Reflection on 3/4 class

We had a class assignment; each group had to discuss about pro and con for a type of incentive pays. Our group talked about ‘group bonus and team reward’. As we discussed, working together as a group brings a synergy effect, but there are some people who do not work hard and take advantage from other team members. Also, another con is that competition may prevent necessary cooperation among group.

Ch12. Recognizing Employee Contributions with Pay

According to the Chapter 12, incentive pay is the forms of pay linked to an employee’s performance as an individual, group member, or organization member. It is influential because the amount paid is linked to predefined behaviors or outcomes. Through communication and participation in decisions, employees can feel that the incentive pay plans are fair.

Imagine that many people at work received incentive pay but you are in the group of people who didn’t get the incentive pay. You thought you worked hard. How would you feel?

Chapter 12 talks about three types of payment. First, organizations provide a variety of pay incentives to individuals such as piecework rates, standard hour plans, merit pay, individual bonuses, and sales commissions. Next is the pay related to group including gainsharing, bonuses, and team awards. The last one is that organizations link pay to their overall performance: profit sharing and stock ownership.

Among the incentive pays, which one (pay link to individual performance, group performance or the organization’s overall performance) do you prefer? Why?

Ch.11 Establishing a Pay Structure

Pay decision is important for organization. Pay is major cost for company’s point of view, but it has large impact on employee’s attitude and behaviors which is related to company’s goal. Therefore, organizations have to make pay decisions carefully. They establish relative pay for different functions and different levels of responsibility for each function. Indeed, they must establish pay levels, or the average paid for the different jobs.

Have you felt that your pay is unfair?

According to equity theory, employees think of their pay relative to their inputs, such as training, experience, and effort. Hence, employees evaluate their pay relative to the pay of other employees. If employees think they are underrewarded, they will do one of three ways: They might put less effort, find out a way to increase their outcomes, or withdraw by leaving the company.

How can organizations find out whether their employees think the pay is fair or unfair?

Reflection on 2/16 class

I enjoyed the guest speaker’s presentation. He has many experiences in HRM, and it helps me understand about HRM more. HR job seems interesting to me, but there are some challenges as he mentioned. For example, sometimes it is hard to do pay/benefit negotiation and not easy to layoff or fire employees.

Ch.10 Separting & Retaining Employees

All organizations want to have low labor turnover and employees who are fully engaged to their work. However, some poor performers have to be terminated, which is involuntary turnover, and some good workers want to leave the organizations, which is voluntary turnover. Both involuntary and voluntary turnovers are costly so organizations try to minimize them. To make employees satisfied, organizations make jobs more complex and meaningful, provide clear and appropriate roles, and recognize the importance of pay and benefits. In addition, organizations monitor job satisfaction to check employees’ satisfaction levels.

Have you changed your job due to the dissatisfaction? What was the reason?

According to Ch.10, job withdrawal is a set of behaviors with which employees try to avoid the work situation physically, mentally, or emotionally. The book mentions several causes that employees do not satisfy their jobs: individual personality differences, role ambiguity, role conflict, role overload, pay and benefits etc.

Among the monitoring job satisfaction systems, what is the best tool to check employees’ satisfaction?

Reflection on 2/11 class

We watched a short video clip in the class. I strongly agree with the interviewee (I forgot his name) in some his opinions. As he mentioned, I am the only person who has to have responsibility for my life, and I don’t like people who blame others all the time. I also agree on the ethic part; there is no gray color. As he said, only white or black exists. Some people say that the gray or black are needed to be succeed in business. However, we should know for sure what the right or wrong is. One thing I don’t agree with the interviewee is that people are not working hard today compared the old generations. I just want to ask to him whether he has ever been working in the real business world. In my experiences, there are so many workaholics and people who have to work hard.

Ch.9 Developing Employees for Future Success

Many organizations help developing their employees’ knowledge, skills and behavior to compete in today’s changing business environment. This chapter talks about several development approaches: formal education, assessment, job experiences, and interpersonal relationships. It also mentions the steps of the career management process, and employee and employer have to have responsibilities at each step of the process.

Imagine a company sends an employee to Europe for a training to learn a new soft ware which is very useful in the field. However, the employee quits the job six month later and moves to another company. At the new company, the employee uses the new technology which he or she learns from the training in Europe.

Many organizations have focused on linking training programs to business goals. Also, employees must develop new skills to remain marketable.

What are the advantages and risk from helping employees’ development?