Explain how operations managers apply planning, organization, leading, and controlling to the 10 strategic OM decisions. Please include examples in your response.
Your response should be at least 500 words in length.
The key roles and functions of an HR Department according to the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (2016) are: hiring, promotions, reassignments, position classification and grading, salary determination, performance appraisal reviews and processing, awards reviews and processing, personnel data entry and records maintenance, consultation and advisory services to management and employees include conduct problems and performance problems, policy development, technical policy interpretation, work permitting immigration Visa program, benefits including health care insurance, life insurance, disability insurance, retirement, voluntary accidental death and dismemberment insurance, leave transfer program, tuition assistance program, training opportunities and combined federal campaign, employee assistance referral and workers’ compensation.
Important environment and organizational factors that influence HR Departments is the law. Legislation that is applied to Human Resources Departments by the federal government is known as Human Resources Management legislation.
From the Office of Personnel Management (2016) with the federal government in the United States, there are mandated legislations again that protect the relationships between unions/labor and management relations.
The education of an employee is a primary factor in determining the compensation that an employee will receive. This is one of the reasons why the education industry in the United States is profitable.
According to the University of California, Riverside (2016), their Human Resources Department employs eight steps into their hiring process. The first step involves identify the need to hire someone into a vacant position. There are two categories under this first step: new positions and replacement positions. In the newly created positions both external and internal applicants are invited to apply, however priority in hiring is given to the internal applicants. For the replacement positions, again, both external and internal applicants are invited to apply, however priority is given to the internal applicants. The same criterion that is used to evaluate compensation is also used to determine the best applicant candidate for the position. There are also soft skills that are factored into the hiring process as well, such as the personality of the individual, their level of ease with dealing with authority, their creativity skills, their listening skills, their fit into the corporate and or non-corporate atmosphere of the organization, as well as their references are checked for the position to ensure that the potential employer and the HR Department have a good sense of how well the employee has performed in prior work experiences, or references from teachers, professors and instructors who can attest to the academic achievement of the individual who is applying for the job.
In this section I will propose specific strategies a human resource professional can enact to create a more team-oriented, collaborative culture in the organization. I will propose specific tools or tests a human resource professional can utilize that will assess the health of the organization or highlight potential negative issues within an organization. By doing so, human resources can more proactively address a situation before its effects the team-oriented culture of the organization, which then affects organizational productivity.
One of the ways I will focus on team-oriented culture and organizational health for an HR Department is by examining the IT tools and computer software that is available to an HR Department. Capterra (2016) rates the best Human Resources software that is available on the market. Computer software in an office setting becomes vital to helping the HR Department communicate and to connect efficiently. Some of the top three HR software programs that exist according to Capterra (2016) are ClearCompany, BambooHR and Halogen TalentSpace. All of these software programs rate at five stars with more than 10 reviews.
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Starbucks is one of the best-known coffeehouse chains in the world. Each store sells a variety of innovative products to complement the array of coffee choices available. However, 75% of current stores are located in the United States, and the expensive nature of the coffee leaves Starbucks vulnerable to changes in consumer spending behavior (such as recessions). Recently, Starbucks began initiatives to sell its specialty coffee beans for home use, presenting a chance for a large increase in revenue and diversification. However, Starbucks faces fierce competition seeking a piece of the lucrative market share, and the threat of consumer behavior changes, given that its reputation rides on a singular product. Perform a SWOT analysis for Starbucks. Explain why you identified the elements you did.
The strengths of Starbucks are that Starbucks not only offers a brand and/or brands of coffee, it also offers a particular lifestyle choice that associated with Starbucks. Many people proudly carry their Starbucks disposable coffee cups with a feeling that they are of an upper class because they can afford Starbucks coffee compared to other coffee places on the market. Starbucks also offers a smoke-free environment which is also a positive lifestyle choice for many people and unlike many other establishments, Starbucks is an environment where families with small children, teenage children, young adults, middle agers and senior citizens can all feel comfortable at Starbucks and by drinking Starbucks coffee.
The weaknesses of Starbucks are the high cost of Starbucks coffee. Starbucks also has many competitors on the market such as McDonald’s which actually offers a better-tasting coffee in many people’s opinion for a lower price. Linking to the taste of Starbucks, there are many people that do not even think that Starbucks offers very good coffee and do not like the wide variety of people that Starbucks attracts to its coffeehouses. Starbucks also offers food choices as well, however once you couple the cost of the food with the purchase of coffee, you could get a full Indian buffet meal as an example for the same price that would keep you fed the entire day rather than just for a two hours which is the case with Starbucks.
The opportunities for Starbucks would be to offer more distribution choices for their services. Rather than having so many Starbucks outlets which is a great expense for the store itself, they should be offering their brand in grocery stores, at restaurants that do not focus on coffee, for online purchasing, in malls, etc. There are certain neighbourhoods where there is a Starbucks right on the corner and then another one just up the street and then two grocery stores within those Starbucks locations where you can also purchase the coffee. This is really rather ridiculous and a waste of their resources.
The threats to Starbucks are obviously their competitors such as McDonald’s, and the hipsters in any urban environment that cherishes the locally-owned coffee shops which most of the time do have better coffee than Starbucks does. Starbucks can do a lot to try to bring down the cost of their coffee and to reinsert their brand by harvesting the coffee that they make within the United States so that they are not relying so much on imports and this would naturally bring down the cost of the coffee.
As the administrative manager in a law office, you have been asked to develop a system for evaluating the productivity of the 15 lawyers in the office. What difficulties are you going to have in doing this, and how are you going to overcome them?
In order to develop a system to evaluate the productivity of the 15 lawyers in the office, I would have the lawyers keep a daily log of their activities and the cases that they are working on that which will be double checked by me, the administrative manager of the law office. I would review the lawyers daily log on a weekly basis and have either monthly and/or bi-monthly meetings with the lawyers to discuss any shortcomings and/or to applaud the lawyer for exceptional performance in their duties with the law firm. As well, I would give an incentive to the lawyers to maintain the daily logs by letting them know that if their activities and duties with the law firm are deemed to be effective and advantageous to the law firm, ultimately bringing in more money to the law firm, they will receive a bi-annual bonus mid-year and at the end of the calendar year for keeping the log and also for exceptional performance with the law firm.