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Thursday, July 12, 2018

HRM Issues in Fastening Technologies Limited

HRM Issues in Fastening Technologies Limited

According to the given  case study , there are several HRM issues at Fastening Technologies Limited. This section of the report will provide an analysis and evaluation of Performance Appraisal and Rewards system and Policy of FTL.

Analysis and Evaluation

The approach of the company towards reward policy was not very good. The total payment structure of the employee doe not comprises non-monetary benefits for the employees to motivate them to Assignment Provider team)
work with dedication (Robins, 2002). Catharine also found that the rewarding system discriminates among employees on the basis of gender. When Angela Downley was appointed as the quality manager, she found that she is getting the low salary in comparison to Phil. She has also not got a car from the company, whether most of the higher employees have a car. Steve commented on this issue that “it was just a co-incidence that the first two managers he appointed after making this decision happened to be female”. (Case Study, p. 14) ( we are most experience and most trusted


The company does not give any extra benefits to the employees and the percentages of bonus are very low. Some of the senior staff members are getting less salary in comparison to their team members.

The performance appraisal system is also based on grading given by the supervisor, without any evaluation of performance. Although the other members have proposed competency based performance appraisal system but management is continuously working on the old appraisal system, which has developed dissatisfaction among the employee. The weak management style of Steve was damaging the professional standard and status of business personnel. Thus, there is a need for the appropriate reward policy and performance appraisal system in the company.

Strengths: According to Deeprose (20007) reward system gives motivation and encouragement to the employees to work for the organization. They are far more than just bonus plans and stock options. Reward systems mostly include various awards, recognition, promotions, reassignment, non-monetary bonuses linked to the performance of the employees. It includes a variety of monetary as well as non-monetary rewards (Deeprose, 2007). The use of reward system assumes that people’s actions are related to their skills and ability to achieve important long-run goals. Even though many organizations, by choice or tradition or contract, allocate performance on non-performance criteria, rewards should be regarded as a “pay off” for performance (Mathis & Jackson, 2006).

Performance Management is the integration of performance appraisal systems, with broader human resource systems as a means of aligning employees’ work behaviors with the organization’s goals (Tyson & York, 2000). Reward system helps in performance management as it increases the motivation of the employees to work and encourages them to work hard. It evaluates the performance of the employees and helps in identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the employees (Roberts, 1994).

Rewards create a positive working environment in the organization and develop a spirit of mutual cooperation and team work. They help in improving the skills and performance of the employees by offering them some monetary or non-monetary benefits (Nelson & Quick, 2007).

Limitations: Reward Policy scheme and performance management system may cause the following ill effects:

In the absence of a ceiling on reward earnings and to record highest performance, some workers may overwork and thereby spoil their health (Roberts, 1994).
In order to maximize the output, employee may sacrifice with the quality of the products, unless stick check or inspection is maintained (Allen & Kilman, 2001).
Once an incentive plan is introduced, management may face resistance while revising standard and rates due to the changes in technology method, machinery and materials (Robins, 2002).
Strict vigilance becomes necessary to ensure that workers do not disregard safety regulations (Nelson & Quick, 2007).

Conclusion

From the above discussion, it can be concluded that reward and performance management system is an important part of the company to manage human resources and increase the productivity of the company. The system should be competent enough to motivate the desired behaviors. In such system the rewards should be related to performance.

Recommendations

It has been identified that the case study has various problems, thus the management should execute some recommendations to solve the problems:
Implementation of On-Job and Off-job training program to increase the knowledge of the employees. Development of coaching networks and appoints mentors to increase experiential learning (Mathis & Jackson, 2006).

The company should execute new reward system (Appendix 1) as per the designation. Some other monetary benefits should also be given to the employees (Appendix 2). This would also include non monetary incentives such as an employee of the month, vacations trip, casual leave, paid leaves, certificates, thanks notes, greeting to the employees, sharing his name with all other employees, chocolates and gifts, value card, etc. (Appendix 3). The reward system should be based on the equal employment opportunity act (Allen & Kilman, 2001).

In order to develop strong relationships among employees and increase their performance the firm should follow the path of conflict (Appendix 4). This path of conflict will resolve all the issues and conflicts among the employee and increase mutual understanding (Nelson & Quick, 2007).
The firm should follow a definite process of recruitment and selection, which comprise following steps: preliminary interview, application blank, selection test, employment interview, medical examination, reference checks, and final approval (Robins, 2002).

All these recommendations would help the firm to decrease the high rate of absenteeism and improve employee morale. It would improve the performance of the employees, which ultimately increase the productivity of the employees and profitability of the company.  ( Get assignment help from world no 1 assignment help company)

Managing People: Fastening Technologies Limited Assignment Help


Managing People: Fastening Technologies Limited Assignment Help




Executive Summary

The main aim to develop this report is to evaluate the human resource policies of Fastening Technologies Limited. From the origin of FTL, the company has faced many positive and negative situations in the business industry. From the people management perspectives, these issues are Plagiarism Free Assignments help from US,UK and Australia experts.) 
employment relationships, employee relations/ communication, HR planning in relation to resourcing, individual performance management, reward/ remuneration and staff development. Presently, Phil James is the general manager of the company. Fourteen years ago, when Phil James joined, many changes have been taken place in the company due to the highly changing and competitive environment (Case Study, p. 2). ( Get

Company initially followed the approaches of personnel management but when Ander joined the company, company moved towards implementing human resource management approaches. According to the case study, some of the approaches of FTL to manage people in the organization are quite effective; rest needs some changes as per the industrial and environmental changes. The second part of the report evaluates the reward and performance management system at the company. The repot has also given some recommendations to the company to improve its HR policies. By means of the following paper, the reader would be able to understand the importance of HRM and people management in the success of an organization.

In order to collect the necessary information to complete the report, various books, authenticated journals, academic reviews and internet sources are evaluated. In addition to this assignment help, the lecture notes, case study and website of the company are used to collect the information.

Introduction

 Fastening technology was founded by, Alan Brown, in 1961, by designing his own manufacturing process. In the early period of its existing, the company was very successful due to the contribution of creative, practiced and skillful engineers (Case Study, p. 2). The company manufactures a variety of fasteners to fulfill the requirement of the domestic and international industries (Case Study, p. 2). Phil James, General Manager of Fastening Technologies Ltd, joined the company about 14 years back and after 4 years of his joining U.S. owned Global Engineering Inc. bought the business from Alan Brown (Case Study, p. 2).

When the economy of United Kingdom was in recession, demands for the automotive products and white good decreased, which directly had a negative impact on the performance of FTL.  This led to top management of the company to replace existing managing director by Anders van Hoy. Ander brought lot of changes in the way people were managed in the company. Innovative approaches were used by Anders van Hoy, the operation manager recruited by Global in the German Sister Company, FTL (Case Study, p. 2 & p.3).

 During the existence of the company various approaches and initiatives were taken to manage people. This repot will assess the approaches used by Fastening Technologies Limit to manage people. This report has two parts. The first part will evaluate approaches to people management by comparing how far FTL’s approach to people management is personnel or HRM and will provide various recommendations to improve its people management approaches as per the innovations in the business industries. The second part of the paper will critically analyze one of the main HR issue faced by Fastening Technologies Limited and evaluate the strengths and limitations of the issue.


Part 1

Approaches of FTL to People Management whether Personnel or Human Resource Management

 According to Cole (2002) Personnel management and human resource management are both used, often interchangeably both by academicians and practitioners and it is arguable whether, or what differences separate the concepts Personnel and Human Resource Management (HRM). Story (1989, 1995) mention that there are some radical differences in approach about how people are managed using Personnel or Human Resource Management principles. One of the main differences that is highlighted by Story (1995) is that Human Resource Management is very closely linked and integrated with business objectives and strategy of the business that is not the case with Personnel management. HRM seeks to achieve competitive advantage for the company (Beardwell & Claydon, 2007; Storey, 1995). 

 Initially FTL’s approach to manage people was more ad hoc and reactive and more toward personnel management approach. Approach to managing people initially before Ander took over was more toward providing support to line activities and coordinate between what management wants and what are the employees concerns that is defined as Personnel Management approach to managing people by Cornelius (1992). It can be interpreted from the case that there was no formal planning to manage people and some employees had to be made redundant when Ander joined the company (Case Study, p. 1 & p.2).

Storey (1995) mention that human resource management approach is more aligned with the business need and is flexible while people management approach stresses more on consistency and control. Applying this differentiation of personnel and human resource management to FTL, it can be concluded that before Ander joined the business as managing director, FTL was following more rigid approach toward managing people as company policy was to retain loyal employees and carry the cost until better times arrived (Case Study, p. 2). Key feature of Ander and Alistair strategy was training employees to perform at the right level and rewarding them when they did (Case Study, p. 4).  

According to Cornelius (1992) the approach of personnel management is a traditional way to manage people to accomplish the task On the other hand, the approach of human resource management is a modern way to describe the personnel manager, which leads the company to achieve the competitive advantage (Robins, 2002).

 Under the leadership of Ander, human resource management approaches were implemented and team working was promoted to cope with the environmental and social changes. In this concern, he developed teams with young, skilled and enthusiastic people. He appointed Alistair Scott as HR manager, Steve Davidson as operations manager, Phil James as Quality Manager. After this the company got success in very short time. The company also got Ford Q1 award because of its highest quality (Case Study, p. 3). Under the leadership of Ander and Alistair company took first step toward HRM approach. ( You can get your paper according to your Referencing Styles)

 When Ander was moved to head the new Fastener team of Europe, Steve Succeeded his position. Due to the lack of leadership skills and experience like Ander, he failed to manage the company as effectively as Ander was doing. His relationship with some key employees was not very good and effective (Case Study, p. 6). The relationship between Steve and Alistair was also very weak, thus he appointed Catherine Forrester as the replacement of Alistair. This situation represents that in FTL, Steve has followed a weak approach of personnel management (Robins, 2002).

 HRM approach continued during the tenure of Steve as well but human resources policies were not very effective and there was a good room of improvement. Catherine also implemented some new policies and approaches to manage people effectively in the company. Overall, the human resource management policies used by FTL and approaches related to these policies are as follows:

Team Working: This approach was used by Ander to increase the productivity and effectiveness of the employees as well as the organization. This was the first movement of the company from personnel approach to HRM approach. ( now you can avail Write Legal Essay from our experts)

Employee Relations: Under the leadership of Steve, the relations among the employees were not very good. For example, there was weak relationship between Steve and Alistair, Phil is not comfortable to work with Catharine, although he works effectively with Mary, etc. In order to resolve this problem and implement the new approach of HRM, Catherine has used the strategy of developing a council to encourage the harmonious relationship among team members (Case study, p. 15).

Training and Development Programs: FLT had lack of training and development programs. Steve had not recommended any new approach to train its employees and improve the relationship among all of them. This is a kind of personnel approach. In order to increase the efficiency of the employees and retain them for long term in the company, the training and development programs were proposed by Catherine (Case Study, p. 13). The manager has decided to give three days training in a week for two years to clarify their roles and responsibilities and increase satisfaction. This is HRM approach to people management (Xeniditis, Russell & Murphy, 2001).

Bonus: Under the leadership of Anders, the senior manager could get 20% bonus over their salary and the semi skilled and employees could get 5%-16% bonus as per their performance. Catherine has conducted an employee opinion survey and found that the employees are not happy with the current reward system (Case Study, p. 4). She proposed the management that they should use rewards and incentive systems to improve the performance of the employees. This is also the HRM approach.  

Communication Process: The communication system used in FTL was also very old. According to Catharine, approximately 47% of information was communicated through grapevine communication, which creates humors in the company (Case Study, p. 6).

Conclusion

 Thus, on the basis of above discussion it can be concluded that approaches initially used by FTL to manage people were more oriented toward personnel management approaches but later on it moved toward recommended approaches of human resource management especially after Ander joined a managing director. But still there is a good scope of improvement in human resource management approaches used by FTL. Under the current leadership of Phil, company needs to further implement effective and innovative approaches to human resource managed and align human resource management. It is necessary for both Steve and Catharine to execute new HRM approaches to manage people in en effective and implement fair and honest policies to ensure long term success of the company.

Recommendations

 HRM approaches should be used by the company in such a way that company should be able to use both tangible and intangible resources in an effective way and create competitive advantage. The main aim of the HRM approaches is to go beyond the contract means to achieve the hidden objectives to maintain growth of the firm in the highly changing and competitive environment (Tyson & York, 2000). HRM approaches are flexible and increase the productivity of the employee. By using the latest HRM approaches, management of FTL can control the behavior of the employees and utilize their hidden skills and knowledge to achieve the target on time and increase the productivity of the company.

 In order to manage the people effectively and create competitive advantage in the industry, FTL should follow following human resource management approaches:

1 Aligning HRM with business objectives: Company human resource management approach should be aligned with long term business objectives of the company.

2  Greater Motivation: Employees in the organization are respected for their own talent, proficiency, skills and working behavior. The management should encourage their creativity by giving them opportunities to work on critical projects (Chapman, 2008). The management should offer them good monetary remuneration and non-monetary incentives (Allen & Kilman, 2001). The increases in productivity and good incentive would also increase their job satisfaction (Xeniditis, Russell & Murphy, 2001).

3  Team Working: In order to increase job satisfaction and productivity, the approach used by the company is working in the teams. This is a very good approach to complete the project on time and improve the relationships among the team members (Harris, 1976). For instance, the management should conduct regular meetings, seminars, conference and parties so that the worker can understand each other very well and establish mutual understanding (Tyson & York, 2000).

4 Interdependency: In a company, it is not possible to do a project at the individual level. All the employees are mutually dependent upon each other to complete the task and achieve the objectives (Nelson & Quick, 2007). Sometime this dependency has increased at the level where the employees don’t wants to do their own work. The company should execute experiential learning programs and coaching networks to increase mutual understanding and decrease dependency of each other. By this way, they can get chance to show their own skills (Mathis & Jackson, 2006). These networks will also help the employee to develop a strong relationship with others.

5 Leadership: Presently, the latest leadership approach is based on the Y theory; participative management style (Managing people in the workplace, 2010). Steve should change his leadership approach. He should use democratic and situational approach of leadership..

6  Skill and Knowledge and Motivate HR Staff: In order to improve the ability of management to manage the people and utilize their strengths in favor of the company, HR should have credible knowledge to influence the behavior of others (Robins, 2002). All the department should be incorporated with each other the manager should use critical decision making process to solve the problems (Tyson & York, 2000).

7  People Focused Strategy: The approaches used by FTL are not people focused. According to the employee opinion survey held by Catharine, most of the employees are dissatisfied with the current reward system, performance measurement policy, leadership style, etc. because the approaches of the company are not people centered (Case Study, p. 12). Steve has focused only on the organization’s growth and ignored the individual growth of an employee. Thus, the company should use people focused approach and provide them facilities to improve their satisfaction level.

8  Bottom Line Strategy: One of the latest approaches to people management is Bottom line contribution. The approaches used by the management of FTL are not based on the latest concept of bottom line contribution. The bottom line approach means a contribution of human capital at the bottom line of the company, means focus on the lower level to higher level management (Boxall, 1992; Knowledge Optimization Services, 2006). In comparison to this approach, FTL’s management focus to increase the profitability of the company only, so the management thinks about the higher point of view and ignores the lower management, which leads dissatisfaction and lack of strong relationships (Case Study, p. 10). According to the modern HRM approach, the management of FTL should implement the strategy of the bottom line to manage people effectively (Mathis & Jackson, 2006).

9  Reward and Incentive System: The approaches used by the FTL are not innovative and based on traditional concepts of   people management. For instance, the reward policy provides only monetary rewards and differentiates among employees on the basis of gender (Case Study, p. 15). The management should implement the latest reward policy approach that comprises both monetary and non-monetary incentives such as the employee of the month, employee of the years, occasion gifts, birthday wishes, value cards for good performance, paid leave, casual leave, health facilities, accommodations, etc. (Allen & Kilman, 2001). The company should uses the rewards and incentive structure describe in Appendix 1.

10  Performance Appraisal System: The performance management system of the company is based on grading and opinions of superiors, which is an old concept (Case Study, p. 10). Presently, organizations are using various methods, such as behavioral rating scale, management by objectives (MBO), 360% appraisal method, etc. The firm should use the Appraisals system explains in Appendix 2. The company also use the latest approach of MBO to appraise evaluate the performance of employees.

11  Communication Process: The communication process should be based on latest methodologies, which comprise both online, and offline methodologies and electronic media. The offline communication modes are written documents, notice corporate magazines, etc. (Robins, Mathis & Jackson 2002).The online communication modes are internet, e-mail, etc. In addition, the management can use electronic media resources to manage the proper flow of information and improve the communication level such as telephone, fax, television, etc. (Tyson & York, 2000).

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Thursday, July 5, 2018

Mass Media Assignment Help | American & Australian culture

Mass Media Assignment Help | American & Australian culture


Major developments in mass media
At the beginning of century, the media consisted newspapers and various periodicals and there was no radio, television and internet. According to assignment help experts, In 40’ decade, radio became the dominant form of media and provided
current information to people much faster than newspapers. In 1950s, television came to dominate the media industry and radio and newspaper were forced to rethink their approaches towards news and entertainment (Biagi, 2011). In 1962, communication satellite were developed that collects news and information around the world. It could transmit information directly and provide power to television for communicating major world events in real time.

with this, television got an explosive growth in 1980s. With the use of satellite, television reported events across the world live. Various newspapers were disappeared through the competition of television news. Cable news and subscription cable television also rose in popularity with the competition of network television (Stradling, 2001). In the 90s, television and basic cable became popular. In the last of 20th century, internet media was born that links people together through their computer terminals with modems connected to telephone lines. Through this, electronic publishing and chat rooms increased up. Along with this, it allows individuals to express their opinions freely to a large global audience.

The internet includes web sites, blogs, podcasts and various other technologies for general distribution network. In this, minimal technically knowledgeable person can put his comments and views to open without expense of traditional publishing. It is also useful for advertising and promoting new products through new media (Biagi, 2011). The mobile is also an interactive media and has facility of personal messaging services. All internet services and applications exist on mobile phones. It has several unique benefits as compared to TV or the internet. It is the seventh mass medium.

Influence on Australian and American culture
Mass media has great influence on American culture. Television screens and portable media players provide information through images and sounds. The influence can be seen in politics, fashion and body image and the use of legal and illegal drugs. The influence of mass media reaches into every area of American culture and life (Grabe, Ward & Hyde, 2008). Its influence on politics can change the ways laws are made and the ways through which voters distribute their cash and votes. It can develop and break fashion style and trends and impose a body image that is not possible for the American women for living.

According to media research, 98% American houses have at least one TV set and 63% has basic cable. According to Newsweek article, the US is the largest exporter of television programs and American movies are in prime television all over the world (Baran & Davis, 2011). It affects and reflects the attitude of American people towards the use of alcohol, drugs and tobacco. Mass media has both positive and negative influence on American culture that can be debated sometimes and their influences are present in everyday life. Through the mass media, people interact to create their own meanings out of the images and messages they receive.

Media Convergence
Media convergence is the process, where several media channels come together and operate in synergy. It is a merger of all mass media and communication outlets. Convergence is the fusion of all forms of media that results into a creation of new medium. In present, it is seen between television, radio, print and internet (Dwyer, 2009). Media convergence affects on the society and everyday life. The society is changing as per the convergence. Through this, people have graphical figure in their gadgets to deliver a mail, orally and graphically. It shrunk the distances of two places. It demands versatility in jobs of the media personnel to learn converged media technology.
Conclusion
Media literacy is important for responsible media consumption. Through this knowledge, people can identify the positive and negative aspects of mass media that affects their everyday life (Biagi, 2011). They can use media convergence that has several new features and technology and do their work faster. With the help of this, people can communicate with others directly and send their messages and important information quickly. Media literacy is important to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of media channels and protect ourselves against demagogues.

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References
Baran, S. J. & Davis, D. K. (2011). Mass Communication Theory: Foundations, Ferment, and Future. USA: Cengage Learning.
Biagi, S. (2011). Media Impact: An Introduction to Mass Media. USA: Cengage Learning.
Dwyer, T. (2009). Media Convergence. New York: McGraw-Hill International.
Grabe, S., Ward, L. M., & Hyde, J. S. (2008). The role of the media in body image concerns among women: A meta-analysis of experimental and correlational studies. Psychological Bulletin , 134 (3), 460-76.
Stradling, R. (2001). Teaching 20th-century European history. UK: Council of Europe.