Essay on Economics: Employment and Job Security

Submitted By nini907
Words: 1368
Pages: 6

High Performance Organization
A High Performance Organization (HPO) could be defined as an organization that achieves the best results by making each person contribute to their business. HPOs are committed to getting results and are self-directing, customer-focused business units or teams. The members of the team take full responsibility for problem solving, making decisions, and continuously improving the quality of their work.
According to Jeffery Pfeffer
“In The Human Equation: Building Profits by Putting People First, Jeffery Pfeffer details the practices of high performance organizations.” (Jim Grinnell, 2012) According to Pfeffer, the peak performance of an organization offers: 1. Offering Job Security 2. Hiring Selectively 3. Organizing Around Self-Managed Teams 4. Investing in Training and Development 5. Creating and Egalitarian Workplace 6. Sharing Information Widely
Offering Employment Security is one of the basic needs of a HPO. In the workplace, this need is satisfied through sense of job security, especially in light of our present economic conditions. In annual surveys of workplace security, the Society for Human Resource Management finds that job security consistently tops the list of factors leading to job satisfaction. Job security offers numerous of benefits of an organization such as: * Creates an atmosphere of trust * Promotes better cooperation * Take longer-term perspective when offered job security * Maintain a leaner and more efficient workforce
Jobs that offer job security also tend to hire selectively. Companies try to select the right type of people to join the organization when job security is offered, and recognize that they need to hire for more than just technical skills. Individuals are hired based on the candidate’s disposition and their attitudes. An author, Mark Murphy ran a study on hiring for attitude, which he wrote a book on as well. His study involved out of twenty thousand (20,000) new hires, nearly half of them failed the hiring process. More surprising, Murphy found out that nine (9) out of ten (10) of the individuals failed as a result of attitude deficiencies. Pfeffer’s guidelines for selective hiring are: * Large number of applicants per opening * Screen for cultural fit and attitude – not for skills that can be readily trained * Be clear about what are the most critical skills, behaviors, or attitudes critical for success * Use several rounds of screening to build commitment and signal that hiring is taken very seriously * To the extent possible, involve senior people as a signal of the importance of the hiring activity * Close loop by assessing the results and performance of the recruiting process
Using self-managed teams contributes greatly towards organizational performance. Benefits of a self-managed team are: * Increased motivation * Higher levels of creativity * Improved quality decisions * Enhanced organizational commitment * Better relations between co-workers * Feeling more accountable to their peers than to managers
“Peer control is frequently more effective than hierarchical supervision. Someone may disappoint his or her supervisor, but the individual is much less likely to let down his or her work mates. This increased sense of responsibility stimulates more initiative and effort on the part of everyone involved.” (Jim Grinnell)
Winning organizations steadily devote more resources in training and development than an average organization does. Unfortunately, American companies have historically lost appreciation in funding training. The reduction of training relates to a perceived cost-benefit gap. Some managers focus on the financial cost and lost productivity while employees are focused on training. While others are hesitant to put in time for training because they’re concern that increased skill that could be linked to outsiders. Why would