1. What is in general, the main aim of business strategy?

The purpose of HRM is to ensure that the employees of an organization are used in such a way that the
employer obtains the greatest possible benefit from their abilities and the employees obtain both material
and psychological rewards from their work (Graham, 1978).
HRM is a distinctive approach to employment management which seeks to achieve competitive
advantage through the strategic deployment of a highly committed and capable workforce, using an array
of cultural, structural and personnel techniques. Storey (1995: 5).
HRM is a managerial perspective which argues the need to establish an integrated series of personnel
policies to support organizational strategy. Buchanan and Huczynski (2004: 679).
1. What are the main issues that are dealt with by strategic HR professionals in organizations?
greatest good for the largest number of people;
respect basic rights of privacy, due process, consent, and free speech;
treat employees and customers equitably and fairly.
protection of employee safety,
fairness in employment practices (for example, avoiding discrimination).
2. Define sexual harassment, and tell how employers can eliminate or minimize it.
Sexual harassment is unwelcome sexual advances and related behavior that makes the conduct a term of
employment or the basis for employment decisions with an individuals work performance or creates a
work environment that is intimidating, hostile, or offensive.
Organizations can prevent sexual harassment by:
developing a policy that defines and forbids it,
training employees to recognize and avoid this behavior,
providing a means for employees to complain and be protected.
3. Describe ways employers can avoid illegal discrimination and provide reasonable
accommodation.
Employers can avoid discrimination by avoiding disparate treatment of job applicants and employees, as
well as policies that result in disparate impact. Companies can develop and enforce an EEO policy
coupled with policies and practices that demonstrate a high value placed on diversity. Employees may
need to make such accommodations as adjusting schedules or dress codes, making the workplace more
accessible, or restructuring jobs.
4. Which environmental factors influence business strategy? Identify the factors that most
strongly influence HRM in international markets.
A culture has the dimensions of
individualism/collectivism, high or low power distance, high or low uncertainty avoidance,
masculinity/femininity, and long-term or short-term orientation. Countries also differ in the degree to
which their labor markets include people with education and skills of value to employers. Another
influence on international HRM is the foreign countrys political-legal systemits government, laws, and
regulations. Finally, a countrys economic system, capitalist or socialist, as well as the governments
involvement in the countrys economy, such as through taxes and price controls, is a strong factor
determining HRM practices.
External factors:
climate (in winter time the bussines was not going well)
economy
technology (give mobiles to employees, give for a short period trucks to employees)
competition ( the stores competing between them, mk strategy to get more bonuses)
Internal factors:
organizational culture (work extra)
human resource (recruitment, training)
organization structure,
management (decision making process, trusting)
assets (warehouse did not provide the right materials, reasonable in time)
5. Can you describe the relation between business strategy and human resource management?
Integration between business strategy and human resource management refers to the relationships
between the factors and actors involved. Under this heading, it is often advocated that the senior human
resource manager should be a member of the board of directors or management team. High level of
integration is a necessity for the optimal performance of firms. Specific environmental characteristics and
product-market strategies. PPP plan for techicians and managers!!!!
6. Can you describe the relation between organizational financial performance and organizational
social performance?

Instrumental stakeholder theory suggests a positive relationship between CSP and CFP. According to
this theory, the satisfaction of various stakeholder groups is instrumental for organizational financial
performance.
Stakeholder-agency theory- stakeholdermanagement relationships serve as monitoring and
enforcement mechanisms that prevent managers from diverting attention from broad organizational
financial goals. Furthermore, by addressing and balancing the claims of multiple stakeholders managers
can increase the efficiency of their organizations adaptation to external demands.
7. Describe how the organization is able to get a competitive advantage with HR:
To remain competitive, employers must meet the demands of product and labor markets: Hire
Professionals with Experience; Give HR Leadership Positions; Let HR Determine Training Programs;
Provide HR Tools to Monitor Employee Performance
According to Pfeiffer:
Employement security
Incentive pay
Participation and empowerment
Long term perspective
Selectivity in recruitment
Teams and job redesign
Wage compression, high wage
Information sharing
Training and skill development
Promotions
8. Which values are lacking in the financial system?
high involvement management
high commitment management
high performance work systems
1. We think in linear relationships
2. We ignore emotions
3. The organization as a structured system

9. Which elements need to be considered when the organization wants to improve the quality in
performance of employees? - PPP plan
"Fix the systems in which our employees work!"
"Fix the employees!" (yesterday solutions)
"hygiene factors"fair pay, reasonable benefits, clean and safe working conditions, etc. (todays solutions)
(tomorrows solutions): highly effective way of looking at this issue was provided by
Tom Gilbert, who developed a diagnostic tool called the Behavior Engineering Model:
1. Information.
2. Resources.
3. Incentives.
4. Skills and knowledge.
5. Capacity.
6. Motivation.
10. Which factors influence recruitment strategies in the case?
The recruitment strategy is a document describing the target position on the job market and the main
recruitment sources to be used. Managers must continually monitor internal and external environmental
factors and adjust HR strategy accordingly.

Competition -The extent of competition in your industry affects your company's ability to recruit
qualified workers
Compensation - In an oversaturated market, when unemployment is high and many more qualified
candidates exist than job opportunities, the amount of compensation you must provide is less than when a
shortage of candidates exists and you are competing against multiple other companies to recruit
employees. - In early 1993, John Barlow designed a compensation plan he hoped would help the
company fulfill its goals. It gave installers an incentive to become more productive. We seemed to be
facing what we called a glass ceiling in terms of productivity. Our strategy of creating an alliance with
the insurance companies was working to bring in more insurance units, but we ... needed to give the
installers an incentive to take that extra job and find a way to do it, said Beth Wolszon.
Legislation - impacts all HR activities. Federal and state legislation typically dictate how long a business
must retain personnel records and other employee data, what can be stored, and how.
Employee Relations- HR must ensure employees receive appropriate training and development to be
ready for promotion when the time comes. HR should monitor the number of employees eligible for
retirement and ensure potential replacements or other staff members are trained to avoid a sudden
departure of business knowledge
11. Which job characteristics will lead to motivation?
Job
characteristics
theory is
a theory of work
design.
It
provides
a
set
of
implementing principles for enriching jobs in organiz settings.
Skill variety: How many different skills and talents does the job require of a person. Are they asked to do
a lot of different things, or is it a monotonous, repetitive job?
Task identity: Is there a clearly defined beginning, middle and end to a given task? Does a worker know
what he or she is supposed to do, and when he or she is successfully completed the task?
Task significance: Does the job have a substantial impact?? Will it matter to people, either within the
organization or to society? Is this job/given task meaningful?
Autonomy: How much freedom does an individual have to accomplish his or her tasks? This freedom
includes the ability to schedule work as well as figuring out how to get the tasks done.
Job feedback: Is an employee kept in the loop about their performance Are the being told when they are
doing well and when they are not?
Experiencing the work as meaningful - feeling the work he or she does is "generally worthwhile, valuable
or important by some system of values he or she finds acceptable."
Experiencing personal responsibility - where a worker is accountable for the results of the work done.
Knowledge of the results - a worker must know and understand how well he or she is doing the job.
In addition to creating an incentive system to motivate its employees, Safelite had two other major
goals: A) to create loyalty among its largely transient workforce, and B) to combat the industry s
traditionally high turnover rates. In most cases, turnover rates were so high simply because glass
installation was a seasonal business.
12. Considering the theory of Herzberg, can you determine ways to improve job satisfaction?
The two-factor theory (also known as Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory and dual-factor theory)
states that there are certain factors in the workplace that cause job satisfaction, while a separate set of
factors cause dissatisfaction.

Motivators (e.g. challenging work, recognition, responsibility) that give positive satisfaction,
arising from intrinsic conditions of the job itself, such as recognition, achievement, or personal growth,
[4]
and

Hygiene factors (e.g. status, job security, salary, fringe benefits, work conditions) that do not
give positive satisfaction or lead to higher motivation, though dissatisfaction results from their absence.
The term "hygiene" is used in the sense that these are maintenance factors.
According to the Two-Factory Theory there are four possible combinations:
1.
High Hygiene + High Motivation: The ideal situation where employees are highly motivated and
have few complaints.
2.
High Hygiene + Low Motivation: Employees have few complaints but are not highly motivated.
The job is viewed as a paycheck.
3.
Low Hygiene + High Motivation: Employees are motivated but have a lot of complaints. A
situations where the job is exciting and challenging but salaries and work conditions are not up to par.
4.
Low Hygiene + Low Motivation: This is the worst situation where employees are not motivated
and have many complaints.
In addition to creating an incentive system to motivate its employees, Safelite had two other major
goals: A) to create loyalty among its largely transient workforce, and B) to combat the industry s
traditionally high turnover rates. In most cases, turnover rates were so high simply because glass
installation was a seasonal business.

13. What is the management control problem in the case?

1. Do they understand what we expect of them? lack of direction
2. Will they work consistently hard and try to do what is expected of them? lack of motivation
3. Are they capable of doing what is expected of them? lack of limitation
14. Does the control system used in the case provide the best option to motivate the employees?
In addition to creating an incentive system to motivate its employees, Safelite had two other major
goals: A) to create loyalty among its largely transient workforce, and B) to combat the industry s
traditionally high turnover rates. In most cases, turnover rates were so high simply because glass
installation was a seasonal business.
15. What basically motivates people?
One of the most widely mentioned theories of motivation is the hierarchy of needs theory put forth by
psychologist Abraham Maslow. Maslow saw human needs in the form of a hierarchy, ascending from the
lowest to the highest, and he concluded that when one set of needs is satisfied, this kind of need ceases
to be a motivator. Psychologically needs are the basic one.
16. What are the 7 deadly sins of performance management?
Avoiding the wrong way starts with avoiding the seven common, but deadly, mistakes pointed out by
Michael Hammer in his article:
Vanity - Dont just use measures that will inevitably make the organization, its people, and especially its
managers, look good.
Provincialism - Organizational boundaries and concerns should not dictate performance metrics.
Narcissism - Organizations often measure from their point of view when they should be measuring from
their customers point of view.
Laziness - Many organizations assume they know what is important to measure without giving it
adequate thought or effort.
Pettiness - Measuring only a small component of what is important.
Inanity - Implement metrics without giving thought to the consequences of these metrics on human
behavior and on enterprise performance
Frivolity - Not being serious about measurement in the first place.
17. What are the pros and cons of pay for performance?
Cons: commission %; extra incentives for workers good job - motivation; raise productivity - top priority;
loyalty of workforce; high turnover rates;
Pros: No demand in winter, laying off many workers for the winter & hiring back during peak season;
technicians were often lured away by other companies for more money; truck privileges ended for
workers; AA-level managers and DCC/CTU managers were not included in the PPP plan, and were paid a
straight salary, This, Bill Rapp says, would give them an incentive to hire and manage a smaller number
of technicians. We want them to think, If I hire another tech, Ill have less to install myself. different
approaches!; He worried that lowering the guarantee rate, as the PPP plan called for, might result in a
huge turnover; And more in purple below!
18. Relate environmental factors in the case to the business strategy and consequently to HR
Strategy.
In a highly uncertain business environment and complex organizations, an organization can create
competitive advantage by continuously focusing on adaptive capacity of the organization. - The spring
and summer tended to be the busiest months, and this was the time when competition for new hires was
at its peak. In the winter, demand for windshield replacement troughed, so repair shops often found it
necessary to lay off many of their workers for the winter, then hire them back again in the spring and
summer.
19. What would you advise the CEO to develop and retain new talent?
Diversity Brings Innovation. To build a great team, you need diverse thinkers. Team that thinks outside
the box and hit problems from many different angles.
Training

Mentoring

Instill a positive culture

Use communication to build credibility

Show appreciation via compensation and benefits

Encourage referrals and recruit from within

Coaching/feedback

Provide growth opportunities

Make employees feel valued

Lower stress from overworking and create work/life balance

Foster trust and confidence in senior leaders.

20. Comment on the way the intellectual capital of the firm is dealt with in the case.
Intellectual capital has also been defined as the difference between a firms market value and the cost
of replacing its assets. It is those things that we normally cannot put a price tag on, such as expertise,
knowledge and a firms organizational learning ability.
Elements:
Relationship Capital: All business relationships a company entertains with external parties, such as
suppliers, partners, clients, vendors, etc. Customer capital-the loyalty of valuable customers created by
understanding their needs and meeting them consistently:
! Supplier capital - the mutual trust, commitment, and creativity of key suppliers.
! Alliance capital - reliable and beneficial partners.
! Community capital - an organizations capabilities and reputation in its surrounding community.
! Regulatory capital - knowledge of laws and regulations as well as lobbying skills and contacts.
! Competitor capital - critical understanding and intelligence about competitors.
Human Capital: Knowledge and competencies residing with the companys employees. Human capital is
defined as the knowledge, skills, experience, intuition and attitudes of the workforce. Intellectual capital
can be increased by increasing the capacity of each worker.
Organizational Capital: The collective know how, beyond the capabilities of individual employees. E.g.
Information systems; policies and procedures; intellectual property. (Sullivan, 2000) The importance of
knowledge pertaining to external parties relevant to an organization. Structural capital is the firms
organizational capabilities to meet market requirements. It involves the organizations routines and
structures that support employees quests for optimum intellectual performance and, therefore, overall
business performance. The structural capital of a firm consists of four elements:
! Systems - the way in which an organizations processes (information, communication, decision-making)
and outputs (products/services and capital) proceed.
! Structure - the arrangement of responsibilities and accountabilities that defines the position of and rel
between members of an organization.
! Strategy - the goals of the organization and the ways it seeks to achieve them.
! Culture - the sum of individual opinions, shared mindsets, values, and norms within the organization
21. How can you measure intellectual capital?
1. Direct Intellectual Capital Methods (DICM) estimate the dollar value of intangible assets by
identifying its various components. Once these components are identified, they can be directly evaluated,
either individually or as an aggregated coefficient.
2. Market Capitalization Methods (MCM) calculate the difference between a companys market
capitalization and its stockholders equity as the value of its intellectual capital or intangible assets.
3. Return on Assets Methods (ROA) average pre-tax earnings of a company and divide them by the
average tangible assets of the company. The result is a company ROA that is then compared with its
industry average. The difference is multiplied by the companys
average tangible assets to calculate an average annual earning from intangibles. By dividing the aboveaverage earnings by the companys weighted average cost of capital or an interest rate, one can derive
an estimate of the value of its intangible assets or intellectual capital.
22. Which barriers or success factors can you identify in the case, when it comes to implementing
(HR) strategies?
Social loafing -tendency of certain members of a group to get by with less effort than what they would
have put when working alone.
Group think
Role ambiguity

 Role conflict
Information (knowledge)
(mis)use of power
1

2
-

Social identity theory (Tafjel,1974): Group pressure:

individuals define themselves as members of adistinct social category
individuals form and learn the stereotypic norms of that category
individuals assign these norms to themselves in the same way that they assign other stereotypic
characteristics of the category to themselves (Referent informational influence)
Group effects: Effects of group behavior:
Anonymity: a sentiment of invincible power which allows him to yield to unstrings which, had he been
alone, he would perforce have kept under restrain
Contagion: an individual readily sacrifices his personal interest to the collective interest
Suggestibility: the effect that the conscious personality has entirely vanished and that the individual is as
prone to suggestion as in the hypnotic state
Human dominate. How can we apply this theory in an organizational setting?
Define strategy

3. What are the top 4 elements of HR Practice?

4. Which factors are oversimplified in the finance & control view?

Challengers of convergence theory state that a universal pattern for all countries without considering
cultural, social and economical factors is over simplified, factors as differences in technology or the
stability of the environment in which firms operated, productivity

5. Which main components of the internal business environment could possibly be affected by
changes in the external business environment?
External factors:
climate (in winter time the bussines was not going well)
economy
technology (give mobiles to employees, give for a short period trucks to employees)
competition ( the stores competing between them, mk strategy to get more bonuses)
Internal factors:
organizational culture (work extra)
human resource (recruitment, training)
organization structure,
management (decision making process, trusting)
assets (warehouse did not provide the right materials, reasonable in time)

In the resource based view on HRM & Performance, a firms resources are considered as valuable, nonsubstitutable and therefore a source of competitive advantage True/false

I am CEO of Saxion. How do I raise control over the performance of the students? What environmental
factors (physical, social) influence the performance of students and my employees?

 Problem analysis (what is the perceived problem)

Theoretical context (Herzberg, Merchant and all other theories that are of use)
Present your results in terms of necessary HR activities, outcome, performance.
8

What is the main objective of a business?

Survival a short term objective, probably for small business just starting out, or when a new firm
enters the market or at a time of crisis.
Profit maximisation try to make the most profit possible most like to be the aim of the owners and
shareholders.
Profit satisficing try to make enough profit to keep the owners comfortable probably the aim of
smaller businesses whose owners do not want to work longer hours.
Sales growth where the business tries to make as many sales as possible. This may be because the
managers believe that the survival of the business depends on being large. Large businesses can also
benefit from economies of scale.
The goal of HRM is to maximize the productivity of an organization by optimizing the effectiveness of
its employees while simultaneously improving the work life of employees and treating employees as
valuable resources.

HR Planning The process that links the human resource needs of an organization to its strategic
plan to
ensure
that staffing is
sufficient, qualified,
and competent enough
to achieve the organization's objectives

10 Explain how labor market developments influence phases of HRM/ planning A labour market
can be understood as the mechanism through which human labour is bought and sold as a commodity
and the means by which labour demand (the number and type of available jobs) is matched with labour
supply (the number and type of available workers).
The former refers to configuring HRM activities to fulfil a firms human resource requirements by
developing existing employees and retaining their services over the long-term.
Internal labour market is often a characteristic of best practice models of HRM as represented by the
emphasis on employment security and high levels of investment in training there is evidence to suggest
an erosion of strong internal labour markets as a result of increased global competition and market
uncertainty.
Quality of working life : HRM which claims to produce mutual gains for both the employee and employer:
improving both individual and organizational performance and the quality of working life.
Employee empowerment is considered to be both a key component of highcommitment models of HRM
and a centrally important element in employee job preference.
11 What other factors influence recruitment strategies?

Main theories of motivation:

Maslow argues that people are motivated and satisfied by built-in basic intrinsic motivators that are
arranged in hierarchical order. In the first level are the basic physiological needs such as food, water and
shelter. In the second level are the safety needs that include security, order and being free from suffering.
Alderfer (1969) argued that Maslows hierarchy of needs can be modified to overcome these criticisms
and grouped under three needs: Existence, Relatedness and Growth, referred to as ERG theory.
Herzberg (1966) bases his ideas of motivation on two factors: hygiene and motivator. Hygiene factors
are extrinsic and they determine the environment that work takes place. When these factors (e.g. money,
status, conditions of work, job security, quality of management, etc.) emerge on a continuum they
determine the adequacy (where employees are satisfied) or inadequacy (where employees are
dissatisfied) of the work place (McLean et al. 1996). Hygiene factors do not produce job satisfaction; they
simply produce good working conditions that provide good hygiene.
Maslows theory of needs have motivated McGregor to generate his ideas on employee motivation where
he comes up with two assumptions (Theory X and Theory Y) claiming a managers opinion about people
influences the way they manage. His aim was to provoke management by highlighting the stereotypical
views rather than producing empirical evidence.
Expectancy theories are a set of assumptions originating from Vroom (1964) and by Porter and
Lawler (1968). Vroom (1964) claims that force of motivation can be calculated if key values are known:
- Expectancy: perception that there is a connection between effort and performance (work hard-get a
promotion).
- Instrumentality: perception that performance related outcomes will result in value related outcomes
(increase the quality of my work-I will receive a bonus).
- Valance: expected worth of outcomes (e.g. being acknowledged will help me satisfy my selfactualisation needs).
Adams (1965) equity theory focuses on the assumption that individuals perception of how fairly they
are treated when compared to others will determine their motivation. Porter and Lawler (1968)
developed Vrooms theory a step further. They have introduced the value of reward to the equation and,
in addition, they argue that performance is not direct result of force of motivation, but it is shaped by
individuals perception of their role at work and their personality.
Goal-Setting Theory The basic assumption of this theory is that employees goals determine their
behaviour and decisions at work. Locke (1968) argues that employees will be satisfied if they achieve
their goals and the more difficult these goals are to achieve, the more satisfied employees will be when
they achieve them. Also, goals with clear and explicit outcomes are likely lead to higher performance.
Commitment
Literature presents two main models of commitment: traditional model and
behavioural and attitudinal model of commitment. The following sections present these main
approaches to employee commitment. According to the traditional model, commitment is often
defined in terms of loyalty (to the organisation) and attachment (to individuals or groups in the
organization) Some authors and researches see behavioural commitment distinct from the
attitudinal commitment. Behavioural commitment model suggests commitment results from
employees past actions which are binding. This model claims that behaviour of employees lead to
development of commitment attitudes. It involves of biding employees to certain organizational tasks
through personal acceptance and responsibility; employees become locked in to the organization

There are various theories of how groups develop, but the most influential of all has been Tuckmans
(1965) model. - The first stage is called forming, where the groups comes together and faces many
uncertainties with regards to its purpose, structure, leadership and members roles.
-The next stage is storming. The group begins to work together to solve the initial problems and settle
any disagreements. Group members focus on resolving conflicts about behaviour, roles and expectations.
Sense of belonging and acceptance emerges and some members begin to show sign of leadership.
- The third stage is norming, where members develop close relationships and set ground rules to keep
the order. A structure is also set to distribute various responsibilities to group members. This helps to
predict future group behaviours and activities. Initial feeling of unrest and uncertainty are replaced by
harmony and peace.
The fourth stage is performing. The togetherness of the group is obvious. The group is matured, trust
and commitment are established amongst the members, and they are concerned about working towards
accomplishing the goals of the group by working collectively.
-The last stage is adjourning. After accomplishing its goals or after its members leave the group
disbands. Ceremonies or rituals such as going out for a meal or having speeches often mark the end of a
group.
Kabanoff (1991) identifies four styles of management:
Collegial: Resources and rewards are evenly distributed. Organisational success depends on commitment
and shared values. Individual responsibility is the basis of organisational performance. Management
control over employees is limited.
Meritocratic: Employees are concerned about productivity and cohesion. The management focus is on
performance.
Elite: The hierarchy is highly developed. Power, resources and rewards are concentrated at the top levels
of the hierarchy.
Leadership: This style of management shares many of the values of the elite style of management, but
instead of a clique of leaders on the top level, it has leaders at various levels of the hierarchy (e.g. the
army).