BRIDGET LANI OTUTEYE
HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT
ASSIGNMENT II
31ST MARCH 2021
ID: 220020345
INTRODUCTION
For an effective operation, organizations need human and physical
resources; properly managed organizations have an appropriate number
of personnel’s, in number, experience and expertise. To ensure that the
right number of people is available when required, a company’s human
resource management should develop effective framework of planning
human resources: Swiss Bank Corporation (SBC) has realized that to
reach much higher productivity, they need to manage their workforce
effectively and appropriately. Well-managed human resources are assets
to a company and they develop a sense of loyalty to the company. This
paper is a case analysis of Swiss Bank Corporation (SBC) where it will
focus on identification of root causes of human resources issues faced in
the organization; at end, the report will give recommendations on
policies or strategies that the company needs to implement to manage
its human capital effectively. The banking industry is competitive and the
leaders need to have effective policies that facilitate the involvement of
human capital in its management and delivery of quality services to the
people. With this in mind, the bank need to have effective human
resources management departments (Storey, 2007) .
1. Who were the customers of Mitchell and his HR staff?
The human resources department has the mandate of ensuring that
adequate employees are available at all times. It has the mandate of
planning, deploying, employing, training, retaining, and dismissal of
employees. When the department is undertaking this duty, it looks into
quantitative and qualitative aspects. Qualitative means the right number
of employees and qualitative means employees with right skills. (Legge,
BRIDGET LANI OTUTEYE
HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT
ASSIGNMENT II
31ST MARCH 2021
ID: 220020345
2004). Workers engage their mind, time, expertise, and intellectualism
in their works; they expect to be compensated through wages, salaries,
bonuses, and non-cash benefits. According to employment agreement,
an employer and employee are obliged to respect labor law in the
country of operation and uphold to employment-contract terms and
conditions. Developing an efficient team is the role of personnel
management assisted by top and line managers; it starts with human
resources planning to appraisal, motivation, rewards, and ends with
termination of employment contract. Terms of employment vary with
organizations and so do human resources practices like selection,
contracting, and recruitment. One of the major functions of human
resources department is developing a compensation strategy that
satisfies all the employees irrespective of their rank, an effective reward
strategy should be able to trigger motivation and increase the zeal to
work-hard in an organization. In this case, Mitchell and his HR staff’s are
given the role of setting policies that improve the relationship that the
company has with its customers (customer in this case means the line
managers who the department serves). Customers (staffs) are the main
reason why an organization operated, they are the reason what the
organization came into operation so policies made within an
organization should focus the improvement of customer feeling and the
relationship they have with the organization. This is only attained if there
are effective human resources management approaches adopted in the
firm (Armstrong, 2006) One problem that can be seen in the case of
Mitchell is the dissatisfaction of its human force, the supervisors are not
satisfied with either their salaries or compensations, or the safety and
security of their job; with the dissatisfaction, and the company is likely
BRIDGET LANI OTUTEYE
HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT
ASSIGNMENT II
31ST MARCH 2021
ID: 220020345
to have a de-motivated team where supervisors fail to be accountable
for their tasks.
Some of the signs that can be seen in the organization is absenteeism,
low productivity, and a high turnover rate. When making policies that
facilitate the delivery of quality services by happy customers, other than
the human resources department, there is the need of involving the
general management of the organization. In the case of Mitchell and Co
and Swiss Bank Corporation (SBC), the management should join efforts
with the human capital department to come up with policies that
address the issues they are facing or faced by the work force. To address
the issue facing the bank, the human resources management team
should not limit their operations to the symptoms of the problem, which
include absenteeism and having employees who are worn out, and not
willing to work: the company should look into the root cause of the
problem and come up with such holistic policies to the problem. Mitchell
and team should undertake an analysis of the business situation, they
should create some guiding questionnaires to the line managers and
other staffs that will allow them know the areas they need to improve.
2. What did Mitchell have to do so that his staff could do the things
necessary to reposition and customerize?
To solve the human resources problem facing the company, Mitchell had
to undertake a strategic human resources management approach, the
approach had four main areas as: Understanding the problem the first
step in making human resources problem solving approach is defining
the challenge facing an organization. The problem needs to be identified
and differentiated from its symptoms; symptoms show there is a
BRIDGET LANI OTUTEYE
HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT
ASSIGNMENT II
31ST MARCH 2021
ID: 220020345
problem but does not point the problem itself. Mitchell defined the real
cause of the problem; when root cause is well established, the success
of later stages is facilitated after having a well grasp of the problem,
Mitchell gathered relevant data and facts; it is from the statistics that
alternatives of solving the problem are formulated. To gather
information, he was open to a number of methods the methods include
researching, brainstorming, consulting, and experimentation. It is the
manager’s duty to choose the right method to adopt because different
problems call for different methods. The quality of data collected affects
the quality of decision made; on the other hand, it is influenced by the
definition of the problem. If the problem was defined incorrectly, then
the information collected will be misleading; misleading information
leads to ineffective and unresponsive decisions. Mitchell only acted after
realizing that he has quality information data, and facts gotten from
books, magazines, journals, staffs, line managers, customers and other
consulted parties.
Developing best approach, alternatives and objectives of his practice
The information collected offers a platform for choosing the best
alternative; the best alternative is chosen after analyzing the
effectiveness of all the alternatives formulated; Mitchell had the wider
picture of the problem facing the bank, the problem may have been from
the organizational culture, the policies, and other weak areas that the
department had. The best alternative is the one that addresses the
problem at hand and avoids the occurrence of a similar problem; it
should be feasible and effective; when undergoing the transition
Mitchell ensured that the operation of the bank were not affected
negatively. Choosing the best alternate is not as simple as it may sound,
BRIDGET LANI OTUTEYE
HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT
ASSIGNMENT II
31ST MARCH 2021
ID: 220020345
sometimes it is straightforward while in other instances it is complicated;
when complex, managers need to select the alternative with the highest
probability of success; Mitchell analyzed the situation in the bank and
came up with a policy that was accepted across the board. Before moving
to the implementation of the chosen strategy, Mitchell ensured that the
top management has discussed and understood it so that it can garn
their support.
Implementation
Mitchell understood that the embracement of his decision by the team
would determine the success of the process and ensure that all staffs
understand the role they have to play in the bank. For a successful
implementation, every party to the decision must understand his or her
role; to make employees understand the role they have to play within an
organization, leaders need to develop procedures, rules, or policies to be
followed in the implementation stage. Monitoring and control are crucial
for successful implementation; they make managers understand the
effectiveness of their decisions, improve them and offers feedback for
further decisions. Effective managers involve their juniors in the
decision-making process from the start to the end; they understand that
success of a decision is dependent with the support it gets from human
resources. When implementing, Mitchell was keen to ensure that the
entire working people support the programs and they well understood
what the bank was doing. Any doubts were dealt with according and any
other support given as needed.
Monitoring, Control and improvement
BRIDGET LANI OTUTEYE
HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT
ASSIGNMENT II
31ST MARCH 2021
ID: 220020345
When all policies were good to go, and the programs have been
implemented and supported by the bank’s workforce, the next and
major role that Mitchell did with his team is to monitor, oversee and
improve the processes. They involved in continuous improvement of the
process and ensured that the policies developed at a particular time
were adhered to and managed effectively (McGoldrick, Stewart &
Watson, 2001).
3. Do you think the line managers would cooperate with Mitchell
and his staff? What would it take to get their cooperation? Why
might they resist a partnership with the HR department?
The success of a change in human resources policies depends on how
well the change has been managed; at the start, the human resources
are likely to repel the changes implemented, however if they well
understand the change and the positive effects they are likely to get after
the policies. Mitchell and the entire human resources management team
are the change agents, they should facilitate the development of such
policies that facilitate the acceptance of the new policies and human
resources management approaches (Swanson, 2002). As much as there
is huge reliance on the line managers to adopt the new policies, the
communication approach adopted by Mitchell plays a critical role. When
an organization is implementing a change, the most important feature
that must be considered all through the change process is change
communication. A change always defines where an organization is and
where it want to be; change agents have the role of pioneering their
business to their intended destination; they must have a clear vision of
what the future will look like. The Bank’s staffs should be communicated
to regarding what the change aims at attaining; they should have the
BRIDGET LANI OTUTEYE
HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT
ASSIGNMENT II
31ST MARCH 2021
ID: 220020345
information and enough training that need to be done. The line
managers saw the changes as if it has come to replace their positions in
the company as well as reducing their power; to ensure that they well
understood that the policies were for their own good, Mitchell and team
had the challenge of letting them understand some times individually or
train them as a group. The change of policies called for support from all
corners including the top management. When there is an effective
change communication, then the line managers are not likely to resists
the change or adoption of new human resources management. Mitchell
and the human resources department are the change agent or the
originator of change they should handle the line managers in small group
of people and sometimes may even be an individual; the change wanted
should be communicated to the entire organization to facilitate its
implementation. One most interesting aspect of change communication
is that it appears across the entire process and pegged on
communication within an organization (Paauwe, 2009). Another way to
ensure that the project has been adopted effectively without any
resistance is continuous appraisal of line managers and other staffs. To
enable line managers perform their duties effectively and in line with the
policies established continuous training system and employee’s
appraisal is important. It helps management establish areas that needs
improvement. Some organizations have employees training as a
continuous process to ensure that employees are up-to-date with the
changes in the industry. Motivational measures should be put in place to
ensure that employees are loyal to the organization and they work
efficiently. This ranges from attractive salaries or/and benefits, to
developing a good working environment. This ensures that employees
BRIDGET LANI OTUTEYE
HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT
ASSIGNMENT II
31ST MARCH 2021
ID: 220020345
are retained as assets in the organization (Storry, 2005). Whether line
managers will accept the decision of the change or not will be affected
by the approach that Mitchell and his team will attain, the best approach
to manage resistance of new human resources policies is having an
effective communication in the organization, right from the start. The
line managers should be involved to ensure they well understand what
is happening in their organization as well as why the change had to be
enacted.
Conclusion
An organization requires physical and human resources for its
operations. The human resources department has the mandate of
ensuring that adequate employees are available at all times; Swiss Bank
Corporation (SBC) through its human resources team lead by Mitchell,
needed to restructure the human resource policies for the good of the
bank. Mitchell and team used a scientific-strategic human resources
issues management approach where they interpolated the prevailing
situation, collected data and came up with policies to address the issues.
The department did not leave the policies or strategies at them,
however, they supported the policies and ensured that they are well
implemented, the only issues they faced was line manager’s resistance
to change.