netrashetty
Netra Shetty
IBM Informix is a family of relational database management system (RDBMS) developed by IBM. It is positioned as IBM's flagship data server for online transaction processing (OLTP) as well as integrated solutions. IBM acquired the Informix technology in 2001]
About 95 per cent of new jobs that were created between 1995 to 2000 were in the private sector. Most of these are manual skilled jobs requiring specific vocational skills. The government has introduced a legislation requiring private organizations to employ Saudi nationals wherever possible. Firms are also forced to increase the number of Saudis employed by 5 per cent annually. Despite the regulations and policies toward the Saudisation of the workforce, many private organizations still insist on employing foreigners. Some of the reasons why firms continue to employ foreigners are:
1. Labor cost – Foreign workers are utilized in labor-intensive private sector. Compared to Saudi nationals, foreign workers are paid less. Local workers are more expensive to hire. Locals demand six times the salary of a skilled foreign worker.
2. Socio-cultural perceptions – Social and cultural perceptions toward work in the private sector greatly influence companies’ ability to recruit and retain qualified local workers. In Saudi Arabia, the type of work, sector of employment and social interactions at work determine the social status of the worker and his family (Mellahi 2000). Workers place a great deal of importance on the effect of their work on their social recognition. Most of the jobs in the private sector are manual jobs which Saudi society holds on low esteem.
3. Discipline and control – some research papers indicate that local workers ad more difficult to control than foreign workers.
4. Integration to Multi-cultural environment – Studies point that locals find it hard to integrate in the multicultural work environment (Mellahi and Al-Hinai 2000; Atiyyah 1996).
Government’s HRD Strategy
Is rich in capital and natural resources but its human resources remain unskilled and unqualified. In order to solve the problem of inefficiency in human resources, the government has invested large sum of money in general and vocational education.
The human relations and human factors approaches were absorbed into a broad behavioral science movement in the 1950's and 1960's. This period produced some influential theories on the motivation of human performance. For example, Maslow's hierarchy of needs provided an individual focus on the reasons why people work. He argued that people satisfied an ascending series of needs from survival, through security to eventual 'self-actualization'.
In the same period, concepts of job design such as job enrichment and job enlargement were investigated. It was felt that people would give more to an organization if they gained satisfaction from their jobs. Jobs should be designed to be interesting and challenging to gain the commitment of workers - a central theme of HRM.
By the 1970s most managers participating in formal management training were aware of: Theory X and Theory Y (McGregor, 1960); of Maslow and Herzberg's motivation theories; and knew where they should be in terms of the managerial grid (Blake and Mouton, 1964). These theorists advocated participative, 'soft' approaches to management. However, only a minority of managers in the USA received such training, with even fewer in other countries. Most operational managers - concerned with production, engineering, or distribution - had worked their way up from low-level jobs: they were probably closer in spirit to F.W. Taylor than the theorists of the 1950s and 1960s. This contrasted with personnel departments with a higher proportion of people who had received academic training; additionally, 'personnel' was an area where women were prevalent - as opposed to production which was male dominated. Were women naturally more open to human relations concepts than men?
Personnel management has been a recognized function in the USA since NCR opened a personnel office in the 1890s. American personnel managers worked within a unitarist tradition, identifying closely with the objectives of their organization. It was natural for HRM to emerge comparatively smoothly from this perspective.
In other countries the personnel management function arrived more slowly and came from a number of routes. Moreover, its orientation was not entirely managerial. In Britain its origins can be traced to the 'welfare officers' employed by Quaker-owned companies such as Cadburys. At an early stage it became evident that there was an inherent conflict between their activities and those of line managers. They were not seen to have a philosophy compatible with the worldview of senior managers. The welfare officer orientation placed personnel management as a buffer between the business and its employees. In terms of 'organizational politics' this was not a politically viable position for individuals wishing to further their careers, increase their status and earn high salaries.
Management thinking
Like fashions in hairstyle and clothing, management ideas come and go. Today's best-selling management concept will not survive long before being overtaken by the next 'big idea'. Significantly, however, a consistent theme has prevailed for more than two decades: the most successful organizations make the most effective use of their people - their human resources.
The emergence of HRM was part of a major shift in the nature and meaning of management towards the end of the twentieth century. This happened for a number of reasons. Perhaps most significantly, as we will see in Part 2 of this book, major developments in the structure and intensity of international competition forced companies to make radical changes in their working practices .
From the 1970s onwards, managers in the industrialized countries felt themselves to be on a roller-coaster of change, expected to deliver improved business performance by whatever means they could muster. Their own careers and rewards were increasingly tied to those improvements and many were dispatched to the ranks of the unemployed for not acting quickly and imaginatively enough. Caught between the need to manage decisively and fear of failure, managers sought credible new ideas as a potential route for survival.
About 95 per cent of new jobs that were created between 1995 to 2000 were in the private sector. Most of these are manual skilled jobs requiring specific vocational skills. The government has introduced a legislation requiring private organizations to employ Saudi nationals wherever possible. Firms are also forced to increase the number of Saudis employed by 5 per cent annually. Despite the regulations and policies toward the Saudisation of the workforce, many private organizations still insist on employing foreigners. Some of the reasons why firms continue to employ foreigners are:
1. Labor cost – Foreign workers are utilized in labor-intensive private sector. Compared to Saudi nationals, foreign workers are paid less. Local workers are more expensive to hire. Locals demand six times the salary of a skilled foreign worker.
2. Socio-cultural perceptions – Social and cultural perceptions toward work in the private sector greatly influence companies’ ability to recruit and retain qualified local workers. In Saudi Arabia, the type of work, sector of employment and social interactions at work determine the social status of the worker and his family (Mellahi 2000). Workers place a great deal of importance on the effect of their work on their social recognition. Most of the jobs in the private sector are manual jobs which Saudi society holds on low esteem.
3. Discipline and control – some research papers indicate that local workers ad more difficult to control than foreign workers.
4. Integration to Multi-cultural environment – Studies point that locals find it hard to integrate in the multicultural work environment (Mellahi and Al-Hinai 2000; Atiyyah 1996).
Government’s HRD Strategy
Is rich in capital and natural resources but its human resources remain unskilled and unqualified. In order to solve the problem of inefficiency in human resources, the government has invested large sum of money in general and vocational education.
The human relations and human factors approaches were absorbed into a broad behavioral science movement in the 1950's and 1960's. This period produced some influential theories on the motivation of human performance. For example, Maslow's hierarchy of needs provided an individual focus on the reasons why people work. He argued that people satisfied an ascending series of needs from survival, through security to eventual 'self-actualization'.
In the same period, concepts of job design such as job enrichment and job enlargement were investigated. It was felt that people would give more to an organization if they gained satisfaction from their jobs. Jobs should be designed to be interesting and challenging to gain the commitment of workers - a central theme of HRM.
By the 1970s most managers participating in formal management training were aware of: Theory X and Theory Y (McGregor, 1960); of Maslow and Herzberg's motivation theories; and knew where they should be in terms of the managerial grid (Blake and Mouton, 1964). These theorists advocated participative, 'soft' approaches to management. However, only a minority of managers in the USA received such training, with even fewer in other countries. Most operational managers - concerned with production, engineering, or distribution - had worked their way up from low-level jobs: they were probably closer in spirit to F.W. Taylor than the theorists of the 1950s and 1960s. This contrasted with personnel departments with a higher proportion of people who had received academic training; additionally, 'personnel' was an area where women were prevalent - as opposed to production which was male dominated. Were women naturally more open to human relations concepts than men?
Personnel management has been a recognized function in the USA since NCR opened a personnel office in the 1890s. American personnel managers worked within a unitarist tradition, identifying closely with the objectives of their organization. It was natural for HRM to emerge comparatively smoothly from this perspective.
In other countries the personnel management function arrived more slowly and came from a number of routes. Moreover, its orientation was not entirely managerial. In Britain its origins can be traced to the 'welfare officers' employed by Quaker-owned companies such as Cadburys. At an early stage it became evident that there was an inherent conflict between their activities and those of line managers. They were not seen to have a philosophy compatible with the worldview of senior managers. The welfare officer orientation placed personnel management as a buffer between the business and its employees. In terms of 'organizational politics' this was not a politically viable position for individuals wishing to further their careers, increase their status and earn high salaries.
Management thinking
Like fashions in hairstyle and clothing, management ideas come and go. Today's best-selling management concept will not survive long before being overtaken by the next 'big idea'. Significantly, however, a consistent theme has prevailed for more than two decades: the most successful organizations make the most effective use of their people - their human resources.
The emergence of HRM was part of a major shift in the nature and meaning of management towards the end of the twentieth century. This happened for a number of reasons. Perhaps most significantly, as we will see in Part 2 of this book, major developments in the structure and intensity of international competition forced companies to make radical changes in their working practices .
From the 1970s onwards, managers in the industrialized countries felt themselves to be on a roller-coaster of change, expected to deliver improved business performance by whatever means they could muster. Their own careers and rewards were increasingly tied to those improvements and many were dispatched to the ranks of the unemployed for not acting quickly and imaginatively enough. Caught between the need to manage decisively and fear of failure, managers sought credible new ideas as a potential route for survival.