Juanita's World Part 1

Assignment: Human Resource and Organization Performance

Effective management of human resources contributes to mission accomplishment and vision achievement. Given that a vision is the future preferred status for an organization, it is critical to align people with the processes and resources necessary to propel the organization forward. As easy as this may seem to the uninformed, there are many challenges as pressure is applied to consistently reduce costs while delivering superior goods and or services.

Whether you are part of a small entrepreneurial start up, a civil servant with a mature and large government entity, or a volunteer for a non-profit organization, someone is fulfilling the role of HR oversight. No matter what type of organization you are working for the HR functions typically associated with building human capital are: analysis and design of work, recruitment and selection, training and development, performance management, compensation and benefits, employee relations, personnel policies, compliance with laws, and strategies for supporting the mission.

This assignment is designed to integrate the reflection of personal experience, and the information covered in the textbook. Assuming you are Juanita, answer the following questions:

How can human resource management strategically contribute to the organization's mission and vision on a daily basis?

What skills might Juanita have to develop to better fulfill her role?

How might Juanita engage line managers to become more involved in what has traditionally been HR's function in this organization? Why?

Which aspects of human resource management would she want to entrust to specialists? Why?

Juanita's World Part 2

Yesterday was a bit of a surprise for Juanita as she sensed a gap between what her boss said he wanted and what he conveyed as expectations and limits on her authority. It is now Day 2 and she is excited and ready to go with her early afternoon appointment with fundraising's Director of Development.

As she is reviewing past reports on fundraising efforts and success a visitor stops in to see her. When Melissa, introduces herself Juanita finds that she is the previous HR Manager who left the organization about 3 months earlier. Juanita perceives this is an ideal time to glean what she can about challenges and opportunities. While speaking with Melissa, Juanita finds out who the real workers are and who just seems to be filling a spot. She learns that since resources are limited they have struggled to find qualified and committed personnel to fill numerous important positions. Juanita finds that the people do care...a lot...about the mission but hardly think beyond their current circumstances and most are discouraged with their perceived lack of impact on their community. When Juanita questions Melissa about why she left she finds that Melissa had aspired to have greater responsibility and make a bigger impact but felt limited in her role in this organization. In a way, this confirmed for Juanita that she would definitely have to speak with Rich sooner than later to be sure she understood her authority to do all she thought she was hired to do.

As she visits with Jackie, the Director of Development, she learns that the economy has had a negative impact on their historical donor base. Cash gifts are down and have been trending down for about 2 years. Gifts in kind, like food, are up but since it is perishable they must distribute it quickly or it must be thrown away. And, since gifts are down they have had to rely more heavily on volunteers. This means their drivers and those who distribute food are less consistent and reliable. This is beginning to impact their gifts from donors since they are finding out that much of what they are giving is being thrown away.

As Juanita sits in her office at the end of the day she feels she is beginning to understand the complexity of the issues. It seems she has limited authority over areas that most HR Managers have and that the lack of cash is negatively impacting their ability to hire and retain the right people. Since she cannot control the availability of cash she will have to come up with some innovative ways to better hire and retain the right people.

Using the navigation on the left, please proceed to the next page.

Juanita's World Part 3

While attending one of her last classes last night Juanita learned of an assignment she has related to Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO). As she is driving home from class she realizes that her new employer would be a great source for the assignment and help her better understand how to do her job better.

When she met with Rich he never mentioned laws and regulations that may impact the organizations. And, when she thinks about it, she had assumed that since they were a non-profit doing work to alleviate hunger that they would somehow be exempt from government oversight.

Her appointment for Day 3 has cancelled so she decides to use the day to learn what she can about laws and regulations that they could be potentially violating and also try to better understand how they could use them to their advantage.

After about 2 hours of research she has learned:

o Full time employees number between 15-30 people depending on the year and workload.

o They receive both federal and state contracts. Each is for $20,000 per year.

o Periodically they hire people who serve in the National Guard and Reserves.