Employee Retention and Competitive Advantage A Critical Investigation Essay - 1

Employee Retention and Competitive Advantage A Critical Investigation of challenges faced and strategies employed in London Hotels - Essay Example The growth of global competition and the regular appearance of London hotels in the local dailies regarding management crisis experienced suggests that it would be quite useful to examine the management and work practices of a selection of these hotels. This is proposed to act as the first stage of a more comprehensive international research study that is deemed to propose creative solutions to the dilemmas faced by London hoteliers. For this reason, it becomes imperative for the researcher to embark on the theoretical framework of the meaning and application of Human Resource Management. In the views of Armstrong (2006), the concept of Human Resource Management emerged in the mid 1980s against the backdrop of the works of famous writers on management who came up with a list of the attributes that characterized successful companies. Accordingly, Budhwar et al (2009) and Dickmann et al (2008) stress that Human Resource Management â€Å"is the strategic and coherent approach to the management of an organization’s most valued assets – ‘the people’ working there, who individually and collectively contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the business†. Similarly, Cooper et al (2010) asserts that Human Resource Management â€Å"is the total knowledge, skills, creative abilities, talents and aptitudes of an organization’s workforce, as well as the value, attitudes and beliefs of the individuals involved†. Consequently, research explains that an organization is bound to retain its best employees by adopting the various employee retention strategies open to Human Resource Managers. From this standpoint view, experts have explained that employee retention involves taking measures to encourage employees to remain in the organization for the maximum period of time. The corporate world in recent times has been wrestling with a multiplicity of challenges emanating from employee retention according to the views of Adele and

Injuries In The Workplace Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Injuries In The Workplace - Essay Example Active work participation and good supervision are some of the important aspects in ensuring hazards are identified and tackled. Nevertheless, it is important to train workers on ways of ensuring safety in their workplaces. In this study, an investigation will be conducted in respect to the relationship between injury rates and different conditions in the workplaces. Although many organizations have some means of preventing and controlling hazards in workplaces, the effect of some conditions such as the total hours allocated for working and the impact of sensitization on high risk work places compared to less sensitization in low risk work places is ignored in many studies (Kennedy et al, 2010). Therefore, this study will investigate the impact that variation in the number of working hours and lack of protective sensitization in low risk workplaces , have on injury rates in workplaces. Research question 1. Does giving workers more time to complete their work reduce injuries in work places? 2. Does workers operating in high risk workplaces experience low injury rates than workers who operate in less risky workplaces because of high sensitization in high risk work environments? Hypothesis Null hypothesis: More working hours and working in risky working environments do not have any effect on the injury rate. Alternate hypothesis: More working hours and working in risky working environments have significant effect on the injury rate. Method and results The number of actual hours worked by all employees in the area/team for the 12 month period ending 12/31/2009 were taken and recorded in an excel spreadsheets. Also, operations for supervisors differed in terms of activities and risks. Risk ranged from low (1) office related to high (7) manual material handling activities. This data was taken and recorded in an excel worksheet as well. Finally, the average rate of injuries per 100 employees over 12 month period was recorded on the excel worksheets. Among these variables, the injury rate was taken as the dependent variable while the level of risk and hours worked was taken as the independent variables. The aim of the study is to find out the relationship between injury rate on the one hand and hours worked and risk, on the other hand. In other words, the researcher formulated a statistical model to find out whether the risk and hours worked can be used to predict the rate of injuries in workplaces. The data collected in the excel worksheets are then imported into an SPSS for statistical analysis. In this case, a regression analysis was run and the following output was established. Table 1: Model summary Model R Adjusted R Square Std. Error of the Estimate Change Statistics 1 0.455191 0.432491 13.16423 F Change Sig. F Change 20.05217 0.000000 Table 2: Coefficientsa Model Unstandardized Coefficients t Sig. B Std. Error 1 (Constant) 55.65025 6.654373 8.362959 .045 HOURS_WORKED RISK -0.000619 -2.080234 0.000128 0.988191 -4.855031 -2.105094 .000 .0405 a. Dep endent Variable: INJURYRATE Discussion and conclusion From table 2 above, the coefficient of hours worked is -0.000619 and that of the risk is -2.08. This means that the two independent variables are inversely related to the dependent variable. It also means that, when the hours worked and the level of risk is increased, the rate of injuries in the workplace is reduced (Morita, Lee & Mowday, 1993). The essence of this is twofold. First, when the workers are allocated adequate time to complete their tasks, there is a likelihood that they will concentrate and be more careful hence avoid injuries in the w