how Human Resource Management incorporates the organization’s mission and vision in formulating its policies

how Human Resource Management incorporates the organization’s mission and vision in formulating its policies

Human Resource Management

This paper outlines the definition of the Human Resource Management (HRM) system. Also, it includes a brief description of its origin and evolution over the years. Also, the role it plays in linking with the overall strategy of the organization. Besides, the essay will point out some of the strategies employed by the organization; in this case, the Human Resource Management models used by Mc Donald restaurants.  Additionally, the essay will highlight on how Human Resource Management incorporates the organization’s mission and vision in formulating its policies. Finally, the essay will focus on criticizing the Human Resource Management in organizations and offer a conclusion.

Scholars have come up with different definitions of HRM. However, in this essay, we define Human resource management as a formal system in an organization whose function includes staffing, rewarding, and assigning roles to the employees. Human Resource Management started during the medieval age, where apprentices worked with craftsmen. It later evolved to the industrial stage with the emergence of factories where workers worked for long hours with meager pay. As a result, there were labor riots in Nottingham, England, which led to the government regulating the working conditions and setting a minimum wage for the workers. It led to the creation of the personnel management department by the factory owners (Bratton and Gold, 2017, n.p).

Personnel management was purely administrative, focusing on staff matters such as staff records, resolving industrial disputes, and employee’s performance appraisal with a view of determining pay and promotions among other staff-related functions. Personnel management had no impact on the overall strategy of the organization. The discipline evolved further through the scientific and behavioral ages that saw theories such as Theory X and Y by Douglas McGregor and Abraham’s Maslow hierarchy of needs emerge. The focus shifted to workers’ rights, paving the way to the modern HRM, which interlinks with the business operations (Kaufman, 2010, n.p).

HRM became a vital function in organizations, with the workforce transforming from being a resource to a valuable asset and a competitive advantage in the industry. For instance, in the McDonald’s, Human Resource Management roles include recruiting and hiring staff who perfectly fit the job description as prepared by the Human Resource department. The employees continuously undergo training and development to keep up with the emerging trends in the culinary market and offer quality products and excellent customer service in line with the businesses’ vision and mission. Additionally, McDonald’s recognizes hard work and excellent performance through the performance appraisal system. The Balanced Scorecard used as a performance measuring tool rates the performance of the employees as to whether Outstanding, excellent. Meets targets or requires improvement.

McDonald’s business strategies include differentiation and cost leadership strategy. The business guarantees low prices for quality products. The Human Resource Management in linkage with the business strategy ensures well trained and competent employees who guarantee quality products such as Buffalo Ranch McChicken. Besides, the business has an expansion strategy of venturing into the Asian market either through opening new branches or through franchising. As such, the Human Resource Management supports the strategy through recruiting of qualified employees to fill the available vacancies in the branches and secondly, carries out a market survey on industry remunerations, to ensure the employees get fair compensation for their services.

In a bid to retain highly qualified employees and as an act of motivation, the Human Resource Department arranges for social welfares for the employees such as medical insurances, bonus packages, and wages pegged on the industrial scale. The impact this practice has on the organization is that it cuts down the cost of staff replacement as the attrition rate reduces. Besides, it boosts the morale of the employees, thus increasing their productivity and the overall profitability of the organization. Human Resource Management works closely with the top management of the business in ensuring the efficient use of human capital in achieving its business goals (Cooper and Sparrow, 2018, n.p).

As highlighted, part of the Human Resource Management’s role involves rewarding excellent performance through bonuses and promotions. For example, promotions in McDonald’s get their basis on the performance of the employee. As such, employees get motivated to work hard to earn better bonuses and promotions, which translates to pay better. Thus the organization achieves efficiency in its operations, which directly reduces the overall cost of operation, thus boosting the profitability of the business, which is a significant objective of any business existence (Price, 2015, n.p).

McDonald’s has embraced both hard and soft Human Resource Management model in achieving its organizational business goal effectiveness. Its soft model entails the involvement of employees in the decision making of the business as they are considered an invaluable asset to the company. The entity aims at offering excellent training to its employees in a bid to expose their potential and innovativeness. Creativity by employees plays a significant role in keeping the business afloat. Therefore, the company, through its Human Resource Management, identify the employees’ needs and meets them.

The soft model ensures the entity’s long term business goals get achieved through the adoption of cost-effective and innovative operations of the business. On the other hand, the company embraces the hard model in terminating contracts of those who poorly perform. As such, the Balanced Score Card becomes a tool of firing the poor performers in the business whose performance requires improvement as opposed to the soft model where the employees’ gap in performance gets identified, and the impediments addressed.

For Human Resource Management to achieve its goal in an organization, its policies have to inter-marry the overall business vision and mission. For instance, in McDonald’s restaurant, the management key focus is on the delivery of quality products and superior customer experience as well as community development. Also, it focuses on the growth and development of its employee’s skills in a bid to provide quality products.

The mission and vision statement of an organization gives direction and the overall objective for the organization’s existence. The Human Resource Management supports the mission and the vision through selecting competent employees and offering continuous training to them to ensure quality products to its consumers. Therefore, the system is critical to the success of the business. The restaurant has its presence in various countries, mostly in the Asian continent, where the service offered is seamless as supported by HRM. The effect it has on business is the guaranteed business operations to the foreseeable future.

McDonald’s restaurant, through its Human Resource Management, has embraced Corporate Social Responsibility. For instance, their packaging for their food reduces the adverse effect on the environment through the use of recyclable packaging materials. The business betters the life of the community by incorporating fruits and vegetables in their menu. Through launching the youth opportunity project, they’ve been able to curtail barriers to employment to two million youths by 2025. McDonald House charities owned by McDonald’s restaurants positively impact society by providing housing to families traveling to seek better health care for their kids and who cannot afford hotel accommodation.

McDonald’s restaurant, through its Human Resource Management, created a Diversity Management department that fosters diversity among suppliers, franchisees, and employees. The diverse groups include Asians, women, people living with disabilities, and blacks. Human Resource Management in McDonald’s launched its Global Women’s initiative. Besides, the Corporation mentors coach and educate diverse groups. Additionally, Human Resource Management constituted the Board of directors to oversee the corporate governance of McDonald Corporation in an honest, fair, and ethical manner. As such, employees receive fair treatment at the place of their work.

In as much as Human Resource Management contributes positively to the overall objective of an organization, it has its shortcomings. Much of what the Human Resource Management system advocates are more of a theory than reality. In most instances, the goal entails the maximization of profit and shareholders’ wealth. The system has received criticism. The zero hour contract indicates that the employer has no obligation to provide work to an employee on zero-hour contracts. Regardless, the employee should be on call in case the organization requires its service. This kind of agreement practiced by McDonald’s restaurant portrays unfair treatment of employees as they miss out on better opportunities from other employers. Besides, the employees on zero-hour contracts do not enjoy benefits enjoyed by other employees, such as the hourly rate for the productive time spent in the restaurant.

Additionally, the appraisal methods such as the balanced scorecard used by the Human Resource Management to assess the employee’s performance in an organization are subject to abuse by the line managers. Employees could face unfair termination of employment in case a line manager decides to rate an employee they dislike poorly (Stone, 2017, n.p). On the flip side, the Human Resource staff charged with the responsibility of appraisal may reward poor performers for enabling them to earn hefty undeserved bonuses. As such, it could kill the employee’s morale, thus leading to low productivity, which negatively affects the profitability of the organization.

In conclusion, the emergence of Human Resource Management has positively contributed to the success of organizations. The system provides human capital, critical in the success of any organization, and forming part of its competitive advantage. The Human Resource department carries out surveys on the current industry remuneration, which enables the organization to remain competitive and retain its most competent employees.

Works Cited

Bratton, J., and Gold, J., 2017. Human Resource Management, 6th edition: Theory and Practice. Oxford: Macmillan Education.

Cooper, C. L., and Sparrow, P., 2018. A research agenda for HRMS Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Kaufman, B. E., 2010. Hired hands or human resources?: case studies of HRM programs and practices in the early American industry. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

Price, A., 2015. Human resource management in a business context. Mason: South-Western Cengage Learning.

Stone, R. J., 2017.HRM Milton, Qld: Wiley.