory policy whereby any employee showing discriminatory attitude towards any employee or subordinate would be pena lized (Kumar 2014). Besides, the organization must revise its hiring and promotional policy especially in China, and the HR managers as well as the other managers must be encouraged to hire and promote employees keeping in mind the inclusive policy of the organization. In order to encourage the employees to embrace the diverse workplace culture, the organization must arrange different interactive, fun, interesting activities meant for the employees that can promote their harmony and a sense of unity. It may happen that an Australian employee has joined AirFly China, and in such a situation, he must be offered high quality cultural training so that he does not have problem in freely interacting and sharing his opinions with the employees of China. Besides, picnics, family get together or interactive games should be arranged twice each month for the employees of all the four countries. It is equally important to offer training opportunities to the employees so that they can gain acces s to various learning opportunities, and at the end of each training course, the employees should be provided with a certificate, acknowledging their participating and knowledge acquisition in the process (Coganova et al. 2015). Conclusion: Above all, a systematically organized approach towards workforce planning and management of employees can help the company revive its economic condition. Each employee needs to be trained not only in the vocational courses that can help the company accomplish its goals given the hard time, but should also enhance their soft skills and cooperation skills. Besides, a cross-cultural training should be introduced and a strict diversity policy needs to be introduced as well. With the implementation of the aforementioned steps, it can be expected that AirFly will be able to reach its pinnacle soon. Reference List: Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S., 2014.Armstrong's handbook of human resource management practice. Kogan Page Publishers. Bell, B.S., Tannenbaum, S.I., Ford, J.K., Noe, R.A. and Kraiger, K., 2017. 100 years of training and development research: What we know and where we should go. Bond, M.A. and Haynes, M.C., 2014. Workplace diversity: A socialecological framework and policy implications.Social Issues and Policy Review,8(1), pp.167-201. Buckingham, M. and Goodall, A., 2015. Reinventing performance management.Harvard Business Review,93(4), pp.40-50. Caganova, D., Cambal, M. and Weidlichova Luptakova, S., 2015. Intercultural managementtrend of contemporary globalized world.Elektronika ir Elektrotechnika,102(6), pp.51-54. Ford, J.K., 2014.Improving training effectiveness in work organizations. Psychology Press. Harvey, C.P. and Allard, M., 2015.Understanding and managing diversity. Pearson. Klarsfeld, A., Booysen, L.A., Ng, E., Roper, I. and Tatli, A. eds., 2014.9.78 E+ 12: Country Perspectives on Diversity and Equal Treatment. Edward Elgar Publishing. Kumar, N.P., 2014. Human resource management in future an obstacle of champion of globalization.Human Resource Management,1(1), pp.49-57. Mone, E.M. and London, M., 2014.Employee engagement through effective performance management: A practical guide for managers. Routledge. Noe, R.A., Wilk, S.L., Mullen, E.J. and Wanek, J.E., 2014. Employee Development: Issues in Construct Definition and Investigation ofAntecedents.Improving Training Effectiveness in WorkOrganizations, ed. JK Ford, SWJ Kozlowski, K. Kraiger, E. Salas, and MS Teachout (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1997), pp.153-189. Sanders, K. and Yang, H., 2014. How to make sense of human resource management: Employees attribution to explain the HRM-performance relationship.Human Resource Management. Shields, J., Brown, M., Kaine, S., Dolle-Samuel, C., North-Samardzic, A., McLean, P., Johns, R., Robinson, J., O'Leary, P. and Plimmer, G., 2015.Managing Employee Performance Reward: Concepts, Practices, Strategies. Cambridge University Press. Sparrow, P., Farndale, E. and Scullion, H., 2013. An empirical study of the role of the corporate HR function in global talent management in professional and financial service firms in the global financial crisis.The International Journal of Human Resource Management,24(9), pp.1777-1798. Warner, M., 2013.Human Resource Management with Chinese Characteristics: Facing the Challanges of Globalization. Routledge.