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Let them know I will be videotaped
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6:10pm
5 th week review
30 minutes----
Everybody take your books and notes and gather round one of the five paper stations located around the room.
Each station will be designated one week's worth of readings.
Using the pens and paper provided, write down (big enough for people to see), the main theme or argument of the readings for your week. Feel free to draw representations of your theme if you so choose.
Next, come up with an application for your main theme or argument. Be prepared to BRIEFLY tell a story of application to the class.
Report out--- 15 minutes
Come up with connections from week to week as whole class--- 10 minutes
Show clip from video “Meetings, Bloody Meetings” as my suggested connection between the weeks of readings. – 10 minutes
The mere thought that we need meetings as an organizing principle or should use them as a management tool incorporates a specific theoretical underpinning, reveals an aspect of our organizational culture/power dynamics and politics, places emphasis on a particular approach to management, sets precedent for avenues of decision making.
7:10pm
Org development and org analysis- go over assignments 4 & 5. Click here to view handout.
7:45pm
BREAK
8:00pm - begin filming
HR- let's break down this term & concept
Arguably, the practices of human resource departments have been around since the start of employment= agreed upon fee for service.
However, we have not always had human resource departments. I wish I could tell you when the first HR department came about and where, but I can't. The most I can tell you is that HR departments started in the private sector and seem to be linked to the industrial revolution. A push against being treated like machines.
The theoretical discipline is based primarily on the assumption that employees are individuals with varying goals and needs, and as such should not be thought of as basic business resources, such as trucks and filing cabinets.
The field takes a positive view of workers, assuming that virtually all wish to contribute to the enterprise productively, and that the main obstacles to their endeavors are lack of knowledge, insufficient training, and failures of process.
Human Resource Org Theory : (Maslow- hierarchy of needs, McGregor- theory x & y) Human resource theory assumes that 1) organizations exist to serve human needs, 2) organizations and people need each other, 3) the fit between the individual and the organization must be right for both, 4) a bad fit will hurt both.
The focus is the individual mind and emotions- therefore, organizations are open systems. Workers who like their jobs will be more motivated and productive. The essence of the relationship between the organization and its workers is redefined from dependence to codependence—people are considered to be as or more important that the organization itself --- the organization influences human behavior just as behavior shapes the organization.
Human resource management (HRM) is both an academic theory and a practice that addresses the theoretical and practical techniques of managing a workforce.
What do HR departments and personnel do?
The HR profession grows and changes as the workplace and workforce changes. Many argue that the main task of any HR department or professional is to make sure the workforce “works.”
Its techniques force the managers of an enterprise to express their goals with specificity so that they can be understood and undertaken by the workforce, and to provide the resources needed for them to successfully accomplish their assignments.
The HR profession is quite diverse with specialties in recruitment, eeo and diversity, compensation, benefits, rights, HRIS, HR planning and marketing, training and development, safety, compliance, employee and labor relations, exit interviews, as well as HR generalist.
Within these activities there are external forces involved such as legal, economic, technological, global, environmental, cultural/geographic, political, and social--which significantly affect HR activities and how they are designed, managed, and changed.
The idea was that the human resource department must be more than of just hiring and firing. It must be related to employee's problems like for instance their medical facilities, their salaries based on time worked, etc. The employees must be free enough to consult their problems to someone who could take to the upper hand- a mediation point.
Now human resources occupies a bigger position and is considered being an important part of an organization.
FLIP TIME
What is the most important resource an organization has? Why? Does an organization need people to exist? (Skulls, DaVinci Code, internet)
Should humans be viewed as a resource? Re-source: look at the word- it's not just human source, but human resource- meaning this is something we can back to again and again. Also, resources are often finite- they can be used up or replaced. What if we were to call it our human investment department instead?
There is a major debate in the field as to whether employees should be referred to as assets, resources, or capital. In an economic sense, the human resource is ‘labor.' So human resource management, then, started out as labor rights management (socialists).
But labor is merely one of the factors of production:
Classical economics distinguishes between three factors of production:
By thinking of employees as 'human capital' rather than just laborers, we recognize the place employees have in what the organizations does- they are part of the means and the ends. Further, that humans are capitalists- they are the true owners of their work.
Assets: humans themselves are not assets for a company but the work they produce are the asset for them. And that they should be treated on the basis of their potentials and hard work.
Bottom line, no matter what you call it: treat people as people, not cogs in a machine. HR Departments were created because employees wanted there to be a system by which human beings could have their own problems and their own matters solved.
So, why do we need human resource departments? (allow time for response)
Why can't we just pray for guidance? Why can't we pledge allegiance to our mission statement every morning? Why can't we just tell stories of moral reasoning as the Greeks did? Why can't we just work together and do the work that needs to get done?
What world view are current human resource departments based on? - consider our arrogance in thinking we can control human behavior.
Enlightenment- we can control our world.
Rational- there are right and wrong decisions.
Motivation- if you just offer x then workers will do y. Protectionist/paternalistic/legalistic- arguably, hr is there to catch you with your hand in the cookie jar. What about trust? What about letting managers handle things?
Show resource websites
http://shrm.org/ (SHRM- society for human resource management- has been around since 1948 and is established in 100 countries, show a-z index but mention that you can only get so far without membership, note the importance of the certificate option under education/SHRM essentials)
Human Resource Certification Institute
8:30pm
Organizational change: I wanted to be an org change consultant to nonprofits
Focused holistic change: Organizational Culture Reform Movements : (prime in the 90s) —reinventing government (Gore)- change the structure and how people approach their work (be servants instead of administrators).
Why change?—what are some reasons why organizations change- note we refer to this as the organization changing when you may think it is just a policy changing--- what we do effects the org in some way- cultural or other
What change is appropriate? (structural, policy, personnel, environment- internal/ external, behavioral)
When? (constant, immediate, next month, next year)
Some tips for starting & managing change
• Decide how much you want to promote a personal attachment to the suggested change (could be positive or detrimental) Be clear about your place in the change. Are you a catalyst for change or a manager of the change process?
• Approach the change in a positive and proactive way—sell it, if you start out relating to the change as a horrible idea then it will likely have horrible results.
• Be open to the suggested change, changing---- just like with policy implementation, you may get halfway through the process and realize this is not good for the org
• Set clear goals (not specific objectives to start, you can do this later- how you reach the goal will depend upon a number of constraints- [money, time, pressures]- and approaches- [strategic planning vs. immediate]) and define the scope- big or little change……. Arguably, the more people know, the less change averse they will be.
• Praise the change when things are going well
• Coach to change when folks need help--- don't reprimand.
• Adopt a change mindset- be aware that change is happening and work will not be business as usual- how might this change effect other programs in place? How will it effect the attitude of the people involved? Grant a little leeway if appropriate.
9:00pm
Seminar