The Strategic Role of HR in a State Government Essay Example for Free

The Strategic Role of HR in a State Government Essay In a growing number of organizations human resources are now viewed as a source of competitive advantage (Human Links, 2007). For human resource to be competitive, it entails competencies that are â€Å"obtained through highly developed employee skills, distinctive organizational cultures, management processes and systems† (Human Links, 2007). The presence of these distinctive competencies marks most of the high-performance organizations. But the need for such organizations is not limited only to the private sector. Government organizations, particularly state and local governments, â€Å"are becoming increasingly accountable for results and the cost-effective use of taxpayer money spent on programs and services† (TechRepublic, 2007). Government organizations are like businesses; businesses that may not be run for profit but rather are organized to meet a social goal in an effective and efficient manner (Mathys, 2006). Such said, â€Å"Government organizations must be responsive, use their resources well, and provide good value to the user and account ­ability to the taxpayer† (Mathys, 2006).   It is in this context that strategic human resource management has become just as important in the public sector. Strategic human resource management has been defined as ‘linking of human resources with strategic goals and objectives in order to improve business performance and develop organizational culture that foster innovation and flexibility’ (Human Links, 2007). The whole process of strategic human resource management includes the measurement of the impact of actions and decisions.   Pressures on governments around the world have contributed to the rising adoption of â€Å"performance management and measurement† – a focus on program and service outputs and outcomes, and on â€Å"managing for results† (TechRepublic, 2007). One method that has had significant demonstrated success to improve process efficiency, timeliness, and customer satisfaction in business is the balanced scorecard (Mathys, 2006). The Balanced Scorecard is a â€Å"performance measurement that seeks to combine strategic planning with performance measurement† (Rogers, 2007). Robert Kaplan and David Norton published works on the Balanced Scorecard in 1991 and considered four areas in assessing the effectiveness of an organization in meeting its vision and strategy. These four areas or â€Å"perspectives† include: Financial, Customer, Internal Business Processes, and Learning and Growth. According to Mathys, Kaplan and Norton’s model explains that visions and strategies are translated into objectives, measures, targets, and initiatives that answer the questions in each of the four categories: Financial, the main question is: â€Å"To succeed financially, how should we appear to our shareholders?† Customer, the focus is: â€Å"To achieve our vision, how should we appear to our customers?† Internal business process focuses on the question: â€Å"To satisfy our shareholders and customers, what business processes must we excel at?† Learning and growth category focuses on answering the question: â€Å"To achieve our vision, how will we sustain our ability to change and improve?† Essentially, this framework â€Å"balances the value of strategic inputs (leading indicators) with financial outputs (lagging indicators) to enable an organization to improve the way it plans, measures and communicates success† (Strategic Management Partners, 2007). It is now being applied by hundreds of successful organizations, in the public and private sectors, to align people, strategy and performance (Strategic Management Partners, 2007). In 1999, the State of Illinois embarked on a strategic planning initiative (SPI) to initiate change using the balanced scorecard (BSC).   The initial goals were performance management and public accountability, which required viewing the Illinois public as a customer whose opinion of government performance was of paramount importance (Lang, 2007). The State of Illinois translated its goals and strategy into different measures of success Financial, Customer, Internal Business Processes, Human Resources Systems Development (learning and growth). In this context, the Human Resources (HR) Department has a critical role in facilitating the whole process of instituting a comprehensive public governance system using this measurement system. People management is an important function of the HR Department and can play an important role in an organizations financial performance as well as the service it offers its customers (Yahoo! Answers, 2007). People management includes managing recruitment selection, turnover issues, employee benefits, and acting as an information resource in HR issues for the organization (Yahoo! Answers, 2007). First, it is important that the HR department views the state government as well as its constituency as its customer. The HR Department ensures that loyalty among employees towards the organization is intact and also that the final constituents or the general population of the state government therefore are benefited. Second, the HR department looks into the other departments within the state government and assesses their goals and strategies as well in contributing to the achievement of the primary goal of the state government. This can be viewed particularly on learning and growth concerns such as how the various capabilities of various employees can be built up and enhanced so they can very well respond to the goals of the organizations, among others. This entails for example employing a Training Needs Assessment (TNA) tool so that employee capabilities may be surveyed, consolidated and aptly tapped. Knowledge of employee skills, abilities and aptitude could save the organization from investing on capability building trainings that do not address the real needs of employees. Third, in terms of internal business process, the role of the HR Department is to â€Å"indicate how much each employee contributes to the organization such as revenue generated minus the cost of salary, benefits and training† (Yahoo! Answers, 2007). This basically looks into the productivity of the individual employee as well as the consolidated output of such individual productivity levels with which the HR Department also has that function to design a merit and rewards system to increase again such productivity. This is vital to keep the bureaucracy lean. Fourthly, in financial terms, the HR Department shall be able to perform a rationalized system of recruitment because it sees fit which employees to hire based on the scope of work and job specifications. Aside from recruitment, HR also could do regular employee performance evaluations so as to determine which employee has actually continually met the specifications of the job. Again, this saves the state government from unnecessary hiring of staff and checking of redundancy, among others, since the staffing needs of the organization has been streamlined. With the HR Department using these four perspectives, it helps the government administration to keep â€Å"track the value of activities (e.g. human resource development) which previously had not been audited effectively and had not been regarded as contributors to the bottom line (Strategic Management Partners, 2007). As in many private corporations, HR Departments of state governments shall have to use hard data in measuring performance. This can be done by linking â€Å"employee competencies with behavioral objectives to align job specifications, recruitment, promotion, appraisal, and reward systems† (Strategic Management Partners, 2007). A number of HR measures or benchmarks can be employed to check on performance and these include: â€Å"Applications per vacancy, Internal promotions, Hours training, Peer group reviewing, Cross-functional projects, Knowledge sharing, Employee turnover, Cost per hire, Employee satisfaction,† among others (Strategic Management Partners, 2007). The HR Department can also assist the various departments of the state government in targeting and developing milestones that keep its focus on the goals.   The goals of the state government must be cascaded to every department with the help of the HR Department. In the end, some of the following questions may serve to measure the four perspectives: Customer/Constituency. What services have been delivered to the constituents in order to secure their welfare and how do these relate to people’s expectations towards the state government? Learning and Growth. Have the skills and competencies of officers and staff have been upgraded and in what manner? Internal Business Processes. What desirable levels of effectiveness and efficiency have been achieved in serving the constituents? Financial Resources. What revenue generating options have been tapped and which government services have already been provided at a reasonable price? In all these, the role of HR should be to facilitate rather than dictate the targets and outcomes. Keeping the measurements simple allows it to be more understandable and adaptable. If it is not seen to be fully integrated with the business imperatives of the Chief Executive it will not be given the attention it deserves by operational managers (Strategic Management Partners, 2007). List of References Chaturvedi, Siddharth. October 2007. Strategic Human Resource Management. Retrieved October 2007 from http://www.humanlinks.com/manres/articles/shrm/htm. Lang, Sandra S.   January 2007. The CPA Journal. â€Å"Balanced Scorecard and Government Entities Moving Forward at the Illinois Department of Transportation. Retrieved October 2007 from http://www.nysscpa.org/cpajournal/2004/604/essentials/p48.htm. Mathys, Nicholas. February 2006. Managing for Performance Results Series 2006. â€Å"Using the Balanced Scorecard: Lessons Learned from the U.S. Postal Service and the Defense Finance and Accounting Service.† Retrieved October 2007 from http://www.businessofgovernment.org/pdfs/MathysReport.pdf Rogers, Martha. June 2007. â€Å"Balanced Score Card Usage in Local Government Audit Shops.† Retrieved October 2007 from http://www.governmentauditors.org/content/view/311/123/. Strategic Management Partners. January 2007. Briefing Papers: Using the HR Balanced Scorecard. Retrieved October 2007 from http://www.consult-smp.com/archives/2005/02/using_the_hr_ba_html. TechRepublic. October 2007. Whitepapers: Using the Balanced Scorecard to Improve State and Local Government Performance. Retrieved October 2007 from http://whitepapers.techrepublic.com.com/webcast.aspx. Yahoo! Answers. October 2007. What is Balanced Score Card in HR?. Retrieved   October 2007 from http://ph.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070927202545AAwkQix.

Essay on Character Parallels in To Kill a Mockingbird :: Kill Mockingbird essays

Character Parallels in To Kill a Mockingbird  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚      In real life there are many different types of people, some of them are similar to one another, while others can be opposite/different, just like in the book To Kill a Mocking Bird, by Harper Lee. There are many people in the book, some people are contradictory to one another (character foils), while others resemble each other (character parallels) in both good and/or bad ways. Atticus Finch and Aunt Alexander is an example of a character foil in the book. Even though they are brother and sister and grew up together, they are two people with very different views. Atticus is more easy going when he raises up Jem and Scout, for example he lets his kids call him Atticus, and let's Scout dress with the clothes that she feels comfortable in. While on the other hand Aunt Alexander is more strict, she cares a lot about family background and she wants Scout to act and dress more "lady like". Atticus views that it is his duty to do his best in the Tom Robinson trial and feels no prejudice against Tom, because he is black. While Aunt Alexander doesn't like Atticus taking the case because Tom is black, and wants Atticus to go and fire Calpurnia. Tom Robinson and Bob Ewell is another example of a character foil in the book To Kill a Mocking Bird. Bob Ewell and Tom Robinson are two completely different people in the story. They both don't have a lot of money, but Tom Robinson chooses to work hard for his money, while Bob Ewell lives off welfare and sqaunders all his money on booze and whiskey. Bob Ewell beats up on his daughter Mayella, while Tom tries to do all that he can in order to help her out. Tom says that he did not beat and rape Mayella, while Bob Ewell says that he did. Two characters that are similar to each other are Tom Robinson and Boo (Arthur) Radley. These two are similar in that there are false rumors going on about them. People accused Tom of beating and raping Mayella Ewell, and people talk about Boo, and say that he is a very violent person, when those things are both false.

Lady Macbeth Is More Ruthless Than Macbeth Essay

Lady Macbeth is portrayed as Macbeth’s driving force to, as some may call it the dark side. This is how Shakespeare shows her love for Macbeth and also her ambition; she wants the best life possible for him and also for herself. She is portrayed as the more ruthless one in the Macbeth team, but in hindsight she really only encourages Macbeth to be the best of his abilities she doesn’t kill anyone herself she is more ruthless in thought than in action. Macbeth acts on this encouragement therefore is the more ruthless one. The first time we hear of Macbeth in the play a captain is talking about the battle, even hear we can see Macbeth is ruthless. Macbeth is described as killing a man â€Å"Till he unseamed him from the nave to th’ chops† without any mercy or any hesitation. This shows courage but also ruthlessness, he does what he must to win the battle, which is kill his enemies. When Lady Macbeth heard that the first prophecy had come true she was plottin g the murder of Duncan straight away, I would call this ambition. Lady Macbeth is almost portrayed as an opportunist here. She sees her chance to gain the throne, sees what must done for her to gain it and makes it happen. Lady Macbeth knows she could never kill Duncan herself she is too weak. She calls on the supernatural to help her â€Å"come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here and fill me from crown to the toe topfull of direst cruelty† this shows Lady Macbeth is ruthless is thought but not in action. She doubts whether Macbeths has what it takes to seize the crown, she views his kindness and essential goodness as negative â€Å"it is too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness†. Macbeth is ruthless because he is the one to kill Duncan. At first Macbeth is hesitant when considering killing Duncan â€Å"who should against his murders shut the door, not bear the knife myself.† Lady Macbeth has to question has to question his man hood before he will agree to do it. â€Å"When durst you do it, the n you were a man†. Lady Macbeth never mentions anything about killing the guards Macbeth makes that decision all on his own. He does what he must to stay king and protect himself from being caught we see this constantly throughout the play. Macbeth was prepared to do something to Malcolm before he had even killed Duncan, before lady Macbeth had even spoke to him about killing â€Å"that is a step on which I must fall down or else o’er-leap for in my way it lies†. Macbeth has it arranged for his best friend and his son to be killed all for the sake of the throne, from the guards murder on Macbeth completely shuts out Lady Macbeth. He also kills macduffs family because he wouldn’t support him and feared he would try to over throw him. We see Lady Macbeth completely disappear from Macbeth life once he becomes king he is too preoccupied protecting his crown to bother with her. When she dies he doesn’t care all he says is â€Å"she should have dies hereafter† and charges away into battle this is where we see his true ruthlessness to not even care your own wife is dead to not care who will die in battle whether it be his subjects, thanes or wife all he cares about is staying king and he will do bathing he feels necessary. Lady Macbeth pays for her ambition dearly when she is haunted by her own sleep walking her subconscious mind shows what really is going on in her mind. Her tormenting grief is shown â€Å"yet who would have thought the old man to have so much blood in him† she torments herself over Macbeths killings â€Å"the Thank of Fife had a wife: where is she now ?† â€Å"Banquo’s buried; he cannot come out on’s grave.† this all shows she is not as ruthless as Macbeth he shows no remorse for what he has done apart from briefly after Duncan’s murder, whereas lady Macbeth is tormented by grief which eventually leads to her suicide. Macbeth is the more ruthless is the Macbeth team he does what he must to stay king he commits and plans numerous murders. Whereas Lady Macbeth encourages him to commit one muder, she is more ruthless in mind than in action.

Essay on Marxism Applied to the Modern State - 1216 Words

Elitism, Marxism, and pluralism are all political theories that can be used to understand how the modern state as we understand a live in it today functions. All three theories highlight the importance of different things and stress successes or failures of the state to be attributed to different functions or aspects of state operations. Although it is important to understand how different aspects of each perspectives can help understand how the modern state functions, it is imperative to identify most strongly with one theory in order to fully understand the modern state. Elitism speaks about an individual or group of powerful elites that govern the state, hold the power both economically, and politically. Marxism is all about the bottom†¦show more content†¦The decision in this case comes down to the distribution of power, and how that distribution of power affects the Canadian society. Elitism is that believe that certain people or members of certain classes or groups deserve favoured treatment by virtue of their perceived superiority as an intellect, social status or financial resources. C. Wright Mills explains that the power elite is composed of men whose positions enable them to transcend the ordinary environments of ordinary men and women; they are in positions to make decisions having major consequences. This is to mean that some people innately have more power of persuasion then others, the actions of a small elite group are of more importance, and have a greater affect then those of people not deemed elite. There are several different categories of elites that have an impact on the governance of the modern state, wealth, tradition, and authority. People from all categories have a large impact on society, and are involved in the creation of organized governing systems. In Canada it can be seen that there are certain individuals that have come to their posi tion because of their social status, arguably, Justin Trudeau is one of them. He being a grade school teacher is not the natural pick as a candidate in upcoming national elections, yet, because of the legacy of his father, he becomes, for many, and easy pick. This is a prime example of elitism in Canada. This however is theShow MoreRelatedMarxism Of The Cold War And The Triumph Of Capitalism1528 Words   |  7 PagesMarxism has found great appeal as a political thought for several class-based revolution and have been the theoretical basis for the policies and politics of several regimes across the world. However, most governments and rulers have interpreted the political writings of Marx in their own way and consequently; several of the policies of these so-called Marxist states are often dramatically different and conflicting from the basis of Marxism. 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