Human resources Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Human resources - Essay Example This intangible factor accounts for such facets of employee motivation as charismatic leadership, collective cultural sensibilities, conditions of the broader economy, etc. Just as motivating employees has its share of challenges, it can be equally as rewarding. This is so, because a motivated workforce transforms the internal dynamics of an organization and produces a synergistic effect on its performance. The sum of a group of motivated employees is greater than its constituent parts. While motivation theory discourse tends to focus on outcomes for the organization, an employee-centric evaluation is also relevant, for employees are what comprise the labor market. Without the constant supply of human resources from the labor market, no industry could survive. (Murphy, 2009) Coming to the question of motivating employees who survive a layoff, the challenges are compounded due to the atmosphere of employee insecurity. Top management’s leadership skills will be thoroughly tested while handling this particular scenario. The threat of job loss would have shaken the workforce’s commitment to the company and its cause. Seeing their colleagues being laid-off would have disillusioned survivors about principles of team ethic and team spirit. One cannot blame lay-off survivors to grow distrustful of the management, for it is always those in lower ranks who lose their jobs first, while most of the top management remains unscathed. Given this environment of distrust and insecurity, it is not uncommon for the relations between management and workers to turn antagonistic. In the case of General Electric, the relations between top management and entry level workers turned fractious during the 2008 Wall Street collapse and its aftermath. In contrast, East Asian automotive companies such as Nissan and Toyota espouse a strong support system for employees during times of economic distress. Situations like this test the skills of managers and separate the great ones from mortals. Those managers who see opportunity in adversity will be the ones who see the ship sail through turbulent waters to calmer shores. (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975) 2. To what extent is Conaty’s advice consistent with equity and expectancy theory? Coming to the case study in question, the observations made by Bill Conaty, former HR Manager at General Electric, are very pragmatic. Conaty is someone who believes in an equitable and compassionate mode of management. In this spirit, the difficult process of layoffs can be handled by upholding basic principles of fairness. These three steps for managing the equity process are consistent with Conaty’s vision of equity and fairness: â€Å"Recognize that an equity comparison will likely be made by each subordinate whenever especially visible rewards such as pay, promotions, etc are being allocated. Anticipate felt negative inequities. Communicate to each individual your evaluation of the reward, an appraisal of the perfor mance on which it is based and the comparison points you consider to be appropriate.† (Motivation Theories, p.185) The truly great leaders will make surviving employees see opportunity in the apparent adversarial situation. This is factually true as well, for a reduced workforce makes the chances of promotion and career progress easier for the surviving members. Although it sounds