HRM textbook

96 PART 1 INTRODUCTION
CONTINUING CASE
CARTER CLEANING COMPANY
The High-Performance Work System
As a recent graduate and as a person who keeps up with the
business press, Jennifer is familiar with the benefits of
programs such as total quality management and highperformance
work systems.
Jack has actually installed a total quality program of
sorts at Carter, and it has been in place for about 5 years.
This program takes the form of employee meetings. Jack
holds employee meetings periodically, but particularly when
there is a serious problem in a store such as poor-quality
work or machine breakdowns. When problems like these
arise, instead of trying to diagnose them himself or with
Jennifer, he contacts all the employees in that store and
meets with them as soon as the store closes. Hourly employees
get extra pay for these meetings. The meetings have been
useful in helping Jack to identify and rectify several
problems. For example, in one store all the fine white blouses
were coming out looking dingy. It turned out that the
cleaner/spotter had been ignoring the company rule that
required cleaning ( boiling down ) the perchloroethylene
cleaning fluid before washing items like these. As a result,
these fine white blouses were being washed in cleaning fluid
that had residue from other, earlier washes.
Jennifer now wonders whether these employee meetings
should be expanded to give the employees an even bigger
role in managing the Carter stores quality. We can t be
everywhere watching everything all the time, she said to her
father. Yes, but these people only earn about $8 to $15 per
hour. Will they really want to act like mini-managers?
he replied.
Questions
1. Would you recommend that the Carters expand their
quality program? If so, specifically what form should it
take?
2. Assume the Carters want to institute a high-performance
work system as a test program in one of their stores. Write
a one-page outline summarizing important HR practices
you think they should focus on.
TRANSLATING STRATEGY INTO HR POLICIES & PRACTICES CASE
THE HOTEL PARIS CASE
We present a Translating Strategy into HR Policies and
Practices Case: The Hotel Paris Case in the end-of-chapter
material of each chapter (starting with this chapter). This
continuing case demonstrates how the Hotel Paris s HR
director uses the concepts and techniques from each chapter
to create a human resource management system that helps
the Hotel Paris achieve its strategic goals.
As we explained in this chapter, the basic HR strategy
process is as follows: Management formulates a strategic plan.
This plan in turn implies certain required organizational
outcomes, such as improved customer service. Those required
outcomes in turn imply certain workforce requirements.
Human resource management then formulates HR strategies
(policies and practices) to produce the desired workforce skills,
competencies, and behaviors. Finally, the human resource
manager chooses measures to gauge the extent to which its
new policies and practices are actually producing the required
employee skills and behaviors. The Hotel Paris s human
resource manager might for example use the following
sequence of steps: 50
Step 1: Define the Business Strategy. We saw first that
translating strategy into human resource policies
and activities starts by defining the company s
strategic plans and goals.
Step 2: Outline a Strategy Map. As we also saw, a strategy
map summarizes the chain of major interrelated
activities that contribute to a company s success
in achieving its strategic goals.
Step 3: Identify the Strategically Required Organizational
Outcomes. Every company must produce strategically
relevant outcomes if it is to achieve its strategic
goals. For the Portman Hotel in Shanghai, in this
chapter's introduction, the main outcome management
sought was excellent customer service, to help
their hotel stand out from the rest.
Step 4: Identify the Required Workforce Competencies
and Behaviors. Here, ask, What competencies
and behaviors must our employees exhibit if our
company is to produce the strategically relevant
organizational outcomes, and thereby achieve its
strategic goals?
Step 5: Identify the Required HR System Policies and
Activities. Once the human resource manager
knows the required employee competencies and
behaviors, he or she can turn to formulating the
HR activities and policies that will help to
produce them.
Here it is important to be specific. It is not
enough to say, We need new training programs or
disciplinary processes. Instead, the manager must
now ask, Exactly what sorts of new training programs
do we need to produce the sorts of employee
competencies and behaviors that we seek?