Human Resources †Knowledge Workers Free Essays

string(134) " and likewise the worker should not expect too much from the firm, hence the need for contracts to get an understanding of the needs\." Human Resources Management Coursework – Manjeet Singh – 7637434 The Question: â€Å"Examine the claim that the management of knowledge workers requires the development of human resource practises that are more suited to the particular characteristics of these workers and their jobs† Introduction The term â€Å"knowledge worker† was first used by Peter Drucker in â€Å"Landmarks of Tomorrow† in 1959. A knowledge worker is someone who specialises in a specific field as they possess certain knowledge which has been accrued through specific courses or experience in relevant activities, they usually have some sort of accreditation or documentation to certify that they have accrued this knowledge. They are typically well educated, and with the application of their knowledge it aids them to solve problems for an organisation and it is through problem solving that value is added for the organisation. We will write a custom essay sample on Human Resources – Knowledge Workers or any similar topic only for you Order Now As well as problem solving, knowledge workers are also involved in innovation, re-engineering, training etc. although there are certain tasks which would require knowledge workers with specific specialities. Knowledge workers are seen as a crucial asset as with application of their knowledge it can determine the success and reputation of the organisation. â€Å"The most valuable assets of a 20th-century company were its production equipment. The most valuable asset of a 21st-century institution, whether business or non-business, will be its knowledge workers and their productivity. (Drucker, 1999, P135) This quote highlights the fact that we are moving away from the traditional mentality that wealth was based on the amount of resources an organisation held in its possession, and more towards how we handle knowledge workers and attain this knowledge. Knowledge workers attract higher banded salaries, with enhanced levels of autonomy in comparison to the normal employee. As a result th e turnover of Knowledge workers is typically high, because they are aware of the fact that the knowledge that they possess is of great need and importance to the organisation. In many cases the knowledge that these workers have allows the organisation to establish a competitive advantage over their rivals, which is why they are willing to pay the generous salary of these workers. If the workers are not kept happy, then it is easy for them to just move to a different organisation or hold back on the knowledge that they provide for the company. In addition, as the levels of autonomy are high this means that here is an element of self-government, and they have a high amount of freedom, for example they can work from home, this then decreases the amount of control that a firm has over a knowledge worker. Within this report I wish to discuss the different factors that would result in the need for different HR practices for knowledge workers. I will then also highlight which characteristics these workers possess that sets them apart from their colleagues at the organisation where they work and how the characteristics affect the HR practices. As these workers are of such importance to the organisation, they try their best to keep these workers at the organisation and as their job description differs vastly in comparison to the typical employees, this highlights the need for adaptation in the HR practices that are implemented by the firm as typical employees can be replaced rather easily, through the normal recruitment procedures, however, with knowledge workers, they add value for the organisation, thus, changes would have to be made to keep them happy at the organisation, whilst performing at an acceptable level. What are the benefits a Knowledge Worker receives? The main technique where we can identify a knowledge worker is by highlighting the benefits that they receive in comparison to normal workers. According to Lowendahl (1997), these workers are offered high remuneration and substantial autonomy, this simply means that there is no one overlooking them constantly and they are highly paid in comparison to others. Knell (2000) Pink (2002), also describe these workers as â€Å"free workers†, this would mean that for them there is a lot more choice as to what they can do. As they hold all the knowledge which is valuable, it usually means that these workers are a lot less reliant on the organisation that employs him. In addition to this, it is because these workers have access to knowledge and it is them that control it, this then enables them to control the flow of the knowledge, this would mean that they need to be kept happy in order to make sure that the flow of information is suffice and of value to the company. As a result of this, knowledge workers are also offered a lot more freedom in comparison to other workers. As described above, Knowledge workers are offered many benefits due to how aluable they are to the organisation, however, there are challenges that are then forced on HR with the benefits that they offer to these workers. I will now describe these below and show examples of changes and alterations that have been made either for the attracting, motivating or retention of knowledge workers. HRM challenges as an effect of these Knowledge Workers As Knowledge workers are offered such attractive advantages due to the nature of their work, this impacts the normal practices that are in place by HRM. Therefore, managing these Knowledge workers can be challenging for HRM. These include: Firstly, we can look at the work organisation; this has a major impact on the motivation and productivity of the knowledge worker. If the environment and the organisation is structured in a way that the knowledge worker doesn’t like then this could have a high negative effect on the company, as they need environments where they are comfortable and more importantly a place that offers them new challenges. Another challenge is the constantly changing psychological contract, this is where there are unwritten obligations and expectations that are out of the written contract of the knowledge worker. The firm should not expect too much of the worker and likewise the worker should not expect too much from the firm, hence the need for contracts to get an understanding of the needs. You read "Human Resources – Knowledge Workers" in category "Papers" Thirdly, if the knowledge workers have more than one employer, it is difficult to ensure that these knowledge workers stay loyal. The factor of opportunism can arise here as the knowledge worker would not take into consideration how them leaving or not being productive, can affect the company, instead they will just focus on the benefits that they can take advantage of. Due to the autonomy that is offered to these workers, monitoring the productivity and motivating the workers is difficult for the organisation. These workers also have varied desires as some of them go for the more short-term incentives, like money and freedom of work, or some tend to focus on building their career, and it is a must for them to work with well recognised clients. One of the biggest challenges that they face is the challenge of retaining these workers as turnover of these workers is significantly high in comparison to other workers. So it is critical that the HR department devise correct and well suited practices to make sure that these workers are content. The management of the knowledge is important because the knowledge is held by the workers and it is important to make sure that the flow of this knowledge is not restricted by any other factors that can be controlled or altered by the firm. The knowledge that they have also needs to be up to date as out-dated knowledge would not add maximum value for the organisation. Defining who owns the knowledge at question is also a challenge for the organisation as there are always boundaries which are often unclear and vague, they would need to know this so that they can clearly see how much knowledge the worker can dedicate to the firm. Also as a result of the worker having the knowledge with them, there is also always the threat of them going away and setting up their own firms and as they typically work with clients directly, they could take the clients with them to their own firm. As all these challenges to HRM have been described and highlighted I believe it also reveals the need for the differentiated HR practices for these workers as they vary massively to normal workers. Different contexts and organisations The dependency between the knowledge workers and the organisation also varies largely to normal workers as the firm itself is a lot more dependent on the knowledge workers. (Swart and Kinnie, 2003) suggest that this is because of knowledge workers changing the typical trend of the firm owning all the knowledge. In addition, the work process also differs making the firm more dependent on the workers. An example of this is where the knowledge is at the core of the company so that would mean the knowledge worker would usually be the main source of this knowledge. The knowledge worker is at the centre of the business but this is collaborated with the reputation of the firm and working closely with the worker to main a strong relationship which is strategically vital in that particular type of industry. As a result of this type of relationship and strategic collaboration, this would mean that both parties involved would be highly dependent on each other as the firm would not have the knowledge they require to do business as the knowledge is with the workers but the worker would need the resources, brand reputation and the clients that the firm has. Pink (2002) describes this as â€Å"substantial interdependency† as they are both reliant on each other. The only way this dependency can be reduced is by using knowledge management and outlining boundaries and expectations from both parties. It is important to look after these workers, as if the workers leave then the value created will also leave with them. It is also difficult within this type of industry to determine how much the knowledge worker did or is needed to add value as it is tacit knowledge, which is hard to measure. Knowledge work also influences the network of the organisation as in traditional employment, there is usually a hierarchy which is implemented and all who are involved in this will adhere and follow this hierarchy (Williamson, 1975). However, with knowledge work hierarchies won’t work due to the power differences that will be incurred as a result of the hierarchy. With knowledge work it is all about being in the correct networks and building a portfolio of careers (Castells, 2000). This gives them the freedom to go out and expand their knowledge base and they can progress within their career at their own will. It is the responsibility of the organisation to provide the workers with clients that are well recognised to keep them happy and motivated, as it would challenge them more and allow them to utilise their knowledge to their maximum potential. This is very good for the knowledge worker, however it poses a threat to the firm as they can potentially, take the clients with them if they were to leave because they could have formed a strong bond due to the high level of autonomy that they are granted, thus meaning that the organisation won’t know how close they are. For this reason it is important to evaluate the level of autonomy that is offered to these workers, they would need enough to keep the workers motivated but not too much where the workers can get too close with clients and cause problems for the organisation. Another factor which highlighted by Horwitz (2003), was how the ownership of the firm (foreign or local) affects the practices and the attraction of these knowledge workers, this shows that the culture of the firm has a major impact on the motivation and attraction of these workers. â€Å"Foreign versus local ownership appears, therefore, to reflect differences in certain types of HR practices such as using headhunters and advertising media to recruit and select knowledge workers† (Horwitz, 2003). This shows us that the differing organisations from different cultures use approaches to which they think is best, and there is not a universal, â€Å"one fits all† approach which can be used globally. In addition to this they also found that â€Å"both wholly owned foreign and local firms found a fun and informal work environment more highly or fairly effective† (Horwitz, 2003), this shows us that the workers take a preference to an environment which is more informal and again changing from the conventional hierarchical approach. An example is when Horwitz (2003), describes how there are certain cultural requirements or standards within Singapore (where they did their study), for example they have large respect for the hierarchy and everybody seems to know their positions. This would affect the knowledge workers in the sense that if there is a major emphasis on hierarchies within the organisation, it may push them towards multi-national companies with different cultures. Also, if a firm is international, this attracts knowledge workers as it allows them to travel and experiment different cultures, whilst working for the same firm, this also builds on their experience and makes them a more valuable worker. Figure 1: Proposed schema for attracting, motivating and retaining knowledge workers Source: Frank M. Horwitz. (2003). Finders, Keepers? Attracting, motivating and retaining knowledge workers. Human Resource Management Journal. 13 (4), 23-44. HR practices Figure 1 shows a schema which proposed for attracting, motivating and retaining knowledge workers, I believe that the elements that have been taken into consideration within the schema are critical and the schema is accurate, however, Horwitz (2003), says himself that it needs further hypotheses testing to make sure its accurate. In addition to this, it does not take into account anything about differing industries as for each industry, they found that different things motivated or attracted the knowledge workers, this is crucial as it again highlights that there cannot just simply be one standard approach or practice across all industries. According to Kinnear and Sutherland (2000), some researchers have found HR practices which they believe are vital for retention of knowledge workers and decrease the turnover of these workers. However, how could this be possible when there are so many factors that affect the different requirements of these workers and the HR practices required to accommodate these workers? The nature of work is exceedingly different, although there may be tensions between the two types of worker simply because, the knowledge workers are granted such high benefits and salaries. Again as per Figure 1, we can see that there is no consideration of normal workers, this implies further that these practices should be altered and suited for the knowledge workers. With altered practices it also shows that there is a possibility that it could affect the current employees’ chances of progression to get to the level of knowledge workers as the firm would invest so much into the recruitment of these knowledge workers, they would expect to find people that already have the knowledge and don’t require the training to work, simply just to settle in to the culture of the organisation. On the other hand, Frost (2002), goes on to also talk about how employers can distinguish between the two types of workers and thus, supports the claim that HR practices need to be different for the types of workers and this will allow them to both be happy and progress accordingly. In addition to this, Despres and Hiltrop (1995), state â€Å"traditional approaches to work remuneration and reward are no longer appropriate in a post-industrial knowledge economy† (Horwitz, 2003) this further reinforces the idea that new and fresh approaches are needed for knowledge workers and the industries need to move away from this old fashioned mentality as the industries are evolving more and more towards knowledge based organisations. A key thing that Horwitz (2003) found was that the most popular HR practices implemented by the organisations were not always the most effective, this can be questioned as the study was in Singapore, but I believe that it just simply reinforces that the culture of each country and organisation varies and thus would affect the wants and needs in HR practices from the knowledge workers. In addition to this, they say â€Å"There is increasing evidence that particular organisations are beginning to acknowledge that distinctive HR practices lead to better knowledge worker performance. (Horwitz, 2003) this again shows the link between altered practices for these workers has a positive impact on the work and the morale of the workers. The design of the job was stated as being high important as part of the satisfaction of the knowledge workers, as if it designed correctly, then this can have a positive impact on the morale, productivity and behaviour of the knowledge worker (Thompson and He ron, 2002). This again shows the importance of different practices for these types of jobs and not to just let them have a monotonous job style like the normal employees. Conclusion In conclusion, I agree with the initial claim that HR practices should be altered for knowledge workers. I have discovered the real sheer importance of these workers to organisations and how they add value to organisations, for this reason I believe the benefits that are afforded for them are fair and deserved and although they do require some changes which organisations are not accustomed to, for example, losing hierarchies, partnership style working, allowing them to work from home and other challenges the pose to HR, there are certain ways to attract, retain and motivate them. They also can be risky for a firm, with the ambiguity of their tasks and lack of control from the organisation, but if the firm can keep them happy and monitor in a suitable way, then the worker would be kept happy. Knowledge based companies especially should recognise the importance of tailoring HR practices for these workers, as they are what would give them the competitive advantage, they are also characterised as being innovative and this is key to any firm. Finally, I believe that these workers will shape the industry in the coming years, so firms should invest into finding the best HR practices which suit their own culture and organisations based also on their industry. References Castells, M. (2000). The rise of the network society: rise of the network society. Oxford, Blackwell. Despres, C. and Hiltrop, J. M. (1995), â€Å"Human resource management in the knowledge age: current practice and perspectives on the future†, Employee Relations, Vol. 17 No 1, pp. 9-23. Drucker (1999). Managing Oneself,† Management Challenges for the 21st Century. Frost, M (2002) `Managing knowledge workers’. HR Magazine, May, 47: 5, 124-126 Horwitz, F, 2003. Finders, Keepers? Attracting, Motivating and Retaining knowledge workers. Human Resource Management Journal, 13/4, 23-44. Knell, J (2000) Most Wanted: The quiet birth of the free worker. Futures reports Kinnear and Sutherland (2000) `Determinants of organisational commitment amongst knowledge workers. ’ South African Journal of Business Management, 32: 2, 106-111. Lowendahl (1997) Strategic Management of Professional Service Firms Pink, D. H. (2002). Free agent nation: the future of working for yourself. New York, Warner Books. Swart, J. Kinnie, N. (2003) knowledge-intensive firms: the influence of the client on HR systems. HRMJ, 13 (3) 37-55 Thompson, M. and Heron, P. (2002). `The employment relationship and knowledge creation: evidence from RD based high technology firms. ’ EURAM Conference, Stockholm (May), 1-10. Williamson, Oliver (1975), Markets and hierarchies, analysis and antitrust implications Word Count : 3,242 including references How to cite Human Resources – Knowledge Workers, Papers

Curfews Essay Research Paper Curfews unfair ineffective free essay sample

Curfews Essay, Research Paper Curfews unfair, uneffective, and unconstitutional When you hear politicians and constabularies speaking about acquiring tough on # 8220 ; juvenile offense, # 8221 ; you may conceive of a school shot, like those that have late occurred in Jonesboro, Arkansas, and Springfield Oregon. Others may remember Television cartridge holders of immature people, sometimes covered by masks or paper bags to conceal their individualities, being dragged off in handlocks, as the telecasting speaks of coursers runing from colza to robbery. But in America today, more childs are arrested for curfew jurisprudence misdemeanors so any other individual class of offense, including all violent crimes-combined. Everyone from jurisprudence enforcement to the President have endorsed tougher curfew Torahs as being the solution to America # 8217 ; s offense sufferings, though none have of all time cited existent informations to turn out that directing 142,000 childs through the justness system for being out excessively tardily each twelvemonth reduces offense. They assume that anything that takes childs off the streets must cut down offense. We will write a custom essay sample on Curfews Essay Research Paper Curfews unfair ineffective or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page There is no justification to juvenile curfews ( which may explicate why the Supreme Court did non compose an sentiment on the affair ) . Restricting an American # 8217 ; s freedom of motion is an obvious trespass over the First Amendment, and to saunter around a park or public square is barely the # 8220 ; clear and present danger # 8221 ; to the community normally required for such an violation. USA Today has described the Torahs as doing it # 8220 ; a offense to be young. # 8221 ; The American Civil Liberties Union # 8217 ; s ( ACLU ) John Horwarth told the Washington Post that curfew Torahs infringe on the rights of # 8220 ; all people, including the immature, to # 8230 ; by and large move about without intervention from governments unless and until they are really making something unlawful.† But a metropolis city manager or councilman has no demand for such rhetoric. Why worry about the First Amendment when one can claim to be cut downing the offense rate, yet affect no electors? The Conference of Mayors conducted a study of 347 metropoliss with a population over 30,000. About 80 per centum of the surveyed metropoliss have a nighttime young person curfew, and 26 per centum of these metropoliss besides have a daytime curfew. Nine out of 10 of the metropoliss said that implementing the young person curfew was a productive usage of a constabulary officer # 8217 ; s clip. Many said curfews give constabulary clip to concentrate on older felons. Approximately 10 per centum of the metropoliss surveyed felt that curfew enforcement was non the best usage of an officer # 8217 ; s clip. Some metropoliss besides complained that curfews increase the sum of paperwork they must treat. And some noted there is nowhere to take juvenile lawbreakers if their parents aren # 8217 ; t place. The metropoliss that did non happen curfews a utile tool argued that nighttime curfews place the metropolis in the parental function and do more offenses during non-curfew hours. It is hard to conceive of a more blazing misdemeanor of Constitutional rights than the curfew Torahs which restrict the motions of teens countrywide. The Supreme Court has refused to hear instances oppugning such Torahs, such as the Washington State Supreme Court # 8217 ; s 1973 opinion which stated that # 8220 ; mere sauntering or lounging on a public manner is lawful and the right of any adult male, adult female, or child. # 8221 ; The Bill of Rights, seemingly, still is merely applicable to those whom the authorities wishes to affranchise.

Key Elements of the Recruitment HR Assessment

Question: Describe about the Key Elements of the Recruitment for HR Assessment. Answer: The policies and the key elements of the recruitment and the selection process play the most vital role in selecting the most suitable candidate for the vacant position of the firm. The interview round with Miss Adams reveals her personal life details and suitability for the post of Customer Service Officer. As per the policies of Human resource management, it is very important for the candidates to highlight their marital status in the curriculum Vitae, as it provides the details of the employees. Miss Adams was supporting three of the children but the interview records do not evaluate the fact that whether she was married. For this, I would give her 1 star as the information was not adequate. She had done schooling up to midyear 9 high school level and this can be given as 1-star rating as she does not possess a good academic record (Armstrong, 2014). She held six jobs within past two years and this reflects her short term or un-stability in an organization which highlights her neg ative point and for this, I would give her average of a 2-star rating. The overall gap of six months in her job career so 2-star rating for this and the position varies from clerical work to waitressing and this is good to provide her good knowledge of different positions so for this I would give her 4 stars as it would be good for a customer service officer. Her commitment to working one more extra hour after office hours and for this she would be given 5 stars as this is good for the development of business process (Truss, Mankin, and Kelliher, 2012). She is located at 30kms from office so there might be the delay while reaching office and for this, I would give her 3 stars that are an average. References Armstrong, M. (2014).Armstrong's Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice. London: Kogan Page. Truss, C., Mankin, D. and Kelliher, C. (2012).Strategic human resource management. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights free essay sample

This paper critically analyzes the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The following paper critically analyzes the United Nation?s Universal Declaration of Human Rights with reference to two events, that of racial apartheid that was the official policy of South Africa and the systematic raping of Bosnian women during the conflict in that region. From the paper: `According to the United Nation?s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, ?Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty. (UN Website)`

The Broken Spears essays

The Broken Spears essays Leon-Portilla, Miguel,ed. The Broken. Boston: Beacon Press, 1992 The Broken Spears written by Miguel Leon-Portilla is a book that goes into depth about the conquest of Mexico starting in 1519 from the point of view of the conquered Aztecs. The book talks about everything significant in the Aztec society that took place during this time of conquest. It goes over the first news of Cortez' and the Spaniards arrival. To Montecuhzoma's belief of the gods, and his association that he made between the Gods and the Spaniards. It goes over each single conquest That Cortez's troops made early. It also talks about the allies gained by the Spanish, and the acceptance of the Spanish and the surrender of Tenochtitlan. It also touches on the revolt of the Aztec people that lead to the terror and the end of the Aztec civilization. This book tells all this from the Aztec point of view. This book would be a great on to recommend to others. After reading this book one can say that the Aztec people went from the conquerors to the conquered. First the Aztecs were driven away by established tribes, then the Aztecs began to develop an empire of immense wealth and power by the late fifteenth century. The empire expanded to include many people from numerous tribes. One tribe that was apart of the Aztec empire were the Cempoala, who would later aid the Spanish in defeating the Aztecs. Because of the "Melting pot" within the empire, the Aztecs had a very diverse culture. However one man and his army brought the Aztecs to their knees. On November of 1519, the Aztec leader Montezuma received reports of small mountains floating off the Mexican coast. At one point the Spaniards were thought of to be Quetzalcoatl, the legendary figure who had one day promised to return from across the ocean. In distress Montezuma sent messengers bearing gifts to the Spanish ships, in order to greet these "gods". But, the Aztec leader was not alone in his attempt to gain acc ...

Organizational Change Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Organizational Change Paper - Essay Example Organizational psychology therefore is critical for the success and failure of the organization as its impact on achieving the desired level of performance from the employees is really significant. Historical roots of organizational psychology indicate that this discipline started as an off-shoot of industrial psychology and it is still considered as a part of it. However, over the period of time, the subject has evolved and included many new dimensions to the field of business management. What is also significant to understand that organizational psychology brought about a scientific approach in the field of business management? By linking the research with that of the organizational behavior, this discipline has basically opened new ways of understanding the human behavior in formal organizations and how that behavior can actually be modified to achieve the organizational objectives. The development of organizational psychology seems to be the result of multitude of factors which contributed to the development of this subject. The combination of external as well as internal factors led to the belief that psychology can be applied to solve the problems of the businesses and as such a new discipline of organizational psychology started to emerge. This definition indicates that the organizational psychology deals directly with the individual as well as group behaviors under the formal organizational environment and as such focus on exploiting and researching the behavior under different and variable circumstances so that it can be modified to achieve the strategic objectives of the firm. The work of Katz and Kahn further explored the idea of organizational psychology and concluded that organizational psychology is all about patterned human behavior because only patterned human behavior can allow a structure to evolve and as such under this formal structure

Information Technology- Information Retrieval Annotated Bibliography

Information Technology- Information Retrieval - Annotated Bibliography Example In this article, Chowdhury, Gibb and Landoni assess the ease at which a group of users is able to access information from a given source. This article is supported by a quantitative analysis conducted on users to support the necessity of considering uncertainties in the design of an information system. This article is useful in my case since it justifies the need for conducting studies on information retrieval and the possible risks involved. This article is a documentation of the development in the computing industry and the strategies implemented in adapting to changes in the field. Liu, McMahon and Culley describe the processes that led to the development of SDR technology. In the article, the authors explain the reasons behind development of the information retrieval (IR) technologies, such as incompatibility of files between the traditional and modern systems. This paper justifies the existence of the SDR in the engineering filed and its purpose in information retrieval. This article provides information on the challenges that led to the development of a better-structured information retrieval system. According to Tu and Seng, works involving IT technologies in the education sector is one of the fastest growing ventures. The article in question represents a collection of ideas from comprehensive studies in the information technology filed. The article by Tu and Seng is an attempt to congregate information on the information retrieval subject with considerations to current operational systems. The intelligence gathered exposes the need for continued studies in the information retrieval field. This article is useful in my study for it shows that perfection in the information retrieval subject has not yet been attained, there exists challenges. The article presents an exhaustive tutorial on the basics of applying information retrieval techniques to acquire useful information on a