HRM Pharmaco case study Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

HRM Pharmaco case study - Assignment Example "Human issues arising from the restructuring of multinational corporations are being delegated to HR for studay and implementation" (Fitz-Enz, 2002, 4). Therefore, human resource management should be prepared to deal with such challenges. Unfortunately, empirically, it has been a common practice to cut the human resources department first to save money and resources when a company is experiencing difficulty. "And when companies were downsizing and restructuring, human resource capabilities were the first thing cut" (Losey et all, 2005, 13). Such poor leadership decisions are not forward thinking and result in an understaffed HR department that is not prepared to lead the company's restructuring. In the case of Pharmaco, inefficient human resource decisions couple with poor communication between employees hindered development. Evaluation of the management style of Pharmaco yields information about the company's core values and beliefs. The purpose of the case study was to "appreciate the range of employees and types of job that exist within pharmaceutical companies" (Sewell and Scarbrough, 2002, 182) Pharmaco is a British company, which is important to note because the "pharmaceutical industry is often highlighted as one of the few examples of British manufacturing success in high value added markets" (Sewell and Scarbrough, 2002, 115). ... Like other industries dependent upon science, pharmaceutical companies need to constantly retrain and innovate in order to achieve and continue to enjoy market competitiveness (Sewell and Scarbrough, 2002, 43). This distinguishes such businesses from other more traditional companies and creates intriguing dilemmas for human resource management. Retention of employees is key as confidentiality is a premium for the field. Temporary workers require human resource analysts to design specific policy and compensation procedure that may differ from that of permanent workers. This inherently creates uncertainty which may be compounded by ineffective implementation or the perception of favourable treatment of one group over another. The first issue to be examined is why these individuals choose to become temporary workers so that their attitudes and effectiveness may be gauged. As David Cenzo and Stephen Robbins (2005) note: If temporaries are employed solely as a cost-cutting measure, the pay and benefits offered to contingent workers might differ from those offered to other workers hired part-time as a result of restructuring HRM, then, must discover specifically what these employees want. Is it flexibility in scheduling, autonomy, or the control over one's career destiny that such situations afford that attracts them Or is it just bad luck, and they are forced into this situation (19) Conflict between temporary and permanent workers must be anticipated by human resource management. If the new workers are given more pay or significant schedule flexibility this can cause concern and anger, resulting in a loss of productivity or even employees choosing to quit. A lesson can be learned from studying the massive