Human Resource Management

Course Work on

HR MANAGEMENT

Word Count: 3850

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CONTENTS

1.INTRODUCTION...................................................................................................................3 2.TRAITS OF EFFECTIVE LEADERS:.................................................................................4 2.1 Dominance...................................................................................................................4 2.2 High Energy ................................................................................................................5 2.3 Self Confidence............................................................................................................5 2.4 Stability........................................................................................................................5 2.5 Intelligence...................................................................................................................5 3.LEADERSHIP STYLES........................................................................................................6 3.1 Aversive leadership .....................................................................................................6 3.2 Directive leadership .....................................................................................................6 3.3 Transactional leadership...............................................................................................6 3.4 Transformational leadership.........................................................................................7 3.5 Empowering Leadership...............................................................................................7 4.LEADERSHIP STYLES- OTHERS......................................................................................8 4.1 Autocratic Leadership..................................................................................................8 4.2 Bureaucratic Leadership...............................................................................................8 4.3 Democratic leadership..................................................................................................9 5.TBD1( find heading for this ??).............................................................................................9 6.INTERNAL & EXTERNAL FACTORS............................................................................10 7.CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATIONS......................................................................13 8.BIBLIOGRAPHY.................................................................................................................14

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1.

INTRODUCTION
The case study explores the growth and expansion of News Corporation Limited (News Corp.) under Rupert Murdoch. This case talks about how Murdoch, who is famous as the Media King, expanded his business through a series of acquisitions. Beginning from 1952 when he inherited Adelaide News in Australia, till 2003 he had fully established himself in technology, entertainment, publishing and newspaper industries. News Corp. has operations spread across United States, the United Kingdom, Europe, Australia, Asia and Pacific Basin (Subhadra, Bhatia & Dutta, 2004). The company became leaders in the newspaper in Britain, New Zealand and Australia by publishing around 40 million papers a week. It owned around 175 newspaper titles in 3 continents. (Subhadra, Bhatia & Dutta, 2004). But that is not all for News Corporation; by 2002, Murdoch had established an empire that is well accepted in the media industry and covering 52 countries with 780 businesses. A lot has been written and analyzed on how Rupert Murdoch managed to create such an empire. Many experts criticize his actions to acquire businesses, his ability to be able to catch opportunities and his matchless speed to make change and adapt it. Critics examine his management abilities and question whether he made a good leader or not. This paper aims at defining leadership and exploring various styles of leadership. It deals with HR concepts of managing people and applying them onto the case study in order to chalk out a detailed analysis of the management approach taken within the company. Also a thorough application of leadership concepts to the case study will help in understanding Murdochs leadership style in Murdoch group. There are many definitions on leadership as it is impossible to pin the concept of leadership to one single universal definition. This is mainly because leadership is a complex subject and because leadership is studied in different ways that requires different definitions. (Lussier and Achua, 2007) The well known management guru, Peter Drucker, emphasizes the importance of the leadership by saying that above everything else, the performance of the managerial leadership determines the success and failure of an organization (Zahra 2003). Poor leadership leads to failure while good leadership leads towards success (Zahra 2003).

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Leadership has also been defined as the influencing process of leaders to achieve organizational objectives through change (Lussier and Achua, 2007). A lot has also been argued on whether leaders are made or born. It is a debate equal to the chicken and egg debate. Who came first, chicken or the egg? Bottom line is, there is no final solution to such arguments. Effective leaders not entirely born or made, they are born with leadership qualities that are further developed. Renowned football coach Vince Lombardi was quoted to have said, Contrary to the opinion of many people, leaders are not born, leaders are made, and they are made with the effort and hard work (Conger, 2004). While Murdoch had an advantage of a personality that possessed many leadership qualities, his skills developed by learning from the mistakes that he made. He learnt from his bad experiences and made himself into a better leader. Many experts have made an attempt to list down the characteristics and personality traits that make leaders. However, it is impossible to confirm the traits in definitive measure and expect all the leaders to have the same traits. Hence, while it cant be said that leaders have certain personality traits, experts can say that certain personality traits are most like to be found in the leaders. While researchers do not agree on only one list of traits to effective leaders, they do believe that trait theory has some universality to it (Seo, Barrett & Bartunek, 2004).

2.

TRAITS OF EFFECTIVE LEADERS:

2.1 Dominance
Dominance is also called the leadership. Successful leaders like to take charge (Conger, 2004). Rupert Murdoch possessed the trait of being dominating and exercising control over his employees. It is essential to note that Dominance does not mean that leaders are overly bossy or use bullying styles (Lussier & Achua, 2007).

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2.2 High Energy

Effective leaders have drive and work hard to achieve goals. They have enthusiasm and do not give up easily (Conger 2004). Their stamina and ability to take up stress is higher than an average manager. Such leaders take initiatives to make improvements within the company, making their own decisions (Murphy 2003). They do not seek permissions. Murdoch had the ability to deal at a greater level and not take setbacks. He could make his own decisions and stuck by them regardless of the opposition received at his decisions.

2.3 Self Confidence

Effective leaders display self-assurance in their judgments and abilities, cultivating confidence among their followers also (Meisel 2004). Leaders, however, need to be realistically self confident (Murphy 2003) and they should not be reviewed as arrogant who believe they know it all. Murdoch was confident enough to face all the criticisms and had enough confidence to make fast decisions.

2.4 Stability
Researchers show that influential leaders have a good understanding of their own strengths and weaknesses. They work towards their self improvement rather than acting self defensive (Ashkanasy & Duas, 2002). According to the case study, analysts had attributed Rupert Murdochs success to his ability to learn from his mistakes. The fact that he could learn from his mistakes and not be defensive shows stability in his personality.

2.5 Intelligence
Last but not the least is intelligence that influential leaders demonstrate. By intelligence, researchers refer to the ability to be able to think clear, be a problem solver and a decision maker (Lussier & Achua, 2007). People who do not make good leaders do not think clear, sway their decisions due to doubts and like to resolve problems through other people. If referred from the case, many times Rupert Murdoch made took up opportunities that people would not have yet recognized and his speed to innovate and grow was much more than average leaders which made it impossible for them to match. One of the many reasons for Murdoch to be an effective leader was his intelligence.
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3.

LEADERSHIP STYLES
Many researchers have come up with different theories on leadership styles. Pearce took up this gigantic work and analyzed the works and narrowed down five leadership styles. His work was also influenced by Bass, 1987 and Yukl, 1987.

3.1 Aversive leadership

Research has shown that aversive leaders are taken as the evil leaders by their subordinates in an organization. Dominancy is shown in such sorts of leaders and often the followers are unhappy to be part of such team or organization that has a leader with an aversive style. The traits that are linked with this type are negativism, penalties, retribution etc. It was expected that aversive leadership is unlikely to succeed in an organization when practiced but in contrast to such a thought, results have shown that aversive leaders are more likely to achieve more in organizations that are high on competition and are goal oriented.

3.2 Directive leadership

French and Raven, 1959 (cited in Pearce et al. 2003) have explained directive leadership behaviour as ...primarily relies on position power, which at times has been referred to as legitimate power and also relies on coercive power. Directive leadership is frequently exercised in various organizations and is regarded as a powerful leadership style. It is the leader that directs the followers by initiating actions and telling them how the initiated actions are to be carried out (Gill, 2006).

3.3 Transactional leadership

Transactional leaders guide or motivate their followers in the direction of established goals by clarifying role and task requirements. (Robbins, 2005). This type of leadership deals emphasizes more on the relationship between the leader and the follower. Usually, followers are noticed to be content in organizations with Transactional style of leadership. Followers feel happy when they manage to achieve their targets with efficiency and are rewarded. The followers work with the motivation of rewards that come their way. These followers oblige their boss till they believe in receiving rewards (Hatch & Cunliffe, 2006).

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3.4 Transformational leadership

Transformation leadership style is amongst the most common styles and deals with both, the basics and advance concepts of leadership which are motivation and vision. It is the leader whose inspiration is the source that motivates the followers to accomplish the single vision they are altogether working towards. Such leaders are charismatic in nature and possess the charm to captivate their followers into believing in the same vision that the leader possesses. Examples of Transformation leaders are those who act towards transformation of the societies and organizations (Greenberg, 2005). Transformational leaders possess traits such as charisma, vision, inspiration and morality (Greenberg, 2005). A leader that possesses transformational style of leadership makes sure that team members are highly focused on the vision that needs to be accomplished, thus ensuring efficiency in teams. Such leaders are quick at resolving issues and maintain certainty that work is performed efficiently especially during the anticipation of critical times in future or during the times when workers are expected to perform with high efficiency.

3.5 Empowering Leadership

Empowering leadership puts more emphasis on the followers. The followers make the leader to be the Super leader (Manz & Sims, 2001). The followers are facilitated by their leader so their individual leadership abilities are built up which help in contributing towards the company as much as possible. According to Pearce, The empowering leader encourages initiative, self-responsibility, self-confidence, self-goal setting, positive opportunity thinking, and self-problem solving.

A leader cannot be said to adopt only one kind of leadership style. Different situations require different set of approaches in order to gain the maximum out of any such situation. This is called situational leadership by Kenneth Blanchard and Paul Hersey. For effective leadership, analyzing the situation and then adopting the leadership style accordingly is situational leadership. Murdochs style of leadership changed depending on the situations and environment of the organization. The environment is specifically mentioned keeping in minds that while acquiring companies in a new country would still have traces of its own organizational culture.
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Rupert Murdoch was quick at bringing a change and innovating. He believed in seizing opportunities and making quick decisions. Murdoch was not the man to wait and ask his followers the opinion before introducing a decision within the organization. Murdoch didnt use empowering approach but has mostly been Directive leader. Others are autocratic, bureaucratic, democratic styles of leadership.

4.

LEADERSHIP STYLES- OTHERS

4.1 Autocratic Leadership
An autocratic leader is said to have all the authority at making decisions and gives no authority to the subordinates at making any small decision. It is the behavioral kind of leadership who is likely to make unilateral decisions, would dominate the methods to work and would give only penalizing feedback (Bartol, Tein, Matthews & David). The input from the managers while making decisions is almost zero. This is the oldest kind of leadership style and the most criticized by the modern critiques and experts. Autocratic Leadership style has termed as tyrannical but is said to be productive and advantageous during the times of stress. Adolf Hitler is said to be an Autocratic leader (Lewin, Lippitt, & White, 1939). Murdoch applied this kind of leadership as it helped him make decisions that were understood to be followed by his subordinates. Moreover, in order to keep his large empire intact, Murdoch kept a tyrannical rule so that his sets of instructions were followed throughout the large organization all around the globe. Had that not been the case, keeping the same flow of the company wouldve have been difficult. The disadvantage of such a leadership style is that it leads the employees stressed and unsatisfied. They have little or no authority to make decisions and that leads to stifled and stressed environment. There is lack of freedom and employees feel bound. The employee morale also goes down as their opinions do not hold any importance.

4.2 Bureaucratic Leadership

Such leaders follow an established set of procedures and expect the subordinates to comply on the established and defined procedure. The ability to innovate and bring

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in something new is less or not there within the bureaucratic leadership style. Murdoch does not fall under the category of bureaucratic leadership as he didnt work by set of rules rather innovation was his key success. The workers under such leaders are usually bored as it is not challenging, tends to be repetitive and chances to innovate and bring in new this is less or not there as that would require changing the established way of carrying out tasks.

4.3 Democratic leadership

Democratic leaders welcome the input of their employees although they make their own decisions. The followers of such leaders are happier and more satisfied, unlike the workers under autocratic leadership, as their motivation level is high. This is mainly because they associate more to the teams and feel worthy as they believe decisions were made involving their decisions. Democratic leadership is also referred as the participative leadership. However, this kind of leadership is more successful when the workforce is highly skilled and can help make useful operational decisions (Lewin, Lippitt, & White, 1939).

5.

TBD1( find heading for this ??)

Rupert Murdoch style of leading was too direct, aversive and autocratic to appreciate a style like democratic leadership. Analysts accuse Murdoch of bullying and terrorizing his workers and lying down targets that need to be achieved. Murdoch only gave limited authority, if the nature of the job required, but usually made his own decisions. In 1986, according to the case study, workers took out a protest against Murdoch in Wapping, UK at his action of implanting new technology within the organization. However, these protests did not make him alter his decision. Rupert Murdoch possesses the traits to be a good leader and has proven to an effective leader where the growth and expansion of News Corporation is a proof of that. However, his company has severely lacked the aspect of good and efficient human resources management. Modern management claims human as the most important resource of any organization on which long term productivity and growth is based upon. Can HRM help in establish an organizations sustainable competitive advantage? The answer is yes; HR is an important
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strategic tool and can help in the development of the sustainable competitive advantage . Various studies have concluded that an organizations human resource- that is its peoplecan be a significant source of competitive advantage. Studies have looked at the link between HRM policies and practices and organizational performance have found that certain HRM policies and practices have a positive impact on performance. One of the studies has reported that if an average company implemented these work practices, it was estimated to expect annually (per employee) $27044 more in sales, $3814 more in profits and $8641 in market value (Huselid, 1995). High performance work practices within an organization leads to both, high individual and high organizational performances.

6.

INTERNAL & EXTERNAL FACTORS

Human resource planning is essential in an organization. It is the process by which managers ensure that they have the right number and kinds of people in the right places, and at the right times, who are capable of effectively and efficiently completing those tasks that will help organization achieve its overall objectives. In other words, human resource planning translates the organizations objectives into terms of the workers needed to meet those objectives. Human resource planning can be condensed into three steps:
1. Assessing current human resources 2. Assessing future human resource needs 3. Developing a program to meet future human resource needs.

In 1984, five Harvard students developed an analytical map of Human Resources Management that was referred in the latter years as the The Harvard Map. This theory was coined so to comprehensively explain the relationship between organizational performance and human resource policies. According to the Harvard Map, human resources can be influenced by two major factors which are the stake holders interests and situational factors. Stakeholders interests include the shareholders, management, employee groups, government, unions and the community. Situational factors can be both, internal and external. These external factors can influence the choices of human resource policy and stakeholder interests. Management, business strategy, business conditions, unions, labour markets, technology, laws, and societal values are all such factors (Beer et al, 1984)
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Based on this, Harvard Map concludes that an organization will make HR policy decisions on the extent of the employee influence. It is meant whether the employees have a participative or autocratic decision making style (Beer et al. 1984). The HR of an organization will also make policy decisions, keeping in mind the retention and turnover rate of the employees and also keeping in view the reward system. If, with these factors in view, the HR policies are made, the outcome would be that the degree of commitment shown by the employees will increase, the overall competence of the employees will rise, the difference between the goals of the employees and the goals of the organization would diminish and the gap would bridge. Hence, the Harvard Map helps in providing an analytical framework to consider multiple interacting factors. This model reminds how bringing a change in one can lead to alterations in the other factors of the framework (Bartol et al. 1984). Situational factors, both internal and external to the organization, can influence choices about human resource policy and stakeholder interests. There can be many factors such as the characteristics of the workforce, business strategies, business conditions, management philosophy, the labor market, labor unions, technology, laws and societal values (Bartol et al 2005). A labor union is a representative of the workers that works for the interests of the workers through collective bargaining. Within the union dominated organizations, many key personnel decisions such as hiring criteria, promotions, terminations, etc. It is important for the managers to keep a good labor-management relationship in organizations with dominant labor union (Robbins & Coulter, 2006). Another most vital external influence whose impact is negligible is the governmental laws. Rupert Murdoch was quick at adapting laws of different foreign countries that he ventured into as he was wise enough to anticipate that by doing so can lead to a negative impact on his business. He even accepted short term losses to ensure market safety and to remain on the governments good books. In human resources management, the employees which are sent from the head office to work in another branch in a foreign country are known as the expatriates (Lussier & Achua, 2007). Rupert Murdoch had the strategy to buy new companies and employ his own managers from the News Corporation. However, these managers when sent as expatriates need help in adjusting within the new culture, new environment and new people. Related
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HR policies to facilitate the expats and to safeguard their rights should be implemented. The case gives out no information on such policies. For an organization as diverse and vast as News Corporation, thorough human resources management is required which keeps the business around the world in sync. Vast and clear communication between all the offices and the main HR department needs to take place in order to create harmony amongst the organization. Rupert Murdoch would have to change his authoritative and aversive style of leadership and take a softer approach so that the employees are given the rights to exercise simple decision making. This would help in boosting up their morale and will increase loyalty towards the organization. This will help him in retaining his employees and reduce the turnover rate. Also, a happy workforce would mean better reputation of News Corporation. One thing that the case study constantly emphasize on is that change is one of the key ingredients, that has resulted in the success of News Corp. Rupert believes in innovating constantly within the company. Murdoch possesses the style of acquiring companies and then changing them to sync with the organizational culture of News Corp. Change is not easy to implement. When companies are taken over, there is a lot of

uncertainty that spreads amongst the employees of the company. Workers become apprehensive. Will I be terminated? Will my JD change? Will my authorities be limited now? In order to eliminate all such doubts from the minds of the employees and in order to help them mold in the new organizational culture there is essential need of trainings. Hr trainings are meant to help mold the minds of the employees by helping them remove any doubts and helping them to adjust. Trainings are also useful from the managements point of view as it is easy to measure employees performances and determine the mindsets. Not all employees are able to accept change. Some would keep their minds block towards anything that they are not comfortable to adopt. Such people need harder work to be done on them and in extreme cases, terminated. (Bartol et al. 2005). However, leaders or CEOs find the concept of the link between business performance and trainings a difficult thing to grasp (Caudron, 2000). The rationale behind trainings can be summed up in three approaches as Proactive, Reactive and Enhancement approach. Proactive approach is used when trainings are done keeping in mind the long term goals of the company. Reactive approach is used when there is a need to
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address certain issues within a company and if not acted upon can negatively affect performance (Clarke, 1992). The third approach is used to help enhance employee motivation, employee commitment and employee retention (Clarke, 1992). These three approaches can be used easily within the News Corporation.

7.

CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATIONS

Effective human resource management is one that is directly in line with the mission and vision of the CEO (for News Corp., Rupert Murdoch). The human resource manager is meant to integrate all the departments of the organization and act as a bridge amongst them. News Corporation requires a developed and extensive human resource department that helps in integrating the large organization. In a large organization as this, job rotation for the employees and big perks and discounts with the company as rewards could have kept the employees happy. The organizational culture of an organization and the approach to human management depends a great deal on the leaders leadership style. Rupert Murdochs leadership style is much to be criticized. Autocratic leadership is effective but not for long. For a company to have smooth long term performance, it is essential to have well motivated employees who feel pride and loyalty towards the company. This would help them be productive. Murdoch should learn to delegate and give authority to the employees so that they can exercise power and decision making. He should invest more in making his workforce productive and strong and believe in the outcomes of effective trainings. His company needs more organization in terms of HR where performance management, performance appraisals, expatriates rights and motivation of the employees are concerned.

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8.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
1) Bartol, K, Tein, M, Matthews, G & Martin, D (2003) Management: A Pacific Rim

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4th edn, McGraw Hill, Sydney.

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Managing Human Assets, Free Press, NY.

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Management Executive: 136-139.

6) Gill, R. (2006) Theory and practice of leadership. London: Sage.

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Pearson/Prentice Hall.
8)

Hatch, M. J. & Cunliffe, A. L. (2006) Organization theory. 2nd edn. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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Strategic Logic of Workforce Management (HBR OnPoint Enhanced Edition). Harvard Business Review. 10) Lewin, K., Lippitt, R., & White, R. K. (1939). Patterns of aggressive behavior in experimentally created "social climates." Journal of Social Psychology, 10, 271-299.
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Delhi.
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Koehler.
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A multi-method development of a theoretical typology of leadership, Journal of Management Development, 22 (4), pp. 273-307.
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Human Resource Management 14) Robbins, S & Coulter S (2003) Management, Prentice Hall Company, NJ 15) Robbins, S. P. (2005) Organizational behavior 11th edn. Prentice Hall Company, NJ

16) Weber, Max (1905). The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism: and Other Writings. New York: Penguin Group

17) Yukl, G. (2010) Leadership in organizations 7th edn. New Jersey: Pearson Education. 18) Zahra, S (2003) The Practice of Management: Reflections on Peter Druckers Landmark Book, Academy of Management Executive 13: 29-36.

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