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“Human beings are the most important, potent and critical resource of any organization, and yet the least understood and the worst managed of its resources”

When refer a person to be potent it simply means effective and efficient as to the field that one is involved. Human being involvement regardless of the position has been noted a vital resource of the success of a certain company. Human has been working hand-in-hand with the upper sectors on the community; they are the most reliable resource as far as labor is concerned. Despite some facts about the effectiveness, still there appear to have weaknesses that can be associated to a person, as the line above says, “… and yet the least understood and the worst managed of its resources”.

Actually, I had the hard time comprehending the line, for I cannot sight any possibilities why it is so. For me to be able to understand the line I divided the line into two. First half, I will have to discuss why human beings are the most important, potent and critical resource in any organization. Second, I will be discussing why human beings are referred to be the least understood and the worst managed of its resources. One of the implications of the first half is human being as the important resource in any organization. This is because there are certain things that human act which serves as contributing factors to the development of the organization. It is often referred as the Planning and Strategy Formation Role in which it has created the need for people to become aggressive. This is because the access to strong distribution channels is critical for their continued popularity. This planning and strategy formation comprises the following:

1. Decision-making Role

Upon arriving at the correct decision or choice, human now gains confidence in his/her ability to make critical decisions or choices especially when his/her integrity is in the line. Thus, this human resource professional will now search fro even more challenges and opportunities where he/she could further enhance his/her decision-making abilities regarding current human resource issues.

2. Analytical Role

Through the exposure to various puzzling human resource issues, human along the process is able to develop holistic mindset regarding the issues surrounding him/her. In this practice it enhances a healthy and holistic mindset which makes it difficult to the detractors to give influence. Because of this holistic approach, a person is able to effectively select the right choice and continue to maximize this potential for future use.

There are also innate characteristics of human beings that if managed and honed up effectively will really contribute positively to the organization. These include the following:

1. Mental Stability

If a person has a stable mental aspect then he is effective in the pursuit of correct decision as well as the management and development of the process accompanying it. It is therefore important to a person to be as stable as he/she must be for he/she should remain updated with the latest developments in all issues.

2. Performance and Credibility

The production of their best human resource outputs comes as a result of a well-funded research management and development activities. The strong performance of a person and their outputs could also be linked to the effective strategic planning and human resource mobilization. Thus, human’s credibility increases as his/he performance becomes better.

Those are the things that justify how important and how a human being can be an effective or potent resource in any of the organization. Besides, JUDGMENT still remain as human’s innate trait which cannot be replaced by any form of technology regardless how efficient the innovation is. Another implication is human being referred a critical resource of any organization, this is because, human is the most flexible. It is the least constrained among the various resources to which a company has access. If we are to compare human to machines as to the state of being critical, machine has limits. One of the most common things that can be associated with the situation is a calculator; a calculator calculates operations faster but can only do what someone precisely tells it to do. It has no autonomy, or the sense of having self-government. Another thins that makes human critical is that human is extremely adaptable and is extremely pliable. If this is so then human may encounter various challenges since being pliable would mean susceptible with any unwanted constraints that may occur as one adapt to a certain environment. Despite the constraints, by being pliant human will be capable for performing well-defined and predefined planned scales but also of something more important.

Furthermore, the human resource approach focuses on the relationship between organizations and people. In this framework, people are the most critical resource in an organization exists to serve human needs instead of human existing to serve organizational needs. Topic central to self-concept of an organization include motivation, attitudes, participation, and framework. As a result, an organization is a permanent arrangement of social elements with a formal structure. The organizational members do not only pursue factual goals but also personal interests (e.g. career, power, and continuous education). If we say, “the hospital is an organization” we emphasize the fact that people in organization try to satisfy different needs and motives however there are still cases that appear in which people in an organization encounters conflict in terms of their goals—organizational goals and personal goals. This scenario really makes human as critical for there appear to have conflicts of the goals for in cannot be denied that there are a number of people in an organization who are really pursuing their personal goals such as, having promotions.

Human as the least understood resource in the organization.

Some people of the higher office of any organization still find instances that human is the least understood in their environment. In cannot be denied that human are of different characteristics, some traits can be managed along the way but some are hard to cope with. There are really cases which mislead the understanding towards human which is really visible in an organization, because not all are aware of intrinsic differences. It should be taken into account that human think differently, make distinct decisions, and differ in dispositions. In short NO TWO PEOPLE THINK OF THE SAME IDEA AT THE SAME TIME. The worst thing is that this case is often time the cause of some conflicts on labor relations, that is why people must managed to express themselves in the way that they won’t be considered as the least understood resource of an organization.

Human as the worst managed of its resources.

As stated above, people do have different decisions, disposition; hence, people probably have distinct needs in accordance to their immediate demands. Because of this scenario management of resources are being affected. This scenario is also associated by the individual differences in terms of the organizational goals; though they belong to one organization but each of them defines a lot of resources in the worst thing is that not all these defined resources will be utilized for the realization of the organizational goals set by some employees.

In the recent State of the Nation Address of Her Excellency Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, some portion of her speech was note worth noting. Some of those worth noting issues tackled the recent SONA was her take on Information and Communication Technology.

1. “Sa telecommunications naman, inatasan ko ang Telecommunications Commission na kumilos na tungkol sa mga sumbong na dropped calls at mga nawawalang load sa cellphone. We need to amend the Commonwealth-era Public Service Law. And we need to do it now... ”

Good for the president that she was able to tackle a bit form this issue on her SONA. There has been a million people with access on mobile technology discussing and appealing their concerns and complains regarding this issue. The main issue was on a sudden load deduction without service being availed or used by the user. This problem was quite a big deal for the people hence, almost all the Filipino has an access and on the use of mobile technology. As far as the development of this issue is concern, the congress had made the action to investigate this issue with the telecommunications company. To date, the bill was made into reality; it is clear then with Telecommunications Company and to the people how there services will cope up and respond to the trend of the issue.

2. “Let us have a Department of ICT”

This means initiating another department which is Department of Information and Communication Technology that would take the chance to hold on the concerns with regards to ICT that associate’s additional growth engines. For me, it is good for a government to initiate this certain department because issues and concerns with ICT will be centralized and to that there will be an immediate organization that will respond to the issues.

3. “Today we are creating wealth by developing the BPO and tourism sectors as additional engines of growth. Electronics and other manufactured exports rise and fall in accordance with the state of the world economy. But BPO remains resilient. With earnings of $6 billion and employment of 600,000, the BPO phenomenon speaks eloquently of our competitiveness and productivity.”

BPO is distinct from information technology (IT) outsourcing, which focuses on hiring a third-party company or service provider to do IT-related activities, such as application management and application development, data center operations, or testing and quality assurance. Frequently, BPO is also referred to as ITES -- information technology-enabled services. Since most business processes include some form of automation, IT "enables" these services to be performed.

Activities that can be outsourced are seen as a cost-saving measure for the company. Payroll and call center operations are long considered as the main contributors to BPO but lately, the trend in outsourcing has moved a notch higher towards skill quality and competence. Here, legal services, software development and web designing, animation, medical transcription and shared services are now being outsourced as well. What this means to the Philippines is that this shift will contribute to strengthening the country's position as an emerging global leader in the BPO industry. This can be a resilient plan of the government in case of sudden negative break in the economy, moreover it helps the unemployment rate in the Philippines to decline hence, and outsourced services are really generating additional employment in the country.

PGMA’s SONA 2009 (full text): http://ikuwaderno.com/transcript-of-arroyos-sona-july-27-2009.html

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_process_outsourcing

Assignment 5:

Based on your adopted organization(s), identify and discuss barriers in their IS/IT implementations....

Barriers are actually circumstances particular to a given industry that create disadvantages for new competitors attempting to enter the market. These may include government regulations, economic factors, and marketing conditions.

As I review over the internet I have come to this list of common IT/IS barriers:

• Studying the problem too long without acting
• Trying to get everyone's agreement first
• Educating without changing structures or expectations
• Tackling everything at once
• Measuring nothing or everything
• Failing to build support for replication

More Barriers to Change

• Lack of such resources as time and commitment
• Resistance to change
• Lack of senior leadership support or physician champion
• Lack of cooperation from other agencies, providers, departments, and facilities
• Ineffective teams
• Burdensome data collection

In our adopted company there were also barriers of IT/IS implementation that has been identified by Hubport Interactive. Two of these barriers are:

• Risk of loosing records

Since Hubport cater services related to Information System, within the organization they can implement systems as the case may be. Since implementing systems needs migration from the older system to the newest system there is a risk on loosing data, thus record retention of the organization is greatly affected.

• Personnel problems

By the time the organization will implement new systems, they have to take into account the task personnel being designated to the implemented system, and they consider expertise of the personnel. Meaning to say, by the time the company changes another system another person will be designated considering the expertise of the person. With this problem also it associates rejection of the employees which generates labor relations problems.

• Cost

Since implementing company is cost generating, it is therefore a barrier to the company on implementing information systems.

In some other sources barriers are divided into four principal barriers:

1) Legal and institutional barriers

These include lack of legal powers to implement a particular instrument, and legal responsibilities which are split between agencies, limiting the ability of the city authority to implement the affected instrument

2) Financial barriers


3) Political and cultural barriers


4) Practical and technological barriers

Before discussing my thoughts on the subject matter, I would like to define some terms.

Corporation

- A corporation is a legal entity separate from the persons who own it or the persons who manage or operate it. In British tradition it is the term designating a body corporate, where it can be either a corporation sole (an office held by an individual natural person, which is a legal entity separate from that person) or a corporation aggregate (involving more persons). In American and, increasingly, international usage, the term denotes a body corporate formed to conduct business. Corporations exist in a product of corporate law, and their rules balance the interests of the management w2ho operate the corporation. People work together in corporations to produce value and generate income. In modern times, corporations have become an increasingly dominant part of economic life. People rely on corporations for various reasons such as for employment, for their goods and services, for the value of the benefits that these people may acquire as they get involve in the corporations, for economic growth and academic advantage, and for social involvement and development.

The term 21^st Century Corporation (21CC) refers to any corporate, professional service, an organization may be cultural, social or membership driven, or any type of organization that:

1. Has a mission to fulfill.
2. Must operate in the midst of a global economy, rapid technological changes, economic uncertainty, cultural and demographic transitions.
3. Is impacted by external factors – social, technological, environmental, economics and technological. Specifically, increasing government regulations, social trends or competition.
4. Is consistently seeking new innovative ideas to cultivate opportunities to increase market share, number of customers, profits or value for its stakeholders.
5. Needs to learn how to learn and how to manage knowledge.

Though I am not really into that business but as a student I have those foresights on the status of the 21^st century companies, and as to how they will look like. For me, with the 21^st century corporations, Innovation is really the no. 1 priority especially that everyone is resorting to any least possible way just to fend for themselves.

Corporations today, no matter how they are structured and organized, must find ways to internalize and manage both sets of concerns simultaneously. In essence, they must simultaneously build internally contradictory and inconsistent structures, competencies and cultures: fostering more efficient and reliable processes while encouraging the experiments and explorations needed to re-create the future. The challenge is that such innovative activities are all too often seen by those running the organization as a threat to its current priorities, practices and basis of success.

Organizations have experienced a significant transformation in the last decade. Progressive organizations have led this change: others have reached to the change; and the remaining ones continue to do business as usual. The market will be dominated by organizations that lead change and are able to adapt to change. Those entities that function in a reactive state will become second tier players in the market. Organizations refusing or unable to rapidly adapt to change will cease to exist. The 21CC embodies a mindset that future growth will rely on being adept at identifying opportunities and thwarting threats. Organizational flexibility will be the objective for the 21CC allowing it to meet these challenges. Continuity will be achieved not from having a massive size of the traditional 20^th Century organizational infrastructure, but on an infrastructure this is adaptable to the environment. Sustain growth and evolution will be realized by developing what TSC refers to as “pliable adaptability” which is the ability to change with change. The ability to change with change is fundamental to any evolutionary process. Pliable adaptability will be at the root of every winning organization’s competitive advantage. This ability to adapt primes an organization or identifying and exploiting opportunities for growth, finding new revenue the sources and creating value for customers and other stakeholders.

In a 21CC, corporations will shift from satisfying existing needs to anticipating needs, will not only serve customers but will lead them, will shift from a product-focus to a benefit or value-added-focus, and will shift from focusing on core businesses to focusing on core competencies.

The organizational areas that will experience major changes in this transformation are: leadership, the organization, assets and resources, operations, personnel, future creation, interpersonal. These characteristics are independent. Transformation in these areas is revolutionizing how businesses perform. It does not matter whether the business is a small retail outlet; all organizations will have to concentrate on these areas in order to effectively in the market. Creative strategies and tactics are essential to accessing new markets, amazing customers, inspiring employees, and ultimately delivering more value to all stakeholders.

What will drive that continuous organizational evolution allowing an organization to achieve pliable adaptability? Pliable adaptability will be achieved from having a well formulated and executable strategy; superior operational effectiveness; understanding of corporate competencies and capabilities; innovation framework for delivering breakthrough ideas and concepts, knowledge of customer needs – now and in the future; capable of learning; willingness to change.

An organization will not be able to succeed in the 21^st century without being flexible and an organization cannot be flexible without focusing. Having a strategic management process is the core of being able to achieve pliable adaptability.

Since 21^st century corporations will achieve pliable adaptability, this thing associates the following changes that will incorporate the global imperatives--economic, environmental, and social idea of how is the 21^st century be look like:

1. Satisfy existing needs to anticipating needs.

2. Serving the people at the same time leading them.

Since leadership is being stressed out, there has been many reflections released on how the leadership needs of 21^st century corporations be managed. Some of these reflections are as follows:

1. Listen to the Cry for Accountability.

Across the world of business, there is a blood cry for 'accountability'. With the most revered role models run aground--and more being bailed out--it is high time we open our windows to let the feedback in, even though we know it will not be pretty. Leadership is accountable to customers, investors, shareholders, regulators - but most of all, to our own people. As navigators, we are accountable for keeping the ship on course - more so in stormy weather. So rather than blot out the questions, we need to put into place systems and processes that foster transparency and make leaders more accountable.

2. Get into the trenches.

Emerging leaders are moving up to the top floors. To corner suites. Away from the shop floors and the real action. We need to roll up our sleeves and get back into the trenches. I cannot repeat myself often enough - we need to demolish the 'CEO office'. We need to break down the walls of hierarchy, for our future role as leaders is not about leading from the top, but co-innovating at the front lines.

3. Get emotional.

Have we perhaps forgotten the price of Marie Antoinette's statement "If they don't have bread, let them eat cake?" With the increasing commoditization of people as "resources selling time," we risk not seeing people as individuals any more. And these individuals - employees and customers alike - are hurting and wary of the future. As leaders, we need to feel their pain and find the right solution. Its no longer about improving the top-line by simply reminding our sales force to up sell and say: "Will you have fries with that?" We need to understand the real pain points of our customers and help them find real solutions to their business problems.

4. Chase the rainbow.

As everyone watches the thunder, emerging leaders are the ones who will look hard into the dark and spot the light at the end of the tunnel. There is a rainbow waiting to break out, and abundant opportunities beyond. The sooner you spot it the greater the advantage your organization can reap.

5. From Me to We.

Collaboration is the need of the hour. In the US, President-Elect Barack Obama has proven just that by co-opting the strength of his former arch rival, Hillary Clinton. History has shown us that, be it the thawing of the Cold War or the formation of the European Union, dealing with cross border terrorism or cross border recession, the power of collaboration is our only answer. The world needs the collective strength of all countries, organizations and individuals to pull together today.

6. Nimble feet.

The world will continue to flirt with unpredictability for a while ahead. As leaders, we need to stay agile, alert and nimble footed to change tactics mid-course with our eyes unwavering from the goal.

7. Keep it Simple.

The sub-prime crisis has made the world wary of complex financial instruments and foggy conditions. Somewhere along the way, complexity has gained respect in the world of business. It is time to wipe the mist off the glass and master the art of converting complexity into simplicity.

8. Ask the right questions.

Leadership today has changed from providing all the answers to asking the right questions. Keep an open mind and let fresh minds provide you with fresh ideas. The battle between grey hair and grey matter has never been fiercer, as Generation Y stakes its claim to leadership. Innovation is the passport to success and 'Green' might just be the color that pulls businesses out of the red.

9. Adapt to the new work order.

Business today works across geographical borders on the back of a cross-culture, cross-currency, cross-product, cross-time zones workforce. Markets too have transformed, with the West no longer the only or even predominant market. So in 2009, emerging leaders will have to adapt to the reality of time zones, to multiple cultures, multiple currencies, multiple pricing. We in India, and particularly in the IT services industry, have learned this lesson very quickly. In fact, insights into how to run a global corporation will come out of the Indian multinationals.

10. Yes we can I think we have all realized by now that there are no question marks about this.

Change comes to those who believe in it. As leaders, our greatest responsibility is to bring back confidence and the forward momentum and catalyze the positive energy of our people today to light the way to a brighter tomorrow.

3. Shift from a product-focus to a benefit or value-added-focus.

Diverting the manner of giving much focus on the product as to its components to a manner of giving much importance on the values and positive response of the products towards consumers.

4. Shift from focusing on core businesses to focusing on core competencies.

A business that sells investment consulting services didn't get into business because they were good at marketing, because they were good at sales, or because they knew how to write software. They got into business because they felt they had a compelling opportunity to offer investors. That's why the business might choose to outsource marketing to an agency, outsource sales, and call on a software development firm to set up their systems. This allows them to focus on what they are best at, and allow experts to handle the other functions of their business.

Sources:

http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporation
http://www.globalissues.org/issue/50/corporations
http://www.ezinearticles.com/?Becoming-Successful-21st-Century-Corporations&id=584009
http://www.articlesbase.com/outsourcing-articles/outsource-your-business-focus-on-core-competencies-783742.html
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=57552533176&topic=7310
http://www.jussemper.org/Resources/Corporate Activity/corporation2020.html

General Motors (GM)
Website link: http://www.gm.com



MCI Incorporated
Website link: http://www.mci.com


Nokia Siemens Networks
Website link: http://nokiasiemensnetwors.com


The Volvo group
Website link: http://www.volvo.com


Deutsche Post
Website link: http://www.dh-dhl.com


1. Lucent
2. Nortel
3. Motorola
4. Xerox
5. Compaq
6. Cisco
7. Dell.

1. Ford
2. Air
3. Canada
4. Bombardier





1. Increase communication. Share both what you know and what you don’t know about the economy is affecting your business.
2. Invest in training. Continuing to plan for the future, take advantage of the opportunities. Encourage employees to join trade sessions.
3. Involve your employees in decision-making. Involve your employees in major decisions like layoffs or salary cuts.
4. Staying positive. A good attitude is infectious. Try to maintain a positive outlook and remember to share good news widely.
5. Try to keep the little things. When budgets get tight, the first impulse is to cut everything that seems non-essential.

As mentioned above, that some of the causes of downsizing are as follows:

1. financial losses
2. cash flow difficulties, and;
3. loss of government contracts




References:

http://www.servicecanada.gc.ca/eng/work sharing/index.shtml
http://www.councils.org/resources-and-publications/trends-and-issues-articles/Dealing with downsizing/
http://www.workforce.com/section/00/article/26/39/95.php
http://www.invest-n-trade.blogspot.com/2009/03/gm-general-motors-layoffs-
http://www.allbusiness.com/sales/customer-service/157031-1.html
http://www.commentoanything.blogspot.com/2008 11 01 archive.html

For this assignment we are tasked to visit another local organization or company to ask some related information regarding the Human Resources' Best Practices.

In line with this assignment, with my classmated we visited the Davao Light and Power Company. First let me tackle some information regarding Davao Light and Power Company (DLPC).

Davao Light and Power Company a company based in Davao City, is one of the biggest electric company in the philippines. Being one of the trusted provider in such field, there are best practices in the field of Information Technology and Information System that this company is maintaining. Also, Davao Light & Power Co., Inc. (DLPC) is the third largest electric utility in the Philippines. It was established in 1946 with a franchise area of 3,561 sq. kms. This area covers the whole of Davao City, Panabo City in Davao del Norte and Carmen, Sto. Tomas and Dujali provinces in Davao del Norte.

And these three things are considered aspects of Human Resource Development. If a firm or a company is healthy in terms on HR, then a company should cover these identified aspects.