Human resource management methods for ikea

Strategic human resource management is a department which is normally designed to enable the organization to achieve the needs of their employees in an effective manner and at same time achieving the organizational goals. The human resource manager handles all the facets in the organization that affects the employees; these include employment, issues of salaries, promotions and the training of the employees. In addition to these, the human resource manager is concerned with the motivation of the employees, providing information about safety procedures and holidays for employees.

The main duty of the human resource manager is to supervise and control the employees in the organization. This position of a human resource manager requires thinking ahead and strategizing on how the organization will meet the employees’ needs. This determines how the business will be carried out, improving management issues like hiring and training programs of the employees to ensure that they are equip with the necessary skills (Snell, S. & Bohlander 2009, pp 67-68).

For the Human resource manager practices to result in high performance and successful results in an organization, they must divide it management process into five steps; these are: a) mission and goals, b) environmental analysis, c) strategic formulation d) strategic implementation d) strategic evaluation. An effective Human resource manager in the organization ensures that the mission and goals of the organization are clearly outlined so that all the organizational staff starting from the top management to the employees knows the mission of the firm and are up to meeting these goals. Human resource managers who clarify the mission statement of an organization improves the performances of the organization, for example the mission statement of IKEA Company is to create a better everyday life for as many people as possible – with lower prices of goods which make it affordable to all people regardless of their social class. This has enabled the IKEA Company to maintain their position as a market leader, furthermore it has facilitated the company to be recognized world wide and create a customers loyalty towards the company. This is clear evidence that the high performances of the human resource managers can lead to the success of the organization. The Human resource manager should further state the means of achieving the organizational objectives both short term and long term, he should design effective strategies to be implemented, select the team which is implementing those strategies with the aim of attaining organizational goals. This is a very sensitive issue because it will determine the future of the company and thus it needs careful implementation and control. Both the human resource manager and the team which is responsible for implementation should analyze the actual results of the strategies implemented and evaluate them against the planned or expected results; if it does not meet the objectives of the organization then the company should drop the strategy and maintain only those which are working. In contrast, Armco Holding Corporation is a local company in US which grows at a lower rate because it lack clear mission and its human resource manager has never been aggressive in handling his employees.

The effective human resource manager is expected to design a mission statement which will gather the diverse needs of all shareholders of the company. This means that the human resource managers should critically consider on the means of satisfying all these parties without affecting the profitability of the organization. This is not a simple task because any unsatisfied party may affect the performance of the company for example if employees are not satisfied, say, lower salary may cause some of them to quit for other organizations. This will greatly affect the company because it is quite expensive for the company to hire new employees and trained them. In addition it will cost high resource of training them, the time allocated for training them and the losses which may occur when rotational training is adopted. The training method of “sitting next to Nelly” may affect the good character of the new employee i.e. if the trainer has bad habits it may easily influences the new employee. To avoid all these bad practices the human resource manager should not only satisfy employees but also entire stakeholders of the company, this strategy has been used by IKEA Company whereby they maintained its employees by making them feel recognized this has improved the performances of the company despite of high competition in the market. In contrast, Dollar thrifty Automotive Group has failed to motivate employees and at the same time, consumers are cutting their expenses while others are moving, all this is due to ineffectiveness of the human resource manager.

In addition to developing a mission statement of the organization, the human resource manager should carryout environmental analysis of the company to know the current situation of the company. This will assist the human resource manager to identify the internal strengths and weaknesses of the organization and also the external threats and opportunities of the organization. Analyzing these issues will assist the human resource manager to direct employees’ efforts towards maximizing the strengths of the organization. On maximizing on this strength, the organization will improve its performances. This is because there will be utilization of resources in the organization. To establish the strength of the organization the human resource manager should conduct SWOT analysis (Rosenhauer 2008, pp102).

The human resources manager have contributed to the success of the international organization (Cervone 2006, pp 70) for example in the IKEA Company, the human resource manager has concentrated on the issues like cross-national transfer of the employees, this revolved on identifying and managing the expatriates in the international job market and transfer them to regions with no expatriates this will increase the performances of the organization in all branches across the world, for example, Barclays Bank has adopted this strategy and it has resulted to high performances in this company. Researchers have confirmed the importance of the existences of the human resource manager in the international firms. There are responsible in coordinating the policies and function of the international organization which resulted from the strategic activities of the organization. The human resource managers are also concerns with the implementation of national culture and issues like national employment, this will improve the image of the company which will result to high performances (Dupin 1958, pp 115).

Since there are so many changing dynamics in the business environment today, the human resource managers are required to change their strategies on how to manage employees in order to improve the performances organization in this competitive market, for instant the human resource manager of IKEA Company had made the company to improve its performance than other competitors of the company such as ILVA Company. Today almost all the organizations are involving themselves in activities that are focused in increasing the foreign investments and thus meeting their goals. Human resource manager have focus on training and developing of the work force in the organization to overcome the unpredictable issues and rapidly changing environment (Rosenhauer 2008, pp 103). Many researchers have appreciated the human resource manager for the developmental and training programs that have made the organization’s performance and effectiveness to grow.

The human resource manager is the key participant in the issues of training the employees and coming up with the best methods that will bring the high performances in the organization. The particular concerned human resource manager is to look into the issues that concern the recruitment of the employees, retaining them, remuneration and sacking them. There is a dire need for the human resource manager to exercise the best policies that will necessitate the employees to use their full efforts in bringing in what will benefit not only themselves but the organization as a whole.

There are several fields in the organization that the human resource manager tries to show his competency and reflective form of character but of importance is the ability of the human resource manager to meet the needs of the employees and be able to take control of them. A human resource manager therefore should have some experiences so that he can address the issues that are eminent in the organization which may lead to high performances (Bandura 1997, pp 79).

Employee motivation is a very important aspect in management which the human resource manager needs to show a lot of competency. In fact the performances of the employees in the organization will determine the performances of that organization. Employee motivation is likened to a marriage in a business where by several factors are put together in order to create harmony in the organization. The person who needs to exercise a higher degree of organizing is the human resource manager. Motivation refers to a set of reasons that determine ones behavior towards a certain direction. Several theories which have been developed with time indicate that motivation is associated with the basic need to get maximum pleasures and avoid pain and thus involve such issues as eating and resting (Fishbein 1975, pp 90).

In order for the human resource manager to motivate workers he needs to organize his decisions very well. He requires vital information with a lot of speed, precision, brevity and economy. There is need for a management information system which will aid the employee in making decisions which in turn will be very vital in motivating the employees. Note that employees are major determinant of the performances of the organization because they deal directly with the customers, this shows that the human resource manager needs to motivate employees well for them handle customers in a professional manner and try their best in creating long term relationships with customers. This is evidence that high performances of human resource managers leads to high performances and successful result of the organization.

Managerial decisions will have an influence in the motivation of employees in several ways. These depend on the areas of influence where the human resource manager has a direct influence on the management of the organization. Some of these areas include:

Human resource manager- The management decision should align itself in adopting a Human resource manager which will deal with issues relating to the employees. A good human resource department in an organization will create a culture of excellence that both involves and motivates all the workers. The workers should develop a team culture where the people will work as a team like professionals, a good example of a company which practices this is the International Business Machines Corporation (IBM).

The decision of the human resource manager on the guiding principles should be firm and consistent. The issue as to how the customers should be treated and how they should treat one anther is very fundamental. The working environment should be a place to interact and have fun so that workers will come to work everyday. The human resource manager needs to advise the management not to be so rigid to extend that there is no free interaction.

Human resource manager should make to feel wanted by the organization by appreciating them, listening to them, showing a sense of care and asking for ideas. If the human resource manager truly wants a high level of performance in the organization then he needs to develop issues in organization which are based on the employee orientation. A human resource manager should develop policies which maximize on the things which build relationships between casual workers and the employees for them work as team in order to achieve high performances in the organization.

The decision of the management should enhance freedom of expression in the organization. The human resource manager should create an atmosphere where the employee will feel free to discuss. This starts with him realizing what is expected of him. He should involve the employees in his dealings. He should focus on his strengths and commit doing to his best. The employee will always look at the successes of the human resource manager and thus be encouraged.

A good human resource manager should set his decisions and goals towards creating an organization which is as good as its people. The human resource manager should create a total service excellence culture which makes the employees recognize that they are part and parcel of the overall performance of the company. Make the employees be accountable for their performance not to anybody else and this will give them a sense of feeling part of the company, this is a strategy which Ingvar Kamprad used for the IKEA to increase the performances in the organization (Baumeister 2004, pp 46).

Management of a company should seek to address issues that deal with performance management, working relationships and empowerment. There should be avenues where the individuals can raise there issues and be given the regular updates of the organization. The employees should be told what empowerment means and that they have empowerment over some issues in the management especially decisions.

The decisions made by the human resource manager should be future oriented in order to create motivation in the employees. The management should recognize that the executives, human resource manager and business owners and there role in determining the company’s decisions. The decisions of the human resource manager should create a focus in them. Employees feel secured and motivated to work if they feel they are working for a company which is future oriented. In most instances employees will want to go an extra mile in wanting to be part of decision making in the organization.

Human resource manager should make a decision to follow the essential and simplistic leadership principle on the way to engage employees. The human resource manager should tend towards keeping the employees in the right frame of mind, making them feel that they are working with the management and not for the management. If they happen to create a notion that they are working for you, they behave in no less the same as robots who go into there jobs without putting a lot of seriousness in their hearts and not showing any initiative in the job role, an example of a company in US which have failed to make the employees to part of the is Loehmann’s Capital Corp.

A good working environment-The human resource manager should come up with the right decisions as to the availability of materials in the organization. If they provide employees with the necessary materials, equipment and training they will do their job well. Many employees will complain that they have been placed to do some particular job which they have not been adequately trained for. This will lower the performance of the employees and thus affect the output of the organization. The human resource manager should develop mentorship programs which will look into the affairs of the employees and how they work together (kerr 1995, pp 97).

Reflective practice of human resource manager imply that the human resource manager ought to have a sense of intellectual discipline which is so much required so that the human resource manager can know the scope of the practices that he ought to practice as well as engage in self growth that is necessary for the managers to lead others. The intellectual organization of managers in an organization depends on the focus of the individual in determining the assumptions and beliefs as well as the experiences and background which have an impact on the organizational functioning. There are therefore so many reasons why human resource manager needs to exercise some very important skills which are the source of success to the organization.

The need for resourcefulness is a factor that the human resource manager is supposed to begin with if he is to handle several issues. Apart from being the motivator of employees the human resource manager is also the role model with whom he is relied upon to lead the others in a professional and creative manner. With several years of experience in the events of the organization, there are always things that will require the organization and the manager to fix them so that things run coherently The manager needs to be very resourceful so that where the other employees cannot see an alternative for a problem in the organization, then the managers’ decision can be the best resort.

Time is a factor that for a long time the management is said to rely on. If the human resource manager is a lazy person who cannot keep time in his work, then the employees can emulate the same and hence the result becomes a much disorganized organization that cannot meet the demands that it has for the particular period of time (Fishbein 1975, pp 90). The ability of the human resource manager to coordinate his activities and the ability to schedule the entire team requires proper planning and scheduling hence the human resource manager needs to have the best ways of doing this so that it can make the organization see through the achievement of its mission and vision.

The need for communication is not only a central point for every organization but the human resource manager needs to be the person to whom the best channels of communications come from. The human resource manager who is a reflective practitioner is always quick to address an issue that has arisen in the organization due to lack of proper communication (Carver, 1998). The need for the organization to have a flow in the chain of command is so much an issue that is fundamental for the organization to follow. The reflective manager therefore considers issues like avoiding bureaucracies and developing the best vertical and horizontal communication chains in the organization as ever. By sharing the ideas and visions to the team, not looking down upon the decisions of others in the organization and making sure that the communication is as respectful as possible; the human resource manager is able to manage the organization and aim at the goals that have been set for the organization (Stone 2005, pp 80).

Reflective human resource manager are always passionate in their work. Passion is like an internal motivating factor that propels the individual to do his work with a lot of seal without feeling exhausted and bored. The individual with passion will feel so easy to overcome the triumphs and bumps that are on his work in performing the given task. The human resource manager are not an exception in the in performing his tasks with a lot of passion. The manager needs to realize that passion unlike time is an issue that cannot be taught, but should come from within the individual. This factor can also mean that the individual needs to have a strong will. This means that the human resource manager needs to carry out his vision with a lot of zeal and zest which implies that he should at times go an extra mile in executing his duties without being pressurized to do so. The team of employees should always refer any problem that is hard to the human resource manager that needs to be having a solution always. The idea of rushing into decisions very fast is not a very good idea for the human resource manager (Carver 1998, pp 99)

Human resource manager need to adopt ways of motivating employees so that they can perform well in their various departments and thus maximum output in the company. In order to do so they need to develop a very good decision making process. Decision making involves the process of taking a specific course of action which is suited to deal with a specific problem (Carver 1998, pp 99). The overall success of an organization purely depends on the decisions the human resource manager make. Human resource manager can adopt various methods of instilling motivation in employees depending on the type of organization.

Some human resource manager can adopt rational models in their decisions. Rational model is a situation where human resource manager engages in rational decision making process. Non rational model involves the manager going a mile away and doing things non-rationally.

Decision making contain several processes which include: Identifying the problem- management should be in a position to scrutinize and note what has caused a particular thing perceived to be a problem in the company.

Identifying the sources and constraints-The management should come up with the possible ideas of solving these particular problems. Coming up with alternative solutions to a problem-If the problem is quite technical the management needs to consider some other ways of dealing with it.

Evaluating the objectives-The objectives should be focusing on all the parameters of the company and not only a part of it because that will be termed bias. Choosing an alternative-Several alternative will coexist depending on the company’s setup of decision making and the nature of the problem in question.

Putting in place the decisions-Refers to the implementation process.

Monitoring the decision-Assessing if the problem has been addressed well by the given decisions.

Conclusion

The key to the success of the organization depends basically on the commitment that the human resource manager put in the process of managing employees in the organization. It’s very fundamental therefore that the human resource manager needs to put in place several issues that are very fundamental for high performances in the organization. Their motivation and other factors like acting as an example are very crucial for them to do their job to their perfection. There are various types of human resource managers in the organization; those who are the bosses i.e. those who use force so that the work can be done and there are those who use persuasive terms like agreeing with the employees on the terms.

More often however those who opt the techniques that do not make the employees to look coerced, improve the performances of the organization. The fundamental issues therefore which the human resource manager who is the reflective practitioner in an organization needs to follow is guiding the employees to take the initiatives, delegating the tasks well, sharing the goals and expectations of the company, getting to know the strengths and weaknesses of the employees and giving advice on what to do and appreciating the work of the workers.