2 · Human resources and motivation

IB Diploma Programme Business Management SL, Unit 2 Human resource management (first assessment 2024). This topic covers sections 2.1 to 2.7 at SL: human resource planning, organisational structure, leadership, motivation and communication. Resistance to change, the shamrock organisation, process theories of motivation, organisational culture (2.5) and employee relations (2.7) are HL only and are left out. The worked examples follow the course's repair business, which has now grown to 80 employees in four workshops.

Every year Google, Haidilao and many other firms spend large sums on staff benefits, training and team events. Haidilao's waiters are famous for their friendly service, and the company gives them real power to please customers: a waiter can give a free dish or a discount without asking a manager. Why would a firm trust its lowest-paid workers like this? This topic is about the people in a business: how they are organised, led, motivated and kept.

Must-know for this topic:

Workforce planning

Human resource management 人力资源管理 (HRM) makes sure the business has the right number of people, with the right skills, in the right jobs, at the right time. Workforce planning 劳动力规划 compares the staff a business will need with the staff it has, and plans how to close the gap.

Labour turnover 员工流动率 measures how many workers leave in a year:

Worked example. The repair business has an average of 80 staff. In one year 12 leave. Labour turnover $= 12 \div 80 \times 100 = 15\%$. Each leaver must be replaced, so the business pays for recruitment and training, and it loses skills and customer knowledge. Some turnover is healthy: new staff bring new ideas.

Internal and external factors

Internal factors include the firm's objectives, its budget, its structure, and changes in technology. External factors include:

• demographic change 人口结构变化: for example, an ageing workforce;
• labour mobility 劳动力流动性: how easily workers move between jobs and places;
• migration 移民: workers coming from or going to other countries;
• new working patterns: flexi-time 弹性工作制 (choosing when to work the agreed hours), teleworking 远程办公 (working from home or elsewhere), and the gig economy 零工经济 of short-term jobs paid task by task, as for delivery riders.

Recruitment, training, appraisal and dismissal

Recruitment 招聘 follows common steps: identify the vacancy, write a job description 职位描述 (the tasks of the job) and a person specification 人员规格 (the skills and qualities needed), advertise, shortlist, interview or test, and appoint.

• Internal recruitment fills the job with someone already in the firm. It is quicker and cheaper, and the person knows the business. But it brings no new ideas, and it leaves another job empty.
• External recruitment brings in new skills and ideas, but it costs more and takes longer.

Training 培训:

• Induction training 入职培训 introduces new staff to the firm, its rules and its people.
• On-the-job training 在职培训 happens while working, for example by watching an experienced worker. Off-the-job training 脱产培训 happens away from the workplace, such as a college course.
• Cognitive training 认知培训 develops thinking skills; behavioural training 行为培训 develops how people act with others, such as teamwork and dealing with customers.

Appraisal 绩效评估 judges how well an employee is doing:

• formative: ongoing feedback to help the person improve;
• summative: a final judgement at the end of a period, often linked to pay;
• 360-degree: feedback from managers, colleagues, junior staff and sometimes customers;
• self-appraisal: employees judge their own work.

Employment can end through dismissal 解雇 (for a fair reason, such as serious misconduct) or redundancy 裁员 (the job itself is no longer needed). Redundancy is not the worker's fault, so laws often require a payment.

The key terms

• Span of control 管理幅度: the number of people a manager directly supervises.
• Levels of hierarchy 层级: the number of layers of management.
• Chain of command 指挥链: the line of authority from the top to the bottom.
• Delegation 授权: passing authority to a junior. The manager still keeps the responsibility.
• Centralisation 集权 keeps decisions at the top; decentralisation 分权 passes them down.
• Bureaucracy 官僚制度: many rules and procedures.
• Delayering 减少层级: removing levels of management.

Worked example. At the repair business, the owner and four workshop managers supervise 75 mechanics: three levels, and a span of 18 or 19 mechanics per workshop manager. That is too wide for coaching new mechanics. The owner adds a senior mechanic in each workshop. Now there are four levels and each senior mechanic supervises 9 or 10 people. Training improves, but a customer complaint now passes through one more link in the chain of command.

Types of structure

An organisation chart 组织结构图 can be arranged:

• by function, as a functional structure 职能型结构: departments for marketing, finance, operations and HR;
• by product, as a product-based structure 产品型结构: a division for each product line;
• by region, as a regional structure 地区型结构: a division for each country or area.

A matrix structure 矩阵结构 crosses functions with projects. Each person works in a project team but also belongs to a department, so they have two managers. This brings mixed skills together, but two bosses can give different orders.

Management and leadership

Management 管理 is about getting things done. Henri Fayol listed its functions: planning, organising, commanding, coordinating and controlling. Leadership 领导力 is about setting a direction and inspiring people to follow it. A good manager is not always a good leader, and the reverse is also true.

Leadership styles

The best style depends on the situation: the task, the time available, the skills of the workers, and the culture of the business.

Motivation 激励 is the will to work hard and well. Motivated workers produce more, make fewer mistakes, and are less likely to leave. Demotivation 积极性下降 shows up as absence, low effort and high labour turnover.

Content theories

• Frederick Taylor 泰勒: workers are motivated mainly by money. He used scientific management 科学管理: break each job into simple tasks, find the fastest method, and pay by output (piece rate 计件工资). Critics say people want more than money, and repeated simple tasks are boring.

• Abraham Maslow 马斯洛: people have a hierarchy of needs 需求层次. A lower need must be met before the next one motivates.

  At work: pay meets physiological needs; a safe job and a contract meet safety needs; teams meet social needs; praise and job titles meet esteem needs; challenging work meets self-actualisation 自我实现 needs. The order does not fit everyone: an artist may chase self-actualisation before security.

• Frederick Herzberg 赫茨伯格: two separate sets of factors. Hygiene factors 保健因素 such as pay and conditions do not motivate, but if they are poor, workers become unhappy. Motivators 激励因素 such as recognition and responsibility create real motivation.

• David McClelland 麦克利兰: people are driven by three learned needs: the need for achievement 成就需要 (to do well), the need for affiliation 亲和需要 (to be liked and belong) and the need for power 权力需要 (to influence others). Managers should match jobs to each person's strongest need.

• Deci and Ryan 德西和瑞安: self-determination theory 自我决定理论. People are most motivated when they feel autonomy 自主 (control over their work), competence 胜任 (being good at it) and relatedness 关联 (connection to others).

Financial and non-financial rewards

Worked example. At the repair business, most of the 12 leavers were mechanics on piece rates. They felt their effort was wasted when spare parts arrived late. Herzberg would say late parts and pay disputes are hygiene failures to fix first. The owner fixes parts delivery, changes pay to a basic salary plus a team bonus, and starts formative appraisal. If turnover falls to 6 leavers a year, the rate becomes $6 \div 80 \times 100 = 7.5\%$, and the business saves the cost of six replacements.

Communication 沟通 is the passing of information from a sender to a receiver.

• Formal communication 正式沟通 follows official channels: meetings, reports, emails and notices.
• Informal communication 非正式沟通 happens outside them: chats and rumours (the grapevine 小道消息). It is fast, but often wrong.

Barriers to communication 沟通障碍 include language and jargon 行话 (technical words others do not know), too much information, the wrong channel (bad news by email), physical distance and time zones, cultural differences, and lack of trust. A tall structure adds another barrier: messages change as they pass through many levels.

• The role of HRM and workforce planning; labour turnover $= 12 \div 80 \times 100 = 15\%$ and its costs (2.1).
• Internal and external factors: demographic change, labour mobility, migration, flexi-time, teleworking and the gig economy (2.1).
• Recruitment steps, job description and person specification, internal against external; induction, on-the-job, off-the-job, cognitive and behavioural training; formative, summative, 360-degree and self-appraisal; dismissal against redundancy (2.1).
• Span of control, levels, chain of command, delegation, centralisation, bureaucracy, delayering; tall against flat; by function, product or region; matrix (2.2).
• Management functions; management against leadership; autocratic, paternalistic, democratic, laissez-faire and situational styles (2.3).
• Taylor, Maslow, Herzberg, McClelland, Deci and Ryan; financial and non-financial rewards; the turnover fix from 15% to 7.5% (2.4).
• Formal and informal communication; the barriers (2.6).