Term Paper on "Elements Which Has Effect on Efficiency of the Workers"

Term Paper 15 pages (4673 words) Sources: 10

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Business

Human Resources and Worker Efficiency

Many things going into the making of a successful company: shared attitudes toward success, good relations between employers and employees, and adequate rewards and compensation, among others. Human resources professionals must learn to observe an organization from all angles, considering what works and what does not, what is important, and what is not. A business consists first of a set of goals that define the purpose, or mission, of the firm. A company that manufactures computers, for example, must concern itself with everything that will further the sale of its product. Issues that might concern the organization would be the quality of the product, the satisfaction of its customer base, the increasing of its customer base - in fact, anything related to increased sales. A company cannot produce a product that sells if that product does not meet the standards required by the market. Those standards cannot be met if the firm's employees are incompetent or dissatisfied, or simply unaware of what is required of them. It is the job of human resources to ensure that all the members of an organization are fully aware of the aims of that organization and are adequately prepared to fulfill those aims. Employee contributions to company success must be recognized and rewarded. Grievances must be dealt with, and any problems that arise must be settled amicably and in away that satisfies all concerned. For their part, employees must realize that they are serving an external market, as well as meeting the expectations of their employers. Internal employee relations can positively, or adversely, affect relations with customers. Dissatisfied, or ill-trained, employees can negatively affect clients' impressions of an organization. Good human resource management is essential to the success of any concern.

A company defines itself by its mission statement. This mission is quintessentially one of human propensities and values.

By setting forth its goals, a firm is defining how it sees its employees, their capacities and aims. Google's mission is "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful."

In short, the Google Corporation is setting itself the goal of creating a corporate atmosphere that is conducive to the achievement of a goal of making information useful and accessible; a requirement that implies a priori that Google's employees must be the kinds of individuals who are capable of implementing these goals. Presumably, the ideal Google employee is open-minded and concerned about the world around himself or herself. As well, this ideal employee must be a helpful sort of person, the sort of man or woman who takes the time to help other individuals comprehend difficult situations and overcome problems. The ideal Google worker is also someone to whom information i.e. facts matter. These facts are somehow important in our world, as is free access to them. The Google mission statement describes the Google employee as much as it describes the company's goals. The same is true at IBM. The computer giant's mission; however, is somewhat different, focusing instead on the physical products produced by the company:

At IBM, we strive to lead in the invention, development and manufacture of the industry's most advanced information technologies, including computer systems, software, storage systems and microelectronics.

We translate these advanced technologies into value for our customers through our professional solutions, services and consulting businesses worldwide.

Nonetheless, the apparent focus on product over personnel should not be taken too far. In emphasizing the innovativeness of IBM products, and their helpfulness to the industry in general, IBM, too, is eliciting a certain kind of employee. The corporation is demanding that its employees be creative, and technically-savvy, individuals who share its goals of generating new product ideas, and better versions of existing product lines. IBM's workers need to see themselves as sources of inspiration, their hard work the foundation of bold new concepts in computer technology. Additionally, the IBM employee must view himself or herself as part of a dominant organization, one that leads in its field both in terms of new development and in sheer size and volume of production, in other words, in terms of market share. In each of these cases, the mission statement defines the company in terms of the goals and values of those that work at the company; goals and values that define and describe the organization itself.

The service or product offered by a business is thus, in some measure, the image it presents to the world; to its customers. Google provides the service of an Internet search engine, the purpose of which is to enable end-users, that is Google's clients, to find and use information. Google's commitment to providing free information is revealed by its business strategy which, above all, emphasizes users' unfettered access to a wide variety of information, including copyrighted, and otherwise protected, materials:

The most remarkable thing about the social phenomenon of Google is that Google does not charge per copy or per use, and neither do the abundance of websites, discussion lists, and information sources that Google indexes. In other words, works (web pages) that fall within the ambit of copyright are being provided to hundreds of millions of people through Google, and the authors of these works are not doing much to limit wide public access to their information property.

The service provided by Google is therefore a direct extension of the values and beliefs espoused by its workforce. The company that hold that information must be available to all has helped to create and foster a climate in which these very ideas are not only acceptable, but good business practice. By accepting Google's seeming infringement on their exclusive property rights, the owners of these materials are endorsing the viewpoint of Google and its employees. They are also helping to establish an entirely different attitude toward information. In a similar fashion, IBM strives, through its products, to reflect its employees' views and values. IBM was one of the first in its field, perhaps the first, major manufacturer of computers. The IBM Corporation has always prided itself on being an innovator, on being the one to break new ground and open new areas of interest and discovery. In keeping with the innovative spirit that drives its business strategy, twenty years ago, IBM became one of the first companies to implement a coherent human resources strategy that linked human resources policies with business goals.

In a rapidly changing world, IBM stuck to its original goals of retaining and promoting a talented workforce, even reallocating human resources, as necessary, despite economic downturns and the challenges presented by external forces.

Until quite recently in its corporate history, IBM had been virtually a model of the company that provided for its employees cradle-to-grave. Talented and loyal IBM personnel could expect a lifelong career with the firm along with full retirement benefits and insurance. The deal was simple: you be true to IBM's mission and business strategy and IBM will be true to you.

Globalization and its antecedents dramatically changed the outlook for companies like IBM. Suddenly, large, secure enterprises were faced with competition from less expensive, but still highly-skilled, labor in other parts of the world. IBM's mission had always been to maintain a reputation for high-quality and innovation, and to dominate its market. Concomitantly, the computer pioneer also saw itself as employing only the very best available personnel. At one time, this had been tantamount to employing mostly Americans in what, after all, was an American company. Yet, the changing dynamics of globalization forced IBM to re-think the specific thrust of its business strategy while still maintaining its core values and mission. IBM serves as an example of the multitude of companies that have been forced to take similar action. IBM continues to dominate the global market in the production and sale of mainframe computers. From 2002 to 2003, IBM's market share increased by ten percent, as compared to an industry-wide average increase of only five percent. With this increase, IBM now holds a solid 32% piece of the forty-six billion dollar global mainframe industry. Together, IBM and its three largest competitors - HP, Sun, and Dell - control nearly seventy-three percent of this market. IBM is a world leader in other fields as well. It shares the top five spots in computer notebooks with HP, Dell, Toshiba, and Acer. IBM lags only two-tenths of a percentage point behind Hewlett Packard in terms of it storage revenue; the two companies together managing a hefty fifty-one percent share of the entire storage market. As a leading it player, IBM and its few leading competitors thus have almost a stranglehold on the global industry.

As for IBM's operations, the company employed 319,273 employees around the world in 2003. Though founded and headquartered in the United States, IBM has a large number of international facilities - and the number of staffers overseas is growing. According to Linda Guyer, an IBM employee, can tell you what we've been told by a very good source. I cannot… READ MORE

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