INSTITUTE OF ACCOUNTANCY ARUSHA

In Collaboration With

COVENTRY UNIVERSITY (UK)

COURSE : MBA - ITM

MODULE TITLE : Human Resource Management

MODULE CODE : ARUM62BUS

MODULE FACILITATORS : Dr. Edson Ndyemalila & Ms Helen

Meshack

ASSIGNMENT : Individual

DATE GIVEN : 13th March, 2015

DUE DATE : 9th April, 2015

STUDENT NAME : Julius Noble Ssekazinga

REGISTRATION NUMBER : MBA-IT/0218/T.2014

Table of Contents

ContentsCritically examine the concept of organizational culture and evaluate its significance on organizational behavior within the Aster Group. (8 marks).........................................3

Evaluate the role of a manager within Aster (one who is not involved in leading change) and identify some of their key tasks. ( 8 marks)................................................5

Critically examine the different types of teams in operation at Aster and their effectiveness. (8 marks)........................................................................................................7

Using examples from the case study critically examine the team building processes within Aster change process. (8 marks)..............................................................................9

Evaluate the visionary, connective or adaptive leadership style within the Aster case study?  Which of these types of leadership approach appeared to work best at Aster, or was there another style at play?  Give examples, and explain your reasoning. (10 marks)....................................................................................................................................12

Make clear momentarily the impact of Organizational Development intervention at Aster Group. (8 marks)....................................................................................................16

Human resources planning is impossible and waste of time in a situation where the future is unpredictable. Using Aster as an example, examine this contention. (10 marks)....................................................................................................................................19

Analyze and evaluate HRM practice within the Aster Group and compare these to the traditional practice of personnel management. (10 marks)............................................22

References:..........................................................................................................................27

Critically examine the concept of organizational culture and evaluate its significance on organizational behavior within the Aster Group. (8 marks)

The concept of organization culture

According to Mullins, (2010) Organizational culture is the pattern of values,

norms, customs, beliefs, attitudes assumptions and strategies that shape how

Aster group deliver its housing services to the people. Aster group culture was

based on the promise of improving homes to modern standards whilst

keeping rents stable. Other key organizational culture identified in the Aster

group included; efficiency, effectiveness, initiative, care, confidence,

entrepreneurial, pacesetting, track record, ambitious, adventurous, proactive,

innovative and teamwork.

Aster’s organizational leaders developed organization culture over time

aiming to focus the organization to the particular goals and objectives while

performing its objectives.

The concept of organisation culture basing on Notes, (2015) described that

organizational culture encourages consistency, conformity and collaboration,

as the result, there is highly integrated and efficient organization, and trust in

each other in organization. Hence, the cultural type practised by Aster group

is democratic culture as a new culture from traditional local authority mind-set.

This type of culture allows both managers and staff to collaborate and discuss

the organizational issues together and come up with good recommendations

and solutions about the group development.

Organization culture significance on organization Behavior.

Richard et al, (2010) explains that organizations are made of people and their

relationships with one another. Therefore, changes in organization culture like

strategy, structure, technology and product involves changes in people

attitude as well. Employee (people) must learn how to use technology, market

new products and thinking of a new way to accommodate changes in the

corporate cultural values and norms. Thus, cultural change shifts how work is

done in an organization and more generally motivates to renew commitment

and empowerment of employees and a strong bond between organizations

and its customer as the result new behaviour emerge. (Richard et al, 2010)

The effective management of human resources and the organizational

behaviour are basically depending on both organization culture and the nature

of the business industry as well as features of the individual organization. The

culture of any organization consists of predefined policies with which guide

the employees from different backgrounds and provide direction of doing job

accordingly to meet the objectives. (Adler, N.J. 1991)

Organizational culture was significant on the organizational behavior of Aster

group because it helped the employees to work towards achieving its

promise. The organizational values guided employees in the process of

performing their responsibilities in the organization. i.e., Aster’s efficient and

effective performance generated revenue surpluses in 2004, three years

earlier than envisaged in the original plan.

A shared system of meanings, which is the basis for communications and

mutual understanding, is offered by Organizational culture, which basically,

brings together employees of different demographics. According to Aster

group, all managers and a cross-section of all staff together was invited as

part of mobilization and give feedback about the organization, identify

problems and discuss some possible solution to the problems.

Basing on Aster’s organizational culture, the strategic leadership allowed in

changes depending on the circumstances and the organization was able to

adapt to new situations. The management for instance turned more outward,

making connections, using its networks to get business, establishing a

reputation with its stakeholders and attracting new employees into the

organization.

Evaluate the role of a manager within Aster (one who is not involved in leading change) and identify some of their key tasks. ( 8 marks)

Management is about changing behavior and making things happen,

developing people, working with them, reaching objectives and achieving

results. Thus, management is not leading the change or rather management

is focusing on maintain and improving competitive advantages through

adapting the positive organizational environment to meet opportunities,

challenges, and technological changes. (Mullins, 2010)

The Role:

According to Aster case study, Sarsen was the manager who was not

involved in leading change in Aster group. One of the big role of this manager

was to facilitate the possible growth of the group.

Basing on the three categorisation of Manager’s Role by Henry Mintzberg,

Sarsen ‘ roles in Aster Group were;

Decisional Role: In five years the group focuses on improving homes into

home standards while harmonize house rent to stable states with the aim of

generating more revenue. The management made a decision to develop and

adapt the business strategy of which motivates the executive team to start

focusing and negotiate for opportunities for growth development and to

quickly become entrepreneurs.

Interpersonal role: During the growth period, the governing team (board)

was formed comprising of different groups of stakeholders like four tenants,

three representatives from council and eight independent people from the

business and community.

Informational Role: The manager of a group (Sarsen) was effective

and efficient in managing information and its operations. The manager

focussed on its original promise of improving standards housing services

while keeping rents stable. The original plan has enabled them to generate

more income just three years after its implementation.

The managerial Key tasks in Aster were;

Key managerial actions demarcated as; Planning, Organising, Leading and

Controlling

Planning: The target requires a group to shift away from traditional local

culture and hence recruiting the new members to the group with ability to

deliver high quality housing services, creative and innovative towards the

group products and services.

Organizing: the processes in which the management capacity and

capabilities are enhanced. Example makes a clear demarcation between

executive management functions, other group staff functions and the board of

which improve the working relationships and commitment.

Leading: Example in Aster group Richard Kitson managed successfully

through staff briefings, conferences, small group and individual discussions of

which people was open to contribute for the future and be able to take people

him while leading them by examples.

Controlling

It involves matching the employee’s efficiency by doing all harmonized

activities effectively in respect to the established plan, principles and

instructions to facilitate success towards the desired results. Managers

basically prepare the objectives and actively engage in it as a moving target in

expanding the organization and control and monitoring on day-to-day

activities.

Conclusion

A manager is responsible for coordinating and directing activities of other

team/group members, plan and organize, assess group performance,

motivate group members, assign tasks, and establish a positive environment

to support the pre-defined company goals activities.

Critically examine the different types of teams in operation at Aster and

their effectiveness. (8 marks)

According to the literature of the Human resource lecture notes (2015), teams

occur when a number of people have a common goal and recognize that their

personal success is dependent on the success of others. explain the teams as

“a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a

common purpose, performance, goal and approach for which they hold

themselves mutually accountable” (Mullins, 2007)

Aster Group Teams

According to the case study, two Teams were identified in Aster and these

are;

Board / Executive Team

Development Team

Customer Team

Board / Executive teams

This was Responsible for partnering, merging and acquiring other

organization assets. Included John heffer, Richard Kitson and Sarsen

Effectiveness of the executive team was during the second transition period

where the successful change of culture was experienced from local authority

culture to modern culture. Choosing eligible candidates this refers to the

ability of the executives to appoint the competent and experienced personnel

to lead the group accordingly. Example Richard Kitson who had an

experience within the public sector by leading and growing the local authority

housing service including managing large number of staff in an operation as

his strength and efficiency in a group development.

The executive team effectiveness was also evaluated on the factor that all

were keen on exploring each other’s philosophies and the degree of

compatibility. For instance, they began with the informal meetings in

discussing the matters regarding the partnerships but finally such meetings

became formal. They could also conduct widespread consultation with all

stakeholders – especially tenants’ representatives and staff, a factor that

increased their effectiveness.

Community Development Team

This team was established to cope with the high growth rate of the group and

to meet the customer need/wants. Following this case the growth strategies

was then developed to make more effort to grow.

Development Team effectiveness was the success to acquire land and build

new houses.

The development team also working on partnership example from board

expands their ideas to in terms of mergers and partnering with other

associations outside the group. Building strong partnerships with other

associations that will ensure Aster group derive the maximum benefit from

people knowledge, skills, resources and time.

Customer Team

The executive in Aster group becomes more sensitive with their customer as

an important part of an organizational business growth opportunity and

development of which they motivated into entrepreneurial practice.

The customer team effectiveness was the creation of new initiative “care

and repair” whereby it helped the older people and vulnerable customers to

continue to live independently by developing new homes outside their original

base. Therefore, this will be a major growth area for the group that will have a

significant impact over it.

Conclusion

The commitment of the team to reflect and evaluate the current process in

relation to the future improves the Team processes and effectiveness. As a

team, it is important to understand and evaluating accomplishments through

meeting specific goals so as to ensure high-performance. Thus, team leader

needs to be innovative in generating ideas, actively listening to team

members and supportive.

Using examples from the case study critically examine the team building processes within Aster change process. (8 marks)

The team effectiveness is basically improved by the team’s commitment to

reflect the organizational performance and evaluation towards a goal. The

basic teams function is to meet the specific goal by understanding essential

skills about the particular functional process and thus high performance and

effective management of the organization change. This is area where the

team development is important.

Aster group, Richard Kitson had enough experience on team management

whereby he reinforces several changes that motivate staffs (Managers and

employees) to accept changes and finally pass through team process.

Example move to modern (democratic culture) which is more independent

and cohesive culture than being staying still in local authority culture which

more bureaucratic in nature.

Asters team building

Aster group teams’ development passes through five stages as the guideline

for determining behavioural patterns for the team. In order for the team to

maximize its productivity and processing then it needs to identify and

understand causes for changes in the team behaviours. According to Mullins,

(2010) describe the team building process model (Tuckman model) which

identifies five main successive stages of group development and

relationships: The five stages (process) are:- forming, storming, norming,

performing and adjourning.

Forming: During this process, most team members are positive and polite.

Some are anxious, as they haven't fully understood what work the team will

do. Others are simply excited about the task ahead.

As leader, you play a dominant role at this stage, because team members'

roles and responsibilities aren't clear.

Forming last for some time, as people start to work together, and as they

make an effort to get to know their new colleagues.

In Aster Group, Forming appear at a time when Aster Group enter in to

partnership with other company to develop the services provided. ‘’Both the

technical and psychological aspects of the project management of the

grouping process were conducted with openness and no hidden agendas.

Another forming process is when Silbury Group had been launched. Individual

manager and group of staff were asked what the key organizational issues

were and this in turn informed the design of the development programme.

Due to the fact the forming stage there is no coordination between staff

member and no one known each other people start to formulate group with

good relationship.

Storming: Driung this process, people start to push against the boundaries

established in the forming stage. This is the stage where many teams fail.

Storming often starts where there is a conflict between team members' natural

working styles. People may work in different ways for all sorts of reasons, but

if differing working styles cause unforeseen problems, they may become

frustrated.

Storming can also happen in other situations. For example, team members

may challenge your authority, or jockey for position as their roles are clarified.

Or, if you haven't defined clearly how the team will work, people may feel

overwhelmed by their workload.

More to this process , staff or team members may question the worth of the

team's goal, and they may resist taking on tasks.

Team members who stick with the task at hand may experience stress,

particularly as they don't have the support of established processes, or strong

relationships with their colleagues.

For example in Aster Group Stoming process appear when organization

haven't defined clearly how the team will work “Whenever a new structure is

implemented there are always issues around the difficulties of managing and

control – where are decisions made, where the power and authority lie, who

has clarity about roles and responsibilities

Norming: During this process people start to resolve their differences,

appreciate colleagues' strengths, and respect your authority as a leader.

Due to the fact that team members know one-another better, they may

socialize together, and they are able to ask each other for help and provide

constructive feedback. People develop a stronger commitment to the team

goal, and good progress towards it is achieved.

There is often a prolonged overlap between storming and norming, because,

as new tasks come up, the team may lapse back into behavior from the

storming stage.

For example in Aster Group, Norming process take place when Managers and

staff were involved, in a variety of ways, with developing the on going agenda

for change. In addition to the workshops there were staff briefings, staff

discussion groups and a staff conference (which now continues annually)

where the forward agenda was communicated, ideas generated, and potential

obstacles highlighted and worked on collaboratively.

Performing: During this process hard work leads, without friction, to the

achievement of the team's goal. The structures and processes that were set

up support this well.

A leader can delegate much of the work, and concentrate on developing team

members.

It feels easy to be part of the team at this stage, and people who join or leave

won't disrupt performance.

Adjourning: Many teams will reach this stage eventually. For example,

project teams exist for only a fixed period, and even permanent teams may be

disbanded through organizational restructuring.

Team members who like routine, or who have developed close working

relationships with other team members, may find this stage difficult,

particularly if their future now looks uncertain.

Looking at Aster Group, the challenge for the Aster Group going forward is

how to maintain momentum in its growth strategy whilst embedding the

changes that have already been made; and how to manage change fast

enough for the senior management but at the right pace for staff to continue to

perform effectively and provide an excellent service to their customers,

Evaluate the visionary, connective or adaptive leadership style within the Aster case study?  Which of these types of leadership approach appeared to work best at Aster, or was there another style at play?  Give examples, and explain your reasoning. (10 marks)

Visionary leadership

Visionary leaders are the builders of a new dawn, working with imagination,

insight, and boldness. They present a challenge that calls forth the best in

people and brings them together around a shared sense of purpose. They

work with the power of intentionality and alignment with a higher purpose.

( Corinne McLaughlin , 2001)

Connective leadership

Represents a leadership model designed for the current Connective Era, an

era marked by the tensions between interdependence and diversity. The

Connective Era calls for new leadership strategies to enable individuals and

groups with diverse – and potentially conflicting – backgrounds, talents, and

agendas to live and work together productively, creatively, and

harmoniously for their mutual benefit.

Connective Leadership offers an important perspective for bringing together

diverse, even conflicting, groups that exist in an interdependent environment.

Connective leadership differ with other leadership style do not ask you to

compromise with opponents, recognizing that compromise requires each

party to give up some dearly held value also connective draw their amazing

strength and flexibility from an underlying repertoire of goal oriented and it

turn to the demands of the situation.

According to Aster Group case study: “Managers and staff were involved, in a

variety of ways, with developing the on-going agenda for change. In addition

to the workshops there were staff briefings, staff discussion groups and a staff

conference (which now continues annually) where the forward agenda was

communicated, ideas generated, and potential obstacles highlighted and

worked on collaboratively.

A key component of the grouping was the bringing together of all the

managers from both organizations. They spent time together over two days

addressing the following challenges:

Meeting and getting to know one another’s organizations and ways of

working;

Developing a shared view of Aster’s strategic opportunities;

Identifying some of the practical synergies for individuals and constituent

businesses; and

Agreeing key lines of on-going organizational development.

As a result of the workshop three working parties were set up, initially with

managers from across the Group and then involving staff. The key themes to

be addressed were”:

Adoptive leadership

According to Ronald Heifetz and his colleague’s sayed adaptive leadership

is a practice not a theory, defining it as the ‘practice of mobilizing people to

tackle tough challenges and thrive’ (Heifetz, et al., 2009, p. 14). It is a

‘distributed leadership’ model, which means leadership can be displayed by

people across an organization, not only by those in senior positions or

management roles.

The following are common characteristic of adaptive leadership

Adaptive leadership reflects the actions of leaders who:

Think and act to exert strategic influence on their environments. They

act to assure that their organizations are well positioned competitively.

Are proactive, foresee opportunities and put the resources in place to

go after them.

Employ a broad-based style of leadership that enables them to be

personally more flexible and adaptive.

Entertain diverse and divergent views when possible before making

major decisions.

etc

According to Aster Group case study Adaptive leadership may appear when

“The challenge for the Aster Group going forward is how to maintain

momentum in its growth strategy whilst embedding the changes that have

already been made; and how to manage change fast enough for the senior

management but at the right pace for staff to continue to perform effectively

and provide an excellent service to their customers. Of course, since Aster is

now the largest in the South West the relationship with the Housing

Corporation has changed from one where it was needing to seek attention

and probably had very limited influence, to one where it plays an important

part in the Corporation’s plans and as such could always pose a risk if it

doesn’t perform. Aster very much sees itself as a true partner with the

Corporation – the challenges now being to continue the growth strategy,

staying on the preferred list of partners and having to make year-on-year

efficiency savings as laid down by the regulatory authorities.

visionary, connective and having adaptive leadership approaches. The

reasons for the failure were attributed to the different backgrounds, some

different attitudes and different sets of competencies. Thus, the leadership of

the company had hard time to learn how to live together. What brought in the

differences mainly was however the cultural differences with different

emphases. There were many more similarities than differences, but where

there were differences they needed to be identified and discussed and worked

through to reach a common understanding and an appropriate way of working

together. Further still, there was a difference in life stage because Aster has

been autonomous for almost a decade, while Testway was still wrestling

control away from the local authority (which found it hard to relinquish control),

until quite recently.

Since they had visionary and adaptive leadership style with them, they had to

continue with the wedding symbol and decided to continue merging as they

devised means of solving the differences that could emerge. For example,

the new Chief Executive and his Deputy Chief Executive in the first few

months. They could keep the dialogue going on as and when differences or

issues emerged. There were good and bad aspects to each of the cultures,

but there was enough openness for people to say, ‘Hang on a minute, let’s

talk about this’.

In summary, Aster had visionary, connective and adaptive leadership style as

exemplified by the participative, communicative, coordinative and facilitative

leadership that the management exhibited. The leadership met some

challenges in harmonizing the cultural differences shortly after merging with

Testway but because the leadership had visionary mind, continued carrying

out dialogues between themselves until they moved their ambitions ahead.

Make clear momentarily the impact of Organizational Development intervention at Aster Group. (8 marks)

Organization development (OD) according to Cheung-Judge, Mee-Yan, and

Linda Holbeche (2009), this is the situation when organization-wide effort to

increase an organization's effectiveness and efficiency and enable the

organization to achieve its planned goals. Organization development being

about promoting organizational readiness to meet change, and it has been

said that OD is a systemic learning and development strategy intended to

change the basics of beliefs, attitudes and relevance of values, and structure

of the current organization to better absorb disruptive technologies, shrinking

or exploding market opportunities and ensuing challenges and chaos. It is

worth understanding what OD is not. It is not training, personal development,

team development or team building, human resource development (HRD),

learning and development (L&D) or a part of HR although it is often

mistakenly understood as some or all of these. OD interventions are about

change so involve people - but OD also develops processes, systems and

structures. The primary purpose of OD is to develop the organization, not to

train or develop the staff. (Human Resource Concepts, 2012)

The objectives of Organization development are:

1. To increase the level of inter-personal trust among employees.

2. To increase employees' level of satisfaction and commitment.

3. To confront problems instead of neglecting them.

4. To effectively manage conflict.

5. To increase cooperation and collaboration among the employees.

6. To increase the organization's problem solving.

The impact of organizational development at Aster group include bringing the

senior managers together on a number of occasions to discuss different

issues that affect Aster group in which a new Aster culture is emerging. As a

result of organizational development for example, many staff, often the

managers – have embraced the change wholeheartedly and have been

focused on making things happen by just doing it and supporting the other

junior staffs in the organization to follow the trend. Other staffs further away

from the decision-making process felt it was more like the recognizable

emotional roller coaster. The pace of change was such that on an emotional

level there were a lot of feelings to deal with and on a task level there were

quite a number of things that needed doing or clarifying.

Development and communication of a clear strategy was another impact of

organizational development interventions. This was achieved to always

reflect back on core set of values that were role-modeled by senior managers;

conducting a sequence of staff briefings and cascade and the establishment

of an annual staff conference to celebrate success; involve and engage staff

in the future direction and test out ideas.

Organizational development interventions in the Aster group made it possible

to have been some changes that have been embraced and some of them

were project development. The technical and psychological aspects of the

project management of the grouping process were conducted with openness

and no hidden agendas. Whenever there could be the questions to answer,

they could join hands. For instance, a key question they returned to when

there were difficult decisions to be made was, ‘What’s good for the business?’

Staffs were asked for their views and ideas about what form the partnering

should take. In addition, independent and competent management could be

appointed to help in the management of the project. For example, an external

project manager was appointed who had the sponsorship of the two Chief

Executives. The project manager was called in from outside because the

project seemed too big for anyone to take ownership of and do their business

as usual as well; they wanted an experienced credible project manager for

such a high-profile initiative; and both associations welcomed an objective

third party. The project itself was run along effective best practice project

management guidelines with a detailed plan of activities, all tasks having a

responsible person owning it and clear reporting procedures.

During the initial period of change prior to the grouping, external consultants

were brought in to help the organization manage organizational change. As

part of the mobilization process all managers and a cross-section of all staff

were invited to give feedback as to how they saw the organization, what the

key issues were and what some of the solutions might be. The following were

the main themes to emerge from the discussion groups and interviews with

managers.

Evolving common purpose, values and shared understanding of

objectives: Some managers and staff were very clear about what the Group’s

vision and values were. Others were not so sure. People needed more clarity

about what the new organization would look and feel like in the future.

Evolving a shared understanding of what sort of organization we need

to build for the future: People saw the need to further develop the vision and

values for the organization through greater communication and engagement,

both vertically and across the organization.

Managing for growth: Balancing the drive for growth whilst maintaining and

improving the level of current service emerged as quite a creative tension.

Ways had to be found to increase management capacity and capability.

Balancing between managing and leading: Managers needed to shift the

balance from managing the increasing complexity of the Group (planning,

organizing, controlling and problem solving) to demonstrating leadership and

strategic thought (through setting a direction, aligning people, motivating and

inspiring). Where do we need to innovate as managers/management team?

More creative and innovative ways of doing things were needed to get to grips

with the challenges. That included creating an environment where some risk

taking was more acceptable and mistakes were inevitable but could be learnt

from.

Individual and collective energy: Managers needed to be able to match

their efficiency (doing things right) with their effectiveness (doing the right

things). As roles, responsibilities and structures change the challenge on an

organizational level seemed to be, ‘Where should managers’ time best be

deployed and how much can they empower their staff?’

Personal responsibility: Managers acknowledged the shifting culture and

are generally and genuinely signed up to developing it and taking their part in

shaping it. However, it might be difficult to step fully into the new role of

manager and leader and even more difficult to develop staff to play their part.

Developing management and leadership capacity and capability: A

series of workshops were designed to address issues like: to help managers

share knowledge and understanding across the whole Group; to develop skills

to better manage change; for managers to understand their management

style and the impact it has on others; and to address the important and

pressing issues arising from a dynamic and changing organization.

Thus, development organization intervention in aster group had varying

impacts that were evidenced by Development and communication of a clear

strategy that allowed the group managers to harmoniously embrace other

changes such as project development in the group.

Human resources planning is impossible and waste of time in a situation where the future is unpredictable. Using Aster as an example, examine this contention. (10 marks)

Basing on the literature of Allan and Haines (2002), Human resource planning

is the process of identifying current and future human resources needs for an

organization to achieve its goals. It’s the company’s process it anticipates

future business and environmental forces and assesses the manpower

requirements for future period of time. (Allan and Haines , 2002)

Aster group to have prediction if its future, had to follow the human resource

planning processes therefore it wasn’t a waste of time Although aster group

could meet some challenges when it was planning for its future especially

merging with other companies due to different backgrounds, some different

attitudes and different sets of competencies and the cultural differences with

different emphases as well as differences in life stage between different

companies, its achievements with planning for its future were more successful

than its failures.

Aster group had visionary and adaptive leadership style which was a key in

predicting the future of the organization. For example, when they met

challenges when merging with other organizations because of different

cultural background, they had to continue with the wedding symbol as they

devised means of solving the differences that could emerge. In a few months,

this headship resilience was promoted by the two Chief Executives.

Aster’s prediction of the future was based on the dialogue that would be held

between different stakeholders in the organization. Leaders in the

organization could keep the dialogue going on as and when differences or

issues emerged. Since there were good and bad aspects to each of the

cultures, the management would do its best to benefit from the good side of it

while working hard to resolve what would emerge from the differences

Bringing together all the managers from both organizations that wanted to

merge and spent time together over two days addressing various challenges.

These for example included: meeting and getting to know one another’s

organizations and ways of working; developing a shared view of Aster’s

strategic opportunities; identifying some of the practical synergies for

individuals and constituent businesses; and agreeing key lines of ongoing

organizational development. The results from this discussion were clear

evidence that aster group was predicting its future. For example, the

organization direction, guided by Aster’s vision and values was reached at

through taking account of the strengths and weaknesses of the Group. For

example questions like where would you want Aster to be in five years’ time?

Were some of the issues raised that really indicated that the aster group

human resources planning was predicting its future.

More to that discussions could examine current service improvement

practices to confirm whether they are appropriate for Aster Group and, how

they can better engage and be made more meaningful to staff and customers.

This in addition was planning and predicting for the future.

The organization could conduct and take account of the staff surveys across

Testway and former Silbury Group to examine and make recommendations of

what the organization needed to do to make the Aster Group a better place to

work.

Aster group, human resource planning could help in predicting the future

because merging and partnering with other organizations needs well

organized and planned human resources. When Aster group was joining other

associations, it specified roles and responsibilities for managers and staffs

and synergies and business opportunities were all discussed openly and

frankly with the other organizations. Further still, Whilst Aster was still

embedding the previous grouping; Mendip Housing Association approached

Aster as it was desperately seeking a partner. Aster GMT recognized the

resource implication and recruited a dedicated person to deal with these

aspects of the Group’s development. Aster Group had to look for someone

who not only exhibits good management and leadership within his or her own

area of the business but who has rights and responsibilities across the Group

both at an operational level (for example, spotting and sharing best practice,

efficiencies and economies of scale) and a strategic level (for example,

shaping and responding to the external environment and key partners,

contributing to leadership thinking and development of strategy across the

whole organization). Therefore, all these arguments clearly explain that the

future was being predictable and therefore human resource planning in Aster

could not be wastage of time as the statement stipulates.

To summarize, although it has to be acknowledged that some differences

could be realized due to mainly cultural differences and different visions of

groups that needed to merge with Aster group, its future was predictable and

therefore carrying out human resource planning was not impossible and

waste of time. As it is indicated in the case study, the challenge for the Aster

Group is therefore how to maintain momentum in its growth strategy whilst

embedding the changes that have already been made; and how to manage

change fast enough for the senior management and at the right pace for staff

to continue to perform effectively and provide an excellent service to their

customers. Since Aster is now the largest in the South West and it plays an

important part in the housing corporation’s plan, it has to work hard;

otherwise, it could always pose a risk if it doesn’t perform.

Analyze and evaluate HRM practice within the Aster Group and compare these to the traditional practice of personnel management. (10 marks)

According to Malik, (2010) explains various practices, there were various

human resource management practices in the Aster group. Some of these

included entrepreneurship, team building, communication, collaboration,

coordination, consultations, strategic planning, management development,

partnerships proactive and consultations among other HRM practices (Fatima

Malik Linda, 2010). In comparison with the traditional personnel management

practices, there is great difference with those from the Aster group as will be

argued. Below, I begin with the HRM practices of Aster group.

Aster group has human resources that embrace the idea of entrepreneurship

and growth in the organization. According to the case study for instance,

human resources in Aster welcomes new ideas and change as long as these

changes can make the organization expand in size as well as contributing to

the profits of the organization. This can be exemplified by different

organizations that Aster group has merged with such as Testways and it

finally got successful with them because entrepreneurial mindset that was

aiming at growth and efficiency.

The human resource management of Aster group is also characterized by

adaptability and embracing changes in the organization. Adaptability can be

understood as the ability of copying with the prevailing situation and work

within its conditions to meet the targets of the organization. In relation to Aster

group, the human resource management was adaptable to different issues

including adapting new and cultural differences that various organizations that

emerged with Aster were exhibiting. This indicates that the organization was

able to deal with human resource mix because it’s adaptive ability and the

value for embracing change in the organization. In addition, as the Group

grew. It had to cope with governance issues over an ever increasing range of

activities, including adapting to a group structure, which enabled the different

companies to be managed and have effective governance. Again, when the

organization suddenly lost its Executive director, it copied with the situation

and devised means to recruit another one (Richard Kitson) who was

ambitious, keen, prepared to take calculated risks and adventurous.

Making use of the literature of (Algorta, Zeballos, 2011) ,The human resource

management at Aster encouraged communication and consultation with its

staffs on various issues through staff briefings, conferences, small group,

individual discussions, general meetings and annual meetings and

workshops. These are important practices in human resource management

because they allow all employees in the organization to share their views

together and learn for the best mechanisms of improving their confidence and

performance. an example is shown when the need for grouping became more

and more likely, managers had to disseminate information and build

confidence throughout the new Group. And in addition, formal meetings

became more formal to establish the level playing field for all the stakeholders

share their views regarding the concerned issues in the organization.

There is a management development program in aster group that

characterized Aster group. This program was launched for the top 30

managers to deal with complex issues in the organization. To achieve this, the

organization asked individual managers and groups of staff to express what

the key organizational issues were and this in turn informed the design of the

development program. This program was important because it enable human

resources department to solve the organizational needs with professionalism

and on the basis of employee views and needs.

Team building was another human resource management practice that is

found in Aster group. This was important to sustain the success of the

organization because staffs would treat managers primarily as facilitators and

enablers in all staffs in the organization. In fact, team building helps to build

the leadership capacity throughout all parts of the group through adding

confidence in them. When staffs gain confidence, they deliver quality work

and contribute to the efficiency and effectiveness of the organization. This is

also possible because of trust that is built in the organization through effective

communication to all the staff members.

The strategic planning of Aster group deserves a mention as a human

resource management practice. Basing on the mission of the organization

known as promise of improving homes to modern standards whilst keeping

rents stable, it strategically works hard to achieve it through focusing on

longer term strategic issues rather than current year’s bottom line. As such,

the operating businesses have considerable autonomy in terms of day-to-day

operations. This increases efficiency and effectiveness in the organization.

The development and communication of a clear strategy, the reflection back

of a core set of values that were role-modeled by senior managers, a

sequence of staff briefings and cascades and the establishment of an annual

staff conference to celebrate success, involve and engage staff in the future

direction and test out ideas were very important for the organization to

achieve its strategic goals.

Partnerships and external consultations as a human resource management

practice was also identified in the Aster group. This helped the organization to

use the expertise of the partners in performing the organizational activities.

This was identified during the initial period of change prior to the grouping of

Aster with other groups. The external consultants were for example brought in

to help the organization manage organizational change. As part of the

mobilization process all managers and a cross-section of all staff were invited

to give feedback as to how they saw the organization, what the key issues

were and what some of the solutions might be as a result of organizational

changes. External consultancies are free from bias and they are neutral.

Consequently they perform the work with dedication and commitment, which

finally leads to efficiency and effectiveness of the organization.

According to the Aster group, the human resource management practices

were proactive in nature compared to the reactive nature that characterizes

personnel management. Personnel management remains a loof from core

organizational activities, functions independently, and takes a reactive

approach to changes in corporate goals or strategy. As seen in the Aster

group however, Human resource management remained integrated with

corporate strategy and took a proactive approach to align the workforce

toward achievement of its goals such as merging with other groups.

Further still, while the personnel management approach concerns itself with

assisting and advising top management, human resource management

practices in Aster group had a more comprehensive and proactive

management system that aimed at team building through dialogues and

discussions.

Personnel management is an independent staff function of an organization,

with little involvement from line managers, and no linkage to the organization's

core process. Human resource management practices in Aster group were

seen integrated with the organization's core strategy and functions. The Aster

group did this in recognition that although a distinct human resource

department carries out much of the human resource management tasks,

human resource initiatives involve the line management and operations staff

heavily. This was because it is the line managers who were directly

communicating and consulting the other employees in the organization on

matters regarding the organization.

Personnel management also strives to reconcile the aspirations and views of

the workforce with management interest by institutional means such as

collective bargaining, trade union-based negotiations and similar processes.

(Mondy, R. W., NOE, R. M. and Premeaux, S. R, 2002)

This leads to fixation of work conditions applicable for all, and not necessarily

aligned to overall corporate goals. However, Human Resource management

practices in Aster group gives a greater thrust on dealing with each employee

independently, informally or formally and gives more importance to customer-

focused developmental activities and facilitating individual employees rather

than bargaining or negotiating with trade unions. This was seen when the

employees were being involved in informal discussions that finally graduated

into formal discussions on matters regarding to merging with other groups.

Finally, traditional personnel management lay emphasis on rigid job

description based on seniority and fixed promotion policies but Human

resource management practices in Aster group like in general human

resource management practices, had relatively fewer job requirements with

broadly defined job responsibilities providing much scope for applying

creativity and initiative, and plenty of career paths, with skills, talent and

commitment as the key drivers of career advancement. For example,

entrepreneurial, pacesetting, track record, ambitious, keen, prepared to take

calculated risks and adventurous were some of the requirements needed

when recruiting senior officials in Aster group.

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