Organizational and Human Resource Management Practices in Cuba

Communism and capitalism are something that goes simultaneously in Cuba. The proclaimed virtues of socialism are still hyped. Many of the traditional characteristics of the so-called “socialist superiority” are still in existence, which embraces the praise of the socialist system (employment security, party/management leadership), “industrial harmony” (implemented by trade unions), “equality” (materialized in low wage differentials), and the existence of the political dimension in organizational life. But this configuration of practices led to a lack of motivation for production and eventually to the collapse of the economic system.

Organization in Cuba has to look through various aspects ranging from economic and political issues and policies to the inter cultural management and inter politics handling.

There are various issues that needs to be addressed by the automobile company if in case established in Cuba.

Problem of Agency

Lack of incentives for managers in the organization in Cuba has no incentives to work for efficient and effective organizational performances. They are all guarded by the political ideologies and all the progress and inter organizational politics arises out of the ideological fellowships. This shows the problem in the agency itself.

Growth on the basis of Party Loyalty

Upper management were not appointed on the basis of their business leadership skills and results oriented performance, but rather on the basis of their ideological objectives and party loyalty.

Organization to overcome the drawbacks of State-Owned Organizations

Various factors like centralized staffing policies, absence of a meritocracy system and low wage differentials led to a lack of control for individual performance. This also evolved the existence of a “no-owner company” culture, which is quite common in state-owned organizations. Irrespective of the fact that all the changes have been introduced in the organizations after the period especial (the period following the fall of the communist bloc, that marked the end of a special relationship with the Soviet Union), many of these symptoms are still present in Cuba.

Rated as the Worst Place to work

In 2001 Newsweek Magazine’s poll of the worst countries (Contreras, 2001), classified Cuba as the worst place for venture capitalists to make a living.

Address the transformation in the Cuba

The organizations need to cope up with and address the various transformation that can be thought to have emerged from the repercussive actions of two main forces:

The ongoing practices of agents (people, groups, organizations) that try to accommodate to everyday contingencies

Coercive institutional forces, namely the State regulation and the informal ideological values and norms

Rather than as independent, both of these processes should be viewed as interdependent. There is, thus, interplay between emergent and planned change, between agency and structure.

Human Resource Management Practices To Be Addressed While Production of Automobile in Cuba

For the company to sustain and succeed Human Resource Management plays the vital role. A company must be very effective and efficient in its Human Resource Management practices in order to excel.

As the country Cuba is rated as the worst place to work these will be various repercussion for the company to recruit the people from abroad to work there.

They will have to address the two major issues:

Attracting & Retaining of employees hired from outside Cuba Nation

For this the company has to device various factors such as profiles, packages for the recruits that people will be attracted to come to Cuba and work. Meanwhile they should also change the culture of promoting employee on the basis of political ideology and acknowledge the performance. The employees should be given all the liberty of speech and should be treated equally.

Hiring and Retaining the local (Cuba Nationals)

If the company ever plans to hire the local nationals, the vital factor that it should take care of is that they don’t bring in the conservative culture of Cuba and the political ideologies that would hamper the growth of the organizational as well as the productivity of other international employees.

After the employees are hired then the issue that needs to be addressed are as follows:

Work Environment

A secure and joyful workplace makes the employees feel good about being associated with the organization. To overcome the fact that cuba is the unsafest and the worst place to work the organization should give importance and provide the sense of security to each employee out there that gives them the motivation and incentive to stay. The organization can follow various trends to achieve this goal such as conducting the internal surveys to find out whether they are satisfied and if not what they think needs to be changed.

Open Management

Open culture motivates innovation and empowerment. Company must always be transparent in whatever decision it takes or does. Employees should not be kept in dark or deprived of what is happening in the company. They feel motivated and develop passion only when the management opens up to and comes up with the process wherein each individual has the participative role in discussing about the company policies, clients, contract, sales, goals and objectives. This will enable the company to encourage participative management. One can always enable the flow of creative juices in its employee by asking them about new ideas or giving them the platform to unleash their innovative capabilities. This open culture will put in and open the arena in building trust and motivating the employees. The company can actually employ several tools to practice Open Culture Management.

Performance Incentives

Employees feel motivated only when they feel that their work is being recognized and they are valued for whatever they deliver. Almost every good performance is always appreciated in the form of, bonuses, a pat on the back or giving some other compensation for a job well done. Organization should always come above the feeling that employees are “Just” doing their work. Such organizations which believe in the “Just” work philosophy are those who are somehow able to maintain their attrition rate. To operate efficiently and gain the ability to retain their staff and keep them happy the organization should devise a policy and practices of acknowledging the effort of its employees. Not only on providing incentives but the organization should focus on boosting the staff morale. Various processes can be devised which will enable the organization to decide whether the incentives can be implemented at the individual or at the team level. Maximum of time it has been seen that this works wonders in getting the best out of the employees. But the company should always make it a point that it is monitored that no employee is awarded the bonuses without a reason, unless it is a commitment for annual bonuses or something like that. Rewarding without the proper reason will only reduce the perceived value of the performance acknowledgement system.

Performance Feedback

This is the methods that no organization misses to follow. Most of the Automobiles organizations today follow 360 degree feedback system. In this system, feedback is not only taken from the boss, but also from other seniors and subordinates. In earlier days appreciation was something that was only hunted from the immediate boss or the management, but today with the change in time , the concept of appreciation has evolved where the organizations understand the importance of collecting performance feedback from several quarters and from ones boss as well as the subordinates and the peer group. The opinion of each employee is valued equally. The opinion provided by all is given the equal importance especially while reviewing someone who is in a leadership role at any level. Constructive feedback is received from each person in the team. This kind of system helps to identify the people who can perform well as leaders at higher levels in the organization.

Employee Evaluation

Today the automobile companies not only focus on evaluating the sole employee behavior or performance but what they seek is the alignment of employees performance and goals with that of organizational goals. They should devise an evaluation system which will link the individual performance to the goals and priorities of the organization. For this system to work effectively and efficiently, the achievements should be tracked over an year. An evaluation system tends to be fair if the review of each employee, is done by another person at a higher level, for whom the employee’s contribution is important rather than being evaluated by the immediate boss under which the employee is working. Also the ratings from other employees can be of great value. Such system will ensure a fair and accurate rating of each and every employee.

Knowledge Sharing

Knowledge sharing is a new and outstanding strategy that helps in the betterment of the employees and their work. All the knowledgeable information is stored in the central databases that can be accessed by each and every employee.

For example, An employee that has been sent for training for some specific course can store the acquired knowledge in these central databases which can be used by other employess learn from it. Also the various innovative ideas that the management deems fit for employees to see, can be stored here for all to see.

Publicize Good Performances

Every company has an employee who are excellent performers and who always excel at what ever they do. Such performances should be acknowledged, highlighted and displayed where all other employees can have a look at them; For example they can be highlighted at display boards and intranet etc. This will work as an encouragement for other employees to give their best. A proper system should be set up to make a list of high performances at particular period (It can either be quarterly or yearly or so on).

Discussions

Organizations that ideas and understand that employees who are actually working and know the business can provide the best ideas are always successful. There should be a discussion between the management and the employees to get these ideas out of them. This can involve various brainstorming sessions, or the use of suggestion boxes to capture these ideas. This ystem can be used as the talent hunt internally wherein the managers can actually figure out the talented employees and develop their knowledge and capabilities.

Rewards

Recognition of talent is the vital factor for every organization to keep its employee happy , this recognition effort can be made public in various ways such as holding ceremonies and announcing the achievement of the fellow employee to the whole world (the employees).What could be better for an employee than the exhilarating feeling from a resonant appreciation.

The Surprise Factor

Everyone loves surprises. The company should try and make effort to surprise its deserving employees – when they are least expecting it. They can either be awarded with a gift certificate or a small reward of some sort. The surprises can be randomply given to any employee rather than limiting it to the best performers within the organization.

Making an employee feel like a million dollars pays in the form of the success of an organization.