Acting Human

Once a while companies have to deal with travel expense reports handed in by their staff. Travel expenses are costs which arise during business travels. Depending on the duration they differ in the extent. The travel expenses also include such things like costs for meals, hotels, admissions for business relevant exhibitions and similar ad hoc expenditures.

Clearly there must be distinguished between travel expenses and the private ones. Sometimes it happens that an employee decides on staying longer and uses a trip for private purpose. That is his right as long as he neither doesn’t harm the business of a company in anyway nor uses company’s money for his private business.

Mainly there are two different ways a company can handle travel expenses. The first one consists in that the employee collects all bills from his business trips and cedes them to the responsible person in the company afterwards. The company may then refunds or reimburses the incurred costs. An itemized list is also helpful in that case because it gives the responsible person (normally the HR Manager) the possibility to compare the costs. On that way the company can avoid that it pays too much.

The second possibility is to provide the employee a budget which allows him to cover his costs. This opportunity is also known as pay a per diem, pay per day or day money.  The budget then covers all needed travel expenses even so the traveler can choose a more expensive hotel or flight and pay the additional costs on his own. Here, too, an itemized list can be helpful.

The longer a company is in business there more experience it will get on how much the travel expenses are to different locations. Doing business with mainly the same clients helps also to get a good overview about costs incurred. That doesn’t mean that travel expenses will always stay on the same level. Special factors have also to be considered like economic ones. So might e.g. the price increase of oil lead to higher travel expenses because of the increase of prices for airline tickets.

Nowadays the accounting of travel expenses is much easier with the help of PCs. There are Excel Sheets and free programs available as well as professional business solutions. Depending on the size of the company and the amount of business trips made in a year - every company needs to find their best solution for handling travel expenses and reports.

The other day I tripped over the term “Lean Manufacturing”. The principles sounded interesting to me especially since they seemed to be contemporary. Before having a closer look to the human site of that it is need to know what the term means and where it comes from.

Lean Manufacturing originates from the Japanese automotive manufacturer Toyota. The method was developed in the middle of the 20th century. The aim of the Toyota Production System (TPS) consisted in the creation of a stable process organization which forms the base of the reached quality level of their products. Toyota describes it as follows:

A production system that is steeped in the philosophy of the complete elimination of all waste and that imbues all aspects of production with this philosophy in pursuit of the most efficient production method.

The term was first used by Professor James P. Womack and consultant Daniel T. Jones. They spent years analyzing the success of Japanese companies. Nowadays the lean principles are used in all division like lean production, lean administration or lean maintance. The most usable definition which covers probably the best way the different use of the term “Lean Manufacturing” is the following (Source):

(Lean Manufacturing) is a manufacturing phenomenon that seeks to “maximize the work effort of a company’s number one resource, the People.” Lean is therefore “a way of thinking” to adapt to change, eliminate waste, and continuously improve. There are a number of tools and techniques, to be used in concert, to achieve maximizing the effort of the workforce and to operate as a “lean” company

For reaching those targets it is necessary to eliminate redundant activities and adjust the value added chain in an optimal way. On the one site the needs, wants and wishes of the consuments need to be considered like quality, price, availability and individuality. On the other site the company has to realize that to act profitable and keep its competitiveness on its market. That means that the base for the companies work forms the customer preference with processes orientated towards the customer and with a high efficiency.

For reaching all that the company needs adequate process definitions, descriptions of the cut surfaces, clear responsibilities, and timely reactions on errors, simple organization methods and stable processes.

The question now is what that means for the Human Resources? The targets only can be met when the stuff is embraced early in the conception and realization. The sensitisation of the stuff for errors are important with the aim of motivate them and integrate the knowledge of every single worker.

But for reaching a sensitisation of the stuff it is first necessary that it stands behind the company and its philosophy. If a worker doesn’t share the company’s views he probably doesn’t care of possible errors which might occur. Or he might not be aware of the needs of a client. After all he might not stand in the “full service” of the company. Also the motivation will be hard then.

Further it might be hard for a worker to distinguish problems. Even if there are guidelines, the human acting might differ from it out of his known routine. For him other things might occur right and he probably will act in his way according to the guideline.

So after all it is important for the company to win the stuff for what it does. This also includes reaching a maximum of job satisfaction not only through money.

The job satisfaction is one of the main tasks of the Human Resource Management. Actions taken by the HR department are aimed to reach an optimum of job satisfaction. The background lies within the goal of reaching a sustainable and increased company management.

Nowadays one of the central theories for the job satisfaction is the “Two Factor Theory” of Frederick Herzberg.

The Two Factor Theory distinguishes between (Source):

1. the Hygiene factors which are needed to ensure an employee does not become dissatisfied. They do not lead to higher levels of motivation, but without them there is dissatisfaction.
2. and the Motivation factors which are needed in order to motivate an employee into higher performance. These factors result from internal generators in employees.

Typical hygiene factors are such as job security, salary, company, status, working conditions, job, quality of supervision, company policies and administration and interpersonal relations.

Typical motivation factors are achievement, recognition for achievement, responsibility for task, interest in the job, advancement to higher level tasks and growth

The combination of the two factors results into four possible scenarios:

1. High Hygiene and High Motivation: The ideal situation where employees are highly motivated and have few complaints.
2. High Hygiene and Low Motivation: Employees have few complaints but are not highly motivated. The job is perceived as a paycheck.
3. Low Hygiene and High Motivation: Employees are motivated but have a lot of complaints. A situation where the job is exciting and challenging but salaries and work conditions are not up to par.
4. Low Hygiene and Low Motivation: The worst situation. Unmotivated employees with lots of complaints.

The criticism of the Herzberg theory lies within the fact that it neither doesn’t say anything how to measure hygiene and motivation factors not does it distinguish between the individuality of a person.

Many other theories can be found like e.g. the Range of Affect Theory of Edwin A. Locke, the Dispositional Theory and the Job Characteristics Model of Hackman & Oldham.

The Range of Affect Theory e.g. postulates that satisfaction is determined by a discrepancy between what one wants in a job and what one has in a job. Also it states that how much one values a given facet of work. This leads to a special degree of satisfaction when expectations are met or dissatisfaction when they aren’t met. The application of that theory in the daily life turns out to be much more complicated since there are normally a couple of factors which influence the job satisfaction. Also it needs to be considered that wants and needs change.

After all there is still the question if people work faster and more efficient: are they satisfied with everything? After all job satisfaction seems to be a dynamic process which changes constantly. This already is the case when a person works for longer and longer for a company. With the time he gets more new tasks and starts earning more trust and responsible tasks.

One of the main problems in companies seems to be the missing communication mainly from top to bottom. It can be pretty frustrating for a worker when he for example doesn’t get a useful feedback to keep on going with a special task and reach something valauble.

A good communication culture in a company - also known as social embeddedness - is essential for the job satisfaction. The communication process is an essential need of people and leads to social interaction. The aim of it is to resolve problems and eliminate deficits. A good communication enables for a better team work - and in a team you can as is generally known reach more. For that special rules are needed and the critic of every single person needs to be considered what is part of the work of the Human Resource Management.

Common terms which are connected with the job satisfaction are job enlargement and job rotation:

1. Job enlargement concerns new tasks in the horizontal area with a constant aspiration level. That means that a worker, who had been limited to one activity, accomplishes a variety of actions with the same aspiration level. The aim of it is to change the single impact, avoid psychological and physical monotony and get some recovery without stopping the work.
2. Job enrichment is a process of vertical restructuring. The worker gets a higher scope of work with a higher aspiration level. This is reached through advanced training so that a worker can work more on his own responsibility.

If these concepts work out as wanted also depends on the special situation of a worker. The Human Resource Management needs to figure out what the problem is and where they can intervene: is it the communication, is it the work itself or are there other circumstances why a worker is not satisfied in his job. For that a company needs adequate concepts, an organizational structure and regular trainings. There needs to be a together of the company and the personal organization as well as a complete view which doesn’t only focus on one thing.

Then after all - viewed from marketing aspects - a company is more successfull if people talk positevely about it. So why not start with the own staff which can do word-of-mouth for the company?

When talking about Human Resource Management, it is also necessary to consider the individuality of every company. The theory gives us examples how the structure of a company should be which normally is the hierarchical system.

The Finance and Investment Dictionary defines the term “company” as follows:

“Organization engaged in business as a proprietorship, partnership, corporation, or other form of enterprise. Originally, a firm made up of a group of people as distinguished from a sole proprietorship. However, since few proprietorships owe their existence exclusively to one person, the term now applies to proprietorships as well.”

This definition already shows that people are necessary for forming a company. But it doesn’t answer the question for what a company is need. A company undertakes it to produce something of a special value. Not only material goods are having their value. Also immaterial goods are valuable as the economics tells us. That implies that even social institutions, public and private households create things of a special value. Simple examples therefore would be the raising of children or the collecting of money for a relief action.

For reaching the targets of every individual company you need people working for them what is considered as human capital. The people bear an employment to create things of value. The surrounding they work in is the actual sphere of action – also named company- which determines the job satisfaction. The company itself can also be the cause for the absence of it.

Organizing the company with the people working for it is one side. As already mentioned the job satisfaction is task of the Human Resource Management. Therefore it also has to consider the different targets of the individual human and what they want to reach while working for the company.

After all it should be evident that every company is special in their own way. Not only because they produce different goods but also the people working for it are different and consequently form the individuality of a company.

There are already a couple of definitions for the term “Human Resource Management” out there. But for the start I figured I should see and try to work out my own definition to get me a clearer picture of that subject. My definition looks after all as follows:

Human Resource Management has the task to figure out the optimal investment of the factor “human being” for the attainment of the operational targets. The human being represents in this context the staff/personnel resp. the labor. Thereby all aspects, which concern the staff, are being considered originating from the single individual, over the different groups until the organization of the whole company.

The common abbreviation for Human Resource Management is HRM and is part of the business administration.
Further the term contains the expression “management” which means according to Stuhlman Management Consultants:

Management is the organizational process that includes strategic planning, setting; objectives, managing resources, deploying the human and financial assets needed to achieve objectives, and measuring results. Management also includes recording and storing facts and information for later use or for others within the organization. Management functions are not limited to managers and supervisors. Every member of the organization has some management and reporting functions as part of their job.

Following that the Human Resource Management has the task of leading and handling the staff. That includes aspects like the selection of personnel, the discussion and settlement of the individual and institutional targets, the personnel development, the development of optimal working conditions, and so on. When conflicts occur between the individual and the institutional targets, the Human Resource Management has the task to try to solve them. Hereby it is important that not only always the operational targets should stand in the foreground.
Also the intermediation between the individual, the separate groups and the entire company on the different levels are part of the field of activity. That shows that Human Resource Management on one site is important for giving the company a structure. On the other site it is responsible for frictionless interaction and communication between the employees as well on the vertical as on the horizontal level considering that a corporate structure is existent.
At least it is important to bethink that without the factor „human being“ a company wouldn’t exist independent from the number of employees. Finally one single person can also run his own business.