Human Resource Management - organizational culture

INSTITUTE OF ACCOUNTANCY ARUSHA
In Collaboration With
COVENTRY UNIVERSITY (UK)
COURSE : MBA - ITM
MODULE TITLE : Human Resource Management
MODULE CODE : ARUM62BUS
MODULE FACILITATORS : Dr. Edson Ndyemalila & Ms Helen
Meshack
ASSIGNMENT : Individual
DATE GIVEN : 13th
March, 2015
DUE DATE : 9th
April, 2015
STUDENT NAME : Julius Noble Ssekazinga
REGISTRATION NUMBER : MBA-IT/0218/T.2014

Table of Contents
Contents
Contents...................................................................................................................................2
Critically examine the concept of organizational culture and evaluate its significance on
organizational behavior within the Aster Group. (8 marks)......................................................3
Evaluate the role of a manager within Aster (one who is not involved in leading change) and
identify some of their key tasks. ( 8 marks).............................................................................5
Critically examine the different types of teams in operation at Aster and their effectiveness.
(8 marks)...................................................................................................................................7
Using examples from the case study critically examine the team building processes within
Aster change process. (8 marks)...............................................................................................9
Evaluate the visionary, connective or adaptive leadership style within the Aster case study?
Which of these types of leadership approach appeared to work best at Aster, or was there
another style at play? Give examples, and explain your reasoning. (10 marks).....................12
Make clear momentarily the impact of Organizational Development intervention at Aster
Group. (8 marks)..................................................................................................................16
Human resources planning is impossible and waste of time in a situation where the future is
unpredictable. Using Aster as an example, examine this contention. (10 marks)..................19
Analyze and evaluate HRM practice within the Aster Group and compare these to the
traditional practice of personnel management. (10 marks)...................................................22
References: ............................................................................................................................27

Critically examine the concept of organizational culture and evaluate its
significance on organizational behavior within the Aster Group. (8
marks)
The concept of organization culture
According to Mullins, (2010) Organizational culture is the pattern of values,
norms, customs, beliefs, attitudes assumptions and strategies that shape how
Aster group deliver its housing services to the people. Aster group culture was
based on the promise of improving homes to modern standards whilst
keeping rents stable. Other key organizational culture identified in the Aster
group included; efficiency, effectiveness, initiative, care, confidence,
entrepreneurial, pacesetting, track record, ambitious, adventurous, proactive,
innovative and teamwork.
Aster’s organizational leaders developed organization culture over time
aiming to focus the organization to the particular goals and objectives while
performing its objectives.
The concept of organisation culture basing on Notes, (2015) described that
organizational culture encourages consistency, conformity and collaboration,
as the result, there is highly integrated and efficient organization, and trust in
each other in organization. Hence, the cultural type practised by Aster group
is democratic culture as a new culture from traditional local authority mind-set.
This type of culture allows both managers and staff to collaborate and discuss
the organizational issues together and come up with good recommendations
and solutions about the group development.
Organization culture significance on organization Behavior.
Richard et al, (2010) explains that organizations are made of people and their
relationships with one another. Therefore, changes in organization culture like
strategy, structure, technology and product involves changes in people
attitude as well. Employee (people) must learn how to use technology, market
new products and thinking of a new way to accommodate changes in the
corporate cultural values and norms. Thus, cultural change shifts how work is

done in an organization and more generally motivates to renew commitment
and empowerment of employees and a strong bond between organizations
and its customer as the result new behaviour emerge. (Richard et al, 2010)
The effective management of human resources and the organizational
behaviour are basically depending on both organization culture and the nature
of the business industry as well as features of the individual organization. The
culture of any organization consists of predefined policies with which guide
the employees from different backgrounds and provide direction of doing job
accordingly to meet the objectives. (Adler, N.J. 1991)
Organizational culture was significant on the organizational behavior of Aster
group because it helped the employees to work towards achieving its
promise. The organizational values guided employees in the process of
performing their responsibilities in the organization. i.e., Aster’s efficient and
effective performance generated revenue surpluses in 2004, three years
earlier than envisaged in the original plan.
A shared system of meanings, which is the basis for communications and
mutual understanding, is offered by Organizational culture, which basically,
brings together employees of different demographics. According to Aster
group, all managers and a cross-section of all staff together was invited as
part of mobilization and give feedback about the organization, identify
problems and discuss some possible solution to the problems.
Basing on Aster’s organizational culture, the strategic leadership allowed in
changes depending on the circumstances and the organization was able to
adapt to new situations. The management for instance turned more outward,
making connections, using its networks to get business, establishing a
reputation with its stakeholders and attracting new employees into the
organization.

Evaluate the role of a manager within Aster (one who is not involved in
leading change) and identify some of their key tasks. ( 8 marks)
Management is about changing behavior and making things happen,
developing people, working with them, reaching objectives and achieving
results. Thus, management is not leading the change or rather management
is focusing on maintain and improving competitive advantages through
adapting the positive organizational environment to meet opportunities,
challenges, and technological changes. (Mullins, 2010)
The Role:
According to Aster case study, Sarsen was the manager who was not
involved in leading change in Aster group. One of the big role of this manager
was to facilitate the possible growth of the group.
Basing on the three categorisation of Manager’s Role by Henry Mintzberg,
Sarsen ‘ roles in Aster Group were;
Decisional Role: In five years the group focuses on improving homes into
home standards while harmonize house rent to stable states with the aim of
generating more revenue. The management made a decision to develop and
adapt the business strategy of which motivates the executive team to start
focusing and negotiate for opportunities for growth development and to
quickly become entrepreneurs.
Interpersonal role: During the growth period, the governing team (board)
was formed comprising of different groups of stakeholders like four tenants,
three representatives from council and eight independent people from the
business and community.
Informational Role: The manager of a group (Sarsen) was effective
and efficient in managing information and its operations. The manager
focussed on its original promise of improving standards housing services
while keeping rents stable. The original plan has enabled them to generate
more income just three years after its implementation.

The managerial Key tasks in Aster were;
Key managerial actions demarcated as; Planning, Organising, Leading and
Controlling
Planning: The target requires a group to shift away from traditional local
culture and hence recruiting the new members to the group with ability to
deliver high quality housing services, creative and innovative towards the
group products and services.
Organizing: the processes in which the management capacity and
capabilities are enhanced. Example makes a clear demarcation between
executive management functions, other group staff functions and the board of
which improve the working relationships and commitment.
Leading: Example in Aster group Richard Kitson managed successfully
through staff briefings, conferences, small group and individual discussions of
which people was open to contribute for the future and be able to take people
him while leading them by examples.
Controlling
It involves matching the employee’s efficiency by doing all harmonized
activities effectively in respect to the established plan, principles and
instructions to facilitate success towards the desired results. Managers
basically prepare the objectives and actively engage in it as a moving target in
expanding the organization and control and monitoring on day-to-day
activities.
Conclusion
A manager is responsible for coordinating and directing activities of other
team/group members, plan and organize, assess group performance,
motivate group members, assign tasks, and establish a positive environment
to support the pre-defined company goals activities.

Critically examine the different types of teams in operation at Aster and
their effectiveness. (8 marks)
According to the literature of the Human resource lecture notes (2015), teams
occur when a number of people have a common goal and recognize that their
personal success is dependent on the success of others. explain the teams as
“a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a
common purpose, performance, goal and approach for which they hold
themselves mutually accountable” (Mullins, 2007)
Aster Group Teams
According to the case study, two Teams were identified in Aster and these
are;
• Board / Executive Team
• Development Team
• Customer Team
Board / Executive teams
This was Responsible for partnering, merging and acquiring other
organization assets. Included John heffer, Richard Kitson and Sarsen
Effectiveness of the executive team was during the second transition period
where the successful change of culture was experienced from local authority
culture to modern culture. Choosing eligible candidates this refers to the
ability of the executives to appoint the competent and experienced personnel
to lead the group accordingly. Example Richard Kitson who had an
experience within the public sector by leading and growing the local authority
housing service including managing large number of staff in an operation as
his strength and efficiency in a group development.
The executive team effectiveness was also evaluated on the factor that all

were keen on exploring each other’s philosophies and the degree of
compatibility. For instance, they began with the informal meetings in
discussing the matters regarding the partnerships but finally such meetings
became formal. They could also conduct widespread consultation with all
stakeholders – especially tenants’ representatives and staff, a factor that
increased their effectiveness.
Community Development Team
This team was established to cope with the high growth rate of the group and
to meet the customer need/wants. Following this case the growth strategies
was then developed to make more effort to grow.
Development Team effectiveness was the success to acquire land and build
new houses.
The development team also working on partnership example from board
expands their ideas to in terms of mergers and partnering with other
associations outside the group. Building strong partnerships with other
associations that will ensure Aster group derive the maximum benefit from
people knowledge, skills, resources and time.
Customer Team
The executive in Aster group becomes more sensitive with their customer as
an important part of an organizational business growth opportunity and
development of which they motivated into entrepreneurial practice.
The customer team effectiveness was the creation of new initiative “care
and repair” whereby it helped the older people and vulnerable customers to
continue to live independently by developing new homes outside their original
base. Therefore, this will be a major growth area for the group that will have a
significant impact over it.
Conclusion

The commitment of the team to reflect and evaluate the current process in
relation to the future improves the Team processes and effectiveness. As a
team, it is important to understand and evaluating accomplishments through
meeting specific goals so as to ensure high-performance. Thus, team leader
needs to be innovative in generating ideas, actively listening to team
members and supportive.
Using examples from the case study critically examine the team building
processes within Aster change process. (8 marks)
The team effectiveness is basically improved by the team’s commitment to
reflect the organizational performance and evaluation towards a goal. The
basic teams function is to meet the specific goal by understanding essential
skills about the particular functional process and thus high performance and
effective management of the organization change. This is area where the
team development is important.
Aster group, Richard Kitson had enough experience on team management
whereby he reinforces several changes that motivate staffs (Managers and
employees) to accept changes and finally pass through team process.
Example move to modern (democratic culture) which is more independent
and cohesive culture than being staying still in local authority culture which
more bureaucratic in nature.
Asters team building
Aster group teams’ development passes through five stages as the guideline
for determining behavioural patterns for the team. In order for the team to
maximize its productivity and processing then it needs to identify and
understand causes for changes in the team behaviours. According to Mullins,
(2010) describe the team building process model (Tuckman model) which
identifies five main successive stages of group development and
relationships: The five stages (process) are:- forming, storming, norming,
performing and adjourning.
Forming: During this process, most team members are positive and polite.

Some are anxious, as they haven't fully understood what work the team will
do. Others are simply excited about the task ahead.
As leader, you play a dominant role at this stage, because team members'
roles and responsibilities aren't clear.
Forming last for some time, as people start to work together, and as they
make an effort to get to know their new colleagues.
In Aster Group, Forming appear at a time when Aster Group enter in to
partnership with other company to develop the services provided. ‘’Both the
technical and psychological aspects of the project management of the
grouping process were conducted with openness and no hidden agendas.
Another forming process is when Silbury Group had been launched. Individual
manager and group of staff were asked what the key organizational issues
were and this in turn informed the design of the development programme.
Due to the fact the forming stage there is no coordination between staff
member and no one known each other people start to formulate group with
good relationship.
Storming: Driung this process, people start to push against the boundaries
established in the forming stage. This is the stage where many teams fail.
Storming often starts where there is a conflict between team members' natural
working styles. People may work in different ways for all sorts of reasons, but
if differing working styles cause unforeseen problems, they may become
frustrated.
Storming can also happen in other situations. For example, team members
may challenge your authority, or jockey for position as their roles are clarified.
Or, if you haven't defined clearly how the team will work, people may feel
overwhelmed by their workload.
More to this process , staff or team members may question the worth of the
team's goal, and they may resist taking on tasks.

Team members who stick with the task at hand may experience stress,
particularly as they don't have the support of established processes, or strong
relationships with their colleagues.
For example in Aster Group Stoming process appear when organization
haven't defined clearly how the team will work “Whenever a new structure is
implemented there are always issues around the difficulties of managing and
control – where are decisions made, where the power and authority lie, who
has clarity about roles and responsibilities
Norming: During this process people start to resolve their differences,
appreciate colleagues' strengths, and respect your authority as a leader.
Due to the fact that team members know one-another better, they may
socialize together, and they are able to ask each other for help and provide
constructive feedback. People develop a stronger commitment to the team
goal, and good progress towards it is achieved.
There is often a prolonged overlap between storming and norming, because,
as new tasks come up, the team may lapse back into behavior from the
storming stage.
For example in Aster Group, Norming process take place when Managers and
staff were involved, in a variety of ways, with developing the on going agenda
for change. In addition to the workshops there were staff briefings, staff
discussion groups and a staff conference (which now continues annually)
where the forward agenda was communicated, ideas generated, and potential
obstacles highlighted and worked on collaboratively.
Performing: During this process hard work leads, without friction, to the
achievement of the team's goal. The structures and processes that were set
up support this well.
A leader can delegate much of the work, and concentrate on developing team
members.

It feels easy to be part of the team at this stage, and people who join or leave
won't disrupt performance.
Adjourning: Many teams will reach this stage eventually. For example,
project teams exist for only a fixed period, and even permanent teams may be
disbanded through organizational restructuring.
Team members who like routine, or who have developed close working
relationships with other team members, may find this stage difficult,
particularly if their future now looks uncertain.
Looking at Aster Group, the challenge for the Aster Group going forward is
how to maintain momentum in its growth strategy whilst embedding the
changes that have already been made; and how to manage change fast
enough for the senior management but at the right pace for staff to continue to
perform effectively and provide an excellent service to their customers,
Evaluate the visionary, connective or adaptive leadership style within
the Aster case study? Which of these types of leadership approach
appeared to work best at Aster, or was there another style at play?
Give examples, and explain your reasoning. (10 marks)
Visionary leadership
Visionary leaders are the builders of a new dawn, working with imagination,
insight, and boldness. They present a challenge that calls forth the best in
people and brings them together around a shared sense of purpose. They
work with the power of intentionality and alignment with a higher purpose.
( Corinne McLaughlin , 2001)
Connective leadership
Represents a leadership model designed for the current Connective Era, an

era marked by the tensions between interdependence and diversity. The
Connective Era calls for new leadership strategies to enable individuals and
groups with diverse – and potentially conflicting – backgrounds, talents, and
agendas to live and work together productively, creatively, and
harmoniously for their mutual benefit.
Connective Leadership offers an important perspective for bringing together
diverse, even conflicting, groups that exist in an interdependent environment.
Connective leadership differ with other leadership style do not ask you to
compromise with opponents, recognizing that compromise requires each
party to give up some dearly held value also connective draw their amazing
strength and flexibility from an underlying repertoire of goal oriented and it
turn to the demands of the situation.
According to Aster Group case study: “Managers and staff were involved, in a
variety of ways, with developing the on-going agenda for change. In addition
to the workshops there were staff briefings, staff discussion groups and a staff
conference (which now continues annually) where the forward agenda was
communicated, ideas generated, and potential obstacles highlighted and
worked on collaboratively.
A key component of the grouping was the bringing together of all the
managers from both organizations. They spent time together over two days
addressing the following challenges:
• Meeting and getting to know one another’s organizations and ways of
working;
• Developing a shared view of Aster’s strategic opportunities;
• Identifying some of the practical synergies for individuals and constituent
businesses; and
• Agreeing key lines of on-going organizational development.
As a result of the workshop three working parties were set up, initially with
managers from across the Group and then involving staff. The key themes to
be addressed were”:

Adoptive leadership
According to Ronald Heifetz and his colleague’s sayed adaptive leadership
is a practice not a theory, defining it as the ‘practice of mobilizing people to
tackle tough challenges and thrive’ (Heifetz, et al., 2009, p. 14). It is a
‘distributed leadership’ model, which means leadership can be displayed by
people across an organization, not only by those in senior positions or
management roles.
The following are common characteristic of adaptive leadership
Adaptive leadership reflects the actions of leaders who:
• Think and act to exert strategic influence on their environments. They
act to assure that their organizations are well positioned competitively.
• Are proactive, foresee opportunities and put the resources in place to
go after them.
• Employ a broad-based style of leadership that enables them to be
personally more flexible and adaptive.
• Entertain diverse and divergent views when possible before making
major decisions.
• etc
According to Aster Group case study Adaptive leadership may appear when
“The challenge for the Aster Group going forward is how to maintain
momentum in its growth strategy whilst embedding the changes that have
already been made; and how to manage change fast enough for the senior
management but at the right pace for staff to continue to perform effectively
and provide an excellent service to their customers. Of course, since Aster is
now the largest in the South West the relationship with the Housing
Corporation has changed from one where it was needing to seek attention
and probably had very limited influence, to one where it plays an important
part in the Corporation’s plans and as such could always pose a risk if it
doesn’t perform. Aster very much sees itself as a true partner with the

Corporation – the challenges now being to continue the growth strategy,
staying on the preferred list of partners and having to make year-on-year
efficiency savings as laid down by the regulatory authorities.
visionary, connective and having adaptive leadership approaches. The
reasons for the failure were attributed to the different backgrounds, some
different attitudes and different sets of competencies. Thus, the leadership of
the company had hard time to learn how to live together. What brought in the
differences mainly was however the cultural differences with different
emphases. There were many more similarities than differences, but where
there were differences they needed to be identified and discussed and worked
through to reach a common understanding and an appropriate way of working
together. Further still, there was a difference in life stage because Aster has
been autonomous for almost a decade, while Testway was still wrestling
control away from the local authority (which found it hard to relinquish control),
until quite recently.
Since they had visionary and adaptive leadership style with them, they had to
continue with the wedding symbol and decided to continue merging as they
devised means of solving the differences that could emerge. For example,
the new Chief Executive and his Deputy Chief Executive in the first few
months. They could keep the dialogue going on as and when differences or
issues emerged. There were good and bad aspects to each of the cultures,
but there was enough openness for people to say, ‘Hang on a minute, let’s
talk about this’.
In summary, Aster had visionary, connective and adaptive leadership style as
exemplified by the participative, communicative, coordinative and facilitative
leadership that the management exhibited. The leadership met some
challenges in harmonizing the cultural differences shortly after merging with
Testway but because the leadership had visionary mind, continued carrying
out dialogues between themselves until they moved their ambitions ahead.

Make clear momentarily the impact of Organizational Development
intervention at Aster Group. (8 marks)
Organization development (OD) according to Cheung-Judge, Mee-Yan, and
Linda Holbeche (2009), this is the situation when organization-wide effort to
increase an organization's effectiveness and efficiency and enable the
organization to achieve its planned goals. Organization development being
about promoting organizational readiness to meet change, and it has been
said that OD is a systemic learning and development strategy intended to
change the basics of beliefs, attitudes and relevance of values, and structure
of the current organization to better absorb disruptive technologies, shrinking
or exploding market opportunities and ensuing challenges and chaos. It is
worth understanding what OD is not. It is not training, personal development,
team development or team building, human resource development (HRD),
learning and development (L&D) or a part of HR although it is often
mistakenly understood as some or all of these. OD interventions are about
change so involve people - but OD also develops processes, systems and
structures. The primary purpose of OD is to develop the organization, not to
train or develop the staff. (Human Resource Concepts, 2012)
The objectives of Organization development are:
1. To increase the level of inter-personal trust among employees.
2. To increase employees' level of satisfaction and commitment.
3. To confront problems instead of neglecting them.
4. To effectively manage conflict.
5. To increase cooperation and collaboration among the employees.
6. To increase the organization's problem solving.
The impact of organizational development at Aster group include bringing the
senior managers together on a number of occasions to discuss different
issues that affect Aster group in which a new Aster culture is emerging. As a

result of organizational development for example, many staff, often the
managers – have embraced the change wholeheartedly and have been
focused on making things happen by just doing it and supporting the other
junior staffs in the organization to follow the trend. Other staffs further away
from the decision-making process felt it was more like the recognizable
emotional roller coaster. The pace of change was such that on an emotional
level there were a lot of feelings to deal with and on a task level there were
quite a number of things that needed doing or clarifying.
Development and communication of a clear strategy was another impact of
organizational development interventions. This was achieved to always
reflect back on core set of values that were role-modeled by senior managers;
conducting a sequence of staff briefings and cascade and the establishment
of an annual staff conference to celebrate success; involve and engage staff
in the future direction and test out ideas.
Organizational development interventions in the Aster group made it possible
to have been some changes that have been embraced and some of them
were project development. The technical and psychological aspects of the
project management of the grouping process were conducted with openness
and no hidden agendas. Whenever there could be the questions to answer,
they could join hands. For instance, a key question they returned to when
there were difficult decisions to be made was, ‘What’s good for the business?’
Staffs were asked for their views and ideas about what form the partnering
should take. In addition, independent and competent management could be
appointed to help in the management of the project. For example, an external
project manager was appointed who had the sponsorship of the two Chief
Executives. The project manager was called in from outside because the
project seemed too big for anyone to take ownership of and do their business
as usual as well; they wanted an experienced credible project manager for
such a high-profile initiative; and both associations welcomed an objective
third party. The project itself was run along effective best practice project
management guidelines with a detailed plan of activities, all tasks having a
responsible person owning it and clear reporting procedures.

During the initial period of change prior to the grouping, external consultants
were brought in to help the organization manage organizational change. As
part of the mobilization process all managers and a cross-section of all staff
were invited to give feedback as to how they saw the organization, what the
key issues were and what some of the solutions might be. The following were
the main themes to emerge from the discussion groups and interviews with
managers.
Evolving common purpose, values and shared understanding of
objectives: Some managers and staff were very clear about what the Group’s
vision and values were. Others were not so sure. People needed more clarity
about what the new organization would look and feel like in the future.
Evolving a shared understanding of what sort of organization we need
to build for the future: People saw the need to further develop the vision and
values for the organization through greater communication and engagement,
both vertically and across the organization.
Managing for growth: Balancing the drive for growth whilst maintaining and
improving the level of current service emerged as quite a creative tension.
Ways had to be found to increase management capacity and capability.
Balancing between managing and leading: Managers needed to shift the
balance from managing the increasing complexity of the Group (planning,
organizing, controlling and problem solving) to demonstrating leadership and
strategic thought (through setting a direction, aligning people, motivating and
inspiring). Where do we need to innovate as managers/management team?
More creative and innovative ways of doing things were needed to get to grips
with the challenges. That included creating an environment where some risk
taking was more acceptable and mistakes were inevitable but could be learnt
from.
Individual and collective energy: Managers needed to be able to match

their efficiency (doing things right) with their effectiveness (doing the right
things). As roles, responsibilities and structures change the challenge on an
organizational level seemed to be, ‘Where should managers’ time best be
deployed and how much can they empower their staff?’
Personal responsibility: Managers acknowledged the shifting culture and
are generally and genuinely signed up to developing it and taking their part in
shaping it. However, it might be difficult to step fully into the new role of
manager and leader and even more difficult to develop staff to play their part.
Developing management and leadership capacity and capability: A
series of workshops were designed to address issues like: to help managers
share knowledge and understanding across the whole Group; to develop skills
to better manage change; for managers to understand their management
style and the impact it has on others; and to address the important and
pressing issues arising from a dynamic and changing organization.
Thus, development organization intervention in aster group had varying
impacts that were evidenced by Development and communication of a clear
strategy that allowed the group managers to harmoniously embrace other
changes such as project development in the group.
Human resources planning is impossible and waste of time in a
situation where the future is unpredictable. Using Aster as an
example, examine this contention. (10 marks)
Basing on the literature of Allan and Haines (2002), Human resource planning
is the process of identifying current and future human resources needs for an
organization to achieve its goals. It’s the company’s process it anticipates
future business and environmental forces and assesses the manpower
requirements for future period of time. (Allan and Haines , 2002)
Aster group to have prediction if its future, had to follow the human resource
planning processes therefore it wasn’t a waste of time Although aster group
could meet some challenges when it was planning for its future especially

merging with other companies due to different backgrounds, some different
attitudes and different sets of competencies and the cultural differences with
different emphases as well as differences in life stage between different
companies, its achievements with planning for its future were more successful
than its failures.
Aster group had visionary and adaptive leadership style which was a key in
predicting the future of the organization. For example, when they met
challenges when merging with other organizations because of different
cultural background, they had to continue with the wedding symbol as they
devised means of solving the differences that could emerge. In a few months,
this headship resilience was promoted by the two Chief Executives.
Aster’s prediction of the future was based on the dialogue that would be held
between different stakeholders in the organization. Leaders in the
organization could keep the dialogue going on as and when differences or
issues emerged. Since there were good and bad aspects to each of the
cultures, the management would do its best to benefit from the good side of it
while working hard to resolve what would emerge from the differences
Bringing together all the managers from both organizations that wanted to
merge and spent time together over two days addressing various challenges.
These for example included: meeting and getting to know one another’s
organizations and ways of working; developing a shared view of Aster’s
strategic opportunities; identifying some of the practical synergies for
individuals and constituent businesses; and agreeing key lines of ongoing
organizational development. The results from this discussion were clear
evidence that aster group was predicting its future. For example, the
organization direction, guided by Aster’s vision and values was reached at
through taking account of the strengths and weaknesses of the Group. For
example questions like where would you want Aster to be in five years’ time?
Were some of the issues raised that really indicated that the aster group
human resources planning was predicting its future.

More to that discussions could examine current service improvement
practices to confirm whether they are appropriate for Aster Group and, how
they can better engage and be made more meaningful to staff and customers.
This in addition was planning and predicting for the future.
The organization could conduct and take account of the staff surveys across
Testway and former Silbury Group to examine and make recommendations of
what the organization needed to do to make the Aster Group a better place to
work.
Aster group, human resource planning could help in predicting the future
because merging and partnering with other organizations needs well
organized and planned human resources. When Aster group was joining other
associations, it specified roles and responsibilities for managers and staffs
and synergies and business opportunities were all discussed openly and
frankly with the other organizations. Further still, Whilst Aster was still
embedding the previous grouping; Mendip Housing Association approached
Aster as it was desperately seeking a partner. Aster GMT recognized the
resource implication and recruited a dedicated person to deal with these
aspects of the Group’s development. Aster Group had to look for someone
who not only exhibits good management and leadership within his or her own
area of the business but who has rights and responsibilities across the Group
both at an operational level (for example, spotting and sharing best practice,
efficiencies and economies of scale) and a strategic level (for example,
shaping and responding to the external environment and key partners,
contributing to leadership thinking and development of strategy across the
whole organization). Therefore, all these arguments clearly explain that the
future was being predictable and therefore human resource planning in Aster
could not be wastage of time as the statement stipulates.
To summarize, although it has to be acknowledged that some differences
could be realized due to mainly cultural differences and different visions of
groups that needed to merge with Aster group, its future was predictable and

therefore carrying out human resource planning was not impossible and
waste of time. As it is indicated in the case study, the challenge for the Aster
Group is therefore how to maintain momentum in its growth strategy whilst
embedding the changes that have already been made; and how to manage
change fast enough for the senior management and at the right pace for staff
to continue to perform effectively and provide an excellent service to their
customers. Since Aster is now the largest in the South West and it plays an
important part in the housing corporation’s plan, it has to work hard;
otherwise, it could always pose a risk if it doesn’t perform.
Analyze and evaluate HRM practice within the Aster Group and compare
these to the traditional practice of personnel management. (10
marks)
According to Malik, (2010) explains various practices, there were various
human resource management practices in the Aster group. Some of these
included entrepreneurship, team building, communication, collaboration,
coordination, consultations, strategic planning, management development,
partnerships proactive and consultations among other HRM practices (Fatima
Malik Linda, 2010). In comparison with the traditional personnel management
practices, there is great difference with those from the Aster group as will be
argued. Below, I begin with the HRM practices of Aster group.
Aster group has human resources that embrace the idea of entrepreneurship
and growth in the organization. According to the case study for instance,
human resources in Aster welcomes new ideas and change as long as these
changes can make the organization expand in size as well as contributing to
the profits of the organization. This can be exemplified by different
organizations that Aster group has merged with such as Testways and it
finally got successful with them because entrepreneurial mindset that was
aiming at growth and efficiency.
The human resource management of Aster group is also characterized by
adaptability and embracing changes in the organization. Adaptability can be

understood as the ability of copying with the prevailing situation and work
within its conditions to meet the targets of the organization. In relation to Aster
group, the human resource management was adaptable to different issues
including adapting new and cultural differences that various organizations that
emerged with Aster were exhibiting. This indicates that the organization was
able to deal with human resource mix because it’s adaptive ability and the
value for embracing change in the organization. In addition, as the Group
grew. It had to cope with governance issues over an ever increasing range of
activities, including adapting to a group structure, which enabled the different
companies to be managed and have effective governance. Again, when the
organization suddenly lost its Executive director, it copied with the situation
and devised means to recruit another one (Richard Kitson) who was
ambitious, keen, prepared to take calculated risks and adventurous.
Making use of the literature of (Algorta, Zeballos, 2011) ,The human resource
management at Aster encouraged communication and consultation with its
staffs on various issues through staff briefings, conferences, small group,
individual discussions, general meetings and annual meetings and
workshops. These are important practices in human resource management
because they allow all employees in the organization to share their views
together and learn for the best mechanisms of improving their confidence and
performance. an example is shown when the need for grouping became more
and more likely, managers had to disseminate information and build
confidence throughout the new Group. And in addition, formal meetings
became more formal to establish the level playing field for all the stakeholders
share their views regarding the concerned issues in the organization.
There is a management development program in aster group that
characterized Aster group. This program was launched for the top 30
managers to deal with complex issues in the organization. To achieve this, the
organization asked individual managers and groups of staff to express what
the key organizational issues were and this in turn informed the design of the
development program. This program was important because it enable human
resources department to solve the organizational needs with professionalism

and on the basis of employee views and needs.
Team building was another human resource management practice that is
found in Aster group. This was important to sustain the success of the
organization because staffs would treat managers primarily as facilitators and
enablers in all staffs in the organization. In fact, team building helps to build
the leadership capacity throughout all parts of the group through adding
confidence in them. When staffs gain confidence, they deliver quality work
and contribute to the efficiency and effectiveness of the organization. This is
also possible because of trust that is built in the organization through effective
communication to all the staff members.
The strategic planning of Aster group deserves a mention as a human
resource management practice. Basing on the mission of the organization
known as promise of improving homes to modern standards whilst keeping
rents stable, it strategically works hard to achieve it through focusing on
longer term strategic issues rather than current year’s bottom line. As such,
the operating businesses have considerable autonomy in terms of day-to-day
operations. This increases efficiency and effectiveness in the organization.
The development and communication of a clear strategy, the reflection back
of a core set of values that were role-modeled by senior managers, a
sequence of staff briefings and cascades and the establishment of an annual
staff conference to celebrate success, involve and engage staff in the future
direction and test out ideas were very important for the organization to
achieve its strategic goals.
Partnerships and external consultations as a human resource management
practice was also identified in the Aster group. This helped the organization to
use the expertise of the partners in performing the organizational activities.
This was identified during the initial period of change prior to the grouping of
Aster with other groups. The external consultants were for example brought in
to help the organization manage organizational change. As part of the
mobilization process all managers and a cross-section of all staff were invited

to give feedback as to how they saw the organization, what the key issues
were and what some of the solutions might be as a result of organizational
changes. External consultancies are free from bias and they are neutral.
Consequently they perform the work with dedication and commitment, which
finally leads to efficiency and effectiveness of the organization.
According to the Aster group, the human resource management practices
were proactive in nature compared to the reactive nature that characterizes
personnel management. Personnel management remains a loof from core
organizational activities, functions independently, and takes a reactive
approach to changes in corporate goals or strategy. As seen in the Aster
group however, Human resource management remained integrated with
corporate strategy and took a proactive approach to align the workforce
toward achievement of its goals such as merging with other groups.
Further still, while the personnel management approach concerns itself with
assisting and advising top management, human resource management
practices in Aster group had a more comprehensive and proactive
management system that aimed at team building through dialogues and
discussions.
Personnel management is an independent staff function of an organization,
with little involvement from line managers, and no linkage to the organization's
core process. Human resource management practices in Aster group were
seen integrated with the organization's core strategy and functions. The Aster
group did this in recognition that although a distinct human resource
department carries out much of the human resource management tasks,
human resource initiatives involve the line management and operations staff
heavily. This was because it is the line managers who were directly
communicating and consulting the other employees in the organization on
matters regarding the organization.
Personnel management also strives to reconcile the aspirations and views of
the workforce with management interest by institutional means such as
collective bargaining, trade union-based negotiations and similar processes.

(Mondy, R. W., NOE, R. M. and Premeaux, S. R, 2002)
This leads to fixation of work conditions applicable for all, and not necessarily
aligned to overall corporate goals. However, Human Resource management
practices in Aster group gives a greater thrust on dealing with each employee
independently, informally or formally and gives more importance to customer-
focused developmental activities and facilitating individual employees rather
than bargaining or negotiating with trade unions. This was seen when the
employees were being involved in informal discussions that finally graduated
into formal discussions on matters regarding to merging with other groups.
Finally, traditional personnel management lay emphasis on rigid job
description based on seniority and fixed promotion policies but Human
resource management practices in Aster group like in general human
resource management practices, had relatively fewer job requirements with
broadly defined job responsibilities providing much scope for applying
creativity and initiative, and plenty of career paths, with skills, talent and
commitment as the key drivers of career advancement. For example,
entrepreneurial, pacesetting, track record, ambitious, keen, prepared to take
calculated risks and adventurous were some of the requirements needed
when recruiting senior officials in Aster group.

References:
Adler, N.J. (1991). International dimensions of organizational behavior.
Boston: PWS-Kent Publishing Company.
Fatima Malik Linda McKie Rona Beattie Gillian Hogg, (2010),"A toolkit to
support human resource practice", Personnel Review, Vol. 39 Iss 3 pp. 287 –
307.
Marcos Algorta Fernando Zeballos, (2011),"Human resource and knowledge
management: best practices identification", Measuring
Business Excellence, Vol. 15 Iss 4 pp. 71 - 80
Laurie J. Mullins (2010), Management and Organisational Behaviour Plus
MyLab Access Code Paperback – 27 Apr 2010
Richard et al, (2010) ,Human resource mamangemnet: best Management
Tools",
McLaughlin, Corinne. 'Visionary Leadership'. Visionarylead.org. N.p., 2015.
Web. 9 Apr. 2015.
Bandt, Allan, and Stephen G Haines. Successful Strategic Human Resource
Planning. San Diego, CA: Centre for Strategic Management, 2002. Print.
Mondy, R. Wayne, Robert M Noe, and Shane R Premeaux. Human Resource
Management. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2002. Print.
Cheung-Judge, Mee-Yan, and Linda Holbeche. Organizational Development.
London: Kogan Page, 2011. Print.

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