Impact of leadership on the success of the organization using Graves seven vMems

First produce an assessment of how varying leadership styles impact an entire organization and its personnel. Describe the impact your organization's Values and Leadership System and Structure has on leadership, management and staff.

Many researchers have discussed the leadership style that is chosen by business organizations in order to have specific business environment and control and improve the workforce commitment as according to Germano, (2016), the effective leadership in a business organizatin can choose the leadership style that is suitable to the needs of the organization and that can help leadership implment the organizational goals and objectives such as strenghtening the organization's position in the market and raising its profits and reach higher levels of organizational success and have better market position. A successful business leadership style is that style that can bring in profits and reduce costs according to the requirements of the current stage and the needs of the market. My organization can choose any of the available leadership styles to it in order to apply it bassed on the work environemnt it has and market segmentation it relates its activity to. According to Swamy and Swamy, (2014) There are main six leadership styles which are the coaching style, comanding style, democratic style, affiliate style, visionary style and pacesetting style. Each of these styles can be used for specific purposes rather than the others as the proper choosing for the leadership style can make the leadership of the organization is more able to achieve the organizational goals. There are other theories that explain other styles of leadership such as those discussed by Lumbasi, (2015) an example is the supporting style that is high in support and low in direction, another one is the coaching style that is low in motivation and competency and high in direction. These leadership styles can be chosen and used according to the organizational objectives and the orientations of the company's leadership that should be clear to leaders as well as employees.   

There are many studies in this regard that suggest that the best leadership style is that one which is able to motivate employees for presenting their best to the organization and that can help them perform well and do their tasks as needed for their welfare and the welfare of the organization. This was assured by () who added that a good leader is that leader who is able to guide employees towards achieivng the organizational goals on the long run as well as the short run. There are different leadership styles that can be used in a business organization such as the transactional and transformational leadership styles and each of them has its own characteristics and requirements to reach organizational change. 

When the leader is able to choose the right leadership style to its organization, he then can find out the right leadership value system that can make a good image of the company among other competitors in the market. Professional managemnt has made it important in modern economies to use the leadership values system in order to improve the current and future position of an organization. The table below shows the number of leadership value systems that can be available for my business organization:

Beige

Yellow

turquoise

red

Green

Orange

Purple

Blue

Value systems of my company Figure 1

In my business organization, there are two main leaderdship value systems which are colored blue and purple. The purple color is the most dominant one as the company uses it to get best benefits on the company's various levels and this level is used to apply the transformational leadership style. The purple is good for the organization because it can make its current position stronger and can add many competitive advantages to it in areas such as work quality and time delivery in addition to providing a wider space for motivation and communication for employees. This can make schedules and deadlines are better achieved and delivered. This can help employees work hard to make the company succeed and reach a higher image in the market in addition to attract more people to deal with it and trust in its services. The purple system can make the company advanced and well prepared with good trained employees who are motivated to guide it forward and to make it more trustworthy by more adequate deadlines and better time schedules. The company mixes the purple with the blue in order to keep employees motivated and also enjoying a good work environment as the organization is making different improvements in its environment that make employees more relaxed such as changing furniture and developing its technology systems. When employees are relaxed and feeling better and comfortable, they are able to provide their best to the organization and improve its organizational performance.   

The organization's depending on the purple and blue systems can change at any time it sees this suitable and when it turns from a level to another of change. There are other colors that can be used by the business organization such as green, red, yellow and others whenever the organization is trying a different leadership strategy. The company can use the red color for example in order to apply a strict leadership system or the yellow for example to apply some critical modifications to the company. There is also the turquoise that can be helpful when a more global technique is going to be applied by the organization. The current transformational leadership style can also be used with the orange and the green value systems. The leader can also use a specific value system with his leadership style he applies and he can also changes from a color to another according to the needs of the leadership style he follows. For example, in our organization the leaders can change from transformational to transactional leadership styles based on the needs of the work environment and they can use the orange value system for motivating employees and they can also use the green one in order to train employees and develop their skills to be better and gain more skills. The leaders in my organizations apply transformational leadership style currently in order to provide employees with more time for communication and make them more flexible to receive criticism and training. This is helpful to apply the needed organizational change required for development.

Second now that you understand your company and leadership Value System dynamic (culture, structures, behaviors, actions, etc.) choose one specific Leadership issue/problem/challenge to solve and recommend a solution. The solution could be to improve change the Leadership Value System or Structure or make an important strategic decision.

Transformational leadership style is well applied in my organization and this makes it face different challenges that hinder the progression of the company. These challenges can be handled by applying the Meme stacks because they are able to help the organization achieve the desired organizational change it needs and this can be via applying a specific leadership style that is desired and suitable for the business organization. The main task of the Meme stacks is to face the challenges and providing the best solutions for them before the challenges lead to real problems. In my organization, the leadership is applying the purple and blue value systems of the Memes in order to make it reach better levels of competitive advantage and keep it well controlled at the same time using the blue level. My company is related to the worldwide marketplace of human rights and public services which makes it in need for continuouse development of ideas and innovations of services and it is in need for a leadership style that can raise its position and reputation as a trustworthy organnization in this field. In my organization, there should be specific modifications that are mainly related to the environmental regulations of the organization as they reflect the organization's vision related to its services and they have to show that the organization is keen on providing its services for all people equally without regard to color, sex, religion or other racial conditions. The organization is in need to develop its work environment in order to be more communicative and encouraging for innovation and creativity as there are many blcoks to them. This can be used by applying the yellow Meme stack that encourages the use of technology and development at work and the orange color in order to focus more on training and motivating employees and leaders to be more creative and innovative.

My organization is also facing different challenges that are related to its global work as a human rights organization as it deals with different people around the world and it attends different projects and conferences around the world. This makes it important for the organization to apply other Memes such as the green one and the turquoise inorder to give much more interest for different corporate social responsibility evenets around the world and different issues relevant to the protection of the environment, eco-friendly systems and other global issues in order to show how they are related to human rights and how human rights organizations can be effective in dealing with these matters locally and globally. This makes it important for the organization to be engaged locally and internationally into events such as planting and keeping the Earth safe from different wastes and harms that work against human rights. The orgaization here can seek specialists in these fields and trainers who can train employes to be able to use the environment and  the relevant issues safely and provide the local and international society with the needed services and share into these events effectively. The organziation can also apply certain events of its own to protect animals and other environemnt factors aiming at protecting huamn rights and supporting people livign on Earth locally and internationally. The turquoise color of the Meme systems can be effective in this regard and can help the organization develop itself locally and internationally.

This makes it improtant for the company to deal with the Meme systems and realize them effectively through understanding them and realizing the uses of each color and how they can be suited and then applied on the activities and services of the organization. This requires the organization leadership to have its own specialists and trainers who can help employees understand the changes in using the Meme value systems and the benefits that can be gained from them to the employees and the organization. Researchers show that there is always a peack for change and it can be seen on the long run and that it can change from time to time and let other peak to appear based on the requirements and needs of the phase of change. This peak can be represented currently in my organization by the purple and then the blue colors based on the needs of the organization and soon the leadership can turn to have another peak such as the yellow or the turquoise.The turquoise color can also be a peak on the long run to include global issues within issues relevant to the huam rights in Oman and globally or to the yellow color to focus on innovations and technology for development of the organization.  

Produce a reflection assessing your leadership capabilities and a plan for CPD development

For reflecting and assessing my leadership abilities, I need to depend on a number of measurements and hints that tell me how far I changed and developed my own leadership skills and abilities. Observation and taking notes are good tools to tell me how I was before the module and now. I also should make a comparison between the personal objectives I had and what I really achieved. In fact I think I am aquite good leader as I prefer the transformational leadership style and I like to make effective communications with the people and the team I lead. I also prefer to make effective discussions with the members of the team and exchange information with them. I like to study any decision before I take it as this study makes me realize the reason why I take the decision and the know the exact time I have to take the decision. When I am faced by a problems and a challenge I prefer to think deeply in it before trying to find a solution but in fact this takes too much time of me and this time waste affects my decision and sometimes I see that I take the wrong decisions due to  time waste. I prefer to be innovative and creative as a leader and engage others in new supportive projects where they can express themselves and their ideas freely and directly without fears. Sometimes I try to be more strict as a leader and I change from a transformational leader to a trnasactional one who prefers the team members to apply the rules and be adequate to controls and rules. I think that the value systems can be used by any leader who thinks that there are changes in his organization that need to be done and that the current phase is completely different from other past or future phases. The value Memes can be used to face different challneges and blocks in the organization and this is base on the needs of the organization. I find myself good as a leader who can motivate employees and guide them and push them towards applying the different ideas they can have and I envourage them to work in a comfortable loving work environment. As my organization is a human rights organization, as a leader I myself prefer to be very human with the members of my teams, I respect them and raise the concepts of fair, judge and dignity among them. I don't tell lies and when I promise I do what I promised. As a leader, I am honest and I try to give opportunities to all people and team members equally as this is among the huamn rights they need to receive. I think I can handle conflicts effectively and I am a good manager but I think I need to relax more and be more patient. I try to set good effective plans that have reasonable and achievable goals and then try hard to apply them on time schedules but I think I need to manage time better and be able to deliver work on deadlines better than now. I am keen on keeping the environment clean, save energy and save rights of animals in the community where I live and work, I also try to do different researches regarding the local and international requirements of life and try to be coping with the international events related to huamn rights and leadership at the same time. I try to let all team members to participate in decision making but sometimes I can't find time to make more discussions about decisions which makes me take the decisions quickly and without enough thinking.

A Plan for CDP development

To make a CDP plan for myself, it is important to set a number of objectives suchas the following:

1.      Reaching a better level of leadership.

2.      Being able to use the Meme values effectively.

3.      Reaching a higher level of success with working with my team.

4.      Managing time effectively.

5.      Making the work environment better.

6.      Delivering work on time.

7.      Being more adequate.

8.      Reaching better job positions.

9.      Being more creative and innovative and apply my creative ideas and ideas of the team members.

10.  Helping my organization reach better level in applying its services.

This can be reached by hard work on myself and my abilities as I should study more and read more about leadership theories and the Value Memes in particular as this can help me understand each level of the Memes effectively and apply it properly. This can also help me develop my own leadership and management knolwedge and information. Another important thing is that I have to compare other organizations in the local community that provide services related to the services of our organization in order to try to add competitive advantage to the organization. I should work more with teams and find more opportunties to engage others within my teams. I should work on a time plan that is well managed and prepared and let spaces of time in order to keep time adequate and effective. I need also to add education programs to my career in order to deserve promotions and reach higher job positions. I need also to share in different environmental projects and events locally and internationally. I should also to be more patient in decision making and try to be more dare in taking the right decisions in order to save time.

Improving the work environment through creativity and innovation strategies

Executive Summary

The current research is an overview and a discussion about creativity and innovation in a business organization as it discusses creativity and innovation in the Oman Human Rights Comission and the different organizational and social blocks to creativity in the organization and how to plan for facing them. This is presented through reviewing the literature and finding suitable models and frameworks to be applied in the organization. The organization can apply these models and frameworks on its human resources by the help of effective leadership and management that can apply some basic interventions and training programs to make employees more successful in facing organizational and social blocks to creativity. The organization is recommended to find a model and a framework or more that can be convienient for its work environemnt and then try to implment them and make use of them to improve the current levels of innovation and creativity in addition to using them in facing the social and organizational blocks to creativity. It is also recommended to apply a plan for improving creativity and facing the blocks to it in the organization. 

Introduction

Any business organization needs to develop its human resources and make them able to communicate and exchange information in order to present new ideas and innovative creations that can improve the company's current levels of success, this can be done when the organization faces the different blocks to creativity and innovations. Axelsson and Sardari, (2011) Creativity and innovation are the two basic elements that can change any business organization success career and turn it to be more successful and profitable. Creativity and innovation can lead to great sudden changes that provide better opportunities for the organization and help it improve and develop its organizational environment through developing its human resources. Sternberg and Krauss, (2014). The current research is providing critical evaluation and discussion related to the organizational and social blocks to creativity in my organization the Oman Human Rights Commission and it tries to shed the light on the different models and frameworks that can be used to face the blocks to creativity in the organization through reviewing the literature and presenting a plan that can be effective and useful to be implmented by the organization.

Analysis

Many authors have discussed creativity and innovation and the blocks that can be found in a business organization and can hinder their work such as the organizational and social blocks to creativity such as Adams, (2005) who discussed the social blocks to creativity that are related to the society where the organization is established as he referred to the nature of different areas and how it can affect the organization's creative climate and may lead to passive and low understanding of creativity; in my organization this can be seen in many ways as they regard human rights for example in relation to people who are from the same religion and the same nationality more than rights of other different people and there are many efforts made for facing such social blocks that work against any creative and innovative ideas. Another social block to creativity in my organization is the low regard to women participation in different conferences and events especially if there is a need that the female employees travel abroad and attend meetings and conferences. Kadir, (2014) referred to the organizational blocks to creativity and innovation and focused on the organizational climate and how it can hinder the success of applying creative innovations and in my organization there are problems in the organization's creative climate as some employees don't realize or understand the meaning and requirements of creativity and they fear taking risks and this fear reflects on the work environment creating a climate that hinders creativity and innovation in the organization. Other organizational blocks include fears of leaders from the youth ideas and suggestions and they prefer suggestions of older people and this hinders new brave ideas that are creative and innovative. According to Mumford, (2011) another block is the difficulties management have in dealing with problems as the communication level in the work environment is in need for being improved and time is not suitable or managed well to provide such communication. There are other individual blocks to creativity that can be social or organizational such as the fear of some employees to take risky decisions or think of out of the box ideas and the fear of some leaders to listen to new ideas. This was well discussed in the views of Parjanen, (2012) who confirmed that the creativity and innovation management process can't be well managed without effective models and frameworks to be used and applied through, he mentioned the interventions model that depends on a number of certain interventions that are presented to employees and managers by specialists in creativity and innovation who can provide sessions of training relevant to creativity and innvoation concepts and implementation to employees of the organization, this should be done with cooperation of the company's management and leadership in order to manage time and let employees enjoy enough time for these interventions. Wilkins and Holtham, (2012) also discussed the models and frameworks that can be used to face the organizational and social blocks to creativity and they added that there should be focus on the individual and collective creativity in the business organization and this can help improve the creative climate in the organization and make employees able to take risky decisions that can lead to change and innovations. Amabile, (2012) provided a framework for improving organizational creativity and increasing the levels of innovation in it referring to phases programs that depend on preparing training courses and programs for employees as well as leaders in order to manage their time and let them able to take risky decisions that are well studied and evidence based, he mentioned a framework that depends on phases such as finding problems, finding fact, finding solutions for problems, problem solving and taking actions. The OHRC can use the model and the framework to solve the problems that face the organization when it tries to apply creative ideas and innovations such as the organizational and social blocks to creativity. The organization can also apply a comprehensive plan for applying the models and frameworks in order to improve the creativity and innovation in the organization. According to Henry, (2007) The plan should include an analysis for finding the main blocks to creativity and reasons for them, a model and a framework to be applied by the organization's human resources and effective time management program in addition to a system for evaluating the plan and ensuring its sustainability. The organization can work on finding some training programs, innovative ideas to be implmented by employees and challenging jobs that should be presented through the training courses to employees in order to make them face fear of risk taking and other organizational and social blocks to creativity. The plan can also include sending employees abroad for receiving additional training courses that encourage them be more creative and get rid of any social or organizational blocks to creativity. (Zhou, 2015).     

Conclusion

In conclusion, creativity and innovation are two important factors that can help the business organization succeed and open new markets and areas for success as this is mentioned in many evidence based researches and many business organizations have reached more success by applying innovative and creative ideas. As to the OHRC, itt can apply a model and a framework that are well used and evidence based in the literature in order to fight the different blocks to creativity. There are organizationaland social blocks to creativity such as the weakness of the creative climate in the organization and the social refuse of the employees to many creative ideas such as women participation in different events or applying the innovations of young employees or the fears of taking risky ideas. This can be faced by training the human resources of the organization and applying different models and frameworks that can be effective in improving the organization's creativity and innovation levels in it.  

Recommendations 

The OHRC is recommended to identify the reasons for the organizational and social blocks to creativity in order to prepare a plan and find effective solutions for these blocks. The organization should be able to do effective research in order to choose the most suitable frameworks and models that can ensure sustainability and effectiveness of creativity and innovation in the organization. There is a model for applying interventions that can be effective in training employees as well as leaders by a number of professional trainers who can help employees be dare and take risky decisions in addition to managing their time and raise the level of creative climate and communication in the organization. It is recommended that the organization apply a plan for its human resources in order to follow main phases and manage employees' time effectively in order to be able to ensure sustaiblity of the plan. The plan should be evaluated and improved.  

The business factors that underpin human resource planning in terms of recruitment, retention, training and development in Business organizations

Answer the following questions given below relating to your chosen organisation in the Task 1.

1. Analyse the business factors that underpin human resource planning in terms of recruitment, retention, training and development in your chosen organisation.

Assess the human resource requirements in a given situation (recession or expansion or diversification or divestment or downsizing or layoff or retrenchment, or any other situation) in the chosen organization. (AC: 2.1Analyse the business factors that underpin human resource planning in an organization and AC: 2.2 Assess the human resource requirements in a given situation). 

In Oman Arab Bank, there are a number of factors affecting human resource planning and lead to its success in relation to recruitment such as the needs of the organization for new employees, competition in the banking market and financial services organizations in Oman, the availability of some specific qualifications out of the bank and the lack of the same qualifications in the bank; other factors can be as the budget of the bank and if it can cover recruiting new employees or not and to what extent; another factor is the bank's levels of skills and experiences and the number of retiring employees currently or soon as this can identify the number of new recruited employees and the level of skills required in the bank. Productivity is another factor that can underpin recruitment in the bank. Retention of employees of OAB is underpinned by some factors including the strategic changes that are occurring in the bank and its capabilities in managing human resources as talents should be well recognized and motivated well as motivation is a main factor that supports employees' retention as the bank depends on a very strong motivation program that tends to retain employees and reduce their turnover rates, another factor is rewarding systems as the bank has a rewarding system that supports employees with regard to their work levels and rewarding systems include monetary and non monetary rewards, there is also an important factor which is employees' level of job satisfaction and also communication that can help employees express their needs and complaints which helps them to be more effective in the bank and feel as they are part of the bank as a whole and not only employees. Factors underpinning training of employees include the size of skills and experiences existed in the bank and the needed skills and experiences as this can support the management of the bank to identify which parts of skills are needed to be focused on in training programs in addition to recognizing the employees who are in need of training and what levels of training are needed to be delivered to employees, another factor is if the trainers can be found inside the bank or outside it as this can tell if the employees will be trained in the bank or outside it and who will train them, the budget is an important factor that underpin training as a part of human resource planning as the budget can tell how far the bank can provide employees with training, time is another factor as employees are in need for time to receive training in. Development in OAB is affected by some factors such as the goals and objectives of the bank, future needs and current needs of the financial market of Oman and new banking services can tell how the bank can develop its current services and human resources to cope with such new services and modern requirements of the market. The bank has to discuss all these factors as according to Sikorova, (2015) human resource planning should be based upon realizing the current and future potentials of the business organization and there should be enough knowledge for factors affecting it.

In Oman Arab Bank, there are many situations that the bank discussed and coped with their needed requirements related to its human resources such as when the bank tended to have expansion plans he Latest Version of Misys Equation in 2008 as the bank was among the first Arab countries to have such retail system and this required the bank to make a workforce plan for training employees on such global retailing software and the workforce plan included identifying for the bank's human resources to identify those who will need to be trained on the system and the right number of employees needed for training and where they will receive training on the latest version of the Misys technology and in what time. The bank also included recruiting new employees who are experienced and skilled in dealing with the new expansion to ensure providing its customers with the best services. The bank also considered external factors such as labor market supply as the bank made an analysis for retirement, education, changes in technologies and employment in the Omani market in order to suit these factors with the new change in the bank and then it adopted some human resources approaches to align its strategic human resource planning with the market needs and changes. (prnewswire, 2008).      

2. Based on the objectives of the chosen organisation, develop a human resource plan for recruitment, retention, training and development in your chosen organisation.

Critically evaluate the HR Plan, to identify its contribution towards meeting the chosen organisational objectives. (AC: 2.3Develop a human resources plan for an organization and AC: 2.4Critically evaluate how a human resources plan can contribute to meeting an organisation’s objectives).

AC: 2.3 Develop a human resources plan for an organization.

According to Rndhawa, (2007) human resource planning can be defined as a process for defining the requirements of human resources of a specific organization and setting plans for managing them and satisfying them. In Oman Arab Bank, a human resource plan can be set for recruitment, retention, training and development under the regarding of its objectives and goals in order to provide the bank with a better opportunity for managing its human resources. Oman Arab Bank HR plan can include the following processes: 

Organizational Strategic plans

Oman Arab Bank can use such strategic plans for redefining its corporate objectives and analyzing the bank's current situation in order to set future plans based on future needs and ambitions of the bank in relation to its financial services and human resources aspirations. The bank can set the challenges that can be faced when trying to redefine objectives and set future plans and then to propose solutions to face such challenges. The bank should study its human resources well in relation to their potentials, skills and cultural backgrounds in order to manage differences in concepts and face any challenges that may block future changes. 

Resource Strategy

This strategy is based on achieving the needed levels of competitive advantage through developing the bank's intellectual capital and the bank can analyze its needs of employees and talents and then employ new employees who are more capable of invading the market with their creative ideas and suggestions in banking field and financial transactions as they have to be more educated on using the latest versions of banking technologies and financial services used globally and locally and they have to maintain specific skills and a set number of years of experiences in certain skills and abilities.  

Scenario Planning

This scenario planning can set the bank's requirements related to its human resources and then to assess them in order to try to meet these requirements by different solutions and implications as the bank can make changes in the organizational culture by developing more helpful and effective customer service culture that can add more accuracy and validity for the current customer service and can make amendments in the online services provided by the bank to its customers in addition to make improvements in transactions system to become easier and more flexible to be dealt with by customers instead of using other services such as Western Union and other foreign services for money transfer as the bank can also make deals with such types of money transfer companies in order to be working through its own branches in a way that facilitates the money transfer process on clients. 

Forecasting of Demand and Supply

The bank can here expect what future potential its human resources may have and need and how to satisfy these needs of human resources in the near future and on the long term as the bank can estimate these future needs of human resources and aligning them with the number of employees who may be in need for training and the number of employees who can be assigned or hired from outside the bank and then to set a strategy for training those people either inside or outside the organization. Costs should be evaluated and set for such training or hiring processes in order to make a balance in the bank's budget.

Labor Turnover Analysis

This analysis can be a method for ensuring having the best human resource strategic practices by regarding employees in all their needs and complaints as this can give the reasons for any turnover of employees and then the bank can set a plan for retaining employees by motivating them and ensuring their job satisfaction and meeting their needs and requirements as the bank should ensure the employees are working in a comfortable work environment that is characterized with being cooperative and communicative as this helps maintaining employees as basic assets of the organization and at the same time this can raise their morale which is a factor for retaining employees in the bank and keeping the intellectual talents for competing the market using them.

Work environment Analysis

This analysis can study the bank's work environment referring to its advantages and disadvantages in order to recognize how far it can be helpful for the bank's human resources and how far it can lead to successful employees who are beneficial for the bank and who can raise its competitive advantage. This should include measuring levels of training, communication and cooperation in the work environment and how far managers can meet the needs of employees and fill the gaps that may appear from time to time.

AC: 2.4Critically evaluate how a human resources plan can contribute to meeting an organization's objectives

The plan can be evaluated in reference to the following:

Objectives of the bank

The plan is effective in identifying the required human resources needed for meeting these objectives and how to achieve the bank's goals on all levels as the plan can tell how many employees are needed to be recruited from outside the bank, hired or assigned and how many employees can be trained and what levels of training and what type they are in need of. It can also determine the requirements of human resources in relation to their needs in the work environment and their ambitions related to the business field and the current and future position of the bank, the plan can also give an idea about the different processes needed for achieving the bank's goals and objectives such as training budget and the amount of required workforce to achieve competitive advantage that leads to success and profitability of the bank. The plan can present an idea of the different business approaches that the bank can use but it needs to be more specific regarding this issue and to suggest new approaches for managing human resources strategically. There can be some steps in developing the HR strategy of the bank that can be added to the HR plan which are the following ones:

1. Setting the bank's strategic direction
2. Designing the bank's Human Resource Management System
3. Planning for the bank's total workforce
4. Generating the needed human resources of the bank
5. Investing in the bank's human resource development and their performance
6. Assessing the organizational competence of the bank and maintaining sustainable performance and competence

This can simply suggest some issues that can be dealt with specifically by the bank's strategic management and can provide a chance for success in other HR plans as it identifies the basic elements to be dealt with by the bank in order to achieve competitiveness in the financial services and banking services field. Motivation should be more stressed in the plan as there should be more motivation plans that ensure more employees' satisfaction and can raise their morale effectively. The plan is effective in its analysis of human resource needs and requirements as it provides a good strong overview of what the bank can do to understand the needs of employees and then how to plan to make them aligned with the bank's objectives and goals. Yet there should be more clear idea about employees' goals and objectives themselves and ways to meet such goals by integrating these personal and professional employees' goals and objectives within the bank's general goals and objectives.

3. Explain the purpose of having human resource management policies in your chosen organisation (you can concentrate on recruitment policy, selection policy, retention policy, training and development policy, leave policy, career growth and promotion policy, compensation and benefits policy).  (A.C 3.1 Explain the purpose of human resource management policies in organizations).

Deb, (2006) discussed the purpose of human resource management policies in business organizations as he referred to their role in decision making and supporting the performance management, administrative personnel functions, employee relations and resources and how far the organization can make use of these policies in making the right decisions related to its human resources and how to control and monitor their performance as the bank's business strategies can focus on these policies to achieve its goals and objectives. OAB should choose a suitable human resources management approach in order to be suitable with its nature and requirements and it can focus on specific areas related to recruitment and selection policies as they are very important to grab the most effective talents for the bank in financial services, customer services and other different banking services, recruitment and selection are effective in bringing the best employees to the bank and ensuring its competitive advantage levels in the Omani market. The bank can also focus on employees' promotion through team work activities, encouraging employees to be more creative and innovative and improve their performance via different training activities and practices in addition to change management processes that can bring in the best results in managing changes the bank is in need for. There are other policies such as employees' retention policy as the bank can present new motivation programs that can help in employees' retention and at the same time the bank can improve the employees' relations with each other and with their managers as this helps in retaining them and reducing any possible conflicts or problems that may occur between them. Compensation and benefits policy can be effective in making the bank make for any loss in its human resources and this by analyzing its current human resources capabilities and then to measure its needs for more employees to benefit the bank; this can also be regarded from the bank's point of view as the bank can compensate employees for extra work hours and provide them with educational grants and scholarships or monetary and promotion rewards in order to raise their benefits levels from being a member of the bank's human resources.

4. Choose a minimum of three or more major regulatory requirements which are influencing your chosen organisation’s HR policies, and analyse the impact of these regulatory requirements on your organisation’s human resource policies. (A.C 3.2 Analyse the impact of regulatory requirements on human resource policies in an organization).

According to Erasmus, (2005)all business organizations are in need for regulatory policies and OAB needs such policies as they affect the organization's human resource policies too much as the bank has many regulatory requirements that affect its human resources policies such as the following ones which are :

Oman Labor Law 2003:  as it deals with all the main aspects of the Oman employment laws and it is based on the different Omani Decrees related to its work force. It aims at raising protection for all native and foreigners workers in Oman and making the load for Oman businesses easy to abide.

Royal Decree Number 35/2003: It is related with all employees' rights, work hours, women employment, different labor laws in Oman and how to follow them and wages and salaries for both native and foreigners employees.

International Labor Law: as this gives employees the right to have different employees' rights such as safety, security, humanity, monetary rights and other different rights.

Oman Arab Bank gives much interest to such laws and regulations as the bank is keen on ensuring all employees' rights and respects them and providing them with the different needs they should have. The bank finds great impacts of applying these laws on its human resources policies as when the bank ensures the rights of employees, they feel satisfied and find safety and security in the bank which raises their morale and job satisfaction and at the same time they become more feeling belonging to the bank. The bank also finds it easy to retain employees with the existence of such regulatory as they feel safe when working with a bank that respects human rights, labor laws and ensures their safety and respect them. The bank is doing restructuring plans that aim at updating the different human resource practices to suit the new updates of laws and decrees as this helps in raising employee's satisfaction and retention levels. The bank is also keen on recognizing all employees with their contracts and labor rights and also informing them with any updates in Oman or international labor laws in order to make them aware with their rights legally and at the same time to recognize them with their duties and limitations set by laws.

5. Organisational culture has a major impact on management of human resources in an organisation.

Choose a minimum of three or more major cultural factors which are prevalent in your chosen organisation and analyse their impact on the management of human resources in any of the three following functional areas: - Team Work, Employee Engagement, Adaptability, Responsibility/Accountability, Decision Making, Productivity, Transparency). (A.C. 4.2 Analyse the impact of an organizational culture on the management of human resources).

In Oman Arab Bank, there are many different cultural factors that leave impact on the bank's human resources management in the different functional areas. The bank has three main cultural factors which are language, gender and race as the bank includes high diversity of employees from different countries of the world as there are Arab employees from countries such as any of the Gulf countries as KSA, Kuwait, Qatar, the UAE and from Oman in addition to employees from Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq and all speak Arabic but there are other employees from India, Britain and the USA whose languages are different from Arabic and this makes a problem in language when dealing with human resources of the bank but the bank tries to solve the problem by focusing on the English language and making it a priority in all employees who are recruited in the bank as it is the formal used language with all human resources in meeting, general conferences and discussions as employees who don't speak Arabic complain they don't understand it when it is used by any HR professional so the bank decided not to use it and this helps in simplifying team works and employees engagement in meetings and discussion. Another cultural factor is gender as the bank has a number of women employed in the bank in different positions but the bank tries to set equal rules that are applied equally on both men and women as there are no special rules for women and this raises the effectiveness of employees responsibility and engagement. The third factor is race as many of employees belong to special tribes in Arab countries in addition to the foreigner employees coming from different races rather than Arabic race so this may affect the way managers deal with employees especially HR managers and this leads to setting a general strategy for addressing all employees that is based on respecting all races and religions of all employees without discussing them at all and to let HR professionals and managers have good ideas about the cultural backgrounds of each race of employees in the organization.  

6. How would you like to improve the effectiveness of human resources management in your chosen organisation? Make few recommendations with justification.   (A.C. 4.4 Make justified recommendations to improve the effectiveness of human resources management in an organization)

Banks as any other business organizations need to have its human resources management effective but banks need to focus on its human resource development strictly due to the developments and modern technological changes occurring in the banking field and financial services sector greatly; Sreenivas, (2006) confirmed on this in his book as he stated that human resources development should be fast and accurate in banks and other financial organizations as in banks, developing human resources depend on the great changes and developments occurring in the field of banking and financial services internationally such as the new transaction services, money transfer and other different services that need employees and human resources who are able to update their skills and experiences highly than others. In Oman Arab Bank, the bank is recommended to provide regular training courses for its employees in aligning with the international changes and developments in the field of banking services and financial organizations. The bank is also recommended to make tests and supervision systems on its employees regularly by special consultants to make sure they are coping with the required levels of changes. The bank should also ensure that its employees are well educated and having the needed certificates and making the effective researches that can add innovative and creative ideas to the bank. Research is important to be applied inside the bank and employees can do extra researches in different universities and educational centers relevant to banking filed. This can provide the bank with the opportunity to compete other financial institutions in Oman and at the same time can make the bank compete in other countries than Oman and the bank may open new services for money transfer, loans and other banking services which will raise profits and success level of the bank locally and internationally.

Assessment Task 3:

1. Analyse organisational structure impact on management of human resources in Syngenta. (A.C 4.1 Analyse the impact of an organizational structure on the management of human resources)

Syngenta  has adopted an innovative way of not choosing a conventional hierarchical structure but the company tried to focus on authorizing its employees for using their power in certain specified limits in order to be able to control their work. The company adopted a culture of innovation in order to be aligned with customers' needs and the changes that should be done to meet them. It stressed on adapting a matrix structure that can be the best method for getting the maximum potentials from the human resources as people from different fields stay together to do a specific tasks and then good efforts results in the best needed outcomes. The company focused on employees' skills and potentials and tried to strengthen them by specializing them in their own specific field and at the same time educating them to handle different situations and time managing in addition to skills related to leadership and tasks motivation. The company adopted a team concept than a concept of groups because focusing on teams concept can make the company get maximum performance of its employees as each member can use its own capabilities and compete with others using his own skills and experiences and these cooperated efforts are able to provide better results and outcomes than other ways of groups can provide. Yet there are disadvantages such as focusing on product divisions for long term growth as the company has to focus on market division as well, another thing is its technique in modifying its cooperative form of its structure which is multidivisional with accordance to its strategy and also the impact left on the divisions individual performance. 

2. Examine how the effectiveness of human resources management can be monitored in a company like Syngenta. (A.C. 4.3 Examine how the effectiveness of human resources management is monitored in an organization).

The effectiveness of human resource management can be monitored in an organization by many different methods such as measuring success of outcomes and results as in an organization such as Syngenta, this can be done by analyzing the results after applying innovation techniques and by measuring the work of purpose project teams and if the trams are presenting more effective results than groups or not. This can also be monitored before results are provided as through the process of applying innovation, there could be a committee for monitoring the work of human resource management and the committee has to do certain jobs and tasks such as reporting the work of the managers and comparing it with results and the degree of their effectiveness and then to compare results to past results before innovation was applied. Another method for monitoring the work of human resource management is to apply a team for monitoring and supervision that consists of consultants from outside the organization as they can be very neutral in their judgment and decision making processes and there can be consultants and advisors who can guide employees and managers during applying the new innovation techniques as this ensures better results as when monitoring is aligned with advice, better results can occur. This can ensure the best results for mentoring and can at the same time add skills and experiences for employees who are applying change and innovation within the organization to ensure better results and success.

The contribution of strategic human resource management to the achievement of an organization’s objectives.

AC: 1.3 Evaluate the contribution of strategic human resource management to the achievement of an organization’s objectives.

SHRM contribution to achieving the objectives of Oman Arab Bank can be evaluated according to the amount and level of success and achievement of the organizational objectives as SHRM are used for reducing turnover rates of the bank's employees as SHRM activities such as training and rewarding systems are widely used in the bank to retain employees which is a main objective of the bank and the bank finds it useful to apply SHRM practices to reduce turnover rates and raise retention levels, the bank also depends on SHRM in achieve its objectives related to mangers empowerment as managers are given the opportunities to have better career through SHRM training sessions that tend to turn HR managers and professionals to be strategic managers or partners which in turn helps the bank achieve long run strategic goals. SHRM needs to provide more contribution to achieve the organizational development objectives including developing their technology levels in providing services for their customers and improving their ATM machines and other online services as this can occur by encouraging the bank's HR professionals to get more innovative and creative ideas from all employees. SHRM is used by the bank for achieving customer satisfaction and adding new services to the current banking services by encouraging employees to work in a comfort work environment where good relationships can occur between employees and managers or employees and each other which helps clients receive the best information and services of the bank as satisfied employees can lead to satisfied clients. SHRM can be helpful for the bank's objectives as it helps managers realize how to meet employees needs by understanding them and making strategic plans for them currently and for future as this can help achieve the bank's objectives related to employees' satisfaction and helping them to have good levels of communication. SHRM considers human resources as among the company's capabilities and works hard to get the utmost benefit from them which helps invest in human resources that is among the bank's objectives and SHRM also helps in raising the engagement of employees and empowering them through strategic planning that helps realize the real potentials of all and each employee which tells that SHRM is greatly sharing in achieving the objectives of Oman Arab Bank but there should be more contribution for SHRM in achieving the bank's objectives and raising its effectiveness as SHRM can play many other roles in encouraging HR of the bank and HR professionals to be strategic partners who can work hard to achieve such objectives. 

The purpose of strategic human resource management activities in an organization.

2. Based on the Article given above, it states explicitly that “There is widespread acknowledgement that finding the right framework to recruit, retain and manage human capital resources remains one of the toughest challenges to growth and continuity for organisations and governments in the GCC”.

3. Choose an organization of your choice, preferably the organization where you are working (or) worked (or) familiar with in the GCC region.  Understand the chosen organization’s objectives and understand the working procedures of the organizations related to the HR management.  Give out clearly the chosen organisation’s goals and objectives.
4. State the SHRM activities pertaining to recruitment, retention and management of important human capital resources in the chosen organisation and assess the purpose of such SHRM activities in the organisation.

(c) Finally, evaluate the contribution of SHRM of the organisation, towards      achieving and meeting the chosen organisational objectives and goals.

      (AC 1.2: Assess the purpose of strategic human resource management activities in an organization) and (AC: 1.3 Evaluate the contribution of strategic human resource management to the achievement of an organization’s objectives).

   

AC 1.2: Assess the purpose of strategic human resource management activities in an organization.

Oman Arab Bank is an Omani financial organization that has a set of goals and objectives that can be based on its activity in Oman or in the Gulf area. Oman Arab Bank has main goals including the following ones:

1. Delivering a healthy successful increase in the revenues in addition to reach good growth levels with the same quality in services and assets.
2. Investing in human capitals as well as in infrastructure as it is believed that individuals are the main assets that form the bank's identity of trust and accuracy.
3. Sustaining the market position and reaching new heights via focusing on recognizing and developing the bank's talents.
4. Facing the differences in the economic climate in Oman and the whole area.
5. Sharing in Oman's important projects in both public and private sectors.
6. Outperforming the competitors in the market of SME financing and other technologies related to the banking services as a part of a transformation plan in the bank.
7. Enhancing the customers' services and adding channels for physical and digital service delivery by the use of new modern banking technologies such as the bank's new digital banking platforms.
8. Having a big role in corporate social responsibility field in Oman by sharing in different CSR activities and charity participation programs and social events.
9. Sharing in the prosperity of Oman and helping in raising the economy of the company.
10. Helping young people in Oman through the different projects and systems of the bank.

There are also a set of objectives of the bank as they can include the following:

1. Helping employees who need to have better career by giving them training and rewarding systems that can retain them and reduce their turnover rates.
2. Giving managers the chance to be strategic managers especially those HR managers as this can help in achieving the bank's strategic goals on the long run.
3. Having the best ATM machines and online banking services in Oman.
4. Achieving a good level of customer satisfaction by ensuring the best services and the best client employees' relationships that provide all comfort and information for clients of the bank.
5. Increasing the different services provided for clients according to what they really need.
6. Having a good level of employees' satisfaction through ensuring a good level of communication in the organization and understanding the needs of employees.
7. Making good use of the organization's capabilities and investing in its human resources by different ways.
8. Raising the levels of employees' engagement and empowerment in the bank.

Oman Arab Bank is implementing different SHRM activities relevant to recruitment, retention and managing important human capital resources as the bank HR management is applying multilevel strategic recruiting which is according to Walsh, Sturman and Longstreet, (2010) recruiting the most useful talents to the organization and this can be based upon the needs of the organization, the type of business and the organizational goals required to be achieved in addition to the requirements of the job itself. OAB depends on adapting new practices in selecting the employees who can be best useful to the organization such as online recruiting that gives a wide variety of opportunities for many talents and at the same time, the bank has modern HRIS that can be used in selecting the most useful talents based on analyzing their profiles and matching them with the needs of the bank based on a very secured level of database usage and the bank has strategic human resource professionals who realize how to select the most effective talents who can achieve competitive advantage to the bank and who are creative enough to add profits to the bank. OAB has decision makers who believes in investing in the bank's human resources and that they have to be a part of the bank and a main asset for getting profits as they depend on strategies for maintaining sustainability of employees' retention by applying a special retention program based on employees' recognition and reward system that tends to empower employees and provide them with good leadership opportunities that can change their career based on their work in addition to ensuring a communicative work environment for all employees fairly and equally to understand their needs and problems. OAB depends on SHRM as a tool for raising its profitability and gaining the most benefits from the bank's human resources by following a set of practices related to SHRM for managing its human resources such as applying structured techniques for facing the challenges that may employees face in maintaining creative and innovative ideas and suggestions that can help the bank in addition to different empowerment and engagement activities that encourage employees to present their best for the welfare of the bank and the bank is also following a transformational plan that tends to apply transformations and changes on all three levels of the organization which are the individual level, the team level and the organizational culture level. The purpose of SHRM in Oman Arab Bank is effective enough to bring in success to the bank in many areas such as employees' retention as the bank depends on SHRM activities and practices in retaining the best employees and reduce turnover rates and the bank depends on a very strong group of employees who are considered as an asset for the bank. The bank also tries to differentiate in SHRM practices by making research to realize the best of them and train employees and managers to apply them. SHRM activities' purpose in the bank are in need for being clearer than its current status as all employees should realize how SHRM can add success to the bank and what it is really doing to provide them with the best and most effective work environment and this can be done through meeting, training sessions and discussions with employees.    

The Role of SHRM in Busienss Organizations

1. Explain the importance of SHRM in any organisation by justifying with an example. (AC: 1.1 Explain the importance of strategic human resource management in organizations).

According to Armstrong, (2008), SHRM has great importance to any business organization as it adds a strategic role for human resource management in the organization in addition to providing the management with different strategies and practices that can be used aligned with the usual practices of human resources. SHRM turns the role of HR professionals to be strategic partners who are able to ensure the business strategies success through raising the business capacity for executing the different strategies required by it. When the business strategies are translated into HR practices, the business then is helped in three ways which are having the ability to adapt desirable change as a result of having less time to achieve such change, the second is meeting the demands of customers due to having better customer services strategies that are based on certain practices and policies and the third is achieving the financial performance by the business by the best execution of strategies. SHRM importance in the business organization can be based on its effect in reducing costs as strategic managers tend to apply different practices that can help in reducing costs such as job rotation, downsizing practices and compensation practices that are able to reduce costs. SHRM can also turn hiring to be more competing by ensuring multinational hiring that can increase the business's global revenues. SHRM is able to help the organization execute its business strategies more effectively than the usual HR practices as when HR professionals are strategic partners; they can master skills of organizational diagnosis and then to make the HR practices aligned with the general business strategies. Dhar, (2008) added that SHRM has different roles in the business organization as it enables HR professionals to do the roles of strategic partners and share in the defining business strategy processes by providing questions that can push the business strategy to real actions and by designing the HR practices with great consideration to the business strategies and make the business strategies as priorities on all agendas; he also added that SHRM can help in achieving the business goals by the help of strategic HR managers who have the skills and talents needed for this task and who can work together with other managers to team up to achieve these goals. Sani, (2012) added that SHRM can be helpful in making the organization more able to apply change that is effective and useful as HR professionals can be responsible for culture change when they are strategic partners as he explained that this can make the organization not in need for external change consultants and that HR professionals can do their roles by training them on applying the needed approaches for change management especially they are more aware with employees' needs and ambitions than any other external consultants, SHRM can also focus on long term planning that tends to achieve the organizational goals by integrating managerial decisions to suit the business environment and the type of change required to improve performance. Becker and Huselid, (2006) discussed how SHRM can have a positive role in manpower planning as it provides high effective management for the company's human resources to reach competitive advantage as SHRM can encourage using different frameworks for stressing the strategic role of HR function and for using the different skills and talents of people to achieve the organizational strategic goals.