1.4- Managing People

• Staff as an asset: because they are a valuable resource that can be used to generate revenue.
• Staff as a cost: staff are a cost that is included in the cost of production. this focuses on minimising costs and maximising efficiency
• Benefits of Flexible working is : Employees can work from home and don't have to come into office and save money on travel costs
• Examples of flexible working are : part-time, zero hour contract, home working
• Dismissal is the act of terminating an employee's contract due to misconduct or poor behaviour. Redundancy is when a job is no longer needed
• A positive employee and and employer relationship will lead to higher productivity, low turnover rates, collaboration , communication and job satisfaction.
• A negative employee and employer relationship will lead to a bad work culture, high labour turnover, and low productivity.
• Recruitment is hiring new employees, especially for a particular job or position. Selection is picking a candidate for the role.
• Recruitment involves : defining the job, advertising the job, selecting the applicants, and testing the applicants
• Internal recruitment is when a business hires someone who already works for them. External recruitment is when a business hires someone who does not work for them.
• Benefits of Internal Recruitment: candiates are already known to the business, short and cheap process, motivates workers to go for promotion. A drawback is that the business may not have the skills they need and leaves a vacancy in the other department
• A Benefit of external recruitment is that the candidate is bringing new skills and ideas, bringing their own experience and expertise. However its a long and expensive process, new candidates need induction and training
• 2 types of training are : on-the job and off-the-job.
• On the job training is when employees are trained on their job roles and off the job training is a type of training done outside of the workplace
• Benefits of On-the-job: employees may feel motivated, they are learning new skills and are learning by those are experienced. Disadvantages is : mistakes can be made leading to low productivity and can be quite disruptive
• Benefits of Off-the-job: Employees can learn new skills outside of the workplace, can be cost-effective if done online and they bring new ideas. However it can be expensive to organise and can be difficult to measure the effectiveness of the training.
• The three types of Organisational structures are: Tall, Matrix and Flat
• Tall Organisational Structure has hierarchy with a long chain of command and many layers in the organisation. A centralised decision making process is common with large organisations
• Centralised decision making process is when all decisions are made from those at the top of a business (managers)
• A decentralised decision making process is when decisions are made by people lower in the hierarchy
• span of control is the number of subordinates a manager has to manage and they have to report directly to them
• chain of command is the communication of orders and information from the top to the bottom of an organization
• flat organistion structure has fewer layer s of management and is more flexible and efficient
• flat organistaion has a large span of control and take decentralised decision making process
• Matrix organisational structure is when a employee reports to more than on supervisor. Benefits: brings a team of expertise together, can be more flexible. Disadvantage: can result in conflict/disagreement managers are giving different instructions
• Four Motivation Theories- Mayo, Taylor, Maslow and Herzberg
• Mayo -(Human Relations Theory) humans are motivated by social needs. This can be through positive relationship with managers and better communication can improve their motivation
• Taylor- (Scientific Management Theory) money is the main force for motivating employees. Workers should be paid based of how much they produce and they should be closely supervised by managers
• Herzberg (Two-factor theory)- motivation and hygiene factors can significantly impact employee motivation
• Maslow (hierarchy of needs)- motivated by fulfilling their needs in hierarchical order
• financial incentives to improve performance : piece work, commission- selling products to people, bonuses- additional payment given to staff, performance related pay
• Non financial ways of motivating employees are job enlargement, enrichment and rotation. Delegating tasks and giving the power to make decisions
• Management involves planning, organizing, leading to achive organistional goals while leadership is influenecing and motivating people kindly to focus on these tasks
• Autocratic Leadership - A style of leadership where the leader makes all the decisions and is not open to suggestions.
• Paternalistic Leadership- leaders act like a parent figure and make decisions on whats best for their team
• Democratic Leadership- leaders involve employees in the decision making process and values their inputs
• Laissez-faire leadership- a style of leadership where the manager does not interfere with the work of the employees