By Kizito Okechukwu

With the increasing change in organisational structures and technology innovations, businesses are devising new ways to motivate and maintain the effectiveness of staff. Organisations and businesses experience technology innovations, increasing competition and dynamic environment, thus continue to seek for a more proactive and strategic approach in maximising efficiency and effectiveness.

In one of his speeches, Francois Hugo, the head of HR for Rand Merchant Bank emphasises the importance of staff motivation in the work place and discourages the excessive hierarchical structure. “The more power you have in an organisation, the less control you have and ‘dis-empower’ people and organisation,” Hugo expressed.

The challenge for HR people is: Can they be part of the business? How can businesses be created in a way that they can have all structures working together for the same objective? In an abstract copy content written by Christine T. Kydd and Lynn Oppenheim, recent research emphasised the strategic focus that human resource management must have in order for the organisation to fully utilise its human resources in a competitive market.

However, few empirical studies have been done to date regarding how human resource planning should be linked to strategy. An extensive in-depth study of four large, complex and very successful companies supports the widespread belief that human resource management can be a powerful tool to enhance competitiveness when policies and practices are logically driven by a firm’s strategy and by the key environmental factors it faces. The content describes the study and looks at how the areas of selection, appraisal, reward and development are handled by these firms. It also presents a contingency framework which offers guidelines as to how certain Human Resource Management practices should be implemented to gain competitive advantage.

Even though policies should not be effaced, organisations should find a way to be valued based and not rule based says Francois Hugo. He analysed the philosophy of giving in order to get.

• Instead of the old policy of getting always, a company can now give to get-reward your employees to get the best out of them.

• One could also give unconditionally without intending to receive. Staff must work very hard in giving their service to the organisation without the intention to receive something extra in return. However, it is always guaranteed that one will receive some reward for their hard work as it goes unnoticed.

Managers always focus on results but the reality is: how we can use results as a means to grow our people instead of using people for results. “Grow your people and they will give you the results” says Hugo. Even though the bottom line in organisations is to make profits, organisations must ensure that they do not see people as objects but as potentials. Before introducing values in organisations, executives and managers must ensure that they live up to the values.
As Professor Jaap Paauwe puts it, to maintain an effective and efficient organisation, human resource management needs to cope with the dual responsibility of providing a firm with the best employees to deliver improved financial performance and a moral duty to these employees to provide a working environment that is equitable and encourages personal development.
Kizito Okechukwu