Table of Contents
Qn 1
In every organization, the top management has the responsibility of ensuring that the employees among other staff working within it are provided with a conducive environment. However, the top management most of the times fails to recognize the existence of the human resource and input as a form of an asset due to the lack of measurable value of each of the individuals working within an organization. Most of the assets within a business setting such as the technology and furniture are attached to a particular value, but the employees are not given any particular value (Hendry, 2012). This is one of the primary reason why the senior management fails to recognize the presence and capabilities of the human resource that is available in a workplace setting. Additionally, it is argued that many of the management do not consider referring to the employees as assets as being respectful. This means that they do not compare the employees as being part of the assets of the company in the long run. This further leads to the employees failing in meeting the productivity goals of the company gradually due to lack of recognition.
Qn 2
Line managers are also indicated as failing in recognizing human capital (assets) as compared to the other assets available to a company. Various factors are cited as contributing to the failure by the line managers to recognize the human assets. First off, the assets in every line are valued according to their financial value. However, human assets are not attached to any financial value. This is the main reason why, when companies need to make changes to their companies, the first thing that they do is retrench human capital (Hogan & Martinez, 2003). They do not recognize the value they are losing by laying off human capital which is crucial for the productivity of the company in the long run. Therefore, line managers also, fail to conduct employee evaluation regularly so that they can measure the value of the employees (Hendry, 2012). By measuring their value, they can come up with a way of valuing their employees and considering them as an important part of the productivity of the company gradually.
Qn 3
The line managers have the responsibility of ensuring that all the employees meet their expectations according to their job descriptions. Additionally, they are also involved in the planning and monitoring of the activities of the employees in different lines of operations. About this, the line managers can introduce the performance measuring metrics for their employees by conducting regular evaluations (Hogan & Martinez, 2003). When a company fails and the line managers do not have a record of their employees’ performance, they are not able to identify the actual employees that may have contributed to the failure. About this, it is important for the line managers to ensure that they introduce measures that are designed to ensure the management understands the performance capabilities of every employee. It is an important strategy in the process of decision making regarding the achievement of set goals and objectives.
Qn 4
The human resource is responsible for the recruitment and the welfare of all the employees working within a particular organization. When the resource management is responsible enough, they can provide high-quality services to the employees who in turn provide high-quality services for the company (Mello, 2015). It is therefore important to ensure that there are different ways of introducing the top management and the line managers to the strategies of ensuring that the human capital is recognized within their working stations. The management responsible for a company and the human resource management should work together to understand their employees better. When the human resource fails to recognize the human capital, then it is difficult for the top management to recognize them. The human resource department is expected to know the performance of every employee so that they may know how to evaluate them and through which means (Hendry, 2012). Therefore, the human resource should organize for the top management and the line managers to have regular briefings on how the employees contribute to the company departments. This would be a strategy that would be important to bring out the best in the employees while enjoying high productivity.
Qn 5
When a company has a competitive advantage over other companies in the same field of production, they gain high profits in the long run. However, it is better to invest heavily in the human capital to gain a more competitive advantage in the market. One of the primary reasons why the human capital is advocated for is due to their dynamic nature (Mello, 2015). Human capital can easily be changed to adapt to the changing business needs. This means that when there are changes that are required to be affected within a company, then the human resource is only required to introduce training to the employees so that they can continue being productive in the long run. Additionally, it is easy to replace the human resource with changing business needs instead of the other physical assets which might be expensive.
Qn 6
There have been many comparisons regarding investing in human capital or fixed assets. The main reason why companies that invest less in human capital and more in fixed assets become successful is that the few employees that are employed have the required skills and knowledge to utilize the fixed assets for maximum productivity. However, when a company fails to employ highly qualified personnel to work in the different departments utilizing the fixed assets, they fail to be successful in the long run (Hendry, 2012). When deciding whether to invest in human or fixed assets, it is important to note that the success of a business is not dependent on the number of the human capital that is employed within the various departments but is dependent on the skills of the human assets that are employed.
Qn 7
When conducting employee evaluation which is done several times throughout the year, there should be definite entries that should be considered and checked. When the management is satisfied with the work of their employees after evaluations, they are required to provide recommendations to help the employees to improve their abilities, skills and knowledge on their areas of expertise. With regard to this, there are difficulties experienced by the management in the process of evaluation of the employees (Hogan & Martinez, 2003). There is no specific performance metrics that are provided for a specific organizational need. Therefore, all employees are most times evaluated based on general assumptions and procedures. This is what makes it difficult for the top management and line managers to fail in recognizing their human assets in the company.
- Hendry, C. (2012). Human resource management. Routledge.
- Hogan, J., & Martínez Lucio, M. (2003). Human resource management. The Blackwell
- Mello, J., (2015). Strategic human resource management. (4th ed.). Stamford, CT: Cengage Publishing. Encyclopedia of Sociology.