Human Resource Management Assignment Questions and Answers

The Relationship Management competency allows HR professionals to improve the quality and overall effectiveness of business transactions. Consider the following example.

 

 

An organization is preparing to negotiate a new contract with one of its major HR software vendors. In anticipation of the contract talks starting, the HR team is mobilized. It includes the director, a senior manager, and a staff specialist. Each contributes, using the Human Relationship Management competency, to make the process as smooth as possible.

The HR staff member provides an initial point of contact with the software vendor representative and works to establish a pleasant and professional relationship, honestly communicating the function’s needs and trying to learn more about the vendor’s interests in this negotiation. The staff member prepares the HR manager and director and takes steps to make meetings comfortable and productive.

The HR manager must negotiate a difficult conflict with the IT function. IT would prefer a different vendor, but this other solution would not meet HR and employee needs. HR resolves the conflict by creating a role for IT in all discussions, especially negotiation and post-contract implementation.

The HR director has played an important role in securing IT’s cooperation. She has met with and persuaded the IT function leader to direct the function to collaborate in the vendor selection process and support HR’s needs to the extent possible. The director had cultivated this relationship carefully over the years, offering support for HR issues before it was even asked and making sure that all of IT’s HR requests received prompt attention.

Question 1:

Where do you see the Relationship Management competency being used?

The team exhibits relationship management competency mobilized to execute the contract. The multi-level team shows different levels of relationship management skills, utilizing them as and when needed to make the going seamless and smooth.

Question 2:

What is the rationale for laying the groundwork with the vendor?

The lowest level member of the HR team, the staff member lays the foundation for the advanced talks for contract negotiation by initiating the preliminaries, thereby eliminating communication gaps and creating a level playing field for both teams where they can resume talks to finalize the key points through taking vital decisions.

Question 3:

What type of conflict resolution strategy is used here? Why is it appropriate? Collaboration. Both HR and IT win: HR’s technical needs are met, and IT can represent its concerns throughout the process.

What type of conflict resolution strategy is used here? Why is it appropriate? Collaboration. Both HR and IT win: HR’s technical needs are met, and IT can represent its concerns throughout the process.

The collaborative technique of conflict resolution is used here, creating win to win situation for both, HR and IT. The HR can get its need fulfilled while ensuring that ITs concerns are represented through the process.

Question 4:

What important role does the HR director play?

HR director has played a pivotal role in securing the cooperation from IT though her persuasion skills by coining an agreement with IT director for collaboration and support in vendor selection and addressing the HR needs. She had started making ground for this long ago by extending support for the IT which reciprocated favorably when needed.

Question 5:

What other Behavioral Competencies do you see being used?

Besides negotiation, relationship building and management, collaboration, creating win to win situation and conflict resolution, skills like persuading ability, for insightful thinking, reciprocation and superior

2.  The Situation:

The Communication competency reflects a critical component of all HR activities. HR professionals must hear what is needed, deliver what will be helpful, and change their message and activities based on the feedback they receive. Communication is a feedback loop.

Consider an HR organization that must communicate a new policy on education reimbursement to a large, dispersed, and varied workforce.

The HR leader and an HR manager discuss the new policy, the changes that must be explained, the rationale behind the changes, and how the policy is likely to affect different employee groups. They meet with a benefits specialist who will be responsible for implementing the communication. As a team, they outline the key points, analyze information needs and attitudes of different employee groups, and decide the best way to communicate this change. They decide that they will have a web conference with all managers before announcing the policy. This interactive medium will allow managers to ask HR questions and prepare answers to the questions their people may raise. A week later an e-mail will be sent to all employees.

Meanwhile, the specialist drafts an e-mail aimed at being understandable to the average employee and as brief and complete as possible. The tone of the message will be important. Before the senior members of the team review this critical document, the specialist arranges for an internal review by several readers who know this audience.

Reactions at the web conference cause the team to change their strategy slightly. The managers would like to direct employees to the organization intranet for more detailed information and forms they will need. Another HR staff member is assigned this task.

After the policy is released, the team tracks reactions. The few questions coming into HR indicate that the team has done a good job in anticipating employees’ communication needs. The intranet page is being visited. The process described there appears to be understood and is being used properly. An e-mail survey of managers indicates that the policy announcement went smoothly in the field.

Question 1:

What is the advantage of using a team to tackle this communication? Apply different communication management principles and activities to this situation.

What is the advantage of using a team to tackle this communication? Apply different communication management principles and activities to this situation.

• According to the principle of clarity, to increase the clarity of the conveyed message to the employees, a specialist is used to stay email.
• The principle of attention: The specialist makes the message in an important tone to get the attention of the employees.
• The principle of consistency: A web conference with all the managers is held before to keep the policy consistent after its delivery by taking in all the factors of different departments.
• The principle of adequacy: Several readers who know the audience is allowed to read the document before it's delivery and slight changes are incorporated to make it a complete message without any doubts arising from the employees.
• The principle of timelines: The use of email to deliver the message and to post the complete policy on the company's Intranet ensures that the employee gets to know the full policy on time.
• The principle of feedback: The email survey of managers taken after the policy of delivered which ensures feedback is taken and addressed accordingly.

Question 2:
What is the advantage of breaking the communication into multiple segments? Clearly relate your answer to elements if communication explained.
As the company has a large and varied workforce, the policy work affects the people working in different departments differently.

• Hence the HR manager along with the benefits specialist divides the policy and its benefits for different employee groups.
• This is done to keep the message as relevant to the reader as possible and to avoid factors that do not affect the reader to keep the message short and faster to read.
• Also, it helps in taking the feedback from the employee in the part of the policy that affects him rather than the whole which may affect the feedback's accuracy.

Question 3:
What are the advantages of the communication technologies used in this case?
Web conference: It's used to gather all the managers together online without physical meeting which saves time and to interact with HR questions that they may address from their employees regarding the policy.

Also to get faster reviews from internal readers and implement changes accordingly.

• Email: To communicate the message about the new policy in an electronic way that is faster and with one click message can be sent to the whole group.
• Intranet: It's used to get more details about the policy and forms that the employees need can be easily accessed from the desk rather than collecting them from a place.

Question 4:
How is this communication improved through feedback? What impact does cross culture has on communication.
Communication is improved through feedback and impacts of cross culture on it are:

• It helps in getting individual viewpoints that may differ from person to person and helps in addressing different groups with satisfaction.
• It helps in getting to know the receiver of the message and alerting the process according to his feedback.
• It increases the consistency of a repeated process by taking feedback from the receiver of the process.
• It helps in improving the performance of the system.
• It creates a sense of the relation between the two parties.
• It helps in creating a democratic approach in the deliveries in a cross-culture environment.