Assignment 1

Assignment 1
Q.1
The concern for managers and supervisors is that they have to manage people that work for them
and put in place the policies, practices and systems that influence employees behavior, attitudes
and performance (Noe, et al. 2009, p.21). Organizational manpower is still the important factor
for providing success to any organization. So activities like cash takings, using computers or
making decisions would not be possible to carry out if employees were not there. In addition, to
maintain this, a lot must be invested on human capital. According to Prasad, human capital are
the employees in an organization in terms of their knowledge, training, vision, experience and
which add economic value to the organization (2012, p. 1.8). The returns would help to achieve
the goals of quality, profit and customer satisfaction.
Human resource management professionals have to carry out a multitude of responsibilities for
an organization. They have to hire and recruit employees, design jobs to match their qualities,
train and develop those skills, administer pay and benefits and ensure that the organization
complies with the labour laws of the country. Therefore, multiple skills are required from these
professionals. Communication and the ability to present a speech with confidence is an essential
factor. Aside from being fair and making effective decisions appropriately, other particular skills
need to be displayed. To know when and how to read people. To sense if someone is lying or
trying to hoodwink us and a fell for body language and what it tells us about attitudes
(The Top Five Skills 2013).
In addition, one has to possess the special nature of having an empathy and understanding of
anothers point of view. This could help resolve a lot of conflicts before they even surface.
That in todays work environment, business requirements constantly change. An HR professional
has to be multi-tasked and deal with an employees personal issue one minute, a benefit claim
the next and a recruiting strategy the minute after (Schleifer, 2006).
Q.2
Organizations today must be able to respond effectively to uncertainty and change. That changes
in the labour force are bound to affect the organizations supply for future skills and the need to
develop better training opportunities.
One challenge is a diverse workforce. Globalization has allowed people from different races;
beliefs and values to work together. People no longer live and work in isolation, they are now
part of a worldwide economy with competition from every continent (Green, et al. 2012).
Diversity allows the acceptance and acknowledgment that differences amongst people do exist.
This has a considerable impact on for example, the University of the South Pacific. As a premier
provider of tertiary education in the Pacific region, it tries to be an international centre of
excellence for teaching, research consulting and training on all aspects of Pacific culture,
environment and human resource development needs.
It has set up guidelines and procedures to meet the growing diversity in its organization. The
Gender Policy aims to value the differences of both men and women, analyze programs of
discriminatory nature and take measures to proceed with equal rights and opportunities. The
policy hopes to encourage gender equality and participation of both men and women when
making decisions. As one of its policy goals the university will strive to achieve 50% women of
all new academic/comparable staff appointments in five years (Gender Policy, 2002). One of its
strategies of achieving this is to include in its training program scholarships and graduate trainees
for women in areas where men had dominated before like science and information technology.
Furthermore, that the university supports the use of neutral/sensitive language which does not
use terms to include both sexes. The use of man or men should be avoided and only to
describe males. Terms like person or staff should be addressed (Gender Policy, 2002).
Q.3
An OHS regulation requires both the employees and the employers to be aware of safety and
health issues in the workplace and the expectations they require from each other. The Health and
Safety at Work Act (1996) is one such legislation that deals with occupational health and safety
standards in Fiji.
Three interesting features adopted in the Act are:
Workplace Arrangements that sees to the need of appointing health and safety representatives in
the workplace and establish OHS committees. The OHS representative inspects the whole or part
of the workplace and quickly made aware to the management about putting in place the
necessary procedures when an accident or risk to a worker should occur (HSW Act 1996).
Assessment and Control of Chemicals which gives authority to the Chief Health and Safety
Inspector who may recommend to the Ministry of Health upon the belief that the manufacture,
storage or disposal of a chemical may give rise to adverse health effects (HSW Act 1996). The
certain chemical must be declared for priority assessment. Subsequently, published in a report so
that the public are made aware of its existence.
Occupational Health and Safety Statistics must be published in order to notify the workplace of
the number of accidents and injuries that have occurred during a certain period of time.
The HSW Act of Fiji displays a legal framework for employers that they need to provide a safe
working environment from hazards; risks and accidents. This prevents the workforce from
getting injured that could make them absent from work and thus affect their and the
organizations productivity. They also need to provide training and supervision of equipment and
the regulations so as to make the employees aware of how to protect themselves. To provide
such information, Instruction and supervision necessary to ensure health and safety at work of
their workers and steps made available to the use of substances in appropriate languages (HSW
Act 1996). Inspectors must also be given the opportunity to visit the facilities and see that proper
OHS standards are being practiced.
The responsibility of the employees must be to comply with the organizations policies and
procedures. That they at all times as stipulated under The Health and Safety at Work Act that
they will use the equipment provided to them by the employer properly and when necessary to
protect their health and of the other people working in the organization (1996). Henceforth, the
employees cannot be ill-treated or terminated if they report to the health inspectors about the
organization not meeting the OHS standards.
References
2013. The Top Five Skills Necessary for the Successful HR Professional [online]. Available:
http://www.blogging4jobs.com/hr/top-5-work-hr/ [Accessed: 15 August 2013].
Green, K.A., Lopez, M., Wysocki, A., Kepner, K. 2013 Diversity in the Workplace: Benefits,
Challenges, and the Required Managerial Tools. Institute of Food and Agricultural Science
[Online]. Available at: http//edis.ifas.ufl.eduhr022 [Accessed: 3 August 2013]
Health and Safety at Work Act 1996, No. 4, Government Printery, Suva.
Noe, R.A., Hollenbeck, J.R., Gerhart, B., Wright, P.M. 2009. Fundamentals of Human Resource
Management. New York: Mc-Graw Hill.
Prasad, N. 2013. MG 106: Introduction to Human Resource Management: Course Book. Suva:
USP.
Schleifer, J. 2006. The Essential Skills of Human Resources Management How Many Do You
Have?[Online]. Available at:
http://hrdailyadvisor.blr.com/archive/2006/07/18/hr_essential_skills_human_resource_mangeme
nt_hr_management.aspx [Accessed 15 August 2013].
University of the South Pacific. 2002. Human Resources Policies & Procedures Gender Policy
[Online]. Suva. Available at: www.policies.usp.ac.fj/index.php.docid=2970.

Assignment 1 - MG106

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Assignment 1 - MG106

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Assignment 1 - MG106

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

You might also like