Emotional Labour In Call Centres Arlie Hochschild

Emotional Labour In Call Centres Arlie Hochschild The shift away from manufacturing industries in Britain towards service sector industries within the late 20th century, has led to a considerable growth within employment in the service sector (Hough, 2004), with many employees now involved in front-line service interactions with clientele or customers. Call Centres in particular has experienced a growth up to 400,000 employees; more than coal, steal and car manufacturing industry put together (Toynbee,2003). As a result of their rapid growth, it has provided a fascinating field of study for academic research into the human component of the working environment, with the process of work and its associated control and employment relations at the centre focus of most debates (FernieMetcalf, 1997). Given that Call Centre employees are working in an environment where tasks are often decidedly scripted and performance is closely controlled and monitored, academics have pointed to the similarities of this work to Tayloristic style productio n lines (TaylorBain,1998). However due to the labour and product of call centre work being relatively intangible, unlike the distinct process of product and service delivery in factory work, the emphasis within Call centres is almost exclusively on the quality of communication. In conjunction to the physical demands, cognitive requirements also need to be considered, whether an operative is dealing with a complaint, or a customer service call, they all demand emotion from staff. The increasing demand for client-centred services in a highly competitive business environment, has recognising that service workers are able to carry out emotional work which can be used as a vital part of the capitalists labour process (Hoschild, 1979,1983),to produce customer satisfaction. Therefore it is in an organisations interest to comprehend the impact of emotional labour on staff, in order to enhance the effectiveness of service and well-being of workers, ultimately decreasing costs such as stress, burnout, turnover and absenteeism (LewigDollard, 2003). Thus this writing will outline the concept of emotional labour and discuss generally the costs and benefits for front-line service employees within Call Centres and for the organisation itself, before looking at the ways call centre can help support employees. Emotional labour was a term constructed by Arlie Hochschild (1983) in her revolutionary study named The Managed Heart. The term describes the control of a persons behaviour to display appropriate emotions, within a situation (chu,2002), suggesting that certain emotions felt or not felt by an individual are suppressed or expressed in order to conform to social norms. Despite Hochschilds widely accepted definition, some researchers have defined and conceptualised emotional labour in different ways. However, the underlying assumption within organisational settings, is that emotional labour is to regulate both feelings and expressions in accordance with occupational or organisational display rules to achieve organisational goals (Schaubroeck Jones, 2000).For example, there is little doubt that emotional work in a Call Centre for staff can be demanding, boring, exhausting, tedious and  stressful (Carrim et al,2006).   Yet to clearly display these feelings to management or c ustomers would be in appropriate. As call centre staff are expected to appear cheerful and welcoming. Therefore from these rules, which can be learnt from our everyday interactions, through education, socialisation and fine -tuned by individual experiences and socially regulated settings, we learn when and where to look sad or glad, fearsome or fearful (PayneCooper, 2001) Many organisations have display rules concerning the emotions that employees should demonstrate in encounters with customers, clients, or members of the public (Hochschild, 1983). These display rules stipulate the content and range of emotions to be displayed, along with the frequency, intensity and duration that such emotions should be displayed (MorrisFeldman, 1996). These display rules may be explicit in organisation training materials, or they may be implicit in organisational norms (SuttonRafaeli, 1998). For example, Call Centre operatives engage in work interactively with customers on either inbound or outbound calls on actions such as sales and telemarketing, product or service information, and customer queries and complaints. These employees perform an important role in the management of customer relationships. As a consequence, service sector organizations have sought to specify the way in which employees present themselves to their customers. This has led to particularly in vasive forms of workplace control as operatives are now generally monitored for service quality as well as productivity. In most call centres there are constant efforts to increase the number of calls taken per employee and reduce both customer call time and wrap-up time (TaylorBain, 1999). Yet rules are also enforced to be cheerful happy, sociable, inoffensive and polite, despite the customers behaviour. As the manner in which operatives display their feelings towards customers has a critical effect on the quality of service transactions (AshforthHumphrey, 1993). Undeniably, the quality of the interaction is often the service provided (Leidner, 1996). The behaviour of the employee is therefore central to the success of the service transaction. These contradictory but asymmetrical pressures both create role conà ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡ict for employees yet provide a high quality service (KnightsMcCabe, 1998).To control these conflicting pressures management  invents ever more imaginati ve ways to extract the maximum, and most sincere, performances from emotional workers  smiling  and meaning  it  being the  aim (PayneCooper, 2001). From a similar observation Hochschild (1983) noted how emotional dissonance can occur when an employees true feelings are different from their expressed emotions. Moving further to suggest how individuals deal with emotional dissonance by either surface acting or deep acting. Surface acting being the effort to achieve only the expression of emotion, such as one call centre agent admitted, I make the right noises saying sorryà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦I dont really care (). While deep acting is a conscious attempt to produce and communicate the required emotions, and to manage the situation appropriately, by working to truly relate, believe and live the customers anxiety. Continually, academics such as, Ashforth and Humphrey (1993) have noted that when employees deep act, there may not be any emotional dissonance, but there is still exertion involved in achieving the appropriate emotions to follow display rules. Despite, huge efforts to sustain expected behaviours of calm, courteous and supportive behaviour, regardless of how operatives are really feeling, or being treated by a customer, either through surface or deep acting there may come a point of illness, exhaustion and burnout, through continual emotional labour (Hochschild,1983). Suggestively, more so when an operative is continually surface acting. This is supported by Schaubroeck and Jones (2000) in an examination of adverse employee health outcomes, found that pressures to express positive emotion within a persons job was positively related to physical symptoms. With over 20% of a Call Centre interactions, containing anger and verbal abuse from a customer (Grandey,DickterSin,2004).Which is often maintained throughout the duration of the complaint, despite an operatives efforts to placate the consumer (SchererCeschi,1997). Undeniably facing hostile behaviour and abuse could lead to physical indications of unhappiness emerging as work place stress such as hypertension, heart disease, even exacerbate cancer (Mann,2004) due to suppression of an operatives true feelings, which may cause a burnout. Which eventually may lead to an extended struggle to care and illustrate feelings ` (Mann,2004). One explanation is that employees may find it more difficult to sustain higher levels of expressed positive emotion while surface acting, that this creates tension within the individual. Form this employee may then break character by allowing their true feelings to leak into the telephone conversation (TotterdellHolman,2003). The high control system employed in a Call Centres i.e. scripted working of responses and the wide knowledge and expectation from customers suggests that if this does occur customers recognise this and feel the power to reinforce managements control efforts reprimanding workersà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.complaining to employees superiors when service [does] not meet their expectations (Leidner,1996,p.40) as customers are now able to distinguish the difference between genuine quality service and feigned quality service (Taylor,1998, p. 87). This in its-self leads to higher stressors within the job. In discussing her similar findings, Grandey (2003) suggested that emotional dissonance exhausts operatives resources, leaving them with too little resources to keep from breaking character. This depletion of resources may also cause the individual to adopt a strategy of withdrawal behaviours in order to cope with work demands to conserve resources: indeed, emotional exhaustion has been found to be associated with higher rates of employee absence (Deery et al,2002), as control pressure from several angles becomes too much to control. The correlation continues when looking at cognitive health cost, related to sustained emotional labour, Strazdins (2002) focuses on the cognitive processes involved, suggesting than an employee may find that their own mood becomes changed to mimic the anothers negative mood, around them in the team set up of a call centre floor. This process is known as emotional contagion (Pugh,2001). The employees cognitive processing may become negatively primed, stimulating recall of distressing events, or the employee may selectively process negative information relayed to them on the telephone, which in turn comes to affect decision-making. Negative emotions can then carry over and contaminate subsequent interactions with clients, fellow workmates or employees. Recent organizational research shows that employees working in team formats such as call centre staff do, are likely to share opinions, attitudes, thoughts and moods as well as behavioral patterns and general outlooks (Salanova,LlorensSc haufeli,2011). Moreover, group level job characteristics have shown to affect individual burnout levels. This means that shared group feelings of burnout can be described either in terms of comparable reactions to the same working conditions (VanYperenSnjiders,2000) or as the result of a process of emotional contagion (BakkerSchaufeli, 2000). In this perspective shared burnout within a team can be interpreted as a form of collective mood. Employees evaluate themselves through comparison with similar others. Observing similar others to succeed or to fail is likely to influence another emotional contagion which may have negative as well as positive influences on self-efficacy (Gist,1987). To positively control this successfully as a call centre manager would be hugely beneficial to all parties however for employees to perceive yet more control may simply have a negative effect. Since Hochschilds (1983) claims that emotional labour can lead to a sense of inauthenticity, loss of feelings, diminished self-esteem, stress and burnout, other authors have supported this suggesting that emotional labour is associated with higher work stress and psychological distress (Pugliesi,1999). Controversially, Wharton (1993) agreed that factors such as interactions with customers, self-perceptions of inadequate skills can and does adversely affect employees, however she also suggested that these werent the only work factors contributing to the incidence of emotional exhaustion, which may not always be linked to emotional labour, including job autonomy, tenure, and working hours, high workloads, lack of variety of work tasks and low promotional opportunities; importantly, the support and help of team leaders was associated with lower emotional exhaustion (Deery Iverson,Walsh,2002). Amy Whartons (1993) examination of front-line service workers found that, emotional labour may actually enhance the employees self-efficacy, make interactions more predictable, help avoid embarrassing disruptive interpersonal situations, and allow authentic self-expression where there is some latitude for occasional deviations from the display rules (AshforthHumphrey,1993). Morris and Feldman (1996) agreed that emotional labour is not consistently damaging or equally damaging to all employees, asserting it is emotional dissonance, not simply emotional labour, that is associated negatively with job satisfaction. Furthermore, Lewig and Dollard (2003) found that emotional dissonance is positively correlated with emotional exhaustion. Emotional exhaustion, feeling emotionally drained and depleted from work, is the core component of the employee stress syndrome of burnout (CordesDougherty,1993) which has a range of consequences for employees health, performance, motivation, absenteeism and turnover (SchaufeliEnzmann,1998). Therefore the identified associations between emotional labour, emotional exhaustion and burnout are of critical importance for organisations, although admittedly they are hugely interlinked, one does not necessarily cause the other. If emotional labour carries such a high risk for call centre operatives working for the organisation, why do nearly all call centres and other service organisations insist on enforcing such a tool? The reasoning for this is, the manner in which employees convey their feelings over the telephone can have a critical effect on the quality of service transactions (AshforthHumphrey,1993). In a practical examination of these propositions, a study of Taiwanese employees found that when a psychological climate for service friendliness was higher, employees displayed more positive emotions toward customers that were associated with an increased customer willingness to return with follow up custom and pass positive comments to friends. Other articles published on the topic propose that appropriately-displayed employee emotions would result in three positive consequences for organisations: immediate gains (customers would immediately co-operate), encore gains (customers would go back), and cont agion gains (customers would pass positive comments to friends) (RafaeliSutton,1987). Further, Ashforth and Humphrey (1993) proposed that compliance with display rules facilitates task performance. However doubt surrounding great customer employee action directly relating to purchase decisions has been raised (Tsai,2001). As a customer simply may not be interested in the service they have been telephoned for; a current example being PPI claim back marketing call, many of thousands of people receive these calls who despite polite conversational call centre operatives, organisations may not experience immediate gains from most customers. Therefore it can be said that although emotional labour can be damaging for both parties involved it can also be beneficial. Examining some techniques to facilitate emotional labour managers should be mindful of the costs involved in performance as well as emotional contagion, with this Egg credit cards created provision of time-out and a quiet staff-only space for staff to recover from stressful or distressing customer interactions, surrounding their call centre floor. Within this change came new job design, roles that incorporated emotional labour yet staff had some variety, autonomy, prospects of promotion, and reasonable working hours and workloads, with a culture of celebration, and support from all office members to help cope in all areas of each others working life. Increased by the community spaces purposely built and designed within the building (Citex,2001). The engineered culture egg brought in to the call centre supported staff. Further suggestions to help reduce the effe cts of negatively perceived emotional labour, is through training in emotional intelligence as it enhances skills of self-awareness and self-management and in particular, can be said to enhance the performance of deep acting, eliminating performance leak. Furthermore, focus is begging to be placed on the recruitment of staff members, upon their competency of their personality, with some call centres looking upon mount et als big 5 theory to gain the correct personalities for the job, enforcing tests and application techniques usually reserved for higher positioned jobs (CallaghanThompson,2002) as HR manager managers attitudes are now aimed to select staff with the required attitudinal and behavioural characteristics, induct them into a quality culture . . . selection often focuses on attitudes to flexibility and customer service rather than skill or qualià ¯cation levels (RedmanMathews,1998,p. 60). One manager went on to state some people are maybe not as fast round a keyboard, so they may struggle in achieving peer group average handling time for calls. But we can do something about that, we can use team coaches or leaders or training teams when available to develop that individual in those areas. Its very difà ¯cult to change somebodys attitude. With a combination of all can achieve or at least minimise the decrease of emotional labour for all. You can tell by talking to someone during interview whether they smile, whether their eyes smile. If you smile during your interview and you are enthusiastic, youll be okay (CallaghanThomphson, 2002 p.240) Over all Fineman (1993, p. 1) argued that the management and mobilization of emotions are pivotal in the way organizational order is achieved and undone. However, the organizational culture in Western society is heavily influenced by the rational traditions of theorists such as Weber, Taylor, and Fayol (Sashkin,1981) and therefore strives for the cognitive dehumanization of organizations. As a result, much of the research on organizational phenomena has focused on the rational side of functions, issues, and components of organizational life. This results in the removal of the emotional elements of organizational life from our understanding of organizational phenomena (Fineman, 1993).In the last few decades, however, scholars have attempted to study the emotionality inherent in organizational life (for example, Hochschild,1979; Fineman, 1993; Ashforth and Humphrey, 1995). From this is a growing body of research indicates that the performance of emotional labour may entail serious nega tive outcomes for employees, including stress, distress, decreased job satisfaction, burnout, and withdrawal behaviours such as absenteeism and turnover. It is in the organisations interest to understand and mitigate these negative outcomes, as the effective performance of emotional labour is generally beneficial for organisations. The manager of front-line service employees can draw on recent research findings to identify a number of practical techniques to facilitate the performance of emotional labour.

Bis220 Wireless Technologies

Wireless Technologies Proposal Team B BIS/220 July 2, 2012 Dr. Richard Swafford Wireless Technologies Proposal As Party Plates grows and becomes more successful, new technologies need to be implemented to allow the company to better serve our customers. Today we are going to lay out a new plan to make our deliveries more efficient. Our customers are our number one priority essay writer uk. Serving them with a better product and pinpointing delivery times will help us achieve this. To accomplish this, we are proposing that we integrate two types of wireless technologies in our delivery trucks: GPS tracking systems and Bluetooth.GPS System Currently, we have five trucks operating all over the city at any given time. With grid lock and accidents, implementing the GPS system will allow our drivers to navigate with HD Traffic information around these areas and make delivers on time. The system we are proposing is the TomTom GO Live 1535M. With this system, Party Plates can set up a Twitte r account and our drivers can keep companies informed on what time they expect to deliver. Additionally, if there are any issues with delivery, Twitter messages can be sent out to inform the company of that as well.The device can also locate the cheapest fuel prices which in the long run, will save the company money. However, there is a small drawback to this system. According to CNET Reviews. com the system says that, â€Å"searching the connected services is clunky and, at times, intuitive (CNET 2012). † Each unit costs $179 dollars per unit and installation is as simple as installing mounts in each truck to hold the devices, totally costs being approximately $1000. Bluetooth Next we would like to equip each truck with Bluetooth technology to seamlessly keep our customers connected with our drivers via phone.Our drivers are already using cellphones, however, with the current law, only Bluetooth devices are legal to use in our trucks. We are proposing purchasing Aliph Jawbon e Era Bluetooth devices for each driver. This will allow our drivers to take calls without taking their hands off the wheel. The only downfall to this system according to CNET Reviews. com is that,† The Aliph Jawbone Era doesn’t have a dedicated volume rocker, and the way it fits the ear is not as easy and comfortable as we would like (CNET 2012). † References CNET Reviews (2012). Latest Technology Reviews. CBS Interactive. Retrieved from http://www. cnet. com/? tag=hdr

Investigating the effectiveness of human resource management Essay

A) Terms of Reference On the 1st of October 2003, the management department requested a report written investigating the effectiveness of human resource management at McDonald’s Restaurants Limited, and how this operation helps the organisation achieve their strategic aims. The report was to be submitted on the 9th December 2003. B) Executive summary McDonalds has various business strategies being introduced over the next two years. The report investigates how the Human Resource Management (HRM) practice enables the strategic plans to be achieved. McDonalds are expanding the number of restaurants in India, while closing selected stores in the UK, plans to change packaging, deco and uniform will affect the culture of the organisation. McDonalds are also diversifying, ‘McKids’, brand of clothing, and toys. It is the HRM policies that will ensure a smooth change over. The major concern is the cultural change; HRM must ensure that staff are involved in the changes allowing them to ‘buy’ into the plans. The extension plans should run efficiently as all the policies and legislation should already be in place. The investment in ‘McKids’ could prove difficult for HRM, because they are dealing with a separate market. The current polices in place cover a wide range of issues, which are sufficient for McDonalds strategic plans. C) Introduction McDonald’s fast food chain began in America in 1954, developing into a recognised worldwide establishment. McDonalds now has over â€Å"30,000 restaurants serving more than 46 million people each in 121 countries and territories† 1. The first British restaurant opened in 1973, expanding to 1,184 restaurants; however â€Å"80% of McDonalds restaurants are operated by independent franchisees†2. D) Methodology The information was gathered using â€Å"textbooks† from the library, the Internet, and a â€Å"student pack† from McDonalds Limited. E) Their present and anticipated strategy In order for a company to reach its goals, aims and objectives, a strategic plan should be implemented, allowing the company to establish ‘whom they are’, ‘their aims and objectives’, ‘future position’ and ‘how they are going to get there’. Strategic planning also confirms the attainment of their goals. Lynch (2002) says, â€Å"Strategy can be described as the identification of the purpose of the organisation and the plans and actions to achieve that purpose†3. While Kenneth Andrews believes that strategic planning is † a pattern of decisions†¦which represents the unity, coherence and internal consistency of a company’s strategic decisions that position a company in its environment and to give the firm its identity, its power to mobilise its strengths, and in its likelihood of success in the market place†4. Alfred D Chandler (1962) states, â€Å"Strategy is the determination of the basic long-term goals and objectives of an enterprise, and the adoption of courses of action and the allocation of resources necessary for carrying out those goals†5. Although varying, all are concerned with the company’s planning, objectives and goals. Strategic planning is organised by top management; the plan represents directions the company needs to take at different times. There are five steps in strategic planning; firstly, identify the business and develop a mission statement, showing the company’s overall aims and objectives. This statement is used to motivate employees, customers and other interested parties. McDonald’s mission statement is â€Å"McDonald’s vision is to be the UK’s best quick service restaurant experience†6. Secondly, translate the mission statement into strategic goals; thirdly, create an action plan to attain those goals. Fourthly, introduce the strategic planning, and finally evaluate the results to determine whether changes are required. McDonald’s currently holds the largest market share of restaurants chains, at â€Å"7.3%†7; the nearest competitor is Burger King holding â€Å"3%†8 of the market. UK sales have risen dramatically over the last 27 years, and in 2001 sales reached in â€Å"excess of à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½1.6 billion†9, however according to an Evening Standard report â€Å"pre tax profits dropped by 20% last year†10. McDonald’s intends introducing many new strategies, over the next two years. McDonalds, Chief Marketing Officer, â€Å"outlined a number of strategic global plans for McDonald’s† †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ they â€Å"intend to roll out a healthy lifestyle programme called Go Active†, â€Å"Make greater use of Ronald McDonald the face of the brand†, and introduce â€Å"global licensing programme called McKids, initially applied to clothing and Toys†11. In a separate interview he reports of numerous plans being introduced, â€Å"A worldwide advertising campaign†, â€Å"launch of global packaging concept†, â€Å"ongoing review of staff training, new products, and uniforms and the introduction of a loyalty scheme†, and to become â€Å"a leader in healthy eating†12. McDonald’s are installing â€Å"Wi-fi nodes†13 in many restaurants, allowing customers’ access to the Internet. Expansion plans are also intended f or India, where â€Å"McDonald’s plans to double its outlets over the next three years†14 F) Its current HRM practices HRM deals with the ‘Human’ aspect of a company, such as recruitment, selection, training, provisions of contracts, equal opportunities, dismissals and redundancy, welfare and health and safety. HRM is responsible for issues affecting employees and their relationship with the company. HRM developed from personnel management in the 80’s. The concept of management practice dates back to the 19th century, when some employers became concerned about employees working conditions. Rowntree’s appointed the first welfare worker, in 1896, to â€Å"ensure the well being of women and children in the workforce and to watch over their behaviour†15. Welfare work is still an aspect of HRM, although not so necessary within today’s society. It is these early approaches of Rowntrees, Cadburys and Robert Owen, which clearly show the development of HRM. HRM is defined as â€Å"a rational approach to the effective recruitment, retention, and deployment of people within an organisation, including, when necessary, arrangements for dismissing staff†16. Within the UK, McDonald’s employs â€Å"47,735 people†17. McDonalds expects the highest standards of quality, service and cleanliness towards the customers from its employees; they also require staff to have a positive attitude towards themselves, customers and other staff members. McDonalds employs local people, and ensures that employees are selected, trained, promoted and treated on the basis of their skills. Their policy states that McDonald’s will provide career opportunities, challenging and rewarding work, providing pay on performance. There are two levels of recruitment within the company, management and hourly paid staff. McDonalds offers staff flexible working hours suiting individual preferences. The hourly rate for staff exceeds the national minimum wage, salaried management earning between à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½12000 and à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½64000. Staff are entitled to various benefits, health care, pension, company car, bonus scheme, sick pay and stock options. McDonalds supports the ‘Opportunity Now’ Campaign, increasing the number of women they employ, â€Å"43.30%†18 of their workforce is female. The company now allows qualifying staff up to eight weeks paid maternity or paternity leave. The company works closely with various disabled organisations, and employs where possible disabled people. The diversity development within the company insures the working environment is free from discrimination and harassment and job applicants and employees, will not be treated less favourably on the grounds of marital status, colour, age, gender, race nationality, ethnic origin or disability. McDonalds believes that â€Å"training is the foundation of their success and vital for improving the business†19. Hourly paid staff receive on the job training, supplemented by computer based and other training methods, Management staff receive training at one of the company’s six British training centres. McDonalds â€Å"restaurants work to the standards which meet those required by legislation†20, they also have various policies covering food quality and nutrition, also working closely with suppliers ensuring animal welfare. The company has a number of franchises, which means that although McDonalds controls the majority of establishments, legislations, laws and policies are the responsibility of the franchise operator. G) How the HRM practices enables the business strategies to be achieved. Many policies are in place, covering a wide range of topics; enabling HRM to support the company in achieving their overall strategic plans. McDonalds operates in 121 countries, HRM must be aware of the different employment and contract laws, religion, culture, currency differences, and labour costs throughout these countries. The extension plans for India should not affect the company severely as the operation guidelines and policies already exist. Within the UK and USA the company has Universities to train their management, and other staff are trained â€Å"in-house†. When they expanded to India, lack of training facilities; meant staff were brought in from other countries to employ and train staff. This could have caused problems; outsiders may have little or no knowledge of the country, laws or societal beliefs. As the company expands into ‘new’ countries they need to consider other issues such as uniform and eating habits, certain religions do not eat certain products, other cultures impose dress code, all these issues need to be considered by the HRM to ensure the placement of correct policies. Due to falling sales there are plans to change the image and culture of the company; introducing new decor, uniforms and packaging. Unless HRM have involved the staff in the planning stage of these changes, they will encounter great difficulty in obtaining cooperation; staff need to ‘buy’ in to changes. Although, the company does have training facilities around the country educating staff on theses changes. Customers may also object to this image change. The introduction of healthy foods may cause problems, staff will need to be re-trained, which may cause staff shortages, and increase training costs. Some of the stores situated in city centres are installing facilities to allow the customer connection to the Internet. The HRM will have to implant policies to ensure correct usage of the Internet; and take steps to ensure that ‘inappropriate’ websites are unavailable. McDonalds has a high ‘turnover’ of staff, suggesting the recruitment strategy is inefficient. Incorrect job advertisement possibly leads to the submission of applications by the wrong type of person. H) How the HRM practice reflects the theories of strategic HRM. There have been many investigations into the issues surrounding HRM, leading to many theories. According to the Harvard Model, â€Å"HRM polices need to derive from critical analysis of: the demands of the various stakeholders in a business and a number of situational factors†21. The belief is that because organisations are owned and operated by various people (stakeholders), the management’s task is to balance the returns to everyone involved. The Harvard Model is seen as the ‘soft’ approach to HRM, employees being stakeholders of the company. This model has four areas to address, human resource flow, reward system, employee influences, and work systems, there are also situational factors such as influence of trade unions, laws, and labour market, which are also relevant to the theory. The theory believes that the effectiveness of the HRM is related to the four ‘C’s’, â€Å"Commitment, â€Å"Competence, Congruence and Cost-effectiveness,†22. The Harvard theory is that employees are an asset rather than a cost, and investment in these employees provides long-term benefits to the company, this theory is similar to McGregor’s, theory ‘Y’ approach. There are a number of concerns with the approach, â€Å"how to measure the variables, conflicts between cost-effectiveness and congruence, huge variety of variables potentially relevant to any given HRM situation, and sometimes a technology or set of working conditions make it impossible to increase some levels of ‘C’s'†23. The alternative approach known as the Michigan model, being the hard approach, believes that employees should be treated like any other resources, â€Å"obtained cheaply, used sparingly and developed and exploited fully†24. There are common features in both these models, both mix the HR policies and business plan, line managers are responsible for people; both are unitarist, and stress commitment to the organisation. McDonalds has a mixture of both the hard and soft approach, store managers being responsible for the day-to-day running as in the soft approach, and training provisions show that staff are an asset and investment in them should provide long-term investment for the company. The organisation also has similarities to the hard approach, with staff receiving low wages (obtained cheaply), and restaurants are often run with minimum of staff (exploiting). Guests (1987) theory, is also included in McDonalds policy, Guest believes the organisation should, â€Å"aim for high level of commitment from staff, obtain high quality output, continually improve standards, flexibility from staff, no fixed job definitions, working practices and conditions and seek strategic integration through HR policies†25. McDonalds are â€Å"Continually improving standards† and â€Å"offer flexible working times for staff†26. These prescriptive approaches also believe that line managers should accept HRM policies and integrate them into strategic plans, allowing staff to change roles within the organisation. Known as culture, organisations have different values, ideas and beliefs that affect the way they operate. According to Handy, there are four types of culture; Power, Role, Task and Person. McDonald’s culture combines two of these, top management, reflects ‘power’ culture, making the overall decisions, allowing rapid response to decisions. Although there are similarities to the ‘task’ culture, the overall aim of the organisation is task orientated, focussing on team culture, and strong communication between all levels of staff. The contingency approach suggests that â€Å"different problems and situations require different solutions†27, both internal and external influences should ‘fit’ together making a logical solution. McDonalds has integrated this approach, by considering the environment with their packaging and adjusting menus to suit different cultures. This approach also influences staff promotions that the company offers, staff are offered appraisals, a means of increasing their job opportunities. Barney (1991) suggests that there is a â€Å"resource based model†; physical, financial, human and organisational resources are the main link between internal resources and the company’s performance. Suggesting that it is not enough to have HR in line with strategy, and developing people will raise their commitment to the company, and provide an advantage over competitors. Although McDonalds do invest in people â€Å"66.26%†28 are under the age of 20, suggesting the majority of these are temporary, so will not progress through the company, leaving training costs continually rising. Gould’s ‘Model of Morale’, should be considered, suggesting that high staff turnover, sickness, absences and low performance within the company, is caused by low staff motivation, job satisfaction and group cohesion. These problem stem from inadequate internal factors such as â€Å"perception of leaders, matching needs to the job and identification with organisational goals†29, and external factors such as â€Å"status, age, pay, conditions, job market policies, training, equipment and economic state†30. Hofstede undertook worldwide research into culture and concluded that different countries mainly have four different cultures, â€Å"individualism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and masculinity. Depending on how the country viewed these areas, Hofstede categorised the countries further, pyramid of people, well-oiled machines, village market and family. As McDonald’s operates in 121 countries; consideration for this theory may allow a better understanding of the needs and values of staff. I) Recommendations Suggested improvements: * Reducing staff turn over * Encourage long-term employment (minimising training costs – maximising staff) * Create a culture that people wish to work in * Promote training allowing staff progression to higher job opportunities * Increase wages    Bibliography Class Notes. McDonalds Fact File 2002. (Available from McDonalds) Http://www.mind-advertising.com/sectors/sector_restaurants.htm (Accessed 18/10/2003). Prynn, Jonathan. Evening Standard UK, 3 May 2003. Kleinman, Mark. 2003 ‘Mcdonald’s Media gets global review’. Marketing Magazine, 11 September, p.1. Kleinman, Mark. 2003 ‘McDonald’s gets back on track’. Marketing Magazine, 11 September, p.15. Burns, Stuart I. 9 October 2003. â€Å"The Internet @ McDonald†, [online] Available from URL Http://www.bbc.co.uk/dns/collective/A1338392 (Accessed 28/10/03). â€Å"McDonald plans Indian expansion†, [online] Available from URL Http://www.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2924185.stm (Accessed 18/10/2003). Foot, M, Hook, Caroline. 1999. Introducing Human Resource Management. 2nd Ed. Addison Wesley Longman, London Hannagan Tim, 1995, ‘Management Concepts & Practices’, Pitman Publishing, London. Graham, H T. Bennett R. 1998 ‘Human Resource Management’, 9th ED. Financial Times, Pitman Publishing, London. Cole, G A. 2002. Management Theory and Practice. 5th Ed. Continuum, London. 1 McDonalds Fact File 2002 2 McDonalds Fact File 2002 3 Wang, Y. 2003. â€Å"Human Resource Management Strategies†, â€Å"Week 3†, (Classnotes) Lampeter University. 4 Foot, M, Hook, Caroline. 1999. â€Å"Introducing Human Resource Management†. 2nd Ed. Addison Wesley Longman, London. 5 Wang, Y. 2003. â€Å"Human Resource Management Strategies†, â€Å"Week 3†, (Classnotes) Lampeter University. 6 McDonalds Fact File 2002. 7 Http://www.mind-advertising.com/sectors/sector_restaurants.htm (Accessed 18/10/2003). 8 Http://www.mind-advertising.com/sectors/sector_restaurants.htm (Accessed 18/10/2003). 9 McDonalds Fact File 2002. 10 Prynn, Jonathan. Evening Standard UK, 3 May 2003. 11 Kleinman, Mark. 2003 ‘Mcdonald’s Media gets global review’. Marketing Magazine, 11 September, p.1. 12 Kleinman, Mark. 2003 ‘McDonald’s gets back on track’. Marketing Magazine, 11 September, p.15. 13 Burns, Stuart I. 9 October 2003. â€Å"The Internet @ McDonald†, [online] Available from URL Http://www.bbc.co.uk/dns/collective/A1338392 (Accessed 28/10/03). 14 â€Å"McDonald plans Indian expansion†, [online] Available from URL Http://www.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2924185.stm (Accessed 18/10/2003). 15 Foot, M, Hook, Caroline. 1999. Introducing Human Resource Management. 2nd Ed. Addison Wesley Longman, London 16 Cole, G A. 2002. Management Theory and Practice. 5th Ed. Continuum, London. 17 McDonlads Fact File 2002 18 McDonalds Fact File 2002 19 McDonalds Fact File 2002 20 McDonalds Fact file 2002 21 Hannagan Tim, 1995, ‘Management concepts & practices’, Pitman Publishing, London. 22 Graham, H T. Bennett R. ‘Human Resource Management’ 1998, 9th ED. Financial Times. Pitman Publishing, London. 23 Hannagan Tim, 1995, ‘Management concepts & practices’, Pitman Publishing, London. 24 Graham, H T. Bennett R. ‘Human Resource Management’ 1998, 9th ED. Financial Times. Pitman Publishing, London. 25 Foot, M, Hook, Caroline. 1999. Introducing Human Resource Management. 2nd Ed. Addison Wesley Longman, London 26 McDonalds Fact File 2002 27 Hannagan Tim, 1995, ‘Management concepts & practices’, Pitman Publishing, London. 28 McDonalds Fact File 2002 29 Wang, Y. 2003. â€Å"Human Resource Management and Culture†, â€Å"Week 6†, (Classnotes) Lampeter University. 30 Wang, Y. 2003. â€Å"Human Resource Management and Culture†, â€Å"Week 6†, (Classnotes) Lampeter University.

A Comparative Essay on the Original Creation of the Earth

Creation is slowly becoming a taboo topic in our current society and the â€Å"Big Bang Theory† seems to be the trending theory of the century. What is the difference though? The Catholic Church, in 1950, proclaimed that the â€Å"Big Bang Theory† did not contradict the doctrine of creation; therefore, the Catholic Church now teaches something called Theistic Evolutionism. (Brom, 2004) Are many churches teaching a false doctrine regarding the â€Å"Big Bang Theory† or is science exempt from biblical doctrine? This essay will explain what the â€Å"Big Bang Theory† teaches, what biblical creation teaches and how the relationship that the two have. First, let us look at the â€Å"Big Bang Theory.† The Big Bang Theory Many people believe that the â€Å"Big Bang Theory† was first introduced when Darwin introduced his theory of evolution; however, this view is incorrect. The â€Å"Big Bang Theory† is actually less than 100 years old! 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