HR topic taken from a current news article Assignment

HR topic taken from a current news article - Assignment Example General Electric Company’s CEO, Jack Welsh is one of the most vocal proponents of this policy by claiming that this method weeds out the individuals who are a bad fit with the company. He is not alone in his support, 30% of Fortune 500 companies have similar policies including Ford Motor, Conco, Sun Microsystem, Cisco Systems, EDS and Enron (Lawler). They all systematically remove the bad employees on a regular basis and thereby send a strong message to the employees that there is little tolerance for poor results. Hence this forced ranking system has a big impact on the overall industry. Such a system of performance appraisal also provides information about the employees that other systems do not provide, especially when it comes to their place in the company performance spectrum (Lawler). It also promotes a culture in which employees believe that the company expects nothing but the best and those who fail to adhere to this standard will be fired. This causes the employees to continually work hard and exceed their past performance (Blume, Rubin and Timothy T. Baldwin). Managers generally avoid having difficult and painful conversations with their employees over their bad performance and try to minimize the conflict. This system literally forces the managers to address the issue of the employees thereby formalizing the management processes which only benefits the entire company (Lipman). A study published in an issue of the academic journal of Personnel Psychology tried to answer the question of whether a forced ranking system will improve the quality of the work force. In their model of 100 companies with over 100 employees, they employed the system of forced ranking and found out that there was noticeable improvement in the work force potential over the first several years. This improvement also included lowered voluntary turnover (Grote). However, there are many cons associated with the practice of forced ranking. It has been said to lower employee mo rale, teamwork and collaboration. If there is no compelling difference between the employees in the lower end who were fired and those who were not fired, it will spread a sense of injustice (Grote). This would lower morale and the system would be viewed in a negative light. Such a system also creates a very stressful and risky work environment. This can prevent high potential employees from joining the said company as they would try to avoid that work environment (Grote). Employee performance patterns do not generally follow a normal distribution and hence identifying the bad performers is a difficult matter (Lawler). According to the news article, most employees are slightly worse than average hence there is always the danger of satisfactory employees being identified as bad employees. Some departments are better staffed than others and the ‘poor performers’ in that group might as well be employees who were average but were surrounded by good employees and hence paled in comparison (Lawler). By repeating this process year after year, the lower quartile is eventually filled with employees who are average rather than ‘bad performers’. This can again lower the employee morale as they would feel that average employees are being misidentified and discriminated against (Donaldson). Such companies are also prone to legal challenges. Legal rulings state that a performance related

The Construction as a Revolutionised Industry Research Paper

The Construction as a Revolutionised Industry - Research Paper Example It is important to note that nations depend on their construction industry for their infrastructural developments making them quite important in facilitating national development. In this regard organisations offering construction work tend to be well regarded while certification requirements and procedures prove to be rigorous. In many countries like the US and UK among others, there are definite rules and oversight bodies set to regulate the actions of construction firms. This paper aims to consider the construction industry and its various facets in developing the premise that there is no single ideal organisation. PESTEL analysis of the construction industry Political/legal factors Government involvement entails the various interventions in regards to set laws and standards in the construction industry. As mentioned earlier governments have established regulations and standards for construction organisations to follow. Most of them are in regards to the safety and health of worke rs since construction entails risks that result in many accidents and fatalities in some cases (BIS 2011). In case of failure to adhere to them stiff remedial actions like fines are imposed after inspections or when an accident occurs. Taxation is another aspect where governments exert pressure in the construction industry. This is an industry whose taxation is high mostly due to their heavy-duty kind of work (Liebing 2001). The contracts also attract hefty sums of money which the governments are quite willing to tax. Regional Norms In regards to the European organisations the EU laws also affect how these construction firms operate. Regional trading blocks have become quite influential with time as the world becomes a global market place. EU, for example, aims at establishing common standards not only for the construction industry but to all (Dalby 1998). In this line, firms are being forced to follow alien laws that are not necessarily desirable for business.