Paper Example on Measuring Strategies for Improved Organizational Performance

Acknowledgements

I acknowledge God for seeing me through my project and more importantly for the gift of life. I also thank my supervisors for the generous input towards writing this project. Another appreciation goes to my fellow confreres for their apt assistance.

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Abstract

Organization always intend to improve their performance to be relevant in the market and to remain competitive, Hence, it has to keep on evaluating the strategies that can best improve the organization. The aim of the project was to explore the unconventional strategies of human resource management in organizations. The objective was to evaluate the setbacks that emerge when the strategies are applied and whether the strategies eventually enhance the productivity of the organization. Methodology entailed the use of questionnaires and interviews to collect data on the unconventional methods that HR can use to improve the happiness and performance of the employees and the organization. Analysis of the results of done through Excel and the SPSS software. The results of the study established that unconventional methods that HR can use to enhance the happiness and performance of the organization include restriction of use of smartphones, playing music at workplace, and painting offices and meeting rooms blue and red. Others include collective responsibility of the employees, managers, and the human resource department, and increasing remunerations, and offers promotions as well as paid-up vacations to employees.

Keyword: Unconventional methods, Employee Happiness, Human Resource Management, Smartphones, Music

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Human resource management is defined as the process of managing the most critical asset in an organization, people (Legge, 2015). In any well-organized set-up, there are usually four assets that are governed by the human resource; finances, machinery, materials, and the people assigned to work in the organization. This study evaluated how out of the four assets, and humans are the most important. Therefore, the study demonstrated how an organization should ensure that strategies are put in place for the employees to be happy and increase the performance of the organization.

Significance of this Study

The objective of this research was to come up with the ordinary strategies aimed at enhancing the happiness of employees, which ultimately improves their performance. The approach studied in this research was those not adhering to the conventionally accepted standards (Fisher 2010, 384-412). However, these standards have been proved to improve the performance of an organization. This research is critical in considering the appropriate methods and suggest recommendations to these strategies.

This research proved that the performance of employees is directly affected by their happiness. The two correlates to each other to enhance the satisfaction of work outputs. Therefore, to realize these objectives, the managerial department, human resource department, and the employees should work together to improve the productivity of the organization.

Aim of Research

The research focused on the unconventional strategies of human resource management in organizations. Several principles guide the contemporary human resource management. Human resources have been proven to be the most crucial asset in any organization, and the success of the organization is pegged on its success (Fisher 2010, 384-412). For a business to be successful, policies and procedures which are closely linked together must be implemented.

There are also other strategies that human resources can develop to guide employees to enhance the future goals of a company. These strategies can be unconventionally aimed at improving the happiness and success of the organization (Dyer & Reeves 2006, 6). These ideas have been backed up by academic research. Human resource as a discipline has been accorded poor reputation by most employees. The reason is that most employees view the department as one aimed at meting out punishments and remunerations.

However, the essential role of human resources is to maximize the performance of employees. To ensure the success of the human resource, specific unconventional strategies have to be put in place to guarantee its success. Employees do not usually welcome most of these alternative strategies based on their nature (Fisher 2010, 384-412). The human resource aims to keep their focus on their goals and performance achievement.

The human resource management team is, therefore, required to think of creative ways of developing strategies aimed at employee success and performance. The creative ideas should be developed after a policy has been designed to manage the same (Dyer & Reeves 2006, 6). The policy should be understood by all employees and a time frame of its application set. The organization should also employ methods of evaluating the policy.

The unconventional strategies will provide support for current and future employee development. The strategy will identify the employee and organization performance gaps, the long-term and short-term career goals of employees, and how the organization can improve the development of employees. The strategies will mirror the organization's procedure on orientation, performance, and motivation. Therefore, this research aimed to critically evaluate the unconventional methods which the human resource department can apply to enhance employee happiness and performance (Oswald, Proto & Sgroi 2015, 50).

Research Objectives

What are the unconventional methods that human resource management can apply to enhance employee happiness and performance?

What are the setbacks that will emerge if these strategies are applied?

How will these strategies eventually enhance the productivity of the organization?

Research Hypothesis

The following hypothesis has been developed based on the existing literature and information provided in the research. The hypothesis is based on the relationship between the strategies to be applied and the performance and happiness of employees.

The hypotheses include:

There is a significant positive relationship between the human resource department and its employees.

There is a significant positive relationship between the human resource department and the managerial department of organizations.

That there is a significant relationship between the managerial department and the employees.

That the managerial department intends to improve the performance of the employees through the introduction of new strategies.

There are satisfaction and improvement in employee happiness.

To verify the above hypotheses, this study adopted the deductions made in the quantitative research approach with a positive model, as discussed in the methodology section.

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter contains the literature review based on the information from books, journals, internet sources, and researches. The resources were used to deduce the unconventional methods that human resource management can apply to enhance employee happiness and performance. The methods were scrutinized to establish the setbacks and the strategies that eventually improve the productivity of the organization.

According to Wright and Cropanzano (2004, p. 341), happiness refers to "a lay construct, replete with personal meaning for each of us." As a subjective experience, happiness describes an employee's effectiveness in psychological functioning. This implies that when the employees are happy, their psychological well-being is functioning correctly. The absence of effective psychological functioning denotes a lack of happiness. The psychological functioning dictates that a person has to believe that the employee is happy. As opined by Rego and Cunha (2017, p. 115), "people are happy to the extent that they believe themselves to be happy." Contending the presence of happiness denotes the attainment of happiness. Happiness can as well be viewed as the possession of a positive emotion without negative emotions (Wright and Cropanzano, 2004). Hence, when a person has positive emotions and has no negative emotion, he is happy.

Happiness is a determinant of many factors where the happiness of a person today can determine the happiness in the future life. Several environmental factors and events influence the happiness of a person. Hence, happiness is a responsive therapeutic intervention that responds to the events in the surrounding. In an organization, the managers create happiness in their employees by creating an environment that makes them happy and ensuring that their emotions are positive. Employees are motivated to work through both the internal and external factors (Sarpong, 2016). The internal factors come from within the workers. At the same time, the external drive is the effort that the organization put towards ensuring the employees are happy, motivated, and improve their work performance. The happiness of the employees is an internal factor that the employee has to ignite by working diligently to complete the work set forth at the organization. Satisfaction and motivation are a precursor of happiness.

Rego and Cunha (2017), in their book, give a summary of the main strategies that can enhance employee performance and happiness. They expound that these factors have to be a collective responsibility of the employees, managers, and the human resource department. Their book is distinct in that it gives the methods in which the employees can petition to the human resource and how the manager can work together to enhance employee performance. The book expounds on the need for flexibility amongst the departments.

Dyer and Reeves (2006), state the methods that organizations have used since time immemorial to enhance employee performance and happiness. The strategies include increasing remunerations, offering promotions, and offering paid up vacations to employees. However, Noe, Gerhart, and Wright (2015) hold that the old school methods of employee performance and happiness are obsolete. The current workforce is comprised of millennials who are faced with a lot of issues at work. Most old school managers are reluctant to apply the modern methods claiming that they are expensive and promote laziness. Grant, Christianson, and Price (2007) opine that scientific researchers have proven these methods to be effective, especially to the younger workforce. The strategies developed were based on the studies and research condu...