Human Capital Management: An Issue On Motivation Essays Examples

Abstract

In the corporate world, organizations need an effective human capital management. The human capital is significant in the increasing trend in the global market. Countries like Malaysia and Singapore are very competent in their performances with high productivity in the products and services they offer. The human capital development and proper motivation are necessary strategies to solve issues in the organizations. The common issue in the organization is about motivation. Different theories of employee motivation are discussed and explained properly to provide credible information. Effective leaders have provided strategies to solve and develop the motivational issues in the organization. The human capital has the direct influence on the performance of the employees and the entire organizations. The organizations viewed the performance of the employees and the leaders through innovations and practices. In conclusion, critical analysis is made to evaluate the factors utilized in the explanation and solution of the issues of human capital and motivation. It is highly recommended that organizations should evaluate every aspect of the motivational strategies to create a healthy workplace and consider the relationship between the human capital, performance, and motivation factors.

Introduction

A motivational leader is very passionate about developing people in the organization. The motivational leaders are effective leaders who can develop employees and other corporate leaders with management skills or potentials to lead the corporate world. Currently, in the global market, every company has competitors regardless of the industry. In the development of competitive advantages, it is necessary that the organization have the true influence on the workplace with strong competitive strategies. Many organizations search for optimization in the workforce through an all-inclusive human capital development approaches. The development of the human capital can achieve the business objectives and the long-term survival sustainability. The organizations invest efficient resources to guarantee that the employees can obtain the competitive knowledge, competencies, and skills they need in the workplace with rapid changes and environmental complexity. To address to the competitive changing corporate world, most organizations embrace the concept of human capital. The leaders in the organizations visualize the competitive advantages that will enhance the performances of the members of the business positively. However, the organizations need to understand thoroughly the trend of human capital development. In addition, despite the positive effects on the organizations’ performance, the concept of human capital has remained experimental. In fact, the human capital management or HCM becomes the overall effort of every leader to achieve the cost-effective performance of the entire organization. The approach of the HCM perceives people or employees as assets. The employees are assets or human capitals and their current value in the organization are measured critically, and their future value can be enhanced by proper investments. “The organization that strongly supports human capital management upholds and offers employees with well-defined strategies, and leaders communicated consistently on the performance expectations. Leaders are officially responsible for the motivation, evaluation, and remuneration of the employees’ accountability for the achievement of the specific objectives, innovation, and continuous improvement of the organization.”

Importance of Human Capital Management

The human capital management plays a vital role in every organization in the corporate world. One of the ways to enhance the innovation of the organization is through effective human capital management with quality practices and effective knowledge or skills in management. The technology, information, and communication are rapidly developing in the market; most organizations seek actively for new ideas, creative remedies, and experimentations in improving their current technology systems and processes.

What is Motivation?

Evidently, the organizational performance is always linked to the human capital management. The human capital in the organization emphasizes the view on the market value that is dependent on the resources availability, the human resources in particular. In Latin, the word motivation means movere that means ‘to move’ . Motivations moves people from any boredom to interest; maneuvers the activity people do. It represents psychological processes causing direction and persistence of the goal-oriented activities. A force or energy that tends to achieve the goals; a person has focus and commitment. The leaders have the function to influence others to work efficiently, and motivation is a significant aspect of having a healthy working environment. There is a continuous learning in an effective way addressing the forces that influence at work. The real purpose of every management in the organization is to motivate the entire forces to achieve the objectives. A good motivation is necessary to recruit and to retain the best employees. The organizations have the advantage in terms of skills and capabilities of the employees through motivational strategies. These motivational strategies lead to learning and creating supportive working environment wherein the knowledge and skills are created, applied, and shared generously.

Theories of Employee Motivation

The three theories of motivation are needs, cognitive, and reinforcement theory. Among the theories, the needs theory is the most popular because it has great satisfactions from the employees. Needs theory consists of existence, relatedness, and growth. The existence needs consists of the physiological factors; shelter, food, good pay, clothes, good working conditions, and benefits. The relatedness needs deal with relationships such as families, friends, and colleagues. The growth theory is associated with self-actualization and self-esteem. The cognitive theory is also known as an expectancy theory that is originally proposed by Victor H. Vroom. Vroom argues that the strength of the performance depends on the strength of an expectation performed followed by the given outcomes. The individuals are concerned with the amount of rewards they received from their efforts and the efforts are based on the inputs such as education, experience, and competence. Last, the reinforcement theory, originally proposed by B.F. Skinner. The theory is similar to the cognitive theory in which the theory does not relate with the human thought processes. The behavior of the individuals is explained by the results in the working environment. Thus, it is unnecessary to seek for the explanation in the cognitive view. All the theories provide the fundamental significance of the employees and the organization and its developmental practices required.

Issues of Motivation

Leaders cannot measure the work motivation directly since work motivation is an internal, invisible, and theoretical construct.The main objective of the motivational strategies is to enhance realistic networking market that provides accurate descriptions of factors that lead to the employees’ capabilities to develop their knowledge and skills. The employee motivation is a critical issue in every organization; it is a primary factor in the success of the business. The understanding of the different underlying motives of the employees’ motivation affects the entire organization. In the context of globalization, the issues of employee motivation become critical to the scholars and practitioners in the corporate world with radical changes that usually occur in the nature of the workplace.
Mainly, motivational issues in the workplace originate in the management and the ground level employees. Motivational issues affect every person in the organization, ranging from inadequate tools to achieve the objectives of the simple lack of employer acknowledgments of workers’ achievements. It requires careful attention to determine the issues affecting the working environment and to identify the root cause of the issues in changing the motivational climate at the workplace. Commonly, the motivational issues in the organization are (1) indistinct expectations or requirements, (2) inadequate materials or tools, (3) personal business investments, and (4) lack of employee pay or reward .

Indistinct Expectations or Requirements

It is necessary to set clear expectations for the employees in order to have a consistent feedback to create a good working environment. The failure to set clear expectation can lead to the motivational issue. This results in feeling of lost and unable to work efficiently from the part of the employees. Employers are role models and should provide appropriate performance. In addition, employers should correct the mistakes through the application of job assessment consistently. If there is a lack of feedback and the performance expectation, then it only shows that the leader or manager does not care about the performance of his or her employees. Consequently, motivational issues aggravate and slow workforce productions occur.

Inadequate Materials or Tools

Inadequate materials or tools needed to complete any assignments can absolutely cause motivational issues in the workplace among the workforce. Most employees feel that they are undervalued; the management does not provide the needed assets to achieving high productivity. Surely, if the organization lacks the infrastructure or necessary materials or tools, then it worsens the damage of the employee motivation. The sufficient materials or tools provided by the management show that they understand the nature of the assigned tasks and the management is implementing the standards.

Personal Business Investments

When the leaders of the organization show genuine interest in his or her opinions about the business, the employees feel more motivated and achieve higher productivity. Genuine interest increases the mental ownership of the employees and motivates everyone to grow professionally with better job performances. If the leader or manager does not value the opinions of his or her employees can create misunderstanding and it becomes the culture in the workplace; employees have a lack of mental stake in the success of the company. As a result, the employees only work hard to collect paychecks and avoid the disciplinary reviews.

Lack of Employee Pay or Reward

Most employees are interested to see the performance that exceeds the organizational standards rewarded, accordingly. When there is a lack of reward system in the organization such as incentives, bonus, or monthly special recognition, motivational issues arise in the workplace. Employees feel that the leaders or managers take high productivity only for granted. In addition, employees believe that the pay scale is below the industry average required or not in line with the performance level, they expect. A lack of competitive pay can discourage the employees to work high productivity and can diminish motivation.

Aon Company and HCS Vision and Mission

Aon Malaysia
In 1967, the Company was established in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. At present, more than one hundred qualified professionals are based in Malaysia, particularly in Kuala Lumpur and Penang. In Malaysia, the Company is one of the top ranking providers in risk management, reinsurance brokerages, insurance, and human capital consultation.
The Aon Malaysia shares a global mindset to all the industries worldwide. The success of the company depends on the shared information across the borders. They encourage creativity and independent thinking in the organizational environment. The Company welcomes diversity and they value continuous learning through appropriate formal programs necessary in accordance with the primary needs of the organizations. The Company offers products and services that empower every career and exposes every individual to new cultures and practices by specialty, solution, and industry. Everyone from different industries is welcome to experience the services they offer from those who started to embark on their careers to who are seasoned professionals.

Human Capital Singapore or HCS

Human Capital Singapore or HCS is an organization entrusted by many industries to reproduce Community of Practices or Cop to all industries in Singapore. In Singapore, the Company is one of the leading providers of management development services, guides people in achieving career goals, and advises other businesses about organizational management.
The Company offers HR training, personal career guidance, and corporate consulting. People who trained at HCS can perform critical HR processes and deploy practices to their work and the needs of the organization. HCS helps people to achieve their maximum capability or potential and prepares them for career development and readiness to ensure success. The Company provides cost-effective and practical solutions for growth and development in the organization. Most importantly, HCS prioritize people first and help them champion in human capital productivity in the business.

Practices and Organizational Innovation in Malaysia

The human resource is one of the important capitals in the operation of the organization. Malaysia is one of the post-industrial countries in the society that experienced fierce competitions within the area of its rivalries. In the Malaysian organizations, the corporate leaders realize that human capital management is effective in the stability and harmony of the organization. In addition, the diversity of the modern composition workplace in the country requires imaginative and appropriate human capital solutions for the issues of motivation. As noted by scholars that, managing people is more critical than managing technological capital. Principally, in Malaysia, the country is a multiracial country; the failure of the management of human capital with no harmony surely creates serious issues to the entire organization.
In the survival in the corporate world, Malaysia has launched its modern economy model that aims at the transformation of the companies from the products and services based on knowledge and skills. They aligned the thorough understanding of the fundamental strategies that influence the ability of the organization to innovate new products, services, practices, ideas, and system. The strategic key is to continue to exist in the dynamic market all over the world. For example, Aon Malaysia has acknowledged the effective human management resources extensively. The management believed that it is significant to consider the positive performance and behaviors of the employees that lead to organizational innovation successively. Honoring the employees in the workplace continues to make good business sense in the organization. A good human capital management can generate increased motivation and commitment of the employees.

Communities of Practices in Singapore

The issues confronting personal development and human resource can be discovered in the early period of one’s career. Good practices are necessary to find out how to solve the issues. For example, the HCS highly believed that the community of practice is a very good way for a wise person to use and to promote his or her wisdom. The communities of practice provide conducive and contemporary environment for the HR professional and leaders across all organizations to engage in good human capital management. The good human capital management practices can acquire new competencies and collaborative learning to solve issues in the workplace.
The concept of social learning that happens in the workplace is a common interest among the employees and the leaders. Everyone shares the ideas discussing the perspectives and building innovations. In May 2011 report by the global human resources nonprofit World at Work entitled “Trends in Employee Recognition,” there are 600 members confirmed based on questionnaires that the employee recognition is very important. The employee recognition consists of (1) the top five types (above-and-beyond performance, length of service, sales, and peer-to-peer), (2) the top five awards (gift certificates, certificates, and plaques, company logo merchandise, cash, and food), and (3) the top five goals encourage high performance, salute years of service, foster a culture recognition, raise morale, and create a positive work environment. Consequently, the respondents noticed gains in 71 percent employee satisfaction, 66 percent of motivation, and 64 percent of engagement to work.

Human Capital and Complementary Capitals

The intellectual, social, organizational, and knowledge capitals are the primary source of the organization to production and value in the workplace. As recognized by every organization, human capital is a strategic value of the human asset; a collective value of the employees at work. The human capitals are not simply the workers of the organization, they are the people who bring and contribute to the success of the entire organization. In addition, the human capitals are the collective value of the life experience, ability, skills, knowledge, and motivation of the whole workforce.

Intellectual Capital

It reflects the thinking, creativity, knowledge, and decision-making of the people in the organization. The significance of the intellectual capital continues to increase the potential management as an appreciable asset.

Social Capital

This is a collective benefit from the special treatment and the cooperation among the employees in the workplace. Every individual in the organization shares the common idea, valuing the social network.

Organizational Capital

The organizational capital is a competitive advantage of the organization. This advantage is knowledge utilized the human skills into the system to produce and deliver satisfying outcomes. In addition, organizational capital involves the process, system, and other assets the organization possessed aside from the financial reports availability.

Knowledge

Knowledge is recognized as significant corporate resources that help build assets in the organization. The progress of the employees acquired at work is the set of knowledge that is modified in the operation, culture, and structure of the system. Knowledge is the combination of both explicit and implicit assets that help mature employees.

Human Capital and Performance

The individuals and the organizations are the major components of the human capital. The human capital includes flexibility, adaptability, enhancement of individual and organizational competencies, and employability. The attributes of the human capital demonstrate value to everyone in the organization and its success. The commitment and enhancement of the employees are associated with the high-performance sustainability in the workplace. Fundamentally, the human capital focuses on the employees and the organizations’ performance.
The human resource is also known as human capital, a set of productive individuals who perform as the workforce in the organization. The knowledge and skills of the employees contribute significant advantages and are associated with proper motivation. The human resource plays a vital part in the development of the organization with its fast-changing competitive environment and the demands in the market for employees’ quality performances.

Critical Review of Human Resources

Today, the success of the market and its rivalries depends on the organizations’ full attention in the transformation of the working environments through proper motivation and consistent engagement of the organization’s objectives. The motivation of today’s businesses is different from the past years because in every generation has its own preferences in the workplace considering the expectations from the contributed abilities. Most organizations understand the significance of the employee motivations and the variances in the preferences of motivational factors among the employees and the organization. The failure to satisfy all the aspects of motivation can result in the decline of the total effectiveness of the organization. In addition, in the part of the employees, the failure can result in the unwanted working environment that hinders them to perform better with the knowledge-based economy.
The workforce is shifting and it continues to change as necessary. The changes are significantly observed considering the availability of potential human capital in the organization. It is measured according to its demographics, attitudes, and preferences of the individuals. The diversified demographic generations in the workforce are the traditionalists, baby boomers, and the generation X and Y, respectively. All the generations represent the pool of different competencies that the human resource needs in the past, present, and future workforce. Most organizations value all the generations that evolve in the corporate world. The HR professionals understand the perspectives of each generation and they believe that the workforce from the different generations can be successful with its full advantages. Consequently, the HR professionals can provide the appropriate form of management, training, compensation, and technology to compete globally. Other capabilities of the HR professionals, they can improve the planning succession with respect to the knowledge and skills of the changes of generations. On the other hand, every generation has its instinctive work habits, experiences, and expectations. Thus, the issues of motivation can be solved by the diverse groups to work together with one common objective, success. In general, the generational awareness helps the HR professionals to prepare and understand the needs of the different groups that will follow the paths of the successful employees.

Conclusion

Motivation is evidently one of the most significant factors that influence the behavior and performance of the employees and the organizations. The Aon Company and HCS described motivation to energize their employees to take actions that concerned the goal-oriented behavior of the entire workforce. A good human capital management is the result of a good motivation with intensifying direction and persistent efforts to attain specific objectives. Every employee is well motivated and much willing to exert high productivity toward the organization. It is clear to say that based on the proper recognition of the efforts exerted by the employees, the expectations are noticed, followed by the mental desires to achieve the goals, and physical actions are utilized and it resulted in good outcomes. The level of motivation that is exerted in the workplace influenced all the aspects of the organizational performances. The human capital and its impact on the organization performance are well explored in every company involved in the paper. The human capital is conceptualized and linked to the fundamentals of global economics and organization performance. Reasonably, the evidence shows that the human capital enhancement and motivation promote innovativeness and high productivity.

Recommendation

It is necessary to substantiate the fact that the employee performance and motivation should be considered positively to have an effective human capital management. As clarity of opinion, the thorough understanding of the organization performance and the human capitals should not be regarded only as a phenomenon. Rather, it should be regarded as the transformation of the entire workforce as the most significant assets to obtain greater achievements in the organization through innovation and creativity. All companies should develop effective plans to invest in all aspects of the human capital management to ensure competitive performance for the long-term continued existence.

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