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Lecture 2
Work and workers
Employment and labour markets
Lesson Plan:
Students should be able to trace the development of modern HR management from
the earliest days of the Industrial Revolution;
identify the historical and organisational antecedents of personnel management and
human resources management;
Describe the development of personnel management and HR management in New
Zealand.
WORK AND LIFE
It’s too easy to say that we all look at work differently. But each of us inevitably brings our own
perceptions, expectation, values, and motivations to the subject of work.
Our different approaches to work are influenced by many things, including the nature of the job, the
quality of management, the rewards we gain from work, the organisation’s culture, its mission and
ownership.
The work that people do reveals much about them and their society. Work is a central activity in the
lives of most people. It is a major mechanism for positioning people in society and for allocating
social status and power. Jobs largely determine how and where we live, who our friends are, the
kinds of education out children receive, and how we define our relationships to one another.
DEFINITION OF WORK
Work is any activity which is directed towards the production of goods and services which typically
have a value in exchange, and which is carried out for a valuable consideration.
People who have traditionally seen’work’ in terms of their own paid employment are treating unpaid
work as a source of personal satisfaction and development.
Rational-economic. It says that people are motivated by economic needs. People are irrational that is
why they need to be controlled. Those ones who have self-control and self-motivation must take
responsibility for managing others.
Social. People are social animals and gain their sense of identity from relationships with others.
Management must be able to mobilise and rely on social relationships, and so issues of leadership
style and group behaviour are important.
Self-actualisation. People are primary self-motivated and self-controlled. External controls and pressues
are likely to be seen as reducing autonomy and thus affect motivation. Given the chance, people will
voluntary integrate their goals with those of the organisation.
Complex. People vary, with many motives whose relative importance changes from time to time and
situation to situation.
Psychological. People are complex, unfolding, maturing organisms who pass through psychological and
physiological stages of development. Work is a part of a person’s identity and ego ideal, and
motivation depends on having opportunities to work towards that ego ideal.
There is a belief that our orientations to work are largely formed outside the workplace, influenced by
family, community and social class.
Another belief is that people’s desires and expectations are formed by many influences – including past
experiences of work and life, current work and home situations, personality, skills and abilities.
Employee attitudes are one outcome of work orientations. When economic conditions are good, people
tend to choose their workplace according to their orientations – leading to largely self-selected
workplaces with shared expectations. And they feel controlled when adverse labour market
conditions reduce their choices. Schein categorizes the arrangement of people’s orientation to work
in three main groups:
- Instrumental or economic orientation – concerned with money, material goods and security;
- Relational or social orientation – concerned with relationships, friendship and other people.
- Personal or psychological orientation – concerned with job interest, job satisfaction and personal
growth.
WORK BELIEFS
- Work ethic
- Organisational belief system
- Marxist-related beliefs
- Humanistic belief system
- Leisure ethic.
EMPLOYMENT AND LABOUR MARKETS
The labour market can considered like a market for any product which is balanced by supply and
demand.
What are labour markets? – They can be defined as a geographical or occupational area in which factors
of supply and demand interact.
RISING UNEMPLOYMENT
Unemployment and under-employment have been growing steadily, at least in developed countries,
since the end of the Second World War. There are both macro and micro-economic causes.
- Demography;
- Employment quality (many jobs are casual or contingent);
- Aging people have difficulties to find new jobs or retaining current ones.
GROWTH IN NON-STANDARD EMPLOYMENT
There is a steady increase in non-standard employment – which includes part-time work, short-term
or casual employment, contracting, self-employment and temporary or agency work. Non-standard
employment offers flexibility to both employers and employees and reduction of labour costs for
employers.
There is a growing gap in earning income between people are able to move with the times and those
who are unable to respond, as well as most people in non-standard forms of employment.
THREE SCENARIOS
BUSINESS AS USUAL?
Some people appear to be neither pessimistic nor optimistic.
THE CHANGING WORKFORCE
Demographic trends. Ageing, ethnically and racially diverse, with a higher proportion of recent
immigrants, more inclined to marry later or not at all, and ore likely to delay child-bearing.
Workforce trends. Older, more female and more multi-cultural, better-educated and more transient
and flexible.
Economic trends. Globalisation, technological innovation and other trends will force organisations
to continue the search for cost reductions and improved efficiency. As a result, at least in the higher-
wage developed counties, overall employment levels will probably continue to decline.
Work/ life trends. Issues of work and family will become increasingly important for organisations
and their HR planning and staffing strategies. Child-care assistance will continue to be an important
concern, but elder-care needs will become prominent as well. Dual-career couples, home-based
working, flexible hours and project-based work will be features of the ‘family-friendly’ response to
these work/ life trends.
DEMOGRAPHIC TRENDS IN NEW ZEALAND
The population growth rate is slowing
The population is ageing (therefore the workforce is ageing)
The workforce is more female
The workforce is more ethnically diverse
A more educated workforce
LABOUR MARKETS
Market puts buyers and sellers in touch with one another. In this respect, labour markets are no
different from markets for goods and services – although, for various reasons, labour markets may
be less effective and efficient.
What are some characteristics of New Zealand market in terms of geography, job and wage?
What about market in China?
WORKERS COMPETITION
It makes people search for job differently, be a better employee (commitment), constantly educate
yourself in order to stay competitive, etc.
What would you do to stay competitive?
Large organisations are more likely to pay close attention to the detailed
requirements of legislation, and more likely to attract the interest of union officials
and government inspectors if they do not.
IMPACT OF MANAGEMENT
- There is still a tendency to look overseas for models and to transplant them directly into
the new environment.
Attempts to manipulate labour markets to aid economic growth are a constant theme in
liberal market economics.
Eg. Swedish labour system of flexibility and mobility, now it is out-dated.
There is no single model of labour flexibility. Each employer’s approach depends on factors,
like organisation's size and type of industry, location and state of economic activity, and the
social, economic and employee relations environments.
Functional and skills flexibility – employees’ job assignments are changed according to
needs and circumstances. Employees must be willing to adopt new work practices and to
move freely between different work tasks.
Numerical flexibility – employers adjust employee numbers to meet changing demands and
economic conditions.
Flexible work patterns – employees numbers are not changed, but their working hours are
adjusted to meet the organisation’s production or service needs.
Wage flexibility – the employer’s ability to adjust wages, and thus labour costs, is subject to
both legislative and negotiated constraints in New Zealand, and in most other countries.
Externalisation – part of an organisation’s work is carried out by enterprises or individuals
outside the organisation. The work maybe outsourced or performed on-site by contractors.
Geographical mobility – the ability of workers to move freely between different regions,
and even different countries, may be less relevant to labour flexibility in an isolated country
like New Zealand that it is in EU.
Types of unemployment
Cyclical unemployment – which increases when there is economic recession and falls in
times of prosperity, but has recently shown signs of becoming ‘uncoupled’ from the
cycles of economic activity.
Seasonal unemployment – which occurs, for example, when fruit pickers are laid off at the
end of the harvest, or building and construction activity is lower during winter.
Frictional unemployment – which counts people who are ‘between jobs’ and thus reflects
the fact that people are constantly changing jobs, employers and locations.
Structural unemployment – which is influenced by general economic activity, but results
more directly from a reduced demand for particular labour and skills as a result of new
technological and processes, and changes in customer’s needs and preferences.