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Introduction
Human resource management is known as the management of the people, who are the part of the organization in such a way that it can increase the productivity of the organization. Contemporary human resources management can help the organizations to design its growth policy in such a way that it can also full fill the requirements of the employees of an organization. If the contemporary management of an organization will design its policies, which will be only goal oriented, then there is no doubt that the company will be able to achieve higher levels of productivity, but at the same time the company can have to face the loss in term of the decline in the moral level and the motivation level of an organization (Budhwar, 2013).
Storytelling form an important agenda for managing human resources in this contemporary world. In the new economic system, knowledge and expertise of the employees are considered to be the crucial strategic source (Bender & Fish, 2000). Organizations are in continuous struggle to track new sources for obtaining and retaining knowledge. One of the main challenges associated with knowledge management in this struggle is to capture tacit knowledge (Santoro & Brezillion, 2005). One of the major sources of capturing knowledge is storytelling. Storytelling is integral part of human life and it can become a potential source of knowledge transfer (Ma & Keppell, 2004). Although a potential source, but storytelling in organizations is always seen negatively. Stories circulated in the organizations don't work related and they're considered as waste of time and energy (Reamy, 2005).
Storytelling in the organizations
Storytelling is a behavior associated with sharing of experiences among employees of the organization (Bailey, 2005). It is considered as one of the channels of individual sense making. The employees of an organization are also one of the major stakeholders of an organization. The targets of the companies should be commercially oriented and the strategies must be goal oriented. There is another important factor which the management has to consider is that the stakes of the human resources should not be compromised just for the sake of company’s commercial targets . These days story telling is emerging as an important informal method of communication in organizations and increasing employee knowledge base. The primary aim of the storytelling in the organizations is the sharing of experiences and beliefs among other colleagues. There are various themes emerged from the overall understanding of storytelling in the organizations. This can be seen from the picture below;
There are many responsibilities which are also the part of the role of the contemporary human resource management of an organization. It includes the announcement of incentive programs for the human resources of an organization, provision of the safe and sound working environment, designing of the tenure of the employees of an organization, a record of the human resources which has left the organization and those who are about to leave the organization. There are various models which can be used in the human resource management by the contemporary management in an organization. The human resources management can be of two types, of which one is called as the hard human resource management and soft human resources management. The hard human resource management in an organization deals with the management of the task, which have assigned to the employees of an organization. The focus of the human resource management, which is classified as the hard human resource moutputnt is on the quantity out put through the tasks which have performed in the organization. This HRM policy can also be productive for the development of the organizations, management having this kind of approach demands that employees should comply with the HR policy of the organization
There is another kind of approach that can be adopted by the management of an organization in order to manage the human resource of an organization and it is known as the soft human resource management approach. It deals with the performance of the employees of an organization, but there is a margin of flexibility. This kind of human resource might have its focus on the negotiation. It also protects the employment relation in an organization.
Theories to explain the storytelling behavior
Recent decade experience the diversion of researchers towards storytelling for understanding the organizational misbehaviors. It can be argued that organizational storytelling research has contributed significantly to our understanding of organizational misbehavior, organizational mismanagement and economic malpractice. Examine this claim by applying either Boje’s notion of quantum stories or Gabriel’s psychoanalytic account of the ‘unmanaged spaces’ to consider tensions between individual sense-making and organizational espoused values.
Boje’s notion of quantum stories
Boje (1991) adopted a post-modern approach in investigating the issue of storytelling and stated that storytelling is the technique used in the knowledge management to describe complex issues. He further argued that this storytelling can lead towards organizational change and it is a source of implicit communication. Boje’ notion of quantum theories stated that these stories have been treated as objects rather than part of organization. So these should be viewed as situated within the organization.
The human resources management of an organization should have a proactive attitude toward the people who are part of the organization, they should not be reactive. If the human resource management of an organization is the reactive one, then it can lead to a loss for the organization. The human resource management should think ahead. The policies introduced by the human resource management should reflect the impact of the current decision in the future; either this impact is positive or the negative.
Gabriel’s psychoanalytic account
Gabriel presented two contrasting approaches. These are studied organizations psychoanalytically versus psychoanalyzing organizations. One approach is to study the organization as dominant features of western society and culture, examining their demands on the individuals (Gabriel, 1998). Gabriel’s psychoanalytic account presented the much creative side of the storytelling behavior. He included the role of leaders in formulating the role and nature of their employees. The human resource department should take steps, which can be used for the assessment of the needs and the demands of the employees. The human resource department of an organization should inform the management of the contemporary level about the needs of the employees so that the management of higher level can take initiatives in order to meet the demands of the employees. If the demands of the employees will be fully filedl on timely basis, then it will lead to enhancing the motivational level the employees in an organization. The employees will start to relay on the credibility of the management of an organization. Management has to play their due role in order to mitigate the negative impacts of storytelling.
Human resource department of an organization also design the training and development programs for the employee of an organization. The performance appraisal done by the management of an organization can be used for the identification of the need for the provision of training to the people. There are many reasons due to which people might be in need of the training. For instance the skills of the employees might not be according to the requirements of the responsibilities and duties which have assigned to them in an organization. Moreover, there might be many circumstances when a new technology has been incorporated into the operations and functions of an organization. The obsolescence of old technology results in need for up gradation of the skills. The expertise of the employees in this case must be improved according to the requirements of new technology, which has implemented by the management of an organization because it will Inches the efficiency and effectiveness of the employees of an organization. The productivity of an organization is dependent upon the effectiveness and the efficiency of the employees of an organization .
These kinds of initiatives in the form of meeting the demands of the employees, provision of training facilities to the employees and addressing the issues of the employees on a timely basis can lead to enhancing the employee’s loyalty to the organization. It can be used as a tool to enhance the employee retention ration in the organization so the labor turnover ratio will start declining. The employment turnover ratio can lead to increases in the overall cost of the organization in many manners like in case of leaving the organization by the employee. Psychoanalytic approach reaffirms the role of organization as a source of creativity and excitement for the employees.
Analyzing the Storytelling in the light of the Boje ’ notion of Gabriel Psychoanalytic account The contemporary human resource management of an organization can create a human resources plan. It is important to consider that the employees of an organization might have different demands and needs from the needs which can be supplied by the management. The management of larger companies can afford the cost of the training and benefit programs which these companies can offer to its employees. On the other hand the small companies, who have limited budgets cannot full fill all the demands of the employees of an organization. Both the Boje’ notion and Gabriel Psychoanalytic account presented a diverse picture of storytelling in organizations. Gabriel’s psychoanalytic account presented the pursuit of struggle for overcoming the resistance. This can further be a source of organizational theorists and practitioners. And storytelling behavior can be a notion of dealing neurotic qualities in the organizations. There are many other factors which can also lead to conflict between the management of the organization and employee and it might be the wage system in an organization. The employees might demand the higher wage rate or the employee might have concerns about the current employment policies and reward system for the employees. In such circumstance, the management if an organization can have to deal with the representatives of the employees like the trade unions in many organizations (Gabriel, 1999).
Boxall and Purcell (2000) argue that there is a complex relationship between storytelling and the achievement of organizational outcomes. They further analyzed the major determinants of the storytelling and narrated that national, local and organizational factors strongly influence the HR practices. One thing should be kept in mind that this does not lead to the inefficiency of best practice model. As the basic principal of this best practice deals with people management within an organization and these are essential for gaining competitive advantage.
The performance appraisal is the technique for evaluating the employee performance in the workplace. While evaluating the employee performance it should be kept in mind that whichever tool used for the appraisal. It should provide information on which to base pay and promotional decisions, clarifies for the employee important company-relevant goals, develop a plan for correcting deficiencies, and support career planning. In terms of specific techniques, we can employ graphic rate scaling procedures for making HR practices best of all. This method has the best usage in terms of HR practices and adaptability of all cultures and situations. This method used paired method for clarifying the practices and approached used in organizations. The paired comparison method meant for ranking employees by making a chart of all possible pairs of the employees and indicating which the better employee of the pair is. The forced distribution method, which is similar to grading on a curve, places predetermined percentages of appraises in various performance categories. Regardless of the specific methods used, the manager may want to maintain a record of critical incidents, uncommonly good or undesirable examples of employees work behavior, to review with the employee.
The management of an organization should evaluate the available options to reduce the harmful impact of storytelling like training and counselling of employees. The employees will be able to learn more if they will provide the facility of the on job training opportunity. The on the job training program provides the opportunities to the newly hired employees of the organization to observe the nature of operations, methodology used by the organization and the patterns of the functions in an organization. These ways can reduce the negative effects of the storytelling. There are many multinational companies which are also involved in the provision of the on job training opportunity for its employees. The Toyota motor company is one of the multinational companies. Toyota motor corporation have also provided the training opportunities to its employees in the form of the on job training programs. As a result of the on job training programs employees can be more productive as it increases the skills of the employees. They also work towards a common vision, which is a difficult task to achieve in case they are involved only in organizational functions and not much training are offered. On the job training programs for the employees of an organization also increase the sense of affiliation and bonding between the newly hired employees and the organization from which they are getting their training.
The conflict of interest might be because of obligations, use of property, disclosure of information, feasibility of acceptance of hospitality, soliciting, acceptance of economic benefit and preferential treatment. There might be much organization that might have the unique kinds of the operations on which the confidentiality and the privacy are the major concerns for the organization. The competitors of the organization can get benefits if a corporate secret of an organization is going to be revealed (Bersin, 2014). A company might lose its position in the market because of the violation of the privacy issues in an organization. The employees if an organization is required to full fill their professional duties and obligations which demand that the employees should not disclose the confidential information of the organization just for its personal interest in the market. The best approach is the psychoanalysis, which is formulated from self - knowledge rather than faith and commitment. Therefore, it can reduce the corporate malaise. This is the last framework that was suggested it says that the performance is affected by motivation levels, employees and employee’s opportunities to practice. This theory also proposed the high motivation as well as also increases the performance of employees in terms of finical growth.
Conclusion:
Storytelling behavior in the organizations has been studied rigorously these days. The research mainly argued that this behavior leads to the wastage of work time of employees and thus cause a mismanagement in the organizations. This notion is not valid so far. Boje’s notion stated that individual storytelling can enhance the self - knowledge base of the employees. Furthermore Gabrield psychoanalytic account presented the ways to overcome the harms of this behavior. Gabriel’s presented an approach based upon psychoanalysis of the organization leadership. This can lead to improvement inside and outside of the organization. The account is more valid as considering the individual storytelling in the organizations. Psychoanalytic approach will be helpful in creating reconciliations for many conflicts in the organization. Leaders of the organization can get more appreciation on the onset of this reconciliation behavior and this behavior of good for the psychological health of the inhabitants of organizations.
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